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Fox News Posts INCREDIBLY Misleading Tweet Defending Sessions And People Are Losing Their Minds (TWEETS) | There s no lengths lying conservative media won t go to in order to try and defend their golden boy, Trump, and anyone around him. Take Jeff Sessions, for example. Sessions was just caught lying under oath about contact with Russian officials during the campaign, and conservatives are desperate to figure out how to defend him. Take the following tweet by the origin of fake news, Fox: Democratic lawmakers who met with Russian Ambassador. pic.twitter.com/NEmwYLa790 Fox News (@FoxNews) March 3, 2017That s right conservatives are trying to say that since Democrats have talked to Russians before, there s no wrongdoing here.Except that awkward part where none of the pictured Democrats lied under oath about it.Except that SUPER awkward part where Democrats weren t part of a presidential campaign that benefited from, if not colluded with, Russian hacking and attempts to derail our 2016 electoral process.Users on Twitter are calling Fox News out for this incredibly misleading bullsh*t: @FoxNews Which ones then lied about the meeting under oath? Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews how many are in #Trumps cabinet or are asked to lead national security?!?! Mike Wickett (@mikewickett) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews I m confused, which of these people was nominated for a cabinet position and then lied under oath? Buttered Scones (@tedlangley) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews again, must have context. Trumps team met with Russia during height of election hacking. Please do not make these look the same Mike Battuello (@Mikebattuello) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews Again. It s not against the law to meet with foreign ambassadors. It s against the LAW to lie under oath about such meetings. Kathie (@Anastaisastweet) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews ok, but did they lie under oath about it? We need an independent prosecutor to sort this out; party line & divided nation need ans! Josh Marcus (@MoshuaJarcus) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews How many of these were questioned in confirmation hearings and lied? Dipti Khanna (@DKhanna77) March 3, 2017 @FoxNews and precisely which ones lied about it under oath. I ll wait. FD Brian (@FDBrian70) March 3, 2017Conservative media is working hard to create an alternate reality. It s up to all of us not to let them.Featured image via Zach Gibson/Getty Images | 1real |
WOW! LIBERAL Fox News Host Geraldo Rivera SLAMS Hypocrisy of Left For Ignoring Sexual Assault Allegations Against Bill Clinton | Liberal FOX News host, Geraldo Rivera, took to Twitter to express his disgust over the hypocritical left and their selective outrage over sex harassment allegations based on the political party of the accused.Geraldo Rivera asked the left a very good question, Why are so many who profess to be outraged & repulsed by alleged sexual harassment by @realDonaldTrump unmoved by similar allegations vs. @BillClinton? so offended by alleged conduct in a Moscow hotel room, yet unfazed by admitted conduct in the #OvalOffice ? Why are so many who profess to be outraged & repulsed by alleged sexual harassment by @realDonaldTrump unmoved by similar allegations vs. @BillClinton ? so offended by alleged conduct in a Moscow hotel room, yet unfazed by admitted conduct in the #OvalOffice ? Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 10, 2017While the media shark-tank surrounded Trump, hoping to prove the ALLEGED sexual harassment charges (Not surprisingly, after Trump won the election, all of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct have gone into hiding) against him were real, they refused to even consider the confessions of multiple women against Bill Clinton and his enabling wife during the campaign. The real difference, of course, is that the women accusing Bill Clinton of sexual assault, have been screaming from the rooftops for decades about the sexual abuse they endured by the former governor of Arkansas.Rivera brought up another great point in his tweet as it relates to the fake Trump-Russian dossier story that the left has been apoplectic about since the news broke in the liberal media several months ago. It appears, however, that the left has already forgotten the reason Bill Clinton was impeached after lying to a federal grand jury about having sexual encounters with a 19-year old intern in the Oval Office while serving as our nation s President.Meanwhile, it s also curious how many RINO s in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said that without any investigation or opportunity to prove that any of the allegations of sexual misconduct against 3 minors are untrue, that Republican candidate for US Senate, Judge Roy Moore (AL), should step down. Does anyone remember telling Hillary to step down because there should never be a geriatric pervert allowed to roam the halls of the White House putting visitors and the staff in potential danger of sexual assault? For that matter, does anyone remember telling Bill Clinton to step down when he was accused of sexual assault over and over again while he was running for the office of the President of the United States? The answer is no , there was no such call for either Clinton to step down and give up their political ambitions.This isn t the first time Fox News host Geraldo Rivera, who is a self-described liberal, has spoken out against the hypocrisy of the left. In February 2017, Rivera resigned from a voluntary position at Yale University after the school decided to change the name of a residential college that honors a slavery supporter.Rivera said Sunday on Twitter that he resigned as an associate fellow of Calhoun College. He said the position was an honor but intolerant insistence on political correctness is lame. | 1real |
Former Egyptian premier says still considering presidential bid | CAIRO (Reuters) - Former Egyptian premier Ahmed Shafik said on Sunday he was still considering his presidential bid and exploring the idea further now that he is in Egypt, according to a televised interview on Sunday in which he denied authorities had kidnapped him. Today I am here in the country, so I think I am free to deliberate further on the issue, to explore and go down and talk to people in the street ... so there s a chance now to investigate more and see exactly what is needed ... to feel out if this is the logical choice, Shafik said. The interview on private Dream TV channel was Shafik s first public appearance since leaving the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for Cairo. His family said he was kidnapped and sources said he had been picked up by Egyptian officials at Cairo airport. | 0fake |
GOP Official Drops Bombshell During Angry Debate With Lou Dobbs Over John Kelly [Video] | Top GOP Official Ed Rollins was interviewed by a very angry Lou Dobbs. He was furious with the ringside performance of John Kelly aka drama queen during President Trump s UN speech (some are saying it was before the speech). The Chief of Staff should be behind the scenes How about he should be fired because he s not even a supporter of President Trump! HE VOTED FOR HILLARY CLINTON!Ed Rollins: At least what I ve heard from sources inside who know Kelly, he is an honorable man and a good general. He didn t vote for him. He voted for Hillary. So I don t think basically he is a Trump supporter or ideologically a Trump supporter.Whaaaaaat????? How can President Trump have a Chief of Staff that doesn t even follow his belief in policy?There is controversy over whether Kelly was was drama queen during or before Trump s speech. If it was before then this is a great case of the Democrats trying to sabotage Trump again. No matter what happened, it s still shocking that Trump would have a Chief of Staff who isn t on bird with his policy. | 1real |
Leave the past behind, Bulgarian PM tells Balkan leaders | SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Western Balkan countries aspiring to join the European Union should leave the past behind and solve their mutual problems first, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Friday. The EU won t do it for them, he said. Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are official candidates for EU membership while Bosnia and Kosovo are seeking the same status. But past rivalries are still hurting relations between some of the countries which were embroiled in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Borissov said that Bulgaria, Austria and Romania, the three countries which will chair the EU presidency over the next two years, were ready to support the accession of these countries into the wealthy bloc but a key for the progress was compromise by their political elites. Nobody can help unless we realize that the past needs to remain in the past and that we need to move forward, Borissov said at a news conference during an official visit to Sarajevo. Unresolved matters must be resolved today along with all political sacrifices that need to be made. This cannot be solved by Europe, which has its problems and fears, Borissov said. The pace of Serbia s integration into the 27-member bloc was made conditional on the progress of a dialogue with its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. In Bosnia, inter-ethnic tensions have risen after Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats had revived aspirations for greater territorial autonomies within the country they share with Muslim Bosniaks, relying on their wartime allies Serbia and Croatia. Borissov said that radical Islam is a problem but that his Bosnian counterpart Denis Zvizic has assured him that Bosnia was not under the threat of radicalized Muslims. Islam in Bosnia is certainly one of most tolerant forms of Islam practised in the world and any kind of radicalization has not and will not be allowed, Zvizdic said at the same news conference. In September, the EU confirmed its pledge for a credible enlargement perspective for the region, which it sees as important for issues from controlling immigration to countering security threats ranging from alleged interference of Russia to radical Islam. [ID: L5N1LU2GX] | 0fake |
Dutch prime minister: 'enormous devastation' on Saint Martin | AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma has caused enormous devastation to the Dutch side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and cut off electricity and gas, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday. Most communications with the outside world are being conducted via the military, he said, adding that there was no clarity on victims. The Dutch navy, which has two ships stationed off the coast of the island, tweeted images gathered by helicopter showing damaged houses, hotels and boats. French authorities have counted at least eight dead on the French side of the island. Dutch Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk said he briefly had contact with Saint Martin s prime minister but communications are sporadic. He said nine patients at a hospital in the country had been evacuated by Dutch military helicopter. Sint Maarten is an independent nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with a population of around 40,000 about the same as the French side. Images of the country s Juliana Airport showed the landing strips appeared intact, though the navy said the airport is unreachable for now. Andre van der Kamp, commander of the Dutch ship Zeeland, tweeted that the Zeeland and Pelikaan would be trying to moor on Sint Maarten to deliver emergency aid on Thursday, but they needed to complete a safety check of the port first. | 0fake |
Rand Paul: Another Senator Was Surveilled by the Obama Administration - Breitbart | Sen. Rand Paul ( ) earlier this week revealed that another senator had told him that he was surveilled by the Obama administration. [“I know one other senator who’s already confided to me that he was surveilled by the Obama administration, including his phone calls,” he told Fox News on Friday. “So when this all comes out, if there are political figures from the opposition party, it’s a story bigger than any of the allegations with regard to Russian collusion,” he said. Earlier this month, Paul announced that sources have told him that he has been surveilled by the Obama administration, and that he has requested information from the White House and the congressional intelligence committees on whether he has ever been surveilled, unmasked, or searched for in intelligence reports. “It’s about your own government spying on the opposition party, that would be enormous if true,” he said. “I don’t know the truth. We’ve asked the intel committees, House and Senate, and I’ve also asked the White House, because there is this whole discussion of Susan Rice unmasking people,” he said. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was fired in February, after a phone call he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak was leaked to the Washington Post. Listening in on an American’s phone calls is illegal without a warrant, but it can happen legally during surveillance of a foreign target. If Americans are caught up in surveillance of a foreign target, their identities are supposed to be “masked,” or concealed. However, U. S. officials can request to have their names unmasked if it is necessary to understanding the context of the communications, with the approval of the agency conducting the surveillance. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper revealed that last year, 1, 934 Americans’ names were unmasked. Last month it was reported that Susan Rice had unmasked Trump campaign officials — which she has not denied, but only claimed that it was not illegal. “There was no reason for her to unmask people. Hers was not a position of investigation. Hers was a political position. And for her to get involved with unmasking Trump officials is alarming. If it happened to other people, it’s even more alarming,” he said. “But we’re going to try to get to the bottom of this. And it’s a very secret world. You have to realize that it’s a world so secret most members of Congress are never allowed. ” | 0fake |
Pence's Debate Performance Puts Pressure on Trump | RealClearPolitics | The Donald Trump campaign is setting a high bar for the Republican nominee’s next debate performance.
Campaign advisers and surrogates believe the town hall format of Sunday’s forum will be advantageous for Trump, who feeds off energy from crowds, and will showcase his non-traditional campaign style. Trump is also going to rehearse for his second showdown with Hillary Clinton, after appearing unprepared in his first matchup, with a town hall Thursday night in New Hampshire.
“Mr. Trump does very well in town halls. That’s because he connects with real people. That’s because he’s not a politician,” Jason Miller, the campaign’s communications director, said after Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
The largely well-received performance by running mate Mike Pence in his matchup with Tim Kaine adds pressure to the man on the top of the ticket. The Indiana governor excelled on the debate stage in areas Trump did not -- namely, refusing his opponent’s bait and deflecting criticisms. Pence sat in stark contrast to Trump in terms of his ability to stay steady and stridently on message, and some conservatives delighted in his articulation of conservative principles and topics that have been generally ignored by the GOP nominee.
In many ways, Pence provided a map for Trump, and shifted the discussion, if even for a moment, away from the worst several days of the candidate’s campaign. The vice presidential candidate’s showing lays the groundwork for Trump, who has little room for error on delivering.
But the campaign has also been careful to draw a distinction between the two men on the GOP ticket. Asked whether Pence would be helping Trump with debate preparation or giving advice, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told RealClearPolitics there were no plans to get the governor involved because they are different candidates with different styles and personalities. During interviews, Conway dismissed the notion of Pence upstaging the top of the ticket and argued that the governor’s performance displayed Trump’s good character judgment.
Indeed, Trump took credit for the debate. “Mike Pence did an incredible job, and I'm getting a lot of credit,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Nevada on Wednesday, noting the governor was his “first hire” after clinching the GOP nomination. “He was cool, he was smart ... Mike had the single most decisive victory in the history of presidential debates.”
Pence played the good soldier afterward. “From where I sat, Donald Trump won the debate,” he said Wednesday, kicking off a bus tour in Virginia before routing through Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Pence displayed his loyalty to his ticket while also buying some protection for his own future in politics, defending his running mate through deflection. He denied controversial statements made by Trump regarding women, Mexicans, nuclear weapons, and Russian aggression, among other issues. He went so far as to dismiss his own past praise of Vladimir Putin’s leadership in Russia, a statement that is easily accessible online. At the same time, he showed daylight between himself and Trump at points, calling Putin “small and bullying,” for example. But the dismissals and denials were often overshadowed by his ability to quickly turn back to prosecuting Clinton.
If Pence offered lessons in debating and preparation, it’s not clear whether and how Trump will take them. He figures to give some indication Thursday night, through an invitation-only, town hall-style forum in New Hampshire, a state he won in the primary and where he visited just last week.
While Trump gains energy from crowds at large rallies, he is less practiced at some of the more intimate town hall events. During the general election, he has participated in televised formats with Fox News host Sean Hannity, but those contained more favorable crowds and questions.
“The town hall format ideally helps showcase a candidate's relatability,” says GOP strategist Kevin Madden, who was a top adviser for the Mitt Romney campaign. “[Trump is] very good when it comes to connecting with large crowds and feeding off of their energy. The town hall format is more sedate. It also requires a lot of prep, and Trump has shown an aversion towards prep.”
The Trump team, though, isn’t using the candidate’s inexperience with the format to set low expectations, as campaigns typically do. Conway said on Fox News Wednesday morning that Trump will deliver a “powerful performance” on Sunday night in St. Louis. “It’s a much better format for him than Hillary Clinton. He’s more practiced dealing with people one on one. He’s going to take the case right to her.”
The more intimate and personality-revealing format could pose challenges for Trump, who has talked about raising the specter of former President Bill Clinton’s infidelities. He will have to answer questions from voters who may not agree with him or support him. The setting also places an emphasis on body language and movement around the stage.
The Clinton campaign, seeing an uptick in polling after the first debate, is helping to set the higher expectations for Trump.
“We are expecting him to be better prepared for the next debate,” campaign manager Robby Mook said Tuesday night. “We know that there is a calm, cool, and collected Donald Trump that can show up, and we expect that that’s what will happen. He has stated that he will make all sorts of … attacks. We actually don’t expect that. We think that he understands that that is not the right strategy.” | 0fake |
Marvel Responds After Artist Allegedly Inserts Anti-Semitic and Christian References in X-Men Comic - Breitbart | Marvel Comics was forced to issue an apology following the discovery of alleged and references in a recent issue of by artist Ardian Syaf. [Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf allegedly inserted political and religious references in relation to the recent Indonesian election into the first issue of the new comic series Gold. Syaf’s work on the comic reportedly featured a reference to the Koran verse Al Maidah 5:51 which urges Muslims not to take Christians and Jews as allies. The verse translates, “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are, in fact, allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you — then indeed, he is one of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people. ” The verse can be seen on the shirt of character Colossus. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims marched against the Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, after he criticized his political opponent’s reference to the verse. As a result, many Muslims saw this as an act of blasphemy and called for the prosecution of Purnama. The comic also referenced the number 212 which is a direct reference to the protests held against Purnama on the December 2 last year. The same panel that features the number 212 also features the Jewish character Kitty Pryde standing in the foreground. Marvel Comics was quick to respond to concerns raised by those that noticed Syaf’s messages within the issue, releasing a statement on the matter to Bleeding Cool. “The mentioned artwork in Gold #1 was inserted without knowledge behind its reported meanings,” stated Marvel Comics. “These implied references do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else at Marvel and are in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel Comics and what the have stood for since their creation. This artwork will be removed from subsequent printings, digital versions, and trade paperbacks and disciplinary action is being taken. ” Syaf declined to comment on the matter when questioned by Bleeding Cool but did reply to one fan who messaged him on Facebook. In the ensuing conversation, Syaf did confirm that the numbers included within the comic were references to the current Indonesian political situation. G. Willow Wilson, a Muslim comic book writer and creator of Ms. Marvel character Kamala Khan, tweeted her opinion on Syaf: Yeah pardon my French but f**k this guy. Kiss your career goodbye. https: . — G. Willow Wilson (@GWillowWilson) April 9, 2017, Wilson later posted a further reflection on Syaf and his work in a longer Tumblr post: Here is What Quran 5:51 Actually Says — This has been a banner week for comics, my friends. A banner week … . https: . — G. Willow Wilson (@GWillowWilson) April 9, 2017, Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0fake |
U.S. extends some Iran sanctions relief under nuclear deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday extended some sanctions relief for Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal but said it has yet to decide whether to preserve the deal itself, the State Department said. President Donald Trump, who must make a decision by mid-October that could undermine the agreement, said Iran is violating the spirit of the 2015 deal under which Iran got sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear program. In a sign of Trump s desire to put pressure on Iran, which denies violating the deal, the U.S. Treasury announced new cyber-related and other sanctions on seven Iranian individuals, two Iranian entities and two Ukraine-based entities. We are not going to stand for what they are doing, Trump told reporters on Air Force One. But he stopped short of saying whether he will refuse to recertify the agreement. Trump must decide in October whether to certify that Iran is complying with the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). If he does not, Congress has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions waived under the deal. The prospect of Washington reneging on the agreement has worried some of the key U.S. allies that helped negotiate the deal, especially as the world grapples with another nuclear crisis, North Korea s nuclear and ballistic missile development. Republican Senator Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and wrote the law giving Congress the right to review the Iran deal, said he and the White House were preparing in case of a change in policy. He also said he recognized the need to work with allies. I think it s important that ... we take steps that, to the extent we can, we keep all of our allies together, Corker told Reuters. What you don t want to do is self-create a crisis for no reason. You want to make sure that you have an outcome here that is a good outcome for the United States and our interest. Asked if it made sense to abandon the Iran nuclear deal given concerns about North Korea, Corker said, I don t think you should prejudge what they re (the administration) going to do. Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that the United States must consider the full threat it says Iran poses to the Middle East when formulating its new policy toward Tehran, saying Iran had breached the spirit of the deal. We have to consider the totality of Iran s activities and not let our view be defined solely by the nuclear agreement, he told a news conference in London. Citing the preface to the 2015 agreement, Tillerson said in our view, Iran is clearly in default of these expectations. He cited Iranian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its development of ballistic missiles and cyber activities. The deal s preface does not oblige Iran to promote global peace. Rather, it says the nations involved anticipate that full implementation of this JCPOA will positively contribute to regional and international peace and security. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters the administration had approved waivers of some sanctions on Iran to maintain some flexibility as it develops its Iran policy. She did not specify which sanctions were waived. Earlier, sources said the United States will renew a waiver of the most punitive sanctions on Iran. Tucked into Section 1245 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, Washington threatened to sanction the banks of Iran s main oil customers if they did not significantly cut their purchases of Iranian crude. Under the law, these sanctions can be waived for a maximum of 120 days, forcing the U.S. government to revisit the issue every four months. Even as the administration waived the oil-related sanctions, the Treasury Department announced it had sanctioned 11 entities and individuals for engaging in support of designated Iranian actors or malicious cyber-enabled activity. Of the 11, seven were Iranian individuals, two were Iranian entities and two were entities based in Ukraine. The Treasury alleged they either supported Iran s ballistic missile program or its Quds Force, or engaged in cyber attacks against the U.S. financial system. The action freezes any assets they may hold in the United States and generally prohibits U.S. individuals from doing business with them. | 0fake |
California deal could make state first with $15 minimum wage | SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown announced a deal with legislative and labor leaders on Monday to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023, saying the nation’s most-populous state would lead the way toward higher pay for the working poor. The proposal, which still must gain support from business-friendly moderate Democrats, would make California the first to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour - the highest in the nation - while giving the governor the right to opt out if the economy falters. “I’m hoping that what happens in California will not just stay in California but will be exported to the rest of the country,” Brown said at a news conference in Sacramento. Raising the minimum wage has cropped up on many Democratic Party candidates’ agendas ahead of the November elections and the issue could help mobilize Democratic voters to the polls. According to the governor’s office, 2.2 million Californians currently earn the state minimum wage of $10 an hour. The idea of raising the minimum wage, which at the federal level has remained at $7.25 an hour for more than six years, has been opposed by Republicans and some business groups, who say it would harm small businesses and strain government budgets. If passed, Brown’s plan would commit the state, home to one of the world’s biggest economies, to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 for large businesses and 2023 for smaller firms. It would also head off a pair of competing ballot initiatives championed by labor leaders to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour without allowing the governor to halt increases in bad times, a deal-breaker for Brown. But passage of the proposal is not guaranteed without support from more moderate members of the Democrat-controlled legislature. Absent from the press conference was Anthony Rendon, speaker of the state Assembly, where the bill was expected to face opposition. “This deal was placed on my desk over the weekend,” said Rendon, who supports the measure but said he was not involved in negotiations over it. “I don’t know how many folks are in support of the bill or how many are against it.” Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has called for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Economic consultant Christopher Thornberg, founding partner at Beacon Economics, said increasing the minimum wage would not reduce poverty because low paid workers were most at risk of losing their jobs when employers cut positions. “These are the people that businesses will say, ‘If I’m going to pay $15 bucks an hour, I’m not going to hire them,’” Thornberg said. Fourteen states and several cities began 2016 with minimum wage increases, typically phasing in raises that will ultimately take them to between $10 and $15 an hour. | 0fake |
Be Sure to Join Our Election Night Live Blog/Open Thread Tomorrow Evening | by Yves Smith
This unprecedented election season is finally coming to a close. Join us for commentary and discussion as the results roll in.
Lambert will kick off the election night live blog at 8:30 PM tomorrow evening. With the presidency and the Senate majority in play, there’s a lot to watch. The presidential and vice presidential live blogs were lively, so we expect another evening of incisive and often humorous conversation. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1real |
Huntington Ingalls wins $2.8 billion U.S. defense contract: Pentagon | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Huntington Ingalls Inc is being awarded a $2.8 billion cost-plus-incentive fee contract for USS George Washington refueling complex overhaul, the Pentagon said on Friday. | 0fake |
Illinois House Democrats push tax freeze to end budget impasse | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democrats in Illinois’ House of Representatives on Monday offered Republicans a four-year freeze on local property taxes that has been a key sticking point in the state’s historic budget impasse. It was not clear whether the legislation represented a break in the political logjam that has left the country’s fifth-largest state without a full-year operating budget for two fiscal years and threatens to downgrade its credit rating to junk. Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-led legislature face a Friday deadline to pass a budget or risk the consequences of a third-straight year of fiscal futility, including the halt of state-funded road projects and a suspension from national lottery programs. A committee hearing is set for Tuesday on a bill, filed Monday by a top Democratic ally of House Speaker Michael Madigan, to freeze property taxes for four years through 2020, except for Chicago. Under state Representative Michael Zalewski’s plan, debt-service and pension payments would be excluded from the freeze, and cash-strapped school systems that have been placed on a financial watch list by Illinois would be exempt, including Chicago’s struggling public school system. While Senate Democrats passed a two-year tax freeze last month, Rauner and lawmakers from his party have been pushing for a four-year freeze on property taxes. Madigan told reporters on Monday that a House Democratic spending outline would be made public on Tuesday before a planned meeting of the four legislative leaders, but he declined to offer details. “Once that’s in place, the question is: ‘Can we work together to find the revenue to pay for that spending plan?’ That’s where we come up against Governor Rauner’s demands for an extreme-right agenda,” Madigan said. Rauner has also insisted on changes to pensions and the way injured workers are compensated by employers, as well as term limits for certain state officials. Madigan revealed his own demands on Sunday, including a school funding revamp bill already passed both chambers. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin insisted that any tax increase match the duration of a property tax freeze before he would be willing to help secure Republican votes. “We’re looking at four years on both, and nothing more than that,” Durkin told reporters at a news conference in the state capital. Rauner’s office directed an inquiry from Reuters to Durkin’s office. A spokesman for Durkin later declined specific comment on Zalewski’s legislation, saying only it was being reviewed. | 0fake |
Trump ramps up fight for votes on U.S. healthcare overhaul | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday agreed to changes in the Republican plan for Obamacare, conservative lawmakers said, as he stepped up his fight to win support for the bill ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives next week. Republicans remain deeply divided over their U.S. healthcare overhaul, which is Trump’s first major legislative initiative and aims to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal and replace the healthcare program of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. House Republicans are fast-tracking the legislation and it is expected see its fourth and final House committee hearing on Wednesday. It could go to a vote by the Republican-dominated House on Thursday, setting up another battle in the Senate, which also has a Republican majority. House Republicans leaving a White House meeting with Trump, as well as a Capitol Hill meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, listed several changes they expect to be made in order to attract both moderate and conservative party members who are currently waffling about their support. House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black, who attended the Capitol Hill session, said there very likely would be changes to tax credits offered in the bill to do more for older, lower-income people - something Republican moderates have sought. Conservative Republicans who met Trump said he agreed to changes on the Medicaid government insurance program for the poor. These include work requirements for able-bodied, childless Medicaid recipients, said Representative Mark Walker, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest House conservative group. Walker said he now supported the bill. Expected changes also would provide states with the option to receive a federal lump sum block grant for Medicaid and latitude to manage the program as they see fit, Walker said in a statement. In a letter on Thursday to Ryan and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican governors of Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and Arkansas said the current bill does not provide new flexibility for states but shifts significant costs to them. Trump met with about a dozen House conservatives at the White House and afterward declared that he had won them over to the plan, known formally as the American Health Care Act. “I’m 100 percent behind this,” Trump told reporters after the meeting. “We made certain changes but frankly very little.” Vice President Mike Pence was due in Florida on Saturday to sell the bill to small businesses, the White House said. But there was no sign of changes to address a top priority of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, which wants to bring health insurance premiums down quickly. The Freedom Caucus did not attend the White House meeting. Representative Mark Meadows, the chairman of the group, expressed frustration that House leaders were talking about making the Medicaid work requirement optional - which he said “doesn’t move the ball more than a couple yards on a very long playing field.” Representative Justin Amash, another member of the Freedom Caucus, tweeted: “Absolutely not true that conservatives have flipped to yes on the health care bill. It doesn’t repeal Obamacare. It remains a disaster.” Meadows said his group will propose an amendment on Monday. Representative Charlie Dent, a Republican moderate, said the House bill should be crafted to win support in the Senate, where numerous Republicans have voiced skepticism. “I don’t like the idea of just sending a bill over which they can gut and send back,” Dent said. Ryan, the chief proponent of the plan, acknowledged the challenges of winning over lawmakers. “There are people from the middle and from the right who have various concerns,” he said at a conservative forum. “We’re trying to make sure that we address as many of these concerns as possible without destroying the bill ... and without losing votes but adding votes.” Democrats have roundly rejected the Republicans proposal, saying it harms the poor, elderly and working families while offering tax cuts to rich Americans and companies. In his meeting with House Republicans Friday, Price talked to lawmakers about other changes the department could make through the rules and official guidance it uses to implement the healthcare law. These include possibly altering the health benefits that the law requires insurance plans to cover. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Monday that 14 million Americans would lose medical insurance next year under the Republican plan. Obamacare expanded insurance to about 20 million Americans. | 0fake |
Paul Ryan Calls for Facts After Comey Memo: People ‘Want to Hurt the President” | House Speaker Paul Ryan urged Republican investigators to focus on facts, responding to a New York Times report that President Donald Trump tried to stop an FBI investigation into his former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. [“We need the facts,” Ryan told reporters at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington D. C. on Wednesday. “It is obvious that there are some people out there that want to hurt the president. ” Ryan said the New York Times report based on a memo from James Comey “needs close examination” as it left unanswered questions. “I’m sure we’re going to go on to hear from Mr. Comey about why, if this happens as he allegedly describes, why he didn’t take action at the time,” he said. Ryan called for Republicans to be “responsible” and “sober” in the ongoing Congressional investigations, and focus only on facts. “We can’t deal with speculation and innuendo and there is clearly a lot of politics being played,” he said. When Ryan was asked if he still had confidence in the president to lead the country, he replied, “I do. ” | 0fake |
White House says Trump to sign broadband privacy repeal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump plans to sign a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules as a bigger fight looms over rules governing the openness of the internet, the White House said on Wednesday. Republicans in Congress on Tuesday narrowly passed the repeal of the privacy rules with no Democratic support and over the strong objections of privacy advocates. The fight over privacy sets the stage for an even larger battle later this year over Republican plans to overturn the net neutrality provisions adopted by the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2015. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he did not know when Trump would sign the bill. The privacy bill would repeal regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google or Facebook Inc. Under the rules, internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children’s information and web browsing history for advertising and marketing. The reversal is a win for AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc. Websites are governed by a less restrictive set of privacy rules overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. Republican commissioners have said the rules would unfairly give websites the ability to harvest more data than internet service providers. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a tweet the vote was “Terrible for American ppl, great for big biz.” Republicans next plan to overturn net neutrality provisions that in 2015 reclassified broadband providers and treated them like a public utility. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, in December said he believes that net neutrality’s days are numbered. The rules bar internet providers from obstructing or slowing down consumer access to web content and prohibit giving or selling access to speedy internet, essentially a “fast lane” on the web’s information superhighway, to certain internet services. Critics say the rules opened the door to potential government rate regulation, tighter oversight and would provide fewer incentives to invest billions in broadband infrastructure. Pai told Reuters in February be backs “a free and open internet and the only question is what regulatory framework best secures that” but has steadfastly declined to disclose his plans. Trump has not talked as president about net neutrality but in 2014 tweeted he opposed net neutrality. | 0fake |
Swedish Journo: Sweden Will Collapse Without Illegal Migrants | Swedish writer Åsa Linderborg has claimed the Swedish economy would collapse if it was not for illegal migrants who she says are vital to the economy. [Ms. Linderborg, who serves as the cultural editor for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, wrote an opinion piece on Monday: “Yes, there is a problem with those who are denied their asylum applications and then go underground,” but added: “It’s equally true that Sweden would stop working if the tens of thousands of undocumented migrants who are here vanished for real. ” Linderborg made the argument that illegal migrants do the jobs that Swedes refuse to do saying illegals were the ones who worked jobs like cleaning and in the service industry. The piece comes as a reaction to the news the terrorist in the Stockholm attack was a failed asylum seeker set to be deported. Following the attack, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said that Sweden would no longer employ an open door policy for illegal migrants. Though Linderborg claimed the Swedish economy relies solely on migrants, various reports have shown the opposite is true and that migrants are often the most likely to be unemployed in the country. A report from December 2015 predicted that six out of every 10 unemployed people in Sweden would come from a foreign background by 2017. In October 2016, the employment numbers for Swedes were so high that some economists considered Swedes to have full employment. People from migrant backgrounds were almost opposite with some 21. 6 per cent being unemployed. Of the 163, 000 migrants that Sweden took in during the migrant crisis in late 2015, fewer than 500 had found jobs as of June 2016. Linderborg claims Sweden is “exploiting” the migrants who do work because many of them are low skilled and are paid low wages. She then called on the prime minister to invest in migrants to improve their job prospects. The daughter of a former member of the Left Party, Linderborg was also a member of the Left Party and a member of the “Communist Youth” during the 1980s. Sweden is not the only country to have issues with migrants and unemployment. In Germany, economists have said the idea that migrants will become the skilled workers of tomorrow is an illusion and that mass migration will ultimately hurt economic growth in the long term. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 0fake |
MACHETE ATTACKER, Mohamed Barry Was Living In U.S. On Green Card [VIDEO] | Now we know the reason it took so long for anyone to release the details about Muslim attacker, Mohamed Barry. How long will we have to wait for them to tell us it was an act of terror? CBS News has confirmed from the FBI that the man who attacked a Columbus restaurant Thursday with a machete was living in the United States on a green card.The motives for the attack by 30-year-old Mohamed Barry remain unclear but investigators are looking for possible ties to extremists.Not far from Nazareth Restaurant, one of the only two relatives Barry had in Columbus says he was sleeping, unware of the nearby attack.That was until FBI agents woke him up with a knock on his door and questions about his nephew and possible ties to terrorism.The relative, who only identified himself as Barry s uncle, said Barry was a bit of a loner with a bit of a temper. I know that when he gets mad he, that s why he wanted to be by himself, he said.He said Barry was born in Guinea but that his family, including three sisters, lives in Philadelphia.His uncle said Barry lived with him while looking for a job when he first moved to Columbus from Philadelphia last fall.The uncle says he knew something wasn t right when he received a strange text message from Barry just five hours before the attack.He says the message was in Arabic and English but didn t understand the meaning. His uncle couldn t show or read the text because he said the FBI now has his phone.When asked if he thought Barry could have had ties to ISIS, his uncle said no.The four victims he attacked with a machete are expected to make a full recovery. Barry was shot and killed by police after fleeing the restaurant. Via: WBNS-10TV | 1real |
Iraq to oppose U.S. travel curbs, keen to work together against Islamic State | BAGHDAD/MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq will lobby against new travel limits to the United States by Iraqis, arguing both countries need to uphold their fight against Islamic State (IS), Iraqi parliamentarians said on Sunday. The Iraqi government has so far declined comment on an executive order signed by new U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday that suspends the entry of travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 90 days. The order stirred angry reactions in Iraq, where more than 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed to help Iraqi and regional Kurdish forces in the war against IS insurgents. Some members of parliament said Iraq should retaliate with similar measures against the United States. “Iraq is in the front line of the war on terrorism ... and it is unfair that the Iraqis are treated in this way,” parliament’s foreign affairs committee said in a statement. “We call on the Iraqi government to retaliate for the decision taken by the U.S. administration,” it added after a session on Sunday in Baghdad. Baghdad plans to lobby Washington to review the decision, according to two lawmakers who declined to be identified. One of them told Reuters that the government will “explain that Iraq as a sovereign country will be forced to apply similar treatment, and that would affect negatively cooperation, including military cooperation”, in the conflict with IS. Popular Mobilization, a coalition of mainly Shi’ite Muslim paramilitary groups armed and trained by Iran to fight Islamic State, urged Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government to expel U.S. nationals. Influential Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Sunday American citizens should leave Iraq. “It would be arrogance for you (Americans) to enter Iraq and other countries freely while barring them entrance to your country ... and therefore you should get your nationals out,” he said on his website. The U.S.-led coalition is providing critical air and ground support to Iraqi forces in the ongoing battle to wrest Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, from Islamic State. Mosul is the last major Iraqi city still under the control of Islamic State, the ultra-hardline Sunni group that declared a self-styled “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The government announced on Tuesday that Iraqi forces had recaptured all of Mosul east of the Tigris River that splits the city, and were girding for an onslaught on the jihadists on the western bank. Meanwhile, an Iraqi who worked four years as a translator for U.S. forces in the hope of obtaining a Special Immigration Visa (SIV) felt betrayed by the Trump administration’s decision and said he now feared for his life. The man said he was hired by U.S. forces after he tipped them off about a house where insurgents were making car bombs in Mosul. He said that while employed by the Americans, he saved the life of a serviceman after U.S. troops came under militant attack in Mosul. “My life is (now) in danger,” said the translator, who spoke in eastern Mosul and asked not to be identified or photographed. He told Reuters he used to consider the Americans to be “brothers but I don’t trust those guys anymore”. He added that bureaucratic and personal problems delayed his applications to the U.S. Special Immigrant Visa program designed for those employed by the U.S. military and U.S. civilian agencies until their withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. “Please, please, please get me out of this country,” he said. “There are currently fewer than 500 Iraqis in the SIV pipeline,” said a State Department official. Overall, “more than 20,000 Iraqis have received immigrations benefits” from this program, he added. Among the Iraqis barred from traveling to the U.S. over the past 48 hours was Fuad Sharef’s family, who embarked on the trip after selling their home and quitting their jobs and their school. The parents and their three children were barred on Saturday from boarding a connecting flight in Cairo to New York. Speaking by phone from Cairo airport, Sharef said the family was still in shock for having been detained there, their passports confiscated and being forced to go back to Iraq. | 0fake |
‘Might Have Been Faked By Liberals’: Top Adviser Defends Trump’s Silence On Mosque Bombing | I mean, that headline, right? Did someone actually say that?At this point, you shouldn t be surprised. Donald Trump is a conspiracy-spouting, heartless, right wing douchebag. Why wouldn t every single member of his administration be? Now, I have a pretty special hate for Steve Bannon, because I have a crippling fear of toad-men (a holdover from a game of charades with my great uncle Eivind when I was eight). But coming in at a very close second for my deep-seeded loathing is Sebastian Gorka, a dude who wears Nazi paraphernalia in public and is probably totally a really real Nazi, you guys.For some reason, news people keep inviting Gorka to come say horrible things on their shows, and he keeps not letting anyone down. Monday, it was MSNBC s Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle who were tasked with tolerating Gorka s condescending bullshit for a few minutes, and he was just full of witty goodness. When the hosts asked him why Donald Trump had not yet made a public statement about the terrorist bombing in Minnesota, you could see the disgust and contempt on his face:There s a great rule: All initial reports are false. You have to check them and find out who the perpetrators are. We ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right wing individuals in the last six months that turned out to be propagated by the left. Let s allow the local authorities to provide their assessment and then the White House will make its comments.There is a lot to unpack there. I suggest we just focus on the obvious: That there s been exactly one attack propagated by the left in the last six months, and it was never at any point presumed to have been a right-winger. Like, we knew within the hour what political campaign the guy had worked for.Let s not do too much separation here, though. Gorka is part and parcel of an administration that would say all the same things, no matter who the talking head was. This is an administration that is seriously trying to pretend like a bomb thrown through a mosque window might actually have been some Alex Jones-like false flag perpetrated by someone on the left.That s despicable. Here s a better question, guys Why does it matter who did it before you call it terrorism?Watch the exchange here:Read more:Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
EPA Jails 185 Americans For ‘Environmental Crimes’ But No One For Massive EPA Toxic Spill | Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcers helped convict 185 Americans of environmental crimes this year, with each of these eco-convicts getting sentenced to eight months in prison on average for crimes ranging from biofuel fraud to illegally removing asbestos. Every year, EPA agents help put dozens of Americans in prison for breaking U.S. environmental laws. Environmental crimes range from spilling coal ash into public waterways, to pretending to produce biofuels, to illegally cleaning up asbestos in buildings.Interestingly enough, EPA has not fined or jailed anyone for the spilling of three million gallons of mine wastewater in August. That month, EPA workers opened up the Gold King Mine and sent a toxic plume of mine waste though rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Toxic mine waste even went through Navajo Nation territory and resulted in farms having their water supplies shut off.Republican lawmakers were quick to criticize EPA for not taking any disciplinary action against contractors or employees involved in the Colorado mine spill. Lawmakers noted that while EPA drags its feet, a private company, like Duke, would have been fined quickly if it had spilled mine waste.The Department of the Interior s outside review of the spill incident found EPA could have avoided a blowout if it had taken precautions agency workers had used while opening other sealed Colorado mines.Interior found that had the agency used a drill rig to bore into the mine from above to open Gold King the mine would have been revised, and the blowout would not have occurred. The EPA has taken responsibility for the spill, but still hasn t taken actions against agency workers who opened up the mine mouth. In fact, lawmakers are worried the agency is trying to taint a federal investigation into the spill.Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
Black Politician Explains Why Left’s ‘Racist’ Critique of Trump is Wrong | Is the Democratic Party really the party of the oppressed and of blacks and minorities ? Critics have accused the Democrat Party has been accused of cynically cultivating a dependence class whose main function for the party is to bring home the minority vote every few years.Were African-Americans better, or worse off after eight years of a Democratic White House?US Senate candidate Derrick Grayson from the state of Georgia explains the actual racist roots of the Democratic Party in America, the tragic loss of Black American icons Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and how the liberal left have successfully managed to use and manipulate minorities in America since the the FDR era.Watch this incredible impromptu piece to camera by an passionate Grayson: READ MORE POLITICALLY CORRECT NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire PC FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Juan Williams: My bets on Trump, Clinton vice presidential picks | Editor's note: The following column originally appeared in The Hill newspaper and on The Hill.com. For more, click here.
I’m not one to gossip but…
There is a flood of early talk in political circles about who will get the vice presidential nods from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The strategy for picking a running mate this year is wildly different from anything seen before.
The textbook on picking a VP calls for a heavy focus on adding swing-state support for the top of the ticket. The book also advises finding a running mate seen by voters as plausibly able to take over as president.
Well, throw out the textbook.
No one believes that any running mate is going to tip this year’s electoral map. And no strong, silent type fits the bill at a moment when voters want to shake up the system.
When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) paid a visit to Clinton just days after she claimed the nomination, speculation kicked into overdrive.
And phone lines got hot when former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) were overheard in a TV green room telling each other that the other one is the best choice to run with Trump.
The dynamics that frame the selection of a VP this year were evident in a Washington Post/ABC poll released last week. It found that nearly 70 percent of Americans have an unfavorable of view of Trump, a 10-point increase since he entered the race last summer. According to the same poll, Clinton also reached a new personal high in her unfavorable rating at 55 percent.
Clinton’s trouble is dwarfed by Trump’s trouble. He is viewed negatively by 94 percent of blacks, 89 percent of Latinos and 77 percent of women.
Picking a dazzling candidate as his running mate is one move that has the potential to change the way the world sees him.
The last attempt to dazzle and distract with a vice-presidential pick was in 2008. GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) got off to a good start with his surprise pick of little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. She is beautiful, high energy and, that year, she had the potential to attract women disappointed that the Democrats had selected a black man over a woman as their nominee.
But the sparkle wore off quickly when Palin began to look uninformed and inept. Questions were raised about McCain’s judgment. Palin’s family life also became a staple of the gossip columns.
Palin’s selection looked especially bad in contrast with Democrat Barack Obama’s pick of Sen.Joe Biden (D-Del.). Biden was experienced and known to be a good guy, while his selection took the edge off the risk of putting a first-term senator in the Oval Office.
This time, Trump and Clinton need running mates combining the qualities of Palin and Biden.
The Trump campaign went nuts last month when Ben Carson said that Trump’s shortlist included Palin. Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla) and Ted Cruz (Texas), and two governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey and John Kasich of Ohio, were purportedly also on the list.
Palin’s downside is obvious; a desperate-looking Christie won’t do either. And Trump can’t afford to extend an offer to Rubio, Cruz or Kasich because he can’t risk being turned down.
That problem is getting worse by the minute as Trump lags farther and farther behind Clinton in the polls. Any dazzling vice-presidential pick has to think about his or her own political future. What will happen to them if Trump suffers a Barry Goldwater-style blowout loss in November?
Gingrich remains a serious contender to be Trump’s number two. He is a well-known personality and an ace with a TV soundbite who is also accustomed to dealing with controversy over his personal life.
But Gingrich sharply criticized Trump for his attacks on New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
Trump then did an impromptu poll on possible running mates. He asked the audience at a rally in Tampa to pick from Gingrich, Sessions or former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice got the biggest applause from the crowd.
Rice is a dazzler but the odds that she is willing to sign on are low to non-existent.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Clinton needs a star to bring young, energetic supporters of her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, back into the fold.
That means Clinton can’t bring on a centrist pick. Moderate Democrats with close ties to corporate America like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia or Mark Warner of Virginia, or former Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, would anger the liberal base of the party.
She is left to choose among Warren and other left-of-center Democrats such as Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Tim Kaine (Va.).
Warren, however, has powerful detractors. Critics say she lacks foreign policy experience and note that she has never run a city, state, cabinet agency or business.
“I think she will not pick somebody that she feels in her heart isn’t ready to be President or Commander-in-Chief,” former Pennsylvania Governor and DNC Chairman Ed Rendell recently told a Philadelphia radio station. “I think Elizabeth Warren is a wonderful, bright, passionate person, but with no experience in foreign affairs and not in any way, shape or form ready to be commander-in-chief.”
Clinton could find dazzle by naming the first Latino vice-presidential candidate. But no one doubts she will win Latino voters energized by Trump's insults regardless. If she still wants that option, then Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro is the leading candidate. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and California Congressman Xavier Becerra have come on strong in the last few weeks.
When all the talk ends, Trump has few options. His best bet to dazzle is Gingrich. Clinton has a wider range, led by Kaine, Castro and Warren.
Juan Williams is a co-host of FNC's "The Five," where he is one of seven rotating Fox personalities.
| 0fake |
WATCH: Jon Stewart Comes Out Of Retirement To Warn America About Trump | Comedian Jon Stewart has never been shy about his absolute disdain for Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. But since he left the Daily Show, he has been mostly silent on one of his most frequent targets as he achieved unprecedented political success.That just ended. Stewart appeared on a podcast with former Obama confidante David Axelrod, and as usual, was not shy at all about how much he can t stand Trump.Stewart criticized Trump during an appearance on Axe Files, a podcast hosted by David Axelrod, a former top advisor to President Obama. The former Daily Show host questioned Trump s ability to run for the White House as a man-baby. He is a man-baby. Stewart said, as flagged by Politico. He has the physical countenance of a man, and a baby s temperament and hands. Stewart went on to call him a narcissistic asshole. Trump has demonstrated over the years that he is extremely thin-skinned, and Stewart s repeated mockery on his Comedy Central show clearly got under the reality TV star s skin. In a 2013 tweet, Trump whined that he was much smarter than Stewart and described him as totally overrated. By now we that as Trump s extremely predictable attack pattern, from which he rarely deviates because he just isn t imaginative enough.I promise you that I'm much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2013But this old attack on Stewart also gave a hint of the path Trump was soon to follow. In the tweet, Trump refers to Stewart as Jonathan Leibowitz, which is his legal name. Trump was signaling something about Stewart s Jewish ethnicity, three years before his campaign became a favorite of racists, bigots and anti-Semites.A reporter for GQ was recently pushed into filing a police report about online abuse she has suffered at the hands of Trump s fans after writing a profile of his wife Melania. Among the most common attacks the writer was slammed for being Jewish.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
Bernie Sanders Introduces Killer Mike At Coachella Music Festival (VIDEO) | On April 16th, Senator Bernie Sanders, through a video message, introduced Rapper Killer Mike and his group, Run the Jewels, at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California.Senator Sanders cited his friendship with Killer Mike, who became a fervent supporter and surrogate for the Bernie Sanders campaign after the rapper started reading his tweets. Rolling Stone released a six part interview the rapper conducted with Senator Sanders in December 2015. The rapper has introduced him at several campaign events, campaigned on behalf of Bernie Sanders, and participated in several other video discussions including a forum with Dr. Cornel West, Nina Turner, and Bernie Sanders on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in January 2016.After backlash in February alleging Killer Mike was sexist for remarks he made in quoting Jane Elliot, the rapper has focused more on his music career.Next week, Bernie Sanders supporters are putting on Berniechella in the same city Coachella is being held. A block party will be held in Old town Coachella on April 21st and 22nd featuring food trucks, exhibitions, and performances from Zoe Kravitz, Ozomatli, Venus and the Moon, Shepard Farley, and Moses Summey. The event is free and thousands are expected to attend. The event and Bernie Sanders introduction for Killer Mike represents the the impact Bernie Sanders campaign is having on the culture of millennials. Counter culture icons in the music and entertainment industry have embraced Bernie Sanders along with millions of millennials. No matter what the outcome of the Democratic Primaries is, Bernie Sanders has become an iconic figure for younger generations, and his campaign will have a lasting impact on American politics for years to come. https://www.facebook.com/therealrunthejewels/videos/1097514653639607/Featured Image courtesy of Flickr | 1real |
TRUMP SUPPORTERS STORM MAXINE WATERS TOWN HALL…Demand Entry After Being Denied…”Let us in!” [Video] | This is great! Trump supporters did everything right but ironically were turned away at a Maxine Waters Town Hall because they don t live in her district Well, SHE doesn t live in her district!These Americans are awesome! They re showing up and protesting Bravo!We know that Waters keeps close tabs on who is in attendance at the town halls A previous report on one of the town halls showed people getting tossed:The video below begins with a Hispanic man telling the videographer to go back to Europe . He continues n his rant ending with what he must consider a derogatory term PILGRIM! . This is California and this is the attitude of many hispanics. Notice how the t-shirts some of the Hispanics are wearing say, stolen lands . Maxine Waters represents Inglewood, California where free speech is apparently just for those against President Trump. Anyone in the audience who is even perceived to be against Waters is yelled at and tossed out.Free speech? Notice how Maxine Waters claims that those who oppose her must not realize where they are INGLEWOOD! Isn t she doing exactly what Martin Luther King, Jr. fought against? She s refusing to allow anyone who disagrees with her to even be in the same room! The people who were tossed out for absolutely no reason!Watch Maxine lie through her teeth to the people of Inglewood about Trump s tax plan and healthcare bill. She pulls the class warfare card when describing the tax bill. Fear mongering is her forte as you ll see in the video below:THE STREET ARTIST SABO plastered these awesome posters all over Inglewood:Impeach Maxine Waters & Impeach Trump signs side by side. Only one is taken seriously. pic.twitter.com/B1FJkmIFX2 Corryn Mobley (@Corrynmb) May 14, 2017 | 1real |
Trump adds nuance to pro-Israel approach ahead of Netanyahu visit | WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - During his 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump signaled his presidency would be a boon for Israel and tough on Palestinians. The U.S. Embassy would move to Jerusalem, he would name an ambassador who backs Israeli settlements on land Palestinians seek for a state and there would be no pressure for peace talks. But as Trump prepares for his first White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his administration has not only toned down its pro-Israel bravado but also taken the first tentative steps toward a more cautious Middle East diplomacy, including consultations with Sunni Arab allies and U.S. lawmakers, according to people familiar with the matter. While any strategy is still far from complete, there is growing consensus in the White House that tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could require gentle nudging of Israel together with assurances to the Arab world that Trump will be more even-handed than his campaign rhetoric suggested. “This is a case where campaign promises run head-on into geopolitical reality and they have to be adjusted accordingly,” said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. As a result, relocating the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a step world leaders including Jordan’s King Abdullah warned against and which would probably inflame the Muslim world - has been put on hold for now. At the same time, the White House has adopted a more measured stance on Israeli settlement-building in occupied territory than candidate Trump appeared to advocate. Even so, there is little doubt that when Netanyahu meets Trump on Wednesday, he will find a Republican president determined to show more warmth to Israel than his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, with whom he had an acrimonious relationship. Social media exchanges have suggested a budding “bromance” between Netanyahu and Trump, who has pledged to be the “best friend” Israel has ever had in the White House. As a result, Palestinians fear their leaders will be frozen out and their statehood aspirations pushed aside. One White House aide cautioned that the administration is still in “listening mode” on the issue. Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has spoken by phone to Egyptian, Saudi and United Arab Emirates leaders and heard Abdullah’s concerns in person. All of these countries have growing contacts with Israel, mostly behind the scenes and centered on a shared desire to counter Iran, a point that Netanyahu has often cited as among the grounds for his country’s eventual thaw with the Arab world. Signaling an emerging view that U.S. Arab allies could be helpful on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, assigned to a senior role in Middle East diplomacy, has met Arab officials, including the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, the New York Times reported. In his talks with Trump, Netanyahu is expected to try to keep the focus on forging a common front against Iran, Israel’s regional enemy and a target of Trump’s ire. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute will nonetheless be on the agenda, especially after Israel’s parliament drew international condemnation for approving a law retroactively legalizing 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. Barring a curve ball from the sometimes unpredictable U.S. president, Trump is unlikely to use the talks to press Netanyahu for concessions toward the Palestinians in the way Obama did. But neither can Trump afford to be seen to abandon the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution, the bedrock of Washington’s Middle East policy since the 1993 interim peace accords and a principle embraced internationally. A White House statement on Feb. 2 set forth a more nuanced position, backing away from a longstanding U.S. view of settlements as an “impediment” to peace but instead saying new settlements or the expansion of existing ones beyond current boundaries “may not be helpful” to that goal. That shift transpired just hours after Trump met briefly with King Abdullah on the sidelines of an event in Washington. Even so, the emerging shape of Trump policy remains more accommodating toward Israel than at any time since Republican George W. Bush occupied the White House. “It seems we are headed for a new policy with this administration that is different from its predecessor in how it deals with the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian cause,” said Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee. There has been no contact between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration so far, Palestinian officials said. Moderate, Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was among the first world leaders Obama called on his first full day in office in 2009. A White House official insisted, however, that the administration intends to develop a relationship with the Palestinian Authority. All the same, many Israeli officials do not read the White House’s settlements statement as a warning to Israel or a reining-in of Netanyahu. Not only does it conclude that settlements do not block peace prospects, it also says construction within established settlements is acceptable to Washington. “Bibi will be happy,” said an Israeli diplomat, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “He can put new settlements on hold and hold off the right wing by pointing to Trump. At the same time, he can build as much as he wants within existing settlements.” In that regard, the lines drawn by the White House help Netanyahu fend off demands from the far right in his coalition for sweeping steps, like annexing portions of the West Bank. Palestinians would be especially alarmed if Trump decided to proceed with moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, essentially recognizing the city as Israel’s capital despite international insistence that its status must be decided in negotiations. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally, as the capital of their future state. Trump and his aides have played down the prospects for a quick embassy move since he took office. Some experts see a moderating influence in Trump’s national security team. It has members such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil chief executive with extensive contacts among Gulf Arab governments, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine general. They will have to deal with other, sometimes ideologically driven advisers with close personal ties to Trump. David Friedman, Trump’s former bankruptcy lawyer and now nominee as ambassador to Israel, has raised funds for a West Bank settlement and voiced doubt about Palestinian statehood. Kushner’s family has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the same settlement. Aides may be moving circumspectly also in hope of keeping the door open if Trump – who has touted his skills as a master dealmaker – decides to seek what he has called the “ultimate deal”: Israeli-Palestinian peace. To pursue such an initiative, the United States needs to be seen as an even-handed mediator, while also overcoming the rigid disputes that have scuppered so many peace efforts over the years: settlements, borders, the status of Jerusalem, what to do with Palestinian refugees, and Palestinian political divisions. The last, U.S.-brokered round of peace talks collapsed in 2014. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will be inclined to devote much attention to the Israeli-Palestinian issue at a time when it is distracted by other priorities. In the Middle East alone, the fight against Islamic State and countering Iran are higher on the agenda. However, if Trump at some point does opt to wade in where so many of his predecessors have failed, for Netanyahu – who is looking for a reset of U.S.-Israeli relations – it might be a case of “be careful what you wish for”. | 0fake |
Top U.S. officials to testify in Trump-Russia probe reboot | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Friday it had invited FBI, NSA and Obama administration officials to testify as it restarts its investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. After stalling over the committee chairman’s ties to President Donald Trump’s White House and disagreements over who should testify, the bipartisan committee said it sent a letter inviting James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, to appear behind closed doors on May 2. A second letter invited three officials who left the government as President Barack Obama’s administration ended - former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates - to appear at a public hearing to be scheduled after May 2. The planned hearings are the first the committee has announced since its chairman, Republican Representative Devin Nunes, recused himself from the Russia investigation on April 6 after receiving information at the White House about surveillance that swept up some information about members of Trump’s transition team. Echoing Trump, Nunes suggested that Obama’s administration had handled that information incorrectly. Nunes remains the committee’s chairman. Comey and Rogers testified in a public hearing on March 20. At that hearing, Comey confirmed for the first time that the FBI was investigating possible ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia as Moscow sought to influence the election. Nunes was a supporter of Trump’s campaign and a member of his transition team. His decision two days after the public hearing to hold a press conference about the information and discuss it with Trump before disclosing it to Democrats raised questions about whether he could lead a credible investigation. Committee Democrats also were angered when Nunes scrapped a scheduled public hearing with Brennan, Yates and Clapper. A planned closed hearing with Comey and Rogers also was put off. The House panel is examining whether Russia tried to influence the election in Trump’s favor, mostly by hacking Democratic operatives’ emails and releasing embarrassing information, or possibly by colluding with Trump associates. Russia denies the allegations, which Trump also dismisses. The Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting a separate, similar investigation. Senate investigators currently are interviewing analysts and intelligence agents who prepared public and classified reports in January that concluded that Russia had interfered in last year’s election on Trump’s behalf, an official familiar with the congressional activity said. At this point they are a long way from scheduling interviews or hearings with any principal witnesses from either the Obama or Trump administrations, the official said. | 0fake |
Review: ‘Allied,’ With Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, Uncorks a Favorite Vintage - The New York Times | “Allied,” Robert Zemeckis’s deft and diverting World War II romantic thriller, operates a bit like “Casablanca” in reverse. It’s about how the problems in this crazy world don’t amount to a hill of beans next to the troubles of two people in love. The singing of “La Marseillaise” figures prominently and tearfully in the plot. The city of Casablanca itself functions for the lovers, played by Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, much in the way that Paris does for Ilsa and Rick. It’s the scene of their first bliss, the place they’ll always have when things get complicated elsewhere. I don’t want to press the comparison too far. For one thing, there is more Alfred Hitchcock than Michael Curtiz in this movie’s DNA. For another, whereas “Casablanca” put forth a call to arms, “Allied” offers the comforts of elegant escapism. Its moral complexities and political ambiguities are intriguing rather than troubling, its ethical and emotional agonies a diversion from rather than a reflection of our own. Which is just fine with me. There are nits to pick, of course. Mr. Pitt, playing a Canadian wing commander in the Royal Air Force, has apparently drawn inspiration from the trees in the great forests of the North. He is handsome, trim and efficient, but the same might be said of a wooden canoe, and his character’s stoical reserve often feels more like an empty space than a deep pool of untapped feeling. This changes toward the end, but the final minutes of “Allied” also provide some grounds for complaint. They are puffy and sentimental, the cinematic equivalent of a cloying dessert following an otherwise meal. If I may pursue the culinary metaphor, and supplement it with a different comparison: “Allied,” while neither haute cuisine or haute couture, is like an expertly tailored suit or a properly cooked classic dish. It’s not so much a work of art as a triumph of craft, and therefore a reminder of the deep pleasures of technique and long experience. Mr. Zemeckis has made more ambitious, more dazzling films — as a dogmatic my list of favorites would include “Back to the Future,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Cast Away” — but this one may be the purest and most relaxed demonstration of his mastery. Like Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies,” it infuses a venerable genre and a familiar period with new interest. The first shot, of Mr. Pitt’s character, Max Vatan, parachuting into the Moroccan desert, is hypnotically beautiful and strange. Your eye keeps recalibrating the perspective, anticipating Max’s touchdown when he is still far above the ground and then blinking in surprise when he finally lands. The rest of the film produces a similar effect, teasing your expectations and concealing cards in its impeccable sleeves. Once in Casablanca, Max is introduced to Marianne Beauséjour, a French resistance fighter who is his partner on a dangerous mission. Their orders are to pretend that they are married, and they end up giving themselves wholeheartedly to the performance, and to each other. Marianne explains that part of her method is to make sure that, whatever the details of the imposture, the feeling is real. That assertion will haunt the second half of the movie, which follows the couple to London. At this point I’m reluctant — though not as reluctant as some of the trailers — to say more. “Allied” is, among other things, a marvel of structure, a perfectly bifurcated story that manages a drastic shift in tone with exquisite aplomb. Max and Marianne set up house in Hampstead she gives birth to a daughter during an air raid he commutes to a mostly deskbound job, and the audience is free to appreciate the work of a superb supporting cast that includes Jared Harris, Lizzy Caplan and Simon McBurney. Ordinary life during wartime — a shuffle of tedium and hysteria, bureaucratic entanglement and everyday pleasures — is evoked in fine detail. Mr. Zemeckis and the screenwriter, Steven Knight, plant almost imperceptible clues that blossom into sinister and scary possibilities in a way that is both shocking and satisfying. You have an itchy premonition that something terrible is going to happen, and when it does the itch is scratched. “Standard operating procedure for intimate betrayal” is a military catchphrase that haunts “Allied,” a plausible portrait of a midcentury marriage that is also a fantastical piece of ’oeil storytelling. Ms. Cotillard, in a remarkable series of frocks, hats, coats and trouser suits, is the key to the film’s spell. Is Marianne a stylized feminine ideal, or a film noir femme fatale — or something else entirely, a modern woman decked out in Hollywood ? You would not mistake this for an old movie. The language is too raw, the sexuality too frank, the politics too cloudy. But you might nonetheless feel like an older kind of moviegoer while you’re watching it: an adult, for one thing, whose intelligence is respected by an intricate, thematically thorny plot even as your thirst for visceral excitement is slaked by clean and breathless action sequences. You also get to look at beautiful people in (and half out of) beautiful clothes. The fundamental things apply. “Allied” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). I’m shocked — shocked — to find swearing, sex and smoking going on in this establishment. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. | 0fake |
Re: It Is Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off All Of Our Debt | It Is Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off All Of Our Debt May 21st, 2015
Did you know that if you took every single penny away from everyone in the United States that it still would not be enough to pay off the national debt? Today, the debt of exceeds $145,000 per household, and it is getting worse with each passing year. Many believe that if we paid it off a little bit at a time that we could eventually pay it all off, but as you will see below that isn’t going to work either. It has been projected that “mandatory” federal spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare plus interest on the national debt will exceed total federal revenue by the year 2025. That is before a single dollar is spent on the U.S. military, homeland security, paying federal workers or building any roads and bridges. So no, we aren’t going to be “paying down” our debt any time in the foreseeable future. And of course it isn’t just our 18 trillion dollar national debt that we need to be concerned about. Overall, Americans are a total of 58 trillion dollars in debt. 35 years ago, that number was sitting at just 4.3 trillion dollars. There is no way in the world that all of that debt can ever be repaid. The only thing that we can hope for now is for this debt bubble to last before it finally explodes.
It shocks many people to learn that our debt is far larger than the total amount of money in existence. So let’s take a few moments and go through some of the numbers.
When most people think of “money”, they think of coins, paper money and checking accounts. All of those are contained in one of the most basic measures of money known as M1 . The following definition of M1 comes from Investopedia …
A measure of the money supply that includes all physical money, such as coins and currency, as well as demand deposits, checking accounts and Negotiable Order of Withdrawal (NOW) accounts. M1 measures the most liquid components of the money supply, as it contains cash and assets that can quickly be converted to currency.
As you can see from the chart below, M1 has really grown in recent years thanks to rampant quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve. At the moment it is sitting just shy of 3 trillion dollars…
So if you gathered up all coins, all paper currency and all money in everyone’s checking accounts, would that even make much of a dent in our debt?
Nope.
We’ll have to find more “money” to grab.
M2 is a broader definition of money than M1 is, because it includes more things. The following definition of M2 comes from Investopedia …
A measure of money supply that includes cash and checking deposits (M1) as well as near money. “Near money” in M2 includes savings deposits, money market mutual funds and other time deposits, which are less liquid and not as suitable as exchange mediums but can be quickly converted into cash or checking deposits.
As you can see from the chart below, M2 is sitting just short of 12 trillion dollars right now…
That is a lot more “money”, but it still wouldn’t pay off our national debt, much less our total debt of 58 trillion dollars.
So is there anything else that we could grab?
Well, the broadest definition of “money” that is commonly used is M3 . The following definition of M3 comes from Investopedia …
A measure of money supply that includes M2 as well as large time deposits, institutional money market funds, short-term repurchase agreements and other larger liquid assets. The M3 measurement includes assets that are less liquid than other components of the money supply, and are more closely related to the finances of larger financial institutions and corporations than to those of businesses and individuals. These types of assets are referred to as “near, near money.”
The Federal Reserve no longer provides charts for M3, but according to John Williams of shadowstats.com , M3 is currently sitting somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 trillion dollars.
So even with the broadest possible definition of “money”, we simply cannot come up with enough to pay off the debt of , much less the rest of our debts.
That is not good news at all.
Alternatively, could we just start spending less than we bring in and start paying down the national debt a little bit at a time?
Perhaps that may have been true at one time, but now we are really up against a wall. Our rapidly aging population is going to put an enormous amount of stress on our national finances in the years ahead.
According to U.S. Representative Frank Wolf , interest on the national debt plus “mandatory” spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will surpass the total amount of federal revenue by the year 2025. That is before a single penny is spent on homeland security, national defense, paying federal workers, etc.
But even now things are a giant mess. We are told that “deficits are under control”, but that is a massive hoax that is based on accounting gimmicks. During fiscal year 2014, the U.S. national debt increased by more than a trillion dollars . That is not “under control”– that is a raging national crisis.
Many believe that that we could improve the situation by raising taxes. And yes, a little bit more could probably be squeezed out of us, but the impact on government finances would be negligible. Since the end of World War II, the amount of tax revenue taken in by has fluctuated in a range between 15 and 20 percent of GDP no matter what tax rates have been. I believe that it is possible to get up into the low twenties, but that would also be very damaging to our economy and the American public would probably throw a huge temper tantrum.
The real problem, of course, is our out of control spending.
During the past two decades, spending by has grown 63 percent more rapidly than inflation, and “mandatory” spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid has actually doubled after you adjust for inflation.
We simply cannot afford to keep spending money like this.
And then there is the matter of interest on the national debt. For the moment, the rest of the world is lending us gigantic mountains of money at ridiculously low interest rates. However, if the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt was just to return to the long-term average, we would be spending more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.
So the best possible environment for “paying down our debt” that we are ever going to see is happening right now. The only place that interest rates on U.S. government debt have to go is up, and our population is going to just keep getting older and more dependent on government programs.
Meanwhile, our overall debt continues to spiral out of control as well. According to CNBC , the total amount of debt that Americans owe has reached a staggering 58.7 trillion dollars…
As the nation entered the 1980s, there was comparatively little debt—just about $4.3 trillion. That was only about 1.5 times the size of gross GDP. Then a funny thing happened.
The gap began to widen during the decade, and then became basically parabolic through the ’90s and into the early part of the 21st century.
Though debt took a brief decline in 2009 as the country limped its way out of the financial crisis, it has climbed again and is now, at $58.7 trillion, 3.3 times the size of GDP and about 13 times what it was in 1980, according to data from the Federal Reserve’s St. Louis branch. (The total debt measure is not to be confused with the $18.2 trillion national debt, which is 102 percent of GDP and is a subset of the total figure.)
As I discussed above, there isn’t enough money in our entire system to even pay off a significant chunk of that debt.
So what happens when the total amount of debt in a society vastly exceeds the total amount of money?
Is there any way out other than collapse?
You can share what you think by posting a comment below… Greece Says That It Will Default On June 5th, And Moody’s Warns Of A ‘Deposit Freeze’ » kfilly
Nope, we are a run away freight train gaining speed before we get to Dead Man’s Curve. This is not going to end well. As usual, this is another great article. MichaelfromTheEconomicCollapse
Thank you for the kind words kfilly. SunnyFlaSnotress
You know other countries owe us money too This is a very one-sided, biased article. fortunato
Not my problem and I don’t care how much money our government racks up in debt.
After all what can we the people do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
This problem will never end and the debt will only grow larger and larger. All governments all over the world are the same way. State and local too.
If the majority of people started doing the underhanded things that the elites do I can guarantee you that the scales would tip back in our favor not theirs.
They did a study on the human brain and it showed that the more money a person has the greedier and self centered they became. Google it to read the article. df NJ
You’ve probably heard that power corrupts. I read in a psychology book an idea called the metamorphic effect of power. The idea is whenever someone successfully influences another person it changes the powerholder’s psyche. We the powerholder develops a contempt for the person they perceive they have power over. The greater the power the more contempt. Eventually the powerholder thinks the people under their influence as non-human being insects who can be killed or squashed without any moral consequence. gts58
You’ve just described Obama perfectly! Cannonfodder2010
He described EVERY politician perfectly. Donald Trump would take it to a much higher level. none
Thank God President Obama has been taking his multi-million dollar vacations. At taxpayer expense. It will not cost the taxpayers anything! Since they cannot pay it back. And with all the money that he has and will make from his investments in the stock market. Along with his pension and other investments he should end up doing very well. goldfinger
Not only that but we the people also fund the generous pension and health insurance plan that congress choose for themselves.
Heck even in congress if you get convicted of a crime you never lose your pension or health benefits.
Isn’t American wonderful? Thomas Keith
“It will not cost the taxpayers anything! Since they cannot pay it back.” First, you need an English lesson, since you obviously don’t know the difference between a clause and a sentence. That aside, yes, there will be payment in the form of a deeper, longer depression. _aleph_ Nemnor
fortunato, you stated –“…After all what can we the people do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing…”.
Actually, Governments do as they do, as long as the mass of the people let it be. As long as the people do not have the will and the courage to demand the change they want.
However, people are kept under “control” by using various means to divide and distract them. The major Media Networks and the Educational system are the two main non-violent “arm” the Ruling Class use to “control” the masses. AND, where the non-violent “arm” fail, then the violent “arm” (i.e. the Army and Police) is used accordingly.
So it takes UNITY and a lot of COURAGE for the masses to have the change we want, and we CAN do something, but it begins with having the WILL to do what we wish to do..
Don’t forget the corporate toxic food chain which leads to the mass addiction to pharma mafia given the dis-ease/obesity epidemic that fuels medical costs….everything IS connected to ‘dummy’ down the masses. gts58
Your second paragraph says it all. Thomas Keith
You don’t care how much debt your government racks up? Fool, it’s you and the rest of the citizenry who the world will look to for repayment. The world honors the US’s request for more credit (for no. at least) because of the US government’s ability to tax its peoples. Keeping your head in the sand won’t save you. _aleph_ Catman
This is why the politicians have no plan to do deal with the national debt: it cannot be fixed. They already know what you so well explain. The economies of the world depend on more debt through fractional reserve banking and treasury bond purchases to create more money to pay the interest and keep from sliding into a depression. This will not end with a fiscal policy. There is no brake on this rig. I recently had a dream where I was driving a car on which the brakes did not work. Very frustrating. Well, I have no debt, but perhaps it speaks to the sense of being carried along with little recourse other than to just keep the car in the middle of the road and try not to hit anything or anyone. I think a lot of us feel like that in life: we have no control, we can’t get off the roller coaster, and one way or the other we’re all in this together. Christoph Weise
Politicians are not in the drivers seat. It is certain that 99% of them do not understand money policy and central bank politics. It is the central banks that drive the developments Rukander
Only 4.3 trillion before Ronald Reagan and de printing money. df NJ
When disaster strikes most Americans stick together and help each other. My hope is when the time comes we rise above our petty partisan politics and unite as one people with one country under God.
We the People in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Are we really going to let a small group of sadist European bankers destroy this once great country? Christoph Weise
The path is set by the FED, although agreeably the Bank of Japan (BoJ) was the first to introduce QE. European central bankers look to be followers. df NJ
Japanese sadists are just as bad as the European sadists. sherlock32555
Yep Just look around you and you will answer your own question. The people stood by and let it happen. Their is no self preservation anymore. It was lost years ago when the people knew that the government would take care of us. jsmith
Don’t forget to include the tribal 5th column that owns the country. Mike
Whose the tribal 5th column? jsmith
Are you playing coy or just being ignorant? I’m sure someone will enlighten you. Nemnor
df NJ, a “…small group of sadist European bankers …” (as you put it) are only a symptom of a much wider and more fundamental cause of the issues facing the USA.
The main root cause of the worsening socioeconomic issues in the USA (and the World), is – the Capitalist system itself – which has became decadent, is at a “dead end” and is NOT able to generate long-term recovery by economic means alone .
The world-wide Capitalist system became decadent as it reached a level of general over-production . With over-production, it became harder and harder for the Capitalist to sell their products/services, for even what the Capitalist consider a reasonable profit.
Hence, the reason the Capitalists (irrationally) engage more and more in “Share Repurchase”/”Stock Buyback” (to ARTIFICIALLY raise the value of a company’s stock), and/or invest in “financial bubbles”, “derivatives” and other exotic “financial instruments” ( even lend money to people that are not credit worthy ), and with many of these “investments” having little or not relations to the real economy!!!
There is NO going back to the “good ole days” of the USA, or going back to “real”/”pure”/”free market” Capitalism , because Capitalist USA already passed it’s progressive stage and is now at a “dead end”.
The real solution can only be with a fundamental change away from Capitalism , as no amount of “reforms” could ever fix Capitalist USA. HeyAHuman
This has been an economic system built upon debt since the creation of the Federal Reserve. It would have been easily known beforehand that this would burst and cause chaos. Why has it been allowed for so long? Insane. Bill
Same reason we have an imposter in the White House. We the sheeple do not have the fortunes needed in order to run for an office that would allow us to make a difference. Voting is too manipulated to make a difference.
Robots are the future of sheeple who don’t require daily feeding. Bob332
This country is now officially in the toilet. Will the last person to flush, please turn off the bathroom light. nekksys
Just have the attendant do it as you flip him your last coin… Christoph Weise
We have long passed the point at which repayment of debt could have been possible. Maybe it was never possible. I have heard that there is always more debt in the system than money to repay it. That is the nature of the fractional reserve system. Central banks world wide have decided 2009 not to bother about racking up debt. They are printing money and providing it to financial institutions as needed. We have now two different circulation systems. One is the old system. It comprises of individuals and corporations. The traditional debt limits apply. Bankruptcy and insolvency are possible. Than we have the newly created second circulation system. It comprises of central banks and systematically important lenders. These organisations can not bankrupt or become insolvent. They have escaped from the ordinary circulation system and are eternal. De facto we are faced now with a two class system. This is the departure from market economy. And it is problematic in many aspects. Some of them: (1) The change to our system has never been properly explained and is kept as a secret (2) The political bodies never made a decision on this change (and thus it is illegal and because of its illegality central banks are engaged in criminal activity) (3) Before the law all people should be equal. This principle is violated by the introduction of the principle of eternal economic life and could only be trumped by the introduction of eternal biological life for a limited set of individuals. The question arises if the second circulation system is indeed eternal. There may be limits but I never saw a comprehensive discussion of the topic. I presume it would take a single global currency to avoid a systemic default. But I am not sure. It looks like the can kicking strategy has a very long life. GSOB
“I presume it would take a single global currency to avoid a systemic default. ”
Me too. JailBanksters
Ironically, Every dollar in your Wallet had to be loaned into existence for you to have it, it represents Debt not Wealth and it belongs to the Banking Cartel. You could take that dollar back to the Club FED to extinguish that loan, but you have to pay the Interest on that Dollar. Where do you get the Money from to pay back the Interest on that Dollar, the Club FED of Course. And then you’d have to pay the Interest on that as well. By all definitions of a Ponzi Scheme, the Club FED is a Ponzi Scheme where you pay one debt by creating another debt to infinity. This ensures that nobody can never own more than the Banking Cartel. It’s an absolute brilliant scam, and it’s been going on for 100 years, with one re-invention for Gold-Standard and another time for Credit Cards to overcome the 45 year limit on Fiat Money. Richard
I can’t help wanting to thank you, Michael, for adjusting the manner of your prose in recent posts. They have become a joy to read. You seem to have removed all the cliches and annoying repartee. Maybe nobody else appreciates this but I can only express own, continued appreciation for the “New You”! Thank you.
Didn’t you write this before? nobody
Actually Michael is wrong: it’s perfectly possible to pay off the entire debt in less than 5 years. All they need to do is to cut all welfare and military funds and eliminate all tax discounts. But that will never happen. nekksys
This idea doesn’t account for paying off PERSONAL debt as opposed to GOVERNMENT debt.
And, as someone already pointed out, when the first $11T is paid back, the “money” it represents disappears, therefore a vast amount of the M1 will vanish into thin air leaving only the hard currency which can not be distributed sufficiently throughout the population to effect an further debt payments.
In other words, no matter how you slice it, we’re all pretty much F’d in the A thanks to the recklessness of our government and the banksters. nobody
So a bunch of banks will go under – more power to the big ones, you lose, they win. Actually it won’t disappear since it has never existed to begin with and it will just be created elsewhere. BTW your hard currency has stopped having any power a long time ago, now it’s just a bunch of paper and it’s worth only what the issuing bank says it’s worth. And no, gold by itself isn’t worth anything since it can be taken from you at the whim of the government. nekksys
Hard Currency = Paper and Coin… I wasn’t referencing buying power either. I was referring to the ACTUAL M1.
Please try to keep up. nobody
Actually that’s incorrect: a hard currency is a means of payment (usually a currency but it can also be a commodity) that is well and widely trusted and used for savings. Also called safe-heaven currency. Please use the correct terms from now on. nekksys
Typical… When folks like yourself start losing the debate, you shift and try to muddy the waters. Nice try, though! Considering your previous statement “BTW your hard currency has stopped having any power a long time ago” in light of your most recent redefinition of “hard currency,” I guess that means all commodities in my possession are worthless as well? Last I checked, a pound of iron was still a pound of iron and still possesses the same value.
Again, the M1 was what I was referencing. The M1 is the actual, hard currency in circulation. M1 doesn’t consider commodities as part of the equation.
Please, if you choose to redefine something, make sure you haven’t used the same term previously… And do keep up with the conversation. nobody
No, a pound of iron is an asset, that has it’s own value. No, M1 isn’t a representation of hard currency, it’s just an index detailing the total amount of money in an economy – which includes absolutely everything, even those that exist only as electronic vapour. Please try to keep up, or at least get a basic economy/banking course at your local free college. nekksys
Awww… Look! It can read (a little)… Again, judging by the current value of the M1, there’s no way it includes everything you claim.
Furthermore, you are still forgetting that once debt is repaid, ALL the currency it represents (whether real or “electronic vapour”) vanishes. Once the repayment process is underway, the available currency supply continues to diminish eventually leading to a ZERO currency state WITH remaining debt… nobody
And you know there’s no way because a little birdy told you so, right? Let’s be real, M1 is a government decided value and you will never have a say on it. Wrong again, it doesn’t disappear, it goes into the bank’s accounts as an asset, which is in turn used to create even more money by lending it/investing it at least twice its value. The problem appears when they no longer have legit ways to invest it so they invent things like the derivatives to absorb the surplus of money they have created. Yes you can, you can claim it will be used to make 1000 knives and sell derivatives on that in excess of $1k on it. For everybody that $1 lump of iron will now be worth $1k – and this procedure is entirely legal and legit. We’re not talking about honesty here, remember. alan
Where are those trillion dollar coins they had about two years ago?
Mint a couple hundred of them and we’re good. XSANDIEGOCA
As long as we refuse to return to the Gold Standard, we shall continue to suffer. China understands this implicitly. All they have to do to drop us without firing a shot is to just threaten to tie the Yuan to Gold. Game Over. (BTW, the interest on our debt to China underwrites their entire Defense Budget!) Today the $20 bill is the equivalent to the $5 bill of my youth. Now there is serious talk of replacing the visage of Andrew Jackson, the man who saved America in the War of 1812, on that bill with a Slave. How utterly appropriate. Genada
Andrew Jackson would despise the idea of being on a bank note and especially of the modern day version of the one he destroyed.
Fun fact about Jackson: Only president EVER to retire the national debt. XSANDIEGOCA Dwain Dibley
Back when Andrew Jackson was the president Gold was the money, somewhat hard to come by and it would be reasonable to assume a national debt. Today the money is Fiat, and all they have to do is print it. How can a government that can print the money to pay it’s bills, ever get into debt? And, what is it borrowing and what does it owe? This whole government “debt” thing seems kind of fishy to me….. Tranqual
He killed the central bank and said it was his most important accomplishment. Then the bankers crashed the economy and blamed him. jsmith
You seem to have connected the dots X, however you are probably very young because I’d like to think of the $20.00 bill as the new $1.00 bill. Back in 1963 whe I was 14, I could go to downtown Lost Angeles by bus to the movies, and see 3 matinee flics including milk duds and still have money left over from the 4 silver quarters my mom gave me! And yes, how appropriate that you noticed Andy Jackson being replaced by a slave. Why, Andie’s greatest quote is that he killed the bank and is one of America’s greatest heroes! And to quote Michael’s “The real problem, of course, is our out of control spending” yet we have one of our greatest termites in the form of John McCain and the others who want to increase defense spending because the Russian’s and primarily the Chinese are building up their defense spending, with our money. Insane. I was kind of hoping for a gradual collapse due mainly to money printing and inflation, but I’m afraid things are speeding up as the symptoms of impending crisis are being overlooked and exacerbated by our moronic president and termitic Congress. Either they are puppet fools, or part of the conspiracy to destroy our country. America is kaput! XSANDIEGOCA
Ah, those were the daze! Actually, you are right. In my mind today’s 20 was yesterday’s 5. Anyway, too many “disturbances” in the Force. One good shove will do it, send the boulder crashing down the hill. Pick your scenario. Another terrorist attack. China moving on Taiwan. Iran heaving one into Israel. Then it will be “look out below!” Zenithon
And still if I pull out a $100 bill and try to pay for something, more times than not I get to hear that they won’t take anything larger than a $20. You can’t hardly get lunch or buy a movie ticket for less than $10 bucks and stores still act like that $100 bill is worth something. I could buy more at a grocery store with a $20 bill 25 years ago then I can get today with that c-note. Crazy. Tranqual
Money masters know what they are doing.“Inflation has now been institutionalized at a fairly constant 5% per year. This has been determined to be the optimum level for generating the most revenue without causing public alarm. A 5% devaluation applies, not only to the money earned this year, but to all that is left over from previous years.
“At the end of the first year, a dollar is worth 95 cents. At the end of the second year, the 95 cents is reduced again by 5%, leaving its worth at 90 cents, and so on. By the time a person has worked 20 years, the government will have confiscated 64% of every dollar he saved over those years. By the time he has worked 45 years, the hidden tax will be 90%. The government will take virtually everything a person saves over a lifetime.”
— G. Edward Griffin
“By remaining behind the scenes, they (the Rothschilds) were able to avoid the brunt of public anger which was directed, instead, at the political figures which they largely controlled. This is a technique which has been practiced by financial manipulators ever since, and it is fully utilized by those who operate the Federal Reserve System today.”
– G. Edward Griffin
“[The] abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit…. In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holdings illegal, as was done in the case of gold…. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves…. [This] is the shabby secret of the welfare statist’s tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the ‘hidden’ confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.”- Alan Greenspan in an article he wrote in 1966.
And then Greenspan went over to the dark side and worked for the Fed.
“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls . . . become ‘profiteers’, who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished not less than the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds . . . all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless.”– From pages 220-233 of The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), by John Maynard Keynes. You probably already know all this. XSANDIEGOCA
I did. I will send this on. States it all in one place. Tranqual
personally I don’t think there’s anything we can do. Ultimately it’s God’s judgment. When Jackson killed the central bank they just crashed the economy. It would take a miracle for most people to even understand the screw job. If any leader came on the scene and tried to kill the Fed the bankers would just constrict the money supply crash the economy. Frankly I believe we are in the end game. Only repentance and revival would give us more time as a nation. Sadly I’m not optimistic about that either. We are already seeing the birthing of the apostate church. Trusting God will take care of the faithful remnant. Not looking forward to the days ahead. I wish Christians would have their eyes opened. We may be able to take part in a great harvest after America goes down. Maybe then people will listen…to the GOOD NEWS!!
We shall have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset in which to win them. Amy Carmichael
Agreed. Sadly, we face Gotterdammerung but that may be God’s plan too. XSANDIEGOCA
1971. We went off the Gold Standard. What happened next was utterly predictable. A dollar today is worth a fifth of a 1971 dollar. Nixon was the One! Preparequickly Dwain Dibley
The legal tender dollar is worth exactly the same as it has always been worth, 100 cents. Now, the bankster’s “Credit Dollar” is another matter, it’s only worth 4 cents (excluding Wall Street and shadow banking system generated credit). But because people are too stupid and lazy to discern the difference, they equate the two as being one in the same and are apparently willing to die economically, firmly holding onto that erroneous belief. Tranqual
Nixon was just following orders. The price of being president. They are all sock puppets. Obama, McConnell and Boehner all spooning together are the latest screw job is a perfect example. They are all treasonous traitors willing to sell their souls for a mess of pottage. O is dumb enough to think he’s creating his communist utopia. XSANDIEGOCA
The betrayal on the TPP is truly astonishing! I would like to see a Third Party if only to vent my frustration. As I see it, Hillary wins. I write this with great sadness. Tranqual
voting for an agreement we aren’t allowed to see! Is this America? We will see what congress will do, I’m not holding my breath. Horiboyable .
It seems that the USA is using the Roman Template of self destruction. Over spend on your military and run up large debts. What next? Well Rome turned on its own people for cash which has happened many times in different societies. This leads to less freedoms and economic totalitarianism or they will take you to war to divert the issue. I think by the end of the year the average US citizen will begin to see how your government will treat you. I myself find this whole situation a little funny because I left my country of birth because of economic mismanagement of the state, that used laws to limit my freedom. I immigrated to the UK only to find myself facing the same situation. The UK has debts that they can never pay back and it will be interesting to see how they deal with it here. The honest way is to default. It is a bit sad when you have to keep moving countries just to survive. Genada
Only choices on debts that can not be payed is either to default or to inflate them away.
You can pay off the debt anytime you wish, it doesn’t mean it will be worth anything tho. df NJ
It’s not going to end well. Hank Sullivan
Michael, the kicker is that each dollar that, because the entire currency supply is borrowed into existence, when one of those dollars gets paid back to the original issuer, which is your goal, that dollar ceases to exist. And so once $11 trillion, M2, is paid off to the original issuer, THERE’S NO MORE CURRENCY IN CIRCULATION TO RUN THE ECONOMY. Like the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, the economy would completely run out of fuel. And we would still have $49 trillion left to pay. HedgeHog
Read Modern Money Mechanics, and part of the picture becomes clear, think of it this way, and it becomes crystal; if you and I are talking, and I ask to borrow a dollar, and there is no other money in existence, and you want to charge me 10 cents of interest, if I give you back the dollar to pay off the debt, where am I going to get the 10 cents? because every monetary instrument in circulation has debt attached to it, is the reason why the debt can never be repaid. Put the power to take care of the money supply back in the hands of congress, dissolve the fed, and several other adjustments that need to be made, and we might have a chance of coming out of this relatively unharmed. Maneb
Hyperinflation is the answer. COMPLETLY destroy savers and persioners. Reward the reckless and lazy drug addicted street bums. That’s the way out. That’s what the U.S. HAS been doing. Become Zimbabwe! Obama’s model in well run Africa. His ancestral homeland. Transforming America! Congratulations suckers. Oh, did I mention martial law and tyranny…coming up soon. Just look around. Who cares about the rule of law or the constution? Again, that’s for poor suckers. Catch me if you can. Marx and Alinsky showed the way. nekksys
Wow, that’s relevant… A lot has changed since that article was written in 2011… SunnyFlaSnotress
Thank you for your style of constructive criticism /s While up-to-date numbers are difficult to find, the link DOES point out the blind spot in the article that makes it unbalanced and somewhat irrelevant. It totally ignores the fact that the USA is also owed massive amounts of money. guest
How is it mathematically possible to get so far into debt that it’s mathematically impossible to get out of debt? df NJ
google “fractional reserve banking system”
We just can’t compete with the Federal Reserve’s power to put us into poverty.
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws” — Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild folgers22
It’s government. Anything is possible. folgers22
Some of the brightest thinkers on their side actually believe debt is a sign of strength. They think the more debt we run up, the better it is for us. JackNMeovslo
AND THE ANSWER IS …. Democrats~ g13man
they both agreed for each others spending , so they are both culpable ! Thomas Keith
That’s easy. Fool your creditors into thinking you actually can pay back the loans plus interest. _aleph_ folgers22
Anyone heard of Beppe Grillo? He’s a comedian/politician in Italy whose rants against debt and the EU have made him a hero to many Italians. He did a semi-serious bit years ago in which he explained Italy’s debt problems and discussed how to solve them. Here’s some of what he said: If there’s a borrower, there is supposed to be a lender, correct? Who do we owe this money to? TO OURSELVES! Fine, I owe it to myself. I claim it is nothing anymore and we’re square. Go to Hell!” Right? It’s a debt system, this is an awful system!– They issue money, but to whom does it belong? We are the state, so it belongs to us, don’t you agree? If the money belongs to us, then why do they lend it to us? There’s something not adding up, right? Once we used to have gold coins, they were ours. We had some gold and it was ours. Now we have a note that says 1000 Lira. Who does it belong to? On the bill it says “Bank of Italy” and “Payable to the Bearer on Demand.” If I go to the bank to demand that money, they won’t give me anything!– The bank of Italy is a private joint-stock company…we wil never know who they are. They issue money out of thin air and lend it to us. It’s the state that is supposed to issue it. The state should keep money circulation stable, keep prices stable. Yet, our money is issued by a joint-stock company. Money shouldn’t look like that! It shouldn’t say Bank of Italy, it should say Republic of Italy! It shouldn’t be signed by the governor of the Bank of Italy, it should be signed by the President! That would bring satisfaction to us all!–
LOL joe oberr
Simple question. Why does the gov’t have to borrow from a private financial institution, aka “the Fed”, in order to spend more than it takes in in taxes and thereby place this debt’s liability on future generations? Was not the gov’t able to, at least at some points in our history, simply print Treasury notes off the federal printing press and incur no consequential debt? folgers22
I think the book explaining it is called, “The Monster from Jekyll Island.” The banksters 100 years ago met in secret in South Carolina to plan a better system. and their pets in Congress made it a reality. Here we are. JustanOguy
Just to let you know… Jekyll Island is in Georgia. df NJ
Politics are pretty irrelevant at this point. But I thought this was funny:
“I’m still waiting to get trickled on by Reaganomics. It’s been more like a number 2.
Cartels, monopolies, low wages, VOTE REPUBLICAN!” Lord Rainchild of LinkToIt-com
Hi DJ, I really like your posts, and would like to stay in touch with you. I was trying to find that post where you mentioned ‘metamorphic contempt.’ I don’t know any other way to contact you except posting here. I was wondering if you can post to my disqus thread on linktoit-com – so I can dialog with you once in a while. I think tapping your mind would be helpful for the new news portal website that I am working on and also a booklet I am putting together that i intend to entitled What a Joke! – would really like to invite you there to linktoit dot com… + any others who might be reading this. Thank you! folgers22
I’m not sure who has a better deal in this day and age-the prudent man who has no debt, or the debtor who totally throws caution to the wind and goes into hock up to his ears and takes out credit cards on his cat’s name, too. When the house of cards collapses, the prudent man with the bank account full of savings will probably see his money seized to pay for the emergency, while the debtor will probably be bailed out by the government using the prudent man’s money. What a Country! wheel
Ain’t that the truth. Just like all the bailouts from the housing collapse with homeowners and speculators just walking away and leaving the taxpayer to pick up the pieces.
The fact is if we could time it and know exactly when the collapse would happen I would recommend going hog wild on the spending and borrowing and give them all the finger when I declared bankruptcy. Gay Veteran
the banksters gave out loans to people they knew could not pay, we should have let the banksters go bankrupt. we need banks, not any particular bank Nemnor
The ‘banksters’ felt “compelled” to (IRRATIONALLY) “invest” as they do, not so much so because they are greedy or stupid, but rather, it is more so because of the Capitalist system in the USA (and the World) that has became DECADENT .
This decadent Capitalist system is often labeled as –“corporatism”, or “socialism” or “crony capitalism” or “communism” or “fascism” or “welfare(ism)”, etc.. But regardless to the label, for the past 500 years or so, the the economic system in the World firmly remained Capitalism (in it’s ESSENTIAL form) .
The Capitalist system became decadent as it reached a stage of general over-production . With over-production, it became harder and harder for the Capitalist to sell their products/services, for even what the Capitalist consider a reasonable profit.
Hence, the reason the Capitalists (irrationally) engage more and more in “Share Repurchase”/”Stock Buyback” (to ARTIFICIALLY raise the value of a company’s stock), and/or invest in “financial bubbles”, “derivatives” and other exotic “financial instruments” ( even lend money to people that are not credit worthy ), and with many of these “investments” having little or not relations to the real economy !!!
Once one becomes aware that the main root cause of the major socioeconomic issues facing the USA and the World is – Capitalism itself – which had became DECADENT (but labeled as “corporatism”, “socialism”, “fascism”, etc.), and that there is NO “real”/”pure”/”free market” Capitalism to go back to (because Capitalism ALREADY passed it’s progressive stage), then it becomes clear that any REAL/effective solution MUST include a fundamental change away from Capitalism (as no amount of “reforms” can ever fix Capitalism – which is now at a “dead end”). GSOB
How Lovely are Your Dwellings!
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You!
Praise to God for a Living Hope
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. | 1real |
‘We Are Orphans Here’ - The New York Times | Standing at an intersection in Shuafat Refugee Camp, in East Jerusalem, I watched as a boy, sunk down behind the steering wheel of a sedan, zoomed through an intersection with his arm out the driver’ window, signaling like a Nascar driver pulling in for a pit stop. I was amazed. He looked about 12. “No one cares here,” my host, Baha Nababta, said, laughing at my astonishment. “Anyone can do anything they want. ” As Baha and I walked around Shuafat this spring, teenagers fell in behind us, forming a kind of retinue. Among them were cool kids who looked like cool kids the world over, tuned in to that teenage frequency, a dog whistle with global reach. I noticed that white was a popular color. White slouchy, pegged jeans, white polo shirts, white . Maybe white has extra status in a place where many roads are unpaved and turn to mud, where garbage is everywhere, literally, and where water shortages make it exceedingly difficult to keep people and clothing clean. So few nonresidents enter Shuafat that my appearance there seemed to be a highly unusual event, met with warm greetings verging on hysteria, crowds of kids following along. “Hello, America!” they called excitedly. I was a novelty, but also, I was with Baha Nababta, a Palestinian community organizer beloved by the kids of Shuafat. Those who followed us wanted not just my attention but his. Baha had a rare kind of charisma. charisma, you might call it. He was a natural leader of boys. Every kid we passed knew him and either waved or stopped to speak to him. Baha founded a community center so that older children would have a place to hang out, because there is no open space in Shuafat Refugee Camp, no park, not a single playground, nowhere for kids to go, not even a street, really, where they can play, because there are no sidewalks, most of the narrow roads barely fitting the cars that ramble down them. Youngers kids tapped me on the arms and wanted to show me the mural they painted with Baha. The road they helped to pave with Baha, who supervised its completion. The plants they planted with Baha along a narrow strip. Baha, Baha, Baha. It was like that with the adults too. They all wanted his attention. His phone was blowing up in his pocket as we walked. He finally answered. There was a dispute between a man whose baby died at a clinic and the doctor who treated the baby. The man whose baby died tried to burn the doctor alive, and now the doctor was in critical condition, in a hospital in Jerusalem. Throughout the two days I spent with Baha, I heard more stories like this that he was asked to help resolve. People relied on him. He had a vision for the Shuafat camp, where he was born and raised, that went beyond what could be imagined from within the very limited confines of the place. In an area of apartment buildings clustered around a mosque with spindly, futuristic minarets, a pudgy boy of 10 or 11 called over to us. “My dad is trying to reach you,” he said to Baha. Baha told me that the buildings in that part of the camp had no water and that everyone was contacting him about it. He had not been answering his phone, he confessed, because he didn’t have any good news yet for the residents. I got the impression Baha was something like an informal mayor, on whom people depended to resolve disputes, build roads, put together volunteer committees and try to make Shuafat safe for children. The building next to us was 12 stories. Next to it was another building. apartments in the camp are built so close together that if a fire should happen, the results would be devastating. There would be no way to put it out. The buildings were all built of stone blocks that featured, between blocks, wooden wedges that stuck out intermittently, as if the builders had never returned to fill the gaps with mortar. I gazed up at a towering facade, with its strange wooden wedges, which made the building look like a model of a structure, except that it was occupied. The pudgy boy turned to me as I craned my neck. “This building is stupidly built,” he said. “It’s junk. ” “Do you live here?” I asked him, and he said yes. Shuafat Refugee Camp is inside Jerusalem proper, according to the municipal boundaries that Israel declared after the Six Day War in 1967. (Though the entire walled area is frequently referred to as the Shuafat Refugee Camp, the actual camp, run by the United Nation’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees, is only a small portion. Adjacent to the camp are three neighborhoods that are the responsibility of the city of Jerusalem.) The Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction there: The camp is, according to Israeli law, inside Israel, and the people who live there are Jerusalem residents, but they are refugees in their own city. Residents pay taxes to Israel, but the camp is barely serviced. There is very little legally supplied water, a scarcely functioning sewage system, essentially no garbage pickup, no road building, no mail service (the streets don’t even have names, much less addresses) virtually no infrastructure of any kind. There is no adequate school system. Israeli emergency fire and medical services do not enter the camp. The Israeli police enter only to make arrests they provide no security for camp residents. There is chaotic land registration. While no one knows how many people really live in the Shuafat camp and its three surrounding neighborhoods, which is roughly one square kilometer, it’s estimated that the population is around 80, 000. They live surrounded by a concrete wall, a wall interspersed by guard towers and trapdoors that swing open when Israeli forces raid the camp, with reinforcements in the hundreds, or even, as in December 2015, over a thousand troops. Effectively, there are no laws in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, despite its geographical location inside Jerusalem. The Shuafat camp’s original citizens were moved from the Old City, where they sought asylum in 1948 during the War, to the camp’s boundaries starting in 1965, when the camp was under the control of the Jordanian government, with more arriving, in need of asylum, during and after the war in 1967. Now, 50 years after Israel’s 1967 boundaries were drawn, even Israeli security experts don’t quite know why the Shuafat Refugee Camp was placed inside the Jerusalem municipal boundaries. The population was much smaller then and surrounded by beautiful green, open forestland, which stretched to the land on which the Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev was later built. (The forestland is still there, visible beyond the separation wall, but inaccessible to camp residents, on account of the wall.) Perhaps the Israelis were hoping the camp’s residents could be relocated, because they numbered only a few thousand. Instead, the population of the camp exploded in the following decades into the tens of thousands. In 1980, Israel passed a law declaring Jerusalem the “complete and united” capital of Israel. In 2004, Israel began erecting the concrete wall around the camp, cutting inside Israel’s own declared boundaries, as if to stanch and cauterize the camp from “united” Jerusalem. If buildings are not typically conjured by the term “refugee camp,” neither is an indoor shopping mall, but there is one in the Shuafat camp: two floors and a third that was under construction, an escalator up and down and a store called Fendi, which sells inexpensive women’s clothes. The mall owner greeted us with exuberance and pulled Baha aside to ask for advice of some kind. A teenager who worked at a mall parlor, a hipster in a hoodie and eyeglass frames without lenses, did a beatbox for me and Moriel a writer and organizer who had walked me into the camp in order to make introductions between me and Baha and to serve as my Arabic interpreter. Moriel and the teenager from the shop took turns. Moriel’s own beatbox was good but not quite up to the Shuafat Refugee Camp beatbox standard. We met an accountant named Fahed, who had just opened his shop in the mall to prepare taxes for residents. He was stunned to hear English being spoken and eager to use his own. The tax forms are in Hebrew, he explained, so most people in the camp must hire a bilingual accountant to complete them. Before the separation wall was constructed, the mall was bulldozed twice by the Israeli authorities, but the owner rebuilt both times. Since the wall has gone up, the Israelis have not tried to demolish any large buildings in Shuafat, though they have destroyed individual homes. Armed Palestinian gangsters could take away someone’s land or apartment at any moment. A fire or earthquake would be catastrophic. There are multiple risks to buying property in the Shuafat camp, but the cost of an apartment there can be less than a tenth of what an apartment would cost on the other side of the separation wall, in East Jerusalem. And living in Shuafat is a way to try to hold onto Jerusalem residency status. Jerusalem residents have a coveted blue ID card, meaning they can enter Israel in order to work and support their families, unlike Palestinians with green, or West Bank ID cards, who need many supporting documents in order to enter Israel — to work or for any other reason, and who also must pass through military checkpoints like Qalandiya, which can require waiting in hourslong lines. Jerusalem residency is, quite simply, a lifeline to employment, a matter of survival. There are also in the camp. Since the wall went up, it became a sanctuary, a haven. I met people from Gaza, who cannot leave the square kilometer of the camp or they risk arrest, because it is illegal for Gazans to enter Israel or the occupied West Bank except with Israeli permission, which is almost never granted. I met a family of Brazilian Palestinians with passports who also cannot leave the camp, because they do not have West Bank green IDs nor Jerusalem blue IDs. Shuafat camp is often depicted in the international media as the most dangerous place in Jerusalem, a crucible of crime, jihad and trash fires. On the day that I arrived, garbage was indeed smoldering in great heaps just inside the checkpoint entrance, against the concrete separation wall, flames jumping thinly in the strong morning sun. I had been to countries that burn their trash it is a smell you get used to. My main concern, over the weekend I spent in the camp, was not getting my foot run over by a car. If you are seriously hurt in the camp, there isn’t much help. Ill or injured people are carried through the checkpoint, on foot or by car, and put in ambulances on the other side of the wall. According to residents of the camp, several people have unnecessarily died in this manner. As we walked, I began to understand how to face the traffic without flinching, to expect that drivers are experienced at navigating such incredible human density. I asked Baha if people were ever run over by cars, assuming he would say no. “Yes, all the time,” he said. “A child was just killed this way,” he added. I hugged the walls of the apartment buildings as we strolled. Later that evening, I watched as a tiny boy riding a grown man’s bicycle was bumped by a car. He crashed in the road. I ran to help him. He was crying, holding out his abraded hands. I remembered how painful it is to scrape your palms, how many nerve endings there are in an open hand. A Palestinian man told the little boy he was O. K. and ruffled his hair. When I asked Baha if garbage was burned by the separation wall because it was safer — a way to contain a fire, like a giant fireplace — he shook his head. “It’s, aah, symbolic. ” In other words, garbage is burned by the wall because the wall is Israeli. Drugs are sold along the wall by the Israeli checkpoint, not for symbolic reasons. The camp organizers, like Baha, cannot effectively control the drug trade in a zone patrolled by the Israeli police and monitored by security cameras. Dealers are safe there from the means of popular justice exacted inside the camp. The most heavily militarized area of the camp is perhaps its most lawless. The popular drug the dealers sell is called Mr. Nice Guy, which is sometimes categorized as a “synthetic cannabinoid” — a meaningless nomenclature. It is highly toxic, and its effects are nothing like cannabis. It can bring on psychosis. It damages brains and ruins lives. Baha told me that Mr. Nice Guy is popular with kids as young as 8. Empty packets of it sifted around at our feet as we crossed the large parking lot where buses pick up 6, 000 children daily and transport them through the checkpoint for school, because the camp has only one public school, for elementary students. Every afternoon, children stream back into camp, passing the dealers and users who cluster near the checkpoint. I didn’t see the dealers, but I doubt Baha would have pointed them out. What I mostly noticed were children working, being industrious, trying to find productive ways to live in a miserable environment and to survive. Across from Baha’s house, a group of kids run a carwash. We waved to them from Baha’s roof. Baha introduced me to a group of teenage boys who own their own service. He took me to a barber shop, where kids in flawless outfits with fades were hanging out, listening to music, while a boy of about 13 gave a haircut to a boy of about 5. A young teenager in a pristine white polo shirt and delicate gold neck chain flexed his baby potato of a biceps and announced his family name: “Alqam!” The children in the barbershop were all Alqam. They ran the shop. They were ecstatic to see Baha. We were all ecstatic. The language barrier between me and the boys only thickened our collective joy, as my interpreter Moriel was whisked into a barber chair for a playfully coerced beard trim, on the house. The boys and I shouldered up for selfies, put on our sunglasses and posed. Whenever men shook my hand after Baha introduced me, I sensed — especially after Moriel left that afternoon — that men and boys would not get so physically close to a Palestinian woman who was a stranger. But I was an American woman, and I was with Baha, which made me something like an honorary man. Later I told myself and everyone else how wonderful it was in the Shuafat camp. How safe I felt. How positive Baha was. All of that still feels true to me. But I also insisted, to myself and everyone else, that Baha never expressed any fears for his own safety. In looking at my notes, I see now that my insistence on this point was sheer will. A fiction. It’s right there in the notes. He said he was nervous. He said he’d been threatened. Also in my notes, this: Baha says, two types 1. Those who want to help make a better life 2. Those who want to destroy everything And in parentheses: (Arms trade. Drugs trade. Construction profits. No oversight wanted.) “I wanted you to meet the boys because they are nice people,” Baha said, after we left the barbershop. “But they do all carry guns. ” It was only after I returned home to the United States that I learned, in the banal and cowardly way, with a few taps on my computer, that two Alqam boys, cousins who were 12 and 14, had been accused of stabbing, with a knife and scissors, an Israeli security guard on a tram in East Jerusalem. I still don’t know whether they were related to the boys in the barber shop. Several of the young assailants in what has been called the Knives Intifada have been from the Shuafat camp, which has also been the site of huge and violent protests in which Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. In 2015, three children from the Shuafat Refugee Camp lost eyes from sponge bullets shot by Israeli forces. The other thing I suppressed, besides Baha’s admissions of fear, was his desire for police. I didn’t write that down. It wasn’t part of my hero narrative, because the police are not part of my hero narrative. “Even if they have to bring them from India,” he said several times, “we need police here. We cannot handle the disputes on our own. People take revenge. They murder. ” A Middle East correspondent I met in the West Bank, hearing that I was going to spend the weekend in the Shuafat camp, asked me if I “planned to visit Shit Lake” while there. Apparently that was his single image of the place. I assumed he was referring to a sewage dump, but Baha never mentioned it, and after seeing Baha’s pleasure in showing me the community center, the roads his committee had built, the mall, which was the only open gathering space, all things that, for him, were hopeful, I wasn’t going to ask him for Shit Lake. That correspondent had never stepped foot in the camp. I hadn’t expected to either, until I was invited on an extensive tour of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and was asked to choose a subject to write about, for a book to be published next year. With no previous experience in the region, and little knowledge, I gravitated instinctually to Shuafat camp. From my own time there, the sustaining image is shimmering white. The kids, dressed in white. The buildings, a baked tone of dusty, white. The minarets, all white. And there was the 1972 Volkswagen Beetle in gleaming white, meticulously restored. It was on the shop floor of a garage run by Baha’s friend Adel. A enthusiast and owner myself, I wanted to talk to Adel about the car. He showed me his garage, his compressor, his lift. Like the escalator in the mall, these were things you would never expect to find in a place without services. We sat, and Adel made coffee. He and Baha told me about the troubles with the drug Mr. Nice Guy. They said every family has an addict among its children and sometimes among the older people as well. A third of the population is strung out on it, they said. It makes people crazy, Adel and Baha agreed. Is there a link, I asked, between Mr. Nice Guy and the kids who decide, essentially, to end it all by running at an Israeli soldier with a knife? They each concurred that there was. Two years earlier, Baha said, by way of contrast, there was a man from the Shuafat camp who did a deadly car ramming. The Israelis came and blew up his house. He was older, Baha said, and out of work and he decided that he was finally ready to lose everything. With the kids, Baha said, it’s different. It’s an act of impulsive courage. The drug helps enormously with that. Adel kept making reference to his daughter, who is physically disabled and cannot attend school. I asked to meet her or Adel asked if I wanted to meet her. Either way we ended up in Adel’s large apartment, and his daughter Mira was wheeled out to the living room. Mira was burned over most of her body and is missing part of one arm and a kneecap. Her face and scalp are disfigured. A school bus filled with children from the Shuafat camp were on a trip to Ramallah when their bus collided with a truck on wet roads. The bus overturned and burst into flames. Five children and a teacher burned to death. Dozens were injured. Emergency services were delayed by confusion over who had jurisdiction. As a result, Mira and other children had to be taken in the cars of bystanders to the closest hospital. The accident took place between the Adam settlement and Qalandiya checkpoints, in what is called Area C of the West Bank, which is entirely under Israeli control. The likelihood of something like this occurring was well known. Later, a report from Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights group, established that the tragedy resulted from the multiple challenges of living beyond the separation barrier. Roads were substandard. There were too many children on the bus, the children had no access to education in their own communities and there was no oversight. “When the accident happened, we didn’t know how to cope with it,” Baha told me. Someone got up on a loading dock in the camp and called out the names of the dead. Afterward, Baha and Adel cried all the time. They felt that the lives of Shuafat’s children were disposable. They decided to start their own volunteer emergency team, through WhatsApp, and it has 80 members, who are trained in first aid and in special skills they are ready to employ at a moment’s notice. They are saving up to purchase their own Shuafat camp ambulance, whose volunteer drivers will be trained medical professionals, like Baha’s wife, Hiba, who is a nurse. Baha, I noticed, seemed more optimistic about their emergency team, and about the future, than Adel did. At one point, Adel, who has a shattered and frantic but loving, warm energy, turned to me and said, “We are orphans here. ” Mira, who had been transferred from her wheelchair to the couch, sat and fidgeted. She understood no English but was forced to quietly pretend she was listening. I kept smiling at her, and she smiled back. I was desperate to give her something, to promise something. It’s very difficult to see a child who has suffered so tremendously. It’s basically unbearable. I should give her the ring I was wearing, I thought. But then I saw that it would never fit her fingers, which were very swollen and large, despite her young age her development, after the fire, was thwarted because her bones could not properly grow. I’ll give her my earrings, was my next idea, and then I realized that her ears had been burned off in the fire. I felt obscene. I sat and smiled as if my oversize teeth could beam a protective fiction over this poor child, blind us both to the truth, that no shallow gesture or petty generosity would make any lasting difference, and that her life was going to be difficult. The travel agency in the Shuafat mall is called Hope. There is a toy store in the mall called the Happy Child. The children I met were all Baha’s kids, part of his group, on his team, drafting off his energy, which was relentlessly upbeat. I have to recreate, with all the precision I can manage, to remember what I am able to about Baha. I see Baha in his pink polo shirt, tall and handsome, but with a soft belly that somehow reinforces his integrity, makes him imperfectly, perfectly human. Baha singing “Bella Ciao” in Italian, a language he learned at 19, on the trip that changed his life, working with Vento di Terra, a and human rights group based in Italy. Later, I sent a video of Baha singing to various Italian friends, leftists who were thrilled that a guy in a Palestinian refugee camp knew the words to “Bella Ciao. ” Baha’s friends and relatives all hugging me and me, the women bringing out boxes that contained their wedding dresses, insisting I try on each dress, whose colors and designs specified where they were from: one in black with white stitching, from Ramallah. Cream with red, Jerusalem. In each case we took a photo, laughing, me in each dress, with the woman it belonged to on my arm. Everyone imploring me to come back, and to bring Remy, my and I was sure that I would come back, and bring Remy, because I had fallen in love with these people. And in the background of the hugs and kisses, in almost every home where we spent time, the TV playing the Islamic channel, Palestine a relentless montage of blood, smoke, fire and fighters with . The constant hospitality. Coffee, tea, mint lemonade, ice water, all the drinks I politely accepted. Drank and then sloshed along, past faded posters of jihadist martyrs. Come back. Bring Remy. I will, I told them, and I meant it. Late at night, Baha and Hiba decided to show me their digital wedding photo book. It was midnight, their two young daughters asleep on couches around us. Hiba propped an iPad on a table — she was four months pregnant, expecting her third child, a boy — and we looked at every last image, hundreds of images, of her and Baha in highly curated poses and stiff wedding clothes, her tiara, her beautiful face neutralized by heavy makeup but the makeup is part of the ritual, and the ritual is part of the glory. The two of them in a lush park in West Jerusalem. Every picture we looked at was, for them watching me see the images, a new delight: There were more and more and more. For me, they all started to run together, it was now 1 in the morning, I was exhausted, but I made myself regard each photograph as something unique, a vital integer in the stream of these people’s refusal to be reduced. I slept in what they called their Arabic room, on low cushions, a barred window above me issuing a cool breeze. I listened to roosters crow and the semiautomatic weapons being fired at a nearby wedding celebration, and eventually I drifted into the calmest, heaviest sleep I’d had in months. The next day, Baha had meetings to attend to try to solve the water problem. I spoke to Hiba about their kids. She asked me at what age Remy started his piano lessons. “I want music lessons for the girls,” she said. “I think it’s very good for their development. ” As she said it, more fire erupted from the roof of a nearby building. “I want them to know the feel, the smells, of a different environment. To be able to imagine other lives. ” When I think of Hiba Nababta wanting what I want for my child, her rightful desire that her kids should have an equal chance, everything feels hopeless and more obscene, even, than my wanting to give earrings to a child without ears. I went with Hiba that morning to her mother’s house, where she and Hiba’s sisters were preparing an exquisite meal of stuffed grape leaves and stuffed squashes, the grape leaves and vegetables grown on her mother’s patio. We were all women, eating together in relaxed company. A came downstairs to join us, sleepy, beautiful, with long red nails and hair dyed honey blond, in her pajamas and slippers. She said that she was leaving for New Jersey with her husband, Hiba’s brother, and their new baby. Relatives had arranged for them to immigrate. She would learn English and go to school. When it was time to say goodbye, a younger sister was appointed to walk me to the checkpoint. Halfway there, I assured her I could walk alone, and we said goodbye. On the main road, shopkeepers came out to wave and smile. Everyone seemed to know who I was: the American who had come to meet with Baha. At the checkpoint, the Palestinian boy in front of me was detained. I was next, and the soldiers were shocked to see an American, as they would have been shocked to see any . There was much consternation in the reinforced station. My passport went from hand to hand. The commander approached the scratched window. “You’re a Jew, right?” he blurted into the microphone. For the context in which he asked, for its reasoning, I said no. But in fact, I’m ethnically on my father’s side, although I was not raised with any religious or even a cultural connection to Judaism. My mother is a white Protestant from Tennessee. I might have said, “Yes, partly,” but I found the question unanswerable, on account of its conflation of Zionism and Jewish identity. My Odessan was a clothing merchant on Orchard Street. My grandfather worked in his shop as a boy. That is classically Jewish, but my sense of self, of what it might mean to inherit some trace of that lineage, was not the kind of patrimony the soldier was asking after. I was eventually waved along. The day I left Shuafat camp was April 17. Fifteen days later, on May 2, Baha Nababta was murdered in the camp. An unknown person approached on a motorcycle as Baha worked with roughly a hundred fellow camp residents to pave a road. In front of this very large crowd of people, working together, the person on the motorcycle shot at Baha 10 times and fled. Seven bullets hit him. It is now December. Baha’s wife, Hiba, has given birth to their son. His father is gone. His mother is widowed. But a baby — a baby can thrive no matter. A baby won’t even know, until it is told, that someone is missing. | 0fake |
Breaking: Julian Assange Just Confirmed… Department Of Justice Told Hillary To Delete All Evidence | EndingFed News Network | VIA Conservative Daily Post In an email sent to Cheryl Mills from John Podesta the evening of March 2, 2015, hours after the New York Times reported that Clinton possibly violated federal record requirements by using the private server, a shocking revelation has been uncovered. According to the latest batch of Podesta’s hacked emails, Podesta writes, “Not to sound like Lanny, but we are going to have to dump all those emails so better to do so sooner than later.” Mills responded, “Think you just got your new nick name.” The “Lanny” reference is to lawyer Lanny Davis, who served as special counsel to former President, Bill Clinton. Lawyers, unfortunately, are not always the most honest individuals and have been known to cover up for their guilty clients. Hillary Clinton is one of these lawyers. Cheryl Mills is the same woman who oversaw the controversial construction of a South Korean sweat shop being built in Haiti. A week after this email exchange took place, Hillary Clinton announced that she would love nothing more than to share her emails with the general public, claiming she had nothing to hide. At least, she didn’t think she did. After being subpoenaed by federal court, Hillary Clinton acid-washed her private server, deleting thousands of emails. She denied, under oath, that classified information was ever on the server or sent/discussed via her private email address. Acid-washing a server costs a pretty penny. If she truly had nothing to hide, why did she completely bleach her server free of everything? Thanks to leaked emails from WikiLeaks, it has been proven that Hillary lied when she said no classified information had ever been involved with her private server- Not only was there classified information stored and talked about, but hackers were able to intercept the data and correspondence. New York Post comments, “Democrats on the House Oversight Committee point to Clinton tweeting on March 4, 2015, calling on the State Department to release her 55,000 pages of work files.” “I want the public to see my email,” Hillary wrote two days after the Podesta message. At the time, the real Lanny Davis was in support of Clinton addressing her emails. Another WikiLeaks email displays members of the Clinton Organization getting frustrated with Davis’ public voicing. “We gotta zap Lanny out of our universe,” campaign manager Robby Mook wrote Podesta March 8, 2015. “Can’t believe he committed her to a private review of her hard drive on TV.” Good thing for Lanny Davis, “zap” doesn’t equate to “wet-work.” Although Davis may have been rash to announce and support Hillary Clinton’s innocence, the DNC had major issues with it. Davis told Fox News host Chris Wallace, during a televised interview, about Hillary Clinton’s private email server- “there can be a neutral party to review all these records – nothing unlawful.” Apparently, Davis wasn’t given the memo by Hillary Clinton’s team regarding her bleached server and it’s true contents. “I think it is a reasonable idea if anybody has any doubts that there’s a delete on a hard drive- to have an independent go inspect her private e-mail?” Davis added. Hillary Clinton is known for lying, her own chairman doesn’t even believe her when she claims she “forgets” things.
EVEN PODESTA KNOWS SHE IS A LIAR! Hillary Clinton wouldn’t know honesty if it slapped her in the face. She is a psychopathic liar that thirsts for ways to obscenely scam on a global spectrum. She calls out Donald Trump for “using the system” but in no way has he abused the system in the grand scale that the Clintons have. He’s a business man, he was simply following the laws that government had implemented. Floods of emails and documents are being leaked every day by Anonymous, WikiLeaks and the FBI. These are desperate cries for help mostly from whistle blowers who have been intimately involved with the government, trying to warn American citizens of certain madness and despair that awaits us if Hillary Clinton wins presidency. Donald J. Trump genuinely cares for the American people. He is a natural leader, he enjoys helping people because he believes in bettering America, not policies that encourage ‘pay for play’. Hillary Clintons transparency is starting to become blurred. Shatter the busted deception and lock everyone involved with the Clinton scandals in prison. Donald Trump recognizes the need for America to rebuild, which starts with depleting government corruption and replacing government officials. This is something Hillary could never accomplish. Hillary Clinton would just hire her friends and abuse her position of power, as she’s done for nearly four decades. John Podesta suggested that Hillary Clinton delete her emails- he must believe she is capable of worse than sharing classified information and as president of the United States, who would stop her from committing even more crime? She would put each and every one of our lives on the line and not think twice. Do you think Hillary Clinton ever gets tired of lying, each lie covering up the next? And even Podesta don’t believe her! Why should America?
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Trump trails Clinton by 8 points after tape scandal, debate: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump has fallen further behind Hillary Clinton and now trails her by 8 points among likely voters, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, with 1 in 5 Republicans saying his vulgar comments about groping women disqualify him from the presidency. The national tracking poll was launched after Sunday night’s second presidential debate, where Trump was pressed to explain his comments in a 2005 videotape about grabbing women’s genitalia. He described the remarks, which first surfaced on Friday, as “locker room” banter and apologized to Americans. The poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton, the Democratic nominee, had increased her lead over Trump, the Republican nominee, to 8 percentage points on Monday from 5 points last week. When asked to pick between the two major-party candidates, 45 percent of likely voters said they supported Clinton while 37 percent supported Trump. Another 18 percent said they would not support either candidate. Trump was under pressure during Sunday’s debate to restore confidence in his struggling campaign after dozens of lawmakers repudiated him over the weekend. He hammered Clinton’s handling of classified information while serving as secretary of state and referred to her as “the devil.” At one point, he said he would jail Clinton if he were president. Among those who said they watched at least portions of the debate, 53 percent said Clinton won while 32 percent said Trump won. The results fell along partisan lines, however: 82 percent of Democrats felt Clinton won, while 68 percent of Republicans felt that Trump won. Among likely voters who watched the debate, 48 percent said they supported Clinton while 38 percent supported Trump. In the 2005 Access Hollywood video Trump boasted about making unwanted sexual advances toward women. “When you’re a star they let you do it,” he is heard saying. Some 61 percent of those polled said that “lots of men” occasionally engage in similar conversations, and 46 percent, a plurality, said it was unfair to judge someone on conversations “that they did not intend for anyone else to hear.” Most of those polled said they believe Trump is a sexist, but they were split on whether his comments disqualify him from being president. Some 42 percent of American adults, including 19 percent of registered Republicans, said Trump’s comments disqualified him, while 43 percent said they did not. Among Republicans, 58 percent said they want Trump to remain atop their party’s ticket, and 68 percent said the Republican leadership should stand by him. The video doesn’t appear to have worsened Trump’s standing among women, who mostly had a low opinion of him already, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling over the past 12 months. When asked to pick between the two candidates, about 44 percent of women chose Clinton while 29 percent selected Trump - roughly the same proportion as measured in polls conducted before the weekend. Trump, however, appears to be shedding support among evangelicals, who are usually a wellspring of support for Republican presidential candidates. Monday’s poll showed that Trump had only a 1-point edge over Clinton among people who identified as evangelicals. That’s down from a 12-point advantage for Trump in July. The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English in all 50 states. The poll of 2,386 American adults included 1,839 people who watched the debates, 1,605 people who were considered likely voters due to their registration status, voting history and stated intention to vote in the election. Among the likely voters, the poll counted 798 Democrats and 586 Republicans. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points for the entire group, 3 points for likely voters and the debate watchers, 4 points for Democrats and 5 points for Republicans. National opinion polls have measured support for the candidates in different ways this year, yet most agree that Clinton is leading and that her advantage has strengthened as the general election approaches. RealClearPolitics, which tracks most major opinion polls, shows Clinton ahead of Trump by an average of 7 percentage points, and that her lead has grown since the middle of September. | 0fake |
16 Times The Obama Administration Lied About The President's Position On Same-Sex Marriage | WASHINGTON -- It can now, apparently, be told: During his run for the presidency and his first years in the White House, President Barack Obama deceived the American public about his position on same-sex marriage.
The revelation, underwhelming as it may be to those who followed the debate closely, came in a passage from the president's longtime aide and adviser David Axelrod in his new book, Believer: My Forty Years In Politics. Axelrod admits that Obama personally supported the legalization of marriage equality for same-sex couples but claimed he didn't for political reasons.
Gay marriage was a particularly nagging issue. For as long as we had been working together, Obama had felt a tug between his personal views and the politics of gay marriage…. [H]e grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a "sacred union." Having prided himself on forthrightness, though, Obama never felt comfortable with his compromise and, no doubt, compromised position. He routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews. "I'm just not very good at bullshitting," he said with a sigh after one such awkward exchange.
It had long been assumed that Obama supported gay marriage and hid it for the sake of political expedience. After all, he had signed a questionnaire in 1996 while running for the state senate in Illinois saying he was a proponent. Would it really be possible that he regressed while the rest of the country evolved?
Of course not. And yet, there is something striking about Axelrod's passage, if only because it puts an end to the lengthy series of misdirection, spin and even lies that the administration told for years to avoid revealing Obama's true belief on the matter. Dating back to his Senate run in 2004, Obama and his aides repeatedly insisted that he wasn't yet fully comfortable with marriage for gay couples as a right, even though he clearly was. As the New York Times' Mike Barbaro put it:
"Gay marriage was a particularly nagging issue. For as long as we had been working together, Obama had felt a tug between his personal views and the politics of gay marriage. As a candidate for the state senate in 1996 from liberal Hyde Park, he signed a questionnaire promising his support for legalization. I had no doubt that this was his heartfelt belief. "I just don't feel my marriage is somehow threatened by the gay couple next door," he told me. Yet he also knew his view was way out in front of the public's. Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a "sacred union." Having prided himself on forthrightness, though, Obama never felt comfortable with his compromise and, no doubt, compromised position. He routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews. "I'm just not very good at bullshitting," he said with a sigh after one such awkward exchange. By 2010 he had told reporters that his position was "evolving," and in 2011 the administration announced that it would no longer fight in court to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, a controversial Clinton-era law absolving federal and state governments of their obligation to recognize gay marriages sanctioned in states where they were legal. Yet if Obama's views were "evolving" publicly, they were fully evolved behind closed doors. The president was champing at the bit to announce his support for the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed -- and having watched him struggle with this issue for years, I was ready, too. Jim Messina, the campaign manager, was nervous about the impact of such a step. "We've looked at this and it could cost you a couple of battleground states; North Carolina, for one," he said. By year's end, however, Obama was no longer interested in analysis. "I just want you guys to know that if a smart reporter asks me how I would vote on this if I were still in the state legislature, I'm going to tell the truth. I would vote yes."
"What I can tell you is I have not had an opportunity to read all 520 pages of Mr. Axelrod’s book," Earnest said at the daily briefing. "The first-hand account that he provides in the context of the book is not one that I would disagree with or quibble with. He obviously is sharing his views as he remembers them and sometimes his perspective is informed by his up-close, front-row seat to history."
"Frankly, I don’t think I have a whole lot more to contribute to that," he said at one point.
"I think the president’s record on these issues speaks to this even better than I possibly could," he said at another. | 0fake |
French Foreign Minister: Assad’s Denials of Chemical Attack ’100 per cent Lies’ | (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar ’s comments that last week’s chemical weapons attack was a fabrication to justify a US military strike are “100 percent lies” French Foreign Minister Ayrault said Friday. [“It’s 100 percent lies and propaganda,” Ayrault said during a visit to Beijing, responding to an exclusive AFP interview with Assad on Wednesday. “It’s 100 percent cruelty and cynicism. ” The French minister mirrored language used by Assad himself, who dismissed the allegation that his regime perpetrated the attack that left 87 civilians dead, including many children. “Definitely, 100 percent for us, it’s fabrication,” Assad said in the interview. The Syrian leader questioned whether the attack had in fact occurred, claiming that “fake videos” and “propaganda” were being used against his government. He also accused the United States of colluding with terrorists and “fabricating the whole story in order to have a pretext” for a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base last week. The French minister made the remarks during a joint press conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “The reality is that more than 300, 000 have died, 11 million people have been displaced or become refugees, tens of thousands have been placed in Syrian prisons and a country has been destroyed,” Ayrault said. “That is the reality. It is not a fantasy. ” He emphasised the need for an end to the conflict with a “real ceasefire, one which restricts the Syrian air force and military and is upheld by the international community. ” Ayrault praised China’s role in the matter, noting its abstention from a United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution to condemn the Syrian gas attack. In the past, China has voted alongside Russia to veto UN resolutions on the Syrian conflict. Wang expressed his agreement with the French minister, noting that an “independent, fair and professional investigation” into the chemical weapons attack should be conducted “as soon as possible. ” | 0fake |
Trump To Cut DOJ’s 25 Violence Against Women Grants And Programs | In an effort to slash $10.5 trillion in government spending over the next 10 years, Donald Trump has decided that the first target will be the Department of Justice s 25 grants and programs aimed at implementing the federal Violence Against Women Act. This means that every grant authorized by the law over the last 25 years will be eliminated in their entirety.To put it in perspective, Trump s cuts are double that of the cuts sought by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican House caucus.The Violence Against Women Act, a bipartisan law passed in the early 1990s, has been reauthorized twice and is tasked with protecting, aiding, counseling and saving women from abuse, harassment, intimidation and stalking.Some of the 25 grants offered from the DOJ include:All of those grants will be gone, rendering the programs (and the act overall) moot.The man who loves women is about to defund all the services that protect them from abuse and battery.Let that sink in.The Republican war on women has taken a dramatic and ugly turn, and it s all thanks to Donald Trump.Democrats tried to warn America. It would make sense that a man who routinely calls women bimbos, bitches, and dogs, and brags about sexually groping them, would target the programs that help them when they re most vulnerable.There is no skating around this the incoming administration is vehemently sexist and misogynistic. Republicans in the past, including the Bush Administration, have not leveled the kind of assault on women that the Trump Administration is preparing to do. Again, it should be noted that this is an extreme position to take, one that diverges from even typical GOP standards.Instead of cutting the bloated Defense budget and rolling back fat-cat kickbacks for corporations, they re going to target abused women and children even as domestic violence becomes one of the largest public health crises in America.Hopefully House and Senate Republicans, including the female members, will stand up to these outrageous cuts.More importantly, where s Ivanka Trump? Isn t she supposed to be the new unsung hero of modern day feminism?Women of all stripes and ideologies Republican and Democrat should be outraged. Abuse doesn t pick a political party. Vulnerability doesn t pick a political party. And a political party (or administration) should not be making life harder for those in need.Featured image by Spencer Platt via Getty Images | 1real |
¿Karma? Misteriosa criatura chupasangre ataca a un adolescente tras broma en un cementerio (VIDEOS) | ¿Karma? Misteriosa criatura chupasangre ataca a un adolescente tras broma en un cementerio (VIDEOS) 22:43 GMT
El joven fue mordido por un extraño insecto un instante después de tirar un palo a una de las tumbas. Youtube / NibblerNibbels
Un adolescente australiano fue atacado por un misterioso insecto en un cementerio en Tasmania, sostiene ' The Sun '. El video, grabado por un amigo del muchacho refleja que la víctima tira un palo a una de las tumbas y un instante después sufre el ataque de un extraño animal.
En la grabación se puede ver que la criatura vuela alrededor de la cabeza de Tim (nombre de la víctima) antes de que el joven huyera gritando.
En el segundo video, filmado después del incidente, se reflejan de cerca las consecuencias de la mordida del insecto.
"Acabamos de regresar del cementerio y Tim fue mordido por un insecto raro, chupasangre o algo así", comenta el suceso el amigo del Tim.
Se desconoce qué clase de animal atacó al joven australiano, pero lo que sí parece seguro es que se lo pensará dos veces antes de acudir a un cementerio de noche para gastar bromas. | 1real |
Cologne Police Attacked for ’Racial Profiling’ During NYE | Hailed a success by its organisers for reducing the number of violent crimes committed on New Year’s Eve from over 1, 000 last year to less than a dozen, Cologne police are now being criticised for using “racial” methods.[ activists, including members of the local Green party, have criticised the police for focusing their security efforts too clearly at the same groups which were identified as the main perpetrators of the 2016 attacks. The comments came after Cologne police controlled thousands of ‘Nafris’ — North Africans — as they attempted to enter the city centre ring of steel. Germany’s Deutsche Welle reports the remarks of Green party chairman Simone Peter who noted that while the measures had worked, he doubted the legality of the police’s actions. He said: “It raises the question of proportionality and legality when around 1, 000 people were checked and partially detained based on their appearance alone. ” Meanwhile politician Christopher Lauer, active at times with the Social Democrats and Pirate Protest Party, said of the terms used by Cologne police that it was “sweeping prejudice against an entire group of people based on their appearance”. “I regard this term as highly dehumanizing. ” Despite the ill feeling over the approach, Cologne’s local Express newspaper reports the arrest of a Syrian on New Year’s Eve as police believed “urgent” action was necessary following intelligence he was planning a terror attack that evening. The migrant had previously been arrested for offences. Cologne police gave regular updates through the night and local newspapers carried updates from the force reporting the number of Nafris who had been stopped, searched, and turned away. Upon arriving, hundreds of potential migrant troublemakers and even individuals known to have been involved in the 2016 attacks were immediately turned around and escorted to trains out of the centre. In all, 1, 200 Nafris were controlled by Cologne police. In addition, the force recorded two sexual assaults, six thefts, and 29 individuals were arrested. One train coming into the city which police learnt had 300 North Africans was stopped and turned back just before it reached the centre. This contrasts with the 2016 celebrations when over 500 women were recorded as victims of sexual assault and 28 were raped. Including other crimes such as thefts and assaults, there were some 1, 300 victims. Cologne’s police chief was forced to retire early after the policing failure, which saw less than 100 officers on patrol for the whole city. Now defending the force from having policed the event too thoroughly instead, chief Jürgen Mathies said that while they had deliberately targeted Nafris for searches and identity checks, of the hundreds met in this way “there was a clear threat of criminal activity present”. He said “We had groups of people who were comparably aggressive” to those that police encountered last year. The police chief also emphasised the fact that police hadn’t only performed security checks on North Africans, but had investigated other groups as well. The city’s mayor called the measures “necessary”. The force also defended the ‘Nafri’ term, which was admitted to be an internal policing term. An internal document describing Nafris revealed in the German press briefs police officers that they come from Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, are generally between 15 and and are violent. The document states: “The clientele behaves very aggressively against intervening police officers and city colleagues … Armaments (folding knives) are regularly carried. ” | 0fake |
Why The Obamacare Doomsday Cult Can't Admit It's Wrong | But when Congress debated and passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010, opponents were nearly unified in offering grim Keech-like predictions. With Obamacare now in full effect, and the economy on a decided upswing, the dour prognostications are starting to look like Keech's flying saucers. At least if you believe the data. A look at Festinger's theories, though, can explain why that won't matter, and why Americans can expect a continued drumbeat of doom, even as the prophecies fail.
“It certainly has not had the baleful effects the critics were predicting,” said Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who supports the law, but never thought it would have much economic impact. “On balance it may be a modest plus, to the extent that it has contributed to the slowdown of growth in health care costs.”
But that's not how Capitol Hill’s gloomsday cult sees it. Indeed, try getting any of them to admit the Affordable Care Act jobs slaughter has not happened, and they sound like the punchline to the old joke where a spouse gets caught in the act cheating: “Who are you going to believe -- me, or your lying eyes?”
"With politicians, you can’t be sure that what comes out of their mouths is really what’s in their head," said Elliot Aronson, one of Festinger’s former students who is regarded as the foremost expert on cognitive dissonance alive today. "When it comes to politics, we have to really look closely."
The way cognitive dissonance works is that when people are confronted with information that contradicts either their beliefs or actions, they feel discomfort. To feel better, they either have to modify their beliefs and actions, or find some way to discount the disconfirming information. And the more effort someone invests in a particular action or idea, the greater the lengths they will go in crafting justifications to ease their discomfort.
Aronson and co-author Carol Tavris looked closely at that phenomenon in their 2007 book, Mistakes Were Made (but not by me). Among the examples are prosecutors who insist that people cleared by DNA evidence are still guilty; scientists who insist results that agree with funders’ interests could not have been swayed, and people who like an idea from their political party, but dislike the same idea if told it came from the opposition party.
Indeed, committing to a specific ideology can make it much harder to see facts clearly, let alone acknowledge them. Aronson noted that it’s especially hard for people who spent the last five years opposing a specific policy. “These guys are so committed to the belief that Obama can’t do anything right, and that Obamacare is socialism, that it would be very, very difficult for them to examine the data objectively," he said. "I think that’s what’s wrong with politics, that’s what’s wrong with ideology, that’s what’s wrong with politics that are ideologically driven.”
“One could create some line of argument that the economy would be much, much stronger without the ACA, but that really seems to be a stretch,” said Van de Water, the economist. “We have a very large economy. Even as important as the Affordable Care Act is, it’s working on a major sector of the economy, but only at the margins. Even in advance, one would have thought it wasn’t going to have a huge effect.” | 0fake |
Fears for Lebanese economy if Saudis impose Qatar-style blockade | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese politicians and bankers believe Saudi Arabia intends to do to their country what it did to Qatar - corral Arab allies into enforcing an economic blockade unless its demands are met. Unlike Qatar, the world s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas with a population of just 300,000, Lebanon has neither the natural nor financial resources to ride it out, and people there are worried. Up to 400,000 Lebanese work in the Gulf region, and remittances flowing back into the country, estimated at between $7-8 billion a year, are a vital source of cash to keep the economy afloat and the heavily-indebted government functioning. These are serious threats to the Lebanese economy which is already dire. If they cut the transfer of remittances, that will be a disaster, a senior Lebanese official told Reuters. Those threats came from Lebanon s former prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, who resigned on Nov. 4 in a shock broadcast from Riyadh that Lebanese political leaders have ascribed to pressure from the Saudis. Hariri, an ally of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday warned of possible Arab sanctions and a danger to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese living in the Gulf. And he spelled out Saudi conditions for Lebanon to avoid sanctions: Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that is Lebanon s main political power and part of the ruling coalition, must stop meddling in regional conflicts, particularly Yemen. According to a Lebanese source familiar with Saudi thinking, Hariri s interview gave an indication of what might be waiting for us if a real compromise is not reached. The playbook is there in Qatar. Hariri s resignation has thrust Lebanon to the center of an escalating rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran. The non-confrontational Saudi policy of the past towards Lebanon has gone, analysts say, under the new leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32-year-old son of King Salman. He is now the de facto ruler of the kingdom, running its military, political and economic affairs. Whether Iran and Hezbollah are willing to make significant concessions to Riyadh is doubtful, sources said. They (Hezbollah) might make some cosmetic concessions, but they won t submit to the Saudi conditions, a source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said. Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum said Riyadh wanted Hariri to return to Lebanon and press President Michel Aoun to open dialogue and address their conditions on Hezbollah s regional interventions. They need to come up with a position that will be satisfactory to the Saudis ... If the Saudis decide on sanctions they will do it, Naoum said. A source close to Hariri said he had put the ball in the court of Aoun, Hezbollah and its allies, by saying business cannot continue as usual. There was no sugar-coating. The sanctions were spelled out clearly. They want Lebanon to be disassociated from Hezbollah . Aoun has welcomed comments that the former premier planned to return home soon, palace sources said on Monday. Saudi frustration with Lebanon seems to have boiled over after a string of setbacks to its foreign policy. Riyadh has been bogged down in the war it launched against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2015. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran and Hezbollah of backing the Houthis, and also said Hezbollah had a role in firing a ballistic missile from Yemen towards Riyadh earlier this month. Hezbollah and Iran s involvement in Syria has also transformed the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, while Saudi support for Sunni rebels in Syria s civil war have amounted to little. Hezbollah, a movement with a heavily armed fighting force in addition to seats in parliament and government, is Iran s spearhead in the region. Tehran s Revolutionary Guard looks to be trying to replicate it by building coalitions of militia groups in Iraq and Syria, according to some analysts. The list of potential sanctions against Lebanon, political sources there say, could include a ban on flights, visas, exports and transfer of remittances. Some of those have been imposed on Qatar, but that blockade, initiated in June, has had limited effect on the emirate so far, beyond driving it closer to Iran. Allegiance to foreign backers is not new to Lebanon. Sunnis have always looked to Saudi Arabia for support and funding while Shi ite Lebanese tended to turn to Tehran and Hezbollah. The Lebanese have always been agents of foreign powers. They take their money, make promises, commitments and alliances, Naoum said. But while Hezbollah fulfilled its promises to Iran, Sunni factions let Riyadh down, he said. Thanks in part to Iranian investment in the group, Hezbollah now calls the shots in the Lebanese capital as well as playing a pivotal role in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. Riyadh has historically channeled billions of dollars to Lebanon to help its reconstruction after the 1975-90 civil war and following massive Israeli incursions of south Lebanon. Now it appears ready to do serious economic damage to Lebanon that could weaken Hezbollah s standing at home and in the region, should its demands not be met. The Saudi conditions are causing alarm among some Lebanese, who have long viewed Hezbollah as a state-within-a-state . Many believe the solution is outside the control of local players. Lebanon will pay the price, a top Lebanese banker told Reuters. The only pressure the Saudis have is economic ... they can put pressure by imposing sanctions that can hurt. | 0fake |
7 Chicago Officers Face Firing Over Laquan McDonald Cover-Up - The New York Times | CHICAGO — Chicago’s police superintendent has called for the firing of seven officers for their response to a colleague’s fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald in 2014, a case that roiled the city and laid bare longstanding tensions between the police and black Chicagoans. Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s decision, announced Thursday by a Police Department spokesman, comes nearly two years after Officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 shots at Mr. McDonald, a . The dashboard camera video of the shooting that was released, under public pressure, in November incited widespread protests and exposed an entrenched “code of silence” among officers who had sworn to a far different account of the shooting from what the video captured. The case has led to increased scrutiny and skepticism of the department, including a Justice Department investigation into Chicago police practices and the firing of the previous police superintendent last year as protests intensified. Mayor Rahm Emanuel remains under pressure to provide more transparency and overhaul the police disciplinary system. The call to fire the officers broadened the departmental fallout as the force struggles to restore public trust. The seven officers recommended for firing were accused of making false reports. They had backed up Officer Van Dyke’s account that Mr. McDonald had moved menacingly toward him with a knife. But their story was contradicted by the video of the shooting while Mr. McDonald had a knife, he seemed to be veering away from the police when Officer Van Dyke shot him, and the gunfire continued after the teenager collapsed to the ground. Officer Van Dyke, the only officer who fired his gun that night, has been charged with murder and is awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty and said he feared for his life. To the department’s critics, the significance of the video of Mr. McDonald’s shooting was not just in showing how wanton and unnecessary his killing had been, but in starkly demonstrating how blatantly and casually police officers had lied about the circumstances of another officer shooting a man. Such “code of silence” of misconduct, critics said, had rarely been made so plain as in the discrepancy between the officers’ accounts of the killing and what the video later showed. Craig B. Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor who directs a civil rights and police accountability project at the law school, said the move to fire the officers was a start. “This is an important and necessary step,” he said. “But it can’t be a . It has to be a consistent practice that if you lie, you are fired. The sad fact is that lying has become a regular and entrenched practice when police misconduct occurs, and disciplining or firing officers for engaging in that practice has rarely happened. ” In an email to Chicago police employees announcing his decision, Superintendent Johnson said he believed “that through these challenges we can take the lessons learned to become a better department. ” “While I know that this type of action can come with many questions and varying opinions, please know that these decisions were not made lightly,” he said. “Each of these decisions was based on a methodical and substantive review of the facts by both internal and external counsel. Each officer will have their right to due process. ” Mr. Emanuel said in a statement that he supported the superintendent’s decision. “As the city takes these important steps to hold individuals accountable, we must also recommit ourselves to partnering together to rebuild trust between our police department and our residents,” Mr. Emanuel said. The president of the union representing officers did not immediately respond to messages on Thursday seeking comment. Mr. Futterman said the discipline should not stop with the . “The code of silence goes far higher than that, and goes far higher in this case,” Mr. Futterman said. “It’s even more important that those at top of the food chain are held accountable. ” He said it remained to be seen whether the department’s response is unique to the highly scrutinized McDonald case — or whether it signals that lying to investigators to protect another officer’s misconduct will no longer be tolerated. With making up one third of the city, the question is critical to the department and the city. Public hearings this summer on the Justice Department’s investigation revealed deep rifts, as frustrated and angry minorities recounted tales of victimization. But many said getting dangerous and abusive police officers off the streets was only part of the issue. Equally significant, residents said, was fixing a broken, or nonexistent, disciplinary system so it would bring accountability after cases of police abuse. The seven officers Superintendent Johnson recommended firing were made to turn in their badges until the Police Board made its decision. But he cannot terminate them unilaterally. The officers, who were not named, will have a chance to contest the action before the city’s Police Board, whose members are appointed by Mr. Emanuel. The Police Board’s executive director, Max A. Caproni, said Thursday that his office had not yet received formal charges against the officers. Once those charges are filed, the officers will have the option to hire lawyers and contest the findings. The disciplinary process can take months to play out. Mr. Caproni said the median time for a hearing was about four months after charges are filed, and the median time for a disciplinary decision was about seven months. Without any lawsuit being filed, and long before criminal charges were filed and the video was made public, Chicago’s City Council approved a $5 million settlement for Mr. McDonald’s family. But his death is just one of several noteworthy police shootings here in recent years. Since 2004, Chicago has spent more than $500 million to settle cases of alleged police misconduct. Those payments, which have come as Chicago has struggled to fund its school system and meet its pension obligations, have frustrated residents. During protests last year after Officer Van Dyke was charged, demonstrators repeatedly chanted “16 shots and a ” and many urged Mr. Emanuel to resign. The Department of Justice investigation includes an examination of how the Chicago police treat minorities and punish misconduct in its ranks. It could eventually lead to a legally binding agreement with the city imposing significant changes in how the police operate. The City Council has also been holding hearings on the creation of a new agency to investigate police abuses community activists are waiting to see whether the proposal by the mayor and his Council allies has real teeth and independence, or whether the structure of the new agency would be as ineffective as the existing police review authority that it would replace. In the aftermath of the McDonald case, the city’s inspector general issued a report recommending the firing of eight officers, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman. The department “respectfully disagrees” with the recommendation to fire the eighth officer, Mr. Guglielmi said in an email, “and feels that there is insufficient evidence to prove those respective allegations. ” Two other officers cited by the inspector general have since retired, Mr. Guglielmi said. The inspector general’s report has not been published. Mr. Guglielmi also said the officers’ names would not be released until formal charges were filed with the Police Board. Both the Police Department and the Office of Inspector General said they could not release the report recommending the firings or Superintendent Johnson’s response. Federal investigators said they were also investigating Mr. McDonald’s shooting, and a special prosecutor has been appointed in state court to investigate whether officers who witnessed the shooting committed crimes. | 0fake |
WAS MEGYN KELLY HIDING THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE SUDDEN ANNOUNCEMENT OF HER EXTENDED VACATION? [VIDEO] | Your announcement to your remaining fan base seemed very flippant and perky tonight Megyn. I almost thought for a moment I was watching Katie Couric. Hey wait, didn t Katie Couric attempt to destroy Sarah Palin just prior to the 2008 election? Hmmm Megyn Kelly has had an interesting week following the first Republican debate. She has been attacked by Donald Trump for asking him unfair questions, became the center of a media frenzy following Trump s repeated swipes at her, and has refused to apologize for doing her job.On Wednesday, Kelly told her viewers on The Kelly File that she needs some R&R.For the first time in six months, Kelly will be going on vacation for the next ten days in order to spend time with her family. Kelly said that for her, the big challenge is trying to put down the Electronica and unplug it, but that she will try nonetheless to kick back until the 24th. Kelly did not mention who will take over in her absence.Though the timing of her vacation has been met with intrigue due to Trump s recently-ended battle with network chairman Roger Ailes, a Fox representative confirmed to Mediaite that this vacation was planned long before the debates took place. Via: MediaiteYou can watch Kelly s announcement here: | 1real |
Peaceful, sincerely, with grace: Paris attacks commemorated with floating lanterns | ‘I today.’ ‘I wrote in Arabic –‘The republic will never be down’.
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Here’s A Look At The Obama Administration Scandal From This Point In His Administration | Eight years ago, the right-wing media was obsessed over a White House controversy. It seemed that the newly elected President Barack Obama was unfit for office because he *gasp* used Dijon mustard as a condiment.In news from eight years ago that appears to be from some alternate reality, Obama left the White House and went out for a local bite to eat with vice president and BFF Joe Biden in May. The two politicians ordered hamburgers, MSNBC journalist Andrea Mitchell reported at the time, with the sitting president requesting mustard on his red meat.Source: NewsweekHere s Sean Hannity covering the travesty.To be fair, Donald Trump suffered his own condiment scandal when during his first D.C. dinner as President, he ordered a well done steak with ketchup, and the outrage to that was a bit over the top as well:Trump putting ketchup on his steak is really the only thing you need to know to fully comprehend how terrible of a person he is. eat the rude (@MrNotWell) May 25, 2017It s well documented that trump likes his steak well done with ketchup..ya know like a child. Chef @FlowGo37 how do u feel about this? Greg Gurenlian (@GregBeast32) May 24, 2017Of all the horrible news to learn this week: Trump eats his steak with ketchup! #impeach45 Sydney Back (@SkidneyBack) May 24, 2017Just found out Trump eats his steak with ketchup. That honestly tells me everything I need to know about the man. Steven Ormsbee (@thelastormsbee) May 23, 2017Just when I think Trump can t sink any lower, he does just that. THE MAN PUTS KETCHUP ON STEAK THE SICK FUCK. Justplainandy (@justplainandy) May 21, 2017By far the worst thing Trump has done is eat a well done steak with ketchup. How is this man not in jail? Stephen A Davis (@SDIllustration) May 20, 2017The difference, of course, is that eight years ago, this was the best they had to disparage our President. Today, we only wish his choice in condiments was the worst we could say about Trump. As for Fox, they were so desperate to tear down a scandal-free administration, and they are equally desperate to turn the most scandal-ridden administration in history into something palatable.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Conservative White Grievance Queen Has Pathetic Twitter MELTDOWN Over Meryl Streep | Meryl Streep made a white grievance queen explode on Sunday night.Donald Trump waited until the next morning to lash out at the legendary actress, but Tomi Lahren went on an hour long Twitter rage just after Streep s speech.The white supremacist favorite repeatedly insulted and threatened Streep and Hollywood celebrities in a psychotic rant that should have mental health professionals concerned.Meryl bout to get some final thoughts tomorrow. These entitled Hollywood crybabies still don t understand how out of touch they are! Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017Nearly 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, so Streep is definitely in touch with the majority.It might be warm in LA, but make no mistake it s raining snowflakes. Out of touch, whiny, overpaid SNOWFLAKES! #GoldenGlobes Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017Ironic, considering Donald Trump makes billions of dollars but doesn t pay taxes and often doesn t pay people who do work for his company. Also, has Lahren not seen Trump s Twitter feed? It s FULL of real whining.These Hollywood elites wouldn t know average, every day hard-working Americans if we bit them in the ass. #GoldenGlobes Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017Aw, Lahren thinks she s a hardworking person. That s so adorable. Must be SOOO hard to spew random bullshit on television in a studio. No need to learn lines. No need to work an 18 hour day. No need to work in some tough environments on location away from family. No need to learn new things to make a role convincing to the audience. Just show up and say whatever racist offensive thing on your narrow mind at the moment and get paid for it.Hey Meryl, your #liberalprivilege is showing. #GoldenGlobes Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017Freedom of speech is a right, not a privilege.Oh no!! What will @realDonaldTrump do without the support of the liberal Hollywood elite?! Oh I know, he will Make America Great Again. Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017He ll pout on Twitter about it.Oh and Meryl, we are just fine with watching football. Thanks. #GoldenGlobes Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017The ratings are down this year so apparently not everyone is just fine with it.You re right about 1 thing Meryl, violence does incite violence kinda like the violence the DNC paid for at Trump rallies. Kinda like that.. Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017That has been debunked for awhile now.Safeguard the truth Meryl? Like the truth in those 33k deleted emails? Or are we talking about Hillary s lies? Not sure, Meryl . Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017Still obsessing over Hillary s emails? Seriously?It sounds like Lahren is in need of anger management classes. She can take Donald Trump with her.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Pakistan ministry seeks ban on new party backed by prominent Islamist | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan s interior ministry has called for the electoral commission to bar from politics a new party backed by an Islamist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, a government document seen by Reuters showed on Thursday. In a letter dated Sept. 22, the ministry recommended that the Election Commission of Pakistan reject the newly formed Milli Muslim League s (MML) application to become an official party as it is affiliated with Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), a militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. The registration of MML is not supported, the ministry said in the two-page document. Spokesmen for the election commission and the interior ministry acknowledged the correspondence and confirmed that the letter was authentic. The United States has designated LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, who currently heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa Islamic charity, a terrorist. It views him as the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his imprisonment. Saeed is currently under house arrest. Pakistan s reluctance to press charges against him has been a sore point in relations with Washington and India over the past decade. The ministry said MML is ideologically of the same hue as LeT and its affiliated charities Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation (FIF). Tabish Qayyum, a spokesman for the MML, said in a statement that the ministry s letter was unlawful. MML isn t a bus or truck which needs registration, he said, denying that MML had links with any banned militant group. The ministry s stance appears at odds with what political sources and a retired army general have said is a plan proposed by the military s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to mainstream some Pakistan-based anti-Indian militant groups as part of deradicalization efforts by bringing them into politics. The interior ministry s letter was written a week after MML caused a stir by winning 5 percent of votes in a parliamentary by-election in Lahore on Sept. 17. The document said foreign countries have raised diplomatic objections to MML s existence and the interior ministry has sought the opinions of intelligence agencies on the group. One of the agencies, the ministry said, has warned against letting proscribed and monitored organizations enter politics with a view to gaining legitimacy. The interior ministry said the security agency has informed it that given the clamor, philosophy, outreach and modus operandi to operate, it is difficult to believe that MML will tread its own path completely at variance with its mother organization. Therefore, they have recommended that since the registration of such groups would breed violence and extremism in politics, as such registration of such groups be avoided. In the Lahore by-election, Yaqoob Sheikh, who swears loyalty to Saeed, stood as an independent candidate but was backed by MML and had Saeed s colleagues running his campaign. Saeed s portraits adorned posters promoting Sheikh, who the United States has also designated a terrorist and a senior LeT commander. | 0fake |
BREAKING : Hillary Clinton Had her MAID Print CLASSIFIED INFORMATION – TruthFeed | BREAKING : Hillary Clinton Had her MAID Print CLASSIFIED INFORMATION BREAKING : Hillary Clinton Had her MAID Print CLASSIFIED INFORMATION Breaking News By Amy Moreno November 6, 2016
The ineptitude and dangerous, reckless behavior of this nincompoop Hillary Clinton grows stronger every day.
Just when you think her stupidity and carelessness can’t get any worse, it does.
We’re now learning that Hillary Clinton HAD HER MAID PRINT OUT CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.
That’s right – one more time…..
Hillary Clinton had her MAID print out CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.
She should be disqualified immediately.
From the NY Post:
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton routinely asked her maid to print out sensitive government e-mails and documents — including ones containing classified information — from her house in Washington, DC, e-mails and FBI memos show. But the housekeeper lacked the security clearance to handle such material.
In fact, Marina Santos was called on so frequently to receive e-mails that she may hold the secrets to E-mailgate — if only the FBI and Congress would subpoena her and the equipment she used.
Clinton entrusted far more than the care of her DC residence, known as Whitehaven, to Santos. She expected the Filipino immigrant to handle state secrets, further opening the Democratic presidential nominee to criticism that she played fast and loose with national security.
Clinton would first receive highly sensitive e-mails from top aides at the State Department and then request that they, in turn, forward the messages and any attached documents to Santos to print out for her at the home.
Among other things, Clinton requested Santos print out drafts of her speeches, confidential memos and “call sheets” — background information and talking points prepared for the secretary of state in advance of a phone call with a foreign head of state.
“Pls ask Marina to print for me in am,” Clinton e-mailed top aide Huma Abedin regarding a redacted 2011 message marked sensitive but unclassified.
In a classified 2012 e-mail dealing with the new president of Malawi, another Clinton aide, Monica Hanley, advised Clinton, “We can ask Marina to print this.”
“Revisions to the Iran points” was the subject line of a classified April 2012 e-mail to Clinton from Hanley. In it, the text reads, “Marina is trying to print for you.”
Both classified e-mails were marked “confidential,” the tier below “secret” or “top secret.”
Santos also had access to a highly secure room called an SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) that diplomatic security agents set up at Whitehaven, according to FBI notes from an interview with Abedin.
From within the SCIF, Santos — who had no clearance — “collected documents from the secure facsimile machine for Clinton,” the FBI notes revealed.
Just how sensitive were the papers Santos presumably handled? The FBI noted Clinton periodically received the Presidential Daily Brief — a top-secret document prepared by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies — via the secure fax.
A 2012 “sensitive” but unclassified e-mail from Hanley to Clinton refers to a fax the staff wanted Clinton “to see before your Netanyahu mtg. Marina will grab for you.”
Yet it appears Clinton was never asked by the FBI in its yearlong investigation to turn over the iMac Santos used to receive the e-mails, or the printer she used to print out the documents, or the printouts themselves
As The Post first reported, copies of Clinton’s 33,000 allegedly destroyed e-mails still exist in other locations and could be recovered if investigators were turned loose to seize them. Higher-ups at the Justice Department reportedly have blocked them from obtaining search warrants to obtain the evidence.
It also appears the FBI did not formally interview Santos as a key witness in its investigation.
This is a major oversight: Santos may know the whereabouts of a missing Apple MacBook laptop and USB flash drive that contain all of Clinton’s e-mails archived over her four years in office.
In 2013, Hanley downloaded Clinton’s e-mails from her private server to the MacBook and flash drive.
“The two copies of the Clinton e-mail archive (one on the archive laptop and one on the thumb drive) were intended to be stored in Clinton’s Chappaqua and Whitehaven residences,” the FBI said in its case summary.
But Hanley says the devices were “lost,” and the FBI says it “does not have either item in its possession.”
In addition to Abedin, Santos worked closely with Hanley at Whitehaven and could shed light on the mystery — if only she were asked about it.
My god.
At this point, WHO hasn’t seen our classified information?
Perhaps that would be a shorter, more manageable list. This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the FAILED GLOBAL ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 1real |
Weekly Astrology for Nov. 7 -13 US Election Prediction [Video] | Leave a reply
Joseph P Anthony – It’s presidential week in the United States, and although the job of being president has proven to be incredibly stressful, two candidates vying for this position are willing to take on this responsibility.
On Election Day, Tuesday, November 8th, Mars is on schedule to leave Capricorn and enter Aquarius. This sign’s switch for Mars is an unmistakable signal that whoever is elected will move things in a new (and, given the nature of Aquarius, possibly surprising) direction.
On Wednesday we should know whether the first female is elected or someone who is not a politician will break the glass ceiling, or simply that something unusual and surprising could be in store.
On Friday, to November 11th, it’s time for Venus to rein in the wilder side of its nature in Sagittarius and buckle down as it enters practical Capricorn, focusing her attention on realistic aspirations regarding love and money for the next month. On Saturday, November 12th, Mercury emerges out of the depths of Scorpio and begins to bask in the Sagittarian worldview of cheerful and optimistic communication.
This sign likes to focus it energy on the future of sports, travel, religion, politics, education, and philosophy. Mercury paints with a very large brush in Sagittarius, so for the next three weeks, be on the lookout for embellishments and exaggerations (the fish was this big), especially from the newly elected president.
I made a prediction (based solely on Astrology) on who will win this election. SF Source Joseph P Anthony | 1real |
SHOCKING REPORT: 99.5% Of Professors From Top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges Donated To Only Two Presidential Candidates | These leftist professors aren t just donating chump change either. The average donation from these leftist professors to Hillary s campaign is a whopping $1,043.75.Only Hamilton College History Prof. Robert Paquette has donated to a Republican candidate in the current election cycle from the top 50 liberal arts colleges in America.According to FEC third quarter reports released October 16, 47 professors at the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the country, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, have given to presidential campaigns. Of those 47 professors, Hamilton College History Professor Robert Paquette was the sole donor to a Republican candidate, giving $150 to Carly Fiorina s campaign.The remaining 99.51 percent went to Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The 46 other professors collectively donated $20,875 to Hillary Clinton and $8,417 to Bernie Sanders. Professors donating to Clinton have given an average of $1,043.75. Those giving to Sanders donated an average of $323.73. I do believe these numbers give an accurate representation of the political leanings of faculty on most college campuses, Paquette wrote in an e-mail to Campus Reform, especially allegedly elite liberal arts colleges like Hamilton College, where he claims to be the only out-of-closet conservative in a faculty of 200. After 35 years of experience in higher education, Paquette believes that the business has become a racket monopolized by the academic left. Paquette argues that with cover from spineless or sympathetic administrators, leftist faculty are able to keep their campuses liberal. Conservatives like himself can be prohibited from participating in searches for their own department and large endowment funds are lavished on faculty activists and their programmatic agendas. Paquette says that trustees know about the problem but [prefer] not to hear, see, or speak any evil to protect the elite brand of the college. When the search is expanded to include students, graduate/law professors, and administrators at the elite group of colleges, Paquette s donation is joined by an additional $6,150 to Jeb Bush, $150 to Ted Cruz, $2,000 to Carly Fiorina, $540 to John Kasich, and $250 to Scott Walker.Even so, only 10.84 percent of donor affiliates gave to Republican candidates, and their donations amount to less than 15 percent of total contributions.Historical giving patterns reveal a strong bias toward liberal candidates, especially at the nation s most elite colleges. In 2012, Campus Reform reported that 96 percent of Ivy League donations went to the Obama campaign. So far this cycle, over 95 percent of Ivy League affiliates have donated to Democrat candidates. Via: Campus Reform | 1real |
Comment on Brother of Clinton’s Campaign Chair is an Active Foreign Agent on the Saudi Arabian Payroll by marlene | Posted on October 27, 2016 by Claire Bernish
Tony Podesta — brother of the now-disgraced Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta , whose files Wikileaks has been publishing — is not only a powerful Democratic Party lobbyist, but a registered foreign agent receiving a hefty monthly paycheck from the nefarious government of Saudi Arabia.
No — as tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist as it might sound — that scenario is the absolute truth.
In 1988, John and Tony Podesta formed the Podesta Group and have used their bigwig party-insider status to lobby and influence government policies — while, at various times, simultaneously holding positions of power — which has created a number of glaring conflicts of interest.
According to the March 2016 filing made in accordance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Tony Podesta is an active foreign agent of the Saudi government with the “ Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court ,” and acts as an officer of the Saudi Arabia account.
At this point, the web of pay-for-play between the Washington, political heavyweights, and foreign governments comes lurching into the spotlight.
For starters, the Podesta brothers’ lobbying firm receives $140,000 every month from the Saudi government, which, in no uncertain terms — and despite a status as privileged U.S. ally — wages a bloody campaign of censorship, murder, suppression, human rights abuse, and worse against its civilian population, while bombing hospitals, schools, and aid convoys in neighboring nations.
John Podesta previously served as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, founded the think tank Center for American Progress (which oh-so-coincidentally touts the need to reframe Saudi Arabia’s hopelessly tarnished image), counseled President Obama, and now chairs Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Tony Podesta acts as a foreign agent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — lobbying to influence government policy in favor of the Kingdom — while also contributing to and bundling for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Think about that for a moment.
One brother uses the influence of money to both affect United States foreign policy and infuse the Clinton campaign with cash — while the other wields the influence of power as a political insider for the same entities.
As the Washington Post reported months ago in July, Tony Podesta’s lobbying efforts “raised $268,000 for the campaign and $31,000 for the victory fund.”
“The Saudis hired the Podesta Group in 2015 because it was getting hammered in the press over civilian casualties from its airstrikes in Yemen and its crackdown on political dissidents at home, including sentencing blogger Raif Badawi to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for ‘insulting Islam,’” Alternet reported . “Since then, Tony Podesta’s fingerprints have been all over Saudi Arabia’s advocacy efforts in Washington DC. When Saudi Arabia executed the prominent nonviolent Shia dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, causing protests throughout the Shia world and inflaming sectarian divisions, The New York Times noted that the Podesta Group provided the newspaper with a Saudi commentator who defended the execution.”
Notably, the Saudis’ reputation has only worsened as further atrocities pile up — concerning not only a record number of barbaric beheadings this year, but suspiciously reckless and errant U.S.-backed coalition bombings of civilian sites in several regions of active conflict.
Additionally, Tony Podesta’s status as a registered foreign agent for Saudi Arabia is at least obliquely discussed in an email from April 15, 2015 — ironically revealed by Wikileaks’ publishing of his brothers personal communiques — in which former Clinton Foundation chief development officer and now campaign national finance director Dennis Cheng wrote to a small group of insiders:
“Hi all – we do need to make a decision on this ASAP as our friends who happen to be registered with FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] are already donating and raising.
“I do want to push back a bit (it’s my job!): I feel like we are leaving a good amount of money on the table (both for primary and general, and then DNC and state parties)… and how do we explain to people that we’ll take money from a corporate lobbyist but not them; that the Foundation takes $ from foreign govts but we now won’t. Either way, we need to make a decision soon.”
To which general counsel to the Clinton campaign, attorney Marc Elias, replied [all errors original and emphasis added],
“Responding to all on this. I was not on the call this morning, but I lean away from a bright line rule here. It seems odd to say that someone who represents Alberta, Canada can’t give, but a lobbyist for Phillip Morris can. Just as we vet lobbyists case by case, I would do the same with FARA. While this may lead to a large number of FARA registrants being denied, it would not be a flat our ban. A total ban feels arbitrary and will engender the same eye-rolling and ill will that it did for Obama.”
As the exchange continues, how to precisely handle the campaign’s image with potentially controversial donors — while, at all costs, maintaining the flow of cash — becomes even more apparent. As strategist and campaign manager Robby Mook responds,
“Where do we draw the line though?”
Elias suggests a particularly intricate solution:
“If we do it case by case, then it will be subjective. We would look at who the donor is and what foreign entity they are registered for. In judging whether to take the money, we would consider the relationship between that country and the United States, its relationship to the State Department during Hillary’s time as Secretary, and its relationship, if any, to the Foundation. In judging the individual, we would look at their history of support for political candidates generally and Hillary’s past campaigns specifically.
“Put simply, we would use the same criteria we use for lobbyists, except with a somewhat more stringent screen.
“As a legal matter, I am not saying we have to do this – we can decide to simply ban foreign registrants entirely. I’m just offering this up as a middle ground.”
Mook eventually decides plainly,
“Marc made a convincing case to me this am that these sorts of restrictions don’t really get you anything…that Obama actually got judged MORE harshly as a result. He convinced me. So…in a complete U-turn, I’m ok just taking the money and dealing with any attacks. Are you guys ok with that?”
All of this political wrangling appears to have had the desired effect — despite increasing calls for the United States to either rein in or sever completely its support for the bloody Saudi regime — the U.S. approved a stunning $1.29 billion sale of smart bombs to the Kingdom in November 2015.
Tony Podesta’s specific contract with the government-run Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court, which will earn $1.68 million by year’s end, does, indeed, suggest the infusion of a pro-Saudi message into the U.S. media propaganda machine.
“Saudi Arabia is consistently one of the bigger players when it comes to foreign influence in Washington,” Sunlight Foundation spokesman Josh Stewart told the Washington Post . “That spans both what you’d call the inside game, which is lobbying and government relations, and the outside game, which is PR and other things that tend to reach a broader audience than just lobbying.”
That broader audience — the American public — has indeed been manipulated courtesy of at least the thoroughly-corrupt Clinton campaign if not surreptitiously by the Saudis, as well.
As The Free Thought Project has repeatedly reported , the evidence of collusion among the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and the mainstream presstitutes is indisputable — including no less than 65 so-called journalists listed by name in various leaks as darlings of the campaign.
Although this level of corruption and collusion would be considered intolerable in nearly any other nation on the planet. And yet, at the center of this shit storm of contention is an official nominee for the White House — who will not be held responsible for any number of questionable and criminal acts.
The system isn’t rigged — it’s performing exactly as intended — and always will as long as the vote validates its existence. Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 1real |
Obama Teams Up With Stephen Colbert For Brutal Trump Diss; Trump LIVID (VIDEO) | President Barack Obama hasn t exactly kept his disgust and disdain for Republican nominee Donald Trump a secret, but he made it hilariously obvious when he appeared on Monday night s Late Show With Stephen Colbert, as the two men brutally mocked the GOP s sorry excuse for a presidential candidate.On the show, Obama sat down with host Stephen Colbert, who tries to disguise himself so he can subtly ask the President how he feels about this election s presidential candidates. Because he couldn t flat-out ask Obama how he really felt, Colbert found an interesting way to get the information out of our commander-in-chief: by asking him to choose between two snacks.Colbert asked Obama to make a decision between an extra fiber nutrient bar which has traveled to more than 100 countries, or this shriveled tangerine covered in golden retriever hair, filled with bile, that I wouldn t leave alone with the woman I love. By the description alone, we all know just which snack represented what candidate but the visual made the whole thing even more hilarious. In all honesty, the tangerine wasn t too far off from being an exact replica of Trump anyway.You can watch the clip below to see Colbert and Obama both poke fun of America s worse presidential candidate to date:Wherein @POTUS makes an important snack decision. (Watch the rest tonight on #LSSC!) pic.twitter.com/Wkeqs6tMU8 The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) October 17, 2016Judging by Trump s Twitter activity over the last few hours, the business mogul may have already seen this clip because he was caught dissing Obama shortly after Colbert tweeted the clip (and Obama s decision):TwitterBitter, much? Trump s emotions are running high right now, and he must be terrified to face off with Clinton again during Wednesday night s debate. He s unraveling fast, and I m sure having the President of the United States insult you only adds insult to injury.Featured image via screenshots | 1real |
Kremlin says hopes Comey firing will not hurt Russia-U.S. ties | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped that the firing of FBI Director James Comey would not affect Moscow’s ties with Washington, saying it believed his dismissal had nothing to do with Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired Comey, who had been leading an investigation into the Republican 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped that Trump’s move would not affect ties with the United States. “This is an absolutely internal affair of the United States, this is a sovereign decision by the U.S. president, which has absolutely nothing to do, or should have nothing to do with the Russian Federation,” Peskov told a conference call with reporters. | 0fake |
Senate to vote on Russia sanctions bill later on Thursday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea later on Thursday, Senator Mike Enzi said in remarks on the Senate floor. The measure has already passed the House of Representatives by a 419-3 vote. It is also expected to garner very strong support in the Senate, despite concerns about it from President Donald Trump. | 0fake |
New Reports Link Russia With Donald Trump’s Campaign | New Reports Link Russia With Donald Trump’s Campaign Posted on Nov 1, 2016 Donald Trump at a rally in Nevada. ( Gage Skidmore / CC 2.0 )
A trove of new allegations has surfaced suggesting a relationship between Russia and the Donald Trump campaign.
In this unprecedented election season, the Republican presidential nominee has been accused repeatedly of fostering a friendly relationship with forces within the Russian government, and an adviser to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, recently suggested that Russia has participated in illicit cyberattacks to further Trump’s campaign.
On Monday, Slate added fuel to the controversy by publishing an investigative piece in which journalist Franklin Foer alleged that a Trump computer server was communicating with an elite Russian bank. Foer wrote:
The computer scientists posited a logical hypothesis, which they set out to rigorously test: If the Russians were worming their way into the DNC, they might very well be attacking other entities central to the presidential campaign, including Donald Trump’s many servers. …
The researchers quickly dismissed their initial fear that the logs represented a malware attack. The communication wasn’t the work of bots. The irregular pattern of server lookups actually resembled the pattern of human conversation—conversations that began during office hours in New York and continued during office hours in Moscow. It dawned on the researchers that this wasn’t an attack, but a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank. …
Tea Leaves [a pseudonym for one of the researchers] and his colleagues plotted the data from the logs on a timeline. What it illustrated was suggestive: The conversation between the Trump and Alfa servers appeared to follow the contours of political happenings in the United States.
Another article, written by David Corn at Mother Jones on the same day, alleged that a former intelligence officer provided the FBI with information on a Russian scheme to help Trump win the presidency.
“There’s no way to tell whether the FBI has confirmed or debunked any of the allegations contained in the former spy’s memos,” Corn wrote. “But a Russian intelligence attempt to co-opt or cultivate a presidential candidate would mark an even more serious operation than the hacking.”
Is there any way to substantiate these claims? Vox’s Zack Beauchamp argued that while the “stories are overblown,” Russian interference in the current U.S. election is a serious problem. Beauchamp explained:
The problem with these stories isn’t just that they’re speculative. It’s that they obscure and even discredit the more sober evidence about Trump’s troubling attitude toward the Russian state.
There is basically conclusive evidence that Russia is interfering in the US election, and that this interference has been designed to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. There is strong evidence linking Trump’s foreign policy advisers to Russia, and Trump’s stated policy ideas are extremely favorable to Russian interests.
Beauchamp listed various “confluence[s] of interest” between the Kremlin and Trump, pointing to WikiLeaks’ release of Democratic campaign emails, Trump’s pro-Russia pronouncements and economic ties to Russian interests.
And NBC reported Tuesday that the FBI has launched a “preliminary investigation” into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s possible “foreign ties” with Russia and Ukraine. The FBI has not commented and Manafort told NBC that “none of it is true.”
Vox’s Matthew Yglesias also cautioned against getting too excited about the new influx of allegations, writing that “Trump’s policy views on matters related to Russia are a lot clearer than any of these cloak-and-dagger allegations.”
Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers of The New York Times asserted, in an article published Monday, that the FBI has not “found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.”
“Intelligence officials have said in interviews over the last six weeks that apparent connections between some of Mr. Trump’s aides and Moscow originally compelled them to open a broad investigation ... ,” Lichtblau and Lee Meyers wrote. “[N]o evidence has emerged that would link him or anyone else in his business or political circle directly to Russia’s election operations.”
The renewed focus on the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia comes as Clinton is again making headlines for her potential misuse of a private email server. On Friday, FBI Director James Comey revealed that another round of emails related to the Clinton campaign is under review.
While the FBI investigation has not been formally reopened, many Clinton supporters are outraged at Comey’s timing, suggesting that his announcement so close to the election violated the Hatch Act .
With only a week until Election Day, it is unlikely that the accusations on either side will be proven or refuted before voters head to the polls. | 1real |
How Electable Is Bernie Sanders? A Skeptic’s Response To Robert Reich’s New Pro-Bernie Video | The great Robert Reich posted a new whiteboard video this week in which he makes a case in support of Bernie Sanders by reacting to claims made by Bernie Sanders skeptics Democratic voters who aren t convinced Bernie is The Guy. I hasten to underline that while I m a Bernie skeptic, I m not a Hillary Clinton supporter either, though I do intend to vote for either Bernie or Hillary in June s California primary, as well as for the Dem nominee in the general election. Obviously. I d also like to repeat that I think Reich is one of the great left-wing political thinkers of our time. Now that the obligatory qualifiers are out of the way, Reich is off base with several of his counterpoints to Bernie skeptics.Let s take a look.1) He d never beat Trump or Cruz. Reich s response suggests that Bernie does indeed have a polling advantage over the Republicans in the general election, more so than Clinton. Unfortunately, Politifact determined that Bernie s version of this assessment is flatly False. While Sanders and Clinton each lead Trump, specifically, in the general election according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Sanders trails both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, while Clinton performs slightly better. PPP, meanwhile, shows Sanders losing to Trump, Cruz and Rubio while Clinton defeats all three. Additionally, and this is crucial to understanding the general election differences between the Democratic hopefuls, voters have been following Hillary Clinton for 35 years and yet she still performs better, scandals and all, than Sanders against the GOP in most polls. Sanders, meanwhile, is a relative unknown, so it s too early to tell how he ll do after the GOP begins to relentlessly attack him.2) Congress would reject his ideas. Reich reminds us that if Congress remains in the hands of the Republicans, Hillary Clinton wouldn t be able to do much legislatively either. Actually, that s not necessarily true. Clinton s agenda is decidedly more moderate, so while she s sure to run up against significant GOP opposition, it ll be easier for her to shake loose centrist and center-right Republicans, as well as blue dog Democrats who would otherwise oppose Sanders significantly more leftist ideas.Reich goes on to say that Bernie could bring about a Democratic majority in Congress if! his political revolution works out. That s a super-colossal if. First of all, no revolution this year will change any gerrymandered districts. Secondly, let s suppose Sanders rides a massive wave of support into the White House with very long coattails. He d need a roughly 70-seat Democratic majority in the Senate to pass his single-payer proposal, for example.Why 70 and not 60? Blue dog Democrats. The blue dogs successfully killed the public option in 2009 and would surely join the Republicans in filibustering Bernie s single-payer legislation, hence the extra 10 votes above and beyond the 60 required to break the filibuster. Realistically, the only thing that might be able to spark a 70-seat majority (the House is totally different story, by the way) is another major financial crisis or another groundbreaking event that d compel voters to choose Democratic candidates across the board.3) America would never elect a socialist. Reich makes the off-the-shelf argument that there are many popular socialist programs in the United States, therefore Americans love socialism. Wrong. American voters love socialism, yes, but they don t know they do. And this argument about public schools and roads has been used since forever without successfully nudging very many voters leftward. Trust me, I ve tried it many, many times.Socialism, as we observed when Obama was falsely accused of pushing it in 2009, is still intensely demonized as being the same as communism (it s not) and, in some cases, Republicans have erroneously conflated it with the Nazis, aka National Socialists. (Just because socialism is in the name of the party founded by Hitler doesn t mean it s really socialist. Likewise, hot dogs don t contain actual dogs.)When the Republicans launch their relentless attack on Sanders democratic-socialist platform, it ll be another swift-boating like we observed in 2004, only it ll be more relentless. Some undecided moderate voters in swing states the people who decide elections in the polarized modern era might be convinced to vote Sanders, but it s a long shot. These are picky, old-fashioned voters in states like Pennsylvania and Missouri. Bottom line: Softening the American voters negative attitudes about socialism will take much longer than nine months.4) His single-payer proposal would require raising taxes on the middle class. I m with Reich and Sanders on this one. It s a bogus argument, pushed by skeptics and Hillary supporters alike. According to Sanders numbers, middle class families would pay less per year for healthcare and therefore end up saving money in spite of a modest tax hike. The trouble, however, is getting Congress to support a tax hike on the middle class. See also #2.5) His plan for free college tuition would mean colleges would be run by government rules. I haven t heard any Democratic skeptics saying this, but I might ve just missed them. Nevertheless, I again agree with Sanders and Reich here. There s nothing in Sanders proposal, or Obama s two-year-college plan, for that matter, showing that colleges would have to kowtow to the federal government.6) He s too old. Reich believes 74 is the new 64 and, honestly, I m not concerned about Bernie s age at all. As long as his would-be vice presidential nominee is strong, it s a non-issue. However, this will be an area the Republicans will use to attack Sanders, but it won t matter all that much. John McCain s age was only modestly relevant due to his battle with skin cancer. Sanders, on the other hand, seems quite energetic and healthy.So, all told, three of Reich s counterpoints to skeptics aren t particularly strong, while one counterpoint against middle class tax hikes is directed at hardline pro-Hillary people (not mere skeptics) as well as Republicans, and the final two are counterpoints to arguments I haven t really heard coming from Bernie skeptics.All in all, it still seems like a Sanders victory and a subsequent Sanders presidency would be a long shot. Not impossible, but risky from the standpoint of overcoming significant electoral and political hurdles, as well as the current status of the (obscenely gerrymandered) Congress. Democrats ultimately have to decide whether Sanders agenda is worth risking a possible Republican victory in November.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Bernie skepticsHow to respond to Bernie skeptics? Watch our latest video to find out.Posted by Robert Reich on Tuesday, January 26, 2016Featured image via video screen grab | 1real |
null | nature, tribes, ancient civilizalions way of living… how our close relatives in the tree of life live? how did our ancestors lived? and the monkeys and dogs and cats? for free, from the earth… capitalism is directly applied to futile things and objects and things people don’t live for and want… people are like animals and plants that drink and eat, and that’s the system everyone needs. go back to nature, purity original form. | 1real |
For young black activists, an urgent task: Persuading peers to vote | Kahlida Lloyd can explain her reasons for voting for Hillary Clinton, even if she is not especially excited about them. But she has a hard time making the case to obstinate friends why they should support the Democratic presidential nominee.
Lloyd, 31, a lawyer, sought advice from other black millennials during a recent lunchtime gathering in downtown Washington. What should she say to encourage young black voters, who rallied in 2008 and 2012 to help Barack Obama make history as the first African American president, to show a little of that enthusiasm for Clinton?
“I just don’t want the first woman president to be elected because the other person sucks, but that’s where I think we are,” Lloyd said in an interview after the event last week hosted by #WeVote, a new effort aimed at mobilizing young black voters. “People either say, ‘Donald Trump is not where it’s at, so I’m going to vote for Hillary.’ Or you have people say, ‘Donald Trump is not where it’s at; I’m not going to vote at all.’ And that’s not cool.”
Younger African Americans, like many millennials, are not excited about this year’s presidential election. The Clinton campaign, which has sought to reassemble the Obama coalition, has struggled to connect with a key piece of it: voters under 30.
Turnout among African Americans under age 30 spiked from 49 percent in 2004 to 57 percent in 2008, but it dipped to 53 percent in 2012, according to Census Bureau data. While 43 percent of Obama supporters under age 40 were “very enthusiastic” about him in 2012, just 24 percent of Clinton supporters under age 40 feel the same way about her now, according to September averages of Washington Post-ABC News polls from four years ago and this year.
Black activists and organizers, frustrated with the Clinton campaign’s inability to engage young voters, have taken it upon themselves to challenge their peers to consider the consequences if Republicans take the White House and keep control of both houses of Congress. They also have encouraged young voters to focus on state and local elections, because those officials make decisions about how police departments and schools are run, issues that more directly affect their lives.
[For ‘Black and Engaged’ millennial activists, politics is local]
Voting rights were an important victory of the civil rights era, and because Trump’s campaign has laid bare racist attitudes, the seeming indifference of black millennials to the election has sparked broad discussion within the African American community.
But young people who say that the political system has failed them argue that they don’t owe it to anyone — not even the often-cited warriors of the civil rights movement — to participate in the presidential election. Many are critical of some black political leaders for framing the election as a choice between an archenemy and an old friend rather than talking about the issues, such as what they view as broken economic and criminal justice systems.
“We know what the issues are. What we can’t seem to get is candidates to talk about them in a nuanced way,” said Lauren Brown, 34, a public relations professional who said she has not been moved by Clinton’s talking points on addressing police violence against black people or economic equity for women of color. “This election cycle is more about who you hate more than who you like.”
Brown decided to vote for Clinton after taking part in a discussion during an event, hosted last month in Philadelphia by a civic project called Black and Engaged, about the stakes in the campaign. Trump’s debate performances also helped sway her.
Carmen Berkley, director of civil, human and women’s rights for the AFL-CIO, said many black millennials have to stop “waiting to have that same level of excitement” they felt for Obama’s campaign. “If I had my choice of who would be the president, it probably would be Michelle Obama, but she’s not running for president. Hillary Clinton is.”
But the first lady and the president could be effective surrogates to persuade young black people to put aside their doubts about voting for Clinton. Although Michelle Obama’s well-regarded speech taking on Trump’s vulgar comments about women was made before a largely white audience in New Hampshire, it was widely shared and discussed on social media, and black women in particular praised the first lady for speaking out about sexual harassment.
[Black women are most worried about the outcome of the 2016 election, poll finds]
Denise Horn, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the Obamas are among several surrogates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), who are popular among millennial voters and will continue to make the case for Clinton.
Berkley, 31, said some black millennials are being overly critical of Clinton, for instance, by continuing to criticize her for supporting her husband’s 1994 crime bill and using the term “super predator” to describe some young offenders. They don’t give her credit for having apologized, or for pledging to work to achieve criminal justice reform. “Here, you have a candidate who says, ‘I messed up, and I’m willing to change.’ ” Berkley said. “I think that is powerful. We have — as activists, organizers and everyday people — the power to bring pressure on political leaders to get what we want.”
Symone D. Sanders, 26, a top aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders during his Democratic primary campaign, co-founded #WeVote along with three other millennial activists to urge their peers to register and vote. Lloyd was among about 145 people who attended the Washington event. Similar gatherings are planned around the country.
Other efforts to engage millennial activists include BlackPAC, which got funding from the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA to do outreach in Florida, and the Color Of Change PAC, which got money from the progressive For Our Future super PAC to court voters in battleground states via text message.
“I think it’s extremely important that the message we take from this room, when we’re going out into our individual networks, is that this is not the election to sit on the sidelines,” Sanders said during last week’s discussion. “There are so many things, as President Obama has said, that are on the ballot: Our progress as a country is on the ballot, criminal justice reform and the future of criminal justice reform in this country is on the ballot, our economy and who will be able to get a job is on the ballot. So if those are the things you care about, that is why we have to go to the polls.”
But Lloyd told Sanders and members of the panel that she had been having trouble convincing others that they should vote for Clinton.
“After the first African American president of the United States of America, we cannot afford not to vote,” said panelist Mary-Pat Hector, national youth director for the National Action Network and a student at Spelman College in Atlanta.
“We cannot risk [Supreme Court] justices that are going to push us back. All of the things that we’ve worked so hard for, not only as African Americans, but as women, can be gone — tomorrow. We cannot allow someone who does not care about us win. So if that means voting for Hillary Clinton, then so be it.”
DeRay Mckesson, a prominent leader in the Black Lives Matter movement also on the panel, said the campaign has not offered a compelling, affirmative reason to vote for Clinton, nor a credible surrogate who can speak to young black voters in the way that Atlanta rapper Killer Mike represented Sanders.
“I don’t know who is out there like that for Hillary. Trump drives us all nuts, but we know Trump wants to build a wall,” Mckesson said. “I’m an insider in the criminal justice space, and sometimes I’m, like, ‘What is it Hillary’s going to do?’ That is a problem.”
Clinton campaign aides say she has not only talked about issues affecting communities of color but has offered detailed proposals to address such concerns as criminal justice, income inequality and infrastructure in neglected neighborhoods.
Addisu Demissie, director of national voter outreach, said the campaign has been doing extensive outreach to black voters — including millennials — in their communities, and in recent weeks African American celebrities and athletes have been more active on the trail. Over the weekend, hip-hop artist Pusha T joined fellow Virginian and Clinton running mate Tim Kaine for a campaign event in Liberty City, a predominantly black, low-income community in Miami.
Maya Harris, senior policy adviser, said Clinton’s economic agenda “touches on various issues that are related to wealth and income inequality, specifically addressing the African American community.”
“Does that mean there are not more policies that we could or should pursue if she is fortunate enough to be elected president? Of course not,” she said. “But is her policy agenda one that recognizes the specific circumstances and challenges and lack of opportunities in the African American community, not only recognizes it, but puts forth solutions to begin to address those issues and create opportunities? Absolutely.”
Lloyd, who said she gave money and volunteered for Obama’s campaigns, had not been active for Clinton. The #WeVote discussion inspired her to sign up for a text-a-thon. She sent messages to more than 500 mostly black voters in Pennsylvania.
“I definitely think that event ignited something in me, made me want to take advantage of opportunities to share with others,” she said. | 0fake |
China's Xi: stable development of China-U.S. economic ties to drive global growth | BEIJING (Reuters) - Continued stable development of China-U.S. economic ties will be a major contributor to global growth, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during meetings with United States President Donald Trump in Beijing. China and the United States should face economic issues in a forward-looking and constructive way and resolve problems by expanding economic cooperation, Xi said, according to a statement issued by China s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday. China agreed to further lower market entry barriers to its banking, insurance, and securities industries and will gradually reduce vehicle tariffs, the statement said. U.S. companies announced a slew of deals on Thursday that could be worth as much as $250 billion during Trump s visit to Beijing. | 0fake |
F-35 chief defends program after Trump criticism | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jet program is essential for the security of the United States and its allies, a Pentagon official said on Monday, looking to defend the program a week after President-elect Donald Trump criticized it for delays and cost overruns. “The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Trump wrote on Twitter last week, echoing campaign promises to cut waste in federal spending. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.” Speaking with reporters on Monday, Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who runs the F-35 program for the Pentagon, said that if he had an opportunity to speak with the Trump transition team, he would tell them that the program is now under control after years of delays. “There is a perception that this program is out of control,” Bogdan said. “So, if given the opportunity I would like to try and explain to the new administration that this is a vastly different program from 2011.” Bogdan said the incoming administration was trying to get industry and the Defense Department to get a better value for its money. “I applaud the new administration for that, because that is what we should all be striving for,” he said. Trump’s Twitter broadside sent defense shares tumbling and fanned concerns that the incoming administration will reduce defense contractors’ profit margins and cut broader federal spending, threatening U.S. factory jobs even as Trump promises to boost manufacturing employment. The F-35 program, which has been described as the most expensive weapon system in history, has been dogged by problems, with the Pentagon’s chief arms buyer once describing as “acquisition malpractice” the decision to produce jets before completing development. | 0fake |
Energy Department To Close Office Of International Climate And Technology | In response to the U.S. withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement earlier this month, the Energy Department is shutting down the Office of International Climate and Technology, a department that works with other countries to develop clean energy technology.An agency spokesman tried to justify the Energy Department shutting down the office by stating that the DOE is looking for ways to consolidate the many duplicative programs that currently exist within DOE, thus the Office of International Climate and Technology is getting the chop.The 11-person office has been in operation since 2010, operating as a means for the U.S. to work with international partners on energy sector technology in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases. The employees of the Office of International Climate and Technology also play a large part in the Clean Energy Ministerial, a conference for high-polluting nations to focus on making the energy sector greener.DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said there are numerous international offices within the Energy Department that could take on the work of the Office of International Climate and Technology, however, she failed to acknowledge whether one actually would. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has an International Affairs team, while the International Affairs Office has a renewables team, Hynes said. The Department is looking for ways to eliminate this kind of unnecessary duplication just like any responsible American business would. The closing of this particular office is most likely a direct result of Trump s 2018 budget proposal, which slashes funding for both the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, particularly cuts for climate change initiatives and research efforts. Naturally, environmentalists are horrified by the news of the international office s closure. Willfully ignoring the climate crisis is recklessly and unnecessarily dangerous for families and communities across the country, and it s clear that Trump will stop at nothing to completely isolate the United States and irreparably damage our reputation with the rest of the world, said John Coequyt, the global climate policy director at the Sierra Club. Ignorance is not diplomacy, and if Trump were acting like a leader, he would know that. Hynes responded by saying that the Trump administration is not bringing an end to its clean energy efforts, drawing particular attention to Energy Secretary Rick Perry s support for carbon capture storage and nuclear energy efforts at a recent Clean Energy Ministerial.Featured image via Kevin Frayer/Getty Images | 1real |
PLAY BALL! Both Mexico And Canada Say They’re Willing To Redo NAFTA With President Donald Trump | NTEB Ads Privacy Policy PLAY BALL! Both Mexico And Canada Say They’re Willing To Redo NAFTA With President Donald Trump Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he is willing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to change or scrap. by Geoffrey Grider November 10, 2016 How refreshing is it to have a president who actually wants America to succeed Donald Trump criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement as a U.S. job killer, saying he would be willing to scrap the pact if Canada and Mexico were unwilling to budge. But lo and behold, guess what? Turns out no threats needed as both Mexico and Canada are voluntarily coming to the table right now. Ahh, this is the America I know and love so much. Strong, compassionate and putting America and it’s people first. Thank you, president Trump, what an awesome 4 years it’s going to be. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he is willing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to change or scrap. During the campaign, Trump called NAFTA the worst trade deal the United States has ever signed, while proposing protectionist measures to repatriate American jobs lost to free trade. Donald Trump’s 7-point trade plan: No TPP, renegotiate NAFTA:
Watch this video and see one of the many reasons Americans overwhelmingly chose Donald Trump to lead our nation. “I think it’s important that we be open to talking about trade deals,” Trudeau — a fierce defender of free trade, which helps bolster the Canadian economy — told reporters. “If the Americans want to talk about NAFTA, I’m more than happy to talk about it,” he said, adding that it was important to periodically reassess trade deals to ensure that they continue to be of benefit to Canadians. Trump wants to rip apart NAFTA:
Watch this video and see one of the many reasons Americans overwhelmingly chose Donald Trump to lead our nation.
Mexico is willing to “modernize” the North American Free Trade Agreement with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration and Canada, but will not renegotiate the pact, the foreign minister said.
Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said NAFTA has “yielded great results” for the three nations, but that there is an opportunity to make it “more beneficial” to all.
“We are willing to talk about this with the new government and with Canada as well,” Ruiz Massieu told CNN late Wednesday . SHARE THIS ARTICLE Geoffrey Grider NTEB is run by end times author and editor-in-chief Geoffrey Grider. Geoffrey runs a successful web design company, and is a full-time minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to running NOW THE END BEGINS, he has a dynamic street preaching outreach and tract ministry team in Saint Augustine, FL. NTEB #TRENDING | 1real |
GOVERNMENT GONE WILD: Sell A Cookie, Go To Jail [Video] | Wisconsin is losing me on this one-no common sense whatsoever in this ban. This is what happens when government regulation goes overboard! | 1real |
Trump on Twitter (Dec 8) - Hanukkah, Roy Moore, Wells Fargo | 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 : - Tonight, @FLOTUS Melania and I were thrilled to welcome so many wonderful friends to the @WhiteHouse – and wish them all a very #HappyHanukkah bit.ly/2B1EO7q [0036 EST] - I fulfilled my campaign promise - others didn’t! [0041 EST] - Big crowd expected today in Pensacola, Florida, for a Make America Great Again speech. We have done so much in so short a period of time...and yet are planning to do so much more! See you there! [0811 EST] - LAST thing the Make America Great Again Agenda needs is a Liberal Democrat in Senate where we have so little margin for victory already. The Pelosi/Schumer Puppet Jones would vote against us 100% of the time. He’s bad on Crime, Life, Border, Vets, Guns & Military. VOTE ROY MOORE! [1006 EST] - Fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped, as has incorrectly been reported, but will be pursued and, if anything, substantially increased. I will cut Regs but make penalties severe when caught cheating! [1018 EST] - MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! [1246 EST] - “The unemployment rate remains at a 17-year low of 4.1%. The unemployment rate in manufacturing dropped to 2.6%, the lowest ever recorded. The unemployment rate among Hispanics dropped to 4.7%, the lowest ever recorded...” @SecretaryAcosta @USDOL [1402 EST] - On my way to Pensacola, Florida. See everyone soon! #MAGA [1825 EST] - Just arrived at the Pensacola Bay Center. Join me LIVE on @FoxNews in 10 minutes! #MAGA [2004 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 0fake |
Comment on "This Wasn’t A Vote, It Was An Uprising" by Paul Craig Roberts | Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
Dear Readers: The article below has come to me. I am unable to ascertain if it is a published statement or one of those items sent around the Internet. Nevertheless, I do believe that it captures the attitude of those Americans who in the vast majority of the states gave their vote to Donald Trump.
The optimism expessed in the article might be unrealistic. In order to prevail over the Oligarchy, President Trump will need a government as strong as he appears to be. He cannot find the strength he needs for his government among the usual Washington, Wall Street, and corporate sources. If he selects from these people, he will be impotent.
The question is: who is his transition team? Are they focused on making nice with the Oligachs? If so, there will be no change.
The Democratic Party failed America for the eight years of the Clinton Regime, which committed war crimes and overthrew a sovereign government on the basis of lies. The George W. Bush Regime originated the Middle East wars entirely on the basis of lies. These wars have resulted in the deaths, maiming, and dislocation of millions of peoples who have sought refuge from America’s aggression in Europe. The corrupt Obama Regime has continued and expanded Bush’s illegal wars and stupidly brought the US into conflict with Russia and China, either one of which can destroy the United States of America.
Now we have the psychopath George Soros funding hired protesters, who are bussed from protest to protest, in an effort to delegitimize the Trump presidency. This is an act of treason, but oligarchs such as Soros are above the law. They are never held accounable. Trump should arrest Soros and put him on trial.
Trump says that he wants to bring the oligarchs under the law. If he fails, America fails with him.
This wasn’t an election. It was a revolution.
By Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center
It was midnight in America. The day of the election millions Americans got up and stood in front of the Machine, the great iron wheel that had been grinding them down. They stood there even though the media told them it was useless. They took their stand even while all the chattering classes laughed and taunted them as white trash racists.
They were fathers who couldn’t feed their families anymore. They were mothers who couldn’t afford health care. They were workers whose jobs had been given to foreigners in foreign countries so that the incomes of oligarchs could rise. They were sons who didn’t see a future for themselves. They were daughters afraid of being raped by the undocumented illegals flooding into their towns. They took a deep breath and they stood.
They held up their hands and the great iron wheel stopped.
Blue America crumbled. The Blue States fell one by one. Ohio. Wisconsin. Pennsylvania. Iowa. The white working class that had been overlooked and trampled on for so long got to its feet. It rose up against its oppressors. The rest of the nation, between the West coast and the North East coast–the fly-over zone– rose up with it.
They fought back against their jobs being shipped overseas while their towns filled with migrants that got everything while they got nothing. They fought back against a system in which they could go to jail for a trifle while the elites could violate the law and still stroll through a presidential election.
They fought back against being told that they had to watch what they say.
They fought back against being held in contempt because they wanted to work for a living, take care of their families, and protect the sanctity of marriage.
And they won.
This wasn’t a vote. It was an uprising.
Like the ordinary men chipping away at the Berlin Wall, they tore down an unnatural thing that had towered over them. And as they watched it fall, they marveled at how weak and fragile it had always been. And how much stronger they were than they had ever known.
Who were these people? They were the neglected in the fly-over country that is the heart of America. They didn’t have univeristy degrees, and they had never set foot in a Starbucks to pay $5 for a cup of coffee. They were the white working class. They didn’t talk right or think right. They had the wrong ideas, the wrong clothes and the ridiculous idea that they still mattered.
They were told they were wrong about everything. Illegal immigration. Black Lives Matter, but not jobs for the oppressed middle class. Manufacturing is unnecessary for an economy in which financial profits are all important. Transgendered bathrooms. Same gender marriages. Americans were supposed to bow down and surrender to a handful of perverts.
Told that the future belongs to the metrosexual dot com transgendered globalist, and not to the guy who once had a good job before the globalist corporations with Washington’s blessings sent it to China or Mexico, real Americans revolted.
White trash American couldn’t change anything, declared the pundits. But instead of adapting to the inevitable future of America’s demise, they got in their pickup trucks and drove out to vote.
And they changed everything.
Barack Hussein Obama boasted that he had changed America. And he did for the worse. A billion regulations, millions of immigrants, a hundred thousand lies and it was no longer our America.
White Trash America voted and sent Obama to Hell. They walked through him and through the Democratic Party like the wet paper bag that they are. Voters abandoned the party that had sold out the American people. More black Americans voted for Trump than voted for Romney.
The election repudiated the Obamas, the Clintons, the celebrities, and the media. Americans turned the One Percent’s world upside down.
CNN is weeping. MSNBC is wailing. ABC calls it a tantrum. NBC damns it. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The same machine that crushed the American people for six straight terms, the mass of neoconned government, globalist corporations and oligarch-financed non-profits that ran the country, was set to win. Or so they thought. ORDER IT NOW
Instead the people stood in front of the Machine. They blocked it with their votes even though the media told them Hillary was the certain winner. They mailed in their absentee ballots even while Hillary Clinton was planning her fireworks victory celebration. They looked at the empty factories and barren farms. They drove through the early cold. They waited in line. They came home to their children to tell them that they had done their best for their future. They bet on America. And they won.
They sre tired of the absence of affordable health care and recognize the fraud of Obamacare. They are tired of unemployment and of being lied to. They are tired of watching their sons come back in coffins so that the military/security complex could continue to loot America with their wars. They are tired of being called names and watching the theft of their country.
They understood that Trump was right. The election was their last hope, their last chance to save themselves and their country. And they did.
This election was not about who gets to use the female toilet. It wasn’t about whether it is racist to enforce the immigration laws. It wasn’t about how men, however uncouthly, express their sexual interest in women.
It was about suffering Americans, whose names no one except a server and the NSA will ever know, fighting back against their oppression. It was about the homeless woman guarding Trump’s star. It was about the betrayed Democrats searching for someone to represent them in Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was about the union men who refused to sell out their futures and vote for a Democrat who is an agent of the One Percent.
The media will never interview those men and women. We will never see their faces. But they are us and we are them. They came to the aid of a nation in peril. They did what real Americans have always done. They did the impossible. (Reprinted from PaulCraigRoberts.org by permission of author or representative) | 1real |
Hillary Clinton Hasn't Even Been Elected, But There's Already Talk About Impeachment Hearings | Getty - Justin Sullivan The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
If Hillary Clinton wins the election in November, she's going to have a whole lot more to deal with than just typical Commander-in-Chief stuff.
With the massive Wikileaks dump and the controversial contributions her foundation has benefited from, House Republicans are seriously considering an investigation.
In fact, she could quickly find herself in the same boat as her husband, with elected officials calling for her impeachment.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told NBC News :
"You're going to still have a clamor for a serious criminal investigation of Mrs. Clinton's conduct with respect to her emails and the [Clinton] Foundation]. There's been no systematic investigation of various issues.
I know this generation of Republican leaders is loath to exercise these tools, but impeachment is something that's relevant.
They see [the oversight process] as an opportunity in some measure to keep their opponents off-kilter, but they don't want to do the substantive and principled work to truly hold corrupt politicians, or the administration, or anyone accountable."
Since the FBI recommended no indictment for Hillary Clinton, the call to reopen the case into her email server has been shut down by the Bureau.
On the other hand, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump isn't satisfied with the outcome. He even wants to go as far to investigate the FBI's investigation if he takes the White House.
Meanwhile, Judicial Watch has launched an investigation into Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe , whose political organization donated about $500,000 to the campaign coffers of Dr. Jill McCabe, the wife of an FBI figurehead who helped provide oversight over the investigation into Clinton's private server. | 1real |
WATCH: Republican Lawmaker Gets Relentlessly Booed And Heckled For Obamacare Repeal Vote | The boos rained down after a Republican congresswoman thought she could get away with voting to strip millions of Americans of their healthcare.GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers made an appearance at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally to spew bullshit about unity and how change and progress have come to Washington DC because of Donald Trump.That didn t sit well with the crowd, who showered Rodgers with boos and jeers after someone in the audience literally shouted Bullshit! in response to her claims that she will work hard for the people in her district.Chants of Save our healthcare! then drowned out Rodgers, who fled the stage as someone called her a liar. Here s the video via YouTube.Rodgers ignored the anger of her constituents and tried to drone on but soon left the stage. Considering that Rodgers is literally sentencing millions of people to death by voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, she s lucky the crowd let her leave and didn t tar and feather her in the public square.Afterwards, she then released a bullshit statement claiming that Republicans are working on a smooth transition to repeal and replace Obamacare so people don t lose their coverage. No one who has coverage because of Obamacare today, will lose that coverage the day it s repealed we re committed to a smooth and stable transition for those currently receiving care, Rodgers said.A spokesperson for Rodgers later added, The Congresswoman looks forward to keeping the lines of communication open when discussing how to ensure a smooth and stable transition out of Obamacare to put in place a 21st Century health care system. Most Americans oppose repealing Obamacare without a suitable replacement or don t want it repealed at all.But Republicans voted to repeal Obamacare last week without having any plan at all to replace it with, and they STILL don t have a plan, despite how many times they claim to be working on one.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
The moment Ben Affleck realized that ‘Batman V Superman’ was a $400 million flop | 21st Century Wire says Does Hollywood do anything other than comic book remakes any more? The latest over-budget chimera, Batman V Superman, cost around $410 million to make. You d think they could squeeze a decent film out of that. You d think. He hasn t felt this low since Gigli , said the Huff Post. Movie star Ben Affleck may have just beaten Chris Christie for this year s most vacant stare. Watch: READ MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood Files | 1real |
Climate change crusade goes local | While US leaders remain bogged down in debate over global warming, local communities are acting on their own to hold back rising seas. Witness Miami Beach's elevated streets.
Florida’s state leaders are running hard from climate change. The governor, Rick Scott, doesn’t want state employees to even utter the words. Former Gov. Jeb Bush and US Sen. Marco Rubio, both Republican presidential aspirants, offer a medley of objections to scientists’ calls for bold action on climate change.
Eric Carpenter shrugs. The director of Miami Beach’s Public Works Department sits at his desk, poring over tables of high tides on his computer. He is calculating how many pumps he needs to buy to keep the city’s streets from being flooded from a rising sea caused by climate change.
Under a broiling sun, he takes a visitor a few blocks from his office, to where contractors are pouring concrete to replace a section of a city street. The new roadway is being laid incongruously 2-1/2 feet above the sidewalk cafe tables and storefront entrances at the old street level. The extra height is in preparation for the seas and tides that Mr. Carpenter already sees engulfing this section of Miami Beach.
“The facts are the facts, and we have to deal with them,” he says.
In city after city in South Florida, local officials are dealing with climate change. So, too, are municipalities big and small across the United States. The same determination is evident among governors and legislators in more than two dozen states. And it is magnified worldwide: Surprising progress in grappling with global warming is coming from surprising nations.
This groundswell of action on climate change is producing solutions and often bypassing lagging political leadership. The gathering force of these acts, significant and subtle, is transforming what once seemed a hopeless situation into one in which success can at least be imagined. The initiatives are not enough to halt the world’s plunge toward more global warming – yet. But they do point toward a turning point in greenhouse gas emissions, and ambitious – if still uneven – efforts to adapt to the changes already in motion.
“The troops on the ground, the local officials and stakeholders, are acting, even in the face of a total lack of support on the top level,” says Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa. “The impacts of climate change are pretty bad and projected to get much worse if we continue business as usual. But there still is time to avert what we might reasonably describe as a true catastrophe. There are some signs we are starting to turn the corner.”
Philip Levine, the mayor of Miami Beach, agrees. “We may not have all the answers,” he says. “But we’re going to show that Miami Beach is not going to sit back and go underwater.”
Representatives from more than 190 countries will gather in Paris in December to try to agree on international strategies for dealing with climate change. They will be spurred by their own alarm at a succession of storms, droughts, and heat waves affecting millions of people on the planet, and by outside calls, such as the moral edict from Pope Francis, to care more about the world.
The record of past such meetings is not encouraging. But the representatives will arrive as progress on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, often overlooked, has been mounting:
•Wind and solar power generation are bounding ahead faster than the most optimistic predictions, with a fivefold increase worldwide since 2004. More than 1 in 5 buildings in countries such as Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and even Albania are now powered by renewable energy.
•The US saw its greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2007. They have fallen about 10 percent since, and are roughly on course to meet President Obama’s pledge to reduce emissions in the next 10 years by about 27 percent from their peak.
•China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, paradoxically leads the world in installed wind and solar power, and is charging ahead on renewables. China and the US ended their impasse over who is most responsible to fix global warming, agreeing in November to mutually ambitious goals. Experts say China already has cut coal consumption by 8 percent this year, and the environmental group Greenpeace says China stopped construction of some new coal power plants.
•Worldwide, carbon dioxide emissions, a principal component of greenhouse gases, did not grow in 2014, according to the International Energy Agency. Emissions remained flat even as the global economy grew – an important milestone.
•Coal-fired power plants are being replaced rapidly by natural gas plants, which are cleaner and emit half the greenhouse gases. Britain saw an 8 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions last year, which is attributed to national energy policies, more energy efficiency, and the switch from coal.
•Tropical rainforests, which absorb carbon dioxide, are being cut down at a slower rate than in the past – 13 million hectares per year, compared with 16 million in the 1990s, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. That is still alarmingly high but shows progress, in part because of vows by big corporations not to buy palm oil grown on deforested lands. Brazil has made notable progress in reducing deforestation of the Amazon.
In the US, state and local governments are taking bold action even as the national discussion about the looming climate crisis remains paralyzed along political lines. In South Florida, for example, officials of four populous counties shun the rhetoric from GOP presidential aspirants and officials in the state capital and gather regularly to plot cooperative climate change strategy.
That group, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, is considered a national model for the kind of shoulder-to-shoulder effort needed to address the problem. They came up with an agreed estimate of sea level rise and identified the most vulnerable areas of the region, and now are plowing through more than 100 recommendations for action.
“There are no new funding sources coming down from the state or the Feds,” says Susanne Torriente, assistant city manager for Fort Lauderdale, one of the participants of the compact. “Would it be good to have state and federal dollars? Yes. Are we going to wait until they act? No.”
Their cooperation was born, essentially, on the back of a napkin. Kristin Jacobs, now a state representative who was a Broward County commissioner in 2008, was lamenting at the time that the 27 disparate municipal water authorities in the region could not agree on joint action. So she and others came up with the idea of getting local officials together in a classroom.
“We said, ‘Let’s have an academy,’ ” she recalls, and the Broward Leaders Water Academy began offering elected officials in South Florida six-month courses in water hydraulics and policy. It has now graduated “three generations of elected officials,” she says.
Figuring out what to do about climate change – whether it is building up dunes on the beaches, raising the height of foundations, or shifting developments back from the coastline – takes a cooperative approach. “We couldn’t do it by just saying ‘this is the way it is’ – the Moses approach,” Ms. Jacobs says. “We had to do it with compliance and acquiescence and leadership.”
Normally, direction on some of these issues might have come from state officials. But not in Florida. Not on climate change.
“We didn’t have to worry about those who don’t believe,” Jacobs says. “At the end of the day, when the water is overtopping your sea wall, you don’t really care that you didn’t believe in climate change last week. You do believe in it this week.”
Built on the edge of the sea, Miami Beach is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to the vicissitudes of the ocean. Its boutique commercial district and canyons of pastel apartments sit on a sieve of porous limestone. The leaky footing was formed over the eons from accumulated seashells, coral, and fish skeletons.
Today the rock acts as a giant wick, giving the relentless ocean a route for subterranean attack. Seawater pushes in from underground and often gurgles to the surface in inconvenient places. On days of really high tides – even without any rain – the briny invasion turns some city streets into small lakes, snarling traffic and cutting off businesses. Locals call it “sunny day flooding.”
The man charged with stopping the sea – or at least getting tourists and residents out of its way – is Carpenter, an affable engineer with a burly physique. Carpenter took over the city’s Public Works Department two years ago. His recurring nightmare is of rising seas, frequent storms, and “king” tides sweeping through Miami Beach – and doing it in full view of the world. He knows that whatever the city does – or does not do – to prepare for climate change will be tested soon on a stage before a global audience.
“What we do here is magnified because of who we are,” he says. Miami Beach thrives on a global reputation for glamour, for cultural fusion, for beaches, for heat – from the sun in the day and its epicurean club culture at night. That’s not an image that sits well with flooded streets. But the water is already coming.
As the Atlantic Ocean warms and expands, fed by melting polar ice caps, the seawater is pushing back into the 330 storm-water pipe outlets designed to drain rain from city streets. So Miami Beach is in the process of installing as many as 80 pumps, at a cost of nearly $400 million, to make sure the water flows outward.
“If the seas are continuing to rise, and the tidal events are higher than the inland elevation, we have to pump,” says Carpenter.
The city plans to raise the level of 30 percent of its streets, encouraging businesses to abandon or remodel their first floors to go to a higher level. Carpenter says he wanted to go up nearly six feet, but town officials said “we are going too fast.” So they settled on just over three feet.
“I don’t think this is where we want to be long-term, but it’s enough to get us through the next 10 or 20 years,” he says, while standing on a new section of road at Sunset Harbor, looking down at the cafe tables on the sidewalk below, where the street used to be.
Mayor Levine echoes the importance of dealing with the future encroachment of the sea – now. “We did not ask for climate change or sea level rise,” he says. “But we are the tip of the spear. We don’t debate the reason why; we just come up with solutions.”
Forty miles to the north, past Fort Lauderdale, Randy Brown and his utilities staff in Pompano Beach are also trying to halt the sea. Like the rest of South Florida, the coastal city of 100,000 residents is confronting the ocean above and below ground.
They are burying a new network of water pipes – painted grape purple – running to businesses and homes. The pipes contain sewer water that has been treated to remove the smell and bacteria and then siphoned from a pipe that used to discharge it into the sea.
Pompano Beach residents use the water for their lawns and gardens, bypassing the restrictive bans on lawn sprinkling. This recycled water then trickles down into the Biscayne Aquifer.
Cleansed as it sifts through the ground, it helps reduce the shrinking of the freshwater aquifer, which is being drawn down by the town’s 26 wells and is threatened by underground salt water pushed inland by the rising sea level. Homeowners pay about two-thirds less for the recycled water than they do for potable water.
When city officials first laid out the program at a public meeting, bringing a cake to set a neighborly tone, “it was a fiasco. [Residents] called it dangerous,” chuckles Maria Loucraft, a utilities manager.
Now, people “say they can’t wait for it to get to their area,” adds Isabella Slagle, who goes to public events with a mascot, a purple-colored sprinkler head with sunglasses, named “Squirt” by elementary school students.
Green lawns trump the political arguments over climate change, says Mr. Brown. “We don’t say ‘climate change,’ ” he admits. “It’s ‘protecting resources’ or ‘sustainability.’ That way, you can duck under the political radar.”
Some don’t want to avoid the radar. Last October, the South Miami City Commission voted to create “South Florida” and secede from the rest of the state, in part because, they said, the state government in Tallahassee was not responding to their pleas to help them deal with climate change.
“It got a lot of press but nobody in the state took it very seriously,” muses the mayor, Philip Stoddard, over a sandwich on the campus of Florida International University, where he is a biology professor. “But it did get people talking about climate change.”
“My house is at 10 feet elevation,” he adds. “My wife and I – our question is – will we be able to live out our lives in our house? I’m 58. We don’t know. It’s going to be a close one. If you look at the official sea level projections, they keep going up, which is a little disquieting. If you look at the unofficial projections, they scare the hell out of you.”
While South Florida is a leader at local cooperation, officials in towns and cities across the country are struggling to react to a warming climate. Many municipalities have drafted action plans. Boston is converting its taxis to hybrids and requires new buildings to be built with higher foundations. Chicago is planting green gardens on city roofs to reduce the air conditioning needed to cool buildings. Seattle is helping residents install solar panels. Montpelier, Vt., vows to eliminate all fossil fuel use by 2030. Houston is laying down “cool pavements” made of reflective and porous material, and planting trees for shade.
Governors and state legislators across the country have gotten the message, too. While Congress will not debate the “Big Fix” – putting a price or a cap on carbon pollution – some states are already doing it. About 30 percent of Americans live in states that have rules capping carbon dioxide emissions and markets that allow companies to buy and sell carbon credits.
In addition, 28 states have set mandatory quotas for renewable energy from their electric utilities. Seven states have set ambitious targets for overall greenhouse gas reductions – California has promised a reduction of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
“The best thing Congress can do right now is stay out of the way,” says Anna Aurilio, director of the Washington office of the nonprofit advocacy group Environment America. Between the state efforts and the executive orders by Mr. Obama, she says, the US is on track to meet the administration’s greenhouse gas goals.
“When we look at programs currently in place or set to be implemented, we can come close to the US commitment” of a 27 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years, she says. “But we know we have to go much, much further.”
To get near the goal of keeping average global warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or less, climatologists predict that countries must largely abandon the fossil fuels that have driven technological societies since the Industrial Age – achieving an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
That is an imposing goal, since billions of dollars are invested in new and existing fossil fuel power plants that can last 30 to 50 years. Even if solar or wind energy is cheaper than coal, oil, and natural gas, the owners of fossil fuel plants will be reluctant to abandon their investments. But the decisions are starting to come from the people, not just governments or corporations.
“When you have enough action taking place at the grass roots, sometimes that’s a more effective means of implementing change on a large scale,” says Penn State’s Mr. Mann.
Nicole Hammer is one of the foot soldiers in the new war on global warming. A biologist, consultant, and former assistant director of a university center on climate change, she quit and decided to work with nonprofit groups, including the Moms Clean Air Force, an organization that campaigns to stem air pollution and climate change.
“I realized we have more than enough science to take action on climate change,” she says while walking at an ecology park near her home in Vero Beach, Fla. “People who normally wouldn’t be involved in environmental issues are starting to speak out.”
She believes community involvement is the key to solutions, because the problems are felt most keenly at that level. “We have people in communities who have to put their kids in shopping carts to get across flooded streets to get food,” she says. “When you see that happening – and then you see people at high levels denying it – it’s disappointing and it’s incredibly frustrating.”
Public outcry has helped close coal-burning power plants, which produce the dirtiest energy. Coal plants now provide about one-third of the electricity in the US – down from more than half in 1990. Tightening pollution standards and cheaper natural gas prices have prompted utilities to close 200 coal-fired plants since 2010, the Sierra Club estimates, and the trend would only accelerate under new clean air regulations unveiled by Obama in early August.
Until recently, one argument against closing coal plants was that if the US didn’t burn its own abundant coal reserves, they would just be exported to China. But Chinese authorities are so sobered by their public’s resentment of the thick coal soot and industrial pollution that they are turning with startling speed to renewables. China reached a significant agreement with the US in November to cap its greenhouse gas pollutions by 2030, and further impressed experts in July by promising to ramp up renewables to provide 20 percent of its power, a sharp turn away from its pace of bringing a new coal power plant on line every 10 days.
“China has become a policy innovator,” says Nathaniel Keohane, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, who worked on international climate issues in the Obama administration.
Other countries are plotting their own ways to curb greenhouse gases. Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain are ramping up solar energy. France has embraced nuclear. Denmark, Portugal, and Nicaragua led in wind power in 2014. Brazil is adding hydroelectric plants as well as sharply reducing deforestation. Kenya and Turkey are tapping geothermal power. And smaller countries such as Costa Rica, Iceland, and Paraguay have found financial and tourism benefits in being at or very near “carbon neutral.”
Still, the current projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on when the world will see a significant decline in global emissions vary widely – from about 2030 to after 2100 – based on guesses of how countries respond. But the dramatic shift to natural gas in the US, and the racehorse expansion of hydraulic fracturing to get it, are demonstrations that if new technologies are profitable, industries can pivot quickly.
“We can make that turn,” Mr. Keohane predicts. “Imagine the day when emissions are falling instead of rising. Imagine when we are winning rather than losing.” | 0fake |
U.S. lawmakers question Mylan's Medicaid EpiPen rebates | (Reuters) - Two key U.S. congressional committee members on Friday called for an investigation into whether Mylan NV, under fire for raising the price of its EpiPen device, overcharged the government’s low-income healthcare program for the allergy treatment. In a letter to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Frank Pallone, both Democrats, seek clarification of whether EpiPen was classified as a generic, “non-innovator” drug, or a brand-name drug by the Medicaid program. Under current law, branded drugs, and generic drugs available from a single source, are required to pay a rebate amount of at least 23.1 percent of the average manufacturer price. Generic drugs are subject to a much lower 13 percent rebate. Mylan, in an emailed statement, said it has complied with all laws and regulations regarding Medicaid rebates, and intends to file with regulators, by next April as required under new guidelines, for EpiPen to be classified as a “non-innovator” product. The device jabs a dose of the drug epinephrine into the thigh to counter dangerous allergic reactions such as to peanuts, food allergies and bee stings. Mylan, whose tax address is in the Netherlands but which has corporate headquarters in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, has raised the U.S. price of EpiPen from less than $100 when it acquired the product in 2007 to more than $600. Amid an outcry by parents, consumer groups and U.S. politicians, the company said on Monday it will soon launch the first generic version of the device for $300, half the list price of its branded product. Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Pallone, ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, said in the letter on Friday: “It has recently come to our attention that Mylan has classified EpiPen as a generic drug” under the Medicaid rebate program, even though it is considered a new drug by the Food and Drug Administration. Shares of Mylan, which fell 4.7 percent to close at $39.97 on Friday, have dropped 19 percent since mid-August. | 0fake |
House lawmaker seeks more documents in FDA criminal office inquiry | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. lawmaker accused the Food and Drug Administration on Friday of failing to hand over documents that would show whether its criminal office is fulfilling the critical mission of protecting public health. “The FDA’s long-overdue response leaves key questions unanswered about the performance and effectiveness of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations,” House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden told Reuters in a statement. An FDA spokeswoman did not have an immediate comment. Walden’s comments come about four months after the congressional panel launched an examination into the criminal office and how it was managing cases involving food, drugs and devices. The review came after Reuters reported that FDA agents were concerned that managers, including former OCI Director George Karavetsos, were forcing them to pursue often toothless cases involving mislabeled foreign-imported injectable drugs, at the expense of cases with more potential to protect the public health. The agents said they had become the “Botox Police” and were spending hours chasing down doctors who purchased authentic versions of Allergan’s popular anti-wrinkle drug that were labeled for use in other countries. Those concerns came at a time when the office was seeing more than half its opened cases ultimately get closed without action, Reuters found. Reuters also reported on how the FDA permitted Karavetsos to relocate back to Florida in mid-2016 and run the OCI from its Miami office, even after the FDA had already paid more than $25,000 to move him to Maryland in 2015. The FDA did not meet the committee’s October deadline to provide written answers to questions until Jan. 19. The next day, Karavetsos departed to work for DLA Piper where he will represent drug and device industry clients. In its letter reviewed by Reuters, the FDA listed its investigative priorities and said that traditional metrics used to gauge success, such as arrests and convictions, cannot capture the impact of its public health mission. It also provided annual data on arrests, convictions, and the number of opened cases. However, it omitted preliminary-stage investigative numbers from the total number of cases opened each year, which makes the conviction rate appear higher, according to a side-by-side comparison. Walden said the FDA did not provide a performance plan, among other things. He also complained of redactions on a separate record, which according to a committee aide contained salary and compensation information for Karavetsos. | 0fake |
Kiev Nazi commander admits 10,000 Ukrainians could be war criminals | November 17, 2016 - Fort Russ News - PolitNavigator - translated by J. Arnoldski -
Petro Poroshenko’s regime has initiated criminal proceedings in which figure around 10,000 participants of the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbass. This was stated on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada by the former head of the Donbass Nationalist Battalion and PM, Semen Semenchenko.
According to Semenchenko, “volunteers” have come under criminal proceedings insofar as they do not have the right to bear arms and use them in Donbass, since martial law has not been instituted in the country. Now all such “volunteers” could theoretically be declared war criminals.
Semenchenko stated:
“Those volunteers whose situation is discussed every day from the parliamentary podium are currently under threat. More than 10,000 criminal cases have been initiated for various reasons. Noncompliance with the law on defense, the fact that martial law has not been imposed and, accordingly, part of the functions carried out by servicemen are now de jure a crime. For example, in 2014, the National Guard of Ukraine added, so to say, more than 10,000 reservists to the ATO. These servicemen did not have the rights of National Guardsmen, did not have the right to bear arms, and did not have the right to participate in the war - they did not have the right to kill people and be killed. Now more than thousands of people could at any moment be charged as criminals if the government or political situation changes.”
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America having a ‘bad hair’ day | Posted: Nov 9th, 2016 by Guest Click for more article by Guest .. More Stories about: Ticker | 1real |
A Van Struck Down Muslims In London | A horrifying incident took place in the early hours of Monday morning in Finsbury Park in London.A van plowed into a group of Muslim worshipers as they were leaving prayers at a pair of North London mosques.Yep you read that right. A terrorist attack has happened in London against Muslims. This incident follows two recent terrorist attacks in London in which vehicles have been used as weapons, both on bridges over the Thames River. So far this attack has left one person is dead and 10 others injured. This is being treated as a terrorist attack, said Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told reporters. He added that the driver of the van was arrested on suspicion of murder.According to the Washington Post, witnesses said the driver of the vehicle was heard shouting that he wanted to kill Muslims.Thankfully, the driver didn t get away. The Washington Post reports that Abdulrahman Aidroos and his friends were attending to an elderly man who had collapsed on the ground when suddenly he saw a man in a van driving straight into us. When the driver of the van jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run I tackled him on the floor until the police came, Aidroos told the BBC. When he was running, he said I want to kill more people, I want to kill more Muslims. It s absolutely appalling and to think another human being has done this.Though it s clear there s something wrong with this attacker, we need to stop fear mongering when it comes to Muslims. The worst has now happened as a result.Muslims are entirely separate from ISIS just like the KKK is separate from the Christian church. Just like Nazism is entirely separate from Germans. There are bad people evil people in the world. But attacking innocent people won t stop the problem or rid the world of evil. It just hurts innocent people and their loved ones.We need to stop being so divided and scapegoating other people. That won t solve any problems it ll just create new ones.Featured Image by Carl Court/Getty Images | 1real |
BREAKING: Obama Administration To Expand Number Of Refugees Brought To America | So basically the Obama administration is making it easier for Central American illegals to come to America without just sneaking in. John Kerry and Obama should be called out on this effort to totally flood America with Central Americans and Muslims. YOU ARE PAYING FOR THIS! I cannot stress enough how bad this is for America. Entire towns have been broken with the influx of refugees . Now, by expanding the definition of refugee to include the illegal aliens from Central America, we re going to be INCREASING the number on the dole to nearly 100,000. PLEASE make the effort to contact ANY or ALL of your elected officials to raise heck about this. WE CANNOT AFFORD THIS!The United States will increase the number of refu gees it admits to allow in more people fleeing violence in Central America, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday.In a speech at the National Defense University, Kerry said the expansion of the Refugee Admissions Program will be directed toward people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, to offer them a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey many are currently tempted to begin, making them easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits. The United States already plans to admit 85,000 refugees from around the world in the fiscal year that began in October, but only 3,000 spaces are set aside for Central Americans. The total allotment is 15,000 more refugees than in the previous year and includes 10,000 Syrians referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees under a special vetting process that typically takes 18 to 24 months. The ceiling for refugees is even higher for 2017, when it will rise to 100,000.Kerry did not say how many more Central American refugees would be admitted and when the expansion would take effect.The State Department said refugees will be selected for resettlement in the United States in collaboration with the UNHCR and a number of nongovernmental agencies it works with to orient and relocate new refugees around the country. Among those who will be considered in need of refu gee protection are people targeted by criminal gangs, human rights defenders and those who may be at imminent risk of harm. Since the Syrian crisis began with peaceful anti-government protests in 2011, the United States has donated more than $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid related to Syrians alone. Most has gone directly to help shelter, feed and clothe refugees, but some has helped governments in neighboring countries that are burdened with massive numbers of refugees. Officials say that helping refugees near the countries they have fled will prevent them from going to other countries, as has happened in Europe when humanitarian aid to Syrians dried up.Read more: WaPo | 1real |
Trump expected to endorse Ryan for re-election later on Friday: Fox News | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is expected to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his bid for re-election later on Friday, Fox News reported, citing two unnamed Republican sources. Fox News said the endorsement was expected to come during a Trump campaign event in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, Trump said he was “not quite there yet” on supporting the Wisconsin lawmaker, who is the Republican Party’s top elected official. | 0fake |
Russia says kills 7 Nusra Front field commanders in Syria air strike | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian air strike killed 49 Nusra Front militants including seven of its field commanders in Syria s Idlib province, Russia s Rossiya 24 state television channel cited the Russian defense ministry as saying on Thursday. Nusra Front severed ties with al Qaeda last year and rebranded to head the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance. Russia said on Wednesday it had critically injured a leader of the Tahrir al-Sham militant group, Abu Mohamad al-Golani, with an air strike in Syria that also killed 12 of his field commanders. Golani is now in a coma, Russian news agencies cited Russia s defense ministry as saying on Thursday. | 0fake |
The Republicans' Red Scare | On this day in 1973, J. Fred Buzhardt, a lawyer defending President Richard Nixon in the Watergate case, revealed that a key White House tape had an 18... | 0fake |
Trump says Russia probe will reveal no collusion with his campaign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a special counsel’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election would show there was “no collusion” between his campaign and a foreign power. “As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know –- there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity,” he said in a statement released by the White House. “I look forward to this matter concluding quickly. In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country.” Earlier the U.S. Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate possible links between Trump’s 2016 campaign team and Russia as well as alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election. | 0fake |
Japan's Abe says time to exert maximum pressure on North Korea | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday it was time to exert maximum pressure on North Korea and he had agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump that China should play a bigger role in getting Pyongyang to give up its weapons programs. Speaking to reporters, he also said Japan supported Trump s position that all options are on the table when it comes to dealing with North Korea. Trump is in Tokyo on the second-day of an Asian swing during which North Korea and trade are expected to top the agenda. | 0fake |
Trump Supporter BUSTED Committing Voter Fraud: Trump Says Polls Are ‘Rigged’, So I Had To | Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Voter fraud has been on the minds of Republicans for a while now. It has been proven that while yes, there are isolated incidences of in-person voter fraud, there has never been a case where it was so rampant that it changed the results of an election. But that’s exactly what the GOP wants you to think is going on.
Donald Trump took Republican rhetoric about voter fraud and has ramped it up to an entirely new level, claiming that the upcoming election is going to be “rigged.” Apparently, Republicans are in on this alleged rigging along with Democrats, since a number of the states where the vote looks to be close are controlled by the GOP. And as everyone outside of Trump’s basket of deplorables knows, election mechanics are handled by the states, not the federal government.
How are Trump’s supporters reacting to all of his claims about voter fraud? Well, in at least one case the answer to that question is “By committing voter fraud themselves.”
Terri Lynn Rote, 55, an Iowa Trump supporter, has been charged with “election misconduct,” which is a Class D felony in the state. According to Iowa Public Radio, Rote allegedly voted for Trump twice when she cast her ballot during early voting. And her reason? She was afraid that her first vote would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton, so she voted again. The Des Moines Register reports that Rote voted once at the Polk County elections office , then again at a county satellite polling location.
Rote told Iowa Public Radio,
“I wasn’t planning on doing it twice, it was spur of the moment. The polls are rigged.”
According to the Register, Rote’s case was one of three voter fraud cases that occurred in Polk County alone. The other two incidents involved people who voted on mail-in ballots, then voted again in person. Polk County auditor Jamie Fitzgerald says this is the first time in his 12 years in office he has had to deal with even one case of voter fraud, let alone three. There are no details about who the other two suspects cast ballots for. The sad thing is, polls have been saying for weeks that Trump is going to win Iowa. Cases like this might put his win there in question, which would be a perfect example of poetic justice.
This is what the rhetoric about voter fraud has come t0 — people attempting to vote multiple times because they’re convinced that their chosen candidate is going to be cheated out of a legitimate win. Republicans, unwilling to accept that their policies are being rejected by a larger and larger segment of the U.S. population, are trying to sell the message that elections are being stolen from the GOP by “massive” voter fraud. Yet, time after time, it seems to be Republicans who are committing the lion’s share of it. They claim to love the country, but Trump and the GOP are deliberately undermining the foundation of a democracy — the integrity of the vote. Next, Trump will claim that people like Terri Rote are “political prisoners.” Just wait for it.
Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
French Jews urged to rally over UNESCO resolutions | October 28, 2016 French Jews urged to rally over UNESCO resolutions
The main Jewish groups in France urged members to rally in front of the headquarters of the country’s Foreign Ministry to protest its failure to oppose UN resolutions that ignore Jewish ties to Jerusalem, JTA reported on Thursday.
On Wednesday, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee passed a resolution denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
On October 13, the executive board of the UNESCO passed a similar resolution which refers to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount only by their Arabic-language names.
France was among 26 countries that abstained from voting during the first resolution.
CRIF, the political lobby group representing French Jewish communities, was joined in a rare move by the Consistoire, French Jewry’s organ responsible for religious services, in organizing a protest rally for Thursday opposite the Quai d’Orsay in Paris in reaction to the passing of the two resolutions on Jerusalem.
“We were shocked by the anti-Israeli obsession of UNESCO and are now revolted by its disavowal of its own values,” CRIF President Francis Kalifat wrote Wednesday in his call for French Jews to rally outside Quai d’Orsay. | 1real |
Re: WikiLeaks: ‘How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did?’ #PodestaEmails20 | WikiLeaks: ‘How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did?’ #PodestaEmails20 Posted at 10:29 am on October 27, 2016 by Greg P. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
WikiLeaks’ 20th release of John Podesta’s email is out, and this one caught our eye . Apparently team Clinton was discussing how they could answer questions on Bill Clinton’s past, including comparisons of his behavior to accused rapist Bill Cosby:
Yeah, John … how do you handle question No. 4? Trending | 1real |
DNC Chair Asks Democrat Members Of Congress To “Bring A Muslim” To State Of Union… | Debbie Wasserman-Schultz didn t ask members of Congress to bring a relative of an American citizen murdered by an illegal alien to the last State Of The Union. She didn t ask them to bring a spouse of a police officer killed as a result of Obama s war on law enforcement. What about asking them to bring a Christian or Jewish family member from the San Bernardino Muslim Terror attack? Do they not qualify as victims Deb? It s odd how the Democrats pick and choose who does, and who doesn t qualify as a victim in the United States. Let s just hope no one wears a suicide vest Two senior Democratic lawmakers are asking their colleagues to bring a Muslim-American guest to the State of the Union in protest of Donald Trump s recent proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.In a letter sent to House Democrats on Tuesday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said lawmakers should bring Muslim-Americans to the Jan. 12 speech as a way to rebut anti-Muslim rhetoric. Over the past few weeks we have seen a shocking and alarming rise in hateful rhetoric against one particular minority population in our nation, the pair wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO. Leading political figures have made offensive and outrageous suggestions that we should create a national registry of all people of one particular faith and that we should prevent any person of that faith from even entering this great country. Donald Trump, the Republican front runner for the presidential nomination, said earlier this month that Muslims should be barred from entering the U.S. because of security concerns. The comments have been widely criticized by politicians across the political spectrum.Via: Politico | 1real |
WATCH: Racist Fox Host Celebrates The ‘Good News’ That Black Votes Are Down (VIDEO) | After watching their Republican nominee insult nearly every minority living in America, conservatives know just how dangerous the non-white vote is in this election. As minorities make up more and more of the general population, Donald Trump has put the Republican Party at an incredible disadvantage with his divisive, racist rhetoric.So when Fox News host Bill Hemmer celebrated some interesting news on Tuesday, it became more obvious than ever that the GOP considers the minority vote a major threat to the future of its party. Fox News host Bill Hemmer actually said that he had good news in Ohio, which was that more white people were voting in the state and the black share of the vote is down. At this point in the election, when Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is beating Donald Trump by a landslide, Republicans are grasping at straws and desperately trying to find the silver lining in anything they possibly can. Hemmer said to RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer: I m looking at early voting. You have good news in Ohio, white share of the vote is up 3 points from four years ago, black share of the vote is down 7. Spicer seemed just as giddy about this news, and also noted that the Republican Party was leading in absentee ballots. He echoed Hemmer s excitement when he said, Our people are coming out. You can watch this despicable exchange below, in which two white men celebrate the fact that their data shows racists having the upper hand:[ad3media campaign= 1234 ]Republicans are going to be awfully disappointed at the end of this election, and November 8th can t come soon enough. Despite what conservatives want to believe, America isn t nearly as white as it used to be, and minority voters have great power now. It could very well be that minority voters save white people from making the biggest mistake of their lives letting Trump get into the White House. | 1real |
Inauguration Protesters and Police Clash on Washington’s Streets - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — A spate of violence erupted on Friday in the nation’s capital, as protesters damaged storefronts, threw rocks and bricks at police officers and lit a limousine on fire. Phalanxes of police officers used pepper spray, flash grenades and other nonlethal tools to disperse the protesters. By the end of the day, six police officers had sustained minor injuries and more than 200 people had been arrested. Many of the protesters were dressed in black, wore face masks and carried flags associated with groups. They congregated on a series of streets just blocks from the parade where Donald J. Trump passed as he made his way to the White House for the first time as president, their activities creating a distraction as television networks played live footage of the clashes. The violence was focused not only on the police. Richard B. Spencer, a leader of the a fringe movement that embraces white nationalism and a range of racist and positions, was punched in the face by a protester as Mr. Spencer gave an interview on the street, according to a video posted on Twitter. “We’re not peaceful,” said one of the masked protesters who, like many others who clashed with the police, ran away after being approached by reporters. While the clashes occurred, thousands of peaceful protesters marched across the country as they voiced slogans. In New York, seven people were arrested when they blocked the sidewalk outside Trump Tower. Protesters in San Francisco formed a blockade across train tracks, leading to eight arrests, and chained themselves to the downtown offices of Uber and Wells Fargo. In the central business district of Portland, Ore. banks, clothing retailers and a jewelry store boarded up windows and covered walls to limit vandalism. Chants in English and Spanish broke out in front of the Capitol in Phoenix. “This is one of the darkest days in the history of our country,” said Adelle Wallace, 75, during a march in Los Angeles. The violence in Washington began about an hour before Mr. Trump was sworn in at noon. Storefront windows at a Bank of America and a Starbucks several blocks from the parade route were smashed, leading to many arrests. Around 2 p. m. as Mr. Trump ate lunch on Capitol Hill with lawmakers and supporters, the protests expanded and turned violent. Protesters hurled rocks and bricks at police officers several blocks from the parade route. Officers with helmets and riot shields tried to disperse the protesters by using flash grenades and pepper spray. After being pushed back a block, protesters outside the Washington Post building lit a fire in the middle of the street, smashed the windows of a limousine and then lit it on fire. The police, using more flash grenades, cleared a path for fire trucks as protesters retreated to a park. The violence attracted a throng of onlookers, journalists and peaceful protesters who had marched earlier in the day. Reed Arahood, 34, of Massachusetts, who had come to Washington to be part of the peaceful protests, said she was ambivalent about the violence. “I don’t think I have words to accurately describe how I feel about them,” she said about the protesters. She added that she felt “solidarity” but also was “absolutely” concerned about the image of violent protests. But over all the scene of thousands of protesters gave her hope. “I feel pretty proud of the number who showed up today,” she said. “Looking strangers in the eye and knowing that we’re together and talking with people from all over the country who have come here to express their concerns about what is going to happen in the next four years and what is already happening in our country. I feel really good about that. ” Along several access points to view the inauguration, the protesters hoped simply to put themselves in the way, locking arms, forming human blockades in front of both public and ticketed entrances. The police directed attendees around the corners of blockades, sometimes in single file, forcing some ticketed attendees to wait nearly an hour in line to trickle past the protests. Content with their success disrupting the flow of attendees, about 150 protesters gathered downtown in McPherson Square, breaking off in groups to march along I Street. An organizer advised two dozen people on the day’s aims: to disrupt Mr. Trump’s celebration as much as possible — an objective, he predicted, that would rankle “mainly police officers and Trump supporters. ” “Police officers,” a woman in the crowd grumbled, “are Trump supporters. ” A few attendees drummed on buckets, nodding at the instructions. Some wondered about divine intervention as the day turned rainy. “It’s the earth crying about the president,” said Elodie Huttner, 52. Rallies have been planned all over the country all weekend, cresting with a women’s march in Washington on Saturday. Despite the disruptions, some in Washington were able to find moments of normalcy. Molly Schwizer, 52, a government employee who had the day off, left the quiet neighborhood in northwestern Washington where she lives to check out the chaotic and heavily policed streets of downtown, where protesters vied with Trump supporters. “I wanted to see what this was all about,” she said, motioning toward Saks Off 5th, the discount branch of the New York department store. “And,” she added, “I had some shopping to do. ” By midafternoon, she had seen enough of the protesters (“they should clean up,” she said) and the Trump supporters (no comment — she does have a government job, after all). Also, it was raining — and so it was time to shop. | 0fake |
Highlights: The Trump presidency on February 1 at 7:44 P.M. EST/1244 GMT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday: Trump urges Senate Republicans to “go nuclear” and impose a rule change to force a simple majority vote toward confirmation if Democrats block his U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Public refusals by two U.S. Senate Republicans to support Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for education secretary, raise the possibility of a rare congressional rejection of a Cabinet nominee. The Senate confirms Rex Tillerson as secretary of state despite concerns over his ties to Russia, while committees approve Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet selections, as attorney general, as well as two other nominees. Evangelical Christian leader Jerry Falwell Jr. will head an education reform task force under Trump and is eager to cut university regulations, including rules on dealing with campus sexual assault. The White House puts Iran “on notice” for test-firing a ballistic missile and says it is reviewing how to respond, abruptly adopting an aggressive posture toward Tehran that could raise tensions in the region. Defense Secretary James Mattis is expected to underscore security commitments to South Korea and Japan on his debut trip to Asia this week as concerns mount over North Korea’s missile program and tensions with China. Tillerson sees his job become harder before it even begins because of administration moves that have antagonized Muslim nations, European allies, Mexico and U.S. bureaucrats. The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter tell Reuters. Trump pays his respects to a U.S. Navy SEAL who died in a raid on al Qaeda in Yemen that went wrong, the first military operation authorized by Trump as commander in chief. Trump will likely face questions about his executive order restricting some travel to the United States when he meets with the CEOs of major U.S. companies at the White House on Friday. U.N. human rights experts warn that asylum seekers could face torture if not given haven and the Vatican calls for openness to other cultures, adding to a drumbeat of criticism of Trump’s travel curbs. Trump lashes out at one of his favorite targets for derision - the news media - complaining to a group of his supporters attending a Black History Month session that most reporters who cover him are a “disgrace.” | 0fake |
Rand Paul on Unmaskings: ’We Can’t Live in Fear of Our Own Intelligence Community’ - Breitbart | Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox Friends,” Sen. Rand Paul ( ) said he wanted to know if presidential candidates were unmasked by the Obama administration for political purposes. Paul said, “I’ve sent several letters to the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee and also the White House asking political figures were presidential candidates unmasked by the Obama administration? If the Obama administration used intelligence for political purposes, this is a really, really serious abuse of power and must be investigated. There are rumors swirling about Susan Rice. There are rumors now swirling about Samantha Powers. So we need to know. Were they actually looking into people’s phone calls for political purposes? If that happened, really, we have to do something about it. We cannot live in fear of our own intelligence community. ” He continued, “We cannot have anybody in the intelligence community — they have such power to suck up every bit of every transmission of every communication we ever made — We can’t have them releasing classified information to the public. ” He added, “We cannot live in fear of our own intelligence community. So, yes, absolutely from top to bottom we need a reform, and we need to go in and say the American people need to have oversight of this because we can’t let them listen to legislators phone calls or the president’s phone calls and blackmail the president. Something has to change. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
ESPN SENIOR WRITER Says COPS, SOLDIERS Singing At Ballparks Is Racist Show Of Power…Says 9/11 Police Officers Aren’t Heroes [VIDEO] | What happens when a black police officer sings the national anthem at a ball park? Is that racist as well? When will Disney owned ESPN figure out their fans aren t watching for their ignorant, racist commentary? ESPN Magazine senior writer Howard Bryant argued in has latest column that police officers and military personnel should not sing the national anthem before sporting events.But it s not because he thinks they have bad voices but rather because it amounts to a display of staged patriotism signaling an authoritarian shift at the ballpark. Why don t more athletes speak out on behalf of their communities? Bryant wrote. Perhaps more of them would if there wasn t a chilling force looming over them. Bryant s column became a subject on a Fox and Friends Weekend segment, and the gang totally disagreed with him.Anna Kooiman noted that Bryant had written similar columns, in which he took the exception to doing the flyovers and singing the national anthem and God Bless America. In today s political climate, where kids in some district can t recite the Pledge of Allegiance, she asked What is the problem here with expressing some patriotism? It s not forced patriotism! Peter Doocy said that, according to Bryant, these displays are feeding into the 9/11 hero narrative, which butts heads with the Black Lives Matter movement.He does not believe that police officers on 9/11 were heroes, he said, and then wondered why a sporting magazine was opining about politics in the first place. Via: BizPac Review | 1real |
Trump’s Hires Will Set Course of His Presidency - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — “Busy day planned in New York,” Donald J. Trump said on Twitter on Friday morning, two days after his astonishing victory. “Will soon be making some very important decisions on the people who will be running our government!” If anything, that understates the gravity of the personnel choices Mr. Trump and his transition team are weighing. Rarely in the history of the American presidency has the exercise of choosing people to fill jobs had such a impact on the nature and priorities of an incoming administration. Unlike most new presidents, Mr. Trump comes into office with no experience, no coherent political agenda and no bulging binder of policy proposals. And he has left a trail of inflammatory, often contradictory, statements on issues from immigration and race to terrorism and geopolitics. In such a chaotic environment, serving a president who is in many ways a tabula rasa, the appointees to key White House jobs like chief of staff and cabinet posts like secretary of state, defense secretary and Treasury secretary could wield outsize influence. Their selection will help determine whether the Trump administration governs like the firebrand Mr. Trump was on the campaign trail or the pragmatist he often appears to be behind closed doors. “A new president is really vulnerable and open to all sorts of influence by advisers,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. “Trump’s appointments over the next six weeks will be very significant because they can show whether he wants to create some unity in the country, or whether he really intends to deliver on his ideas. ” One of the influences on Mr. Trump could come from an unlikely quarter: President Obama. Meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he looked forward “to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel. ” A day later, in interviews with The Wall Street Journal and “60 Minutes,’’ he said he had decided to retain elements of Mr. Obama’s landmark health care law after their conversation — a hint, at least, that he might govern less radically than he had campaigned. White House officials expressed hope that Mr. Obama would be able to impress on Mr. Trump the importance of other parts of his legacy, like the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal. The two will have the kind of relationship that only fellow presidents can have — something that administration officials hope will appeal to Mr. Trump’s pride, as well as his desire to succeed, and make him view Mr. Obama less as a rival. They conceded, though, that there was little historical precedent for such a relationship, especially when the incoming president had ousted the incumbent’s party after such an acrid campaign, and that Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama were never likely to become buddies. Mr. Trump is drawing mainly from a pool of trusted aides and supporters, according to people familiar with the campaign. On Friday, he named three of his grown children — Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric — as well as his Jared Kushner, to his transition team, an arrangement that rang alarm bells in Washington because they will also manage his businesses. The Trump family, it is clear, will wield unusual power in the composition of an administration that is already shaping up as remarkable for its clannishness. Even within Mr. Trump’s tight circle, however, there are sharp differences in ideology, background and temperament that could play out in how the White House deals with Congress and how the United States deals with the rest of the world. Perhaps the deepest schism is between Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and media entrepreneur who was Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, and Reince Priebus, the Republican Party chairman who came to terms with Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Both are on a short list for chief of staff, according to people close to the campaign, and whoever is chosen, the other is likely to get another senior White House post. Each would bring a radically different approach to a job often called the powerful in Washington — gatekeeper to the president and often the first and last person he sees in the Oval Office. Mr. Bannon, the executive chairman of the conservative website Breitbart News and onetime Goldman Sachs executive, is an avowed enemy of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. An verbal bomb thrower with ties to the movement, Mr. Bannon may have little interest in compromising with the Congress under its current leadership. He is an unabashed critic of the current immigration system and repeatedly encouraged Mr. Trump to appeal to the party’s base in the closing days of the campaign with arguments against globalization. Mr. Priebus, a party loyalist who tried to reconcile Republican leaders with their renegade nominee, would most likely build bridges to Mr. Ryan and other Republican leaders. A Washington insider with a reputation for being easy to work with, Mr. Priebus would operate a more traditional White House, though given Mr. Trump’s flamboyant personality, traditional is a relative term. In some ways, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Priebus are proxies for the larger battle over what kind of president Mr. Trump will be. Some former Republican officials held out hope that Mr. Trump would be receptive to moderating influences, but others worried that he would simply listen to the last person he spoke to. “You always have that tension between what he said to get elected and what he actually believes,” said John D. Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush. “How selective will his amnesia be?” Mr. Negroponte, a Republican who supported Hillary Clinton in the campaign, said he could imagine senior members of Mr. Trump’s National Security Council warning him about the dangers of “cutting loose countries from our nuclear umbrella,” which Mr. Trump threatened during the campaign to do in reference to Japan and South Korea. But there could be a parallel battle for Mr. Trump’s soul in foreign policy. Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, a retired career intelligence officer who is Mr. Trump’s closest adviser, is a candidate for national security adviser, according to an internal transition document obtained by the conservative news site The Daily Caller, as is Stephen J. Hadley, who served in that capacity for Mr. Bush. Mr. Hadley, who might also be considered for defense secretary, pushed Mr. Bush to undertake the troop surge in Iraq and is closely identified with the military interventionism of that administration. A key figure in the Republican establishment, Mr. Hadley had a hand in Mr. Bush’s second inaugural address, in which he called for the United States to be an evangelist in spreading democracy — something Mr. Trump has flatly rejected. General Flynn, a registered Democrat, has criticized the neoconservative policies of the Bush administration for leading the United States into quagmires like Iraq. “They’ve gotten us into mess after mess for the wrong reasons,” he said, echoing Mr. Trump’s harsh criticism of Mr. Bush during the Republican debates. And like Mr. Trump, General Flynn is withering about the establishment of both parties. It may seem counterintuitive for Mr. Trump to recruit a Bush administration veteran. But Peter D. Feaver, who worked on President Bush’s national security council and now teaches at Duke University, pointed out that Mr. Obama had campaigned “vociferously against the Iraq surge, and then asked the architect of the surge” — Robert M. Gates — “to stay. ” Mr. Gates, as defense secretary, later persuaded Mr. Obama to deploy a similar surge in Afghanistan. “You can say one thing in campaigns, and mean it,” Mr. Feaver said, “and in personnel matters, do the opposite. ” The contest for top economic posts does not expose the same ideological fault lines as those for the White House or national security jobs. But it does raise red flags, given the Street sentiment that Mr. Trump stoked during the campaign. Several of the candidates on his short list for Treasury secretary come from Wall Street, including Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner who was the finance chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign, and Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase. People close to Mr. Dimon said he was not interested in the job. Another candidate is a conservative Texas congressman, Jeb Hensarling, who has called for the repeal the Act, the banking regulations passed after the financial crisis, during Mr. Obama’s first term. The least predictable source of influence on Mr. Trump remains Mr. Obama. For all their differences, and the bitter words they flung at each other during the campaign, the two share traits. Both won the presidency as outsiders, and both hold their party’s establishment in contempt. With Mr. Trump lacking experience or the political coterie that accompanies establishment candidates to Washington, administration officials said Mr. Obama would probably spend more time with him than was typical for other incoming and outgoing presidents. And Mr. Trump, some outsiders predicted, would respect the advice of a president 15 years younger, whose path to the White House was nearly as improbable as his. “If you’re looking at things from a hiring point of view, as Trump does, Obama could have done anything he wanted,” Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, said in reference to Mr. Obama’s career options. “That has to impress Trump. ” | 0fake |
North Dakota Police Arrest Over 140 Pipeline Protesters | Carol Adl in News // 0 Comments
Hundreds of police in riot gear with heavy military equipment have evicted Dakota Access Pipeline protesters from their encampment on private land in the US state of North Dakota. Police have protesters more or less surrounded. #noDAPL pic.twitter.com/G4xGQuXpZM
— Jason Patinkin (@JasonPatinkin) October 27, 2016
The police reportedly arrested at least 141 Native Americans and other demonstrators who are seeking to halt construction of a controversial oil pipeline.
Press TV reports
At least 141 protesters were arrested on Thursday evening and Friday morning as officers attempt to clear a camp on private property in the path of the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Officers in riot helmets used pepper spray and shot beanbag rounds on some of the estimated 330 protesters as helicopters flew overhead.
Demonstrators also allegedly set a car and some tires on fire, giving the scene a war zone-like appearance.
The protesters have been demonstrating for several months, and dozens have been arrested. Police expect additional protests, and possibly more arrests, in the coming days.
Native American protesters had occupied the property that crosses the pipeline’s path since Monday in an effort to stop Energy Transfer Partners’ construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The pipeline has infuriated the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and environmental activists who say it threatens the region’s water supply and sacred tribal sites. The tribe’s reservation is close to the pipeline’s route.
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said police were successful in clearing the camp. “Private property is not the place to carry out a peaceful protest,” he said.
Demonstrators, however, say they aren’t trespassing on private property, citing an 1851 treaty with the US government that says the land belongs to Native American tribes.
The Native American-led protest has grown into a larger movement in the United States, drawing in other tribes, environmentalists and advocates for Native Americans.
The federal government has twice asked the pipeline operator to voluntarily pause construction near the tribe’s reservation while the authorities reconsider the project’s route. But courts have refused to compel a halt.
The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement’s “militarized” response to the activists. “Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace,” Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening. | 1real |
NEOCON FILES: The Kagans Are Back – Wars to Follow | Consortium News Exclusive: The neocon royalty Kagans are counting on Democrats and liberals to be the foot soldiers in the new neocon campaign to push Republicans and President Trump into more regime change wars Robert Perry Consortium News The Kagan family, America s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency.Back pontificating on prominent op-ed pages, the Family Kagan now is pushing for an expanded U.S. military invasion of Syria and baiting Republicans for not joining more enthusiastically in the anti-Russian witch hunt over Moscow s alleged help in electing Donald Trump.In a Washington Post op-ed on March 7, Robert Kagan (photo,left), a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century and a key architect of the Iraq War, jabbed at Republicans for serving as Russia s accomplices after the fact by not investigating more aggressively.Then, Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project at the neocon American Enterprise Institute, and his wife, Kimberly Kagan, president of her own think tank, Institute for the Study of War, touted the idea of a bigger U.S. invasion of Syria in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on March 15.Yet, as much standing as the Kagans retain in Official Washington s world of think tanks and op-ed placements, they remain mostly outside the new Trump-era power centers looking in, although they seem to have detected a door being forced open.Still, a year ago, their prospects looked much brighter. They could pick from a large field of neocon-oriented Republican presidential contenders or like Robert Kagan they could support the establishment Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, whose liberal interventionism matched closely with neoconservatism, differing only slightly in the rationalizations used for justifying wars and more wars.There was also hope that a President Hillary Clinton would recognize how sympatico the liberal hawks and the neocons were by promoting Robert Kagan s neocon wife, Victoria Nuland (photo, left), from Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs to Secretary of State.Then, there would have been a powerful momentum for both increasing the U.S. military intervention in Syria and escalating the New Cold War with Russia, putting regime change back on the agenda for those two countries. So, early last year, the possibilities seemed endless for the Family Kagan to flex their muscles and make lots of money.A Family BusinessAs I noted two years ago in an article entitled A Family Business of Perpetual War : Neoconservative pundit Robert Kagan and his wife, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, run a remarkable family business: she has sparked a hot war in Ukraine and helped launch Cold War II with Russia and he steps in to demand that Congress jack up military spending so America can meet these new security threats. This extraordinary husband-and-wife duo makes quite a one-two punch for the Military-Industrial Complex, an inside-outside team that creates the need for more military spending, applies political pressure to ensure higher appropriations, and watches as thankful weapons manufacturers lavish grants on like-minded hawkish Washington think tanks. Not only does the broader community of neoconservatives stand to benefit but so do other members of the Kagan clan, including Robert s brother Frederick at the American Enterprise Institute and his wife Kimberly, who runs her own shop called the Institute for the Study of War. But things didn t quite turn out as the Kagans had drawn them up. The neocon Republicans stumbled through the GOP primaries losing out to Donald Trump and then after Hillary Clinton muscled aside Sen. Bernie Sanders to claim the Democratic nomination she fumbled away the general election to Trump.After his surprising victory, Trump for all his many shortcomings recognized that the neocons were not his friends and mostly left them out in the cold. Nuland not only lost her politically appointed job as Assistant Secretary but resigned from the Foreign Service, too Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE NEOCON NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire NeoCon FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Hacking attacks: a pre-election setback for Italy's 5-Star Movement | ROME (Reuters) - Hacking attacks on the web platform used by Italy s 5-Star Movement to select representatives and shape policy threaten to dent confidence in its methods before a parliamentary election it is well placed to win. Internet-based direct democracy, in which members vote online, is a hallmark of the anti-establishment group that first entered parliament in 2013 and leads many opinion polls before the election, due to be held by May. Gianroberto Casaleggio, the late internet guru who co-founded 5-Star in 2009, believed the web would eventually supplant representative democracy, the system under which all eligible citizens vote on representatives to pass laws for them. But in August anonymous hackers broke into 5-Star s web platform, called Rousseau after the 18th century Swiss-born philosopher, and obtained secret data on its members and donors. It is unclear whether there will be any impact on 5-Star s election performance. But if it cannot secure its web platforms, it will be hard to continue using the online methods that set it apart from other political groups. Public worries over theft of personal data could also make it difficult for 5-Star to attract new members. It already has only a modest membership although it has won millions of votes at the polls with promises to clean up politics and offer universal income support for the poor. The hacking problem is very serious for 5-Star because it undermines the credibility of their direct democracy message, sociology professor Luca Ricolfi told Reuters. It will probably be overshadowed by bigger issues ahead of the election, but it hurts their image and is something they will absolutely have to resolve. Casaleggio Associati, a web consultancy company that runs 5-Star s platforms and is headed by Gianroberto s son Davide, said security would be improved before the online election of the movement s new leader last month. Despite this, the election was dogged by hacking attacks which hampered voting and contributed to only 37,000 of 5-Star s 140,000 members casting an online ballot. The voting deadline had to be extended twice as members were unable to log on or connect to necessary web pages. One hacker published screenshots showing the system had been infiltrated again and that it had been possible to vote several times using the accounts of certified 5-Star members. Rousseau s content systems are outdated and its level of security is totally inadequate, said David Puente, a computer expert and web developer who worked for Casaleggio Associati for four-and-a-half years until 2011. Umberto Rapetto, a cyber security expert who used to head the computer crime division of Italy s finance police, called Rousseau a rudimentary platform with a host of weak points . Davide Casaleggio declined to answer questions for this article. Puente, a 5-Star member, said it would now be hard to update Rousseau without sacrificing many functions that have been added recently, meaning the only solution was to dismantle everything and start all over again. That would not be easy even if Casaleggio agreed. Hackers around the world have regularly penetrated the computer systems of public agencies and multinational companies with millions of euros to spend on cyber security. Casaleggio Associati has fewer than 20 employees, posted revenues of less than a million euros in 2016 and has run a loss for the last three years. 5-Star s new leader, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, says Rousseau s problems are understandable as it is a startup launched only last year. He says web-based democracy can work not only in 5-Star but in all branches of Italian politics. Yet many computer experts are skeptical about both Rousseau and internet democracy in general. One common criticism is a lack of transparency, as in only two of 5-Star s dozens of online votes has Casaleggio named an independent company to verify the regularity of the process. Critics also say there can be no guarantee that voters are anonymous to platform managers, or that the voter casts only one ballot or is not watched or coerced while he votes. Creating a structure that offers the same guarantees as paper ballots would be incredibly difficult, said cyber security strategist Corrado Giustozzi, a member of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security. | 0fake |
#AfterTrumpImplodes Hashtag Hilariously Imagines What Will Happen In A Post-Trump World | What will the world be like post-Donald Trump? A new hashtag, #AfterTrumpImplodes, is working its way through Twitter, carrying people s predictions about what such a world will be like. This is especially on target right now because Trump is, in fact, imploding, and he s taking the GOP with him. That s inevitably good for a strong social media lashing.Of course, there are predictions about what will happen to the GOP:#AfterTrumpImplodes I ll sell the leftover scraps of the GOP on eBay. JohnyActionSpacePunk (@JohnyAction) August 6, 2016 #AfterTrumpImplodes The resulting black hole will swallow the Republican Party. Mama Says No (@Mamasaysnonono) August 6, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes He ll leave behind a noxious green globule, which will get the GOP nod. Crutnacker (@Crutnacker) August 6, 2016There are tweets making fun of Trump s blatantly unworkable Mexican border wall: #AfterTrumpImplodes this will be the only wall with his name on it. pic.twitter.com/5bTiGaFGIP Linda Childers (@LindaChilders1) August 5, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes he s gonna build a wall, a beautiful wall, around his asylum, and he s gonna make the voices in his head pay for it. Richard Jeter (@MilesToGo13) August 5, 2016 maybe we can build a wall around them #AfterTrumpimplodes https://t.co/zuqlyJX0a1 Kimanne123 (@kimanne123) August 6, 2016And tweets mocking his penchant for touting his own greatness and blaming everyone but himself when the media reports otherwise:He and his followers will blame it on everyone and everything but he and his followers. #AfterTrumpImplodes Lizbuddie (@lizbuddie) August 6, 2016 #AfterTrumpImplodes he ll claim that his mind was rigged, by people with small hands. Token White Karim (@KarimKovacevic) August 6, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes tries to sue Hitler AND Mussolini for flawed campaign strategies as taught at Hitler University Andrew Brodie (@andrewbrodie331) August 6, 2016There s an attack on something that just came to light about Trump s campaign the fact that people with recurring donations can t cancel them: You MIGHT be able to cancel your recurring campaign donation #AfterTrumpImplodes.Then again, maybe not. https://t.co/HU7ESDkr7D Sue Jensen (@suedinym) August 5, 2016And there s the general mocking that always goes along with a hashtag like this:#aftertrumpimplodes Wikileaks will leak the long awatied TrumpTax Returns, we will see he has paid no taxes for the last 12 yrs Michael (@griffbos) August 6, 2016 We all have to lick that orange dust off our fingers for a year. #AfterTrumpImplodes Dean Lopata (@DLoIndustries) August 6, 2016#AfterTrumpImplodes Americans can travel to Europen without pretending to be Canadians (((katesavage))) (@katesavage) August 6, 2016 #aftertrumpimplodes He ll demand to have the codes to Implosions . AEGreallive (@AEGreallive) August 6, 2016It s pretty clear what people think of a Trump implosion. There are some Trumpkins trying to fight the onslaught by saying that he won t implode, that it s Hillary who s imploded, and blah blah blabbity blabbity blah the typical delusional ranting from that crowd. They re mostly being drowned out by people who see Trump for who he really is.Featured image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Parents Of American Woman Held By ISIS Say They Have Been Notified Of Her Death | The parents of an American woman held by the Islamic State group said in a statement on Tuesday that they have been notified of her death.
The White House said Kayla Jean Mueller's family received a message from her captors over the weekend, which was authenticated by the U.S. intelligence community, the Associated Press reports.
On Friday, the Islamic State group released a statement claiming Mueller had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike in Raqqa, Syria. The Jordanian government said later that it was "highly skeptical" about the extremists' statement.
Mueller, who is from Prescott, Arizona, was captured by militants in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013. U.S. officials acknowledged last year that a 26-year-old American woman was being held by the group, but did not identify her out of fears for her safety.
Mueller's family honored her dedication to humanitarian work in their statement on Tuesday, according to The Arizona Republic. "We are so proud of the person Kayla was and the work that she did while she was here with us. She lived with purpose, and we will work every day to honor her legacy," the statement read.
"Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue on in peace, dignity, and love for her," the family said.
The family also released a letter that Mueller wrote while in captivity in 2014, BuzzFeed notes. "I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I'm doing," Mueller wrote. "[I] have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it."
"In how she lived her life, she epitomized all that is good in our world," he said. "No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death."
Mueller had been working in Turkey assisting Syrian refugees, according to a 2013 article in The Daily Courier, her hometown newspaper. She told the paper that she was drawn to help with the situation in Syria.
"For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal," she said. "It's important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done."
A 2007 article about Mueller from the same newspaper said she was a student at Northern Arizona University and was active in the Save Darfur Coalition. A statement from the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Mueller graduated in 2009 and had worked to help people in need in India, Israel, the Palestinian territories and in Arizona.
Mueller is the fourth American to die while being held by Islamic State militants. Three other Americans - journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid worker Peter Kassig - were beheaded by the group.
Journalist Austin Tice, of Houston, Texas, disappeared in August 2012 while covering Syria's civil war. It's not clear what entity is holding him, but it is not believed to be the Islamic State group or the Syrian government, his family has said.
"We are heartbroken to share that we've received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller, has lost her life. "Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice, and peace. In a letter to her father on his birthday in 2011, Kayla wrote: 'I find God in the suffering eyes reflected in mine. If this is how you are revealed to me, this is how I will forever seek you.' 'I will always seek God. Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love; I find God in suffering. I've known for some time what my life's work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.' "Kayla was drawn to help those displaced by the Syrian civil war. She first traveled to Turkey in December, 2012 to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. She told us of the great joy she took in helping Syrian children and their families. "We are so proud of the person Kayla was and the work that she did while she was here with us. She lived with purpose, and we will work every day to honor her legacy. "Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue on in peace, dignity, and love for her. "We remain heartbroken, also, for the families of the other captives who did not make it home safely and who remain in our thoughts and prayers. We pray for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria." | 0fake |
The India-Russia Alliance Isn't Going Anywhere Because It's Underpinned by Values as Well as Interests - Nabarun Roy | People over profits The India-Russia Alliance Isn't Going Anywhere Because It's Underpinned by Values as Well as Interests
There have been hiccups in the relationship before but ultimately the countries are united by far more than they are divided by Originally appeared at The National Interest
With the international system in a state of flux, we are witnessing significant political changes between nations. U.S.-China relations have come under great strain, as evidenced by their adversarial stand with regard to the South China Sea. Russia is ceding space to China with regard to East Asia. There seems to be a return to Cold War–like dynamics between Russia and the United States. It is being reported that Russia has placed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania. The missiles are capable of hitting targets as far away as Berlin. Their differing positions with regard to the crisis in Syria and ISIS underline the tension between the two.
To the surprise of many observers, India-Russia relations, which have stood the test of time, also appear to have been affected by this trend, with Russia apparently upping its security ties with Pakistan, India’s traditional rival. For many in India, Russia’s decision to go ahead with its Druzhba (Friendship) 2016 military exercises with Pakistan immediately after the Uri terrorist incident, and its reticence in fully backing India on terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the recently concluded eighth BRICS Summit in Goa, are seen as worrying developments. From the perspective of a stakeholder in this bilateral relationship, the questions that come to one’s mind are: How worried should one be about these developments in India-Russia relations? Also, what should be done to ensure that there is no fundamental realignment in the relations between the two nations?
If one disregards the almost seventy-year history of relations between the two nations, it would appear that the observation of Rajan Menon , a close follower of India-Russia relations, is being proven wrong: “The two countries have established substantial trust and understanding, a convergent worldview, and a stake in preserving a relationship that few countries can claim to have.” A perusal of the bilateral relation will show that is all not particularly well.
On the security front, the Russians have been stepping up joint military exercises with Pakistan since 2014. The two naval exercises, Arabian Monsoon 2014 and Arabian Monsoon 2015, were followed up by Druzhba 2016, which was a two-week long military exercise conducted in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province involving seventy Russian service personnel.
While the naval exercises had combating crime groups and drug trafficking as their objective, Druzhba 2016 went a step further and had more conventional objectives, like training for combat in mountainous areas and taking on armed groups. India made its dislike of these military exercises known to Russia when India’s ambassador to Russia, Pankaj Saran, pointed out that “military cooperation with Pakistan which is a State that sponsors and practices terrorism as a matter of State policy is a wrong approach and it will only create further problems.”
Parts of Druzhba 2016 were to be held in the Gilgit-Baltistan province of Pakistan, an area India considers to be a part of Jammu and Kashmir, illegally occupied by Pakistan. The spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, told the press that “India repeatedly brought up its concerns about the venue of the exercise with Russia” and that the said province was “part of Indian territory.” This led the Russian embassy in New Delhi to issue a clarification that the military exercises would not be held in any “sensitive or problematic areas.” The exercises were subsequently held in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Additionally, Russia has been selling military hardware to Pakistan. It is believed that the two nations are in discussions regarding the possible sale of Russian Su-35 warplanes to Pakistan. Pakistan also bought four Mi-35 helicopter gunships from Russia in 2015. The Hindustan Times reports that over the last fifteen months, the army, navy and air force chiefs of Pakistan have visited Russia to explore other such military deals. Given the fact that Pakistan is the world’s seventh-largest importer of defense equipment, it could prove to be a lucrative market for Russian arms manufacturers. This could have serious consequences for India-Russia relations.
On the economic front, Russia has agreed to lend $2 billion to Pakistan for the construction of an 1,100-kilometer pipeline to transport liquefied natural gas from Karachi to Lahore. On the diplomatic front, Russia did mention Pakistan in the wake of the Uri attack when it stated , “We note with concern the resurgence of terrorist attacks near the Line of Control. It is alarming and according to New Delhi, the attack on military unit near the town of Uri was committed from the territory of Pakistan.”
However, its activity on the issue of terrorism in the context of the eighth BRICS Summit, held in Goa in October 2016, was less encouraging. Many in India feel that Russia was reticent in backing India’s demands and did not push for the inclusion of terms like “nurture,”“shelter” or “sponsor” in the Summit declaration. The inclusion of these terms would have implicitly pointed fingers in Pakistan’s direction. While the declaration called for action against UN-recognized terrorist groups, and named groups such as Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, it did not name Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Muhammad.
According to Indian strategic expert Brahma Chellaney , “The result was that the declaration failed to mention the most potent form of terrorism in the world, which is state-sponsored.” In the face of opposition from China and its strategy of sheltering Pakistan from India’s diplomatic offensive, Russia simply didn’t stand up for India. This sentiment is illustrated by a headline printed in the Times of India on October 17: “BRICS Summit: China bulldozed India’s security concerns as Russia looked the other way.”
These developments are certainly worrying to those who support positive India-Russia relations. However, once one situates these developments in the context of almost seventy years of bilateral relations, one will realize that downturns and heartburn have occurred in the past as well, with relations stabilizing and returning to normal afterwards. The 1960s were testing times on this front, when Russia started inching closer to Pakistan. Menon points out that in the aftermath of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, Russia diluted its support to India on the Kashmir issue, and “even published material inconsistent with Indian territorial claims against Pakistan.”
Pakistani president Ayub Khan’s 1965 visit to Russia raised many an eyebrow in India. A Pakistani military delegation visited Moscow in 1966, to discuss the purchase of weapons from Russia. This discussion was furthered the following year when Pakistan’s foreign minister visited Moscow. An arms deal was finally clinched when Gen. Yahya Khan visited Moscow some time later. High-ranking Soviet officials also visited Pakistan around the same time period included a naval delegation and Alexei Kosygin, head of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
It was not uncommon to hear voices of disgruntlement from Indians, including Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zakir Hussain. Notwithstanding such tensions, the bilateral relation was put back on the rails. Hence, history suggests that the recent developments may just be a hiccup and that talk of bilateral relations fraying is nothing more than scaremongering and, possibly, hyperbole.
This optimistic interpretation is bolstered when one notes that India and Russia struck important defense deals on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Goa—such as a $5 billion deal for India’s purchase of the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system. Considered to be one of the most advanced antimissile systems in the world, it will be used to protect to high-value installations. The two countries also signed deals pertaining to India’s import and manufacture of Kamov Ka 226T light utility helicopters. The two countries will also be collaborating in the manufacture of four Admiral Grigorovich–class guided-missile stealth frigates.
Significantly, it was announced that India would also be leasing an Akula II–class nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia for a sum of $2 billion. Writing in Business Standard, Ajai Shukla suggests that this would not be in addition to the existing nuclear submarine that was leased from Russia (and christened INS Chakra) in 2012. Instead, it will replace the INS Chakra and is expected to join the Indian Navy in 2020–21. Hence, for about two years, India will be in the possession of two such submarines, after which INSChakra will be sent back to Russia. In order to counter misgivings in India, and to underscore that the bilateral relations were built on trust and time-tested imperatives, a “top ranked Russian defense official” is reported to have remarked that “Russia is a friend, an ally and not a business partner. Russia stood by India during its darkest hours. Next year will mark 70 years of our relationship. It is a long time.”
A balanced, historically informed reading of the bilateral relation between India and Russia suggests that naysayers in India may be jumping the gun in harboring misgivings about threats to a time-tested relationship. However, one factor seems missing in the current bilateral relation that was present earlier, at least on the Indian side: admiration for the erstwhile USSR and some of the values it espoused. Indian-Soviet relations during the Cold War years were based on expediency and also on values. Some of the letters that Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to the chief ministers of the Indian states in 1955 (to be found in his Letters to Chief Ministers, Vol. 4) following his visit to the USSR make it clear that India’s engagement during the Cold War was based on his admiration of the USSR, even though he was aware of its failings. The fact that the “pull” worked both ways is made evident by Nehru, who writes, “I was astonished to find how popular some Indian films were. The names of several films were mentioned to me. The only two I remember now are Awara and Do Bigha Zamin.”
Given how central Nehru was to Indian politics, and his ability to shape the political discourse in the country, this sense of admiration for the USSR struck root in the Indian body politic. Bilateral relations based on expediency as well as values lived on, even after his death. As a result, when tensions did emerge between them, as was the case in the 1960s, the “glue” that bound India and Russia at a foundational level ensured that the drift was not permanent. The relationship encompassed the state and society on both sides. A dynamic that encompassed values ensured that things could be brought back on track should the narrower self-interest component of the relationship suffer.
International-relations scholars like Ian Hurd have pointed out that relations based purely on self-interest last as long as clear benefits accrue to the parties concerned. According to Hurd , “Actors are constantly recalculating the expected payoff to remaining in the system and stand ready to abandon it should some alternative promise greater utility.” Such relationships have a tendency to “defect” or have revisionism built into them. However, relationships based on something more than self-interest can check the tendency towards revisionism.
It is but natural that once the Cold War generation fades in India, the attraction and pull towards Russia and its ideals will also weaken. It would not be inaccurate to say that the current generation of Indians is much less enamored with Russia than the previous generation, which grew up in the Cold War years. In fact, the United States seems to have a greater following among the new generation of Indians than does Russia. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2015, 70 percent of Indians who were polled viewed the United States favorably, with 75 percent of those in the age bracket of 18–29 seeing the United States in a positive light. Russia trailed the United States, with 43 percent of Indians seeing it in a positive light. While 8 percent of Indians polled viewed the United States in a negative light, twice as many—16 percent—viewed Russia in a negative light.
Should decisionmakers in New Delhi and Moscow want to ensure that the bilateral relationship is not endangered significantly, they need to examine its softer, ideational element. To what extent do values still underpin bilateral relations, and what is the extent of the erosion of values? They need to identify and inject elements into the relation that will buttress the dimension of self-interest with a value-based one.
The challenge is made greater given that socialism is no longer the principal vocabulary in the relationship. Some have argued that in order to maintain the health of bilateral relations, scientific and technological relations have to be deepened, joint manufacturing given a boost, and a convergence of views on terrorism put in place. Whether these measures will be sufficient to sustain India-Russia ties in the twenty-first century needs to be pondered.
Should one doubt the efficacy of values in the politics among nations, given the depiction of international relations as the domain of amoral and self-interested conduct in the shadow of anarchy, one ought to pay heed to Henry Kissinger, and the arch-realist’s reasoning for the success of the Concert of Europe system. The Concert system was inaugurated in 1815, in the aftermath of the drawn-out French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
It consisted of dialogue and negotiation among the great powers, a commitment to the status quo based on conservative values, and modifications of boundaries based on discussion and not the unilateral use of force. It is believed that the absence of systemwide great-power wars barring the Crimean War was due to the Concert system. In the face of increasing offensive capabilities of nations spurred on by the Industrial Revolution; leaders who accepted risk and were interested in pushing the limits of the status quo, such as Czar Nicholas I; and the slow onset of nationalism across Europe, peace in Europe largely held. This was no mean feat.
Kissinger argues in his book Diplomacy that even though the Concert was created in the name of the balance of power, it relied shared values among the great powers. According to him, “There was not a physical equilibrium but a moral one.” The power and value-based components of the Concert system was propped up by two separate arrangements: the Quadruple Alliance and the Holy Alliance. While the first alliance was based on balance of power principles, the second addressed the moral dimension of the Concert system and used religion as a glue to bind the great powers together.
The British were not impressed with the Holy Alliance, with Lord Castlereagh referring to it as “a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense.” Notwithstanding this, it is believed that the Concert system managed to avert great-power wars for almost a century thanks to its two dimensions: self-interest based on balance-of-power calculations, and values. The injection of values through the Holy Alliance had the role of checking revisionist tendencies among the great powers, which was not only dependent on the accrual of benefits.
The fact that India-Russia relations will face setbacks is inevitable. Whether the setbacks will be seen as aberrations, or whether they will herald a sustained drift, will in many ways be determined by the salience of shared values between the two nations. | 1real |
LGBT VOLUNTEERS Aren’t Waiting To Be Thrown Off A Rooftop…Join Fight Against ISIS In Syria | A group of volunteer soldiers announced this week the first ever LGBT unit formed to kick ISIS butt.The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army, or TQILA (pronounced Tequila ), is now fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria, the group announced Monday, according to Newsweek. TQILA s members have watched in horror as fascist and extremist forces around the world have attacked the Queer community and murdered countless of our community members citing that they are ill, sick and unatural, the volunteer fighters group, International Revolution People s Guerilla Forces (IRPGF), wrote on Twitter when announcing the formation of the new unit.The IRPGF is a group of foreign fighters who traveled to northern Syria to fight ISIS alongside the Kurdish militia, People s Protection Unit, known as YPG. The images of gay men being thrown off roofs and stoned to death by Daesh was something we could not idly watch, they said.The group also posted an image of two soldiers brandishing a banner reading, These f s kill fascists, in front their logo, a pink flag with a black AK-47 machine gun, and a rainbow flag in Raqqa, with the caption #Queers smashing the caliphate. These Faggots Kill Fascists! We shoot back! The Black & Pink and Rainbow flag fly in Raqqa. #Queers smashing the Caliphate. #TQILA #YPJ #YPG pic.twitter.com/eBCssrbjMI IRPGF (@IRPGF) July 24, 2017ISIS courts have declared homosexuality a capital offense punishable by death. Since its rise in Iraq in 2014, the terrorist group has released anti-gay propaganda showing men accused of homosexuality blindfolded and being thrown off roofs in front of large crowds, and then stoned if they survived the fall.ISIS also claimed responsibility for the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting last year, in which gunman Omar Mateen murdered 49 people. New York Post | 1real |
Republicans barnstorm Iowa after debate, as underdogs show new life | If there’s one message the Republican presidential candidates not named Donald Trump aimed to get across at the final debate before Iowa’s caucuses, it was this: 50 states still have to vote, and a lot could change when they do.
“We're just starting. The first vote hasn't been counted. Why don't we let the process work?” Jeb Bush said in Des Moines.
The GOP contenders are barnstorming the Hawkeye State Friday on the heels of the Fox News/Google debate, where Trump’s absence put a spotlight on candidates like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio – but also gave the race’s underdogs a chance to engage on the issues, and even capture airtime that eluded them when the front-runner was onstage.
Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, in particular, were getting high marks Friday from analysts. The former Florida governor was seen as having one of his best debate performances of the campaign -- including pointed criticism of his former protégé Rubio -- perhaps benefiting from not having to worry about Trump belittling his every comment. And Paul, after missing the cut in the last debate, returned to the main stage with a firm critique of his rivals’ alleged inconsistencies on immigration, surveillance and more.
In Iowa, those candidates may simply be too far behind in the polls for a strong debate showing to make much difference.
But the night helped show that few candidates are conceding anything to front-runner Trump, or the other two top-polling candidates, Cruz and Rubio.
Asked Friday if he changed any minds at the debate, Bush said, “I hope so.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, too, played the role Thursday of disenchanted Washington outsider, scolding the Florida and Texas senators after an immigration spat and quipping that he needed a Washington “dictionary” to decipher what they were saying.
"This is why you need to send someone outside of Washington to Washington," Christie said. "Stop the Washington bull and let's get things done."
With Trump out of the picture – boycotting the debate over complaints about Fox News, instead hosting a veterans event nearby – Cruz absorbed much of the criticism from the other GOP candidates.
He and Rubio tangled the most, as Rubio tries to make up ground against Cruz in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
In their most heated exchange, Rubio accused Cruz of falsely describing himself as the most conservative candidate, and changing his position on immigration.
“This is the lie that Ted’s campaign is built on,” the Florida senator said. “Throughout this campaign, you’ve been willing to say and do anything in order to get votes.”
He said Cruz used to talk about bringing immigrants out of the shadows, and, “now, you want to trump Trump on immigration.”
The Texas senator flipped the allegation, saying it is Rubio who vowed to fight against “amnesty” and then reversed course for political expediency.
“I like Marco, he’s very charming, he’s very smooth,” Cruz said, before accusing him of siding with donors in the immigration debate.
Bush later sparred as well with Rubio on immigration. Bush said Rubio sponsored the “gang of eight” bill that allowed for legalization, but “then he cut and run” because it wasn’t popular with conservatives.
The debate marked a particular opportunity for Paul – who did not qualify for the recent Fox Business Network debate but returned to the prime-time stage Thursday after making the cut this time.
"It's great to be back," Paul said Thursday.
Paul, despite struggling with low poll numbers, seemed to have plenty of supporters in the audience, as his responses drew applause from the crowd several times. He also took shots at both Cruz and Rubio on their records.
Echoing Cruz' criticism, he said Rubio made a deal with Democrats on immigration and suggested he was weak on border security.
At the same time, Paul suggested Cruz was being disingenuous by claiming he was never for "amnesty." He said Cruz has an "authenticity problem."
The debate Thursday, with 12.5 million viewers, was the second-highest rated telecast in Fox News’ history.
Also on stage Thursday night were retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Carson’s standout moment seemed to come at the end of the debate, when he used his closing statement to recite the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
“Please think of our founding fathers as you listen,” Carson asked. After reading aloud the Preamble -- including its call for a “more perfect union” – he said, “Folks, it’s not too late. Enough said.”
The polls in the Hawkeye State show essentially a two-man race for first between Trump and Cruz in the final stretch. Rubio has been holding steady in third position, while Carson’s numbers have been on a downward course in recent weeks.
After Iowa, the candidates head to New Hampshire, where Trump also leads but several other candidates are jockeying for position behind him. | 0fake |
Trump Says He’ll Bring Back Controversial Interrogation Tactic: “It’s peanuts compared to what they do to us” [VIDEO] | We reported about Trump making similar comments back in August HERE. More than ever, America desires a leader who will keep our nation safe. While the leftist media cringes at just about everything Trump says, his poll numbers continue to climb. Maybe it s not really a mystery why Trump is doing so well in the polls Maybe America is just 100% Fed Up with a weakling in the White House who doesn t appear to have our best interests at heart and we re looking for someone who is actually interested in winning the war on terror Sunday on ABC s This Week, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would bring back waterboarding as an interrogation technique because he said, I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they re doing us. When asked about a Muslim database Trump explained, I want a database for the refugees that if they come into the country. We have no idea who these people are when the Syrian refugees start pouring into this country. We don t know if it s ISIS. I definitely want a database and other checks and balances. We have no idea who s being sent in here. It could be the great Trojan Horse of all time. when they come in. When I look at the migration and the lines and I see all strong, very powerful looking men, they re men, very few women and children, There s something strange going on. When asked if we should bring back enhanced interrogation like waterboarding Trump said, We have to be strong. They don t use waterboarding, they used chopping off peoples heads. They use drowning people. I don t know if you have seen with the cages, where they put people in cages and they drown them in the ocean and they lift out the cage, and we are taking about waterboarding I would bring it back, yes, I would bring it back. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they re doing us. What they did to James Foley, when they chopped off his head. That s a whole different level. I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Congresswoman BLASTS GOP For Confirming Lifelong Racist Jeff Sessions On First Day Of Black History Month (TWEETS) | Many people observe Black History Month by learning about important African-American figures in our nation s history or otherwise doing something that isn t horrible then there are Republicans, who have their own ways to celebrate.Donald Trump spent Wednesday hanging out with all the black people he has paid and bribed to like him and having them shower him with compliments. While treating African-Americans as nothing more than subservient praise machines is, oh, let s just say bad, The Donald s friends on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent the early part of theirconfirming lifelong opponent of civil rights Jeff Sessions day as Attorney General (every Democrat voted against him).Sessions confirmation especially on Wednesday or any day during Black History Month was a slap in the face to African-Americans and all who care about equal rights in this country. Many have criticized Republicans for their decision to consider Sessions who was once deemed too racist to be a federal judge because he threw the n-word around and liked calling African-Americans boy at all, but the GOP was perfectly happy to push his nomination through.Following Sessions ascension to a post that, to use terms familiar to him, is just below Grand Wizard, Rep. Barbara Lee took to Twitter to put Trump and his GOP Klavern on blast. Trump says he s honoring #BlackHistoryMonth How? By nominating Jeff Sessions as AG? Or by promoting alt-right leader Steve Bannon? she wrote in one tweet, adding that The Donald is paying lip service to Black History Month while propping up racist Sessions and longtime white supremacist Steve Bannon and their ideas.Trump says he s honoring #BlackHistoryMonth. How? By nominating Jeff Sessions as AG? Or by promoting alt-right leader Steve Bannon? Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) February 1, 2017Here s an idea @POTUS : Instead of offering lip service this #BlackHistoryMonth, why not work with @OfficialCBC to end systematic racism? Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) February 1, 2017 If you truly want to honor Black History Month, she tells Trump, you should start by apologizing to civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis, whom Trump attacked repeatedly for the entire weekend preceding Martin Luther King Day.President Trump: if you truly want to honor #BlackHistoryMonth, you should start by apologizing to civil rights hero @repjohnlewis. Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) February 1, 2017 On 1st day of #BlackHistoryMonth, GOP Senators on Judiciary voted unanimously for Jeff Sessions AG nomination. This is a slap in the face, she added.On 1st day of #BlackHistoryMonth, GOP Senators on Judiciary voted unanimously for Jeff Sessions AG nomination. This is a slap in the face. Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) February 1, 2017This is a slap in the face to African-Americans, but we can not expect Trump or his GOP cronies to do anything for African-Americans at all, let alone apologize for the attacks on Lewis or fight any kind of racism. In fact, the man they just confirmed as AG is more likely to continue the GOP s mission of eroding African-Americans civil rights while promoting his and Donald Trump s white supremacist agenda.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
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