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Give Social Security recipients a CEO-style raise | (CNN) On Veterans Day we recognize and honor the sacrifices our service members and their families make for our country. We owe our service members the very best, but unless Congress acts, on January 1 more than 9 million veterans who rely on Social Security benefits or pension and compensation benefits will not get their annual cost of living increase.
This freeze in funds, which has happened only two other times since 1975, will be really tough on veterans among the 71 million Americans who depend on Social Security and other benefits to help make ends meet. Two-thirds of seniors depend on Social Security for the majority of their income, and for 15 million Americans, Social Security is all that stands between them and poverty.
While vets and seniors get no raise, CEOs at the top 350 American companies received, on average, a 3.9% pay increase last year. That's a lot of money. The average CEO at one of the top 350 American companies made $16.3 million and got more than half a million in pay raises. So CEOs get huge raises, while seniors, veterans and others who've worked hard don't get an extra dime. Why? It's not an accident. It's not inevitable. It's the result of deliberate policies set by Congress.
Social Security is supposed to be indexed to inflation so that when prices go up, benefits go up, too. But Congress' formula samples the spending patterns of about a quarter of the country, and the formula isn't geared to what older Americans actually spend.
Projections for the costs of core goods and services show inflation is up about 2%, but seniors won't get a cost of living increase -- mostly because of falling gasoline prices, which don't mean as much to millions of seniors who don't commute to work. So seniors, who are already struggling to scrape by to cover rent and exploding prescription drug prices , will be left scrambling.
Sure, companies should make their own decisions about how much to compensate executives, but because of the laws Congress has passed, American taxpayers are forced to subsidize these multimillion-dollar pay packages.
It's time for Congress to make different choices. That's why last week I introduced the Seniors And Veterans Emergency (SAVE) Benefits Act. The SAVE Benefits Act will give seniors on Social Security, veterans, those with disabilities and others a one-time payment in 2016 equivalent to an average increase of 3.9% -- the same as the taxpayer-subsidized raise that CEOs received last year.
We can afford to give seniors and vets a raise. In fact, we can increase pay for seniors and vets without adding a single penny to the deficit simply by closing the bonus loophole for corporate executives. According to the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, closing this loophole will create enough revenue to help millions of Americans and still have enough left over to help extend the life of the Social Security trust fund.
Seniors and vets would get an increase of about $581 next year — a little less than $50 a month. That $581 increase would cover almost three months of groceries for seniors or a year's worth of out-of-pocket costs on critical prescription drugs for the average Medicare beneficiary. That $50 a month is worth a lot to those 71 million Americans. According to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, that little boost could lift more than 1 million Americans out of poverty.
Giving vets and seniors a little help and stitching up these corporate tax write-offs isn't just about economics; it's about our values. For too long, we've listened to a handful of people with money and power who say: Cut taxes for those at the top, cut rules and regulations that keep everyone honest, and let everyone else fight over the scraps. We tried trickle-down economics, and it failed.
But we can make different choices -- choices that reflect our values. We don't have to ignore this problem. We can give a small boost to 71 million Americans who have earned it and who need it.
We can lift over 1 million people out of poverty. We can extend the life of Social Security. And we can do it by shutting down taxpayer giveaways to a handful of wealthy corporations that will do fine without them. For me, this is simple. Our spending should reflect our values, and that means passing the SAVE Benefits Act. | 0fake |
Netflixs CEO says entertainment pills could be the next big thing | link Everyone is familiar with the saying 'Netflix and Chill,' but Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has an even better idea, 'Netflix and Chill Pill.' That's not the actual brand or product name, but more of a concept that Hastings introduced at a recent tech conference for the Wall Street Journal. When speaking about the future of Netflix, Hastings said that, while movies and TV shows may be all the rage now, he anticipates they'll eventually become obsolete and will be rivaled by pharmaceutical substitutes, "like a pill that entertains you." This according to a tweet from the Wall Street Journal. Netflix's CEO says entertainment pills could be the next big thing This article struck me as funny....so Netflix own CEO is saying the next big thing in entertainment at home is a pill? I wonder how close his ties are with BIG PHARMA? This is a really crazy thing for a CEO of a major company to be suggesting....drugs for entertainment purposes...sounds like he is trying to progress towards legalization of something to actually entertain us while we watch TV. Coming soon to a pharmacy near you...The Netflix and Chill Pill....knowing what "Netflix and Chill" actually means I think the phrase he used kinda promotes rape in the form he said it though...."here baby...take this pill before we start the movie....don't worry....it is for entertainment purposes" Anywho....just the next big thing in drugs for our mindless youth to get caught up in! | 1real |
Czech election winner Babis warms to minority government | PRAGUE (Reuters) - The anti-establishment ANO party that won the Czech parliamentary election may form a minority government if other parties remain opposed to forming a coalition, ANO chief Andrej Babis said on Friday. The ANO won 29.6 percent in last weekend s vote, nearly three times as much as the runner-up centre-right Civic Democrats, but fell short of a majority in parliament, a fractious chamber of nine parties. ANO s stance against immigration and corruption in mainstream parties, pledges to bring effective government and a centrist economic program drew voters away from parties that dominated Czech politics from the end of communism, echoing a swing to anti-system and anti-immigrant parties across Europe. Babis has held talks with the eight other parties holding parliamentary seats but was spurned by all apart from the far-right, anti-European SPD, not his preferred coalition partner. If we are rejected everywhere, we will try a minority government, Babis, a billionaire businessman, told the www.idnes.cz website, part of a media group he owned until it was shifted to a trust fund this year. And we will come with an agenda that partially meets the programs of all parties. Babis has however also set more rounds of talks with all parties, and said he would wait to see how the situation develops after the new parliament first convenes on Nov. 20. ANO has 78 of the 200 seats in parliament. Most parties shun Babis because he faces charges of fraud. Police say he hid ownership of a farm and conference center near Prague in 2008 so it could qualify for a 2 million euro EU subsidy that was only meant for small business. He denies any wrongdoing and says the charges were politically motivated. Babis s Agrofert group, placed in a trust fund earlier this year, spans over 250 companies in chemicals, food, farming and media around central Europe including Germany. Forbes puts his net worth at $4 billion. The mix of business, media and political power, plus his domineering style and wish to simplify parliamentary procedures, have prompted accusations that he is a threat to democracy. He denies this, saying he only wants to move the country forward. Pledges not to join a Babis-led cabinet were at the heart of most parties pre-election agendas, making any turnaround tough despite positions similar to ANO on policies like infrastructure investment, tax cuts and greater government transparency. Babis again sought to dispel fears he would be anti-European fanned by his opposition to adopting the euro currency and deeper European integration, and the possibility his cabinet could lean on eurosceptic votes from the SPD camp. I see no reason why we should leave the European Union. Europe is a project thanks to which we have peace, free movement of people, goods, capital and services, he told Friday s daily Pravo. Babis added, however, that the EU needed to better protect its external borders against inward migration and draw lessons from Britain s decision to quit the EU largely over sovereignty and immigration issues. | 0fake |
#WarOnChristmas: Starbucks Attempts To Capitalize On Christmas By Erasing Any Sign Of Christmas From “Red Cup” | War on Christmas update: Some very clever people are asking you to join their campaign to remind Starbucks and their customers that Christmas is more than a red holiday!Social media has seized on the year-on-year stripping of Christmas-themed symbols from Starbucks famous Red Cups , with angry users tweeting #MerryChristmasStarbucks following a Breitbart London report on the company s War on Christmas .When the coffee chain launched their 2015 seasonal cup design there was a marked difference from prior years, with no actual decoration being offered on the 2015 cups. The #RedCups press release described the cups as a more open way to usher in the holiday. Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam broke the story last week, with CNN, the Huffington Post, the Telegraph, TIME magazine and others all following Breitbart s lead on the story of Christmas being eroded from the annually marketed Starbucks Christmas cups or Red Cups. Members of the British Parliament, as well as Christian charities spoke out against the move, with Sir David Amess MP telling Breitbart London: This is utter madness. Who was the idiot who thought this up? He should be sacked! Prior years have brandished illustrations from Christmas ornaments over evergreen tree branches to merry carolers and reindeer. Other years have been less obviously Christmas, but this year s offering bears zero illustrative reference to the Christmas season.Several stories have followed pondering the cultural war on Christmas and whether this year s Starbucks seasonal cups are indicative of a greater cultural cleansing of Christmas in the West.Some coffee shops haven t forgotten to remember Christmas is the reason we celebrate this season:#MerryChristmasStarbucks (from @DunkinDonuts this morning) pic.twitter.com/4I7IsDM5TQ Michael Graham (@IAMMGraham) November 9, 2015Social media commenters indicated their disappointment with the naked design. In one video, customer Joshua Feuerstein suggested that customers give their name as Merry Christmas to add a measure of Christmas back in to their coffee drinking experience.Can I get a name for your cup? Sure. "Merry Christmas" #MerryChristmasStarbucks pic.twitter.com/lFgFASnBsi Jay Carr (@Jay_Carr) November 6, 2015As the Red Cups story developed, #MerryChristmasStarbucks began trending on social media. Both those attempting to re-infuse Christmas into the season and those who refuse the idea of a cultural war on Christmas to those that just think the new design is simply boring have utilised the hashtag.Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is no stranger to controversy and political correctness. One example is the company engaging in efforts to legalize homosexual marriage. In the wake of a boycott from a pro-traditional marriage group Schultz lashed back. At a shareholder s meeting in March 2013, Schultz proclaimed that a shareholder concerned with effects of the political endeavors on earnings could sell their shares. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
New Syria Talks End Quickly, Giving Little Hope to a Beleaguered Aleppo - The New York Times | LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Talks among the United States, Russia and critical Middle East states aimed at brokering a new pause in Syria’s war broke up after a few hours on Saturday without signs of progress, or a break in the Syrian government’s ferocious assault on parts of the city of Aleppo. Secretary of State John Kerry began the talks in the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne, meeting one on one with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov. Their encounter, described as “businesslike” by a State Department spokesman, John Kirby, came 12 days after Washington suspended bilateral contacts with Moscow and called for a war crimes investigation into Russian actions in Syria. Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov then headed into talks with the foreign ministers from regional powers involved in the conflict, including Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, along with the United Nations mediator, Staffan de Mistura. The diplomats left about four hours later with terse comments that gave away nothing of substance. Before the talks began, both sides played down prospects of a breakthrough. Mr. Kerry, who was expected to leave Sunday for talks in London with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, told reporters that discussions with Russia and the Middle Eastern states would resume on Monday. Mr. Lavrov went into the talks saying he would focus on fulfilling an earlier agreement that called for separating rebels in Syria from jihadist groups like the Nusra Front, which is linked to Al Qaeda and now calls itself the Levant Conquest Front. He emerged from the meetings saying only that the parties had discussed “some ideas” and had agreed to meet in coming days, “expecting certain agreements which would help promote” a settlement, the news agency reported. That brought no prospect of early relief for the beleaguered quarter of a million residents of eastern Aleppo, who are facing what international aid agencies have called the heaviest bombardment since the collapse of a truce three weeks ago. Syrian and Russian aircraft bombed four hospitals in Aleppo on Friday, causing severe damage to a major trauma facility, Doctors Without Borders reported, calling it the worst damage inflicted on already battered health facilities since the end of September. An ambulance driver was killed and two doctors were wounded on Friday, Doctors Without Borders said. At least 62 people were killed, and more than 465 people were wounded in the bombing and shelling over the previous three days, the group said. United Nations agencies say several hundred residents of eastern Aleppo desperately need medical evacuation, and the agencies have prepared hospitals in Syria and Turkey to receive them. However, efforts to get the wounded and sick out, or to provide the city with food and medical supplies, have been blocked by the fighting. “The indiscriminate bombing campaign has taken a clear turn for the worse,” Carlos Francisco, the head of the Syria mission for Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement on Saturday. “By damaging the few remaining places where lives can be saved, it is clear that Syria and Russia are squeezing the life out of eastern Aleppo. ” | 0fake |
Sean Hannity Loses His Cool on Air and Goes Completely Nuclear on 'Never Trump' Movement | Getty - Saul Loeb/AFP 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.
Sean Hannity took to the radio on Wednesday and was upfront about how he really feels about conservatives who refuse to vote for Trump.
He kicked off his explosive rant by telling his listeners that he's “pissed,” and said:
"In 13 freaking days, we are either going to make a decision to keep screwing the country up or we are going to try and fix it. That's what's at stake here.
You want to get 95 million Americans back to work, you want to get the economy going, you want a president that has the courage to say 'radical Islam.'
You want to not bring in refugees from countries that have laws that are the antithesis of our constitutional values.
You want to control the borders, you want become energy independent, you want to eliminate Obamacare, you want to fix are dilapidated piece of crap educational system, this is your chance."
Then, he went nuclear on the “Never Trump” movement.
You can listen to Hannity's full rant, below : | 1real |
BARACK AND MICHELLE Reportedly Offered $60 MILLION For Memoirs…Wait Till You See Our Exclusive Sneak Peek | It was just announced today that the Obama s are in the middle of a bidding war by publishers for their memoirs.The rights for Barack and Michelle Obama s memoirs will sell for at least $60 million, according to a report from the Financial Times.The eventual total price tag will include a book from both the former President and First Lady. The couple plans to write their memoirs separately, but sell the rights of their finished accounts together as a package, according to the Financial Times report. Penguin Random House, who published former President Obama s three other books, reportedly leads the chase, but HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan are also in the hunt, according to the Financial Times. TimeHere s our sneak peek at the Obama s memoirs. The good news is they won t need much ink or paper. This pretty much sums it up: | 1real |
Deputy attorney general sees no need for Russia probe special prosecutor: CNN | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein does not see a need at this time for a special prosecutor to investigate allegations Russia meddled in the U.S. election and possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, CNN reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. | 0fake |
Chapo extradition seen boosting U.S.-Mexico security relations under Trump | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Irrespective of whether Mexico’s decision to extradite drug kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman aimed to honor outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama or appease his successor, Donald Trump, law enforcement from both countries say it bodes well for security cooperation. Guzman, the feared boss of the Sinaloa cartel who shot to international stardom after two jailbreaks, was extradited from a prison in northern Mexico to New York on Thursday, the eve of Trump’s inauguration. While some Mexican government officials believed Guzman’s removal served as a valediction for Obama’s presidency, others saw it as an opening gambit in what are likely to be fraught trade negotiations with a seemingly unfriendly Trump administration. But current and former law enforcement officials on both sides of the border said the move would boost security cooperation and could even upgrade relations. “What happened today is something that’s a victory for both Mexico and the United States,” said Leo Silva, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey until 2015. “This will obviously improve things.” According to a senior U.S. law enforcement official based in Mexico, both U.S. and Mexican security forces were already “three steps ahead” in identifying the next Chapo. “From the Mexico side, they work with us a lot, a lot more than people think,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak with press. “They think they’re going to get more support from us, they’re on line and I really don’t see a huge change. If anything, an improvement.” Security cooperation has not always run smoothly, and Mexico, with its proud, nationalist leanings, has often chafed at what it views as U.S. intrusion in its affairs. Silva said after Vicente Fox became president in 2000, Mexico gave less access to U.S. law enforcement. However, Fox’s successor, Felipe Calderon, was more willing to accept U.S. help, and Silva said he could even pick up the phone and call then-Attorney General Marisela Morales. The election of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s Enrique Pena Nieto in 2012 represented a fresh set-back, with U.S. officials initially kept at arm’s length and a new attorney general appointed, Jesus Murillo Karam, who Silva called “standoffish.” Nonetheless, after a rocky start, relations soon warmed and U.S. intelligence, particularly the U.S. Marshals who track fugitives, became a key component in many of the high-profile busts that have taken place under Pena Nieto. “It’s similar to what we were doing and receiving under Calderon, except that this current administration doesn’t talk about it or publicize that they’re working together,” said one former DEA agent who worked on Mexican cases. After the victory of Trump, who has threatened to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement, slap tariffs on U.S. firms manufacturing in Mexico and deport millions of illegal immigrants, some speculated years of hard-won security cooperation would fray as Mexico sought to show it wouldn’t be pushed around by the brash New Yorker. But behind the bluster, law enforcement officials from both countries said that was unlikely to happen, and that the situation could even improve if Trump, a law-and-order Republican who has repeatedly voiced his support for police and soldiers, focused more on combating Mexican cartels. “The crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential,” Trump said during his inauguration speech on Friday. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” A Mexican anti-corruption official swatted away the notion that Mexico could shut out the United States on security issues. “The government is going to continue the policy that it has always had of combating organized crime,” he said. Vito Guardino, who worked for the DEA for 30 years, said the U.S. government used extradition as a yardstick to measure other countries’ willingness to cooperate. But if the United States didn’t get what it wanted, he said, it found ways of forcing other nations to play ball, a reality unlikely to be lost on Mexico, which is heavily reliant on U.S. trade. For example, Guardino said that when Colombia stopped extraditing drug traffickers to the United States in the late 1980s, the U.S. government used a carrot-and-stick approach, threatening sanctions while drawing up the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia. By that metric, Chapo’s removal represents a calculated show of faith on the part of Mexico, which has also signaled to Trump’s team it is open to reinforcing the northern border to curb drug smuggling and illegal migration. The high-stakes political tensions were, however, only one way of looking at things, Guardino and many others said. Relationships with foreign law enforcement officials often take years to build and rely on trust in dangerous circumstances. | 0fake |
Kremlin says Putin, Trump to speak by phone on Tuesday: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will speak by phone on Tuesday, RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Trump will speak with Putin on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. EDT, the White House said on Monday night. A senior Trump administration official said the two leaders would likely discuss the civil war in Syria, where Moscow backs the government of Bashar al-Assad and the United States supports rebels trying to overthrow him. | 0fake |
Angela Merkel to Seek 4th Term as Germany’s Leader - The New York Times | BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, under siege domestically but widely seen as a pillar of Western liberalism, announced on Sunday that she will seek a fourth term next year. Slightly hoarse but clearly determined after consulting leaders of her conservative Christian Democratic party, Ms. Merkel said the decision to seek a fourth term was “anything but trivial,” for her country, for her party and for herself. A scientist with a manner, Ms. Merkel rejected the idea that, after the election of Donald J. Trump as president in the United States, she had a lone role in keeping Western liberalism alive. “That is grotesque, even almost absurd,” she told reporters. But she also said that the campaign ahead of the German elections in fall 2017 would be unlike any other she has fought in an increasingly polarized country. She faces stronger challenges on the right and left, while the war in Syria, the arrival of large numbers of migrants and the continuing euro crisis tear at Germany and place new demands on its people. Since the election in the United States, speculation had mounted that Ms. Merkel would bow to pressure to run again and uphold liberal values in a world transformed by Mr. Trump’s victory and Britain’s vote last summer to leave the European Union. Ms. Merkel, 62, has served 11 years as chancellor. She is the first woman and the first person raised in Communist East Germany to hold the post. Since coming to power in 2005, Ms. Merkel has gradually acquired a political stature commensurate with the power of her country, Western Europe’s largest economy and its most populous nation, with about 81 million inhabitants. But her image as the cautious caretaker of her country’s interests has suffered over the past year, after she opened Germany to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers, many of them Muslim refugees fleeing wars in the Middle East and Africa. The prospect of integrating almost 1 million newcomers into Germany has weakened Ms. Merkel’s standing at home, despite garnering some praise, particularly from President Obama. Visiting Berlin last week, Mr. Obama lavished compliments on his ally in his eight years in office, saying that if he were German, he would vote for her. Ms. Merkel responded to the election of Mr. Trump with a robust appeal for him to follow Western values and respect human dignity. This, she said, was the basis of any close cooperation. Even as commentators and leaders outside Germany invoked her stature, Ms. Merkel has been eager not to hog the limelight. “One person alone can never solve everything,” she said on Friday at a news conference with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain. “We are strong only together. In that, I want to do what my duty is as chancellor. ” In the days before her party leadership met on Sunday, several Christian Democrats said that the next parliamentary elections would be difficult to win with Ms. Merkel, but impossible to win without her. As she entered the atrium of her party headquarters on Sunday, she was applauded by about two dozen people on a balcony. While Ms. Merkel mentioned several times that her ability to continue would be contingent on good health, she showed little weariness and gradually became almost feisty as she outlined the challenges to German industry and citizens in the 21st century. Germans should stick to their tried and tested concept of “social market economy,” a blend of welfare state and capitalism, as they navigate this new world, Ms. Merkel said. But she acknowledged that even in this conservative and comparatively wealthy country, politics has been thrown into turmoil by the rise of the populist, Alternative for Germany party. It is now in 10 of the country’s 16 state Parliaments and seems certain to win seats in the federal Parliament next year. That would scramble conventional coalition building, since no mainstream party has been willing to govern with the populists. Frauke Petry, one of the leaders of Alternative for Germany, criticized the idea of Ms. Merkel’s gaining another four years in office. “Germany cannot afford another term for Angela Merkel,” Ms. Petry wrote on Twitter. Ms. Merkel’s role as a beacon of liberal values may also be dented by the power of populism elsewhere in Europe, whose union has been thrown into ever greater doubt since Britain, the Continent’s leading military power, voted in June to leave the European Union. Next month, Italy votes on constitutional reforms that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi considers crucial to his country’s modernity. Austria will choose a president in an election plagued by delays, and may see the first politician elected as head of state in modern Europe. The Netherlands, France and Germany all hold pivotal elections next year, with the ballot in France being closely watched as a bellwether for the strength of populism as embodied by the National Front of Marine Le Pen. Speaking in Berlin last week, Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France predicted that “Europe can die” as a result of the populist wave and the economic and political dissonance in the European Union. Ms. Merkel has guided Germany and, increasingly, Europe though myriad crises. She was chancellor during the 2008 financial crisis, and was much criticized for German insistence on austerity during the Greek debt crisis and the subsequent pressure on the euro. Since Russia flexed its military muscle by seizing Crimea and meddling in Ukraine in 2014, Ms. Merkel has been the main Western interlocutor to President Vladimir V. Putin. Ms. Merkel has also led her country in abandoning nuclear power, and has moved her conservative party firmly to the center on social policy. Her personal ratings peaked in 2014 at over 80 percent, when she was handling the Ukraine crisis, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s compilation of readings on the Politbarometer poll since she took office. On that scale, her lowest score was 50 percent in late 2010, when Germany joined European efforts to avert a bankruptcy by Greece. | 0fake |
Rome Police Arrest Homeless Man in Murder of Beau Solomon, a U.S. Student - The New York Times | ROME — A homeless man was detained on Tuesday in connection with the death of a student from Wisconsin who disappeared just hours after he landed in Rome, the Italian authorities said. The man, Massimo Galioto, 40, of Rome is suspected of involvement in what the police in Rome said was the murder of Beau Solomon, a visiting student from the University of who was found in the Tiber River on Monday with a head wound and blood on his shirt. Mr. Solomon disappeared after going to a pub Thursday night, not long after he arrived in the city for a summer program at John Cabot University, an American school in central Rome. The university said in a statement that Mr. Solomon’s roommate, who has not been identified, was with him at a pub in Trastevere, an area near the university known for its night life, and that he lost contact with him around 1 a. m. He alerted administrators at the university when Mr. Solomon failed to appear at orientation the next morning, it said. More than $1, 700 was charged to Mr. Solomon’s credit card after he disappeared, according to Italian news reports, including a large purchase on Friday in a Milan store, about 350 miles north of Rome. His cellphone is missing. Mr. Solomon’s body was found about 2½ miles south of the Garibaldi Bridge, roughly 2, 000 feet from the pub where he left his friends. The crowds in the area are even larger at this time of year because of a summer fair along the river, where food and goods are sold from stalls along the waterfront. A picture of a smiling Mr. Solomon in his football uniform dominated the front pages of many papers on Tuesday, and representatives of the University of Wisconsin and John Cabot University expressed their condolences. “Beau Solomon was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea. All of us at are greatly saddened by this loss,” Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of wrote on Twitter. Soldiers and police officers are regularly stationed near the Piazza Trilussa, which gives access to the cobblestones and labyrinthlike streets of Trastevere. But this is not the first time an American student has encountered trouble in Rome, where alcohol can be easily obtained in bars, restaurants and supermarkets, even for those under 21. Last year, an American student was raped in a bathroom of a bar in the area. In 2013, after a night of drinking, an American student died as he fell from a bridge on the river, and another American student was found dead near the train tracks of a tunnel after leaving a bar the next year. | 0fake |
Russia And Syria Blamed For Idlib Bombing Hoax | Speaking at the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, Putin said Russian patience has limits. “We(‘ve) show(n) restraint so far and (haven’t) respond(ed) to our partners (sic) in the same gauche manner, but everything has its limits. We can do it,” he explained. So what is he waiting for, given endless US provocations, refusing mutual cooperation on vital issues, rejecting normal relations, heading inevitably for war unless challenged and stopped. He’s not stupid or uninformed. Russia’s intelligence capability likely matches America’s, so he knows what it’s up to in Eastern Europe, Syria, elsewhere in the Middle East, along with virtually everywhere else. Pretending both countries are “partners” defies logic. Thinking mutual cooperation with Washington is possible one day is like waiting for Godot. And things may get exponentially worse once Hillary succeeds Obama, a virtual certainty at this point by fair or foul means – likely the latter, election theft a longstanding US tradition, showing democracy in America is pure fantasy. On Thursday, screaming deceptive Western headlines outrageously blamed Russia and Syria for bombing a Syrian school in Idlib province. It was a hoax. No bombing occurred. US-supported terrorists attacked the school, killing at least six children, injuring many others. An exclusive RT International investigation determined that “a gas canister and a mine landed in a classroom in Hadaiq al-Andalus” – projectiles launched from terrorist-controlled eastern Aleppo. Yet media scoundrels irresponsibly blamed Russia and Syria – while ignoring daily eastern Aleppo shelling, US supported terrorists killing and injuring civilians in government controlled parts of the city. Long before Internet access to important information from reliable independent sources, famed humorist/social commentator Will Rogers once said: “All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.” Reporting then was deplorable. Today it’s beyond the pale. It’s hard imagining why anyone wastes time and money on pure rubbish – or believes television news is credible. Media misinformation proliferates. Readers, viewers and listeners are systematically lied to. Daily fare isn’t fit to print or broadcast. Mainstream editors, reporters and commentators are a virtual Noah’s Ark of scam artists. On Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov called video footage of the Idlib incident shown on Western television fake – “more than ten edited fragments assembled together,” he explained. No Russian or Syrian warplanes were in the area when the attack occurred. No bomb craters existed. Damage to the school was inconsistent to a bombing. Only one wall was damaged, not the ceiling, desks or chairs. Had a bombing occurred, the blast would have destroyed or severely damaged the building. Furniture inside would have been “swept away.” “As one can see on a photo from the Russian drone, the roof of the school is not damaged and there are no bomb craters in the area adjacent to the school,” Konashenkov explained. A US drone in the area at the time of the attack has the same footage. Yet Washington concealed what should have been revealed straightaway to set the record straight. “UNICEF leadership fell…victim to a new deception of swindlers and (Al Qaeda-affiliated) White Helmets,” said Konashenkov. Washington perhaps orchestrated what happened, part of its sinister anti-Russia/anti-Syria agenda. Submit your review | 1real |
Koch Brothers Helped Incite the Impending Bloodbath Among Republicans | By Rmuse 7:57 pm "If the party doesn’t learn lessons and change based on what’s gone on for the last year and a half, I think it’s going to be just catastroph[ic]." *The following is an opinion column by R Muse*
It may be the understatement of the year to say the Republican Party is on the verge of a full-on civil war, and it may be obvious to many Americans that the blame for the inter-party discord is its standard bearer Donald J. Trump. However much Trump’s candidacy has contributed to the tensions between establishment types terrified of Trump’s reckless disregard for the longevity of the party and rebellion-minded Trump supporters, the real instigators are the Koch brothers.
Although the oil magnates were never on the Trump bandwagon, they are responsible for the Trump loyalists within the GOP who were part of the teabagger movement intent on disrupting the nation’s political system and indeed, the workings of government itself. The tea party caucus, an extremist sect that succeeded in chasing former House Speaker John A. Boehner out of Congress, morphed into the inaptly- named Freedom caucus that has embraced Trump are set to set fire to the party establishment and it isn’t solely to put current Speaker Paul Ryan out of a job, although that is high on the Trump supporters’ to-do list.
As noted in Wednesday’s New York Times, “ Mr. Trump’s supporters said they were determined to harness the anti-establishment energy that Mr. Trump had catalyzed and to refocus it on the Republican leadership in Congress — a target many of them seem…eager to take down .”
The right-wing extremist that actually “ took down ” former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, conservative extremist and House Freedom Caucus member David Brat, issued a warning to establishment Republicans:
“ There’s a huge chunk of people who want to see a fight taken to D.C. Leadership comes and smacks our guy? That’s where you’re going to put down a marker? Really? And the American people are just scratching their head saying, ‘Really? That’s rich .’”
Brat has been a thorn in the establishment’s side since Paul Ryan became Speaker and he joins a dangerous number of “ real conservatives ” who cannot understand or comport with Ryan and establishment leaders who dared criticize Trump instead of using their majority advantage to go after Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump and a few of his “ senior aides ” are prodding extremist conservatives to revolt against the establishment leadership after the election for not defending Trump. In fact, besides assailing Ryan for not sticking by Trump, it is reported that Trump said privately that Ryan should be made to pay a heavy price for disloyalty to the Trump candidacy. And, during an interview with Reuters he complained that “ The people are very angry with the leadership of this party, because this is an election that we will win, 100 percent, if we had support from the top .” Win or lose, there is going to be a major blood-letting after the election and the establishment, although powerful, may face a Herculean task to save the party.
This impending conflict within the GOP has been brewing longer than Donald Trump has been a candidate and it may be why he brought on an experienced anti-establishment devotee to run his campaign. The chairman of Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon, had made it one of his primary goals to get Paul Ryan out as House Speaker because he is not a “true conservative” intent on tearing government down to restructure it into an uber-conservative paradise. And “uber-conservative” is just a different way of saying a “ non-government ” according to the Koch brothers’ vision of American libertarianism. Don’t believe it?
Two groups closely aligned with the Koch brothers, Heritage Action for America and FreedomWorks , have been pushing Republicans as a Party to adopt more extremist positions and see the civil war as a stellar opportunity to have greater influence over the party’s decisions; something establishment types are resisting.
Over the past few days, leaders of both Koch groups joined extremist conservatives in calling to delay a vote on selecting a candidate to be the next, or new, speaker of the House; something typically occurring directly after the general election in November regardless the outcome.
According to the chief executive of Heritage Action, Michael Needham, there is going to be Hell to pay for establishment Republicans if they don’t bend to the will of the extremist wing created by the Kochs and heavily courted by Donald Trump. Mr. Needham said,
“ If the party doesn’t learn lessons and change based on what’s gone on for the last year and a half, I think it’s going to be just catastrophe .”
Another conservative extremist, House Freedom Caucus member and ardent Donald Trump supporter echoed Needham’s sentiment and said, “ You can’t ignore what millions and millions of people have expressed in this election cycle. ”
The dilemma for Republicans after the election, no matter the outcome, is maintaining a semblance of stability as a political party. That doesn’t seem likely because if Trump loses, big or small, the extremists will unleash whatever level of Hell they can muster on the establishment for daring to criticize any of Trump’s more outrageous and dangerous comments on the stump. If Trump wins, the extremists will be emboldened to purge the party of any disloyal establishment types and it appears that no matter what happens on November 8, it will not be the end of hostilities among Republicans.
The Republican Party establishment is in for a reckoning with an extremist wing that was once content threatening the full faith and credit of the United States or shutting down the government as a show of anger. After four years of internal bickering over what it means to be a true conservative, and the past year-and-a-half of incitement by Donald Trump, the Republican Party faces a serious threat to its long-term survival. It is a threat that began about six years ago when the Koch brothers ushered in an age of extremist conservatives that Donald Trump took advantage of to seize control of the Republican Party. | 1real |
null | This skyrocketing price increase is a direct result from several insurers either scaling back their participation or withdrawing completely. Those private insurance corporations who stay are now enjoying a near monopolistic control. And monopolies always jack up prices. It happened with the railroads over a century ago, it's been occurring with the airlines and telecoms, and now health insurance.
For years it's been believed that Dubya was the worst president in the modern era; the implication being that Obama, even with all his faults, is somehow better. I think after 8 long years of his awful reign that we can safely say that he's just as bad as Dubya, worse in some cases (bombed more countries than Dubya, far bigger assault on civil liberties, etc). Expect things to get worse, far worse, for the mass of people when Hillary gets elected. | 1real |
Obama’s Delusion Continues In Vapid Address To The Nation : “ISIS Doesn’t Speak For Islam” [Video] | Obama addressed the Nation In a nothing burger of a jumble of jargon:Here are steps Congress can take right now to help defeat the terrorist threat from ISIL and keep Americans safe. https://t.co/YFgbTSXndX The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 7, 2015 | 1real |
Right-Wing Bigots Chased Away By Police In Brussels With Water Cannons (VIDEO) | This is how Brussels deals with right-wing extremists.The March Against Fear in Brussels, Belgium kicked off on Sunday despite threats from right-wingers and a suggestion on Saturday that it be postponed due to security concerns.The march was planned in the aftermath of terrorist attacks by ISIS that left over 30 dead and hundreds injured as a way to fight back against right-wing efforts to demonize all Muslims and as a way to to stand up to terrorists and say that their attacks will not disrupt our society.But as thousands gathered in Place de la Bourse to pay tribute to those who lost their lives, right-wing protesters arrived in an effort to derail the march.The hateful protesters harassed Muslims with Nazi salutes and offensive language until the police had finally had enough.At that point, they turned water cannons on the right-wingers and chased them up the street as the marchers cheered.Here s the video via Twitter.JUST IN: Police fire water cannon after tensions rose between protesters near #Brussels square. https://t.co/WW598sDJfk MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 27, 2016In the United States, right-wing leaders like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump have ramped up their bigoted and hateful rhetoric ever since the bombings occurred.Trump has called for torturing Muslims and banning them from entering the country while Cruz has called for mass surveillance and police patrols of Muslim communities.Trump s own violent and racist rhetoric has drawn the support of extreme right-wing groups such as neo-Nazis and the KKK.Republicans even used the attacks to score cheap political points against President Obama, who was in the middle of the first trip to Cuba by a sitting American commander-in-chief since Calvin Coolidge 80 years ago. They demanded Obama drop everything to return home in a panic and lock himself in the Situation Room of the White House or travel to Belgium, either of which would have only made the situation worse Instead, President Obama remained calm and offered his condolences and support to Belgium s Prime Minister and continued his trip. As right-wingers in the United States panicked and let ISIS control them with fear, Obama refused to let the terrorists win.Perhaps we should think about using water cannons on right-wingers. Maybe that will cool them off next time they try to use a terrorist attack to spread hate and fear. Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Beijing proudly unveils mega-airport due to open in 2019 | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s capital unveiled the shining example of its 80 billion yuan ( 9.1 billion) new airport on Monday, tipped to become one of the world s largest when it opens in October 2019 amid a massive infrastructure drive overseen by President Xi Jinping. Representatives showed off the sprawling skeleton of Beijing New Airport , which is made up of 1.6 million cubic meters of concrete, 52,000 tonnes of steel and spans a total 47 sq km (18 sq miles), including runways. It is expected to serve an initial 45 million passengers a year with an eventual capacity of 100 million, putting it on par with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Lined up together there s roughly 5 km of gates, said project spokesman Zhu Wenxin. It s a shining example of China s national production capacity. Updates on the airport come as the ruling Communist Party is set to open its 19th congress later this week, a twice-a-decade leadership event where Xi will consolidate power and emphasize successful projects and policy from his first five years. The project, which broke ground in 2014, is one of the region s largest infrastructure investments under Xi s rule, which has been plagued by fears of slowing economic growth, offset slightly by a construction spree. China has sought to boost its profile as both an aviation hub and a manufacturer in recent years. The country s first home-grown passenger jet, the C919, lifted off on its maiden flight in May, edging into a multibillion-dollar market currently dominated by Boeing Co and Airbus SE. Situated 67 km south of Beijing, the airport technically falls in neighboring Hebei province, though it will eventually constitute its own development zone. It will relieve pressure on Beijing s existing international airport, to the northeast of Beijing and currently the world s second largest by passenger volume, which opened a new terminal worth $3.6 billion ( 2.7 billion) in 2008 ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics. The existing airport will continue to operate major international flights, though a third smaller domestic airport in the city s south will close in coming years. Two of China s three major airlines, China Eastern Airlines Corp and China Southern Airlines Co, will relocate to the airport on completion, accounting for roughly four-fifths of the new airport s total traffic. The airport will be connected to Beijing by a high speed train with a top speed of 350 km an hour, as well as an inter-city train and a major expressway. Original plans for the airport were made by French airports operator Aeroports de Paris, though third-party improvements to the original version make the final design wholly domestic , said Zhu. It s like a large flower, but made of steel, said one construction worker on the site, who declined to share his name because he was not authorized to speak to press. | 0fake |
Rio, Trump, African National Congress: Your Friday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. There have been doping problems, housing problems, sewage problems, torch failures, one arrest of an athlete and a scary virus to contend with, but despite it all, the 2016 Rio Olympics have prevailed. The opening ceremony began at 7 Eastern tonight (Our live coverage is here. ). We’ve got 24 percent of our sports desk at the Games — they’re carrying 64 bottles of bug repellent — and all eyes will be on the athlete selected to light the caldron. And when Simone Biles, the American gymnast believed to be the best in history, competes, all eyes will be on her check out a detailed interactive on what makes her so good. _____ 2. The American economy is also looking good. The latest jobs report had a lot of positive news: 255, 000 jobs were added last month, wages went up, and more people are looking for, and finding, work. This makes it more likely that the Federal Reserve will raise rates, though probably not as early as September. There’s no question that the strong economy helps Hillary Clinton in her quest for the presidency, our columnist writes. _____ 3. Donald J. Trump was in Iowa and Wisconsin on Friday, while Hillary Clinton, who rarely gives news conferences, spoke at a convention of minority journalists in Washington, taking more questions from reporters than she has in months. This was a tough week for Mr. Trump, including conflicts with prominent Republicans, but it’s nearly impossible for the party to fire him and nominate someone else before the election. On Friday evening, Mr. Trump belatedly endorsed the primary campaign of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, seeking to heal his rift with the party. _____ 4. The United States is on pace to meet and even surpass President Obama’s goal of resettling 10, 000 Syrian refugees in the country by the end of September. Mr. Obama announced the goal in October, and so far, 8, 000 refugees have been allowed into the country despite a fierce political debate that has become a theme of the presidential campaign and despite the refusal of many states to accept them. _____ 5. Don’t call me “honey. ” It’s a sentiment reflected by many female lawyers, who say it’s not rare for them to be addressed by pet names or subjected to grating remarks by male colleagues in the courtroom. Above, Lori Rifkin, a lawyer, said she was “well accustomed” to such comments. A group representing 5, 200 women in law is pushing for the American Bar Association to amend their rules of professional conduct to prohibit harassment and discrimination. The amendment, which has been criticized as inhibiting the ability to speak freely, will come up for a vote on Monday. _____ 6. The party that helped liberate black South Africans from rule has had its worst election since the end of apartheid. The African National Congress, which was the party of Nelson Mandela, has become mired in corruption. Above, members of the party discussed election results. Two of the most highly contested races, in Johannesburg and Pretoria, were too close to call on Friday. _____ 7. Police in Chicago released video from the night that a black teenager was fatally shot by an officer after crashing a stolen car, but it did not show the moment of the shooting. The officer who shot Paul O’Neal, 18, on July 28 was wearing a body camera, but officials have said it was not recording at the time. A lawyer for Mr. O’Neal’s family called the teenager’s death an execution and accused the police of a . _____ 8. The United States is 10 months into the rollout of credit cards, and it seems as if frustration is only growing. Though things are likely to improve — more businesses will have chip readers and be able to use them, and the transaction time may get shorter — it will remain up to each merchant whether to upgrade, and that awful noise isn’t going anywhere. Maybe it’s time to try a mobile wallet option. _____ 9. The day we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived … or so we thought. Frank Ocean’s new album, “Boys Don’t Cry,” was set to be released on Friday, but it has yet to materialize. The album was expected to be released exclusively through Apple music, which gives the artist more control — and that makes musical tinkering possible. The singer is, after all, a notorious and perfectionist. _____ 10. Eight people have leapt or fallen to their deaths this year from the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan and New Jersey. But last Thursday, a bicyclist on his way home from work prevented a man from become the ninth. Julio De Leon, above, cannot recall his exact words but said he told the young man something along the lines of: “Don’t do it. We love you, my heart” before curling an arm around him and, with the help of a bystander who had been taking a photo of the situation, pulled the man back to safety. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
HILLARY’S (Islamic) AMERICA IS ALREADY HERE where ‘Muslim NO-GO ZONES’ are popping up all over Michiganistan | HILLARY’S (Islamic) AMERICA IS ALREADY HERE where ‘Muslim NO-GO ZONES’ are popping up all over Michiganistan The rest of America may be agonizing over the security implications of taking in potential Islamic jihadists posing as refugees. But Syrian Muslim invaders are being welcomed with open arms in Hamtramck, Michigan – America’s first and only majority Muslim city. Non-Muslim residents in the Dearborn area are saying ‘You know, we’re getting ready to sell and get out of here.’” (Before property values tank as a result of the Muslim invasion with a mosque on every corner, blasting amplified Islamic Calls to Prayer several times a day) WND ( h/t Liz) Once 90 percent Polish Catholic, the blue-collar enclave just outside Detroit has been transformed by successive waves of immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen and Bosnia. Muslims now outnumber non-Muslims, the council has a Muslim majority and the call to prayer echoes through the streets five times a day. “They’re setting this all up so they can continue their ancient squabbles that they have carried on for centuries in the Middle East right here your neighborhood,” Corcoran said. They call it “culture shift.” Places, in America, that no longer look or feel like America. (In Europe, they are referred to as NO-GO Zones) Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis fits the bill, with its large Somali community known as “Little Mogadishu,” as does and Hamtramck, Michigan, where the Islamic call to prayer is shouted over loudspeakers and the local city council is now majority-Muslim . Parts of Amarillo, Texas, have been flooded with so many Muslim refugees that some ethnic enclaves claim to have elected their own tribal leaders independent of the city government, the city’s mayor recently testified before the Texas Legislature . Then there is Dearborn, Michigan, which is now 40 percent Muslim and spilling over into neighboring cities and towns. Documentary filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch recently drove through Dearborn, guided by a lifelong resident of the city named Brian (see video below). What Brian showed him was not just a culture shift but something closer to a shock. Women walk the streets dressed in long, black burqas that cover all but their eyes. Almost all the signs on storefronts are in Arabic or some other Middle Eastern dialect. Arab businessmen buy up commercial properties, force out the American tenants and replace them with similar businesses run by Muslims, Brian told Lynch in the documentary. The same phenomenon is now beginning to occur in nearby Sterling Heights, Troy, Oak Park and Clinton Township. In Sterling Heights, residents informed WND this week that Middle Eastern refugees are being housed in a local hotel owned by an Arab-American businessman. But in Dearborn, the tremendous growth in the Muslim community started more than 20 years ago, fueled by local universities and industry. Muslims voting for Muslims only “Brian still lives there. He’s not going anywhere,” Lynch told WND in an interview. “It depends on where you go in the city, but certain segments are 100 percent Muslim. Brian said to be prepared. We went through the areas, went shopping at the food mart. You really don’t feel like you are in America anymore.” Lynch said he was a regular contributor on Fox News between 2012 and 2015, until he started making hard-hitting documentaries on the U.S. immigration system. In certain areas in Dearborn. “You have two areas, and it’s almost like the Ford plants separate the two sides, and when you cross to the other side it’s totally radical again. We went to a park where kids were playing after school with the mothers all there, and everybody was dressed in full burqa. It was almost like it was Halloween. I’d never seen anything like it in my life.” Dearborn does not exist on an island. Residents of southeastern Michigan have every reason to expect their towns will one day look like Dearborn, Lynch said, thanks to President Obama’s Syrian refugee resettlement program, which Hillary Clinton says she’d like to expand by more than 500 percent. This is “Hillary’s America,” says a resident of nearby Rochester Hills who is one of the co-founders of SecureMichigan.org , a group that started up last year with the mission of helping educate Michiganders about Shariah law and Islamic settlements. He said the Islamization is literally moving from town to town in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties. “The Sterling Heights story is significant because we have these budding ‘Shariahvilles’ in Michigan,” he said. “We know there are refugees being planted. Now, in Rochester Hills, I’ve got five covered women walking down my street, and that’s never happened until two weeks ago.” In one 18-day period from Oct. 1 through Oct. 18, the U.S. State Department and its federal contractors have sent 199 Syrians to three counties in southeast Michigan – Oakland, Macomb and Wayne –and Oakland County leaders have not received any advance notice of the arrivals, said sources familiar with the growing controversy. The government contractors secretly planting the refugees in southeast Michigan are Lutheran Services/Samaritas, Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, USRI and Episcopal Migration Services. In Dearborn, the tremendous growth in the Muslim community started more than 20 years ago, fueled by local universities and industry. “Brian still lives there. He’s not going anywhere,” Lynch told WND in an interview. “It depends on where you go in the city, but certain segments are 100 percent Muslim. Brian said to be prepared. We went through the areas, went shopping at the food mart. You really Dearborn is but a harbinger of things to come for many more cities and towns across America if Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States. “I think if she gets elected you’re going to see more immigration from Mideast countries than under any of the previous presidents including Obama, because she obviously has ties to those countries, getting an incredible amount of money donated from them,” Lynch said. “These donations come with strings. They come with side deals, and we don’t know what they are. It may be something as simple as ‘OK, we want to see more immigration from our country or some other country into the United States.’ Why else is there any need to increase the Syrian refugee settlements in America? There’s no reason. “If you look at all at the pay-for-play things, Muslims have said they want to spread Islam across the globe. The one country that doesn’t have that much of it is the United States.” Member of first Muslim-majority City Council warns: “Today we show the Polish”…thatMuslims are in charge. Within moments of winning the city’s election, an organizer involved in the government takeover was caught making ominous threats against non-Muslims in the city. HillaryDaily T his warning is no doubt troubling in its own right, but becomes even more unsettling when one pairs the comment with recent polling that suggests what Muslims would do should they take over any facet of government. Over half reject the first amendment, while 46% want blasphemers punished. 12% percent would even like to see those who commit blasphemy killed outright. Given their comments about the white population in the area, coupled with the sobering statistics outlined in the recent poll, it looks as if the city of Hamtramck, Michigan may be faced with a extremist city council under which they must be governed. | 1real |
Historian John Heiser on Why Soldiers of Gettysburg ’Came Back Again and Again’ | Historian John Heiser from the Gettysburg National Military Park joined Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow to discuss the historic battle and its legacy on Monday for the show’s special Memorial Day episode. [The park’s website states: The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee’s second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the “High Water Mark of the Rebellion,” Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle and was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln’s immortal “Gettysburg Address. ” Heiser reflects on the battle itself, as well as its significance to the United States over time. The national cemetery sprang as much, if not more, from the soldiers who fought there returning time and again, as it did from some national effort to establish a monument. “The opportunities for the South to win that summer were never as high as before and never would be as high again. I think that’s why Gettysburg is so highly regarded not just by historians, but even by the veterans. The soldiers who fought here came back again and again and again. They’re the ones who gave it that label, the mark of the Confederacy. ” Heiser also discusses Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. “What the president was trying to do,” said Heiser, “was revitalize the Union effort, rejuvenate the American spirit, especially those in the North. Why are we fighting this war? Why are so many young men, fathers, sons now dead on the battlefield lying in what will be national cemeteries? How do we remember their sacrifice? I think that’s why it was so important and why he accepted the invitation to come that fall. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 0fake |
Tax Calculator: The federal debt | The federal government must make regular interest payments on the money it has borrowed to finance past deficits – that is, on the national debt held by the public.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the federal government’s net interest payments on that debt will total $229 billion in the 2015 fiscal year. Working Americans end up having to foot that very large bill to varying degrees based on each individual taxpayer’s adjusted gross income.
Click here to see your share of the federal debt.
And the CBO expects that this challenge will accelerate over the next decade. Current interest rates are low by historical standards and higher interest rates means higher interest payments. It’s projected that net interest costs will more than triple over the next decade, reaching $808 billion in 2025.
These numbers pose a real threat. The CBO has issued warnings about the serious negative consequences that such high and rising debt and interest payments on the debt could have on both the economy and the federal budget.
“The large amount of debt might restrict policymakers’ ability to use tax and spending policies to respond to unexpected future challenges, such as economic downturns or financial crises,” the CBO said in a recent report.
In the same report, they also cautioned that continued growth in the debt could lead investors to doubt the government’s willingness or ability to pay its obligations, which would require the government to pay much higher interest rates on its borrowing going forward. | 0fake |
Mueller cleared by U.S. ethics experts to head Russia probe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been cleared by U.S. Department of Justice ethics experts to oversee an investigation into possible collusion between then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The department appointed Mueller special counsel last week to ensure an independent probe, but an ethics rule limiting government attorneys from investigating people their former law firm represented raised questions over how Mueller would be allowed to operate. Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, represents President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation. Kushner is now a White House adviser. Manafort quit the campaign last August, months before the Nov. 8 election. “Under the Rules of Professional Responsibility, Mr. Mueller is permitted to participate in matters involving his former firm’s clients so long as he has no confidential information about the client and did not participate in the representation,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. Although Mueller has now been cleared by the Justice Department, the White House may still use his former law firm’s connection to Manafort and Kushner to undermine the findings of his investigation, according to two sources close to the White House. | 0fake |
During Russia Meeting Trump Explicitly Bragged He Fired Comey To Kill ‘Pressure’ Of Investigation | In a meeting Trump held with two Russian officials at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump is said to have bragged about firing FBI Director James Comey and boasting that it eased great pressure on him in how he deals with Russia. Comey had been actively pursuing an investigation into the Trump campaign s involvement with Russian interference in the 2016 election that ultimately put him in office. Trump, it seems, felt that the investigation was preventing him from cozying up to Putin.The New York Times reported that they had obtained a summary of the meeting which documented the exchange: I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job, Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to the New York Times by an American official. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That s taken off. Mr. Trump added, I m not under investigation. Trump s overt statement that the pressure on him had been taken off confirms Trump did, in fact, knowingly fire Comey in order to obstruct the investigation into his Russian connections. The word bombshell gets thrown around a lot but that s a bombshell.The world might never have known about this frank confession of guilt because the White House prevented U.S. reporters from attending. The only journalist in the room was a Russian government-backed photographer whom American officials said lied about his credentials. He has kept his mouth shut.Meanwhile, the heat on Trump actually turned up since his firing of Comey. A special counsel has been assigned to look into the matter. And then there is this, a scoop by the Washington Post:The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter.There is someone currently working for Trump that investigators believe either was or still is coordinating with Russia. What s more, thanks to the report by the New York Times, we know Trump knows this investigation isn t going to go his way. That s obstruction of justice wrapped in obstruction of justice topped with more obstruction of justice.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
H.S. Football Team Stages “Die-In” To Show Support For Kaepernick’s “Disrespect the Flag” Movement…While American Soldiers Are Dying For Freedoms Our Flag Represents | Some 2,500 Americans Have Died in Afghanistan and Iraq Under Obama. Under Obama, America has been at war for longer than under any other U.S. president. When is the last time you heard those statistics mentioned by our Leftist media?Somewhere along the way, Obama decided that winning (or ending) the wars in the middle east was less important than starting a full-blown race war in America. Does anyone care that Hillary is openly advocating to carry on his legacy of hate and division over concern for our military or our national security?This is Obama s legacy A California high school football team staged a bizarre die-in to protest the singing of the national anthem.Kaepernick came to Oakland, CA. He kneeled on one knee, players laid on their back with hands up during the Anthem. pic.twitter.com/Cae4sTopac Kirk Morrison (@kirkmorrison) September 24, 2016The Castlemont High School Knights, based in Oakland, engaged in shameful display of anti-American behavior. It happened during a Friday night football game.Disgraced NFL Colin Kaepernick was on hand to encourage the children to disrespect America and the U.S. Armed Forces. I had to come out here and stand with y all, he said in remarks covered by the Mercury News. So I appreciate what y all did. I love y all. Y all my brothers I m here with you. But instead of collapsing on the ground with the children, Kaepernick simply took a knee. I guess he didn t want to get grass stains on his hoodie. Todd StarnesOh and by the way these punks lost their game. They also lost the respect of anyone who watched their disgusting anti-American behavior.High-school players take anthem demonstration to another level, with @Kaepernick7 present, via @kirkmorrison https://t.co/BGD8q2wJ75 ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) September 24, 2016 | 1real |
Isabelle Huppert: ‘The Best Way to Please Is Not to Please’ - The New York Times | BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — As she made for her booth, tucked into a remote corner of the Blvd Lounge at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel here, Isabelle Huppert expertly dodged the furtive stares of a roomful of diners. She had arrived on the arm of her publicist, who vanished as discreetly as he had arrived, leaving Ms. Huppert on her own to sit with a reporter, sip her cappuccino and ponder a question: Is she vain? Brusquely, she picked up a knife, inspecting her reflection in its blade. “Is this what you mean?” she asked lightly, brushing aside a stray wisp of hair. Was she being coy? Hard to say. Ambiguity, after all, is Ms. Huppert’s stock in trade. It is part of the screen arsenal she has deployed in more than 100 films during the course of a career, and it is central to her role in “Elle,” a psychological thriller in which she, as the victim of a vicious rape, responds with an eerie admixture of horror and calm. Her performance, which earned her a best actress award at the Golden Globes in January, drew fresh waves of attention when she was nominated this month for an Academy Award, an honor she seems to regard with a mix of anxiety and cool entitlement. Would she bring home Oscar gold on Sunday night? “Yeah, it’s possible,” she ventured, adding definitively after a pause, “Yes, for me it’s time. ” That near boast, tempered by a flicker of amusement, hinted at the wickedly subversive streak that has made Ms. Huppert a muse to an international roster of directors, including Claude Chabrol, Otto Preminger, Bertrand Tavernier and Paul Verhoeven. Mr. Verhoeven, of “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls” notoriety, directed Ms. Huppert in “Elle. ” Combined with an apparently uncontrived chic, that subversiveness has lately transformed Ms. Huppert, who is mostly known in the United States to an art house crowd, into a red carpet diva and the unlikely darling of the fashion set. Never mind that Ms. Huppert, 63, long married and the mother of three, plays a grandmother in “Elle. ” Or that in her native Paris she has long been a fixture at Dior, Chanel and Armani. When the cameras closed in on her as she claimed her Globe, writers breathlessly anatomized every facet of her look. As the popular Who What Wear website effusively reported, “Her incredibly chic top and skirt along with an earful of edgy Repossi ear cuffs have landed the actress on a number of best dressed lists and left the internet buzzing. ” The Fashion Law, another widely read blog, posted, “It is difficult not to notice that Huppert is becoming a favorite not only of critics and fashion industry insiders but of those on the periphery, as well. ” Adding her voice to the mix, Vanessa Friedman, the New York Times fashion critic, posted on Twitter on the night of the Globes, “Whoever made Isabelle Huppert’s dress should take credit ASAP. ” Ms. Huppert had selected that dress, Armani Privé, with care. “It’s important how personal and singular you feel in what you wear,” she said. “It’s important that you keep your own identity. ” Would she turn up again in Armani on Oscar night? “I might,” she offered playfully. Whether she is captured on camera in a trouser suit, as she was at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards in January in a Chloé gown at the British Academy Film Awards this month or in a pale blue trouser suit, snapped alongside Nicole Kidman on the day they received their Oscar nominations, Ms. Huppert projects a singular authority. “She has what the French used to call chien,” said Simon Doonan, the creative ambassador for Barneys New York. He was alluding to the blend of tough chic and barely concealed sensuality that, Mr. Doonan maintains, defines Ms. Huppert’s allure. And in viewing her image on Instagram, Ryan Lobo, a designer of the New York label Tome, responded with a single word: “Queen. ” On Instagram, Ms. Huppert is followed by no less a fashion personage than Nicolas Ghesquière, the creative director of Louis Vuitton. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jonathan Huguet, her stylist, summed up her appeal as a rare combination of masculine assurance and unexpected fragility. She is hardly indifferent to fashion, Mr. Huguet noted. “She knows her brands and designers,” he said. “She is completely open to different things. ” He added that she was happy to try a variety of fabrics, shapes and designers, among them Haider Ackermann and Maria Grazia Chiuri of Dior. Still, the style world’s renewed devotion has left Ms. Huppert nonplused. “After all,” she said, a bit disingenuously, “I’m not a fashion person. ” She had dressed for breakfast at the Beverly Wilshire in a crisply tailored jacket, its deep green and coral pattern setting off her russet hair. Who designed the jacket? Her features furrowed briefly as she removed it to check the label, exclaiming with what seemed genuine surprise: “It’s J. Crew. Can you imagine?” The jacket, which she wore over a pale coral Chloé blouse and slim trousers, was consistent with a style Ms. Huppert has refined over time, a look that is mostly defined by slim trousers, tailored jackets and coats, understated evening wear, and the occasional provocative accent (those tiny Repossi cuffs snaking up her ear). Immaculately assembled as they may be, her ensembles are “worn with the effortlessness that Frenchwomen seem to naturally possess,” Allyson Payer of Who What Wear posted. It is the kind of assessment that Ms. Huppert is apt to greet with one of her ironic smiles. “Because I’m French, people have a certain idea of my style,” she said. “I’m not quite sure what that means. And not quite sure what it is that I’m supposed to represent. ” When she’s not acting, she said, “I don’t think of myself as carrying a specific image. ” But on camera, she added: “Every change of outfit can help you. It allows you to see yourself freshly each time, and each time with fresh potential. ” There are times, it seems, when Ms. Huppert is all potential, her aloof, sometimes opaque, expression — “resting bitch face,” as the fashion tribes would have it — acting as a potent draw. “It’s intrinsic to her, that certain enigmatic je ne sais quoi,” Mr. Doonan said. If her mystery tends to mesmerize devout fashionistas, it’s not for the first time. Ms. Huppert herself is well aware that she has long fascinated fashion photographers, among them Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Hedi Slimane and their illustrious like. “Her face is like a window, it’s so transparent,” said Peter Lindbergh, who has shot her many times. “When you photograph people, often that window is closed. Some people let you in, but there is a limit. But Isabelle, she is like glass. ” She also has a chameleonlike quality that was captured in 2005 in a show of her portraits at MoMA PS1, subsequently gathered in book form, that volume, like the show, aptly titled, “Isabelle Huppert: Woman of Many Faces. ” Perhaps most famously, she posed, for Newton wearing a white bathrobe that opened to expose a sliver of nipple, her expression in that instant a disconcerting blend of innocence and insolence. Her face, she knows, can be a difficult read. “Most of the time it is more like a white canvas on which you can project many things,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s inexpressive, but it is undefined enough that it can be shaped and defined by whoever looks at you. ” She laughed. “In the end something that could be seen as a fault turns out to be an advantage,” she said. However malleable her features, however vulnerable she may seem onscreen, Ms. Huppert wants you to know that ultimately she is the one in charge. “I play a role, but I don’t transform myself entirely,” she said. “The irony you see, the humor, the way of being cool, it’s me more than anyone else, I have to say. ” Some take it for perversity, a trait that has marked her since she appeared onscreen in the early 2000s as the sadomasochistic antiheroine of the erotic thriller “The Piano Teacher. ” “What people call perverse and outside the margins, it has nothing to do with perversity,” Ms. Huppert said. “It’s more about doing one thing and maybe thinking another. That’s what we all do, and that’s what you see in me on film. ” Nor does she, in her acting, make an effort to seduce. “I’m not really interested in pleasing,” she said in her teasing contralto. “I think the best way to please is not to please. ” That refusal is one source of a sexual charisma that can defy analysis. “I don’t use the usual seductive tools,” Ms. Huppert said. “My sexuality is almost cerebral. It’s never, ‘Look at me, see how sexy I am. ’” On the screen she is permitted an erotic latitude not generally available to her contemporaries, in particular Meryl Streep, with whom she is often, if misguidedly, compared. As Michèle in “Elle,” Ms. Huppert pursues her own sexual agenda, whatever the cost. In a recent fashion feature in The Reporter, she comes off as a steamy, vixen, aptly costumed in black leather. She is also permitted a display of that doesn’t quite square with the sexual hunger she is sometimes asked to portray on film. Some call it coldness — a Brechtian detachment, as Mr. Verhoeven remarked — or a chilly reflection of . Does that translate to vanity? Ms. Huppert wondered, returning to a topic that she clearly finds absorbing. “If it does, I don’t care. ” | 0fake |
Trump, Cruz trade barbs over wives in presidential race | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz turned to Twitter to defend their wives’ honor after a Super PAC put out an ad featuring Trump’s wife nude and Trump threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife. Trump’s threat came on Tuesday night when he was upset about an ad that showed his wife, former model Melania Trump, lounging nude with a caption saying, “Meet Melania Trump. Your next first lady. Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.” Trump said Cruz was behind the ad, which appeared on Tuesday, the day of nominating contests in Utah, where the heavily Mormon electorate favored Cruz in its caucuses, and Arizona, which gave Trump a victory in its primary vote. The ad said it was from Make America Awesome, a Super PAC that is allowed to promote a candidate but not coordinate with the campaign. “Wow @SenTedCruz, that is some low level ad you did using a picture [of] Melania in a G.Q. shoot,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “Be careful or I will spill the beans on your wife.” Trump later deleted the tweet but published another that read: “Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Trump did not indicate what kind of beans he intended to spill about Heidi Cruz, who is on leave from an executive job at Goldman Sachs while campaigning, but her husband quickly came to her defense on Twitter. “Pic of your wife not from us,” the U.S. senator from Texas said. “Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought. #classless.” The battle continued on Wednesday with Cruz telling CNN: “He went directly after my wife. If Donald wants to get in a character fight, he’s better off sticking with me because Heidi is way out of his league.” A Twitter response from Trump questioned Cruz’ honesty. “Lyin’ Ted Cruz denied that he had anything to do with the G.Q. model photo post of Melania. That’s why we call him Lyin’ Ted!” he said. The director of Make America Awesome, Liz Mair, posted on Twitter that her group was responsible for the ad. She did not respond to an email from Reuters seeking comment. In a campaign appearance for her husband in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Heidi Cruz addressed the uproar briefly. “You probably know by now that most of the things that Donald Trump says have no basis in reality,” she told reporters. “So we are not worried in the least.” | 0fake |
Michigan Militia Group Turns On Right-Wing Governor Rick Snyder | As a general rule, militia groups do not side with liberals on anything. But as Michigan reels under revelations of conspiracy and collusion at all levels of republican Governor Rick Snyder s administration, militia members have added their voice to the chorus of citizens calling for Snyder s arrest.As reported by the Detroit Free Press, the Genesee County Volunteer Militia will be staging a protest in the city of Flint, demanding answers from state officials regarding the city s poisoned water. The protest will be held on January 23, just one week after filmmaker and activist Michael Moore staged a similar protest in the city.In a press release concerning the upcoming protest, the Genesee County Volunteer Militia stated: It is nothing less than shocking that our elected officials would try to hide the hazards that residents are being subjected to just by drinking a simple glass of tap water!!! On its Facebook page, the militia group has also issued a call for the state s emergency manager law to be overturned by the Michigan legislature. This echoes the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of Michigan citizens, many who voted to repeal the law in 2012.Following the voter repeal, the state legislature, which is almost entirely controlled by republican and Tea Party representatives, simply rewrote the emergency manager law and passed it again, this time with a rider to ensure it could not be repealed by voters.Image: scree capture, Genesee County Volunteer Militia, *names redactedLike other militia groups around the state, the Genesee County Volunteer militia displays the Tea Party flag on their Facebook page.This week it was widely reported that Governor Snyder has hired two out-of-state PR firms to try to help him with his public image.No doubt Snyder was hoping to paint the Flint water scandal as a leftist attack. The trouble with that narrative is that Michigan militia members are the furthest thing from leftist as you can get.When the pro-gun militia stands shoulder to shoulder with the producer of the anti-gun documentary Bowling for Columbine, you ve got the kind of problems not even two hundred PR firms can fix.Dave McKellar, a member of the Genesee militia group, told the Detroit Free Press that the group not only agrees with Michael Moore, but that they are trying to coordinate protests with the filmmaker, so that they do not stop.To be clear, we re not saying that we think the militia should bring out their weapons and march through the streets of Flint. To be clear, there hasn t been any indication that Sunday s protest will be an armed protest.Still it is very significant that even far-right groups like the Volunteer militia, which have consistently voted for and defended Michigan s republican/Tea Party legislature, are now turning against the people they helped put in office.Image credit: screen capture Genesee County Volunteer Militia | 1real |
How Donald Trump sees himself | He trusts no one, and places a premium on revenge. ("If you do not get even, you are just a schmuck!")
He treats every decision he makes "like a lover," sometimes thinking with his head, other times with other parts of his body, because it reminds him to "keep in touch with my basic impulses."
And to make creative choices, he writes: "I try to step back and remember my first shallow reaction. The day I realized it can be smart to be shallow was, for me, a deep experience."
This is Donald J. Trump as he sees himself and the world.
CNN scoured thousands of pages of books, speeches, profiles and television interview transcripts from the past three decades to stitch together a portrait based entirely on the Republican presidential front-runner's own words.
Taken together, his words offer further insight into the leadership style of the billionaire-turned-politician, whose extraordinary candidacy has simultaneously electrified and repulsed large swaths of the electorate.
Trump authored more than a dozen books about his experiences in the business world that shaped this outlook -- most of them self-help treatises with titles including the 1987 best-seller "The Art of the Deal," 2004's "Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life," and 2007's "Think Big."
Trump himself has shared his story in detail. Some recurrent themes in his writings include strength, success, self-confidence, distrust and revenge. He has often written and spoken about what he sees as the decline of the United States, a bedrock theme of his presidential campaign.
"The world is a vicious and brutal place, he wrote in "Think Big." "Even your friends are out to get you: They want your job, they want your house, they want your money, they want your wife, and they even want your dog.''
"When people wrong you, go after those people, because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it," he writes. "I always get even."
'If I had been the son of a coal miner'
Trump's life story, in the broadest of brush strokes, goes like this:
He was born the son of wealthy New York real-estate developer Fred C. Trump. He went to a private military academy in high school, attended Fordham for two years, then the Wharton School of Finance from which he graduated.
While his father did business in Brooklyn and Queens, Trump set off to make his mark in Manhattan. He became fabulously wealthy (think penthouse, helicopter, yacht, private plane) in the real estate boom of the '80s, then nearly lost it all when the boom went bust. He has since rebounded to the tune — he says — of a personal fortune of $10 billion. (Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.5 billion).
As he has run his empire and ascended as a mega star on reality TV, Trump has often been accused of being a bully, which he denies.
He does, however, acknowledge being a "very assertive, aggressive kid."
When he was in elementary school he formed the opinion that his music teacher didn't know much about music.
So, Trump punched him in the face, he wrote in 1987's "The Art of the Deal."
"In the second grade I actually gave a teacher a black eye," he wrote. "I'm not proud of that, but it's clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way. The difference now is that I like to use my brain instead of my fists." (He adds that he "almost got expelled" over the incident.)
The elder Trump completed his project and liked it so much that he glued the blocks together.
It was a self-admiration that would carry over into his real life as a builder.
In "Think Big," he writes of the emotional reaction he has when arriving to work at Trump Tower.
"I love to see the crowds of people oohing and aahing at the stunning marble and the breathtaking 80-foot waterfall," he wrote. "In truth I am dazzled as much by my own creations as are the tourists and glamour hounds that flock to Trump Tower ... or any of my other properties."
The mutual admiration of his work, Trump wrote, makes him feel "a little closer to them even though we've never met."
The billionaire developer has long felt a kinship with blue-collar workers -- and he believes the feeling is reciprocated. There is without question an aspirational nature to his candidacy, and blue-collar workers have shown up at the polls in droves to support his bid for the Republican nomination — often expressing admiration for his success and a belief that his financial wealth will free him from the influence of special interests if he makes it to the White House.
"Rich men are less likely to like me," Trump told Playboy in a 1990 interview, "but the working man likes me because he knows I worked hard and didn't inherit what I've built."
Trump acknowledges he was born wealthy — he grew up in a 23-room house in the Jamaica Estates section of Queens — and that his father loaned him money to begin his own business. But he stresses that he set himself apart when he headed to Manhattan and began building skyscrapers instead of affordable rental units.
"I often say that I'm a member of the lucky sperm club," he wrote in 2009's "Think Like A Champion."
"But did it give me a natural talent? I don't think so. It gave me an advantage that I deliberately chose to develop into an advantage."
There is an "it" factor people like him are born with, Trump has said.
To explain what he meant by "it," Trump, the son of a multi-millionaire, evoked the plight of mine workers with black lung disease in the interview with Playboy.
"If I had been the son of a coal miner I would have left the damn mines," said Trump, then 43. "But most people don't have the imagination—or whatever — to leave their mine."
"They don't have 'it,' " he said.
Trump seems most self-critical when writing about the near collapse of his real-estate empire in 1990.
"In the early 90s I was in a ton of debt. I had gone from the smartest guy in town to a complete zero," he wrote in 2007's "Think Big." "I went from being a super genius to a moron."
He recalled walking down the street one day with his then-wife, Marla Maples, and reflecting on his situation. He pointed to a nearby man.
"That beggar over there is worth $900 million more than I am," he wrote.
"What do you mean?" Maples asked.
"Because I'm $900 million in debt," he replied, "and at least he has money in his pocket."
He attributed his fall not only to the revision of the tax code by Congress in 1986 — which he said destroyed "just about any incentive anyone might have for investing in real estate" — but also to his own complacency.
"You just get a feeling of invincibility," he said, reflecting on his downward spiral in that book.
"You let down your guard. You don't work as hard. Then things start to go in the wrong direction."
Trump, who has written that he sleeps three-to-four hours a night so he can devote as much time as possible to his work, does not dwell on his misfortune on the campaign trail, except to establish the depths from which he re-emerged.
He threatened to sue a Washington Post reporter who wrote about the bankruptcy of the Taj Mahal, one of his casinos in Atlantic City, according to an interview with that reporter on NPR's "Fresh Air." Trump also reacted indignantly to a question about his bankruptcies during CNN's September debate last year, insisting that he merely took advantage of U.S. laws to help his business.
Back on top in the mid-2000s, Trump wrote "Think Big," which shows the evolution of his management style and his values as a leader.
"DO NOT TRUST ANYONE," reads one chapter subheading.
"I used to say, 'Go out and get the best people, and trust them.' Over the years I have seen too many shenanigans, and now I say, 'Get the best people and don't trust them.'"
Another maxim in Trump's world is revenge.
"I always get even," he writes in a chapter dedicated to the subject.
"She was a nobody in her government job and going nowhere," Trump wrote of the unnamed woman. "I decided to make her into somebody."
Under his mentoring, Trump wrote, the woman became powerful in real estate and bought a beautiful home.
When Trump was under intense financial pressure in the early '90s, he asked the woman to make a phone call to "an extremely close friend of hers who held a powerful position at a big bank who would have done what she asked."
So Trump "got rid of her," he wrote.
"She ended up losing her home. Her husband, who was only in it for the money, walked out on her and I was glad," he continued. "Over the years many people have called asking for a recommendation for her. I only give her bad recommendations. ...This woman was very disloyal, and now I go out of my way to make her life miserable."
Trump punctuated the anecdote with several bullet points at the end of the chapter, including:
"When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades" and "Go for the jugular so that people watching will not want to mess with you."
That approach was shaped by his own travails in business in the early 1990s as he watched his empire collapse around him.
"I believe in an eye for an eye — like the Old Testament says," he wrote in "The Art of the Comeback."
"Some of the people who forgot to lift a finger when I needed them, when I was down, they need my help now, and I'm screwing them against the wall. I'm doing a number.... And I'm having so much fun."
While Trump's writings and statements are geared primarily toward the business world, he has routinely weighed in on politics over the years.
Favorite themes are the need for national strength and restoring America's stature abroad, which he says has been diminishing for decades.
In the Playboy interview, he referred to the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in which some 10,000 government troops killed an unknown number of protestors.
"When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it," Trump said. "Then they were vicious. They were horrible, but they put it down with strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak ... as being spit on by the rest of the world."
In "Think Big," he criticized then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a smiling, waving lightweight who is no match for the murderous dictators she was dispatched to deal with.
"Condi Rice just goes over there to get her picture taken," Trump wrote.
Trump states without equivocation that he could accomplish a feat that has eluded politicians for decades:
"I could negotiate peace in the Middle East -- very few other people could," he wrote in "Think Big."
Aside from a brief flirtation with the idea of a presidential bid in 2000, however, Trump has spent most of his years in the spotlight denying or downplaying such aspirations.
"I think I'm almost too honest to be a politician," he told CNN in 1997.
"I'm too forthright. I'm too — I think I'm too honest," he said, "but I do believe I'm too forthright to be a politician." | 0fake |
Great Britain’s Government Just Issued An EPIC F**K You To Trump (DETAILS) | Donald Trump is scheduled to make his first state visit to Britain later this year. Since the United Kingdom is one of America s closest and oldest allies, the utmost diplomacy and courtesy is usually afforded when either leader visits the other. That will not be the case during the Trump era, though, if UK House of Commons Speaker John Bercow has anything to say about it. Citing Trump s racism and sexism, Bercow says that he is against allowing Trump to address the UK s Members of Parliament (MP s).Bercow says that speaking before the distinguished body is not an automatic right, it is an earned honour. Many MP s were elated at Bercow s move, while others were irritated and worried that he might be straining relations with an ally that the UK needs in his proposed treatment of Trump. Bercow said of his decision: After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump I am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall. I would not wish to issue an invitation to President Trump. Bercow then added passionately: I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons. Labour Party MP Stephen Daughtry offered high praise for Bercow s extraordinary statement: I am delighted that the Speaker has listened to members from across the house regarding our deep concerns that Donald Trump not be honoured with an address in Westminster Hall or elsewhere in the Palace of Westminster, after his comments and actions on women, torture, refugees and the judiciary. Another Labour Party MP, Yvette Cooper, said that Trump has been continuing his assault on the democratic values that the British Parliament holds dear. This really should come as no surprise, because during the election cycle, the entire British Parliament spent more than three hours excoriating Trump. He was called crazy, a buffoon, a fool, bonkers, dangerous, and more. Regardless of party, the entire House of Commons were in agreement in their contempt for then-candidate Trump. Here is a highlight reel, courtesy of the Washington Post, on that debate:All in all, Trump is ruining relationships for America, likely for years to come, just because of his repugnant personal characteristics. Good on House Speaker Bercow for putting principle above niceties. Hopefully, people continue to support this move. In the meantime, let s hope our allies don t judge all Americans by the actions of one unhinged, illegitimate leader.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Britain says Syrian reconstruction only after political transition 'away from Assad' | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Britain, the United States and other countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not support the reconstruction of the country until there is a political transition away from Assad, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday. We believe that the only way forward is to get a political process going and to make it clear to the Iranians, Russians and Assad regime that we, the like-minded group, will not support the reconstruction of Syria until there is such a political process and that means, as Resolution 2254 says, to a transition away from Assad, he said. Johnson was speaking after a meeting of about 14 countries that back the Syrian opposition including France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States. | 0fake |
Humana to Drop Out of Obamacare Exchanges in 2018 - Breitbart | The health insurance giant Humana will exit the Obamacare exchanges in 2018. [Humana believes the Obamacare exchanges have too few healthy patients to balance out a significant number of sick and costly patients. The health insurer lowered its Obamacare participation previously, reducing the number of states in 2016 from 19 to 11. Donald Trump tweeted about Humana’s exit saying: Obamacare continues to fail. Humana to pull out in 2018. Will repeal, replace save healthcare for ALL Americans. https: . — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2017, Humana’s coverage dropped significantly among Obamacare exchanges in early 2017. Only 152, 000 customers purchased health care in January 2017, down from 404, 000 in December. In December Humana announced that they would be writing off $583 million as a result of its failed exchange insurance program. Humana said in its announcement, “All of these actions were taken with the expectation that the company’s Individual Commercial business would stabilize to the point where the company could continue to participate in the program. However, based on its initial analysis of data associated with the company’s healthcare exchange membership following the 2017 open enrollment period, Humana is seeing further signs of an unbalanced risk pool. ” Humana’s loss primarily results from the Obamacare exchanges’ lopsided ratio of mostly sick patients to healthy ones. The Obamacare exchanges need a larger amount of healthy customers to keep the exchanges profitable. Humana plans to serve Obamacare customers until the end of 2017. | 0fake |
For Trump, the honeymoon with Putin may be finally over | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin tossed President-elect Donald Trump a bouquet in December when he chose not to retaliate for the U.S. expulsion of Russian diplomats and seizure of Russian diplomatic compounds. The honeymoon is over. Russia’s tit-for-tat decision to expel hundreds of U.S. diplomats and seize two U.S. compounds may be an acknowledgment in Moscow that Trump’s ability to bring better ties is limited, at best, and the start of a new downward spiral in relations. Russia took the step after the U.S. Senate on Thursday sent a breath-taking signal that it does not trust Trump on Russia by passing a bill that imposes new sanctions on Moscow and ties the president’s hands if he seeks to ease them. The White House issued a statement on Friday night saying Trump had negotiated changes to the legislation and now intends to sign it. “(The Russians) have taken Trump’s measure and while they are willing to exploit his goofy fixation on Putin and naive sense you can do deals with someone like Putin ... they realize his clownish performance as president makes it really hard for him to deliver on any of the big things that Russia wants,” said Andrew Weiss, a former national security council Russia expert. At the top of Russia’s wish list is an easing of U.S. sanctions imposed for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its destabilization of eastern Ukraine, something the Senate action would all but rule out. Another, all but inconceivable, item would be formal U.S. recognition Russia’s claim to Crimea. “Trump’s performance surely has left nobody in Moscow with the impression he is a guy who can deliver,” said Weiss, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. Trump’s desire, often expressed during the 2016 presidential campaign, to improve relations has been hamstrung by findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered to help the Republican against Democrat Hillary Clinton. A federal law enforcement investigation and multiple U.S. congressional probes looking into the possibility that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, have made it harder for Trump to open a new chapter with Putin. Russia denies it interfered in the election and Trump has said there was no collusion. The Senate’s 98-2 passage of the sanctions bill, which followed a 419-3 vote in the House of Representatives, forces Trump to take a hard line on Moscow or veto the legislation and infuriate his fellow Republicans. The huge margins mean Congress could easily override a veto. Weiss suggested that Trump’s low approval ratings at home, his tendency to alienate NATO allies such as Germany and his inability to pass domestic legislation all contribute to a Russian perception that he is weakening the United States. “(That) is going to pay dividends for Moscow, so there is no need to turn him away from the course he is already on which is self-destructive and bad for America’s standing internationally. All of that is a huge win for the Kremlin,” Weiss said. Russia gave the United States until Sept. 1 to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December because of the alleged election hacking. It also said it would seize a Moscow compound used by U.S. diplomats as well as a U.S. diplomatic warehouse. Some former officials said Russia could take other steps, such as seeking to help Russian-backed forces seize more ground in eastern Ukraine or to try to limit U.S. air operations in Syria, while others said any reaction might be more muted. Russia could look at imposing economic counter-sanctions against the United States, the former official said, saying he thought that retaliation in Ukraine or Syria was less likely because it was more likely to lead to a U.S. counter response. Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012-2014, said he does not think that Russia will escalate tensions with the United States just yet because Trump’s assertions that he wants better relations with Moscow are encouraging Putin to continue seeking some kind of accommodation with the U.S. president. “I don’t think they are going to walk away from that just yet,” said McFaul. “I believe that Putin still believes there might be something he can do with Trump.” | 0fake |
Iran’s Zarif to hold talks with Russia’s Lavrov on Syria in Moscow | Politics Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Photo by AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will pay an official one-day visit to Russia for talks on the Syrian crisis.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Wednesday that the top diplomat is due in Moscow on Friday.
He said that Zarif is scheduled to attend a trilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on regional developments, including the conflict in Syria.
According to Qassemi, Zarif will also hold a separate meeting with Lavrov to discuss Tehran-Moscow relations.
Meanwhile, Russia's RIA news agency, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry, reported that Zarif and Lavrov will also discuss the situation in Iraq.
Muallem's scheduled visit on Friday had earlier been announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Iran and Russia have similar stances on the ongoing deadly crisis in Syria. Moscow and Tehran reject any foreign interference in the affairs of the war-hit country, stressing that only the Syrians are entitled to decide their own fate.
Iran has been providing military advisory assistance to the Syrian government in its campaign against terrorism.
Russia has also been carrying out airstrikes against terrorists' positions in Syria since September last year at the official request of the Damascus government.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Over 400,000 people have so far been killed in the conflict, according to estimates by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura .
In neighboring Iraq, the Arab country’s army is also pressing ahead with a massive operation aimed at recapturing Mosul from Daesh Takfiri terrorists, who captured the strategic city in June 2014.
The army has been liberating more areas aroundMosul, with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command announcing that counter-terrorism units were only two kilometers away from the city. Loading ... | 1real |
Tony Blair suggests a second referendum to reverse Brexit | Politics Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says UK voters ‘have to build the capability to mobilize and to organize’ against Brexit.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says Britain should keep its “options open” on whether or not to leave the European Union until after Brexit talks with the bloc are completed.
During an interview on Friday with BBC Radio 4's “Today” program, Blair described the EU referendum as “a catastrophe” and said UK voters should be given the option of a second EU referendum.
Britain should not withdraw from the EU until it becomes clearer how Brexit would impact UK’s economic, social and cultural future, Blair said.
"The bizarre thing about this referendum is that we took a decision but we still don't know the precise terms,” he said. “There’s got to be some way, either through parliament, or through an election, possibly through another referendum, that people express their view.”
The former premier, who was in office from 1997 until 2007, said it should be possible for the public to switch their verdict if it becomes clear the alternative negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May is going to be worse.
Blair’s argument contrasts sharply with that of May, who has repeatedly said that “Brexit means Brexit” and that she’ll respect the referendum result. Blair had argued that Britain should stay in the EU before the referendum.
Economic growth in the UK is expected to slow significantly next year, due to uncertainty over of the Brexit vote.
Experts have warned that leaving the EU will severely hurt London’s position as a financial hub, unless the UK decides to keep its access to the single EU market by loosening its stance on immigration.
If the UK loses its access to the EU’s single market, the resulting increase in the costs of doing business and exporting to the EU would hurt Britain’s competitive position in Europe. Loading ... | 1real |
WATCH: Jake Tapper Teaches Trump The Difference Between Conspiracy Theories And Real News | Donald Trump just got humiliated with facts again by CNN.On Wednesday morning, Trump once again attacked CNN by calling them fake news and accused them of pushing conspiracy theories in response to their reporting on the Michael Flynn scandal.The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017Flynn got caught lying about his discussion with Russian officials about the sanctions President Obama placed on Russia.Because Flynn was not a government official at the time, he violated the Logan Act. He also lied to Mike Pence about the discussion, and Pence proceeded to unknowingly lie in defense of Flynn and his activities.Thanks to White House staffers who leaked the truth, Trump was forced to accept Flynn s resignation.And Trump didn t like that so he lashed out at the media for reporting the leaks.Well, CNN host Jake Tapper BURIED Trump Wednesday afternoon by teaching him the difference between conspiracy theories and real news. The media, of course did not fire General Flynn, President Trump did, Tapper pointed out. Now what the media did do was reveal to the nation that General Flynn had lied to the Trump team including Vice President Pence when he claimed he never discussed Obama s sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador. President Trump knew this at least as early as January 26th. But he did not act on this until media revealed the truth to you, and, as it turns out, Vice President Pence. Of course these stories are not conspiracy theories, these are news stories sourced by government officials, Tapper continued. Conspiracy theories are different, they re false, they re crackpot, they re nonsense. Tapper then proceeded to give Trump examples of conspiracy theories, such as when Trump claimed that Ted Cruz s dad helped kill John F. Kennedy or when Trump pushed the lie that President Obama was born in Kenya. THOSE are conspiracy theories, Tapper declared. These are facts. Ad if Trump weren t already humiliated enough, Tapper also slammed Trump s hypocrisy on leaks. Throughout Trump s campaign he cheered on Wikileaks and the FBI for leaking information he could use against Hillary Clinton. But now that the leaks are about him and his administration, he s pissed off about it. No president likes leaks, but it s worth noting candidate Trump s path to power was tread on a road of leaks. He didn t have a problem with leaks then. It s not a moral position if you only hold it when it applies to you. Here s the video via YouTube:Donald Trump really needs to stop attacking the media. It s embarrassing.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
F.B.I. Steps Up Use of Stings in ISIS Cases - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The F. B. I. has significantly increased its use of stings in terrorism cases, employing agents and informants to pose as jihadists, bomb makers, gun dealers or online “friends” in hundreds of investigations into Americans suspected of supporting the Islamic State, records and interviews show. Undercover operations, once seen as a last resort, are now used in about two of every three prosecutions involving people suspected of supporting the Islamic State, a sharp rise in the span of just two years, according to a New York Times analysis. Charges have been brought against nearly 90 Americans believed to be linked to the group. The increase in the number of these secret operations, which put operatives in the middle of purported plots, has come with little public or congressional scrutiny, and the stings rely on F. B. I. guidelines that predate the rise of the Islamic State. While F. B. I. officials say they are careful to avoid illegally entrapping suspects, their undercover operatives are far from bystanders. In recent investigations from Florida to California, agents have helped people suspected of being extremists acquire weapons, scope out bombing targets and find the best routes to Syria to join the Islamic State, records show. Officials said in interviews that because social media had given extremists a cloak of anonymity, these undercover stings — online and in person — had become increasingly vital to gathering evidence and deterring possible attacks in the United States. “We’re not going to wait for the person to mobilize on his own time line,” said Michael B. Steinbach, who leads the F. B. I. ’s national security branch. He added that the F. B. I. could not afford to “just sit and wait knowing the individual is actively plotting. ” Counterterrorism officials said the Islamic State had inspired loyalists to strike quickly, even within days or weeks of their radicalization. Unlike wiretaps or searches, undercover operations do not require a judge to sign a warrant. They are overseen by F. B. I. supervisors and Justice Department prosecutors, and so can usually be started more quickly. But defense lawyers, Muslim leaders and civil liberties advocates say that F. B. I. operatives coax suspects into saying and doing things that they might not otherwise do — the essence of entrapment. “They’re manufacturing terrorism cases,” said Michael German, a former undercover agent with the F. B. I. who researches national security law at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. In many of the recent prosecutions, he said, “these people are five steps away from being a danger to the United States. ” Karen J. Greenberg, the director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University, said undercover operations had become the norm for the F. B. I. in the most recent Islamic State cases, with little debate or understanding of how the bureau actually conducts its investigations, especially its online stings. “I think the F. B. I. is really going down the wrong path with a lot of these ISIS cases,” she said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL. Court records and interviews give a glimpse of the aggressive undercover methods that have become typical in investigations once the F. B. I. identifies someone as a possible threat. In Rochester, a paid informant went undercover and drove a man suspected of being an Islamic extremist, Emanuel Lutchman, to a Walmart in December to buy a machete, ski masks, zip ties and other supplies for a terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve. Because Mr. Lutchman, a mentally ill panhandler, had no money, the informant covered the $40 cost. In North Carolina, an undercover agent pressed another suspect, Justin Sullivan, on whether he was willing to commit acts of terrorism for the Islamic State — “do you think you can kill?” the agent asked in one online message — before giving him a silencer for an assault rifle in June 2015. And in Washington State, an undercover informant paid $1, 100 to Daniel Franey, a former soldier, for acting as a lookout on several trips to buy duffel bags filled with assault weapons for a possible attack last summer. The F. B. I. arrested all three suspects before any attacks occurred, and has used similar undercover techniques to prosecute dozens of others it believes had ties to the Islamic State, court records show. While some defendants have pleaded guilty, most are still awaiting trial. At least 40 agencies use covert operatives to investigate everything from tax cheating and welfare fraud to Supreme Court demonstrations. But in no agency have undercover stings been more central than in the F. B. I. While the F. B. I. ’s internal guidelines, last updated in 2011, require the “least intrusive” methods possible in investigations, bureau officials said they believed less intrusive methods might be impossible because suspects have the ability to remain anonymous on encrypted online sites. “When the bad guys turn to encrypted areas, we’re dark, and the only way to gain a better understanding of what we’re up against may be through an undercover,” Mr. Steinbach said. He said using undercover agents online allowed the F. B. I. to “flesh out” suspects by gaining their trust and persuading them to disclose their real identities. The F. B. I. has about 1, 000 open investigations into “homegrown violent extremists,” which it defines as Americans motivated by a foreign terrorist group, including the Islamic State, to conduct attacks at home, officials said. They said that a “significant number” of cases — hundreds in all — had entailed undercover operations against people suspected of being Islamic extremists, but that the F. B. I. did not have precise numbers. But court records examined by The Times indicate that the F. B. I. has used undercover operations with increasing frequency in its Islamic State investigations since the earliest cases emerged in March 2014. (For years before that, the bureau had carried out similar sting investigations against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.) Only about 30 percent of the first few dozen prosecutions through late 2014 appear to have relied on evidence gathered through undercover operations. That number climbed to about 45 percent by early last year, with a string of undercover prosecutions in New York, Minnesota and Illinois. And since February 2015, about 40 of 60 Islamic State prosecutions, or 67 percent, have been based on undercover operations. The number of Islamic State prosecutions over all has slowed since January officials believe a spate of prosecutions late last year may have deterred plotters. But undercover stings have remained the norm. So far this year, eight of the dozen Islamic State prosecutions have relied on undercover operatives, court records indicate. In the most recent case, prosecutors two weeks ago charged a Bronx man, Sajmir Alimehmeti, 22, with traveling to Europe twice to try to fight with the Islamic State. He met with at least three undercover agents during the F. B. I. ’s investigation. Undercover activity also appears to have risen in the hundreds of Islamic State investigations run by the F. B. I. in the last two years, but it is not as sharp a spike as seen in those cases that led to formal charges, officials said. Asked about The Times’s data, F. B. I. officials said any increase in undercover activity probably reflected the emergence of what they believed to be a larger and more dangerous pool of Islamic State suspects. The officials said there had been no deliberate decision or policy change to rely more heavily on undercover agents. Often, the targets in the stings first attracted the F. B. I. ’s attention for espousing what agents saw as support for the Islamic State or violent extremism online, on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. The F. B. I. insists that its agents comb these sites not as “thought police,” but rather to look for people who are threatening acts of terrorism. Once the F. B. I. has identified someone as a potential threat, supervisors often have an undercover agent contact the suspect online. In Northern Illinois, for instance, an undercover agent sent a friend request on Facebook to Hasan Edmonds, a National Guardsman who had published posts on social media that the F. B. I. had deemed alarming. Over the next several months, Mr. Edmonds and the undercover agent exchanged numerous online messages, discussing the possibility of traveling to the Middle East to help the Islamic State, or perhaps mounting an attack at the Illinois armory where Mr. Edmonds trained. “Oaths have been given,” Mr. Edmonds wrote to an informant in one online message in January 2015, according to a criminal complaint. “When the time is right, we will strike. ” A few days later, Mr. Edmonds wrote that he and a cousin were eager to help the cause and “would love to do something like the brother in Paris did” — a reference to the terrorist attack a few weeks earlier on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The undercover agent responded by suggesting to Mr. Edmonds that if he could not make it overseas to fight with the Islamic State, he could show his commitment and achieve martyrdom in the United States, court filings said. The online messages led to a meeting in person in March 2015 between a second undercover operative and Mr. Edmonds’s cousin, Jonas Edmonds, prosecutors said. Weeks later, the cousins were arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport — with Hasan Edmonds apparently on his way to the Middle East — and charged with offenses. Both men have pleaded guilty and are facing long prison sentences. In that case and in many others, F. B. I. undercover operatives have let plots play out until a suspect acquires a weapon, for instance, or buys a plane ticket to Turkey en route to Syria. An investigation that ended last month in Miami followed this pattern, with the normal tableau of undercover operatives and talk of a bloody attack. The F. B. I. received word — exactly how is unclear — that James Gonzalo Medina, 40, a Muslim convert who also went by James Muhammad, might have been considering attacking a synagogue, according to court records. It opened an investigation into Mr. Medina in March, but the initial evidence was spotty. At one meeting with an undercover informant and several other men, Mr. Medina accused a friend of wanting to blow up a synagogue he seemed to distance himself from the idea. Five days later, as Mr. Medina was driving with the F. B. I. informant in a suburb of Miami, he pointed out a synagogue with what he called “David’s triangle star” on the outside. The F. B. I. informant suggested attacking the synagogue during a Jewish holiday two weeks later, according to court files. “Now that’ll be a good day to go and bomb them,” Mr. Medina responded, according to the files. The informant took the proposed plot a step further, introducing Mr. Medina to an acquaintance the informant said was experienced with explosives. The acquaintance was actually an undercover F. B. I. agent, who questioned Mr. Medina several times about why he wanted to bomb the synagogue. Mr. Medina said he wanted to carry out a bombing and claim responsibility on behalf of “ISIS in America. ” “You need to be sure, brother,” the undercover agent told him, adding, “You know you don’t have to do any of this. ” Mr. Medina reaffirmed his commitment, according to the court files. Finally, in late April, the agent met Mr. Medina in a parking lot and gave him the bomb, which was inert and “posed no danger to the public,” prosecutors said. The two men drove toward the synagogue a few miles away, and after Mr. Medina stepped out of the car with the bomb in hand, he was arrested. Officials said they were keenly aware that such cases would almost inevitably lead defense lawyers to charge that the F. B. I. had entrapped their clients. That is why, the officials said, they often gauge suspects’ commitment to carrying out an attack and give them an “out” to back away. F. B. I. officials are also quick to point out that, despite dozens of challenges to undercover terrorism cases brought since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a judge has yet to throw one out on the grounds of entrapment. Not that some judges have not considered it. “I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here, except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition,” Judge Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court in Manhattan said in 2011 in a case involving four Muslim men in Newburgh, N. Y. The F. B. I. planted an undercover informant inside a mosque in Newburgh as part of what became an elaborate, nearly yearlong plot to launch a Stinger missile at a local air base and two synagogues. The F. B. I. even built a fake Stinger missile and had it delivered to the men. Judge McMahon said she was troubled by the F. B. I. ’s conduct, but she upheld the charges. So did the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, finding that the F. B. I. ’s conduct did not amount to entrapment. The stings have left many Muslim leaders wary, even as the F. B. I. has sought to build bridges to Muslim Americans. At mosques in Oregon, imams sometimes warn of F. B. I. informants and caution “that we have those among us who are not with us,” said Tom Nelson, a Muslim lawyer in Portland who has represented a number of local men in cases. His message for his Muslim friends, Mr. Nelson said, is blunt. “Avoid the F. B. I. like the plague,” he said. “They’re definitely not an ally. That’s what the F. B. I. does — they infiltrate. ” | 0fake |
Trump Signs Executive Order Unwinding Obama Climate Policies - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — President Trump, flanked by company executives and miners, signed a executive order on Tuesday to nullify President Barack Obama’s climate change efforts and revive the coal industry, effectively ceding American leadership in the international campaign to curb the dangerous heating of the planet. Mr. Trump made clear that the United States had no intention of meeting the commitments that his predecessor had made to curb carbon dioxide pollution, turning denials of climate change into national policy. At a ceremony, Mr. Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to start the complex and lengthy legal process of withdrawing and rewriting the Clean Power Plan, which would have closed hundreds of power plants, frozen construction of new plants and replaced them with vast new wind and solar farms. “C’mon, fellas. You know what this is? You know what this says?” Mr. Trump said to the miners. “You’re going back to work. ” Throughout the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to roll back Mr. Obama’s major climate change policies, a set of ambitious E. P. A. regulations to curb greenhouse pollution from power plants. He made clear that American leadership in the global campaign against climate change would take a back seat to his commitment to energy industry jobs. With his order to move forward with the rollback, climate diplomats around the world maneuvered to fill the vacuum left by the exit of the globe’s climate polluter. “There are countless countries ready to step up and deliver on their climate promises and take advantages of Mr. Trump’s to reap the benefits of the transition to the economy,” said Laurence Tubiana, the chief French negotiator of the 2015 Paris agreement, the landmark accord that committed nearly every country to take action to reduce emissions. Over all, the goal of the Paris deal is to keep the planet from warming more than 3. 6 degrees, the point at which scientists say the earth will be irrevocably locked into a future of severe droughts, floods, rising sea levels and food shortages. Mr. Obama pledged that the United States would cut its emissions about 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Carrying out the Clean Power Plan was essential to meeting that target. “This is not the time for any country to change course on the very serious and very real threat of climate change,” said Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program. “The science tells us that we need bolder, more ambitious commitments. ” Mr. Trump has not yet decided whether to formally withdraw from the Paris agreement. But by rolling back the policies needed to meet American commitments, the United States essentially announced that it would not comply, whether the nation remains a signatory or not, experts said. “One of the greatest concerns is what other key countries, including China, India and Brazil, will do when the U. S. reneges on the Paris agreement,” said Robert Stavins, a professor of environmental economics at Harvard, mentioning some of the world’s other largest carbon dioxide polluters. “The scenario is that the Paris agreement will unravel,” Mr. Stavins said. “That would be a great tragedy. ” Diplomats from some of the world’s other major economies say they intend to continue carrying out their climate change agreements, with or without the United States. But the Trump administration’s moves are likely to embolden opponents of climate action around the world. At the heart of the Paris accord was a breakthrough 2014 agreement between Mr. Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, in which the leaders of the world’s two largest polluting countries agreed to enact policies to cut their emissions. At the time, Mr. Obama offered the Clean Power Plan as evidence that the United States would meet its target. Their deal was seen as the catalyst to bring other countries to the table to forge the Paris pact. If Mr. Trump reneges on his predecessor’s commitment, it could further fray a relationship that has become more tenuous since his election. “Getting to that point was not easy,” said Kelly Sims Gallagher, an expert on Chinese environmental policy at Tufts University who helped broker the climate talks. “This undoes many years of work building up trust that the U. S. will honor the commitments it makes at the presidential level. ” Mr. Trump is tentatively scheduled to meet with Mr. Xi next week at his Florida estate. Mr. Xi has signaled that he is prepared to move forward with his Paris pledge that China’s emissions will drop by or before 2030. Speaking at the Davos economic summit meeting in January, Mr. Xi said, “All signatories should stick to it instead of walking away from it, as this is a responsibility we must assume for future generations. ” But experts say that without action from the United States, China’s efforts to curb emissions may slow. “It may empower business and political interests within China that still opposed climate action,” said Alex L. Wang, a legal scholar of Chinese environmental policies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The same dynamic could play out in India, the world’s carbon dioxide polluter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked closely with Mr. Obama on climate change policies, but he did so against internal domestic pressures to prioritize economic development — including the provision of cheap electricity to India’s rural poor. Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Modi by telephone on Tuesday, but aides declined to say if they discussed climate change. Harsh V. Pant, a research fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi, said Mr. Trump’s order would give the Indian government political space to delay some of its climate commitments. “It will slow down a little bit,” he said. Still, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump’s orders will fully vanquish Mr. Obama’s climate change legacy. Legal experts say it could take years for the E. P. A. administrator to carry out the process of withdrawing and revising the climate change regulations, and the process will be hit by legal challenges at every turn. A coalition of states, including New York and California, has already vowed to fight Mr. Trump. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York said he was preparing to challenge any effort to do away with regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. Such a move, he argued, violated the Clean Air Act, as well as established case law. “If they want to go back into the process, we believe they are compelled under law to come up with something close to the Clean Power Plan,” he said. “They probably don’t want to hear this again,” he said, “but if they want to repeal, they have to replace. ” | 0fake |
Trump speaks with leaders of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke separately on Friday with Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Qatar s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the White House said in a statement. Trump told them that unity among Washington s Arab partners was essential to promoting regional stability and countering the threat of Iran, the statement said. The president also emphasized that all countries must follow through on commitments from the Riyadh Summit to defeat terrorism, cut off funding for terrorist groups, and combat extremist ideology, it said. Trump also spoke to Qatar s al-Thani on Thursday. Trump told a news conference on Thursday that he would be willing to step in and mediate a dispute among the U.S.-allied Arab states and Qatar, and said he thought a deal could come quickly. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, suspending air and shipping routes with the world s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, which is home to the region s biggest U.S. military base. The nations say Doha supports regional foe Iran and Islamists, charges Qatar s leaders deny. | 0fake |
Federal Reserve Fines Goldman Sachs $36 Million in Document Leak - The New York Times | The Federal Reserve took action on Wednesday against Goldman Sachs and one of its former executives, escalating a investigation into a leak of confidential government information. The action, which forced Goldman to pay a $36. 3 million penalty, stemmed from an incident in 2014, when a junior Goldman banker took confidential information from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The junior banker, whom Goldman promptly fired, received the information from a New York Fed employee. Both men pleaded guilty to stealing government property, and Goldman paid a $50 million penalty to New York State regulators because its “management failed to effectively supervise” the banker. The Fed did not act against Goldman at the time, making its decision to pursue Goldman now a somewhat unusual move. The action, which cites Goldman for an “unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential supervisory information,” is also an awkward one for the Fed. The leak, after all, originated at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with one of its own employees. And the junior Goldman banker who received the confidential information was a former New York Fed employee himself. Goldman, not the New York Fed, was the one to uncover the leak. Yet the Fed’s board in Washington, a unit that operates separately from the New York Fed, is the one penalizing Goldman. And the Fed’s action goes further than Goldman’s settlement with New York State last year, reaching back several years to highlight how the bank failed since 2012 to have sufficient policies and employee training to prevent a leak like this one. The case reflects a broader effort at the Fed to adopt a tougher stance against Wall Street misconduct and to crack down on individual bankers. In 2015, the Fed chose to bar six bankers from the industry, twice the number in 2014. The year before that, the Fed did not take any such actions. The Fed’s case against Goldman, the details of which were reported last week by The New York Times, centers on what could have been a regulatory gold mine. The confidential information, the Fed said, included reports of bank examinations and other “confidential reports prepared by banking regulators. ” The documents effectively provided Goldman with a window into the Fed’s private insights about regulatory matters. And the bank, the Fed said, used the information in presentations to current and prospective clients “in an effort to solicit business. ” “The board expects all firms, including Goldman Sachs, to comply with all U. S. laws, rules and regulations,” the Fed said in a statement, noting that it is “illegal to use or disclose confidential supervisory information without prior approval. ” In its own statement, Goldman said it was “pleased to have resolved this matter. ” The bank emphasized that it had fired the former junior banker, Rohit Bansal, and that it had immediately notified the Fed after discovering that he had “improperly obtained information from his former employer, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. ” Goldman also fired Joseph Jiampietro, an executive who helped oversee Mr. Bansal. Goldman’s investigators found leaked New York Fed documents on Mr. Jiampietro’s desk, though the company never concluded that he knew about the leak. Instead, it reported to regulators that he had “failed to properly escalate” the problem. But now the Fed, unlike New York State, has taken aim at Mr. Jiampietro, previously a senior adviser to Sheila C. Bair when she was chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In announcing an action against Mr. Jiampietro, the Fed said it was seeking to impose a fine and to “permanently bar him from the banking industry stemming from his and his subordinates’ unauthorized use” of confidential information. Unlike Goldman, Mr. Jiampietro’s lawyers are fighting the case through the Fed’s civil disciplinary proceedings, disputing that Mr. Jiampietro had anything to do with the leak. They note that Mr. Bansal, who accepted a misdemeanor plea deal with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, did not explicitly accuse Mr. Jiampietro of instructing him to obtain the documents. In a previous statement, a lawyer for Mr. Jiampietro accused the Fed of appearing to use his client “as an industry scapegoat. ” The lawyer, Adam Ford of the law firm Ford O’Brien, added on Wednesday that “the allegations filed against Mr. Jiampietro are demonstrably false. ” Mr. Jiampietro, he said, “never requested confidential supervisory information from anyone and never used it for his or anyone’s benefit. ” “The Fed has the law wrong and the facts wrong,” Mr. Ford said. “Mr. Jiampietro intends on fighting these allegations and looks forward to full vindication. ” The Fed’s actions on Wednesday were not its first to stem from the leak. The New York Fed fired its employee and notified law enforcement agencies, saying at the time that it was “resolute to learn from our experiences. ” The Fed board in Washington also permanently barred Mr. Bansal from the industry. Goldman, which under the terms of its settlement with the Fed must enhance its program for preventing its employees from soliciting or accepting leaked regulatory information, said in its statement: “We previously reviewed and strengthened our policies and procedures after Bansal was terminated. We have no tolerance for the improper handling of confidential supervisory information. ” Mr. Bansal, who received probation for his role in the leak, “looks forward to putting this behind him and moving on with his life,” his lawyer, E. Scott Morvillo, said at the time of his sentencing. And yet the case will linger for Mr. Bansal. The Fed is likely to call him as a witness against Mr. Jiampietro. | 0fake |
MELANIA SAVES TAXPAYERS A Fortune By Making Shocking Cuts In Number of Aides At White House Compared To Lavish Michelle Obama | Melania Trump is embracing a more active and public schedule as first lady but she still runs one of the leanest East Wing operations in recent history.According to a Fox News analysis of White House personnel reports, Melania Trump has significantly reduced the number of aides on the first lady s office payroll in comparison to her predecessor, Michelle Obama.During then-President Barack Obama s first year in office, 16 people were listed working for Michelle Obama, earning a combined $1.24 million a year.This year, just four people were listed working for Melania Trump as of June. Their salaries totaled $486,700.The details are contained in an annual report the White House sends to Congress showing the names, positions and salaries of all its personnel. Both the Obama and Trump administrations acknowledged several additional staffers beyond those listed in the report with the term first lady in their titles. But even counting all those employees 24 for Michelle Obama and nine for the current first lady Melania Trump s office is relatively small.It s an approach her spokeswoman says is intentional. As with all things that she does, she is being very deliberate in her hiring, focusing on quality over quantity, communications director Stephanie Grisham said in an email. It is important to her that the team is a good fit for what she wants to accomplish as first lady, and that everyone works well together. She also wants to be mindful and responsible when it comes to taxpayer money. While the 2009 annual report listed 16 staffers for Michelle Obama, her press secretary said at the time the staff actually included 24 people. A 2009 FactCheck.org story said Obama s 24 aides might have broken records. FOX News | 1real |
House to consider disaster aid Wednesday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House will consider a disaster relief package on Wednesday in wake of Hurricane Harvey that led to massive flooding in Texas and has been blamed for at least 50 deaths, the House majority leader’s office said Monday. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump asked Congress for an initial $7.85 billion for recovery efforts after the storm caused an estimated $180 billion in damage. | 0fake |
[Vidéo] Découvrez le Gorafi de l’Année 2017 >> Le Gorafi | null | 1real |
BOILER ROOM – EP #57 – Revenge of the Social Rejects | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Randy J of 21Wire, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis and Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East. Tonight the Boiler Gang discusses psychological operations in the media, HIV/AIDS deniers, potentially staged gender politics, some out there B-movies with regards to esoteric symbolism, the metaphor of Reptiles as they relate to psychopathy in the elite establishment, and some good comedic relief. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! REFERENCE LINKS: | 1real |
U.S. says it may not need Apple to open San Bernardino iPhone | (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors said Monday that a “third party” had presented a possible method for opening an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, a development that could bring an abrupt end to the high-stakes legal showdown between the government and Apple Inc (AAPL.O). A federal judge in Riverside, California, late Monday agreed to the government’s request to postpone a hearing scheduled for Tuesday so that the FBI could try the newly discovered technique. The Justice Department said it would update the court on April 5. The government had insisted until Monday that it had no way to access the phone used by Rizwan Farook, one of the two killers in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California, except to force Apple to write new software that would disable the password protection. The Justice Department last month obtained a court order directing Apple to create that software, but Apple has fought back, arguing that the order is an overreach by the government and would undermine computer security for everyone. The announcement on Monday that an unnamed third party had presented a way of breaking into the phone on Sunday - just two days before the hearing and after weeks of heated back-and-forth in court filings - drew skepticism from many in the tech community who have insisted that there were other ways to get into the phone. “From a purely technical perspective, one of the most fragile parts of the government’s case is the claim that Apple’s help is required to unlock the phone,” said Matt Blaze, a professor and computer security expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “Many in the technical community have been skeptical that this is true, especially given the government’s considerable resources.” Former prosecutors and lawyers supporting Apple said the move suggested that the Justice Department feared it would lose the legal battle, or at minimum would be forced to admit that it had not tried every other way to get into the phone. In a statement, the Justice Department said its only interest has always been gaining access to the information on the phone and that it had continued to explore alternatives even as litigation began. It offered no details on the new technique except that it came from a non-governmental third party, but said it was “cautiously optimistic” it would work. “That is why we asked the court to give us some time to explore this option,” a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Melanie R. Newman, said. “If this solution works, it will allow us to search the phone and continue our investigation into the terrorist attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 people.” It would also likely end the case without a legal showdown that many had expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. An Apple executive told reporters on a press call that the company knew nothing about the Justice Department’s possible method for getting into the phone, and that the government never gave any indication that it was continuing to search for such solutions. The executive characterized the Justice Department’s admission Monday that it never stopped pursuing ways to open the phone as a sharp contrast with its insistence in court filings that only Apple possessed the means to do so. Nate Cardozo, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group backing Apple, said the San Bernardino case was the “hand-chosen test case” for the government to establish its authority to access electronic information by whatever means necessary. In that context, he said, the last-minute discovery of a possible solution and the cancellation of the hearing is “suspicious,” and suggests the government might be worried about losing and setting a bad precedent. But George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, a former Justice Department computer crime prosecutor, said the government was likely only postponing the fight. “The problem is not going away, it’s just been delayed for a year or two,” he said. Apple said that if the government was successful in getting into the phone, which might involve taking advantage of previously undiscovered vulnerabilities, it hoped officials would share information on how they did so. But if the government drops the case it would be under no obligation to provide information to Apple. In opposing the court order, Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, and his allies have argued that it would be unprecedented to force a company to develop a new product to assist a government investigation, and that other law enforcement agencies around the world would rapidly demand similar services. Law enforcement officials, led by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, have countered that access to phones and other devices is crucial for intelligence work and criminal investigations. The government and the tech industry have clashed for years over similar issues, and Congress has been unable to pass legislation to address the impasse. | 0fake |
Prep Blog Review: 18+ Tips For Healthy Preppers | Drew Stratton November 12, 2016 Prep Blog Review: 18+ Tips For Healthy Preppers
The true challenge nowadays is to stay healthy in a toxic environment. Today we have access to medication and doctors, but what if we are in post SHTF environment and there is no way to get help?
One thing’s for sure: when SHTF health becomes your first concern and to stay healthy in a survival situation requires a proper diet, hygiene and sleep. Of course, there are many other skills required, but those make the subjects of other articles.
For this week’s Prep Blog Review I’ve gathered five articles with useful tips, most of them simple home remedies, for healthy preppers.
1. 10 Home Remedies For Oral Thrush
“Scientifically referred to as orophangeal Candidiasis, oral thrush is basically a yeast infection that tends to develop on the tongue. It’s unpleasant to look at, and even painful when you have it. The frustrating thing about this condition is that it might be drug-resistant, especially if the Candida rejects anti-fungal medication.
But guess what? I will provide you with top 10 home remedies for oral thrush, all of which are safe and proven to treat the condition. But before we look at these remedies, it’s only wise you know what causes oral thrush. After all, that’s where the treatment starts!”
Read more on I Keep Healthy .
2. 17 Uses For Listerine In A Survival Situation
“Many of us are familiar with the distinctive taste of Listerine. Whether it’s in the morning or before bed, the extreme tingle of Listerine is a familiar part of our daily routine.
But did you know that Listerine has many other uses besides a mouthwash? Listerine’s unique antiseptic properties lend well to many other applications, especially in survival situations.
Topical antiseptic
Listerine does such as great job of helping clean the mouth, it shouldn’t be surprising that it also works great for disinfecting minor cuts and wounds. This is due to Listerine’s high alcohol content.
Listerine may not work as well as dedicated antiseptics, nor be as comfortable to use (alcohol can really sting!), but it definitely works in a pinch to kill bacteria, reduce the chance of infection and speed up the rate of healing.”
Read more in Ask A Prepper .
3. 4 Natural Steps To Rebuilding Your Gums
“It’s common for people these days to have issues with their gums. Many people have been told that their gums are “withering away” or thinning, and even have tooth loss as a result. One young woman I spoke with in the past few months was only in her 20s, and yet her dentist told her she would need three implants and would eventually lose all of her teeth.
Others have periodontal disease and can’t seem to make any progress. They do what the dentist and hygienist says, and yet their mouth never improves.
The teeth weren’t constructed in such a way that missing a day or more of brushing or flossing would be the entire cause of these gum diseases. Instead, you have to look at what is happening in the entire body. The gums are made from tissues synthesized in the body from all the appropriate building materials – protein, silica, vitamin C, copper, zinc and other nutrients.”
Read more on Off The Grid News .
4. Why You Need Sunlight Everywhere You Go
“With the apparent elimination of rickets at the turn of 20th century, following the discovery of the role that vitamin D plays in the elimination of this disease, most may think that vitamin D deficiency is a problem of the past. While vitamin D deficiency is not often found in North America, insufficiency is still very common.
This should not be surprising, being that there has been an unprecedented increase of indoor computer use as social media and remote-access work continue to rise in popularity. The acclimatization of modern people to a lifestyle that is primarily indoors is a recipe for disaster when considering the importance of vitamin D and bone health.
The following will discuss some of the major reasons why you need as much sunlight exposure as you can obtain within reasonable limits and how you can remove the primary obstacles that could be in your way.”
Read more on Ready Nutrition .
5. 18 Natural Home Remedies For Acne
“Before learning about the home remedies for acne, let us first define what acne is. Acne is a superficial skin condition that starts when pores are clogged with oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. It may come in several forms like pimples, cysts, whiteheads and blackheads.
It may be caused by a combination of several factors but is commonly present during adolescence due to excessive oil production.
There are many acne solutions in the market today, mostly artificial in nature. But why not try these natural ways to clear the stubborn acne in our faces. We’ve included an infographic to serve as a cheat sheet for you to download or pin for later at the end of this article.”
Read more on Ultimate Home Remedies .
This Drew Stratton for Survivopedia. 7 total views, 7 views today | 1real |
Ted Cruz: Protester would get spanking at my house | Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has made no secret of the fact that he spanks his daughter when she misbehaves. He has also suggested the American people should deliver a “spanking” to Hillary Clinton.
Now, he is prescribing the same discipline for a protester who interrupted him during a rally in Indiana on Sunday.
“Apparently there’s a young man who’s having some problems,” Cruz said as the man yelled: “You suck!”
“Thank you, son,” Cruz replied, before adding that he believes “children should actually speak with respect.”
“Imagine what a different world it would be if someone had told Donald Trump that years ago,” he said. “You know, in my household, when a child behaves that way, they get a spanking.”
The exchange comes as Cruz and Trump are stumping for every last vote heading into to the Republican primary in Indiana on Tuesday. Trump leads Cruz by roughly 9 percentage points, 42%-32.7%, in the RealClearPolitics average of recent Hoosier polls. A win there could help solidify Trump’s claim to the nomination, while dealing Cruz a formidable blow. | 0fake |
Trends Show Republicans Are SCREWED For 2016, And It’s All Thanks To Trump | Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump emerged victorious in blowout wins in their home state of New York on Tuesday. In a field of three, Trump managed to capture just over 60 percent while Clinton, in a field of two, captured just under 58 percent.With Clinton and Trump gaining in delegates, it s becoming increasingly likely the two will face off in the November general election (should there be no contested conventions).And if Trump emerges the nominee and so does Clinton, that spells very bad news for the Republicans.Real Clear Politics, which gathers daily polling from multiple sources and finds a median, shows that as more Americans are exposed to Trump s campaign, the more likely they are to back Hillary Clinton.As Vox puts it:This is, according to political scientists, around the time when general election polling becomes predictive of the actual vote. Were this a few months ago, I d say, What s the big deal?' Christopher Wlezien, a political science professor who s done a lot of work on election polling, told Vox back in March. But polls today are much more meaningful than they were 90 days ago. And the polls today are much less favorable for Trump. Around this time, Mitt Romney was more popular than Donald Trump is, and he was within 2.5 percent of President Obama who obviously won. Right now, Clinton is about ten points higher than the Donald.As general election polling becomes more representative of the actual outcome, Vox and Real Clear Politics estimate that at this rate Democrats not only would win the presidency and take back the Senate, they could even take back the House.One reason the Republicans are having such a hard time catching up to Clinton is because they aren t united, and are quite fractured. Democrats, while having their own differences, are nowhere near the breaking point the Republicans are, and that is a huge advantage heading into the general election.Republicans should be terrified. If they were smart, they would broker their convention and nominate Kasich, who consistently beats Hillary Clinton in the polls. But since when has the Republican Party done the smart thing?Years of fear mongering and peppered racism has not, nor will it, pay off for the GOP. They created this monster, now they have to deal with it. Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty | 1real |
New Zealand's ruling National ahead in early counting- electoral commission | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Votes cast for New Zealand s ruling National Party reached 46.3 percent with 31.4 percent of results counted in the country s general election on Saturday, while support for the opposition Labour Party was 36 percent, according to the Electoral Commission. The nationalist New Zealand First Party had 7.1 percent of the vote so far, tipping it as a likely kingmaker in the German-style proportional representation system. Votes for the Green Party reached 6.2 percent. A record 1.2 million ballots were cast before the day of the election, accounting for about a third of the 3.3 million New Zealanders enrolled to vote. In past elections, advanced votes were indicative of final results. | 0fake |
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Boiler Room #65 – Bernie Says Vote Neocon – Pokemon No! | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 11 AM PST | 2 PM EST for this special Saturday broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along withDaniel Spaulding of Soul of the East and Jay Dyer from Jays Analysis. Tonight on the plate the Boiler gang are discussing the Dallas shooting, Bernie Sanders endorsing Hillary Clinton, a long list of false flag stagecraft, government provocateurs, Oregon standoff and the ups and downs of Pokemon Go!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! Reference Links: | 1real |
Media: IAAF demanded bribes from Russian athletes for doping cover-up - Russia News Now | This post was originally published on this site
MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. At least six Russian athletes are suspected of bribing officials of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for concealing positive doping samples, the German TV Channel ARD reported on Friday, citing investigation materials of the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has opened a probe into the suspicions of financial fraud at the world’s athletics governing body in 2014. According to the data received by ARD from the probe’s materials, IAAF representatives demanded from 300,000 euros to 700,000 euros from six Russian athletes for not disclosing the data on their positive doping samples.
The ARD footage also notes that former head of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) Valentin Balakhnichev was an intermediary in the corruption schemes of former IAAF President Lamine Diack: about 1.5 million euros passed hands through the ARAF ex-chief.
Diack has denied his complicity in the doping cover-up scandal, saying he would have never demanded any money from athletes. Nonetheless, as the TV channel says, the six Russians are not the sole athletes who are forced to give bribes. About 23 athletes are mentioned in the probe, ARD said.
According to the TV Channel, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may also be involved in the doping cover-up scandal. WADA Chief Craig Reedie earlier asserted he had never heard about any cases of extortion inside the IAAF. However, in the autumn of 2014, the WADA sent a letter to the IAAF Ethics Commission with information on suspected doping samples of Russian athletes, and also about its suspicions of the athletes’ possible blackmailing by the IAAF. Despite this, the world’s anti-doping body took no efforts to open a probe into this information.
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Pope Francis Just Called Out Donald Trump During His Christmas Speech | Pope Francis used his annual Christmas Day message to rebuke Donald Trump without even mentioning his name. The Pope delivered his message just days after members of the United Nations condemned Trump s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Pontiff prayed on Monday for the peaceful coexistence of two states within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders. We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, Francis said. On this festive day, let us ask the Lord for peace for Jerusalem and for all the Holy Land. Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached. The Pope went on to plead for acceptance of refugees who have been forced from their homes, and that is an issue Trump continues to fight against. Francis used Jesus for which there was no place in the inn as an analogy. Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world and an outdated model of development continues to produce human, societal and environmental decline, Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the Child and to recognize him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus, there is no place in the inn, he said. Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how hard it is not to have a place to lay one s head, he added. May our hearts not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem. The Pope said that Mary and Joseph were immigrants who struggled to find a safe place to stay in Bethlehem. They had to leave their people, their home, and their land, Francis said. This was no comfortable or easy journey for a young couple about to have a child. At heart, they were full of hope and expectation because of the child about to be born; yet their steps were weighed down by the uncertainties and dangers that attend those who have to leave their home behind. So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary, Francis said Sunday. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away, but driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones. Amen to that.Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images. | 1real |
Trump lacks team and clear plan for quick tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has neither a clear White House tax plan nor adequate staff yet to see through a planned tax reform, according to interviews with people in the administration, in Congress and among U.S. tax experts. In an echo of its attempt to roll back Obamacare that ended in an embarrassing collapse in Congress, the Trump administration has vowed quick action on taxes. But it has yet to appoint people with the skills to evaluate complex tax laws, draft legislation and sell it to deeply divided lawmakers. Burned by last week’s failed healthcare measure largely authored by House of Representatives Republicans, Trump is determined not to count on Congress so much this time for handling the details on taxes, his second major legislative initiative. But that only underscores his need for a strong White House tax team, which the administration still lacks. Many policy options are still being studied, from deficit-funded tax cuts to a European-style value-added tax. “They’re still sorting out who’s in charge, who’s going to take the lead,” said William Hoagland, a longtime Senate Republican aide who worked on the last successful comprehensive tax reform effort in 1986. “You need someone who has the ear and support of the president who can sell a tax plan, and you need the technical support for that person,” said Hoagland, now senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank. Financial markets have been reassessing expectations of fast action on taxes that have helped fuel a Trump stocks rally. Members of Trump’s tax team are known, but not their exact duties. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn are senior team leaders. Others include White House advisers Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Trump huddled with Mnuchin on Thursday to discuss taxes. “We are at the first stages of this process, beginning to engage with members of Congress, policy groups, business leaders, industry, constituents from around the country, and other stakeholders,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday, Trump’s 69th day in office. When Trump was elected in November, Republican lawmakers enthusiastically joined his call to rewrite the tax code and dismantle Obamacare in the first 100 days of his presidency. In early February, Trump promised a “phenomenal” tax plan by early March that never appeared. Mnuchin spoke on Feb. 23 of enacting tax reform by August. Spicer acknowledged this week that the timetable could be slipping. Another senior White House official said the administration had assumed it would still be working on healthcare at this point, not tax reform yet. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. So far, Trump’s tax campaign is a far cry from President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 effort, in which Don Regan, as Treasury secretary and then White House chief of staff, spent many months developing legislation that won bipartisan support in Congress. “The process under Reagan was much more developed, elaborate and long, and there was a strong bench of top-rate technicians putting things together,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank. Under Trump, he said, “None of that is happening.” During the 2016 election campaign, Trump issued a tax plan that partly resembled one developed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, but Trump does not now appear wedded to either. It is a safe bet he will not lean heavily on the plan from Ryan, who drafted and championed the ill-fated plan to gut Obamacare. “Trump now desperately needs a policy victory ... I would expect the president to play a much more activist role,” said Stephen Moore, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank. Moore helped write the Trump campaign tax plan. Mnuchin last week talked about a middle-class tax cut. He also said tax reform in many ways would be “a lot simpler” than healthcare, dismaying tax experts who said that is not so. Comprehensive tax reform is so complex that it has defied Congresses and presidents since Reagan. Tax law is riddled with loopholes embedded in the economy and defended by beneficiaries. Some fundamental questions remain unanswered within the Trump team. For instance, it is unclear if Trump would support a plan that adds to the budget deficit. Past tax reform efforts have tried to be “revenue neutral.” Trump also has sent mixed messages on Ryan’s proposed “border adjustment tax” that would end the corporate deduction for import costs and make export income tax-free, aiming to boost exports and raise new tax revenues. The Trump team is heavy on Wall Street experience, but short on tax expertise. At Treasury, Mnuchin is the only Senate-confirmed political appointee in place. The job of Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy is unfilled. A person familiar with the hiring process for the job said: “Treasury needs more capable tax expertise ASAP, or the White House will yank total control for tax reform from the department for the rest of the year, maybe beyond.” Mark Mazur, who held the Treasury tax job under former Democratic President Barack Obama, said Mnuchin has too much on his plate to concentrate fully on taxes. Mnuchin has praised Treasury’s 100 tax policy career staff, but they can only offer options to Trump appointees, said Mazur, now director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “The political appointees are the ones who need to turn the crank on the sausage-making machine,” Mazur said. | 0fake |
Morning Shock at Zabar’s, as Man Accidentally Shoots Himself - The New York Times | Just before 9 a. m. on Tuesday, while the cafe at Zabar’s in Manhattan was still busy with the breakfast rush, an unmistakable sound interrupted the chatter: A gun was fired. The authorities said the shooting was an accident. A man who had just bought a bagel and a cup of coffee was adjusting his waistband, causing the gun he had tucked in his pants to fire, shooting himself in the leg. About 30 people were inside the cafe, which is part of the upscale market on the Upper West Side, when the gun went off, workers in the store said. The man, identified by the police as Louis Lester Anderson, 48, hurried away from the store, on the corner of Broadway and 80th Street, and took himself to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, where he was treated and found by the police. He has been taken into police custody, officials said. The matter was being investigated. Officials said Mr. Anderson told the police that he had found the gun in Midtown and had dropped it in a grassy area near Riverside Drive, where the police found it. They said Mr. Anderson, who is homeless, had been arrested nine previous times, mostly on charges. For about three hours after the shooting, the cafe was cordoned off by police tape, keeping out regulars. But before too long, they returned and were back shopping. “It’s business as usual,” the store’s general manager, Scott Goldshine, said. “It was very quick,” Mr. Goldshine added. “Nobody got hurt. Our staff is fine, and we’re back open for business. ” Jim Wintner was among the first customers to buy a sandwich after the cafe reopened. “People were flying in here before I could even get in the door,” he said. “We’re New Yorkers — we have to have our Zabar’s. ” But with the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla. fresh on the minds of many in the neighborhood, they said they could not help but fear at first blush that something worse was happening. “My mind is still on Orlando because my wife lives there,” Mr. Wintner said. Beryl Swados usually comes in for coffee every morning. “I’m literally there every day, and I would have been there had I not been with clients,” said Ms. Swados, who works at Canine Styles, the grooming service and pet product store. “But what’s horrifying is this isn’t just being in a bad neighborhood this is the Upper West Side, for God’s sake. ” Marlene Silva said she heard about the shooting while at physical therapy at a nearby gym, but still came by the store after it had reopened. “No one is safe anymore,” she said. “Nothing is sacred anymore. ” But she was sanguine in her approach to handling her fears. “What can you do?” Ms. Silva said. “Be a hermit in your own house?” | 0fake |
Red Cross says has access to Islamic State families held near Mosul | GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it had access to more than 1,300 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State militants following concerns expressed for the safety of the families held by Iraqi forces near Mosul. The neutral aid agency called on all sides in the wars in Iraq and Syria to treat detainees in line with international law that prohibits torture or executions and enshrines the right to a fair trial. More than 300 of the detained foreign families in Iraq came from Turkey, many others from former Soviet states, such as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, according to preliminary figures from the Iraqi army. Currently we visit and provide humanitarian assistance to some 1,300 women and children of several dozen nationalities who are detained in Iraq near Mosul, Patrick Hamilton, ICRC deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, told a news briefing. Last month, foreign aid agencies in Iraq said they were gravely concerned about the fate of the families. The women and children have been in Iraqi custody since August 30 following the fall of the city of Tal Afar. It is the largest group of foreigners linked to Islamic State to be held by Iraqi forces since they began driving the militants from Mosul and other areas in northern Iraq last year. The ICRC denounced some authorities and militias in the Iraq and Syria wars against Islamic State who have vowed to annihiliate the enemy, but declined to name names. Such dehumanisation of the enemy could lead to unlawful torture or executions, Hamilton warned. Talk of annihilation or extermination contributes to perpetuating the problem rather than solving it. International humanitarian law protects civilians and former combatants, he said. The ICRC has a good level of dialogue with Iraqi authorities and has visited detention facilities in Iraq holding 44,000 people so far this year, Hamilton said. Thousands of foreigners have been fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and an unknown number of them are now detained. Hamilton said the ICRC was already in talks about potential repatriation of foreign fighters. We are ready to play the role of a neutral intermediary to assist these states in carrying out that, the return of their individual citizens, he said. Indeed we have been in dialogue with a number of different states and the Iraqi authorities in relation to this over recent weeks, he said. Hamilton, asked about media reports of executions by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) following the fall of the jihadist capital in Raqqa, Syria, said that an ICRC team had been in the chaotic northeastern city last week. No, we frankly don t have first-hand information in regards to extrajudicial killings or any such like ... clearly we remain concerned in the aftermath of Raqqa as we do after Mosul, Hawija, Tal Afar and so forth, he said. | 0fake |
Boom or Bust: Stark Partisan Divide on How Consumers View Economy - The New York Times | Economics has a foundation in hard numbers — employment, inflation, spending — that has largely allowed it to sidestep the competing partisan narratives that have afflicted American politics and culture. But not anymore. Since Donald J. Trump’s victory in November, consumer sentiment has diverged in an unprecedented way, with Republicans convinced that a boom is at hand, and Democrats foreseeing an imminent recession. “We’ve never recorded this before,” said Richard Curtin, who directs the University of Michigan’s monthly survey of consumer sentiment. Although the outlook has occasionally varied by political party since the survey began in 1946, “the partisan divide has never had as large an impact on consumers’ economic expectations,” he said. At the same time, familiar economic data points have become Rorschach tests. That was evident after the government’s monthly jobs report on Friday Republicans’ talking points centered on a low in the unemployment rate, while Democrats focused on a sharp decline in job creation. “I find it stunning, to be honest. It’s unreal,” said Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “Things that were less politicized in the past, like how you feel about the economy, have become more politicized now. ” Indeed, the views underscore yet another front on which Americans remain polarized five months after the election, and with President Trump nearing his 100th day in office. There are some tangible reasons for the split. Many Republican states, including the Midwestern swing states that provided Mr. Trump’s margin of victory, have experienced a more sluggish recovery over the last eight years — and are thus more invested in the change promised by Mr. Trump. Many Democratic states have bounced back more vigorously. Hence their political and economic viewpoints were jolted by November’s election result. For example, Vermont, Colorado and Massachusetts — all carried by the Democrats — are thriving, with an unemployment rate below 4 percent. In Republican strongholds like Alaska, Georgia and Alabama, the rate is well above the national average of 4. 5 percent. Republicans aren’t the only ones who are feeling more upbeat, whether or not it’s justified by the data. Sentiment among business leaders who backed Mr. Trump has also surged since the election. David Congdon, chief executive of Old Dominion Freight Line, the trucking giant, never expected Mr. Trump to win when he voted for him in November. “I fell out of bed when I got up in the morning on Nov. 9,” he admitted. “I didn’t quite know what I was voting for. ” But despite misfires in Washington like the failed attempt to roll back President Barack Obama’s health care policies, Mr. Congdon is definitely feeling more positive. “Trump’s got a hard road ahead of him, but I think he’s off to a decent start,” said Mr. Congdon, who recently joined other transportation executives for a meeting with Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. “I’m personally optimistic about the economy for the rest of the year, and I think we will see an uptick in terms of freight deliveries,” he said. “We have picked up our hiring. ” Economists, too, find their outlook shifting with the political landscape. Before the election, Heather Boushey, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton during the campaign, thought “the economy was on the right track, with slow and steady growth like we’ve had over the past few years. ” Now she is much more pessimistic, especially about the economy’s prospects. Although she is pleased that the Affordable Care Act survived Republican efforts to repeal it, the gridlock has led her to believe that Mr. Trump will never get a big infrastructure spending package through Congress. “I am losing hope that we will make those investments over the next few years,” said Ms. Boushey, executive director of the liberal Center for Equitable Growth. The University of Michigan researchers have their own way of measuring the gulf between the two viewpoints and how quickly it has flipped. Among Republicans, the Michigan consumer expectations index was at 61. 1 in October, the kind of reading typically reported in the depths of a recession. Confident that Mrs. Clinton would win, Democrats registered a 95. 4 reading, close to the highs reached when her husband was in office in the late 1990s and the economy was soaring. By March, the positions were reversed, with an even more extreme split. Republicans’ expectations had soared to 122. 5, equivalent to levels registered in boom times. As for Democrats, they were even more pessimistic than Republicans had been in October. As at the voting booth, the split in perceptions could have consequences. If behavior tracks the sentiment among Democrats, who account for 32 percent of respondents in the survey, prophecies could quickly become by affecting spending and investing decisions. “If of the population cut their consumer spending by 5 percent, you get a recession,” said Alan Blinder, a Princeton economist who served in the Clinton administration and advised Al Gore and Hillary Clinton on economic policy during their Democratic presidential campaigns. “I don’t think it will happen, but it’s not beyond the realm of the possible. ” To be sure, even if Democratic consumers pulled back, that wouldn’t necessarily bring on a recession. A burst of spending by bullish Republicans, who equal 27 percent of those polled by the Michigan researchers, could counteract much of that drag. And independents, who are the largest cohort in the survey, at 41 percent, remain fairly optimistic about future growth. It is rare for “rising optimism to coexist with increasing uncertainty,” said Mr. Curtin, the Michigan expert. “The current level of optimism clearly indicates that no economywide spending retrenchment is underway, but the prevailing level of uncertainty will limit growth in discretionary spending. ” Lawrence H. Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and was Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser during his first term, said he, too, was struck by the big swing in economic sentiment. “It is a remarkably big switch from October,” he said. “If you are a Democrat, you are primed for negativity. It carries through in your view of everything else. ” A prominent Democrat himself and a strong Hillary Clinton backer, Mr. Summers is nonetheless slightly more optimistic than he was late last year, because the data on housing starts and business investment intentions has been positive, not because of the new administration’s policies. Whether the optimists or pessimists prove more prescient about the economy’s trajectory, Mr. Summers said, the split in perceptions will persist. “I’d bet there will be some minor convergence,” he said, “but there will still be a large divergence on what should be a matter of objective reality. ” | 0fake |
BOOM! NAVY SEAL VET DESTROYS Whiny Organizer Of ‘Veterans Against Trump’ [VIDEO] | There is a stark difference between these two veterans. Perry O Brien, the crybaby veteran who has organized a group against Trump is put in his place more than once during their interview with CNN s Don Lemon. Former Navy Seal Carl Higbie brilliantly calls out and embarrasses conscientious objector Perry O Brien for attempting to label him a racist because he doesn t agree with a particular religious ideology.We re not really fans of CNN, but they actually do America a favor when they bring guests like the conscientious objector, Perry O Brien onto their show to go head to head with a brave and passionate defender of America. This interview provides a pretty good representation of the how the Left has wussified the male vs. the strong conservative male who stands ready to defend his nation. If I were Trump I d pick the latter to be on my team. The reality is, when the sh*t hits the fan 99% of Americans are going to want veteran Carl Higbie on their team. We re not going to give a damn about whether or not he s passed a sensitivity course we just want to keep our nation safe from those who would like to take away our freedoms and destroy our way of life Anti-Trump and pro-Trump veterans debate Donald Trump's record https://t.co/u52Ea97Ny8https://t.co/jpUvhlw2zn CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) June 1, 2016 | 1real |
War criminal or role model? It's a thin line in Serbia | LJUBLJANA/BELGRADE (Reuters) - In 2009, Serbian general Vladimir Lazarevic was convicted by a U.N. court of war crimes over the forced deportation of more than 700,000 ethnic Albanians during the 1989-99 Kosovo war. The squat, bespectacled Lazarevic was one of the chief executors of a systematic effort to empty the then-Serbian province of ethnic Albanian civilians and raze their homes in the last bloody chapter in the collapse of Yugoslavia. This week, two years after he was released from jail, the 68-year-old found a new job lecturer to the next generation of Serbian soldiers at the country s Military Academy. Where a war crimes conviction might count as a minus in most countries, in Serbia it has become a badge of honor. The role models for the cadets should be Serbian generals, in particular those who have proven themselves in the toughest of times, Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin told the Vecernje Novosti newspaper on Wednesday, confirming the appointment. The move has alarmed human rights activists in the Balkan country. But Lazarevic is not alone. He is one of a trio of convicted Serbian war criminals who have risen to political prominence since serving out their sentences, testing trust in the country s claim to have left behind its dark past and embraced Western democracy. Civil society activists and Western diplomats are warning of the damage to Serbia s image abroad and to the slow process of reconciliation in the region a key condition of integration with the European Union. Accession talks with the EU opened at the end of 2015 and are not expected to end before 2022. The message is very dangerous; it s playing with fire, said Natasha Kandic, a prominent human rights lawyer in Serbia who has spent years documenting war crimes in Kosovo and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia. This is not even historical revisionism, it s the introduction of crime as a recommended act, Kandic told Reuters. It s the end of any vision of European integration, good neighborly relations, regional cooperation none of that makes any sense after this. A spokeswoman for the EU s foreign policy arm did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not obtain a phone number for Lazarevic, who rarely appears in the media. A spokeswoman said Vulin was not immediately available to comment. Convicted war criminal Nikola Sainovic, a close ally of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic during the Kosovo war, was appointed to the governing board of Serbia s co-ruling Socialist Party within a week of being released in 2015. Former army officer Veselin Sljivancanin, convicted in The Hague over the killing of more than 200 Croat prisoners of war at a pig farm in the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991, is now a regular feature at events of the ruling Progressive Party of conservative President Aleksandar Vucic. Lazarevic, Sainovic and Sljivancanin have always denied any wrongdoing. While there is no law barring them from political roles, their prominence and the enthusiasm with which they have been embraced sit uneasily with the image Vucic has projected of a reformed former ultranationalist determined to take Serbia into the European mainstream. Vucic, Serbia s information minister during the Kosovo war, wowed European capitals this year with his choice of a lesbian technocrat as prime minister. The appointment of Vulin, a hardliner and former ally of Milosevic s exiled widow, as defense minister in June was seen as a nod to nationalists and Serbian ally Russia, however. Last week, Vulin told a gathering of army veterans that Serbia need no longer feel ashamed but quietly proud of officers such as Lazarevic, the bravest of the brave. Afterward, Washington s ambassador to Belgrade, Kyle Scott, took to Twitter. Unfortunately, months of work on improving Serbia s image in the US can be undermined with just one statement, he wrote on Oct 11. Kosovo, which declared independence with Western backing in 2008 but is not recognized by Serbia, said the appointment demonstrated that Serbia has never changed. We are deeply disturbed by the systematic glorification of war criminals in Serbia, and their rehabilitation in senior political, security, and education institutions, Kosovo s deputy prime minister, Enver Hoxhaj, told Reuters. Kosovo s prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, is himself a veteran of the war, a former guerrilla fighter against Serbian forces who was twice tried and twice acquitted of war crimes by the U.N. court in The Hague. But convicted war criminals have made it into public office in other parts of the former Yugoslavia: the mayor of the northern Bosnian town of Velika Kladusa, Fikret Abdic, is a notorious former warlord, while Johan Tarculovski, the only Macedonian to be convicted of war crimes in The Hague, is now a member of parliament. The gradual normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo is central to Serbia s EU accession hopes, but the process has dragged on for years. Hoxhaj lamented what he called the silence of the international community on Serbia s derailing from the alleged commitment to European values, democracy, rule of law and international justice. | 0fake |
Trump Outrageously Refers To Elizabeth Warren As ‘Pocahontas’ During Meeting With Senators | This is totally unpresidential behavior.Throughout the campaign, Donald trump repeatedly attacked Senator Elizabeth Warren by calling her Pocahontas just because Warren has Native American ancestry.Warren fired back on multiple occasions and often destroyed Trump to the point where he stopped attacking her.Trump s nasty attacks on Warren were outrageous during the campaign, and they are even more outrageous now that he occupies the White House as the so-called President of the United States. During a meeting with Republican and Democratic senators on Thursday, Trump brought up Warren s effort to read a letter by Coretta Scott King to the Senate in which King condemned Jeff Sessions racism and voiced her opposition to his nomination for a federal judgeship back in 1986.As Warren tried to read the letter, Mitch McConnell silenced her and Republicans voted to basically censure her because they claim the letter impugned Sessions character. You know, because calling out a racist has somehow become a bad thing in our society.Politico reports,According to participants in Thursday s meeting, Trump referred to Warren several times as Pocahontas, the moniker he gave her during his campaign, and told the Democrats he was glad Warren is becoming the face of your party. Seriously. Trump actually referred to a sitting United States Senator as Pocahontas, which at this point should be considered a racial slur the way he is using it. Republicans apparently had no problem with Trump s disgraceful attack on Warren.Trump is no longer a bombastic political candidate trying to get attention. He is the f*cking president now and this kind of behavior is embarrassing and stains the dignity of the office.Make no mistake, Donald Trump not only owes Warren and the Democratic Party an apology, he owes America an apology.This kind of behavior is intolerable and he should be ashamed of himself.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Suspected mastermind of Paris massacre killed in terror raid | The man widely known as the suspected mastermind of last Friday's Paris attacks that killed 129 people, who bragged that he could always stay one step ahead of Western intelligence, was killed in the police raid north of Paris Wednesday.
Officials also confirmed that his cousin was killed, when she apparently blew herself up.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, had been linked to as many as four thwarted attacks since this spring, including the plot to kill passengers on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August, a plot that three young Americans helped foil. He was identified from skin samples after the Saint-Denis apartment raid, the French prosecutor's office reported.
Later Thursday, police in the eastern French city of Charleville-Mezieres blew open a door to enter a house during a new raid.
French police are looking for anything that could be linked to jihadi networks or illegal weapons. Police spokeswoman Mathilde Coulon would not give further details about the Thursday evening raid.
Abaaoud had claimed he successfully moved back and forth from Europe to Syria coordinating terror attacks, and narrowly escaped a January police raid in the Belgian city of Verviers. “Allah blinded their vision and I was able to leave... despite being chased after by so many intelligence agencies," he told the ISIS magazine Dabiq.
Two counterterrorism sources tell Fox News his death marks a major advance for the investigation, but add they are operating on the premise that more senior suspects connected to the plot are still out there.
They describe Abaaoud as the “Mohammed Atta” of the Paris attacks, the “tactical guy” who identified and pulled together the operatives, in the same way the lead hijacker kept the 9/11 teams on course.
They emphasize that based on his skill set and experience, Abaaoud was not the strategic planner, in the same way Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was for the 9/11 attacks. The Paris massacre involved a plot or plots with multiple layers and upwards of 20 players, according to the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Texas Republican Michael McCaul.
Police say they launched Wednesday's operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that Abaaoud was holed up in the apartment. Investigators said it was still unclear how he died. Eight other people were arrested.
French authorities did not know he was in Europe before the massacre, France's interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Thursday. He demanded Europe do everything in its power to "vanquish terrorism."
During the raid, according to one police official, an officer approached Abaaoud's cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, and asked her, "Where is your boyfriend?" She responded angrily: "He's not my boyfriend!" Then there was an explosion.
The bodies recovered in the raid were badly mangled, with a part of the woman's spine landing on a police car, complicating formal identification. Her possible role in the Paris massacre was unclear.
Abaaoud's death may provide some relief not only for Europeans, but also for his own family. “We are praying that Abdelhamid really is dead,” his sister, Yasmina, said last year, The New York Times reported. At the time, there was word he died fighting for ISIS, but it eventually emerged that he escaped Syria for Europe.
His own father, Omar, said the jihadi "dishonored" his family, the Times added.
Abaaoud had also used Internet social networks to try to recruit women from Spain to join ISIS, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said Thursday.
The manhunt for at least two other suspects believed to have participated in the attacks continued. Police have identified one of them as Salah Abdeslam, who grew up in the same Belgian district as Abaaoud, the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek.
There was no indication Abdeslam escaped to neighboring Spain or tried to do so, Diaz added. He told Antena 3 television that security officials from several countries were called together in Paris to discuss the possibility that Abdeslam might try to cross into a country bordering France.
Spanish police say French authorities sent a bulletin to officers across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Abdeslam.
Also Thursday, authorities say they detained nine people during as many raids in the Brussels area. Two of the detentions were related to Friday's massacre, and seven others involved the entourage of Bilal Hafdi, one of the suicide bombers at the stadium, but related to issues from before the Paris attacks, according to a prosecution official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official refused to provide any details on the two detainees linked to the Paris attacks. There are currently already two suspects in custody charged with terrorist murder and belonging to a terrorist group.
Friday's attacks wounded hundreds of people, and left Europe and much of the world on edge French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Thursday that associates of the attackers could use chemical and biological weapons, as he urged Parliament to extend a state of emergency.
Valls said "terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria ... but for what it is." The French Senate is set to vote Friday on prolonging the nation's state of emergency by three months.
The state of emergency expands police powers to carry out arrests and searches, and allows authorities to forbid the movement of people and vehicles at specific times and places.
Turkey's president urged Muslim nations to unite against the extremist groups that he says are tarnishing Islam. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Islamic countries have a responsibility to "stand hand-in-hand and show a clear and principled position" against the Islamic State group, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram.
Erdogan added that countries must combat poverty, which he described as the "swamp" that breeds terrorism. Erdogan was addressing health ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at a meeting in Istanbul.
Fox News' Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Jared Fogle Sues Parents Of His Victim, Says It’s Their Fault She’s Screwed Up | Jared Fogle, the ex-Subway pitchman convicted of having sex with underage girls, is suing the parents of one his victims, claiming the girl s problems following the sexual abuse are their fault, not his. According to court documents that were filed on Thursday, Fogle is placing the blame for his victim s personal injuries and emotional distress squarely on the shoulders of her own parents rather than his own.The girl, who is listed as Jane Doe in court records, was secretly recorded undressing and bathing while she was in the home of Russell Taylor, who was a close friend of Fogle. Last year, Fogle pleaded guilty to viewing those tapes. He was eventually sentenced to almost 16 years behind bars for having sex with minors, as well as receiving and distributing child pornography. He was also ordered to pay $100,000 to each of the girls he had abused, including Jane Doe.In other words, there is no doubt of this pervert s guilt at this point.Earlier this year, Jane Doe sued Fogle for an additional $150,000 in damages related to his crimes against her. Fogle says her emotional distress isn t his fault at all. Nope. So who s fault is it? Her parents.In the lawsuit filed by Fogle, he alleges that the girl was depressed, had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and was promiscuous long before he and his buddy decided to use her in their kiddie porn. He claims that Jane Doe s parents, named in court documents as J.T. and B.T. didn t supervise her properly. He added that mom and dad screwed her up with their own messy divorce and abusive relationship. The outrageous and reckless conduct of J.T. and B.T. committed over a period of several years inflicted personal injuries, emotional distress and psychological injury on Jane Doe from which she will continue to suffer, the document states. B.T. and J.T., by their actions, caused Jane Doe to suffer from emotional distress and depression which then resulted in Jane Doe engaging in destructive behaviors, including, but not limited to alcohol abuse, substance abuse, self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation with regard to which B.T. and J.T. are liable. Because of this, Fogle is asking the court to hold Jane Doe s parents liable for their daughter s emotional distress and all other relief the court deems proper. Featured image via Jason Merritt/Getty Images | 1real |
Delusional Trump Hilariously Thinks Angela Merkel Likes Him (DETAILS) | We all remember the absolutely disastrous visit Donald Trump had with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He infamously made her look at him like he had lost his mind when joked about her allegedly being wiretapped by the Obama Administration while he was busy trying to defend his own false claims that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, refused to shake Merkel s hand during a photo op, and even tried to give her a bill for NATO worth billions of dollars.Trump, however, seems to have a very different memory of his visit with the German leader. While speaking of the visit with the Associated Press, Trump said: Yeah, it s funny: One of the best chemistries I had was with Merkel. As if that weren t ridiculous enough, considering that the whole world saw how that visit actually went, Trump continued, this time trying to excuse his rudeness with the handshake debacle: And I guess somebody shouted out, Shake her hand, shake her hand, you know. But I never heard it. But I had already shaken her hand four times. You know, because we were together for a long time. He went on to boast: Because, um, I m at odds on, you know, the NATO payments and I m at odds on immigration. Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
DNC CHAIR Pulls Tired Race Card: Claims “Racism” and “Voter Suppression” in GOP Playbook [Video] | DNC Chair Tom Perez is a fear mongering racist who likes to stir up fake concerns for Democrat voters. He s clearly afraid of the voter integrity policy of Trump who wants to clean up voter lists. What s wrong with that? Tom Perez has a long history of fear mongering and racism Judge Jeanine ripped into the Dem Chair tom Perez for his blistering speech (see video below) on how Donald Trump doesn t stand for our values and that we must resist . She asks the questions Perez should answer! JudgeJeanine: Don t stand for our values ? Pray tell, Perez, what are our values & what it is that you want us to resist? Law & order? .@JudgeJeanine: "'Don't stand for our values'? Pray tell, Perez, what are our values & what it is that you want us to resist? Law & order?" pic.twitter.com/voKBMnIlLW Fox News (@FoxNews) April 2, 2017 OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON PEREZ AND HIS SPEECH ATTACKING TRUMP:Perez has a long radical history connected to La Raza and other open borders organizations. His track record is full on radical. e s in cahoots with Obama to continue the fundamental transformation of America. Anyone who s a Democrat should be shocked that he s taking the party in such a far left direction. Do your research and you ll know why he was the choice for Dem Chair.He just fired all Democrat Party staffers and is bringing in all new people. The party is clearly taking a new direction and it s not a good one for any American. DONALD TRUMP DIDN T WIN WATCH ENTIRE VIDEO: Republicans don t give a sh*t about people | 1real |
UK wants to set rules 'right for our situation' after leaving EU: May's spokesman | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May told her cabinet on Tuesday Britain s objective in leaving the EU should be a deal that enables it to set rules suited to its situation, her spokesman said after a cabinet meeting to establish long-term goals for exit talks. Having secured a deal to move European Union departure negotiations to the next stage last week, Tuesday s discussion marked the start of May s next battle over Brexit: what kind of long-term relationship will Britain have with the bloc? In making that decision, May must manage deep divisions at home, including among senior ministers, over whether to align Britain s economic future with the EU, or diverge from the bloc and seek a more global role. She will then have to go out and strike a deal in Brussels, where the EU is adamant that Britain cannot enjoy the full benefits of membership after leaving, wary of the need to deter others members from following suit. The PM said it was clear what the cabinet s objective is: a deal which secures the best possible trading terms with the EU, enables the UK to set rules that are right for our situation and facilitates ambitious third-country trade deals, the spokesman said. The meeting lasted almost two hours and saw 25 ministers speak on a subject at the heart of the country s fraught debate over leaving the EU. It was the first time cabinet has tackled the so-called end state of the negotiations since the referendum vote to leave in June last year. Further cabinet talks are expected early next year to firm up the best means of achieving May s goals - the stage of the discussion most likely to push ideological differences between hard and soft Brexiteers out into the open. Asked whether there was agreement on May s key aims, the spokesman said: Yes, it s clear what we want to achieve. It was set out in a good, clear, detailed discussion in which there were contributions from a large majority of the cabinet. On the eve of the meeting, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier offered a reminder of the difficult talks that also lie ahead in Brussels, repeating the bloc s position that London s huge financial sector would not be given special treatment. May s spokesman said she had ruled out a final economic partnership with the EU modeled on the European Economic Area - whose members allow free movement in exchange for full access to the EU s single market - and her aim was to get a more ambitious deal than the one signed between Canada and the EU last year. The Brexit Secretary (David Davis) and the prime minister were clear that Britain would be seeking a bespoke deal. Before talks resume in Brussels, May must maintain a delicate balancing act to keep hardline Brexit ministers like foreign minister Boris Johnson behind her, without alienating those like finance minister Philip Hammond who believe Britain should be more wary of diverging from EU norms and standards. May needs the full backing of her cabinet after a misjudged snap election in June stripped her Conservative Party of its majority in parliament, weakening her authority both at home and in Brussels. Should she stumble, opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn says he is ready to take her place, predicting another national election in 2018 in an interview with Grazia magazine. The veteran socialist led Labour to unexpected gains in the June 8 vote, and has promised to deliver a Brexit more focused on protecting jobs and workers rights. That has been interpreted as meaning preserving ties with the EU in many areas. But, May has outlasted many of the dire prognoses offered after her June election flop. That is partly due to fears that fresh elections would put Corbyn in charge, and partly because few Conservative rivals want the task of delivering a decision which remains unpopular with large swathes of the electorate. A poll on Saturday showed 51 percent of Britons would now keep EU membership while 41 percent want to leave the bloc. The shift was mostly among those who did not vote in last year s referendum, while around nine in 10 leave and remain voters were unchanged in their views. | 0fake |
Neil deGrasse Tyson Wants To Do Something Really Uncharacteristic To Trump | Neil deGrasse Tyson is generally hesitates before weighing in on political matters, but when it comes to anti-science politicians, he has little patience. That was evidenced on Friday morning when Tyson tweeted something fairly uncharacteristic about Donald Trump. When I meet President Trump, Tyson tweeted, I may first grab his crotch to get his attention then discuss Science with him. When I meet President Trump, I may first grab his crotch to get his attention then discuss Science with him. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 18, 2016Clearly, that s a reference to two things: The fact that Trump was caught on video bragging that women even let him grab their pussies because he s famous. The second, and probably most significant to Tyson, is that Trump seems to be anti-science. Tyson s not the only one to share that concern.Scientific researchers across the nation are concerned about the fact that Trump, who s a climate change denier and has expressed doubts about the efficacy of vaccines, will do some serious damage to scientific progress in the coming years. More than anything, scientists are concerned with Trump s stated desire to cut funding to agencies like the National Institute of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education (which helps train future scientists) and the Department of Energy.While it s doubtful Tyson would actually grab Trump s crotch, it s even more doubtful that our nation s most famous astrophysicist would ever get an audience with the new President Elect. Most of Tyson s followers were all for it, but some, as captured by New Century Times, were not.The tweet has since been removed from Twitter. Instead, Tyson said this:Actually, were I to meet President Trump I d discuss with him what science is and how & why it workshttps://t.co/6bv5IcNkrH Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 18, 2016His followers, though, were happy with his first idea:@neiltyson While holding him firmly by the testicles Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) November 18, 2016@neiltyson yeah, good luck with that. At least the grabbing would ve got his attention. ? Cathy Diaz (@CathyofTO) November 18, 2016Featured image via Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images. | 1real |
UH OH! BILL CLINTON Unloads On Obama! [Video] | Unlike when I was president, a lot of things are coming apart around the world now. Bill ClintonIt seems like the chummy feelings between the Clintons and Obama are on the rocks. In the past couple of weeks Chelsea Clinton pulled out a couple zingers to jab Obama. Today, Bill clinton jumped into the mix with some brutal criticisms of the Obama years:Former President Bill Clinton unloaded on the Obama administration and Black Lives Matter protesters during a campaign event Thursday for his wife in Pennsylvania.Clinton took a veiled jab at Obama s handling of world affairs, saying, Unlike when I was president, a lot of things are coming apart around the world now. We like to just think about our economic issues, but you have to worry about a collapse in Europe dragging back the American economy. You have to worry about the largest number of refugees since World War II. And all this stuff comes home. Clinton told listeners at Spokane Falls Community College that if they believed the U.S. had finally come to the point where we could put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that where we were practicing trickle-down economics and no regulation in Washington, then you should vote for [Hillary]. Read more: wnd | 1real |
Radical Catholic Bishops Push Warming Scam: ‘Put An End To The Fossil Fuel Era’ | Our vision of the world ? Where are the Catholics who re against this scam? The Catholic church has been hijacked by leftists who re following the one world global agenda in the name of social justice: Fossil fuel is the cheapest form of energy man has these days, and these people have the audacity to talk about the cry of the poor while advocating for things that will make it far more difficult for them to exist and survive????? The only thing that makes life unfair is the delusion that it should be fair. Steve Maraboli Does this political agenda mean the church is now giving up its tax exempt status? You can t have it both ways. Please speak up against this! The ten-point plan advanced by the bishops calls for the adoption of a fair, transformational and legally binding global agreement based on our vision of the world. In the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris next month, a group of cardinals, patriarchs and bishops have called for a radical, legally binding international climate agreement that mandates, among other things, complete global decarbonization by 2050 and an end to the fossil fuel era. The nine prelates claim to represent the Catholic Church from the five continents and will address participants in the COP 21 in Paris taking place from November 30 to December 11, 2015. Signers include Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the union of European Bishops Conferences (COMECE) and Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay. Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis encyclical letter on the environment Laudato S , the bishops express the widely-held hope that a just and legally binding climate agreement will emerge from the negotiations of the COP 21 in Paris, and to this end, advance a ten-point policy proposal. In their appeal, the bishops reference the dramatic acceleration of climatic change, which, they say, is the result of unrestrained human activity. They also claim that this ecological phenomenon is primarily due to excessive reliance on fossil fuels. The Pope and Catholic Bishops from five continents, the declaration states, appeal for a drastic reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases. Human-induced climate change, the bishops continue, is having a dramatic impact on sea levels, extreme weather events, deteriorating ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. The ten-point plan advanced by the bishops calls for the adoption of a fair, transformational and legally binding global agreement based on our vision of the world. Via: Breitbart | 1real |
Putin Casts Doubt on Storage of Doping Suspects’ Urine Samples - The New York Times | The president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, articulated a possible legal strategy on Wednesday for scores of Russian athletes preparing to defend themselves in sports doping prosecutions: casting doubt on the chain of custody for their urine samples. “When we provided the test samples, there were no complaints,” Mr. Putin said, going on to describe the microscopic scratches on glass sample bottles that investigators said showed that Russia’s Federal Security Service had cracked into them to switch out the athletes’ incriminating urine. “If there was a problem with scratches of whatever kind, this should have been noted in the relevant reports, but there was nothing of this sort. In other words, these samples were stored somewhere, and we cannot be held responsible for the storage conditions,” he said. The scores of glass bottles in question from the 2014 Sochi Olympics — bottles thought to be before last year’s scandal — have been stored by the International Olympic Committee in a secure lab in Switzerland for the last three years. All are being by the committee. Its ultimate disciplinary decisions, unlikely to come before the spring, are expected to be followed by challenges in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That could push deliberation into next year and further confuse the eligibility of Russian Olympians leading to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Mr. Putin, who has been largely dismissive of the evidence exposing an elaborate Russian doping operation, also expressed respect for the World Agency, the global antidoping regulator, and the investigations it had commissioned into Russia’s cheating. “We must pay heed to what this independent commission says, despite the shortcomings in its work,” he said, referring to a team led by the Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that concluded in December that 1, 000 Russian athletes were involved in a doping program. “We must pay heed to its work and its results, and to WADA’s demands, because we need to acknowledge that there are established and identified cases of doping here, and this is a totally unacceptable situation,” he said. Mr. Putin’s remarks — delivered in Krasnoyarsk, a city in eastern Siberia that is preparing to host the 2019 University Games — signaled a shift after months of rejecting the basic conclusions of Mr. McLaren’s inquiry. Regulators have said Russia must accept those conclusions or credibly rebut them to return to good standing in international competition. The Russian doping scandal upended global sports last year, months before the 2016 Olympics, when the nation’s former antidoping lab chief, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, delivered an insider’s account of Russia’s conspiracy to drug surreptitiously and dominate global standings, most notably at the Sochi Olympics, where it controlled the lab and had an opportunity to break into the bottles overnight. Since Dr. Rodchenkov spoke out and Mr. McLaren confirmed his story, Mr. Putin and Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s deputy prime minister and former sports minister, have delivered inconsistently conciliatory and defiant responses to the scandal. But with the I. O. C. having begun disciplinary proceedings for doping against 28 Russian Olympians who competed in Sochi, Mr. Putin’s remarks on Wednesday addressed specific facts about the case against his nation’s Olympians. Since leaving Sochi, the doping samples in question have been stored by the I. O. C. in a secure lab in Switzerland. And the University of Lausanne is collaborating with the committee in developing a methodology to scrutinize doping samples, according to Dr. Richard Budgett, the medical and scientific director of the I. O. C. “It has to be recorded extremely carefully. That’s why it’s taking a couple months,” Dr. Budgett said. While Mr. Putin referred to other shortcomings in the array of evidence assembled — including what he described as “inaccurate translations or inadequate evidence” presented by Mr. McLaren to international sports officials — his overall message on Wednesday was a broad acknowledgment of institutional failures. “Our existing antidoping monitoring system has not worked effectively, and this is our fault, and is something we need to admit and address directly,” Mr. Putin said. In December, top Russian sports officials acknowledged to The New York Times that “an institutional conspiracy” had implicated multiple employees of the government’s sports ministry. They insisted, however — as Mr. Putin repeated on Wednesday — that the schemes had not been supported by the state, which many officials defined as Mr. Putin and a few of his top associates. Mr. Putin’s remarks came one day after United States lawmakers called a congressional hearing, expressing outrage at Russia’s cheating and what they called global sports officials’ insufficient response to the scandal. “Exactly how far and who was involved — we don’t yet know,” Dr. Budgett, who testified at the hearing, said afterward. He acknowledged that Russia’s Federal Security Service had played a part and that Russia’s deputy sports minister had been dismissed for his involvement. “That’s what the commission is doing, getting to the bottom of who was involved within the Russian state and the Russian system. ” | 0fake |
GOP voters like Trump despite seeing him as not religious: poll | (Reuters) - Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is seen as not as religious as other Republican candidates, but most Republicans think he could be a good president anyway, a new nationwide poll found on Wednesday. A Pew Research Center poll found just 44 percent of Republican voters thought that Trump, who identifies as Presbyterian, was very or somewhat religious. Another 24 percent found the thrice-married real estate tycoon not too religious, and 23 percent found him not religious at all. The poll also found that 56 percent of Republican voters thought Trump would be a good or great president, even though voters view being religious as an asset for U.S. presidential candidates, especially for Republicans. In contrast, 80 percent of Republican voters found contender Ben Carson, a Seventh-Day Adventist, very or somewhat religious, while 76 percent found that about U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Southern Baptist. He is running second to Trump in recent polls. Only 3 percent of Republican voters found Cruz and Carson not at all religious. The poll also found that 64 percent of Republicans consider having a president who shares their religious beliefs very or somewhat important, compared to 41 percent of Democrats. On the Democrat side, 65 percent of Democratic voters view former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Methodist, as very or somewhat religious, while 47 percent of Democrats think that of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is Jewish. Candidates are seen as more religious by those in their own party, the poll found. The biggest partisan gap is in the views of Hillary Clinton: only 28 percent of Republicans think Clinton is very or somewhat religious. The survey also found the share of Americans who have reservations about voting for an atheist president has declined. In 2007, more than 60 percent of Americans said they would be less likely to support an atheist for president. That number has declined to 51 percent, the poll found. The survey was conducted between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14 among a sample of 2009 adults in all 50 states, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent for the total sample. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 0fake |
WINNING! COAL MINERS CHEER When President Trump Announces First Coal Mine Opening in 6 Years Video] | President Trump spoke via pre-recorded video to cole miners at the announcement of the opening of the first coal mine in 6 years. This is another campaign promise fulfilled!Trump speaking via pre-recorded video to ceremony marking #coal mine opening in Somerset County, PA. pic.twitter.com/5OQgajZW4m Daniel Moore (@PGdanielmoore) June 8, 2017PRESIDENT TRUMP MET WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE COAL INDUSTRY IN FEBRUARY OF 2016: President Trump keeps proving the doubters wrong He keeps following through with his campaign promises like his promises to bring coal back. He met with representatives from the coal industry to sign a bill undoing Obama s coal mining rule. The people s president is a worker!OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON SCOTT PRUITT S APPOINTMENT TO EPA CHIEF THE LEFT WENT BONKERS!OKLAHOMA ATTORNEY GENERAL SCOTT PRUITT is another perfect choice from President-elect Donald Trump. He s sued the feds several times for their overreach in regulations on the coal industry. You have to love his commitment to keeping the federal government on the straight and narrow. It s funny that so many of Trump s picks have gone against Obama s policies We love it! The lefty politicians in DC wasted no time tweeted out their displeasure:When the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, Scott Pruitt sued. When the Justice Department offered legal status to young undocumented immigrants, Scott Pruitt sued. And when the Obama administration sought to give tax credits to states that hadn t set up their own health insurance exchanges, Scott Pruitt sued.Since becoming Oklahoma attorney general in 2010, Pruitt has filed or joined lawsuits against federal agencies at least a dozen times. Even when Oklahoma isn t an actual party in litigation, the state often submits a legal brief against the federal government. Besides air pollution, immigration and health care, Pruitt has fought federal laws and regulations on banking, contraception and endangered species. These days, whenever states go to court against the Obama administration, the chances are that Pruitt is somehow involved.Not that Pruitt is alone. During Obama s presidency, the entire cadre of Republican attorneys general (27 at present) has coordinated cases against federal agencies at an unprecedented pace. But Pruitt is at the center of the action. He has set up a first-in-the-nation federalism unit, which seeks to combat instances of federal overreach by every possible means.Read more: Governing | 1real |
Trump Warns Of ‘Vote Flipping’ On Machines | “People are not happy. BIG lines. What is going on?”
Steve Watson Prison Planet.com October 27, 2016
GOP Nominee Donald Trump, who has for weeks warned that the election could be rigged against him, shot out a tweet Thursday indicating that he is aware of reports of machines ‘flipping’ to register votes for Hillary Clinton, when voters choose Trump.
“A lot of call-ins about vote flipping at the voting booths in Texas,” Trump tweeted.
“People are not happy. BIG lines. What is going on?” A lot of call-ins about vote flipping at the voting booths in Texas. People are not happy. BIG lines. What is going on?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2016
As Infowars has highlighted , there have already been numerous reports of early voters in Texas seeing their ballots flipped from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. A d v e r t i s e m e n t
While election officials have dismissed the reports, suggesting ‘user error’ is to blame, tech experts have long warned that the machines can become less accurate over time.
Larry Norden, a voting technology expert, told NPR that the reports usually arise where outdated technology is being employed.
“Over time, as people vote, that calibration becomes less and less accurate,” Norden noted.
During elections over the past decade and more there have been reports of voting machines ‘flipping’. Indeed, the reports were so widespread that even entertainment shows such as The Simpsons drew attention to it:
Meanwhile, The Washington Post has admitted that the press is engaging in voter suppression, bizarrely claiming it is a legitimate way of countering Trump’s ‘rigged’ election claims.
Callum Borchers, author at the Washington Post blog The Fix writes: Since the final presidential debate last week, many news outlets have been delivering an unvarnished message to Donald Trump supporters: Your candidate is virtually certain to lose the election Nov. 8. A day later, the Times’s Upshot blog increased Clinton’s chances of winning to 93 percent , an all-time high. On Monday, Politico’s Ben Schreckinger wrote that “ Donald Trump’s path to an election night win is almost entirely closed .” Here at The Fix, Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake wrote that “ Donald Trump’s chances of winning are approaching zero .” These are accurate, statistically sound statements. But they are something else, too. Declarations that Trump is highly unlikely to win also serve as counters to the Republican nominee’s warning that the “rigged” election could be “ stolen from us .”
The latest polls, which Trump insists are rigged due to oversampling, show Clinton with a double digit lead.
However, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook has warned that Trump’s suggestions that the polls are wrong and he can still win are “absolutely right.”
“We’ve seen polls tighten since the third debate and we expect things to get even closer before Election Day.” Mook said, urging Clinton supporters to vote.
“Make no mistake. With only 10 percent of votes cast, Donald Trump could win this election,” Mook said. 9:15 | 1real |
Ben Stein: ’Trump Didn’t Do Anything Wrong’ - ’These Leaks Are All BS’ - Breitbart | During Saturday’s “Cavuto on Business,” former Nixon and Ford speechwriter, actor and author Ben Stein said in a discussion about James Comey’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that President Donald Trump did not do anything wrong because he did not order Comey to stop the investigation into Russian collusion. “Trump didn’t do anything wrong,” Stein declared. “He did not order Comey to stop the investigation. He did not order anybody to stop the investigation. The bottom line is that these leaks are all BS. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
Exclusive: 'If there's a shutdown, there's a shutdown,' Trump says | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump downplayed the severity of a potential government shutdown on Thursday, just two days shy of a deadline for Congress to reach a spending deal to avert temporary layoffs of federal workers. “We’ll see what happens. If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown,” Trump told Reuters in an interview, adding that Democrats would be to blame if the federal government was left unfunded. Congress has until 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday to pass a bill to fund the government or face a shutdown, which would temporarily lay off hundreds of thousands of federal workers. Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to fund government operations at current levels for one more week, giving them time to finish negotiations with Democrats on the plan for the rest of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Trump said a shutdown would be a “very negative thing” but that his administration was prepared if it was necessary. In a wide-ranging interview, he defended the one-page tax plan he unveiled on Wednesday from criticism that it would increase the U.S. deficit, saying better trade deals and economic growth would offset the costs. “We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals,” Trump said. Trump also said it would be unfair to offer a debt bailout to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, because it was unfair to people in U.S. states. As part of the budget negotiations, Democrats have called for financial support to prop up Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program covering health insurance for the poor, but many Republicans are opposed to the idea. “I don’t think that’s fair to the people of Iowa, and I don’t think it’s fair to the people of Wisconsin and Ohio and North Carolina and Pennsylvania that we should be bailing out Puerto Rico for billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said. “ No I don’t think that’s fair.” | 0fake |
U.S. senators hammer Facebook for power over elections | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Tuesday pressed Facebook Inc’s chief lawyer on why the company did not catch 2016 election ads bought using Russian rubles, why its investigation of them took so long and how much it knows about its 5 million advertisers. Democrats and Republicans at the Senate crime subcommittee hearing fired questions for much of two hours at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, who said that in retrospect the company should have done more. “In hindsight, we should have had a broader lens. There are signals we missed,” Stretch said under questioning from Democratic Senator Al Franken about how the company missed political ads bought with Russian money. Stretch called the Russia-based ads “reprehensible” for their political divisiveness. The hearing marked the first time tech executives have appeared publicly before U.S. lawmakers on the Russia matter, and the tone represented a dramatic shift in fortunes for Silicon Valley, which for years has grown accustomed to favorable regulatory treatment in the United States. Lawyers for Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google also faced questions at the hearing about how Russians used their services, but Facebook drew the bulk of senators’ ire because of its unique role in targeted marketing on the internet. Facebook has broader reach than the smaller Twitter network, and it offers more powerful targeting capabilities than Google. “I suspect that your advertising department has watched the profits go up,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told Stretch, who responded that Facebook was committed to rooting out accounts that use fake names. Lawyers for the three companies were scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for two more hearings on Russia ad spending. The Russian government has denied it intended to influence the 2016 presidential election, in which Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Senators said they could not understand the timing of Facebook’s disclosures. “Why has it taken Facebook 11 months to come forward and help us understand the scope of this problem?” Democratic Senator Chris Coons asked. Stretch responded that, when U.S. spy agencies alleged in January that Russians meddled in last year’s election, “we weren’t sitting around.” The company over the following months launched an investigation and reported the results, he said. Facebook has also announced steps to change how it treats political ads. It said it is hiring 1,000 more people to review ads, compiling a publicly searchable archive of political ads beginning next year and requiring more information about the identity of election advertisers. Coons said he wished the tech companies had sent their top executives on Tuesday rather than in-house lawyers. Republican Senator John Kennedy told Stretch that he doubted Facebook’s ability to stop people overseas from buying U.S. election ads. U.S. law bars election spending by non-Americans. “You’ve got 5 million advertisers and you’re going to tell me that you’re able to trace the origin of all those advertisements?” Kennedy asked Stretch. The Facebook lawyer responded that there was little the company could do if a foreign advertiser used a U.S. shell corporation. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the crime subcommittee, said he wanted to help the tech companies, but he also pressed Stretch on whether Iran and North Korea could try to do what Russia did in the United States. Stretch responded: “Certainly potentially. The internet is borderless.” Hanging over Facebook, Google and Twitter is the threat of legislation that would extend rules governing political advertising on television, radio and satellite to also cover social media. The companies have responded with proposals for self-regulation, saying they would create their own public archives of election-related ads. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told witnesses on Tuesday that self-regulation would lead to a “patchwork” of databases and that a uniform system would be better for voters. | 0fake |
U.S. urges Iraq's Kurdistan to call off independence referendum | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday the plan for an independence referendum in Iraq s autonomous Kurdistan region this month distracts from efforts to defeat Islamic State and urged Kurdish leaders to call off the vote. We therefore call on the Kurdistan Regional Government to call off the referendum and enter into serious and sustained dialogue with Baghdad, which the United States has repeatedly indicated it is prepared to facilitate, the White House said in a statement. | 0fake |
Uber, Google, Twitter, Netflix and Other Tech Giants File ‘Unlawful’ Immigration Retort Against Trump | 21st Century Wire says A group of top Silicon Valley tech companies have filed a rare legal brief stating Trump Administration s Executive Order on immigration is discriminatory and departs dramatically from the principles that have governed our immigration law for decades. This legal filing follows the report Friday when a Federal Judge issued a temporarily restraining order blocking US Border Patrol, Customs and Immigration Services from enforcing President Trump s recent executive order, which bars entry to the U.S. to anyone coming from seven majority Muslim countries.This story and the leaked text of the legal challenge was a Washington Post exclusive on Sunday . Elizabeth Dwoskin Washington PostSilicon Valley is stepping up its confrontation with the Trump administration.On Sunday night, Google, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Netflix and other prominent tech companies are planning to file legal brief opposing the administration s contentious entry ban, according to people familiar with the matter.The amicus brief is expected to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which is expected to rule within a few days on an appeal by the administration after a federal judge in Seattle issued late Friday a temporary restraining order putting the entry ban on hold. The brief comes at the end of a week of nationwide protests against the plan as well as a flurry of activity in Silicon Valley, a region that sees immigration as central to its identity as an innovation hub.Companies backing the filing also include Pinterest, Yelp, Square, Reddit, Kickstarter, Github, Glassdoor, Box, Mozilla, Dropbox, Twilio, Zynga, Medium, Pinterest, and Salesforce, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the filing was still being finalized Sunday.Notably, it doesn t appear that Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft are party to the brief. The sources cautioned that the wording of the brief and the participants could still change before the filing is made Sunday night.A draft of the filing says that the entry ban, which barred individuals from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. for at least 90 days and suspended the U.S. refugee program, is discriminatory. The Order effects a sudden, seismic shift in the rules governing entry into the United States, and it departs dramatically from the principles that have governed our immigration law for decades, a draft obtained by The Washington Post reads. The Order discriminates on the basis of national origin and religion. It closes our borders to the world s most vulnerable people, such as those fleeing the devastation of war. And it establishes discretionary and arbitrary rules for admission to this country, even by immigrants who have lived here lawfully for years. Continue this story at the Washington PostREAD MORE IMMIGRATION BAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Immigration Files | 1real |
North Carolina transgender battle could expand civil rights law | (This version of the May 10 story has been corrects to update new name of group to “GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders” from “Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders,” in the sixth paragraph) By Daniel Trotta and Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) - The legal battle over transgender rights between the state of North Carolina and the U.S. government has moved the country closer to settling one of the last frontiers in civil rights law. At issue is whether transgender people deserve the same federal protections that have been extended to groups such as blacks and religious minorities. Backers of the North Carolina law, which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, say it will protect women and girls from predators. Transgender advocates say that claim is unfounded and ignores a modern understanding of people who identify with a gender other than the one assigned at birth. The next step is likely to be a federal judge’s decision on whether to impose an injunction, or temporary ruling, to void the North Carolina law pending a trial. Regardless of how a judge might rule on an injunction, the case stands to add to a growing body of legal decisions that have tended to side in favor of transgender rights but not enough to dissuade states like North Carolina. A handful of U.S. states and cities have attempted to enact measures affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, but North Carolina is the first state to focus on transgender people’s use of public bathrooms. “This is absolutely a critical moment in terms of the focus and the answers that will come through these cases about the established scope of protections for transgender people,” said Jennifer Levi, a lawyer with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. The North Carolina law is the subject of four lawsuits in federal court, two on each side. The U.S. Justice Department and an advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties Union, have each sought to strike it down, saying the law violates the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which jolted a divided nation into applying full rights to African-Americans a century after the abolition of slavery. North Carolina’s governor and legislature both sued on Monday to protect their law, saying the Justice Department was trying to strike down a “common sense privacy policy” meant to protect the state’s public employees. State officials also said if the Obama administration wants protections for transgender people, it should appeal to Congress to amend existing laws. At least two provisions of federal law ban discrimination on the basis of sex — Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which covers and employment, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The issue before the courts is whether “sex” also applies to gender identity. The Obama administration has taken a firm stance that transgender people are protected, a point that Attorney General Loretta Lynch emphasized on Monday. “The entire Obama administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward,” Lynch told transgender people in remarks at a news conference. Lynch also threatened to withhold federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina while the legal case proceeds. North Carolina stands to lose $4.8 billion in funds, mainly educational grants, if it does not back down from the law, according to an analysis by lawyers at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School. Unless North Carolina backs down, any ruling by a trial judge would likely be challenged and end up in a Virginia-based federal appeals court that only weeks ago issued an important ruling in favor of transgender rights. That court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, said a transgender teen from Virginia could sue his high school for being barred from using the boy’s bathroom. The court noted that federal education officials have interpreted Title IX to apply to transgender people but did not directly rule on the issue. So far, only one appeals court has explicitly ruled that the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination against transgender people, in a 2005 case brought by a police officer. At least five other appeals courts have suggested that they agreed, some in cases involving other federal discrimination laws. The U.S. Supreme Court could help settle the matter, but experts said it was unlikely to take up any precedent-setting case any time soon. | 0fake |
#VeryFakeNews CNN Underestimated Their Opponent: New Report Shows CNN Takes MASSIVE Nosedive In Ratings | CNN is finally seeing the serious repercussions of reporting #VeryFakeNews, while Fox News remains number one in ratings.CNN s ratings are plummeting, according to a Thursday cable TV rankings report by TV Newser.CNN fell to 10th in average total day viewership among all basic cable networks in the week of June 26 to July 2, far behind first-place Fox News and third-place MSNBC.An average of 639,000 viewers tuned in to CNN per day during the measurement period, less than half of the average 1,390,000 viewers who tuned in to Fox News per day during the same period.CNN s ratings slump is a remarkable drop from just a month ago, when CNN sat in fifth place among all basic cable networks the week of May 29 to June 4.CNN lost an average of 159,000 viewers per day from the week of May 29 to the week of June 26.Fox News and CNN continue to climb in ratings as CNN tumbles.Fox remained number one in all of basic cable, gaining an average of 7,000 viewers per day from the week of May 29 to the week of June 26.The Thursday ratings report is a slap in the face to CNN, which claimed on June 27 its most-watched second quarter in history. CNN s rating slump occurred in the same week three CNN staffers resigned following a damaging retraction of a story that falsely linked a Trump transition official to the chief executive of a $10 billion Russian investment fund.The network was also hit with a number of undercover videos published by undercover journalist James O Keefe, one of which revealed a CNN health producer dismissing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative and another that revealed CNN contributor Van Jones labeling the Russia story a nothing burger. Unfortunately for CNN, the ratings report released Thursday does not take into account the latest controversy to hit the network, indicating that its ratings could possibly plummet even further in the coming weeks.CNN came under fire Tuesday for apparently threatening to expose the identity of a private citizen who initially claimed credit for creating a GIF President Trump tweeted showing Trump tackling CNN.#CNNBlackmail trended worldwide Tuesday after the network made public its decision to mask the identity of the private citizen on the condition that the man no longer engages in what CNN considers to be ugly behavior. Trump has continued to hammer CNN for being the standard-bearer of what he considers fake news. Western Journalism | 1real |
Dan Rather Brilliantly Rips Trump’s Lawless Week In SCATHING Facebook Post | Donald Trump has had what is arguably the most bizarre week in the history of the American presidency. He has careened from outrage to outrage, lie to lie, and lawless action to lawless action all in the span of five days, starting with his firing of FBI Director James Comey because he threw a massive tantrum over the Trump-Russia collusion investigation. Well, there is one respected American who has had about enough of Trump s acting as if he is above the law: journalist Dan Rather.Rather took to his Facebook page to rip Trump to shreds as only he can. He begins by talking about how long he s lived and how many presidencies he s lived through including Richard Nixon s and then moves on to the extraordinary disgrace that is the Donald Trump presidency. Rather says, in part:But I have never seen a week where a president of our nation has behaved with such a cavalier disregard for the norms and institutions of our democracy. And it now seems like the investigation is expanding into Trump s business dealings. The comparisons with Richard Nixon are plentiful these days, but even he did not seem so untethered from our basic governance. And I have never seen so many members of a political party rally around incompetence, intemperance, and inanity.Dan Rather is correct. Donald Trump makes Richard Nixon look like a boy scout. Trump is downright dangerous, and he must be restrained. If only the Congress would do their jobs and speak out, and act as the check on this president that they are supposed to be. Hell, they were more than happy to be a check on President Obama and he didn t even do anything that was lawless.This is the Republican Party putting partisan politics and their own political futures above the good of the republic. It is shameful, and that is why we must vote them out of Congress in 2018.Mr. Rather, thank you for speaking truth to power. We need voices like yours in these dark and dire times.Read the entire brilliant post below:Featured image via Kirk Irwin/Getty Images for SiriusXM | 1real |
Chris Wallace SCOLDS Fox News Colleagues For Not Covering Comey Firing Seriously (VIDEO) | The hosts of Fox & Friends just got their asses handed to them by one of their own colleagues for protecting Donald Trump so much.For months, the FBI have been investigating Trump s Russia scandal. The scandal continues to grow every day and when Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last week it became and even bigger story.Trump literally fires the head of the agency that is investigating him, which means he interfered in a federal investigation and committed obstruction of justice. The firing also smacks of Watergate because former President Nixon did something similar in an effort to cover up his involvement in the crime.Clearly, Trump is desperately trying to bury the Russia investigation and he is willing to fire people to do it.But Fox & Friends have been Trump s top cheerleaders for months now and they continued in that role after Comey s firing, writing off the story as just mainstream media hysteria. But they weren t able to get away with it on Sunday while respected journalist and fellow Fox host Chris Wallace was around.Prior to his own show, Wallace made a guest appearance on the morning program and proceeded to scold Pete Hegseth for downplaying Comey s firing. It s been about Russian collusion from the beginning, Hegseth whined. His critics have tried to make him look not legitimate. And five days after the firing of Comey, the media is still chomping at the bit with hysteria. Hegseth then played clips focusing more on what Democratic lawmakers have been saying as proof that the media is being hysterical. Wallace took immediate offense and defended the media while letting Trump s top propaganda team know that, in fact, this is a major story. But I do take exception to the idea that this is hysteria, Wallace said. There are some cases there that I shake my head and think that s over the top. Yes. This is a big story. The fact that we re continuing to talk about it a week later. This is the first time in history that a president has fired an FBI director who was conducting an investigation that was directly investigating him and his associates. It s a big story and I think it s a legitimate story to cover. Here s the video via YouTube.So while hacks like the hosts of Fox & Friends are doing Trump s bidding by trying to delegitimize a big story that further highlights how corrupt Trump is, Chris Wallace isn t willing to buy the bullshit they are selling and has no problem calling out them out for not doing their job. If only more Fox hosts were like Chris Wallace, Trump would be in deeper shit.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
BUSTED: The Oh So Objective ABC News Chief Anchor, George Stephanopoulous Made Huge Donation To Clinton Foundation | Just like Hillary Stephanopoulos claims it was an honest mistake not to disclose his donations to the corrupt Clinton slush fund ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos has given $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, charitable contributions that he did not publicly disclose while reporting on the Clintons or their non-profit organization, the On Media blog has learned.In both 2013 and 2014, Stephanopoulos made a $25,000 donation to the 501 nonprofit founded by former president Bill Clinton, the Foundation s records show. Stephanopoulos never disclosed this information to viewers, even when interviewing author Peter Schweizer last month about his book Clinton Cash, which alleges that donations to the Foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton s actions as Secretary of State.In a statement to the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos apologized and said that he should have disclosed the donations to ABC News and its viewers.Watch George discuss the problem with donations to the Clinton Foundation on the Daily Show with John Stewart, and how it might make people question if donations to the Foundation could be seen as pernicious : I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work they re doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply, he said. I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize. Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor and chief political correspondent for ABC News, as well as the co-anchor of ABC s Good Morning America and host of This Week, its Sunday morning public affairs program. Prior to joining ABC News, he served as communications director and senior advisor for policy and strategy to President Clinton. He also served as communications director on Bill Clinton s 1992 presidential campaign.In its own statement on Thursday, ABC News said it was standing behind its star anchor. As George has said, he made charitable donations to the Foundation to support a cause he cares about deeply and believed his contributions were a matter of public record, the network s statement read. He should have taken the extra step to notify us and our viewers during the recent news reports about the Foundation. He s admitted to an honest mistake and apologized for that omission. We stand behind him. ABC News later told the On Media blog that it would not take any punitive action against Stephanopoulos: We accept his apology, a spokesperson said. It was an honest mistake. Sources with knowledge of Stephanopoulos charitable giving said he gives to dozens of charities Stephanopoulosevery year and that the total sum of these annual contributions is in the millions of dollars. Those sources said that the Clinton Foundation contributions represent a very small percentage of the total.On the April 26 edition of This Week, Stephanopoulos interviewed Schweizer and challenged the author s assertions that Hillary Clinton may have committed a crime because there was a troubling pattern between donations to the Foundation and Clinton s actions as Secretary of State. We ve done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action, the host told Schweizer. An independent government ethics expert, Bill Allison, of the Sunlight Foundation, wrote this. He said, There s no smoking gun, no evidence that she changed the policy based on donations to the foundation. No smoking gun. Later in the interview, Stephanopoulos said, I still haven t heard any direct evidence and you just said you had no evidence that she intervened here. He also noted that other news organizations that used Schweizer s research haven t confirmed any evidence of any crime. Among the more notable revelations to come out of Schweizer s research is the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One, a former Canadian mining company that was taken over by Russia in 2013 with U.S. government approval. Between 2009 to 2013, Uranium One s chairman donated $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation.Hillary Clinton has said that there is not an inherent conflict of interest between the Foundation donations and her decisions at the State Department. Her campaign has consistently dismissed the accusations as partisan attacks.Via: Politico | 1real |
WIKILEAKS EXPOSES Clinton Campaign In Cahoots With Corrupt DOJ On Email Scandal | An official within Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton s presidential campaign appeared to have discussions with sources inside the Department of Justice (DOJ) about ongoing open records lawsuits regarding the former secretary of State s emails, according to an email released on Tuesday.In an email from May 2015, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said that DOJ folks had inform[ed] him about an upcoming status conference in one of the lawsuits regarding Clinton s private email setup. The information about an upcoming court event would have been public knowledge and open for all to attend. And it s unclear whether the people Fallon spoke to at the Justice Department were officials who regularly communicate with the public. However, the fact that Fallon a former spokesman with the Department of Justice remained in contact with anyone from the department is likely to renew allegations that the Obama administration maintained an especially cozy relationship with the former secretary of State s presidential campaign.On Tuesday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said the connection was unbelievable .The email shows a level of collusion which calls into question the entire investigation into her private server, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement on Tuesday. The Department of Justice must release all communications with the Clinton campaign and her allies as soon as possible in order to definitively prove their investigation was completely above board. Read more: The Hill | 1real |
Ted Nugent’s Latest Racist Rant May Cost Him The One Thing He Loves, His Precious NRA Membership | Ted Nugent is a mentally unstable man with almost as many insecurities as guns. His frequent rants run the gamut of violent and racist talking points. He s threatened to kill Hillary Clinton. He s threatened to kill President Obama. There isn t a minority group that he hasn t tried to incite his rabid all-white, all-conservative fanbase into attacking (verbally or otherwise).But something is happening that may finally make Nugent shut the hell up.Following his latest racist rant, this time focused on Jewish liberals, calling them soulless sheep to the slaughter (and posting a picture of holocaust victims, just to make sure his low intelligence followers really got it), the backlash came not only from liberals who are constantly calling Nugent out for his disgusting views but also from the people who typically defend him: Fellow conservatives.Nugent must have assumed this was just another mundane backlash so he characteristically told his critics eat me. He may want to rethink that. Instead of just shouting at him on social media, they did something far more terrifying for the gun-obsessed lunatic: They are calling on the NRA to kick him out.Up until now, the NRA could be forgiven for having tolerated Nugent s excesses. He is, after all, a rock star rather than a politician, and his passion for the Second Amendment has been admirable. It takes all sorts to make a movement those who can offer the visceral case are just as important as those who can crunch the numbers and parse the laws. But there is always a line somewhere, and Nugent has unapologetically leaped across it.As Media Matters documented, even far-right gun groups have spoken out against Nugent s latest anti-Semitic smears. If the NRA had hoped to be able to weather this storm and continue to keep Nugent as one of the members of their board (yeah, he s a board member of the organization.), it doesn t look like they are going to get any defense from their allies. EVERYONE wants him gone.His haters were even more adamant. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence released a strong statement condemning Nugent and started a petition to have the NRA drop him from their ranks. Tell the NRA: The repeated racist statements of NRA board member Ted Nugent are grossly offensive and intolerable. Remove him from your Board of Directors. Which probably terrifies Nugent who, underneath his tough talk, has always been a coward.For him, the NRA represents the last vestige of respectability. As more and more of his former supporters distance themselves from his ugly behavior, he needs the NRA to be on his side. Without them he will look like what he is: A has-been musician who needs serious psychiatric help. He s not an ambassador for gun rights. He s not a board member of a large organization. Just a sad, angry racist shouting into an increasingly empty room.While it s frustrating to watch Nugent repeatedly slur minorities, it will feel extremely gratifying to watch one of these unhinged rants finally destroy the only thing he loves: His NRA membership card.Feature image via Flickr | 1real |
Christian Farmer Barred from Michigan Market Because of Views on Gay Marriage - Breitbart | A Catholic apple grower in Michigan has been barred from a city farmers’ market over his views on marriage, after he refused to host a lesbian couple’s wedding at his orchard. [Stephen Tennes, the owner of Country Mill Farms, has sold his fruit and vegetables at the East Lansing Farmer’s Market for the past seven years. After city officials learned of his Christian belief that marriage is the union between one man and one woman, they invoked a policy to exclude him from being able to sell at the farmers’ market. Tennes says he was barred from selling his produce after his business, Country Mill Farms, refused to host a lesbian couple’s wedding at its orchard in Charlotte, 22 miles outside East Lansing. Explaining his position on Facebook, Tennes cited his “Catholic belief that marriage is a sacramental union between one man and one woman. ” In a statement, the city of East Lansing said the farmer’s decision not to host a wedding violated a “ ordinance that protects sexual orientation as well as the Supreme Court’s ruling that grants the right for couples to be married. ” In point of fact, the city introduced a modification to the city’s farmers market vendor agreement just this year requiring sellers to comply with East Lansing’s Human Relations Ordinance. Among other things, the ordinance prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The city’s punitive action targets the farmer’s use of his own private property, 22 miles outside the city and well outside its jurisdiction. Mr. Tennes has declared that he does not discriminate against LGBT customers at the farmer’s market, and gladly sells his produce to all comers. “It’s our faith that informs us how to treat all who come to our farm and the farmers market with dignity and decency … serving customers of many races, religions, cultures and those who identify with the LBGT community,” he said. When it came to actually hosting a marriage that contradicts his biblical understanding of the nature of marriage, Tennes felt obliged to decline. “Our faith and beliefs on marriage and hosting weddings at our home and in our backyard of our farm have nothing to do with the city of East Lansing,” Tennes said at a press conference. According to Gay Star News, the biblical view of marriage is “homophobic” and the City of East Lansing barred Tennes for his “homophobic religious views. ” On Wednesday, May 31, Tennes filed a federal lawsuit against the city of East Lansing seeking his reinstatement at the market. According to the lawsuit, Country Mill is the only business to have been prohibited under the market’s policy. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal organization specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing Tennes. They have asserted that his religious views on marriage have no bearing on his involvement at the market and said the city’s actions amounted to a First Amendment violation. “Steve and his farm have been singled out and excluded from full participation in the life of the community for only one reason,” said ADF counsel Kate Anderson. “Steve expressed a viewpoint the city did not like. ” “If the government can shut down a family farmer just because of the religious views he expresses on Facebook … then no American is free,” Anderson said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 0fake |
LAWLESS: OBAMA WON’T TAKE EXECUTIVE AMNESTY TO SUPREME COURT | Why should Barack Obama bother with the courts? He s always been above the law. He s already proven to us that he doesn t need a court ruling to bring millions of illegal aliens into our country. He s not following any laws when he demands our border patrol agents stand down to drug cartels, dangerous gangs, pedophiles, members of terror groups and rapists crossing our open borders. He doesn t need a law to ensure that in exchange for votes for the Democrat party, American taxpayers will reward illegal aliens with the right to free education, free food, free health care and subsidized housing. Who needs the law when you re America s First Black President. The Obama administration revealed today that it will not take the fight over executive immigration amnesty to the Supreme Court, essentially admitting defeat in its fight to lift a court-ordered stay placed by a Texas judge.Obama s executive actions still have to be settled in court, but yesterday s decision prevented the administration from moving forward in its efforts to sign up illegal immigrants for the amnesty programs. The department believes the best way to achieve this goal is to focus on the ongoing appeal on the merits of the preliminary injunction itself, said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for the Justice Department to the New York Times. Although the department continues to disagree with the Fifth Circuit s refusal to stay the district court s preliminary injunction, the department has determined that it will not seek a stay from the Supreme Court. The arguments for the legal battle begin next month before the Fifth Circuit court, but the results of yesterday s decision mean the final will likely be pushed into 2016. There s an important hearing scheduled for July 6 at which the Department of Justice is preparing its arguments on the legal merits of the executive actions that the president announced last fall, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters aboard Air Force One. The Department of Justice remains focused on that argument and that hearing proceeding on an expedited basis. Obama is traveling to Miami today for a series of fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee.Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
BREAKING: FEMALE LAW STUDENT Busts Hillary’s “Oh Sh*t” IT Guy Who Was Seeking Help To Scrub Hillary’s Name From Emails…Wikileaks Applauds! | Will this FINALLY be the straw that breaks the camel s back? Wow and it s not even October yet! Things are not looking good for #CrookedHillary The House Oversight Committee is reviewing a Reddit post that alleges an IT specialist who worked on Hillary Clinton s private server sought advice on how to alter the contents of VERY VIP emails, according to Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).Meadows is the chairman of the panel s Government Operations subcommittee. The Reddit post issue and its connection to Paul Combetta is currently being reviewed by OGR staff and evaluations are being made as to the authenticity of the post, Meadows told The Hill. Reddit users appear to have uncovered a two-year-old post from an account believed to belong to Combetta, an engineer with Platte River Networks. The Denver, Colo.-based firm managed Clinton s private server.The Reddit Archives that are allegedly Combetta s, can be found near end of article. Combetta was granted immunity from Obama s Department of Justice in their investigation of Clinton.Combetta was the employee who deleted all of Hillary Clinton s emails.According users on Reddit, Combetta asked for assistance in July 2014 from Reddit users on how to purge emails and how to strip VIP s email address from a bunch of archived emails. -GPhttps://twitter.com/juliangwan/status/778006379596509184The post, which has been deleted but can be read in images archived by Reddit users, coincides with the discovery of Clinton s use of the server.Busted:Proof of Intent to Obstruct Justice 2 Years Ago from #HillarysHackerReddit Post Reveals. pic.twitter.com/aVgdV8gDla The Truther (@4evertruther) September 19, 2016 I may be facing a very interesting situation where I need to strip out a VIP s (VERY VIP) email address from a bunch of archived email Basically, they don t want the VIP s email address exposed to anyone, and want to be able to either strip out or replace the email address in the to/from fields in all of the emails we want to send out, reads the post, by a user called stonetear. Does anyone have experience with something like this, and/or suggestions on how this might be accomplished? Here is the Twitter user who uncovered Combetta s requests for help on Reddit:SMOKING GUN: "BleachBit" Paul Combetta ASKED TO STRIP OR REPLACE VIP's EMAIL ADDRESS! https://t.co/nz13MqzWth #MAGA pic.twitter.com/qQII96JI76 Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) September 19, 2016Here she is discussing her find:Great job! That's some damned good sleuthing, you should give the FBI some lessons. Girl_Grimly (@ed_grimly) September 19, 2016Thank you!!! I'm studying law (MS) with concentrations in eDiscovery/eLitigation, but close! I have amazing professors. https://t.co/baaz6PqJaw Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) September 19, 2016Wikileaks cheered Katica s good work on Twitter, and she was thrilled:This is so awesome to be to have @wikileaks on this. *swoon* https://t.co/CfXpo8PctY Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) September 20, 2016Combetta is currently one of the targets of a broader Oversight investigation on whether Clinton ordered the destruction of emails that had been subpoenaed by the Benghazi Select Committee. If it is determined that the request to change email addresses was made by someone so closely aligned with the Secretary s IT operation as Mr. Combetta, then it will certainly prompt additional inquiry, Meadows told The Hill. The date of the Reddit post in relationship to the establishment of the Select Committee on Benghazi is also troubling. The Reddit message was sent on July 23, 2014, according to an archive of the page saved by other users. The day before, the Benghazi Committee had reached an agreement with the State Department on the production of related records, according the FBI s investigation into Clinton s use of the server.The identity of the stonetear user is not confirmed. Reddit users point to the fact that an account on the online marketplace Easy for a Paul Combetta has the username stonetear and the inactive website combetta.com is registered to the email address stonetear@gmail.com.Combetta appeared under subpoena in a committee hearing last week on the alleged destruction of evidence, but both he and colleague Bill Thornton exercised their Fifth Amendment right not to testify.borismkv: There is no supported way to do what you re asking. You can only delete emails after they re stored in the database. You can t change them. If there was a feature in Exchange that allowed this, it could result in major legal issues. There may be ways to hack a solution, but I am not aware of any. permalinkembedsavegive goldstonetear: As a PST file or exported MSG files, this could be done though, yes? The issue is that these emails involve the private email address of someone you d recognize, and we re trying to replace it with a placeholder address as to not expose it.exproject: To my knowledge, there s no way to edit existing messages, that s a possibility for a discovery nightmare. To strip/rename on outbound/inbound you could rewrite it with a transport rule.stonetear: That wouldn t work on existing messages though right?odoprasm: Is there no way to access and edb manually?stonetear: I have full access to the server what are you suggesting with the EDB file?stonetear: I think maybe I wasn t clear enough in the original post. I have these emails available in a PST file. Can I rewrite them in the PST? I could also export to MSG and do some sort of batch find/replace. Anyone know of tools that might help with this?exproject: Just because you have the messages available in multiple formats and locations doesn t change that it s an attribute of the envelope not meant to be rewritten. The functionality is just not built into any tool I know of. Having that functionality would create the ability to screw with discovery (I mean, there could be mitigation with versioning, but that would need other configuration) While it may not be a read-only part of the envelope(I m not actually sure), the only tool that MIGHT be able to do what you want is MFCMapi, and I don t think you want to play with that for this job. The chance of getting it wrong would be pretty high I think and it is not a particularly friendly tool. I m not sure it could be scripted with it either. My recommendation would be what /u/borismkv said. Making a mailbox for VIP and telling them to use that. Forwarding to VIPs mailbox would be ripe for them to just respond directly instead of responding through his relay mailbox. As for your existing messages, if the current users absolutely cannot see the existing messages, you ll need to do a search and export and just forcibly remove the messages from their mailboxes. It s not clean and not advised by me, but if they don t want VIPs address out there it will need to be removed. I would do a search with his email address as the query with -LogOnly -LogLevel Full and see what kind of results you get.EDIT: Holy shit they actually deleted all their comments from a 2 year old reddit post, I think we hit gold on this one. Archive.is link of the deleted reddit postCan somebody make sure we have the twitter posts archived too? I really don t trust twitter to keep those up. Gateway PunditHere is the ARCHIVE of the messages that were deleted on Reddit.UPDATE: Here s a screengrab of the archived pictures from Reddit:The committee has scheduled another hearing on the preservation of State Department records for Thursday.Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has issued a criminal referral asking the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to investigate deletions from the server.This latest probe stems from revelations from the 58-page report issued by the FBI summarizing its investigation into Clinton s use of the server.According to the FBI s report, an unnamed Platte River Networks technician deleted an archive of emails from the server in March 2015 after the House Select Committee on Benghazi had issued a subpoena for records relating to the 2012 attack on the Libyan outpost.According to the FBI s notes, longtime Clinton aide Cheryl Mills instructed Platte River Networks to delete a set of archived emails in December 2014. Mills told investigators Clinton had decided she no longer needed access to emails older than 60 days.But the technician apparently forgot the request and didn t immediately comply. According to the FBI report, between March 25 and March 31 of 2015, the technician believed he had an oh shit moment and deleted the Clinton archive mailbox from the [Platte River Networks] server. Reporting from The New York Times has since identified Combetta as that technician, citing an anonymous law enforcement official and others familiar with the FBI probe.Clinton and Mills told the FBI that they had no knowledge of the technician s deletion of the emails. The technician, according to the report, was aware of the existence of the [Benghazi Committee] preservation request and the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton s email data on the [Platte River Networks] server. The HillFrom Representative Steven Smith:BREAKING: Citizen Journalist breaks HUGE Clinton email story PROVING Hillary ORDERED EMAILS TO BE STRIPPED! #MAGA https://t.co/m5fYUmibpT Rep. Steven Smith (@RepStevenSmith) September 19, 2016Rep. Steven Smith posted this on Monday morning. BREAKING: Citizen Journalist breaks HUGE Clinton email story PROVING Hillary ORDERED EMAILS TO BE STRIPPED! "The issue is that these emails involve the private email address of someone you'd recognize." WOW!#HillarysHacker pic.twitter.com/j9fDrm4HGU Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) September 20, 2016 | 1real |
Bernie's swan song begins | **Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**
On the roster - Bernie’s swan song begins - Dubya back in the game - Rubio leans towards a run, GOP insiders say - Save yourself, no really
BERNIE’S SWAN SONG BEGINS
In Sen. Bernie Sanders’ address Thursday he said a lot of things, except that he would concede his bid for the Democratic nomination. But on the heels of his meeting with Hillary Clinton, subsequent matching statements, and his promise that he would do everything he could to defeat Donald Trump the signs that the end is near couldn’t be clearer.
So why not drop out now?
Well, there are two schools of thought on that.
One is that Sanders is trying to hold on to as much leverage as he can to make his policy positions part of the party platform and institute changes in the primary process. The idea is that the longer he remains in the race the more Clinton and the party will concede for the sake of the much coveted word this cycle: unity.
But that theory has some holes in it.
A prolonged holdout by Sanders actually weakens his hand. Supporters like Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., the first member of congress to back Sanders, have started to throw their support behind Clinton. The small donations that once poured in have dried up. And the much-reported massive rallies have dwindled with time and are now absent.
All this to say Sanders’ momentum doesn’t look quite as threatening as it did back in March, or even May. Any hope that Sanders could win, or pose some sort of mathematical challenge based on delegate count, ended with the California primary 10 days ago.
Not to mention President Obama’s endorsement for Clinton this week…
Which is exactly why those in the second school of thought believe Sanders remaining in the race is a strategy to benefit Clinton and the Democrats more than anything else.
In this notion, the longer Sanders remains in the more his fire continues to burn out on its own, leaving Clinton in better graces with his supporters than if she appeared to force him out while he still had momentum. Clinton appears as the magnanimous candidate letting her challenger run his own course instead of the political powerhouse choking the competition, and Sanders doesn’t look like he cut and ran. Everyone wins.
The cordial meeting the two candidates had this week seems to show that is exactly what’s happening. Since Clinton has officially secured presumptive nominee status Sanders is no longer a distraction from her general election strategy or a threat of division within the party. His presence in the race doesn’t hold the same ire for her it once did.
But remember, Sanders is not a dyed in the wool Democrat and he doesn’t feel obliged to abide by any party’s rules. Although his campaign has said they’re no longer recruiting superdelegates it doesn’t mean the independent, socialist-turned-Democratic-challenger will bow out quietly.
So however long he remains in the race, how he bows out will be on his terms regardless of party unity or strategy.
TIME OUT
On this day in 1885, a ship sailed into New York harbor carrying 350 individual pieces of cargo that would become one of America’s most iconic symbols: the Statue of Liberty. Since that time Lady Liberty has welcomed immigrants through Ellis Island, bid farewell to thousands of troops going “over there,” witnessed an attack on the city to which she lights the way, and seen the same city rebound with spirited purpose.
As President Ronald Reagan said at the statue’s centennial celebration: “[W]e too dare to hope -- hope that our children will always find here the land of liberty in a land that is free. We dare to hope too that we’ll understand our work can never be truly done until every man, woman, and child shares in our gift, in our hope, and stands with us in the light of liberty.”
Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions
SCOREBOARD
Average of national presidential polls: Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +5.8 points
Generic congressional vote: Democrats +2.2
DUBYA BACK IN THE GAME
NYT: “After eight years of largely abstaining from politics, former President George W. Bush is throwing himself into an effort to save his party’s most vulnerable senators, including several whose re-election campaigns have been made more difficult by Donald J. Trump’s presence at the top of the ticket. In the weeks since Mr. Trump emerged as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Mr. Bush has headlined fund-raisers for two Republican senators and has made plans to help three more. Among them are Senators John McCain of Arizona, who was one of Mr. Trump’s earliest targets of derision, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire… Next week, he will appear in St. Louis at a fund-raiser for Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri. And similar events are being planned for Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rob Portman of Ohio.”
RUBIO LEANS TOWARDS A RUN, GOP INSIDERS SAY
WashEx: “Marco Rubio is leaning toward running for re-election, say Republicans monitoring the senator’s movements for signs of a decision…The Florida Republican is now re-considering, motivated in part by Sunday’s jihadist terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead plus the shooter. But Republican insiders are predicting that Rubio will in fact jump into the race because they believe there have been smoke signals for weeks indicating he planned to change course…Perhaps telling, it’s GOP operatives in Florida who are most convinced that Rubio is going to run. Rubio’s team has been organizing and preparing to launch a 2016 Senate campaign for weeks, one veteran Florida Republican strategist said.”
And Dems are ready - The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a video this morning attacking Rubio for his absence in the U.S. Senate showing they are already preparing for the Florida senator’s potential reelection bid in the Sunshine State.
IN COVERAGE
Fox News Sunday – Chris Wallace hosts Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss gun restrictions in wake of the Orlando shootings, and Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski talks the 2016 race on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.
#mediabuzz - Howard Kurtz breaks down how the media covered the biggest news stories, including Bill Hemmer on his experience reporting from Orlando. Watch #mediabuzz Sundays at 11 a.m. and a reairing at 5 p.m. ET.
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Clinton, Trump Twitter wars wage on - WashEx
Major companies pull sponsorship from GOP convention - The Hill
How game theory helps explain Trump’s strategy - WaPo
Hillary pushes DNC towards general election focus - Time
Over 50 State Dept. employees call for a regime change in Syria - Fox News
AUDIBLE
“Election days come and go but political and social revolutions that attempt to transform our society never end.” -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in his live webcast Thursday.
SAVE YOURSELF, NO REALLY
[Victoria, British Columbia] Times Colonist: “Vancouver firefighters, eager to deploy two new boats, were disappointed last week when one of the vessels was, ironically, damaged by fire during transport…The two boats, worth approximately $1.5 million apiece, were custom built for Vancouver in Kingston, Ont., by MetalCraft Marine to replace the fire department’s two aging water craft…But as the long-awaited, 43-foot vessels were being transported to Vancouver by tractor trailer last week, there was a malfunction with the packaging…There is no concern that the boat is unsafe because of the fire [Vancouver Fire and Rescue spokesman added] adding that the vessel had been taken apart to transport.”
AND NOW A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“You can keep all the Muslim immigrants you want away from our shores. It will make no difference. In the end, the only thing that will work – as it worked to a large extent with al Qaeda – you have to go after them where they live, and drive them out.” -- Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier” Watch here.
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Sally Persons contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here. | 0fake |
The feds probably won't dismantle the Ferguson PD. That's a good thing. | Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday he was "prepared to use all the powers" the federal government has to get the city of Ferguson, Missouri, in line with the Constitution. Asked if that included "dismantling the police force," Holder said, "If that's what's necessary, we're prepared to do that."
It sounds like a radical move on Holder's part. But don't get too swept up in it. The DOJ doesn't exactly have the power to dismantle the Ferguson police department if the city doesn't consent — and would have to go through a lot of steps before getting that power. Plus, dismantling the embattled police department might not fix some of the worst problems outlined in the Justice Department's report.
The Department of Justice doesn't have the power to dismantle local police departments at will. The way it's probably going to "work with" the City of Ferguson, as Holder also hinted today, is by drawing up an agreement where Ferguson's police would still be independent, but would be monitored by the DOJ. (The agreement would be enforced in federal court.) The feds would only take over if the city failed, and failed badly, to make the changes laid out in the agreement.
This nearly happened in Oakland in 2012; as a compromise, the federal government fired the police chief but left the department under the city's control. But it was a full decade after the agreement was first signed.
if dismantling happens, it'll be something the city agrees to do itself — or even suggests to begin with
If Holder really wants to tear down the Ferguson Police Department and start over, the best way to do that would be to make dissolution part of the original court-enforced agreement. If the city didn't agree, he could sue them to do it (which would also take years).
But given how expensive it's going to be for Ferguson's police to comply with the likely court agreement, it might actually be cheaper for them to agree to give up and try again. So the possibility exists that the Ferguson police department will be dissolved — but it would almost certainly be because the city of Ferguson agreed to do it, or even suggested it in the first place. That also means the city would be in charge of putting together whatever is going to replace the Ferguson PD.
Getting rid of the police in Ferguson would only address half of the problems identified by the federal government. The Department of Justice also found massive discrimination and Constitutional violations in the municipal court system, including arresting people for showing up to court without being able to afford a court fee; suspending drivers' licenses of people who didn't even know that they'd had a court date, let alone missed one; and setting jail bonds not based on what someone would be able to pay, but based on making the most money for the city.
There's no way the federal government's going to be satisfied if Ferguson reforms its police but leaves its courts the way they are. Disbanding the police department might allow the city to focus on reforming the courts, but it won't be enough on its own.
More importantly, though, who would do police work in Ferguson after the Ferguson police force gets dismantled?
the actions of "other law enforcement agencies in st. louis county...have contributed to a general distrust" of police
Typically, a nearby police force is brought in to take over: either temporarily, while a new police department is hired from the chief down, or permanently, on a contract. And it's not at all clear whether other police departments in the St. Louis area are any better. After all, residents had plenty of experience with the St. Louis County police last summer during the protests after Michael Brown's death — and they didn't treat protesters any better than Ferguson police did.
The DOJ report certainly indicates that the problem in St. Louis is bigger than Ferguson. In fact, some of the things it faults the Ferguson police for doing are things they're being asked to do by other jurisdictions, like arresting people without warrants based on requests from police in other departments. By the same token, many of the unfair court practices the DOJ found appear to be pretty typical in municipal courts in the area.
The report even says: "Individuals’ experiences with other law enforcement agencies in St. Louis County, including with the police departments in surrounding municipalities and the County Police, in many instances have contributed to a general distrust of law enforcement that impacts interactions with the Ferguson police and municipal court."
If Eric Holder wants to dismantle the problems facing the criminal-justice system throughout the St. Louis area, he's welcome to try — but it's going to take a lot more investigations and potential lawsuits than the one he has going right now. | 0fake |
More People Now Support Trump’s Impeachment Than Trump As President | The latest results are in and things are looking pretty bleak for President Trump As of Monday, practically every single poll had Donald Trump plummeting in the ratings, however, the support of his impeachment was steadily rising and has now actually overtaken the president s approval rating.Yes, even when the margin of error is factored in, more U.S. voters are in support of Trump s impeachment compared to those that simply support him as the president and it doesn t really come as much of a surprise when one considers the events of the past week. First, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, then there was the way he responded to the London terror attacks, undermining London mayor Sadiq Khan with a Twitter tirade that continually took one of Khan s comments completely out of context. Add to these the ongoing probe into Russia possibly having a hand in helping him win the U.S. presidential election and Trump is not a particularly popular man at the moment.According to a Gallup poll published on Monday, Trump s approval rating dropped from almost 42% prior to the weekend down to 36%, inching ever so closer back to his all-time low of 35% back in March. On the other hand, a Politico/Morning Consult poll published the same day found that almost 43% of American voters are in favor of beginning the official procedure to have Trump impeached.Despite there being no exact concrete number for where the president s approval rating stands, every poll reflected the exact same pattern over the course of the weekend following Trump s decision on the Paris agreement. That includes polling sites such as Rasmussen Reports, ones that lean more than just a little to the right, still showing that 54% disapprove of the President s tenure.While Trump might have achieved a personal-high approval rating of 42% after his first official overseas trip as president, he is now rapidly approaching the territory of the lowest approval rating in the history of modern American politics.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
Charlotte, U.S. Presidential Race, Syria: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. A second night of protests over a police shooting turned violent in Charlotte, N. C. Gunfire at a demonstration left one man critically injured on life support and prompted law enforcement authorities to fire tear gas on the crowd. The episode that set off the protests was the killing of a black man, Keith Scott. He was the third African American fatally shot by police officers in a week. _____ 2. Secretary of State John Kerry tried to save a “shattered” in Syria, two days after a lethal airstrike destroyed much of an aid convoy destined for Aleppo. He expressed frustration with Russia, which the U. S. holds accountable for the strike, and bluntly lashed out at the Syrian government. “How can people go sit at a table with a regime that bombs hospitals and drops chlorine gas again and again and again and again and again and again?” he said at a meeting of the U. N. Security Council. _____ 3. A notebook kept by the suspect in the weekend bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey includes a list of international terrorist leaders, suggesting that he was inspired by both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Above, an image from a Homeland Security video. And investigators are hunting for two men who happened upon a second bomb left in Chelsea on Saturday — and who walked off with the bag it was in, leaving the wrapped bomb behind. Some law enforcement officials said their jostling might have disabled the bomb, averting greater carnage. _____ 4. Only now is it becoming clear how seriously European terrorism investigations were damaged by a deliberately set fire at Belgium’s main forensic storehouse last month. The fire — set by three people who simply cut through a perimeter fence in the middle of the night — destroyed thousands of pieces of evidence critical to the prosecution of some suspects in the Paris and Brussels attacks, along with hundreds of other criminal and terrorism cases. _____ 5. In the presidential race, Hillary Clinton outlined both a plan to fight poverty (create jobs and affordable housing) and her vision of an “inclusive economy” that expands job options for Americans with disabilities. The unspoken undercurrent of that second plan: one of Donald Trump most unpopular moments, when he mocked a Times reporter who has a physical disability. _____ 6. Mr. Trump had a couple of stumbles in his attempts to raise his historically low support from voters. He urged a nationwide effort, saying the practice had worked well in New York. In fact, it was deeply controversial in New York and has been halted. And Mr. Trump’s appearance at a meeting of black pastors in Ohio suffered when Don King, the boxing promoter, shifted from “Negro” to a racial epithet in his introduction. _____ 7. “What once seemed impossible now appears inevitable. ” That was the U. N. secretary general, Ban announcing that the Paris climate agreement would almost certainly go into legal force this year after a remarkably rapid collection of commitments from signatory nations. Here is our full coverage of the United Nations General Assembly. _____ 8. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, set a high bar for philanthropy last year when they pledged to give 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charity. Their first major science initiative is, to say the least, ambitious. They are dedicating $3 billion to prevent, cure or manage all diseases by the end of the century. _____ 9. What do Basques, African pygmies, Sherpas and Cree Indians share? Apparently — along with the rest of us — origins in a single population that emerged from Africa between 50, 000 and 80, 000 years ago. Three teams of researchers who analyzed genomes from around the world have solved one of the most important mysteries of human history. “We know there were multiple dispersals out of Africa, but we can trace our ancestry back to a single one,” a genome expert said. _____ 10. There were also revelations from sometime around the first century A. D. Experts using a new computer imaging program were able to virtually unwrap a burned, fragile ancient scroll, revealing the earliest known example of the authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible. “We have never found something as striking as this,” an expert on the Dead Sea scrolls said. Above, a composite of the scroll. _____ 11. Whether Deflategate rises in importance to the level of history may be debated by New England Patriots fans. But rigorous science applies there, too. Researchers whose work led to Tom Brady’s suspension are finally talking about their careful tests and retests. “We knew this was going to get a lot of scrutiny, from your science classes to your physics professors,” one said. In the end, they failed to turn up any plausible reason outside of tampering for why the Patriots’ game balls were underinflated in a crucial game in January 2015. _____ 12. Finally, what are Finnish postal workers encouraged to do for patrons besides delivering mail: mow the lawn, tutor basic math and reading, share other patrons’ magazine or play charades? The question is not out of the blue — it’s from our international desk’s quiz in honor of its 100th What in the World feature. (The answer is “mow the lawn,” so you’re already one up!) _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Central African president pleads to U.N.: Don't forget us | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera, on Tuesday pleaded with the world to not forget his country and urged the U.N. to bolster its peace-keeping force amid growing violence that threatens to spin the country out of control. Thousands have died and a fifth of Central Africans have fled a conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka (anti-machete) militias. Although unrest has since subsided, fighting has spiked this year and the United Nations warned this month that ethnic fighting could descend again into a much larger conflict if combatants are not disarmed. Central Africa is at a critical moment in its history. We need the support of our friends; there are risks that we ll be forgotten, Touadera told a news conference ahead of a high-level meeting at the U.N. General Assembly. Violence has escalated since former colonial power France last year ended its peacekeeping mission in the country, which once had as many as 2,000 soldiers. France has grown concerned by events, although officials say Paris is unlikely to return to Central Africa unless the capital were under threat. The violence continues despite a peace deal signed between the government and rival factions in Rome last month and a 13,000-strong U.N. mission (MINUSCA), which will see its mandate renewed in November. The only force capable of ensuring security is the United Nations, Touadera said. The capacities of MINUSCA in terms of men and equipment have to be strengthened. National security forces are too weak to tackle a multitude of armed groups and counter the spillover from conflicts in neighboring countries. Diplomats have also said that Touadera does not have the political strength to impose central government rule. Touadera bemoaned the departure of France s Operation Sangaris, but also the withdrawal of about 2,000 American and Uganda forces that were fighting the Ugandan rebel group The Lord s Resistance Army and the withdrawal of MINUSCA s Congolese battalion in the west. All of this has created a vacuum that the MINUSCA must fill, he said. | 0fake |
TV Host Buys and Forgives $15m Worth of U.S. Medical Debt | 21st Century Wire says This latest stunt only goes to show what a complete rip-off the US healthcare industry truly is.This week, John Oliver, host of HBO s Last Week Tonight trumped media mogul and billionaire Oprah Winfrey by announcing he will forgive the medical debt of 9,000 people. Presently, the US healthcare industry has the world s highest and most inflated medical pricing on goods and services pushing millions of Americans into debt over health treatments which should not cost the same as a brand new Lexus SUV or Land Rover. Despite the hype, Obamacare did nothing to address this fundamental flaw in the US system. In fact, it made the situation worse, and has turned out to be absolute boon for the corporate insurance racket.If Obamacare was really all it was cracked up to be, then it would ve done en mass what John Oliver demonstrated on his show buying up medical debt at a merger one half cent on the dollar, and then putting that into cold storage. Instead, Obamacare only succeeded in RAISING the cost (and debt) of healthcare for individual payers.More on this story here Watch out, Oprah Winfrey. John Oliver, host of HBO s Last Week Tonight, outdid TV s biggest gift giver on Sunday when he forgave nearly $15m worth of medical debt on his show.Oliver s giveaway came at the end of a 20-minute segment on debt collectors. The segment focused on the bad actors in the industry, who buy debt from banks for cents on the dollar. These predatory collectors attempt to recoup the debt they purchased using threats and other aggressive tactics without first verifying the exact details of the debt. Once the company has bought your debt, whether the information is accurate or not, they are going to try to collect on it, Oliver explained on Sunday.Last Week Tonight spent about $50 to create a debt-acquisition company in Mississippi. The corporation s name is Central Asset Recovery Professionals Inc also known as Carp. According to Oliver, soon after its creation, Carp was offered a portfolio of medical debt worth $14,922,261.76 at a cost of less than half a cent on a dollar, which is less than $60,000 .( ) Thanks to this 5 June airing of the HBO comedy series, Last Week Tonight show with John Oliver, there are a lot more of us now privy to this collection industry practice and the debt treadmill it creates, said Craig Antico, co-founder of RIP Medical Debt. In a painfully hilarious (debt as funny? Somehow, yes) piece, John Oliver triumphantly out-Oprah s Oprah in giving away valuable gifts. Continue this story at The GuardianREAD MORE HEALTH NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Health Files | 1real |
U.S. sentencing reform backers cite success at state level | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the Senate’s top Republican mulls whether to push ahead on a criminal justice reform package, the bill’s advocates say its power to cut crime is on display in his own back yard. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, represents Kentucky, one of a handful of states that have had some success with sentencing reform and reducing violent crime. Violent crime rates are down nationwide since President Barack Obama’s first term, but states such as Kentucky have seen it fall more steeply than the national rate. Kentucky’s imprisonment rate also declined after it reduced sentences for certain drug offenders and passed a policy to release some prisoners to community supervision before the end of their sentences in 2011. The policy saved the state more than $29 million over two-and-a-half years, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a policy research group. McConnell could move forward in the Senate with a reform measure that would lower mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent federal drug offenders and permit judges to rehear cases with those new sentences in mind. It is backed by the Obama administration and a bipartisan group of 30 senators. The federal measure “has been informed by success stories” in states that have passed similar laws over the past decade, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told Reuters. “I’m confident that we would see similar results if Congress were to pass important reforms at the federal level,” she said. McConnell in January vowed to bring “everybody in the Republican Conference up to speed... before any decision is made about floor time” since the bill has so far been discussed mainly in the Senate Judiciary Committee. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said he had no new announcements on the bill’s prospects for advancement. Some Republicans oppose it, such as Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who says parts of the proposal applying to armed drug offenders would “release thousands of violent felons.” But sponsors of the Senate package cite state-level success in arguing for the federal reforms. “While I am excited about our federal prospects, the fact is that we could not have gotten to this point if it were not for the great reforms that Utah and other ‘red’ states around the country are enacting,” Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee told Reuters, referring to states that predominantly support the Republican Party. Thirty states reduced crime and imprisonment rates simultaneously between 2009 and 2014, Pew said, with 18 of those states’ crime rates falling faster than the national rate. Utah last year lowered penalties for certain drug offenses. It also restricted prison beds to only the most serious offenders through a law the state expects to nearly flatline prison growth over the next 20 years and save $542 million. The U.S. Sentencing Commission estimates more than 12,000 prisoners - about six percent of the federal prison population - would be eligible to have their cases reheard under the Senate bill. A parallel package of bills in the House of Representatives also awaits a floor vote. Earlier this month, Justice Action Network hired McConnell’s former chief of staff, Hunter Bates, to lobby for the bill. Bates told Reuters that McConnell is “not quite ready” to advance the bill yet, but that it is on a “short list” of bills that have a shot at becoming law in 2016. | 0fake |
Washington Post Anti-Trump Scare Tactics | Dispatches from STEPHEN LENDMAN A s the moment of truth approaches, America’s two leading broadsheets, the NYT and WaPo, continue relentlessly bashing Trump, shamelessly supporting a woman belonging in prison, not high office. A same day article discussed The Times’ latest anti-Trump broadside. WaPo featured two editorials hammering him, following so many others earlier, disgracefully accusing him of everything imaginable, while practically elevating Hillary to sainthood by comparison. “Will Republicans respect democracy,” WaPo editors asked? How can anyone knowledgeable about how America is run respect what’s nonexistent, not earlier or now? “The big question after Tuesday’s election…will be whether the nation’s leaders act to preserve our republic – or hasten a descent toward a banana republic,” said WaPo editors. They failed to explain US governance resembles the way a crime family operates – a godfather (or godmother) atop the hierarchy, serving privileged interests exclusively. .. The “first priority (for the nation’s leadership) must be preserving and restoring the country’s democratic institutions…” WaPo editors claimed. How can it when none exist? America is a rogue state, run by its lunatic fringe, neocon extremists, waging endless wars of aggression, punishing ordinary people with neoliberal harshness, enforcing police state viciousness on resisters, a hair’s breadth from instituting full-blown tyranny – likely coming with Hillary in charge. .. WaPo editors are terrified about how multiple investigations of her wrongdoing might turn out – heading toward possibly indicting and impeaching her, ludicrously claiming: .. “There is no substantiated charge against Ms. Clinton that would warrant impeachment, or even talk of impeachment. Despite suggestions otherwise, there is also no imminent indictment against the Democratic nominee, or any available evidence suggesting that indictment is a realistic possibility… Instead, what the nation has seen over the closing days of this campaign is a party preparing to (mis)use extraordinary congressional powers for despicable political ends.”
Fact: Volumes of evidence show Hillary guilty of war crimes, orchestrating coups, other international and constitutional law violations, racketeering, perjury, obstruction of justice, fraud, influence-selling pay-for-play, and jeopardizing national security by using her private server for classified State Department documents – enough to lock anyone up for life.
Separately, WaPo editors said “Trump’s election would be a major threat to the economy” – a way over-the-top unjustifiable claim, saying: .. His “election would be a major new source of instability here and abroad…Suddenly, a man with a deep-seated hostility to, and incomprehension of, markets would be at the helm of the world’s preeminent market economy.” A billionaire business tycoon with no comprehension of markets? No one could become super-rich without a keen understanding of how they work – so what irks WaPo editors? .. They support jobs-killing trade deals like NAFTA and TPP. Trump’s justifiable opposition riles them. They’re angry because he’s right accusing the (Wall-Street controlled) Fed of keeping interest rates near zero for political reasons, along with government agencies fudging economic data like GDP, monthly jobs numbers and inflation, among others – to make economic conditions look rosier than reality. .. Trump “failed to level with the public about the challenges before us, to provide a plausible sense of how he would improve things – or to demonstrate much of anything except the risks of entrusting him with management of an $18 trillion economy,” WaPo editors claimed. Agree or disagree with him, he presented a clearer agenda than Hillary – time and again proving she’s a serial liar, dishonest, untrustworthy, ruthless and dangerous. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS • CONTINUE THE DEBATE ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE. CLICK HERE . ABOUT THE AUTHOR STEPHEN LENDMAN lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net . His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” ( http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html ) Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com . =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN. SIGN UP AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 1real |
NEWT GINGRICH Slams DOJ’s Sessions: “It’s time for the Attorney General to step up to the plate and do his job.” [Video] | A cesspool of corruption Newt Gingrich calls out Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He says it s time for Sessions to step up to the plate. We couldn t agree more!THE LATEST DIRT TO COME OUT ON THE FBI:Sean Hannity interviewed Greg Jarrett, Judicial Watch s Tom Fitton and the amazing Sara Carter last night it was fireworks on what s being exposed:Sara Carter speaks up at the 3:30 point but the entire video is well worth watching:We were told yesterday that the fix was in In so many ways, this is beyond corrupt and is blatant criminality by the intel agencies, Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.It s worse than you even know Tom Fitton THE FIX WAS IN Watered Down Document Clears Clinton:The interview below is pretty much what we all knew but now it s out in the open. Notice how Senator Johnson calls on the DOJ to act:Senator Ron Johnson told Tucker Carlson tonight that the corruption in the intel agencies is much worse that we thought. He believes that the entire investigation into Hillary s emails was a sham used to protect her and not investigate her. He says the same cast of characters is being used to investigate Trump scary stuff!Fox News reports:WASHINGTON Newly released documents obtained by Fox News reveal that then-FBI Director James Comey s draft statement on the Hillary Clinton email probe was edited numerous times before his public announcement, in ways that seemed to water down the bureau s findings considerably.Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to the FBI on Thursday that shows the multiple edits to Comey s highly scrutinized statement.In an early draft, Comey said it was reasonably likely that hostile actors gained access to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton s private email account. That was changed later to say the scenario was merely possible. Another edit showed language was changed to describe the actions of Clinton and her colleagues as extremely careless as opposed to grossly negligent. This is a key legal distinction.Johnson, writing about his concerns in a letter Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, said the original could be read as a finding of criminality in Secretary Clinton s handling of classified material. CLINTON AND ABEDIN STRIKE A DEAL TO TAKE DOCUMENTS: Here s yet another reason to be very suspicious of the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton:Via Free Beacon: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton struck a deal with the State Department while serving in the Obama administration that allowed her to take ownership of records she did not want made public, according to recently released reports.Clinton and her then-deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin were permitted to remove electronic and physical records under a claim they were personal materials and unclassified, non-record materials. Judicial Watch made the revelation after filing a FOIA request with the State Department and obtaining a record of the agreement:The newly released documents show the deal allowed Clinton and Abedin to remove documents related to particular calls and schedules, and the records would not be released to the general public under FOIA. Abedin, for instance, was allowed to remove electronic records and five boxes of physical files, including files labeled Muslim Engagement Documents. The released records included a list of designated materials that would not be released to the general public under FOIA and were to be released to the Secretary with this understanding. Electronic copy of daily files which are word versions of public documents and non-records: speeches/press statements/photos from the website, a non-record copy of the schedule, a non record copy of the call log, press clips, and agenda of daily activitiesElectronic copy of a log of calls the Secretary made since 2004, it is a non-record, since her official calls are logged elsewhere (official schedule and official call log)Electronic copy of the Secretary s call grid which is a running list of calls she wants to make (both personal and official)16 boxes: Personal Schedules (1993 thru 2008-prior to the Secretary s tenure at the Department of State.29 boxes: Miscellaneous Public Schedules during her tenure as FLOTUS and Senator-prior to the Secretary s tenure at the Department of State1 box: Personal Reimbursable receipts (6/25/2009 thru 1/14/2013)1 box: Personal Photos1 box: Personal schedule (2009-2013) STICKY FINGERS CLINTON:A physical file of the log of the Secretary s gifts with pictures of gifts was also handed over to Clinton. Gifts received by government employees is highly regulated, and often strictly limited. However, gifts that are motivated by a family relationship or personal friendship may be accepted without limitation. | 1real |
MSF says closing most cholera centers in Yemen as epidemic wanes | GENEVA (Reuters) - The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is closing most of its 37 cholera treatment centers in Yemen, saying the epidemic appears to have peaked. Some 884,368 suspected cholera cases have been recorded in the war-torn country in the past six months, including 2,184 deaths, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). The case fatality rate is now 0.25 percent. The number of cholera cases reported in MSF treatment centers has significantly decreased since the peak of the outbreak. As a result, the medical organization is closing the majority of its cholera treatment centers or reducing their capacity, MSF said in a statement late on Monday. Some 567 new patients sought treatment for suspected cholera at MSF s centers in nine governorates of Yemen during the second week of October, down from 11,139 at the peak in the third week in June, it said. Only 9 percent of patients admitted by MSF last week needed to be hospitalized and a limited number of patients have symptoms that correspond with the cholera case definition (acute watery diarrhea with or without vomiting), it said. The remaining cases are believed to be due to other pathogens. Ghassan Abou Chaar, MSF head of mission in Yemen, said: The cholera outbreak is not over but it is no longer our medical priority in Yemen. However, this should not eclipse the dire health situation of millions of Yemenis who are unable to access basic primary healthcare. Civil war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people since it began in March 2015. Yemen s war pits the armed Houthi movement that controls the capital against the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition that has launched thousands of air strikes to restore him to power. Cholera epidemics usually subside once the disease passes through a population, but aid agencies say the Yemen epidemic lasted longer and spread wider than they initially expected because of the war s toll on health care. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said on Sunday that an aid effort by the World Health Organization, United Nations Children s Fund UNICEF, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and other agencies had managed to largely contain the devastating cholera epidemic , but warned it could flare up again without urgent investment in health, water and sanitation. ICRC said last month that the humanitarian situation in Yemen is a catastrophe , and cholera cases could reach a million by the end of the year. Alexandre Faite, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said at the time that the health sector is really on its knees in Yemen ... the health staff is on its knees as well because they are not paid. Preventable illnesses and deaths are increasing in Yemen, and this can be partly attributed to the salary crisis, MSF said, noting that doctors, nurses and other public health workers had not been paid in 13 months. | 0fake |
MEGYN KELLY SETS A CONFUSED LIBERAL STRAIGHT ON FREE SPEECH | 1real | |
'No rules': Russian activist's death a symbol of pre-election violence | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian opposition activist Ivan Skripnichenko died after being attacked by a man angry he opposed Vladimir Putin. Over a month later, nobody has been arrested, his family can t see his autopsy, and authorities say he probably died of heart disease. The assault on the 36-year-old father-of-two is one of a growing number of vicious attacks on opposition figures in the run-up to a presidential election in March which Putin, the incumbent, is widely expected to contest. Most activists do not believe that Putin or the Kremlin have a hand in the attacks, which have included caustic liquid being thrown in a victim s eyes, a car being set alight, and, in one case, an activist being bashed over the head with an iron bar. But critics say the way the authorities have handled the cases - it s rare for anyone to be arrested and a nationalist group which says its carries out such attacks openly boasts about its activities - shows that they are at best turning a blind eye, and at worst tacitly condoning the violence. Yulia Latynina, a journalist critical of the authorities, was forced to flee Russia this summer after having faeces thrown at her, her car torched, and noxious gas pumped into her home. For her, Skripnichenko s death is part of a dangerous trend, and she has accused the authorities of losing control of the violent extremists responsible. When you splash antiseptic in people s faces, pour shit over people, beat up activists, puncture their tires, or burn something, sooner or later someone will be burned alive or die in a fight, Latynina said on her own radio show. And that s murder. According to Skripnichenko s family, an unidentified man accosted him late on Aug. 15 as he stood by a makeshift memorial to slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on a Kremlin bridge, a rallying point for government critics. Nemtsov had been shot dead on the same spot in 2015 by a Chechen gunman in one of modern Russia s most high-profile killings. Don t you love Putin? the man asked Skripnichenko. Is Putin a girl that I should love him? the activist parried. The man knocked Skripnichenko s cap to the ground, and, as his victim rose after picking it up, punched him hard in the face, breaking his nose. Skripnichenko hit his head on the pavement as he fell. His attacker then kicked him as he lay prone. Mikhail Silich, an activist who was with Skripnichenko at the time of the attack, confirmed the family s account. After the attack, Skripnichenko left hospital and told other activists he thought he would be OK. His family say he went to a different hospital a week later to get his nose reset, and began to feel unwell in the canteen. When he didn t come home that day, they phoned the next morning to be told he had died. His family and activists say the authorities are not investigating his death properly. Investigators have neither identified nor arrested Skripnichenko s attacker, have not opened a criminal case, and the dead man s family say they can t obtain his autopsy report. Citing procedure, Moscow s Investigative Committee, which is handling the matter, told Skripnichenko s widow Olga that she would need to wait 40 days to get such a report. The committee did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on progress in the case. Despite the attack taking place in sight of the Kremlin s walls on the same spot where Nemtsov was gunned down two and a half years earlier, investigators say there is no CCTV footage. Ilya Novikov, the family lawyer, says that s hard to believe. The cause of death is in question too. Investigators preliminary conclusion was that he had died of heart disease. Skripnichenko s sister Nastya says doctors who examined her brother said he did not appear to have suffered serious head wounds. Yet she is skeptical he died of heart problems and suspects the attack triggered problems that took time to unfold. My brother never complained about heart problems, she told Reuters, saying doctors had given him a clean bill of health in a check-up as recently as this spring. My brother was into cross-country skiing, flew a glider, did parachute jumps, and cycled at a semi-professional level. I absolutely link my brother s death with the attack. Russia s liberal opposition has no seats in parliament and scant hope of mounting a serious challenge to Putin next year, though Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader who doesn t fit the traditional liberal mould, is trying to make a run. But in a country under Western sanctions because of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine s Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, pro-Kremlin politicians often cast anyone critical of the authorities as the enemy within . Critics say such rhetoric is fuelling attacks against the opposition and that those who carry them out feel a sense of impunity because they are rarely punished. Navalny became temporarily blind in one eye in April after having caustic liquid thrown at him. Soon afterwards, a pro-government TV channel broadcast footage of Navalny s attacker running away from the scene, but blurred out his face. Opposition activists identified the man as a member of a radical group; investigators said there was not enough evidence for a prosecution. In another incident, Nikolai Lyaskin, a Navalny ally, was hit over the head with an iron bar in Moscow last month, an assault Navalny said was designed to turn him into an invalid. Police detained a suspect and opened a criminal case, but they then issued a statement saying the suspect had told them that Lyaskin, the victim, had paid his assailant to stage an attack on him. Police released the suspect after 48 hours on conditions which were not disclosed. The spot where Skripnichenko was attacked is a favorite target for nationalists who dislike the makeshift shrine there to Nemtsov. For them, the former deputy prime minister turned Putin critic is a pro-Western traitor. They have sometimes trashed his shrine and picked fights with its defenders. SERB, a radical nationalist group, has vandalized the memorial several times. At an apartment block in Moscow where Nemtsov once lived, SERB s leader Igor Beketov tore off a plaque that activists had hung honoring Nemtsov. A state TV report about the incident complained the opposition was using Nemtsov s name for various purposes and gave Beketov air time to explain his grievances. Outside the apartment block, Skripnichenko family lawyer Novikov became embroiled in a fist fight with Beketov after SERB members ripped up a photo of Nemtsov. SERB pelts its targets with faeces, antiseptic and urine. It has smashed cake into Navalny s face, but denies the caustic liquid attack. It has also hinted it threw faeces at Latynina. Tamara Lugovykh, an activist who knew Skripnichenko, said she fears the authorities will do everything not to link his death to politics. In interviews with Reuters, seven activists said the attack chimed with the regular intimidation they face. They saw parallels with the investigation into Nemtsov s murder, which convicted a group of Chechens but failed to identify who ordered the killing and why. Real blood has been spilled on the same spot a few meters apart, said activist Andrei Margulev. At the bridge shrine, a portrait of Skripnichenko is now on display next to that of Nemtsov. Ivan had plans to have children with his wife, Sergei Kireyev, an activist who knew him, said. But anything can happen on the bridge. There are no rules. | 0fake |
FOX Business Network Mocks Hillary at West Palm Beach Rally: "Plenty of Space" (VIDEO) | Report Copyright Violation FOX Business Network Mocks Hillary at West Palm Beach Rally: "Plenty of Space" (VIDEO) The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson | 1real |
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