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Trespassing in Christina’s World - The New York Times | At the steering wheel my father consults his large paper map, turning it this way and that, squinting at the small blue lines that squiggle through tiny Maine coastal towns. He’s heard that the author E. B. White’s house is somewhere around here, and he’s determined to find it. My mother, next to him in the passenger seat of our rusty gold station wagon with my baby sister on her lap, raises her eyebrows at my other two sisters and me, in the second row. It’s the early 70s, and seatbelts haven’t caught on yet. We gaze back at her, knowing that once Dad gets an idea into his head, it’s almost impossible to stop him. We range in age from 1 to 10 (I’m the oldest) and all of us are literally and figuratively along for the ride. Besides, we’re excited at the prospect of meeting this author we already feel we know. We’ve been lulled to sleep every night by the soft cadence of my dad’s Southern accent as he reads us stories about a wise spider and a hapless pig, a resourceful mouse and a mute swan. Dad pulls off the road into the dusty parking lot of a country store with a lone gas pump, and gets out of the car. We hear him chatting with the attendant through the open window. “Sure is nice around here. ” The guy shrugs. My sisters and I glance at each other. Rural Mainers tend to be and averse. But as usual, Dad doesn’t seem to notice. “You lived here long?” “Ayuh. ” Amazingly, before long, and with only a little coaxing, the attendant is telling Dad about his grandkids and his lobster boat and pointing off into the distance, giving him the intel he’s come for. “Mr. White lives right over that hill there. Privet hedge in front. Can’t miss it. ” Back on the road, my sister Cynthia ventures, “Isn’t it rude to show up on someone’s doorstep without asking?” Dad grins and winks at us in the rearview mirror. “He’ll be flattered. ” We pull up to the farmhouse to find a courtly man trimming the hedge with a set of clippers. “It’s him!” Dad whispers. He rolls down his window and leans out. “Hello, good sir!” The man seems a little nonplused. “I have a car full of young readers here who’d give anything to meet their favorite author. A word from you, and they’ll remember this moment for the rest of their lives. ” What choice does the poor man have? Within a few minutes, the famously reclusive E. B. White is demonstrating to a cluster of little girls in bathing suits that when you crush pine needles between your fingers and hold it to your nose, the smell is as strong as patchouli. And Dad is right — we never will forget it. My childhood was rife with moments like this. Dad was always going out on a limb, befriending people who didn’t necessarily seem to want new friends, trespassing on private property, pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior in quest of adventure. His philosophy was that you don’t need money or plans, only a willingness to be present in the moment and to go where inspiration takes you. If you don’t, you’ll miss the entire point of being alive. Raised dirt poor in rural Georgia by a millworker mother and a father who often went to the bar rather than home after work, Dad learned early on that his quickest route up the social ladder was through charm and smarts. He got himself to college — the first in his family — on a football scholarship, then used seminary to springboard to a doctorate in a foreign land. As a young academic in the ‘60s, he grew to reject traditional values and had scant respect for the social codes of privilege. At parties, he could often be found talking to the bartender or a Irish grandmother in the kitchen rather than the hosts. A Southerner through and through, even after moving to Maine, he was constitutionally incapable of walking down a street in New York without stopping to chat with doormen, bodega owners and homeless people. He never met a taxi driver whose story he didn’t want to know. Dad’s unorthodox and sometimes embarrassing friendliness got him, and us, into trouble now and then. Some people didn’t take kindly to probing questions. Others found his openness suspect or unsophisticated. But his innate, bottomless curiosity about the world also taught his four daughters to be open to new experiences and comfortable with improvisation. Even now, in his late 70s, he lives each day with a kind of purposeful recklessness, asking provocative questions and seeking new experiences in the belief that he can break through to something better, more meaningful, more satisfying. Though my parents had little money, they took us on adventures all over the world. Driving through Scotland in a rainstorm, we pulled over to the side of the road and rode the wild ponies grazing by the fence. We coaxed a stray lamb over to our rented R. V. to feed it. One year my father switched houses, cars, teaching jobs, committees and pets with a professor in Melbourne, Australia, sight unseen. Another year our family of six flew to Crete without a plan at the airport Dad bought a map and started asking random strangers, with the help of a woefully inadequate Greek phrase book: “What should we do?” “Where should we stay?” This spontaneity meant that we missed flights, lost luggage, drove on perilous roads late at night, stayed in some hovels, and sometimes went hungry. But it also yielded beautiful surprises: an undiscovered beach, a fisherman’s hut with a breathtaking view, a hillside breakfast of goats’ milk yogurt and fresh honey that I still remember 35 years later. It led to his daughters’ sense of the world not as a huge frightening place but as a wonderland ripe for discovery. The Maine farmhouse in Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting “Christina’s World” was not yet a museum or even open to the public when my father got it into his head — soon after our ambush of E. B. White — to take a family field trip there. Following his usual routine, he pulled into the small village of Cushing and asked a local how to find the Olson house. When we arrived (no doubt trespassing) we picnicked in the field where the woman in the pink dress in the painting had lain. Looking up at that weathered gray house on the hill, and hearing the story of the woman with my name who spent her lifetime there, I was entranced. Years later, I drew on that experience to tell my own story of the painting in my new book. There’s no doubt that my dad’s endless curiosity has shaped who I am. I often find myself — to my own kids’ embarrassment — chatting with strangers in lines, accepting spontaneous invitations, and seeking adventures. I think the most important thing I learned from my dad is that when you go out on a limb there’s a risk it will break, but you’ll get a whole new perspective on the world. And if you’re really lucky, it can feel like flying. | 0fake |
Muslims Are Kidnapping White Girls And Forcing Them Into Sex Slavery, Says UK Children's Charity | Print
Islam and sex slavery are like peanut butter and jelly - you always find the one next to the other. Muslims kidnapping vulnerable white girls in the UK and forcing them to be sex slaves has reached an epidemic level, according to a recent report from the UK Charity Barnados. They say that Muslims are setting up fake businesses, primarily car washes, when, in reality, they are brothels and transit houses for these kidnapped girls:
Barnardo’s claims girls are being ferried from one unit to another as sex slaves for Kurds[s].
It suggests white British girls on the run from the care system in Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough are being targeted.
The report said: “There were connections between people that work in car washes and the sexual exploitation of children on Teesside.
…
Officers on the immigration-led operation found beds at one. It was suggested staff were living on the premises.
Cleveland Police said: “It was not confirmed that child sexual exploitation had taken place although enquiries were conducted.” ( source )
This is a sad and sickening picture of what the UK has become. Once one of the safest places in the West, it has allowed itself to become little more than a third-world cesspool, where its own women are being sold like slaves in the Muslim bazaars of old, and the government refuses to do its job to stop it, instead allowing it to continue and trying to stop those who want to put a stop to it.
Article reposted with permission from Shoebat.com
*Article by Andrew Bieszad | 1real |
King Rufus Found Buried Under Parking Lot Near Beaulieu Motor Museum | Saturday, 29 October 2016 Another clue was an arrow in the lung area.
King William II Rufus was the son of William the Conqueror and King of England from 1087 to 1100. Described as uncouth, barbaric, lacking both morals and ethics, addicted to vice, and definitely not the most popular king, he was killed by an arrow to the lungs-probably shot by one of his own men.
Although his body was left where it lay when he was shot in the New Forest, it was said it was later removed to Winchester Cathedral. From there, the bones were scattered around during the English Civil War and later put in a giant mortuary chest along with Kings Egbert, Ethelwulfe, and others.
But the body of King William II Rufus was actually identified at the Motor City Museum, which is near the New Forest area where King Rufus was shot. Apparently, the king was so popular that they just dug a shallow grave in the New Forest area and tossed him in.
The grave was discovered when the museum was breaking ground in its parking lot for a new area to display its 1895 Knight auto. The workers came upon some bones (apparently the citizens who buried King Rufus didn't bother with a coffin) and sent them to the British Museum for identification.
Since the royal Norman DNA was on file, it was determined to be Rufus from process of elimination. And someone had carved "Rufus" on the femur. Make Al N.'s day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 1real |
White House proposes reviving Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House’s 2018 budget plan for the U.S. Department of Energy includes $120 million for nuclear waste programs including the restart of licensing for Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a project stalled for years by lawsuits and local opposition. The move signals that President Donald Trump may consider that nuclear waste solutions could extend the lives of existing U.S. nuclear power plants and speed up innovations in next- generation nuclear plants that backers say are safer than previous reactors. Congress will debate the budget and it is uncertain whether funds for waste will remain in the plan. While Yucca Mountain would store waste on a practically permanent basis, the budget money would also support programs for storing waste at interim sites before Yucca opens. “These investments would accelerate progress on fulfilling the federal government’s obligations to address nuclear waste, enhance national security, and reduce future taxpayer burden,” according to a summary of the budget. Yucca has been studied by the U.S. government since the 1970s as a potential repository for the nation’s radioactive waste and billions of dollars have been spent on it. But Yucca has never opened because of legal challenges and widespread opposition from local politicians, environmentalists and Native American groups. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama withdrew the license to store waste at Yucca amid opposition from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a fellow Democrat from Nevada. Maria Korsnick, the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute industry group, said the industry was encouraged by the plan for waste projects but that nuclear energy innovators were “nervous” about cuts to programs that have supported public-private partnerships to bring new nuclear technologies to market. The budget eliminates funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy and an innovative technology loan guarantee program that have been popular with both Democrats and many Republicans. Trump’s energy secretary, Rick Perry, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that restarting the Yucca Mountain project could not be ruled out, but that he would collaborate with states. “I am very aware that this is an issue this country has been flummoxed by for 30 years. We have spent billions of dollars on this issue,” Perry told the hearing in January. “I’ll work closely with you and the members of this committee to find the answers to this issue.” The White House proposal for the Department of Energy budget calls for an overall cut of 5.6 percent. | 0fake |
Martin Luther King's daughter says 'God can triumph over Trump' | ATLANTA/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Martin Luther King’s daughter said on Monday that “God can triumph over Trump,” but the slain civil rights leader’s son struck a conciliatory tone after meeting with the president-elect on the U.S. holiday that honors their father. The comments by the children of King, who championed racial justice until he was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39, punctuated an imbroglio involving Donald Trump and African-American congressman John Lewis that broke out over the weekend. The dispute started when Lewis, 76, a contemporary of King’s who endured beatings and jail time in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said in a televised interview that he saw Trump’s election as illegitimate because of Russian interference in the campaign. That drew a scornful response from Trump. Bernice King, King’s youngest daughter, told a gathering at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta not to give up hope and “Don’t be afraid of who sits in the White House.” “God can triumph over Trump,” she said, drawing a standing ovation, one of several times she was interrupted by thunderous applause. The service at the church where King once preached takes place every year on Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday honoring his life. This year the holiday fell days before Barack Obama ends his second term as the country’s first African-American president. Trump takes the oath of office as his successor on Friday. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spent part of their last MLK Day in office helping paint a mural in the “community room” of a Washington shelter, to which they donated a play set used by their daughters when they arrived at the White House in 2009. Trump, who won only 8 percent of the black vote, offered praise for King in a Twitter post on Monday, a few hours before meeting King’s oldest son, Martin Luther King III, at his Trump Tower offices in New York. “Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and all of the many wonderful things that he stood for. Honor him for being the great man that he was!” Trump tweeted. Trump and King III emerged from an elevator together, shaking hands. Trump said goodbye to King, then returned to the elevator without answering questions. King said they had a constructive meeting to discuss how to improve the U.S. voting system, which King considers broken, but he skirted questions about whether he was offended by Trump’s comments on Lewis. “First of all I think that in the heat of emotion a lot of things get said on both sides. I think at some point I bridge-build. The goal is to bring America together,” King told reporters. Lewis did not mention Trump in a speech in Miami about the civil rights struggle to honor King, who would have turned 88 on Sunday, but he urged young black Americans to consider voting a “sacred” act. “We all must become participants in the democratic process. When you get old enough to register to vote, go and register and vote,” Lewis said in a half-hour address. Gunfire during Miami holiday festivities wounded eight people ages 11 to 30 at Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Park, police said. Two people were detained and two weapons seized, and the cause of the shooting is under investigation. The Trump-Lewis exchange began when Lewis told NBC News in segments of an interview released on Friday that he would not attend Trump’s inauguration in part because “I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.” He referred to the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia used hacking and other methods to try to help Trump, a Republican, defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election. Trump was withering in his response the following day, saying in tweets that Lewis, a revered figure who risked his life for civil rights, was “All talk, talk, talk - no action or results.” While many Democrats and Republicans said they disagreed with Lewis, they also questioned Trump’s decision to denigrate an African-American political leader of Lewis’ stature, especially over the Martin Luther King Jr weekend. Civil rights leaders have also opposed Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after allegations that he was racist and harbored sympathies toward the Ku Klux Klan, a violent white supremacist organization. The Senate Judiciary Committee has received letters from 400 civil rights organizations opposing his confirmation to the country’s top law enforcement post, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has said. Sessions strongly denied that he is a racist during his confirmation hearing in the Senate last week. (This story corrects senator’s name in final paragraph to ‘Feinstein’.) | 0fake |
U.S. Warns North Carolina That Transgender Bill Violates Civil Rights Laws - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The Justice Department warned the State of North Carolina on Wednesday that its new law limiting bathroom access violated the civil rights of transgender people, a finding that could mean millions of dollars in lost federal funds. In a letter to Gov. Pat McCrory, Vanita Gupta, the top civil rights lawyer for the Justice Department, said that “both you and the State of North Carolina” were in violation of civil rights law, and gave him until Monday to decide “whether you will remedy these violations. ” A Justice Department official said that federal officials hoped that the state would agree to comply voluntarily with federal civil rights law by abandoning the measure. But the department has a number of tools it can use to try to force compliance, including denying federal funds or asking a court to do so, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The ultimatum escalated a contentious national debate over North Carolina’s new legal stance on transgender and gay people, and set up what could be a lengthy showdown between the state and the Obama administration. In a statement, Mr. McCrory, a Republican, said: “The right and expectation of privacy in one of the most private areas of our personal lives is now in jeopardy. We will be reviewing to determine the next steps. ” Phil Berger, the president pro tempore of the State Senate, accused the Justice Department of “a gross overreach” that he said “deserves to be struck down in federal court. ” Tim Moore, the speaker of the House, called the letter an attempt to “circumvent the will of the electorate and instead unilaterally exert its extreme agenda. ” The state measure, House Bill 2, known as HB2, was signed into law in March and says the bathroom a person uses is determined by his or her biological gender at birth. That requirement “is facially discriminatory against transgender employees” because it treats them differently from other employees, Ms. Gupta wrote. As a result, “we have concluded that in violation of Title VII, the state is engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of Title VII right by employees of public agencies,” she said. The letter was first reported by The Charlotte Observer. The law has become an issue in the presidential campaign and has prompted boycotts of North Carolina from celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, as well as calls for repeal by a number of businesses, some of which have canceled plans to create new jobs in the state. Opponents cheered the Justice Department’s move. “I think it makes clear what we’ve known all along, which is that HB2 is deeply discriminatory and violates civil rights law in all kinds of manners,” said State Representative Chris Sgro of Greensboro. Matt McTighe, executive director of Freedom for All Americans, an L. G. B. T. rights group, said in a statement Wednesday that “actions have consequences, and Governor McCrory and his legislative allies are now paying the price for this law that they so hurriedly enacted. “HB2 is a solution in a search of a problem that simply doesn’t exist, and lawmakers must take immediate action to fully repeal it,” he said. “The state’s economy and reputation have suffered enough, and now students all across the state stand to lose out on nearly $1 billion in critical funding because of HB2. The livelihoods of North Carolina’s families are at stake, and there is no excuse for inaction. ” In December 2014, the attorney general at the time, Eric H. Holder Jr. directed the Justice Department to begin including gender identity — including transgender status — as a basis for discrimination claims under federal civil rights law. That decision reversed a policy at the Justice Department that specifically excluded transgender people from federal protection. Mr. Holder called the decision “an important shift,” meant to affirm the Justice Department’s commitment “to protecting the civil rights of all Americans. ” In addition, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission held last year that “equal access to restrooms is a significant, basic condition of employment” and that denying access to transgender individuals was discriminatory, Ms. Gupta noted, in her letter to Mr. McCrory. The Justice Department’s threat was not the only front opened Wednesday in the battle over transgender bathroom rights. In Illinois, a group calling itself Students and Parents for Privacy filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, the Justice Department, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and the school directors of Township High School District 211 in Cook County, Ill. seeking to stop the district from “forcing to girls to use locker rooms and restrooms with biological males. ” In November, federal education authorities ruled that the school district, near Chicago, violated Title IX, the federal law that forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in public education, when it did not allow a transgender student who said she identifies as a girl to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions. The fact that the student, who is biologically male, now uses the bathroom and locker rooms at William Fremd High School, the lawsuit states, creates an “intimidating and hostile environment” for girls, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. The suit also asks the court to set aside a Department of Education rule in which transgender students are covered under Title IX. Meanwhile, in Oxford, Ala. the City Council on Wednesday rescinded an ordinance it had passed the week before that forbade people to use a public restroom that did not match their gender at birth, according to the Alabama news website al. com. The news service reported that at least one of the three members who voted to rescind the ordinance in the vote was influenced by a city attorney’s opinion that the ordinance might be illegal under Title IX. | 0fake |
WATCH: ‘The View’ TRASHES Trump For Barring American Press From Covering Meeting With Russian Officials | Donald Trump s decision to choose Russian state media over American journalists has drawn the ire of the ladies on The View. On Wednesday, just one day after firing FBI Director James Comey as the agency continues to investigate his Russia scandal, Trump took a meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Kislyak is the Russian official whom Michael Flynn spoke to during the transition, an action that raised further concerns about Trump s ties to Russia and Vladimir Putin.And raised even more concerns by letting Russian state media attend the meeting complete with all of their equipment, while banning the free press in the United States from attending.The decision especially concerns former CIA deputy director David Cohen.After Vice-President Joe Biden s former national security adviser posed a deadly serious question about whether it was smart of Trump to allow Russian state media and their equipment in the Oval Office, Cohen replied.@ColinKahl No, it was not. David S. Cohen (@cohendavid) May 10, 2017Kahl went to explain that he wasn t even allowed to bring his phone into the Oval Office, nor was he allowed to let foreign delegations bring cameras in that room. But Trump let Putin s propaganda machine do it.This infuriated Joy Behar so much that she ripped Trump a new one on Thursday, calling his actions treasonous and un-American. He s speaking to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador Kislyak who s the one who Michael Flynn got fired for talking to, Behar said. And in the room, here s Trump talking to the Russians and the Russian press is there covering, and guess who s missing from the room? The American press. They were barred from the room. This is treason to me. This is un-American, it s unpatriotic. Americans should be furious. Here s the video via YouTube:Indeed, Americans should also be worried. Trump may have just compromised national security by letting Putin s propaganda network inside the Oval Office. The threat of listening devices and cameras being covertly placed inside the Oval Office is a very real threat. This is where the president often meets with foreign officials, staffers, members of Congress, and military leaders.Inviting a Russian state media crew into the Oval Office is irresponsible. Trump s refusal to let American media cover the meeting is flagrantly outrageous because Trump chose Putin s propaganda machine over the American free press. It s suspicious and makes one wonder what Trump wanted to hide from the American people.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
House Speaker Ryan on Pence: 'No better choice' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan welcomed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s choice of Mike Pence as a running mate on Friday, saying the Indiana governor comes from “the heart of the conservative movement.” “I can think of no better choice for our vice-presidential candidate. We need someone who is steady and secure in his principles, someone who can cut through the noise and make a compelling case for conservatism. Mike Pence is that man,” Ryan said in a statement. | 0fake |
Ukraine's Tymoshenko expects fair U.S. ruling after Manafort indicted | KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said on Wednesday she has faith in the United States justice system to do the right thing after last week s indictment of Paul Manafort, the man who helped bring her arch enemy to power. A political survivor and the strident voice of Ukraine s 2004/2005 Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko was jailed during the pro-Kremlin presidency of Viktor Yanukovich in 2011 in a case condemned by Western leaders as selective justice. According to the indictment of Manafort, who was a consultant to Yanukovich s Party of Regions before becoming Donald Trump s campaign manager, Manafort used offshore accounts to secretly pay $4 million for a report on her imprisonment. Ordered under house arrest as he awaits trial, Manafort has pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment on charges that include money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent of Yanukovich s government. Money laundering allegations against Manafort are not new: Tymoshenko herself made them in a legal case she filed in New York against Yanukovich, Manafort and others that was dismissed in September 2015. As a result of the work of Yanukovich and his circle, I ended up in prison, the 56-year-old Tymoshenko said in an interview, in her first public comments about Manafort since his indictment. She said Yanukovich spent huge sums to blacken her name, ... without doubt this affected my life and that of my family and team in a certain way, and Ukraine as well, she said. That is why I believe that U.S. justice will deal with the details, including our claims, and we will get a ruling from one of the most effective legal systems in the world - the U.S. system. Manafort joined the Trump presidential campaign in March 2016 and later became campaign manager, but he was forced to resign in August as questions emerged about his previous work for Yanukovich s party. She used her fiery brand of oratory to try to humiliate Yanukovich, but he proved her nemesis after beating her in a 2010 election for president. She was charged with abuse of power in relation to a gas import agreement signed with Russia in 2009 as prime minister and was jailed. She was freed from prison in February 2014 after Yanukovich fled into exile to Russia during the pro-Western Maidan protests and she addressed crowds from a wheelchair on Kiev s Independence Square because of chronic back trouble. The crowd s sympathy for her condition did not help her though to regain a place in the new pro-western leadership and she lost to President Petro Poroshenko in the 2014 election. But the two-time prime minister who still sports a trademark peasant braid in her hair is now Poroshenko s main challenger at presidential and parliamentary elections due in 2019, according to opinion polls. Tymoshenko said Kiev should have a new type of agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which has propped up Ukraine s economy with a $17.5 billion aid program conditional on economic reforms and tackling entrenched graft. The IMF program is in choppy waters: as of now Ukraine has refused to implement a sharp hike in gas prices it had previously agreed to, while the Fund is also studying whether recently passed pension changes pass muster. When I served as prime minister I cooperated with the IMF and I believe that Ukraine can have positive cooperation with the IMF, she said, when asked whether she would do as the IMF says or abandon the program. But it seems to me that there needs to be a different emphasis in this cooperation. She said the program should be focused not on what she termed a reduction in social spending, but instead on tax reform and reducing the size of Ukraine s shadow economy. | 0fake |
LEFTIST BULLY ARTISTS Tell Ivanka Trump: “Get My Artwork Off Your Walls”…”I Am Embarrassed To Be Seen With You” | A growing group of artists is hitting back against Ivanka Trump, with some even demanding the president-elect s daughter take their work down off her walls.A collection of New York artists have banded together to protest Donald Trump through his daughter, with a campaign called Dear Ivanka .The colorful crusade was created by the Halt Action Group, which was founded by curator Alison Gingeras, dealer Bill Powers, Jonathan Horowitz, and a group of others associated with the art scene, Bloomberg reports. Dear Ivanka, we need to talk about your dad, the group s website reads. Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia are not acceptable anywhere least of all in the White House. Steve Bannon has no place in the White House. Jeff Sessions has no place in the White House. Talk of a Muslim registry has no place in the White House. Hate has no place in the White House. We refuse to wait and see . We look to you as the voice of reason. Other artists, many of whom have pieces in Ivanka s lavish apartment, have also chimed in on the issue. Dear @Ivankatrump please get my work off of your walls. I am embarrassed to be seen with you, Philadelphia artist wrote on Instagram.Ivanka had posted a picture on her own social media of her standing next to a Da Corte piece.The Halt Action Group staged a rally on November 28 outside the Puck building in Manhattan where Ivanka and Jared Kushner live.Da Corte, who called for Ivanka to take his paintings down in her apartment, took part in a protests outside her home with these signsAbout 500 people marched in the demonstration outside Ivanka and Jared Kushner s home on November 28 For entire story: Daily Mail | 1real |
Dakota Access Pipeline: Environmental Destruction in Service to US Greed and Goal of Containing Russia | Juice News Thu, 27 Oct 2016 14:46 UTC The Dakota Access pipeline is a fracked oil pipeline that is part of the Bakken pipeline that will run through North Dakota South Dakota, Idaho and Illinois. In the process, oil will travel beneath the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and across Indian Reservation land. Bulldozers working on the pipeline have already destroyed the graves of the ancestors and relatives the Standing Rock Sioux and other Lakota tribes. Irreplaceable, unique, historic Indian sacred sites have also been destroyed. The pipeline is part of a concerted effort by the US government to gain "energy independence" and be in a position to supply oil and gas to Europe as an alternative to Russian gas. It is a literal pipe dream in both respects given that the US cannot wean itself off its massive addiction to and greed for oil and energy and the fact that Europe will be dependent on Russia oil and gas for decades to come. The pipeline not only threatens the environment in the USA including the drinking water supply from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, but also the American people given that fracking has been implicated in earthquakes . | 1real |
Why Palestinians want to sue Britain: 99 years since the Balfour Declaration | Why Palestinians want to sue Britain: 99 years since the Balfour Declaration By Ramzy Baroud Posted on November 4, 2016 by Ramzy Baroud
Last July, the Palestinian Authority took the unexpected, although belated step of seeking Arab backing in suing Britain over the Balfour Declaration. That ‘declaration’ was the first ever explicit commitment made by Britain, and the West in general, to establish a Jewish homeland atop an existing Palestinian homeland.
It is too early to tell whether the Arab League would heed the Palestinian call , or if the PA would even follow through, especially considering that the latter has the habit of making too many proclamations backed by little or no action.
However, it seems that the next year will witness a significant tug of war regarding the Balfour Declaration, the 100 th anniversary of which will be commemorated on November 02, 2017.
But who is Balfour, what is the Balfour Declaration and why does all of this matters today?
Britain’s Foreign Secretary from late 1916, Arthur James Balfour, had pledged Palestine to another people. That promise was made on November 02, 1917, on behalf of the British government in the form of a letter sent to the leader of the Jewish community in Britain, Walter Rothschild.
At the time, Britain was not even in control of Palestine, which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Either way, Palestine was never Balfour’s to so casually transfer to anyone else. His letter read:
“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
He concluded, “I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.”
Balfour was hardly acting on his own. True, the Declaration bears his name, yet, in reality, he was a loyal agent of an Empire with massive geopolitical designs, not only concerning Palestine alone, but with Palestine as part of a larger Arab landscape.
Only a year earlier, another sinister document was introduced, albeit secretly. It was endorsed by another top British diplomat, Mark Sykes and, on behalf of France, by François Georges-Picot. The Russians were informed of the agreement, as they too had received a piece of the Ottoman cake.
The document indicated that, once the Ottomans were soundly defeated, their territories, including Palestine, would be split among the prospective victorious parties.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement , also known as the ‘Asia Minor Agreement,’ was signed in secret one hundred years ago, two years into World War I. It signified the brutal nature of colonial powers that rarely associated land and resources with people who lived upon or owned them.
The centerpiece of the agreement was a map that was marked with straight lines by a China graph pencil. The map largely determined the fate of the Arabs, dividing them in accordance with various haphazard assumptions of tribal and sectarian lines.
The improvised map consisted not only of lines but also colors , along with language that attested to the fact that the two countries viewed the Arab region purely on materialistic terms, without paying the slightest attention to the possible repercussions of slicing up entire civilizations with a multifarious history of co-operation and conflict.
Palestinians rebelled , marking a rebellion that has never ceased 99 years later, and highlighting the horrific consequences of British colonialism and the eventual complete Zionist takeover of Palestine which is still felt after all of these years.
Paltry attempts to pacify Palestinian anger were to no avail, especially after the League of Nations Council in July 1922 approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine—which was originally granted to Britain in April 1920—without consulting the Palestinians at all. In fact, Palestinians would disappear from the British and international radar, only to reappear as negligible rioters, troublemakers, and obstacles to the joint British-Zionist colonial concoctions.
Despite occasional assurances to the contrary, the British intention of ensuring the establishment of an exclusively Jewish state in Palestine was becoming clearer with time. The Balfour Declaration was not merely an aberration, but had, indeed, set the stage for the that followed, three decades later.
In fact, that history remains in constant replay: the Zionists claimed Palestine and renamed it ‘Israel’; the British continue to support them, although never ceasing to pay lip-service to the Arabs; and the Palestinian people remain a nation that is geographically fragmented between refugee camps, in the diaspora, militarily occupied, or treated as second class citizens in a country upon which their ancestors dwelt since time immemorial.
While Balfour cannot be blamed for all the misfortunes that have befallen Palestinians since he communicated his brief but infamous letter, the notion that his ‘promise’ embodied complete disregard of the aspirations and rights of the Palestinian Arab people—that very letter is handed from one generation of British diplomats to the next, in the same way that Palestinian resistance to colonialism has and continues to spread across generations.
That injustice continues, thus the perpetuation of the conflict. What the British, the early Zionists, the Americans and subsequent Israeli governments failed to understand, and continue to ignore at their own peril, is that there can be no peace without justice and equality in Palestine; and that Palestinians will continue to resist, as long as the reasons that inspired their rebellion nearly a century ago remain in place.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include “Searching Jenin,” “The Second Palestinian Intifada” and his latest “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.” His website is . . Bookmark the permalink . | 1real |
CNN Panelist LAUGHS In Corey Lewandowski’s Face After Hearing New Trump Victory Plan (VIDEO) | As Donald Trump s campaign continues to sink deeper into its self-sabotaging downward spiral, it s becoming clear that even Trump s campaign surrogates and former staffers are having trouble trying to stay positive about the outcome of this election. In just the past few days, we ve seen them completely deny that Trump s campaign made some massive changes in desperation, ignore polls that The Donald is losing and now thanks to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, they re holding onto false hope that Trump can still somehow win this.Earlier today on CNN, Lewandowski who is forbidden by contract to say anything negative about Trump tried to convince everyone that Trump was still on track to win this election because his biggest opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, was losing voters to Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Lewandowski said: This is not a two-person race. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are in this race. I would say Jill Stein should be in the debates. She s a person who is going to take away votes from Hillary Clinton. You just had her here on the show At the end of the day, Donald Trump is going to win this election, he s going to win in states because Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are going to take votes away from Hillary Clinton. While Lewandowski clung to his delusions, CNN panelist Bill Kristol was sitting right beside him, shaking his head while smiling and muffling his laughter. When Kristol could finally get enough control over himself to speak, he dropped a major truth bomb that Lewandowski and Trump weren t going to like: That s the last recourse of a campaign that s going to lose. It s hoping third-and-fourth-party candidates are going to magically change the equation. At the end of the day, 38% of the American people think Donald Trump should be president, it s never gotten much above that number. You can watch Kristol giggle at Lewandoski s silly hopes below:.@CLewandowski_: Donald Trump is going to win bc Gary Johnson + Jill Stein will take votes away fr Hillary Clinton https://t.co/jvwPm42LGm New Day (@NewDay) August 18, 2016Featured image is a screenshot | 1real |
Cambodia's opposition braces for Supreme Court decision | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia s Supreme Court on Thursday began its final session to decide whether to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), thus ensuring victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen s ruling party in next year s general election. A verdict is expected later in the day, amid an increasingly tense political situation and a campaign by the ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP) to crush the opposition ahead of the vote. If the court rules for dissolution, 118 members of the opposition party will also be banned from politics. More than half its members of parliament have already fled Cambodia, fearing a crackdown by Hun Sen. Such a ruling would leave no credible political opposition in Cambodia for the first time since 1993, one senior diplomat based in the Cambodian capital told Reuters. In that year a U.N.-run election produced a shaky coalition between Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla installed as prime minister in the mid-1980s by the Vietnamese. The processes in the early nineties left Cambodia with a lively civil society and the freest press in Southeast Asia and there is a possibility of a lot of that going, said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to comment. Dozens of police guarded the court, its exterior painted yellow with gold accents, along with some officers from Hun Sen s personal bodyguard unit, although there has been no indication of any planned protest. Traffic flow was normal. On Wednesday, Cambodia s opposition said it did not think it could escape dissolution. The judge who heads the Supreme Court, Dith Munty, is a member of the permanent committee of the ruling party and a longtime Hun Sen loyalist. The 2018 election had been shaping as possibly the biggest challenge to Hun Sen s leadership, after his opponents unified behind the CNRP. Hun Sen has stepped up measures against the opposition. In September, CNRP leader Kem Sokha was arrested in Phnom Penh and charged with treason. | 0fake |
Christie to battle New Jersey's drug abuse problem in last year as governor | (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, trying to redeem himself at home and nationally after a scandal-tarred 2016, said on Tuesday he will make tackling New Jersey’s spiraling drug-abuse epidemic the focus of his last year in office. Beginning his eighth and final year as governor, the former Republican presidential contender touted achievements - including reducing the size of state government, trimming taxes and lowering the unemployment rate - in his annual State of the State address. Christie’s approval rating has tanked to 18 percent in his home state in the most recent polls after he spent much of 2015 traveling outside of New Jersey during his presidential campaign. He is not eligible for a third term and will stand down next January. His national political career has also waned since the Bridgegate scandal involving his former top aides tarnished his reputation. After a trial late last year, two of Christie’s former aides were convicted of fraud and conspiracy and have asked for a new trial in the politically motivated scheme to close traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge, the world’s busiest. While Christie has not been charged and denied having advance knowledge of the scheme, the controversy helped diminish his role on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team. New Jersey had also not recovered jobs after the recession as quickly as neighboring states and suffered 10 credit rating downgrades during Christie’s tenure. Democrats, who control the state legislature and could retake the governor’s office in the state’s November election, said they would work with Christie to lower drug abuse deaths, according to Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto. Christie said tackling drug addiction also touches schools, law enforcement and residents’ financial security. “Drug addiction is a disease. It is not a moral failing. It is a disease that can be treated,” he said. He wants to limit prescription of painkillers and said the state Attorney General should, “if necessary,” open an investigation into doctors’ prescribing practices and their interactions with drug makers. “Profit, by physicians or the pharmaceutical industry, must never be a rationale for contributing to the death of our citizens by overprescribing of these drugs,” he said. With several major pharmaceutical and biotech companies headquartered in New Jersey, it has long been considered the “medicine chest of the world,” though it has experienced job declines in recent years. The state is launching a website, reachnj.gov, and a hotline, among other measures to battle addiction. | 0fake |
U.S. environmental agency chief says humans contribute to global warming | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, said on Friday he believes human activity plays a role in global warming, but measuring that contribution with precision is difficult. Speaking to reporters at the White House a day after President Donald Trump said he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, Pruitt declined to directly answer questions about whether the president still believed global warming was a hoax, as he had said during the 2016 presidential campaign Pruitt said he had indicated that global warming is occurring, and that “human activity contributes to it in some manner. Measuring with precision, from my perspective, the degree of human contribution is very challenging.” | 0fake |
Exclusive: Expecting Trump action, U.S. suspends refugee resettlement interviews | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has temporarily halted trips by staff to interview refugees abroad as it prepares for a likely shakeup of refugee policy by President Donald Trump, two sources with knowledge of the decision said on Thursday. The decision effectively amounts to a pause in future refugee admissions, given that the interviews are a crucial step in an often years-long process. The DHS leadership’s decision to halt the interview trips was communicated to those involved in the U.S. refugee admission process on Wednesday, one of the sources said. It means that though Trump has not yet ordered a temporary halt to the refugee program, future admissions are likely to be delayed. Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would include a temporary ban on all refugees, and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday that Trump could sign several executive orders on Friday, but that the nature of those had not been decided yet. Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project at the New York-based Urban Justice Center, said she was informed of the decision to halt the overseas interviews by several people in and outside of government. Gillian Christensen, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and which conducts the interviews, said the agency had delayed “a number of upcoming trips” but that they had not been “officially canceled.” DHS officers regularly visit countries such as Jordan, Malaysia, El Salvador, Kenya and Ethiopia to interview refugees seeking to enter the United States. It is usually one of the last steps in the refugee resettlement process. Heller said the decision to halt the overseas interviews would cause delays in refugee processing even if Trump decides to maintain the refugee program or re-start it after a temporary closure. “In the past, when we’ve frozen the refugee program to re-examine security issues, it’s been really important to continue processing even if you can’t admit people, because processing times in this program can be two to three years,” Heller said. During the election campaign, Trump decried former President Barack Obama’s decision to increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States over fears that those fleeing the country’s civil war would carry out attacks. Obama approved allowing up to 110,000 refugees in the 2017 fiscal year, compared with 85,000 the prior year. Trump said during the election campaign that there was no proper system to vet refugees. In addition to the interviews, refugees hoping to be resettled in the United States undergo extensive security screening by multiple U.S. agencies as well as vetting by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. | 0fake |
The Rise of Mandatory Vaccinations Means the End of Medical Freedom | The Rise of Mandatory Vaccinations Means the End of Medical Freedom Source: The Antimedia
Mandatory vaccinations are about to open up a new frontier for government control. Through the war on drugs, bureaucrats arbitrarily dictate what people can and can’t put into their bodies, but that violation pales in comparison to forcibly medicating millions against their will. Voluntary and informed consent are essential in securing individual rights, and without it, self-ownership will never be respected.
The liberal stronghold of California is trailblazing the encroaching new practice and recently passed laws mandating that children and adults must have certain immunizations before being able to attend schools or work in certain professions. The longstanding religious and philosophical exemptions that protect freedom of choice have been systematically crushed by the state.
California’s Senate Bill 277 went into effect on July 1st, 2016, and marked the most rigid requirements ever instituted for vaccinations. The law forces students to endure a total of 40 doses to complete the 10 federally recommended vaccines while allowing more to be added at any time. Any family that doesn’t go along will have their child barred from attending licensed day care facilities, in-home daycares, public or private schools, and even after school programs.
Over the years, California has developed a reputation for pushing vaccines on their youth. Assembly Bill 499 was passed in 2011 and lowered the age of consent for STD prevention vaccines to just 12 years old. Included in the assortment of shots being administered was the infamous Gardasil , which just a few years later was at the center of a lawsuit that yielded the victims a $6 million settlement from the U.S. government, which paid out funds from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program .
The Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015 is an attempt to implement this new standard nationwide, and although it has stalled in the House, it will likely be reintroduced the next time the country is gripped by the fear of a pandemic.
The debate surrounding vaccinations is commonly framed as a moral struggle between the benefits to the collective and the selfish preferences of the individual. But since the outbreak scares of Zika , measles , and ebola , the rhetoric has taken a turn toward authoritarianism.
It’s commonly stated by the CDC and most mainstream doctors that the unvaccinated are putting the health of everyone else at risk, but the truth isn’t so black and white . The herd immunity theory has been consistently used to validate the expansion of vaccine programs, but it still doesn’t justify the removal of choice from the individual.
The classic exchange of freedom for perceived safety is a no brainer for the millions of Americans who are willing to use government to strap their neighbors down and forcibly inject them for the greater good. Anyone who expresses concern about possible side effects is immediately branded as conspiratorial or anti-science. Yet controversial claims that certain vaccine variants cause neurological disorders like autism have led some people to swear off inoculations altogether. This all-or-nothing dynamic has completely polarized the issue and prevents any reasonable discussion from taking place. Either you accept all of the CDC’s recommended 69 doses of 16 vaccines between birth and age 18, or you want to bring back measles, polio, and probably the black plague.
On the other extreme side of the debate, if you fail to acknowledge all vaccines as dangerous, you’re an ignorant sheep. Through the internet, disinformation has become widespread and created a movement of people that have written off all the benefits accomplished through immunizations. These individuals are unable or unwilling to separate the science from the shady institutions that develop and distribute new vaccines. Even if thimerosal and mercury based preservatives cause adverse reactions in some patients, it doesn’t detract from the advantages vaccine technology provides. In this debate, like most others in the US, both sides are swept up in emotion and ignorance.
Regardless, the public’s trust in vaccinations has been eroded by the reputations of those companies producing them. Pharmaceutical giants like Merck and Pfizer make billions from the distribution of these shots, and the potential profits after a mandate are enough to corrupt the morals of almost anyone. In one example, former CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding left her post at the government agency in 2009 to work in Merck’s vaccine division. An investigative report published by the British Medical Journal last year found the CDC downplays its ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Further, by buying the support of politicians like Hillary Clinton — who received more donations from pharmaceutical companies and their employees than any other candidate this year — these huge companies are able to expand their influence in directing government policy .
Maintaining control over what we put into our own bodies is a fundamental right, but for now, standing up to these government decrees only means ostracism from the education system and criticism from peers. In the future, however, the punishments for disobedience will likely only grow stricter.
An Orange County doctor named Bob Sears is already in the crosshairs of California’s medical board after excusing a two-year-old from future vaccinations. The mother expressed concern that her daughter had an adverse reaction to a previous shot, describing the child as becoming limp “like a ragdoll” for 24 hours after the last dose. Dr. Sears’ alternative treatment recommendations break from the rules dictated by S.B. 277, and now his reputation, as well as his career, are in jeopardy. This new authority to strip doctors of their medical licenses for simply going against the state-imposed standards opens the door for the persecution of medical professionals who resist any government regulation.
A vaccination is an invasive medical procedure that can have different effects on each and every individual. The Nuremberg Code’s first principle is voluntary consent, but it seems the lessons of history have been completely forgotten by today’s leaders. The transition of these shots from “recommended” to “required” is well underway, and those who think the ends justify the means are willing to forcibly make sure everyone else complies.
The new benchmark set by California symbolizes a precedent that could be mimicked across the nation. Without having the discretion to choose which medications are injected into your body — or your child’s — how can anyone convince themselves they are free? This overreach and collusion can often be dismissed as a trivial issue, but the fact that voluntary consent is under attack speaks volumes to the extent that state power has metastasized. | 1real |
Meet Leftist Vogue Fashion Editor Slammed on Social Media for Politicizing #MelaniaTrump Shoes | A fashion editor for Vogue (see video below) has been brutalized on social media for her commentary about Melania Trump s choice of shoes for her visit to Texas during Tropical Storm Harvey.Just a sampling of the twitter feed criticizing this woman: Here s a sampling of Vogue Editor, Lynn Yaeger s take on herself and only herself. Did we say she talks about herself? Oy vey!In case you missed it, the press was aflutter when Melania exited the White House wearing stiletto heels. Social media fashion experts and the liberal press went nuts.Yaeger s take on the shoes was dripping with snark just as nasty as can be: This morning, Mrs. Trump boarded Air Force One wearing a pair of towering pointy-toed snakeskin heels better suited to a shopping afternoon on Madison Avenue or a girls luncheon at La Grenouille. In case you want to read the rest: Vogue It s awfully hateful to the First Family.The funny thing is that when Melania got to Texas she came off the plane in sneakers! Gotcha!OUR PREVIOUS REPORT: President Trump and First Lady Melania traveled down to Texas today to assist with and show support for flood victims. You d think the press would point out that this is a great gesture by the First Couple but that s not the case. The press could only focus on the fact that the First Lady wore heels on her departure to Texas. They mocked her saying she wasn t quite ready to help flood victims: Melania s shoes are impressive but perhaps not what I would wear to a city submerged in floodwaters, wrote Elizabeth Bruenig, an assistant editor at the Washington Post.Those stilettos should help her stay above the flood line https://t.co/dQ89fK18N5 Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) August 29, 2017Melania is wearing stilettos to a hurricane zone: https://t.co/29WIwlipab erica orden (@eorden) August 29, 2017She had on all black with a pair of black stilettos Who cares? At least she made the trip! We can t say the same for Michelle Obama during the Louisiana floods!We checked into what Michelle Obama wore to visit the Louisiana floods Oops! She didn t go! Remember that she was on vacation with Barack and the girls but then came home and didn t make the trip with Barack.We checked to see if Michelle went to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy Oops! She didn t go to that either!MELANIA GETS THE LAST LAUGH:Guess what Melania had on when she arrived in TEXAS? TENNIS SHOES! Is she ready enough now?First lady Melania Trump wore a baseball hat that said FLOTUS as she exited Air Force One upon landing in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday.First Lady Melania and President Trump arrive in Texas to be briefed on Harvey s devastating aftermath pic.twitter.com/Dz0IbQBRk3 Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 29, 2017The first lady had her hair pulled back in a ponytail under the black hat with white lettering.She also wore white sneakers, black pants, and a white button-up shirt.LOOKING GREAT!Read more: WE | 1real |
Turkey expects visa spat with U.S. to be resolved soon: deputy PM | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A diplomatic crisis between the United States and Turkey that led them to stop issuing visas to each other s citizens is overblown and will likely be resolved soon, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Wednesday. In remarks apparently aimed at defusing tensions between the two countries, Simsek told an event in Washington that Turkey considered the safety and security of U.S. diplomats and employees in Turkey a top priority and described the detention of staff at U.S. missions in Turkey as routine investigations. Tensions between the two NATO allies rose in recent days after the detentions of two locally employed staff prompted the United States on Sunday to suspend non-immigrant visa services at its embassy and consulates in Turkey. Hours later, Turkey issued a similar suspension on visas for U.S. citizens. U.S.-Turkish relations were already strained over U.S. military support for Kurdish fighters in Syria and the United States unwillingness to extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally whom Ankara views as the mastermind behind last year s failed military coup. We don t want this dispute to last more than a second, Simsek said of the current visa spat at a briefing on U.S. business opportunities in Turkey at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. He added that Turkey is committed to safeguarding U.S. government employees in Turkey. Simsek s remarks contrasted with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan s statements on Tuesday that agents had infiltrated U.S. missions in Turkey and that Ankara no longer recognized U.S. Ambassador John Bass as a legitimate envoy. Bass told reporters on Wednesday the U.S. government had still not received any official explanation from the Turkish government for why the employees were arrested in Turkey this year. When a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration worker was detained in Istanbul last week, Erdogan s spokesman said the employee had been in contact with a leading suspect in last July s failed coup. Since the abortive putsch, in which at least 240 people were killed, more than 50,000 people have been detained and 150,000, including teachers, academics, soldiers and journalists, have been suspended from work. Simsek on Wednesday dismissed concerns expressed by some Western allies that the crackdown shows Turkey is slipping into authoritarian rule under Erdogan. Turkey is not doing arbitrary arrests. There are no political hostages. Give us the benefit of the doubt that Turkey s judicial system will work and is functioning, he said. | 0fake |
Grappling With the Language of Love - The New York Times | We often hear about how hard it is to be articulate in a foreign language, but when I began to study Arabic, what took me a long time to learn was not how to speak but how to listen. Looking back, I see that my inability to listen well cost me my first love. The man I loved was an Iraqi doctor. Young like me, he had been forced out of his country by war and had come to Syria to work in a refugee camp. This was in 2008, before the revolution. I was in Syria to study Arabic. We met in that camp, and for the next year we were constantly falling in and out of love, breaking up and getting back together, pouring out our hearts and fighting, mostly because of all he wanted to tell me was that I didn’t understand. We did this in Arabic, his first and my second language. The doctor and I were both alone in Damascus. He claimed he loved me from the moment we first spoke because I had asked him a question. This meant I was curious and ready to learn. I don’t remember my question. What I remember is the dust, which was overwhelming, and the sun, which would not stop beating, and all the patched white tents, which spread out from the doctor’s ambulance like the petals of a flower. I went into the ambulance to get out of the sun. The doctor was rocking a crying baby, and when he touched it, the baby quieted and fell asleep. I thought: I want this man to like me as much as I like him. But I didn’t have strong Arabic, so I simply gazed at the doctor and he gazed back. After, he called me. We met in a cafe. He sent me a poem. I didn’t understand the poem, which didn’t matter we were headed for love. I was a beginner in Arabic. I loved it and was trying to learn. I knew the word for “hospital” but not “emergency,” “love” but not “passion,” “war” but not “civil war. ” The doctor and I wanted to be writers, so in our free time we studied how to be eloquent. Sometimes I asked, “How can you love me when I speak inarticulate Arabic?” He assured me that he heard past my poorly constructed sentences to the beauty within. We didn’t worry about whether I found him articulate, because Arabic was his first language. We had not yet learned the lesson that vocabulary limits not just how well you speak but how well you listen. We expected me to be inarticulate and him to be eloquent. We loved specificity and detail, and the doctor used great detail in his stories. But my Arabic vocabulary was blunt and broad, so I heard him as being blunt and broad. We went to a lecture. In the middle, the doctor wrote on my paper: “You look beautiful in your glasses. ” I didn’t know the word for glasses, so I read: “You beautiful. ” He wrote: “I imagine you in a bath of rose petals. ” I didn’t know the word for rose petals, so I read, “You bath. ” Did I stink? We learn the words we most need. I had grown up in a small, sheltered town, so my vocabulary for war was limited. But war had colored the doctor’s work, his home, his first love (not me) and his sense of purpose. “I remember the bombs that fell on the emergency room,” he said, and I understood there had been a bomb but not how close it was to the hospital or how he had worked through the terror, his hands shaking. Our troubles worsened when the doctor called and told me something while I was at work, but I didn’t understand and was in the middle of something, so I said I was busy, could he call back? Later, when we reconnected, he said: “You have no heart. I told you the camp caught fire. People were hurt. Two lost their homes. And you said, ‘Call back later, I’m busy’?” My heart sank. “I’m sorry,” I told him. “I didn’t hear you. ” “Do you ever hear me?” Of course, there are many ways to hear a person it doesn’t always have to be in speech. That night, though, we got stuck on words. Afterward, we still saw each other, but it was not the same. Soon my grant ended and I went home. I thought it must not have really been love. How could the doctor love me when I didn’t understand him? And if I could not understand him or know him completely, how could I love him back? This was my belief for years. I still sometimes heard from the doctor, but we were far away, an ocean between us, and I no longer believed we had really loved. Then I met the man who would become my husband, a student with long hair who had come to the United States from Brazil to learn biology. When he rode up on a bicycle to the building where I lived, my heart almost stopped. He knew all the scientific terms in English but didn’t know simple words like “believe” or “comb. ” And yet after we met, I only wanted to be with him. I wanted to pour out my heart, to talk and to listen. And if anyone ever questioned our love (because it happened so quickly, over two months) or if he had ever questioned my devotion (because we did not speak the same language fluently) it would have ripped straight through my heart. So I found myself in the doctor’s position. And I learned that sometimes it can be enough just to speak the words, regardless of whether your lover understands them that sometimes merely wanting to speak is enough. The doctor had once said, “You know me like I know you, and if you don’t, then someday you will. ” He had had faith in the future. I loved the way my husband looked when he was listening. He made up games that didn’t require language. He didn’t write poetry in English but he drew pictures on scraps of paper and left them about the house for me, and in this way, I knew what he felt. What had I done to show I cared for the doctor? Over the years, I continued studying Arabic and my language grew. When I began to translate for people from countries, I gained a specialized vocabulary. Armed with my new vocabulary, I went back to the doctor’s poems. I took them out of their old box, one by one. To my delight, I found that the doctor was eloquent he wrote with precision and conviction. I went back to his story about the bombing and understood now how in the middle of surgery his hands were shaking so hard that he had not known if he could finish. But there was a patient before him, so he steeled himself and saw it through, and the patient survived. The bravery of this. I learned terrible things. About the exact ways he had been tortured and beaten. About the strangeness of death threats he had received simply because he was good at his work. I learned that sometimes to be good is the most dangerous thing. And finally, after so many years, I learned his sense of beauty. He wrote a poem about a jasmine flower that bloomed while wedged between dust and the ice of a wintery desert. Whether he meant this flower to be us no longer mattered. What mattered was that his words lasted, as beautiful now as then. His words had kept until I could listen and understand. Years after the doctor and I had fallen out of love, I finally knew him. He is now married and lives in Sweden, where he works for the Red Cross. Soon after I left Syria, he got in trouble for his politics and was forced to flee. A refugee with an uncertain passport, he made the precarious journey up through Turkey, across the sea in an unstable boat — five years before thousands of Syrian refugees, fleeing their own war, would make the same trip. He still writes poems, which used to air on the local radio and were so popular that people would call in and ask for “The Love Doctor. ” I listened to the show, using my dictionary to look up the hard words. Maybe, in the end, his poems are the gift of our romance, along with this lesson: Even years later we can learn from a relationship. There is no deadline for understanding. And that just as one can love intuitively, without language, one can also revel, years later, in the perfect meaning of a misunderstood word. | 0fake |
Trump Is Fighting Disney Over ‘Hall of Presidents’ Attraction Robot Speech | Team Trump has reportedly been involved in a heated battle with Walt Disney World over the speech given by the president s robotic likeness at Disney s The Hall of Presidents exhibit.A source told Vice that there has been a back-and-forth with Trump s aides and Disney. Trump s team has insisted that they will write the speech given by the president s robot at the attraction.The source explained to Vice, When Disney tried to get this process started earlier this year, Trump s people said, We ll be writing the speech that the president s audio-animatronic figure will be saying.' For the last two decades, a robot of the current president gives a speech at the end of the attraction. In the past, Disney employees have worked together with presidential teams to write appropriate addresses. The source explained to Vice that: The Imagineers [the researchers and developers behind Disney s theme park attractions] tried to point out that they re typically involved with this process. That they directly collaborated with Clinton, Bush, and Obama s people when it came to figuring out what the president s audio-animatronic figure would say. Trump s people said, No. We re writing this speech. You guys have no input on this.' Vice s source says that Disney is afraid of a park boycott of Trump decided to take his disagreement out to Twitter. They d particularly like to avoid him tweeting about this situation. It would most likely result in a call for conservatives to boycott Walt Disney World, which is the company s biggest fear. Disney has denied the report and insists they are working with the White House to schedule a recording session.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
HILLARY CLINTON: We All Know She’s Deceitful And Dishonest, But I Bet You Didn’t Know This… | She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality. I ve decided to reprint a piece of work I did nearly five years ago, because it seems very relevant today given Hillary Clinton s performance in the Benghazi hearings. Back in 2008 when she was running for president, I interviewed two erstwhile staff members of the House Judiciary Committee who were involved with the atergate investigation when Hillary was a low-level staffer there. I interviewed one Democrat staffer and one Republican staffer, and wrote two pieces based on what they told me about Hillary s conduct at the time.I published these pieces back in 2008 for North Star Writers Group, the syndicate I ran at the time. This was the most widely read piece we ever had at NSWG, but because NSWG never gained the high-profile status of the major syndicates, this piece still didn t reach as many people as I thought it deserved to. Today, given the much broader reach of CainTV and yet another incidence of Hillary s arrogance in dealing with a congressional committee, I think it deserves another airing. For the purposes of simplicity, I ve combined the two pieces into one very long one. If you re interested in understanding the true character of Hillary Clinton, it s worth your time to read it.As Hillary Clinton came under increasing scrutiny for her story about facing sniper fire in Bosnia, one question that arose was whether she has engaged in a pattern of lying.The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther and goes much deeper than anyone realizes.Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman s 17-year career.Why? Because she was a liar, Zeifman said in an interview last week. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality. How could a 27-year-old House staff member do all that? She couldn t do it by herself, but Zeifman said she was one of several individuals including Marshall, special counsel John Doar and senior associate special counsel (and future Clinton White House Counsel) Bernard Nussbaum who engaged in a seemingly implausible scheme to deny Richard Nixon the right to counsel during the investigatioWhy would they want to do that? Because, according to Zeifman, they feared putting Watergate break-in mastermind E. Howard Hunt on the stand to be cross-examined by counsel to the president. Hunt, Zeifman said, had the goods on nefarious activities in the Kennedy Administration that would have made Watergate look like a day at the beach including Kennedy s purported complicity in the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro.The actions of Hillary and her cohorts went directly against the judgment of top Democrats, up to and including then-House Majority Leader Tip O Neill, that Nixon clearly had the right to counsel. Zeifman says that Hillary, along with Marshall, Nussbaum and Doar, was determined to gain enough votes on the Judiciary Committee to change House rules and deny counsel to Nixon. And in order to pull this off, Zeifman says Hillary wrote a fraudulent legal brief, and confiscated public documents to hide her deception.The brief involved precedent for representation by counsel during an impeachment proceeding. When Hillary endeavored to write a legal brief arguing there is no right to representation by counsel during an impeachment proceeding, Zeifman says, he told Hillary about the case of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who faced an impeachment attempt in 1970. As soon as the impeachment resolutions were introduced by (then-House Minority Leader Gerald) Ford, and they were referred to the House Judiciary Committee, the first thing Douglas did was hire himself a lawyer, Zeifman said.The Judiciary Committee allowed Douglas to keep counsel, thus establishing the precedent. Zeifman says he told Hillary that all the documents establishing this fact were in the Judiciary Committee s public files. So what did Hillary do? Hillary then removed all the Douglas files to the offices where she was located, which at that time was secured and inaccessible to the public, Zeifman said. Hillary then proceeded to write a legal brief arguing there was no precedent for the right to representation by counsel during an impeachment proceeding as if the Douglas case had never occurred.The brief was so fraudulent and ridiculous, Zeifman believes Hillary would have been disbarred if she had submitted it to a judge.Zeifman says that if Hillary, Marshall, Nussbaum and Doar had succeeded, members of the House Judiciary Committee would have also been denied the right to cross-examine witnesses, and denied the opportunity to even participate in the drafting of articles of impeachment against Nixon.Of course, Nixon s resignation rendered the entire issue moot, ending Hillary s career on the Judiciary Committee staff in a most undistinguished manner. Zeifman says he was urged by top committee members to keep a diary of everything that was happening. He did so, and still has the diary if anyone wants to check the veracity of his story. Certainly, he could not have known in 1974 that diary entries about a young lawyer named Hillary Rodham would be of interest to anyone 34 years later.But they show that the pattern of lies, deceit, fabrications and unethical behavior was established long ago long before the Bosnia lie, and indeed, even before cattle futures, Travelgate and Whitewater for the woman who is still asking us to make her president of the United States.Franklin Polk, who served at the time as chief Republican counsel on the committee, confirmed many of these details in two interviews he granted me this past Friday, although his analysis of events is not always identical to Zeifman s. Polk specifically confirmed that Hillary wrote the memo in question, and confirmed that Hillary ignored the Douglas case. (He said he couldn t confirm or dispel the part about Hillary taking the Douglas files.)To Polk, Hillary s memo was dishonest in the sense that she tried to pretend the Douglas precedent didn t exist. But unlike Zeifman, Polk considered the memo dishonest in a way that was more stupid than sinister. Hillary should have mentioned that (the Douglas case), and then tried to argue whether that was a change of policy or not instead of just ignoring it and taking the precedent out of the opinion, Polk said.Polk recalled that the attempt to deny counsel to Nixon upset a great many members of the committee, including just about all the Republicans, but many Democrats as well. The argument sort of broke like a firestorm on the committee, and I remember Congressman Don Edwards was very upset, Polk said. He was the chairman of the subcommittee on constitutional rights. But in truth, the impeachment precedents are not clear. Let s put it this way. In the old days, from the beginning of the country through the 1800s and early 1900s, there were precedents that the target or accused did not have the right to counsel. That s why Polk believes Hillary s approach in writing the memorandum was foolish. He says she could have argued that the Douglas case was an isolated example, and that other historical precedents could apply.But Zeifman says the memo and removal of the Douglas files was only part the effort by Hillary, Doar, Nussbaum and Marshall to pursue their own agenda during the investigation.After my first column, some readers wrote in claiming Zeifman was motivated by jealousy because he was not appointed as the chief counsel in the investigation, with that title going to Doar instead.Zeifman s account is that he supported the appointment of Doar because he, Zeifman, a) did not want the public notoriety that would come with such a high-profile role; and b) didn t have much prosecutorial experience. When he started to have a problem with Doar and his allies was when Zeifman and others, including House Majority Leader Tip O Neill and Democratic committee member Jack Brooks of Texas, began to perceive Doar s group as acting outside the directives and knowledge of the committee and its chairman, Peter Rodino.(O Neill died in 1994. Brooks is still living and I tried unsuccessfully to reach him. I d still like to.)This culminated in a project to research past presidential abuses of power, which committee members felt was crucial in aiding the decisions they would make in deciding how to handle Nixon s alleged offenses.According to Zeifman and other documents, Doar directed Hillary to work with a group of Yale law professors on this project. But the report they generated was never given to the committee. Zeifman believes the reason was that the report was little more than a whitewash of the Kennedy years a part of the Burke Marshall-led agenda of avoiding revelations during the Watergate investigation that would have embarrassed the Kennedys.The fact that the report was kept under wraps upset Republican committee member Charles Wiggins of California, who wrote a memo to his colleagues on the committee that read in part:Within the past few days, some disturbing information has come to my attention. It is requested that the facts concerning the matter be investigated and a report be made to the full committee as it concerns us all.Early last spring when it became obvious that the committee was considering presidential abuse of power as a possible ground of impeachment, I raised the question before the full committee that research should be undertaken so as to furnish a standard against which to test the alleged abusive conduct of Richard Nixon.As I recall, several other members joined with me in this request. I recall as well repeating this request from time to time during the course of our investigation. The staff, as I recall, was noncommittal, but it is certain that no such staff study was made available to the members at any time for their use.Wiggins believed the report was purposely hidden from committee members. Chairman Rodino denied this, and said the reason Hillary s report was not given to committee members was that it contained no value. It s worth noting, of course, that the staff member who made this judgment was John Doar.In a four-page reply to Wiggins, Rodino wrote in part:Hillary Rodham of the impeachment inquiry staff coordinated the work. . . . After the staff received the report it was reviewed by Ms. Rodham, briefly by Mr. Labovitz and Mr. Sack, and by Doar. The staff did not think the manuscript was useful in its present form. . . .In your letter you suggest that members of the staff may have intentionally suppressed the report during the course of its investigation. That was not the case.As a matter of fact, Mr. Doar was more concerned that any highlight of the project might prejudice the case against President Nixon. The fact is that the staff did not think the material was usable by the committee in its existing form and had not had time to modify it so it would have practical utility for the members of the committee. I was informed and agreed with the judgment.Mr. Labovitz, by the way, was John Labovitz, another member of the Democratic staff. I spoke with Labovitz this past Friday as well, and he is no fan of Jerry Zeifman. If it s according to Zeifman, it s inaccurate from my perspective, Labovitz said. He bases that statement on a recollection that Zeifman did not actually work on the impeachment inquiry staff, although that is contradicted not only by Zeifman but Polk as well.Labovitz said he has no knowledge of Hillary having taken any files, and defended her no-right-to-counsel memo on the grounds that, if she was assigned to write a memo arguing a point of view, she was merely following orders.But as both Zeifman and Polk point out, that doesn t mean ignoring background of which you are aware, or worse, as Zeifman alleges, confiscating documents that disprove your argument.All told, Polk recalls the actions of Hillary, Doar and Nussbaum as more amateurish than anything else. Of course the Republicans went nuts, Polk said. But so did some of the Democrats some of the most liberal Democrats. It was more like these guys Doar and company were trying to manage the members of Congress, and it was like, Who s in charge here? If you want to convict a president, you want to give him all the rights possible. If you re going to give him a trial, for him to say, My rights were denied, it was a stupid effort by people who were just politically tone deaf. So this was a big deal to people in the proceedings on the committee, no question about it. And Jerry Zeifman went nuts, and rightfully so. But my reaction wasn t so much that it was underhanded as it was just stupid. Polk recalls Zeifman sharing with him at the time that he believed Hillary s primary role was to report back to Burke Marshall any time the investigation was taking a turn that was not to the liking of the Kennedys. Jerry used to give the chapter and verse as to how Hillary was the mole into the committee works as to how things were going, Polk said. And she d be feeding information back to Burke Marshall, who, at least according to Jerry, was talking to the Kennedys. And when something was off track in the view of the Kennedys, Burke Marshall would call John Doar or something, and there would be a reconsideration of what they were talking about. Jerry used to tell me that this was Hillary s primary function. Zeifman says he had another staff member get him Hillary s phone records, which showed that she was calling Burke Marshall at least once a day, and often several times a day.A final note about all this: I wrote my first column on this subject because, in the aftermath of Hillary being caught in her Bosnia fib, I came in contact with Jerry Zeifman and found his story compelling. Zeifman has been trying to tell his story for many years, and the mainstream media have ignored him. I thought it deserved an airing as a demonstration of how early in her career Hillary began engaging in self-serving, disingenuous conduct.Disingenuously arguing a position? Vanishing documents? Selling out members of her own party to advance a personal agenda? Classic Hillary. Neither my first column on the subject nor this one were designed to show that Hillary is dishonest. I don t really think that s in dispute. Rather, they were designed to show that she has been this way for a very long time a fact worth considering for anyone contemplating voting for her for president of the United States.By the way, there s something else that started a long time ago. She would go around saying, I m dating a person who will some day be president, Polk said. It was like a Babe Ruth call. And because of that comment she made, I watched Bill Clinton s political efforts as governor of Arkansas, and I never counted him out because she had made that forecast. Bill knew what he wanted a long time ago. Clearly, so did Hillary, and her tactics for trying to achieve it were established even in those early days.Vote wisely.Via: Patriot Net Daily | 1real |
House tax chief says Obamacare taxes not part of tax reform | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will not seek to repeal Obamacare taxes as a part of expected tax reform legislation, the top House Republican on tax policy said on Monday. “We never envisioned bringing Obamacare taxes into that (reform) effort and I still don’t,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters. Obamacare taxes “go away when we repeal and replace. And so regrettably, they stay in place,” Brady said. | 0fake |
EU should seek new deal with U.S., PM Orban says | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The European Union should seek a new deal with the United States as the free trade agreement has failed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday. Orban also told an economic conference that Europe should let go of the “illusion of federalism.” He said seeking new agreements would be a milestone on Europe’s path to improved competitiveness. | 0fake |
BREAKING: Trump Buildings Go On Lockdown As THOUSANDS Protest Trump’s Electoral Victory (VIDEOS) | Across the nation, thousands of upset American citizens are protesting Donald Trump s victory in the 2016 presidential election. Despite losing the popular vote, the deeply disliked candidate is poised to be the next President of the United States, and people aren t happy. Security teams and barricades have been deployed at various Trump properties as fear of damage escalates. Hundreds of people have gathered outside of his Chicago and New York buildings, and protests are happening in major cities from Oregon to Massechusetts.Dozens of other protests have also happened, centered at universities around the nation.Flags have been reported to be burned during protests in Portland, Oregon, with protestors marching and chanting fuck Donald Trump! The Mirror reports that People also burned an effigy of the President-elect, who will be officially sworn into office in January. As they go on to report, the protests aren t just domestic hundreds also gathered to protest the American embassy in London, as further evidence of the divide we have driven between us and our allies with this disasterous election.In Chicago, New York, DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland, Philadelphia and elsewhere, live protests are happening right now. Various clips can be seen below.Trump Tower:San Francisco:Protestors chanting: Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Donald Trump go away pic.twitter.com/6PQu5waZ0p Nicole Nguyen (@itsnicolenguyen) November 10, 2016DC:Right now at the Trump Hotel in our Nation s capital. Shame on him. #election2016 #werestillwithher pic.twitter.com/pS6svMHPR3 daphne kiplinger (@daphnekiplinger) November 10, 2016The Guardian has live updates on the ongoing protests, and this article will be updated periodically.Featured image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
HE GAVE US THIS WARNING ONLY 67 YEARS AGO…Everyone Thought He Was Crazy | Sadly, much of what George Orwell predicted in his landmark novel, 1984 only 67 years ago is coming true in America today: | 1real |
Spokane, Washington Defeats Monsanto’s Motion to Dismiss PCB Lawsuit | Spokane, Washington Defeats Monsanto’s Motion to Dismiss PCB Lawsuit Nov 20, 2016 0 0
For years now, high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, have been documented in the Spokane River. These are a dangerous class of chemicals produced in the United States, solely by Monsanto, from 1930 until 1977. A lawsuit was launched by numerous U.S. cities against Monsanto in an attempt to remove PCBs from their waterways, and Spokane Washington was among them. In the most recent turn of events in the ongoing PCB saga, Monsanto failed to have Spokane’s lawsuit dismissed by courts . This is a win for the water movement, no less significant than the recent developments at Standing Rock.
There have been numerous outspoken defenders of our water supply, and their voices have grown louder. This issue has become paramount at the Standing Rock stand-off where Native American ‘water protectors’ are standing up for clean water, along with a number of other unalienable human rights , but Standing Rock speaks to a wider environmental catastrophe happening all around us.
Judge Mendoza who commented on the court’s decision stated, “The public harm at issue here comes from PCBs reaching the River, but the nuisance itself is Monsanto’s production, marketing, and distribution of the PCBs.”
Lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater supplies have been compromised more recently with fracking chemicals , lead, agricultural poisons including pesticides , herbicides , fungicides, and petrochemical fertilizers, PFOA and PFOS ( perflourinated chemicals ), as well as tainted with neurologically impairing fluoride , along with pharmaceutical company drugs including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, but PCBs have been contaminating our waterways for nearly a century now. The seemingly clear Spokane River contains some of the most toxic waters in Washington.
PCBs are but one type in the chemical onslaught we are being subjected to, but they are extremely dangerous. Congressman Gude issued a statement in 1976 which called attention to this contaminant:
“The most important thing about PCB’s … is that we have identified a mad dog—a known bad actor in the case of PCB. There is no doubt about its toxicity and danger in the environment. It has caused millions of dollars worth of damage in the United States; the time has arrived to get rid of it.”
Though the probable damage caused by PCBs has been known for decades now, with Monsanto completely aware of the chemicals’ health-damaging nature all along, there are still 1.4 billion pounds of PCBs that the company produced which haven’t been cleaned up. PCBs are an extremely toxic, persistent chemical that can cause cancer, neurological damage, immunological damage, and many other severe human health problems.
Spokane’s defeat against Monsanto and the company’s attempt to dismiss responsibility for contaminating the entire planet with PCBs is an enormous win – on par with recent developments at Standing Rock.
As the Spokesman reports ,
“The lawsuit, which does not specifically state what the city is seeking in monetary damages, also alleges that Monsanto is responsible for the high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the Spokane River.
Marlene Feist, the city’s utilities spokeswoman, called the suit “long-term litigation,” and noted that the city will spend $300 million to keep PCBs and other pollutants from entering the river in coming years .
PCBs have entered the river by various means, including through commercial and industrial products such as paint, hydraulic fluids, sealants, inks and others.”
A spokesman for Monsanto, Charla Lord, says that “Monsanto is not responsible for the costs alleged in this matter.”
This is a contentious point, after all, since these international companies have no problem ruining ancient burial grounds, and destroying water supplies in the name of profit – all the while denying responsibility for any ‘collateral’ damage their practices (manufacturing carcinogenic chemicals, fracking or dumping oil in our oceans, etc.) cause.
Spokane’s lawsuit names two companies that spun off from Monsanto in the 1990s, and joins other municipalities seeking damages from the company, including San Diego, San Jose and Westport, Massachusetts. Though monetary compensation does little to repair the environmental and health damage that has already occurred, it will at least force these corporations to think twice about polluting on purpose – a practice they’ve become habitual about.
This lawsuit also brings light, the fact that Monsanto has not only damaged our agriculture through GMOs and their associated chemical herbicides , but that the multinational corporation has been in the poison business from the very beginning. Our water represents only a fraction of the damage this single company has done. It is time to put a stop to their war on human health and the planet at large. We can only hope Spokane finishes this lawsuit successfully and other U.S. cities follow, to start lawsuits of their own. | 1real |
Trump Bragged That He Likes To Go To Russia Because The Women ‘Have No Morals’ (AUDIO) | Donald Trump may deny that he hired some Russian prostitutes to empty their bladders for him, but an exchange from The Howard Stern Show in 2001 really makes it seem like that s the sort of thing he s into. During a backhanded catfight with gossip columnist A.J. Benza over a woman they had both slept with, Benza hit Trump with a pointed jab about his preference for Russian women as well as a quote that may have seemed meaningless then but takes on special meaning in light of his golden showers fiasco.After Trump bragged that he took Benza s girlfriend, this happened:Trump: I assume A.J. s clean. I hope he s clean.Benza: Meanwhile, he bangs Russian people Stern: Russian people?Trump: Who are you talking about, Russian people, A.J.? I don t know anything.Benza: He used to call me when I was a columnist and say, I was just in Russia, the girls have no morals, you gotta get out there. [Trump s] out of his mind.Trump did not deny making the statement.On Wednesday, a British news anchor revealed that there are not one but multiple sources confirming that Donald Trump has been caught in compromising situations with Russian women. In fact, there may be more information than we know (including video and audio). I saw the report, compiled by the former British intelligence officer, back in October, BBC correspondent Paul Wood said. He is not, and this is the crucial thing, the only source for this. Wood said that he reached out to the U.S. intelligence community and got a message back from a contact that there is more than one tape, not just video, but audio as well, on more than one date, in more than one place, in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. For his part, Trump has basically spent the past two days typing FAKE NEWS in all-caps, occasionally yelling the phrase whenever he is confronted by anyone representing a news agency who reported on it.You can hear the Stern clip for yourself below:Featured image via Getty Images/Jamie Squire | 1real |
China arrests Japanese citizen suspected of spying | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities on Monday arrested a Japanese citizen suspected of spying, local state media said. The arrest was made in the port city of Dalian in the northeastern Liaoning province, which borders North Korea, the official Dalian Daily s online report said. The report said Ken Higuchi was being investigated by the Dalian City National Security Bureau on suspicion of spying against China, and that prosecutors had approved his arrest. The character given for Higuchi s first name could also be the names Takeshi or Takeru. It was unclear from the report, however, whether Higuchi was a new case or whether he had been detained earlier, and the latest development was his formal arrest. China detained six Japanese nationals in March on suspicion of illegal activities. Four of the six returned to Japan in July, three of whom were there doing geological research into hotsprings, according to their employer. China s foreign ministry also in July said that a single Japanese citizen was being investigated on suspicion of harming China s national security. Reuters was unable to contact Japan s foreign ministry by telephone. Monday was a national holiday in Japan. China s relationship with Japan has been strained for decades over the legacy of Japan s wartime aggression, while a maritime territorial dispute over small islands in the East China Sea has in recent years added to the suspicion between the two sides. In 2010, four Japanese nationals were detained in China on suspicion of entering a military zone and taking photographs without permission. At least two Japanese citizens were arrested on suspicion of espionage in 2015. Last year, China said it was investigating a Japanese citizen on suspicion of endangering national security. | 0fake |
Ukraine Withdraws Forces After Fight Over Strategic City | Following heavy shelling in what had been a Ukraine-controlled city, the central government's force is retreating from Debaltseve, a key railroad and transportation hub. Ukraine says it has now withdrawn 80 percent of its armed forces from the city.
"I can say now that the Ukrainian armed forces and the National Guard completed an operation on the planned and organized withdrawal of some units from Debaltseve this morning," Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said, according to the Interfax news agency in Ukraine.
"Some 80 percent of the units have already been pulled out," he said before leaving to visit eastern Ukraine Wednesday. He added that two more columns of troops will be withdrawn from Debaltseve.
Poroshenko is seeking a "tough reaction" from international leaders who brokered the recent cease-fire with Russian-backed separatists. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was instrumental in the peace talks, says the rebels are committing "a massive violation" of the temporary peace.
A conference call is scheduled for later today, in which Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany will discuss possible reactions, according to a French official.
"A cease-fire was officially supposed to have taken effect on Sunday, but relentless shelling kept up around Debaltseve, a railroad hub defended by hundreds of Ukrainian troops. "The troops have been effectively surrounded by Russian-backed militias for days. "Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe say the separatist militias are preventing them from entering the area to monitor the cease fire."
Corey says the separatists have insisted that the peace agreement doesn't apply to Debaltseve.
"One reason they're so determined to take that town," he says, "is that it was part of a Ukrainian-controlled pocket that pokes deep into the separatist front lines." | 0fake |
Iraqi leader visits Iran as Tehran seeks to drive wedge with Washington | ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Iraq s U.S.-backed prime minister on Thursday that he should not rely on the United States in the fight against Islamic State, seeking to drive a wedge between Washington and one of its close allies. Unity was the most important factor in your gains against terrorists and their supporters, Khamenei told the visiting Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, according to state TV. Don t trust America ... It will harm you in the future. Iraq is one of the only countries in the world that is closely allied to both the United States and Iran. Both countries have armed and trained pro-government forces in Iraq in the battle against Islamic State militants. The United States, which installed the Shi ite-led government in Baghdad after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, now has 5,000 troops in Iraq and provides air support, training and weapons to the Iraqi army. Iran, the predominant Shi ite power in the Middle East, funds and trains Iraqi Shi ite paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation, which fight alongside government troops. For years, Baghdad has carefully avoided antagonising either Washington or Tehran. But a confrontation between the Iraqi central government and its Kurdish minority in recent weeks has threatened to tip the balance in Iran s favour. The Kurds are also funded and trained by Washington which has considered them allies for decades. After the Kurds staged a referendum on independence last month, Abadi responded by sending his troops to swiftly seize territory from Kurdish forces. This week, Abadi rebuked U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for demanding he send Iranian fighters in pro-government Shi ite militia home . Abadi s office issued a statement saying no country should give orders to Iraq and calling the paramilitaries patriots . He has since travelled to both Turkey and Iran to seek support for his hard line towards the Kurds. The Kurdish regional government proposed on Wednesday an immediate ceasefire, a suspension of the result of last month s Kurdish independence vote and starting an open dialogue with the federal government based on the Iraqi Constitution . The offer was rejected by Abadi s government, which said the independence referendum result must be annulled, rather than merely suspended, as a pre-condition to any talks. We will preserve Iraq s unity and will never allow any secession, Iran s state news agency IRNA quoted Abadi as saying during his meeting with Khamenei. | 0fake |
Mississippi ports eye Cuba, sign agreements in Havana | HAVANA (Reuters) - The Mississippi ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport signed agreements in Cuba on Monday with an eye to future business and with a Republican U.S. senator from the state looking on, despite concerns President Donald Trump might backtrack on improved relations. Senator Thad Cochran is the only Republican among five U.S. senators and a U.S. representative on a three-day visit to the Communist-run Caribbean island to discuss relations and explore business opportunities. The agreements were signed during a business forum to explore future trade attended by Cochran. “There is great potential for business between these ports and Cuba due to the geographical proximity and the excellent fluvial and maritime ways Mississippi has,” state-run media quoted Maria de la Luz B’Hamel, director of commercial policy with the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment, as saying. The event was closed to foreign journalists. The congressional delegation arrived on Sunday and is being led by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was instrumental in efforts to normalize relations under former Democratic President Barack Obama. Cuba watchers are looking closely for signs of how the fragile U.S. detente with Cuba will fare under the new Trump administration. The Republican president has threatened to scrap moves to normalize relations, one of Obama’s signature foreign policy initiatives, if he does not get “a better deal.” Port authorities along the U.S. southern coast are strong proponents of increased trade and travel with Cuba, and some have expressed interest in using Mariel, located on the northwest coast of Cuba, as a transshipment hub. Similar agreements were signed last month with Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama. The Florida ports of Everglades and Palm Beach had also been planning to sign deals, but balked after Republican state Governor Rick Scott threatened to cancel their funding if they did business with the “Cuban dictatorship.” | 0fake |
Sentencing of ex-House speaker Hastert delayed until April | CHICAGO (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday postponed until April the sentencing date for Dennis Hastert, convicted last year of a financial crime, because the former U.S. House speaker was still recovering from a stroke and life-threatening infection. Hastert pleaded guilty in October to a federal charge of “structuring” - evading bank reporting rules by withdrawing large amounts of cash in smaller increments - in a hush-money case stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct. The 74-year-old, once one of the country’s most powerful politicians, went to the hospital in early November after a fall, his attorney, John Gallo, told U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin. Hastert was treated for a spinal infection requiring surgery, a severe blood infection and suffered a stroke, nearly dying, Gallo said. Durkin reset Hastert’s sentencing for April 8, from Feb. 29. Hastert currently requires 24-hour care. He is able to feed himself and is articulate, but a doctor has said he should not leave his home except to go to the hospital. Gallo said Hastert can still help prepare for his sentencing, and his doctors would know better about his prognosis in a month. Hastert faces up to five years in prison but prosecutors have recommended a sentence of six months or less, in exchange for his guilty plea. Hastert admitted to paying $1.7 million in cash to an individual he had known for decades to buy that person’s silence and compensate for past misconduct toward that individual. Prosecutors did not spell out the misconduct, but unnamed law enforcement officials have told media that it was sexual and involved someone Hastert knew when he was a high school teacher and coach in his hometown of Yorkville, Illinois, in the 1960s and 1970s. | 0fake |
Christian Gun Nut Shoots Unarmed Man Dead During Church Service And Gets Away With it (VIDEO) | .During the days of the Old West shooting an an unarmed man violated a code that cowboys lived by and brought shame as well as arrest and prosecution for murder.But in the conservative version of the Old West we are being forced to live in today, codes and the law mean nothing as long as you re a Christian gun nut.During the morning church service on Sunday at Keystone Fellowship Church located within Montgomery County in Pennsylvania a parishioner with a concealed carry permit shot and killed 27-year-old Robert Braxton in the chest during some sort of altercation as members of the congregation ducked for cover after the shots rang out. It sounded like three pops, almost like a champagne bottle opening three times, said congregant Breeana Somers. Everybody s trying to make themselves as small as possible. You could hear some screaming and some crying but it was pretty silent. I went under a chair in a fetal position. I tried to make myself as small as possible. It s really frightening that anything like this could happen here. Despite the fact that the gun-toting churchgoer openly murdered an unarmed man for what is sure to be a ridiculous reason, the man has not been arrested or charged, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele. There s no one in custody, he told NBC 10. The individual involved in the shooting is cooperating with police at this point. Yeah, and he s the only one who gets to tell the story because the other guy is dead.Ironically, the Keystone Church had written a Facebook post earlier announcing that an anti-government evangelical pastor would be a guest speaker that day and banned photography and video for our guest s safety. Apparently, church leadership was not concerned about guns or the threat they pose to the safety of their congregation.Here s the video via NBC 10.Again, a man literally shot and killed an unarmed man in the middle of a church service and he gets to walk free. This is sickening. Featured image via Wikimedia | 1real |
Trump has offered national security adviser job to Flynn: AP | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has offered retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn the job of national security adviser, the Associated Press reported on Thursday, citing a senior Trump official. The official would not say whether Flynn, a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency who advised Trump during the campaign on national security issues, has officially accepted the job, according to AP. | 0fake |
Migrants and Smugglers Won’t Be Stopped by Donald Trump’s Wall, Ranchers Say - The New York Times | NACO, Ariz. — John Ladd has two old pickups he uses to bang around his ranch, which rambles for 10 miles beside the Mexico line. One’s a red Chevy that not long ago carried the body of yet another border crosser who had died on his property. The other is a blue Dodge with better shocks, and that’s what he is driving now, along an unpaved road in an unincorporated place called Naco. To his immediate right, cattle roam the mesquite and grass of his family’s ranch. To his left, a set of interlocking fences slices into the distance, this one 12 feet high, this one 18 feet high, this one a metal mesh, this one a vertical grille, section after section after section. Mr. Ladd, 61, looks and acts the way a rancher is expected to, with brush mustache, hard squint and affect, all kept tight under a cowboy hat. Bouncing westward, he points to spots where fencing had been peeled in the past like an upturned can of Spam. In the last four years, he says, more than 50 vehicles have rumbled through fence cuts and across his property. What is the protocol when you encounter armed drug smugglers driving on your land? “You pull over and say, ‘Adiós,’” Mr. Ladd says. “You don’t get in their way, because they’ll kill you. ” Here is one aspect of everyday life along the southern border, where national demarcations are blurred by the supply and demand for what the United States continues to crave: drugs and cheap labor. The attendant casualties include human rights, property rights, civil discourse and the security of sovereignty. But is the Great Wall of Trump, as proposed by the Republican candidate for president, the solution to the problems of ranchers like Mr. Ladd? If pixie dust sprinkled into the dry earth could make all the obstacles disappear, beginning with the cost, would a concrete divide constructed to Donald J. Trump’s aesthetics (“beautiful,” with “a big beautiful door”) and specifications (25 feet high! 35 feet high!! 55 feet high! !!) serve its intended purpose? The answer heard time and again from Mr. Ladd and others along the border is a weary no. “The wall?” says Larry Dietrich, a local rancher. “I mean, it’s silly. ” But what if this beautiful wall — and “wall” is the term used in the Republican Party platform — had a foundation deep enough to discourage tunneling? What if the beautiful concrete panels were designed to thwart climbing over or plowing through? And what if it stretched for hundreds of miles, its beauty interrupted only by rugged, virtually impassable terrain? “It isn’t going to work,” Mr. Ladd says. Ed Ashurst, 65, an outspoken rancher who manages land about 20 miles from the border, is more assertive, but he needs to address something else first. “I’ll be straight up with you,” he says with a scowl. “If Hillary Clinton gets elected, I’m moving to Australia. ” Time will tell whether the Arizona rancher is forced to blend into the Outback, but his assessment of Mr. Trump’s plan is just as succinct. “To say you’re going to build a wall from Brownsville to San Diego?” he says. “That is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard. And it’s not going to change anything. ” The solution favored among ranchers is infused with a fatalism that nothing will change — government being government, and the cartels always one step ahead — so why bother. But here it goes: Intensive, patrols along the border are required for a fence or wall to work otherwise, those determined to cross will always find a way. But, they argue, if you have boots on the ground, you will have no need for anything so beautiful as the Great Wall of Trump. It is easy, from a distance, to dismiss the ranchers along the border as Chicken Littles whose complaints hint of racism. Too easy, in fact. Ranchers will say they saw people with backpacks trekking across their property last week, last night, early this morning. Some will say they have grudging agreements of access with drug cartels, as long as trespassers stay far from their homes. Dogs bark, motion lights flicker, things go missing. The unnerving has become everyday life, Mr. Ashurst says, and then he asks my colleague and me where we live. Metropolitan New York, we answer. Nice, Mr. Ashurst says, still scowling. “But how would you like it?” he asks, referring to the parade of strangers, some armed, past his door. “Do you think you’re more important than the poor moron who has the misfortune to live along the border?” True, the overall number of migrants has plummeted in the last 15 years or so. Here, in what the Border Patrol categorizes as the Tucson sector — about 90, 000 square miles, with 262 miles of border — there were 63, 397 arrests in the 2015 fiscal year, compared with 10 times that in the 2001 fiscal year. Paul Beeson, the patrol’s chief agent for the Tucson sector, attributes the drop to an increase in officers and tactical equipment, an improvement in the Mexican economy, and the fencing erected along the border about a decade ago. But Mr. Ladd and other ranchers say there has been an unsettling swap: fewer migrants, but many more drug traffickers. Mr. Beeson acknowledges the change in demographics, and the challenge in facing an adversary with comparable intelligence and surveillance abilities. “They don’t have to move their product today,” he says of the cartels. “They can move it tomorrow. They can sit and watch, and they do that. Watching us. Watching us watching them. ” But he says the Border Patrol continues to bolster its “tactical infrastructure” — higher resolution cameras, for example, and an increased use of drones. “It’s unacceptable to us that folks along the border should be experiencing this type of activity,” Mr. Beeson says. “We’re doing all we can. ” It is telling, though, that Mr. Ladd never used to carry a gun or a cellphone. That changed six years ago, when his friend Robert Krentz Jr. known to help people no matter their nationality, was shot to death on his family’s ranch after radioing his brother that he had come upon another migrant in distress. His unsolved murder caused a national outcry, and it led to state legislation intended to crack down on illegal immigration. It also prompted Mr. Ladd’s wife to demand that he carry a cellphone and a Glock. But, really, what is a Glock going to do? About 100 miles northeast of Naco, in a New Mexico dot called Animas, a few people gathered recently to sip iced tea and discuss where things stand. The Elbrocks — Tricia and Ed — set the tone by recalling how drug smugglers kidnapped one of their ranch hands a few months ago. According to the Elbrocks, the smugglers threatened to kill his family, loaded his pickup with packs of marijuana and drove him and the drugs 75 miles to the Arizona town of Willcox. Then they tied him up and abandoned him and the truck the next morning. A spokesman for the F. B. I. in Albuquerque said the kidnapping remained under investigation. As for the ranch hand, Ms. Elbrock said, “He’s in counseling. ” The fear, the frustration, the sense of being forsaken — it can be exhausting. “Nothing seems to work, because we keep buying what they bring to sell,” said Crystal Foreman Brown, 62, an artist and the host of this chat. “But Trump’s fence issue at least brings up the issue that there is an issue. For officials in Washington to act like we’re being silly and hysterical — it’s kind of inconceivable. ” Back in Naco, Mr. Ladd continues his ride between Mexico and his ranch, along a road called the Roosevelt Easement. His family has been in Naco for more than a century — before there was a Naco, in fact. Some say the name comes from combining the last two letters of Arizona and Mexico, but Mr. Ladd isn’t so sure. Naco is a drowsy dog of a place that seems not to have benefited much from being a sanctioned port of entry to Mexico. Adding to the stillness is a collection of abandoned barracks, built a century ago for American troops who chased after the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa after he attacked the New Mexico town of Columbus. They never caught him. Mr. Ladd says his family has sponsored three Mexicans for citizenship — but has seen more border sorrow than joy. Over the years, he says, the bodies of 14 people trying to get someplace else have been found on Ladd property. The last was in September. A party of six got caught in flooding five were rescued, and the body of the sixth was found several days later. Mr. Ladd waited for the authorities, but it was getting dark. So he moved the man’s body in his red pickup to Route 92, where a funeral home took custody. He recalls the event in that same measured way that underscores how common the uncommon is along the border. Rumbling west along the rutted road, Mr. Ladd points to his left and, referring to the cartels, says, “This is where they cut the wall down to drive trucks through. ” He is like an art museum denizen who has memorized the history of the permanent exhibits, commenting on the changing fence designs as he drives, noting the insignia of the military units who installed some of them on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security. The truck stops suddenly. “Well lookee there,” Mr. Ladd says, pointing to his right. “I got a cut fence. ” Snipped again, and Lord knows how many times his cows have wandered off as a result. The rancher slips white work gloves over his rough hands and reaches for a ball of blue string. Soon he is stitching together what has been broken, as gunmetal rain clouds move east from the Huachuca Mountains and the wind whistles through the mesh divide. | 0fake |
COWARDLY CHAIN MIGRATION TERRORIST Who Entered US During Obama’s Second Term, Mocked President Trump Just Before Failing To Blow Himself Up | Yesterday, a cowardly recipient of America s generosity, via a broken chain migration policy, walked through the busy subway terminal near the Port Authority Transit hub, where he planned to use a homemade bomb strapped to his body as a weapon to terrorize as many people as possible. The chain migration terrorist claims he chose the Port Authority site because the poor little radicalized Muslim who America welcomed with open arms, was triggered by the Christmas posters that hung in the hallways of the terminal. The chain migration terrorist, who was inspired by ISIS, failed miserably.The media will show their true colors when they ignore the ease with which radical Muslims from hotbed terror nations have been allowed to enter the United States, and will instead, will focus on Ullah s statement about wanting to punish President Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The media will also ignore the fact that we wouldn t even be having this conversation if Ullah was not allowed to enter the United States during Obama s presidency. It was actually during Barack Hussein Obama s second term in 2014, that Ullah began to explore ways to commit acts of terror against Americans, as a way to show his allegiance to the cowardly terror group, ISIS. (See paragraph f. )Port Authority bomber Akayed Ullah wanted to send a message straight to the White House: Trump you failed to protect your nation. Here is a screenshot of the complaint filed by Assistant United States Attorneys:That s what the 27-year-old ISIS adherent wrote on his Facebook page while on his way to blow himself up at the bustling transit hub Monday morning, according to the federal complaint filed Tuesday.He had also written in his passport: O AMERICA, DIE IN YOUR RAGE. The charges also reveal that the 27-year-old Bangeldesh-born cabbie s online radicalization began in 2014, and he began researching how to build bombs a year ago although he only constructed his crude explosive device at his Brooklyn home a week ago.Ullah built the bomb for maximum damage, federal prosecutors charge filling it with metal screws and performed the bombing on a workday because he believed that there would be more people. NYP | 1real |
Macedonia's PM hopes for quick solution to name dispute with Greece | LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Macedonia s prime minister said on Monday he hoped Skopje and Athens could soon reach a solution to a decades-long dispute over the former Yugoslav republic s name. Athens argues that the use of the name Macedonia implies territorial claim over Greece s own northerly region with the same name and has been blocking Skopje s efforts to join NATO and European Union over the issue. But Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said he expected the two sides to move fast to find a solution. November 21, 20 there will be a first meeting with (U.N. mediator) Matthew Nimetz and I hope we will find a solution rather than postpone it, Zaev said after meeting his Slovenian counterpart Miro Cerar. He said he expects Macedonia to start accession talks with the EU next year. The meeting in November will be the first with the U.N. mediator since Zaev took over in June. The Macedonia name dispute has dragged on for almost 26 years with no clear progress. Athens has previously insisted that Skopje use a compound name such as New or Upper Macedonia. The former prime minister, nationalist Nikola Gruevski, built his almost decade-long rule on nationalism and had refused to meet Greek demands. Macedonia, a small ex-Yugoslav republic of about 2 million people, declared independence in 1991 and avoided the violence that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. It was later rocked by an insurgency among its large ethnic Albanian minority that almost tore the country apart in 2001. | 0fake |
Ted Cruz Gets Cut Off Mid-Speech At Conservative Conference And Even CSPAN Is Mocking Him (VIDEO) | This last week has been an seemingly unending stream of terrifying, disturbing news about Trump and his administration. Adding to the mental instability and emotional immaturity of Trump, Republicans have renewed their push to strip 24 million Americans of healthcare. So it is with great relief that we can take a breather from all the terror to enjoy a moment of national unity in laughing at Ted Cruz.The Texas senator and one-time Republican presidential candidate was attending the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference. He was not the headliner, that distinction went to the man who once called his wife ugly and suggested he had dirt on her that he would leak to the press. The headliner was also the guy who once accused Ted s dad of helping assassinate John F. Kennedy. The headliner was the guy Ted Cruz called a pathological liar and a sniveling coward and the same guy who Cruz eventually endorsed for president.Cruz had to play second fiddle to Trump.But Cruz s humiliation at the Faith and Freedom event was only getting started. During what was meant to be a fiery speech, Cruz was starting to hit his stride when suddenly the announcer broke in, applause broke out, and a new speaker walked on to the stage. Cruz, looking confused and slightly hurt, was literally played off stage to music.CSPAN, the government-provided channel not known for its humor, even caught the moment and blasted it out to Twitter, signalboosting Cruz s embarrassment.Sen. @TedCruz is cut off in the middle of his remarks at the @FaithandFreedom Coalition Conference. Full video here: https://t.co/567TOaf01u pic.twitter.com/J0BK9J9nhe CSPAN (@cspan) June 8, 2017The result was nothing short of incredible, giving humanity the precious gift of this incredible moment:As Cruz wandered slowly off stage, the next speaker just moved on without even addressing the awkwardness. Cruz, robbed of yet another moment to shine, had to watch in the wings for the next hour or so until the headliner came out onto stage.Featured image via C-SPAN | 1real |
This anti-Trump advert on the side of a bus is really visually clever and you have to see it in motion | Next Swipe left/right This anti-Trump advert on the side of a bus is really visually clever and you have to see it in motion @Madsalbers over on Twitter writes, “Epic Bus Ad from the political party SF in Denmark is mocking @realDonaldTrump and encouraging Americans abroad to…” Epic Bus Ad from the political party SF in Denmark is mocking @realDonaldTrump and encouraging Americans abroad to vote. #Election2016 pic.twitter.com/MfyeOYtDuQ
— Mads Albers (@MadsAlbers) October 26, 2016
Well done Denmark! Rolling your eyes like that… | 1real |
America’s white fragility complex: Why white people get so defensive about their privilege | Last year, a white male Princeton undergraduate was asked by a classmate to “check his privilege.” Offended by this suggestion, he shot off a 1,300-word essay to the Tory, a right-wing campus newspaper. In it, he wrote about his grandfather who fled the Nazis to Siberia, his grandmother who survived a concentration camp in Germany, about the humble wicker basket business they started in America. He railed against his classmates for “diminishing everything [he’d] accomplished, all the hard work [he’d] done.”
His missive was reprinted by Time. He was interviewed by the New York Times and appeared on Fox News. He became a darling of white conservatives across the country.
What he did not do, at any point, was consider whether being white and male might have given him—if not his ancestors—some advantage in achieving incredible success in America. He did not, in other words, check his privilege.
To Robin DiAngelo, professor of multicutural education at Westfield State University and author of What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy, Tal Fortgang’s essay—indignant, defensive, beside-the-point, somehow both self-pitying and self-aggrandizing—followed a familiar script. As an anti-racist educator for more than two decades, DiAngelo has heard versions of it recited hundreds of times by white men and women in her workshops.
She’s heard it so many times, in fact, that she came up with a term for it: “white fragility,” which she defined in a 2011 journal article as “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include outward display of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing situation.”
When the Black Lives Matter movement marched in the streets, holding up traffic, disrupting commerce, and refusing to allow “normal life” to resume—insofar as normalcy means a system that permits police and vigilantes to murder black men and women with impunity—white people found themselves in tense conversations online, with friends and in the media about privilege, white supremacy and racism. You could say white fragility was at an all-time high.
I spoke with DiAngelo about how to deal with all the fragile white people, and why it’s worth doing so.
Sam Adler-Bell: How did you come to write about “white fragility”?
Robin DiAngelo: To be honest, I wanted to take it on because it’s a frustrating dynamic that I encounter a lot. I don’t have a lot of patience for it. And I wanted to put a mirror to it.
I do atypical work for a white person, which is that I lead primarily white audiences in discussions on race every day, in workshops all over the country. That has allowed me to observe very predictable patterns. And one of those patterns is this inability to tolerate any kind of challenge to our racial reality. We shut down or lash out or in whatever way possible block any reflection from taking place.
Of course, it functions as means of resistance, but I think it’s also useful to think about it as fragility, as inability to handle the stress of conversations about race and racism
Sometimes it’s strategic, a very intentional push back and rebuttal. But a lot of the time, the person simply cannot function. They regress into an emotional state that prevents anybody from moving forward.
SAB: Carla Murphy recently referenced “white fragility” in an article for Colorlines, and I’ve seen it referenced on Twitter and Facebook a lot lately. It seems like it’s having a moment. Why do you think that is?
RD: I think we get tired of certain terms. What I do used to be called “diversity training,” then “cultural competency” and now, “anti-racism.” These terms are really useful for periods of time, but then they get coopted, and people build all this baggage around them, and you have to come up with new terms or else people won’t engage.
And I think “white privilege” has reached that point. It rocked my world when I first really got it, when I came across Peggy McIntosh. It’s a really powerful start for people. But unfortunately it’s been played so much now that it turns people off.
SAB: What causes white fragility to set in?
RD: For white people, their identities rest on the idea of racism as about good or bad people, about moral or immoral singular acts, and if we’re good, moral people we can’t be racist – we don’t engage in those acts. This is one of the most effective adaptations of racism over time—that we can think of racism as only something that individuals either are or are not “doing.”
In large part, white fragility—the defensiveness, the fear of conflict—is rooted in this good/bad binary. If you call someone out, they think to themselves, “What you just said was that I am a bad person, and that is intolerable to me.” It’s a deep challenge to the core of our identity as good, moral people.
The good/bad binary is also what leads to the very unhelpful phenomenon of un-friending on Facebook.
SAB: Right, because the instinct is to un-friend, to dissociate from those bad white people, so that I’m not implicated in their badness.
RD: When I’m doing a workshop with white people, I’ll often say, “If we don’t work with each other, if we give in to that pull to separate, who have we left to deal with the white person that we’ve given up on and won’t address?
RD: Exactly. And white fragility also comes from a deep sense of entitlement. Think about it like this: from the time I opened my eyes, I have been told that as a white person, I am superior to people of color. There’s never been a space in which I have not been receiving that message. From what hospital I was allowed to be born in, to how my mother was treated by the staff, to who owned the hospital, to who cleaned the rooms and took out the garbage. We are born into a racial hierarchy, and every interaction with media and culture confirms it—our sense that, at a fundamental level, we are superior.
And, the thing is, it feels good. Even though it contradicts our most basic principles and values. So we know it, but we can never admit it. It creates this kind of dangerous internal stew that gets enacted externally in our interactions with people of color, and is crazy-making for people of color. We have set the world up to preserve that internal sense of superiority and also resist challenges to it. All while denying that anything is going on and insisting that race is meaningless to us.
SAB: Something that amazes me is the sophistication of some white people’s defensive maneuvers. I have a black friend who was accused of “online harassment” by a white friend after he called her out in a harsh way. What do you see going on there? RD: First of all, whites often confuse comfort with safety. We say we don’t feel safe, when what we mean is that we don’t feel comfortable. Secondly, no white person looks at a person of color through objective eyes. There’s been a lot of research in this area. Cross-racially, we do not see with objective eyes. Now you add that he’s a black man. It’s not a fluke that she picked the word “harassed.” In doing that, she’s reinforcing a really classic, racist paradigm: White women and black men. White women’s frailty and black men’s aggressiveness and danger. But even if she is feeling that, which she very well may be, we should be suspicious of our feelings in these interactions. There’s no such thing as pure feeling. You have a feeling because you’ve filtered the experience through a particular lens. The feeling is the outcome. It probably feels natural, but of course it’s shaped by what you believe. SAB: There’s also the issue of “tone-policing” here, right? RD: Yes. One of the things I try to work with white people on is letting go of our criteria about how people of color give us feedback. We have to build our stamina to just be humble and bear witness to the pain we’ve caused. In my workshops, one of the things I like to ask white people is, “What are the rules for how people of color should give us feedback about our racism? What are the rules, where did you get them, and whom do they serve?” Usually those questions alone make the point. It’s like if you’re standing on my head and I say, “Get off my head,” and you respond, “Well, you need to tell me nicely.” I’d be like, “No. Fuck you. Get off my fucking head.” In the course of my work, I’ve had many people of color give me feedback in ways that might be perceived as intense or emotional or angry. And on one level, it’s personal—I did do that thing that triggered the response, but at the same time it isn’t onlypersonal. I represent a lifetime of people that have hurt them in the same way that I just did. And, honestly, the fact that they are willing to show me demonstrates, on some level, that they trust me. RD: If people of color went around showing the pain they feel in every moment that they feel it, they could be killed. It is dangerous. They cannot always share their outrage about the injustice of racism. White people can’t tolerate it. And we punish it severely—from job loss, to violence, to murder. For them to take that risk and show us, that is a moment of trust. I say, bring it on, thank you. When I’m doing a workshop, I’ll often ask the people of color in the room, somewhat facetiously, “How often have you given white people feedback about our inevitable and often unconscious racist patterns and had that go well for you?” And they laugh. Because it just doesn’t go well. And so one time I asked, “What would your daily life be like if you could just simply give us feedback, have us receive it graciously, reflect on it and work to change the behavior? What would your life be like?” And this one man of color looked at me and said, “It would be revolutionary.” SAB: I notice as we’ve been talking that you almost always use the word “we” when describing white people’s tendencies. Can you tell me why you do that? RD: Well, for one, I’m white (and you’re white). And even as committed as I am, I’m not outside of anything that I’m talking about here. If I went around saying white people this and white people that, it would be a distancing move. I don’t want to reinforce the idea that there are some whites who are done, and others that still need work. There’s no being finished. Plus, in my work, I’m usually addressing white audiences, and the “we” diminishes defensiveness somewhat. It makes them more comfortable. They see that I’m not just pointing fingers outward. SAB: Do you ever worry about re-centering whiteness? RD: Well, yes. I continually struggle with that reality. By standing up there as an authority on whiteness, I’m necessarily reinforcing my authority as a white person. It goes with the territory. For example, you’re interviewing me now, on whiteness, and people of color have been saying these things for a very long time. On the one hand, I know that in many ways, white people can hear me in a way that they can’t hear people of color. They listen. So by god, I’m going to use my voice to challenge racism. The only alternative I can see is to not speak up and challenge racism. And that is not acceptable to me. SAB: Yes, and racism is something that everyone thinks they’re an authority on. RD: That drives me crazy. I’ll run into someone I haven’t seen in 20 years in the grocery store, and they’ll say, “Hi! What’ve you been doing?” And I say, “I got my Ph.D.” And they say, “Oh wow, what in?” And they’ll go “Oh, well you know. People just need to—” As if they’re going to give me the one-sentence answer to arguably the most challenging social dynamic of our time. Like, hey, why did I knock myself out for 20 years studying, researching, and challenging this within myself and others? I should have just come to you! And the answer is so simple! I’ve never heard that one before! Imagine if I was an astronomer. Everybody has a basic understanding of the sky, but they would not debate an astronomer on astronomy. The arrogance of white people faced with questions of race is unbelievable. | 0fake |
Southwest Flight Evacuated After Samsung Phone Catches Fire, Airline Says - The New York Times | A Southwest Airlines flight scheduled to leave Louisville, Ky. on Wednesday morning was evacuated on the runway after a passenger’s Samsung cellphone caught fire, passengers and the airline said. Southwest said in a statement that passengers and airline employees were taken off Flight 994, which was scheduled to leave for Baltimore, after a customer reported “smoke emitting from a Samsung electronic device. ” The Verge identified the passenger as Brian Green and his phone as “a replacement Galaxy Note 7. ” A Samsung spokeswoman said in a statement on Wednesday that the company was unable to immediately confirm which device was involved in the episode. “We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause,” the statement said. “Once we have examined the device, we will have more information to share. ” The company, which is the world’s largest smartphone maker, announced last month that it would replace 2. 5 million of the smartphone model because of a flaw in the battery’s cell that could result in the devices bursting into flames or exploding. Mr. Green told The Verge that he had picked up the new phone on Sept. 21, after the recall. The episode could be damaging for the company, because the replacement devices were thought to be safe. The new models had been approved by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, which on Wednesday said it was investigating the episode. In a statement, the commission chairman, Elliot F. Kaye, encouraged owners of the smartphone to turn it off and immediately participate in the recall. He also said staff members had reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration, Samsung and Mr. Green, noting that the agency is “moving expeditiously to investigate this incident. ” Christine Sundman, 65, a retired teacher who was planning to return home to New Hampshire after visiting her daughter’s family in Louisville, was one of the passengers evacuated from the flight. She said that a woman sitting near the phone’s owner had told her that the device had just been powered down when it caught fire. The owner quickly dropped the device on the floor, Mrs. Sundman said in a phone interview. Mrs. Sundman said she had been sitting in the seventh row of the plane and did not notice any commotion until a flight attendant rushed to the front to consult with her colleague. As they exchanged urgent whispers, Mrs. Sundman said, “I did hear the word ‘smoke.’ ” The two flight attendants went into the cockpit, Mrs. Sundman said, and within seconds the captain came out and calmly told passengers that the plane had to be evacuated. She said he did not need to use the loudspeaker to make his voice heard. As the passengers disembarked, the smell of smoke began to permeate the plane. “I did not see any of the passengers lose control,” Mrs. Sundman said. “One woman was kind of buzzing around a lot, but nobody lost control. The airline was working as hard as it could. ” Mrs. Sundman said the passengers were eventually told that a hole had burned through the floor. After about two hours, she said, the flight was canceled and passengers were allowed back on the plane to recover their baggage. “This could have happened moments after we took off, or in the air,” she said. “It could have been catastrophic. ” Earlier this year, Qantas banned Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from its flights because of instances in which they caught fire when passengers dropped their devices into the electronically activated seats, crushing the phone and damaging the battery. Air France also said it had several smoke or fire events that were set off in the same way. The Federal Aviation Administration strongly urged owners not to use the phones on planes, before the recall was ordered. | 0fake |
ROSIE O’DONNELL Gets A Tongue Lashing For Her Attack On Barron Trump: “Why Don’t You Worry About Your Own Children, And Why They Don’t Want To Be With You” [VIDEO] | 1real | |
U.S. Senate panel backs waiver allowing Mattis to serve as defense secretary | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee backed a waiver on Thursday that will allow James Mattis to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of defense, despite having retired as a Marine General in 2013. The panel voted 24-3 to waive a law on civilian control of the U.S. military that would have barred Mattis from assuming the position for seven years after his active duty service. The “no” votes came from three Democrats: Senators Richard Blumenthal, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren. The waiver must still be approved by the full Senate, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and the full House to allow Mattis to serve if he is confirmed to lead the Pentagon. | 0fake |
WHY THE HUGE 1.1 MILLION DROP in Food Stamp Enrollment? [VIDEO] | OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE DROPPED OFF OF THE FOOD STAMP LISTS GREAT NEWS!The surprising group that dropped off is illegals Yes, some illegals ARE eligible for food stamps! The USDA has this SNAP FOR NON-CITIZEN GUIDANCEWith the states of Georgia and Alabama leading the way, more than 1.1 million Americans dropped off the food stamp rolls since President Trump took office in January 2017, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics on food stamp enrollment. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dropped to 41,496,255 in May 2017, the most recent data available from the USDA, from 42,691,363 in January 2017 when Trump took office.According to the latest data, SNAP enrollment during the first few months of Trump s presidency decreased by 2.79 percent.Food stamp participation on average in 2017 has dropped to its lowest level since 2010, and the latest numbers show that this trend is continuing.Trump proposed cuts to SNAP in his 2018 budget proposal, suggesting that states match up to 20 percent of federal money allotted for the food stamp program and expand work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving food stamps.Trump s crackdown on illegal immigration has also prompted many immigrants, both legal and illegal, to cancel their food stamps over concerns that they might be denied citizenship or deported.Federal lawmakers are also working on legislation that would seek to expand food stamp work requirements and put time limits on how long those enrolled in the food stamp program can receive benefits.Read more: Breitbart News | 1real |
Republican green groups seek to temper Trump on climate change | NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s outspoken doubts about climate change and his administration’s efforts to roll back regulation to combat it have stirred a sleepy faction in U.S. politics: the Republican environmental movement. The various groups represent conservatives, Catholics and the younger generation of Republicans who, unlike Trump, not only recognize the science of climate change but want to see their party wrest the initiative from Democrats and lead efforts to combat global warming. Conservative green groups such as ConservAmerica and republicEn, along with politically neutral religious groups such as Catholic Climate Covenant and bipartisan groups such as the Citizens Climate Lobby, have ramped up efforts to recruit more congressional Republicans to work on addressing climate change since Trump’s election. Conservative environmental advocates promote what they call “free enterprise” solutions to climate change, like a carbon tax. That stands in contrast to the approach of liberal environmentalists under former President Barack Obama, who backed bans on certain kinds of oil drilling and regulations aimed at discouraging petroleum use. But whatever their differences, the conservative groups say they have an important role to play. “Conservatives now have a chance to earn back the trust of Americans on environmental issues,” said Alex Bozmoski, director of strategy for republicEn. “They can lead in a completely different direction that actually grows the economy while cutting greenhouse gasses.” The activists’ efforts have not swayed anywhere near a majority yet on Capitol Hill. Only 20 or so of the 237 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have spoken out on climate change this year. But they hope to build a big enough bloc in Congress, or enough influence at the White House, to temper Trump’s agenda. Lobbying has yielded some early results: a pro-environment voting bloc in Congress, the Climate Solutions Caucus, for example, has signed on more Republicans in the last two months than in it had in the final year of Obama’s administration - its first year in existence. Urged on by a coalition of conservative and religious groups, including the Catholic Climate Covenant, a handful of additional Republicans have also signed a congressional resolution pledging to address climate change. The resolution was non-binding, but it represented a direct challenge to Trump’s climate stance, a high-profile signal of dissent within his party. “It’s like Alcoholics Anonymous — you’ve got to first recognize you’ve got a problem before you can deal with it,” said Mark Sanford, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina who signed the resolution. Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the more than 100-year-old Sierra Club environmental group, said she was happy to see “enlightened Republicans” beginning to act on climate change. But Pierce added, “Legislative action is a long time away based on, at least, the Republican leadership.” Pierce also said she was skeptical of free enterprise solutions advocated by conservative environmental groups like republicEn, which she said sounded to her like “we have to pay them not to pollute.” Jose Aguto, associate director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, said Republicans are the only major political party in the world not convinced by climate change. “Once they accept the reality and science of climate change, we will have reached a tipping point in the political will for solutions.” Trump has raised the hackles of many environmentalists since taking office. He has overturned several Obama-era environmental regulations, and last week he proposed slashing the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31 percent. During his presidential campaign Trump called climate change a “hoax” and vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, a global pact to fight it – tapping into a well of Republican concern that the United States’ energy habits would be policed by the United Nations. But Republican bias against climate science is out of step with the majority of Americans. A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a majority of Republican supporters agree the United States should play a leading role in combating climate change. “It shouldn’t surprise anyone that more and more Republicans are interested in this issue,” said Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo of Florida. “This issue was regrettably politicized some 20 or so years ago, and we are in the process of taking some of the politics out.” On Feb. 8, representatives from a newly formed group of Republican statesmen, the Climate Leadership Council, including former Treasury secretaries Henry Paulson and James A. Baker, met with senior administration officials to push a carbon tax. “We got a very respectful hearing,” said the council’s CEO, Ted Halstead. “We’ve also been meeting with Republicans on the Hill and have found open minds.” The White House did not comment on the meetings. Billionaire Republican donor and environmental advocate Andy Sabin, meanwhile, said he has been speaking directly with White House officials in hope of becoming Trump’s unpaid climate change adviser – modeled on the role of fellow billionaire Carl Icahn in advising Trump on regulation. Focusing on health concerns would be the most effective way to get Trump to try to slow climate change, said Sabin, a precious metals magnate. When asked about the chances of Sabin getting the position, a White House spokeswoman said, “We don’t have an announcement at this time.” Republican Senator James Inhofe incurred public ridicule two years ago after marching into the Capitol Building with a snowball, claiming the cold weather disproved Obama’s climate change claims. This year, republicEn used the incident as part of a humorous rallying call on Valentine’s Day. Volunteers delivered greeting cards to lawmakers quoting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in his former role as chief executive officer of Exxon, declaring climate change to be a serious risk warranting “thoughtful action.” Along with the card were coconut-coated cakes called Sno Balls, a photograph of Inhofe and a poem: “Roses are red, snowballs are white, together we’ll get the solution right.” | 0fake |
[VIDEO] Obama Needed A Girl To Take Down Mitt Romney, But Mocks GOP Candidates: “They Can’t Handle Putin If They Can’t Handle CNBC” | Because Obama s doing such a great job keeping Putin in check right? President Obama mocked Republican candidates who suggested they ll be tough with Vladimir Putin but can t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators at a debate during a speech on Monday.Obama stated, Have you noticed that every one of these candidates say, You know, Obama s weak, he s people Putin s kicking sand in his face, when I talk to Putin, he s going to straighten out. Just looking at him, I m going to he s going to be ? And then it turns out, they can t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators at a debate. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
U.S. lawmakers gear up to block Trump plan to slash oil stockpile | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Trump administration plan to sell off half the U.S. emergency crude oil stockpile to help balance the budget faces opposition in Congress, with lawmakers from both parties worried the proposal would undermine the drilling industry and make the country vulnerable to supply shocks. The White House’s 2018 budget proposal, sent to Congress on Tuesday, proposes raising nearly $16.6 billion by 2027 by gradually selling millions of barrels from the reserve, which now holds about 688 million barrels of oil in underground caverns in Texas and Louisiana. News of the proposal had briefly sent oil prices tumbling on concern it would oversupply the market, but prices recovered and finished slightly higher on hopes that OPEC and other countries would extend supply cuts. “We should not be selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now,” said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, a leading oil producer state. “We should use the SPR for emergencies, and selling now would disrupt the markets.” The SPR sell-off plan is part of a broader White House proposal to balance the U.S. budget that is meant as starting point to debate policy with Congress - which will ultimately pass its own version. Whether the SPR proposal will survive the budget process could depend in part on Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a member of the appropriations committee and the head of the chamber’s energy panel. In 2015, when Congress was considering selling a modest amount of oil from the reserve to help fund a transportation bill, Murkowski opposed the idea, saying the reserve should not be used as an ATM. Murkowski did not directly address the SPR plan in a statement on Tuesday, but she said “a President’s budget is more of a vision than anything else.” Efforts to reach Murkowski on Tuesday were not successful. Murkowski’s Democratic counterpart on the energy panel, however, raised concerns that liquidating half of the reserve would run counter to the original purpose of the facility, which Congress created in 1975 to protect against global oil disruptions that could harm the U.S. economy. “We are not going to let Donald Trump auction off our energy security to the highest bidder,” Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington said in an email. The Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s led to chaos at U.S. filling stations and fears of long-term damage to the economy. Much has changed since then: U.S. oil production has surged in recent years and supply from Canada has increased, displacing a large portion of the imports from some less stable Middle Eastern suppliers. U.S. oil imports from the producer group OPEC have fallen to less than 3.2 million bpd in 2016 from more than 5.4 million barrels per day in 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Richard Newell, a former head of the EIA, noted that the plan could cause the United States to break its obligation as a member of the International Energy Agency to hold 90 days’ worth of oil imports on reserve. Currently, the SPR holds about 145 days’ worth of oil imports. “There are a number of possible scenarios under which reducing the SPR to the levels proposed would violate our IEA treaty obligations,” he said. Lawmakers from both parties also said releasing oil from the SPR could dampen crude prices and hurt drilling companies still recovering from a price crash in 2014. Trump had campaigned on a promise to revive the drilling industry. “Putting that much oil on the market, you will see a lot of layoffs in the energy business,” said Representative Gene Green, a Democrat from Texas. Mick Mulvaney, the head of the Office of Management and Budget told reporters on Tuesday, however, there are ways to tap the SPR slowly and “telegraph it over the course of time” to avoid having a dramatic impact on prices. Representative Pete Olson, a Texas Republican, said the SPR infrastructure needs improvement because tanks and other equipment are constantly exposed to corrosive salt air. But he did not rush to embrace a sell-off of oil, saying that the larger budget deserves careful scrutiny. Some oil industry representatives also came out against the proposal. Randall Luthi, President of the National Ocean Industries Association said the plan to cut the SPR in half threatened national security. He added he also opposed a proposal in the budget to cut federal oil royalty payments to U.S. Gulf Coast states - funds meant to help them defend their coasts from hurricane damage. | 0fake |
NORDSTROM DISCONTINUES Ivanka Trump Brand After Boycott Threats…Continues To Sell Line By Trashy, Cop-Bashing, Race-Obsessed Beyoncé | When Nordstrom announced on Thursday that it will no longer be selling this season s merchandise from Ivanka Trump s fashion line over boycotts from the Left, I was truly shocked. Nordstrom discontinued a line by the daughter of the President of the United States because they Left doesn t agree with his positions on national security. Let that sink in!Imagine the outrage if Nordstrom agreed to cancel a clothing line by Malia Obama because conservatives didn t approve of the former President Obama.If we had an honest journalist in the mainstream media, they would be exposing the hypocrisy of the Left, who relentless demand we show tolerance for other points of view while behaving like the most intolerant group of people in the world.The end of the relationship between the department-store chain and Trump s brand came after boycott threats from the Grab Your Wallet campaign, which has called on people to stay away from companies that sell both Ivanka and Donald Trump s merchandise, the Seattle Times reported.Nordstrom tweeted that the decision to stop selling Trump s brand was not a political move but one that was based on its sales performance. A spokesperson for Nordstrom did not say if the decision to stop selling Trump s fashion line was permanent. WFB | 1real |
SUNDAY SCREENING: ‘Air America: The CIA’s Secret Airline’ (2000) | Our weekly documentary film, curated by our editorial team at 21WIRE. EDITORS NOTE: At times, this film might sanitise the CIA infamous operation in Southeast Asia, just short of glorifying it, but the detail and over view of this piece of history is extremely education especially when you consider how similar operations are doing the exact same operation in Turkey, Pakistan and Yemen. From its origins with the legendary Flying Tigers of WWII to the final days of the Vietnam War, the covert program of Air America is one of the most clandestine operations in CIA history. Watch: SEE MORE SUNDAY SCREENINGS HERE | 1real |
Trump Said Some INSANELY Racist Stuff Inside The Oval Office, And Witnesses Back It Up | In the wake of yet another court decision that derailed Donald Trump s plan to bar Muslims from entering the United States, the New York Times published a report on Saturday morning detailing the president s frustration at not getting his way and how far back that frustration goes.According to the article, back in June, Trump stomped into the Oval Office, furious about the state of the travel ban, which he thought would be implemented and fully in place by then. Instead, he fumed, visas had already been issued to immigrants at such a rate that his friends were calling to say he looked like a fool after making his broad pronouncements.It was then that Trump began reading from a document that a top advisor, noted white supremacist Stephen Miller, had handed him just before the meeting with his Cabinet. The page listed how many visas had been issued this year, and included 2,500 from Afghanistan (a country not on the travel ban), 15,000 from Haiti (also not included), and 40,000 from Nigeria (sensing a pattern yet?), and Trump expressed his dismay at each.According to witnesses in the room who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity, and who were interviewed along with three dozen others for the article, Trump called out each country for its faults as he read: Afghanistan was a terrorist haven, the people of Nigeria would never go back to their huts once they saw the glory of America, and immigrants from Haiti all have AIDS. Despite the extensive research done by the newspaper, the White House of course denies that any such language was used.But given Trump s racist history and his advisor Stephen Miller s blatant white nationalism, it would be no surprise if a Freedom of Information Act request turned up that the document in question had the statements printed inline as commentary for the president to punctuate his anger with. It was Miller, after all, who was responsible for the American Carnage speech that Trump delivered at his inauguration.This racist is a menace to America, and he doesn t represent anything that this country stands for. Let s hope that more indictments from Robert Mueller are on their way as we speak.Featured image via Chris Kleponis/Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
From blind date to Botswana's stars, Prince Harry charts love for U.S. actress Meghan Markle | LONDON (Reuters) - Just four weeks after a blind date with U.S. actress Meghan Markle that left him beautifully surprised , Britain s Prince Harry took his wife-to-be on a trip to Botswana to camp under the stars in his tent. Harry, 33, Queen Elizabeth s grandson and fifth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, best known for her role in the U.S. TV legal drama Suits , got engaged this month at their cottage in London over a roast chicken dinner. In their first broadcast interview since announcing the news earlier on Monday, Harry and Markle held hands as they discussed the moment of their proposal and their courtship. It was just an amazing surprise. It was so sweet and natural, and very romantic. He got on one knee, Markle said. I could barely let you finish proposing. I said, can I say yes now? Harry said that he had not watched the show which made Markle s name, and Markle too was relatively unfamiliar with Britain s royal family before meeting Harry. I had never watched Suits , I had never heard of Meghan before and I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and saw her. I was like, OK well I m going to have to really up my game here , Harry said. It was I think about three maybe four weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana and we camped out with each other under the stars. Harry and Markle, who is a divorcee, met in July 2016 after they were introduced through a friend who set them up on a blind date. But it was not until September that they made their first public appearance together at the Invictus Games in Toronto, a sports event for wounded veterans. They are due to marry in the spring of next year. The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect, Harry said. This beautiful woman just tripped and fell into my life, I fell into her life. The prince, the younger son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his first wife Diana, publicly confirmed their relationship months later in a rebuke to the media over its alleged intrusion into Markle s private life. As she got to know Harry, Markle learnt about the huge amount of public scrutiny that the royals face, and she said she was not prepared for the level of attention their relationship would have. I did not have any understanding of just what it would be like, she said, saying there was a misconception that because she was an actress she would be used to being in the media spotlight. In his office s warning to the media, Harry referred to the sexism and racism directed at Markle, whose father is white and her mother African-American. Harry said he had to warn his future wife about the media attention they would face. Any the end of day I m really just proud of who I am and where I come from and we have never put any focus on that, she said. We were just hit so hard at the beginning with a lot of mistruths. Markle said she had met Queen Elizabeth, who she said was an incredible woman. Harry quipped that the queen s corgis had taken to her straight away despite barking at him for years. Markle showed off her three-stone engagement ring set in yellow gold, which features a diamond from Botswana and two other gems from the collection of his mother, Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997. It s beautiful, and he designed it. It s incredible ... obviously not being able to meet his mum, it s so important to me to know that she s a part of this with us, Markle said, turning to Harry as she spoke about the ring. It s incredibly special to be able to have this, which sort of links where you come from, and Botswana, which is important to us, it s perfect. | 0fake |
FBI director nominee Wray earned $9.2 million in law practice last year | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the FBI earned $9.2 million last year as a partner in an international law firm, where he worked for clients ranging from Credit Suisse Group and Wells Fargo to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Disclosure forms produced for the Office of Government Ethics show Christopher Wray is also expected to receive millions more in payments when he leaves the King & Spalding law firm on his confirmation as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The forms and a letter from Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus, a designated ethics official for the Justice Department, were made public ahead of Wray’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Wray would succeed James Comey, whom Trump fired in May. Lofthus said in his letter that Wray would not receive a bonus, severance or contingency fees on leaving his firm but would receive a refund of his money in the firm’s capital account and a final partnership share distribution, unless he decided to forfeit it. To satisfy ethics concerns, Wray will not participate for one year in FBI matters that involve companies or people represented by his former law firm, Lofthus said in his letter. He also will not participate in matters involving his former clients for a year, unless he obtains a prior authorization. Wray’s financial disclosure forms show he provided legal services to a number of large international corporations, including Johnson & Johnson, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust Banks He also provided legal services to Christie during the “Bridgegate” scandal in which two of the Republican governor’s former associates were convicted of plotting to close down access lanes at the George Washington Bridge for nearly a week in 2013 in an act of political retribution. If he is confirmed, Wray will have 90 days to dispose of millions of dollars worth of stock he owns in firms ranging from Apple Inc and American Airlines to Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil, Lofthus said. Wray served at the U.S. Justice Department from 2003 to 2005 under Republican President George W. Bush as an assistant attorney general in charge of its criminal division and oversaw the department’s Enron task force. | 0fake |
OBAMA BLAMES RUSSIA For Hillary’s Loss, But NEW HARVARD STUDY Exposes Who REALLY Interfered In Outcome Of Our Elections | A new report from Harvard Kennedy School s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy analyzes news coverage during the 2016 general election, and concludes that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump received coverage that was overwhelmingly negative in tone and extremely light on policy.This is the final report of a multi-part research series analyzing news coverage of candidates and issues during the 2016 presidential election. The study tracks news coverage from the second week of August 2016 to the day before Election Day.Negative coverage was the order of the day in the general election. Not a week passed where the nominees coverage reached into positive territory. It peaked at 81 percent negative in mid-October, but there was not a single week where it dropped below 64 percent negative.The press s negative bent is not confined to election politics (see Figure 4).[2] In recent years, when immigration has been the subject of news stories, the ratio of negative stories to positive ones has been 5-to-1. In that same period, news reports featuring Muslims have been 6-to-1 negative. News stories about health care policy, most of which centered on the 2010 Affordable Care Act, have been 2-to-1 negative. Although the nation s economy has steadily improved since the financial crisis of 2008, one would not know that from the tone of news coverage. Since 2010, news stories about the nation s economy have been 2-to-1 negative over positive.The real bias of the press is not that it s liberal. Its bias is a decided preference for the negative. As scholar Michael Robinson noted, the news media seem to have taken some motherly advice and turned it upside down. If you don t have anything bad to say about someone, don t say anything at all. [3] A New York Times columnist recently asserted that the internet is distorting our collective grasp on the truth. [4] There s a degree of accuracy in that claim but the problem goes beyond the internet and the talk shows. The mainstream press highlights what s wrong with politics without also telling us what s right.It s a version of politics that rewards a particular brand of politics. When everything and everybody is portrayed as deeply flawed, there s no sense making distinctions on that score, which works to the advantage of those who are more deeply flawed. Civility and sound proposals are no longer the stuff of headlines, which instead give voice to those who are skilled in the art of destruction. The car wreck that was the 2016 election had many drivers. Journalists were not alone in the car, but their fingerprints were all over the wheel.The research is confined to the election coverage in the print editions of five daily papers (the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today) and the main newscasts of five television networks (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, CNN s The Situation Room, Fox s Special Report, and NBC Nightly News). In the case of the newspapers, the analysis covers all sections except sports, obituaries, and letters to the editor. Op-eds and editorials are included, but letters from the public are not. For television, the analysis covers the full daily content of each network s major newscast. Network talk shows are not included.Trump s general election news coverage fit the pattern of earlier stages of the campaign in several respects but not all. The major departure was that his general election coverage was overwhelmingly negative in tone. In our earlier reports, we documented the positive coverage Trump received during the nominating stage of the campaign, a pattern largely attributable to the press s tendency to highlight the horserace in the pre-primary and primary periods. As Trump rose from single digits in the polls and then won key primaries, he got favorable press. It was a story of growing momentum, rising poll numbers, ever larger crowds, and electoral success. The fact that the horse race is the most heavily covered aspect of the nominating phase magnified Trump s favorable coverage.Trump s general election coverage was a stark contrast. His coverage was negative from the start, and never came close to entering positive territory (see Figure 8). During his best weeks, the coverage ran 2-to-1 negative over positive. In his worst weeks, the ratio was more than 10-to-1. If there was a silver lining for Trump, it was that his two best weeks were the ones just preceding the November balloting. Trump s coverage was negative in all the news outlets in our study, even those that typically side with the Republican nominee (see Figure 9). Fox provided Trump his most favorable coverage, but it was still nearly 3-to-1 negative over positive. The Wall Street Journal was his next best outlet, but its coverage ran 4-to-1 negative. The most negative coverage was carried by CBS at 9-to-1, but Trump s coverage was nearly as negative in most other outlets.Compare to Hillary s coverage:To be sure, changes in journalism are not the only reason that campaigns have become more negative. The party polarization that has seeped into American politics during the past three decades has been accompanied by rising levels of partisan attack. But to claim that party polarization explains the media s negative bent is to ignore the fact that the press s negativity is not confined to party politics. There s barely an aspect of public life that is not subject to intense criticism.A healthy dose of negativity is unquestionably a good thing. There s a lot of political puffery, ineptitude, and manipulation that needs to be exposed, and journalists would be shirking their duty if they failed to expose it. Yet an incessant stream of criticism has a corrosive effect. It needlessly erodes trust in political leaders and institutions and undermines confidence in government and policy.Negative news has partisan consequences. Given that journalists bash both sides, it might be thought the impact would be neutral. It s not. For one thing, indiscriminate criticism has the effect of blurring important distinctions. Were the allegations surrounding Clinton of the same order of magnitude as those surrounding Trump? It s a question that journalists made no serious effort to answer during the 2016 campaign. They reported all the ugly stuff they could find, and left it to the voters to decide what to make of it. Large numbers of voters concluded that the candidates indiscretions were equally disqualifying and made their choice, not on the candidates fitness for office, but on less tangible criteria in some cases out of a belief that wildly unrealistic promises could actually be kept.For entire story and study: Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy | 1real |
VICE MAGAZINE CALLS FOR ISIS-LIKE DESTRUCTION: “Let’s Blow Up Mount Rushmore” | It is becoming increasingly difficult to separate leftists from Islamic terrorists as both destroy monuments, statues, and seek to eliminate freedoms we enjoy. On a day in which an Islamic terrorist killed over a dozen people in Barcelona, senior editor Wilber Cooper has the audacity to publish an article for VICE Magazine urging the left to destroy Mt. Rushmore just like ISIS would.In his article Let s Blow Up Mount Rushmore, Cooper attacks the Founding Fathers and calls for a demolition of the monument. His call to erase historical markers, such as statues, echoes the recent movement from left-wingers for a culture war that would decimate Americans political traditions and heroes. Those targeted heroes include Thomas Jefferson, former president and chief author of the Bill of Rights such as the First Amendment and General and President George Washington, who declined offers to become a dictator after winning the Revolutionary War.Cooper argues that these historical monuments and statues help preserve a system of racial exploitation and inequality, and should be erased to help build a new society. He says, It s going to be impossible to improve America if we can t be honest about its origins and its past. He insists that Trump and his white supremacist cohorts believe the reverence some Americans have for these statues is simply respect for history, and that tearing them down is tantamount to ripping pages out of a textbook. But monuments built by the state are not history they are manifestations of power. Upon acknowledging the insensitivity of the article s title given the tragic events which occurred earlier today in Spain, VICE Magazine deleted the original article and wrote an editor s note: The headline and URL of this story have been updated. We do not condone violence in any shape or form, and the use of blow up in the original headline as a rhetorical device was misguided and insensitive. We apologize for the error. They have since changed the title to Get Rid of Mount Rushmore. Wow. What an improvement. Leftists continue to contradict their self-proclaimed peace-seeking objectives and prove that they are actually seeking to burn down the United States by getting rid of every trace of this great country s history. And you can bet they are coming for the Constitution next.Read more: Breitbart | 1real |
Has Economics Failed? | Email
It is especially painful for me, as an economist, to see that two small cities in northern California — San Mateo and Burlingame — have rent control proposals on the ballot this election year.
There are various other campaigns, in other places around the country, for and against minimum wage laws, which likewise make me wonder if the economics profession has failed to educate the public in the most elementary economic lessons.
Neither rent control nor minimum wage laws — nor price control laws in general — are new. Price control laws go back as far as ancient Egypt and Babylon, and they have been imposed at one time or other on every inhabited continent.
History alone should be able to tell us what the actual consequences of such laws have been, since they have been around for thousands of years. Anyone who has taken a course in Economics 1 should understand why those consequences have been so different from what their advocates expected. It is not rocket science.
Nevertheless, advocates of a rent control law are saying things like "this will prevent some landlords from gouging tenants and making a ton of money off the housing crisis."
The reason there is a housing crisis in the first place is that existing laws in much of California prevent enough housing from being built to supply the apartments and homes that people want. If landlords were all sweethearts, and never raised rents, that would still not get one new building built.
Rising rents are a symptom of the problem. The actual cause of the problem is a refusal of many California officials to allow enough housing to be built for all the people who want to rent an apartment.
Supply and demand is one of the first things taught in introductory economics textbooks. Why it should be a mystery to people living in an upscale community — people who have probably graduated from an expensive college — is the real puzzle. Supply and demand is not a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge.
A century ago, virtually any economist could have explained why preventing housing from being built would lead to higher rents, and why rent control would further widen the gap between the amount of housing supplied and the amount demanded. Not to mention such other consequences as a faster deterioration of existing housing, since upkeep gets neglected when there is a housing shortage.
Today's economists have advanced to far more complicated problems. It is as if we had the world's greatest mathematicians but most college graduates couldn't do arithmetic.
Part of the problem is that even our most prestigious colleges seldom have any real curriculum requirements that would ensure that their graduates had at least a basic understanding of economics, history, mathematics, science or other fundamental subjects.
Many students and their parents spend great amounts of money, and go into debt, for an education that too often leaves them illiterate in economics and ignorant of many other subjects.
Part of the problem is that many college graduates do not take a single course in economics. Another part of the problem is that many economics departments leave the teaching of introductory economics in the hands of some junior or transient faculty member, or even graduate students who get stuck with the job.
One of the things that made me proud of the economics department at UCLA when I taught there, decades ago, was that teaching the introductory economics course was the job of a full professor, even if not the same professor every year.
In all too many subjects today, the introductory course is taught by junior faculty, transient faculty or graduate students, while the full professors teach only upper level courses or postgraduate courses.
That may save a department the expense of staffing the introductory course with their more highly paid members. But, it is extravagantly expensive from the standpoint of society as a whole, when it means sending graduates out into the world unable to see through the wasteful economic hokum spread by politicians.
That is how you get ill-informed voters who support price controls of many kinds, without understanding that prices convey economic realities that do not change just because the government changes the prices. It is as if someone's fever was treated by putting the thermometer in cold water to bring the temperature reading down. You don't get more housing with rent control.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com .
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LEFTIST STORE OWNER Makes Video Asking Libs To Help DESTROY Billboard Owner’s Business After He Removed Her Hateful Trump-Hitler Advertisement | Things didn t go as well as Nicholle had hoped and now, she s lashing out at the owner of the billboard company who was inundated with calls from angry residents.Rouse & Revolt owner Nicholle Lewis told Newsweek that she didn t sleep much last night. Her phone wouldn t stop going off with the persistent buzzing of death threats for her sign, which stylizes the number 45 into a swastika and features Trump posed in a Hitler-esque stance. I m living in a small, podunk red town and I m already getting death threats, said Lewis, whose store is in right-leaning Chico, population 90,000. My business has completely floundered. Overnight I had more one-star reviews than all the reviews I ve received in a year. The sign was up for less than 24 hours before Stott Outdoor Advertising took it down amid a backlash that featured online attacks.But Lewis said she s standing behind her beliefs. I don t necessarily think that just because I m a business doesn t mean I can t mix my beliefs, Lewis said. That s a common misconception that you can t mix politics and business. I have a platform and I m going to use it. Lewis has used the billboard at the corner of Third Avenue and Mangrove Avenue all year, though this is the first time she s made it political. He is not presidential, he is not a president, Lewis said. He is a celebrity who was born into money. And he s a Nazi sympathizer. I am going to stand behind my beliefs regardless. Lewis said she has been getting some support, too.Lewis got slammed by bad reviews on her store, Rouse and Revolt Facebook page, as well as her personal Facebook page, where she posted this video. In the video, Lewis pleas with liberals to make false claims against the sign company, as a payback because she s been hit with bad reviews. That s called liberal logic, in case you re not familiar with how liberal operate.Watch, as angry liberal Nicholle Haber Lewis threatens the sign company with a lawsuit while simultaneously asking libs to help her destroy his business.(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.10"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Posted by Nicholle Haber Lewis on Friday, October 6, 2017The general manager of Stott Outdoor Advertising replied to Newsweek:Jim Moravec, the general manager of Stott Outdoor Advertising, told Newsweek that the company took it down because a lot of people misinterpreted the billboard and who the speaker was. I should have not accepted the ad in the first place, Moravec said, adding that the sign looked more like a call for action than an ad for the clothing store. Newsweek | 1real |
Mattis plays down split between Trump, Tillerson on North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday played down an apparent split between the U.S. president and his top diplomat over outreach to North Korea, saying America s focus was still on finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute with Pyongyang. President Donald Trump, who has traded insults and threats with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks, said on Sunday Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Tillerson, during a trip to China on Saturday, said the United States had direct channels of communication with the North and was probing Pyongyang to see if it was interested in dialogue. He expressed hope for reducing tensions with North Korea, which is fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. I do not see the divergence as strongly as some ... have interpreted it, Mattis said. Both Mattis and Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, broadly backed Tillerson s efforts as they testified at the hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. President Trump s guidance to both Secretary Tillerson and me has been very clearly that we would ... pursue the diplomatic effort to include with the various initiatives with China, Mattis told a Senate hearing. I believe that Secretary Tillerson is accurately stating that we are probing for opportunities to talk with the North. All we re doing is probing. We re not talking with them, consistent with the president s dismay about not talking with them before the time is right. Trump has vowed to halt North Korea s nuclear ambitions and tensions have escalated in recent months, with Pyongyang conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3. It has also threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. Dunford, the top U.S. military officer, strongly backed Tillerson s efforts to tighten an economic squeeze on North Korea. The international community s sanctions will need to be strong enough to convince Kim he cannot survive in power unless he changes course, he said. Dunford said Kim sees possession of ballistic missiles and a nuclear capability as inextricably linked to regime survival, adding: What I think Kim Jong Un needs to realize is that he cannot survive with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons because the international community will not allow him to survive. Dunford said Kim was particularly sensitive to the flow of oil into North Korea, saying when there has been a cut-off in the past there s been a change in Kim Jong Un s behavior. The fact is he needs economic resources external to the country to survive, he said. U.S. Senator Jack Reed questioned whether some degree of communication was vital between Washington and Pyongyang, given the risks of miscalculation by either side that could lead to conflict. Mattis suggested that the Trump administration was exploring a host of ways to influence the North, including through diplomacy. I think the president dispatching Secretary Tillerson to Beijing here within the past several days to carry messages and to look at the way we can work with them is the most accurate answer to your question, that in fact this is part of a whole ... integrated effort that we have underway right now, Mattis said. It was not the first time the White House and State Department have seemed at odds on policy issues, but the White House has said Trump still had confidence in Tillerson. Trump has vowed to halt North Korea s nuclear ambitions and tensions have escalated in recent months, with Pyongyang conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3. It has also threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. The fate of Americans held in North Korea is also a bone of contention. The Trump administration has demanded North Korea release three U.S. citizens it has detained: missionary Kim Dong Chul and academics Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song. The Trump White House and State Department have taken divergent stances on other foreign policy issues. When a dispute over Qatar erupted this year, Trump strongly backed Gulf Arab leaders who accuse Qatar of supporting Iran as well as Islamist militants. Trump accused Qatar of being a high-level funder of terrorism even as the Pentagon and Tillerson cautioned against the military, commercial and humanitarian effects of a boycott imposed by Arab states. Months into the dispute, Trump adopted a position more in line with that of the State Department. | 0fake |
OOPS! WAS ANTIFA TERRORIST Who Threatened Acid Attack On Trump Supporters Caught Violating His Probation Today? [VIDEO] | Antifa member, Paul Luke Kuhn who was busted by Project Veritas undercover journalists plotting Butyric acid attacks to disrupt Trump s inauguration party and subsequently arrested was spotted today at a DC protest today.Was he violating his probation orders following his arrest?Rebel Media s Jack Posobiec was live on the scene in D.C. reporting at a protest when he was assaulted by Antifa. The Antifa supporter who physically assaulted Posobiec was immediately arrested. After reviewing the footage, Antifa member, Luke Kuhn was immediately recognized. (A face that creepy is impossible to forget).VIDEO footage of assault where you can see Luke Kuhn clearly.Note the woman who is pretending to be a reporter with a notebook in her hand who tells the police officer, nothing happened when he rushes across the street after clearly seeing what just happened. Another friend of the violent leftist who sucker punched Jack Posobiec tells the police officer, It was self-defense. Lying, violent liberals wearing their little sister s bike helmets and masks. God help us if we ever need these men to actually defend our nation Jack Posobiec Assaulted by Antifa Terrorist pic.twitter.com/L2UvnJ2pKq Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 23, 2017Here s a Twitter user telling the reporter Lacy MacAuley to lawyer up after she lied to the police officer telling him, nothing happened after Posobiec got sucker-punched on camera:This is the video of you yelling, "Nothing happened." You were an accessory. I'd lawyer up pronto if I was you. https://t.co/mcY9sisqPC Covfefing Michaela (@MichaelaAleach1) April 23, 2017Here is her arrogant response. Clearly she s living in the past (when Obama still reigned supreme, and when criminals had the upper hand over law enforcement). You re living in Trump s world now Lacy. You may want to lawyer up.Yes I am absolutely proud of this. Thanks for reposting this video. Because, guess what? Nothing illegal happened. No one was punched. https://t.co/XSEXFK7VmO Lacy MacAuley (@lacymacauley) April 23, 2017This is the video of you yelling, "Nothing happened." You were an accessory. I'd lawyer up pronto if I was you. https://t.co/mcY9sisqPC Covfefing Michaela (@MichaelaAleach1) April 23, 2017Let s hope this loser who threatened an acid attack on Trump supporters joins his little lying friends behind bars: https://twitter.com/Stello_Official/status/856254436641042432Jack Posobiec Assaulted by Antifa Terrorist pic.twitter.com/L2UvnJ2pKq Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 23, 2017h/t Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Tycoon Slim says Trump not 'Terminator,' sees opportunities for Mexico | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Billionaire Carlos Slim said on Friday that Mexico should not fear Donald Trump, seeing opportunities for his country in the U.S. president’s economic policies, and praising Mexicans for uniting behind their government in talks with the northern neighbor. In a rare news conference, the telecommunications and construction mogul called Trump a negotiator, “not Terminator” and said his repeated attacks on Mexico had united the country, giving President Enrique Pena Nieto “strength” in trade and border security talks. “This is the most surprising example of national unity that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in my life,” said Slim, who turns 77 on Saturday. He compared Mexicans’ response to that when a devastating earthquake that hit Mexico City in 1985. “We have to back the president of Mexico so he defends our national interests.” Slim spoke to reporters after Pena Nieto on Thursday canceled a planned Washington summit with Trump following a tweet by the American that he should stay away unless Mexico agreed to pay for a border wall. Aiming to cool tensions, the two presidents spoke for an hour by phone on Friday, and the battered peso currency strengthened. Trump’s threats to impose steep tariffs on Mexican products have ravaged the peso and spread worries about the economy, which is heavily dependent on the U.S. market. However, Slim, who spoke out against his fellow billionaire during the U.S. election campaign but had dinner with him after the Nov. 8 victory at the polls, said Trump’s policies aimed at growing the U.S. economy would boost Mexico’s growth as well as provide jobs for Mexican laborers living north of the border. “The circumstances in the United States are very favorable for Mexico,” Slim said, adding that he has not had any communication with Trump’s team since the December dinner. “It wasn’t a romance,” he joked about the meeting. Referring repeatedly to Trump’s books and other writings, Slim argued that people should not be surprised at Trump’s actions because it is all in his book “Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America,” which Slim said he had not finished reading. “He’s a great negotiator,” Slim said. He said businesses should not be too worried if Trump’s policies led to the collapse of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) underpinning Mexico’s economy, saying the country could fall back on World Trade Organization tariffs. He said Mexican workers in the United States would benefit from Trump’s planned infrastructure push, but warned that U.S. protectionism and other policies could hurt American consumers. “Among these changes is a return to the past, what a dear friend called ‘regressive utopias’,” he said, calling on the United States to focus on advanced manufacturing. Asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Slim said the best barrier to illegal immigration would be investment that created opportunities and jobs in Mexico. Before the highly-anticipated news conference, speculation had been growing about whether Slim might try to run for president in 2018, but he poured cold water on that talk. “I think I can do more on the business side,” he said. Slim’s largest companies do not have much obvious exposure to any border tax Trump might impose on Mexican imports. His high-profile holding in the New York Times Co, made him a target during the U.S. campaign, when Trump accused him of using the newspaper to try to help Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Slim’s shares have limited voting rights. Slim on Friday said he had been selling New York Times stock, but his son-in-law later said this was not correct. At the conference he was flanked by two of his sons, Carlos and Marco Antonio, and his son-in-law, Arturo Elias, with other family members watching. Most of the Slim family’s wealth comes from Latin America-focused telecoms giant America Movil. America Movil does have a substantial U.S. business called TracFone which sells prepaid phone plans to customers and rents the networks of big operators. His next largest companies are retail and industrial conglomerate Grupo Carso and Mexico-focused bank Grupo Financiero Inbursa. | 0fake |
CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEERS Deliver Opposing Messages: Support A Lawless Nation Or Vote To Restore Law And Order, Honor Our Veterans | ILLEGAL ALIENS WHO CAN T Vote Are Knocking On Doors For HILLARY While Veterans Campaign For Trump They broke the law or their parents broke the law to enter our country illegally. Of course, they had the same opportunity to apply for citizenship and become legal citizens of the United States as every other legal immigrant, but they chose instead to ignore our laws. Now they re campaigning for Hillary so they don t lose their ability to take advantage of all the benefits legal American citizens enjoy. On the other side of the spectrum, men and women who ve served our nation are out campaigning for the only candidate who is making the care of our veterans one of his top priorities Unable to vote in the presidential election, a group of undocumented immigrants is knocking on doors in Northern Virginia in support of Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates, convinced that the outcome of the vote will determine whether they can secure a path to citizenship in the country they have known since childhood.The vote-seekers are some of the 750,000 recipients of temporary legal status under the Obama administration s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. They are acutely aware that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has pledged to deport the nation s 11 million illegal immigrants and that under a GOP-controlled Congress, past attempts at immigration reform have failed. All DACA recipients should take this on as an added responsibility, to change the power structure, said Luis Angel Aguilar, 28, who received his protected status in 2013 and is helping to coordinate the effort. Our voices need to be heard, he said.Four years after the DACA program was launched, many of the beneficiaries are still in a kind of limbo, unsure about whether their status would be renewed under a President Trump and concerned that their family members could be deported.The uncertainty was underscored earlier this year when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal court injunction against an expanded version of DACA and Obama s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, which could benefit an additional 4 million people. The only way to resolve this is through the election, said Kim Propeack, political director of CASA In Action. There s been a recent uptick of despair and energy around that 4-4 vote. WP They [veterans] fought hard to protect us, they are going to come first in a Trump administration. Donald J. TrumpOn July 11, 2016 Trump spoke before We need to clean up the corruption in government and Hillary Clinton will never be able to do it. She s incompetent and has proven time and time again that she doesn t have what it takes. Doesn t have it, Trump said. Crooked Hillary Clinton, sadly, is the secretary of the status quo, and wherever Hillary Clinton goes, corruption and scandal follow. Included in Trump s 10-point plan for reform at the Department of Veterans Affairs is a proposal to establish a White House hotline, to be answered not by a computer but by a human being, to field complaints about the department. The hotline would ensure that every complaint is dealt with, Trump said, and any issue left unaddressed would be brought directly to the president himself, so that he could personally deal with it.Military Times Republican operatives are confident that if they turn out veterans, they ll turn out more votes for Trump. Being a veteran, your skin s a lot thicker, said Mendoza, 24, who noted that he s both Hispanic and a veteran. It conditions you to seeing that bigger world and seeing past what someone says off the cuff. The instant bond that veterans form with each other often defuses tension inherent in political canvassing and opens doors that would otherwise be closed, said Bob Carey, a former Navy captain and the RNC s veterans outreach director. But their political utility goes beyond that. Veterans have a disproportionate ability to gain the trust of any voter, Carey said. The military is the last institution that has the trust and respect of the general public. Veterans vote at a higher rate than civilians, but younger veterans are less likely to vote than their peers. That s no surprise to Staab. He was deployed to southern Iraq in 2008 where his unit received mail once a month and had to create a base virtually from scratch at an abandoned air field. He didn t even remember to vote in the presidential election back home.Many veterans feel out of place after returning from war, and Staab and Mendoza, who returned from Iraq more recently are no exception. Mendoza is still dizzied by the carefree way some of his fellow students act. People take being a citizen for granted, he said.Staab now runs the GOP s Reno office and has recruited Mendoza and a cadre of veteran volunteers to call other veterans and knock on their doors. In Nevada, the veterans outreach has a dual purpose helping Trump and also the GOP s senate candidate, Rep. Joe Heck, a brigadier general in the Army reserves. | 1real |
Washington Post attempts to smear Ron Paul Institute and others, as ‘Tools for Russian Propaganda’ | 21st Century Wire says As 21WIRE reported on Saturday, The Washington Post, once regard s as America s paper of record, appears to have gone off the edge of the mainstream media propaganda ridge last week, when it attempt to smear some 200 independent website, labelling these as accomplices in a grand Russian conspiracy to subvert Democracy in the United States. Among the websites placed on the new McCarthyist Black List being promoted by The Washington Post, is the Ron Paul Institute of Peace and Prosperity, a libertarian and liberty-based organization. Just as Hillary Clinton is not accepting the result of the Nov 8th election, RPI is not taking The Post s defamation sitting down Timberg s article can be seen as yet another big media attempt to shift the blame for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton s loss of the presidential election away from Clinton, her campaign, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that undermined Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) challenge to Clinton in the Democratic primary. Washington Post billionaire owner and Hillary Clinton supporter Jeff Bezos (above) appears to be waging an anti-Russian crusade, attacking and defaming hundreds independent blogs in the US (Image Source: Now the End Begins)Adam Dick Ron Paul InstituteThe Washington Post has a history of misrepresenting Ron Paul s views. Last year the supposed newspaper of record ran a feature article by David A. Fahrenthold in which Fahrenthold grossly mischaracterized Paul as an advocate for calamity, oppression, and poverty the opposite of the goals Paul routinely expresses and, indeed, expressed clearly in a speech at the event upon which Fahrenthold s article purported to report. Such fraudulent attacks on the prominent advocate for liberty and a noninterventionist foreign policy fall in line with the newspaper s agenda. As Future of Freedom Foundation President Jacob G. Hornberger put it in a February editorial, the Post s agenda is guided by the interventionist mindset that undergirds the mainstream media. WaPo publishes article that says @RonPaulInstitut (and others) are "sophisticated Russian propaganda" https://t.co/r8QPFEH92X pic.twitter.com/E7wVbKY0vW Ron Paul (@RonPaul) November 26, 2016On Thursday, the Post published a new article by Craig Timberg complaining of a flood of so-called fake news supported by a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, To advance this conclusion, Timberg points to PropOrNot, an organization of anonymous individuals formed this year, as having identified more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season. Look on the PropOrNot list. There is the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity s (RPI) website RonPaulInstitute.org listed among websites termed Russian propaganda outlets. What you will not find on the PropOrNot website is any particularized analysis of why the RPI website, or any website for that matter, is included on the list. Instead, you will see only sweeping generalizations from an anonymous organization. The very popular website drudgereport.com even makes the list. While listed websites span the gamut of political ideas, they tend to share in common an independence from the mainstream media.Ron Paul: Washington Post has a history of misrepresenting the former Congressman s views.. Timberg s article can be seen as yet another big media attempt to shift the blame for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton s loss of the presidential election away from Clinton, her campaign, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that undermined Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) challenge to Clinton in the Democratic primary.The article may also be seen as another step in the effort to deter people from looking to alternative sources of information by labeling those information sources as traitorous or near-traitorous.At the same time, the article may be seen as playing a role in the ongoing push to increase tensions between the United States and Russia a result that benefits people, including those involved in the military-industrial complex, who profit from the growth of US national security activity in America and overseas.This is not the first time Ron Paul and his institute has been attacked for sounding pro-Russian or anti-American. Such attacks have been advanced even by self-proclaimed libertarians.Expect that such attacks will continue. They are an effort to tar Paul and his institute so people will close themselves off from information Paul and RPI provide each day in furtherance of the institute s mission to continue and expand Paul s lifetime of public advocacy for a peaceful foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home. While peace and liberty will benefit most people, powerful interests seek to prevent the realization of these objectives. Indeed, expect attacks against RPI to escalate as the institute continues to reach growing numbers of people with its educational effort.READ MORE MSM LIES AT: 21st Century Wire MSM Files | 1real |
Khamenei says Iran, Russia should cooperate to isolate U.S., foster Middle East stability | TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Tehran and Moscow must step up cooperation to isolate the United States and help stabilize the Middle East, state TV reported. Iran and Russia are the main allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the United States, Turkey and most Arab states support rebel groups fighting to overthrow him. Putin met Iranian political leaders in an effort to nurture a warming relationship strengthened since U.S. President Donald Trump threatened recently to abandon the international nuclear deal with Iran reached in 2015. Our cooperation can isolate America ... The failure of U.S.-backed terrorists in Syria cannot be denied but Americans continue their plots, Khamenei told Putin, according to Iranian state television. Since Russia s military intervention in Syria s war in 2015, and with stepped-up Iranian military assistance, Assad has taken back large amounts of territory from rebels as well as swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State militants. Moscow is now trying to build on that success with a new diplomatic initiative, including a congress of Syria s rival parties it plans in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 18, though a major opposition bloc has refused to take part. Pragmatist Iranian President Hassan Rouhani echoed Khamenei, saying Iran and Russia together could tackle regional terrorism - an allusion to Sunni Muslim armed groups hostile to Iran, Assad and many other Arab states. Our cooperation has helped the fight against terrorism in the region ... Together we can establish regional peace and security, Rouhani said in a televised joint press conference with Putin and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who took part in a three-way summit in Tehran. The rapprochement between Iran and Russia is worrying for both Saudi Arabia, Shi ite Muslim Tehran s main Sunni rival for dominance in the Middle East, and the United States. Putin praised cooperation with Iran as very productive . We are managing to coordinate our positions on the Syrian issue, Putin said. Moscow is also an important ally for Iran in its renewed confrontation with the United States, where Trump broke ranks with major allies on Oct. 13 by de-certifying Tehran s nuclear deal with six world powers including Washington under his predecessor Barack Obama. Trump has called the agreement the worst deal ever negotiated and branded Iran a terrorist nation for involvement in conflicts in the Middle East. We oppose any unilateral change in the multilateral nuclear deal, Putin told Khamenei, Iranian state TV reported. Russia has criticized Trump s disavowal of the nuclear agreement, which has opened a 60-day window for the U.S. Congress to act to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran. These were lifted under the 2015 accord in return for Tehran curbing nuclear activity of potential use in developing an atomic bomb. This is a very important visit (by Putin) ... It shows the determination of Tehran and Moscow to deepen their strategic alliance ..., which will shape the future of the Middle East, an Iranian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Both Russia and Iran are under American pressure ... Tehran has no other choice but to rely on Moscow to ease the U.S. pressure, said the official. Another Iranian official said Trump s hawkish Iran policy had united the Islamic Republic s often feuding leadership - split into hardline conservative, pragmatist and reformist factions - in alignment with Russia. During Putin s visit, Russian oil producer Rosneft and the National Iranian Oil Company agreed an outline deal to work on a number of strategic projects in Iran together worth up to $30 billion. The deal appeared to dovetail with Putin s strategy to reassert Russian political and economic influence in the Middle East that faded after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. | 0fake |
The Danger of Germany’s Current Account Surpluses | by Yves Smith
Yves here. Germany seems determined to test the Eurozone experiment to destruction. As we’ve long said, it insists on contradictory aims: running large trade surpluses, not being willing to finance them, and not permitting high levels of fiscal spending to serve as another mechanism to provide for transfers to “deficit” countries. By contrast, people in New York and California don’t even think much about the fact that they are getting less out of the Federal government than they pay in taxes and are effectiely supporting consumption in places like Mississippi.
By Wouter den Haan, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Centre for Macroeconomics, London School of Economics; Martin Ellison, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford; Ethan Ilzetzki, Assistant Professor, London School of Economics; Michael McMahon, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics, University of Warwick; and Ricardo Reis, A.W. Phillips Professor of Economics, LSE. Originally published at VoxEU
The October 2016 expert survey of the Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM) and CEPR invited views from a panel of macroeconomists based across Europe on Germany’s trade surplus, its impact on the Eurozone economy, and the appropriate response of German fiscal policy. More than two-thirds of the respondents agree with the proposition that German current account surpluses are a threat to the Eurozone economy. A slightly smaller majority believe that the German government ought to increase public investment in response to the surpluses.
Germany posted a record-high current account surplus of 8.5% of GDP in 2015; indeed, the German surplus has overtaken China’s surplus as the largest in the world. Germany’s current account was slightly in deficit when the euro was created in the late 1990s, it steadily increased in the early 2000s and has continued to rise since the Global Crisis of 2008. Since 2010, the increase in the current account has been accompanied by fiscal surpluses, with the German government moving from a deficit of 4% of GDP in 2010 to a surplus of 1.2% in the first half of 2016. Global Imbalances
Through the prism of the trade balance, the current account surplus can be viewed as a symptom of Germany’s economic success. German exports increased from 30% of GDP in 2000 to 47% in 2015. But with imports at merely 39% of GDP, this implies that Germany is providing capital to the rest of the world at a very high rate. Indeed, German savings have increased from roughly 20% to nearly 30% of GDP, while domestic investment has remained roughly constant at around 20% of GDP.
One view, harking back to Keynes, is that such large capital flows could be very destabilising, particularly within a system of fixed exchange rates (or a currency union). The argument is that while countries with current account deficits may come under severe pressure to adjust, countries with surpluses face no corresponding pressures. 1 Keynes’s solution – which was part of the inspiration for the creation of the IMF – was that occasional exchange rate adjustments might be necessary in order to rebalance international credit flows.
A number of commentators have suggested that Germany’s large current account surpluses reflect such imbalances. Paul Krugman attributes the Eurozone crisis in part to Germany’s current account surplus. The capital flows that this current account financed dried up as the crisis unfolded. But the burden of the adjustment fell solely on the Eurozone periphery, which closed their current account deficits, without the aid of Germany where the current account has only increased. In this view, German fiscal surpluses are an international version of the paradox of thrift. 2
The IMF (2016) and the European Commission (2016) have both warned of the risks of Germany’s current account surpluses; and both have urged Germany to take actions to reduce its external surplus, for example, by increasing public investment.
While the nature of the Eurozone makes exchange rate adjustments impossible, the IMF reckons that Germany’s real exchange rate is now 15-20% undervalued (IMF 2016, p. 7). The US Treasury has gone so far as to add Germany to its ‘monitoring list’ of countries engaged in ‘unfair currency practices’, even though Germany does not have a national currency (US Treasury 2016).
In contrast, Jens Weidmann, President of the Bundesbank, has argued that German net capital outflows are primarily structural, resulting from Germany’s high level of economic development and ageing population. He also argues that the Eurozone’s common monetary policy allowed slower current account adjustments, thus mitigating the Eurozone crisis (Weidmann 2014). The German economics ministry claims that Germany’s surplus is “a sign of the competitiveness of the German economy and global demand for quality products from Germany”. 3
The first question in the October 2016 expert survey of the Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM) and CEPR addressed the question of whether large German surpluses are reasons for concern. 4 To focus the question, we asked the experts about its consequences for the Eurozone, but they were free to address wider implications in their comments.
Q1: Do you agree that German current account surpluses are a threat to the Eurozone economy?
Sixty-seven panel members answered this question and a large majority (69%) agree or strongly agree with the proposition. A number of panel members point to evidence of the risks of current account balances. Ricardo Reis (LSE), for example, says that “current account imbalances during 2000-08 played a central role in the Eurozone crisis of 2010-12” (see Obstfeld 2012 and Lane 2013).
Other panel members suggest that German current account surpluses are a symptom of the common European currency. Michael Wickens (Cardiff Business School and University of York) warns that “the main underlying problem is the single currency. Germany’s current account surplus reflects its competitiveness, but due to the single currency, it can’t appreciate against the Eurozone countries with chronic current account deficits. It is all reminiscent of the failures of the Bretton Woods system, which of course eventually collapsed due to currencies becoming misaligned.”
Simon Wren-Lewis (Oxford) agrees that “the surplus represents an undervalued real exchange rate in Germany, which requires more inflation in Germany relative to the rest of the Eurozone”.
Wouter Den Haan (LSE) suggests that the problem is exacerbated by conditions in the Eurozone periphery: “There is a very good chance that the Eurozone is in a bad equilibrium in which consumers do not spend because they are concerned about future earnings and firms are hesitant to hire workers and raise wages because they are concerned about demand for their products. Even if this is not behind the high savings rate in Germany, it does make this increase in precautionary savings more problematic in the periphery.”
A number of panel members (Charles Bean, LSE; Jonathan Portes, National Institute of Economic and Social Research) warn that Germany’s current account surplus is not uniquely a Eurozone problem, but is also large enough to contribute to the low global real interest rates.
The global dimension is also the main counter-argument of the panel members who think that the German current account is not a threat to Eurozone stability. Robert Kollman (Université Libre de Bruxelles) points out that “the German current account surpluses do not represent a threat to the Eurozone economy, because Germany trades more with the rest of the world than with the rest of the Eurozone”.
Pietro Reichlin (Università LUISS G. Carli) caveats his concern about the German current account with the view that “part of the surplus is due to exports to extra-European countries and these benefit some EU peripheral economies that are exporting intermediate inputs and parts to Germany”.
Others do not feel that there are theoretical grounds for concern about the German current account. Francesco Lippi (Università di Sassari) argues: “I do not see why the savings of my neighbour should be a problem for me. Rather, they are a potential source of financing my investment. I do not know a single reasonable model where current account surpluses are a problem.”
Robert Kollman points to research that the key shocks driving the German current account shocks are not central to the Eurozone’s ills (see Kollmann et al. 2015, 2016). Nezih Guner (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) agrees that German current account surpluses are structural: “current account surpluses partly reflect positive supply shocks (such as labour market reforms that lowered wages and made German economy more competitive) and the current demographic structure that results in high savings rates.” Germany’s Fiscal Policy
With exchange rate adjustment off the table within a currency union, the main policy recommendation to reduce Germany’s current account surplus has been a change in German fiscal policy. Martin Wolf points out that the current account surplus is driven primarily by an increase in the supply of savings of German households and thus reflects insufficient aggregate demand. 5 He warns that Germany isn’t carrying its weight in the global economy and has failed to contribute to global aggregate demand.
By this view, the German government’s move to fiscal surplus is a direct drag on the global recovery. The argument is that with interest rates at zero and other governments in worse fiscal positions, the German government should do more to contribute to European and global demand.
The IMF has called on Germany to “focus on raising potential growth and reinforcing rebalancing, which will also support the fragile recovery in the euro area”, including the use of fiscal resources to “boost high quality public investment”.
The European Commission concurs that “weak investment has contributed to the high and persistent current account surplus and poses risks for the future growth potential of the German economy”. The Commission joins the IMF in suggesting that “there continues to be fiscal space for higher public investment, while complying with the rules of the stability and growth pact”.
In contrast, Jens Weidmann suggests that an expansionary German fiscal policy will do little to spur demand in the Eurozone periphery as the import component of Germany public spending is merely 9%. And while Willem Buiter agrees that Germany’s current account surplus is excessive, he thinks that fiscal expansion may not be consistent with German inflation stability and that the European Central Bank should finance fiscal expansions elsewhere. 6
The second question in our survey asked the experts whether the current account imbalance is a reason for the German government to increase public spending. We were not asking whether public spending should increase for other reasons (say low interest rates), although current conditions may – of course – affect the answers given.
The question was explicitly conditioned on the fact that Germany is part of the Eurozone and we asked the respondents to answer from the point of view of the Eurozone. That is, when countries’ fiscal deficits are high, the Eurozone regularly demands that action is taken to reduce public spending: so does it similarly make sense for the Eurozone to ask Germany to increase public spending given its large current account surplus?
Q2: Do you agree that the German government should increase public spending given its persistently large current account surplus and given that it is part of the Eurozone?
Sixty-seven panel members answered this question with a large majority (67%) agreeing or strongly agreeing that the German government ought to increase public spending in response to the current account surpluses.
Panel members who think that the German current account poses risks to Eurozone stability largely supported policy action. The main policy recommendation is an increase in public investment. Stefan Gerlach (BSI Bank) proposes that “more public spending on specific public infrastructure projects that pass a careful cost-benefit analysis and contributes to economic growth would be desirable.”
Sweder van Wijnbergen (Universiteit van Amsterdam) notes that “Germany’s (public capital)/GDP ratio is HALF of the comparable ratio in the Netherlands”. In contrast, Nezih Guner thinks that public investment might be counterproductive: “Public spending on investment incentives or infrastructure, for example, can further enhance the productivity advantage of German economy and can very well make the situation worse.”
Another argument in favour of a German fiscal expansion relates to the asymmetry of fiscal rules in the Eurozone. Costas Milas (University of Liverpool) points out that “the EU Treaty talks about ‘corrective’ fiscal measures when the deficit exceeds 3% of a country’s GDP. There is no similar mechanism in case of a (relatively) big fiscal surplus”.
Ricardo Reis, on the other hand, states that “the Treaties do not put the European institutions in charge of aggregate demand management. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for there to be a pronounced asymmetry between requiring the reduction of fiscal deficits, but having nothing to say about fiscal surpluses.” But he does suggest that discretionary policy is desirable at this point in time: “It seems likely that both Germany and the rest of the Eurozone would benefit from some fiscal expansion in Germany… Given the increase in the primary surplus since 2004, there also seems to be some room to do so.”
A number of panel members support policy action, but not an increase in public spending. Francesco Giavazzi (IGIER, Università Bocconi) and Nicholas Oulton (LSE) advocate tax cuts. In addition, Jürgen von Hagen (Universität Bonn) warns that fiscal action is desirable at the federal level, but not at the state level: “Lander public finances are mostly unsustainable and an increase in spending is not called for.” Wendy Carlin (University College London) proposes increasing incentives for women to participate in the labour force.
Panel members who are opposed to German fiscal action largely point to the limited evidence that such action would reverse the current account surplus. Gernot Müller (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen) points out that “evidence to date suggests that the link between fiscal policy and the current account is weak. In fact, not even the sign of how a fiscal expansion impacts the current account is clear (see Kim and Roubini’s 2008 paper on twin divergence).”
Evi Pappa (European University Institute) adds: “In my own research, I also show that fiscal consolidation, as a means to induce an internal devaluation in a two country model works, but it affects very little economic activity in the periphery. A more effective way for correcting current account imbalances is transferring resources from Germany to the periphery” (see bandiera et al. 2016).
See original post for references 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1real |
MAXINE WATERS: ‘These people trying to ‘discredit’ me [Video] | MAXINE GOT A MAKEOVER and is hopping mad about speculation she s running for POTUS in 2020. It can t help that Tucker Carlson is mocking her just about every night.Waters was in a foul mood during an interview with her favorite news anchor Joy Reid. Reid is a foot soldier for Waters. These two get together every other day to bash Trump. Pitiful!The funny thing is that no one was criticizing Waters. They were merely speculating if she is considering a presidential run, something she has admitted to if she had the support of millennials. Right?Waters told Reid: Just because I m going to New Hampshire to be at a Democratic Party event for one of my colleagues, they made this story up. , or to make people uncomfortable with me, all of that. So you re gonna be hearing a lot more from them these people who are all, you know, aligned around trying to discredit Maxine Waters because she has stayed on Trump s case so much. And so you re going to hear a lot more from them. Don t believe anything they re saying. | 1real |
Brazil Arrests 10 in Terror Plot as Olympics Near, Officials Say - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian authorities arrested 10 members of an Islamist militant group that was organizing terrorist attacks, officials announced Thursday, raising tension around the country just two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games. The Federal Police said in a statement that the suspects belonged to a group called the Defenders of Sharia. Agents from an antiterrorism unit are investigating the group’s activities in several states, including Rio de Janeiro, where the Games will take place. The arrests were announced at a time when the Brazilian authorities are coming under scrutiny over security preparations for the Olympics. Responding to the truck massacre last week in Nice, France, Brazil’s sports minister, Leonardo Picciani, told reporters on Wednesday that “the government is absolutely convinced that the Games will be safe. ” Brazil’s justice minister, Alexandre de Moraes, said Thursday that Brazil’s main intelligence agency, known as ABIN, was working with foreign intelligence services and the Federal Police, an investigative force in Brazil that is similar to the F. B. I. Officials said that the people arrested had communicated with one another via WhatsApp and Telegram, two mobile messaging services. Mr. Moraes said the suspects had been taken into custody “when they went from basic commentaries about the Islamic State to preparatory acts. ” Still, Mr. Moraes emphasized the group’s embryonic nature, calling it “an amateur cell without any preparation. ” He said that its members had been seeking to buy weapons in Paraguay, including an rifle, but that no such arms acquisitions were confirmed. “This is a disorganized cell,” Mr. Moraes said, who described all those arrested as Brazilian citizens. He said that intercepted messages showed members of the group celebrating the recent attacks in Orlando, Fla. and Nice. Mr. Moraes did not provide more details about what kind of attack the group was planning, but he said officials had to act “because of the proximity of the Olympics. ” Marcos Josegrei da Silva, the federal judge overseeing the case, said on Thursday that the suspects ranged in age from 20 to 40, and that they communicated with each other using code names in Arabic even though none appeared to have Arab ancestry. “It’s hard to call them terrorists,” Judge da Silva said. “But even though they don’t have a very solid organization, the arrests are warranted from a legal point of view. ” One suspect, identified in Brazilian media reports as Vitor Barbosa Magalhães, 23, converted to Islam several years ago and lived in the city of Guarulhos in São Paulo State’s metropolitan area, where he works in his father’s car repair shop. Mr. Magalhães’s wife told reporters he had traveled to Egypt in 2012 to study Arabic and Islam. After returning to Brazil, he gave classes in Arabic over YouTube and maintained a WhatsApp group to discuss Islam, she said. Concern has been increasing here over the potential for terrorist attacks around the Olympics, with police squads responding to various reports of bags left in public areas (no explosive devices have been found). These fears are relatively new in Brazil, a country that has largely been spared the kind of attacks that have horrified Europe, the Middle East, the United States and many other parts of the world. Brazilian officials have also said they were enhancing security measures following a report by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites, saying that a group calling itself Ansar Brazil had proclaimed allegiance to Abu Bakr the leader of the Islamic State. The arrests on Thursday marked a turning point in the way Brazil’s government generally discusses terrorism threats. For more than a decade, and especially after the Sept. 11 attacks, Brazilian intelligence officials have been monitoring individuals suspected of links to terrorism. During that time, however, “Brazilian government officials kept saying publicly that no credible evidence exists that people who live inside Brazil have links to terrorism,” said Marcos Ferreira, a scholar focusing on terrorism in South America at the Federal University of Paraíba. At the same time, other experts voiced caution as to whether the suspects would have put a plot into motion. “Initially, these arrests seem very fragile,” said Rodrigo Monteiro, a security specialist at the Federal Fluminense University in Rio. “We need to wait a bit for the government to define the threat in a better way. ” On Thursday, the justice minister, Mr. Moraes, said that violent crime remained the priority ahead of the Olympics. Despite gun control measures, Rio is still awash in weapons, with drug gangs wielding control over parts of the city. The authorities have begun deploying tens of thousands of troops to bolster security in Rio. “The biggest concern is still crime,” Mr. Moraes said. | 0fake |
A Tee Time With Trump? Pro Golfers Say Absolutely - The New York Times | Ernie Els, known as the Big Easy, created a little strife on social media this month by playing golf with President Trump and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. As the PGA Tour moves this week to PGA National Resort and Spa, a drive from Trump National, it was natural to wonder: How many of Els’s peers on the tour, if extended the same invitation, would say yes? At Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles last week, I asked more than of the Genesis Open field that question, granting the respondents anonymity so they wouldn’t risk the wrath of their Twitter followers or, in the case of at least one pro, the fury of his wife. The players range in age from the early 20s to late 40s. They represent nine countries and make their homes in 14 American states, including four that voted overwhelmingly Democratic in last year’s presidential election. Of the 56 players polled, 50 — or 89. 3 percent — said they would play golf with Trump if asked. Only three said they would not. The remaining three declined to answer. The results were hardly surprising. The clubhouses at PGA Tour stops have long trended Republican, and the sport’s target demographic — rich, mostly white men — is far different from the women, minorities, immigrants and Muslims who have at times been the most offended by the president’s statements and positions. Long before he was elected the country’s 45th president, Trump participated in tournament on the men’s and women’s tours and made the game an integral part of his lifestyle and his businesses. His presidency, at least so far, has been no different. But the current political climate is forcing many people who sometimes enter the White House’s orbit — celebrities, N. F. L. players, even college basketball stars — to seriously consider the personal and public repercussions of accepting an invitation to engage with the president. “I’m not silly to what’s going on,” said Els, who was born in South Africa. “I know this is probably the most polarizing president of my time. ” He added, “Whether you agree or not, I felt it was a duty to play with the president when you get the call. ” Els, 47, is married with two teenage children, and lives in West Palm Beach, Fla. He is also a member of Trump’s golf club in Jupiter, which might have made him a logical recipient for an invitation: Els said he received his in a phone call from David Trout, the head professional at Trump National, asking if he would be interested in rounding out a foursome the next day that included the president. Els, who was home because he had pulled out of that week’s PGA Tour event in Pebble Beach, Calif. with a stiff neck, said he was not going to pass up three hours of exclusive access to the leader of the free world. “He is the president at the moment,” Els said. “If it was Barack Obama, I would have played. If it was Hillary Clinton, I would have played. ” Since the November election, Trump has played with at least one L. P. G. A. player, Lexi Thompson, and three former men’s world No. 1s: Tiger Woods Els and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who has a home in Palm Beach Gardens and is recovering from a rib injury. McIlroy played 18 holes with the president on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, in a foursome that also included the former Yankees outfielder Paul O’Neill. Woods, who has played with former Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Obama, described his December round with Trump as “fun” in a blog post on his website, and added, “Our discussion topics were . ” Other players said they would welcome a similar opportunity. Pat Perez, an golfer of Mexican ancestry, is an unabashed supporter of Trump, whom he described as “an incredible businessman who knows what he’s doing. ” Perez said he would play with Trump “in a heartbeat,” but would have turned down an invitation from Mrs. Clinton if she had won. (It should be noted that she is not known to golf.) Trump is perhaps the most ardent golfer to occupy the Oval Office since the 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a putting green installed at the White House and carried a club like a walking stick as he made his way through its maze of hallways. Eisenhower, who was a member at Augusta National, occasionally played with Arnold Palmer. Trump enjoys the company of Jim Herman. In 2006, Herman was hired as an assistant pro at Trump’s course in Bedminster, N. J. He played a few rounds with Trump, who was impressed with his game. Trump encouraged Herman to redouble his efforts to earn a place on the PGA Tour and helped bankroll his career at the start. Last year, Herman won his first tour title. Since 2008, his combined earnings on the PGA Tour and Web. com Tour are more than $6 million. Herman, 39, has played hundreds of rounds with Trump over the last decade. During one of their games after the election, Trump invited him to the inauguration. “It’s still very hard for me to separate ‘President Donald Trump’ from the guy I’ve played with for the last 10 years,” Herman said, adding, “I think of how generous Mr. Trump and all of those people were in helping me make it to the PGA Tour. So on that day in Washington, the inauguration was almost surreal in seeing him and his children and some members of his clubs I hadn’t seen in many years, all of us back together to share in that unique moment in American history. ” The PGA Tour once held a World Golf Championships event, a rung below the four majors in prestige, at Trump National Doral outside Miami, but last year it moved the tournament, starting this year, to Mexico City after the title sponsor, Cadillac, declined to renew its contract. As Cadillac discovered, any brand can end up as collateral damage when it comes in contact with a missile like Trump. When the tournament’s move was announced last summer, the perception — denied by tour officials — was that the organization was using the sponsorship vacuum to distance itself from Trump, who had made incendiary comments about Mexicans and women during the presidential campaign. After Mexico City was announced as the event’s new home, McIlroy, alluding to Trump’s campaign pledge to build a wall along the border, joked, “We’ll just jump over the wall. ” That McIlroy chose to play golf with Trump despite having said before last year’s event at Doral that if he were a United States citizen, “I’m not sure I would want to vote for any of the candidates,” did not surprise the former player Justin Leonard. Leonard, a reporter for Golf Channel and NBC, said, “I think seeing the president take time out of what we can only imagine being such a busy schedule and placing importance on golf from a business and social level, and for guys like Rory to take the time — obviously he’s been battling an injury, but that’s a call that you don’t turn down. ” | 0fake |
Love Him or Hate Him, Anderson Cooper Just Put a 3rd Degree Burn on Newt for Megyn Kelly 'Sex' Insult | Getty - Kevin Mazur 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.
Anderson Cooper is known to be the cool, mild-mannered news host of CNN's AC 360. But the shade he threw on Newt Gingrich after his rant against Megyn Kelly was nothing short of scorching.
“I’m sick and tired of people like you using language that’s inflammatory, that’s not true!” Gingrich exploded on The Kelly File. “When you use the words, you took a position. And I think it’s very unfair of you to do that!”
Then, the former Speaker went for the throat:
“You wanna go back through the tapes of your show recently? You are fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy! That’s what I get out of watching you tonight!”
Anderson Cooper noticed something unusual about Gingrich's line of attack:
“For Newt Gingrich to accuse Megyn Kelly of being fascinated by sex,” Cooper stated. “This is a guy, who’s what, on his third marriage, cheated on his first two wives and was having an affair when he was impeaching Bill Clinton. Isn’t that right?”
That's about right. Newt Gingrich admitted to cheating on his first and second wives and having an affair during the Clinton impeachment hearings.
Watch the segment:
Trump supporters may not be pleased with the way Megyn Kelly has commented on all of those accusations, and her throwing doubt upon Juanita Broaddrick's rape claims against Bill Clinton did not win her friends in that camp. But love her or hate her, it's not Megyn's job to be the Trump campaign's unofficial spokeswoman.
It may be her job to assume the role of a news commentator, however, rather than that of an “objective” journalist. The idea that there is “objectivity” when it comes to reporting the news is a tired and dangerous cliche the American people should put to rest.
As for being “fascinated by sex,” it just might be that Kelly is professionally interested in sexual assault and groping allegations against a presidential candidate, unfounded or otherwise, since the way those are perceived by the public just might sway a national election. | 1real |
Someone left a funny note asking the postman to move a spider | Next Swipe left/right Someone left a funny note asking the postman to move a spider
If you have a fear of spiders, there’s nothing worse than seeing one between you and something you want: a cup of tea, the toilet, lifelong happiness … That’s what happened to the writer of this note, shared on Reddit by TheGrumpyNovelist .
The note says:
“Dear Mr Postman! Beholder of parcels, bringer of utility bills! I write to you on this day to ask a simple task of you. Living on the right side of my mail box is a spider, seemingly holding my mail hostage. If you could remove him for me, either by relocation or brutal murder, I would be forever in your debt. Signed, Resident”
They added a drawing of the spider for clarity. This prompted Reddit user taybon to add “A day in the life of said spider. The human is yet to collect these items. I must protect them from fingers and flies. The parcel deliverer is arriving before previous parcels have been emptied. Perhaps if I greet him and wave at him he will notice me and…..” | 1real |
Ahmed Kathrada, Anti-Apartheid Activist in South Africa, Dies at 87 - The New York Times | Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 years in prison, many of them alongside his close friend Nelson Mandela, for resisting the apartheid system of white minority rule in South Africa, died on Tuesday in Johannesburg. He was 87. The death was announced by Mr. Kathrada’s foundation. He had been hospitalized this month with a blood clot in his brain. President Jacob Zuma ordered flags to be displayed at and said that Mr. Kathrada would receive a “special official funeral. ” Mr. Zuma’s office called Mr. Kathrada a “stalwart of the liberation struggle for a free and democratic South Africa. ” Born to an Indian Muslim family, Mr. Kathrada was the most prominent Asian South African in the movement to end apartheid, the system of racial segregation and white domination. Active in leftist politics since his teenage years, he came to prominence in July 1963, when he was arrested with other activists in Rivonia, a northern suburb of Johannesburg, where the South African Communist Party and the armed wing of the outlawed African National Congress had purchased an isolated farm to use as a meeting place. Among the others arrested was Walter Sisulu, secretary general of the A. N. C. That October, Mr. Kathrada was indicted on charges of trying to overthrow the government, start a guerrilla war and open the door to invasion by foreign powers. Mr. Sisulu was also indicted, as was Mr. Mandela, who had been in prison since 1962, but who faced new charges after the authorities found documents at the Rivonia farm linking him to the A. N. C. ’s armed wing. The Rivonia trial, which began in April 1964, became a signature moment in the struggle against apartheid. A high point came when Mr. Mandela, in a speech, told the judge that he was “prepared to die” for “the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. ” Eight defendants — including Mr. Mandela, Mr. Sisulu and Mr. Kathrada — were convicted on June 11, 1964, of plotting a “violent revolution. ” They were sentenced to life in prison, at hard labor. Mr. Kathrada spent 26 years and 3 months behind bars, 18 of them on Robben Island, the apartheid regime’s most notorious prison. Confinement was something of an education: he and his fellow prisoners deepened their conviction that only continued pressure, at home and abroad, would help bring about an end to apartheid. “It really confirmed our belief that the South African authorities do not suddenly undergo a change of heart,” Mr. Kathrada said in 1989. He and his compatriots had suspected that they would be arrested, he said, and had prepared psychologically. They understood, he said, that the isolation of Robben Island — in cold, Atlantic waters off Cape Town — was intended to break them. “From the security police to the prison authorities, they tried to instill into our minds that we would be forgotten in a few years’ time,” Mr. Kathrada said. “They did everything to crush our morale. ” For the first six months, he said, the prisoners were put to work breaking stones with hammers. Then they were sent to work in the prison’s lime quarry for more than a decade. At one point, he said, Mr. Mandela and Mr. Sisulu were put on a meager ration of rice gruel as punishment for supposedly not working hard enough. Mr. Kathrada said that on arriving at the prison he and the convicts were issued long trousers, while black convicts like Mr. Mandela and Mr. Sisulu had to wear shorts without socks. Even sugar, coffee, soup and other foods were apportioned to inmates according to lines of racial hierarchy. convicts were also spared the brutality that was inflicted on less prominent prisoners, Mr. Kathrada said, though they were hardly exempt from mistreatment. He recalled one night when the guards, “many of them very drunk,” awakened the convicts, stripped them and forced them against a wall for a rough search. One inmate, Govan Mbeki, nearly suffered a heart attack, he said. (Mr. Mbeki was released in 1987.) The guards’ attempt to humiliate them only stiffened their defiance, Mr. Kathrada said. “Because we were so close to the oppressor, it helped to keep us united,” he said. They went on hunger strikes to force concessions. They tried to keep up with events outside by talking to new prisoners, reading smuggled letters and “begging, stealing and bribing” to procure information. “Political prisoners give top priority to keeping themselves informed,” Mr. Kathrada said, but they sometimes went without news for several months. They communicated sporadically with the A. N. C. through messages passed among other inmates. “In prison, the best comes out and the worst comes out as well, because of the deprivation and suffering,” he said. In 1982, Mr. Kathrada, Mr. Mandela, Mr. Sisulu and two fellow activists were transferred to Pollsmoor Prison, in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai. While in prison, Mr. Kathrada obtained four university degrees, two in history and two in African politics. He was 60 when he was freed, in October 1989. On his release, he left no doubt that his dedication to the African National Congress had not waned. “We will carry out whatever the A. N. C. wants us to do,” he said at the time. Mr. Kathrada later became a member of Parliament. He wrote several books. He gave tours of Robben Island, to Margaret Thatcher, Fidel Castro, Jane Fonda, Beyoncé and, twice, to Barack Obama — in 2006, when he was a senator and again in 2013, during Mr. Obama’s presidency. Though Mr. Kathrada remained loyal to the A. N. C. — he served on the party’s National Executive Committee and ran its public relations department — in recent years he criticized the Mr. Zuma, who has been in office since 2009. Last April, Mr. Kathrada called on Mr. Zuma to resign, after the country’s highest court found that the South African president had violated his oath of office by refusing to pay back public money spent on renovations to his rural home. Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada was born on Aug. 21, 1929, in a small town in northern South Africa, the son of Muslim emigrants from Gujarat in western India. He was introduced to politics when, as a child, he joined a club run by the Youth Communist League. At 17 he took part in what was called a “passive resistance campaign” organized by the South African Indian Congress, and was one of 2, 000 people arrested on the charge of defying a law that discriminated against Indians. Shortly afterward, he quit school. Selected to visit East Berlin in 1951 for a youth festival, he toured Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp in Poland, before returning to South Africa. In the 1950s he was arrested several times and monitored by the authorities for his political activities. Mr. Kathrada, who once said that his being denied the ability to have children was “the greatest deprivation” he endured in prison, is survived by his longtime partner, Barbara Hogan, a white activist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1982 for treason. She became a government minister after the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s. In a 2013 interview, Mr. Kathrada said that he and his fellow prisoners had had it better than those on the outside. “No policeman could come to Robben Island and start shooting at us,” he said. “In the Soweto uprising of 1976, we are told, 600 kids were killed. Others, people we knew closely, tortured to death, shot, assassinated. We were safe. ” | 0fake |
Fox News Tries To Discredit POTUS For Saying He Wants To Cure Cancer (VIDEO) | When a president says one of his main goals is to cure a disease that has killed millions and is one of the main causes of death in the United States, one would think that all would applaud such a noble goal. Not so with Fox News, who found a way to try and discredit the president for saying he wants to cure cancer. Here s what the president said last night at his final State of the Union Address: With the new moon shot America can cure cancer. So tonight I m announcing a new national effort to get it done. Let s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all. On Fox and Friends, the hosts said that the president or his writers got the idea about curing cancer from the show West Wing because the words he said were apparently similar to a scene from the hit show. Rob Lowe s character, Sam Seaborn says: We ve reached for the stars, and never have we been closer to having them in our grasp. And so I announce to you tonight, we will cure cancer by the end of this decade. As usual, Fox has the tendency to sensationalize a message instead of applauding the effort of the president. If you re going to rip off somebody, rip off Aaron Sorkin, said one of the hosts, referring to West Wing s creator.Whether the words the president said are or aren t similar to a television show is irrelevant because the message itself is so much more important. One can only imagine if the country utilized all its resources to tackle a disease that has wreaked havoc on virtually every American family.Unfortunately, for Fox, finding a way to attack the president takes priority over a wonderful message. It s typical of their so-called right-wing journalism.Featured image via YouTube screenshot | 1real |
Venezuela vote dispute escalates foreign sanctions threat | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s opposition cried foul on Monday over the ruling socialists win in gubernatorial elections, raising the threat of more foreign sanctions following the vote in what the United States called an authoritarian dictatorship. President Nicolas Maduro s candidates took 17 governorships, versus five for the opposition, in Sunday s nationwide poll, according to the pro-government electoral board. The socialists strong showing came despite devastating food shortages, triple-digit inflation, and a collapsing currency. Polls had suggested the opposition would easily win a majority. Dismayed leaders of the Democratic Unity coalition demanded an audit after citing a litany of abuses, including multiple voting, state food handouts on the day of the poll, forced attendance at gunpoint and suspicious phone and power outages. The opposition fell short of offering detailed evidence of outright fraud, however, and there were no conventional foreign observer missions to verify claims of vote-rigging. This is a process of electoral fraud without precedent in our history, said opposition spokesman Angel Oropeza. An estimated 1 million voters were blocked from voting, he said, referring to claims the election board skewed results by relocating hundreds of polling places away from opposition strongholds. Many dispirited opposition supporters now see foreign pressure as their only real hope of hurting Maduro ahead of next year s presidential vote. The United States condemned the elections as neither free nor fair and vowed to keep up pressure on Maduro for the erosion of democracy in the South American OPEC nation. As long as the Maduro regime conducts itself as an authoritarian dictatorship, we will work with members of the international community and bring the full weight of American economic and diplomatic power to bear in support of the Venezuelan people as they seek to restore their democracy, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on Maduro and top officials, including election board head Tibisay Lucena. Washington has also struck at the government s ability to raise more funds via foreign debt. The European Union could also take measures against Maduro, who was narrowly elected to replace the late leader Hugo Chavez in 2013. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has also branded Venezuela a dictatorship, expressed concern at claims of serious irregularities and lack of transparency in the gubernatorial vote. France deplores this situation and is working with its EU partners to examine appropriate measures to help resolve the serious crisis, the French foreign ministry said. Venezuela s government, which insisted in advance of Sunday s vote that it would demonstrate its commitment to democracy, still retains significant support in poorer, rural settings. And it seems unlikely that supporters of the elite-led opposition, which has struggled to capitalize on discontent over the economy, will return to the streets en masse after months of grueling protests earlier this year. The protests failed to pressure the government into holding an early presidential election, freeing scores of jailed activists or accepting foreign humanitarian aid. At least 125 people died, while thousands were injured and arrested in violence. Obviously, this was a brutal fraud, said David Osorio, 21, who lost an eye when he was hit by a gas cannister in the clashes. But I don t know if going back to the streets is best ... because the same will happen and many are simply not willing. A few hundred opposition protesters massed in front of the electoral council in the southern Bolivar state, where results were still not given by Monday evening. The National Guard used tear gas to scatter the crowd, according to a Reuters witness. Various opposition leaders acknowledged disillusionment and people staying home had played a big role. We shot ourselves in the foot, legislator Jose Guerra said, noting record turnout of 74 percent in a 2015 congress vote, which the opposition won, versus 61 percent on Sunday. Flanked by his powerful wife, soldiers, and red-shirted party members, a jubilant Maduro painted the opposition as sore losers. When they lose they cry fraud. When they win they shout Down with Maduro, said Maduro, 54. The opposition pocketed governorships including the turbulent Andean states of Merida and Tachira and the oil-producing region of Zulia. The government, which had previously controlled 20 governorships, took states across Venezuela s languid plains and steamy Caribbean coast. It won back populous Miranda state, which includes part of the capital Caracas, and also won in Barinas, Chavez s home state, where his younger brother retained the top job. | 0fake |
Chart Of The Day: Automobile Demographics—Steadily Older Fleet, Fewer New Cars Needed | Chart Of The Day: Automobile Demographics---Steadily Older Fleet, Fewer New Cars Needed By David Stockman. Posted On Thursday, November 24th, 2016
David Stockman's Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked. Subscribe now to receive David Stockman’s latest posts by email each day as well as his model portfolio, Lee Adler’s Daily Data Dive and David’s personally curated insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers. | 1real |
U.S. lawmakers will not tackle healthcare this year, Ryan says: Reuters interview | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers will not take up a bipartisan plan to stabilize Obamacare insurance markets or try again to repeal and replace the law this year, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday, signaling his party was shelving the matter until the 2018 U.S. congressional election year. President Donald Trump promised as a candidate last year to dismantle Obamacare. While the House passed such a bill last May, the Senate tried but failed to do so in July and September thanks to deep intra-party divisions and fears that millions of Americans would lose their healthcare coverage. “I think that is something we should do next year,” Ryan said in an interview with Reuters when asked about prospects of the House passing a bipartisan bill that would reinstate federal subsidies to private insurers to help lower-income people buy medical coverage through the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare. Asked whether the seven-year Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare was now dead, Ryan responded, “No.” But he added, “I can’t imagine we can do that this year.” Congress has a packed calendar between now and the end of 2017. It includes a major tax cut package that President Donald Trump wants lawmakers to pass by the end of the year as well as legislation to avert a potential government shutdown looming in December. Trump has been frustrated by the inability of a Congress led by his own party to pass the bill, and has taken steps that bypass lawmakers to chip away at the law. Trump this month cut off billions of dollars in Obamacare subsidies to insurers, known as cost-sharing reduction payments, saying they are unlawful and enrich insurance companies. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray last week unveiled a bipartisan bill to maintain those subsidies for two years and give states some added flexibility for administering health insurance while also maintaining many of Obamacare’s patient protections. The plan drew bipartisan support in the Senate, but Trump came out against it after initially backing it. The subsidies are a critical element of Obamacare. Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies, but pass them on directly to consumers to reduce deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income people. Ryan said he favored a more conservative short-term Obamacare fix offered by leading Republicans in the House and Senate. It includes provisions to suspend requirements for individuals and employers to obtain health coverage under Obamacare. Democrats are likely to balk over concerns that the measure could undermine the viability of Obamacare’s subsidized insurance market for individuals. Republicans call Obamacare a government intrusion in the U.S. healthcare system while Democrats note that the 2010 law brought insurance to 20 million Americans. Congressional elections are set for November 2018, with party primaries earlier in the year. | 0fake |
A Presidential Golf Outing, With a Twist: Trump Owns the Place - The New York Times | WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Black plastic covered the doors and windows in an ornate suite at one of President Trump’s resorts on Saturday, as he bonded with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan over a round of golf on a pristine day. The covering blocked American and Japanese journalists from capturing a glimpse of the leaders on the lush private course in Jupiter, Fla. But Mr. Trump’s aides snapped their own picture of the friendly tableau, posting a photo of the men sharing a with an American flag waving majestically in the distance, to the president’s social media accounts for his millions of followers to see. “Having a great time hosting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the United States!” Mr. Trump’s post said. This, after all, was the point of inviting Mr. Abe to his resort in Palm Beach: a chance to have a weekend hosting a foreign leader with whom he has said he wants to develop a close relationship. It allowed Mr. Trump to capitalize on some unscripted moments after an initial period in office marred by antagonistic exchanges with some foreign leaders. The news media blackout was nothing unusual in the annals of presidential free time. President Barack Obama routinely played golf out of sight of the press pool that traveled with him, only occasionally allowing a glimpse of him taking a swing or interacting with his partners. But it was the latest reminder that Mr. Trump’s presidency is mixing his official role with the business that bears his name. Mr. Abe’s visit was the first of what Mr. Trump’s top aides say will be many in which he uses the and castle on Florida’s Gold Coast, as a setting for forging relationships with important world leaders. That is likely to mean that the property — along with Trump golf courses nearby in Jupiter and West Palm Beach, where the president squired Mr. Abe on Saturday, along with the professional golfer Ernie Els — will draw increased attention and prominence, with all the potential for additional profit that brings. has doubled its initiation rate for new members, to $200, 000. “We got to know each other very, very well” on the golf course, Mr. Trump told reporters Saturday evening as he stood beside Mr. Abe and their wives on the way to dinner at . Nearby, a line of clubgoers in formal wear maneuvered Bentleys and into the driveway as a full moon rose over the palm trees. The administration said that Mr. Trump was hosting Mr. Abe and his wife as a “gift” to the Japanese leader and has said that any profits earned from the stays of members of foreign governments at Trump properties during his presidency would be donated to the United States Treasury, to avoid the appearance that he was cashing in on his office. It may be a frequent arrangement. Mr. Trump, his aides say, believes in getting to know foreign leaders with whom he will be spending time and taking their measure in informal settings outside Washington. “President Trump is a deal maker, and his coin of the realm is personal relationships and trying to convince people to negotiate a certain way in his favor, so this is what he does,” Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has studied presidential travel, said. Mr. Trump is not the first president to make use of a personal retreat to engage in informal diplomacy. George W. Bush hosted foreign leaders at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, while Bill Clinton used Camp David, the official presidential retreat near Thurmont, Md. as an informal backdrop for diplomacy, including efforts to forge peace in the Middle East. But for Mr. Trump, his retreat is also a club that benefits his family business, from which he has declined to divest. “It’s just one more example of using public office for private gain,” Richard W. Painter, a White House counsel to Mr. Bush who is an expert on government ethics, said. “He’s going to Trump this, Trump that — it’s clearly designed to raise the value of the brand and send the message to foreign leaders that you ought to patronize Trump properties if you want to get in good with the president. ” On Saturday, Mr. Trump appeared to have taken some steps to separate the personal from the political. While Mr. Trump and Mr. Abe shuttled from resort to resort in the armored presidential limousine known as the Beast, the flags that normally flutter on the front and the presidential seals that usually adorn the doors were absent, an indication that these were not official stops. There were other reminders that the visit was unfolding almost exclusively on Mr. Trump’s own turf. At the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, journalists traveling with him were admonished not to take pictures or video. “It’s a private club,” an aide explained. | 0fake |
China's Xi says hopes to promote relations with North Korea: KCNA | SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping replied to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un s congratulatory message on China s Communist Party Congress, saying he hopes to promote ties between the two countries, North Korea s state news agency said on Thursday. The friendly exchange is relatively routine, but it comes as China has come under intense pressure from the United States to do more to rein in the North s missile and nuclear tests, which have raised tensions globally. China has been increasingly frustrated over ally North Korea s weapons tests in defiance of U.N. resolutions, repeatedly calling for restraint and urging all sides to speak and act carefully. Xi s message comes days before U.S. President Donald Trump makes his first official visit to Asia, with North Korea high on the agenda. It follows Tuesday s unexpected agreement between Seoul and Beijing to move beyond a year-long dispute over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea. I wish that under the new situation, the Chinese side would make efforts with the DPRK side to promote relations between the two parties and the two countries to sustainable soundness and stable development and thus make a positive contribution to ... defending regional peace and stability and common prosperity, Xi wrote in the message dated Nov. 1, according to the North s official news agency KCNA. DPRK stands for the Democratic People s Republic of Korea, North Korea s official name. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not give details of the message from Xi to Kim but confirmed it had been sent to express thanks for Kim s congratulatory messages. Many countries had sent messages to China over the congress and, to be polite, China had written back to say thank you to them, she added. I believe this is in the interests of both sides and has important meaning for resolving the present problem we are facing and maintaining regional peace and stability, Hua told a daily news briefing in Beijing. The message had yet to be carried by Chinese state media as of Thursday afternoon. China and North Korea often exchange diplomatic correspondence and ceremonial letters, although personal messages between the leaders tend to be few. Zhao Tong, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, said the exchange of messages appeared totally routine , while noting that Kim s congratulatory message was shorter than one sent after the previous Communist Party congress five years ago, when Xi first came to power. After a flurry of activity including a sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, Pyongyang did not disrupt last month s party congress with another test as some analysts had expected. It has not tested a missile since launching one over Japan on Sept. 15, the longest such lull this year. But Zhao said this was likely due to technical reasons rather than political reasons . There are no signs that they are going to give up on additional missile or nuclear tests, he said. Nam Seong-wook, a professor of North Korea Studies at Korea University in Seoul, said Xi s reply to Kim could be interpreted as China s strategic ambition to embrace both North Korea and South Korea ahead of Trump s visits to South Korea and China. Xi has previously sent messages to Kim, most recently last year when Xi expressed his congratulations for a party congress in North Korea. Neither leader has visited the other s country since assuming power. Kim sent a congratulatory message to Xi last week at the end of China s Communist Party Congress, wishing him great success as head of the nation. | 0fake |
Understanding John Boehner, reluctant ringleader of GOP shutdown politics (+video) | With House Republicans pushing for a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood, Speaker John Boehner's leadership is again under scrutiny – and under fire.
House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio holds a news conference following a House Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol in Washington earlier this month. REUTERS/
House Speaker John Boehner likes to say he learned all the skills he needs for his current job during his childhood years in Ohio – mopping floors in his dad's bar and growing up with 11 brothers and sisters. In a two-bedroom house. With one bathroom.
That’s got to teach a person patience, and the Republican speaker has an abundance of it. Some say too much, especially when it comes to the latitude he gives his rebellious right-wing faction – such as right now.
With just 10 days before the federal government runs out of money, GOP hardliners are threatening the second widespread government shutdown in two years, this time over federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
They’re also considering a rare maneuver to oust Mr. Boehner from the speaker’s chair. It’s not the first time they’ve plotted to get rid of him.
Yet Boehner – “the coolest cucumber I know,” as one of his colleagues puts it – has been calmly exploring the options as the GOP leadership holds more than a half dozen “listening” sessions with members of the divided caucus. He still hasn’t found a funding solution that will satisfy everyone. He might not be able to. But pushing and prodding in his own unperturbed way, he won't stop trying.
“What Boehner does is, he’s very patient. He lets things play out for a while. He doesn’t get mad…. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t,” says John Feehery, former spokesman for Denny Hastert, the longest serving Republican speaker.
It’s the tactics – not the ideology – that separate the speaker from his right flank. In 2013, when tea partyers forced a 16-day partial government shutdown over Obamacare, Boehner was as opposed to the Affordable Care Act as they were.
But he repeatedly warned against a shutdown. Failing to persuade, he eventually joined in, leading the way on several measures to delay or defund the president’s signature domestic program. On Day 16, after having exhausted all his options, he gave up the fight – and received a standing ovation from his caucus, hardliners included, for his efforts.
As he explained to the former late-night television host Jay Leno last year, “You learn that a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk.”
This time, Boehner is again in lockstep with the right flank on the substance of the issue. Videos showing officials of Planned Parenthood, a women’s health provider, discussing the sale of aborted fetus parts for scientific research are “gruesome,” he has said, and the federal government should stop funding the group.
Yet neither he nor Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky want to shut down the government over it. Trying to defund Planned Parenthood with a Democratic president in the White House is an “exercise in futility,” as Senator McConnell put it.
At a closed-door GOP caucus meeting last week, the House leadership shared internal polling that showed that two-thirds of respondents in 18 GOP swing districts oppose shutting the government to try to stop funding Planned Parenthood, according to Politico. In 2013, the GOP’s approval ratings plummeted in the wake of the shutdown.
That doesn’t mean much to Rep. John Fleming (R) of Louisiana, who belongs to the House Freedom Caucus, a group of more than 40 hardliners formed this year to challenge the GOP leadership. Congressman Fleming says he’s one of 31 members who have pledged not to vote for legislation – be it a short-term or long-term budget – that funds Planned Parenthood. “That’s my conscience vote.”
And so the speaker has been patiently rolling out other options – investigations of Planned Parenthood in the House, legislation to freeze funding for the organization, and an abortion-related bill. Both bills passed the GOP-controlled House on Friday, but will be blocked by Senate Democrats.
And that’s where another leadership proposal comes in. In order to actually get a defunding bill to the president’s desk, they’ve proposed using a legislative process known as “budget reconciliation” that only needs a majority vote to pass. It would get to the president all right, but he would veto it.
Hardliners say they aren’t interested in this “show vote.” Instead they seem determined to press for the shutdown, and try to put the blame on the president.
As the speaker cycles through his options and the calendar clicks closer to a shutdown, some of his allies are getting frustrated with the repeated clashes. There was another one earlier this year over immigration and funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Boehner supporter Rep. Devin Nunes (R) of California calls the hardliners “right-wing Marxists” who use extreme tactics to promote themselves – and then offer no realistic, alternative plans. The speaker, he says with exasperation, “let’s these guys get away with everything.”
Take the case of Rep. Mark Meadows (R) of North Carolina, who in July filed a rare motion to “vacate the chair” and call a new election for the speakership. Such a move hasn’t been tried in 105 years – and it didn’t succeed then.
The speaker could have killed off the Meadows resolution in the Rules Committee, which the speaker controls – but he didn’t. He could have brought it immediately to the floor for a vote he would have won, and stamped out the spark before it caught fire – as some of his allies urged. He didn’t.
"He chose not to press his advantage and divide his caucus," said Rep. Tom Cole (R) of Oklahoma.
In July, Boehner called the Meadows move “no big deal,” but right-wingers are talking about returning to it after the pope’s visit this week. It is unlikely to succeed but nothing is certain.
Intraparty division is not new in Congress, says former House historian Ray Smock. He recalls the civil rights era, when both parties had deeply divided caucuses. But this is different, he says, because of the uncompromising wing of Boehner’s party.
“I think Boehner is seriously trying to run the House the way it’s supposed to be run, but this has been a losing proposition for him since the advent of the tea party,” says Mr. Smock. “You’ve got an awful lot of members in that caucus that don’t really care that government functions well. They’re elected as antigovernment people.”
Which raises the question: What’s the point of patience with recalcitrants?
Mr. Feehery says the free rein Boehner gave the tea partyers during the last shutdown could have been meant as a learning experience for them – but it simply emboldened them. Now it’s time for the speaker to make an example of a few people “and just kick them out of the conference.”
But then, Feehery admits, right-wing media would have a field day with that, and so would the “antiestablishment” presidential candidates.
And that’s not the Boehner way. “Members get not just second and third chances, they get repeated chances to operate as members of the team,” says Congressman Cole, a Boehner ally.
One thing’s certain: Democrats will not agree to defund Planned Parenthood. Boehner knows that. Eventually, he’ll have to work with Democrats to pass a “clean” funding bill that leaves the women’s health care provider alone.
What happens between now and then, though, is anybody’s guess. | 0fake |
Half of German Women Feel Unsafe in Their Own Neighbourhoods | Nearly half of Germany’s women now feel unsafe walking about their local neighbourhood, a survey has revealed, with many taking precautions such as pepper spray with them when out at night. [The survey, by Emnid for Bild am Sonntag further found that 58 per cent of women believe that public places have become less safe in recent times, following news of events such as the mass sexual assault attacks on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve last year. per cent of the women surveyed said they have changed their habits to avoid certain areas in their neighbourhood, while 16 per cent said they carried pepper spray when venturing out after dark. In response to the survey, Focus Online gathered anecdotal statements from women across Germany and found that some were asking male relatives to chaperone them at night, while others had taken to carrying their keys in closed fists in case of attack. One woman, Kerstin, told the paper: “I no longer feel safe as a woman. Harassment, rapes, and raids are happening everywhere. I was particularly concerned by the case of the jogger Carolin [G.] who was killed. I run myself and I find it particularly disturbing that this happened during bright daylight. “I feel very uncomfortable on my own and avoid travelling alone in the evening or at night. I always constantly carry pepper spray with me. ” Another, Natalie, said that she “narrowly” avoided being present in Cologne on the night of the attacks, but luckily opted not to go. “[S]ince then [I] have avoided groups in the dark,” she said. She added: “Anyway, I’m not going anywhere in the dark alone. When I arrive by train at our small station, my father is always there to go with me through the solitary underpass. I dare not go alone! “I ordered two canisters of pepper spray two months ago from Amazon. Two, so that I can be sure of having one in each of my winter jackets. “It worries me very much that even the German state does not know who is here. ” The German media have been keen to stress that violent attacks are becoming less common, however, statistics show that they are actually on the rise. 214, 600 crimes were committed by immigrants in Germany in 2016, “several thousand more than in 2015” according to the German edition of the Huffington Post. The media outlet went on to claim that, as 213, 000 asylum seekers registered in Germany during the same period, overall the de facto rise in crime constitutes a net fall. However, in November the German Federal Police admitted that there had been a massive 31. 6 per cent increase in crime in 2016 over the previous year’s figures, a jump which they said was down to Chancellor Merkel’s open door policy on migration. | 0fake |
JESSE WATTERS NAILS IT: You Can’t Drain the Swamp if Your Own Party is “Plugging the Holes” [Video] | Jesse Watters: GOP can t drain the swamp when their own members are plugging the hole. Jesse Watters made an excellent point about Republicans and their failure to repeal Obamacare. The GOP can t seem to get out of its own way. The GOP can t drain the swamp when their own members are standing in the way.Watters nailed it! This is so on point!MSNBC s Joy Reid confirmed what Watters said when she commented on the three women Watters mentioned and called them the resistance to Trump:Wednesday on MSNBC s Deadline: White House, network host Joy Reid said Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) stalled efforts in the Senate to repeal Obamacare because they are leading kind of the resistance to President Donald Trump. (video below)Reid said, When it comes to politics I think it s such a man s world for so long it s so much of politics driven by men telling women what s best for them. And that has not caught up to the 21st century in a lot of ways. I think the most glaring spectacle we have seen is this 13 member, all male, all white commission deciding what s best for health care, including women s health care. She continued, These three Republican women are saying no. And these three Republican women are leading kind of the resistance to the bill, even within the GOP. I honestly have to say that, Nicolle, on the trail last year covering the campaign I noticed among white women, in particular, there was not a drive a see a woman in the White House for its own sake. But after the election, suddenly women are saying, wait a minute. We are being taken advantage of. And women are stepping up a little bit as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udw2WHtnsqo | 1real |
Google Adds Tool to Flag ’Offensive’ Search Results - Breitbart | NEW YORK (AP) — Google is now directing its review teams to flag content that might come across as upsetting or offensive in search results. [advertisement | 0fake |
Obama Just Made A VERY Powerful Statement About Trump’s Attempts To Repeal Obamacare (VIDEO) | President Barack Obama appeared today at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation s Goalkeepers event, an event aimed at effecting change on a global scale in the areas of world hunger, education access and quality, clean energy, healthcare, gender equality, clean water, climate action, and a host of other goals the Foundation wants to help us work toward.Many speakers were on hand for the event, including President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will.i.am, Malala, Stephen Fry, and more, all with stories of empowerment and positive change and possibility. But in America s current climate of fear and unease about what will happen with health care in this country, it was President Obama s speech that was particularly emblematic of the struggle we face in determining the outcome of the American way of life when it comes to insurance, medical care, and ongoing health concerns.This is in stark contrast with what we see in everyday life in America, where we seemingly can t even agree on whether or not white supremacists are bad, or if it s okay to run over protesters. We are engaged in a fight for our very lives, and at least legislatively speaking, Obama knows how hard it looks from where we are.From the video you re about to watch: [W]hen I see those people trying to undo that hard-won progress, for the 50th or 60th time, with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage, or roll back protections for older Americans or people with pre-existing conditions the cancer survivor, the expecting mom, or the child with autism, or asthma, for whom coverage once again would be almost unattainable it is aggravating.And all of this being done without any demonstrable economic, or actuarial, or plain common sense rationale it frustrates. And it s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents. President Obama couldn t be more right. Although he is diplomatic here and does not call out Donald Trump and the Republicans by name, it is vital that we hold them to account. It is absolutely imperative that we make sure they cannot tear away at the fabric of our society and rip away at the moral cloth we ve woven in beginning the process of ensuring every American has access to health care.Watch the video here:Featured image via Yana Paskova/Getty Images | 1real |
Bao Bao, an American-Born Panda, Steps Out in China - The New York Times | CHENGDU, China — Strange food. Unintelligible natives. These are just some of the things that Bao Bao, the panda from the National Zoo in Washington, has grappled with since moving to China last month. But the culture shock is fading, her handlers say, as she settles into the land of her ancestors. On Friday, after 30 days of quarantine, Bao Bao made her first public appearance at the Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan Province. Bao Bao’s new life in China has been not easy, according to Tang Cheng, one of her keepers during her quarantine. Over the past month, she has had to learn Mandarin with a Sichuan accent and get used to the local fare — including wowotou, or steamed cornbread buns, in place of the biscuits she was used to. By now, Bao Bao can understand some commands in Chinese, including “stand up” and “sit down,” Mr. Tang said. Mr. Tang was selected to work with Bao Bao in part because he speaks English as well as Chinese, an important skill to help haigui, or overseas returned, pandas to adapt to their new homes. At the ceremony on Friday, several United States diplomats and dozens of reporters and other guests were on hand to greet Bao Bao. Although they were clearly excited to see her for the first time, waving their hands and shouting her name to get her attention, Bao Bao seemed unimpressed. She spent most of the time sitting in her outdoor playground, munching on bamboo. From time to time, she would examine the rubber balls and tires hanging near her brick enclosure. According to Mr. Tang, Bao Bao spent her first few days in China overcoming jet lag and by now has settled into a routine: four to six meals a day, of bamboo, carrots, apples and wowotou. At first she did not like the wowotou and tended to throw it away. By now, though, Mr. Tang said, “she is adapting well to her new environment,” and has gained more than four pounds. Bao Bao is not the first panda to face the challenges of a new life. In November, when Mei Lun and Mei Huan, the first surviving panda twins to have been born in the United States, at Zoo Atlanta, came to China, the Chinese news media reported that they, too, had difficulties with the local language and food. According to the conservation and research center, 25 pandas have been born abroad since the 1990s, when China set up panda breeding programs in collaboration with 17 zoos in 12 countries. Of these, 18 have survived. By agreement, pandas provided by China are considered loans, and their offspring must be sent to China before their fourth birthday in preparation for breeding. Bao Bao was born on Aug. 23, 2013, to Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, two pandas on loan to the National Zoo. Her older brother, Tai Shan, who was born in 2005 and sent to China in 2010, is now her neighbor at the Dujiangyan base. A younger brother, Bei Bei, was born in 2015 and is still in Washington. A 2016 report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature put the total number of giant pandas around 2, 060. While that is up from the 1, 596 counted in a census, the health of the population depends on continued conservation efforts. Each panda has a mission to spread the genes, and Bao Bao is no exception. Once she reaches sexual maturity, around 5 or 6 years old, she will acquire a boyfriend. “When Bao Bao gets to that age, we will arrange for her to meet many young males,’’ Mr. Tang said, “and their relationship will be based on love. ” | 0fake |
White House says Trump's check to military family has been sent | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The check has been sent. That was the message from the White House on Wednesday after the father of a slain U.S. Army sergeant said a generous offer from President Donald Trump had not materialized. Chris Baldridge told the Washington Post that Trump offered his family $25,000 after the death of his 22-year-old son at the hands of an Afghan police officer in June. But he told the newspaper the money never arrived. A White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday the media was advancing a “biased agenda” by following up on the Baldridge story. “The check has been sent,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in an email. “It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the president, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda.” The issue added to controversy over Trump’s response to military families who have lost loved ones. On Monday, Trump said some of his predecessors “didn’t do anything” to console relatives of fallen soldiers, drawing widespread criticism. Trump offered no evidence to back up his claim, which was immediately shown to be false. On Wednesday, Trump denied an account by Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida that he had told the widow of Sergeant La David T. Johnson, who was killed in a firefight in Niger, that the man knew “what he signed up for.” “I didn’t say what that congresswoman said,” Trump told reporters earlier in the day. “I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife who ... sounded like a lovely woman,” he said. Sergeant Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she was present during Trump’s call to her son’s widow and she supported the congresswoman’s account of Trump’s comment. “President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson said. | 0fake |
Civil rights activist DeRay McKesson running for mayor of Baltimore | (Reuters) - U.S. civil rights activist DeRay McKesson, who was instrumental in the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement against police violence, is running for mayor of Baltimore. McKesson, who filed his paperwork minutes before Wednesday’s deadline, is among more than a dozen Democrats heading to an April primary. The 30-year-old son of two now-recovered drug addicts, McKesson rose to prominence during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police killing of unarmed black teen Michael Brown and has become one of the nation’s best-known civil rights leaders. His distinctive blue Patagonia vest has been seen everywhere from street demonstrations in his native Baltimore to a recent appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “I am not the silver bullet for the challenges of our city - no one individual is,” McKesson said on Wednesday in a post on the blog publishing platform Medium. “Together, with the right ideas, the right passion, the right people, we can take this city in a new direction.” His rivals include former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and state Senator Catherine Pugh. The city has not elected a Republican mayor in more than 50 years. Current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in September that she would not seek re-election when her term ends. A website set up to collect contributions for McKesson’s campaign had recorded 474 donations totaling $34,383 by midday Thursday. An alumnus of Maine’s Bowdoin College, McKesson worked in Baltimore and Minneapolis schools before moving into full-time activism. One political observer said working-class Baltimore voters might hold his lack of political experience against him. “The profile he has now, he’s gotten from doing national work, not local work,” said Lester Spence, associate professor of political science and African studies at Johns Hopkins University. Last year, the mainly black city of 600,000 people was torn by its worst riots in a half-century following the death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained while in police custody. Coming amid a string of controversial police killings across the United States, Gray’s death proved a turning point when prosecutors brought charges against six officers within weeks. The first of those six trials, in which Officer William Porter faced charges including involuntary manslaughter, ended in a hung jury. That threw State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s aggressive schedule into disarray, and a judge last month rejected prosecutors’ request to order Porter to testify against his fellow officers while he awaits retrial. | 0fake |
Man Who Tried To Dictate What Women Can Wear Gets ROYALLY OWNED In His Own House | Very little is more infuriating for women than to have our appearances policed. Yet, police us people do, usually by criticizing what s in fashion and calling it too immodest, and crying that men can t stop staring and thus are sinning in their hearts, or saying that women over a certain age should not wear this or that. One of the latest incidents comes from Alan Sorrentino, of Rhode Island, who wrote a letter to editor for EastBayRI saying women over 20 should not be wearing yoga pants in public.Yoga pants draw a lot of ire from the supposedly pious and the supposedly weak-willed. Sorrentino s specific targeting of women in yoga pants earned him a yoga pants parade through the street in front of his house. Hundreds of people men and women participated while wearing yoga pants.Yes, there were men wearing yoga pants to stand in solidarity with women who are tired of being told what they can and cannot wear, and paraded with women in front of Sorrentino s house. Sorrentino got more than an eyeful of the struggles with physicality that he doesn t want to see anymore: To all yoga pant wearers, I struggle with my own physicality as I age. I don t want to struggle with yours. Thanks. His problem is that, as women age, we lose our beauty and our bodies, which, to people like him, necessarily restrict what we can wear. It s like he thinks that if we re not young and beautiful, we should hide ourselves in some way (oh wait, that s exactly what he thinks): Like the mini-skirt, yoga pants can be adorable on children and young women who have the benefit of nature s blessing of youth. However, on mature, adult women there is something bizarre and disturbing about the appearance they make in public. Maybe it s the unforgiving perspective they provide, inappropriate for general consumption, TMI, or the spector [sic] of someone coping poorly with their weight or advancing age that makes yoga pants so weird in public.A nice pair of tailored slacks, jeans, or anything else would be better than those stinky, tacky, ridiculous looking yoga pants. They do nothing to compliment a women over 20 years old. In fact, the look is bad. Do yourself a favor, grow up and stop wearing them in public. [emphasis mine]How disgusting. If someone is dressed or presenting an appearance we don t want to see, we can, you know, just look somewhere else. Or better yet, we can accept that there are things in this world that we personally would rather not see. Truly mature people, one of whom Sorrentino clearly isn t, recognize that it s not our place to tell other people what they can and cannot wear based on our personal comfort.Sorrentino is now claiming he wrote the letter as a joke, and the paper is defending its decision to publish it by explaining that they publish all opinions as long as they aren t attacking a person or a group: In this case, Mr. Sorrentino is not attacking any individual nor specific group. It s safe to assume that his comments target a large portion of America s female population, and that group obviously has ample firepower to respond to Mr. Sorrentino and his opinions. Telling women over 20 how they can and cannot dress isn t attacking women? Okay then. That s systemic sexism, though. Here s hoping the yoga pants parade got Sorrentino s attention, and he rethinks his position. Joke or not, it was inappropriate at best.Here s a short video from the parade:The #YogaPantsParade is underway @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/VItosLSLaA Bianca Buono (@BBuonoABC6) October 23, 2016Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 1real |
U.S. senators seek lifetime ban on ex-Congress members lobbying | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan bill introduced on Thursday would prohibit members of the U.S. Congress from ever working as lobbyists after they leave the Senate or House of Representatives. Republican Senator Cory Gardner with Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and Al Franken in introducing the Senate legislation to stop the lucrative “revolving door” practice that has drawn the ire of watchdog groups for decades. “By banning members of Congress from lobbying when they leave Capitol Hill, we can begin to restore confidence in our national politics,” Gardner said in a statement. Similar legislation has failed in the past. Currently, there are only temporary restrictions on former members of Congress becoming lobbyists. The Center for Responsive Politics has noted that former members often score large-salaried lobbying jobs, sometimes of $1 million or more. The non-partisan group found that just over 51 percent of former members of the 113th Congress (2013-2014) became lobbyists. Besides a lifetime ban on lobbying for current members of Congress, the legislation would require former congressional aides to wait six years instead of one year before engaging in lobbying and require better reporting of lobbying activities. | 0fake |
Trump confirms he is considering Mattis for U.S. defense post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday he is considering retired General James Mattis for U.S. defense secretary, a day after meeting with him in New Jersey. Trump said in Twitter that Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general who previously headed U.S. Central Command, “was very impressive yesterday. A true General’s General!” | 0fake |
Illinois risks rating cut to junk even with budget: Moody's | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Even if Illinois’ House of Representatives takes action to enact a new budget on Thursday, the state still risks a downgrade in its credit rating to junk, Moody’s Investors Service warned on Wednesday. The Democratic-controlled House on Thursday will attempt to overturn Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s vetoes of spending and tax increase measures aimed at ending the state’s unprecedented two-year budget impasse. Moody’s said it placed Illinois’ Baa3 rating, which is one step above the junk level, on review for a possible downgrade. The $36 billion fiscal 2018 budget and $5 billion income tax increase passed by lawmakers over the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, may fall short in addressing the state’s financial woes, particularly its huge unfunded pension liability and $15 billion unpaid bill backlog, according to Moody’s. “On both those fronts, it’s not yet clear if the legislation being enacted will have a substantial and clear positive effect,” said Moody’s analyst Ted Hampton. A stalemate between the Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature has left the nation’s fifth-largest state without a complete budget for two-straight fiscal years. Since fiscal 2018 began on Saturday, the House and Senate in bipartisan votes passed budget bills to avoid Illinois becoming the first-ever U.S. state whose credit is rated junk. Rauner vetoed the bills on Tuesday only to have that action quickly overridden by the Senate, leaving the fate of the budget in the hands of the House. Prior to Moody’s announcement, Rauner said his Democratic opponents should prioritize the opinions of Illinois residents over credit ratings agencies. “Don’t listen to some Wall Street firm,” Rauner told reporters Wednesday at a Chicago event. “That’s not what matters.” The governor also said he is working to sustain his vetoes. “I can tell you this, we are doing everything we can to push that my veto is not overridden,” he said. He lashed out at those who defied his wishes by voting for the Democrats’ budget package, including 15 House Republicans. “What we have is a continuing failure by elected officials in Springfield on both sides of the aisle that’s been led by Speaker Madigan for 35 years,” Rauner said, referring to House Speaker Michael Madigan. “The system is broken.” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin told Reuters that he and Rauner are attempting to persuade House Republicans supporters of the Democratic tax hike to reconsider their votes because “there’s a better deal to be had.” But Durkin stopped short of predicting the overrides could be blocked. “I think the Democrats, if they want to get it done, find the votes,” Durkin said. “I’ve seen this before.” Durkin said he had no plans to take punitive actions against those Republicans for their votes, but predicted “it’s definitely a possibility” some will face primary challenges from the Republican Party’s anti-tax wing in the 2018 elections. Illinois has relied on court-ordered and state-mandated spending to keep operating. The absence of a fiscal 2018 budget shuttered major transportation projects and forced the state out of the lucrative Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries. | 0fake |
LEAKED BOMBSHELL: The Shocking Truth About Hillary That Huma Abedin Has Concealed For Years | It is DISTURBING to think that they have known about this FOR YEARS! Huma Abedin has worked as Hillary Clinton’s top assistant for years. You are likely familiar with Huma, as she is a regular on the campaign trail with Hillary, and has also been in the news for years as the wife of Anthony Weiner, the embattled former Congressman who is perpetually accused of sexting improprieties. Reportedly, the FBI is reopening its investigation of Hillary’s private email practices after finding evidence of Huma’s involvement on one of Anthony Weiner’s electronic devices. It is a small world, isn’t it? Another Clinton employee, a name that you may not be familiar with, is popping up in the news lately for reasons that are startling, to say the least. Justin Cooper is an Information Technology worker who is reported to have set up Hillary’s private email server. Recently, he even testified before a House Committee, saying that he extracted information from Clinton-related smart devices before “smashing them to bits.” It is said that Cooper’s testimony is the “most informative we have heard yet.” Judge Andrew Napolitano has expressed concern over Cooper’s access to this information, among other things, as Cooper did not hold a Security Clearance. “He was an employee of the Clinton family and of the Clinton Foundation, and he had complete and total access to the Clinton emails, and he had no security clearance,” Judge Napolitano explained on “Varney & Co.” today. Unfortunately, for Hillary and Huma, new, leaked information has come to light, and it has Justin Cooper’s name all over it: Justin Cooper was the Clinton aide who set up the email server.Huma: "My clinton [black]berry not working"Cooper: "We were attacked again" pic.twitter.com/KjQcbocQzz
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 28, 2016
You read that correctly –
Huma: “My clinton [black]berry not working”
Cooper: “We were attacked again”
So Huma and the Clinton Staff knew all along that they were being attacked, also known as “hacked!”
It is shocking to think that high level State Department employees knew, for years, about such vulnerabilities.
Ironically, if it were not for hacking organizations like WikiLeaks, American voters still would not have this troubling knowledge. | 1real |
Trump Loving Nut-Job Facing Charges After Making Death Threats For This Absurd Reason | Jason Kauti, an avid supporter of Donald Trump, is facing felony charges in Georgia after he freaked out and started making death threats when a woman online called the GOP nominee racist. (Just for the record, he is. But I digress.)A woman, whose name is being withheld at her request, made the fateful mistake of commenting on a friend s political Facebook post. (We ve all been there.) However, when she commented that Trump is a racist, all hell broke lose. Things quickly spiraled out of control when Kauti threatened to murder the woman and her family. If we ever cross paths I will kill you and your family, Kauti wrote on Facebook.The woman filed a complaint on July 23, seeking help from authorities after her life and the safety of her family was threatened online. Milton police spokesman Lt. Charles Barstow said that Kauti was arrested after posting his death threat on the social media site. They were having an argument and unfortunately the dialogue turned into threats, some very serious threats, Barstow said.The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that as recently as Tuesday, public posts on Kauti s Facebook timeline show him holding a handgun with an expletive comment suck it under a profile picture of the University of Miami Hurricanes football logo. That post seems to have been removed, or at least, it is no longer public.When speaking with police, the woman said that Kauti had claimed online to have been in the Class of 1997 at Milton High School. She also provided authorities with a screenshot of the post, but they had to verify that what we see online is exactly as it is before they were able to take any action.Kauti has had quite the exciting summer it seems. On July 24, a day after the woman filed her complaint, Kauti was booked into the Fulton County Jail on charges of felony terroristic threat making, erratic lane change and driving under the influence of alcohol. He spent two days behind bars before he was released on a $2,600 bond.A month later, Kauti was sitting in the slammer once again, this time for his homicidal Facebook threats.Fulton County Jail spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said that although the arrest on July 24 arrest came a day after the woman filed her complaint, the warrant for Kauti s arrest wasn t signed until a month later on August 24. So it would seem that Kauti turned himself in to be processed for the new charge, Flanagan explained.Kauti was released on August 26 after paying the Alpha Bonding Company for a $7,500 bond. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Friday.You can watch more here.Featured image via AJC.com | 1real |
Trump Imitates Indian Call Center Worker In Latest Racist Tirade On Campaign Trail (VIDEO) | If one were to best describe Donald Trump, especially at one of his campaign rallies, he would be the living embodiment of a Fox News Facebook comment section just full of vile, fear-filled, xenophobic, racist, hate-filled rhetoric.Making sure he lives up to this reputation while on the campaign trail in Delaware, Trump decided he would tell people about his experiences with call centers, primarily those that are overseas. And while these call centers are taking away American jobs, the people who work in these centers overseas are human beings trying to make an honest day s wage for themselves, and should be treated as such.However, Trump decided to do what he always does, and with no regard for who s he s throwing under the bus because he has a point to make, decided to imitate a call center worker from India.Trump said that he called the center to pretend he was checking on his credit card, then asked the worker, Where are you from? and that s when he did the impression, saying We are from India, in his disgusting attempt to pander to his racist and xenophobic crowd. Trump then supposedly said to the call center, Oh, great. That s wonderful. Thank you very much, that s all I need to know, and proceeds to pretend to hang up the phone.Did he make this story up? Probably, but it doesn t make it any less racist.Here s the thing, Trump doesn t care who he s offending as long as he s winning. He s fanning the flames of racism and hatred everywhere he goes, because it s clearly working, and that should terrify all of us.We need to make sure Trump gets nowhere near the Oval Office come November. He s not only bad for the nation, but it would be devastating for the entire world.Donald Trump says he called his credit-card company just to see if an Indian call center answered https://t.co/Cdv0korqNo ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 22, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Judge blocks Kansas' attempt to cut Planned Parenthood from Medicaid | (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s efforts to remove Planned Parenthood, a U.S. women’s healthcare and abortion provider, from a government health insurance program for the poor in the state. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued the 54-page order for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, ruling the state could not cancel Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, or PPKM, and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, or PPSLR. “It is uncontroverted that PPKM and PPSLR serve hundreds of underprivileged women in the State of Kansas,” Robinson said in the order. “It is in the public interest to allow these individuals to be treated by the qualified provider of their choice, and to have that provider reimbursed under Medicaid pending a trial on the merits in this case.” The Republican governor ordered state officials to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and its affiliates through the state Medicaid program in January, saying the state would not fund an industry that disrespected life. A spokeswoman for Brownback said in a statement on Tuesday: “The governor will continue the fight to make Kansas a pro-life state. We will review today’s preliminary ruling and move forward with the litigation.” The state sought to cut funding after the release of videos secretly recorded by an anti-abortion group that activists said showed that Planned Parenthood officials in some states had discussed the sale of aborted fetal tissue. Neither of the Planned Parenthood affiliates involved in the case participates in fetal tissue donation or sale, court records show. “We are thrilled with the judge’s ruling. We felt strongly that we were going into this on the right side of the law,” said Laura McQuade, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, formerly Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The two organizations, along with three of their patients who are on Medicaid, sued the state in May, arguing Brownback’s order would break federal law and violate the U.S. Constitution. Planned Parenthood has denied taking any illegal payments, calling the videos distortions of fetal-tissue donations. The organization has said it has received only reimbursements for its costs, which are legal under U.S. law. Planned Parenthood said in May that at least two dozen states had cut or tried to slash funding to its clinics since the mid-2015 release of the undercover videos. | 0fake |
U.N. condemns arrests of Congo opposition members | LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo on Monday condemned the arrest of about 30 opposition members amid a crackdown on dissent by President Joseph Kabila s government. The arrests occurred in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi on Sunday when police broke up a meeting by the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party on the eve of a return to the city of opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, party members told Reuters. Such security incidents are threatening to spiral out of control in Africa s largest copper producer because of Kabila s refusal to hold elections when his presidential mandate expired nearly a year ago. From now, we no longer consider Joseph Kabila as president, Tshisekedi told journalists on Monday in Lubumbashi, where a planned rally was banned by the government. He is usually in the capital, or in Europe. Congo s government has banned opposition demonstrations since last year, when security forces killed dozens of protesters demanding Kabila s departure. The election commission said this month that an election to replace Kabila, who came to power after his father s assassination in 2001, would not be possible before April 2019 at the earliest - raising the prospect of long-term unrest. I urge the Congolese authorities to release immediately and unconditionally those arbitrarily arrested yesterday in Lubumbashi, said Maman Sidikou, head of the U.N. MONUSCO peacekeeping mission. MONUSCO also demanded an end to restrictions imposed on Kyungu wa Kumwanza, president of the National Union of Federalists of the Congo (UNAFEC) party, who has been under de facto house arrest for several months without being charged with a crime. In another sign of discontent with election delays, the Union for the Congolese Nation(UNC)opposition party said in a statement on Monday it was withdrawing its representative in a power-sharing government, Budget Minister Pierre Kangudia. The latter could not immediately be reached for comment. Kabila s political opponents are weak and divided. Many joined a power-sharing government earlier this year following the death of opposition figure, Etienne Tshisekedi, Felix s father, and they enjoy limited credibility with the population. However, an economic crisis that has seen inflation spike to over 50 percent, increased militia activity, and a series of prison breaks have highlighted Kabila s tenuous hold on power. | 0fake |
CNN Found The Perfect Way To Troll Trump’s Live Announcement Today (IMAGE) | Donald Trump may have been guilty in intentionally scheduled his first overseas trip to temporarily escape his Russia scandal just as things started really heating up. Unfortunately for Trump, now that he is back in the States, the investigation is once again catching up to him.One thing Trump will regret during this whole Russia investigation is his volatile, tense relationship with the press. Thanks to his own abrasive personality, Trump has made many enemies with major networks, one of the main ones being CNN. Earlier today, CNN sent a pretty direct message to Trump, one that should scare him for the remainder of the investigation.While CNN was covering Trump s live White House event, where the POTUS was speaking about the Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative , CNN found the perfect opportunity to troll Trump. Using an on-air chyron, CNN promoted the explosive testimony of former FBI Director James Comey, which is only three days away. This graphic appeared throughout Trump s announcement, as a reminder that Trump s troubles are just beginning. You can see the chyron below:CNN likely had a ball thinking of ways the network could troll Trump before settling on this. The Comey investigation was a perfect choice, though without a doubt, Trump is practically sh*tting his pants over this, judging by the pattern of erratic tweets that have recently been sent out, as they always are whenever poor Donnie is stressed out about something.It won t be long before Trump finds out what CNN did during his event and lashes out in response. But no matter how much he attacks CNN and the media as a whole, it won t help him in the Russia investigation, or make Comey s testimony go away. Trump will finally have to face the music, and most of us cannot wait.Featured image via Mark Wilson / Getty Images | 1real |
Bernie Sanders’s New Political Group Is Met by Staff Revolt - The New York Times | Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, his presidential campaign behind him, looked to advance the movement he built during the Democratic primary race, with the public unveiling on Wednesday of a political organization focused on addressing economic inequality and taking on special interests. But while the establishment of the new group, Our Revolution, had been eagerly awaited by many of his most ardent supporters, it has been met with criticism and controversy over its financing and management. A principal concern among backers of Mr. Sanders, whose condemnation of the campaign finance system was a pillar of his presidential bid, is that the group can draw from the pool of “dark money” that Mr. Sanders condemned for lacking transparency. The announcement of the group, which was live streamed on Wednesday night, also came as a majority of its staff resigned after the appointment last Monday of Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s former campaign manager, to lead the organization. Several people familiar with the organization said eight core staff members had stepped down. The group’s entire organizing department quit this week, along with people working in digital and data positions. After the resignations, Mr. Sanders spoke to some who had quit and asked them to reconsider, but the staff members refused. At the heart of the issue, according to several people who left, was deep distrust of and frustration with Mr. Weaver, whom they accused of wasting money on television advertising during Mr. Sanders’s campaign mismanaging campaign funds by failing to hire staff members or effectively target voters and creating a hostile work environment by threatening to criticize staff members if they quit. Claire Sandberg, who was the organizing director at Our Revolution and had worked on Mr. Sanders’s campaign, said she and others were also concerned about the group’s tax status — as a 501( c)(4) organization it can collect large donations from anonymous sources — and that a focus by Mr. Weaver on television advertising meant that it would fail to reach many of the young voters who powered Mr. Sanders’s campaign and are best reached online. “I left and others left because we were alarmed that Jeff would mismanage this organization as he mismanaged the campaign,” she said, expressing concern that Mr. Weaver would “betray its core purpose by accepting money from billionaires and not remaining and plowing that billionaire cash into TV instead of investing it in building a genuine movement. ” Kenneth Pennington, who was the digital director of Our Revolution, declined to go into detail about his reasons for leaving but confirmed that he was no longer with the organization. The staff members who quit also said that they feared that the 501( c)(4) designation meant that the group would not be able to work directly with Mr. Sanders or the people that he had encouraged to run for office because such organizations are not allowed to coordinate directly with candidates. Mr. Weaver did not respond to requests for comment. In an email sent to Sanders supporters on Tuesday night encouraging them to participate, Mr. Weaver said that the new group would work together to “empower a wave of progressive candidates this November and win the major upcoming fights for the values we share. ” Mr. Sanders has been using his vast list of supporters to raise money for local lawmakers like Chris Pearson, a state representative in Vermont. He is also supporting Tim Canova, a liberal Democrat who is trying to unseat Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, whom Mr. Sanders accused of favoring Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the primary race. In his announcement, Mr. Sanders sounded nostalgic about his presidential campaign as he repeatedly said his candidacy had changed the Democratic Party and pulled Hillary Clinton toward his progressive ideas. “We changed the conversation regarding the possibilities of our country. That is what we changed,” he said. “We redefined what the vision and the future of our country should be, and that is no small thing. ” Mr. Sanders also said Our Revolution would focus on seven specific initiatives across the country, including a California proposition aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs and a Colorado initiative aimed at creating a health care system. But Mr. Sanders also made it clear that he did not plan to run the organization himself, saying, “As a United States senator, I will not be directing or controlling Our Revolution. ” Mr. Sanders praised Mr. Weaver as someone who had worked with him for 30 years and who has “very, very good qualifications. ” Mr. Sanders added that Shannon Jackson, his former assistant, would be the executive director of Our Revolution. “I expect big things from them and all of you who join with them to carry the political revolution forward,” Mr. Sanders said. The creation of the group comes as Mr. Sanders faces lingering disappointment from some of his supporters for his endorsement of Mrs. Clinton and questions about his finances that have arisen since he left the race. During the primary race, Mr. Sanders repeatedly delayed releasing his financial disclosure information, and ultimately never did. This month, he spent nearly $600, 000 on a vacation home in Vermont near Lake Champlain. Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit political finance group, said that it was unusual for a federal lawmaker to set up such a organization and that Mr. Sanders should have had to follow Federal Election Commission donation limits and disclosure requirements. “There are definitely some red flags with respect to the formation of this group,” Mr. Ryan said. “We’re in a murky area. ” | 0fake |
Turkey's Vakifbank denies involvement in processes mentioned in U.S. lawsuit | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s Vakifbank said on Friday it had never had any interest or involvement whatsoever in any of the processes mentioned in the U.S. trial of a Turkish bank executive accused of helping to launder money for Iran. VakifBank has always acted in compliance with laws and related legislations and shown utmost care and diligence to act in accordance with the laws and the related legislations, the bank said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange. Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab testified in the United States on Thursday that two Turkish authoriZed Vakifbank and another lender to move funds for Iran. Shares of VakifBank were down 1.6 percent in early trade in Istanbul. | 0fake |
Bayern Munich beat Augsburg 3-1 | News Bulletin Bayern Munich players celebrate after Philipp Lahm scored the opening goal during the German Cup DFB Pokal second round football match FC Bayern Munich v FC Augsburg in Munich, southern Germany on October 26, 2016. (AFP)
German Cup holders Bayern Munich have sealed a spot in the third round of the DFB Pokal after beating Augsburg 3-1.
Veteran defender Philipp Lahm scored the opener for Bayern after only two minutes into the game. Julian Green then headed his first goal for the club to double the lead for Bayern 3 minutes before the break.
Augsburg pulled a goal back following a sensational strike from Ji Dong-Won. But the game wasn't finished there for Bayern as substitute David Alaba fired home in stoppage time to seal the 3-1 victory for Bayern. | 1real |
Trump Whines About How Divided Our Nation Is And Gets SHAMED For Being A Hypocrite | After a year and half of doing nothing but dividing Americans on the campaign trail, Donald Trump is now whining about how divided this country has become.Once again using Twitter as his platform to display his hypocrisy, Trump had the gall to forcefully and angrily complain that America is too untrusting and divided and declared that things will change when he takes office on January 20th. You know, because Trump is delusional and thinks that he is the magic solution to all of America s problems.For many years our country has been divided, angry and untrusting. Many say it will never change, the hatred is too deep. IT WILL CHANGE!!!! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017Well, Twitter users were not amused and proceeded to shame Trump by reminding him of just how hateful and divisive he has been..@realDonaldTrump Yeah, I can t stand it when people are divisive! pic.twitter.com/hoRw9whN6L Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Against almost impossible competition, this is your most ridiculous tweet. Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Also, if you want to stop people being angry, shouting in block caps at the end of every tweet may not be the best tactic. Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 15, 2017.@realDonaldTrump You ve exploited a lack of intelligence so viciously. You literally said you could shoot someone and people wouldn t care pic.twitter.com/TsDdUdbDcY Kris Sanchez (@KrisSanchez) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump well considering that you helped the division with the whole birther movement this lays squarely at your feet, POS . Apple-Elgatha (@iamchefapple) January 15, 2017.@realDonaldTrump dude, you told everyone our president was born in Kenya for 5 years. Think that helped an untrusting divided country??? Isaac Saul (@Ike_Saul) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump yeah it will when you re impeached, arrested and go to jail. (You re welcome) Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump It s you who has brought so much hate into our political discourse. Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump says the guy who insults and bullies everyone. paladine (@paladine) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Could you please start by modeling empathy for groups who regularly face discrimination and hatred? Many people are scared. Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump your rallies and words have given permission to your low-information voters to be angry, distrusting, and hate-filled Tony Webster (@webster) January 15, 2017Then one Twitter user really let Trump have it by listing all the things he needs to do if he wants Americans to take his call for unity seriously.@realDonaldTrump You have not done ONE SINGLE THING to make this a credible statement. I don t like you, but I ll help you out: Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 1: Apologize to Obama and the entire country for the 6 yrs you lied in order to delegitimize his presidency; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 2: Emphatically and credibly denounce white supremacy. Sorry, but half-hearted stop it wasn t sufficient; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 3: Totally divest from your business and remove your family from positions of influence in your administration; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 4: Apologize to individuals and groups you have insulted/threatened and pledge to be better going forward; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 5: Promise (and follow through) to investigate Russia s election interference and ensure appropriate punishment; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 6: Apologize for maligning all followers of an entire religion and promise not to threaten their rights as Americans; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 7: Admit past mistakes and promise to treat women better and protect their rights; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 8: Stop your attacks on the press and promise to be more open and accountable to the people; Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017@realDonaldTrump Step 9: Start treating your new office with the respect and seriousness it deserves and change your behavior accordingly. Soleia (@soleia79) January 15, 2017But we all know Trump won t do that because he s a hypocrite.For eight years, Donald Trump has done nothing but divide this nation with his birtherism and attacks against President Obama. Now that he is about to take over the White House, he deserves the exact same treatment. And he only has himself to blame.Featured Image: Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS DISAPPOINTED THAT HURRICANE MATTHEW WASN’T WORSE | Home › SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY › GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS DISAPPOINTED THAT HURRICANE MATTHEW WASN’T WORSE GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS DISAPPOINTED THAT HURRICANE MATTHEW WASN’T WORSE 0 SHARES
[10/26/16] J.D.HEYES – Only the sickest, most warped and ideologically polluted minds would secretly hope for greater death and destruction to their own people and country, but such is the case with “climate change” zealots .
As pointed out by Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), it was former President Obama crony and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who once infamously remarked that political leaders should never let serious crises “go to waste,” because they can use them to advance a political agenda where they could not do so before.
As for the recent Hurricane Matthew, it appears as though a number of political operatives and true believers in the global warming religion likely wanted it to be worse than it actually was (which, to many people, was bad enough).
Why? Because that would be consistent with their history.
For the record, the storm killed 30 Americans and more than 1,000 people in total. Early damage estimates were put at about $5 billion. Yet that is not enough death and destruction for the global warming hoaxers.
For the record, the hoaxers have tried advancing the narrative that in this day and age, thanks to man-caused actions, the weather is getting worse and more severe . Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton enlisted the assistance of the hoaxer-in-chief, Al Gore, her husband’s vice president and today’s chief global warming liar, to use Matthew to advance the phony narrative.
Only, before the hurricane actually made landfall days ago in South Carolina, it had been more than 4,000 days since a hurricane actually struck the United States. That’s 10 years, 11 months and some change.
Alarmists were “itching for a large-scale disaster,” IBD reported, because every day that passed that didn’t herald a major weather event, especially one on an epic scale, meant that their dire predictions of more and bigger storms made them look like clueless, silly con artists (which they are).
Their sick impatience for a major weather-related crisis was summarized very well a couple of years ago when a guy named Greg Blanchette announced that since the weather is getting worse and more severe , that he “kind of” hoped that North America “gets it’s a** kicked this hurricane season. It would motivate us on climate action.”
Like we said, sick .
This may or may not be the same Greg Blanchette who advocated placing scary global warming warnings on gasoline pumps – which is now law in North Vancouver, British Columbia. That doesn’t matter, though, because if it’s not the same person, that only means there are two global warming hoaxer cranks out there sharing the same name.
Then, as IBD noted, a couple of years before this Blanchette dude was hoping for weather-related death and destruction, British naturalist David Attenborough noted that a “disaster” was required to wake people up to the massive threat of climate change.
Up to that point, the “disasters” that the U.S. had experienced “with hurricanes and floods … [didn’t] do it.” So, a cataclysmic event was needed in order to scare enough people into demanding some sort of action, which of course would come in the form of costly government regulations that are not based on sound, demonstrable and replicable scientific data.
Then, as Matthew tore up Florida’s Atlantic Coast, Marshall Shepherd, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Georgia, outed the sick hoaxers , tweeting that he was hearing “ridiculous complaining” that the hurricane was actually less powerful than anticipated.
“Some seem disappointed there isn’t tragic loss of life/apocalyptic,” he noted, adding: “I am thankful.”
IBD summed up the facts: While the environmental movement contains sincere people, it is also replete with idiots and lunatics who yearn for a planet devoid of humans (with the exception of themselves, of course). Attenborough himself has complained to the British press that human beings are a “plague on the Earth.” (We assume he is counting himself as well, which – if he is – seems even less rational, if that’s possible.)
There are nothing but theories claiming that man-caused activity is responsible for changing weather patterns. There is no hard evidence and there is no replicable data, which there should be if such claims were provable outside of anecdotal findings . If this was a real issue the language would not have changed from “global cooling” in the 1970s, to “global warming” in the 1980s and ’90s, to “climate change” today. Post navigation | 1real |
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