title stringlengths 1 456 ⌀ | text stringlengths 1 143k ⌀ | label class label 2
classes |
|---|---|---|
Fight for Viacom Is Said to End With the Redstones in Control - The New York Times | The fight over Sumner M. Redstone’s $40 billion media empire is over, and the mogul has won. A truce has been reached in the vicious corporate battle that pitted Mr. Redstone, who controls Viacom and CBS, and his daughter, Shari Redstone, against his longtime confidants and directors at Viacom, according to two people briefed on the agreement. The two sides have completed a settlement agreement that puts an end to messy legal battles in Massachusetts, Delaware and California over whether Mr. Redstone had the mental capacity to make decisions about his businesses and whether he was being manipulated by Ms. Redstone, who was long estranged from her father before they recently reconciled. Terms of the settlement — which firmly put the future of the corporate empire under the control of Mr. Redstone and his daughter — include the dismissal of Philippe P. Dauman as chief executive of Viacom, the beleaguered media company that owns the MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon cable television networks and the Paramount Pictures film and television studio. Mr. Dauman will depart with a total severance package valued at about $72 million. Viacom’s board met on Thursday and approved the settlement, said the people briefed on the agreement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been made public. Mr. Redstone, who is in poor health, controls about 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS through National Amusements, the private theater chain company started by his father. The fight over Mr. Redstone’s empire erupted in May, when he unexpectedly ousted Mr. Dauman and another longtime confidant, George S. Abrams, from the National Amusements trust that will gain control of his companies after he dies or is declared incompetent. He also removed them from the board of National Amusements. The action set off a fight for money, power and control that included all the twists and turns of a Shakespearean tragedy, sullying the reputations of both sides and leaving an already troubled company even more battered and bruised. Mr. Dauman and Mr. Abrams filed suit in Massachusetts, challenging Mr. Redstone’s mental competency and depicting Ms. Redstone as a villain who unduly influenced her father as part of an “unlawful corporate takeover. ” Mr. Dauman, in turn, was depicted as a failing, egoistic executive who oversaw the loss of $7 billion in market capitalization at Viacom in the previous year. That suit was scheduled to go to trial in September. Another legal battle emerged in June, when National Amusements moved to replace Mr. Dauman and four other directors on the Viacom board. Viacom’s lead independent director immediately filed suit in Delaware, seeking to block the changes. That case was scheduled to go to trial in October. Over the last three months, the two sides made a series of attempts to resolve the dispute out of court. Settlement talks picked up in the last 10 days, after Viacom’s latest earnings report, in which the company said its profits plunged 29 percent during the latest fiscal quarter. The company reported weakness across both its television and film groups, with soft TV ratings at some networks, declines in domestic advertising sales and the dismal performance of its film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. ” Reaching a settlement helps to preserve the privacy and the dignity of Mr. Redstone, who has suffered a series of strokes and has a severe speech impediment. And it prevents the public airing of the relationship between Mr. Redstone and his daughter, which was been strained in the past. The resolution also provides a path for Mr. Dauman to leave the company less contentiously and while still being well compensated. And, most importantly, Mr. Redstone and Ms. Redstone now are decidedly in charge of the company’s future. As part of the agreement, Thomas E. Dooley, Viacom’s chief operating officer, will become the interim chief executive through Sept. 30, the end of the company’s fiscal year. Mr. Dooley is expected to work closely with the Viacom board during the next month and a half to develop a new strategic and financial plan for the company, the people said, and could potentially become the permanent chief executive, pending board approval. Mr. Dooley, a longtime Viacom executive, has been a member of Viacom’s board since 2006. He started at Viacom in 1980 and has been part of Mr. Redstone’s inner circle since the mogul wrested control of the company in 1987. The agreement also calls for Viacom’s board to expand to include five new directors that National Amusements put forward in June. They include Nicole Seligman, a former Sony executive and lawyer who represented President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial and Kenneth Lerer, a venture capitalist, a of The Huffington Post and chairman of BuzzFeed. While the fight for control over Mr. Redstone’s business empire has reached a resolution, Viacom’s business is in dire straits. The company has reported persistent declines in profit and revenue, and its share price has plunged about 47 percent in the last two years. As part of the agreement, Mr. Dauman will continue as nonexecutive chairman of Viacom until Sept. 13, the people said. During that period, Mr. Dauman will have the opportunity to present Viacom’s board with his proposal to sell a 49 percent stake in Paramount. The deal would require the unanimous approval of the Viacom board. While Mr. Dauman has pushed for the deal, Mr. Redstone’s National Amusements holding company has opposed the transaction and the board is unlikely to approve it. Mr. Dauman, who formed a close bond with Mr. Redstone in the late 1980s when he was a young corporate lawyer, was named chief executive of Viacom in 2006. Described as reserved and calculating, Mr. Dauman didn’t let his guard down publicly amid the dispute in recent months as Mr. Redstone turned against him and opponents attacked his character, motives and performance as chief executive. “I’m steady in all things,” Mr. Dauman, 62, said in June, just before stepping onto an elevator after making a business presentation at an investor conference. The quip was in response to a question from a reporter about whether he had lost weight in the midst of the drama. During his tenure, a number of longtime executives and creative talent left the company. Comedy Central, for instance, said goodbye to three of its biggest stars: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver. Critics, meanwhile, attacked the company for failing to transform the business from its traditional roots into a media company for the digital age. Mr. Dauman long maintained that he was positioning Viacom for growth through new initiatives, including the Paramount deal, TV ratings improvements, a new data unit and its international business. Despite Viacom’s business struggles, Mr. Dauman was handsomely compensated during his tenure. Mr. Dauman was awarded $54. 1 million last year, making him the third highest paid chief executive in the country. Since being named chief executive of Viacom in 2006, Mr. Dauman’s total reported compensation was $409. 7 million, according to Equilar, a compensation research firm. Thomas J. May, one of the people that National Amusements has put forward as a new director, is expected to be named chairman. Mr. May is the chairman of Eversource Energy, one of New England’s largest energy delivery companies, and also is on the board of Bank of America and the Liberty Mutual Holding Company. While the corporate dispute may well be resolved, one family feud continues. Keryn Redstone, Mr. Redstone’s granddaughter, filed court documents in Massachusetts this month to join the lawsuit over his mental capacity. Keryn Redstone has asserted that she has been disinherited of $6 million and potentially $1 billion more. (The beneficiaries of the National Amusements trust, now valued at more than $5 billion, include Keryn Redstone and Mr. Redstone’s four other grandchildren.) Keryn Redstone earlier insisted that she would not settle without the inclusion of a deal for Manuela Herzer, a former companion and onetime romantic partner of Mr. Redstone. Last year, Mr. Redstone revoked plans to leave Ms. Herzer $50 million and his $20 million Los Angeles mansion. Keryn Redstone has not participated in the settlement negotiations and has no information about the terms, according to her lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell. That trial is scheduled to start on Sept. 19. | 0fake |
Realities Faced by Black Canadians are a National Shame | Tweet Widget by Robyn Maynard
Canada, including its French-speaking regions, is home to much the same kind of systemic racism as its southern neighbor, according to a United Nations Working Group report. Black women’s poverty rates are “almost five times higher than that of white Canadian women.” In Montreal, “a 2008 study found that black girls are three times more likely than white girls the same age to have been arrested two times or more.” Realities Faced by Black Canadians are a National Shame by Robyn Maynard
This article previously appeared in the Montreal Gazette .
“ Black Montrealers continue to experience dehumanizing treatment across institutions.”
After holding consultations in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario last month, the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent issued a statement that sheds light on realities, too-often invisible to most Canadians, that should be seen as a national shame.
The group’s preliminary findings confirm what is already well known in Canada’s black communities: that systemic discrimination has subjected black people to racial profiling by law enforcement, soaring incarceration rates, disproportionate poverty and poor health, the over-apprehension of black children by child welfare agencies and lower graduation rates. Black women, they note, face a rate of poverty that is almost five times higher than that of white Canadian women, and are one of the fastest-growing groups in federal prisons.
Underlying these injustices, the UN Working Group has made clear, is systemic racism.
The UN is right to be concerned, and Montreal is by no means exempt from this criticism: Both its historical and contemporary realities are defined by a systemic anti-blackness that goes too frequently un-named. The enslavement of black (and indigenous) persons was not an uncommon practice in New France, and indeed was legal until 1834. The fact of slavery remains all around us: acclaimed art historian Charmaine Nelson reminds us that many present-day Montreal streets, buildings and institutions are named after white businessmen like James McGill and John Redpath who traded in plantation crops worked by slave labor.
Enslavement may be over, but centuries later black Montrealers — the largest visible minority in the city — continue to experience dehumanizing treatment across institutions. A 2010 study by sociologists Léonel Bernard and Christopher McAll found that it was over-surveillance, and not the rates of so-called “black crime,” that accounted for up to 60 per cent of the over-incarceration of black youth in Montreal.
“The enslavement of black (and indigenous) persons was not an uncommon practice in New France, and indeed was legal until 1834.”
A report commissioned by the Montreal police, leaked to La Presse, found that in St-Michel and Montréal-Nord, up to 40 per cent of black youth were stopped in 2006-2007, a rate that indicates a high degree of racial profiling by police officers. Much of this heightened policing was justified to the public as curbing “gang activities,” when in reality, in 2009, only 1.6 per cent of crimes were gang related. High profile cases of police abuse of black Montrealers and alleged abuse continue to surface, including the recent case of Veckqueth Stevenson, a legally blind black man in his 50s, who has accused the police of using excessive force and unjustly arresting him, ironically, while he was at Nelson Mandela Park.
Black women and girls are not exempt, though we hear even less about their experiences locally; the case of Majiza Philip, a black woman who says she had her arm broken by police in 2014, is one example, however. A 2008 study found that black girls in Montreal are three times more likely than white girls the same age to have been arrested two times or more.
Beyond the criminal justice system, numerous studies have demonstrated that black children are apprehended from their homes by child welfare at alarming rates in Montreal, and this, too, can be attributed to racism.
The UN Working group is not the first to point out these injustices, nor are they the only ones proposing solutions. Black Lives Matter-Toronto and other black activist groups in Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal have been steadily mobilizing to address anti-black racism. Across cities, black communities have denounced, among other issues, the recent deaths of Abdirahman Abdi in Ottawa, and Bony Jean-Pierre in Montreal, both at the hands of police in 2016.
If Canada intends to genuinely reckon with its still-living legacy of black enslavement, the injustices brought to light by the UN — alongside those highlighted by black activists around the country — need to be both addressed and redressed. Robyn Maynard is an activist and writer living in Montreal, author of the forthcoming book Policing Black Bodies (2017). | 1real |
Trump Offers No Apology for Claim on British Spying - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — President Trump provoked a rare public dispute with America’s closest ally on Friday after his White House aired an explosive and unsubstantiated claim that Britain’s spy agency had secretly eavesdropped on him at the behest of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign. Livid British officials adamantly denied the allegation and secured promises from senior White House officials never to repeat it. But a defiant Mr. Trump refused to back down, making clear that the White House had nothing to retract or apologize for because his spokesman had simply repeated an assertion made by a Fox News commentator. Fox itself later disavowed the report. The rupture with London was Mr. Trump’s latest quarrel with an ally or foreign power since taking office. Mexico’s president angrily canceled a White House visit in January over Mr. Trump’s proposed border wall. A telephone call with Australia’s prime minister ended abruptly amid a dispute over refugees. Sweden bristled over Mr. Trump’s criticism of its refugee policy. And China refused for weeks to engage with Mr. Trump because of his postelection call with Taiwan’s president. Mr. Trump’s strained relations with Europe, which has viewed his ascension to power with trepidation, were fully on display on Friday, not just in the British spy flap but also in the venue in which it was addressed. The president was hosting for the first time Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is seen by many Europeans as the most important champion of the liberal international order. Though polite, the two leaders seemed stiff and distant during their public appearances. European news outlets and social media made much of the fact that she suggested a handshake for photographers in the Oval Office and he did not respond, although it appeared that he did not hear her. Either way, the two were clearly on separate pages on issues like immigration and trade. The angry response from Britain stemmed from Mr. Trump’s persistence in accusing Mr. Obama of tapping his phones last year despite the lack of evidence and denials. At a briefing on Thursday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, read from a sheaf of news clippings that he suggested bolstered the president’s claim. Among them was an assertion by Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News commentator, that Mr. Obama had used Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, the agency known as the GCHQ, to spy on Mr. Trump. In response to Mr. Spicer, the agency quickly denied it as “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous,” while British officials contacted American counterparts to complain. “We said nothing,” Mr. Trump told a German reporter who asked about the matter at a news conference with Ms. Merkel. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it. ” He added: “You shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox. ” The president tried making a joke about it, turning to Ms. Merkel, who was angered during Mr. Obama’s administration by reports that the National Security Agency had tapped her cellphone and those of other leaders. “At least we have something in common, perhaps,” Mr. Trump said. She made a face that suggested she had no interest in getting involved. After the news conference, Mr. Spicer echoed Mr. Trump’s unapologetic tone. “I don’t think we regret anything,” he told reporters. “As the president said, I was just reading off media reports. ” Shortly afterward, Fox backed off Mr. Napolitano’s claim. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” the anchor Shepard Smith said on air. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop. ” Mr. Trump’s unremorseful tenor further stunned British officials, who thought they had managed to contain the matter. Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States, had raised the matter on Thursday night with Mr. Spicer at a St. Patrick’s Day reception in Washington. Mark Lyall Grant, the national security adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, had contacted his American counterpart, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster. On Friday morning, a spokesman for Mrs. May said the White House had backed off the allegation. “We’ve made clear to the administration that these claims are ridiculous and should be ignored,” the spokesman said, on the condition of anonymity in keeping with British protocol. “We’ve received assurances these allegations won’t be repeated. ” But White House officials, who also requested anonymity, said Mr. Spicer had offered no regret to the ambassador. “He didn’t apologize, no way, no how,” a senior West Wing official said. The officials said they did not know whether General McMaster had apologized. The furor underscored the continuing troubles for the White House since Mr. Trump first accused Mr. Obama of tapping his phones, an allegation refuted by intelligence agencies as well as Republican and Democratic officials. Even as Mr. Trump refused to back down, fellow Republicans appeared increasingly irritated by what they see as a distraction from their policy goals. Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said on Friday that Mr. Trump had not proved his case and should apologize to Mr. Obama. “Frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling truth, I think President Obama is owed an apology,” Mr. Cole told reporters. “If he didn’t do it, we shouldn’t be reckless in accusations that he did. ” The conspiracy theorizing also tested what is often called the special relationship between the United States and Britain. American intelligence agencies enjoy a closer collaboration with their British counterparts than any other in the world. GCHQ was the first agency to warn the United States government that Russia was hacking Democratic Party emails during the presidential campaign. Foreign policy analysts expressed astonishment that Mr. Trump would so cavalierly endanger that partnership. “It illustrates the extent to which the White House really doesn’t care what damage they do to crucial relationships in order to avoid admitting their dishonesty,” said Kori Schake, a former national security aide to President George W. Bush now at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. “America’s allies are having to protect themselves against being tarred with the White House’s mendacity. ” Eric S. Edelman, an under secretary of defense under Mr. Bush, has written about the stresses between the United States and Britain in recent years. “I hope that this latest episode doesn’t drive a stake through the heart of the strongest remaining element of partnership,” he said. Julianne Smith, who was a deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Mr. Trump did not appear to realize how much American intelligence agencies depend on Britain in dealing with threats around the world. “He will probably live to see the day when he will regret firing off such an egregious insult to Britain and then failing to apologize for it,” she said. The issue clearly touched a nerve at GCHQ, which usually refuses to comment on intelligence matters. Its vehement response surprised British officials and analysts. Dominic Grieve, the intelligence committee chairman in Parliament, pointed to elaborate safeguards that prevent spying on the United States and require “a valid national security purpose” for any monitoring. “It is inconceivable that those legal requirements could be met in the circumstances described,” he said. Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the last British coalition government, described Mr. Spicer’s repetition of the claims as “shameful” and said Mr. Trump was “compromising the vital U. K. . S. security relationship to try to cover his own embarrassment. ” Downing Street evidently wanted to avoid adding to any embarrassment in Washington while making it clear that Britain had no part in any such wiretapping. But in rebuffing that effort, Mr. Trump showed that Mrs. May, who was the first foreign leader to visit the White House after his inauguration, may not have forged the bond she had hoped, analysts said. “It’s very easy to have a good meeting with Trump,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official who is the research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. “He’s very pleasant in person. He’ll promise you the world. And 48 hours later, he’ll betray you without a thought. He won’t even know he’ll be betraying you. ” | 0fake |
FBI Investigates Saudi Wife-Abusing Clinton Foundation Donor in Straw Donor Scheme | FBI Investigates Saudi Wife-Abusing Clinton Foundation Donor in Straw Donor Scheme November 2, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
It's midnight in America. And the Clintons and the Democratic Party keep finding ways to cover themselves in glory. I'm sure the line on this will be that the FBI is acting "inappropriately" by investigating this. Investigating political corrupt ion interferes with corrupt politicians being elected.
The FBI is investigating an alleged illegal donation scheme involving a wealthy Saudi family that supports Democratic Florida Senate candidate Patrick Murphy.
Murphy, who has covered himself in glory so often already, is denying everything. And I mean absolutely everything.
The Murphy campaign declined to say whether the candidate is aware of the FBI probe
What's your name? I decline to answer that question.
Murphy, 33, is running against Rubio, the incumbent Republican, in a race that could help decide which party controls the Senate in 2017. Rubio currently leads Murphy by an average of 5.6 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
The FBI investigation, however, relates to Murphy’s first run for the House in the 2012 campaign cycle.
The allegation — originally submitted by a Republican super PAC run by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — is that Murphy’s high school friend and major political donor, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, coordinated a “straw donor” scheme to boost Murphy.
Murphy knows nothing!
Murphy’s campaign declined to say whether Murphy’s attorneys had discussed the FBI investigation with Al-Rashid’s attorney.
Uh-huh
Al-Rashid is the son of a powerful and politically connected Saudi billionaire. He’s been a major financial benefactor of Murphy’s, giving almost $400,000 to his campaigns and to outside groups supporting the Florida congressman.
Here's how some of these donations worked.
One example within the alleged scheme: A woman who describes herself in federal donation reports as the “owner” and “property manager” of a Texas-based company, Limestone Property Management, gave Murphy’s campaign $300.
But she is neither the property manager nor the owner of the Texas-based company. In fact, she doesn’t work there.
She lived in Miami at the time and was Ibrahim Al-Rashid’s “cleaning lady,” according to a Miami-Dade Police Department report filed in 2012 over a home burglary at Al-Rashid’s property.
Texas property manager vs Saudi's cleaning lady. That's quite a difference.
Murphy has been forced to return Al-Rashid's donations before for purely Islamophobic reasons.
Al-Rashid’s three sons have followed in their father’s political footsteps, contributing large sums to top Democrats, including Rep. Patrick Murphy (D., Fla.), whose Senate race could help decide which party controls the Senate in 2017.
Murphy has already returned a portion of al-Rashid’s donations due to his involvement in a domestic assault incident.
Ibrahim al-Rashid allegedly forced his way into his estranged wife’s Pennsylvania home, where al-Rashid allegedly “grabbed her by the wrist, struck her about the head and face with a closed fist then threw her to the ground,” according to a copy of the police report viewed by the Free Beacon.
Following the 2014 incident, al-Rashid allegedly sent his wife a text message stating, “I am not sorry this time I hope you die in hell,” according to the police report.
Murphy, a longtime friend of al-Rashid, was recently forced to donate around $16,000 in campaign funds to domestic violence groups after the assault charge became a public liability for the campaign. Murphy also returned all of the donations made by al-Rashid during the last three political cycles.
Is the Clinton Foundation involved in this? Do the Clintons do their business in golden and marble toilets?
Nasser al-Rashid, one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest figures and an adviser to the country’s royal family, has donated somewhere between $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, putting him in an elite category of prominent donors.
The Clintons. If there's dirt anywhere, you'll find it on them. | 1real |
Nevada: Rep. Election Workers Intimidated | Nevada: Rep. Election Workers Intimidated November 08, 2016 Myla Gibson, 3, waits as her father Ken Gibson fills out a ballot for the presidential election at the James Weldon Johnson school in East Harlem,
Republican volunteers called 911 claiming Clinton supporters were Harassing them.
Volunteers canvassing and dropping off literature at houses Monday for Nevada Republican senate candidate Rep. Joe Heck were followed by supporters of Hillary Clinton, who then subsequently pulled down the literature, a source within the Nevada Republican Party told The Daily Caller in an exclusive report. The staffers following them were wearing HRC buttons and HRC stickers. Beyond following them, the HRC workers began going up to houses and illegally removing Heck literature from the doors,” the Nevada GOP source said. “When the Heck volunteers noticed this going on, they stopped to take pictures of the illegal action.” The source said that, “Within a few minutes, more HRC campaign workers showed up. At this point, the Heck volunteers began to feel threatened and called 911 to report HRC workers illegally removing campaign literature and harassing the Heck volunteers.”
Reports like the case in Nevada may seem minor to some, but those that have been called to pray over this election know that it only confirms the need for prayer. The kind of anger and even violence that can manifest during and after elections is something to be taken seriously. We have seen violence erupt during elections in other countries, and it certainly isn't something we want to see in the United States. The call is to pray without ceasing Church!
Article by The Daily Caller / TRUNEWS analysis.
Article by , Correspondent for TRUNEWS Got a news tip? Email us at Help support the ministry of TRUNEWS with your one-time or monthly gift of financial support. DONATE NOW ! DOWNLOAD THE TRUNEWS MOBILE APP! CLICK HERE! Donate Today! Support TRUNEWS to help build a global news network that provides a credible source for world news
We believe Christians need and deserve their own global news network to keep the worldwide Church informed, and to offer Christians a positive alternative to the anti-Christian bigotry of the mainstream news media Top Stories | 1real |
California Today: A Gallery Flees and Neighborhood Activists Cheer - The New York Times | Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the .) Let’s turn it over to Jennifer Medina, a correspondent based in Los Angeles, for today’s introduction. Often referred to as the Ellis Island of Los Angeles, the neighborhood east of downtown known as Boyle Heights has been the first stop for several waves of immigration. Since the 1940s, it has transformed into a largely enclave and the center of Chicano culture and activism in the city. As other parts of Los Angeles have seen real estate prices climb steadily, many in Boyle Heights have expressed concern about gentrification, particularly after several art galleries moved into an industrial stretch. The battle between the galleries and activists reached a peak last fall when someone a vulgar statement condemning “white art” on the door of one gallery and a investigation was opened. Almost from the moment it opened its doors last year Pssst, a nonprofit gallery, and its creators, have been the focus of protests and criticism on social media. Last month, they announced they could no longer tolerate it. They were closing up shop. “This persistent targeting, which was often highly personal in nature, was made all the more intolerable because the artists we engaged are queer, women, people of color,” they said on their website. “We could no longer continue to put already vulnerable communities at further risk. ” Defend Boyle Heights, one of the activist groups that has called for a boycott of the galleries, said that it considered the closing a victory and that it hoped other galleries would soon follow suit. The response has raised alarms for many of the other galleries in the area. Ethan Swan, one of the directors of 356 Mission, which has been there since 2013, said that he had tried to arrange a meeting with local activists, but that he had been repeatedly turned down. “We want to be thoughtful about our presence and what it was that we could do or how we could work together for a better future for this neighborhood and how it might shift,” he said. “But their position is an uncompromising one since they don’t see a solution unless we leave. ” Do you think the galleries should stay in Boyle Heights or leave? Let us know your thoughts at caltoday@nytimes. com. (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.) • Insurance premiums would rise significantly for many Californians under the Republican health plan. [Los Angeles Times] • Democrats unveiled a sweeping plan to make college free for more Californians. They . [Opinion | Sacramento Bee] • The Queen Mary, a historic vessel in Long Beach, needs more than $230 million in repairs to keep it from sinking. [Long Beach Press Telegram] • The dream of rail is taking longer and costing more. [Orange County Register] • Daredevils are walking on slacklines high above a waterfall near Lake Elsinore. Forest officials aren’t happy. [The Press Enterprise] • A proposed California license plate design features a redwood forest. [The Mercury News] • : Through music and relationships, a California man with Asperger’s syndrome finds another way to be “normal. ” [The New York Times] • “It has harmed me professionally,” said a screenwriter about his support for President Trump. [Los Angeles Times] • The artist Jimmie Durham has his first American solo show in 22 years, at a Los Angeles museum. He gave a rare interview. [The New York Times] • A new podcast investigates why Richard Simmons left public life. Is it any of our business? [The New York Times] • Drinking your way — responsibly and on a budget — through San Diego. [The New York Times] • The odds of U. C. Davis winning the N. C. A. A. men’s basketball tournament are against. “This is a moment of hope,” a campus official said. [San Francisco Chronicle] On Monday, we wrote about an effort to end daylight saving time in California. We asked where you came down on the matter. Among hundreds of responses, an overwhelming majority made the same plea: stop the twice yearly clock changing. Readers called for the adoption of an unchanging time throughout the year, outnumbering those who favored the status quo by roughly eight to one. Most of those favoring an immutable time said they would prefer to simply stay on daylight saving time, dispensing with the “fall back” of November. Dave Spaulding, of Sausalito, echoed a theme: “Love that extra hour of sunshine. ” The crowd expressed worries of falling out of sync with the rest of the country. Others complained that our politicians should be focused on bigger issues. A sample of the responses: “I really don’t care which one we use. But use it consistently. I dislike the change. One or the other, not both. ” — Carolyn Dennison, Garden Grove “I’m totally for permanent daylight saving time. I think people feel more energized and happy with the extra hour of sunshine. ” — Toni Bouman, San Luis Obispo “I very much favor eliminating the time change. It is confusing and physically stressful. I dread it every time. Personally I would favor Pacific Standard Time year round. ” — Leslie Clarke Gray, Cambria “I feel daylight savings is an arbitrary practice of torture we impose upon ourselves. Ditch it and save the headache. ” — Cory Windorff, Irvine “Ideally the whole country would adopt a uniform time plan, either daylight saving time or standard. Maybe if California gets the ball rolling, other states would follow. Meanwhile, the shift back and forth is a useless and disruptive annoyance. ” — Linda Lancione, Berkeley California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U. C. Berkeley. | 0fake |
Applause, laughter as wounded lawmaker Scalise returns to Congress | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the U.S. House of Representatives put bitter party divisions aside for a long standing ovation on Thursday as Representative Steve Scalise returned for the first time since he was shot and wounded in June. Leaning on a cane but walking on his own, Scalise, 51, entered a packed House chamber to applause and loud cheers from his fellow members of Congress. “You have no idea how great this feels to be back here at work in the people’s House,” said Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the chamber, standing at a desk in the Republican section after he was greeted with hugs and high-fives from members of his own party and Democrats. He thanked the Capitol police officers he credited with saving his life, world leaders who had contacted him and members of his medical team, who were sitting in the crowded visitors gallery overlooking the House floor. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s voice cracked as he introduced Scalise. “The chair wishes to mark the return of our dear friend and colleague from Louisiana, Mr. Steve Scalise,” Ryan said. “Our prayers have been answered.” Scalise gave an emotional speech, interrupted by frequent applause, thanking his family and referring to innate optimism he partly attributed to being from Louisiana, referring to the attitude of “joie de vivre” (joy of life) in a state with a heavy French influence. “When I come back into this chamber today, just seeing the faces of all of you, it just means more than you can imagine,” Scalise said. Scalise was among Republican lawmakers attacked June 14 in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, by a gunman who opened fire on them while they were practicing for a charity baseball game against Democrats. He underwent repeated surgeries before being released from the hospital in late July. Scalise was shot in the hip by a gunman who had a history of posting angry messages against Republican President Donald Trump. | 0fake |
Senator Cornyn trying to get Big Corn behind U.S. biofuels reform | (Reuters) - Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, is trying to win support from the Midwest corn lobby for a broad legislative overhaul of the nation’s biofuels policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. The effort comes as President Donald Trump’s White House mediates talks between the rival oil and corn industries over the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil refiners to blend increasing amounts of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply every year. Oil refiners say the regulation costs them hundreds of millions of dollars a year and is threatening to put a handful of the nation’s refineries out of business. Ethanol interests have so far refused to budge on proposals to change it. Cornyn “is working hard to unify all stakeholders in a consensus effort to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard,” an aide to the senator told Reuters. The aide, who asked not to be named, did not provide details. Cornyn, of Texas, the U.S. state that is home to the most oil refineries, is part of the Senate’s leadership team, responsible for securing the votes needed to pass the Republican party’s legislative agenda. Two lobbyists for the oil refining industry said Cornyn was having some success cobbling together a coalition of lawmakers and stakeholders around a potential RFS reform bill that could be dropped early next year. However, similar efforts to unify these rival factions have fallen flat in the past. Any such effort would need the buy-in of legislative backers of the ethanol industry, like Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, the top-producing state for corn. Officials for the senators did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Both Grassley and Ernst have previously repeatedly expressed their intention to defend the RFS in its current form. The White House has been hosting negotiations between both sides of the issue over short-term remedies that can provide relief to refiners struggling with the existing regulation. The refining industry says compliance now costs it hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and threatens to put some refineries out of business. Refineries that do not have adequate facilities to blend ethanol into their gasoline must purchase blending credits, called RINS, from rivals that do. RIN prices have risen in recent years as the amount of biofuels required under the RFS has increased. Refineries that buy RINs include Philadelphia Energy Solutions and Monroe Energy, both of Pennsylvania, and Valero Energy Corp of Texas. Valero said RINs cost it around $750 million last year, though there are competing arguments over whether refiners pass along those costs. Senator Ted Cruz, also of Texas, last week sent a proposal to the White House to cap the price of RINs at 10 cents each, a fraction of the current price. The proposal was widely rejected by the ethanol industry. The ethanol industry has said in the past that placing caps on the credits was a non-starter, and has instead argued for policies to increase volumes of ethanol in the U.S gasoline supply. The industry claims this would boost supplies of the credits, lowering their prices. Prices of renewable fuel credits have fallen in recent weeks on reports of the discussions in Washington. The price hit 68 cents on Wednesday, nearing a seven-month low, according to traders and Oil Price Information Services. The White House has not yet commented on Cruz’s proposal. The RFS was introduced by former President George W. Bush as a way to boost U.S. agriculture, slash energy imports and cut emissions. It has since fostered a market for ethanol amounting to 15 billion gallons a year. The refining industry has pressed the Trump administration repeatedly to adopt reforms that would lower the credit costs or otherwise ease the burden on refineries, but the ethanol industry has successfully defeated those efforts so far. | 0fake |
Audience Members Walk Out on Amy Schumer After Trump Criticisms - The New York Times | About 200 people walked out of an Amy Schumer show in Tampa, Fla. on Sunday after she criticized Donald J. Trump onstage, The Tampa Bay Times reported. The comic, who is in the middle of a global arena tour, is an outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton. During her set at Amalie Arena, she invited a Trump supporter up to the stage to defend the candidate. “Do you get worried at all with how impulsive he is, that he gets so fired up from ‘Saturday Night Live’ doing a skit on him?” she asked. She also called Mr. Trump an “orange, monster. ” Video of the performance shows audience members booing and walking out. Ms. Schumer encouraged security to throw out the hecklers. “It’s too important,” she said as members of the crowd grew restless. “So we’re going to spend five minutes talking about it. ” In a statement to Vanity Fair, Ms. Schumer wrote: “I want to thank the 8, 400 people who stayed. We have always depended on comedians to make us laugh and tell the truth. I am proud to continue that tradition. ” In her set, Ms. Schumer talked about gun violence and attending Mrs. Clinton’s birthday party, two subjects she has covered in previous shows. She is to perform at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. | 0fake |
‘La La Land’ Sizzles in Limited Release in North America - The New York Times | LOS ANGELES — It was a weekend of nice and naughty at the box office, with two buoyant musicals, “Moana” and “La La Land,” turning in big results alongside the decidedly raunchy “Office Christmas Party. ” After a celebrated run on the fall film festival circuit, the Lionsgate musical “La La Land” arrived in five locations and collected a sizzling $855, 000, one of the best results on record. The total surpassed the initial outcome for “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which became a runaway indie hit in 2014. “La La Land,” directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, cost $30 million to make. It is widely considered by awards prognosticators to be the film to beat at the coming Academy Awards. In its third weekend in theaters, “Moana” (Disney) maintained a remarkable hold on multiplex audiences, once again selling the most tickets of any film in North America. The animated juggernaut collected about $18. 8 million, for a new domestic total of $145 million, according to comScore, which compiles ticketing data. Disney is also expected to dominate in the weeks to come. The company’s Lucasfilm division will unleash “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” on Friday in more than 4, 000 theaters, and sites like MovieTickets. com are reporting breakneck advance sales. “Office Christmas Party,” with an ensemble cast led by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston, took in about $17. 5 million over the weekend, a heftier total than some analysts had predicted before its release. The comedy, which cost DreamWorks Pictures and a partner $45 million to produce, was distributed by Paramount. Also of note among Oscar hopefuls: “Jackie” (Fox Searchlight) a raw portrait of a newly widowed Jacqueline Kennedy, continued to attract sizable audiences as it pushed into 21 locations in eight cities, taking in about $500, 000, for a total of $860, 000. | 0fake |
Comment on She’s fit to be President! Hillary had to be helped up *one* step by youknowwho. | February 4, 2016, in Charleston, SC.
And this? April 16, 2016 at Southwest College, Los Angeles.
And this, less than two months ago on Sept. 11, 2016?
On Thursday, October 26, 2016, Hillary was in Lake Worth, Florida for a rally.
She walks up to the cheering crowd, as a bearded guy in sunglasses hurries to her side.
He extends his left hand to Hillary; she clutches it tightly. The man then helps her to make a step up onto the platform.
Just one step.
Here’s the video:
Later that day, Hillary leaves Florida for another rally in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Walking up a flight of 15 steps to board her campaign plane, while holding an umbrella in her left hand and clutching the handrail with her right, and “mumbling to herself” (according to Live Satellite News ), Hillary appears to be wobbly and unsteady. Halfway up the steps, she stumbles, tilting her umbrella down (0:17 mark).
Hillary turned 69 two days ago on October 26, but moves like a disabled old woman. | 1real |
LIBERAL HEADS EXPLODE When PIERS MORGAN Points Out Phony “Racist” Charges Against Trump VS. Muhammad Ali’s ACTUAL Racist History [VIDEO] | Watch the video and you be the judge. Was Piers Morgan correct or was he out of line?Piers Morgan poked the hornets nest Sunday when he highlighted a double standard among Muhammad Ali s fans that the late boxer espoused more radical views on race than Donald Trump.Muhammad Ali said far more inflammatory/racist things about white people than Donald Trump ever has about Muslims. #fact Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 5, 2016The tweet quickly brought a swarm of social justice outrage, but Morgan did not back down. He argued that Ali was an important voice in the civil rights movement, but that is no reason to whitewash statements far more radical than Trump s on race and immigration. Via: Breitbart NewsTrump was in New York on 9/11 & knew people who died. Does that count? https://t.co/eF7Lg76Ye7 Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 5, 2016Here are just a few tweets from liberals right before their collective heads blew off their necks:https://twitter.com/DentonJez/status/739780815807188992Morgan s response:I didn't say that. I just said Ali made far more inflammatory/racist comments. Which he did. https://t.co/5ABetSkFPi Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 6, 2016 Why would stating that Muhammad Ali made a lot of inflammatory, race-charged statements in his life be remotely controversial? He did. Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 5, 2016Piers Morgan shared this clearly racist interview with Muhammad Ali on Twitter to back up his claim:Along the way, Piers picked up a few Twitter users who were willing to tell the truth about boxing legend Ali:https://twitter.com/NordicImports/status/739845621289517056Honesty is the new "being racist" FYI Michael (@socalmike_SD) June 6, 2016In the end, Piers Morgan knew he could never walk into another room filled with liberal crybabies if he didn t do the obligatory Leftist, even though I m correct here is my apology:I'm sorry for 'saying inflammatory things for attention'.That's the last thing Muhammad Ali would have condoned. Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 5, 2016 | 1real |
OBAMA’S FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION: Census Record Shows In 8 Years You Won’t Recognize This Country | Adios America Census: Record 51 million immigrants in 8 years, will account for 82% of U.S. growthWisconsin Gov. Scott Walker disrupted the debate this week when he said that legal immigration also needs to be reformed to make sure Americans don t suffer by losing jobs to new citizens.But even more, the CIS report said that the surge in mostly legal immigrants will have a huge impact on the nation and taxpayers. These numbers have important implications for workers, schools, infrastructure, congestion and the environment, said Steven Camarota, the center s director of research. They also may have implications for our ability to successfully assimilate and integrate immigrants. Yet there has been almost no national debate about bringing in so many people legally each year, which is the primary factor driving these numbers. Those numbers are likely to shake up Washington s political debate over the 12 million illegals in America, the expected 70,000 expected to pour over the border this year and the 4.4 million legal immigrants on a State Department waiting list who have relatives or jobs in the U.S.A key senator steering the immigration debate, Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, has warned that higher numbers of immigrants will hurt the middle class. In a letter to the New York Times Saturday, he wrote, It defies reason to argue that the record admission of new foreign workers has no negative effect on the wages of American workers, including the wages of past immigrants hoping to climb into the middle class. Why would many of the largest business groups in the United States spend millions lobbying for the admission of more foreign workers if such policies did not cut labor costs? On Friday, key business leaders including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a group associated with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg plan to pitch for more immigration. Their schedule is below.The numbers, as seen in the highlights below, will also raise concerns that Washington is giving the keys to the nation to new immigrants: The immigrant population will grow four times faster than the native born population, reaching 15.8 percent, or 57 million, of the nation s population in 2030, 17.1 percent, or 65 million, in 2040, and 18.8 percent, or 78 million, in 2060. Net immigration this year will be 1.24 million; green cards about 1.1 million. Immigrants and their descendants will account for the overwhelming share of population growth, said the Center in projecting growth. They will account for 75.5 percent from 2010-2050 and 82 percent from 2010-2060. Census Bureau projects that in 2023 the nation s immigrant population, legal and illegal, will reach 14.8 percent of the total U.S. population, the highest share ever recorded.Via: Washington Examiner | 1real |
Trump UNRAVELS As Republicans Admit He Should Spend Less Time Playing Golf (DETAILS) | By now, pretty much all of America can agree that Donald Trump needs to spend more time working and less time on the golf course and it s not just the Democrats who think this. Apparently, there is now a big push from the Republican Party to get Trump to spend less time at Mar-a-Lago.Republican Joni Ernst confessed that the GOP is having a hard time defending all the time Trump is spending away from his responsibilities at the White House. At an Iowa town hall, Ernst admitted that the GOP as a whole believes that Trump should drastically cut down on his costly getaways: I do wish he would spend more time in Washington, DC. That s what we have the White House for, we would love to see more of those State Department visits in Washington, DC. I think it s smart that he does business in Washington DC, so I ve had those same concerns myself. Ernst then dropped this bombshell, signaling that many Republicans aren t happy with how Trump is performing: I have not spoken to him about the Florida issue yet, but that is something I think that has been bothering not just me, but some other members of our caucus. So I think that is going to be a topic of discussion that we have when we get back to Washington. Ernst has criticized Trump before, previously stating that he has a number of flaws. While we can t expect that the GOP will lash out at Trump for taking far more golf trips than former President Barack Obama did, this is a step in the right direction. It seems the GOP is trying to reel Trump in and actually get him to perform his presidential duties. They probably won t succeed, but their attempts show that Trump s honeymoon period is coming to an end as he has nothing to show for his first 100 days in office.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images | 1real |
Soldiers take over Zimbabwe state broadcaster: ZBC staff | HARARE (Reuters) - Soldiers took over the headquarters of Zimbabwe s ZBC state broadcaster in the early hours of Wednesday, two members of staff and a human rights worker said, compounding speculation of a coup against 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. Some ZBC members of staff were manhandled when soldiers occupied the premises, the sources said. However, staff were told they should not worry as the soldiers were merely there to protect the site, one source added. | 0fake |
Split in Temer ruling coalition likely dooms reform agenda | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer faces a split in his coalition that is likely to derail his plans to put Brazil s financial house in order after a majority of Congressmen from his main ally party voted to put him on trial on graft allegations. The lower house of Congress voted 251-233 on Wednesday to shelve the corruption case against Temer, ensuring his survival in office. But the president s reform agenda appears in tatters, with little chance of passing an effective overhaul of the costly social security pension system after most Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) lawmakers opted for him to go on trial. In the biggest revolt yet against his 13-month-old government, 23 Congressmen for the PSDB voted to have him stand trial before the Supreme Court, with only 20 supporting the president. With his coalition in disarray, Temer cannot muster sufficient votes to pass a pension reform that is the cornerstone of his efforts to plug a budget deficit that has scared off investors. Temer celebrated his Wednesday victory by proclaiming that the truth had won out and said his government would return to its task of recovering Brazil from its worst ever recession. His chief of staff Eliseu Padilha said pension reform talks would resume within days. However, Temer did not even win a simple majority on Wednesday night in the 513-seat lower house. That simple majority is needed to pass any new laws, and was far from the 308-vote super majority required for a constitutional amendment such as the pension reform bill. I don t see it being approved, or even debated, Fabio Sousa, a first-term PSDB lawmaker, said of the pension reform. His government is fragile and there are general elections next year. Sousa believes there were grounds to put Temer on trial for graft and he wants to see his party break with the government and withdraw its four ministers from the cabinet. Many in the PSDB, while backing economic reforms like those Temer has proposed, think they need to come from a more legitimate government. Temer s popularity has sunk below that of impeached leftist Dilma Rousseff who he helped oust last year. Brazil s stocks, foreign currency and other financial markets reacted calmly to Wednesday s vote, with ups and downs far below 1 percent, a sign that Temer s survival by a narrow margin was well priced in. Everyone knows Temer is a lame duck now, and nobody believes in social security reform anymore, said Fabio Knijnik, managing director for Sao Paulo-based wealth fund K2 Capital. He said that if even the smallest pension reform passes, it would be a big surprise and plus for investors. Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles told journalists the government would insist with its current proposal of a minimum retirement age and stricter rules for pension benefits. The pension bill would make Brazilians retire later in order to stave off a financial collapse of the social security system. Many lawmakers, including those who voted to spare Temer from a criminal trial, are reluctant to vote for an unpopular bill with elections approaching in 2018. It is clear that a broad pension reform will not be approved in Congress by the Temer administration. But some changes are possible, political analysts at Brasilia-based consultancy Arko Advice wrote in a report this week. | 0fake |
MUSLIM Illegal Alien Claims SEX WITH DEAD GIRL Is Not A Crime…Lawyers Fight To Have Charges Dropped | The Obama trifecta: A Muslim an Illegal Alien and a victim of the unfair laws of the United States that target minorities An illegal migrant who was convicted in Wisconsin of sexually molesting the body of a dead girl is seeking to have his conviction on sexual violence charges overturned, by claiming that a dead body can t be sexually assaulted because it cannot be forced or coerced into a sex act.The vibrantly diverse migrant, Eusebio Varible-Gaspar, was convicted in Wisconsin of a violent sexual act as well as entering the country illegally, and was given a 57-month sentence.His lawyers have now filed a motion to have the conviction reversed because, they say, a corpse can t be raped or sexually abused.The trial court disagreed with that claim and held that Varible-Gaspar committed an act of sexual violence by having sex with the dead body.It is this decision that Varible-Gaspar wants to have appealed, so on January 15 he filed this claim:Varible-Gaspar argues that the district court erred in applying the 16-level enhancement for a crime of violence He contends that his Wisconsin conviction for first degree sexual assault of a child does not qualify as a crime of violence or as an aggravated felony because the offense does not fall within the generic, contemporary meaning of sexual abuse of a minor. Varible-Gaspar asserts that an individual may be guilty of the Wisconsin offense if the offender had sexual contact or sexual intercourse with a corpse. For the first time on appeal, Varible-Gaspar argues that the conviction does not qualify as a forcible sex offense because a corpse cannot be forced or coerced into sex.Oddly, as the Center for Immigration Studies notes, this isn t the only case where migrants might benefit from someone else being dead.Obama s DHS is seeking a change in rules that would aid illegals entering the country to have their status legalized if their return would have harmed someone they left behind even if that someone is already dead. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Europe on eve of banking ARMAGEDDON which will dwarf 2008 global crash, warns expert – how does this affect YOU? | By SIOBHAN MCFADYEN
And analysts say the potential for a cataclysmic failure could spread like a wild-fire hitting the continent and beyond as the true extent of deep troubles in the international banking sector are revealed.
The IMF and German governments have refused to step in to prop-up struggling banks but risk analysts are warning Deutsche Bank, RBS, Lloyds, Unicredit, Intesa SanPaolo, and BMPS could all need a state bail out.
And it’s going to be a wake up call for the whole of Europe say experts who fear the reports are not going to be good for anyone. With alarming simliarities to the 2008 global financial crash, the latest results could spell disaster not only for the wealthy bankers paid to operate the system but for ordinary savers.
New York based David Hendler of Viola Risk Advisors says the next two days could have serious ramifications for the entire globe.
He said: “Like autumn leaves falling from the mighty oaks, the incredible yellows, oranges, and reds, will turn and rot into the ugly browns and black detritus, leading to smelly and then crumbled leaves. Deutsche Bank’s debt could affect the rest of the European banks “Once a mighty European bank, unfortunately, Deutsche Bank is going down that “death-spiral” path and much of the big European banks are too whether due to their own transgression or sucked
FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK | 1real |
BRONX HOSPITAL SHOOTING: Multiple People Shot, Staff ‘Sheltered in Place’ Amid Backdrop of Active Shooter Drills | 21st Century Wire says Several people have been shot at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center as an allegedly disgruntled ex-family medicine doctor opened fire with an M16 type rifle later reported to be an AR-15 inside the facility. Early reports state that as many a seven were injured in the shooting with at least two people dead at the scene including the shooter. Interestingly, early reports suggested that there may have been multiple shooters involved.The motive for the tragic shooting is the still under investigation. The gunman is said to be 45 year-old Dr. Henry Michael Bello, who is believed to have resigned in 2015 over sexual harassment allegations.However, some confusion has emerged as to what really happened at the scene ACTIVE SHOOTER The Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center took part in an active shooter preparedness forum in June of 2016. (Photo Illustration 21WIRE s Shawn Helton)NBC News reported the following developments shortly after the apparent shooting: The shooter has been identified as Dr. Henry Michael Bello, a 45-year-old family medicine doctor formerly employed at the hospital, according to sources.After shooting the victims many of them, if not all, doctors Bello tried to set himself on fire on the 17th floor of the hospital, O Neill said. The hospital s fire alarm system activated, and FDNY firefighters were on standby outside the hospital as NYPD executed its active shooter protocol. By the time police found Bello on the 17th floor, he was dead of self-inflicted gunshot wound, O Neill said.A motive in the shootings remains unclear, but authorities say there is no apparent nexus to terror. Sources say Bello resigned from the hospital in 2015 in lieu of being fired. Circumstances in the resignation weren t clear. As members of the NYPD s most-armed units responded to the active shooter situation, a sea of patrol and tactical vehicles gridlocked the streets around the hospital on Grand Concourse, and police surveyed the roof of the building with their guns drawn, Chopper 4 over the scene shows. NOTE: Other reports have suggested it took about 15 minutes from the first 911 call until Bello s body was discovered dead.Also, shortly after the shooting rampage started, Reuters reported the police were able to conduct a sweep essentially shutting down the building attack: Police searched the hospital room by room, urging occupants to turn off the lights and remain in place as they conducted the sweep, according to an account posted on Twitter by Felix Puno, who identified himself as patient in the radiology department on the fourth floor of the hospital. Building is in complete shut down, I was in the middle of getting an x-ray when security alerted us to the active shooter situation, Puno tweeted.New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was briefed on the shooting and was on his way to the scene, the mayor s Twitter account said. DRILL PROTOCOL A hospital staff member follow the obligatory hands up protocol, as part of the scripted active shooter scenario training. (Image Source: nydailynews) Sketchy DetailsAs with any traumatic event there often several are certain details that don t quite add up.While we ve been told the shooting took place on the 16th floor of the building some reports gave eye-witness testimony to the contrary, with one stating he heard three gun shots while located on the 10th floor. Is it really possible he heard gun shots from 6 stories above? Here s NBC again with that detail: Francisco Bodon, a patient at Bronx Lebanon, tells NBC New York sister station Telemundo 47 that he was in a room on the 10th floor when three gunshots rang out and then chaos erupted.There may have been more than three [shots], but people were screaming, crying and running around. It was very chaotic, said Bodon. Adding to the confusion, the UK s Express reported that one of doctors who was wounded in the shooting, as people inside the hospital created a makeshift tourniquet out of an emergency fire hose.Although Bello reportedly held a work place grudge and apparently made threats to coworkers the hospital officials said none of the victims were connected to Bello. QUESTION: Considering the massive amount of training associated with the hospital, why was there no zero tolerance active shooter plan in place something commonly implemented in emergency prep?Over the years, we ve seen how sensationalized shooting events have become a staple part of our day to day lives, complete with ready-made political talking points and staged press conferences a buffet laid out for America, all of this within minutes or hours of high-profile tragedy. MASSIVE RESPONSE This kind of police emergency response has become routine after many high-profile active shooter incidents. (Image Source: nbcdfw.com)The precarious relationship between emergency preparedness drills and actual active shootings is an ongoing pattern present in many high-profile shooting incidents in recent years, with mass shootings happening at the exact same locations as where active shooter or terrorism drills had just previously taken place a puzzling trend which we have covered extensively at 21WIRE. This latest Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center appears to be no exception.Although the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center appears to be work place violence, it s important to examine other aspects or elements surrounding any case.Below is a screen shot depicting speakers that participated in an Active Shooter Planning Forum in conjunction with the Healthcare Association of New York State in June of 2016. The Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center is displayed among those speaking In addition to active shooter emergency planning protocols listed above, according to a FOJP Service Corporation Journal Bronx-Lebanon Hospital was selected be a part of major emergency prep since at least over the past several years. here s a passage from that report: At Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, the Department of Safety is charged with multiple responsibilities, some of which include, but are not limited to: fire and life safety, general safety and monitoring the fire command station; and coordinating emergency management and response planning.Continuing, the report outlined the following: At Bronx-Lebanon, we took our environment into account, for example, geographic location we re in, and let that be our driving force to how we developed our Hazard Vulnerablity Analysis (HVA) and put our emergency action plan (EAP) together. With two main campuses and multiple satellite locations, our plan has to incorporate everyone to ensure we will have the necessary staff in case of emergencies. It s interesting that a hospital known to have extensive emergency protocols could have a shooting occur on its own premises after leading the area charge in addressing that very issue.QUESTION: Is it really just a coincidence that this hospital was so heavily involved in active shooter prep only to fall prey to exactly that kind of tragedy?*UPDATE* According to new reports as per active shooter protocol first responders ducked for cover as patients filed from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital wearing bed sheets. Wouldn t the answer here be to properly train those in the work place how to handle a firearm in crisis situations such as this?Additionally, sources tell CBS2 Bello started two fires, one at the nurse s station and another as an attempt to set himself ablaze. He ended up shooting himself in a room, then staggered out to the hallway where he died. Continuing the article goes on to state the following: Police continue to investigate the rampage. The New York Daily News reports Bello sent them an email before the shooting, where he wrote about leaving his job at the hospital. QUESTION: If Bello s email prior to the shooting was threatening in nature, then why wasn t he taken in for police questioning?This whole aspect to the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital case appears to echo some of what happened in 2013 when TV shooter Vester Flanagan aka Bryce Williams had also warned a manager that there would be negative consequences for his firing and vowed he would make a stink and it s going to be in the headlines. Here we see a similar foreshadowing of tragedy prior to yet another suspicious shooting case that was also linked to an active shooter drill before a bizarre shooting rampage.Here s another look at a tweet from the WDBJ-TV shooting case in 2015 that documents the active shooter drill connection Here s a collection of media montages and video footage supposedly depicting the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center shooting response as staff and others sheltered in place. Notice the makeshift barricade during active shooter training the run and hide method is a critical feature in crisis roleplay . As those in the hospital were ordered to shelter in place by both the NYPD and at the urging of the consulate for the United Arab Emirates, while there were several tweets posted to Twitter regarding the incident.Here s a screenshot first published by New York City Alerts that allegedly depicts the dead gunman Bello notice there s no evidence of fire that can been seen QUESTION: What was the purpose of releasing this photo or than to sensationalize a tragic event?Here s a social media post with a comment that read stayed safe during the crisis by a page since taken down on Instagram Here s the witness who heard shots ring out while on the 10th floor In the aftermath of any of these crisis events in America, powerful interests are always quick to line-up and take advantage of the event, mounting their sociopolitical agendas directly on the back of mass media coverage and by extracting political capital out of an emotional and traumatic situation. Certainly, mainstream media outlets like CNN gain immediate benefit as TV viewers are tuned-in incessantly for updates on any breaking situation which translates into high rating and massive advertising income streams for the broadcast network.Something else to consider, this shooting event took place the very same week during a major push to pass the GOP healthcare bill.While this very well could be an act of workplace violence, it s still important to ask questions, where there are few answers.Will new questions emerge following the shocking Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center shooting?READ MORE DAILY SHOOTER NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Daily Shooter FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Michael Wolff on MILO’s ’Dangerous’: Publishing Is a Business - Breitbart | In USA Today, journalist and author Michael Wolff explained to critics of Breitbart Senior Editor MILO’s upcoming book Dangerous that “the publishing businesses is a business,” pointing out that the publication of the book was inevitable given the profits that stood to be made. [“The traditional view, at least since publishing, in the late Victorian age, became a and therefore respectable industry, is that if you publish it, you own it. You were not only legally responsible for it, but it firmly attached to your reputation,” Wolff explained. “This led to protocols about editing, fact checking, and the development of a long cannon of journalism standards and ethics. It also led to the idea of publishing brands. What you published defined you in the community and in the marketplace. ” The Yiannopoulos book is a particularly good example of the breakdown of this view. Book imprints were once the staunchest cultural gatekeepers, with issues of taste and sales closely twinned, and with the decision to publish resting, often, on a small group of editors, or even on a single shoulder. You knew who was responsible. But then a massive consolidation of the business occurred, mixing and mashing brands, and, with new financial dictates, in essence, commoditizing books. Any book that makes financial sense to publish, no matter its nature, will, practically speaking, be published by any publisher. Beyond a book’s financial bona fides, there is no real vetting, or editing, or concerns about taste. Most of the book industry is now a business focused on creating products — often novelty products connected to a celebrity — for specific market segments. A new crop of conservative publishers were suddenly making lots of money publishing conservative books. Hence, every major publisher hurried to established its own conservative imprint — the Yiannopoulos book is published by Simon Schuster’s Threshold Editions — often run by liberals. In a sense, this is an example of the media overcoming its bias. In another sense, it’s purely cynical: we believe none of this, but the money’s good. Read the full article at USA Today. | 0fake |
WOW! TOMI LAHREN BLASTS Liberal Media For Trying To Label Conservative News As “Fake”…”Evolve Or DIE Mainstream Media” [VIDEO] | Outspoken conservative Tomi Lahren makes some great points about the failing mainstream media and the failing Democrat party blaming fake news conservative news for Hillary s loss. To say Facebook favoritism got Donald Trump elected is the most ridiculous thing I ve heard yet. We already know Facebook is in the business of censoring and de-prioritizing conservative leading posts. | 1real |
Jeb Bush and Iraq: What price family loyalty? (+video) | Jeb Bush's top challenge as a likely presidential candidate is to distance himself from his brother's policies. But he's not doing that, and in fact goes out of his way to defend him.
As yet another general joins Trump's team, what does the pick reveal?
[Update: This story was edited at 4 p.m. after Mr. Bush's Thursday afternoon remarks on Iraq.]
This week, Jeb Bush’s foremost problem as a likely presidential candidate went on full display: Can the former Florida governor get over his last name and his emotional personal tie to his brother, the ex-president?
On Thursday, after three days of botched replies to a simple question, Mr. Bush finally said what most everyone expected him to say in the first place.
“Knowing what we now know, what would you have done? I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq,” Bush said at a campaign stop in Tempe, Ariz., according to The Washington Post.
Bush said he had had trouble with the question, because he didn’t want to appear ungrateful for the sacrifices made by Americans during the war. But the episode leaves lingering questions about Bush’s willingness to distance himself from his brother, former President George W. Bush, in the younger Bush’s expected bid for president in 2016.
Republicans were baffled Monday when Mr. Bush told Megyn Kelly on Fox News that he would have authorized the 2003 Iraq invasion, even given what we know now about the faulty intelligence. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and John Kasich – all Republicans running for president or considering it – say they wouldn’t have invaded. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton says her “yes” vote as a senator was a mistake.
The next day, on Sean Hannity’s radio show, Bush walked back his comment. “I interpreted the question wrong, I guess,” he said. But when asked again, he demurred: “I don’t know what that decision would have been. That’s a hypothetical.”
“That’s a hypothetical” is the all-purpose dodge any politician can deploy when he or she doesn’t want to answer a question. And it made Bush look unprepared.
“Jeb should have been prepared to answer that question the second his brother stepped on Marine One to leave the White House in 2009,” says Ford O’Connell, author of “Hail Mary: The 10-Step Playbook for Republican Recovery.” “You get four or five mulligans on the presidential campaign trail, and he just used one of them up.”
The Iraq War remains deeply unpopular with the American public; in June 2014, 75 percent of the US public said the Iraq War was not worth the costs, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.
The good news for Bush is that most Americans aren’t yet paying close attention to the 2016 race. It’s been 13 years since he last ran for office – reelection as governor of Florida – and he’s still getting his political sea legs back. Though he’s not expected to announce for president until mid-June, he’s effectively already running. On Wednesday, he said outright that he was running, then quickly reversed himself.
At the heart of his campaign lies a paradox: the great blessing and the great burden of the Bush name.
His father’s presidency (1989-1993) is remembered fondly by the general public, though anti-tax conservatives still remember his breaking of the “no new taxes” pledge. Bush’s brother’s presidency (2001-2009) gets lower marks. Still, Jeb Bush benefits tremendously from the political network his family opens up for him. He could easily out-raise the rest of the GOP field in the early going. He has also assembled an A-list team of advisers.
But his brother’s legacy poses a particular burden, not just Iraq but also the economic crisis at the end of his tenure. And Jeb appears unwilling to throw brother George under the bus. He even referred to his brother recently, at a private event, as an adviser on the Middle East, a comment he didn’t disown in his interview with Ms. Kelly.
The real story, in fact, out of Bush’s interviews with Kelly and Mr. Hannity may be that he seemed to go out of his way to defend his brother on Iraq.
“News flash for the world,” Bush told Kelly. “If they’re trying to find places where there’s space between me and my brother, this may not be one of those.”
To Hannity, Bush said this: “The simple fact is, mistakes were made, as they always are in life.”
George W. Bush seems acutely aware of the liability he poses to his brother. Last month, at an event in Chicago, he practically gave Jeb permission to disown his record.
“He doesn't need to defend me,” the second President Bush said, according to Politico.
He also acknowledged his mother’s famous comment from 2013 – “Haven’t we had enough Bushes?” – and said: “That’s why you won’t see me out there” on the campaign trail.
If nothing else, it’s already clear that Jeb Bush won’t sail to the Republican nomination as his father and brother did back in the day. The theory that he could clear the GOP field by vacuuming up establishment money has already proved false. He leads (barely) in national polls of Republican candidates, but hasn’t broken out of the pack. In any case, it’s too soon to put much stock in polls.
On Tuesday, Bush advisers acknowledged that he is skipping the Iowa Straw Poll on Aug. 8, a beauty contest that contains no upside for him, as it favors candidates who appeal to the social conservative base of the Iowa GOP. That’s a smart move, analysts say.
Bush’s real challenge is to present himself as a Republican of the future, not a man burdened by his family’s past. With fresh faces like his former protégé, Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida, and Gov. Scott Walker (R) of Wisconsin gaining positive notice in the early going, the battle is joined. But so far, Bush is still stumbling over the past.
Some analysts suggest that Bush may be playing a completely different game – that he is just going to say what he thinks, stay true to his family, and let the chips fall where they may. Perhaps this is his way of running “joyfully,” as he described his possible campaign in early 2014. “Let Jeb be Jeb” is how Bush adviser Mike Murphy described the philosophy to The New York Times last December.
Perhaps this brand of political authenticity will catch hold among Republican voters – and along with it, some of the Bush views that don’t fit standard Republican orthodoxy at the moment. Among those are support for “legalization” of undocumented immigrants and the Common Core education reforms, as well as an unwillingness to sign anti-tax pledges.
If Bush somehow manages to bend the GOP in his direction, he could represent the party’s future. But that’s a big “if.” | 0fake |
ELLEN Just Proved She’s A HUGE Hypocrite And Knows NOTHING About Trump [Video] | Someone needs to educate Ellen DeGeneres on President Trump. She obviously knows nothing about him or his policies that DO include ALL Americans! He just not into identity politics like Obama was.She claims that his views on immigrants and women aren t aligned with hers. So isn t she doing what she proclaims to object to when she refuses to have Trump on simply because of his views?He is FOR immigrants but for LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. Does Ellen advocate for illegally coming to America? Traditionally, talk show hosts salivate at the mere thought of the president of the United States visiting their chatfests.Ellen DeGeneres? Not so much.President Donald Trump isn t welcome on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the comedienne told Matt Lauer in an interview that aired on NBC s Today on Friday, because I m not gonna change his mind. He s against everything that I stand for. DeGeneres said she had met Trump in the past; the two filmed a Celebrity Apprentice -related segment for her show years ago. I flew in his helicopter and did a bit with him, so I knew him then, she said. I have not spoken to him since he s run for president or become president. DeGeneres, who recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of her coming out as a lesbian during an episode of her sitcom Ellen, implied that Trump s well-documented comments about women and immigrants, among other topics, do not jibe with her own views and do not seem to be malleable.Read more: NYP | 1real |
Trump to give speech on illegal immigration on Wednesday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday night that he would make a major speech on illegal immigration in Arizona on Wednesday. The announcement came a day after Trump said he would crack down on illegal immigrants who overstay their visas, as he sought to clarify his views on how to overhaul the U.S. immigration system. Last week, Trump had said he was “softening” on his plan to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants. That stance had aroused criticism from conservatives who wanted him to stand fast after he won the Republican presidential nomination in large part with a hard-line position that called for building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. “I will be making a major speech on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION on Wednesday in the GREAT State of Arizona. Big crowds, looking for a larger venue,” Trump, who had postponed an immigration speech originally planned for last Thursday in Denver, said in his tweet on Sunday. In another tweet on Sunday night, Trump said both he and Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival for the Nov. 8 election, should release detailed medical records. “I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?” In his speech on Saturday in Iowa, Trump said he would seek to institute a tracking system to ensure illegal immigrants who overstay their visas are quickly removed, and would propose an e-verify system to prevent undocumented residents from gaining access to welfare and other benefits. “If we don’t enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border – it’s as simple as that,” he said. Trump said his first priority on taking office next January would be the immediate deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants who remain in the United States despite having committed crimes. “These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past,” he said. “Their reign of terror will be over. In this task, we will always err on the side of protecting the American people – we will use immigration law to prevent crimes, and will not wait until some innocent American has been harmed or killed before taking action.” Trump did not explain how his plan would affect undocumented residents who have been in the United States for decades and obeyed U.S. laws. | 0fake |
New U.S. government rules restrict travel and trade with Cuba | WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) - The U.S. government made it tougher on Wednesday for Americans to visit Cuba and do business in the country, making good on a pledge by President Donald Trump to roll back his Democratic predecessor’s move toward warmer ties with Havana. The restrictions, which take effect on Thursday, are aimed at preventing the military, intelligence and security arms of Cuba’s Communist government from benefiting from American tourists and trade, the White House said. They fill in the regulatory detail on a Trump policy speech in June, in which the Republican president called for a tightening of restrictions. He said then that the Cuban government continued to oppress its people and former President Barack Obama had made too many concessions in his 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Washington’s former Cold War foe. The regulations include a ban on Americans doing business with some 180 Cuban government entities, holding companies, and tourism companies. The list includes 83 state-owned hotels, including famous hotels in Old Havana such as Ernest Hemingway’s erstwhile favorite haunt the Hotel Ambos Mundos, as well as the city’s new luxury shopping mall. “All these measures hurt the Cuban people,” said Cuba’s Foreign Ministry chief for U.S. Affairs Josefina Vidal. She said that government revenue funds Cuba’s free education and healthcare systems. Speaking to reporters in Havana, she called the list “arbitrary” and the regulations a further “setback” in U.S.-Cuban relations. The new rules were criticized as too lax by Republican leaders who favor a hard line, but as counterproductive by those who agreed with Obama’s rationale for the detente: that Washington’s many decades of isolating the Caribbean island failed to force change. The Cuban hotels listed included those run by military-linked chains Gaviota and Habaguanex. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, said the list failed to go far enough because it omitted companies like Gran Caribe Hotel Group and Cubanacan that have ties to the Cuban government. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said the regulations were unfair to Cuba, coming as Trump was being “feted in Beijing” by a Communist government “in a country to which Americans can travel freely.” “The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring,” Leahy said in a statement. While U.S. travelers will still be able to make authorized trips to Cuba with a U.S.-based organization and accompanied by a U.S. representative of the group, it will be harder for them to travel individually, according to the new regulations. Before Obama’s opening, travel by many Americans was similarly restricted to such organized trips. Travelers need to be able to show a “full-time schedule” with activities that support Cuban people and show “meaningful interaction,” going beyond merely staying in rooms in private homes, eating in private restaurants, or shopping in private stores, a U.S. official told reporters on a conference call. The administration says it is keen to support such small private enterprises that have sprung up around the country under President Raul Castro’s reforms to the largely state-controlled economy. “Staying or eating or shopping in some of those privately owned places is something that we wanted to encourage. But what we wanted to say is, that alone is not enough,” the official said. However, Cubans in the fledgling private sector say the Trump administration’s more hostile stance toward Havana has already hurt their business. “He is putting us in serious danger by frightening away American visitors looking to rent our properties,” said Norma Hernandez, who rents out rooms on Airbnb and who said her business flourished over the last year thanks to a surge in U.S. visitors. Trump’s rollback of Obama’s opening has not affected a centerpiece of the detente, the restoration of diplomatic ties and the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Business contracts and travel arrangements already in place will be allowed to go ahead and will not be subject to the restrictions, officials told reporters. The list of entities that Americans cannot do business with includes a special development zone at Cuba’s Mariel port, which Cuba hopes to develop into a major Caribbean industrial and shipping hub with tax and customs breaks. The National Foreign Trade Council, a business lobby group in Washington, called the Mariel restriction “counterproductive” because it would hurt a Cuban government initiative that could potentially benefit Cuban workers. The head of an educational travel company said there were still many legal avenues - as well as commercial flights, cruise ships, U.S.-owned hotels, and tour providers - to enable Americans to visit Cuba. But he said the new restrictions would hurt Cuba’s private sector, at a time when the economy is already struggling. “U.S. backtracking on Cuba could not come at a worse time,” said Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel. | 0fake |
Syrian army cuts Islamic State's main Deir al-Zor supply line: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Syrian army has cut Islamic State s main supply line in the city of Deir al-Zor after taking control of the al-Jafra district, Russia s RIA news agency cited an unnamed source as saying on Sunday. | 0fake |
Vice President Pence urges Congress to complete Obamacare repeal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday urged the Republican-controlled Congress to complete the job of dismantling Obamacare this summer and move on quickly to another big-ticket item on President Donald Trump’s agenda: tax cuts. Speaking days before lawmakers return to Washington amid doubts about their ability to agree on legislation, Pence sought to add urgency to the debate by warning that consumers face dwindling access to Obamacare health coverage in some states. Trump-backed legislation to dismantle former President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul narrowly passed the House of Representatives last month. But Senate Republicans have had difficulty agreeing on their own bill, leading Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to fret about the future of healthcare legislation. “First and foremost, this summer, this Congress must come together and heed the president’s leadership, and we must repeal and replace Obamacare,” Pence told a political rally in Iowa, one of several states where major insurers have exited government-subsidized insurance markets. “It’s high time we take action,” the vice president added, saying Congress must “relieve Iowa and relieve America.” Insurers say they cannot plan amid the uncertainty surrounding healthcare legislation. They also face a worse-than-expected balance of sick and healthy customers that has helped drive insurance premiums higher in Obamacare marketplaces. “Once we repeal and replace Obamacare, we’re going to roll our sleeves up, and working with these great leaders in Congress, we’re going to pass one of the largest tax cuts in American history,” Pence said. A former Indiana congressman, Pence plays a key role in Trump’s relationship with lawmakers as the main White House liaison to Congress. As vice president, he also casts the tie-breaking vote on legislation in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans have a slim 52-seat majority. Senate Republican staff are expected to present legislative options on healthcare when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on Monday after a one-week recess, according to aides. But some Republicans are skeptical that healthcare legislation can pass the Senate this summer, if at all. Pence projected confidence that Congress will succeed: “I know we will. The Obamacare nightmare is about to end.” | 0fake |
How Gary Johnson's Vote Percentages Will Affect Libertarian Party Ballot Access, State By State | There has been a lot of weight placed in Libertarian expectations and hopes for the results for Gary Johnson next Tuesday in terms of getting 5 percent nationally, which will make the Party's next presidential candidate eligible for a category of federal election funds.
While saying things both concise and accurate about ballot access laws in America, which vary state by state in this here federal union, is difficult, you have often heard, including from Gary Johnson himself, that getting that 5 percent will help the Party with ballot access as well.
Technically, the national result, whatever it is, in and of itself has no effect at all on ballot access anywhere but Georgia. (There, a 20 percent result nationally wins petition-free access.)
Every other state's ballot access laws, if vote percents affect them at all, are dictated only by the percentages gained in that state.
That said, under most imaginable circumstances a national 5 percent will mean that the Party also did historically well in lots of individual states also.
What follows, derived from this state-by-state chart from the invaluable Ballot Access News edited by Richard Winger, is a list of what the Libertarian Party will get in terms of automatic, petition-free ballot access if certain vote percentages in that state are hit. A huge proportion of the Libertarian Party's time and effort goes to petitioning for access, so these accomplishments are a big deal for small parties.
It's important to note that any such earned automatic ballot access is not eternal, and in many cases applies only to the next election, 2018, not even to the next presidential election. Below I specify which states get that access for just 2018 or for both 2018 and 2020.
Again, all these vote percentages are in the states in question, not national. In almost all cases, it is not just the presidential ticket hitting this percentage that wins the prize, but any office the entire state is voting for. Thus, the Party can re-win the access in 2018 for 2020 with any office voted on statewide, even though there is not a presidential race in 2018.
Now, the percentages and what they get the Party, and where:
• 0.5 percent gets the Libertarian Party full ballot access without need to spend time and money on petitioning for 2018 in Michigan and New Mexico.
• 1 percent gets the Libertarian Party full ballot access without need to spend time and money on petitioning for 2018 in Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
It would earn such access in both 2018 and 2020 in Oregon.
It would earn such access only for the president slot in 2020 in Connecticut.
• 2 percent gets the Libertarian Party full ballot access without need to spend time and money on petitioning for 2018 in Iowa.
It would earn such access in both 2018 and 2020 in Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, and Utah.
• 2.5 percent gets the Libertarian Party full ballot access without need to spend time and money on petitioning for 2018 in Oklahoma and Washington D.C. [Correction: D.C.'s standard technically is a hard 7,500 votes, which tends to be around that percentage.]
• 3 percent gets the Libertarian Party full ballot access without need to spend time and money on petitioning for 2018 in Arkansas, Idaho, and Massachusetts.
It would earn such access in both 2018 and 2020 in Ohio. [Correction: Since Johnson is on the Ohio ballot technically as an independent this year, not with the L.P. banner, it will be meaningless for Ohio access, alas.]
It would earn such access only for the president slot in 2020 in Alaska.
• 5 percent gets the Libertarian Party full ballot access without need to spend time and money on petitioning for 2018 in North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
It would earn such access in both 2018 and 2020 in Arizona, Louisiana, Minnesota, [correction: Minnesota was mistakenly left off in original post], Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Washington state.
Some states have even higher hurdles to jump for that state's vote totals for president (or other offices voted on statewide) to earn automatic ballot access, or other special cases. (Election law is hard.)
And a group of states give third parties no special ballot access benefits no matter how well the presidential candidate does. Those states are: California, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Five percent nationally would be an amazing thing for the Johnson campaign and the Libertarian Party. But what really matters for ballot access moving forward is what happens state by state. | 0fake |
SHOCKING: Why Our Fed Government Will Grant “Disabled” Status With Benefits To Spanish Speaking Residents Of Puerto Rico | If we didn t know better, we d almost believe our Federal Government was attempting to give special privileges to Spanish speaking citizens. Perhaps they re establishing a precedent for taxpayer funded benefits for millions of illegal immigrants who will soon be American citizens The Social Security Administration (SSA) approved disability benefits for hundreds of Puerto Ricans because they do not speak English, despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a predominantly Spanish-speaking territory.According to a new audit by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency is misapplying rules that are intended to provide financial assistance to individuals who are illiterate or cannot speak English in the United States. Under the rules, Puerto Ricans are allowed to receive disability benefits for their inability to speak English as well. We found the Agency did not make exceptions regarding the English-language grid rules for claimants who reside in Puerto Rico, even though Spanish is the predominant language spoken in the local economy, the OIG said.The audit said a person applying for disability in Puerto Rico who cannot speak English may increase his/her likelihood of receiving disability benefits. The agency does not currently have a system in place to keep track of the number of beneficiaries who receive disability insurance for not being able to speak English.However, the OIG was able to identify 218 cases between 2011 and 2013 where Puerto Ricans were awarded disability due to an inability to communicate in English. Furthermore, 4 percent of disability hearings in Puerto Rico involved looking at the individual s ability to speak, read, write, and understand English.Though 95 percent of Puerto Ricans speak Spanish at home, according to the rules a Spanish-speaking nurse in Puerto Rico would be considered unskilled, the OIG said.The SSA told the OIG that the rules are applied one-size-fits-all. SSA managers at various disability decision levels stated Social Security is a national program, and the grids must be applied to the national economy, regardless of local conditions, the audit said.The SSA takes into account an individual s education level when considering awarding disability benefits if they do not qualify for medical reasons. Part of the education requirement involves looking at a person s ability to speak English, to determine whether it limits his ability to find a job.Last year Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) raised concerns that the Obama administration was broadly applying the education rule under the Social Security Act to allow individuals to receive disability payments solely because they cannot speak English.He noted that the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) rolls swelled 230 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the U.S. population only grew 9.7 percent.Former SSA judges have also testified that individuals have been approved for disability in the United States without having to prove they cannot speak English.The hundreds of Puerto Ricans noted in the OIG s report have received disability insurance despite a 1987 U.S. District Court ruling that appears to contradict the SSA s policy. Benefits were denied on the grounds that it is the ability to communicate in Spanish, not English, that is vocationally important in Puerto Rico. It should be noted, however, that the court explicitly declined to apply this rationale outside of this one case, the OIG said.The SSA agreed with the OIG s recommendations to figure out how many individuals have been awarded disability based on their inability to communicate in English, and to evaluate the appropriateness of applying the English-speaking rules to Puerto Rico.The SSA is currently gathering information for a proposed regulation that could lead to changes to the English-speaking rule, the agency said.Via: Free Beacon | 1real |
AWESOME! PRO-TRUMP LATINO Tells Horrors Of Socialism And Why Trump’s His Candidate [Video] | THE SOCIALIST PRESIDENT WAS THIS GUY S TEACHER! Great encounter with someone who has experienced socialism great stuff! | 1real |
President Obama’s Approval Rating Has Climbed To A Five Year High | A new poll released from ABC/Washington Post shows some very good news for Democrats: not only is Hillary Clinton crushing Donald Trump, but President Obama s approval rating has hit a five year high topping off at 56 percent of people who approve of him a five point gain from the last poll conducted. Only 41 percent disapprove.The last time President Obama s approval rating was that high was when Osama bin Laden was killed in May 2011. It s also worth noting that the President s approval rating was taken in the immediate aftermath of the Orlando shooting, the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.But wait, there s more good news: not only does 56 percent of the American electorate approve of President Obama s presidency overall, 55 percent approve (42 disapprove) of his handling of the economy. Considering Trump likes to paint himself as the best man to handle the economy, the news should offer him and his campaign a much needed wake up call.As the Post noted:Obama is more popular now than Republicans George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush in the waning months of their presidencies. Although Obama s approval rating has not reached the level of former Democratic president Bill Clinton s in 2000, his standing suggests that he could be a relatively effective surrogate for Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.Just think about it Clinton already has a huge lead over Trump, and that s before the very popular President Obama has hit the campaign trail. Once Americans see what will be leaving and what might be succeeding them, one could expect to see not only Clinton s poll numbers to rise, but Obama s as well.So what say you, Republicans? A healthy majority of Americans support the president and loathe your candidate. I don t think Republicans get to talk about the will of the American people anymore. They have no ground to stand on, no leverage, and no one seems to be taking them seriously anymore.President Reagan s final year approval high was 65 percent, just nine points higher than President Obama s. The President still has six more months, and considering how unpopular Donald Trump is becoming, America should expect to see it climb higher.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Robert Mueller examining Flynn's role in seeking Clinton emails from hackers: WSJ | (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have had in an effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Efforts to seek out the hackers who stole emails of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was led by Republican activist Peter Smith, the Journal said. Mueller was appointed special counsel to determine whether there was collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow. Flynn resigned in February after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Representatives from the White House and Mueller’s office could not immediately be reached for comment. | 0fake |
Obamas donated less to charities in 2015 as income slipped | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle donated less to charities in 2015 as their income also dipped, tax returns released by the White House showed on Friday. The Obamas donated $64,066 to 34 charities last year, down nearly 9.4 percent from their donations of $70,712 in 2014 to 33 charities. For both years, the couple donated slightly less than 15 percent of their income to charity. On average, Americans donate about 3 percent of their income to charity, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The Obamas earned $436,065 in 2015, down nearly 8.7 percent from $477,383 in 2014, continuing a downward trend as sales of the president’s books slowed. As president, Obama is entitled to a $400,000 annual salary. Most of the rest of the couple’s income came from the book sales. Their top charity donation of $9,066 went to Fisher House Foundation, which provides housing for military families near military hospitals. The couple gave the organization $22,012 in 2014. The couple also gave $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation, an organization that honors the life of Vice President Joe Biden’s son, who died of brain cancer last year. The Obamas paid $81,472 in total tax, with an effective federal income tax rate of 18.7 percent. Biden and his wife Jill, a community college professor, reported a combined income of $392,233, up from $388,844 in 2014. | 0fake |
IT BEGINS….OBAMA APPOINTED JUDGE Rules Trump University Records Must Be Released | Chicago style politics buckle up America Barry s just getting warmed up A federal judge has ordered the release of internal Trump University documents in an ongoing lawsuit against the company, including playbooks that advised sales personnel how to market high-priced courses on getting rich through real estate.The Friday ruling, in which Judge Gonzalo Curiel cited heightened public interest in presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, was issued in response to a request by The Washington Post. The ruling was a setback for Trump, whose attorneys argued that the documents contained trade secrets.Curiel s order came the same day that Trump railed against the judge at a boisterous San Diego rally for his handling of the case, in which students have alleged they were misled and defrauded. The trial is set for November.Trump, who previously questioned whether Curiel s Hispanic heritage made him biased due to Trump s support for building a wall on the Mexican border, said Friday that Curiel happens to be, we believe, Mexican. Trump called the judge a hater of Donald Trump who had railroaded him in the case. I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I think it s a disgrace that he is doing this, Trump said.Trump University was started in 2004 to offer courses in entrepreneurship under the Trump brand. Trump gave his blessing, according to court documents reported previously by The Post, becoming a 93 percent owner of the new enterprise.For entire story: The State.com | 1real |
Core Wounds, Soul Family Reunions, and Time Glitches [AUDIO] | Click Here To Learn More About Alexandra's Personalized Essences Psychic Protection Click Here for More Information on Psychic Protection! Implant Removal Series Click here to listen to the IRP and SA/DNA Process Read The Testimonials Click Here To Read What Others Are Experiencing! Copyright © 2012 by Galactic Connection. All Rights Reserved.
Excerpts may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Alexandra Meadors and www.galacticconnection.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any material on this website without express and written permission from its author and owner is strictly prohibited. Thank you.
Privacy Policy
By subscribing to GalacticConnection.com you acknowledge that your name and e-mail address will be added to our database. As with all other personal information, only working affiliates of GalacticConnection.com have access to this data. We do not give GalacticConnection.com addresses to outside companies, nor will we ever rent or sell your email address. Any e-mail you send to GalacticConnection.com is completely confidential. Therefore, we will not add your name to our e-mail list without your permission. Continue reading... Galactic Connection 2016 | Design & Development by AA at Superluminal Systems Sign Up forOur Newsletter
Join our newsletter to receive exclusive updates, interviews, discounts, and more. Join Us! | 1real |
HUH? NYT EDITOR Blames “Republican Rage Machine” for Current Political Climate [Video] | Talk about projecting! On Fareed Zakaria s CNN show, former New York Times editor Jill Abramson decries false equivalency between Democrats and Republicans, saying Republicans are disproportionately responsible for the divisive political climate. HUH? This angry shrew is showing just how much she is blinded by hate!ED LUCE: It s very hard to imagine how civility can ensue when people don t even meet each other or live near each other who hold different positions or let their children marry or wish their children to marry people of different views. So that s my concern, there is no public square.FAREED ZAKARIA: Jill, you ve written that you think that while all this is true, this is not a situation where both sides are equally at fault.JILL ABRAMSON: I do think that both sides are not equally at fault, and that there s been a bit of a false equivalency at work, especially in the discussion over the past couple of days. I think that in terms of political leadership right now that both President Trump and the congressional leadership on the Republican side are extremely divisive and that they are really benefiting from a kind of rage machine that operates in this country.This woman must have been in a coma for the past couple of years!Does she NOT remember the horrible attacks on conservatives during the 2016 campaign? Does she not remember the 2016 Inauguration? Oh, how about Berkeley?There are just way too many examples of the left s unhinged violence and rhetoric. From the leaders of the Democrat Party to the George Soros sponsored Antifa thugs, we can say without any hesitation that this woman and all others who refuse to see the problem are seriously delusional and blinded by their hate. | 1real |
Dem Rep Crowley: People Around the World ’Frightened’ by Trump ’Regime’ Military ’Junta’ Style - Breitbart | Friday at the House Democratic Retreat in Baltimore, House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Joe Crowley ( ) said millions of Americans and people around the world are “frightened” by the “Trump regime,” who have “appointed several former generals,” which is “ . ” Crowley said, “You know, these are millions and millions of Americans, people around the world who are really concerned, maybe that’s an understatement. They’re nervous. They’re frightened about what they see happening to the American government. And this Trump regime — I don’t call it an administration, I call it a regime. That’s how they act. They have appointed several former generals, that’s very to the rest of the world. They have billionaires who have been appointed to cabinet positions, some of whom have no experience whatsoever in the field in which they are now in charge. That’s very frightening to people. ” “Cronyism at the highest levels has many people in this country nervous and around the world as well,” he continued. “So I think there’s going to be plenty of opportunities in the future, unfortunately, for the American people to express themselves, and I think we as Democrats will be able to support that effort when we believe it’s warranted. ” ( Grabien) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Impeachment-era evidence against Bill Clinton still sealed | Impeachment-era evidence against Bill Clinton still sealed 60,000 pages stored in 'locked, guarded room' Published: 23 mins ago
(DAILYCALLER) — Tens of thousands of pages detailing the case for impeachment against former President Bill Clinton have remained locked away from the public for almost 20 years.
Although many believe that the report issued by then Independent Counsel Ken Starr revealed the final findings of his investigation of Clinton in the late 1990’s, around 60,000 pages of documents seen by only a few people describe the House Judiciary Committee’s case against the 42nd president.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde hired Chicago attorney and Democrat David Schippers to be the Chief Investigative Counsel to help prosecute the committee’s case against Clinton. Schippers described to American Family Radio’s Sandy Rios Friday how the evidence against Clinton was stored and studied by Congress at the time. | 1real |
GOP’s Jim Jordan to Lou Dobbs: It’s jail time! Evidence shows FBI went after Republican Party nominee [Video] | GOP Rep. Jim Jordan on Lou Dobbs: Listen you can t make this stuff up. It gets worse each and every day. What deep down scares me, if this actually happened the FBI had a concerted effort with the people at the top to go after one party s nominee to help the other party s nominee. If that actually happened in the United States of America and everything each and every day points to more and more likely that that is what took place, it is sad for our country if that took place. And I think it did based on everything I am seeing. All the evidence points to that..@Jim_Jordan on Peter Strzok: "In case the American people, in his mind, are crazy enough to elect Donald Trump we need something else to stop Trump. That's what this guy was thinking at the highest levels at the FBI." pic.twitter.com/vNWUhDvDuE FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) December 14, 2017The Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified yesterday about the clear case of corruption and political bias in our intel agencies. Changing Hillary s charge from grossly negligent to extremely careless is disturbing enough but it s clear that Jim Jordan knows this goes much deeper. Hillary was protected by the political hacks in the intel agencies but a target was put on President Trump s back using the FISA court to open up spying on the him and those around him using a doctored up opposition research document that was never proven to be anywhere close to true The questioning from Jordan is well worth watching:BYRON YORK:An insurance policy? From the Strzok-Page texts. https://t.co/Ru5P1dWFXI pic.twitter.com/hiyApwb7Jg Byron York (@ByronYork) December 13, 2017BRET BAIER:Text-from Peter Strzok to Lisa Page (Andy is Andrew McCabe): "I want to believe the path u threw out 4 consideration in Andy's office-that there's no way he gets elected-but I'm afraid we can't take that risk.It's like an insurance policy in unlikely event u die be4 you're 40" Bret Baier (@BretBaier) December 13, 2017ANDREW MCCARTHY COMMENTED ON THE TWEET THAT EXPOSED THE AGENTS FOR THEIR POLITICAL BIAS:Obviously, this is not political banter. Clearly indicates professional duties infected by political viewpoints, which is disqualifying. I was going on the published accounts I'd seen, which didn't include this one. Should follow my own advice to wait til all facts in. https://t.co/fXk7GPnk5U Andrew C. McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) December 13, 2017 | 1real |
WHEN DID ROMNEY BECOME The Godfather Of The GOP…And Why Didn’t He Fight This Hard Against Obama? [VIDEO] | It s difficult to look at Romney coming out against Trump and not wonder if there are a few sour grapes? Romney s timing for questioning Trump s character is very interesting, considering his former deputy campaign manager, Katie Packer was the key figure behind the anti-Trump super-PAC, Our Principles created for the sole purpose of taking down Trump that just announced yesterday that they ve given up on their efforts. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney stated that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Florida Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ought to release their taxes for the last two years that have already been filed and that there s good reason to believe that there s a bombshell in Donald Trump s taxes on Wednesday s Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel.He added, I think there s no question but that Donald Trump has the clearest path to become the Republican nominee. I think for the other people still in the race, their path is becoming a slimmer and slimmer opening, and they re having a difficult time communicating to their supporters just how they could become the nominee. It s not impossible. I think it s very difficult for any one of the non-Donald Trump contenders to be able to be a real threat, unless perhaps the field narrows.Romney then said, when asked about his lack of an endorsement for anyone so far, Well, frankly, I d like to see a number of things from the candidates, not just their positions on issues in some detail, and some candidates are more thorough in laying out what they re going to do than others, but I d also like to see their back taxes. I d like to see where they filed their taxes in the last several years. I m not talking about their taxes this year. I m talking about the taxes that have already been filed with the IRS. And Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have [not] shown us their back taxes. Romney further stated that the last two years that have already been filed would give us a real sense of whether these people are on the up and up, and whether they ve been telling us things about themselves that are true or not. He then said, I think we have good reason to believe that there s a bombshell in Donald Trump s taxes. He explained, I think there s something there, either he s not as anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasn t been giving money to the vets, or to the disabled, like he s been telling us he s been doing. And I think that s the reason that I think there s a bombshell in there, is because every time he s asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays and says, well, we re working on it. Hey, we re not talking about the taxes that are coming due this year. Of course they re working on those. They won t be ready for months. We re talking about taxes already filed, back taxes. And my back taxes, when I ran in 2012, my back taxes, I put out in January of 2012. We re now in late February and we still haven t seen either Donald Trump s, or Marco Rubio s, or Ted Cruz s taxes. And frankly the voters have a right to see those tax returns before they decide who our nominee ought to be. Trump s response to Romney s accusation:Romney said that the scrutiny over his taxes when he ran back in 2012 is a good reason for getting these things out before the voters make their choices to who our nominee will be. He continued, I put my taxes out in January of 2012, and that gave people a chance to digest it, and decide whether I was going to be the nominee or not. And if in fact Donald Trump s taxes, or Marco Rubio s, or Ted Cruz s, have some real problems in there, let s get them out there and see them. But I think it s pretty clear that, given Donald Trump s dodging and weaving and delay, I think the last time he was asked about his taxes he said, well, it s going to be a month. Look, people have a right to know if there s a problem in those taxes before they decide. Romney concluded, You know, Donald Trump has said he s the best in the country for the disabled veterans, and for the disabled generally. Well, if his taxes show that he hasn t made any contributions to the disabled veterans, or to the disabled generally, that would be a big issue. So and I m not saying that s the case. I have no evidence of that. But I m just saying there are things that could be issues, and when people decide they don t want to give you their taxes, it s usually because there s something they don t want you to see. Via:BreitbartPosted by Donald J. Trump on Thursday, 25 February 2016 Does Romney s concern over Trump and his taxes have anything to do with Trump s go it alone attitude? Or perhaps The Donald has a point?.@MittRomney can only speak negatively about my presidential chances because I have been openly hard on his terrible "choke" loss to Obama! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2015Mitt Romney, the failed 2012 Republican presidential nominee who, alongside running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), lost the election to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, is lecturing 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on how a Republican can win the White House. I think Donald Trump has said a number of things which are hurtful, and he has said they were childish in some respects, and I think will be potentially problematic either in a primary or in a general election if he were to become the nominee, Romney said in a rare interview granted to former Obama strategist David Axelrod, according to The Hill newspaper.Romney added that he thinks Trump will have some challenges if he proceeds to the next stage and that he thinks to a degree Trump s comments and style do hurt the GOP as a whole.While Romney previously predicted that Trump won t win the nomination, his change of tone in this Axelrod interview seems to indicate he s now entertaining the possibility of a nominee Donald Trump.Romney lost the election in 2012 after winning the nomination against a fairly weak GOP primary field. He also lost in 2008, failing to win the nomination against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Like Romney would four years later, McCain lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama. Even though Romney has lost every presidential election in which he s ever competed, some Republicans still gravitate to him and his inner circle for political advice.Earlier this cycle, Romney met with several candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) the two leading establishment candidates vying for the nomination in New Hampshire. In the interview with Axelrod, Romney spoke very highly of both Rubio and Bush.In August 2012 during the heat of Romney s presidential race with President Barack Obama, then-Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)2% charged Romney hadn t pay taxes for 10 years.Shortly after Reid made those allegations, Trump defended Romney in an interview with Fox News Channel s Greta Van Susteren on the August, 7, 2012 broadcast of On the Record. I think it s a very strong statement that Harry made, Trump said. And I ve known Harry and I like Harry. But I think it s a statement that he probably wished he didn t make. I don t think there was a source. A lot of people don t think there was a source. If there was a source, it s probably not allowed and it s probably not even legal. I mean, who would be able to do that? Who would be allowed to do that? I don t think there is a source. WATCH Donald Trump defend Romney s alleged tax issues with Greta Susteren at the 3:10 mark: | 1real |
How to make your home feel welcoming | How to make your home feel welcoming It’s the little touches that can give your home some warmth and character. | 1real |
This man wants to become president, pass one law, and resign | Lessig says that his sole mission as president would be to persuade Congress to pass the Citizen Equality Act, which would implement three reforms to the political system. First, it would guarantee the “equal right to vote” by enhancing the power of the federal government to control how states conduct elections, requiring states to provide for online or automated voter registration, and shifting Election Day to a national holiday.
Second, it would guarantee “equal representation” by banning gerrymandering of districts. Lessig also endorses an idea called “ranked-choice voting,” where voters rank the candidates rather than vote for just one. The candidate who receives the highest aggregate ranking wins. (You can find the somewhat complicated details here .)
Third, it would provide for “citizen-funded elections.” All voters would be given vouchers that they could use to contribute to political campaigns, and small contributions would be matched from public funds. Rules blocking government officials from becoming lobbyists would be strengthened.
Would these reforms give us “citizen equality”? Unfortunately, if money goes to the root of the problem, as Lessig says, these reforms would have little impact. In the best case, they would enhance the popular vote in elections by a little bit. They might enhance by a small amount cash contributions from low-income people. And Republican-dominated state legislatures would lose some of their power to create safe seats.
But in the economy of political influence that Lessig describes in his book, none of these things can make much difference. Most Americans are terribly uninformed about the political process and rely on very crude proxies (such as endorsements or partisan identification) to determine how to vote.
Many people fail to vote not because of barriers to voting but because they’d rather spend their time doing something else. Candidates who suited voters a bit better because of ranked-choice voting (assuming it works as advertised) and who received more small donations from low-income people would still need to rely on well-informed lobbyists with whom they had relationships and would still benefit from massive infusions of cash from big business. Lessig’s cure just doesn’t follow from his diagnosis.
The current disaffection with the government probably reflects the ideological polarization of the electorate, which is an input, not an output, of the political process. People disagree with one another more than in the past, so—whatever compromises the government reaches over policy—they are more likely to be unhappy with it. If people feel that they have no influence on political outcomes, that’s in part because we live in a huge and diverse country, and so even in an ideal system where your vote counts as much as anyone else’s, it’s just one of more than a hundred million. So there is a mismatch between Lessig’s means—a dramatic run for office as an unprecedented “referendum president” who resigns as soon as his mandate is legislated—and his goal, which is at best incremental reform. In the past, he has argued with a great deal more persuasiveness that the only way to reform the political system is through a constitutional convention, and it is easier to see the logic of this position than to understand his campaign goals. Constitutional amendments really could go to the root of the problem—by limiting campaign contributions (and thus overturning Citizens United, which held that the First Amendment banned certain limits on political expenditures), restructuring the Senate (which is a highly unrepresentative body that favors rural interests), limiting the power of the Supreme Court, and perhaps creating a parliamentary system or something like it, which would avoid the twin problems of gridlock and presidential abuse of power that have long been troubling features of our system of separation of powers.
But most calls for constitutional conventions come these days from conservatives, who want to impose a balanced budget on the federal government and who have no interest in adopting Lessig’s electoral reforms—nearly all of which would benefit the Democratic party in the short term. And the results of a constitutional convention—where moneyed interests as well as all kinds of interest groups would play a big role—are unpredictable. Well, not entirely unpredictable. Under the amendment process of the Constitution, state legislatures can play an important role in selecting delegates and ratifying amendments. And while there is a means to circumvent their formal participation, they would probably influence the outcome. This matters. Republicans have vastly more control over state legislatures than Democrats do—in part because of the gerrymandering Lessig wants to end—so we can be pretty certain about the ideological tilt of any amendments that might ultimately be ratified, if not their content. This is probably why Lessig has not adopted his earlier proposal of a constitutional convention to his presidential run. The rot goes too deep. But it also should raise doubts about whether the Citizen Equality Act can do any good. Even if Lessig can’t win, or can’t do much more than hand over the reins to his vice president if he does win, his candidacy would bring a rare level of intelligence and political sophistication to the election and much-needed attention to the problem of electoral reform. For that reason, you might donate a little money to his campaign. I did. | 0fake |
null | I'd rather see him live and keep doing his thing. That way he will, like Obozo, be remembered as the failure he is. | 1real |
CHINESE IMMIGRANT OWES MILLIONS FOR SELLING COUNTERFEIT GOODS IN U.S. GETS Protection From Chinese Banks And U.S. Citizenship | Counterfeiting is illegal by the way and shouldn t be rewarded with American citizenship This could be the story of an American dream. An immigrant family builds a successful business and buys a four-bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood with good schools for their young son. But not all is as it seems on the steep, curving streets of San Diego s Rancho Penasquitos.A 45-year-old Chinese woman, Xu Ting, lives in a brown shingle house with a weedy driveway. She has been sued for counterfeiting by eight luxury brands, including Gucci and Louis Vuitton, and owes Chanel Inc. $6.9 million in damages. None of this has stopped her from becoming a legal permanent resident of the United States and achieving a comfortable suburban life.China is not the only country with a counterfeiting problem. Most fakes are made in China, but they are sold in America. Counterfeiting is not a priority on par with drug smuggling or money laundering, and is rarely prosecuted as a crime. The lack of legal cooperation with China makes it easy for counterfeiters to move their money beyond the reach of Western law enforcement and hard to root out counterfeiting kingpins. As long as counterfeiters can stay out of jail and hold on to their profits and consumers continue to buy the trade in fakes will likely thrive.Despite spending millions on brand protection, companies often end up playing whack-a-mole, shutting down producers and distributors of fakes, only to see them pop up again. Xu Ting simply refused to show up in court over the years. Instead, doing graduate studies in statistics at San Diego State University, helped her family amass at least $890,000 in bank accounts back in China, and bought the $585,000 Rancho Penasquitos house with her husband, who has also been involved in selling counterfeit luxury goods, public records and court cases in China and the U.S. show. There s a million ways to game the system, said Dan Plane, an intellectual property lawyer at Simone IP Services in Hong Kong, who is not involved in litigation against Xu Ting. Probably the only thing that s going to stop her is when she passes away probably on an island resort somewhere or if she gets arrested. FINDING XU TINGIn the web of lies that counterfeiters weave fake names, fake addresses, fake Internet domain registrations one thing is always true: their bank account information.The need to get paid is the counterfeiter s fatal flaw, and Xu Ting s bank accounts were the first crack in her armor of misdirection.Her legal troubles began in 2008, when a federal judge in California ordered Xu Ting who declined multiple requests for comment for this story to pay Chanel Inc. $6.9 million in damages for selling counterfeits online. She still hasn t paid the damages, according to Chanel spokeswoman Kathrin Schurrer. The essential point for Chanel is really shutting down the counterfeiting operations, which we did successfully, Schurrer wrote in an email.But after the lawsuit, Xu Ting s business continued to grow.In 2009, a Florida judge ruled against Xu Ting and shut down seven websites she was accused of helping run that sold fake Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and Celine. She did not show up in court.That case didn t stop her either.The next year, Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent all brands belonging to France s Kering group filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against Xu Ting, her future husband, her younger brother, her mother and six others who the companies said sold more than $2 million worth of fake handbags and wallets online to U.S. customers. Gucci alleges that the group shipped merchandise from China to a house in San Diego, where it was repackaged and passed off as genuine.Four days after the suit was filed, Xu Ting married a Chinese man, Xu Lijun, a civil engineer licensed in California who is six years her junior, according to her marriage license issued in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon.Gucci subpoenaed banking records. JP Morgan Chase handed over account records with a wealth of information about the couple: addresses, dates of birth, driver s license, Social Security and passport numbers and a student identification card.In November 2010, Xu Lijun reached a settlement with Gucci the only defendant to do so. He denied wrongdoing but agreed to let Gucci keep $400,000 in counterfeiting proceeds seized from accounts outside China. He also agreed to pay a $7,500 fine, according to a copy of the judge s order.Eric Siegle, a New York City lawyer who represented Xu Lijun, said he was a small-time nobody, and that Gucci s lawsuit, like many others, failed to tackle the real powers behind the operation. The people they are arresting or suing here in the United States are low-level people, Siegle said. If you can find where the money is going, you can get to the heart of the problem. It s like the drug wars. Why are we arresting all these kids on street corners? But Gucci, which is seeking $12 million in damages, couldn t find where the money was going because Chinese banks, including the state-run Bank of China, refused to disclose transaction details about the counterfeiters accounts in China. BOC cannot comply with such orders without violating Chinese law, the Bank of China said in an email. GREEN CARD? NO PROBLEMXu Ting s legal troubles did not prevent her from getting a green card. In February 2014, she became a legal permanent resident by virtue of being married to someone with an advanced degree or extraordinary ability, according to the person familiar with the matter.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Christopher Bentley declined to comment, citing privacy concerns.Dan Kowalski, an immigration attorney and editor of Bender s Immigration Bulletin, said immigration officials may not have known about Xu Ting s legal problems but, more likely, didn t consider them disqualifying. Grounds for denying a green card range from committing a serious crime to having communicable disease but there s nothing about civil liabilities. A vaguer requirement for good moral character is more commonly applied for citizenship, not legal residence.In the U.S., most counterfeiting prosecutions are civil cases brought by companies seeking to shut down websites selling fakes and get financial compensation. Criminal cases, which lawyers say are a far more effective deterrent, are rare. A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than imprisoned for counterfeiting, said Geoffrey Potter, an intellectual property lawyer at New York s Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.In an email, Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said, Large-scale commercial counterfeiting is one of the top enforcement priorities of the department s Intellectual Property Task Force, which continues to have a number of significant prosecutions. The Department of Homeland Security seized $1.2 billion worth of fakes at U.S. borders last year, but the Justice Department filed just 91 criminal cases for selling counterfeit goods and services in fiscal year 2014. By comparison, the Justice Department filed 22,530 cases for immigration violations, 12,184 cases for drug-related offenses and 12,509 violent crime cases during the same period.The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a multiagency group led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reports slightly more counterfeit-related crime 683 arrests, 454 indictments, 461 convictions in the 2014 fiscal year because its tally includes local prosecutions and counterfeit-related activity, like wire fraud.Decisions about whether to prosecute criminally typically start with a U.S. attorney s office, whose priorities vary by district, said Bruce Foucart, director of the multiagency group. Some may give weight to the volume of faked goods, others to the suspect s history. If the U.S. attorney s office declines a case, investigators try to persuade local prosecutors.China is the largest source country for seized counterfeit goods, and apparel and accessories are the largest category of merchandise. Foucart, who didn t know about Xu Ting, said luxury goods are typically made in Guangzhou and sent by container or courier like FedEx to the U.S. They may be sold in stores or flea markets but are usually hawked online. Unfortunately, once you shut one (website) down, they have 10 more ready to open up in a different name, said Foucart.Brand owners also bear responsibility. Government agencies often rely on them for tips and investigative legwork.U.S. law gives companies broad powers to enforce court judgments. Unpaid judgments accrue interest and last for 20 years, said Potter, the intellectual property lawyer. Even a bankruptcy won t erase the debt. The counterfeiter can t own a business, buy a house, have a bank account or borrow money from a bank, Potter said. If the counterfeiter takes a regular job, the judgment holder can garnish her wages. But doing the kind of work required to root out debtors like Xu Ting public records searches to see whether they own real estate, subpoenaing credit card bills to track spending habits, hiring investigators to determine whether they have jobs takes relentless commitment, and money.Via: AP | 1real |
Even If You Hate Trump, What this Leftist Just Did Is VILE... | The Federalist Papers |
Fox News reported :
Five police officers and yellow caution tape surround Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star — or what’s left of it.
The Los Angeles police say they are investigating the smashing of Trump’s star following footage that showed the sidewalk tribute was destroyed with a pickax.
Det. Meghan Aguilar says investigators were called to the scene before dawn Wednesday.
By mid-morning, an LAPD spokesperson at the scene told FOX411 the Chamber of Commerce was sending out a crew in the hopes of getting the star repaired as soon as possible.
“Investigators are looking at [a] felony vandalism [charge] because of the value which the Chamber of Commerce has placed [on the star] at $2,500…” the spokesperson told us. “As soon as investigators can positively identify the suspect, which they are very sure they can do… they will go ahead and make a decision whether they want to arrest that suspect or seek a warrant.”
Fox411 spoke with a worker from Top End Construction who told them that the damage done to Trump’s star was “probably the worst I have seen.”
A man named Jamie Otis has taken responsibility for the destruction, according to Deadline Hollywood, which posted a video of the man taking a pickax to Trump’s star.
According to Deadline, Otis planned to auction off the star and give the money to the 11 women who have come forward with groping allegations against Trump just weeks before the presidential election.
Trump has denied the groping allegations and it’s painfully obvious that they are almost assuredly politically motivated . As far as what the women get out of it, some may be politically motivated themselves and others have had their ulterior motives — money , fame, payback because Trump didn’t go to their restaurant, etc. — exposed.
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leron Gubler made it clear that his organization “intends to prosecute to the full extent of the law,” whoever is found to be responsible for the damage.”
“The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees,” Gubler stated. “When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark.” | 1real |
BLM To Lease Ohio’s Only National Forest To Fracking Interests | The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claims to manage public land for the “common good.” However, their actions as a federal agency consistently show that they really serve private interests,... | 1real |
Re: Serbian Culture | Quote from: Al Bundy on August 27, 2015, 09:53:48 AM The first session of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the new building was held in october 1936.Skuptina has assumed command spared German bombing in 1941 (Hitler, Goering) and NATO bombing in 1999 (Clinton, Blair, Chirac, Schroeder). Like Acropolis in Athens. People who lived nearby felt safe, because the Nazis wouldn't bomb the ancient monument. Logged Let him that would move the world first move himself.Socrates | 1real |
Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen: Red Sox Fans Weren’t Racist Earlier in the Season - Breitbart | TMZ Sports spoke with Pittsburgh Pirates star center fielder Andrew McCutchen about Boston Red Sox fans yelling racial slurs at Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones last week. McCutchen said he played at Fenway Park for the first time earlier this season and did not experience any racism from the fans. “Everyone was pretty cool, pretty normal,” McCutchen stated. The reporter then asked McCutchen about New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia saying all black players “expect” racism in Boston. “[E]veryone has different experiences in different divisions,” he said. “CC’s been around longer than I have and he’s played in different divisions, so he probably experiences a lot more than I have. I’m sure he probably just expects that that’s going to happen. You hate that you have to think that way, but sometimes that’s part of it and you just gotta turn the other cheek and move on. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
Conservatives Cheer Research Saying Cuts To Unemployment Benefits Helped The Economy | WASHINGTON -- A new research paper suggests Congress helped the economy to the tune of nearly 2 million jobs when lawmakers killed long-term unemployment benefits at the end of 2013.
The working paper, by economists Marcus Hagedorn, Iourii Manovskii and Kurt Mitman, is a boon to congressional Republicans who insisted the benefits not be renewed. The Wall Street Journal editorial board trumpeted the findings and the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), touted the paper on its blog.
But while the study might help the GOP take credit for an improving economy, the story isn't so simple, as several other recent studies have found the long-term benefits weren't holding back workers.
The new paper says the benefit cut led to 1.8 million additional jobs last year. "Almost 1 million of these jobs were filled by workers from out of the labor force who would not have participated in the labor market had benefit extensions been reauthorized," the authors write.
They reached their conclusion by comparing the 2014 employment growth of adjacent counties in separate states, since the federal unemployment insurance program that expired in December 2013 offered different durations of benefits depending on a state's unemployment rate. Using Labor Department data, the paper found that counties in states that lost out on more weeks of benefits saw higher job growth. In other words, they were better off without the benefits.
The finding is contrary to predictions from the Obama administration and the Congressional Budget Office, which assumed keeping the extended unemployment compensation through 2014 would boost the economy. Other studies have found that the long-term jobless aid in place since 2008 didn't reduce the likelihood that laid off workers would take available jobs.
Some commentators, both liberal and conservative, have taken issue with the paper's methodology. Using a different set of Labor Department data, Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research found a smaller increase in employment in states where the benefit cut was deeper.
For some of the workers whose benefits ended that December, hardship ensued -- at least in the short term. Things got desperate for Charlie Walker of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, for instance, before he got a new job last fall. And Brian Krueger of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, only got back to work in May 2014 after going on food stamps and nearly losing his house. He doesn't see himself as part of a happy story about the economy improving. | 0fake |
Exclusive: Trump vows to fix or scrap South Korea trade deal, wants missile system payment | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a “horrible” free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a U.S. anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion. In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea “unacceptable” and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completes a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. He blamed the U.S.-Korean trade deal, known as KORUS, on his 2016 Democratic presidential election opponent, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state promoted the final version of the trade pact before its approval by Congress in 2011. “It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary,” the Republican Trump said. “It’s a horrible deal, and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it.” Asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the deal, Trump said: “Very soon. I’m announcing it now.” Trump's comments stunned South Korean financial markets, sending Seoul stocks .KS11 and the won currency KRW= into reverse even as the country's economic outlook has started to brighten. South Korea’s foreign ministry said Seoul would continue to explain to the Trump administration the benefits of the free trade deal. Washington had not officially filed a request to Seoul to renegotiate the agreement, it said. “Our government will keep monitoring the situation and continue our efforts to explain to the United States the mutually reciprocal outcome of the South Korea-U.S. FTA, while preparing for countermeasures,” the ministry said. With global demand improving, exports of goods such as cars and electronics have been leading a recovery in South Korea and a number of other trade-reliant Asian economies such as Japan and Taiwan, boosting their manufacturing sectors. “Talk and actual policy are different,” a high-ranking official at South Korea’s finance ministry, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters. KORUS was initially negotiated by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush in 2007, but that version was scrapped and renegotiated by President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration three years later. The U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since KORUS took effect in March 2012, from $13.2 billion in 2011 to $27.7 billion in 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Trump said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system now being deployed in South Korea to defend against a potential missile attack from North Korea would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it. “I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It’s a billion-dollar system,” Trump said. “It’s phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky.” Asked about the remarks, South Korea’s defense ministry said in a statement there was no change to the existing agreement that Seoul provides land for the deployment while Washington shoulders the cost of installing and operating the system. Moon Jae-in, the South Korean presidential frontrunner, said the new government should given the choice to decide whether to agree to the deployment. “I’ll decide after sufficient public consensus and parliamentary approval,” he said at a televised presidential debate ahead of the May 9 election. His top foreign policy adviser earlier told Reuters that Trump’s suggestion would be an “impossible option” because the U.S. military operates the system. The U.S. military started the deployment of THAAD in early March, despite strong opposition from China, which worries the system’s powerful radar can be used to spy into its territory. Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) is the prime contractor for the THAAD system. A former U.S. State Department official estimated the cost of the system at about $1.2 billion but said the United States would not want to sell THAAD to Seoul. “We want to retain THAAD in our arsenal, consistent with all other U.S. weapons systems deployed on the Korean peninsula. We own them. We retain them. We have the right to redeploy them,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. | 0fake |
Rainbow raids: Egypt launches its widest anti-gay crackdown yet | CAIRO (Reuters) - Sarah Hegazy has been jailed, beaten by inmates, and could face a life sentence in an Egyptian prison if found guilty of promoting sexual deviancy and other charges tied to her alleged crime: waving a rainbow flag at a concert. The 28-year-old denies waving the flag but is one of 57 people arrested so far in Egypt s widest anti-gay crackdown yet, a swift zero-tolerance response to a rare show of public support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the conservative Muslim country. The crackdown comes as Egypt, a key Western ally in the Middle East, is under fire for its human rights record and the United States has withheld some of its $1.3 billion in annual military aid. Hegazy, the only woman rounded up in the three-week-old campaign, says police goaded her cellmates to abuse her during her first night in prison, where she is being detained for 15 days and interrogated by special prosecutors who usually focus on Islamist militants. This is the game they (police) always play, especially since she is a girl. They incite the other detainees and say this girl wants men and women to be gay so they harass her. I saw scratches on her shoulder, she looked very disheveled and exhausted. She was beaten, said Hegazy s lawyer Hoda Nasralla. A security official would not comment on Hegazy s case but denied that police incite prisoners against each other or otherwise mistreat them. Lawyers for other detainees said their clients faced similar treatment. Suspected gay male detainees are subject to forced anal exams to determine if they have had homosexual sex, a procedure human rights groups say amounts to torture. At least five such examinations have taken place, Amnesty International says. Judicial sources do not deny the examinations take place but say they are legally carried out and are not a form of abuse. Egyptian authorities do not deny going after gays and an investigation report provided to Reuters by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) openly refers to the police s campaign on homosexuals. Police, state-aligned media, and the religious establishment all see it as a public duty to combat the spread of homosexuality. Ten men have already gone on trial during the recent sweep and received jail sentences from one to six years. On Sept. 22, at a concert packed with 30,000 people headlined by Mashrou Leila, a Lebanese alternative rock band whose lead singer is openly gay, a small group of concert goers raised a rainbow flag and, within hours, the image went viral. Almost immediately local media, dominated by state-aligned television personalities, began a campaign against homosexuals, saying they were receiving foreign funding, and hosting callers who compared their threat to Islamic State. Egypt s media regulator then banned homosexuals from appearing in the media unless they were repenting , calling homosexuality a shame and a disease that should be kept under wraps, not promoted in order to protect public morality. Al-Azhar, Egypt s 1,000-year-old center of Islamic learning, said it would stand against gays in the way it stands against Islamist extremists. One church organized an anti-gay conference. Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered the State Security Prosecution, which normally investigates terrorism and other national security threats, to investigate the flag incident. At least four people, including Hegazy and 21-year-old Ahmed Alaa, were arrested for allegedly raising the flag although one man has since been released. The overwhelming majority of those arrested are not involved in the flag case, however, and have simply been arrested over their perceived sexual orientation in the following days. Police have raided homes, parties, and used online dating apps to lure gay men - a common tactic in Egypt - to arrest most of them, their lawyers say. At a Cairo courthouse defendants stood in a cage, holding up newspapers and books to hide their faces to shield themselves from the stigma of homosexuality in Egyptian society. Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. The last comparable crackdown on homosexuals in Egypt was in 2001, when police raided a floating disco called the Queen Boat. Fifty-two men were tried in the case, which drew widespread criticism from human rights groups and Western governments. But the current wave has already surpassed that incident both in numbers and in state action, with defendants facing much faster trials than usual, said Dalia Abd Elhameed, EIPR s gender and women s rights officer. No Western government has publicly condemned or commented on this crackdown, but Egypt is facing criticism from the United States, a major ally, over its human rights record. Washington denied Egypt $95.7 million in aid and delayed a further $195 million because it failed to make progress on human rights and democracy, U.S. sources told Reuters in August. Egypt has taken a leading role at the United Nations in opposing gay rights. It was one of 13 countries to vote last week against a U.N. resolution condemning the death penalty for having gay sex. It led a dozen states in boycotting a session in January with the first U.N. expert on anti-gay violence and discrimination. It sent a letter last year on behalf of Muslim countries to the secretary-general that led to the exclusion of 22 gay and transgender rights groups from the U.N. General Assembly s High Level Meeting on Ending Aids. Gay men and rights activists say the LGBT community has been facing an aggressive crackdown since 2013, when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as military chief ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi. EIPR has documented 232 cases between October 2013 and March 2017 where people were arrested for allegedly being gay or transgender, Abd Elhameed said. Many of these cases went to court where the average sentence was around three years in jail, although in some cases it went up to 12. Sisi has been criticized by the Brotherhood as being anti-Islam, and rights groups say tough treatment of the LGBT community is a way to counter that while diverting attention from the country s tough economic conditions. The crackdown has Egypt s already underground LGBT community living in fear. Five gay men who all requested anonymity said they were avoiding gay-friendly spaces and deleting online dating profiles for fear of arrest. Some are considering leaving the country. But the recent developments underscore an existing reality for gay Egyptians: they are in constant physical danger. I don t feel comfortable just being myself. We re not talking about gay rights here, no one is calling for marriage equality, we face the possibility of jail and humiliation for merely existing, said one 25-year-old gay man. A 31-year-old gay man recounted how he was tied up and beaten at his Cairo flat last year by two men who threatened to kill him after meeting through the gay dating app Grindr. They posed as police officers at some point, playing on a common fear for gay Egyptians, before stealing items from his flat. The man says he later felt going to the police was almost as traumatic as the incident itself. Police records show officers create false dating profiles and set up dates only to arrest the men who show up. Sometimes they tell the men to bring condoms then use them as evidence, Abd Elhameed said. There are people in the Interior Ministry who take our money as taxpayers to engage in sex chatting with people then arrest them. It is as ridiculous as this; the evidence sheets include nude photos and erotic chat transcripts. | 0fake |
Trump declines to say if he will visit Korean DMZ on Asia trip | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump declined to say on Wednesday whether he will visit the Korean Peninsula s demilitarized zone during an upcoming Asia tour. I d rather not say, but you ll be surprised, Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn as he prepared to depart on a trip to Dallas. Trump is scheduled to depart on Nov. 3 on a trip that includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. His trip is expected to be heavily dominated by the nuclear and ballistic missile threat that North Korea poses. The DMZ is a border barrier between South and North Korea and is a traditional stop for American dignitaries. White House officials say Trump is to visit South Korea s Camp Humphreys during his visit to South Korea to hail the U.S.-South Korean alliance. There are no concerns about what message Trump would send by not going to the DMZ, a senior White House official told reporters on Monday. The message is that we are guests during a state visit of President Moon Jae-in, who s invited us to make a visit to Camp Humphreys. So we ll keep talking with the South Korean government to see if there are things that they want to adjust, the official said. | 0fake |
NICOLE KIDMAN BREAKS RANKS With Hollywood Leftists…Speaks Out In Support Of Trump’s Presidency [VIDEO] | She s travelling the world to promote her new Australian film, which tells the tale of an Indian boy adopted by Tasmanian parents.But Nicole Kidman found herself facing questions about the President-elect of the United States this week.During an interview with the BBC, the Oscar winner told journalist Victoria Derbyshire that Americans needed to support Donald Trump once he s in office.In the closing stages of an interview in which she had spoken at length about her new film Lion, the Oscar-winner was asked what she thought of Trump.Nicole, who has dual US and Australian citizenship, called on Americans to set aside the controversy surrounding the election and support the President-elect.- Daily Mail | 1real |
John Oliver Has Brilliant Advice For Breaking That New Year’s Resolution You Won’t Keep Anyway (VIDEO) | It s a new year. For many of us, that means that we probably made a few resolutions. You know quit smoking, eat better, drink less, get more sleep all good things that could improve life. There s just one problem, though: most people don t keep those resolutions. They go right out the window before the first month of the new year is even over for most people. Well, John Oliver, host of HBO s Last Week Tonight has some advice in that arena: You re going to break these resolutions anyway, so quit being so hard on yourself.Oliver said: Every December, for some reason, we decide that next year will be the one that everything turns around and we ll finally quit drinking, or learn how to pronounce the name of these berries. He then continued: But let s be honest, we re a few days into the new year now, and if you haven t broken your New Year s resolutions yet, statistically you are about to. That can be depressing. But don t panic, all hope is not lost. Because the key thing with resolutions is not how to keep them it s how to revise them once you ve failed. The main problem with New Year s resolutions is that we set our expectations way too high. For instance, lots of people say they want to exercise more but that s hard. Exercise is like reading for your muscles. Except you can t watch a movie of someone else exercising and basically get the gist of it. He s right. Humans are set in our ways. Small changes are better than big ones, because they are easier to stick to. You re not going to change your whole life just because a new year rolls in, and that really is okay.Watch Oliver s hilarious yet completely accurate thoughts on New Year s resolutions below:Featured image via video screen capture from Raw Story | 1real |
Russian Su-33's based on Admiral Kuznetsov wipe out Al-Nusra commanders in Idlib | November 17, 2016 - Fort Russ News - RIA Novosti - translated by J. Arnoldski -
Russia’s defense ministry’s official spokesperson, Major General Igor Konashenkov, has reported that Su-33 fighters based on the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier cruiser have killed no less than 30 militants from the Jebhat al-Nusra grouping in the Syrian province of Idlib. As Konashenkov reported on Tuesday, militants have suffered serious losses as a result of “massive fire strikes” and a large bandit grouping of al-Nusra has been destroyed.
According to General Konashenkov, the death of least 30 terrorists as been confirmed by multiple intelligence channels. Also confirmed among the dead were field commanders Muhammad Khelala, Abu Jaber Harmuja, and Abul Baha al-Asfari, who was planning an offensive on Aleppo. Al-Asfari was responsible for the unification of the remnants of Al-Nusra reserves in Aleppo and Hama.
As stated earlier this week by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Russia has begun a large strike operation inflicting fire damage on Islamic State and Jebhat Al-Nusra positions in the Syrian provinces of Idlib and Homs.
The Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft carrier cruiser, the only cruiser of its class in the Russian Navy, has been engaged in the operation. The cruiser is now in the Mediterranean Sea at the head of the Northern Fleet.
Also participating in the operation is the Admiral Grigorovich frigate (a guard ship) which, according to defense ministry reports, has struck the positions of militants in Syria with Calibre cruise missiles.
Follow us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Donate!
| 1real |
Airbnb Ends Fight With New York City Over Fines - The New York Times | Airbnb has capitulated to the demands of lawmakers over its operations in New York City, the company’s largest market in the United States, agreeing to drop a lawsuit in which it was pushing back against a newly passed state law that it said could have hurt its business. The home rental service on Friday settled the lawsuit that it filed against New York City two months ago. The suit challenged a New York law that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed in October. That law called for fines of as much as $7, 500 for illegally listing a property on a rental platform such as Airbnb. The company had said the large fines could have deterred hosts and impaired its revenue in New York City. Hosts in the city generated about $1 billion in revenue last year, and the company took a cut of that in fees. But Airbnb on Friday agreed that it would drop the suit as long as New York City enforces the new law only against hosts and does not fine Airbnb. The settlement takes effect on Monday. The agreement is a victory for opponents of Airbnb. The company and New York authorities have battled for years over the legality of offering lodging through the service, and the relationship has long been inconsistent. Since 2010, it has been illegal in New York to rent out a whole apartment on Airbnb for fewer than 30 days. In October, Airbnb said it was willing to crack down on people in New York City who rent out multiple homes, bowing to pressure from politicians and tenants’ rights groups who said the company had made it harder to find affordable housing in the city. “This is an astounding on the part of Airbnb, which clearly recognized that this was a foolhardy and frivolous lawsuit,” Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, who wrote the law that Airbnb opposed, said of the settlement on Friday. In a statement, Airbnb said the settlement was “a material step forward for our hosts. ” Airbnb has been fighting with local governments around the globe that are displeased with the effects of the online rental service. Cities such as Amsterdam, Miami Beach and New Orleans have been closely watching the New York case. “I expect the city will now get down to the important business of enforcing the law against the serial lawbreakers on the site” who turn affordable housing into illegal hotels, Ms. Rosenthal said in her statement. “This is a win for everyone. ” | 0fake |
A surge in U.S. deportations could swamp an overtaxed system | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to rapidly deport 2 to 3 million illegal immigrants with criminal records would further tax a system already stretched to its limits, current and former U.S. immigration officials say. Immigration courts, which issue deportation orders, set bond and grant or deny asylum, currently have a backlog of more than 500,000 cases. Boosting staff could help address the problem but that could prove difficult. Officials at the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security say they have had trouble quickly finding and vetting enough qualified candidates to fill all the positions for judges and immigration agents that Congress has authorized. The Executive Office of Immigration Review, which adjudicates immigration cases, has so far been able to fill only 294 judge positions out of the 374 Congress has authorized because the process is slow by necessity. Candidates for the job “face a rigorous screening process comparable to that of the appointment of a U.S. attorney,” said spokeswoman Kathryn Mattingly. Trump said last week after his election victory that once he takes office he will move to deport or incarcerate up to 3 million illegal immigrants who have criminal records. At U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a force of 6,200 agents responsible for arresting and deporting criminal migrants is already spread thin. While some agents could be redeployed to other areas, more agents would likely need to be hired if deportations were sharply escalated, said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who asked not to named. The agency would probably need to add detention space as well, the official added. More apprehensions of migrants could also strain the Border Patrol, which has struggled to fill open positions. Congress has mandated a force of more than 21,000 border agents, but it currently stands at just over 19,000. Former U.S. Border Patrol chief Mike Fisher said the agency ran into problems a decade ago after Congress asked it to double the number of Border Patrol agents from 6,000 to 12,000 between 2004 and 2006. The push to hire quickly helped fuel corruption, a March 2016 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s independent advisory council found. The report concluded that the rapid hiring was exploited by Mexican drug gangs, which sent in cartel-friendly applicants for the patrol jobs. Once hired, they then facilitated drug smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border. The agency began using polygraph tests in 2010 to weed out applicants with criminal histories or ties to cartels. Fisher said the testing made it harder to find qualified candidates, estimating that by the time he left in 2015, the border patrol made one hire out of every 100 applicants. “I can’t imagine if they said ‘double it’ now,” Fisher said. Trump could try to change laws and procedures to expedite deportation processes, which could reduce the need for additional personnel. On Friday, Trump tapped Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. Sessions has supported Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and undo Obama’s executive actions on immigration. During President Barack Obama’s time in office, the United States has deported about 2.5 million illegal immigrants, more than under any other president. | 0fake |
Illegal immigrant who beat, deafened wife to be removed from NZ | Illegal immigrant who beat, deafened wife to be removed from NZ Illegal immigrant who beat, deafened wife to be removed from NZ By 0 60
Immigration New Zealand are set to deport a man convicted of beating his wife so severely as she held their baby daughter that he temporarily deafened her.
Jone Vuetaki, 26, was sentenced in the Timaru District Court to 130 hours of community work in August for the vicious assault of his wife in November last year.
The Fiji-born meat worker denied the charge but was found guilty after a trial before Judge Joanna Maze.
After he was sentenced Immigration New Zealand revealed that Vuetaki was here illegally.
He had been in the country unlawfully since March.
“Vuetaki is liable for deportation, but INZ strongly encourages him to settle his affairs and make arrangements to leave the country as soon as possible by departing voluntarily.”
It is understood Vuetaki appealed his sentence.
His now ex-wife told the Herald that the judge dismissed that appeal and cancelled his community service so he was free to leave the country immediately.
“He is now free to leave the country on his own, if he is not gone in a few weeks he will be deported,” said the woman, whom the Herald has agreed not to name.
She said she was disappointed that Vuetaki would not have to do the community work, but relieved he had to leave New Zealand.
“That’s the only thing I get out of this,” she said.
An Immigration New Zealand spokesman confirmed Vuetaki would soon be sent back to Fiji.
“Mr Vuetaki is still in New Zealand but arrangements are being made for his departure,” he said.
Vuetaki assaulted his… | 1real |
Interview 1226 – Financial Survival: The Day After the (s)Election | 11/10/2016 at 5:15 pm
Bread and Circuses
A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: “Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.” The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles.
So, (S)election is part of the Circuses… You should worry when the Free food distribution increases. | 1real |
Trump talks infrastructure with Musk, developers | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump met with business leaders on Wednesday including Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk and real estate developers, as the administration seeks partnerships with the private sector to boost infrastructure spending. During his presidential campaign, Trump said he would push for a $1 trillion infrastructure program to rebuild roads, bridges, airports and other public works projects, but he has not presented a specific plan. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said “strong public-private partnerships” would be key to rebuilding the nation’s roads, bridges and airports. “Infrastructure used to be a point of American pride, but now an overbearing, ineffective regulatory system can keep projects in limbo for years,” Spicer said. “The government has wasted too much of the taxpayers’ money on inefficient and misguided projects.” The White House sees infrastructure as a potential large job creator but officials have said the federal government cannot shoulder the entire burden. The administration is looking at toll roads, tax credits and other ways to spur private investment. Major real estate and private equity executives attended the meeting, including developer Richard LeFrak, Vornado Realty Trust Chief Executive Officer Steve Roth, and Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, the White House said. LeFrak and Roth have been tapped to lead an infrastructure council that Trump plans to create, a spokesman for LeFrak had previously said. The lunch with the CEOs follows his meeting on Tuesday with AFL-CIO union President Rich Trumka to talk infrastructure and other issues. The White House held a meeting of 15 federal agencies last Thursday to begin work on the administration’s infrastructure plan. Last month, Trump touted the infrastructure plan in an address to Congress. “To launch our national rebuilding,” he said, “I will be asking Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure of the United States - financed through both public and private capital - creating millions of new jobs.” Edward Mortimer, a transportation expert at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told a Senate panel on Wednesday that without action, the federal highway trust fund would face a serious shortfall starting in 2020, and policymakers would need to come up with $150 billion over six years to maintain current spending. “This shortfall will likely result in significant uncertainty, with states possibly delaying major transportation projects,” he said. Wednesday’s meeting included Vice President Mike Pence, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, as well as General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford, McKinsey & Co partner Tyler Duvall and Nature Conservancy Managing Director Lynn Scarlett, the White House said. Scarlett said in a statement that any infrastructure package should include “natural” solutions such as reefs, dunes and wetlands. Other participants in the meeting did not comment or respond to requests for comment. The American Society of Civil Engineers has graded U.S. infrastructure at D+ and estimated the country needs to invest $3.6 trillion by 2020. In January, Trump signed an executive order aimed at expediting environmental reviews and approvals for all infrastructure projects, especially high-priority projects such as improving the U.S. electric grid and telecommunications systems and repairing and upgrading “critical” port facilities, airports, pipelines, bridges, and highways. | 0fake |
NEWT GINGRICH: If this had been one of Trump’s hotels…there’d be a lot of personnel changes tonight!” [Video] | 1real | |
Clinton hits Trump over comments on women ahead of vice presidential debate | HAVERFORD, Pa. (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton slammed Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday for making disparaging comments about women’s physical appearance, accusing Trump of taking the issue of female body image “to a new level of difficulty and meanness.” Hours before vice presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence face off in Virginia in their sole debate, Clinton urged women at an event in the Philadelphia suburbs billed as a “family town hall” to stand up to online bullying about how they look. “It’s shocking when women are called names and judged solely on the basis of physical attributes,” the Democratic presidential nominee said in response to a 15-year-old girl’s question about the problem of body image and the “damage Donald Trump does” when he talks about how women look. “My opponent insulted Miss Universe,” Clinton said, resurrecting her Republican rival’s comments last week about former beauty queen Alicia Machado’s weight gain after she won the Miss Universe contest in 1996. “I mean, how do you get more acclaimed than that? But it wasn’t good enough,” Clinton said. “We can’t take any of this seriously anymore. We need to laugh at it. We need to refute it.” Clinton, the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major U.S. party, has rushed to capitalize on Trump’s public feud with Machado, whom he once called “Miss Piggy” because of her weight gain, and make inroads with women voters five weeks before the Nov. 8 election. Clinton’s and Trump’s running mates, Democrat Kaine, a U.S. senator, and Republican Pence, governor of Indiana, will meet in a debate in Farmville, Virginia, starting at 9 p.m. on Tuesday (0100 GMT on Wednesday.) The debate will provide voters their first extended chance to evaluate the No. 2’s in the White House race and is the only showdown between the vice presidential candidates. Trump and Clinton will meet in their second debate on Sunday. Pence could find himself frequently on the defensive about Trump, a New York businessman who has been dealing with a torrent of bad news in the past week. That includes a New York Times report that Trump took an almost $1 billion loss in 1995 that may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years. While Democrats have slammed him over the report, Trump, who made much of his business acumen on the campaign trail, has said he “brilliantly used” U.S. tax rules to his advantage to limit his tax bills. Clinton disagreed, telling reporters on Tuesday it showed “unequivocally” that Trump was a failure at business for losing $1 billion to begin with. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday said 67 percent of Americans believed it was “selfish” for a presidential candidate to pay no taxes, although 46 percent thought a candidate who paid no taxes was “smart.” Clinton also criticized Trump for appearing to suggest on Monday that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress were not strong enough to handle the stress of war. Trump and his campaign said his words were taken out of context. “When people come back from war and combat, and they see things that maybe a lot of folks in this room have seen many times over - and you’re strong and you can handle it - but a lot of people can’t handle it,” Trump told a veterans group on Monday. Clinton said troops deserved a commander in chief who understood their sacrifice. “Donald Trump’s comments are not just ignorant, they are harmful because they give voice to the stigma that has led generations of veterans to hide their struggles instead of getting lifesaving help,” she said. On the campaign trail on Tuesday, Trump met with about a dozen energy executives in Denver, querying them mainly about their concerns about regulations he said had “gotten out of control.” John Harpole, chief executive of Mercator Energy, said he did not understand why the Obama administration’s response to the shale boom and Clinton’s energy positions had not come up during the first presidential debate last week. Others told Trump they faced more immediate concerns with state-level regulators. Scott Stewart of Gilbert-Stewart Operating said his company had largely moved operations to Kansas because of stiff rules in Colorado. Trump also reveled in comments on Monday by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, who said small-business people and people who make too much to get federal subsidies to help with insurance payments were “getting killed” by the federal healthcare law known as Obamacare. Trump has promised to repeal Obamacare, while Hillary Clinton has praised it but said she would work to improve aspects of it. “I bet he went through hell last night, can you imagine?” Trump said of Bill Clinton during a rally in Prescott, Arizona. “He went through hell, but honestly there have been many nights when he has gone through hell with Hillary.” Clinton has led Trump in national opinion polls in recent months. On Tuesday, an average of polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics website showed her with 48.1 percent of support compared with Trump’s 44.3 percent. | 0fake |
When Dad’s Kind Birthday Gift For Ex-Wife Has His Friends Puzzled, He Explains Who It’s Really For | Share on Twitter
On October 21, 2016, father of two Billy Flynn woke up early. He bought his ex-wife a bouquet of flowers, a card, and a gift, and he helped their kids make their mom breakfast for her birthday.
Flynn was questioned about why he doing something nice for his ex-wife. This, he says on Facebook, annoys him.
Warning: Graphic Language Loading Facebook Post...
He writes, in part:
“[I'm going to] break it down for you all. I'm raising two little men. The example I set for how I treat their mom is going to significantly shape how they see and treat women, and affect their perception of relationships.”
Now don't get Flynn wrong, it hasn't always been this easy. In fact, he tells Independent Journal Review that it took him and his ex-wife a while to create a mutually respectful relationship.
But as Flynn points out, when a divorce involves children, the well-being of those children is much more important than how the adults feel about each other.
The proud father credits their two boys with inspiring them to work hard on their new relationship:
"It definitely wasn't easy up front. I'd say it took us a good year to get it right.
Divorce is hard and I think we all do and say some things that really aren't our best selves. But we always put the kids first, and honestly, I think that focus helped us repair our relationship into one of mutual respect over time, and our kids win as a result."
Flynn tells Independent Journal Review that he believes it is “extremely important” for parents to show care and respect for one another, especially when they are around their kids. Loading Facebook Post...
He explains:
"I'm not advocating that everyone can or should do what we do for each other to model for the kids. But I believe it is extremely important for parents to show each other respect and care in front of the kids. If your ex doesn't have a new [significant other], you got to make sure those kids have Mother's and Father's Day cards, birthday gifts, etc.
Kids want to care for their parents by nature, but they cant do it alone. It's our job to facilitate that. So even if your ex is a terrible person in your eyes, you need to set it aside and realize your kids love this person. Seeing you mistreat someone they love is traumatic, whether you want to own it or not.
So focus on the kids, make a pact, and I think you'll be surprised to find that your mutual focus on the kids will actually benefit your post-divorce relationship because it takes the spotlight off your individual hurts and anger and resentment."
As Flynn says on Facebook, if others in a similar situations aren't modeling “good relationship behavior,” then he suggests they wise up and be an example for their children.
Some may say it's impossible, but Flynn couldn't disagree more. He tells Independent Journal Review that while establishing a mutual understanding with his ex-wife was hard, it was possible. And he knows that if he did it, you can do it too.
By being able to rise above all the drama, co-parenting will turn into “raising good men and strong women,” which as Flynn says, is something we need now more than ever. | 1real |
SNEAK PEEK: Donald Trump Sits Down With Megyn Kelly: “You know it’s not a cocktail party” [Video] | Megyn Kelly is her usual Trump bashing self in this Sneak Peek of her interview with The Donald: | 1real |
Americans Consume 80 Percent World’s Pain Pills: How to Treat Pain Without Drugs | by Dr. Mercola
A new federal report revealed that the majority of U.S. adults (more than 54 percent) had some type of musculoskeletal pain disorder such as back, joint or neck pain in 2012 (the latest year for which statistics are available). [1]
Its prevalence is indicative of the significant price Americans pay for pain — it’s a leading cause of disability and major contributor to health care expenses and disability compensation.
Also revealing, people suffering from pain were significantly more likely to have used a complementary health approach compared to people without pain — nearly 42 percent versus 24 percent, respectively.
The reason wasn’t addressed by the study, but time and again, conventional medicine fails to relieve many people’s pain.
Congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) stated that Americans consume 80 percent of the pain pills in the world, [2] and in a survey of more than 2,000 pain patients in the U.S., most said they were taking a dangerously addictive opioid pain medication. [3]
Research suggests, however, that these drugs work for only about three months, after which changes in your brain may lead to increased feelings of pain along with added emotional upset, including feelings of hopelessness and desperation. [4]
Many pain sufferers have tried virtually every treatment that conventional medicine has to offer — medications, injections, surgery and more — only to find that their pain hasn’t gotten better and they may be struggling with treatment-induced side effects as well (one of the worst of which is opioid addiction ).
At that point (and for many far sooner), it’s only natural that you would begin to seek other options, which brings many people to holistic, complementary or “alternative” health care options for relief. Science-Backed Natural Pain Relief Options
A recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings evaluated several complementary approaches for pain relief. [5] The options that follow have been scientifically proven to help with relief, according to the report.
Acupuncture
One of the most common uses for acupuncture is in treating chronic pain. One analysis of the most robust studies available concluded that acupuncture has a clear effect in reducing chronic pain, more so than standard pain treatment. [6]
Study participants receiving acupuncture reported an average 50 percent reduction in pain, compared to a 28 percent pain reduction for standard pain treatment without acupuncture. It’s likely that acupuncture works via a variety of mechanisms.
In 2010, for instance, it was found that acupuncture activates pain-suppressing receptors and increases the concentration of the neurotransmitter adenosine in local tissues [7] (adenosine slows down your brain’s activity and induces sleepiness).
Massage Therapy
A systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the journal Pain Medicine, included 60 high-quality and seven low-quality studies that looked into the use of massage for various types of pain, including muscle and bone pain, headaches, deep internal pain, fibromyalgia pain and spinal cord pain. [8]
The review revealed that massage therapy relieves pain better than getting no treatment at all.
Relaxation Techniques
Breathing exercises, guided imagery, meditation and other relaxation techniques may provide relief, especially from pain from tension headaches and migraines.
Research by an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Herbert Benson, found that people who practice relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation long-term have more disease-fighting genes switched “on” and active, including genes that protect against pain and rheumatoid arthritis. [9]
Exercise
Among people who had experienced back pain , those who exercised had a 25 percent to 40 percent lower risk of having another episode within a year than those who did no exercise. [10]
Strength exercises, aerobics, flexibility training and stretching were all beneficial in lowering the risk of back pain.
Motor control exercises (MCE), which help to improve coordination of muscles that support your spine,11 may also help. One systematic review found MCE led to reductions in pain and disability and improvements in perceived quality of life compared with minimal intervention. [12]
Yoga , which is particularly useful for promoting flexibility and core muscles, has also been proven to be beneficial if you suffer from back pain.
People suffering from low back pain who took one yoga class a week had greater improvements in function than those receiving medicine or physical therapy. [13] The Yoga Journal has an online page demonstrating specific poses that may be helpful. [14]
Medical Marijuana
There are cannabinoid receptors in your brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, immune system and more. Both the therapeutic and psychoactive properties of marijuana occur when a cannabinoid activates a cannabinoid receptor.
Research is still ongoing on just how extensive their impact is on our health, but to date it’s known that cannabinoid receptors play an important role in many body processes, including metabolic regulation, cravings, pain, anxiety, bone growth and immune function. [15]
Some of the strongest research to date is focused on marijuana for pain relief. In one study, just three puffs of marijuana a day for five days helped those with chronic nerve pain to relieve pain and sleep better. [16]
Also revealing, in states where medical marijuana is legal, overdose deaths from opioids like morphine, oxycodone and heroin decreased by an average of 20 percent after one year, 25 percent after two years and 33 percent by years five and six. [17] Turmeric for Pain Relief
Turmeric was once most known for being a flavorful and colorful addition to curry, but in the scientific world, turmeric has earned a reputation for being a multi-faceted healer. Turmeric contains curcumin, which has notable anti-inflammatory properties.
It can inhibit both the activity and the synthesis of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX), as well as other enzymes that have been implicated in inflammation.
A 2006 study found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids (curcumin is the most investigated curcuminoid) blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the launch of a protein that triggers swelling and pain. [18]
Turmeric has been found to significantly improve post-operative pain and fatigue, [19] and in a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added only 200 milligrams (mg) of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility.
Time magazine even published the story of one doctor who marveled at one of his older hip patient’s lack of pain and remarkably swift recovery from surgery. The patient took turmeric regularly, and the results so impressed the physician that he began taking the supplement himself. [20] Essential Oils for Pain Relief
Essential oils are concentrated, aromatic plant extracts that have been used for thousands of years for emotional, cosmetic, medical and even spiritual purposes. One of their most popular uses is also for relief of chronic and acute pain.
There are a number of ways to use essential oils , including via aromatherapy. Lavender aromatherapy, for instance, has been shown to lessen pain following needle insertion [21] while green apple scent significantly relieves migraine pain . Other essential oils noted for pain relief, including relief from joint pain, include: [22] Lavender | 1real |
THINGS GET UGLY When Frustrated Trump Supporter Confronts Cruz Over Winning Delegates When No Votes Were Cast [VIDEO] | Unfortunately, relations between Cruz and Trump supporters won t be going get any better anytime soon Perhaps voters should be turning their focus to the very real possibility that all of this infighting will give Hillary Clinton the keys to the White House. Think gun control, think 2-4 Supreme Court Justice appointments, think finishing what Obama started https://youtu.be/TwN0HkFyRMg | 1real |
Who Won the Debate? Donald Trump Avoids Annihilation - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump’s campaign appeared to be crumbling as he entered the second presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, with Republicans withdrawing support for his candidacy after the disclosure of a vulgar recording that showed him bragging about sexual assault. Facing a barrage of tough questions, the Republican nominee managed to scrape through, evading questions, fabricating answers and attacking his opponent in deeply personal terms. While expectations for Mr. Trump were low, many commentators and critics thought that he exceeded them and allayed concerns among supporters that his candidacy was finished. Here is a sampling of the reaction: “He improved, exceeded expectations, decisively won several exchanges. She could have landed a death blow tonight and did not. ” Guy Benson, political editor at the conservative website Townhall _______ “I may not care for Trump, but he beat Hillary tonight fair and square even with Martha Raddatz trying to defeat him. ” Erick Erickson, writer for the conservative blog The Resurgent _______ “Donald Trump knows he won’t be president. He’s now in full mode — a scowling, pouting menace who threatened during a nationally televised debate to throw Hillary Clinton in jail and called her husband the most sexually abusive man in political history. ” Ron Fournier, writer for The Atlantic _______ “In keeping her cool and indicting Trump’s bad behavior and finally provoking him to threaten to put her in jail, she made certain no one not already in Trump’s corner would sign on with him. ” Jennifer Rubin, writer for The Washington Post’s Right Turn blog _______ “All the Republicans who backed away from @realDonaldTrump look really really stupid right now. ” Laura Ingraham, conservative commentator and editor of LifeZette ________ “Trump looks and sounds defeated. Almost incoherent. .. ” Marc Lamont Hill, Morehouse College professor ________ “She had a chance to throw a knockout punch at Donald Trump and instead looked more at times like Glass Joe from Nintendo’s . I lost count how many times she said to go to her website or whine about the lack of “fact checking” as the debate went on. Trump had her on the ropes several times. ” Jay Caruso, blogger for the conservative website Red State ________ “Trump picked Putin over Pence, explicitly abandoned Aleppo, lied about Iraq again again, showed his appalling temperament. ” Ken Gude, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal group ________ “With references to Lewinsky scandal, Benghazi, attacking media, Trump likely shored up his base. Hard to see him leaving ticket. ” Perry Bacon Jr. political reporter for NBC News ________ “I’m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. ” Moustafa Bayoumi, author of “This Muslim American Life” and professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY ________ “Republicans who took heart at his antic, performance are grasping at a thin, crazy reed that the coming news cycles will snap. ” Rick Wilson, Republican strategist | 0fake |
Trump Blasted Nordstrom For Dropping Ivanka’s Brand. The Company’s Response Is PERFECT (TWEET) | It is absolutely insane how much one man can screw up, but Donald Trump has exceeded all expectations. Not only is he well on his way to ruining an entire country (and already has made a pretty big dent in that goal), but he has singlehandedly brought down the value of his own brand thanks to his idiocy and unpopular rhetoric.The Trump name is now so hated that even his most beloved family member, his daughter Ivanka, is suffering for her father s madness and erratic behavior. Recently, retail giant Nordstrom decided to pull Ivanka s brand from its inventory due to declining sales, and a pesky anti-Trump boycotting campaign called Grab Your Wallet. Here s what Nordtrom s president, Pete Nordstrom, had originally said about dropping Ivanka s line: This is a sharply divisive subject. No matter what we do, we are going to end up disappointing some of our customers. Every single brand we offer is evaluated on their results if people don t buy it, we won t sell it. In response, Trump threw an insane temper tantrum and tweeted this: My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible! The company has now responded, and the way they handled it was perfect. Indirectly addressing Trump s immature response to their decision to drop Ivanka s brand, Nordstrom issued a brilliantly diplomatic statement that remained professional without feeding Trump s insane narcissistic need for attention..@PressSec says @Nordstrom removing Ivanka s clothing line was an attack on Trump family. This is what company says. pic.twitter.com/5i7zhuGBgv Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) February 8, 2017It s a subtle hit at Trump, despite not ever acknowledging Trump himself. We all know that the reason Ivanka s sales were declining over the past year is because of The Donald and his disgraceful behavior much like the decline of popularity in his own hotels. Sadly for the man-baby POTUS, Trump only has himself to blame for this one!Read more:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images | 1real |
Elizabeth Warren Slapped The Hell Out Of Trump While He Was Busy Losing To Clinton (TWEETS) | While Hillary Clinton was busy tearing Donald Trump orange limb from orange limb on the debate stage, Elizabeth Warren made the world her stage as she masterfully kicked him while he was down via Twitter.Trump didn t have a good night Sunday. Not only did he fail completely to explain away his open admission that he sexually assaults women by grabbing them by the pussy (and gets away with it because he s rich), but Trump managed to cause the room to erupt in laughter when he called himself a gentleman, openly admitted that he doesn t pay his taxes, and even threatened to jail his opponent if he is elected because some people want him to.Warren hit him HARD on taxes:.@realDonaldTrump's tax plan is to cut taxes for rich & powerful guys like Donald Trump & leave everyone else behind. #debate Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) October 10, 2016.@realDonaldTrump is PROUD that he doesn't pay his taxes. He thinks he's smart and you're stupid for paying yours. #debate Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) October 10, 2016 and reminded us that no matter how much distance the GOP tries to create, they are still blocking Obama s Supreme Court nominee so Trump can nominate one of his choosing:Remember: @SenateGOP are running away from @realDonaldTrump this weekend, but they're holding a Supreme Court seat hostage for him. #debate Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) October 10, 2016She even agreed with Trump on something I am sure we can all agree upon Clinton is a fighter:I agree with @realDonaldTrump: @HillaryClinton is a fighter. She's dealt with bullies like Donald for 25+ yrs & she never gives up. #debate Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) October 10, 2016Then she delivered the knockout blow:.@HillaryClinton doesn t whimper, whine, or run to twitter at 3am. She keeps fighting for those who need her. That s why #ImWithHer. #debate Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) October 10, 2016Trump himself was silent on Twitter after the debate, though he did retweet Mike Pence congratulating him for winning (was Pence watching the same debate?).Congrats to my running mate @realDonaldTrump on a big debate win! Proud to stand with you as we #MAGA. Mike Pence (@mike_pence) October 10, 2016The Donald doesn t stand a chance at this point but just to make sure, head to the polls on November 8 and join the nation in rejecting him.Featured image via Getty Images (Ethan Miller) | 1real |
Hillary Clinton Struggles to Find Footing in Unusual Race - The New York Times | Democrats could hardly believe their good fortune last month when it became clear that Hillary Clinton was headed to a general election showdown with Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump carried so much baggage and had insulted so many voting blocs that some Clinton supporters began to imagine a landslide. But early optimism that this would be an easy race is evaporating. In the corridors of Congress, on airplane shuttles between New York and Washington, at donor gatherings and on conference calls, anxiety is spreading through the Democratic Party that Mrs. Clinton is struggling to find her footing. While she enjoys many demographic advantages heading into the fall, key Democrats say they are growing worried that her campaign has not determined how to combat her unpredictable, often wily Republican rival, to whom criticism seldom sticks and rules of decorum seem not to apply. Mrs. Clinton is pressing ahead with a conventional campaign, echoing the 2012 themes used against the Republican nominee that year, Mitt Romney. But Mr. Trump is running a jarringly different crusade: accusing her husband, former President Bill Clinton, of rape proposing that the country conduct brutal methods of torture and suggesting that South Korea and Japan be permitted to develop nuclear arms. Prominent Democrats say a more provocative approach is needed. “The guy’s a maniac,” John Burton, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, said about Mr. Trump. Referring to a famous 1964 political message, he said, “You could run the old L. B. J. ad against Goldwater, with ‘Three, two, one,’ and a hydrogen bomb blows up with a little girl counting daisies. ” Of course, Mr. Trump faces many hurdles himself, and has stumbled in managing his growing campaign as he shifts toward a general election. But Democrats suggest that the past few weeks have shown that Mrs. Clinton and her aides must become more agile and creative against him. The sense of nervousness crystallized this week when Mrs. Clinton devoted campaign events across California to hitting Mr. Trump for not releasing his tax returns and depicting him as a cold corporate titan who profited off the housing crisis. Such charges helped undermine Mr. Romney four years ago. Yet Mrs. Clinton’s remarks received little coverage in the news media, while cable channels went live with Mr. Trump’s recitation of “Crooked Hillary,” his favored nickname for her. Ken Salazar, the former Colorado senator who has been mentioned as a possible Clinton running mate, said the campaign should draw a sharp contrast between Mr. Trump’s shortcomings and Mrs. Clinton’s potential to be “the most qualified person to be president in our lifetime. ” “The campaign needs to expose Donald Trump as the opposite — selfish, egomaniac, divisive and unqualified to be president,” Mr. Salazar said in an email. Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign, said that the news coverage Mr. Trump is receiving is not helping him. She said that unlike Mr. Trump, who uses “nothing but his own mouth,” Mrs. Clinton has a campaign that employs many methods of communication, including videos, respected surrogates and bilingual outreach. “We hear from friends who think we should act more like Trump or criticize us for sometimes using traditional communications tactics,” she said. “But we don’t think that’s the answer. ” As a candidate, Mrs. Clinton is not without her own issues to overcome, including her inability to quickly put away Senator Bernie Sanders and her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, feeding a perception she is not trustworthy. In a report delivered this past week to Congress, the State Department’s inspector general strongly criticized her for the practice. But it is the campaign’s approach to Mr. Trump that is making even Mrs. Clinton’s most loyal supporters uneasy. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is concerned that she lacks a comprehensive strategy to confront Mr. Trump, and has told Democrats that the Clinton campaign must bring on a senior staff member dedicated only to the Trump portfolio. “As soon as she clinches the nomination, we need a person in the campaign whose sole job is to respond to Trump, almost on an hourly basis,” said Mr. Schumer, who has begun conversations with Clinton officials about who could fill that role. During a conference call this month, female supporters pressed Mrs. Clinton’s advisers about her message — which has as a slogan “Breaking Down Barriers” — and whether it needs to shift for the general election. “The message will be broadening,” Karen Finney, a senior adviser, explained, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The New York Times. “But,” she added, leaving some participants perplexed, “breaking down barriers and unity will continue to be part of the theme because Hillary believes we need to come together as a country in many ways. ” Debates have broken out in Mrs. Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters over the best approach to take. Some advisers worry that by running against Mr. Trump as she would a traditional Republican candidate, Mrs. Clinton is actually making the star appear more legitimate. This month, when Mr. Trump suggested he would reduce the national debt by negotiating with creditors to accept something less than full payment, economists dismissed the idea as fanciful. Hours later, the Clinton campaign sent out a news release about Mr. Trump’s “risky” idea of defaulting on the national debt with a response from Gene Sperling, formerly a senior economic adviser to both President Obama and Mr. Clinton, condemning the idea. The seriousness of the campaign’s response seemed to elevate a nonsensical proposal. “That is a danger,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “You have to take the threat of Trump becoming president seriously, but you shouldn’t treat him as a serious person. ” At the same time, Mrs. Clinton’s attempts at poking Mr. Trump have felt tame compared with what he has unleashed. The day after he accused her husband of rape on Fox News this month, she told CNN, “I have concluded he is not qualified to be president. ” Her aides were exuberant that Mrs. Clinton, a cautious candidate who for weeks had demurred when asked if Mr. Trump was up to the job, had finally publicly declared him unfit. But to many Clinton allies, it felt like a tepid tactic from yesteryear. “Sometimes, you get the feeling that they’re in a professional boxing match and he’s in a street fight, and they’re coming in with their gloves on,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, expressing dismay over the Clinton operation’s apparent lack of appetite for combat. “This is a street fight with a guy with a razor and a broken bottle,” he added, “and you’ve got to fight him like that. ” Ms. Palmieri said, “Each tactic we use is designed for a particular purpose to either engage the press or reach a certain audience. ” Any aggressive approach by Mrs. Clinton is potentially dangerous, however, because recent polls show she is viewed negatively by a majority of the electorate. The campaign says it intends to go after Mr. Trump more forcefully, particularly on national security and his business record, after June 7, when Mrs. Clinton is expected to officially clinch her party’s nomination. For now, her aides appear to be throwing ideas against a wall to see what sticks, including trying out different monikers after the Democratic National Committee’s “Dangerous Donald” flopped. An internal favorite is “Poor Donald,” with its implication that Mr. Trump, famously defensive about his net worth, is not nearly as wealthy as he lets on. Her advisers also say that a large percentage of voters have not yet paid attention to the details of the race and do not know about Mr. Trump’s business dealings or that he has refused to release his taxes. “It wouldn’t be a general election without some early from Washington insiders,” said Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager. He noted that the campaign had attacked Mr. Trump over the tax returns and for his “demeaning millions of Americans. ” “Our campaign has already shown the resolve to take him on and put him on defense in ways his Republican challengers never could,” Mr. Mook added. William M. Daley, Mr. Obama’s former White House chief of staff, attributed any early shortcomings in taking on Mr. Trump to Mrs. Clinton’s prolonged primary battle against Mr. Sanders. The period between the June 7 contests and the July convention will reshape the race, he said. To that end, Joel Benenson, Mrs. Clinton’s pollster and chief strategist, pointed out that at this stage in the 2008 primary battle against Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama led Senator John McCain by only two percentage points. He went on to defeat Mr. McCain by 7. 2 percentage points. It is clear, however, that Democrats are no longer mocking Mr. Trump. Many of them seem determined instead to understand his appeal. In an interview on Friday, Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado said he had purchased and begun reading Mr. Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal. ” The governor said he remained confident that Mrs. Clinton would ultimately win, but added that “she has to be careful, because now he has momentum. ” | 0fake |
Sen. Joe Manchin: Judge Gorsuch ’a Good Man’ No ‘Just Reason to Filibuster’ Him | Sen. Joe Manchin ( ) spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Friday about several topics, including Trump’s position on coal, his rally in West Virginia, the state of play in American politics today, as well as the nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. [While pointing out his dissatisfaction with how he believes Obama nominee Judge Merrick Garland was treated, Manchin said on Gorsuch and his nomination, “The is, if you want a working judicial branch of the government, you’ve got to have nine [justices]. You get to Judge Gorsuch, you start looking at, basically, the qualities of the human being — his temperament, his educational attainment, how he’s viewed by his peers, how his rulings have been. ” Added Manchin, “I could not find a reason why this man, this good man, Judge Gorsuch, should not at least be allowed to have an up or down vote. ” He also said, “I could not see a just reason to filibuster this person,” indicating his decision to vote for cloture on the nomination. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 0fake |
Trump jump starts search for FBI chief with two interviews | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday was scheduled to interview two candidates to replace James Comey as head of the FBI, former agency No. 2 James Pistole and former Assistant Attorney General Chris Wray, the White House said. The interviews mark a re-start of sorts for the search to find someone to replace Comey, who Trump fired on May 9. Trump said earlier this month he was “very close” to picking a nominee for the post and he had already met with several candidates. “The president will be meeting with two additional candidates this afternoon, both Chris Wray and John Pistole,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. “When the president feels as though he’s met with the right candidate he’ll let us know.” Pistole, the former head of the Transportation Security Administration, served as deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2004 to 2010. USA Today was first to report that Trump would be meeting with Pistole. Wray served as assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division from 2003 to 2005. Comey was leading an FBI probe into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election. His dismissal prompted an outcry from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers and raised questions about whether the president was trying to interfere with the investigation. The week after Comey was fired, reports emerged that Trump had asked Comey to end the agency’s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo of the conversation written by Comey. The Department of Justice appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to head an independent investigation of the Russia matter. | 0fake |
Tokyo governor launches new party, won't run for election herself | TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike on Wednesday formally launched a new party promising conservative reform, stepping up her challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and adding to uncertainty about the outlook for a general election widely expected next month. But the popular former ruling party lawmaker, who is already upstaging Abe in the media and complicating forecasts, said she herself would not seek a seat in parliament s lower house now. Abe said on Monday he would call the snap election to reset his mandate, betting that his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and junior coalition party can keep their majority in parliament s lower house, where they hold a two-thirds super majority . Abe will dissolve the lower house on Thursday for a vote expected on Oct. 22. At a news conference launching her Party of Hope, Koike repeated promises to form a party without ties to vested interests in order to reset Japan. If at this time we don t reset Japan, we won t be able to sufficiently protect our international competitiveness and national security, said Koike, a former defence minister who quit the LDP earlier this year. There had been speculation that Koike would choose to run in the election herself, but she said she would remain in her position as governor. Koike s new party is staking out a policy space similar to that of the conservative LDP and the right-wing of the main opposition Democratic Party, a mixture of conservatives and liberals. But her calls for open government, a freeze on a planned sales tax hike from 2019, an end to nuclear power and a promise to promote diversity give it a more populist tinge. The Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday that Koike s party was in merger talks with the Democrats and she had met with Democratic Party leader Seiji Maehara on Tuesday for discussions, but Koike made no reference to the issue. The Nikkei said prospects for a merger were uncertain, since Koike has suggested she was not keen and the move could trigger a split in the Democratic Party. The party has been struggling with single-digit support rates and several members have defected to run for Koike s new party. The Democrats have also been in talks with the Japanese Communist Party about cooperating to run unified candidates but conservatives, including Maehara, are wary of that strategy. Koike, 65, defied the LDP to run successfully for the Tokyo governorship a year ago and fielded candidates who routed the LDP in an election for the metropolitan assembly in July. Koike has said she aimed to push reformist policies, open government and an end to reliance on nuclear power. She has also called for a freeze on a plan to raise the national sales tax to 10 percent from 8 percent in 2019. Abe said he would go ahead with the tax hike and spend some of the revenue on education and child care. Abe s decision to go to the polls is seen as an effort to take advantage of confusion in the opposition camp and an uptick in his support rates, which have rebounded to around 50 percent amid jitters over North Korea s nuclear and missile programmes. His support had fallen below 30 percent in July due to suspected cronyism scandals. | 0fake |
Democrats grill U.S. high court nominee over Trump concerns | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch said on Wednesday presidents must obey court orders and expressed uncertainty about language in the Constitution barring U.S. government officials from taking payments from a foreign country as Democrats grilled him on issues involving President Donald Trump. Gorsuch, the conservative appeals court judge from Colorado nominated by Trump on Jan. 31 to a lifetime job on the nation’s highest court, sparred with Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on the third day of his confirmation hearing. He completed his testimony on Wednesday night. The committee will complete its deliberations on Thursday by hearing testimony from outside witnesses. Gorsuch seems assured of winning committee approval, moving his nomination to the full Republican-led Senate. His challenge then would be to gather enough Democratic votes to avoid a prolonged floor fight with the potential, if it gets rocky, of changing how the Senate works. While Gorsuch’s confirmation process looked to be proceeding smoothly, Democrats pressed him on matters swirling around Trump, even asking him about the standards for impeachment. Gorsuch’s expected Senate confirmation would restore a conservative majority on the court and hand the Republican president his biggest achievement in office. Senator Patrick Leahy cited comments by Trump adviser Stephen Miller after courts blocked the president’s executive action temporarily banning people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. On Feb. 12, Miller challenged the authority of courts to rule on the issue, saying the president’s power to enforce the ban should not be questioned. “I’m a judge now. I take that seriously. And you better believe I expect judicial decrees to be obeyed,” Gorsuch said. “That’s the rule of law in this country,” Gorsuch added. Gorsuch declined to say how he would approach an alleged violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prevents American officials from accepting any gifts or favors from foreign governments without congressional approval. “The question is: What exactly does that mean?” Gorsuch said, noting there was ongoing litigation on the matter. “I have to be very careful about expressing any views.” Trump has been sued by ethics lawyers, who say his businesses have accepted payments from foreign governments in violation of the Emoluments Clause. On the basis for which an official can be impeached, Gorsuch said historically the focus had been on “high crimes” rather than “misdemeanors.” He said the number of criminal misdemeanors on the books had increased substantially since the U.S. Constitution was written in the 18th century. A unanimous ruling on Wednesday by the Supreme Court justices whom Gorsuch would join, if confirmed, rejected legal reasoning he used as an appellate judge in a 2008 ruling against an autistic child who sought a public education more tailored to his needs. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of another autistic student who argued he was denied an adequate education. Democrats have called Gorsuch’s earlier decision an example of how he rules against everyday Americans while favoring corporate interests, an assertion the nominee and his Republicans supporters reject. Gorsuch said he was bound by court precedent in the 2008 decision, adding it would be “heartbreaking” to suggest he would like ruling against disabled students. He sidestepped answering whether he thought a series of contentious past cases had been decided correctly, including those on abortion, gun rights, political spending and religious rights. “What worries me is you have been very much able to avoid any specificity, like no one I have every seen before,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel’s top Democrat, told Gorsuch. Feinstein asked Gorsuch to explain a document dating from his work in former President George W. Bush’s Justice Department related to 2005 anti-torture restrictions. The document asked whether aggressive interrogation techniques used by Bush’s administration had yielded valuable intelligence or stopped a terrorist incident, and Gorsuch had written “yes.” Gorsuch said he was merely doing what he was told by the administration. “My recollection of 12 years ago is that was the position that the clients were telling us,” he said. Feinstein expressed concern about women’s rights and preserving legalized abortion, and asked Gorsuch about his views as an “originalist” seeing the Constitution’s meaning as unaltered since its enactment despite centuries of societal change. “No one is looking to return us to horse-and-buggy days,” Gorsuch said. Regarding the Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law, Gorsuch said it did not matter that some of the drafters of the language “were racists, because they were, or sexists, because they were.” Republicans hold 52 seats in the 100-member Senate. The Senate has a 60-vote hurdle for confirmation of Supreme Court justices, meaning Gorsuch would need backing by eight Democrats. If Democrats stand together, Republicans could change Senate rules to allow confirmation by a simple majority vote. A committee vote is expected on April 3. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said Gorsuch would be confirmed before lawmakers’ mid-April recess. If confirmed, Gorsuch would replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. | 0fake |
Why Clinton camp is releasing personal server 5 months after e-mail flap emerged | Hillary Clinton has decided to cooperate with investigators after months of refusing to give up the personal server used to send e-mails during her tenure as secretary of State.
US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens to a question from the audience during a community forum about substance abuse in Keene, N.H., on Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton's attorney David Kendall has handed over thumb drives containing copies of roughly 30,000 e-mails sent to and from Ms. Clinton’s personal e-mail addresses via her private server to the FBI. The former secretary of State has also directed her staffers to release her server to federal investigators.
Ms. Clinton has drawn criticism for using a private server and personal e-mail to conduct government business during her tenure at the helm of the State Department. She has maintained that she never sent or stored any classified information on her personal server and account. However, since news that she had not been using a government-protected server broke in March, at least two e-mails have been deemed "Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information" – one of the government's highest classifications.
Top Republicans have pointed to the retroactive designation of those e-mails as classified as evidence that Clinton lied about not sending classified information over her personal server.
"Secretary Clinton's previous statements that she possessed no classified information were patently untrue," House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio said in a statement after the Clinton camp announced that it would hand over the data. "Her mishandling of classified information must be fully investigated."
Federal investigators are now searching for security breaches in Clinton’s personal e-mail setup amid speculation that other classified information may have been sent through the server. There has been no evidence that Clinton encrypted the account to prevent prying eyes from accessing the e-mails or her personal system.
Clinton has "pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them," campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said Tuesday.
The decision to give up the server came after the FBI said Mr. Kendall was not permitted to possess classified information contained in some of the e-mails, said a US official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Clinton's attorney had already supplied the 30,000 e-mails contained on the thumb drives to investigators in December, but had retained copies of them on the thumb drives.
In March, Clinton said she exchanged nearly 60,000 e-mails during her four years in the Obama administration, half of which were personal and had been discarded.
For months after The New York Times uncovered Clinton’s home-brew e-mail server, the Democratic candidate refused to hand it in. She claimed she used it out of convenience to limit the amount of electronic devices she had to carry.
While her use of a personal e-mail account and server did not break the rules at the time, no other secretary of State has exclusively done so.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. | 0fake |
Friday Fox Follies – Megyn & Murdoch’s Money | By Headly Westerfield on Fri, Oct 28th, 2016 at 10:20 pm As Megyn Kelly garners headlines for her feminism or lack thereof, Rupert Murdoch seems desperate to keep her. Share on Twitter Print This Post
Earlier this week Friday Fox Follies , under the assumption the explosive , and bizarre battle between Megyn Kelly and Newt Gingrich, would be this week’s lede , I had already tricked up an opening paragraph. In case you missed it , that’s when he got personal , accused her of being obsessed by sex and she told him that he should work on his anger issues . This week’s column would have been about how the Fox audience continues to splinter as they take sides in the presidential election. The NYT calls ’em Megyn Moments ; I call them fissures in what had been assumed to be the bedrock foundation of the Fox “News” Channel: it’s unthinking audience.
Then came word that Rupert Murdoch was playing hardball as Kelly’s contract negotiations break out into the open. That paragraph, lovingly crafted, went out the window. But, let’s see what this fight was about because heat is always better than light for ratings, as Trump Congratulates Newt Gingrich For Getting His Butt Kicked By Megyn Kelly . Watch:
As Kelly garners headlines for her feminism or lack thereof , Rupert Murdoch seems desperate to keep her. Her contract expires next year and Rupie opened up to the Wall Street Journal — of which he is owner — to partially cajole Kelly and partially to threaten her into extending her contract. Million in Contract Talks With Fox News
“If they are going to make a network that is going to be a post-Ailes/post-Trump, it will be around Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Shep Smith, and they are going to have to throw Hannity and O’Reilly overboard,” said Andrew Tyndall, a television-news consultant, of other hosts at the network. That isn’t going to happen, promised Mr. Murdoch. “We’re not changing direction…that would be business suicide,” he said. Mr. O’Reilly’s contract is also up at the end of next year, and Mr. Murdoch said, “we’re going to want Bill to stay with us.” Mr. Hannity’s contract isn’t up until 2020. Ms. Kelly has forged close ties to Mr. Murdoch’s sons, particularly Lachlan Murdoch, who is co-executive chairman of Fox and has taken an active role in contract talks, people close to the situation said.
Fox would like to settle this before the election and before Kelly’s book is released, both of which could only strengthen her position in the negotiations if all goes well.
From the The Power of Megyn Kelly’s Feminism—Even if She Doesn’t Call It That , by The Daily Beast’s Tim Teeman :
Imagine, then, her mix of satisfaction and maybe ennui as she scrolled across some of the praise-ridden screeds out today: “How Megyn Kelly Became an Improbable Feminist Icon” (Vanity Fair); “Megyn Kelly Has Become The Biggest Example of White Feminism At Work (Pajiba); and “Aw Crap—Here’s Proof That Megyn Kelly Is Kind of a Feminist Role Model Now” (The Stir). Note the grudging headlines. Because of Kelly’s employer, and because she has not fought the good feminist fight in a conventional, left-wing context throughout her career to date, the F-word mantle is being conferred upon her with something of a scowl. This, in itself, reveals a kind of blinkeredness on the part of Kelly’s critics: It is perfectly possible to work for a right-facing institution and not be 100 percent right wing yourself, or spout the prevailing dogma of the TV station you work for. (Full disclosure: I worked for The Times of London, a British, Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, for over 13 years.)
Aside from the fact that when she tilts Right, she tends to tilt alt-right, the biggest knock on Kelly is that she’s too hard-edged. Marshall McLuhan spoke of the Medium Cool of tee vee, but Kelly comes across as the opposite of warm and fuzzy . This makes her less attractive to other networks. She’s hoping to change that impression when she co-hosts Live with Kelly Ripa (The Kelly & Kelly Show?) the morning after the election . Think of her as a designated hitter, trying to knock Murdoch’s hardball right out of the park.
STILL WATTERS STILL: A few weeks back FFF reported on a racist Watters World in which the White Privileged Pencil-Necked Geek made fun of Asians. This week Asian American groups meet with Fox News personnel over awful Jesse Watters segment :
Paul Cheung, president of AAJA, told the Erik Wemple Blog that the meeting was “productive.” “I think they heard what the community’s reactions are,” he said of the session at New York’s Museum of Chinese in America. Approximately 130 Asian American “groups and allies” have signed an open letter to Fox News regarding the unfortunate episode, said Cheung. Ron Kim, a New York state assemblyman in attendance, told this blog that a representative from “The O’Reilly Factor” and a senior representative from the news side of the channel attended the meeting. Together they played a “good cop, bad cop” routine, said Kim. “The gentleman from O’Reilly’s show was defending what they were doing and trying to explain that this is a part of the opinion section of Fox News and sometimes edgy humor can go too far,” said Kim. Once again, the specter of Fox News’s vaunted news-opinion divide presents itself. As we’ve noted before, this is a convention borrowed from the newspaper industry to justify Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity openly campaigning for Donald Trump, Steve Doocy of the morning show “Fox & Friends” spreading harmful innuendo into the public square … and O’Reilly allowing his protege to spread racist stereotypes all about Chinatown. | 1real |
OOPS! DOCUMENTS SHOW Roy Moore Represented Accuser’s Mother In “NASTY” Custody Case, Where She Won Custody Of 12-Yr Old Grandson…Accuser Also Plead “Guilty” To FELONY FRAUD Charges Against Family Member | Court documents related to Tina Johnson, an Alabama woman who claims that Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore groped her in his office decades ago, may raise questions about Johnson s motives in making the accusation.The documents, reviewed by Breitbart News, show that Moore represented Johnson s mother in a nasty custody case for Johnson s then 12-year-old son, Daniel Sitz. In the case, Johnson was repeatedly painted by Moore s client as an unfit, absent, and unstable mother and was accused of taking her son from his elementary school against his will. Johnson s mother was ultimately awarded custody in the case.One affidavit signed by Johnson s mother while she was represented by Moore accused Johnson of having a violent nature and noted that she has been treated by a psychiatrist when she was approximately 15 years of age. Johnson was a teenage mother.Separate criminal documents show that, as late as 2010, Johnson was arrested and pled guilty to felony fraud charges related to checks belonging to a family member. She also entered a court drug program.Speaking to AL.com, Johnson first went public with the claim that Moore groped her when she was on legal business with her mother in 1991. The website noted that Johnson reached out to AL.com to discuss her alleged experience with Moore.The website related that Johnson was at the office to sign over custody of her 12-year-old son to her mother, with whom he d been living. Johnson claimed that, after the two met with Moore, her mother walked out of the office door first and that, as Johnson was walking out, Moore grabbed her buttocks from behind. He didn t pinch it; he grabbed it, she claims.Watch, as Tina Johnson tells CNN s Erin Burnett the details of her alleged sexual assault by Judge Roy Moore. It s curious that a woman with Johnson s background vs. the squeaky clean background of Judge Roy Moore would attempt to prove that her faith was stronger, or more somehow more relevant than Roy Moore s faith. A document, signed by Moore, stated that Cofield and not Johnson was the most fit and proper person to have custody of Daniel Sitz.Johnson s son had resided with his grandmother, Cofield, since he was nine months old. Cofield says that, during those years, she provided Daniel with food, clothing, and shelter without any assistance from Johnson. A judge officially granted Cofield full custody on September 23, 1991.Last week, Breitbart News interviewed Delbra Adams, Moore s former longtime secretary and judicial assistant. Adams said that, in her 13 years of working for Moore, she never saw or experienced any inappropriate conduct toward women.Adams worked for Moore in 1991 at the time of Johnson s accusations. Adams s desk was right outside his office door at the time. Adams name was signed as a notary on one of the custody documents filed in Johnson s case on behalf of Johnson s mother, Cofield. Breitbart News | 1real |
John Kerry's Remarks at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, by John F. Kerry | John Kerry’s Remarks at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs by John F. Kerry Voltaire Network | Chicago | 26 October 2016 Well, good evening, everybody. And thank you, very, very much to Ivo Daalder. Thank you, sir, Mr. Ambassador. And thanks to the Chicago Council for Global Affairs for inviting me here. And a profound thank you to Ambassador Lou Susman for his very generous introduction. And most importantly, Marge and Lou, thank you for many, many years of extraordinary friendship. I really value it. And I think everybody is grateful for the service of both of these ambassadors. Thank you.
With respect to my being here, I have to tell you I was surprised that you guys showed up given the Cubbies. (Laughter.) I figured that – I was surprised at the generous welcome, because I thought the only people who would come would be White Sox fans – (applause) – but I’m pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. More to say about that.
Ivo is one of our top foreign policy experts of the generation, and I had the occasion to be at his residence in Brussels with President Karzai and the then chief of staff of Pakistan’s armed forces, and we abused his premises significantly for hours while we negotiated. But I’m grateful for the job he did. He was an outstanding United States ambassador to NATO.
And Lou, folks, if you don’t know it, is a Chicago fixture. He is a former emissary to the United Kingdom to the Court of St. James, a lawyer, a businessman, and as I mentioned, a longtime friend. He is also one of those very irritating people who no matter what he tries he succeeds at it. (Laughter.)
So Ambassador Daalder and Susman, you guys make a great team. And my deepest respects to you, and thank you for continuing with the council in providing leadership. We really appreciate it.
To my former colleague on Capitol Hill, Senator Dick Durbin, to Secretary Bill Daley, to Ambassador Jim Dobbins, members of the consular corps, and to all of you, thank you very much for your warm welcome to Chicago, the hometown of my boss. (Applause.)
I’m not saying this for your consumption; I say it anywhere and everywhere. President Obama is going to go down in history as one of America’s significant and most accomplished chief executives. (Applause.) And lucky guy, he’s only in his fifties. He’s got a lot more to contribute to the country, so we’re all lucky.
And over the years, I have heard President Obama talk a lot about Chicago, as you could imagine. And I am sure he has heard me as a champion of Boston complaining about Chicago’s unconscionable kidnapping of Theo Epstein and Jon Lester. (Laughter.) Envy is a terrible thing, folks. (Laughter.)
We all know that for many decades, Boston and Chicago were linked by an evil curse hatched by demons dwelling thousands of miles beneath the Earth’s crust. (Laughter.) And a dozen years ago, with Theo’s help, Boston broke from the spell. And skies opened, the lotus blossoms fell like rain. (Laughter.) And because some of you may be superstitious – which actually means all of you are superstitious – I will say no more except to say: Forget about yesterday. Your Cubbies are wicked awesome, as we say in Boston. (Applause.) And I promise to get you home tonight before the seventh inning stretch. (Laughter.)
Now, my focus this evening is on diplomacy, the art of negotiating and building relationships. It is a skill that some people have and others do not. For example, when Ulysses S. Grant was a boy, he lived across the state in Galina. And at the age of eight, he got permission from his dad to buy a neighbor’s horse. So he went to the neighbor’s farm and he told the guy there, “Papa says I can offer you $20 for the colt, but if you don’t take it, I’m to offer twenty-two-and-a-half. And if you don’t take that, I’m to give you 25.”
Now, my friends, with that kind of transparency, we could put WikiLeaks out of business. (Laughter.) But I’ve got to tell you, it makes you wonder how the North ever won the Civil War. (Laugher.) Now, we can all read about the Civil War and have, and we can all sit in the grandstands and watch the World Series, but actually, we’re here tonight not as spectators. We’re here as real-life participants in a troubled world. And we know that we have choices to make as citizens and as a country that can spell the difference between security and suffering, progress and stagnation, in an era of rapid, breathtaking transition. And that breathtaking transition is at the heart of a lot of the discontent that we see playing out in the most disturbing and unattractive ways.
But we have to take seriously what’s underneath it. The stark and bipolar divide of the Cold War that I encountered when I first arrived in the United States Senate that I grew up with, as a kid who grew up through the Cold War, but which I arrived at in the Senate more than 30 years ago, that bipolar, simple world has disappeared, and I don’t think anyone regrets that. But we are confronted today by a globe that is both no less dangerous and far more complex, where the power to influence events is less hierarchical, far more broadly dispersed, and change is at least as likely to be driven from the bottom as it is from the top.
For better and often for worse, non-state actors have assumed a more prominent role on the global stage. Chicago’s MacArthur Foundation is one of the happier examples. And the astonishing march of technology has and continues to revolutionize the workplace, and seemingly it has shrunk time and space, and that makes neighbors of all of us. Political instability, economic hardships, and even climate change have caused record numbers of people to migrate across borders in search of a better life. And all of this has made the job of governing in a way that meets public expectations harder than it has ever been before.
Here in the United States, we saw our nation attacked on 9/11 and our armed forces enter a fight at great cost in Afghanistan and Iraq. In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of Daesh/ISIL and again experienced the tragedy of terrorist murders close to home. We are confronted as well by the specter of cyber warfare, and by the unwelcome return of vicious sectarian violence and extreme nationalism.
It is little wonder that some yearn for what seems like a far simpler time. But it would be foolish to think that we can move ahead with our eyes firmly fixed on the rearview mirror. International challenges can’t be wished away, they can’t be ignored. They have to be met with honesty and determination and confidence. And that is the approach that our country at its best has always taken. As a famous son of Illinois once said, “optimist” is just another name for an American. And I agree – on at least this point – with Ronald Reagan. (Laughter.)
Put simply, the tasks that we face in the world today are more diverse and more complicated than those that our predecessors wrestled with. And frankly, our strategies have to reflect that and they don’t always. Some problems are relatively narrow in scope or they’re confined to a particular region, but a few – such as those that are posed by poor governance, of which there is far too much in this world right now – corruption, climate change, violent extremism; these are problems and challenges that are literally generational in their scope, and they require both short-term and long-term actions – something that our politics is finding it really difficult to deal with to our great detriment as a country.
At times we will be able to count on global institutions, but more often we’re going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting ourselves. That’s what I’ve learned as Secretary. In every case, we have to act with our nation’s values and our best interests in mind. And I want to be crystal clear that is exactly what we are doing.
Now, we’ve all heard some people accuse the United States of standing aloof from the world’s problems or somehow being in retreat. I’ve heard that narrative. I hear people say why is the United States disengaging? Why are you pulling back? And I scratch my head, and I say, where are these people coming from? But those assertions are, to use a diplomatic term of art, absolute nonsense. The truth is that the United States today is more deeply engaged in more places simultaneously on more critical issues with greater consequence than ever before in the history of this nation, and I know that. (Applause.)
Now, let me run through that a little bit so it’s not just a sentence, it’s not rhetoric. Consider for a moment the world’s most dynamic region.
The Asia Pacific is essential to the security and the prosperity of the United States – period. Of our top ten trading partners in the world, five of them are in Asia. The globe’s most populous country and its largest democracy are located there. In East Asia, we have enduring defense alliances with Japan and the Republic of Korea that we continue to strengthen and reaffirm and that we have strengthened and reaffirmed in this administration twice since I have been Secretary.
We have a regional diplomatic agenda that covers everything from nonproliferation to the prevention of human trafficking. Just two days ago I chaired – because I chair the Interagency Task Force – we had the Attorney General of the United States, the head of the FBI, the Treasury Department, the entire government – Education Department, Commerce – all at the same table talking about how we’re going to deal with human trafficking and end the scourge of modern-day slavery in the year 2016. I don’t know any other nation. (Applause.) You tell me what other nation has every arm of its government sitting around the same table on the same day wrestling with a global international issue and offering leadership as we have been on the issue of trafficking. Young women who are sold into slavery and sex traffics; a young man with a shackle around his neck that The New York Times chronicled so effectively, who was two years at sea, shackled to a boat where he was made to fish illegally and as a slave. You can run through 27 million stories, folks. I don’t know them all, but I know that each is as horrible as the other, and so do you. And these are people who are powerless; people from whom it is only a country like us that is willing to work to try to stand up and bring them out of the shadows and liberate them that we are their only hope, their only possibility of survival in situations where otherwise they might be forgotten to anybody and everybody – a speck of history that disappeared in some horrible moment that we don’t even witness.
We are cooperating with local (inaudible) leaders to restrain North Korea’s dangerous nuclear program and we’re adding muscle to one of the toughest economic sanctions regimes ever imposed, and we led the effort to achieve that. We consult regularly with regional partners to prevent misunderstandings that would lead to even greater tensions in the South China Sea. And we are helping to guide Myanmar’s historic transition from global outcast to emerging democracy. Just yesterday, I met with leaders from Vietnam to deepen our ties to a one-time adversary with whom we have found areas of common ground that not long ago would have seemed literally unimaginable.
Yesterday, I sat across a man who told me he fought in Quang Tri in the north of Vietnam while I was in the south, improbable as it might have been years ago for me to imagine we would sit across the table from each other and talk about how we really make peace. We left there in 1975 – as you all know, ’73 – we left in ’75, the fall of Saigon, then-Saigon, and the rest is history. Well, I’m proud that the United States saw the President of the United States Barack Obama, together with the Secretary of State who fought in that war in Hanoi, in Ho Chi Minh City, forging stronger ties with what is now a raging capitalist country that is changing rapidly. And that is how you really make peace, my friends – by building, by diplomacy. (Applause.)
In September, I sat down with New York – in New York with representatives from many Asian nations, and they reiterated a message that I have heard over and over again as Secretary of State. They welcome America’s presence in their region. And they don’t go to bed at night wondering about when we’re going to leave; they worry that we might leave. They don’t want any one country to try and dictate to others what they can and cannot do. And they see the United States of America as a balancing and stabilizing force, but they’re also concerned about what the future is going to bring. And the question they ask, the critical test of our commitment above all others, is whether we will formally approve the Trans Pacific Partnership or the TPP.
Now, let me tell you, this 12-nation agreement which we sought, which we led to create, which we have put our credibility on the line in order to build this 40 percent of global GDP entity that will create a race to the top, not a race to the bottom. It’s a global economy, and this agreement includes three of the biggest trading partners of Chicago – Canada, Mexico, and Japan. Unlike any trade agreement that our country has ever previously signed, TPP includes unprecedented labor and environmental protections within the four corners of the agreement, unlike the others. It mandates a level playing field between private sector companies and state-owned companies. Who do you think benefits from that? We don’t have state-owned companies. Other countries do. And now we create a level playing field. And provided Congress approves it, this pact will abolish 18,000 foreign taxes on American goods and services, making it easier for our farmers, our ranchers, and our businesspeople to be able to export overseas.
That is why the TPP is both a good deal for the American economy and it is a litmus test of our country’s capacity to lead. Make no mistake; if we’re going to live up to our responsibilities in Asia, if we’re going to treat our partners with the respect that they deserve while earning their respect at the same time, and if we’re going to do what is necessary to protect our interests, we have to maintain a steady and a reliable presence in that region. And I’ll just share with you our involvement can’t be in one sector and not in others. We can’t focus on one country and not be inclusive. We can’t focus on security at one moment and then ignore the economic dimension. You can’t turn it on and off like a faucet. Whenever and wherever vacuums exist in this world today, others will move to fill them in ways that may not embrace the rule of law and that will certainly not reflect the kind of high trading standards that we, the United States, seek.
If we were to see the TPP rejected, it would be a gigantic self-inflicted wound on our nation – a setback to our own interests in the region, where our credibility as a country on any agreement we’re trying to negotiate would be in doubt. It would amount to a conscious turning of our backs on the Asia Pacific at the very moment that we ought to be linking arms. It would be an act that would hurt American workers, slow our economy, hinder our ability to advance the full range of U.S. objectives in a region that is just, by common sense, with five of the fastest-growing nations in the world, a region that is important to our future.
Now, the good news is most of our citizens realize this. A recent survey by this council showed that a majority of Americans favor the TPP and believe that free trade is beneficial – and as I say free, I say fair, because it’s important that it be an agreement like the TPP, where you have labor standards and environment standards. But it is beneficial to our economy and is helpful to America’s standard of living.
And those people who are the majority in America who say they do support it realize that if America is going to keep growing – just think about this, it’s sort of basic common sense. You want the economy to grow, folks? Then you have to be able to sell to the places where 95 percent of the world’s customers live, and that’s not in the United States. Ninety-five percent of the world’s customers live in other countries – beyond our borders – and we can’t grow our economy unless we’re willing to engage in trade. So don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. That’s not what this is about. The problem is not that the average American worker is penalized by trade itself. The average American worker is penalized by a system that doesn’t allow them to share in the benefits of that trade, which sees the top 1 percent take most of the benefits away with them. And what we need is a measure of fairness in our tax structure, in our social structure, education, ongoing education, that provides opportunity for all Americans, so that whatever disruption or dislocation might come is adjusted for because we understand what we’re doing.
So I call on Congress when it returns to Washington after the election to take up and approve the TPP. It is the right thing to do for America – and no matter what the loudest voices may be shouting – it is also the popular choice. (Applause.)
Now even – but even as we demonstrate sustained leadership on the rebalance of our national security policy towards the Asia Pacific, we have to confront a lot of other tests as well. And none is more urgent than responding to the threat that is posed by violent extremists. This is a danger that has evolved steadily since 9/11 and we work constantly to defend against it, both here and at home; and in helping Nigeria to push back against the terrorist kidnappers of Boko Haram, which we are doing successfully; of helping Somalia to reclaim land from al-Shabaab, which we are doing successfully; of helping Afghanistan to safeguard its citizens from the Taliban; to help friends in the Middle East who are confronted by the most ruthless terrorist organization of all.
I want you to think back to the summer of 2014, ask yourself who is retreating. In 2014, Daesh terrorists were rampaging across Syria and Iraq, and you remember seeing on TV the Toyotas and the black flags and the sweeping columns moving through town after town plundering cities, murdering and torturing the innocent, and claiming to establish a caliphate that would rule all Islam. We heard dire predictions that Baghdad was about to fall and that young people from every single corner of the globe were going to flock to Daesh to kill and die in the name of hate.
It was a time to provide leadership, and that is exactly what President Obama did when he ordered U.S. planes to engage and bomb those terrorists and help rescue an endangered group of Yazidis on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, where we stopped a slaughter from taking place. We led the effort to mobilize a diverse coalition that now numbers 67 countries. And together with our partners on the ground, we took on the terrorists and began to liberate the cities that they had occupied – Kobani, Tikrit, Fallujah, Ramadi, and more. And today, the citizens who were driven out have returned to those communities. Day after day, we have been eliminating the leaders of Daesh, choking their finances, disrupting their supply lines, hammering their oil facilities, and reducing their recruitment to a trickle.
And from the outset, we warned that eliminating Daesh completely wasn’t going to happen overnight; it was going to take a number of years. And that remains the case. But I’m telling you, the terrorists haven’t been able to launch a significant offensive and hold territory since May of last year. We have closed off the strategic border between Syria and Turkey.
And just last week, Iraqi and Peshmerga forces began a campaign to free Mosul, the so-called spiritual capital of Daesh’s phony caliphate and its largest remaining stronghold. Now this is going to be a difficult and consuming assault against a dug-in foe; but I’ll tell you this, our resolve could not be more firm. Daesh is opposed to every value human civilization aspires to. Daesh kills Christians because they are Christians; Jews because they are Jews; Yazidis because they are Yazidis; Shiite Muslims because they are Shiite Muslims; and Sunni Muslims if they reject Daesh’s ugly view of the world. Daesh sells little girls into slavery and brags about it. It cuts off the heads of innocent people in public, and sometimes forces children to watch and to even participate in executions. I said it earlier this year and I will say it again: Daesh is guilty of genocide and we will hold Daesh accountable. (Applause.)
My friends, it matters that every time we defeat these terrorists in one place, we seize files that help us to disrupt the networks that they are trying to establish in others; we learn more about how Daesh operates and who is aiding or conspiring with them. No one hears much about the attacks that don’t happen. We’re glad; we like it that way. But by sharing information, our coalition is helping to deter and break up plots on a regular basis before anyone gets hurt.
We are also engaged in a nonstop effort to rebut the lies that fuel propaganda. Here, too, we are making gains. Daesh’s presence on social media has plummeted and it has become apparent that its pledge to create Paradise on Earth is crumbling into a hand full of dust.
So here’s the bottom line: Because of the determined use of our diplomacy backed by our armed forces and the commitment of our partners, and the leadership that we have provided, we are going to win the fight against Daesh. And we are going to prevail without altering the nature of our societies, without succumbing to bigotry, without closing our borders, without betraying the democratic values that terrorists have vowed to destroy.
We will also persist in our effort to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria, and I believe we will find a way to ultimately end the most severe humanitarian crisis since World War II. It is a crisis, I might add, that is not going to be solved by just writing checks for refugees. We’re the largest donor in the world to the Syrian refugees. But what we have to do is stop the flow of refugees; we have to end the war. And this is as complicated a bit of diplomatic business as I’ve ever seen.
The situation in Syria is made worse by the multi-sided nature of the fighting as well as the utter depravity of the Assad regime, and there are so many different forces there. But precisely because the war is so complex, clear principles are required to end it. And because some outside powers have been playing an unhelpful role, international cooperation is essential as well. That’s why a year ago, we, the United States, brought together a group of stakeholders – the International Syria Support Group. It includes every single country that is involved in the conflict, including Russia and Iran.
And some people say, “Well, why are you sitting at the table with those guys?” Because they’re involved. Because without them being part of the solution, they are part of the problem. Each and every one of those countries promised to support a cessation of hostilities, the unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid, and negotiations that would lead to a political transition. Now, these remain the right principles for ending the war; but as the world knows far too well, the promises made on paper have not yet been matched by actions on the ground.
And this failure to keep faith has been both deeply tragic and unbelievably frustrating, piling misery on top of misery, and squandering opportunities for progress when they’re staring us right in the face. And despite the many setbacks, my friends, there’s a simple reality. The need for diplomacy remains, because the fact remains that a military solution in the judgment of most people is simply not possible – at least not if Syria is ever to be a whole country again.
This is complicated because there are many wars taking place simultaneously in the same place – Kurd on Kurd, Kurd on Turkey, Iran versus Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia versus Iran; Iran and Hizballah versus Israel versus us and those who have labeled Hizballah a terrorist organization; a lot of people against Assad; the whole world against Daesh; Daesh against Assad and civilization and everybody else; Shia versus Sunni; Persian Shia versus Arab Sunni. I think that’s more than six.
So let me be clear: There’s nothing inevitable about this war. The Syrian disaster resulted from choices that people made. And what people have the power to choose, they have the ability to change. I don’t think it’s hard to envision the changes that we need: a real and lasting ceasefire, representatives from both sides coming together in Geneva and coming together in the country, coming together in the country to defeat the terrorists and coming together in Geneva to define the transitional governing body of the Geneva Communique; to agree on new leadership and on new forms of governance; and to prepare for elections.
And why can I say that? Because every single country at the table of the International Syria Support Group has said they support that – elections, a transition government, a whole Syria, respect for rights of all minorities, secular, non-sectarian. The problem is there remains a mountain of mistrust between where we are and where we need to get to. And as we try to chip away at that mountain, we will make – I will make and President Obama will make zero apology for using every single diplomatic tool at our disposal to try to end this war. And we make no apology for not giving up when hospitals are being bombed, when children are still dying in the streets, and more and more refugees are added to the most horrific mass exodus in modern times. We owe the world our best effort to end this war, and we will continue to provide it. (Applause.)
Now, the impact of our diplomacy is also being felt in Europe, which is in the process of responding to an array of economic and other dilemmas, including the influx of refugees from Syria, from the Middle East, from Afghanistan, from Africa, and the decision, of course, by Great Britain to leave the European Union.
And we take these concerns very seriously, but they don’t diminish our faith in the future of the European project or the resilience of the transatlantic relationship partnership. I was in Brussels earlier this month, and I found that the sense of common purpose across the Atlantic is being demonstrated every single day. The United States and Europe continue to maintain tough economic sanctions against Russia because of its aggression in Ukraine, and our unity has been made even stronger by Russian President Putin’s repeated efforts to interfere in the functioning of our democratic systems. In July, at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, we agreed to bolster our security efforts in the Baltics and in Central Europe, and we’re doing that. We’re emphasizing energy diversification, helping to lead countries that have a one-place energy source and try to diversify for them in order to avoid the potential of being exposed to economic blackmail. And as I’ve said clearly on both sides of the English Channel: Brexit does not alter in the least American’s unwavering commitment to a strong Europe, a strong United Kingdom, and close diplomatic cooperation on matters of importance to all of us.
One illustration of that kind of diplomatic cooperation was the nuclear agreement that was referred to in Lou’s introduction regarding Iran. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would never have gotten off the ground without firm European support for the sanctions that helped to bring Iran to the bargaining table. And that support was critical because before negotiations began, Iran had developed the ability to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb in just two months. In fact, they had enough nuclear material for 12 bombs. That’s where we were. The clock was ticking. So we made the decision to negotiate, and it is a good thing we did.
Under the plan that we reached, Iran agreed to ship 98 percent of its enriched uranium out of the country, to shut down two-thirds of its centrifuges, to take the core of its plutonium nuclear reactor and fill it with concrete rendering it unusable forever, and they acceded to a state-of-the-art, rigorous verification regime.
Now, as we know, this was a contentious debate here in this country. Many people argued against negotiating with Iran, let alone coming to an agreement, saying it would be a terrible mistake. I’ll tell you, to my core, I still believe they were and are wrong. The Iran agreement wasn’t a miscalculation. It has made the whole world safer, and it shows the value of diplomatic engagement even – and perhaps especially – when the governments involved disagree with another on as many issues as we did. When we came together to begin this negotiation, we hadn’t even talked formally to an official of Iran in 35 years.
Now, I’m not standing here pretending to you that diplomacy can solve every problem. It can’t. But the peaceful breakthroughs that it can provide are well worth the attempt. Nothing has ever been accomplished by an unwillingness to try. And I’ve always said I’d rather be caught trying.
Our diplomacy is also making a difference on global issues, and at the top of that is the historic progress that we are now beginning to make with regard to climate change.
Here in Chicago, as elsewhere around the world, you’ve experienced record high temperatures. If the present trend continues, average thermometer readings in the Midwest are going to reach those traditionally associated with the deep South. Each last month was the hottest month in human history – July the hottest month in recorded history. May, June, run the list – so much so that the last 10 years add to the fact that not only was last year the hottest year in human history, the last 10 years are the hottest year – or the hottest decade. And guess what? The decade before that is the second-hottest in human history, and the decade before that is the third-hottest in human history. You’d think with those trend lines that everybody would catch on. But in fact, we had a political party in our country that didn’t allow – not one single candidate running for president – to say anything about climate change. And in the debates that we just had for president, out of six hours of debates, the vice president and president combined, not one single question was asked about climate change.
Now, here in Chicago, you’ve been responding to this challenge by implementing flood protection measures, by planting trees, by committing to green technology. But for these steps to be fully effective, they’re going to have to be matched by a concerted international campaign that is now, because of our efforts, gathering steam. And no one country can solve this problem alone. If we went to zero tomorrow, we’d still have a major problem.
Last December in Paris, the United States joined governments from nearly 200 nations in approving the most far-reaching agreement on climate change ever negotiated. And to arrive at that point, we had to put the environment where it belonged: right at the top or near top of our foreign policy agenda.
In 2009 in Copenhagen – I remember being there – the world convened to talk about climate change but adjourned in total disarray, a famous implosion where the Chinese were involved with the G77 in moving in the opposite direction. So recognizing that, one of my first initiatives as Secretary of State was to prevent that from happening again. I went to Beijing to create in the early – within a month and a half or so of being Secretary, we created a bilateral working group in order to see if it was possible for us to find a different way to move forward with the exact purpose of trying to have our presidents be able to announce the level of reductions that we would jointly engage in.
Well, that effort paid off when, in January of 2015, President Obama and President Xi stood side by side in Beijing, representing the world’s two largest economies and the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, and together we set ambitious targets for action while encouraging other countries to do the same. That is what broke open the possibility of the Paris Agreement.
And the Paris Agreement was a diplomatic milestone, but it’s still far from the finish line. We began this year hoping to take additional strides. First, we wanted to ensure that enough countries would formally ratify the Paris Agreement so that we could bring it into force by the end of the year. That required a whirlwind effort to gain the approval of cabinets and parliaments, the kind of process that often consumes – ask Ivo or ask Lou – could consume a decade. We did it in 10 months.
Our second goal was to map out a path towards carbon-neutral growth for the international aviation industry. We achieved that goal in September.
And two weeks ago, I flew to Rwanda in pursuit of our third goal: a plan to phase down the use of heat-trapping hydrofluorocarbons in air conditioners, refrigerators, and other devices. And this is probably the single-most important step that we could take to limit the severity of global warming in ways because it, by itself, if properly implemented, will save one-half a degree Centigrade in the warming of Planet Earth. This negotiation also was the product of years of painstaking diplomacy, and it, too, had a positive outcome.
So as I said earlier, shielding our planet from the worst consequences of climate change is a generational challenge. But in the three decades that I have been working on this issue, I have never seen the kind of positive momentum that we have now. Across the globe, leaders from the private sector, from civil society, the scientific community, the religious organizations, and governments at all levels are all together moving in the same direction. Yes, there are still pockets of blindness and denial, some right here in America, as I mentioned. And yes, the agreement does not by itself guarantee that we will halt the temperature increase at 2 degrees Centigrade.
But by acting boldly on all three fronts – Paris Agreement, civil aviation, hydrofluorocarbons – we have sent an unmistakable, powerful message to entrepreneurs and investors everywhere in the world that now is the time to revolutionize the way we produce and use energy. And as I have said many times, the solution to climate change is staring us in the face. It’s not something we have to discover in the future. It’s here, it’s now, it’s energy policy, it’s moving to make better choices about how we power our transportation, our buildings, our electricity. That’s the solution. And the sooner we move to a low-carbon, no-carbon economy, the sooner we will solve this problem for future generations. (Applause.)
And by the way, it is the biggest market in the history of human beings. The market that grew my state of Massachusetts unbelievably and even our country in the 1990s was a $1 trillion market with a billion users. That was the high-tech market – computers, personal computers, and communications. This market is a 4 to 5 billion user market today going up to 9 billion users, and it’s a multi-trillion-dollar market today and it’s going to go up into the 40, 50 trillion mark in terms of investment over the course of the next years. This is the way you put people back to work. If there is one piece of advice I will have for my successor, it will be to ensure that environmental diplomacy remains an integral part of our foreign policy, because we cannot safeguard the future of this planet for our children and our grandchildren if we fail to defend the fundamental principles of a safe and clean Mother Earth. (Applause.)
Now, you should know – now, maybe you’re beginning to get the sense of our engagement. What I’ve discussed so far is really just the tip of a very big iceberg. Every day, the State Department’s Foreign and Civil Service professional are hard at work on issues affecting places like Colombia, where we’re aiding President Santos’s effort to end a 50-year war, the longest-running civil conflict in our hemisphere; Cuba, where we have restored diplomatic relations for the first time in more than half a century; Yemen, where we’re trying to work every day now to establish a roadmap towards a durable peace; Libya, where we are working to strengthen the government of national accord, and I will be meeting in London on Monday of next week on that very subject; Sub-Sahara Africa, where we’re training young leaders, promoting connectivity, supporting the empowerment of women; Central Asia, where we’re engaged on energy security and helping civil society to take root.
And as the men and women who work in our country’s diplomatic posts can attest to you, being the face of America abroad is an honor, yes, but it’s also a continual challenge filled with personal sacrifice and even risk. I have nothing but admiration for the members of our overseas teams, which is why I think the Chicago Council’s new Youth Diplomats program to help prepare the leaders of tomorrow is a fantastic idea. Let no one doubt the effort by the United States to assist people in other nations makes a major difference to them, but also it makes a major difference to us. And it has done much to shape what our country means to the world.
Back in 1949, a junior State Department official named Benjamin Hardy had an idea. He thought that some of the concepts behind America’s New Deal might work if they were applied internationally. He proposed a large-scale program that would harness popular, Quote: , “enthusiasm for social and economic improvement,” and thereby repulse Communism and create a decent life for the Earth’s millions.
Mr. Hardy sent his suggestion up the State Department chain-of-command only to see it come back down with the deadly words, “Needs further study.” He sent it up again; it came down again. And here I assure you that nothing like this would ever happen in the flawlessly managed State Department of today – (laughter) – but after trying and failing a third time to get support from above, he did something which I do not recommend to anyone’s who’s aggrieved in my department, he reached directly out to the White House. And the next thing he knew, President Harry Truman was unveiling a program of international assistance as the featured fourth point in his Inaugural Address.
This was truly something new. Never before had a country launched a major effort to help people to whom it had no special ties except a shared interest in peace and prosperity. And it’s no accident that that country was the United States of America.
I’m not going to tell you that in the time since we’ve solved every problem or that every indicator of international progress is due to America. No, it’s not. But I do know, because I’ve seen it firsthand in country after country, the difference that our leadership and our resources have had a lot to do with what is happening for the good in so many places in the world today. Children born today can expect to live longer and healthier lives than in any previous generation. Did you know that? Compared to just 20 years ago, we have cut in half the number of mothers who die during childbirth and the number of infants who perish because of malnutrition. We’ve vastly expanded access to education for girls and boys. In Afghanistan in 2001, only about a million kids went to school, and they were all boys. Now there are more than 9 million kids in school, and 40 percent of them are girls. (Applause.)
We have driven extreme poverty below 10 percent for the first time in human history. We defied predictions to save hundreds of thousands of people who were at risk of Ebola. Remember they said a million people were going to die two Christmases ago, and we never got close to that because President Obama dared to send 3,000 troops over to build health care delivery capacity, and doctors and nurses and aides provided courageous assistance to save lives. We joined forces with the global health community to turn the tide in the fight against HIV/AIDS. I remember 15, 20 years ago it was death sentence and people didn’t even want to talk about it. Now we can look forward, thanks to our program that we put together first in the Senate and then globally, to the first “born free from AIDS” generation in more than three decades. (Applause.)
And with the help that we have just received from Congress, you can bet we are going to go after the Zika virus with all the energy that we have, because the prospect of becoming a parent should be a source of joy for everyone everywhere, not a source of fear. (Applause.)
This, my friends, is really just scratching the surface of a record in which all Americans can take pride. And yes, it comes at a cost. But do you know that amazing surveys show that many of our citizens think we devote a full quarter or even a third of our federal budget to foreign aid? Do you know what the reality is? One single penny of every dollar that our government spends abroad in terms of diplomacy and all of the programs and all of our aid – one single penny of every dollar is used for international operations and includes everything from counterterrorism to assistance to providing security at our embassies and paying for the staffs of embassies around the world. One penny out of every dollar. One percent. Without doubt, the biggest and best single bargain in the government today.
Now, in October of 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arrived in Chicago to dedicate the Outer Drive Bridge. He was expected to talk about local issues, but instead he had a global message in mind. Congress had earlier approved a neutrality law prohibiting the Executive from sending aid to the democratic countries of Europe. And there were many in our country who said that to remain safe, America should close its eyes to the storms gathering abroad and avoid making an enemy of Hitler.
Standing in front of an array of microphones, legs supported by clamps, hands gripping the podium for support, Roosevelt warned that a “reign of terror and international lawlessness” was threatening “the very foundations of civilization.” In vivid terms, he denounced the rise of fascism in Europe, aggression in the Pacific, and the slaughter of defenseless civilians in Abyssinia and China. He said that trying to ignore these outrages would bring not peace, but more of the same – and he compared them to a disease that people everywhere should join in isolating.
FDR’s so-called “quarantine” speech, as it came to be known, was denounced by many as “warlike,” and his summons to action was rebuffed by the European advocates of appeasement. But as history was soon to demonstrate, Roosevelt’s every word was proven true.
As I enter my final three months as Secretary of State, I am as convinced now, as FDR was then, of the need for peace-loving people on every continent to band together to reject the apostles of hate, the authors of aggression, the manipulators of truth who threaten to hold us back and do us harm. We need to fulfill the responsibility that we all share to uphold the global norms, to defend freedom in all of its dimensions, and to respect the rights and the dignity of every single human being.
Also like Roosevelt, I recognize – as I think everyone here does – the importance of flexible and creative U.S. leadership in making that happen. Our country is blessed with an $18 trillion economy. We should be asking ourselves not how quickly or sharply we can shed the responsibilities of leadership, but rather how much more can we do. We have our own storm clouds and our own foundations of civilization to protect. And let us never forget that America is the exceptional nation that so many people in public life like to talk about, but we’re not exceptional because we make speeches about being exceptional, and we’re not exceptional when we shove our face in other people’s faces and tell them how exceptional we are. We are exceptional when and because we do exceptional things. That’s what makes America exceptional. And America can do more, even today, with greater impact. But we have to be willing to put resources on the table and empower people to live our vision – not view it with envy from the outside.
I believe that we should look to the future with every ounce of optimism that has always inspired and energized our nation, but we should also acknowledge that we will not be able to chart a sure course for others unless we are at peace with ourselves.
A great American from this state once warned, in the words of the scriptures, that, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Whatever happens in the next two weeks, our country is going to have to begin a process of healing, of reconnecting with one another, of listening, of forgiving, and remembering that every action we take is being carefully observed by our global allies and adversaries, and that what they see will have a direct impact on our future ability to be able to lead.
I think that we have one of the greatest stories in the world to tell. The strength of America, unlike some places where they’re defined by ethnicity or by centuries of homogeneity – we are not. We are defined by an idea, unlike most other countries, and that idea is about freedom and the pursuit of happiness and all people being created equal with the opportunity to make the most of themselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, American greatness is not an entitlement and it cannot be taken for granted. It has to be demonstrated; it has to be earned by every generation. And one of the great strengths I hear from other people whenever I travel is how they see in America a country that is always changing, always moving forward, always looking to the future, always able to redefine itself. That effort demands the best from us and it demands the best within us. The world will be watching to see whether we, the American people, remain up to that challenge. There is not a scintilla of doubt in my mind that the answer is yes, but we are going to do a better job – all of us together, I believe – or we need to all do a better job in proving it to people.
This Administration still has miles to go before we pass into history, and I intend to work with the president as he does until January 20th to advance the cause of our country. And in doing so, I will be grateful for as long as I live for the privilege I have been given to serve, just as I am now grateful for your hospitality in welcoming me to the matchless city of Chicago. Thank you and go Cubs. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Please, please, please (inaudible).
MR DAALDER: Mr. Secretary, I think I speak for all of us here to thank you for your service and for this really rousing call for continued strong American leadership and engagement in the world. We have a couple more minutes, so we’ve gotten some questions that we’ve collected, and I wanted to start with a question of a young man who is a political science student here in – at DePaul University who wants to think about his future by asking you something about his past. He asks: “How has your experience as a Vietnam veteran influenced you not only throughout your life, but particularly your service as Secretary of State?”
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it’s a great question. Thank you for the question. I did a podcast earlier today with David Axelrod in which we talked a little bit about this. It requires a little bit of biography. But when I – I signed up for the United States military in 1965, not too long after Lyndon Johnson said we need 500,000 troops in Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin incident had allegedly happened. And I was, like many, many, many of my classmates, actually, I was surprised when I went back and looked in our reunion book how many classmates served. And I think it was part of our generation’s sense of responsibility – lucky enough to go to great university, mindful of President Kennedy’s call to action that we would bear any price and – pay any price, bear any burden, and recognizing we were in the Cold War and seeing things in a fairly simplistically defined way – East, West, Soviet Union versus the West, bipolar, pretty simple stuff, defend against Communism – and we tended to see most of our challenges within that lens.
Well, by time – the first draft card hadn’t been burned. I think it was first burned in about 1967. And by 1968, when I was training – when I left for Vietnam for a tour of duty in the Gulf of Tonkin in a ship, and then when I went over as skipper of a small gun boat, 1968 was an incredible year, as you all know from history and some of you from living it. Medgar Evers was assassinated, Martin Luther King was assassinated, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. There was tumultuous convention right here in this city. And I was in uniform and watching all of this and listening to the stories of those who were coming back from Vietnam and sharing with us what their experience was.
So when I went over in-country as we called in October, I think it was, of 1968, I saw a very different set of circumstances from those that we had mostly read about or had described to us. And I really found myself – as we did all of us who were there – wrapped up in a civil war with very few options in a sense and a war that, in my judgment, we were simply not going to win the way it was being fought and with the choices and options that we had, and perhaps couldn’t be in the long run depending on how you saw the North-South civil component of it.
So what I learned was, in answer to your question, and what I vowed was as a young man, that if I was ever in a position of responsibility to make a judgment about putting people like me in harm’s way again, I was going to make sure that we understood what we were doing, and I was going to make sure that we had the right lens and the right understanding of what it was. We haven’t done that, obviously, in every case, but I think that the notion – I think – when I testified before Congress and before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, I laid out my reasons for opposition to the war as a veteran. As I was leading a group of veterans and a small group of my friends – we brought about 5,000 veterans to Washington. We camped out on the Mall and we stared down the Supreme Court and the Washington police and the administration, and stayed on the Mall and delivered a message to Congress about the war. And it was a breakthrough moment where people began to really understand what was happening.
I think that the lesson I learned is – are several. Number one, make sure you really ask the right questions, examine all the possibilities, and get an understanding of the place you’re thinking about going so you understand what the dynamics are, what the downside risks are, and what is the what then, what next. Once you’ve succeeded in your immediate goal, how do you manage it as you go forward?
I also learned that not everything is Vietnam, and that’s a very important lesson, folks. Some people get trapped in that place in history, and I thought it was very important not to be trapped, that sometimes we do have to use force. I supported what we did in Kosovo and Serbia. I thought it was critical to save lives. And as you all know, President Clinton greatly regrets the fact that they didn’t respond in Rwanda. There are times when I think we do have a responsibility and we have to do some things that we don’t like to do. But it depends on what the stakes are, and you have to examine them very, very carefully.
So the real – I also learned an indelible lesson, because we were the veterans who first called to attention of the nation the treatment of vets in the VA hospitals, the lack of adequate allowances to go to school, the lack of adequate staffing in the hospitals, the absence of any kind of thank you or homecoming for a group of veterans who fought as hard as any other people in war at any other time, and I learned indelibly that this country should never, ever again confuse the war with the warriors. And I think we have learned that lesson, and it’s a good one. (Applause.)
MR DAALDER: Mr. Secretary, thank you for your service. Thank you for joining us here today. I very much appreciate you coming to Chicago. Particularly on this night, you’ve kept an audience for a long time, and particularly what’s going on right now.
SECRETARY KERRY: Do we have a score?
MR DAALDER: They’re winning, 2-nothing. Thank you. (Applause.)
SECRETARY KERRY: Two-nothing. That’s a good note to end on. Thank you. (Applause.)
John F. Kerry | 1real |
EU wants May to make firm offers now for Brexit deal: Barnier | ROME (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May should make the EU firm offers by next week to break deadlock in Brexit talks if she wants an orderly withdrawal and transition to a new relationship, the bloc s negotiator said on Thursday. Speaking to the Italian parliament on the eve of a speech that May will deliver in Florence, Michel Barnier said he was wondering why there was still major uncertainty on all key issues Brussels wanted settled before opening talks on the transition to a future trade deal it expects her to ask for. To make progress, we are waiting for clear commitments from the UK on these precise issues, Barnier said, noting demands for European Union citizens in Britain to have their rights there protected by EU courts and for London to pay a hefty bill before leaving. We will listen attentively and constructively to Theresa May s important speech tomorrow in Florence, added Barnier, who holds a new round of Brexit negotiations in Brussels next week. A rapid agreement on the conditions of the UK s orderly withdrawal, and a transition period, is possible ... For that to happen, we would like the United Kingdom to put on the table, as soon as next week, proposals to overcome the barriers. An agreement on orderly withdrawal was a precondition for any constructive and trustworthy discussion on our future relationship with the United Kingdom. Barnier renewed criticism of Britain s treatment of 3 million EU expatriates in the country, noting deportation letters sent to some recently in error and allegations that May s interior ministry defied a High Court order over an asylum case. London has rejected EU demands that the European Court of Justice remain the ultimate arbiter for EU citizens in Britain and says its own court system offers sufficient guarantees. But Barnier s position remains that the EU wants its own safeguards. TWO-YEAR TRANSITION? The BBC said after May discussed the Florence speech with her cabinet that she would ask for a two-year transition period after Brexit in March 2019, would refer to paying our dues and say that a deal with the EU would be unlike other countries . European capitals expect May to try to break a deadlock in the talks over the coming days by signaling a readiness to pay the EU to stay in the single market for two to three years after Brexit, easing fears of a disruptive break. Barnier recalled that the EU was ready to consider a short transition period if the British government requests one but also underlined that would entail accepting EU rules, including on its budget. And he noted that the more benefits Britain wanted the more it would have to accept obligations to the EU. The EU executive estimates Britain may owe something like 60 billion euros ($70 billion) on leaving, while Britain questions whether it has any legal liability. EU officials have said that British payments to the EU during a post-Brexit transition its current annual payments are about 10 billion euros cannot be offset against a need to settle a pre-Brexit divorce bill . However, they acknowledge that the British government might find ways to present the various financial agreements it makes in a way it hopes may limit criticism from hardline Brexit supporters of any divorce settlement and transition payments. | 0fake |
UK's Johnson: Russia veto of chemical weapons inquiry 'appalling' | LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it was appalling that Russia had blocked a U.S.-drafted resolution to renew an international inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. It is appalling that the UN Joint Investigative Mechanism has been closed down, Johnson said in a statement. The United Kingdom will not let the end of the Joint Investigative Mechanism stop work with international partners to identify and hold accountable those responsible for using chemical weapons. The vote at the United Nations on Thursday sparked a war of words between Russia and the United States in the Security Council. | 0fake |
WATCH: Hispanic Parents Make Shocking Video Teaching 3 Yr Old To Say “WE HAVE TO KILL DONALD TRUMP” | This video exposes the underbelly of the illegal alien community and the hate they have for anyone who would enforce the rule of law in America. Based on the conversation these irresponsible parents are having with their 3 year old child in the video, these parents appear to be concerned about being deported if Trump becomes our next President. It s hard to distinguish the difference between Islamic radical parents who teach their young children that killing innocent Americans is okay as long as it fulfills an obligation to Islam, and Mexican illegals living in America who are teaching their kids the same kind of hate and violent behavior.America is a melting pot. We welcome vetted immigrants from all over the world with open arms who want to become citizens of our great country. Becoming an American does not mean you live here, but are separate from our culture and traditions. It s clear by this video that these parents have an us against them mentality. This is NOT assimilation and these are NOT the kind of people we want living in America!WHAT THESE YOUNG ILLEGAL DREAMERS Do To Trump Supporters Will Make Your Blood Boil [Video]We posted a story a few months ago that featured young Hispanic kids screaming expletives at Trump supporters as they drove by en route to a Trump rally. Are these the kind of children we want to see growing up to become violent adults in our nation, all because their parents were fortunate enough to illegally cross our borders and give birth to them?https://youtu.be/zjHb3XkPuK0There was also this professionally made video that was used as a tool to dissuade Hispanics from voting for Trump. Whoever thought this making video was a good idea is a first rate idiot. The only thing this video will do is make Americans want to start deporting more stupid people who think they re above the law Any parent who allowed their child to appear in this vile video should be up on child abuse charges! ***Serious Language WARNING**** | 1real |
BREAKING: 4 AMERICAN HOSTAGES TAKEN BY IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN | These 4 hostages must certainly feel a sense of comfort knowing that our strong Commander In Chief would never desert an Ameri never mind It was reported weeks ago that the American government has abandoned citizens in Yemen, forcing them fend for themselves. Now we re facing the prospect of Iranian allies holding our countrymen hostage.It really is amazing how many parallels Obama shares with Jimmy Carter. Here s a pretty awful one:The rebel group that has seized power in Yemen has taken at least four U.S. citizens prisoner, according to U.S. officials who said that efforts to secure the Americans release have faltered.One of the prisoners had been cleared for release in recent days only to have that decision reversed by members of the Houthi rebellion that toppled the U.S.-backed government earlier this year and now controls most levers of power in Yemen.The Americans are believed to be held at a prison in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, which has been bombed repeatedly as part of an air campaign led by Saudi Arabia aimed at dislodging the Houthis from power. The United States has provided intelligence support to that operation.The detention of the Americans has complicated U.S. efforts to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the Houthi takeover, which displaced a government that had cooperated extensively with the United States on drone strikes and other counterterrorism operations against a dangerous al-Qaeda affiliate in the country.U.S. officials said three of the prisoners worked in private-sector jobs and that a fourth, whose occupation is unknown, has dual U.S.-Yemeni citizenship. The officials said none of the four were employees of the U.S. government.Via: SooperMexican | 1real |
IRS GIVES “After School Satan Club” Tax-Exempt Status in 10 Days…Tea Party Groups Still Waiting | AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB Allowed By School District Is YOUR District Next?The classification is offered to charitable, religious and educational organizations that operate as nonprofits. Under the Obama administration IRS political appointees illegally targeted conservative groups, either making them wait up to seven years for tax-exempt status or denying their application altogether.Judicial Watch uncovered that scandal and has obtained piles of government records showing how the IRS illegally colluded with another federal agency to single out groups with conservative-sounding terms such as patriot and Tea Party in their titles when applying for tax-exempt status.In the meantime, leftist groups like the Satan club got fast tracked. The principle goal of establishing the Satan clubs in public schools throughout Washington State appears to be to counter existing enterprises operated by a Christian-based group. Documents obtained by Judicial Watch include the process of establishing an after-school Satan club at Point Defiance Elementary in Tacoma. The entity behind the club is a nonprofit called Reason Alliance, which is based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and operates in Washington State as the Satanic Temple of Seattle. Its director, Lilith X. Starr, established the Point Defiance Elementary Satanic club, the records show. In its application the club states that its purpose is character development and that adult instructors are vetted by the Satanic Temple s Executive Ministry. Children ages 5-12 will develop basic critical reasoning, character qualities, problem solving and creative expression, according to the Satanic Temple filings included in the documents.The club logo is a pencil with devil s horns. Records obtained by Judicial Watch from the Treasury Department show that the Satanic cult applied for tax-exempt status on October 21, 2014 and received it on October 31, 2014.Read more: Judicial Watch | 1real |
Blue Feed Red Feed
| See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side
Facebooks role in providing Americans with political news has never been strongeror more controversial. Scholars worry that the social network can create echo chambers, where users see posts only from like-minded friends and media sources. Facebook encourages users to keep an open mind by seeking out posts that dont appear in their feeds.
To demonstrate how reality may differ for different Facebook users, The Wall Street Journal created two feeds, one blue and the other red. If a source appears in the red feed, a majority of the articles shared from the source were classified as very conservatively aligned in a large 2015 Facebook study. For the blue feed, a majority of each sources articles aligned very liberal. These aren't intended to resemble actual individual news feeds. Instead, they are rare side-by-side looks at real conversations from different perspectives.
To begin, click on a topic. Be forewarned: These Facebook posts do not represent the reporting or opinion of The Wall Street Journal, and are not verified, edited or endorsed in any way. Read our Methodology. | 0fake |
Israel signals free hand in Syria as U.S., Russia expand truce | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel signaled on Sunday that it would keep up military strikes across its frontier with Syria to prevent any encroachment by Iranian-allied forces, even as the United States and Russia try to build up a ceasefire in the area. U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday affirmed joint efforts to stabilize Syria as its civil war wanes, including with the expansion of a July 7 truce in the southwestern triangle bordering Israel and Jordan. A U.S. State Department official said Russia had agreed to work with the Syrian regime to remove Iranian-backed forces a defined distance from the Golan Heights frontier with Israel, which captured the plateau in the 1967 Middle East war. The move, according to one Israeli official briefed on the arrangement, is meant to keep rival factions inside Syria away from each other, but it would effectively keep Iranian-linked forces at various distances from the Israel-held Golan as well. Those distances would range from as little as 5-7 kms and up to around 30 kms, depending on current rebel positions on the Syrian Golan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Moscow did not immediately provide details on the deal. Israel has been lobbying both big powers to deny Iran, Lebanon s Hezbollah and other Shi ite militias any permanent bases in Syria, and to keep them away from the Golan, as they gain ground while helping Damascus beat back Sunni-led rebels. In televised remarks opening Israel s weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not speak about the new U.S.-Russian arrangement for Syria. His regional cooperation minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, sounded circumspect about the deal, telling reporters that it does not meet Israel s unequivocal demand the there will not be developments that bring the forces of Hezbollah or Iran to the Israel-Syria border in the north . There s reflection here of the understanding that Israel has set red lines, and will stand firm on this, Hanegbi said. That was an allusion to Israeli military strikes in Syria, carried out against suspected Hezbollah or Iranian arms depots or in retaliation for attacks from the Syrian-held Golan. In the latest incident, the Israeli military said it shot down a spy drone on Saturday as it overflew the Golan. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman blamed the drone on the Syrian government. Damascus did not immediately respond. Repeating Israel s warnings to Iran and Hezbollah, Lieberman said: We will not allow the Shi ite axis to establish Syria as its forefront base . Russia, which has a long-term military garrison in Syria, has said it wants foreign forces to quit the country eventually. The U.S. State Department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity on Saturday, said that goal could be served by Russia s pledge to remove Iranian-linked fighters from the truce zone in southwestern Syria. If this works, this is an auspicious signal, would be an auspicious signal, that our policy objective - the objective that I think so many of us share, of getting these guys out of Syria ultimately - that there s a path in that direction, the official said. | 0fake |
Manafort money laundering charge in Russia probe may face challenges | (Reuters) - When the lawyer for the former campaign manager of President Donald Trump attacked the money laundering charge brought against his client as flimsy, some legal experts say he may have pinpointed a potential weakness in the indictment by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller. Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates both pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that they failed to disclose they were lobbying for pro-Russia former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich between 2006 and 2015 and laundered tens of millions of dollars by funneling the money through dozens of companies, partnerships and bank accounts. In a court filing on Thursday, Manafort defense lawyer Kevin Downing said the money laundering count, the most serious facing his client with a 20-year maximum sentence, was based on a “tenuous legal theory” tying it to his failure to register as a foreign agent of the former Ukrainian leader. Downing did not respond to a request for comment. Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment. The language of the filing and defiant statements Downing made outside the courthouse following Manafort’s arraignment on Monday suggest the lawyer is planning an aggressive defense of the charges, the first to be made public from Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The Kremlin has denied meddling and Trump has said there was no collusion. Neither Trump nor his campaign was mentioned in the indictments issued on Monday. Downing will also be seeking to suppress evidence he said was improperly obtained by search warrant, according to an additional filing on Friday. Manafort’s Virginia home was raided by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents over the summer. The money laundering statute targets financial transactions involving the proceeds of “specified unlawful activity.” According to the Manafort indictment, the unlawful activity was his violation of the U.S. Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). Though the money laundering statute includes FARA violations, Seattle tax lawyer John Colvin said the charge against Manafort was not as straightforward as most other cases. “It doesn’t fit the normal paradigm” of money-laundering cases involving criminal activity like drug trafficking, Colvin said. “It seems like a stretch to me.” Downing said in his Thursday filing that only six prosecutions have been brought for violating FARA in the last 50 years, producing only one conviction. By pointing out the lack of previous FARA prosecutions, former federal prosecutor Mark Lee, now a white-collar defense lawyer in Philadelphia, said Downing was likely trying to suggest Manafort may not even have known he was violating the law. The section cited by Mueller requires the FARA violation to be “knowing and willful.” Successfully casting doubt on whether Manafort intentionally violated FARA could knock out the money laundering charge, Lee said. “If you don’t have a (specific unlawful activity), you can’t by definition have a laundering,” said Lee. Former federal prosecutor Michael Padula, now a Miami defense lawyer, said parts of the money laundering statute also require funds to “promote” an ongoing criminal enterprise. That may be hard to show in the Manafort case, where the proceeds went to purchase real estate, expensive suits and Range Rovers for the conspirator’s personal use. But other lawyers said they doubted defense arguments regarding FARA would gain much traction. “The idea that somebody of Mr. Manafort’s background and sophistication would not understand that, if he did what he is alleged to have done, he would be required to file as an agent of a foreign government, is, I think, laughable,” said Chicago lawyer and former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter. Several lawyers noted that, even without the money laundering counts, Mueller had strong charges based on the failure of Manafort and Gates to report their overseas accounts to the Internal Revenue Service and that the entirety of the case appeared to be backed by strong documentary evidence. They also pointed out that Mueller could add more charges at a later date. “It’s an argument, not a get out of jail free card,” said Padula of Downing’s money laundering defense. “He’s still got a tough road ahead of him.” | 0fake |
EWAO Stephen Hawking Warns: STOP Searching for Aliens before its TOO LATE | News View Articles First Online Academy for the Visionary Arts Opens Global Press Release, October 25th 2016 - New online learning community explores art with the power to shape the future, and integrate the wisdom of ancient cultures. Originally identified through... Claim Your Deepest Desires with Tonight’s Super Moon in Aries The full moon is a time for the most potent access to manifesting your dreams. It is a time when your thoughts and emotions become magnetised to attract the exact reality that matches what you... Why did Apple ban Dash? What are they so afraid of? Corporate technology giant Apple has banned trailblazing digital currency Dash from its App Store. What we should be asking is why is Apple so threatened by Dash? Other digital currencies such as... Finnish scientist spots GREAT MYSTERY at the Bosnian Pyramids A scientist from Finland states he has found ANOMALIES at the Bosnian pyramids in Visoko which cannot be explained as a natural phenomenon. The ultimate proof these are MAN-MADE structures? A... Found: Noah’s Ark Blueprints reveal the Ark was ROUND A clay tablet believed to be around 4,000-year-old details the material used in the construction of the Ark and indicates Noah's Ark was in fact ROUND. The so-called Ark blueprints are among... This Transformational Festival is Creating Real Change by Setting Up Sustainable Communities Oh how we love our transformational festivals! For so many of us they have guided and shaped chapters of our lives, inspiring us, exposing our souls to new truths, to incredible workshops, art,... Inspiration Discover Something Stephen Hawking Warns: STOP Searching for Aliens before its TOO LATE World renowned physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has once again spoken out about alien life in the cosmos. "I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone." However, the scientist warns... Erich Von Daniken concludes: Aliens will RETURN to Earth within 20 years The author of one of the most popular books on the planet —Chariot of the Gods— indicates Aliens will return to Earth in the near future –20 years— since we are part of their DNA. The... Scientists concludes Humans did NOT evolve alongside OTHER life on Earth According to a controversial book written by a renowned environmentalist and ecologist, human beings did not evolve ALONGSIDE other lifeforms on Earth. In fact, mankind did not evolve from that... The Orion Correlation: 3 fascinating ancient structures CONNECTED to Orion For some mysterious reason, the constellation of Orion was of great importance to ancient cultures around the globe. Some even call the Correlation of Orion a global phenomenon since this pattern of... 10 fascinating accounts of ancient gods and their FLYING Machines "…there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." Is it possible that thousands of years ago, ancient cultures... Scientists have just detected a crack in Earth’s magnetic shield Experts have recently found that Earth's magnetic shield cracked open due to a super-strong geomagnetic storm that managed to reconfigure our planet's magnetic shield. Our planet's magnetosphere... Health & Wellness Improve Life Are You Fatigued? 11 Ways to Take Back Your Adrenals When you take back your adrenals, you take back your power. I kid you not when I say that adrenal fatigue is the subject of a entire book. The intricacies of how inter-connected this issue... Eating Black Raspberries Significantly Lowers Cardiovascular Disease An extract found in black raspberries can significantly lower arterial stiffness, a key measure of cardiovascular disease! By PreventDisease Black raspberry (Rubus... Watch What Happens When Cannabis Is Injected Into Cancer Cells. This Is Mind Blowing! Watch this mind blowing video as the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, kills cancer cells! By MindBodySoulSpirit Since 1974 studies have shown that cannabis has anti-tumor... This Is The Most Powerful Natural Antibiotic Ever – Kills Any Infections In The Body This master cleansing tonic is actually an antibiotic that kills gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. by HealthCareAboveAll The basic formula of this powerful tonic dates back to... Monsanto Lobbyist Panics When Offered a Glass Of Water After Saying Weedkiller Is Safe To Drink What this Monsanto Lobbyist says about your water is shocking... by Nick Meyer Monsanto lobbyist, Dr Patrick Moore, claims to be an ecological expert and is currently the frontman... Don’t Throw This Banana Part Ever Again! THIS IS WHY! The health benefits of bananas are undeniable. But, it’s not only the flesh that can boost your health. The peel can do wonders too. By HealthyFoodTeam Although we normally throw banana... Spirituality Universal Patterns First Online Academy for the Visionary Arts Opens Global Press Release, October 25th 2016 - New online learning community explores art with the power to shape the future, and integrate the wisdom of ancient cultures. Originally identified through... The Sacred Contribution of the Mazatec Shaman to the Spiritual World There was a time when shamanic ceremonies played a key role in a society. Such rituals involved the consumption of different herbs under the supervision of the shaman who acted as a spiritual guide... Thou Shalt Not Kill Scorpions and Smoketh Them You might think that lighting up a spliff makes you cool but you're nowhere as hardcore (or exposed to danger) as Afghanistan's dried scorpion smokers. Look, we get it - mankind needs its fix... How to Go on Your First Shamanic Journey into the Spirit World As days go by, the way of the shaman is becoming more and more axiomatic. If you feel that one day your path might include a shamanic journey, consider these steps. The most important thing... Understanding and Preparing the ‘Magic Mushrooms’ Experience Ingesting psychedelic mushrooms can provide, without doubt, a life changing experience. But there are certain rules one has to follow in order to get the best out of their alluring effect. When done... Psychedelic Mushrooms – A 7,000 Year Old Friend With an ancient history spanning over tens of thousands of years of human evolution, psychedelic mushrooms are once again making a comeback. Hallucinogenic mushrooms, also known as ‘magic... | 1real |
HOLLYWOOD HYPOCRITES: These Lefty Celebs Play For Brutal Dictators But Not For Trump | J-Lo was sorry. She didn t mean to sing Happy Birthday to someone accused of grave human rights abuses.That s what she did when she serenaded Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, president of Turkmenistan, over the summer.Turkmenistan is known as one of the world s most repressive countries, according to Human Rights Watch. The former Soviet bloc country is regularly criticized for its poor treatment of women, the condition of its prisons as well as the intimidation of journalists.But J-Lo didn t know any of that, and if she had, says her rep, she wouldn t have accepted $1.5 million for the pleasure of singing to its head of state. Via: prl As our childish and biased media chuckles at President-elect Donald Trump s inability to attract some big name stars to perform at his upcoming inauguration celebration, there is a vital part of the story this very same media does not want to tell. The inconvenient part about how a number of these rich and famous celebrities, many of them Obama and Hillary supporters, have willingly performed in the past for murderous dictators, human rights abusers, and Russian gangsters.RELATED: 9 CELEBS WHO PLAYED FOR EVIL FOREIGN TYRANTSDid you know that Beyonc , who has performed live for both President Obama and Hillary Clinton, has also performed for the family of Libya s murderous dictator, the late-Muammar el-Qaddafi? For a fat seven-figure paycheck on New Year s Eve 2009, Bey belted out her hits for the Qaddafis at a lavish, champagne-soaked party. Also in attendance, her husband Jay-Z, hip-hop kingpin Russell Simmons, Usher, and Jon Bon Jovi.Read more: The Daily Wire | 1real |
Hillary Clinton spars with comedian on parody talk-show interview | LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton played it strictly deadpan while parrying decidedly off-the-wall questions from comedian Zach Galifianakis on his online parody talk show, “Between Two Ferns,” released on Thursday. Galifianakis, star of “The Hangover” films, is known for his cringe-inducing banter on the web program, asking subjects awkward questions. Past interview subjects include Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron, Bradley Cooper and President Barack Obama. Sitting between two fern plants on a sparse set, Galifianakis did not dial back his trademark style of appearing uninterested and unprepared as he interviewed Clinton, riffing on her previous role as U.S. secretary of state in Obama’s first term. “As secretary, how many words per minute could you type? And how does President Obama like his coffee? Like himself - weak?” Galifianakis said. “You know Zach, those are really out-of-date questions. You need to get out more,” Clinton responded. Other topics brought up included the comedian’s interest in the designer of Clinton’s signature pantsuits and whether her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, discussed romantic crushes with Ivanka Trump, daughter of Clinton’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, in the Nov. 8 election. In closing, Galifianakis made a wry reference to Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as America’s top diplomat, which was investigated by the FBI. “This has been a lot of fun, Mrs. Clinton. We should stay in touch. What’s the best way to reach you? E-mail?” As a poker-faced Clinton looked on, Galifianakis hit a button to play AOL’s famous email alert: “You’ve got mail.” | 0fake |
Trump refugee order dashes hopes of Iraqis who helped the U.S. | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraqis who say their lives are in danger because they worked with the U.S. government in Iraq fear their chances of finding refuge in the United States may vanish under a new order signed on Friday by President Donald Trump. The order temporarily suspends the United States’ main refugee program and halts visas being issued to citizens of several predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq. It is expected to affect two programs U.S. lawmakers created a few years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to help the tens of thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives helping Americans. Trump says the order is necessary to prevent Islamist militants from coming to the United States posing as refugees, but refugee advocacy groups say the lengthy screening of applicants by multiple U.S. agencies makes this fear unfounded. Iraqis coming to the United States under the Special Immigrant Visa program for Iraqis, which stopped accepting new applications in 2014, or the ongoing Direct Access Program for U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis are losing hope of ever getting out. “Mr. Trump, the new president, killed our dreams,” said one Baghdad man whose wife worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a bookkeeper. “I don’t have any hope to go to the United States,” he said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by Iraq’s Sunni and Shia militant groups and also of unfavorable treatment by the Trump administration. More than 7,000 Iraqis, many of them interpreters for the U.S. military, have resettled in the United States under the Special Immigrant Visa program since 2008, while another 500 or so are still being processed, according to State Department figures. Another 58,000 Iraqis were awaiting interviews under the Direct Access program, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project. Tens of thousands have already arrived under the second program, but no recent total was available. “A lot of translators were trying to get the hell out of there because they had a mark on their head for working with U.S. forces,” Allen Vaught, a former U.S. Army captain who went to Fallujah in western Iraq in 2003, said in a telephone interview. “They’re viewed as collaborators.” He fears the order would endanger American troops by making it harder to recruit local support in war zones, a belief echoed by several advocacy groups working on behalf of America’s Iraqi employees. While in Iraq, Vaught employed five local interpreters who initially earned $5 a week traveling with troops, sometimes without weapons or armor. He helped two of the interpreters come to the United States as refugees with their families, putting them up initially in his home in Dallas, Texas. Another two were executed by militia groups, he said. The fifth was still mired in the refugee screening process, which can last months or years even after the initial interview. Vaught had expected to also welcome him into his home this year before he had seen a draft of Trump’s order. “This executive order is based on ignorance and fear,” he said. “And you do not lead a country with ignorance and fear.” In Baghdad, the Iraqi man waiting for a visa recalled U.S, soldiers had laughed at his concerns, telling him the United States is too big a democracy to be changed on “the decision of one person like Trump,” he said. But he now wonders if the soldiers were right. In 2013, a USAID official encouraged his family to apply as refugees under the Direct Access program. He checked in every week or so, but is still waiting word on an appointment at the U.S. consulate for the necessary interview. The same year he filed his application, he was shot in the head while driving to work, hospitalizing him for a month and leaving him deaf in one ear. He connected that to the threats that had often flashed as text messages on his cellphone, sent by Islamist militants angered by his wife’s work for USAID. Others in Iraq remained hopeful they would eventually get out. An Iraqi man who worked for a U.S. defense contractor and later alongside U.S. troops as a mid-ranking Iraqi Army officer, recalled his excitement at getting the phone call a few weeks ago telling him that his family had an interview appointment at the U.S. consulate after two years and four applications. He was hopeful it would still take place in mid-February, believing that American officials would be concerned about the threats to his family. He was unaware that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday temporarily halted trips by staff to interview applicants. “I believe this is politics, things you hear on the news,” he told Reuters by phone from Baghad on condition of anonymity. “I don’t think they would prevent Iraqis coming to America.” | 0fake |
Crazy ‘Trump Girls’ Stun CNN Host With Rumors About Marco Rubio’s ‘Gay Lifestyle’ (VIDEO) | Trump s made some pretty insane supporters during his campaign, but his most infamous fans are Lynette Diamond Hardaway and Rochelle Silk Richardson the dynamic sister duo also known as the Stump for Trump Girls .Since Trump came onto the political scene, the Stump for Trump Girls have gained a reputation through their pro-Trump Twitter account, videos and wild appearances on news networks. And on CNN this morning, the girls didn t disappoint. Their interview was only a few minutes long, but they managed to cause more than enough trouble.TwitterCommenting on last night s GOP debate, host Carol Costello asked Trump s biggest fans what they thought about presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz joining alliances and shaking each other s hands behind Trump s back, in a joint effort to bring the front runner down. The Trump-loving sisters response left Costello absolutely stunned as the girls suggested that Rubio was probably gay at one point in his life, if not now. Hardaway said: I think that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, they re both snakes.When I look at Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio told us to Google Donald Trump, but I did one better: I Googled him and when I Googled him, you know, he owes America and the gay community an apology.It sounds like he may have had a gay lifestyle in his past! Completely shocked and taken back by the comment, Costella gasped, What? and pleaded with the girls not to go down that road. No, Lynette Lynette. But Richardson backed Hardaway up, and said: That s what s on Google. So you have to be cautious when you start telling people to google people stuff will come up. We don t know if it s true, so we ll say allegedly, but he shouldn t have told people to google Donald, because I googled him and that came up. Costella, likely aware that there would be backlash from the Rubio campaign, steered the girls off into another subject, which happened to be Trump s habitual blaming of immigrants for taking American jobs, while he himself employed many immigrants at his hotels. Following in the footsteps of their beloved presidential candidate, both Hardaway and Richardson were absolutely fine with that.You can watch the segment below, courtesy of Mediaite: Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
This is how fascism comes to America
| The Republican Partys attempt to treat Donald Trump as a normal political candidate would be laughable were it not so perilous to the republic. If only he would mouth the partys conservative principles, all would be well.
But of course the entire Trump phenomenon has nothing to do with policy or ideology. It has nothing to do with the Republican Party, either, except in its historic role as incubator of this singular threat to our democracy. Trump has transcended the party that produced him. His growing army of supporters no longer cares about the party. Because it did not immediately and fully embrace Trump, because a dwindling number of its political and intellectual leaders still resist him, the party is regarded with suspicion and even hostility by his followers. Their allegiance is to him and him alone.
And the source of allegiance? Were supposed to believe that Trumps support stems from economic stagnation or dislocation. Maybe some of it does. But what Trump offers his followers are not economic remedies his proposals change daily. What he offers is an attitude, an aura of crude strength and machismo, a boasting disrespect for the niceties of the democratic culture that he claims, and his followers believe, has produced national weakness and incompetence. His incoherent and contradictory utterances have one thing in common: They provoke and play on feelings of resentment and disdain, intermingled with bits of fear, hatred and anger. His public discourse consists of attacking or ridiculing a wide range of others Muslims, Hispanics, women, Chinese, Mexicans, Europeans, Arabs, immigrants, refugees whom he depicts either as threats or as objects of derision. His program, such as it is, consists chiefly of promises to get tough with foreigners and people of nonwhite complexion. He will deport them, bar them, get them to knuckle under, make them pay up or make them shut up.
That this tough-guy, get-mad-and-get-even approach has gained him an increasingly large and enthusiastic following has probably surprised Trump as much as anyone else. Trump himself is simply and quite literally an egomaniac. But the phenomenon he has created and now leads has become something larger than him, and something far more dangerous.
Republican politicians marvel at how he has tapped into a hitherto unknown swath of the voting public. But what he has tapped into is what the founders most feared when they established the democratic republic: the popular passions unleashed, the mobocracy. Conservatives have been warning for decades about government suffocating liberty. But here is the other threat to liberty that Alexis de Tocqueville and the ancient philosophers warned about: that the people in a democracy, excited, angry and unconstrained, might run roughshod over even the institutions created to preserve their freedoms. As Alexander Hamilton watched the French Revolution unfold, he feared in America what he saw play out in France that the unleashing of popular passions would lead not to greater democracy but to the arrival of a tyrant, riding to power on the shoulders of the people.
This phenomenon has arisen in other democratic and quasi-democratic countries over the past century, and it has generally been called fascism. Fascist movements, too, had no coherent ideology, no clear set of prescriptions for what ailed society. National socialism was a bundle of contradictions, united chiefly by what, and who, it opposed; fascism in Italy was anti-liberal, anti-democratic, anti-Marxist, anti-capitalist and anti-clerical. Successful fascism was not about policies but about the strongman, the leader (Il Duce, Der Fhrer), in whom could be entrusted the fate of the nation. Whatever the problem, he could fix it. Whatever the threat, internal or external, he could vanquish it, and it was unnecessary for him to explain how. Today, there is Putinism, which also has nothing to do with belief or policy but is about the tough man who single-handedly defends his people against all threats, foreign and domestic.
To understand how such movements take over a democracy, one only has to watch the Republican Party today. These movements play on all the fears, vanities, ambitions and insecurities that make up the human psyche. In democracies, at least for politicians, the only thing that matters is what the voters say they want vox populi vox Dei. A mass political movement is thus a powerful and, to those who would oppose it, frightening weapon. When controlled and directed by a single leader, it can be aimed at whomever the leader chooses. If someone criticizes or opposes the leader, it doesnt matter how popular or admired that person has been. He might be a famous war hero, but if the leader derides and ridicules his heroism, the followers laugh and jeer. He might be the highest-ranking elected guardian of the partys most cherished principles. But if he hesitates to support the leader, he faces political death.
In such an environment, every political figure confronts a stark choice: Get right with the leader and his mass following or get run over. The human race in such circumstances breaks down into predictable categories and democratic politicians are the most predictable. There are those whose ambition leads them to jump on the bandwagon. They praise the leaders incoherent speeches as the beginning of wisdom, hoping he will reward them with a plum post in the new order. There are those who merely hope to survive. Their consciences wont let them curry favor so shamelessly, so they mumble their pledges of support, like the victims in Stalins show trials, perhaps not realizing that the leader and his followers will get them in the end anyway.
RNC chairman: Republicans will find common ground with Trump Play Video0:56
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and the GOP will find common ground ahead of the general election. (Reuters)
A great number will simply kid themselves, refusing to admit that something very different from the usual politics is afoot. Let the storm pass, they insist, and then we can pick up the pieces, rebuild and get back to normal. Meanwhile, dont alienate the leaders mass following. After all, they are voters and will need to be brought back into the fold. As for Trump himself, lets shape him, advise him, steer him in the right direction and, not incidentally, save our political skins.
What these people do not or will not see is that, once in power, Trump will owe them and their party nothing. He will have ridden to power despite the party, catapulted into the White House by a mass following devoted only to him. By then that following will have grown dramatically. Today, less than 5 percent of eligible voters have voted for Trump. But if he wins the election, his legions will likely comprise a majority of the nation. Imagine the power he would wield then. In addition to all that comes from being the leader of a mass following, he would also have the immense powers of the American presidency at his command: the Justice Department, the FBI, the intelligence services, the military. Who would dare to oppose him then? Certainly not a Republican Party that lay down before him even when he was comparatively weak. And is a man like Trump, with infinitely greater power in his hands, likely to become more humble, more judicious, more generous, less vengeful than he is today, than he has been his whole life? Does vast power un-corrupt?
This is how fascism comes to America, not with jackboots and salutes (although there have been salutes, and a whiff of violence) but with a television huckster, a phony billionaire, a textbook egomaniac tapping into popular resentments and insecurities, and with an entire national political party out of ambition or blind party loyalty, or simply out of fear falling into line behind him. | 0fake |
China to Raise Military Spending, but Less Than in Recent Years - The New York Times | BEIJING — China said Saturday that its military budget would rise by about 7 percent this year, apparently the lowest increase in seven years, signaling that its leaders do not plan to engage the United States in an arms race even as President Trump seeks to bolster the Pentagon’s spending. Addressing reporters before the start of the annual National People’s Congress, Fu Ying, a spokeswoman for the legislature, said the increase would be “about” 7 percent. She said defense spending would amount to roughly 1. 3 percent of China’s gross domestic product. Last year’s proposed increase was 7. 6 percent, though China has yet to release final figures indicating how much was actually spent. Those figures, and the exact number of this year’s projected increase, will be revealed in a budget that the government releases on Sunday, when the national legislature starts its annual full session. Before 2016, the military budget had received increases for six years, a reflection of China’s economy. Chinese experts said the new budget would keep military spending roughly in line with the government’s usual formula of G. D. P. growth plus inflation. As China’s economy continues to slow, annual growth in the gross domestic product is expected to be about 6. 5 percent. Inflation hovers around 2 percent. And the government must also find more money for health care, education and other increasingly expensive social needs. Chinese and Western military analysts said it was notable that Mr. Trump’s recent pledge to raise American defense spending by $54 billion had not spurred China to elevate its own spending further. Ms. Fu said that China wanted good relations with the Trump administration but would respond to any challenges. “President Xi Jinping and President Trump have had two direct phone calls, and the message was very clear, which is that there must be more cooperation between China and the United States so we become good partners,” Ms. Fu said. But she added that China would watch the effects of Mr. Trump’s global policy changes. “Of course, everyone hopes that their impact will be positive, but if there are challenges, China will respond calmly,” Ms. Fu said. The U. S. military is vastly more powerful than China’s, as Ms. Fu noted. “Fundamentally, this is about the United States worrying that China could catch up and surpass the U. S. in its ability,” she said. “But in fact there is a still a huge gap in ability between the U. S. and China, which is still a developing country. ” To emphasize his intent to strengthen the American military, Mr. Trump visited the country’s new aircraft carrier this week. The Gerald R. Ford is a floating fortress due to be commissioned this year and is the first in a new generation of supercarriers. The United States has 10 supercarriers. In contrast, China is building its first aircraft carrier, a vessel, and has one refurbished carrier from Ukraine. Wang Xiangsui, a retired senior colonel in China’s Air Force who is now director of the Research Center of Strategic Issues at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said Mr. Trump’s plans to increase military spending were unlikely to prod China into following suit. “I don’t think China will be oversensitive about this,” he said. “Despite all the aggressive talk, no one wants a war,” Mr. Wang said. While the $54 billion increase sounds like a lot, he added, ”the Americans didn’t achieve anything after spending six trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan. ” China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, who visited Washington this week and met briefly with Mr. Trump at the White House, probably had the military budget on his mind as he tried to judge the mood of the new administration, said Dennis J. Blasko, an American expert on the Chinese military. “I’m guessing Yang Jiechi was tasked to make an assessment of the state of the bilateral relationship to see if there may need to be a adjustment in reaction to the requested increase for the U. S. defense budget,” said Mr. Blasko, a retired army lieutenant colonel and the author of “The Chinese Army Today. ” Mr. Yang probably found the relationship to be on a sound enough footing, Mr. Blasko said. “I don’t think they want to get into a military budget fight with us, not even a rhetorical one. ” Ni Lexiong, a naval expert in Shanghai, said that if China really felt the need to spend more heavily on the military, it would not hesitate to do so. “If China felt threatened, I don’t think slower economic growth would stop them from spending more on the military,” Mr. Ni said. “You have seen how the Chinese were willing to starve to build an atomic bomb. We do not worry about poverty when we think a larger military is necessary. ” He said the new budget would allow China to keep modernizing its navy and air force, the two services currently getting the most attention. The navy launched 22 warships in 2016 to replace old ones, and the budget would let it keep up that pace this year, he said. “A chunk of the expenditure will go towards developing and manufacturing the latest weapons for a stronger air force and navy,” he said. “I believe this speed of replacement will continue, because it has been one of China’s growth goals to build a military stronger than America’s one day, in either quality or quantity. ” While China’s future aircraft carriers are likely to be nuclear powered, the Chinese Navy will probably be focused on other, more important areas, said Lyle J. Goldstein, an associate professor at the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U. S. Naval War College in Rhode Island. “Chinese submarine development and the building of destroyers and frigates are likely more expensive and more consequential for the overall military balance,” he said. If Mr. Trump were to win his proposed increase of $54 billion, the American defense budget would be $603 billion, about 3 percent higher than under former President Barack Obama’s last budget plan. The People’s Liberation Army’s official budget was about $146 billion in 2016. Western groups that study the Chinese military say that actual spending is roughly 1. 2 to 1. 5 times greater than the announced figures. Using a rough estimate that assumes an average G. D. P. growth in China of 6. 5 percent and a U. S. growth rate of 3 percent, China’s military spending would be expected to surpass America’s around 2040, said Bonnie S. Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Among the issues that Chinese military planners must deal with is how to handle the retrenchment of 300, 000 personnel announced by President Xi Jinping in 2015, part of an effort to streamline the P. L. A. into a modern fighting force. Although most of those leaving the army are to officers and soldiers, the severance costs are expected to be substantial, retired Chinese officers said. | 0fake |
An Almost-Love Story - The New York Times | I was walking around campus between classes one day at the university I attended in Abuja, Nigeria, when he came up to me. “I’ve seen you somewhere before,” he said. He was slim, attractive. I thought it was the usual flirting. But then I realized that his face did look familiar. Church. I’d seen him at church a few times. So we chatted a bit. He wasn’t a student there. He was there to see a friend. For some reason he also mentioned that his birthday was coming up. I gave him my phone number. He called me — a lot. I never answered, and I never called him back. It went on like that for a month. Then one day, I looked at the date and realized it was his birthday. I decided to give him a call. From then on, we talked every single day on the phone. I have trouble sleeping, and we would talk almost all night. “What’s your genotype?” he asked me in one of our first telephone conversations. “Which one is the genotype and which one is the blood type?” I asked him. “I’m SS,” he told me. Then I remembered. “O. K.,” I said. “I’m AA. ” By then, I knew what the sickle cell trait was. Hemoglobin SS meant he had sickle cell anemia. A family friend had lost kids to it. My school had tested me for it. But when he told me, I was like, O. K. sure. It didn’t seem like a thing. We became very close. My mom knew about him. My siblings knew about him. But he was older. I was just 16. I had a strict curfew every night. He was in his . One time, about a year after we met, we went to a cafe for lunch. It was one of those hot days before the rainy season would come and unleash showers across the Nigerian landscape. At the cafe, we talked as I wolfed down a slice of chocolate cake. We got up to leave, paid the bill and I hugged him goodbye. At some point in the hug, it happened. He was leaning in with his lips. I realized he was trying to kiss me! It would have been my very first kiss — if it had happened. But it didn’t. I was stunned. I was so upset that I just turned my face away and walked to my car. After I got home, he called me to apologize. I told him not to call me, but after two days I really missed talking to him. He liked me. I really, really liked him. I wouldn’t call it a crush. A crush is like a joke. He was quiet, and he had a gentle soul. A couple of years later, when his birthday came around again, he said he wasn’t feeling too well, so I went to his house. He lived with his parents, and I didn’t really like going to his house, because it took a lot of lying to my parents to go there. We sat on the couch and watched music videos on MTV. The boy band, the Wanted, came on with their song “All Time Low,” and I got so excited because it was my latest obsession. “I love this song!” I said. “What do you think?” But he just shrugged his shoulders. He was kind of indifferent. I was so naïve. I didn’t notice how sick he was. I didn’t want to notice. I just kept talking and talking. I left after three hours, but after that I found myself checking on him constantly, every 30 minutes or so. He kept saying he was fine. But a few days later, he ended up in the hospital. When I went to visit him, it was a shock — I had never seen a “sickler” before. I saw the yellow eyes. I saw how skinny he was. He kept wincing from the pain, but putting up a brave act. “They’re saying my kidneys are failing and stuff,” he finally said. I was so freaked out. A few mornings later, I planned to go back and bring him some Ogbono soup, his favorite. It’s a concoction of ground African bush mango seeds, cooked onions and crayfish with dark, leafy vegetables swimming in bright red palm oil. The plan was for my mom to make it but to say that I made it. So we began cooking the soup. Then we boiled water to cook semolina flour for fufu to go with it. All the while, I kept calling him, but he wasn’t answering. So I called one of his friends, and we planned to go together. I packed the soup and fufu and drove over to his friend’s house. When I got there, his friend told me to come in and sit down. And that’s how I got the news he died. I wept all the way home, and every day after that. My father asked who the hell was this guy who just turned his daughter’s life upside down. I would sit in my room with the curtains closed. For weeks, it just seemed like a good idea to sit in the dark. After the funeral, I had to ask one of his friends: “Did he know how much I actually cared about him?” “No,” came the response. “No, he didn’t. ” I’m still dealing with the guilt of that, because it seems to me he had everything I would have wanted in a boyfriend. | 0fake |
REVEALED: List of People President Elect Trump is Considering for Top White House Postions | 21st Century Wire says IMPORTANT: We are particularly worried about John Bolton and Rudolph Giuliani holding major diplomatic positions they are both damaged goods and relics of a failed Neoconservative past which some Republicans are acting nostalgic about. Both Bolton and Giuliani have pressed for a pre-emptive strike on Iran in the past, and with continued pressure and finance from the Israeli Lobby it s a near certainty that they will continue this foreign policy line. Trump won the GOP primaries by rejecting the Bush docrine and the Neocon model of foreign intervention. If Trump reverses that postion he is only creating a new and more powerful anti-war oppostion in America. A hawkish Trump policy would only galvanize the left in America, and globally.Let s see if he s smart enough to realize this prospective reality and appoint his cabinet accordingly TRANSITION: Media currently carried away with speculation over what a President Trump administration will look like in Janruary. Daily CallerDonald Trump is contemplating naming a number of recognizable players from the 2016 campaign to serve in senior White House roles, according to an internal transition document obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller.The list was provided by a member of the transition team on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. Described as a working document, it is being used to help the president-elect envision a White House staff structure, the source said. Some people are listed more than once.It includes names like Trump campaign chairman Stephen K. Bannon, RNC chairman Reince Priebus, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn.Bannon who was executive chairman of Breitbart News before joining the Trump campaign is under consideration for chief of staff, as is Priebus. The choice here could be telling about Trump s strategy for working with Congress: Bannon, who is proudly anti-establishment, detests House Speaker Paul Ryan while Priebus and Ryan are close allies.Like chief of staff, a number of the roles listed seem to include both insider and outsider options. For example, Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Republican pollster, is in contention with Corey Lewandowski, who worked with the New Hampshire state police until 2010, for the position of senior adviser.Lewandowski is also in consideration for the role of deputy chief of staff for planning, as is Katie Walsh, the RNC s chief of staff. As for White House counsel, the list includes both Alan Garten, the general counsel at the Trump Organization, and Donald McGahn, his campaign attorney, as options.Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller an immigration hawk and former communications aide to Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions is under consideration for a variety roles, including deputy chief of staff for policy, director of speechwriting, director of the domestic policy council and director of communications. Miller often warmed up for Trump during rallies in the Republican primary and embodies Trump s message of limited immigration, free trade skepticism and distaste for the donor class.Miller isn t the only former Sessions aide being considered for a Trump administration. Rick Dearborn, Sen. Sessions chief of staff, is listed as the sole option for leading the office of legislative affairs.Like Sessions, former GOP Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, formerly the chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, appears likely to have influence in the Trump administration. He is being considered for both national security advisor and assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. His former chief of staff, Andy Keiser, is also being considered for the position of deputy national security advisor.Two other people listed for national security advisor are retired Army Lt. Gen. Micheal Flynn, who served as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama, and Stephen Hadley, who served in the same role under former President George W. Bush. Flynn, Rogers, and Hadley are all hawkish. Flynn has called for the destruction of the Syrian city of Raqqa, Hadley served as deputy national security adviser during the invasion of Iraq and Rogers said in 2014 that ground troops should be deployed to fight the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.As for White House press secretary, the list includes some memorable faces from the campaign: former Ted Cruz aide and eventual Trump spokesman Jason Miller, top RNC aide Sean Spicer and Conway.Here is the list obtained by TheDC:Assistant to the President and Chief of StaffStephen K. Bannon, Reince PriebusAssistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.Keith Kellogg, Mike RogersAssistant to the President and Press Secretary.Jason Miller, Sean Spicer, Kellyanne ConwayAssistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning. Corey Lewandowski, Katie WalshAssistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Stephen Miller, Sam ClovisAssistant to the President and National Security Advisor. Michael T. Flynn, Mike Rogers, Stephen HadleyAssistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting. Stephen Miller, Cliff SimsSenior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.None listedAssistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.David Bossie, Katie WalshAssistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.Clare Lopez, Walid Phares, Andy KeiserAssistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council.Stephen MillerAssistant to the President and Director, Office of Legislative Affairs.Rick DearbornAssistant to the President and Director of Communications.Jason Miller, Stephen Miller, Cliff SimsAssistant to the President and Senior AdvisorKellyanne Conway, Corey LewandowskiAssistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council. Dan Dimicco, David MalpassWhite House CounselDon McGahn, Alan Garten**** READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Senator Mark Kirk Mocks Disabled Veteran Tammy Duckworth for Mixed-Race Heritage | During a debate between Rep. Tammy Duckworth and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) for his U.S. Senate seat in Springfield, Illinois, Kirk mocked Duckworth’s ancestry, saying in rebuttal of her comments on the true cost of war,
“I had forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.”
His remark came in response to her statement that, “My family has served this nation in uniform going back to the Revolution. I am a Daughter of the American Revolution.”
Watch courtesy of Deadspin : Senator Mark Kirk mocks disabled Iraq war vet Tammy Duckworth in debate for her mixed-race heritage: https://t.co/3Znpd2Uvfq pic.twitter.com/cpWYBKri4l
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) October 28, 2016
Kirk, of course, has claimed to receive military honors he did not, in fact, receive. For him to attack Duckworth is not only the height of hypocrisy but mocking her ancestry is appalling.
The Republican position, as restated here by Kirk, is that it’s okay to come from another country as long as you’re white. Neither Kirk nor his campaign has apologized. Kirk has said Trump should quit over his misogynist comments; apparently, it’s okay to make racist comments.
When Duckworth said her family had served since the American Revolution, she wasn’t joking, and she set Kirk straight in a tweet : My mom is an immigrant and my dad and his family have served this nation in uniform since the Revolution #ILSEN pic.twitter.com/ehEBHswFMs
— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) October 28, 2016
The Illinois senator has unendorsed Donald Trump, one malignant clown calling another a malignant clown , and this latest move has given Kellyanne Conway a rare opportunity to gloat, tweeting , The same Mark Kirk that unendorsed his party's presidential nominee and called him out in paid ads? Gotcha. Good luck. https://t.co/IV7miL317s
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 28, 2016
With a single sentence, Mark Kirk proved you don’t have to support Donald Trump to be a deplorable. | 1real |
Germany Arrests 3 Syrians on Suspicion of ISIS Ties - The New York Times | BERLIN — Three Syrians who entered Germany as migrants have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State and may have links to those who carried out the Paris terrorist attacks last year, the authorities said on Tuesday. Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, said the travel documents the men were carrying when they were arrested on Tuesday had been issued by the same authority as ones found on some of the men who carried out the attacks in and around Paris in November. The authorities also said that the three Syrians appeared to have used the same smugglers to enter Germany and to apply for asylum as some of those involved in the terrorist assaults in France. “It could be that this was a sleeper cell,” Mr. de Maizière told reporters. Prosecutors said in a statement that they believed the three came to Germany in November to carry out a planned attack for the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, or to await instructions for one. While there was no indication the three had been planning a specific attack, prosecutors said they had sufficient evidence to arrest the men on suspicion of membership in a foreign terrorist organization. The German security authorities have been on high alert since two young men who entered the country as migrants carried out separate attacks in Bavaria in July, wounding dozens. Both attacks appeared linked to or inspired by the Islamic State, the authorities said. The three men arrested on Tuesday were identified only by their first names and last initials, in keeping with German privacy laws. They entered the country in November by traveling through Turkey and Greece and had been living in refugee shelters north of Hamburg, the German news media reported. In October, the suspects “pledged to an Islamic State operative responsible for operations and attacks outside of Islamic territory to travel to Europe,” where they were to carry out a planned attack or await instructions, prosecutors said. | 0fake |
Chris Christie Commutes Sentence for USMC War Vet Charged over Legally Owned Gun - Breitbart | On Friday Gov. Chris Christie (R) commuted the prison sentence for former Marine Sergeant Hisashi Pompey, arrested six years ago for possessing a legally owned gun that was unregistered in the state of New Jersey. [On April 13 Breitbart News reported that Pompey brought his handgun into New Jersey while visiting from Virginia. Following an altercation at a nightclub, one of Pompey’s friends retrieved the gun and was arrested. Pompey was also arrested because the gun was not registered in the state of New Jersey. ABC 7 reported that Pompey did “three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan for which he received medals for bravery. ” He was a military police sergeant who now has a wife and young children at home. Until Christie intervened on Friday, Pompey was preparing to surrender to authorities for what would have been a minimum sentence for possession of an unregistered firearm. When news of the commuted sentence reached Pompey, he responded by making sure it was not a joke. Pompey said, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this isn’t April Fools, right? I don’t know how to react. I’m grateful, grateful. ” Pompey’s wife said, “I just said, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. It’s like you’ve given us our life back. ” Christie’s decision to commute Pompey’s sentence does not expunge the arrest from his record, it simply removes the punishment that resulted from the arrest. In April 2015, Christie pardoned Pennsylvania mother Shaneen Allen, who was arrested in October 2013 for carrying a legally owned handgun in her car. Allen had a Pennsylvania permit to carry, but New Jersey does not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. And on December 23, 2015, Christie pardoned U. S. Marine Joshua Velez, a Massachusetts concealed carry permit holder who was arrested over a year earlier for bringing his 9mm handgun into the state of New Jersey. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0fake |
Saudi calls for social media informants decried as 'Orwellian' | (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has urged its people to report subversive comments spotted on social media via a phone app, a move denounced by a human rights watchdog as Orwellian . The appeal, announced on a Twitter account run by the interior ministry late on Tuesday, coincides with an apparent crackdown on potential government critics and a call by exiled opposition figures for demonstrations. When you notice any account on social networks publishing terrorist or extremist ideas, please report it immediately via the application #We re_all_security , it said, referring to a mobile phone app launched last year to enable civilians to report traffic violations and burglaries. Hours later, the public prosecutor tweeted a section of the kingdom s terrorism law which states: Endangering national unity, obstructing the Basic Law of governance or some of its articles, and harming the state s reputation or status are terrorist crimes. Exiled Saudi critics have called for demonstrations on Friday to galvanize opposition to the royal family and prominent clerics, intellectuals and activists, including prominent Islamist cleric Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, have been detained this week, activists say. Activists circulated lists of people detained on social media showing the number had risen to around 30 on Wednesday, including some with no clear links to Islamist activity or obvious history of opposition. Protests are banned in Saudi Arabia, as are political parties. Unions are illegal, the press is controlled and criticism of the royal family can lead to prison. Riyadh says it does not have political prisoners, but senior officials have said monitoring activists is needed to maintain social stability. The detentions reported by activists follow widespread speculation, denied by officials, that King Salman intends to abdicate to his son, Crown Prince Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who dominates economic, diplomatic and domestic policy. There are also growing tensions with Qatar over its alleged support of Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood which is listed by Riyadh as a terrorist organization. Some Twitter users expressed support for the government s approach, using the We re all Security hashtag. No flattery, no silence whether for a relative or friend in securing the homeland, said one. Defend your security. Chaos starts with slogans of freedom and reform. Do not believe them. Another user called on people to photograph any low-lifes protesting on Friday and upload them to the app. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog, condemned the government dragnet, saying it called into question the authorities commitment to free speech and the rule of law. Saudi Arabia is reaching a new level of Orwellian reality when it goes beyond security services repression and outsources monitoring of citizens online comments to other citizens, said Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson, referring to English writer George Orwell s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four . Saudi Arabia s new leadership is quickly showing it has no tolerance for critical thought or speech and is marshalling Saudi society to enforce red lines by spying on itself. The government has not clearly acknowledged this week s detentions or responded to requests for comment. But state news agency SPA said on Tuesday authorities had uncovered intelligence activities for the benefit of foreign parties by a group of people it did not identify. A Saudi security source told Reuters the suspects were accused of espionage activities and having contacts with external entities including the Muslim Brotherhood , which Riyadh has classified as a terrorist organization. The government toughened its stance on dissent following the Arab Spring in 2011 after it averted unrest by offering billions of dollars in handouts and state spending. But the Brotherhood, which represents an ideological threat to Riyadh s dynastic system of rule, has gained power elsewhere in the region. Since the kingdom s founding, the ruling Al Saud family has enjoyed a close alliance with clerics of the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Islam. In return, the clerics have espoused a political philosophy that demands obedience to the ruler. By contrast the Muslim Brotherhood advances an active political doctrine urging revolutionary action, which flies in the face of Wahhabi teaching. The Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa movement in the 1990s agitated to bring democracy to Saudi Arabia and criticized the ruling family for corruption, social liberalization and working with the West, including allowing U.S. troops into the kingdom during the 1991 Iraq war. The Sahwa were largely undermined by a mixture of repression and co-optation but remain active. The al-Saud family has always regarded Islamist groups as the biggest internal threat to its rule over a country in which appeals to religious sentiment cannot be lightly dismissed and an al Qaeda campaign a decade ago killed hundreds. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport links with Qatar in June over its alleged support for Islamist militants, a charge that Doha denies. | 0fake |
Tunis Greets an Ottoman-Era History Long Banished by Its Dictators - The New York Times | TUNIS — Since their revolution in 2011, Tunisians have tussled among themselves to define their new identity after successive dictatorships. Belatedly, they have started reclaiming their history as well. Dictatorships have a way of manipulating historical narratives. So alongside any of the most pressing issues of the day, the past, too, is in play. The struggle to shape the past, and give it new authenticity, can be witnessed all around the Tunisian capital. Last summer, the Tunisian government restored a statue of Habib Bourguiba, the founder and first president of the republic, to its original place on the capital’s main avenue. The famous symbol of Mr. Bourguiba — astride his horse, arm aloft rallying Tunisians to independence — had been banished to a seaside neighborhood in 1987, after he was ousted by his prime minister, Zine Ben Ali. (Mr. Ben Ali was himself overthrown decades later during the Arab Spring uprising.) The current president, Beji Caid Essebsi, who served in Mr. Bourguiba’s cabinet, was the main driver behind reinstating the statue, which he said was intended to reinforce his call for national unity and a strong state. Mr. Bourguiba’s statue had replaced a humiliating symbol of colonialism: an image of the colonialist politician Jules Ferry with a Tunisian woman at his feet proffering an olive branch, he reminded Tunisians. “That used to be the symbol of colonialism, and Bourguiba is the symbol of freedom, of independence and of the modern state,” he said at the unveiling. Many Tunisians do indeed respect Mr. Bourguiba as the father of the independent nation, yet he was also a dictator who imprisoned his opponents and clung to power for over 30 years. The young revolutionaries who spearheaded the Arab Spring uprising greeted the return of the statue with a flurry of jokes on social media about the waste of money. Far from cementing his reputation, moving the statue opened a new debate around Mr. Bourguiba’s legacy. “People talk of a ‘new Bourguibism,’ but it does not exist,” Med Dhia Hammami, a journalist and activist, said. “There are no ideas coming out of that. ” With the new freedom gained since their revolution, some of Mr. Bourguiba’s victims are being given a chance to set the record straight at public hearings of the Truth and Dignity Commission. One of them, Hamadi Ghars, 85, a journalist in the independence movement, gave a damning portrayal of Mr. Bourguiba at the commission’s first public hearing. Mr. Ghars described how Mr. Bourguiba had betrayed thousands of his fellow fighters when he accepted an interim deal with the French government that allowed the colonizers’ security forces to continue controlling the country. “We were happy with independence and were waiting for reconciliation,” Mr. Ghars said. Yet Mr. Bourguiba then ordered them to surrender to the French, who bombed the fighters in the mountains. “They killed hundreds of young Tunisian men,” he recalled. “I don’t doubt that their bodies are still in the mountains and rivers today. ” Mr. Ghars was captured and sentenced by the French to 20 years imprisonment and 10 years hard labor, which he served under Mr. Bourguiba. “They destroyed a dream of unity,” he said. “Usually history is written by the victors, but this is the opposite,” said Adel Maizi, the president for preservation of memory at the commission. “These testimonies will reveal the truth. ” “Dictatorship always tries to keep things secret,” he explained. “These kinds of testimonies are against forgetting. They will preserve memory for the country and serve as a way to guard such things happening in the future. ” Tunisians are discovering other forgotten chapters of their past that the two dictators tried to obscure. Crowds have flocked in recent weeks to an exhibition on the opulent, and at times profligate, reign of tribal princes when Tunisia was part of the Ottoman Empire. The exhibit is housed in the Ksar palace. Once a royal residence, it was used as a barracks and a hospital and has been shuttered since the 1980s, its collection of French paintings and Ottoman magnificence hidden from view. For a year, the Rambourg Foundation has been restoring a part of the palace and its collections to unveil the history of Tunisia between 1830 and 1881, the period when princely rulers known as beys ruled the country before it was colonized by France. Ridha Moumni, a curator of the exhibit, insists it is not political, but a matter of history. Yet he is displaying events that Tunisia’s dictators sought to suppress. “We have a very rich heritage that no one knew about,” Mr. Moumni said. “Our goal was to show that Tunisian modernity did not start with independence or colonization. ” The exhibition offers many Tunisians their first glimpse of the court through royal portraits and rich costumery. More important, it provides a history lesson on the significant reforms of the era — the founding of the army, the drafting of a constitution and development of diplomatic relations — that helped forge a nation. Among the original documents on display, one abolished slavery in 1846 — before the United States did so, Mr. Moumni pointed out. Others include a constitution drafted in 1860 that recognizes the rights of all citizens, including Christian and Jewish minorities, and census registers, in Hebrew and Arabic, belonging to Tunisia’s ancient Jewish community. Students and a university teacher touring the exhibition said it was the first time they had seen images of Tunisian royalty. Another discovery is the diversity of Tunisia’s leaders — from the Christian foreign minister, Giuseppe Raffo, to a Circassian general, Kheireddine Pasha, and the former slave Mustapha Khaznadar, who married into the royal family and rose to become the bey himself. One of the most popular displays — in the throne room, and beside the very table upon which it was signed — is the Treaty of Bardo, under which the beys, facing a crumbling dynasty and mounting debts, surrendered to become a French protectorate. The beys were subsequently blamed for clearing the way for seven decades of French rule and were condemned to obscurity by Mr. Bourguiba after Tunisia’s independence. “He wanted to erase this from the national memory,” Mr. Moumni said. | 0fake |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.