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Taking the Woo-Woo Out of Meditation | Taking the Woo-Woo Out of Meditation Oct 27, 2016 0 0
Which will it be? Zazen, Vipassana, Transcendental, Mantra, Dzogchen, Mindfulness, or one of the numerous other types of mediation? With everyone from business tycoons to sixth-generation monks practicing meditation, along with people like rapper, 50 Cent, publishing mogul, Rupert Murdock, singers, Sting, and Alanis Morisette – how do you pick through the woo-woo and get to the nitty gritty facts about a meditation practice?
Fortunately, meditation has been proven beyond the fairy tale images of cross-legged sadhus, mendicants, sages and yogis peacefully serene in some verdant forest or awe-inspiring temple. There are now over 3,000 scientific studies on the benefits of meditation, with more coming to the fore all the time.
Both alternative-medicine gurus and Harvard researchers alike have now picked apart various types of meditation to learn that it is more effective than just sitting still , but all it really amounts to is this: learning to do one thing, mindfully, at one time .
Meditation has been proven to boost immunity, reduce depression and anxiety, increase empathy, and boost creativity. It can even help improve emotional intelligence and help wounds heal faster. It isn’t a magic pill, but it might come close.
Here’s a shocking truth about meditation, though. It won’t solve all your problems. As Jack Kornfield, a man responsible for helping to popularize meditation in the West in the 1970s has written ,
“While I benefited enormously from the training in the Thai and Burmese monasteries where I practiced, I noticed two striking things. First, there were major areas of difficulty in my life, such as loneliness, intimate relationships, work, childhood wounds, and patterns of fear that even very deep meditation didn’t touch.
“Second, among the several dozen Western monks (and lots of Asian meditators) I met during my time in Asia, with a few notable exceptions, most were not helped by meditation in big areas of their lives. Meditation and spiritual practice can easily be used to suppress and avoid feeling or to escape from difficult areas of our lives.”
Here’s what meditation will do for you. Meditation is like working out for the brain. If you flex a muscle often enough, it becomes stronger. For many of us, focus is transient. If we try really hard, we might be able to focus for a few minutes. Most of us really only concentrate on one thing at a time for seconds. T he average person thinks approximately 48.6 thoughts per minute, according to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California. That adds up to a total of 70,000 thoughts per day .
Now ask yourself, among those many thousands of thoughts, which are constructive? Which are about the present moment, and not about hopes for the future or fears from the past? Which thoughts are happy? Which are sad? Which are helping you to achieve what you want in this lifetime, and which thoughts are holding you back? Do your thoughts help you to merge seemingly inconsistent facts in reality, or are they just a random mess which you can never seem to make sense out of? Are you regularly thinking calm, focused thoughts, or are they scattered?
While different types of meditation affect us variously, they all make lasting changes in the brain, no differently than if you were to practice playing the piano every day, or if you consistently went to the gym and lifted weights. For example:
Vipassana meditation also known as insight meditation has this effect on the brain: It creates a thicker right insula which is involved in the cognitive-emotional processes which create greater empathy and self-awareness . The right temporal area of the brain has increased blood flow and activity. This area is responsible for the process of hearing . The right parietal area is greatly activated. This area of the brain is in charge of processing touch . Attention and focus are increased as evidenced by a thicker right frontal cortex. Brain wave changes include increased activity within the left-prefrontal cortex is associated with positive affect and happiness. People who suffer from depression tend to have underactivated left-prefrontal regions. Also, the sites “C3/C4” on a QEEG tend to become increasingly active during this type of meditation. These are areas within the motor system associated with moving your right hand.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) has a tendency to create restful alertness. This is what happens to the brain: The frontal lobes of the brain, associated with focused attention and advanced cognitive function become more active. The parietal areas of the brain become more active. This area of the brain is associated with spacial recognition of the awareness of objects in our environment. The major sensory area of the brain, the thalamus, becomes more activated in long-term TM practitioners. Activity in he basal ganglia, the area of the brain responsible for controlling voluntary motor movement, procedural learning, and emotion is decreased. Brain waves as measured by EEG’s with TM meditators include the increase and coherence of Alpha waves . Coherence simply means that the brain waves are being transmitted across both hemispheres of the brain, thus improving neural communication across a greater distance. This results in full-brain thinking. Alpha waves as a result of TM does not usually occur with other meditative practices. The ‘back’ or posterior of the brain tends to work more efficiently, with synchronization in these quadrants. Alpha synchronization may also serve as a “carrier” frequency for 20 Hz beta waves (cognition) and 40 Hz gamma waves (perception).
Tibetan Loving-Kindness Meditation practitioners experience exactly more of the aim of their meditation – unconditional loving kindness. On brain scans, this shows up as: Decreased parietal activity. This area of the brain is responsible for our spatial orientation, and our visual attention . Frontal activity is increased. The left prefrontal cortex shows particular changes in this type of meditative practice, which translates as more positive emotions and greater self-control . Thalamus activity tends to increase (whereas in TM, activity in this area decreases.) Brain wave changes include a tendency to display higher than average amplitude of 40 Hz gamma waves. This phenomenon is associated with advanced perceptual functions, binding of information, as well as intelligence. Those who have mental deficits tend to elicit significantly less 40 Hz activity throughout their brain. Those who practice this type of meditation will also show more Gamma waves, most often associated with less of a ‘me’ focus, and the ability to engage in loving-kindness. Gamma waves tend to be synchronized within the frontal and parietal regions of the brain. This can lead to an enhanced ability to focus as well as states of emotional bliss.
So, without the ‘woo,’ what can meditation do for you? It depends on what you are looking for. If you seek better focus, or more compassion, they are both benefits of a consistent meditative practice. There are additional meditative practices that build grey matter, and still more than can help with depression and pain or lower stress levels. Like any worthwhile endeavor, meditation takes practice. The results are dependent upon which brain muscles you build and flex. | 1real |
Close to Half of American Adults Infected With HPV, Survey Finds - The New York Times | More than 42 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 59 are infected with genital human papillomavirus, according to the first survey to look at the prevalence of the virus in the adult population. The report, published on Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, also found that certain strains of the virus infected 25. 1 percent of men and 20. 4 percent of women. These strains account for approximately 31, 000 cases of cancer each year, other studies have shown. Two vaccines are effective in preventing sexually transmitted HPV infection, and researchers said the new data lend urgency to the drive to have adolescents vaccinated. “If we can get and to get the vaccine, we’ll make some progress,” said Geraldine McQuillan, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author of the new report. “You need to give it before kids become sexually active, before they get infected,” Dr. McQuillan said. “By the time they’re in their people are infected and it’s too late. This is a vaccine against cancer — that’s the message. ” (Do you have questions about HPV? Read some answers here.) She and her colleagues also found that 7. 3 percent of Americans ages 18 to 69 were infected orally with HPV, and 4 percent were infected with the strains that can cause cancers of the mouth and pharynx. HPV is a ubiquitous virus, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. About 40 strains of the virus are sexually transmitted, and virtually all sexually active individuals are exposed to it by their early 20s. The virus usually is spread through direct contact with infected genital skin or mucuous membranes during intercourse or oral sex. Over 90 percent of HPV infections are cleared by the body within two years. The figures released today were a snapshot of the prevalence of active oral HPV infection from 2011 through 2014, and active genital infection in 2013 and 2014. Sometimes, the virus persists in the body. Chronic infections with certain strains can lead to genital warts and cancers of the cervix, vagina, penis, anus and throat. Two viral strains, and cause almost all cervical cancers. “One of the most striking things that we really want people to know is that HPV is common — common in the general population,” Dr. McQuillan said. While the C. D. C. recommends routine screening for cervical cancer for all women ages 21 to 65, adults are not routinely screened for HPV infection itself. Indeed, there is no HPV test for men. (A test for women is sometimes used in conjunction with a Pap screen for cervical cancer.) There were significant differences in rates of genital HPV infection by race and ethnicity, Dr. McQuillan and her colleagues found. The highest rate, 33. 7 percent, was found among blacks the lowest, 11. 9 percent, among Asians. The prevalence of genital HPV infection was 21. 6 percent among whites and 21. 7 percent among Hispanics. Men generally have somewhat higher rates than women, but among Asian and Hispanic men, the infections are not significantly more common. The reasons for these variations are not known. | 0fake |
JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Samsung Allowed British Intelligence to Spy on Americans Through Their TV’s [Video] | .@Judgenap: Samsung allowed British intelligence to spy on Americans through their televisions pic.twitter.com/kHkNt0s8Ar FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 9, 2017 | 1real |
First Brexit, Now Trump … What’s Next? | WashingtonsBlog
CNN’s Jake Tapper hit the nail on the head last night, as he was speaking about why people voted for Trump.
Tapper said that most Americans are sick of the income inequality, globalization, and politics-as-usual that the status quo have given us.
He even pointed out that only a handful of people have gotten rich off of globalization, and a lot of people have been left behind .
Indeed, exit polls last night showed that the economy was the number 1 concern for voters. The Guardian reports :
“It’s the economy, stupid” was a phrase coined by her husband’s adviser James Carville in the 1992 election and, in many ways, it ought to have helped Democrats again in 2016. Barack Obama helped rescue the US from the financial crash and presided over a record series of consecutive quarters of job growth.
Unfortunately for Clinton, many Americans simply did not feel as positive. Stagnant wage levels and soaring inequality were symptoms of the malaise felt by many voters. Trump successfully convinced them to believe this was caused by bad trade deals and a rigged economy.
Despite being pushed in this direction by Sanders in the Democratic primary, Clinton never really found a satisfactory response. Her volte-face on trade sounded – and was later proved by leaked emails – unconvincing at best; deeply cynical at worst.
Similarly, Brexit – the other recent vote which went against all political forecasts – was largely a vote by those who lost out on the benefits of globalization … that only a handful of fatcats really profited from.
Leaders of the Brexit campaign noted the confluence of the two votes:
Jeremy Corbyn described Mr Trump’s victory as “an unmistakable rejection of political establishment” .
Ukip leader Nigel Farage – who went to the US to appear at a Trump campaign rally – said he was handing over his mantle as the creator of political earthquakes to the new President, saying that 2016 was “the year of two great political revolutions”, adding: “I thought Brexit was big, but boy, this looks like it’s going to be even bigger”.
N igel Farage has issued this statement following Donald Trump’s victory.
“Today, the establishment is in deep shock. Even more so than after Brexit. What we are witnessing is the end of a period of big business and big politics controlling our lives.
Voters across the Western world want nation state democracy, proper border controls and to be in charge of their own lives.
I commend Donald Trump for the courage with which he has fought this campaign and I look forward to a closer relationship between the USA and the UK. We now have a President who likes our country and understands our post-Brexit values.
Prepare for further political shocks in the years to come.”
Voters in the UK and the world’s strongest nation, the U.S., have both rebuked the status quo, including neoliberal trade and economic policies.
What’s next?
The rebellion will spread …
For example, it’s so probable that Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party will be thrown out on its ear that Merkel is already trying to distract with silly claims that the Russians will hack the German election.
Postscript: There are, of course, other reasons that Trump won. But the economy is the main one. | 1real |
YIKES! Hillary Still Needs Help Walking On Stage…Walks Gingerly To Microphone [VIDEO] | A producer at the Women in the World event had an awkward moment on Thursday night when he was caught in the spotlight while leading Hillary Clinton onto the stage.The backstage producer could be seen with his hand on Clinton s back leading her onto the stage and pointing her in which direction to walk to get to her position.Hillary gingerly walking across the stage to greet Samantha Bee, who introduced her, letting out a hearty cackle while successfully negotiating the riser.Moments later, Clinton conquered a single step like a pro before taking a seat.Ummm Sorry Samantha Bee, but we re not seeing the Beyonc connection. American Mirror | 1real |
OBAMACARE: Your Dog Might Have Better Healthcare Than You Do | Simon Black Sovereign ManBelow is a short email that my friend Sam posted this morning to his Facebook page about his surprisingly positive experience with the US healthcare system.I thought it a fantastic read, and I wanted to pass it along to you:I had to run to the emergency room today for what may be a neurological issue. Dizziness, staggering, loss of balance, that kind of thing.I m in San Diego, one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I have no insurance. I figured I was screwed.But instead, the experience was unreal.I got seen immediately. I didn t even have time to sit down, they just whisked me into an examination room.The doctor and nurse were ON IT, and they took their time with the exam and consultation.The visit ultimately involved staying the whole day for observation, all kinds of tests, sedation and reversal, blood pressure check, a full blood panel work up (results tomorrow, yes TOMORROW keep your fingers crossed) and having both ears cleaned and flushed.The bill was a mere $374.63.Do I have some insane insurance plan? Nope.Am I being super-subsidized by the rest of America? Nope.Am I a privileged politician with a special bosses only healthcare plan? Don t make me laugh.It turns out that the care was for my dog, not for me. And we didn t go to a people hospital I obviously took my dog to an animal hospital.She and I are both biological machines, mammals made mostly of water (though she sheds more than I do).The only other real difference is that the government is regulating the hell out of healthcare for people, while (relatively speaking), leaving healthcare for animals alone.And that, my friends, is the reason Obamacare has flopped, and why your healthcare costs will keep going up.It s not greed. It s not the drug companies. It s not anything other than the application of government intervention in what should be a free market.Simon again.It s not exactly controversial these days to suggest that the US healthcare system is in bad shape.According to data collected by numerous independent agencies like the Institute of Medicine, Commonwealth Fund, and Kaiser Family Foundation, the US still ranks dead last among advanced economies in overall quality of its healthcare system.In fact, the US healthcare system has the worst record in the number of deaths caused by mistakes or inefficient care.And wait times in the US for urgent care and primary care visits rank lower than every other developed nation.Americans pay at least 50% more for healthcare in terms of annual spending than people in other advanced nations, yet they receive less care as measured by the number of doctor visits.Sure, it s great that there are fewer uninsured people than ever before in the US, but this is a measure of QUANTITY, not a measure of QUALITY.Undoubtedly the US is home to some of the finest medical professionals in the world.But they ve been buried under an expensive, over-regulated bureaucracy that continues to erode overall quality in the system.A 2015 report from the National Academy of Sciences summed it up by stating, For Americans, health care costs and expenditures are the highest in the world, yet health outcomes and care quality are below average by many measures. But instead of trying to understand WHY the system is so slow, bureaucratic, and expensive to begin with, politicians try to fix it by creating more regulations Continue this story at Sovereign ManREAD MORE OBAMACARE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Obamacare Files | 1real |
U.S. State Dept Says Assad Is Preventing Peace In Syria; U.S. Proxy War, Nusra Not Cause For Worry | Activist Post
A month after the last ceasefire in Syria fell apart as a result of the failure of the United States and its terrorist proxies to adhere to just one of their obligations under the agreement, the United States government is still claiming that the reason there is no ceasefire ongoing in Syria is entirely the fault of President Bashar al-Assad and, of course, the scary Russians.
In fact, on October 20, infamous narcissist, State Department Spokesman John Kirby openly stated that the “only thing” standing in the way of a “permanent ceasefire” in Syria is the “regime” of Bashar al-Assad.
“The only thing that stands between where we are now and a permanent and enduring ceasefire in Syria is Bashar al-Assad and his supporters,” he said.
In other words, “If Assad would just step down and let us have our way with his country, we wouldn’t have to keep killing civilians, funding proxy terrorists, and bombing Syrian infrastructure.” Doesn’t Assad understand that the U.S. owns his country and that he is supposed to follow the dictates of Washington regardless of what the Syrian people desire? The nerve of Assad, trying to defeat terrorists and maintain the sovereignty of his nation!
Kirby did, at least, acknowledge the presence of al-Nusra, but only tepidly. “We recognize Al-Nusra as a spoiler, we have concerns about co-mingling, I’ve talked about this ad nauseam,” he said.
Of course, al-Nusra is more than just a mere “spoiler,” it is open terrorist organization that the United States armed, funded, and trained to act as a proxy force that is no ideologically (or even physically) different than ISIS, Ahrar al-Sham, or the “moderates” of the Free Syrian Army. It is also an organization that the United States was supposed to separate from the groups of these shadowy “moderates” we have heard so much about over the course of the last five years but who are apparently phantoms lurking about in the rafters of the Syrian theatre.
The very fact that the United States blamed Russia (along with Assad) for the collapse of the ceasefire and argued that the U.S. was not supposed to separate the “moderates” from the “extremists” until after seven days is thus an admission that, without the requirements of the ceasefire in place, the U.S. would never have separated them at all. But this was the crux of the U.S. position; essentially that it knew who the “moderate” cannibals were and that they were different from the extremist cannibals. If that is the case, then wouldn’t separating the two be the goal all along? Why did the United States need to be required by a ceasefire agreement (as a concession no less) to separate the two different elements of the “opposition” if it was truly in support of defeating the “extremists?”
As Joseph Thomas writes for New Eastern Outlook ,
It also appears to be no coincidence that this scenario now openly unfolding in Syria fulfils warnings published by Western journalists as early as 2007 ( Seymour Hersh, The Redirection ) in which it was revealed that the US was already at that time providing material support to extremist organisations “sympathetic to Al Qaeda” toward the end goal of overthrowing the governments of both Iran and Syria.
While the US now claims Russia has sabotaged US efforts to bring an end to hostilities in Syria, Washington is also illogically attempting to argue that the failure of its feigned “peace talks” has also somehow prevented the US from targeting terrorists organisations in Syria, the alleged pretext of America’s presence in Syria to begin with.
Despite strained relations with Russia, the US is still cooperating with Moscow regarding the use of Syrian airspace to avoid unintentional confrontations. While the cessation of hostilities may have collapsed, is there really any excuse as to why separating designated terrorist organisations from militant groups the US and its allies are providing billions in weapons and equipment to is still not an absolute and urgent priority?
The answer is, no — there is no excuse. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say, it is simply an excuse for the US to continue funnelling men and materiel into Syria Washington knows with absolute certainty will end up in the ranks of Al Qaeda, whom the US admittedly intended to use as early as 2007 to overthrow the Syrian government with.
As a result, the State Department’s ridiculous leveling of the blame for the failure of the ceasefire on Assad can be chalked up to yet another statement based in absolute falsehood and intentional deception. Indeed, this is the type of statement the U.S. State Department is becoming renowned for the world over, from blaming Russia for bombing a convoy even if it didn’t bomb the convoy , claiming Russian aggression in Ukraine, asserting that Assad is “killing his own people,” “barrel bombing civilians,” and attacking hospitals, what little shred of credibility the State Department may have left outside of American borders is rapidly disappearing.
Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom , 7 Real Conspiracies , Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2 , The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President . Turbeville has published over 850 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV . His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com .
This article may be freely shared in part or in full with author attribution and source link . This entry was posted in propaganda . Bookmark the permalink . The U.S. National Bird Is Now a Drone → MyWikiDisQus
Kirby the human Furby communicates in Furbish to confuse and deflect the reporters’ questions in the press secretary briefing room. He stated that, ‘the “only thing” standing in the way of a “permanent ceasefire” in Syria is the “regime” of Bashar al-Assad.’
Yes, the well worn political science propaganda phrase, “the only thing standing in the way of a permanent ceasefire is …” has been used across the centuries to twist the truth in favor of the aggressor. Imagine England’s King George III proclaiming this to the American colonists or the Nazi’s dictating it to the French Maquis, or in more modern times, the Israelis persuading the Hamas resistance in Zionist occupied Palestine.
“Surrender to U.S. hegemony and relinquish all sovereign rights to Syrian land and its natural resources so our corporations can exploit it,” is what the stark message really means.
At the end of the session, Kirby left the journalists dumbfounded with his favorite Furbish goodbye, “u-nye-way-loh-nee-way” which translates to, “You go sleep now”. The whole world is in a slumber, insouciant to the ground swell of evil slime that flows out of the Potomac’s foggy bottom to spread tyranny everywhere. madrino
Mr. Swanson’s research of America’s history of coups, wars and similar acts identifies to me, not to expect change to come from the power structure that has been in place since the country’s inception. Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and countless others are under the boot of the war of terror. Those of us that want peace must wage peace since all other organizations that claim to be such have proven otherwise. Since the creation UN, the wealth gap between rich and poor nations has gotten much greater, and the movement of wealth within rich nations is concentrated at the top .01% as so aptly described by Carl Herman. Charles Hugh Smith has promoted ideas and solutions to change the current system of privlage of the few, to opportunities for all willing to put in the effort to succeed socially and economically. twinfishfour .
The US has left Iraq and Libya in chaos, and it intends to leave Syria in chaos, with portions of the spoils promised to Israel and other portions promised to the Kurds. The chaos inflicted on Syria by US policy with help from the Saudis and others will not resolve immediately, but it will resolve a lot sooner if the US ceases to attempt regime change in Syria. Which is more “convert to failed state” than regime change if you look at the pattern established in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Even Ukraine, in spite of the conversion of property and power to the Fortune 500 and crony capitalists from the west, is worse off than it was before US attempts (through proxies) at regime change. So, now, when it comes to foreign policy, if Uncle Sam’s lips are moving, they are telling lies. Irony of ironies. skygroup
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The U.S. Revolution is Underway - Hillary Clinton's Coup Has Been STOPPED | The U.S. Revolution is Underway - Hillary Clinton's Coup Has Been STOPPED # Omega_Archive 3
Steve Pieczenik, served with several U.S. administrations as a psychological profiler and in evaluations of Federal officials for the US government. He describes the coup and 'soft' counter coup, which have just taken place within the United States federal government. Several agencies, including the FBI and New York City police, participated.
Pieczenik may be best known to the public, as a real-life basis for the "Jack Ryan" character in the famous and eerily prophetic Tom Clancy military action movies.
The films released today (including this one), are the first public appearance Pieczenik has made in decades - though his narratives of behind-the-scenes events in government have been heard by millions. Tags | 1real |
(Video) Trump Gives BEST ASSESSMENT EVER Of Obama’s Failed Military Strategy | Presidential Candidate Donald Trump gets to the heart of why Obama s foreign and military policy hasn t worked. It really is the best assessment ever: We Don t Fight For Victory. We Just Keep Going and Going That about sums it up and is why we re NOT defeating ISIS. | 1real |
John Carney on Dow 20,000: ‘There’s a Sort of Hope Reborn’ After Trump’s Election | Veteran financial journalist John Carney made his debut appearance as a Breitbart News commentator on Thursday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily to discuss the historic rise of the Dow Jones average above 20, 000 points. [Carney cheerfully veered off topic five seconds into his talk with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow, expressing his fascination with the current discussion of voter fraud, and wondering how anyone can claim there is “no evidence” of a problem the authorities resolutely refuse to study in a serious way. “How would they know whether there’s illegal voting, when you don’t have to show an ID?” he asked. “They say there’s no evidence. How would anybody know? Who’s been investigating? There’s no evidence because nobody’s been looking. ” “I vote here in New York. Nobody checks IDs. You just walk in, you give them your address, and you go on in and vote,” he said. “It would be really easy for there to be voter fraud. ” Marlow recalled the infamous — but evidently not infamous enough — incident in 2012 when an undercover filmmaker working for James O’Keefe was handed Attorney General Eric Holder’s ballot. “I cover Wall Street, and one thing we know about Wall Street — and it applies to everything — but when we make fraud really easy, fraud always happens,” Carney pointed out. “That’s a rule. If fraud is easy, fraud occurs. ” Marlow noted that while the media obsess over President Trump’s claim that millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, the Dow hit 20, 000, and everything “seems to be going Trump’s way. ” “And now he’s got the media focused on basically defending themselves for not covering this widespread fraud, and it’s a fraud not just in a literal sense, but also in the figurative sense, that the mainstream media has allowed this to happen because they have shown no interest in voter integrity,” Marlow said. “You would think this would be a huge story, but of course, it’s one that wasn’t in the interests of the mainstream media to cover, so they ignored it,” Carney agreed. “It’s yet another one of these stories that, I think, is going to wind up being one of the greatest unreported stories — that now we’ll get to the bottom of this. ” As Carney has assumed the lead role in Breitbart News’ financial and economic coverage, Marlow was most eager for his thoughts on the historic stock market high. “It’s a big deal. It’s a big milestone that reminds us how far we’ve come, just since election week,” Carney said. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 9. 5 percent just since Election Day, which is a big deal. ” “Just to give a sense, on average, the SP — which is a broader index, the SP 500, more stocks — is up about 7. 4 percent. On average, it’s about 7 percent a year,” he noted. “In just a couple of months since Election Day, we’re up what we usually do in about a year. Investors are very excited about the changes they see coming. ” As Marlow observed, this is the exact opposite of what many in the press predicted would occur after Trump won the election. “I’m divided in my own mind about whether it was just pure scare tactics or the bias of both the press and a lot of economists,” Carney said. “There were very prominent economists who were saying if Donald Trump is elected, the stock market will fall ten, fifteen percent. Beforehand, I understood this didn’t make any sense, and there were some of us out there saying no, why would the stock market fall? It will rise if you get a guy who’s going to pare back government regulation and cut taxes. ” “This is actually what we’re seeing now,” he asserted. “There’s a sort of hope reborn. Economists are actually now moving up their economic expectations. Everybody from the Federal Reserve now expects the economy to grow a little bit faster. The International Monetary Fund, of all places, has said they think under Trump, the economy will grow faster. ” “Investors had gotten very used to the idea that projections about where the economy was going were going to keep being lower and lower and lower,” he explained. “Ever since the great financial crisis, we would begin each year with some sort of rosy expectations, and then everybody would say, “Oh no, it’s going to be worse.’ For the first time in a long time, we’re actually seeing people move up their economic expectations. When it comes to the stock market, that translates into investors seeing more upsides than downsides. ” “In other words, people are willing to look at the future and say, ‘You know what? I think the risk is that we do better than we thought, rather than worse, which translates into higher stock prices.’ The term for this is just: people have hope again,” Carney said. Carney said Trump’s proposed tax cuts were one of the major policy initiatives driving this sense of renewed optimism in the markets. “If you cut the corporate tax rate, that just translates directly into higher earnings for companies,” he noted. “Another is the possibility of companies being able to move,” he continued. “You know, we’ve been hearing for years about how companies hold all this money abroad because they’re afraid to repatriate it, reinvest it in the U. S. economy, because they’re going to get a big tax hit. Well, if we cut taxes, a lot of that money can come back, get reinvested in expanding business in the U. S. which means more jobs, and, more importantly, better jobs for the American people. When the American people have better jobs, that means they can spend more, buy more, save more, and invest more. So there’s a sort of virtuous cycle going on here where that pushes up stocks. ” Carney also saluted Trump’s cabinet picks as being people who don’t “see business as the enemy. ” “These are guys who think that one of the things we need to do is remove some of the regulatory barriers that stand in the way of Americans expanding their businesses, starting their own businesses. That is really helping fuel this enthusiasm about the economy, and, therefore, about the stock market,” he said. Marlow pointed out that Trump has been criticized precisely for putting “too many Wall Street guys” in his cabinet, making it look like “a Goldman boardroom. ” “There’s something funny about that, right?” Carney responded. “A lot of the guys who they say are Wall Street guys or Goldman guys haven’t been on Wall Street or at Goldman for a long time. Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary nominee, he hasn’t touched Goldman Sachs for a long time. A guy very familiar to Breitbart people, Steve Bannon — yeah, he was at Goldman at one point, but that was ages ago. So a little bit of that is phony. ” “There are guys actually direct from Goldman, like Gary Cohn was president, he was the number two guy at Goldman. You know what? I think that it’s actually a sign of, rather than Donald Trump being sort of by Wall Street, Wall Street being by Donald Trump,” he mused. “In other words, Goldman wasn’t a friend of Donald Trump’s before he got elected, but now these guys are saying, ‘You know what? Let’s be a part of what’s happening in the American economy. This is a really exciting time. I want to be a part of this.’ So I welcome it,” he said. “Rather than standing in opposition, I think there was a lot of fatalism,” Carney theorized. “People said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get on Hillary Clinton’s side because we think it’s just going to be another eight years of Obama followed by the Clintons.’ They see change in the air, and they say, ‘You know what? Let’s get on board. ’” Carney anticipated that markets would “continue to go higher. ” “After we hit 20, 000 yesterday, we stayed above 20, 000. We’re set to go even higher today,” he pointed out. “Today is my birthday, so I look at this almost as a birthday gift for me. We’re going to open for the first time higher than 20, 000 on my birthday, and it’s largely because we elected a guy who is going to improve the American economy, and it’s going to just keep happening. It’s a very helpful sign, not just for investors. Investors are enthusiastic because they believe the economy is getting better. We’ve thrown off the slow growth of the last eight years, and we’re set for something better. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 0fake |
U.S. not weighing Middle East troop hikes over Iran concerns: Mattis | TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday he was not considering hiking the number of U.S. forces in the Middle East to address Iran’s “misbehavior” at this time, but warned that the world would not ignore Iranian activities. President Donald Trump has vowed a more aggressive policy against Tehran and his administration is warning of concrete action if Iran does not curb its ballistic missile program and continues support in regional proxy conflicts. The United States announced new sanctions on Friday, just two days after the Trump administration put Iran “on notice” following a ballistic missile test. Mattis said putting Iran on notice was worthwhile, given its behavior. “As far as Iran goes, this is the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and I think it is wise to make certain that Iran recognizes that what it is doing is getting the attention of a lot of people,” Mattis told a news conference in Tokyo in his most detailed remarks on Iran since taking over the Pentagon. Still, he firmly played down the idea of any military buildup. “I don’t see any need to increase the number of forces we have in the Middle East at this time. That’s not in the cards right now,” he said. “We always have the capability to do so. But right now I don’t think it’s necessary.” The United States has already sent a Navy destroyer to patrol off the coast of Yemen to protect waterways from Houthi militia aligned with Iran. But there are other actions Washington could take, including giving greater priority to rotating aircraft carriers through the Gulf. There is currently no U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf, for example. The U.S. Navy believes having a robust presence helps deter any moves by Iran to block that strategic waterway. In 2008 and 2010, in moves that prompted critics to accuse Iran of destabilizing the region, the Islamic Republic threatened to disrupt oil shipping in the Gulf by shutting the Strait of Hormuz if there were any attack on its nuclear sites. Mattis said ignoring Iranian behavior - something former President Barack Obama’s critics routinely accused him of doing - wouldn’t work. “It does no good to ignore it, it does no good to dismiss it,” Mattis said, without citing Obama or his policies. The White House has said that while the latest sanctions were a reaction to recent events, they had been under consideration before. It added that a landmark 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program was not in the best interest of the United States. Iran denounced the sanctions as illegal and said it would impose legal restrictions on American individuals and entities helping “regional terrorist groups”, state TV quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying. Those affected under the sanctions cannot access the U.S. financial system or deal with U.S. companies and are subject to secondary sanctions, meaning foreign companies and individuals are prohibited from dealing with them or risk being blacklisted by the United States. | 0fake |
A Thanksgiving Tribute & Meditation For Standing Rock | A Thanksgiving Tribute & Meditation For Standing Rock Nov 24, 2016 0 0
On Thursday, November 24th, we come together with friends, family, and loved ones in gratitude, as is tradition, on this day in the United States. On this day, we are reminded of our gratefulness to our native people for their hospitality to new settlers, who arrived in the Americas during the European discovery of the land.
Are we today, truly, still grateful to our native brothers and sisters?
In this day and age, during times of deep trauma for our native family at Standing Rock, in North Dakota, how can we truly give back and offer a hand of support and thanks, while celebrating this tradition in our homes?
To begin with, giving thanks on Thanksgiving is not limited to the physical borders of the US, nor is it limited to the people of this country. As we the people of the world, as one humanity, come together to increase awareness of our Earth’s challenges, we are reminded that what happens in one corner of our world, happens too in the most far and remote corner. We are one big family. Thus, we celebrate traditions together, as we also come together to stand up for the rights of one another. We share in love and joy, as we too share in pain and despair.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
How many of us have watched, read, and heard of the human rights violations going on with water protectors at Standing Rock, and have wished for peace and justice for all? The United Nations has very clearly defined the rights of indigenous people in their “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” . It is 15 pages long, and it has 46 articles. The following article very clearly articulates the rights of the indigenous peoples in this particular circumstance:
“Article 32
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources.
2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.
3. States shall provide effective mechanisms for just and fair redress for any such activities, and appropriate measures shall be taken to mitigate adverse environmental, economic, social, cultural or spiritual impact.”
On September 20th, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dave Archambault II, traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council for support. There were more than a dozen of other tribal leaders there, who were also testifying to the destruction of their lands and water, due to private corporations (largely oil companies) and governments, who have unlawfully, and in an inhuman manner, taken over private native lands for their own gain. This is being reported in both mainstream as well as alternative news outlets.
“The oil companies and the government of the United States have failed to respect our sovereign rights,” as testified by Archambault to the UN. “I am here because oil companies are causing the deliberate destruction of our sacred places and burials,” said Archambault. “Dakota Access Pipeline wants to build an oil pipeline under the river that is the source of our nation’s drinking water. Thousands have gathered peacefully in Standing Rock in solidarity against the pipeline. We stand in peace, but have been met with violence ,” Archambault said to the Council.
Thanks to the determination of Dave Archambault II, tribal members, and all water protectors, the United Nations is now investigating the treatment of people at Standing Rock by North Dakota law enforcement.
“When you look at what the international standards are for the treatment of people, and you are in a place like the United States, it’s really astounding to hear some of this testimony.” A lot of it was just very shocking.”said Roberto Borrero, a representative of the UN International Indian Treaty Council, of his time spent interviewing tribal members and water protectors from all over who have gathered peacefully at Standing Rock. He was deeply shocked by what he and other observers witnessed and heard during their visit there.
We live in a time, where the United States of America, is being asked to not invade other countries, but instead to look right into the heartland of the USA, and choose to do what is right by her own people. Why do we choose to get involved in one human rights abuse, but not another? How can we invade countries, even at times going against the will of other nations and the United Nations (e.g. Iraq, which was declared illegal by the UN ) to “go it alone” at war over claimed human rights abuses. Tell me, USA, why are you turning a blind eye here at home? Are you more interested in Oil, money and corporate support? Are you really here for your people? What do we have to truly celebrate this Thanksgiving?
The whole world is watching. We, the citizens of the USA, are watching.
Show us what you stand for USA.
Let’s pray for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, for all water protectors at their camp, and for all forms of light and justice to emanate into a ball of light so powerful, that all acts of darkness are completely turned into love. May the North Dakota law enforcement and all private militarized forces surrounding Standing Rock, completely drop their weapons against all. Let’s pray for a complete stop to all activities that are not in alignment with our sacred Earth and the human rights of ALL.
Let’s protect our Earth, and Mother Nature’s bounty. Let’s protect our native people. Let’s protect one another.
We all need water. We are water. Without water, we do not survive. If we are to be the masters of our own ship, we must be the master of our human right to accessible and clean water rightfully available to us through our Mother Earth.
Please, let’s all come together on Thanksgiving, and everyday there after, and practice a 3 minute meditation called, “The Golden Thread” . There are different versions of this meditation. The one being referred to here is from the Swiss spiritual leader, Annette Kaiser , who “sees the 21st Century as a call for humanity to recognize itself as inseparably One, co-creating a new culture in collective wisdom and love of One Heart”.
The project “The Golden Thread” has been initiated by a group of world citizens based in Austria, Germany an Switzerland, “bound by a deep love for the Earth”. This meditation “invites you to pause once a day for three minutes for ONE WORLD, our living space”. This is an excellent way to address any global imbalances while contributing towards a peaceful world for all.
“It is our idea to practice the following meditation daily for one year as a voluntarily chosen contribution for ONE WORLD.”
The Golden Thread Meditation: Look for a quiet place See in front of your inner eye the globe in all its beauty Now turn towards a geographic region that you feel drawn to or that is afflicted with hardship. Let yourself be guided by your heart in this Now pause for three minutes and connect in love and compassion with this region, letting the light of your heart flow there without wanting a specific outcome Let yourself be touched and filled with your meditation
When we all apply this meditation as a peaceful force of love at Standing Rock, we can truly add to the process of restoring peace and healing there. We can support our water protectors, and Mother Earth. A helpful reminder to practice this meditation daily, is to wear a simple golden thread on your wrist or on another area of your body. Will you commit to this 3 minute daily meditation for up to a month, 3 months, or one year? Once the pipeline construction is stopped, it is still beneficial to send healing to the area that is Standing Rock.
“Being many, we change the world.”– The Golden Thread
Let’s come together as one people, on this day, and everyday thereafter, to give thanks to our native people, who have taught and given us so much.
It is so much easier to look away from injustice. To turn a blind eye, so-to-say. For what we see, hear, and feel, truly does affect us. At the same time, where there is injustice, we must look, and we must find a way to help. Awareness is the first step.
“I recognize that awareness is the first step in healing or changing. I become more aware with each passing day.” – Louise Hay
Please join us in the “Golden Thread” meditation today, at your own time, and in your own way. Commit to this 3 minute meditation everyday thereafter, as a call to peace for Standing Rock, and for all. Also, please take part in the globally synchronized prayer for Standing Rock on Saturday, November 26th, at 3pm central standard time (9pm GMT). Here is a link with more information to the event.
Let’s all unite in love, and be a powerful force of light that shines light into the darkest corners of our world. Let’s fall in love with ourselves, with our lovers, with our brothers and sisters, with our family, with our friends, with our neighbors, with animals, with plants, with the sky, with the Earth, with the moon, and with the stars again. Let’s love, and let’s dream the biggest and most beautiful dream of our new reality. Visualize it, feel it, live it. We create it. We are love. We are one.
Happy day of Thanks and of Giving to all, and blessings and gratitude to our indigenous family at Standing Rock. Peace, love, support and gratitude to all. Thanksgiving Blessings!
Ulonda Faye is a certified wellness practitioner, holistic esthetician, and Rejuv Miracles Practitioner. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies, and has taken part in Peace and Conflict Research in Germany. She offers online and in-person education in holistic skincare, self-love, beauty rituals, and life coaching. | 1real |
UNREAL! SHEILA JACKSON LEE DEMANDS THAT TRUMP RESIGN: Goes At It With Neil Cavuto: “You’ve come to the conclusion he’s guilty as sin” [Video] | Neil Cavuto faced off with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee over her call for President Trump to resign after his tweets attacking Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough: Enough is ENOUGH! @realDonaldTrump you need to resign! This woman is just hateful! She claims to know Trump is unhappy GMAFB!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKPPzMPRrNYThis woman is a perfect example of the SWAMP in DC. She needs to go! She s mooched off of the American people for way too long and is a hateful racist!She says in the video above that she s gone through impeachments before, but said, We can t wait that long. It is time for you to resign. Enough is enough. I love America. I love these people. And we need a Commander-in-Chief. Cavuto confronted her about this and brought up the coarse language from presidents past. She argued that he is incompatible with the office, and in addition to issues like Russia and James Comey, his continuous assault on women only adds to it.She called Trump ill-suited for the office, and when Cavuto pressed her further by saying let the American people decide, the congresswoman responded by pointing to the President s low poll numbers.Jackson said she s going by his behavior in decrying his unfitness for office and Cavuto shot back by saying she just doesn t like him.They kept going back and forth, including on the question of the 25th amendment, and Cavuto asked her if she should be waiting for more evidence of something actionable.Jackson Lee said impeachment is a separate matter, telling Cavuto, I hope he does the right thing and resigns. And yes, she is completely standing by this: I will not back down. The President has lost the trust of the American people and needs to resign. WWE KNOW THIS WOMAN HAS A LONG HISTORY OF BULLYING PEOPLE. PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW OF AN EXCHANGE WITH MICK MULVANEY HE GETS INTO IT WITH HER:Mick Mulvaney is one smart cookie. He s doing a fantastic job cutting where cuts need to be made. Congress will complain about ANY cut to their voter base s favorite item. Listen to the grandstanding from Jackson-Lee on cuts to medicaid: They are begging for their medicaid The Grandstanding is so sickening!It went downhill from there. Jackson-Lee wanted to try and make Mulvaney out to be an uncaring guy. She s a total bully!HE S ONE SMART COOKE! MULVANEY JUST GAVE DETAILS OF THE BUDGET CUTS IN A FANTASTIC PRESS CONFERENCE. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE ENTIRE VIDEO BELOW: Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney outlines the structure, intents and purposes of the Trump administration Fiscal Year 2018 Budget The Taxpayers Budget The best part of this great news conference is when a reporter asks about cuts to climate science programs : At the 17:00 mark Mick Mulvaney rips into the reporter and it s just awesome!We recommend the entire video because you ll see Trump hired one smart cookie! Mick Mulvaney knows the budget and handles the press beautifully! | 1real |
Fed Official Says She Favors ‘Prudence’ in Raising Interest Rates - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Lael Brainard, a Federal Reserve governor and a leading proponent of the Fed’s efforts to stimulate the economy, said in a speech on Monday that she still favored “prudence” in raising interest rates despite recent signs of economic progress. The remarks reinforce expectations that the Fed will not raise its benchmark interest rate when its committee meets on Sept. 20 and 21, and investors celebrated accordingly. Stocks rose and interest rates fell, reversing much of the market movement on Friday, when investors worried the Fed might move toward a rate increase. But pressure continues to build for a rate increase before the end of the year. A few hours before Ms. Brainard spoke, Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, joined a growing list of Fed officials arguing that the economy was strong enough to justify an increase in borrowing costs. He called for a “serious discussion” at the September meeting. The Fed also faced new pressure from Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, who said on Monday on CNBC that the Fed’s chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, was keeping rates low “because she’s obviously political and doing what Obama wants her to do. ” Ms. Yellen “should be ashamed of herself,” he added. Mr. Trump’s criticism of Ms. Yellen and the Fed breaks with the general practice of presidents and presidential candidates in recent decades to refrain from criticizing the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, castigated Mr. Trump last week for similar remarks. “Words have consequences,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters. “Words move markets. Words can be misinterpreted. Words can have effects on people’s 401( k)’s, their pension funds, their stock portfolios. ” “He should not be adding the Fed onto his long list of institutions and individuals that he is maligning,” she added. Fed officials insist they will not consider the political consequences of increasing rates. They may, however, hesitate to act before the November election out of concern for the economic consequences of political turbulence, the same way they hesitated before Britain’s referendum in June on its membership in the European Union. Ms. Yellen, presiding over an increasingly fractious group of policy makers, has sought to emphasize their common ground. She said in an August speech that the case for raising rates had become stronger in recent months, but she stopped short of saying that it was time to raise rates. Ms. Brainard’s speech Monday was the last before the Fed’s blackout period, effectively giving her the last word in the public debate among Fed officials ahead of the September meeting. Ms. Brainard agreed reluctantly to support the Fed’s first rate increase in December, but she has stiffened in her concerns. Since then, she has made a habit of laying down markers before important Fed meetings, making the case for patience in March and again in June. On Monday, she once again seized the spotlight to explain why she is still not ready to raise interest rates. Ms. Brainard said recent economic data raised some questions about the strength of growth, and there was certainly no sign of resurgent inflation. “In the presence of uncertainty and the absence of accelerating inflationary pressures, it would be unwise for policy to foreclose on the possibility of making further gains in the labor market,” she told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She added that the context in which the Fed operates had also changed. A global decline in market interest rates means that the force of the Fed’s stimulus campaign has been reduced even without a rate increase. Moreover, she noted that the weakness of the global economy continued to weigh on the United States, contributing to an environment of persistently low growth and low inflation. Finally, she said that she remained more concerned about moving too quickly than waiting too long. The Fed has few tools to ward off fresh weakness in the economy, while it can easily respond to an inflationary resurgence. “This asymmetry in risk management in today’s new normal counsels prudence in the removal of policy accommodation,” Ms. Brainard said. “I believe that this approach has served us well. ” Daniel Tarullo, another Fed governor, said in a CNBC interview on Friday that he too favored patience. Mr. Tarullo described himself as a member of the “‘ ’ camp” that wants to see evidence of stronger inflation before raising rates. So far, he said, there is not enough. “From my personal perspective, I think we have an opportunity to continue to get employment gains,” Mr. Tarullo said. Other officials argue that inflation always follows stronger growth if the Fed waits for the inevitable increase, they warn, the Fed may need to raise rates more sharply, causing a recession. Mr. Tarullo said in the interview, however, that officials who took this view should still have hesitations about the outlook for growth. He described the recent economic data as a mixed bag. A growing number of Fed officials argue that this caution is misdirected. Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said in a speech on Friday that raising rates in the near term could actually help extend the economic expansion, now in its eighth year. The Fed may now be providing too much stimulus, he said, and overheating could end up forcing sharper rate increases. “If we want to ensure that we remain at full employment, gradual tightening is likely to be appropriate,” Mr. Rosengren said in Quincy, Mass. “A failure to continue on the path of gradual removal of accommodation could shorten, rather than lengthen, the duration of this recovery. ” Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — and, like Mr. Rosengren, one of the 10 Fed officials with a policy vote this year — has expressed concern that low rates are encouraging excessive speculation, birthing future financial crises. Ms. George is the only Fed official to vote to raise rates this year. Fed officials still could coalesce around a rate increase, as they did last year. After September, the Fed has two more meetings on the calendar, in November and December. Asked what it would take to win her vote, Ms. Brainard said she would like to see more inflation. She also noted recent weakness in some economic measures like corporate profits and investment. “It would be important, I think, to see some of those spending indicators starting to really move in a more positive direction going into the third and fourth quarter,” Ms. Brainard said. | 0fake |
In Turkey’s Unrest, Some See an Extreme Version of Post-9/11 America - The New York Times | ISTANBUL — An Islamic State disciple kills 39 New Year’s revelers at an Istanbul nightclub. A gunman with a police badge assassinates Russia’s ambassador at an Ankara reception. Kurdish separatist bombers kill 14 soldiers on a bus in central Turkey and dozens of police officers at an Istanbul soccer match. Those assaults were just in the last few weeks, which made a car bombing on Thursday in the city of Izmir, where at least two civilians were killed, seem relatively minor. The 75 million people of Turkey, the NATO member and European Union aspirant that straddles Europe and Asia and was once seen as a stable democracy, are facing a ferocious onslaught of terrorist attacks unlike anything that has been seen in the West. Add to that the tumult from roughly three million Syrian war refugees, a resurgent Kurdish insurgency and a failed military coup — all tied, in the eyes of many Turks, to American negligence, or malice, or both. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has responded with a furious crackdown on an array of perceived enemies, including the news media, and has lashed out at what he regards as Western complicity. While Mr. Erdogan’s critics have denounced what they see as a bald usurpation of power that has subverted democracy and polarized the country, many Turks, frightened and uncertain, are not complaining. They view his authoritarianism as reassuring and angrily reject outsider comments about paranoia and conspiracy theories. Some are even embracing the advent of Donald J. Trump, despite his statements, viewing him as a decisive strongman sympathetic to Mr. Erdogan, an Islamist with little tolerance for those who dispute him. In some ways, political historians and scholars say, what is happening in Turkey parallels the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the 2015 attacks in France and, most recently, the response to attacks in Germany. In all of them, many citizens were willing to overlook or forsake civil liberties, government powers grew, fringe groups strengthened and spread intolerance, and dissent was regarded with suspicion. “I think there are a lot of similar tendencies, and it leads to, in an extreme case, what we’re seeing in Turkey,” said Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East and African Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Still, Mr. Cook said, “It’s not that far a leap to go to an extreme — can you imagine if the attacks in Turkey had happened in the United States?” On Friday, Hilal Kaplan, a columnist for Daily Sabah, a newspaper close to the government, lashed out at Western news coverage, including an article in The New York Times, that has emphasized conspiracy theories coursing through Turkish society that the United States is behind terrorism in Turkey. Describing the article as “an attempt to condescend and affront rather than reflecting an effort to understand Turkey,” Ms. Kaplan said that Turks have good reason to be suspicious of the United States. She pointed out that Fethullah Gulen, the cleric and former Erdogan ally who many Turks believe was behind the coup attempt, lives in Pennsylvania, and that a former C. I. A. official had once vouched for Mr. Gulen on his green card application. In addition, she called attention to something else: The United States has provided military support to a Syrian Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State extremists, a militia that Turkey considers an ally of the P. K. K. the outlawed Kurdish separatist organization regarded as a terrorist enemy. In her Friday column, headlined “Why Turkey is looking forward to Trump administration,” she added, “do they really need such details if their only wish is to represent the Turkish people as paranoid and Erdogan as a villain?” In another parallel to America, the Turkish government has aggressively exploited tragic events to stoke patriotic feelings and to frame the broader struggle within the country as a fight to secure democracy, even if democratic practices are eroded to do so. The comparison was not lost on Turkish scholars, even those critical of Mr. Erdogan, who were in the United States when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. “I couldn’t believe the extent to which there was a rise in nationalism, even among academics,” said Kemal Kirisci, a senior fellow and director of The Turkey Project at the Brookings Institution, recalling his own memories of living in America. “I felt intimidated intellectually, almost felt censured. ” After the coup attempt, the government moved quickly to memorialize victims and places rived by violence, renaming a bridge in Istanbul and a square in Ankara, and changing street names to honor citizens who died defending Mr. Erdogan’s government. At year’s end, the prime minister’s office delivered packages to foreign correspondents in Turkey. Inside a black velvet box, with a silver clasp, was a small marble chunk, described as rubble from the Parliament building in Ankara, retrieved after an attack was carried out during the coup attempt. A note said that the rock “is presented to you as a symbol of Turkey’s devotion to democracy. ” And like American leaders who exhort citizens to maintain daily routines after terrorist attacks, the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, urged Turks this week to carry on. “Our citizens should not change the flow of their normal lives,” Mr. Yildirim said in a speech. “If they do, it will be serving the purposes of the terror group. ” Mr. Erdogan and his allies see a double standard in the West’s reaction to Turkey, and say that some of the same measures Turkey is taking to combat terrorism, like resorting to emergency rule, have been embraced in the West, particularly in France. It is this disconnect — between how Turkey perceives its own experience and the West’s reaction to events in Turkey — that has contributed to Turkey pulling away from its NATO allies, and moving closer to Russia. “In France there is emergency rule for three months, and again for three months, and lately for six months, in total for a year,” Mr. Erdogan said in September. “Is anyone from around the world asking France, ‘why did you declare emergency rule for a year? ’” Mr. Erdogan emphasized that the violence Turkey has faced is far greater than in countries like France. “My brothers, Turkey was the scene of terror incidents so heavy that they cannot be compared with France, and more importantly we faced a coup attempt,” he said. “From this perspective I believe my country will understand the extension of emergency rule, and support it. ” In a speech on Friday, Mr. Erdogan underscored the deep traumas Turkey has suffered in recent years. “I do not believe any other country exists that went on its way standing upright after living with what we have gone through since 2013,” Mr. Erdogan said. “We became a unique example in history. We showed democracy can be protected together with security challenges. ” Mr. Erdogan’s supporters say they are especially upset over how the West has reacted to Turkey’s response to terrorism, saying they had expected solidarity, not criticism. “This is an obvious, very serious and problematic disrespect against Turkey’s right to defend itself against terror,” said Mustafa Yeneroglu, a member of Parliament with Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party. Mr. Yeneroglu, the head of Parliament’s human rights committee, said Turkey faced the same conundrum any country faces when traumatized by terrorist acts. “If there is no security, there would be no room to enjoy the liberties,” he said. “This situation leads to prioritizing security while answering questions, ‘security or liberty?’ This is not only valid for Turkey but for all other liberal democracies. ” Turkish liberals say they understand the need for extraordinary measures, but they make two counter arguments. One is that Turkey’s broad crackdown — in putting so many journalists and intellectuals in jail — has gone too far, and is seemingly unrelated to fighting terrorism. Another is that, even with emergency rule, the country has become less safe. “On the contrary, we have faced more attacks, more terror,” said Yaman Akdeniz, a lawyer and professor at Bilgi University in Istanbul who represents many jailed journalists. He continued, “there is emergency rule in France, but there is no other country limiting fundamental rights and freedoms on this scale. ” Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a prominent human rights lawyer who was briefly detained after the attempted coup, put it this way: “Yes, ISIS is attacking. The P. K. K. is attacking. There was this coup d’état attempt. But what is this to do with all these journalists? There are over 150 journalists in jail. And with every passing day, they arrest more and more people. ” Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels who was a former European Union ambassador to Turkey, said the purges in the military, the courts and the police have, paradoxically, compromised the country’s ability to protect the public. Mr. Pierini also took issue with the government’s contention that its response to threats has been appropriate. “As we’ve seen after the coup, the reaction is way outside of the formal rule of law. You started arresting police and gendarmes, now writers, actors, journalists — so there is no limit,” he said. “When you start pulling the thread on the rule of law, the whole sweater can come off. And that’s where we stand. ” | 0fake |
Gary Johnson picks up his first congressional backer | Washington (CNN) Republican Rep. Scott Rigell is voting for Libertarian Gary Johnson for president over his party's nominee, Donald Trump.
Rigell, who has announced he will not run for re-election this year in his Virginia district, is the second Republican member of Congress to announce that he'll vote for someone other than Trump. Retiring New York Rep. Richard Hanna wrote in an op-ed for Syracuse.com this week that he'll instead back Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Rigell's announcement came in an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday, and Kaylin Minton, a spokeswoman for Rigell, confirmed the report's accuracy to CNN.
Hanna and Rigell's defections come as other notable Republicans have said they will either not vote for Trump or will back other candidates. Earlier this week, longtime Chris Christie aide Maria Comella told CNN's Jamie Gangel she plans to vote for Clinton , and Sally Bradshaw, Jeb Bush's top adviser, told Gangel she's leaving the Republican Party over Trump and will vote for Clinton in Florida if the race there is close.
And major GOP donor Meg Whitman announced earlier this week she'll support Clinton over Trump as well.
Amid Republican infighting over its anti-establishment nominee, the Clinton and Johnson campaigns have sought to grow their bases of support. For example, Whitman said she backed Clinton following a direct phone call from the former secretary of state.
Johnson said his campaign has reached out to Republican 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, who has pointedly refused to back Trump and said he's considering voting Libertarian.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican who hails from a competitive district in Colorado and recently put up a web video saying he "doesn't care" for Trump, said the congressman had spoken with Libertarian vice presidential nominee William Weld. Coffman has yet to declare his support for any candidate. | 0fake |
Virginia Governor Restores Voting Rights to Felons - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia used his executive power on Friday to restore voting rights to more than 200, 000 convicted felons, circumventing the legislature. The action effectively overturns a Civil provision in the state’s Constitution aimed, he said, at disenfranchising . The sweeping order, in a swing state that could play a role in deciding the November presidential election, will enable all felons who have served their prison time and finished parole or probation to register to vote. Nearly half are a core constituency of Democrats, Mr. McAuliffe’s political party. Amid intensifying national attention over harsh sentencing policies that have disproportionately affected governors and legislatures around the nation have been debating — and often fighting over — moves to restore voting rights for convicted felons. Virginia imposes especially harsh restrictions, barring felons from voting for life. In Kentucky, Gov. Matt Bevin, a newly elected Republican, recently overturned an order enacted by his Democratic predecessor that was similar to the one Mr. McAuliffe signed Friday. In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, vetoed a measure to restore voting rights to convicted felons, but Democrats in the state legislature overrode him in February and an estimated 44, 000 former prisoners who are on probation can now register to vote. “There’s no question that we’ve had a horrible history in voting rights as relates to — we should remedy it,” Mr. McAuliffe said in an interview Thursday, previewing the announcement he made on the steps of Virginia’s Capitol, just yards from where President Abraham Lincoln once addressed freed slaves. “We should do it as soon as we possibly can. ” Republicans in the Virginia Legislature have resisted measures to expand voting rights for convicted felons, and Mr. McAuliffe’s action, which he said was justified under an expansive legal interpretation of his executive clemency authority, provoked an immediate backlash. Virginia Republicans issued a statement Friday accusing the governor of “political opportunism” and “a transparent effort to win votes. ” “Those who have paid their debts to society should be allowed full participation in society,” said the statement from the party chairman, John Whitbeck. “But there are limits. ” He said Mr. McAuliffe was wrong to issue a blanket restoration of rights, even to those who “committed heinous acts of violence. ” The order includes those convicted of violent crimes, including murder and rape. There is no way to know how many of the newly eligible voters in Virginia will register. “My message is going to be that I have now done my part,” Mr. McAuliffe said. Nationally, an estimated 5. 85 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of felony convictions, according to The Sentencing Project, a Washington research organizations, which says one in five in Virginia cannot vote. Only two states, Maine and Vermont, have no voting restrictions on felons Virginia is among four — the others are Kentucky, Florida and Iowa — that have the harshest restrictions. Friday’s shift in Virginia is part of a national trend toward restoring voter rights to felons, based in part on the hope that it will aid former prisoners’ into society. Over the last two decades about 20 states have acted to ease their restrictions, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. In Kentucky, Mr. Bevin, who took office in November, promptly overturned an executive order issued by his predecessor, Steven L. Beshear, just before he left office. Then, last week, Mr. Bevin signed into law a less expansive measure, allowing felons to petition judges to vacate their convictions, which would enable them to vote. Previous governors in Florida and Iowa took executive action to ease their lifetime bans, but in each case, a subsequent governor restored the tough rules. Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, said Mr. McAuliffe’s decision would have lasting consequences because it will remain in effect at least until January 2018, when the governor leaves office. “This will be the single most significant action on disenfranchisement that we’ve ever seen from a governor,” Mr. Mauer said, “and it’s noteworthy that it’s coming in the middle of this term, not the day before he leaves office. So there may be some political heat but clearly he’s willing to take that on, which is quite admirable. ” Myrna Pérez, director of a voting rights project at the Brennan Center, said Mr. McAuliffe’s move was particularly important because Virginia has had such restrictive laws on voting by felons. Still, she said,“Compared to the rest of the country, this is a very middle of the road policy. ’’ Ms. Pérez said a number of states already had less restrictive policies than the one announced by Mr. McAuliffe. Fourteen states allow felons to vote after their prison terms are completed even while they remain on parole or probation. Advocates who have been working with the Virginia governor say they are planning to fan out into Richmond communities Friday to start registering people. Experts say with the stroke of his pen, Mr. McAuliffe has allowed convicted felons to begin registering to vote, and that their voting rights cannot be revoked — even if a new governor rescinds the order for future released prisoners. But the move led to accusations that the governor was playing politics he is a longtime friend of — and for — Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee for president, and former President Bill Clinton. In the interview, Mr. McAuliffe said that he was not acting for political reasons, and that few people outside his immediate staff knew of his plan. He said he did not consult with Mrs. Clinton or her campaign before making the decision. The executive order builds on steps the governor had already taken to restore voting rights to 18, 000 Virginians since the beginning of his term, and he said he believed his authority to issue the decision was “ironclad. ” Prof. A. E. Dick Howard of the University of Virginia School of Law, the principal draftsman of a revised Constitution adopted by Virginia in 1971, agreed, and said the governor had “ample authority. ” But Professor Howard, who advised Mr. McAuliffe on the issue, said the move might well be challenged in court. The most likely argument, he said, is that the governor cannot restore voting rights to an entire class of people all at once. Virginia’s Constitution has prohibited felons from voting since the Civil War the restrictions were expanded in 1902, as part of a package that included poll taxes and literacy tests. In researching the provisions, advisers to the governor turned up a 1906 report that quoted Carter Glass, a Virginia state senator, as saying they would “eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this State in less than five years, so that in no single county of the Commonwealth will there be the least concern felt for the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government. ” Mr. McAuliffe, who took office in 2014 and campaigned to restore voting rights to felons, said that he viewed disenfranchisement as “a remnant of the poll tax” and that he had been “trying to figure out what more I can possibly do. ” The governor’s action Friday will not apply to felons released in the future his aides say Mr. McAuliffe intends to issue similar orders on a monthly basis to cover people as they are released. “People have served their time and done their probation,” Mr. McAuliffe said. “I want you back in society. I want you feeling good about yourself. I want you voting, getting a job, paying taxes. ’’ | 0fake |
U.S. Funding for Fighting Zika Virus Is Nearly Spent, C.D.C. Says - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday that federal funds to fight the Zika virus were nearly exhausted, and that if Congress did not replenish them soon, there would be no money to fight a new outbreak. As of Friday, the C. D. C. had spent $194 million of the $222 million it was allocated to fight the virus, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the agency. Congress left for its summer recess without approving additional funding. Now that the virus is actively circulating in Florida, Dr. Frieden is pressing his case for funding with new urgency. On Tuesday, Florida officials announced three new Zika cases in County. One was in Miami Beach, where the virus is already circulating. The state is trying to determine where the other two infections occurred. The agency has sent about $35 million to Florida, much of which has already been spent, largely on killing mosquitoes. But if Florida has another cluster of Zika cases, or if one surfaced in another state, the agency would not be able to send emergency funds, Dr. Frieden said. “The cupboard is bare, there’s no way to provide that,” Dr. Frieden said at a briefing with health reporters in Washington. Don Stewart, deputy chief of staff to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said Republicans in the Senate have scheduled a vote on a $1. 1 billion Zika package next Tuesday, when Congress comes back into session. But Democrats have been blocking consideration of the Republican package because it would exclude Planned Parenthood from the list of providers that get new funding for contraception to combat spread of the virus, which can be sexually transmitted. The issue of funding is urgent, public health experts say, because the Gulf Coast, where the Zika mosquito mostly lives, is only about halfway through peak mosquito season (it will not start to taper off until October) and the chances that the virus could start circulating in Houston or New Orleans are relatively high. The Zika virus causes only a mild illness in most people, but it can be devastating to the developing fetuses of pregnant women who are infected — causing brains to stop developing and infants’ skulls to collapse. There have been 16 infants born in the continental United States with what appears to be the condition called microcephaly, Dr. Frieden said, and those numbers are likely to grow. As of Aug. 11, the C. D. C. was tracking 1, 200 pregnant women who have had Zika infections. That was up from 750 cases on July 11. The shortfall of funding comes as officials are reporting surprising success with mosquito control in Florida. Aerial spraying over the Miami neighborhood with the locally transmitted cases in the continental United States has been highly effective, Dr. Frieden said. The success seems to have come from combining sprays that kill adult mosquitoes with sprays that kill larvae. (Adult sprays on their own were not as effective.) The outcome goes against conventional wisdom that aerial spraying does not work against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the type that carries Zika. “What we’ve seen is very dramatic reduction in mosquito populations there,” Dr. Frieden said. He said the area was about halfway through the period after which it will be cleared of the virus if no new cases emerge. Should funding not materialize, critical programs could be cut, Dr. Frieden said. For example, Puerto Rico, a territory with the largest number of Zika cases in the United States — more than 8, 700 at last count — has no mosquito control agency, and the C. D. C. had requested funding to start building one. Some funds were included in the $222 million the agency received, but not nearly enough. “We are not able to get a good running start on it,” Dr. Frieden said. Congress has been feuding over Zika funding since February, when President Obama made a $1. 9 billion request for emergency spending to fight the virus. Republicans balked, and eventually put forth their $1. 1 billion plan. With funding dwindling, the Obama administration recently shifted $81 million away from biomedical research and antipoverty and health care programs, to keep the lights on in the development of a Zika vaccine. One option could be for lawmakers to include money for Zika in the larger stopgap funding measure to keep the government running that Congress must begin working on next week. It is an open question whether Republicans and Democrats could agree on a compromise amount, but the growing number of Zika cases in Florida lends a new urgency to the matter. “If they don’t have money left in their grants, we don’t have money left, either,” Dr. Frieden said of states and their funds. | 0fake |
WHY DID PRESIDENT TRUMP Receive 100 Day Scrutiny While Other Presidents Got A Pass [Video] | What factors determine what makes the first 100 days of a president a success? Roosevelt had urgency and opportunity as his two main things Others followed with not much focus on the first 100 days The Wall Street Journal gives us the lowdown on all of the presidents and asks why Trump is under the microscope Unfair? Arbitrary? We d like to know what you think Here s what President Trump had to say about his first 100 days in office: We re moving awfully well. We ve got a lot of things done. We are, I don t think there s ever been anything like this. It s a false standard, 100 days, but I have to tell you, but I don t think anyone has done what we ve been able to do. President TrumpHere s the very last rally and speech before the election. It was held in Grand Rapids Michigan: | 1real |
CHILLING PHOTO Captures FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER Carrying Baby Moments Before She Blows Both Of Them Up | Why would President Trump want America to enforce a travel ban on refugees from terror hotbed nations? Why wouldn t we want to import so many nice, trustworthy people with so many common values and similar customs?At first sight the picture appears to show a mother cradling her young child as she flees an Islamic State-held area of Mosul.But a closer look reveals she is holding a trigger., which she will pull seconds later.An Iraqi TV station captured the moment before a suspected female Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) suicide bomber blew herself and the baby up near Iraqi troops.She had apparently tried to detonate an explosives vest hidden under her hijab as she passed the soldiers, but it failed to go off until she had walked some distance away, a cameraman for al-Mawsleya TV said.She was killed along with her child, while two soldiers and several civilians were injured.The station had been filming the battle between Iraqi troops and Isil fighters and did not realise what they had caught on camera until they reviewed their footage later.The jihadists have used everything in their arsenal to fend off the troops in the final throes of the nine month-long offensive.Isil s use of female suicide bombers in battle, while not new, is exceedingly rare and demonstrates the group s desperation.More than 20 female suicide bombers hiding among civilians are believed to have detonated explosives in the last two weeks.One general claimed they were even using their own children as human shields. The women are fighting with their children right beside them, Lieutenant General Sami al-Aridi said. It s making us hesitant to use air strikes, to advance. If it weren t for this we could be finished in just a few hours. Preventing the attacks has proved difficult. Iraq s socially conservative culture means soldiers do not ask women to lift up their clothes to check for explosives as they do men. Telegraph UK | 1real |
‘Martyrs Without Causes’: Maher Calls Out Crazies On Both The Right And The Left (VIDEO) | Bill Maher is all about telling it like it is, and that is just what he did on his New Rules segment of Friday night s edition of his HBO show Real Time. First, the comedic host took the terrorists who are currently occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon to task, and rightly pointed out that they really don t have a reason for being there. He zeroed in on notorious anti-Muslim nutjob Jon Ritzheimer, who infamously filmed a hilarious goodbye video to his children, saying your daddy swore an oath, and that s why he can t be there. Maher said of Ritzheimer and his video: Just listen here to one them, patriot Jon Ritzheimer, explaining to his kids in a video he posted from his truck, why he had to leave. After playing a clip of Ritzheimer, Maher said: Wow, seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to get out of spending time with your family at the holidays Why not just drink like the rest of us. The host then went on to mock the shopping list of supplies the Oregon militants were requesting from the public so that they can continue their lawless occupation of federal property indefinitely.Maher didn t stop, there, though. After blasting the militants, he reminded those of us on the left that we have our own brand of crazy. He played a clip of a Yale student s expletive-filled rant regarding offensive Halloween costumes at a professor that was trying to make an argument for free speech.While microaggressions and cultural appropriation are definitely a problem, there are people who go too far in their opposition to such things. That kind of ranting behavior only makes the cause and its supporters look nuts, and makes everyone who shares the ideology lose credibility to seem just as crazy.In conclusion, Maher also pointed out that there s not much difference between the extremists of the two sides, and that s something everyone should think about, regardless of political ideology.Extremism in either direction just not a good thing.Watch the hilarious, and oh so true, clip below:Featured image: screen capture | 1real |
Britain's Johnson says as May heads to Brussels: time to begin serious Brexit talks | LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Britain s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it was time to begin serious negotiations on Brexit, hours before Prime Minister Theresa May visits Brussels in an attempt to unlock the stalled talks. We think in the UK that it is time to get on with these negotiations ... for us to start some serious conversations about the future and the new relationship, the deep and special partnership we hope to construct, Johnson told reporters. I think we will work very much in the interests of both sides ... let s put a tiger in the tank, let s get these negotiations going and stop letting the grass grow under our feet. We hope very much that our friends and partners will take that message and really begin to do some serious negotiations. Johnson, arriving for talks in Luxembourg with his European Union peers on Monday, also said London made a very good and fair offer on safeguarding expatriates rights after Britain leaves the European Union. May s office said on Sunday she would meet the European Union s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and the head of the bloc s executive Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in Brussels on Monday. | 0fake |
Exclusive: Majority of Americans want Congress to move on from healthcare reform - Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - A majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare reform at this point after the U.S. Senate’s effort to dismantle Obamacare failed on Friday, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Saturday. Nearly two-thirds of the country wants to either keep or modify the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and a majority of Americans want Congress to turn its attention to other priorities, the survey found. Republicans have vowed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act since Democratic President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2010, and it appeared they finally had their chance when Republican President Donald Trump took office in January. But the law, which helped 20 million people obtain health insurance, has steadily grown more popular. The July 28-29 poll of more than 1,130 Americans, conducted after the Republican-led effort collapsed in the Senate, found that 64 percent said they wanted to keep Obamacare, either “entirely as is” or after fixing “problem areas.” That is up from 54 percent in January. The survey found that support for the law still runs along party lines, with nine out of 10 Democrats and just three out of 10 Republicans saying they wanted to keep or modify Obamacare. Among Republicans, three-fourths said they would like their party’s leaders to try to repeal and replace Obamacare at some point, though most listed other issues that they would give a higher priority right now. Disappointment among Republicans and happiness among Democrats about the repeal’s failure were palpable. Two-thirds of Republicans felt “bad” that the Senate failed to pass a healthcare bill, while three-fourths of Democrats felt “good,” according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. When asked what they think Congress should do next, most Americans picked other priorities such as tax reform, foreign relations and infrastructure. Only 29 percent said they wanted Republicans in Congress to “continue working on a new healthcare bill.” Gene Anderson, 81, a Trump voter living in a retirement community in Zionsville, Indiana, said the president should “refocus on some stability in his administration and some demonstration of being able to work together with Democrats in Congress.” “I don’t understand why they had to push for healthcare reform before tax reform,” he said. “They ought to sit down and come up with a viable legislative, doable tax reform.” Americans appear to be more supportive of some of the main features of Obamacare. For example, 77 percent said they were in favor of expanding Medicaid to low-income families, and 43 percent said they favored requiring U.S. residents to own health insurance. That was up from 66 percent and 36 percent, respectively, when Reuters/Ipsos first asked those questions in April 2012. The latest Republican effort failed when Senator John McCain split from his party’s leadership and joined Republican colleagues Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowksi and Senate Democrats to vote against a so-called skinny repeal eliminating certain aspects of Obamacare. McCain later said the measure “offered no replacement to actually reform our healthcare system.” Respondents said they thought a lot of people shared responsibility for the failure on healthcare. When asked who “is most responsible,” 20 percent picked Senate Republicans, 13 percent said Trump, and 11 percent said McCain. The rest picked Senate Democrats and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Senators Collins and Murkowski. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,136 people, including 381 Republicans and 475 Democrats. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points. | 0fake |
Investigators probe Trump knowledge of campaign's Russia dealings: sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned Sam Clovis, co-chairman of President Donald Trump’s election campaign, to determine if Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign team’s contacts with Russia, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday. The focus of the questions put to Clovis by Mueller’s team has not been previously reported. “The ultimate question Mueller is after is whether candidate Trump and then President-elect Trump knew of the discussions going on with Russia, and who approved or even directed them,” said one source. “That is still just a question.” Clovis testified in late October before the grand jury in Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He is also cooperating with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating the same issues. Contacted late on Friday, the White House declined to comment. One of the sources described Clovis as “another domino” after former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over his own contacts with Russians during the 2016 election campaign. “The investigators now know what Papadopoulos was doing on the Russian front, which he initially tried to conceal, and who he told that to,” said the other source. “Now [they] want to know whether Clovis and others reported these activities and others related to Russia, and if so, to whom,” this source said. Attorneys for Clovis did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Papadopoulos had no immediate comment. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment. According to court documents related to Papadopoulos’ guilty plea, he reported to Clovis in an email on a March 24, 2016, meeting he had in London with a professor later identified as Joseph Mifsud. Mifsud in turn introduced him to a Russian woman and the Russian ambassador in London, and they discussed setting up meetings to talk about U.S.-Russia ties in a Trump presidency. The documents showed Clovis responded to the proposed meetings by saying he would “work it through the campaign.” While he told Papadopoulos not to make a commitment then to set up those meetings, he congratulated him for “great work.” In August 2016, after Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, Clovis encouraged Papadopoulos to “make the trip” when Papadopoulos proposed going to an off-the-record meeting with unnamed Russian officials, the court documents show. Victoria Toensing, one of Clovis’s lawyers, said last week her client “always vigorously opposed any Russian trip for Donald Trump and/or the campaign”. After Papadopoulos’ guilty plea, the White House and former Trump campaign officials dismissed Papadopoulos and Clovis as minor figures in the campaign. The campaign’s National Security Advisory Committee, which Clovis formed, has become a focus of the investigations by both Mueller and the Senate, sources said. “Sam built the first group of eight,” J.D. Gordon, the director of the campaign foreign policy group, told Reuters, adding that he and then-Senator Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. Attorney General, had “nearly doubled” it in size. However, two other sources familiar with the investigations said investigators have been told the committee Clovis formed did very little, and that other advisers appeared to carry more weight with Trump. | 0fake |
As Obamacare repeal falters, insurers start to press on subsidies | NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A failed Republican effort to replace Obamacare raised new concerns on Tuesday for U.S. health insurers over whether the government will continue to fund billions of dollars in medical benefit subsidies. The healthcare bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate would have settled the funding question, but was scrapped after Republican leaders were unable to rally enough party members to win approval. Its demise will test the ability of Republicans and Democrats to stabilize an insurance market serving some 10 million Americans in time for 2018. Republican President Donald Trump has suggested several times that he could eliminate the so-called cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which help pay for consumers’ out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. The administration could do so as early as August. Insurers have braced for an end to these payments, in many cases raising proposed premium prices for 2018 more than 20 percent to make up for the lost funding. Insurers said on Tuesday they would like Congress to appropriate the funds for these payments. If that does not happen, and the Trump administration takes further measures to undermine Democratic former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, more insurers may pull out of markets for next year ahead of a late September deadline. That could force consumers to change plans or insurers - or leave them with no options at all. “Our members and all Americans need the certainty and security of knowing coverage will be available and affordable for them,” said Justine Handelman, senior vice president in the Office of Policy and Representation at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents insurers nationwide. “We have consistently urged that there be immediate, certain funding for the cost-sharing reduction program, which helps those most in need with out-of-pocket costs when they access medical care.” Molina Healthcare Inc (MOH.N), which provides Obamacare health plans to more than 1 million people, said the fate of cost-sharing subsidies is one of its top concerns. The Trump administration could take other steps on its own to undermine Obamacare, including refusing to enforce the individual mandate, which requires Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine. Trump has repeatedly said Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, is collapsing, and on Tuesday suggested letting it “fail” to force Democrats to work on a healthcare fix. Earlier this year, the administration backed off more strictly enforcing the individual mandate and pulled ads that encouraged people to sign up for health insurance. Uncertainty over the government’s next steps on Obamacare weighed on insurer shares on Tuesday, with Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) down 1.4 percent and Aetna Inc (AET.N) off 1.1 percent. UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), which pulled out of the Obamacare individual insurance business, rose 0.3 percent after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would vote in the coming days on a full repeal of Obamacare with no replacement, but he did not appear to have the necessary support to push it through. Some Republicans and Democrats say they should attempt a joint fix, but the deep divisions between the two parties were on display over the subsidies on Tuesday. Democratic Senator Patty Murray said that bipartisan work can begin by having Congress fund the cost-sharing subsidies. “We know that’s what needs to be done,” she said in an interview. “It would send a very strong message to the market.” Several Republican senators were quick to deride the payments. “Those who will be interested in moving an insurance bailout later this year should be ready to explain how they want to pay for it,” said Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. | 0fake |
Exclusive: Skeptical Trump says would renegotiate global climate deal | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would renegotiate America’s role in the U.N. global climate accord, spelling potential doom for an agreement many view as a last chance to turn the tide on global warming. A pull-out by the world’s second biggest carbon-emitting country would hobble the deal reached in Paris last December by nearly 200 nations, who for the first time in more than two decades found a common vision for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. “I will be looking at that very, very seriously, and at a minimum I will be renegotiating those agreements, at a minimum. And at a maximum I may do something else,” the New York real estate mogul said in an interview with Reuters. “But those agreements are one-sided agreements and they are bad for the United States.” Trump said he did not believe China, the world’s top emitter of the carbon dioxide gas that many scientists believe is contributing to global climate change, would adhere to its pledge under the Paris deal. “Not a big fan because other countries don’t adhere to it, and China doesn’t adhere to it, and China’s spewing into the atmosphere,” he said. The accord to transform the world’s fossil-fuel driven economy was a potent signal to investors. It seeks to limit a rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius through combined national pledges to cut emissions, and provide funding for developing nations to mitigate the damaging effects of a sea level rise and climate change. The Obama administration pledged a 26 to 28 percent domestic reduction in greenhouse gases by 2025 compared to 2005, while China promised it would halt increases in carbon emissions by 2030. Both countries have promised to ratify the deal this year. Many U.S. Republicans have found fault with the deal for overreacting to what they see as an uncertain threat. Former French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who helped broker the deal, said this month that the U.S. election was critical to its future. “If a climate change denier was to be elected, it would threaten dramatically global action against climate disruption,” he said. Trump has said that he believes global warming is a concept that was invented by China to hurt the competitiveness of U.S. business. One of his energy policy advisers is a climate change skeptic, U.S. Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic contender for the White House, has advocated shifting the country to 50 percent clean energy by 2030. Trump’s comment drew fire from environmental advocates. “This is another example of Trump’s dangerous lack of judgment and the very real impacts it could have for all of us,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the U.S.-based environmental group League of Conservation Voters. “Trump’s denunciation of the Paris climate accord is not only short sighted, but would be terribly costly for America and our ability to lead the world. We cannot go backwards on this important step towards a clean energy economy that benefits all our families,” billionaire environmental financier Tom Steyer said in a statement. The Paris agreement has an article built into it meant to protect countries in the accord in the event that a new government comes in and wants to dismantle it. The clause says any nation wanting to withdraw will first have to wait four years. U.S. chief climate envoy Jonathan Pershing said last week that regardless of the outcome of the U.S. election, other countries were likely to be bound by the pact. | 0fake |
UNREAL! GROUP OF SIX-YEAR OLD THUG KIDS Curse And Attack Subway Riders [Video] | This video is so disturbing but is a great example of ZERO PARENTING! The kids were riding the subway attacking different passengers. Patrick Coyle started recording after the kids slapped a lady. They then turned on him: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Please show this to the right personPosted by Patrick Coyle on Thursday, 24 March 2016 | 1real |
LOL! LEADER OF “Do-Nothing Senate” Mitch McConnell CAUGHT ON VIDEO Whining About President Trump’s “Excessive Expectations” Of Congress | Speaking at a Rotary Club gathering in Kentucky on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vented about how President Donald Trump s lack of political experience has led to him setting excessive expectations for legislative priorities.McConnell, R-Ky., told the group in Florence that he found it extremely irritating that Congress has earned the reputation of not accomplishing anything. Part of the reason I think that the storyline is that we haven t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point, said McConnell, a Republican and the state s senior senator.According to the latest Real Clear Politics poll, Congress currently has a 15% approval rating and a 73.3% disapproval rating. There is no mention anywhere in the poll that President Trump is somehow responsible for Congress abysmal approval numbers: Trump, a political newcomer, as McConnell noted, has a habit of declaring progress on major priorities that do not necessarily reflect the reality of lawmaking.For example, as the House was in the midst of negotiations about its Obamacare replacement bill in February, Trump announced that Congress was in the final stages of its bill and said it would be ready for submitting in March. While the House bill was unveiled in March, that chamber didn t vote on it until May, and health care votes continued until the end of July.That sort of disconnect has led to Trump s expressing disappointment when bills chief among them health care reform fail to end up on his desk, even though, as with health care, the political reality indicated all along how difficult it was going to be to pass legislation. Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before. And I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process, McConnell told the group. So part of the reason I think people feel we re underperforming is because too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating may not have been fully understood. ABC NewsWATCH: | 1real |
EPA CAUSES HUGE TOXIC SPILL INTO COLORADO RIVER THREATENING WATER SUPPLIES IN FOUR STATES | The EPA s response to spilling toxic water into the Colorado River was to do nothing for 24 hours. Can you imagine if a private company had done something like this? Does the EPA fine itself now? The only thing I m sure of is the EPA administrator who s responsible for this should be fired but won t be The EPA is known for its hard line on environmental offenders, but its own accountability is being challenged after its agents unleashed a disastrous toxic spill threatening water supplies in four Western states and two Indian reservations.The agency revised Sunday its estimate on the spill from 1 million gallons to 3 million as regional officials came under fire for waiting 24 hours before alerting authorities that a crew at the Gold King Mine had accidentally uncorked the orange, acidic brew now spreading from Colorado to New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. There is widespread frustration with the EPA s initial response and the lack of information coming out of the agency the poor communication is unacceptable, said Rep. Scott R. Tipton, Colorado Republican. If a mining operator or other private business caused the spill to occur, the EPA would be all over them. The EPA admits fault, and as such must be accountable and held to the same standard, Mr. Tipton said.Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said Sunday that he will sue the EPA for millions of dollars. The reservation sits in the path of the contaminated water via the San Juan River, which merges with the Animas in New Mexico. We are going to make EPA pay for this, Mr. Begaye told the Navajo Times.EPA Region 8 administrator Shaun McGrath took responsibility for the spill Saturday, but the agency is receiving little sympathy from Western lawmakers and others who have found themselves too often pleading for mercy from the EPA for less-egregious violations. Imagine what would happen if a private company caused this waste spill, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said in a statement. This was caused by the EPA and the EPA should demand the same of itself as it would of a private business responsible for such a spill, particularly when it comes to making information available to the public and state and local officials, she said.Read more: WT | 1real |
Questions on free movement, red tape linger in Brexit citizens' deal | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s agreement with the European Union over key Brexit terms still leaves major issues like freedom of movement undecided, some campaigners said on Friday. Prime Minister Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled an agreement earlier on the Irish border, citizens rights and the Brexit bill, opening the way for talks on trade and a transition period. While the status of the EU s only land border with the United Kingdom was perhaps the thorniest issue, the deal safeguarding the rights of 3 million EU citizens in Britain and around 1.2 million Britons living elsewhere in the EU will affect households across the continent. London and Brussels agreed to offer equal treatment in social security, health care, employment and education and to let British judges ask the European Court of Justice to weigh in when necessary for eight years after Brexit. But Jane Golding, who heads British in Europe, a coalition of 10 citizens groups representing around 35,000 Britons living in the rest of the bloc, said fundamental issues had not been dealt with. The really big one is free movement, and we are worried that that is just simply going to be deferred until the next phase, Golding, a Briton who has lived in Berlin for nine years, told Reuters. In future, if you don t have the right of free movement, the right to go and work and live in those other countries and have your qualifications recognized in those other countries, you could be passed up for those opportunities, and that s going to impact your career, she said. EU and British officials say that British citizens on the continent will, as things stand, only have rights in the member state they are living in on the day of Brexit. However, the two sides are prepared to negotiate further on this next year. Britain, for example, had earlier offered a lifetime guarantee of residence rights but that is, for the time being, off the table, with people losing those rights if they leave the country for five years. However, that is an area where both sides may continue to look for tradeoffs. Getting a deal that works is crucial to both Britain, the world s sixth-largest economy, and the EU, the world s biggest trading bloc. Britons hold positions in major businesses across the continent and take advantage of overseas study schemes such as Erasmus, while tens of thousands of elderly people rely on EU agreements for access to public services and their pensions in countries such as Spain. EU citizens fill key roles in Britain s state-run health service, construction sector and many professional jobs, with British business leaders keen to retain unfettered access to the continent s labor market. Nicolas Hatton, co-chair of campaign group the3million, said he was unhappy that the deal backed Britain s stance of making EU citizens apply to remain in the country. All EU citizens here will need to apply to stay, while so far we were granted residents rights, he told Reuters. This application process will be made with the Home Office and with the current hostile environment policy ... We are very worried. There will be errors, there will be mistakes, people will be affected by these mistakes, he said. Responding to fears of overly bureaucratic barriers, Friday s joint report from the negotiators emphasized that the process for applying to remain will be as transparent and easy as possible. Application forms will be short, simple, user-friendly and adjusted to the context of the Withdrawal Agreement, it reads. But Britons in the EU face uncertainty as to what the process may involve in different member states, while Europeans in Britain have complained about the need to fill in an 85-page application form for residency and to produce tax returns and provide details of their movements over the last five years. At an early morning media conference in Brussels, May offered reassurance to Europeans: They will be able to go on living their lives as before, she said. | 0fake |
CLASSLESS, BLACK PANTHER DIVA, Beyonce Shows Up At White House For Easter Egg Hunt In Playboy Bunny Style Dress | New Black Panther Entertainer of The Year, Beyonce showed up at the White House dressed like a two-bit hooker for the annual Easter Egg Roll. I suppose it s a better choice than her militant, bullet laden, Black Panther Super-Bowl get-up but seriously isn t this supposed to be a family event?!!Beyonce dressed in her Easter breast to crash the White House.The Formation singer busted out a $3,510 Marco de Vincenzo pink-and-white lace dress and sky-high heels for her surprise appearance at the Easter Egg Roll with the First Family on Monday.Beyonce arrived in a black-and-white striped Alice and Olivia power coat that matched Jay-Z s nautical-striped shirt, which he paired with a black blazer.https://twitter.com/BeyonceNation4/status/714499038926802945But tongues wagged after Yonce dropped the jacket. While Blue Ivy looked like an adorable little Easter Bunny in a fluffy white coat and bunny ears, her famous mother was working a lingerie-inspired outfit that made her look more like a Playboy Bunny.Appalling and tasteless. SMH #beyonce https://t.co/7Ee64HKI2S Bonnie O'Keeffe (@bok2020) March 29, 2016The sheer white-collared blouse and red bustier with floral lace details put Queen Bey s own Easter Eggs on full display at what was supposed to be a family event, complete with Sesame Street characters and teen singers Chloe and Halle Bailey, whom Beyonce reportedly signed to a $1 million recording contract. Nice see through outfit to wear to a kids function, griped Melody Kolb on Twitter. She looks ridiculous. Via: NYDaily News | 1real |
VIDEO: Creepy Clown Gets Pistol-Whipped! |
A prankster in Stockton, California is not laughing after an attempt to scare people in a creepy clown costume ended with a man pulling out his pistol and striking him on the side of his head.
Sadiq Mohammad, 20, decided that clowning around in Stockton attempting to scare unsuspecting people was a good idea. He is a professional prankster who runs an entertainment website called Hoodclips, which gets almost 7 million views daily.
“The numbers don’t lie, people love comedy. That’s why I have a lot of followers,” Mohammad said.
Mohammad decided to hide behind some bushes and jump out to scare a man who was walking by, he began to cry out, “It’s a prank,” but the man said the prank was not funny, and he approached him with his pistol drawn.
He was struck down to the ground, and he and his cameraman immediately ran away. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by Ryan Banister of The Daily Sheeple . | 1real |
Re: Early Voting Results In Key Battleground States Appear To Favor Donald Trump | Early Voting Results In Key Battleground States Appear To Favor Donald Trump 7th, 2016
If you want Donald Trump then you have got to be encouraged by what you are seeing so far. Early voting has already been going on in a number of the most important battleground states, and up to this point the numbers seem to support the theory doing significantly better in key swing states than Mitt Romney did in 2012. As you will see below, the latest numbers released by Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona all have good news for the Trump campaign. Without a doubt, I still have an happen tomorrow night, but so far at least there are some encouraging signs.
Florida
Early voting has become extremely popular in Florida, and at this point close to half of all voters in the state have already cast their ballots .
Donald Trump cannot win the election without Florida’s 29 electoral votes, and so to say that this is a “must win” for the Trump campaign would be a massive understatement.
Fortunately, the Trump campaign appears to be doing much better in Florida than the Romney campaign did in 2012. The following comes from Politico …
Florida Democrats increased their lead over Republicans in casting pre-Election Day ballots to nearly 33,000 as of Sunday morning, but the sheer number of new voters and independents makes it tougher than ever for experts to say whether Hillary Clinton has a clear advantage over Donald Trump in the nation’s biggest battleground state.
Of the record 6.1 million in-person early votes and absentee ballots cast, Democrats have an advantage over Republicans of only 0.5 percentage points, with each party casting roughly 39 percent of the ballots. Though it’s a lead for Democrats, they’re not going to match their 3.7-percentage-point lead in early votes by Election Day they enjoyed in 2012. And Republicans tend to outvote Democrats on Election Day in Florida.
On Monday, updated numbers for Florida were released, and we found out that the Democrats had increased their lead to about 87,000 votes. But Trump is still doing much better than Romney was at this stage.
And the Trump campaign also has to be happy about the fact that first-time voters account for 25 percent of all the votes cast so far. Throughout this election cycle Trump has shown that he can bring out people that have never voted before, and so officials in the Trump campaign have to be smiling about this.
However, one sign of trouble for the Trump campaign is the fact that there has been a 100 percent increase in early voting by Hispanics in Florida compared to 2012, and this appears to be fueled by dislike for Trump. The following comes from the Miami Herald …
Through Saturday, 565,000 Hispanics had completed early in-person voting in Florida, a 100 percent increase over 2012, according to an analysis by Dan Smith, a University of Florida political science professor who tracks voting data.
Including absentee ballots, 911,000 Hispanics have voted — more than a third of whom did not vote in 2012. “We’re witnessing explosive early voting turnout of Hispanics — both those newly registered to vote as well as those who sat on the sidelines in 2012,” Smith said.
As discussed above, Republicans tend to outvote Democrats on Election Day in Florida, so the key for the Trump campaign will be to have the same kind of Election Day turnout that the Romney campaign had in 2012.
If Trump wins Florida, he will have a legitimate shot at winning the election, but if he loses the state it will be virtually impossible for him to make up those 29 electoral votes elsewhere on the map.
North Carolina
Another state that the Trump campaign desperately needs is North Carolina. Mitt Romney won this state back in 2012, and according to the Drudge Report the Trump campaign is doing even better than the Romney campaign did during early voting…
Another dramatic turn of events is being reported out of North Carolina this afternoon: Donald Trump has jumped past all expectations in early voting!
In 2012, Romney hit Election Day down 447,000 votes, based on early ballots. He went on to win the state by 97,000 votes.
Now, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal, Trump opens Election Day down 305,000!
North Carolina is another of the key battleground states that is going to help decide the election. While not as important as Florida, the truth is that Donald Trump pretty much has to have it to have a legitimate shot.
Colorado
All along, most of the pundits have pretty much assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win Colorado.
Unfortunately for her, the Denver Post is reporting that the number of Republicans that have voted so far exceeds the number of Democrats that have voted…
Republicans took the lead in early voting in Colorado Friday and held the advantage through the weekend despite robust Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts.
The latest early voting numbers released Monday morning show registered Republicans cast 652,380 ballots compared to 645,020 registered Democrats — a 7,360 vote GOP advantage. The breakdown looks like this: 35.2 percent Republican, 34.8 percent Democrat and 28.5 percent unaffiliated.
If Donald Trump could find a way to actually win Colorado, that would definitely lessen the pressure of having to win Nevada where he is not doing nearly as well so far.
Arizona
The state of Arizona used to be considered “deep red” territory, but during this election cycle it has been considered a battleground state.
Fortunately for Trump the poll numbers in Arizona have shifted in his direction in recent days, and the early numbers coming out of the state look very good for him …
The Republican lead in absentee ballots returned is 95,000. Bill Dunn, the party’s director of early and absentee voting, said Republicans lead with 36.5 percent of absentee ballots requested but have an even greater advantage in absentee ballots returned, at 40 percent of the total.
In the waning days of the campaign Donald Trump has been criss-crossing the country, and he continues to draw absolutely enormous crowds. Conservative voters are far more enthusiastic about Trump than they were about Romney, but will it be enough? The scene here in Sterling Heights, Michigan just before Trump’s next rally pic.twitter.com/1OxuTNeXuN
— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) November 7, 2016
Some Republican strategists are convinced that it will not be enough. In fact, one of them told CNN that he believes going to win by “an electoral landslide”…
Hillary Clinton will win in an electoral landslide on Tuesday, but the political baggage she has accumulated over the past year-and-a-half will dissuade congressional Republicans from working with her administration, says longtime Republican political strategist John Weaver.
“I believe she’s going to win in an electoral landslide and be the most unpopular president in electoral history, which is quite the paradox,” Weaver told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files” podcast, produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN.
And ultimately it could be the establishment Republicans and the “never-Trumpers” that make the difference and deliver the election to Hillary Clinton. If you can believe it, some establishment Republicans are actually publicly announcing that they have voted for Hillary Clinton and are encouraging others to do the same.
If they can get just five percent of Republicans to follow them, they could completely alter the outcome of the election. So let us hope that does not happen.
On a positive note, on Monday we learned that Hillary Clinton has canceled her celebratory fireworks for Tuesday night. No reason was given for why the fireworks were canceled, but many are taking this as a sign that the Clinton campaign may not be as optimistic as they were previously.
In any event, we don’t have long to wait now until we find out who wins and who loses.
If you want Donald Trump to win, please go vote, because America may never be faced with this kind of a choice again.
I am absolutely convinced that this is a pivotal moment in American history, and on Tuesday night we find out what happens.
May God have mercy on the late, great United States of America. November 7th, 2016 | Tags: 2016 Election , Arizona , Colorado , Debts , Donald Trump , Election , Florida , North Carolina , Pain , Trump | Category: Commentary | 1real |
Carly Fiorina announces presidential bid | Watch Erin Burnett's live interview with Carly Fiorina on "Erin Burnett Outfront" on Tuesday at 7 p.m. EDT on CNN.
(CNN) Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina announced her candidacy for president on Monday, becoming the first declared female candidate to seek the Republican Party's nomination.
"Yes, I am running," Fiorina said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I think I'm the best person for the job because I understand how the economy actually works. I understand the world; who's in it."
The ex-Silicon Valley executive and long-shot White House contender has never held public office. In 2010, she unsuccessfully ran for Senate in California, losing to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.
She is now one of only a few women ever to seek the Republican Party's nomination for president -- among them, former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was a candidate in 2012, and former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who made a brief run in the 2000 cycle.
Fiorina has been laying the groundwork for a possible presidential campaign over the past few months, traveling to early states like Iowa and New Hampshire and meeting with activists and donors.
Casting herself as an outside-the-beltway candidate with years of private sector experience, she has been particularly critical of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her work in government.
On Monday, Fiorina said Clinton "clearly is not trustworthy."
"She has not been transparent about a whole set of things that matter," Fiorina said on ABC, ticking off Benghazi, Clinton's use of personal emails at the State Department as well as foreign donations that the Clinton Foundation has received.
"If you're tired of the sound bites, the vitriol, the pettiness, the egos, the corruption; if you believe that it's time to declare the end of identity politics; if you believe that it's time to declare the end of lowered expectations; if you believe that it's time for citizens to stand up to the political class and say enough, then join us," Fiorina says.
Fiorina also announced the news of her campaign on various social media outlets including Twitter. She is set to participate in an online town hall with supporters Monday afternoon, then travel to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina later in the week. Her new book, "Rising to the Challenge," is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Standing out in what is expected to be a crowded Republican field that includes far better-known candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, will be a significant challenge for Fiorina.
But political strategists say Fiorina, an articulate communicator and energetic retail politician, could very well have a moment in the race, particularly as she makes an appeal to voters who are drawn to a non-establishment candidate.
Fiorina could also be a galvanizing force in an election where on the other side of the political aisle, Clinton -- the widely presumed Democratic frontrunner -- has indicated that she plans to make gender issues one of the central themes of her campaign.
Marty Wilson, an executive vice president at the California Chamber of Commerce who managed Fiorina's 2010 Senate campaign, said one potential obstacle for Fiorina will be building up a national donor base when she hasn't had to raise money for a political campaign since 2010.
"She's a very talented candidate and connects well with voters," Wilson said. "The problem is after 2010, she was no longer a candidate. So mail lists and email lists tend to atrophy when they're not in use."
Fiorina has recruited veteran political strategists to help run her campaign.
In February, Fiorina supporters announced the establishment of Carly For America, a super PAC to support her eventually potential presidential campaign. Fiorina has enlisted Steve DeMaura, the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, to be the super PAC's executive director.
Fiorina is best known for her time at HP, a company she led from 1999 to 2005. Her controversial tenure at the firm gave Boxer plenty of political ammunition in the 2010 race, and the issue could once again emerge a vulnerability for Fiorina in her campaign for president.
As CEO, Fiorina spearheaded a divisive merger with Compaq as she sought to rebrand the firm and boost its relevance in the tech world. Some HP employees were unhappy with Fiorina's leadership style and what they said was a lack of engagement with colleagues, and members of the Hewlett and Packard families have been openly critical of her role at the company
But Fiorina continues to defend her time at HP. As CEO of a major corporation, she says, she gained critical executive skills that would serve her well in the White House.
"HP requires executive decision-making, and the presidency is all about executive decision-making," Fiorina told CNN in February. | 0fake |
A Free Speech Battle at the Birthplace of a Movement at Berkeley - The New York Times | BERKELEY, Calif. — Fires burned in the cradle of free speech. Furious at a lecture organized on campus, demonstrators wearing outfits smashed windows, threw rocks at the police and stormed a building. The speech? The university called it off. Protest has been synonymous with the University of California, Berkeley, from the earliest days of the free speech movement, when students fought to expand political expression on campus beginning in 1964. Those protests would set off student activism movements that roiled campuses across the country throughout the 1960s. Since then, countless demonstrators have flocked to Sproul Plaza each day to have their voices heard on issues from civil rights and apartheid to Israel, tuition costs and more. But now the university is under siege for canceling a speech by the incendiary writer Milo Yiannopoulos and words like intolerance, long used by the left, are being used by critics to condemn the protests on Wednesday night that ultimately prevented Mr. Yiannopoulos from speaking. Naweed Tahmas, a junior who is a member of the Berkeley College Republicans, the group that invited Mr. Yiannopoulos to campus, said the cancellation had made him more determined to fight for freedom of speech on campus. “I’m tired of getting silenced, as many conservative students are,” he said. “If we support freedom of speech, we should support all speech including what they consider hate speech. ” When the event was canceled, the Republican student group reacted by writing on their Facebook page, “the Free Speech Movement is dead. ” More than 100 faculty members signed a letter opposing the visit by Mr. Yiannopoulos in recent weeks. “We support robust debate, but we cannot abide by harassment, slander, defamation, and hate speech,” they wrote. On Thursday, heated arguments broke out at Sproul Plaza between students who said Mr. Yiannopoulos — a provocateur editor at Breitbart News who is known for his attacks on political correctness and offensive, writing — was too inflammatory to be invited to campus and those who argued that he should have been allowed to speak. The university made it clear they believed the people who resorted to violence on Wednesday night — a group, clad in black clothing and carrying sticks — had come from outside the campus. The university estimated on Thursday that the rioting had caused around $100, 000 in damage. Whatever the origins of the violent mob, the university was and remains divided over the meaning of free speech at a time of national political tumult. “I think we need to have a serious conversation about protests. This is going to be a big part of our lives for the next four years,” said Kirsten Pickering, a graduate student at the university. She and others described the violence as a “potential teachable moment. ” “We need to sit down and talk about what is acceptable,” she added. Troy Worden, a student and a member of the College Republicans, said he would “absolutely” invite Mr. Yiannopoulos to speak on campus again, and Mr. Tahmas added that the Republican student group is a racially diverse group that does not consider Mr. Yiannopoulos to be a white nationalist. Criticism of the decision to cancel the speech came from outside the university as well. On Twitter early on Thursday, President Trump went as far as to threaten withholding federal funds from the university for failing to stop “violence on people with a different point of view. ” Mr. Yiannopoulos has cultivated a sizable following among the movement with his speaking events, podcast interviews and articles. He travels around California on a tour bus airbrushed with his likeness. Since embarking in September on his speaking tour of American campuses, he has been trailed by protests. But the events have also attracted pockets of anarchists clad in face masks and spoiling for a fight. Some university organizers withdrew invitations to Mr. Yiannopoulos over security concerns. At the University of California, Davis, on Jan. 13, his speech was canceled as it was set to begin after a tense standoff between protesters and police officers. A week later, on Inauguration Day, a man was shot during protests outside Mr. Yiannopoulos’s speech at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was to cap his tour this week at Berkeley. In the weeks leading up to the event, campus administrators faced tremendous pressure from student groups and faculty members to cancel it. In a video of himself posted on Facebook after the cancellation on Wednesday night, Mr. Yiannopoulos criticized the “hard left, which has become so utterly antithetical to free speech in the last few years. ” “They simply will not allow any speaker on campus, even somebody as silly and harmless and gay as me to have their voice heard,” he added. One group that has been outspoken in favor of allowing Mr. Yiannopoulos to speak is the veterans of the university’s free speech movement. “I’m really a little fatigued with all of this, ‘Oh my goodness, cover my ears, someone will say something that will upset me, I can’t tolerate that,’ ” said Jack Radey, who was a activist during the original free speech movement at Berkeley. “There are racists, sexists, piggery of various kinds who will say really terrible things. And that is part of the world,” Mr. Radey said by telephone from Oregon, where he is retired. “Learn how to fight back. Don’t say, ‘Oh, no. We can’t allow someone to speak because someone might be offended.’ ” In a letter to The Daily Californian, Berkeley’s student newspaper, Mr. Radey and other members of the Free Speech Movement Archive board of directors, a grouping of some of the movement’s activists, said Mr. Yiannopoulos was “a bigot who comes to campus spouting vitriol so as to attract attention to himself. ” But they said free speech was paramount. “Berkeley’s free speech tradition, won through struggle — suspension, arrest, fines, jail time — by Free Speech Movement activists is far more important than Yiannopoulos, and it is that tradition’s endurance that concerns us,” they wrote. | 0fake |
AMERICA’S OLDEST Suit Manufacturer Drops NFL Ads: “Our companies will not condone unpatriotic behavior!” | Two years ago, Cleveland, Tenn., businessman Allan Jones was proudly showing off his newly acquired Hardwick Clothing-brand suits by providing the wardrobe for NBC s on-air talent during the network s broadcasts of NFL football games.But after NFL players and coaches challenged President Donald Trump and many took a knee during the national anthem played before their games over the weekend, Jones said he is through sponsoring the wardrobes or advertising on stations that air the National Football League.Jones, CEO of the payday lending chain Check Into Cash and owner of Hardwick Clothes America s oldest suitmaker tweeted his criticism and change of heart Tuesday. Our companies will not condone unpatriotic behavior! said Jones, CEO of the payday lending chain Check Into Cash and owner of Hardwick Clothes America s oldest suit maker. For the 29 states we operate in, this isn t much to them, but it s a lot to us. The Tombras Group is our ad agency in Knoxville and our national media buyer for both TV and radio (for Check Into Cash) and don t look for Hardwick on the NFL either. Jones, a strong supporter of Trump, directed his media buyer, the Tombras Group in Knoxville, to remove any commercials for Check Into Cash, Buy Here Pay Here USA, or U.S. Money Stores from airing during NFL games for the entire season. Times Free PressAllan Jones appeared on Fox and Friends shortly after Donald Trump s inauguration to express his enthusiasm for his presidency and for his willingness to make American manufacturing a priority. Watch:The Story of Hardwick Clothes, Inc.Hardwick manufacturing plant is located on the outskirts of Cleveland, TN. The expansive new facility and modernized manufacturing equipment helped Hardwick stay competitive against an increasing supply of cheap, offshore clothing.Hardwick s reputation for American-made quality has helped the company survive and thrive in the face of outsourcing and cost-cutting. This status has helped Hardwick land contracts with a wide range of large clients, including the U.S. military and Major League Baseball umpires.Since its founding in 1880, Hardwick Clothes has endured factory fires, economic recessions, two World Wars, inflation and leisure suits. Despite these challenges, Hardwick Clothes has continued to produce unsurpassed suits, pants, and jackets for men and women, operating successfully with pride and quality.In June 2014, the company was acquired by Allan Jones, a prominent Cleveland, Tennessee, entrepreneur. Jones stated that Hardwick appealed to him because it was the oldest business of its kind in America. He announced his commitment to increased investment in the firm to help it regain its rightful status at the summit of the American clothing industry. | 1real |
Everyone KNEW Trump Would Be Golfing Again – So Protesters Were Totally Ready When He Showed Up | There are only three things for certain in this world: Death, taxes, and Trump golfing every weekend. Today featured all three in a way.Two days ago, Trump spent around $90 million in tax dollars to bomb an empty airbase in Syria. The symbolic attack did little to stop the Syrian government s ability to bomb its citizens bombers were reportedly back to using the airstrip just hours later but it had the effect of inflaming already high tensions between the United States and supporters of the Syrian regime in Russia and Iran.So covering death and taxes, Trump moved onto golf.The fact that he would go on vacation just days after creating an international crisis was so painfully obvious that protesters planned for it. When Trump s motorcade was spotted on route to his golf course in Florida, the signs came out to greet him. According to reporters riding with Trump, the stuff Trump saw should put to rest any notion that he isn t aware that much of the country despises him.Pool: Motorcade passed "group of about a dozen protesters w/ signs reading "Resign," "Loser," and "Impeach Trump" outside the golf course." Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 8, 2017It s not clear yet whether Trump plans to lie about his golf outing as he s done in previous weeks. By a rough count, Trump has golfed around 15 times since becoming president 11 weeks ago. Many of those vacations were done in secret, with his staff covering for him with claims that he was in meetings. Inevitably, pictures of Trump in golf attire hitting the links turn up online exposing just how shameless this administration is.The fact that protesters can be so certain that Trump will be golfing even after committing America to a possible war in Syria is incredibly disheartening. You can plan your day around the assumption that the most powerful person in the country will be slipping into golfing shoes every single weekend. Hilariously, this criticism was most clearly leveled by one of Trump s biggest defenders: Sean Hannity.In 2013, Hannity hypocritically slammed Obama of playing golf during the Syrian civil war.The war in Syria rages on but so far Hannity hasn t complained about any one of Trump s 15 golf outings. Odd. And further undermining Hannity s complaint: Trump has spent so much time golfing that he s now spent a quarter of Obama s total cost in travel expenses in just his first 11 weeks. By the end of his first year, he will have cost the American taxpayer over $100 million.Report: Obama's travel expenses were $97m over eight years. Trump is at $23m in 10 wks https://t.co/7PmdQryBmO Brandon Pope TV (@BpopeTV) April 8, 2017Featured image via Ian MacNicol/Getty Images | 1real |
Iraqi Kurdistan leader Barzani will hand over presidential powers on November 1 | SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan s veteran leader Masoud Barzani will not extend his presidential term beyond Nov. 1, a Kurdish government official said on Saturday. His decision came just weeks after a referendum on Kurdish independence backfired and triggered a crisis for Iraq s Kurds who had been enjoying a period of unprecedented autonomy. A plan to divide up the president s powers was outlined in a letter Barzani sent to the Kurdish parliament on Saturday, the official told Reuters. The plan asks parliament to distribute the president s powers among the government, parliament and judiciary. Barzani s current term was set to expire in four days, the same date that presidential and parliamentary elections were due to be held. However, those elections were delayed indefinitely last week, amidst an escalating regional crisis. Critics say the Sept. 25 independence referendum, orchestrated and championed by the 71-year-old Barzani, has left a bleak outlook for Iraq s Kurds. Less than four weeks after Kurds in the region voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq, the central government launched a military offensive to wrest back the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds regard as both their spiritual homeland, and a key source of revenue for their would-be independent state. It was one of several retaliatory measures taken by Baghdad, which vehemently opposed the referendum. In a matter of days the Iraqi government has transformed the balance of power in the north of the country, exerting tremendous pressure on Barzani to step aside and wrecking decades-old dreams of Kurdish independence. Iraqi forces have continued to advance on all Kurdish-held territory outside the autonomous region s borders. Iraq s prime minister demanded on Thursday that Kurds declare their independence referendum void, rejecting the Kurdish autonomous region s offer to suspend its independence push to resolve a crisis through talks. Earlier this year, Barzani said he did not intend to stand in the November elections. However, prior to the referendum, few expected he would stick to his promise. Barzani has held the office of the presidency since 2005. The region last held a presidential election in 2009, in which Barzani won. His term of office expired in 2013 and was extended twice. The president is expected to address his people before his term formally expires, marking the end of a storied career. Barzani was born in 1946, soon after his legendary father, Mulla Mustafa, founded a party to fight for the rights of Iraq s Kurds. After decades spent fighting with the Peshmerga, Barzani became a central figure in the drive to create an autonomous Kurdish state in northern Iraq, after Saddam Hussein was toppled in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Barzani s letter will be discussed by parliament on Sunday, though the government official said it was unclear whether ministers would need to vote the plan into action during the session. (This version of the story corrects paragraph 7 to read ...of Kurdish independence. ) | 0fake |
Zimbabwe court again postpones former finance minister's bail hearing | ZIMBABWE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean court has postponed to Thursday the bail hearing of former finance minister Ignatius Chombo, who is facing charges of corruption dating back two decades. Chombo, who did not appear at the court on Wednesday, was detained after the military seized power in Operation Restore Legacy mid-November, which it said was meant to remove criminals around former President Robert Mugabe. The High Court had been due to sit on Wednesday to hear Chombo s appeal against a lower court ruling last week denying him bail pending his trial on Dec. 8, but the state prosecutor said he needed time to prepare his case. This is the second time the court has postponed the hearing after an initial sitting on Friday was delayed for the same reasons. His lawyer says Chombo will deny the allegations at his trial. Chombo was among members of the G40 political faction allied to 93-year-old Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who were also expelled from the ruling ZANU-PF party. Ousted ZANU-PF Youth League leader Kudzanai Chipanga s bail hearing was also postponed to Thursday. Chipanga is facing charges of making statements undermining public confidence in the military which helped end Mugabe s 37-year rule. Some supporters of new President Emmerson Mnangagwa have called for unspecified action against G40 but the president has urged citizens not to undertake any form of vengeful retribution . Mnangagwa, who was sworn in on Nov. 24, and is under pressure to root out rampant corruption stifling the economy. Last week, he opened a three-month amnesty window for the return of public funds illegally stashed abroad by individuals and companies. Upon the expiry of the amnesty at end of February next year, the government will arrest and prosecute those who have failed to comply, he said in a statement. | 0fake |
Trump's call for military buildup hits bump in Congress | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for a major military buildup suffered a setback on Thursday when the House of Representatives put plans on hold to fully fund the federal government through next Sept. 30 and instead resorted to temporary measures freezing spending at current levels. With a Dec. 8 deadline rapidly approaching for either extending federal funding in some way or triggering a partial government shutdown, the House next week will advance a temporary patch, according to a senior aide, and try to provide money through Dec. 22. That will give Congress more time to craft a second patch, the aide said, to operate the government through January. While the moves, if successful, would keep the Pentagon running at last year’s levels, they are far from Republican hopes of handing Trump about $634 billion in fiscal 2018 funding for the military’s regular operations, $85 billion above last year. For months, Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have been working behind the scenes to broker a deal on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year, which already is two months old. Democrats are demanding increases in non-defense spending if military budgets are pumped up as Trump has demanded. It is unclear whether Republicans in Congress and Trump will allow unrelated controversial measures to be attached to either of the temporary spending bills. Democrats, whose votes normally are needed in the Republican-controlled Congress to pass spending bills, have been hoping to use their political leverage to win passage of an immigration measure by attaching it to an end-of-year appropriations bill. That bill would provide legal protections to “Dreamers,” the hundreds of thousands of undocumented people who came to the United States as children and have established roots. House Speaker Paul Ryan, asked about the possibility of attaching the immigration provision to a spending bill, said he wanted to resolve the issue. But he noted that Congress is under a March deadline to pass the Dreamers measure, saying “We’ve got other deadlines in front of that,” referring to the spending bills. | 0fake |
Lady Gaga Protests Donald Trump Outside of Trump Tower | Lady Gaga Protests Donald Trump Outside of Trump Tower 11/09/2016
E! ONLINE
Lady Gaga took to Trump Tower early Wednesday morning to protest the results of the U.S. election.
The “Bad Romance” singer, a well-known Hillary Clinton supporter, stood outside Donald Trump ‘s building and held a sign that read “Love trumps hate.” As the hours passed Tuesday night and it became clearer that Trump would win the presidency, Gaga tweeted, “In a room full of hope, we will be heard. Stand up for kindness, equality, and love. Nothing will stop us. Say a prayer America.”
Gaga campaigned for Clinton earlier this week, attending a rally where she spoke of Clinton’s strengths. “She has a career in politics that spans decades of experience, education, leadership, and wisdom. She’s ready to be president,” she said. “She kept going and she kept fighting for women’s rights. She kept fighting for the care of our children. She kept fighting for those that are in need.”Trump’s victory was declared around 2:30 a.m. ET, and during his speech he praised Clinton’s efforts throughout the election. He said she was owed a “deep debt of gratitude” for all her hard work. “We will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. We will deal fairly with everyone. We will seek common ground, partnership not conflict,” he added in his speech. “America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our destiny.” | 1real |
Venezuela Throws In The Towel On Hyperinflation: Will Print 200x Higher-Denominated Bills | Venezuela Throws In The Towel On Hyperinflation: Will Print 200x Higher-Denominated Bills Zero Hedge
While several years ago it was perhaps debatable in polite society that Venezuela’s socialist economy would collapse ultimately unleashing hyperinflation, any doubt was put to rest early this year when the IMF’s own inflationary forecast confirmed as much.
However, while the international community had long accepted the inevitable fate of Maduro’s socialist paradise, the local government sternly refused to admit reality and to avoid confirming what the local population already knew, it insisted on keeping the highest denomination bill in circulation at 100 bolivars, whose worth is approximately 8 cents on the black market, turning the most basic transactions into logistical nightmares and saddling banks with crippling money-handling costs. Economists and central bank employees say Mr. Maduro didn’t want to acknowledge the country’s inflation problem by printing bigger notes.
This has finally changed, and as the WSJ reports , Venezuela’s government, slammed by hyperinflation has finally thrown in the towel, and is planning to issue new bills in December with larger denominations—up to 200 times higher than the current biggest bill, according to people familiar with the plans. The move marks an implicit acknowledgment by the government that skyrocketing prices have slashed the value of the currency
The new coins and notes will go up to 20,000 bolivars, according to people close to the central bank, the finance ministry, the country’s banks and bill suppliers. This would make the biggest note worth $15 on the black market.
And since by doing so the government will tacitly admit that it has lost control over prices, It will also create a self-fulfilling prophecy of even higher prices, sending the country’s hyperinflation into overdrive.
As the WSJ adds, earlier this year, the government began informally allowing shops in the outer provinces to sell food at free market prices, reducing shortages at the cost of higher inflation, which the International Monetary Fund expects to rise above 1,600% next year. Further liberalization followed after the state oil company gradually rolled out higher-priced gasoline at gas stations in the border regions to reduce the cost of subsidizing the cheapest car fuel in the world, according to the company’s executives.
Venezuela’s loss, however, is a big gain for the companies contracted to print the money:
In recent weeks, several companies, including U.K.-based De La Rue, the world’s largest commercial printer, won contracts to print the new set of notes, which the government wants in time for the annual December spending spree, according to a person familiar with contract negotiations.
“It’s a very big deal. It’s a big package,” the person said.
Meanwhile, the central bank remains stuck in denial and hasn’t published price statistics for almost two years. Instead, Mr. Maduro has blamed the skyrocketing prices on the “economic war” waged against his government by shopkeepers and financiers. This has forced people to brave one of the world’s highest crime rates by shopping with backpacks full of cash and spend hours lining up outside ATMs, which give out less than $10 per withdrawal. Many provincial banks have reduced daily withdrawals to 30,000 bolivars, which would buy a Venezuelan couple a lunch at a mid-scale restaurant.
Amusingly, as we reported last year, the high demand for nearly worthless currency notes has also presented a financial burden for the cash-strapped government, which also lacks raw materials to print its own money. Since last year, Venezuela has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to printing companies to feed its economy with bolivar currency. The shipments arrived to Venezuela from private printing presses around the world on several dozen windowless Boeing 747 jets. Given the crime risks, the air shipments arrive at the Caracas airport at night before the notes are loaded onto armored trucks and transported to the central bank vaults in Caracas, protected on the 18-mile route by soldiers.
Indicatively, a fully stocked ATM is emptied in just three and a half hours on average now, according to the Venezuelan Banking Association.
The good news for the insolvent nation is that all local denominated debts are now just as worthless as the currency, which incidentally is what the BOJ’s Kuroda would call: mission accomplished.
Sadly, Venezuela is the canary in the coalmine for what will happen to all currencies in a world where there is now simply too much debt. | 1real |
U.S. to unveil retirement advice rule next week: source | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Obama administration will release a long-awaited proposal on retirement advice on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. At an event at the Center for American Progress think tank, the U.S. government will unveil its proposed rule requiring brokers who provide retirement advice to follow a “fiduciary” standard of putting clients’ interests before their own. The proposal aims to end potential conflicts of interest by brokers who advise on individual retirement accounts and to protect consumers from buying unnecessary investment products. Required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, the rule has followed a tortuous path toward fruition. Financial companies and lawmakers have worried that the rule’s requirements could drive up costs and keep middle- and low-income people from being able to afford retirement services. The Labor Department, which regulates retirement plan advice, withdrew its initial proposal in 2011 after criticism from the financial services and insurance industries and leaders in both political parties. A new version was proposed a year ago after a nudge from President Barack Obama and discussions with the industry and lawmakers, who considered blocking funds needed for a standard. In January, the Labor Department finished work on the rule and sent it to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for review. Even though the text was not released, both Washington and Wall Street have been preparing for a possible fight over the latest version. Last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it is prepared to sue the federal government if it finds the rule unworkable. “The DOL has been very prudent about how they’ve gone about this in trying to make their rule litigation-proof, but opponents will sue in court,” said Scott Puritz, managing director of retirement services firm Rebalance IRA. Despite publicly opposing the rule, many money managers have privately been preparing for its release for several months. Firms including LPL Financial Holdings have been cutting fees and reducing the amounts clients can hold in their brokerage accounts, all in preparation for the rule. “The advice I’ve been giving broker-dealers and advisers is to get in front of the rule and explain it to clients now because after the rule is out, they’ll sound defensive,” said John Anderson who works with financial advisers at SEI Advisor Network, part of at SEI Investments Co.. The Labor Department and Center for American Progress did not respond to requests for comment. | 0fake |
Shame! Last Hope To Kill Iran Nuke Deal Blocked In Senate | Just like Obamacare was pushed through, the Iran Nuke Deal has been pushed through in spite of it being VERY unpopular with the American people. Just like Obamacare, this deal hasn t even been read and vetted fully by the Congress. This is all about political ideology over what s best for the foreign policy interests of America. Shame on the Senate!U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation meant to kill the Iran nuclear deal for a third time, securing perhaps the greatest foreign policy win of President Barack Obama s six years in office and clearing the way to implement the accord.By a 56-42 vote, the Republican-majority Senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance in the 100-member chamber.Despite an intense and expensive lobbying effort against it, all but four of Obama s fellow Democrats backed the nuclear pact between the United States, five other world powers and Tehran announced in July.With no more Senate votes this week, the result ensured Congress will not pass a resolution of disapproval that would have crippled the deal by eliminating Obama s ability to waive many sanctions.A resolution would have had to pass both the Senate and House of Representatives by midnight Thursday, and survive Obama s veto, to be enacted.The House, where Republicans also have a majority, never voted on the resolution, opting to pass three symbolic Iran-related measures that would not have affected the nuclear deal.Stephen Mull named U.S. coordinator on Iran nuclear deal Two presidential hopefuls, Senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, missed the vote after a debate in California last night in which Republicans bashed the Iran deal. Two others, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, voted with every other Senate Republican to advance the resolution.Four Democrats, Senators Ben Cardin, Joe Manchin, Robert Menendez and Charles Schumer, voted with the Republicans to advance the disapproval resolution all three times.Angry Republicans accused Democrats of denying the disapproval measure its due consideration in order to keep Obama from having to use his veto power. It will go into effect without the American people having their say, said John Cornyn, the Senate s second-ranked Republican.Via: Reuters | 1real |
Are Detroit’s Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional? | Are Detroit’s Most Terrible Schools Unconstitutional? Geoffrey R. Stone, New York Times, October 21, 2016
At one Detroit school, just 4 percent of third graders scored proficient on Michigan’s English assessment test. At another, 9.5 percent did. Those students are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month that asserts that children have a federal constitutional right to the opportunity to learn to read and write.
Illiteracy is the norm at those “slumlike” schools and others in Michigan’s biggest city, according to the plaintiffs. The facilities are decrepit and unsafe. The first thing some teachers do each morning is clean up rodent feces before their students arrive. In some cases, teachers buy the books and school supplies, even the toilet paper.
Lawyers for the students are arguing, in effect, that Michigan is denying their clients the right to a minimally adequate education, an issue that has been raised over the years in courts in other states under their state constitutions.
{snip}
Now the litigation in Detroit is raising this issue under the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court has never addressed whether disparities among schools would be constitutionally permissible if, as the court put it in 1973, a state failed “to provide each child with an opportunity to acquire the basic minimal skills necessary” for success in life.
In that bitterly divided 5-4 decision, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the court upheld a Texas law that produced unequal levels of education to students living in different school districts based on the property tax revenues of each district.
The majority maintained that the law was constitutional because it served a rational policy of permitting each school district to decide for itself how much money to spend on education. Whether the level of education was at least minimally adequate in the state’s poorest schools was not at issue in the case.
In what is likely to be the opening chapter in a long legal saga, a federal district judge in Michigan must determine if a state can constitutionally provide a vast majority of its students with an excellent or at least adequate education while a minority of students receive an education that denies them the chance to acquire the minimum skills the court spoke of 43 years ago in Rodriguez.
{snip}
But in the case of children who are attending a public school, how do we know whether a state has denied some of its children even the minimal level of education required by the 14th Amendment? That is the burden that the plaintiffs in the Detroit case must meet. After reviewing their evidence, the case seems to be open-and-shut.
As the plaintiffs demonstrate, “decades of state disinvestment in and deliberate indifference to the Detroit schools” have denied these children “access to the most basic building block of education: literacy.” At the schools involved in this litigation, which serve almost exclusively low-income minority children, the student proficiency rates “hover near zero in nearly all core subject areas.” At one school, for example, 100 percent of the sixth graders scored below proficiency in reading.
{snip} | 1real |
What Is “Fake” News? | By Catherine J. Frompovich One of the attorneys with whom I network on various issues was so incensed about a recent news ‘event’ that I... | 1real |
Comment on 5 Signs You’re Giving Your Power Away & How To Reclaim It by Hijacked | Share on Facebook Share on Twitter There are times in my life when I have been a victim – a victim of circumstance, or so I thought. I wondered why things often didn’t work out in my favour, and how I got so “unlucky.” I used to push to create the things that I wanted, forcing them to happen; if I couldn’t, I lived out the fantasy in my mind. Little did I realize that I was unconsciously creating these scenarios to teach me about power. It is very common for us to relinquish our power, to give it away without realizing. We do this on a daily basis sometimes, and this behaviour becomes a habitual cycle of disempowerment. For example, some of the comments we make are actually disempowering: “I didn’t get the job that I wanted” “My relationship is falling apart” “My health is in shambles” “I can’t seem to make enough money” These are the types of thoughts that make us feel powerless . When we feel powerless, we get stuck in a cycle of creating difficult situations that make us feel even more powerless. So what is power? Power is ultimately the ability to create a desired result. It’s the ability to attract and create circumstances that lead to our gain, which in turn build our own sense of power. In other words, we become even more powerful each time we use our power responsibly to create what we want; it has a cumulative effect. Not All Power Is Created Equally One of the key reasons we may shy away from or suppress our own power is because we are afraid of creating negative consequences. There are plenty of examples throughout history where power has been misused with dire outcomes. The ultimate fear is using our power to dominate others. If we become powerful will we fall victim to the same fate? Deep down, we all want to feel powerful. We all know the power we have inside of us to create reality. It is up to us to notice the signs of giving our power away so we can consciously “reclaim” it. As Marianne Williamson says:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” As human beings we have a natural desire to feel powerful, so when we don’t feel powerful in our own right, we will orchestrate our outer lives in a way that makes us feel powerful. For example, trying to control others’ behaviour, acquiring unnecessary possessions, and spreading drama and gossip. However, this only results in a deeper feeling of disempowerment and disillusionment about what it takes to have the lives we desire. We seek to control the things we feel we can control, rather than tapping into our own innate power source. Why People Give Their Power Away The more power you have, the more responsibility you have to use it wisely. A great example is someone who earns millions of dollars a year: they have to then manage that money, which requires a great amount of responsibility for what happens to it. So, the less money you earn, the less money you have to manage, and the less responsibility you have. Many people don’t want to take on a higher level of responsibility, as they would then have to face their deepest fears of feeling inadequate and powerless. With power comes the responsibility of being conscious of your choices and how they impact your reality. What will you choose? It is common for spiritually aware people to give their power away because they are aware that their actions could harm people or the planet in ways they have witnessed in others. Yet what they don’t realise is the harm they are doing to themselves because they are turning their power inwards and creating unnecessary problems and dramas in their own lives – especially their relationships, their finances, and/or their health. How To Know When You’re Giving Your Power Away As a result of not wanting to acknowledge and effect our power, we “give it away” – often without knowing that we make things outside of us rulers of our realities. Here are five signs you may be stuck in this cycle: 1. Any Addiction When we become addicted to anything – foods, shopping, technology, drugs, TV shows, sex, pets, people, and so on – we are giving our power to that external “thing.” We allow it to control our behaviour over and over again. The underlying belief is that we cannot be happy, be ourselves, or be free without that “thing,” so we keep going back for more to get our “fix.” 2. Repetitive Relationship Patterns When you find yourself facing the same difficult scenarios in relationships, whether it’s with the same person or different people, you are stuck in a repetitive behavioural pattern of giving your power to your partner as well as taking your power from your partner. This pattern usually shows up as blame, resentment, over-dependence, and in the same arguments that keep arising. Underlying this cycle is the belief that “I need someone else to give me <insert need here>.” 3. Financial Challenges Money problems are a tell-tale sign of giving our power away, simply because we need to feel powerful, to some degree, to create wealth and abundance. It is common to let money dictate how we feel about ourselves, yet it is the other way around: our money situation is a reflection of how powerful we feel. 4. Health Issues When we have pain, illness, or dis-ease in our bodies, it is a sign that we are out of balance; that we are giving power to heal ourselves away. We all have the power within us to create good health, but when we develop physical dis-ease our bodies are communicating to us that we are losing our life force energy; this energy is needed to heal. 5. Depression Depression happens when we feel out of control in our lives. We don’t feel like we can change the status quo to create what we want, so we “opt out” of life to some degree. What precedes depression is often a feeling that you cannot control, such as grief or anger. In effect, a depressed person is suppressing their power, and controlling what they can control: feeling nothing. You Can Reclaim Your Power Now Once you recognize the signs and you are willing to reclaim your power, it can shift within you very quickly, and your outer reality subsequently changes. There are many techniques to reclaim your power, but the most effective and fast-acting one that I’ve come across is to look at how your relationship with power began by asking: “Which part of me doesn’t want to grow up and realize how powerful I truly am?” The act of giving our power away begins at a young age – it’s our way of getting what we want. If you can pinpoint the age where you consciously chose to give away your power for the first time, you can speak to this younger version of yourself and invite her/him to make a different choice. This is a very simple technique which can have a profound impact on living a more powerful life.
| 1real |
Unpaid Chernobyl veterans, underpaid teachers storm the Rada | November 3, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
- Liliya Filatova , in Politobzor, Nov 1, 2016, translated by Tom Winter -
Right now, an angry crowd of veterans from the Chernobyl clean-up have gathered in front of the Kiev Verkhovna Rada: They are not receiving their benefits. The crowd tried to storm the parliament, so their deputies would hear then out and start to act rather than just shrug all over again.
Now the event is gaining an even larger scale as two thousand teachers have joined the Chernobyl cleanup veterans. A column of teachers partially blocked traffic for vehicles on Grushevskogo street.
The demands of the teachers are simple and reasonable: raise our wages, and not just yours, and cancel the increase in tariffs, which was physically impossible to pay since they are higher than the salaries.
The fatcat deputies of the Verkhovna Rada and the Prime Minister, who backdated salary increases for themselves and the president, have brought the citizens of Ukraine to the limit, as people take to the streets and storm City Councils. Recently in Vinnitsa protesters tried to storm the city council and the break in to the session hall.
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| 1real |
Hispanic claims victory in Harlem race to replace Rangel in U.S. Congress | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dominican-born Adriano Espaillat claimed victory on Tuesday in the U.S. congressional race to succeed longtime Representative Charles Rangel, signaling change in the historically black neighborhood of Harlem that has grown increasingly Hispanic. Nine Democrats ran in the primary to select the party’s candidate for November’s general election. In a district where Democratic voters heavily outnumber Republicans, Tuesday’s winner will have a virtual lock on taking Rangel’s vacated seat in the House of Representatives. Espaillat, once an illegal immigrant, would be the first Dominican-American member of Congress. A state senator, Espaillat, held a 3-point lead on state Assemblyman Keith Wright, an African-American who was endorsed by Rangel and benefited from the political machine of a man who held the job for 46 years. With 98 percent of polling places reporting, Espaillat had 36.7 percent of the vote compared with 33.7 percent for Wright, a difference of nearly 1,300 votes. “The voters of the 13th congressional district made history tonight,” Espaillat, 61, said in a victory speech. “The voters ... elected a country boy from Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic,” he said, mixing Spanish and English. Wright, however, refused to concede, telling supporters: “No candidate can declare victory tonight, not until every vote is counted.” The district is dominated by Harlem, long a leading cultural center, home to black political and commercial life, and an incubator for jazz. Harlem notably has grown more white with gentrification, but it also has become more Hispanic. Besides Harlem, the district also includes predominantly Latino neighborhoods further to the north where Espaillat has his base. Rangel, 86, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, won his first congressional election in 1970, and since then Harlem voters routinely returned him to office every two years, even after his 2010 censure for ethics violations. Espaillat tried and failed to unseat Rangel in 2012 and 2014 primary elections. Gentrification emerged as a leading issue in the campaign, as a decade-long influx of affluent people, many of them white, has transformed Harlem’s once-blighted blocks of 19th century brownstone town houses. Change has muted the distinctive black identity of the area, the home of the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club and other monuments of African-American culture. Once an upscale Dutch neighborhood named after the city near Amsterdam, Harlem drew African-Americans during the northward migration of former slaves in the late 19th Century and again between the world wars. In decades past, affluent New Yorkers avoided venturing too far north, or “uptown.” But soaring property values have turned Harlem into one of New York’s trendiest real estate markets. | 0fake |
Trump says China 'won't help' with North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized China on Monday, saying it had benefited from its economic ties with the United States but would not help control North Korea. “China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!” Trump wrote on Twitter. | 0fake |
SAY WHAT? RACIST, GUN-TOTING FLAG STOMPER WHO CAUSED MONTH LONG MAN HUNT THREATENING: “I am a terrorist toward white people” IS RELEASED ON BOND | Remember the racist, Black Panther punk who started the #EricSheppardChallenge which involved stomping on the American flag? Yeah well, after ADMITTING he is a terrorist to white people, he s out on bond and living in his mother s home. Apparently, being black and threatening terrorist acts against whites doesn t hold the same water as say a white cop doing his job. Eric Sheppard was originally denied bond after he was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Tampa Bay, Florida, but his attorney appealed the decision, and a Lowndes County Magistrate Judge granted Sheppard a bond of $25,000 last week.Sheppard will be required to live with his mother in Cobb County, Georgia and will be subjected to a 7 p.m. curfew, along with several other conditions of his bond.Sheppard ignited controversy when he and several other VSU student protesters walked on an American flag on the VSU campus on April 17th.Four days later, police found what they said was a gun inside a backpack belonging to Sheppard on campus. Via: WALBSheppard s flag stomping activities on the campus of Valdosta State University were brought to light when USAF veteran Michelle Manhart attempted to stop these racist, anti-American students from stomping on our flag and was arrested by the Valdosta police:Just as an FYI: (a)(1) Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.April 22, 2015SHEPPARD ON THE RUN:Valdosta, GA Tensions rise at Valdosta State University as a manhunt continues for one of its own.Eric Sheppard is accused of bringing a handgun to an anti-flag protest on the University s campus Tuesday.Arrest warrants were signed by a Lowndes County Judge charging Sheppard with bringing weapons in a school safety zone, which is a felony. Authorities say Sheppard is also being investigated by the FBI for possibly making Terroristic Threats on social media.The VSU Student became the face of the anti-flag protest, after he was seen wrestling Air Force Veteran, Michelle Manhart, for an American flag; a flag protestors had been walking on.Tuesday, as anti-flag protests continued, a backpack was found abandoned on campus, that according to VSU Police, who say the gun was linked to Sheppard. Since then, Sheppard has been on the run.Eric Sheppard Jr. was the organizer of the event, and is an advocate for a militant Black Supremacy movement. He is pictured throughout his social media profile with alarming messages supporting violence and carrying numerous weapons.This afternoon, a perimeter was formed between Williams and Slater Streets near the University s campus after two citizens reported seeing Sheppard, but he was not found.Now, Sheppard s parents and police, are begging him to turn himself in. Son, you know we love you, and have always taught you to do the right thing and to make wise decisons. Please make the right decision and turn yourself in to either the authrorities, or to me, and we will handle this together , pleaded Eric Sheppard Sr. on the steps of West Hall, standing beside VSU President, William McKinney. He has not done anything to outright hurt anybody, so I m asking him and looking at cameras when I m telling you, Eric, come on in. Your parents want you to come in. We want you to come in. Come talk to us. Come talk to the police. We ll get this sorted out , said Valdosta Police Chief, Brian Childress, at the scene of the perimeter.Valdosta Police say Sheppard is considered armed and dangerous. If you see Eric Sheppard, dial 911.April 29, 2015ONE WEEK LATER AND ERIC SHEPPARD IS STILL ON THE RUN:Valdosta, GA It s been more than a week since Valdosta Police issued an arrest warrant for anti-flag protestor, Eric Sheppard. He s accused of bringing a gun onto the VSU campus.Local civil rights activist, Reverend Floyd Rose, says that s when Sheppard lost the right to call himself an activist.Reverend Rose has been arrested four times for civil disobedience during the civil rights Era. He says Sheppard lost the title of activist when he brought the gun on campus, and again when he ran. I think now, he s put himself in a position where if he doesn t turn himself in, then they go after him. And they ll get him eventually. They may know where he is now, I don t know, but I do know this; you end up with more charges when you run. If he turns himself in, he s going to be better off. And then face the music, says Reverend Rose.MAY 29, 2015:BREAKING U.S. Marshals have arrested Eric Sheppard Jr., in Tampa Florida after a month long manhunt. Sheppard was originally wanted for firearms violations, threats against students, and most recently terrorism threats specifically against white people in Georgia . | 1real |
Syrian army, allies seize more of Jordanian frontier: report | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and its allies seized control of nine positions at Syria s border with Jordan, expanding their control at the southern frontier, a military news outlet run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Saturday. The captured border positions were located to the southeast of Damascus, the report said, adding that militants had been killed and wounded during the attack. It did not identify the insurgents, or say when the positions had been captured. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shi ite group, is fighting in support of the Syrian government, which is making rapid territorial gains against insurgents in southern and eastern Syria. | 0fake |
Qatar flexes financial muscle with 12 billion euros of French deals | DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar will buy fighter jets and armored vehicles as part of 12 billion euros worth of commercial contracts it agreed with France on Thursday, bolstering its military capability and its international ties as it faces a boycott by other Arab states. The latest contracts underscored how Doha can use the wealth it has accumulated as the world s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas to defy some of the largest and wealthiest Arab countries. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade relations with the emirate almost six months ago. They accuse the Qataris of backing terrorism, which Qatar denies. Our position on this blockade was very clear. Qatar s position was very clear - to resolve this problem, if we saw problems between us and our neighbors - we should be at a table and speak honestly, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said at a news conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron, who has tried to play a mediation role between the sides, was in Doha to discuss how to combat the financing of terrorism at a time when the Middle East is locked in a regional power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran. Restoring stability to the Gulf is a priority for us because we have a lot of friends here, Macron said. Our wish is that we find a quick resolution to today s situation. Paris has strong commercial and political ties with Qatar. It has promoted deeper business interests in the country and encouraged Qatari investment in France, where the Gulf state already has assets of about $10 billion. Macron said some 12 billion euros ($14.13 billion) worth of deals were agreed on Thursday. They included Qatar s taking up an option from 2015 to buy 12 more Dassault Aviation-made Rafale fighters, and saying it could purchase a further 36. It has already bought 24 planes for about 6 billion euros, including missiles. It also committed to buying 490 armored vehicles from defense firm Nexter. Doha has repeatedly called for dialogue with its neighbors, although it has strengthened its military as relations with them have deteriorated. It has secured this year alone military equipment deals with the United States, Russia and Britain. In total, it amounts to nearly 12 billion euros which was signed today and which underlines the closeness of our economic cooperation, Macron said. Among other deals signed, Suez SEVI.PA will dredge and clean Qatar s lagoon and a rail consortium of RATP and SNCF will build and operate a metro system in the Qatari capital. Qatar Airways also placed a new order for Airbus A321neo civilian aircraft to replace an earlier A320neo order. The new deal for larger planes is worth an extra $930 million at current list prices for Airbus and involves a switch of engine supplier to a French-American venture co-owned by Safran (SAF.PA)< and General Electric (GE.N). | 0fake |
HILLARY SET TO DESTROY LIVES Of Proud, Hard-Working, Black Coal Miners To Satisfy Mostly White Environmental Activists [VIDEO] | Stealing Jobs From Minorities To Satisfy White Environmentalists Is The Worst Kind Of Racism It s always about the money for Hillary. A University of Michigan survey in May found that leaders of environmental groups are overwhelmingly white males, with ethnic minorities occupying fewer than 12% of leadership positions.The environmental groups that are calling for sweeping changes to the economy moving away from oil and coal to carbon-free sources of energy seem incapable of making a transition themselves. These almost exclusively white groups are helping to fund Hillary s campaign while stealing the livelihood of hard-working black American coal miners and Blacks in the communities who s livelihood depends on the coal industry.Take a look at the top executives at eight of the top 10 groups devoted to fighting that fight:Sierra Club? White male.Nature Conservancy? White male.League of Conservation Voters? White male.AdvertisementWorld Wildlife Fund? White male.Environmental Defense Fund? White male.Friends of the Earth? White male.National Audubon Society? White male.Nature Conservancy? White male.Yet, Hillary persists in her desire to shut down the coal industry that has given minorities a way to live a middle to upper middle-class lifestyle, as a way to satisfy her white donors and activists.Watch here as coal miner confronts Hillary on her promise to shut down coal industry:https://youtu.be/-aiHD7AcfbsCoal was booming, and work was plentiful. By the 1930s, the industry employed 400,000 miners, 55,000 of whom were black. African Americans were restricted to more physically demanding positions requiring less skill, earning 30 percent less than whites. But their wages were still high by national standards: $118.30 per month, according to one 1929 survey. By contrast, a national study in 1939 later found that black men earned an average income of $460 per year.By the 1950s, African Americans made up 24 percent of McDowell s population, compared with 6 percent statewide. Locals came to refer to the area as the Free State of McDowell. Black doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs also flocked to the county, drawn to the promise of a better life. Even in the Jim Crow era, unions in the area were integrated, blacks in West Virginia enjoyed voting rights, and local political leadership included many people of color. Everybody had money, says Clif Moore, a current state delegate for McDowell who was born in the county in 1949. It was sort of like little New York. Like a little Manhattan. Everything was popping. But at mid-century, as machines began to take over the tasks of drilling and blasting coal and hauling it above ground, black miners were the first to lose their jobs. What had once been an all but certain gateway to the middle class began to close. African Americans fled the industry at even higher rates than whites; by 1960, the share of black workers in coal shrank to 6.6 from 12 percent a decade earlier. In 2014, the most recent year for which Bureau of Labor Statistics data are available, only about 2,500 blacks worked as coal miners, less than 3 percent of the total.Coal has seen booms and busts before, but for locals, this time feels different. Production in Appalachia fell last year by 13 percent (and 10 percent nationwide) as tougher environmental regulations and cheaper natural gas choked off demand for the highly polluting fossil fuel. Last month, the Obama administration announced a moratorium on new coal leases on public lands. Many of the area s mines have closed. Shops are often empty; drug use is rampant. McDowell is now West Virginia s poorest county.Still, families who ve lived here for generations say they re reluctant to leave. They praise the region s physical beauty, close-knit family life and friendly Southern manners. It s a different kind of black folk here. They dress differently, they talk differently, they carry themselves differently. They have a little arrogance about them, says Moore with a grin.Wade, like others here, harbors particular resentment for the Obama administration. He hasn t done anything for us, says the 88-year-old, leaning back on a couch in his living room overlooking the mountains. If he were running again, I just couldn t vote for him. And I ve been a Democrat my whole life. When Wade first started in the mines, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. It was a dangerous gig, but Wade didn t worry much about safety, even after his brother nearly died in a motor accident underground and his father lost an eye in a roof collapse. Wade says he didn t witness much discrimination, either. I had some of the nicest white friends that you would ever want to meet. He got involved in the mine s union, serving as president, and later took a job with the United Mine Workers of America. From 2005 to 2011, after his retirement, he also served as mayor of Keystone. But while he cared about local politics, his heart was in the mines. Even today, Wade drives the 30 minutes to the union offices once a week just to say hello.For Jeremy McMillian, 25, working in the mines was difficult at first. He was one of just 13 black employees among roughly 400 at the Pinnacle Mine in Pineville, West Virginia, he says. Occasionally, people directed racial slurs his way, but more often, they simply ignored him. People not talking to you, just walking by you like you re invisible, says McMillian. It s been days I wanted to snap, go crazy. They ll push your buttons. But over five years of running a coal buggy in and out of the mine, he gradually grew close to some colleagues. I can t blame them. Their parents taught them that. McMillian never thought he d be a coal miner. His father was a cop, and his stepdad, who raised him, owned a roofing business. No one in high school had ambitions to work in the mines unless their fathers did, so McMillian never expected to end up there. In fact, he was afraid of the mines. He d heard of coal workers pneumoconiosis, more commonly known as black lung. (A recent report found that after near eradication 15 years ago, black lung has resurged as coal miners work longer hours, often in dirtier conditions.) And he didn t think it was a profession welcome to black people. So after high school, he found a job as a mechanic.But when a father of a friend, a white man who d worked in the mines for 32 years, told him he could earn six figures as a coal miner, McMillian signed on. His health concerns haven t evaporated, though. You can make $100,00 a year, he says. They pay you that much because it s a dangerous job. Each time a shift of workers prepares to go underground, he says, they pray together. All I can do and pray [is that] it ain t my last day in the mines. His wife, a cheerleading coach at the local high school, is ready for him to quit. But there aren t many other jobs available. He has two children to provide for a 7-year-old daughter and 7-month-old girl. He s studying for his roofing license so he can take over his stepfather s business one day. But he plans to keep working in coal as long as it s viable.That may not be long. In October, his employer, Cliffs Natural Resources, announced it was laying off more than 200 people roughly half its staff at the Pinnacle Mine. McMillian kept his job, but his overtime hours were capped, costing him about $2,300 a month, he says. He was relieved, though, to still have a job.McMillian says he s frustrated that so many national politicians seem to be turning against coal. We don t like Obama cause he don t like us, he says. Instead, he may vote for Donald Trump: He talk a good game, McMillian says. We ll see if he stick to it. I mean, who wouldn t want to pay less taxes? He says he pays up to $2,400 a month in state and federal taxes on his monthly salary, which ranges from $4,000 to $4,500, depending on his hours.Two days before New Year s, McMillian was laid off. But as he was making plans to start a job as a truck driver hauling cars and heavy equipment cross-country, he was called back to the mines. He s happy to be back at work, for now. But he imagines he ll soon have to give up coal for trucking.With her long, black dreadlocks; warm smile; and Trinidadian accent, Janice Martin, 62, doesn t look or sound like a typical coal miner. She arrived in McDowell County in the late 1970s when her then-husband returned to his home state to find work in the lucrative coal industry.Following her mother s counsel, Martin searched for a job too. The mines seemed an obvious place to look. But she was shut out. They said women were not allowed in the coal mines because they thought it was bad luck, says Martin. But a few years later, after equal opportunity laws forced the mines to hire women, she tried again. This time she was successful and soon was one of the first five women hired at U.S. Steel Co. Mine Number 9 in Gary, West Virginia.At Mine 9, Martin was a mason. She laid blocks and built stoppings to aid air ventilation for $10 an hour, a good salary for a man or woman. She didn t mind the work, but the male-dominated culture could be demoralizing. They cuss, and they make dirty jokes, and they make women jokes, and they make black jokes, and they make Polish jokes. I mean, that s how life is, and you have to get used to it. But none of the jokes were personal, Martin says, and she never felt disrespected.Nearly 40 years later, she s still employed in the coal industry, as the only female (or African-American) mine inspector for the state of West Virginia, covering McDowell and a few other counties. She loves her work but believes even bigger job losses are about to hit. These communities are dying slowly, she says. People are moving out of these areas, and they aren t coming back. As she drives through McDowell in her beige GMC truck, the Trinidadian flag flying from the mirror, she points with sadness and frustration to the retail stores and government buildings that have shut down in recent years cleaners, banks, grocery stories, a school. The industry s decline is also hitting her at home. Martin once hoped her 19-year-old daughter, Jazzlee, would work in the mines, but instead she s studying to be a welder. I raised her that she was going to be in the mines, but the mines dropped drastically; there is no future in mining now. Via: Al Jazeera America | 1real |
Myanmar's Rohingya exodus: A desperate escape | (Reuters) - The world s fastest-growing humanitarian crisis shows no signs of abating, two months after militant attacks triggered a military crackdown in Myanmar s Rakhine State. This week thousands of new Rohingya Muslim refugees crossed the border into neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing hunger and a campaign of attacks by Myanmar security forces and Buddhist mobs that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. Exhausted, hungry and destitute, they join more than 600,000 who earlier fled what the military has called clearance operations in Rohingya villages after the Aug. 25 attacks by Rohingya militants. They have crossed land borders, rivers and treacherous seas to seek refuge in crowded camps in Bangladesh, itself a poor country struggling, along with international aid agencies, to cope with the influx. This multimedia essay uses a combination of Reuters graphics, pictures and video to show how the crisis unfolded, the exodus of the Rohingya and their lives as refugees in Bangladesh. See the graphic "A Desperate Escape" here: tmsnrt.rs/2xIvxQF | 0fake |
Franklin Graham: Donald Trump Won Election by the ‘Hand of God’ | Celebrated evangelical Rev. Franklin Graham says that it was the “hand of God,” rather than Russian hackers, that determined the outcome of November’s presidential election. [“I think maybe God has allowed Donald Trump to win this election to protect this nation for the next few years by giving maybe an opportunity to have some good judges,” he said. The son of renowned Baptist minister Billy Graham, the Rev. Franklin Graham has been invited by Trump to be one of six clergy to offer the invocation, benediction, and several readings at his ceremony on January 20. In an interview with Religion News Service Thursday, Graham said that beyond mere human factors, the mysterious hand of divine providence was at work in the elections. “All I know is Donald Trump was supposed to lose the election” according to all the polls, Graham said. “For these states to go the way they did, in my opinion, I think it was the hand of God,” he said. “It wasn’t hacking. It wasn’t or whatever. It was God, in my opinion, and I believe his hand was at work, and I think he’s given Christians an opportunity. ” While never officially endorsing Trump, Rev. Graham has been a sharp critic of the Obama administration and a vocal opponent of Hillary Clinton, especially for her uncompromising support of . Shortly before Election Day, Graham declared that the best choice for president “isn’t difficult to figure out if you are a Christian,” in evident reference to Republican candidate Donald Trump. “There’s two different pictures and two different visions for America,” Graham said in early November. “The Democratic Party has a vision, Hillary Clinton has a vision, Donald Trump has a totally different vision for this nation with the Republican Party. This isn’t difficult to figure out if you are a Christian. ” The evangelist acknowledged that for many, voting for Trump might not have been easy, but he insisted that it was, nonetheless, the better choice and that Trump was a “changed man. ” “You may have to hold your nose and vote,” Graham said. “I have people that say, ‘Well I don’t like Donald Trump, I don’t like what he says.’ Well I don’t like what he said either, I promise I don’t like it. But those are things that he said 11 years ago, not something that he said today. ” “I think Donald Trump has changed,” Graham added. “I think God is working on his heart and in his life. But people have to make up their own mind. ” In a Facebook post some weeks earlier, Graham had stated that “the difference between the candidates is night and day. ” “Some candidates have entire political ads talking about how they spent their career fighting for the rights of children,” he said. “Yet they spent their entire career fighting against the rights of unborn children!” Graham said Hillary Clinton’s progressive agenda was “godless” and could not be defended. Following WikiLeaks revelations, the preacher denounced the “depth of corruption” in Washington politics, calling for its eradication. “WikiLeaks is giving us a much clearer picture of the depth of the corruption that is thriving in our nation’s capital,” Graham wrote, calling it “a swamp that needs to be drained. ” “Our political system is broken, and it will take strong, tough leadership to begin fixing some of this,” Graham said. Regarding the inauguration ceremony, Graham says he still has not decided which Scripture passage to read. “I’m taking time just to pray and ask God to give me wisdom and guidance because it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously,” he said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 0fake |
Comment on Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) Is Another Example of a Lazy Corrupt Agency by Debbie Menon | Professor and Attorney Rahul Manchanda worked for one of the largest law firms in Manhattan where he focused on asbestos litigation. At the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”) in Vienna, Austria, Mr. Manchanda was exposed to international trade law, arbitration, alternative dispute resolution, and comparisons of the American common law with European civil law. He later worked for one of the largest multi-national law firms in Paris France, Coudert Frères, where he focused primarily on international arbitration, arbitration agreements, the enforcement of foreign arbitration awards against multinational parent corporations, piercing the corporate veil, arbitration venue choice, and foreign policy. In Paris, Mr. Manchanda analyzed and compared the American legal system with its British, French, Russian, German, and Chinese counterparts. Mr. Manchanda also has extensive technical experience in Federal Patent Prosecution and Intellectual Property issues working for Milde Hoffberg & Macklin LLP and Moses & Singer LLP, and has contributed to the issuing of patents in the areas of biotechnology, organic chemistry, biopharmaceuticals, electrical and mechanical engineering, computer software and technology, and internet business methods. He was recently the Keynote Address Speaker for Hamline University School of International Law on the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, as well as a Chief Speaker for the Civil Rights Litigation Update Seminar on Balancing Inalienable Civil Rights and National Security in the Post-911 Era. Professor Manchanda is also a Faculty Member for LawLine.com, an online Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”) program designed to educate Attorneys all across the country on cutting edge issues of Immigration Law and Deportation and Removal Defense Litigation as well as a second CLE on the Foundations of International Law, as well as 5 different Immigration Law/Deportation Defense Seminars for Rossdale CLE. Click here to watch a portion of his 2 hour lecture on Immigration and Deportation and Removal Defense Litigation or The Foundations of International Law. You can also watch some of his many appearances on FoxNews, CNN, CourtTV, NBC, and other major media networks on some of the most notable cases in global history, here. He has also given multiple lectures as one of the first pioneering immigration law practitioners who merged Criminal Defense Law and Immigration/Deportation Defense Law in such lectures with other immigration law luminaries in LexisNexis Presents a Complimentary Webinar: Criminal Law and Immigration Intersection 101 and Immigration Reform and the Workplace: An Overview of Legal and Legislative Developments. At Boston University, Mr. Manchanda received a Bachelors degree in Biology, where he distinguished himself in the chemical and biological sciences, doing extensive research in organic chemistry, in both field and laboratory work relating to organic synthesis and isolation, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, structure determination, and production of synthetic bio-active natural products. At BU, Mr. Manchanda also was on the BU Shotokan Karate Team as well as a Lead Tenor with the Marsh Chapel Choir, also finding time to be a Teaching Fellow in Molecular Cell Biology, Organic Chemistry, and a private tutor in Calculus based Physics and Organic Chemistry. He also attended Yale University where he studied Molecular Cell and Evolutionary Biology. He served on the Pace University School of Law’s Mentor Program where he received his Juris Doctor degree. Attorney Manchanda graduated from the Wooster Prep School in Danbury Connecticut where he was a Varsity Letterman in Soccer, Wrestling, Tennis, and Lacrosse, as well as Lead in the Drama Program. For more than 14 years, his internationally recognized law firm has a formidable presence in Federal and State Criminal, Civil, International, and Immigration Courts throughout the United States pertaining to Master, Individual, and Final Hearings, Naturalization Interviews, Writs of Habeas Corpus, Writs of Corum Nobis, Marriage Cases, U.S. Embassy and Consular Processing, American Citizen Services, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State liaison, 440 Motions to Vacate, Amend, or Expunge Criminal Convictions, Aggravated Felonies, Drug Smuggling Cases, Stokes Hearings, Political Asylum, Taxation, Hardship, Removal of Condition Hearings, National Security, and Adjustment of Status Interviews. He served as an American Immigration Lawyer Association (“AILA“) Committee Member for the Congressional/Advocacy Committee, the Department of Labor (“DOL“) Committee, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR“)/District Counsel/Political Asylum Committee. Attorney Manchanda also proudly served on the New York State Bar Association Empire State Counsel Program, which is a small group of Attorneys who serve the poor without charge, helping people who otherwise could not afford legal counsel to achieve justice. Attorney Manchanda also proudly serves as a Member of the American Bar Association Advisory Panel, a group of Attorneys that informs the ABA’s priorities and decisions by providing opinions about the direction of the ABA and issues facing the profession. Attorney Rahul Manchanda of Manchanda Law Office PLLC has also traveled extensively throughout the world where he has fought for peace and mutual understanding by and between the United States and different countries overseas. His work, observations, and travels have been published and been received to make foreign policy decisions by the International Atomic Energy Agency (“IAEA”), the US RAHUL MANCHANDA IN TEHRAN IRANCongress, US Senate, US Executive Branch, as well as countless other think-tanks, foreign and domestic governmental agencies, NGOs, foreign and domestic policy institutions, such as can be found here. Attorney Rahul Manchanda’s ceaseless and tireless work advocating peace, universal human and civil rights, and the avoidance of war and conflict has truly transformed the world, perhaps even helping to stop World War 3, for which he has been viciously attacked online and personally by warmongers, enemies of global peace, and religious extremists. In addition to Mr. Manchanda’s extensive international litigation practice in Federal and State Criminal Defense Law, Immigration Law, Deportation and Removal Defense Litigation, Family Law, International Law, and Civil Litigation, he has advised on, been consulted on, prepared, and filed tens of thousands of Arraignments, Trials, Hearings, Non-Immigrant and Immigrant Visa Petitions including, but not limited to: H-1B1, B, C, D, E, L, O, P, H-3, J, K, M, R, S, T, and U Visas, as well as I-130 and I-140 Immigrant Petitions with accompanying Adjustment of Status (I-485), Extraordinary Ability Petitions, EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, EB-5, Investment Based Visas, PERM, RIR, and Regular Labor Certification Applications with the Department of Labor, Political Asylum, Marriage Cases, Stokes Interviews, Naturalization/Citizenship, Agricultural, 245(I), CSS/Lulac/Zambrano, LIFE Act, Removal of Conditions, Criminal and Overstay Waivers, and Aggravated Felony and CMT Defense. Attorney Manchanda has succeeded for his Clients in Deportation and Removal Proceedings, Asylum, Employment Based Visa Petitions including PERM/Labor Certification, Business Immigration Visas, and Family Based Immigration Petitions, for tens of thousands of people, for more than 14 years. He taught Immigration Law at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the City University of New York located in Manhattan New York. He has also successfully advised on and appeared in Criminal Court throughout New York for many different types of State and Federal Criminal Defense Matters. He was sworn in and admitted to practice in the highest courts in New York State as well as in the Federal United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Federal United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the Federal United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, the United States District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the United States District Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the United States District Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has been an active member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Phi Alpha Delta International, the Global Interdependence Center (“GIC”), the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Network 20/20, and the Asia Society. He regularly participated in conferences with the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, Capitol Hill, the Center For Strategic and International Studies (“CSIS”), and the Council on Foreign Relations (“CFR”) in Washington, D.C. pertaining to counter-terrorism and foreign policy in South Asia, as well as completing counter-terrorism training with Security Solutions International (“SSI”). He served on a New York Committee on State Regulation of Immigration Law in front of the New York State Senate. He served on the Board of Directors and Sponsor of the US-India Institute (“USINI”), a non-partisan foreign policy advisory board and think tank located in Washington, D.C. focusing on critical geo-strategic issues of national security, defense and economic relations between the U.S. and India, informing and educating key policy makers in the U.S. and India on issues of common interest, and advocating the importance of achieving and maintaining peace through Rahul Manchanda Attorneystrength and economic freedom. He served as the U.S.-India Political Action Committee (“USINPAC“) Co-Chairman for New York where he impacted U.S. Foreign Policy on issues of concern to the Indian American community in the United States, providing bipartisan support to candidates for Federal, State and Local office who supported the issues that were important to the Indian American community, including research, support, and advocacy towards the successful passage of the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Non-Proliferation Enhancement Act, signed into law on October 8, 2008 after more than three years of contentious bi-partisan and bi-lateral negotiations. Recently Attorney Manchanda was awarded the prestigious Hind Rattan Award for his outstanding services, achievements, and contributions in his field for “keeping the flag of India high” as an NRI/PIO by the NRI Welfare Society of India, an award bestowed on only 30 “eminent” NRIs/PIOs around the globe every year, and for making contributions in strengthening India’s economy. Attorney Manchanda was also Knighted by the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Justice of London England, given the appellation and nobility of Sir Rahul Manchanda. Attorney Manchanda also served on the Paris Conference Presidential Desk of the European Association of Lawyers (“AEA“), a highly selective network of international law firms with a presence in most of the world’s countries. He is also a member of the Indian American Lawyers Association of Manhattan New York as well as the Manhattan Committee on Foreign Relations, which is a private organization that promotes foreign policy and international affairs dialogue between policy makers, researchers, and other high level analysts and the Committee’s membership. Attorney Manchanda is also on the Advisory Council for the Republican National Lawyers Association. Attorney Rahul Manchanda is also a Member of the Queens District Attorney’s Office Defense Attorney Database for new cases assigned to Assistant District Attorneys and a Member of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce. Additionally Rahul Manchanda is the founder of the India Anti-Defamation Committee Ltd which is a premier civil rights organization dedicated to fighting and eradicating racism, discrimination, and hatred directed towards people from the Indian subcontinent. Rahul Manchanda is also a Freemason. Mr. Manchanda has appeared as International Law Expert regularly on major media television program channels such as Fox News, CNN, Court TV, and NBC on such television programs as Dayside, Studio B with Shephard Smith, Fox and Friends, Heartland with John Kasich, Live from CNN with Kyra Phillips, the Live Desk with Martha McCallum, Anderson Cooper 360°, the O’Reilly Factor, Nancy Grace, Banfield & Ford Courtside, Best Defense with Jami Floyd, Justice with Jeanine Pirro, and the Catherine Crier Show on the most publicized and globally newsworthy of international legal issues and cases. You can watch many of these appearances here. He is also featured in Newsweek Magazine‘s Top Attorneys in the United States of America in 2013, and Top Immigration Lawyers in the United States of America in 2012 Showcases. His in depth expertise in International Affairs, State and Federal Criminal Defense Litigation, Consular Processing Issues, Immigration Law, Foreign Affairs, Customs Law, and High-Level Scientific Training has enabled Attorney Manchanda to secure solutions for his Clients in a quick, efficient, and accurate manner for more than 13 years. Mr. Manchanda is fluent in French, English, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. He has also studied Russian, Latin, and Hebrew. His hobbies include Politics, International Affairs, and Soccer. In his spare time, he enjoys Chess and Classical Music. | 1real |
PRICELESS! BILL MAHER CALLS Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” During Interview [VIDEO] | Bill Maher began his interview with the yawn-inducing Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren and the best hope for a presidential candidate in 2020, by hitting her with some bad news Democrats are losing. After she came out faking enthusiasm for the liberal California audience, Warren who is best known for lying on a job application to Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, where she checked the Native American box, starts out telling Maher, People all across this country are energized. (Is she talking about Antifa and basement dwellers who are collecting a paycheck from various George Soros groups for occasionally rolling out of bed, grabbing a face-mask and a baseball bat from their father s garage and going out to threaten the free-speech of Trump supporters?)Maher reminded her, They may be all energized but they don t have a Democratic governor, a Democratic senator or a Democratic parliament. The first 5 minutes of Warren s yawn-inducing interview is filled with whining about how her progressive agenda is being ignored and how capitalism needs to be addressed and taken down.Maher quickly reminds her that from 1980-2015 when many of the economy-killing regulations were implemented that many Democrats were responsible for passing. He asked her, Don t the Democrats bear some responsibility for that? At about the 6 minute mark, Bill Maher begins to whine about Trump s tax plan and reminds Pocahontas that Trump s fans are not with her. Warren tells Maher, Actually, I m gonna push back, I disagree. Maher interrupts her, His fans are not with you. They don t like you Pocahontas. Watch starting at the 6:00 minute mark: | 1real |
Florida Republican To Black Voters: ‘If You Don’t Like It Here, Go Back To Africa’ | Paul Congemi, a Republican candidate running for mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, sent a clear message to black voters at a forum on Tuesday when he told mayoral opponent Jesse Nevel and members of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement to Go back to Africa. Congemi claims to have been a life-long Democrat who switched to Republican after former President Barack Obama showed his support for gay marriage. Nevel, on the other hand, is white and has been running his campaign on the slogan Unity through reparations, and has also spoken out against gentrification and police brutality.Then there is the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a socialist organization of white people who believe that the key to ending racial inequality is through reparations, but Congemi sees things from different angle. Mr. Nevel you and your people talk about reparations. The reparations that you talk about, Mr. Nevel, your people already got your reparations. Your reparations came in the form of a man named Barack Obama, Congemi said at Tuesday s forum. My advice to you, if you don t like it here in America, planes leave every hour from Tampa airport. Go back to Africa. Go back to Africa. Go back, he continued, repeatedly pointing at the crowd and later making motions to exit.His statement was met with a combination of shock and disgust, with one woman in the crowd shouting Get out of here! after Congemi s comment about Barack Obama.Rick Kriseman, the sitting mayor of St. Petersburg, was also critical of the candidate s words, claiming on Wednesday that Congemi s statement was hateful, bigoted, and unacceptable toward black and gay Floridians. Jesse Nevel also saw the move as tactless, saying that Congemi s comment reflects a segment of my community. I ve met plenty of other people who feel that way. That s why I feel that it s important for those of us in the white community to take a public stand with reparations. In typical Republican fashion, Congemi tried to weasel his way out of the firestorm he had created, telling the Washington Post that he has nothing against African Americans who are doing their best here in America, and that his remarks were only aimed at those who are pushing for reparations. He even referred to Nevel as a self-hating white man. The controversy doesn t seem to have slowed Congemi down, and he claims that anyone who believes he is racist simply misunderstood his comments. Even if he loses this time, he s not going to stop. I ll run again in 2019 and, God willing, if I m alive in 2021, I ll run then, too, Congemi said. I intend to keep running and running and running. Featured image via video screen capture from YouTube | 1real |
Mexico welcomes NAFTA re-negotiation, expects constructive talks | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s government welcomed the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Thursday after the Trump administration gave notice it was kicking off the process with a letter to Congress. In a brief statement, Mexico’s economy ministry said NAFTA had been a boon to Canada, the United States and Mexico, and that all three nations deserved a modern pact to regulate trade. “Mexico expects a constructive negotiation that allows more cooperation, economic integration, and boosts regional competitiveness,” the ministry said in the statement. | 0fake |
Josh Fox on Dakota Access Pipeline Standoff: ‘Where the F*** Is Hillary Clinton Right Now?’ | Josh Fox on Dakota Access Pipeline Standoff: ‘Where the F*** Is Hillary Clinton Right Now?’ CREDIT
Filmmaker Josh Fox has a pretty good idea where Hillary Clinton is likely to be found starting Jan. 20. But before she makes her final play for the White House, Fox has a pressing question for the Democratic .
“Where the fuck is Hillary Clinton right now?” Fox asked during his guest appearance on “Live at Truthdig” at the site’s Los Angeles headquarters.
That was more of a pointed question than a literal one, since anyone with a television or smartphone can easily track down where Clinton is making her latest campaign stump speech.
More specifically, Fox, who’s a climate activist and playwright as well as the director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Gasland,” was wondering why Clinton wasn’t anywhere near the contested grounds of North Dakota where the ongoing clash over the Dakota Access pipeline is reaching a volatile point.
Remarking that “we all want to think that we would be on the right side” of history and that, for example, “if we were in Selma, we all would have marched with King,” Fox positioned Clinton squarely “on the wrong side of history right now” for maintaining a conspicuous silence about the DAPL battle.
“You cannot stand by when a racist occupying force that is run by the government of a rogue state is operating as an arm of the oil and gas industry, is attacking natives, is attacking protesters, is attacking people and torturing them in the ways that we saw in the Iraq War,” Fox said. “It’s unacceptable.”
Fox was equally unsparing about Clinton’s environmental credentials. “Hillary Clinton is not an environmentalist,” he said. “Hillary Clinton is not adequate on climate change. And right now, she’s standing by while human rights abuses are unfolding in America where she’s running for president.”
The director was making the media rounds to drum up support for the activists and members allied protesters in North Dakota, some of whom faced off Thursday with police in riot gear as law enforcement and National Guard personnel forcibly removed protesters from their encampment near one of the pipeline’s construction zones. He was also putting out the word about the plight of fellow filmmaker Deia Schlosberg, producer of his 2016 documentary “How to Let Go of the World (and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change),” who was arrested and hit with conspiracy charges earlier this month while shooting footage of activists at a North Dakota tar sands pipeline. Schlosberg has been charged with three felonies and may face 45 years in prison.
WATCH: Amy Goodman Explains Decision to Turn Herself In to North Dakota Authorities (Video)
“We need to drop all the charges immediately, we need her footage back—her footage was confiscated,” Fox said of Schlosberg. “We definitely need an outcry and an outpouring of support for our journalists who are facing jail time for doing what is a constitutionally protected activity.” Fox has posted a videotaped statement about his colleague’s plight, as well as information about a petition, on this promotional site for his latest work.
Despite his robust criticism of Clinton, Fox told Truthdig’s Sarah Wesley, Emma Niles and Donald Kaufman that he was more concerned about the possibility of GOP nominee Donald Trump winning this election. Fox, who had supported Democratic candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and served on the Democratic platform committee at last summer’s party convention, said he understood Sanders’ reasons for backing the Democratic ticket: “If Bernie Sanders’ legacy was to contribute to the election of Donald Trump, I think his whole life would have been a failure.”
As for Green Party Jill Stein? “I’m sorry. It’s immoral what she’s doing,” Fox said. “And I don’t care if I say this on air for the very first time—I spent eight years building the environmental movement, I spent eight years coast-to-coast building the [anti-]fracking movement, I went to 250 cities. I did not see the Green Party having a significant hand in the building of that movement.”
Watch the full interview below for more about Fox’s take on the presidential candidates, the Dakota Access pipeline crisis and how to be an effective activist (hint: Don’t try it at home): | 1real |
UCSD Students: Dalai Lama Violates ’Respect, Tolerance, Equality’ | Students at the University of California, San Diego are protesting an upcoming speech by the Dalai Lama on the grounds that he is an “oppressive figure threatening to divide a unified China. ”[According to a report from Quartz Magazine, an offshoot of The Atlantic, students at the University of California, San Diego are concerned about an upcoming visit from the Dalai Lama, who they consider to be a threat to the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China. The announcement triggered outrage among Chinese students who view the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as an oppressive figure threatening to divide a unified China. A group of them now plans to meet with the university chancellor to discuss the content of the upcoming speech. The awkwardness doesn’t end there. As the aggrieved students have trumpeted their opposition, their rhetoric has borrowed elements from larger campus activist movements across the United States. The upshot: What Westerners might perceive as Communist Party orthodoxy is mingling weirdly with academia’s commitment to diversity, political correctness, and other championed ideals. Shortly after UCSD announced the Dalai Lama’s visit, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) issued a lengthy statement expressing their concern. UCSD is a place for students to cultivate their minds and enrich their knowledge. Currently, the various actions undertaken by the university have contravened the spirit of respect, tolerance, equality, and earnestness — the ethos upon which the university is built. These actions have also dampened the academic enthusiasm of Chinese students and scholars. If the university insists on acting unilaterally and inviting the Dalai Lama to give a speech at the graduation ceremony, our association vows to take further measures to firmly resist the university’s unreasonable behavior. Specific details of these measures will be outlined in our future statements. “What Westerners might perceive as Communist Party orthodoxy is mingling weirdly with academia’s commitment to diversity, political correctness, and other championed ideals,” Quartz notes. | 0fake |
WATCH “ARCHITECT” OF OBAMACARE Lie And Spin His Way Out Of Taking Responsibility For Failure…A Real PUTZ! [Video] | Listening to Zeke Emanuel, awkward brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is always a study in the absurdities of politics. This guy is supposedly the architect of Obamacare but he s just one big jackwagon.Can you believe we ve had people like this determining the healthcare policy for all Americans? He s now providing cover for the failing Obamacare exchanges. Aetna is the latest to essentially withdraw from all but four of the state exchanges for which it had been providing health insurance under Obamacare. Not a success but you wouldn t know it from all the finger pointing going on with this putz.HERE S ZEKE TRYING TO BLAME HIS FAILURE ON POLITICS NICE TRY BUT WE RE NOT BUYIN IT: | 1real |
Trump Gets DESTROYED By Chuck Todd After ‘Sleepy Eyes’ Twitter Attack (TWEETS) | Yesterday, 70-year-old Donald Trump resorted to acting like a 5-year-old again by attacking NBC News Chuck Todd over Twitter.Unable to process emotions like a grown-up and handle the fact that not everyone will like or agree with him, Trump reignited his Twitter feud with Todd by calling him Sleepy Eyes after being upset about Todd s coverage of his rally in North Carolina. Trump also ended up calling Todd disloyal for criticizing him, and eventually saying that he didn t want to even talk about him (even though several of Trump s tweets are just about Todd). He tweeted: Sleepy eyes Chuck Todd, a man with so little touch for politics, is at it again. He could not have watched my standing ovation speech in N.C. TwitterTrump followed this up with another tweet with the Sleepy Eyes insult: I have over seven million hits on social media re Crooked Hillary Clinton. Check it out Sleepy Eyes, @[email protected] This was Trump s attempt to engage Todd in an on and off Twitter battle. According to Business Insider, Trump has called Chuck Todd Sleepy Eyes 16 times over the last 4 years, and he clearly wanted to stir things up again. But Trump s Twitter attacks fell flat, as Todd proved that he knows just how to handle moronic internet bullies like Trump ignore them. Todd responded on Twitter, and shut the whole thing down in one sentence:TwitterThis tweet went out about an hour after Todd s Meet The Press Daily panel discussed Trump s disastrous search for a running mate, noting that several of the business mogul s picks for VP were pulling out. Todd has been one of Trump s most outspoken critics in the media, having previously called him out on his hypocritical attacks against his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.TwitterTrump has previously moaned and whined about Meet The Press being totally biased and against him, and that s how Todd and NBC know they re doing something right. The media is supposed to be critical and point out fallacies, and Trump just doesn t have the temperament to handle it.Featured image is a screenshot | 1real |
Chinese watchdog says 1.34 million officials punished for graft since 2013 | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s anti-graft watchdog said roughly 1.34 million lower-ranking officials have been punished since 2013 under President Xi Jinping s anti-corruption drive. Xi, who is preparing for a major Communist Party leadership conference later this month, has made an anti-graft campaign targeting tigers and flies , both high and low ranking officials, a core policy priority during his five-year term. China is preparing for the 19th Congress later this month, a twice-a-decade leadership event where Xi is expected to consolidate power and promote his policy positions. Those punished for graft since 2013 include 648,000 village-level officials and most crimes were related to small scale corruption, said the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Sunday. While much of the country s anti-graft drive has targeted lower ranking village and county officials, several high-ranking figures have been taken down. In August the head of the anti-graft committee for China s Ministry of Finance was himself put under investigation for suspected graft. In September a senior military officer who sits on China s powerful Central Military Commission, overseen by Xi, was detained and questioned over corruption-related offenses, Reuters reported. The CCDI said 155,000 country-level party bureaux have set up corruption policing mechanisms as of August, representing 94.8 percent of total bureaus. | 0fake |
ANTI-RELIGION ACTIVISTS Target Small Town USA And Christianity | The organization called Freedom from Religion has been going around to Christian monuments and signs across America and demanding they be taken down. Every sign and cross they come across that s on city property is in violation of separation of church and state.Here are other recent efforts to remove religious signs:Military Chaplains Rally As Inspiring Sign Comes Under Fire From Religious Freedom Organization(VIDEO) SPARKS FLY WHEN FREEDOM FROM RELIGION GROUP ASKS TEXAS TOWN TO REMOVE SIGN WELCOMING VISITORSThe big question to us is that the town wants the sign and has had it up for decades. If the town votes for it, can the sign remain? America is, after all, founded on Christianity and is a majority country. The more important point is that while these people are trying to rid us of Christian signs, the Muslim religion is EXPLODING in America. We had 200 Mosques only a decade ago and now we have over 2,000! Our schools are being slowly entrenched with lessons on Islam. Communities are having Muslim Day so you can learn more about being Muslim I could go on but you catch my drift. If we don t fight back now, we re scr*wed! Two signs in Hondo that tout the city as God s Country have prompted the Freedom From Religion Foundation to complain the placards constitute an impermissible government endorsement of religion.But Mayor Jim Danner left no doubt that he ll oppose removing the iconic signs beside U.S. 90 that say, in full, This Is God s Country Please Don t Drive Through It Like Hell. There s no way in hell we re going to take those signs down, the mayor said Monday, predicting locals would back that stance. I think when they find out we received that letter, we ll have total support from the community to keep them. Foundation Co-President Anne Laurie Gaylor told Danner in a letter last week, The message assumes a common god, yet imagine the public outrage had the city posted a sign that said, This is Vishnu s Country. It is equally inflammatory and inappropriate to post a sign dedicating a city to the god of the bible, she said, referencing the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The city-owned signs on public property convey government preference for religion over non-religion, according to Gaylor, and sends the message that non-believers are not welcome in the city. We respect the right of every person in Hondo to practice whatever religion or non-religion, they choose, he said. The only problem here is that it s the government endorsing religion, rather than private entities. Via: mysanantonio.com | 1real |
Chicago Cops Busted Yelling ‘F**king N***gers’ On Hot Dispatch Mic (AUDIO) | Once again, the police demonstrate just how absolutely justified people of color are in not trusting them. After the violence and chaos that erupted and eventually resulted in the cancellation of a Donald Trump rally in Chicago, Illinois on Friday night, some extremely vulgar and racist language was used between police officers just hours later over their dispatch radios. Very clearly, on the tape that has been circulating on social media, the phrases Typical f ing n s and Black lives matter, my a are spat maliciously by two of Chicago s finest. The disturbing words were uttered over the feeds from the Far South Side and Morgan Park areas both of which are populated mostly by African Americans.Here is a description of the vile exchange, via New York Daily News:The roughly 8:30 a.m. exchange started with a dispatcher joking with a police officer that it was too early to be bothering you. They said a friendly good morning to each other.Another cop asked, How many boyfriends do you have? The dispatcher replied with a joke. Why you all in my Kool-Aid? Why you over here? Another voice said, You can answer that again, and a muffled voice said something that sounded like, You got busted over the air again. Two seconds later, a man s voice said, Typical f ing n s. A police officer asked the dispatcher to find out what radio that comment came from and she said she couldn t track its location but had alerted her boss.A few indecipherable noises followed before another voice said the ethnic slur again. Black lives matter, my a . F ing n s, the voice said. The minute-long recording then ended.You can listen here:[soundcloud url= https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/251822805 params= color=ff5500 width= 100% height= 166 iframe= true /]Now, of course, the Chicago Police Department is in full on damage control mode. They have reduced this extreme racism to inappropriate transmission on a police frequency and released the following statement: The statements made are absolutely unacceptable and Superintendent [John] Escalante has ordered an immediate internal affairs investigation into this incident, CPD officials said. Should the investigation reveal that a member of the police department made the statements, he will be immediately suspended and disciplinary proceedings will be launched. Considering that it was over police dispatch, it is highly unlikely that anyone BUT a Chicago police officer or someone else who has access to that feed in such a position said it. Further, forget suspended fire these people once they are identified. They obviously cannot police neighborhoods for people of color in a fair and unbiased way. Don t we have enough issues with police racism? Don t we have enough racist cops using their position to literally murder people of color? Shame on you, Chicago PD, if you allow these racists to keep their jobs. Then again, with the way things usually go in these cases, I won t be surprised if nobody is disciplined at all, let alone fired as they should be.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons | 1real |
Egyptian planes pound ISIS in Libya in revenge for mass beheadings of Christians | Egyptian warplanes struck hard at ISIS militants in neighboring Libya, killing as many as 64 militants and destroying the Islamist terror group's training camps and weapons caches a day after a sickening video surfaced showing black-clad jihadists beheading 21 Coptic Christians.
The strikes came in two waves after Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi went on national television in the world's most populous Arab nation and vowed revenge was coming. The address was followed by the airing of military video showing the planes taking off for the mission and an Armed Forces General Command statement saying the strikes were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers."
"Avenging Egyptian blood and punishing criminals and murderers is our right and duty," the Egyptian military said in the statement, which was broadcast on state television.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the airstrikes targeted ISIS locations in Derna, a port city in eastern Libya.
"Leaving the situation as it is in Libya without a firm intervention to curtail these terrorist organizations would be a threat to international peace and security," the ministry said.
The ISIS video released online showed the Egyptian victims, poor men from Egypt's rural areas who had traveled to Libya looking for work, kneeling before Islamic State executioners. In Egypt, which by some estimates is about 10 percent Christian, the video sent shockwaves through both Muslim and Christian communities. El-Sisi, the U.S.-trained, former military leader who in a landmark New Year's day address called on the Arab world to reject radical terror, and then took the unprecedented step of attending services at a Christian church, told his nation the deaths would be avenged.
"These cowardly actions will not undermine our determination" said el-Sissi, who also banned all travel to Libya by Egyptian citizens. "Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals."
On Monday, el-Sissi visited the main Coptic Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo to offer his condolences on the Egyptians killed in Libya, according to state TV.
Egyptian state-run news service Al-Ahram, citing a Libyan military spokesman, reported that the strikes, which were coordinated with Libyan officials, killed 64 Islamic State fighters and left dozens wounded. Egyptian officials told the news service the strikes were the first of several to come.
Egypt is already battling a burgeoning Islamist insurgency centered in the strategic Sinai Peninsula, where militants have recently declared their allegiance to ISIS and rely heavily on arms smuggled across the porous desert border between Egypt and Libya.
The strikes also come just a month before Egypt is scheduled to host a major donor's conference at a Sinai resort to attract foreign investment needed to revive the economy after more than four years of turmoil.
The Egyptian government had previously declared a seven-day period of mourning and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi addressed the nation late Sunday night, saying that his government reserved the right to seek retaliation for the killings.
"These cowardly actions will not undermine our determination" said el-Sissi, who also banned all travel to Libya by Egyptian citizens. "Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals."
Libya's air force commander, Saqr al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that the airstrikes were coordinated with the Libyan side and that they killed about 50 militants. Libya's air force also announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an ISIS affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the Air Force Chief of Staff, did not provide further details. Two Libyan security officials told the Associated Press civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in the strikes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The video was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group. The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group -- which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate -- has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy, Libya's former colonial master. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to "conquer Rome."
In Washington, the White House released a statement calling the beheadings "despicable" and "cowardly", but made no mention of the victims' religion, referring to them only as "Egyptian citizens" or "innocents." White House press secretary Josh Earnest added in the statement that the terror group's "barbarity knows no bounds."
Also Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. He offered his condolences on behalf of the American people and strongly condemned the killings. Kerry and the foreign minister agreed to keep in close touch as Egyptians deliberated on a response, according to a release from the State Department.
The U.N. Security Council meanwhile strongly condemned what it called "the heinous and cowardly apparent murder in Libya of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by an affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," using another name for the terror group.
The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also condemned the mass killing, calling it an "ugly crime."
"The United Arab Emirates is devoting all its resources to support the efforts of Egypt to eradicate terrorism and the violence directed against its citizens," he said.
Sheikh Abdullah added that the killing highlights the need to help the Libyan government "extend its sovereign authority over all of Libya's territory."
The oil-rich Emirates, along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, has given billions of dollars in aid to Egypt since el-Sissi, who was then military chief, overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 amid massive protests against his yearlong rule.
Egypt has since waged a sweeping crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, which it has officially branded a terrorist organization. El-Sissi has insisted the crackdown in Egypt, as well as support for the government in Libya, is part of a larger war on terror.
Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many Islamic extremist groups.
The internationally recognized government has been confined to the country's far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.
Egypt has strongly backed the internationally recognized government, and U.S. officials have said both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have taken part in a series of mysterious airstrikes targeting Islamist-allied forces.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
North Korea Ready for New Missile Launch Within Days | North Korea Ready for New Missile Launch Within Days November 04, 2016 North Korea Ready for New Missile Launch Within Days
North Korea is preparing to launch an intermediate-range ballistic missile in the next three days, Fox Business Network reported, citing two unidentified U.S. officials. The communist nation planned the launch for between 24 and 72 hours, the cable network reported. It would be the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country this year in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, supported by China, that ban all ballistic missile-related activities by the North. North Korea, which is under U.N. and other international sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs, has conducted repeated missile tests this year, the most recent on Oct. 20. That latest test, believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan, failed immediately after launch, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said. It came in spite of the threat of further U.N. sanctions under discussion. The failed launch was the eighth attempt in seven months by North Korea to launch a weapon with a design range of 3,000 km (1,800 miles) that can be fired from road mobile launchers, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said.
News of that launch came during the third and final debate for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.
A study published last month by a U.S.-based North Korea research project said North Korean missile and nuclear tests and other major "provocations" had clustered increasingly closer to U.S. elections.
READ MORE: COALITION NATIONS SEEK TO PUT NORTH KOREA IN A VISE
Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said the trend also suggested the possibility of an act during the December transition period for the next U.S. administration.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and has since defied U.N. sanctions to press ahead with the development of the weapons and missiles to carry them, which it says it needs for defense.
It carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and fifth and largest on Sept. 9. Article by Doc Burkhart , Vice-President, General Manager and co-host of TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles 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 |
Real Disclosure! Secret Alien Base Found In Moon's Tycho Crater | Real Disclosure! Secret Alien Base Found In Moon's Tycho Crater # Grey 52
Real Disclosure is where you find something on the lunar surface that cannot possibly exist unless someone built it. NO WAY it's a natural formation --- SOMETHING constructed that ---- 90° angles are just not possible without alien/man-made interaction. More 'smoking gun' irrefutable proof of intelligence from abroad. Tags | 1real |
Trump Throws Intelligence Community Under The Bus To Side With Putin Despite Strong Evidence Of Russian Meddling | President Bone Spurs finally made it to Vietnam over 40 years too late this week, and he used the occasion to stab our intelligence community in the back again.While taking questions from reporters on Air Force One, Donald Trump was asked if he still believes Vladimir Putin s denial that Russia interfered with the 2016 Election even though the evidence proves that Russia meddled.Of course, Trump is Putin s puppet so he was quick to throw U.S. officials and U.S. agencies under a speeding bus to side with the Russian dictator. He said he didn t meddle, he said he didn t meddle, Trump said. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. I just asked him again. He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election, he did not do what they are saying he did. As we all know, 17 agencies, including the FBI and CIA agree that Russian interfered with the 2016 Election. There is so much evidence that Trump is being investigated for colluding with Russia, not only by a special prosecutor, but by Congress as well.We also know that Trump s own son met with Kremlin-connected Russian officials at Trump Tower seeking their help. Not long after that meeting, Trump urged Russia to hack Hillary Clinton s emails and the DNC.Trump went on to claim that the whole thing was set up by the Democrats and desperately defended Putin again. Every time he sees me he says I didn t do that and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. But he says I didn t do that. I think he is very insulted by it, if you want to know the truth. Don t forget. All he said was he never did that, he didn t do that. I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country. Then Trump attacked the intelligence community officials who have testified under oath that Russia meddled with our democratic process. They re political hacks. So you look at it, and then you have Brennan, you have Clapper and you have Comey. Comey s proven now to be a liar and he s proven to be a leaker. So you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that. And there you have it. Trump would rather believe the word of a Russian dictator over the word of several high ranking American officials who spent most of their lives dedicated to keeping America and our democratic institutions safe.That alone should outrage the American people.Featured Image: Steffen Kugler /BPA via Getty Images | 1real |
U.S. House panel cancels plan to introduce Puerto Rico bill | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republicans on a U.S. House of Representatives panel said they were making progress on a Puerto Rico debt relief bill that will take the same basic approach as an earlier failed version, despite cancelling plans to unveil new legislation on Wednesday. The House Natural Resources Committee said more time was needed to refine the bill’s language. House Democratic leadership now expects legislation from the committee before the end of the week. Competing forces have fought over the bill and raised concerns that creditor rights and long-established municipal bond market hierarchy would be set aside in a broader plan to fix Puerto Rico’s festering debt problems that have resulted in a breakdown in the island’s social services. “The new bill itself already protects existing lawful creditor priorities and liens. The integrity of creditor hierarchy will be preserved,” said Parish Braden, spokesman for the Natural Resources Committee said on Wednesday. HNRC Chairman Rob Bishop told Reuters on Monday the bill is still expected to include the installation of an independent oversight board to lead the restructuring of the U.S. commonwealth’s credit and work with the local government to develop an economic reform plan. “The introduction (of the bill) is not being delayed due to the underlying foundation of the board,” Braden said, adding: “There aren’t hang ups. There are a number of refinements to the bill being made to ensure internal consistency among the titles (of the bill).” One source familiar with the delay said it was due to a need to refine language related to the minimum wage and land-use issues over the island of Vieques. U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday her party could not support the latest legislative effort but still hopes for an agreement within a few days. “We were disappointed that the bill we saw yesterday wasn’t something we could support, and so another few days of back and forth I think will produce something that we can take to the floor,” Pelosi told reporters. “I’m hoping maybe by Friday, so that we can have something for next week,” she added. Puerto Rico has already defaulted on some of its debt and faces an overall bill of $70 billion it cannot pay. A staggering 45 percent poverty rate and increased migration among its 3.5 million citizens to the U.S. mainland drains economic activity. The ranking Democrat on the HNRC issued a statement that said the families on the island needed relief from cuts to public services but remained hopeful a deal is close at hand. “We are making progress, but we are not there yet. The situation in Puerto Rico is dire, but a bill that doesn’t solve the problem, or doesn’t pass, won’t help anyone,” Raúl Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona said. Puerto Rico defaulted on May 1 for a third time on some of its debt, missing a roughly $400 million payment owed by the Government Development Bank, the island’s main fiscal agent. The May 1 default and the nearly $2 billion July 1 debt payments have spurred congressional activity. “(Senator Chuck) Schumer from the Senate is pushing to get something done. But the problem here is that Democrats are going to push for protections for unions and for pensioners and we feel like they should be at the bottom of the heap because that’s the way the law states,” Republican Representative John Fleming of Louisiana, a Tea Party favorite and member of the HNRC, told Reuters on Wednesday. “I think there’s just big divisions on how this goes. But I think the way it was previously set up, it’s not going to fly,” Fleming said. | 0fake |
The Art of the Deal: Trump's phone calls provoke hysteria in Kiev and panic in Brussels | The Art of the Deal: Trump's phone calls provoke hysteria in Kiev and panic in Brussels November 16, 2016 - Fort Russ - Ruslan Ostashko, PolitRussia - translated by J. Arnoldski - Until recently it was believed that Donald Trump’s main media weapon is his Twitter account, through which the president-elect of the US fights his political opponents, beats the media, and “trolls” foreign politicians. But this was true only until Trump won the elections. Since his victory, the American billionaire now uses his phone as his main weapon of mass (information) destruction. For example, just recently we learned it was enough for Trump to simply talk with Putin on the phone to drive all top European officials to hysterics and panic. Only one conversation, and the British media is already talking about nervous breakdowns among Brussels politicians who simply don’t understand how to live in this terrifying new reality in which the US president-elect easily finds opportunities to reach understanding with Putin. This means that many European politicians who built their careers on selling Russophobia might be left without a job, career, and money. The Financial Times writes that British diplomats are preparing for a “diplomatic crisis” caused by a possible rapprochement between the US and Russia. Between the lines, it can be read that London has simply no ready-made solutions for this problem. The reactions of American and European media are suddenly creating some kind of aura of a miracle around Trump and Putin’s conversation, or a universal catastrophe from the perspective of Clinton’s supporters and ISIS fans. For example, the popular American newspaper USA Today has released a thoughtful article entitled “After Trump chat, Putin's airstrikes pound Syria” which hints that it is Trump’s fault that Russian aircraft have stepped up bombardments against the Syrian terrorists so near and dear to the heart of every true American liberal. It seems like American journalists are telling us that “this wouldn’t happen under Clinton” which, of course, is a shameless lie. Everything would be the same, the only difference being that Syrian militants would die from Russian bombs only after receiving their paychecks from the CIA or Pentagon. And now they are completely terrified, as the Americans aren't paying out and the Russians are bombing them. Let them at least feel comforted by the fact that they have sincere sympathy from Clinton’s pool of American journalists. In fairness, it should be noted that Trump’s phone conversations are provoking not only unhappiness, but are also a real treat. Kiev’s political club is now filled with euphoria over the fact that Poroshenko managed to get through to talk to the US president-elect. This really is a great achievement. That Poroshenko didn’t get told off after what official Kiev did during the American election campaigns is a real success. It is a pity that the only description of the conversation is on Poroshenko’s website. Trump’s official website doesn’t say a word about it. Trump’s website features the news of his conversation with Putin, while nothing is said of the chat with Poroshenko. Nothing at all. Poroshenko’s website doesn’t deserve much confidence as a source. After all, Poroshenko has already been caught in prank conversations, but even if we can assume that the two really did talk, then Kiev’s euphoria is still not quite logical. Sure, official Ukrainian propaganda says that the two presidents agreed to meet, but no specifics in terms of dates were given. Does anyone really believe that Poroshenko is such a genius in psychological maneuvers and such a titan in political negotiations that he will be capable of changing the opinion of the US president-elect on Crimea, Ukraine, and the need to cooperate with Russia? It will be interesting to see how this looks. On the one hand, Trump is a billionaire, businessman, and a man with a very difficult character. On the other hand, so is Poroshenko, who quickly needs to convince Trump to pour money into the geopolitical project known as “Ukraine.” It’s a pity that they won’t sell tickets to see this show. I would pay to see such with my own eyes even though I think that the conversation will not be very long. Most likely, it will end with Trump’s famous catchphrase: “You’re fired!” Bloomberg has published an article headlined “Trump, Putin and Sluggish Reforms Push Ukraine Toward Russia.” In this piece, American journalists gathered the opinions of Western politicians and experts on Ukraine’s future, among which it is difficult to find anything optimistic. Overall, the interviewed experts agree that Ukraine is out of luck. For example, the ardent Russophobe and Vladimir Putin critic Ian Bremmer articulated his vision of Ukraine’s future in the following words: “Trump will want to put points on the board and I think it is highly likely the U.S. under Trump will move quickly to re-establish the relationship with Russia, on Syria in particular. That clearly throws Ukraine under a bus.” This time, I don’t even want to argue with this American political scientist. Only one thing interests me: will Trump put all of Ukraine up for sale or only parts of it? Follow us on Facebook! | 1real |
Ukraine agrees to sign EU summit declaration: officials | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and six former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, agreed a joint summit declaration on Friday that aims to help bring the countries closer to the West, overcoming Kiev s objections, two EU officials said. It s been agreed, one official said as leaders from EU member states and from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan met for talks in Brussels. | 0fake |
BUSTED: HILLARY’S MEDIA CHEERLEADERS Caught Hiding Truth About Most Corrupt Candidate Ever During Live Interviews [VIDEO] | Wow! This compilation of blatant blocking for Hillary is beyond embarrassing and these journalists should be serving time for journalistic malpractice.We all know the mainstream media is guilty of supporter the Democrat candidate for President in almost every election for decades, the question is: Are we going to allow them to define the narrative and cover for a criminal while destroying the reputation of Trump, who is truly the only ally we have against this corrupt media, or are we going to stand up and shout, NO MORE! ? A few examples of journalistic malpractice: We have chosen to cut off that microphone. Let me be clear here, obviously the majority of Donald Trump supporters are not African American, I don t know how many African Americans were in that building. But that is one person we have chosen to cut off the sound off for. This is happening every day in America are you doing your part to discredit them? After all, silence is consent | 1real |
Trump OKs DACA Amnesty: ’This Is a Case of Heart’ - Breitbart | Illegal aliens who crossed the border as children don’t have to worry about being sent home, President Donald Trump told the Associated Press in a Friday interview. [Illegals enrolled in the President Barack Obama’s “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” DACA program can “rest easy,” Trump said, because “this is a case of heart. ” Federal enforcement agencies are “not [going] after the ‘dreamers,’ we are after the criminals,” he said, using the Democrats’ ‘dreamer’ euphemism for young illegal immigrants. “That is our policy,” he added. The Friday comments confirm Trump’s reversal of his 2016 campaign promise to stop the DACA created by Obama during his 2012 reelection campaign. He created the program in 2012 by telling his immigration enforcement officers to provide young illegals with free work permits instead of repatriation orders. The program has allowed at least 770, 000 illegal immigrants to find jobs in major U. S. cities, even though tens of millions of Americans outside the cities are unemployed or have given up trying to find work. Since his inauguration, Trump’s deputies at the Department of Homeland Security have awarded new work permits to illegals who claim they arrived before age 16, despite Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” slogan. Trump’s support for the DACA program is one of his biggest “” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “During the campaign, Trump had said he was going to end that on day one because it’s an unconstitutional action by the president,” Krikorian told Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Friday. Krikorian continued: And of course he’s right, it’s illegal. And they’ve done nothing to it. They’ve done absolutely nothing. ” Trump’s turnabout on DACA means that reformers who want to reduce the impact of workers in the job market will need to bring a lawsuit arguing that the federal government illegally awarded work permits to illegal immigrants, say advocates. Trump’s refusal to reverse or even stop the DACA program is also a bad sign for future immigration reforms, says Krikorian. That’s because he could stop the program and then use the resulting public outcry to pressure Democrats to establish immigration policies. Those policies could include a mandatory requirement that employers check that job applicants are legal residents in the United States. In August 2016, Obama’s chief economist said the federal is imposing the economic pain of five simultaneous recessions on Americans, thereby pushing millions of men off jobs, out of the workforce, and into poverty. Roughly 10 percent of American “prime age” men, or 7 million men aged 25 to 54, have dropped out of the nation’s workforce of 150 million. They are not trying to get jobs, and are not participating in the nation’s labor force. “This [dropout] is caused by policies and institutions, not by technology,” admitted Jason Furman, an economist who chaired the president’s Council of Economic Advisors. “We shouldn’t accept it as inevitable,” he told a Brookings Institute expert, Dave Wessel on August 10. The primary reason for reduced employment is that “the amount [of money] that employers would want to hire them for some reason has gone down,” he said. In February, Trump told that the AP that “DACA is a very, very difficult subject for me … It’s one of the most difficult subjects I have because you have these incredible kids. ” | 0fake |
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Unequal Distribution of Sidewalks Keeps Poor From “Shot At The American Dream” | Are we sure this guy is actually qualified for this job? Everything is racist and unfair to the Obama minions. It s just hard to take because it s just so idiotic. Have a listen and I know you ll be shaking your head like I was:Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told a crowd in North Carolina Tuesday that only 49% of low-income neighborhoods have sidewalks while more affluent areas have near 90%. In order to have a society where everyone has a shot at the American Dream, than it s imperative that we acknowledge these challenges. Foxx made the comments to the Charlotte Rotary Club where he discussed the ways that infrastructure should connect people to opportunity.During his speech, Foxx referenced a map of Atlanta that showed areas of pedestrian and bicycle accidents. The grey areas represent communities of concentrated poverty. This is representative of what s occurring nationally, which is not surprising, because only 49% of low-income neighborhoods have sidewalks. In high-income areas the number is closer to 90%. So, if we want a society in which everyone has a shot at the American dream, than it is imperative that we acknowledge these challenges, Foxx said. | 1real |
Evan Bayh, Long Popular in Indiana, Finds Comeback Unexpectedly Rocky - The New York Times | MUNCIE, Ind. — For Evan Bayh, who spent a third of his life serving this state, Susan Brown is a harrowing figure. “I was going to vote for him because he’s Evan Bayh. Evan Bayh!” said Ms. Brown, 69, a Republican, who has fond memories of the Democrat who is seeking to take back his Senate seat after a more than hiatus. “But then I saw all those commercials about all the money he made when he left office, and I think I am for the other guy now. ” When Mr. Bayh, swimming in cash and latent ambition, decided in that he would take another run at his old job, Democrats were overjoyed. They believed that Mr. Bayh, 60, whose two terms each as governor and senator were won mostly with ease, had turned a lost cause in a red state into a sure win. By collectively pushing former Representative Baron Hill, the (likely doomed) Democrat, out of the race and replacing him with Mr. Bayh, they instantly elevated the party’s chances to take back the Senate. But Republicans attacked as quickly and voraciously as a cougar whose dinner has been threatened. Over the last few months, conservative groups have buried Mr. Bayh in ads mocking his Senate retirement, questioning his ties to Indiana and criticizing his work as a consultant for a Washington lobbying firm. In an election year in which many voters appear to be embracing outsider credentials over experience, Mr. Bayh could find that there are limits to the good will that voters will extend to a candidate with fraying connections to his home state. Federal records show that nearly $6 million in media spending by outside groups has targeted Mr. Bayh since he got into the race, and groups have more ready to go next month. (Also unhelpful: Mr. Bayh flubbed his home address during an interview.) What was initially expected to be a gaping lead over Representative Todd Young, a Republican, has recently been only in the single digits, according to a Monmouth University poll, jolting Democrats’ confidence. “Yes, I’m surprised, but that’s the Citizens United world we are living in,” Mr. Bayh said in an interview in Indianapolis last weekend, referring to the Supreme Court ruling that removed many limits on political spending. After his unexpected retirement in 2010 from the Senate, Mr. Bayh joined a Washington law and lobbying firm, McGuireWoods. Republicans have tried to paint him as a handmaiden of special interests, a charge he predictably rejects. “I’ve missed public service since the day I retired from the Senate,” Mr. Bayh said. Indiana has a recent history of punishing politicians who they think have “gone Washington. ” Former Senator Richard G. Lugar, one of the state’s most respected political figures, was ousted in a primary in 2012 by a Tea Party challenger. But Senator Dan Coats, a Republican whose retirement created the opening for Mr. Bayh, made a comeback in 2010 after his own turn as a lobbyist. Mr. Coats noted that the climate this year seemed more hostile. “It might matter more this year than ever,” he said. Others have found themselves going from beloved to spurned. Former Senator Bob Kerrey had been gone from Nebraska for nearly 20 years when he tried to return to the Senate in 2012, leaving his wife and child back in New York City as he faced bruising attacks. “By November, half the people thought I had never lived in Nebraska,” said Mr. Kerrey, who was defeated and returned to New York as quickly as he had left. “Republicans are better than Democrats are in doing that sort of thing. They did such a good job they probably saved my marriage. ” But Mr. Bayh enjoys many advantages that keep him as the in the race, Democrats and Republicans agree. The son of former Senator Birch Bayh, Mr. Bayh is part of a Midwestern political dynasty that spans generations of voters. A moderate who was long viewed as working well with Republicans, Mr. Bayh fits the state’s as almost defiantly sensible. He is so closely associated with a wildly popular scholarship program he signed into law in 1990 that Mike Pence, the governor and now the running mate of Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, helped ensure it was renamed in his honor. “I really love that program,” said Ms. Brown, a retired teacher, as a warning of sorts to Mr. Young when she met him in a bakery here last Sunday. “You should do something like that. ” (She also told Mr. Young, 44, that he was “so good looking” three times, and made a few smooching sounds for good measure.) Mr. Bayh entered the race with nearly $10 million to spend against Mr. Young’s $1. 2 million, freeing Democrats, at first, to spend money on other races. But Mr. Bayh, who served as the governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997 and senator from 1999 to 2011, is facing some headwinds. Indiana, which has grown increasingly conservative over the last decade, is Trump country. Having Mr. Pence on the ticket, even though his popularity has waned, could further strengthen its performance here. A state not known for ticket splitting may well do so for Mr. Bayh, but a state that suffered disproportionately in the last recession may not have as much love for the insiders Mr. Trump has railed against all year, even as it recovers. “There may be a nostalgic sense for the way things were when Evan Bayh was in office,” said John Schorg, the spokesman for the Indiana House Democrats. “But keeping people thinking that the way it was is the way it’s going to be is hard. ” Mr. Young has been greatly aided by outside groups, but he said his campaign was working well before Mr. Bayh belatedly entered the race. “Our message was compelling before he got in the race,” Mr. Young said in an interview here. “I am not a career politician. I am a Marine with four kids who wants to make a difference. ” (He is also in his third term in the House.) All of this has put Mr. Bayh on defense, even insisting he was not a lobbyist in an advertisement, and focusing heavily on the things he accomplished during his service here and in Washington, like reminding a large group of black voters at the Light of the World Christian Church in Indianapolis on Sunday about his scholarship program and his long ties to its current and former pastor. He has turned the “insider” attack back on Mr. Young. “If people are angry at Washington, he’s been there and he has to be accountable for that,” he said. Mr. Bayh admits the race will probably be close, though, even as he vows to prevail. “In this political year,” he said, “a lot of things can happen. ” | 0fake |
Michigan state House approves carrying concealed guns without permit | (Reuters) - Legislation to allow Michigan gun owners to carry a concealed handgun without a permit was approved in the state House of Representatives on Wednesday, in a move that follows the lead of a dozen other states. The package of four bills, which cleared the Republican-controlled House with support from a handful of Democrats, now moves to the Senate, also dominated by Republicans. It was not immediately clear whether Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder supports the bill. But the measure, if also approved in a Senate vote, could automatically become law 14 days after reaching the governor’s desk unless he vetoes it. The legislation would lift a requirement that handgun owners obtain a concealed pistol license with a $100 fee to legally carry the weapon in public. Handgun owners also would be allowed carry a concealed pistol in public without the firearms training that is currently mandated. Advocates framed the issue as upholding a U.S. constitutional right to bear arms. “We all know criminals are not paying fees, taking classes and waiting for approval to come in the mail before they begin carrying guns,” Michigan state Representative Michele Hoitenga, sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. The legislation “levels the playing field for honest people,” she said. Opponents of the bill criticized it as dangerous. Twelve other U.S. states already allow gun owners to carry their weapons without a concealed-carry permit, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Most are conservative-leaning with Republican-majority legislatures but Vermont, where Democrats control the statehouse, is among the 12. “The states that have eliminated the permit requirement are basically making it easier to carry a gun in public than drive a car,” said Hannah Shearer, a staff attorney with the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress this year would, if approved and signed by President Donald Trump, require all states to allow firearm owners to carry their guns under the regulations of their home state, even if visiting elsewhere. For instance, a person allowed to carry a concealed firearm without a permit in North Dakota could do so when visiting California or New York state, where permits are required, Shearer said. | 0fake |
In Chicago, Teachers and Black Lives Matter Activists Partner to Build a Bigger Movement | Tweet Widget by Leah Fried
When the Chicago Teachers Union goes on strike, it doesn’t walk alone; Movement 4 Black Lives organizations have their back. And, when young Black activists campaign against police terror, the teachers union is with them. When it comes to the school-to-prison pipeline, the teachers and Black Youth Project 100 are on the same side. In Chicago, Teachers and Black Lives Matter Activists Partner to Build a Bigger Movement by Leah Fried
This article previously appeared in Labor Notes .
“Teachers joined protests led by Black Lives Matter and Black Youth Project 100, to disrupt the lucrative Christmas shopping season.”
Extracting wins from the boss has never been easy—and union membership hovering at a low 11 percent isn’t making it any easier. But a good way to boost our numbers and power is to partner with people who are organized in other ways, building a broader movement as we build our unions.
For several years the Chicago Teachers Union has put incredible effort into building unity—not only among its members, but also with parents and neighborhood groups. The results were on display in October as hundreds of volunteers worked daily in the lead-up to a possible strike.
Parents spoke at press conferences, painted banners, handed out leaflets, distributed T-shirts and yard signs, and talked to other parents. My son’s elementary school was one of many where parents and kids joined teachers in an early-morning picket.
One vehicle was the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, an alliance of dozens of unions and 60 community organizations—including the Chicago chapters of Black Lives Matter and Black Youth Project 100.
Natural Allies
Alliances take work, but they can be built on natural connections. “Many of us have either worked or been students in the Chicago Public Schools, or have partners who work for CPS,” said Aislinn Pulley, a leader in the Black Lives Matter chapter.
That meant members already understood why public schools are worth fighting for. “A man named Ronald Johnson, who was killed by the police two years ago, had five children who are CPS students,” said Kofi Ademola, another chapter leader. “They are in the care of their grandmother, who lives in poverty, and that family is directly impacted by the attacks on public education in our city.
“The layoff of 1,000 teachers and plan to hire 1,000 more cops was a clear example of the divestment in our communities. They go hand in hand.”
The understanding goes both ways. The teachers union has made racial segregation and school underfunding central issues in its contract campaigns.
District administrators pay lip service to restorative justice, a disciplinary approach that looks for solutions instead of shunting kids into a school-to-prison pipeline. But it’s the union that has pushed for the funding required to make these programs work.
CTU and a student group got a grant in 2013 to pilot restorative justice in four schools. In the new tentative agreement, the teachers have won funding to add restorative justice coordinators in 20 to 55 schools.
In the run-up to the possible strike, the Black Lives Matter chapter spearheaded organizing a Freedom School to offer parents a safe place to send their kids while teachers were out on the picket lines. Chicago State University agreed to donate its space. Planned activities would include a youth town hall.
The Same Values
In August the Movement for Black Lives, an umbrella organization that includes Black Lives Matter and other groups, released a policy platform, workshopped with activists from its hundreds of member groups around the country.
The platform declares the movement’s support for workers' right to organize unions. It calls for jobs programs, expanding labor laws to protect domestic workers, farm workers, and tipped workers, no Trans-Pacific Partnership, the renegotiation of anti-worker trade agreements, and the rewriting of tax codes so the wealthy pay their share. Unions have much in common with these values.
Last November, after allegations emerged that the city had covered up video of a police officer killing African American teenager Laquan McDonald, CTU voted to support an elected police-accountability council in Chicago. Teachers joined the protests that followed, led by Black Lives Matter and Black Youth Project 100, to disrupt the lucrative Christmas shopping season. Marchers shut down the Magnificent Mile on Black Friday, chanting, “No justice, no profit.
That’s the kind of partnership Ademola would like to see more of: “How do we amplify each other’s message and work together to target the oligarchs that fill the politicians’ war chest?” | 1real |
John Podesta: ‘Alt-Right’ Media Like Sean Hannity Colluding with Russia - Breitbart | Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chief John Podesta attacked the First Amendment rights of the free press as he continued to spin his conspiracy theory of Russia colluding with American news websites to damage Democrats. [During a conversation with the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty, he cited the “participation and the support of the media,” naming “guys like Sean Hannity” and “disgusting” Newt Gingrich for helping spread “fake news” to hurt Democrats. He specifically criticized Hannity and Gingrich for asking questions about DNC staffer Seth Rich’s murder and whether or not it had a connection with Wikileaks. Podesta explained that it was one more example of how the Russians were “very active in propagating and distributing fake news, working with these sites in conjunction with them. ” He also cited an “echo system” created by the Russians that raised the social media profile of articles that were damaging to Democrats. He pointed out that “legitimate sites” like the Washington Post and the New York Times suffered, as other “ ” websites got more traction during the election. Podesta blamed websites in the United States for publishing emails from Emmanuel Macron during the French presidential election to influence the outcome. “The first reports of them came from U. S. sites back into France,” he said. “This is a global phenomena. ” He praised the French media for helping censor the information to stop it from damaging Macron’s campaign. “I think unfortunately for us, but maybe fortunately for the world, I think the French press was more sensitive to it,” he said, praising them for helping Macron “win by a landslide” after censoring their reporting on the hacked emails. He suggested that the American media should have done the same things with his leaked emails. “I didn’t feel like that really happened last fall … the mainstream U. S. press was much more interested in the gossip,” he said. Podesta warned the media about Russia’s efforts to use the emails to hurt Democrats, pointedly directing them to be more responsible. He suggested that the media should have helped the Clinton campaign fuel the Russian angle, instead of reporting on his emails. “I think if you contextualize it — if you say that ‘The Russians are coming,’ and ‘The Russians are here’ — that can give people a sense of that they need to be more careful in the way they assess what they’re hearing and what they’re seeing and what’s being peddled,” he said. He described the period of leaks as “the Soviet days” and griped that the “low burn” of email stories helped revive questions about Clinton’s own private emails. “We hadn’t put it to bed completely,” he admitted. | 0fake |
Obama to name Scalia replacement in just over three weeks: Senator Reid | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said on Thursday he believes President Barack Obama will nominate a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a little over three weeks. “I think it will be a little over three weeks,” Reid said in an interview on MSNBC, adding that he spoke to Obama about the nomination on Thursday. | 0fake |
Two human heads found outside broadcaster's office in Mexico | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two human heads were discovered in a cooler outside an office of broadcaster Televisa in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, authorities said on Tuesday. It was not clear who the heads belonged to, but the cooler contained a threatening message signed off with CJNG , the Spanish initials of a drug gang, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a security official in the western city said. A second official at the office of the Jalisco state prosecutor said the cooler was left outside an office of the Televisa station. However, media in the state suggested the gruesome find was directed at an official, not at the broadcaster. Elsewhere in the city, authorities found a second cooler containing a message threatening a judge, and a bag with suspected human remains with another threat, the second official added. Both officials declined to be identified. In recent years, the CJNG has become one of the most powerful Mexican drug gangs, and authorities blame it for violence that has convulsed much of central and western Mexico. | 0fake |
Hillary emails 'whitelisted' for Obama's BlackBerry | Hillary emails 'whitelisted' for Obama's BlackBerry President could only receive messages from pre-approved accounts Published: 1 min ago
(Fox News) President Obama’s high-security BlackBerry used a special process known as “whitelisting” that only allowed it to take calls and messages from pre-approved contacts, two former senior intelligence officials with knowledge of the set-up told Fox News – pointing to the detail as further proof the White House knew Hillary Clinton’s private account was used for government business.
As the administration now acknowledges, Obama and Clinton emailed each other while she was helming the State Department. If received on his BlackBerry, the “whitelisting” safeguard means Clinton and other contacts would have had to be approved as secure for data transmission – covering everything from emails to texts to phone calls. The Obama BlackBerry would have also been configured to accept the communications.
“Think of whitelisting like a bouncer in the VIP line at the party. If you are on the list you get in, if you are not, you get bounced to the pavement,” said Bob Gourley, former chief technology officer (CTO) for the DIA, and now a partner with strategic consulting and engineering firm Cognitio. | 1real |
Russia's Lavrov says hopes Syria strikes won't irreparably hurt U.S. ties | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday he hoped U.S. missile strikes on Syria would not irreparably damage relations between Moscow and Washington. “This is an act of aggression, on an absolutely made-up pretext,” Lavrov told a news conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. “It reminds me of the situation in 2003 when the United States and Britain, along with some of their allies, attacked Iraq.” He said Russia would demand Washington explain why it conducted the strikes. “I hope this provocation will not lead to irreparable damage (to U.S.-Russian ties),” Lavrov said. No Russian servicemen were known to have been killed in the U.S. strikes, he added. | 0fake |
It Turns Out Spending More Probably Does Improve Education - The New York Times | If you spend more on education, will students do better? Educators, politicians and unions have battled in court over that crucial question for decades, most recently in a sweeping decision this fall in Connecticut, where a judge ordered the state to revamp nearly every facet of its education policies, from graduation requirements to special education, along with its school funding. For many years, research on the relationship between spending and student learning has been surprisingly inconclusive. Many other factors, including student poverty, parental education and the way schools are organized, contribute to educational results. Teasing out the specific effect of money spent is methodologically difficult. Opponents of increased school funding have seized on that ambiguity to argue that, for schools, money doesn’t matter — and, therefore, more money isn’t needed. But new, research suggests that conclusion is mistaken. Money really does matter in education, which could provide fresh momentum for more lawsuits and judgments like the Connecticut decision. The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in July, was conducted by the economists Julien Lafortune and Jesse Rothstein of the University of California at Berkeley and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach of Northwestern. They examined student test scores in 26 states that have changed the way they fund schools since 1990, usually in response to a lawsuit like Connecticut’s, and compared them with those in 23 states that haven’t. While no two states did exactly the same thing, they all had the effect of increasing funding for the poorest districts. The time frame is important: That’s when courts changed how they think about states’ obligations to public schoolchildren. Previously, nearly all school funding lawsuits focused on the question of “equity” — did disadvantaged students receive funding equal to that of their peers? The problem with that perspective was the answer could be “yes,” even if funding was too low across the board. Starting with a 1990 court case in Kentucky, courts started asking about “adequacy” instead. Were school districts getting enough money, which might require giving extra money to districts that enroll many students? “There’s been this wave of school finance reform across the country over the last few decades,” Mr. Rothstein said. “I think it’s fair to say it’s the largest reform aimed at equity since school desegregation, and we really didn’t know what the impacts were. There’s now growing evidence, from my work and from others, that those reforms did lead to improved achievement and improved outcomes for children in school districts. ” Mr. Lafortune, Mr. Rothstein and Ms. Schanzenbach also solved a difficult methodological problem that had plagued school finance researchers for decades. More money isn’t an end unto itself — the goal is to produce better results. But before the recent widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards, every state had its own standards and related tests. That made it hard to compare academic results from one state to another. The researchers took advantage of the one test that is taken by a representative sample of schoolchildren nationwide: the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which is administered by the Department of Education. Although NAEP results are usually published only for whole states and a small number of large urban school districts, the researchers got the education department to let them analyze individual student scores. Those results include information on the ’s race and income, as well as school district attended. The researchers could compare performance in poor and wealthy districts before and after changes in spending. They found a consistent pattern: In the long run, over comparable time frames, states that send additional money to their school districts see more academic improvement in those districts than states that don’t. The size of the effect was significant. The changes bought at least twice as much achievement per dollar as a experiment that decreased class sizes in the early grades. Another paper, published this year in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, looked at the same question through a different lens. That study examined outcomes, like how long students stayed in school and how much they earned as adults, for students in districts with and without funding changes. Here, too, researchers saw gains with more money spent. That study was conducted by C. Kirabo Jackson of Northwestern, Rucker C. Johnson from the University of California at Berkeley and Claudia Persico, then a graduate student at Northwestern and now an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin. They examined outcomes for about 15, 000 people, born between 1955 and 1985, and found that for poor children, a 10 percent increase in spending each year of elementary and secondary school was associated with wages that were nearly 10 percent higher, a drop in the incidence of adult poverty and roughly six additional months of schooling. “The notion that spending doesn’t matter is just not true,” Mr. Jackson said. “We found that exposure to higher levels of public spending when you’re in school has a pretty large beneficial effect on the adult outcomes of kids, and that those effects are much more pronounced for children from families. ” Donald J. Trump’s recent nomination of Betsy DeVos, a wealthy Republican and longtime supporter of private school vouchers, to be secretary of education probably won’t help the cause of those who want to use this research to spend more in public school districts. But because 92 percent of all funding comes from state and local sources, the decision won’t be up to her. It will lie with state lawmakers who now have a better reason to invest more in school districts educating children who have the least money. What the studies do not offer, notes Jennifer Alexander, chief executive of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, a group that backs charter schools and other overhauls, is robust information on the best use of the money. “How money is spent is equally important,” she said, “and I don’t think we have enough information about that from these studies. ” Mr. Rothstein cautioned that the idea that states could erase the achievement gap between poor and middle class students by simply cutting a few checks was unrealistic. “There has been a tendency to expect magic from these reforms,” he said. But a change does not have to solve a problem completely, he said, to be valuable. “We should consider them successful if they contribute in a meaningful way to closing the gap,” Mr. Rothstein said. “We have to make some assessment as to whether it’s enough to matter, but enough to matter can be quite a bit less than totally eliminating it. ” | 0fake |
THIS Is What It Means If You Have Two Dimples On Your Back | posted by Eddie Whether you have back dimples, or not, you have to admit that they are quite an interesting characteristic. These back dimples are also called the ‘dimples of Venus’, and are more commonly found on women. Theses dimples of Venus, officially named Lateral Lumbar indentations, are caused by ligaments pulling under the skin of your back and creating indentations. One of the most intriguing things about this trait is that it can reveal certain things about your health and even yourself. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, there is some research that claims women with these back dimples can reach climax more easily during intimate activities. There isn’t a lot of scientific evidence that supports the claim, but it is explained by the unique shape and placement of your pelvis and your backbone. The way your muscles and bones are positioned in your body can help improve circulation, which could increase your chances of a release. While there needs to be more research done before any of these claims can be confirmed, at this moment there seem to be no possible risks or health problems associated with having these back dimples. Additionally, back dimples come in all different shapes and sizes. Their appearance varies greatly from person to person depending on their weight, body shape, and athletic ability. It is also unlikely for men to have these back dimples. However, if you do have back dimples, they can be enhanced by doing certain exercises focused on engaging your lower back and core muscles, which will be good for the overall health of your body, and perfect for making your back dimples more noticeable. You could even get piercings on each of them if you’re really wanting to show them off. source: | 1real |
Support for German SPD slumps to lowest this year: poll | BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for Germany s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) has slumped to its lowest level this year just 10 days before an election in which conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel looks set win a fourth term, a poll showed on Thursday. The weekly survey, conducted by Infratest dimap for ARD television, showed support for Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc unchanged at 37 percent, with the SPD dipping one percentage point to 20 percent. That was the SPD s lowest level since January, when it also scored 20 percent. The party has not polled a lower level in the Infratest dimap survey. The anti-immigration, euro-hostile Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in at 12 percent, up one point, making it the third-strongest political force. The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) followed with 9.5 percent. The radical Left party scored 9 percent, and the environmentalist Greens were on 7.5 percent. | 0fake |
Supreme Court will hear case on bathroom rules for transgender students | The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear a case regarding transgender students’ right to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
The justices will hear the case sometime next year.
At issue is whether a Virginia high school student is allowed to use the boys’ bathroom. NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports:
“Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old senior in Gloucester County … came out as transgender when he was a freshman in high school. The school principal allowed him to use the boys’ bathroom, until some parents complained, and the school board adopted a policy that required students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex, or a separate single-stall restroom office.”
So Grimm, who has been taking hormones and has grown facial hair, sued the school board. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed that his case could proceed. Gloucester County then petitioned the court, and in August, the justices ruled 5-3 that the school board did not have to follow the lower court’s order. Justice Stephen Breyer said he voted to stay the lower court order as a “courtesy” to maintain the status quo while the court considered whether to hear the lawsuit. | 1real |
BREAKING: Biden Won’t Run…Is It Because Biden And Obama Can’t Risk Repercussions Of Exposing Hillary? [VIDEO] | This announcement seems to indicate that the Obama regime already knows Hillary is going to be walking away unscathed from the Benghazi hearings tomorrow Fox News host Andrea Tantaros is pretty sure that Vice President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he will not run for president as part of an administration-wide plan to cover up the Benghazi scandal.During a discussion about Biden s decision not to enter the Democratic presidential primary on Outnumbered, Tantaros said that the timing of Biden s announcement was suspicious. But when you look at the two scandals that we re facing, that all eyes are going to be on tomorrow, Benghazi, and the email scandal these are administration-wide scandals. All three of them, President Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton were there that night. This is their scandal as well, she said. This email scandal is their scandal as well. There is no way, there is no chance, that Joe Biden, and President Obama, and their national security team did not know that she was using a private server, breaking the law. They are all in on this, and they are circling the wagons. I cannot stress this enough. This goes all the way to the West Wing, both Benghazi, and the email scandal, and you re watching it play out exactly today. The timing is not a coincidence! Tantaros continued.John Bolton, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush, agreed with Tantaros. This is an administration-wide problem because it wasn t just Hillary Clinton s failure on Sept. 11, 2012, it was the failure of the administration s world view, Bolton said. I really think this was careful political planning. I think they knew today was the right day to do it. Watch Joe the Clown s announcement here:Conservatives sometimes cry distraction when breaking news interrupts coverage of a scandal that Republicans are obsessing over. In particular, conservatives often try their hardest to link any news back to Benghazi, a favorite Obama administration scandal.Via: TMP | 1real |
Libertarian Party VP insults Trump, practically endorses Clinton | Libertarian Party VP insults Trump, practically endorses Clinton Published time: 26 Oct, 2016 21:09 Get short URL Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld (L) and Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump. © Reuters Calling Trump “unhinged” and “not stable” and accusing him of stirring up “envy, resentment, and group hatred,” the Libertarian Party VP nominee Bill Weld said he would continue through the election but practically endorsed Clinton without naming her.
Weld, Gary Johnson’s running mate, said he would remain on the Libertarian Party ticket through the election but emphasized that “Trump should not, cannot, and must not be elected President of the United States.”
“A President of the United States operates every day under a great deal of pressure — from all sides, and in furtherance of many different agendas. With that pressure comes constant criticism,” Weld said in a statement issued Wednesday in Boston.
“After careful observation and reflection, I have come to believe that Donald Trump, if elected President of the United States, would not be able to stand up to this pressure and this criticism without becoming unhinged and unable to perform competently the duties of his office.” Libertarian VP nominee Bill Weld on MSNBC wishes Clinton a happy birthday, as he discusses issuing his statement against Trump pic.twitter.com/uOrqCpwDyy — Eli Watkins (@EliBWatkins) October 26, 2016
Weld said the Libertarian Party had made strides “t oward breaking the two party monopoly,” and that America would be stronger when it did, but “given the Commission on Presidential Debates, the deck is stacked against a credible third party ticket.”
The Libertarian Party, led by former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, was polling under 10 percent nationally, not enough for the party to be included in the presidential debates. 2+2= #ImWithHer . Weld praises Clinton: https://t.co/EHCRZfmBu8 + Weld denegrates Trump: https://t.co/nUCBhYwSQj — Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) October 26, 2016
A former Republican governor of Massachusetts, Weld said he “stepped out of the swirl of the campaign” to alert voters to Trump’s failings as a potential presidential nominee. He stopped short of endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by name.
“Mr. Trump has some charisma and panache, and intellectual quickness. These qualities can be entertaining. Yet more than charisma, more even than intellectual ability, is required of a serious candidate for this country’s highest office. A serious candidate for the Presidency of the United States must be stable, and Donald Trump is not stable.” — RT America (@RT_America) September 27, 2016
Weld said Trump had demonstrated his inability to handle criticism or blame and that his first instinct was to lash out and when challenged “he often responds as a child might.”
“He makes a sour face, he calls people by insulting names, he waves his arms, he impatiently interrupts. Most families would not allow their children to remain at the dinner table if they behaved as Mr. Trump does. He has not exhibited self-control, the discipline, or the emotional depth necessary to function credibly as a President of the United States,” Weld said. Gary Johnson secures #Libertarian Party nomination - FishTank [VIDEO] @LindsayFrance https://t.co/Uu9ev2dBa1 — RT America (@RT_America) June 1, 2016
Weld said Trump “conjured up enemies” from 11 million immigrants to America’s trading partners and that “his ideas of America’s enemies includes almost anyone who talks or looks different from him.”
“This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining. Donald Trump should not, cannot, and must not be elected President of the United States,” the Libertarian VP candidate concluded. | 1real |
Erdogan ratlos, was er noch machen soll, damit EU Beitrittsgespräche beendet | Dienstag, 15. November 2016 Erdogan ratlos, was er noch machen soll, damit EU Beitrittsgespräche beendet Ankara (dpo) - Es ist einfach wie verhext! Nachdem er seit Monaten alles dafür getan hat, dass die Beitrittsgespräche seines Landes mit der EU endlich abgebrochen werden, ist der türkische Präsident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mit seinem Latein am Ende. Warum die Europäische Union weiter verhandeln will, kann er beim besten Willen nicht nachvollziehen. "Ich bin gerade dabei, die Todesstrafe einzuführen, ich lasse täglich neue Gegner meiner Regierung verhaften, schränke die Presse ein", flucht Erdoğan, während er gerade vor dem Spiegel sein Bärtchen stutzt. "Worauf zum Teufel warten die in Brüssel denn noch? Das müsste doch locker reichen, dass die Türkei hochkant rausfliegt!" Selbst will er die Verhandlungen mit der EU nicht abbrechen: "Ich muss warten, bis Brüssel die Beitrittsgespräche abbricht, damit ich das dann in aller Öffentlichkeit anprangern und mich selbst als Opfer darstellen kann", so Erdoğan. "Wenn ich die Gespräche abbreche, bin ich der Buhmann. Huch, fast hätte ich die Nasenhaare vergessen." Kritisch betrachtet sich Erdoğan im Spiegel. Er beschließt, den deutschen Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, der gerade die Türkei besucht, zu einem persönlichen Gespräch zu empfangen. "Ich haue dem zur Begrüßung einfach eine rein, jawoll!", ruft Erdogan energisch und nickt seinem Spiegelbild zu. "Mal sehen, was sie dann machen..." Idee: shp; dan, ssi; Foto [M]: Shutterstock Artikel teilen: | 1real |
Two suicide attacks in Iraq's Kirkuk kill at least five | KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers killed at least five people and wounded more than 20 in an attack on a Shi ite mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police and medical sources said. It was the first such attack since the central Iraqi government in Baghdad seized Kirkuk last month from Kurdish forces that had controlled the oil city of a million people for three years. Acting Kirkuk governor Rakan Saeed appealed to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after a meeting of the provincial security panel to send more troops to secure the city. Deployed forces from police and Counter Terrorism Service are not enough to cover all areas of Kirkuk. We need to double the troops, he said in a statement after chairing the meeting. The interior ministry confirmed the attacks on a mosque on Atlas Street in the center of Kirkuk and gave an initial casualty toll of one dead and 16 wounded. The central government in Baghdad recaptured the city in October along with other territory in northern Iraq claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds following an offensive launched in retaliation for the Kurdish independence referendum. Iraqi security forces forced the Kurdish Peshmerga to withdraw from Kirkuk and their retreat also allowed Baghdad to take control of all the oilfields operated by the state-owned North Oil Company in Kirkuk s northern province. No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday s attacks but the suicide bombings are a trademark of Islamic State militants. Police sources said the attacks happened in quick succession and the death toll might rise because some of the wounded were in a critical condition. It s a crowded street and a place for street vendors. The terrorists wanted to kill a large number of people, said a police major in Kirkuk. In a separate incident, unknown gunmen opened fire with light weapons on a police patrol in eastern Kirkuk, without causing any casualties, police sources said. Iraqi security officials have said Islamic State is likely to wage an insurgency in Iraq after its self-proclaimed caliphate all but collapsed and the militants were dislodged from large areas of the west and north of the country. Iraqi security forces have recaptured nearly all the territories once controlled by Islamic State. Fighting is ongoing in the border areas with Syria where militants are entrenched in the small town of Rawa and nearby areas. | 0fake |
3 BUSTED, 4 AT LARGE! IMMIGRANT MUSLIM GROUP Ran Huge Food Stamp Fraud Ring | WORD MUST BE OUT THAT THE US IS GIVING OUT FOOD STAMPS AND MONEY LIKE CANDY! It s also true that these people are coming here to work the system because fraud is way too easy to commit with SNAP. We ve reported on so many immigrant fraud schemes with food stamps that I ve lost count. Here are just a few:22 LATINOS ARRESTED In Largest Food Stamp Fraud Bust In History Here s How They Did ItIMMIGRANT Ghanaian Woman Pleads Guilty To $3.6 Million in Food Stamp Fraud Media Ignores Her Immigrant StatusALABAMA FRAUD: FOOD STAMPS TO CASH SENT TO YEMENHOMESTEAD, Fla. Three men are in custody, and four remain at large in connection to a food stamp fraud at a Save Way Food Market, Homestead police said.The arrests happened Wednesday and are the result of a a three year investigation by Homestead police, the Florida Department of Financial Services and the Miami-Dade County State Attorney s Office. The offices were investigating unlawful trafficking and fraudulent use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and electronic benefit transfer, or EBT cards at store, located in the 700 block of Southwest Eighth Avenue.The scam would work by a food stamp recipient coming into the store and telling the owner or an employee that they d like to trade their food stamp in for cash, police said.The customers would then be offered 50 cents on the dollar, a police report said, and then the employee or owner would query the recipients EBT card to determine the balance.Jamil Hasan, Mohammad Jamil Hasan and Nabil Jamil Hasan were arrested on charges of racketeering, conspiring to racketeering and organizing a scheme to defraud.Nabil Jamil Hasan and Mohammad Nabil Jamil Hasan were also arrested on public assistance fraud charges.Four men remain at large: Fahmi Muhammad Husein, Abdalla Fahmi Husein, Mohammad Fahmi Husein and Adel Fahmi Husein, and face similar charges as the other men who were arrested.Via: Local 10 | 1real |
FBI DATA Shows Black-On-Black Murders Off The Charts During Obama Presidency…So Why Is Obama Chasing Cops From Black Neighborhoods? | America has never seen two people living in the White House play the victim card with such frequency and with such passion. The truth of the matter is, Barack Obama and his race-obsessed wife will go down as two people who did less for the black community than any President in modern-day history.The data suggest that even as whites enjoy the benefits of improved public safety from the last two decades, blacks cannot do so in anything like the same way. In 2015, there was an overall 13 percent uptick in the murder tally compared to 2014, all of it concentrated in cities and neighborhoods where large numbers of black people live. Murder rose by more than 50 percent in Washington, D.C., and by 63 percent in Baltimore, which alone account for about 15 percent of the national increase.Black victims accounted for nearly two-thirds of the year-over-year increase, which translates to 944 additional black people murdered out of just under 1,500 additional victims nationwide. More than half of this increase (about 811 additional murders) came just from among blacks aged 17 to 39.Whatever the cause of last year s increase in murders, blacks were the only group represented so disproportionately within it. The number of Hispanic murder victims ticked up by 8 percent, about the same as the increase in white victims.These FBI data should alarm any person of good will who thinks that all black lives matter. They reveal a true and massive problem. The fact that most African-American murder victims were slain by other African-Americans (as most white victims are killed by other whites) should not lessen the appeal within the black community of a strong law and order message from political candidates. They would, after all, be the chief beneficiaries of strong law and order policies to precisely the same extent that they are currently the chief victims of rising violent crime.popThe data suggest that even as whites enjoy the benefits of improved public safety from the last two decades, blacks cannot do so in anything like the same way. In 2015, there was an overall 13 percent uptick in the murder tally compared to 2014, all of it concentrated in cities and neighborhoods where large numbers of black people live. Murder rose by more than 50 percent in Washington, D.C., and by 63 percent in Baltimore, which alone account for about 15 percent of the national increase.Black victims accounted for nearly two-thirds of the year-over-year increase, which translates to 944 additional black people murdered out of just under 1,500 additional victims nationwide. More than half of this increase (about 811 additional murders) came just from among blacks aged 17 to 39.Whatever the cause of last year s increase in murders, blacks were the only group represented so disproportionately within it. The number of Hispanic murder victims ticked up by 8 percent, about the same as the increase in white victims.Reuters On the sidewalk of a public housing development in Brooklyn, New York notorious for gang violence and drug activity, the words Fascist pig, go home! in black spray paint are fading but still legible.These are the Marcy Houses, 27 brick H-block buildings, each six stories high, that are home to nearly 4,300 people, many of whom are black or Latino. The rapper Jay-Z, who grew up in the complex, described Marcy as a block away from hell, the place where news cameras never come, in a song called Where I m From. In recent years, Marcy has had a group of very reliable visitors: the police, who patrol on foot and in cars as part of a controversial broken windows strategy that focuses on cracking down on small crimes to prevent bigger ones. Until three weeks ago, they had been an ever-present, highly visible presence in Marcy Houses.Now, the police have all but disappeared, raising safety concerns among some residents while pleasing others who view the police strategy as oppressive. A reporter saw only one police car on a visit on Thursday.These FBI data should alarm any person of good will who thinks that all black lives matter. They reveal a true and massive problem. The fact that most African-American murder victims were slain by other African-Americans (as most white victims are killed by other whites) should not lessen the appeal within the black community of a strong law and order message from political candidates. They would, after all, be the chief beneficiaries of strong law and order policies to precisely the same extent that they are currently the chief victims of rising violent crime. Via:Washington Examiner | 1real |
Iran Requests 950 tons of Uranium from Kazakhstan | (AFP) TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s nuclear chief said Saturday that the country had requested to buy 950 tons of uranium concentrate from Kazakhstan over the next three years to help develop its civil reactor program. [The request has been made to the body that oversees the nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers in 2015. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, told the ISNA news agency that the purchase was supposed to happen “within three years. ” “650 tons will enter the country in two consignments and 300 tons will enter Iran in the third year,” he said. Salehi said the final shipment of concentrate, known as yellow cake, would be turned into uranium hexafluoride gas and sold back to Kazakhstan — its first international sale of the compound which is used in the uranium enrichment process. Under the nuclear deal, many of Iran’s centrifuges were mothballed but it has the right to enrich uranium to a level of 3. 5 percent and sell it abroad. Nuclear weapons require uranium enriched to 80% or more. Salehi said Iran has already received around 382 tons of yellow cake, primarily from Russia, since the nuclear deal came into force in January last year. Under the deal, Iran is allowed to run around 5, 000 “ ” centrifuges and has been testing more advanced models that can produce greater quantities of enriched uranium — all under the strict supervision of the UN atomic agency. | 0fake |
Trump as president would pose global danger: U.N. rights chief | GENEVA (Reuters) - The world will be in danger if Republican nominee Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, the top United Nations human rights official said on Wednesday. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein cited Trump’s views on vulnerable communities including minorities and his talk of authorizing torture in interrogations, banned under international law, as “deeply unsettling and disturbing”. “If Donald Trump is elected on the basis of what he has said already - and unless that changes - I think it is without any doubt that he would be dangerous from an international point of view,” Zeid told a news briefing in Geneva. Trump lashed out at U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and other “disloyal” Republicans on Tuesday and vowed to campaign in whatever style he wants now that the party establishment has largely abandoned him. This occurred after a 2005 video surfaced last week showing him bragging crudely about groping women and making unwanted sexual advances. Trump has said he would immediately re-authorize the waterboarding of suspected militants if elected on Nov. 8, contending that “torture works”. U.S. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, signed an executive order after taking office in January 2009 that banned waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques”. Such executive orders can be rescinded by a successor. Zeid said that he would rather not interfere in political campaigns. But when a candidate’s comments pointed to a potential use of torture, prohibited under the Convention against Torture, a pact ratified by Washington, or to vulnerable groups possibly losing their basic rights, he had to speak out. In a speech in The Hague last month, Zeid accused Trump of spreading “humiliating racial and religious prejudice” and warned of a rise of populist politics that could turn violent. “I always believe that it’s incumbent on leaders to lead and to lead in a way that is ethical and moral,” Zeid said on Wednesday, when asked about Trump. “The use of half-truths is a very clever political device. Because as every propagandist knows, you allow the listener to fill in the rest.” Trump has portrayed himself as tough on national security and promised to build a wall to stop Mexican immigrant “rapists” from crossing the border. “We have to be on guard to see that in the end vulnerable populations, populations at risk do not again see their rights deprived because of a view that is in the ascendancy based on false premises,” Zeid said. | 0fake |
WATCH: Louisiana GOP Rep SLAMS Her Sexist Male Colleagues On The Statehouse Floor | It was an epic shaming they all deserved.When Democrats introduced a bill to increase the age limit on exotic dancers from 18 to 21 in an effort to curb sex trafficking, a Republican proposed a sexist amendment that would regulate stripping so that only women between twenty-one and twenty-eight years of age and no more than one hundred sixty pounds in weight would be able to work as an exotic dancer.Democratic state Rep. Walt Leger introduced House Bill 468 and it didn t take long for a Republican colleague to demonstrate that lawmakers aren t taking the issue seriously.GOP state Rep. Sam Jones responded by asking if Leger wants to institute a maximum age as well as the House broke into laughter. Leger responded that he s open to suggestions but doesn t want to comment on anybody s tastes. That s when GOP state Rep.Kenneth Havard chimed in by offering his amendment complete with an offensive sexist remark. In the spirit of this legislative session, I will offer up this amendment as a part of keeping the spirit alive of trimming the fat, he said. Again, the male GOP lawmakers thought this was hilarious and an appropriate way for a government body to act.Not everyone in the chamber was amused, however, as their female colleagues were quick to shame them and forced Havard to withdraw his amendment in humiliation. I ve got to say, looking out over this body, I ve never been more repulsed to be part of it, GOP state Rep. Julie Stokes said during her condemnation of her sexist colleagues. I m going to tell you one thing, the disrespect and I saw it in 2013 in committee, and I ve never been so disgusted to be part of a committee as I was in 2013, somebody made comments, like, What if it s a classy strip club like Cheetah s in Atlanta? That s not the way we behave in this body. Becoming visibly more upset as she continued, Stokes slammed Havard for his amendment and told her colleagues to consider their own daughters. I don t even know what Representative Havard was thinking. That s a dangerous thing to do politically. It was a bad idea I suggest that everybody in here look at their own bodies and their own daughters.Stokes pointed out that these lawmakers are somehow completely fine with barring women under 21 from drinking and buying a lottery ticket but have no problem with 18-year-olds stripping in a men s club.By the time Stokes reached the end of her remarks, the floor was dead silent and she finished by expressing her disgust over their comments and expressed her wish that they show respect to Leger s effort and to all the women present in the chamber. I refuse the spirit of everything that I heard. And I can t even believe the behavior in here. I think we need to call an end to this. I hear derogatory comments about women in this place regularly. I hear and I see women get treated differently than men, and I m going to tell you what, you gave me a perfect forum to talk about it right now. Because it has got to stop. That was utterly disrespectful and disgusting. I really don t have anything left to say. Here s the video:House Bill 468 came about as Leger explained because back in October Alcohol Tobacco Control did a sting where they found prostitution and drug dealing in at least 14 strip clubs in the state.Leger went on to explain that strip clubs become havens for trafficking where teen girls are preyed upon because many of them are stripping because they are desperate to earn a living. That s why Leger and Democrats are trying to raise the age limit and that makes HB 468 a legitimate piece of legislation that is not a joking matter.The sexist pigs of the Louisiana Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves.Featured image via screencapture | 1real |
Court Papers Give Insight Into Stanford Sex Assault - The New York Times | PALO ALTO, Calif. — Proud parents converged at Stanford University’s commencement on Sunday to hear Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker, welcome the elite class of graduates into the wider world. But across the idyllic university grounds, in the shade of a large tree, is a quiet stretch of lawn that speaks to a persistent and darker side of campus life, at Stanford and across the country. It was here in January last year, an hour past midnight on a Saturday night, that a young woman lay on the ground, unresponsive, her hair disheveled and knotted, her body covered in dirt and pine needles, and her dress hitched up above her waist. The assault of the woman — she is described as Jane Doe in court documents — has led to a firestorm of outrage for what many saw as her assailant’s light punishment, a jail term with the possibility of being released after three months. In March, a jury convicted the assailant, Brock Turner, 20, a champion swimmer and Olympic hopeful who was a freshman at the time, of intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person and two related sections of the law, all felonies. The court papers, some of them released just last week, outline the complex and intense national debate over the sentence, and over sexual assaults on campus. Yet they also portray a case that legal experts say was unusual. The assault was not hidden in a dorm room or clouded by the complex emotions of a college romance. Mr. Turner and his victim had met only minutes before their encounter. The assault was taking place beneath the tree when a pair of Swedish students passed by on bicycles. The men stopped, and Mr. Turner began to run away. They chased him down and tackled him. “It happened in full view,” said Shanlon Wu, a lawyer who is a specialist in campus rape cases. “You had unimpeachable witnesses — someone was basically caught . ” The court papers and police reports depict an event that could be found virtually any weekend at any college — a fraternity party with alcohol. The woman, who was not a Stanford student, was 22, working full time and living with her parents in Palo Alto at the time of the assault, according to court documents. She described the decision to go to a fraternity party on campus as a lark and a way to spend more time with her younger sister, who accompanied her. After she had a meal at home and four shots of whiskey, she told the police, her mother drove her, her sister and two other friends to the Stanford campus at 11 p. m. The women ended up at a party hosted by a fraternity, Kappa Alpha, which was also attended by Mr. Turner. The woman’s sister told the police that they met several men at the party, but that “one of the guys was very aggressive and trying to kiss everyone,” according to a police report. She later identified that man as Mr. Turner and said she had twice repelled kissing and advances by him. The sister left the party to accompany an intoxicated friend back to her room, and soon after the victim and Mr. Turner left the party, according to court documents. Mr. Turner told the police that he and the victim kissed and then walked away from the fraternity house holding hands and ended up on the ground kissing. He removed the victim’s underwear and penetrated her with his fingers. He said he never took his own pants off. The Swedish students who came upon Mr. Turner and the woman said they stopped to intervene because they saw Mr. Turner on top of her, thrusting his pelvis toward her, court papers and the police reports say. They said she appeared motionless, her eyes closed and her head tilted to the side. One of the men yelled to Mr. Turner, who “looked up, slowly got off of” the victim “and began running rapidly away from her,” according to a case summary by the prosecutor. The Swedes chased him and brought him to the ground. After the assault, the woman told a police officer that the last thing she remembered was being with her sister at the party. Her next memory was waking up in the hospital feeling groggy and confused, she told the police. The court and police documents detail the level of drinking by everyone involved. Both Mr. Turner and the woman were heavily intoxicated, according to police reports. Mr. Turner reported having seven beers and a “couple of swigs” of whiskey. In addition to the four shots of whiskey she had at home, Jane Doe reported having two shots of vodka and “some beer” once she had reached the Stanford campus. She remained unconscious for three hours after paramedics reached her and began giving her treatment, including an intravenous drip, police reports said. The degree to which the inebriation of both Mr. Turner and the woman should have been a factor in sentencing was a central point of contention. Monica Lassettre, the probation officer who wrote sentencing recommendations, advised the judge to be lenient partly on the grounds that Mr. Turner was drunk. “This case, when compared to other crimes of similar nature, may be considered less serious due to the defendant’s level of intoxication. ” She recommended four to six months in a county jail, even though Mr. Turner faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in state prison. She also based her recommendation on what she said was his “sincere remorse and empathy for the victim,” and his lack of a prior criminal record. Alaleh Kianerci, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, saw the woman’s intoxication as a reason for a harsher sentence, and she urged the judge to impose six years. The fact that the victim was so intoxicated was an “aggravating factor warranting a prison sentence,” Ms. Kianerci wrote. “Ultimately, the fact that the defendant preyed upon an intoxicated stranger on a college campus should not be viewed as a less serious crime, than if he were to assault a stranger in Downtown Palo Alto,” Ms. Kianerci said. In the woman’s courtroom statement, which went viral when it was released to the news media a week ago, she described drinking too much and blacking out as “an amateur mistake” — but not a criminal act. “Regretting drinking is not the same as regretting sexual assault,” she said. “We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. ” The victim added in her statement that she remains deeply traumatized by the assault. In a widely circulated comment in the courtroom when issuing his sentence, Judge Aaron Persky of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, said there was “less moral culpability” for a defendant who is intoxicated. His sentence was harsher than the probation officer asked for, but a petition for his removal has now swelled beyond a million signatures. The court papers paint diametrically opposed pictures of Mr. Turner. Family members and friends describe him in sentencing documents as gentle, polite and, in the words of a former high school teacher, “an individual of true kindness, compassion and promise. ” Adjusting to the social life at Stanford was difficult, Mr. Turner said in his own statement to the court. “Coming from a small town in Ohio, I had never really experienced celebrating or partying that involved alcohol,” he wrote. The prosecution’s sentencing memo, however, described a man who embraced numerous forms of illicit drugs both at Stanford and in high school. The memo said the police concluded from photos and text messages found on Mr. Turner’s phone that he was “engaging in excessive drinking and using drugs,” including LSD, ecstasy and an extract of cannabis. Mr. Turner had a previous arrest for underage alcohol possession in November 2014, the memo said. The prosecution document also said he aggressively flirted with women. Detectives interviewed two women who had “an encounter” with Mr. Turner the weekend before the assault, the memo said. He was “touchy” and put his hands on one of the women’s upper thigh. Mr. Turner had “creeped” her out because of his persistence, the woman told the police. Ten days after his arrest, the university reached an agreement with Mr. Turner that he withdraw from the university. “That was a much more expedited process than if we had gone through a formal expulsion process,” Lisa Lapin, a Stanford spokeswoman said. “It was the harshest punishment that the university can have. ” The woman’s courtroom statement continued to reverberate across the country and campus this past week. Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor who has helped create the university’s policies for dealing with sexual assault complaints, called her a new Rosa Parks. “We are at a real watershed moment in public perception of campus sexual assaults,” said Ms. Dauber, who is also leading the effort to have Judge Persky recalled. In a letter submitted to the court, Ms. Dauber said that a recent university survey found that 43 percent of senior female undergraduates said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual assault or misconduct. Ms. Dauber is friends with the victim and said she is helping her to obtain a book contract. Mr. Turner is banned from campus, and as part of his criminal sentence, Mr. Turner will also be registered a sex offender for life. | 0fake |
PRO-GUN University President Calls Hillary Clinton A Deplorable Liar For Her Attack On His Comments [Video] | Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. was not taking Hillary s lying sitting down. Falwell made comments about how the students should arm themselves against terror attacks like the one in California. Hillary twisted his words int a complete lie. Here s his response: I ll tell you what s deplorable. Hillary s a liar. That s not what I said. I went on to say those Muslims referring specifically to those part of my comments to the community center incident in California. | 1real |
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