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Arsonists attack building used by controversial Russian director | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Attackers set fire to a building used by a Russian director whose film about the last czar s romance with a ballerina has been condemned by religious conservatives, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday. A Molotov cocktail was thrown in through a window, igniting a fire in a building in the city of St Petersburg that houses, among other organizations, the studio of director Alexei Uchitel, the news agencies reported. The fire caused minor damage to a part of the building occupied by a different film studio, Lendok. Uchitel s forthcoming film, called Matilda, is about a reputed love affair between Tsar Nicholas II, before his coronation, and ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska. Some conservatives have called for the film to be banned, saying it besmirches the reputation of the late czar. The Russian Orthodox Church has designated him a saint. He and his family were executed soon after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. I cannot think of any motivation (for the attack) other than it being a reaction to Alexei Uchitel making the film Mathilda , TASS news agency quoted Lendok director Alexei Telnov as saying. The attack resulted in broken windows and a burned window sill in a part of Lendok s premises used for movie viewings, concerts and conferences. It was a miracle there was not a big fire, the agency quoted Telnov as saying. A spokesman for the St Petersburg police told Reuters officers were making checks after fire and smoke were spotted at the studio s address. An assistant to Telnov said he was busy making a film so could not comment. Uchitel s representatives could not be reached for comment. Uchitel s movie is to be released in October. Natalia Poklonskaya, a member of the Russian parliament, has said she asked prosecutors to have the film s release stopped, saying it would insult the religious feeling of believers. | 0fake |
Clinton Camp Tries to Deflect Suspicion as FBI Reopens Email Case | After the bombshell announcement Friday that the FBI is reopening the Clinton email investigation, Hillary Clinton looked awkward on the campaign trail as she tried to take suspicion off herself and put it on FBI Director James Comey.
"Some of you may have heard about a letter," Clinton said to a chorus of boos from her supporters. "It's pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact, it's not just strange, it's unprecedented and it is deeply troubling."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Comey's letter sent to lawmakers Friday said that 650,000 emails were discovered on the laptop of disgraced former Congressman Anthony Wiener, the estranged husband of Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin. Weiner is under criminal investigation for allegedly sexting a teen.
Metadata on the emails suggests thousands of those messages could have been sent to or from then-Secretary of State Clinton's private server.
Comey said the FBI would take steps to review those emails to see if any were classified. A law enforcement official says the intelligence agency has obtained a search warrant.
"We commend the FBI for reopening this case and having the courage to stand up for the principle because no one is above the law in the United States of America," Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence told supporters in North Carolina.
But Clinton campaign chair John Podesta attacked Comey, telling CNN, "To throw this in the middle of the campaign 11 days out just seemed to break with precedent and be inappropriate at this stage."
Both campaigns want the FBI to release what it knows, but since it's an ongoing investigation, that's probably not likely.
According to multiple reports, many agents in the FBI were unhappy with Comey's original handling of the Clinton email investigation and his decision not to recommend charges against her.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called it the biggest scandal since Watergate: "We never thought we were going to say 'thank you' to Anthony Weiner," he said.
The reopened FBI investigation is sure to impact a race that has already tightened, with the latest polls showing Trump has made it a virtual dead heat. | 0fake |
How WiFi & Other EMFs Cause Biological Harm | How WiFi & Other EMFs Cause Biological Harm Professor Martin Pall, PhD – professor of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Science at Washington State... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/10/how-wifi-other-emfs-cause-biological.html Professor Martin Pall, PhD – professor of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Science at Washington State University, Pullman, says that WiFi & other EMFs can cause biological harm. In 2014 he said “I think this is going to be one of the major issues in the next few years. Most people are not aware of this, and the people who are mostly know the old data and there’s a lot of new stuff on this that’s extremely, extremely important”. According to some governments, it is not possible for microwaves from mobile phones, WiFi, ‘smart’ meters , etc. to cause harm, that research in the field is inconsistent and that there is no proof that such radiation can cause health issues. But Prof Pall who is an eminent physicist, geneticist and cell biologist, says they are wrong on all counts.In this video (below), Pall argues that research results showing harm are not “inconsistent” as is sometimes claimed, and that the health of the public now urgently needs to be protected. Pall’s extensive research over recent decades (some of his peer-reviewed studies on this subject are listed in the final two minutes of this presentation) shows that: Microwaves damage humans at levels far below present radiation limits, through mechanisms at the cellular level These biological mechanisms can – completely or partially – be behind growing “unexplained illnesses” like sudden cardiac death, ME, weakened immune system, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress, and increased DNA breakage, etc. The effects can in principle affect all multicellular animals, and is proven, for example, in mussels You need neither New Age, tendentious science or conspiracy theories to justify this. The conclusion to be drawn from Pall’s findings is that we face a new and increasingly present environmental pollutant. Some have called it the “21st century environmental bomb”, with implications for the environment, human health, construction of mobile towers, computers in schools, and handling of individuals presenting with symptoms of EHS. Martin Pall, prof. Em. at Washington State University, has an impressive body of work. His first article on EMFs and their role in VGCC activation earned a place in the “Global Medical Discovery” list of the most important articles in medicine in 2013. The video is footage from Arne Naess seminar 18th October 2014 Oslo: Source & reference: Yournewswire.com ; Video by Stop Smart Meters! (UK) | 1real |
Trump takes potential VP running mates for test drives | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump is taking some of his potential vice presidential running mates out for a test drive this week, meeting in private and trotting them out in public as he seeks to make his choice before the Republican National Convention less than two weeks away. Republicans close to the campaign say Trump and his team are considering announcing his running mate pick next week ahead of the convention, to be held July 18-21 in Cleveland, to try to get maximum media buzz from the decision. As his aides vet the people on his short list, Trump is getting an up-close look at some of the candidates and talking about it publicly, dispensing with the usual tradition of keeping secret the process of choosing a running mate. Trump, who is to be formally nominated at the convention as the Republican candidate for the Nov. 8 election, met privately on Tuesday with one possible pick, U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, at Trump Tower in New York. On Tuesday night, the two appeared together at a Trump rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. Trump introduced Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as “a great friend of mine, somebody respected by everybody.” Then it was Corker’s turn. “I’ve figured out the reason why you love him so much,” the senator told the crowd. “The reason you love him so much is because he loves you. He loves you and he wants the best for you.” On Wednesday, Trump is to be joined for an event in Cincinnati by Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who is another possible pick by Trump for the No. 2 position. Gingrich has been a close Trump adviser and is well regarded at Trump Tower. On Monday, Trump met on Monday with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, another candidate on his short list. Others on Trump’s running mate list include Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who Trump met with on Saturday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Christie, a former Trump rival for the Republican nomination, and Sessions are among Trump’s earliest supporters in the party and closest advisers. | 0fake |
NYT: ‘SuperJared Has Taken Flight’ | New York Times columnist Frank Bruni takes aim at Trump’s and administration in an titled “Jared Kushner, Man of Steel. ” [From Bruni’s column: Why don’t we just stitch him a red cape, put him in spandex, affix a stylized “S” to his chest and be done with it? SuperJared has taken flight. He’s President Trump’s point man with the Chinese, having finalized the details of the big meeting at later this week. He was Trump’s middleman with the Mexicans not long ago. “A shadow secretary of state,” The Washington Post called Jared Kushner, and that was well before he traveled to Iraq on Monday, beating the actual secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, to one of the most consequential theaters of American foreign policy. … Trump’s overreliance on Kushner illustrates the extraordinary premium he places on loyalty. Kushner’s status as a visionary is entirely disputable: His company was a birthright, not a and as an article by Charles Bagli in The Times this week demonstrated, one of Kushner’s key acquisitions, the skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue, turned into an albatross. But he married Ivanka. He’s family. And he chose the political ambitions of his over his own previous reputation as a reasonably enlightened man. Read the rest here. | 0fake |
Hints of Prince’s Failing Health Preceded a Sudden Death - The New York Times | Read our latest report on Prince’s final days ] “Wait a few days before you waste any prayers. ” That was Prince’s reassurance to fans gathered for a dance party on Saturday night at his Paisley Park complex in Chanhassen, Minn. after reports that he had suffered a health scare during a flight on Friday. This famously private performer warned the hometown crowd not to always trust the media. A representative had insisted for weeks that it was only the flu. Days later, Prince was dead at 57, discovered not breathing after an emergency call at 9:43 a. m. on Thursday in an elevator at Paisley Park, which houses his estate and studio. While no cause of death has been given, Jason Kamerud, the chief deputy for the Carver County Sheriff’s office, said the local medical examiner would conduct an autopsy. Results are typically not available for a few days, he said. His death has shocked not only the legions of fans who had thought him to be otherworldly and invincible, but also those who had spotted him out and about in recent days: Prince was seen riding his bike, hosting a party and visiting a local record store and jazz club. Despite his enigmatic reputation, he was a familiar presence around Minneapolis. A week ago, Prince was healthy enough to give what would be his final public performance. He played two sets in one night at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, making up for shows canceled earlier this month. Addressing the crowd that evening, Prince said he had been “a little under the weather” on April 7, when the shows were originally scheduled, but added, “We’re here now. ” Nicholas Wolaver, a fan who attended the early performance, said: “You would not believe that he was singing ill. He sounded true to his talents and it was an amazing performance. ” And although he was performing with only a piano, Prince “got up and danced,” Mr. Wolaver said, adding that even after three encores, “he left people wanting a little more. ” But by the following day, TMZ reported that Prince’s plane had made an emergency landing in Moline, Ill. en route to Minnesota. After what was reportedly a brief hospital visit, Prince tweeted, “I am #transformed. ” On Saturday, there seemed no cause for concern as Prince announced the party at Paisley Park, which also served as a community gathering place. “2 GIVE THANX 4 THE GOOD WEATHER AND 4 ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT,” Prince tweeted, attaching a flyer for the night’s festivities. The cover charge was $10. Scott Gregoria was among the few hundred fans to show up. Prince looked “a little more weak, a little more pale than when I had seen him before,” Mr. Gregoria said outside Paisley Park on Thursday. But he noted that Prince was also in a gregarious mood, joking around with the crowd and showing off a new guitar in his trademark shade of purple. In lieu of a performance, he played a recording of the Atlanta show over the speaker system. Prince had been out and about earlier on Saturday as well. Kaitlyn Powell, 17, saw him riding bikes with a companion around a strip mall as she waited for her 3 p. m. shift to start at the local Office Max. “I saw this person biking pretty quickly around the parking lot, but it wasn’t until he got close to my car and I made eye contact with him that I realized it was actually Prince,” she said. “I kind of myself because he wasn’t wearing purple. ” But when she left her car, there he was, just sitting on the sidewalk. “I got my phone out to take a picture and he asked me not to,” Ms. Powell said. “I said, O. K. I respect that, put my phone away and went to work. ” That morning, Prince had also noted that it was Record Store Day. “PLEASE SUPPORT UR LOCAL RECORD STORE 2DAY: (THROAT CLEARS 2 ATTRACT ATTENTION): ELECTRIC FETUS,” he tweeted, referring to the south Minneapolis shop he was known to frequent. Sure enough, he stopped in that evening to make a purchase, according to The Star Tribune. On Tuesday night, he was spotted again, this time at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis, still walking the line, even in his final days, between unknowable cipher and local fixture. “For the residents of Minneapolis, the loss of Prince is too large to describe,” wrote the city’s mayor, Betsy Hodges, in a statement. “Prince never left us and we never left him. ” | 0fake |
Trump Doing More to Help Los Angeles’ Olympic Bid Than Obama, According to Head of LA Host Committee - Breitbart | The head of the group attempting to bring the 2024 Olympics to Los Angeles says he has a much better supporter in Donald Trump than he had in Barack Obama. [Gene Sykes, head of LA2024, spoke on Thursday at the Montgomery Conference in Santa Monica, during which he painted a picture of President Trump’s involvement in the Olympic bidding process that greatly contrasts with the picture presented by the media and other sports elites. “The Donald Trump effect, for us, is a sword,” Sykes said, according to KPCC. Sykes then went on to explain how, despite President Trump’s strong stances on immigration and other issues which have bothered some international Olympic officials, Donald Trump has been most valuable in gaining support for the Los Angeles bid. Sykes then pointed out how Trump’s efforts differ from those of his predecessor. After remarking about how Obama’s interest in the Olympics waned after an attempt to win the games for Chicago in 2016 failed, Sykes said of Obama, “He never went to an Olympic games, never met with the IOC [International Olympic Committee] leadership, never talked to them by phone, and showed sort of a disregard and that was deeply frustrating to the leaders of the IOC. ” Sykes then spoke about a situation that involved some Iranian archers who found themselves turned back at the airport in Las Vegas during President Trump’s first immigration ban. Specifically, Sykes mentioned how the President Trump intervened, “As soon as they learned they had created a problem for us they said ‘We’ll help you. We’ll solve the problem.’ ” They’ve set up a team in the White House to help us. ” Though Sykes made no mistake about the obstacles ahead with some Olympic Committee members who have serious issues with Trump, Sykes said, “The President presents an image which is a challenging image for some of these voters. They don’t like the stance. They don’t like the presumed rhetoric. All that is alarming to them. We’ve heard it. We continue to hear it. It’s an issue. ” Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 0fake |
UK Prince Charles's tour of southeast Asia leaves out Myanmar | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Prince Charles will tour southeast Asia and India later this month, but the heir to the throne will not visit Myanmar, after a spate of violence and allegations that authorities are carrying out ethnic cleansing. Media reports last month said an official visit to Myanmar was being suggested for the trip, which the prince is undertaking on behalf of the British government, and aides acknowledged it had been considered as part of the schedule. But it was omitted from the final program issued on Wednesday. Charles and his wife Camilla will travel to Singapore, Malaysia and then to India where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We looked at a range of options in the region and, as we re announcing today, we re going ahead with the visit to Singapore and Malaysia, Philip Malone, Deputy Head of Department at Britain s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, told reporters. Malone and royal aides declined to elaborate. More than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the past month since insurgents attacked security posts near the border, triggering fierce military retaliation that the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing. Last month Britain suspended its training program for the military in Myanmar because of the violence, and diplomatic relations have deteriorated. Rights campaigners had argued against a royal visit. To have someone of Prince Charles s stature go to visit the country would be seen as a reward, and giving legitimacy to the government and the military that are currently violating international law, said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. Charles and Camilla will begin their tour in Singapore on Oct. 31 before going to Malaysia, where they will celebrate 60 years of diplomatic ties since the former British colony became independent, before concluding the 11-day tour in India. | 0fake |
7 Conservative Classics Every American Should Read | As the movement continues to grow and expand in the Age of President Trump, a new generation of energized voters and young people will do well to arm themselves with the intellectual firepower of the giants upon whose shoulders today’s movement rests. [Here, then, are seven conservative classics that should be on every American’s bookshelf: 1. Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver, Originally published in 1948, Ideas Have Consequences foresaw the corrosive influences of moral and cultural relativism decades before the Left harnessed those forces to undermine Western civilization. One of America’s greatest conservative intellectuals and an esteemed rhetorical scholar, Richard Weaver erected an intellectual fortress around Absolute Truth long before progressives mounted their frontal assault on notions of right versus wrong, good versus evil. 2. The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, In the age of Bernie Sanders, today’s young generation of socialists would do well to read Friedrich Hayek’s 1944 classic broadside against socialism, The Road to Serfdom. A member of the Austrian School of economics and a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, Hayek warned of the totalitarian realities of socialism’s conceits. As he put it elsewhere: “A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers. ” 3. The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom, Long before rioters sparked violence at UC Berkeley, a University of Chicago professor named Allan Bloom lit academia ablaze with this 1987 classic taking the professoriate to task for eroding higher education curriculum with progressive pablum. A staunch defender of the classical “canon” of great works every thinking person must read, Bloom explained how the intellectual corruption of the humanities and arts led to an erasure of students’ understanding of the proper moral order that undergirds Western Civilization. 4. A Choice Not an Echo by Phyllis Schlafly, The late great matriarch of modern conservatism, Phyllis Schlafly, did more to advance and win the battle of ideas than many young conservatives understand. The tip of her intellectual spear, A Choice Not an Echo, reshaped the contours of American conservatism and has sold an astounding three million copies since its release over a ago. The original crusader, Schlafly’s book argued that conservatives must be willing to fight for a voice within the Republican Party’s establishment leadership and helped pave a path for Barry Goldwater’s nomination. 5. Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, Nobel economist Milton Friedman redefined the field of economics. In addition to being an intellectual titan, he was a sterling writer with a knack for distilling complex topics with wit and clarity. Any Nobel Prize winner who can string together a sentence like this deserves to be read: “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand. ” 6. A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell, There are no “bad” Thomas Sowell books, so we could have easily recommended many of his other classics. But A Conflict of Visions crystalizes the stakes involved in the clash between conservative and progressive ideologies — and how radically different outcomes are when one side prevails over the other. One of America’s most lucid conservative economists, Sowell’s book draws upon everything from Rousseau to Hobbes to Adam Smith to illustrate the intellectual impulses that drive conservatives and progressives to think and act the way they do. 7. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Hailed as one of the greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century, Gulag Archipelago is the account of Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s eight years spent as a prisoner inside the Russian gulags for criticizing Stalin and the Soviet Communist system in his private letters. A winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Solzhenitsyn’s ability to combine lyrical prose with piercing reportage of communism’s moral horrors are virtually without equal. | 0fake |
Trump Messes Up BIG TIME At Liberty University When He Majorly Flubs Bible Verse (VIDEO) | If there s one quality Republican voters are looking for in a candidate, it s being a Christian. You don t have to know much about foreign policy, or domestic issues, or for that matter, the Constitution, but if you say you re a Christian, well, that s your golden ticket into the hearts of GOP voters everywhere. Knowing this fact, for the past several months Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has been telling people far and wide about how much he s a Christian, how much he loves the Bible, and even that it s his favorite book. Unfortunately for Trump, his blatant maneuvering to try to convince people that he s a great Christian who follows the Bible is all crumbling down. This was incredibly evident at a campaign event at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia Monday morning.In front of a large crowd of people who actually do know their Bible verses, Trump says: We re going to protect Christianity. I can say that. I don t have to be politically correct Two Corinthians, 3:17, that s the whole ballgame. He then goes on to call Liberty University Liberty College and it s clear that he s reading something someone prepared for him to say. Because anyone who s ever gone to church at one point or another in their lives knows that the book of the Bible Trump is referring to is Second Corinthians, not Two Corinthians. However, if you re reading it off a piece of paper and you re just trying to pander to your crowd, but don t really know what you re talking about, it s going to read Two Corinthians. The verse he s referring to is Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, which does indeed sound like the perfect Republican slogan to try to pander to freedom loving Christians everywhere. However, too bad Trump doesn t actually know what he s talking about.And as fellow candidate Marco Rubio s faith outreach director said, so honestly:"Two" Corinthians It won't matter. Nothing seems to matter. Eric Teetsel (@EricTeetsel) January 18, 2016 And it likely won t.Watch the moment for yourself here: // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]> Two [sic] Corinthians, right? Two [sic] Corinthians 3:17. That s the whole ballgame. Posted by BuzzFeed Politics on Monday, January 18, 2016Video/Featured image: Facebook | 1real |
MOVIEGOING HITS 22-YR LOW…LA Times Blames Everyone But ANTI-TRUMP HOLLYWOOD | The LA Times is reporting that moviegoing is at the lowest level since 1995. The article blames Americans who are going to see fewer movies, on streaming services, which, to some extent, could be true, but from the majority of the comments we ve seen on our Facebook page, which reaches almost 1.7 million followers, Americans are no longer interested in paying their hard-earned money to support the anti-American and anti-Trump hate machine that is Hollywood. While there are a few openly conservative actors in Hollywood, the majority of them are swimming in a cesspool of liberalism and are consumed with hate for President Trump and his deplorable supporters. From George Clooney trashing Trump over his stance on refugees coming to America from Muslim hotbed nations, to Meryl Streep using a televised award ceremony to trash our newly inaugurated President, to has-been pop stars like Madonna saying she d like to blow up the White House; America has had it up to their eyeballs with people who are some of America s top earners, thanks to the support of people they openly mock for supporting President Trump. The LA Times reports, that Hollywood is celebrating the end of 2017 with astronomical sales from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is on track to soon exceed $1 billion in global ticket sales and eventually become the biggest movie of the year. But that won t be enough to write a happy storyline for the industry.Although movie ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada are expected to dip just below last year s record of $11.38 billion, the number of tickets sold is projected to drop 4% to 1.26 billion the lowest level since 1995, according to preliminary estimates from studio executives.The falloff in ticket sales can mostly be explained by a handful of movies that flopped, especially during the dreary summer season that posted the worst results in more than two decades. Even such massive hits as Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok and It couldn t make up for a lackluster summer lineup populated by rickety franchises ( Alien: Covenant ) and poorly reviewed retreads ( The Mummy ).However, the long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions on original video content.Sorry to burst your liberal bubble, but now that the curtain has been pulled back, the deplorable crowd isn t interested in supporting hate-filled, liberal Hollywood. Deal with it | 1real |
Bahraini civil society group under pressure after Israel visit | DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini civil society group has defended sending a delegation to Israel as a gesture of tolerance and coexistence, state news agency BNA has reported, after news of the visit sparked wide anger on social media. The visit came amid high emotions in the Arab world over U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, a move that was widely condemned across the Arab world. The visit by 24 delegates from the group called This is Bahrain has prompted a hashtag #Bahrain_resists_normalisation, in which twitter users declaring their opposition to what some called an act of treason against Palestinians and Bahrainis. In a statement carried by state news agency BNA late on Sunday, the group said the visit was a private initiative to Israel and occupied Jerusalem comprising Bahrainis and expatriates of various faiths. The initiative by This is Bahrain is based on the principle of tolerance and coexistence, an approach embraced by the Kingdom of Bahrain and a feature of its society, and aims to visit Islamic, Christian, Jewish and other holy sites across the world, the group said. Most Arab countries see Israel as an occupier of Arab lands, and say any normalization of ties with the Jewish state must be in line with an Arab peace plan that calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. | 0fake |
MICHELLE, SASHA AND MALIA Will Join Barack On Trip To Communist Cuba…Why Not, It’s Only The Taxpayer’s Money | The Obama s just added millions onto the taxpayer s tab for the trip to Cuba that Barack was going on until they just announced the entire family will tag along The Obamas have been famous for their lavish spending on trips and have racked up a big bill that the taxpayers are on the hook for. We know that they pay for some of the travel BUT most of the travel is on us. The known total expense to the American taxpayers thus far for all Obama travel is now $70,880,035.78! Here s a list of the FIRST FAMILY VACATIONS WITH THE COST FOR EACH: OBAMA FAMILY VACATIONSWhy doesn t Barack go alone since this sounds like a business trip? At least he ll be able to show his girls the horrible results of decades of communism come to think of it, it might be worth it!First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia will be joining President Barack Obama next week on his historic trip to Cuba.Obama will open his visit late on Sunday by touring cultural sites in Old Havana along with Michelle, Sasha and Malia. Cardinal Jaime Ortega will also host the Obamas at the Havana Cathedral.The President then plans to use a speech in Havana to lay out a vision of greater freedoms and more economic opportunity in Cuba, White House officials said on Wednesday, offering a glimpse of how the President hopes to use his trip to encourage change on the communist island. Obama s speech on Tuesday at the Grand Theater of Havana will mark a moment that seemed unimaginable only a few years ago, before Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved to restore relations between the two estranged countries.Obama s advisers said they hoped Cubans would be able to watch the speech live on television, adding that Obama sought not to dictate outcomes but create the space for Cuba to change on its own. Ultimately he will make clear that that s for the Cuban people to decide, said Ben Rhodes, Obama s deputy national security adviser. We have great confidence in the ability of the Cuban people to do extraordinary things. During his three-day trip to Cuba the first to the country by a sitting president in 88 years Obama will also meet with Castro at the Palace of the Revolution and attend a Major League Baseball exhibition game.His much-anticipated meeting with Cuban dissidents will include prominent members of the government s opposition, Rhodes said, stressing that the United States and not Cuba was deciding who would attend. The President will lay a wreath on Monday at the Memorial to Jose Marti, the Cuban independence hero, before meeting with Castro in his offices along the famed Plaza of the Revolution. The White House said human rights, regional issues and ways to improve Cubans standard of living were all on the agenda, with the leaders expected to address reporters after their meeting. Obama planned to meet with US and Cuban entrepreneurs in a bid to boost Cuba s nascent private-sector economy. Castro was to host the President for a state dinner at the palace on Monday evening.Despite Cuban leaders view of such meetings as interference in the island s internal affairs, Rhodes said there was no reason to believe the government would block any invitees from participating. If there are any impediments to that meeting we would be very clear about this, Rhodes said. He declined to name any of those who would attend. Dozens of US lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans, will travel with the President to Cuba along with US business leaders and some Cuban-Americans, officials said, arguing that their inclusion reflected growing support in the United States for lifting the generations-old embargo. Yet there are few signs that Congress will agree to repeal the sanctions anytime soon. Following his Cuba swing, Obama will travel to Buenos Aires to meet with new Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, who took office in December pledging to reverse many of the policies of his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez. Obama has said that Fernandez s policies were consistently anti-American and praised Macri for recognizing that we re in a new era. In Argentina, Obama will meet next Wednesday with Macri at the Casa Rosada presidential office before laying a wreath and touring the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral. He ll also hold a town hall meeting with young people before being feted at a state dinner. He planned to visit the picturesque city of Bariloche in Argentina s Patagonia region on Thursday before returning to Washington.Read more: Daily Mail | 1real |
Obama administration arms sales offers to Saudi top $115 billion: report | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has offered Saudi Arabia more than $115 billion in weapons, other military equipment and training, the most of any U.S. administration in the 71-year U.S.-Saudi alliance, a report seen by Reuters has found. The report, authored by William Hartung of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, said the offers were made in 42 separate deals, and the majority of the equipment has yet to be delivered. Hartung told Reuters the report would be made available publicly on Sept. 8. The report said U.S. arms offers to Saudi Arabia since Obama took office in January 2009 have included everything from small arms and ammunition to tanks, attack helicopters, air-to-ground missiles, missile defense ships, and warships. Washington also provides maintenance and training to Saudi security forces. The Center’s report is based on data from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a Department of Defense body that provides figures on arms sales offers and Foreign Military Sales agreements. Most of the offers, which are reported to Congress, become formal agreements though some are abandoned or amended. The report did not disclose how many of the offers to Saudi Arabia were agreed. Washington’s arms sales to Riyadh recently have come under fire from rights groups and some members of Congress are disturbed by the rising number of civilian casualties in the war in Yemen, where a coalition led by Saudi Arabia is fighting Iran-allied Houthi rebels. The conflict has killed at least 10,000 people. Last month the United Nations human rights office said that 3,799 civilians have died in the conflict, with coalition air strikes responsible for an estimated 60 percent of the deaths. The coalition says it does not target civilians and accuses the Houthis of placing military targets in civilian areas. The coalition has created a body to investigate civilian casualties. The outcry over those casualties has led some members of Congress to push for restrictions on arms transfers, and amid the growing outcry, the Pentagon cautioned that its support for Saudi Arabia in its Yemen campaign was not “a blank check”. The Control Arms coalition, a group that campaigns for stricter arms sales controls, said last month that Britain, France and the United States were flouting the 2014 Arms Trade treaty, which bans exports of conventional weapons that fuel human rights violations or war crimes. Nevertheless, the Obama administration last month approved a potential $1.15 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia. Hartung said the level of U.S. arms sales to Riyadh should give it leverage to pressure Saudi Arabia. “It’s time for the Obama administration to use the best leverage it has - Saudi Arabia’s dependence on U.S. weapons and support - to wage the war in Yemen in the first place,” Hartung told Reuters. “Pulling back the current offer of battle tanks or freezing some of the tens of billions in weapons and services in the pipeline would send a strong signal to the Saudi leadership that they need stop their indiscriminate bombing campaign and take real steps to prevent civilian casualties.” Washington has been at pains to prove to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies that it remains committed to their defense against Iran in the wake of a multinational deal last year to restrict the Iranian nuclear program. Sunni Muslim Gulf states accuse Shi’ite Iran of fomenting instability in the region, which the Islamic Republic denies. “The more recent deals that have involved resupplying Saudi Arabia with ammunition, bombs, and tanks to replace weaponry used up or damaged in the war in Yemen are no doubt driven in part by the effort to ‘reassure’ the Saudis that the U.S. will not tilt towards Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal,” Hartung said. | 0fake |
PressTV-Russia cancels request to fuel ships in Spain | Russia This photo taken from a Norwegian surveillance aircraft shows Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in international waters off the coast of Northern Norway on October 17, 2016. (Via Reuters)
Russia says it has cancelled plans for a fleet of its warships to refuel at a Spanish port on their way to Syria.
Vasily Nioradze, a spokesman at the Russian embassy in Madrid, said on Wednesday that the request was canceled, without giving further details, the Associated Press reported.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry also confirmed that Russia had withdrawn its request for the warships to refuel in the Spanish port of Ceuta.
"The Russian embassy in Madrid has just told us that it is withdrawing its demand for permission to stop over for the boats, which means that the stopovers have been cancelled," the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The development came after Spain, a NATO member state, said it was reviewing Russia's request to refuel its naval fleet at Ceuta after passing through the Straits of Gibraltar en route to Syria, where Russian forces are engaged in an anti-terror campaign in support of the Syrian government.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said that Spain had been allowing Russian navy ships to dock in Spanish ports for years, but that it treated such requests on a case by case basis.
The naval group, which passed through the English Channel on Friday, is made up of Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, as well as a nuclear-powered battle cruiser, two anti-submarine warships and four support vessels, escorted by submarines.
The fleet will join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast.
Ceuta sits on the tip of Africa’s north coast, across the Straits of Gibraltar from mainland Spain, and bordering Morocco. The port is part of the EU, but its NATO status is unclear. Since 2011, at least 60 Russian warships have docked in Ceuta.
NATO irked by Spain’s announcement
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that the Western military alliance was "concerned" by the deployment of the Russian warships.
"It is each up to each nation to decide, as has been NATO policy for many years, but we are concerned about the potential use of this carrier group to increase attacks… in Aleppo," Stoltenberg said, adding, "All allies are aware of our concerns."
Britain echoes NATO’s stance
British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon also said on Wednesday that London would be "extremely concerned" if Spain refueled the Russian carrier group heading through the Mediterranean towards Syria.
"NATO should be standing together,” he added.
Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies. Russia has been conducting air raids against Daesh and other terrorist groups in the Middle Eastern country at the Damascus government’s request for more than a year now.
Russia boosts Baltic Fleet
In another development on Wednesday, a report said that Russia was reinforcing its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad with two small warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter a worrying NATO build-up in the region.
The report by Russia's daily Izvestia quoted an unidentified military source as saying that the vessels, the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol, had already entered the Baltic Sea and would soon become part of a newly formed division.
Kaliningrad shares land borders with Poland and Lithuania.
The deployment comes at a time when NATO is planning its biggest military buildup on Russia's borders since the Cold War. Loading ... | 1real |
Abortion Foes Aim to Compete With Turnout for Women’s March - The New York Times | Opponents of abortion watching the women’s march on their televisions last Saturday stewed as they saw the Planned Parenthood logo over the stage and the actress Scarlett Johansson praising the group for the gynecological care she received as a teenager. But for these viewers, there was an even bigger problem. The women’s march had drawn an estimated people to Washington, and many more to simultaneous demonstrations around the country, dominating the nation’s news coverage just six days before abortion foes were holding their annual march. Since then, the organizers of that march have been telling their followers: You’d better turn out on Friday. This year’s march in Washington — the 44th annual March for Life — was expected to be a celebratory event at which abortion opponents could finally savor a few victories. The new president, Donald J. Trump, is already delivering on his promises to sign a slate of measures. He has promised to nominate a Supreme Court justice who could overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion 44 years ago. And a Congress dominated by Republicans is poised to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. But a new sense of urgency, anxiety and maybe a little envy has accompanied this year’s event, with organizers suddenly realizing they had a tough act to follow. “We’re definitely pulling out all the stops this year to try to get people to come,” said Amelia Irvine, president of Georgetown Right to Life at Georgetown University in Washington. National organizers of the March for Life said that while they were hopeful of a large turnout on Friday, they did not have any way to gauge how many would attend. This year’s event will have two major draws: Vice President Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway, who managed Mr. Trump’s campaign and is now a White House counselor, are scheduled to speak. No president or vice president has ever addressed the march in person. Last year, many marchers were deterred by a snowstorm that trapped some buses en route and stranded some marchers in town for days afterward. Organizers said that since so many had to cancel last year, there is energy this year. One of the largest turnouts was in 2013, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the march itself. Some abortion opponents claimed that as many as 650, 000 marchers showed up. But for this and every year, the March for Life organization itself played it conservative, estimating that the marchers numbered in “the tens of thousands. ” “I don’t think that these numbers are the most important,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, in a telephone interview. “The number most important for us is 58 million, which is the number of Americans that have been lost to abortion. ” She said that calls and emails began pouring into March for Life’s offices last Sunday from women who are opposed to abortion and were disturbed to see the strong abortion rights message coming from the stage of the women’s march in Washington. “We are hearing from a lot of women who felt like their voices weren’t represented last weekend,” said Mrs. Mancini, who called in volunteers to handle the deluge. But it is unclear whether that anger will translate into attendance at the March for Life. Though many marchers come to the city by car or train, one gauge of expected attendance — bus parking permits — suggests the event will be smaller than last weekend’s women’s march. As of Wednesday only 92 permits had been issued for the March for Life, according to Events DC and the city’s Department of Transportation, which handle the permits. Some 1, 800 permits were issued for the women’s march, and 450 for Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the transportation department said. The march has become an increasingly youthful event, attracting busloads of college, high school and middle school students from across the country, many from Catholic and evangelical Christian schools. This year, the University of Notre Dame, the famed Catholic college in Indiana, is sending 700 students on 13 charter buses, one of the largest campus contingents, said Emily Burns, vice president of communications with Notre Dame Right to Life. She said that she and many of her club members shared many of the feminist goals of the women’s march, such as preventing sexual assault and violence against women, and were uncomfortable being seen as in competition with the women’s march. “This definitely is not a competition for us,” Ms. Burns said. “But we are hoping that with the numbers we bring year after year, maybe we receive a bit more coverage this year. ” There is widespread resentment in the movement that the media has not devoted much coverage to the March for Life in the past, perhaps because it happens every year. This year, a large coalition of groups have banded together to pressure television and cable networks to devote the same kind of media coverage to the March for Life as they devoted to the women’s march. Still, compared with supporters, organizers of Friday’s march may have a smaller base of people to draw from. A survey released by the Pew Research Center in October found that 59 percent of Americans said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 37 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Although there were wide gaps between Democrats and Republicans, overall support for legal abortion was at its highest level since 1995, the survey found. At Georgetown University, which is a Catholic and Jesuit college, Ms. Irvine is expecting only 30 to 40 students to attend the March for Life, despite her group’s efforts. Some students who would have wanted to attend could not, she said, because Friday is a class day and the university would not excuse absences from classes or labs to attend the march. The numbers appear far lower than Georgetown’s turnout for the women’s march, said Ms. Irvine: “Our entire school basically went. ” She said it would be unfair to compare the size of the two marches, however, because Washington is a liberal city in which a vast majority of residents voted for Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump. “I do think there will be comparison,” she said, “but I don’t think it will be an accurate representation of what the public actually thinks. ” | 0fake |
BOOM! WATCH TRUMP IN FLINT: “Now, the Cars are Made in Mexico and You Can’t Drink the Water in Flint” | OUCH! Trump really put things in perspective while visiting the Democrat run city of Flint MI, plagued by unemployed auto workers and tainted water During Donald Trump s visit to Flint, Michigan on Wednesday, the Republican nominee commented on how the automobile manufacturing industry has moved to Mexico impacting trade and how people in Flint can t drink the water, much like the water in Mexico. It used to be cars were made in Flint, and you couldn t drink the water in Mexico, Trump stated. Now, the cars are made in Mexico and you can t drink the water in Flint. That s not good, he added, as people chuckled in response.Trump: "Now the cars are made in Mexico, and you can't drink the water in Flint" https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/XTy1fmvsHN CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 14, 2016Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Democrats Clinton, Sanders split nominating contests in Oregon, Kentucky | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders each picked up primary wins on Tuesday in yet another demonstration of how divided the party is in the drawn-out national race to win the nomination for November’s general election. Clinton narrowly defeated Sanders in Kentucky, a state where she was not expected to win. Sanders bested her in Oregon, a state that played to his strengths. In Kentucky, the two candidates will likely split the 55 delegates up for grabs. In Oregon, Sanders will take only a handful more of the 61 delegates that were awarded. Clinton’s sizeable lead in delegates means it is likely she will eventually be her party’s nominee, but she remains more than 100 delegates short of sealing the deal. The Democratic primary now hits a two-week lull, with the final set major contests, including California, scheduled for June 7. Clinton, who spent the past two days campaigning in Kentucky, would like to lock up the nomination and turn her attention to the Nov. 8 general election and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Trump has begun to organize his general election campaign. On Tuesday, he signed a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee. The agreement allows him to raise $449,400 from a single donor by splitting the funds between his campaign, the RNC and state Republican parties. Trump, who eschewed donations in the political system through the primary, has thus far insisted on mostly self-funding his campaign. The shift to a more traditional fundraising approach could draw the ire of some supporters. Trump, in an interview with Megyn Kelly that aired on Fox News Tuesday night, said he did have regrets about his actions during the Republican primary process. “I could have used different language in a couple of instances, but overall I’m happy with the outcome,” Trump said. Sanders supporters became angry when Nevada state party officials chose to end their convention and block efforts to award the U.S. senator from Vermont more delegates than he initially won in the February caucus. Clinton won the caucus. The Nevada incident was a warning about the potential for fireworks at July’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Clinton’s campaign continued to express confidence that she would be able to unify the party. “Hillary Clinton is grateful to the thousands of Nevadans who came out to participate in the caucuses and convention process,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said. “She believes every voice should be heard and no one should be intimidated, harassed or threatened in this process. When the primary process is complete, our party must come together and ensure a Democrat is elected to serve as our next president,” Mook said. Sanders on Tuesday joined his supporters in criticizing the Nevada Democratic Party after Saturday’s events. One Sanders supporter threw a chair, unhappy about being blocked in a rules vote that was part of the effort to help the senator win more delegates to the national convention. Others drew chalk graffiti on a party building, while the state’s party chairwoman has been receiving death threats. Sanders framed Nevada’s incident as a warning. “If the Democratic Party is to be successful in November, it is imperative that all state parties treat our campaign supporters with fairness and the respect that they have earned,” Sanders said in a statement on the Nevada incident. Sanders - who said he condemns violence and personal harassment of individuals - leveled some of the same complaints his supporters did, arguing that state party Chairwoman Roberta Lange did not allow a headcount on a disputed rules change. He also argued that 64 delegates to the state convention were not given a hearing before being ruled ineligible. The state party disputed the Sanders campaign’s interpretation of the events. It said some delegates did not show up at the convention and others were disqualified because they were not registered as Democrats in time. “The Sanders campaign is continuing to be dishonest about what happened Saturday and is failing to adequately denounce the threats of violence of his supporters,” the Nevada Democratic Party said in a statement. Sanders supporters began circulating a picture of Lange on the internet that included her cellphone number and encouraged others to contact her to express their unhappiness. Lange said on MSNBC she had been receiving death threats, including many containing vulgar language. Public messages sent to her Twitter account included a barrage of derogatory statements. MSNBC played some of the voicemails, including one saying “people like you should be hung in a public execution.” “What you heard is a few of the thousands of emails and texts and Facebook messages and Twitter messages that I’ve gotten,” Lange said on MSNBC. “Threats to my family, to my grandson, to my husband. Sanders’ continued presence in the race is prompting concerns among Clinton allies that he will damage her ability to take on Trump and hurt her in the fall. But Sanders supporters shrug off that worry, arguing that Trump is such a flawed candidate that Clinton will easily dispatch with him if she faces him in the Nov. 8 election. Clinton’s camp seems to agree. “Ultimately, we are confident that the passion and energy from the primary will be united in a common purpose — to move forward the ideals of our party and keep the White House out of Donald Trump’s hands,” her campaign manager Mook said. | 0fake |
Tokyo governor quits as head of conservative opposition 'Party of Hope' | TOKYO (Reuters) - The governor of the Japanese capital, Tokyo, whose opposition Party of Hope came a distant third to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s ruling party in a general election last month, said on Tuesday she would quit as party co-leader. Governor Yuriko Koike, a former ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker sometimes mentioned as a possible first female Japanese premier, launched the party to great fanfare ahead of the Oct. 22 lower house election and absorbed a big chunk of the failed opposition Democratic Party. But despite her bid to create what she called a reformist, conservative rival to Abe s LDP, Koike s party won only 51 seats in the 465-member lower house. That tally was not only dwarfed by the LDP s 283 seats but also lagged the 54 seats taken by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), a group hastily formed by liberal-leaning former Democratic Party members. Koike announced her decision at a televised meeting of her party legislators, also attended by Yuichiro Tamaki, who was recently elected as Party of Hope co-president. I want to step down as party leader and support you all, she told the meeting. I want to leave things to President Tamaki. A media-savvy former TV announcer and veteran lawmaker who served as environment and defense minister, Koike defied the LDP to run for Tokyo governor last year and trounced her ruling-party rival. She then led her party to a historic victory over the LDP in a July Tokyo assembly poll. But support for the Party of Hope faltered after Koike said she would exclude liberal members of the Democratic Party and decided not to seek a seat in parliament herself. She also confused many voters by seeming to leave open the possibility of a tie-up with the LDP after the general election. Support for the Party of Hope was a mere 3.2 percent against 9.3 percent for the CDPJ and 37.1 percent for the LDP, in an NHK survey released on Monday. Abe has had a bounce in his ratings, a series of public opinion polls published this week indicated, but his support remains below 50 percent. The NHK survey put support for his cabinet at 46 percent, a seven point rise from a September survey, with the most frequently given reason being it s better than other cabinets . | 0fake |
Financial markets continue to price in Clinton win after debate | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stock index futures were little changed throughout Sunday’s highly contentious presidential debate, indicating that markets continue to view that Democrat Hillary Clinton holds an edge in the Nov. 8 election against her Republican rival, Donald Trump. The 90-minute debate got off to a chilly start when Clinton and Trump greeted each other without the traditional handshake. It quickly turned into an acrimonious discussion of a 2005 video that emerged on Friday in which Trump was heard using vulgar language and talking about groping women without consent. Investors said there was not enough in terms of policy substance in Sunday’s debate to change the market’s perception of the direction of the race. “I don’t think it changed people’s opinions in the investing community that Clinton is more likely to win, as she was before the debate, certainly after Friday,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. In a video released on Friday, Trump is heard talking on an open microphone in 2005 about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. The video was taped only months after Trump married his third wife, Melania. “There is still time to go and more things that could happen, but financial advisors are probably starting to feel they need to think about a Clinton win in terms of an investment thesis for 2017,” Meckler said. He said such a thesis would likely include government intervention in healthcare, particularly medicine prices, and little support for coal as an energy source. S&P e-mini futures remained in a tight range throughout the debate, slightly higher than at the close on Friday. “The market declared tonight’s debate a draw and has no more clue after debate than before, at least not in watching the S&P futures. Once again the debate was great theater, but did not give the market any insight,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. “Despite the night’s civil ending, it was hard to glean much information, as a good part of the debate was simply a name-calling fest.” Strategists in a recent Reuters equity poll mostly viewed an election victory on Nov. 8 by Clinton as more positive for the stock market through the end of the year, largely because her positions -unlike her opponent’s- are well known. Steven Englander, global head of G10 currency strategy at CitiFX in New York, said: “Both Trump and Clinton supporters expected that emerging market currencies and U.S. equities would go down and the VIX .VIX would go up if Trump were to win and vice versa if Clinton wins,” he added. Trump has been critical of a U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada as well as other trade deals, and has promised to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it. The Mexican peso rose as much as 2 percent on Sunday and was last trading up 1.3 percent versus the greenback. S&P 500 e-minis ESc1, which were up 6 points shortly after opening three hours before the debate began, were up 5.25 points, or 0.24 percent. “It’s a positive reaction (in stocks), and it’s very consistent with what the market has been discounting, which is that Clinton will win and that’s good news,” said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors LLC in Albany, New York, before the debate. “It’s also saying the House of Representatives will stay in the hands of the Republicans,” he added. U.S. stocks briefly gained ground following a perceived win by Clinton in the first presidential debate last month. | 0fake |
Release of CIA torture details unlikely: senior Democrat | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is unlikely to release a massive report on the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” widely considered torture, a top Democrat on the congressional intelligence committee said on Tuesday. Representative Adam Schiff told reporters it was more likely, before President Barack Obama leaves office next month, that the White House might take action so the report could be released someday via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. “The most that we might expect this administration to do... is to designate it as some kind of a record that would ultimately lead to its availability through FOIA, subject to redaction,” Schiff said at a breakfast meeting with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. He said he supported “as much information being shared as possible.” Senator Dianne Feinstein and other congressional Democrats have urged Obama to declassify and release the 6,700-page Senate Intelligence Committee report before Republican President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20. Feinstein chaired the panel as it researched and wrote the report, and she spearheaded the effort to expose the CIA’s actions. The committee, then led by Democrats, released a 525-page executive summary of its findings in December 2014. But the full report has been seen as too sensitive to release. “I don’t think the incoming administration will have any interest in publishing the greater part of the document,” Schiff said. However, he added that he did not expect that waterboarding would resume. “Within the IC (intelligence community) there would be such massive resistance to this, it just isn’t going to happen,” Schiff said. Trump promised during his campaign that he would not only revive waterboarding, but bring back “a hell of a lot worse” if elected. However, he said more recently that retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, his nominee as secretary of defense, had persuasively argued against it. A White House spokesman said he had nothing to announce about the report, but reiterated Obama’s opposition to torture. Obama ended the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” via executive order just after he took office in January 2009. Led by Republican Senator John McCain and Feinstein, Congress has since passed legislation outlawing their use. | 0fake |
'Mad dog' anti-Trump leaflets, suspected floated in from North Korea, turn up in Seoul | SEOUL (Reuters) - Propaganda fliers presumed to be from North Korea and calling U.S. President Donald Trump a mad dog have turned up across central Seoul, including near the presidential Blue House, according to posts on social media and people who found them. Death to old lunatic Trump! reads one poster, with a North Korean soldier with rifle in hand, crushing what looks to be Trump s head with his tongue dangling out of his mouth. Near the soldier s head is the line: Complete obliteration. Another poster shows Trump with the body of a dog being decapitated by an axe. Blood is shown splattered on the axe in the poster, which states: Let s behead mad dog Trump for the future of a peaceful and warless world and mankind! Both were in color. It is not difficult to find North Korean propaganda posters in South Korea, usually flown by balloon over the highly fortified demilitarized zone. Military images and anti-U.S. threats are common in North Korea propaganda as Pyongyang demands the United States cease what it says is its preparations for invasion. But the new series of fliers posted recently on Twitter and other social media target Trump specifically. Trump last month, in a speech to the United Nations, threatened to totally destroy North Korea if needed to defend itself and allies and called the North s leader Kim Jong Un a rocket man on a suicide mission. I am pretty sure it came from North Korea by balloon, since the prevailing winds during October have been from north to south and we ve been getting reports of others finding them throughout Seoul, said Chad O Carroll, managing director of NK News, a Seoul-based news subscription service, who found the leaflets while jogging in central Seoul. In an apparent jab at Trump s U.N. speech, one of the propaganda posters featured Trump standing behind a podium with a rocket in his mouth painted with the words totally destroy North Korea . Again, Trump is depicted as a dog with a human face and labeled as mad dog Trump . Men in suits with surprised looks on their faces are shown in the poster saying He s gone completely insane and If we let him be, there will be war . Reclusive North Korea, which has carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States. | 0fake |
Edgar Feuchtwanger Bore Witness, Horribly Close to Hitler - The New York Times | To be a Jew in Germany in the 1930s was not comfortable. Edgar Feuchtwanger, a schoolboy in Munich at the time, knew the fear and the dread shared by all German Jews witnessing the unstoppable ascent of a madman. Yet his situation was different. Very different. In 1929, Adolf Hitler moved into Mr. Feuchtwanger’s neighborhood. With money from his publisher, Hitler took a apartment on the third floor of No. 16 Prinzregentenplatz (Prince Regent Square). It was luxurious, with two bathrooms and two kitchens. Edgar, 5 years old, could see it from his window, a building not 100 yards away on Grillparzerstrasse. And for the next nine years, until the Feuchtwangers fled Germany in 1938, Edgar lived virtually side by side with a man bent on exterminating him, his family and every family like his, not only in Germany, but as far as the Reich could extend its dominion. Mr. Feuchtwanger ( ) whose memoir, “I Was Hitler’s Neighbor,” was published last year in translation in Britain, will speak about his childhood, and the man who cast his shadow over it, at the 92d Street Y on Friday at 2 p. m. The book, originally in French, has not been published in the United States. Today, at 91, he could well be the last German Jew alive who grew up within arm’s reach of Hitler and observed him day to day, if only in fleeting glimpses. Speaking in a relative’s apartment in Midtown on Wednesday, Mr. Feuchtwanger, a historian who taught for 30 years at the University of Southampton, in England, and now lives in a village near Winchester, recalled his brushes with Hitler, and some of the turning points in history. He brought with him, in a manila envelope, notebooks from his days at the Gebele School in Munich, filled with assignments on patriotic themes and decorated, here and there, with tributes to the leader whom Germans were learning to call Führer. The neighborhood, he said, was stocked with Nazis. On his way to school, he walked past the villa of Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s photographer, the man who introduced Eva Braun, then his shop assistant, to Hitler. Often, he caught a glimpse of Hitler lounging in a deck chair in the garden. Not far away was the house of Ernst Röhm, head of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing. “He is somewhat forgotten today,” Mr. Feuchtwanger said, speaking slowly, with the hint of a German accent. “But at the time he was considered the second man in the Reich, the only one whom Hitler had to address with some respect. When he spoke to Hitler he did not call him ‘mein Führer,’ but used the informal ‘du. ’” Röhm was soon out of the picture, arrested personally by Hitler on June 30, 1934, in the purge known as the Night of the Long Knives. Mr. Feuchtwanger knew of it long before most of his fellow Germans. Hearing jackboots and slamming car doors, he went to the window and saw SS officers assembling a motorcade for the short trip to Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee, where Röhm and his followers were staying. “Even as a small boy I could sense the tremendous, hot tension there was around,” Mr. Feuchtwanger wrote in his memoir. “That public events could produce such tension, that gripped one’s throat, almost took one’s breath away, is now practically unknown to the present generation. ” Mr. Feuchtwanger’s first memorable encounter with Hitler himself occurred when he was 8. He and his nanny, out for a stroll, began walking down Prinzregentenstrasse. “Just as we passed his front door, Hitler came out, wearing a mackintosh and a trilby hat,” Mr. Feuchtwanger said. “There were some people in the street who shouted ‘Heil Hitler.’ Then he looked at me and my nanny, quite benevolently. ” Mr. Feuchtwanger paused for a moment and said, “If he had known who I was, it would have been quite different. ” Indeed. The name Feuchtwanger was well known to Hitler and the Nazi Party, and not in a good way. Edgar’s father, Ludwig, was not the problem. As the director of Duncker Humblot, a distinguished publishing house specializing in books on economics and sociology, he was objectionable only because he was a prosperous Jew. Racial laws forced him out of the business in 1936. Ludwig’s brother, Lion, was another matter. At the time, he was probably the novelist in Germany, the author of “Jud Süss” (“The Jew Süss”) a historical novel about the financial adviser to Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg in the 18th century. The novel, published in 1925, was later twisted into a viciously film by the Nazis, released in 1940. More offensive to the Nazi Party was his novel “Success. ” Set in Bavaria in the 1920s, it included a satirical portrait of Hitler, inserted into the novel as Rupert Kutzner, a garage mechanic who creates a political movement, the Truly German Party. When “Success” was published in 1930, Joseph Goebbels announced in his newspaper, Der Angriff, that the author had just earned a seat on the first train out of Germany when the Nazis came to power. The novel featured prominently in the book burnings of May 1933. Goebbels himself turned up for the bonfire in Berlin. By chance, Lion was in the United States on a lecture tour when Hitler became chancellor, but his brother, back in Germany, bore the family name. It was not until the Edgar Feuchtwanger recalled, that Hitler assumed his full dimensions. It was still possible to walk on the sidewalk in front of Hitler’s building. Hitler had not yet taken to wearing a military uniform at all times in public or traveling in motorcades. After he became chancellor in 1933, things changed. Mr. Feuchtwanger’s mother now complained that she could not get milk because the deliveryman was steering extra bottles to Hitler. SS guards moved into the apartment below his and took up positions on the sidewalk outside. Pedestrians were made to cross to the other side of the street. History paraded past young Edgar’s window. He saw the fleet of long, Mercedes gather to depart for the annexation of Austria in 1938 and, several days later, watched as Hitler, standing erect, holding onto the windshield of his open car, greeted adoring crowds. Later that year, he watched Mussolini’s car taking him from the conference that led to the signing of the Munich Agreement. “I would join in the crowds to see what was going on,” Mr. Feuchtwanger said, recalling the periodic commotion on the square outside Hitler’s building. Ludwig Feuchtwanger, like many Jews, misread Hitler at the outset. He believed that German Jews could reach some sort of livable, stable accommodation with the regime. “My parents did talk about the political situation, and I knew more about it than do today,” Mr. Feuchtwanger said. “I knew that he was no good for us. But I wouldn’t say I was terrified. ” At school, Mr. Feuchtwanger was not tormented, by teachers or fellow students, although Nazification reached full steam by the time he entered the prestigious Maximilian Gymnasium in 1935. He was spared having to enroll in the Hitler Youth, obligatory for his classmates. But he did have to stand for hours at a time, arm outstretched in the Nazi salute, at school rallies organized by the party. “The way you go through it was to rest your arm on the shoulder of the chap in front of you,” he said. He brought out two of his school notebooks. In the opening page of the first, to commemorate Labor Day 1933, he had inscribed a large swastika superimposed over the Communist hammer. “I had a teacher who was over the moon about the Nazi takeover,” he explained. Political reality sank in on Kristallnacht, in November 1938, when Edgar’s father was arrested and interned at Dachau. Amazingly, the camp administration failed to make the connection between his name and that of the author of “Success. ” Six weeks later he was released and began making plans to take his family out of Germany. “He knew it was curtains,” Mr. Feuchtwanger said. Nearly all the Feuchtwangers escaped. One of Ludwig’s eight siblings, a half sister, died in Theresienstadt. At 14, Edgar Feuchtwanger adopted a second life as an honorary Englishman. He studied at Winchester School, where classmates called him “fish finger” and “Volkswagen. ” He earned a doctorate in history at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and went on to write studies of the Victorian era, including biographies of Gladstone and Disraeli, and histories of modern Germany, up to the Nazi seizure of power. He reached again for a notebook. In this one, from 1934, he honored Hitler on his 45th birthday by pasting in a glowering portrait of the Führer, adorned with a Nazi eagle and swastika. Mr. Feuchtwanger smiled. “Just think, it was a Jewish child who did this,” he said. | 0fake |
Protesters BEAUTIFULLY Troll Jason Chaffetz After He Accuses Them Of Being Paid | What is with the GOP accusing protesters of being paid to protest their events? Do they think it s impossible that so many people are actually upset? Maybe they re taking lessons from Donald Trump on that issue.Last week, Jason Chaffetz found himself on the wrong side of people who are angry that he attacked Hillary so aggressively, but won t even raise the question of investigating Trump for much worse transgressions. He told Salt Lake City-based Deseret News that he knew people were paid to try and bully and intimidate him at his town hall.All that kind of an accusation does is galvanize those who are protesting, and these people found a unique way to respond: They re sending him invoices for their appearances at his town hall. The invoice is circulating online and charges Chaffetz $100 per hour for paid protest, and two additional $50 charges for being callously dismissed by representative, and being labeled out-of-state radical. Check it out:If you re one of the constituents @jasoninthehouse has accused of being a paid protester, follow this person s lead & send him an invoice. pic.twitter.com/np0ZXYGWwS Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 11, 2017Chaffetz denigrated the protesters at his town hall further when he said: You could see it online a couple days before, a concerted effort in part to just cause chaos. Democrats are in disbelief that they have nothing but flailing and screaming to defend this. I ll never satisfy their desire to bring down [President] Donald Trump. Considering how he vowed to continue investigating Hillary Clinton even after she lost the election because of some emails, it s pretty clear that he considers it his job to bring down Democrats, not investigate possible government abuses, security breaches, etc.Featured image by Alex Wong via Getty Images | 1real |
Admiral and 8 Other Navy Officers Indicted on Bribery Charges - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — A retired United States Navy admiral and eight other officers were indicted on Tuesday in a widening bribery scandal in which prosecutors say a foreign contractor traded luxury travel, lavish gifts and prostitutes for inside intelligence. A total of 25 military officers and executives have now been prosecuted in one of the worst corruption scandals to hit the military in years. Prosecutors, laying out in unsparing detail a plot that stretched from Singapore to Washington, accused the officers — all with the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific, the Navy’s largest — of betraying the public trust for bribes from a military contractor in Singapore, Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard. The scheme cost the Navy “tens of millions of dollars” in overbillings to Mr. Francis’ firm, as he relied on sensitive and sometimes classified information the officers had given them to game the system, according to the indictment. The yearslong bribery scheme “amounts to a staggering degree of corruption by the most prominent leaders of the Seventh Fleet,” said Alana W. Robinson, the acting United States attorney in San Diego, where the charges were brought. The officers “actively worked together as a team to trade secrets for sex, serving the interests of a greedy foreign defense contractor, and not those of their own country,” Ms. Robinson said. The most prominent official charged on Tuesday was Bruce Loveless, a retired rear admiral who was taken into custody that day at his home in Coronado, Calif. outside San Diego. The admiral was knocked down a rank after he came under investigation in 2013 with two stars before the demotion, he was the officer to be charged in the scandal. Another admiral, Robert Gilbeau, was charged earlier in the case. The indictment dates Admiral Loveless’s involvement in the scheme to 2007, when he was a Navy captain involved in assessing foreign intelligence threats for the Seventh Fleet. In one of many lavish events cataloged in the indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Francis, the military contractor, took Admiral Loveless and another defendant, Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Shedd, out for a $5, 000 night of wining and dining in Singapore and gave Commander Shedd and his wife $25, 000 watches at the end of the night. Prosecutors contend that Commander Shedd then gave classified intelligence about Navy contracts and fleet movements to Mr. Francis, who was chief executive of a contractor called Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which had extensive United States military contracts. At the contractor’s behest, Commander Shedd passed on “cigars and fine wine” to Admiral Loveless and other Navy officers involved in the exchange, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, after a night of fine dining and prostitutes in Bangkok, Commander Shedd emailed Mr. Francis to say that Admiral Loveless and two other officers who were hosted for the event “were all smiles on the drive home over their ‘one night in Bangkok.’ ” The indictment also accuses Admiral Loveless of obstructing the bribery investigation by denying knowledge of the scheme. Asked by Navy investigators in 2013 whether he had ever received anything of value from Mr. Francis, Admiral Loveless responded “never,” prosecutors said. And he said he did not recall ever staying in a hotel room that he had not paid for, the prosecutors said, despite evidence that Mr. Francis had paid the bill for numerous stays for him and others at lavish hotels around Asia where ships from the Seventh Fleet were docked. Mr. Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 in San Diego, as have 10 former military officers previously charged in the case. | 0fake |
Tesla Passes Ford in Market Value as Investors Bet on the Future - The New York Times | DETROIT — The record pace of auto sales in the United States is slowing down, leaving investors increasingly bearish on auto stocks. But there is one exception. Tesla, the upstart, continues to surge. On Monday, Tesla surpassed Ford Motor in market value for the first time and moved within striking distance of General Motors, starkly illustrating the growing gap in investors’ optimism over its future versus the prospects for the traditional carmakers from Detroit. While G. M. and Ford may have strong profits and healthy balance sheets, Tesla offers something Wall Street loves much more: the potential for dramatic growth. “Investors want something that is going to go up in orders of magnitude in six months to six years, and Tesla is that story,” said Karl Brauer, a senior editor at Kelley Blue Book. “Nobody thinks Ford or G. M. is going to do that. ” Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has shattered the conventional wisdom that automakers should be viewed as a stable, reliable investment. Instead, he promotes his company as a dynamic vehicle for growth, despite the risks and challenges ahead of it. In his vision, Tesla is going to change the world, and is primed to cash in on the two transformative trends in the industry: the shift to electric vehicles as part of a broader societal move to cleaner energy, and the advent of automated driving. “Tesla is very vocal in talking about how they are positioned as we move from humans driving cars powered by gasoline to computers driving cars powered by batteries,” Mr. Brauer said. At the end of Monday’s trading, Tesla reached a market capitalization of $48. 7 billion compared with Ford’s $45. 6 billion, according to Bloomberg. General Motors was at $51. 2 billion. Tesla’s market milestone came at the intersection of two countervailing trends. On Sunday, Tesla said its sales were up 69 percent from the same period a year ago. On Monday, monthly sales figures for the conventional automakers showed them struggling to meet last March’s performance. That sent stocks in the Detroit automakers down for the day — G. M. was off 3. 4 percent and Ford 1. 7 percent — while Tesla’s stock soared by more than 7 percent. Despite the recent boom years for the American motor industry, in which G. M. and Ford have been the biggest beneficiaries, executives are working overtime just to convince Wall Street that their business model can produce incremental improvements. Mr. Brauer said that reception was unfortunate for G. M. and Ford because “the reality is, they’re as financially healthy as they’ve ever been, and they’re in very good position for the future. ” Both companies have rebounded steadily since the recession, although G. M. needed a bankruptcy filing and $49 billion government bailout to recover. And both have taken advantage of the consumer demand for new vehicles in recent years, especially for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. But neither automaker has convinced Wall Street that it has shed its reputation tied to broader economic cycles, or is at the forefront of new technology being developed for vehicles and electric cars. The Detroit automakers are hardly sitting still in their efforts to improve current results and future prospects. G. M. made the momentous decision recently to sell its European division, and Ford is adding jobs to accelerate its shift toward electric and autonomous vehicles. Both automakers have bought technology companies to bolster their engineering expertise, and their executives have embraced the chance to work with the Trump administration on scaling back government regulations. All the same, both companies are ranked near the bottom in ratios for the companies that make up the Standard Poor’s 500 index. Last week, one of G. M.’s large investors, the hedge fund Greenlight Capital, proposed the creation of two classes of stock — one that strictly pays dividends, and a second tied directly to earnings and future growth in areas like cars and services. G. M. directors flatly rejected the idea as too risky, and the chief executive, Mary Barra, said there was no need to deviate from “executing a plan that is delivering record financial and operation results. ” Yet while industry analysts generally supported the decision, G. M.’s share price barely budged on the news that it was staying the course. And Monday’s data, showing total industry sales off 1. 6 percent, underscored that overall demand for new vehicles is slipping despite a bevy of discounts and incentives. G. M. showed a slight gain from the prior March, while Ford sales fell sharply. Several other automakers, such as Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and Hyundai, also reported declines. Of course, based on the number of cars actually being made, they are in a different league from Tesla. G. M. sold 256, 000 vehicles in the United States last month, and Ford 234, 000. Tesla’s sales for the same period: 4, 000. But it was the growth and the outlook, not the raw numbers, that moved the markets. Investors tend to look at Tesla as a technology rather than an automaker. “It’s almost like Tesla is positioned in people’s minds as an energy storage company that happens to put most of its batteries on wheels,” said Andrew Stewart, chief investment officer at Exchange Capital Management, an investment firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. Tesla is also prone to more volatile stock movements because Mr. Musk and other board members and top executives own a large chunk of shares, leaving a relative few that change hands frequently, he said. “Whenever there’s interesting news, the people trying to buy are buying from a limited number of people who are willing to sell,” Mr. Stewart said. “While you have Ford and G. M. and they’re these industrial companies. ” Because of Tesla’s acclaim and the limited number of shares being traded, the company draws more individual investors, and its share price tends to spike whenever Tesla or Mr. Musk makes news. This week’s jump in its stock price was set off by a brief news release on Sunday that said Tesla had delivered more than 25, 000 cars in the first quarter, exceeding analysts’ estimates. While Tesla may enjoy the favor of investors, it still faces some daunting hurdles to reach its goals. This summer, the company is supposed to start making the Model 3, a compact electric model that Tesla plans to sell for $35, 000 and produce in significantly higher volumes. It currently offers two vehicles, the Model S luxury sedan and the Model X S. U. V. both of which sell for $90, 000 or more when options are added in. (People who buy its cars benefit from a $7, 500 federal tax credit on environmentally friendly cars, a selling point with an uncertain future.) Once Tesla begins producing the Model 3, Mr. Musk expects production to ramp up quickly, with a goal of making 500, 000 cars a year by 2018. Achieving that target will not be easy, Mr. Brauer said. “That’s five times growth in volume,” he said. “I don’t know of any car company that’s ever done that in a period. ” | 0fake |
France's Macron accepts invite to visit Russia: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron has accepted an invitation to visit Russia and may fly in next year for an economic forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, the RIA news agency reported. RIA cited Lavrov as saying Macron might attend the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum. | 0fake |
Trump says U.S. committed to Japan security, in change from campaign rhetoric | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a hug and a handshake, President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened a new chapter in U.S.-Japan relations on Friday with Trump abruptly setting aside campaign pledges to force Tokyo to pay more for U.S. defense aid. The two leaders appeared to have established a quick friendship during a day of talks at the White House and a flight together aboard Air Force One to Florida for a weekend of golf. At a joint news conference with Abe, Trump avoided repeating harsh campaign rhetoric that accused Japan of taking advantage of U.S. security aid and stealing American jobs. It was a welcome affirmation for Japan in the face of challenges such as China’s maritime expansion and North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. “We are committed to the security of Japan and all areas under its administrative control and to further strengthening our very crucial alliance,” Trump said. “The bond between our two nations and the friendship between our two peoples runs very, very deep. This administration is committed to bringing those ties even closer,” he added. A joint U.S.-Japanese statement said the U.S. commitment to defend Japan through nuclear and conventional military capabilities is unwavering. The statement amounted to a victory for Abe, who came to Washington wanting to develop a sense of trust and friendship with the new U.S. president and send a message that the decades-old alliance is unshakeable. Japan got continued U.S. backing for its dispute with Beijing over islands in the East China Sea that China also claims. The statement said the two leaders affirmed that Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan security treaty covered the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Abe invited Trump for a visit to Japan this year and Trump accepted. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will make an early stop in Tokyo. But uncertainty remained in another area, that of trade, after Trump abruptly pulled the United States out of the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Abe said he was “fully aware” of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the multilateral trade accord. But he said Japan and the United States had agreed on a new framework for economic dialogue. “I am quite optimistic that ... good results will be seen from the dialogue,” he said, adding that Japan was looking for a fair, common set of rules for trade in the region. A senior Japanese government spokesman said Abe and Trump did not discuss currency issues and that Trump did not request a bilateral trade deal. The official told reporters that a U.S.-Japan economic dialogue will be led by Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and Vice President Mike Pence to address fiscal and monetary policies as well as infrastructure projects and trade. Trump, who spoke by phone on Thursday night with Chinese President Xi Jinping, also said he considered dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program a “very very high priority” but gave no hint as to how his approach would differ from that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. He predicted a level playing field on trade with China soon. The Mar-a-Lago visit will be Trump’s first use of his Florida getaway for diplomatic purposes. It will also be the most time Trump will have spent with a foreign leader since taking power last month and his second face-to-face meeting with a key ally after talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May two weeks ago. Trump hosted Abe at Trump Tower last year in his first talks with a foreign leader after his surprise win in the November presidential election. Abe played down his chances in scoring better than Trump in golf. “My scores in golf are not up to the level of Donald at all, but my policy is never up, never in, always aiming for the cup,” he said. Japan has had lingering concerns about what Trump’s self-styled “America First” strategy means for U.S. foreign policy in Asia as well as what his decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact means for bilateral economic ties. Abe pledged Japan would help create U.S. jobs, hoping to persuade Trump to turn down the heat on economic matters and stand by the alliance. To avoid questions about whether Japan is paying Trump for Abe to stay at the beachfront Mar-a-Lago retreat, the White House declared that the entire visit there, including golf, is the official gift for Abe from Trump. | 0fake |
Bette Midler Just Ruined Trump’s Day With A Brutal Twitter Smackdown (TWEETS) | Donald Trump has a cocaine problem. As Howard Dean pointed out, the recent sniffling episode at the first presidential debate is not necessarily a sign of addiction, but something funny was absolutely going on. On Saturday as Trump was having his morning coffee? blood of the innocent? cocaine? and stalking women who say mean things about him on Twitter, he surely was furious when he came across Bette Midler s profile.Referencing the latest of Trump s seemingly endless string of late-night Twitter meltdowns, Midler offered The Donald some advice stop doing coke:Trump suffers a Twitter meltdown in the wee hours of AM. You gotta stop doing coke after 4PM or you'll be up all night! Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 1, 2016And, of course, she couldn t resist mocking Trump s failing poll numbers, joking that Trump says the polls are bouncing because they are fat worthless pigs a reference to his penchant for leveling stupid insults at women who stand up to him:#Clinton is seeing a post-debate bounce in the polls. Trump says the polls are bouncing because they are fat worthless pigs. Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 1, 2016Naturally, Trump s deplorables came out to play:@BetteMidler I love the smell of liberal desperation in the morning GROSS NEGLIGENCE (@sea329) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler This is exactly what is wrong with "Hollywood" slander everyone that has a half a brain. To many years of the "Inquirer" WeCATS (@WeCatsCorp) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler but Hillary needs to wake up so she can stop people from dying unnecessarily while Benghazi is being attacked! Kathleen Hansen (@KathJHansen) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler You should try your hardest not to sound so ridiculous..desperate. Stick to selfies in front of your fancy dressing room mirror Karen Perez (@karrielynn88) October 1, 2016@BetteMidler I am a deplorable and I am voting Trump!!! Yvonne Manley (@ymjunction56) October 1, 2016Trump s treatment of women is disgusting from his attacks on Megyn Kelly after she fact-checked him or his insults leveled at Carly Fiorina s face. While he is surely seething over Midler s latest Twitter gut-punch, one thing is for certain: Sniffles isn t going to stop making a fool of himself or embarrassing America. Remember that on election day.Featured image via Getty Images(Craig Barritt)/screengrab | 1real |
Netanyahu congratulates Merkel, sees anti-Semitism rising on left and right | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced concern over anti-Semitism on the left and right in a congratulatory phone call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday after an election that returned her to power but brought the far right into parliament. Merkel s conservative bloc remains the largest group in Germany s lower house, but bled support in Sunday s poll to the far right and may need to cobble together a hitherto untested coalition with environmentalist and liberal parties. Jewish groups in Europe and the United States expressed alarm at the success of the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Sunday s ballot and urged other parties not to form an alliance with it. Those parties have pledged to shun the AfD. The AfD, which has surged in the two years since Merkel opened Germany s borders to more than 1 million migrants mainly fleeing Middle East wars, says immigration jeopardizes Germany s culture but denies it is racist or anti-Semitic. A statement issued by Netanyahu s office did not mention the AfD by name in calling on Merkel s future government to strengthen forces in Germany that accept historical responsibility for the Nazi Holocaust. It quoted Netanyahu as having congratulated Merkel on her victory and voicing confidence the special relationship between Germany and Israel would deepen and prosper under her leadership . Merkel has been Germany s chancellor since 2005. In the statement, a recap Netanyahu gave his cabinet of his conversation with Merkel, the conservative Israeli leader pointed to anti-Semitism as not being solely a threat from the right. Israel is concerned over the rise in anti-Semitism in recent years among political elements on the right and the left and also among Islamic elements, the statement said, without naming any parties. Last month, Netanyahu s 26-year-old son, Yair, drew public criticism in Israel for suggesting on social media that hard-left organizations now pose more of a danger than neo-Nazi groups. Yair Netanyahu spoke after a protester was killed during a white nationalist rally in the U.S. state of Virginia in August. U.S. President Donald Trump stirred controversy at the time by insisting that left-wing protesters who showed up to counter the ultra-rightist rally were also to blame for violence. The far-right has not been represented in the German parliament since the 1950s, a reflection of German efforts to distance themselves from the horrors of the Holocaust. Germany, home today to about 200,000 Jews, has built a reputation in recent decades as a tolerant, safe place for Jews to live. But data show anti-Semitic crimes reported to German police rose 4 percent to 681 in the first eight months of 2017 from the same period last year. | 0fake |
CDC Vaccine Whistleblower On Dumping EVIDENCE of AUTISM in the TRASH | CDC Vaccine Whistleblower On Dumping EVIDENCE of AUTISM in the TRASH Posted on Tweet Home » Headlines » World News » CDC Vaccine Whistleblower On Dumping EVIDENCE of AUTISM in the TRASH
More is at stake here than the danger of the MMR vaccine. The CDC has done hundreds of key studies on vaccine safety. They are all thrown into doubt by Thompson’s assertion — recently quoted by Congressman Bill Posey on the floor of the Congress—that Thompson and his colleagues brought a garbage can into a CDC office and threw out documents that would have shown the MMR connection to autism.
My previous article, “CDC commits new vaccine-autism crime,” details the CDC’s refusal to allow its own researcher and chief whistleblower, William Thompson, to testify in a court case involving a boy who was severely damaged by vaccinations.
TND Guest Contributor: Jon Rappoport
It’s time to remember William Thompson—again. Here are excerpts from two articles I wrote before the stunning film Vaxxed ( trailer ) was released. Vaxxed is all about Thompson’s revelations and their implications.
(August 2015) …William Thompson, long-time CDC researcher, publicly admitted he hid evidence that indicted the MMR vaccine for its connection to autism.
It’s been a year since Thompson publicly accused his colleagues at the CDC of doing the same thing. Two of those colleagues, Frank DeStefano and Collen Boyle, are high-ranking CDC executives in the area of vaccine safety.
During this past year, mainstream reporters and defenders of the realm have taken two approaches: silence; and vague claims that Thompson’s statements are false.
Both of these approaches are slimy and disingenuous, because the man we want to hear from is Thompson himself. And we have not.
We want to hear from him in a public setting, in front of a hearing where he can speak at length, where he can fill in details, where he can air all his claims without censorship.
At the moment, the possibility of such a hearing is remote, because the US Congress is bought and sold.
Short of a hearing, we want Thompson to sit down with a reporter and speak on camera, extensively, and submit himself to questions.
He has said he will not do this. He and his lawyer, Rick Morgan, know there are a number of reporters who will do a proper interview, without edits. I could easily name a dozen reporters who would conduct an in-depth interview, live, online, for the whole world to see.
What if there never is a full-blooded open Congressional hearing? What then? Will Thompson maintain silence for the rest of his life?
More is at stake here than the danger of the MMR vaccine. The CDC has done hundreds of key studies on vaccine safety. They are all thrown into doubt by Thompson’s assertion — recently quoted by Congressman Bill Posey on the floor of the Congress— that Thompson and his colleagues brought a garbage can into a CDC office and threw out documents that would have shown the MMR connection to autism.
This speaks of a massive indifference to human life and safety.
Thompson should also know, and certainly does know, that Congressional hearings have a way of soft-pedaling accusations against government agencies. There is no guarantee that, in such a setting, he would be able to air his confession and his grievances in full.
Whereas, in an interview with independent investigators/reporters, he would have complete latitude. Time constraints would not apply. He would be asked for many, many details. The full story, from his point of view, would emerge.
It is my conclusion that Thompson entered into an arrangement with his bosses at the CDC. After his public confession of a year ago, it was too late to put the genie back in the bottle and cork it. But damage control could be undertaken.
Thompson could say ( and he did ) t hat he was willing (and only willing) to work with Congress to present the truth. His CDC bosses were confident they could, with the help of powerful friends in government and in the pharmaceutical industry, prevent Congressional investigation and exposure.
And if Thompson maintained silence otherwise, refusing to talk to reporters, he would be off the hook.
The CDC assured Thompson that he could continue to work for them and retire and receive his full pension.
That’s my conclusion. If I’m in error, let Thompson or his lawyer, Rick Morgan, correct me. | 1real |
Former intelligence officials say Trump is being manipulated by Putin | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two former top U.S. intelligence officials said on Sunday they fear President Donald Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Trump said he believed Putin was sincere in denying Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-National Intelligence Director James Clapper both said Trump was mishandling Moscow ties even as a special counsel investigates possible collusion between Trump’s campaign team and Russia. “I think Mr. Trump is, for whatever reason, either intimidated by Mr. Putin, afraid of what he could do, or what might come out as a result of these investigations... It’s either naiveté, ignorance or fear in terms of what Mr. Trump is doing vis-à-vis the Russians,” Brennan said in an appearance with Clapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Clapper added that foreign leaders who roll out the red carpet for Trump are able to manipulate Trump. “I do think both the Chinese and the Russians think they can play him,” Clapper said. Their comments came after Trump told reporters over the weekend that he had spoken with Putin again over allegations of Russian meddling in the presidential election and that the Russian president again denied any involvement. “I really believe that, when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump told reporters. “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on the same show that the criticism leveled against Trump’s management of relations with Russia and China was “ridiculous.” “President Trump is not getting played by anybody,” Mnuchin said. Trump also took a swipe at Obama-era intelligence officials Brennan, Clapper and former FBI Director James Comey, calling them “political hacks” and questioning the findings of a U.S. intelligence report that concluded that Russians sought to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. Facing sharp criticism, Trump walked back from some of those comments on Sunday, saying he has faith in the intelligence leaders he has hired. Brennan on Sunday called Trump’s criticism of him a “badge of honor,” and Clapper suggested said Trump’s denial of Russian interference in the election “poses a peril to the country.” When asked, Brennan declined to say whether he knows of any intelligence to suggest that the Russians have compromising or damaging information on Trump. A dossier penned by a former British spy contains unverified claims that Russia does have embarrassing information on Trump. | 0fake |
Trump, Pence master delicate art of dancing together on campaign trail | MIAMI (Reuters) - Donald Trump was in the middle of creating another nickname for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton - “Hillary Rotten Clinton!” - when he suddenly thought of his mild-mannered vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence. “You think Mike Pence would say this?” he smiled to the audience in Roanoke, Virginia. “What a high-quality person.” On their first campaign swing together this week, Trump and Pence are giving voters an initial look at their odd-couple pairing as they prepare to battle against Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor, in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Their public routine is a work in progress, but it’s clear that they’ve learned from their first joint appearance, a sometimes awkward interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” In that session, Trump frequently talked over Pence and Pence went out of his way to wave off his differences with Trump on policies like his past support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump wants to renegotiate. They now have a system: When they campaign together, Pence introduces Trump enthusiastically as the modern-day equivalent of 1980s Republican President Ronald Reagan and speaks of himself as the son of a combat veteran and the father of a U.S. Marine. Then he steps aside. The Trump-Pence union was a political marriage of necessity. The combustible, free-wheeling Trump needed the staid, staunchly conservative Pence, the governor of Indiana, to give him some credibility with establishment Republicans and a boost in the Midwest. The risks for Pence seem minimal and the upsides are huge. He opted out of the 2016 Republican presidential sweepstakes in the fallout over his fight over a religious freedom law in Indiana that critics said was anti-gay, and he faced a potentially difficult re-election race for governor. With his experience as a former member of Congress, he could serve as a conduit to lawmakers in a Trump administration, something that could be important for a presidential candidate who has never held elective office. In the two weeks since he was named Trump’s running mate, Pence has become a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats who portray him as holding extreme right-wing views. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, described Pence as “an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favor millionaires and corporations over working families.” Pence seems to be still getting accustomed to Trump’s worldview. While introducing Trump in Roanoke on Monday, he hewed closely to the establishment Republican position in criticizing Clinton for not doing more to ensure that a contingent of U.S. troops was left in Iraq after a U.S.-Iraqi agreement expired. “Remember, it was Hillary Clinton who squandered the gains that were made at the close of our presence in Iraq, the failure in judgment that sent ISIS on the loose,” Pence said in Roanoke, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group. That was at odds with Trump’s view that the American invasion of Iraq was wrong. “I didn’t want to go to Iraq,” Trump said moments after Pence spoke. Still, Pence’s loyalty to Trump seems absolute. In his speech introducing Trump at their appearance before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday, Pence tried to show what Trump is like behind all the bluster. “I know this man’s heart,” Pence said. “I know the way he speaks, when the cameras are off.” Trump chose Pence over former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the two other finalists. Although Republican elites have been divided over Trump’s presidential bid, many approve his choice in a No. 2. “Mike Pence is a good man. He will add value to the ticket,” tweeted Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and one of Trump’s former rivals for the nomination. Gingrich said via email that Pence is proving to be “a good balance for Trump’s powerful personality.” Trump himself jokingly brought up the vetting process that led him to Pence, describing a candidate who was squeaky clean compared to others whose background checks turned up “many pages” of materials. “With Mike, they came back with like nothing. He’s the most perfect human being, this guy. I love him. Where is he? I love him,” Trump said. | 0fake |
Fierce Homeless Woman Guarding Trump's Star from Future Vandals Flashes 'Trump-Worthy' Reason for It | Share on Twitter
Earlier this week, someone claiming his name was Jamie Otis vandalized Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame.”
He pretended to be a construction worker, and attacked the terrazzo and cement star early Wednesday morning with a pickaxe and a sledgehammer. Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star destroyed, police investigate https://t.co/xFfCOdz1iZ pic.twitter.com/qJOsbbjTHp — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 27, 2016
While police searched for Otis, who is likely to be charged with a felony, the star was surrounded by caution tape. Police have monitored the scene as well. But for one homeless woman, that wasn't enough ...
The unnamed woman now stands guard at the star, protecting it from further damage and showing her support for Trump through a number of handwritten signs: Very powerful!Homeless Trump Supporter guards Trump's star on Hollywood Blvd... "20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets" pic.twitter.com/XsDmiMCUNs — America First! (@America_1st_) October 27, 2016
“20 million illegals and Americans sleep on streets in tents.” Homeless woman guards Trump's Hollywood star, surrounded by iPhone &sack of cheap Forever21 clothes, all foreign-made. — Deplorable KYGrifter (@KyGrifter) October 27, 2016
"Did Hillary have sex with that woman senator Weiner's wife.
Can Americans go to Mexico for jobs housing medicine." A homeless person guards Trumps star in Hollywood. Even the homeless love Trump. #AmericaFirst #MAGA pic.twitter.com/s4sJ1rNElO — Deplorable Vet (@KGBVeteran) October 27, 2016
“You racist mother-f**kers vote Trump.” — Apafarkas Agmánd (@ApafarkasAgmand) October 27, 2016
“U mother-f**kers know!!! Take care home first. Vote Trump. F**k Mexico.” — Sunflower Girl (@X5MSport15) October 27, 2016
According to the LAPD, vandal James Otis was arrested on Thursday. ABC News reported that Otis — heir to the Otis Elevator family and grandson of the man who invented Listerine — remains unapologetic for his actions. He gave a brief statement with his attorney present:
"I'm not at all ashamed of what I've done. What Mr. Trump has done is he's derailed the entire election. I got so upset. I got so frustrated and angry and that's why I did this.
I admitted my mistakes. And I'm now dealing with my consequences. Unlike Mr. Trump who has never admitted what he's done."
Otis also claimed that his intent was to auction off the Trump nameplate after he removed it from the sidewalk, giving the proceeds to the women that Trump has allegedly sexually assaulted. However, he was forced to return the nameplate upon his arrest Thursday. | 1real |
Herd of Stampeding Wild Boars Kills Three Islamic State Jihadists - Breitbart | A herd of stampeding wild boars killed three Islamic State terrorists in a fiercely contested area of Northern Iraq, according to local sources. [The Times of London reports that a group of Islamic State jihadists was preparing an ambush in a field 50 miles from the Iraqi city of Kirkuk before being overwhelmed by a stampeding herd of wild boars, killing three terrorists and leaving five seriously injured. Sheikh Anwar chief of the local Ubaid tribe organizing forces, told The Times that some militants had escaped death by managing to hide in large areas of reeds, but others had not been so lucky. “It is likely their movement disturbed a herd of wild pigs, which inhabit the area as well as the nearby cornfields,” he said. “The area is dense with reeds, which are good for hiding in. ” A group of refugees fleeing the region discovered the bodies. According to deputy head of the Kurdish intelligence service Brigadier Azad Jelal, jihadists in the area responded to the incident by going on a killing spree of the area’s wild boars. Anwar also revealed that the incident happened shortly after the militants had slaughtered 25 people to death in Hawija, one of the few districts the Islamic State still controls, and a site where they regularly carry out mass killings. In August last year, the group massacred 85 civilians in Hawija as an apparent show of strength. Mosul, the country’s city, remains the last major Islamic State stronghold in Iraq, as Kurdish forces fight to reclaim it. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 0fake |
OBAMA GUILTS CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS Members To Vote For Hillary | Obama s narcacism was in full swing on Saturday night at the 46th Annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards Dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus. He spoke for almost a half an hour about how good he has been for the country, and then he manages to tell the room that they need to vote for Hillary to keep from insulting his legacy! Oh, how the mighty have fallen. My name may not be on the ballot but our progress is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration, that s on the ballot right now. And there is one candidate who will advance those things. And there is another candidate whose defining principle, the central theme of hos candidacy is opposition to all that we have done. There s no such thing as a vote that doesn t matter. It all matters, and after we have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African-American community, I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good sendoff? Go vote! H/T [ Breitbart ] | 1real |
Trump considering Palin to lead Veterans Affairs: ABC | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump is considering former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for secretary of Veterans Affairs, ABC News reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources. Palin was an early Trump supporter and the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate in 2008. | 0fake |
'They have to pay', EU's Juncker says of Britain | LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Britain must commit to paying what it owes to the European Union before talks can begin about a future relationship with the bloc after Brexit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday. The British are discovering, as we are, day after day new problems. That s the reason why this process will take longer than initially thought, Juncker said in a speech to students in his native Luxembourg. We cannot find for the time being a real compromise as far as the remaining financial commitments of the UK are concerned. As we are not able to do this we will not be able to say in the European Council in October that now we can move to the second phase of negotiations, Juncker said. They have to pay, they have to pay, not in an impossible way. I m not in a revenge mood. I m not hating the British. The EU has told Britain that a summit next week will conclude that insufficient progress has been made in talks for Brussels to open negotiations on a future trade deal. London has been hoping and pressing for this to happen at the summit. | 0fake |
Good Samaritan Helps Boy Survive ‘Internal Decapitation’ in Idaho Car Crash - The New York Times | A boy who was “clinically decapitated” in a recent car accident in Idaho survived after a rescuer resisted the urge to pick up and cradle the screaming child and instead held his head in place for a most likely saving his life, his mother and the rescuer said. The story of the boy, Killian Gonzalez, who endured one of the worst traumatic injuries that can affect small children in car crashes but escaped with his life through the actions of a good Samaritan, unfolded on State Highway 51, a road slicked by a hailstorm at the time. Killian’s mother, Brandy Gonzalez, said she was driving home to Nevada after attending a party in Idaho to celebrate the boy’s birthday when her car skidded and went into a lane of oncoming traffic, colliding with another vehicle. Pinned in the wreckage and with broken bones, she tried to turn to reach her son, who was strapped into a car seat in the back. “I was like: I have to get to my baby. I looked back and he is just hunched over. He is not crying he is not awake. ” “I kept talking to him and trying to get him to wake up,” she said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Then a sound from the boy: a whimper, and the word “Momma. ” Killian’s skull was separated from his spine, and he also had a ruptured spleen and broken ribs and arms, a local television station, KBOI, reported from the hospital. Ms. Gonzalez suffered broken arms and legs. The other driver been pinned but was O. K. she said. The accident happened in Owyhee County, which is in the southwestern corner of Idaho on the border with Nevada, at 3:14 p. m. on May 22, Chief Deputy Lynn Bowman, of the county Sheriff’s Department, said in a telephone interview. Leah Woodward and her husband, Joel Woodward, an officer with the Police Department in Nampa, Idaho, were driving home with their two children from a camping trip when they crested a hill and came upon the accident. Ms. Woodward said she saw a man in the driver’s seat of one vehicle, bloody and disoriented. In the other vehicle, she saw Ms. Gonzalez, her arm clearly shattered, unable to unlock her car doors to help the Woodwards reach her. In the back, Killian was not moving, but he was screaming. “As a mom, that just goes right to your heart,” Ms. Woodward said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “My immediate instinct was: ‘You have to help that little guy.’ ” To reach Killian, her husband broke a window of the Gonzalez vehicle, then squeezed through, cutting himself on the glass. He then told his wife to hold the child upright, keeping his head steady, until help came. “My first instinct would have been to cradle the little guy, but clearly that would have been the wrong choice,” Ms. Woodward said. The boy’s broken arm was backward, so they draped it against his side and covered him with a blanket. Ms. Woodward said a pinkish substance was splattered on the seat, the boy and her. Later, her sister, a nurse, told her that might have been spinal fluid. “I had my hands kind of, like, thumbs by his ears and hands wrapped behind his neck holding it still,” she said. “He didn’t fight, he was not moving every now and then he would come to. ” As she held his head for about 30 minutes, she said, she talked to the boy. Asking Ms. Gonzalez details about her son, Ms. Woodward tried to keep his attention, chatting to him about his strawberry birthday cake and toy dinosaur, trying to fight the boy’s impulse to drift off. His eyes rolled around in his head, or flashed in fear, she recalled. At one point, she said, he spoke: “I don’t hurt anymore. I am all done. ” When emergency medics arrived, she continued holding his head as they worked around her, finally fixing him with a collar and getting him into an ambulance. “I am just glad I did not know his injuries at the time,” she said. Killian, his mother and the other driver were flown by air ambulance to hospitals, Chief Deputy Bowman said. Leslie Dorn, Killian’s grandmother, stayed with the boy in the hospital while Ms. Gonzalez underwent treatment for her injuries. She said doctors told her four of the six ligaments connecting the boy’s skull and spine were stretched by an inch from the impact, but then sprang back to leave Killian about of an inch taller than he was before the accident. Officials from the hospital, St. Luke’s Boise, where Killian was treated, declined to comment. A page for the boy said that he had “a fracture at the base of his skull where the brain stem connects to the spinal cord. ” Clinical, or internal, decapitation is a colloquial term for an injury known to surgeons as dislocation. It happens when the ligaments, muscles and joints that connect the base of the skull to the top of the spine are damaged. “So the term ‘decapitation’ in the true sense of cutting someone’s head off is a bit extreme,” said Dr. Nicholas Theodore, the director of spinal surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute, who has operated on more than 60 patients with the injury. He has used titanium rods, wires or screws to reattach the base of the skull to the spine. Dr. Theodore said the injury was almost always associated with accidents in which the head is pulled away from the spine, and it occurs more often with children than adults because their neck musculature is still undeveloped and weak. “Especially younger patients, the head is like a bowling ball on a stick,” he said. “Their head sort of bobbles. ” Dr. Theodore, who treated a boy with the injury in 2010, did not comment on Killian’s case but said: “You don’t ever want to move an injury patient unless a car is on fire. Immobilizing a child is exactly what you want to do. ” On Tuesday, Killian, who had been discharged from the hospital over the weekend, was walking unassisted at home, fitted with a hard collar to support his head and neck, Ms. Gonzalez said. “He can take a few steps, but his equilibrium is still off,” she said. He does not talk about the accident. | 0fake |
WATCH: Anderson Cooper DESTROYS Ted Cruz Over His Hypocrisy On Trump | Cruz has recently gone on the attack against Donald Trump, but as recently as December, he kept the Republican frontrunner close to him, despite the fact Trump had already made many crazy statements. Cooper called out Cruz during a CNN town-hall event. Cooper said: Back in December, you tweeted, The establishment s only hope: Trump and me in a cage match. Sorry to disappoint, Donald Trump is terrific. That was after he had already made fun of Carly Fiorina s face, that was after he had gone after Megyn Kelly. At that point, in December, did you really believe Donald Trump was terrific? Cruz tried to divert the conversation, saying, What I knew was that the media was engaged in a lovefest, giving Donald Trump $2 billion in free media. However, Cooper wasn t having it, responding, Sounds like you were engaged in a lovefest. There are many reasons why the slippery Cruz wanted to keep all of his options open regarding a potential Trump win. Cruz, never a man with a moral compass, not only didn t go on the attack against Trump, he also embraced some of Trump s racist and nasty policies, including those on Muslims and immigrants.If you look closely, there isn t much of a difference between the two except Trump has a bigger mouth, but since Cruz is an ideologue and actually believes the stupid things that come out of his mouth, it makes him more dangerous.Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WpO24C8I6Y]Featured Image via video screenshot. | 1real |
Democratic Convention Day 4 Takeaways: Over? She’s Just Starting - The New York Times | PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton stepped into history. Her daughter, Chelsea, lent a hand. And supporters of Bernie Sanders packed up their signs, some of his admirers still unmoved by Mrs. Clinton as the clock ran out on the Democratic National Convention. Our takeaways from the convention’s final night: Bill Clinton took pains this week to cast his wife as a “change maker. ” You will not hear Mrs. Clinton object. But under the brightest spotlight of an election brimming with outsider fervor — powering Donald J. Trump to the Republican nomination and Mr. Sanders to unexpected success — Mrs. Clinton presented herself as something different. She is a creature of the system and unapologetic about her résumé. “Sometimes the people at this podium are new to the national stage,” she said, preparing to tick off her many titles. “I am not one of those people. ” It is a gambit premised in part on her atypical Republican opponent — and a hope that promises of incremental change might sound more palatable when the alternative is viewed as truly dangerous. “I sweat the details,” Mrs. Clinton said. Voters might not. But she is betting, at least, that they think someone should. Demonstrations inside and outside the convention hall this week made clear that Mrs. Clinton had some work to do to persuade at least some supporters of Mr. Sanders. On Thursday, she seemed to acknowledge as much, quickly addressing them directly with a simple message: I hear you. “Your cause is our cause,” she said, thanking Mr. Sanders for placing issues of economic and social justice “front and center, where they belong. ” Total unity has been elusive, and could remain so. As Mrs. Clinton accepted the nomination, some Sanders delegates stood occasionally booing or silently protesting. During the Republican primary race, Mr. Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration appeared to do nothing but help at the polls, even as rivals objected with varying degrees of outrage. Democrats appear convinced they can win the argument among the wider electorate. And they may have found their most potent voice: Khizr Khan, an American Muslim whose son, Humayun S. M. Khan, was killed in Iraq. In a stirring address, his stoicism building to a controlled simmer, Mr. Khan challenged Mr. Trump on behalf of “patriotic American Muslims” everywhere. “You have sacrificed nothing,” Mr. Khan said, his wife standing silently beside him, “and no one. ” For organizers, the choice to showcase Mr. Khan amounted to a pointed dare: Are these people not American enough for you, Mr. Trump? Mr. Trump has presented himself as something of a plan, arguing that he is the lone force standing between the United States and dystopia. Republican leaders have accused Democrats of giving terrorism issues short shrift in Philadelphia. But as Thursday’s slate made clear, Mrs. Clinton’s team believes that Mr. Trump, with his scattershot defense policies and often erratic statements, has supplied an opportunity. For much of the evening, matters of public safety took center stage, with testimony from a retired Marine general — to chants of “U. S. A. !” — a Texas sheriff and the relatives of fallen officers. It was consistent with a theme of the week: No presumed Republican motif — from an emphasis on national defense to conspicuous invocations of faith to warm quotations of Ronald Reagan — is safe from Democratic encroachment in the age of Trump. In her presidential runs, Mrs. Clinton has at times struggled with how, and how often, to highlight her gender. No more. First Chelsea Clinton paid tribute to her maternal compassion, saying that Mrs. Clinton’s own mother would be proud. Then Mrs. Clinton, calling herself “my mother’s daughter and my daughter’s mother,” stopped to cheer her nomination as “a milestone in our nation’s march toward a more perfect union. ” There is a risk in turning off male voters, with whom she has fared poorly in surveys. Mrs. Clinton argued explicitly that they, too, had a stake in her success, whether or not they recognized it. “When any barrier falls in America,” she said, “it clears the way for everyone. ” | 0fake |
Wikileaks Exposes Clinton Satanic Ritual, FBI Calls Hillary the Antichrist |
Hillary Clinton’s ties to satanic rituals and the occult have been well-documented for decades.
Clinton insider Larry Nichols told Infowars that Hillary Clinton used to attend a “ witch’s church ” in Los Angeles during Bill’s presidency.
The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is : “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.”
Also, DC insider Doug Hagmann broke the news that the NYPD found a blackmail sex network on Anthony Weiner’s computer.
Furthermore, the latest bombshell to come from WikiLeaks connects Clinton campaign head John Podesta to top occultist Marina Abramovic .
Marina Abramovic is a Crypto . She does not publicly admit her putrid roots but her name gives her up. Oligarch Roman Abramovich who managed to escape justice in Russia and fled to the UK is also Jewish but he is public about it.
Abramovic is a common name among Jewish people living in Slavic countries, because they like to brag that they are the descendants of Abraham. Abramovic is a derivation of Abraham. In the Holy Bible, John 8:39-44 there is actually a very revealing conversation about this specific issue:
“ Abraham is our father ,” they (Jews) answered. “ If you were Abraham’s children ,” said Jesus, “ then you would do what Abraham did.
As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.
You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
You belong to your father, the devil , and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
This email comes shortly after we previously had another email where Jennifer Palmieri, Campaign Chairman John Podesta and John Halpin discuss about how much they HATE Christians, especially Catholics and Evangelicals .
Infowars reporter Paul Joseph Watson breaks down the “spirit cooking” ritual:
The Clinton Satanic network has now been exposed on a national level thanks to WikiLeaks.
Abramovic in particular invited Podesta to a “spirit cooking” dinner, an occult ritual started by infamous Satanist Aleister Crowley, which involves eating semen, blood and breast milk.
Here are some examples of what a “spirit cooking” dinner with Marina Abramovic looks like:
Can't wait to go #SpiritCooking with @HillaryClinton and @JohnPodesta again!
Where do you get so much blood? #PodestaLeaks #WikiLeaks pic.twitter.com/GckBmIfHjL
— Viva Europa (@realVivaEuropa) November 4, 2016
Another email from WikiLeaks even shows Abramovic being invited to Hillary Clinton’s campaign launch party.
The Drudge Report linked this article at the top of the site propelling the hashtag #SpiritCooking to the top of Twitter’s trending hashtag section.
The internet exploded this morning after the news broke.
When you click on the top trending hashtag #SpiritCooking on Twitter, Hillary Clinton’s page comes up.
Here’s Abramovic pictured hanging out with top musicians Jay-Z and Lady Gaga.
The Elites are Satanists. Ppl have been called conspiracy theorists for DECADES & it's true. Jay Z w/ Maria Abramovic herself #SpiritCooking pic.twitter.com/Dn70eD5daS
— ALWAYS TRUMP! (@Always_Trump) November 4, 2016
It's perfectly normal that this woman is close friends with Hillary campaign leaders. #SpiritCooking pic.twitter.com/uC4agv7kz1
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 4, 2016
During the RNC in Cleveland, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson called out Clinton on her Luciferian ties.
Similarly, an article from CNN in 1996 discusses Hillary’s affiliation with dark magic.
More information on that article can be found here .
Bill Clinton’s book My Life: The Early Years describes their trips to Haiti where they participated in “voodoo rituals.”
So far, all these revelations has hurt the Clinton campaign and Hillary is already losing voters.
I'm seriously am about to call the board of elections and see if I can change my vote #SpiritCooking
— Aniyah ✨ (@aniyah_vernisha) November 4, 2016
I just recently switched to Trump, & glad I did
Won't have none of that devil worship in my white house #SpiritCooking pic.twitter.com/SXOGjA7fUy
— Erma Jackson (@ErmaJackson20) November 4, 2016
Source
| 1real |
Temperament question dominates Clinton-Trump debate | Trump's comment that he has a 'winning temperament' was the most-tweeted moment of the debate, pointing to the debate's main theme.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton answers a question as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listens during the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.
From the beginning of the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump has faced a nagging question: Does he have the right temperament to be commander-in-chief?
He's brash, he's entertaining, he's thin-skinned – none of which disqualify him, in the eyes of many voters, from sitting in the big chair and making the big decisions. But on Monday night, the Republican presidential nominee faced the toughest test yet in his highly anticipated first debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton: Could he go toe-to-toe against an experienced political debater and come across as a plausible president?
The bar was low, and Trump began the debate strongly. The billionaire scored points against Clinton on the economy, jobs, and trade. "We're losing our good jobs," Trump said, reinforcing a theme that has propelled him to a commanding lead among non-college-educated white men – and a virtual tie in the overall race.
But soon enough, the temperament issue reared its head as Trump began interrupting and at times, shouting. According to Vox.com, Trump interrupted Clinton 25 times in the first 26 minutes, and by the end, had interrupted her three times as often as she had interrupted him, 51 to 17.
Finally, the meta became the explicit, when Trump raised the issue of temperament himself.
"I have much better judgment than she does," he said, talking about Clinton's vote for the Iraq war as a senator. "There's no question about that. I also have a much better temperament than she has, you know?"
Laughter rang out from audience, despite debate ground rules that forbade audience reaction.
"I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament," he said. "I have a winning temperament. I know how to win. She does not."
It was the most-tweeted-about moment of the debate, according to Hollywood Reporter. "When 'I have the right temperament' gets the biggest house laugh, it's not going your way," tweeted Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Clinton soon came back to the topic, when discussion turned to US-Iran relations, and Trump's statement last week that he would shoot Iranian vessels "out of the water" if they bothered American ships.
"That is not the right temperament to be commander-in-chief," Clinton said.
Merriam-Webster.com reports that the exchange sent viewers to their dictionaries, and that look-ups of the word "temperament" spiked. Inquiries were 78 times higher than the site’s usual hourly average.
But the meaning of temperament is easier sensed than described. Merriam-Webster’s definition is “the usual attitude, mood, or behavior of a person or animal.” That, it seems, could mean anything.
In a political context, a presidential temperament could refer to prudence, wisdom, and restraint. Trump's outsize personality, and his willingness to say things other politicians wouldn’t dare, has struck some voters as a breath of fresh air in an era when most politicians play it safe and speak in poll-tested sound bites.
Trump's rhetoric – at times "politically incorrect," in his view – set him apart from the rest of the GOP primary field and helped him to the party's presidential nomination.
But now he's playing for the presidency itself, and his tone and comportment have emerged as major sticking points for some voters. And there remain loyal Republicans who would like to support their party's nominee, but still aren't there yet – voters Trump needs to win in November.
One such voter, Richard Bonomo, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, watched the debate closely but after it was over, did not indicate a readiness to commit to Trump.
"Trump held his own," Mr. Bonomo said in an email. "Clinton did get in several very good points, but her record of lying makes it difficult to accept uncritically just anything she says."
Overnight polls showed Clinton as the "winner" of the debate, but post-debate polls can be fleeting and don't predict the ultimate outcome of a presidential race.
"It was a fiery debate that won't move a lot of votes," says Republican strategist Ford O'Connell. "So all eyes will be focused on the second debate. Remember, voters are grading the candidates differently. Trump has the momentum in the polls, and therefore he just has to be plausible in the Oval Office. Which he was."
Still, he acknowledges that Clinton scored points, noting how she put Trump on the defensive about his refusal to release his tax returns and on "birtherism" – Trump's longtime questioning of whether President Obama was born in the United States, which he only recently said was a settled issue.
"The good news for Trump is that he went toe-to-toe with Secretary Clinton on the debate stage, which elevated his legitimacy as a candidate – something especially crucial when you are the challenger party candidate," Mr. O'Connell said. "As we move on to the second debate, look for both candidates to tweak their tactics – particularly Trump."
Indeed, Trump's biggest failing in the debate may have been his many missed opportunities. He didn't go after Clinton for calling half of Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables." He also skipped the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, and Clinton's ties to Wall Street.
Clinton, for her part, can be expected to continue to pound Trump on his range of vulnerabilities, including his temperament, his business record, and his comments about women and minorities.
In the business world, "half of the money spent on marketing is wasted; we just don’t know which half," says David Redlawsk, chairman of the political science department at the University of Delaware, Newark. "It's the same with information flows in a campaign. We know they matter somewhere, but it's hard to know which matter." | 0fake |
U.S. House Republicans to discuss whether to impeach IRS chief | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives will discuss next week whether the nation’s top tax collector, John Koskinen, should be impeached over conservative charges he stonewalled a congressional investigation, House leaders said Wednesday. Democrats decried the move as a politically motivated embarrassment that would in any case be stopped in the Senate. Even some Republicans said they did not think Koskinen’s activities justified impeachment from his post as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner. Conservative Republicans in the House have said Koskinen failed to comply with a congressional investigation into whether the IRS applied extra scrutiny to applications for tax exempt status by conservative groups between 2010 and 2012. House Speaker Paul Ryan and other leading House Republicans have shown little interest in pursuing impeachment. But Ryan indicated Wednesday that he expected floor action because conservatives had filed a privileged resolution, which can bypass regular procedures and take precedence on the House floor. “This is something that we’re going to have a planning conference on next week,” Ryan told a regular press conference. “This is something where Congress is going to work its will.” The Senate’s Democratic leader, Harry Reid, called the process a “waste, put that in big capital letters” and said it could be blocked in the Senate by that chamber’s Majority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell. A spokesman for McConnell declined to say what action McConnell might take if the House does vote for Koskinen’s impeachment. “I know Koskinen very well,” another senior Senate Republican, Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch told Reuters. “Yeah, he’s made mistakes but he hasn’t made mistakes that justify an impeachment.” Koskinen became IRS commissioner in December 2013, after the controversy already had exploded over the way the agency had handled the applications for tax exempt status. Members of the House Freedom Caucus, the chamber’s most conservative bloc, have said Koskinen should be pushed out because of his role in the aftermath of the scandal. They noted that he was commissioner when backup tapes were destroyed containing emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner, who had headed the IRS’ tax-exempt division. Democrats have noted that the Justice Department brought no criminal charges against Lerner and say the case against Koskinen shows little more than agency mismanagement and misstatements. | 0fake |
Obama says Trump immigration move 'cruel,' not 'required legally' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the Trump administration’s decision to rescind a program Obama instituted to protect from deportation illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children was “cruel,” “self-defeating” and “wrong.” “Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally,” Obama said in a post on Facebook. “It’s a political decision, and a moral question.” “Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us,” he wrote. | 0fake |
BREAKING – NYPD Knows The TRUTH About Hillary, Issues Urgent Alert to Voters | EndingFed News Network | Email Print It seems like everyone associated with the Clintons has become immune to common sense. The Obama Justice Department will not do anything to hold this woman accountable, even though far better people than her have had their careers ended over similar crimes. However, the NYPD isn’t under Clinton or Obama’s control. Erik Prince, Blackwater Founder and Former Navy Seal, told Breitbart what the NYPD’s approach might be. According to some of his well-placed sources in the NYPD, Prince told Breitbart the following: “The NYPD wanted to do a press conference announcing the warrants and the additional arrests they were making [in the Anthony Weiner investigation] but they received ‘huge push back’ from the Justice Department.” as per Breitbart . Why is the NYPD involved in the Clinton case? Well, they weren’t originally, but they made the initial discovery of the new Clinton emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. Judging from the amount of information they found on the laptop, it seems the FBI and the State Department had insiders protecting Clinton. Allegedly, the criminal activity found on that laptop is enough to make Al Capone blush. “They found State Department emails. They found a lot of other really damning criminal information, including money laundering, including the fact that Hillary went to this sex island with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Clinton went there more than 20 times. Hillary Clinton went there at least six times,” Prince said. Prince even gave some insight as to why FBI Director Comey decided to re-open the investigation. In a nutshell, the NYPD forced his hand. “The amount of garbage that they found in these emails, of criminal activity by Hillary, by her immediate circle, and even by other Democratic members of Congress was so disgusting they gave it to the FBI,” Prince said. “They said, ‘We’re going to go public with this if you don’t reopen the investigation and you don’t do the right thing with timely indictments,’” Prince explained. “NYPD was the first one to look at that laptop,” Prince elaborated. “Weiner and Huma Abedin, his wife – the closest adviser of Hillary Clinton for 20 years – have both flipped. They are cooperating with the government. They both have – they see potential jail time of many years for their crimes, for Huma Abedin sending and receiving and even storing hundreds of thousands of messages from the State Department server and from Hillary Clinton’s own homebrew server, which contained classified information. Weiner faces all kinds of exposure for the inappropriate sexting that was going on and for other information that they found.” Allegedly, some of the crimes the emails reveal include money laundering, lying, and even sex trafficking young children. The NYPD doesn’t mess around, so they have appointed a new, unbiased, prosecutor in order to investigate these claims by Erik Prince. If only Lynch’s Justice Department knew how to make unbiased appointments. The warning for the voters is simple: if Hillary Clinton is elected, there will a constitutional crisis on our hands. She may very well be the first President to be indicted before her first day in the Oval Office. If these criminal accusations are true, they will lead to such staggering events. It would make Watergate seem like a walk in the park. But, its not too late to do the right thing and avoid all of this. Vote Trump and Hillary will be where she belongs — in prison. What do you think about these new allegations about Hillary and Bill they have allegedly found on Mr. Weiner’s laptop? Please share the story on Facebook and tell us because OUR voice is YOUR voice!
If you haven’t checked out and liked our Facebook page, please go here and do so. Leave a comment... | 1real |
SHOUT POLL: Should Apple Give FBI Backdoor Access to iPhones? | 21st Century Wire asks HAVE YOUR SHOUT: Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly rejected an unprecedented US Federal Court order that would force the company to decrypt an iPhone linked to one of the San Bernardino shooters a move that would have vast implications.Vote, comment and share below READ MORE ENCRYPTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Encryption Files | 1real |
JUST IN: California School Shooting Leaves Several Dead…Many Wounded [Video] | Three are known dead and many wounded when a shooting started at a home but moved to a school. Many have been wounded BREAKING: At least 3 dead in shooting in Tehama Co. it started at a home and moved to the school. Shooter shot and killed by police. pic.twitter.com/xIKvyIxq4y Sara Stinson (@SaraStinsonNews) November 14, 2017HOW THIS STARTED: Brian Flint spoke with Action News Now and said that his truck was stolen and his roommate was shot and killed by the gunman. He s dead. He didn t make it, Flint said. For his family and everything, I feel bad, and we ll be there for them. MENTALLY ILL BUT IGNORED? The roommates lived near the gunman, and Flint said that their neighbor had been shooting a lot of rounds recently. The crazy thing is that the neighbor has been shooting a lot of bullets lately, hundreds of rounds, large magazines, Flint said. We made it aware that this guy has been crazy, and he s been threatening us and everything. I just feel like there maybe should have been more effort put into stopping things like this. THREE KILLED MANY WOUNDED:Three people were killed in a shooting Tuesday morning that started at a home and moved to an elementary school in Tehama County, and the shooter was also killed by law enforcement, the sheriff s department said.Multiple shots were fired about 8 a.m. at Rancho Tehama School on the outskirts of Corning, northwest of Chico, Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said. Three people were taken by ambulance and a fourth was airlifted to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, hospital officials said. Three of them were children and one was an adult, KCRA s affiliate Action News Now reported.The conditions of the victims have not been released. I know that we have (airlifted) a number of students, Johnston said. I know that the school s been cleared. I know that we have children that were attending school in a safe location at this time. More than 100 law enforcement officers are investigating at least five scenes in and around the school, Johnston said.Read more: kcra | 1real |
U.S. talks tough on trade deficit as NAFTA discussions begin | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States drew a hard line for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement on Wednesday, demanding major concessions aimed at slashing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada and boosting U.S. content for autos. At the start of talks in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, Robert Lighthizer, said Trump was not interested in “a mere tweaking” of the 23-year-old pact, which Trump has threatened to scrap without major changes. “We feel that NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement,” Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, said at the start of the talks, which reflected Trump’s relentless criticism that NAFTA has caused massive U.S. manufacturing job losses. Lighthizer put Mexico and Canada on notice that the United States would use its clout as their biggest export customer to wring concessions, saying the United States wanted substantially tougher rules of origin, including a requirement of “substantial U.S. content” for autos. He also signaled a fight over NAFTA’s trade dispute settlement system for changes that would allow more anti-dumping duties against Canada and Mexico, saying this provision should “respect our national sovereignty.” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland suggested earlier this week that her country could walk away if the United States insisted on scrapping the “Chapter 19” trade dispute settlement system that requires the use of binational panels. In her opening statement, Freeland took a swipe at the U.S. fixation on cutting its trade deficits, saying: “Canada does not view trade surpluses or deficits as a primary measure of whether a trading relationship works. U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade has quadrupled since NAFTA took effect in 1994, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. Lighthizer blamed NAFTA for a direct loss of 700,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs since the pact took effect in 1994, a period that coincides with increasing automation across all industries that has allowed more output with fewer workers. Auto industry groups have warned against changing the pact’s rules of origin, which govern how much of a product’s components must originate from NAFTA countries. They said the pact has allowed them to build a competitive North American supply base that has helped boost exports of U.S.-assembled vehicles globally. The pact also has massively boosted U.S. farm income by increasing agricultural exports to both Mexico and Canada. “We do not want them to use us as a trading tool and to do harm to the agricultural sector in all three countries,” the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Zippy Duvall, told a news conference on Wednesday. Corporate chief executives have been sounding “do no harm” warnings on NAFTA for months. Trump’s relationship with business executives became a high-profile issue this week as he disbanded two business advisory councils after several CEOs quit in protest over his remarks blaming weekend violence at a rally in Virginia on the protesters who opposed white nationalists as well as the white nationalists themselves. Canadian and Mexican officials at the NAFTA talks on Wednesday declined to weigh in. Asked if there was concern that the political upheaval around Trump could impact the NAFTA talks, Mexico’s finance ministry undersecretary, Vanessa Rubio, said: “These are internal issues of the United States.” Freeland refused to be drawn into the U.S. political furor during a news conference before she returned to Ottawa. The first round of NAFTA talks, which will last until Sunday, are expected to focus on consolidating the proposals and demands from all three countries. The long list of U.S. demands could make it difficult for negotiators to reach agreement on modernization plans that also are expected to include new chapters on digital and energy trade, and environmental, labor and currency standards. Both Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo pushed back at the U.S. demands and defended NAFTA. Guajardo said NAFTA should be modernized to produce more trade among its participants, not less, and needed more than one winner. “For a deal to be successful, it has to work for all parties involved. Otherwise, it is not a deal,” Guajardo said. Guajardo later told a news conference that it was “too soon” for the three countries to begin narrowing their differences. He said it was not a good idea to add country-specific content requirements to the agreement. Mexico is keen to maintain preferential access for its goods and services to the United States and Canada, where nearly 85 percent of its exports are shipped. Its NAFTA priorities also include greater integration of the continent’s labor markets and energy sectors. Weighing heavily over the talks is the 2018 Mexico presidential election. Mexico has urged all sides to complete the negotiations before the campaign ramps up in February to avoid having them become a political punching bag. | 0fake |
The Corbett Report: Accept no substitutes! | 10/27/2016 at 10:24 pm
Noticed you were inactive and glad you’ve recovered from your illnesses. All the best to you and you family- On the fake Corbett websites, Can you blame them? We all want to be you James! At least, we all strive to be the great researcher you’re teaching us to be! Keep up the great work. | 1real |
Jeb sides with brother on invading Iraq: Was he ducking the question? | Jeb Bush had some cleanup work to do yesterday.
The former Florida governor showed a keen grasp of policy during a 20-minute interview with Megyn Kelly that aired Monday night, appearing relaxed as he defended positions that don’t sit well with much of the Republican base.
But then there was Iraq.
It’s a politically explosive topic for Jeb for two big reasons. The war became a quagmire, and it's so closely associated with his brother.
Megyn’s question was quite explicit: “Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?”
Bush answered as if it was 2003.
“I would have, and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody, and so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got,” Bush said.
But that’s an answer framed around our state of knowledge 12 years ago, in the face of a massive campaign by his brother’s administration to convince the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
So Bush either misheard the question, as he now says, or answered the way he did because it’s easier to frame an explanation that ropes in the prominent Democrats who supported the invasion in that post-9/11 period.
Bush tried to clarify things by calling into Sean Hannity's radio show with this admission: "I interpreted the question wrong, I guess."
So would he have sent troops to Iraq, knowing what we know now?
"I don't know what the decision would have been--that's a hypothetical," said Jeb.
Obviously, Jeb Bush doesn’t want to get painted into a corner where he says he would not have invaded Iraq based on what we know today, that Saddam didn’t have illegal weapons. If he uttered those words, there would be thousands of stories about how he’s renouncing his brother’s legacy, trying to prove his independence, and on and on.
What bothers me, though, is the way the media are clobbering Bush not for the substance of his answer, but on linguistic grounds. What happens next—you know the pattern—is that the noise gets so loud that everyone—left, right and center—has to deal with it. So rather than having a debate about Iraq and foreign policy and where Bush stands today, we’re having a shoutfest about semantics. It's the media as parsing police.
So let’s return to the substance:
When Megyn followed up by asking if the decision was a mistake, Jeb talked about faulty intelligence and the lack of early focus on security in Iraq: “By the way, guess who thinks that those mistakes took place as well? George W. Bush.”
No daylight, nothing to see here.
The first indication that Jeb felt the need to clarify came on CNN’s “New Day,” where conservative commentator Ana Navarro, a surrogate for Bush, said she’d been in touch with him by email. “I said hey, I am a little confused by this answer, so I am wondering did you mishear the question, and he said yes,” Navarro explained. She also opined that “people are salivating to see Jeb throw his brother under the bus.”
A less generous interpretation came from Laura Ingraham, the Fox News contributor, on her radio show: “You can’t still think that going into Iraq, now, as a sane human being, was the right thing to do. If you do, there has to be something wrong with you," she said.
And it leads to mockery, such as this Roger Simon column in Politico on how Jeb is supposed to be the smart one in the family. The headline: “Was Jeb dropped on head as a child?”
It’s safe to say this issue will not quietly fade away. It’s a version of the larger problem Jeb faces, however unfairly, because of his last name: Is the country ready to hand the White House to a third member of the Bush family in a quarter century? And Iraq becomes a kind of shorthand for that, the most controversial and consequential decision of George W.’s presidency, whose aftershocks are still being felt today.
What was also fascinating, as Jeb defended his stance on a path to legalization for immigrants who broke the law, was this comment: “Do you want people to just bend with the wind, to mirror people's sentiment? Whoever is in front of you? 'Oh, yes, I used to be for that but now I'm for this.' Is that the way we want to elect presidents?”
That’s his way of saying he’s going to run the campaign he wants and he’s not going to unduly pander to the right wing, that voters who don’t agree with him on Common Core or immigration can look elsewhere.
At the same time, Bush doesn’t speak in punchy sound bites, which could hurt him, and he tends toward the low key, which can translate as a lack of passion.
But he did throw down the gauntlet here: “I've had 20 press gaggles. I don't have, you know, I don't do town hall meetings. Don't screen the questions. Don't have a protective bubble like Mrs. Clinton does. Don't have town hall meetings or roundtable discussions where I pick who gets to come and I screen the questions and the press has to behave a certain way.”
Jeb, who hasn’t officially declared, had not given an interview in two months until he sat down with Megyn Kelly. If he does a few more, does that put pressure on the woman who also carries some baggage because of her last name?
Click for more from Media Buzz
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. | 0fake |
Donald Trump in the hunt for a VP: Who's got the golden ticket? | Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are at the top of Trump's VP shortlist, say sources, but both candidates may be less than ideal.
Presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is reportedly vetting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (l.) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, both shown in this composite image, as potential running mates.
Donald Trump’s long-awaited vice president announcement is getting closer, say sources, as the Republican National Convention on July 18 quickly approaches.
There are reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are at the top of the VP shortlist and currently filling out paperwork for the vetting process. Other names include Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
The intense speculation around Trump’s potential running mate speaks to the high salience VP picks have had in previous election years. Vice presidential picks often serve as a unifying force for a party after a divisive contest for the nomination, a point Trump is likely considering as he tries to woo establishment Republicans onto his side. The right VP candidate could help bring party leaders, Republican voters, and big donors into the Trump fold, all people the campaign desperately needs ahead of the general election.
“Even if it doesn’t move the needle much, the vice presidential selection can help compensate for some of the problems and concerns that voters have about a nominee,” Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, writes for CNN. “In Trump’s case this is especially important given how unprecedented and unpredictable his candidacy is.”
The assumed VP frontrunners, Governor Christie and former Representative Gingrich, could help Trump work the legislative aspect of the presidency.
Gingrich has the experience. During his 20 years as a representative from Georgia, Gingrich served as House minority whip for six years and speaker for four. And Christie, who was appointed as US Attorney for the District of New Jersey by President George W. Bush in 2002 before becoming governor in 2010, has been crucial to the Trump campaign, shopping around for endorsements and donations.
“[Trump] is the first to admit that he doesn’t know all the ways of Washington,” Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor who has been close with Trump during his campaign, told The Washington Post. “So to actually push what he wants through, he’s willing to reach out and get somebody to lend a hand.”
With more than 60 percent of voters feeling unfavorable about Trump at the end of June, the right VP pick could help voters feel more positive about the Republican ticket.
However, Gingrich and Christie might not be the ones to do it.
When Gingrich withdrew from the presidential race in 2012, he had unfavorable ratings ranging between 56 and 67 percent. And even before his unsuccessful presidential bid, Gingrich had a less-than-perfect track record, as John Pitney Jr. explains:
Trump might be thinking that Gingrich could be his link to the Washington establishment that he has so long criticized. If so, he should think again. During his speakership, Gingrich alienated his colleagues through his impetuous leadership style. There was an abortive GOP effort to depose him in 1997, and in the following year, colleagues finally forced him to leave after the Clinton impeachment backfired politically. During his presidential race, few lawmakers endorsed him.
And Christie, who once seemed like a presidential contender himself, may not be that much better.
Christie’s approval ratings in his home state have tanked since he started supporting Trump. Regardless of age, gender, or education, 60 to 68 percent of New Jersey voters disapproved of Christie in May, the lowest rating ever for the governor. And when asked what they think of a VP role on Trump’s ticket, 72 percent of New Jersey voters said they disapprove.
“It’s a drastic decline in popularity for a governor who once looked like a strong choice for president,” Maurice Carroll, assistant director for Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a press release last month. “Christie-for-President was a flop, and, as far as the local folks are concerned, so is Christie-for-Vice President. Forget local pride, New Jersey voters say overwhelmingly; they don’t want their gov on a Trump ticket.” | 0fake |
How the swing voter went extinct | This is a story about the swing voter. The voter who, days before the election, doesn’t know if she wants to vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton — or, hell, maybe Jill Stein or Gary Johnson.
You're going to hear a lot about these mythical middle-ground people in the runup to the election. You can just search "swing voter" to see how common this narrative is:
This is because many pundits think swing voters decide elections. They think swing voters — or "floating voters" — are large in number and just sitting in the middle, waiting to be convinced by one party or the other to vote for them. So this is the picture in their heads:
But increasingly, this picture is wrong. As the parties polarize, it’s becoming much easier to for Americans to choose sides, even if they don’t identify as Republican or Democrat. So when they go to vote, they act like partisans.
Back when there were more voters who might change their minds, campaigns were based on persuasion, and persuasion pulls you toward the middle. But when everyone’s mind is already made up, that means the way to win an election is to rile up people on your own team.
A few years ago, Smidt, who works at Michigan State University, was trying to reconcile two things.
One was that there were more and more people identifying as independents, rather than Democrats or Republicans.
That should've meant that there were a huge number of people who were willing to change their minds, since they weren't partisan.
But Smidt also noticed that over this time period, the presidential election maps didn't change much. It was “much more rigid."
One way to reconcile these two things was to believe that independents were no longer participating, which means there were fewer nonpartisan voters.
But Smidt had another question: Are these self-labeled nonpartisans actually willing to vote for Republicans one election and Democrats in another?
So he decided to study historical surveys that asks Americans about how they voted. He came up with four groups for the respondents:
He did this for every year going back 50 years.
What he found was simple, though shocking: Even though more and more people don’t align with a party, they still consistently behave like reliable partisans and repeatedly vote for the same party.
In other words, swing voters are dying.
Most voters look at where the parties stand on the issues, and then they pick one that best reflects their own views. But if you don’t pay enough attention to tell the parties apart, then you won’t know which party you agree with. That makes you more likely to swing between parties.
So if we redraw the picture at the top, it would look like this. Notice how similar the two sides look to her:
And it used to be common for people with less political knowledge to switch the party they supported from election to election — whether or not they voted.
But over time, this party switching has become far less common:
This is because now even low-information voters can tell the two parties apart:
In 1960, both partisans and nonpartisans were much less likely to say there was a big difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Now almost all strong partisans would say yes — and even half of nonpartisans would say yes.
In short, voters are more confident that they know exactly what they’re voting for when they look at the “D” or the “R” next to a candidate’s name — no matter how partisan they are.
And it's not just about partisanship.
A modern-day person with low political awareness can tell the parties apart just as well as someone who had high awareness in 1968:
It's not that the people have changed. Rather, it's the parties.
Let's go back to the drawing at the top of the story. Here's where we were in the 1950s, where a low-information voter would look at the parties and not be able to tell the difference.
But over the past 50 years, the two parties have evolved very distinct platforms.
In the 1968 election, neither Republican Richard Nixon nor Democrat Hubert Humphrey articulated clear views on what he would in Vietnam. "This ambivalence and deliberate obfuscating can create opportunity to win voters over," Smidt said.
Before Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party didn't have an anti-abortion position.
At the 1996 State of the Union, Bill Clinton said, "The era of big government is over."
It was a lot harder to pin down each party to specific issues, especially for those who weren't paying close attention. But now the party lines are clear on abortion, taxes, climate change, health care, same-sex marriage — the list goes on. That's why when we look at how much Republicans and Democrats agree in the House and Senate, we see more and more polarization:
You could argue that voters clearly knowing which side they’re on is a good thing. But in the 1954 study "Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign," political scientists argued that what we need from an electorate is diversity — in other words, we can't just have rigid voters with ideal views, but also detached voters with rational views. Those are the people who allow our political system to more efficiently get things done.
As Smidt writes, "Even the 'least admirable' voters enrich our democratic political system by providing it with the flexibility and indifference that it needs."
If more and more voters are either on your side or the opponent’s side, that means winning elections is simple: You have to get your people more excited, and get the other side less excited.
This means that candidates have little incentive to talk to people in the middle — people who don't make consistent partisan decisions in the voting booth.
Just think about the 2016 election in this framework: Voters in Utah, who are traditionally Republican, don't like Donald Trump. But because the party positions are so polarized, it's too far a jump for them to support a Democrat like Hillary Clinton. So as Smidt points out, many would rather jump to a third party candidate.
Trump was supposed to be the most nontraditional candidate in modern American politics — someone who was shaking up the electorate. But on November 8, when you look at the election map, it'll probably look a lot like past election maps. Maybe a few states will switch over, but most of America will likely have voted the same way.
The president-elect will have won on the backs of riled up partisans, and people would be swing voters — except they’re not because they picked a side long ago.
Clarification: I initially called Smidt’s research an experiment, but it’s more so a study of historical data, which I’ve clarified in the piece. | 0fake |
Turkey, France and Italy to strengthen cooperation on missile defense: sources | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey signed a letter of intent with France and Italy on Wednesday to strengthen cooperation on joint defense projects including air and missile defense systems, Turkish defense ministry sources said. As a first step, the Franco-Italian EUROSAM consortium and Turkish companies will look into a system based on the SAMP-T missile system produced by EUROSAM and determine the common needs of the three countries, the sources said. NATO member Turkey says it plans to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles, a decision which has been seen in some Western capitals as a snub to the alliance, given tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and Syria. The Russian deal also raises concern because the weapons cannot be integrated into NATO defense. That deal has not been consummated. There are no S-400s in Turkey as we speak, U.S. Air Force General Tod Walters, head of NATO Allied Air Command, told Reuters in Berlin. He said he would continue to press Turkish air force officials to buy weapons that could work together with NATO systems, which the S-400 could not. We obviously have systems in the region now that possess that capability and demonstrate a high, high degree of interoperability, Wolters said. Raytheon, which builds the Patriot missile defense system, had also put in offer before Turkey chose the S-400. Turkey has continued talks with the EUROSAM consortium, which came in second in the tender. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last month said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had told him that Ankara was discussing buying air defense systems from France and Italy in addition to the S-400s. The defense ministry sources said Turkey, France and Italy would strengthen cooperation on joint production of military electronic systems, software and simulation systems and warfare equipments, as well as air and missile defense systems. The letter of intent was signed in Brussels, where Turkey s Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli was attending a meeting of NATO defense ministers. | 0fake |
China brushes off Vietnam protests over South China Sea drills | HANOI (Reuters) - China on Wednesday dismissed Vietnamese condemnation of its military live-fire exercises in the disputed South China Sea, saying it was acting within its sovereign rights. China conducted the drills around the Paracel Islands, which Vietnam claims, prompting Vietnam to say it would resolutely protect its legitimate rights through peaceful means. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing that China had done nothing wrong. We hope the relevant side can regard the drills calmly and reasonably, he said, without elaborating. China claims nearly all the South China Sea, through which an estimated $3 trillion in international trade passes each year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also have claims. Tension between China and neighboring Vietnam is at its highest in three years over the disputed waters. Vietnam suspended oil drilling in offshore waters that are also claimed by China in July under pressure from Beijing. China has appeared uneasy at Vietnam s efforts to rally Southeast Asian countries over the South China Sea as well as at its growing defense relationships with the United States, Japan and India. | 0fake |
Jay Leno Wants Someone To Beat ‘The Crap’ Out Of Trump So He Learns This Valuable Lesson | This presidential election has been bringing everyone out of the woodwork to reveal their opinions on who is running. Especially in regards to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.One person who seems to be abundantly clear about his opinion on Trump is former Tonight Show host Jay Leno. Sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter, Leno revealed, in so many words, that Trump needs to have some sense knocked into him, and maybe, just maybe, he d be a better person for it.Leno told The Hollywood Reporter: I think this is the problem with Donald Trump. I don t think anybody has just ever beaten the crap out of him, so he has this attitude of whatever. When you have the crap beat out of you, you learn how to negotiate, you learn how to deal with people. You learn that kindness is the greatest virtue you can have.I know people that say Shut the f ing door and I know people who say Is it cold in here? If you say Is it cold in here? someone will shut the door for you, and you haven t annoyed anybody or pissed anybody off. And that s my attitude about life, just trying to be kind.When you are poor it s easy to be kind. When you are rich and famous, it s not that it s hard to be kind, but it s harder because people suddenly start catering to your eccentricities or whatever it might be. And that s just the thing, Trump seems to have never been in a situation in his life where he s been forced to be kind. He s so used to everyone bending over backwards to please him, that he doesn t seem to think that he actually should be kind to others in return. This would definitely explain his bully behavior, and how he feels so entitled to pretty much everything, including the White House.Note: This article in no way is suggesting that Trump should be harmed. It is just revealing what Jay Leno said in an interview.Featured image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images | 1real |
State of Hawaii to challenge new Trump order in court: court document | (Reuters) - The state of Hawaii said in a court motion on Tuesday that it intends to seek a temporary restraining order on Wednesday against President Donald Trump’s new executive order restricting travel from six Muslim-majority countries. The Trump administration this week issued the new executive order that supplanted an earlier, more-sweeping one which had been challenged in court by the state of Washington. | 0fake |
A Fatality Forces Tesla to Confront Its Limits - The New York Times | DETROIT — As the and chief executive of Tesla Motors, the technology billionaire Elon Musk has consistently portrayed his company’s electric cars as cleaner, safer and more innovative than models made by other automakers. His confidence in Tesla’s technology has seemed boundless, particularly when the company announced last year that it would equip its flagship Model S sedans with a feature called Autopilot that was still in its testing phase. The technology was so out in front of federal highway regulations that there were no rules against it. But with the revelation this week that a Model S driver in Florida was killed in May while operating his car in mode, Mr. Musk’s determination to push limits has hit its most formidable roadblock. The question now is how much longer Mr. Musk and Tesla can continue to defy auto industry convention in trying to stay so far ahead of the competition. A major point of contention is the Autopilot feature and the decision to make it available to car owners while it was in “beta test” mode — a term typically applied to software that a company releases on an experimental basis. “I can’t think of another example of anything like this delivered in a beta phase in the automotive world,” said Ron Montoya, an analyst with the auto research firm Edmunds. com. “Everything is tested up and down before it comes out. ” Even some Tesla owners, many of whom can be cultishly devoted to the brand, now question whether the technology is as safe as advertised. “It gives you a false sense of security,” said Pete Cordaro, a Model S owner who used Autopilot in a loaner when his Tesla vehicle was being repaired. “You get comfortable and think you can take your hands off the wheel, but you really can’t. ” The death in May of Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio, was the first known fatality in a vehicle being operated by computer systems. Auto industry executives and analysts wondered aloud on Friday whether Tesla had miscalculated by introducing a feature that was perhaps not ready to live up to Mr. Musk’s pronouncements. In April, he told a conference in Norway, “The probability of having an accident is 50 percent lower if you have Autopilot on. ” Tesla declined to comment on Friday, but critics were not so reticent. “They’ve always had this attitude of invincibility, and perhaps promising more than their cars can deliver,” said Joseph Phillippi, president of the consulting firm AutoTrends. “But what can they say about a car that drove straight into a ?” After minor recalls on Tesla cars this year, the company’s quality controls were already being called into question, as was Mr. Musk’s ability to adequately oversee Tesla while pursuing other grand plans that include a proposal two weeks ago to merge the company with his solar energy company, SolarCity. Other automakers and technology companies at work on vehicles that are years away from the commercial market expressed concerns that the Florida death could cast a pall over their field — and prompt federal regulators to rush to write restrictive rules on the technology before any of their cars take to the road. Executives at the rival companies declined to comment publicly. But Mr. Phillippi, of AutoTrends, noted that most car companies had already tempered expectations and predicted a conservative timetable for the availability of vehicles. “You talk to the traditional automakers, and they say we are five years away from being able to let go of the wheel and the car will drive itself,” he said. “It may be time for Mr. Musk to back off, too. ” With a federal investigation underway, Tesla has declined to respond to many questions about the Florida crash, including why it did not make details of the accident public for nearly two months — and then not until regulators announced their inquiry. In addition, Tesla did not respond to emails on Friday about when the company would disclose more information about the accident, or about any plans for possibly alerting vehicle owners about the dangers of misusing the Autopilot feature. A spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Bryan Thomas, declined to say why the agency waited until late June to begin a formal inquiry into an accident that happened in May, or why the agency did not require Tesla to notify owners about a possible problem. While the investigation into the accident is just beginning, the repercussions could be profound for Tesla. The company has been preparing to sharply increase its manufacturing production for the introduction next year of its less expensive Model 3 sedan, which already has a long waiting list of customers who have preordered the vehicles. At the same time, Mr. Musk is trying to engineer the merger between Tesla and SolarCity and complete a new factory under construction in Nevada that will produce batteries meant to provide energy storage both for cars and households. In the past, Mr. Musk has been able to move quickly past issues related to Tesla’s quality and safety, such as when the company modified its cars to prevent batteries from catching fire in collisions. But the company has been vague about whether the Florida accident was the result of a defect in the system, or the result of a driver who neglected to use it correctly. For now, Tesla continues to characterize the system as a safety improvement. “When used in conjunction with driver oversight, the data is unequivocal that Autopilot reduces driver workload and results in a statistically significant improvement in safety when compared to purely manual driving,” the company said in a news release discussing the Florida crash. That type of response is not unusual for Mr. Musk, who tends to attack suggestions that Tesla has ever fallen short of its goals. “This company is very personal to Elon Musk and he is very passionate and protective of it,” said Mr. Montoya of Edmunds. com. “But when anything goes wrong, he becomes very defensive. ” Regulators are now proceeding with the next step in their investigation by preparing to make an official “information request” for Tesla to provide more details on the accident and the equipment in the vehicle. Mr. Thomas, the spokesman for the federal safety agency, declined to say how long the process might take. Mr. Musk has recently been publicly drumming up support for Tesla’s proposed merger with SolarCity, while continuing his role as Tesla’s chief cheerleader. On May 31, for example, he spent more than three hours dissecting Tesla’s history and outlining its future before an overflow crowd of shareholders at the company’s annual meeting. Over the course of the meeting, he talked extensively about setting new industry standards for manufacturing at Tesla’s California plant, and building the world’s biggest battery factory in the Nevada desert. When asked by one Tesla owner about whether he expected to keep adding new technology to the Model S, Mr. Musk responded as if that was a foregone conclusion. “We are always going to keep improving the product,” he said. But what he did not mention at all was the Florida accident, which had occurred three weeks earlier. | 0fake |
YouTube Red Buys ‘Step Up,’ Its First Big-Budget TV Drama - The New York Times | LOS ANGELES — YouTube Red, the paid streaming service, has acquired its first television drama, moving it into more direct competition with players like Netflix and traditional cable networks. Fittingly, given YouTube’s ambitions, the scripted series will be based on “Step Up,” the dance movie franchise that started Channing Tatum’s acting career and has taken in more than $650 million at the worldwide box office. Lionsgate will supply a full season of 10 episodes, each running about 45 minutes — a long way from the quickie cat videos for which YouTube was once known. “Bigger, bolder” and an offering that will “drive subscription” is how Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s global head of original content, described the series in an interview. Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate’s television chairman, called it “a distinctive, noisy, series” that “multiple networks wanted. ” Mr. Tatum will be an executive producer of the drama, expected to arrive next year. It will cost several million dollars per episode to make, signaling the arrival of YouTube Red as a buyer of content. The series, which will feature YouTube stars as dancers and actors, will be set at a performing arts high school and be most similar in tone to the first of the five “Step Up” movies. For $10 a month, YouTube Red offers viewing of videos, exclusive programming and a vast selection of music. Ms. Daniels, best known for turning the WB network into a youth powerhouse in the 1990s, joined the company a year ago and is charged with finding YouTube Red’s version of Amazon’s “Transparent” or Netflix’s “House of Cards” — a breakout series that will sell subscriptions and send a message to Hollywood’s creative community: This is a viable place for your best show pitches. The verdict is still out. Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, said in an conference call in April that YouTube Red had been “very well received. ” But the company has not released user numbers, and some analysts have been unenthusiastic, especially as more streaming competition has arisen. Hulu, HBO, Netflix, Fullscreen, Go90, Seeso and Amazon, among others, are all pursuing this turf. “It is hard to tell whether the effort is succeeding or will succeed,” Carlos Kirjner, an analyst at Bernstein Research, wrote in a client report last month. “It is possible that it might be too little too late. ” Notably, Mr. Kirjner cited a lack of “ content” as one of YouTube Red’s shortcomings. Ms. Daniels acknowledged in an interview that she was walking “a fine line” with programming decisions. YouTube Red’s original lineup must feel familiar to ardent users of the site (teenagers and young adults) while offering something distinctive enough to convince them to upgrade from YouTube’s free service. So far, efforts have included “A Trip to Unicorn Island,” a documentary about a world tour taken by a YouTube personality, Lilly Singh, and “Foursome,” a high school comedy. “We still don’t know for sure what’s going to resonate,” Ms. Daniels said. “You just have to sort of jump in the water. ” Still, the “Step Up” project represents a very educated guess. “Dance videos on YouTube drive millions of hours of watch time every month,” Ms. Daniels said, adding that dance is a popular genre for YouTube around the world. YouTube Red is available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and has plans for overseas expansion, particularly in Europe. Music videos are also enormously popular on YouTube — the “Step Up” movies are known for their montages — and some of the biggest traditional television hits of the last decade, including “Empire,” “Glee” and NBC’s live musicals, have been rooted in song. Mr. Beggs of Lionsgate said that Ms. Daniels was able to nab the series in part because she was willing to commit to a full season without first making a pilot episode as a test. “That got everyone’s attention,” he said. The deal got its start at a New Year’s Eve party at the Los Angeles home of Erik Feig, of Lionsgate’s movie division. Ms. Daniels was among the guests. That night, “Erik said the studio was getting ready to talk to distributors about a ‘Step Up’ TV show, and so I immediately started my hot pursuit,” she said. More than most other Hollywood studios, Lionsgate has been early to spot the promise of streaming services as buyers of television shows. Lionsgate’s production roster includes “Orange Is the New Black” for Netflix and “Casual,” which was renewed on Hulu for a third season. (The “Mad Men” is still Lionsgate’s series, however.) Will “Step Up” provide the studio with another television hit, the kind that mints money by running multiple seasons? It is too early to say, of course, but Mr. Feig, who has been involved with the “Step Up” franchise from its beginning, has high hopes. “‘Step Up’ has always relied on a relatively simple formula, one that has managed to work again and again in different contexts, with different actors,” Mr. Feig said in an email. Combine innovative choreography with “the most current tracks and an dollop of fantasy, and it’s an instant party,” he said. “One that is destined to leave you maybe not all that wiser, but definitely in a better mood. ” | 0fake |
Re: WOW! What Josh Earnest admitted about Obamacare is stunning (because it’s true) | WOW! What Josh Earnest admitted about Obamacare is stunning (because it’s true) Posted at 1:53 pm on October 27, 2016 by Doug P.
As we’ve reported and too many Americans have noticed, the ironically named “Affordable” Care Act has caused premiums and deductibles to go through the roof . White House Spokesman Josh Earnest actually conformed to reality: . @PressSec concedes middle-class families not eligible for tax credits are being hit by higher premiums on ObamaCare. .
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 27, 2016
He actually told the truth about something? Baby steps. For this narrative-obsessed admin, acknowledging the reality of math is a "concession" https://t.co/shd5NzdUQO
— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) October 27, 2016 Also concedes water is wet https://t.co/1HuZIqIM53 | 1real |
Top Democrat says not clear if Americans helped Russians in election hack | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Monday it was not known whether any Americans helped Russia in an alleged hacking campaign aimed at swaying the Nov. 8 election in Donald Trump’s favor. “We do not yet know whether the Russians had the help of U.S. citizens, including people associated with the Trump campaign,” Schiff said at a congressional hearing on possible Russian intervention in the election. It is no crime for Trump or his associates to have ties to Russia, he added. “On the other hand, if the Trump campaign, or anybody associated with it, aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would also represent one of the most shocking betrayals of our democracy in history,” he said. | 0fake |
CNN’s Jim Acosta to Spicer: Is Trump ’Detached From Reality?’ - Breitbart | Wednesday at the White House press briefing CNN’s Jim Acosta asked if President Donald Trump was “detached from reality” because of comments the president made at a White House gathering for Senators on Tuesday night. Acosta questioned Trump saying U. S. soldiers in Iraq were fighting “like never before,” and that passing health care reform would be “easy. ” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the comments were a “ moment. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Missing persons agency opens high-tech global HQ in Netherlands | THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The organization that identified tens of thousands of victims from the Balkan wars of the 1990s opened a new global headquarters in the Netherlands on Tuesday from where it will take on new cases around the world. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), established after the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, will use the latest DNA technology to identify bodies and give families of the missing closure. There are millions of reported cases of missing persons worldwide, with as many as a million in Iraq, tens of thousands in Syria and Lebanon and many more from Colombia to the Philippines. The numbers are staggering, said ICMP head Kathyrne Bomberger. Moving here increases the perception that we are a global organization and understand that the issue of missing persons itself is a huge global problem that isn t just in the western Balkans. The ICMP, which has identified 20,000 remains and provided evidence in 30 criminal trials, will continue to work with war crimes courts in The Hague, including the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who will hear a verdict next month. The advanced application of DNA technology, which has now made it possible to use samples from distant family members to create comparable DNA profiles, could also be used to help identify undocumented migrants. We are now on the brink of a new level of being able to roll out this possibility to missing migrants, including the 10,000 children missing in Europe, she said. Normally when people go missing from conflict or human rights abuses they are never found. The ICMP has been asked by Italy to help identify around 8,000 bodies of migrants who drowned trying to get to Europe, but it does not yet have the funding. One family member the organization has helped find closure is Ingrid Gudmundsson. The 72-year-old grandmother lost her pregnant daughter Linda and 1-year-old granddaughter Mira when the 2005 Indian Ocean Tsunami hit the Khao Lak resort in Thailand. Everything changed in my life, she said in an interview ahead of the opening. What does a mother do when her family is missing on the other side of the earth? Her granddaughter Mira was too young to have dental records, so she provided the laboratory with a toy from which a DNA profile was compiled. It was very important to get them identified, all of them, she said, recalling the agony of weeks when they were missing. Now I have them together in the same place. | 0fake |
‘Abandoned’ in New Jersey, Chris Christie Returns to a Changed Landscape - The New York Times | Chris Christie’s job approval is at a career low. Nearly of New Jersey voters, and half his fellow Republicans, said in a recent poll that he should have been a defendant in the trial over the George Washington Bridge lane closings, in which two of his former aides were convicted last month. And in a stinging turnabout, Bill Stepien, the campaign manager whom Mr. Christie dismissed in the Bridgegate scandal, is expected to become Donald J. Trump’s White House political director, while Mr. Christie was fired as transition chief and shut out of jobs in Mr. Trump’s administration, despite having been one of his earliest supporters. Welcome home, Governor. “Governor Christie has been abandoned by virtually everyone,” Krista Jenkins, director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind Poll, said when the findings showing his approval rating at 18 percent were released this month. Once considered the Republican Party’s best hope to win the White House, Mr. Christie has endured months of humiliation after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Mr. Trump — who mocked him as they campaigned together for eating too many Oreos, and passed him over as the nominee. Now, Mr. Christie has returned to New Jersey a lame duck in his last year to discover voters angry over his absences and a Legislature suddenly unwilling to go along with his agenda. “If he was at one time a bipartisan figure who was able to unite both sides of the aisle and even draw union support, that’s completely evaporated,” Ms. Jenkins said in an interview. “It’s hard to find anyone in recent memory who is in such disfavor. ’’ Mr. Christie still believes he has a political future nationally. He wants to write a book and his friends have been telling people in New Jersey that the governor expects Mr. Trump to eventually come around to him. According to their scenario, the White House management team of Jared Kushner, Stephen K. Bannon and Reince Priebus will be a disaster and Mr. Christie will be tapped as the skilled manager, like David Gergen, the former aide to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan who swooped in to steady Bill Clinton’s administration after a raucous first year. Mr. Christie’s popularity in his home state, stratospheric after his handling of Hurricane Sandy, began to fall with Bridgegate, but sank even lower as he spent so much time out of the state, first leading the Republican Governors Association, then running for president. By the time he abandoned his own run and endorsed Mr. Trump, his constituents had come to believe he would do just about anything to escape New Jersey. He has left them with 10 credit downgrades, more than any other governor nationwide. And as if the state’s finances were not bad enough, Mr. Christie has spent at least $10 million of taxpayer money to defend himself in the bridge scandal, and most New Jersey voters say they do not believe he has told the truth about his involvement. His waning popularity now means waning power, as he discovered last week in a surprise legislative defeat. The governor and the Democratic leaders of the State Legislature were rushing through a hastily written bill that would have relaxed ethics laws to allow Mr. Christie to profit from sales of a book and given raises to hundreds of public officials. And, in what the governor’s critics called his “revenge bill,” the same package of legislation would have eliminated a requirement that local governments pay to publish legal notices in newspapers — punishing an industry that relentlessly chronicled the bridge scandal. It was the kind of deal that would have breezed through even a year ago, when Mr. Christie wielded so much control that Republicans reversed their own votes to block overrides of his vetoes. This time, his own lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, who, along with her husband, a judge, was in line for a raise, called the legislation “ridiculous. ” On Twitter, #ChristieBookTitles trended, with suggestions including “A Bridge to Nowhere,” “The Very Hungry Governor” and “Oh, the Places You Won’t Go!” With the public flooding their offices with angry phone calls, Republicans who have stood by Mr. Christie began running away from him. “That’s not my bill,” said Jon M. Bramnick, the Republican leader of the State Assembly and one of the governor’s most steadfast supporters. And Democratic leaders, who had helped Mr. Christie secure victories on public employee benefits that made him a national figure in his first term, reversed themselves and yanked the bills without putting them up for a vote. “He thought he could do what he’s done in the past — get Democratic leadership on his side and use that to push through whatever he wanted,” Jeff Tittel, the director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club and a frequent Christie critic, said, calling it “the biggest blunder since he’s been governor. ” “I haven’t seen as much public outrage since Florio wanted to tax toilet paper,” Mr. Tittel said, referring to former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio’s imposition of a tax on paper products in 1990. (Mr. Florio, a Democrat, and Mr. Christie are now tied for the job approval, at 18 percent Gov. Brendan Byrne, another Democrat, hit 17 percent, the record low for New Jersey governors, in 1977, but was . Now, at 92, he is generally beloved.) State Senator Jennifer Beck, a Republican, said that after Mr. Christie’s absences there was “an expectation that now that he’s back, he’s going to grapple with the major issues in this state. ” Those would include high property taxes, the nation’s highest foreclosure rate and its most underfunded pension system. When he and the Democratic leaders rushed to pass measures for raises — estimated at $10 million a year — and to allow him to profit from writing a book, they showed they were out of touch with the public, she said, “kind of like having a tin ear. ” Ms. Beck said she expected that the governor’s unpopularity would mean more Republicans distancing themselves from him. “When the citizenry are behind you, it’s much harder to challenge,” Ms. Beck said. “When the people aren’t with you, it’s easier. ” Mr. Christie said in a speech last month that he intended to leave the same way he came in: “loudly. ” And on his monthly radio show last week, he blamed “the haters,” who made it “personal, about me,” for the legislative defeat. “That’s O. K. that’s fine,” he said. “They get to do what they want to do. ” He insisted he would continue pushing the bill involving the newspapers, though his remarks suggested he was counting down his time. “I have 391 days,” he said, “and I’m not going to get off this issue. ” His office declined to comment on what else the governor might focus on during his last year in office, saying he would reveal his plans in his State of the State speech next month. In recent weeks, most of Mr. Christie’s public events have been around the issue of recovery from drug addiction, which he has long spoken about as a personal cause following the death of a close friend. He has also announced plans to renovate the State House, which again raised eyebrows, given that it is expected to cost $300 million at a time when the state has severe debt. Renovations would also force Mr. Christie’s successor, widely expected to be a Democrat, into rented office space rather than the official quarters for at least four years. Mr. Christie has not taken questions from reporters in more than 100 days. He has spent several mornings guest hosting a New York sports radio show, prompting speculation that he is auditioning for a more permanent role should the Trump administration not come knocking. And even his supporters said it would be hard for Mr. Christie to get much accomplished. “When you’re in the last year of a second term, it’s difficult,” Mr. Bramnick, the Republican Assembly leader, said. “Everyone’s looking to the future. ” Is the governor’s approval rating as low as it can go? Not quite, said Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, citing President François Hollande of France. “His approval rating is at 4 percent,’’ Mr. Murray said. “So that gives Christie something to shoot for. ” | 0fake |
Factbox: From taxes to budget, U.S. Congress's calendar tightens | (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress is careening toward major deadlines on a Republican tax bill, the budget and other policies. Here is the outlook for what promises to be a sprint to the end of 2017. TUESDAY, NOV 28: The Senate Budget Committee voted on Tuesday to send Republican tax-cut legislation to the Senate floor for a vote, possibly as soon as Thursday, with 51 votes needed for passage. THURSDAY, NOV. 30, or FRIDAY, DEC. 1: Possible final Senate vote on tax bill, although delay was possible. Ahead of a floor vote, several Republican senators were making demands for possible changes to the legislation. If the Senate approves the bill, a conference would begin to reconcile differences between the Senate and House of Representatives tax measures. A compromise bill would need to be approved before going to President Donald Trump for enactment. FRIDAY, DEC. 8: Expiration date for funding needed to keep the U.S. government open. Congress has three choices: approve a massive bill for more than $1 trillion to keep the government operating through Sept. 30, 2018; pass a shorter extension of current funding to buy more time; or fail to pass anything and risk a partial government shutdown, stalling the tax effort. U.S. Treasury hits its limit on borrowing, but takes steps to postpone any need for action by Congress, eliminating any need for a debt limit increase in an end-of-year catch-all bill. TUESDAY, DEC. 12: Special U.S. Senate election in Alabama pits Republican Roy Moore, a conservative firebrand accused of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls, against Democrat Doug Jones. The election could mean trouble for the tax overhaul effort. Moore, a critic of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, could cause turmoil if elected. A win by Jones would shrink even more Republicans’ narrow margin of Senate control. THURSDAY, DEC. 14: House’s last scheduled session of 2017. FRIDAY, DEC. 15: Senate’s last scheduled session of 2017. FRIDAY, DEC. 22: The last weekday before Christmas and a potential deadline for sending tax legislation to Trump. DISASTER AID: On Nov. 17, the White House asked Congress to approve $44 billion in more aid for disaster-hit Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Texas, Florida and other states. If approved, as expected, aid would total nearly $96 billion. Additional requests are expected. DREAMERS: Trump has threatened to end an Obama-era program that helped “Dreamers,” people brought illegally into the United States when they were children. Trump gave Congress until early March to come up with a replacement program, but Democrats and some Republicans want to do this in December. CHIP: The Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps millions of lower-income pregnant women and children, is running out of money. Congress has struggled to approve a five-year renewal for the program that normally enjoys bipartisan support. | 0fake |
BREAKING: Putin Issues Massive Warning to the West | Russia unveiled a weapon capable of reaching United States territory recently, and on its heels, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the actions undertaken in Washington are “pushing Russia into a nuclear arms race,” according to Zero Hedge .
Zero Hedge reported:
Yesterday, Russia reveals photos of a new highly advanced liquid fuelled heavy ICBM capable of evading anti-missile defences and hitting US territory with 10 tonne nuclear payload.
The Makeyev Design Bureau – the designer of Russia’s heavy liquid fuelled Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (“ICBMs”) – ie. of missiles capable of reaching US territory from Russian territory, has published the first picture of Russia’s new heavy Sarmat ICBM which is due to enter service shortly, probably in 2018.
The Makeyev Design Bureau also released this statement along with the picture of the Sarmat ICBM: “In accordance with the Decree of the Russian Government ‘On the State Defence Order for 2010 and the planning period 2012-2013,’ the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau was instructed to start design and development work on the Sarmat. In June 2011, the Bureau and the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a state contract for the Sarmat’s development. The prospective strategic missile system is being developed in order to assuredly and effectively fulfil objectives of nuclear deterrent by Russia’s strategic forces.”
As Zero Hedge noted, the Sarmat has a specific goal of evading U.S. anti-ballistic missile systems that have been deployed in Eastern Europe.
This is yet another reason why we need a president who understands the importance of modernizing and beefing up our military in these uncertain times.
While the U.S. stays stuck in the 1960’s and 1970’s with our strategic deterrents, Russia is working to upgrade their armory. The new Sarmat missile is set to be ready to go in 2018.
AntiWar’s Jason Ditz had this to say about the situation between the U.S. and Russia in regard to our respective military capabilities:
Of course, the United States spends many, many times what Russia does on its military, but the fact that Russia has a proper military capable of defending the nation at all puts it in a total different category from most of America’s recent wars, and Russia’s massive nuclear arsenal makes it clear this is one war which, if the US launches it, they won’t be able to win outright.
Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has called for a no-fly zone over Syria. Here’s what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, had to say about that.
“Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,” he said. “That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.”
Clinton’s track record — both in action and in words — proves that she does not have the judgment necessary to be president. | 1real |
Head of Germany's FDP offers Macron 'bittersweet' euro zone deal | BERLIN (Reuters) - A leading candidate to be Germany s next finance minister signalled his willingness on Thursday to seek a compromise with Emmanuel Macron over the French President s plans for deeper euro zone integration. Christian Lindner, who leads the Free Democrats (FDP) party negotiating to be part of Chancellor Angela Merkel s next coalition government, said European policy was one of the most important topics in the talks. Lindner said Macron who last month called for a joint euro zone budget and joint finance minister among other reforms had described political progress as a question of finding a balance between carrots and sticks. Let s take him literally (on this) on the European question, Lindner said at a book launch. That means if he wants to get something, he ll have to accept other things - for example an insolvency mechanism for states or for example the binding participation of private investors in any debt restructuring if it should be necessary, he said. This would be the bitter thing he would have to swallow to get something sweet - namely additional funds for investments, Lindner said. Veteran outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, wary of anything that might leave German taxpayers shouldering common euro zone debts, has been generally lukewarm about Macron s reform plans. Lindner may succeed him under the three-way coalition that Merkel is trying to form after her conservatives lost support in a federal election last month. It has been widely speculated that the FDP would demand the top finance post as a price for joining in, though Lindner on Thursday stopped short of claiming the ministry for his party. Earlier this week, he had insisted that Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) should relinquish it. Lindner has repeatedly criticised Schaeuble, a fiscal hawk, as being too soft on Greece and putting loyalty to Merkel ahead of his own political convictions. Asked which characteristics the next German finance minister should have, Lindner said: Being consistent. | 0fake |
Romney offers vote, little else, to Cruz in Republican election battle | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney said on Friday he would vote for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz in Utah’s presidential nominating contest, but the party’s 2012 election standard-bearer stopped short of an official endorsement as he urged voters to deny the nomination to front-runner Donald Trump. In a Facebook post, Romney said a vote for Cruz in Utah’s caucus on Tuesday was the best way to prevent Trump from locking down the nomination, which would give opponents a chance to select another candidate at the party’s July convention. “The only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible,” Romney wrote. Romney did not offer any praise for Cruz, who emerged as a favorite of the party’s most ardent conservatives after clashing with party leaders in Washington. Romney did not say whether or not he would campaign with Cruz, a first-term senator from Texas. Trump responded quickly. “Mitt Romney is a mixed up man who doesn’t have a clue. No wonder he lost!” he wrote on Twitter. Cruz, acknowledging the tepid nature of Romney’s support, said the pledged vote enforces the idea that his campaign is the only one that can beat Trump, likening a vote for Ohio Governor John Kasich, the third remaining Republican contender, to tacit support for Trump. “In my book, when someone says ‘I’m voting for you, and I encourage everyone else to vote for you,’ that’s pretty darn good,” Cruz, a self-styled Washington outsider, told reporters in Arizona. “And I’ll take that and take that happily.” Arizona also holds its nominating contest on Tuesday. “As Mitt Romney observed today, if you want to beat Donald Trump, Cruz is the only campaign that can do it. That’s why he’s voting for me in Utah,” Cruz said. Romney has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of Trump, the billionaire businessman and reality-TV star who has become the surprise front-runner in the battle to secure the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Romney, who lost to Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012, called Trump a “fraud” and a dangerous demagogue who would lose to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party front-runner, in November. “Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism,” Romney wrote, adding that Trump has encouraged racism, misogyny and violence. “I am repulsed by each and every one of these,” he wrote. Kasich’s campaign called Romney’s turn to Cruz the result of “bad political advice.” “This is just the old establishment trying again to game the political system, but John Kasich’s defeated the Republican establishment his entire career,” the campaign said. Romney’s support for Cruz comes a day after U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham threw his support behind the Texas senator, saying in similar fashion that Cruz has the best chance of stopping Trump, even though he thinks Kasich would have a better chance of winning in November’s general election. Trump has continued to notch victories in the state-by-state nominating process as Republicans have failed to unite behind Cruz or Kasich. At this point, those who oppose Trump say their best bet is to prevent him from securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to lock up the nomination before the convention in Cleveland. So far, Trump has won 678 delegates. Cruz would need to win 81 percent of the remaining delegates to reach a majority, according to the Cook Political Report. It is impossible for Kasich to reach 1,237 delegates, according to the nonpartisan election tracker. Romney said Kasich has a “solid record” as a governor and he would have voted for him in Ohio last Tuesday. | 0fake |
Problems pile up for unlucky village near epicenter of Mexican quake | HUAUTLA, Mexico (Reuters) - Yesenia Vergara grabbed her two daughters and abandoned her home in the isolated Mexican hamlet of Huautla late last month when rain-swollen river waters burst through her window, flooding her house with branches, boulders and mud. Just two weeks later, Mexico s deadliest earthquake in a generation delivered a second blow to her simple riverside home, financed with money sent back by her husband from the United States. This is the end of the world, I thought. Now is the time that God has called us to be judged, Vergara said, recalling the moment when the quake struck in the early afternoon last Tuesday. The village was just getting back on its feet and now another tragedy has come, she said. The epicenter of the 7.1 magnitude tremor, which has claimed nearly 300 lives so far, leveled dozens of buildings in Mexico City, sparking a desperate search for survivors. The quake struck 70 km (45 miles) from Huautla, a charming settlement nestled amid the lime-green mountains of Morelos state. While the Mexican capital has been over-run with eager volunteers amid an outpouring of support, the villages of Morelos and Puebla states that lie near the epicenter have received much less attention. A growing cadre of well-wishers sought to rectify that on Friday, fanning out across the states backroads, trudging through knee-high streams to deliver food, water and medicine to remote populations high up in the mountains. Far outpacing the government response, the volunteers patriotic reaction has cheered a traumatized country. It has also provided a sharp contrast to the increasingly politicized reaction to the tremor, which sparked a virtual arms race between political parties seeking to outdo each other with donations to relief efforts. We feel very grateful, Vergara said of the volunteers. But also very disappointed with the government. Although the quake didn t destroy any buildings in Huautla, Mayor Miguel Medina said 10 families out of roughly 1,000 people were evacuated because some 100 structures were damaged. By Friday afternoon, Vergara said nobody had yet come to inspect the thick cracks menacing her home, exiling her and her young family to her mother s house. Fortino Garcia, a 48-year-old taxi driver from the city of Cuernavaca, was among eight people who had driven from Mexico City to deliver aid to villages in the area. Although he approved of the government s reaction to the quake, he criticized politicians who he said were trying to capitalize on the tragedy by placing stickers with their name or party on supplies collected by volunteers. Lots of politicians are sadly jumping on this to campaign, he said in Huautla s main square, after delivering diapers, sanitary towels and water. A growing resentment over how the aid was being distributed by village officials was on display as residents accused officials of cherry-picking better quality donations of clothes and food and leaving less desirable ones for the villagers. In a warehouse in the center of the village where hundreds of women were lining up for food and water, Medina denied he or any of his employees had been profiting from the aid, which he said came from all over the world. People from other countries have come to give us their little grain of sand, he said. We re very surprised and thankful. Still, rumors of official malfeasance could be found on every corner. Like much of Mexico, crime and violence in Huautla had risen dramatically over the last few years, according to a shopkeeper who declined to give her name out of fear. She said some villagers took up arms last month and installed themselves at the entrance to the town to ward off outsiders. In July, she said, an elderly woman was killed when she interrupted a burglary in her home, something previously unheard of in this quiet farming settlement. Given the impact of the flood, the quake and rising violence, she said she was less optimistic for the future of her teenage daughter, who was listening by her side. We re scared, the shopkeeper said. Things aren t like they used to be. | 0fake |
Brexit campaigner Farage says to address Trump rally | LONDON (Reuters) - Nigel Farage, an anti-immigration politician who was a figurehead of the successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, intends to address a Donald Trump rally on Wednesday, a spokesman said. Once dismissed by then-prime minister David Cameron as the leader of a party mostly consisting of “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, Farage had his revenge when the June 23 Brexit referendum went his way, forcing Cameron to resign. Trump, the U.S. Republican Party’s presidential nominee, applauded the Brexit result, seeing the blow to British and EU political elites as a good omen for November when he hopes anti-establishment fervor will send him to the White House. Farage will tell Trump’s rally in Mississippi “the story of the Brexit campaign”, the spokesman said. There was no immediate confirmation from the Trump campaign. Farage’s future is unclear. He stepped down as head of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) after the referendum delivered what he said was the main ambition of his 25-year political career - Britain leaving the EU. Often seen as an abrasive and controversial figure, Farage was marginalized by the official Vote Leave campaign which deemed him too divisive. He instead toured the country in a double-decker bus painted in UKIP’s color, purple. | 0fake |
Comment on How about a trip to Paris this fall? Sure looks lovely this time of year… by Miss Marple | DCG | 7 Comments
From Daily Mirror : Rows of tatty tents line the pavements of Paris as refugees exiled from Calais find a new place to set up camp.
The number of UK-bound migrants sleeping in illegal camps in Paris has increased by a third since the destruction of the Calais Jungle , it has emerged.
It raises the prospect of the French capital turning into the new hub for thousands of asylum seekers seeking a new life in Britain.
Paris’s first official refugee camp is due to open within the next few days, and it is expected to become a magnet for even more refugees. The new facility will be men only, and only take 400 migrants at a time. Even then, they will only be able to stay for a maximum of ten weeks at a time. It will open close to the Gare du Nord Eurostar hub, from where high speed trains travel to and from London.
A total of 5,596 people have been evacuated since the operation to raze the Jungle shantytown in Calais began on Monday morning. While most have been bused to some 450 resettlement centres around France, up to 5,000 more are thought to have travelled away independently .
Heloise Mary, a member of France’s office for the welcome and accompaniment of migrants , said numbers in Paris had shot up. Referring to a camp close to the Stalingrad Metro in the north of Paris, she told the BFM news channel: “We’ve gone from two thousand to three thousand in two days with the closure of Calais.”
DCG | 1real |
China: Sean Spicer ’Not in a Position’ to Call South China Sea ’International Territory’ - Breitbart | The Chinese government has continued to protest the Trump administration’s repeated assurances it would oppose China’s ongoing colonization of international waters in the South China Sea, most recently challenging White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for calling the waters in question “international territory. ”[“I don’t think he [Spicer] is in a position to say that that’s international territory,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told NBC News in an interview. “There might be difference, or controversial claims over the sovereignty of those islands, but that’s not for the United States. That might be between China and some other countries in this region. ” Lu’s remarks on bilateral relations with the United States were significantly sharper in tone than those of his boss, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who said in recent remarks that Beijing’s Communist Party would like to “increase mutual trust, focus cooperation, manage and control disputes and promote the healthy development of relations, to bring even greater benefits to both peoples. ” Spicer had said during his regular press briefing on Monday that the United States would play a role in protecting the territorial integrity of the South China Sea. “If those islands are, in fact, in international waters and not part of China proper, yeah, we’ll make sure we defend international interests from being taken over by one country. ” Spicer’s comments appeared to irritate Chinese officials still objecting to remarks by incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about the region. In a Senate hearing otherwise largely devoid of definitive answers on major international disputes, Tillerson vowed to play a role in protecting the interests of nations whose land and sea China claimed as its own in the region. “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed,” he told a Senate committee, comparing China’s usurpation of South China Sea territory to Russia’s invasion and colonization of Crimea. China claims the territory within a border Beijing refers to as the “ line. ” Within that line is territory belonging to the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, and Malaysia, as well as some waters close to Natuna Island, Indonesia. China has constructed numerous artificial islands in the Spratly and Paracel Islands and the Scarborough Shoal, challenging the sovereignty of the Philippines and Vietnam. China has filled some of those islands with military assets, which the United States has repeatedly protested as threat to the international community. China’s official party line on the region appears to be that only the United States continues to protest their presence in waters not belonging to sovereign China. “Countries have already come back to the original agreement that maybe for the time being we could set aside those sovereign disputes, and focus on some joint developments, and working together to maintain the peace and stability in this region,” Lu told NBC. Lu appeared to mostly be referring to the Philippines, which won a case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague over China’s illegal construction, but has since backed down of its objection to China’s territorial pursuits under President Rodrigo Duterte. His predecessor, Benigno Aquino, was the one to bring the case to the Hague. While the Trump administration appears to be making the liberation of the colonized South China Sea a priority, President Barack Obama had also engaged China on the matter. Former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter attended military exercises in the region and often repeated the U. S. policy of having the American military “fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. ” The Defense Department also staged numerous “freedom of navigation” exercises in the region, much to China’s chagrin. Critics argue, however, that the Obama administration’s guest passages through the South China Sea did not actively challenge China’s adverse possession claims on the artificial islands and, as such, were more of a “PR stunt” than effective deterrence. | 0fake |
New Zealand Green Party leader says wants to form coalition with Labour and New Zealand First | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Green Party leader James Shaw said on Saturday he would be willing to work with Labour Party to form a government with the populist New Zealand First Party as counting showed the ruling National Party on track to secure the most votes but fall short of an outright majority. Shaw said his message for New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters was that now was the time to put differences aside and work with Labour to overthrow the incumbent Nationals. His comments came after 93.7 percent of the results counted showed Labour on 35.7 percent of the vote and center-right National on 46.2 percent. Those results suggested either major party would need New Zealand First to form the next government. The Greens have a working agreement with Labour. The final tally of all votes would not be released until Oct. 7. | 0fake |
Shortly Before Her Death, Nancy Reagan Said She Was Ashamed Of The GOP (VIDEO) | On Sunday, the nation learned that former first lady Nancy Reagan, 94, had passed away at her Los Angeles home from congestive heart failure. Nancy was the wife of Republican hero Ronald Reagan and after his death in 2004, she became an outspoken activist for a cure Alzheimer s disease and huge beacon of support for families whose loved ones suffered from the degenerative illness. While Republican presidential candidates have expressed grief over her passing, her longtime friend, Larry King, said he is relieved that she will not be here to see the end of the GOP s disgusting presidential race.During an interview with CNN s Wolf Blitzer, King said: I ll miss her. I love socializing with her, I love gossiping with her, I love talking with her. If there s one thing glad about this, he added. She isn t around to see the end of this political year. Because she was very upset by it. We can understand why she would be upset. The candidates running for the Republican nomination have constantly tried to equate themselves with her husband. Even though a number of his children have spoken out and said that Reagan would be appalled by the comparisons.While these candidates, like Ted Cruz and (shudder) Donald Trump, name drop the former president during every GOP debate, they behave like schoolyard bullies and pledge to never compromise with Democrats. Reagan may have had faults (A LOT of them) but he knew how to compromise and he never, ever behaved the way the current Republican Party does.As a matter of fact, if Ronald Reagan was a candidate in this race, the others running would probably call him a RINO and a traitor. And they damn sure wouldn t support any amnesty plan for undocumented immigrants (like the one he is well-known for).The current GOP is so gross that when news of Nancy s passing spread, their voters took it as on opportunity to attack the current first lady, Michelle Obama.With all of this, is it really any wonder she was upset?Watch:https://youtu.be/TZUVIbWbT2w Featured image via video screenshot | 1real |
Hillary's High Crimes & Misdemeanors |
If Hillary Clinton is elected president on Tuesday, and if what Bret Baier is reporting from FBI sources on Fox News is true, America is headed for a constitutional crisis.
Indeed, it would seem imperative that FBI Director James Comey, even if it violates protocol and costs him his job, should state publicly whether what Baier’s FBI sources are telling him is false or true.
The people have a right to know — before Tuesday.
For, if true, Clinton could face charges in 2017 and impeachment and removal from office in 2018.
According to Baier, FBI agents have found new emails, believed to have originated on Clinton’s server, on the computer jointly used by close aide Huma Abedin and her disgraced husband, Anthony Weiner.
Abedin’s failure to turn this computer over to the State Department on leaving State appears to be a violation of U.S. law.
Moreover, the laptops of close Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, thought destroyed by the FBI, were apparently retained and are “being exploited” by the National Security division.
And here is the salient point. His FBI sources told Baier, “with 99 percent” certitude, that Clinton’s Chappaqua server “had been hacked by at least five foreign intelligence services…”
If this is so, Hillary Clinton as security risk ranks right up there with Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White, though they acted out of treasonous ideology and she out of Clintonian hubris. What do these foreign intelligence agencies know about Clinton that the voters do not?
The second revelation from Baier is that the Clinton Foundation has been under active investigation by the white-collar crime division of the FBI for a year and is a “very high priority.”
Specifically, the FBI is looking into published allegations of “pay-to-play.” This is the charge that the Clinton State Department traded access, influence and policy decisions to foreign regimes and to big donors who gave hundreds of millions to the Clinton Foundation, along with 15 years of six-figure speaking fees for Bill and Hillary.
According to Baier’s sources, FBI agents are “actively and aggressively” pursuing this case, have interviewed and re-interviewed multiple persons, and are now being inundated in an “avalanche of new information” from WikiLeaks documents and new emails.
The FBI told Baier that they anticipate indictments.
Indeed, with the sums involved, and the intimate ties between high officials of Bill’s foundation, and Hillary and her close aides at State, it strains credulity to believe that deals were not discussed and cut.
Books have been written alleging and detailing them.
Also, not only Fox News but also The Wall Street Journal and other news sources are reporting on what appears a rebellion inside the FBI against strictures on their investigations imposed by higher ups in the Department of Justice of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Director Comey has come under fire from left and right — first for refusing to recommend the prosecution of Clinton, then for last week’s statement about the discovery of new and “pertinent” emails on the Abedin-Weiner computer — but retains a reputation for integrity.
And he knows better than any other high official the answer to a critical question that needs answering before Tuesday: Has Baier been fed exaggerated or false information by FBI agents hostile to Clinton?
Or has Baier been told the truth?
In the latter case, we are facing a constitutional crisis if Clinton is elected. And the American people surely have a right to know that before they go to the polls on Tuesday.
What is predictable ahead?
Attorney General Lynch, whether she stays or goes, will be hauled before Congress to explain whether she or top aides impeded the FBI investigations of the Clinton scandals. And witnesses from within her Justice department and FBI will also be called to testify.
Moreover, Senate Republicans would block confirmation of any new attorney general who did not first promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the email and pay-to-play scandals, and any pressure from Lynch’s Justice Department on the FBI.
Even Democrats would concede that a Department of Justice, staffed by Hillary Clinton appointees, could not credibly be entrusted with investigating alleged high crimes and misdemeanors by former Secretary of State Clinton and confidants like Abedin and Mills.
An independent counsel, a special prosecutor, appears inevitable.
And such individuals usually mark their success or failure by how many and how high are the indictments and convictions they rack up.
However, these processes proceed at a torpid pace.
First comes the setting up of the office and the hirings, then the investigations, then the grand jury appearances, then the indictments, then the prosecutions, then the horse-trading for the testimony of the accused and the convicted in return for immunity or leniency.
Steadily, it moves up the food chain. And when a head of state is involved, it is a process deeply debilitating to the nation.
We have gone through this before, twice.
Do we really want to go through it again?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.”
Copyright 2016 Creators.com. | 1real |
Trump Is Now Officially Increasing The Chance Of A Nuclear Incident According To This Report | Republicans aren t very smart about a lot of things, but one of their most unfortunate mental deficits is in their awareness of what they sound like to the rest of the world. Whether they simply are too dumb to know, or they just don t care, the way they portray America to the rest of the world is a damned embarrassment to the nation.One of the worst sources of this global shame is easily Donald Trump, for obvious reasons. His stupidity, empty talk, hate and chest beating are dragging us back to pre-Obama levels of global ridicule. However, now things are taking a departure from simple mockery and turning into a serious international incident.North Korea is now using Trump s rhetoric regarding nuclear proliferation, and the fact thath e is actually advocating using them, as justification for not backing down on their nuclear program. This is the same North Korea that only about a month ago wanted to have their nuclear weapons ready to fire at a moment s notice, and promised to expand their arsenal.Ri Jong Ryul, deputy-director general of the Institute of International Studies in Pyongyang had this to say: Donald Trump s remarks are totally absurd and illogical. The U.S. tells us to give up our nuclear program, is preparing a nuclear attack against us, and on the other hand would tell its allies to have nuclear weapons. Isn t this (a) double standard? Source: CNNNorth Korea was difficult enough to deal with on their best days. Now, they hear a person that could be the Presidential nominee of the most war-loving political party in modern American history advocating for more nuclear weapons to be developed, as well as the actual use of them against nations like North Korea. Perhaps one day Republicans will understand that people outside of the U.S. also do listen to our politics, but sadly that doesn t seem to be today.Featured image via Mother Jones | 1real |
Patton Oswalt’s Screed Against Donald Trump Is Going Viral, And It Should | Patton Oswalt is a comedian, but he s also very seriously worried about the future of this country after the inauguration of Donald Trump.In his Facebook post on Sunday, Oswalt, who heartbreakingly lost his wife this year, is nonetheless worried about the rest of us.So, sixteen days into the reality of Donald Trump being our President-elect, and I m reading New Yorker and Jacobin and Slate and NY Times articles, trying to make sense of just what the fuck happened, and how the fuck do we go forward. The Democratic Party is in shards on the floor right now. I think we re going to have eight years of Trump and his clean-shaven looters scraping out the carcass of the country before fucking off and blaming it on progressives and lesbians and PC and rap music.Oswalt talks about the schadenfreude that seems to be resonating throughout Trump-i-verse. People, according to Oswalt, are telling the comedian that his type of comedy is over and now we have to be subjected to whatever Trumpsters call comedy. Obviously, Oswalt had the perfect answer for that:So many alt-righters (or just people on the right) are failed or frustrated comedians. Just as so many far, far left wingers are. Comedy is too PC! It s not PC enough! It s racist! It shames white men! IT DOESN T FIT TO MY STANDARDS, SO THEREFORE I MUST DESTROY IT!Being funny isn t something everyone is born with, and even the ones born with it have to work and evolve and have humility while they do so. For the untalented but still entitled, there s a gut full of envy to carry around when they see other people getting laughs where they can t.Oswalt went further and compared these times to the rise of the Nazis. He referenced an essay by Clive James, about Egon Friedall, an intellectual who committed suicide before being hauled off by the Nazis.Egon threw himself from his window as the SA men battered down his door, screaming, Watch out! Get out of the way! to the pedestrians as he plummeted.I think I m guessing, I know that Egon sensed something even MORE sinister behind the Nazi uprising. Something fueled not by nationalism or racial pride but by bog-standard showbiz envy.Here s the post in its entirety. It s definitely worth reading and sharing:It s an interesting perspective and if you think about it, conservatism, not just Trumpism, is based on envy. Conservatives are envious of people who have more talent, they are envious of people who they think are getting more attention. They are even envious of those who have much, much less than them.Conservatives try comedy again and again, and with the exception of just a few (like Tim Allen or Larry the Cable Guy), they nearly always fail. Their comedy, like their policies, is mean-spirited. Conservatives punch down while liberals speak truth to power. When conservatives fail, their envy leads to anger. More than anything, though, Trump has made being thin-skinned fashionable. Trump supporters, even after winning, think they are the consummate victims. When victimhood is given power, things can get very dangerous. It s what happened in 1930s Germany and it s what could easily happen in just a few weeks.Featured image via Bryan Bedder/Getty Images. | 1real |
Gingrich: Freedom Caucus Saved House Republicans From Destructive Vote - Breitbart | Monday on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the House Freedom Caucus saved House Republicans from a politically destructive vote when they refused to support the House Republican health care bill which only had a 17 percent approval rating among voters. Gingrich said, “Not voting on Friday was really good. The Democrats lost their majority for the first time in 40 years after they tried to push through Hillarycare. The Democrats lost the majority again in 2010 after they pushed through Obamacare. If we had all the House Republicans line up and vote yes on a bill that was at 17 percent approval — that means four out of five Americans were not approving — I will guarantee you the Democrats would have had a field day. ” “So I think the Freedom Caucus whether they intended to or not may have saved House Republican from a vote that would have been potentially very destructive,” he continued. “Now everybody ought to just get over it. Look at the future. Let’s learn the lessons and recognize it took Reagan eight months to pass a tax cut. It took us 18 months to pass welfare reform. It took Pelosi and Obama eight months to pass Obamacare. We’re not in a rush here. We don’t have to get everything done by Easter. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
HOUSE ISSUES SUBPOENAS for Key Obama Administration Officials: Unmasking the Unmaskers [Video] | Finally! Remember when Senator Lyndsey Graham said he s very disappointed but said, we ll deal with her later. ? Well, they just dealt with Susan Rice Susan Rice and former CIA Director John Brennan have been subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee for information related to the unmasking of the Trump campaign team and others Can you believe it? Will we finally have justice?We know that Susan Rice was a key player in this unmasking and John Brennan is as slippery as they come. Remember how he lied to Congress? Yes, these are the people we re dealing with. Let s hope they finally get to the bottom of SOMETHING The Washington Examiner reports:The House Intelligence Committee has issued seven subpoenas as part of its ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, including one seeking information about Obama s former national security adviser Susan Rice, and her activities related to intelligence documents that named members of the Trump campaign.The Journal s report said the intelligence-related subpoenas are to seek information on requests for the unmasking of names by Susan Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan, and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power.Having subpoenas directed at former members of the intelligence committee could show that Republicans have strengthened their resolve to track down leaks from within the intelligence gathering agencies, such as the leak that described the contents of a phone call between Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.Susan Rice has been a target on the unmasking for some time so this should be very interesting. Let the games begin!FLASHBACK: SUSAN RICE REFUSES TO TESTIFY: Susan Rice just announced she won t testify before the Senate on the Russian hacking.Senator Lyndsey Graham said he s very disappointed but said, we ll deal with her later. She gave a very flimsy excuse for not testifying via her lawyer:Rice considered the invitation a diversionary play to distract attention from the investigation into Russian election interference, including contacts between Trump allies and Russians during the campaign, the source said.That s ridiculous! Could it REALLY be that she doesn t want to testify under oath? Ya think!According to CNN, Barack Obama s national security adviser turned down a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham to participate in the hearing. Senator Whitehouse has informed us by letter (SEE BELOW) that he did not agree to Chairman Graham s invitation to Ambassador Rice, a significant departure from the bipartisan invitations extended to other witnesses, Rice s lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler wrote in a letter to Graham. Under these circumstances, Ambassador Rice respectfully declines Senator Graham s invitation to testify. Rice was the administration official who made the dozens of requests seeking to unmask the identities of Trump associates, which she said were for national security reasons and not politically motivated Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
Yellen’s Message: My Work Here Is (Mostly) Done - The New York Times | The economy will keep growing just enough to put more Americans back to work, but without overheating to generate excessive inflation. American workers will see gradual pay raises that keep compensation rising faster than inflation. Interest rates will rise gradually, while staying low by historical standards. And that’s all before accounting for any major stimulative policies that may emerge from the Trump administration and Congress. That was the view of the economy sketched by the Federal Reserve chairwoman, Janet Yellen, at her first news conference of 2017 on Wednesday. In short, the Fed believes that after nearly eight years of trying to nurse the economy back to health, its work is nearly done. The general sense of rosiness isn’t really anything new — for years, Ms. Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, have forecast that the economy will steadily converge toward a state of being neither too hot nor too cold. Two things have changed. First, that day now feels imminent, with the unemployment rate at 4. 7 percent and inflation closing on the 2 percent the Fed thinks best. That is a key reason the Fed raised its interest rate target Wednesday. Second, markets now believe the Fed’s message that higher rates are on the way bond markets suggest that the Fed will actually follow through with its intentions on gradual interest rate rises. You couldn’t say that a year ago. “The simple message is: The economy is doing well,” Ms. Yellen told reporters. The overwhelming message was of gradualism — both on the rate of economic improvement and the Fed’s own efforts to wind down its era of low interest rates. She suggested no urgency toward a tightening of the money supply that might suggest a readiness to accelerate interest rate increases. Ms. Yellen evinced little fear that the Fed is behind the curve, suggesting that two more interest rate increases are on the way over the remainder of 2017. This will, if these plans stay in force, remain the slowest cycle of interest rate increases in modern history. She also displayed little of the fear of setback that has been pervasive at the Fed for years. The central bank has spent the last eight years trying to help the recovery along with a series of monetary interventions more than any other institution in Washington, it owns the recovery. That has also meant that the Fed has acted with haste to signs of softening. In the winter of 2016, for example, barely a year ago, the central bank backed off plans for more rate increases after a steep stock market and a rise of economic pessimism. After years of persistently undershooting its 2 percent goal for inflation, the Fed explicitly, if subtly, raised the possibility on Wednesday of erring in the other direction. The central bank’s policy committee said it would be monitoring “actual and expected inflation developments relative to its symmetric inflation goal. ” In this context, “symmetric” implies that it aims for 2 percent inflation and would be equally displeased by inflation that was too high or too low. That implies that the Fed is not inclined to overreact to the possibility that inflation could drift slightly — and in the Fed’s view temporarily — above 2 percent in the coming months. After the announcement, the interest rates on Treasury bonds actually fell. That implies that markets were ready for signals of even more aggressive rate rises. And the clearest signal that the Fed is in territory was in how Ms. Yellen talked about the possibility of new tax cuts or infrastructure spending that might arrive in the months ahead. There has been “no reassessment” of those odds, she said. Presumably if that happens, the Fed would indeed raise interest rates more quickly, but Ms. Yellen shows no desire to get ahead of what the rest of the government is doing. Given the vagueness and uncertainty around those plans, that maintains options for officials at the Fed. If policies along those lines materialize, they can plug them into their models and accelerate the pace of rate increases if Congress is bogged down in stalemate, they won’t. It has been a long time coming, and Ms. Yellen went out of her way to avoid mounting a metaphorical “Mission Accomplished” banner. But in the substance of her policies, it is evident that the Fed feels it has mostly accomplished its job. | 0fake |
End Game: Will Michelle Obama Be The Nominee When FBI Email Investigation Ends Hillary Clinton’s Campaign? | Home » Headlines » World News » End Game: Will Michelle Obama Be The Nominee When FBI Email Investigation Ends Hillary Clinton’s Campaign?
Was THIS the plan all along?
From Michael Snyder :
I realize that this headline must sound extremely bizarre, but in this article I will explain why this could actually happen. We have just learned that the FBI has obtained a search warrant that will enable the agency to examine approximately 650,000 emails that are sitting on electronic devices owned by Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner.
Now that the FBI is going through these emails, it is unlikely but still possible that a decision about whether or not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime could be made by November 8th. Of course the most likely scenario is that Hillary Clinton will not be indicted before election day and that Americans will be voting with this scandal hanging ominously over the Clinton campaign. But if the FBI does quickly take action, it is possible that Hillary Clinton could be forced from the race before election day, and that would require the Democrats to come up with a new candidate.
In fact, there are already calls in the mainstream media for Clinton to willingly remove herself from the race. For example, the following comes from a Chicago Tribune article entitled “Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside“…
So what should the Democrats do now?
If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern, they would follow a simple process:
They would demand that Mrs. Clinton step down, immediately, and let her vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, stand in her place.
Democrats should say, honestly, that with a new criminal investigation going on into events around her home-brew email server from the time she was secretary of state, having Clinton anywhere near the White House is just not a good idea.
But what the author of that article does not understand is that Tim Kaine would not automatically take her place if Clinton steps down before the election. In a previous article, I included a quote from a U.S. News & World Report articlethat explained what would happen if Hillary Clinton was removed from the Democratic ticket for some reason prior to November 8th…
If Clinton were to fall off the ticket, Democratic National Committee members would gather to vote on a replacement. DNC members acted as superdelegates during this year’s primary and overwhelmingly backed Clinton over boat-rocking socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach says there currently are 445 committee members – a number that changes over time and is guided by the group’s bylaws, which give membership to specific officeholders and party leaders and hold 200 spots for selection by states, along with an optional 75 slots DNC members can choose to fill.
But the party rules for replacing a presidential nominee merely specify that a majority of members must be present at a special meeting called by the committee chairman. The meeting would follow procedures set by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and proxy voting would not be allowed.
So if this email scandal forced Hillary Clinton to exit the race at the last minute, a majority of the members of the Democratic National Committee would gather to select a new nominee.
Who would they choose?
Let’s take a look at the top five options…
#1 Tim Kaine
He would seem to be an obvious choice since he is Hillary Clinton’s running mate. But to win a national campaign you need to have name recognition, and most Americans outside of the state of Virginia have very little familiarity with him.
And at this point he has proven to have very little popularity on the campaign trail. In fact, attendance at many of his rallies in key swing states can be measured in the dozens.
So to me it seems unlikely that the DNC would select Kaine as the replacement nominee.
#2 Joe Biden
Vice-President Joe Biden has far more name recognition than Tim Kaine does, and in recent days he has been touting how he believes that he would have actually won the nomination if he would have decided to run…
Vice President Joe Biden said in a recent interview that he believed he could have beat former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination had he pursued it.
Biden was asked in an interview with CNN Saturday if news that the FBI was re-opening their criminal probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state made him second-guess his decision last year not to run.
But according to the vice president, the short answer is “no.” The only thing that kept him from running, Biden said, was the recent death of his son, Beau.
Unfortunately for Biden, he suffers from many of the same things that Kaine does.
Biden is boring, he is not very good on the campaign trail, and he doesn’t have the sort of charisma that would motivate people to go to the polls in large numbers.
Biden would probably represent the “safest” choice for the Democrats, but he might not be a winning choice.
#3 Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders would seem to be a logical choice since he was the runner-up to Hillary Clinton, but the truth is that there are a lot of things working against Bernie Sanders.
First of all, he does not have any real loyalty to the Democrats. He has previously operated as an independent, and he expressed a desire to return to independent status once the campaign was over.
Secondly, the Democratic establishment very much dislikes him, and that plays a huge role in decisions such as this.
Thirdly, Democratic insiders fear that he would be “another McGovern” and would get absolutely wiped out in a general election.
So even though he is very popular with the radical left, it appears that Sanders would be the least likely choice on this list.
#4 Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren would be very popular with the “Bernie Sanders” wing of the party, and she would enable the party to replace Hillary Clinton with another woman.
So she is definitely a possibility.
But she does lack name recognition, and just like Sanders there would be concern that the Republicans would frame her candidacy as “another McGovern” because of her far left policies.
#5 Michelle Obama
One recent survey found that 67 percent of all Democrats would rather have a third term for Obama than a first term for Hillary Clinton.
And these days Barack Obama’s approval rating is running anywhere from +9 to +11.
So the thought of another Obama in the White House is not as far-fetched as you might think.
Michelle Obama has better name recognition than anyone else on this list, and she is generally very well-liked by the American people. And she has received a tremendous amount of praise for her work on the campaign trail recently. For instance, her recent speech in New Hampshire was lauded as “the most influential speech of the 2016 campaign” in a recent MSN article entitled “In this campaign, Michelle Obama became more than just another political voice“…
The speech, amplified by timing and met with an enthusiastic response, cemented Obama’s place as a star of the presidential race and put a defining stroke not just on how women view Trump, but also on herself as a voice of moral authority. Three months before leaving the White House, she already is among the ranks of public figures who transcend politics and title.
“When you rise to a level like that, you see how much weight your words carry,” said Anita McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush and executive in residence at the School of Public Affairs at American University. “We know she didn’t like politics. But she was impassioned by the language that was used, and she feels compelled to speak out. People listen to her.”
If I were the Democrats, Michelle Obama is the one that I would select if a replacement nominee was needed, because she would give them the very best chance of winning against Donald Trump.
Of course the Obamas are just as radical as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but the American people have become quite comfortable with them at this point.
And I certainly hope that Michelle Obama does not become the nominee if Hillary Clinton has to step aside, because Donald Trump would have an exceedingly difficult time defeating her.
In the final analysis, none of this is probably going to matter anyway because it is unlikely that the FBI will move quickly enough to force Hillary Clinton out before election day, but there is still a small chance that it could actually happen.
And if it does happen, it is going to turn politics in America completely upside down.
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Trump Tower Surrounded By Dump Trucks In Anticipation Of Violence | Trump Tower Surrounded By Dump Trucks In Anticipation Of Violence 11/09/2016
DAILY CALLER
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has surrounded the perimeter of Trump Tower with reinforced dump trucks in anticipation of Election Day violence.
The dump trucks flank the skyscraper on all sides, and are supplemented by guardrails and heavily armed police officers. This morning, the building was not open to the general public and traffic crawled through a narrow corridor of trucks and police. On the street, supporters and protesters stood for interviews with a burgeoning press corps camped across the street. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lives in a penthouse near the top of the building, which also serves as headquarters for his presidential campaign. (RELATED: Election Day Voting Has Begun – Who Is Winning?)
Police told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the dumping beds are filled with sand, which adds weight to each truck, in effect making it impossible to run the barrier. Police decided to circle the Tower with trucks as a hedge against car bombs, or some such similar incendiary munition delivered by car. The fleet of trucks will travel with Trump this evening to surround the New York Hilton Midtown Manhattan Hotel, where Trump is hosting his victory rally. The NYPD maintained a presence around the hotel for several days, which is also closed to the public.
Guests staying in the hotel on unrelated business must present their keycards at a security check-point before entering the premises.
Similar security measures will attend Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s headquarters at the Javits Convention Center in Hell’s Kitchen this evening. | 1real |
Even His Allies Admit Hillary Won The Debate And Trump Is FREAKING OUT About It | Unless you count online polls that Trump fans voted in multiple times to make it appear as if he won Monday s presidential debate, Donald Trump actually lost. Most pundits feel he lost, as did the focus groups used by several of the networks, as did scientific polls that were taken of people who watched the event. He lost, handily.Trump lost so badly that even his allies who want to see him elected President have been complaining to the media about his limp performance. And that has made Trump very very angry.In a conference call with surrogates Wednesday afternoon, Trump aides made clear the Republican nominee is upset that his allies publicly acknowledged they pushed him to change his preparation and tactics before his next bout with Hillary Clinton. And he wants them to stop it immediately.The message was not subtle, a source familiar with the call said.Trump wants his supporters to make an energetic defense of his performance and refuse to concede that he didn t nail it.In the world of Trump and his ego, admitting that you lost a battle is the worst thing, possibly even worse than actually losing the battle itself. For someone like Trump, who fancies himself an alpha male, an admission of humility or defeat is the worst possible scenario. In his eyes, anyone conceding that he underperformed is unacceptable, and even worse if you re in the Trump orbit.That is why Trump almost completely limits himself to media appearances on Fox News, where he won t ever seriously be challenged on even the most bizarre and untrue claims he makes in the campaign. Trump is inside a bubble, only speaking to those who agree with him and who want to suck up to him. He is being told time and time again by his hangers-on that he is doing everything just right. And he won t tolerate anybody who allows reality to intrude.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Heart disease kills way more people than war, murder, and traffic accidents combined | The scariest causes of death — war, murder, car accidents — are also some of the least common ways that we die. This fact is made abundantly clear in a graphic from Britain's National Health Service, which displays the leading causes of death in the United Kingdom:
Much more mundane things, like circulatory and digestive disorders, are much more common causes of death murders or car accidents. While this data comes from the United Kingdom, the leading causes of death in the United States look pretty similar: heart disease, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease are the most common killers in America.
"Every day we are told of lethal new threats to our health and lives," the NHS writes in an explanation of the graphic. "Food additives, knife crime, pollution, terrorism ... It's not that these threats are not potential killers, but in this blizzard of health warnings it's easy to lose perspective and worry about small or insignificant risks while ignoring, or being unaware, of major threats."
The NHS has also put together a set of "risk" factors that looks at some of the leading behavioral decisions that cause death, whether that's smoking too much or consuming too few fruits and vegetables:
You can also use an interactive version of the Atlas of Risk, which lets you break down the risks and causes of death for different demographics. For example, that data shows that traffic accidents are a much higher cause of death for people between the ages of 1 and 19 than for other age groups. This is what that chart looks like:
You can find the Atlas of Risk here. (And thanks to Peter Ubel for pointing it out on Twitter.) | 0fake |
Objects From New York’s Buried Past Find a New Home in Midtown - The New York Times | From a mold used in sugar refining to an oversize oyster, a spear tip to a Transferware teapot and a bone from a passenger pigeon, which was once the most abundant bird in North America but was declared extinct in 1914, New York City has cataloged and digitized a vast archive of its buried past. On Wednesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is opening the Nan A. Rothschild Research Center, which the commission says is the first municipal archive devoted to a city’s own archaeological collection, a repository in Midtown Manhattan of more than one million artifacts open to researchers and scholars by appointment. A digital archive is already available. In many cases, the objects are portals of discovery into the city’s history, opening hidden doors to untold stories that began — or, perhaps, ended — with a child’s broken teacup abandoned in Battery Park or a glass seal that identified a wine bottle waiting to be refilled at a local tavern with a family’s favorite vintage. “We’re curating what scholars may want to study and what may be exhibited,” said Amanda Sutphin, the commission’s director of archaeology. The repository on West 47th Street already contains more than 1, 500 boxes of artifacts from 31 sites that were excavated in all five boroughs. Those sites include the Stadt Huys, now 85 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, which, in 1979, was the city’s first major historical dig and demonstrated that archaeological treasures might be buried beneath the shallow basements of old buildings. (The Stadt Huys was originally built to relieve William Kieft, the director of what was then known as New Netherland, of the burden of accommodating visitors to his home it later became New Amsterdam’s first City Hall.) That excavation was directed by Nan A. Rothschild, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Barnard College, a member of the faculty of Columbia University, and a cousin of Helena Durst, the chief administrative officer of the Durst Organization, the developer who donated the space for the repository. The repository was named for Dr. Rothschild to honor her contributions to the field. The repository and website are also a collaboration of the Museum of the City of New York the Fund for the City of New York and Iron Mountain, a records and data management company. The digital archive includes images, maps, an education guide and quiz for students, a searchable database, archaeological reports by the landmarks commission and information on which local colleges and universities offer degrees in the field. (A tip for beginners: If you want to sound smart, refer to a piece of broken pottery as a sherd, not a shard.) The repository “contains the city’s material past, although often in fragments,” Dr. Rothschild said. Meenakshi Srinivasan, the commission chairwoman, said, “The everyday objects in the collection reveal what life was like for people who were not documented in the historic record. ” Until they were gathered at the repository, the artifacts were stored at 14 locations, some under reasonably good conditions at Columbia University and Brooklyn College. But some artifacts were unceremoniously stored at a women’s restroom in Van Cortlandt Park. They will now be kept in a storage area where the contents will be further inventoried. Over time, more will be integrated into the repository, including objects from an excavation at 7 Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan that have been in storage. “These are public projects paid for with public dollars on public land, so the public needs to benefit,” Ms. Sutphin said. | 0fake |
U.S. election's anti-trade tone 'concerning': Union Pacific CEO | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rhetoric against free trade from both likely U.S. presidential nominees poses a risk to the economy and consumers who would lose out if international trade is restrained, the chief executive of the largest U.S. railroad said on Thursday. “Global trade is not getting a fair shake in the dialogue,” Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N) CEO Lance Fritz said during a discussion with Reuters journalists. “We’ve devolved to a form of populism in the rhetoric and that strikes me as having a lot of negative consequences.” Free trade agreements and their impact on U.S. workers have been a major theme in the 2016 campaign for the presidential election on Nov. 8. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and promised to rip up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, has criticized the partnership deal, which was signed in February but has not yet won congressional approval. Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific has a growing business serving cross-border trade with Mexico, and over the past decade has reported increased shipments of containers full of consumer goods, many of which come from Asia. Fritz said both candidates are arguing that NAFTA is “a bad thing,” even though Trump has been more vocal than Clinton in warning about losing jobs to foreign competition and threatening to slap tariffs on imported goods. “That’s concerning to me,” Fritz said. “That’s telling the U.S. public that free trade is a bad idea, and that’s patently not in the interest of the U.S. consumer.” “We are worried and thinking about what-ifs,” Fritz said when asked how his company would deal with a Trump or Clinton administration. “What I’m hoping is we get a little more clarity as we get closer (to the election) and it starts making sense and we can plan around it.” Fritz, who has served as Union Pacific CEO since February 2015, also noted that despite low fuel prices, U.S. consumers still have not taken up the slack in the broader economy. “We haven’t seen a strong consumer in a little while,” he said. Fritz said he did not know when the railroad would meet its target of an operating ratio, a measure of efficiency, of 55 percent. The ratio expresses operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, so the lower the figure the better. “We’re going to get there as soon as we can in a reasonable fashion,” he said. Union Pacific posted a first-quarter operating ratio of 65.1 percent. U.S. railroads generally have a significantly higher operating ratio than the 58.9 percent reported in the first quarter by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (CP.TO) and Canadian National Railway Co (CNR.TO). Fritz also said Union Pacific would have an anti-collision system mandated by Congress in place by the deadline of 2018. But the company would need the two one-year extensions allowed to “debug” the Positive Train Control (PTC) system, he added. Last year, Congress extended the deadline for the system’s implementation beyond 2015, despite opposition from some lawmakers following a fatal Amtrak crash in Pennsylvania in May 2015. | 0fake |
Trump recommits to 'major border tax' on foreign-produced U.S. products | NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday promised a “major border tax” on companies that shift jobs outside the United States, further pressuring American businesses days after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) said heavy tariffs could force the company to shutter Mexican plants. Since the Nov. 8 election, Trump has taken to Twitter to call out by name a number of manufacturers with both planned and existing operations outside of the country. On Wednesday, he returned to the issue in his first news conference since the election. Trump, who will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, warned of a “very large border tax” on companies that shift production to foreign countries. “You want to move your plant, and you think, as an example, you’re going to build that plant in Mexico, and you’re going to make your air conditioners or your cars, or whatever you’re making, and you’re going to sell them through what will be a very, very strong border ... Not going to happen. You’re going to pay a very large border tax,” he warned. U.S. automakers in particular have felt the brunt of Trump’s ire, as he has called for the industry to return to former manufacturing hubs in the American Midwest from Mexico, which accounts for a fifth of all vehicle production in North America and has attracted more than $24 billion in auto investment since 2010, according to the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research. Trump thanked Fiat Chrysler and Ford Motor Co (F.N) for announcements in the past week of investments in Midwestern plants. He added that he hoped General Motors Co (GM.N), the No. 1 American automaker, would take similar steps to expand U.S. operations. On Monday, Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said, “It’s possible, if the economic terms imposed by the U.S. administration on anything that comes into the United States that, if they’re sufficiently large, that it would make the production of anything in Mexico uneconomical. “We would have to withdraw,” Marchionne said. “It is quite possible.” Trump also reiterated his criticism of Lockheed Martin Corp’s (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet program, saying it was “way, way behind schedule and many, many billions of dollars over budget.” After the news conference, Lockheed Martin said in a statement read on CNBC, “We understand President-elect Trump’s concerns about the F-35 program and we’ve given him our full commitment to drive down cost aggressively.” In its annual State of the American Business Address on Wednesday morning, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which traditionally has worked in concert with the Republican Party, urged Trump not to add to the “burdens” of exporters by erecting barriers to trade that could hamper economic growth. | 0fake |
Congress clears $1.8 trillion tax and spending bills | “You can’t be in a rush to do the wrong thing, either,” she said. “This is serious stuff.” | 0fake |
Porn Star Bitten by Shark During Underwater Shoot | Porn star Molly Cavalli was bitten by a shark while filming a promo ad for a sex cam company. [TMZ reports that the adult film star was dropped underwater in a shark cage wearing nothing but a white swimsuit. Cavalli’s presence in the water apparently attracted a lemon shark. In a video which can be seen below, the actress panics as the shark attacks her and can be seen moments later holding her bleeding ankle. An image posted by TMZ shows the actress sustained a gruesome gash. Cavalli was pulled to safety but reportedly required 20 stitches in her foot. [Warning: Graphic Content] Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0fake |
Mexico's Carstens says 'implicitly' weighing risk of Trump victory | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico central bank governor Agustin Carstens said on Friday he is “implicitly” factoring in the possibility of Republican hopeful Donald Trump becoming U.S. president in the bank’s economic risk models. In an interview with El Financiero/Bloomberg Carstens was asked whether the chances of Trump, a persistent critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement, becoming the next president of the United States was in the central bank’s risk models. “Well, explicitly, no,” Carstens said. “But implicitly all of us have it in our heads, this possibility.” Carstens was also asked about Mexican monetary policy in the coming months after the bank launched a surprise rate hike on Feb. 17 to shore up the peso currency, which had been falling sharply against the dollar since the end of 2014. He reiterated that the February move was not the start of a monetary policy tightening cycle, but that the bank would be following moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve closely. “Our monetary policy will above all be led by ... the exchange rate, the monetary policy relative to the United States and the inflationary pressures that could occur due to the economic cycle in Mexico,” the central bank governor said. Trump, front-runner to win the Republican presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 election, sparked outrage in Mexico with campaign vows to slap tariffs on Mexican exports and to build a southern border wall and make Mexico pay for it. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said this month his country would not pay for Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and likened his “strident tone” to the ascent of dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter and Dave Graham; Editing by Richard Chang and Sam Holmes) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
Trump arrives in Philippines for Asian leaders' summit | MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the Philippine capital Manila on Sunday to attend an annual gathering of leaders from East and Southeast Asian countries. Trump arrived from Vietnam, where he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, during which he delivered a strong message on trade and briefly met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Philippines will be the last leg of a tour that has also taken Trump to Japan, China and South Korea. Just hours before Trump’s arrival, Philippine riot police used water canon to prevent hundreds of anti-American protesters from reaching the U.S. embassy in Manila. | 0fake |
Trump Vows To ‘Get Better Deal’ For Us On Keystone XL, Promises To Break The Law To Do It | It seems that part of Donald Trump s plan to make America great again involves building the Keystone XL pipeline. The reason he thinks it will make us great again has nothing to do with the jobs it will, or won t, create, and has nothing to do with oil sales from Canada to the U.S., since Keystone XL will just deliver oil to the Gulf for export. Trump wants a direct piece of TransCanada s profits in return for allowing the pipeline to be built.That sounds great, doesn t it? We should be compensated for allowing TransCanada to transport oil across the entire width of the U.S., right? Plus, it d be an influx of cash. Trump even said: I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits That s how we re going to make our country rich again. All right! Score one for the little guy!Or not. Under international law set forth by the World Trade Organization, governments must apply the same tax treatments to both domestic and foreign products. Trump s plan amounts to an extra tax on TransCanada that domestic drillers, particularly in North Dakota, would escape despite also using the pipeline. There are also problems with his plan usurping Congressional authority on taxes, which is why Congressional Republicans aren t happy about this.However, Trump sees the issue through the lens of his shady business acumen, and not through the realities of international relations and laws, so of course he thinks he can simply make a deal with TransCanada and with Canada itself. Plus, he knows TransCanada is willing to do almost anything to get that pipeline built, so he believes he d have them over a barrel (no pun intended) and could extract whatever concessions he wants from them, international law be damned.There s also the issue of hurting relations with Canada. He s already hurt our relationship with Mexico and would continue to do so as president does he really think alienating the only two countries with which we share land borders is a good idea? Jeffrey Jones, a columnist for Globe and Mail, called this kooky proposal uncomfortably close to nationalization. Jones also said: In fact, why stop at oil pipelines? Mr. Trump could demand a fatter take from natural gas lines or even restaurants and retail stores. And Trump would, because that s how he s going to make America great again. In his mind, the world owes us a ton, and while many might agree, many of those same people don t agree with the tactics he plans to use to make them pay up, including ripping up existing trade agreements like NAFTA.This isn t the first time that Trump has said we need a better deal, on Keystone XL, but, last year, he said that he would approve the pipeline project as is immediately upon taking office. That s since changed, and as long as the U.S. gets the better deal, he doesn t really care about the law. It s a similar situation with what he wants to do with China against international law, but a better deal for us and so he ll find a way to force it.President Obama has repeatedly blocked the construction of Keystone XL because we don t need another environmental disaster waiting to happen running the entire width of the country. In fact, Obama met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about it, and while Trudeau was disappointed that Obama would block Keystone, they both believe action on climate change will depend on both of them working together and making compromises.Trump, on the other hand, thinks climate change is a hoax for a whole host of illogical reasons, not the least of which is because it gets cold and snows in some places in the winter. His motive for wanting to build Keystone XL is purely profit-driven, like any good little corporate mogul s motives would be. At least Obama has solid reasons for opposing Keystone XL. Trump just wants money, money, and more money.The sad thing is that it s not likely that even his idea would make our country rich again. He s thinking about his own profit. Who knows where that money would go should King Trump actually get elected? Given his disregard for all sorts of laws, he d probably find a way to divert that money to his own coffers, at least until he was caught and hauled before an international court over the issue.Good ol Trump. Looking out for the little guy, because that s clearly himself.Featured image by Ralph Freso/Getty Images | 1real |
SHOCKING VIDEO: Congressman Caught In Meltdown Threatening Reporter [Video] | Crazy video of Congressman Alan Grayson going off on a Politico reporter has been released. Grayson appears to be such an elitist and a pompous a@@ when addressing the reporter. | 1real |
U.S. House panel says Puerto Rico bill in limbo as talks continue | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop on Wednesday said Obama administration proposals to change a Puerto Rico debt relief bill are under negotiation, requiring the panel to cancel a Thursday work session on a Republican bill. “The administration is still negotiating on provisions of the legislation, creating uncertainty in both parties,” Bishop said in a prepared statement. He added that “it is unfair to all members to force a vote” in the committee as negotiations continue. Bishop, a Republican, had hoped to work on the legislation Thursday and hold a committee vote that would have sent it to the full House of Representatives for consideration. One congressional source told Reuters that the Thursday session was being canceled because the legislation lacked adequate support in the committee. | 0fake |
Seeing America Through Ángel Franco’s Eyes - The New York Times | Times Insider delivers insights into life at The New York Times. In a large newsroom, the collaboration between a reporter and a photographer often depends on the whims of their respective assigning editors, who calculate strengths, weaknesses, and, most of all, availability. Who’s up to cover that fire? Who’s up to shoot it? The resulting slapdash teamwork between writer and photographer can end as quickly as it began they may work together the next day, or never again. But for many years now, I have been fortunate to work with exceptional New York Times photographers for extended periods of time while writing a national column called “This Land. ” Lately, I have been collaborating with Todd Heisler, a stunningly gifted photographer and a great companion. Before Todd, I traveled for several years beside the recently retired Nicole Bengiveno, whose profound empathy comes through in her camera’s every click, and who deserves some formal commendation for having put up with a certain hack — me — for so long. And before Nicole, there was Ángel Franco, who retired last month to end a storied Times career — and who began the “This Land” column with me 10 years ago this month. The template for our relationship — indeed, for “This Land” — was established in early 2007, as we headed out to do our inaugural column, one on Logan, a small West Virginia city struggling with a fatal mine disaster and the decline of King Coal. Mr. Franco and I began by walking the streets, noticing: the coal train running through the city’s core the dust settling on buildings along the tracks and the Jesus Christ carved from anthracite, prominent in a store’s window display. Noticing — that was the word for it. At one point we went to a small diner, and engaged in a brief exchange with the waitress. After she had taken our order, I asked, “Did you hear what she said?” And Mr. Franco repeated her words exactly: “‘Are we ready yet, children? ’” There it was. As with Todd and Nicole, as with so many other photographers — and may God forgive any reporter who uses the term “my photographer” — Mr. Franco is an attentive observer, witnessing and listening always. In that diner, I knew that my Times colleague embraced the storytelling worth of the small and quiet moment. This is going to be fun, I thought. For the next two years, Mr. Franco and I produced a column a week, just about, and wound up filing dispatches from each of the 50 states. This, of course, was madness. Our weeks would often begin on Monday at Newark Liberty International Airport, and end on Friday, or Saturday, even Sunday, with frantic efforts to figure out where to go to next. Louisiana? Montana? Maine? (The only way we were able to maintain some semblance of sanity, by the way, was by having the great Cate Doty help us with possible story ideas, travel logistics and dinner recommendations she was a full partner in this misbegotten venture. I also owe a debt of gratitude to then National desk editor, Suzanne Daley, and then deputy national editor, David Firestone, both of whom were integral in allowing “This Land” to begin.) You can look it up. We went to a retirement home in Penney Farms, Fla. to visit the coroner in “The Wizard of Oz. ” To Havana, Ill. to report on the Asian carp infesting the Illinois River. To Kalaupapa, Hawaii, to meet the last residents of a colony to which those with leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, were once relegated. To Nashville to witness an execution by electric chair. To Bethel, Alaska, to explore the games of bootleggers. To Bill, Wyo. — population five, maybe — to stay in a new hotel catering to railway workers. To Cottage Grove, Wis. to meet the pastor who baptized Jeffrey Dahmer in a prison whirlpool. To Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to uncover the intrigue at a county fair’s . To Denver, to cover the annual convention of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (where we felt perfectly at home). Kalispell, Mont. Lake Mead, Nev. Ainsworth, Neb. Newport, Ind. Pascagoula, Miss. Greensburg, Kan. Hollywood, Md. Sylva, N. C. The datelines blur into one American story, captured in all its breadth by Mr. Franco and his camera. I often had no idea what to do for the next column. One Saturday morning, while scanning online newspapers for ideas, I noticed a news brief about a farewell breakfast in a V. F. W. hall in Mohave Valley, Ariz. for a high school graduate named Resha Kane. After the meal, she was to be taken by motorcycle escort to Las Vegas, to catch a flight to Fort Hood, where she would begin her Army career in exchange for college tuition. I called my good friend Mr. Franco — who, of course, got it immediately. We flew out the next day, and were present when Ms. Kane, who looked much younger than her 18 years, said her goodbyes. Mr. Franco’s memorable photograph of this young woman in fatigues, saying goodbye to her father — the fear of her unknown, of our unknown, conveyed in her eyes — hangs in the newsroom. Once again he had noticed, and captured, that small and quiet moment. Working closely with Mr. Franco for two years, I could not help but be blown away by his fierce dedication to his art, by his determination to capture a moment’s essence — and by his unflagging reportorial curiosity, which led to my favorite moments on assignment: the evening debriefing. Sitting in a booth at a Chili’s or Texas Roadhouse hard against some interstate, Mr. Franco and I would pore over what we had just seen and heard, comparing notes, dissecting motives, framing The Story to come. One modest testament to Mr. Franco’s art is in how I remember our travels. It’s not my opening paragraphs or closing kickers that I recall, but rather Mr. Franco’s photographs, which return me so completely to the Mississippi despair of a FEMA trailer, to the joy of a small Maine amusement park, to the expansive wonder of a remote South Dakota spot known as the Center of the Nation. It is a rare privilege to see this great country, in all its heartbreaking, wonder, on the dime of your employer. A rarer privilege, still, to have also seen it through the eyes of Ángel Franco. | 0fake |
REPORT: Priebus Withdraws Plans To Prop Trump Up After Hearing His Hateful Immigration Speech | Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus keeps trying to put lipstick on his pig of a presidential nominee. However, he is quickly learning that it just isn t working. Reportedly, Priebus had planned to use the RNC s Twitter account to heap praise upon Trump following his immigration speech. However, as we all know by now, the speech turned out to be a disaster.It was full of nativist, hateful, anti-immigrant rhetoric and renewed talk of so-called deportation forces, as well as language that re-enforced the idea that immigrants are taking over the country and killing Americans. In other words, it was nothing but piece after piece of red meat for his racist, ignorant, hateful base of already-won white supporters. Hell, he even had surrogates whose children had been killed by undocumented immigrants making the rounds in the news media the next day.However, the speech backfired. So much, in fact that half of Trump s Hispanic Outreach Advisory Board is either reconsidering or outright withdrawing their support (well, at least the ones who aren t afraid of taco trucks on every corner ). To that end, Priebus was unable to do as he had planned and try and make Trump s immigration speech look good and presidential to the American people.When will Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan, and all the rest of the GOP leadership learn? Trump might have won that nomination fair and square, but that doesn t mean he is qualified for the job of President of the United States. Donald Trump is like a toddler that Priebus and Ryan and all the rest are trying to potty train he ll do well and poop in his training pot here and there, but for the most part, he still takes his biggest dumps in his pull-ups, and they have to clean it up.Well, there s no cleaning this one up, boys. Trump s a racist demagogue, a charlatan who is unfit to hold the office he seeks, and nothing you tell the American people, nothing he reads from any teleprompter, can change that.Featured image via Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images | 1real |
PRINCE CHARLES Uses Christmas Radio Broadcast To Ask British To Remember Mohammed | Christmas the perfect time to pander to Muslims There is a reason his mother never let him be King. During a recent radio broadcast, Charles, Britain s Prince of Wales, told his listeners that Christians should give thoughts to the prophet Mohammed during this Christmas season.Clip via The Telegraph Normally at Christmas, we think of the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, he said on Radio 4 s Thoughts for the Day. I wonder though if this year we might remember how the story of the nativity unfolds, with the fleeing of the holy family to escape violent persecution. The crown prince then likened that event to Mohammed traveling to Medina in search of converts. And we might also remember that when the prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina he was seeking the freedom for himself and his followers to worship. Prince Charles then claimed that all religious groups want the same thing the ability to live and worship in peace and to allow others to do the same. Whichever religious path we follow, the destination is the same to value and respect the other person, accepting their right to live out their peaceful response to the love of God, he said.The Prince of Wales then appeared to go after both president-elect Donald Trump s populist message as well as Great Britain s departure from the European Union based, in part, on the influx of immigrants from Middle Eastern Countries. We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith. All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s, he said. BPR | 1real |
Focus on search and rescue, restoring power after Irma: U.S. official | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal officials were focused on Monday on search and rescue operations and restoring power to millions of people after Hurricane Irma tore across the Florida Keys before moving north up the state with high winds and heavy rains, the acting Homeland Security secretary said. Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke told CNN 200,000 people remained in shelters and more than 5 million were without power, but the top priority was search and rescue as daylight revealed the damage from the storm overnight. Today will be our first time to get a glimpse of it. We do have flying weather and as the sun rises we ll be able to take a look at the Keys especially where we have the most area of concern, she said. | 0fake |
FEEL THE BERN! Watch Bernie Sanders’ Supporters Embarrassed By Their Own Hypocrisy In Hysterical “Gotcha” Video | Roger Simon of PJ Media asks Bernie Sanders supporters at a recent rally why they re supporting him. They all seem to be in agreement that one of the primary reasons for supporting Bernie is because they believe he will stick it to the billionaire s in America. Because in the end, it s all about getting more free stuff and someone s gotta pay for it right?Watch their priceless reactions when they find out who s funding the rally they re attending: | 1real |
Congressman Who Said He Couldn’t Look His Daughter In The Eye And Endorse Trump Is Voting Trump | By Jameson Parker Feminist Issues , News October 26, 2016 Congressman Who Said He Couldn’t Look His Daughter In The Eye And Endorse Trump Is Voting Trump 9143 Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Thumb through the pages of the dictionary until you find the word “craven” and a picture of Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz’s picture will probably greet you. In a year full of pathetic spinelessness from Republicans, his efforts seem to stand out.
It’s hard to imagine a congressman doing more damage to his lasting reputation than Chaffetz pulled off on October 26th, 2016 – a date that will live in infamy. First, news broke that Chaffetz was already prepping for a Clinton White House by pre-planning two years worth of senseless investigations in a shameless attempt to destroy any chance of her – or congress – accomplishing anything. And yet sadly that story was only half of the reason why Chaffetz singlehandedly proved Mark Twain wasn’t kidding when he quipped “Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress, but then I repeat myself.” Congressman Chaffetz is a very big idiot.
A little over one week after Chaffetz tried to score some cheap political points by unendorsing Donald Trump following the release of an audio tape in which the Republican nominee bragged about sexual assault, he sent out a tweet clarifying that when he said he wouldn’t endorse or defend Trump, he never said he wouldn’t vote for him. I will not defend or endorse @realDonaldTrump , but I am voting for him. HRC is that bad. HRC is bad for the USA.
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 27, 2016
What’s the distinction between “endorsing” and “voting for” you ask? Well, for Jason Chaffetz it’s like when you want to bake a cake but you also want to eat it too. See? Simple. Chaffetz is a very, very big idiot.
Making Chaffetz’s cowardice all the more apparent is the reason why he said he was unendorsing Trump in the first place. Like the rest of the country, he heard Trump’s boasts about grabbing women’s genitals and found it abhorrent. He also said he couldn’t face his 15-year-old daughter and support a potential sexual predator like Trump.
“I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president. It is some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possibly imagine. My wife and I, we have a 15-year-old daughter, and if I can’t look her in the eye and tell her these things, I can’t endorse this person.”
So to be perfectly clear, Jason Chaffetz, Republican congressman from Utah, can’t look his daughter in the eye and endorse Donald Trump, but he can stare her straight in the face and say “Dad just voted for this monster.”
Nice work, Jason. You pathetic, small man. I’m forwarding your congressional photo to Webster’s.
Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Share this Article! | 1real |
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