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E3 Hands-On with ’Agents of Mayhem’: ’Saints Row’ Follow-Up Feels Criminally Underwhelming - Breitbart | Volition stakes its Seoul on the success of this successor to the world of Saints Row, but Agents of Mayhem doesn’t leave a great first impression. [Agents of Mayhem takes place in a Row future, though it’s unclear just how much influence that the purple gangsters of developer Volition’s previous crime series have had on the “MAYHEM” . Still, their membership includes both Pierce and the (and presumably resurrected) Johnny Gat from previous Saints games, so we aren’t straying too far from Volition’s ongoing universe of sandbox mayhem. After the viral success of Saints Row 4‘s hijinks, the development team has decided to double down on slapstick anarchy. Agents of Mayhem offers at least ten different playable characters, each with their own skills, strengths, weaknesses, and upgrade paths. Choosing the right three for a given mission, which you can then switch between playing as on the fly, into a futuristic parody of Seoul will be crucial to success. Mission difficulty is extremely scalable, allowing you to balance risk versus reward before you’ve pulled the trigger. On the ground, swapping between said squadmates is instantaneous and allows for powerful combinations of both active and passive abilities. It’s more than choosing the right weapon for the job — knowing who is better at disrupting shields, who can punch through armor, and who has a penchant for computer hacking is an important part of deciding who hits the streets. Vehicle gameplay doesn’t look especially impressive or robust, but it remains present. Whether or not it’s worth the time to slip into one of the many vehicles on the streets of Seoul remains to be seen, but Saints Row 4 rendered automotive transportation utterly pointless with its hijinks so there may not be much reason for concern. Agents of Mayhem recalls nothing so much as an especially crude Saturday morning cartoon, with easily as many as bullets. Volition’s recent games have always had a sense of humor that can be hit or miss, but the humor is (mostly) endearing. Agents of Mayhem doesn’t stick with me as much as past efforts in the demo I played, but I could see myself growing attached to members of the crew given time. Unfortunately, the game’s promise seems to have stalled after the concept stage. When I sat down to actually play, I found a game that felt like the leftover missions from an title, with none of the freedom that implies. Though my team was aesthetically different, playing each of them was an exercise in holding down the trigger until the bloated life bars of faceless enemies depleted, and I moved to the next checkpoint. There were hints of progression — you can collect vehicles, experience, and shards. But the vehicles felt pointless, and I didn’t have enough time with the game to stretch my legs with some of the advancement. Switching between characters has all the gravity of weapon swapping. On one hand, it wasn’t cumbersome. On the other, it just didn’t seem to matter very much. The game’s visuals were similarly uninspired. Everything is just a little too smooth. Character models are simple, stiffly animated, and overly shiny, making the game feel more like an HD remake of a title than the heir apparent to a beloved franchise. The animated cutscenes felt more like a storyboard for real cinematics than something to ship with a finished title. As an ardent fan of the Saints Row franchise, Agents of Mayhem felt criminally underwhelming. Given some time in the open world, with a wider variety of team members and the opportunity to play with the character advancement system, my opinion could change. For now, however, all it did was make me wish for a true successor to the absurdly creative GTA knockoff that inspired it. | 0fake |
FEDERAL JUDGE STEPS IN To Review Legroom On Commercial Flights | Firebrand conservative Ann Coulter exposed Delta Airlines who gave away a seat she had to pay extra for in order to accommodate her very long legs.Conservative columnist Ann Coulter flew into a fit of fury Saturday after Delta Airlines booted her from her reserved Comfort+ seat which comes with 3 additional inches of legroom and gave it to another passenger.In a two-hour tweeting tantrum,she quoted her exchange with a flight attendant: Why are you taking me out of the extra room seat I specifically booked? she asked.Their answer, she said, was I don t know. Here s an example of one of Coulter s tweets exposing Delta Airlines for giving her pre-paid seat with extra legroom away to a shorter passenger:Suckiest @Delta moved me from my PRE-BOOKED SEAT & gave it to some woman, not elderly, child, or sick. I have pictures so don t lie, @Delta! Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017Ann Coulter isn t the only person fed up with the shrinking seats on commercial airlines. Taller passengers are tired of traveling with their knees into their chest or being forced to sit sideways to accommodate their longer legs. And we haven t even discussed the limited room in seats for people who may be a little wider in the caboose. It appears that the federal government has decided to step in and flex their muscles, as they attempt to control decisions private airlines make about the size of their seats.Is it the government s job to determine how much space commercial airlines designate for their customers?A federal judge has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to review seat sizes and legroom on commercial airlines.It s a victory for Flyers Rights, an advocacy group that has pushed for new rules regulating seat sizes.Flyers Rights says small airlines seats can put people s health at risk with conditions like blood clots in legs.They also say the average size of the seat itself has shrunk, along with space between the one behind.According to a report by Business Insider, the major airline that has the most space between seats is JetBlue, with 34 inches apart.The airline that boasted the least room was Spirit, with 28 inches between seats.Delta Air Lines and American Airlines were in the middle, with 31 inches between seats. Virgin America and Southwest had 32 inches, according to the report. CBS Minnesota | 1real |
LIBERAL SMACKDOWN! Sean Spicer Zings Reporter Over Trump’s Comey Tweet [Video] | The faux outrage from the press over any and every move that President Trump makes is getting so old! Just ask Sean Spicer He showed his awareness of the ridiculousness of the press with this SMACKDOWN of a reporter during his press conference today:I love how Spicer dismisses the biased media and moves on. This is exactly how you have to deal with them. #PressBriefing pic.twitter.com/q5E50HZPXb Alex (@SoCal4Trump) May 12, 2017HERE ARE SOME OF OUR FAVORITE SPICER MOMENTS:Everyone who has ever watched a Sean Spicer press conference has witnessed the melt down and completely childish behavior of the leftist media. This video perfectly illustrates how childish our media acts and how Sean Spicer responds to them, as though he s talking to a group of kindergarten students.Hilarious!This is by far the funniest video I've EVER seen showing WH reporters behaving like kindergartners. LMAO #FlashbackFriday pic.twitter.com/X9PO7oOnOg Cris (@ThePatriot143) April 7, 2017WE THINK SEAN SPICER LEADS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR THE BEST ZINGERS HERE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITES:SHE GOT SPICED! White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer zinged Alexis Simendinger after the Real Clear Politics reporter whined to Spicer to call on her fellow commie from the New York Times.The mainstream media is clearly a leftist clique united against the Trump administration. On Thursday, Spicer called on Simendinger during a heated press briefing.Instead of asking her own question, Alexis snarked: Could you help us all by calling on Peter right now? Could you call on the New York Times, please? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dT68A4lQXUCNN continues to trail the other two news networks in ratings Here s why: Wolf Blitzer was interviewing the RNC s Sean Spicer and kept pushing the false narrative that Trump is tied to neo-Nazi groups. Spicer finally got sick and tired Blitzer asking the same question to push the narrative and blew up at him CNN is Disgusting!You ve Asked Me Eight Times!Sean Spicer Blows Up When Wolf Blitzer (Wolfie the blinker) Pushes on Neo-Nazis #CrookedMedia pic.twitter.com/Gf57Wv6WyI TRUMP ANOMALY (@ANOMALY1) November 23, 2016 | 1real |
New ISIS video shows Paris attackers committing prior atrocities, threatening UK | A new video released by the ISIS terror group late Sunday shows nine of the extremists who carried out the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris beheading and shooting captives, as well as training with weapons while plotting the carnage that left 130 dead in the French capital.
The 17-minute video shows the extent of the planning that went into the multiple attacks in Paris, which French authorities have said from the beginning was planned in Syria. The video was provided online by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.
The video does not contain any footage of the attacks themselves, but is assembled from material shot before the men left for Paris, as well as news and amateur videos. The video did not specify where the nine men were filmed, but it was believed to have been in ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.
The video also contains threats against the United Kingdom, showing images of London landmarks Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral and claiming extremists are ready to strike "anytime, anywhere." At one point, the image of British Prime Minister David Cameron is shown with a crosshair over his face.
A narrator describes the terrorists as "nine lions of the caliphate who were mobilised from their lairs to make a whole country, France, get down on its knees."
Seven of the attackers — four from Belgium and three from France — spoke fluent French. The two others — identified by their noms de guerre as Iraqis — spoke in Arabic.
Seven of the militants, including a 20-year-old who was the youngest of the group, were filmed standing behind bound captives, described as "apostates," who were either beheaded or shot.
Among those who can be seen in the video are Bilal Hadfi, who blew himself up outside France's national stadium on that deadly Friday night.
"You destroy our homes and kill our fathers, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, our children," Hadfi says in a message directed at the members of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.
"Soon on the Champs-Elysées," says Samy Amimour, who was raised in a Paris suburb near the French national stadium, as he holds a captive's head aloft.
One militant, Brahim Abdeslam, is seen at a makeshift shooting range. Abdeslam, whose brother Salah fled Paris that night and remains at large, blew himself up at a Paris cafe where he was the only victim. Salah Abdeslam is not seen in the video.
The Nov. 13 attacks targeted a packed concert hall, a restaurant and cafe, and a soccer match at the national stadium.
Immediately after the attacks, French President Francois Hollande imposed a nationwide state of emergency that is to remain in place until Feb. 26. Hollande has asked for an extension and reiterated that request Monday.
"No threat will give France pause in what it must do against terrorist. And if I have taken steps to extend the state of emergency, it is because I am aware of the threat and that we will not concede," Hollande said in response to the video.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said the government is studying the video but would not comment on its contents.
According to the anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, Brahim Abdeslam and two other attackers were trained in Raqqa, the extremist group's stronghold and the capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate.
In the video, as in other ISIS propaganda trying to drive a wedge between European Muslims and their governments, the men say it is a religious duty to join them. They threaten more attacks in Europe, and the footage closes with one of the militants holding a severed head and footage of Cameron giving a speech — with a text in English warning that whoever stands with the unbelievers "will be a target for our swords."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Nigeria ex-vice president prepared to run for presidency in 2019 | ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is prepared to run for the presidency in 2019, his spokesman told Reuters on Friday. The former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari quit the ruling party earlier on Friday, saying it had failed. | 0fake |
Less Defiant Trump at The Times: ‘I Hope We Can All Get Along’ - The New York Times | On Twitter Tuesday morning, Donald J. Trump was the firebrand many of his supporters adore, denouncing The New York Times as a “failing” institution that covered him inaccurately — “and with a nasty tone!” Eight hours later, after a lunchtime interview with editors and reporters for The Times — one that was briefly canceled, after Mr. Trump quarreled over the ground rules, then restored — the mood of the it seemed, had mellowed. “The Times is a great, great American jewel,” Mr. Trump declared as he prepared to leave the gathering in the newspaper’s boardroom, where portraits of former presidents adorn the walls. “A world jewel,” added Mr. Trump, who was seated next to Arthur Sulzberger Jr. the paper’s publisher. “And I hope we can all get along. ” In an extraordinary meeting — parrying, debating and, at times, joking with the leaders of a publication that has long been an object of Mr. Trump’s fascination and frustration — the ’s chameleonlike approach to the news media was on full display. Mr. Trump is inclined to label himself aggrieved and betrayed by a “dishonest” news media, barring some reporters from his rallies and claiming that news outlets were trying to rig the election. Only a day earlier, Mr. Trump assailed the nation’s most prominent television news anchors and producers in a tense meeting at Trump Tower. But the who arrived at The Times on Tuesday was more solicitous and measured, a handshaking businessman intent on finding common ground. He dismissed his earlier talk of strengthening libel laws, telling the assembled journalists, “I think you’ll be O. K. ” He expressed interest in improving his relationship with the paper, saying, “I think it would make the job I am doing much easier. ” “To me,” Mr. Trump said at one point, “it would be a great achievement if I could come back here in a year or two, and have a lot of folks here say, ‘You’ve done a great job. ’” Since his younger days as a Manhattan arriviste, Mr. Trump has cultivated a talent for both courting and condemning the press — sometimes in the same breath. The gossip columnist Liz Smith recalled Mr. Trump once threatening to buy her newspaper — “in order to have the pleasure of firing me” — before warmly inviting her to his wedding. It was clear on Tuesday, however, that any new conciliatory approach toward the news media would have its limits. “I think I’ve been treated very rough,” Mr. Trump said, as he spent the first several minutes of the session criticizing The Times’s coverage. “I’ve been treated extremely unfairly, in a sense, in a true sense. ” “I will say The Times is about the roughest of all,” Mr. Trump said. Then, referring to his relationship with the paper, he added: “I would like to turn it around. I think it would make the job I am doing much easier. ” The had sounded less gracious Tuesday morning when he abruptly called off his meeting at The Times in a Twitter post, contending that the paper had changed its terms for how the conversation could be reported. A Times spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy, said the paper had made no such changes, and said that Mr. Trump’s team requested on Monday that the meeting be off the record — a request The Times declined. Three people with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s deliberations said that Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff, had tried to scuttle the meeting at The Times by telling Mr. Trump, erroneously, that the newspaper was shifting its terms. Mr. Priebus had been among those urging the to cancel his interview because he could face questions he might not be prepared to answer, these people said. (A spokesman for Mr. Trump declined to comment on Mr. Priebus’s role.) By midmorning, the meeting was back on, with both sides confirming that Mr. Trump and members of his staff would attend. The meeting coincided with the paper’s annual State of The Times address as the publisher and top executives presented the company’s strategy, Secret Service agents patrolled The Times’s lobby, which filled with people, including a throng of photographers, in anticipation of Mr. Trump’s arrival. Before the lunch, Mr. Trump met privately for about 15 minutes with Mr. Sulzberger, a meeting that Ms. Murphy described as short and cordial. At lunch — where salmon, beef tenderloin and squash were on the menu, although the and many of the journalists did not eat — Mr. Trump seemed unconcerned about criticism of Breitbart News, the conservative website that embraced his candidacy and whose former chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, is now his chief strategist. Breitbart, which features articles about violent migrants in Europe, has warned of a wave of “ crime,” and has been denounced as racist, and xenophobic. Mr. Trump called it “just a newspaper, essentially. ” Pressed about the concerns of Jewish groups and others about Breitbart’s coverage under Mr. Bannon, Mr. Trump seemed to sidestep the question. “Breitbart really is a news organization that has become quite successful,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s got readers, and it does cover subjects on the right, but it covers subjects on the left also. It’s a pretty big thing. ” The final question of the lunch carried implications for every news outlet that plans to cover the administration of a man who has boasted that he would change laws to make it easier for Americans to sue for libel: Is a President Trump committed to the First Amendment? “Oh, I was hoping he wasn’t going to ask that,” Mr. Trump replied with a smile. “Actually,” the added, “somebody said to me on that, they said, ‘You know, it’s a great idea softening up those laws, but you may get sued a lot more.’ I said, ‘You know, you’re right, I never thought of that. ’” “I think you’ll be O. K.,” Mr. Trump added, suggesting that he would not modify libel laws, although he did not offer a definitive stance one way or the other. By Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump had not yet posted on Twitter his opinion of how things went at The Times. But during the lunch, he made a confession: He remains a regular reader. “I do read it — unfortunately,” the said. “I’d live about 20 years longer if I didn’t. ” | 0fake |
Republican Senate candidate Moore hit by sexual misconduct allegations | (Reuters) - A woman has accused Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Alabama, of initiating a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 years old and he was 32, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, prompting top Republicans to say he should step aside if the allegations prove true. Moore, 70, the state’s former chief judge, vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “completely false and a desperate political attack.” U.S. President Donald Trump would want Moore to step aside if the allegations against him are true, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Friday. “Like most Americans, the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” Sanders said. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside,” she said, as Trump arrived in Vietnam on his 12-day Asia tour. In a series of Twitter posts later in the day, Moore cast the published allegations against him part of a bid to “silence and shut up Christian conservatives like you and me,” adding “I will NEVER GIVE UP the fight!” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, working with a slim 52-48 majority, called on Moore to drop out of the race “if these allegations are true.” Several other Republicans, including Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Utah Senator Mike Lee, all of whom endorsed Moore, echoed that sentiment. At least two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and John Thune of South Dakota, said Moore should step aside immediately, with McCain calling the accusations “deeply disturbing and disqualifying.” Leigh Corfman, now 53, told the Post she met Moore at a courthouse in 1979 when Moore offered to keep her company on a bench outside of a hearing room while her mother was inside for child custody proceeding. Moore, at the time an assistant district attorney, asked for the girl’s phone number and days later took her to his house, where they engaged in sexual activity before she asked to be taken home, Corfman said. The story also quoted three other women who said Moore dated them when they were between 16 and 18 years of age and he was in his early 30s, though none said they had sexual contact with Moore. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the allegations. The Moore campaign accused the Post of colluding with Democrats to tarnish his reputation with false accusations. The Post said none of the women had donated to or worked for Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, or for his Republican primary rivals, and that Corfman said she had voted for Republicans in the past three presidential elections, including for Donald Trump in 2016. Moore has consistently led in polls over Jones. He was considered a heavy favorite in deeply Republican Alabama in the Dec. 12 special election to fill the seat of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It remains to be see whether Thursday’s allegations can buoy Jones’ long-shot bid, which would represent a major upset for Democrats and narrow Republicans’ current edge in the Senate. Jones’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Post story. No matter what happens, Moore will remain on the ballot on Dec. 12 since a candidate’s name cannot be removed within 76 days of the election, according to the office of Alabama’s secretary of state. If, however, the state party tells election officials that it wants to withdraw its nominee, or if Moore himself decided to do so, election officials would not certify any votes cast for Moore. Write-in candidates are also allowed under state law. Alabama political strategist David Mowery, who has worked for candidates of both parties, said the chance of Moore bowing out of the race was “less than zero,” and that it was almost as improbable for state party officials to abandon him in favor of a last-minute write-in candidate. Mowery cited Moore’s overwhelming popularity with Alabama’s Republican voters, who he said would tend to distrust allegations published in the Post. Nevertheless, he said Democrats would seize on the scandal to boost fund-raising. Moore, who has made his moral and religious beliefs the heart of his pitch to voters, prevailed over several Republican opponents in a closely contested primary that saw Trump, McConnell and most Senate Republicans support the incumbent who had been appointed to Sessions’ seat, Luther Strange. The race exposed rifts between the Republican Party’s conservative base and its Washington-based establishment. Moore’s candidacy was heavily promoted by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who has vowed to support grassroots challengers next year to take on Republican incumbents. On several occasions, Moore has made controversial statements and taken positions that have cost him his job. He has condemned homosexuality and said he believes some U.S. communities are living under Islamic religious law. He first became a national figure in the early 2000s, when he lost his position as Alabama chief justice after refusing a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from outside the courthouse. After winning his position back in 2012, he was again forced out after defying the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage by ordering probate judges not to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On his Senate campaign website, Moore said he was suspended “for upholding the sanctity of marriage as between one man and one woman.” | 0fake |
U.S. officials say about 5-6 million customers without power after Irma | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five million to 6 million power customers lack electricity after Hurricane Irma swept through the Florida and other parts of the U.S. southeast, leaving about 15 million people without power, federal emergency officials said on Tuesday. Obviously, power restoration is one of the biggest goals, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long told reporters at a news conference. He added that he was traveling to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to meet with their governors later on Tuesday. | 0fake |
Iowa Racist: I Beat That Man Because I’m ‘Allergic To Black People’ (VIDEO) | With the rise of Donald Trump, America s racists are coming out of the woodwork in droves. They are also becoming increasingly violent. Yet another incident of racist violence comes to us from Iowa City, Iowa, where a man wearing a surgical mask attacked a black man. Authorities were called to the scene due to a fight, only to find out it was a racist attack.The attacker, Andy Benavidez, 47, told police that the attack was racially motivated. Benavidez hurled racist epithets at his victim, all the while physically assaulting him. The most bizarre part of all was, of course, the surgical mask, and the suspect informed police that the reason for his wearing it was so that he wouldn t be contaminated by black people germs.Benavidez is facing assault charges for his crime, and thanks to the fact that he has admitted that he did it because he is a flaming racist, a hate crime charge will be attached as well.This sort of thing will only get worse as people are given cause to spew their hatred and lash out in violence. It will only be a matter of time before this is a regular and even expected occurrence.Watch a local news report on the attack below:Featured image via video screen capture from CBS 2 Iowa | 1real |
Top Trump Minion Calls For Imprisoning The Editor Of The New York Times | In a direct assault on the free press, one of Donald Trump s top advisers literally called for putting the editor of the New York Times in jail for publishing Trump s tax returns.As you may recall, the New York Times came into possession of Trump s 1995 tax return that showed he wrote off a $900 million business loss that may have allowed him to not not any federal income taxes for two decades.Trump notoriously refused to release his tax returns throughout the entire campaign so it was only a matter of time before a media platform got hold of them and published them for everyone to see. After all, it s the duty of the free press to get information to the people, and most Americans wanted Trump to release his tax documents.Baquet and Washington Post legend Bob Woodward both said they would risk jail by publishing Trump s taxes if they ever got possession of them.Not publishing Trump s tax returns would have been a disservice to the American people and would have basically been a cover-up on Trump s behalf.But Corey Lewandowski says that not only should the New York Times have buried the story, executive editor Dean Baquet should be put behind bars for doing his job.During a Harvard University conference on Thursday, Lewandowski attacked the media, accused the New York Times of committing a felony and said Baquet should be jailed, thus signaling that Trump and his team intend to violate the First Amendment at will when he assumes power in January. We had one of the top people at the New York Times come to Harvard University and say, I m willing to go to jail to get a copy of Donald Trump s taxes so I can publish them, Lewandowski said. Dean Baquet came here and offered to go to jail. You re telling me, he s willing to commit a felony on a private citizen to post his taxes, and there isn t enough scrutiny on the Trump campaign and his business dealings and his taxes? It s egregious. He should be in jail. So one of Trump s top minions literally wants to jail journalists for doing their job, especially if they publish stories that Trump does not like. We re talking about publishing the facts here.When the New York Times criticized Hillary Clinton you didn t hear Trump call for jailing journalists then. And that because he s okay with using the media to attack his opponents. He only wants to silence journalists when they publish negative stories about him. That s what dictators do, and that is exactly what Trump wants to be.Featured Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
Sorry Gov. Kasich, ‘Electability’ Is Bunk | No, not the number of primaries he’s won, or the number of votes he’s gotten, or the number of delegates he has. I mean the poll numbers that show the Ohio governor is well ahead of Hillary Clinton in a November matchup, while she beats mogul Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz. There’s even one that shows him dead even with Clinton in the deep, deep-blue state of New Jersey. Isn’t that exactly the kind of candidate delegates would and should turn to if they become unbound after the first ballot? Well, that’s his argument anyway.
Sorry, Gov. Kasich, but history says you’re wrong. And there may be good reasons why the “I’m electable” argument is less potent than it might appear.
For party delegates deciding how much “electability” matters, it’s important to remember that such springtime numbers have a fragile half-life. As Trump’s supporters keep reminding us, Ronald Reagan was running anywhere from 18 to 23 points behind President Jimmy Carter in the spring of 1980. One reason ex-President Gerald Ford flirted with entering the race—apart from a grudge from 1976—was that, as Time magazine noted at the time, “Ford shares the fears of many Republicans that Reagan cannot win if the Democrats re-nominate Jimmy Carter.”
Then in 1992, even as Bill Clinton was firming his grip on the nomination, the polls told a dismal story about his prospective election. In June, he was running third behind President George H.W. Bush and—in first place—Texas businessman Ross Perot. (Note: Springtime polls often elevate independent candidates—in 1980, John Anderson was running as high as 24 per cent against Carter and Reagan.) So there’s reason for Republicans looking at Kasich to be skeptical about these numbers.
Even if the numbers are sound, there’s a reason that they might spell out the wrong strategy for the campaign: "Electability" isn't the message that galvanizes a party base, and for good reason.
In 2000, every survey showed that Sen. John McCain would run far better against Vice President Al Gore than did George W. Bush. Around the time of New Hampshire, McCain had an 8-point lead, while Bush and Gore ran even.
But McCain was a heretic. He opposed the mammoth tax cuts proposed by Bush and congressional Republicans, preferring to see some of the surplus—yes, there was a surplus back then—go toward reducing the debt. And he’d teamed up with Sen. Russ Feingold, the most liberal Democrat in the Senate, to write a bill banning most soft money from campaigns (this was the law ultimately eviscerated by the Supreme Court).
That’s one of the reasons McCain won Republican voters only in New Hampshire and in his home state of Arizona. His margins elsewhere came from independents. For Republicans, he did not represent them as well as Bush did.
And that goes to the heart of the issue. A party is more than a collection of individuals looking for an appealing candidate: It's an organization searching for the person who the best embodies their beliefs. When the party faithful—the people who are delegates—pull the lever, they're going to be thinking about what kind of Republican Party they want, not just which horse is likely to finish first.
It makes sense for the party to think this way. Why? Because choosing a nominee simply on the basis of electability may wind up impeding the goals of that party’s base. Dwight Eisenhower was far more electable than conservative hero Robert Taft in 1952, but his two landslide elections wound up solidifying the expansion of the federal government under FDR and Harry S. Truman rather than advancing the agenda of the Republican Party. From the perspective of a Republican loyalist opposed to that expansion, Ike’s victories achieved almost nothing. (And if you throw in his appointment of Earl Warren and William Brennan, two of the most liberal Supreme Court justices in history, you could well argue that Eisenhower’s terms greatly expanded the liberal cause.)
That’s why The New Republic in 2012 could look back on that era and conclude that the “relationship between the 1950s conservative movement and its contemporaneous Republican president was one of mutual ill-will. Conservatives had expected that Eisenhower, as the first Republican president since 1932, would repeal the New Deal; instead he augmented and expanded programs like Social Security, thereby giving them bipartisan legitimacy. … He approved anti-recessionary stimulus spending, extended unemployment compensation, and raised the minimum wage. He pioneered federal aid to education and created the largest public-works program in history in the form of the interstate highway system. He levied gasoline taxes to pay for the highway construction, and believed that cutting income taxes when the federal government was running a deficit would be an act of gross fiscal irresponsibility.”
From that perspective, it’s unimaginable that today’s GOP, which is far more conservative than it was in Ike’s time, would turn to such an ideologically suspect candidate no matter how “electable” he or she was. In that sense, the GOP base shares the view expressed by ex-Sen. Jim DeMint when he said he’d rather have 30 strong conservatives than 50 centrist Republicans. And a lot of Republican delegates will be thinking just that way as they head into the convention in Cleveland in July.
By contrast, Bernie Sanders—who in some polls runs better against Trump and Cruz than does Clinton—has at least a plausible argument that his candidacy better reflects where the Democrats are going—left—and that the new, younger voters he would draw make a good fit with that direction. For Sanders, the electability argument could work—but only because he’s already made the liberal base happy.
There is one thing that Kasich does have in his favor, however: the argument that Trump doesn’t really channel the party base either, at least when it comes to ideas. Trump too is an apostate on free trade, which has been a core GOP plank until now, and seemingly on health care. Trump also may have done himself no favors by embracing an exception to the draconian abortion plank of the GOP platform. It may appeal to independents, but that’s not where the base of the party is—at least, not if you judge by the past 32 years of party platforms.
But despite his long history in the conservative movement, especially as a key player in the rise of Newt Gingrich as House speaker in the 1990s, Kasich has come to be seen as a heretic too; his decision to accept Medicaid expansion made him a pariah to those in his party who believe that anything associated with “Obama-health-care-idea” should be shunned like the devil’s brew. A year ago he told a few of us journalists that “I think I have the right to try to define what conservatism means.” But if the primaries are any evidence, he has failed to do that with the rank and file of his own party.
Kasich’s argument that he has governed as a conservative has had no impact in a primary where the experience of governing is apparently seen as a liability (as Scott Walker, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush learned). He has tried, for example, to argue that his Medicaid expansion is conservative at heart—it saves money, it keeps lower-income workers off welfare, it gets drug addicts out of jail and into treatment, in the spirit of conservative support of prison reform. But this argument has found no resonance in his party.
Moreover, Cruz’s constant pursuit of a “no enemies to the right” strategy has made it all but impossible for the Ohio governor to make any inroads among true believing conservatives.
Kasich has almost no line to the nomination, but if he’s to have any hope at all he ought to minimize his electability pitch and rejuvenate the idea that he speaks for the base. Because they’re the ones who will decide, and right now they’re thinking of the vote that happens in July, not the one in November. | 0fake |
TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS | Home › HEALTH › TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS 10 SHARES
[10/29/16] Indoor farming is quickly becoming a growing trend because of consumers’ mistrust in GMOs, the yearning to buy as local as possible, and a decline in usable land. There are a variety of indoor farming options available, including incubators that grow plants for households and vertical hydroponic systems that can churn out huge amounts of produce in warehouses.
The latter is likely what would be used at Target, who has announced that they will be testing out a vertical farming system starting in Spring 2017. The trials will be done at different locations across the country that have not yet been announced, but the store plans on starting out with leafy greens and possibly building their way up to potatoes, beets, and zucchini.
Target collaborated with IDEO and the MIT Media Lab and created Food + Future coLab , a group that is “pushing the edges of technology, business, and design to create new, impactful ventures” that change the way we know and create food. They have been researching in-store micro-farming for over a year and their findings will finally be put to the test next year. Greg Shewmaker, one of the entrepreneurs at the coLab, said,
“Because it’s MIT, they have access to some of these seed banks around the world, so we’re playing with ancient varietals of different things, like tomatoes that haven’t been grown in over a century, different kinds of peppers, things like that, just to see if it’s possible.” Post navigation | 1real |
Duterte Pulls a 180: China to Build Fake Islands Right Off Philippine Coast | Duterte Pulls a 180: China to Build Fake Islands Right Off Philippine Coast Underground Reporter
( UR ) Beijing — In a move signaling a point of no return in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent pivot to China, it was reported Tuesday the Philippines have granted a state-owned Chinese infrastructure group the right to build artificial islands in the South China Sea — they very practice Duterte’s predecessor had sought to restrict via U.N. intervention.
“China Communication Construction Company (CCCC), a State-owned infrastructure group, recently signed a contract with the Philippines’ Mega Harbour Port and Development Inc. to conduct a 208-hectare land reclamation project in Davao’s harbour,” wrote China’s state-run People’s Daily .
To be built just off the Philippines’ southern coast by “moving sediment from the seafloor to a reef,” the four islands “will be used for government offices, businesses, residences, ports and industrial land.”
The CCCC Dredging chairman stated “the project will elevate cooperation between China and the Philippines’ port construction companies to a new height” and that he “expects the project to become a model for future cooperation between the two nations.”
It was barely three months ago that a United Nations arbitration court ruled China’s nearly all-encompassing claim of territorial rights to the South China Sea was invalid. That case had been brought by the administration of Duterte’s predecessor, President Benigno Aquino, because China had begun to construct artificial islands in those waters.
Such a drastic shift in policy — and the, admittedly, somewhat puzzling nature of it — was remarked on by Steve Mollman who, writing for Quartz , reported on the new China-Philippines deal on Thursday:
“You’d think that rewarding China’s dredging sector would be the last thing the Philippines wants to do. After all, in recent years Chinese dredging ships have been an unwelcome presence in parts of the South China Sea near the Philippines, helping to build islands atop reefs that then became Chinese military bases, complete with runways and ports.”
South China Sea, with Paracel and Spratly Islands. [Public domain]
Indeed, for awhile it appeared the navies of China and the United States — who physically intervened on the side of the Philippines — would succumb to all-out war in the South China Sea.
Tensions have since deescalated considerably, however, due in large part to the fact that Duterte, who’s officially announced he intends for his country’s future to unfold within the Chinese sphere of influence, has taken away the one thing the U.S. needed to stick its nose in the affairs of the region — an excuse.
“In this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,” Duterte said while speaking at the Great Hall of the People during a historic trip to Beijing last week.
In that speech, the Filipino president made his reasoning for the pivot quite clear. “America has lost,” he said flatly. He made equally clear he wants to be a part of what he feels is the winning side: “I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to talk to (Russian President) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world — China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.”
So Duterte is now allowing China to build fake islands in the South China Sea.
That statement, in itself, is enough to raise the eyebrows of people following the developments in that region. And with regard to the South China Sea dispute — on the Philippines front, at least — Duterte, in a very real sense, is right. American has lost. Because, after all, it’s awfully hard to convince folks of Chinese aggression when China and the country in question are cooperating voluntarily. | 1real |
Сможет ли Трамп положить конец потоку нелегального оружия в Сирию? | Новое восточное обозрение | Регион: США в мире Как отмечает в своей новой статье ветеран боевых действий США Гордон Даф, остается до сих пор неясно, как Трамп собирается навести порядок с непрекращающимся потоком американского высокоточного оружия в Сирию, когда он находится в прекрасных отношениях с Тель-Авивом, который поддерживает террористическую группировку ДАИШ. Точно также у автора не получается понять, как Трамп собирается «дружить» с Россией, когда он окружил себя ярыми русофобами. Особые надежды автор в этом вопросе возлагает на генерал-лейтенанта Майкла Флинна, который стал советником по национальной безопасности в будущей администрации. Автор отмечает, что, несмотря на ожесточенную критику этого назначения со стороны ряда обозревателей, Флинн не только прекрасно осведомлен о «всех проделках» таких государств, как Саудовская Аравия, Турция и Катар в сирийском конфликте, но он также хорошо понимает, какую роль играет Москва в попытке прекратить вооруженную агрессию против сирийского государства и во многом разделяет её позиции. Тем не менее старая поговорка гласит: «Нельзя приготовить омлет, не разбив яиц». А потому для возвращения статуса-кво на Ближнем Востоке, Трамп будет вынужден рассмотреть возможность уголовного преследования семейства Бушей, равно как и внимательно изучить деятельность своего однопартийца — сенатора Джона Маккейна по продаже сирийской и иракской ворованной нефти. Хватит ли у него на это смелости — покажет только время. С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 1real |
PAM GELLER Rips Into Geraldo for Insults About Her Fight Against Terrorism [Video] | Pam Geller is not the person you d ever want to go up against in a debate but cocky Geraldo Rivera tried it You guessed right if you guessed she at his lunch! She s one tough cookie!Pamela Geller: He hates me more than the terrorists so I can t take much of what he says seriously.Fox is imploding right now. Pam Geller is attacking Geraldo Rivera for saying he needs to take a shower after she appears on the network. pic.twitter.com/tYTvvSX5z8 Thomas Bishop (@bishopk0s) November 2, 2017Remember that Geraldo insulted Geller when she was almost killed by two jihadists in Texas Geller has long been a target of radical Islamists. Her life has been threatened but she keeps up the fight:Pam Geller has been spot on when speaking about the truth of jihadists. She spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how she feels Hollywood is in the pocket of jihadis. Very interesting read and lots to learn from this very brave lady:Pamela Geller has been on a rampage against radical Islam for years, beginning notably in 2010 by spearheading of the opposition to what she called the Ground Zero Mega Mosque near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center. Her most recent controversy was the organization of a Draw the Prophet Muhammad contest in Texas.At the event, two self-described jihadists shot a security guard before police killed them. Then, on June 2, police killed a knife-wielding Muslim man in Boston whose goal was allegedly to behead Geller in retaliation for the contest. Even though the contest was a major news story, few media outlets published the winning cartoon. Geller s group, American Freedom Defense Initiative, put the image on billboards, 100 of which debuted in St. Louis on Monday with the tagline Support Free Speech. She spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how the (largely hostile) media is portraying these events.Why are you being overly provocative, purposely insulting Muslims?I am not being overly provocative or purposely insulting Muslims. Islamic jihadists, not I, made Muhammad cartoons the flash point for the defense of the freedom of speech when they began killing over them. If we don t stand against them on that point, the only alternative is surrender and submission. I did not make the cartoons a flash point, the jihadis did.But if you just don t insult their prophet, they ll leave you alone, no?No. The death penalty for insulting Muhammad is just one aspect of Sharia. There is much, much more of infidel behavior that violates Sharia. If we refrain from drawing Muhammad, more demands to adhere to other aspects of Sharia will follow. Millions are suffering or have been slaughtered under Islamic Sharia law in Muslim countries. Islamic supremacists mean to impose it in the West.There is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Hate speech is a subjective judgment. If it were outlawed, the authority with the power to decide what constitutes it would have the power to control the public debate. If a group will not bear being offended without resorting to violence, that group will rule unopposed while everyone else lives in fear, while other groups curtail their activities to appease the violent group. This results in the violent group being able to tyrannize the others. Cartoons have been used as satire since the beginning of satire especially in our country and no one gets a pass. Not the Pope of Rome, president of the United States or Hollywood s biggest movie stars. If you don t like it, don t look at it, boycott the network that airs it, don t buy the publication, make counter-images, make a million, fine, but you have to adjust to us, not we to you, and if that s too much, don t come here. Threaten violence? Commit violence? The consequences are yours to bear.It seems many media pundits who claim allegiance to the First Amendment aren t persuaded by your arguments.They are afraid of being killed by Islamic jihadists and camouflage their fear and cowardice as respect for Islam and Muslims.Are there any TV hosts who have been particularly hostile to you during interviews?Yes. Martha MacCallum, Erin Burnett, Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo although he let me speak and make my case.How about behind your back?Yes. Bill O Reilly and Laura Ingraham. They said I was insulting the entire religion, one held by our moderate allies such as Egypt and Qatar. They are wrong in assuming that we must submit to Sharia to placate moderates, rather than that moderates need to accept the freedom of speech. Roman Catholics don t like their religion mocked or the mockery of other religions, but Roman Catholics don t kill when their religion is mocked and so no one talks about provoking them or respecting them. In any pluralistic society, we have to put up with being offended and even with our core beliefs being mocked. Roman Catholics have learned that. Mormons and others have learned that look at The Book of Mormon on Broadway. Why must we condescend to Muslims and think they cannot learn that? It s the low expectation of soft bigotry.So this isn t entirely a partisan issue where conservatives stand by you and liberals don t?No. Chris Hayes stuck up for me on MSNBC. This is not a left/right split, it is a free person/slave split.Did any TV host say something that struck you as particularly wrongheaded?They all say I have the right to draw Muhammad but shouldn t out of respect. They don t seem to realize that any surrender on this point will only be seen by the jihadists as a victory and embolden them to make more demands. CNN s Erin Burnett said I relished being the target of a beheading. It s madness. Who self-promotes to get killed?So you re not purposely courting danger, as Burnett and others have insinuated?Of course not. I love life. But I will not live as a slave.Are there any TV hosts you d like to face off with but who won t have you on?Bill O Reilly. I expect he knows he would be shown up.We know about the man arrested who intended to behead you. Any other threats you can share?I have received many threats. The FBI and NYPD are aware of them and on the case.Anyone in Hollywood reach out to you to offer support?No.Should Hollywood care about threats against you?They may think they re exempt, but they aren t. Islamic supremacists will be demanding they adhere to Sharia as well. Of course, most producers already are careful not to show anything that might offend Muslims, including accurate representations of jihad plotting and activity, so Hollywood is mostly already in their pocket. But this is their issue, and the entertainment industry should be on the front lines in the information battle space. The jihadists aren t just coming for me, they are coming for all of us that believe in freedom.So why do you think Hollywood, which routinely claims to push the envelope in its art, hasn t supported you?They re afraid of being ostracized.Your Draw Muhammad event certainly got a lot of news coverage. Should mainstream media outlets have published the winning cartoon?Every media outlet should publish the Muhammad cartoons. They can t kill us all. By kowtowing to violent intimidation, they are inviting more of it. Instead, they should be showing that we will all stand together for free speech. If the media had published the Danish cartoons back in 2005, this would never have become an issue. The submission by media, entertainment and academic elites empowered the savages.The Southern Poverty Law Center included you on their list of hate groups. Are they right?Of course not. They re the hate group, using that label to demonize and stigmatize all who don t share their hard-left agenda. The SPLC smear machine does not profile jihad groups, but they target and libel patriots, veterans, Tea Party organizations and other groups that work in defense of freedom. They named [Republican presidential contender] Ben Carson as a hate group. That should tell you everything you need to know about them. Their [sympathizers] have violently attacked family groups, and one tried to assassinate Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. And a few months back an SPLC [sympathizer] killed three Muslims in a parking dispute in North Carolina.Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com | 1real |
OKLAHOMA Supreme Court Rules Punishing Smokers With Cigarette Tax “Unconstitutional”…Lawmakers Forced To Fill SHOCKING Hole In State Budget | OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the cigarette tax passed late in the legislative session unconstitutional Thursday morning.The tax was expected to bring in more than $200 million of revenue for the state budget by tacking on an extra $1.50 per pack of cigarettes. The budget was planned and passed assuming the tax would hold.The tax was originally passed after the deadline for revenue raising bills, but Republican lawmakers tried to eke it through as a fee. A tax would have required a three-fourths majority to pass. Justices on Thursday ruled that, because the funds raised could be used for non-smoking related programs, the bill could not go through as a regulatory fee.The State now has a week to seek a rehearing. If it does not, the ruling is final.Gov. Mary Fallin issued a response to the Supreme Court s ruling:I am disappointed to hear the Supreme Court struck down the smoking cessation fee, but I certainly respect the justices authority. I will be discussing with legislative leaders from both parties the need to address the $215 million shortfall this will create for the Department of Human Services, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the three agencies that received the bulk of the money that was to be generated by the cessation fee.These agencies and the people they serve cannot sustain the kind of cuts that will occur if we do not find a solution. My belief is we will have to come into special session to address this issue.House Minority Leader Scott Inman released the following statement on the ruling:Once again, Governor Fallin and Republican legislators have failed Oklahoma. My caucus and I sounded every alarm bell we could to stop this from happening, yet here we are, just as we warned.Today, I m urging Governor Fallin to call for a special session and for Republican leaders to come together with myself and Sen. Sparks and draft a truly bipartisan and constitutional budget plan that will help to restore, reinvest in, and rebuild Oklahoma.With our state agencies facing more budget cuts and with even more rulings waiting, the time is now to work out a budget agreement before a special session of the legislature. By coming together now and putting a plan in place, we can save precious time and taxpayer dollars to fix the mess that their failed leadership has put us in because of their failed policies to cut taxes for the wealthy and well-connected.This cigarette tax was just a Band-Aid put on their gaping wound of a budget hole. Schools are down to 4-day weeks, hospitals are closing down, and public safety is in a crisis, not because cigarettes are too cheap, but because Republican policies benefitting their donors have failed us.For entire story: News 9 | 1real |
NFL LEGEND Who Supported Hillary Leaves CNN Host Speechless Over Praise For Trump…People Who “called him names when he won”…”He reached back and brought them along with him. He held no grudges”[VIDEO] | I fell in love with him [Trump] because he really talks about helping African-American black people, and that s why I m here. Gotta give the man his due. Donald Trump may be the only person alive equally capable of charming Kanye West, Jim Brown, and Mitt Romney. However you may feel about his shtick on the stump, the guy must have a genius-level quotient of personal charisma in private conversation when he feels like summoning it. I wonder how it ll translate in diplomatic meetings, with leaders from other cultures. It s hard to imagine Trump and Merkel hitting it off in the same way it s hard to imagine Merkel hitting it off with, say, Don King, but nothing would surprise me anymore. Brown sounds like he s ready to sign up for the reelection campaign here. HA When he goes through what he went through to become the President, he s got my admiration. Because no one game him a chance. You know they called him names. Ahh people that called him names when he won, he reached back and brought them along with him. He held no grudges. | 1real |
Trump, Tillerson, Venezuela: Your Thursday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. A new plot twist in a Washington drama: Two White House officials helped Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, view the secret reports that showed incidental surveillance of the Trump campaign. Several U. S. officials identified the pair as Ezra the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, who works at the White House Counsel’s Office. In the evening, we learned that Michael Flynn, the national security adviser, had offered to talk to congressional investigators, if he is granted immunity. _____ 2. President Trump spent part of the day inciting fellow Republicans. “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, fast,” he wrote on Twitter. The bloc’s foiling of the health care bill has rekindled the civil war between the party’s establishment and conservatives like Representative Dave Brat of Virginia, above. In the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding “yea” vote on a measure to allow states to block funding to clinics that perform abortions. _____ 3. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is heading to his first NATO meeting, after meeting with the Turkish president. Mr. Tillerson showered praise on the Turkish government, which has been accused of authoritarian tactics. But he got an earful over U. S. support for Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria. _____ 4. Just two months into the Trump presidency, the U. S. military is becoming more involved in a string of complex wars that lack clear endgames — and often endanger civilians. In the latest case, Mr. Trump relaxed engagement rules for counterterrorism strikes in Somalia, preparing to escalate the campaign against the Islamist group Shabab. Above, a child in a cholera center in Baidoa, Somalia, just a few miles from Shabab territory. _____ 5. Uproar on opposite sides of the world. In South Korea, the ousted president, Park was arrested on criminal charges of bribery and abuse of power. And in Venezuela, there was a big step toward rule under the leftist president, Nicolás Maduro, as his loyalists on the Supreme Court effectively dissolved the elected legislature. _____ 6. North Carolina’s legislature passed a bill to repeal its “bathroom bill,” and the governor immediately signed it. The repeal, ending public bathroom rules aimed at transgender people, does not satisfy many critics. And it’s not yet clear whether it will reverse a national backlash from companies, entertainers and sports leagues — most notably the N. C. A. A. — that boycotted the state, calling the law discriminatory. _____ 7. “Sometimes I think they’ll come again, even here. I have nightmares — they’re coming to kill me, they’re coming to kill me. ” That girl is one of 130, 000 people who fled the Islamist militants of Boko Haram, only to find themselves stuck along a barren desert highway in Niger, near the Nigerian border. It’s a literal road to nowhere. Begun by a Chinese oil company, construction stopped two years ago after attacks spiked. _____ 8. A vanguard of prosecutors across the country has jettisoned the traditional ’ approach and embraced alternatives to harsh punishment. Some are facing a backlash from law enforcement groups and more conservative politicians. Among them is Aramis Ayala, the new chief prosecutor in Orlando, who announced this month that she would no longer seek the death penalty. _____ 9. A first for the space industry: SpaceX launched a commercial satellite into space with the boost of a partly used rocket, a feat that may open an era of cheaper space travel. And it might be able to be used again, because the rocket returned in one piece, landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic. _____ 10. A revival of the 1978 musical “Zoot Suit” is a smash hit in Los Angeles, where fans have been showing up decked out in vintage gear. The production, which was also adapted for film, is a fantastical reimagining of the Sleepy Lagoon murder case in 1942, in which youths were unjustly convicted by a biased judge. “We still have some of the same problems,” said Leka Im, above left with her twin sister Lekit. “This is something we all need to see to understand L. A. ” _____ 11. Finally, dive into a futuristic whodunit: “Ghost in the Shell,” a movie adaptation of a Japanese comic book, in theaters this weekend. The director, Rupert Sanders, discusses a scene featuring Scarlett Johansson, who plays a character who physically walks through a geisha robot’s digital memories to figure out how the robot was hacked. Have a great night. Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
BLACK WOMAN IN CHARLESTON WARNS “There’s gonna be a race war against ‘Cracka’s'” | All the progress that s been made with race relations in America since the civil rights era has been ignored by so many angry blacks who ve bought into the carefully orchestrated Obama, Sharpton and Holder race war funded by their friend, George Soros. Since the liberal mainstream media wants to use the horrific massacre in Charleston to attack conservatives, disparage white people and act as if Dylann Roof s actions represent a normalcy, I thought it only fair to bring up the case of a black woman from Charleston, Sista Solove, who this week essentially asserted that white supremacy is leading us towards a race war against crackas. She made the statement on Wednesday while speaking with Breitbart Texas editor Brandon Darby outside the Mother Emmanuel American Methodist Church in Charleston.When he asked her what she thinks will ultimately result from Roof s actions, she replied, The real question is if it were the other way around, what would that be? https://youtu.be/_o-rzGRSu8sIf a black person if a nigga killed nine crackas, he would be dead. We wouldn t even be talking about his raggedy ass. Okay. But this cracka is, Oh, he s mentally ill. Oh, ya know, pray for him. Oh, they ve got support systems for him.No, it s an agenda, and there s going to be a race war because it continues to happen. You cannot go pray. You can t be a child at a playground. You can t wear a hoodie with Skittles. You can t be black.What s a good nigga supposed to do, Massa? What s a good nigga supposed to do not to get shot? That s a good question, ain t it?The reason Roof happens to be alive to this day is because he complied with police orders and did not resist arrest. This places him in stark contrast to the likes of, say, Mike Brown and Eric Garner.The comment about a child at a playground referred to 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who died in an unfortunate incident after a bystander reported a male sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people. The gun turned out to be fake, though according to reports, Rice reached for it when the cops told him to put his hands up.And as for the comment about how you can t wear a hoodie with Skittles, that referred to Trayvon Martin, who was justifiably shot by George Zimmerman after he attacked the guy for no legitimate reason whatsoever.Anyway. Sista Solove then delivered what Breitbart contributor Lee Stranahan accurately described as the academic Marxist message of white privilege that underscores the current Black Lives Matter movement :It s called white privilege. You don t understand where our anger comes from. No one gets it. Our history comes from our family telling us, Oh, you can t be black. Don t do this, don t go to that fountain, don t do this and we re still dealing with this shit. What are we going to do with the anger? What are we going to do with the anger? What do we do?Via: DownTrend | 1real |
Egypt's president backs Saudi purge, urges de-escalation with Iran | SHARM AL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday he was against military strikes on Iran or the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, saying there was enough turmoil in the Middle East. In a meeting with a group of journalists, Sisi also pledged support for Saudi Arabia in its stand-off with Iran. Asked about the prospect of attacks on Iran and Hezbollah - two days after Saudi Arabia had accused Lebanon of declaring war because of Hezbollah s aggressive actions , Sisi stressed the importance of de-escalation. I am always against war, Sisi said, without spelling out who might be involved in military action. Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia called for sanctions against Hezbollah this week and accused Iran of supplying Yemen s Houthis with missiles used to target it. I have said it once and I will say it again, Gulf national security is Egyptian national security. I have faith in the wise and firm leadership of Saudi Arabia, Sisi said. Sisi said the situation in the kingdom was reassuring and stable following last weekend s arrests of 11 princes, former and current ministers, and a group of elite businessmen on corruption allegations. They face allegations of money laundering, bribery, extortion and exploiting public office for personal gain. Sisi stressed his backing of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, which have showered Egypt with aid ever since the general-turned-president led the military s ouster of former President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests. Lebanon has been thrust to the center of regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran since the Saudi-allied Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri quit as prime minister on Saturday, blaming Iran and Hezbollah in his resignation speech. Hezbollah is both a military and a political organization that is represented in the Lebanese parliament and in the Hariri-led coalition government formed last year. Its powerful guerrilla army is widely seen as stronger than the Lebanese army, and has played a major role in the war in neighboring Syria, another theater of Saudi-Iranian rivalry where Hezbollah has fought in support of the Syrian government. Sisi was elected a year after he ousted Mursi and his first four-year term ends next year. He would not be drawn on when he would announce a re-election bid, although he is widely expected to run and win. He hinted at doing so by February. I have to present achievements over the past four years to Egyptians first, before saying whether I will run or not. I will do this over the next two months, December and January, and based on their response I will reach a position on running. One candidate has already declared his intention to challenge Sisi. Rights lawyer Khaled Ali announced his 2018 bid on Monday in a speech criticizing Sisi s administration; accusing it of suppressing freedoms and causing deteriorating economic and security conditions. Egypt s economy has been struggling to recover since a 2011 uprising scared away tourists and investors, two main sources of foreign currency, but a three-year International Monetary Fund program is expected to help restore confidence. The IMF program is tied to harsh reforms, chief of which was the central bank s decision to float the pound currency last year, which halved its value from 8.8 to the dollar to almost 18. Sisi said on Wednesday he expected the pound to rally in the near future. I expect that the exchange rate will strengthen in the coming period, because all the problems that created the crisis over the past few years before the float, I believe, have been solved, he said. Tourism, a major source of hard currency, took a massive hit in 2015 when Russia suspended flights to Egypt, after Islamic State blew a plane out of the air that took off from Sharm al-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort in which Sisi was speaking on Wednesday, killing all 224 people, mostly Russians, on board. Sisi said he was not pressing the Russian government to restore flights because he understood its need to protect its citizens. I have never, and will never, insist on the restoration of flights, he said. He said security forces were making significant gains against militants, however. The military had captured a foreign fighter in a raid it carried out against militants responsible for a deadly attack on a police convoy in Egypt s Western Desert last month, he said. Three security sources said at the time that at least 52 police officers and conscripts were killed on Oct. 21 when their patrol came under attack, but the interior ministry rebutted the figure the next day and said only 16 policemen had been killed. A new militant group with links to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for attack last week. The foreign militant is the sole survivor of the raid and his confession would be revealed to the public soon, Sisi said. The Western Desert, which spans Egypt s more than 1,200 kilometre (745 miles) border with Libya, is a new battlefront for security forces, who have been fighting Islamic State militants in the Sinai Peninsula since 2013. Sisi did not specify the fighter s nationality but the porous border with Libya has been used to smuggle people and weapons regularly. When asked about his support for Khalifa Haftar, the eastern Libyan commander whose Libyan National Army has been fighting Islamist militant groups and other fighters in Benghazi and Derna for more than two years, Sisi said it did not mean he opposed the U.N.-backed Tripoli-based government, even though Haftar and his supporters reject it. Our support for Haftar is in line with the constants of Egyptian policy; we support a political solution and our backing of Haftar is not at the expense of Fayez Seraj s government. | 0fake |
JUDGE NAPOLITANO AGREES WITH TRUMP: AG Sessions Shouldn’t Have Recused Himself [Video] | Judge Andrew Napolitano reacted to an interview President Donald Trump gave to The New York Times about Attorney General Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself earlier on in all matters pertaining to Trump s 2016 presidential campaign:.@Judgenap: Jeff Sessions should not have recused himself or accepted the nomination to be Attorney General pic.twitter.com/3EkfGpQTm0 FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) July 20, 2017 According to the Times, Trump said he disagreed with Sessions recusal and that he would not have nominated him to be attorney general had he known Sessions would have done so.Napolitano said that he did not think Sessions should have recused himself nor should he have accepted the AG nomination: I don t think Jeff Sessions should have recused himself, Napolitano said. And I said at the time and I ll say it now that he probably should not have accepted the nomination to be attorney general. [He] probably should have said, Mr. President, you know these characters. They re going to investigate the campaign. They ve already been making noises about it. They embarrassed Mike Flynn by selectively leaking portions of conversations he had with the Russians. It s going to make me, Jeff Sessions, a witness at worst. At best, I m going to have to step aside. You want an attorney general who can t control one of the biggest investigations the Justice Department has investigated since Watergate. Judge Napolitano continued: That s what we have now. We have one of the biggest investigations since that the Justice Department has investigated since Watergate being run by somebody who was not appointed by the president of the United States. So that s President Trump s frustration and I understand that. | 1real |
Moscow seeks support for Russia-Chinese roadmap on North Korea | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged world powers on Friday to get behind a joint Russian-Chinese roadmap for settling the crisis over North Korea s weapons program. Speaking at a conference on non-proliferation in Moscow, Lavrov said that the break-up of a deal on Iran s nuclear program would send an alarming message about international security mechanisms, and could impact the situation on the Korean peninsula. | 0fake |
Rape Apparently Doesn’t Earn Jail Time Anymore – Even If The Victim Is Only Two Years Old | If you are a young white male in America, apparently you are free to stick your genitalia into whomever you please without having to fear that you will end up in prison. Consent be damned. Proof of this is the disgusting case of an Iowa teen who raped a toddler on camera and was given a free pass when he was finally hauled in front of a judge for his repulsive crimes.Kraigen Grooms has admitted to raping the 2-year-old in April of 2013 when he was 16 years old. Not only did he rape the small child, but he did it on camera so he could livestream the sexual assault for another pervert to watch online. Investigators believe that the attack was premeditated, and also that he had plans to rape a 3-year-old boy in the same manner.Grooms was arrested in March 2014, when he was 17. Initially, he was charged with second-degree sexual abuse, a felony that could have put him in prison for 25 years. However, after spending two years in a juvenile detention center and county jail, he cut a deal and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of engaging in a lascivious act with a child in July. This week, Judge Randy Degeest handed Groom, who also goes by the alias Kraigen Simmers, a 10-year suspended sentence and sent him home.This means that he will see absolutely no prison time for raping a 2-year-old. Let that sink in for a minute.This is just the most recent in a string of high-profile sexual assault cases that have ended with the rapist getting a slap on the wrist and being sent on his way. The most well-known of these cases being that of Brock Turner, who raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and was given just six months in jail, but ended up only serving three before being released.Is there any question that anyone who rapes a toddler a f*cking toddler should be behind bars until hell freezes over? Is there any question that America s rape culture has spiraled completely out of control when you can rape a 2-year-old, on camera, livestream it on the internet, and not end up in prison?Featured image via KTVO screen capture | 1real |
Someone Just Tried To Perform An Exorcism On Ted Cruz; Unfortunately, It Failed (VIDEO) | While Ted Cruz would say that he is possessed by the spirit of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, some would argue that he is instead possessed by a more insidious force. According to two men who attended one of the Texas Senator s rallies, he s plagued by demons likely the sort that cause a person to say and do things so stupid that they have a chance of becoming the GOP nominee for President.The Dallas Morning News reports that Cruz had just begun a speech when two men wielding mirrors and crosses appeared, one of the men shouting: Ted Cruz look in the mirror and let the evil spirit depart! He s possessed by a demon! Cruz s supporters began to boo as their allegedly demon-possessed leader joked that the men were sent by the Bernie Sanders campaign. As police forced the men to exit for simply expressing a religious opinion something conservatives would normally oppose, even if it was crazy or in jest the men managed to stay in character. He s possessed by a demon! the man yelled. The demon has to leave. That s why the body is so disgusting to look at! This, of course, is something with which Cruz s daughter seems to agree, as she was unwilling to accept her father s forced affection at another recent campaign event in which he tried to use her as a political prop. Further evidence that Cruz is possessed can, of course, be found in the words of the Senator s former college roommate, who has stated that Ted leaves behind a disgusting greasy film on anything he touches. Even science struggles to explain what, exactly, is so unsettling about Cruz but one neurologist explained that he is at a loss to explain why Cruz s face leaves him cold. While it s unlikely Cruz is actually possessed by a demon, it is easy to see why one might assume this is the case. Yhe other man urged the Senator to look at himself in the mirror so the evil can confront itself. Evil body! Evil spirit. Look yourself in the mirror! the man said.As they exited the building, one of the unnamed men explained still impressively in character that: We just had to get rid of the evil spirit. I hope it works, one man remarked, motioning that he was sick to his stomach. He s very hard to be in the same room with. We had to exorcise some sort of disgusting evil spirit. There s a reason that the body is so haggard and disgusting, and the face, and it s all so weathered and gross and hard to look at.And it s because he s possessed by a demon. Being in the room with evil so close, it s just hard to even comprehend. The evil is so deep rooted and maybe if it had to confront itself. Watch the exorcism below: ABC Breaking News | Latest News VideosThe men explain their actions here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9sbySqe1Tw?rel=0&showinfo=0&w=560&h=315]Featured image via screengrab/Dallas Morning News | 1real |
Turkish capital bans LGBT cinema, exhibitions | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Turkish capital Ankara has banned the public showing of films and exhibitions related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, the governor s office said on Sunday, citing risks to public safety. The move is likely to deepen concern among rights activists and Turkey s Western allies about its record on civil liberties under President Tayyip Erdogan s Islamist-rooted AK Party. Starting from Nov. 18, 2017, concerning our community s public sensitivity, any events such as LGBT... cinema, theater, panels, interviews, exhibitions are banned until further notice in our province to provide peace and security, the governor s office said in a statement. It said that such exhibitions could cause different groups in society to publicly harbor hatred and hostility toward each other and therefore pose a risk to public safety. Authorities in Ankara had already banned a German gay film festival on Wednesday, the day before it was due to start, citing public safety and terrorism risks. In addition, gay pride parades have been banned in Istanbul for the last two years running. Unlike in many Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but there is widespread hostility to it. Civil liberties in Turkey have become a particular concern for the West following the attempted military coup in July 2016. Since then, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial on suspicion of links to the coup. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. Human rights groups and Turkey s Western allies fear Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to quash his opponents. Ankara says the measures are necessary, given the extent of the security threat it faces. | 0fake |
Trevor Noah Brutally Dropkicks Ted Cruz For His ‘Jackass’ Response To The Brussel’s Bombings (VIDEO) | Daily Show host Trevor Noah got brutal with Ted Cruz over his appalling response to the bombings of EU capital Brussels this week, an attack in which dozens (including Americans) lost their lives.The Republican presidential hopeful, currently coming second in the race to Donald trump, launched an all-out attack on President Obama in the wake of the attacks. First, Cruz railed against Obama for not flying immediately to Brussels when not even European leaders responded this way. Secondly, Cruz issued a hysterical demand for police to patrol and secure Muslim-American neighborhoods, effectively placing Muslim citizens in a police state.The idea drew a swift and sharp response from President Obama, who reminded the Texas senator:As far as the notion of having surveillance of neighborhoods where Muslims are present, I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance. Which, by the way, the father of Senator Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free. The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense.The President was backed up by furious comments from NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, who saw the consequences when his police force implemented similar tactics in the past. He said: He doesn t know what the hell he is talking about To be frank with you, while he s running around here, he probably has some Muslim officers guarding him. Now Trevor Noah has piled in with a brutal dropkick of Ted Cruz over the matter, which begins: First of all, you re a sanctimonious jackass, Second of all, President Obama doesn t need to go to Belgium for them to know that he s an ally. It s not like all the European presidents went to Belgium after the attacks and they re within driving distance. Then Noah turns to the President s comments that we cannot let terrorists achieve their core aim which is to sow terror in us, saying: It s very important for us to not respond with fear. Then, turning to Cruz s attempt to do exactly that, by in turn terrorizing the American Muslim community in response, Noah says: Unfortunately, there are always those who use these times to score political points, Adding, Terrorists win when we allow them to disrupt our way of life. While Cruz may persuade the right-wing of his party that persecuting American Muslims for the actions of a handful of Muslims in Belgium is a good idea. But he will not win that argument with the wider country and that s why this dropkick is so brutal, because it s true.Featured Image via Screengrab | 1real |
WATCH: MUSLIM WOMAN ADMITS OBAMA CAME TO MOSQUE TO GET VOTES…Human Rights Attorney Destroys Obama’s Decision | WOW! There aren t too many non-political people willing to stand up to the lies of Obama and his ties to radical Islam. Human rights attorney, Brooke Goldstein tears Muslim woman who attended the radical DC mosque with Barack Obama yesterday apart with facts: | 1real |
New Zealand's Labour widens lead as governing party loses ground | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand s newly invigorated Labour Party has widened its lead over the governing National Party, further threatening its decade-long hold on power, a poll showed on Thursday, as the two party leaders exchanged jabs at their third debate in a week. National fell 2 points to 39 percent, while support for the opposition Labour Party was unchanged at 43 percent, the poll released on the website of the 1 News broadcaster showed. New Zealand holds a general election on Sept. 23. The poll still tipped the nationalist New Zealand First as a likely kingmaker, and showed the Green Party would only just make it into parliament. Jacinda Ardern has almost single-handedly changed the chances of her Labour Party since taking over as leader last month, with her charisma and popularity offsetting some criticism over vague tax plans and tighter immigration policy. National leader Bill English, who is pinning his bid on his government s strong economic record, said he was not particularly worried about the poll results. On those numbers it would seem to me that a Labour/New Zealand First government would be the more likely outcome, but that all depends on a number of negotiations, said Grant Duncan, associate professor at Massey University in Auckland. Based on these numbers, New Zealand First would be a key player for both Labour and National. The New Zealand dollar fell to the day s low of $0.7173, having stood at $0.7207 shortly before the poll results were released. The poll showed support for the New Zealand First Party rose 1 point to 9 percent, while support for the Green Party remained at 5 percent. Duncan said the Greens were perilously close to the 5 percent voting threshold below which you do not get a seat in parliament. Ardern reiterated that her first call would be to the Green Party, with which she has a working agreement, if she was in a position to form a coalition government after the vote. The debate saw the party leaders trade jabs on taxes and housing, much as in their two previous encounters. It also touched on allegations this week by National that there is a NZ$11.7 billion hole in Labour s fiscal plans - a claim rejected by Labour and one that has been refuted by economists, according to media. If you continue to maintain that then you re maintaining a lie. That is misleading voters and it is wrong, Ardern told English during the debate. Support for Labour overtook that of National in a similar poll released a week ago. | 0fake |
R. Alexander Acosta, Law School Dean, Is Trump’s New Pick for Labor - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Moving quickly after his first choice for labor secretary withdrew his nomination amid controversy, President Trump made a seemingly safe selection on Thursday in R. Alexander Acosta, a Florida law school dean and former assistant attorney general. In Mr. Acosta, Mr. Trump has chosen a nominee with deep experience in labor relations, law and education. The pick answers concerns about the lack of diversity in the Trump administration, in that Mr. Acosta would be the first Hispanic in the president’s cabinet. And his chances of being confirmed appear relatively high, since Mr. Acosta, currently the dean of Florida International University’s law school, has made it through the Senate process three times for different roles. “Alex is going to be a key part of achieving our goal of revitalizing the American economy, manufacturing and labor force,” Mr. Trump said as he called on the Senate to confirm Mr. Acosta swiftly. A Miami native, Mr. Acosta’s most relevant experience to the job of labor secretary is his time at the National Labor Relations Board, where he was a member from 2002 to 2003, under President George W. Bush. Mr. Bush later tapped Mr. Acosta to be assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, one of the highest positions at the agency. He went on to become the United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where his office prosecuted the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the terrorism suspect Jose Padilla and founders of the Cali cartel. He achieved the conviction of Charles Taylor Jr. the son of Liberia’s former leader, for torture. His official biography said his office also prosecuted several cases and targeted health care fraud. Mr. Acosta’s record and writings will undergo close scrutiny in the weeks before his confirmation hearing. But some of the most outspoken skeptics of the previous labor nominee, the executive Andrew F. Puzder, have already expressed optimism and about Mr. Acosta. “I am thrilled that at long last, we have a Hispanic in this cabinet,” said Javier Palomarez, president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who was critical of Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign. Labor groups that assailed Mr. Puzder as being applauded the choice of Mr. Acosta. “Unlike Andy Puzder, Alexander Acosta’s nomination deserves serious consideration,” said Richard L. Trumka, president of the A. F. L. . I. O. trade union. “In one day, we’ve gone from a chain C. E. O. who routinely violates labor law to a public servant with experience enforcing it. ” Mr. Puzder withdrew his name from consideration on Wednesday after Republican senators began turning against him. They were concerned about a slew of accusations that had surfaced recently, ranging from Mr. Puzder’s business record to his employment of an undocumented housekeeper to his 1988 divorce. If confirmed, Mr. Acosta could also help smooth the relationship between Mr. Trump and American Muslims who have accused him of fomenting religious discrimination. Testifying before Congress in 2011 at a hearing about the civil rights of American Muslims, Mr. Acosta made a forceful appeal that they should be viewed as any other American community would. “Now is a good time to remember that no community has a monopoly on any particular type of crime,” he said. Despite the early praise Mr. Acosta has received, it is far from certain that his confirmation will be easy. Progressive groups, such as the Democratic “super PAC” American Bridge, were busy on Thursday digging through his background and looking for stains on his record. One area of potential concern is a 2008 investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which looked into whether hiring practices and case assignments at the civil rights division he led were based on political affiliations. A report on the case found that Mr. Acosta had ignored warning signs about such problems. Another pitfall could be a 2004 letter to a federal judge in Ohio that Mr. Acosta sent while he was at the Justice Department, justifying “vote caging” in the presidential election. The practice, in which private citizens in Ohio challenged the eligibility of voters, was widely seen as a Republican strategy to disenfranchise minorities. Both issues came up when Mr. Acosta was interviewing to become dean of the University of Florida’s law school in 2014. Michelle Jacobs, a professor at the school, said that she and her colleagues were uncomfortable with how Mr. Acosta explained the case. She also said Mr. Acosta had described paying lip service to lawmakers when called to testify before Congress. “I feel that he lacked some transparency, and he didn’t show a full appreciation for ethical obligations,” Ms. Jacobs said. “We felt it deeply enough that we eliminated him from the list of candidates. ” But colleagues of Mr. Acosta’s at Florida International University said he was widely liked as a leader of the law school, striking a healthy balance of being without micromanaging. A father of two daughters and a lover of science fiction, Mr. Acosta is known within his department for being humble and genial. “I was actually stunned that Donald Trump would make such a sensible choice,” said José Gabilondo, an F. I. U. law professor who has worked closely with Mr. Acosta. “He’s a very mature person with a sense of decorum, and I think he’ll make a very big contribution to the administration. ” | 0fake |
BOOM! SENATE PASSES Obamacare Repeal Resolution In ALMOST Unanimous GOP Vote…One Former GOP Presidential Candidate Whispered “No” | The Senate is already rolling back President Barack Obama s legacy.Here is Trump only days before the election promising the Republicans will repeal and replace Obamacare:It passed the continuing resolution, S. Con.Res. 3, that tears away the fees, taxes and subsidies from the 201o Patient Protection and Affordable Cart Act, Obamacare, shortly after 1:25 Thursday morning, 51-to-48.All Republicans, except for Sen. Rand Paul (R.-KY), voted for the resolution. Paul criticized the budget resolution for not addressing the federal debt and for not having a companion replacement bill. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-CA), who is recovering from a scheduled medical procedure was absent from the chamber.As senators waited for their names to be called by the clerk, Paul approached the clerk s desk from side and whispered: No. All Democrats and the two Independents who caucus with Democrats voted against the resolution.Soon after they voted, virtually all Republicans left the floor. Among the handful staying behind were Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-KY) and Majority Whip John Cornyn (R.-Texas), along with Sen. John R. Thune (R.-S.D.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R.-MO) in the front. McConnell sat quietly at his desk, but Cornyn stood tall in the well watching the votes come in.All of the Democrats did not respond with their names were called off and they sat glumly with their armed crossed or their chins resting on their hand. When the Republicans were done, led by Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y.), each Democrat attempted to make remarks with their vote.Even though Obamacare has become wildly unpopular with pretty much everyone in America, Senator Schumer joined other Democrats like Socialist Bernie Sanders to voice their objections to repealing the government mandated insurance program:For the tens of millions of Americans who will lose their healthcare if the ACA is repealed, I vote no. #MakeAmericaSickAgain Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 12, 2017The presiding officer, Sen. Cory Gardner (R.-CO) repeatedly ruled the Democrats out of order: Debate is not in order during a vote. If Gardner was slow to start rapping the palm-held ivory gavel, Cornyn would say in a stern voice: Point of order. Breitbart | 1real |
Poland says full protection of EU citizens' rights in UK key in Brexit | WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski, commenting on Brexit proposals presented on Friday by British Prime Minister Theresa May, said that protecting the rights of European Union citizens in the United Kingdom was one of the key conditions. We can agree to talk about a transitional period in relation between the EU and the UK only if that could lead to complete fulfillment of the UK s commitments toward the EU, Szymanski, Poland s sherpa to the EU, said in emailed comments. Another condition is also full protection of our citizens rights in the UK. Membership of the UK in the single market as well as the customs union translates into regulatory and financial obligations of the UK toward the EU. | 0fake |
FANTASTIC! New Commercial Hammers Crooked Hillary! [Video] | Spread this one around everywhere! An anti-Hillary PAC just came out with a great commercial! | 1real |
Putin says he doubts Trump met with Moscow prostitutes | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he doubted U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had met with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room several years ago, referring to an unverified dossier published last week that Trump has dismissed as “fake news”. “Trump arrived and straight away rushed to meet with Moscow prostitutes. This is an adult man and, apart from that, is a man who for many years took part in organizing beauty contests. He has socialized with the most beautiful women in the world,” Putin said in response to a question from a reporter from pro-Kremlin news agency Life about whether he had seen files or videos suggesting Trump had met with prostitutes. “I find it difficult to believe that he ran to a hotel to meet with our girls of reduced social responsibility,” Putin said at a news conference in Moscow with Moldova’s President Igor Dodon. Trump, a New York businessman who will be inaugurated as U.S. president on Friday, has dismissed reports that Russia had compromising information on him as “fake news” and “phony stuff.” Reuters has not independently verified the claims contained in the dossier. The information was summarized in a U.S. intelligence report presented to Trump and President Barack Obama this month. James Clapper, director of national intelligence, has said the dossier was not produced by U.S. intelligence agencies and they have not judged whether the information is reliable. Putin said it was “total nonsense” that Russian intelligence had followed Trump to gather compromising material on him and reiterated that he had never met Trump. “Trump, when he came to Moscow, and I can’t even remember when that was, ... he wasn’t any sort of political figure. We didn’t even know about his political ambitions,” Putin said. “What, someone thinks the special services chase after every American billionaire? Of course not, that’s total nonsense.” | 0fake |
TWO BALTIMORE POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED In Brutal Beating Of 16 Yr Old Caught On VIDEO…Why Al Sharpton And Black Lives Matter Terrorists Won’t Care | This story will fade quickly to back page news in the mainstream media. Two black officers supposedly physically abused a 16 year old black boy. Yawn If these police officers were white you d be seeing this story ad nauseum until those officers lives were threatened, they lost their jobs and were behind bars. Black Lives Matter terrorists and Obama s Race War Czar, Al Sharpton wouldn t be satisfied until a city was burned to the ground, the entire police force was called out for being racists and someone (preferably a white person) in the police department was fired for not preventing this from happening. AP Two officers who police Baltimore s public schools walked out of jail Wednesday pending trial for assault and misconduct after their violent confrontation with a student was recorded by another teenager.Both have checkered records, prompting parents and authorities alike to question whether enough is being done to prevent violent people from being hired to keep schoolchildren peaceful and safe.Here s the assault caught on tape:https://youtu.be/zZPX_bzka40Police said Wednesday that Saverna Bias allegedly told her fellow officer, Anthony Spence, to use force against the teen.According to a witness, she said, You need to smack him because he s got too much mouth, police said. The video shows Spence shouting profanities as he repeatedly slaps and kicks the boy, telling him to leave the school and go home.Spence was not trying to arrest the 10th grader, neither was he acting in reasonable self-defense, city police said.In the cellphone video, Spence is heard shouting while he repeatedly slaps the 16-year-old student and kicks him at REACH Partnership School, while Bias looks on.Spence s attorney Mike Davey told the Baltimore Sun on Thursday that his client believed the 16-year-old and his friend was trespassing on school grounds. Both said they were students at REACH, but Davey said they were not wearing uniforms and could not provide the principal s name when questioned.The 16-year-old was later confirmed as a student at REACH, his attorney told the newspaper. BuzzfeedAt a packed school board meeting Tuesday night, some parents and principals implored officials to keep officers in the schools for everyone s safety. Students and their advocates countered that having armed police with insufficient oversight in schools can be damaging and dangerous.Tim Martin, an administrator at the New Hope Academy, said he understands the frustration, but believes most officers show enough patience to therapeutically de-escalate students in crisis and help school personnel maintain a safe school environment. Spence, 44, and Bias, 53, turned themselves in Tuesday night and were released on bond on charges of second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Spence also is charged with second-degree child abuse. Both officers have been suspended, and Spence is being denied pay, since he faces a felony.Baltimore School Police Chief Marshall Goodwin, whose department is separate from the city s police force, also went on leave, for personal reasons, as the video began circulating a day after the March 1 confrontation. A week later, as city police and prosecutors continue investigating, Baltimore City Schools CEO Gregory Thornton has refused to explain his absence. | 1real |
LYNCH MOB WINS By Less Than 1%…Why Republicans Are To Blame For LEFTIST DOUG JONES’ Victory | They threw everything but the kitchen sink at Judge Roy Moore. Democrats outspent Moore 10-1, and more importantly, the Democrat Party unified, like they always do, to get behind their candidate (think Hillary Clinton), no matter their flaws, or how weak of a candidate he or she may be. Meanwhile, the Republicans did exactly what they always do they splintered, they argued amongst themselves, and they waited until the 11th hour to get behind Roy Moore, the Republican candidate who was accused (without evidence) by several women (one of whom admitted to committing forgery in a high school yearbook used as evidence of her claim against him) of sexual misconduct several decades ago. The media will try to blame this loss on President Trump, but the truth of the matter is, that the Republican Party came late to the game with funding and with support for Roy Moore, while half of the party either sat on their hands or openly condemned their candidate. The spineless Republican Party can take credit for the historic loss tonight in Alabama.AP In a stunning victory aided by scandal, Democrat Doug Jones won Alabama s special Senate election on Tuesday, beating back history, an embattled Republican opponent and President Donald Trump, who urgently endorsed GOP rebel Roy Moore despite a litany of sexual misconduct allegations.It was the first Democratic Senate victory in a quarter-century in Alabama, one of the reddest of red states, and proved anew that party loyalty is anything but sure in the age of Trump. It was a major embarrassment for the president and a fresh wound for the nation s already divided Republican Party.A number of Republicans declined to support him, including Alabama s long-serving Sen. Richard Shelby. But Trump lent his name and the national GOP s resources to Moore s campaign in recent days. | 1real |
NATO sounds alarm on banned Russian missile system | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO allies on Friday publicly raised concern about a Russian cruise missile system that the alliance says may break a Cold War-era pact banning such weapons, in a show of support for Washington. The United States believes Russia is developing a ground-launched cruise missile system with a range that is prohibited by a 1987 treaty, which could give Russia the ability to launch a nuclear strike on Europe on short notice. Allies have identified a Russian missile system that raises serious concerns, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said in a statement. NATO urges Russia to address these concerns in a substantial and transparent way, and actively engage in a technical dialogue with the United States. In a separate statement, the U.S. envoy to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, said: Russia s behavior raises serious concerns. Russia has denied it is violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. U.S.-led NATO s concerns are likely to further strain relations between Moscow and the West that are already at a low over Russia s 2014 seizure of Crimea, Western sanctions on the Russian economy and U.S. accusations that Moscow used computer hackers to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Moscow denies that it interfered in the election. The NATO statement follows a meeting between Russia and the United States in Geneva this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. According to an April U.S. State Department report, Washington determined in 2016 that Russia was in violation of its treaty obligations not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km (310-3,417 miles), or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles. Last week, the State Department said it is reviewing military options, including new intermediate-range cruise missile systems, the first response by U.S. President Donald Trump s administration to the U.S. charges. The Russian foreign ministry said last week it was ready for talks with the United States to try to preserve the treaty and would comply with its obligations if the United States did. In a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the IMF treaty last week, the Russian foreign ministry said Moscow considered the language of ultimatums and sanctions unacceptable. | 0fake |
Donald Trump is destroying Jeb Bush: Why his 9/11 gambit could be the last straw | This past weekend, the Donald finally pushed a button that was too much for Jeb to bear: He made the factual observation that Jeb’s brother had been president on 9/11. Well, all hell broke loose, as every GOP establishment figure rose up in untamed fury that Trump would be rude enough to bring such a thing up. Why, that’s sacrilege.
Bush followed up with a bizarre tweet which encapsulates the central vulnerability of his campaign and calls into question his entire rationale for running.
This is a strange argument, if only because Trump is obviously correct: The attack happened on George W. Bush’s watch. Thus, it’s undeniable that he did not keep us safe. But up until now, it has been considered something of a faux pas to even say as much.
Sure, there were some malcontents on the left who tepidly pointed out the obvious truth — that if Al Gore had been president at the time, the Republicans would have impeached him (if not tried and hanged him for treason) — had the shoe been on the other foot. That’s fairly obvious. But people mostly decided to eschew the blame game after 9/11.
Gore, for his part, came forward to declare that “George W. Bush is my commander in chief” and exhort his fellow Democrats to “unite behind our president … behind the effort to seek justice, not revenge, to make sure this will never, ever happen again.” Soon after, the entire Congress, except for Rep. Barbara Lee, backed the president’s decision to invade Afghanistan. There was very little political dissension. Indeed, the only serious partisan sniping came from people on the right like Andrew Sullivan, claiming without evidence that “the left” was in league with the terrorists. But for the most part, any blame for the attacks was muted and relegated to the extremes.
The government investigated, of course, and quite thoroughly. It created a blue ribbon, bipartisan commission which interviewed everyone involved, held public hearings and published a report in book form for the entire country to see. The hearings were particularly riveting as the nation got to hear from various insiders about what had been going on before, during and after the attacks. Most memorable was former terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who testified that he and others had been running around with their “hair on fire” trying to get the administration to focus on the high probability of an imminent terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
And everyone remembers National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, under questioning by the commission, admitting that the president had been given a very specific memo warning of the attacks on August 6th, 2001, almost a month before the attacks. When asked what the title of the memo was, Rice replied, to gasps from the audience there and undoubtedly in every living room in America, “I believe it said ‘Bin Laden determined to strike inside the United States.'”
It was a while before America got to see that memo, but when we did, we saw that they explicitly warned that they would “follow the example of World Trade Center bomber.” It said that in the first paragraph.
There was also a lot of information about the president’s response to the attacks, including the rather bizarre fact that Vice President Dick Cheney seemed to have taken over control in the early going and that the commission was not allowed to interview the president outside the VP’s presence. But with all that, there was no Select Committee on 9/11 formed after the Democrats took over the Congress in 2006 to go over the same ground. They did not belabor the issue by calling more witnesses and subpoenaing more documents and keeping the issue alive as a scab that would never heal on the backs of the families who lost loved ones on that awful day. They did not, in other words, turn 9/11 into a partisan witch hunt.
Donald Trump, of course, doesn’t care about any of that. He’s just a street fighter who says whatever comes into his head. And he’s perfectly happy to yank Jeb Bush’s chain and force him to answer for the fact that his brother was treated far better than he and his brother and all the rest of them would have treated any Democrat in that situation. He’s willing to go where no one else was: He’s blaming Bush for 9/11.
Jeb, for his part, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday to respond to Trump’s needling, and clumsily said that “it’s what you do after [the attack] that matters”. Unfortunately, this not only stipulates that his brother did fail to keep us safe, but then invites the public to look at what he did after, which is not a record on which anyone should want to run. (The obvious question: Was attacking a country that didn’t attack us, leading to thousands more lives lost, evidence of his “keeping us safe”?)
No, Jeb Bush would be wise to simply roll his eyes at Donald Trump and let him rant on without responding, because whenever he opens his mouth, he creates a whole new set of questions. This point was driven home when Jake Tapper brought up Benghazi in this context: TAPPER: Obviously Al Qaeda was responsible for the terrorist attack of 9/11, but how do you respond to critics who ask, if your brother and his administration bear no responsibility at all, how do you then make the jump that President Obama and Secretary Clinton are responsible for what happened at Benghazi? JEB BUSH: Well I — the question on Benghazi which, is hopefully we’ll now finally get the truth to, is was the place secure? They had a responsibility, the Department of State, to have proper security. There were calls for security, it looks like they didn’t get it. And how was the response in the aftermath of the attack, was there a chance that these four American lives could have been saved? That’s what the investigation is about, it’s not a political issue. It’s not about the broad policy issue, is were we doing the job of protecting our embassies and our consulates and during the period, those hours after the attack started, could they have been saved? TAPPER: Well that’s, that’s kind of proving the point of the critics I was just asking about, because you don’t want to have your brother bear responsibility for 9/11 and I understand that argument and Al Qaeda’s responsible, but why are the terrorists not the ones who are responsible for these attacks in Libya? BUSH: They are, of course they are but — of course they are, but if the ambassador was asking for additional security and didn’t get it, that’s a rproper point and if it’s proven that the security was adequate compared to other embassies, fine, we’ll move on. Jeb doesn’t seem to realize that every time a Republican bellows “Four Americans died on Clinton’s watch!” and in the next breath insist, “How dare you say George Bush didn’t keep us safe on his watch,” something doesn’t quite track. Even Americans who are otherwise too busy to pay attention to the granular details can tell that this is a very strange construction. If you watch the video, Jeb himself misses more than a couple of beats when Tapper brings it up — he obviously felt the dissonance. All congressional majorities play politics and there is always a political element to any investigation by one party into the presidency of the other party. But the Republicans have turned this into a blood sport in ways that are unconscionable. It’s one thing to hold hearings about Hillary Clinton’s cattle futures trades back in the ’70s or the White House Christmas card list. These are stupid wastes of time and money but they are not about life and death issues for which the Republicans should have a little bit more respect. After 9/11, it would have been very easy for the Democratic Congress to turn what the Bush administration did into a three ring circus of recriminations and insinuations for political gain. (There were plenty of people who thought President Bush could have been impeached for what Jeb insists was his brother’s finest hour — his actions after 9/11, and the Iraq invasion in particular.) Unlike these relentless Benghazi Inspector Javerts, for better or worse, the Democrats thought it would be more legitimate to win the presidency and the Congress through the electoral process in which the epic failure of the Iraq invasion was the focus rather than trying to blame George W. Bush for failing to keep the country safe on 9/11. And that was noble of them. Donald Trump is not noble. Jeb Bush is going to be questioned on this and he’s going to need a better answer than saying his brother kept the country safe. He didn’t. And he didn’t do any better in the aftermath. He made some good speeches and, to his credit, he cautioned Americans not to blame Muslims in general for the attacks (which may be the best thing he did). Other than that, it’s not a good record, no matter how you look at it. In fact, it’s astonishing that Jeb ever thought he could run without having to answer for it. Trump is going to make sure he does. Meanwhile, the upside to this little squabble is we’ve finally been able to put the partisan responses to 9/11 and Benghazi up for comparison. Lets just say it doesn’t look all that good for Team Red. Jeb and The Donald’s spat is only going to make that clearer as time goes on. | 0fake |
Greek prime minister says Turkey should continue its European orientation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday it was important for Turkey to remain part of the NATO security alliance and continue its orientation toward Europe despite current tensions between the two countries. “We continue to support the Turkish course toward Europe,” Tsipras said at a White House news conference after a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. “We respect it as a regional power and we believe that it must stay oriented toward the European perspective.” | 0fake |
Blackwater founder Prince details meeting with Russian in Seychelles | (This version of the Dec 6 story corrects paragraph 3 and adds new paragraph 4 to clarify the nature of U.S. sanctions) By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Erik Prince, founder of military contractor Blackwater and a supporter of President Donald Trump, told U.S. lawmakers he had discussed U.S.-Russia relations during a meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian business executive with ties to the Kremlin, but insisted they did not discuss sanctions. In a transcript released on Wednesday of Prince’s testimony last week to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Prince said he and Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, or RDIF, met for about half an hour in a bar at the suggestion of officials from the United Arab Emirates. The RDIF was put on a U.S. sanctions list in 2015 because at the time it was a subsidiary of VEB, the Russian state development bank. While it no is longer owned by the bank, it remains subject to limited sanctions. Americans are prohibited from providing extended debt and equity financing to sanctioned entities and their subsidiaries, such as RDIF. However, the fund does not raise debt or equity financing from third parties, according to a lawyer who represents the fund. The House intelligence panel is one of three congressional committees and a special counsel investigating U.S. allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, and the possibility of collusion between Trump associates and Moscow. Russia denies attempting to influence the U.S. campaign. Trump denies any collusion. Prince was called to testify because of the Seychelles meeting on Jan. 11, 2017, which The Washington Post later described as an effort to connect the incoming Trump administration with Moscow. He met with the committee voluntarily, and did not have an attorney with him. Prince said he had traveled to the Seychelles for a business meeting with UAE officials, who included Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, and they suggested he talk to Dmitriev. “After the meeting, they mentioned a guy I should meet who was also in town to see them, a Kirill Dmitriev from Russia,” Prince told members of the House committee, according to the transcript. “I didn’t fly there to meet any Russian guy,” Prince said. Prince told reporters after his interview that the panel had wasted time and taxpayer money on a “fishing expedition.” Prince donated to Trump’s campaign, made multiple visits to Trump Tower in New York and said he wrote some foreign policy memos for the Republican candidate, which he delivered to Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon. Democratic committee members noted that Prince said Bannon had told him about a secret meeting at Trump Tower in December 2016 with UAE officials, shortly before the January Seychelles meeting. Prince said he had met Trump just once, at a fundraiser, before he was elected president in November 2016. Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s Secretary of Education. Prince said he had discussed U.S.-Russia relations with Dmitriev, but only in the broadest terms. “If Franklin Roosevelt can work with Joseph Stalin after the Ukraine terror famine, after killing tens of millions of his own citizens, we can certainly at least cooperate with the Russians in a productive way to defeat the Islamic State,” Prince said he told Dmitriev. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said after the testimony was released that Prince had been less than forthcoming and sought to represent his meeting with Dmitriev as coincidental. “Prince also could not adequately explain why he traveled halfway around the world to meet with UAE officials and, ultimately, the head of the Russian fund,” Schiff said in a statement. | 0fake |
Is America On The Brink Of Civil War? | Is America On The Brink Of Civil War? 11/07/2016
PJ MEDIA
Valerie Jarrett—Barack Obama’s closest consigliere who has lived in the lap of luxury in and out of the White House—is calling for James Comey’s head because the FBI director reopened the matter of Hillary Clinton’s emails only days before the election.
As we all know, Comey did this after some 650,000 digital missives, many from Clinton’s server, were discovered on Anthony Weiner’s laptop by the NYPD.
Obama, however, is a bit uneasy about Jarrett’s hawkishness toward Comey.
“Valerie argued that Comey was interfering deliberately in the election process and had to be stopped,” a source told The New York Post . The same source said Obama, though, is “worried about the consequences of taking such an action – the tsunami of outrage that would come his way, and possibly become a major footnote, or worse, in the history of the presidency.”
Ah, those legacy problems, not that the president has much of one outside the comically named Affordable Care Act, which is about as popular as stomach cancer.
Nevertheless, he’s right about the tsunami of outrage. In fact it’s an understatement. The bad news is this: As miserable as this endless election season has been, the aftermath is likely to be far worse. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to see that putting the American Humpty Dumpty together again is going to be a herculean task. Our country could be permanently fractured in ways few of us would have anticipated even a year ago. Anything is possible now.
If Hillary Clinton is elected, the very next day millions of Americans will be watching to see what will happen with the FBI and the Justice Department. Since we can now assume this will be a close election, that would be nearly half the voters in this country, sixty to seventy million people, almost all of whom believe Clinton, the woman a few weeks from inauguration as president, should have been charged with serious crimes and belonged behind bars, not in the White House.
Moreover, many have seen the WikiLeaks that reek of collusion between the Clintonistas and officials at the FBI and Justice, not to mention with virtually all the mainstream media outlets that were distrusted to begin with and are now reviled.
If that’s not an explosive situation, what is? And we don’t know what Assange et al have in store for us after the election. Just now we learned that the Clinton Foundation accepted—while Her Ladyship was secretary of State and in honor of Bill’s birthday—an unreported one million dollar donation from that paragon of women’s and gay rights, Qatar. This is chump change in the grand Clinton scheme of things, but another reminder of their unending greed and corruption. More importantly, as Tyler Durden points out, this time there should be legal consequences for the foundation—or would be normally in a country governed by the rule of law.
Only we’re not anymore.
This and a thousand other things put Obama, quite possibly liable himself from the email disclosures, and his attorney general Lynch behind a treacherous eight ball going forward, because they are not dealing with a few thousand disgruntled people, but those many millions. If they were to go ahead with Jarrett’s suggestion, take Comey’s head (i. e. fire him) and replace him with a yet more complaisant successor, who knows what would happen?
But if they don’t, and even if they do, the investigation may reveal things so shocking the nation will never be the same. Rumors have been flying that are so extreme that even a ten percent accuracy rate could ignite a firestorm.
The problem for all of us is that there is literally nothing Clinton can do to get out of this box, even if, as many predict, Obama pardons her. The corruption is so pervasive there is no way short of an actual military putsch to stop the continuing revelations. And such an action would itself unleash … well, you know the title of this article.
Would a Trump victory save us from all this? No one knows. Dennis Prager perhaps put it best. When you have two doors and behind one is a man-eating lion and the other one may or may not have such a lion, which door do you choose? Unless you want to commit suicide, the answer is self-evident. | 1real |
Review: ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ Amuses, but Misses Opportunities - The New York Times | First things first: “The Secret Life of Pets” is preceded by a short film starring the Minions, in which those irrepressible yellow gelcaps take up landscaping so they can purchase a blender. You may regard this extra little cartoon as a bonus or a tax, depending on your level of Minion tolerance. Mine reached its end around 90 seconds before the movie did. But in any case, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures are determined to keep selling toys and Halloween costumes, and it’s pointless to protest the merchandising of manufactured cuteness. Part of the Minions’ ostensibly universal charm lies in the fact that they speak no known language, but rather a chirpy, vaguely patois. “The Secret Life of Pets,” Illumination’s newest feature, relies on the more conventional sound of celebrity voices, mostly belonging to people who are professionally funny on television. Children may not be all that familiar with many of them, including Louis C. K. who plays the main character, a dog named Max. Louis C. K. on his television projects and in his tends to work on the blue end of the spectrum, trafficking in melancholy as well as profanity. His presence here may be a gift to his own children, and to their college funds. It might also provide a measure of consolation to gloomy, sensitive dads who need to sense a kindred soul on the other side of the screen. Similarly, Hannibal Buress (a dachshund) Jenny Slate (a fuzzy white lap dog whose exact breed I could not identify) and Lake Bell (a cat) might be here not because kids will recognize them from “Broad City” or “Obvious Child” or “In a World” but because youngish parents might want to feel a little bit cool at the multiplex on a Saturday afternoon. No shame in that! Fans of “Modern Family” will be happy to hear Eric Stonestreet as a big furry dog. Fans of Kevin Hart who want more after “Central Intelligence” and “Ride Along 2” will enjoy his impersonation of an angry bunny. Albert Brooks is a grumpy raptor. That sentence was a pleasure to write. There is also a guinea pig, some other birds, lizards and even a few human beings. But this is mostly a dog story, full of capers and complications arising from the arrival of Duke (the big shaggy one voiced by Mr. Stonestreet) into the household Max shares with Katie (Ellie Kemper) his millennial owner. There is rivalry and resentment and eventually friendship. “The Secret Life of Pets,” written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch and directed by Yarrow Cheney and Chris Renaud, is like one of those picture books about how to deal with a new baby, but with talking animals. Which is, all in all, pretty good fun. cartoons generally are, if they have even a modest quantity of wit or insight. And while this movie never achieves — and does not really aim for — the emotional richness or visual inventiveness of the better Pixar features, or the sly social consciousness of “Zootopia,” it has a playful absurdity and a winning, friendly spirit. As the title suggests, the conceit is that when we humans are away, our furry, scaly, feathered companions get up to all kinds of mischief. They visit one another’s apartments, they dance and flirt and play loud music and then, when we return, pretend that they’ve been waiting for us the whole time. Except for the cats, of course, who make a great show of not caring. Here I should say that, while Ms. Bell’s purring vocalizations are beyond reproach, the film is clearly the work of dog people, and traffics — like nearly every other movie in its genre — in some tired stereotypes. I could go on about this, but I’m not supposed to let my political opinions affect my reviews. And I’m not biased. Dogs are fine. I have shared my home and opened my heart to a few of them. But they’re also just too easy, with their wet noses and broad pink tongues and eagerness to please. Cats are demanding. Complex. A more daring movie would have ventured beyond fat, pampered house cats and scrawny alley predators in its depiction of them. Representation matters. Speaking of politics, the house pets encounter an underground militant organization led by Mr. Hart’s adorably fuzzy, implacable little rabbit. He steals the movie, of course, and helps it ascend to a level of anarchic delight. The animated action is bouncy and frenetic, and if the story becomes a little too busy, it moves quickly and makes room for a barrage of jokes and even some character development. Ms. Slate’s Gidget the lap dog evolves from a lovestruck princess (pining for Max) into a fierce and resourceful action heroine. Max himself grows less . Everyone gets home safely. Like the “Despicable Me” movies, which put Illumination on the map (and spawned those furshlugginer Minions) “The Secret Life of Pets” is adequate animated entertainment, amusing while it lasts but not especially memorable except as a catalog of compromises and missed opportunities. Among those are the New York setting, a potential wonderland of glamour, filth and imagination that is rendered as blandly as if the movie had been shot on a set. “The Secret Life of Pets” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Fewer poop jokes than you might expect. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. | 0fake |
Obama Says Terrorists Seek Legitimacy by Using Religious Tie | President Barack Obama said the U.S. and its allies must strip away any legitimacy that Islamic State and al-Qaeda claim by portraying themselves as religious movements.
Obama, who has come under criticism from Republicans who say he avoids acknowledging the Muslim roots of extremist groups, said terrorists use religion as a recruiting tool by portraying the U.S. and European nations as being at war with Islam.
“We must never accept the premise they put forward, because it is a lie,” Obama said Wednesday in Washington on the second day of a White House summit on combating extremism. “They are not religious leaders. They’re terrorists. And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”
Deadly attacks in Paris, Sydney and Copenhagen by individuals of Muslim background and possibly inspired by the brutal tactics of Islamic State, along with the group’s spread in Syria, Iraq and now Libya, have raised alarms in Europe and the U.S. about the danger of lone-wolf terrorists, driven by extremist ideology and difficult to detect before they act.
At the summit, the Obama administration is convening representatives of Muslim organizations, law enforcement officials and local political leaders to swap ideas about how to stem root causes of extremism. It also has invited leaders from overseas to take part.
Obama said civic leaders must recognize that Islamic State and al-Qaeda “deliberately target their propaganda in the hopes of reaching and brainwashing young Muslims” through videos, social media and other online outlets. He said the one way to counter that is to alleviate the alienation and poverty that are the extremists’ best recruiting tool.
In the U.S., he said, local and federal authorities must make sure that Muslims aren’t isolated and that they are welcomed and integrated into society.
“Muslim Americans feel they have been unfairly targeted,” he said. “We have to be sure that abuses stop, are not repeated, that we do not stigmatize entire communities.”
Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, who is chairman of a political action committee aimed at electing Republicans, called the conference a “farce” in a statement and said the administration should be targeting terrorists rather than offering “pie-in-the-sky social welfare programs” to Muslims here and overseas.
The administration’s strategy is also aimed at drawing in the domestic Muslim leaders who Obama is leaning on to identify and isolate potentially violent extremists. Yet some groups say they remain suspicious about the administration’s motivation.
The Muslim Advocates, an Oakland Calif.-based group that that was invited to a White House meeting earlier this month, expressed concern that Obama’s requests for “partnerships” with Muslim community and religious leaders is code for requiring leaders to play a law enforcement role.
They also blasted Obama for focusing too narrowly on Muslims, a decision that the group says reinforces a negative stereotype that Islam and terror are linked.
“This whole day is focused on American Muslims, frankly,” Farhana Khera, the group’s executive director, said in a telephone interview. “It strikes at the core of what we are as Americans.”
Obama is speaking on the topic again tomorrow at the State Department during a session that includes representatives from overseas, including France, Belgium, Mexico and Japan. | 0fake |
As Always, U.S. Adores a Good Sex Scandal | Amid the hand-wringing over the gutter-level sexual exchanges between Trump and Cruz, it doesn’t hurt to remember that it has been ever thus in American politics.
The innuendos flying back and forth between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump about the mutual sexual peccadillos of the candidates and their wives has elicited an abundance of hand-wringing over how such mud-slinging has dragged presidential politics into the gutter. Actually, it has returned it to the steamy, if seamy, flow of American history that harkens back to the Founding Fathers. The only surprise is that pundits affect to be surprised by this turn of events. In fact, sexual indiscretion and its consequences are an indelible part of our nation’s political tradition
The issue is not whether our forbears who attained, or aspired to, the White House were plaster saints but, rather, how the times in which they lived responded to their behavior. The ink had hardly dried on the Constitution in 1791 when our first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, entered into a liaison with Maria Reynolds, whose scoundrel of a husband, James, blackmailed Hamilton in return for his silence, further implicating Hamilton in corruption charges. It wasn’t until six years later that Hamilton’s political enemies exposed the affair. Hamilton responded by coming clean, admitting that he’d slept with the lady but denying the corruption charges. His response won him points for candor but the mud never quite came unstuck.
Ted Cruz might not want to follow the path pursued by Andrew Jackson, who killed Charles Dickinson in a duel in 1806 for impugning the reputation of Jackson’s wife, Rachel. The duel did nothing to mar Jackson’s reputation, as evidenced by his being elected president two decades later. The more notorious sexual scandal of Jackson’s political career occurred during his presidency when he insisted on defending the virtue of Peggy Eaton, the wife of his War Secretary, John Eaton. Peggy, a local tavern keeper’s daughter disparaged in Washington society for her allegedly easygoing ways, was shunned by the wives of Jackson’s cabinet. What started out as a contretemps of social snubs soon grew into a full-blown political schism. Eaton eventually resigned, but Jackson revenged himself on his recalcitrant cabinet members by dismissing several of them. Jackson won the battle but at a cost that contributed to a growing schism in the Democratic Party.
A different set of circumstances entirely arose from two men who entered the White House as bachelors: James Buchanan (1857-1861) and Grover Cleveland, who served two terms in the Gilded Age. There, their similarities end. Buchanan was rumored to have had a homosexual friendship with William Rufus King, himself a former vice president, whom Jackson disparagingly referred to as “Miss Nancy.” The real scandal of Buchanan’s tenure was his virtual abdication of executive responsibility as the nation unraveled in the months leading up to the Civil War.
Grover Cleveland was another story. Running as a reforming Democrat in 1884, he was vilified by his Republican enemies as the father of an out-of-wedlock son whom he’d sired during an earlier sojourn in Buffalo. The GOP, which had run the bribe-receptive Sen. James G. Blaine against Cleveland, sought to detract from their own candidate’s turpitude by sullying Cleveland’s reputation. Cleveland was mocked with the chants of “Ma, ma, where’s my Pa?” accompanied by cartoons lampooning the errant father who’d abandoned his illegitimate son. Cleveland turned the tables on his tormenters by acknowledging responsibility for the boy and providing for his welfare, although he never fully owned up to admitting paternity. The exposure may have dented his campaign but didn’t derail it as he went on to win the White House.
Then there was Warren Harding, the first president to be elected with the women’s vote, who displayed his fondness for the ladies by maintaining a long-term affair with his best friend’s wife, Carrie Phillips, when he was elected in 1920, and, for good measure, embarking on a second liaison in the White House with the youngish Nan Britton. Their trysts led to the birth of an illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth. Monthly payments to the parties involved assured their discretion. Harding’s tenure was ushered in by Prohibition and the ensuing Jazz Age. But his teetotaling supporters came to have greater concerns than rumors of randy hijinks in the Executive Office when the Teapot Dome scandal blew the roof off the GOP White House.
The age of Democratic ascendancy, which roughly stretched from the New Deal through the Great Society, provided an Era of Good Feeling where the human lapses of our Chief Executives were overlooked by a forgiving press. It was only after their tenures that a more prurient, or judgmental, posterity examined their private affairs more closely. Thus, the discreet indiscretions of Franklin Roosevelt with Lucy Mercer and Missy LeHand (or, for that matter, Eleanor with Lorena Hickock), Jack Kennedy’s serial philandering, or LBJ’s randy ways, were all suppressed by a media that was more concerned with presidential policies than peccadillos.
With the sexual abandon of the Cultural Revolution came a new approach to residents of the Oval Office or aspirants for the job. Those who sought or won the post, for the most part, had the same human frailties as their predecessors. The difference was in the Anything Goes approach of the media, whetted by the success of exposing the Watergate scandal and abetted by a technological revolution that made what was once the province of intimacy the source of prurient interest under the rubric of “the public’s right to know.” Watergate, whatever its virtues, made the president fair game and encouraged an “investigative” journalism that devolved from monitoring public malfeasance to invading what had once been considered private affairs.
So by the 1988 campaign, when Democratic Sen. Gary Hart’s presidential hopes and political career became caught in the maw of tabloid journalism and left to the mercies of reporters on the scent of sexual scandal, the quest for the presidency had become an adjunct of the entertainment industry. The Oscars for this spectacle went to the Clinton impeachment proceedings.
Donald Trump took it to the next logical step from turning a candidate into a celebrity to simply making a celebrity a candidate. Americans love a circus and the circus has now come to town, or rather the electronic Town Hall of social media, digital dazzle, squawk radio, and cable wrestling that passes for discourse in our political arena. The unrestrained passions of partisan politics and party faction that Washington futilely warned against were there from the beginning. They have simply been amplified by technology. The list cited above is a short one. | 0fake |
ICC reports Jordan to U.N. Security Council for not arresting Sudan's Bashir | AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday it would refer Jordan to the U.N. Security Council for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited Amman in March. The court issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010 over his alleged role in war crimes including genocide in Sudan s Darfur province. Jordan, as a member of the ICC, is obliged to carry out its arrest warrants. Sudan is not a member of the Hague-based permanent international war crimes court, and the ICC therefore does not have automatic jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes there. However, the U.N. Security Council referred the case to the international court in March 2005. The Security Council has the power to impose sanctions for a failure to cooperate with the ICC, but has so far not acted on court referrals. A diplomatic row broke out when Bashir visited South Africa in 2015 and Pretoria failed to arrest him. South Africa s government argued that doing so would have been a violation of the immunity Bashir enjoys as a head of state. That argument was rejected by South African courts as well as the ICC. The ICC ultimately did not refer South Africa to the Security Council, however, saying it was not clear that doing so would have any effect. Kenya and South Africa have threatened to withdraw from the ICC over perceived bias against African countries. Burundi, which is under ICC investigation, has actually withdrawn. Bashir is accused by ICC prosecutors of five counts of crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape, as well as two counts of war crimes for attacking civilians and pillaging. He faces three counts of genocide allegedly committed against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Darfur, Sudan, from 2003 to 2008. | 0fake |
Five Things To Look Out For With Trump’s Pentagon | 21st Century Wire says Although he had some great ideas on the campaign trail, still expect the war hawks and Israeli Lobby instruments like John Bolton, Tom Cotton, and Rudy Giuliani to gradually nudge the new President and his administration, in a concerted attempt to try and reshape Trump s relatively common sense campaign foreign policy directives Kristina Wong and Rebecca Kheel The HillDonald Trump s election was as much a surprise to the defense world as it was to much of the nation. Here are five key things the Pentagon can expect from Trump. 1. Rising spendingTrump has called for a much bigger military and some experts think he could increase defense spending by 20 percent, from $583 billion in 2017 to nearly $700 billion.While that may sound like a lot, it is in line with what the Obama administration projected for 2012 before the Pentagon was hit with sequestration mandatory budget caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.Trump has called for increasing the size of the active duty Army from 475,000 to 540,000 troops, and the Marine Corps from 24 to 36 battalions. He wants to build a 350-ship Navy, have 1,200 fighter aircraft in the Air Force and increase missile defense.Trump has pledged to lift limits on spending from the 2011 budget bill, something that would require action by Congress and could be difficult. The limits are in place until 2021.The Congress is controlled by the GOP, but not all Republicans are in favor of more military spending.Increasing defense spending could also increase the deficit, something Trump and the GOP are loathe to do. He separately wants to cut taxes, including for the wealthy, would could add to deficit concerns.2. Targeting ISISTrump has said he would aggressively pursue military operations to crush and destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but what that would entail is far from clear.By the time Trump takes office on Jan. 20, offensives to retake ISIS s strongholds in both countries will be underway, but the terrorist group is expected to continue waging an insurgency in both places even if they fall.Trump would likely seek cooperation with Russia in Syria to defeat ISIS, but it s not clear what that would mean. Russia began an air campaign there in September 2015, but has been hitting anti-regime rebels supported by the U.S., as well as civilians.Trump has also called for international cooperation to cut off ISIS s funding, expanding intelligence sharing, and cyberwarfare to disrupt its propaganda and recruiting. Trump has said he would also decimate Al Qaeda.3. Syria and AfghanistanNearly 500,000 people have been killed and 11 million displaced by the Syrian war, an intractable problem for President Obama.Trump has suggested that Syria President Bashar al-Assad is better than the alternative, which would be the coalition of anti-regime rebels that include U.S.-backed moderates as well as extremists. At the same time, Trump has said he would build safe zones in Syria, in order to stop the flow of refugees into Europe.Those two goals are somewhat contradictory, as Syria and Russia have a broad definition of terrorists and have been hitting those civilians the safe zones would protect. U.S. defense officials and experts say implementing safe zones would mean war with Syria, and possibly Russia.Trump s future policy in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has 9,800 troops, is also unclear.Before his bid for presidency, he had called for withdrawing troops, and criticized efforts to nation-build in the country. He reiterated that sentiment earlier this year, saying at a rally in August that he would end the era of nation building. However, with the Taliban making a comeback, and al Qaeda and ISIS militants also trying to build safe havens, there will be pressure for Trump to maintain U.S. troops in Afghanistan.4. Closer ties with Russia?U.S. relations with Russia could improve under Trump.Trump has said he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin before he takes office in January, and repeatedly complimented him during the campaign.His statements on Russia s invasion of the Ukraine territory in Crimea and his refusal to blame Russia for cyber hacks against U.S. political institutions has unnerved people in both parties.It s possible Trump won t change policy toward Russia.Vice President-elect Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) took a much harder line against Russia during the campaign, suggesting during the vice presidential debate that the U.S. Could take military action against Russia in Syria.Trump will likely face staunch opposition to cozier relations from Congress from key Republicans such as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), whose name has been floated for secretary of State under Trump, has been highly critical of Russia s role in Syria.Some experts say although Trump may seek to actively engage Russia, cooperation would likely be based on what s mutually beneficial. He is a deal maker so he s going to want things in return for giving Russia what it is seeking, said Paul Schwartz, defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Trump s win also puts the future of the 67-year-old NATO alliance in question at a time when lawmakers are working on bulking up the eastern flank to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia and finding ways to combat hybrid warfare, cyber attacks and terrorism.Trump called NATO obsolete multiple times over the course of the campaign, saying it should do more to fight terrorism. Trump also said he would look at whether NATO allies have fulfilled their obligations to us before deciding whether to defend them if they are attacked.Just five of 28 members meet the goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense: the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia and Poland.Michael O Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said there are a few paths Trump could take to fulfill his campaign promise.In one scenario, Trump could immediately pull out of commitments to defend countries that aren t meeting their 2 percent obligations.Trump could also make deals with such countries that give them a few years to meet the goal.5. Guantanamo staysWith President Obama unlikely to fulfill his pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by Jan. 20, Trump will inherit the facility and almost certainly keep it open Continue this story at The HillREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files | 1real |
How demonetisation has affected tipping | How demonetisation has affected tipping Posted on Tweet (Image via blogcdn.com)
Today we will talk about the one area that probably has been hit the hardest by demonetisation: Tipping.
I got thinking about this after a small incident at a restaurant where I was for an evening bite early this week. The bill was for Rs.197 and, as it happened, I had only a few 100 rupee notes with me. I could have left two hundred rupee notes and walked off, but three rupees is, forget tips, pittance even as alms these days. Roadside beggars, if they were offered Rs.3, would perhaps take it as extreme insult, and, as is the norm these days, initiate an online ‘change.org’ petition against this discrimination and before the end of the week it would have had a lakh of signatories and the media would run away with the story (“Three rupees and the hubris of the privileged”, “Five reasons why beggars are also human beings”, “Post-Trump, alms hit a new low”, “India ranked 153rd in the Global Alms-Giving Index (below Rwanda, Gambia and Bhutan)”, and the inevitable “How twitter reacted to “AlmsGate”). And after a week or so of this — this is the power of media pressure and online change petitions — the general public would have quietly moved on to some other issue.
Sorry, I digressed. Back to the restaurant. I could have topped the bill with another Rs.100, but Rs.103 would have been hefty as a tip. The middle-class cheapskate in me would not have let me sleep peacefully that night.
So what did I do? I went for the third option, which was to pick the bill and pay it with my credit card at the counter and slink off without making any eye contact with the waiter, who, if ever I visit the same restaurant again, is sure to bring my soup after spitting into it.
The problem with tipping is there is no hard and fast rule to it. In some countries,’ etiquette has it that you leave 15% of the bill amount as a tip. In some others, it is 10%. In some others, possibly pockets of Pakistan, it is good etiquette if you at least pay the bill. In my home town Madurai, it was considered good enough if you give the waiter a warm smile while leaving. But that is Madurai, a place where holding the door for the person coming behind you might be taken as extreme insult: “ Yaen pa, engallukku kai kaal illaiya? ” (“Why man, don’t we have hands and legs?”)
Modern-day bills also leave you confused about tipping. You are always stumped by ‘service tax’ and ‘service charge’. One is a government levy and the other is a charge by the shop. Here is a handy explainer on what they actually mean:
Service Tax: You pay
Service Charge: You pay.
Okay, here is another definition: Service tax and service charge are totally two different things, but generally combine together to make the bill for the pizza, which you ordered only because the price was marked Rs.199, magically change to Rs. 476 at the time of paying.
When the bill includes ‘service charge’, it is generally taken that you need not tip. But not all bills include the service charge. But even when it is included, it may not be ‘totally’ included. Which, of course, means, you are even more unsure as to how much to tip.
Even more of a toughie is the scene at pricey hotels when you are on tour. At a fancy hotel you should be prepared to tip basically your annual provident fund payments. Even if you are travelling alone and carrying just a duffel bag, the moment you arrive at the hotel, the staff there will dart towards you, while one will open the car door and before you tip him a ten or twenty, another will reach for your small bag and without waiting for you, carry it towards the reception desk probably situated 60-70 metres away and deposit there (cue for you to slip in another ten or twenty), from where another staff will pick it up and take it to the lift located 20 metres away and travel with you all the way to the floor where your room is and then leave you when you pay him twenty or fifty) whereupon another person will materialise from nowhere to purvey something (“This water bottle is a compliment from the hotel, sir”) and also tell you how to operate the TV and AC (“Here is the switch and you have to turn it on”), but by this time you would have totally run out of all loose change and you will have no other go but to tip him a 100. When you are eventually through with the stay you would probably have tipped everyone and everything, including bathroom fixtures, and may want to leave sliding via the drainpipe without anyone noticing.
But tipping is important and a basic courtesy extended to any service or work done. But not to trouble you in this demonetised time, I don’t mind cheques. | 1real |
UAE denies Yemen's Houthis have fired missile toward UAE | DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates on Sunday denied a report that Yemen s Houthi group had fired a missile toward a nuclear plant in the UAE, state news agency WAM reported on its Twitter account. It quoted the UAE s emergency and crisis management department as saying the UAE possessed a missile defense system that could deal with any such threats and adding the al-Barakah nuclear plant was secure against all eventualities. | 0fake |
The New Cold War: A Chilling Prospect for the World | 21st Century Wire says There is one curious thing the Presidents of your country [US] change but the policy doesnt change, on matters of principle. ~ President PutinNATO s justification lies in its ability to find or create an enemy, Putin told legendary film maker, Oliver Stone. No other enemy has served NATO and the military industrial complex as well as Russia and the Cold War . The re-emergence of the cold war construct has reached almost unprecedented levels with western media & governments bearing down on historic prejudices with renewed vigour. The new cold war is a chilling prospect for the world if it is allowed to mushroom into something more deadly.Finian Cunningham discusses this prospect in his article for Strategic Culture:On the passing of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Russia s President Vladimir Putin spoke fondly of the great statesman and his herculean efforts to reconcile Europe and Russia. Putin said he agreed with the late German leader s view that the Cold War between West and East had been largely brought to an end. The Russian president added, however, that international relations are bound to swing like a pendulum, oscillating between bad and good. Now the pendulum has swung a bit back towards frost, but I am convinced that it will inevitably find the right balance and we will be joining efforts to face today s challenges , Putin told reporters.This is commentary not meant to be pedantic nitpicking, but there are important reasons to point out why the pendulum analogy is mistaken. That model for relations is based on the false assumption that the dynamic can go from bad to good, and vice versa.If we take the peak of the Cold War running from the 1950s to the end of the 1980s, during which there was the constant specter of nuclear war, then if the pendulum analogy holds, one would expect that there should be at some stage of history an opposite state of relations in which mutual, peaceful coexistence eventually prevails.Unfortunately, history has shown us that more than 25 years after the presumed end of the Cold War, relations between the West and Russia have not proceeded towards any substantial improvement. Indeed, it seems clear that over the past five years or so, relations between the West and Russia have deteriorated to a level of hostility comparable to the peak of the Cold War.This grim condition of relations is illustrated by the constant imposition of new economic sanctions on Russia by the US and its European allies ever since the Ukraine conflict erupted in early 2014. Also, the relentless build-up of military forces by the US-led NATO alliance on Russia s border. In the past week, a NATO F-16 warplane made the highly provocative move of buzzing the aircraft carrying the Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu while in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.President Putin last week in an interview aired with American film-maker Oliver Stone deplored the possibility of a nuclear war, saying that nobody would survive such a catastrophic event. It is a measure of how foreboding relations between the West and Russia have become when Putin is obliged to make such a dire warning.The Russian leader went on to point out, rightly, that NATO always needs to find an enemy in order to justify its existence. The military organization despite claims of protecting Atlantic security is wired for war ever since its inception in 1949.So, let s not delude ourselves. The question of whether the Cold War ended around 1990 or not seems incontestable. It didn t. That war continues albeit expressed in different ideological language and propaganda terms.Instead of alleged Soviet Marxist-Leninist expansionism, we hear of accusations that Moscow is undermining the liberal world order and interfering in Western democratic elections . Or, allegedly, that Russia is threatening the security of the Baltic states.This is not to dispute the genuine convictions and sentiments of many Western and Russian politicians for global cooperation. There seems little doubt that the late, great German Chancellor Helmut Kohl wholly believed in a vision of West-East reconciliation and unity. During his 16-year leadership (1982-1998), Kohl oversaw the reunification of West and East Germany and he spoke of a future where Europe and Russia would work together.Putin reflected on personal conversations he shared with the German statesman. Unfortunately, not everything from the dreams, we used to dream and talk about, is being implemented. However, I am convinced that his [Kohl s] analysis is correct and those positive processes, without which neither Europe nor Russia has any future, will be developing in the European and, I can say, Eurasian continent , remarked the Russian president.The question is: why have these reasonable, laudable aspirations not been implemented?And this leads us to the nature of US leadership among the Western states. American dominance is about hegemony and maintaining control over its perceived unipolar position of global power. This worldview in turn stems from the condition of American-led Western capitalism. It is a zero-sum worldview in which a multi-polar world is simply not tolerable. American domination necessarily dictates to subordinates, not allies .The emergence of other world powers no matter how legitimate that emergence is is seen as a threat to American hegemony and the hierarchical structure of the capitalist world economy in which US interests are the apex of importance.American-led antagonism towards Russia did not originate after the Second World War as conventionally thought. It began with the Russian revolution in 1917 and the fear of international communism spreading to threaten the capitalist order. While modern-day Russia does not profess to be socialist , and China s polity is debatable, both are nevertheless still perceived as a threat to the American unipolar worldview because they represent a multipolar rivalry.The only period during which Washington appeared to extend a non-hostile hand towards Russia was during the Boris Yeltsin leadership years of the 1990s when Russia was in effect a vassal state for US-led Western capitalism. Under the later more independent political leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which Russia has repudiated vassal status, the US has reverted to its standard position of overt hostility.Thus, the Cold War was definitely not ended. It was merely suspended for those years when Russia was subservient. Now that Russia is no longer subservient, the US-led Cold War is resumed.Western politicians like Helmut Kohl and some present-day European leaders may sincerely aspire to a normalization of relations between the West and Russia. Of course, it is a reasonable aspiration given the common history, culture and mutual economic interests. However, the relations between the West and Russia, and for that matter other global powers such as China, will always be subject to hostility. That is because of the intrinsic hegemonic condition of US-led Western capitalism demanding total dominance.The analogy of relations modulating like a pendulum between negative and positive, or good and bad, or war and peace, is flawed. Because relations under a sought-after unipolar world of American domination will inevitably be subject to antagonism and, if needs be, all-out conflict and war.Rather than a pendulum, perhaps a more fitting analogy is a giant wrecking ball. The would-be American hegemonic power says: Do as I demand and the wrecking ball is held back. If not, then here comes the force of destruction .How to transcend this appalling situation is the challenge of our times. But one surmises that the emancipation depends on ending American-led capitalism and its hegemonic dictate to the rest of the world.***TO READ MORE ON THE NEW COLD WAR: THE 21WIRE COLD WAR FILESSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
HILLARY CAMPAIGN WORKER BUSTED DEFACING TRUMP SIGNS | HILLARY CAMPAIGN WORKER BUSTED DEFACING TRUMP SIGNS by IWB · October 27, 2016
The Conservative Tribune reports, We are constantly told by the mainstream media that Election Day is really just a mere formality by now as the race has pretty much already been decided in favor of Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Read more: | 1real |
NEW SMOKING GUN IRS DOCUMENTS Prove Targeting of Conservative Groups | Remember the emotional testimony of Wetumpka Tea Party leader Becky Garritson:The documents were produced after a revelation by the IRS that it had located an additional 6,924 documents of potentially responsive records relating to a 2015 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit about the Obama IRS targeting scandal. The FOIA lawsuit seeks records about the IRS selection of individuals and organizations for audits based upon applications requesting nonprofit tax status filed by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220)).Of the 695 pages of documents released by the IRS, 422 (61%) were withheld in their entirety. These newly identified records are not records that were contained in the Congressional Database, which the IRS created in 2013 to house records responsive to congressional inquiries into the IRS scandal.Included among the newly released material is a June 20, 2013, memo from Karen Schiller, then-Acting Director, EO Rulings and Agreement, suspending use of the controversial Be on the Lookout (BOLO) and Touch and Go (TAG) lists:EO Rulings and Agreements is undertaking a comprehensive review of screening and identification of critical issues. We intend to develop proper procedures and uses for these types of documents. Until a more formal process for identification, approval and distribution of this type of data is established, Rulings and Agreements will not use this technique to elevate issues.In an August 9, 2013, memo, Schiller admitted the IRS used political labels in targeting the groups for special scrutiny and possible audit and that, going forward, the agency would screen organizations based only on their activities, not words or labels of any kind: As Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel has said, the IRS has taken decisive action to eliminate the use of inappropriate political labels in the screening of 501(c)(4) applications. IRS policy is now clear that screening is based on activity, not words in a name. The new steps and current policies were outlined in the June 24 report, which noted: In the absence of BOLO lists, the Determinations Unit will continue to screen for information affecting the determination of applications for tax exempt status, including activity tied to political campaign intervention, but it [will] be done without regard to specific labels of any kind. The 30-day report also reflects the June 20, 2013 memorandum, which was issued to officially suspend the use of the BOLO list in the screening process.The documents also include a Dear Applicant letter which offers an expedited process for 501(c)(4)s in exchange for restriction on their activities:This optional expedited process is currently available only to applicants for 501(c)(4) status with applications pending for more than 120 days as of May 28, 2013, that indicate the organization may be involved in political campaign intervention.In this optional process, an organization will represent that it satisfies, and will continue to satisfy, set percentages with respect to the level of its social welfare activities and political campaign intervention activities (as defined in the specific instructions on pages 5-7). These percentage representations are not an interpretation of law but are a safe harbor for those organizations that choose to participate in the optional process.On September 30, 2013, Acting Director, Exempt Organizations, Kenneth C. Corbin, sent a memo to IRS staff providing detailed guidance on classifying applications when merit approval is not an option, emphasizing that the determination is to be based on facts and circumstances, not words and labels: Classifier reviews the application and determines if it should be routed to a specialty group. This determination is based upon facts and circumstances of the stated activities within Part II of the application rather than names or labels. This is consistent with Karen Schiller s August 9, 2013 memorandum The Schiller and Corbin memos came on the heels of the May 14, 2013, Inspector General report revealing that the IRS had singled out groups using conservative-sounding terms such as patriot and Tea Party when applying for tax-exempt status. The IG probe determined that Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of past and future donors) and delayed processing of targeted groups applications in advance of the 2012 presidential election.Of the 422 withheld pages, 98% (all but nine) cited the FOIA deliberative process provision under FOIA Exemption 5. No wonder the Obama IRS has been hiding these records. The new smoking-gun documents contain admissions by the Obama IRS that it inappropriately targeted conservative groups, said Judicial Watch President, Tom Fitton. But the records also show that the abuse continued as the Obama IRS tried to force conservative applicants to give up their First Amendment rights in order to finally get their applications granted. Previously, Judicial Watch released IRS documents containing email correspondence dated April 2, 2013, from former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations, Lois Lerner, to internal IRS investigators revealing the inappropriate BOLO criteria used to select conservative organizations for screening and scrutiny:The screening [Cincinnati field office] group manager asked his employees how they were applying the BOLO s short-hand reference to tea party. His employees responded that they were including organizations meeting any of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO s reference to tea party organizations: 1. Tea Party , Patriots or 9/12 Project is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live. 4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run Via: Judicial Watch | 1real |
Cambodia charges opposition leader with treason | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been charged with treason and could face a jail term of 15 to 30 years if convicted, a court said on Tuesday. Kem Sokha was arrested on Sunday in an escalating crackdown on critics of Prime Minister Hun Sen s government, which accused the opposition leader of plotting with the United States to undermine the Southeast Asian country. Trials of senior political figures in recent years have resulted in convictions and international rights groups questioned whether proceedings against Kem Sokha would be fair. He had been charged with colluding with foreigners under Article 443 of Cambodia s penal code, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said in a statement. The act of secret collusion with foreigners is an act of treason, it added. The evidence the government has presented is a video of Kem Sokha from 2013 in which he tells supporters of his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that he has had American support and advice for his political strategy to win power. One of the opposition leader s lawyers, Pheng Heng, said what appeared in the video clip was no crime. The legal procedure is wrong and the charge isn t correct, he said. What he talked about was elections in a multi-party democratic way. The arrest of Kem Sokha and growing pressure on independent media and rights groups have drawn condemnation from the United States and other Western countries, which have raised doubts over whether a general election next year can be fair. But Hun Sen, one of Asia s longest serving rulers, has won support from China, which has made him one of its closest regional allies and provided billions of dollars in infrastructure loans. Next year s election could represent the greatest challenge to Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP) in the more than three decades he has ruled, but his critics accuse him of trying to shut down all opposition in advance. Pro-government website Fresh News said there could be further arrests of officials from the opposition party in the case. The government and the ruling CPP have manufactured these treason charges against Kem Sokha for political purposes, aiming to try and knock the political opposition out of the ring before the 2018 electoral contest even begins, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch. Kingsley Abott, senior international legal adviser for Southeast Asia at the Geneva-based International Committee of Jurists, said the allegations against Kem Sokha had the hallmarks of being politically motivated. The absence of an independent and impartial prosecution and judiciary makes the delivery of a fair trial impossible in most political cases, he said. Kem Sokha, was sentenced to five months in jail last September after failing to appear in court in connection with a case against two of his party colleagues, but he was later pardoned at Hun Sen s request. He had avoided prison on that occasion by taking refuge at his party headquarters. Kem Sokha s predecessor as party leader, Sam Rainsy, was found guilty of defamation in absentia. He lives in France to avoid the conviction, which he says was politically motivated. | 0fake |
TRUMP SUGGESTS People Should Sue ABC NEWS After Massive Stock Market Crash Triggered By #FakeNews Report On Michael Flynn | President Trump is not giving ABC News a pass for their fake news story about Michael Flynn and his meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when Trump was a candidate running for office. The President is suggesting that ABC News needs to be held accountable for the drop in the Stock Market that was triggered by their fake news story. Trump tweeted: People who lost money when the Stock Market went down 350 points based on the False and Dishonest reporting of Brian Ross of @ABC News (he has been suspended), should consider hiring a lawyer and suing ABC for the damages this bad reporting has caused many millions of dollars!People who lost money when the Stock Market went down 350 points based on the False and Dishonest reporting of Brian Ross of @ABC News (he has been suspended), should consider hiring a lawyer and suing ABC for the damages this bad reporting has caused many millions of dollars! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017Here is a screen grab of the Brian Ross bombshell story that appeared on the ABC News Twitter account, stating that Michael Flyyn promised full cooperation to the Mueller team and is prepared to testify that as a candidate, Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians. that has now been deleted. There s a big difference between candidate Trump and President-elect Trump.After ABC News broke the General Flynn-Trump story, the stock market began its freefall.Americans were stunned by the news, and the media, who s been searching for blood in the water since Trump s inauguration, was in a feeding frenzy over the prospect of President Trump being caught directing General Flynn to meet with the Russians when he was actively campaigning. As it turns out, ABC News got it wrong. But no worries, several hours later, they clarified how the story should have read, and then later, after ABC News was getting destroyed on social media for their reckless reporting of fake news, they changed their clarification to a correction . Here are side-by-side screen grabs of the tweets by ABC News: ABC News announced today, that they were suspending Brian Ross for 4 weeks over his horrendous error that caused Americans to lose millions in the stock market. 4 weeks?.@ABC News statement on Michael Flynn report: https://t.co/sd9TeFiiLQ pic.twitter.com/UtHFHeuwcM ABC News (@ABC) December 2, 2017President Trump responded to the news of Brian Ross suspension with a brutal tweet to ABC: Congratulations to @ABC News for suspending Brian Ross for his horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report on the Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt. More Networks and papers should do the same with their Fake News! Congratulations to @ABC News for suspending Brian Ross for his horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report on the Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt. More Networks and papers should do the same with their Fake News! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017 | 1real |
MEGYN KELLY PRAISES Woman Who Flipped Off Trump: ‘What America’s All About’ [Video] | NBC host Megyn Kelly must be really desperate for guests to have on her new show. She just had on the woman who behaved like a child when she flipped off President Trump s motorcade. This woman was fired from her job for this and has already gotten way too much attention Her 15 minutes of fame should be up now!The unbelievable part of the interview with Juli Briskman is when Kelly said the saga of flipping off President Donald Trump s motorcade spoke uniquely to what America s all about Huh? Would Megyn Kelly be saying the same thing if the tables were turned and Obama was flipped off? What s so amazing and American about behaving like a spoiled child? The left has been showing their true colors since Trump won a year ago. It s disturbing when this woman is praised for her lewd and immature behavior. Grow up already! Between this and the extreme bitterness of the Clinton Grifters, it s just loserville at the DNC A photograph of Juli Briskman flipping off Trump s motorcade last month in Virginia as she rode her bicycle went viral, particularly among people frustrated with Trump s administration. However, after she posted it to her social media accounts, she was forced to resign from her job at Akima LLC.IT FELT GREAT ?Briskman recounted why she decided to flip off Trump to Kelly, saying it felt great FREE TO BE A JERK To me, it speaks uniquely to what America s all about. You can do that, Kelly said. That s the beauty of a free society. Whether you love President Trump or hate him, you are allowed to tell the president how you feel about him, whether it s President Obama or President Trump. That s one of our core ideals. HER 15 MINUTES OF FAME:This woman is definitely getting her 15 minutes of fame. She appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday to discuss why she gave Trump the finger, calling it a spur-of-the-moment decision. Lots of things were going through my mind about how disappointed I am with this administration, she said. I didn t really have any other way to express my opinion to Mr. Trump, and so the finger was what I had at the time. READ MORE: WFB | 1real |
Factbox: Puerto Rico debt crisis bill keeps oversight board | NEW YORK/SAN JUAN (Reuters) - The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee early on Thursday released long-delayed revised legislation to address Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis, which is threatening to become a full-blown humanitarian disaster. The bill, also known as the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), has two major aims: setting out a framework for restructuring the island’s $70 billion in debt and putting the island’s financial operations under the control of a federal oversight board. Severe economic decline, an accumulation of operating deficits, lack of financial transparency and management inefficiencies, combined with excessive borrowing, “created a fiscal emergency in Puerto Rico,” the legislation states. Puerto Rico’s next debt payment of $1.9 billion, which its governor has said it cannot pay, is due on July 1. A vote in the House is expected the first week of June. * A Financial Oversight and Management Board, consisting of seven members appointed by the president of the United States from recommendations provided by the leaders of the U.S. House and Senate. One member is appointed at the sole discretion of the president. Appointments are due by Sept. 30, 2016. * The board has the authority to enforce balanced budgets and government reform if the Puerto Rican government fails to do so, including the sale of government assets, the consolidation of agencies and reduction of workforce. * The board’s aims are to generate management plans that achieve fiscal responsibility, maintain access to capital markets and ensure funding for public services and pensions; and to help facilitate consensual debt restructuring talks between Puerto Rico and its bondholders. * The board will have subpoena power to seek testimony and information. Board members will not be paid a salary. * A fiscal plan should be no less than five years. It can be developed either by the governor, the Oversight Board or both in collaboration. * Neither the governor of Puerto Rico nor the island’s legislature can exercise control over the board or pass laws that would inhibit its functioning. * The oversight board will dissolve once Puerto Rico has attained adequate and reasonable access to credit markets and achieves four consecutive fiscal years of budgetary compliance without spending more than it earned. * The bill adopts certain provisions of U.S. bankruptcy law, including giving Puerto Rico access to a court-sanctioned debt restructuring law, under which it could, in certain circumstances, impose debt cuts without creditors’ consent, so-called cram-downs. * The bill also empowers the oversight board to hold consensual debt restructuring talks, in hopes of reaching “collective action compromises” that do not require cram-down. For a restructuring to be approved under the bill’s collective action clause, two-thirds of the outstanding principal amount of the bonds in each pool of debt must vote in favor of it. * PROMESA does not directly put Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, under the bankruptcy laws enjoyed by U.S. states. This addresses concerns that actions taken in the commonwealth could bleed over and affect long-standing municipal bankruptcy laws. * Any prior voluntary debt restructuring agreements will be left intact. This essentially leaves in place the current voluntary restructuring agreement between creditors and PREPA (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority) * Certifying a restructuring of debt requires approval by five out of seven members of the oversight board. * The U.S. government will not pledge its full faith and credit for repaying Puerto Rico’s debt. This provision addresses concerns the bill would amount to a financial bailout by Washington. | 0fake |
Microsoft Cancels ’Scalebound’, Parts Ways with Developer Platinum Games - Breitbart | Microsoft has officially confirmed the cancellation of Platinum Games’ dragon Scalebound after four years of development. [Originally unveiled at E3 2014, Scalebound was a blend of and action, sewn together by progression systems for both the characters and their massive dragon allies. Unfortunately, the original cinematic trailer promised more than the awkward gameplay footage delivered. Scalebound missed E3 2015, was delayed beyond its late 2016 launch, and is now officially cancelled. According to sources in contact with Eurogamer, the project had already been terminated at an unspecified time last year. Persistent problems with the engine and failed deadlines sent Scalebound into what is commonly referred to as “development hell. ” Senior developers even had to take a month away from the project, due to the intense stress surrounding development. Microsoft and Platinum Games quietly separated, but the public announcement was held until after the holiday season. The official statement from Microsoft: After careful deliberation, Microsoft Studios has come to the decision to end production for Scalebound. We’re working hard to deliver an amazing lineup of games to our fans this year, including Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and other great experiences. For more information on our 2017 plans, please visit: ””>since its reveal at Gamescom 2015. It’s less surprising to see them touting the brilliantly paced sequel to Halo Wars, the cooperative State of Decay 2 that fans have been clamoring for since the first title in the zombie survival franchise was released, and Rare’s madcap swashbuckling multiplayer RPG Sea of Thieves. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 0fake |
AFL-CIO Praises President Trump’s Move to Withdraw from TPP | president Richard Trumka praised GOP President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership once and for all on Monday with an executive order officially killing the Pacific Rim trade deal. [Trumka also praised the decision by President Trump to reopen negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal from the 1990s, a deal that saw millions of U. S. jobs leave the country for Mexico and Canada — and the labor union leader praised President Trump’s harsh words for Big Pharma, the pharmaceutical industry, when Trump said of that industry that “they’re politically protected, but not anymore” in an interview with the Washington Post. Trumka said in his Monday statement: Last year, a powerful coalition of labor, environmental, consumer, public health and allied groups came together to stop the TPP. Today’s announcement that the US is withdrawing from TPP and seeking a reopening of NAFTA is an important first step toward a trade policy that works for working people. While these are necessary actions, they aren’t enough. They are just the first in a series of necessary policy changes required to build a fair and just global economy. We will continue our relentless campaign to create new trade and economic rules that end special privileges for foreign investors and Big Pharma, protect our planet’s precious natural resources and ensure fair pay, safe conditions and a voice in the workplace for all workers. ” While labor unions’ politically motivated leaders by and large supported Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016’s presidential election, it is no surprise that President Trump won over many of the workers throughout the union structure. Trump’s populist appeal to American workers in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio was critical to his landslide electoral college victory, when he stunned the political, financial, and cultural elites in places like New York City, Washington, D. C. and Los Angeles with a 306 electoral vote landslide win over Clinton on Nov. 8. The media and political class have struggled to understand the matter since, with many still refusing to make course corrections after their failures. Trump has met with labor leaders and industry leaders, bringing them together on key issues like trade and fighting corruption — building an entirely new political coalition while the Democratic Party debates about how far to the extreme left to veer with a race for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship coming down to two extreme progressives, Rep. Keith Ellison ( ) and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, both of whom oppose good trade deals and immigration controls that Trump and his new coalition support. | 0fake |
Cuba, North Korea reject 'unilateral and arbitrary' U.S. demands | HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba s foreign minister and his North Korean counterpart rejected the United States unilateral and arbitrary demands on Wednesday while expressing concern about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, the ministry said. North Korea is searching for support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs, which it carries out in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The country, which has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, has maintained warm political relations with Cuba since 1960, despite the island s opposition to nuclear weapons. Some diplomats said Cuba was also one of the few countries that might be able to convince North Korea to move away from the current showdown with the United States that threatens war. The ministers, meeting in Havana, called for respect for peoples sovereignty and the peaceful settlement of disputes, according to a statement released by the Cuban foreign ministry. They strongly rejected the unilateral and arbitrary lists and designations established by the U.S. government which serve as a basis for the implementation of coercive measures which are contrary to international law, the statement said. U.S. President Donald Trump has also increased pressure on Cuba since taking office, rolling back a fragile detente begun by predecessor Barack Obama and returning to the hostile rhetoric of the Cold War. A U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States had made clear it wanted a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue. The DPRK s belligerent and provocative behavior demonstrates it has no interest in working toward a peaceful solution, the official said. DPRK stands for North Korea s official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. Cuba said in the statement the Cuban and North Korean foreign ministers had expressed concern about the escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula. The ministers discussed the respective efforts carried out in the construction of socialism according to the realities inherent to their respective countries. Cuba and North Korea are the last in the world to maintain Soviet-style command economies, though under President Raul Castro, the Caribbean nation has taken some small steps toward the more market-oriented communism of China and Vietnam. Cuba maintains an embassy in North Korea, but publicly trades almost exclusively with the South. Last year, trade with the latter was $67 million and with the North just $9 million, according to the Cuban government. North Korea defends its weapons programs as a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intentions. | 0fake |
CLASSIC! UNHINGED LIBERAL Loses It…Screams “Nooo!” As Soon As Trump Is Sworn In [Video] | An anti-Trump protester screams no as Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th US President pic.twitter.com/qmsaFmMSkr ITV News (@itvnews) January 20, 2017 | 1real |
IRS identifies more cyberattacks to access tax data | (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service said on Friday an investigation into a hacking attack revealed in May found that cyber criminals had made attempts to gain access to about 390,000 additional taxpayer accounts. The tax agency said 295,000 taxpayer transcripts were also targeted but access was not successful. (1.usa.gov/1Lj1iRA) The agency said in May the tax return information of about 114,000 U.S. taxpayers had been illegally accessed by cyber criminals over the preceding four months, with another 111,000 unsuccessful attempts made. The IRS then revealed in August a new review had identified 220,000 additional incidents where data was breached and another 170,000 suspected failed attempts to gain access to taxpayer data. From February to May, attackers had sought to gain access to personal tax information through the agency’s “Get Transcript” online application, which calls up information from previous returns, the tax collection agency said in May. The nine-month long review, which looked into incidents dating back to the launch of the “Get Transcript” application in January 2014 through May 2015, was conducted by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the IRS said on Friday. The “Get Transcript” web application has been offline since the incident was discovered, the agency said on Friday, adding that mailings to the affected taxpayers will start on Feb. 29. CNN reported in May that the IRS believed that the data theft originated in Russia. | 0fake |
U.S. health insurers want Cruz proposal dropped from Senate bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two major U.S. health insurance groups on Friday called on Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to drop from a healthcare bill a provision proposed by Senator Ted Cruz that allows insurers to offer stripped-down, low-cost healthcare plans. “It is simply unworkable in any form and would undermine protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions, increase premiums and lead to widespread terminations of coverage for people currently enrolled in the individual market,” America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said in a letter to McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. | 0fake |
U.S. jurors hear closing arguments over Iran-linked office tower | (Reuters) - Lawyers for the United States on Monday urged jurors to allow the U.S. government to seize a Manhattan office tower from a non-profit for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. In closing arguments at the end of a month-long trial in Manhattan federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard told jurors that the non-profit Alavi Foundation, the building’s majority owner, knew its minority partner, Assa Corp, was a front for Iran’s government and helped hide that fact. “They knew that when that secret got out, they stood to lose everything,” he said. The government wants to seize the 36-story building at 650 Fifth Avenue, likely worth close to $1 billion, to benefit people with judgments against Iran relating to bombings and other attacks. John Gleeson, arguing for Alavi, did not dispute that Alavi knew Assa was owned by Iran’s state-controlled Bank Melli when it entered into a partnership with it in 1989. But he said the foundation, established in the 1970s by the Shah of Iran to promote Persian and Islamic culture in the United States, was led to believe that Assa was sold before 1995, and was misled when it tried to learn more. “At every turn, it was either ignored, or given the run-around, or lied to,” Gleeson said. Lockard told jurors that Alavi continued to turn rental income from the building over to Assa after the United States imposed sanctions on Iran in 1995, violating those sanctions. He pointed to evidence including testimony from former Alavi board member Seyed Mojtaba Hesami-Kiche, a key government witness. He said a letter from another former board member to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei referred to the United States as “the Great Satan” and suggested Alavi was working for Iran. Lockard acknowledged that much of the evidence was from before 1995, but said Alavi personnel did not “forget” who controlled Assa when the sanctions took effect. Gleeson described Alavi as a legitimate non-profit raising money for charitable activities. He attacked the credibility of Hesami-Kiche, who was paid by the U.S. government and admitted on the stand that he initially failed to pay taxes on that money. Gleeson is expected to continue his arguments on Tuesday. The government will be allowed a brief response. | 0fake |
Trump Gets BURIED For Whining That Media Doesn’t Classify His Foundation As A Legit Charity | Donald Trump needs to stop whining before someone puts him over their knee.In addition to claiming that s he s the reason why the stock market rose after Christmas and complaining about the United Nations, Trump whined about the media because they won t call the Trump Foundation a legitimate charity.I gave millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, raised or recieved millions more, ALL of which is given to charity, and media won t report! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2016And then he continued to rant by claiming that all of the the money goes to charity and pays for nothing else.The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2016The problem is that the media has extensively reported on the Trump Foundation for many years and there have been so many irregularities and ethical and legal issues surrounding the alleged charity that Twitter users immediately called Trump s claims bullshit.@realDonaldTrump I believe the first four, it s your style, but not the last one. Mark C. Worth (@markcworth) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Release your taxes dope. Prove us wrong. Dwight Genocide (@lukeoneil47) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Peak Trump: rigged a hole-in-one competition, then used Trump Foundation $ to pay off winnerhttps://t.co/5rGYVovvtK Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) December 27, 2016.@realDonaldTrump hypothetically how much is Tim Tebow s sweaty underwear worth to your foundation and in which casino would you hang them? Zack Kopplin (@ZackKopplin) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump because it had no employees or infrastructure, you weirdo. It was a hollow entity as far as anyone can tell. Evan Dashevsky (@haldash) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump you are not a charity, donald Zach Holman (@holman) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Trump has largely stopped giving money to his foundation instead uses other peoples money https://t.co/kf0Li2rzBM pic.twitter.com/pC22aQpun5 Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems (via @washingtonpost) https://t.co/Cz4hDtzNSJ Ron Pragides (@mrp) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Trump Foundation received a $5M donation from Linda McMahon. By astonishing coincidence, he picked her for his Cabinet pic.twitter.com/WBQrxDVNil Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump If you give just ten dollars now, you can help us secure Pam Bondi s political fealty Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Your tweets give us a centralized place to create a reading list countering your bullshit. https://t.co/ncmGFd2dEF Kristina Wong (@mskristinawong) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump No expenses you say? What about the $47K of expenses listed on your 2015 990PF? pic.twitter.com/SRVQs1jM4X deedeemendoza (@deedeesSay) December 27, 2016And then to cap it all off, someone flipped Trump the bird.@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/Q7LT6F7y0O Howard Hoffman (@Howard_Hoffman) December 27, 2016Trump just got buried by facts. Next time, he should whine about something that hasn t been widely reported on for decades.Featured Image: Zach Gibson/Getty Images | 1real |
May will allow Brexit delay in exceptional circumstances | LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday she would permit a delay to Britain s departure from the European Union in exceptional circumstances, bowing to criticism from her own party over the government s plan to fix the exit date in law. The decision is a compromise with Conservative lawmakers who last week rebelled in parliament and inflicted an embarrassing defeat on May during a debate on the legislation that will end Britain s EU membership. The legislation, formally titled the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, later won approval to move to the next stage of the parliamentary process, although it still faces weeks of further scrutiny before becoming law. May headed off a second rebellion by agreeing that her government s plan to define the date of Britain s EU exit as March 29, 2019, should be tempered by inserting a proviso allowing that date to be changed if necessary. If that power were to be used, it would be only in extremely exceptional circumstances and for the shortest possible time, May told lawmakers. Parliament will have to approve any new date. Junior Brexit Minister Steve Baker added that he could not envisage the date being brought forward. The passage of the bill to the next stage was overshadowed by the resignation of May s most senior ally in government, Damian Green, at May s request after an internal investigation found he had breached the government s code of conduct. The destabilising resignation adds to the political difficulties May faces as she tries to deliver Brexit against a backdrop of a divided parliament and electorate, and questions about her ability to meet an already tight timetable. She wants to negotiate a transition deal with Brussels by March to reassure businesses and then seal a long-term trade deal by October. Brussels has said a detailed trade deal is likely to take much longer, and that Britain s transition period must end by 2020. In addition, May s government has to undertake the huge legislative task of transferring the existing body of EU law into British law before it leaves in order to provide legal certainty for businesses. | 0fake |
Clinton will hold election night rally in New York City: campaign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will hold her election night rally in New York City, the campaign said on Wednesday. The Clinton campaign is headquartered in New York’s Brooklyn borough, and Clinton served two terms as a U.S. senator for the state, from 2001 to 2009. She lives in the New York City suburb of Chappaqua. Her opponent in the Nov. 8 election, Republican Donald Trump, is also from New York. | 0fake |
Senate leader says he's confident of deal to keep government open after Dec. 22 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday he was confident the U.S. Congress would be able to reach an agreement to fund the government when the current spending bill ends on Dec. 22 and that there would be no forced government shutdown. “There isn’t any chance we are going to shut the government down. We’re in discussions, not only on a cap deal, but also on the way forward on appropriations, McConnell told reporters. “The American people need not worry that there is going to be any kind of government shutdown.” But U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a full-year defense funding bill with short-term money for other programs would fail in the Senate. “Democrats will oppose any budget deal that would allow defense spending to increase while holding down domestic priorities,” he said to reporters. | 0fake |
Implementation of U.S. decision on Jerusalem will not be easy, says Erdogan | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Decisions made at the approaching meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will show that U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital will not be easy to implement, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday. A spokesman for Erdogan on Wednesday had announced that the OIC would a hold an urgent meeting in Turkey on Dec. 13 to coordinate a response to the decision by the United States. The OIC, established in 1969, consists of 57 member states with a Muslim majority or a large Muslim population. We explained to all our interlocutors that the United States decision does not comply with international law, diplomacy or humanity, Erdogan said at a Justice and Development Party (AKP) assembly in Turkey s central province of Sivas, referring to phone calls he made to leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and the Pope. With the roadmap we will create during the OIC meeting, we will show that the decision will not be easy to implement, he said, adding that Turkey considers U.S. President Trump s Jerusalem announcement void. The Arab League, in a statement issued after an emergency session in Cairo on Saturday, called the announcement a dangerous violation of international law and said it would seek a U.N. Security Council resolution rejecting the U.S. move. The Arab League, which consists of Arabic-speaking nations, currently has 22 active member states. Trump s announcement has also upset U.S. allies in the West. At the United Nations, France, Italy, Germany, Britain and Sweden called on the United States to bring forward detailed proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement . Palestinians took to the streets after the U.S. announcement. Demonstrations also took place in Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Somalia, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. | 0fake |
UK's Prince Harry says troops need mental as well as physical fitness combat training | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s Prince Harry said on Monday the mental health of serving soldiers was as important as ensuring they were ready to take part in conflicts. He was speaking as he launched a new partnership between Britain s Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the younger royals charity. Harry, who spent 10 years in the military, including two tours of Afghanistan, joined forces with Britain s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon to promote a new initiative to offer mental health support to those in the armed forces, their families and veterans. Crucially, fighting fitness is not just about physical fitness. It is just as much about mental fitness too, Harry said. The new partnership will see the Royal Foundation, established by Harry, his elder brother Prince William and William s wife Kate to support their chosen charities, provide advice and resources to the MoD to raise awareness of good mental health and improve training, education and information sharing. Our soldiers, sailors and airmen are the best in the world but we will only maintain that if we are as serious about improving mental health as we are our combat skills and cutting-edge technology, Fallon said. Since Harry left the military, he has made campaigning over mental health issues and the fate of veterans two of his priorities. Earlier this year he revealed he himself had come very close to a breakdown a number of times following the death of his mother, Diana, when he was 12 years old. Harry is also the creator and founder of the Invictus Games, a multinational sporting event for wounded, sick or disabled military personnel. | 0fake |
CABLE RATES HAVE RISEN AT DOUBLE INFLATION RATE FOR 20 YEARS | Home › ECONOMIC › CABLE RATES HAVE RISEN AT DOUBLE INFLATION RATE FOR 20 YEARS CABLE RATES HAVE RISEN AT DOUBLE INFLATION RATE FOR 20 YEARS 0 SHARES
[11/2/16] Cable TV price increases have jumped at more than twice the rate of inflation for more than twenty straight years. Average US inflation since 1995 has been steady at around 2.2%. But during that same period, cable TV prices have increased by 5.8% per year on average. The data comes from an FCC report on cable TV Pricing (pdf, hat tip cordcutting.com ) released last month, and notes that back in 1995, cable cost an average of just $22.35 a month. That has since ballooned to an average of $69.03, or a 208.9% jump.
Obviously these constant hikes — which often come twice or more a year for some cable customers — have played a starring role in driving consumers to alternative streaming options.
And this annoyance has only grown as fights between cable broadcasters and cable companies have only accelerated. In fact, the FCC also recently found that return fees charged by broadcasters jumped as much as 63% in one year. Post navigation | 1real |
FBI Joins Investigation Of Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder Over Flint Water Crisis | After months of people calling for the arrest of Michigan s governor Rick Snyder, the FBI is now getting involved with the ongoing criminal investigation into Snyder s possible culpability in the Flint water crisis.Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney s Office in Detroit, told Reuters that Michigan prosecutors will be working with a multi-agency investigation team on the Flint water contamination matter, including the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the EPA s Office of Inspector General and the EPA s Criminal Investigation Division. In April 2014, Flint s emergency manager forced the city to switch from using Detroit s water system to using the Flint River for water. The decision to do so was touted as a means to cut costs for the city. It turned out to be a disaster. There is an unusual amount of salt in the Flint River. The river is also extremely contaminated. So when the salt began to corrode the pipes of Flint s water system, lead leaked into people s drinking water.One study found the pipe corrosion problem could have been solved for as little as $100 a day. Now it is estimated that it will cost up to $1.5 billion dollars to fix Flint s water system. There is legislation crawling through Congress that would provide Flint $600 million dollars to help repair Flint s water system.There has been massive outcry over the water system transition since day one. When evidence was shown that Flint s water had become contaminated, Snyder and the emergency manager choose not to act.The news that the FBI will be joining the investigation into the Snyder administration comes just one day before central figures are scheduled to testify before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Detroit News reports: Former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley may refuse to testify before a U.S. House hearing Wednesday on the lead contamination of Flint s water supply, according to two congressional sources.Earley, the current emergency manager of financially ailing Detroit Public Schools, oversaw Flint when the decision was made in April 2014 to switch the city s drinking water supply to the Flint River.The other officials are Joel Beauvais, acting deputy assistant administrator of the Office of Water at the EPA; Miguel Del Toral, a water expert for the EPA s Midwest Region 5 Water Division; and Marc Edwards, professor of environmental and water resources engineering at Virginia Tech University, who discovered high lead levels in Flint s water. The FBI has not yet made a public comment on what federal laws the Snyder administration may have broken.One thing is for certain, Snyder and his cronies are not going to get themselves out of this mess with a slick public relations scheme. They seem to think differently, as Snyder recently hired two PR firms. People are calling for Snyder s arrest and this move from the FBI sends another signal that they might just get their way.Featured Image Credit: Michigan Municipal League via Flickr | 1real |
LOL! GEORGE LOPEZ Booed Off Stage At Children’s Diabetes Charity After Audience Rejects His Anti-Trump Jokes | George Lopez was hired to be the emcee for the Children s Diabetes Foundation s Carousel Ball. Lopez thought it would be a good idea to turn what should have been an event to help sick children into an opportunity to express his hate for President Trump and his supporters. Bad idea Here s the promotion for Lopez from the Children s Diabetes Foundation on Twitter:We are excited to announce that commedian & acotor @georgelopez will be the emcee for this year's #CarouselBall! https://t.co/cO9eHKviPO pic.twitter.com/aCpAI9F22a CDF (@CDFdiabetes) September 21, 2017Comic George Lopez was booed off stage at a gala for juvenile diabetes in Denver last week, over an anti-Donald Trump routine that fell flat with the crowd.We re told the flap began when Trump backer and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei donated $250,000 but requested that Lopez cool it with the anti-Trump jokes at the Carousel Ball.An attendee at the event where tables sold from $5,000 to $100,000 to benefit the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes commented on a YouTube video that George was asked nicely to stop making Trump jokes by a man in front row [Maffei] who just donated $250K. But George doesn t, continues. Gets booed. We re told that Lopez responded to Maffei, Thank you for changing my opinion on old white men, but it doesn t change the way I feel about orange men. Trying to recover and sensing the audience turn, Lopez said, Listen, it s about the kids . . . I apologize for bringing politics to an event. This is America it still is. So I apologize to your white privilege. We re told Lopez also told a joke about Trump s proposed border wall with Mexico, saying, I guess you can get some Mexicans to do it cheaper and they wouldn t crush the tunnels underneath. When the audience did not respond well, he quipped, Are you El Chapo people? in reference to the drug kingpin who has used tunnels to evade authorities.Lopez then announced a video segment but he did not return to the stage, and a local newscaster took over the hosting duties.Host of HUGE charity #CarouselBall, @georgelopez , makes political comments about Trump, drops f-bomb and is escorted out. J R (@DrumIntuition) October 14, 2017TV host Chris Parente posted on Twitter, big controversy: host of HUGE charity #CarouselBall, @georgelopez, makes political comments about Trump, drops f-bomb and is escorted out. Page SixChris Parente s tweet has since been deleted. | 1real |
Germany may 'rethink' Turkey ties after two more Germans detained: Merkel | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday said Germany should react decisively to Ankara s detention of two further German citizens, amid growing calls for Berlin to issue a formal travel warning for Germans heading to Turkey. Twelve German citizens are now in Turkish detention on political charges, four of them holding dual citizenship. Among these is German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who will have been in detention 200 days on Friday. Under the circumstances, Merkel said she did not think it was appropriate to carry out further discussions with Ankara about its participation in a European Union customs union. We must react decisively, Merkel told a business event in the southern city of Nuremberg, noting that Germany had already fundamentally revamped its relations with Ankara. Given the latest events, perhaps it is necessary to rethink them ever further. Germany was not officially informed of the two new detentions, which took place at Antalya airport on Thursday, leaving Berlin s consulate in the coastal city of Izmir to learn of their arrest from non-state sources , Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr told a news conference. Many European citizens have been detained in Turkey over the past year, accused of involvement in last year s failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom many accuse of purging opposition under the cover of a crackdown. We re trying to establish what they are charged with, said Adebahr said. We must assume that it s a political charge, suspicion of terrorism, as with the others. Diplomats had not been able to contact them, she added, with Friday s public holiday celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid a possible reason for delays in contacting officials. Social Democrat Martin Schulz, Merkel s main challenger in Sept. 24 elections, and other German politicians urged Berlin to issue a formal travel warning for Germans heading to Turkey. The government in July urged German citizens to exercise caution if traveling to Turkey, but stopped short of issuing a formal travel warning. Juergen Hardt, a senior member of Merkel s conservatives, told Die Welt newspaper that a further tightening of the travel guidance should be seriously considered . Cem Ozdemir, leader of the Greens party, told Bild newspaper he could no longer assure anyone they would be safe in Turkey. Erdogan is no president, but a hostage-taker, Ozdemir told the daily newspaper Bild. No comment was immediately available from the foreign ministry about whether it was considering a travel warning. About 3 million people with Turkish heritage or citizenship live in Germany. Such a move could mark a significant setback for Turkey, which already saw the number of foreign visitors drop to its lowest level in nine years last year. Bookings from Germany accounted for some 10 percent of Turkey s tourists this year. | 0fake |
Did Bernie Sanders seal deal for Clinton? | Raul A. Reyes, an attorney and member of the USA Today board of contributors, writes frequently for CNN Opinion. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes . The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
On Monday night, Bernie Sanders finally did what all runners-up for a presidential nomination are tasked with doing. It is not easy and it certainly is humbling (ask Hillary Clinton, circa 2008). But Sanders rose to the occasion at that Democratic National Convention and gave a full-throated, public endorsement of his rival Clinton before a national audience and the crowd in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
The most awaited speaker of the evening took an awfully long time to mention Hillary Clinton, which probably made some Clinton advisors a bit nervous. He thanked Mrs. Obama, Elizabeth Warren, his delegates and supporters and donors, and the people of Vermont, among others, before finally getting down to business. "Based on her leadership and ideas," he said, "Hillary Clinton must become president of the United States."
His cannily crafted speech melded the familiar themes of his stump speech with an endorsement of Clinton -- and it seemed, at times, in doing so he was allowing his supporters one last moment of collective grief at the end of his movement. There were numerous shots of Sanders' supporters in tears throughout the hall.
It might have seem unusual to some viewers, the amount of time devoted on Monday to bringing the party together. But remember, Sanders was a phenomenon, and nothing about his run for the nomination was conventional. He deserved every second that he took addressing his supporters.
Consider that for all the negative press directed at Trump's convention, Donald Trump has received a bounce in national polls since last week. So the big questions going into the night was whether Sanders would be able to bring his supporters into the Clinton camp, and whether the DNC could stage a convincing show of party unity. At least on Day 1, it looks like the answer is yes on both counts.
While the Democrats still have some healing to do -- as evidenced by the occasional dueling chants of "Bernie!" versus "Hillary!", and edgier variations on those themes -- there were significant differences on display between the Republican National Convention last week and the DNC. Unlike the RNC, every person who took the stage mentioned their party's nominee's name -- and often. Unlike the RNC, there was more diversity on the stage tonight than all week in Cleveland. And unlike the RNC, we saw some serious star power, from Eva Longoria to Demi Lovato to Paul Simon. Sorry, Chachi.
Monday night also stood in sharp contrast to the RNC because so many of the speakers on stage -- which included a disabled person, Latinos, immigrants, and a Muslim American -- represented some of the very types of people that Trump has mocked. What's more, instead of simply making a case against Trump, speaker after speaker made the case for Clinton. This is how conventions should be run, and shows smart planning by the DNC.
Perhaps the most courageous moment on Monday night -- one which lit up Twitter -- came, improbably, from comedian Sarah Silverman. As she and Al Franken vamped for time before Paul Simon's performance, she set off a fresh round of boos and chants with her sudden remark : "to the Bernie or Bust people, you're being ridiculous!" She was right -- and it was refreshing to hear her stating what so many Democrats have been thinking.
But it was Michelle Obama who was unquestionably the star of the night. She managed to take down Trump without ever mentioning his name, and she made a rock-solid case for Clinton.
"I want a president with a record of public service," she said, before noting, as she described the remarkable evolution of the country, that she wakes up every day in a house built by slaves. Michelle Obama made the critical point that the President has an impact on our children, which is something that undecided voters need to hear. She showed restraint and class in not joking about or referencing Melania Trump. Very wise, and gracious to boot.
Up next: Elizabeth Warren, whose job was somewhat akin to following Beyonce. She was as upfront and persuasive as usual, pointing out the dearth of a plan for the country from Trump, and noting his opposition to the minimum wage and to lowering student debt. Yet she suffered from following the First Lady, and on the tail of such an uplifting speech, hers felt a bit flat.
If there was one thing wrong with the program on Monday night, it was that perhaps Michelle Obama should have been scheduled last. Though Sanders' endorsement was necessary and long-awaited, it was Mrs. Obama's speech that was the real home run. Her speech was one for the ages, and should have closed out Day 1.
Still, the overall the messages of inclusion and hope tonight likely left many viewers feeling more optimistic than they did after watching the doomful RNC.
There were indeed legitimate concerns that the Democratic National Convention might not kick off with the harmony that the Clinton campaign envisioned.
However, as it as it turned out, the takeaway from Day One of DNC 2016 seems to be that they are one raucous, if slightly dysfunctional, family. | 0fake |
‘Chairman Cash’ – John Podesta is Paid $7,000 a Month by Foundation Run by Banker With Ties to Financial Crisis | ‘Chairman Cash’ – John Podesta is Paid $7,000 a Month by Foundation Run by Banker With Ties to Financial Crisis Posted on Home » Headlines » World News » ‘Chairman Cash’ – John Podesta is Paid $7,000 a Month by Foundation Run by Banker With Ties to Financial Crisis
“Chairman cash.” A new meme has just been born…
Submitted by Michael Krieger :
Last Friday, I published a post titled, John Podesta’s Sister-in-Law Lobbied For Raytheon While Hillary Was Secretary of State , which understandably got totally buried in the madness surrounding the latest FBI news. Here’s the first paragraph of that post:
The Podesta family seems particularly adept at earning extraordinary sums of money via selling out the American public. Earlier this year, I highlighted how John Podesta’s brother Tony was paid $140,000 per month by the medieval monarchy of Saudi Arabia. After all, who cares about women’s rights when the pay is good?
Indeed, it’s not just relatives of Podesta who know how to rake in the cash. John is no slouch either, as Politico explained in an article published earlier today.
Here are a few excerpts:
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, last year signed a $7,000-a-month contract with the foundation of a major Clinton donor who made a fortune selling a type of mortgage that some critics say contributed to the housing collapse, hacked emails show.
In February of last year, as Podesta was working to lay the groundwork for Clinton’s soon-to-launch campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he signed the contract with the Sandler Foundation, which was started by Herb Sandler and his late wife Marion Sandler.
The contract — a copy of which was included in emails illegally obtained from Podesta’s Gmail account and disseminated Monday by WikiLeaks — is still active, according to Herb Sandler, who said that it calls for Podesta to provide advice on grant-making and other foundation functions.
It’s unusual for the full-time chairman of a general-election presidential campaign to maintain an active side deal with a major donor to that campaign — let alone to raise money from that donor for the campaign.
The WikiLeaks cache shows that Podesta provided Sandler with philanthropic advice and assortments of cheeses and pastas as gifts on the holidays, while Sandler offered all manner of political observations and once tried to get Podesta to arrange for former President Bill Clinton to write a blurb for a book written by one of Sandler’s friends.
Lobster risotto?
But Sandler brushed aside any concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
“I have never asked for anything of any political person — zero requests ever,” Sandler said. “If they’re responsive, it’s because they regard me as thoughtful, and a major contributor to Democratic causes,” Sandler said, adding that Podesta “knows that he doesn’t get bullshit from me. He knows I have no hidden agenda. He knows that my values are similar to his and that we care about people and not the billionaires, even though I ended up by some crazy thing to be one.”
Neither Podesta nor the Clinton campaign responded to questions about the contract.
Herb Sandler’s Clinton-related giving picked up last December after a visit from Podesta.
The campaign’s finance director Dennis Cheng responded “Great!!,” calling Podesta “#ChairmanCash.”
“Chairman cash.” A new meme has just been born.
The very next day, Sandler gave $1.5 million to Priorities USA Action, to which he has now given a total of $3 million, FEC records show.
The family’s fortune comes from the savings and loan institution that Herb and Marion Sandler ran for decades, a bank that became World Savings. It would end up making boatloads of cash from a type of adjustable rate mortgage that other lenders would later adopt, securitize and sell in a way that some have blamed for contributing to the housing bubble that burst in 2008. Not long before the burst and subsequent recession, the Sandlers sold the bank for $25.5 billion to Wachovia, earning $2.6 billion off the sale and donating most of their net worth to their foundation. Wachovia was later acquired by Wells Fargo.
The Sandlers met Podesta when they helped seed the Center for American Progress, the think tank he started in 2003 as a sort of Democratic administration in exile during George W. Bush’s presidency. Tax filings show that the Sandler Foundation has donated more than $37 million over the years to CAP, which worked to support President Barack Obama’s administration but has always been seen as more aligned with Clinton.
Center for American Progress…where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, in last week’s post, Dennis Kucinich’s Extraordinary Warning on D.C.’s Think Tank Warmongers , we learned:
The self-identified liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) is now calling for Syria to be bombed, and estimates America’s current military adventures will be tidied up by 2025, a tardy twist on “mission accomplished.” CAP, according to a report in The Nation, has received funding from war contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who make the bombers that CAP wants to rain hellfire on Syria.
Remember peasants, war is ok if “liberals” do it. Now back to Politico …
The WikiLeaks emails reveal that Podesta and his team at the Center for American Progress discussed how to push back on scrutiny of the Sandlers related to the 2008 housing collapse. That included an October 2008 “Saturday Night Live” sketch in which an actor playing Herb Sandler thanked members of Congress “for helping block congressional oversight of our corrupt activity.”
Podesta wrote to his colleagues that he’d talked to Herb Sandler, and “they are obviosly [sic] upset. Weird that snl should pick them out.”
After doing some research, a subordinate replied that “it appears default rates on their stuff was high (herb says not more so than others) and the losses were key to almsot wachovia failure — athough herb emphasizes that they were only one of the institutions problems.”
Sandler told POLITICO that any suggestion that his bank’s products contributed to the collapse were “a bunch of bullshit,” pointing out that their bank used a risk-averse approach to their loans, which had among the lowest default rate in the industry.
But Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, a conservative nonprofit that monitors the giving of major liberal donors including Sandler, argued that Podesta’s newly revealed contractual relationship with Sandler stood in stark contrast to Clinton’s efforts to cast herself as tough on the financial industry.
“This is another instance where the Clinton campaign has been revealed to have surprising links to some of the most dubious parts of the finance industry,” Walter said.
The Sandlers’ philanthropy increasingly has focused on fighting financial inequality and the role of big money in politics — a subject about which Herb Sandler and Podesta emailed frequently, according to WikiLeaks.
Interesting considering he is big money in politics, and seems to have no problem endlessly cheerleading the chosen candidate of America’s oligarchs.
Sandler explained to POLITICO that during the process of working to launch the center, he realized “we had been picking his brain ad nauseum” for years without paying Podesta as a consultant — a scenario Sandler called “very unfair.” That led to the consulting contract, which Sandler cast as “a ripoff” for Podesta. “I’d pay a lot more for that advice,” Sandler said, calling Podesta “one the most intelligent, decent, thoughtful human beings I’d ever met.”
In March, as Clinton’s Democratic primary campaign against Bernie Sanders grew increasingly bitter, Sandler emailed Podesta just to check up.
“How are you?” Sandler wrote. “MIss you.”
Call me crazy, but if he was really so focused on solving income inequality why wasn’t he supporting Bernie Sanders?
But hey. | 1real |
Even This Fox News Host Felt The Need To Shut Katrina Pierson DOWN, And It’s Spectacular (VIDEO) | Usually, Donald Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson can find sanctuary with the ever-conservative leaning Fox News, but that didn t seem to be the case for her on Sunday while being interviewed by Arthel Neville.Shortly after claiming that it was President Obama who went into Afghanistan with her own make-believe version of facts and history, Pierson went on Fox News to talk about Trump s lack of tax returns. Something that s been asked of every presidential candidate for decades.Neville said: As you know, Katrina, presidential candidates have consistently released their tax returns since the 70s. And you also know there is no existing law barring people from releasing their tax returns during an audit. So the question is that everyone wants to know, why won t Mr. Trump release his tax returns? And can you answer the implications that he s hiding something? All very good questions. Yet, cue the denial and excuses from Pierson, who replied: This really has become much of a novelty in presidential campaigns. A novelty?! Even a Fox News host couldn t let Pierson get away with such a ludicrous statement as that. All candidates have been releasing their returns, no matter the party. Trump not releasing his returns is clearly indicative that he has something in which he is trying to prevent the public from seeing.Pierson keeps going back and forth with Neville even trying to say that the media is bullying poor tiny-handed Trump into releasing his returns. However, the Fox host wasn t having it, and told her: Katrina, we re going to keep going on this because people want to know. It s not about a gotcha with Mr. Trump. Again, he is a successful businessman that he been touting to us this entire campaign. That is why they want to see. Why are you saying that it s some sort of corruption or some sort of campaign that people are including the media are out to get him? That is not the case. He s running for the president of the United States of America. Show your tax returns. It s that simple. And BOOM went the dynamite. Well done, Neville. Well done.Pierson then flounders for a few more minutes, but there s no trying to convince people at this point that Trump should get a free pass on not releasing his returns just like everyone else to show true transparency.Watch the segment here:Featured image via video screen capture HT Raw Story | 1real |
Trump brand to exit Toronto skyline after buyout deal | TORONTO (Reuters) - The name Trump will be removed from a high-rise hotel and condo development in downtown Toronto after the project’s new owner, JCF Capital ULC, reached a deal with Trump Hotels to buy out its management contracts for an undisclosed amount. U.S. President Donald Trump never owned the project, but his company had signed a long-term branding and management deal with the building’s developer, Talon International Development Inc, which defaulted on its construction loan last year. JCF Capital ULC earlier this year bought units in the 65-story Trump International Hotel & Tower that were not owned by individuals in a court-run sale. In a statement announcing the buyout on Tuesday, JCF Capital did not say whether it had reached a deal yet with another group to take over the management and branding of the building in Toronto’s financial district. Sources told Reuters earlier in June that Marriott International Inc’s (MAR.O) St. Regis brand was the lead bidder to take over the brand and management rights, with one saying that the Trump Organization had agreed to sever its connections. “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with JCF and have enjoyed our relationship with them as the new owners of this property,” Eric Danziger, chief executive of Trump Hotels, said in the JCF statement. JCF is a vehicle created by Juniper Capital Partners LLC and Cowie Capital Partners Inc to buy the tower. Trump’s business interest will receive at least $6 million for walking away from its long-term contracts, and the Trump signage could be removed as early as Aug. 1, Bloomberg reported, citing a person it did not identify. The tower, which opened in 2012 after construction delays, has had a troubled history, including lawsuits from unhappy investors and has also been the scene of several protests against President Trump’s policies and statements. His business connections around the world have sparked lawsuits and criticism about potential conflicts of interest since he took office in January. Since its opening, Talon had sold less than half of the tower’s residential condos, and the hotel’s occupancy rates have been lower than some investors in the rooms had hoped. A court last year ordered the developer to pay damages to one investor for “negligent misrepresentation” and for another sale to be rescinded. | 0fake |
U.S. completes 'takedown' of Medicare fraud: officials | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement officials have charged 301 suspects with trying to defraud Medicare and other federal insurance programs in 2016, marking the “largest takedown” involving health care fraud allegations, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The national sweep resulted in charges against doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physical therapists accused of fraud that cost the government $900 million, the department said. The cases involved an array of charges, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and violations of an anti-kickback law. This year’s sweep exceeded last year’s record in which 243 defendants faced charges in a combined $712 million in government losses. Officials said it was the largest takedown in the nine-year history of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint initiative between federal, state and local law enforcement. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said some of the cases reflect new, troublesome trends, including instances of identity theft in order to prepare fake prescriptions and a growing number of cases involving compounding, or the mixing of medications tailored to meet a patient’s needs. Compounded medications are typically very expensive. From 2012 to 2014, the quarterly Medicare spending on these prescriptions skyrocketed from $28 million to $171 million. “As this takedown should make clear, health care fraud is not an abstract violation or benign offense,” Lynch said. “It is a serious crime.” In one case, two owners of a group of outpatient clinics and a patient recruiter stand accused of filing $36 million in fraudulent claims for physical therapy and other services that were not medically necessary. The Justice Department said that to find patients, the clinic operators and the recruiter targeted poor drug addicts and offered them narcotics so they could bill them for services that were never provided. Another case was filed against the operator of a marketing business that received referral fees from pharmacies that filled and billed Tricare, the U.S. military’s government insurance program, for compounded medicines. The prescriptions were submitted via “telemedicine” sites, and doctors were given blank prescription forms to fill out, regardless of medical necessity, according to the complaint. One doctor told the FBI her identity and medical credentials were used without her permission to fill thousands of dollars worth of prescriptions. | 0fake |
Looks Like The Founding Fathers May Have Actually Disqualified Ted Cruz From Running | Now, some may say because Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was born to an American citizen, even while in Canada, he is to be considered a natural born citizen. However, when looking at the Constitution in the context of the time frame that is was written, and in regards to how certain laws were to be read, that natural born status actually may not apply to the senator.Why? Because, unlike today, in 2016, when woman are considered equals among men (for the most part), when the Constitution was written by our Founders it was quite a sexist time.Legal scholar Thomas Lee from Fordham University believes that Cruz should be disqualified. And as the Washington Post describes: On this straightforward, intuitive, and deeply conservative reasoning, several prominent legal scholars have argued Cruz is arguably not a natural-born citizen. As the Founding Fathers and their contemporaries probably would have understood that phrase, the argument goes, Cruz is ineligible for the presidency not because he was born in Canada, but because he was born in Canada to a Cuban father. Furthermore: Under King Edward III, who reigned from 1327 to 1377, England expanded this definition to include the children of ambassadors and soldiers who were serving the monarch overseas. In the centuries to come, Parliament modified the definition further to include the children of private English subjects who happened to be abroad.In the late 18th century, though, that definition did not include English mothers who were traveling. If they conceived children with foreign men, it was assumed those children would not be loyal English subjects and were not considered natural born. Yikes! Looks like Cruz isn t a natural born citizen after all. Well, at least if we go by the United States Constitution as it was originally written and intended. Which, strict constitutional conservatives like a certain Sen. Ted Cruz claim so adamantly to be. He might as well excuse himself from the presidential race right now. Unless, of course, he s not a strict constitutionalist and doesn t want to abide by the Founding Fathers original intent.HOW. DARE. HE?!Truth be told, we really don t know the Founding Fathers true intention, and can only go by how natural born was defined in the era that the phrase was first prescribed. Everything else is hearsay and interpreted to fit specific agendas (such as, wanting to allow a Canadian born to a Cuban dissident to be President of the United States). Sure, his mother was an American citizen, but if we are to abide by the law as originally intended, this surely may disqualify Cruz. All because the Founding Fathers were harshly sexist.How much do you want to bet Ted Cruz wishes he was a women s rights activist now? Oops.Featured image: Gage Skidmore (Flickr) | 1real |
BREAKING: Michelle Obama HAMMERS Trump’s Behavior Towards Women In Tearful Condemnation | While holding back tears in Manchester, New Hampshire on Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the sexual assault bombshells that have been raining down upon the Republican nominee for nearly a week now.Mrs. Obama has mostly tried to refrain from commenting on Trump s sexual misconduct towards and remarks about women, but she felt she could no longer hold back. She roundly condemned Trump and explained how his remarks make him totally unfit to be president. The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for President of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning, I simply will not repeat anything here today. And last week, we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women. And I can t believe that I m saying that. A candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women, and I have to tell you that I can t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn t have predicted, she continued, telling the audience that she can t pretend that everything is normal because it would be dishonest and disingenuous for me to move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream. This is not something we can ignore. It s not something we can sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season. Because this was not just a lewd conversation. This wasn t locker room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior. And actually bragging about kissing and groping women. Using language so obscene that many of us are worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the TV. To make matters worse, it now seems very clear this isn t an isolated incident. It s one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life.And have to tell you that I listened to all this. And I feel it so personally. And I m sure that many of you do too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies. The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect. The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman. It is cruel. It is frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts. Unlike many Republicans who think otherwise, Michelle Obama made it clear that Trump is NOT a role model for children and urged parents to protect their kids by voting against Trump on Election Day. In our hearts we all know that if we let Hillary s opponent win the election, then we are sending a clear message to our kids that everything they re seeing and hearing is perfectly okay. We are validating it, we are endorsing it. We are telling our sons that it is okay to humiliate women, telling our daughters that this is how we deserve to be treated, that bigotry and bullying are perfectly acceptable. Is that we want for our children? Let s be very clear, strong men, men who are truly role models don t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. Here s the full speech via YouTube.Donald Trump is a disgrace to this country and our values. And it looks like only the American people can stop him, because Republicans are too cowardly to strip Trump of the nomination and admit that they were wrong to make him the leader of their party. This national nightmare needs to be put to an end once and for all and the only way to do that is to defeat Trump by a landslide in November.Featured Image via screenshot | 1real |
Trump Unleashes On Media: “Everyone At CNN Is A Liar… You Should Be Ashamed” | Image: Bin im Garten, Creative Commons
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge .
Editor’s Comment: The entire campaign season was composed of stories about how Trump couldn’t win, about the derogatory comments he has made, and the terror he would bring. But their lopsided attacks against Trump, and their continuing praise of nothing-but-Hillary was completely wrong in every way… the epitome of “fake news.”
And President-elect Trump reportedly let the media hear his mind… interesting account of this off-the-record meeting.
Trump “Exploded” At Media Execs During Off-The-Record Meeting: “It Was A F–king Firing Squad”
by Tyler Durden
Earlier today we reported that in a “summit” organized by Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, executives and anchors from the major US media outlets, including CNN president Jeff Zucker, ABC News president James Goldston, Fox News co-presidents Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, and NBC News president Deborah Turness, visited Donald Trump at his Trump Tower penthouse for an off the record meeting.
Courtesy of the Post, we have a complete list of the participants at the Trump media meeting: the hour-long powwow included top execs from network and cable news channels. Among the attendees were NBC’s Deborah Turness, Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, ABC’s James Goldston, George Stephanopoulos, David Muir and Martha Raddatz, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell John Dickerson, Charlie Rose, Christopher Isham and Gayle King, Fox News’ Bill Shine, Jack Abernethy, Jay Wallace, Suzanne Scott, MSNBC’s Phil Griffin and CNN’s Jeff Zucker and Erin Burnett.
The contents of what was discussed were initially unclear.
Now, according to the Post and Politico , we learn that the President-elect “ exploded at media bigs in an off-the-record Trump Tower powow on Monday .”
“ It was like a f—ing firing squad ,” one source told the Post.
According to the Post’s recound of the conversation, “ Trump started with Jeff Zucker and said I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed ….”
Jeff Zucker (left)
“The meeting was a total disaster . The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,” the source added. A second source confirmed the encounter.
The Post adds that “the meeting took place in a big board room and there were about 30 or 40 people, including the big news anchors from all the networks…”
“Trump kept saying, ‘ We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong. He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was network of liars .
“Trump didn’t say Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate – which was Martha Raddatz who was also in the room.
“Gayle did not stand up, but asked some question, ‘How do you propose we the media work with you?’ Chuck Todd asked some pretty pointed questions. David Muir asked how are you going to cope living in DC while your family is in NYC? It was a horrible meeting.”
Politico adds further details, according to which “Trump complained about photos of himself that NBC used that he found unflattering, the source said. Trump turned to NBC News President Deborah Turness at one point, the source said, and told her the network won’t run a nice picture of him, instead choosing “this picture of me,” as he made a face with a double chin. Turness replied that they had a “very nice” picture of him on their website at the moment.”
Amusingly, since the meeting was off the record, meaning the participants agreed not to talk about the substance of the conversations, it means they will most likely be unable to confirm or deny the Post’s report.
Politco’s recollection of events was slightly less dramatic:
The New York Post on Monday afternoon portrayed a much more heated meeting, including a quote from one source who said the encounter was “like a f–ing firing squad.” The Post also said Trump called CNN journalists “liars” and that they should be “ashamed.” The source who spoke with POLITICO characterized the meeting as less intense, and said the discussion included Trump expressing the possibility of a “reset” of the tumultuous relationship between the president-elect and the media and that all he wants is “fairness.”
Asked how he defines fairness by a network executive, Trump said simply, “The truth.” But aside from the few moments of contention in the beginning, the source said the meeting was largely substantive.
Politico also adds that Trump, flanked by chief of staff Reince Priebus and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway at the table, also expressed annoyance at the protective press pool and the complaints over him ditching the press when he went out to dinner last week with his family after reporters were advised he was in for the night. But Priebus assured the attendees that the protective press pool will be taken care of and it would all work out.
Other attendees at the meeting from Trump’s team included chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, spokesman Jason Miller, and Republican National Committee chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer.
Asked for comment, Miller referred POLITICO to Conway’s comments to reporters after the meeting, in which she echoed the sentiments made in the meeting about turning over a new leaf with the media.
“There was no need to mend fences,” Conway said. “It was very cordial, very genial. But it was very candid and very honest. From my own perspective, it’s great to hit the reset button.”
Conway later on Monday hit back at the New York Post report. “He did not explode in anger,” she said.
While one can have a subjective interpretuation of the nuances at the meeting, one thing was clear: Trump’s attempt at a ‘reset’ will be frowned at by the media which is not used to this kind of treatment, even if the “kindler, gentler” version of events as reported by Politico is accurate.
It also means that what has already been a conventional war between the various US media organizations and Trump, is likely about to go nuclear.
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge . | 1real |
Mike Pence’s New DC Neighbors Are HILARIOUSLY Trolling Him For Being A Homophobic Bigot | Mike Pence is a huge homophobe. He supports ex-gay conversion therapy, opposes hate crimes protections for LGBTQ people, is staunchly against marriage equality, and once said that he believes that same-sex couples will lead to societal collapse. To that end, the folks who are being forced to live near the now- vice president-elect near his newly rented house in Washington, DC are none too happy with their new neighbor. However, instead of protesting him with rallies in the streets, they ve decided to troll him instead.The residents in the Chevy Chase neighborhood are hanging large rainbow flags on their homes to send a signal to Mike Pence that his homophobia is not welcome in their neck of the wood. According to local station WJLA: A respectful message showing, in my case, my disagreement with some of his thinking, said Ilse Heintzen.The he Heintzen is referring to is Vice-President Elect Mike Pence. Pence moved into a house on Heintzen s block where he will stay on-and-off until he moves into the Vice-President s mansion on the grounds of the Naval Observatory next year.Neighbors started hanging the pride flags after the VP-Elect moved in because the LGBTQ community has criticized Pence s policies regarding LGBTQ rights.Here are a couple images of the collective rainbow F-YOU to Pence, via Twitter:#Pride flags sending message to @mike_pence outside temporary #DC home. Neighbors say more are coming. @NewsChannel8 @ABC7News #LGBTQ #LGBT pic.twitter.com/a2bfKfJ0yL Tim Barber (@ABC7TimBarber) December 1, 2016Residents on NW Washington Street where VP Elect Pence is renting a house are sending him a symbolic message. More residents may hang flags pic.twitter.com/fldYsMoP6i Suzanne Kennedy (@ABC7Suzanne) November 30, 2016There are more flags to come, too, according to locals. These people are doing a great thing by letting Pence know that his bigotry is not welcome, and that he d best not attempt to display it in their presence. On the other hand, this likely will cause another meltdown from Trump, who will undoubtedly accuse these people of harassing Pence for his bigoted views, just as happened with the Hamilton staff.Either way, this signals that there will be absolutely no tolerance for their bigotry, no matter how hard they push. Hopefully, their heads explode on this one before they even take office.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
BIG BROTHER? NYC DRIVING PROGRAM TRACKS DRIVERS | Big brother? Tracking drivers and their habits doesn t that sound like an Orwellian idea? Big government just got more into your business It s a new city pilot program to track how you drive, when you drive, how fast your drive and how much gas you use. The Department of Transportation says it will help fix street problems. Others say its like Big Brother is watching you, CBS2 s Marcia Kramer reported Friday. It s a tiny black box about the size of a pack of gum that is installed right under the steering wheel. It will allow city officials under a program called Drive Smart to collect and access data about how you drive if you drive like a maniac, or if you re Mr. or Mrs. Slow Poke. It can tell the g-force of hard stopping or hard acceleration and a hard turn, DOT senior project manager Alex Keating said. So the driver, as well as the service provider, are able to look at speeds, hard-breaking events, time of day and basic GPS. City officials say they ll use to information to make the streets safer, but drivers can also allow various DOT partners to use the information. Allstate, for example, will give you insurance discounts of 10-30 percent, and Metropia will get you home faster with less congested routes all of it hooked up to smartphone apps. Security expert Manny Gomez said there are many reasons to just say no to this program. Like, for instance, the danger of hacking. Anything is hackable as we ve already seen. Sony was hacked; the U.S. government was hacked, so clearly the City of New York could be hacked and ths information could easily become public, Gomez said. Gomez questions whether the city could use the information against people. DOT officials said that will not happen. All of the data is anonymous. We actually erase the data from our data base every 48 hours, Keating said. New Yorkers seem split on the idea. More control over the people I wouldn t be down for that, definitely not, Brian Bradford said. Yeah, I d definitely do that. Thirty percent is 30 percent, one woman said of the potential insurance discount. Enough. Enough. Enough. There is the NSA, CIA, FBI you have more information than you need, taxi driver Nour Chad said. The Department of Transportation is looking for 400 volunteers to participate in the year-long program. You have to have a valid driver s license and drive in the city at least four days a week. In addition to an app to reduce car insurance rates, there are apps to tell you where to buy the cheapest gas, and how to drive safely.via: CBSlocal | 1real |
Kushner told Flynn to contact Russians last year: NBC News | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, directed Michael Flynn, then a Trump adviser, to contact Russian officials around Dec. 22 about a UN resolution regarding Israel, NBC News reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter. Flynn, who later briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser, pleaded guilty earlier on Friday to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia’s ambassador, and prosecutors said he consulted with a senior official in Trump’s presidential transition team before speaking to the envoy. | 0fake |
‘Apprentice’ Producer: Lewd #TrumpTapes Are Nothing – There Is ‘Far Worse’ To Come (TWEETS) | The GOP and the Donald Trump for president campaign are reeling after the world watched and listened in horror to Trump describing pursuits of married women and straight up sexual assault in some of the most vulgar terms imaginable with then- Access Hollywood producer Billy Bush. Even Trump s own wife and running mate couldn t defend what he s done, and his establishment support is being pulled in droves. However, despite the tailspin Trump s campaign and indeed the entire Republican Party is in, according to a former producer of The Apprentice, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and nowhere near the worst there is to see of Donald Trump.Bill Pruitt, who says he produced the show that made Trump a national figure of business prowess, tweeted the following on Saturday:As a producer on seasons 1 & 2 of #theapprentice I assure you: when it comes to the #trumptapes there are far worse. #justthebegininng Bill Pruitt (@billpruitt) October 8, 2016There seems to be credibility here as well, since Ed Henry of Fox News has suggested that Donald Trump s pal and former GOP primary rival Dr. Ben Carson has also said this is just the beginning. Henry tweeted:.@RealBenCarson told me he & @realDonaldTrump talked about more revelations coming: "They have have more things & they will drip them out" Ed Henry (@edhenry) October 8, 2016No one should be surprised by this. Trump is a sexual predator, and due to his money, power, and fame, he has gotten away with being one for his entire adult life. There s surely plenty of other hot mic tapes, Apprentice outtakes, and god knows what else out there that the world will be privy to in short order, and certainly prior to November 8th.For this reason, there will continue to be a drumbeat of calls from GOP heavy-hitters for Trump to drop out of the race, but Trump s ego will not allow him to do that. Further, he has said that he won t, via his favorite medium of communication and feuding: Twitter.The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN! #MAGA Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2016Of course, his rabid, brainwashed supporters see nothing wrong with Trump s lewd, predatory tapes, and will continue to blame the media, the GOP establishment, Hillary Clinton, and everyone else but Trump himself for what is going on right now. Either way, the GOP is stuck with Trump through the election, and they will be left with nothing but ashes for their split and broken party afterward.Congratulations, GOP. You did this by propping this imbecile up and trying to put him in the White House, even though you know that it s the last place he should be. You re getting exactly what you deserve. Good luck having a party at all after this.As for the rest of us we ll be popping our popcorn and watching.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Bernie ROASTS GOP Mental Instability During #DemDebate With PERFECT One-Liner (VIDEO) | The Democratic debate on Sunday night was a little more tense than usual between candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The two went head to head and actually discussed important issues that needed to be talked about unlike their Republican counterparts who choose to make every debate about things like discussing hand size and trading personal jabs.Truth be told, the Republicans left running lack any and all substance. They can t properly answer any questions on domestic or foreign policy, and most certainly are unable to be polite with one another.On the other hand, there are the Democrats. When they get a little loud debating back and forth, it s not about who has the biggest dick or who has the best polls numbers, they actually discuss policy, and are equally as passionate when defending their positions.However, there was a moment during the Democratic debate when the GOP debate was brought up. And while Hillary did point out how absurd they are, Bernie took it one further and laid down an absolutely spot-on one-liner.Sanders hilariously said: When you watch these Republican debates, you know why we need to invest in mental health. A truer statement has never been spoken. These Republican candidates are not only national embarrassment. They may be certifiably insane.Watch the hilarious moment here:.@BernieSanders: When you watch these Republican debates, you know why we need to invest in mental health pic.twitter.com/6wQjj2wnOv POLITICO (@politico) March 7, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Jimmy Fallon Destroys Trump University In Hilarious ‘Pros And Cons’ Segment (VIDEO) | Trump University went out of business years ago, but because Donald Trump is talking about bringing it back, Jimmy Fallon decided to weigh the pros and cons of attending the failed school.Interspersing his best Trump impressions throughout the bit, Fallon hilariously listed the pros and cons of going to Trump University should it return if Trump becomes president.Pro: The university will offer hundreds of classes.Con: Or as Trump put it, It s very, very classy. Fallon mentioned another pro being that tuition would be free with the con being that Mexico would be forced to pay for it, which Fallon joked that s one way to do it. Currently, Trump is claiming that he will force Mexico to pay for his proposed massive wall along the US-Mexico border.Then it was on to the next pro and con.Pro: Trump boasted about the school s large endowment.Con: By saying I guarantee you there s no problem down there. That con was a reference to Trump talking about the size of his penis during a presidential debate. Seriously.Then Fallon moved on to the next pro, which led to another twist of a con.Pro: Hiding the bong on parents weekend.Con: Because Bong s student visa ran out and now Trump wants to deport him.Trump has based most of his campaign on blaming immigrants for America s problems and has vowed to deport them all if he becomes president, which has resulted in Trump and his supporters hurling racist hate speech against people of color and some incidents of violence against them.And then Fallon hit Trump hard.Pro: Going to graduation and putting on your white cap and gown.Con: Having a hard time seeing through the eye holes.Fallon went on to compare Trump University s logo to Trump s hair on a windy day and said that seeing a Trump University diploma hanging on the wall in a doctor s office should make anyone back out slowly to seek a different doctor.Here s the video via YouTube:Another masterful mocking of Trump by the Tonight Show host.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Russia strikes with its new hypersonic missile | Russia strikes with its new hypersonic missile 31.10.2016 A hypersonic aircraft known as Article 4202 or 15Yu71 was successfully tested for the first time on 25 October during gunnery drill from the Dombarovskiy launcher deployment area in the Orenburg region at the Kura Missile Test Range in Kamchatka. All the on-board equipment, avionics, as well as guidance system are made of the Russian components. The weapon is capable of moving at a speed of around 7km/s at the maximum height. The device is designed to be installed in advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles instead of traditional warheads. 4202 starts operating at a height of about 100km and flies to the target at a speed of 5-7km/s. While before entering thick layers of atmosphere above the target, the hypersonic aircraft conducts a difficult manoeuvre, which hampers its being intercepted by means of missile defence. It should be noted that the project of combat blocks named Albatros occurred in the USSR in the mid-1980s as a response to the US attempt to create missile defence in the framework of the Star Wars conception. Pravda.Ru | 1real |
Syria's war: How did we get here? | (CNN) It began with the arrests of a handful of children in 2011. Since then, it's exploded into the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.
It all starts with graffiti
A sandstorm blows over damaged buildings in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of Damascus, on September 7, 2015.
A sandstorm blows over damaged buildings in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of Damascus, on September 7, 2015.
A man's body lies in the back of van as people search for the injured after airstrikes allegedly by the Syrian government on a market in a rebel-held Eastern Ghouta town on August 31, 2015.
A man's body lies in the back of van as people search for the injured after airstrikes allegedly by the Syrian government on a market in a rebel-held Eastern Ghouta town on August 31, 2015.
A refugee carries mattresses as he re-enters Syria from Turkey on June 22, 2015, after Kurdish People's Protection Units regained control of the area around Tal Abyad, Syria, from ISIS.
A refugee carries mattresses as he re-enters Syria from Turkey on June 22, 2015, after Kurdish People's Protection Units regained control of the area around Tal Abyad, Syria, from ISIS.
A Syrian child fleeing the war gets lifted over fences to enter Turkish territory illegally near a border crossing at Akcakale, Turkey, on June 14, 2015.
A Syrian child fleeing the war gets lifted over fences to enter Turkish territory illegally near a border crossing at Akcakale, Turkey, on June 14, 2015.
A Syrian boy receives treatment at a local hospital following an alleged chlorine gas attack in the Idlib suburb of Jabal al-Zawia on April 27, 2015.
A Syrian boy receives treatment at a local hospital following an alleged chlorine gas attack in the Idlib suburb of Jabal al-Zawia on April 27, 2015.
Nusra Front fighters inspect a helicopter belonging to pro-government forces after it crashed in the rebel-held Idlib countryside on March 22, 2015.
Nusra Front fighters inspect a helicopter belonging to pro-government forces after it crashed in the rebel-held Idlib countryside on March 22, 2015.
Rebel fighters dig caves in the mountains for bomb shelters in the northern countryside of Hama on March 9, 2015.
Rebel fighters dig caves in the mountains for bomb shelters in the northern countryside of Hama on March 9, 2015.
A man gives medical assistance as two wounded children wait nearby at a field hospital in Douma on February 2, 2015.
A man gives medical assistance as two wounded children wait nearby at a field hospital in Douma on February 2, 2015.
A long-exposure photograph shows a rocket being launched in Aleppo on October 5, 2014.
A long-exposure photograph shows a rocket being launched in Aleppo on October 5, 2014.
Medics tend to a man's injuries at a field hospital in Douma after airstrikes on September 20, 2014.
Medics tend to a man's injuries at a field hospital in Douma after airstrikes on September 20, 2014.
Volunteers remove a dead body from under debris after shelling in Aleppo on August 29, 2014. According to the Syrian Civil Defense, barrel bombs are now the greatest killer of civilians in many parts of Syria. The White Helmets are a humanitarian organization that tries to save lives and offer relief.
Photographs of victims of the Assad regime are displayed as a Syrian army defector known as "Caesar," center, appears in disguise to speak before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington. The July 31, 2014, briefing was called "Assad's Killing Machine Exposed: Implications for U.S. Policy." Caesar, apparently a witness to the regime's brutality, has smuggled more than 50,000 photographs depicting the torture and execution of more than 10,000 dissidents. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the photos, documents and testimony referenced in the report.
Rebel fighters execute two men on July 25, 2014, in Binnish, Syria. The men were reportedly charged by an Islamic religious court with detonating several car bombs.
Rebel fighters execute two men on July 25, 2014, in Binnish, Syria. The men were reportedly charged by an Islamic religious court with detonating several car bombs.
A giant poster of al-Assad is seen in Damascus on May 31, 2014, ahead of the country's presidential elections. He received 88.7% of the vote in the country's first election after the civil war broke out.
A giant poster of al-Assad is seen in Damascus on May 31, 2014, ahead of the country's presidential elections. He received 88.7% of the vote in the country's first election after the civil war broke out.
A Free Syrian Army fighter fires a rocket-propelled grenade during heavy clashes in Aleppo on April 27, 2014.
A Free Syrian Army fighter fires a rocket-propelled grenade during heavy clashes in Aleppo on April 27, 2014.
A U.S. ship staff member wears personal protective equipment at a naval airbase in Rota, Spain, on April 10, 2014. A former container vessel was fitted out with at least $10 million of gear to let it take on about 560 metric tons of Syria's most dangerous chemical agents and sail them out to sea, officials said.
A U.S. ship staff member wears personal protective equipment at a naval airbase in Rota, Spain, on April 10, 2014. A former container vessel was fitted out with at least $10 million of gear to let it take on about 560 metric tons of Syria's most dangerous chemical agents and sail them out to sea, officials said.
A man holds a baby who was rescued from rubble after an airstrike in Aleppo on February 14, 2014.
A man holds a baby who was rescued from rubble after an airstrike in Aleppo on February 14, 2014.
Residents wait to receive food aid distributed by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, on January 31, 2014.
Residents wait to receive food aid distributed by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, on January 31, 2014.
An injured man is helped following an airstrike in Aleppo's Maadi neighborhood on December 17, 2013.
An injured man is helped following an airstrike in Aleppo's Maadi neighborhood on December 17, 2013.
Syrian children wait as doctors perform medical checkups at a refugee center in Sofia, Bulgaria, on October 26, 2013.
Syrian children wait as doctors perform medical checkups at a refugee center in Sofia, Bulgaria, on October 26, 2013.
Residents run from a fire at a gasoline and oil shop in Aleppo's Bustan Al-Qasr neighborhood on October 20, 2013. Witnesses said the fire was caused by a bullet from a pro-government sniper.
Residents run from a fire at a gasoline and oil shop in Aleppo's Bustan Al-Qasr neighborhood on October 20, 2013. Witnesses said the fire was caused by a bullet from a pro-government sniper.
The U.N. Security Council passes a resolution September 27, 2013, requiring Syria to eliminate its arsenal of chemical weapons. Al-Assad said he would abide by the resolution.
The U.N. Security Council passes a resolution September 27, 2013, requiring Syria to eliminate its arsenal of chemical weapons. Al-Assad said he would abide by the resolution.
A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows people inspecting bodies of children and adults who rebels claim were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces on August 21, 2013. A week later, U.S Secretary of State John Kerry said U.S. intelligence information found that 1,429 people were killed in the chemical weapons attack, including more than 400 children. Al-Assad's government claimed that jihadists fighting with the rebels carried out the chemical weapons attacks to turn global sentiments against it.
An aerial view shows the Zaatari refugee camp near the Jordanian city of Mafraq on July 18, 2013.
An aerial view shows the Zaatari refugee camp near the Jordanian city of Mafraq on July 18, 2013.
Rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Al-Bab, Syria, on January 16, 2013.
Rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Al-Bab, Syria, on January 16, 2013.
Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in the al-Mashhad neighborhood of Aleppo on January 7, 2013.
Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in the al-Mashhad neighborhood of Aleppo on January 7, 2013.
A rebel fighter prepares the wires of a car-mounted camera used to spy on Syrian government forces while his comrade smokes a cigarette in Aleppo's Bab al-Nasr district on January 7, 2013.
A rebel fighter prepares the wires of a car-mounted camera used to spy on Syrian government forces while his comrade smokes a cigarette in Aleppo's Bab al-Nasr district on January 7, 2013.
A father reacts after the deaths of two of his children in Aleppo on January 3, 2013.
A father reacts after the deaths of two of his children in Aleppo on January 3, 2013.
The bodies of three children are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital in Aleppo on December 2, 2012. The children were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in the city.
The bodies of three children are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital in Aleppo on December 2, 2012. The children were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in the city.
Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo as fighting continues through the night on December 1, 2012.
Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo as fighting continues through the night on December 1, 2012.
Rebels celebrate next to the remains of a Syrian government fighter jet that was shot down at Daret Ezza, on the border of the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, on November 28, 2012.
Rebels celebrate next to the remains of a Syrian government fighter jet that was shot down at Daret Ezza, on the border of the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, on November 28, 2012.
An Israeli tank crew sits on the Golan Heights overlooking the Syrian village of Breqa on November 6, 2012. Israel fired warning shots toward Syria after a mortar shell hit an Israeli military post. It was the first time Israel fired on Syria across the Golan Heights since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
An Israeli tank crew sits on the Golan Heights overlooking the Syrian village of Breqa on November 6, 2012. Israel fired warning shots toward Syria after a mortar shell hit an Israeli military post. It was the first time Israel fired on Syria across the Golan Heights since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Relatives of Syrian detainees who were arrested for participating in anti-government protests wait in front of a police building in Damascus on October 24, 2012. The Syrian government said it released 290 prisoners.
Relatives of Syrian detainees who were arrested for participating in anti-government protests wait in front of a police building in Damascus on October 24, 2012. The Syrian government said it released 290 prisoners.
A Syrian rebel walks inside a burnt section of the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo hours before the Syrian army retook control of the complex on October 14, 2012.
A Syrian rebel walks inside a burnt section of the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo hours before the Syrian army retook control of the complex on October 14, 2012.
Smoke rises over the streets after a mortar bomb from Syria landed in the Turkish border village of Akcakale on October 3, 2012. Five people were killed. In response, Turkey fired on Syrian targets and its parliament authorized a resolution giving the government permission to deploy soldiers to foreign countries.
Free Syrian Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16, 2012.
Free Syrian Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16, 2012.
A Syrian man carrying grocery bags dodges sniper fire in Aleppo as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syrian Army on September 14, 2012.
A Syrian man carrying grocery bags dodges sniper fire in Aleppo as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syrian Army on September 14, 2012.
Family members mourn the deaths of their relatives in front of a field hospital in Aleppo on August 21, 2012.
Family members mourn the deaths of their relatives in front of a field hospital in Aleppo on August 21, 2012.
A Free Syrian Army fighter runs for cover as a Syrian Army tank shell hits a building across the street during clashes in the Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo on August 17, 2012.
A Free Syrian Army fighter runs for cover as a Syrian Army tank shell hits a building across the street during clashes in the Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo on August 17, 2012.
Rebel fighters with the Free Syrian Army capture a police officer in Aleppo, Syria, who they believed to be pro-regime militiaman on July 31, 2012. Dozens of officers were reportedly killed as rebels seized police stations in the city.
Rebel fighters with the Free Syrian Army capture a police officer in Aleppo, Syria, who they believed to be pro-regime militiaman on July 31, 2012. Dozens of officers were reportedly killed as rebels seized police stations in the city.
People gather on May 26, 2012, at a mass burial for victims reportedly killed by Syrian forces in Syria's Houla region. U.N. officials confirmed that more than 100 Syrian civilians were killed , including nearly 50 children. Syria's government denied its troops were behind the bloodbath.
An injured man gets treated in a Damascus neighborhood on April 3, 2012.
An injured man gets treated in a Damascus neighborhood on April 3, 2012.
Syrian refugees walk across a field in Syria before crossing into Turkey on March 14, 2012.
Syrian refugees walk across a field in Syria before crossing into Turkey on March 14, 2012.
Supporters of al-Assad celebrate during a referendum vote in Damascus on February 26, 2012. Opposition activists reported at least 55 deaths across the country as Syrians headed to the polls. Analysts and protesters widely described the constitutional referendum as a farce. "Essentially, what (al-Assad's) done here is put a piece of paper that he controls to a vote that he controls so that he can try and maintain control," a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.
Suicide bombs hit two security service bases in Damascus on December 23, 2011, killing at least 44 people and wounding 166.
Jamal al-Wadi of Daraa speaks in Istanbul on September 15, 2011, after an alignment of Syrian opposition leaders announced the creation of a Syrian National Council -- their bid to present a united front against al-Assad's regime and establish a democratic system.
Jamal al-Wadi of Daraa speaks in Istanbul on September 15, 2011, after an alignment of Syrian opposition leaders announced the creation of a Syrian National Council -- their bid to present a united front against al-Assad's regime and establish a democratic system.
Syrian children walk over bricks stored for road repairs during a spontaneous protest June 15, 2011, at a refugee camp near the Syrian border in Yayladagi, Turkey.
Syrian children walk over bricks stored for road repairs during a spontaneous protest June 15, 2011, at a refugee camp near the Syrian border in Yayladagi, Turkey.
Anti-government protesters demonstrate in Daraa on March 23, 2011. In response to continuing protests, the Syrian government announced several plans to appease citizens.
Anti-government protesters demonstrate in Daraa on March 23, 2011. In response to continuing protests, the Syrian government announced several plans to appease citizens.
An injured man lying in the back of a vehicle is rushed to a hospital in Daraa, south of Damascus, on March 23, 2011. Violence flared in Daraa after a group of teens and children were arrested for writing political graffiti. Dozens of people were killed when security forces cracked down on demonstrations.
An injured man lying in the back of a vehicle is rushed to a hospital in Daraa, south of Damascus, on March 23, 2011. Violence flared in Daraa after a group of teens and children were arrested for writing political graffiti. Dozens of people were killed when security forces cracked down on demonstrations.
Pro-government protesters hold pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad, during a rally in Damascus, Syria, on March 18, 2011. Bashar al-Assad has ruled Syria since 2000, when his father passed away following 30 years in charge. An anti-regime uprising that started in March 2011 has spiraled into civil war. The United Nations estimates more than 220,000 people have been killed.
Pro-government protesters hold pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad, during a rally in Damascus, Syria, on March 18, 2011. Bashar al-Assad has ruled Syria since 2000, when his father passed away following 30 years in charge. An anti-regime uprising that started in March 2011 has spiraled into civil war. The United Nations estimates more than 220,000 people have been killed.
As Arab Spring demonstrations overthrow governments across the Middle East, a group of children in Daraa, southern Syria, are arrested and allegedly tortured for scrawling graffiti on a school reading "the people want to topple the regime."
Outrage over the arrests turns into protests and a brutal crackdown
Protesters clash with Syrian security forces on the streets of Daraa in March 2011.
As the bloodshed gets worse, the opposition gets organized
The West calls for Assad to quit, but Russia and China have other ideas
Meanwhile, the influence of Islamist groups grows in rebel ranks
The U.N. brokers a ceasefire that falls apart almost immediately
As refugees flee, the U.N. accuses Syria of crimes against humanity
Barack Obama announces his 'red line' in Syria for the first (but not last) time
Two years in, 60,000 are dead, and the U.S. says it will send aid to rebels
February 2013: The U.S. The U.S. promises to send food and medical supplies -- but not weapons -- to Syrian rebels. It's the first such move since the conflict began two years before, in an effort to hem in the radical Islamist groups vying for influence in Syria. More than 60,000 people are now dead and nearly a million have fled the country.
European nations join the list of countries sending weapons into Syria
Syria crosses Obama's 'red line,' and the U.S. prepares to attack
John Kerry goes off script, and the Russians pounce
140,000 are dead in Syria as peace talks go nowhere fast
ISIS declares an independent state in Iraq and Syria
The U.S. launches airstrikes on ISIS in Syria
Kurdish forces, backed by U.S. strikes, take back Kobani from ISIS
ISIS seizes Palmyra and blows up its priceless ruins
Donors pledge more than $10 billion to Syria
February 11, 2016: Diplomats from more than a dozen countries, including the United States and Russia, Diplomats from more than a dozen countries, including the United States and Russia, agree in Munich, Germany, to a "cessation of hostilities" -- a temporary halt in fighting that commonly happens at the start of a peace process -- and to the delivery of aid. Terrorist groups, including ISIS and al-Nusra, are not included in the deal. The partial truce does not take hold a week later as originally hoped, but there are renewed efforts to implement the deal the following Friday | 0fake |
Republican Leaders Turn On Trump, Side With President Obama | Donald Trump is becoming a liability to the Republican Party, so GOP leaders are backing away from their nominee and aligning themselves with President Obama s condemnation of his Muslim ban.Ever since Trump became the nominee, Republicans have been torn between kissing his ass and distancing themselves from his hateful rhetoric. But ever since the Orlando mass shooting, Republicans have been finding themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.Trump renewed his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and expanded the idea by calling for banning anybody from a nation that has a history of terrorism against the United States. That could technically mean Japan and Germany as well as many other nations that are now our allies.Trump also claimed that President Obama is weak on terrorism because he hasn t used certain words to somehow make ISIS magically disappear.In response, President Obama took Trump to the woodshed. What exactly would using this language accomplish? Obama angrily asked. What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to try and kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. President Obama also strongly condemned Trump s proposed ban on Muslims. Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating them because of their faith? We ve heard these suggestions during the course of this campaign. Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that s not the America we want. It doesn t reflect our Democratic ideals. It will make us less safe. And in a stunning move, many Republicans have joined President Obama to condemn Trump. I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country s interest, House Speaker Paul Ryan responded. I do not think it is reflective of our principles, not just as a party but as a country. Traditionally, it is a time when people rally around our country, and it s obviously not what s occurred, and it s very disappointing, said Senator Bob Corker. It wasn t the type (of address) that one would expect a person who is wanting to lead the greatest nation in the world to make.Senator Lindsey Graham also expressed a lack of confidence in Trump s leadership qualifications. I don t think he has the judgment or the temperament, the experience to deal with what we are facing, he said.GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger also condemned Trump perhaps more strongly than his GOP colleagues. I guess I appreciate Mr. Trump s fieriness in talking about it, but you don t do it by alienating the very people that we need, and those are moderate Muslims. We have to use the folks that frankly are not radicalized, which is the vast majority of Muslims, to win this war. Kinzinger would know since, unlike Trump, he served his country by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a pilot. He knows that it s important to have Muslim allies on the ground feeding intelligence and offering support to our troops.Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake also criticized Trump and pointed out that he has to do better if he wants to get enough votes in November. He s won 13 million votes total so far; he s got to get 65 million or so to win the general election, which includes a lot of independents and Republicans that don t feel as he does. He can t win the general election talking the way he is. And these reactions are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet somehow, many of these Republicans STILL support Trump as the nominee and standard-bearer of their party.But that doesn t change the fact that for the first time Republicans and President Obama have united in agreement on something. Donald Trump is dangerous and he is unqualified to be president. It s just up to Republicans whether or not he remains the nominee. But if they continue to support him, it will be up to the American electorate to make sure he never becomes president and that the Republicans who continue to support him are thrown out of office.Featured Image: Pete Souza | 1real |
WATCH TRUMP SUPPORTERS CRASH Pro-Sanctuary City Press Conference Where Radicals Call for Open Borders [Video] | Supporters of the rule of law crashed a pro-illegal rally on August 4, 2017 at San Bernardino City Hall. This was a reaction to San Bernardino getting a letter from Jeff Sessions threatening to withhold their federal funds. Using the left s tactics on them is pretty great:Did you listen to the rhetoric coming from the speakers who were pushing open borders? Shame on them for using religion to break the law! The SEIU has been called Obama s Purple Army so they bussed in protesters for the protest They are usually paid to attend protests. They are more like Obama s useful idiots because they lose if more illegals come to take their jobs.The Press Enterprise reported:Attorney General Jeff Sessions announcement that San Bernardino would not be eligible for crime-reduction funding spurred a demonstration outside San Bernardino City Hall on Friday, Aug. 4.On Thursday, Aug. 3, Sessions sent letters to four cities struggling with gun violence, including San Bernardino, telling them they would not be eligible for a program that provides money to combat drug trafficking and gang crime unless they confirm their cooperation with immigration officials.The letter asks if correctional and detention facilities will honor a written request from the Department of Homeland Security to hold a foreign national for up to 48 hours beyond the scheduled release date.In San Bernardino, that s up to the San Bernardino County Sheriff s Department, not the city. Regardless, the Sheriff s Department, in a statement, said it can t comply because it would be unconstitutional. San Bernardino is not going to be bullied, said Kesha McGee, a lead organizer with Inland Congregations United for Change, at the planned demonstration.McGee said the interfaith group wanted to show support for the San Bernardino immigrant community. We are a community of unity, she said. We all deserve to be here. Religious leaders from tInland Congregations United for Change and immigrant rights activists from the Inland area planned the Friday press conference outside City Hall to condemn Sessions announcement. Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes, D-San Bernardino, was at the event. | 1real |
Putin Mocks Clinton Claim Of Russia Election Meddling: ‘Is U.S. A Banana Republic?’ | Putin Mocks Clinton Claim Of Russia Election Meddling: ‘Is U.S. A Banana Republic?’ “Is the U.S. a banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.” American Mirror - October 28, 2016 Comments
Hillary Clinton claims she’s the only candidate who will stand up to Vladimir Putin, but she’s also the only candidate who apparently believes the United States is vulnerable enough to not prevent Russia from meddling in the November presidential election.
Russian President Putin mocked that notion on Thursday. Vladimir Putin: "Does anyone really think Russia could influence the American people's choice in any way? What,is the US a banana republic?" pic.twitter.com/ngQhJR1AtP
“Does anyone seriously think that Russia can influence the choice of the American people?” Putin told a group of academics in Sochi.
“Is the U.S. a banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.”
Hillary Clinton has repeatedly blamed Russia for the disclosures of campaign operative emails by Wikileaks.
“We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election,” Clinton said at the second presidential debate.
“And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump.”
“Anything that goes wrong they blame Russia,” Trump told a crowd in Ocala, Florida days later. “We are being hacked because we have people who don’t know what they are doing. They always blame Russia.”
“They say Donald Trump is friends with Putin. I don’t know Putin, folks,” Trump added. “What the hell do I have to do with Putin?” NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 1real |
Text of F.B.I. Director’s Remarks on Investigation Into Hillary Clinton’s Email Use - The New York Times | Following is the prepared text of remarks by Director James B. Comey on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s personal email system, as released by the F. B. I. Good morning. I’m here to give you an update on the F. B. I. ’s investigation of Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email system during her time as secretary of state. After a tremendous amount of work over the last year, the F. B. I. is completing its investigation and referring the case to the Department of Justice for a prosecutive decision. What I would like to do today is tell you three things: what we did what we found and what we are recommending to the Department of Justice. This will be an unusual statement in at least a couple ways. First, I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest. Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say. I want to start by thanking the F. B. I. employees who did remarkable work in this case. Once you have a better sense of how much we have done, you will understand why I am so grateful and proud of their efforts. So, first, what we have done: The investigation began as a referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General in connection with Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email server during her time as secretary of state. The referral focused on whether classified information was transmitted on that personal system. Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities. Consistent with our counterintelligence responsibilities, we have also investigated to determine whether there is evidence of computer intrusion in connection with the personal email server by any foreign power, or other hostile actors. I have so far used the singular term, “email server,” in describing the referral that began our investigation. It turns out to have been more complicated than that. Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send email on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways. Piecing all of that back together — to gain as full an understanding as possible of the ways in which personal email was used for government work — has been a painstaking undertaking, requiring thousands of hours of effort. For example, when one of Secretary Clinton’s original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the email software was removed. Doing that didn’t remove the email content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of email fragments end up unsorted in the server’s unused — or “slack” — space. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together. F. B. I. investigators have also read all of the approximately 30, 000 emails provided by Secretary Clinton to the State Department in December 2014. Where an email was assessed as possibly containing classified information, the F. B. I. referred the email to any U. S. government agency that was a likely “owner” of information in the email, so that agency could make a determination as to whether the email contained classified information at the time it was sent or received, or whether there was reason to classify the email now, even if its content was not classified at the time it was sent (that is the process sometimes referred to as “ ”). From the group of 30, 000 emails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent 36 chains contained Secret information at the time and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2, 000 additional emails were “ ” to make them Confidential the information in those had not been classified at the time the emails were sent. The F. B. I. also discovered several thousand emails that were not in the group of 30, 000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional emails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private email domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government email accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including officials at other agencies, people with whom a secretary of state might naturally correspond. This helped us recover emails that were not among the 30, 000 produced to State. Still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of email fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013. With respect to the thousands of emails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level. There were no additional Top Secret emails found. Finally, none of those we found have since been “ . ” I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them. Our assessment is that, like many email users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted emails or emails were purged from the system when devices were changed. Because she was not using a government account — or even a commercial account like Gmail — there was no archiving at all of her emails, so it is not surprising that we discovered emails that were not on Secretary Clinton’s system in 2014, when she produced the 30, 000 emails to the State Department. It could also be that some of the additional emails we recovered were among those deleted as “personal” by Secretary Clinton’s lawyers when they reviewed and sorted her emails for production in 2014. The lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her emails, as we did for those available to us instead, they relied on header information and used search terms to try to find all emails among the reportedly more than 60, 000 total emails remaining on Secretary Clinton’s personal system in 2014. It is highly likely their search terms missed some emails, and that we later found them, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials or in the slack space of a server. It is also likely that there are other emails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all emails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery. We have conducted interviews and done technical examination to attempt to understand how that sorting was done by her attorneys. Although we do not have complete visibility because we are not able to fully reconstruct the electronic record of that sorting, we believe our investigation has been sufficient to give us reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct in connection with that sorting effort. And, of course, in addition to our technical work, we interviewed many people, from those involved in setting up and maintaining the various iterations of Secretary Clinton’s personal server, to staff members with whom she corresponded on email, to those involved in the email production to State, and finally, Secretary Clinton herself. Last, we have done extensive work to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the personal email operation. That’s what we have done. Now let me tell you what we found: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. For example, seven email chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending emails about those matters and receiving emails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U. S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on email (that is, excluding the later “ ” emails). None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these emails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by security staff, like those found at Departments and Agencies of the U. S. Government — or even with a commercial service like Gmail. Separately, it is important to say something about the marking of classified information. Only a very small number of the emails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked “classified” in an email, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it. While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified email systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government. With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton’s personal email domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence. We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account. So that’s what we found. Finally, with respect to our recommendation to the Department of Justice: In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the F. B. I. has helped collect. Although we don’t normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order. Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past. In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the United States or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here. To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now. As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case. I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear. I know there were many opinions expressed by people who were not part of the investigation — including people in government — but none of that mattered to us. Opinions are irrelevant, and they were all uninformed by insight into our investigation, because we did the investigation the right way. Only facts matter, and the F. B. I. found them here in an entirely apolitical and professional way. I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this organization. | 0fake |
SWEDEN IS ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE… Gun Purchases Are Way Up…Pepper Spray Selling Out…Muslims Beating Non-Muslims On Streets | The politically correct country of Sweden paying a very big price for their kindness, generosity and open-borders policy This attack happened in Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm. The two Swedes told them not to vandalize flowerpots and as a response they got beaten up for it.https://youtu.be/Rsn_1TO1kMUThis is indeed the future of Europe. By their irresponsible, short-sighted, suicidal immigration and refugee policies, Europe s political and media elites have ensured a future of violence, bloodshed and chaos for their people. Sweden, the future of Europe: people stock up on fire arms, police recommend vigilante groups , by Nicolai Sennels, 10News.dk, December 12, 2015 (thanks to TheReligionofPeace.com):This is a very interesting read, because the whole of Europe is heading the same way as Sweden. Sweden is, so to speak, the future of Europe. And in this future, those who can afford it pay security companies the rest gest license for firearms and forms vigilante groups. via: Pamela Gellar You have to understand that Swedes are really scared when an asylum house opens in their village. They can see what has happened in other places. Salesman for alarm systems.Since Parliament decided in 1975 that Sweden should be multicultural and not Swedish, crime has exploded. Violent crime has increased by over 300% and rapes have increased by an unbelievable 1,472%.The violence at the hands of Muslim migrants is nothing new to Sweden. This horrific video was published in 2013:Many Swedes see the mass immigration as a forced marriage: Sweden is forced to marry a man she did not choose, yet she is expected to love and honor him, even though he beats her and treats her badly. Her parents (the government) tell her to be warm and show solidarity with him. Are the State and I now in agreement that our mutual contract is being renegotiated? Alexandra von Schwerin, whose farm who was robbed three times. Police refused to help.Once upon a time, there was a safe welfare state called Sweden, where people rarely locked their doors.Now, this country is a night-watchman state each man is on his own. When the Minister of Justice, Morgan Johansson, encourages breaking the law, it means opening the gates to anarchy. Mr. and Mrs. Swede have every reason to be worried, with the influx of 190,000 unskilled and unemployed migrants expected this year equivalent to 2% of Sweden s current population. The number is as if 6.4 million penniless migrants who did not speak English arrived in U.S. in one year, or 1.3 million in Britain.And the Swedes are preparing: demand for firearms licenses is increasing; more and more Swedes are joining shooting clubs and starting vigilante groups. After a slight dip in 2014, the number of new gun permits has gone up significantly again this year. According to police statistics, there are 1,901,325 licensed guns, owned by 567,733 people, in Sweden. Add to this an unknown number of illegal weapons. To get a gun permit in Sweden, you need to be at least 18 years old; law-abiding; well-behaved, and have a hunting license or be a member of an approved shooting club. In 2014, 11,000 people got a hunting license: 10% more than the year before. One out of five was a woman. There is also a high demand for alarm systems right now, says a salesman at one of the security companies in an interview with Gatestone. It is largely due to the turbulence we are seeing around the country at the moment. People have lost confidence in the State, he added. The police will not come anymore. Truck drivers say that when they see a thief emptying the fuel tank of their trucks, they run out with a baseball bat. It is no use calling the police, but if you hit the thief, you can at least prevent him from stealing more diesel. Many homeowners say the same thing: they sleep with a baseball bat under the bed. But this is risky: the police can then say you have been prepared to use force, and that might backfire on you. The salesman, who asked to remain anonymous, also spoke of Sweden s many Facebook groups, in which people in different villages openly discuss how they intend to protect themselves: Sometimes you get totally freaked out when you see what they are writing. But you have to understand that Swedes are really scared when an asylum house opens in their village. They can see what has happened in other places. One blog, detailing the consequences for the local population when an asylum facility opens, is aptly named Asylkaos ( Asylum Chaos ). There is a list of companies the reader is prompted to boycott; the blog claims these businesses encourage the transformation of Sweden to a multicultural society, and are therefore considered hostile to Swedes. At another security company, a salesman said that every time the Immigration Service buys or rents a new housing facility, his firm is swamped with calls. The next day, he said, half the village calls and wants to buy alarm systems. Ronny Fredriksson, spokesman of the security company Securitas, said that the demand for home alarm systems first exploded about six years ago, when many local police stations were shut down and police moved to the main towns. This, he said, could result in response times of several hours. More and more people now employ the services of our security guards. Shopping malls and stores in the city come together and hire guards. We are kind of like the local beat cops of old. Even though Securitas makes big money from the increased need for home security alarms and security guards, Fredriksson says they also are worried about the effect on society: The problem is that we too need the police. When our guards catch a burglar or a violent person, we call the police but the response times are often very long. Sometimes, the detainees get violent and quite rowdy. On occasion, the police have told us to release the person we have apprehended, if we have his identity, because they do not have a patrol nearby. Even before the massive influx of migrants in the fall of 2015, Swedes felt a need to protect themselves and with good reason. Since the Parliament decided in 1975 that Sweden should be multicultural and not Swedish, crime has exploded. Violent crime has increased by more than 300%, and rapes have increased by an unbelievable 1,472%.The politicians, however, ignore the people s fear completely. It is never discussed. Instead, the people who express concern about what kind of country Sweden has become are accused of xenophobia and racism. Most likely, that is the reason more and more people are taking matters into their own hands, and protecting themselves and their families to the best of their ability.All the same, some people do not settle for that. It seems some people are trying to stop mass immigration to Sweden. Almost every day there are reports of fires being set at asylum houses. So far, miraculously, no one has been hurt.These fires are set not only by Swedes. On October 13, a 36-year-old woman living in Skellefte was convicted of setting fire to the asylum facility in which she herself resided. The woman claimed she lit a candle and then fell asleep. Yet forensic evidence showed that a combustible fluid had been doused throughout the room, and the court found beyond a reasonable doubt that she herself had ignited the fire.The number of violent incidents at Sweden s Immigration Service facilities is now sky-high. In 2013, according to Dispatch International, at least one incident happened every day. When Gatestone Institute recently acquired the incident list for January 1, 2014 through October 29, 2015, that number had risen to 2,177 incidents of threats, violence and brawls on average, three per day.The Swedish government, however, would apparently rather not talk about that. Foreign Minister Margot Wallstr m conceded, in an interview with the daily Dagens Nyheter that garnered international attention, that Sweden is, in fact, heading for a systemic breakdown: Most people seem to think we cannot maintain a system where perhaps 190,000 people will arrive every year. In the long run, our system will collapse. This welcome is not going to receive popular support. We want to give people who come here a worthy reception. Symptomatic of Swedish journalists, this statement was tucked away at the end of the article. The headline was about how the political party that is critical of immigration, the Sweden Democrats Party (Sverigedemokraterna), is responsible for the asylum-housing fires. But foreign media, such as The Daily Mail and Russia Today, picked up Wallstr m s warning about a systemic collapse and ran it as the urgent news it actually is.Nevertheless, in official Sweden, the imminent collapse is ignored. Instead, journalists exclusively focus on attacks by supposedly racist Swedes on refugee centers. To prevent new fires, the Immigration Service decided on October 28 that from now on, all asylum facilities would have secret addresses. And meager police resources will now be stretched even further to protect asylum seekers. Police helicopters will even patrol refugee centers. But considering there are only five helicopters available, and that Sweden s landmass is 407,340 square km (157,274 square miles), this gesture is effectively empty.At a meeting with the Nordic Council in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 27, Sweden s Prime Minister, Stefan L fven, was questioned by his Nordic colleagues about the situation in Sweden. L fven had recently said that, We should have the option of relocating people applying for asylum in Sweden to other EU-countries. Our ability, too, has a limit. We are facing a paradigm shift. That comment led a representative of Finland s Finns Party (Sannfinl ndarna) to wonder, with a hint of irony, how mass immigration to Sweden, which for years Swedish politicians have touted as being so profitable, has now suddenly become a burden.Another Finns Party representative, Simon Elo, pointed out that the situation in Sweden is out of control. Sweden has great abilities, but not even the Swedes have abilities that great, Elo said.When L fven was asked how he is dealing with the real concerns and demands of the citizenry, his answer was laconic: Of course I understand there is concern, L fven said. It is not easy. But at the same time there are 60 million people on the run. This is also about them being our fellow men, and I hope that viewpoint will prevail. The daily tabloid Expressen asked L fven about the attacks on asylum facilities. He replied, Our communities should not be characterized by threats and violence, they should be warm and show solidarity. As if such behavior can be forced.Many Swedes see mass immigration as a forced marriage: Sweden is forced to marry a man she did not choose, yet she is expected to love and honor him even though he beats her and treats her badly. And on top of that, her parents (the government) tell her to be warm and show solidarity with him.More and more Swedish commentators are now drawing the same conclusion: that Sweden is teetering on the brink of collapse. Editorial columnist Ivar Arpi of the daily Svenska Dagbladet, wrote an astonishing article on October 26, about a woman named Alexandra von Schwerin and her husband. The couple lives on the Skarhults Estate farm in Sk ne in southern Sweden; they have been robbed three times. Most recently, they were robbed of a quad bike, a van and a car. When the police arrived, von Schwerin asked them what she should do. The police told her that they could not help her. All our resources are on loan to the asylum reception center in Trelleborg and Malm , they said. We are overloaded right now. So I suggest you get in touch with the vigilante group in Esl v. What the police had called a vigilante group turned out to be a group of private business owners. In 2013, after being robbed more or less every night, they had decided to come together and start patrolling the area themselves. Currently, they pay a security firm to watch their facilities. On principal, I am totally against it, von Schwerin said. What are the people who cannot afford private security to do? They will be unprotected. I m sure I will join, but very, very reluctantly. For the first time, I feel scared to live here now. Are the State and I now in agreement that our mutual contract is being renegotiated? Commenting on the police s encouraging people to join vigilante groups, social commentator and former Refugee Ombudsman Merit Wager wrote: So, the Swedes are supposed to arrange and pay for their own and their families security and keep their farms from being subjected to theft, even though that has up to now been included in the social contract for which we pay high taxes, to have police we can count on to protect us and apprehend criminals?! When did the social contract expire? October 2015? Without any notice of termination, since the tax-consuming party is not fulfilling its part of the deal? This should mean that our part of the deal to pay taxes for public, joint services has also become invalid? If the social contract is broken, it is broken. Then it is musical chairs (lawlessness, defenselessness, without protection), and that means that each and every one of us should pay less taxes. Ilan Sad , lawyer and social commentator, wrote about the refugee chaos at Malm Central Train Station on the blog Det Goda Samh llet on October 27: The authorities no longer honor the social contract. He described four large signs on display around the station that read Refugee? Welcome to Malm ! in four different languages. It is unclear who the sender of the message is, or, for that matter, who is in charge of the reception facility a number of barracks by the old post office in the inner harbor. Everything is utterly confusing. It could be Malm City or the Immigration Service, but it might as well be Refugees Welcome, or possibly a religious community. I think to myself that a government agency could not reasonably write like this, a correct and pertinent sign would say something like: Asylum seekers are referred to the barracks for information and further transport. But I am probably wrong; Malm City is the chief suspect communicant. The signs in and around the Central Station are symptoms of something incredibly serious: Role confusion and the decay of the constitutional state. And thus, that our authorities no longer honor the social contract. In a post called Anarchy, blogger Johan Westerholm, who is a Social Democratic Party member and a critic of the government, wrote that the Minister for Justice and Migration, Morgan Johansson, is now urging authorities to be pragmatic about laws and regulations (concerning asylum housing for so-called unaccompanied refugee children). Westerholm stated that this is tantamount to the government opening the gates to anarchy : Our country is founded on law; Parliament legislates and the courts apply these. Morgan Johansson s statement and his otherwise passive approach are testimony to how this, our kind of democracy, may fade into a memory very shortly. He now laid the first brick in the building of a state that rests on other principles. Anarchism. If anarchy really does break out, it would be good to remember that there are nearly two million licensed firearms in Sweden. Sweden s shooting clubs have seen a surge in interest; many are welcoming a lot of new members lately. Via: Gatestone Institute | 1real |
Yahoo shares fall after latest security breach | (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc’s shares fell as much as 3.8 percent on Thursday, a day after the company said that more than 1 billion user accounts were compromised in a security breach in August 2013. The number of users affected by the breach, the largest in history, was double the number implicated in a prior 2014 breach that Yahoo had disclosed in September. Verizon, which has agreed to buy Yahoo’s core Internet business for $4.83 billion, had said at the time that it might withdraw from the deal. The No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier said on Wednesday that it would review the impact of the latest development. “The prior breaches were not seen to have an effect on the Verizon deal, so I would say that this is not going to have an effect either because its just something that is understood, it has to be addressed,” Tigress Financial Partner analyst Ivan Feinseth said. Up to Wednesday’s close, Yahoo’s stock had fallen more than 7 percent since the first breach was announced in September. | 0fake |
LILY WHITE MERYL STREEP Explains Why They Don’t Need Minorities On Film Festival Jury: “We’re All Africans Really” | There must be an equal number of victims as those born naturally into privilege, or all bets are off in the progressive film business. There s a certain satisfaction one gets in watching the progressive left in the entertainment industry cannibalize each other over a manufactured race issue. They were the first to support the Black Lives Matter terrorists when it didn t personally affect them or their income. Looks like someone s chickens are coming home to roost Three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep waded into the debate over the lack of diversity in Hollywood during the opening press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, explaining away the festival s all-white jury panel by telling reporters: We re all Africans really. Streep, who serves as jury president at this year s Berlinale, labeled the festival ahead of the game on the issue of inclusion, according to the Associated Press. There should be inclusion, and this jury is evidence that at least women are included and in fact dominate this jury, and that s an unusual situation in bodies of people who make decisions, the actress said.The film festival s jury seven-member jury includes British actor Clive Owen, film critic Nick James, Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe, German actor Lars Eldinger, and Italian actor Alba Rohrwacher.The festival s opening press conference was reportedly dominated by issues of diversity and inclusion, topics that have spurred heated debate and controversy in Hollywood after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated exclusively white actors and actresses at this year s Oscars. The move led some stars such as Will Smith and Spike Lee to boycott this year s ceremony, while the Rev. Al Sharpton has called for a national tune out in protest.Streep was reportedly asked if she understood films from the Arab world and from North Africa. The Iron Lady star said that while she did not understand much about films coming from that region, she has played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures. There is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture, and after all we re all from Africa originally, Streep said. You know, we re all . Berliners, we re all Africans really. Variety reported that Streep made the comment in reference to John F. Kennedy s famous Ich bin ein Berliner ( I am a Berliner ) quote: We are all Africans, and we are all Berliners, the outlet quoted Streep as saying.Many of the films at the 66th annual Berlinale will focus on Europe s refugee crisis. According to AFP, the festival will showcase roughly a dozen films related to the migrant crisis, with hundreds of screening tickets reportedly being set aside for refugees. The festival will also host donation drives for refugee charities at its gala events. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Single, 54, and a New Dad: Why Some Start Families Late - The New York Times | SPARKY CAMPANELLA never heard the thrumming of a biological clock. But his “sociological clock” — his sense that he was missing out on something important in life — boomed mightily. At the age of 54, he decided to do something about it. He became a father. He was single, but so what? “I decided I could either do it myself, or wait for the right partner to come along,” said Mr. Campanella, a Los Angeles fine arts photographer whose son, Rhys, is a little over 1 year old. Over the years he had dated women who had children of their own, but he realized that he didn’t want to be a stepdad. “Why go through this life,” he asked, “and not have the experience of having my own child?” It’s a question many childless people over 50 are asking themselves. Of course, dealing with night feedings and rambunctious are not for the faint of heart. But with their finances in order and their careers in place, with their life spans extended, some older people are concluding: Why not start — or continue — raising children in later life? Stories of parenthood often make headlines. This year, the philanthropist and investor Nicolas Berggruen had two children via surrogate. Margarita the chairwoman of the global trading house Louis Dreyfus Commodities, gave birth to twin girls at age 53. Janet Jackson made headlines when she announced her pregnancy two weeks before her 50th birthday. Luciano Pavarotti had a child after he was 65 Rupert Murdoch did so when he was over 70. Older men have long had children with younger wives, of course. And giving birth after age 50 is still extremely rare (only 743 American women ages 50 to 54 gave birth in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Report.) Most important, despite a host of health and ethical issues raised by late parenthood, the whole idea is becoming more culturally accepted, particularly in certain highly affluent circles. “More women and men who are 50 or over are pushing the envelope and taking the leap into parenthood,” said Rachel Lehmann Haupt, the author of “In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family” (Nothing but the Truth, 2016). “We’re living longer, and this new middle age is becoming a time when people start to think about what they want to do with the rest of their lives. For many who haven’t had kids, they decide to reinvent themselves as parents. ” The path to parenthood comes in many ways. Beyond adoption and surrogacy, some choose fertilization, either with donor eggs or eggs they have frozen in the past. None of this is cheap. Mr. Campanella, for example, paid about $120, 000, which included legal and medical fees, and costs for the surrogate mother. “People are so much healthier today,” said Dr. Philip Chenette, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco. “I see routinely mountain biking in Marin County, and if you keep a good diet and keep your weight down, you can do a lot of things with your body that you couldn’t do before. If your life expectancy is longer, why wouldn’t you want to fill that time with your kid?” Some fertility clinics have extended the age of the patients they will accept. The cutoff at Pacific Reproductive is 55 for women (The combined age for a couple is 110). There is none at the New York Fertility Institute, in Manhattan. “We’ve had patient’s first baby delivered to 57,” said Dr. Majid Fateh, the founder and medical director. Steve Klein, a family formation lawyer in San Diego, is also seeing older people coming through his doors. “As surrogacy has become more mainstream, people see it as a viable way to have a child, especially for people who are beyond the optimum reproductive ages,” he said. “They have money, they can provide a comfortable life, a private education. They can have nannies assist them, or one of them could be a parent, and they’re older and wiser and more mature. They can be a better parent than if they were younger. ” Sometimes no one is more surprised by the desire to have a child in later life than the . Merle Hoffman, the founder and chief executive of Choices Women’s Medical Center, in Queens, said she had never wanted children. “I saw myself leading troops into battle,” said Ms. Hoffman, now 70. “That didn’t allow for a maternal kind of orientation. ” She was so clear on her decision that she terminated a pregnancy at age 32. But when she was in her mid 50s, her husband of more than two decades died. The emptiness was palpable. “I had experienced many facets of love: sexual, devotional, parental from myself to my mother, the love of a cause. But I had never experienced what so many people experience as being the ultimate nonconditional love,” she said. “I wanted to experience what it was to love like that. ” At 58, Ms. Hoffman adopted a girl from Russia. Friends greeted her with everything from shock to rage. “Some were like, ‘What are you, nuts? You’re too old! ’” she recalled. “Some were supportive. Others were thinking, ‘Well, where’s my position in her life going to be now? Because this child will be the most important person. ’” While some people worry about the daily logistics of having a child later in life, others worry about the ethics of it. Annie Worshoufsky MacAulay, 55, a nurse in Hartford, is planning to adopt a baby with her partner, Cindy. The couple has a son, Nate. Ms. MacAulay has four adult children from a previous marriage. Although she feels strong and vibrant, she does have some reservations. “My mind tells me — oh, my God, am I going to be going to his graduation on a wheelchair? Will I be around? Will people think I’m his grandma? My mind and body have a constant struggle. ” Doctors and lawyers also grapple with the ethical considerations of having a child. In 2013, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine revised its ethics committee report on oocyte or embryo donation to women of “advanced” age. “In view of the lack of data about maternal and fetal safety,” they concluded, “providing donor oocytes or embryos for transfer to any woman over 55 years of age, even when she has no underlying medical problems, should be discouraged. ” The risk of complications increases dramatically after 55, including diabetes and high blood pressure. There are health risks from older fatherhood, too. Sperm from an older man, researchers say, puts children at an increased risk for autism, schizophrenia and dwarfism. While no one has yet advised men to freeze their sperm to save for a later date, “it’s not a terrible idea,” said Dr. Chenette. Apart from the ethical considerations, there are practical issues to take into account. “Some lawyers will say, ‘Morally, is that really in the best interest to the child to be doing this? ’” said Mr. Klein, who also runs a surrogacy center. “I say, ‘Do you have estate plans? Do you have people willing to step in as guardians? Do you have a support system in place for this child?’ A responsible lawyer will insist on this with their clients. ” (Mr. Campanella appointed friends to be his son’s guardian). For all the questions, advocates for older parents say they can provide something special for their children — and themselves. “My father was 50 years older than me,” said Dr. Fateh. “I was in my 20s when he died, but the few years I spent with him were the best in my life. He was loving, understanding — he was mature, he’d gone through life. ” In his observations, Dr. Fateh added, “older parents are really gentle with the kids and more understanding. ” “They’re in a state of life where financially they’re more comfortable,” he added. “They spend a lot of time with the kids. In your 30s, you’re working so hard you hardly see the kid. I don’t know a single old father who regrets it. ” | 0fake |
Obama urges doubling tax credit for low-income childless workers | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed expanding the earned income tax credit (EITC), which helps low-income taxpayers, to give a bigger boost to childless people. Some Republicans as well as Democrats in Congress back increasing the tax credit. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, favors expanding the credit as an incentive for pulling people into work. In his budget blueprint for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, Obama proposed doubling the tax credit for workers who are not raising children, bringing the credit to a maximum of about $1,022 a year for them. He said it should be expanded to cover workers with earnings up to 150 percent of the poverty line, so about $18,180 for a single person. Under current law the cutoff comes at about $15,040. Obama also favors expanding eligibility to single workers between ages 21-24 to help draw them into the workforce; currently they must be 25 to qualify. The Earned Income Tax Credit, created in 1975, is intended to promote work as well as help low-income people. Because it is a refundable credit, it produces a refund if the taxpayer does not owe any taxes. Currently it gives more generous benefits to families with children. Obama has proposed expanding it for the past two years; Ryan agrees it should be increased for childless workers. But they disagree on how it should be funded. Obama has talked about closing tax loopholes, while Ryan has talked about cutting spending. Obama’s budget proposed making the credit available to workers aged 65 and 66, and to workers in the struggling territory of Puerto Rico. The White House said its proposal would help 13.2 million low-income people. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said recently that in 2013, a total of $68.1 billion was claimed by 28.8 million tax filers under the program. But it said the rules were too complex and up to a quarter of payments were issued “improperly”. Obama’s budget also proposed $12 billion over 10 years to supplement food stamps for poor families when school meal programs are closed in the summer. It asked for $2 billion in emergency aid for families in crisis, a $1.2 billion increase in rental assistance to poor families, $328 million in education and housing grants to poor neighborhoods, and a $15 million pilot program to help poor families move to better neighborhoods. | 0fake |
Factbox: Retiring Republican Corker embroiled in public fight with Trump | (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bob Corker has spent much of the past two months in a very public war of words with President Donald Trump, something highly unusual for a member of Congress and White House occupant from the same political party. The following are some facts about the Republican senator from Tennessee: - Corker, 65, was elected to the Senate in 2006 and will leave in early 2019. Corker’s criticism of Trump has increased since he announced he would not seek a third term next year, but they had clashed before, including after Trump’s reaction to a white supremacist rally in August that many viewed as equivocal. - Corker built a fortune as a successful construction firm owner before entering politics. As mayor of Chattanooga, his first Senate campaign was marked by a Republican National Committee advertisement criticized as racial politicking against his African-American opponent, Harold Ford. Corker asked the RNC to take down the spot. - In the Senate, Corker is known as a fiscal conservative with a reputation for working with Democrats to craft deals in areas from immigration to debt reduction. His independent streak and outspoken personality has made him a popular guest on talk shows. - Corker became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2015, becoming a leading national security voice. He was on Trump’s shortlist to be secretary of state before the selection of Exxon Mobil executive Rex Tillerson, with whom Corker frequently consults. - Corker has faced harsh criticism from the far-right, echoed in Trump’s tweets, for legislation that gave Congress the right to review the 2015 Iran nuclear pact before it went into effect. Trump’s charges that Corker was responsible for the deal have been widely rejected as false, given that Corker was one of its leading critics. Corker is also a member of the Budget, Banking and Aging committees. | 0fake |
“Peaceful” Muslims Scream: “THIS IS FOR ALLAH” After Driving Van 50 MPH Pedestrians…3 ARMED Terrorists On Run In Gun-Free London…Britain’s PM Calls It “Potential Act Of Terror” [VIDEO] | Just another day in the holy month of Ramadan London is the scene of carnage again with another terror attack. A van plowed into pedestrians on London Bridge with reports of men jumping out of the van to stab random people. We re posting details as they come in from the UK. The Muslim Mayor of London is too busy criticizing President Trump for taking measures to ensure the United States is not subjected to never-ending acts of terrorism to actually identify and work to solve the radical Muslim issue that is exploding in the UK.Meanwhile, President Trump has offered the help of the United States to the citizens of London and of the UK:Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2017Popular conservative talk show host Katie Hopkins thanks President Trump for taking the issue of Islamic terrorism seriously while hammering the Muslim Mayor of London:Thank you @realDonaldTrump. Please excuse Mr Khan't. The man who calls himself Mayor. pic.twitter.com/RwvbPVY92m Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) June 3, 2017UPDATE: MORE: UNCONFIRMED reports say at least 5 terrorists with weapons on the run in London, several killed, several injured. BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017UPDATE: Eyewitness on London Bridge tells the BBC: The 3 men exited the van with knives shouted "This is for Allah" before stabbing people BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017BREAKING NEWS: Many injured as car ploughs into people at London bridge.DEVELOPING pic.twitter.com/1fuoC5y652 BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017Traffic cameras captures huge police activity near London bridge as police say it is still not under control. pic.twitter.com/0URXD0yvR2 BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017UPDATE: Witness say he saw a van drive into pedestrians at London Bridge and 3 men carrying knives jump out and then attack people BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017BREAKING: Multiple people have been killed in the incidents in London, police say BBC BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 20173 ARMED terrorists are reportedly on the run in gun-free London:MORE: At least three armed terrorists on the run in London. BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017Talk show host Katie Hopkins tells British citizens stop being complacent, DEMAND ACTION! Do not let them tell you we stand united. Do not let them tell you we carry on as normal. Refuse to be lied to. DEMAND ACTION #LondonBridge Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) June 3, 2017Hopkins goes on to slam Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan who has been very vocal in his criticism of President Trump for wanted to do a better job of vetting refugees coming to America from terror hotbed nations: No, @SadiqKhan. We do not want to hear a single word from you. Not one word. London Bridge has fallen down on your watch, son #LondonBridge Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) June 3, 2017Katie Hopkins is furious .demands Britain gets a handle their radical Muslim issue:Britain does not stand united. Close the borders. Round up the watch list. Incarcerate the lot. ENOUGH #LondonBridge https://t.co/ZlVXZmmYnm Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) June 3, 2017UPDATE: Police now urgently telling crowd to leave the area around Monument Station, as reports of one Suspect inside the station BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017INFO: Train stations closed in London: London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross and Cannon Street due to ongoing incidents pic.twitter.com/LMlI9KdqGN BNL (@BreakingNLive) June 3, 2017UPDATE: One suspect has been apprehended:https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/871152269202522112Meanwhile Britain s Prime Minister Theresa May calls this a potential act of terror! https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/871150568907169793 | 1real |
Trump believes Obama was born in the United States: campaign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, one of the leaders of the “birther” movement that questioned President Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship, believes Obama was born in the United States, the Trump campaign said in a statement on Thursday. In an interview with the Washington Post released earlier in the day, Trump declined to say whether he believed Obama was born in Hawaii. “I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet,” Trump told the newspaper. Those comments drew criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who expressed dismay at Trump’s response during remarks to a gathering of Hispanic leaders in Washington. “He still wouldn’t say Hawaii. He still wouldn’t say America. This man wants to be our next president?” Clinton said. “When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry? Now he’s tried to reset himself and his campaign many times. This is the best he can do. This is who he is,” she said. A few years into his presidency, Obama, the first African American to win the White House, released a longer version of his birth certificate to answer those who suggested he was not U.S. born. “In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate,” Trump senior communications advisor Jason Miller said in a statement late on Thursday. “Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States,” he said. Trump has been trying to drum up support among black voters, who overwhelmingly supported Obama in his 2008 and 2012 elections. Many African Americans object to Trump’s involvement in the “birther” movement and the implication that Obama’s presidency was illegitimate. | 0fake |
The Batcave, a Graffiti Landmark in Brooklyn, Grows Up - The New York Times | Standing on the Third Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, you can almost watch a community changing before your very eyes. On one side sits a Whole Foods, spinning in its vast parking lot. On the other, a cluster of apartment towers is in the works, while the Ferrara Bros. concrete company, one of the largest in New York City, is preparing to relocate. The canal itself remains a murky Superfund site. The lone sentinel of the neighborhood’s postindustrial, days is the Batcave. A former Brooklyn Rapid Transit power station built in 1904, it was decommissioned in the 1950s and became a punk squat decades later, playing host to raucous dance parties and graffiti on practically every surface. Like many of the buildings lining the fetid waterway, it is poised for a rebirth. This year, the nonprofit Powerhouse Environmental Arts Foundation plans to break ground on a project that will provide a haven for two of the canal’s most endangered species: artists and manufacturers. The foundation plans to renovate and expand the power station, turning it into a factory of sorts for the production of art. The project, the Powerhouse Workshop, will include metalwork, woodwork, printmaking, ceramics and fiber art, as well as exhibition space. “The building has long been a destination for artists, and we wanted to keep it that way,” Katie Dixon, the foundation’s executive director, said during a recent tour of the cavernous former turbine hall. The Powerhouse Workshop will share at least one thing with its tonier neighbors: designers, namely Herzog de Meuron, the Pritzker Swiss firm, who may now qualify as the most famous architects to work within a Superfund site. In many ways, the workshop brings that firm full circle. Herzog de Meuron’s breakout project was the Tate Modern, which took the old Bankside Power Station and turned it into one of the most popular museums in London. In Brooklyn, the designers are attempting the reverse, transforming a hub of underground culture back into an industrial complex, albeit for manufacturing art. The foundation spent four years studying what to do with the power station after purchasing it in 2012 for $7 million. The initial thought was studio space, but after surveying artists, the Powerhouse team discovered a greater unmet need: fabricating the art. That need has been growing more acute, as the same real estate pressures pushing out artists are displacing the artisans and manufacturers who helped realize their work. The foundation anticipates that the project will create more than 100 jobs. Operations will spread across the existing turbine hall and a new structure that traces the form of the boiler house that stood next door before its demolition in the 1950s. “The building always seemed very incomplete without the other third,” said Ascan Mergenthaler, a senior partner at Herzog de Meuron who is overseeing the project. “Any addition should occupy the footprint of the original, so both become a whole again. ” The new structure is essentially a large rectangle imbued with Herzog de Meuron’s pyrotechnic modesty. Where the original building had a pitched roof and a pair of giant smokestacks, the new structure is flat. The original roofline will be visible, however, a ghost incised in the pattern of the facade. There had been discussions about creating new ventilation systems in the shape of the smokestacks, but that was deemed superfluous. “It’s always a very slippery slope how much you let the original building influence your designs,” Mr. Mergenthaler said. “We only take the things that make sense for operations today and throw the rest away. ” One thing the Powerhouse will not be throwing away is the Batcave’s graffiti. While the building needs considerable structural work, and a portion of the bricks will have to be removed to make repairs, any old surfaces that can be preserved will be. “It’s an incredible legacy for us to build on,” Ms. Dixon said. “There are so many layers here, we don’t want to take any away. We simply want to add our own. ” Though few individual pieces in the Batcave are particularly notable, Henry Chalfant, a graffiti expert, remarked on a recent tour how the totality of the art is what makes it special, a reminder of the “outlaw spaces” that once populated much more of the city. “It’s kind of a flashback coming in here for me, and being among all the graffiti,” Mr. Chalfant, who was a producer of the 1983 street art documentary “Style Wars,” said. The top floor of the turbine hall soars 25 feet to a roof currently open to the sky. The hope is to glass it over to create a staging ground for art in progress, as well as for events and exhibitions. The foundation, established by the philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz, has spent $400, 000 on the site so far and plans to start construction this fall. No zoning changes are required since the Powerhouse conforms to the area’s industrial use. The foundation declined to release a budget for the project, which is still out to bid. It plans to open the Powerhouse Workshop in 2020. Not far from the Powerhouse, the project is already generating excitement. At the BRT Printshop in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which produces screen prints, Luther Davis recently recalled telling some of his artist clients about the complex. “Instantly, they had ideas for new pieces and new processes, like painting on metal sheets or textiles,” Mr. Davis said. “Just imagine having all these amazing craftspeople sitting around, looking at work or sipping coffee, all the ideas they might have. You can’t do that over the phone or email. ” The Powerhouse Workshop hopes to welcome powerhouses of the art world as well as striving artists. The latter might even pay reduced fees that would be offset by the more established — and expensive — work of others. To Ms. Dixon, it is an epochal opportunity for the New York art scene. “Even Andy Warhol,” she said, “had to leave the Factory to produce his work. ” | 0fake |
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