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Watch Lindsey Graham Accept Defeat Over Trump: ‘I Can’t Go Where He’s Taking The Country’ (VIDEO) | Lindsey Graham has been one of the biggest Republican voices against GOP nominee Donald Trump, and he only grew louder as Trump gained more support. The South Carolina senator has had a hard time of it, too he has called on Trump to apologize for several offensive things he s said, then he supported Trump briefly before aggressively crusading to get the Republican party to un-endorse Trump, and then he revealed that he himself would not be endorsing the humiliating candidate.Graham has been a nervous wreck over having to watch Trump destroy his beloved GOP right before his very eyes. But earlier today, Graham seemed to have finally accepted defeat and the fact that the Republican party he has known and loved will never be the same again. In an interview with At This Hour s Kate Bolduan and John Berman on CNN, Graham sorrowfully said: I ve come to the point now where I can t go where he is taking the party or the country. Graham also expressed that he was worried about what Trump s intentions were for America, but showed a brilliant amount of ignorance as he expressed he was open to the idea that Trump might grow as a politician (not happening). And to prove what a mess Trump s campaign really is, Graham brought up a talking point of Trump s, only be told by the hosts that it was actually an idea that came from Mike Pence, Trump s VP pick.You can watch Graham accept his circumstances below, and you can tell that it s absolutely killing him.Sen. Lindsey Graham on Trump: I can t go where he is taking the party https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/FgCRZeO6Er CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 6, 2016 Graham seems absolutely destroyed by a GOP under Trump, but we all know that conservatives have created this nightmare for themselves. They created a hateful, bigotry-filled political climate that allowed someone like Trump to excel, and they failed to stop him.Featured image via Scott Olson / Getty Images | 1real |
Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies at 87 - The New York Times | Elie Wiesel, the Auschwitz survivor who became an eloquent witness for the six million Jews slaughtered in World War II and who, more than anyone else, seared the memory of the Holocaust on the world’s conscience, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87. Menachem Rosensaft, a longtime friend and the founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, confirmed the death in a phone call. Mr. Wiesel, a charismatic lecturer and humanities professor, was the author of several dozen books. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But he was defined not so much by the work he did as by the gaping void he filled. In the aftermath of the Germans’ systematic massacre of Jews, no voice had emerged to drive home the enormity of what had happened and how it had changed mankind’s conception of itself and of God. For almost two decades, the traumatized survivors — and American Jews, that they had not done more to rescue their brethren — seemed frozen in silence. But by the sheer force of his personality and his gift for the haunting phrase, Mr. Wiesel, who had been liberated from Buchenwald as a with the indelible tattoo on his arm, gradually exhumed the Holocaust from the burial ground of the history books. It was this speaking out against forgetfulness and violence that the Nobel committee recognized when it awarded him the peace prize in 1986. “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind,” the Nobel citation said. “His message is one of peace, atonement and human dignity. His belief that the forces fighting evil in the world can be victorious is a belief. ” Mr. Wiesel first gained attention in 1960 with the English translation of “Night,” his autobiographical account of the horrors he witnessed in the camps as a teenage boy. He wrote of how he had been plagued by guilt for having survived while millions died, and tormented by doubts about a God who would allow such slaughter. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed,” Mr. Wiesel wrote. “Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never. ” Mr. Wiesel went on to write novels, books of essays and reportage, two plays and even two cantatas. While many of his books were nominally about topics like Soviet Jews or Hasidic masters, they all dealt with profound questions resonating out of the Holocaust: What is the sense of living in a universe that tolerates unimaginable cruelty? How could the world have been mute? How can one go on believing? Mr. Wiesel asked the questions in spare prose and without raising his voice he rarely offered answers. “If I survived, it must be for some reason,” he told Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times in an interview in 1981. “I must do something with my life. It is too serious to play games with anymore, because in my place, someone else could have been saved. And so I speak for that person. On the other hand, I know I cannot. ” There may have been better chroniclers who evoked the hellish minutiae of the German death machine. There were arguably more illuminating philosophers. But no single figure was able to combine Mr. Wiesel’s moral urgency with his magnetism, which emanated from his deeply lined face and eyes as unrelievable melancholy. “He has the look of Lazarus about him,” the Roman Catholic writer François Mauriac wrote of Mr. Wiesel, a friend. President Obama, who visited the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp with Mr. Wiesel in 2009, called him a “living memorial. ” “He raised his voice, not just against but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all its forms,” the president said in a statement on Saturday. “He implored each of us, as nations and as human beings, to do the same, to see ourselves in each other and to make real that pledge of ‘never again. ’” Mr. Wiesel long grappled with what he called his “dialectical conflict”: the need to recount what he had seen and the futility of explaining an event that defied reason and imagination. In his Nobel speech, he said that what he had done with his life was to try “to keep memory alive” and “to fight those who would forget. ” “Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices,” he said. A year earlier, on April 19, 1985, Mr. Wiesel stirred deep emotions when, at a White House ceremony at which he accepted the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement, he tried to dissuade President Ronald Reagan from taking time from a planned trip to West Germany to visit a military cemetery there, in Bitburg, where members of Hitler’s elite Waffen SS were buried. “That place, Mr. President, is not your place,” he said. “Your place is with victims of the SS. ” Mr. Reagan, amid much criticism, went ahead and laid a wreath at Bitburg. Paradoxically, the confrontation led to Mr. Wiesel’s first postwar visit to Germany. He said afterward that he had been extremely moved by the young German students he met and the depth of their painful search for an understanding of their country’s past. He urged reconciliation. “Has Germany ever asked us to forgive?” Mr. Wiesel asked. “To my knowledge, no such plea was ever made. With whom am I to speak about forgiveness, I, who don’t believe in collective guilt? Who am I to believe in collective innocence?” Mr. Wiesel had a leading role in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, serving as chairman of the commission that united rival survivor groups to raise funds for a permanent structure. The museum became one of Washington’s most powerful attractions. “He was a singular moral voice,” said Sara J. Bloomfield, the museum’s director. “And he brought a kind of moral and intellectual leadership and eloquence, not only to the memory of the Holocaust, but to the lessons of the Holocaust, that was just incomparable. There is nothing that can replace the survivor voice — that power, that authenticity. ” In his 1966 book, “The Jews of Silence: A Personal Report on Soviet Jewry,” Mr. Wiesel called attention to Jews who were being persecuted for their religion and yet barred from emigrating. “What torments me most is not the Jews of silence I met in Russia, but the silence of the Jews I live among today,” he said. His efforts helped ease emigration restrictions. Mr. Wiesel condemned the massacres in Bosnia in the — “If this is Auschwitz again, we must mobilize the whole world,” he said — and denounced others in Cambodia, Rwanda and the Darfur region of Sudan. He condemned the burnings of black churches in the United States and spoke out on behalf of the blacks of South Africa and the tortured political prisoners of Latin America. Yet the plight of Jews was foremost. In 2013, when the United States was in talks with Iran about limiting that country’s nuclear weapons capability, Mr. Wiesel took out a advertisement in The Times urging Mr. Obama to insist on a “total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure” and its “repudiation of genocidal intent against Israel. ” Central to Mr. Wiesel’s work was reconciling the concept of a benevolent God with the evil of the Holocaust. “Usually we say, ‘God is right,’ or ‘God is just’ — even during the Crusades we said that,” he once observed. “But how can you say that now, with one million children dead?” Still, he never abandoned faith indeed, he became more devout as the years passed, praying near his home or in Brooklyn’s Hasidic synagogues. On the airplane that was to take him to an Israel darkened by the war in 1973, he sat shoeless with a friend, and together they hummed Hasidic melodies. “If I have problems with God, why should I blame the Sabbath?” he once said. Mr. Wiesel had his detractors. The literary critic Alfred Kazin wondered whether he had embellished some stories, and questions were raised about whether “Night” was a memoir or a novel, as it was sometimes classified on high school reading lists. Mr. Wiesel blazed a trail that produced libraries of Holocaust literature and countless film and television dramatizations. While some of this work was enduring, he denounced much of it as “trivialization. ” What gave him his moral authority in particular was that Mr. Wiesel, as a pious Torah student, had lived the hell of Auschwitz in his flesh. Eliezer Wiesel was born on Sept. 30, 1928, in the small city of Sighet, in the Carpathian Mountains near the Ukrainian border in what was then Romania. His father, Shlomo, was a shopkeeper worldly enough to encourage his son to learn modern Hebrew and introduce him to the works of Freud. Later in life, Mr. Wiesel was able to describe his father in less saintly terms, as a preoccupied man he rarely saw until they were thrown together in Auschwitz. His mother, the former Sarah Feig, and his maternal grandfather, Dodye Feig, a Viznitz Hasid, filled his imagination with mystical tales of Hasidic masters. He grew up with his three sisters, Hilda, Batya and Tzipora, in a setting reminiscent of Sholom Aleichem’s stories. “You went out on the street on Saturday and felt Shabbat in the air,” he wrote of his community of 15, 000 Jews. But his idyllic childhood was shattered in the spring of 1944 when the Nazis marched into Hungary. With Allied troops fast approaching, many of Sighet’s Jews convinced themselves that they might be spared. But the city’s Jews were swiftly confined to two ghettos and then assembled for deportation. “One by one, they passed in front of me,” he wrote in “Night,” “teachers, friends, others, all those I had been afraid of, all those I could have laughed at, all those I had lived with over the years. They went by, fallen, dragging their packs, dragging their lives, deserting their homes, the years of their childhood, cringing like beaten dogs. ” “Night” recounted a journey of several days spent in an airless cattle car before the narrator and his family arrived in a place they had never heard of: Auschwitz. Mr. Wiesel recalled how the smokestacks filled the air with the stench of burning flesh, how babies were burned in a pit, and how a monocled Dr. Josef Mengele decided, with a wave of a bandleader’s baton, who would live and who would die. Mr. Wiesel watched his mother and his sister Tzipora walk off to the right, his mother protectively stroking Tzipora’s hair. “I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever,” he wrote. In Auschwitz and in a nearby labor camp called Buna, where he worked loading stones onto railway cars, Mr. Wiesel turned feral under the pressures of starvation, cold and daily atrocities. “Night” recounts how he became so obsessed with getting his plate of soup and crust of bread that he watched guards beat his father with an iron bar while he had “not flickered an eyelid” to help. When Buna was evacuated as the Russians approached, its prisoners were forced to run for miles through high snow. Those who stumbled were crushed in the stampede. After the prisoners were taken by train to another camp, Buchenwald, Mr. Wiesel watched his father succumb to dysentery and starvation and shamefully confessed that he had wished to be relieved of the burden of sustaining him. When his father’s body was taken away on Jan. 29, 1945, he could not weep. “I had no more tears,” he wrote. On April 11, after eating nothing for six days, Mr. Wiesel was among those liberated by the United States Third Army. Years later, he identified himself in a famous photograph among the skeletal men lying supine in a Buchenwald barracks. Only after the war did he learn that his two elder sisters had not perished. In the days after Buchenwald’s liberation, he decided that he had survived to bear witness, but vowed that he would not speak or write of what he had seen for 10 years. “I didn’t want to use the wrong words,” he once explained. He was placed on a train of 400 orphans that was diverted to France, and he was assigned to a home in Normandy under the care of a Jewish organization. There he mastered French by reading the classics, and in 1948 he enrolled in the Sorbonne. He supported himself as a tutor, a Hebrew teacher and a translator and began writing for the French newspaper L’Arche. In 1948, L’Arche sent him to Israel to report on that newly founded state. He became the Paris correspondent for the daily Yediot Ahronot as well, and in that role he interviewed Mr. Mauriac, who encouraged him to write about his war experiences. In 1956 he produced an memoir in Yiddish. Pared to 127 pages and translated into French, it then appeared as “La Nuit. ” It took more than a year to find an American publisher, Hill Wang, which offered him an advance of just $100. Though well reviewed, the book sold only 1, 046 copies in the first 18 months. “The Holocaust was not something people wanted to know about in those days,” Mr. Wiesel told Time magazine in 1985. The mood shifted after Adolf Eichmann was captured in Argentina by Israel in 1960 and the wider world, in watching his televised trial in Jerusalem, began to grasp anew the enormity of the German crimes. Mr. Wiesel began speaking more widely, and as his popularity grew, he came to personify the Holocaust survivor. “Night” went on to sell more than 10 million copies, three million of them after Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club in 2006 and traveled with Mr. Wiesel to Auschwitz. Mr. Wiesel wrote an average of a book a year, 60 books by his own count in 2015. Many were translated from French by his wife, Marion Erster Rose, who survived the war hidden in Vichy, France. They married in Jerusalem in 1969, when Mr. Wiesel was 40, and they had one son, Shlomo Elisha. They survive him, as do a stepdaughter, Jennifer Rose, and two grandchildren. For Mr. Wiesel, fame did not erase the scars left by the Holocaust — the nightmares, the perpetual insecurity, the inability to laugh deeply. “I live in constant fear,” he said in 1983. In 2007, a man who called Mr. Wiesel’s account of the Holocaust fictitious pulled him out of a hotel elevator in San Francisco and attacked him. (The man was convicted of assault.) From 1972 to 1976, Mr. Wiesel was a professor of Judaic studies at City College, where many of his students were children of survivors. In 1976 he was appointed the Andrew W. Mellon professor in the humanities at Boston University, and that job became his institutional anchor. In an effort to promote understanding between conflicting ethnic groups, Mr. Wiesel also started the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Through a synagogue acquaintance of Mr. Wiesel’s, it invested its endowment with the money manager Bernard L. Madoff, and his Ponzi scheme, revealed in 2008, cost the foundation $15 million. Mr. Wiesel and his wife lost millions of dollars in personal savings as well. Mr. Wiesel lived long enough to achieve a particular satisfying redemption. In 2002, he dedicated a museum in his hometown, Sighet, in the very house from which he and his family had been deported to Auschwitz. With uncommon emotion, he told the young Romanians in the crowd, “When you grow up, tell your children that you have seen a Jew in Sighet telling his story. ” | 0fake |
Vladimir Putin – Straight From The Horse’s Mouth | in: War Propaganda , World News If it’s not Islamophobia, it’s Russophobia. Tired of Western propaganda? Get Vladimir Putin’s perspective with words straight from the horse’s mouth. Vladimir Putin in particular, and Russia in general, have been the focus of an intensive high-drama propaganda campaign of late. Are you buying it? For the time being, Russophobia has replaced Islamophobia as the driving force behind the lies. Various US officials have been frantically warning Americans that the Russians are behind everything: hacking the DNC, controlling Trump, influencing the election and breaking the Syrian ceasefire agreement. They might as well add making your girlfriend break up with you, making your toast get burnt and making your car run out of fuel for all the evidence they have presented. Many of these totally unfounded allegations stem from (naturally) the Clinton campaign, home to career criminals Bill and Hillary Clinton , who are desperately seeking to find something to gain some sort of shred of popularity or advantage over Trump, who fills up arenas with 1000s of people more easily than Clinton can fill a high school gym with 50. Many US officials and war hawks are trying to get in on the action; CIA man Mike Morell indicated it would be a good idea to covertly kill Russians to make them “pay a price” ; Hillary Clinton called Vladimir Putin the “grand godfather of extreme nationalism” and blamed him for the rising popularity of right-wing leaders; and even standing VP Joe Biden came out and said that, “We’re sending a message to Putin … it will be at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact” . It seems there is no depth to which some US leaders won’t stoop in order to gain some political advantage, even it means lying, demonizing and destroying geopolitical partnerships in order to garner a few brownie points. Russophobia is in full swing before the US Presidential Election to distract American voters. Vladimir Putin: It’s All About Distraction During Election Season You would think Russian President Vladimir President would be agitated by all of this mud-slinging. At times he has been, for instance when he issued a warning a few months ago about an impending WW3 due to NATO’s constant aggression and advancement towards Russian borders. However, judging by his own words and mostly calm demeanor, he has seen through the agenda and understands what is going on. Putin spells out how it’s all inflamed rhetoric before an election season, an old trick used by politicians to distract when they have no meaningful solutions for internal and domestic problems. Here is Vladimir Putin in his own words : “You can expect anything from our American friends … the only novelty is that for the first time, on the highest level, the United States has admitted involvement in these activities, and to some extent threatened [us] – which of course does not meet the standards of international communication. As if we didn’t know that US Government bodies snoop on and wiretap anyone? Everyone knows this … Apparently, they are nervous. The question is why. I think there is a reason. You know, in an election campaign, the current government carefully crafts a pre-election strategy, and any government, especially when seeking re-election, always has unresolved issues. They need to show, to explain to the voters why they remain unresolved. In the US, there are many such problems … for example, the massive public debt is a time bomb for the US economy and global financial system … more examples can be cited in foreign policy … in these conditions, many choose to resort to the usual tactics of distracting voters from their problems … try to create an enemy and rally the nation against that enemy … Iran and the Iranian threat did not work well for that. Russia is a more interesting story.” And that’s exactly what this whole thing is: a giant story. However, as Voltaire once said, if you can make someone believe absurdities, you can make them commit atrocities. Let’s see what else Vladimir Putin has to say on other topics of interest. Russian Hacking: A Laughable Claim so the Clintons and DNC Can Try to Avoid Culpability Let’s face it: the whole Russophobia affair is about avoiding blame, dodging responsibility and evading liability. Thanks to WikiLeaks, Project Veritas and many other sources, we know the entire Hillary Clinton campaign has been rigged beyond belief. Fake primaries, fake speeches, fake images, fake videos, fake crowds, fake supporters and fake debates. There is seemingly no depth of criminality to which that woman won’t sink. She’s selling out the presidency before she even gets there, such as the stunt of trying to promise future presidential executive orders to mega donors. There is not a shred of evidence that Russia is affiliated with WikiLeaks or behind any of the DNC hacks. As this Zero Hedge article NSA Whistleblower: US Intelligence Worker Likely Behind DNC Leaks, Not Russia states: “On “Judge Napolitano Chambers,” the Judge said that while the DNC, government officials, and the Clinton campaign all accuse the Russians of hacking into the DNC servers, “the Russians had nothing to do with it.” Napolitano then mentioned Binney, arguing the NSA veteran and whistleblower who “developed the software that the NSA now uses, which allows it to capture not just metadata but content of every telephone call, text message, email in the United States of every person in [the country]” knew the NSA had hacked the DNC — not the Russians. If Judge Napolitano and Binney are right and the NSA did hack the DNC, what was the motive? According to the Judge, “members of the intelligence community simply do not want [Clinton] to be president of the United States.” “She doesn’t know how to handle state secrets,” Napolitano continued. And since “some of the state secrets that she revealed used the proper true names of American intelligence agents operating undercover in the Middle East,” some of these agents were allegedly captured and killed, prompting NSA agents to feel compelled to act. Whether NSA agents hacked the DNC or not, one thing is clear: there’s no real evidence linking the DNC and Arizona and Illinois voting system hacks to the Russian government.” The Mythical “Russian Threat” Vladimir Putin directly addressed another mythical story, that of the so-called Russian threat and Russian aggression , at the recent Valdai forum in Sochi from October 24-27, 2016: “There is another mechanism to ensure the transatlantic security, European security, the OC security and their attempt at turning this organization (NATO) into an instrument of someone’s political interests. So what the OC is doing is simply void. Mythical threats are devised like the so-called Russian military threat. Certainly this can be (used to) gain some advantage, get new budgets, make your allies comply with your demands, make NATO deploy the equipment and troops closer to our border … Russia is not trying to attack anyone. That would be ridiculous … The population of Europe is 300 million … and the population of the US is 300 million, while the population of Russia is 140 million, yet such menaces are served as a pretext. Hysteria has been fueled in the US with regard to Russia’s alleged influence with the current presidential election. Is there anyone who seriously thinks that Russia can influence the choice of the American people? Is the US a banana republic? The US is a great power. If I’m wrong please correct me.” Here’s what he had to say about who the real aggressor is when it comes to the US and Russia: “Is it known to you that Russia, in the 90s, completely halted (as did the USSR) any strategic aviation in the further afield regions of patrol, i.e. not in the closer abroad. We halted such activity completely. US geostrategic aviation however, with nuclear weapons on board. They continued to encircle us! What for? Who are you concerned about? Or why are you threatening us? We continued with the non-patrol year after year. It is only since about 3 years ago that we restarted aviation patrol further abroad. Which party is the provocateur here? Is it us? We have only 2 military bases abroad. They are known areas of terrorism dangers … US bases on the other hand are all over the world. And you are telling me that I am the aggressor? Have you any common sense? What are US forces doing in Europe, including nuclear weaponry? What business have they got there? Listen to me. Our military budget, while increased slightly from last year, in the dollar equivalent, is about US$50 billion. The military budget of the Pentagon is almost 10 times that amount. $575 billion, I think Congress singed off on. And you’re telling me I’m the aggressor here? Have you no common sense at all? Is it us putting our forces on the border of the US? Or other states? Is it NATo, or who, that is moving their bases closer to us? Military infrastructure! It’s not us. Does anyone even listen to us? Or try to have some kind of dialogue with us? The repeated answer we get is ‘mind your own business’ and ‘each country can choose its own security measures’. Very well, so will we … And finally, on the antiballistic missile defense system, who was it that exited from the treaty which was vital to the entire system of international security? Was it us? No. It was the States. In a one-sided way, they simply withdrew from the treaty. Now they are threatening us, turning their missiles towards us, not only from Alaska, but also from Europe too … We want to develop normal relations in the sphere of security, in the fight against terrorism, in the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. We want to work together with you … so long as you want that too.” US Repeatedly Broke Its Promises to Russia and Destroyed Trust The Western MSM is so one-sided in its coverage of geopolitical events like Ukraine and Syria. Anyone not toeing the line with US-UK-NATO interests is painted in a bad light. In point of fact, it has actually been the US who has been breaking agreements with Russia since the end of the Cold War. US leaders lied to Russian leaders at the time, by promising that NATO would not extend any further eastward, and possibly even hinting that Russia could join NATO. As Eric Zuesse explains in his article America Trashes NATO Founding Act; Rushes Weapons to Russia’s Borders : “The NATO Founding Act was agreed to between the US and Russia in 1997 in order to provide to Russia’s leader Boris Yeltsin some modicum of assurance that America wouldn’t invade his country. When his predecessor Mikhail Gorbachev had ended the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1991, the representatives of US President GHW Bush told him that NATO wouldn’t move «one inch to the east» (toward Russia), but as soon as Gorbachev committed himself to end the Cold War, Bush told his agents, regarding what they had all promised to Gorbachev (Bush’s promise which had been conveyed through them), «To hell with that! We prevailed, they didn’t». In other words: Bush’s prior instructions to them were merely his lies to Gorbachev, his lies to say that the US wouldn’t try to conquer Russia (move its forces eastward to Russia’s borders); but, now, since Gorbachev was committed and had already agreed that East Germany was to be reunited with and an extension of West Germany (and the process for doing that had begun), Bush pulled that rug of lies out from under the end of the Cold War …” Bill Clinton carried on the great American legacy of exceptionalism (that is, excepting themselves from obeying international law) spearheaded by Daddy Bush of surrounding and dominating Russia by allowing NATO into the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Russia got shafted by trusting the US numerous times after the fall of the Soviet Union. Here’s Vladimir Putin once again on America’s broken promises (in April 2016): “In the early 2000s, we agreed with the Americans to destroy weapons-grade plutonium, on both sides. We were talking about the excessive amounts that were manufactured by both the US and Russia. This is the enriched uranium from which nuclear weapons are made. 34000 tonnes, from both sides. We signed an agreement, and decided that this material would be destroyed in a specific manner. It would be destroyed in an industrial way – for which special plants needed to be built. We fulfilled our obligations – we built the necessary plant. Our American partners did not. Moreover, recently they announced that rather than destroy the enriched material in the manner that we agreed, and signed an international agreement on, that they would dilute it and store it in a holding capacity. This means they retain the potential to bring it back … Surely our American partners must understand that, jokes are one thing, such as creating smear campaigns against Russia, but questions of nuclear security are another thing entirely … they must learn to fulfill their promises. They once said they would close down Guantanamo. And? Is it closed? No.” Incidentally, this is the exact same plutonium agreement which made the news last month, when as reported on October 3rd, 216, Russia suspended their deal with the US on disposal of plutonium from decommissioned nuclear warheads. A decree signed by Vladimir Putin lists “ the radical change in the environment, a threat to strategic stability posed by the hostile actions of the US against Russia, and the inability of the US to deliver on the obligation to dispose of excessive weapons plutonium under international treaties, as well as the need to take swift action to defend Russian security” as the reasons for why Russia chose to suspend the deal. Conclusion: Wake up and Smell the Russophobia Expect Vladimir Putin and Russia to keep being demonized by the Clintons – and more importantly the NWO manipulators who so desperately want them in power. Although the Clintons are a powerful modern American mafia family, replete with a long body count behind them, it’s important to remember they are lackeys for far greater and more pervasive powers (check out some of Hillary’s lovey-dovey letters to Lynn Forester de Rothschild here ). There’s a lot at stake here. Right now, Vladimir Putin and Russia are being used with the sole purpose of getting Clinton elected. Although Putin is not perfect and has his own dark side, he deserves respect for standing his ground and refusing to become another US puppet. If we are to believe his own words, he has no qualm with Americans or even America itself, but rather the selfish, imperialistic and murderous agenda of the NWO agents running the USA: “We have a great deal of respect and love for the United States, and especially for the American people … [however] the expansion of jurisdiction by one nation beyond the territory of its borders, to the rest of the world, is unacceptable and destructive for international relations.” It’s up to the American public to switch off CNN (Clinton News Network) and all the other duplicitous MSM channels and get truly informed. Vladimir Putin is reaching out his hand to America, in the hope that enough Americans can reclaim their country and work together with other nations in peace. On the issue of Vladimir Putin and Russia, the MSM is not just one-sided, it’s outright lying. | 1real |
The Trump – Epstein Rape Lawsuit | Posted on November 3, 2016 by Michael Collins
Donald Trump’s post election experience may be as bad or worse than the nightmare he hopes to visit on Hillary Clinton, perhaps worse.
Jane Doe ( proceeding under a pseudonym ) filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump and convicted sex offender, Jeremy Epstein, for multiple acts of sexual and physical abuse, which occurred when the defendant was 13 years old. Specifically, the the plaintiff charged the defendants with:
“Rape, sexual misconduct, criminal sexual acts, sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, battery, intentional, and reckless inflection of emotional distress, duress, false imprisonment, and defamation.” Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein .
Judge Ronnie Abrams scheduled a December 16, 2016 pretrial conference to set a timeline for the case in the U.S District Court, Southern District in Manhattan.
The complaint argues for the use of Jane Doe rather than the plaintiff’s actual name: “This litigation involves matters that are highly sensitive and of a personal nature, and identification of Plaintiff would pose a risk of retaliatory physical harm to her and to others.”
The heart of Jane Doe’s complaint is summarized below:
“Plaintiff was enticed by promises of money and a modeling career to attend a series of parties, with other similarly situated minor females, held at a New York City residence that was being used by Defendant Jeffrey Epstein. …
“Defendant Trump initiated sexual contact with Plaintiff at four different parties. On the fourth and final sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted. Exhs. A and B.” Jane Doe v. Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein .
The complaint against Epstein describes behavior similar to that of Trump.
Epstein – a convicted sex offender
Palm Beach, Florida investigators produced a probable cause affidavit in 2006 that documented Jeffrey Epstein’s “unlawful sexual activity with” 4 minors and “lewd and lascivious molestation.” The crimes took place at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion where he entertained lavishly.
Epstein hired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershhowitz and former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr as his defense team. Even though FBI and other investigations accumulated a victim list of 40 underage girls in Florida , the case was settled in 2008 when Epstein pleaded guilty to one count of soliciting prostitution from underage girls. He was sentenced to 18 months, served 13, and had to register as a risk level 3-sex offender in New York (the highest level).
Trump – brags about close friendship with Epstein
Before Epstein’s legal problems, Trump did a 2002 interview in New York Magazine in which he described a long-term relationship with Epstein.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” New York Magazine
Trump had Epstein at a guest at his Florida mansion and Epstein had Trump as a guest as his estates in Florida and New York.
Will the case go forward if Trump wins the election?
If the case is not dismissed, the scheduling conference on the December 16 will outline various tasks and dates over the first few months of 2017, including the dates for the inauguration of the 45 th President of the United States. If that happens to be Donald Trump, there is nothing to prevent the trial from going forward. The Supreme Court decision in the Bill Clinton – Paula Jones case established the right of citizens to sue presidents in civil court for acts committed prior to taking office.
If the case moves forward, the evidence in the exhibits and subsequent information, the quality of representation at trial, and the judge and jury are the central factors that will determine if a sitting president or losing presidential candidate will do some serious time for the heinous crimes alleged. Unlike the original Epstein case, the visibility for this matter is so high, backroom deals for the rich and famous will be virtually impossible. | 1real |
French Political Leader: “France is about to Enter a Holy War with Islam” – “Embrace Christianity… Never Accept the Religion of Satan” | Posted on October 31, 2016 by Theodore Shoebat
A major political leader in France, Francois-Xavier Peron , has declared that France is about to enter into a devastating war against Islam , and its going to be extremely violent. His solution to prepare? Embrace the Christian Faith and never accept the antichrist masonic religion .
I did an interview with Mr. Peron about this coming war, and why the Christian Faith must be the religion of the world:
Courtesy of Freedom Outpost
Theodore Shoebat is the Communications Director for Rescue Christians , an organization that is on the ground in Muslim lands, rescuing Christians from persecution. He is the author of two book, For God or For Tyranny and In Satan’s Footsteps: The Source and Interconnections of all Evil , he also has a DVD series called “Christian Militancy,” which is on Christian warfare and our fight against evil and tyranny.
Article posted with permission from Shoebat.com Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 1real |
Numbskull Republican Ignores History, Says Reagan Would NEVER Negotiate With Iran | Republican Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) spoke with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins yesterday, on the radio show Washington Watch, where they discussed Obama s diplomatic victory in the peaceful release of Iranian prisoners.Perkins was very upset over the idea that we got Americans returned home by talking to Iran and using diplomacy. He suggested that America has hit a dangerously slippery slope in regards to Americans being held abroad in prisons, because the fact we did something to get our people home would only invite more and more demands in future incidents.Poe agreed that it was a very sad state of affairs for the nation. The price as he put it, that America had paid was simply too high. What price is acceptable, he didn t say. He only continued on to lament the fact that the days of Ronald Reagan and not negotiating with terrorists were gone from the country.Since he brought up Ronald Reagan and his policy of not negotiating with terrorists, let s take a closer look at that.During Reagan s second term, officials of his administration and very likely Reagan himself secretly and illegally sold weapons to Iran. Iran was under an arms embargo at the time because they were considered a terrorist state. The sale was done in order to bribe Iran to help facilitate the release of American hostages in Lebanon.The Republican revisionism and selective memory, when it comes to the legacy of Ronald Reagan is nothing short of amazing. The Iran-Contra scandal happened when practically every establishment Republican was alive and old enough to be able to watch the news or read the newspaper. It s like Germany insisting World War 2 never happened, and instead the entire nation was on vacation for 6 years.President Obama did everything right, getting our people home, not firing one bullet to do it, while not sending more weapons into the hands of those who can do us harm, and the first reaction from the right is to attack him for it.I m sure Republicans wish the prisoners were still being held so they had a political football, but can t they just try to repeal Obamacare again?[soundcloud url= https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/242909973 params= color=ff5500 width= 100% height= 166 iframe= true /]featured image via YouTube screen capture | 1real |
Hillary Clinton, FBI and the Real November Surprise : Information | Hillary Clinton, FBI and the Real November Surprise
By Pepe Escobar "As bad as it is the folks above the President make the decisions. They may have decided on Trump. These things do not happen by accident." " Sputnik " - Thus spoke a high-level US business mover and shaker with secure transit in rarified Masters of the Universe-related circles, amidst the utter political chaos provoked by head of the FBI James Comeys latest bombshell.
Its virtually established by now that US Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Comey not to release his letter to Congress. But Comey did it anyway. If he had not, and a scandal would inevitably spring up after the US presidential election, Lynch would be perfectly positioned to deny she knew anything, and Comey would be on the firing line.
Lynch is a certified Clinton machine asset. In 1999 then-President Bill Clinton appointed her to run the Brooklyn US Attorneys office. She left in 2002, taking the private practice revolving door. She was back to the Brooklyn office in 2010, urged by Obama. Five years later she became the 83rd US Attorney General, replacing the dodgy Eric Holder.
A plausible case has been made that Comey took his fateful decision based on a serious internal revolt at the FBI led by key people he trust as well as being egged-on by his wife.
Yet one of the key questions that refuse to go away is why the FBI waited until 11 days before the US presidential election to supposedly "find" an email trove on certified sexting pervert Anthony Weiners laptop.
A Deal With Donald?
The business source, although unsympathetic to the Clinton machine, especially in foreign policy, is a realpolitik practitioner, not a conspiracy theorist. He is adamant that, the FBI reversal could not have happened without orders above the President. If the Masters [of the Universe] have changed their mind, then they will destroy Hillary.
He adds, they can make a deal with Donald just like anyone else; Donald wins; the Masters win; the people think that their voice has been heard. And then there will be some sort of (controlled) change.
Whats paramount in the whole soap opera is the faith in the US political system as corrupt as it may be must endure. That mirrors the faith in the US dollar; if confidence in the US dollar fails, the US as a hegemonic financial power is no more.
The source is equally adamant that, it is almost unprecedented to see a cover-up as extensive as Hillarys. A secret meeting between Bill Clinton and the Attorney General; the FBI ignoring all evidence and initially clearing Hillary to near rebellion of the whole of the FBI, attested to by Rudolf Giuliani whose reputation as a federal prosecutor is unquestioned; the Clinton pay for play foundation. The Masters are troubled that this is getting out of hand.
The record shows that the Masters do not usually have to go to such lengths to protect their own. They did manage to save Bill Clinton from the Monica Lewinsky perjury and keep him in the presidency. The Masters were not attacked in this case. They even got away with the 1987 cash settlement crash and the theft surrounding the Lehman debacle. In all these cases there were no overarching challenges to their control, as we see now open to the public by Trump. They antagonized and insulted the wrong man.
All Aboard the Huma Train
Hillary Clinton is not at the center of Comeys jaw-dropping October Surprise; its actually her right-hand woman and ersatz daughter Huma Abedin. This early January essay on Huma Abedin contains plenty of nuggets out and about some of them positively eyebrow raising.
In case Hillary Clinton becomes the next President of the United States (POTUS), Abedin, alternatively known as Princess of Saudi Arabia, will most likely become Hillarys chief of staff the power behind running all White House operations.
A glimpse of the FBI-Huma Abedin connection is available here . Abedin was granted Top Secret security clearance for the first time in 2009, when Hillary named her deputy chief of staff for operations. Abedin later said she did not remember being read into any Special Access Programs (SAPs).
Its crucial to remember that one of Abedins emails was huma@clintonemail.com. Crucial translation: she was the only high-level State Dept. aide whose emails were hosted by the notorious Subterranean Clinton Email Server which she claimed she didnt know existed until she heard about it in the news.
Abedin swore under oath in a lawsuit brought against the State Dept. by Judicial Watch that she had handed over all of her laptops and smart phones that could host emails relevant to the Subterranean Email Server investigation.
That may not have been the case. The laptop at the center of Comeys bombshell was shared by Abedin and her husband Wiener before they split. If Abedin lied, she could face up to five years in jail for perjury. As if the whole illegal email-cum-sexting saga was not sordid enough, the climax now seems to have turned into a mixed wrestling match between the former couple, with the big prize being the slammer.
The FBI has finally obtained a warrant and is now frantically searching no less than 650,000 Abedin emails found on sexting freak Wieners laptop; the objective is to exactly determine which ones came from the Subterranean Email Server.
As if this was not demeaning enough, the FBI continues to conduct an investigation on the Clinton Foundation. As former Assistant Director of the FBI Tom Fuentes said , The FBI has an intensive investigation ongoing into the Clinton Foundation the investigation would go forward as a comprehensive unified case and be coordinated, so that investigation is ongoing and Huma Abedin and her role and activities concerning Secretary of State in the nature of the foundation and possible pay to play, thats still being looked at now.
Whatever happens until election day, US voters will have to consider the startling fact they may choose a next POTUS that is the subject of a wide-ranging comprehensive unified FBI investigation.
A Rotten, Rigged System?
A former federal public corruption prosecutor volunteers a plausible take on Comeys action. In a nutshell, FBI agents investigating Weiners sexting and they are a different set of agents investigating Emailgate saw evidence of State Dept emails on his laptop. Comey knew he needed a search warrant to comb the emails at Wieners computer. So he pre-empted the inevitable subsequent hype by sending out a vague letter to the Hill that in the end left everyone even more confused.
That interpretation though may be only scratching the surface. Deeper and deeper, it seems that Comeys decision was really precipitated by the senior FBI agents insurgence fed up with the extreme carelessness Hillary cover-up. Theyve got to have some surefire material on the Clinton (cash) machine that never saw the light.
Comey could have just waited to say something after the election; after all the FBI maintains they had checked all Clinton emails, including deleted ones, not to mention the Podesta emails. So the emails on sexting Wieners laptop may be no more than a limited hangout.
A much more plausible explanation is that Comey had to do it not only because of the FBI internal revolt (or because he had an urge to upstage WikiLeaks?) He had to do it because the rot goes way beyond the Clinton pay to play racket and involves virtually the whole system, from the deep recesses of the Obama administration to the War Party scam, the Department of Justice, the CIA and the FBI itself.
What next? Brace for impact; it may well be the ultimate November Surprise. | 1real |
Iran promises 'crushing' response if U.S. designates Guards a terrorist group | LONDON (Reuters) - Iran promised on Monday to give a crushing response if the United States designated its elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group. The pledge came a week before President Donald Trump announces a final decision on how he wants to contain the Islamic Republic. He is expected on Oct. 15 to decertify a landmark 2015 international deal to curb Iran s nuclear program, a step that by itself stops short of pulling out of the agreement but gives Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions. Trump is also expected to designate Iran s most powerful security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, as he rolls out a broader, more hawkish U.S. strategy on Iran. We are hopeful that the United States does not make this strategic mistake, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. If they do, Iran s reaction would be firm, decisive and crushing and the United States should bear all its consequences, he told a news conference reported by IRNA. Individuals and entities associated with the IRGC are already on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, but the organization as a whole is not. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Sunday, If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world. Jafari also said that additional sanctions would end chances for future dialogue with the United States and that the Americans would have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000 km (1,250 mile) range of IRGC s missiles. U.S. sanctions on the IRGC could affect conflicts in Iraq and Syria, where Tehran and Washington both support warring parties that oppose the Islamic State militant group (IS). France said on Monday it was worried that classifying the IRGC as a terrorist group could exacerbate tensions in the region. Germany said it was worried Trump would decide Iran is not respecting the nuclear deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, and fears such a step will worsen insecurity in the Middle East. A U.S. pullout could unravel an accord seen by supporters as vital to preventing a Middle East arms race and tamping down regional tensions, since it limits Iran s ability to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel in exchange for the lifting of sanctions that damaged its oil-based economy. The U.N. nuclear watchdog s inspectors have repeatedly declared Iran in compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal. Trump called Iran a corrupt dictatorship during his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly and said the nuclear deal was the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into . The other five world powers in the deal were Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. The prospect of the United States reneging on the agreement has worried other partners that helped negotiate it. The Kremlin said that any U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal would have negative consequences. British Prime Minister Theresa May, who supports the nuclear pact, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes it, agreed in a phone call on Monday that they need to be clear-eyed about the threat Iran poses to the Middle East. They agreed that ... the international community should continue working together to push back against Iran s destabilizing regional activity, May s spokesman said. Despite the nuclear deal, Washington still maintains its own more limited sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and over accusations Tehran supports terrorism. Iran says it is developing missiles solely for defensive purposes and denies involvement in terrorism. The Trump administration aims to put more pressure on the IRGC, especially over recent missile tests and what Washington has called its malign activities across the Middle East. The U.S. government imposed sanctions in July on 18 entities and people for supporting the IRGC in developing drones and military equipment. In August, Congress overwhelmingly approved the Countering America s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act which imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program, as well as sanctions on Russia and North Korea. In an interview aired on Saturday night, Trump accused Iran of funding North Korea and doing things with North Korea that are totally inappropriate . Qasemi, Iran s foreign ministry spokesman, said the U.S. accusations were baseless . He added, Israel and some specific countries are raising these accusations to create Iranophobia. | 0fake |
BREAKING: SOMALIAN MAN TAKES HOSTAGE…Shots Fired In Walmart Located In Texas City Overrun By Middle Eastern Refugees…UPDATE: Suspect Shot and Killed [VIDEO] | Amarillo, Texas is home to more than 1,000 Mideast migrants giving Amarillo the highest refugee ratio in the country.UPDATE: Suspect has been shot and killed by APD:Watch here:Police and firefighters are at the scene of a reported active shooter situation at a Walmart store in Amarillo, Texas, the city says. APD and several other agencies are on scene at the Walmart on Georgia, police said in a press release. There are reports of an armed subject inside who may have hostages. More info when it s available. Please avoid the area so that officers can focus on the scene and not traffic. Any media is asked to respond to the area of 42nd and Georgia. The shooting was first reported at about 11:10 a.m. local time. The initial call was for a suspect who was actively shooting inside the store, according to police radio dispatches, which you can listen to below.He was said to be a Somalian man wearing khaki pants, KFDA-TV reports.The gunman has barricaded himself inside the manager s office, police said. It is not known how many hostages are being held or if anyone was wounded before the hostage situation began.This is a developing story, check back for updates.Via: Heavy.com | 1real |
Kellyanne Conway Says All Intel On Russia Must Be Kept Secret To ‘Protect The Public’ (VIDEO) | Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump s adviser, says that all information about Russia s interference in the U.S. presidential election and the president-elect s Russian ties should be kept secret. Not because Trump has something to hide, but to protect the public. Conway appeared on Fox and Friends Sunday morning and when she was asked about FBI Director James Comey, she spun the conversation around to whine that classified information should not be handed out to the public. In other words, she s upset the world found out about Trump s Russian pee pee party. I m always disappointed how public and sometimes political some of these figures can seem to be, Conway said. I m very concerned, very concerned. You realize it is the Trump team, only us at this time, that is not divulging what occurred in a classified briefing. Ladies and gentlemen, she continued. It s called a classified briefing for a reason. You had the vice president of the United States making a comment about it the other day. You have intelligence officials confirming or denying. This classified information, it s top secret. Why is it top secret? It s not top secret to keep it from the public, but to protect the public. That s right folks, you shouldn t know anything about Trump s Russian escapades. The American people should be kept totally in the dark about the foreign government meddling in the highest levels of our democracy. And it s for your own good, dammit!Conway then added that Trump is going to do all the things he promised to do, including building his stupid wall and snatching health care away from millions of Americans.Watch Conway insist we should keep Trump s pee party top secret to protect the public, here: Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Kentucky Democrat’s Brilliant Bill Would Require Men To Obtain Note From Wives To Get Viagra | In response to her male GOP colleague s insistence that women s reproductive decisions be ridiculously regulated, a female Kentucky lawmaker is fighting back.Democratic state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian is sick and tired of Republicans attacking abortion rights in her state and she isn t taking it anymore. So she introduced Bill 396, which would require men to seek permission slips from their wives and present the note to their doctor in order to get access to Viagra, a little blue pill that gives men boners.And that s not all. In addition to the note, men must also put their hand on a Bible at the doctor s office and swear an oath that they are married and are only using the Viagra so they can have sex only with their wives. That means family values conservative lawmakers would have to promise the Lord that they want to have sex with their wives and not that pretty intern they ve been perving on for weeks.Sorry, Republicans. Not kidding. The bill literally requires a man to make a sworn statement with his hand on a Bible that he will only use a prescription for a drug for erectile dysfunction when having sexual relations with his current spouse. I want to protect these men from themselves, Marzian told the Courier-Journal about the legislation. This is about family values. She knows what she is talking about, too. Marzian is a trained nurse so if she says this is about protecting men s health, then it must be taken seriously.Of course, Republicans will never take this kind of legislation seriously until a women-dominated legislature is in place ready to show men what it feels like to have their bodies and privacy attacked.This isn t the first time a female lawmaker has fought fire with fire. Many have introduced the same kind of bill in states across the country, including Ohio state Senator Nina Turner back in 2012. Her bill would have required men to visit a sex therapist, undergo a cardiac stress test, and get their sexual partner to sign a notarized affidavit confirming impotency in order to get a prescription for Viagra.And like Turner s bill, Marzian s bill is a direct response to an extreme anti-abortion bill. Senate Bill 4, which Kentucky Republicans actually passed, forces women to obtain informed consent from a counselor 24 hours prior to getting an abortion. Do we really want a bunch or legislators interfering in private, personal, medical decisions? Marzian asked.Only male lawmakers do apparently, as long as the interference is in the private, personal, and medical decisions of women and not men.Featured Image: Tim Reckmann/Wikimedia | 1real |
Jeb Bush Kicks Off GOP Convention By Going Full #NeverTrump | The Republican National Convention starts this coming Monday, and things are not looking good for the GOP s biggest event for the next four years. The problem, of course, is their standard-bearer, Donald Trump. Many prominent Republicans are staying as far away from the convention as possible, they are still about $6 million short of actually paying for the whole thing, and to top it all off, it seems that RNC Chair Reince Priebus still can t get the #NeverTrump delegates to fall in line behind Trump. Now, former presidential candidate Jeb Bush has become the latest to go on record saying that he is most definitely #NeverTrump.On Friday, Bush took his anti-Trump sentiments to the Washington Post, where he said that Trump had tapped into anger and frustration in Americans: They have given rise to the success of a candidate who continues to grotesquely manipulate the deeply felt anger of many Americans. Trump s abrasive, Know Nothing-like nativist rhetoric has blocked out sober discourse about how to tackle America s big challenges. Bush then continued to slam Trump throughout the article, and cautioned fellow Republican politicians about the tone of Trump s campaign and the stain he was putting upon the party. He then went on to beg them to reintroduce civility, ideas and optimism back into politics. Let s find ways to campaign and govern inclusively. Let s find ways to ease the angst and fear of people, without cynically feeding it. He then went on to say that he would not be voting for either Trump or Clinton, but might go for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson: I haven t decided how I ll vote in November whether I ll support the Libertarian ticket or write in a candidate but I do know there are a lot of things Republicans can do in the coming months to lay the groundwork for rebuilding our party and the foundation for a true conservative renewal in our country. The only sort-of compliment Bush had for Trump was his choice to choose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for the #2 spot on the GOP ticket, and it came via Twitter:Mike Pence is a good man. He will add value to the ticket. Jeb Bush (@JebBush) July 16, 2016Well, that s something I guess. At the end of the day, good on Jeb Bush and the other #NeverTrump Republicans. We don t agree on much, but we do agree that Donald Trump is dangerously unfit to be president of the United States.Featured image via Michael Vadon/Wikimedia | 1real |
Trump: The First President to Turn Postmodernism Against Itself | Liberals still don t get it. Trump is the political Anti-Hero for the post pc era. Original painting artwork courtesy of Jason Liosatos.David Ernst The FederalistIf politics flows downwards from culture, then it was only a matter of time before a politician mastered the role. Love him or hate him, Donald Trump cracked that code.Tony Soprano, Walter White, and Frank Underwood are just a few recent examples of the enormously popular characters who have, each in their own way, stood in for the role of the complicated bad guy who fascinates millions of Americans.Antiheroes have long found homes in Westerns, gangster movies, and crime dramas, such as Al Pacino s portrayal of Miami drug kingpin Tony Montana in Scarface. Tony begins an epic decline and fall in the film with a nasty fight with his wife at an exclusive Miami country club. She publically humiliates him in front of a bunch of dumbstruck, WASPy, black-tie wearing, golf-playing white hairs by loudly accusing him of being a murderer, a drug dealer, and incapable of being a decent father.If Tony were a classic hero, this would have been the beginning of his moral reckoning and his search for repentance. But this is Scarface, and Tony is no hero, so he responds to his public exposure as a criminal in polite society by turning the mirror back on his audience and dressing them down: What you lookin at? You all a bunch of f in a holes. You know why? You don t have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f in fingers and say, That s the bad guy. So what that make you? Good? You re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don t have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Al Pacino plays Tony Montana in Scarface.A criminal s longing to be accepted by rich people who aren t criminals themselves isn t a new theme. Nevertheless, considering that Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay, Tony s rant is likely commentary about the hypocrisy of supposedly respectable people in cutthroat, capitalistic, Reagan-era America who are substantively no different than Tony is. All these well-to-do Miami types wouldn t be caught dead associating with someone like Tony, even though they know full well that the cocaine business is making them all rich, and many of them probably abuse his product.Thus, from Tony s perspective, what s the point of being decent when the people who supposedly model decency have none of it themselves? Wouldn t a sign of moral contrition to these people be a perverted mockery of moral contrition? Wouldn t it be degrading even for Tony?Tony isn t a hero or a villain: he s an antihero. You probably won t admit to rooting for him, but if you enjoyed watching him stick it to those (presumably) stuck-up hypocrites, then it s likely that you did. He s everything his wife said he was, sure, but at least he has the balls to be honest about it.Donald Trump, the Political AntiheroTrump replicated this scene in his inaugural address Friday, a declaration of war against the establishment whose victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. He acted similarly in a jaw-dropping performance at the Al Smith Dinner just days before his election. With every hiss-inducing joke at Hillary Clinton s expense was an unsubtle middle finger to everyone else in attendance. Consider his opening remarks: And a special hello to all of you in this room who have known and loved me for many, many years. It s true. The politicians. They ve had me to their homes. They ve introduced me to their children. I ve become their best friends in many instances. They ve asked for my endorsement and they ve always wanted my money. And even called me really a dear, dear friend. But then suddenly, decided when I ran for president as a Republican, that I ve always been a no-good, rotten, disgusting scoundrel. And they totally forgot about me. In other words: even if I have been a no-good, rotten, disgusting scoundrel, what does that make you? At least I don t pretend to be decent; you people, on the other hand, have the gall to pretend that you re any better than I am. Let s dispense with the fiction that you would have treated me with any less contempt if I had bothered to live up to any of your standards of decency in the first place, and acknowledge that they have nothing to do with decency per se, and everything to do with power. Your presumption of any moral superiority is a willful, bald-faced lie, and I m going to keep calling you on that crap until it puts me in the White House.Many have argued that Trump is the product of political correctness (PC). This is true only in part. Rather, both PC and Trump s response to it are fruits of the postmodernism that has long ascended to the heights of our culture: the nihilism in the common presumption that all truth is relative, morality is subjective, and therefore all of our individually preferred narratives that give our lives meaning are equally true and worthy of validation. Tony tellingly lectures his audience, I always tell the truth, even when I lie. His character was a man ahead of his time.Postmodernism: Trying to Do Good Is a Waste of TimePostmodernism is the source of the emphasis that our culture puts on authenticity, and the scorn it directs towards phoniness. After all, if the only one true thing in the world is that all truth and morality are relative, then anyone who pretends otherwise is either an idiot or a fraud. Hence the contemporary appeal of the antihero, and the disappearance of the traditional hero.Heroes who stand for traditionally good things in a world where everything supposedly good has long been discredited are corny Dudley Do-Rights who are at best too stupid to know better. Antiheroes, by contrast, ingratiate themselves with their audiences for their gritty realism and their candor, no matter how bad they are.Frank Underwood breaks the fourth wall with his viewers and brings them along for his evil schemes; Walter White s moment of redemption is his final admission to his wife that he sells meth because he likes to, and not to do right by his family; and Tony Soprano establishes a close bond with his daughter early on when he admits to her that he s not actually a waste management consultant. In the postmodern world, there is no greater virtue then authenticity, and there is no greater vice then phoniness.Postmodernism is also the source of the assumptions underlying the glib jokes of late-night comedians who exhibit disdainful prejudice towards patriotism or religion, but show bitter judgment towards any form of perceived prejudice. It is the baseline for just about every plotline in funny shows about aimless, self-centered people like Seinfeld, It s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Archer. It is hyper-prejudice against prejudice, or in the words of Evan Sayet, a cult of non-discrimination. In contrast to the many religions, systems of moral thought, and other ancient traditions that have distinguished every effort to better the human condition, postmodernism presumes that all of these endeavors are the cause of human failure. It therefore operates according to just one moral imperative: discredit anything that other people presume to stand for goodness, because the belief that anything is superior to anything else inevitably results in prejudice, interpersonal strife, and inequality.Thus, the Venus de Milo has no more aesthetic value than a crucifix in a jar full of urine; Beethoven s symphonies are no more profound than the latest round of top 40 hits; all religions are fundamentally the same, and their moderate postmodern adherents are all comfortably represented on the Coexist bumper sticker. In a sense, it isn t culture at all, but rather an anti-culture that measures success insofar as it deconstructs anything that other people value.Postmodernism Merely Hides Its Hypocritical IdealismProvided that the postmodern man believes in nothing and values nothing, one wouldn t be unreasonable in concluding that he cares about nothing. But anyone who knows postmodern man also knows that nothing could be farther from the truth. Rather, the cult of non-discrimination is filled with bright-eyed idealism about making the world a better place, and in the cases where it challenges baseless prejudice, it does make the world a better place. Like other utopian visions that seek to remake human beings into something alien to their nature, however, it is incapable of compromise, and thus lends itself to hypocrisy and fanaticism Continue this article at The FederalistREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Cohn: Trump Becoming "Smarter,’ ’More Knowledgeable’ on Climate Change - Breitbart | White House economic advisor Gary Cohn made the curious comment in Sicily on Friday that President Donald Trump’s views on climate change were “evolving. ”[It was not clear exactly what that meant. “Evolution” could mean moving towards the alarmist consensus of the left — or it could also mean toward a skeptical view, one more carefully informed by scientific and economic reality. In political terms, “evolving” is usually a term used by the left, a euphemism to describe when a politician has changed his or her position. Its most significant use was in regards to President Barack Obama’s views on gay marriage, which were said to have “evolved” from outright Christian opposition to liberal embrace. Like the term “progressive,” the term “evolution” implies an improvement in moral and intellectual terms, from prejudice and ignorance to reason and enlightenment. The left, presuming that its own views are superior, and that the “long arc of history” bends in its direction, expects people to “evolve” in its direction. What was stranger were Cohn’s words explaining how Trump is said to be evolving. The president, he said, was becoming “smarter” and becoming “more knowledgeable” about the issue. Again, that could mean Trump is growing skeptical of the alarmist, view around which our public debate on climate change revolves. (In obtaining a degree in environmental science and public policy from Harvard, for instance, I became more knowledgeable about the problems in modeling climate — problems that have not improved much since then, despite the radical advances in computer technology and data analysis.) It is also possible that Cohn was shaping his assessment of the president’s views to flatter his largely European audience, which believes in climate change the way people on other continents believe in religion. That flattery may have been appropriate, for diplomatic reasons. What defies explanation is why he would imply that his boss had previously been less “smart” about the issue, or less well informed. It is the kind of comment that tends to reinforce the false narrative the media spins about every single Republican president — i. e. that he is stupid. It is also a comment that carries considerable political risk. Conservatives resent being told, usually by leftists, that their generally skeptical views on climate change are poorly informed, or “denialist. ” Often, the leftists making such accusations cannot actually explain themselves how climate change is presumed to take place, and never consider a view other than their own. For now, conservatives continue to hold out hope that the president “evolves” the U. S. out of the Paris climate agreement and toward a more sensible policy that uses innovation in energy technology to harness domestic resources of all kinds, and grow the U. S. economy while reducing emissions. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0fake |
Parts Are Greater Than the Sum of the Chicken at Torishin - The New York Times | Consider the chicken. Consider each part of the chicken. Consider eating each part of the chicken, one after another, grilled over charcoal at a yakitori restaurant called Torishin. Dark neck meat first, gathered in a ruffle around a bamboo skewer. When stuck to its long root of bone, the neck is picky business to eat, but it is full of flavor when it is pared away and the outer bits are singed over charcoal and the fat starts to spill over the rest. Now the tenderloin. Many tenderloins come to an ignominious end as “tenders,” encased in bread crumbs in the fingers of a toddler. But grilled lightly, so they firm up without scorching, they run with delicate pink juices. Livers, of course, are seared very fast so they don’t get leathery. The rich, red insides are as soft as yogurt. They take well to a few grains of ground sansho pepper, enough to spark a slow buzz on the tongue. So do the hearts, done like steak. On the bird’s back, above the tail feathers, are the oysters. At Torishin they go under their French name, ’ — “a fool leaves it. ” They are grilled with their skin, which puckers and hisses and goes from creamy blue to gold. For all I know the first yakitori chefs in Japan had nothing but efficiency in mind when they speared each anatomical bit on its own skewer. livers can be pulled from the grill to make space, while other pieces take their time. In the hands of the attentive chefs at Torishin, this technique produces something beyond convenience. Cooked separately, each part has a different pleasure to offer. Some you chew, and some you crackle. Some have cerebral appeal, others call to instinct. The house style is sensitive to timing, averse to charring and careful with seasoning. The chicken is salted, brushed with a sauce called tare, which is less sweet at Torishin than at some other yakitori specialists, and grilled about an inch above sticks of binchotan, a Japanese charcoal. The cooks wave bamboo fans at the fire when it needs a boost. Sitting on the tables and counters are vaguely humanoid gourds filled with sansho and the spice blend shichimi, as well as pitchers of soy sauce. “Which skewers are good with soy?” I asked Atsushi Kono, the chef, one night when he was tending the coals. His head bobbed noncommittally before he said, “It’s there for people who think they want it. ” Right, then. No soy. With minimalist cooking, the distance between dull and delicious can sometimes be measured in grains of salt. This became clear during my only meal at Torishin’s original location, on First Avenue in the 60s. There were many skewers. None of them seemed to have been seasoned. Even the pickled cucumbers and daikon that showed up at the start of the meal seemed to be under orders not to draw any attention to themselves. I knew that some people revered the restaurant, so I just figured that it fell into one of my blind spots. When Torishin moved to its current address in Hell’s Kitchen in 2015, I did not exactly rush over on my hoverboard. In fact, I didn’t make it there until last fall, a delay I regretted as soon as I had unskewered my first lump of chicken. Whatever had been missing from the chicken before was there, and it’s been there each time I’ve gone back. (I still think the pickles need more pep, though.) To the left as you enter is a small bar. The bartenders spend the quiet hours whittling big ice cubes into spheres, with knives. These rough globes are plopped into tumblers of shochu, and if you want to learn about this distilled spirit, Torishin is a fine place to start. The sake list is compact but varied. The few wines come from big, obvious names. At the end of a winding corridor is a dining room. The mezzanine might be the spot for privacy. The lower space is more active, with seating at tables or around a counter that hugs the open kitchen and a grill, the depth of a single skewer. If you know your favorite bird bits, ordering à la carte is simple enough. The menu is helpfully illustrated, from neck to tail. All but one of the skewers is under $10, and the package of seven chicken skewers plus three vegetables is a good deal at $65. But Torishin always puts me in the mood for surprises, so I like to ask for an omakase menu. The grill cooks serve up a mix of vegetables (the mushrooms are a particular treat, and I don’t think it’s possible to grill zucchini better than Torishin does) white meat (the piece wrapped in a shiso leaf and dabbed with salty plum paste is a nearly perfect bite) dark meat (chicken legs can be subdivided in more ways than you might think) and curiosities called “special skewers. ” This is where you will find the oysters, the kidneys, the nugget of meat from the base of the wing, the wrinkly and fatty neck skin, the smooth and supple belly skin. Most of the surprises have been positive, like “knee gristle. ” What about “main artery”? The nicest thing I can honestly say about this blood vessel, which ties the heart to some other vital organ, is that it is, in fact, edible. If hunger still calls after you have stripped all the bamboo sticks and left them standing in the ceramic cup in front of you, there is an excellent remedy in the form of . A homey dish of chicken and egg over white rice, can be filling or it can be almost ethereal, as it is at Torishin. To one side of the passage from bar to dining room is a narrow nook behind curtains. Inside is an bar, called the Select Counter, where Mr. Kono presides over extended menus that borrow from the kaiseki tradition. One recent meal began with a tiny simmered octopus with peppery sansho leaves. Sashimi followed. Chicken breast was steamed in cherry leaves and served with cucumber wheels and fresh shoots of spring ginger the flavor was lovely and transient, one of those Japanese miracles of putting the mood of a season on the plate. The $150 menu came with a complete fusillade of skewers as well as a choice of grilled luxury items: either Kumamoto beef (not as meltingly rich as it could have been) or king crab leg (smeared with some funky stuff from inside the crab’s head, and completely delicious). If Mr. Kono had kept cooking all night, I would have been happy, but to experience Torishin you don’t need to spend $150 and a couple of hours. Just a few skewers are enough to expand your sense of what’s possible in the department of chicken. Follow NYT Food on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. | 0fake |
Trump, without evidence, says illegal voting cost him U.S. popular vote | PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that he won the popular vote in the Nov. 8 election “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”, though he provided no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The allegation by Trump, who won the required votes in the Electoral College to secure the presidency, comes as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote over Trump has surpassed 2.0 million votes and is expected to grow to more than 2.5 million as ballots in populous states such as California continue to be tallied. Clinton’s legal team said on Saturday it had agreed to participate in a recount of Wisconsin votes after the state’s election board approved the effort requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, which Trump has called “ridiculous.” “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” the Republican Trump tweeted as reporters waited for him to leave his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida to fly back to his residence in New York City. The U.S. presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, based on a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the national vote. Trump has surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The Electoral College results are expected to be finalized on Dec. 19. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. “It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited,” Trump added in follow-up tweets. Several hours later, Trump tweeted, again without citing evidence: “Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn’t the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!” Clinton won all three states. A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Before the election, Trump made unsubstantiated allegations that the results of the election might be “rigged” against him but several studies have found no evidence of widespread or significant voter fraud in the United States. Since the vote, his message has alternated between appealing for unity and railing against his opponents and the media. In a video message released ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Trump said he hoped it would be a time for Americans “to begin to heal our divisions” following a “long and bruising political campaign.” In a tweet on Saturday, Trump derided the fundraising effort by Stein to launch recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as a “scam” that is “is now being joined by the badly defeated and demoralized Dems.” Those states had voted Democratic in recent presidential elections but all voted narrowly in favor of the Republican Trump in this month’s election. The recounts are not expected to change the results of the election. Stein, who won about 1.0 percent of the national vote, has said she wants a recount to guarantee the integrity of the U.S. voting system, a push that came after some computer scientists and election lawyers raised the possibility that hacks could have affected the results. Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration has said there is no evidence of electoral tampering, but experts have said that the only way to verify the results are accurate is to conduct a recount. | 0fake |
New Zealand parties hold talks to form coalition government | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand s small nationalist party which holds the balance of power after an inconclusive election held talks on Sunday with Prime Minister Bill English and separately with the opposition Labour leader as both try to form a coalition government. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said he would only make a decision on which party to back after the results of the Sept. 23 election become official next Thursday. Peters remained tight-lipped after talks with the prime minister, saying the meeting was fine , and later met Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern. I can say that we ve had an excellent, productive meeting, Ardern told reporters after coming out of the two-hour meeting. Negotiations will continue for Labour with the parties that we are looking to form a stable, durable, coalition government with. Ardern has brought Labour within reach of forming government since becoming party leader in August, with a Labour-Green bloc winning 54 seats, two seats short of the ruling National s 56. New Zealand First holds the nine seats needed to meet the 61 seat majority in parliament. A final vote count on Saturday showed National lost some ground to the Labour-Green bloc from a preliminary tally, even though it still held the largest number of seats in parliament. It did pay to wait, didn t it?, Peters said, referring to the final vote count. Peters has previously served in both National and Labour governments. English said on Saturday that negotiations would now likely focus on the economy. Both Labour and New Zealand First have said they want to curb immigration, renegotiate certain trade deals and adjust the role of the central bank albeit in different ways. Analysts expected the political uncertainty to have little impact on financial markets and the New Zealand dollar. I think on Monday the market is going to be a little bit subdued because basically nothing has changed, said Stuart Ive, private client manager at OM Financial. You could say that the policies are probably more aligned to a Labour-Green-NZ First partnership but a three-way coalition is a lot harder to manage than a two-way coalition. | 0fake |
Celebs Love to Share Their Political Views - But Here Are the A-Listers Who Have Refused to Speak Out This Election | Share on Twitter
With less than two weeks before the big faceoff between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, celebrities haven't been shy about voicing their support for their chosen candidate.
Katy Perry, Amy Schumer, and Justin Timberlake have been actively campaigning for Clinton while Stacey Dash, Kid Rock, and Sarah Palin have been putting in the hours for Trump.
Other big-name celebs, however, have decided to stay mum.
According to Esquire , there might be quite a few more than you'd think. Take a look: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Image Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images
The Rock has been in countless films and can boast over 67 million followers on social media.
While he has come out saying that he may run for office one day, Johnson has not publically announced who he'll be voting for in November. Chris Pratt Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Chris Pratt has been killing the box office over the past few years with films like “Jurassic World” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but he hasn't voiced support for either Trump or Clinton so far.
Pratt is a noted conservative and supporter of the nd Amendment, though. Taylor Swift Image Credit: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
Taylor Swift is perhaps one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
Swift has avoided politics at all costs, despite having over 156 million followers across numerous social media platforms. Garth Brooks Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for ASCAP
Garth Brooks hasn't been afraid to speak out about politics in the past. He expressed his support for President Obama back in 2012, but this year, the country singer has been quiet.
At one point in his life, Brooks was a registered Republican. Carrie Underwood Image Credit: Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images
Country singer Carrie Underwood is a devout Christian , and has mostly abstained from showing her political side in public.
At one point, she did perform at an event honoring former President George W. Bush, but she's also a vegan, an animal rights activist and supporter of gay marriage.
But it's safe to say she won't be endorsing a candidate this year, based on this 2008 interview :
“There is someone I do support, but I don’t support publicly. I lose all respect for celebrities when they back a candidate.” Mark Wahlberg Image Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Mark Wahlberg has managed to stay away from politics for most of his career, although he has golfed with Donald Trump in the past.
The “Deepwater Horizon” star has refused to say whom he's voting for on many occasions, although he was a big supporter of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 . Bruno Mars Image Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Bruno Mars, whose real name is Peter Gene Hernandez, is a mystery, both politically and spiritually. Although he wears a cross around his neck, he's never professed to which faith he belongs. There is very little information about his political beliefs, as well.
Mars seems to be focused on his music rather than preaching politics or religion to his many fans. Miranda Lambert Image Credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images
Lambert doesn't talk politics, but she isn't afraid to show her love for firearms.
While she hasn't endorsed anyone for president in 2016, Lambert is a professed Christian and a “lifetime member of the NRA,” so she is probably leaning to the right.
Her ex-husband, Blake Shelton, holds some very similar values... Blake Shelton Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Stagecoach
Blake Shelton might have had some kind words to say about Trump this year, but that doesn't mean he's endorsed him.
In fact, he's tweeted about it : Hey before this gets going like it always does... I haven't enforced ANYBODY for president. And I not going to. I don't do that shit. — Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) July 28, 2016 Sean “P. Diddy” Combs Image Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Sean “P Diddy” Combs, formerly known as “Puff Daddy,” has said a lot about Donald Trump, but hasn't quite offered a full endorsement.
Combs believes Obama “ shortchanged ” black people and that Hillary Clinton needs to prove herself before she gets the black vote. Ronda Rousey Image Credit: Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images
MMA fighter Ronda Rousey initially showed her support for Bernie Sanders in 2015, but now she's without a candidate.
But she's also said that she will not vote for Clinton, so it's possible her support will go to a third party candidate this election. Kenny Chesney Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Country music star Kenny Chesney won't be voting for Donald Trump, that much is clear. According to Esquire , he doesn't like talking politics at all.
He did admit to voting for John McCain in the past, though. Tom Cruise Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Tom Cruise has become quite the enigma over the past decade. He is a dedicated Scientologist and very successful movie star, but his politics are very obscure.
He's donated thousands of dollars to the Democratic party, but has also appeared in commercials for Republican candidates... Cam Newton Image Credit: Rich Polk/Getty Images
Cam Newton has avoided taking political stances for much of his career in the NFL.
In a recent GQ article , Newton refused to comment on Trump other than saying Trump is an “unbelievable businessperson.” Danica Patrick Image Credit: C Flanigan/Getty Images
Danica Patrick is one of the few women in history who has been very successful in the dangerous world of motorsports. Her success is unparalleled, but don't go asking her about religious or political beliefs.
She told Fox Business earlier this year:
“I feel like religion and politics are the two things that you just stay away from.
I’m not going to comment about what I like or don’t like or what people say. But we live in America and it’s a free country and you can say whatever you want.” Phil Mickelson Image Credit: Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images
Phil Mickelson is one of the most successful golfers out there. He's made millions out on the links during his career and donated some of it to the Republican party in the past.
But he has been quiet during this election, opting to keep his opinion to himself.
With so little time left before the election, it's doubtful these megastars will break their silence. | 1real |
McCain on Trump: 'Foolish' to ignore will of GOP voters | (CNN) Sen. John McCain is chastising GOP leaders for failing to embrace Donald Trump as the choice of millions of voters, laying out his most extensive views to date about Trump at the top of the ticket. He's also repudiating some of the presumptive nominee's comments -- particularly about prisoners of war.
In a wide-ranging "State of the Union" interview in his campaign office in Phoenix, McCain criticized party leaders who are reluctant to back Trump, saying they are "out of step" with voters who have chosen the controversial businessman as the GOP standard-bearer. He defended Trump for being a strong and "capable" leader, particularly on foreign policy. He called on Trump to choose a running mate who could "unite the party," possibly Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, even as he strongly defended his 2008 choice of Sarah Palin.
But he also urged Trump to "retract" his criticisms of prisoners of war while blasting Trump's personal attacks during the primary campaign as off-putting.
"Frankly, I have never seen the personalization of a campaign like this one, where people's integrity and character are questioned," said McCain, the veteran senator of nearly 30 years and his party's 2008 presidential nominee. "It bothers me a lot. Because you can almost violently disagree with an issue, but to attack their character and their integrity -- then those wounds take a long time to heal."
Asked if Trump should continue calling Hillary Clinton "corrupt Hillary," McCain said: "Well, I wouldn't, but I'm not one to tell him how to campaign except on the part of uniting the party."
McCain, 79, said he'd back the nominee since GOP voters have had their say.
"You have to draw the conclusion that there is some distance, if not a disconnect, between party leaders and members of Congress and the many voters who have selected Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party," McCain said when asked about the comments by House Speaker Paul Ryan and his close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham, both of whom have so far refused to back Trump.
"You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party," McCain said. "I think it would be foolish to ignore them."
At the same time, McCain would not commit to appearing on the same campaign stage as Trump, a tacit acknowledgment of the balancing act the Arizona senator needs to perform as he faces re-election this fall. He needs to court Trump backers in a state that the candidate handily won during the primary season, while also reaching out to independents, Latinos and women voters -- many of whom view the real estate mogul unfavorably.
"A lot of things would have to happen," McCain said when asked if he would stump with his party's nominee. He said there'd have to be a condition first: "I think it's important for Donald Trump to express his appreciation for veterans, not John McCain, but veterans who were incarcerated as prisoners of war."
McCain was referring to Trump's jaw-dropping comment last year on POWs, when he said, "I like people that weren't captured."
"I'd like to see him retract that statement. Not about me, but about the others," said McCain, who was captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.
Asked if he'd like Trump to retract his statements that many undocumented Mexican immigrants are "rapists" and criminals, McCain was more circumspect.
"Oh, I don't know," McCain said. "I think that it's important that we understand the importance of the Hispanic vote in America. Many states -- in Arizona, more than 50% of the kids in school are Hispanic. After the 2012 election, as you know, we laid out a blueprint and part of it was outreach to the Hispanic community. I think we ought to recognize that the Republican Party has to do that."
Despite having a friendly relationship with Hillary Clinton when the two served together in the Senate, McCain was sharply critical of the likely Democratic nominee, saying she would run a feckless foreign policy in the mold of Barack Obama. Trump, he said, would provide a much stronger dose of American leadership around the world.
"Well, I think American leadership, he emphasizes that and I think that's important," McCain said when asked what specifically he likes about Trump's foreign policy platform. "This president doesn't want to lead. Hillary Clinton was secretary of state for four years -- tell me one accomplishment that she can point to besides she flew more miles than any other secretary of state in history."
As a leading defense hawk, McCain, the Senate Armed Services Chairman, said he wanted to use his influence to "steer" Trump and the party toward Ronald Reagan's view of national security.
Asked if he had confidence that Trump could be like Reagan, McCain said: "I think that he could be a capable leader. I don't think anybody is -- no one could compare to Ronald Reagan, because he was the right man at the right time."
Still, McCain is worried that Trump's toxicity among Latinos could hurt him in his tough re-election race, where he's expected to face Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in the fall campaign.
"There is a Hispanic vote, which I have to continue my good relationship with because of the turmoil that exists in the whole national campaign," McCain said, adding that every incumbent has to recognize the "great turmoil" that exists partly because of Trump's rhetoric and hardline immigration positions.
Asked if the Trump effect was "good or bad" for him in the fall, McCain said: "I don't think he affects it. I think that with 100% name ID people know me, but having said that, there is turmoil out there as we just discussed."
Given his long service on Capitol Hill, McCain knows full well that being an incumbent is a vulnerability with the approval rating of Congress at rock-bottom.
"Anybody in this environment that would take a re-election in stride or for granted does not have an appreciation for the tumult that's out there amongst the electorate, and I'm confident of victory but to take anything for granted would be foolish." | 0fake |
Media Self-Destruct over Trump | Posted on October 28, 2016 Media Self-Destruct over Trump Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, October 28, 2016 Their hysteria and dishonesty have backfired.
From the start of Donald Trump’s campaign, the media have covered him dishonestly. They have consistently portrayed him as a closet “white supremacist” who deliberately appeals to “racists.” They have tried to tie him to a wicked movement known as the “Alt-Right.” They are now working on another dishonest angle: that Donald Trump is “mainstreaming hate” and bringing “racism” into public discourse. The media clearly want to stampede voters into Mrs. Clinton’s camp so as to spare us the agony of a “racist” in the White House.
The demonization campaign has backfired. By trying to hang racial dissidents around Donald Trump’s neck, the media have given American Renaissance and other organizations far more publicity than ever before. At the same time, constant shouts of “racist” and “bigot” don’t seem to hurt Mr. Trump: instead they are wrecking what is left of media credibility. The biggest irony, though, is that Donald Trump is probably not one of us at all. But even small deviations from the cast-iron orthodoxy of race are enough to plunge our rulers into dark fantasies about Donald Trump as a secret David Duke fan.
Media dishonesty started immediately. When Mr. Trump pointed out that some immigrants from Mexico were criminals, the press acted as if he had said all Mexican immigrants are criminals. Then, when alert news hounds discovered that those of us they love to call “haters” and “white supremacists” liked Mr. Trump, there was no end of articles with titles such as: “ Meet the Horde of Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and Other Extremist Leaders Endorsing Donald Trump ,” “ Top Racists And Neo-Nazis Back Donald Trump ,” “ ‘Heil Donald Trump’: Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists Show Support ,” and “ The White Nationalists Who Support Donald Trump .”
These articles had a simpleminded purpose: discredit Mr. Trump by parading before the reader any Nazi, Kluxer, or racially conscious white person who had anything nice to say about the candidate. The implication was that if “racists” were going to vote for Donald Trump he must be “racist,” too.
This was deceitful and one-sided. When the chairman of the American Communist Party endorsed Hillary Clinton , no one suggested this meant she was a communist.
It is true that Mr. Trump gave the media just enough of an excuse to pretend he really is a closet “bigot” because he did not repudiate “racists” with the snorts of indignation respectability requires. There was the famous exchange in February when a reporter pushed Mr. Trump to disavow an endorsement from David Duke. As The Hill reported it: “ ‘David Duke endorsed me? OK, alright. I disavow, OK?’ Trump said, seeking to quickly move on to another question.”
That same month, there was another famous exchange with Jake Tapper of CNN :
Tapper : Will you unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don’t want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election?
Donald Trump : Well just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don’t know. I don’t know, did he endorse me, or what’s going on? Because, you know, I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists.
The media leaped on these exchanges with shouts of joy. “Trump refuses to disavow white supremacists! That’s because he is one!”
There are far better explanations. First, Donald Trump is a pugnacious man. He doesn’t like being pushed around by anyone, especially not by journalists who hate him. If Mr. Tapper had belligerently demanded that Mr. Trump agree that the sky is blue, Mr. Trump would have bridled at that.
Second, Donald Trump probably doesn’t know anything about David Duke or white supremacy. I would be astonished if he has ever looked into the thinking of David Duke or any other alleged “white supremacist.” It is his feistiness and his ignorance of white advocacy that explain his answers, not some carefully concealed racial consciousness.
The press has also pounced on Donald Trump’s retweets of “racist” material, which is supposed to be yet more proof that he is a secret supremacist. Business Insider, for example, published this shocking story: “ 5 times Donald Trump has engaged with alt-right racists on Twitter .” Not one of these tweets is obviously “racist,” and it would be surprising if Mr. Trump or his skeleton staff took the time to vet the sources of the thousands of tweets @realDonaldTrump has sent during the campaign.
Now the press is working on another smear-Trump angle. Recently, I have been contacted by journalists from such places as Bloomberg News, Reuters, and the New York Times , who clearly want to write that Donald Trump is “mainstreaming hate,” that he is responsible for a huge surge in the Alt-Right. They want to know about all the people who have been flocking to AmRen.com because of what Donald Trump says. They want me to tell them about people who have been “emboldened” to “speak out against minorities” because Donald Trump has led the way. They would love to find someone who now thinks he is free to run down the street shouting “nigger!” because Mr. Trump wants to take a hard look at Muslim immigrants.
I have explained to them as patiently as I can that they have it the wrong way around. No one comes looking for AmRen.com because Donald Trump wants to build a wall. They come looking for us because the media have written about us in their attempt to convince the world that Mr. Trump is a “racist.” They come looking for us because Mrs. Clinton kindly called attention to us by complaining about the Alt-Right and her “basket of deplorables.” I also try to explain that if the media had not launched its malicious campaign of trying to hold Donald Trump responsible for the views of certain people who support him, few people would have heard of the Alt-Right. In their zeal to paint their enemy in the darkest colors, they are promoting the Alt-Right, not Donald Trump.
I explain that racial dissent has been growing like never before, for reasons that have nothing to do with the campaign. It is Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Black Lives Matters, and black rioters who are sending hundreds of thousands of frustrated white people our way– not Donald Trump. This will not change whether Mr. Trump wins or loses. The top landing pages on AmRen.com are analyses of race and crime–something Mr. Trump never talks about.
I also explain to reporters that it is idiotic to think Mr. Trump has mainstreamed “hate,” by which they mean sensible observations about race. I ask them to name a single person who has been “emboldened” to say something “racist” just because Donald Trump is the GOP nominee. Of course, they can’t. If anything, it is the opposite. Mr. Trump has been called every name under the sun for the mildest, most common-sense observations about Muslims and immigration. Anyone tempted to come out of the closet is likely to hesitate more than ever. Things could change if Mr. Trump becomes president, but the candidate himself has done very little to spread our ideas.
What Donald Trump has done is spark an unprecedented interest in politics among disaffected young people who recognize that Mitt Romney and John McCain are no different from Barack Obama when it comes to preserving whites, their society, and their culture. I know a number of millennials who never bothered to vote before but who certainly will in November. I know some who have made their first political contribution or who have spent weekends volunteering for the Trump campaign.
I point out to reporters that this is what elections are supposed to be all about: giving the voters real choices. I note that the Trump/Clinton contest will almost certainly produce a record voter turnout for a modern election. Haven’t our rulers been wringing their hands over a lack of political engagement, especially among the young? Well, now they have engagement, alright, but they don’t like it. They don’t like it because so many people are stumping for the candidate they love to call a “ threat to democracy .” Liberals are such transparent hypocrites. They claim to love democracy, but suddenly start worrying about its health if the people refuse vote the way they tell them to.
The whole Trump-is-a-racist fracas shows just how painfully fragile orthodoxy has become. I may be wrong, but I have no reason to think Donald Trump thinks at all as we do. He has never said or done anything to suggest he is anything more than an ordinary American with normal instincts: He doesn’t want criminals sneaking across the border, he thinks sanctuary cities for illegals are crazy, he doesn’t see why we need more Muslims, and he is angry when immigrants go on welfare. Millions of ordinary Americans clearly agree with him, and not because they are racially aware. It is because they are decent, fair-minded people who also have a nagging sense that the country is changing in unwelcome ways.
I am convinced that Mr. Trump does not have a sophisticated understanding of race. So far as I can tell, he doesn’t have a sophisticated understanding of much of anything. He has stumbled by instinct onto a few sensible policies that white advocates have been promoting for a long time, but not because he is one of us.
Maybe–just maybe–he will move in our direction. It’s not impossible to imagine a President Trump asking, in an offhand way, “What’s wrong with white people wanting to remain a majority in the United States?” Or he might casually note that you can’t expect as many blacks as Asians in AP classes because they don’t have the same levels of intelligence. But I can imagine the opposite, too: President Trump so bogged down in Beltway baloney that he never even builds the wall.
There is one thing that Donald Trump has changed. He has proven that Republican bromides about taxes and small government don’t excite people. He has proven that there is tremendous anger against political insiders of both parties. He has proven that Americans do want their country to come first. They don’t want it to try to save the world or to be a dumping ground for people who have wrecked their own countries.
And even if he has not “mainstreamed racism,” he has shown that if you have a backbone you can withstand what is surely the most intense and concentrated program of hate ever directed at an American. On October 11, Roger Cohen wrote in the New York Times that Donald Trump is a “phony, liar, blowhard, cheat, bully, misogynist, demagogue, predator, bigot, bore, egomaniac, racist, sexist, sociopath,” and a “dictator-in-waiting with a brat’s temper and a prig’s scowl.” This must be one of the most unhinged, hysterical outbursts in the history of American political journalism. And it is unusual only for its wordiness, not its tone.
Don’t the editors of the Times realize that this kind of frothing explains why more Americans believe in Bigfoot (29 percent) than trust newspapers (20 percent)? Virtually the entire industry is so consumed with rage at Donald Trump and contempt for his supporters that it cannot control itself. Open, petulant bias is driving more and more Americans to social media and to sites like AmRen.com for their news.
Despite the concerted shrieking of virtually the entire American ruling class, Donald Trump is going to get close to half of the vote on November 8. Some 60 million people are going to vote for a man for whom Roger Cohen has emptied his dictionary trying to insult. Only one major newspaper has endorsed Donald Trump. Only one . And this is a man whom the American people might choose as their president. What better proof could we have of the stark difference between printed opinion and public opinion, between what Americans think and what our rulers want us to think? Donald Trump has ripped away whatever was left of the pretense of media objectivity.
Whether he wins or not, whether he is one of us or not, Donald Trump has laid bare the collusion between big media and a political system in which both parties collaborate to run the country in their interests and those of their big donors. Voters–finally–have a chance to vote against the entire corrupt system. On November 8th they could bring it crashing down, but even if it still stands, it is visibly weakened, badly discredited. These are the perfect conditions in which our ideas will flourish as never before. | 1real |
Obama highlights five priorities in meeting with Republican leaders | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama highlighted five legislative priorities in a meeting on Tuesday with Republican congressional leaders, including the financial crisis in Puerto Rico and passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the White House said. The White House said Obama also discussed the opioid epidemic, cancer research and criminal justice reform with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “The president is eager to see Congress take that action as soon as possible this year,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said of the sweeping trade pact. | 0fake |
Trump dismays, angers allies by abandoning global climate pact | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would withdraw the United States from the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, drawing anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry. Trump, tapping into the “America First” message he used when he was elected president last year, said the Paris accord would undermine the U.S. economy, cost U.S. jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world. “We’re getting out,” Trump said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden under sunny skies on a warm June day, fulfilling a major election campaign pledge. “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more. And they won’t be,” Trump said. “The same nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and in many cases lax contributions to our critical military alliance,” Trump added. Republican U.S. congressional leaders backed Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell applauded Trump “for dealing yet another significant blow to the Obama administration’s assault on domestic energy production and jobs.” Supporters of the accord, including some leading U.S. business figures, called Trump’s move a blow to international efforts to tackle dangers for the planet posed by global warming. Former Democratic President Barack Obama expressed regret over the pullout from a deal he was instrumental in brokering. “But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got,” Obama added. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said his administration would begin negotiations either to re-enter the Paris accord or to have a new agreement “on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers.” He complained in particular about China’s terms under the agreement. International leaders reacted with disappointment, even anger. “The decision made by U.S. President Trump amounts to turning their backs on the wisdom of humanity. I’m very disappointed... I am angry,” Japanese Environment Minister Koichi Yamamoto told a news conference on Friday in an unusually frank tone. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a rare joint statement the agreement could not be renegotiated and urged their allies to hasten efforts to combat climate change and adapt. “While the U.S. decision is disheartening, we remain inspired by the growing momentum around the world to combat climate change and transition to clean growth economies,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A summit between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and top European Union officials in Brussels on Friday will end with a joint statement - the first ever issued by China and the EU - committing both sides to full implementation of the Paris accord. Speaking in Berlin a day earlier, Premier Li said China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, would stick to its commitment to fight climate change. Russia also voiced abiding support for the Paris accord, regardless of the U.S. withdrawal. “We made the decision to join, and I don’t think we will (change) it,” Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted as saying by RIA news agency. In India, one of the world’s fastest growing major economies and a growing contributor to pollution, a top advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi vouched for intentions to switch to renewable power generation independent of the Paris accord. “The prime minister is very keen on this,” Arvind Panagariya said. With Trump’s action, the United States will walk away from nearly every other nation in the world on one of the pressing global issues of the 21st century. Syria and Nicaragua are the only other non-participants in the accord, signed by 195 nations in Paris in 2015. Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who is the incoming head of the U.N. Climate Change Conferences, which formalized the 2015 pact, said Trump’s decision was “deeply disappointing”. Fiji, like many other small island nations, is seen as particularly vulnerable to global warming and a possible rise in ocean levels as a result of melting polar ice. U.S. business leaders voiced exasperation with the Trump administration. “Today’s decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.’s leadership position in the world,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein wrote on Twitter. Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger said they would leave White House advisory councils after Trump’s move. Under the Paris accord, which took years to reach, rich and poor countries committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases generated by burning fossil fuels that are blamed by scientists for warming the planet. (GRAPHIC - The 2015 Paris Agreement to limit climate change: tmsnrt.rs/2f3oKDV) “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump said. Pittsburgh’s mayor, Democrat Bill Peduto, shot back on Twitter that his city, long the heart of the U.S. steel industry, actually embraced the Paris accord. The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the action a “major disappointment.” The U.N. body that handles climate negotiations said the accord could not be renegotiated based on the request of a single nation. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, speaking in Singapore on Friday, also called the U.S. decision “disappointing... but not at all surprising,” adding that Australia remained “committed to our Paris commitments.” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement “it is regrettable that the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord will undermine international responsibility and efforts to respond to climate change.” Trump said the United States would stop payments to the U.N. Green Climate Fund, in which rich countries committed billions of dollars to help developing nations deal with floods, droughts and other impacts from climate change. The White House said it would stick to U.N. rules for withdrawing from the pact. Those rules require a nation to wait three years from the date the pact gained legal force, Nov. 4, 2016, before formally seeking to leave. That country must then wait another year. Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed disappointment and said in an email to employees that he had spoken with Trump on Tuesday to try to persuade him to stay in the Paris accord. “It wasn’t enough,” he said. Other business leaders warned that the U.S. economy would give away technological leadership. General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said he was disappointed, adding: “Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government.” Democrats also blasted Trump. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the decision “one of the worst policy moves made in the 21st century because of the huge damage to our economy, our environment and our geopolitical standing.” The United States had committed to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. The United States accounts for more than 15 percent of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, second only to China. Leading climate scientists say greenhouse gas emissions trap heat in the atmosphere and have caused a warming planet, sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms. A “Global Trends” report prepared by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s office, released on Jan. 9, warned that climate change posed security risks because of extreme weather, stress on water and food, and global tensions over how to manage the changes. Last year was the warmest since records began in the 19th Century, as global average temperatures continued a rise dating back decades that scientists attribute to greenhouse gases. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General of Seoul based Global Green Growth Institute expected international funding for investment needed to fight climate change would suffer, noting a $1 billion reduction in U.S. funding the Green Climate Fund in South Korea. Economists said the U.S. withdrawal would potentially cost U.S. jobs. China and the EU both already employ more workers in the renewable energy sector than the United States, according to the data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). “Winding back the climate agenda means that the U.S. will be left behind in the clean energy transition as other global players, such as in Europe and China, demonstrate greater commitment to deploying low carbon and job-creating solutions to climate change,” said Peter Kiernan, of the Economist Intelligence Unit. | 0fake |
Exclusive: Kremlin tells companies to deliver good news | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin wants good news. The Russian leadership has told major companies to supply it with news stories that put its stewardship of the country in a positive light, according to documents seen by Reuters. A seven-page document spelled out the kind of articles required, with a focus on new jobs, scientific achievements and new infrastructure, especially those involving state support. It also detailed how the stories should be presented, and gave a weekly deadline for submissions. The instructions were sent last month by the energy ministry to 45 companies in Russia s energy and utilities sector including Rosneft, Lukoil and Novatek, according to a second document, a list of recipients. The drive coincides with the run-up to a presidential election in March next year when President Vladimir Putin needs a strong mandate with high turnout to maintain his firm grip on power after dominating Russian politics for two decades. Life for the majority of people has become calmer, more comfortable, more attractive. But many such examples often escape the media s attention, said the first document. Our task, through a creative and painstaking approach, is to select such topics and subjects and offer them to the media. That document, which did not mention the election, said the news items to be supplied were to feed a positive news wire and should correspond to two themes: Life is getting better and How things were; how they are now . Both documents were attached to an invitation, dated Oct. 9, sent by the energy ministry to senior executives in the public relations and government relations departments of the firms, of which 17 are state-controlled and 28 privately-held. The invitation requested they send representatives to an Oct. 12 meeting at the ministry in Moscow to discuss how to help the government s PR effort. Reuters saw a copy of the invitation and spoke to three executives who received it. According to the invitation, the news initiative was requested by Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy chief of staff in the presidential administration. A spokesman for Kiriyenko did not respond to a request for comment. The energy ministry also did not respond, nor did Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Reuters sent requests for comment to the biggest five companies out of the 45, by market value - state-owned oil major Rosneft, state-owned gas giant Gazprom, private oil companies Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz, and private gas firm Novatek. No responses were received. NINE-POINT LIST Oil and gas provide Russia s biggest source of revenue and energy firms are among the most powerful companies and biggest employers. Reuters has not found evidence that similar instructions were sent to companies in other sectors. The Oct. 12 meeting was chaired by Deputy Energy Minister Anton Inyutsyn, and an official from the presidential administration was also present, according to one of the sources who attended. The two officials went through and explained the instructions laid out in the seven-page document, said the source, who added that the election was not mentioned. Reuters reported in February that the ministry had enlisted energy companies to give it advance notice about developments that could influence public opinion. The meeting last month and the guidelines circulated in preparation for it show that, since then, the initiative has stepped up into a higher gear, with companies being handed highly specific instructions on how they are expected to help. It was not clear if the companies had acted on the instructions. The news guidelines document said the government wanted to highlight victories and achievements . It included a nine-point list of the kind of news that companies should supply. It asked, for example, for stories about business units where it s possible to say that state support helped lift them out of crisis, restored modern production, and re-equipped them with new equipment and gave work to local residents . Examples given of the kind of events of interest to the government from elsewhere in the corporate world included state lender Sberbank hiring 700 people in the Volga river city of Togliatti, a festival funded by a company in Kaliningrad region for young people with hearing difficulties and a sports center being opened in Cherkessk, southern Russia. The document also held up the case of Yevgeny Kosmin as an example of a positive news story, a miner in western Siberia whose team extracted 1.6 million tonnes of coal in July this year, a monthly record. That carried echoes of Alexey Stakhanov, a miner who in 1935 extracted almost 15 times more coal during a shift than his quota required. Communist propaganda held Stakhanov up as a symbol of Soviet industrial prowess. The instructions stipulated that companies should submit positive news stories every week - on the Monday, or Tuesday morning at the latest. They said the companies should present their items in the format of a table, with new additions highlighted in a colored font, and accompanied by a press release that could be passed on to journalists with minimal editing from government officials. The document also required each company to provide a contact person who could provide extra information to journalists, tell TV news crews how to reach the venue to report on an event, and organize access for news crews to the company s sites. Reuters was not able to establish if the Kremlin had made similarly specific demands of companies in the past. Putin has not yet declared his intention to seek re-election. Most Kremlin observers say he will. Opinion polls show he will win comfortably, with many voters crediting him with restoring national pride. The Kremlin s biggest headache with the election, scheduled for next March, is ensuring a strong turnout, say many political analysts. With the economy weak and many people viewing the result as a foregone conclusion, voters may be tempted to stay away from polling stations. A low turnout could undermine Putin s legitimacy in his next term, the analysts say. | 0fake |
Take cover, avoid bomb flash. Guam issues nuclear guidelines | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Guam posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack after a threat from North Korea to fire missiles in the vicinity of the U.S. Pacific territory. Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency said on Thursday its army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near Guam as North Korea and the United States engaged in increasingly heated rhetoric this week over the North’s nuclear weapons program. North Korea did not threaten Guam with a nuclear attack, but the crisis between Pyongyang and the United States has stirred fears that a nuclear conflict could break out in the region. While the governor of Guam shrugged off the North’s missile warning and said there was no heightened threat, the government has issued a preparedness fact sheet. In language that evoked the specter of nuclear conflict during the Cold War, the guidelines cover what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack. “Do not look at the flash or fireball – It can blind you,” it said. “Take cover behind anything that might offer protection.” “Remove your clothing to keep radioactive material from spreading. Removing the outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material,” read the guidelines of what to do if caught outside. They suggest having an emergency plan and supply kit and making a list of potential concrete structures near home, work and school to serve as fallout shelters. “Fallout shelters do not need to be specifically constructed for protecting against fallout,” it said. “They can be protected space, provided that the walls and roof are thick and dense enough (i.e. concrete) to absorb radiation given off by fallout particles.” The fact sheet advises people on how to wash: do not scrub or scratch the skin, use soap, shampoo and water but do not put not conditioner on your hair because it binds radioactive material. It offers advice for parents who are away from their children during a strike. “Stay where you are, even if you are separated from your family,” it said. “Listen to the news. Do not call the school. Be patient. Wait for instructions to pick up your child.” The information on the fact sheet was gathered from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website www.ready.gov, a Guam Homeland Security spokeswoman told the Pacific Daily News. Guam is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. military base that includes a submarine squadron, an air base and a Coast Guard group. (For a graphic on North Korean missile trajectories, ranges click tmsnrt.rs/2hIzZHG) U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned North Korea against threatening Guam and said on Friday that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely.” Asked about Trump’s tough posture, Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said he agreed with sending a clear message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has ramped up his country’s tests of missiles and nuclear bombs. “Though I don’t want the temperature to get any higher, I think it’s important also that there is clarity and that if there is an attack on any American soil including Guam, that it will be met with overwhelming response,” Calvo told reporters on Friday. “I don’t have any problem with that.” (The story was refiled to fix the graphic link in paragraph 14) | 0fake |
Boiler Room EP #74 – Dustification & The Crooked Witch of the Left | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Jay Dyer from jaysanalysis.com, Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East and Stewart Howe of 21Wire for the 74th episode of BOILER ROOM. Dim the lights, dawn the headphones and indulge in some Boiler Room with the crew. This week we re continuing the 9/11 discussion one step further. Also, lets not forget #SickHillary #CrookedHillary, we d be remiss if we didn t do our best to dissect this series of anomalies being thrown around the media with regards to the health of the Crooked Witch of the Left.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Reference Links: | 1real |
Donald Trump Is Clearly Panicking; Avoiding The People Who Voted For Him | Donald Trump s presidency is spiraling out of control and Dear Leader appears to be holed up in the White House, avoiding even the people who still support him.Immediately following his return from the G20 summit in Europe this month, even his daily schedule went completely blank as he retreated behind the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Trump has at least added some daily events to his schedule in recent days, but he s not venturing outside.It was Vice President Mike Pence not Trump who left the White House Tuesday and spoke publicly and at length about the Republicans health care bill in the wake of its Senate collapse, not Trump. Unlike Trump, Pence has been maintaining a very public profile in recent days.Source: Share BlueIn the last month, when Trump wasn t leaving the country, pretty much the only reason he left the White House was to go play golf or to watch golf, which he did on June 24, 25, and 30, as well as July 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 14, 15, and 16. Outside of playing golf or promoting his own business properties, however, Trump is clearly in hiding.To be fair, Trump isn t completely MIA. He did a photo op in a firetruck (just like a big boy) on Monday and he s spent a lot of time on his golf course. But when it comes to using his legendary (in his own mind) negotiating skills to help save the repeal and replacement of Obamacare (one of his top campaign promises), the Deal Artist offered little to nothing.While this is pretty much unprecedented, it signals something major is happening within the White House. Since taking office, he s soothed his fragile ego by holding campaign style rallies in front of fawning fans. The last one he held, which was his last state-side public appearance, was nearly a month ago. While the fans still exist, Trump is even avoiding them. Instead, he s presumably seeking comfort in Kentucky Fried Chicken and chocolate cake in front of an increasingly incredulous Fox News.This isn t particularly surprising. Trump has a difficult time in situations that don t offer him adulation. He refuses to make a state visit to the UK until Prime Minister Theresa May can guarantee the nearly universally despised America leader a warm reception.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
Twitter Users Mock Hillary Clinton For Wishing Herself a Happy Birthday |
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 26, 2016
As you might guess, it didn’t take long for people to point out just how sad and strange the tweet was. There's regular narcissism, then there's wish-yourself-happy-birthday & call-yourself-the-future-president-before-the-election narcissism. pic.twitter.com/cQnAl0Pr0O
— Caleb Ecarma (@calebecarma) October 26, 2016 So Hillary Clinton has to tweet herself a happy birthday on Twitter! How pathetic is THAT?đŁ
— william barrett (@willdani61) October 27, 2016
It was just plain weird, as some users pointed out. @HillaryClinton Did you just wish a happy birthday to yourself? Weirdo lol
Other users had a little fun with Clinton’s picture. @HillaryClinton I've seen that look before. pic.twitter.com/TQ7FaW7Mnr
— Ian McKelvey (@mckelvey_ian) October 26, 2016 Odd RT @HillaryClinton Happy birthday to this future president. pic.twitter.com/FpluGgnovD
— Marcus Hawkins (@HawkinsUSA) October 26, 2016
Other users didn’t waste a moment getting down to the truth. @HillaryClinton happy bday to the single most corrupt politician in the history of the USA! #NeverHillary
— Chuck Norris (@Chuck7817) October 26, 2016 The saddest birthday tweet comes from yourself. https://t.co/ge67vMQhGu
— Michelle Ray (@GaltsGirl) October 26, 2016
Apparently the tweet was also promoted, which got under the skin of even more users. *Sigh* Why in the blue hell did I get a "Sign Hillary's Birthday Card" promoted tweet…I could NOT care less about her.
— Dan Trigona (@splinter48708) September 25, 2016
Clinton has always had a “people problem,” so it’s no surprise that the only way to get Twitter users to wish her a birthday was to promote a tweet. Advertisement - story continues below
Clinton might have thought it was cute to wish herself, the supposed future leader of this country, a happy birthday, but what she has done is show us who she thinks is the most important person in the world — herself. And apparently she wants everyone around her to know it.
Clinton’s problem with people is a serious one. Even those who have worked with the former secretary of state have said she isn’t exactly likable — and that’s putting it nicely.
Clinton already behaves as though she is above the law. It’s almost unimaginable how dangerous such an unlikable, narcissistic person could be in the White House.
Although I guess the last eight years have prepared us for it, at least a little. Advertisement - story continues below | 1real |
Trump's Election Marks the End of Liberal Capitalism | Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name Recipient Email =>
Even before Donald Trump’s election victory it was becoming clear that we are living in an age of disintegration. Nation states are returning to relationships based on rivalry and friction when the trend was meant to be in the opposite direction. The internal unity of country after country is under stress or has already broken down. Governments and universities used to set up institutions to study greater integration and cooperation, while in fact they might have been better looking at how things fall apart.
The phenomenon is most obvious in the wider Middle East where there are at least seven wars and three insurgencies raging in the swathe of countries between Pakistan and Nigeria. But in Europe and the US, foreign and domestic antagonisms are also becoming deeper and more venomous. In this more rancorous political landscape, the election of Donald Trump as US President feels like part of a trend, toxic and dangerous but wide-ranging and unstoppable. Distinct though the political and economic situation in the US, Europe and the Middle East may be in many respects, there is the same dissatisfaction or rejection of the status quo without much idea of what should be put in its place.
Political shocks like the election of Trump can produce apocalyptic forebodings that in retrospect turn out to be misplaced or exaggerated. But, in this case, grim expectations about the future may be all too justified and unlikely to evaporate. Trump’s promises of radical change may be phoney or opportunistic, but they have a momentum of their own which will be uncontrollable.
For all his demagoguery, there was a sense that Trump was often nearer to the issues that concerned voters than Hillary Clinton. In the final election rallies of Trump in Michigan and Clinton in North Carolina, he was promising voters the return of factories and well-paid jobs while she was repeating kindergarten waffle such as “love trumps hate” and “build bridges not walls”. He will find it difficult to retreat from these pledges and this is bound to bring confrontation with other trading nations. Overall, the high days of liberal capitalism since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, which continued despite a battering from the financial crisis of 2008, are finally finished.
It is an age not just of disintegration but of extremes, with proponents of the status quo either weakened or discredited, as shown by the Brexit vote in Britain. The beneficiaries are mostly on the right: from the 1980s on, the mainstream left in Britain, France and Germany abandoned socialism for liberal free market capitalism as the proven recipe for human happiness, which meant that after 2008 they had no alternative system to advocate and could no longer provide a credible vehicle for protest. The political beneficiaries of disillusionment with things as they are have almost invariably been on the right as with Trump who, along with other rightist insurgencies, can plug into resurgent loyalty to the nation state in the wake of discredited globalisation.
There are similarities – so long as the analogies are not overstrained – between the forces behind the Arab Spring protests of 2011, the Brexit vote and Trump’s electoral victory today. In all cases, the ruling establishment was weaker and more unpopular than even the most critical observers had imagined: the triumphant protesters were astonished by the extent of their own success. More ominously, it swiftly emerged in the Middle East that the proponents of change had little idea what it should be and had relied wholly on demonisation of their opponents as the source of all evils.
There is another parallel between what happened in the Arab world five years ago and events in the UK and the US this year. The old regimes were battered or discarded but there was nothing to replace them with. There is no consensus on what to do. Travelling to Britain from the Middle East, it is striking how the political, social and geographical divisions expressed by the Brexit vote have only deepened with time, whatever pretences there are to the contrary. Political commentators in the UK and US who endlessly proclaimed that, whatever the rhetoric, elections were won by those who seized the centre ground turned out to be wrong because there was not much centre ground to seize.
These are not the only political shibboleths which should be discarded. Shocks like these usually provoke jeremiads from the “commentariat” about how all is chaos and the centre cannot hold. Such dire warnings are swiftly followed by more hopeful commentary about how things have not changed as radically or dangerously as first feared. But, unfortunately, in the case of the US election, the first gloom-filled predictions may be the most accurate.
It is true that Trump’s authority will be thwarted by the division of powers laid down by the US constitution – though this is somewhat contradicted by Republican control of both Houses of Congress as well as the presidency. Presidential powers are also diluted by those of other state institutions such as the Pentagon and the Treasury. But these comforting thoughts are probably wishful thinking. The extent of the rejection of the American establishment – Democrats, Republicans, celebrities, media – by US voters underlines its weakness. The US media in particular is so much part of the political class that it had become an echo chamber in which it heard only its own views.
Leaving aside these dangerous historical trends, there is another more immediate menace stemming from election of Trump in the US and the Brexit vote in Britain: it empowers and legitimises the crackpots and the cranks, those who want to roll back the verdict of past elections since the New Deal if not the Civil War. Those around Trump are not just the Team “B” of American politics but the Team “C” or even lower down the alphabet. They may not want to blow up the world but, out of sheer idiocy, they could do just that.
I am writing this in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Irbil which is 60 miles from Mosul, where rival armies are fighting their way into Isis’s last great stronghold. Nobody expects this to be the end of the wars in Iraq and Syria or the multiple crises tearing the region apart. The experience is evidence of the fragility of states and how easily they can be capsized, not just by domestic divisions and foreign enemies but by avoidable political errors. With Donald Trump soon to be in the White House, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that the world has just become a lot more dangerous place. (Reprinted from The Independent by permission of author or representative) | 1real |
Nation Throws Off Tyrannical Yoke Of Moderate Respect For Women - The Onion - America's Finest News Source | Nation Throws Off Tyrannical Yoke Of Moderate Respect For Women Close Vol 52 Issue 44 · Politics · Politicians · Election 2016 · Donald Trump
WASHINGTON—Political experts are hailing Donald Trump’s historic presidential victory early Wednesday as a resounding declaration that the nation is finally ready to cast off the tyrannical yoke of moderate respect for women that has suffocated the citizens of this country for generations. “Under Trump’s presidency, we can now look ahead to a bold new era in America in which we will no longer suffer under a repressive ideology that demands basic decency and relatively equal treatment toward half the nation’s population,” said Harvard political science professor Gregory Nagle, adding that citizens could now live free from the fear that they would never again be lightly chastised for making derogatory comments about a woman’s appearance or implying that women are less capable or intelligent than men. “For far too long, Americans have been at the mercy of an authoritarian belief system that sometimes presses employers to consider hiring women for high-level positions and, under certain circumstances, allows women to have control over their own bodies. And faced with the unsavory prospect of women receiving fair pay or having their sexual assault claims taken seriously, Americans went to the polls today and made their voices heard loud and clear. This is a bright new day for America.” In a similar finding, political scientists asserted that Trump’s election also represented a decisive move by the people of this country to shake off the brutal fetters of half-hearted attempts at racial tolerance. Share This Story: WATCH VIDEO FROM THE ONION Sign up For The Onion's Newsletter
Give your spam filter something to do. Daily Headlines | 1real |
It’s A Setup: Dems Claim Russians Will Undermine Elections With Fake Documents Showing Voter Fraud | Tweet Home » Headlines » World News » It’s A Setup: Dems Claim Russians Will Undermine Elections With Fake Documents Showing Voter Fraud
The narrative now is that the Russians are either going to compromise the Presidential election by outright hacking it, or, they will simply pretend that they compromised the elections by posting fake documents proving voter fraud.
From Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan :
If the election fraud narrative, cyberattack and rigged voting machines haven’t yet thoroughly confused the American voting public, maybe the latest report from Reuters will do the job.
According to Reuters, U.S. voting authorities are now warning that while the Russians may not actually hack the Presidential election, they may fake hacking the Presidential election.
What they’re saying without actually saying it is that if Hillary Clinton wins the election and Trump supporters show proof of any fraudulent activity, the “proof” will have been fabricated by… The Russians.
Joe Joseph Explains:
This is the height of desperation for the mainstream media and The-Powers-That-Shouldn’t-Be because they know that they’ve been manipulating elections for a very long time now…
Watch at Youtube
It sounds almost too crazy to believe, but this is now being disseminated to the public via mainstream pipelines:
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are warning that hackers with ties to Russia’s intelligence services could try to undermine the credibility of the presidential election by posting documents online purporting to show evidence of voter fraud.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said however, that the U.S. election system is so large, diffuse and antiquated that hackers would not be able to change the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.
But hackers could post documents, some of which might be falsified, that are designed to create public perceptions of widespread voter fraud, the officials said.
They said that they did not have specific evidence of such a plan, but state and local election authorities had been warned to be vigilant for hacking attempts.
Source: Reuters
So, according to this latest report, the Russians are either going to compromise the Presidential election by outright hacking it, or, they will simply pretend that they compromised the elections by posting fake documents purporting to show voter fraud.
Either way, it was the Russians.
Trust us. On Sale At SD Bullion… This Week Only… This entry was posted in World News and tagged Donald Trump , Hillary Clinton , Hillary vote fraud , vote fraud . Bookmark the permalink . Post navigation | 1real |
Debate: Washington's Syria policy | The Debate Washington's Syria policy
In this episode of The Debate, Press TV has conducted an interview with Brian Becker, with the ANSWER Coalition, and Michael Lane, the founder of the American Institute for Foreign Policy, both from Washington, to discuss recent revelations by Virginia State Senate Richard Hayden that the war in Syria would have been over by now if the US had put an end to its intervention when Russia entered the war-ravaged country. Loading ... | 1real |
‘A Gimmick’: It Just Dawned On Republicans That Trump Is Full Of Sh*t About The Wall | While on the campaign trail, reality show star Donald Trump vowed that he would build a wall on the U.S. southern border, and that Mexico would pay for it. Chants rang out from his supporters at each rally to Build that wall! but his promise is now crumbling before his fans eyes. Firstly, it s an expensive endeavor, one that is expected to cost up to $38 billion. And Mexico will not pay for it. We will. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for his wall. Yet, the president-elect now says that it will be built, and Mexico will pay for it later. And now, even Republicans know that he s full of it.A number of Republicans interviewed by CNN suggested that Trump s claim amounted to wishful thinking, saying they believe the alleged billionaire would ultimately backtrack on one of his central campaign promises. I doubt that they re going to pay for it, said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. There s a lot he could do if he wanted to (force Mexico s hand). In all honesty, I don t think that s going to happen. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican, said, I never thought that would happen. I thought it was a gimmick. Trump will face a backlash if he fails to keep his promise. I m for building a wall, said Rep. Mo Brooks. And I m for Donald Trump keeping his promise to the American people that Mexico pay for it. The Alabama lawmaker added that that he would be disappointed if Trump failed to deliver.Oh, those crazy fiscal conservatives. :House GOP sources tell CNN that Trump s transition team has urged Republican leaders to include funding for the wall in a spending package that must pass by April 28 in order to keep the government open. The price tag is uncertain, but some similar proposals have been projected to cost upwards of $10 billion. We re going to get reimbursed, Trump told The New York Times. But I don t want to wait that long. But you start, and then you get reimbursed. Sure we will, Sport. Just like his contractors were reimbursed while still waiting for that check that will never happen.Mexico will not pay for the wall. Hillary Clinton will not be locked up. The swamp is being filled up with terrifying creatures. Trump supporters were played for suckers and the rest of us will be paying for their hot mess with our tax dollars.Photo by Win McNamee via Getty Images | 1real |
Trump Digs In on Wiretap, No Matter Who Says Differently - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The former president denied it. So did the former national intelligence director. The F. B. I. director has said privately that it is false. The speaker of the House and the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees — all three Republican — see no indications that it happened. But President Trump insists he is right. No matter how many officials, even in his own party, dismiss his unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama secretly tapped his phones last year, the White House made clear on Thursday that it would stand by the assertion. Ultimately, it insisted, the president will be proved correct. Nearly two weeks after Mr. Trump first accused his predecessor in a series of Saturday morning Twitter posts, the standoff between the president and the available record has come to shadow the White House even as it tries to overhaul the nation’s health care system and drastically rewrite the federal budget. Much like his longstanding assertion that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States, Mr. Trump dismisses contrary information with undiminished surety. Indeed, the White House even added a new assertion on Thursday during a fiercely combative and sometimes surreal briefing by the press secretary, Sean Spicer, who berated reporters and read from news accounts that either did not back up the president’s claims or had been refuted by intelligence officials. One report that Mr. Spicer read contended that Mr. Obama used Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, the signals agency known as GCHQ, to spy on Mr. Trump. In effect, the White House was embracing a claim that the United States’ closest ally collaborated with a president against a presidential candidate. “There’s widespread reporting that throughout the 2016 election, there was surveillance that was done on a variety of people,” Mr. Spicer said. Asked if the president stood by his original allegation, Mr. Spicer said, “He stands by it. ” The White House defiance came shortly after the top two senators overseeing the intelligence community joined the chorus of lawmakers debunking the claim. “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, said in a statement. The blunt conclusion by the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee means that all four congressional leaders who oversee surveillance by the government have rejected Mr. Trump’s claim. On Wednesday, their counterparts on the House Intelligence Committee, Representatives Devin Nunes, a Republican, and Adam B. Schiff, a Democrat, both from California, made similar statements. For the president’s staff, the continuing furor over his claim has produced mixed responses. Some advisers, privately recognizing that there is no evidence to support it, are increasingly frustrated that it continues to dominate the conversation in Washington and wish Mr. Trump would find a way to let it go. At the same time, they feel besieged by what they see as a hostile Washington establishment and resent the carping. In some cases, as Mr. Spicer did at his briefing, they argue that the news media has information to make the president look bad. But they assume that Mr. Trump will stick by his assertion no matter what comes out of an emerging congressional investigation. After all, he refused to back off his “birther” allegation — and then only grudgingly — until five years after Mr. Obama produced a birth certificate showing that he had been born in Hawaii. In this case, Mr. Trump sees the surveillance allegation as a way to push back against what he considers the unfair insinuation that he somehow colluded with the Russians during last year’s election — another assertion for which intelligence committee leaders have said they so far have found no evidence. In recent days, the president and his aides have tried to recast his original assertion to make it more defensible. Mr. Trump and Mr. Spicer have both noted that in two Twitter posts the president used quotation marks around the phrases “wires tapped” or “wire tapping,” which they said indicated that they were not meant to be taken literally. “That really covers surveillance and many other things,” Mr. Trump told Tucker Carlson in an interview on Wednesday night on Fox News. “Nobody ever talks about the fact that it was in quotes, but that’s a very important thing. ” That, however, ignores the fact that two other messages Mr. Trump posted that morning did not use quotation marks and were pretty specific. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process,” he wrote in one, misspelling the word tap. “This is . Bad (or sick) guy!” Mr. Trump also suggested that he had secret evidence no one else had seen. He told Mr. Carlson that he “will be submitting things before the committee very soon that hasn’t been submitted as of yet — but it’s potentially a very serious situation. ” Mr. Trump added, “You’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks. ” The White House staff took its cue from that interview and mapped out an aggressive defense on Thursday. Mr. Trump was already angry that two courts had blocked his temporary travel ban even though he had been assured by his staff that his latest one would pass judicial muster. So Mr. Spicer headed to the lectern on Thursday primed for a fight and armed with a stack of news clippings that he read at length to justify the president’s claim. “The bottom line is the investigation by the House and the Senate has not been provided all the information,” Mr. Spicer said. But Rachel Cohen, a spokeswoman for Mr. Warner, later responded: “The bipartisan leaders of the Intelligence Committee would not have made the statement they made without having been fully briefed by the appropriate authorities. ” At the White House briefing, among the articles Mr. Spicer read from were several from The New York Times. However, none of them actually reported that Mr. Obama had authorized surveillance of Mr. Trump or that Mr. Trump had been eavesdropped. The Times has reported that law enforcement agencies are investigating contacts between some associates of Mr. Trump and Russian figures and had access to intercepted communications. Other news reports cited by Mr. Trump on Wednesday night and Mr. Spicer on Thursday repeated claims that a secret foreign intelligence court had approved a surveillance order involving Mr. Trump in October. Reporters from The Times have not been able to corroborate the existence of such an order. The British assertions came from a Fox News commentator, Andrew Napolitano. Early on Friday, GCHQ, the British communications intelligence agency, issued a statement denying that it had wiretapped Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, saying that the allegations were “nonsense. ” “They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored. ” The agency rarely comments on intelligence matters its statement was both unusual and unusually vehement. Mr. Spicer complained that reporters had not focused on a comment by Mr. Nunes, the House intelligence chairman, that “it’s possible” that intelligence agencies could have swept up others in the course of their surveillance, including Mr. Trump. Mr. Nunes did note that Mr. Trump was concerned about “other surveillance activities looking at him and his associates” and said his committee would find out. But Mr. Nunes was firm in saying that Mr. Trump’s original Twitter posts were not borne out by the facts. “I don’t believe there was an actual tap of Trump Tower,” he said on Wednesday. If Mr. Trump’s posts were to be taken literally, “then clearly the president was wrong,” Mr. Nunes said. That was not a word the White House was willing to use on Thursday. Asked if Mr. Trump would apologize to Mr. Obama if it turned out he was wrong, Mr. Spicer demurred. “We’re not going to prejudge what the outcome of this is,” he said. “I think we’ve got to let the process work its will, and then when there’s a report that comes out conclusive from there, then we’ll be able to comment. ” | 0fake |
A Friend Lied About Dylann Roof’s Massacre Plan. Now He’ll Go to Prison. - The New York Times | CHARLESTON, S. C. — Joseph C. Meek Jr. a friend of Dylann S. Roof’s who spent time with him in the weeks before nine people were killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church here, was sentenced Tuesday to 27 months in prison for hampering and misleading the federal authorities in the aftermath of Mr. Roof’s racist massacre. The punishment, handed down by Judge Richard M. Gergel of Federal District Court, was at the low end of the sentencing guidelines, which called for Mr. Meek to spend from 27 to 33 months in prison. The months that he spent in a county jail after his arrest will count toward his federal sentence. Before the sentence was announced, a tearful Mr. Meek said he was not sure whether he would survive prison, and he apologized to family members of Mr. Roof’s victims, some of whom had gathered for the hearing. “I’m really sorry a lot of innocent lives were taken,” said Mr. Meek, who had previously expressed remorse in handwritten letters in which he asked for forgiveness. But Judge Gergel, speaking at a hearing that lasted more than two hours, said Mr. Meek’s crimes warranted prison. “The danger he exposed to the community is extraordinary,” he said. Mr. Meek’s lawyer, Deborah B. Barbier, expressed concern that her client would be forced to spend his sentence in solitary confinement because of security risks. Judge Gergel said the federal Bureau of Prisons could be trusted to protect him. “It’s an odd, inverse logic that I should not incarcerate him because inmates think so lowly of him,” the judge said. Mr. Meek, 22, pleaded guilty last April to two federal counts related to the truthfulness of his responses to the F. B. I. in interviews shortly after the shooting on June 17, 2015 — misprision of a felony and making a false statement to a law enforcement officer. Misprision refers to the failure to report a known crime. The government did not prosecute Mr. Meek for failing to disclose knowledge of Mr. Roof’s plans to attack the church, although it asserted in court filings that his silence “did deprive law enforcement of the opportunity to intervene. ” During a night of drinking and drug use about a week before the shootings, Mr. Roof told Mr. Meek that he wanted to kill black people at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston in order to start a race riot, according to F. B. I. summaries of interviews with him. Mr. Meek was concerned enough to hide Mr. Roof’s handgun after he fell asleep but later returned it and did not report the threat to law enforcement. “Certainly defendant’s failure to make an earlier report is tragic and deeply regrettable, but his failure to report was not a violation of federal criminal law,” Judge Gergel wrote last week in an order that denied prosecutors’ request to give Mr. Meek a longer term than recommended in sentencing guidelines. Ms. Barbier said in a presentencing filing that it was “hypocritical and disingenuous” for prosecutors to suggest that Mr. Meek was somehow to blame for the killings. “Joey’s failure to appreciate the seriousness of Roof’s statements is not unusual in today’s shock value culture,” she wrote. In court on Tuesday, a defense witness said Mr. Meek’s connection to the Charleston massacre would make him a “ target” in prison. “He’ll have to be kept separate from other inmates — not because of what he did, but because he has some relationship to a heinous crime,” said the witness, James Aiken, a former warden for the South Carolina prison system. The case against Mr. Meek matters both as a lesson about reporting suspicions and for the insight he provides into Mr. Roof, who represented himself at times at trial and blocked the admission of any evidence about his background or psychology. As a result, the trial in December and January, which ended in a death sentence for Mr. Roof, provided little information about what may have incited him to act so violently on his racist beliefs. Mr. Meek has said in various law enforcement interviews and court appearances that he first met Mr. Roof, who grew up near Columbia, S. C. in middle school. They largely lost touch when Mr. Roof moved away but reconnected via Facebook on May 22, 2015, less than a month before the massacre. Mr. Roof began hanging out at the trailer where Mr. Meek lived with his girlfriend and other family members. One night in early June, after consuming vodka, marijuana and cocaine, Mr. Roof told Mr. Meek of his support for segregation and his desire to “do something big and put South Carolina on the map,” Mr. Meek told the F. B. I. He said that he had been planning the attack for six months and that he hoped to carry it out on a Wednesday because fewer people would be at church. He told Mr. Meek he would then kill himself. Mr. Meek dismissed the seriousness and did not notify the authorities. Mr. Meek learned about the shootings soon after Mr. Roof opened fire and discussed his fears with a friend, Dalton Tyler, telling him not to contact the police. Mr. Tyler held off that night. But the next morning, as a photograph of Mr. Roof from a church security camera began circulating, Mr. Tyler became the first person to call a police tip line and identify the gunman, according to a search warrant. Mr. Roof was arrested later that morning in North Carolina with the murder weapon in the back seat. In his initial F. B. I. interview, Mr. Meek denied having known of Mr. Roof’s plans and said Mr. Roof had not spoken of a target for his attack, according to Assistant United States Attorney Julius N. Richardson. But in a second interview, Mr. Meek admitted that he had lied, according to an F. B. I. synopsis of the session. He also admitted that on the night of the shootings, after concluding that Mr. Roof was responsible for the attack, he told others not to contact law enforcement. In his conversations with investigators, Mr. Meek described Mr. Roof as a shy former altar boy who did not have many friends but was not a social misfit. His parents, who were divorced, lived in houses with swimming pools and gave him most anything he wanted, Mr. Meek said. He did not perceive Mr. Roof as depressed or as having an anger problem. When Mr. Meek was first charged and agreed to a plea deal, the expectation was that he would testify in Mr. Roof’s trial about the killer’s premeditation and planning. But the government’s case on that score was strong without Mr. Meek, and neither side called him as a witness. Mr. Richardson declined to comment on Tuesday, as did the relatives of Mr. Roof’s victims who attended the sentencing. Mr. Meek, who will remain free on bond until he reports to prison, has told the authorities that he thinks about the carnage every day and that he has trouble sleeping nearly two years after Mr. Roof’s killing spree. “I truly in my heart didn’t take him seriously and I wish I would have,” Mr. Meek, a dropout who worked in construction, said in a written statement. “I didn’t believe he could do something so awful and cruel. ” | 0fake |
George Takei Just Lasered Trump With Some Perfectly Timed Expert Advice (TWEET) | It s certainly no secret that Trump struggles with vocabulary words, and his spelling isn t that great, either (who can forget covfefe?). He frequently assumes things he s completely unaware of are extremely simple, and is caught off guard when they re not. So it stands to reason that as the investigation continues to unfold, and the legalese flies fast and furious, he might have some trouble understanding what s going on or, even worse, rage-tweeting about it.Not to worry! George Takei is here to help, with a brilliant tweet that s as much solid advice as it is sick burn. Here it is below:Donald: Since it's going to come up, it's spelled "subpoena" not "supeena" and "indictment" not "inditement."You're welcome. George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 7, 2017 Donald. Since it s going to come up, it s spelled subpoena not supeena and indictment not inditement. Beautiful. Considering all the time Trump spends on Twitter, and how poorly he deals with any form of criticism, you can bet he ll be fuming if he reads it. Keep up the trolling, Takei!You might also enjoy Featured image via Mat Hayward/Getty Images for We Day | 1real |
Merkel cancels news conference with Dutch PM as coalition talks fail | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel has canceled a news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte that had been planned for Monday, her office said, after German coalition talks collapsed overnight. The chancellery gave no reason for the cancellation of the news conference, which had been scheduled for 1 p.m. (1200 GMT). Merkel said earlier on Monday her efforts to form a three-way coalition government had failed, thrusting Germany into a political crisis. | 0fake |
BREAKING: Lawsuit Shows Trump Wanted To Fire, Replace ‘Unattractive’ Female Employees | While Donald Trump and Kellyanne Conway continue to boast about how uplifting and fair the billionaire mogul has been to his female employees (hiring, promotions, large salaries), court documents obtained from the Los Angeles Times paint a more sinister, misogynistic view into how Trump really felt about female employees.In other words, it highlights exactly the kind of person Trump is and just how he treats women.According to the court documents, Hayley Strozier, director of catering at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, accused Trump of asking managers to fire unattractive waitresses and replacing them with attractive ones instead:I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were not pretty enough and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women.Other court documents from 2012 document that Trump had asked Sue Kwiatkowski that his premises in Los Angeles should showcase only attractive women:Donald Trump always wanted good looking women working at the club. I know this because one time he took me aside and said, I want you to get some good looking hostesses here. People like to see good looking people when they come in. I and the other managers always tried to have our most attractive hostesses working when Mr. Trump was in town and going to be on the premises.In Donald Trump s America, a woman is not judged on her merit and ability to get the job done, but by her looks and if she doesn t have the looks, she s out of a job. Because of Trump s ridiculous and sexist demands, managers were often forced to hire inexperienced, inept employees due to looks over the experienced, capable employees who didn t fit the mold of attractive enough.The outrage lies within one caveat: he only did this with female employees, not males. Either Trump thinks all men are drop-dead gorgeous or he really does have a blatant disregard for treating women with respect.And it s not like the ill deeds towards these women did not go unpunished. As part of a broader labor relations lawsuit (which includes other complaints than sexist mistreatment), Trump had to compensate:The bulk of the lawsuit was settled in 2013, when golf course management, without admitting any wrongdoing, agreed to pay $475,000 to employees who had complained about break policies. An employee s claim that she was fired after complaining about the company s treatment of women was settled separately; its terms remain confidential.If Trump really treated women with respect, why did he have to give hush money to a female employee who complained about ill-treatment of not just her, but women overall?Maybe someone should tell Kellyanne Conway before the next time she starts babbling on about how great he is.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
U.S. says it wants Syrian government to negotiate 'seriously' with opposition | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday urged supporters of the Syrian government to press it to participate fully in negotiations with the opposition, saying a lack of a political resolution in the war-torn country threatened indefinite instability. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the State Department said the United States wanted the government s supporters to use their leverage to urge the regime to participate fully in tangible negotiations with the opposition in Geneva. The United States urges all parties to work seriously toward a political resolution to this conflict or face continued isolation and instability indefinitely in Syria, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. A United Nations negotiator characterized a round of peace talks that ended on Thursday as a missed opportunity, and he laid most of the blame at the feet of Syria s government. | 0fake |
Gatlinburg Residents Return Home to Wildfire Destruction - The New York Times | GATLINBURG, Tenn. — The annual Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade had been canceled — the wildfire saw to that — and the procession that replaced it Friday was long and grim. The residents of Gatlinburg sat idling in their cars and trucks in the chill of a mountain morning, waiting to return to the little tourist city they had been forced to evacuate Monday night. For most of them, it would be the first time back since the fire in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park roared through, whipped into a rage by an uncommonly strong wind. Now, four days later, government crews were still up on the winding streets looking for survivors and bodies. The authorities said that nearly 1, 000 buildings had been damaged or destroyed in Sevier County, which includes Gatlinburg, a city of about 4, 000. Thirteen people were confirmed dead. Nellie Gauvreau, 47, was behind the wheel of an old Dodge van, smoking. She had already heard that her home had burned down, but she wanted to see it for herself. Her friend Sherry Angel, 44, was in the passenger seat. Ms. Angel had heard that her aunt had died in the blaze, though other family members said Friday that the woman was only missing. The line of cars crept toward town. “What happens now,” Ms. Gauvreau said, “is that we just pick up our pieces and move on. ” There were moments this week in Gatlinburg when crying seemed like the only reasonable response. The police chief choked back tears at a news conference. Katrina Bogle, 41, a worker at a Subway restaurant near the perimeter of the evacuation zone, cried Friday while assembling a sandwich. “This is incredible, what Jesus is doing, isn’t it?” she said. It was particularly painful that the fire, a disaster of a magnitude modern Gatlinburg has never seen, would come at the onset of the Christmas season. This dramatically beautiful pocket of Appalachian East Tennessee is a place of tiny country churches and a big, homegrown — and homespun — entertainment business, and Christmas is a crucial time for both. Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park is a few miles away in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg’s gaudier sister city. Southern families flock to the area just before Christmas to shop at outlet malls and fill up the holiday attractions. In Gatlinburg, it is the charm of the Fantasy of Lights parade. In Pigeon Forge, it is the live Nativity show at the Dixie Stampede dinner theater and the special seasonal “Christmas Disaster” version of the comic Hatfield McCoy Dinner Show. By Friday, the dawning scope of the economic damage had begun to mingle with the more pressing grief and shock. Rumors of the victims’ identities trickled through the emergency shelters the authorities had only publicly named five of them as of Friday afternoon. Survivors traded their stories of narrow escape through the smoke and racing flames Monday night. But many had also begun to wonder what they would do next. “If the tourists don’t come back, there’s no work,” Silvestre Trinidad, 25, a restaurant employee, said in Spanish as he waited around with a large group of men who shared similar stories at the Rocky Top Sports World, a big athletic complex that turned into the main shelter. The return procession to Gatlinburg Friday was only temporary: Residents, and even tourists, who had been forced to leave town at a moment’s notice, were given little time to assess, grab essentials and leave. The mayor of Sevier County, Larry Waters, said that the city would not be open to the public until Wednesday at the latest. A number of the burned buildings were vacation rentals. But a bigger worry was the international news of the disaster, and the fact that it was difficult to discern, from a distance, what had not been ruined. Mark Adams, the chief executive and president of the Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce, posted a video on Facebook showing off the relatively unmolested main commercial strip. “Everything is here,” he said. “All the shops that you’re accustomed to seeing here. ” But some were hesitant to visit what they thought might be a disaster zone. The problem was even afflicting Pigeon Forge, which was largely unscathed. Kelly Johnson and her family operate a number of restaurants in the area. One of them, a Gatlinburg steak house, burned down. But she said that big parties — family reunions and rehearsal dinners — had been canceling at her Pigeon Forge business. “It did not burn the city to the ground,” she said. “And if people think that happened, we are in big, big trouble. ” David Fee, president of the company that owns the Hatfield McCoy Dinner Show, said the fire had cost the company at least $300, 000 in the past three days. That included some 2, 000 donated meals and lost ticket revenues, he said. “We’re not going to lay anybody off as long as we’re able,” he said. But, “a quarter of a million dollars in three days is nothing you can sustain for long. ” Ms. Parton announced Thursday that she would donate $1, 000 a month for up to six months to county residents who had lost their homes. A native of Sevier County, Ms. Parton has become one of the area’s most prominent benefactors, and the gesture burnished a reputation that needs no burnishing. At the shelter, Nancy Garner, 54, said Ms. Parton used to regularly to give her cash decades ago, when Ms. Garner was working as a housekeeper for minimum wage and trying to raise her children. Ms. Parton, she said, is distant kin. “She’s got a big heart, I’ll tell you that,” she said. Those close family and community ties remain in Sevier County, even as Dollywood has given the place a corporate makeover, and people were relying on them heavily this week. Ms. Gauvreau, a rental property manager, drove into town past buildings next to perfectly fine ones: the fire, it seemed, had hopscotched around erratically. She teared up at the sight of her house. She looked for a cat but had no luck. Then she screwed up some courage and drove on through the ghost town to survey the properties she is charged with overseeing. “My heart is not hurting because of me,” she had said earlier. “I’m hurting for the tenants of mine that I saw every day. ” | 0fake |
Detained Reuters journalist wrote children's book on nature and absence | YANGON (Reuters) - At the end of an illustrated book written for children in Myanmar, a much-loved village teacher who has planted many trees and a beautiful garden tells his students that the time has come for him to leave them. Oh students, he says. I won t be here but you will still have the trees to give you fruit and shade and take care of you every year. So you will remember me and not be so sad. The author of The Gardener was Wa Lone, one of two Reuters journalists who were arrested in Yangon last week and accused of violating the country s colonial-era Official Secrets Act. Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis that has seen some 650,000 Rohingya Muslims flee from a fierce military crackdown on militants in the western state of Rakhine. They have not been seen for a week. The Gardener is one of a series published by The Third Story Project, a venture co-founded by Wa Lone that produces books in Burmese, other Myanmar languages and English and distributes them free to children across the country. On the project s website, Wa Lone says the aim was to promote tolerance and harmony in an increasingly multicultural and diverse world. Lack of understanding has led to conflicts between different communities and finally destroyed peace and stability, he wrote. I love every Third Story book because they address important issues for future generations. In Wa Lone s story, which also carries a message of the importance of protecting the environment, the teacher scatters seeds from his bicycle on the journey to school and years later they have grown into huge trees. He also plants a garden with his students and, there, he tells them stories. He leaves them one day to help another village, where all the trees had been cut down and there was no fruit, water or shelter for the people and animals. The last page of the story shows a figure in the distance and the words: The teacher said goodbye to his students and rode his old bicycle down the road toward the other village. | 0fake |
SHOCKER!!! Left Wing MSNBC commentator Chris Mathews has just endorsed Donald Trump for president | SHOCKER!!! Left Wing MSNBC commentator Chris Mathews has just endorsed Donald Trump for president In the meantime, Hillary Clinton has just ordered a fireworks display to celebrate her winning the election on Nov. 8th. But this could blow up in her face! Hillary Clinton may have lit the fuse for her victory celebration a little too soon — by planning an Election Night explosion of fireworks over the Hudson River in New York City. NY Post NYC Cops and firefighters were blown away by Clinton’s hubris in planning the fireworks display, which would eclipse the shower of blazing sparkles that preceded the balloon drop at July’s Democratic National Convention. Somebody asked “If she loses, will she take the displsy over to the East Side and sell it to Trump for half-price?” | 1real |
Reporter Calls Out The Racist Writer Trump Invited To Press Briefing – Press Room Erupts In Chaos | He may work for Fox Radio but this man deserves a ton of respect for what he just did. At a breaking point with Trump s love affair with the racist blog The Gateway Pundit, Fox Radio s Jon Decker openly and vehemently criticized the White House for allowing the website, which panders in fake right-wing conspiracies and racist rhetoric, to attend daily press briefings alongside legitimate news sources.Decker didn t hold back. Pointing directly at The Gateway Pundit s Lucian Wintrich, Decker noted that he and his site hate blacks, Jews, [and] Hispanics and don t deserve to be in the room. It was a moment where a reporter finally had enough of Trump s normalization of racism, white Nationalism, and xenophobic outlets like Gateway Pundit and Breitbart.The site s founder, Jim Hoft, is frequently referred to as the stupidest man on the Internet for his daily parade of false and idiotic coverage of politics. He has repeatedly ran stories that fail to hold up to even the most basic scrutiny and often deals in wild conspiracies. Trump may like them because they relentlessly suck up to him, but they are despicable liars who deal in misinformation and hate.After Decker called Wintrich out, chaos ensued:Fox News Radio John Decker just loudly told everyone in briefing room that Gateway Pundit is here "they hate blacks, Jews, Hispanics." Wild Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) March 10, 2017He was speaking to Lucian Wintrich. He said it twice, pointing to him, so everyone knew who he was. https://t.co/42njWQQ0fX Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) March 10, 2017Needless to say, Wintrich saw things differently. On Twitter, he whined that he was assaulted by Decker. Apparently being called a racist is tantamount to a sucker punch for the poor conspiracy theorist. He also (hilariously) misspelled the word assault several times, again highlighting the caliber of writer Trump personally gave a seat in the press briefing room.Jon Decker asulted me at today's briefing. @FoxNews is this behavior something you tolerate over there? He's sick .https://t.co/gzZhhIzOMD pic.twitter.com/ThppoHpRQw Lucian B. Wintrich (@lucianwintrich) March 10, 2017John Decker also asulted me, pushing me in the break room & then grabbing my arm in the briefing room while shouting that I'm a nazi. https://t.co/RiVM1yYCJv Lucian B. Wintrich (@lucianwintrich) March 10, 2017Wintrich also said he would be pressing charges against Decker for assult and also for harassment ironic because Trump s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski once claimed it was no big deal when he yanked the arm of a female reporter who had dared to ask Trump a question as he walked out of a rally.In a statement, Decker pointed out that at no point did he assault Wintrich, who appears to be lying. Earlier today I had a conversation with a representative from the online publication Gateway Pundit. The conversation was straightforward and direct. I also informed the full White House pool that this representative was present in the Briefing Room. At no time did I accost or assault this individual. More than a dozen witnesses will attest to this fact. For Trump to be stopped, reporters as well as ordinary citizens need to stand up to the normalization of his descent into racism and xenophobia. Inviting a fear-mongering, disreputable smear merchant like The Gateway Pundit into the White House shows a level of disrespect for the American people that transcends politics. Kudos to Decker for standing up and loudly saying that it s not okay.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Trump Spokeswoman Awkwardly Admits She Has No F*cking Clue What Makes Him Think Obama Tapped His ‘Wires’ (VIDEO) | Donald Trump s surrogates are desperately trying to defend him after he leveled some pretty serious charges at President Obama based on what he read in a far-Right propaganda rag. According to The Donald, President Obama ordered the wires at Trump Tower tapped. He provided no evidence, of course, but White House officials confirm that The Donald got his information from Breitbart. However, it doesn t seem that his surrogates want to admit where he gets what he thinks are facts.On Monday, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did her best to defend Trump. The president firmly believes the Obama administration may have tapped into the phones at Trump Tower, Sanders told Today anchor Savannah Guthrie. And is that based on media reports? Guthrie asked, referencing the Breitbart piece that had been circulating among Trump s staff just before his Twitter outburst. This is something we should look into, we d like to know for sure, Sanders replied. Look, the media has been extremely dismissive of this reporting and this potential story, while all the while being very happy to jump on all of the false attacks that have been launched at this president over the last six months. Just so we re clear on this one, specific point is his information, that President Obama tapped his phone, based solely on something he read in the media? Guthrie pressed. Look, I haven t had the chance to have that conversation directly with the president, Sanders said. He s got much higher classification than I [do], so he may have access to the documents that I don t know about. But I do know that we take this very seriously, and we think it should be thoroughly reviewed and investigated. But, of course, level of classification does not matter because the information came from a report by an outlet that serves as the platform for the alt-right (alt-right is the soft term for Nazis ) according to White House chief strategist Steve Bannon when he was head honcho of the publication. Worse yet, the claim was based on the words of a known conspiracy theorist who now admits he can t back his allegations. But, like Trump, he says he really wants to know if Obama did tap Trump Tower s wires. Despite the complete lack of evidence, Trump demanded that Republicans investigate Obama and they say they will. Anything to distract from the very real problem of the Trump administration s troubling ties with Russia, right?Watch the exchange below: Is that the source of this information? Strictly from media reports & not from any other source? @savannahguthrie asks @SarahHuckabee pic.twitter.com/8JKCVBwzc6 TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 6, 2017Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Bangladeshi Assault Kills 2 Militants but Fails to End Standoff - The New York Times | DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladeshi troops using armored vehicles and firing bullets and tear gas assaulted an apartment house on Sunday in the northeastern city of Sylhet, killing two of the militants besieged in the building, the authorities said. But the troops did not succeed in ending a violent standoff that has left six other people dead, including two police officers, and has injured at least 43. Zedan Al Musa, an additional deputy commissioner of the Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said in a telephone interview that the injured included two officers of the army’s antiterrorism Rapid Action Battalion, including its director of intelligence, Lt. Col. Abul Kalam Azad. A spokesman for the battalion, Cmdr. Mufti Mahmud Khan, said on Sunday that Colonel Azad was in critical condition and had been flown to Singapore for treatment. The six deaths and most of the injuries, including those to the colonel, occurred Saturday night, Commissioner Musa said, when two explosions were set off by militants at a checkpoint about 400 yards from the apartment building, where a crowd had gathered. The Islamic State claimed responsibility on social media “for a bombing on Bangladeshi forces in Sylhet,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist communications. Bangladesh’s elite police forces have been trying to crack down on militant groups since a deadly attack on a restaurant last year, arresting and sometimes killing suspected militants. The attacks that had become commonplace in the country in recent years have largely stopped. Reports of attacks on religious minorities have increased in recent weeks, though, including the killings of a Sufi spiritual leader and his daughter and an attack on a Bangladeshi Christian. So far, neither crime has been officially linked to extremists. The Sylhet siege follows a week of botched suicide bombings in Dhaka. A man detonated explosives on Friday at a police checkpoint near the international airport in Dhaka, killing only himself, the police said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. Mr. Musa said the police began the Sylhet operation Thursday night, when they received word that militants were hiding on the ground floor of the building on the edge of the city. He said officers cordoned off the building that evening, and were joined Friday by a specially trained police unit from Dhaka. More than 70 residents of the building were evacuated that day, he said, and army commandos took over the operation Saturday. Brig. Gen. Fakhrul Ahsan said in a televised news conference that the militants had small arms, explosives and suicide vests, and had planted improvised explosive devices in the building. “They are well trained, and have thrown back the grenades we lobbed at them,” he said. Army commandos led the assault on Sunday, General Ahsan said. The two militants killed were wearing suicide vests, and one of them managed to set his off, the general said, adding that one or two more militants were believed to still be in the building. “The operation will take more time,” he said. “There are risks involved, and we are not in any hurry. ” | 0fake |
Watchdog presses U.S. lawmakers to probe Icahn's role with Trump | (Reuters) - A government watchdog group, Public Citizen, said on Wednesday it has asked lawmakers to investigate whether Carl Icahn violated lobbying disclosure laws, a complaint the billionaire investor denied and called a “witch hunt.” The group said Icahn may have been acting as a lobbyist when he advised President Donald Trump to overhaul the U.S. biofuels program. Icahn, an unpaid adviser to Trump on regulation, submitted a proposal to Trump last month to change the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard by shifting the burden of blending biofuels into gasoline away from oil refining companies, and further down the supply chain to marketers. Public Citizen said that, because Icahn owns a controlling stake in a refinery that could benefit from the proposed change, he may have been required by a 1995 lobbying disclosure law to disclose his discussions with Trump on the subject as lobbying. The group said it has made its request for a probe in a letter sent to Congress on Wednesday morning. “All of this has occurred with no record of any (Lobbying Disclosure Act) filings by or on behalf of Mr. Icahn,” Public Citizen said in a copy of the letter provided to Reuters. Icahn did not respond to Reuters requests for comment but described the complaint in an opinion piece on The Hill website as a “gross misstatement of the facts” and said he had vetted his activities with lawyers. The RFS, signed into law by former President George W. Bush, requires oil companies to mix increasing levels of renewable fuels into gasoline and diesel each year - a requirement that many refiners say costs them millions of dollars. Oil companies can either blend biofuels or buy paper credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN), from those that have. Icahn owns an 82-percent stake in refiner CVR Energy Inc (CVI.N), which along with other refining companies, has urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shift the blending obligation away from them. “While we are not fighting the Renewable Fuel Standard, I have for months and will continue to speak out against the misguided way in which the EPA has been administering the RFS” with regards to the agency’s handling of a “corrupt” RIN market, Icahn said. Efforts to reach the White House were not immediately successful. “Carl Icahn is between an ethics rock and a lobbying hard place,” said Norman Eisen, co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington who served as the chief ethics lawyer for former President Barack Obama. “If he claims he is an informal advisor, then he is subject to lobbying rules.” Icahn has disclosed his role as a Trump adviser to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but he has not registered as a lobbyist. Several Democratic lawmakers have said they want more information about his role in the Trump administration. Shares of CVR Energy jumped over 1 percent following Icahn’s response but pared gains and was unchanged at $21.40 by 3:47 p.m. EST (2047 GMT). Share values have risen about 70 percent since the presidential election. Over that time, Icahn’s stake has gained over $600 million in value, according to Reuters data. Last week, the head of a U.S. biofuels group said Icahn told him that Trump was readying an executive order to change the point of obligation for blending under the biofuels program, something both the White House and Icahn have denied. The White House has said it is reviewing Icahn’s proposal and has not yet taken a position. | 0fake |
Supreme Court Faces Volatile, Even if Not Blockbuster, Docket - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, awaiting the outcome of a presidential election that will determine its future, returns to the bench this week to face a volatile docket studded with timely cases on race, religion and immigration. The justices have been shorthanded since Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, and say they are determined to avoid deadlocks. That will require resolve and creativity. “This term promises to be the most unpredictable one in many, many years,” said Neal K. Katyal, a former acting United States solicitor general in the Obama administration now with Hogan Lovells. There is no case yet on the docket that rivals the blockbusters of recent terms addressing health care, abortion or marriage. But such cases are rare, whether there are eight justices or nine. “This term’s cases are not snoozers,” said Elizabeth B. Wydra, the president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal group. “This term features important cases about racial bias in the criminal justice system, voting rights and redistricting, immigration and detention, and accountability for big banks that engaged in racially discriminatory mortgage lending practices. ” There are, moreover, major cases on the horizon, including ones on whether a transgender boy may use the boys’ restroom in a Virginia high school and on whether a Colorado baker may refuse to serve a couple. “If either of these cases is taken, it will almost immediately become the highest profile case on the court’s docket,” said Steven Shapiro, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. There is also the possibility that a dispute over the outcome of the presidential election could end up at the Supreme Court, as it did in 2000 in Bush v. Gore. “That is the doomsday scenario in some respects of having an court,” said Carter G. Phillips, a lawyer with Sidley Austin. A deadlocked Supreme Court would leave in place the lower court ruling and oust the justices from their role as the final arbiters of federal law. Race figures in many of the new term’s most important cases, including two to be heard in October, and that seems to be part of a new trend. “The court hasn’t had a lot of cases recently dealing with race in the criminal justice system,” said Jeffrey L. Fisher, a law professor at Stanford. In June, a dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor brought a new perspective to the issue. Citing James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” and Coates’s “Between the World and Me,” she insisted that the brutal history and contemporary reality of racism in the United States must play a role in the court’s analysis. That dissent may prove influential, said Justin Driver, a law professor at the University of Chicago. “One item to keep an eye on this term,” he said, “is the extent to which the Black Lives Matters movement makes its presence felt on the court’s docket. ” On Wednesday, the court will hear arguments in Buck v. Davis, No. . It arose from an extraordinary assertion by an expert witness in the death penalty trial of Duane Buck, who was convicted of the 1995 murders of a former girlfriend and one of her friends while her young children watched. The expert, presented by the defense, said that black men are more likely to present a risk of future danger. The justices will decide whether Mr. Buck, who is black, may challenge his death sentence based on the ineffectiveness of the trial lawyer who presented that testimony. “The Buck case raises questions that could not be more relevant to ongoing conversations sparked by police shootings about implicit bias and stereotyping of men as violent and dangerous,” Ms. Wydra said. “The Roberts court, and particularly the chief justice himself, has often been reluctant to acknowledge the reality of systemic racism in this country, but the egregious facts of the Buck case make it impossible to avoid. ” On Oct. 11, the court will consider another biased statement, this one ascribed to a juror during deliberations in a sexual assault trial. “I think he did it because he’s Mexican, and Mexican men take whatever they want,” the juror said of the defendant, according to a sworn statement from a second juror. The question in the case, Peña Rodriguez v. Colorado, No. is how to balance the interest in keeping jury deliberations secret against the importance of ridding the criminal justice system of racial and ethnic bias. Race also figures in cases on redistricting, fair housing and malicious prosecution. On Thursday, the court agreed to decide another charged case, Lee v. Tam, No. which asks whether the government may deny federal protection to a trademark said to disparage . The case will probably effectively decide a separate one concerning the Washington Redskins football team. The court will also decide, in Moore v. Texas, No. whether Texas may use an idiosyncratic standard in deciding who must be spared execution because of intellectual disability. The state relies in part on what one judge there called the “Lennie standard,” which exempts defendants who resemble Lennie Small, the dim, hulking farmhand in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men. ” At some point this term, the court will hear a significant religion case, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, No. . It poses the question of whether states must provide aid to churches in at least some circumstances even if their state constitution forbids such assistance. The court agreed to hear the case on Jan. 15, about a month before Justice Scalia died. Other cases granted that day were argued and decided by the end of the last term in June. In the ordinary course, the religion case would have been scheduled for argument in the last term or in October, and certainly not later than November. But the case has yet to be scheduled. “The most logical inference,” said Paul D. Clement, a former solicitor general in the Bush administration now with Kirkland Ellis, “is that this is a case where the court is going to take its time scheduling this in the hopes that they will have nine justices to decide the case in the end because this is a case that could be closely divided. ” The case started when officials in Missouri rejected an application from a Lutheran church for a grant to use recycled tires to resurface a playground. The Missouri Constitution bars spending public money “in aid of any church,” and the State Supreme Court has called for “a very high wall between church and state. ” The church argues that the State Constitution violates equal protection principles and the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion. The court has three immigration cases on its docket, involving detentions, deportations and how children born abroad to an American parent may obtain citizenship. The court has already granted a stay in Gloucester County School Board v. G. G. No. temporarily barring Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy, from using the boys’ bathroom in a Virginia high school. The justices are scheduled to decide whether to hear the case on Oct. 14, and the stay suggests that they may be ready to enter the national debate over transgender rights. Later this term, in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, No. the justices will decide whether to take up a baker’s contention that he should not be compelled to create a cake for a wedding. Mr. Clement, at a briefing at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group, said the justices will most likely be cautious in granting contentious cases until they are back at full strength. “The court seems to be reluctant,” he said, “to add cases to their docket that they think in advance may well divide them 4 to 4. ” But the court may feel it has to try to resolve a dispute arising from the presidential election. “Would they take the case?” Mr. Phillips mused at the same briefing, referring to one along the lines of Bush v. Gore. “My guess is they might. Whether they would ultimately decide anything, who knows?” | 0fake |
ACTOR VINCE VAUGHN DESTROYS The Left With AWESOME Statement On Gun Rights | Boom! Just when you think there isn t a sane person left in Hollywood, actor Vince Vaughn comes out with this brilliant statement on guns. Enjoy! | 1real |
DIRTY, VIOLENT, DIVIDED AND CORRUPT: Disgusted Democrat Exposes Coordinated Corruption, Media Disgusted By Filth, Horrible Organization At DNC [VIDEO] | Hey Democrats If you can t even host a 4-day convention for your own party, how can you ask America to vote for you to run our nation?On Sunday night, at a glitzy reception overlooking the city skyline, the conversations among Washington Democrats and K Street lobbyists were as much about convention-related problems as they were about politics. Every convention has its memorable problems, but this is a lot, one lobbyist said.On Monday, the opening night of the four-day event, the concession stands at the Wells Fargo Center were essentially sold out of water and food before the prime-time speeches even started.This unnamed Democrat was shocked when he realized how many people were being paid to fill convention seats left empty by Democrats who left in disgust by Wikileaks revelations only days before the start of the DNC that proved the Democrat Party intentionally denied Bernie Sanders the opportunity to win his party s nomination:#CrookedHillary+Traitor-N-Chief islam Supreme Leader #obama lock out Bernie delegates>pay 4 supporters.#DemsInPhilly https://t.co/cblWiSSKLu Bruce Porter, Jr. (@NetworksManager) July 28, 2016This tweet just verifies what the Democrat above exposed about the corrupt Democrats, where nothing is as it appears:There are DNC volunteers here too now who chant "Hillary!" when the protesters start chanting. pic.twitter.com/780BH8YFOr Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) July 29, 2016Here s what happened when Democrats outside attempted to tear down the huge DNC fence surrounding the venue. This video is SHOCKING and really shows what the media refused to broadcast to mainstream Americans during Hillary s speech:I m in disbelief that this is real footage of #DNCinPHL right now.Absolute madness. pic.twitter.com/IhsOs3bXTY political doggo mike (@mikedogli) July 28, 2016Visitors also were shocked to learn that they couldn t swipe a credit card to pay for a $2.25 subway ride on the SEPTA, instead having to cough up cash. I ve been getting yelled at all day, said a SEPTA booth attendant at the City Hall stop, which has been the staging area for the thousands of Sanders supporters and other protesters.California Democrat Delegates were caught leaving the convention in protest of the dirty dealings of the DNC:California delegates are walking out mid Clinton speech #DNCDisaster #DNC pic.twitter.com/pXgbRKhkqt Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) July 29, 2016Watch protesters storm DNC during Hillary s acceptance speech. Where was the security? Were the Democrats woefully unprepared for the violence and protests they would face during their convention? Who organized this event? Trump s campaign was clearly not given enough credit for their flawless convention, as there were no reports of disfunction, violence, or chaos anywhere near or inside of the RNC convention hall.BREAKING: Protesters just stormed the #DNCinPHL #DemsinPhilly Booing #HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/NmCdZzVhpW Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 29, 2016The protests, including a six-mile march that snarled city traffic, got so raucous Tuesday that police shut down the subway stop closest to the Wells Fargo venue, as demonstrators pushed against the police line and got dangerously close to the delegates and others with official convention passes.Protesters completely shut down media and attendees from attending DNC:Protesters have shut down both exits near The Wells Fargo Center #DemsInPhilly #DNCinPHL pic.twitter.com/D1yI7rZ5nL Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 28, 2016As a result, officials intend to add an extra wall of chain-linked fencing to avoid more problems.Notoriously critical reporters have been among the most outspoken.Watch: To be totally objective and nonpartisan: the logistics at DNC are appalling. Squalid hotels, sweltering workspace, no directions. Chaos, tweeted Megan Liberman, editor-in-chief at Yahoo News.Via: Fox News | 1real |
Timeline: Milestones in legal fight over Texas abortion law | (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to abortion rights advocates, striking down a Texas law imposing strict regulations on abortion doctors and facilities. Following is a timeline of that challenge. July 2013 - The Republican-led Texas legislature passes and Republican Governor Rick Perry signs the law known as H.B. 2, putting new requirements on abortion providers. State officials say the law is intended to ensure the health and safety of women. September 2013 – Before the law is enforced, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers challenge the measure. They assert that certain provisions, including one related to doctors’ “admitting privileges” - a type of formal affiliation - at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of an abortion clinic, are aimed at decreasing the abortion availability in the state. October 2013 – A U.S. district judge sides largely with the challengers, blocking the admitting privileges provision. March 2014 - The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, a regional federal appeals court covering Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, reverses the lower court and permits much of the law to take effect. April 2014 - Whole Woman’s Health and other abortion providers bring a new complaint against Texas, citing the effect of the law’s implementation and the number of clinics that have closed. The challengers focus on the admitting-privileges requirement and regulations governing clinic facility standards. August 2014 – A U.S. district court judge declares the admitting privileges and clinic requirements an unconstitutional burden on women’s access to abortion. October 2014 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit intervenes to allow implementation of both new regulations, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocks part of the order so that the mandate that clinics meet hospital-grade standards does not go into effect. June 2015 - After considering the full merits of the challenge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reverses the district judge’s decision, finding the judge should have deferred to the legislature’s stated health and safety goals. The appeals court also says most of the lawsuit should have been barred because the legal issues it raises already were addressed in the case filed by Planned Parenthood. June 2015 - The U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote puts a temporary hold on the 5th Circuit’s ruling while the justices consider whether to hear the challengers’ appeal. That action blocks the provision regarding hospital-grade standards from taking effect. September 2015 - The abortion providers challenging the Texas restrictions ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal of the 5th Circuit’s ruling. November 2015 - The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the challenge by abortion providers to the Texas restrictions. February 2016 - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a supporter of abortion restrictions, dies at age 79, leaving the court shorthanded and evenly divided with four liberals and four conservatives. March 2016 - The U.S. Supreme Court hears 85 minutes of oral arguments in the case, known as Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The court’s four liberal justices indicate they believe the law intrudes on a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. The four conservative justices express doubts about claims by abortion providers that the law forced numerous clinics to shut down. June 2016 - The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Texas law, finding that it places an undue burden on women exercising their right under the U.S. Constitution to end a pregnancy. The court declares that both provisions of the law - “admitting privileges” and hospital-grade facilities - are unconstitutional. The ruling marks the firmest endorsement of U.S. abortion rights since the 1992 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey ruling. | 0fake |
Britain backs Libyan plans to work towards elections next year | LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday he believed that Libya s plans to work toward elections in 2018 were probably the right timescale . In July, rival leaders pledged in Paris to work towards elections in 2018 and a conditional ceasefire. U.N. Libya envoy Ghassan Salame said constitutional and electoral laws would have to be written to ensure any vote brought lasting change. Would it be premature to hold the elections within a year? I happen to think that could be about the right timescale, Johnson told a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It is very important however, that you don t do it too fast and that you get the political groundwork done first, he added. There has to be a constitution, there has to be an accepted basis for those elections to take place. | 0fake |
PRIMEROS VIDEOS: las consecuencias del fuerte terremoto en Italia | PRIMEROS VIDEOS: las consecuencias del fuerte terremoto en Italia 18:14 GMT | Última actualización: 26 oct 2016 21:45 GMT
Dos sismos de magnitud 5,6 y 6,1 han sacudido este miércoles la parte central de Italia. El Coliseo de RomaTony Gentile Tony Gentile Reuters
Un sismo de magnitud 5,6 ha sacudido la parte central de Italia, según informa GEOFON . Sin embargo, el Centro Sismológico Europeo del Mediterráneo (IEMSC, por sus siglas en inglés) ha asegurado que la intensidad del terremoto ha sido de 5,5. — Claudio Paudice (@clapaudice) 26 октября 2016 г.
El temblor se ha registrado a 66 kilómetros de Perugia (Umbría, Italia) a las 19:11, hora local. El foco se ubicó a dos kilómetros de profundidad y el epicentro se situó 37 kilómetros al oeste de la localidad de Ascoli Piceno —gravemente afectada por un fenómeno similar el pasado 25 de agosto— y 132 kilómetros al nordeste de Roma, la capital del país, en donde también se ha sentido. Así se sintió el #sismo en el centro de Italia pic.twitter.com/b8QLLnvz6M [Vía @annap905 ] | 1real |
Trump Just Got Owned HARD By McDonald’s Twitter Account And The Internet Is ‘Lovin’ It’ (SCREENSHOTS) | It appears that a hacker had a bit of fun with McDonald s corporate Twitter account Thursday morning. You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have Barack Obama back, also you have tiny hands, the account tweeted to Donald Trump and whichever nameless hero did it even pinned the tweet.Apparently, the hacker wanted to take the opportunity to make a completely accurate statement about Trump but The Donald s fans will surely be boycotting the fast food giant by buying cheeseburgers and writing TRUMP on the wrapper or something stupid like when they tried to boycott Starbucks by buying coffee.Naturally, the internet is lovin it :Can't wait for @realDonaldTrump to tell us McDonald's is overrated and that he doesn't even eat mcdonalds. pic.twitter.com/GKKS2OKkmQ Cole Ledford (@ColeLedford11) March 16, 2017@thehill boycott incoming ?????? aka McDonald's will have record sales. emjaykay (@XmattymayhemX) March 16, 2017Gotta do some soul searching if McDonald's calls you disgusting. TBG (@ThatBoysGood) March 16, 2017WENDY'S: Haha, totally roasted this guy on here for forgetting refrigerators exist. So edgy. MCDONALD'S: Hold my beer pic.twitter.com/Qc28ixMuzE Aaron Sankin (@ASankin) March 16, 2017NSA agents have a suspect for the author of the McDonald's tweet pic.twitter.com/kKBL5pISfJ Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) March 16, 2017I shall eat at @McDonalds this weekend in support of this brave social media manager's kick-ass tweet. Everyone join me! #dumptrump pic.twitter.com/oTeR4xUBLk Michael Erickson (@mistererickson) March 16, 2017Times have changed pic.twitter.com/ZRicHP0SSL Tim Mak (@timkmak) March 16, 2017Dammit McDonald's, stop trying to win back my business so blatantly. pic.twitter.com/AUgGs2TsT2 Alex Kennedy (@ajkjules) March 16, 2017omg, @McDonaldsCorp, but where's @realDonaldTrump gonna get his Big Macs now?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/O5MgUGKxeS Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) March 16, 2017Later in the day, McDonald s tweeted that their account was compromised and that the tweet, which had long been deleted, had been deleted.Twitter notified us that our account was compromised. We deleted the tweet, secured our account and are now investigating this. McDonald's (@McDonaldsCorp) March 16, 2017But we will always remember the heroic hacker who took control of McDonald s corporate Twitter account and forced it to tell the truth about our alleged President.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Resurgent Syrian Rebels Surprise Damascus With New Assaults - The New York Times | BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian insurgents seized several government positions on the outskirts of Damascus on Tuesday in the third day of their most ambitious offensive in the capital in years, sending a sharp reminder that the war in Syria is far from over. Fierce fighting broke out on the northeastern edge of Damascus, as a mix of Islamist rebel groups and jihadists seized an industrial area about a mile from the historic Old City near the heart of the Syrian capital. Rebel offensives erupted in several other parts of the country. Government forces have been scrambling to repel the attack since it began on Sunday, bringing troops and allied militias from other front lines to hold their territory in Damascus, as government warplanes pummel suburbs with scores of strikes. Rebel shells hit the city, wounding 15, and the authorities shut down many of the main roads. After the government seized the eastern half of Aleppo from rebels last year, it worked hard to create the impression that the war was essentially over. The recent activity, including a series of suicide bombings in Damascus and a rebel attack Thursday on the northern city of Hama, seemed to indicate that the war might be entering a new phase instead. While the government still seems to be consolidating control over major population centers along Syria’s western spine, it appears at a minimum likely to face a lingering rural insurgency and bombing campaigns in the cities by jihadist groups. At the least, the rebel assaults carried a political message: that the insurgents could still disrupt life in the capital and challenge the forces of President Bashar at several points around the country, while simultaneously attacking Islamic State fighters. By mounting a series of simultaneous assaults around the country, the rebels seemed intent on exploiting one of the government forces’ main weaknesses. While they have Russian air support and help on the ground from militias, they are spread thin after six years of war and the drain of so many men fleeing the country rather than serving in the army. It was not immediately clear if the rebels could maintain the offensive. Their forces around Damascus have been badly depleted in recent years and their territory rolled back as the government besieged districts and forced their surrender. And the new assaults raised political concerns, in that they continue the alliance between a spectrum of rebel groups and Islamists considered terrorists by Russia and the United States. The rebels are also walking a fine line with Syrian and international public opinion. To build leverage for imminent peace talks, they need to show they can still cause trouble for the government on the ground, undermining its claim that it can control territory and maintain security. Yet, they stand to pay a huge political price if they ally themselves with groups that have been intensifying insurgent attacks like the suicide bombing that killed more than 30 people last week in a historic courthouse in Damascus. No group immediately claimed responsibility for that attack. But fighters linked to Al Qaeda did say they had carried out two suicide bombings this month that killed dozens of Iraqi pilgrims near the Old City. Other rebel groups condemned both of those attacks. There were reports late Tuesday of several new insurgent assaults on government territory taking place at once: one in Hama Province and another on the western outskirts of Aleppo. In recent weeks, rebels have also launched attacks in Daraa Province to the south. Until recently, fighters there had lain low at the behest of foreign sponsors including the United States, but it now appears they have either decided to defy their patrons or persuaded them to heat up the front again. Rebel and jihadi groups were also advancing against the Islamic State in the Qalamoun region, north of Damascus. The government has been hitting areas to the east of Damascus with air raids and artillery for more than a month, despite a nominal that was supposed to be maintained during new rounds of peace talks in Geneva and in Astana, Kazakhstan. None of the rebel groups in the offensive on northeast Damascus are among the ones being backed in a covert C. I. A. program. But Mohammad the leader of the Army of Islam, one of the groups involved in the assault, is nominally the head opposition negotiator in the Geneva peace talks. With their monthlong offensive, government forces appeared to be trying to further isolate the besieged suburbs of East Ghouta, hoping to eventually force the rebels there to surrender or face a grinding battle with widespread humanitarian suffering, as happened in Aleppo. That makes the districts of Jobar and Qaboun, and neighboring Barzeh, critical territory for both sides. They are the gateway to the business and tourism center of Damascus, where relatively normal life has been a symbol of the government’s continuing control over the capital during six years of conflict. For the rebels, the area contains the smuggling tunnels that help supply East Ghouta, supplementing whatever food can be grown there. A main highway out of Damascus passes nearby, and during lulls in the fighting when it is passable drivers survey a landscape of jagged shells of destroyed buildings. Rebels initially gained ground in a surprise attack on Sunday. Government command posts were hit by two suicide bombs detonated by fighters from Tahrir the new name adopted by the Nusra Front after it claimed to shed its affiliation with Al Qaeda. Then rebel groups including Faylaq the Army of Islam and Ahrar advanced. The attacks took Damascus residents by surprise. Schools were closed for at least a day. Smoke could be seen rising over familiar landmarks. A reporter for Syrian state television, in the midst of assuring the audience that life was going on as normal in central Abasiyeen Square, flinched on air at the sound of a nearby projectile. When she was seen next, she was newly clad in a flak jacket and helmet. The government responded in force to the initial assault. Elite units, regular troops, irregulars in jeans carrying Kalashnikovs, members of foreign militias and armored vehicles could be seen near the front line on Sunday and Monday. They managed to take back the territory, but on Tuesday the insurgents hit back and regained much of the contested ground. Footage showed fighters with Ahrar entering a textile factory they had just seized. | 0fake |
U.S. House committee 'may reconsider' WHO cancer agency funds | LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional committee members warned on Friday that Washington’s funding of the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency could be halted unless it is more open about its operations. In a letter to the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) - a semi-autonomous unit of the WHO - the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee warned it “may reconsider U.S. taxpayer funding” if IARC “does not demonstrate transparency”. No-one at IARC, which is based in Lyon, France, was immediately available to comment. Since 1985, IARC has received more than $48 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, $22 million of which has gone to IARC’s “monograph” program, which assesses whether various substances can cause cancer in people. Friday’s letter is the latest twist in an ongoing feud between IARC and two congressional committees. They began an investigation in 2016 after a number of IARC’s assessments - that substances as diverse as coffee, mobile phones and processed meat cause cancer - sparked controversy. The lawmakers said their concerns were also fueled by the cancer agency’s review of glyphosate, the primary ingredient of Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup. A Reuters investigation in October found that a draft of a key section of IARC’s assessment of glyphosate underwent significant changes before the report was made public. In their letter, SST Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, Vice Chairman Frank Lucas, and Chairman of the Environment Subcommittee, Andy Biggs, repeated an earlier request to IARC’s director, Christopher Wild, to provide potential witnesses for a hearing before their committee. “If IARC does not provide a full response to the request for potential witnesses, the committee will consider whether the values of scientific integrity and transparency are reflected in IARC Monographs and if future expenditures of federal taxpayer dollars to this end need to continue,” they wrote. Smith and Biggs had last month written to Wild asking him for more information about IARC’s operations and a list of potential witnesses for a hearing. Wild responded in a letter on Nov. 20 in which he defended IARC’s monographs as “consensus evaluations developed by working groups of independent experts, free from vested interests”. He declined to provide a list of potential witnesses for the hearing, but said Smith and Biggs would be welcome to visit IARC and question him and his staff. In Friday’s letter, the lawmakers said their concerns about IARC were of a “serious nature” and “should not be disregarded by IARC”. They asked Wild to respond by Dec. 15. | 0fake |
Election Mood Setting Music for You and Your Family | Election Mood Setting Music for You and Your Family 11/08/2016 11/08/2016 | 1real |
Trump: NATO Is ’Obsolete’ | Donald Trump’s latest shot across the bow of NATO hit close enough to leave some European leaders dripping with “astonishment and agitation,” as German Foreign Minister Steinmeier put it. [“I said a long time ago that NATO had problems,” Trump said during the interview with the Times of London and Germany’s Bild. “Number one, it was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago. Number two, the countries weren’t paying what they’re supposed to pay. ” Trump expanded on the latter point by explaining that “countries aren’t paying their fair share so we’re supposed to protect countries but a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States. ” Specifically, he said Britain was one of five countries “paying what they’re supposed to,” out of 22 members. Trump nonetheless stressed that NATO is “very important to me,” and that he feels “very strongly toward Europe,” comments that appear to have been omitted from or dismissed by many reports on the interview by American and European media outlets. Another part of Trump’s remarks quoted by very few outlets reporting the Times and Bild interview is his stern criticism of Russia’s intervention in Syria. Monday’s Twitter streams are filled with mockery of Trump as a Russian pawn or collaborator, because the Russians swiftly agreed with his description of NATO as “obsolete,” but he was quite tough on what they have been doing to Syria: Nah, I think it’s a very rough thing. It’s a very bad thing, we had a chance to do something when we had the line in the sand and it wasn’t — nothing happened. That was the only time — and now, it’s sort of very late. It’s too late. Now everything is over — at some point it will come to an end — but Aleppo was nasty. I mean when you see them shooting old ladies walking out of town — they can’t even walk and they’re shooting ’em — it almost looks like they’re shooting ’em for sport — ah no, that’s a terrible — that’s been a terrible situation. Aleppo has been such a terrible humanitarian situation. He followed this up by saying he trusts German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, “but let’s see how long that lasts, it may not last long at all. ” He was responding to a question about whether he understands the historical importance of NATO to Europeans, and their continuing apprehension about Russia, when he described the alliance as “obsolete. ” He was not saying there is no need for caution or defense against Russia he was saying NATO, as currently constructed and funded, is not the ideal tool for the job. CNN writes that Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov “agreed with Trump’s assessment of NATO” by saying “the systematic goal of this organization is confrontation. ” That is not what Trump said, but apparently the media had decided any and all attacks on NATO, from everyone, constitute agreement with Trump. Various levels of pushback and panic fill the bulk of CNN’s article, including the German Foreign Minister, Steinmeier, portraying the alliance as “rattled” by Trump’s remarks, and relaying “concerns” from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “A strong NATO is good for the United States, just as it is for Europe,” declared NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu. CBS News cites French Foreign Minister Ayrault calling for Europeans to “stay united, together as a bloc” in response to Trump’s remarks. AFP describes Chancellor Merkel’s response to Trump’s comments as “sharp,” but she merely said, “We Europeans have our fate in our own hands. ” “I am personally waiting for the inauguration of the U. S. president. Then of course we will work with him on all levels,” she added. If that is a “sharp” response, then Trump has already won his political struggle with Europe, and he is not even sworn in yet. Europe “taking its fate in its own hands” appears to be what Trump wants when he objects that the NATO burden on the United States is too high. Europe reeks of obsolescence right now, far beyond NATO headquarters. If the election of Donald Trump jolts Europe’s leaders into action, then American voters have done the people of Britain and the Continent a huge favor. | 0fake |
An 11-Year Old Girl Interviewed Hillary, And Her Answers Are Beautiful | Eleven-year-old Marley Dias always wanted to be our first woman president so she could work to fix problems in the world. Then she realized that she doesn t have to be president to start working on the world s problems, and she founded a book drive known as #1000BlackGirlBooks. She s been looking for stories about young, black girls for nearly the last year.Marley s now looking at possibly having our first female president before she s even old enough to vote, and she has a few questions for Hillary Clinton.Elle printed the interview in full, and Hillary replied to Marley the exact same way she would reply to anyone else interviewing her. However, she also seemed to try and relate her experiences in a way that will help Marley as she grows up.For instance, Marley asked her about her favorite books, including her favorite black girl book. On that subject, Hillary told her: One of my favorite authors is Maya Angelou, and I love her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It tells the story of how Maya became such a strong, confident, determined person.Some parts are painful and hard to read, but of course that s the case in a lot of great books. And because Maya became a friend of mine in real life, it meant a lot to be able to read her story and understand her journey better. Hillary then quoted part of Angelou s On The Pulse Of The Morning, and finished with: Maya led a really difficult life, but she never forgot that each new day presented new opportunities. I m sure she felt afraid sometimes, just like we all do, but she didn t let her fears hold her back. That s a lesson I try to remember each and every day. As a black girl, who appears to already be growing into a strong black woman herself, knowing that Hillary has taken the experiences of someone like Maya Angelou and used them as inspiration to keep pushing forward, day after day, must be huge.We re not post-gender, and we re not post-racial either. Marley is growing up in a society that still currently sees her as very much less-than. Hillary is saying, I was scared. You ll be scared. Things will get tough. But you can survive it and come out the other side stronger than you ever thought you could be. Here s how I know. Along those same lines, Marley also asked Hillary what advice she d give to her 11-year old self. Hillary said: I would say that when you have a big dream or you re trying to solve a big problem, there will always be people who tell you that you can t. Here s my advice: don t listen. Keep striving for your goals, and remember that it s good to be ambitious. There s nothing wrong with knowing what you want and going after it.And Marley, what you ve accomplished already is proof of that. Marley started #1000BlackGirlBooks because she was getting fed up with the books that her schools were having her read they re classics, sure, but they almost always feature white boys as the main character. Black people particularly black girls are never a main character in these books. Yet, the books do exist and she was determined to bring them out into the light.Her book drive has already collected well over 4,000 titles a very impressive feat according to Hillary.Featured image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
’USA Today’ Article on Quarterback Marvels How He Can Be Friendly With Both Blacks and Whites - Breitbart | USA Today sports writer Lorenzo Reyes apparently cannot write about a quarterback without injecting into the story racism and racial motivations where they do not really belong. [For his January 10 article on biracial Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, Reyes found Prescott’s playing stats far less interesting than the fact that Dak is somehow amazingly able to be friendly with both the black players and the white ones on his team. “Beasley is a white receiver from Houston. Gathers is 24 and from LaPlace, La. but black. The gift Prescott has is the ability to bond with both,” Reyes writes seemingly in shock. “I grew up in Haughton, Louisiana,” Prescott told Reyes. “I go to my white grandparents’ house, and then I cross the railroad tracks and hang out with my black grandma. We have English teachers on my white side. My grandpa is a principal. And then you go to the other side and people have been in jail. ” Reyes goes on for hundreds of words and over a dozen paragraphs immersed in his amazement over Prescott’s apparently unusual ability to be nice to both blacks and whites. Reyes waxes poetic over how Prescott knows the words to rap songs yet can also sing the chorus of a country music tune, and marvels at Prescott’s ability to “get approval” from players of all races. “Being and being from the country, I can talk to guys like Travis Frederick from Wisconsin and Doug Free from Wisconsin,” Prescott says of two offensive linemen on the Cowboys. “And then I can go over and talk to Dez Bryant. I mean, think about the two different standpoints you need to have a real conversation with both, to really understand what they’ve been through. I don’t think many can do it. For me, it’s not hard. I’m blessed because it’s natural. ” After over a dozen paragraphs delving into the racial aspect of Prescott’s rise on the Cowboys, Reyes finally gets around to discussing his activities and playing record. “An outside contender for MVP, Prescott completed 67. 8% of his passes for 3, 667 yards, posted a 23:4 ratio, and ran for 282 yards and six rushing scores,” Reyes belatedly notes. And from there Reyes gives a serviceable bio on Prescott’s football career. But since it took up half of a very long review of the player’s career, clearly the sports writer found the racial aspect far more interesting than anything approaching actual sports news. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0fake |
Hillary Clinton Maintains Swing State Leads As Comey Email Letter Flops | By Jason Easley on Sun, Oct 30th, 2016 at 10:52 am Republicans hoped that FBI Director James Comey's letter about new Clinton related emails would swing the election for them, but a new series of CBS News Battleground polls shows Clinton keeping her lead and within 2 points of Trump in Arizona. Share on Twitter Print This Post
The CBS News Republicans hoped that FBI Director James Comey’s letter about new Clinton related emails would swing the election for them, but a new series of CBS News Battleground polls shows Clinton keeping her lead and within 2 points of Trump in Arizona.
Battleground tracker found that by a small margin Comey’s letter made Democrats more likely (net +7) to support Clinton.
In the individual battleground states, Clinton leads by eight points in Pennsylvania 48%-40%, North Carolina (48%-45%), and in Colorado (42%-39%). The only state of the four polled where Trump has a small two point lead in Arizona (44%-42%).
According to CBS News , “And the larger demographic difference defining the race between Clinton and Donald Trump has been a gender gap – slightly larger now than the last time in these states – that offsets a smaller movement of Republicans to Trump.”
To put it another way, Hillary Clinton’s support with women is going up at a larger rate than Republican movement towards Trump.
These are the first swing state polls to be taken since FBI Director Comey released his now infamous letter on Friday. The email story isn’t moving voters. It is reinforcing the partisanship of the election. Democrats are going to vote Clinton. Republicans are going to vote for Trump, and there aren’t enough undecided voters to swing the election to Trump.
Republicans were hoping for a Hail Mary touchdown to save Trump, but Clinton continues to lead in critical states with a little more than a week to go before election day. If the Comey letter is the big October surprise, it isn’t working on voters.
Hillary Clinton Maintains Swing State Leads As Comey Email Letter Flops added by Jason Easley on Sun, Oct 30th, 2016 | 1real |
Clinton Camp in Damage-Control Mode Over 'Top Secret' Emails | The latest revelations on Hillary's emails again point to one thing → She is disqualified from being president. https://t.co/Wni9LmSPpR | 0fake |
THE BEST ANTI-HILLARY AD EVER MADE…You’ll Want To Watch This BRUTAL VIDEO More Than Once | The Ted Cruz campaign has identified the enemy and they ve placed a target squarely on their backs. It s about time the GOP candidates stopped targeting each other and focused on the real enemy, Hillary Clinton. It Feels Good To Be A Clinton brilliantly points out the corruption, cover-ups and lies of the Clinton Crime Syndicate. The Cruz campaign uses a very creative rap song in the background to hammer home some brutal truths about Hillary and how she operates We guarantee you ll want to watch this more than once: | 1real |
U.S. Commerce Department to launch China market economy review | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department is launching a new review of whether China should be treated as a market economy country, a designation that would effectively limit the calculation of anti-dumping duties on China-made goods. Buried in a federal notice on Wednesday about an investigation into alleged dumping of Chinese aluminum foil into the U.S. market, the department said it is seeking public comments on China’s non-market economy status. The review comes as the White House prepares for the first face-to-face meeting between President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping on April 6-7 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida. China’s non-market economy status is considered an irritant for Beijing as the Trump administration works on trade policies aimed at reducing the flow of Chinese imports in to the United States. When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, its accession terms allowed other WTO members to treat it as a non-market economy and use a third country’s prices to assess whether Chinese goods were being sold below cost. But part of that clause expired on Dec. 11, 2016, which China says means WTO trading partners must drop their use of such surrogate pricing, which has led to higher U.S. anti-dumping duties on imported Chinese goods. The United States and European Union failed to change their view of China’s status. A day later, Beijing launched a formal complaint against them before the WTO. The Commerce Department last conducted a review of China’s non-market economy status in 2006, determining that China failed on all six determining criteria, which are: * the extent to which the country’s currency is convertible into other currencies; * the extent to which wage rates are determined by free bargaining by labor and management; * the extent to which joint ventures or other investments by foreign firms are permitted in the country; * the extent of government ownership or control of the means of production; * the extent of government control over allocation of resources and over price and output decisions of enterprises, and * other factors the administering authority considers appropriate. | 0fake |
Bellwether? Trump kippas outselling Hillary yarmulkes | Bellwether? Trump kippas outselling Hillary yarmulkes Company sees preference as 'early exit poll of Orthodox Jews' Published: 9 mins ago Print
WASHINGTON – The campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are looking for signs anywhere and everywhere that might suggest who will move into the White House in January.
A company that makes Trump and Hillary kippas or yarmulkes has some good news for one of the presidential hopefuls – Trump head coverings are winning in a landslide among the Orthodox Jewish clientele.
So far, the company, Pic-A-Kippa, has sold 331 Trump yarmulkes to 65 for Clinton.
“My kippa (yarmulke) company sells Trump and Hillary kippas and are keeping track of who is selling more,” Uri Turk, founder and “chief kippa officer,” told WND. “We see it as an early exit poll of the Orthodox Jews, a type of bellwether of where this important community is leaning. Once the first debate came around, the orders started flying in, with much more interest in the Trump kippas.”
Pic-A-Kippa is the brainstorm of two former elite red beret IDF soldiers from Miami. Turk says the company is the leader in the kippa market and has been selling Trump and Hillary custom kippas on its site since August, all the while keeping a running tally of which one has sold more.
“Our mission is to help Jews everywhere show and wear their Jewish pride, with our beautifully unique and completely customizable picture kippas,” the company says on its website.
It donates 10 percent of every kippa sale to the Lone Soldier Center in Israel, assisting young lone soldiers during difficult times.
Turk said while American Jews have leaned heavily Democratic for decades, the past few presidential races have seen Orthodox Jews, who make up over 10 percent of American Jewry, vote Republican in ever increasing numbers. He attributes that fact to the Democrats putting “daylight between America and Israel.”
A number of influential Jewish pro-Trump organizations have emerged, chief among them “Jews Choose Trump” and “Jewish Democrats For Trump.” A recent poll of Florida Jews showed Orthodox voters are leaning toward Trump by a 3-1 margin.
According to Turk, Pic-A-Kippa has sold many Trump kippas to a congregant of Ivanka Trump’s synagogue on the liberal Upper East Side of Manhattan and has gotten orders for Trump kippas from Israel, Australia, Britain and even Mexico. Pic-A-Kippa has also gotten hate mail from Jews unhappy they are selling the Trump designs, he says. | 1real |
WOW! REFUGEES EXPOSED: Here’s the cold hard truth the media won’t tell you…“If Saudi Arabia is refusing to accept them because they are a national security threat, why are we accepting them?” [VIDEO] | Brigitte Gabriel is an intelligent and important voice of reason when it comes to the subject of Muslim refugees who are migrating West. She is the Founder and President of Act for America. She is one of the leading national security experts in the world -providing information and analysis on the rise of Islamic terrorism. Ms. Gabriel lectures nationally and internationally about national security and current affairs. Her expertise is sought after by world and business leaders.Gabriel is a Christian born who was born and raised in Lebanon. Her story is very compelling, and serves as a warning to Americans who are fighting to keep the flow of unvetted refugees coming into the United States: I lost my country of birth to radical Islam I do not want to lose my adopted country, America. Gabriel declared.Muslims started coming to Lebanon so their children could study at the country s universities. They also stayed to work in their economy. We built refugee camps for them in Lebanon, we took them in because we wanted to take care of them, but these people turned against us, and they destroyed our country, Gabriel recalled, bitterly. She said the tipping point was when Muslims became the majority population. Lebanon went from being the Eden of the Middle East to being the terrorist pit of the Middle East, she declared. The country is run by a terrorist organization, and has no rule of law. Currently, there is not even a president in Lebanon, as none has been elected. They are drowning in their own garbage, the government is falling apart. This is what happens when you import people into your country that do not share your values that do not share your idea of freedom or democracy, your idea of tolerance, Gabriel explained.Gabriel did not deny the charitable impulse of helping people in need. We can still do humanitarian work, but we need to make sure we are protected first, she declared. We know ISIS infiltrated them, they were coming here under the disguise of refugees, but they are actually ISIS recruiters and ISIS sympathizers, Gabriel told PJ Media in an interview at the Values Voter Summit on Saturday. She added that the refugees are making up names they can tell us anything, and there is nothing we can do to check it. These people don t have passports. We don t even know if the name they give is their real name, Gabriel explained. The refugees also are not just coming from embattled countries like Syria and Iraq, she argued. They also come from Tunisia, Libya, Eritrea, Djibouti and Afghanistan migrants fleeing poor countries to go to rich countries.Gabriel argued that the refugees must have a reason for going further west, as opposed to other countries in the Middle East. These refugees can go to any country in the region, where they speak the Arabic language, where their children can assimilate and continue in their schooling with Arabic schools. Why are they coming to Europe? One reason, she alleged, is that the word got out that if you want a freebie, this is the opportunity to come to Europe and live off the government. Perhaps more importantly, however, many Middle Eastern countries would turn the migrants away. Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy country and a very big country they have a lot of space, Gabriel noted. She explained that Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait are refusing to accept these refugees because they are a national security threat. When Arabic countries suspect terror activity from the refugees, why should we overlook it? If Saudi Arabia is refusing to accept them because they are a national security threat, why are we accepting them? Gabriel asked. Are we that dumb? Watch Gabriel as she exposes the truth about the refugees we are bringing to America: It is not difficult to see how the tens of thousands of refugees who have entered Europe and other western countries recently are having a devastating impact in their host nations. Areas holding these refugees have seen an increase in rape, theft, gang activity, intimidation, and organized crime. Media in Europe have reported that thousands of the refugees have disappeared and are unaccounted for. Terror groups such as the Islamic State publicly announce how they are using refugees as cover to infiltrate the West.An Egyptian-American made this interesting comment under the video. He gives us an idea of what it s like to be a Christian in a Muslim dominated nation:Ms. Gabriel has addressed the United Nations, the Australian Prime Minister, members of the British Parliament/House of Commons, members of the United States Congress, the Pentagon, the Joint Forces Staff College, the U.S. Special Operations Command, the U.S. Asymmetric Warfare group, the FBI, and many others.She speaks Arabic, French, English and Hebrew. | 1real |
Racists Explode As Death Of Bundy Militant Blamed On Jews And White Oppression (IMAGES) | On Tuesday night, the FBI finally stopped treating the Oregon militants with kid gloves and arrested several of them as they were on their way to terrorize another local town meeting. One of the militants, the ridiculous LaVoy Finicum aka Tarp Man, charged at the authorities after crashing his truck and was killed. This was confirmed explicitly by two of the militants who were at the scene. This will, in no way, stop right wing extremists from lying about it. They finally have their martyr:// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>LaVoy has left us, but his sacrifice will never be far from the lips of those who love liberty. You cannot defeat us. Our blood is seed.Posted by Bundy Ranch on Tuesday, January 26, 2016The reaction from the not-at-all-racist right wing was immediate and 100% predictable: They played the white victim card. Because white people are oppressed in America:// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>If these people were protesting in the city and were a different color the police and FBI would have left them alone to Posted by Kevin Bradshaw on Tuesday, January 26, 2016// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Remember when the police shot and killed the violent Ferguson protestors after they did millions in damage, looted, Posted by Dane Frederick Hoover on Wednesday, January 27, 2016In the alternate reality the right wing lives in, the cops went easy on the Ferguson protesters. They must have missed the part where the police showed up in full military gear like an invading army.Image courtesy of The Feminist WireThere were tanks in Ferguson. Fucking tanks against unarmed protesters. TANKS! Meanwhile, the armed militants in Oregon promised to kill anyone that tried to arrest them and they were allowed to hold fucking press conferences. Clearly, Bundy and his terrorists got the shaft.But it s OK! The White Crusaders at the not-at-all-racist Stormfront know who to blame! The Jews and America s anti-white hatred, of course:__________________Adolf Hitlist s S.O.F. (Statements Of Fact)1. The Jews want a world where life is lived in fear, and cowardice is how you survive. 2. Multi-racialism breeds racism. How can you hate minorities if you don t know any. 3. Trying to fight Communism with Democracy is like trying to stab someone who is shooting at you. 4. Black isn t the opposite of White! Jewish is!On the contrary, you should read the report that the USGS published about the area. I think the Jewmerican regime wanted to push everyone out so they can mine those metals, render it uninhabitable to whites at the same time, and sell the metals to China, Israel and anyone else who wants to harm, or kill us. They have driven everyone else off their land, Bundy was the last. Now we will see that the feds have no intention to leave that lands as a refuge for wildlife.I m furious. Absolutely enraged. This is a direct, frontal assault on White America by the hostile, occupation government in Washington, D.C. The authorities shoot and kill a White man for exercising civil rights while blacks, browns and their liberal enablers get protected and publicly lauded for exercising the same civil rights.A White patriot in Oregon gets a bullet. Non-white looters in Baltimore get room to destroy. The National Guard stands idly by and watches while blacks burn Ferguson. Politicians of both the GOP and Democrat varieties praise the non-white protesters causing chaos in cities all across America because, ya know, Black Lives Matter. White lives, however, are apparently expendable when the federal government wants to make a point about who s in charge.What s wrong with this picture, kinsmen?The obvious question to ask now is how many cops will be assassinated over the death of a right wing terrorist? Unlike the Black Lives Matter movement, right wing extremists ARE violent. Incredibly so. They re consumed with visions of a race war to take back their country from all of Those People and see anyone with a badge (or darker skin) as the enemy. The last time the FBI killed a right wing militant, they went on a rampage that ended with the Oklahoma City Bombing and dozens of dead children. The right is far more radicalized now and violence is inevitable.Will we continue to ignore right wing extremists and pretend that there isn t a burgeoning insurrection fueled by racism in America? Or will we finally start treating them like the terrorists they are only after the next federal building is blown up?Featured image via Facebook. | 1real |
FBI AND CIA Host Job Fair In U.S. City With 40% MUSLIM Population…Feeling Safer Yet? | Who better to help root out terror than a person whose religion forbids them from ratting out someone of their own faith? The FBI and CIA are looking to increase the diversity of their agencies and that includes hiring more Arab Americans.One of the ways it hopes to achieve its goal of greater diversity is by holding a career fair in America s most Islamic city Dearborn, Michigan.In Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, renowned activist Pamela Geller provides the answer, offering proven, practical guidance on how freedom lovers can stop jihadist initiatives in local communities.Notices about the career fair have been posted on the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce s Facebook page, as well as in local news publications in Dearborn.The Press and Guide, for instance, ran a public notice that stated the following; Learn about working for two top government agencies during an informational session being held by The Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Attendees will learn about both agencies and have the chance to hear about career opportunities as well as network with CIA and FBI representatives. The event takes place at 6 p.m. July 19 at the Ford Motor Company Conference & Event Center, 1151 Village Road, Dearborn. A formal presentation will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. followed by networking from 7:30 to 8:30. Both the FBI and CIA are seeking to increase diversity within the organizations and find specifically skilled applicants to fulfill critical roles within the agencies. Those at the event will hear about specific job positions and qualifications through a panel discussion as well as the agencies similarities, strategic differences and shared commitment to thwart threats to national security. Dinner will be provided, but seating is limited. RSVP by July 12 to Christina Petrosian at chrissp@ucia.gov. Petrosian did not immediately respond to emails from WND.Dick Manasseri, communications director for Secure Michigan, a citizen-watchdog group fighting what it sees as the Islamization of Michigan, said he found the advertisements troubling, but not surprising. How can the FBI/CIA vet job applicants when they cannot mention the word Shariah? Manasseri said.Manasseri was referring to the scrubbing of all FBI training manuals, removing all references to Shariah and Islam that were seen as discriminatory by Muslim groups. That concession was made in response to complaints by the Council of American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, by then-Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, who is now in charge of the CIA. How can the FBI/CIA vet the information provided on applications from Shariah-adherents who are encouraged to lie to non-Muslims when it furthers the goals of Shariah? Manasseri told WND.The Obama administration has also invited former CAIR officials into its circle of advisers within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The opportunities for further federal government infiltration increases the probability that we will see Shariah courts in Southeast Michigan before long, Manasseri said.Dearborn s population is about 40 percent Arab and includes both Sunni and Shiite Muslims. A minority of the Arab-American community in Dearborn are Christian.And the Dearborn area is getting more Muslim by the month thanks to the current Syrian refugee program being carried out by President Obama. Just in the last nine months the U.S. State Department has delivered 143 Syrians to Dearborn for permanent resettlement.Another 174 Syrians have been sent to Troy, which is only 25 miles north of Dearborn.Michigan has been targeted to receive nearly half of the 10,000 Syrian refugees Obama has promised the United Nations he would admit into the U.S.After getting off to a slow start, Syrian arrivals are now occurring by the hundreds per day. On Wednesday another 249 Syrians arrived in the U.S. for permanent resettlement.Obama s pledge of 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal 2016, which ends Sept. 30, now appears to be a deadline he will make. His State Department has delivered nearly 60 percent of the 10,000 with two and a half months to go. Via: WND | 1real |
Trump Transition: As Secretary of State, Tulsi Gabbard offers potential for peace with Syria, Russia | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireSo far as world peace and prosperity goes, most of the names currently being kicked around for America s top diplomatic position do not inspire a great deal of confidence. It s easy to feel uneasy when you see recycled neoconservative hawks like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani, or old hands like Mitt Romney who previously stated that Russia is America s greatest threat. As far as potential picks go for Secretary of State, none is more interesting than the potential that Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard brings to the table. President-Elect Donald Trump invited Hawaii s Gabbard to New York City this week for a meeting regarding possible involvement in the new Presidential Administration. She s got a lot going for her as an Iraq War veteran with deep understanding of the perils of US interventions overseas, she also brings with her some common sense geopolitical context a refreshing change from the off-the-shelf, neoliberal interventionist juggernaut previously driven by the hawkish Hillary Clinton, or the flippant public tirades and baseless insults leveled at Russia by the likes of Samantha Power.With an apparently more experienced Romney ahead of her in the queue, Gabbard is certainly a long shot, but considering the mess left behind by eight years of clandestine free for-all and the chronic absent-minded Obama era interventionist policy blunders, not to mention (but we will) the hysterical public meltdowns by US State Dept spokespersons like John Kirby, Jen Psaki and Marie Harf you can t help but consider the fresh approach that someone like Gabbard might offer.Gabbard (photo, left) also understands the dangers posed by salafist and Wahabi extremists like ISIS, and most certainly would push back against the Obama Administration and the CIA s dubious (and technically illegal, by way of US and international law) policy of arming and supporting various and sundry moderate rebel extremists (terrorists) in Syria like Al Nusra Front, Arar al Sham, Nour al-din al-Zenki and many others all favored by western covert subterfuge teams as instruments of regime change in Syria.In terms of independence, Gabbard has already made it clear that her stint would not involve capitulating to her GOP cabinet cohorts, adding that if she was to disagree with President Trump, I will not hesitate to express that disagreement. Previously, Gabbard was Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), but suddenly resigned earlier this year in protest after pointing out her party s unfair favoring of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during their party s primaries. Following the Wikileaks disclosures, it turns out that Gabbard was on the right side of history, while her detractors in the DNC leadership hierarchy like Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (forced to resign over the Sanders affair was exposed) and Donna Brazile (caught cheating with CNN by passing questions to the Clinton campaign) ended up on the wrong side of history. Here we can see a positive pattern emerging for Gabbard, and it gets better.SEE ALSO: Trump s Foreign Policy: Russia, Syria, Iran and Cabinet NeoconsRegarding foreign policy, Gabbard s stance on Syria is remarkable, and holds great potential for a resolution to the 5 year conflict (not a civil war), as well as a chance to make positive inroads with Russia and other countries who have been perennial foes of both the Obama and Bush Administrations. Because of this, Gabbard has many enemies from on both the Republicans and Democratic chambers alike. Washington, with all of its untoward influence from the cartel of military defense contractor giants, and foreign lobbies like Israel and Saudi Arabia, will not go quietly overnight.In a major departure from the abject failure of the Obama-Clinton-Kerry proxy war debacle in Syria, Gabbard said this about her alignment with Trump policy objectives and diffusing a tense situation in Syria: However, I believe we can disagree, even strongly, but still come together on issues that matter to the American people and affect their daily lives. We cannot allow continued divisiveness to destroy our country I shared with him my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called no fly/safe zone would be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country and the world, she said. It would lead to more death and suffering, exacerbate the refugee crisis, strengthen ISIS and al-Qaeda and bring us into a direct conflict with Russia, which could result in a nuclear war. We discussed my bill to end our country s illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government and the need to focus our precious resources on rebuilding our own country and on defeating al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups who pose a threat to the American people. Critics have remarked about her young age (35 years old) and lack of political experience. However, consider how much experience both of the previous Secretary of States had in John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and yet, they have presided over one unmitigated foreign policy disaster after another, whether in Libya, Syria, Yemen or the Ukraine. Quite possibly, history will look back on these two Obama appointees as the worst ever Secretary of States to hold that position. This is no exaggeration when you pause and take a sober look around the Middle East today.Aside from the novelty of her relative youth in relation to typically older diplomats, Gabbard s authenticity and character comes across in her public speaking, and thus she could be very effective, and no doubt very popular internationally. She s also gone against the party line on Syria. Once again, there she is on the right side of history, while her more experienced party leaders are on stuck on the wrong side. While boldly challenging the party line won t win you any favors in the partisan cesspool of the DC swamp, it shows the sort of character required to lead a team for successful bilateral consensus-building at the international negotiations table. In terms of the US public relations image internationally, this is an intangible benefit that you simply cannot put a price on, because right now, Washington s chief priority should be mending some of the serious rifts left behind by a previously derelict State Dept. Gabbard has the potential to paint US diplomacy in an entirely new light, and a positive one at that. The biggest mistake a Trump White House could make is to place a neoconservative, or hawkish Secretary in place who might help to reboot talking up a war with Iran, or use NATO to press against Russia at its doorstep.So the real question should not be about Gabbard s relative experience, but rather can she be what the previous Secretaries could not a diplomat.It s a long shot, but she has the potential to mend a fractured Middle East and also revamp relations with Russia which means a more peaceful and stable world. Not a bad a thought.More from the Trump Transition Team . Shushannah Walshe ABCDemocratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a high-profile Bernie Sanders supporter during the Democratic primaries, is under serious consideration for various Cabinet positions in President-elect Donald Trump s administration, according to a senior official on the transition team.According to the official, the 35-year-old Hawaii congresswoman is being looked as a candidate for secretary of state, secretary of defense or United Nations ambassador. If selected, Gabbard will be the first woman as well as the youngest pick for Trump s Cabinet.She met with him this morning in his New York City offices at Trump Tower. The Trump transition source said that their sit-down was a terrific meeting and that the Trump team sees her as very impressive.Gabbard, a progressive Democrat, has bucked her party in Congress and during the contentious Democratic primaries. In February she left her position as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee to support Sanders. In the House she has broken with Democrats on the Syrian civil war (she supports keeping President Bashar al-Assad in power) and Syrian refugees (she voted for a GOP bill last year to conduct stricter background checks on refugees).This afternoon she released a long statement on her meeting with Trump, saying he asked to meet with her about our current policies regarding Syria, our fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as other foreign policy challenges we face. She said they had a frank and positive conversation in which we discussed a variety of foreign policy issues in depth. Continue this story at ABCREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Japan Condemns N Korea Missile Launch - Trump: U.S. Stands Behind Japan 100 Percent - Breitbart | Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, backed “100 percent” by President Donald Trump, condemned North Korea for reportedly launching a missile into its eastern sea, calling the test launch “absolutely intolerable. ” Prime Minister Abe released the following statement through a translator: North Korea’s most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable. North Korea must fully comply with the relevant U. N. Security Council resolutions. During the summit meeting that I had with President Trump, he assured me that the United States will always [be] with Japan 100% and to demonstrate his determination as well as commitment, he is now here with me at this joint press conference. President Trump and I myself completely share the view that we are going to promote further cooperation between the two nations and also we are going to further reinforce our alliance. That is all from myself. President Trump followed up Abe’s statement by affirming his support. “I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
On The Fault Lines of Change: Globalization-v-Localization | By Julian Rose Virtually everything that conventional wisdom teaches about ‘economics’ is undergoing changes of an almost seismic nature at this time. Albeit mostly beneath... | 1real |
Factbox: Trump to meet with ex-Ford CEO, U.S. lawmakers, others | (Reuters) - Donald Trump was scheduled to hold additional meetings on Thursday and Friday as he forms his administration before taking over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. The Republican president-elect has held more than 85 meetings so far, according to his transition team. Trump was to meet with the following people on Thursday and Friday, according to his team: * Retired U.S. Navy Admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University * Former CEO of Ford Motor Co, Sept 2006 to July 2014 * Director at Google since 2014 * U.S. Representative from Idaho, a Republican * Serves on House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees * U.S. Senator from West Virginia, a Democrat Trump has also invited technology industry leaders for a meeting on Dec. 14, according to media reports citing transition officials. | 0fake |
After Gun Battle in Kashmir, Protests Turn Violent - The New York Times | NEW DELHI — Indian security forces in Kashmir engaged in an intense, gun battle with militants that ended late Sunday morning, leaving four militants, two soldiers and one civilian dead, the authorities said. An additional civilian died after a protest. The police had learned that the militants were in a village, and cordoned it off late Saturday. They were conducting searches when they were fired upon by militants security forces began firing back. The violence then led to clashes between Indian security forces and large crowds of local youths who gathered to mourn the dead militants. The police used tear gas on protesters, who were pelting stones at the Indian forces. They also fired bullets and birdshot at protesters, injuring at least 21 people, one of whom later died, according to Dr. Abdul Majid, the medical superintendent of the district government hospital at Anantnag. The four militants, all residents of Kashmir and all in their 20s, were members of the rebel group Hizbul Mujahedeen, said Sridhar Patil, the police chief of Kulgam district. He said they had criminal charges, including murder and stealing arms from security forces, outstanding against them. “First we tried to convince them to surrender with the help of locals and family members,” Mr. Patil said, but they shouted back that they would not surrender. Security forces recovered three assault rifles and two pistols from the site, Mr. Patil said. Throngs of youths fought with Indian forces last summer in Kulgam. The disturbances began in July, when Indian security forces killed Burhan Wani, a top commander for Hizbul Mujahedeen. Sunday’s fight in Kulgam ended a lull of several months. Insurgents in Kashmir have been fighting for independence from India for nearly three decades, and the Indian authorities have long said that their movement is supported by Pakistan. Diplomatic ties between the two countries have frayed in recent years. | 0fake |
Trump says he expects Qatar, Arab neighbors to quickly resolve dispute | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he thought the dispute between Qatar and some of its Arab neighbors would be resolved quickly. We are right now in a situation where we re trying to solve a problem in the Middle East. And I think we ll get it solved, I have a very strong feeling that it will be solved pretty quickly, Trump said in New York as he met Qatar s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. | 0fake |
Supreme Court rejects constitutional challenge to death penalty | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal asserting that the death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment filed by a Louisiana man convicted of fatally shooting his pregnant former girlfriend. Two of the eight justices, liberals Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said they would have accepted the case, repeating concerns about the death penalty’s constitutionality they raised in a different case last year. The justices, who have sharply disagreed among themselves over capital punishment, declined to consider the appeal brought by Lamondre Tucker, who was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of 18-year-old Tavia Sills in Shreveport. Sills, nearly five months pregnant, was shot three times and her body was dumped in a pond. Tucker, who is black, had argued in part that black males had an increased likelihood of being convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Louisiana’s Caddo Parish due to endemic racism. At the time of Tucker’s conviction, a Confederate flag, symbol of the pro-slavery Southern states that lost the U.S. Civil War that ended in 1865, flew outside the county courthouse, his lawyers said in court filings. Breyer wrote that Tucker “may well have received the death penalty not because of the comparative egregiousness of his crime, but because of an arbitrary feature of his case, namely geography.” “One could reasonably believe that if Tucker had committed the same crime just across the Red River in, say, Bossier Parish, he would not now be on death row,” Breyer said. Breyer’s comments echoed similar remarks he made in June 2015 when the court upheld Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedures. The shorthanded court has steered clear of taking major cases since the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia, but even at full strength may not have accepted this one. There is no indication the court is any closer to taking a case that would challenge the death penalty directly, with the court’s two other liberals, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, not joining Breyer’s opinion. Four votes are needed for the justices to hear a case. The pregnant Sills had told Tucker she believed he was the father. Later testing showed Tucker, 18 at the time of the murder, was not the father. The fetus did not survive. The Supreme Court left in place a September 2015 Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that rejected Tucker’s legal arguments and upheld his conviction and death sentence. In the United States, 31 states have the death penalty and 19 do not. | 0fake |
UK Terror Threat Raised to Highest ’Critical’ Rating, Army Could be Deployed to Streets | The British government has raised the country’s terror threat level to “critical” indicating the military may be deployed onto UK streets. [The move — following an emergency meeting of Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) — takes the UK to its highest terror threat level for the first time in a decade. In June 2007, the level was raised from ‘Severe’ indicating a “an attack is highly likely” to ‘Critical’ indicating “an attack is expected imminently” following the discovery of multiple car bombs at locations outside nightclubs and airports. The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) which in turn reports to security services such as MI5, is responsible for the elevated threat level following the Monday night terrorist attack in Manchester that killed 22 and injured over 100 people. The threat level had previously been downgraded to ‘Substantial’ meaning an attack is a “strong possibility” between July 2011 and August 2014. It was then raised to Severe in response to events in Iraq and Syria, coinciding with a high point of territorial gain by the Islamic State. The United Kingdom has five terror levels: Low, Moderate, Substantial, Severe, and Critical. Since the implementation of the new levels in 2006, the rating has never dropped below Substantial. Reports emerging from the UK press also suggest around 5, 000 members of the UK’s military may be deployed onto British streets in order to deter attacks. Unlike its European counterparts, Britain has little tradition of deploying the military on domestic soil. The last serious deployment was in 2003, when tanks were stationed at Heathrow Airport in an attempt to disrupt a passenger airliner bomb plot. Around 450 troops were also deployed at this time. Prior to that, the last time a major British Army contingent was deployed in Britain was during the Troubles, when Irish Republican terrorists routinely targeted British population centres, one of which included the central Manchester area just five minutes from the arena where Ariana Grande’s concert ended in terror on Monday night. During the Troubles, the British army deployed 21, 000 troops. | 0fake |
WATCH: MAXINE WATERS Hits New Low…Trash Talks President Trump While Giving Eulogy At Friend’s Funeral | Yeah, well about that.Crazed Congresswoman Maxine Waters found an unusual venue to spew her hatred for President Trump over the weekend, viciously smearing the dishonorable President while delivering a eulogy at a friend s funeral.Waters speech went off the rails at the funeral of comedian Dick Gregory, where the firebrand liberal suddenly screamed, I m cleaning out the White House, and bizarrely claimed that the KKK had infiltrated Trump s cabinet. I m cleaning out the White House. We re going to sanitize the White House. We re not going to take what is happening in this country, said Waters. And then comes along this person. This person who does not respect you. This dishonorable human being who cheats everybody! This dishonorable human being who will lie at the drop of a hat, she wailed. This dishonorable human being who has the alt-right, and the KKK and everybody else inside his Cabinet! When I get through with Donald Trump, he s going to wish he had been impeached! she added. Hannity.comWatch Maxine honor her deceased friend by going off the rails at the mere mention of President Trump s name:Just imagine how much wealthier Trump would be if he could find a way to be compensated for living inside so many liberals heads rent-free. | 1real |
Here’s How Much Trump Is Paying Omarosa, Kellyanne Conway, And Sean Spicer To Lie For Him Each Day | The average American makes about $50,000 a year and too many Americans scrape by on much less. So how much does Trump pay his staff? According to the public filing of payroll released by the White House, an absurd amount, apparently.Since taking office, Trump has staffed his White House with a number of unquestionably unqualified people including former reality tv stars. His only job requirement is that they be loyal to him and he measures that loyalty in how well they lie for him on television. The most opportunistic of his staff has risen to that challenge and he subsequently paid them handsomely for the job. Of Trump s staff, a few people stick out for the ridiculous amount of money they make for doing, essentially, nothing:Omarosa, who was hired by Trump because she appeared on The Apprentice with him, makes $179,700 per year. It s entirely unclear what she does exactly. Likewise with scandal-laden Seb Gorka, who gets paid $155,000 but legally can t do the job Trump hired him for because he s so shady that intelligence officials wouldn t give him security clearance. Instead, he hangs out at the White House and collects a paycheck.Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer both get paid the same $179,700 that Omarosa does, but that money covers not only their jobs and expenses but also their human dignity. Both Trump staffers are required to repeatedly and shamelessly lie and defend Trump no matter what indefensible thing he said or did. Spicer at least has the decency to look like the toll is killing him inside. Conway appears to actually enjoy the dishonesty, and one suspects she would probably do the job for free if she had to.Hilariously, former Fox News host K.T. MacFarlane gets paid the same amount that Trump s top staff does, including Reince Priebus. She has been sidelined since her friend Michael Flynn was booted from his job and his replacement, H.R. McMasters told Trump he wouldn t take the job unless she was removed. Now she putters around the White House under the vague title Assistant to the President doing who knows what. For that, she earns $179,700.The release of the White House payroll only goes to show just how cartoonish Trump s administration is. Filled with disgraced lobbyists, Fox News hosts, former reality tv stars, and a variety of other opportunistic liars, it s no wonder the White House barely functions and is plagued with in-fighting, backstabbing, and scandals. It turns out, if you hire a bunch of clowns, the West Wing can fit an awful lot of them inside. Each cashing a paycheck for more than many Americans make in three years of work.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
Iran factions use earthquake relief effort to pursue power struggle | ANKARA (Reuters) - Political infighting among Iran s ruling elite has moved on to a new battleground - the relief effort after an earthquake that killed at least 530 people and injured thousands. Hardline media are accusing the government of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani of reacting too slowly to last weekend s quake, while highlighting aid work by the Revolutionary Guards - a rival power center. While the government said enough help had been sent to the thousands of people left homeless by the devastation, media affiliated to Rouhani s hardline rivals painted a different picture with reports from villages where survivors complained about a lack of shelter from the bitter cold. Rouhani allies say this reflects a long-running struggle between the president and those who oppose his drive to boost the economy by improving relations with the outside world, notably through sealing a nuclear deal with world powers. Rouhani is very popular, one Rouhani ally told Reuters. It is so sad to see that even under these sad circumstances when we need unity, they are attacking his government and trying to say that the government is incompetent to help people. Shortly after the magnitude 7.3 quake, Iran s worst in more than a decade, state TV aired scenes from the devastated villages in the western Kermanshah province. Iran has so far declined offers of foreign assistance, saying planeloads of tents, blankets, mattresses and emergency food rations had arrived in areas where at least 30,000 houses have been damaged and several villages completely destroyed. The hardline semi-official Tasnim and Fars news agencies both carried reports of the role of the Revolutionary Guards - an elite force loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - and its affiliated Basij militia force in helping the survivors. Khamenei has called on the state agencies to speed up their efforts. This disaster is a test for authorities to perform their duties, he said on Tuesday. His representative, cleric Abdolhossein Moezi, told state TV after visiting Kermanshah province that more relief was needed. Editorials in hardline newspapers adopted a sharp tone, accusing the government of failing to learn the lessons of the Bam earthquake in 2003, in which 31,000 people were killed. State TV covered how the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had restored some degree of normality in one of the worst hit towns, Sarpol-e Zahab. Immediately after the quake, the IRGC rushed to the area to help, said Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Guards. We set up shelters, field clinics ... We will not leave until all survivors have a permanent shelter. Our commanders have been working around the clock. Commanders of the IRGC, which also runs a business empire in Iran, have repeatedly criticized Rouhani s failure to improve the economy despite the official lifting last year of most international sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal. In some areas, no building was left standing, elsewhere, survivors have left homes that remain standing, fearing they could come crashing down due to aftershocks. Houses in poor Iranian villages are often made of concrete blocks or mudbrick that can quickly crumble and collapse. Many of the heavily damaged buildings in Sarpol-e Zahab were part of an affordable housing scheme, initiated in 2011 by Rouhani s hardline predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Angry survivors said the low-quality construction in the Mehr scheme had caused the high death toll in the town, nestled in the Zagros Mountains along the border with Iraq. Rouhani has ordered an investigation. It s clear there has been corruption in construction contracts, he told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, state media reported. Anyone responsible will be punished. Ahmadinejad s adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr denounced the accusations. Heavy waves of propaganda against Mehr are aimed at covering up the weakness and inefficiency of the (Rouhani) administration in helping quake-hit people, he said. Major towns and cities in the Kermanshah province appeared to have escaped heavy damage, witnesses said, while many villages were destroyed. My mother told me to buy yogurt for dinner .... As soon as I left the house everything started to collapse, 13-year-old Dozan told Reuters by telephone from Sarpol-e Zahab. I ran back but my parents and sisters were dead - only rubble and dust and no home. Rouhani has promised more help and low-interest loans to survivors to rebuild their collapsed homes. State TV showed Iranians around the country gathering goods and warm clothes and blankets for the survivors. We need shelter ... it is getting colder. They have distributed some tents but it was not enough, Ahmad Irandust, 75, told Reuters from Salas Babajani village by telephone. He said his children have slept outdoor in the freezing cold since Sunday. Don t leave us alone. Don t forget us. | 0fake |
7 Tory horror film posters to send a chill down your spine this Halloween | Next Swipe left/right 7 Tory horror film posters to send a chill down your spine this Halloween In case Halloween isn’t scary enough, here are seven films made even more terrifying by the addition of Tories.
1. | 1real |
Armyworm hits northern Cameroon, worsening food crisis | YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Crop-eating fall armyworms have attacked nearly 37,000 hectares of maize in northern Cameroon, officials said on Wednesday, accentuating an already dire humanitarian crisis provoked by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram s cross-border insurgency. More than two dozen African nations have reported outbreaks of the invasive Central American variety of the pest, which is harder to detect and eradicate than its African counterpart. They have now spread to all of Cameroon s 10 administrative regions, though maize crops in the Extreme North region have only been heavily affected since July, Deputy Agriculture Minister Clementine Ananga Messina told Reuters. The armyworm attack endangers the entire maize sector and is creating serious risks of food insecurity, because it s the most commonly grown cereal in Cameroon, she said. The Extreme North region bordering Chad and Nigeria has been hit hard by Boko Haram, whose campaign of violence and cross-border attacks has sent more than 93,000 Nigerians fleeing into Cameroon where some 235,000 people have also been displaced. Across the Lake Chad region around 1.5 million people are confronting a food crisis, according to the United Nations. Cameroonian authorities have launched an action plan to fight against the infestation, but so far pesticides have failed to contain it. There are no effective means to fight armyworm currently existing in Cameroon, said Agriculture Ministry expert Andre Marie Elombat Assoua. The chemical products now being used by farmers are ineffective and too expensive. Around 12 million Cameroonians, more than half of the national population, regularly consume maize. It is also an important ingredient for the central African nation s breweries and in the production of feed for livestock. Though the fall armyworm prefers maize, it also attacked sorghum and millet, two of Cameroon s other staple crops, earlier this year. | 0fake |
BREAKING: VIDEO RELEASED Of Angry Leftist Mob Attacking Home Of Chicago Lawmaker With Rocks, Torches | If this had been a Tea Party group attacking Nancy Pelosi s home, it would have been international news Angry leftists with rocks, wood chunks and torches attacked a Chicago alderman s home this weekend. Once you start throwing objects, that crosses the line, he said. He said there wasn t any major damage to the home, just debris near the windows and objects on the sidewalk.Alderman Cardenas provided a video of the attack to authorities:Three people landed behind bars Saturday night after mobbing a home owned by Ald. George Cardenas (12th) with rocks, pieces of wood and tiki torches, according to the alderman and police.The mob of more than 50 people was protesting police violence in the city, said Cardenas, who provided DNAinfo Chicago with a video clip shot outside the home, where his ex-wife, two daughters and his mother live.Police eventually arrested three protesters in the 2100 block of South Marshall.Efrain Montalvo, 23, of the 2600 block of West 22nd Place; Javier Ramos, a 29-year-old Des Plaines resident; and Billie Kincaid, a 25-year-old woman from the 1500 block of West Lunt Avenue, each stand charged with one misdemeanor count of mob action.Cardenas had been eating dinner with a friend across town when the mob rolled down 26th Street in Little Village and ended up in front of his house. Via: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Worth a shot: Former Pennsylvania police officer's vending machines sell ammo | You can buy snacks, condoms, fishing bait, marijuana and even gold from vending machines, so Sam Piccinini figured, “Why not bullets?”
A 25-year police department veteran who now runs his own ammunition manufacturing and wholesale business, Piccinini, of Rochester, Pa., has two of his retrofitted vending machines at his local gun club. The machines, which sell nearly every caliber of bullet from .22 to .45, are doing a brisk business and, Piccinini said, other clubs want his machines.
“I have clubs lining up at my door wanting them,” Piccinini told FoxNews.com. “I have five clubs chomping at the bit, wanting these machines.”
Piccinini, who owns Master Ammo Co., a licensed manufacturer of ammunition, said he got the idea two years ago, when bullet shortages around the nation left members of the Beaver Valley Rifle & Pistol Club unable to buy the “non-jacketed” rounds preferred at most shooting ranges.
First, Piccinini asked local attorney Eugene Martucci if such a machine would be legal. Told such a device could be operated lawfully, Piccinini bought a vending machine and had some modifications made to it, allowing it to accept larger bills and credit cards and to hoist and dispense bags of .45-caliber Automatic Colt Pistol cartridges. He figures he spent about $4,000 on the first vending machine. He now has two of them at the club and a third ready to be deployed.
Piccinini’s machines sell both handgun and rifle ammunition, which are regulated differently. In Pennsylvania, people ages 18 and over can buy long gun ammunition and people over 21 can buy bullets for handguns. Critics say selling from a machine, without an attendant to ensure the purchase is legal, poses a problem.
Piccinini likens his machines to cigarette vending machines in social clubs, noting that a prominent sticker on them states, “You must be 21 years of age to purchase ammunition for use in handguns from this machine.” Since the club does not admit minors without adult guardians, and since anyone entering must pass through a security gate and swipe an ID card to enter, Piccinini does not believe there is a risk of illicit sales.
“It's not like someone walking off the street can get in and buy ammunition,” Piccinini said.
Selling bullets out of a vending machine, as opposed to over a counter, is "not a big deal," said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Washington-based pro-gun control group Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
"Ammunition is widely available at ranges to begin with,and we don't take issue with that," Everitt said. "If they put it in a school, call me back."
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulates sales of ammunition, and Piccinini has permits allowing him to manufacture, sell and even export guns and ammunition. Stephen Bartholomew, of the BATFE's Philadelphia field office, told the BeaverCountian.com he had never come across vending machines that sell ammunition.
“I don’t want to speculate as to what is or is not happening in this particular situation, but a licensee cannot sell ammunition to anyone under the age of 18 and, importantly, you cannot sell handgun ammunition to individuals under the age of 21,” he said.
The club makes no money off of sales or for renting space for the machines, which Piccinini, who sells ammunition to retailers and police departments in Pennsylvania, hopes will become a growing part of his company.
“The club doesn’t receive any profits and the machines are strictly there for the convenience of its members,” said Piccinini.
The club is not looking for publicity for the machines, according to its president, Bill Fortuna.
“This has been kept a secret, it’s nobody’s business, it’s our club, we can do as our members allow us,” Fortuna told BeaverCountian.com. “Legally, there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”
Piccinini, who is running for Beaver County sheriff, a post he has twice sought unsuccessfully, believes criticism he has received for his brainchild will ultimately backfire and win him the votes of Second Amendment advocates in the March 19 Republican primary.
"Some people have been critical, but I think even more people support me and support the right to bear arms," he said. | 0fake |
NRA Admits It Deceived Public – Says President Obama Never Could Have Confiscated Guns (VIDEO) | Proud Shares
The NRA’s magazine acknowledged that President Obama “really hasn’t had the opportunity to” confiscate firearms, undercutting years of fearmongering about the supposed existence of a “ massive Obama conspiracy ” to dismantle the Second Amendment and take guns away.
The NRA’s admission that a president can’t confiscate guns because “Congress writes the laws, not the president” also demonstrates the implausibility of repeated recent claims from the NRA that link Hillary Clinton to gun confiscation.
The admission was included in a June 9 article for NRA magazine America’s 1st Freedom which took issue with how Obama “rudely” responded to a question from a gun store owner at a recent town hall event.
The article quoted Obama as telling the questioner, “I’m about to leave office. There have been more guns sold since I’ve been president than just about any time in U.S. history. There are enough guns for every man, woman and child in this country. And at no point have I ever proposed confiscating guns from responsible gun owners. So it is just not true.”
Responding to Obama’s statement, the article acknowledged, “Now, [the gun store owner]could have interrupted the president to mention that Obama really hasn’t had the opportunity to do that. Congress writes the laws, not the president”:
Rhude didn’t sit down after asking his question. Rather, he stood silently as President Obama didn’t even try to answer his question, but instead went off on a defensive tirade: “First of all, the notion that I or Hillary or Democrats or whoever you want to choose are hell-bent on taking away folks’ guns is just not true. And I don’t care how many times the NRA says it.”
Obama then said, “I’m about to leave office. There have been more guns sold since I’ve been president than just about any time in U.S. history. There are enough guns for every man, woman and child in this country. And at no point have I ever proposed confiscating guns from responsible gun owners. So it is just not true.”
Now, Rhude could have interrupted the president to mention that Obama really hasn’t had the opportunity to do that. Congress writes the laws, not the president. He could then have listed the many attacks on the right to bear arms — from Operation Fast and Furious to Operation Choke Point to Obama’s attempted ban on common ammunition for AR-15-type rifles to his using a “pen and phone” to push anti-gun executive actions. But Rhude respectfully stayed silent.
Claims about gun confiscation and Obama have been the NRA’s bread and butter for the past eight years . More recently, the NRA has suggested that the election of Clinton could lead to gun confiscation for law-abiding Americans.
Read in full on Media Matters for America: NRA Admits It: “Obama Really Hasn’t Had The Opportunity To” Confiscate Guns
| 1real |
Watch Ozzy Man’s incredibly sweary review of two cats fighting over some milk | Next Swipe left/right Watch Ozzy Man’s incredibly sweary review of two cats fighting over some milk YouTube sensation, Ozzy Man , will review literally any video. His voiceovers may vary depending on whether he’s commentating a sports match, explaining the plot of a TV show or simply giving a rundown of events throughout the previous month, but they all have something in common: they’re profane as fuck!
The commentary over this clip of two cats trying to get the lion’s share of a bowl of milk seems to have taken the swearing to a new level as Ozzy Man imagines the animals “Stuck in a ‘nah fuck you nah fuck you’ deadlock”. In the battle between Milo and Lucy , it’s Lucy who has the upper hand …paw, which led YouTube user kk piter to comment “ Milo is a bit of a pussy.” Can’t argue with that. | 1real |
MLK And Two Others Will Be on The Back Of The $5 Bill | Leave it to Obama to politicize our money some think the past presidents should be on the money but now Obama s made our money like a postage stamp. He s made this political and racial which really is what you d expect from this pitiful man.Abraham Lincoln will not be the only person depicted on the $5 bill much longer.The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will overhaul the design of the $5 note, a move overshadowed by its decision to revamp the back of the $10 bill to include women and to feature Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20.Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., famed opera singer Marian Anderson and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt will be depicted on the back of the updated $5 bill.All three will be portrayed in historical moments in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which is currently pictured on the back of the bill. King will be shown delivering his 1963 I Have a Dream speech. Anderson will be shown performing in 1939, when concert halls were still segregated and she was banned from singing in Constitution Hall, supported by Roosevelt.In redesigning the $5 bill, a previously unannounced step, the Treasury will disrupt Lincoln s long-running tenure on both the front of the bill, in a portrait, and on the back, captured as a statue within the Lincoln Memorial. The basic layout of the note hadn t changed since 1929.Read more: WE | 1real |
Russian Navy Fleet Starts Strikes at Terrorists' Positions in Syria's Aleppo | BY AHT Staff Russian Navy Fleet Starts Strikes at Terrorists' Positions in Syria's Aleppo Russian warships deployed in Syrian waters targeted the terrorist groups' positions in the Western part of Aleppo city and in the Eastern side of the town of al-Bab, inflicting major damage on the militants, an expert in strategic affairs disclosed on Saturday. 5 Shares 0 1
Kamal al-Jafa termed Moscow's Kaliber cruise missile attacks on terrorist centers in Western Aleppo city and the town of al-Bab, North of the city, as a sign of the crucial role that the Russian naval forces are to play in Aleppo's Large-Scale Military Operation.
"The attacks came as preparations for the implementation of al-Bab operation are over now," al-Jafa said.
"Turkey tries to increase its role in the diplomatic settlement of Syrian crisis via its influence in al-Bab region," he added.
"If the Syrian army seizes control of al-Bab within the framework of a coalition with Russia and Iran and diplomatic and logistical support of China, the aspirations and plans of the US, Turkey and even Saudi Arabia will fall flat and the Syrian government's sovereignty in Northern Syrian will be expanded," the expert underscored.
A Russian military and diplomatic source had disclosed earlier today that the Russian fighter jets on 'Admiral Kuznetsov' aircraft carrier and the country's navy fleet would start strikes on terrorists in Aleppo in Northern Syria soon. MORE... The Criminal West’s State Sponsorship of Terrorism
"Russian warplanes, on board the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, will soon hit the positions and gatherings of the terrorist groups in Aleppo," the source said.
"Mig 29 and Sukhoi 33 fighter jets have taken off Admiral Kuznetsov' aircraft carrier in recent days and have carried out reconnaissance operations over Syria," the source added.
"Mig 29 and Sukhoi 33 fighter jets' reconnaissance flights were aimed at identifying the new positions of the terrorists and preparing a list of terrorist targets to hand over to the navy fleet (a cruiser and destroyer),"the sources went on to say.
"The Russian fleet, including Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, 'Pyotr Veliky' nuclear power guided missile cruiser and Admiral Gregorowich destroyer are ready for military operation," the source underlined.
Sources in the Russian Defense Ministry disclosed on Tuesday that the country's aircraft carrier group was ready to launch a strike targeting terrorists in the province of Aleppo.
The source told Russia's Gazeta that the attack, which would likely engage Kalibr cruise missiles, would target militants outside Aleppo, and not the residential areas.
The group, which includes Russia's 'Admiral Kuznetsov' aircraft carrier, 'Pyotr Veliky' nuclear power guided missile cruiser and two destroyers, completed its transfer to the Mediterranean Sea and is getting ready to strike, the Defense Ministry source said.
"The group's main goal is to carry out missile strikes on terrorists outside of Aleppo that are attempting to get into the city", the source added.
He also said that Kalibr cruise missiles would be used in the strikes, but did not specify from which ships the missiles would be launched.
No Russian surface ship that was currently in the Med was capable of firing the Kalibr-NK missiles, but submarine-launched Kalibr-PL could be used in the strike. The surface-launched type of Kalibr missile could also be launched from the Caspian Sea.
Final details of the strike were being worked out, the source told Gazeta.ru, including zeroing in on the terrorists' locations, finding out the details of their transport routes, base camps and storage and training facilities.
"The strikes will avoid the city of Aleppo to prevent civilian casualties, because terrorists continue to use city residents as human shields."
Early in November, a Russian naval group, headed by Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and the battle cruiser Peter the Great, arrived in the Mediterranean Sea, causing quite a stir in the West. | 1real |
Collapsing: Why the ‘Russia Hack’ Witch Hunt Will Not End Well for Congress, or America | 21st Century Wire says Washington s Russian witch hunt is now collapsing before our eyes. As host Patrick Henningsen revealed last Wednesday on ACR Radio, the supposedly damning information submitted by the FBI s private cyber security contractor Crowdstrike, of which the entire Russian Hack conspiracy theory hinges on is fraudulent. Here is a link to their primary invented piece of evidence included in the US Intelligence Assessment. This means that we were correct back on Nov 1st when we said the Russian Hack story was a hoax designed distract from the explosive contents on the DNC and Podesta email leaks, and also to bolster a failing Hillary Clinton campaign by discrediting Donald Trump as being somehow in league with the evil Russians.If they keep pressing this story, it will only hurt the credibility of a Democratic Party that still refuses to admit the abject failures and corruption within of their political organization.Now the question remains: how more millions in US taxpayer money will Hollywood s Congressman Adam Schiff, and ringleaders Lindsey Graham waste before they re done trying to look tough on Russia and Trump? Will they be held accountable by anyone?In the end, we discover that Schiff, Feinstein, Graham, McCain and so many others in Washington have done extreme damage to American interests, and in the long run to national security. Here s the story US Congressman and NeoMcCarthyite Adam Schiff has himself become a ridiculous-looking caricature as of late. Justin Raimondo Antiwar.comThe allegation now accepted as incontrovertible fact by the mainstream media that the Russian intelligence services hacked the Democratic National Committee (and John Podesta s emails) in an effort to help Donald Trump get elected recently suffered a blow from which it may not recover.Crowdstrike is the cybersecurity company hired by the DNC to determine who hacked their accounts: it took them a single day to determine the identity of the culprits it was, they said, two groups of hackers which they named Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, affiliated respectively with the GRU, which is Russian military intelligence, and the FSB, the Russian security service.How did they know this?These alleged hacker groups are not associated with any known individuals in any way connected to Russian intelligence: instead, they are identified by the tools they use, the times they do their dirty work, the nature of the targets, and other characteristics based on the history of past intrusions.Yet as Jeffrey Carr and other cyberwarfare experts have pointed out, this methodology is fatally flawed. It s important to know that the process of attributing an attack by a cybersecurity company has nothing to do with the scientific method, writes Carr: Claims of attribution aren t testable or repeatable because the hypothesis is never proven right or wrong. Neither are claims of attribution admissible in any criminal case, so those who make the claim don t have to abide by any rules of evidence (i.e., hearsay, relevance, admissibility). Likening attribution claims of hacking incidents by cybersecurity companies to intelligence assessments, Carr notes that, unlike government agencies such the CIA, these companies are never held to account for their misses: When it comes to cybersecurity estimates of attribution, no one holds the company that makes the claim accountable because there s no way to prove whether the assignment of attribution is true or false unless (1) there is a criminal conviction, (2) the hacker is caught in the act, or (3) a government employee leaked the evidence. This lack of accountability may be changing, however, because Crowdstrike s case for attributing the hacking of the DNC to the Russians is falling apart at the seams like a cheap sweater.To begin with, Crowdstrike initially gauged its certainty as to the identity of the hackers with medium confidence. However, a later development, announced in late December and touted by the Washington Post, boosted this to high confidence. The reason for this newfound near-certainty was their discovery that Fancy Bear had also infected an application used by the Ukrainian military to target separatist artillery in the Ukrainian civil war. As the Post reported: While CrowdStrike, which was hired by the DNC to investigate the intrusions and whose findings are described in a new report, had always suspected that one of the two hacker groups that struck the DNC was the GRU, Russia s military intelligence agency, it had only medium confidence. Now, said CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch, we have high confidence it was a unit of the GRU. CrowdStrike had dubbed that unit Fancy Bear. Crowdstrike published an analysis that claimed a malware program supposedly unique to Fancy Bear, X-Agent, had infected a Ukrainian targeting application and, using GPS to geo-locate Ukrainian positions, had turned the application against the Ukrainians, resulting in huge losses: Between July and August 2014, Russian-backed forces launched some of the most-decisive attacks against Ukrainian forces, resulting in significant loss of life, weaponry and territory. Ukrainian artillery forces have lost over 50% of their weapons in the two years of conflict and over 80% of D-30 howitzers, the highest percentage of loss of any other artillery pieces in Ukraine s arsenal. Alperovitch told the PBS News Hour that Ukraine s artillery men were targeted by the same hackers, that we call Fancy Bear, that targeted DNC, but this time they were targeting cell phones to try to understand their location so that the Russian artillery forces can actually target them in the open battle. It was the same variant of the same malicious code that we had seen at the DNC. He told NBC News that this proved the DNC hacker wasn t a 400-pound guy in his bed, as Trump had opined during the first presidential debate it was the Russians.The only problem with this analysis is that is wasn t true. It turns out that Crowdstrike s estimate of Ukrainian losses was based on a blog post by a pro-Russian blogger eager to tout Ukrainian losses: the Ukrainians denied it. Furthermore, the hacking attribution was based on the hackers use of a malware program called X-Agent, supposedly unique to Fancy Bear. Since the target was the Ukrainian military, Crowdstrike extrapolated from this that the hackers were working for the Russians.All somewhat plausible, except for two things: To begin with, as Jeffrey Carr pointed out in December, and now others are beginning to realize, X-Agent isn t unique to Fancy Bear. Citing the findings of ESET, another cybersecurity company, he wrote: Unlike Crowdstrike, ESET doesn t assign APT28/Fancy Bear/Sednit to a Russian Intelligence Service or anyone else for a very simple reason. Once malware is deployed, it is no longer under the control of the hacker who deployed it or the developer who created it. It can be reverse-engineered, copied, modified, shared and redeployed again and again by anyone. In other words malware deployed is malware enjoyed! In fact, the source code for X-Agent, which was used in the DNC, Bundestag, and TV5Monde attacks, was obtained by ESET as part of their investigation! During our investigations, we were able to retrieve the complete Xagent source code for the Linux operating system . If ESET could do it, so can others. It is both foolish and baseless to claim, as Crowdstrike does, that X-Agent is used solely by the Russian government when the source code is there for anyone to find and use at will. Secondly, the estimate Crowdstrike used to verify the Ukrainian losses was supposedly based on data from the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). But now IISS is disavowing and debunking their claims: [T]he International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) told [Voice of America] that CrowdStrike erroneously used IISS data as proof of the intrusion. IISS disavowed any connection to the CrowdStrike report. Ukraine s Ministry of Defense also has claimed combat losses and hacking never happened . The CrowdStrike report uses our data, but the inferences and analysis drawn from that data belong solely to the report s authors, the IISS said. The inference they make that reductions in Ukrainian D-30 artillery holdings between 2013 and 2016 were primarily the result of combat losses is not a conclusion that we have ever suggested ourselves, nor one we believe to be accurate. One of the IISS researchers who produced the data said that while the think tank had dramatically lowered its estimates of Ukrainian artillery assets and howitzers in 2013, it did so as part of a reassessment and reallocation of units to airborne forces. No, we have never attributed this reduction to combat losses, the IISS researcher said, explaining that most of the reallocation occurred prior to the two-year period that CrowdStrike cites in its report. The vast majority of the reduction actually occurs before Crimea/Donbass, he added, referring to the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The definitive evidence cited by Alperovitch is now effectively debunked: indeed, it was debunked by Carr late last year, but that was ignored in the media s rush to prove the Russians hacked the DNC in order to further Trump s presidential ambitions. The exposure by the Voice of America of Crowdstrike s falsification of Ukrainian battlefield losses the supposedly solid proof of attributing the hack to the GRU is the final nail in Crowdstrike s coffin Continue this story at Antiwar.comREAD MORE RUSSIAN HACK NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russian Hack FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Saudi-owned TV says Hariri was target of assassination plot days ago | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Saudi-owned pan-Arab television channel al-Arabiya al-Hadath said on Saturday an assassination plot was foiled against Lebanese leader Saad al-Hariri in Beirut days ago, citing an unnamed source. Lebanon s Internal Security Forces (ISF), responding to reports that one of its branches had foiled an assassination attempt on Hariri, denied that it was the source of the reports and said it had no information on this . Hariri traveled to Saudi Arabia on Friday and announced his resignation as prime minister on Saturday in a speech condemning Riyadh s regional foes Iran and Hezbollah and saying he feared assassination. Those who planned to assassinate prime minister Hariri deactivated the observation towers while his motorcade was passing by, Arabiya cited the source as saying. | 0fake |
Clinton Campaign: Harwood's Audience To Small; Not Worth It | An email released by Wikileaks reveals annoyance from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign directors with one of their media allies: left-wing CNBC Democrat John Harwood. Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 1real |
OMB Director Mulvaney: Americans 1st Budget Increases Defense, Border Security, Education Funding, Cuts at State Department and EPA | WASHINGTON, D. C. — On Wednesday Director Mick Mulvaney of the Office of Management and Budget gave some insight into the shift in department funding of President Donald Trump’s “America First Budget” ahead of its Thursday release. [“This is the America First Budget,” Mulvaney told reporters at a White House briefing. “In fact we wrote it using the President’s own words. We went through his speeches. We went through articles that have been written about his policies. We talked to him and we wanted to know what his policies were and we turned those policies into numbers. ” Mulvaney said increases like the $54 billion increase to the Defense Department would be offset in other areas of the budget blueprint to prevent any further increases in the budget deficit. The Director made clear that this does not mean that the budget is balanced. “There’s more money for enforcing security at the border. There’s more money for enforcing laws on the books just generally. There’s more money for things like private and public school choice. ” The State Department and and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will also see cuts according to Mulvaney. He went on to say that reductions in the State Department were not a reflection of the President’s support, but rather that areas like foreign aid that face cuts, simply fall under the State Department portion of the budget. The State Department reductions will be around 28 percent according to Mulvaney. Mulvaney went on to state that the budget being released is not a full budget, but rather a blueprint and only deals with the portion of the budget that makes up discretionary spending. He said that those who oversee the various departments are being given great flexibility in managing funds within their own departments. He also stated that the core functions and beyond of the EPA can be satisfied with the dollars included in this budget. Asked if the budget assumes passage of the House Republican Leadership’s American Health Care Act, Mulvaney said generally no, adding that will be dealt with in a budget to be released in May. The budget to be released on Thursday morning will also show suggestion for ending funding for public broadcasting according to Mulvaney. NASA will see a very slight reduction in funding around one percent, but Mulvaney was clear that some areas within that area of the budget will see increases. He said space exploration remains among the President’s priorities. This budget will not be a spreadsheet. Mulvaney said that the budget will show money allocated for moving forward with building a wall along the U. S. southern border. He said that the budget in May will show more, but that this budget includes allocation for pilot cases to find most cost efficient, safest and most effective ways to complete the wall. Director Mulvaney said that the budget will be available online starting at 7 a. m. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 0fake |
So-called ‘Patient Zero’ not behind the spread of HIV in US | So-called ‘Patient Zero’ not behind the spread of HIV in US Published time: 27 Oct, 2016 00:50 Get short URL Gaëtan Dugas (February 20, 1953 – March 30, 1984), Canadian flight attendant and alleged patient zero for AIDS. © Wikipedia Since 1987, the so-called “Patient Zero” of HIV was believed to be a Canadian flight attendant, blamed for importing the virus that causes AIDS into the US. New research has determined that he was not the first infected person in the US, however.
Gaetan Dugas has been blamed for the appearance of AIDS in the US. However, research from the University of Arizona has exonerated Dugas, no longer the first villain in the deadly epidemic.
Dugas was first identified as “ Patient Zero ” in Randy Shilts’ 1987 bestseller about the AIDS epidemic, titled ‘And the Band Played On.’ The former Air Canada flight attendant died of AIDS in 1984, but new discoveries about the genetic makeup of the AIDS virus have revealed that Dugas was not the source of the infection in the US, merely another victim of the disease during its earliest days. New antibody therapy suppresses #HIV for 2+ months without side effects – study https://t.co/bZWJQrHf5o pic.twitter.com/8YFtN0oK8w — RT America (@RT_America) June 25, 2016
Michael Worobey, the evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, led the study that pieced together the genetic sequence of the HIV virus, using eight blood samples collected from gay and bisexual men during a hepatitis B study between 1978 and 1979, Reuters reported .
What Worobey and his team discovered was that AIDS first came to the US by way of the Caribbean in 1970 or 1971. Instead of originating in California and spreading eastward via Dugas, as it was long believed, the spread of AIDS was actually the opposite.
Dugas did link cases in New York City to California and was found to carry HIV-1 sequences attributed to early mutations of the infection, but the study found “ no evidence that Patient O was the first person infected by this lineage. ”
" The virus got to New York City pretty darn early ," Worobey told NPR.
Dugas’ reputation for being the first AIDS patient did not come from science, but rather a simple misinterpretation of the letter “ O. ” The urban legend began in the early 1980s, when behavioral scientist William Darrow was working with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to try to discover what was behind the mysterious deaths of gay men in Los Angeles, NPR reported.
Darrow caught a break when he learned of rumors that the early cases of AIDS actually involved lovers.
“ Whoa! This is the first indication that we had that the disease might be sexually transmitted from one person to another ," Darrow told NPR.
Dugas appeared on Darrow’s radar when three unconnected men named him as a lover. His name was mentioned by more men, until he was connected to eight early AIDS cases.
When Darrow went to write up his findings, he coded the men’s names to preserve their anonymity. The majority of them were from the Los Angeles area and were identified as such.
" There was LA1, LA2 ... and so forth, " Darrow explained.
But when it came to the French-Canadian flight attendant, Dugas was identified as "Patient O,” the outside-of-California case. That is an O, as in Oscar. Not a zero.
" I never labeled him Patient Zero, ” Darrow said. Insurers discriminating against HIV/AIDS patients via drug costs – study http://t.co/kYYil7NjxZ pic.twitter.com/bs92vGJV54 — RT America (@RT_America) January 29, 2015
However, the designation caused some confusion back at the CDC, where someone referred to Dugas as “ Patient Zero. ” This error was not corrected and Darrow went with it, but explained that “ Patient O ” was meant to show “ there was some person who was very important in this cluster of cases. "
This mistake followed Dugas even after his death. When Shilts first read about the Canadian, he originally believed he was described as “ Patient O, ” but then heard CDC employees call him “ Patient Zero. ”
“I thought, 'Ooh, that's catchy’,” he told Life magazine.
From that point onward, Dugas became known as “ Patient Zero ” in Shilts’ book. Amid the panic surrounding the disease, the media ran with Dugas being to blame for the epidemic and spread misinformation that the Canadian was the first person diagnosed with the disease in the US.
The fact that Dugas’ HIV sequence offered little difference from the many other people who were infected at the time was often forgotten and his reputation as “ Patient Zero ” overshadowed the assistance he offered the CDC in recognizing and studying HIV, according to Darrow.
" To me, there's something nice about going back and correcting the record, " Worobeysays. " He has been blamed for things that no one should be blamed for. " | 1real |
BEAUTIFUL! TRUMP Hits Liz Warren And HuffPo With Great Zingers! [Video] | One thing we re discovering is that Trump has a way with one-liners that are hysterical! He s asked about Liz Warren and HuffPo in a press conference. Here s Trump s funny retort:So, #Pocahontas is "Very Offensive" to ONE reporter. WATCH how Trump handles her? I LAUGHED? & LAUGHED? & LAUGHED!?https://t.co/afQTTealrB Boston Bobblehead (@DBloom451) May 26, 2016 I Think She s as Native American as I Am Does the Huffington Post report politics? | 1real |
Mexico presidential hopeful hemmed in by ruling party legacy | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mired in allegations of corruption, Mexico s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has thrown its weight behind an untainted outsider in a bid to clean up its image and hang on to the presidency in elections next July. But having never been a member of the party, former finance minister and PRI presidential hopeful Jose Antonio Meade faces a delicate balancing act persuading undecided voters he will cut out graft without alienating the grassroots support he needs to win. It is proving to be a tough job. The awkward symbiosis limits Meade s ability to play to the strengths that PRI grandees hope will overcome the accusations of embezzlement, fraud and vote buying that have plagued the party under President Enrique Pena Nieto. Reliant on the PRI machinery to deliver votes, Meade must wrap himself in the party banner, while distancing his campaign from the failures of the outgoing government he also represents. He s between a rock and a hard place, said Andres Rozental, a former deputy Mexican foreign minister. Pena Nieto is constitutionally barred from re-election, and the centrist PRI will not formally elect its candidate until Feb. 18. However, the party has lined up behind Meade, who held various cabinet posts across two opposing administrations before announcing his run late last month. Meade, a technocrat with a sharp command of the minutiae of the economy, launched his campaign for the PRI candidacy in a straw sombrero festooned with red and green streamers in the poor southern town of San Juan Chamula on Dec. 14. Meade acknowledged Pena Nieto in his speech, which called for a secure and just Mexico. But he did not detail policies or directly address corruption. Like the president, he has said graft must be attacked by strengthening institutions. In subsequent outings to rally the PRI faithful, he has continued to frame his vision in general terms - prompting expressions of dismay by some of his supporters. It s a typical PRI campaign, said one pro-Meade lawmaker, shaking his head, and speaking on condition of anonymity. Polls show Meade has plenty of work to do. A survey by polling firm Parametria published on Dec. 19 put him 11 percentage points behind leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who has spent years railing against corruption and inequality. Another survey, by pollster Mitofsky, showed this month that 57.4 percent of voters reject the PRI, up nearly seven points from October, and 17 points more than any other party. In December 2011, the same point in the previous campaign, the PRI had a lead of about 17 points and only one in five voters rejected the party, according to Mitofsky data. Serving in the cabinet for almost seven years running, Meade has sold himself as irreproachably honest and the safest pair of hands for the economy, painting Lopez Obrador and conservative rival Ricardo Anaya as risky bets for Mexico s stability. However, his time in government has left the 48-year-old with a problematic legacy to defend. Gang violence has worsened in the past couple of years, with murders hitting a record high in 2017. [L1N1ON0EQ] Meanwhile the economy is growing at barely 2 percent annually, less than half the rate the government first targeted, inflation is near a 16-year high and the peso has depreciated by more than 34 percent against the dollar under Pena Nieto. A study by the Pew Research Center in September identified crime and corruption as the top concerns for Mexicans. As standard-bearer for an unpopular government, Meade has to present more compelling solutions to those problems than his rivals, said one senior official backing him. It was one of this government s biggest mistakes not to see the damage that corruption could do to its reputation, said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said he believed Meade s policies could become clearer once he is formally invested as PRI candidate. Meade s campaign did not reply to requests for comment. Another government official closely following the campaign said that while Meade could recognize failings in the PRI, he could not be expected to attack the party. You can t take the PRI s core vote for granted, the official said. With some PRI governors, lawmakers and Pena Nieto facing allegations of corruption, it could be suicidal for Meade to push a tough line on graft, said Juan Pardinas, general director of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, a think tank. How could you (take) a strong stance against corruption, being the PRI candidate?, he asked. It s like (taking) a strong stance against racism at a Ku Klux Klan rally. | 0fake |
Louvre Attendants Strike After Vermeer Bottleneck - The New York Times | PARIS — Dozens of museum attendants at the Louvre went on strike on Thursday to protest what they said was the museum’s poor handling of crowds at a temporary exhibition dedicated to Vermeer, with another strike possible on Friday. “Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting,” which includes 12 of the Dutch painter’s 34 known works, drew 9, 400 people the first week after it opened on Feb. 22 — more than double the museum’s expectations — resulting in hourslong waits for some visitors. This week the museum put in place timed visits to the temporary shows on its online ticketing system, limiting the waiting time to 45 minutes. But there have still been bottlenecks. “It’s been a big mess,” Françoise Pinson, the secretary general of a museum workers union, said of the situation, which prompted 70 to 80 of its members to strike. “The signage wasn’t good the planning wasn’t good. ” On Friday morning, museum workers will meet to decide whether to continue their strike. Only 2 percent of the Louvre’s employees went on strike, and the museum was operating as usual, with temporary workers filling in, the museum said. The Vermeer exhibition, which runs through May 22 and will travel to the National Gallery of Art in Washington this fall, argues that the Dutch master may not have been the solitary genius that some believe him to have been. Media attention, a small viewing space and the steady allure of Vermeer have resulted in crowds twice as large as those for several of the Louvre’s recent exhibitions, including ones devoted to Raphael and Ingres. The Vermeer show is one of three temporary exhibitions that opened at the same time, along with “Masterpieces of the Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt” and “Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio,” which was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year. The shows have helped lift attendance at the Louvre, which had seen a striking drop in visitors since a spate of terrorist attacks in France. The Louvre had 7. 4 million visitors in 2016, down from 8. 6 million in 2015. The Vermeer exhibition is on view in one of the underground spaces where many temporary exhibitions are held and that can accommodate only 250 people at a time, the Louvre said. After the crowds of the first week, attendance has dropped to around 4, 000 people per week, the museum said. | 0fake |
BLACK CONSERVATIVE Student DESTROYS Black Lives Crybabies: “I Am Katie Danforth And I Am Working My A*S Off To Become Something” [VIDEO] | If you have the time, you should watch every minute of this video. If you can t watch it all, go to the 56 minute mark and watch DePaul University Junior, Katie Danforth give the Black Lives Matter Crybabies get an earful: | 1real |
Young Turks Finds Out Why Trump Is About To Lose Utah For Republicans For First Time In Decades (VIDEO) | By Wes Williams Election 2016 , Politics , Videos October 27, 2016 Young Turks Finds Out Why Trump Is About To Lose Utah For Republicans For First Time In Decades (VIDEO) Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Utah. It is one of, if not the most conservative states in the nation, largely thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormons. And as such it is usually a solid, bright red state on the electoral maps. Utah has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate exactly once in the past 64 years — in the anti-Goldwater wave of 1964. But this year it is possible that Utah will not be in the Republican column when the votes are added up. That is, at least not in the Republican column headed by Donald Trump, who is largely being rejected by voters in the Beehive State.
Many Utah voters with strong religious beliefs are not happy with Trump, and unlike many Christian evangelical leaders who have decided to stay hitched to his wagon despite the allegations of improper sexual conduct, Utahans are bolting, putting the state in play. The Young Turks sent Michael Shure to the state to find out what was on people’s minds, and what many of them had to tell him was quite clear — they don’t think Trump is a good representative of their Christian beliefs.
None of the young Utahans Shure spoke to said they planned to vote for Trump. Some said they would vote for Gary Johnson. One college student indicated that he would consider a vote for Hillary. But the name that seemed to come up more than any others was Evan McMullin.
McMullin is the Republican who is running an independent campaign for president. He is also a Mormon, which gives him a huge advantage in Utah. Some recent polls of the state have McMullin polling even with Clinton, but still trailing Trump. But as Benjamin Morris notes at FiveThirtyEight, there are questions about the methodology of those polls that could mean McMullin’s support in Utah is even greater than he is getting credit for.
Whether McMullin wins in Utah or whether Trump is able to squeak out a razor thin victory, one thing is certain: unlike many of their traditional “Christian” counterparts in the deep south and the rest of the Rocky Mountain region, many Mormons want no part of Trump or his policies, which some of them were quite willing to tell Shure that they considered to be un-Christian. Not only will a loss of Utah further hurt Trump’s slim chances of winning the White House, a McMullin win there would make him a footnote in future history books as the first third-party candidate since George Wallace in 1968 to win electoral votes.
Here’s Michael Shure’s report on the mood in Utah, via YouTube:
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Dealt a Defeat, Republicans Set Their Sights on Major Tax Cuts - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Picking themselves up after the bruising collapse of their health care plan, President Trump and Republicans in Congress will start this week on a legislative obstacle course that will be even more arduous: the first overhaul of the tax code in three decades. Mr. Trump’s inability to make good on his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act has made the already daunting challenge of tax reform even more difficult. Not only has Mr. Trump’s aura of political invincibility been shattered, but without killing the Affordable Care Act, Republicans will be unable to rewrite the tax code in the sweeping fashion that the president has called for. The grand plans of lower rates, fewer loopholes and a tax on imports may have to be scaled back to a big corporate tax cut and possibly an individual tax cut. A lot of people think Mr. Trump might go for this to get an easy win. “They have to have a victory here,” said Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist who advised Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign. “But it is going to have to be a bit less ambitious rather than going for the big bang. ” Because of the arcane rules of lawmaking in Congress, there may be little choice. If Republicans intend to act again without the help of Democrats, they will need to use a procedure called budget reconciliation to have the Senate pass tax legislation with a simple majority. To make their changes to the tax code permanent, their plans cannot add to deficits over a period of 10 years. Eliminating the $1 trillion of Affordable Care Act taxes and the federal spending associated with that law would have made this easier. Because they failed, Republicans will struggle to reach their goal of cutting corporate tax rates without piling on debt. Speaker Paul D. Ryan acknowledged on Friday, “This does make tax reform more difficult. ” Under pressure to get something done, some Republican deficit hawks appear ready to abandon the fiscal rectitude that they embraced during the Obama administration to help salvage Mr. Trump’s agenda. In a rare shift, Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, whose House Freedom Caucus effectively torpedoed the health legislation, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he would not protest if tax cuts were not offset by new spending cuts or new streams of revenue, such as an import tax. “I think there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of some of my contacts and conservatives in terms of not making it totally offset,” he said. “Does it have to be fully offset? My personal response is no. ” The health care failure also makes the tax overhaul more politically complex as the fissures within the Republican Party have been laid bare. Mr. Trump followed Mr. Ryan’s lead and lost, making it more likely that the White House will try to steer the direction of tax legislation. “I would be surprised given the health law debacle if the Trump administration sits back and lets Congress fashion the legislation without weighing in on the substance,” said Michael J. Graetz, a tax law professor at Columbia University. “That is one of the lessons that the administration will take from the failure of the health bill. ” It remains unclear whether Mr. Trump and Mr. Ryan are in agreement on taxes. Since last summer, Mr. Ryan and Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, have been aggressively pitching a reform blueprint that includes a “border adjustment tax. ” It would be a 20 percent tax on imports that, by making imports more expensive, would spur domestic production, they say. They think the plan would raise $1 trillion to compensate for the lower revenue that much lower tax rates would probably bring in. Mr. Ryan and Mr. Brady are unlikely to simply hand over tax policy to the White House. Mr. Brady said on Sunday that getting rid of the contentious border tax provision would have “severe consequences” and that he hoped to produce a bill based on the House plan this spring that would be passed later this year. Mr. Brady’s committee is expected to convene a meeting about an overhaul on Tuesday. “We have so much in common with the Trump administration, it wouldn’t make sense to have a separate tax bill from Secretary Mnuchin, a separate one from Gary Cohn, a third from whomever,” Mr. Brady said on Fox News, referring to the Treasury secretary, Steven T. Mnuchin, and to one of Mr. Trump’s top economic advisers. “Why not take the basis of the House plan?” Changing the tax code affects every person and industry. Lobbyists are already hoping to shape tax legislation. As plans become more concrete, business groups will be ready to pick them apart. Mr. Trump has at times expressed admiration for some form of border tax as a way to give an advantage to American producers. However, facing a backlash from retailers, energy companies and conservative think tanks that warn that consumer prices will soar under the House Republican plan, Mr. Trump and Mr. Mnuchin have sounded cool to the idea. Many Senate Republicans are also skeptical, raising the prospect that Mr. Ryan’s tax vision could suffer the same fate as his health plan, toppling under the weight of divisions within his party. If Mr. Trump does try to go his own way, he could propose a tax cut plan that disregards deficits and assumes that robust economic growth will make up for lost revenue. Another idea would be reforming taxes in pieces, with a focus on reducing business tax rates first and then addressing tax rates for individuals later. Or, as Mr. Moore advises, he could try to make a grand bargain with Democrats that combines a tax overhaul with a plan for more infrastructure spending. Mr. Trump is under added pressure not to again fail supporters who he promised would “get sick of all the winning. ” “They need to cut taxes, cut spending, and build the wall,” said Judson Phillips, the founder of the conservative group Tea Party Nation. “If they will do that, the base will be forever in love with them. ” He said he did not want Mr. Trump to get bogged down in Mr. Ryan’s complicated tax agenda. But after consuming the first two months of his presidency focused on health care, it is unclear how prepared Mr. Trump and his administration are to tackle taxes. The administration said last month that its tax plan was just weeks away, but nothing materialized. And the Treasury Department, which will take a leading role in crafting a plan, remains understaffed, with crucial policy positions unfilled and most of its leadership still awaiting Senate confirmation. Mr. Mnuchin said last week that he was ready to get going, predicting that a tax overhaul would be simpler than health care. The fact that no one has seriously tackled tax reform since 1986 suggests otherwise. “It’s like asking whether climbing Kilimanjaro or another mountain of equal height is harder,” said Mr. Graetz, who was a Treasury Department official in the early 1990s. “They are both very hard, very exhausting and seem to occur once in a generation. ” | 0fake |
The Secret Society That Ruined the World: Rhodes, Rothschild, Milner | IMAGE: Globalist scribe for the American branch of international order, Carol Quigley.Jay Dyer 21st Century WireIn this partial video, I continue my analysis of Quigley s later work, The Anglo American Establishment, following upon my lectures last year on the total 1300 pages of Tragedy and Hope. Here, we look deeper into the key players who make up the real Illuminati that successfully engineered the faux democracy of the modern world, run by a shadow banking-corporate empire.This is an addendum to the 8 lectures last year on the monumental Atlanticist apologetic Tragedy and Hope based on Quigley s other telling book, The Anglo-American Establishment. The first section is free, while subscribers gain access to full talks and lectures. The goals which Rhodes and Milner sought and the methods by which they hoped to achieve them were so similar by 1902 that the two are almost indistinguishable Both sought to unite the world, and above all the English-speaking world in a federal structure around Britain. Both felt that this goal could best be achieved by a secret band of men united to one another by devotion to the common cause and by personal loyalty to one another. Both felt that this band should pursue its goal by secret political and economic influence behind the scenes and by the control of journalistic, educational, and propaganda agencies. Quigley (Namely, the Liberal Imperium.)YouTube:Jay Dyer is the author of the best selling title, Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film from Trine Day. Focusing on film, philosophy, geopolitics and all things esoteric, JaysAnalysis and his podcast, Esoteric Hollywood, investigates the deeper meanings between the headlines, exploring the hidden aspects of our sinister synthetic mass media matrix.SUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Trump refuses to condemn violence at his U.S. presidential rallies | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that “professional agitators” bore much of the blame for violence at his rallies as video showed a protester being beaten and another apparently being grabbed by Trump’s campaign manager. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Trump defended campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and declined to condemn supporters who have attacked protesters at his increasingly chaotic rallies. Nor did he back down from his warning that there would be riots in the streets if the Republican Party denied him the nomination for the November election, despite his being the most popular candidate among Republican voters. Senior figures in the party are openly plotting to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee because they view him as insufficiently conservative, and Trump was due to privately meet with some party leaders in Washington on Monday, the Washington Post reported. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I will say this, you’re going to have a lot of unhappy people,” he said on “This Week,” predicting anger at the party’s national convention in July should someone else end up the nominee. “I don’t want to see riots, I don’t want to see problems. But you’re talking about millions of people.” Scenes of mayhem have become increasingly common at the billionaire New York businessman’s rallies, which have been frequently interrupted by protesters, many of them Democrats, who say Trump’s controversial remarks on immigrants and Muslims are dangerous. The 69-year-old candidate has sometimes encouraged his supporters using violence on protesters, and on at least one occasion said that he would like to punch a protester himself. Television footage from an Arizona rally on Saturday showed a man punching and kicking a protester as he was led out of the event. Another video appeared to show Lewandowski grabbing a protester by the back of his shirt. Trump declined to condemn the violence and said it was often provoked by protesters, who briefly blocked a highway leading to an Arizona rally on Saturday. “These people are very disruptive people. They’re not innocent lambs,” he said. He also defended Lewandowski and said a security official had actually grabbed the protester. Lewandowski also manhandled a reporter last week, according to the Washington Post. “I give him credit for having spirit,” Trump said of Lewandowski. Republican leaders have said Trump needs to more clearly discourage his supporters from engaging in violence. About two dozen senior Republican figures will meet with Trump at a law firm near the Capitol on Monday afternoon in what the Trump campaign described as an effort to improve “party unity”, the Washington Post reported. The newspaper did not say who would be attending. Candidates were also required to submit their most recently monthly financial disclosures to the Federal Election Commission on Sunday. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination, raised $30.1 million in February, according to filings, about $12 million less than that raised by chief rival, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the same period. Clinton began March with $31 million in cash on hand, according to filings. | 0fake |
CHILLING! FOX REPORTER JAMES ROSEN Recounts Being Spied on by the Obama Mafia [Video] | 1real | |
Breaking: FBI Reopens Investigation Into Hillary Email Scandal As New Emails Were Found | The FBI recently decided to reopen their investigation of Hillary Clinton after more emails from her private email server during her time as head of the State Department were leaked.
Senior news editor and writer for NBC Bradd Jaffy , among others, just tweeted the document hours ago, showing the letter to members of Congress and outlining how the FBI is investigating additional emails.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote to the chairmen. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
You can read the full letter here .
The FBI still has yet to assess the importance of the material to see if any classified material was leaked, and if so, how significant it was.
Comey has also been criticized by lawmakers and others who are saying that the investigation has been downplayed and mishandled.
There are also some other strange allegations emerging. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal , Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe sent more than half a million dollars in campaign funds and material support to the wife of an FBI official who was a part of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s personal email server. It was recently revealed that Clinton performed all of her business as Secretary of State from this server, including sharing classified information.
You can read more about that here .
Why Does This Matter? With all the information that has come out recently exposing the truth behind Western politics, it’s shedding light on the fact we are being misled and that there are extreme amounts of corruption in politics. Politicians are being used by big corporations and banks to push elitist agendas.
This is a time for reflection for us all as the external happenings of our world show us what is really going on. As things become more obvious it gives us a chance to see it VERY clearly -it’s happening for a reason. Is it time to discuss taking a different approach to our world? I think so.
This is a great quote that fits perfectly here:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society . Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
– Edward Bernays, The Father of Public Relations, Propaganda , 1928
What Are We Focusing On? Every four years we turn our attention to the presidential race, while the fact remains, as Bernie Sanders told us earlier in the year, that “no matter who is elected to be president, that person will not be able to address the enormous problems facing the working families of our country. They will not be able to succeed because of the power of corporate America, the power of Wall Street, and the power of campaign donors is so great that no president alone can stand up to them.” ( source )
Instead of “standing up to them,” they simply do what they are told. One example would be the transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches to Goldman Sachs .
Politicians seem to now function as mere frontmen for these corporations, the ones to answer our questions, alleviate our fears, and ultimately, bear the brunt of our anger.
But at the end of the day there is something we must not forget:
“ a power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many, and various, and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.” John C. Calhoun ( source )
Shadow Government It’s no longer a secret that the global consolidation of power lies in the hands of very few — a small group of people and the corporations they run, all held together by the world of finance — or that this few controls every aspect of our lives.
Below is a great clip from the Thrive documentary by Foster Gamble, heir to the Proctor Gamble corporation. He was groomed for the establishment, but chose a different path.
These are the ones we need to shed more light on if we are going to turn things around. The power these corporations and banks have is unacceptable, and politics, at the end of the day, although a good tool that can be used to wake up the masses, is a distraction and waste of time.
It takes the power out of our hands, and places it in the hands of others — while we watch what they do with it and hope it benefits us.
Awareness! This is about awareness. Awareness so we can begin having discussions about what to do next and pulling our consciousness away from the illusion that is before. It is becoming more and more obvious so we can let it go.
It’s fitting to leave you with this last quote from Theodore Roosevelt. Combined with all of the evidence, it’s interesting to think about.
“Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.
From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.” ( source )
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