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Trump Tries to Deflect Russia Scrutiny, Citing ‘Crooked Scheme’ by Obama - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — President Trump sought to turn attention away from the Russia investigation on Monday, saying that “the real story” was what he called a “crooked scheme against us” by President Barack Obama’s team to mine American intelligence reports for information about him during last year’s presidential campaign. The president’s broadside against his predecessor coincided with a string of reports in conservative news media outlets that Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, requested the identities of Americans who were cited in intelligence reports about surveillance of foreign officials, and who were connected with Mr. Trump’s campaign or transition. Former national security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the requests as normal and said they were justified by the need for the president’s top security adviser to understand the context of reports sent to her by the nation’s intelligence agencies. The process of “unmasking” Americans whose names are redacted in intelligence reports, they said, is not the same thing as leaking them publicly. But Mr. Trump and his allies seized on the news media reports to bolster his case that he was targeted by the departing administration for political reasons. As the F. B. I. and congressional committees investigate contacts that associates of Mr. Trump had with Russian officials and business figures, the president argued that he was the victim of dirty tricks and that, if anything, it was associates of his defeated opponent, Hillary Clinton, who were doing the bidding of Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia. “Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter early Monday morning in the opening burst of four messages aimed at Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and the Democrats. “‘Spied on before nomination.’ The real story. ” In another post on Twitter later in the morning, he added: “@FoxNews from multiple sources: ‘There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented.’ @FBI” At his daily briefing later in the day, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said he would not discuss the reports about Ms. Rice specifically. “There’s a troubling direction that some of this is going in, but we’re going to let this review go on before we jump to it,” he said. He chided reporters for showing more interest in the investigation into contacts between Mr. Trump’s team and Russia than in the conduct of Mr. Obama’s White House. Mr. Trump first accused Mr. Obama a month ago of tapping his phones at Trump Tower during the campaign last year. He has refused to back down, even though Mr. Obama and his top aides have adamantly denied it. The F. B. I. director and the former director of national intelligence have said the phone tapping charge is not true, and congressional leaders of both parties have said they have seen no evidence of it. In an interview broadcast on BBC on Monday evening, John O. Brennan, the C. I. A. director under Mr. Obama, chided Mr. Trump for making an unsubstantiated allegation against the former president. Mr. Trump, he said, has “a solemn obligation” to provide information “that is accurate, that is measured and that is not just a spontaneous or impulsive number of words. ” While other officials have said there is no convincing evidence so far of collusion between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russian officials who meddled in last year’s election, Mr. Brennan said that “it would be premature at this time to make any determination, or rule anything out. ” At the same time, he agreed with Mr. Trump about the seriousness of leaks to the news media in recent weeks. “These leaks are appalling,” he said. “They need to stop. ” In trying to combat what Mr. Trump’s aides see as a concerted campaign of leaks to undermine his legitimacy, the White House last month provided intelligence to Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, showing that the president or his associates may have been “incidentally” swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies last year. Since Mr. Nunes made that public, Mr. Trump’s team has focused on whether Mr. Obama’s White House improperly used that information. Republicans pointed to the reports about Ms. Rice on Monday. “Smoking gun found!” Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, wrote on Twitter. “Obama pal and noted dissembler Susan Rice said to have been spying on Trump campaign. ” Intelligence officials are supposed to guard the privacy of Americans caught up in routine eavesdropping of foreign officials. In daily intelligence reports to officials like Ms. Rice, they typically refer to Americans who came up in recorded conversations as U. S. Person One or U. S. Person Two. But officials, as Ms. Rice was, can ask intelligence briefers to provide names to better understand the meaning of the report. It remains unclear how many names were unmasked by Ms. Rice. But several former officials said she did so for legitimate reasons: The Obama White House was concerned during the election about continuing attempts by the Russian government to hack Democratic email accounts and interfere in the campaign. Ms. Rice, they said, needed to understand if Americans were involved in that. They also said Mr. Obama’s advisers worried during the transition — as he imposed sanctions on Russia for its election meddling — that the Trump transition team was trying to undermine American policy before coming to office. The content of the intelligence reports at issue remains unclear. Some officials have said the reports consisted primarily of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle before his inauguration. The former national security officials’ description of the intelligence is in line with Mr. Nunes’s characterization of the material, which he said was not related to the Russia investigations when he disclosed its existence. The White House and Mr. Nunes have not made clear whether they are concerned that actual names had been unmasked in reports, or whether one could tell who the person being discussed was from their context. But at least one name is known to have been unmasked: Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser. He was selected for that post during American surveillance of Russia’s ambassador in December, when the two talked about the sanctions Mr. Obama had just imposed on Moscow. Mr. Flynn was forced out in February after it emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of the calls. But Mr. Trump and other White House officials have suggested that the real problem in the Flynn case involved the leaks about his calls with the Russian envoy, not the content of the calls themselves — or what Mr. Flynn did or did not tell colleagues about his communications. Intelligence agencies are permitted to record calls even if they involve Americans, and any American citizen who talks with, messages or emails a foreign official under surveillance would be picked up by intelligence agencies. During the transition, this would have included Trump associates and even Obama administration officials. | 0fake |
Germany takes political vacuum in its stride, for now | BERLIN (Reuters) - Largely unperturbed by Angela Merkel s failure to form a government after a September election, many Germans are taking the prospect of several more months of coalition talks in their stride. The country is used to lengthy transitions but this is the longest since reunification in 1990. It is 87 days since the election and few experts see a government in place before March. EU leaders fear delays to euro zone integration plans, some of which are to strengthen the banking system, and many economists warn Europe s biggest economy must reform and invest in broadband and infrastructure to stay competitive. But as caretaker chancellor, Merkel is voting at EU summits, parliament is passing laws required by international mandates, local authorities are wading through asylum applications and a bright outlook in Europe s biggest economy is buoying the mood. I haven t noticed much difference from before, said Nadja Helling, 36, cradling a steaming mug of gluehwein at a Berlin Christmas market. It s not ideal but nobody is panicking. Domestic and foreign demand are driving solid growth and the effects of low borrowing costs and European Central Bank stimulus are supporting record-high employment levels and rising real wages. We have jobs and are enjoying the Christmas markets, said Helling s friend, Silvia. What s the problem? The Munich-based Ifo institute raised its forecasts last week and expects the German economy to expand by 2.6 percent next year, the highest rate since 2011, adding, however, that this might be the peak. The IfW institute in Kiel said the delayed formation of a government does not pose an economic risk , but also sounded a warning for the longer term. A boom may feel good but it carries the seeds of a crisis. The view that a boom is harmless, as long as consumer prices are under control, falls short, said the IfW s Stefan Kooths. The reality experienced by many Germans belies dire warnings from commentators last month about looming instability and even new elections after Merkel, weakened by losing votes to the far-right, was humiliated by the collapse of 3-way coalition talks. She is now wooing the Social Democrats (SPD), reluctant partners after voters punished them for sharing power with Merkel s conservatives over the last four years. Germany s transition pales into comparison with some other EU partners, such as Belgium and the Netherlands where a coalition took 225 days to clinch a deal this year. I suspect the process will take some time yet but people who talk about instability are mistaken. We have a stable caretaker government, an effective parliament and a democracy that is functioning very well, said Nils Diederich, politics professor at Berlin s Free University. Confounding some predictions, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), dogged by infighting, has so far failed to capitalize on the lack of a proper government despite being the third-biggest party. Opinion polls have barely changed since the Sept. 24 election, indicating there is little sense of crisis. The Ifo institute said on Tuesday uncertainty about the shape of the government was growing but that a surprise drop in its business moral survey in December after a record high the previous month was nothing too unusual. Indeed, seasonally adjusted unemployment is at the lowest level since 1990 and Christmas sales forecasts are bright, with the HDE retail industry association expecting sales over the festive season to rise by 3 percent to a record high. Merkel, unruffled as ever, has sought to reassure voters and investors that it is business as usual in Germany, with most incumbent ministers staying on in an interim government. If anything, there is a striking lack of urgency about the talks, partly to keep skeptical SPD rank and file on board. After party leaders meet on Wednesday to draw up a rough timetable, no further talks are expected before January. Meanwhile, the Bundestag lower house has agreed to roll over military missions in Afghanistan and Mali and debated topics from Brexit to planned job cuts by Siemens. Germany s federal structure means much business that affects ordinary people, including dealing with asylum applications, housing and school issues, goes ahead regardless of Berlin. Deutsche Bahn has launched a much delayed fast train link between Berlin and Munich, complete with the usual teething problems, and Christmas markets have opened, albeit with tight security after last year s attack. The impasse has had little effect on Brexit talks because there is consensus among Germany s main parties about the German, and EU, position towards Britain. Plans for euro zone reform, however, are more contentious, although Merkel said on Monday, she hoped to make progress on the issue by March. The main possible negative effect is that the momentum in Europe (for reform), that was desired after the Brexit vote might be lost, said Thomas Jaeger, politics professor at Cologne University. The SPD, determined to stamp its identity on any coalition deal with Merkel, backs deeper integration than Merkel s conservatives, but is split over whether it should agree to a grand coalition with Merkel. Its leader Martin Schulz has championed French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals for a euro zone budget and finance minister and wants a United States of Europe by 2025. The only political crisis in Germany is the struggle for direction by the main parties, in particular the SPD, said Diederich. The SPD needs time to overcome this. | 0fake |
AZ Man Tries To Be A ‘Hero’ By Shooting At Shoplifters (VIDEO) | An Arizona gun nut has been charged with multiple crimes after he decided to shoot at two men who shoplifted some stuff from a Chandler, Arizona Walgreens location in March.According to John Haag, 25, he was at Walgreens when he saw two men running from the store. Haag asked the store employees if they d been robbed and they told him yes, so he decided to take the law into his own hands. Instead of calling the police like an intelligent human being, Haag got into his car and chased the suspected robbers. ABC15 news obtained a video that shows Haag pulling up to the U-Haul the men were driving and firing his gun at the vehicle. After shooting at the suspects, he drove away.According to officials, the people who Haag shot at weren t robbery suspects at all. Instead all they had done was shoplifted from the store. Police said that this crime would not justify the level of force used by a man who said he wanted to be a hero. Cops were able to find the idiot after he posted just witnessed a robbery at Walgreens again, this time, I had my gun true story on Facebook.Speaking to ABC15, Haag said: I feel I had good intentions. I meant the best. I meant to disable the vehicle. First of all, he completely missed the vehicle that he was firing at clearly he should not be shooting a weapon when his aim is that bad. Secondly, he discharged the firearm in the middle of traffic and that bullet could have ricocheted and killed someone. Haag went on to say that he thinks more people should try to be heroes: Most people are scared. Tons of people nowadays are in fear of what will happen to them and that s not cool. That s why we have more crime. He s right, I do fear what will happen to me, my family and my friends, but not because of shoplifters. I am way more concerned that I or someone I love is going to be killed by a dumbass like him who thinks it s okay to fire a gun in traffic. I worry that my son is going to be Second Amendmented to death by gun nuts. I worry about things like that because it is obvious that we have millions of gun owners in this country and many of them do not have the common sense given to a squirrel.Haag has been charged with aggravated assault, unlawful discharge of a firearm and drive-by shooting. Hopefully a judge rules that he can never own a gun again.Watch:Featured image via video screenshot | 1real |
President Putin: Russian Federation supports Jammu and Kashmir's right of self-determination, Indian army acts as ruthless bandits | Email (Rawalpindi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan)-- President Vladimir Putin in a rare interview with Asia Times revealed that Moscow offered a comprehensive roadmap to solve Kashmir's crisis which has festered for decades. The Russian proposal supports self-determination to the inhabitants of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, based on a choice of three courses to be voted on in a referendum within four years after the establishment of peace. "It is unrealistic to expect the Muslim population to accept the idea of integration into India. We support the inalienable right of Kashmiri people to determine their future. A UN-sponsored ceasefire is needed," the state-run Asia Time quoted Mr. Putin as saying, adding, the Indian army disguised as Hindu zealots are indiscriminately targeting Muslim civilians. The main anti-Indian Kashmiri opposition party, widely known as Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir), has recently reopened its political office in Moscow after five years when Russia suddenly severed all its ties with the Muslim separatists. "Indian army acts as ruthless bandits, though we seek a permanent solution to the conflict in Kashmir. UN must hold a plebiscite in those disputed areas to determine the wishes of Kashmiris on the final disposition of their state. I hope both side--Indianans and Pakistanis--eventually reach a mutual understanding and agree on reasonable term to end this bloodshed. | 1real |
Obama's Weighs Options for His Final Stab at Israel | Obama's Weighs Options for His Final Stab at Israel In his twilight months in office, Obama seeks to undermine America’s closest ally. November 4, 2016 Ari Lieberman
Israelis and the pro-Israel community at large will breathe a collective sigh of relief when Obama leaves office. During Obama’s tenure, relations with Israel were caustic at best. Barely five months after taking office, he publicly launched a scathing attack against Israel – where he perversely insinuated a moral equivalence between Israeli and Palestinian actions – and did so in one of the most virulently anti-Semitic countries on the planet. He later skipped over Israel despite the fact that Israel was a mere 20-minute plane ride away. That was Obama’s opening salvo against America’s closest ally. It was only downhill from there.
Obama utilized high-level administration sources to leak negative information about Israel to sympathetic members of the press. In one such instance, an administration official –probably Ben Rhodes – referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “ chicken-Sh*t .” In another instance, Obama voiced concurrence with French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, when Sarkozy characterized Netanyahu as a “ liar .”
Often, the Obama administration would subject Israeli dignitaries to humiliating treatment during official state visits. Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, was shamefully transformed into a persona non grata. In the most notorious incident, Obama left Netanyahu out in the cold while having dinner with Michelle and his daughters. One commentator dryly noted that Obama treated Netanyahu as though he was the president of Equatorial Guinea.
Ultimately, Obama crossed the line and received significant pushback from Democratic lawmakers and donors. Obama got the message and toned down the rhetoric but his deep-seeded animus against Israel never dissipated and relations with Israel’s prime minister remained toxic.
Tensions surfaced again during Israel’s counter insurgency campaign against the Gaza-based terror group Hamas. Obama held up a shipment of Hellfire missiles to Israel and then tried to strong-arm Israel into accepting a suicidal ceasefire agreement brokered by Turkey and Qatar, two despotic nations that support Hamas and gave aid and comfort to Islamic State terrorists.
Obama saw Netanyahu’s opposition to the JCPOA, the so-called Iran deal, as a personal attack and allowed his petulant nature to further sour relations. The so-called “settlements” were another point of contention. Obama disregarded a letter of assurance to Israel provided by the Bush administration specifying that “In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population[s] centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949…”
Bush gave implicit recognition to existing settlement blocs and the right of Israel to build within those blocs. It is also important to note that no new settlement was created during Obama’s term of office and Netanyahu had even agreed to an unprecedented 10-month moratorium on construction within the disputed territories. But nothing was ever enough for Obama who never wasted an opportunity to excoriate Israel at every turn. His parting shot was at the United Nations General Assembly. During a recent address to that contemptible body, he explicitly singled out Israel for criticism but heaped praise on the xenophobic nation of Indonesia. Obama’s moral compass had gone completely awry.
Despite the fact that Obama is in his twilight months, he can still inflict immeasurable harm on Israel. According to a report featured in the Wall Street Journal , Obama is contemplating several options, each with significant negative implications for Israel. The report noted that he will only implement those options during the transitional period after November 8, so as not to harm Clinton’s presidential prospects.
He may seek to remove tax exempt status for organizations supportive of Israeli communities living in East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Perhaps more ominously, he may seek to impose dictates on Israel utilizing the U.N. Security Council.
In one such scenario, Obama may seek to pass a resolution condemning settlement construction and declaring Israeli communities situated in Judea and Samaria to be illegal. Alternatively, the administration may seek formal recognition of the “State of Palestine” even though such a state has no formal boundaries and rejects Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Lastly, he is said to be considering the possibility of setting up the parameters of a future peace agreement that would entail significant Israeli territorial concessions.
The United States does not have to actively support any UNSC resolution to see the successful passage of anti-Israeli measures. It merely has to fail to exercise its veto powers. France, facing significant problems of its own in connection with its growing radicalized Muslim population, has historically been the fiercest advocate for the Palestinian Arabs. It is likely that the administration would seek to have the French submit a draft resolution and the United States would simply abstain while the permanent and non-permanent members voted, thus guaranteeing passage.
Israel has few friends on the Security Council and American collusion with a body that could arguably be considered today’s greatest purveyors of anti-Semitism, would be an act of extreme betrayal. It would also represent bad policy and would significantly complicate efforts to broker a future peace agreement.
But Israel is not without recourse. There is strong bipartisan support for Israel in Congress and lawmakers from both sides of the political divide have already expressed to the White House their strong opposition to U.N. involvement.
Some, like the Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick, have suggested that the Israelis can reach out to the Russians with carrots in an effort to counter Obama’s nefarious plans but this option seems to be a stretch. Moscow has always been in the pockets of the Muslim bloc and its recent vote at UNESCO in support of a resolution denying the Jewish nexus to Jerusalem, serves to reinforce this view. Moreover, even if Russia can be persuaded, relying on Putin for favors is akin to borrowing money from the Mafia and would come with a steep price.
It is ironic that with the multitude of problems currently facing the administration – spiraling healthcare costs, racial discord, cyber breaches, Russia’s seizure of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, ISIS, the meltdown in the Arab world, Iranian terrorism, China’s expansion into the South and East China Seas, the migrant crisis, immigration reform – Obama would choose to focus his negative energies on harming the Mideast’s only democracy and America’s staunchest ally. That fact, in it of itself, speaks volumes about the man. | 1real |
U.S. to push ahead on climate pact before Trump takes over: Kerry | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday the Obama administration would do everything it could to implement a global agreement to combat climate change before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Kerry made the comments during a visit to New Zealand just before setting off to Marrakesh, Morocco to take part in climate talks between 200 nations. Donald Trump, who calls global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris Agreement, was considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, according to a source on Trump’s transition team. Kerry declined to speculate on what Trump might do about the Paris Agreement and noted that there was sometimes a difference between campaigning and governing. But the top American diplomat was clear he thought further action to prevent climate change should be a priority. “The evidence is mounting in ways that people in public life should not dare to avoid accepting as a mandate for action,” Kerry told journalists at a press conference in Wellington with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key “Until January 20 when this administration is over, we intend to do everything possible to meet our responsibility to future generations to be able to address this threat to life itself on the planet.” Kerry’s visit to Wellington followed a two-day trip to Antarctica where he flew in a helicopter over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which would add to rising sea levels if it melts, and spoke to scientists researching how fast climate change is likely to occur. The U.S. accounts for just under 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions so is considered a key player in the Paris Agreement, which has been ratified by 109 countries so far. The accord seeks to limit rising temperatures that have been linked to increasing economic damage from desertification, extinctions of animals and plants, heat waves, floods and rising sea levels. | 0fake |
Guinean forces kill one, wound several in bauxite mining town riot | CONAKRY (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and several wounded when Guinean security forces opened fire to break up a riot in the bauxite mining hub of Boke, witnesses said on Wednesday. Boke has suffered waves of rioting rooted in a perceived failure of mining to raise living standards, despite 15 million tonnes of aluminum ore being extracted annually by the West African nation s largest mining companies Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) and Companie Bauxite de Guinee (CBG). Rioters on Wednesday pillaged a gendarmerie post and set fire to a security forces vehicle, before Guinean forces opened fire to push them back. They also blocked streets to prevent mine workers from going to work, although SMB said its basic operations were still in order. We feel the tension has increased somewhat, Frederic Bouzigues, general manager of SMB, told Reuters. Many of our employees have not been able to get back to work and this affects us even if our essential operations are not blocked. Guinea sits on about a third of the world s bauxite, but it remains one of the world s poorest countries, and unemployment around mining sites is not significantly lower than in other places. Residents of Boke protested this week over electricity shortages, another major gripe of residents. The government said calm had now been restored, after two days of demonstrations. I saw one person dead at the hospital, witness Mamadou Diallo told Reuters by telephone. It was a young man of 25 years. I saw about twenty people wounded, he added. Similar riots at the end of April paralyzed Boke, and youths trashed several government buildings before being pushed back by security forces firing live rounds, also killing at least one protester. It was a difficult situation but we took steps to restore calm, government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara said by telephone. Boke residents complain that while seeing none of the wealth from mining, they still suffer associated problems such as pollution from dust blowing off the back of trucks. | 0fake |
This astonishing chart shows how moderate Republicans are an endangered species | Political scientists have known for years that political polarization is largely a one-sided phenomenon: in recent decades the Republican Party has moved to the right much faster than Democrats have moved to the left. As Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution has described it, "Republicans have become a radical insurgency—ideologically extreme, contemptuous of the inherited policy regime, scornful of compromise, unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of their political opposition."
The data backing this claim up are pretty solid. The most widely-used measure of political polarization, a score of ideology based on voting developed by Kenneth Poole and Howard Rosenthal, has shown that the Republicans in the Senate and especially the House have drifted away from the center far more rapidly than Democrats. The chart below, taken from the most recent slice of their data released just last month, illustrate this pretty clearly:
Right around 1975, the Republican party sharply turned away from the center line and hasn't looked back. The Democrats have been drifting away from the center too, but nowhere near as quickly.
Every once in awhile an op-ed writer will come along and make a qualitative argument along the lines of "no, really, it's the Democrats who are polarizing!" Peter Wehner, a former official in three previous Republican presidential administrations, did just that in the pages of the New York Times last week. His argument amounts to the notion that since President Obama has pursued some policies that are more liberal than Bill Clinton's, "the Democratic Party has moved substantially further to the left than the Republican Party has shifted to the right."
Well, no -- just look at the chart above! Here's another way of looking at it: How many moderates are in each party? Here's another interesting chart from the Poole-Rosenthal data, showing the number of House members in each party who are not centrists -- that is, whose ideological scores put them on the more extreme ends of the partisan scale.
As you can see, in the most recent Congress nearly 90 percent of Republican House members are not politically moderate. By contrast, 90 percent of Democratic members are moderates. It's quite difficult to square a chart like this with a claim that Democrats are abandoning the center faster than Republicans. As the chart shows, there are plenty of centrist Democrats left in the House -- but hardly any centrist Republicans.
It's worth pointing out that none of this is happening in a vacuum -- House Republicans are become more extreme because Republican voters are electing more extreme candidates. We see many of these same patterns playing out among the electorate as well, as a massive Pew Research Study demonstrated last year. | 0fake |
Obama urges China to address industrial excess capacity: White House | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday and urged China to accelerate efforts to address the problem of industrial excess capacity, the White House said. In a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Obama also urged Beijing to establish a level playing field to allow all firms to compete fairly in China, a White House statement said. | 0fake |
WATCH: BLACK SPORTS HOST BLASTS White ESPN Sports Host For Asking White Athletes To Take A Knee During National Anthem | When will Americans stop being afraid of standing up to leftist agitators and tell them, NO! When will Americans find a backbone and stop allowing the left to dictate what they re allowed to say or to feel? Why are white Americans allowing themselves and law enforcement officers of every race and ethnicity to be thrown under the bus, because we re led by the radical left to believe that it will somehow make us better people.Oddly, sports channels have decided to assume the role of America s social conscience. Sports used to be a unifying force for Americans, a place for perfect strangers to come together and bond over their love and support for a particular team. The Disney owned ESPN sports network has been working very hard to change that.Fear and intimidation are two of the tools the Left uses in order to make people comply with their message of unity through division. And according to one TV and radio sports host, these tactics are beginning to take hold in the NFL.Fox Sports 1 host Jason Whitlock joined Tucker Carlson Monday evening on Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight to talk about the state of protesting during the National Anthem in the NFL.Whitlock understands that protesting is perfectly within players rights as Americans, but he takes issue with the method in which people like unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick go about protesting. There are NFL players, black and white, who know that if you really want to address police brutality, social justice, inequality in this country, protesting the National Anthem is the perfect way for your message to get completely lost, Whitlock told Carlson.NFL players have so many platforms on which to voice their approval or displeasure on whatever issue they re championing this week. But to use the National Anthem as the vehicle for their message only causes their message fall flat in the eyes of a lot of football fans. These silent protests don t make them look heroic, but rather selfish.Whitlock also posed an interesting theory to Carlson concerning players who aren t participating in these social justice protests. I want to know why NFL players aren t offering voices of dissent? Whitlock asked. You can t tell me that there aren t NFL players who recognize the stupidity of the style of protest Colin Kaepernick has chosen, Whitlock said. But they re all afraid to say it because of the backlash. Another good point.We have seen sports entities like the NFL and ESPN become bastions of social justice promotion in an age where people are being divided into more groups than the Divergent series. MRCTV | 1real |
DEMOCRATS FREAK OUT As Shocking Number Of Union Members Plan To Vote For “Blue-Collar Billionaire” Donald Trump [VIDEO] | As millions of dollars of union dues flow into the Democrat coffers, it could be all for naught, as union members plan to cast their votes for Donald Trump Democrats are worried as more and more union members are supporting Donald Trump for president.A recent AFL-CIO poll found that Trump has more support than Hillary and Bernie Sanders combined.95% of union donations flow to Democratic candidates and causes. Gateway PunditTrump is resonating with voters who are struggling to make ends meet and who are seeing their friends jobs shipped abroad, says John Cakmakci, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 951 in Michigan. And some of those voters are union members. Trump s populist positions on trade and his rejection of Washington politics have earned him votes across the Rust Belt, where several battleground states are key to winning the election in November Donald Trump Jr. explains the Blue-Collar Billionaire s appeal with voters: Working America, the political organizing arm of AFL-CIO, wanted to find out whether Trump s rightwing message appealed to workers outside Cleveland and Pittsburgh. After interviewing about 1,689 working-class Americans living in households earning less than $75,000, they found out that Trump was in fact the favored candidate. Of the 800 voters who had decided on a candidate at the time of the interview, about 300 favored Trump. Combined, the two Democratic candidates appealed to fewer workers 174 chose Clinton and 95 chose Sanders. While most of Trump s support comes from the staunch Republican base, one in four Democrats who chose a candidate showed a preference for Trump, said Working America s report.The majority of respondents said they supported the candidate because of his pugnacious personality rather than for, say, his position on trade.On Tuesday, Jared Szczesny, a card-carrying member of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Union (UAW), will cast his vote for Trump in Pennsylvania s primary. In 2008 and 2012, UAW endorsed President Obama. This time UAW has yet to endorse a candidate, but is likely to back a Democrat.Szczesny, 31, has never attended a Trump rally. He works seven days a week and has not been able to find the time. However, back in October, he picked up Trump s book The Art of the Deal. When he finished it, he knew that Trump had his vote.Via: The Guardian | 1real |
Apple likely to invoke free-speech rights in encryption fight | NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) will likely seek to invoke the United States’ protections of free speech as one of its key legal arguments in trying to block an order to help unlock the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, lawyers with expertise in the subject said this week. The company on Thursday was granted three additional days by the court to file a response to the order. Apple will now have until Feb. 26 to send a reply, a person familiar with matter told Reuters. The tech giant and the Obama administration are on track for a major collision over computer security and encryption after a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles handed down an order on Tuesday requiring Apple to provide specific software and technical assistance to investigators. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation unprecedented. Other tech giants such as Facebook Inc (FB.O), Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google have rallied to support Apple. Apple has retained two prominent, free-speech lawyers to do battle with the government, according to court papers: Theodore Olson, who won the political-speech case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010, and Theodore Boutrous, who frequently represents media organizations. Government lawyers from the U.S. Justice Department have defended their request in court papers by citing various authorities, such as a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld an order compelling a telephone company to provide assistance with setting up a device to record telephone numbers. The high court said then that the All Writs Act, a law from 1789, authorized the order, and the scope of that ruling is expected to be a main target of Apple when it files a response in court by early next week. But Apple will likely also broaden its challenge to include the First Amendment’s guarantee of speech rights, according to lawyers who are not involved in the dispute but who are following it. Compared with other countries, the United States has a strong guarantee of speech rights even for corporations, and at least one court has ruled that computer code is a form of speech, although that ruling was later voided. Apple could argue that being required to create and provide specific computer code amounts to unlawful compelled speech, said Riana Pfefferkorn, a cryptography fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society. The order against Apple is novel because it compels the company to create a new forensic tool to use, not just turn over information in Apple’s possession, Pfefferkorn said. “I think there is a significant First Amendment concern,” she said. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment on the possible free-speech questions on Thursday. A speech-rights argument from Apple, though, could be met with skepticism by the courts because computer code has become ubiquitous and underpins much of the U.S. economy. “That is an argument of enormous breadth,” said Stuart Benjamin, a Duke University law professor who writes about the First Amendment. He said Apple would need to show that the computer code conveyed a “substantive message.” In a case brought by a mathematician against U.S. export controls, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, found in 1999 that the source code behind encryption software is protected speech. The opinion was later withdrawn so the full court could rehear the case, but that rehearing was canceled and the appeal declared moot after the government revised its export controls. The FBI and prosecutors are seeking Apple’s assistance to read the data on an iPhone 5C that had been used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the San Bernardino shootings that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party. U.S. prosecutors were smart to pick the mass shooting as a test case for an encryption fight with tech companies, said Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor. That is because the shooting had a large emotional impact while also demonstrating the danger posed by armed militants, he said. In addition, the iPhone in dispute was owned not by Farook but by his employer, a local government, which has consented to the search of the iPhone. The federal magistrate who issued the order, Sheri Pym, is also a former federal prosecutor. “This is one of the worst set of facts possible for Apple. That’s why the government picked this case,” Froomkin said. Froomkin added, though, that the fight was enormously important for the company because of the possibility that a new forensic tool could be easily used on other phones and the damage that could be done to Apple’s global brand if it cannot withstand government demands on privacy. “All these demands make their phones less attractive to users,” he said. | 0fake |
One Photo Sums Up How Differently America Treats People Of Color And The White Bundy Militiamen | Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Two stunningly depressing things happened in America on Thursday evening that demonstrate just how differently the country treats its citizens based on race – and they happened more or less at the same time.
In North Dakota, police driving armored vehicles (yes, like tanks) and armed with rifles, sound cannons, and shotguns loaded with “nonlethal” beanbags marched in formation to shut down peaceful protesters opposing an oil pipeline. A few states over in Oregon, a jury found that the violent militia group which led an armed occupation of a federal wildlife reserve was innocent of all charges and free to go . America is two countries with two different sets of rules, and Thursday evening highlighted that fact in stunning detail.
On Twitter, user @theshrillest put the juxtaposition in all its glory in a single screengrab. His twitter feed was a mixture of stories about the violent suppression of a peaceful protest led by a Native American tribe directly affected by the environmental impact of the oil pipeline and news of the release of the Bundy militia – a group of out-of-state rabblerousers who believe the federal government should be disbanded.
— 🇺🇸 (@theshrillest) October 27, 2016
This is the second time the Bundy family threatened to kill federal agents and expressed a desire to lead a revolution only to see zero charges stick to them. The group will now get to return to Nevada, just in time for an election in which many conservatives are openly stating that they plan on taking up arms if Trump loses. On November 8th, I'm voting for Trump.
On November 9th, if Trump loses, I'm grabbing my musket.
You in?
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 26, 2016
In short, it’s a scary time to be a democracy. An Oregon jury just gave every white male in the country a not-so-subtle nod that violence against the government will be met with a look the other way when it comes time to a trial.
Featured image via Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office/Getty Images Share this Article! | 1real |
U.S. Presses for Truce in Syria, With Its Larger Policy on Pause - The New York Times | HANGZHOU, China — The image of a Syrian boy, dazed and bloodied after being rescued from an airstrike on Aleppo, reverberated around the world last month, a harrowing reminder that five years after civil war broke out there, Syria remains a charnel house. But the reaction was more muted in Washington, where Syria has become a distant disaster rather than an urgent crisis. President Obama’s policy toward Syria has barely budged in the last year and shows no sign of change for the remainder of his term. The White House has faced little pressure over the issue, in part because Syria is getting scant attention on the campaign trail from either Donald J. Trump or Hillary Clinton. That frustrates many analysts because they believe that a shift in policy will come only when Mr. Obama has left office. “Given the tone of this campaign, I doubt the electorate will be presented with realistic and intelligible options, with respect to Syria,” said Frederic C. Hof, a former adviser on Syria in the administration. The lack of substantive political debate about Syria is all the more striking given that the Obama administration is engaged in an increasingly desperate effort to broker a deal with Russia for a that would halt the rain of bombs on Aleppo. Those negotiations moved on Sunday to China, where Secretary of State John Kerry met for two hours with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, at a Group of 20 meeting. At one point, the State Department was confident enough to schedule a news conference, at which the two were supposed to announce a deal. But Mr. Kerry turned up alone, acknowledging that “a couple of tough issues” were still dividing them. “We’re not going to rush,” he said, “and we’re not going to do something that we think has less than a legitimate opportunity to get the job done. ” Mr. Kerry said he would stay in China another day to keep trying. But his boss, Mr. Obama, voiced skepticism. “If we do not get some from the Russians on reducing the violence and easing the humanitarian crisis, then it’s difficult to see how we get to the next phase,” the president said after a meeting with the British prime minister, Theresa May, in Hangzhou. Whatever progress Mr. Kerry has made, officials said, could easily be unraveled by external events, whether a new offensive by Turkey or the Nusra Front — which until recently had publicly aligned itself with Al Qaeda — or intensified bombing raids by the government of President Bashar . And it is clearer than ever that if Mr. Kerry’s latest attempt at diplomacy falls short, there is no Plan B. Mr. Obama, officials said, has become increasingly skeptical about one of the major fallback options advanced by officials in the administration: expanding military aid to rebels vetted by the United States to put more pressure on Mr. Assad to compromise. With Nusra fighters playing a more dominant role in the rebellion, they said, the president has deepened his resistance to providing the rebels with more powerful weapons. In October, Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, proposed enforcing a partial zone over Syria to create safe zones for civilians in places like Aleppo. She has said little about the plan in recent months, and people familiar with her thinking say she now acknowledges that the complexity of the battlefield — with Russian planes flying raids — would make it far more difficult. Mrs. Clinton, these people said, would be open to other measures to ground Mr. Assad’s Air Force. They did not offer details, but officials in the Obama administration, including 51 State Department employees who signed a “dissent channel” memo on Syria, have pressed privately for the United States to carry out airstrikes to hit Mr. Assad’s planes on the ground and their runways. In another election season, these are the kinds of questions that would be hotly debated. But the foreign policy debate has instead revolved mainly around the fitness of the Republican nominee, Mr. Trump, to be commander in chief. Mrs. Clinton, analysts said, has other reasons for not being drawn out on Syria. “A clear imperative for the Clinton campaign is to stay as close as possible to President Obama,” Mr. Hof said. “That means neither looking for, nor emphasizing, areas of disagreement, such as Syria. ” And yet, Mrs. Clinton’s aides say, Syria remains a priority for her. At a private in the Hamptons last week, Mrs. Clinton delivered, unprompted, a lengthy policy prescription for what to do in Syria, including a gentle critique of the Obama administration for not pursuing her original proposal of a zone, according to a person who attended and described her remarks on the condition of anonymity. The views of Mrs. Clinton — and Mr. Trump, for that matter — are critical. As Andrew J. Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, noted, “Everyone in the region is just waiting for the next U. S. administration. ” In the meantime, Mr. Kerry is persevering with his diplomacy, while the situation in Syria is growing ever murkier. A particular point of contention is the central role that the Nusra Front has played during the pitched battles against the Syrian military. The Nusra fighters are commingled with rebels supplied by the C. I. A. and other Arab nations. The Russians have used the presence of Nusra fighters to justify airstrikes around Aleppo, saying the city is an important front in its campaign against terrorism. The fact that the Nusra Front was not a party to past agreements, allowing the group to continue its attacks on Syrian government troops during the fragile pauses in violence, has given added fuel to the Russian argument. The “marbling” of the various rebel groups with more extremist groups has been a sticking point in the negotiations. American officials insist that they give no support to Nusra fighters despite the group’s name change and split with Al Qaeda. “Nusra is Al Qaeda,” Mr. Kerry said. No name change, he said, “hides what it really is. ” The Russians have been pressing their advantage in recent months, bolstering Mr. Assad’s military as it claims more territory from the C. I. A. rebels and the Nusra Front and gaining leverage as the diplomacy proceeds at a glacial pace. Still, both the United States and Russia have shown an inclination to dial back the temperature of a proxy war that, for the first time since Afghanistan in the 1980s, has seen fighters backed by the C. I. A. in a direct confrontation with the Russian military. “The fight in eastern Syria is heating up, and our forces are right in the middle, in this instance some actually on the ground,” said Robert S. Ford, a former American ambassador to Syria. Military analysts say Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, would recognize the folly in waging an war in Syria, and in having to prop up Mr. Assad indefinitely. Russia’s military successes in Syria since the campaign began last year, they said, could be solidified by a political settlement, and Moscow could gradually extricate itself from direct military involvement. Some outside analysts see Mr. Kerry’s determination to broker a as driven by their assessment that the Russian offensive has reversed the fortunes of Mr. Assad’s military, sending the rebels into retreat and owning a shrinking patch of territory in northern Syria. The back and forth of the conflict continues, with insurgents making major gains against the government in central Hama Province over the weekend. Any “cleareyed” interpretation of Mr. Kerry’s actions, said Michael Kofman, an expert on Russia at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, would read this as a public admission that the United States is bowing out of continuing the proxy war against the Syrian Army, seeing a negotiated agreement as “the best means of saving what little is left of the moderate opposition. ” If he fails, though, Mr. Obama will be left with little more than the news release his national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, issued last week, in which the White House took credit for achieving its goal of taking in 10, 000 refugees from Syria, more than a month ahead of schedule — but only a small fraction of the five million Syrians who have fled their country. | 0fake |
Re: ‘It’s for my children and grandchildren.’; Ammon Bundy’s testimony likely what cleared #OregonStandoff seven | ‘It’s for my children.’; Ammon Bundy’s testimony likely what cleared #OregonStandoff seven Posted at 10:15 am on October 28, 2016 by Sam J. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
The first seven of 24 arrested in the #OregonStandoff were cleared of all charges by a jury on Thursday. Legal experts are suggesting Ammon Bundy’s 10 hours or testimony (yes, 10) is what may have won the jurors over.
Ammon said, “Everything comes from the Earth and if [the government] can get control of the resources, they can get control of the people.” It was Ammon Bundy's 10 hours of testimony that likely won over jurors, legal expert says https://t.co/0BHO61BrAO pic.twitter.com/YiXf9UuQzg
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 28, 2016
Ammon, who is the father of six, also said he was doing this for his children and his grandchildren and that Americans need to “wake up.” The #oregonstandoff verdict shows that sometimes citizens get fed up with an abusive fed govt.Obviously the lesson is not to have juries.
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 28, 2016
Interestingly enough, after the verdict Bundy’s attorney was tasered … Ammon Bundy’s attorney Tased and arrested after #OregonStandoff verdict https://t.co/vUfuLnlP4O pic.twitter.com/k4fW36F8nr
— Raw Story (@RawStory) October 28, 2016
Can’t make this stuff up. Trending | 1real |
GREAT! PRO-COAL OKLAHOMA AG Tapped For Head Of EPA | When the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, Scott Pruitt sued. When the Justice Department offered legal status to young undocumented immigrants, Scott Pruitt sued. And when the Obama administration sought to give tax credits to states that hadn t set up their own health insurance exchanges, Scott Pruitt sued.Since becoming Oklahoma attorney general in 2010, Pruitt has filed or joined lawsuits against federal agencies at least a dozen times. Even when Oklahoma isn t an actual party in litigation, the state often submits a legal brief against the federal government. Besides air pollution, immigration and health care, Pruitt has fought federal laws and regulations on banking, contraception and endangered species. These days, whenever states go to court against the Obama administration, the chances are that Pruitt is somehow involved.Not that Pruitt is alone. During Obama s presidency, the entire cadre of Republican attorneys general (27 at present) has coordinated cases against federal agencies at an unprecedented pace. But Pruitt is at the center of the action. He has set up a first-in-the-nation federalism unit, which seeks to combat instances of federal overreach by every possible means.Read more: Governing | 1real |
Myanmar, Bangladesh agree to cooperate on Rohingya refugee repatriation | NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar and Bangladesh on Tuesday agreed to cooperate on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees and took steps to boost border security as relations between the neighbors have been strained by the continuing flow of refugees into Bangladesh. Over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response by the Myanmar army that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. At a meeting in Myanmar s capital Naypyitaw, attended by Myanmar s home affairs minister lieutenant general Kyaw Swe and his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan, the countries signed two agreements covering security and border cooperation. The two sides have also agreed to to halt the outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh, and to form a joint working group, Tin Myint, permanent secretary from Myanmar s home affairs ministry told reporters after the meetings. After joint working group, the verification, (the) two countries have agreed to arrange different steps so that these people can return to their homeland safely and honourably and in secure conditions, said Mostafa Kamal Uddin, secretary from Bangladeshi home affairs ministry. The officials did not elaborate on the specific steps the authorities would take for the repatriation, adding that the bulk of discussions was dedicated to border and security cooperation agreements which have been long in the making. Tin Myint said the two countries agreed to restore normalcy in Rakhine to enable displaced Myanmar residents to return from Bangladesh at the earliest opportunity. He also said Myanmar had sent a list of suspects who had fled to Bangladesh and requested the authorities there to investigate and return them to Myanmar. Thousands of refugees have continued to arrived cross the Naf river separating Myanmar s western Rakhine state and Bangladesh in recent days, even though Myanmar says military operations ceased on Sept. 5. The United States said on Monday it was considering a range of further actions over Myanmar s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority. While on Tuesday the officials said the talks were friendly, tensions are still high between the two countries. Bangladesh last month accused Myanmar of repeatedly violating its air space and warned that any more provocative acts could have unwarranted consequences . On border and security, the two sides decided to establish border liaison offices, carry out regular meetings between two security forces, jointly combat drug trafficking across the border and set up a mechanism to communicate directly. Bangladesh has for decades faced influxes of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where the Rohingya are seen as illegal migrants. It was already home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya before the latest crisis. Though Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are denied citizenship and access to basic civil rights such as freedom of movement, decent education and healthcare. Hundreds in Rakhine on Sunday protested to urge Myanmar s government not to repatriate the Rohingya. | 0fake |
White House seeks new climate measures, trade progress in Trudeau visit | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are set to discuss new ideas for curbing climate change and expanding trade during an Oval Office meeting this week, White House officials said during a preview on Tuesday. Trudeau, who pledged to repair frayed ties with the United States when he took office in November, will meet with Obama on Thursday ahead of a star-studded state dinner. The White House, which sees a natural partner in Trudeau, hopes the two countries can commit to cut methane emissions from the energy sector by 40 percent to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025, and endorse an initiative to stop routine flaring from oil and gas fields, said Todd Stern, the U.S. climate envoy. “The commitment of both leaders to addressing this global challenge is clear and I expect under their leadership North America will make significant progress this year,” Stern told reporters. Stern said the two countries also are looking at ways to make carbon emissions from the aviation sector “neutral,” starting in 2020 through the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization. The United States also hopes to accelerate the timetable to phase out HFCs, industrial gases that have far more potential to trap the earth’s heat than carbon dioxide, through an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, Stern said. On trade, a hot-button issue for both Democrats and Republicans in the race to succeed Obama in the Nov. 8 presidential election, the leaders are likely to discuss two longstanding irritants, softwood lumber and meat labeling. A deal governing Canadian softwood lumber exports expired last year, and the two nations are talking about a new arrangement, said Mark Feierstein, the White House National Security Council’s senior director for the Western hemisphere. “We’re open to exploring all options with Canada at this point,” Feierstein said, declining to put timelines on when a deal may be reached. The White House also hopes Canada will formally end its World Trade Organization case against a U.S. labeling law that the WTO ruled hurt Canadian beef and pork exports, he said. The United States repealed the law in December. | 0fake |
Kentucky lawmakers pass 'right-to-work' legislation | LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in Kentucky passed a bill on Saturday making it the 27th U.S. state to allow workers the right to work in union-represented shops and receive union-negotiated benefits without paying dues to the representing body. Republican lawmakers in a handful of states have passed similar so called “right-to-work” and anti-union laws in recent years. Supporters say the measures spur economic growth while opponents cast the laws as assaults on organized labor and blue-collar workers that limit union revenues. The effort to pass the legislation in Kentucky came two months after Republicans won control of the state’s General Assembly for the first time since 1921. Republicans now control both chambers in the state’s legislature and the governor’s office. A Kentucky Senate committee on Friday passed the “right-to-work” bill, sending it to the full Senate, which passed it during a rare Saturday session. “I personally have no problem with an individual opting to be part of a labor union ... but government shouldn’t stand in the way of someone who opts not to join a union,” said Speaker of the House Jeff Hoover in a statement earlier this week. It is widely expected that Republican Governor Matt Bevin will sign the bill into law in the coming days. If so, Kentucky will immediately become the 27th state and last Southern state to enact “right-to-work” legislation. The state Senate also passed an ultrasound abortion bill that was approved by the House on Thursday. Supporters of the “right-to-work” measure say it will make Kentucky more competitive with neighboring states with similar laws in attracting new business. Kentucky has been unable to pass “right-to-work” legislation in the past because of its strong union ties across the state, labor leaders said. The Republican-led state Senate had passed similar bills in recent years, but House Democrats refused to hear the bills. “The future of the fight is in, as best we can, trying to stop the erosion of wages, benefits and safety,” said Caitlin Lally, a spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227 in Louisville and vice president of the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council. Hundreds of Democrats heeded their party leaders’ call for a protest and packed the Capitol rotunda in Frankfort on Saturday. “Politicians didn’t create the labor movement, and politicians won’t destroy the labor movement,” said DeLane Adams, spokesman for the AFL-CIO Southern regional office. | 0fake |
Watch: Celebs Sing ’I Will Survive’ Ahead of Trump Inauguration | Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, and Amy Adams are among the many movie stars who joined in to sing Gloria Gaynor’s 1979 hit “I Will Survive” ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. [The cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Hailee Steinfeld, Felicity Jones, and Taraji P. Henson, all trade verses on the disco hit, with some their own lines. While Donald Trump’s name is never mentioned, the video is apparently intended to serve as a rallying cry for those still grieving Trump’s election. Directed by W magazine editor Lynn Hirschberg, the video also features vocals from Matthew McConaughey, Michael Shannon, Andrew Garfield, Chris Pine, and Naomi Harris. The “I Will Survive” video is the latest of its kind. Last week, Jerry Seinfeld, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Leonardo DiCaprio and many other celebrities starred in an emotional “Yes We Can” farewell tribute video for President Barack Obama. And of course, during the 2016 presidential race, numerous celebrities contributed to political PSAs aimed at discouraging voters from voting for Donald Trump. Perhaps the most of these was director Joss Whedon’s “Important” video, which featured Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr. Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle reminding Americans to vote on Election Day. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0fake |
Obama administration bars new oil exploration in Arctic waters | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday blocked new exploration for oil and gas in Arctic waters, in a win for environmental groups that had fought development of the ecologically fragile region. The Department of the Interior released a 2017 to 2022 leasing plan that blocked drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off northern Alaska. It also limited petroleum development in the Cook Inlet off south-central Alaska. Environmental activists have battled drilling in Alaska to protect whales, walruses and seals, and as part of a broader movement to keep remaining fossil fuels in the ground. The Interior Department said the plan was “balanced,” and left 70 percent of economically recoverable oil and gas resources open to drilling, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico. The plan focuses on the best areas “with the highest resource potential, lowest conflict and established infrastructure - and removes regions that are simply not right to lease,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said. President Barack Obama, who last year became the first sitting president to cross the Arctic Circle, has made fighting climate change and protecting the Arctic priorities in his administration. But President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican who takes office on Jan. 20, 2017, has vowed to open resources to petroleum development and could take steps to reverse the decision. Oil interests have pressured the administration to explore for energy in the Arctic. Jack Girard, the head of the American Petroleum Institute industry group, said the decision “puts the U.S. at a serious competitive disadvantage.” Russia and Norway have also explored the Arctic, though Exxon Mobil wound down drilling in the Russian north in 2014 due to U.S. sanctions over Moscow’s aggression in eastern Ukraine. Fierce winds and frigid waters make the Arctic treacherous for drilling equipment. After spending billions of dollars to explore the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell retreated in 2015 after suffering a gash in one of its ships and environmentalists had uncovered details of an old law that forced the company to cut exploration there by half. The U.S. Coast Guard complained when Shell was drilling off Alaska that it had been forced to divert resources, including a vessel that fought cocaine trafficking, to keep operations in the region safe. (reut.rs/2g4yHSW) Environmentalists applauded the new lease plan, which built on a similar decision in March when the government removed much of the Atlantic ocean from oil and gas leasing for five years. “This is excellent news for our oceans, from the Arctic to the Atlantic,” said Jacqueline Savitz, deputy vice president for U.S. campaigns of Oceana, an international advocacy group. | 0fake |
Maine lawmakers drop effort to impeach combative governor | AUGUSTA, Maine (Reuters) - Maine lawmakers killed a motion on Thursday that would have marked the first step toward impeaching Republican Governor Paul LePage, whose blunt comments have often infuriated adversaries. The motion, presented on Thursday morning by eight Democrats and one independent, called for the creation of a legislative committee to investigate at least eight “allegations of misconduct” against LePage. Lawmakers seeking LePage’s ouster contended he overstepped his authority when he threatened to withhold funds last year from a nonprofit that hired a political rival, among other charges. Legislators, including some of LePage’s critics in the Democratic-controlled state House of Representatives, voted 96-52 to postpone the motion indefinitely. “As I have said all along, this impeachment nonsense was nothing more than a political witch hunt that had absolutely no merit,” LePage said in a statement following the vote. The vote came a week after LePage drew criticism for saying out-of-state drug dealers were coming to Maine and impregnating “white girls.” Critics called the comments racist, while LePage told reporters he had misspoken. The majority of Democrats who spoke during a three hour-long House debate favored an investigation of LePage’s actions, but Republicans said the allegations against LePage would set the bar for impeachment proceedings too low. “What is going to be the standard, the threshold, next time that someone is disgruntled with the actions of a chief executive?” asked Republican state Representative Ken Fredette. LePage has acknowledged threatening to withhold funding from a charter school for troubled youths, after it hired House Speaker Mark Eves, a Democrat, as president. LePage said he felt Eves was unqualified and had been offered the job as a political favor. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, a Democrat often at odds with LePage, reviewed the charges but found no basis for a criminal investigation. Since taking office in 2011 as a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, LePage has often engaged in a war of words with political opponents. He has called Eves a “hack” and often refers to the legislators as “corrupt.” No Maine governor has ever been impeached. Nationally, state officials are rarely impeached. Most recently, in 2009, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was removed from office for attempting to sell then President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for cash. | 0fake |
Meet Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State | Meet Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State Send a $200 million check to Iran. October 31, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
September 11, 2001 has come and gone. Countless bodies lie scattered in fragments around where two of the country’s tallest skyscrapers once stood. Some have burned to ash. Others had their throats slashed by Islamic terrorists. Still others fought and died on a plane to prevent another Islamic terror attack from taking place.
But Joe has an idea. Joe is a guy with lots of big ideas and this one is a real doozy.
The Senator from Delaware has come a long way since his days as a sixties shyster drumming up business in Wilmington. His formerly bald head is covered in hair so shiny is gleams under neon lights. His teeth are capped and shine almost as brightly. After a generation holding down a squeaky seat in the Senate, seniority makes him a man to be reckoned with. And therefore a man to be listened to.
Even if you wish he would shut up.
“I’m groping here,” Joe says. For once he isn’t referring to his notorious habits with women that will go on to make him the star of countless viral photographs, massaging, squeezing, caressing. Instead he’s talking about foreign policy. The Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has no clue.
Joe is worried that the Muslims will think badly of us after they murdered thousands of us. And he has a plan to make them feel better.
“Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” Senator Joe Biden says.
The remark isn’t quite as random as it seems. The Senator from Delaware, a state not known for its large Muslim or Iranian population, has a friendly relationship with the Iran Lobby. That relationship will only grow friendlier during the Bush era as he attacks America and appeases its enemies.
Iranian-Americans who hate the Jihadist government that has taken over their country and oppressed the Persian people are outraged when he attends a fundraiser at a pro-Iranian lobbyist’s home in California while treasonously attacking his own government for naming Iran one of the members of the ‘Axis of Evil’.
Joe’s usual Amtrak obsession wouldn’t get him in the door in California, but treason, hair plugs and capped teeth make him a big hit outside Delaware. And Joe remains very fond of Iran.
He informs Israeli officials that “Israel will have to reconcile itself with the nuclearization of Iran." And that’s all the way back in ’08 before the deal that puts Iran on the path to a Shiite bomb was a nuclear twinkle in Obama’s eye and a radioactive itch in Hillary’s socks.
That was a big year for Biden. It was his first and biggest shot at the big chair in the White House. Joe had tried it in ’88 and was stomped by Dukakis, of all people, after being caught plagiarizing a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock. ’08 got him a useless position in the White House as a consolation prize.
This time around Joe Biden is expected to get the same consolation prize from Hillary Clinton that she got from Barack Obama; the office of Secretary of State of the United States.
Of all the jobs that Joe Biden wants and is utterly unfit for, Amtrak train engineer, secret agent and the guy in charge of counting all the money at the bar, it’s hard to think of one that he’s less fit for.
Joe Biden blamed Darfur on the Gingrich Revolution. He fell in love with the Taliban.
"The Taliban per se is not our enemy," Joe insisted. "There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy."
He suggested that 95% of the Taliban were probably okay and only 5% were “incorrigible”. Most of the Taliban, he seemed to think, were, like Joe Biden, just in it for the money.
But Joe Biden has a soft spot for Islamic terrorists whether they’re the Shiite Jihadists of Iran or the Sunni Jihadists of the Taliban. Joe loves all the terrorists of the world and the terrorists love him back.
It wasn’t that long ago that we were being lectured to by the media on Bush’s ruination of relations with the rest of the world. If Biden were to become Secretary of State, he would become the third Democratic presidential campaign loser to get the job as a consolation prize for his failures as a politician. The last time a professional held down the job would have been the Bush administration.
And yet, perversely, each “loser” Secretary has been more incompetent than the last. Hillary’s disastrous time as Secretary of State could only be exceeded by John Kerry who gave away everything to the Russians and who was contradicted by the White House so many times it would have humiliated a lesser man. Or just any man. The only loser who could follow two class acts like that was Joe Biden.
Joe Biden’s amateur diplomacy has been one disaster after another. Even his visit to Israel, a friendly ally not known for fractious political visits by American politicians, became an international incident with Biden sulking in his room while Hillary yelled at Prime Minister Netanyahu for 45 minutes over the phone. But somehow Biden, with his gift for appeasing Iran and the Taliban, alienates allies.
Just this year, Joe Biden launched yet another attack on Israel. A cynic might almost think that Tehran Joe loves Islamic terrorists and hates those who resist them and fight against them.
Biden has claimed that terrorism is not an existential threat. He accused President Bush of being “short-sighted” for using the military to fight Islamic terrorists. He argued that the perception that we want to stay in Iraq helps Al Qaeda. Some years later, his administration’s decision to pull out led to the rise of ISIS. He called for closing Gitmo while insisting that it had “become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world.”
Senator Joe Biden was a voice for appeasement. Vice President Joe Biden was part of an administration that empowered and unleashed the malignant power of Islamic terror. Secretary of State Joe Biden would be able to act out his worst fantasies. He could even write that check to Iran. Though the Obama-Biden era has seen cash transfers to Iran that make Joe’s $200 million check seem like chump change.
Hillary Clinton’s rise doesn’t just mean that she will be making big decisions. It will mean that Joe Biden will have gone from a Wilmington shyster to running the foreign policy of a country he has betrayed. | 1real |
Trump Brags: Black People Are ‘Gonna Like Me More Than They Like Obama’ (VIDEO) | Donald Trump has an extremely messed up perception of his standing with minorities.After being wildly offensive when it comes to women, Hispanics, and Muslims, Trump seriously believes that African Americans will support him even though he s made it clear that he supports white supremacists. For years, Trump has boasted that he has a great relationship with the blacks, and yesterday he made one of the most ridiculous claims in his campaign history (which is quite impressive, when you think about it). Trump believes he ll actually be more respected and loved by black people than President Barack Obama.In an interview with Fox News Howard Kurtz, Trump was asked if he would reach out to minorities more. Forever-delusional Trump said he d be great with with Hispanics, Asians, and especially African Americans. Trump said: The African Americans love me, because they know I m gonna bring back jobs. The interview gets even more unbelievable as the Republican presidential front runner says: They re gonna like me better than they like Obama. The truth is Obama has done nothing for them. Kurtz actually looks very uncomfortable and confused as Trump is saying this, and asks The Donald if he in all seriousness just said that African Americans will like him more than America s first black president. Even in his column, Kurtz revealed that Trump s confident statement was so audacious that he needed a moment before he could respond to the idiocy.Trump answered that although Obama has a slight advantage over him, once Trump completes his term of office, he ll be the clear favorite.Here s the video of the awkward video, which is almost too crazy to laugh at:Trump is in for a rude awakening if he thinks he s going to get the black vote especially considering the fact that statistically, African Americans tend to vote Democratic over Republican by a long shot. Another statistic that Trump should really familiarize himself with before continuing to brag about how much more black people will prefer him over Obama is President Obama s approval rating. According to a 2014 Gallup poll, Obama s approval rating with black voters is 84% which was actually the lowest of his entire time in the White House. If Trump thinks he can beat that, even when he proves that he is a racist bigot on an everyday basis, he s dreaming.Featured image is a screenshot | 1real |
Bahraini military court convicts six to death on terror charges | (In Dec. 25 story, removes reference to Shi ite Muslims in first paragraph, and changes militant attacks to terrorist crimes in second paragraph) DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahraini military court sentenced six men to death and revoked their citizenship after they were convicted on charges of forming a terrorist cell and plotting to assassinate a military official, Bahrain news agency BNA reported on Monday. The men, including one soldier, were accused of several terrorist crimes and of attempting to assassinate a commander of the Bahraini army, BNA said. The court sentenced seven other people linked to the case to seven years in jail and revoked their citizenship, while five others were acquitted, BNA added, quoting a state prosecution statement. BNA said the 18 men involved in the case include eight who were convicted in absentia, having fled to Iraq and Iran. It was not clear which of the absent eight were sentenced to death and which to jail. Bahrain accuses mainly Shi ite Iran of stoking militancy in the kingdom, a strategic island where the U.S. Navy s Fifth Fleet is based, charges Tehran denies. Bahrain has a Shi ite Muslim majority population but is ruled by a Sunni royal family. The rulings are subject to appeal, the statement said. Bahrain in January executed three Shi ite men convicted of killing three policemen, including an officer from the United Arab Emirates, in a 2014 bomb attack. They were the first such executions in over two decades and sparked protests. Bahrain had seen occasional unrest since 2011 when authorities crushed protests mainly by the Shi ite majority demanding a bigger role in running the country. | 0fake |
Get used to drills, China tells Taiwan; Taipei says it seeks peace | BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will gradually get used to Chinese air force drills that encircle the island, China said on Wednesday, while Taiwan s premier reiterated the self-ruled island s desire for peaceful relations with its giant neighbor. China considers democratic Taiwan to be its sacred territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a wayward province under Chinese control. It has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen, from the island s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, won presidential elections last year and has stepped up its rhetoric and military exercises. Beijing suspects her of pushing for the island s formal independence, a red line for China. Tsai says she wants peace with China, but also that she will defend Taiwan s security and way of life. Chinese state media has given broad coverage to island encirclement exercises near Taiwan this month, including showing pictures of Chinese bomber aircraft with what they said was Taiwan s highest peak, Yushan, visible in the background. Asked about the continuing drills and the footage released by the air force, China s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office said it and the defense ministry had repeatedly described the exercises as routine. Everyone will slowly get used it, spokesman An Fengshan told a routine news briefing, without elaborating. China s air force has carried out 16 rounds of exercises close to Taiwan in the past year or so, Taiwan s defense ministry said in a white paper this week. China s military threat was growing by the day, it warned. Proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being run by autocratic China, and Taiwan s government has accused Beijing of not understanding democracy when it criticizes Taipei. Taiwan Premier William Lai told a year-end news conference in Taipei that the United States, Japan and South Korea were all paying close attention to the activities of China s air force. Lai said his government would take its lead from the president, who was in charge of relations across the Taiwan Strait. Under the president s leadership the Executive Yuan pushes forward government affairs, stabilizing cross-strait relations toward peaceful development, Lai said, using the formal name for Taiwan s cabinet. | 0fake |
Giuliani Defends Breitbart News Against MSNBC Host’s Racism Charges |
Wednesday on MSNBC, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Breitbart News against network host Stephanie Ruhle’s charges of racism. Partial transcript as follows: RUHLE: I’ve also never seen the hate and the racism out of so many people who are saying we’re going to— GIULIANI: There’s no racism. RUHLE: You don’t think Breitbart News — GIULIANI: Breitbart News is not running for office. RUHLE: But Steven Bannon is the architect of Donald Trump’s campaign. What do you believe Breitbart represents? GIULIANI: Nobody runs Donald Trump’s campaign but Donald Trump. For all the stuff you’re throwing around, racist, the last thing in the world Donald Trump is a racist. I’ve known him for 28 years. The man likes white people, he likes black people, he likes Hispanic people, he plays golf with them. He opened up the first club in Palm Beach that allowed Jewish people, Italian people like me who couldn’t get into those clubs. RUHLE: Can you say that Steven Bannon doesn’t run his campaign? GIULIANI: Donald Trump runs Donald Trump’s campaign. RUHLE: What is he doing paying Steven Bannon? GIULIANI: There are a lot of people who do different things. | 1real |
Police: Oklahoma Double Murder Suspect Has Hit List, May Be Headed to Nevada | Yahoo News
A 38-year-old Oklahoma man who has evaded police for two days after killing two people and shooting four others — including two police officers — has a hit list and may intend to kill up to eight more people, authorities said Tuesday.
“This is a man who has indicated a total propensity to kill people, to injure people, shoot people,” said Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel. “He has no care for human life whatsoever.”
Authorities believe he may be headed to Nevada and have notified police there to be on the lookout. Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel told ABC News that the suspect, Michael Vance, could face the death penalty if convicted of the crimes. Whetsel is warning citizens to stay clear if they spot Vance, adding that he has “absolutely nothing to lose.” Vance’s rampage began Sunday evening, when he allegedly shot two police officers responding to the scene at a mobile home park over reports of shots fired in the area. The two officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries, officials say, and were temporarily disabled as Vance fled the scene in their patrol car. One officer was shot in the foot and another was hit by gunfire in both legs.
Investigators believe Vance live-streamed two videos while on the run, one from inside the police cruiser and another while inside another vehicle. In one of the videos, Vance appears in a blood-covered shirt and says he’s been shot before showing a rifle on the seat next to him.
“Letting y’all know, look, this is real,” he says in the video, according to the Associated Press. “If you want to know what’s up next, stay tuned to your local news.” Vance said things were “going to be intense,” according to an affidavit released on Monday night.
He then proceeded to a mobile home park, where police discovered the bodies of two of his relatives. Officials identified those victims as 55-year-old Ronald Everett Wilkson and 54-year-old Valerie Kay Wilkson, his wife.
The affidavit describes wounds consistent with attempts to sever one victim’s head and the other’s arm.
Vance then allegedly “shot at and injured” a woman as he was in the process of stealing her silver 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse .
Vance is also suspected of shooting a man during an attempted carjacking early Monday.
Vance was last known to be driving a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse and was armed with an AK-47. He is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous, authorities say. Sheriff Whetsel instructed any potential witnesses not to approach Vance but to call 911 and let the police handle the situation. | 1real |
Thanks To Trump, Companies Are Pulling Out Of The Republican National Convention | Now that Republicans are only a month away from officially nominating a racist, sexist, bigot, companies responsible for funding the Republican National Convention are pulling out, and for good reason: bigotry isn t good for business.Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Motorola, Ford, Walgreens and UPS (all of whom sponsored the 2012 convention) have announced they will be pulling out of this year s convention. Although none of the companies have publicly said why they are pulling out, Trump s continuous slamming of the Ford Corporation could explain why the motor company is calling it quits. Sources close with Wells Fargo say they will continue to sponsor the Democratic National Convention because of a large market outreach in Philadelphia.Coca-Cola has also pulled out of the RNC, citing bad publicity.Reports are surfacing that delegates for the RNC are gearing up to stage a coup against trump, thus brokering the convention and thwarting the billionaire s chances of taking on Hillary Clinton (who would mop the floor with him).Their decision to pull out comes as the RNC is close to reaching their goal of $64 million to fund the convention. With these companies now retracting their monetary support, the RNC will have to find new ways to make up for the lost funds. Maybe they could ask their nominee? He is a billionaire, after all.Several months ago, the New York Times reported Apple, Walmart, and Google are considering pulling out as well, as public pressure mounts against the presumptive nominee.Republican fundraising consultant Carla Eudy told the Times:I have talked to several people at companies who have said, I ve always gone to the convention, I ve always participated at some level, but this year we re not putting it in our budget, we re not going, we re no going to sponsor any of the events going on.Things aren t looking good for the RNC, and yet Reince Priebus insists everything is O.K. when, in fact, nothing is O.K. The public is turning against them, big business is turning against them, and members of their own party are turning against them.Cleveland will be a catastrophe, and it s all thanks to Donald J. Trump. Congratulations, GOP, you built that. Now, reap what you sow.Featured image via Ron Jenkins/Getty Images | 1real |
VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT In This State…Get A Prize! Does Anyone Care That Democrats Are Stealing Our Election? | Every day we hear of more voter fraud being uncovered across the United States. This is nothing new and every election we read about more and more early voter fraud being committed. When will Republicans stop cowering to threats of racism and voter suppressions levied by the very people who are stealing our votes?There s a mere four weeks left to go before the presidential election, and the allegations of voter fraud just. Keep. Coming.The Kankakee Daily Journal, a local newspaper in a county just south of Chicago, reported last week that several citizens in the small county reported they were offered bribes in return for casting votes for Democrats. Voting officials were also looking into reports that some mail-in voter applications had been filed from outside the county.From the article:The Kankakee County State s Attorney s office says it is investigating possible voting fraud after the clerk s office reported three complaints from people who said they were offered bribes for votes.In a news release issued late Tuesday afternoon, Jamie Boyd, the state s attorney, also said several vote-by-mail applications seem to have come from people living outside of Kankakee County. This unprecedented action was taken in response to reports of individuals from Chicago offering gifts to potential voters in exchange for a vote for Kate Cloonen, Hillary Clinton and others, Boyd said in the news release. Our office takes seriously the obligation to protect the rights of citizens to vote for the candidate of their choice, and to do so without undue influence from special interest groups. The investigation will also focus on the authenticity of vote by mail requests. Several applications have been filed with the election authority that appear to be fraudulently executed. The report closely followed allegations of voter fraud in Virginia, where at least 20 dead people were illegally registered to vote by a James Madison student working for a local voter registration group called HarrisonburgVOTES. The Washington Free Beacon reported the group is run by one Joe Fitzgerald, the chairman of his local Democratic Committee, and that the student, Andrew Spieles, is also a registered Democrat.Additionally, the Virginia Voters Alliance and the Public Interest Legal Foundation found that at least 1,046 non-U.S. citizens across eight districts had voted in the 2012 presidential election. Via:MRCTV | 1real |
Populism is a 'dangerous' trend in EU, U.S.: EU trade commissioner | BEIJING (Reuters) - European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Monday that populism in Europe, the United States and elsewhere is a dangerous thing, and if populist politicians come to power it would be a recipe for isolation and failure. Speaking in Beijing, she said the debate in the United States was personified by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump and included criticism of globalization and trade. | 0fake |
New England Patriots, Lady Gaga: Your Thursday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. President Donald Trump got into Twitter spats with the Iranian government, the University of California, Berkeley and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The issues ranged from missile tests to free speech to TV ratings. Speaking to a gathering of religious leaders in Washington, Mr. Trump brushed aside criticism and pledged to “destroy” a law restricting political speech by churches, a potentially huge victory for the religious right. Late Thursday, he unexpectedly shifted his stance on Israel, warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on settlement construction. _____ 2. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited South Korea, his first stop on an Asia trip meant to reassure U. S. allies. But his visit was overshadowed by news of Mr. Trump’s testy phone call with the leader of Australia over the weekend. He clashed with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over an agreement to take in 1, 250 refugees. European leaders are gathering in Malta to discuss a crisis that has unexpectedly overtaken the agenda: the newly unpredictable United States. _____ 3. The administration amended its immigration order to allow U. S. entry to the families of Iraqi interpreters who served the U. S. government and military forces. But tumult over the order continued. The C. E. O. of Uber is stepping down from the president’s economic advisory council, saying he did not want his participation to be mistaken for support. Somali refugees in Kenya suddenly robbed of hope say they fear reprisals from militants. And tens of thousands of people from the seven countries named in the executive order are effectively stuck in the U. S. because the State Department revoked their visas — without notifying them. _____ 4. It isn’t clear exactly what happened during the standoff at a prison in Smyrna, Del. But when authorities used a backhoe to storm it at dawn, they found a hostage corrections officer unresponsive. He was quickly pronounced dead. Sgt. Steven Floyd had worked for the Department of Correction for 16 years. Details of his death were not released, and officials said they were treating all 120 inmates as suspects. A woman who worked as a counselor was not only unharmed, she had been protected by the inmates. The inmates’ grievances included allegations of mistreatment and a lack of educational and rehabilitation programs. _____ 5. Several community groups in Michigan and Minnesota are rejecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal aid to fight violent extremism. The money comes from Homeland Security grants to counter recruitment by terrorist and white supremacist groups. But the community groups are reacting to reports that the Trump administration is considering reshaping the program to target only Muslims. _____ 6. The Super Bowl, scheduled for Sunday night in Houston, is infused with national politics like never before. During Fox’s pregame telecast, Bill O’Reilly will interview Mr. Trump, who is a friend of the Patriots’ owner, coach and star player. There may be protests outside the stadium, or at the halftime show. Lady Gaga remained coy about the plans for her halftime performance. Fox and the N. F. L. are trying to keep game commercials apolitical. A lumber company’s ad depicting a mother and daughter who encounter a wall during an arduous journey north was nixed. _____ 7. Snapchat’s parent company filed paperwork for its public stock offering. While the filing does not indicate a price for an initial public offering, Snap is expected to seek a market valuation of more than $20 billion from investors. The move puts the company’s chief executive, Evan Spiegel, in the spotlight. The chairman of Google is calling him the next Gates or Zuckerberg. _____ 8. “ . ” That’s our critic, describing “I Am Not Your Negro,” a new documentary about James Baldwin. “Whatever you think about the past and future of what used to be called ‘race relations’ — white supremacy and the resistance to it, in plainer English — this movie will make you think again, and may even change your mind. ” _____ 9. A happy ending: A woman gravely injured in the Boston Marathon bombing is about to marry the firefighter who rescued her. This week, they both walked up the 1, 576 steps of the Empire State Building, she with a prosthetic leg and he with his firefighting gear on, to benefit the Challenged Athlete Foundation. _____ 10. Finally, new research suggests a surprising function for sleep: to forget. Pruning synapses that grow exuberantly to store the day’s memories appears to be a biological necessity, protecting important moments but making space for new knowledge in the brain’s hard drive. “You can forget in a smart way,” one researcher said. Hope you get some rest. Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Secrets of the US Election: Assange Talks to Pilger | Secrets of the US Election: Assange Talks to Pilger November 5, 2016
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denies the Russian government was the source of leaked emails about Hillary Clinton and says her “neo-McCarthy” Russia-bashing is just part of a cover-up, in an interview with John Pilger.
By John Pilger
This interview was filmed in the Embassy of Ecuador in London – where Julian Assange is a political refugee – and broadcast on Nov. 5, 2016
John Pilger: What’s the significance of the FBI’s intervention in these last days of the U.S. election campaign, in the case against Hillary Clinton? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (Photo credit: Espen Moe)
Julian Assange : If you look at the history of the FBI, it has become effectively America’s political police. The FBI demonstrated this by taking down the former head of the CIA [General David Petraeus] over classified information given to his mistress. Almost no one is untouchable. The FBI is always trying to demonstrate that no one can resist us. But Hillary Clinton very conspicuously resisted the FBI’s investigation, so there’s anger within the FBI because it made the FBI look weak. We’ve published about 33,000 of Clinton’s emails when she was Secretary of State. They come from a batch of just over 60,000 emails, [of which] Clinton has kept about half – 30,000 — to herself, and we’ve published about half. Then there are the Podesta emails we’ve been publishing. [John] Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign manager, so there’s a thread that runs through all these emails; there are quite a lot of pay-for-play, as they call it, giving access in exchange for money to states, individuals and corporations. [These emails are] combined with the cover-up of the Hillary Clinton emails when she was Secretary of State, [which] has led to an environment where the pressure on the FBI increases.
John Pilger: The Clinton campaign has said that Russia is behind all of this, that Russia has manipulated the campaign and is the source for WikiLeaks and its emails.
Julian Assange : The Clinton camp has been able to project that kind of neo-McCarthy hysteria: that Russia is responsible for everything. Hilary Clinton stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. That is false; we can say that the Russian government is not the source.
WikiLeaks has been publishing for ten years, and in those ten years, we have published ten million documents, several thousand individual publications, several thousand different sources, and we have never got it wrong.
John Pilger : The emails that give evidence of access for money and how Hillary Clinton herself benefited from this and how she is benefitting politically, are quite extraordinary. I’m thinking of when the Qatari representative was given five minutes with Bill Clinton for a million dollar cheque.
Julian Assange : And twelve million dollars from Morocco …
John Pilger: Twelve million from Morocco yeah.
Julian Assange : For Hillary Clinton to attend [a party].
John Pilger: In terms of the foreign policy of the United States, that’s where the emails are most revealing, where they show the direct connection between Hillary Clinton and the foundation of jihadism, of ISIL, in the Middle East. Can you talk about how the emails demonstrate the connection between those who are meant to be fighting the jihadists of ISIL, are actually those who have helped create it. speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, Arizona, by Gage Skidmore)
Julian Assange : There’s an early 2014 email from Hillary Clinton, not so long after she left the State Department, to her campaign manager John Podesta that states ISIL is funded by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Now this is email in the whole collection, and perhaps because Saudi and Qatari money is spread all over the Clinton Foundation. Even the U.S. government agrees that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIL, or ISIS. But the dodge has always been that, well it’s just some rogue Princes, using their cut of the oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves. But that email says that no, it is the governments of Saudi and Qatar that have been funding ISIS.
John Pilger: The Saudis, the Qataris, the Moroccans, the Bahrainis, particularly the Saudis and the Qataris, are giving all this money to the Clinton Foundation while Hilary Clinton is Secretary of State and the State Department is approving massive arms sales, particularly to Saudi Arabia.
Julian Assange: Under Hillary Clinton, the world’s largest ever arms deal was made with Saudi Arabia, [worth] more than $80 billion. In fact, during her tenure as Secretary of State, total arms exports from the United States in terms of the dollar value, doubled.
John Pilger : Of course the consequence of that is that the notorious terrorist group called ISIL or ISIS is created largely with money from the very people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation.
Julian Assange : Yes.
John Pilger: That’s extraordinary.
Julian Assange : I actually feel quite sorry for Hillary Clinton as a person because I see someone who is eaten alive by their ambitions, tormented literally to the point where they become sick; they faint as a result of [the reaction] to their ambitions. She represents a whole network of people and a network of relationships with particular states. The question is how does Hilary Clinton fit in this broader network? She’s a centralizing cog. You’ve got a lot of different gears in operation from the big banks like Goldman Sachs and major elements of Wall Street, and Intelligence and people in the State Department and the Saudis.
She’s the centralizer that inter-connects all these different cogs. She’s the smooth central representation of all that, and ‘all that’ is more or less what is in power now in the United States. It’s what we call the establishment or the DC consensus. One of the more significant Podesta emails that we released was about how the Obama cabinet was formed and how half the Obama cabinet was basically nominated by a representative from Citibank. This is quite amazing.
John Pilger: Didn’t Citibank supply a list …. ?
Julian Assange : Yes.
John Pilger: … which turned out to be most of the Obama cabinet.
Julian Assange : Yes.
John Pilger: So Wall Street decides the cabinet of the President of the United States?
Julian Assange: If you were following the Obama campaign back then, closely, you could see it had become very close to banking interests.
Julian Assange : So I think you can’t properly understand Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy without understanding Saudi Arabia. The connections with Saudi Arabia are so intimate. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 30, 2012. [State Department photo] John Pilger : Why was she so demonstrably enthusiastic about the destruction of Libya? Can you talk a little about just what the emails have told us, told you about what happened there, because Libya is such a source for so much of the mayhem now in Syria, the ISIL jihadism and so on, and it was almost Hillary Clinton’s invasion. What do the emails tell us about that?
Julian Assange : Libya, more than anyone else’s war, was Hillary Clinton’s war. Barak Obama initially opposed it. Who was the person championing it? Hillary Clinton. That’s documented throughout her emails. She had put her favored agent, Sidney Blumenthal, on to that; there’s more than 1,700 emails out of the 33,000 Hillary Clinton emails that we’ve published, just about Libya. It’s not that Libya has cheap oil. She perceived the removal of Gaddafi and the overthrow of the Libyan state — something that she would use in her run-up to the general election for President.
So in late 2011 there is an internal document called the Libya Tick Tock that was produced for Hillary Clinton, and it’s the chronological description of how she was the central figure in the destruction of the Libyan state, which resulted in around 40,000 deaths within Libya; jihadists moved in, ISIS moved in, leading to the European refugee and migrant crisis.
Not only did you have people fleeing Libya, people fleeing Syria, the destabilization of other African countries as a result of arms flows, but the Libyan state itself was no longer able to control the movement of people through it. Libya faces along to the Mediterranean and had been effectively the cork in the bottle of Africa. So all problems, economic problems and civil war in Africa — previously people fleeing those problems didn’t end up in Europe because Libya policed the Mediterranean. That was said explicitly at the time, back in early 2011 by Gaddafi: ‘What do these Europeans think they’re doing, trying to bomb and destroy the Libyan State? There’s going to be floods of migrants out of Africa and jihadists into Europe,’ and this is exactly what happened.
John Pilger: You get complaints from people saying, ‘What is WikiLeaks doing? Are they trying to put Trump in the White House?’
Julian Assange: My answer is that Trump would not be permitted to win. Why do I say that? Because he’s had every establishment off side; Trump doesn’t have one establishment, maybe with the exception of the Evangelicals, if you can call them an establishment, but banks, intelligence [agencies], arms companies … big foreign money … are all united behind Hillary Clinton, and the media as well, media owners and even journalists themselves.
J ohn Pilger : There is the accusation that WikiLeaks is in league with the Russians. Some people say, ‘Well, why doesn’t WikiLeaks investigate and publish emails on Russia?’
Julian Assange: We have published about 800,000 documents of various kinds that relate to Russia. Most of those are critical; and a great many books have come out of our publications about Russia, most of which are critical. Our [Russia] documents have gone on to be used in quite a number of court cases: refugee cases of people fleeing some kind of claimed political persecution in Russia, which they use our documents to back up.
John Pilger : Do you yourself take a view of the U.S. election? Do you have a preference for Clinton or Trump? Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. June 18, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Julian Assange: [Let’s talk about] Donald Trump. What does he represent in the American mind and in the European mind? He represents American white trash, [which Hillary Clinton called] ‘deplorable and irredeemable’. It means from an establishment or educated cosmopolitan, urbane perspective, these people are like the red necks, and you can never deal with them. Because he so clearly — through his words and actions and the type of people that turn up at his rallies — represents people who are not the middle, not the upper-middle educated class, there is a fear of seeming to be associated in any way with them, a social fear that lowers the class status of anyone who can be accused of somehow assisting Trump in any way, including any criticism of Hillary Clinton. If you look at how the middle class gains its economic and social power, that makes absolute sense.
John Pilger: I’d like to talk about Ecuador, the small country that has given you refuge and [political asylum] in this embassy in London. Now Ecuador has cut off the Internet from here where we’re doing this interview, in the Embassy, for the clearly obvious reason that they are concerned about appearing to intervene in the U.S. election campaign. Can you talk about why they would take that action and your own views on Ecuador’s support for you?
Julian Assange : Let’s let go back four years. I made an asylum application to Ecuador in this embassy, because of the U.S. extradition case, and the result was that after a month, I was successful in my asylum application. The embassy since then has been surrounded by police: quite an expensive police operation which the British government admits to spending more than £12.6 million. They admitted that over a year ago. Now there’s undercover police and there are robot surveillance cameras of various kinds — so that there has been quite a serious conflict right here in the heart of London between Ecuador, a country of 16 million people, and the United Kingdom, and the Americans who have been helping on the side. So that was a brave and principled thing for Ecuador to do. Now we have the U.S. election [campaign], the Ecuadorian election is in February next year, and you have the White House feeling the political heat as a result of the true information that we have been publishing.
WikiLeaks does not publish from the jurisdiction of Ecuador, from this embassy or in the territory of Ecuador; we publish from France, we publish from, from Germany, we publish from The Netherlands and from a number of other countries, so that the attempted squeeze on WikiLeaks is through my refugee status; and this is, this is really intolerable. [It means] that [they] are trying to get at a publishing organization; [they] try and prevent it from publishing true information that is of intense interest to the American people and others about an election. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.
John Pilger: Tell us what would happen if you walked out of this embassy.
Julian Assange : I would be immediately arrested by the British police and I would then be extradited either immediately or to Sweden. In Sweden I am not charged, I have already been previously cleared [by the Senior Stockholm Prosecutor Eva Finne]. We were not certain exactly what would happen there, but then we know that the Swedish government has refused to say that they will not extradite me we know they have extradited 100 per cent of people whom the U.S. has requested since at least 2000. So over the last 15 years, every single person the U.S. has tried to extradite from Sweden has been extradited, and they refuse to provide a guarantee [that won’t happen].
John Pilger: People often ask me how you cope with the isolation in here.
Julian Assange: Look, one of the best attributes of human beings is that they’re adaptable; one of the worst attributes of human beings is they are adaptable. They adapt and start to tolerate abuses, they adapt to being involved themselves in abuses, they adapt to adversity and they continue on. So in my situation, frankly, I’m a bit institutionalized — this [the embassy] is the world … it’s visually the world [for me].
John Pilger: It’s the world without sunlight, for one thing, isn’t it?
Julian Assange: It’s the world without sunlight, but I haven’t seen sunlight in so long, I don’t remember it.
John Pilger : Yes.
Julian Assange: So, yes, you adapt. The one real irritant is that my young children — they also adapt. They adapt to being without their father. That’s a hard, hard adaption which they didn’t ask for.
John Pilger: Do you worry about them?
Julian Assange : Yes, I worry about them; I worry about their mother.
John Pilger: Some people would say, ‘Well, why don’t you end it and simply walk out the door and allow yourself to be extradited to Sweden?’
Julian Assange : The U.N. [the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention] has looked into this whole situation. They spent 18 months in formal, adversarial litigation. [So it’s] me and the U.N. versus Sweden and the U.K. Who’s right? The U.N. made a conclusion that I am being arbitrarily detained illegally, deprived of my freedom and that what has occurred has not occurred within the laws that the United Kingdom and Sweden, and that [those countries] must obey. It is an illegal abuse. It is the United Nations formally asking, ‘What’s going on here? What is your legal explanation for this? [Assange] says that you should recognize his asylum.’ [And here is]
Sweden formally writing back to the United Nations to say, ‘No, we’re not going to [recognize the UN ruling],’ so leaving open their ability to extradite.
I just find it absolutely amazing that the narrative about this situation is not put out publicly in the press, because it doesn’t suit the Western establishment narrative — that yes, the West has political prisoners, it’s a reality, it’s not just me, there’s a bunch of other people as well. The West has political prisoners. Of course, no state accepts [that it should call] the people it is imprisoning or detaining for political reasons, political prisoners. They don’t call them political prisoners in China, they don’t call them political prisoners in Azerbaijan and they don’t call them political prisoners in the United States, U.K. or Sweden; it is absolutely intolerable to have that kind of self-perception.
Julian Assange : Here we have a case, the Swedish case, where I have never been charged with a crime, where I have already been cleared [by the Stockholm prosecutor] and found to be innocent, where the woman herself said that the police made it up, where the United Nations formally said the whole thing is illegal, where the State of Ecuador also investigated and found that I should be given asylum. Those are the facts, but what is the rhetoric?
John Pilger: Yes, it’s different.
Julian Assange : The rhetoric is pretending, constantly pretending that I have been charged with a crime, and never mentioning that I have been already previously cleared, never mentioning that the woman herself says that the police made it up.
[The rhetoric] is trying to avoid [the truth that] the U.N. formally found that the whole thing is illegal, never even mentioning that Ecuador made a formal assessment through its formal processes and found that yes, I am subject to persecution by the United States.
John Pilger is an Australian-British journalist based in London. Pilger’s Web site is: www.johnpilger.com . To support Julian Assange, go to: https://justice4assange.com/donate.html | 1real |
Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Is Extradited to France - The New York Times | PARIS — Salah Abdeslam, thought to be the only direct participant in November’s Paris attacks to have survived, was handed over to France by Belgium on Wednesday, prosecutors in both countries said. He was later charged in a French court with murder connected to terrorism, participation in a terrorist conspiracy and possession of weapons and explosives, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced. Mr. Abdeslam, who is also believed to be connected to the attacks in Brussels last month, was the subject of a European arrest warrant, which simplified the extradition between the two European Union countries. “Within the framework of the Paris attacks of the 13th of November 2015, Salah Abdeslam has been surrendered to the French authorities this morning,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The Paris prosecutor’s office said Mr. Abdeslam arrived in French territory at 9:05 a. m. Frank Berton, Mr. Abdeslam’s French lawyer, said he had been brought to France under heavy escort by a helicopter from the prison where he was being detained, in Beveren, Belgium. The French justice minister, Urvoas, said after a cabinet meeting that Mr. Abdeslam would be held in isolation in a prison in the Paris region. Mr. Abdeslam, 26, is believed to have been part of a team of 10 Islamic State operatives who carried out a series of shootings and suicide bombings in Paris, and in the northern suburb of St. on the evening of Nov. 13, killing 130 people and wounding more than 400. A French citizen of Moroccan ancestry who lived in Belgium, Mr. Abdeslam fled Paris for Brussels in the early hours of Nov. 14. He was the target of a international manhunt before he was arrested on March 18 in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels, his hometown. Mr. Abdeslam ran a bar there with his brother Ibrahim, who detonated a suicide vest in the Comptoir Voltaire cafe in central Paris on Nov. 13. French and Belgian investigators have found evidence suggesting that Mr. Abdeslam was heavily involved in preparations for the Paris attacks. He rented cars and at least one safe house, bought material used in explosives and drove across Europe to pick up other suspects. But Mr. Abdeslam’s exact role on the night of the attacks is still unclear. Experts have questioned how valuable he will be to investigators in France, though the French authorities and families of the victims have expressed relief that a surviving participant in the attacks will stand trial. He is suspected of driving three suicide bombers to the Stade de France soccer stadium in St. and investigators are still trying to establish whether he had intended to carry out another attack. Shortly after his arrest, Mr. Abdeslam told investigators that he had “backed out” of carrying out a suicide bombing against the Stade de France. Mr. Berton said Tuesday said that Mr. Abdeslam had to be judged “for what he has done and not for what he represents, because he is the last survivor and some would blame him for deeds and actions that are not his. ” In an interview with the French newspaper Libération, Sven Mary, Mr. Abdeslam’s lawyer in Belgium, was more disparaging, characterizing his client as a “little jerk from Molenbeek” and as a petty criminal. | 0fake |
Julian Assange PREDICTS Trump Will Lose – Still Missing Day 12 | 10/27/2016 TRUTH REVOLT http://youtu.be/PsVNKmb6jEc There’s a lot of accusations going around that the 2016 election is r ... Netflix Ceo: TV’s Future includes Hallucination Pills 10/27/2016 INDEPENDENT The future of TV might everyone taking hallucinogenic drugs, according to the head of Netflix. The thr ... | 1real |
Belgium’s Transportation Minister Resigns Amid Outcry - The New York Times | LONDON — The transportation minister of Belgium resigned on Friday, after the publication of leaked reports from the European Commission warning of security deficiencies at Brussels Airport, the site of two deadly terrorist bombings on March 22. The minister, Jacqueline Galant, is the Belgian official to lose her job as a result of the attacks. The country’s interior and justice ministers offered their resignations shortly after the assaults, acknowledging lapses in intelligence sharing and law enforcement, but Prime Minister Charles Michel asked them to stay. On Friday, Mr. Michel said that King Philippe had accepted Ms. Galant’s resignation. He said she had “undertaken several bold reforms,” and thanked her for her service. Ms. Galant came under heavy criticism this week, with opposition lawmakers demanding that she go. The tipping point may have come Thursday, when Laurent Ledoux, president of the Federal Public Service for Mobility and Transport, resigned, saying he could no longer work for her. On Thursday night, Mr. Ledoux, a civil servant, supplied documents to the state broadcaster, RTBF, which appeared to show that Ms. Galant had been notified of security problems at Brussels Airport, which was targeted along with the Maelbeek subway station, in assaults that left 32 people dead, along with three attackers. He openly accused Mr. Michel and Ms. Galant of misleading the public by not acknowledging that they knew about the reports. The documents Mr. Ledoux disclosed showed that in February, he asked for more employees and resources to tighten checks at Belgian airports. He requested a share of the 400 million euros, or about $450 million, that the Belgian government pledged after the terrorist attacks in and around Paris on Nov. 13, which killed 130 people. Mr. Ledoux said Ms. Galant “systematically” disregarded his request. He also criticized the Belgocontrol, the air traffic control agency, whose staff members went on strike shortly after the airport reopened to protest plans to raise the age at which employees may retire with pensions. Ms. Galant, in tendering her resignation, described Mr. Ledoux as being disgruntled and having a political agenda. “For three years, he has waged a media campaign to cast discredit on my entire administration,” she said. “He is profiting by taking advantage of the worrying times to make accusations and confuse the facts. ” The dispute holds partisan dimensions. On Wednesday, two opposition parties released an internal European Union report from last April citing security deficiencies at the airport. That report, however, focused on security screening. The recent attacks took place in the departure hall, which was not covered in the report. Ms. Galant denied neglecting airport security. “In fact, if there was ever an area to which I always paid attention, it was this one,” she said Friday. Also on Friday, the British authorities announced the arrests of five people from Birmingham, England, on charges. Four of them — three men, ages 26, 40 and 59, and a woman, 29 — were arrested Thursday night in Birmingham, and a man was arrested early Friday at Gatwick Airport, south of London, said the West Midlands Police. The police agency’s counterterrorism unit — working with MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, and Belgian and French authorities — acted “to address any associated threat to the U. K. following the attacks in Europe,” the West Midlands Police said. | 0fake |
Taiwan to boost defense spending, U.S. concerned over possible military imbalance: official media | TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will increase future defense spending by two percent each year, President Tsai Ing-wen said during a visit to Hawaii where the United States expressed concern over a possible military imbalance in the Taiwan Straits, Taiwan media reported. In the event that Taiwan purchases arms from a foreign military, the island s defense spending could increase as much as three percent each year, and could possibly increase further using a special budget if significant purchase cases are made, Tsai said in remarks carried by official media on Monday. Tsai made the comments in response to U.S. concerns about a possible military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait expressed by Ambassador James Moriarty during a meeting. Tsai did not elaborate on when the increased defense spending would start. Tsai s comments were reflected by National Security Council deputy secretary-general Tsai Ming-yen, who recounted to official media the conversation between Tsai and Moriarty, who is chairman of the U.S. Mission in Taiwan, about expanding Taiwan s national defense policy. Moriarty had expressed concern about China s double-digit growth in defense investments in the last few years, and that Taiwan would need to address a possible military imbalance over the Taiwan Strait, deputy secretary-general Tsai recounted. President Tsai in turn replied Taiwan would develop a comprehensive plan in accordance with strategic needs, short-term needs, and long-term plans, to create defense forces on the island that would have reliable combat effectiveness . Tsai visited Hawaii at the weekend on her way to three of Taiwan s diplomatic allies in the Pacific, despite China, which considers Taiwan a wayward province, calling on the United States to stop the trip. Her trip comes about a week before U.S. President Donald Trump visits Asia. China has increased pressure on Taiwan since Tsai took office last year, suspecting she wants to push for formal independence. China has conducted more military drills around Taiwan and peeled away its few remaining diplomatic allies. Tsai described Taiwan-U.S. relations as being unprecedentedly friendly in comments released by Taiwan s presidential office on Monday. We are happy to see U.S. promises of peace and stability for the Asia-Pacific region, and from meetings with the United States understand the necessity to increase investment in defense, it quoted her as saying. The United States and Taiwan have not had formal diplomatic relations since Washington established ties with Beijing in 1979, but the United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Taiwan is well armed with mostly U.S.-made weapons but has been pushing for sales of more advanced equipment, such as fighter jets, to deal with what Taipei sees as a growing threat from China and its own rapidly modernizing armed forces. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. It regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States and has been upset by U.S. moves to expand military exchanges with Taiwan and continued U.S. arms sales to the island. Tsai s stopover in Hawaii included a tour of a Pearl Harbor memorial, a banquet with the overseas Taiwan community, and joint speeches with Moriarty, the chairman of the U.S. Mission in Taiwan, also known as the American Institute in Taiwan. It was her second U.S. visit this year. In January, Tsai stopped in Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America. Tsai moves on to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands from Monday during a week-long trip and will stop over in the U.S. territory of Guam on her way back to Taiwan. | 0fake |
Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins Vote to Retain Obama-era Climate Rule - Breitbart | Senators John McCain ( ) Lindsey Graham ( ) and Susan Collins ( ) voted to keep an climate rule limiting methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.[ Republicans voted to abolish the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule, one vote short of passing through the Senate. Vice President Mike Pence stood ready at the Capitol to break the tie. Graham and Collins previously publicized their intention to vote against the legislation. McCain’s vote came as a surprise to Senate leadership. McCain said he voted against the bill because he fears that it would prevent the BLM from writing improved regulation in the future. “While I am concerned that the BLM rule may be onerous, passage of the resolution would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar,’ according to the plain reading of the Congressional Review Act,” McCain said in a statement. McCain added, “I believe that the public interest is best served if the Interior Department issues a new rule to revise and improve the BLM methane rule. ” The bill marks the first time Republicans failed to pass a Congressional Review Act (CRA) bill to repeal an Obama administration rule since President Donald Trump took office. Critics of the rule argue that it adds unnecessary costs to oil and natural gas drilling in federal lands. Senator John Barrasso ( ) told reporters, “This was a very duplicative, unnecessary act of government interference in an area where BLM had no authority. ” Barrasso said that he will ask Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to repeal the rule instead of attempting to repeal the rule again in the Senate. “It was by the Obama administration, and we tried to remove it with the Congressional Review Act. That fell one vote short today, and as a result we’ll call on the secretary to withdraw it. ” Secretary Zinke told Sen. Bob Portman ( ) that no matter the result for the CRA bill, the BLM will take action to reduce methane pollution. Erik Milito, an executive at the American Petroleum Institute, lamented: While it is disappointing that the Senate did not act to correct the rule more quickly, we look forward to working with the administration on policies that continue our commitment to safely produce the energy that Americans rely on, help consumers, create jobs, strengthen our national security, and protect our environment. American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle issued a statement condemning the Senate’s inability to repeal the methane rule. He said: The Senate just squandered an opportunity to protect American workers and families from a regulation aimed at making energy more expensive. The evidence against this regulation is overwhelming. Not only does this regulation fall outside of the BLM’s jurisdiction, but the energy sector is already significantly reducing methane emissions without this directive from the federal government. The cost of complying with this regulation will ultimately fall on the shoulders of the American people. Fortunately, the fight isn’t over. It’s now up to the Trump administration to do what the Senate failed to do and protect the American people from this unnecessary and costly regulation. Despite the setback in the Senate, the Interior Department will attempt to repeal the rule through administrative action. Kate McGregor, the Interior Department’s acting secretary for land and minerals, said, regarding the methane rule, that the agency will “suspend, revise or rescind given its significant regulatory burden that encumbers American energy production, economic growth and job creation. ” The agency did not signal which option it might choose. McGregor cited Trump’s executive order asking agencies to repeal or change rules that damage domestic energy production. The Interior secretary added, “The rule is expected to have real and harmful impacts on onshore energy development and could impact state and local jobs and revenue. Small independent oil and gas producers in states like North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico, which account for a substantial portion of our nation’s energy wealth, could be hit the hardest. ” | 0fake |
A Federal Judge Just Told Trump To Take His Muslim Ban And Shove It | A federal judge in Brooklyn, ruling on behalf of the ACLU and two Iraqis detained at New York s JFK International Airport, has placed a stay on Trump s Muslim ban. The move comes amidst massive protests all over the country, lawyers making sure that those denied entry despite having the necessary paperwork have representation, and more.Two Iraqis were held at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City today, and although they ve been released, many others, including green card holders, people on student visas, people on work visas, and even people on visitor visas, have found themselves unable to enter the U.S. In some cases they re held at their port of entry (such as the international terminal at an airport), and in others, they re actually pulled off of planes before they even leave their countries of origin.Congress enacted a law in 1965 that prohibits us from discriminating against anyone when it comes to immigrant visas on the basis of their race, gender, nationality, place of residency or place of birth. This ban is supposed to make it harder for terrorists to come in, but is probably illegal despite being signed by Cheetolini here.It s also likely having the opposite effect of what Trumplestiltskin thinks it will. As one former CIA agent said on Twitter:I proudly served in the CIA post 9/11. Fought actual terrorists. The ban makes that fight harder. It makes us less safe. pic.twitter.com/THN70v4bOC Tom King (@TomKingTK) January 28, 2017That goes against everyone who keeps insisting that it s for the nation s own good that we do this. The fact of the matter is, though, that the former CIA agent is right. When we alienate predominantly Muslim countries, we make radicalization far easier. We also make countries want to retaliate, as Iran has done already.Congressional Democrats have gone on record condemning Trump and his Muslim ban:RM @RepEliotEngel s statement on executive action on refugees: https://t.co/hNvbdz8awm pic.twitter.com/KNDBAchjYB Foreign Affairs Cmte (@HFACDemocrats) January 27, 2017These Exec Orders will only serve to embolden & inspire those around the globe who would do us harm. They must be reversed, immediately. Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 29, 2017We will not allow a Muslim ban in the United States of America. Here s what I said at Logan Airport tonight. #NoBanNoWall pic.twitter.com/XqeS9Iy14e Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 29, 2017Yet Republicans are oddly silent on this, with the exception of Charlie Dent, whose district has an awful lot of Syrian refugees. Dent seems to be the only one with any compassion right now.The stay is temporary, and it will be up to the courts whether to make it permanent or not. Basically, though, what this judge did was halt an illegal and unconstitutional executive order, effectively telling Trump to take his Muslim ban and shove it.Featured image by Andrew Harrer via Getty Images | 1real |
Iraqi Kurdistan parliament delays presidential elections by eight months | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Elections for the presidency and parliament of Iraq s Kurdistan region set for Nov. 1 have been delayed by eight months, the regional parliament announced on Tuesday. The decision came after the electoral commission said on Monday that political parties had failed to present candidates for both elections amid turmoil in the region following the independence referendum it held on Sept. 25. The proposal to delay the two elections was approved by 60 of 68 MPs who attended the parliamentary session in the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, Rudaw TV said. Eight MPs opposed the proposal and 43 didn t attend, mainly politicians opposed to Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani, one of the MPs said. Last week, Iraqi forces captured the oil city of Kirkuk and other territory claimed by the Kurds in retaliation for holding the referendum, dealing a severe blow to Barzani. The current KRG presidency, held by Barzani since 2005, and parliament, elected in 2013, are expected to continue until new votes are held. The loss of Kirkuk prompted calls from Gorran, the main opposition party, for Barzani to resign. | 0fake |
Exxon Mobil Fraud Inquiry Said to Focus More on Future Than Past - The New York Times | For more than a year, much of the public scrutiny of Exxon Mobil was captured by the #Exxonknew hashtag — shorthand for revelations about research on climate change conducted by the company while it funded groups promoting doubt about climate science. Articles about that research have energized protests against Exxon Mobil and the fossil fuel industry and had a role in initiating queries by at least five attorneys general, led by Eric T. Schneiderman of New York. Early on, his office demanded extensive emails, financial records and other documents from the oil company, leaving many observers with the impression that a deeper look into the company’s past was the focus of the investigation. But in an extensive interview, Mr. Schneiderman said that his investigation was focused less on the distant past than on relatively recent statements by Exxon Mobil related to climate change and what it means for the company’s future. In other words, the question for Mr. Schneiderman is less what Exxon knew, and more what it predicts. For example, he said, the investigation is scrutinizing a 2014 report by Exxon Mobil stating that global efforts to address climate change would not mean that it had to leave enormous amounts of oil reserves in the ground as “stranded assets. ” But many scientists have suggested that if the world were to burn even just a portion of the oil in the ground that the industry declares on its books, the planet would heat up to such dangerous levels that “there’s no one left to burn the rest,” Mr. Schneiderman said. By that logic, Exxon Mobil will have to leave much of its oil in the ground, which means the company’s valuation of its reserves is off by a significant amount. “If, collectively, the fossil fuel companies are overstating their assets by trillions of dollars, that’s a big deal,” Mr. Schneiderman said. And if the company’s own internal research shows that Exxon Mobil knows better, he added, “there may be massive securities fraud here. ” Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon, dismissed the idea that its forecast could be viewed as fraudulent. “If it turns out to be wrong, that’s not fraud, that’s wrong,” he said. “That’s why we adjust our outlook every year, and that’s why we issue the annual forecast publicly, so people can know the basis of our forecasting. ” The company has said allegations that it secretly developed a definitive understanding of climate change before the rest of the world’s scientists are “preposterous. ” Mr. Schneiderman has praised reports from publications, including Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, that detailed Exxon Mobil’s past research. And all indications were that his office planned to use its subpoena powers to unearth new documents that might show a disconnect between what the company was saying publicly and what it was saying privately about climate change over several decades. In the interview, however, Mr. Schneiderman said his focus lay elsewhere. “The older stuff really is just important to establish knowledge and the framework and to look for inconsistencies. ” He called his efforts a straightforward fraud investigation, like many that he and his predecessors have taken on in subjects as as the crash of securities and Volkswagen’s diesel engine deceptions. Mr. Schneiderman also mentioned, as an example of questionable public statements by Exxon Mobil, congressional testimony in 2010 by its chief executive, Rex Tillerson, who said that while the company acknowledged that humans were affecting the climate through greenhouse gas emissions to some degree, it was not yet clear “to what extent and therefore what can you do about it. ” Mr. Tillerson added, “There is not a model available today that is competent” for understanding the science and predicting the future. Mr. Schneiderman disagrees, and cited the industry’s own extensive climate research and the actions it has taken in response, including exploration in the melting Arctic and raising the decks of offshore oil platforms to compensate for rising sea level. “These guys have the best science for their engineering purposes,” he said. “We’re confident they’re not wasting shareholder dollars to do things that are inconsistent with the science they have internally. ” Since November, when the investigation was first revealed, and as other state attorneys general announced their support, Mr. Schneiderman’s intentions have been questioned and, he said, misconstrued. Supporters of Exxon Mobil have accused him and his colleagues of using prosecutorial powers to pursue political ends and of trying to squelch the First Amendment rights of the company, its scientists and anyone who agrees with them. Lamar Smith, a congressman from Texas and chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, accused the attorneys general of “pursuing a political agenda at the expense of scientists’ rights to free speech” and has issued subpoenas demanding internal documents from Mr. Schneiderman and another state attorney general, as well as eight groups that have supported the investigations. Hans von Spakovsky, a conservative commentator, compared the investigation by the attorneys general to the Spanish Inquisition, and the Daily Caller asked whether Mr. Schneiderman had suggested “jailing global warming skeptics. ” Mr. Schneiderman talks about such accusations with incredulity. “This is an investigation,” he said. “It is a civil fraud case. No one is being prosecuted — we’re not out to silence dissenting views. ” He has said, however, that if criminal actions turn up in the evidence the state gathers, criminal charges could be filed. When asked about the First Amendment implications of investigating Exxon’s statements, he repeated a sentence he has uttered many times: “The First Amendment doesn’t protect you for fraud. ” He added, “ monte operators can’t say, ‘Hey, I’m just exercising my First Amendment rights! ’” When asked about the focus of Mr. Schneiderman’s investigation, Joel Seligman, an expert in securities law who is the president of the University of Rochester, said that “at some level, this is a investigation — and there is no guarantee it will lead to a case. ” Exxon Mobil has sued to block subpoenas from Massachusetts and the United States Virgin Islands, but the company has provided hundreds of thousands of pages of documents to New York. If the investigation does turn up the kind of evidence that could lead to a civil case, it is still unclear whether New York or the other states might win, said David M. Uhlmann, a former top federal prosecutor of environmental crime and a professor at the University of Michigan law school. Until governments impose the kind of regulations that will lead to concrete action to slow or reverse climate change, he said, “We’re going to continue to drill for oil and frack for gas. ’’ In that case, he continued, Exxon may “utilize a significant portion of its reserves, which means it may not even be wrong when it states that it expects to utilize its reserves. ” Even if Exxon is wrong in saying that it expects to be able to use all its reserves, “The question is whether they know that they are wrong and are therefore lying to investors,” he added. The investigation, Mr. Schneiderman said, mirrors an earlier inquiry into a coal giant, Peabody Energy. In 2013, he issued subpoenas for internal documents related to climate change, and found false statements to shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Simple stuff like ‘it’s impossible to predict the effect of a carbon tax on the coal market,’ and they paid a consultant a lot of money to predict the effect of a carbon market,” he said. Peabody signed an agreement pledging to properly disclose the climate risk to its business. Mr. Schneiderman has also been accused of conspiring with environmental groups, but he said, “People bring information to us all the time. If it’s got merit to it, we follow up on it. ” Groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists have investigated the fossil fuel industry for years, he said, and so “it would be malpractice for us not to meet with people like this. ” The industry’s tactics come “straight out of the tobacco playbook,” he said. “It’s delay, and sowing doubt. ” Mr. Schneiderman has refused to comply with the congressman’s subpoena, stressing the importance of federalism — normally an argument used by conservatives against federal overreach. When asked for comment, Kristina Baum, a spokeswoman for the Science committee, said that Mr. Smith was unavailable. | 0fake |
How to Get the Most out of Visiting World-Famous Sites - The New York Times | If you’re visiting Florence, Italy, you’ve got to see the Uffizi Gallery. But why? Because that’s what one does in Florence? Because you feel compelled to post a selfie in front of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”? Those are obviously terrible reasons. We shouldn’t go to places because they’re we should go to fully appreciate the thing that made them — an unparalleled collection of Renaissance art, for example. But that requires a thoughtful, visit, not just following the masses, snapping pictures and checking it off your bucket list. I spoke with those in charge of some of the world’s great attractions to glean strategies for making the most of a visit, both substantive improvements and simple techniques. Because, no matter how great the view is from the crown of Lady Liberty, you don’t want to wait in a long line to get there. Actually, you can’t visit the crown at all without serious planning. “On busy days you’re talking 25, 000 people on a small island, and 500 a day get to the crown,” said Michael Amato, the lead park ranger for the Statue of Liberty National Monument. “Right now we’re sold out until late October, early November. ” So it’s not so simple as “plan in advance. ” You need to check on what’s available only in advance — say, tickets for a performance. The ultimate way to avoid crowds is to visit during the in other words, not now. Many dismiss travel as unviable because of school schedules, but remember American Thanksgiving and spring breaks (if they don’t fall over Easter week) don’t mirror other countries’ vacations. Some American habits can play to your advantage. “Americans love to eat early,” said Eike Schmidt, the director of the Uffizi Galleries. “Have an early lunch, and get to the Uffizi something like 1 p. m. when the vast majority of people head off to eat. ” Timed tickets can often be bought days in advance and are increasingly available at crowded attractions around the world. At the Uffizi, they cost 4 euros extra (boosting admission to 16. 50 euros, about $18) and take care of waiting in line, if not the crowds. You can buy them at the official Uffizi website, uffizi. it, if you can find it. Unofficial sites that look official are rampant. They often look good and sometimes contain good information, but look out. “You can pay $30 or $40 on a fake website,” Mr. Schmidt said. “And sometimes the tickets do not exist” — that is, they’re fakes. Even when they’re just reselling real tickets, look out for markups. For example, uffizi. com, one of the unofficial sites, charges 24. 99 euros (about $27. 35) and it even marks up the audio guides. The official site is and difficult to find (and is getting an upgrade). If you’re ever having trouble finding the official site of any attraction, search for it on a trusted travel site — say, LonelyPlanet. com — and follow the links. Between planning and traveling, a lot can change. Keep up to date, Jade McKellar, the director of visitor experiences at the Sydney Opera House, said in an email. “If you’re looking for inspiration,” she said, “follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter. ” The Opera House’s Facebook page, for example, recently posted information on the free Homeground festival in October, featuring indigenous musicians from around the world. In another development somewhat lower on the cultural scale, the Statue of Liberty’s Instagram account recently noted a new wave of visitors to Ellis Island: Pokémon. Ms. McKellar noted that too many visitors “stop at the selfie. ” Even without planning, visitors can often buy tickets for events that run 363 days a year. But like many sites, a true visit means dedicating a full day, something a rushed traveler might be loath to do but should do. You may want to append to a tour of the Sydney Opera House a pretheater dinner at the locavore Australian restaurant Bennelong, and an evening performance. (Just be aware that reservations at Bennelong need to be made well ahead.) Another reason to set aside more time: Visitors skip the but equally worthwhile, often beautifully complementary sites nearby. Susan Greaney, the senior properties historian at English Heritage, which oversees Stonehenge, recommended a trip to the nearby Wiltshire Museum and the Salisbury Museum, local history museums with exhibitions, each less than a drive away but apt to be missed by anyone on a day tour from London. Mark Thomas, the western district director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation — a fancy title that involves oversight of Niagara Falls State Park — recommended the New York Power Authority’s Niagara Power Vista, a free attraction that was recently overhauled and reopened, 10 minutes away from the park. Mr. Schmidt noted that the copy of Michelangelo’s David on the Piazza della Signoria near the Uffizi was indistinguishable to nonexperts. Lines to see the real one at the Accademia Gallery can run hours if you don’t buy tickets in advance. “If someone has just three days in Florence, do you want to waste three hours in line when you can see a very faithful copy?” he said. Sometimes, the attraction is even part of the same complex. Mr. Amato noted that this year Liberty Island would attract 4. 4 million visitors, while the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration will attract just 2. 4 million. That’s preposterous, considering that the boat to Liberty Island also stops at Ellis Island, which costs nothing extra and (in my opinion, not his) is far more interesting. But again, it means killing a day. Reading up on the attraction can make a vast difference in how much you appreciate it. I slogged through “The Conquest of the Incas” by John Hemming before visiting Machu Picchu for the first time, and it made for a rich experience. But there are easier ways. Mr. Thomas recommended visitors watch Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film noir picture “Niagara,” set at and near the falls. And in the next six months, Mr. Schmidt’s book about the Uffizi should come out. (Exercise some discretion — for example, Ms. Greaney of English Heritage did not mention the Stonehenge scene from the 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” and for good reason.) Some final recommendations: Be an active visitor, engaging guides, rangers or docents and exploring corners. For monuments, consider a more adventurous alternative route to avoid crowds — walking the steep hill to the Peak viewpoint in Hong Kong or hiking up the rain forest path to Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro instead of taking the crowded trams that lead to each. Even if you’re not traveling with children, I recommend inventing a game before you go — even adults run out of steam on a long day of sightseeing. My favorite, applicable to any museum with abstract art, is “Name the Picasso,” in which you guess the name of a painting (“Death in the Jungle”) and then compare it to its real name (“Nude in a Black Armchair. ”) Of course, you can also simply skip the attraction. If you’re sick of museums by the time you get to Florence, forgo the Uffizi and take advantage of other things Florence has to offer. Perhaps a gelato (or tripe sandwich) crawl is in order? Don’t worry about what your friends will think. You can use Photoshop to show them you “saw” “The Birth of Venus. ” | 0fake |
Chicago Cubs Crowned the Lords of Windy City | It has been 25 years since a record turnout of people watched the World Series on television. Nobody saw this win coming, and it was 108 years in the making. However, dreams came true on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2016, when the Chicago Cubs, crowned the Lords of Windy City, won the World Series.
The city of Chicago experienced an epic moment in sports history. A moment, so grand that it would topple the elections for a split second. After the game, crowds went ballistic. Things were just getting warmed up as two million fans relished in the Cubs victory lap around the city. The triumphant tour ended with a rally in Grant Park. However, the lap may have concluded but the Chicago Cubs long awaited success story has yet to be told.
The Road to Victory
Success did not come overnight. In fact, it started years ago. Before they were the Lords of Windy City, the Cubs played in 11 World Series, overall. Moreover, before they were the Chicago Cubs, they were the Chicago White Stockings, in 1876. West Side Grounds was where the White Stockings did their damage, with multiple victories. Eventually, establishing themselves as one of the new league’s highest-regarded teams.
By 1890, they had converted to the Chicago Colts. Nevertheless, they would not remain the Colts for long. Despite the fact, the franchise had ushered in a new dynasty, a name change was underway for the final time. In 1902, they became the Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs won four emblems. in a five-year span. from 1905 to 1912. During that time, they won two World Series titles. The Cubs recorded a record 116 victories and the best-winning percentage (.763) in Major League history. However, it would all fall apart due to the alleged Billy Goat curse.
Curse of the Billy Goat
In 1945, a man named William Sianis, owner of Billy Goat Tavern, supposedly placed “The Curse of the Billy Goat” on the Chicago Cubs. This sports-related curse lasted from 1945 to 2016. The legend began over the odor of his pet goat, Murphy. The myth states that Murphy’s scent was annoying fans. During game four, he was asked to leave Wrigley Field, the 1945 World Series. Livid, Sianis apparently professed, “They ain’t gonna win no more, those Cubs,” which has been understood as an indication the Cubs would not win another World Series or the National League (NL) pennant.
Sianis stormed out of the stadium with his goat, and the Cubs lost the 1945 World Series to the Detroit Tigers. Never again, would they see a win, until the 2016 World Series Championship.
The Chicago Cubs Drought
Before their historic win, the Cubs had to endure almost a century of losses. In 1908, the Chicago Cubs won their last World Series, for the second successive year, against the Detroit Tigers. Even though the Cubs went on to play in seven World Series afterward, they went home with nothing. Instead of wins, there was only the agony of defeat. Nevertheless, this torment turned into the thrill of victory after winning the 2016 World Series, and the 2016 National League Championship Series.
The night of Nov. 2, concluded the 108-year World Series championship drought, plus a 71-year National League pennant drought that plagued the Chicago Cubs for over a century. This time period of losses would go down in history as one of the longest by any major American sports team.
The Victorious Night
All it took was an 8-7, 10-inning triumph over the Cleveland Indians, in an electrifying Game 7, that started Wednesday evening (Nov. 2) and finished promptly, on Thursday before noon (Nov. 3). It was a night to be remembered; every seat at Wrigley Field filled. The stadium, recognized for its ivy-coated brick outfield wall, unusual wind patterns from Lake Michigan, and the iconic red pavilion was the center of the universe that night.
Stars like John Travolta and Amy Schumer were at the event. Homeland Security, 1,000 Chicago police officers, and FBI agents swarmed the place. It was more than a big deal. The Chicago Cubs went out with a bang, ending the season with a 103–58 (.640) record. It would be their first 100-win season since 1935 (100–54, .649) and their best since 1910 (104–50, .675). Additionally, it is the sixth 100-victory season in franchise history.
When it was all over, the Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908, terminating the infamous 108-year win deficiency and the “curse,” thus, being crowned the Lords of Windy City.
By Jomo Merritt
Edited by Jeanette Smith
Sources:
Fox 32: Cubs World Series celebration ranks as 7th largest gathering in human history
ESPN: Chicago parties with the Cubs
Chicago Tribune: Cubs roster breakdown: Players expected to return, depart for 2017 season
Image Courtesy of Arturo Pardavila III’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Image Courtesy of Erik Drost’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License 2016 World Series , chicago cubs , Cleveland Indians , spot | 1real |
Patrick Henningsen LIVE with guest Ray McGovern – Podesta Emails Leaked, Not ‘Hacked’ | Join Patrick every week at 21WIRE.TV for news, views and analysis on all top stories domestically and abroad THIS WEEK: Episode 3 Did the Russians Do It? The 4th Estate become a fifth column, as The Washington Post loses the plot scapegoating Russia over Wikileaks rather than face up to the Democratic Party s own electoral debacle. Also, how Podesta Emails likely LEAKED to Wikileaks from inside the US, not hacked by the Kremlin. And will Trump drain the swamp, or simply fill it up again? Host Patrick Henningsen talks to Ray McGovern, former CIA Analyst and founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) about these and many more topics. Listen: This program broadcasts LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9pm, right after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.comREAD MORE WIKILEAKS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Wikileaks Files | 1real |
Black Lives Matter Was Gaining Ground. Then a Sniper Opened Fire. - The New York Times | It felt like a watershed moment for a scattered and civil rights movement. Inside Black Lives Matter, the national revulsion over videos of police officers shooting to death black men in Minnesota and Louisiana was undeniable proof that the group’s message of outrage and demands for justice had finally broken through. Even the white governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, in a pained public concession, embraced the movement’s central argument. “Would this have happened if those passengers — the driver and the passengers — were white?” he asked. “I don’t think it would’ve. ” Then, in an instant, everything changed. Black Lives Matter now faces perhaps the biggest crisis in its short history: It is both scrambling to distance itself from an sniper in Dallas who set out to murder white police officers and trying to rebut a chorus of detractors who blame the movement for inspiring his deadly attack. “What I saw in Dallas was devastating to our work,” said Jedidiah Brown, a Chicago pastor who has emerged as an outspoken Black Lives Matter activist over the past year. The moment he learned of the attack on the police, he said, he immediately sensed that any emerging national consensus would “tear down the middle. ” “The thing I vividly remember thinking was, this is going to show exactly how divided this conversation is,” he said. For those who have harbored doubts or animosity toward Black Lives Matter — among them police unions and conservative leaders — the Dallas attacks are a cudgel that, fairly or not, they are eager to swing. In Texas, several state officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, lashed out at the group, directly linking its tone and tactics to the killings. Mr. Patrick acknowledged that the demonstration in Dallas on Thursday night had been peaceful until the gunman struck, but he accused the movement of creating the conditions for what happened. “I do blame former Black Lives Matter protests,” he said. “This has to stop,” Mr. Patrick said, adding of the police officers, “These are real people. ” State Representative Bill Zedler, a Republican, was equally blunt in his assessment of the group’s influence on the gunman, Micah Johnson. “Clearly the rhetoric of Black Lives Matters encouraged the sniper that shot Dallas police officers,” he wrote on Twitter. But a bigger problem for Black Lives Matter, supported by many liberals, is that Mr. Johnson’s actions could jeopardize the movement’s appeal to a broader group of Americans who have gradually become more sympathetic to its cause after years of highly publicized police shootings. In the days before the Dallas massacre, Aesha Rasheed, 39, an activist in New Orleans, felt that at long last, white and black America were watching the same images with the same horror: two Louisiana police officers tackling and then shooting Alton Sterling, 37, at range the slumped, body of Philando Castile, 32, after a Minnesota police officer shot him through a car window, with his girlfriend and her daughter sitting inches away. “It seemed like a national consciousness was sinking in,” Ms. Rasheed said. After the massacre in Dallas, she said, “it turned on a dime. ” She now worries that the episodes involving black men may be overshadowed and overlooked. “Does this get ignored?” she asked. “Do five officers take center stage?” Black Lives Matter usually spurns central planning and management. But in a sign of alarm over the volatile situation, leaders of several organizations associated with the movement put out formal statements that repeatedly described the Dallas attacker as a lone gunman, unconnected to the group’s cause. “There are some who would use these events to stifle a movement for change and quicken the demise of a vibrant discourse on the human rights of Black Americans,” read a statement from the Black Lives Matter Network. “We should reject all of this. ” The police have said Mr. Johnson — a military veteran who told the authorities that he had hunted down white police officers as retribution for their abuses — had no direct links to any protest group. But in recounting Mr. Johnson’s final hours, Chief David O. Brown of the Dallas Police Department mentioned the movement by name. “The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” he said. The wider world may now expect or even demand a period of reflection and restraint from the members of Black Lives Matter. But public, nonviolent confrontation, rather than private conciliation, is central to the group’s mission: shouting at police officers, for example, or staging elaborate “ ” that evoke death at the hands of law enforcement. This style has at times rankled even the movement’s allies: A Black Lives Matter protester interrupted Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont during a Seattle campaign rally in August and seized control of his microphone, inflaming his aides and some of his supporters. “Excuse me!” Mr. Sanders cried. That combative approach is deliberate. The group is premised, activists said, on a rejection of what they see as a dominant mainstream culture that has marginalized the value of lives for decades. Black Lives Matter was born, as a phrase and a rallying cry, after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Florida shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed . By the time demonstrators took to the streets of Ferguson, Mo. a year later to protest the killing of Michael Brown, another unarmed it was the motto and name of a decentralized collection of activists. Today, at least 37 groups operate under the movement’s name, and tens of thousands of supporters identify with its cause. In interviews on Friday, activists scoffed at calls to recalibrate their message or their strategy, or to temporarily pause protests out of respect for the dead police officers in Texas. By Friday night, protesters had returned to the streets in multiple cities, swarming the Williamsburg Bridge in New York shutting down a major highway in Atlanta and marching through downtown Phoenix, where officers used pepper spray and beanbag guns to keep the demonstrators from taking over Interstate 10. In each city, the protesters were trailed by the police, as they were in Dallas. But it was clear that the national conversation had changed. On social media, Black Lives Matter activists watched with dismay on Thursday night as a squall of outrage and mourning over the shootings of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile was suddenly overwhelmed by a furious outcry over the shooting of Dallas police officers and messages of rage directed at activists and protesters. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter was joined by #bluelivesmatter, a rival reference to police officers. “This rhetoric has to stop. It’s sickening,” wrote one Twitter user using the hashtag. “We will not forget or forgive,” wrote another. Sitting in his bed after midnight with an iPhone, DeRay Mckesson, 30, a Black Lives Matter activist, watched the rapid change in tone. “It suddenly became about blame,” he said. “People wanted to link it to the protesters no matter what. ” Undeterred, several activists rebuffed the view of the carnage in Dallas as a potential setback to their cause. Ja’Mal Green, another activist, said the killings were, in their own grisly way, a powerful call. “It’s not a setback at all,” Mr. Green said. “That’s showing the people of this country that black people are getting to a boiling point. We are tired of watching police kill our brothers and sisters. We are tired of being tired. ” He insisted that he was not encouraging violence. But he said there “comes a time when black people will snap. ” He added: “It only takes a couple to get past that boiling point. You saw that in Dallas. ” As conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh assailed Black Lives Matter as “a terrorist group committing hate crimes,” activists like Wendi ’Neal saw echoes of repeated attempts throughout American history, including efforts by the federal government, to discredit civil rights groups and leaders. “It’s just made up,” she said of those who held Black Lives Matter responsible in any way for the Dallas attack. “It’s not true. ” “I can’t think of any of the justice or liberation organizations that I know,” Ms. ’Neal said, “that have an investment in shooting cops. ” | 0fake |
HOW LEFT- LEANING GOOGLE’S SECRET DECISIONS COULD CHOOSE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT | America s next president could be eased into office not just by TV ads or speeches, but by Google s secret decisions, and no one except for me and perhaps a few other obscure researchers would know how this was accomplished.Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control elections indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs than any company in history has ever had. Google s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more up to 80 percent in some demographic groups with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated, according to experiments I conducted recently with Ronald E. Robertson.Given that many elections are won by small margins, this gives Google the power, right now, to flip upwards of 25 percent of the national elections worldwide. In the United States, half of our presidential elections have been won by margins under 7.6 percent, and the 2012 election was won by a margin of only 3.9 percent well within Google s control.There are at least three very real scenarios whereby Google perhaps even without its leaders knowledge could shape or even decide the election next year. Whether or not Google executives see it this way, the employees who constantly adjust the search giant s algorithms are manipulating people every minute of every day. The adjustments they make increasingly influence our thinking including, it turns out, our voting preferences.What we call in our research the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) turns out to be one of the largest behavioral effects ever discovered. Our comprehensive new study, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), includes the results of five experiments we conducted with more than 4,500 participants in two countries. Because SEME is virtually invisible as a form of social influence, because the effect is so large and because there are currently no specific regulations anywhere in the world that would prevent Google from using and abusing this technique, we believe SEME is a serious threat to the democratic system of government.According to Google Trends, at this writing Donald Trump is currently trouncing all other candidates in search activity in 47 of 50 states. Could this activity push him higher in search rankings, and could higher rankings in turn bring him more support? Most definitely depending, that is, on how Google employees choose to adjust numeric weightings in the search algorithm. Google acknowledges adjusting the algorithm 600 times a year, but the process is secret, so what effect Mr. Trump s success will have on how he shows up in Google searches is presumably out of his hands.***Our new research leaves little doubt about whether Google has the ability to control voters. In laboratory and online experiments conducted in the United States, we were able to boost the proportion of people who favored any candidate by between 37 and 63 percent after just one search session. The impact of viewing biased rankings repeatedly over a period of weeks or months would undoubtedly be larger.In our basic experiment, participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups in which search rankings favored either Candidate A, Candidate B or neither candidate. Participants were given brief descriptions of each candidate and then asked how much they liked and trusted each candidate and whom they would vote for. Then they were allowed up to 15 minutes to conduct online research on the candidates using a Google-like search engine we created called Kadoodle.Each group had access to the same 30 search results all real search results linking to real web pages from a past election. Only the ordering of the results differed in the three groups. People could click freely on any result or shift between any of five different results pages, just as one can on Google s search engine.When our participants were done searching, we asked them those questions again, and, voil : On all measures, opinions shifted in the direction of the candidate who was favored in the rankings. Trust, liking and voting preferences all shifted predictably.More alarmingly, we also demonstrated this shift with real voters during an actual electoral campaign in an experiment conducted with more than 2,000 eligible, undecided voters throughout India during the 2014 Lok Sabha election there the largest democratic election in history, with more than 800 million eligible voters and 480 million votes ultimately cast. Even here, with real voters who were highly familiar with the candidates and who were being bombarded with campaign rhetoric every day, we showed that search rankings could boost the proportion of people favoring any candidate by more than 20 percent more than 60 percent in some demographic groups.Given how powerful this effect is, it s possible that Google decided the winner of the Indian election. Google s own daily data on election-related search activity (subsequently removed from the Internet, but not before my colleagues and I downloaded the pages) showed that Narendra Modi, the ultimate winner, outscored his rivals in search activity by more than 25 percent for sixty-one consecutive days before the final votes were cast. That high volume of search activity could easily have been generated by higher search rankings for Modi.Google s official comment on SEME research is always the same: Providing relevant answers has been the cornerstone of Google s approach to search from the very beginning. It would undermine the people s trust in our results and company if we were to change course. Could any comment be more meaningless? How does providing relevant answers to election-related questions rule out the possibility of favoring one candidate over another in search rankings? Google s statement seems far short of a blanket denial that it ever puts its finger on the scales.There are three credible scenarios under which Google could easily be flipping elections worldwide as you read this:First, there is the Western Union ScenarioGoogle s executives decide which candidate is best for us and for the company, of course and they fiddle with search rankings accordingly. There is precedent in the United States for this kind of backroom king-making. Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, was put into office in part because of strong support by Western Union. In the late 1800s, Western Union had a monopoly on communications in America, and just before the election of 1876, the company did its best to assure that only positive news stories about Hayes appeared in newspapers nationwide. It also shared all the telegrams sent by his opponent s campaign staff with Hayes s staff. Perhaps the most effective way to wield political influence in today s high-tech world is to donate money to a candidate and then to use technology to make sure he or she wins. The technology guarantees the win, and the donation guarantees allegiance, which Google has certainly tapped in recent years with the Obama administration.Given Google s strong ties to Democrats, there is reason to suspect that if Google or its employees intervene to favor their candidates, it will be to adjust the search algorithm to favor Hillary Clinton. In 2012, Google and its top executives donated more than $800,000 to Obama but only $37,000 to Romney. At least six top tech officials in the Obama administration, including Megan Smith, the country s chief technology officer, are former Google employees. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, since Obama took office, Google representatives have visited the White House ten times as frequently as representatives from comparable companies once a week, on average.Hillary Clinton clearly has Google s support and is well aware of Google s value in elections. In April of this year, she hired a top Google executive, Stephanie Hannon, to serve as her chief technology officer. I don t have any reason to suspect Hannon would use her old connections to aid her candidate, but the fact that she or any other individual with sufficient clout at Google has the power to decide elections threatens to undermine the legitimacy of our electoral system, particularly in close elections.This is, in any case, the most implausible scenario. What company would risk the public outrage and corporate punishment that would follow from being caught manipulating an election? Second, there is the Marius Milner ScenarioA rogue employee at Google who has sufficient password authority or hacking skills makes a few tweaks in the rankings (perhaps after receiving a text message from some old friend who now works on a campaign), and the deed is done. In 2010, when Google got caught sweeping up personal information from unprotected Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries using its Street View vehicles, the entire operation was blamed on one Google employee: software engineer Marius Milner. So they fired him, right? Nope. He s still there, and on LinkedIn he currently identifies his profession as hacker. If, somehow, you have gotten the impression that at least a few of Google s 37,000 employees are every bit as smart as Milner and possess a certain mischievousness well, you are probably right, which is why the rogue employee scenario isn t as far-fetched as it might seem. And third and this is the scariest possibility there is the Algorithm ScenarioUnder this scenario, all of Google s employees are innocent little lambs, but the software is evil. Google s search algorithm is pushing one candidate to the top of rankings because of what the company coyly dismisses as organic search activity by users; it s harmless, you see, because it s all natural. Under this scenario, a computer program is picking our elected officials.To put this another way, our research suggests that no matter how innocent or disinterested Google s employees may be, Google s search algorithm, propelled by user activity, has been determining the outcomes of close elections worldwide for years, with increasing impact every year because of increasing Internet penetration. SEME is powerful precisely because Google is so good at what it does; its search results are generally superb. Having learned that fact over time, we have come to trust those results to a high degree. We have also learned that higher rankings mean better material, which is why 50 percent of our clicks go to the first two items, with more than 90 percent of all clicks going to that precious first search page. Unfortunately, when it comes to elections, that extreme trust we have developed makes us vulnerable to manipulation.In the final days of a campaign, fortunes are spent on media blitzes directed at a handful of counties where swing voters will determine the winners in the all-important swing states. What a waste of resources! The right person at Google could influence those key voters more than any stump speech could; there is no cheaper, more efficient or subtler way to turn swing voters than SEME. SEME also has one eerie advantage over billboards: when people are unaware of a source of influence, they believe they weren t being influenced at all; they believe they made up their own minds.Republicans, take note: A manipulation on Hillary Clinton s behalf would be particularly easy for Google to carry out, because of all the demographic groups we have looked at so far, no group has been more vulnerable to SEME in other words, so blindly trusting of search rankings than moderate Republicans. In a national experiment we conducted in the United States, we were able to shift a whopping 80 percent of moderate Republicans in any direction we chose just by varying search rankings.There are many ways to influence voters more ways than ever these days, thanks to cable television, mobile devices and the Internet. Why be so afraid of Google s search engine? If rankings are so influential, won t all the candidates be using the latest SEO techniques to make sure they rank high?SEO is competitive, as are billboards and TV commercials. No problem there. The problem is that for all practical purposes, there is just one search engine. More than 75 percent of online search in the United States is conducted on Google, and in most other countries that proportion is 90 percent. That means that if Google s CEO, a rogue employee or even just the search algorithm itself favors one candidate, there is no way to counteract that influence. It would be as if Fox News were the only television channel in the country. As Internet penetration grows and more people get their information about candidates online, SEME will become an increasingly powerful form of influence, which means that the programmers and executives who control search engines will also become more powerful.Worse still, our research shows that even when people do notice they are seeing biased search rankings, their voting preferences still shift in the desired directions even more than the preferences of people who are oblivious to the bias. In our national study in the United States, 36 percent of people who were unaware of the rankings bias shifted toward the candidate we chose for them, but 45 percent of those who were aware of the bias also shifted. It s as if the bias was serving as a form of social proof; the search engine clearly prefers one candidate, so that candidate must be the best. (Search results are supposed to be biased, after all; they re supposed to show us what s best, second best, and so on.)Biased rankings are hard for individuals to detect, but what about regulators or election watchdogs? Unfortunately, SEME is easy to hide. The best way to wield this type of influence is to do what Google is becoming better at doing every day: send out customized search results. If search results favoring one candidate were sent only to vulnerable individuals, regulators and watchdogs would be especially hard pressed to find them.For the record, by the way, our experiments meet the gold standards of research in the behavioral sciences: They are randomized (which means people are randomly assigned to different groups), controlled (which means they include groups in which interventions are either present or absent), counterbalanced (which means critical details, such as names, are presented to half the participants in one order and to half in the opposite order) and double-blind (which means that neither the subjects nor anyone who interacts with them has any idea what the hypotheses are or what groups people are assigned to). Our subject pools are diverse, matched as closely as possible to characteristics of a country s electorate. Finally, our recent report in PNAS included four replications; in other words, we showed repeatedly under different conditions and with different groups that SEME is real.Our newest research on SEME, conducted with nearly 4,000 people just before the national elections in the UK this past spring, is looking at ways we might be able to protect people from the manipulation. We found the monster; now we re trying to figure out how to kill it. What we have learned so far is that the only way to protect people from biased search rankings is to break the trust Google has worked so hard to build. When we deliberately mix rankings up, or when we display various kinds of alerts that identify bias, we can suppress SEME to some extent.It s hard to imagine Google ever degrading its product and undermining its credibility in such ways, however. To protect the free and fair election, that might leave only one option, as unpalatable as it might seem: government regulation.Authored by Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology), originally posted at Politico.com Via: Zero Hedge | 1real |
Canada's Trudeau tells Trump a NAFTA pullout would be too painful | OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had urged U.S. President Donald Trump not to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement because it would cause a lot of pain on both sides of the border. The White House said earlier that Trump told the leaders of Canada and Mexico in separate calls on Wednesday that he would not terminate the NAFTA treaty at this stage, but would move quickly to begin renegotiating it with them. Trump, who says NAFTA has been a disaster for American workers, has threatened several times to walk away from the three-nation pact unless major changes are made. Mexico is the third member. “He (said on the call) he was very much thinking about canceling and I highlighted quite frankly ... that a disruption like canceling NAFTA, even if it theoretically eventually might lead to better outcomes, would cause a lot of short and medium-term pain,” said Trudeau. “That’s not something that either one of us would want so we agreed that we could sit down and get to work on looking at ways to improve NAFTA,” Trudeau told a televised news conference in Gray, Saskatchewan. Any move to break up NAFTA would cause great economic damage to Canada, which sends 75 percent of all its exports to the United States. Trump’s administration has yet to formally advise the U.S. Congress of its intention to open negotiations. A Canadian source familiar with the matter said Trudeau had added in his comments to Trump that pulling out of NAFTA would be counter-productive. Canadian officials have so far taken a largely restrained attitude to Trump’s harsh language on NAFTA, describing it as a negotiating tactic ahead of the talks. That said, government ministers have made clear Canada could slap sanctions on the United States if it decided to impose protectionist measures such as a border tariff. Trudeau, asked about possible trade retaliation, said Canada preferred to work with the United States constructively but added: “There’s no question there’s a broad range of options and paths available to us that we’re looking at.” He did not give details but the Trump administration on Monday moved to impose tariffs on imported Canadian lumber that mostly feeds U.S. homebuilding. | 0fake |
Criminalizing Childhood: Tennessee Cops Arrest 6-Year-Olds For Not Breaking Up A Fight | When I was a kid, I watched a number of fights on the playground, in the school cafeteria and just on my block. This was true when I was in elementary school and it continued to be true all the way to when I was in high school. If you would have told me that I could be arrested for not breaking up the fight, I would have looked at you like you were certifiably insane.But that was before America decided that criminalizing childhood was a good idea:MURFREESBORO More than 150 people called for action Sunday after parents said at least five students, ages 6 to 10, were handcuffed at Hobgood Elementary School on Friday.The students were arrested, accused of not stopping a fight that happened earlier off-campus and later released from the juvenile center on FridayThese were not kids that participated in the fight, they just watched it happen and were arrested for it. Think about that for a moment: a 6-year-old child was HANDCUFFED for not breaking up a fight. What did the police think this kid was going to do? Attack them? What kind of thought process leads a grown man to handcuff an elementary school student? Even worse, what kind of society ALLOWS a grown man to handcuff an elementary school student and not immediately fire them as a danger to the public?But back to the flawed premise behind the arrest. I happen to have a 6-year-old of my own and she has a fairly forceful personality, but the idea of her leaping into a fight to break it up is ludicrous. She s 6! And even if she d been 10, when did it become a legal obligation for kids to break up a fight they re not involved in? Don t the police have anything better to do with their time than turn little children into criminals?The icing on the cake was arresting them at the school in front of their classmates. Because leading a 6-year-old out of school in handcuffs can t possibly leave any long-term mental scars, right? Again, we as a society allow this to happen.This is the direct result of a fundamentally broken law enforcement culture. They no longer see communities as made up of people, they only see potential criminals. It seems that the thinking is, if you get them into the system when they re young, you ll have an easier time throwing them in jail later. Never mind that most of the cops involved almost certainly watched a fist fight as a kid, or got into one themselves, it s criminal behavior these days.Oh, and you ll be absolutely shocked to know that the community this occurred in is .you guessed it: Mostly African-American. Because when little Timmy watches a fight, it s just boys being boys. But little Leroy? He s a goddamn criminal and needs to be taught a lesson!With this kind of ongoing behavior, the police are hard at work creating an entire generation of (mostly minority) children that fear and loathe them. And then the cops have the gall to rage at the Black Lives Matter movement? Unbelievable.Featured image via Getty | 1real |
Moscú revela que España ha admitido la presión de EE.UU y la OTAN con respecto a los barcos rusos | Moscú revela que España ha admitido la presión de EE.UU y la OTAN con respecto a los barcos rusos 17:56 GMT
El Ministerio de Defensa ruso niega haber enviado una solicitud de escala de repostaje en Ceuta para su flotilla con rumbo al Mediterráneo. Admiral Kuznetsov Serguéi Eschenko Sputnik
El Ministerio de Defensa Ruso ha declarado que España comunicó que considera inoportuna la entrada de barcos rusos en el puerto de Ceuta, debido a las presiones que sufre por parte de EE.UU. y de la OTAN. Tensión en la OTAN y la UE por los permisos a barcos rusos para repostar en España
Asimismo, el jefe de la Dirección de Medios e Información del Ministerio de Defensa de la Federación de Rusia, Igor Konashenkov, ha querido dejar claro que, pese a la especulación de los medios extranjeros al respecto, Rusia no había enviado ninguna solicitud a España para hacer una parada de avituallamiento en Ceuta. Y añadió que el grupo naval liderado por el portaaviones Admiral Kuznetsov "cuenta con todos los recursos necesarios para llevar a cabo sus tareas de forma autónoma".
De hecho, la flotilla rusa ya ha pasado el puerto de Ceuta sin detenerse y continúa su travesía. Además del portaaviones Admiral Kutnesov, el grupo naval incluye el crucero de batalla de propulsión nuclearPiotr Veliki (Pedro el Grande), la fragata antisubmarina Severomorsk y otros cinco buques de la Flota del Norte de Rusia. | 1real |
Republicans Did This, And Now Britain Is Warning Its Citizens To Avoid America | Once again, states run by conservative Republicans have provoked international embarrassment for America. This time, it is because our British allies now have to warn their LGBT citizens about traveling to southern states that recently passed anti-LGBT laws.Britain has issued a new warning for LGBT travelers visiting parts of the United States: Be wary.In an update to its U.S. travel advisory, the British Foreign Office highlighted the anti-gay laws recently passed in North Carolina and Mississippi. The U.S. is an extremely diverse society and attitudes towards LGBT people differ hugely across the country, the advisory stated. LGBT travelers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. Before traveling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community. North Carolina and Missippi have lost revenue due to businesses (Paypal, Pepsi and many others) canceling plans to open facilities there and musicians like Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam deciding to cancel concert dates in those states all because a minority of anti-LGBT bigots have decided to pass laws based on the myth of transgender bathroom predators.The so-called bathroom bills are laws correcting a problem that doesn t actually exist, in order to make conservative politicians look good to their base by attacking a group of Americans. It is what the right has devolved to and is part of their desperate attempts to keep so-called values voters perpetually on the edge and consistently voting for conservative Republican political candidates.In response to the British Foreign Office, the Human Rights campaign issued a statement noting, It is both frightening and embarrassing that one of our nation s staunchest allies has warned its citizens of the risks of traveling to North Carolina and Mississippi because of anti-LGBT laws passed by their elected officials. It s even more bizarre that the supposedly pro-business right would push these laws, since the states who pass them will suffer economically. Being bigoted like this in 2016 is bad for business.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Head of UK's anti-Brexit party appeals for help to stop EU exit | LONDON (Reuters) - Calling himself a proud saboteur of the Brexit process, Britain s Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable on Tuesday appealed to opponents in all parties to put aside differences and fight a divorce from the European Union. The fourth-largest party with 12 representatives in the 650-seat parliament, the Liberal Democrats are hoping to become the lightning rod for any rise in anti-Brexit sentiment as Prime Minister Theresa May s government edges closer to leaving the EU in March 2019. Cable, an economist who was business minister in the 2010 to 2015 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, has redoubled his party s criticism of the decision to leave the EU since becoming party leader in July. I want our party to lead the fight against Brexit, Cable said in his address to the party s autumn conference. He called for a new referendum, describing Brexit as a looming disaster. In the real world, we have yet to experience the full impact of leaving Europe. But we ve had a taste of what is to come in the fall of the value of the pound, Cable said. Sterling fell by as much as 20 percent against the dollar in the months after the June 2016 EU referendum. It has recovered around half those losses, in part thanks to increasing expectations of an interest rate hike to ease inflation, but the pound is still 9 percent down on pre-Brexit levels. Foreign exchange dealers are not point-scoring politicians, they make cool, hard, unsentimental judgments. Quite simply, that Brexit Britain will be poorer and weaker than if we had decided to stay in Europe, Cable said. He also said the government was relying too heavily on its relationship with the United States to help it adjust to life after Brexit, criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump as volatile, and dangerous and an apologist for religious and racial hatred. Opposition to Brexit has been emboldened after May failed to win a clear mandate for her exit strategy at a snap election in June. She lost her majority in parliament but kept power thanks to a deal with a small Northern Irish party. Cable said Britons had a democratic right to a second referendum once the final terms of the Brexit deal become clear. At the end of these tortuous divorce negotiations, the British public must be given a vote on the outcome, he said. But polls show little sign of a radical shift in public opinion against Brexit. Polling firm YouGov said a significant proportion of the 48 percent who voted against Brexit now thought the government had a duty to leave. Only 27 percent of Britons want to reverse the decision, they said. Cable, whose centrist party went from junior coalition partner to near extinction in the 2015 election, made only small gains in the June election having set out the party s stall as the most pro-EU party in British politics. Cable has previously said he expects dissatisfaction with Brexit to grow as the negotiations develop, and called for opponents from all parties to come together to oppose the divorce. We have got to put aside tribal differences and work alongside like-minded people to keep the Single Market and Customs Union, so essential for trade and jobs, he said. | 0fake |
Senior U.S. House Republican expects action on gun 'bump stocks' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The No. 2 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday that he expects Congress will take steps to control the use of “bump stock” gun accessories that enable rifles to be turned into rapid-fire guns, following Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas. “This is definitely an area we should look at,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told the Fox News Channel. “The one thing I do want to do is, let’s let the sheriff and the authorities carry out their entire investigation,” McCarthy said. “But I think this is definitely an area we’re going to look (at) and be able to act on,” he said, referring to the use of bump stock gun accessories. | 0fake |
Economic Breadth Is Significantly Deteriorating in the US | Economic Breadth Is Significantly Deteriorating in the US
by CHRIS PUPLAVA
Philly Fed state coincident data came out today and more states across the country are starting to contract (shown in red). Looking at the snapshot below, positively growing states still dominate the map (and don’t give much of an alarming picture), but a different story emerges when we look at the trend.
Here’s a look at how this data has trended over the past 36 years compared to the S&P 500. As you can see, states showing positive growth tend to rollover prior to economic recessions (red bars) with corresponding declines in the S&P 500. The latest data puts us near the weakest levels during this entire economic cycle and matches prior market tops.
There was a strong increase in the number of states with negative monthly changes this year. As shown below, this data typically leads US initial unemployment claims and suggests we could see a pickup in jobless claims (layoffs) in the near future.
M&A deal activity (shown inverted below) tends to exhibit a euphoric peak and mark the end of an economic/bull market cycle. In terms of transaction values, M&A activity peaked earlier this year and also argues for a pickup in layoffs ahead. | 1real |
Trump Doubles Down On McCain Criticism, Refusing To Apologize | Trump Doubles Down On McCain Criticism, Refusing To Apologize
Veterans groups have added to the chorus of condemnation against Donald Trump — much of it coming from within his own party — following disparaging remarks the real-estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate made about Sen. John McCain's war record.
And Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America:
As we reported previously, Trump, attending a Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday, lashed out at the Arizona Republican and former GOP presidential nominee, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after being shot down in 1967.
"He was a war hero because he was captured," Trump said. "I like people who weren't captured."
Fellow candidates, including former Govs. Jeb Bush and Rick Perry and Sen. Marco Rubio, have fired back at Trump, with Rubio saying on CNN Sunday that the remarks were a "disqualifier" for the Republican nomination.
Asked on ABC's This Week if he owed McCain an apology, Trump answered: "No, not at all."
"John McCain has failed," he said, citing the Arizona senator's record on veterans' issues. "I believe that I will do far more for veterans than John McCain has done for many, many years, with all talk, no action. ... Nothing gets done."
And in his latest tweets and statements from his campaign, Trump touts his record on veterans and demands that McCain apologize for calling those who attended a Trump rally in Phoenix last week "crazies." | 0fake |
HERE’S WHY MEGA BAND U2 Is Blaming TRUMP For Delay Of Release Of New Album [Video] | 1real | |
How Hedonistic Game Became The Gateway To Virtuous Truths | When people ask me about my current position fighting in the culture war, years after starting my writing career with “Bang” books, I simply say, “I just wanted to get laid.” From these hedonistic beginnings opened a path that I find myself in today. A reviewer of my new book Free Speech Isn’t Free also noticed this transformation:
I’ve been following the ‘Red Pill’ community for a a few years now. The members therein have been engaging in some of the most relevant conversations anywhere on the net. Roosh is one I’ve only recently become familiar with as I tend to appreciate and relate more to the more traditionalist members like Vox Day, Dalrock, and Roissy.
What is so fascinating about guys like Roosh is how their journey to acquire more sex and attention from highly attractive women has led them stumbling across uncomfortable truths about the world that we men of the West find ourselves living in.
This book is a very straightforward account of an encounter that an iconic Red Pill pillar had with the traditional media community that exposes a truly shocking level of laziness and corruption on the part of an institution that we are supposed to respect for some reason. I remember watching from a social media distance as these events went down and I had no idea just how bad it was.
I really admire the stones on this kid and I hope he stays motivated and encourages more people to be bold with the truth (which is always unPC). I’m not a fan of lotharios but I appreciate intellectual honesty and bravery. I hope Roosh’s Neomasculinity gets legs. I really do.
How did game serve as the gateway drug? Simple: I kept asking why, as if I was an annoying 8-year-old child.
Why are woman attracted to me when I dance and act like an entertaining clown ? Why did my father not have to act like a clown to attract my mom? Why has society changed to encourage women to pursue exciting “bad boys” and clowns over good men? Why are institutions like the media and universities pushing women into behaviors which harm them and the family unit? Why is there a concealed group of elites who seem to control politicians and the most important institutions? Why are those institutions attacking me for speaking the truth? There wasn’t only one step from having fun into the nightclub to fighting back against social justice warriors and the media, but several steps that had to take place over the past 15 years. My path weaved through sex and gender relations, but there are other paths as well, which I describe in The 5 Paths To Realizing Truth . For example, minimalism is another point of entry:
When you live below your means, you begin to see that most people are unnecessarily living above theirs. That leads to the conclusion that they were trained to live a life of excess by corporations with the complicit help of a government that wants to keep society in a neverending state of indebtedness and distraction so they ignore everyday injustices while losing any will or desire to fight the establishment. The easiest stepping stone out of The Truman Show is to realize that consumer lifestyles are not the path to happiness, and those those who chase material possessions are misguided.
Many other men have also had a similar path as myself, whereby promiscuous sex was a device for understanding the world and deciding on behaviors that are more sustainable to the male soul. While not every man gains wisdom during the stage of his life where he wants to sow his royal oats, many do, and they use that wisdom to devise solutions that can solve our modern problems. I do not at all regret engaging in shallow sex with many dozens of women throughout the world, because it has developed my thinking into what you read now, even though the sex itself wasn’t especially memorable and didn’t give me much except momentary pleasure.
From my current vantage point, it really does feel like it was all pre-determined, as if I was supposed to participate in shallow intimacy in order to arrive at true understanding, but that would imply some sort of divine providence. Whatever the mechanism, it’s clear to me that many of the behaviors and ideas we hold now could be mere way-stations for a grander, more universal truth. Whatever individual journey you’re a part of, I hope we’ll find out soon enough.
To see the whole story of how the media attacked me with an incredible attack of 1,600+ media articles , along with my analysis of the establishment’s master plan, check out my new book Free Speech Isn’t Free . It has a balanced mix of narrative and ideology that will also give you actionable advice to help defend yourself against establishment attacks. Click here to learn more about the book or order it now on Amazon .
Read More: 7 Game Principles I Personally Verified During My Trip To The Ukraine
| 1real |
Tillerson signaled U.S. policy of patience on North Korea is over: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “sent a very clear signal that our policy of strategic patience is over” with North Korea during his recent visit to China, a White House spokesman said on Monday. Spokesman Sean Spicer made the comment at a news briefing in reply to a question about Tillerson’s reaction to an announcement by North Korea about its latest rocket-engine test on Sunday. Tillerson was in Beijing during his first visit to Asia for talks dominated by concern about Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. | 0fake |
NATO and Turkey: Time to admit reality | Trump rape accuser skips press conference, citing threats ‹ › GPD is our General Posting Department whereby we share posts from other sources along with general information with our readers. It is managed by our Editorial Board NATO and Turkey: Time to admit reality By GPD on November 4, 2016 By DAVID ROMANO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created after World War Two to unite democratic states or Western Europe and North America against Soviet expansionism. The alliance admitted Turkey in 1952, two years after the country transitioned into a democratic electoral system of government.
Today, in contrast, neither the Soviet Union nor a democratic Turkey exist. Going on with the charade of NATO may, under the circumstances, do more harm than good. Russia today remains much smaller and less powerful than the Soviet empire was, and bilateral arrangements with countries looking for protection against their eastern neighbor should suffice. From the Russian point of view, a large alliance apparently arrayed against it, working hard to encircle Russia, provokes understandable concerns. The West should consider asking Russia what it would concede in return for the dissolution of the alliance.
In the case of Turkey, the country’s NATO membership also increasingly makes a mockery of the alliance’s charter and places significant liabilities on the shoulders of other members. Perusing the NATO charter, one finds statements such as:
The Parties to this…are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law…..The Parties will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and well-being.
Although Turkey’s military coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980 briefly interrupted democracy there, the military made good on its promises to quickly return power to elected civilian control. Today, in contrast, it seems increasingly clear that President Erdogan will never relinquish power. His purges and complete subversion of democratic institutions and individual liberties may take decades to repair, if ever.
This process began well before the failed July 15 coup in Turkey, but that event provided a pretext for taking the purges in Turkey to new heights. Under new “emergency rule” legislation, some 200,000 civil servants have been dismissed with scant evidence of wrongdoing. Around 2000 academics lost their posts, including just about every university dean – replacements for which will all be appointed directly by Mr. Erdogan. Many of the academics dismissed were only guilty of signing a petition for peace between the government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Mr. Erdogan’s government also shut down some 170 media outlets, including a Kurdish children’s broadcaster. Remaining media, including Turkey most venerable newspaper ( Cumhuriyet ) have seen their editors and journalists arrested and imprisoned. People now face arrest and imprisonment without charge for up to 30 days, and the state can now record conversations between those arrested and their lawyers (when they finally get so see one), with the recordings then provided to prosecutors. According to Human Rights Watch, torture has also now returned to Turkish prisons, where 27 elected mayors from mostly Kurdish cities like Diyarbakir now reside. Judges and prosecutors doing anything even mildly displeasing to the ruling party have been summarily dismissed or arrested themselves, only to be replaced with more pliant sycophants (laws were also changed to allow the ruling party to appoint even High Court judges). Hundreds of generals and officers are behind bars, to the point that the Turkish air force can only operate a portion of its fighter planes.
Your columnist could go on, of course, but the point seems clear enough – “freedom, democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law” have withered in Turkey. What’s more, Ankara’s actions and foreign policy threaten NATO. This became abundantly clear when Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane last year, threatening to drag the alliance into a war it did not want. Although Turkey has since reconciled with Russia, Ankara threatens or even appears poised to go to war with a number actors helping other NATO countries – Iraq, the Democratic Union Party of Syria (PYD), and even Greece, a NATO member itself (Mr. Erdogan recently fumed that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne made a mistake in giving Greece islands off Turkey’s Aegean coast). During the July 15 attempted coup, Ankara cut off electricity to U.S. forces at Incirlik air base (where they guard nuclear weapons, among other things). Mr. Erdogan and his government suggested that the United States either condoned the coup or even had a role in it.
Combined with Ankara’s support for a number of Islamist groups in the region, including some fairly hard-core Jihadi outfits in Syria, these developments ring a lot of alarm bells in Brussels and Washington. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican chair of a House subcommittee on emerging threats, expressed such concerns a few weeks ago when he stated that “Ten years ago Turkey was a solid NATO ally and a staunch opponent of radical Islam and a friend of the United States, and today that’s all in question… Erdogan is purging pro-Western people throughout his country who are in positions of influence. He himself has become more aggressive in his Islamic beliefs, and there’s reason for us to be seriously concerned.”
The NATO charter lacks any provisions for expelling members, however, and such a public break is probably not in any member’s interest. The better approach would be to disband NATO and put something new together. American policy makers will protest that Washington can’t afford to lose Turkey. This ignores the fact that they have already lost the Turks to Mr. Erdogan and his ilk – they just haven’t officially left yet.
David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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Flynn says cooperating with Russia probe, in best interest of U.S. | (Reuters) - Former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn said in a statement on Friday that his decision to plead guilty to lying to the FBI and to cooperate with an investigation into possible ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s administration was “made in the best interests of my family and of our country”. In the statement, which was issued by the law firm representing him, Flynn also said it was “painful to endure” the “false accusations of ‘treason’ and other outrageous acts” over the past several months but that he recognized “that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong.” | 0fake |
GO FOR IT! RUSSIA THREATENS TO LEAK Things Obama Wanted To “Keep Secret” | Question: How do you see the future of Russian-US diplomatic relations in the context of the current atmosphere in Washington? Can you confirm that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will come to Moscow in April?Maria Zakharova: Apparently, many volumes have been written about the development of Russian-US relations. I announced the release of the Foreign Ministry s yearend Diplomatic Bulletin and even showed it at the previous briefing.I believe that about 20 per cent of that bulletin was devoted to Russian-US relations, the way we see them, how we want them to develop, what we expect from Washington, what we are willing to do with the United States, the priority areas of cooperation, areas where our cooperation should be revived without delay and the areas where this can wait, at least for a limited time.This issue has been covered in interviews by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and in numerous statements made at all levels by representatives from various Russian agencies, political analysts and politicians, as well as officials from the legislative and executive authorities. We can talk about bilateral relations with a different degree of mastery, but we would like to start implementing our relationship at long last.We provided our views on bilateral relations and the reasons for blocking them under President Obama. We said that we were willing to work with the new US administration, under President Trump. I don t think we need to invent anything in this respect, because so much has been said before. Simply, we should start concrete practical work. We are ready for this.You know that we always invite our American colleagues and diplomats to join bilateral or multilateral dialogues on issues in which the United States has traditionally played a big and active role, such as Syria, the consultations in Astana and many others. We expect Washington to formulate its foreign policy approaches in the form of a concept. We are ready for pragmatic and specific work on the principles that we have described many times.As for the visit by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the information about it, this is what I can say. It s not a secret that preparations for any visit include the coordination of the time when it can be announced. Visits by foreign ministers are public events that are never kept secret. At least, I don t know about any secret visits by foreign ministers in Russia or the United States. Preparations for such a visit also include the coordination of the format, agenda and the date it can be announced to the public.It is a matter of propriety and respect for each other s interests. One side proposes a date, and the other side is expected to accept it. This date should be acceptable to both sides, because the foreign ministers have packed schedules. The issue also concerns the coordination of the agenda by experts.One side informs the other side of the issues it plans to discuss, and the other side needs to respond that the agenda is acceptable. In other words, the sides need to reach agreements on many issues, after which they can announce an upcoming visit. This is how we work with our colleagues.To tell the truth, over the past few years we ve seen many strange things happen in Washington in connection with preparations for visits or talks by our foreign ministers. The US Department of State has more than once asked us not to announce planned visits until the last minute.This is not our tradition. We have been operating openly for years, but we have respected the requests we have received from our colleagues in Washington in the past few years. But what happened after that? First, the US Department of State asked us to keep the planned visit quiet and not to announce it until the last possible minute, until we coordinated the date.We did as they asked. But a day or two later the information was leaked by the US State Department and sometimes by the US administration. Frankly, this put Russia and the media in a strange situation, because they didn t know who to believe the official agencies or the many leaks.It is difficult to say if this diplomatic communication is a US tradition or the latest technique. But it definitely doesn t correspond to our traditions. We believe that everything we coordinate should be made available to the media in accordance with diplomatic procedure. When we coordinate a visit and the date for announcing it, the information should be made public calmly and as agreed. This is what we do in relations with our colleagues from other countries.As I said, such cases in our relations with the US Department of State have become a bad tradition over the past few years. So, I can say in response to your question that we will make the date and format of contacts between the Russian and US foreign ministers public after we coordinate them. We won t keep them quiet.At this point, I don t have any information I can share with you. I can say that this visit and such contacts are possible in principle, but it would be premature to talk about timeframes.Also, I would like to say that if the practice of leaking information that concerns not just the United States but also Russia, which has become a tradition in Washington in the past few years, continues, there will come a day when the media will publish leaks about the things that Washington asked us to keep secret, for example, things that happened during President Obama s terms in office.Believe me, this could be very interesting information.Our American colleagues must decide if they respect the diplomatic procedure, if they keep their word on the arrangements made between us, primarily arrangements made at their own request, or we create a few very nice surprises for each other.Read more: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Exposing the Shakespearean tragedy of the “Russia Hacking” hoax | Sunday Wire host Patrick Henningsen delivers another blow to the Resistance exposing the Shakespearean tragedy of the Russia Hacking hoax and explains why Hillary Rodham Clinton might have very well been one of the worse presidential candidates in US history as well as why it s wrong for US federal government to brand RT America as a foreign agent. Enjoy the rant READ MORE RUSSIA-GATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russia-Gate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Chicago touts new debt structure aimed at saving money | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Under a plan announced on Wednesday by the mayor’s office, Chicago would create a new entity to issue bonds backed by city’s share of Illinois sales tax collections in an effort to reduce its borrowing costs. Mayor Rahm Emanuel unveiled the plan at the city’s annual investors conference, saying it will be “much more financially viable” for Chicago. A chronic structural budget deficit and a huge unfunded pension liability that totaled $35.76 billion at the end of 2016 have pushed the city’s general obligation (GO) credit ratings from the low end of investment grade to junk levels. As a result, investors have demanded higher interest rates for the city’s debt. Illinois’ fiscal 2018 Illinois budget, which was enacted last month, included a provision allowing home-rule local governments like Chicago to assign their state revenue to an entity for the purpose of issuing debt. Carole Brown, Chicago’s chief financial officer, said the state sales tax dollars would flow first through the new entity to meet debt service and other requirements before any of the revenue is released to the city’s general fund. The state law also creates a statutory lien that would shield the bonds from a bankruptcy filing, which Illinois local governments are currently not allowed to pursue. “It’s one of the reasons that we expect the market will view (the new debt) favorably, why it will get higher ratings and why we think the cost differential with our (GO bonds) will be so great,” Brown said. An ordinance creating the program will be introduced in the city council this fall, according to Brown. If passed, Chicago would initially refund some of its “more expensive” GO debt and outstanding sales tax revenue bonds, she said, noting that New York, Philadelphia and Washington have similarly structured debt programs. “From a credit standpoint, it’s a positive,” said Richard Ciccarone, who heads Merritt Research Services, which provides research and data related to municipal bonds. He added that from a public policy standpoint, the move could tie up revenue the city may need for operations. In a report last month, Fitch Ratings said debt issued under this new structure could attain a rating higher than the city’s current GO rating. Chicago’s $9.8 billion of outstanding GO bonds are rated BBB-plus by Standard & Poor’s, BBB-minus by Fitch and Ba1 by Moody’s Investors Service. | 0fake |
Can You Get a Stunning and Healthy Smile with Coconut Oil? | Keywords: cavities , coconut oil , Dental health , gingivitis , Oil Pulling , Teeth
We all know about the popular and ancient practice of oil pulling, but many of us don’t understand how this practice works or how exactly it benefits our teeth! Oil pulling began in Ayurvedic medicine thousands of years ago and has achieved widespread popularity in modern society today.
But the question remains—does it help your smile? And how?
The Claims of Oil Pulling
Let’s take a look at each of these popular claims of oil pulling!
It makes your mouth healthier. By pulling out bad bacteria that can cause cavities and gum disease, oil pulling can actually make your mouth healthier and even stop chronic bad breath.
It whitens teeth. Research has not proved this, but some people claim they get whiter teeth with oil pulling. This should be considered a side effect of oil pulling (albeit a great one) rather than its main purpose.
It heals cavities. Oil pulling can remove the bacteria and plaque that cause tooth decay, but typically oil pulling alone is not enough to heal cavities. You need to stop eating so much sugar, get more vitamins and minerals (such as K, D, and calcium), and switch your toothpaste to help heal cavities with oil pulling!
It cures disease. Ancient cultures used oil pulling as a way to draw out toxins from the mouth to prevent them from affecting the body. Research doesn’t show whether or not oil pulling can help any type of disease, but research does link oral health to body health—so a healthy mouth could help you prevent heart disease , respiratory illnesses, and even cognitive decline!
What the Research Says
Now that we’ve seen the popular claims of oil pulling, let’s find out what modern research actually says about this age-old practice.
Research shows that oil pulling can actually the stop inflammation, bacteria, plaque, and bad breath associated with gum disease, therefore it may be an effective treatment for gum disease combined with a healthy diet and great oral health practices!
It can decrease the likelihood of tooth decay and reduce overall plaque content in the mouth. Oil pulling can also help prevent tooth loss and oral diseases such as oral cancer, periodontal disease, and oral thrush. Oil pulling may be able to reverse tooth decay, but only when combined with other healthy practices.
Although research hasn’t proved that oil pulling helps decrease your chances for developing chronic disease, keeping your mouth healthy and free of toxins can benefit your whole body!
The Verdict
If you want to give oil pulling a try, do this practice every day: put a tablespoon of oil in your mouth (preferably sesame or coconut) and swish it around for up to twenty minutes as soon as you wake up. Spit out in the trash, then brush and floss your teeth as normal. Easy!
The verdict is in: oil pulling can help you get a beautiful and healthy smile, but it should not replace regular brushing and flossing as your oral care routine. Practice oil pulling first thing in the morning before you eat or brush, then enjoy the benefits of a healthy smile without giving up your brushing and flossing habits! You might also like… | 1real |
Anger in NATO, EU as Syria-bound Russian carrier group mulls stopover at Spanish port | RT October 26, 2016
Top NATO & EU officials expressed anger at Spain’s permit reportedly issued to a Russian aircraft carrier group to take on fuel and supplies at Ceuta, a city with unclear political status. Spain says Russia’s warships have been mooring there “for years.”
A barrage of harsh statements followed when Spanish media reported that Russia’s naval battle group led by aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov would make a stopover at the autonomous port of Ceuta after passing the Straits of Gibraltar on Wednesday.
Battle Stations! Putin’s fearsome fleet locked, loaded & ready for war with Britain… or not
Russian ships would moor in Ceuta to take on fuel and supplies under a permit issued by Spain’s Foreign Ministry, Spanish newspaper ABC reported on Tuesday, also citing Defense Minister Pedro Morenes, who said that “there was a prior authorization for this particular case.”
Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian prime minister and currently EU envoy for Brexit talks with the UK, expressed his outrage, calling Spain’s decision “the harassment of EU and NATO forces.”
In a Facebook post, he said that NATO member Spain “provides assistance to a fleet which has one purpose,” adding that “only last week this Spanish Government signed up to a statement from the European Council accusing Russia of war crimes against civilians in Aleppo.”
Later in the day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made it clear that the bloc wants Madrid to rethink the stopover permit. A d v e r t i s e m e n t
“We are concerned and I have expressed that very clearly about potential use of this battle group to increase Russia’s ability and to be a platform for airstrikes against Syria,” he said.
“This is something I have conveyed very clearly before and I repeat those concerns today and I believe that all NATO allies are aware that this battle group can be used to conduct airstrikes against Aleppo and Syria.”
He then downplayed the rhetoric, noting that “it’s for each nation to decide whether these ships can get supplies and be fuelled in different harbors along the route towards the eastern Mediterranean.”
Late Tuesday night, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said it was “reviewing” the decision. “The latest stopover requests are being reviewed at the moment based on the information we are receiving from our allies and from Russian authorities,” the ministry said in a statement, quoted by Reuters.
Earlier in the day, however, the ministry told RIA Novosti that Madrid allows Russian ships to dock in Spanish ports as “routine navigation” which effectively lies outside EU sanctions imposed on Moscow.
In the meantime, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry told the Telegraph the requests from the Russian Navy “are considered on case-by-case basis,” stressing that “Russian navy vessels have been making calls in Spanish ports for years.”
Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish enclave on the tip of Africa’s northern coast, lies along the Straits of Gibraltar and borders Morocco, which also claims the territory as its own.
Although Ceuta is part of the EU, its status within NATO is still unresolved. Since 2011, Spain has rankled the bloc by allowing 57 Russian warships to refuel at the enclave.
The mission of the Admiral Kuznetsov carrier group has already triggered a media frenzy across Europe, with British, Norwegian, and Dutch navies sending frigates and surveillance vessels to shadow the Russian warships as they round European shores through international waters.
Once they reach Syrian shores, the ships will provide backup for Russia’s naval standing group already deployed to the area, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. This article was posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 6:21 am Share this article | 1real |
PRINCIPAL’S REASON FOR NOT ALLOWING This Picture To Appear In Yearbook Has Dad Steaming Mad | A North Dakota father is calling for the resignation of his son s high school principal after the far left progressive banned the senior s yearbook photo because he claims it s illegal. Fargo North High School Principal Andy Dahlen told the Fargo Forum he rejected 17-yar-old Josh Renville s senior portrait for the school s yearbook because it violated three school policies that do not specifically pertain to the yearbook.According to the site:One bans the carrying of weapons on school property; another prohibits publishing of materials in school-sponsored media that violates federal or state law, promotes violence, terrorism, or other illegal activity ; and a third bans clothing that advertises or promotes weapons.While acknowledging none of the policies specifically prohibits photos of weapons from appearing in the yearbook, Dahlen said it s the combination of those three policies that we ve interpreted prevent it. The controversial image shows Renville standing alongside of the American flag, wearing a stars and stripes tank top, with a rifle he built himself resting on his right shoulder. It was taken off of school property, and Renville is clearly not posed in any type of threatening manner.Renville s father, Charles Renville, spoke with the principal about the decision, and Dahlen apparently refused to reconsider. Charles Renville, a 30-year Air National Guard soldier, took to Facebook this week to update his followers and vent his frustrations about the situation, a post that sparked a social media firestorm that s drawing national media coverage.// <![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')); // ]]>Posted by Charlie Renville on Thursday, December 10, 2015The father writes that the picture is now under review by the district s associate superintendent, details his conversation and thoughts about Dahlen, and explains why the image means so much to his son. So this is the state of freedom ion our nation today! Fargo North High School has rejected this picture for Josh s year book . Because in their words it promotes violence and breaks state and federal law, really! How? Well I called Andy Dahlen he is trying to state that people cannot bring guns on school property, in his words it s the law, Renville wrote.The father questioned why other images in the school that contain guns library books on hunting, or wars with American soldiers seemingly don t face the same scrutiny, or why yearbook images of guns used by high school trap and skeet teams are not held to the same standard. What item is illegal in this picture? he wrote. I see a kid that loves his nation, loves free speech and loves the second the 2nd Amendment. The rifle is a rifle he built and it is his favorite rifle. Renville then pivots to Dahlen. Dahlen just doesn t like rifles, he doesn t believe in or support the Second Amendment. He is a far left progressive who is using his position to promote his political agenda and push it on our children, Renville wrote.He continued:He has singled out my family over the years because of our traditional conservative values and beliefs! In my opinion he is out of control and morally bankrupt person who has been in his position way to long! He seems to have absolute power at Fargo North High school, and tries to bully teachers, students and families that disagree with him! Enough is enough he needs to be fired! So begins the fight for freedom . we are only as strong as our weakest link!Renville alleged Dahlen told him the school has received calls about the controversy and nearly 90 percent of callers supported the principal s position.The conversation prompted Renville to post Dahlen s direct phone number online, and encourage his followers to voice their opinions on the matter.As Renville s post quickly swelled to more than 1,660 shares, the conversation online forced local, regional and national news outlets to focus in. Meanwhile, leftist columnists like the Forum s Mike McFeeley are trying their best to squelch the growing outrage. Is it about getting your kid s preferred photo in the yearbook or saving the world? McFreeley wrote. There is this question, too: Would those barking loudest about Josh Renville s rights being infringed be barking as loud if the photo in question showed a young person holding a handgun while flashing gang signs? Rights are rights, right? Interestingly, an informal poll conducted by Fox 31 shows about 65 percent of more than 400 voters support the Renvilles.Charles Renville told the Daily Mail his son plans to enlist in the Guard next month. Via: EAG News | 1real |
Trump and Yellen may not be an odd couple after all | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At first glance, U.S. President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen may have little in common. Yellen is an academic economist and veteran of Democratic administrations who is committed to an open global economy, while Trump is a real estate mogul with an electoral base suspicious of the economic order Yellen helped to create. Yet the two may have interests in common now that Trump is president and both want to get as many Americans working as possible. Since her appointment as Fed chair in February 2014, Yellen has kept interest rates low and she currently pledges to raise them only slowly even though unemployment, at 4.5 percent, is at its lowest in nearly ten years. Meanwhile, Trump’s election campaign promises to cut taxes, spend money on infrastructure and deregulate banking, have helped propel a surge in the U.S. Conference Board’s consumer confidence index to its highest level since the internet stocks crash 16 years ago. Former Fed staff and colleagues who know Yellen said Trump’s surprising remarks this week in a Wall Street Journal interview, in which he did not rule out Yellen’s reappointment to a new four year term next year, are not as outlandish as they may appear now that the president has a vested interest in keeping markets and the economy on an even keel. And the same staff and colleagues say Yellen may well accept reappointment, despite Trump’s criticism of her during last year’s election campaign. Many in Trump’s Republican party have called for tighter monetary policy and a less activist Fed, but “the president would not really find that useful,” said former Fed vice chair Donald Kohn. If Trump fills three existing Federal Reserve board vacancies with people Yellen thinks she could work with, “it would be really difficult to turn down” a reappointment when her term as chair expires in February 2018. “If she continues to do well, he’d be nuts to ditch her for an unknown quantity,” said University of California, Berkeley, economics professor Andrew Rose, a long-time colleague and co-author with Yellen of an oft-cited study of labor markets. Yellen took over from Ben Bernanke as Fed chair in February 2014 with the U.S. economic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis still on shaky ground, and she has made no secret she puts a priority on growth in jobs and wages and a broad recovery in U.S. household wealth. In a slow return to more normal monetary policy, Yellen has stopped the purchase of additional financial securities by the Fed and in December 2015 began raising short term interest rates for the first time in 10 years. So far those policy shifts have been engineered with little apparent impact on job growth, and so mesh with Trump’s core election campaign promises to restore employment and earnings. The slow rise in interest rates in the past year has also happened while U.S. stock prices have risen to record highs, though Trump has claimed the credit for himself. There is precedent for Trump to stick with a former president’s Fed chair appointment. Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the three previous Fed chairs, served at least two four year terms and were nominated by both Democratic and Republican presidents. However it may be a more difficult step for Trump. During last year’s election campaign, Trump accused Yellen of accepting orders from then President Obama to keep interest rates low for political reasons, and he said he would replace her as Fed chair because she is not a Republican party member. In a particularly biting moment last year, in a campaign video advertisement, he labeled her as among the “global special interests” who had ruined life for middle America. The Fed on Thursday said it had no response to Trump’s comments published on Wednesday on Yellen and or on whether Yellen would consider a second term. Some of Trump’s advisers and some Republican lawmakers want a more conservative Fed in which the chair has less power and would see a Yellen reappointment as yet another step away from his promise to “drain the swamp” of the Washington establishment. There are also three current vacancies on the Fed’s seven member Board of Governors, and unorthodox new members could make it difficult for Yellen to manage policy or accept another four year term. But if the choice is her consensus style or someone unproven in their ability to manage public and market expectations, “he’d be wise to reappoint her,” said Joseph Gagnon, a former Fed staffer and Berkeley colleague of Yellen’s currently at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “I don’t see what is in his interests to appoint someone who is going to jack up interest rates.” | 0fake |
FBI Director James Comey: ‘Trust, but protect’ (and cover your laptop webcam with tape) | 21st Century Wire says NSA and police state cheerleaders will often use the flimsy defense of mass surveillance, claiming that it s legal , and therefore, it is somehow right, and that we must trust the state because the U.S. is an advance democracy, land of the free, home of the brave (you know the drill).The truth of the matter is independent of the whims of the state (in this case, the Orwellian police state), which is this: when laws are manipulated and passed through our bicameral legislative machine and then used for oppressive and profitable ends the very ends that so many great writers and philosophers warned us about for centuries then those laws, along with the state s omnipotent authority must be challenged. And how many times have we heard central government cheerleaders throw around this old trope when it comes to state surveillance: Well, if you haven t done anything wrong and you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. Presently, Washington s current liberty death spiral is in direct conflict with the fundamental principles and morals of a free society. This has caused a near complete breakdown in trust between the corporate state and the voters. This reality seems to be lost on so many media pundits and of course, completely lost on our bureaucratic class RT: It turns out that FBI director James Comey covers his laptop camera with tape, just like any NSA-fearing citizen should an admission that has generated hilarity on social media | 1real |
Hasan Minhaj to Perform at White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner - The New York Times | A comedian has agreed to speak at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Finally. Hasan Minhaj, a senior correspondent at “The Daily Show,” will be the featured performer at the dinner on April 29, the association said on Tuesday. He will join the ranks of Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien and other stars who have skewered Washington at the annual gathering. But Mr. Minhaj, an and Muslim who regularly roasts President Trump in his day job, will ascend the dais at a dinner that is shaping up to be far more tense than in previous years. Mr. Trump is skipping the festivities, the first president to do so since the 1970s, and his staff will boycott them, too. Vanity Fair and Bloomberg canceled their famed, . And the event is playing out against the backdrop of a historically strained period of relations between the administration and the news media. Comedians for the dinner are typically announced months in advance, and some names, including the host James Corden, reportedly declined invitations this year. Without Mr. Trump on hand to punch back, some journalists in Washington were concerned that a monologue attacking the president would give an impression of bias. “I was not looking for somebody who is going to roast the president in absentia that’s not fair and that’s not the message we want to get across,” Jeff Mason, the president of the correspondents’ association, said Tuesday morning on MSNBC. “I was looking for somebody who is funny and who is entertaining, because I want the dinner to be entertaining, but who can also speak to the message that the whole dinner is going to speak to: the importance of the free press,” Mr. Mason added. Mr. Minhaj, 31, joined “The Daily Show” in 2014 and has become popular among viewers with his cheerfully acerbic takes on current events. A immigrant, Mr. Minhaj wrote and performed “Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King,” an Off Broadway show in 2015 recalling his youth in California and his struggles with ethnic identity. Some of his “Daily Show” commentary about the president has been scathing, and personal. The day after the election, Mr. Minhaj described his anxieties about Mr. Trump’s policies toward Muslims, saying that his mother had asked if she would be allowed back into the United States after a foreign trip to visit relatives. “The fact that I can’t tell her ‘yes’ with 100 percent certainty is heartbreaking,” Mr. Minhaj said. “That is my mom, and I need her back home. Because I love her — and she owes me $300. ” In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Minhaj called it “a tremendous honor to be a part of such a historic event even though the president has chosen not to attend this year. SAD!” ”Now more than ever, it is vital that we honor the First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” Mr. Minhaj added. Officials at the correspondents’ group say the dinner will be focused on promoting journalism, with the famed writers Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward to present awards for White House reporting. Scholarships funded by the association will also be at the forefront. Alec Baldwin, who caricatures Mr. Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” called Mr. Mason at one point to talk about the possibility of an appearance, according to two people familiar with the discussion. The actor would likely have appeared as himself, and not in his Trump guise, the people said, in part because “Saturday Night Live” would have to give permission for Mr. Baldwin to reprise the impression outside of the show. But some journalists in the Correspondents’ Association felt that awarding a featured spot to Mr. Baldwin could inject a blunt partisanship into the proceedings. Would network news anchors, for instance, feel comfortable laughing along with Mr. Baldwin — live on camera — if no one from the White House administration was there to reciprocate? A representative for Mr. Baldwin said that the actor planned to be in Los Angeles during the weekend of the dinner. Regardless of Mr. Trump’s participation, there has been little question that this year’s event would have a different feel. “It’s a new president, it’s a new administration, and we’ve faced new challenges,” Mr. Mason said in an interview on Tuesday, “and the dinner reflects those things. ” | 0fake |
Trump Camp Adviser Drops STUNNING Revelation – Here’s Why The RNC Suddenly Went Pro-Russia | The evidence that Russia is buying us up continues to mount, and the pile is so tall it s about to tip over. While Trump is busy accusing Chuck Schumer of being a hypocrite because he s met with Russia too (a thing he openly admits and has never lied about or covered up, which is the issue with Trump s people), one of his campaign advisers, J.D. Gordon, has decided to reverse course on his statements about why the RNC reversed its course on Russia and inserted pro-Russian language to its platform.Now he s saying this: [I, along with others] advocated for the GOP platform to include language against arming Ukrainians against pro-Russian rebels because this was in line with Trump s views, expressed at a March national security meeting at the unfinished Trump hotel [in Washington, D.C.] [emphasis mine]Apparently, Trump didn t want to start WWIII over Ukraine (but he s perfectly willing to start it on Twitter with China, Mexico, and all of NATO).Gordon says that Trump believed helping get Russia out of Ukraine was anathema to improved relations with Russia. The problem with improved relations with Russia is that Trump doesn t want that for world peace and unity. He wants it because he s in bed with Putin, along with Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, and disgraced security adviser Michael Flynn.Sessions actually presided over the meeting where that plank of the platform was changed. Look impossibly suspicious yet? It should. To make Trump s growing ties to Russia even more crystal clear here, the week that this went down was also the week that Wikileaks released thousands of emails that Russia had obtained via its hacks.Seriously, can we impeach Trump now? The time for that started the day he was inaugurated. We have an entire administration selling us out to one of our biggest enemies, and an entire political party that won t do a thing about it, likely because it will make them look as corrupt as they are.Featured image by John Moore via Getty Images | 1real |
Energy Update – Super High Geomagnetic Solar Winds | We’ve gone Ultra-Sonic. By Lisa Transcendence Brown
Super high geomagnetic solar winds started about an hour or two ago. These knock us on our butts. We go through an intense inability to function as we upgrade huge. The body goes weak, the mind goes mush. High high high charging protons/ions and these sound like razors, which are part of diamond light lasers. These re-calibrate our magnetics, they tune us high really fast. They “sing” us to sleep, literally, s high in frequency, we basically cannot do anything else.
I came home ready to rock it out. New courses, new lots of stuff to get done…. nope…. Outside was magnificent! I thought about getting my computer and getting back in the car, going to a coffee shop to work, as inside the house, the frequency is so high, it’s right to sleep in these energies. Walked through the door, it took 2 minutes to crawl to the bed (not literally this time, more for the affect of how strong these are. Years ago was crawling…)
We are going super mega high…. sleep where called. Integration is faster. I’m done for brainwork today. Spent the morning gifting, which is always super uber mega awesome!
READ: She’s back! Large coronal hole faces Earth again
Okay loves. Honor your upgrades, your body. You may have to get away from electronics, as when you are tuning, they drain you. After the process is complete (the next day or days later), you’ll be better than new and ready to rock and roll! Some times we slow-mo-it through our stuff… which is many days now, in these super high frequencies.
Working with the energetics is definitely an art. It’s been this way for years and continues to increase as we go. Every moment dictates, getting used to the flow, learning to navigate with it and then master it…. it’s a process for us all!
Right now the crown of my head could just shoot off. We have lift-off loves! Here we g !
Gravity goes, pineal, spine, chest, nasal… abdomen … hearing/sound adjustments…most noticeable right now.
Source: Awakening to Remember
Via: In5D
Related: She’s back! Large coronal hole faces Earth again | 1real |
China's former top graft-buster warns of plots to seize power | BEIJING (Reuters) - China must step up vigilance against plots to grab power, as political corruption is the worst form of corruption, Wang Qishan, the country s still influential former top graft-buster, wrote on Tuesday. Wang, a key ally of President Xi Jinping, stepped down in a leadership reshuffle last month at the end of the five-yearly Communist Party Congress, but could assume a new role, say sources with ties to the leadership, though an announcement might not come for a few more weeks. As the feared head of the party s anti-corruption watchdog for the past five years, Wang has spearheaded Xi s battle on graft, overseeing the jailing of dozens of former top officials, including the domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang. China has rebuffed criticism that the corruption campaign is as much about settling political scores as about stamping out genuine criminal acts. Writing in the party s official People s Daily, Wang said the fight against corruption went beyond battling the pilfering of assets or hedonism and was a political battle. Political corruption is the biggest corruption, Wang wrote in comments drawn from a collection of essays released after the congress, but not previously published in full by state media. The collection included pieces by former members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the height of power in China. Aspects of political corruption include the formation of special interest groups to try and seize power, and the organization of activities outside party parameters, aimed at breaking party unity, Wang wrote. There are many new historical special characteristics to carrying on this great fight, the most important of which are to ... prevent them from seizing political power and changing the party s basic character, he added. Wang explicitly linked some of the most notorious cases to political crimes, mentioning not only Zhou but also the former party bosses of the southwestern city of Chongqing, Bo Xilai and Sun Zhengcai, two former top generals and a former top aide to retired president Hu Jintao. In these cases, the party had eradicated interest groups which mixed political and economic corruption , Wang wrote. Bo was jailed for life in 2013, while Sun was put under investigation for corruption in July. There can be no challenges to the party s power, Wang added. North, south, east, west and at the center, the party leads everything. If there is no forceful and strong leadership by the party, then the Chinese people are simply a loose plate of sand. | 0fake |
FRIGHTENING POWER OF THE PRESS: You Won’t Believe What 41% Of Americans Are Calling Orlando Terror Attack | Remember when the press used to actually report the news? Today they are nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Obama administration and Democrat party. There isn t a radical agenda this President and his regime want pushed that s off limits for today s mainstream media. So you have an Islamic terrorist who even in 2001 as a teenager was cheering the 9/11 attack. He cased different targets, including Disney World (happy, but not a gay target) and prepared for the attack apparently for quite some time. He listened to Anwar al Awlaki videos, and has connection to radicals like American suicide Moner Abu Salha. He makes comments to coworkers about his connections to terrorists that spark them to call the FBI. During the attack, he calls media, says he s doing it because of ISIS, tells the victims that s why he s doing it, tells the police that s why he s doing it. He also tells victims he s doing it because the US bombing of my country'[Afghanistan, he was born in NY but apparently self-identified as Afghan]. ISIS claims the attack and calls him a soldier of the caliphate .The police never say it s Islamic terrorism, and they immediately said the morning after, there are leanings in that direction . They have reported the connections to radicals and are still looking at all the connections now.But it s domestic gun violence to these people?Check out the poll below:Why? Because of the media narrative and politicians like Obama and Clinton pushing it.At least 48% (translate Republicans and people with sense) get it.Via: Weasel Zippers | 1real |
Jay Carney Let It Slip That He Knows Who Obama Wants As His Successor | Former White House Press Secretary in the Obama administration Jay Carney is sure he knows who the president wants for his successor: Hillary Clinton. President Obama has yet to hand out any official endorsements during this primary season, but, of course, like all major political players, he has his favorite. Carney is sure that person is Hillary. He said to Brooke Baldwin on CNN: I don t think there is any doubt that he wants Hillary to win the nomination and believes that she would be the best candidate in the fall and the most effective as president in carrying forward what he s achieved. I think the President has signaled, while still remaining neutral, that he supports Secretary Clinton s candidacy and would prefer to see her as the nominee. He won t officially embrace her unless and until it s clear that she s going to be the nominee. I think he is maintaining that tradition of not intervening in a party primary. Smartly, the president is refusing to comment on what Jay Carney has said. However, he s done all but given an official nod to Hillary as the primary race heats up. President Obama will likely give the nod to whomever gets the nomination, as we all want a Democrat in the White House. However, he wants Hillary to be that person. That much is pretty clear.It s hard for anybody to speak for President Obama, of course, but his former Secretary of State seems to be his pick. Hopefully, we find out for sure in short order, but it s pretty smart for a sitting president not to endorse one of his party s candidates over the other while waiting to see who actually gets the nomination, especially in a close, neck-in-neck race. He must be pretty antsy, though, being unable to endorse right away.No worries, Mr. President. The primaries will be over soon, and you can speak your piece then.Featured image via screen capture from Flickr | 1real |
White House predicts Republicans will lose new challenge to healthcare law | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice was still deciding whether to appeal a court ruling challenging President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, but a spokesman predicted Republicans ultimately would lose the fight. “This suit represents the first time in our nation’s history that Congress has been permitted to sue the executive branch over a disagreement about how to interpret a statute,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a briefing. “It’s unfortunate that Republicans have resorted to a taxpayer-funded lawsuit to re-fight a political fight that they keep losing,” he added. “They’ve been losing this fight for six years and they’ll lose it again.” His comments came shortly after a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday in favor of congressional Republicans who challenged the implementation of the healthcare law, arguing that the administration cannot spend funds Congress did not appropriate. | 0fake |
U.S. says 'administrative error' blocked Indonesia military chief's travel | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia s military chief was temporarily barred from traveling to the United States at the weekend due to an administrative error , the U.S. embassy in Jakarta said in an online statement on Wednesday. General Gatot Nurmantyo was about to board a flight to the United States on Saturday when he was told that the Customs and Border Protection Agency had denied him entry, even though he had a visa and an official invitation from the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff to attend a conference in Washington. General Gatot Nurmantyo and his wife were delayed in their ability to board their flight due to an administrative error. The error was quickly corrected. We have taken appropriate measures to prevent this matter from occurring again, the U.S. embassy said in a statement, without elaborating. The incident prompted top U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and envoys in Jakarta to apologize to Indonesia as it demanded details as to why Nurmantyo was blocked, where he had been able to travel to the United States on official trips before. U.S. Homeland Security Department said earlier this week that the U.S. embassy in Jakarta had informed Nurmantyo s office that he might be delayed in boarding his flight because of unspecified U.S. security protocols . It added that the U.S. government was unable to resolve the problem before Nurmantyo arrived at the airport and he was denied boarding. The general was eventually cleared and booked on another flight but he chose not to travel. Nurmantyo told reporters on Tuesday that he did not travel on a later flight because he had informed President Joko Widodo of the issue and that he would only travel on further orders from the president . There s no signal (from the president) so I no longer have the initiative to go, Nurmantyo said, adding he was disappointed at not being able to meet his friend and counterpart General Joseph F. Dunford, who had invited him to attend an anti-terrorism conference. | 0fake |
New York protesters greet Trump on first visit home | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump returned to his hometown on Thursday for the first time since taking office, as many New Yorkers took to the streets to protest the politics of the man who built his name and fortune in the city. The presidential motorcade passed hundreds of demonstrators as it arrived at the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid in the early evening for a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hours after it was originally scheduled. Before leaving Washington, Trump held a hastily arranged White House celebration with fellow Republicans from the U.S. House of Representatives who narrowly passed a healthcare bill that would repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. [nL1N1I61UA] If anything, Trump’s role in efforts to scrap the signature domestic achievement of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, further incensed the protesters. Among those on the street were members of the New York State Nurses Association, who chanted: “What do we want? Health care! When do we want it? Now!” Demonstrators from the Working Families Party spent much of the afternoon rallying and marching near the Intrepid, now a floating museum on Manhattan’s West Side, banging pans, chanting: “Not my president” and carrying signs including one that read: “This village doesn’t want its idiot back!” Rob Adkins, 33, a professional musician from Brooklyn who is insured through Obamacare, said he was alarmed by the Trump-backed Republican healthcare plan that passed the House. “It could cost me my health insurance,” he said, echoing the sentiments of several other protesters. The demonstrations, which included other groups throughout Manhattan, were reminiscent of the weeks after Trump’s Nov. 8 election when frequent protests took place outside his home in the Fifth Avenue tower that bears his name. The first 100 days since the Jan. 20 inauguration of the businessman-turned-politician brought rollbacks of environmental regulations and crackdowns on immigrants, none of which play well in the liberal Northeast city. Fewer than one in five residents in the United States’ most populous city voted for Trump, even though he comes from its Queens borough, built a real estate brand and other ventures associated with New York, and has been fodder for its tabloid newspapers for decades. Providing security for first lady Melania Trump, who has continued to live in Trump Tower while their 11-year-old son Barron finishes the school year, has been a costly obligation for New York. After security costs for Trump and his family of about $24 million during the transition and $300,000 a day since then, Congress voted last week to reimburse the city and other local governments for $61 million. Following the events with Turnbull, which include a black-tie dinner on the Intrepid to mark the 75th anniversary of World War Two’s Battle of the Coral Sea, Trump was expected to go to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for the weekend. | 0fake |
Online ads offer legal option for U.S. election meddling | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The laws that prohibit foreign nationals from spending money to influence U.S. elections do not prevent them from lawfully buying some kinds of political ads on Facebook and other online networks, campaign finance lawyers said. The omission of online ads could be a potential hurdle for those investigating alleged Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election, according to the campaign finance lawyers, who are not involved in the probes. Since 1974, the United States has barred foreign nationals from giving money to campaigns and it later barred them from donating to political parties. The laws also prohibit foreign nationals from coordinating with a campaign and from buying an ad that explicitly calls for the election or defeat of a candidate. At issue are laws concerning a category of ads known as “electioneering communications” that address where a candidate stands on an issue, that spread news stories about a candidate or that attack a candidate without directly calling for his or her defeat. Foreign nationals cannot spend money on electioneering communications but the term under U.S. law applies only to communications made by broadcast, cable or satellite - with no mention of the internet. A related law does bar foreign nationals from expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate in any advertising medium. But as long as online ads do not call on people to vote for a specific candidate, “they are not prohibited as a campaign finance matter,” said Jan Baran, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents Republican candidates. U.S. Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in May to investigate alleged Russian interference as well as potential collusion between Moscow and associates of President Donald Trump. The Russian government says it did not meddle and Trump has denied collusion. Facebook (FB.O), which has become a leading platform for online political ads, has said that it has not found any evidence that Russian agents were buying ads. Facebook said in April, however, that it had become a battleground for governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries and outlined new measures to combat what it called “information operations.” Trump’s election campaign spent some $70 million on highly targeted Facebook advertising last year, Brad Parscale, the digital director of the campaign, told Reuters this year. The absence of rules governing online advertising ties the hands of the U.S. Federal Election Commission, said Ann Ravel, a former Democratic appointee to the commission. “The law seems to totally exempt it and therefore it is not possible either to reasonably determine who is behind those ads, do an investigation to find out or penalize for that activity,” Ravel said. Other laws could come into play in an investigation. The U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act restricts publicity paid for by a foreign government such as Russia. | 0fake |
EXCLUSIVE: Undercover Audio Reveals Protesters’ Plans to Shut Down Trump’s Inaugural Parade | WASHINGTON, D. C. — Breitbart News was able to infiltrate a key planning meeting for the effort of radical groups to not only protest the inauguration of President Trump, but also to “shut it down” and disrupt the historic event. Exclusive, undercover audio reveals the radical coalition will throw everything they have at “shutting down” the Trump Inaugural Parade that spans from the U. S. Capitol to the White House. They will attempt to do so by targeting police checkpoints and preventing other Americans from exercising their right to assemble and express their views.[ Breitbart’s infiltration of the radical effort also netted a map that reveals the specific locations of checkpoints that will be targeted and possibly shut down and which specific groups are responsible for each location. The map also reveals the entire infrastructure for the radical groups and which “choke points” they deem critical to the inauguration. Radical Occupy organizer and troublemaker Lisa Fithian was revealed in the audio as a trainer, apparently playing a role in the effort’s stated and recorded goal of “shutting that shit down” in reference to the Inaugural Parade. The radical left protest movement that is currently manifesting as as well as Lisa Fithian, have long histories and methods of operation that can be examined to better understand how they will act in their effort to shut down the Inaugural Parade. Fithian was a key trainer at the 2008 Republican Nation Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, Minnesota. In that instance, the radical groups used a red, yellow and green team strategy in an attempt to shut down the RNC. Red teams consisted of black bloc anarchists intent on attacking police and Republicans. Yellow teams consisted of “arrestables,” or activists willing to get arrested for civil disobedience, and the green teams consisting of average liberal protesters who could be manipulated en masse without ever knowing they were pawns in the red and yellow teams’ radical efforts to prevent other Americans from assembling and celebrating their views. In the instance of the 2008 RNC, the radicals used the mainstream liberal marches as cover for their illegal behaviors. They waited until the liberals (green team) were in the street. The radicals would have key persons manipulate the green team to stop in the street and the yellow team would use the green team for cover as the arrestables handcuffed and locked themselves in human chains across critical streets that buses of Republican delegates needed to get to the RNC. The green team would clear the street at the order of police. If the yellow team had not yet secured their roadblocking human chain efforts and needed more time, the red team would put on masks and attack police so that the yellow team had more time. Once the yellow team was ready, the red team would enter the crowd of the unknowing green team and remove their masks to blend. This history indicates that the radical protesters will use the permitted marches of liberals as cover for their efforts to shut down the Inaugural Parade and possibly other events. It indicates that human chains will be used to block the police checkpoints thereby preventing Republicans from entering the parade areas and possibly providing cover for radicals who wish to throw liquids and other items over and across the barricades that will depend on for their safety. History suggests the groups will use handcuffs to lock on to physical structures and to each other in their effort to shut down Trump’s Inaugural Parade. Brandon Darby is managing director and of Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. DISCLOSURE: The author previously worked undercover with law enforcement and in efforts to prevent many of the groups and individuals associated with J20 from shutting down the 2008 RNC mentioned in this piece. | 0fake |
EU and Iran defend nuclear deal, under fire from Trump | SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - Senior officials from the European Union and Iran spoke up on Friday in defense of the agreement limiting Tehran s nuclear program, as the pact comes under heavy pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. The nuclear deal was a major achievement of European and international multilateral diplomacy , EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told a conference in Uzbekistan. The European Union will make sure it will continue to be fully implemented by all, in all its parts, she said. Trump on Oct. 13 dealt a blow to the pact by refusing to certify that Tehran was complying with the accord, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions. International inspectors said it was complying. The U.S. Congress has until mid-December to decide whether to reimpose sanctions lifted by the deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also spoke on Friday at the United Nations-sponsored conference on Central Asian security and development in Samarkand. By clinching the nuclear deal and fulfilling all our commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we have in action proved our compliance with the principle of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, he said, without mentioning Trump directly. Mogherini said the EU s ties with ex-Soviet Central Asia were at an all-time high following moves by Uzbekistan s new government to open up the previously isolated nation. Mogherini, the first EU foreign policy chief to visit Uzbekistan in four years, met President Shavkat Mirziyoyev as well as foreign ministers of all five Central Asian nations. Mirziyoyev was elected president last December after the death of his authoritarian predecessor Islam Karimov, who was accused of systematic human rights abuses and whose relations with the West were poor. Seeking to modernize Uzbekistan s economy, Mirziyoyev has moved to mend those relations and announced an ambitious reform program at home. After a very long and fruitful meeting with Mirziyoyev, Mogherini said the reforms had the full support of Brussels. Mirziyoyev has also improved ties with neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan after years of bitter standoffs over matters such as borders and water use, winning further praise from Mogherini. I would say that we are at the top of our historical experience of cooperation, but we want to use it not as a target point, but as a starting point, she said. | 0fake |
Ryan strikes conciliatory tone ahead of Trump meeting | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday he was trying to be as constructive as possible as he looked forward to a Thursday meeting with presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump aimed at unifying the fractured party. But Ryan, the most high-profile Republican who has not endorsed Trump, warned that bringing party factions together would take some time after a grueling primary season. This suggested there might not be instant results from his get-together on Thursday with Trump and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party has shaken the party’s establishment and prompted soul-searching over whether to reluctantly get behind him or cede any role in the Nov. 8 presidential election, when Hillary Clinton is expected to be his Democratic opponent. Trump faces pressure to tone down his rhetoric and clarify his policy positions as a step toward unifying the divided party. Some Republicans were alarmed at his recent talk of raising taxes on the wealthy. But Ryan also faces some pressure to smooth things over after saying last week that he was not yet ready to support Trump, an extraordinary statement that was seen as keeping some distance from the presumptive nominee and leaving open his prospects for running for president in 2020. “What we are trying to do is to be as constructive as possible, to have a real unification,” Ryan told reporters on Wednesday after a meeting with his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives. “After a tough primary, that’s going to take some effort. We are committed to putting that effort in,” said Ryan, who said he does not really know Trump. “I want to be a part of that unifying process so that we are at full strength this fall, so that we can win this election. We cannot afford to lose this election to Hillary Clinton,” Ryan said. Ryan, 46, a conservative congressman since 1999 who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 2012, and Trump, a 69-year-old billionaire real estate developer, are very different Republicans who do not see eye to eye on many things, from immigration to trade. But Ryan said on Wednesday these differences are not at issue, because “this is a big-tent party. There is plenty of room for different policy disputes in this party.” One lawmaker at Wednesday’s House Republican gathering raised a request for Trump to meet with all Republicans in the House, a source who was in the room said, asking not to be named. Such a meeting is expected to happen sometime before the July 18-21 Republican convention in Cleveland, the source said. On Tuesday night, Ryan spoke by phone for about 16 minutes with a Trump emissary, former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, according to Carson spokesman Armstrong Williams. Some Republicans have been rankled by Trump’s policy proposals, including his declaration that NATO is obsolete and his call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country. But some House lawmakers who back Trump expressed their displeasure with Ryan for withholding his support at a small group meeting with the speaker later on Wednesday, an aide to one of the lawmakers said. Trump has the potential to appeal to a greater number of Republican voters but must make changes to make party leaders more comfortable with him, Republican officials and lawmakers say. “I think he has to show what kind of president that he would be,” Senator Susan Collins said. “But I believe he can do that, so I am not one who has foreclosed the possibility of eventually supporting him. But I need to see more from him.” After Ryan said last week he was not yet ready to support Trump, the candidate fired back that he was not ready to support Ryan’s agenda. But on Wednesday, Trump had warm words for Ryan and said he thought they were doing fine. “We’ll see what happens” at the meeting, Trump told Fox News. “If we make a deal, that’ll be great. If we don’t, we’ll trudge forward like I’ve been doing.” | 0fake |
Trump doctor’s letter: He takes cholesterol drug, is overweight but is in ‘excellent’ health | This post has been updated.
Donald Trump released a letter from his personal doctor on Thursday that summarizes his latest physical exam, saying he takes a cholesterol-lowering drug and is overweight but overall is in “excellent physical health.”
Trump discussed the results of the exam on "The Dr. Oz Show" on Thursday afternoon, saying that presidential candidates have an "obligation" to voters to be healthy and that he feels like he is still in his 30s.
"When you're running for president, I think you have an obligation to be healthy. I just don't think you can do the work if you're not healthy. I don't think you can represent the country properly if you're not a healthy person," Trump, 70, said on the health talk-show, adding that the last time he was hospitalized was when he had his appendix removed at age 11.
[Trump admits he wouldn’t release his medical results if they were ‘bad’]
The one-page letter is signed by Trump's longtime doctor, Harold N. Bornstein, a gastroenterological specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. The letter states that Trump is 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighs 236 pounds, making him overweight and on the verge of being obese for his height. Trump said in the interview that he would like to lose 15 to 20 pounds but that weight loss has always been difficult for him because of his lifestyle.
The letter also lists the results of recent lab tests, which Bornstein says are all within the normal range. The letter says that Trump takes a statin, a drug for lowering cholesterol, along with a low dose of aspirin. During the talk show, Trump said that both of his parents lived to an old age and many of his mother's relatives in Scotland lived into their 90s. The letter states that there "is no family history of premature cardiac or neoplastic disease."
While the letter released by Trump gives more information on his health and physical makeup than previously known, it does not constitute his medical records nor does it give extensive detail about past health matters.
Trump discussed the document with talk-show host and surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz during a taping in New York on Wednesday that aired on Thursday afternoon. Oz is popular nationally but his credibility has been questioned by critics. Trump disclosed the one-page letter to The Washington Post on Thursday soon before the campaign released it publicly. In the letter, which is dated Sept. 13, Bornstein states that Trump has been under his care since 1980, and sits for an annual physical exam.
Bornstein's letter this week lacked the creativity of a letter he signed in December that called Trump's health “extraordinary” and declared he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein told NBC News last month that he wrote the letter in about five minutes as a Trump associate waited to collect it, though he stood by his glowing assessment.
In the letter released on Thursday, Trump’s “laboratory results” from a blood test and other exams are also given. He has a cholesterol level of 169, with his level of high-density lipoproteins at 63, his low-density lipoproteins at 94.
The businessman’s blood pressure is 116 over 70. His blood sugar level is 99 milligrams per deciliter. Trump’s level of triglycerides, which are a type of fat in blood, is 61 milligrams per deciliter. And his prostate-specific antigen level is measured as 0.15.
“His liver function and thyroid function tests are all within the normal range,” Bornstein writes, adding that “his last colonoscopy was performed on July 10, 2013 which was normal and revealed no polyps.”
Trump’s latest electrocardiogram test and chest X-ray took place in April 2016 and were “normal."
With regard to Trump’s heart, Bornstein writes that “his cardiac evaluation included a transthoracic echocardiogram” in December 2014 and “this study was reported within the range of normal.”
Bornstein notes that there is “no family history of premature cardiac or neoplastic disease” and that Trump’s parents, Fred and Mary, “lived into their late 80s and 90s.”
[Despite gestures, Trump is still the least transparent U.S. presidential candidate in modern history]
Overall, Trump seems to be relatively healthy, said Allen Taylor, chief of cardiology with MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute, which is based at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
“He could lose a few pounds,” said Taylor, who reviewed Trump's information. “His BMI could be improved upon.”
Because Trump is taking medication, his cholesterol levels are normal to optimal, Taylor said. The information released shows he has had a complete cardiovascular screening evaluation, and shows him to be at low to intermediate risk for someone his age of developing heart disease in the next 10 years. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States, and men typically have a higher risk than women. Using two conventional risk calculators for heart disease risk, Taylor said Trump has a 7 to 8 percent chance of developing heart disease—stroke, heart attack, sudden death—in the next 10 years.
The metric that raised some eyebrows was the inclusion of his testosterone level. Some doctors will screen older patients for testosterone levels, but usually only if there are symptoms suggesting low levels, such as extreme fatigue and lack of libido. Some doctors may prescribe testosterone supplements, a relatively controversial practice, Taylor said. He said Trump’s level is in the normal range, and is not a factor or indication for overall health.
“To me, it’s a non-number. It’s like a vitamin D level. It would not be an indication of a presidential candidate’s overall health,” he said.
Trump’s activity comes as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton is returning to the campaign trail following a bout of pneumonia. Clinton’s campaign on Wednesday released a two-page letter from her doctor that said she had been treated this week for “mild” bacterial pneumonia but is in overall good health and “fit to serve as president.” For months Trump has raised questions about Clinton’s health and stamina, and on Wednesday wondered aloud, tauntingly, about whether Clinton could hold hour-long rallies.
“I don’t know, folks. Do you think Hillary could stand up here for an hour?” Trump asked thousands of supporters on Wednesday in Canton, Ohio, where he held an event.
Read the full text of the letter here. | 0fake |
U.S. Treasury's Mnuchin says will unveil tax reform plan 'very soon' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration will unveil a tax reform plan very soon and expects it will be approved by Congress this year whether a healthcare overhaul happens or not, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday. “It will be soon, very soon,” Mnuchin told a conference on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington. Mnuchin said the Treasury was working on tax reform options “day and night” but he gave few specifics. “It will be sweeping, it will be significant and it will create a lot of economic growth,” he said. President Donald Trump campaigned on promises to lower taxes and boost economic growth. Trump, who took office in January, suffered a setback last month when the Republican-controlled Congress pulled a proposal to overhaul health care rules that would have generated savings for public coffers. Trump has since said the administration will continue trying to replace health care legislation enacted by his predecessor, Barack Obama, though Mnuchin said tax reform will move forward even if health laws stay the same. “Whether health care gets done or health care doesn’t get done, we’re going to get tax reform done,” he said, Trump’s tax plan would lower rates but most of the revenue lost under that plank of the reform would be gained back by boosting economic growth, Mnuchin said. “The plan will pay for itself with growth.” | 0fake |
AWESOME! CONSERVATIVE STREET ARTIST Plasters Posters All Over Hollywood Mocking Oscars | Sabo, an artist who has made a name for himself with real-looking movie posters that skewer liberalism, plastered his latest creations all over Hollywood and Highland, a stone s throw from where celebrities will be walking the red carpet.In the dead of night Thursday and early Friday morning, Sabo plastered his posters all over town, in hard-to-reach places where they look like genuine advertisements. All those assholes make are unwatchable movies from unreadable books, says one large poster containing a giant image of an Oscar statuette. The text was borrowed from Tarantino s True Romance.Sabo also created ads for Redbox and even built some replicas of the movie rental service s iconic kiosks.HERE S SABO S COMMENTARY ON HOLLYWOOD AND THE POSTERS HE JUST PUT UP:I hardly ever go to movies anymore and it there s ever a movie I really want to see I ll just wait for it to show up in ReBox. I ll admit the reasons I do this are a bit petty. It s my own little way to rebel by putting as little money possible into the big liberal Hollywood machine. Out of touch actors who rail against my political beliefs drove me to it.Shia LaBeouf, Bryan Cranston, Cher, Madonna, Ashley Judd, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck I could go on all day, have shot their mouths off long enough calling people like myself every vile name in the book, again and again, and again, and again. I used to really love movies and the occasional tv show but not so much these days. I discount what goes on in them these days more than ever.I m sure many people are wondering if anyone is going to out Meryl Streep her Golden Globe anti-Trump tirade on Sunday night at the Oscars.Recently a Hollywood Reporter pole revealed 6 out of 10 Americans can t even name one Best Picture Nominee.What this tells me is America for the most part is more and more discounting what s coming out of Hollywood. And I m sure many who do eventually watch these movies are waiting for them to show up on RedBox because $1.50 is all they think they are worth.The quote, ALL THOSE ASSHOLES MAKE ARE UNWATCHABLE MOVIES FROM UNREADABLE BOOK. came from the Quentin Tarantino (who I can no longer stand because one morning he woke up on of the most obnoxious celebutards in Hollywood) movie True Romance spoken by the character Clarence Worley played by Christian Slater who was expressing his distain for modern Hollywood blockbusters.What we need is Shia LaBeouf to show up and start chanting the mantra, THEY WILL NOT DIVIDE US to help take down the huge barricade that surrounds the Dolby Theater that divides we lowly plebs from the Hollywood Royalty.Read more: HR | 1real |
Patrick Henningsen and Don DeBar Discuss Trump’s ‘Immigration Ban’ and the Media Reaction | Sputnik Radio s new program Trend Storm is hosted by American geopolitical analyst and writer Andrew Korybko. This week, Andrew explores what s really driving the media uproar and political protests surrounding President Trump s executive order on immigration Andrew Korybko Trend StormUS President Donald Trump s controversial Executive Order to temporarily limit the entrance of select foreign nationals to the US is becoming a larger-than-life scandal of epic proportions.Following through on yet another of his campaign promises, America s new leader has banned people from seven countries from entering the US, building off of the list of supposedly terrorist-prone countries that his predecessor first identified. The immediacy of the order caught many people off guard, and there was confusion about whether it would apply to permanent residents (green card-holders), already-vetted refugees, and individuals in transit. Almost immediately after the announcement was made last Friday, thousands of people across the US flocked to their local airports to protest the measure. In doing so, they defied what are ordinarily strict security measures, which during regular times would prohibit such large-scale gatherings at locations considered essential to the nation s infrastructure.The protesters claimed that Trump had banned Muslims from entering the US, and the hashtag #MuslimBan instantly started trending on Twitter. In defense of the motion, Trump and his surrogates said that most majority-Muslim countries were untouched by the temporary border restrictions, pointing out that Indonesia the world s most populous Muslim country isn t on the list, for example. Moreover, in a cynical retort to the critics, they reminded the public that Obama had earlier suspended the US refugee program for Iraqi nationals for half a year back in 2011, though no such protests erupted at that time. Nevertheless, it s hard for the Trump Administration to shake the social media stigma that this is a Muslim Ban , no matter how convincingly they may argue that it amounts to nothing more than a brief review period for high-risk countries prior to the implementation of what s being called extreme vetting. This is because the mainstream US media is very sympathetic to what Trump and his spokespeople have termed the political opposition, namely, the Democratic Party.The perception management and narrative-building that these two institutions are known for was seen vividly and on full display during the presidential campaign, but it s gotten even more intense since Trump s election. Just like back then, however, it doesn t seem to be doing its intended job, since a Reuters poll released on Tuesday found that 49% of Americans are in favor of the President s action, while 41% are against it.Patrick Henningsen, Founder and Executive Editor of 21stCenturyWire.com and the host of the Sunday Wire Show, and Don DeBar, host of a syndicated daily radio newscast CPR News heard across the US, commented on the issue . READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Woman dies in Ireland as a result of Storm Ophelia: RTE | DUBLIN (Reuters) - A woman has died in the southeast Irish county of Waterford on Monday after a tree fell on her car as a result of Tropical Storm Ophelia, national broadcaster RTE said, quoting the local council office. RTE said the woman was the sole occupant of the car and was pronounced dead at the scene as the storm began to batter Ireland s southern coast. A spokeswoman for the council could not immediately be reached for comment. | 0fake |
Scenting power, potential Merkel coalition partners edge closer on Europe | BERLIN (Reuters) - Nominally, they are at odds on Europe. But Germany s Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) gave remarkably similar messages on European reform on Monday as they began exploring a coalition alliance with Chancellor Angela Merkel s humbled conservatives. After her conservative bloc hemorrhaged support to the far-right in Sunday s election, Merkel has little choice but to try to work out a three-way coalition with the Greens and FDP - an tie-up untested at national level and widely seen as risky. If their party programs are taken at face value, the Greens want to press ahead with deeper European integration and the FDP wants to hold it back - a conflict that could frustrate coalition talks with Merkel, who wants a stronger Europe . But at back-to-back news conferences on Monday, the FDP and Greens both made conciliatory noises toward French President Emmanuel Macron, who ran for the French presidency on a pledge to relaunch the European Union in tandem with Germany. Macron is due to set out his proposals for EU reform and strengthening monetary union on Tuesday. We have a great interest in the success of the French republic and in its strength, FDP leader Christian Lindner told a news conference. Germany will not become stronger if France becomes weaker, but Europe will profit as a whole if all its members return to a path of economic success. That is why we wish Mr. Macron all the best. Less than an hour later, Greens co-leader Cem Ozdemir delivered almost exactly the same message. It is clear that we have a vital interest in France being successful, he said. The headline comments glossed over deeper differences between the two parties on Europe, but indicated a glass half full attitude suggesting both want to find common ground on Europe that will help them forge a ruling coalition with Merkel. Both the FDP and Greens played down the prospect of such a three-way bloc during the election campaign, but as they have been out of government for four and 12 years respectively, they may be lured into an alliance by the prospect of power. Pledging to form a stable government, Merkel herself said she would not set out red lines on Europe policy for now - an open-minded approach that gives the three parliamentary groups wiggle room to work out a compromise. My view is that we can use more Europe but this has to lead to more competitiveness, more jobs and more clout for the European Union, she said in a message that could appeal to the pro-business FDP and the Greens, who are keener on regulation. Merkel also urged the center-left Social Democrats not to shut the door on a re-run of their grand coalition . The Greens and Free Democrats are from opposition ends of the political spectrum and must navigate differences on tax policy and immigration, as well as Europe, before they team up. In their party program the Greens say they reject a division of Europe. The FDP, by contrast, favors a multi-speed Europe - differentiating a northern core of fiscally disciplined, wealthy member states from the rest. The FDP wants euro zone countries to be able to leave the bloc rather than stay under an interminable rescue policy , and favors winding down the lending capacity of the euro zone s ESM rescue fund - unlike Merkel s finance minister, who has proposed developing it into a European monetary fund. Lindner, who said during the election campaign that Greece should leave the euro, said on Monday his party could not agree to a common euro zone budget that would help redress economic imbalances within the bloc. That position seems to be at odds with the vision presented by Macron, who wants to overhaul the euro zone and introduce a budget and finance minister for the single-currency region. The euro EUR= snapped a two-day rising streak on Monday after a surge in support for the far right in the election prompted investors to lock in gains in one of the most profitable currency trades of the year. But investors remained sanguine about the prospects for European reform under a three-way coalition of conservatives, FDP and Greens - known as a Jamaica alliance after their respective party colors: black, yellow and green. Where the FDP might push back on the next potential government s European policies, expect the Greens to pull forward, enabling Chancellor Merkel s middle-ground to prevail, said Andrew Bosomworth, a senior portfolio manager at Pimco, one of the world s largest bond funds. | 0fake |
Trump’s Press Secretary Falls Apart, Exposes His Lie About Obamacare Vote (VIDEO) | Anyone who is faced with the unfortunate task of defending Donald Trump s many lies and erratic behavior eventually crumbles. We saw this with former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and we re seeing it again with current press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Earlier today, Huckabee Sanders fell apart in front of reporters as she tried to redirect the conversation about Trump s false claim that the Senate has enough votes to replace the Affordable Care Act. When a reporter grilled her on Graham-Cassidy, the GOP s latest health care disaster, Huckabee Sanders practically admitted that Trump had been lying the whole time and that the votes were not there. She said: The point that we re making is that we have the votes on the substance, but not necessarily on the process, which is why we are so confident that we can move healthcare forward and get it done in the spring. Huckabee Sanders, like all of Trump s minions, is well-versed in diversion tactics but still couldn t avoid exposing her boss blatant lie. Trump does not have the votes to pass Graham-Cassidy, and he was lying through his teeth about it. No matter how Huckabee Sanders tried to conceal the truth, it was too obvious to be hidden.Many including Republicans already believe that Graham-Cassidy is dead. If the bill can t get enough votes on the process, the bill cannot pass. Trump lied, and this is just another humiliating failure for his administration and the Republican party.You can watch Huckabee Sanders struggle to hold it together below:Trump can t hide his major failures behind his spokespeople anymore, and his lies are wearing thin. The public is giving him far less leniency now as his approval rating continues to dwindle. Trump s team is in big trouble if they keep trying to cover up his lies.Featured image via Win McNamee / Getty Images | 1real |
Gulf states advise citizens against traveling to Lebanon | DUBAI (Reuters) - Three Gulf states advised their citizens against traveling to Lebanon on Thursday and asked those already there to leave as soon as possible, amid rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Lebanon and Yemen. The official Saudi Press Agency, citing an official Foreign Ministry source, said the kingdom was asking citizens who were visiting or residing in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also warned nationals against travel to Lebanon via official news agencies later in the day. Bahrain had urged its citizens to leave Lebanon on Sunday. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Saturday while in Saudi Arabia, accusing Iran and the Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah of sowing strife in Arab states and saying he feared assassination. On Thursday, two top Lebanese government officials accused Riyadh of holding Hariri captive. A third told Reuters that the Saudi authorities had ordered Hariri to resign and had put him under house arrest. Saudi Arabia and members of Hariri s Future Movement have denied reports that he is under house arrest. The Saudi minister for Gulf affairs has accused Lebanon of declaring war against the kingdom, and alleged that the Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah was involved in firing a missile at Saudi Arabia from Yemen on Saturday. Hezbollah s parliamentary bloc called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to stop interfering in Lebanese affairs. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would make a previously unscheduled trip to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discuss regional questions, in particular Yemen and Lebanon . | 0fake |
UK’s largest worm to get Viking funeral | Monday 7 November 2016 by Davywavy UK’s largest worm to get Viking funeral
The earthworm is expected to join Harambe in Valhalla where they will toast their valour for all eternity.
Dave the giant worm died in battle against scientists trying to measure him and is to receive a fiery, viking funeral in a longship specially constructed for the occasion.
Thor, God of Thunder, has expressed disappointment that he did not defeat Dave himself as he had hoped to practice on the worm in preparation for battle against Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, at the end of all things.
“We’re building a longship that might be as long as fifteen or twenty inches long. When complete we shall lay him on a rich bed of loam with a beetle at his feet”, said Earthworm expert Simon Williams.
“Okay, not feet. Whatever it is that Earthworms have. Cloaca? You tell me.
“Then we shall cast the ship adrift in the still, wine-dark sea before sending him aloft with the wormy Valkyrie by firing burning arrows at him until he is utterly consumed by flames and the waves, God rest him.”
Simon was then interrupted by an announcement that there is no budget for an elaborate funeral and the earthworm will just be put in the bin. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently witterings below - why not add your own? | 1real |
Lebanon's parliament approves country's first budget since 2005 | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s parliament on Thursday approved the first state budget in 12 years, a vital step towards reforming the fragile economy and preventing rising debt spinning out of control. Successive governments have failed to pass annual budgets due to a string of political crises since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. (Passing the budget) is a fundamental step on the state s path to reinstating order in the public finances, Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil said after the vote. Passing a budget was a priority for the government of Rafik s son, Saad al-Hariri, which took office in January. Hariri described the 2017 budget as an historic achievement and said his government would strive to return the country to financial and political health. A main obstacle to passing the 2017 and previous budgets has been demands from some politicians that an audit of extra-budgetary spending from previous years be carried out. But on Wednesday, parliament approved a law allowing the budget to be passed before such an audit is completed and giving the minister of finance up to a year to carry it out. The budget passed after three days of discussion by 61 votes for and four against. Eight members of parliament abstained. Lebanon s economic growth has been battered by years of paralysis in government decision-making and six years of war in neighboring Syria. Growth slowed to just over 1 percent a year from an average of 8 percent before the Syrian war. Lebanon s debt has also risen strongly since the war began in 2011. Moody s says the debt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio, which indicates a country s ability to pay back its debt, is the world s third highest and will reach almost 140 percent in 2018. Economists have said a budget was vital to reforming public finances, but that more needs to be done to improve growth and investor confidence in the country: reform the heavily subsidized electricity sector, boost tax collection and upgrade crumbling infrastructure. The government will begin work on the 2018 budget next week, Hariri and Khalil said. Khalil said it will include a vision to develop the country economically and socially as well as financial and reform measures to reduce the deficit and increase growth . | 0fake |
Confirming Our Meetup in Dallas Next Wednesday, November 2! | If you are in the Lone Star State and not too far from Dallas, we hope you’ll join us for some post-Halloween fun at a meetup next Wednesday, November 2.
Steve in Dallas has graciously arranged for us to meet at
Cantina Laredo 4546 Belt Line Rd Dallas, TX 75244
As you can see, it is just east of Beltline and Midway, on the south side:
We’ll start at 5:00 PM. I’m sure I’ll be there until at least 8 PM. Steve says he’s hosted many groups there before, so the manager is fine with us not knowing how many people will join. That means you don’t need to worry about there being enough room for everyone if we have the high class problem of really good turnout.
In all the meetups, readers have really enjoyed getting to chat with other members of the community, so I’m looking forward to another fun event. I am flying into Dallas that AM, so the only caveat is that if the Dallas or NY airports are reported to be having serious problems in the morning, you might double check the site for updates (although I think you should plan on meeting regardless even if I wind up being delayed). See you soon! 0 0 0 0 0 0 This entry was posted in Notices on | 1real |
SHOCKING ATTACK: High School Girl Brutally Beaten For Supporting Trump [Video] | The leftist teachers and the press are part of the HUGE problem of misinformation about Donald Trump. They are partly to blame for the violence and hate out there. Here s a perfect example: A self-described mentor for the girl who attacked Jade urged compassion for the suspended student. We don t want a mistake during a highly emotional and intense time to affect her long-term future, said Khabral Muhammad, a life coach at Live in Peace, a nonprofit group supporting East Palo Alto youth. WOODSIDE, Calif. One Peninsula high school student s support of Donald Trump may have made her a target.The Woodside High School student and her family are shocked something like this could happen. The girl said all of her friends were posting about the election last night, but her post got her beat up.Cellphone video captured the moment a female student attacked sophomore Jade Armenio. This girl comes up to me and she said, Do you hate Mexicans? and I was like, no, and she said, You support Trump. You hate Mexicans.' Armenio says the girl hit her, threw her to the ground, pulled out her earrings and hair. She was left with a bloody nose and scratches and bruises. Before the results came in on election night, Armenio had posted on Instagram that she hoped Trump would win. I don t think I could name one person on any of my accounts who didn t say their opinion last night, Armenio said.Armenio s parents say they re mortified about what happened. My husband and I don t put our political views on social media. Kids still do it. That s their life. We tell them don t do it, but even if she does she should never be hit like that, said Gina Armenio.The principle of Woodside High School issued a statement that reads in part the recorded incident was investigated in conjunction with law enforcement and appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.Armenio says she s also now the target of social media hate mail but she s taking it in stride. In high school if you really care about what every person thinks you re going to get torn apart, Armenio said.Armenio parents say they are keeping her out of school until they know she ll be safe.If only this poor pro-Trump child had just worn #safetypins perhaps this wouldn't have happened pic.twitter.com/w07rO9OOo2 ia?GiveMeTears? (@nia4_trump) November 12, 2016 | 1real |
WATCH: President Obama Issues Warning About Trump Nomination And Every American Should Listen | It s still hard to conceive that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and, although in the past the GOP has produced bad candidates like George W. Bush capable of doing serious damage to the country, a Trump presidency could certainly finish the disastrous job Bush started.President Obama has tried to fix the damage Bush and the GOP caused America and he will be leaving with a stronger country than when he came into office. No one knows more than President Obama what had to be done to fix the economic, social, and political damage Bush caused the American people. No one knows more than President Obama that the most powerful and critical position in the world is no laughing matter. That s why the president s statement about Trumps presumptive nomination came with a warning. The President said: I think it s important for us to take seriously the statements he s made in the past. But most importantly, and I speak to all of you in this room as reporters as well as the American public. I just want to emphasize the degree to which we are in serious times and this is a really serious job. Obama went on to add: This is not entertainment, this is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States. And what that means is that every candidate, every nominee needs to be subject to exacting standards and genuine scrutiny. While many in the media and the public have found Trump s antics entertaining, the joke will be on all of us if this man, who many never believed would get this far, becomes president. It s important that America goes out and votes this November. We can t go back to the Bush years of war and recession.Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALku3gpLnSw]Featured image via video screenshot. | 1real |
Bill to cut off aid to Palestinians passed by U.S. committee | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee approved a bill on Thursday that would cut off $300 million in annual U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it stops making what lawmakers described as payments that reward violent crimes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 17-4 for the measure, known as the Taylor Force Act, after a 29-year-old American military veteran who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian while visiting Israel last year. The bill, which must be approved by the full Senate and House of Representatives before becoming law, is intended to stop the Palestinian Authority from paying the stipends, which can reach $3,500 per month. Force’s attacker was killed by Israeli police, but his killer’s family receives such a monthly payment. “What has happened here will hopefully, when passed, prevent other people from having the same fate: an innocent person going about their activities in an innocent way, being murdered by someone who’s being incented to do that by their own government,” Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s Republican chairman and a co-sponsor of the bill, told a news conference. Separately, 16 Republican and Democratic members of the committee wrote to Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to ask her to lead an international effort for similar action by other countries. Force was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University in Corker’s home state, Tennessee, when he was killed. Force’s parents live in South Carolina, the home state of Senator Lindsey Graham, the act’s other Republican co-sponsor. Graham, who dubbed the payments “pay to slay,” is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid. Palestinian officials have said they intend to continue the payments, which they see as support for relatives of those imprisoned by Israel for fighting against occupation or who have died in connection with that cause. To win broader support, the original act was modified to take into account the need for humanitarian aid. It exempts assistance for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, creates an escrow account to hold assistance funds and spells out steps the Palestinian Authority can take for aid to resume. Corker said he was confident the bill would become law sometime in the coming months. Similar legislation has also been introduced in the House of Representatives. Opponents of the bill have said they worry that cutting off economic aid to the Palestinians would increase poverty and instability in the West Bank and Gaza, fueling more violence. | 0fake |
In campaign chaos, Donald Trump shows his management style | For the past two months, Donald Trump has presided over a political team riddled with turf wars, staff reshuffling and dueling power centers.
But the tensions are more than typical campaign chaos: They illustrate how Trump likes to run an organization, whether it’s a real estate venture or his presidential bid. Interviews with current and former Trump associates reveal an executive who is fond of promoting rivalries among subordinates, wary of delegating major decisions, scornful of convention and fiercely insistent on a culture of loyalty around him.
Whether the drama of recent weeks has been cathartic or calamitous is an open question — and one that is increasingly important as the general election phase of the campaign unfolds. The tumult has often dominated news coverage, stepping on Trump’s own campaign message and averting the spotlight from missteps by leading Democratic contender Hillary Clinton.
“It is definitely dysfunctional compared to, say, Ace Hardware Store,” said David Carney, a veteran Republican political strategist. But, he added, “it is not fatal in and of itself.”
Honed over decades in business and now suddenly under the glare of a national contest, Trump’s style offers a glimpse of the polarizing management techniques he would carry into the White House. In fashioning his campaign after his real estate and entertainment projects, the mogul has inspired supporters and alarmed critics with his brazen moves.
[Trump once revealed his income tax returns. They showed he didn’t pay a cent.]
“He’s always the man in charge,” said Edward Rollins, the veteran Republican strategist who is working for a pro-Trump super PAC. “From his people, he gets what he needs. He makes them compete. Sometimes it gets the juices flowing, sometimes it spurs conflict. If he needs to, he steps in to settle it.”
Rollins pointed to the relationship between Trump’s 42-year-old campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and his 67-year-old campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as a prime example of how Trump handles people. While they have worked just steps from each other in recent weeks at Trump Tower in New York, the pair — contrasts in age, experience and personality — have a simmering rivalry over stature and responsibilities within the candidate’s orbit. And Trump doesn’t seem to mind.
“One day, Manafort goes up and Corey gets set back. The next day, Corey can move up to the forefront. Trump is at the center, watching it all and seeing it all,” Rollins said.
Trump’s firing last week of Rick Wiley as his national political director is a case study in how being close to Trump is usually the best way to influence him. A mantra for Trump’s campaign advisers has long been, “If you aren’t close to the principal, you aren’t anywhere,” according to one person on staff.
The abrupt dismissal was typical Trump — reminiscent of his NBC television show, “The Apprentice,” which spawned the catchphrase “You’re fired!”
[Trump’s bad bet: How too much debt drove his biggest casino aground]
Wiley, who joined the Trump campaign in April with a headstrong persona and establishment pedigree, did not endear himself to many of the grass-roots activists and Trump allies who had been working for the campaign for months, including Karen Giorno, who started as Trump’s Florida director and is now in charge of 10 Southeastern states.
According to multiple people familiar with the situation, Giorno grew unhappy with Wiley throughout May, telling friends that he was unresponsive to her and, in her view, too forceful in asserting his strategy.
Eventually, Giorno voiced her complaints directly to Trump. It worked. Wiley’s exit was announced Wednesday. In a statement, the campaign said Wiley was “hired on a short-term basis.” Wiley did not respond to a request for comment.
Giorno said Trump’s loyalty “goes beyond anything I’ve experienced in politics.” She also described Trump as a boss constantly testing his employees and turning the tables on them.
“He’ll ask questions — and if you don’t know the answer, you can tell that he’s disappointed that you don’t know it,” she said. “But then, he’ll brief you.”
On Florida matters, Trump has always been “extraordinarily curious — tell me more about what’s going on in Florida; give me the snapshot,” Giorno said. “As I am telling him information, he’s actually feeding me more information.”
From his 26th-floor office in New York, Trump — who through a spokeswoman declined to be interviewed for this article — is attempting to bend the nature and norms of a presidential campaign to his unpredictable and outsize personality, eschewing the top-down, consultant-heavy mode used by most candidates.
[Trump’s businesses boom as he runs for president, financial disclosure show]
Rather, Trump functions simultaneously as his own big-picture strategist and micro-managing chief executive. He has gotten involved in intramural skirmishing that has engulfed his campaign, both stoking and calming tensions depending on the circumstances.
“His style can be what I call ‘hands off, hands on.’ He gives people space to think and work and doesn’t get involved in everything each day, but he is the kind of person who can swoop in in a second and change everything,” said Sam Nunberg, a former aide who was let go from the campaign last year following disagreements with Lewandowski and controversy over past racially charged posts on Facebook. “He monitors it all and he comes to check in on things when you don’t expect him.”
Trump’s fondness for stirring internal competition was on display during his Atlantic City heyday, when he pitted his casinos against one another — much to the dismay of some of the executives who ran them. He encouraged the Trump Castle to compete for customers against the Trump Plaza hotel and casino and, later, his third casino, the Trump Taj Mahal.
Trump liked the sparring while others worried about cannibalizing customers; in the end, for a variety of reasons, the three casinos went through corporate bankruptcies.
Trump’s method contrasts sharply with that of Clinton, who operates her corporate-style campaign from a sprawling headquarters in Brooklyn with legions of professional aides. Unlike Trump, her aides say, Clinton does not offer daily input on personnel or brewing internal debates.
“He takes in information from people around him,” Lewandowski said. “We look at that as surround-sound advocacy that gives him the totality of an issue. Then he is decisive. People shouldn’t be surprised he’s involved. Of course he’s involved. It’s his campaign and his money.”
Carl Paladino, a businessman and political operative from Buffalo, N.Y. who is the co-chairman of Trump’s New York campaign, recalled when Trump called him months ago ahead of the New York primary and asked him to take the position.
“He said: ‘Carl, let’s do it. Let’s go.’ He didn’t have to say anything else. He trusted me to do what he needed me to do,” Paladino said. “He knows that . . . if you get in my way, I’m going to knock you down.”
Such general directives demonstrate the level of trust Trump regularly places with many of his closest supporters. He continues to have faith in them when they collide, as has been the case with Manafort and Lewandowski.
Manafort, who declined to comment for this article, was brought into Trump’s circle in March when Trump started to fret that he might be headed for a contested Republican convention and would need someone who could navigate that thicket. This month, he was given the title of campaign chairman and chief strategist.
Manafort calls Trump “Donald,” unlike Lewandowski, who calls the candidate “Mr. Trump.” He also does more freelancing than Lewandowski in terms of building relationships and arranging his own media appearances.
Trump at times seem to play the two off of each other. Manafort appears to relish being a strategist and chairman more than the manager Lewandowski. Lewandowski, who prides himself on having been at Trump’s side since the campaign’s start, regularly takes the lead on overseeing events, operations and Trump’s travels.
Even as Manafort and Lewandowski seek to exhibit and expand their influence on the campaign, there is no doubt within the campaign that Trump is the ultimate arbiter.
Sometimes that means drawing conclusions on topics that more traditional campaigns would outsource to aides. Other times, it means his counsel comes from just one person: himself.
“Trump is micromanager on the most important things but not all things,” said Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York and a Trump ally who has known and observed Trump for decades. “On the most important things, he realizes you have to be a micromanager. He’ll delegate to a point. He has in his head what he wants to do and his issues, and he’ll hold onto them instead of sharing those big decisions.” | 0fake |
BUSTED! UNCOVERED 2009 VIDEO Shows London’s Muslim Mayor Calling Moderate Muslims “Uncle Toms”…2002 Video Shows Him Defending Convicted Terrorists | London s Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan, called on the British government today to cancel their visit with President Donald Trump. Speaking to Channel 4 news, Khan felt Trump s out-of-context criticisms and continued attacks on Twitter meant that the U.K. should not roll out the red carpet for the president as his policies go against everything we stand for. He added: When you have a special relationship it is no different from when you have got a close mate. You stand with them in times of adversity but you call them out when they are wrong. There are many things about which Donald Trump is wrong. Hollywood ReporterShouldn t London s government be more concerned with their current mayor s past than of President Trump s efforts to unify the world in the fight against extreme Islamic terrorism?In 2016, the now Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan was branded unfit to be London s Mayor after it emerged that he had described moderate Muslim groups as Uncle Toms a notorious racial slur used against black people to suggest that they are subservient to whites.The incendiary claim emerged in a 2009 interview with Iranian-backed Press TV, when Mr Khan was minister for community cohesion , in charge of Government efforts to stamp out extremism.The revelation is a major blow for Mr Khan, who has faced a string of claims about his past dealings with Muslim extremists during the bitter campaign to succeed Boris Johnson. Daily MailWatch the 2009 video here:That s not the only video that should make every London citizen be concerned about their Mayor s radical views. A 2002 video has emerged showing Sadiq Kahn defending convicted Islamic terrorists who attempted to revive the Islamic Liberation Party in Egypt.The video, via Josh Caplan of Vessel News, shows Khan defending terrorists. At the beginning of the video, Muslims in the street shout Allahu Akbar! GPRare clip from '02 shows then lawyer Sadiq Khan defending convicted terrorists who attempted to revive the Islamic Liberation Party in Egypt pic.twitter.com/gMS9NIYxMQ Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 6, 2017 | 1real |
Eighteen injured in bomb attack on police vehicle in Turkey's Mersin province | ANKARA (Reuters) - A bomb blast wrecked a bus carrying police officers on Tuesday in the southern Turkish province of Mersin, injuring 18 people in an attack that security sources blamed on Kurdish militants. Seventeen of those hurt were police officers, Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Bekir Bozdag told parliament, branding it a terrorist attack. Turkey s battle against terror will continue under any circumstances in a strong and determined way, Bozdag said. Security sources said militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were believed to have carried out the attack. They also said that none of those wounded were in a critical condition. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Local mayor Burhanettin Kocamaz told broadcaster Haberturk the attack took place on a street where the local governor s office was located and had hit the police vehicle as it passed. Images from NTV showed smoke billowing from the area, in Mersin s Yenisehir district. Ambulances, police and fire trucks were sent to the site of the attack, security sources said. Turkey is battling a three-decade insurgency in its mainly Kurdish southeast. The PKK frequently carries out bomb attacks on security forces in the southeast and elsewhere. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union as well as by Turkey. More than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died since it first took up arms against the state in 1984. | 0fake |
Seeing ‘Nothing to Live For’ as Haiti Seeks a Body Count After Hurricane Matthew - The New York Times | Haiti — The loss in this coastal town is all but entire. Dead animals float in tidal pools. heaps mark where homes once stood. Trees, stripped of leaves, branches and tops, impale the earth like ragged posts. But the loss here runs deeper. The local hospital has registered 13 deaths since Hurricane Matthew flung winds and a wall of water at but many more have died without so much as an official word. Emilien Clerveaux died trying to save his daughter, his head split open by flying debris. Elouse Maître’s aunt and four cousins were swept out to sea when the water claimed her beachfront shack. Destine Rosevald’s two children, 6 and 4, died in his arms as he tried to rush them to safety. “When I think about them, I cry,” Mr. Rosevald said as he stood in a neighbor’s yard on Saturday, water filling his eyes. “She was just in elementary school. My son, he was going to start kindergarten this year. ” As access and information to areas of Haiti increase after the hurricane, the news only gets worse. The death toll has climbed to nearly 900 people, while an outbreak of cholera in three southern towns has killed 13 people and infected 62 others, health officials said. For now, though, there is no way to know the precise toll of the storm. There are still 500, 000 people stranded in the south alone, officials said, because of extensive damage to an already feeble infrastructure. More than 170 people have been reported dead in Les Anglais, which for now is accessible only by helicopter. Just as the impoverished island nation, bereft of resources and capacity, struggled to prepare for the storm, the recovery has been hampered by the same shortcomings. And communications have been scattered. Although news outlets are reporting nearly 900 dead, the government has for two days insisted on a figure less than half of that. That gap is partly the result of how the deaths are reported. The government is counting only those it can verify, a formal process that cannot be completed until access to areas cut off by the storm is restored. But in towns like many have already buried their dead or stopped searching for loved ones carried away in the storm surge. “Honestly, we don’t even know how many died,” said Sanite Moïse, seated with a group of women washing clothes in a shallow flood pool. Small children bathed in the murky water. Mrs. Moïse said her father had died a few days earlier, drowned in the floods that engulfed his home near the beach. When she went to look for him, there was nothing left — just an embankment and debris. The house, she said, was gone. “God gives and God takes,” she said with a shrug. “Mankind, for all the evil he does, could never do something like this. ” The devastation in was hard to overestimate. Hardly a home was left untouched, and many were reduced to splinters and rocks. Fields fallowed by salt water baked in the afternoon heat, while palm trees the width of telephone poles were snapped in half. Periodically, the stench of death wafted through the tropical air, filling nostrils with a choking, rotten smell. The areas of farther west are the worst hit, with entire stretches of the waterfront washed away. Residents spoke about homes that used to line the picturesque beaches along with restaurants and shops. Standing by the side of the road, Mr. Rosevald barely registered the activity around him. As men brushed debris from the road and collected wood to reconstruct homes, he leaned against a rusted Mack truck, looking lost. He could not bear to be near his home, he said. When the storm hit, Mr. Rosevald tried to remain with his children and mother. But by late Monday, as the wind and rain belted his home, finally tearing off his roof, he decided to flee. He rushed to the front door but heard a crash in the living room and went running back. He found his son, Kendy, and his mother buried in the wreckage. He pulled them out and clutched his unconscious son at his waist, determined to get them out of the house. He lifted his daughter, Naomie, onto his shoulders and ran outside, his mother close behind. Almost immediately, a stick whirred through the air and struck the little girl in the ribs. Frightened by the force of the impact, he looked down at her but kept moving until they reached a neighbor’s house. By the next morning, both children were dead. His daughter, he said, was a playful and talkative girl in second grade. She loved math and jumping rope with friends. His son, he said, was a chatterbox and was excited to start kindergarten this year. Mr. Rosevald paused and apologized for not recalling everything clearly. “They tell me my daughter died a few hours later, at 6 a. m.,” he said. The force of the blow caused extensive internal bleeding, he said. “My son, they said, was dead the entire time I was carrying him,” he stuttered. The boy was dead the instant the wall fell on him. On Saturday, residents cleaned up wooden debris that littered the town, working with machetes and axes and stacking trees and branches felled in the storm. Fisherman repaired their nets on the beach. The water was postcard Caribbean. At the local hospital, the injured turned up by the dozens. An old man was carried from the bed of a truck into the waiting room, unconscious, as nurses and doctors trained in Cuba attended to him. A young girl issued bloodcurdling screams as nurses cleaned cuts running up her leg. A young man beside her gingerly touched deep gashes on the back of his neck. “I knew this place before,” Orthela Genima, a doctor who has worked in the hospital for several years, said of the town. “Now I can’t even recognize it. ” Among those who had lost loved ones, many struggled to recognize even themselves. “It’s like we are slowly dying,” said Micheline Clerveaux, 18, whose father, Emilien, died Tuesday afternoon. “We have nothing to live for. ” The family was gathered near where its house had been, an area reduced to a mound of stones and an odd assortment of furniture, a dismantled speaker and a wooden box spring. Mr. Clerveaux was buried in the family grave beside the home, a concrete slab sitting above ground, painted a dull blue. He had been searching for Micheline when the storm raged on Tuesday morning. The family had fled the home moments earlier, seeking refuge in an open field to the west. The parents split up, and Micheline and her sister, Francise, went with their father. The other four children went with their mother, Marie Rose Jacob. But when they met in the field and lay flat on the ground to avoid the flying objects, Micheline was missing. A strong gust had knocked her off course, placing her closer to a neighbor’s house. “He told me he was going to look for her,” Mrs. Jacob said. After an hour, the children and their mother left the field and, by good fortune, found shelter in the same home where Micheline was taking cover. But Mr. Clerveaux was not there. They waited until the worst of the storm had passed and went searching for him. Hours passed. Eventually, a few hundred yards away, they found him leaning against a tree, talking to himself. They hoisted him and looked for injuries. There was a huge wound on the back of his head. At home, lying in bed, he told his wife that he was going to die. A few hours later, he did. Mr. Clerveaux was a subsistence farmer, growing corn, potatoes and beans to feed his family. Those crops are now gone, unlikely to grow again in the salt water marsh that his land has been turned into. The family’s livestock — a cow and three sheep — are also lost. Neighbors pitched in to bury Mr. Clerveaux, and they are housing and feeding his wife and children. They say they will continue for however long it takes the family to rebuild. “If we survive, they will survive,” said Nazaire, 56, the neighbor with whom the family took shelter during the storm. “If we have only one loaf of bread to eat, we will share it with them. ” | 0fake |
U.S. lawmaker: Sony breach may have inspired Russian election hacking | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. failure to retaliate strongly for the 2014 cyber attack against Sony Pictures may have helped inspire Russian hackers who sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, a senior congressional Democrat said on Tuesday. “Russia may have concluded that they could hack American institutions and there’d be no price to pay,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told a press breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Schiff suggested that Washington team up with European allies to impose sanctions that would hit the Russian economy. Russia was blamed for high-profile attacks on Democratic organizations that damaged the party during the 2016 election campaign, in which Republican Donald Trump won the presidency and his party kept control of the Senate and the House. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the allegations as U.S. campaign rhetoric. Schiff was one of a group of senior House Democratic lawmakers who wrote to President Barack Obama on Tuesday asking administration officials to brief members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the Nov. 8 U.S. election. “Russia may have succeeded in weakening Americans’ trust” in democratic institutions, said the letter, also signed by Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, and the ranking Democrats on the Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security, Oversight and Armed Services committees. Other lawmakers, including some Republicans, have asked for investigations or called for legislation to address the hacking issue. Reuters reported on Friday that James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, asked Congress to remove a provision in an upcoming intelligence authorization bill that would have created a special committee to combat Russian efforts to exert covert influence abroad. Schiff, who backs creation of the bipartisan committee, said on Tuesday the United States needed to do more to stop such hacking. “Unless we establish some kind of deterrent, this is going to be unending,” he said. An Intelligence Committee aide said the panel had changed the provision independent of Clapper’s letter and felt it had “appropriately addressed” intelligence community concerns. In 2016, the hacking benefited Trump, Schiff said. He added, however, that Russian hackers could turn on Trump once he is president if they do not approve of his policies. The Obama administration publicly blamed North Korea for the malicious breaches that crippled Sony in 2014. | 0fake |
Bernie Sanders: When you’re White, you don’t know what it’s like to be poor…to live in ghetto” [VIDEO] | Bernie Sanders is so focused on pandering to blacks, trashing whites and bashing police officers, he doesn t even notice when he s stuck his decrepit old foot in his mouth Hillary and Bernie are so busy pandering to the black vote, they almost forgot the majority of Americans are not black and their constant barage of disparaging remarks and insults directed at white voter just might make some white Americans NOT want to support them Being a white person in the United States of America, I know that I have never had the experience that so many people in this audience have had, Clinton said. I think it s incumbent upon me and what I have been trying to talk about is to urge white people about what it is like to have the talk with your kids, scared that yours or daughters even could get in trouble for no good reason whatsoever, like Sandra Bland and end up dead in a jail in Texas. That is what I will try to do to deal with what I know is the racism that stalking our country, she said. When you re white, you don t know what it s like to be living in a ghetto and to be poor, Sanders said. You don t know what it s like to be hassled when you walk down the street or get dragged out of a car. I believe as a nation in the year 2016, we must be firm in making it clear: We will end institutional racism and reform a broken criminal justice system. Via: National Review | 1real |
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