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The David Duke Show: Hillary’s Treason and Why Trump & Duke Will Win | David Duke October 27, 2016
Today Dr. Duke and Dr. Slattery talked about Hillaryâs clear acts of treason against the United States by providing massive shipments of weapons to Saudi Arabia at a time that she knew they were providing support to ISIS. Dr. Duke, if elected to the Senate, would be in a position to expose Hillary and push for her impeachment should she win (steal) the election.
Dr. Slattery discussed post-election scenarios. He noted that if Trump wins in a close election, a small number of Republican electors could be bribed to vote for Hillary, throwing the election to her, or even vote for Pence, throwing the election to the House of Representatives to decide from amongst Trump, Hillary, and Pence. Should Hillary win and Trump supporters feel the election was illegitimate, impeachment would be more likely.
This is an extremely educating and enlightening show. Please share it widely. | 1real |
WATCH: Bill Maher’s Hilarious Opening Monologue Will Make Trump Explode With Rage | Bill Maher is definitely not afraid of Donald Trump.Ever since Trump was sworn-in on inauguration day he has been openly whining about media reports on the size of his inauguration crowd, insisting that his crowd was the largest in history despite photographic evidence that shows otherwise.Trump s inauguration was absolutely pathetic and his obsession with the crowd size only demonstrates that he is way too thin-skinned to be president.As you may recall, Trump took a moment during a visit to CIA Headquarters to claim that his crowd filled the National Mall and numbered at least 1.5 million. He also threatened the media for reporting the real numbers.For the record, here s a side by side of President Obama s inauguration, which drew a record 1.8 million people compared to Trump s in 2017. Both images were taken just as the swearing-in ceremony began.For those saying Trump can t be that hated, look at the size of the crowd #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/Sczp6Feta5 Stefan Kay (@5tefanK) January 20, 2017Trump even literally sent his official White House mouthpiece Sean Spicer to complain about media coverage of the inauguration in a press briefing. And Trump is still complaining a week later.Well, Bill Maher returned just in time to mock Trump s inauguration last Friday but only got the chance to address Trump s bitching on this week s edition of Real Time.During the opening monologue, Maher absolutely NAILED the real reason why Trump is so upset about the small crowd size he drew on inauguration day. He can t stand it that when it comes to the size of the crowd, Obama s was bigger. This is about c*ck, right? This is about d*ck! This is about a guy who never brought a woman to orgasm! He probably thinks it s rigged. The rest of the monologue was funny, too, but Trump is going to explode after he hears that one joke.Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump is a petty loser who can t handle any amount of criticism. If Trump reacts to Maher s monologue it is sure to be an epic temper tantrum the likes of which we haven t seen.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1real |
How One Family’s Deep Pockets Helped Reshape Donald Trump’s Campaign - The New York Times | Last week, as Donald J. Trump endured one of the most tumultuous stretches of his presidential campaign, a few longtime allies in New York conservative circles met for dinner and a drink. As the evening progressed, the conversation turned to an inevitable topic: What would it take to give Mr. Trump his best shot at winning? A few days later, one of the guests, Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, would become Mr. Trump’s campaign chief in a sudden . But it was a guest without a formal role in the campaign, a conservative philanthropist named Rebekah Mercer, who has now become one of its most potent forces. Mr. Bannon’s ascension on Wednesday — urged on Mr. Trump by Ms. Mercer, among others — shows how a cadre of strategists, “super PACs” and political organizations quietly nurtured by her family have emerged to play a pivotal role in Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Over more than half a decade, Ms. Mercer’s father, the New York investor Robert Mercer, has carved an idiosyncratic path through conservative politics, spending tens of millions of dollars to outflank his own party’s consultant class and unnerve its established powers. His fortune has financed think tanks and insurgent candidates, super PACs and media watchdogs, lobbying groups and organizations. Many of them are now connected, one way or another, to Mr. Trump’s presidential bid. Mr. Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, is a veteran Republican pollster who previously oversaw a super PAC financed by the Mercers. Mr. Bannon oversaw Breitbart, an outlet that has often amplified Mr. Trump’s message and attacked his perceived enemies. Mr. Mercer reportedly invested $10 million in Breitbart several years ago, and most likely still has a stake: A company sharing an address with Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund Mr. Mercer helps lead, remains an investor in Breitbart, according to corporate documents filed in Delaware. Mr. Trump is also relying on Cambridge Analytica, a voter data firm backed by Mr. Mercer, whose staff members are working with Mr. Trump’s vendors to identify potential Trump supporters in the electorate, particularly among infrequent voters. A super PAC supporting Mr. Trump is now being shepherded by David Bossie, a conservative activist whose own projects have been funded in part by the Mercers’ family foundation, according to tax documents. Mr. Bannon has worked particularly closely with the family in recent years. “I think they have complete confidence, and rightly so, in Steve Bannon’s decisions and what he brings to the table politically,” Mr. Bossie said. “He has been smart and successful in running these different political operations. And those things have come to the Mercers’ attention. ” The Mercers, who rarely grant interviews, declined through a spokesman to comment. Mr. Mercer, 70, a mathematician and competitive poker player who spent his early career at I. B. M. joined Renaissance in the 1990s and rose to become the executive, earning hundreds of millions of dollars along the way. Today, he and his wife, Diana, live on a sprawling estate on Long Island’s North Shore where, according to court records, he installed a $2. 7 million model railroad set (and later sued the vendor for overcharging him). Like many elite donors, the Mercers shun mainstream media attention — even while financing alternative outlets that provide content for conservative activists. That includes not just Breitbart, but also the watchdog organization Media Research Center and the Government Accountability Institute, home to Peter Schweizer, the author of “Clinton Cash,” a book examining the Clinton family philanthropies. (Mr. Bannon the institute and Ms. Mercer, 42, has served on its board she also a documentary based on the book and released last month, just before the Democratic National Convention.) They have given to libertarian organizations, such as the Cato Institute, and political organizations like the Club for Growth, which spends millions of dollars each election cycle in Republican primaries, hoping to promote orthodox conservative policies on taxes and spending. The Mercers are also significant donors to the sprawling political network overseen by the political activists Charles G. and David H. Koch, which is also . But unlike the Koch brothers, who remained neutral in the Republican primary and have said their organizations will focus on congressional races this fall, the Mercers were deeply involved in the Republican nominating battle this year. And they have shown a taste for more and populist politics than most of Mr. Mercer’s fellow hedge fund magnates. The family originally backed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a more traditional conservative but one who, like Mr. Trump, is disliked by much of the party establishment. During the early phase of the campaign, Mr. Mercer donated $13 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Cruz. In doing so, he broke with many peers in the elite donor world, who looked to candidates like Jeb Bush or Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. The Mercers maintained close control over the group’s purse strings, installing Ms. Conway to oversee the group and coordinate with several other groups, an unusual move for a super PAC. During the Republican primary, the group ran ads questioning Mr. Trump’s conservative credentials, hoping to outflank Mr. Trump. But the Mercers moved to support Mr. Trump after he won the nomination. They were helped in part, according to a person who asked for anonymity to describe the family’s thinking, by Mr. Trump’s growing emphasis on traditional conservative ideas, such as tax cuts. And the family broke with Mr. Cruz in highly public fashion after his speech at the Republican convention, when the Texas senator refused to endorse Mr. Trump and instead suggested that Republicans should “vote your conscience” for candidates “up and down the ticket. ” In an extraordinary rebuke, the Mercers issued a rare public statement, calling themselves “profoundly disappointed” in Mr. Cruz. In late June, the super PAC quietly as Make America Number One, now a entity. Mr. Bossie, a longtime conservative activist who has produced documentaries about the Clinton family and illegal immigration, is leading the group, which is likely to raise more money from the Mercers to pay for attacks on Hillary Clinton. | 0fake |
New Ebola Vaccine Gives 100 Percent Protection - The New York Times | In a scientific triumph that will change the way the world fights a terrifying killer, an experimental Ebola vaccine tested on humans in the waning days of the West African epidemic has been shown to provide 100 percent protection against the lethal disease. The vaccine has not yet been approved by any regulatory authority, but it is considered so effective that an emergency stockpile of 300, 000 doses has already been created for use should an outbreak flare up again. Since Ebola was discovered in the former Zaire in 1976, there have been many efforts to create a vaccine. All began with a sense of urgency but then petered out for lack of money. Although only about 1, 600 people died of Ebola over those years, the grotesque nature their deaths — copious hemorrhaging from every orifice — has lent the disease a frightening reputation. Ultimately, only the huge, explosive 2014 outbreak that took 11, 000 lives in Africa and spread overseas, reaching a handful of people in Europe and the United States, provided the political and economic drive to make an effective vaccine. The test results of the trial in Guinea were released Thursday in The Lancet. The vaccine was not ready in time to stop the outbreak, which probably began in a hollow, tree in Guinea and swept Liberia and Sierra Leone before being defeated. But the prospect of a vaccine stockpile now has brought optimism among public health experts. “While these compelling results come too late for those who lost their lives during West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, they show that when the next outbreak hits, we will not be defenseless,” said Kieny, the World Health Organization’s assistant for health systems and innovation and the study’s lead author. “The world can’t afford the confusion and human disaster that came with the last epidemic. ” The vaccine opens up new, faster, more efficient ways to encircle and strangle the virus. The many small Ebola outbreaks that occurred between 1976 and 2014 were all stopped in remote villages by laborious methods: medical teams flew in, isolated the sick, and donned protective gear to treat them and bury the dead. But that tactic failed in 2014 when the virus reached crowded capital cities, where it spread like wildfire and dead bodies piled up in the streets. The new vaccine has some flaws, experts said. It appears to work only against one of the two most common strains of the Ebola virus, and it may not give protection. Some of those who get it report side effects like joint pain and headaches. “It’s certainly good news with regard to any new outbreak — and one will occur somewhere,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which makes many vaccines and did some early testing on this one. “But we still need to continue working on Ebola vaccines. ” The Lancet study was done in 11, 841 residents of Guinea last year. Among the 5, 837 people who got the vaccine, none came down with Ebola 10 or more days later. There were 23 Ebola cases among the thousands of others not immediately vaccinated. (The window was important because the trial used the “ring vaccination” technique developed during the drive to eliminate smallpox. Once a confirmed case was found, researchers contacted everyone in the circle of family, friends, neighbors and caregivers around the victim. About half the “circles” were offered vaccine. No one who fell ill within the first nine days after vaccination was counted, however, because it was assumed that they had already been infected before vaccination.) The Ebola trial was led by the World Health Organization, the Guinean Health Ministry, Norway’s Institute of Public Health and other institutions. The vaccine, known as was developed over a decade ago by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the United States Army and is now licensed to Merck. Its genetic “spine” is that of a vesicular stomatitis virus, which sickens cattle but usually does not infect humans. Spliced into the spine is the gene coding for an Ebola virus surface protein that prompts the immune system to make antibodies. Tests in monkeys showed that one shot protected all of them when it was given at least a week before they were given a high dose of Ebola. The shot even protected a few monkeys who received it a day after being infected with Ebola. The Ebola virus has five known subtypes, the most common of which are the one that caused the West African outbreak, and . Ebola is also related to Marburg virus, which is similarly lethal. An ideal vaccine would protect against all Ebola strains and Marburg. However, Dr. Kieny said, it may not be possible to make a shot effective against several strains if it is t based on the VSV spine because VSV triggers a lot of side effects. Risks that are acceptable in the midst of a deadly epidemic are not acceptable in a preventive vaccine given to healthy children and adults, several experts noted. The new vaccine is “a step in the right direction but not the ultimate solution,” said Dr. Gary J. Nabel, chief scientific officer for global health research at the Sanofi pharmaceutical company, who designed a different Ebola vaccine in the 1990s when he worked at the National Institutes of Health. A randomized clinical trial involving tens of thousands of subjects is the preferred way to test any vaccine, he noted. But by the time testing could start in in West Africa, isolation and treatment of the sick in tent hospitals had made Ebola cases so rare that researchers had to switch to ring vaccination around the few they could find. A likely candidate for a routine Ebola vaccine is one now being developed by GSK, Dr. Nabel said. It uses two shots: the first has the Ebola surface protein attached to a chimpanzee adenovirus that can infect humans without harming them the second uses a weakened pox virus similar to that used in smallpox vaccine. Dr. Seth F. Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said his organization’s board voted in late 2014 to spend up to $390 million for 12 million doses of an Ebola vaccine. At the time, several companies had candidates but none had been fully tested in humans. “That was at a time when the epidemic was raging and we did not know if it could be controlled without a vaccine,” he said. By early last year, when preliminary results suggested the Merck vaccine worked well, Gavi gave the company $5 million to make 300, 000 doses as an emergency supply to be used if exploded again. It is not yet clear how big a stockpile will eventually be created. Merck is now required to seek approval of its vaccine from the World Health Organization, which itself requires licensing by a major regulatory agency like the United States Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency. | 0fake |
A LOOK INSIDE NORTH KOREA’S Lavish Underground Nuclear Bunker…Is This Why Kim Jong Un Is Unafraid Of Nuclear Conflict? [VIDEO] | A defector from North Korea is cautioning against underestimating Kim Jong Un when it comes to nuclear weapons and he says President Donald Trump may be key to stopping him.Song Byeok escaped from the North in 2002 and currently resides in South Korea. In a new interview, he told The Independent the threat of nuclear war is real as long as Kim Jong-un is in power. I think Kim Jong Un could wage nuclear war if his power is threatened and that is why he needs to be removed as soon as possible, he said.The 48-year-old defector used to create propaganda art for the regime, now he creates protest work. AoLThese pictures show the inside of Pyongyang s 360ft deep metro system that will double up as a nuclear bunker if war breaks out between North Korea and the US.Images show commuters using the world s deepest underground train system which includes two lines with a combined length of 18 miles beneath North Korea s capital.Construction work on the Pyongyang Metro started in 1968 and was inaugurated in 1973 by Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong-un.Watch this fascinating look into North Korea by photographer Andrew McLeod: And while it is usually busy with commuters, the depth of the subway system means citizens could also use it as a shelter should tensions between North Korea and America boil over into full-scale war.The trains are old carriages from Germany which were bought up by North Korea in 1999 as they were heading for the scrap heap. Pyongyang now claims the trains were built in North Korea, but despite attempts to conceal their origin, some old graffiti tags can be seen on the carriages.French photographer Eric Lafforgue captured these images during a trip to the hermit state and said there were only 17 stations on two lines.He said the fare was the equivalent of half a US cent You have to validate your ticket at one of these automatic machines. But they did not work the day I visited. Instead, a train attendant checked was checking the tickets by hand.For entire story: Daily Mail | 1real |
Fight night: Why the South Carolina showdown could turn bloody | The Fox Business debate here in Charleston isn’t billed as a boxing match, but by the time it ends Thursday evening, viewers may not be able to tell the difference.
There is no question that punches will be thrown; the only question is how much blood they draw.
Based on what they did in Milwaukee, I expect Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo to ask civil and substantive questions. Both anchors told me after that encounter, and Cavuto just repeated to the Hollywood Reporter, that debates aren’t about them but about eliciting important information from the candidates.
But this time, that won’t matter.
No matter what questions the moderators ask, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush will find ways to pummel each other. And the reason is simple: Each needs to become the so-called establishment alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Each would be badly wounded by lousy back-to-back showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. Each has been ramping up the rhetoric and unleashing harsh attack ads.
No way they pass up the chance to do that before an audience that could match or exceed the 14 million people who watched the last FBN debate.
Cruz, who tangled with Rubio at that debate over immigration and surveillance, will be in the mix as well. Given that he’s gently started to raise questions about Trump—as a man with “New York values,” for instance—there might be a jab or two in the direction of the man who keeps harping on his Canadian birth. But it’s more likely that the Texas senator will spar mainly with his fellow Cuban-American and the others.
Trump, if the past is any guide, will hang back a bit and engage mostly in counterpunching. But with Iowa polls now showing him either slightly ahead of Cruz or running neck and neck, we may hear him utter the word Canada once or twice.
For the middle-tier candidates, there’s no point in holding back. Bush, Christie and Rubio have an enormous amount invested in a strong New Hampshire finish.
The last FBN debate was unusually polite because it followed the CNBC debacle, with most of the candidates outraged by some condescending and opinionated questions from the moderators. But the 2016 race is in a very different phase now.
These debates, with their huge audiences, have become winnowing events like never before. That’s why Rand Paul is loudly denouncing the decision to knock him off the main stage and refusing to attend the undercard.
Network criteria can deflate candidates by keeping them out of prime time. Mike Huckabee and Carly Fiorina, who had been in prime-time debates, are in the early-evening faceoff here in South Carolina. Christie bounced back from one undercard appearance to the main stage, while Rand Paul is boycotting the 6 p.m. debate. But time is running short.
These debates have a magnified impact because they dominate the media coverage for as much as a week, with key sound bites endlessly replayed and pundits pontificating about the winners and losers. That echo chamber has helped good debaters such as Rubio, Cruz and Christie, and badly hurt Bush after what were seen as lackluster performances.
That’s why the Charleston debate, along with the Fox News debate in Des Moines later this month, looms so large: Some of the contenders could emerge badly bruised--or worse.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. | 0fake |
Iraq Kurdish vote may benefit Syrian Kurds, say their leaders | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Iraqi Kurdish vote for independence could bolster Syria s own Kurds if it pushes the Syrian government to negotiate over autonomy, Syrian Kurdish leaders said on Wednesday. Top Kurdish politician Ilham Ahmed told Reuters that officials from Syria s Kurdish-led regions had already met with the Damascus government twice, but the Russian-brokered dialogue went nowhere. Damascus has opposed autonomy plans that have grown during Syria s six-year-old conflict. But this week, the foreign minister said the government is open to talks with Kurds after the fight against Islamic State militants ends. The impacts, if they continue like (these) comments...then they will be positive, said Ahmed. Monday s referendum in Iraq could also drive Kurdish authorities there to open routes with the autonomous regions that Syrian Kurds and their allies have set up in northern Syria, she added. Iraqi Kurds held their referendum in defiance of their U.S. ally, the Baghdad government, and neighboring Turkey and Iran. The vote delivered a resounding yes to split from Iraq, but is not binding. Across the border in Syria, Kurdish leaders say they do not want secession. The Kurdish YPG militia and its allies have carved out cantons in the north since 2011. They have seized vast territory from Islamic State with U.S. help, although Washington opposes their autonomy plans. With the YPG as a military backbone, the main Syrian Kurdish parties now hold nearly a quarter of the country, and say they seek autonomy as part of a decentralized Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pledged to take back every inch of the country as his army has captured land from rebels and militants with the help of Russia and Iran. We have always sent messages... that we are ready for talks, Ahmed said. We have informed the Russians that they should convince the regime to negotiate. At both meetings, Damascus did not appear serious about talks over the future of the autonomous regions and the demand for a federal system for Syria, she said. Autonomy does not mean separation. Another senior Kurdish politician, Fawza Youssef, said the Iraqi referendum likely had a hand in Damascus adopting a more conciliatory tone toward Syria s large Kurdish population. This is a positive step. And our struggle in the past six years...our military and political victories play the major role in pushing the Syrian government to negotiate, she said. Kurds in northern Syria support the Iraqi Kurdish right to decide their own future, but do not look to follow the example of this week s vote, Youssef said. The reality in Syria and Iraq is not the same, she said. Still, she added, if there will be exclusion of the Kurdish people, stripping them of political and cultural rights...of course with time this would lead to secession. Youssef and Ahmed are both senior members of the Kurdish-led authority running the cantons in northern Syria. Damascus and the YPG have mostly stayed out of each other s way in the war. But tensions have surfaced as both sides with their allies race to capture Deir al-Zor province in eastern Syria. The YPG has been battling Islamic State under a U.S.-backed alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes Arab and other combatants. The territory the SDF has captured in Deir al-Zor so far serves as a breadbasket and a route for imports into Syria, said Ahmed, who co-chairs the force s political wing. So if (Damascus) wants to continue with threats, there will be no benefit from this... But if they understand that dialogue is the right way, that would be the better position. Tensions in eastern Syria might also fuel a shift in the government stance as Damascus might be wary of opening yet another battlefront, she said. Kurdish-led authorities held elections in northern Syria last week for local community leaders, part of a process that will culminate with electing a parliament. Syria s Kurdish region borders Turkey and the Kurdish government of northern Iraq, which are both hostile toward the YPG. Ankara views the militia as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a three-decade insurgency inside Turkey. Youssef and Ahmed said the vote next door could lead to mending ties with Iraq s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) if Iraqi Kurdistan faces more pressure. Turkey and Iran have threatened to impose a blockade. They warn the referendum will spark regional chaos, and fear the spread of separatism among their own Kurdish populations. If they shut the roads, (the KRG) will have to open a route, fix relations, and possibly trade with northern Syria, Ahmed said. That would be good of course. | 0fake |
Trump Laughably Claims He Knows More About Cyber Attacks Than The CIA | Donald Trump is now saying that he knows more about computer hacking than the experts at the CIA and our other intelligence agencies.During an interview with the New York Times prior to a New Year s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, Trump once again defended Russia and Putin by questioning the validity of an assessment by the intelligence community concluding that Russia meddled with our political process. I just want them to be sure because it s a pretty serious charge, Trump said before invoking the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong. So I want them to be sure. I think it s unfair if they don t know. But that s not exactly true. Former CIA official Tyler Drumheller said in 2006 that the Bush Administration ignored intelligence concluding that Iraq did NOT have weapons of mass destruction. When presented with the assessment, Bush and his team refused to believe it and went to war in Iraq anyway.So when Trump blames the intelligence community for getting WMDs in Iraq wrong, it s inaccurate. They actually got it right. Bush was the one who was wrong by ignoring them.Trump didn t stop there, however. Just like when he claimed to know more about ISIS than our generals, Trump claimed to know more about hacking than the experts at our intelligence agencies. And I know a lot about hacking, Trup continued. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation. He basically said the same thing on Twitter in December.Unless you catch hackers in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn t this brought up before election? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016So apparently, Trump fancies himself a military genius and a computer expert.Seriously, Trump needs to stop pretending he knows things that he doesn t really know. The reality is that he has never served in our military. He s an expert at draft-dodging but he is certainly no expert on ISIS. And while he clearly knows how to use social media, Trump definitely does not know how to hack a computer. HOur intelligence agencies know how to trace hacks because hacking leaves traces and signatures that can be used to determine where the hack originated.That s how we know Russia hacked us. It s incredibly dangerous for Trump to claim that he knows all this stuff and that he knows more than the experts. Because then he can undermine the experts all the time and his gullible supporters will believe him instead of the facts, which is what Trump has been doing for over a year and a half now. If Trump knows more about something, it s being a con artist. He s been doing that for decades so he s total pro.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
Menendez: ’Not Sure’ What Message Is Sent Commuting Manning While Raising Concern About WikiLeaks and Election - Breitbart | On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Senator Robert Menendez ( ) reacted to the commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence by stating, “at a time that we are seriously questioning what Russia did, as it relates to our recent elections, and the role that WikiLeaks … has played in that regard, I’m not sure what type of message we send here. ” Menendez said, “I don’t know why he did it, and so, I look forward to hearing his reasoning, because I just heard about it. But the reality is I have serious concerns about equivocating sentences when national security’s at stake. What happened here is that, literally hundreds of thousands of documents were released. It put national security at risk. It put individual operatives at risk. It put our national interests at risk with other countries. And at a time that we are seriously questioning what Russia did, as it relates to our recent elections, and the role that WikiLeaks … has played in that regard, I’m not sure what type of message we send here. And, so, I’m really surprised that the president took this action and I have concerns about what message we send about ultimately revealing sensitive national security documents. ” He further wondered, “[W]hat message do we send for the next person who thinks that they can get a treasure trove of documents released because something inspires them to do so and the consequences that flow from that?” And “if at the end of the day, you think you can do that, and then have your sentence commuted, I’m not sure that we send the right message. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
FPL shuts one reactor in Florida, reduces power at another after Irma | (Reuters) - Florida Power & Light shut Unit 4 at the Turkey Point nuclear power station in Florida Sunday night due to a likely valve issue, and is reducing power at Unit 1 at the St Lucie power plant due to salt build up in the switchyard, a spokesman at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday. He could not say whether the Turkey Point 4 outage was related to Hurricane Irma, which battered Florida over the weekend, and he could not say whether FPC planned to shut or just reduce St Lucie 1. | 0fake |
Fake Cigarettes are Being Sold and Killing People, Here’s how to Spot Counterfeit Packs | We’ve all heard of knockoff designer handbags and fake sunglasses, but now some people in Detroit are coming to the realization that they may be purchasing fake brand-name cigarettes.
Scammers have recently been targeting those who have the already expensive habit by placing cheap cigarettes in name-brand cartridges, and gas stations are selling them at a discounted price.
“The taste was different and stale!” said one woman who believes the pack of Newports she bought from a gas station on Detroit’s west side is fake. The woman said the fake cartridges don’t have ridges, but the real ones do.
China is said to be flooding the world markets with cheap cigarettes packaged to look like the actual product consumers want to buy. But these cigarettes, experts say, can be far more harmful for your health.
Michigan State Police said they have a team that inspects tobacco sales, and they do come across counterfeits from time to time.
The key, they say, is to look for the tax stamp on the back of the box.
TMZ Breaking
SOURCE | 1real |
With Mass Protests, South Koreans Wield a Familiar Weapon in a New Era - The New York Times | We called it the Yonsei Beach Club. It convened the last time South Koreans exploded in protest and forced a government to capitulate, in 1987, when a small band of reporters and photographers would assemble to chronicle the daily demonstrations by students at Yonsei University in Seoul. Then as now, mass protest was a powerful weapon deployed by enraged citizens who felt they had nowhere else to turn but the streets. Thirty years later, it’s clear how far Korean democracy has advanced. Then, South Korea was a dictatorship, protests were outlawed and the threat of torture, imprisonment and martial law . The emblem of the Beach Club was a gas mask, because the throngs of riot police in Darth Vader masks lobbed tear gas canisters at students whose weapons were moral force, rocks and homemade firebombs. Students have long been at the vanguard of South Korea’s robust history of protest, drawing on Confucian traditions that elevated scholars as guardians of morality. They helped topple a government in 1960 and rebelled in the southern city of Kwangju in 1980, only to be massacred by a military junta led by Chun who later made himself president. The death under torture of a student, Park in January 1987 helped set off the wave of demonstrations against Mr. Chun’s rule. South Korea’s dictators had offered economic growth and political repression its people were clamoring for more. By the spring, the demonstrations at Yonsei had become a daily ritual. The students would assemble, tying kerchiefs around their mouths the police would pounce and the tear gas would eventually drive the protesters back. Yonsei produced its own martyr, Lee who died after a canister hit him in the head. Gradually, the protests spilled into downtown Seoul and across the country in a rhythm both violent and predictable. The morning would dawn, with spent tear gas canisters and shards of rocks littering the streets, the acrid fumes still stinging skin and burning lungs. The riot police would muster near the police stations, young and vulnerable without their threatening masks, drinking tea and wiping the sweat from their foreheads. Young goons known as “skeleton troops,” trained in martial arts and feared for the brutal beatings they inflicted on protesters, would mass. But in the end they were no match for the tens of thousands of Koreans who set fear aside and confronted the police. I saw an older woman, hair neatly coifed, beat a policeman with her handbag. A young father hoisted his little girl on his shoulder, carefully affixing a surgical mask to her face, an imperfect shield from the gas. A student in Kwangju bit his finger and wrote protest slogans in his own blood. Ordinary citizens broke up sidewalk tiles and handed them to students to hurl at the riot police. Office workers, in the past too frightened to risk their jobs, came out at night and honked horns in solidarity. People threw water from rooftops to try to douse the gas. It is hard to overstate the repression and fear. The game between police and protesters would continue into the night. With nightly propaganda airing on television, before cellphones or the web, truth was elusive and rumors flew. One night the lights at the hotel went out, and a few of us ran out into the street, convinced that martial law had been imposed — only to find that a nearby Christmas display had caused a blackout. In a scene still indelible after so many years, I sat in a courtroom as the torturers of the young student went on trial. It was just a week or so since the protests had forced the government to yield. Months before, the police had crushed the student’s neck against the side of a bathtub as they repeatedly pushed him under water. At the trial, his father lunged at the three policemen, small and scared now, protected by more than 50 guards. Screams broke out and a purse flew through the air at the judges as the light sentence was read. Women whose sons were still in jail stormed the bus carrying the policemen, throwing bottles against the windows. Plainclothes police shoved the four of them onto the concrete, where they lay unconscious. By contrast, the protests this year have been peaceful, allowed to proceed unimpeded by the strong arm of the government. South Korea has come far, but as these last months showed, it is still an imperfect democracy. Laws are still on the books that can be used as tools to stifle dissent. South Korea remains shadowed by legitimate fears of North Korean aggression and espionage, but those were and are exploited by the government. A national security law was used 30 years ago as a pretext for repression by contrast, President Park whose impeachment was backed by legislators on Friday, disbanded a party and arrested its leaders under the auspices of the law. In the 1980s, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency had plants in every government office. Those appear to be gone, but its successor agency, the National Intelligence Service, still keeps tabs on government agencies and was accused of launching smear campaigns against Ms. Park’s opponents during her campaign in 2012. Ms. Park used South Korea’s laws criminalizing defamation to charge and imprison government critics and the press. Any South Korean president retains control of police, prosecutors and tax collectors. Endemic corruption is a scourge and erodes public faith in the integrity of government. Watching the protests from afar, at a distance of so many years, I was reminded of what I’d felt as a young foreign correspondent: awe and respect for the courage, tenacity and passion of the South Korean public. This is not a tame society, for all the comforts its public has won in the years since. This may be the land of Psy and Gangnam style, a country so wired that some of its children are sent to boot camps to wean them from internet addiction. But in a capital I’m told I would find unrecognizably sleek and affluent, in a system still encumbered by remnants of the security state, I recognize something I came to know well years ago: Politicians buck the popular will at their peril. | 0fake |
Hillary’s “Big Tent” is Obama’s “Grand Bargain” on Steroids | 2016 presidential campaign by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Barack Obama tried to woo Republicans into a “Grand Bargain” that would have gutted Social Security. Bill Clinton let loose the banks. But Donald Trump’s destruction of the Republican Party will allow Hillary Clinton to “gather the whole of the ruling class under the same party banner, in one Big Tent, where the grandest of bargains can be conceived and achieved without crossing an aisle.” The rich are about to get their best deal yet. Hillary’s “Big Tent” is Obama’s “Grand Bargain” on Steroids by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“ The exodus from the GOP has suddenly transformed the Democratic Party into the primary political instrument of the ruling class.”
When Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to the Republican Party he provided the unexpected catalyst for completion of the corporate project begun by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and other white Democrats in the 1980s, with the founding of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). To counter relentless attrition of whites to the GOP in their home states, these beleaguered, mostly southern Democrats sought national corporate funding to turn their party decisively to the right. They reckoned, correctly, that a steady stream of corporate capital would allow them to control the new wave of Black voters and politicians that had been mobilized by Rev. Jesse Jackson’s two presidential campaigns, while strengthening the hand of the South in national Democratic Party calculations.
Bill Clinton became the first DLC president in 1992, and moved swiftly and methodically to narrow the ideological differences between the duopoly parties. He completed much of Ronald Reagan’s agenda, claiming it as his own; destroyed welfare “as we knew it”; vastly expanded the mass Black Incarceration regime; pushed NAFTA through Congress over the objections of majorities in his own party; engineered the corporate monopolization of broadcast media; and removed the last safety straps from Wall Street banks.
“Clinton arranged the deployment of thousands of foreign jihadists to Bosnia and Kosovo.”
In foreign affairs, Clinton initiated what was to become the doctrine of “humanitarian” military intervention, dismantling and partially occupying the socialist nation of Yugoslavia. In the process, Clinton arranged the deployment of thousands of foreign jihadists to Bosnia and Kosovo, thus keeping operational the network created by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Pakistan during the previous decade in Afghanistan. In Africa, Clinton conspired with Uganda and exiled Tutsi rebels to overthrow the Hutu majority government in Rwanda, setting off a bloodbath in 1994, followed two years later by an invasion of Congo that has killed more than six million people -- and still counting.
Barack Obama was the second DLC president (although he lies about his membership). He, too, moved with unseemly haste to reach a “Grand Bargain” with the GOP -- not of necessity, since he had won a huge electoral mandate with the overwhelming financial backing of Wall Street, but as a matter of ideological principle. In January of 2009, before even taking the oath of office, Obama told the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Washington Post that all “entitlements,” including Medicare and Social Security, would be “ on the table ” for cutting in his administration. Obama’s first project, now considered the centerpiece of his legacy, was to resurrect the rightwing Heritage Foundation’s corporate health insurance scheme, adopted by Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole in 1996, and made into state law by Republican Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in 2006. Obama’s Affordable Care Act was, literally, written by lobbyists for the insurance and drug industries, and is now collapsing like a poorly constructed house at the end of its mortgage.
“For the better part of two years Obama debased himself, all but begging the Republicans to consummate his ‘Grand Bargain.’”
With the Democratic majority in Congress in no mood to tamper with Social Security and Medicare, Obama tried to maneuver the targeted entitlements into a financial crisis trap. He named two dependable reactionaries, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, as co-chairmen of his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, also called the Commission on Deficit Reduction. They dutifully recommended $4 trillion in budget cuts, mostly to social programs, including cuts to Social Security. Although the full commission did not endorse the chairs’ recommendations, and the Congress failed to pass bills modeled on the document, Obama used the Simpson-Bowles formula as a basis for negotiating what he hoped would be a “bipartisan” (GOP plus Obama and a minority of Democrats) massacre of entitlements. For the better part of two years Obama debased himself, all but begging the Republicans to consummate his “Grand Bargain.” Congressional Black Caucus chairman Emanuel Cleaver, of Kansas City, called the deal a “ Satan’s Sandwich ,” but Obama continued to pursue a political marriage made in hell until the 2012 reelection campaign clock called a halt to the spectacle.
“A de facto super-party of the bourgeoisie.”
The quest for a Grand Bargain was Barack Obama’s failed attempt to best Bill Clinton in erasing the distinctions between the two major parties – to create a de facto super-party of the bourgeoisie. It was the Republicans who ran away from the altar. And the Democrats did eat much of the Satan’s Sandwich, through sequestration and austerity that ravaged social programs by other means.
Why did the Republicans reject the deal? Although both halves of the duopoly ultimately answer to Wall Street, the Republicans, like any other party, have an institutional interest in winning office. It is true that Obama had crafted a deal that any Republican would love, but it was still his deal, and he planned to run for reelection as an historical dealmaker. Probably just as importantly, the Republican Party is the White Man’s party, meaning, white supremacy is its organizing principle, central to its identity among much of the masses. To embrace Obama, no matter how advantageous to their big business patrons, was a hug too far for the GOP. Racism doomed the Grand Bargain – Hallelujah!
A New, Bigger Bargain
Recently released Wikileaks emails reveal Hillary Clinton speaking to bankers at Morgan Stanley in 2013, a year after the debacle. “The Simpson-Bowles framework and the big elements of it were right,” she said.
Thanks to Donald Trump’s demolition of the Republican Party, the conditions have been created for Hillary Clinton, as DLC President #3, to achieve what #1 and #2 could not: gather the whole of the ruling class under the same party banner, in one Big Tent, where the grandest of bargains can be conceived and achieved without crossing an aisle. With most of the ruling class and its attendants having vacated the building, the Republican Party has been reduced to Donald Trump and his “deplorables,” as Hillary calls them. Trump’s opposition to corporate trade deals violated the Holy Grail against prohibiting capitalists from moving money and jobs around the world as they see fit, and his reluctance to support regime change as an inherent right of American exceptionalism has frightened and outraged the military industrial complex, the national security establishment, and all sectors dependent on the maintenance of empire.
“An inherently unstable arrangement.”
Clinton’s Big Tent is not a temporary, election season dwelling. It is how she plans to govern. The exodus from the GOP has suddenly transformed the Democratic Party into the primary political instrument of the ruling class, while at the same time the party nominally represents most of the folks who are abused and misused by that ruling class. It is an inherently unstable arrangement, and will soon be wracked by splits, as a post-Trump GOP attempts to lure its fat cats back and the darker and poorer constituencies consigned to the latrine area of Hillary’s high class tent break to the Left for air.
But in the interim, Clinton will have a unique opportunity to cut grand austerity deals with all the “big elements” of Simpson-Bowles, to renege on her corporate trade promises, and to wage war with great gusto in the name of a “united” country. Ever since the Democratic National Convention it has been clear that the Clintonites are encouraged to consider everyone outside of their grand circle to be suspect, subversive, or depraved. Their inclusive rhetoric is really an invocation of a ruling class consensus, now that Trump has supposedly brought the ruling class together under one banner. In Hillary’s tent, the boardrooms are always in session. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected] . | 1real |
Trump INFURIATES Intelligence Community, Puts National Security At Risk Before He Even Takes Office | Donald Trump is easily the least qualified candidate to run for (and eventually win) the White House. The most dangerous aspect of the fact that he has no government or military experience isn t necessarily the lack of experience itself, but rather his refusal to listen to the people who do have that experience and allow them to guide the ship of state in this dangerous and complicated world until he can be adequately brought up to speed. Case in point his refusal to receive daily national intelligence briefings since his victory.According to The Hill, Trump has been given the green light by the Obama Administration to receive daily intelligence briefings prior to taking office the same ones that President Obama himself gets. Instead, Trump has received just two of those briefings since he clinched the electoral victory and thus the presidency, because he is refusing to listen to intelligence officials.These briefings include the rapidly changing scope of national security threats on the world stage, something Trump is definitely woefully ignorant of. However, being the egotistical scumbag that he is, Trump of course seems to believe himself to be above such petty concerns. I never thought I d be saying this, but it seems that Trump s vice presidential-elect, Mike Pence, is showing himself to be the reasonable one here, and has taken to receiving the briefings himself, since Trump won t. You know we re in deep shit when the likes of the climate and evolution denying, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ religious nut that is Mike Pence can be described as the reasonable voice in the room, but here we are.Of course, the sycophants who regularly make the rounds on all of the political talks shows to excuse away Trump s dangerous nonsense are pushing back on the idea that he is out of his element and needs all the help he can get in this area before taking the oath of office. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) insisted in an interview with the Washington Post, which first broke this alarming development, that the security of America and her people is Trump s No. 1 priority, going on to say that he thinks Trump is taking it very seriously. Ever more defensive, Nunes continued: Look how many leaders he s met with, how many phone calls he s done, positions he s filled. People who are being critical need to get a life. No, we, the citizens of this great country have every right to push back on bizarre and dangerous irregularities like this, Rep. Nunes. Here we have a man who knows nothing about the world attempting to lead it on the most potentially lethal ego trip the world has ever seen and who refuses to take the advice of those who have the potential to save us all. A top security official has already said that Trump, quote, has a lot of catching up to do, in this arena, and yet he is refusing to get the help he needs.Actions speak louder than words, and Trump s actions say that he is more interested in parading candidates for his cabinet for the cameras in some kind of dangerous and bizarre real world reality show, using his new position to wheel and deal in his own business interests, and flying around the country in his jet rather than actually, you know, trying to learn how to run the nation and lead the free world.Be very afraid, America. Be very, very afraid of what we have gotten ourselves into.Featured image via Zach Gibson/Getty Images | 1real |
Dr. Duke and Andrew Anglin discuss the most important vote and election of our lives! | Dr. Duke and Andrew Anglin discuss the most important vote and election of our lives! November 7, 2016 at 12:32 pm
Dr. Duke and Andrew Anglin discuss the most important vote and election of our lives!
Today Dr. Duke had Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin as his guest for the hour. They talked about the importance of the election tomorrow. They remarked that the Clinton campaign makes baseless accusations that the Russians could hack our voting machines to manipulate the election, but then insisting that Trump is beyond the pale for suggesting that the Hillary forces could possibly rig the vote.
They also talked about New York Times columnist David Brooks admission on the PBS News Hour that as a result of globalization, immigration, and feminism, white men in America have been “displaced,”“shafted,” and “ruined,” and that their support for Trump is due to them “going with their gene pool.” Brooks, a Jewish Republican, says the one person he cannot support for President is Donald Trump.
And now, a message from Andrew Anglin:
Meanwhile, the media is admitting that voting machines will be hacked .
We have to overwhelm the polls tomorrow. You must get everyone you know to vote . Call them right now. Don’t wait. Go through your phonebook on your cellphone and call up every single person you know who is not a totally liberal commie, and make sure they are going to vote. Offer to give them a ride if they need it.
Let’s do this, people.
Immediately following the show Dr. Duke got an mailbox full of emails saying this was the most powerful and inspiring radio broadcast they ever heard! Spread it around.
Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern.
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And please spread this message to others. | 1real |
Clinton adds pop of celebrity in homestretch of campaign | MIAMI (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose buoyant position in opinion polls has been threatened by a surprising new twist in the saga over her emails, on Saturday harnessed some celebrity star power she hopes will help win the battleground state of Florida on Nov. 8. Musician and actor Jennifer Lopez headlined a free concert in Miami as part of a star-studded effort to get out the vote and energize volunteers. “We’re at a crossroads and we have to take the right road to the future,” Lopez shouted to screaming fans in rain gear who danced through rain and a shower of red, white and blue confetti. The concert provided some visual counter-programming to the latest email snafu to roil Clinton’s race to win the White House. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday it is investigating more emails as part of a probe into Clinton’s use of a private email system - a late-breaking surprise that will likely continue to get extensive media play leading up Election Day. Clinton’s campaign has said she is taking the news in stride, and on Saturday she lashed out at FBI Director James Comey over the review. The JLo event was the first of three high-profile concerts in states Clinton wants to keep from Republican rival Donald Trump, and it gave the former secretary of state a chance to connect with the key demographic of millennials she has sometimes struggled to reach. “If we turn out, we win,” Clinton told the crowd. Celebrity-driven events like the concert “can serve as a bit of a distraction” from the controversy, said Eric Kasper, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. “It is a way to kind of take the edge off things because it tends to be more positive,” Kasper said. Next week, Clinton will take the stage with Jay Z in Cleveland, and then with Katy Perry in Philadelphia on Nov. 5. A Harvard University poll this week showed that among likely voters aged 18 to 29, Clinton is leading Trump, a celebrity in his own right who starred in the reality television show “The Apprentice.” But turnout is a concern. The exceptionally negative tone of this year’s race for the White House has turned off young Americans, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows. Presidential candidates have long sought to create buzz with help from celebrity pals, said Tevi Troy, who chronicled the strategy in his book “What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Pop Culture in the White House.” “Campaigns do it to reach out to people who are not necessarily interested in politics but are interested in pop culture,” said Troy, a presidential historian who worked in the George W. Bush White House. The events are like a larger version of a campaign yard sign, a way to show a “groundswell” of support behind a candidate - and a way to appeal to fans of the musicians, Kasper said. “It can create a kind of psychological connection that we otherwise might not have when a politician endorses a presidential candidate, for instance,” Kasper said. | 0fake |
De e-mails van Hillary Clinton en de Moslimbroederschap, door Thierry Meyssan | De e-mails van Hillary Clinton en de Moslimbroederschap door Thierry Meyssan De FBI enquête betreffende de privé e-mails van Hillary Clinton gaat niet over een nalatigheid ten opzichte van de veiligheidsregels, maar over een complot met het doel elk spoor af te leiden van haar correspondenties die gearchiveerd hadden moeten zijn op de servers van de Federale Staat. Deze kunnen de uitwisselingen omvatten over illegale financieringen of corruptie, andere over de banden tussen de eega’s Clinton en de Moslimbroederschap en de jihadisten.
Voltaire Netwerk | Damascus (Syrië) | 6 november 2016 ελληνικά English Español français Türkçe русский Deutsch Português italiano norsk عربي Hillary Clinton en haar kabinetschef Huma Abedin. De heractivering van de FBI enquête in de privé e-mails van Hillary Clinton betreffen niet meer de veiligheidsregels, maar de manipulaties die kunnen gaan tot hoogverraad.
Technisch, in plaats de beveiligde server van de Federale Staat te gebruiken, had de Staatssecretaresse in haar woning een privé server laten installeren, om op die manier het internet te kunnen gebruiken zonder sporen op een machine van de Federale Staat achter te laten. De privé technicus van Mevr Clinton had haar server uitgewist vòòr de aankomst van de FBI, zodat het onmogelijk was te weten waarom zij dit dispositief had ingericht.
In het begin heeft de FBI geobserveerd dat de server niet de beveiliging van het State Department had. Mevr Clinton had dus slechts een veiligheidsfout begaan. Later heeft de FBI de computer van het vroegere congreslid Anthony Weiner in beslag genomen. Deze is de vroegere echtgenoot van Huma Abedin, kabinetschef van Hillary. Daarin zijn E-mails afkomstig van de Staatssecretaresse teruggevonden.
Anthony Weiner is een Joods politicus, heel intiem bevriend met de Clintons, die ambieerde burgemeester van New York te worden. Hij moest ontslag nemen als gevolg van een zeer puriteinse schandaal: hij had per SMS erotische berichten naar een andere jonge vrouw dan zijn echtgenote gestuurd. Huma Abedin scheidde officieel van hem tijdens deze agitatie, maar verliet hem in werkelijkheid niet.
Huma Abedin is een Amerikaanse opgevoed in Saoedi-Arabië. Haar vader dirigeert een academische revue —waar ze gedurende jaren redactiesecretaresse van was— die regelmatig de mening van de Moslimbroederschap reproduceert. Haar moeder presideert de Saoedische vereniging van de vrouwelijke leden van de Moslimbroederschap en werkte samen met de vrouw van de Egyptische president Mohamed Morsi. Haar broer Hassan werkt voor de sjeik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, prediker van de Broederschap en geestelijke adviseur van Al-Jazeera.
Ter gelegenheid van een officiële reis naar Saoedi-Arabië bezoekt de Staatssecretaresse het college Dar al-Hekma in het bijzijn van Salehan Abedin (moeder van haar kabinetschef), presidente van de vereniging van de Zusters leden van de Broederschap. Huma Abedin is heden een centraal personage van Clinton’s verkiezingscampagne, naast John Podesta, vroegere secretaris-generaal van het Witte-Huis tijdens het presidentschap van Bill Clinton. Daarnaast is Podesta de vaste lobbyist van het Saoedische koninkrijk in het Amerikaanse Congres voor de bescheiden som van 200.000 dollar maandelijks. Op 12 juni 2016 had Petra, het officiële persbureau van Jordanië, een interview gepubliceerd van de Arabische prins Ben Salmane, die pochte over de moderniteit van zijn familie die illegaal 20% van de presidentscampagne van Hillary Clinton had gefinancierd, hoewel dat een vrouw is. De dag na de publicatie annuleerde het agentschap dit bericht, verzekerend dat zijn site gepirateerd was.
Volgens het officiële Jordaanse persbureau Petra van 12 juni 2016 heeft de Saoedische koninklijke familie illegaal 20% van de verkiezingscampagne van Hillary Clinton gefinancierd. Mevr Abedin is niet het enige lid van de Obama administratie die aan de Broederschap verbonden is. De half-broer van de president, Abon’go Malik Obama, is de schatmeester van het Missiewerk van de Broeders in Soedan en president van de Stichting Barack H. Obama. Hij staat rechtstreeks onder bevel van de Soedanese president Omar el-Béchir. Een Moslimbroeder is lid van de Nationale Veiligheidsraad —de hoogste uitvoerende instantie van de Verenigde Staten—. Van 2009 tot 2012 was dit het geval van Mehdi K. Alhassani. Men weet niet wie hem heeft opgevolgd maar het Witte-Huis ontkende dat een Broeder lid was van de Raad tot er een bewijs van opdook. Het is ook een Broeder die ambassadeur van de Verenigde Staten is bij de Islamitische conferentie, Rashad Hussain. De andere geïdentificeerde Broeders bezetten minder belangrijke posten. HLouay M. Safi moet echter worden genoemd, huidig lid van de Nationale Syrische Coalitie en vorig adviseur van het Pentagon.
President Obama en zijn half-broer Abon’go Malik Obama in het Ovaal Bureau. Abon’go Malik is de schatmeester van het Missiewerk van de Moslimbroeders in Soedan. In April 2009, twee maanden voor zijn redevoering in Caïro, had president Obama in het geheim een delegatie van de Broederschap ontvangen in het Ovaal Bureau. Hij had, voor zijn inhuldiging Ingrid Mattson, presidente van de vereniging van de Moslim Broeders en Zusters in de Verenigde Staten, al uitgenodigd.
Van zijn kant heeft de Stichting Clinton voor zijn project « klimaat » als verantwoordelijke Gehad el-Haddadin in dienst genomen, één van de wereldleiders van de Broederschap, die tot dan toe verantwoordelijke was van een televisie uitzending over de Koran. Zijn vader was één van de mede-oprichters van de Broederschap, in 1951; tijdens de her-oprichting door de CIA en de MI6 heeft Gehad de Stichting in 2012 verlaten, op welke datum hij in Caïro de woordvoerder van kandidaat Mohammed Morsi is geworden, en vervolgens die van de Moslimbroeders, op mondiaal niveau.
Er van uitgaande dat de totaliteit van de jihadisten-leiders in de wereld voortkomen uit hetzij de Broederschap, hetzij uit de orde van de Soefi’s van de Naqshbandîs —de twee componenten van de Islamitische liga, de Arabisch-Saoedische anti-nationalistische organisatie— zou men wel meer willen weten over de relaties tussen Mevr Clinton en Saoedi-Arabië en de Broeders.
Het is trouwens zo dat in het team van haar tegenstander Donald Trump zich generaal T. Flynn bevindt, die poogde zich tegen de creatie van het Kalifaat door het Witte-Huis te verzetten en ontslag nam van de directie van de Defense Intelligence Agency (Militaire Inlichtingendienst) om zijn afwijzing te markeren. Hij gaat hier om met Frank Gaffney, een vroegere « Koude oorlog strijder »,voortaan bestempeld als een « complottist » voor de aanwezigheid van Broeders in de Verenigde Staten te hebben aangeklaagd.
Het spreekt vanzelf dat, vanuit het standpunt van de FBI steun aan jihadistische organisaties een misdaad is, wat ook de politiek van de CIA mag zijn. In 1991 had de politie —en senator Kelly— het failliet van de Pakistaanse (hoewel in de Caymaneilanden geregistreerde) bank BCCI geprovoceerd, welke de CIA voor allerlei geheime operaties met zowel de Moslimbroeders als met de latino-amerikaanse drugskartels gebruikte.
Thierry Meyssan Vertaling
Bart Ero | 1real |
CHECKMATE! President Trump Just Made A HUGE Announcement About The White House Correspondents’ Dinner | President Trump just pulled the rug out from under the press yet another time He just tweeted he won t be going to The White House Correspondents Dinner this year:OBAMA ON TRUMP: | 1real |
Justice Dept. Says Judge in Immigration Case Is Out of Bounds - The New York Times | The Obama administration on Tuesday escalated a feud with the federal judge hearing a challenge to the president’s executive actions on immigration, accusing the judge of overstepping his authority by imposing sanctions on government lawyers for what he said were ethics violations. In court papers, the Justice Department responded to an order on May 19 by Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville, Tex. in which he ordered government lawyers practicing in the 26 states involved in the case to take ethics courses. He also barred some from appearing in his court. In the scathing ruling, Judge Hanen ordered the department to provide the names of tens of thousands of immigrants who were granted protection from deportation for three years under the president’s programs, before the judge imposed an injunction in February 2015. The Justice Department disputed the judge’s claim that its lawyers had intentionally lied to him and called his punishments grossly disproportionate, even if they had committed the missteps. The department said the measures ordered by the judge would cost the government as much as $8 million over five years and force the administration to reveal the identities of innocent immigrants who played no role in the dispute. “The department emphatically disagrees with the sanctions orders,” said a spokesman for the agency, Patrick Rodenbush. The department has asked Judge Hanen for an emergency stay of his order — which he is unlikely to grant — and said it would appeal his order. The dispute is a side issue in the lawsuit brought by Texas and 25 other states against the programs President Obama announced in November 2014 that would give deportation protection and work permits to more than four million immigrants in the country illegally. Judge Hanen’s injunction was upheld by an appeals court, and the case is before the Supreme Court. In the latest episode, the administration is making the same argument against the judge that he made against Mr. Obama, saying that Judge Hanen overreached the bounds of his authority and is arbitrarily imposing big costs on government budgets. At issue is when government lawyers told Judge Hanen that more than 100, 000 deportation deferrals with a newly expanded term of three years had been granted under a separate program for young undocumented immigrants who came here as children. Government lawyers have acknowledged that they at first overlooked the fact that those deferrals were covered by the lawsuit. Administration officials said they complied with an earlier order by Judge Hanen to recall about 2, 500 deferrals issued after his injunction, replacing them with deferrals with the original terms. But the fiery language from both sides shows the intense differences in the case. In his original order, punctuated with quotations from famous movies about lawyers, Judge Hanen accused the Justice Department’s lawyers of “unseemly and unprofessional conduct. ” In a statement filed in court, Leon Rodríguez, the director of the immigration agency in charge of the president’s programs, said the judge’s demand for a list of about 50, 000 immigrants with deferrals living in the 26 states would be an “unprecedented breach” of the confidentiality of immigration applications. “There is so much bad blood” between the judge and the lawyers, said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who is an expert on judicial ethics and is not involved in the immigration case. He said the judge’s order, coming before the Supreme Court’s decision, was “both precipitous and excessive,” because Judge Hanen did not explain why he extended his ethics schooling to lawyers who had no part in the case. | 0fake |
Frederick Wiseman: The Filmmaker Who Shows Us Ourselves - The New York Times | One of the most important and original filmmakers working today, Frederick Wiseman has been making documentaries for 50 years. His movies are about specific places — institutions, organizations, cities and communities: the New York neighborhood of Jackson Heights the coastal town of Belfast, Me. the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind American Ballet Theater the National Gallery in London. What interests Mr. Wiseman is how these institutions reflect the larger society and what they reveal about human behavior. His documentaries can be long. The and running times might seem forbidding, but there is rarely a dull moment, in spite of the absence of conventional narrative. Very quickly, you find yourself absorbed in patterns and details as meaning emerges surfacing moment by moment, encounter by encounter, in bodies and faces alone and in groups. In “Basic Training,” men become soldiers order by order and step by step. In “Deaf,” students learn to speak through sounds and gestures, repeating words and sentences with their teachers until communication is achieved. There can be an abstract, mechanical quality to the way bodies function in these institutions, but even as people can look like moving parts in a large machine, the camera registers their individuality. Mr. Wiseman’s great subject is human beings, in all of their — of our — variety and uniqueness. On Friday, April 14, the first half of a complete retrospective of his work begins at Film Forum. It’s a fitting tribute and arrives at a particularly productive moment for this prolific director, who in November received an honorary Academy Award. A ballet based on his 1967 film, “Titicut Follies,” opened last month in Minneapolis, and he has completed a new documentary, “Ex Libris,” about the New York Public Library, due later this year. “What’s kept me going,” Mr. Wiseman, who is 87, said upon receiving his Oscar, “is that it’s fun and an adventure. Constantly working also keeps me off the street, or at least on the streets that I like. ” What follows is a very partial introduction to some of the highlights and defining themes of his distinctive and capacious body of work. “The ideas of the movie came out of the absolute sense of shock about what Bridgewater was about,” Mr. Wiseman once said of his most notorious film, which takes place in the state prison for the criminally insane at Bridgewater, Mass. A principled and gravely disturbing look into the void, it remains an appalling inquiry into penal abuse. What Mr. Wiseman found was too much for Massachusetts, which sought to ban the film for, as a trial judge put it in 1967, an “unwarranted” intrusion into the “right to privacy of each inmate. ” The legal wrangling centered on the inmates’ rights versus the public’s right to know and opened a constellation of issues involving documentary ethics and thorny questions of informed consent. Unlike Mr. Wiseman, the film’s opponents were uncomfortably silent on the prison’s barbarism and basic human rights, and at times seemed more concerned with the reputation of Massachusetts than with the inmates’ welfare. In 1969, its Supreme Court suggested as much: “There is a collective, indecent intrusion into the most private aspects of the lives of these unfortunate persons in the Commonwealth’s custody. ” The ban on public screenings remained in place until 1991. Now, 50 years later, the film can be seen for what it was: a work of political art and moral outrage. (Manohla Dargis) Mr. Wiseman’s documentaries are about institutions — the bricks, mortar, endless meetings and all the moving parts — including all the moving, walking and talking people who go into making them. A consummate dialectician, he likes to toggle between the general and the specific, creating a kind of accordion effect as images of buildings give way to images of people inside those buildings and longer views oscillate with of faces and body parts. In “Blind” (1986) fingers trace Braille dots in “Boxing Gym” (2010) the focus turns to fists and feet. In his 1971 film “Basic Training,” Mr. Wiseman followed a company of drafted and enlisted men at Fort Knox, Ky. as it is put through its paces. He shot the movie in the summer of 1970, after the first Vietnam draft lottery was instituted, and it is populated with achingly young men as they become a marching, shooting, “Yes, sir” unit. It’s a stark, dehumanizing process filled with bracingly human moments, as when a black soldier accused of not following orders tells a white soldier: “Let’s be frank with each other, now you know this is not my country. ” One of the film’s most haunting moments takes place during a combat exercise. By then, the soldiers are marching in sync — chanting “Mr. Nixon dropped the I don’t want to go to ’Nam” — and seemingly ready for war. With their faces smeared in camouflage paint and leaves stuck on their helmets, they practice their moves, silently raising and lowering arms and legs to the sounds of buzzing insects. As one man lifts his arm, the camera follows the upward motion and then pauses on his delicate hand poised against the sky. It’s a image: With fingers as thin as a Gothic Jesus, this hand was made to kill and belongs to a man who might die. (M. D.) Political activists in the ’60s used to joke that “freedom is an endless meeting. ” Mr. Wiseman, who began his career as a filmmaker in that decade, has a preoccupation with process that may be a generational characteristic. Or it may just be that he’s a sensitive chronicler of modern life, an enormous proportion of which consists of committee work. A meeting — formal or informal, routine or hastily gathered, tedious or contentious — amounts to a Wiseman signature, like a shootout in a Tarantino movie or a dirty joke in a Judd Apatow comedy. When a group of people gather in a room, the business of the world is being done (or postponed or discussed or avoided, which amounts to the same thing). More crucial, it is being witnessed, by the camera and the audience, so that essential information can be imparted about the workings of law and order, art and politics, knowledge and power. If you listen closely, you can glean useful insights into such matters. But you also gain a kind of ecstatic anthropological insight into rituals that are both banal and outlandish, and an initiation into the mysteries of human psychology. You notice posture and gesture, who talks too much and who stays silent, who is passive and who is aggressive. Meetings are the most quotidian moments in a Wiseman documentary, but also, often, the most intriguing. They are nuggets of real life and eruptions of pure theater. (A. O. Scott) Action leads to reaction, and sometimes a push earns a shove. That’s true throughout Mr. Wiseman’s work, which is filled with people — teachers, guards, bureaucrats, choreographers — telling other people what to do and how to do it, as well as where, when and why. Some of this can seem benign, as when executives in “National Gallery” (2014) meet to discuss the London museum of the title. When that talk turns to branding, though, and voices start to sharpen, a meeting about prestige, publicity and populism evolves into a larger debate about survival — as well as one very civilized power struggle. In other Wiseman films, power is brutal and blunt. That’s particularly true in the earlier films, in which the images are sometimes matched by a startling Manicheanism. The harrowing “Law and Order” (1969) follows a mostly white police force in Kansas City, Mo. as its members go on patrol, answer calls and, in one case, bring a lost, weeping toddler back to the station. It’s a moment of gentleness amid more difficult, at times violent encounters between cops and civilians, as in a horrifying scene in which a white plainclothes detective puts a chokehold on a black prostitute, an action so harsh her tongue juts out of her mouth. It’s a dreadful, terrifying moment and, for this filmmaker, unusual in its viciousness. Generally, violence in Mr. Wiseman’s work remains implied and attenuated, and more a matter of ordinary domination. Few images will seem as familiar to viewers as the scene in “High School” (1968) when an official — the camera tagging behind — patrols one of the school’s halls, demanding passes and ordering students to class. As he shoots out questions — “What are you doin’ here? ,” “Where you goin’? ,” “Pass?” — this disciplinarian isn’t just corralling kids, he is, of course, also preparing them for lives of 9 to 5 submission. Woe to the resisters! (M. D.) One of modern cinema’s great observers, Mr. Wiseman is also a prodigious listener, a visual artist who thinks like a musical composer. He harvests sounds along with images — in many of his films he operates the recording equipment as well as the camera — and shapes the material with an eye and ear for patterns and counterpoint, themes and variations. In most documentaries, human speech is explanatory and expository: Much information is conveyed by means of narration and interviews. Mr. Wiseman avoids these techniques entirely. When people talk in his movies, they aren’t explaining themselves to us they’re expressing themselves to one another. We eavesdrop not only to figure out what’s happening, but also to attend to idioms and rhythms, to the musical qualities of speech. We tune in to the ways language is used by deaf and blind children as well as by judges, politicians and teachers, and also to the different ways it sounds. But words aren’t all we hear. We hear the cadence of boxers’ dancers’ and soldiers’ feet the lapping of waves on the side of a boat the whooshing of skis on an Aspen slope the sighing of the wind in the trees of Central Park. (A. O. S.) The boundaries of New York neighborhoods are determined more by local custom and industry hype than by law or charter. This makes “In Jackson Heights” — about a polyglot, section of Queens — an anomaly in the Wiseman canon. Its setting is not a town or an institution, but something with a less definite shape and a more informal reason for being. Jackson Heights in an accident of demography, geography and zoning. Or maybe it’s a community, a place given coherence by the rough serendipity of strangers adjusting to one another’s presence. Who are they? How do they live together? How do they make it work? (“It” being that elusive thing we like to call democracy.) One answer, hardly surprising in a Wiseman film, is through meetings. We observe gatherings of senior citizens, gay and lesbian residents and recent immigrants. Their conversations are by turns personal, practical and philosophical, and they revolve around the fundamental issues of civic order, which are shown to be at once mundane and grand. How do we keep our streets safe? How do we balance rights and obligations? How do we pursue prosperity without trampling our cherished traditions and common spaces? The wonder of “In Jackson Heights” — Mr. Wiseman’s most Whitmanesque film — is that it grounds a vision of America in the particulars of daily life. It discovers a hero in the person of Daniel Dromm, a New York City councilman who tackles the job of representing his neighborhood with shambling, inexhaustible good cheer. Some of the most moving scenes take place in Mr. Dromm’s office, where members of his staff answer phone calls from constituents who need to talk to someone in government. They don’t always have the right branch — their concerns include constitutional law and United States military policy — but the courtesy and patience with which they are treated provide a timely and permanent lesson in democratic values. (A. O. S.) | 0fake |
NYT Public Editor: Failure to Note Palestinian Terrorist’s Crimes Risks Newspaper’s Credibility | The Times of Israel reports: The New York Times’s public editor Liz Spayd on Tuesday criticized the paper’s department for its failure to list the terror crimes that earned Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti five life sentences in prison, saying such skimping on opinion writers’ biographical information is a repeated fault that discredits the paper. [Barghouti wrote a New York Times piece Sunday in defense of the mass hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners he initiated on Monday. The ’s tag line described Barghouti as a “parliamentarian and leader” but did not mention the terror attacks for which he was convicted. “I see no reason to skimp on this, while failing to do so risks the credibility of the author and the pages,” Spayd wrote in a piece titled “An Author Omits His Crimes, and The Times Does Too. ” Spayd noted that she had spoken personally with Jim Dao, editor of the pages, about the omission of Barghouti’s past. Read more here. | 0fake |
WATCH: An Atheist Just HUMILIATED A Creationist While Debating Evolution In Front Of Noah’s Ark Museum | A creationist tried to debate an atheist about evolution and he got owned within seconds.Outside the recently opened Noah s Ark museum in Kentucky, which took $18 million from taxpayers in violation of the separation of church and state, protesters gathered to counter the bullshit creation story that Ken Ham is trying to shove down everyone s throats.Noted atheist Aron Ra joined the protesters and was soon challenged to a debate on evolution by creationist Eric Hovind, a fundamentalist Christian who agrees with Ham that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time despite all the science that proves otherwise.Conservative Christians like Hovind and Ham reject evolution science and advocate for teaching creationism in science class in order to indoctrinate kids into Christianity against their will.But after the way Hovind got his ass handed to him by science during this encounter on Thursday, it s clear why creationism should never be taught in schools. There are hundreds of state-funded museums around the world teaching the religion of evolution, Hovind whined even though evolution is science, not religion.One protester pointed out that those state-funded museums do not discriminate against against people seeking employment the way the Ark museum discriminates against anyone who isn t a Christian who shares their beliefs.Ra responded by noting that unlike creationism, evolution is demonstrable verifiable science. Hovind s only comeback was to continue branding evolution a religious worldview. Ra made sure everyone present knew that Hovind s only defense of his beliefs is to tell lies about evolution.Hovind then asked the question that got him owned. Do you believe we came from an ape-like ancestor? Hovind demanded to know.At this point, Ra used science as a club and beat Hovind over the head with it. Apes don t have tails learn taxonomy! Ra said to cheers from the crowd. So yes, you are an ape, by definition. In fact, he s absolutely right. As Raw Story explained:From a biological standpoint, apes are a classification of anthropoid primates that don t have tails. There are two different families of apes: Hylobatidae and Hominidae. The Hominidae branch includes orangutans, gorillas and, yes, humans.With no other way to counter Ra, Hovind and his band of thugs resorted to accusing Ra of sounding like Hitler, which pretty much means Hovind knows he got beat.Here s the video via Facebook.The bottom line is that Earth is billions of years old and dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago before humans arrived on the scene. Stunts like the Ark park are efforts by organized religion to brainwash kids.Taxpayer dollars should never have been used to help build this abomination and quite frankly it should open the door for the government to finally tax the churches. Because if churches can receive tax dollars to help them push their bullshit, they should have to pay taxes in return.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Trump Just Got Dealt A STINGING Blow From His Own Son-In-Law’s Newspaper | The New York Observer, which Ivanka Trump s husband, Jared Kushner, owns, has made its presidential endorsement. Or, more accurately, its presidential non-endorsement. After endorsing Trump during the primaries, his own son-in-law s paper has decided it s not endorsing anyone at all.The Observer s editor-in-chief, Ken Kurson, simply said: Observer is not going to make an endorsement in the general. Oh, ouch. That just hurts, at least for Trump. We re ecstatic. The Observer can t endorse Hillary or they d probably all get fired, and the same thing could happen if they endorsed a third-party candidate. But it seems that they can t, in good conscience, endorse their owner s father-in-law.Wow.Trump hasn t been able to get very many newspaper endorsements in the general in fact, he s only gotten six endorsements in all, and they re all from small papers with the exception of Sheldon Adelson s Las Vegas Review-Journal. That s it. That s all. Hundreds of newspapers in the country, and Trump garners a whole six endorsements.Compare that to Hillary s dozens of newspaper endorsements, which include conservative papers like the Arizona Republic, which had never endorsed a Democratic candidate in its 126-year history, and the Dallas Morning News, which hadn t endorsed a Democrat for more than 75 years. Other papers with strong histories of endorsing Republicans likewise broke with tradition to endorse Hillary.You know your candidate just sucks horrifically when his own son-in-law s paper can t bring itself to endorse him. Amusingly, the Observer has actually had issues with its coverage of Trump because of Kushner s relationship, with Kurson saying in 2015: If we run something pro-Trump we will automatically be accused of carrying water for him (on account of the relationship to our publisher). If we run something anti-Trump, we will be accused of trying to curry favor with our peers in journalism or worse, intentionally being only a little hard on him so that later we can love him up and point to the earlier softball as proof that we re fair. So they re in an impossible position, really, but their refusal to endorse Trump at all is a blow to his standing as a candidate.Featured image by Brian Blanco via Getty Images | 1real |
Egyptian Muslim leader rejects meeting with U.S. Pence over Jerusalem: statement | CAIRO (Reuters) - One of Egypt s top Muslim leaders, the Imam of Al Azhar mosque, rejected a meeting requested by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in protest against a U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, Al Azhar said in a statement on Friday. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb had rejected a request from the United States for Pence to meet him on Dec. 20 at Al Azhar saying President Donald Trump must reverse his decision on Jerusalem. | 0fake |
Senate Republican leader starts clock ticking to Gorsuch showdown | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate moved on Tuesday toward ramming through approval of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee this week, as its top Republican said he had the votes to wipe away Democratic roadblocks but vowed to preserve the minority party’s ability to hold up legislation. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to change the Senate’s long-standing rules in order to eliminate the ability to use a procedural hurdle called a filibuster against Supreme Court nominees like Trump’s pick, Neil Gorsuch, if a Democratic filibuster succeeds as expected in blocking a confirmation vote. Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, to the lifetime post would restore the court’s conservative majority and enable Trump to leave a lasting imprint on America’s highest judicial body even as he regularly criticizes the federal judiciary. McConnell said he had the necessary votes to approve the rule change with a simple majority vote, expected on Thursday. Republicans control the Senate 52-48. The rule change has been dubbed the “nuclear option,” and Trump has encouraged McConnell to “go nuclear.” Such a step would threaten to further erode trust between the parties in Congress. “There’s a reason they call it the nuclear option, and that is because there’s fallout. And this fallout will be dangerously and perhaps disastrously radioactive for the Senate for years to come,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters. Republicans were so confident they could use their muscle to pass the rule change that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said flatly that Gorsuch “will be on the Supreme Court Friday night.” Amid a fierce debate over both Gorsuch and the Senate’s rules, McConnell tried to tamp down any speculation that Republicans would stage a monumental power grab by ending the filibuster for legislation. McConnell said that as long as he was the Senate’s majority leader, he would never remove the ability to mount a filibuster against legislation, as opposed to presidential appointments. McConnell fought against many of former Democratic President Barack Obama’s legislative initiatives when Republicans were the minority party in the Senate. “There’s not a single senator in the (Republican) majority who thinks we ought to change the legislative filibuster, not one,” McConnell told reporters. The move to change venerable Senate rules reflects an intensifying of the already-toxic partisanship in Washington since Trump took office in January. McConnell’s promise to keep the ability to filibuster legislation could make it more difficult for Republicans to get key parts of Trump’s legislative agenda through the Senate, considering the expected strong Democratic opposition. A filibuster requires a super-majority of 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate in order to proceed to a simple majority vote on a Supreme Court nominee or legislation. The 60-vote super-majority threshold that gives the minority party power to hold up the majority party has forced the Senate over the decades to try to achieve bipartisanship in legislation and presidential appointments. The Senate on Tuesday kicked off its formal debate on confirming Gorsuch, a Colorado-based appeals court judge, and McConnell said he would get the clock ticking toward a vote expected on Thursday to stop the Democrats’ filibuster. Democrats on Monday amassed the votes needed to sustain the filibuster, prompting Republicans to move toward changing the rules. Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley took to the Senate floor on Tuesday evening to rally support for the Gorsuch filibuster. His office said in a statement that he “plans to hold the floor and refuse to yield for as long as he is able to continue speaking.” Merkley’s “talking filibuster” is not expected to affect the Republican timetable for Gorsuch’s confirmation. The filibuster in one form or another dates back to the 19th century but assumed its current form in the 1970s. The Democrats were the first to use the “nuclear option.” In 2013, when they controlled the Senate, they changed it to bar filibusters for executive branch nominees and federal judges aside from Supreme Court justices. They did so after Republicans filibustered Obama’s appeals court nominees. “Democrats are now being pushed by far-left interest groups into doing something truly detrimental to this body and to our country,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “They seem to be hurtling toward the abyss this time, and trying to take the Senate with them.” Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, leading the filibuster effort, said it was the Republicans who bore responsibility for the crisis and for deciding, as he said, to “break the rules.” He noted that the Senate, under McConnell’s guidance, refused last year to consider Obama’s nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland to fill the same high court vacancy that Trump elected Gorsuch to fill. “What the majority leader did to Merrick Garland by denying him even a hearing and a vote is even worse than a filibuster,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. Restoring the nine-seat high court’s conservative majority would fulfill one of Trump’s top promises during the 2016 presidential campaign. Republicans say Gorsuch is well qualified for the job and that there is no principled reason to oppose him. Democrats say he is so conservative as to be outside the judicial mainstream, has favored corporate interests over ordinary Americans in legal opinions, and has shown insufficient independence from Trump. | 0fake |
Calif., Ore. allow women to get birth control without a prescription | California and Oregon will be the first states in the nation to allow women to get birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives directly from their pharmacists – without a doctor's prescription.
As California officials were busy finalizing regulations on a state law passed in 2013, Oregon's governor Kate Brown signed a similar bill into law last week.
The two measures were hailed by women's health advocates. They noted that men have long had an easier time getting birth control, simply purchasing condoms over the counter.
"We support efforts like these that remove barriers to women gaining access to birth control and other reproductive health care," said Kathy Kneer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, in a written statement.
She added that hormonal contraception has been widely studied and shown to be safe -- "so safe that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended that it be available over the counter."
The contraceptives won't be available like cough drops or antacids, however. In California, pharmacists can only dispense them after providing a health screening to women and taking their blood pressure. Oregon will also require a health screening, but the state's specific rules haven't been developed.
The laws differ somewhat. California's law has no age restrictions on patients – minors have the same access as adults. In Oregon, pharmacists may only give new birth control prescriptions to women 18 or older. Women under 18 must show proof of prior birth control prescriptions from a physician. Also, Oregon likely will require pharmacists to undergo more training than the one hour of education required of California pharmacists, said Marcus Watt, executive director of the Oregon State Board of Pharmacy.
California's rules are expected to take effect after Oct 1 and Oregon's law after Jan. 1.
Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health think tank, said other states could end up following California's and Oregon's approaches, depending on how they work.
"A lot of eyes are watching what's going to happen next," she said.
The laws moved ahead despite partisan debate in Congress over access to birth control. There, members of both parties support legislation allowing over-the-counter access – without any prescription -- but Republican legislation would not require insurers to pay for it.
Democrats say that is an attempt to get around requirements to cover prescription birth control under the Affordable Care Act and would effectively make hormonal contraceptives off limits to many poor women. They have introduced a bill that would require insurance coverage of over-the-counter hormonal contraceptives.
California's regulations and Oregon's law do not address insurance coverage of birth control. But California's pharmacists have voiced concerns that insurers won't pay for time spent screening women and dispensing birth control, as they would for a doctor's visit.
Pharmacists in California say they are preparing for the new regulations and hoping to resolve the reimbursement issue. It has taken nearly two years to develop regulations implementing California's 2013 law, which also allows pharmacists to prescribe other medications that once required a doctor's prescription, including travel medicines, smoking cessation treatments and the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.
The overall expansion of pharmacists' prescribing authority is aimed at relieving the burden on physicians faced with an influx of patients newly insured under the Affordable Care Act.
"Honestly, we're really excited," said Ken Thai, part-owner and manager of the El Monte Pharmacy Group, with 10 stores in Southern California. "Medical clinics in the area are overflowing, with long wait times. We're already doing other services like immunizations and cholesterol checks, and our customers already see us as a resource. We're ready for something like this. It's been a long time coming."
Until now, California pharmacists could only provide emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after pill," without a doctor's prescription.
Most major pharmacy chains will likely participate in offering non-prescription birth control because they were involved in developing the protocols, said Virginia Herold, executive officer of the California State Board of Pharmacy.
Representatives from CVS, Walgreens and Costco would not confirm their chains' participation, either declining to comment or saying that they are awaiting the final regulations.
Some patients welcomed the change – glad for the convenience, if nothing else.
"I think it's really wonderful," said 26-year-old Anne Wong, who lives in San Francisco. "It's a drag to have to go to clinic and talk to the doctor to get birth control pills – it takes a chunk out of your day."
Wong, who at age 17 emigrated with her family from Thailand, said the new access would help women in her community practice safer sex. The topic "is still taboo," Wong said.
But with the new regulations, "I could just tell my parents I'm going to a store for something. All I'd need to do is just walk to the Walgreens near my house."
Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. | 0fake |
Carly's croon sparks bewilderment, criticism on social media | (Reuters) - Carly Fiorina was so happy to be named U.S. presidential hopeful Ted Cruz’s running mate, she broke into song during her acceptance speech. But the chorus that greeted her on social media was anything but complimentary. Cruz announced at a rally on Wednesday in Indianapolis that the former Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard would join his ticket. But the unveiling faced scorn on social media after she started to sing while addressing the crowd. "I know two girls that I just adore," crooned Fiorina, in reference to Cruz's two daughters, Caroline and Catherine. "I'm so happy I can see them more. 'Cuz we travel on the bus all day; we get to play." (here) Twitter users reacted with bewilderment, mocking Fiorina over her singing. “Carly Fiorina started singing at a rally where she’s named VP by a candidate who ain’t getting the nod,” tweeted writer and Ebony columnist Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick). “This election is hilarious.” “Fiorina is singing and it’s extremely creepy,” tweeted Donie O’Sullivan (@donie), the politics lead with news agency Storyful. “You know this was a joke but then she literally went and sang at the event,” tweeted joseito (@go_oat). After suffering a series of crushing losses to Trump in nominating contests on Tuesday, Cruz praised Fiorina as a principled fighter for conservative values who knew how to create jobs and would be a valuable ally on the campaign trail. | 0fake |
Despite Republican’s Best Efforts, SCOTUS Just Allowed Louisiana Abortion Clinics To Reopen | Much to the dismay of so-called pro-life Republicans, the Supreme Court handed down an order allowing Louisiana Abortion clinics to reopen after a fringe right-wing appeals court forced them to close.The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued what it called an emergency decision that permitted an anti-abortion law they knew was unconstitutional to go into effect in Louisiana. This law, like many others of its kind, did not serve any practical purpose other than to effectively ban all abortion within the state.This particular law required physicians that perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. It s a completely unnecessary requirement since nearly all abortions do not require any form of admittance to a hospital and only serves to place undue burdens on vulnerable women and their physicians that are trying to help them.The Fifth Circuit Court has a history of allowing laws that it knows are going to be found unconstitutional to get implemented anyway. They got clear warnings from the Supreme Court that they should not allow these laws to proceed, due to the obvious unconstitutionality of them plus the precedent of the 5th circuits own decisions getting struck down in the past regarding them. However, they just keep upholding them, forcing a waste of taxpayer money and time by making them get elevated to the Supreme Court of the United States.Twice before, the Fifth Circuit has had decisions get struck down by SCOTUS from laws passed in Texas alone. One time they issued a partial stay, allowing some of Texas s abortion clinics to remain open. A second time SCOTUS handed down a more comprehensive stay of what is the Fifth Circuit s most draconian anti-abortion decision to date, in the case of Whole Woman s Health V. Cole. This is the exact same type of law that the Louisiana one was, in that it called for admitting privileges for doctors that provide abortions.In the Louisiana decision, only Clarence Thomas dissented from the opinion of the court which allowed the state s clinics to re-open giving an indicator the right-wing s irrational obsession with women s bodies may have finally gone too far.Featured image via wikicommons | 1real |
Post-Maidan Ukraine Has Become a Full Fledged Totalitarian State - Volodymyr Chemerys | Media skeptic Post-Maidan Ukraine Has Become a Full Fledged Totalitarian State
In Ukraine, the state apparatus, far-right movements and patriotic citizens are working together to shut down debate and silence criticism Open Democracy
This article, which originally appeared in Ukrainian on a Ukrainian website, is indicative of a growing realization in Ukraine that those who supported the "revolution" for freedom and democracy in that country were duped. The author, however, sadly maintains the baseless preconception that Russia is the ultimate model of totalitarianism that Ukraine must avoid - in fact today's Russia bares no resemblance to the reign-of-terror state Ukraine has degenerated into. But the acknowledgement that the war in Donbass is being used by the Kiev regime to maintain control over society is very significant
Under Ukraine’s pre-Maidan criminal regime, any pressure on journalists used to provoke a wave of indignation. This indignation, which came from journalists, human rights defenders and civic activists themselves, even became a precursor to the first Maidan in independent Ukraine — the protests under the banner of “Ukraine without Kuchma”.
Information about temnyky, the authorities’ secret instructions to the press about what they should and should not report, and the murders of critics of the regime invariably provoked protests. The arrest of a journalist solely for expressing his opinion in print could raise a wave, even a tsunami, of public outrage. Indeed, in 2004, putting an end to temnyky was one of the slogans behind the Orange protest. pa-25751119-1_2.jpg March 2016: 2,000 people rally in support of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko at Independence Square in Kiev. (c) Sergei Chuzavkov / AP / Press Association Images.
In post-Maidan Ukraine, temnyky , arrests and censorship have become commonplace . What’s more, repression against dissidents and even murder have become socially acceptable . The murder of the journalist Oles Buzyna in April 2015 or the burning of dozens of people in Odesa in May 2014 now find their justification in the speeches of “ patriots ”. Meanwhile, former opposition journalists who gained seats as parliamentary deputies refuse to defend their colleague Ruslan Kotsaba, the blogger who spent a year and a half in jail for his views. In all, over 100 journalists , bloggers and indeed ordinary people who expressed their views about the war in the Donbas, conscription , the constitutional order of Ukraine (law enforcement authorities qualify such views as “ separatism ”) and other issues have been criminally prosecuted in Ukraine for their publications.
The boldest predictions of George Orwell’s 1984 have come to pass — phrases like “civil war” have become taboo. In their place, we have newspeak. In particular, the newspeak term “hybrid war”, which means everything in our mass media from military action in the east to an article in the New York Times.
To be fair, it should be noted that justifications of violence and murder of “enemies” have not been accepted by society as a whole — only by one segment of social media, the mass media and those who call themselves “Maidan activists”. However, that fact does not bestow a rosier vista of Ukraine today. Critics of the current state of affairs generally remain silent for fear of repression or they censor themselves. Meanwhile, our mass media presents the postings of the “Facebook Hundred” or the speeches of “patriots” as though they were the voice of the entirety of Ukrainian society.
It used to be that the prohibition of an opposition party would evoke society’s indignation. After all, there were no precedents for this after 1991 in Ukraine. Now, however, banning the Communist Party of Ukraine and a number of other parties was met with silence inside the country. Only international human rights organisations protested the ban.
The practice of “five minutes of hatred” (again reminiscent of Orwell) has become commonplace. True, these “five minutes”— mass attacks in social media and the news media against Nadia Savchenko, Tetiana Montian, Stanislav Serhienko, Volodymyr Zelensky as well as “anti-corruption activists” and “euro-optimists”— last not for five minutes, but often weeks on end. The initiators of such campaigns (the authors of the first posts) are advisors to the president (Yuri Biriukov), public officials (Anton Herashchenko, Georgy Tuka) or structures that belong to representatives of the pro-government People’s Front (Mykola Kniazhytsky, Serhiy Pashynsky).
Is it right to talk about signs and tendencies of totalitarianism in post-Maidan Ukraine? And how important is it to dwell on them, to emphasise them?
Informing has become socially acceptable in post-Maidan Ukraine. The State Security Agency (SBU) encourages it. The website Myrotvorets (“Peacemaker”) collects informers’ reports and regularly publishes lists of “enemies” — journalists and civic activists. These lists often become an instruction of sorts for the actions of ultra-right paramilitary groups, who use violence against “traitors”, attacking participants in social protests, anti-war, anti-fascist meetings, threatening and even beating up journalists.
For example, the Myrotvorets website published lists of journalists who were careless enough to get press accreditation in the Donetsk People’s Republic, resulting in a wave of brutal threats against them by “patriots” . International human rights organisations and OSCE Representative on Media Freedom Dunja Mijatovic were forced to take a stand given that foreign journalists and not just Ukrainians were among those subject to attack. The lists of “undesirable people” created by activists of the ultra-right Azov Civic Corps became the basis for attacks on left-wing and anti-fascist activists.
Something really has happened to us —Ukraine has changed after the last Maidan. From a country that stood out for its level of civic freedoms on the territory of the former USSR, it is transforming into a copy of the Russian Federation in terms of the suppression of those freedoms.
Are we actually agreeing to this?
Practically according to Arendt
The facts above show that several aspects of civic life in today’s Ukraine are under the control either of state organs or non-state far-right formations. And citizens who want to express views that are not approved by these formations face threats, violence or criminal prosecutions.
A number of NGOs and internet resources monitor what bloggers say on social media, the publications and activities of journalists and civic activists, appearances by actors and singers (both Ukrainian and Russian), television broadcasts, films and peaceful gatherings. The result of this “monitoring” is usually an appeal to state bodies such as the SBU, the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Information (the “Ministry of Truth” as it is called by many journalists), National Council for Television and Radio, State Film Agency, demanding that criminal charges be brought against certain people, that broadcast of certain television programmes or films be prohibited, that television broadcast licences be revoked.
One example is the Vidsich page in social media, and the activity of the “Citizens’ Council” of the State Film Agency, in response to whose submissions a number of Ukrainian and Russian television programmes were not allowed to be shown. In many instances, state bodies actually bring criminal charges against journalists (the case against Ruslan Kotsaba was brought on the basis of a denunciation of an informer) and they prohibit certain films. The April 2016 ban on broadcasting the cult 1970s Soviet film Garage is symptomatic of this practice . rian_02928582.lr_.ru_1_0.jpg 4 September: the Kyiv headquarters of Inter TV, a major Ukrainian broadcaster, suffers an arson attack. (Ń) RIA Novosti. In other incidents, ultra-right activists, openly racist and Nazi (such as Azov) formations have themselves attacked television stations such as Ukraina and Inter, social protests, anti-war meetings, meetings with left wing and antifascist banners and symbols, actions of the LGBT community . As a rule, these attacks take place with the police passively standing by.
During these attacks on mass media outlets, the attackers demand changes to their editorial policy and the portrayal of events in Ukraine according to their “patriotic” point of view only. As a result of this pressure, attacks and criminal prosecutions citizens refrain from stating their views in public and the mass media censors itself.
The initiators of campaigns against dissent are typically the representatives of ultra-right formations, as well as those civic activists who previously presented themselves and currently do so as people with a liberal and democratic outlook. However, these campaigns succeed primarily as a result of either the support or the inactivity of state institutions.
In essence, a mechanism has been created in post-Maidan Ukraine to control citizens expressing their thoughts and opinions
Apart from that, state bodies also take an active role in restricting civil rights. The Verkhovna rada has adopted a set of such laws. In particular, changes have been made to Ukraine’s Criminal Code that permit the prosecution of people who oppose conscription and those who call for a halt to military operations, or “for opposing the Ukrainian army”. The 2015 law on “decommunisation” established the basis for banning a number of political parties and prosecuting citizens who hold left-wing views.
During 2014-2015, Ukraine’s parliament introduced changes to existing articles and introduced new ones in the special section of the Criminal Code “Crimes against national security” — Articles 109, 110, 110-2, 111, 112, 113, 114 and 114-1. According to these norms, any actions, public calls or the circulation of materials advocating the fall of the existing order are crimes that incur prison sentences of up to 15 years. In today’s judicial proceedings, the state prosecutor interprets these legal norms in such a way as to treat any approval of the Soviet experience or speaking out against the violation of civic and social rights in Ukraine, sympathy for a federal system of government or criticism of the general military mobilisation (normal things in democratic countries) as grave crimes, up to and including “state treason”.
In essence, a mechanism has been created in post-Maidan Ukraine to control citizens expressing their thoughts and opinions, as well as a mechanism to suppress freedom of speech, expression, assembly and association. This is a combined mechanism made up of cycles of action by state and non-state bodies.
Today, at the end of 2016, this mechanism is not all encompassing, but it already bears the marks of totalitarianism. Much in accordance with the classical works of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism and of Karl Popper’s The Open Society.
To control everything
The numerous investigators of totalitarianism didn’t agree on a common definition. That why it’s worth identifying what the classical works share in common.
Thus, totalitarianism is a system of social relations that establishes full (total) control over the important aspects of people’s lives. Above all, over the social and political aspects. Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski in Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956) declined to give an abstract definition of the term and proposed instead an empirical approach on the basis of the practice of fascist Italy (where this term originated), Nazi Germany and the USSR. In their treatment, totalitarianism was not so much full control over a person’s activity (which is impossible in principle) as the absence to any limits to such control.
Only social movements, movements of citizens who have become conscious of their social interests, can destroy the movement of mass men united around “a single way of thinking”
The subject of control: Arendt distinguishes between the totalitarian state and the totalitarian movement. Until the time a totalitarian movement leads to a totalitarian state, it will attempt to control the activity of the citizenry. For example, with the help of people in black shirts and brown shirts. On the other hand, the state apparatus (its special services, censors) will not be able to completely control the citizenry without the assistance of formally non-state actors: Party committees, Komsomol or Hitler Youth and especially police informers. The latter are the most important mechanism of control because they allow the state “to listen in on everyone”. Therefore, the subject of total control over society is not the state alone but also the totalitarian movements.
According to Arendt totalitarian movements and states have in common the conception of an objective enemy. Totalitarianism can hardly exist without such a conception. After all, it must explain to the popular masses the reasons why it needs to restrict their civic rights and why they must endure total control:
The introduction of the notion of “objective enemy” is much more decisive for the functioning of totalitarian regimes than the ideological definition of the respective categories. If it were only a matter of hating Jews or bourgeois, the totalitarian regimes could, after the commission of one gigantic crime, return, as it were, to the rules of normal life and government. As we know, the opposite is the case. The category of objective enemies outlives the first ideologically determined foes of the movement; new objective enemies are discovered according to changing circumstances.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
There already exists in contemporary Ukraine a functioning mechanism of control over the expression of people’s views and their social and political activity. It lies in uncovering treason (the meme that became widespread here over the past two years) and by neutralising treason through criminal prosecution, violence, campaigns of persecution in social media and mass media, by establishing “a single way of thinking” through propaganda and newspeak.
The most important element in this mechanism is self restraint or self censorship. When one part of society accepts the argument that it is necessary to restrict their civil rights and indeed the rights of all citizens for the sake of “victory” over the enemy, the objective enemy.
Erich Fromm called this process a flight from freedom.
War as the basis for totalitarian tendencies
The empirical evidence shows us that totalitarianism was not introduced from outside the three model countries (fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the USSR) or in opposition to their internal political processes. It was a domestic product. However, not every country in which such tendencies appear in the form of totalitarian movements necessarily become totalitarian states. Nor can we say that the totalitarian tendencies appeared in Ukraine as a result of someone’s evil intent, say Putin’s or Poroshenko’s, because these tendencies are the result of social and political processes in the specific conditions of war. And for now there is no basis to claim that we will surely fall into the abyss of totalitarianism.
But there are evident totalitarian tendencies in Ukraine today. And they have appeared as a result of societal processes, in the first instance as a result of the war.
The general condition for the emergence of totalitarian tendencies and their consolidation is that objective enemy. And this enemy becomes recognised and felt by everyone precisely during a war. It was no accident that German Nazism grew out of the traumatic experience of the First World War.
The war in the east has become the main argument for justifiying control over citizens’ expressions of their views and their actions. August 2016: Ukrainian soldiers play table tennis at a damaged swimming pool in the village of Marinka, near Donetsk. (c) Max Black AP/Press Association Images.
The division of people between “us” and “the enemies”, characteristic of a state of war, is a foundation for repressing those that “patriotic” movements place in the opposing camp. You can then remove their civil rights, or it may indeed be necessary to do so. Otherwise they might overwhelm you.
Accordingly, the level of public discussion typical of a democratic and pluralistic society is significantly depressed in a society experiencing totalitarian tendencies. The only argument typically appearing during such a discussion is naming (slandering) one’s opponent as “an agent of the enemy”. After that any other argument is useless. That is, even discussion itself isn’t becomes superfluous.
In our particular situation such a “discussion” has descended into a caricature. For example, after the tragic events of 31 August 2015 in front of the parliament when representatives of the government and the far right Svoboda party started calling each other “agents of the Kremlin”.
Something really has happened to us — Ukraine has changed after the last Maidan
War is a self sufficient condition for a totalitarian mentality to be formed, or even a necessity. An end to war means the loss of the justification and the arguments in favour of control and prohibitions. And it therefore constitutes a danger to the very existence of these totalitarian movements.
These are all elements in the construction of the mass man according to Arendt. In fact, a totalitarian society is composed of such mass men.
Dynamic balance
Is it right to talk about signs and tendencies of totalitarianism in post-Maidan Ukraine? And how important is it to dwell on them, to emphasise them?
It is important that these tendencies are not ignored. After all, not every country where such totalitarian tendencies and movements have appeared went on to become a totalitarian state.
The two fundamental factors of totalitarian practice today in Ukraine — the state apparatus and ultra right movements — are in a dynamic balance. Complementing and at the same time combating one another, they have occupied their place on the political terrain of this country for two and a half years now in an attempt to control civil society.
Apart from that there is no other important feature characteristic of all classical totalitarian states. There is neither authoritarianism , nor a supreme leader.
But this balance can be upset at any time.
In what direction it moves – towards totalitarianism or democracy – depends on how social processes unfold in Ukraine. Only social movements, movements of citizens who have become conscious of their social interests, can destroy the movement of mass men united around “a single way of thinking” for the sake of “victory over the objective enemy” and total control over oneself and one’s fellow citizens. | 1real |
FL Hearing Goes FULL RACIST: We Must Ban Abortion To Save ‘White Culture’ (VIDEO) | Florida Republicans have sponsored a bill that would literally ban all abortions except in cases where the woman s health and/or life is threatened by the pregnancy. If passed, the bill, HB 865, would make sure any and all abortion providers would spend up to 30 years in prison for defying the law.As if that weren t bad enough, the hearing for the bill featured a horrible racist by the name of Paul, who said that white culture was under threat due to legal abortion. The legislators in the chamber allowed this man to go on an absolutely racist rant, in which he said, in part: We see the destruction we re bringing upon ourself as a nation. The Muslims, they don t kill the babies. Paul then went on to say that white people do not live on an island and the Mexicans breed faster because they don t believe in abortions. Then this absolutely crazy man went all in with a mix of nutty religion and disgusting racism: Their race is through the breeding of having families, children. And what happens is once you see the condition we re in, we re destroying ourselves and destroying our families, we ve accepted something in this country that the Creator that we re going to pay for. You don t see us as a culture, as a white culture, pushing this agenda of abortion, women outside the home not having babies, everybody getting more and more and more? We re a sick nation and if we don t repent then the people leading our government, you are legislating morality by the laws you pass. You are legislating religion and morality by the laws that we pass as a people, and it s destroying us as a nation. After thanking the chamber for letting him speak, Paul reminded them to repent once more: It s either repent or perish America. That s the way it is. The scary part of this is the fact that the bill passed the committee with a whopping 8-3 vote. So, in other words, Florida is about to go back to the desperation of the pre- Roe v. Wade days,when women were dying in back alley chop shops and from self-administered coat hanger abortions.Watch the video of Paul s racist rant on this scary bill below:Featured image via screen capture from Raw Story | 1real |
OBAMA MAKES STUNNING 11th Hour Gift Of Massive Uranium Shipment To Iran…As Iran Develops Long-Range Missile Plan | In what amounts to an 11th hour gift by the outgoing Obama administration to Tehran s leadership to keep the country, which on Sunday was involved in yet another shooting incident with a US destroyer, content and compliant with Obama s landmark Nuclear deal , the AP reported that Iran is to receive a huge shipment of natural uranium from Russia to compensate it for exporting tons of reactor coolant. The move was approved by the outgoing U.S. administration and other governments seeking to keep Tehran committed to a landmark nuclear pact. AP cites two senior diplomats who said that the transfer which was recently agreed by the U.S. and five other world powers that negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran, foresees delivery of 116 metric tons (nearly 130 tons) of natural uranium. U.N. Security Council approval is needed but a formality, considering five of those powers are permanent Security Council members, they said. The swap is in compensation for the approximately 40 metric tons (44 tons) of heavy water exported by Iran to Russia since the nuclear agreement went into effect. Another 30 metric tons have gone to the U.S. and Oman.While Uranium can be enriched to levels ranging from reactor fuel or medical and research purposes to the core of an atomic bomb, Iran has claimed it has no interest in such weapons and its activities are being closely monitored under the nuclear pact to make sure they remain peaceful. As we reported at the time, Tehran previously received a similar amount of natural uranium in 2015 as part of negotiations leading up to the nuclear deal, in a swap for enriched uranium it sent to Russia. But the new shipment will be the first such consignment since the deal came into force a year ago.The news comes ahead of a meeting in Vienna, where representatives of Iran, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will review Iranian complaints that the U.S. was reneging on sanctions relief pledges included in the nuclear deal.As AP adds, the uranium agreement comes at a sensitive time. With the incoming U.S. administration and many U.S. lawmakers already skeptical of how effective the nuclear deal is in keeping Iran s nuclear program peaceful over the long term, they might view it as further evidence that Tehran is being given too many concessions. Tehran s nuclear activities start to expire in less than a decade. The troubling part, if only for those who see Iran as hell bent on creating nucleaar weapons was noted by David Albright, whose Institute of Science and International Security often briefs U.S. lawmakers on Iran s nuclear program, says the shipment could be enriched to enough weapons-grade uranium for more than 10 simple nuclear bombs, depending on the efficiency of the enrichment process and the design of the nuclear weapon. While it remains to be seen if Trump will comment on the unexpected delivery, we are certain that Israel, and especially its embattled prime minister Netanyahu, will raise a substantial fuss over the renewed possibility of a nuclear-armed neighbor. Heavy water is used to cool a type of reactor that produces more plutonium than reactors cooled by light water. Like enriched uranium, plutonium can be turned into the fissile core of a nuclear weaponMeanwhile, Reuters reports that Iranian lawmakers, far from demilitarizing, approved plans on Monday to expand military spending to five percent of the budget, including developing the country s long-range missile program which U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to halt. The vote is a boost to Iran s military establishment the regular army, the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and defense ministry which was allocated almost 2 percent of the 2015-16 budget. But it could put the Islamic Republic on a collision course with the incoming Trump administration, and fuel criticism from other Western states which say Tehran s recent ballistic missile tests are inconsistent with a U.N. resolution on Iran. The resolution, adopted last year as part of the deal to curb Iran s nuclear activities, calls on Iran to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Tehran says it has not carried out any work on missiles specifically designed to carry such payloads.The Obama administration says Iran s ballistic missile tests have not violated the nuclear agreement with Tehran, but Trump, who criticized the accord as the worst deal ever negotiated , has said he would stop Iran s missile program. Those ballistic missiles, with a range of 1,250 miles, were designed to intimidate not only Israel but also intended to frighten Europe and someday maybe hit even the United States, he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee AIPAC in March. We re not going to let that happen. So one hand, we have Obama desperate to salvage his diplomatic legacy (having already seen TPP implode and Obamacare starting the repeal proess), appeasing Iran in every possible way, even if it means further antagonizing Israel; on the other we have Iran taking advantage of Obama s weakness, and accelerating the ballistic weapons program which has been banned per the same treasury that Obama wants to see continue. Finally, throw in Trump and Netanyahu in the mix, and the future for US-Iranian relations after January 20 suddenly looks rather volatile. Zero Hedge | 1real |
China reiterates calls for South Korea to remove THAAD | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated to his South Korean counterpart Beijing s demand for the removal of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday. Wang made the comments during a meeting with Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of a United Nations gathering in New York on Wednesday, it added. South Korea and the United States say THAAD is needed to defend against the threat of North Korea, but China says it will do nothing to reduce tension and its powerful radar system threatens the country s security. | 0fake |
VERY POWERFUL! Black Trump Supporters Give MSNBC Reporter A HUGE Dose Of Truth [Video] | MUST WATCH: MSNBC interviews black women voters about Donald Trump. Very powerful! Share this video! pic.twitter.com/tSe3eshcdM Deplorable AJ (@asamjulian) October 26, 2016 | 1real |
Trump Just Got Banned From The Place Where He Proposed To Melania | You know how a lot of couples celebrate anniversaries and other special events by visiting the place where one proposed to the other? Well, Donald and Melania Trump can t do that because The Donald isn t allowed to set foot there anymore.Trump proposed to Melania at the Met Gala in 2004 where he presented her with a $3 million dollar ring he got for half price. The annual $50,000 per ticket event has been a favorite for the Trumps, who have frequently attended since their engagement. On Wednesday, the woman who has hosted the event since 1999, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, announced that Trump is no longer welcome to attend.The announcement happened on The Late Late James Show with James Corden during the Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts segment. Wintour was presented with the option of eating pickled pigs feet or answering one of Cordon s questions, and she chose the latter. Celebrities from all walks of life are desperate to get a ticket, , Corden said. Everyone from Beyonce to George Clooney attends, so my question is who would you never invite back to the Met Gala? Donald Trump, Wintour replied.Watch Wintour break the Trump s hearts below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Freddy Krueger Escapes Shooting – Injures Five At Halloween Party | Posted on October 31, 2016 by Edmondo Burr in News , US // 0 Comments A man dressed as Freddy Krueger and an accomplice have shot five people at a large Halloween party in San Antonio, Texas.
Early Sunday a man dressed like the fictional serial killer from the film ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ opened fire on a large crowd after an argument turned violent.
The shooters are still at large.
Kens5 reports:
The shooting happened on the 2900 block of Aspen Meadow around 5 a.m. on Sunday. One of the residents who did not want to go on camera said he was throwing the party with his housemates and was taking fees at the door. RELATED CONTENT Two Teenagers Dead And 17 Injured In Florida Nightclub Shooting
He said several men he did not know showed up to the home and started a fight with his friends. He said the argument escalated into a shooting.
He said several people who attended the party captured part of the fight on Snapchat. This later reportedly helped police identify that there were two shooters involved. He said one man had a shotgun and the second man had a hand-gun.
There were five people who were injured in the shooting. Police said that one injured woman tried to drive to the hospital, but wrecked her car along the way. Jasmine De Hoyos, who attended the party, said there were more than a hundred people at the home. She said she helped one of the victims who got shot in the arm.
“I kind of applied pressure to the wound to make sure he didn’t bleed out. A couple of his friends were there with us. So, we were trying to keep him calm,” said De Hoyos.
No arrests have been made and police are still searching for the shooters.
“I’m kind of sad that this happened in this neighborhood because I like living here. It’s a really good neighborhood. It is what it is, and we’re just going to keep an eye out and try to keep each other’s back,” said Jeremy Collins, another neighbor.
The resident of the home who did not want to go on camera said one of his friends who got shot in the stomach is still in critical condition. | 1real |
CalPERS chief sees volatility until Trump implements plans | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s chief investment officer advised the pension fund on Monday to prepare for “greater uncertainty and volatility” until U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and Congress implement their policy plans. Ted Eliopoulos told a meeting of the fund’s investment board that Trump’s plans would likely be “positive for growth and corporate earnings,” but “the devil will be in the details, and we don’t know the details.” Trump has indicated he would prioritize a broad mix of policies, including tax cuts, infrastructure spending, the repeal or lessening of Dodd-Frank financial regulation, and changes to global trade arrangements. Decisions made by the new administration and Congress will have “a significant impact on matters small and large” for CalPERS and for investors globally, Eliopoulos said during a live Webcast of the meeting, the board’s first since the U.S. presidential election last week. But it is “much too early to talk with precision about these implications since we know very little,” Eliopoulos added. “We do need to be prepared to address a much different policy environment, new economic and investment challenges and opportunities and be ready to adjust, act, and govern ourselves accordingly,” said Eliopoulos. CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund with approximately $300.7 billion of total fund market value. | 0fake |
Trump White House Wishes ‘Lasting Peach’ In The Middle East (IMAGE) | Donald Trump hires all the best people, at least that s what he promised the nation before he was elected. More than 100 days in, the best people are nowhere to be found and White House communications are still riddled with embarrassing errors.The New York Daily News did a running tally of all the stupid, easily caught by a fifth grader, written gaffes coming from the White House. Here are some of the worst:Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, spelled three times as Tersa May, a porn star (White House public schedule, January 27) No dream is too big, no challenge is to great. Nothing we want for the future is beyond our reach. (Poster for Trump s inauguration)It gets even worse when BLOTUS gets angry: Thr coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas been so false and angry that the times actually apologized (Trump tweet, January 28)On Monday, though, the gaffe factory went overseas, where a press release in Israel wished Israel and Palestine lasting peach. Press statement @WhiteHouse says 1 goals of @POTUS Israel trip is promote the possibility of lasting peach pic.twitter.com/HE1l2lThg8 Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) May 22, 2017Yes, the idea of an everlasting gobstopper sort of peach, one that s eternally sweet and juicy and never turns brown, would make this world a more delicious place, it s pretty clear that if the press release had been proofread, it would instead read lasting peace. In the overall scheme of things, this is fairly minor. Yes, as trolls will add, then candidate Obama did once say there were 57 states. In more than eight years, that s about the best conservatives have.The Trump administration, though, is showing a pattern of sloppiness. No, Trump doesn t have to be a detail person to be a good leader, but someone needs to look after the details. An intern with an English degree could easily stop these embarrassing and seemingly non-stop string of flubs coming from this new administration.Then again, maybe it s a coded reference to Trump s complexion and maybe his staff was hoping their boss would stay in Israel.Featured image of Trump via Philip Cohen/Flickr | Featured image of peaches via Wikipedia | 1real |
Babylon Mystery Religion Series | Part 1 BABYLON "SUN WORSHIP" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHZaMeIwRs | 1real |
AMBASSADOR JOHN BOLTON: Susan Rice Has “Real Legal Problems Here” [Video] | Ambassador John Bolton was on Lou Dobbs tonight to comment on the Susan Rice news. It s being reported that she called for the unmasking of names for likely political reasons. if that s the case then she can be charged with fraud She should lawyer up ASAP. Reports are showing that the unmasking and spying increased as it came closer to Trump s inauguration. That could be the clue that this was stricly political. Who can forget her lies on 5 different morning shows after Benghazi. She s clearly someone who has zero credibility and who should be investigated for using intelligence for political purposes. Throw her in the slammer or give her immunity and make her talk?John Bolton This is stunning news. And you can t, even somebody as senior as the National Security Advisor, can t just decide they d like to unmask names to find out whose name is involved in a particular intercept If she said that even somebody as senior as her but her real motivation was political she was committing a kind of fraud on the intelligence gathering system and if she participated in that kind of fraud to help the political misuse of that intelligence she s got serious legal problems here. .@AmbJohnBolton says Susan Rice defrauded the intelligence system: She s got real legal problems here. #MAGA #Dobbs @POTUS pic.twitter.com/IIqdBN5AS0 Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) April 3, 2017OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON SUSAN RICE FROM ADAM HOUSLEY:FOX NEWS ALERT: New details on @adamhousley's report; sources telling him the official who 'unmasked' Trump associates is 'very high up' pic.twitter.com/nowhUIIDSb FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 3, 2017 | 1real |
Soros-Linked Groups Behind California Ban on Detaining Illegal Immigrants | A plan to ban local and county jails in California from detaining illegal immigrants with immigration detainers is being pushed by open borders organizations. The groups have ties to globalist billionaire George Soros. [As blog Mother Jones reported, the initiative to protect illegal immigrants would be included in the California state budget. The proposal makes it illegal for local or county jails from entering into agreements with federal immigration authorities to protect Americans from illegal immigrant crime. Coincidentally, the two organizations pushing the plan behind the scenes have links to Soros and his infamous Open Society Foundation, which serves as a to enrich social justice and open borders groups. For instance, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) which is promoting the plan, has taken grant money from Soros’ Open Society Foundation since at least 2009 when it received $200, 000 from Soros. In 2012, ILRC took even more money from the Open Society Foundation, receiving more than $1. 8 million from Soros that year. The other open borders organization behind the immigrant California plan is the Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) This group also has staff ties to Soros. CIVIC staffer Tina Shull runs the organization’s “storytelling projects,” while also being a recipient of the Soros Justice Fellowship, a grant department that gives out anywhere between $58, 700 to $110, 250 to specific individuals for social justice advocacy. CIVIC’s director Christina Fialho told Mother Jones in an interview that California potential ban on detaining illegal immigrants was a “powerful first step” in the state’s overall agenda to oppose President Trump’s agenda. This is not the first California initiative this year that organizations have pushed. Breitbart Texas reported in May that the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) pushed legislation forcing landlords to rent to illegal immigrants, even after they know their immigration status. John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0fake |
Limbaugh: Democrats would 'destroy Jesus Christ' | Actor Jim Caviezel portraying Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ.”
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is not the Republican nominee for president in this election cycle.
But if He were, Democrats would try to “destroy” Him in the same manner they’re attacking the 2016 GOP candidate, Donald Trump.
That’s according to radio host Rush Limbaugh, who hypothesized what this year’s race would look like if the Son of God were at the top of the Republican ticket.
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“It doesn’t matter who the Republicans would have nominated, they were gonna get the treatment Trump’s getting. It wouldn’t have mattered,” Limbaugh said Wednesday.
“They would go out of their way to find ways to destroy Jesus Christ if he could be nominated as a Republican. The Democrats would do everything they could, include calling Him a liar, the Bible a fake book, whatever it took.” Rush Limbaugh
And despite the fact the Bible never indicates Jesus was married or had sex out of wedlock, Limbaugh suggested Democrats would do their best effort in trying to find any of His offspring:
“They would scour the historical record looking for children He had fathered, anything they could do to disapprove the gospel to discredit Jesus. That’s who they are. That’s what they would do.”
Limbaugh said the point he was stressing was that Republicans would never escape “this kind of media assault based on who we nominate.” Donald Trump’s RNC acceptance speech (Photo: Screenshot from RNC live feed)
“I say this because a lot of you Never Trumpers are out there claiming that this is exactly what you get when you nominate a guy like Trump. No, it’s exactly what you get when you nominate a Republican. Whenever there is any opposition to the Democrats, this is what they do. It doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do it. They did it to Romney …
“I’ve made this point ’til I blue in the face. They turned Romney, who is mild-mannered Mr. Gosh, Can’t Even Get Noticed into the biggest walking Satan, El Diablo politics had ever seen at that time, and they made it stick So this is why I think Trump has so many people supporting him. He’s fighting back against it when most Republicans haven’t and don’t.”
As an example of how media treatment of Republicans has not changed, Limbaugh played an excerpt of 1980 election-night coverage from CBS. Commentator Bill Moyers characterized the race before it was known that Republican Ronald Reagan would easily defeat Democrat Jimmy Carter. Moyers stated:
“Those of you who might speak Spanish, who might be black, who might be women, remember,” said Carter, “who’s been your friend.” And there under the California sun in San Diego at a shopping center, Ronald Reagan was delivering himself of one of those patriotic soliloquies at which he’s been a master since his days at Eureka College. Suddenly hecklers in the crowd started shouting and waving their ERA signs. Reagan took his cue and snapped back, “Aw, shut up!”
And thousands of supporters roared their approval. Those are the people for whom Ronald Reagan is the apostle of the rollback, the knight who promises finally to slay the dragon of liberal government. Jimmy Carter won four years ago as an outsider, and, if he wins at all tonight, it must be as an insider defending the status quo. Reagan has cast himself as a sheriff who comes riding into town at just in the nick of time shouting, “Enough’s enough.”
“Does it sound like anything has changed in the way these people see the world?” Limbaugh asked. “Not an iota!”
Follow Joe Kovacs on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews | 1real |
Russia: Lebanon should solve problems without outside interference - Ifax | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday that Lebanon should resolve problems without outside interference and Moscow backs sovereignty of the country, Interfax news agency reported. Lavrov s statements came during a crisis over the resignation of Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. Lavrov was meeting with the Lebanese foreign minister in Moscow. | 0fake |
The Mystery Behind The Missing Capstone Of The Great Pyramid! | The hidden secrets of the Great Pyramid of Giza have intrigued explorers and experts for a long time.
There are probably many hidden chambers that are still left untouched which could give us a lead to the true purpose of this colossal pyramid.
But one mystery surrounding the mega structure is the fact that the capstone is missing. How come? Was there a capstone in the first place?
Some researchers say that the capstone may have been completely built in gold, so, if it was in fact made of such a solid material then how did they achieve on removing such a large massive piece with aproximately 9 meters in height?
Another theory suggests that the pyramid had a large sphere in it's summit, which served as a conductor of cosmic energy and would turn the pyramid into a massive power plant. The sphere could also be associated with the "Eye of Horus" and the brightest star in the sky "Sirius" .
Watch the following video to learn more!
Disclose TV SOURCE | 1real |
Republican Mark Kirk Just Lost His Race Against Tammy Duckworth With A Single Racist Comment (VIDEO) | Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Republican Mark Kirk’s political career imploded tonight live on a debate stage in Illinois. RIP Mark Kirk’s political career. Thoughts and prayers.
In what may be the biggest foot in mouth moment of any political campaign since Todd ‘Legitimate Rape’ Akin’s self-immolation, Kirk, who is running for U.S. Senate against the very popular Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D) to represent Illinois, decided to use the senate debate stage to go completely and profoundly racist.
It started when Duckworth told voters about her families long military tradition, one that dates back all the way to the Revolutionary War. Her point was a good one. Her family has sacrificed for the country for generations and far too many politicians flippantly go to war without thinking about who they will put in harms way.
“My family has served this nation in uniform going back to the revolution. I am a daughter of the American Revolution. I’ve bled for this nation. But I still want to be there in the Senate when the drums of war sound because people are quick to sound the drums of war and I want to be there to say this is what it costs and this is what you’re asking us to do. And if that’s the case, I’ll go. It’s families like mine that bleed first. But let’s make sure that the American people understand what we are engaging in and let’s hold our allies accountable because we can’t do it all.”
Kirk interjected by saying a line that will haunt him for the rest of his very short career.
“I had forgotten your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.”
A problem: Duckworth’s family did fight in the Revolutionary War. Kirk assumed because she was of mixed heritage that they couldn’t have. Mark Kirk is not a smart man. She's an active DAR member. And Sen. @MarkKirk –who lied about his own military record–is questioning her family's military service.
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) October 28, 2016
The stunned silence both from the moderator and from Sen. Duckworth kind of say it all.
So long, Mark Kirk. Have a good retirement!
Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
Former NATO Chief: We Need US as ‘World’s Policeman’ | Complains Obama Isn't Hawkish Enough
In a new interview with Britain’s Sky News, former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen brought out the old narrative of America as the “world’s policeman,” but with a lot more upbeat of an attitude about it than one would generally see.
Rasmussen criticized President Obama for not being hawkish enough, saying his successor needs to be much more interventionist, and declaring “ we need America as the world’s policeman, ” adding that the US needs to “restore international law and order” through wars.
Rasmussen, who was always a relative hawk in the post but seems to have taken it to an entirely new level, set out a series of things the US needs to fix militarily, including Iraq, Syria, Libya, Russia, China, and North Korea. This of course closely mirrors recent Pentagon talk of wars in the decades to come.
The timing of his calls for extreme US bellicosity are centered on trying to influence the upcoming US election in favor of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who has campaigned heavily on picking fights in Syria and against Russia. Rasmussen underscored this fact by declaring Donald Trump, who openly said the US cannot be the world’s police, as “very dangerous for the world.” | 1real |
Watch Majority Whip Steve Scalise Return to Sanding Ovation on House Floor: ‘I’m back’ [Video] | After being shot 3 months ago (see below), Majority Whip Steve Scalise returned to the House floor today. He got a standing ovation as he walked in and then spoke to the members of Congress (see below).Majority Whip Steve Scalise gets a standing ovation as he returns to the House Floor three months after being shot. https://t.co/YgFbAZnWTl #MenendezTrial (@NewtTrump) September 28, 2017Scalise spoke about the power of prayer and that praying was the first thing he did after being shot: The power of prayer is something that you just cannot underestimate Steve Scalise: The power of prayer is something that you just cannot underestimate pic.twitter.com/L6au1hZBSu Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 28, 2017 It s so important that as we re having those political battles, we don t make them personal Steve Scalise: It s so important that as we re having those political battles, we don t make them personal pic.twitter.com/BLhS3V7ftx Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 28, 2017He tweeted earlier in the day: I m back Rep. Steve Scalise tweets I m back upon returning to Capitol Hill after Alexandria shooting; he s expected to make speech on House floor. pic.twitter.com/Xbrttk0sHy ABC News (@ABC) September 28, 2017Remember that a crazed leftist tried to massacre Republicans just a few months ago:Rep. Steve Scalise was shot Wednesday morning in Alexandria, Virginia, in a deliberate attack. A congressional staffer was also shot. Scalise is in surgery right now and is expected to recover.Rand Paul said Scalise being there likely saved everyone because his presence (he s leadership) meant Capitol Police were there.Scalise, a member of the House Republican leadership as the majority whip, appeared to have been shot in the hip and it appeared two Capitol Hill police agents were shot, according to Rep. Mo Brooks who was on deck when the shooting occurred. The shooting took place at a practice for the GOP congressional baseball team.NBC News Special Report: Congressman Scalise, aides shot at baseball practice in Virginia https://t.co/KD9i1iP9MZ Jason Calabretta (@JasonCalabretta) June 14, 2017In a statement, Texas Rep. Roger Williams, one of the team s coaches, said one of his staff members was shot during the incident and is receiving medical attention. There was no information on the staffer s injuries.According to both congressional and law enforcement sources, the shooting appears to be a deliberate attack. Two law enforcement sources say the suspect is in police custody, has been taken to a hospital.Lawmakers who spoke at the scene to reporters described a normal morning practice, at a field where they ve practiced for years, when all of a sudden shots rang out. Lawmakers, staff members and even the young son of one of the members ran for cover, jumping into dugouts and over fences to avoid the gunshots.Congressmen in attendance described an injured Scalise dragging himself roughly 15 yards away from second base and lying there until the shooter was shot. The Congressmen then ran to help him. Once they were able, Sen. Jeff Flake said he and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who is a physician, went out to where Scalise was lying to apply pressure to the wound. Nobody would have survived without the Capitol Hill police. It would have been a massacre without them. -Rand Paul We had nothing but baseball bats to fight back against a rifle with. Congressman Mo BrooksArizona Sen. Jeff Flake added that he saw a member of Scalise s security detail return fire on the gunman for what felt like 10 minutes, even though the police officer was wounded in the leg. 50 shots would be an understatement, I m quite sure, Flake said when asked about the total amount of gunfire, including police returning fire. Flake said two members of Scalise s security detail were wounded, and another man was wounded in the chest. Brooks said the shooter appeared to be a white male but added that I saw him for a second or two. He said the shooter was behind the third base dugout and didn t say anything. The gun was a semiautomatic, Brooks said, adding that he was sure it was a rifle but unsure what kind. It continued to fire at different people. You can imagine, all the people on the field scatter. It s come to this How will we bring America together if the Democrats keep fanning the flames of division?Read More: FOX News | 1real |
JILL STEIN CONCEDES Recount In Michigan In Bizarre Press Conference [VIDEO] | Officially, history will record President-elect Donald Trump as having won the 2016 presidential race in Michigan by some 10,704 votes.But Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party s presidential candidate in the 2016 election, believes that the numbers would be different if all 4.8 million votes cast in the Wolverine State were recounted.That won t happen, Stein conceded in a rally in downtown Detroit on Saturday, a day after the non-recused members of the Michigan Supreme Court ruled, by a 3-2 margin, against Stein s appeal, leaving the candidate with no recourse. We may be moving out of the court of law, but we re moving into the court of public opinion, Stein said.The rally lasted about 40 minutes in freezing temperatures, and attracted dozens of the candidate s supporters. It took place near the foot of a street named ceremonially for Congressman John Conyers, Washington Boulevard. Bell, a Green Party member who helped supervise the vote-counting effort at Cobo, became emotional several times during her brief remarks, during which she called the election system in Michigan a flaming hot mess, a language Stein would herself adopt. Even if the results of the 2016 election won t change, and even if there won t be a full recount in Michigan, Stein said, the state needs election reform.Bell called out voting irregularities she d learned of, like how a polling place in Ionia County allegedly used a garbage can as a ballot box, or one in Gibraltar that sealed a ballot box with mere duct tape, or a precinct in Detroit that tabulated 300 votes but only 50 were found in the box. Hot mess! Hot mess! Bell said before handing the microphone to Stein. Count every vote, and make sure every vote counts, Stein said. This dysfunction in our elections flows downhill. It flows to communities that do not have resources The equipment that s used is prone to break. And it s not just the 87 scanners that failed in Detroit on Election Day. What raised a red flag in Michigan, Stein said, was the 75,000 ballots cast without also making a choice in the presidential race. MLive | 1real |
Turkey could look elsewhere if Russia won't share missile technology: minister | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey could seek a deal to acquire a missile defense system with another country if Russia does not agree to joint production of a defense shield, its foreign minister was quoted as saying on Monday. NATO member Turkey is seeking to buy the S-400 system from Russia, alarming Washington and other members of the Western alliance, and President Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara has already paid a deposit on the deal. Turkey hopes that the deal would allow it to acquire the technology to develop its own defense system, and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in an interview with Turkish newspaper Aksam, said the two countries had agreed on joint production. If Russia doesn t want to comply, we ll make an agreement with another country, he said when asked about reports that Russia was reluctant to share the technology. But we haven t got any official negative replies (from Russia) . Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked in a conference call with reporters if the deal would go ahead if Moscow did not agree to joint production, said: Contacts and negotiations at an expert level in the context of this deal are ongoing. This is all I can say for now. Cavusoglu said Turkey had initially hoped to reach agreement with producers from NATO allies. Western firms which had bid for the contract included U.S. firm Raytheon, which put in an offer with its Patriot missile defense system. Franco-Italian group Eurosam, owned by the multinational European missile maker MBDA and France s Thales, came second in the tender. Turkey, with the second-largest army in the alliance, has enormous strategic importance for NATO, abutting as it does Syria, Iraq and Iran. But the relationship has become fractious since an attempted coup against Erdogan in July 2016 and a subsequent crackdown. | 0fake |
Iran says no need to increase missile range as can already hit U.S. forces | LONDON (Reuters) - Iran has no need to increase the range of its ballistic missiles as they could already reach U.S. forces stationed in the region, the head of the Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday. As U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to impose new sanctions against Iran s missile program, Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari said sanctions would only increase number of Iranian missiles, and their precision . Trump this month refused to certify Tehran s compliance with a deal struck with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for lifting most international sanctions. The House of Representatives voted last week for new sanctions on Iran s ballistic missile program and Trump has urged U.S. allies to join Washington in taking strong action to curb Iran s continued dangerous and destabilizing behavior , including sanctions targeting its missile development. Our missiles range is 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), and that can be increased, but we believe this range is enough for the Islamic Republic as most of the U.S. forces and most of their interests in the region are within this range, Jafari was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. Americans are trying to impose new sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards for its missile program, but that is an excuse to harm Iran s economy, Jafari said. Iran has one of the Middle East s largest missile programs and some of its precision-guided missiles have the range to strike Israel. The United States says Iran s missile program is a breach of international law because the missiles could carry nuclear warheads in the future. Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program is for civilian uses only. | 0fake |
Burlington to drop Ivanka Trump brand online: Business Insider | (Reuters) - Burlington Stores Inc joined other retailers, including Nordstrom Inc, in deciding not to sell products of Ivanka Trump’s brand online, news website Business Insider reported. Burlington will no longer stock the brand’s accessories and clothing online, according to the report, but it was unclear if the off-price retailer would sell the products in its stores. Burlington and Ivanka Trump’s representatives were not immediately available for comment. Earlier this month, Nordstrom said it would stop carrying Ivanka Trump’s apparel because of falling sales, pushing President Donald Trump to defend his daughter on Twitter by saying she was treated “unfairly” by the retailer. Neiman Marcus [NMRCUS.UL] has also said it would not sell Ivanka Trump’s jewelry line while TJX Cos Inc told its employees to dump any signs related to the brand. HSN Inc has stopped selling Trump Home products, but still sells Trump presidential memorabilia. Sears Holdings and its unit, Kmart, had also removed 31 Trump Home items from their online product offerings to focus on more profitable items this month. | 0fake |
Beirut activists hold vigil in tribute to murdered women | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of people gathered outside Beirut s national museum on Saturday evening to light candles for a British woman and three Arab women murdered in the past week in Lebanon. The killing of the British embassy worker Rebecca Dykes last week has sparked extensive media coverage in Lebanon, prompting activists to press for more attention to be given to widespread violence against women. Lebanese women s rights activists held the vigil to mourn the victims, demand better laws, and to protest against the violence - including the three reported murders in northern Lebanon alone over the past week. Society refuses to listen to us or see us until our blood is spilled, Leen Hashem, an organizer, told the crowd from the steps of the museum. This violence is structural and systematic. Justice is not only arresting the criminal. Justice is for all this not to happen to us in the first place, she said. Don t tell me to cover up. Tell him not to rape me, one woman chanted through a megaphone, a demand repeated by people in the crowd. Participants laid white roses over pictures of the four women, and lined the steps with candles. Wafaa al-Kabbout stood on the sidelines, holding a framed photo of her 21-year-old daughter Zahraa, whose ex-husband shot her dead last year. Now my daughter is gone, she s not coming back, she said. But all these young women are our daughters. And there is still fear for the young women after them. The United Nations says a third of women worldwide have suffered sexual or physical violence. A 2017 national study by the Beirut-based women s rights group ABAAD said that one in four women have been raped in Lebanon. Less than a quarter of women who faced sexual assault reported it, the survey said. Little by little, we are breaking the silence ... for women to come forward and talk about the violence they are facing, said Saja Michael, program manager at ABAAD. In the past five years, women have become more likely to report violence and seek help, she said, though sexual assault remains a bit more taboo. Part of the reason is that NGOs have set up new shelters and community centers, with psychological, legal, medical, and other services, Michael added. It s becoming more of a public discourse, she said. It s no longer what s happening behind closed doors. Lebanon s parliament passed a long-awaited law in 2014 that penalized domestic violence for the first time. But rights groups were outraged that authorities watered it down, and it fell short of criminalizing marital rape. Child marriage also remains legal in Lebanon. In August, parliament abolished a law that absolved rapists if they married their victims, joining other Arab states that repealed similar laws this year. Activists welcomed it as a major step, but said there was a long way to go on Lebanese legislation to protect women. Every day we are subjected to harassment, in college, on the street, everywhere, said Ramona Abdallah, a university student at the vigil. It really could be any one of us. Rebecca Dykes, 30, who worked at the British embassy in Lebanon, was found strangled beside a highway outside Beirut last weekend. A Lebanese Uber driver picked her up before assaulting and killing her, state media said. A security official said the suspect had confessed. Earlier in the same week, a Lebanese man killed his mother-in-law and wounded his wife by shooting them inside their home in the northern Akkar region, state news agency NNA said. Authorities have arrested him, it said. In another incident, Nazira al-Tartousi, a 15-year-old pregnant Syrian, was found dead with a bullet in her neck in the north, security sources said. Her husband, the suspect, has denied killing her, they said. And Yaman Darwish, 22, died after sustaining a broken chin and gunshot wounds in another northern village, the security sources said. The investigation showed the Lebanese woman had also been hit on the head with a vase, and choked. | 0fake |
Trump taps Goldman Sachs executive Cohn for key economic post | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday said he would appoint Goldman Sachs Group Inc President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn to head the White House National Economic Council, a group that coordinates economic policy across agencies. “As my top economic adviser, Gary Cohn is going to put his talents as a highly successful businessman to work for the American people,” Trump said in a statement. Cohn will follow former senior Goldman executives Robert Rubin and Stephen Friedman, who ran the council in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, respectively. The council post, which helps to coordinate and develop the president’s economic agenda, can also be seen as a stepping stone to other government jobs. Rubin led the council before becoming Treasury Secretary. Cohn, 56, is just one of a number of former Goldman executives who are slated to join the Trump administration and advise on the economy, including Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Steve Bannon. “We will miss Gary at Goldman Sachs, but I believe the American people and the President-Elect are fortunate that he has chosen to serve his country,” Goldman Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement. Cohn had long been regarded as the likely successor to Blankfein, but that view has dimmed in the past several years as Blankfein, 62, showed no signs that he would step down in the near future. Cohn’s departure now raises fresh questions about who might succeed Blankfein in the long run, while potentially giving rise to a new group of leaders at the bank. Unlike other Wall Street firms that have had significant turnover in their upper ranks, Goldman’s leadership has remained remarkably stable over the years. Some Goldman executives have privately complained that this has created a bottleneck for the next generation of leaders. It is likely that Cohn’s role as Goldman’s president may be split, Reuters has previously reported. Chief Financial Officer Harvey Schwartz and investment banking co-head David Solomon are likely candidates, according to people familiar with the matter. Such a move could return Goldman to a co-president, co-chief operating officer structure. Cohn had previously served alongside Jon Winkelried in this arrangement, until Winkelried’s departure from the firm in 2009. Cohn is a former Goldman commodities trader from Ohio who joined the firm in 1990. He served in a variety of leadership roles in bond trading, becoming co-head of Goldman’s broader securities division and then co-president in 2006. | 0fake |
NEW POLL Asks Trump Voters If They’d Vote For Him Again…Liberal Heads Will Explode When They See The Results | One year later, and Donald Trump s supporters couldn t be happier with their choice for President. Prepare for liberal heads to explode in 5 4 3 2 1According to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted on the eve of the first anniversary of Trump s historic election, 82 percent of those who say they supported Trump last year would vote for him again if they had to do it over. That s slightly more than those who say they would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton again 78 percent if they had the chance.Only 7 percent of Trump voters and 8 percent of Clinton voters say they would vote for a different candidate if they could complete their 2016 ballot again.Trump s supporters have largely rallied around the president, despite his poor overall approval ratings, the chaos of his first year in office and the ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.But there are worrying signs for Trump that voters are less inclined to give him a second term three years from now if he decides to run for reelection.Those red flags go beyond the natural, downward trajectory of most new presidents. Like Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush saw their parties lose governorships in both New Jersey and Virginia the year after their first elections as president. But both Obama and Bush had job-approval ratings over 50 percent at this point.While most Trump voters would back him in a 2016 do-over, some defect when asked whether they will vote for Trump or a generic, unnamed Democrat in 2020. About three-quarters of Trump voters, 76 percent, back Trump in the 2020 matchup, while 8 percent would support the Democrat. Politico | 1real |
British parliament: respected institution or 'den of vice'? | LONDON (Reuters) - From William Pitt to Winston Churchill, Britain s finest prime ministers have risen to greatness in the Palace of Westminster, heightening its reputation as one of the world s most respected parliaments. But with nine centuries of history come traditions, and a culture that is now under fire for concentrating power in the hands of lawmakers who can make or break the careers of aides, interns and party activists. The resignation of Britain s defense minister, who admitted repeatedly touching a radio presenter s knee in 2002, and a series of accusations against other members of parliament, from alleged extramarital affairs to sexual assaults, have prompted calls for change. Parliament is an old and famous institution, said Brendan Chilton, a Labour activist and general secretary of Labour Leave, a pro-Brexit group. However it has in recent years become a den of vice. We should all seek to make parliament the envy of the world again. The ornate Palace of Westminster, beside the River Thames in the heart of London, is home to both the upper and lower houses of parliament and is seen by some historians as one of the birthplaces of modern democracy. But allegations about British politicians, many of them unsubstantiated, have surfaced since sexual abuse claims against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted women and men in British politics to share stories about improper behavior. Claims of sexual harassment have prompted some newspapers to refer to parliament as Pestminster . Michael Fallon resigned as defense minister on Wednesday over past behavior he said had fallen below the high standards we require of the armed forces . Two more ministers are under investigation by the governing Conservative Party into allegations of inappropriate behavior and the opposition Labour Party and Scottish National Party are looking into similar reports about party members. AWE-INSPIRING The Palace of Westminster s debating chambers, its lavish tea rooms and its maze of corridors with portraits of long-gone politicians and prime ministers can inspire and confuse in equal measure. Like a self-contained village, it has it own post office, hairdresser, gym, restaurants and bars. There is little reason to leave and for many workers, days are spent in its offices and evenings are spent in its bars. Drinking culture is both fun and a bit depressing, one parliamentary researcher wrote on the Glassdoor website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management. You will miss out on networking if this is not something you want to do. It is a heady mix, and many relationships have grown in an environment where people work closely together, and often under pressure, for long hours. But the allegations that have surfaced in recent weeks also depict it as an environment where inappropriate behavior is widespread and a laddish culture, where what one person sees as a joke is offensive to another, prevails. The accusations describe parliament as a place where careers of researchers, interns and aides can be decided by the member of parliament or minister they work for - and suggest some fear for their future if they refuse sexual advances. Many female lawmakers have welcomed the opportunity to share their experiences, some of which they have kept silent about for years for fear of, if not reprisals, criticism from colleagues or officials for bringing parties into disrepute. There is obviously a problem, it s a good thing that it s been exposed, Labour lawmaker Harriet Harman told parliament this week. No one should have to work in the toxic atmosphere of sleazy sexist or homophobic banter. Scandals involving members of British politicians are not new. The Profumo Affair, involving sex, a Soviet spy and the secretary of state for war, helped bring down the Conservative government in 1963. Twenty years later, Conservative Cecil Parkinson resigned as trade and industry minister over an affair with his secretary, who became pregnant. But Fallon told the BBC that what had been acceptable 15, 10 years ago is clearly not acceptable now . The government is introducing measures to tackle sexual harassment, including measures to enforce a code of conduct and to set up an independent grievance procedure. But critics say the power disparity between lawmaker and employee will remain. | 0fake |
South Korea president says acquiring nukes would 'break promise' with world | SEOUL (Reuters) - If South Korea develops nuclear weapons in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test it would be breaking its “promise” with the world, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Wednesday. South Korea is in discussion with China regarding a draft U.N. Security Resolution in response to North Korea’s January 6 nuclear test, Park said in response to a question at an annual news conference. | 0fake |
Putin: Russia struck no secret agreements with Trump team | ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that allegations there had been a secret deal between Moscow and Donald Trump before his inauguration as U.S. president were “hysteria.” “There was nothing concrete, zero. It’s just hysteria. Should I give you a pill?” Putin told a moderator when asked about a possible deal between Trump and Moscow. Putin, addressing the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, accused the United States of carrying out “crude and systematic interference in Russian affairs for many years”. | 0fake |
N.Y. Times endorses Clinton in White House race | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Times endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the White House on Saturday, saying she was more qualified than Republican presidential rival Donald Trump to handle the challenges facing the United States. The newspaper described Clinton as “one of the most tenacious politicians of her generation” and said she had displayed a command of policy and diplomatic nuance while building a reputation for grit and bipartisan cooperation. “A lifetime’s commitment to solving problems in the real world qualifies Hillary Clinton for this job, and the country should put her to work,” the Times said of the former secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York. Clinton will face off against Trump on Monday night in the first of three presidential debates, with opinion polls showing her once sizable lead over the New York businessman narrowing amid continued public doubts about her trustworthiness. The Times said Clinton’s mistakes had distorted perceptions of her character, but praised her work restoring U.S. credibility in foreign affairs as secretary of state and on behalf of children, women and families throughout her career. “Mrs. Clinton has shown herself to be a realist who believes America cannot simply withdraw behind oceans and walls, but must engage confidently in the world to protect its interests and be true to its values,” the newspaper said. It said Clinton’s decision to use a private email server for government work as secretary of state deserved the scrutiny it has received in the campaign, but considered alongside the real challenges facing the United States it “looks like a matter for the help desk.” Viewed against those challenges, Trump “shrinks to his true small-screen, reality-show proportions,” the Times said, promising another editorial on Monday explaining “why we believe Mr. Trump to be the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history.” The endorsement from the Times editorial board is no surprise. The last Republican the Times backed for the White House was President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. But several newspapers with more conservative editorial boards, including the Dallas Morning News and Cincinnati Enquirer, also have recently endorsed Clinton. The Times said Clinton’s best argument for the White House was her ability to rise to the challenges facing the country. “The 2016 campaign has brought to the surface the despair and rage of poor and middle-class Americans” facing the burdens of recession, technological change, foreign competition and war, it said. “Over 40 years in public life, Hillary Clinton has studied these forces and weighed responses to these problems. Our endorsement is rooted in respect for her intellect, experience, toughness and courage over a career of almost continuous public service, often as the first or only woman in the arena,” the newspaper said. | 0fake |
Whoopi Goldberg Gets PISSED, Gives Trump The Reality Check We’ve All Been Waiting For (VIDEO) | The appointment of several white supremacists and controversial political figures to Donald Trump s administration has terrified Americans across the country. Two of Trump s latest appointments are Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and retired Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn for national security adviser, and Whoopi Goldberg wasn t afraid to voice her opinion on why this pisses her off on The View.In response to the xenophobic, racist tone Trump s cabinet has taken with its new appointments, Goldberg disagreed with Paula Faris suggestion that the upcoming meeting between Mitt Romney and Donald Trump symbolized some sort of peaceful agreement between the former rivals. Goldberg told Faris: Goldberg: I m sorry baby, when you see these I m an optimist too. This does not make me optimistic, this pisses me off. Addressing the hate speech that Trump and his team have spewed for over a year now, Goldberg gave a brutal reality check to anyone who said they were trying to put stuff behind them and accept the fact that we now have a racist dictator coming into the White House who wants to Make America White Again. Goldberg dropped the perfect truthbomb when she said: Black people are not going anywhere, they are not going to be slaves anymore so get that out of your head. Muslims, who were born here as Americans, are not going anywhere. We re not going anywhere, I don t know why you don t get this part. It was perfect, and exactly what Trump and his minions needed to hear. Joy Behar backed Goldberg up and recalled that people are still being harassed in different areas of the country. She said: What kind of country is this now. People better not sit back and just take it because they have all the power in the White House, in the Senate, in the House of Representatives, the FBI is in their pocket. We have to be the loyal opposition in this county. That s what we re here for. You can watch this brilliant segment below:Featured image via Mark Wilson and Monica Schipper / Getty Images | 1real |
U.S. Senate panel approves Lighthizer for U.S. Trade Representative | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved President Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. Trade Representative, bringing Robert Lighthizer a step closer to taking office as U.S. trade disputes with Canada and Mexico heat up. The panel also voted to approve a legal waiver for Lighthizer from a 1995 law that prohibits people who did work on behalf of foreign governments from serving as the top U.S. trade negotiator. Lighthizer did work on behalf of the Brazilian agriculture agency in the late 1980s and assisted a colleague with work for a Chinese electronics industry group in 1991. Lighthizer’s nomination now moves to the full U.S. Senate for approval. If confirmed, he will represent the Trump administration in its planned renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday announced 20 percent anti-subsidy duties on Canadian softwood lumber imports amid a long-running unresolved trade dispute between the United States and its second-largest trade partner. | 0fake |
Canada's Trudeau calls treatment of women in Mexico 'unacceptable' | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Canada s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday urged Mexican lawmakers to improve women s rights, delivering a sharp rebuke to a key trading partner that has struggled to curb years of femicide, drug violence and rights abuses. In a visit to the Mexican capital amid tense talks in the United States to save the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Trudeau met human rights organizations that briefed him on the violence and challenges faced by many of the country s women. In an address at the Mexican Senate, Trudeau told lawmakers that the stories he had heard from the rights groups about the treatment of women were unacceptable, and pressed for gender imbalances to be addressed in an updated NAFTA. I challenge you to use your position and power to strongly push for the rights of women and girls in Mexico, Trudeau said. We must move the needle forward on gender inequality. Trudeau s comments serve as a reprimand of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto s failure to tackle years of drug crime. Violence against women in Mexico has risen dramatically since the previous administration declared war on organized drug trafficking about a decade ago. Mexico and Canada share values, and that certainly includes gender equality and enhancing women s rights, Pena Nieto s office said in a statement after a request for comment on Trudeau s remarks. The National Citizen Observatory of Femicide (OCNF), which uses government statistics, reported that 2,735 women were murdered in Mexico last year, up sharply from 2,383 the year before. UN Women, a branch of the United Nations, says on its website that Mexico has taken steps in recent years to improve gender equality, but has struggled to fully implement and enforce its own regulations. Trudeau and his wife arrived in Mexico City on Thursday and attended roundtable discussions with non-governmental organizations to discuss violence against women, human rights, free speech as well as the risks faced by journalists and activists. Although Trudeau did not give details on how an updated NAFTA could protect women s rights, he said that Canada supports broader inclusion of women in the world economy. We know that the success of any society depends on the full participation of women across social, economic and political life, he added. | 0fake |
Werden sich die Vereinigten Staaten reformieren oder zerreißen?, von Thierry Meyssan | Werden sich die Vereinigten Staaten reformieren oder zerreißen? von Thierry Meyssan Das Beobachten des US-Präsidentschaftswahlkampfes führt Thierry Meyssan zur Analyse des Wiederauflebens des alten und schweren zivilisatorischen Konfliktes. Hillary Clinton hat gerade erklärt, dass die Wahl sich nicht um Programme dreht, sondern um die Frage: "Wer sind die Amerikaner? Die republikanischen Führer entziehen ihrem Kandidaten, Donald Trump, nicht wegen politischen Themen ihre Unterstützung, sondern wegen seinem persönlichen Verhalten. Unserem Autor zufolge waren die Amerikaner bisher aus unterschiedlichen Gegenden kommende Einwanderer, die akzeptierten, sich der Ideologie einer bestimmten Gemeinschaft unterzuordnen. Das ist dieses Modell, das jetzt allmählich zerfällt, mit der Gefahr das Land selbst zunichte zu machen.
Voltaire Netzwerk | Damaskus (Syrien) | 26. Oktober 2016 français Español italiano русский English Português ελληνικά Türkçe عربي 73% der millenaristischen Wähler (d.h. jene die an das baldige Ende der Welt glauben) weisen den republikanischen Kandidaten Trump zurück. 68% von ihnen halten die demokratische Kandidatin für fähiger, um die Mittelklasse zu verteidigen; 64% halten sie für besser in aussenpolitischen Fragen; 61% in ökonomischen Fragen. Während des Jahres der amerikanischen Wahl-Kampagne, die wir mitgemacht haben, hat sich die Rhetorik tiefgreifend verändert und zwischen den beiden Lagern ist eine unerwartete Spaltung aufgetaucht. Wenn anfangs die Kandidaten über wirkliche politische Themen sprachen (z. B. die Verteilung des Reichtums oder die nationale Sicherheit), geht es jetzt hauptsächlich um Sex und Geld.
Es ist diese Rede und nicht die politischen Fragen, die die republikanische Partei gesprengt hat - deren Hauptführer ihrem Kandidaten die Unterstützung entzogen - und die das politische Schachbrett neugestaltet hat, indem sie eine sehr alte zivilisatorische Kluft wieder auftauchen ließen. Auf der einen Seite will Frau Clinton politisch korrekt erscheinen, während auf der anderen Seite der "Donald" die Heuchelei der ehemaligen "First Lady" in Stücke reißt.
Auf der einen Seite fördert Hillary Clinton die Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau, obwohl sie nie gezögert hatte, Frauen, die wissen ließen mit ihrem Ehemann Sex gehabt zu haben, anzugreifen und zu beschmutzen; obwohl sie nicht für ihre persönlichen Qualitäten Kandidatin ist, sondern als Ehefrau des ehemaligen Präsidenten, und Donald Trump der Frauenfeindlichkeit beschuldigt, weil er aus seiner Vorliebe für Frauen keinen Hehl macht. Auf der anderen Seite prangert Donald Trump die Privatisierung des Staates an, die Erpresserbande von ausländischen Persönlichkeiten durch die Clinton-Stiftung, um einen Termin im Außenministerium zu bekommen; die Schaffung von ObamaCare, die nicht im Interesse der Bürger, sondern nur der Krankenversicherung ist; und er geht selbst so weit, um die Aufrichtigkeit des Wahlsystems in Frage zu stellen.
Ich weiß sehr wohl, dass die Ausdrucksweise von Donald Trump in der Tat Rassismus fördert, aber ich denke nicht, dass dies das Herzstück der Wahldebatte ist, trotz der von den Pro-Clinton Medien gemachten Hype.
Es ist nicht gleichgültig, dass während der Lewinsky-Affäre, Präsident Bill Clinton sich bei der Nation entschuldigt und Pastoren versammelt hat, um für seine Rettung zu beten. Während Donald Trump, für ähnliches Verhalten mit einer Audio-Aufnahme in Frage gestellt, sich nur bei den verletzten Personen entschuldigte, ohne Mitglieder des Klerus miteinzubeziehen.
Die aktuelle Spaltung greift die Revolte der Werte der Katholiken, Orthodoxen und Lutheraner gegen die Calvinisten wieder auf, die in den Vereinigten Staaten vor allem durch die Presbyterianer, Baptisten und Methodisten vertreten sind.
Wenn die beiden Kandidaten auch in puritanischer Tradition (Clinton als Methodistin und Trump als Presbyterianer) erzogen wurden, kehrte Frau Clinton erst nach dem Tod ihres Vaters zur Religion zurück und beteiligt sich heute an der Gebetsgruppe des Stabschefs der Streitkräfte, the family, während Herr Trump eine mehr innerliche Spiritualität ausübt und selten in den Tempel geht.
Natürlich ist niemand in seinem Muster eingesperrt, in dem er aufgewachsen ist. Aber wenn wir ohne zu denken handeln, reproduzieren wir es ohne dessen bewusst zu sein. Die Frage des religiösen Umfeldes kann also für jedermann wichtig sein.
Um zu verstehen, worum es geht, muss man ins England des 17. Jahrhunderts zurückgehen. Oliver Cromwell stürzte König Charles I. mit einem militärischen Staatsstreich. Er behauptete, eine Republik zu etablieren, die Seele des Landes zu reinigen und ließ den ehemaligen Souveränen enthaupten. Er schuf ein sektiererisches Regime, inspiriert von den Ideen von Calvin, massakrierte massenweise die irischen Papisten und verhängte einen puritanischen Lebensstil. Er entwarf auch den Zionismus: Er rief die Juden nach England zurück und war das erste Staatsoberhaupt der Welt, das die Schaffung eines jüdischen Staates in Palästina befürwortete. Diese blutige Episode ist als der "erste britische Bürgerkrieg" bekannt.
Nach der Restauration der Monarchie flohen Cromwells Puritaner aus England. Sie ließen sich in den Niederlanden nieder, von wo manche von ihnen auf der Mayflower nach Amerika (die "Pilger") fuhren, während andere die Gemeinschaft der Afrikaneer im südlichen Afrika gründeten. Während des Unabhängigkeitskrieges der Vereinigten Staaten im 18. Jahrhundert erlebte man wieder die Konfrontation der Calvinisten gegen die britische Monarchie, die man in den derzeitigen britischen Geschichtsbüchern als "zweiten Bürgerkrieg" bezeichnet.
Im 19. Jahrhundert fand der Sezessionskrieg statt zwischen den Staaten des Südens (hauptsächlich von katholischen Siedlern bewohnt) und den des Norden (eher von protestantischen Siedlern bewohnt). Die Geschichte der Gewinner stellt diese Auseinandersetzung als einen Kampf für die Freiheit von der Sklaverei dar, was reine Propaganda ist (die südlichen Staaten schafften die Sklaverei während des Krieges ab, als sie ein Bündnis mit der britischen Monarchie schlossen). In der Tat war die Konfrontation jene der Puritaner mit dem englischen Thron, Grund, dass einige Historiker hier über den "Dritten britischen Bürgerkrieg“ sprechen.
Während des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts schien dieser innere Kampf der britischen Zivilisation überholt, außer dem Wiederaufleben der Puritaner im Vereinigten Königreich mit den "nicht-konformen Christen" von Premierminister David Lloyd George. Letztere teilten Irland und versprachen eine "jüdische nationale Heimstätte" in Palästina zu schaffen.
Wie auch immer, einer der Berater von Richard Nixon, Kevin Phillips, hat diesen Bürgerkriegen eine voluminöse Arbeit gewidmet und festgestellt, dass keines der Probleme gelöst war und hat eine vierte Runde angekündigt [ 1 ].
Die Anhänger der reformierten calvinistischen Kirchen, seit 40 Jahren mit überwältigender Mehrheit Wähler für die Republikaner, unterstützen von nun an die Demokraten.
Ich habe keinen Zweifel, dass Frau Clinton der nächste Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten werden wird, oder, dass wenn Herr Trump gewählt wurde, er schnell beseitigt werden würde. Aber in wenigen Monaten gab es eine breite Wahl-Umverteilung auf einem Hintergrund des demografischen irreversiblen Wandels. Die Puritaner Kirchen bedeuten insgesamt nur mehr ein Viertel der Bevölkerung und fallen in das demokratische Lager. Ihr Modell erscheint als ein historischer Unfall. Es verschwand in Südafrika und wird nicht viel länger überleben, weder in den USA noch in Israel.
Jenseits der Präsidentschaftswahl muss sich die US-Gesellschaft schnell entwickeln oder wird sich wieder zerreißen. In einem Land, wo die Jugend massiv den Einfluss der puritanischen Prediger ablehnt, ist es nicht möglich, das Thema der Gleichstellung aufzuschieben. Die Puritaner erwägen eine Gesellschaft, wo alle Menschen gleich sind, aber nicht gleichwertig. Lord Cromwell wollte eine Republik für die Engländer, aber erst, nachdem er die irischen Papisten niedergemacht hatte. Es sind derzeit in den Vereinigten Staaten alle Bürger vor dem Gesetz gleich, aber im Namen der gleichen Texte verurteilen die Gerichte systematisch Schwarze, während sie für Weiße, die entsprechende Straftaten begangen haben, mildernde Umstände finden. Und in der Mehrzahl der Staaten genügt eine strafrechtliche Verurteilung, ja selbst ein Geschwindigkeitsüberschreitung, um das Wahlrecht zu verlieren. Infolgedessen sind schwarz und weiß gleich, aber in einigen Bundesstaaten hat die Mehrheit der schwarzen Männer ihr Wahlrecht verloren. Das Paradigma von diesem Gedanken in der Außenpolitik, ist die "zwei-Staaten-Lösung" in Palästina: gleich, aber vor allem nicht gleichwertig.
Das ist das puritanische Denken, das die Verwaltungen des Pastors Carter, von Reagan, von Bush (Senior und Junior sind zwei direkte Nachfahren der Pilgerväter), von Clinton und Obama dazu führte, den Wahhabismus zu unterstützen, im Widerspruch mit den Idealen ihres Landes und heute selbst Daesch zu unterstützen.
Einst gründeten die Pilgerväter Gemeinschaften in Plymouth und Boston, die im kollektiven amerikanischen Gedächtnis idealisiert wurden. Die Historiker sind sich jedoch einig, sie sagten, das "neue Israel" zu bilden und wählten das "Gesetz von Moses". Sie setzten kein Kreuz in ihre Tempel, sondern die Tafeln des Gesetzes. Obwohl Christen, legen sie mehr Wert auf die jüdischen Schriften als auf die Evangelien. Sie zwangen ihre Frauen, ihren Kopf zu verschleiern und führten wieder körperliche Züchtigung ein.
Thierry Meyssan Übersetzung
Horst Frohlich | 1real |
And Then There Was Trump - The New York Times | How do you deal with an opponent immune to the truth, whose appeal is atavistic rather than rational? How do you pick off enough of his constituents and prevent him from making inroads into yours? In Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and her Democratic allies face a candidate for whom there is no precedent in presidential politics. It remains unclear whether Trump can be brought to his knees the way Mitt Romney was by ads like “Coffin” and “Firms,” which alleged that Romney’s investment firm, Bain Capital, closed factories and shipped jobs abroad. In April, during the primary campaign, Politico reported that Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster currently working for the “super PAC” Priorities USA Action, contended in a phone interview that Trump’s immunity to criticism worked only in the primaries among Republican voters: “Trump is not Teflon. ” Among all voters, Garin argued, “a majority has come to the conclusion that Trump is unfit for the job and that he would represent a significant risk as president. ” Polling and focus group testing, Garin said, have shown that one ad produced by Priorities, “Grace,” has been highly effective. It shows Grace, who was born with spina bifida, her parents, Chris and Lauren Glaros, and a clip of Trump ridiculing a disabled New York Times reporter. The ad concludes with the father on camera: I asked Garin, along with other strategists and political observers, how they would respond to a long list of Trump’s rambling, theatrical promises, which he would, in fact, be unable to keep. Just a partial list of these includes refusing to defend America’s NATO allies, returning 11 million undocumented immigrants to their home countries, saving $300 billion annually on a prescription drug program that spends only $78 billion a year, nationalizing concealed weapons permits and vowing that “If I become president, we’re gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store . .. You can leave Happy Holidays at the corner. ” Should Democrats, I inquired, point to the infeasibility of Trump’s proposals and the damaging results of any attempts on his part to follow through? That approach would not work, Garin said, because voters, including many of Trump’s supporters, don’t really “believe he will build a wall, or get Mexico to pay for a wall” — they have already discounted many of Trump’s assertions as hyperbole. “The real case has more to do with his character and temperament,” Garin said. “The biggest concern is that he is temperamentally unsuited to lead the country. ” Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster unaffiliated with the Clinton campaign, argued in an email that there were risks in attacking specific Trump proposals as unrealistic: In an interesting warning to Democrats, Arthur Lupia, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, wrote me: Making a related argument, a Democratic strategist who sought anonymity in order to protect his relationship with the Clinton campaign, wrote me: This strategist cited the futility of accusing Trump of hyping crime: Democrats have to negotiate a tricky path in communicating their candidate’s “identification with the main concerns of many of Trump’s voters” on such issues as immigration, the strategist argued. This empathy has to be Robert Borosage, of the Campaign for America’s Future, a liberal advocacy group, described the problem of attempting to refute Trump : Clinton’s task, in Borosage’s view, is not an easy one for a politician who has been in the national spotlight for more than a quarter of a century: “H. R. C. ’s challenge is to claim the future — one that is different than the past,” Borosage wrote. In his speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Bill Clinton sought to address the issue Borosage raises of how Hillary Clinton can plausibly “claim the future. ” The former president referred to his wife’s record of making “positive changes in people’s lives” and noted that his wife is a “woman who has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything. ” Borosage brought up a second point, that Hillary Clinton, who has campaigned on the theme that she will protect and enhance the Obama legacy, needs to jump an additional hurdle: “Her biggest challenge is to be different than Obama — bolder, challenging Wall Street, corporate trade and tax deals. ” Borosage’s argument — that the Trump campaign is based on attitudes and ingrained belief systems, not on a set of policies — points to the difficulty of addressing Trump’s rhetoric. Douglas Massey, a professor of sociology at Princeton and the author of “Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Age of Economic Integration” pointed out in an email, for example, that Similarly, The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2015 that numerous studies These facts are unlikely to dissuade voters convinced that immigrants are taking jobs, committing crimes and undermining American values. From their point of view, any crime by an illegal immigrant is one crime too many. There are many Democrats who believe that taking on Trump does not require nuance or calculation. “When 60 percent of voters say they’ll never consider voting for you and you have a 29 percent approval rating, you’ve got a serious image problem,” Jim Jordan, who managed John Kerry’s presidential campaign and served as executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, wrote me in an email. “Trump is already gushing blood. This is just blocking and tackling for the Clinton folks. ” Jordan argues that “the two real imperatives” for Democrats are 1) “to deny Trump the ‘I’ ’ space,” and 2) “to keep hammering on how bizarre and dangerous he is to America and our interests around the world. His weird on Putin and his invitation this week to Russia to invade the Baltics seem like good places to start. ” Despite Jordan’s confidence in Democratic presidential prospects, at the moment Trump has moved ahead of Clinton by 1. 1 percent in the RealClearPolitics aggregation of recent polling. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at N. Y. U. told me in an email that Democrats need to adopt a more subtle strategy in dealing with Trump. This, Haidt argues, is because the The elephant “really runs the show,” Haidt said, Translating this analytic approach to the 2016 election, in Haidt’s view, means that To counter Trump, Democrats have to get into the electorate’s automatic, intuitive and unconscious level of responding to events before attempting a critique based on reasoned argument, according to Haidt. To do this, he wrote, the goal should be to portray Trump in ways that conflict with “deep moral intuitions about fairness versus cheating and exploitation. ” And how do you do that? The next step is to present a vision of Trump that violates “moral intuitions about loyalty, authority, and sanctity:” On Monday night in her speech, Michelle Obama tapped into this theme when she described “the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children. ” The first lady declared: Haidt put it another way: I could not have said it better myself. Despite the overt chaos, the competing narratives of the fall campaign — each side’s attempt to define the other as weak or crazy and itself as tough and dependable — are clearly emerging from the conventions. The question is whether the Democratic Party can get emotional enough or reach deep enough into our brains to counter the sheer id of Trump’s primeval appeal. | 0fake |
Factbox: Trump adviser from Wall Street backs U.S. bank breakups | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) executive and White House adviser Gary Cohn shocked more than a few of his former Wall Street colleagues this week when he showed support for reinstating a Depression-era law that would break up the biggest U.S. banks. Here are some details about the law, called the Glass-Steagall Act, and why it has returned to the spotlight: WHAT IS GLASS-STEAGALL: Originally passed as part of the U.S. Banking Act of 1933, Glass-Steagall established a firewall between commercial and investment banking activity. The law was whittled away over time as banks gained permission to engage in more trading activity, and was repealed altogether in 1999 with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. WHO SUPPORTS IT?: Since the 2008 financial crisis, Glass-Steagall has become a calling card for politicians eager to crack down on Wall Street. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren frequently invokes it, and Senator Bernie Sanders made it a major part of his presidential campaign. President Donald Trump also seized on the policy during his campaign. WHAT DOES THE WHITE HOUSE SAY?: The Trump administration has not backed away from his campaign stance, but there are questions about how aggressively the president will push for a new law. The issue only tends to come up when officials are asked about it. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he supported a modern version of Glass-Steagall in response to a question during his confirmation hearing. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the White House supports the proposal when asked by reporters. Cohn responded favorably when asked by Warren at a private meeting with senators. WHAT WOULD A NEW GLASS-STEAGALL LOOK LIKE?: There are number of ideas to create what some refer to as a “21st Century Glass-Steagall.” Warren has proposed splitting commercial and investment banking, and also barring depository institutions from using modern financial instruments like derivatives. Thomas Hoenig, the vice chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has proposed a similar split, and would subject banks to a higher, 10 percent capital requirement. Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, would force big banks to take on so much capital they would prefer to split into smaller institutions. COULD IT HAPPEN?: Although many Wall Street critics have seized on Glass-Steagall, efforts to change the law have garnered very little support. Warren’s proposal received just a handful of legislative co-sponsors. And because Congress and the White House are still consumed with complex fights over health care and tax reform, there seems to be little appetite for a broad, controversial overhaul of the financial system. ARE THERE RISKS FOR BANKS?: Big U.S. lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Citigroup (C.N) would be most impacted, because their commercial lending and investment banking operations are closely intertwined, say analysts. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) might be less impacted, although they would likely have to revert to being standalone investment banks and shed their deposit funding. But even if Glass-Steagall does not become law, the industry may have to spend money, time and energy lobbying against the idea, when they would rather focus on rolling back existing rules. | 0fake |
Interpol approves membership for State of Palestine over Israeli objections | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Interpol voted on Wednesday to admit the State of Palestine as a member over Israeli objections at the international police organization s general assembly in Beijing. The decision came despite Israeli efforts to delay a vote and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the Palestinians joining the global police agency contravened signed agreements with Israel. Israel had argued that Palestine is not a state and that it is ineligible to join. Under interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals, a Palestinian Authority was granted limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Shortly before the vote in the Chinese capital, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Israel s efforts to delay the ballot until next year had failed. This victory was made possible because of the principled position of the majority of Interpol members, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in a statement. Interpol said membership applications by the State of Palestine and the Solomon Islands were approved at its annual general assembly by more than the required two-thirds majority of votes. The organization now has 192 members. A Palestinian bid to join last year, at an Interpol conference in Indonesia, was foiled by what Israel said was its diplomatic campaign against it. In 2012, the U.N. General Assembly upgraded the Palestinian Authority s observer status at the United Nations to non-member state from entity , like the Vatican. The step fell short of full U.N. membership, but it had important legal implications in enabling the Palestinians to join the International Criminal Court and other world bodies. Netanyahu s statement said Palestinian membership of Interpol was one of the issues discussed during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump s Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, who is visiting the region. Netanyahu also raised the Palestinian refusal to condemn an attack on Tuesday in which a Palestinian laborer shot dead three Israeli guards in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The actions of the Palestinian leadership in the past few days directly harm the prospects of achieving peace and the Palestinian diplomatic offensive will not go unanswered, the statement said. Some Israeli media commentators have voiced concern that as an Interpol member, Palestine could ask the organization to issue a Red Notice , an alert to police worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest an individual, pending extradition. But the procedure does not appear to pose serious legal problems for Israelis such as government officials and military officers whom pro-Palestinian groups have sought to have arrested by local authorities as suspected war criminals during overseas visits. A red notice is not an international arrest warrant, and on its website Interpol notes that it cannot compel any member country to detain an individual named in one. | 0fake |
Colonial agenda of erasure: The United States has still not acknowledged it committed genocide against indigenous peoples | Galactic Connection | © Photo: AJ Schroetlin Indigenous Americans protest the Columbus Day celebration in Denver, Colorado, on October 9, 2007.
What myths have most of us been taught about Native Americans? In a new book, All the Real Indians Died Off And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans , Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker show how generations of people in the United States have been misinformed about Indigenous Americans as part of a colonial agenda of erasure.
The following is the Truthout interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker.
Mark Karlin: I was profoundly enlightened when I interviewed you about your last book The Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States . Your new book, written with Dina Gilio-Whitaker debunks 21 myths about Native Americans. Before we get to the book, I want to start and ask you a truly global question, how is the Indigenous rights movement becoming increasingly transnational?
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz: The international Indigenous movement is becoming increasingly visible, but it has been developing since the early 1920s, when the Haudenosaunee (six Nations of the Iroquois federation) sent a representative, Cayuga leader Deskaheh, to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1923 to address the League of Nations. From the 1930s onwards, Muskogee Creek, Cherokee and Hopi representatives built ties with Indigenous Peoples in Central Mexico, where their peoples had originated.
In 1940, The Interamerican Indian Convention was signed by the governments of the hemisphere, and the Interamerican Indian Institute was founded, which still exists today. In the 1950s, the newly established National Congress of American Indians in the United States and other Native activists actively sought ties with Indigenous Peoples in other parts of the world. But it was in 1974, with the founding of the International Indian Treaty Council by the militant American Indian Movement, and of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, that formal relations with the United Nations began.
The United Nations Sub-Commission on Racism and Racial Discrimination had taken up a study of Indigenous Peoples globally in 1972 and in 1977, the first international Indigenous Peoples conference was held at the United Nations – the delegates of Indigenous representatives organized by the International Indian Treaty Council. After four years of arduous Indigenous lobbying, a UN Working Group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was established and met for the first time in 1982, and thereafter annually for 25 years, resulting in massive documentation and testimonies, as well as official reports, and in the 2007 UN General Assembly resolution, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples .
Early in the new millennium, a UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues were established, the latter meeting for two weeks annually at UN headquarters in New York, bringing together thousands of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives. In addition to the institutional transnational relationships are the daily exchange of communications among Indigenous Peoples on local, regional and continental issues and emergencies, particularly effective during the past 20 years of increasing Internet capacity.
What are the roles of erasure and disappearance in creating settler colonialist myth about Native Americans that then justify suppression and theft of land?
Dina Gilio-Whitaker: Disappearance of the Indigenous population was necessary for the settler project to inherit the land that they believed was rightfully theirs, by divine providence. Very early on, for example, when the Mayflower immigrants of the Plymouth colony were starving and trying to figure out how to feed themselves, we know from primary documents that some of them found villages that had been emptied out due to a disease epidemic a year or two earlier, or in some cases, were still inhabited. They raided food stores and even graves, and saw it as an expression of God’s favor on them, having gotten rid of the Indians so that they could now inhabit the land.
By the 1840s this belief crystalized into the concept of manifest destiny. Then we begin to see the emergence of anthropology and what we now call scientific racism – a science-based ideology that all non-white people are inferior to white Europeans . This Social Darwinism finds its way into Supreme Court decisions about Native lands and nations, which then become the basis for laws and policies that systematically justify extermination, forced assimilation and endless other depredations – that all have at their root the goal of transferring Native lands into white ownership. This is why we say that settler colonialism is a structure that eliminates Natives so that settlers can replace them. And it is this structure that still frames the body of federal Indian law that governs what happens to Native nations and individuals today, all guided by the impulse to eliminate.
You have a chapter on the myth that the US did not engage in a policy of genocide toward Native Americans. Given that’s a loaded term that denialists love to split hairs about, wouldn’t it just be easier to say the European conquerors maintained a policy of trying to make Native Americans vanish?
Dunbar-Ortiz: The importance of the term “genocide” for many Indigenous Peoples is that it is more than a term or an accusation; it is a word created in the wake of the Shoah in Europe to describe what happens when a people are targeted by a government for extermination, as were the Jews of Europe, and which is the term used in the most important international law related to concerned Indigenous Peoples, as the only international human rights law that pertains specifically to collectivities of people rather than individuals.
We have researched and studied only US policies and actions related to Indigenous peoples in North America, but think that the analysis of the US applies to several of the republics of the Americas, as well as Australia and New Zealand, that imposed settler-colonialism on the Indigenous Peoples, seeking to displace and disappear Indigenous communities and nations to replace them with European settlers.
As the late Australian anthropologist Patrick Wolfe wrote, “The question of genocide is never far from discussions of settler colonialism.” The history of the United States is a history of settler colonialism. The objective of US authorities was to terminate their existence as peoples – not as random individuals. This is the very definition of modern genocide. The term “genocide” is often incorrectly assumed to mean extreme examples of mass murder associated with war, with the death of millions of individuals, as, for instance in Cambodia. Although clearly the Holocaust was the most extreme of all genocides, the bar set by the Nazis is not the bar required to be considered genocide. Most importantly, genocide does not have to be complete to be considered genocide. Cases of genocide carried out as policy may be found in historical documents as well as in the oral histories of Indigenous communities. An example from 1873 is typical, with General William T. Sherman writing,
“We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children … during an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age.”
We talked about this in our last interview. Many historical accounts tried to make it appear that presidents and Congress viewed themselves as white saviors to Native Americans. Was that any different than the attitude of European colonialism that decimated vast populations in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East, for example?
Dunbar-Ortiz: I think there’s a great deal of similarity in this respect among various European and Euroamerican colonialisms, with attempts to justify the capitalist plunder that drove and drives the past 500 years of European and United States imperialism. One of the myths we include in the present book is on the presumed benevolence of US presidents towards Native Americans (Myth 9).
What is different is the goal of elimination of the Native in the four sites of Anglo settler-colonialism in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Whether it was an expression of the “laws of nature,” that is, the survival of the fittest as explicitly expressed by Andrew Jackson and the embrace of eugenics by Theodore Roosevelt during their presidencies, or in popular culture by Walt Whitman and other writers, or the disappearance through forced assimilation, such as the Indian boarding schools’ goal to “kill the Indian and save the man,” the stamping out and total disappearance of the Native was predominant. In the present, the way benevolence is expressed is in conceptualizing the Native as a historical relic; US people have to be constantly reminded that there are still existent Indigenous peoples and communities in North America, but whether left or right, recent immigrant or descendants of settlers, even descendants of enslaved Africans, the Native presence is not a consideration in the day to day life of individuals and municipal, state and national governments.
Since we are coming close to this holiday, can you expand on dispelling the myth that Thanksgiving proves the Indians welcomed the pilgrims?
Gilio-Whitaker: The story, as it is commonly conveyed, is a feel-good tale of a deep friendship between Pilgrims and Indians, signified by a formal, ostensibly prearranged engagement where they all sit down together to give thanks for a bountiful harvest.
There is not enough evidence to surmise anything of the sort; what there is suggests that it was a random, rather accidental occurrence in which the Wampanoag were investigating the sound of gunfire coming from the English settlement, and then were invited to stay for dinner. The actual relationship between the Wampanoag and the pilgrims can best be described as a political alliance based on desperation and the mutual need for survival. Both were extremely vulnerable.
The pilgrims needed the Indians to teach them how to live on the land, and extreme population decline due to disease had weakened the Wampanoag militarily. A treaty had been negotiated in an atmosphere of mistrust and tension. Within two years, it had completely broken down but then, after about 40 years of relative peace, by 1675 full-scale war had broken out between them, becoming what we know now as King Philip’s War, what’s been called the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil.
This is too recent for your book, but I think your opinion on the activism surrounding the Dakota Access pipeline and the expanding support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe should be explored. Do you think it is a threshold point for a new stage of defiant, stalwart activism on behalf of reclaiming sovereignty over Indigenous lands and water?
Gilio-Whitaker: It remains to be seen, but at the moment it does seem that way. What we have to compare it to in this country is the Alcatraz occupation from 1969-1971, the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972 and Wounded Knee in 1973.
Those movements, like this one, were youth-led (although women are much more out front these days). Those were also the days that gave birth to the ethnic studies disciplines, and growing numbers of Indians becoming lawyers. So what we have now is new generations of Natives with sophisticated educations, and savvy political and organizing skills. They understand their history, they understand they’re living with intergenerational trauma, but they still have enough of their cultures and traditions that have the power to heal them. And that makes them strong and relentless, like their ancestors before them. What’s different now is that there are greater levels of support coming from non-Natives, because it’s recognized now that Native struggles to protect land and water are everyone’s struggles. And let’s remember that this standoff at Standing Rock comes on the heels of years of climate justice activism, which is widely acknowledged to be led by Indigenous peoples. Standing Rock is only the most recent manifestation of that.
About the author
Mark Karlin is the editor of BuzzFlash at Truthout. He served as editor and publisher of BuzzFlash for 10 years before joining Truthout in 2010. BuzzFlash has won four Project Censored Awards. Karlin writes a commentary five days a week for BuzzFlash, as well as articles (ranging from the failed “war on drugs” to reviews relating to political art) for Truthout. He also interviews authors and filmmakers whose works are featured in Truthout’s Progressive Picks of the Week. Before linking with Truthout, Karlin conducted interviews with cultural figures, political progressives and innovative advocates on a weekly basis for 10 years. He authored many columns about the lies propagated to launch the Iraq War. SOTT Comment: Read more from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz: The colonization of America was genocidal by plan: Yes, Native Americans were the victims of genocide
US history, as well as inherited Indigenous trauma, cannot be understood without dealing with the genocide that the United States committed against Indigenous peoples. From the colonial period through the founding of the United States and continuing in the twentieth century, this has entailed torture, terror, sexual abuse, massacres, systematic military occupations, removals of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral territories, forced removal of Native American children to military-like boarding schools, allotment, and a policy of termination.
Within the logic of settler-colonialism, genocide was the inherent overall policy of the United States from its founding, but there are also specific documented policies of genocide on the part of US administrations that can be identified in at least four distinct periods: the Jacksonian era of forced removal; the California gold rush in Northern California; during the Civil War and in the post Civil War era of the so-called Indian Wars in the Southwest and the Great Plains; and the 1950s termination period; additionally, there is the overlapping period of compulsory boarding schools, 1870s to 1960s. The Carlisle boarding school, founded by US Army officer Richard Henry Pratt in 1879, became a model for others established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Pratt said in a speech in 1892,
“A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him and save the man.” Share: | 1real |
House fails to knock down Obama veto of anti-Obamacare bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday failed to override President Barack Obama’s veto of legislation that would have dismantled his signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act. At least a two-thirds vote of the House was needed to knock down Obama’s veto; the Republican-majority House fell short by more than three dozen votes. The vote was 241-186, and ends consideration of the bill; the Senate will not take it up. The widely expected outcome was the latest chapter in the lengthy clash between Republicans and Democrats over the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” Republicans have been vowing to gut the law since 2010, when the then Democratic-majority Congress passed the landmark program designed to provide healthcare for millions of uninsured Americans. The House has voted to dismantle Obamacare dozens of times, but Republicans could not get a repeal through the Senate until late last year, when they used a procedural maneuver denying Democrats’ ability to block the legislation. Obama vetoed the bill last month; it was the eighth veto of his presidency, and none have been overridden. Republicans were anxious to show they had done everything they could to take down Obamacare, which they say has raised insurance costs and reduced health care choices. They said Tuesday that this was not the end of the story. “The end of Obamacare is coming,” predicted Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “When a Republican president takes office next year, we know we can get this passed ... Obamacare can be gone once and for all.” Such a scenario assumes, however, that the Republicans capture the White House in November elections, and maintain their majorities in the Senate and House as well. Democrats mocked Republicans, saying they were proposing to deprive millions of their health insurance without a replacement. About 11.3 Americans have signed up this year for insurance on the Obamacare exchanges. “While we have voted as of today 63 times to dismantle it, how many times have we voted to replace it? Zero! Zero times to replace it!” declared Representative Chris van Hollen, a Democrat. The bill also would have taken funds away from Planned Parenthood, another target of Republican criticism after undercover videos showed the women’s healthcare provider discussing the use of fetus parts for research. Two anti-abortion activists behind the filming of the videos were indicted by a Texas grand jury last month, while the jury cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing. | 0fake |
Arizona Sheriffs Want To Help Trump With Border Security | Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly visited Arizona border counties and their sheriffs to get a broader look at the nation’s border security problem. [Kelly toured the U. S. southern border with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ( ). afterwards meeting withAfter the tour, he conducted a roundtable of Arizona’s border county sheriffs where they collectively agreed that more security at the nation’s border was necessary. Kelly’s meeting included Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier. Napier praised Kelly, telling AZ Central, “I think the bottom line is we finally have a receptive ear of someone who is taking notes, very engaged, very willing to listen to us. ” “We talked about the value of technology in some areas and physical structures in others, but there’s a lot to be vetted out in that,” Napier said. “There’s a whole lot of distance between an executive action and some political rhetoric and actual policy implementation at the local level. ” Dannels echoed Napier’s call for not only a border wall, but more local security and cooperation. “The fencing along is not the to this border problem,” Dannels said. “We need to help get [local law enforcement] at the table, and number two is fund the programs that we’re taking on as a result of the federal government not doing it. ” Dannels said one of the issues Kelly and the Arizona sheriffs all agreed on was the reinstatement of what’s known as the “Stonegarden” program, where federal grant money is given to local authorities to help them be equipped with handling border security issues. Stonegarden, according to Dannels, is a “force multiplier when it comes to community and highway interdiction to those that smuggle drugs and smuggle humans. ” Wilmot, on the other hand, asked Kelly to have President Donald Trump’s administration bring back Operation Streamline, which allowed for immigration judges to criminally charge illegal immigrants in large groups, rather than by an individual basis. Estrada, the lone Democrat in the meeting, was the only law enforcement official during the meeting to question the validity of a border wall, versus other solutions. “I think that’s still an open question, being that we’re unique all along the border from San Diego to Brownsville,” Estrada told AZ Central. “It requires different approaches. In some places, you may not even need a wall. ” Trump has long made immigration one of his top priorities, and has often called for programs which were previously cancelled by the Obama administration to be reinstated to modernize the nation’s border crisis. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0fake |
Jeb Bush Picks Up Endorsement From Lindsey Graham | Former GOP presidential hopeful Linsdey Graham has announced his endorsement of Jeb Bush for president.
Graham's presidential campaign went nowhere, but as a senator from the early voting state of South Carolina he hopes to still have some clout.
Graham praised Bush's temperament Friday morning, following Thursday night's GOP debate. "He hasn't tried to get ahead in a contested primary by embracing demagoguery ... he's not running to be commander-in-chief by running people down," he said.
That was clearly a reference to Donald Trump. Bush returned the admiration, calling Graham a "patriot."
"He loves this country. You just hear it how he spoke from his heart about what's at stake here. What's at stake is our way of life," Bush said.
Jeb Bush — still slumping in polls — has been looking for a way to jump-start his campaign, but an endorsement from a former candidate who couldn't break through either probably won't give Bush the upswing he needs.
With the Iowa caucuses fewer than three weeks away, he's polling behind Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson both nationally and in Iowa. Bush was unable to stand out from the field once again at Thursday's Republican presidential debate. And Bush's donors are reportedly getting skittish, saying it's only a matter of time before he drops out. Politico reported that several donors said they are now waiting for what one former George W. Bush administration appointee described as a "family hall pass" to switch to another campaign after the New Hampshire primary. | 0fake |
Iraq's PM, on U.S. visit, says wins assurances from Trump administration | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday he received assurances during talks with President Donald Trump and his administration of increasing American support as he presses his country’s campaign against Islamic State. “We have been given assurances that the (U.S.) support will not only continue but will accelerate for Iraq to accomplish the task,” Abadi said following talks with Trump at the White House. | 0fake |
Watch Trump Shove Foreign Leader Out Of The Way So He Can Get In Front Of Photo Op (VIDEO) | Donald Trump met with the other members of NATO and it did not go well. From the moment he arrived, Trump appeared eager to take the spotlight and never give it up. The need to have attention reached a natural climax when Trump actually shoved the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way so he could take center stage in a photo op.Trump appears to shove Montenegro PM so he could be in front of NATO group https://t.co/CJYJJaPahY pic.twitter.com/53sIskTiBM Amanda Wills (@AmandaWills) May 25, 2017It was an embarrassing capstone to Trump s rocky first trip abroad. Treated like royalty in Saudi Arabia a strongarm theocracy which restricts the press and women from public engagement Trump seemed the mark the country as the high point of his travels. Things went down hill from there, implicating himself in a classified intelligence leak while in Israel and then getting repeatedly upstaged by the Pope in the Vatican. And yet his final leg, a meeting with NATO, looks to be the one he s least comfortable in.After spending the 2016 campaign bashing his European counterparts and promising his supporters that he would be the bold, tough leader that Republicans insisted Obama was not, Trump arrived to the event only to find that he was the dullest tool in the shed. Making matters worse, everybody seemed to know it. Nobody was taking him seriously.During his speech, Trump slammed the member states of the organization for not paying what he considers their fair share, the looks on their faces ranged from mortified to embarrassed to on the verge of laughter.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose disdain for Trump is well-known, seemed to barely be able to contain her expression of sorrow that this is what America s presidency had been reduced to.Clearly rattled, Trump s power move was to shove the PM of Montenegro and stand at the front for pictures. Appearance was everything. Unfortunately, watching the man some say has a much too comfortable relationship with Russia physically bully the head of state for a country that Putin is actively signalling aggression towards was not a good look.Watch Trump s speech below:Trump just tried to shake down the other NATO leaders. The looks on their faces. He doesn t even get what NATO is. pic.twitter.com/Qkr9LDZbs0 Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) May 25, 2017Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Factbox: Trump on Twitter (September 13) - Tax reform, Florida, Clinton | The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - The approval process for the biggest Tax Cut & Tax Reform package in the history of our country will soon begin. Move fast Congress! [0728 EDT] - I will be traveling to Florida tomorrow to meet with our great Coast Guard, FEMA and many of the brave first responders & others. [0734 EDT] - With Irma and Harvey devastation, Tax Cuts and Tax Reform is needed more than ever before. Go Congress, go! [0836 EDT] - China has a business tax rate of 15%. We should do everything possible to match them in order to win with our economy. Jobs and wages! [1022 EDT] - Crooked Hillary Clinton blames everybody (and every thing) but herself for her election loss. She lost the debates and lost her direction! [1047 EDT] - The “deplorables” came back to haunt Hillary.They expressed their feelings loud and clear. She spent big money but, in the end, had no game! [1052 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR) | 0fake |
Russia seeks two-day ceasefire in Damascus suburb; dozens killed by air strikes | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia proposed a two-day ceasefire on Monday in the last major rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus, where warplanes killed at least 41 people in two days of air strikes as Russian-backed government forces tried to capture the area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring body, said 18 people were killed by bombing on Monday and 23 on Sunday. At least 147 have been killed by air strikes and shelling since the Syrian army, with Russian air power, began the offensive to take the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta nearly two weeks ago. The area of densely-populated agricultural land is the last major territory near the capital still held by rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad s government. Across Syria, fighters have been driven out of most towns and cities in the past two years since Russia joined the war on Assad s behalf. Eastern Ghouta is also one of several de-escalation zones across western Syria where Russia has brokered deals to ease fighting. Russia proposed imposing a ceasefire in the de-escalation zone for Tuesday and Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported, quoting the Defence Ministry. Such measures will ease tension in the western part of the de-escalation zone, General-Lieutenant Sergei Kuralenko, in charge of Russia s ceasefire monitoring center in Syria, was quoted as saying. The enclave has been besieged by Assad forces since 2012, but the siege has become far worse in recent months since routes used to smuggle in food were shut. Residents are so short of food that they are eating trash, fainting from hunger and forcing their children to eat on alternate days, the U.N. World Food Programme said in a report last week. On Monday, 13 shells hit government-held Damascus and its surrounding areas, Syrian state media SANA reported. Four people were injured from a shell that hit the capital on Sunday, SANA said. | 0fake |
Leaving nothing to chance, China increases security, social control before Congress | BEIJING (Reuters) - China is tightening security for next month s twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress, cancelling police leave in Beijing, limiting tourism to Tibet, and clamping down on the spread of political rumors. High-level meetings in China are typically accompanied by a security crackdown - as well as uncharacteristically smog-free blue skies - with the stability-obsessed party not wanting to run the risk that anyone or anything offers a distraction. Thousands of policemen from other provinces have been sent to the Chinese capital to reinforce, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. A second source, with ties to the country s security forces and citing conversations with senior police officers, said all police leave in Beijing had been canceled starting from early September. Beijing Communist Party chief Cai Qi on Wednesday asked the city for 120 percent effort to ensure safety for the congress, the official Beijing Daily said. We must hold the line for social control, eliminate all destabilizing factors, hold the line for cyber security and resolutely crack down on political rumors and harmful news, Cai said. Beijing s largest market for metal building materials will be shuttered from Friday and is being relocated to Hebei province taking with it more than 10,000 industry workers and stall owners, according to the Beijing Daily. The market s unceasing growth had created a messy environment where migrants congregate, the paper said, without mentioning the crucial party gathering. Many of the tightened security measures target migrants, with ID checks at metro stations and patrols outside government ministries to ensure any petitioners from out of town are rounded up immediately should they attempt to make a scene. Some 2,000 delegates will converge on Beijing for the Congress, staying at hotels across the city, and security will only get tighter as its opening nears, meaning any protests will be quickly shut down. China s ongoing clampdown on cyberspace has seen WhatsApp, the messaging service run by Facebook, periodically unavailable in the past few weeks, while certain gifs using images of President Xi Jinping cannot be posted to group chats on messenger app WeChat. China s Internet regulator, in a statement to Reuters, said the government had the legal right to prevent the spread of violent, terrorist and other illegal information . As a well-known global app, WhatsApp should really proactively take steps to block the dissemination and spread of illegal information, it said, without elaborating or making a specific mention of WeChat. New limits have been placed on discussion in private group chats. Rules released at the beginning of September make companies and group owners accountable for breaches of content rules. China s cyber watchdog on Monday also imposed the largest possible fines of 100,000 yuan ($15,110) on tech giants Tencent Holdings Ltd, Baidu Inc and Weibo Corp for failing to censor online content. The measures are far from restricted to just keeping Beijing secure. Measures have also been introduced in strategically sensitive places in other parts of China. Security has been heightened at ports along the Yangtze River, with the Maritime Safety Administration saying last week that it was considering curbs on loading and unloading hazardous or flammable chemicals from Oct 11 to Oct 28. Travel for foreign tourists to Tibet is also being restricted, some travel agents said. Tibet is always sensitive for Beijing given the opposition to Chinese rule that exists within the Tibetan community, and even in normal times foreigners need permission to go there. An official at China International Travel Service Ltd said the government had told it that no foreigners were allowed to visit Tibet from Oct. 18-28 because of the Congress. Three other travel agencies confirmed a ban would be lifted in late October. Organizers of a discussion on politics in the Middle East canceled the event in Beijing because they were worried about potential pressure from the authorities, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The word democracy was only used once in the adverts, not in a sensitive way, but still they thought it was best to cancel, the source said, declining to be named. Feng Xiaogang, a famous Chinese film director known for work that brushes against sensitive issues and the limits of censorship, announced last week that the Sept 30 release of Youth , his latest film, had to be delayed. Feng gave no explanation. However, a source with ties to the censors told Reuters that the authorities had considered it risky to screen the film before the congress, as it is partially set during China s 1979 war with Vietnam - a touchy subject. The fear was that it could spark debate about the morality and necessity of the conflict. In and around Beijing, efforts have also been ramped up to ensure the skies remain blue over the Congress and not polluted by the city s notorious smog. The city of Handan, near Beijing, has ordered steel mills to halve output a month earlier than the usual mid-November cutbacks aimed at curbing air pollution, according to media reports. Rounds of inspections by the authorities to check up on health and safety or environmental requirements have left small businesses closed for days, weeks or months, owners and employees say. Factories on the outskirts of Beijing, even those that make luxury goods, have been closed for days while inspections are carried out, according to one employee who declined to be named. Some low-end, fast food-type restaurants in Beijing have also been ordered to close, ostensibly to prevent fire risks and to limit pollution, residents say. There s so many inspections at the moment, said a pancake seller who gave her family name as Liu. What am I supposed to do if they make me shut? | 0fake |
President Obama Rips Sexist, Fat Shaming Trump A New One (AUDIO) | Monday night s presidential debate showed a stark contrast between two personalities. One was calm and cool, even under stress and the other was a bloviating braggart who couldn t maintain his temper.On top of those qualities, Donald Trump is sexist and he proved it Monday night when Hillary Clinton brought up Trump s record of fat shaming a former Miss Universe. President Obama, as the father of two girls and the husband of a strong woman, was having none of that. One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest he loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them and he called this woman Miss Piggy, then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina, Clinton said Monday toward the end of the debate, as she ran through a list of things Trump has said about women. Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado. And she has become a US citizen and you can bet she is going to vote this November. Trump didn t really have an answer for Clinton, but the next day, he took to the talk show circuit and he doubled down on the fat shaming. On Fox & Friends, the morning after the debate, Trump said about Machado: She was the worst we ever had. The worst, Trump said. The absolute worst. She was impossible, he continued. She was the winner and you know she gained a massive amount of weight. And it was a real problem. We had a real problem. Not only that her attitude. We had a real problem with her so Hillary went back into the years and she found this girl; this was many years ago, and found the girl and talked about her like she was Mother Teresa and it was not quite that way, but that s OK. Hillary has got to do what she has got to do. Source: AZ CentralPresident Obama had enough! He, like every American should be, was deeply offended at Trump s fat shaming. In a telephone interview with Steve Harvey on Wednesday, Obama said there s no way he wants that in the Oval Office: You had somebody who basically insulted women and then doubled down I think this morning in terms of how he talks about them and talks about their weight and talks about, you know, how they look instead of the content of their character and their capabilities, Obama said, which is not somebody that I want in the Oval Office. Here s the audio:One can only imagine that Trump would use a beauty pageant system to choose the women in his cabinet. Yes, Trump is too sexist to be President.Featured image of President Obama via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | Featured image of Donald Trump via Spencer Platt/Getty Images. | 1real |
U.S. homeland security head: Entry of lawful permanent residents in 'national interest' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday that in applying the provisions of President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigration, he deemed the entry of lawful permanent residents “in the national interest.” Trump defended his move to ban entry of refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority nations and said on Sunday the United States would resume issuing visas for all countries in the next 90 days as he faced rising criticism at home and abroad and new protests in U.S. cities. | 0fake |
GOP leadership race gets personal | Top Dems want White House to call off Part B demo — The next cancer drug shortage | 0fake |
The FBI Union’s President Just Quit, Penned Scathing Open Letter Blasting Comey | Comments
Director James Comey of Federal Bureau of Investigation stirred up a hornet’s nest with his decision to interfere in our election by giving House Republicans more ammunition to smear Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her “email scandal”– and not even everyone in his own agency is happy about it.
The head of the FBI’s Agent Association (FBIAA), Reynaldo Tariche , resigned tonight to work in the private sector in protest over Director Comey’s decision to use the FBI as a political tool on behalf of Donald Trump. “Importantly, we will not be used for political gains, and any implication that the FBI Special Agents are unwilling or incapable of performing effective investigations is simply false.'”
And quit he should. Comey’s behavior has been most unbecoming as the head of a federal law enforcement agency who is obligated to remain impartial for the good of our nation. The FBI has no idea what the emails that “may be pertinent” that were discovered on disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop actually contain; there was no need to alert Congress and doing so so close to an election is an obvious move to try to tip the scales in favor of the most unqualified and morally abhorrent candidate our nation has ever seen.
Read his letter here:
Dear Members,
After 26 + years of service for the greatest Law Enforcement organization in the world I am retiring from the FBI today. I have accepted a position in the private sector within the Banking Industry. It has truly been a pleasure and honor to serve with the men and women of the FBI in the relentless pursuit of protecting the American people from Domestic and International threats. I will be eternally grateful to have worked side by side with the most dedicated individuals who carry out the FBI mission 24 hours a day seven days a week.
My two terms as President of the FBIAA have been spent in a whirlwind of travel, meetings and other important work on behalf of the members of the FBI AA. It has truly been an amazing journey to witness the incredible work being done on a daily basis by the FBI around the world. Equally impressive has been to see how the FBI family helps each other in times of need including; deaths, family illnesses, natural disasters or any unforeseen tragedy. I am confident that incoming FBIAA President Tom O’Connor, the National Executive Board, and our entire FBIAA team will continue the work of advancing the mission of this incredible organization.
The FBIAA’s mission includes defending the work and integrity of FBI Special Agents. As a non-partisan organization, comment on political campaigns or candidates is atypical for us, and we intend to keep it that way. Yet, in this intensely partisan election cycle, we find our work—our integrity—questioned as it relates to the investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Thus, honoring our mission, we will continue to remind federal officials and the public that the FBI Special Agents who undertook this investigation did so with an unwavering focus on complying with the law and the Constitution, as we do with all of our investigations. Importantly, we will not be used for political gains, and any implication that the FBI Special Agents are unwilling or incapable of performing effective investigations is simply false.
May God bless the FBI family and may God continue to bless the United States of America | 1real |
The Android Affair: Humanity Outsourced | Randy Johnson 21st Century WireThe future is coming and technology is coming with it. Are we adapting to the future or holding on to the old ways ? Is a future of technology with circuit boards, screens, and machines something that can be weaponized or used to shape and control society no different than gunpowder, nuclear energy, and marketing?To many, often considered great minds, technology and artificial intelligence has had an ominous role in science fiction in film and literature. George Orwell, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and Philip K. Dick are some of the giants of this genre. Their work has inspired countless Hollywood movies and television programs and can often get someone wondering if life is imitating art, or vice versa. Another option is that nearly everything has an element of design all along. ANDROID AFFAIR: Big business and robotics (Image Source: WikiCommons)As far back as the 1927 film Metropolis, robotics, class segregation, industry, and even humanity itself, appear on a collision course. Some might even argue that humanity, technology, and robotics, are already into an integration phase.Since then we know the not all inclusive list of characters. The Space Odyssey 2001 s HAL 1000, Star Wars human cyborg relations C-3PO, Blade Runner s Nexus 6 Replicants, and the infamous Terminator. HOLLYWOOD REALITY: 1980s science fiction comes to life (Image Source: WikiCommons)Martin Ford, author of Rise of The Machines, is a highly sought after speaker across the globe. He is often utilized as a consultant, for corporations and industries with regards to robotics. In the 2015 Business Book of The Year, in his acceptance speech Ford stated Even people that do everything they are supposed to do [to get a good job] may find it difficult to get a foothold in the economy. Piling on to the prospects of a bleak future, Wired Magazine states, Oxford University researchers have estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be automated within the next two decades. And if even half that number is closer to the mark, workers are in for a rude awakening. The impact of robotics in industry and its effects in the workforce has also been reported on here at 21st Century Wire.It is a foreboding thing to contemplate, but are we being outsourced?A robot will not call in sick or ask for a wage increase. It will not fight with others unless programmed to. It will not complain, throw a fit, collect unemployment, leave early, or join the workers union to fight the corporation. Once integrated and a part of industry, it will save money. It will not require an annual review. When it becomes irrelevant to newer technology, it will be replaced.Getting to a robotic future will even create new jobs no doubt. A small industry of technicians and favored class of people who monitor, fix, and improve the technology could hold the coveted jobs for those selected and chosen to deserve them.Too far away? Not in our lifetime?Watch the below video of Boston Dynamic s 5 9 180 pound Atlas robot interact with its surroundings and perform the labor its makers designed it to do. READ MORE ON ROBOTS: 21st Century Wire Robot Files | 1real |
Factbox: The nasty things Trump, Romney have said about each other | (Reuters) - Even for a 2016 election campaign marked by rhetorical invective, the remarks President-elect Donald Trump and Mitt Romney made about each other in the run-up to the Nov. 8 vote were especially harsh. Those exchanges make all the more significant Trump’s plan to meet Romney, the unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential candidate, on Saturday. A source familiar with the meeting said they may discuss whether Romney should be considered for secretary of state in a Trump administration. Here are some of the things, kind and unkind, that Trump and Romney have said about each other. * “Governor Romney, go out and get ‘em. You can do it.” - Trump endorsing Romney in February 2012 * “Donald Trump has shown an extraordinary ability to understand how our economy works ... It means a great deal to me to have the endorsement of Mr. Trump.” - Romney accepting the 2012 endorsement * “Dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark.” - Romney speaking at a political forum in Utah in March * “He was begging for my endorsement. I could’ve said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees,’ and he would’ve dropped to his knees.” - Trump at a March campaign rally responding to the Romney speech and describing how Romney had sought his endorsement in 2012 * “Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities. The bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics. Now, imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does.” - Romney’s anti-Trump speech in March * “He failed horribly ... Mitt is indeed a choke artist.” - Trump in March assessing Romney’s presidential run * “Here’s what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.” - Romney in March * “Mitt Romney had his chance to beat a failed president but he choked like a dog. Now he calls me racist - but I am least racist person there is.” - Trump tweet in June * “I think his comments time and again appeal to the racist tendency that exists in some people and I think that’s dangerous.” - Romney in a CNN interview in June * “Mitt Romney called to congratulate me on the win. Very nice!” - Trump tweet five days after the Nov. 8 election | 0fake |
Wauquiez, tipped to lead French opposition, draws Europe battle lines | STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The man expected to become the leader of France s center-right set out his vision for a multi-speed Europe on Thursday, rejecting the deeper integration sought by President Emmanuel Macron. Speaking in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, Laurent Wauquiez said some European Union countries should be allowed to limit their commitment to the bloc to free trade, something that theoretically could allow Britain to re-engage. If the 42-year-old is elected next month to lead The Republicans, his challenge will be to rebuild a once-powerful party that was blown apart by Macron s presidential and parliamentary election triumphs. With Macron s fledgling Republic on the Move party dominating the center, Wauquiez is likely to take The Republicans to the right, fishing for support among eurosceptic National Front sympathizers. The Republicans have only 100 lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly, after others split to work more closely with Macron, but are the largest opposition group. With 27 members, Europe isn t working. We have to do something, Wauquiez told reporters. The EU should have a core of between six and 12 members states that would pursue closer cooperation on matters including tax harmonization and employment rights, he said. Other members of the euro zone would form a second tier. Countries wanting only free trade would form a third tier, including Britain if it wanted. I cannot accept that everyone seems to be congratulating themselves that Britain is leaving, Wauquiez said. In September, Macron painted a sweeping vision for European renewal, calling for the EU to work more closely on defense and immigration and for the euro zone to have its own budget. Describing himself as a committed European , Wauquiez rejected that as well as any plan to further enlarge the EU further. Macron s big mistake is to pit French sovereignty against the European project ... to think we need more federalism. I on the other hand believe in a union of nation states, Wauquiez told Le Figaro. Wauquiez served as the party s interim leader last year after former president Nicolas Sarkozy quit the post to contest the party primary for a second crack at the presidency. One Paris-based senior EU diplomat described him as a tough politician whose leadership of The Republicans would squeeze the political space open to the National Front. The National Front suffered its own bruising in the elections, with its leader Marine Le Pen trounced by Macron in the second round of the presidential vote and the party performing weakly in the parliamentary election. Le Pen has softened her anti-EU stance in past weeks as her far-right party, split by deep internal divisions over its view on Europe, seeks to reinvent itself. | 0fake |
Conservatives LOSE IT, Call For Obama’s Death After ‘Northern Scum’ Pulled From State Song (SCREENSHOTS) | The Stupid Part of America is riled up again after Maryland made a small change to its state song. To make it a bit more modern, the state Senate voted 37-8 to both officially reaffirm Maryland, Oh Maryland as the official state song, and to remove the words Northern scum so that citizens of the state can finally sing it without feeling a stinging sense of shame. Maryland, Oh Maryland was penned in 1861 and adopted as the state song in 1939. Talking Points Memo notes that it is unclear why the song was adopted at that particular historical moment but notes there had been two recent lynchings in the state and the NAACP was then advocating for equal pay for black teachers. In other words, it probably was not selected because people enjoy singing to the tune of O Tannenbaum. By enshrining a Confederate war anthem, the General Assembly may have been seeking symbolically to challenge such efforts, the AP notes.The song is pretty inflammatory. Currently, it ends with a rousing call to fight against those dirty northerners who wanted to end slavery: She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She ll come! She ll come! Maryland! My Maryland! The song refers to President Abraham Lincoln as a despot and urges Marylanders to burst the tyrant s chains. The changes keep one verse from the old lyrics and add one from an 1894 poem describing the natural beauty of the state of Maryland something more appropriate in modern times than complaints about Lincoln and calls for an armed uprising. They keep the historic song. It s still there, but this bill is an excellent compromise to move forward, so that our children and our children s children and so that all Maryland can be proud of our state song, said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D). At the present time, all of Maryland cannot be proud of our state song, and so that s the reason I m voting green. Changing the song is a completely reasonable action, given its inflammatory speech so naturally, Fox News fans became rather incensed when they learned about what they view on an assault on their heritage (whether they are from Maryland or not). Some complained about rap music for some reason, while others threatened to take up arms against the government. Others whined about black people, some said that this is a form of white genocide (the systemic elimination of the white race that Donald Trump s supporters in the KKK believe is happening), and others still hold out hope that the South will rise again. And, of course, there were the customary calls for President Obama s death that accompany literally everything that happens in the world: Unfortunately, this is where we re at as a nation and Donald Trump s rhetoric has given these people, who would normally keep their shameful and idiotic opinions to themselves and their local Klavern, the courage to speak out. Whenever someone tells you that Republicans aren t racist, we d tell you to show them this, but we all know they will simply claim that the hundreds of similar comments are left by liberal plants who want to destroy America no matter how much evidence exists that this attitude is no longer the minority in the Rapublican Party.The bill is set to go to the House, where it is expected to pass a good thing for the state of Maryland, but something that will likely cause at least a few acts of violence against African-Americans. It s just what conservatives do these days.Maybe next, legislators can hop on board the effort to change the name of Negro Mountain or at least take down the numerous highways signs and remove the picnic area.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
BREAKING: FEDS ARREST AMMON BUNDY With Fellow Militiamen Occupying Wildlife Refuge | Breaking and developing news on the occupation of the Oregon wildlife refuge: Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the brothers leading anti-government protesters occupying Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, and several other people were arrested Tuesday in a confrontation with authorities, the FBI said. One person was dead, the FBI said.Officials said it all began with a traffic stop while Bundy and some of his followers were en route to a community meeting in John Day, about 70 miles away.Shots were fired after FBI agents, Oregon State troopers and other law enforcement agencies made the stop.Details of the arrest remain unknown, but charges are pending related to the group s 25-day takeover of the wildlife refuge.Bundy and about three dozen of other individuals occupied the wildlife refuge earlier this month after two local ranchers were sent to prison. Here s more detail on this case:OREGON RANCHERS VS THE FEDSVia: katuVia: nbc | 1real |
Beyond The Veil: Channeling My Sister’s Message To Humanity : In5D Esoteric, Metaphysical, and Spiritual Database | By In5D on November 14, 2016 in Spiritual Awakening
by Missy Marston,
The first time I channeled my sister was also the first day I watched “ The Secret “.
I had spent most of that day and the night looking at the stars and asking the universe to help me open my third eye and talk to my sister. And it heard me! It was around two in the morning and I went inside to read an article my mother had left up for me. I kept getting the same phrase over and over in my head – Everything you need is inside of you, you just have to ask for it.
I took the hint, grabbed a pen and paper, and wrote it down. When I was done writing, my hand wasn’t. It kept writing. I was exhilarated, terrified, and full of love and peace all at the same time.
There was no question at first; there was this knowingness of what was happening and whom I was channeling without asking. It was my sister! Thank you, universe!
She passed along some messages of love and thanks to the family, told me to get my shit together, and began the process of educating me and keeping my mind open.
“Everything is possible with just your mind!”
Tina wrote that she could always hear those who speak to her, and that she’s been constantly trying to speak to us . She was very adamant about self-discovery through meditation in order to first visualize her, and second to transcend ! All we have to do is ask the universe, believe it will be, and keep our minds open through journeying into the self . ‘ That’s how strong your brain is!! You can do it if you can will it. You have the universe at your fingertips! ’
“We have so much to do, Missy!”
Christina wants to change the world, because Christina can change the world. Besides opening up our minds and asking the universe for help, we need to eliminate needs and focus on the inner-self . She said the inner-self is all there is. We can change the world by gaining power over our knowledge and intuition; Learning what truly matters in both the world and your self and feeding our sixth sense until it reaches its full potentia l. ‘Intuition is your best friend. Talk to it. Listen to it. It’s how you knew to grab a notepad. It’s how you know it’s me.’
“You get it?”
I asked Tina if I would always have this connection to her, and she wrote that we are one. So I’m thinking that we’re somehow the same soul, and she corrected me. She said we are ‘soul bound’ to each other.
She says I’ve done this a million times before! We’ve known each other outside of Christina – I was always the mouthpiece and she is the mouth.
As Christina said: ‘Just let yourself be filled with love; it is the fuel for your mind.’
What peace it brings to know your loved ones are near and listening! And what joy it brings to know it’s possible to hear them!
About the author : My name is Missy Marston, webmaster and editor of MetaMissy.com . I am 23 years of age living in sunny Florida. I have two dogs, two cats, and too many fish – I adore animals. I love reading, especially Kurt Vonnegut, and have a steady interest in philosophers. On October 10th, I lost my best friend and little sister, Christina. Out of that tragic experience came a reminder of my deep-rooted love for all things metaphysical and a sign for my future path. Within weeks, I began channeling Christina! I want everyone to know the enlightening truth that there is much more out there than we realize. There is so much more waiting inside of ourselves than we give credit for, and all of it is easily accessible. Come with me on a journey from deep inside your conscious to the outer rims of the multiverse! Follow me on Facebook ! RELATED ARTICLES FROM IN5D: | 1real |
WOW! NH LAWMAKER AND VET Rips Into Liberal Media At Trump Press Event: “Stop making political pawns out of veterans” [Video] | Donald Trump held a press conference today to clarify every since bit of accusations made that he pocketed over six million dollars meant for veterans. Basically, Trump shut the liberal media down. It was awesome! What was even better was watching a New Hampshire lawmaker rip into the liberal press like I ve never seen! | 1real |
More Networks Join in the Boycott of New Trump Ad | If you were not ready to give thought to anything other than politics, you are in luck as the campaign for 2020 has already begun. The Trump/Pence team has already put out its first ad, in which they decry the fake news. This has caused several of the main news networks to say they will not air the new ad.CNN, ABC and NBC has cited a graphic that shows the words fake news over the faces of a number of anchors. The rest of the ad is devoted to listing President Donald Trump s accomplishments over the first 100 days that he has been in the White House. The ad goes on to flame the fake news for not covering everything the president has done since assuming office.All networks that are not running the ad say that it is inaccurate. ABC News reported that the ad was a personal attack against the network. The reporters who were targeted by the Trump ad were Rachel Maddow, Wolf Blitzer, Andrea Mitchell, Scott Pelley and George Stephanopoulos.Trump s daughter in law weighed in. Lara Trump, Eric s wife, said, Apparently, the mainstream media are champions of the First Amendment only when it serves their own political views. She is working on the president s reelection efforts.The campaign is not just making misleading ads, however. They are also actively working on donations and are courting high level donors.The ad also lists the problems the campaign has seen with press coverage of the president and his team. For example, Sean Hannity did a press interview with 60 Minutes and he had a beef with the way they edited the piece. Another example of fake news coverage was a segment on The Rachel Maddow Show where a copy of the president s 2005 tax return.The ad will run on FOX News and the FOX Business Network.Featured image via the Trump/Pence campaign. | 1real |
Wake up, America. Our country is upside down | Folks, I work hard to be the common sense voice for YOU in a growingly crazy America.
We are taking in thousands of refugees from Muslim countries without any idea who they are or what their motives are.
A serial sniper’s been shooting at vehicles in Arizona.
Caitlyn Jenner is considered a hero, yet, the cops who risk their lives for us are being gunned down in the streets.
The country is upside down.
But there’s one issue I have to highlight here in wake up America because it threatens our very republic.
It’s the Iran nuclear deal.. and it’s a deadly mistake we are making.
This is no right wing. Left wing manufactured fight. This is for real folks -- lives will be lost if we lift Iranian sanctions. Period.
Handing over an initial $100 billion to the regime that sponsors terror around the world is insane!
Then allowing them to sell another $100 billion per year in oil is equally insane.
That as they telegraph their hatred for us makes zero sense. Zero!
They lie. They cheat. They finance Hezbollah, Hamas and factions of Al Qaeda. And they finance these hate groups with the goal of killing Americans.
What genius decided giving people who despise us more money to kill us was a good idea?
This is bigger than Obama’s legacy. This is bigger than Democrats circling the wagons around their ideology.
America will be hit with Iranian financed terror if we don’t stop this deal… now.
It's common sense folks. It’s lacking in D.C. and this time around it will cost us American lives.
And by the way, did we learn nothing when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and Pennsylvania -- killing 3,000 innocent Americans exactly 14 years ago today?
Eric Bolling currently serves as co-host of Fox News Channel's "The Five" (weekdays 5-6PM/ET). He also serves as the host of "Cashin' In" (Saturdays 11:30AM-12PM/ET), an analysis program on FNC's weekend business block, "The Cost of Freedom." Bolling joined the network in 2008. Click here for more information on Eric Bolling. | 0fake |
Pakistani Taliban says behind deadly blast in tribal region | PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The militant Pakistani Taliban group said it carried out an attack on Sunday that killed five people in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Mohammad Khurassani said the militants planted an improvised explosive device to target security personnel in the Bajaur Agency area that is part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The blast struck a vehicle in the Mamund area of Bajaur, killing four security personnel and an official from the civilian administration, local government sources said. Bajaur is one of the Pashtun tribal regions near the Afghan border. Security in the region has improved in recent years after the Pakistani military mounted offensives there against the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban, which is considered the country s biggest security threat. But militants continue to stage attacks in FATA, which remains off-bounds for foreigners and is considered one of the most volatile parts of the nuclear-armed nation of 208 million people. | 0fake |
The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance : Information | The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance
Exclusive: Buried deep inside Saturdays New York Times was a grudging acknowledgement that the U.S.-armed moderate rebels in Syria are using their U.S. firepower to back an Al Qaeda offensive, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry October 31, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - A curious aspect of the Syrian conflict a rebellion sponsored largely by the United States and its Gulf state allies is the disappearance in much of the American mainstream news media of references to the prominent role played by Al Qaeda in seeking to overthrow the secular Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.
Theres much said in the U.S. press about ISIS, the former Al Qaeda in Iraq which splintered off several years ago, but Al Qaedas central role in commanding Syrias moderate rebels in Aleppo and elsewhere is the almost unspoken reality of the Syrian war. Even in the U.S. presidential debates, the arguing between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton has been almost exclusively about ISIS, not Al Qaeda.
Though Al Qaeda got the ball rolling on Americas revenge wars in the Middle East 15 years ago by killing several thousand Americans and others in the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group has faded into the background of U.S. attention, most likely because it messes up the preferred good guy/bad guy narrative regarding the Syrian war.
For instance, the conflict in Aleppo between Syrian government forces and rebels operating primarily under Al Qaedas command is treated in the Western media as simply a case of the barbaric Assad and his evil Russian ally Vladimir Putin mercilessly bombing what is portrayed as the east Aleppo equivalent of Disney World, a place where innocent children and their families peacefully congregate until they are targeted for death by the Assad-Putin war-crime family.
The photos sent out to the world by skillful rebel propagandists are almost always of wounded children being cared for by the White Helmet rebel civil defense corps , which has come under growing criticism for serving as a public-relations arm of Al Qaeda and other insurgents. (There also are allegations that some of the most notable images have been staged , like a fake war scene from the 1997 dark comedy, Wag the Dog.)
Rare Glimpse of Truth
Yet, occasionally, the reality of Al Qaedas importance in the rebellion breaks through, even in the mainstream U.S. media, although usually downplayed and deep inside the news pages, such as the A9 article in Saturdays New York Times by Hwaida Saad and Anne Barnard describing a rebel offensive in Aleppo. It acknowledges: The new offensive was a strong sign that rebel groups vetted by the United States were continuing their tactical alliances with groups linked to Al Qaeda, rather than distancing themselves as Russia has demanded and the Americans have urged. The rebels argue that they cannot afford to shun any potential allies while they are under fire, including well-armed and motivated jihadists, without more robust aid from their international backers. (You might note how the article subtly blames the rebel dependence on Al Qaeda on the lack of robust aid from the Obama administration and other outside countries even though such arms shipments violate international law.)
What the article also makes clear in a hazy kind of way is that Al Qaedas affiliate, the recently renamed Nusra Front, and its jihadist allies, such as Ahrar al-Sham, are waging the brunt of the fighting while the CIA-vetted moderates are serving in mostly support roles. The Times reported:
The insurgents have a diverse range of objectives and backers, but they issued statements of unity on Friday. Those taking part in the offensive include the Levant Conquest Front, a militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front that grew out of Al Qaeda; another hard-line Islamist faction, Ahrar al-Sham; and other rebel factions fighting Mr. Assad that have been vetted by the United States and its allies.
The article cites Charles Lister, a senior fellow and Syria specialist at the Middle East Institute in Washington, and other analysts noting that the vast majority of the American-vetted rebel factions in Aleppo were fighting inside the city itself and conducting significant bombardments against Syrian government troops in support of the Qaeda-affiliated fighters carrying out the brunt of front-line fighting.
Lister noted that 11 of the 20 or so rebel groups conducting the Aleppo offensive have been vetted by the C.I.A. and have received arms from the agency, including anti-tank missiles.
In addition to arms provided by the United States, much of the rebels weaponry comes from regional states, like Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Mr. Lister said, including truck-borne multiple-rocket launcher systems and Czech-made Grad rockets with extended ranges.
The U.S./Al Qaeda Alliance
In other words, the U.S. government and its allies have smuggled sophisticated weapons into Syria to arm rebels who are operating in support of Al Qaedas new military offensive against Syrian government forces in Aleppo. By any logical analysis, that makes the United States an ally of Al Qaeda.
The Times article also includes a Quote: from Genevieve Casagrande, a Syria research analyst from the Institute for the Study of War, a neoconservative think tank that has supported more aggressive U.S. military involvement in Syria and the Middle East.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that these U.S.-backed groups remain somewhat dependent upon the Al Qaeda linked groups for organization and firepower in these operations, Casagrande said.
The other unfortunate truth is that the U.S.-supplied rebels have served, either directly or indirectly, as conduits to funnel U.S. military equipment and ordnance to Al Qaeda.
One might think that the editors of The New York Times if they were operating with old-fashioned news judgment rather than with propagandistic blinders on would have recast the article to highlight the tacit U.S. alliance with Al Qaeda and put that at the top of the front page.
Still, the admissions are significant, confirming what we have reported at Consortiumnews.com for many months, including Gareth Porters article last February saying : Information from a wide range of sources, including some of those the United States has been explicitly supporting, makes it clear that every armed anti-Assad organization unit in those provinces [of Idlib and Aleppo] is engaged in a military structure controlled by [Al Qaedas] Nusra militants. All of these rebel groups fight alongside the Nusra Front and coordinate their military activities with it.
At least since 2014 the Obama administration has armed a number of Syrian rebel groups even though it knew the groups were coordinating closely with the Nusra Front, which was simultaneously getting arms from Turkey and Qatar.
Double Standards
The Times article on page A9 also deviated from the normal propaganda themes by allowing a statement by Syrian officials and the Russians regarding their suspension of airstrikes over the past week to permit the evacuation of civilians from east Aleppo and the rebels refusal to let people leave, even to the point of firing on the humanitarian corridors:
The [Syrian] government and its [Russian] allies accused the rebels of forcing Aleppo residents to stay, and of using them as human shields.
The human shields argument is one that is common when the United States or its allies are pummeling some city controlled by enemy forces whether Israels bombardment of Gaza or the U.S. Marines leveling of Fallujah in Iraq or the current campaign against ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul. In those cases, the horrific civilian bloodshed, including the killing of children by U.S. or allied forces, is blamed on Hamas or Sunni insurgents or ISIS but never on the people dropping the bombs.
An entirely opposite narrative is applied when U.S. adversaries, such as Syria or Russia, are trying to drive terrorists and insurgents out of an urban area. Then, there is usually no reference to human shields and all the carnage is blamed on war crimes by the U.S. adversaries. That propaganda imperative helps explain why Al Qaeda and its jihadist comrades have been largely whited out of the conflict in Aleppo.
Over the past few years, U.S. regional allies, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, also have shifted their public attitudes toward Al Qaeda, seeing it as a blunt instrument to smash the so-called Shiite crescent reaching from Iran through Syria to Lebanon. For instance, in September 2013, Israels Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, then a close adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Jerusalem Post that Israel favored Syrias Sunni extremists over President Assad.
The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc, Oren told the Jerusalem Post in an interview . We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who werent backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran. He said this was the case even if the bad guys were with Al Qaeda.
And, in June 2014, speaking as a former ambassador at an Aspen Institute conference, Oren expanded on his position, saying Israel would even prefer a victory by the brutal Islamic State over continuation of the Iranian-backed Assad in Syria. From Israels perspective, if theres got to be an evil thats got to prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail, Oren said.
Warming to Al Qaeda
As Israeli officials shifted toward viewing Al Qaeda and even ISIS as the lesser evils and built a behind-the-scenes alliance with Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states, American neoconservatives also began softening their tone regarding the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
Across the U.S. foreign policy establishment, pressure built for regime change in Damascus even if that risked handing Syria to Sunni jihadists. That strategy hit a road bump in 2014 when ISIS began chopping off the heads of Western hostages in Syria and capturing swathes of territory in Iraq, including Mosul.
That bloody development forced President Barack Obama to begin targeting ISIS militants in both Iraq and Syria, but the neocon-dominated Washington establishment still favored the Israeli-Saudi objective of regime change in Syria regardless of how that might help Al Qaeda.
Thus, Al Qaedas Nusra Front and its jihadist ally, Ahrar al-Sham, faded into the background under the fiction that the anti-Assad forces were primarily noble moderates trying to save the children from the bloodthirsty fiends, Assad and Putin.
Grudgingly, The New York Times, deep inside Saturdays newspaper, acknowledged at least part of the troubling reality, that the U.S. government has, in effect, allied itself with Al Qaeda terrorists.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, Americas Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com ). | 1real |
Russia celebrates a Unity Day of liberation of Moscow from the Polish Roman Papists army in 1612 | Saker Message: No current Saker messages. Russia celebrates a Unity Day of liberation of Moscow from the Polish Roman Papists army in 1612 273 Views November 05, 2016 No Comments Scotts Corner Scott
The National Unity Day, first celebrated on 4 November 2005, commemorates the popular uprising lead by prince Dmitry Pozharsky and a meat merchant Kuzma Minin which ejected the alien occupying forces of Polish Roman Papists army from Moscow in November 1612, and more generally the end of the Time of Troubles and foreign interventions in Russia. Its name alludes to the idea that all the classes of the Russian society willingly united to preserve the Russian statehood when its demise seemed inevitable, even though there was neither Tsar nor Patriarch to guide them. Recently this episode was made into a Russian movie 1612.
Minin and Pozharsky: The Liberation of Moscow. (from the triptych “For the Russian Land!”) Artist Yuri Pantyukhin
Russia: Muscovites celebrate Unity Day in capital
River dance in Simferopol, Crimea
Russia: Putin and Patriarch Kirill bless new monument to Vladimir the Great
Nov 4, 2016
President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new monument to the Russia’s first Christian leader Vladimir the Great in Moscow, on Friday. The opening ceremony took place just in few meters from Kremlin walls and coincided with the Russian National Unity Day.
Vladimir Putin, Russian President (Russian): “Your Holiness. Respected Muscovites! Dear friends! I greet and congratulate you on the opening of the monument to Saint Equal-to-apostles Prince Vladimir. This is a big and significant event for Moscow, for the whole country and for all Russian compatriots. It is symbolic that it is being held on the National Unity Day here in the centre of the capital near the walls of the ancient Kremlin, in the heart of Russia.”
Vladimir Putin, Russian President (Russian): “The strong moral support, cohesion and unity helped our ancestors to overcome difficulties, to live and to win for the glory of the Fatherland, to strengthen its power and greatness from generation to generation. And today it is our duty to stand together against modern threats and challenges basing on spiritual precepts, invaluable traditions of unity and concord and to move forward ensuring the continuity of our thousand-year history.”
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia (Russian): “The monument to Prince Vladimir is a symbol of the unity of all the peoples to whom he is farther. This is the peoples of the historical Rus’ currently living within the borders of many states. The monument to the farther may be everywhere where his children live. There is no contradiction in it. But it is bad if children forget that they have the only father.” The Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world $27.95 Be the First to Comment! Leave a Reply Click here to get more info on formatting (1) Leave the name field empty if you want to post as Anonymous. It's preferable that you choose a name so it becomes clear who said what. E-mail address is not mandatory either. The website automatically checks for spam. Please refer to our moderation policies for more details. We check to make sure that no comment is mistakenly marked as spam. This takes time and effort, so please be patient until your comment appears. Thanks. (2) 10 replies to a comment are the maximum. (3) Here are formating examples which you can use in your writing:<b>bold text</b> results in bold text <i>italic text</i> results in italic text (You can also combine two formating tags with each other, for example to get bold-italic text.)<em>emphasized text</em> results in emphasized text <strong>strong text</strong> results in strong text <q>a quote text</q> results in a quote text (quotation marks are added automatically) <cite>a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited</cite> results in: a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited <blockquote>a heavier version of quoting a block of text...</blockquote> results in: a heavier version of quoting a block of text that can span several lines. Use these possibilities appropriately. They are meant to help you create and follow the discussions in a better way. They can assist in grasping the content value of a comment more quickly. and last but not least:<a href=''http://link-address.com''>Name of your link</a> results in Name of your link (4) No need to use this special character in between paragraphs: ; You do not need it anymore. Just write as you like and your paragraphs will be separated. The "Live Preview" appears automatically when you start typing below the text area and it will show you how your comment will look like before you send it. (5) If you now think that this is too confusing then just ignore the code above and write as you like. Search articles | 1real |
Lebanon sentences Islamist cleric to death for attacks on army | BEIRUT (Reuters) - A hardline Sunni Muslim cleric was sentenced to death in Lebanon on Thursday for inciting attacks on the army, as his supporters protested outside the court. Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, who refused to recognize the hearing, was convicted for his part in clashes that erupted amid heightened sectarian tensions in 2013, exacerbated by the war in neighboring Syria. Assir rose to prominence supporting the mostly Sunni insurgents in Syria and condemning the backers of the Syrian government, including Lebanon s Shi ite Muslim Hezbollah group. Lebanese soldiers raided a mosque complex belonging to Assir in June 2013, after skirmishes between his supporters and opponents in the southern Mediterranean port city of Sidon. The army said at least 18 soldiers died in fighting with Assir's supporters, which raised fears at the time of sectarian violence spreading in Lebanon. (reut.rs/2xBmdx6) Assir went into hiding and was arrested two years later at Beirut airport, trying to get out with a false passport. He rejected his court-appointed lawyer during the trial, which has been delayed several times. Dozens of his supporters protested outside the court in Beirut and in Sidon on Thursday. The court also convicted more than 30 others, some in absentia, for their part in the violence, imposing sentences ranging from six months in prison to death. Lebanese singer-turned-militant Fadel Shaker was sentenced in absentia to 15 years. Lebanon has not carried out an execution for at least 10 years. | 0fake |
(VIDEO) COUNTER TERRORISM EXPERT SLAMS OBAMA ON THE HACKING OF 22 MILLION AMERICANS | It is under the Obama administration that the hacking of 22 million has happened so it is his administration s responsibility to protect American citizens. I agree 100%! | 1real |
Another Trump Official Decides It’s A REALLY Good Time To Resign | William C. Bradford, a Trump administration appointee who heads the Energy Department s Office of Indian Energy, resigned Thursday but claims that he was hacked after some of his controversial posts on social media were revealed. Saying I was hacked is 2017 s way of saying I am a dumbass and he really is the latter. Or perhaps he was drunkers when he allegedly made the comments.Bradford, who in 2015 resigned as a professor at West Point after penning an academic paper that argued the U.S. military should target Islamic holy sites as part of the war on terror, has just tendered his resignation with the Trump administration this afternoon and is no longer with the Department of Energy, said DOE spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes, according to CNN.Bombing Islamic holy sites may have been a plus with Donald Trump, but this week evidence was revealed that Bradford made inflammatory comments through an account on the online commenting service Disqus. We supposed commenting on Disqus crossed the line.But he is playing the victim, because of course.In response to the story, Bradford told CNN s KFile that he couldn t comment on an ongoing federal investigation into multiple cyber attacks and Internet crimes committed against me over the past several years, to include email intrusions, hacking, and impostors in social media. Bradford s alleged Disqus account questioned Obama s birth certificate and called the former president s mother a fourth-rate p&*n actress and [email protected]!re. That sounds reminiscent of his boss s rhetoric about former President Barack Obama. Maybe Trump hacked his account.Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden sent letters to the FBI and the DOE on Wednesday to request more information about Bradford s claim that he was hacked. Who knows.It all follows a pattern of Bradford s, allegedly.In June, following his appointment to the Department of Energy, The Washington Post reported provocative comments Bradford made on Twitter including calling Obama a Kenyan and saying that the World War II-era internment of Japanese-Americans was necessary. Bradford apologized for the comments at the time in a statement to the Post, calling them inexcusable. Again, though, we think he sounds suspiciously like Donald Trump, the original Birther. But it s a really good time to leave the derailing Trump train.Featured image via David Becker/Stringer/Getty Images | 1real |
PATRIOTS OWNER On Trump: “In The Toughest Time In My Life, He Was There For Me When My Beloved Wife Died, He Called Me Once A Week For About A Year, ‘How ya doing?'” [VIDEO] | Patriots owner Robert Kraft tells Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends about the special friend that Trump was to him and how he went out of his way to help him after his beloved wife died, I m loyal to my friends, I remember who the people are there when the tough times are there and he did that for me. "I remember who the people are there when the tough times are there and he did that for me." -Robert Kraft on his friendship with Pres Trump pic.twitter.com/pQiBWDYCtF FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 3, 2017 | 1real |
Pope Francis Tells EU Leaders: Populism Is ’Egotism’ | Solidarity is “the most effective antidote to modern forms of populism,” Pope Francis told European Union leaders Friday, in a politically charged speech denouncing nationalism as a modern form of selfishness. [In his address to more than 20 European heads of state assembled in Rome for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome that marked the beginning of the European Economic Community (EEC) the Pope advocated a stronger, consolidated Europe against the rising tide of populist movements. The pontiff contrasted solidarity, which draw us “closer to our neighbors,” with populism, which is “the fruit of an egotism that hems people in and prevents them from overcoming and ‘looking beyond’ their own narrow vision. ” As a number of European countries prepare for important national elections pitting leaders against mostly established, parties, the Pope took an unusually overt stand in favor of a Eurocentric vision of the future of the region. “There is a need to start thinking once again as Europeans,” Francis said, “so as to avert the opposite dangers of a dreary uniformity or the triumph of particularisms. ” “Politics needs this kind of leadership, which avoids appealing to emotions to gain consent, but instead, in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity, devises policies that can make the Union as a whole develop harmoniously,” he added. This union will only be lasting and successful if the common will of Europe “proves more powerful than the will of individual nations,” Francis said, quoting the Prime Minister of Luxembourg. France will hold its first round of elections on April 23, followed by a second round on May 7. The latest polls show the Socialist candidate Emmanuel Macron just one percentage point behind the Eurosceptic Marine who presently stands to win 25 percent of the first round of voting. Meanwhile in its federal election slated for next September 24, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will face off against Martin Schulz of the Social Democratic party, as well as the small but growing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Merkel’s CDU is part of a strong coalition that includes the Christian Social Union (CSU) as well as the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Despite Merkel’s ebbing popularity, she is still the current favorite for the fall elections. In Italy, although a date for the next general elections has not yet been set, a new survey this week put the Eurosceptic Movement at 32. 3 percent of the vote, five and a half points ahead of the ruling Democratic Party (PD). The poll also put found that the right wing populist Northern League party would currently take 12. 8 percent of the vote, ahead of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia at 12. 7 percent. In his address Friday, Pope Francis described Europe as strongest when it “refuses to yield to fear or close herself off in false forms of security,” asserting that “her history has been greatly determined by encounters with other peoples and cultures. ” Europe’s history, he insisted, “is, and always has been, a dynamic and multicultural identity. ” While recognizing that “one frequently has the sense that there is a growing ‘split’ between the citizenry and the European institutions, which are often perceived as distant and inattentive to the different sensibilities present in the Union,” Francis nonetheless continued to advocate for a strong European Union over a shift toward greater decision making at the national level. “Today the European Union needs to recover the sense of being primarily a ‘community’ of persons and peoples, to realize that ‘the whole is greater than the part, but it is also greater than the sum of its parts,’” he said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 0fake |
Biden Explains Why Hillary Set Up Her Email Server (This Doesn’t Help Her) | You are here: Home / US / Biden Explains Why Hillary Set Up Her Email Server (This Doesn’t Help Her) Biden Explains Why Hillary Set Up Her Email Server (This Doesn’t Help Her) October 28, 2016 Pinterest
Crazy Uncle Joe is at it again. Vice President Joe Biden, and potentially secretary of state should Hillary Clinton be elected (let that sink in for a minute), claimed that Clinton didn’t understand “the gravity” of using private servers to send and receive classified information as secretary of state.
Social media users pointed out the obviously ridiculous nature of this defense, as many have throughout the whole email debacle. Clinton is either pathetically inept of dangerously corrupt — I’d argue that there’s a lot of both in the equation. Both options mean that she should be behind bars and not running for president. Interviewed by @jdickerson for @FaceTheNation , @VP says @HillaryClinton didnt understand "the gravity" of setting up own e-mail system. pic.twitter.com/abIZ1f0kvO
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 28, 2016 So to quote Dave Chapelle: “I’m sorry officer I … didn’t know I couldn’t do that." https://t.co/a1mLeOv0KL
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) October 28, 2016
Ben Howe of Red State quoted comedian Dave Chapelle: “I’m sorry officer I … didn’t know I couldn’t do that.” Ummm, she did it specifically to evade FOIA. I'm quite certain she "understood the gravity" https://t.co/nZK9EBQp27
— The H2 (@TheH2) October 28, 2016
Twitter user “The H2” pointed out that Clinton very likely understood the gravity just fine; it’s probably why she set up the servers in the first place. The H2 tweeted: “Ummm, she did it specifically to evade FOIA. I’m quite certain she “understood the gravity.”
Absolutely. Clinton almost certainly set up the servers to “evade FOIA,” and the inevitable failures/corruption (such as the pay-to-play operation) she would need to cover up as secretary of state.
The thousands of emails deleted from Clinton’s servers weren’t just yoga schedules and wedding planning — the State Department admitted there were Benghazi-related emails in there.
Clinton is responsible for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, and it is almost a certainty that emails pointing to her involvement were scrubbed — in addition to what we already know that points to her responsibility. She understood "the gravity" she just thought she could "get away with it" #Corruption #draintheswamp #newsisback https://t.co/TrN0xUSbaX
— Jesse Eaton (@landho69) October 28, 2016
Jesse Eaton tweeted: “She understood ‘the gravity’ she just thought she could ‘get away with it.'”
That about covers it. She knew what she was doing, but since she also knows where all the bodies are buried she gets to play by a different set of rules.
We found out that President Obama, using a pseudonym, communicated with Clinton via her private email server — not her state.gov address — even though he claimed not to know about the servers until the scandal came out in the press. Why would he do that if he thought things were on the up and up and didn’t know a thing about the private server?
That might have been part of Clinton’s insurance here as well. She may have figured that if she goes down, so does Obama. That would be pretty stupid considering Clinton found out where she sat on the totem pole in 2008, but no one ever said the woman was a genius.
The FBI announced on Friday that it reopened the investigation of Clinton’s email scandal, and hopefully Clinton will finally be brought to justice. Not likely, but who knows? | 1real |
CONSERVATIVES FIGHT BACK Against Proposed “Obamacare Lite”…DEMAND Full Repeal Of Obamacare | House Republicans leaders on Monday embraced a legislative plan to replace the Affordable Care Act for the first time in the nearly seven years since Democrats enacted the transformative health-insurance law.Now, they have to sell it.That challenge ran into an immediate threat from key conservatives who criticized the new proposal for failing to fulfill the party s iron-clad promise to rip out the signature policy of former President Barack Obama. It s Obamacare in a different format, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said in a phone interview. Jordan cited three provisions that conservatives have complained about for weeks leading up to the formal release of the House GOP plan on Monday evening: its extension of Obamacare Medicaid expansion for another four years; its failure to immediately repeal all of the law s tax increases; and its call to provide refundable tax credits to help people buy insurance, which Jordan labeled a new entitlement. Earlier on Monday, another member of the Freedom Caucus, Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, condemned the leadership bill in a two-word tweet: Obamacare 2.0. The full Freedom Caucus comprises about three dozen members of the 237 in the House Republican majority. If they voted as a bloc, they could sink the bill on their own. A spokeswoman for its chairman, Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, said members were still reviewing the legislation on Monday evening, and Jordan said the group planned to meet on Tuesday to discuss it.The reaction from conservative advocacy groups was no more favorable to the Republican leadership. FreedomWorks labeled the plan s requirement that people pay a 30 percent premium to insurers if they stop their coverage for more than two months the Republican individual mandate. And on Tuesday morning, two more staunchly conservative activist organizations, Heritage Action and the Club for Growth, came out against the proposal. Many Americans seeking health insurance on the individual market will notice no significant difference between the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) and the American Health Care Act, the group s president, Michael Needham said. That is bad politics and, more importantly, bad policy. Rather than accept the flawed premises of Obamacare, congressional Republicans should fully repeal the failed law and begin a genuine effort to deliver on longstanding campaign promises that create a free market health-care system that empowers patients and doctors. The Club for Growth pejoratively dubbed the new bill RyanCare and added a new threat, vowing to downgrade any Republican who votes for the bill in the group s closely-watched annual congressional scorecard.- The AtlanticThe introduction of the GOP s new healthcare bill has raised some definite ire among Republicans and Libertarians alike. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is one such politician who has now seen the bill and expressed his extreme dislike of it, calling the GOP plan Obamacare Lite. According to The Hill, Paul is not letting Obamacare Lite happen without a fight, and he has allies. The libertarian leaning senator is teaming up with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to release their own bill to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday, and it s highly similar to the one that Republicans voted for unanimously in 2015. We voted on this last year, and every Republican voted for it, Paul said at a press conference alongside his House conservative colleagues. That s what we should do again. You have to get rid of ObamaCare completely, Jordan added. Paul stated in an interview earlier today that this GOP bill will not pass, and that conservatives aren t gonna to take it. However Paul and Jordan face an uphill struggle as GOP leadership, including that of President Donald Trump, seem to believe the bill to be a solid plan. We re going to do something that s great. And I am proud to support the replacement plan released by the House of Representatives, Trump said of the bill. It follows the guidelines I laid out in my congressional address. This will be a plan where you can choose your doctor and this will be a plan where you can choose your plan. And you know what the plan is. This is the plan. The Blaze | 1real |
London sky turns yellow as storm blows in Saharan dust, Spanish smoke | LONDON (Reuters) - The sky over London turned an unusual shade of yellow on Monday as Storm Ophelia brought dust from the Sahara and smoke from wild fires in southern Europe that filtered out certain wavelengths of sunlight. Downgraded from a hurricane overnight, Ophelia caused two deaths in Ireland on Monday, where it was the worst storm in half a century. While winds were moderate in the British capital, the yellow sky surprised Londoners, many of whom posted pictures on social media. As Ophelia has come up from the Azores, the storm has picked up Saharan dust from North Africa and picked up dust from wild fires in Spain and Portugal, a spokeswoman for Britain s Met Office said. This yellowish hue is from the dust that is high up in the atmosphere and the blue element of the sunlight is scattered by the dust but the red element gets through so the sun appears redder and you get this sort of yellowish tinge, she said. | 0fake |
California & Massachusetts Just Legalized Recreational Marijuana | California & Massachusetts Just Legalized Recreational Marijuana Nov 8, 2016 5 0
In a major win for cannabis proponents, the state of California has just voted to legalize recreational marijuana. California just turned green.
The Proposition 64 was approved by California voters on Tuesday evening, which now makes California as the biggest state for legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
As it is often said, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” This will certainly bring a massive push from the rest of the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
With the proposition now passed, people living in California who are 21 or older can now legally possess, transport and buy up to an ounce of marijuana as well as allowing up to 6 plants to be grown by an individual.
Nate Bradley , executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association is happy with the results:
“We are very excited that citizens of California voted to end the failed policy of marijuana prohibition. Proposition 64 will allow California to take its rightful place as the center of cannabis innovation, research and development.”
Proposition 64 was opposed by most major law enforcement groups, including the California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen, the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California and the California Police Chiefs Assn.
Interestingly and perhaps somewhat controversially, the initiative to vote in favor of the proposition was supported and funded by Facebook’s President Sean Park as well as billionaire George Soros. They raised nearly $16 million which is about 10 times the amount the opposition campaign raised.
Massachusetts has also joins California in passing recreational marijuana with Florida approving medical marijuana.
As of this writing , the vote for recreational marijuana is currently being approved in Maine, has officially been approved in Nevada and is being opposed in Arizona. Votes are also pending for medical marijuana in North Dakota, Arkansas and Montana.
We could very well wake up in the morning with 4 new states approving recreational marijuana and at least 1 state (Florida) approving medical marijuana.
With California, Massachusetts and Nevada passing the legalization of recreational marijuana, they now join Colorado, Alaska, Washington and Oregon.
Regardless of the presidential election outcome, we are surely to wake up to a different and more green friendly world tomorrow. Spread the good news!
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science-Health Coaching and offers health coaching services through his website Orgonlight Health. You can follow the Orgonlight Health Facebook page or visit the website for more information on how to receive health coaching for yourself, your friend or family member as well as view other inspiring articles. | 1real |
U.S. lawmaker wants cyber sanctions on Russia after hacking charges | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of a U.S. Senate cyber security subcommittee said on Friday he planned to introduce sanctions legislation over “Russia’s cyber criminals” after Washington accused Russia of political cyber attacks ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. Republican Senator Cory Gardner said his legislation would require the Obama administration to investigate those who have engaged in significant actions undermining cyber security and aggressively pursue sanctions when appropriate. Gardner is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity. | 0fake |
What It Means When 5 Million Syrians Leave Their Country - The New York Times | The scale of Syria’s refugee crisis is dizzying. As the war there stretches into a seventh year, more than five million citizens, nearly a quarter of Syria’s prewar population, have fled their country, seeking shelter mainly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday. Five million people is roughly equal to the population of Norway. If nearly a quarter of the United States’ population left the country, it would be as if the combined populations of California, New York and Florida had disappeared. In addition, 6. 3 million Syrians have been internally displaced by the war. Altogether, about half of all Syrians have been forced from their homes because of violence. With no end to the war in sight, Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, predicted that 480, 000 more Syrians would become refugees in need of resettlement this year. That is as if the entire population of Sacramento abandoned the city — and the country — over the course of the next nine months. Since the conflict began in 2011, an estimated 400, 000 people have been killed. The five million Syrians who escaped war, starvation and deprivation now live mostly in one of five countries, often in squalid camps teeming with people. The majority of those refugees, nearly three million, have sought shelter in Turkey. Turkey, a country of 75 million, has absorbed a contingent of refugees equal to 4 percent of its population. The country’s location on the doorstep of Europe has increased its leverage in negotiations with the West about the fate of refugee resettlement, but the sheer number of people has taxed the country’s resources. Since February alone, 47, 000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey. Two million other refugees are scattered through Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Last year, the United Nations sought pledges to resettle 500, 000 Syrians around the world. Since then, only half that many have been given homes. “We still have a long road to travel in expanding resettlement and the number and range of complementary pathways available for refugees,” Mr. Grandi said. “To meet this challenge, we not only need additional places, but also need to accelerate the implementation of existing pledges. ” The United States previously pledged to make 64, 000 places available for Syrians. But President Trump has sought to decrease the number of refugees entering the United States. In January, he signed an executive order barring all Syrian refugees from entering the country, but he was forced to replace it when federal courts blocked it. His second order is also tied up, working its way through the courts. | 0fake |
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