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Obama points finger at Putin for hacks during U.S. election | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday strongly suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally authorized the computer hacks of Democratic Party emails that American intelligence officials say were aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump win the Nov. 8 election. But with only a month left in office, during a somber press conference before leaving for a family holiday in Hawaii, Obama spoke despairingly about the “nasty” state of U.S. politics, saying the chasm between Democrats and Republicans has made it possible for Russia to cause mischief. Obama said he has “great confidence” in intelligence reports he has seen showing that Russians hacked into emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and to John Podesta, who was campaign chairman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The leaked emails revealed details of paid speeches Clinton gave to Wall Street, party infighting and comments from top aides to Clinton who were shocked about the extent of her use of a private server to send emails while secretary of state. The leaks led to embarrassing media coverage and prompted some party officials to resign. Obama, who campaigned vigorously for Clinton, said she was treated unfairly and found the media coverage of her troubling. “This happened at the highest levels of the Russian government,” Obama said when asked whether Putin was personally involved in the hacks. He added that “not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.” Obama said he warned Putin in September to stop meddling in American political campaigns, telling his Russian counterpart to “cut it out” during a face-to-face encounter in China at a Group of 20 meeting. Obama said he did not believe that U.S. electronic voting systems were tampered with. Obama, however, stopped short of directly blaming Putin and said he also wanted to give U.S. intelligence officials more time to produce a report that is due before he leaves office on Jan. 20 and Trump is sworn in as his successor. Obama called Russia a smaller and weaker country than the United States that “does not produce anything that others want to buy, except oil and gas and arms.” The comments underscored what Obama called the “sadly deteriorated” relationship between Washington and Moscow, which are also at odds over Russia’s role in Syria’s civil war and its aggressive actions in Ukraine. Russia has denied U.S. accusations that it was behind the hacks. Two senior government officials told Reuters that the Federal Bureau of Investigation backs the CIA’s view that Russia indeed intervened to help Trump win the presidential election. Trump has maintained that he won the election fairly and has bristled at suggestions that Moscow influenced the outcome. But at one point during the heated presidential campaign, he publicly encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails. Trump spoke glowingly in the campaign about Putin, and since winning the election he has named top aides who have ties to Russia, including his nominee for secretary of state, Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Rex Tillerson. Obama left open the door to U.S. retaliation against Russia to discourage further cyber attacks - countermeasures that may be up to Trump to implement. Obama said he has had “cordial” discussions with Trump since the election and has stressed that he would do everything he can to ensure a smooth transition. But the outgoing president also criticized Trump’s fellow Republicans broadly. Referencing polls showing that more than one-third of Republicans approve of Putin, who used to lead the KGB spy agency, Obama said that conservative icon “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave.” “In some cases, you have voters and elected officials who have more confidence and faith in a foreign adversary than they have in their neighbors,” Obama said. Adding to the gloomy tone of Obama’s remarks, he addressed two other difficult foreign policy issues that will outlast his time in the White House. Obama warned about the economic and geopolitical consequences of any breakdown in the U.S.-China relationship, and said Trump should think carefully about the diplomatic repercussions if he decides to “upend” longstanding U.S. diplomatic norms. Trump angered China earlier this month when he took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen - the first call of its kind since 1979 when President Jimmy Carter acknowledged Taiwan as part of “one China.” Obama also condemned attacks on Syrian civilians trying to flee the city of Aleppo, blaming President Bashar al-Assad and his allies in Russia and Iran for “atrocities.” Obama defended his decision to keep U.S. troops out of Syria and avoid military intervention, although he acknowledged the protracted anguish has weighed on him. “Everything else was tempting because we wanted to do something and it sounded like the right thing to do, but it was going to be impossible to do this on the cheap,” he said. | 0fake |
Here’s The Third Turncoat Democrat Who Needs To Be Primaried Over SCOTUS In 2018 (DETAILS) | Another day, another Democrat who is backing the nominee for the Supreme Court seat that the Senate Republicans stole from President Obama. We have previously reported on how traitorous Democrats like Joe Manchin (DINO-WV) and Heidi Heitcamp (DINO-ND) have turned tail and voted with Republicans on many issues most notably falling in line with Republicans in order to confirm right-wing potential Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Now, we have a third to add to that list: Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Donnelly said of his decision to be a traitor to his party on this issue: After meeting with Judge Gorsuch, conducting a thorough review of his record, and closely following his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I believe that he is a qualified jurist who will base his decisions on his understanding of the law and is well-respected among his peers. The only redeeming statement Donnelly has made is his expressing his opinion that the Senate should still have a 60-vote threshold when it comes to confirming Gorsuch or any other nominee for the Supreme Court. That is paramount, because it means that there is a true bipartisan Senate consensus for the Court s nominations and confirmations, which is a rule set by the founders to make sure that one party and its views do not dominate the judiciary.Of course, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cares not one whit about that; he and his fellow GOP cronies have insisted that Gorsuch will be on the Court one way or another. This means he is willing to breach the 60-vote rule to make sure Gorsuch makes it to the Supreme Court. What the Republicans did to President Obama s nominee Merrick Garland is a travesty and a disgrace, and the Democrats should do the same for Gorsuch. For those who won t PRIMARY THEM. We have no time for DINOS in these troubled times. Oppose Trump at every turn, or the good folks at We Will Replace You will have you heads, as they should.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Marco Rubio SLAMS The GOP For Obstructing Obama In Surprising Speech On Senate Floor (VIDEO) | On Tuesday, the Senate and House of Representatives voted on bills to combat the Zika virus. Of course, as usual, it turned into an Us against Obama fight; however, one Republican was super pissed off about it and slammed his own party for playing games with people s health: Senator Marco Rubio.The Zika virus is a huge threat for the United States, but Congress hadn t bothered to address it until this week. The illness is passed by mosquitos and if it infects a pregnant woman it could cause the fetus to develop severe abnormalities. President Obama has asked Congress to allocate $1.9 billion to fight the virus. The House of Representatives did what they always do and gave the president a fraction of what he asked for $622 million.The House s refusal to fully fund the bill really, really pissed Marco Rubio off and he blasted them, as well as Senate Republicans, during his speech: I support fully funding the requests made, people say the president s request. Fine, it came from the White House. But it s really the scientists requests, the doctors requests, the public health sector s requests for how to address this issue. Oh shit! Rubio said something has been backed by science. He must have forgotten how much his Republican colleagues hate science.The senator went on to say that 112 people have already been infected in Florida, Puerto Rico is being ravaged by it and the Senate needs to take it seriously: Why take the chance that at some point this summer we could have a significant and serious outbreak in the United States of America, and everybody here is going to be back in their home state doing their campaign stuff or whatever you re doing this summer, and you re going to have to come back here and either deal with it and explain to people why, when doctors and medical experts were warning us that this was a significant risk, we decided to lowball it . Again, Little Marco seems to have forgotten who he is speaking to. Republicans do not care if something will hurt the people (HELLO government shutdown of 2013!), the only thing they care about is the fact that the Obama administration asked for the funding. The GOP Congress has one mode: Obstruct. That s it. That is basically what they do from the beginning of their terms to the end of their terms. Hell, they refuse to even hold Supreme Court nomination hearings because they are politicking so hard.Finally, Rubio called out the House for their dangerously underfunded bill: Why are we taking this chance? It makes absolutely no sense. I would also say that while I am happy that today, hopefully, the Senate is about to take action on this issue, I m concerned about what I hear coming from the House their funding measure isn t even $1.1 billion. It s $622 million. Quite frankly, that s just not going to cut it. The Senate ended up passing a $1.1 billion package to combat Zika but that is not enough. It should have been fully funded. Unfortunately, the Republican Congress does not take the health of Americans seriously. If there happens to be a huge breakout, I guarantee we will hear these very same members of the GOP blame it on Obama. Because if there is one thing stronger than their obstructionism, it is their Obama Derangement Syndrome.It was nice to see Marco Rubio actually show up for work for once and do his job. Maybe if he d done that more often he wouldn t be leaving the Senate at the end of his term with his tail between his legs.Watch his full speech below:Featured image via video screenshot | 1real |
‘Sit On The Sofa And Lift Your Skirt Up’: 6 MORE Women Allege Harassment By Fox News Boss, Including Teenager | Six more women have come forward to allege that they were sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, the chairman of the conservative Fox News Channel. Ailes is currently the subject of a lawsuit from former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson, who alleges that he demoted her after she rebuffed a sexual advance and complained about a sexist work environment.New York magazine is reporting on the new allegations, in which two women have gone on the record while the remaining four are making their claims anonymously at the moment.Kelli Boyle, a former field adviser for the Republican National Committee, says that she went to dinner with Ailes in 1989 when he then propositioned her: He had a driver and a car, and after dinner he said, Can I take you to your friend s? So we get in the car and that s when he said, You know if you want to play with the big boys, you have to lay with the big boys. I was so taken aback. I said, Gosh I didn t know that. How would that work? I was trying to kill time because I didn t know if he was going to attack me. I was just talking until I could get out of the car. He said, That s the way it works, and he started naming other women he s had. He said that s how all these men in media and politics work everyone s got their friend. Boyle then says Ailes told her she would have to give oral sex every once in a while. She then found herself frozen out of a job offer and says Ailes told her that her refusal to accept advances had a role in being turned down. Boyle also says that a friend high up in the Republican Party said, Word went out you weren t to be hired. Marsha Callahan, a former model, said she had an encounter with Ailes when he was producing The Mike Douglas Show. Callahan alleges that when she went to his office Ailes told her, Sit on the sofa and lift your skirt up and that he d put me on the show but I needed to go to bed with him. A model going by the pseudonym Susan said Ailes met with her in his office when she was sixteen years old on the same show and proceeded to pull down his pants and very gingerly pull out his genitals and said, Kiss them. Jane, a model, said in 1984 that in an interview Ailes pulled out a garter belt and stockings and told me to put them on and After that, something sexual took place, but I blocked it out of my mind. I don t know if I engaged with him orally or he engaged with himself. I felt I was being used for his sexual satisfaction. Diane, a media consultant, said Ailes grabbed me and had his hands on me and he forced me to kiss him. When I recoiled he said, Well, you know no girls get a job here unless they re cooperative. Pat, a former TV producer said she had an interview with Ailes at his apartment at Central Park South. She claims, I don t remember his exact words, but his message was: If you want to make it in New York City in the TV business, you re going to have to fuck me, and you re going to do that with anyone I tell you to. Ailes denies the allegations from Carlson and his lawyers filed a motion on Friday that would take testimony and findings related to Carlson s allegations out of the public eye.Fox s parent company, Rupert Murdoch s 21st Century Fox, said they were conducting and internal review of the allegations against Ailes.Featured images via YouTube/YouTube | 1real |
Trump seeks border wall, crackdown on unaccompanied minors for 'Dreamer' deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, who pledged to help protect young people known as “Dreamers” brought illegally to the United States as children, called on Sunday for money to fund a border wall to be part of any immigration deal. In a list of “principles” laid out in documents released by the White House, the Trump administration also pressed for a crackdown on unaccompanied minors who enter the United States, many of them from Central America. The plan, which was delivered to leaders in Congress on Sunday night, drew a swift rebuke from Democrats, who are seeking a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that Trump ended last month. “The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans,” said House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the president was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so,” they said in a statement. The Trump administration wants the wish list to guide immigration reform in Congress and accompany a bill to replace DACA, the Obama-era program that protected nearly 800,000 “Dreamers” from deportation and allowed them to secure work permits. If enacted, the White House priorities could result in the deportation of Dreamers’ parents. The proposals emphasize immigration enforcement and include a request for funds to hire 370 more immigration judges, 1,000 attorneys for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, 300 federal prosecutors and 10,000 additional ICE agents to enforce immigration laws. “These priorities are essential to mitigate the legal and economic consequences of any grant of status to DACA recipients,” Trump’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, told reporters on a conference call. The White House made clear it would not be pushing for Dreamers to achieve U.S. citizenship, only legal status, in a potential deal. Trump told Congress it had six months to come up with legislation to help Dreamers, who are a fraction of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of whom are Hispanic. The documents call for tighter standards for those seeking U.S. asylum, denial of federal grants to “sanctuary cities” that serve as refuges for illegal immigrants, and a requirement that employers use an electronic verification system known as “E-Verify” to keep illegal immigrants from securing jobs. Trump campaigned for president on a pledge to toughen immigration policies and build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. He vowed repeatedly that Mexico would pay for the wall, but began prodding Congress earlier this year to approve funding. Mexico has said it will not pay for the wall. Trump’s suggestion after a meeting with Schumer and Pelosi that wall funding would not have to be part of a DACA fix alarmed some of his supporters. The White House sees the wall as a priority but has indicated that it could be established as part of a DACA bill or through other legislative avenues. Administration officials said that legislation that did not include all of the priorities on the list would not necessarily trigger a presidential veto. Republicans in Congress have introduced several bills that include aspects of Trump’s ideas, but many Democrats and immigration groups see the proposals as too harsh. “The Trump administration has put forth a serious proposal to address the enforcement of our immigration laws and border security,” said Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte in a statement. “We cannot fix the DACA problem without fixing all of the issues that led to the underlying problem of illegal immigration in the first place.” The White House’s wish list targets the flow of unaccompanied minors into the United States. It would require such children to be treated the same, regardless of their countries of origin “so long as they are not victims of human trafficking and can be safely returned home or removed to safe third countries,” the White House documents said. It would expand the list of “inadmissible aliens” to include members of gangs, those who have been convicted of an aggravated felony, and former spouses and children of drug and human traffickers if they receive benefits from such behavior. The plan also seeks to reduce the number of people who overstay their visas and reform how green cards that establish legal permanent residents are granted. Trump’s White House has so far not been able to achieve a major legislative victory, casting doubt on the potential for a breakthrough on immigration reform, which Republican and Democratic presidents have tried before without success. Since Trump took office in January, his fellow Republicans have failed to repeal and replace former Democratic President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and a White House plan for tax reform needs more support. | 0fake |
ROB SCHNEIDER Nails The Russia Conspiracy Theorists In One Hysterical Tweet | 1real | |
To the Moon, North Korea? Or Does a Rocket Have a Darker Aim? - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Kim is headed to the moon. That, at least, is one of the official North Korean explanations for the testing last week of a rocket engine that, if as powerful as the North claims, would rival the commercial rockets that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, of Amazon and Tesla, now use in their aerospace companies to fire payloads into space. Inside the United States’ intelligence agencies, though, there is considerable skepticism that North Korea is truly eager to plant a flag on the lunar landscape. The agencies are exploring another explanation: that Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader, is racing ahead, as the United States is distracted by a bruising presidential election, to develop a way for his growing arsenal of nuclear weapons to reach New York and Washington. The North may not be working alone. An intelligence finding that the United States quietly made public in January suggests that the development of the North’s big engine, which it claims produces 80 tons of thrust, may be part of a joint partnership with Iran. A Treasury Department announcement of sanctions against Iranian officials and engineers named two who had “traveled to North Korea to work on an rocket booster being developed by the North Korean government. ” The Obama administration has responded to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests with gradually escalating sanctions, mostly through the United Nations. But on Monday it went a step farther, announcing criminal charges and Treasury Department sanctions against four Chinese individuals and a company that it said engaged in money laundering to help the North’s programs for weapons of mass destruction. The sanctions were against the Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Company and its primary owner, Ma Xiaohong, who lives near the North Korean border. Few threats as urgent as the dramatic escalation of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are likely to confront Hillary Clinton or Donald J. Trump as president. An engine that delivers 80 tons of thrust would have about three times the power of an advanced North Korean rocket shown in a ground test in April, though it is not possible to verify the North’s claims. By most unclassified estimates, it will take North Korea perhaps five years to marry its missile advances with a weapon small enough and strong enough to survive the stresses of the atmosphere atop an intercontinental ballistic missile. So far, Mr. Kim’s engineers have never executed a military test flight that could reach beyond the middle of the Pacific, though in a statement on Friday, the North threatened to attack Guam, home of the American bombers that conducted simulated runs last week over the Korean Peninsula. The potential links to Iran complicate the issue. Iran has ignored a United Nations Security Council resolution, passed in conjunction with last year’s agreement freezing its nuclear program, to refrain from tests of missiles for eight years. The Obama administration has not sought sanctions, knowing they would be vetoed by Russia and China, nor has it said much in public about the details of the cooperation on the new rocket engine. There is a long history of sharing missile technology, but no persuasive evidence exists that the Iranians have been involved in the North’s nuclear weapons tests. The moonshot talk may be aspirational, but it is not lunacy. Rocket experts say four of the new North Korean engines, clustered at the base of a space vehicle, would be powerful enough to hurl a payload to the moon. But the North would have to master many other technologies before even an unmanned vehicle could be landed there. In an interview last month with The Associated Press, the director of the scientific research department of North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration, Hyon Kwang Il, said a moonshot was the nation’s goal. “Even though the U. S. and its allies try to block our space development, our aerospace scientists will conquer space and definitely plant the flag of the D. P. R. K. on the moon,” he said, using the abbreviation for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Whatever the goal, the most important aspect of the new North Korean engine is that its design appears to be indigenous, rather than a knockoff of Soviet missiles. That suggests a growing domestic ability, which may explain the appeal to Iran, which intelligence officials speculate may be helping to fund the effort. “It’s like nothing we’ve seen before,” John Schilling, an expert on North Korea’s missile program at 38 North, a blog and think tank of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, said of the powerful new engine. “It’s somewhat frightening that they have this capability, but somewhat encouraging that they want to use it for space launching. ” History shows that any strides in rocketry, no matter what the claimed purpose, can aid both civil and military programs. “That’s what the United States did,” said David Rothkopf, who has written two histories of the National Security Council. “It’s what the Russians did. It’s what the Chinese did. Why not the North Koreans?” American officials would not publicly say that the program referred to in the Treasury sanctions was the same one that resulted in last week’s test. But there was no other logical conclusion. The announcement identified “Iranian missile technicians” from companies working for Iran’s Ministry of Defense for Armed Forces Logistics. It said that two of them, Seyed Mirahmad Nooshin and Sayyed Medhi Farahi, “have been critical to the development of the rocket booster, and both traveled to Pyongyang during contract negotiations. ” Dr. Schilling said the big new engine seemed more suited to launching satellites and space probes than warheads. The North Korean military is known to prefer missiles small enough to transport on trucks, haul on back roads and hide in tunnels. But the North is also highly aware that its launching failures in past years have become the stuff of ridicule on the internet, making it easy to dismiss the program. It seems to be looking for something that would create at least the impression that it will not take long for it to fly to the moon or strike any part of the United States. “You cluster four of them together, and that’s a very healthy ICBM,” Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea specialist at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. said of the new engine. Of course, moving from a static engine test to a flight test would take considerable time, and the rocket would be a giant sitting duck for American targeting on the launchpad. One possibility is that the North is trying to replicate elements of the American “triad” — the creation of a nuclear arsenal that can be delivered by aircraft, from silos and from submarines. The North Koreans may be thinking, “Why not have everything?” Dr. Lewis said. David C. Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Cambridge, Mass. group that monitors proliferation, also argued that North Korea’s advance could well end up powering ICBMs from deep silos. He noted that the high power of the new North Korean engine was similar to one that Chinese scientists developed to power that nation’s first missile. Dr. Wright, in a blog post on the North Korean advance, noted that the Chinese rocket, known as the (for Dong Feng, or East Wind) “could carry a nuclear warhead to anywhere in the United States. ” “Who knows what North Korea might want to do?” Dr. Wright said. “At this point, I don’t think we can take an ICBM off the table. ” | 0fake |
BREAKING: HOUSE REPUBLICANS To File Charges Against The IRS’s Lois Lerner [Video] | Who can forget when Lois Lerner sat smugly before the House panel and plead the 5th She sat there as cool as a cucumber and didn t answer about the IRS targeting of conservatives.Well, now it s time for her to finally be held accountable Truly accountable and NOT pleading the 5th.REMEMBER WHEN WE GOT A PEAK AT HER E-MAILS? YIKES! It s official! Lois Lerner is the bitter b*tch we all knew she was when she took the 5th before Congress. Who s not surprised that she targeted conservatives while she was at the IRS. Remember Lois Lerner? How could you forget. She s the former head of the IRS Exempted Organizations division who was caught using the agency to target Americans based on their political views.Well we now have snippets from some of her email conversations, and it becomes crystal clear that she targeted conservatives because, well, she really hates conservatives. Clearly the type of person who should be placed in a position of governmental power.From The Hill:Lois Lerner, the central figure in the IRS targeting controversy, called Abraham Lincoln the country s worst president in an email disclosed in a bipartisan Senate report, according to USA Today. Look my view is that Lincoln was our worst president not our best, Lerner wrote in an email dated March 6, 2014.Lerner, the former IRS director of Exempted Organizations, joked in one email that the 16th president should have just let the South secede, rather than fighting the Civil War. He should [have] let the south go, Lerner wrote in response to a friend who disparaged Texas as a pathetic state. We really do seem to have [two] different mind sets. And what is your mind set Ms. Lerner? That government officials should target American citizens if they hold political views you don t like?The report also highlighted emails written by Lerner calling conservatives crazies and a holes. Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is your government. Corrupt beyond belief, shady, unethical, dangerous and vengeful.So why is Lois Lerner not sitting in a jail cell for this clear abuse of power? Because oligarchy.Via: Zero Hedge | 1real |
Why Is It So Hard to Reduce the Pentagon Budget? | Why Is It So Hard to Reduce the Pentagon Budget?
By William D. Hartung / TomDispatch David B. Gleason / CC BY-SA 2.0
Through good times and bad, regardless of what’s actually happening in the world, one thing is certain: in the long run, the Pentagon budget won’t go down.
It’s not that that budget has never been reduced. At pivotal moments, like the end of World War II as well as war’s end in Korea and Vietnam, there were indeed temporary downturns, as there was after the Cold War ended. More recently, the Budget Control Act of 2011 threw a monkey wrench into the Pentagon’s plans for funding that would go ever onward and upward by putting a cap on the money Congress could pony up for it. The remarkable thing, though, is not that such moments have occurred, but how modest and short-lived they’ve proved to be.
Take the current budget. It’s down slightly from its peak in 2011, when it reached the highest level since World War II, but this year’s budget for the Pentagon and related agencies is nothing to sneeze at. It comes in at roughly $600 billion — more than the peak year of the massive arms build-up initiated by President Ronald Reagan back in the 1980s. To put this figure in perspective: despite troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan dropping sharply over the past eight years, the Obama administration has still managed to spend more on the Pentagon than the Bush administration did during its two terms in office.
What accounts for the Department of Defense’s ability to keep a stranglehold on your tax dollars year after endless year?
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Pillar one supporting that edifice: ideology. As long as most Americans accept the notion that it is the God-given mission and right of the United States to go anywhere on the planet and do more or less anything it cares to do with its military, you won’t see Pentagon spending brought under real control. Think of this as the military corollary to American exceptionalism—or just call it the doctrine of armed exceptionalism, if you will.
The second pillar supporting lavish military budgets (and this will hardly surprise you): the entrenched power of the arms lobby and its allies in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. The strategic placement of arms production facilities and military bases in key states and Congressional districts has created an economic dependency that has saved many a flawed weapons system from being unceremoniously dumped in the trash bin of history.
Lockheed Martin, for instance, has put together a handy map of how its troubled F-35 fighter jet has created 125,000 jobs in 46 states. The actual figures are, in fact, considerably lower, but the principle holds: having subcontractors in dozens of states makes it harder for members of Congress to consider cutting or slowing down even a failed or failing program. Take as an example the M-1 tank, which the Army actually wanted to stop buying. Its plans were thwarted by the Ohio congressional delegation, which led a fight to add more M-1s to the budget in order to keep the General Dynamics production line in Lima, Ohio, up and running. In a similar fashion, prodded by the Missouri delegation, Congress added two different versions of Boeing’s F-18 aircraft to the budget to keep funds flowing to that company’s St. Louis area plant.
The one-two punch of an environment in which the military can do no wrong, while being outfitted for every global task imaginable, and what former Pentagon analyst Franklin “Chuck” Spinney has called “ political engineering ,” has been a tough combination to beat.
“Scare the Hell Out of the American People”
The overwhelming consensus in favor of a “cover the globe” military strategy has been broken from time to time by popular resistance to the idea of using war as a central tool of foreign policy. In such periods, getting Americans behind a program of feeding the military machine massive sums of money has generally required a heavy dose of fear.
For example, the last thing most Americans wanted after the devastation and hardship unleashed by World War II was to immediately put the country back on a war footing. The demobilization of millions of soldiers and a sharp cutback in weapons spending in the immediate postwar years rocked what President Dwight Eisenhower would later dub the “military-industrial complex.”
As Wayne Biddle has noted in his seminal book Barons of the Sky ,the U.S. aerospace industry produced an astonishing 300,000-plus military aircraft during World War II. Not surprisingly, major weapons producers struggled to survive in a peacetime environment in which government demand for their products threatened to be a tiny fraction of wartime levels.
Lockheed President Robert Gross was terrified by the potential impact of war’s end on his company’s business, as were many of his industry cohorts. “As long as I live,” he said , “I will never forget those short, appalling weeks” of the immediate postwar period. To be clear, Gross was appalled not by the war itself, but by the drop off in orders occasioned by its end. He elaborated in a 1947 letter to a friend: “We had one underlying element of comfort and reassurance during the war. We knew we’d get paid for anything we built. Now we are almost entirely on our own.”
The postwar doldrums in military spending that worried him so were reversed only after the American public had been fed a steady, fear-filled diet of anti-communism. NSC-68 , a secret memorandum the National Security Council prepared for President Harry Truman in April 1950, created the template for a policy based on the global “containment” of communism and grounded in a plan to encircle the Soviet Union with U.S. military forces, bases, and alliances. This would, of course, prove to be a strikingly expensive proposition. The concluding paragraphs of that memorandum underscored exactly that point, calling for a “sustained buildup of U.S. political, economic, and military strength… [to] frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will.” | 1real |
Rubio, Christie and Kasich get more debate traction on social media | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump lost his social media dominance for the first time during the Republican presidential debates as the candidates made their eighth showing Saturday night in New Hampshire. Instead, many on Twitter took to mocking contender Senator Marco Rubio, who came under heavy attack on Saturday from rivals. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also saw a big bump in his share of the social conversation. By the end of the night, Trump, who has the most followers, still received the largest share of mentions on Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), with 33 percent compared to Rubio’s 20 percent. Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, came in third, with 15 percent. But Twitter said an hour into the debate that Rubio was the most tweeted about candidate on the social media platform, marking the first time a candidate other than Trump came out on top within that time frame. Overall, Rubio received 10 more mentions per minute on Twitter than he did during the last Republican debate on Jan. 28, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph. Three days before New Hampshire’s primary for the Nov. 8 election, many of the mentions were negative as Rubio became a target for continuing to repeat many of the same lines from his campaign stump speech. “Marco, the thing is this,” said rival Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, “when you’re president of the United States, when you’re a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person.” That moment was measured by Twitter as one of the top social moments of the night. Actress Mia Farrow, @MiaFarrow, tweeted, “Rubio keeps saying the same thing.” A Marco Rubio Glitch (@RubioGlitch) account also emerged, gaining nearly 1,200 followers as of Saturday night as it parodied Rubio as a robot in tweets in Spanish and English. Rubio also had his worst performance yet with millennials on the popular messaging app Yik Yak, where he had a 44 percent disapproval rating. In contrast, Ohio Governor John Kasich had his best performance with millennials, earning a 41.4 approval rating, and maintaining the largest share of the conversation on Yik Yak. The debate was also a big night on social media for Christie, who has rarely been a top contender in social mentions. According to Brandwatch, a social media analytics firm, he had the second highest percentage of positive social mentions, 61.5 percent, compared to Trump’s 62.5 percent. Tyler Freeman (@tyfreem) tweeted, “#GOPDebate Chris Christie has been most underrated candidate the whole campaign. He finally stood out tonight. One of the best performances.” (Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Leela de Kretser and Mary Milliken) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. | 0fake |
WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel Demonstrates That Trump Could Support Child Rape And Not Lose Any Votes | It s official. Trump s supporters will vote for Donald Trump no matter what he does or what lies he tells, even if his tax returns reveal the truth.During his show on Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel ran yet another Lie Witness News segment featuring Trump supporters being asked questions based on the false story of him finally releasing his tax returns.The Kimmel reporter on the street asked Trump fans what they think now that the tax returns reveal that Trump is close with Putin, leases his wife Melania, writes off gold-plated toilets as a business expense, and supports child molester Jared Fogle.As it turns out, every single Trump supporter said they are still voting for the Republican nominee no matter what, even if it is true that Trump contributed to the legal defense fund of a convicted child molester. In fact, his supporters made excuses for Trump in order to justify his actions.So when Donald Trump said that he could go out and shoot someone dead in broad daylight in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes, he was right.Because Trump s supporters were not fazed by any of the claims presented to them. They were even okay with him lying on his returns by listing his occupation as a farmer.Seriously.Here s the video via YouTube.Trump s supporters are truly deplorable people who just want to watch the world burn.It doesn t matter what he says or what he does or how much he embarrasses America, Donald Trump s supporter will vote for him no matter what.So the question is will the rest of us sit home on Election Day and let the lunatics win? Or will we get our asses off the couch and make sure Donald Trump never sets a single toe inside the White House?Because if his supporters don t mind him doing all of these despicable things, that means Trump could basically do whatever he wants in office without political consequences and that would be disastrous for the nation.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Hungary's Fidesz prepares campaign against 'Soros plan' for migrants | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary s ruling Fidesz party, preparing for elections next April, promised on Thursday to highlight what it called a plan by billionaire financier George Soros to bring millions of migrants into Europe. Fidesz asked Prime Minister Viktor Orban s government to carry out a national consultation about Brussels plans to distribute asylum-seekers in the EU, a week after the EU s top court ruled against complainants Hungary and Slovakia. Previous such consultations have taken the form of sending out questionnaires to millions of voters, setting out the government s right-wing nationalist position and asking people if they agree. Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who has spent a large part of his fortune funding pro-democracy and human rights groups, has been targeted by Orban s government repeatedly. His spokesman has described the government s portrayal of his views on immigration as fantasy . Orban has been one of the loudest opponents of mandatory migrant resettlement quotas proposed by the EU, arguing this would undermine its sovereignty and social fabric. His stance has gone down well with voters, and Fidesz is firmly ahead in opinion polls. Lajos Kosa, a party vice chairman, said the national consultation should focus on the alleged Soros plan, something that would place migration at the center of the campaign. The European Commission stops just short of saying that they carry out the Soros plan... but all their steps and ideas with regard to migration point in this direction, Kosa said, adding last week s EU court defeat for Hungary had opened the gates . Soros spokesman Michael Vachon in July dismissed the idea that the financier and philanthropist was promoting a scheme to import millions of illegal immigrants into Europe. Soros s actual position on migration is that the international community should provide more support to the developing countries that today host 89 percent of refugees and that Europe should accept several hundred thousand fully screened refugees through an orderly process of vetting and resettlement, he said. He said an anti-migrant billboard campaign by the Hungarian government, showing a smiling Soros and carrying the caption Don t let Soros have the last laugh , was reminiscent of Europe s darkest hours . The government ended the poster campaign over the summer. | 0fake |
South African state agency wants Zuma book pulled from stores | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s NB Publishers said on Friday it had received a letter from the State Security Agency (SSA) ordering it to pull a new book on President Jacob Zuma off the shelves as it contravened the Intelligence Service Act. The publishers said they stood by The President s Keepers - Those keeping Zuma in power and out of prison , and its lawyers would respond to the letter sent by the SSA. The book by journalist Jacques Pauw alleges millions of dollars in taxpayers money flowed into the bank accounts of spies and Zuma s government and details the actions of law-enforcement agencies. It alleges Zuma failed to submit tax returns for the first five years of his presidency. The president s office has issued a statement rejecting the accusations contained in the book, adding that Zuma had declared all income received to tax authorities. The SSA warns NB Publishers in a letter seen by Reuters that it will launch criminal charges if the book is not withdrawn. Noting your admission that you did not seek the views of the people apparently implicated, it is not surprising that this book is replete with inaccuracies, the SSA said in the letter sent to NB Publishers by its lawyers Kgoroeadira Mudau Inc. The letter said the book contained elements in contravention of the country s Intelligence Service Act. No SSA spokesperson was available for further comment. A spokeswoman for NB publishers said its lawyers were handling the matter. We have received the letter but have not pulled the book yet because our attorneys have been given time to respond, Jean Pieters, NB Publisher s spokeswoman said. | 0fake |
Republicans seek to question FBI officials in Clinton probe: letter | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Republican lawmakers told the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday that they want to question three senior FBI officials about an investigation of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified information while she was secretary of state. The lawmakers, who are leading a joint probe into the Clinton investigation, said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, that they wanted to speak with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI Chief of Staff Jim Rybicki and FBI counsel Lisa Page beginning on Thursday. The FBI declined to comment on the letter and referred reporters to the Justice Department. The request to meet the FBI officials for “transcribed interviews” was made after Republicans obtained more than 300 text messages sent last year between Page and FBI agent Peter Strzok critical of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The text messages called him an “idiot” and “a loathsome human,” among other things, according to copies reviewed by Reuters. Strzok later worked for Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the U.S. election and ties between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Moscow denies U.S. allegations of election meddling and Trump denies any campaign collusion. Strzok, who helped lead the investigation of Clinton’s handling of classified material, was removed from Mueller’s team after the special counsel became aware of the texts critical of Trump. Republican lawmakers have attacked Mueller, expressing concern about potential bias among his investigators. But Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has testified to lawmakers that he was “not aware” of any impropriety by Mueller’s team. Representative Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, are conducting a joint review of the FBI’s handling of the Clinton investigation. In their letter to Sessions and Rosenstein, they said they were looking into several decisions by the FBI during the Clinton investigation, including then-FBI Director James Comey’s decision not refer Clinton’s case for prosecution. | 0fake |
U.S. officials step up rhetoric on Russia link to email hacks | (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said on Sunday that evidence implicated Russia in recent email hacks tied to the Nov. 8 U.S. election, contradicting his running mate, Donald Trump, who has cast doubt on Russia’s involvement. Pence’s comments came after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview that aired on Sunday that the United States would be sending a message to Russia “at the time of our choosing” about the email attacks. Obama administration officials initially refused to say if they thought Russia was behind the attacks, before accusing Moscow for the first time earlier this month. President Barack Obama said in an interview with NBC News that “anything’s possible” when asked if Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee. “What we do know is the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems, but private systems,” Obama said. “But what the motives were in terms of the leaks and all that, I can’t say directly, but what I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, speaking about the hack of the DNC emails, said the U.S. intelligence community was not ready to “make the call on attribution” as to who was responsible. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson offered state officials help from hacking threats or other possible election tampering, in the face of unsubstantiated allegations by Trump that the system is open to fraud. Speaking at a conference in Washington, Clapper said that “the Russians hack our systems all the time,” but he did not officially blame them for the intrusions into Democratic Party organizations. During a live interview with the Washington Post, Clapper said Russia had a tradition of trying to interfere in elections in other countries. He added that his biggest concern was not that a foreign power would try to affect the outcome of the U.S. election but instead “cast doubt on the whole process.” The U.S. government for the first time formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the Obama administration said in a statement. Biden said in an interview with NBC News that the United States would send a “proportional” response to Russia for the hacking “at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact.” | 0fake |
With No Deal on New Jersey Gas Tax, Christie Orders Shutdown of Road Projects - The New York Times | For months, Gov. Chris Christie had said that New Jersey’s transportation funding was not in a crisis, even as the state inched closer toward exhausting its principal fund for roads, bridges and mass transit. But after Mr. Christie embraced plans this week to raise the state’s gas tax, and the State Senate balked at the proposed Mr. Christie quickly changed his tune. Shortly after 11 p. m. on Thursday, Mr. Christie declared a state of emergency and moved to shut down most road work. Allowing the transportation fund to go broke would be “disastrous” and jeopardize people’s safety, Mr. Christie said in an executive order. By raising the prospect of potholes going unfixed and construction workers being laid off, Mr. Christie ratcheted up the pressure on state lawmakers to reach an agreement. But his sudden turnabout stunned politicians and interest groups in the state. The governor directed the state transportation commissioner and the executive director of New Jersey Transit to submit plans by Saturday night for an “immediate and orderly shutdown” of most work funded by the state transportation trust fund. Any work that is federally funded or necessary for safety reasons could continue, Mr. Christie said. Mr. Christie, a Republican, had reached a deal with the State Assembly earlier in the week to raise the state’s gas tax in exchange for lowering the sales tax. But on Thursday, Democratic leaders in the State Senate said they could not support the agreement because it would harm the state budget. State transportation officials said that orders were unlikely to go into effect quickly enough to affect the Fourth of July weekend and that such work was rarely scheduled for holiday weekends. Still, concerns over snarled traffic could cause some people to think twice about using the roads, said Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University who had been closely watching the debate over transportation funding. “Even if the average New Jerseyan doesn’t see this over the weekend, there is an element of uncertainty that is damaging to the state,” she said. The surprise order came as Mr. Christie was being vetted as a possible running mate for Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Mr. Christie had agreed to support a increase in exchange for lowering the state sales tax to 6 percent from 7 percent by 2018. Lowering the sales tax would cut revenue by about $1. 7 billion each year after it is fully implemented, while the changes to the gas tax would increase revenue by about $1. 1 billion each year, according to the state’s Office of Legislative Services. On Thursday night, Mr. Christie rebuked Senate leaders for failing to approve the legislation. The transportation trust fund is expected to run out of money by August, the executive order said. State Senate leaders favor an earlier plan supported by some lawmakers in both houses to raise the gas tax and phase out the estate tax. Under both proposals, the gas tax would rise by about 23 cents per gallon. Mr. Christie’s decision could intensify political pressure on the Senate president, Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat who has close ties to labor unions and may run for governor next year. “You can bet that organized labor and all of the associated businesses will be putting pressure on Sweeney to compromise in some way,” Professor Harrison said. On Friday, Mr. Sweeney said in a statement that he was disappointed by the governor’s decision and that it would lead to layoffs. It was unclear when lawmakers might return to Trenton to address transportation funding Vincent Prieto, the Assembly speaker, said negotiations could resume during the second week of July. Mr. Christie is expected to attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, which starts on July 18. For years, lawmakers and transit advocates have raised alarm about the need for a new source of funding for the state’s roads, bridges and transit system. But Mr. Christie, who ended his presidential campaign this year, was reluctant to raise taxes and said the funding was not in crisis. New Jersey’s gas tax is the second lowest in the country, at 14. 5 cents per gallon. Both proposals would raise it to about 37. 5 cents per gallon, still less than New York State’s gas tax. On Friday, Mr. Prieto said the Assembly was willing to compromise with the Senate on the legislation. “We all know we need a transportation funding plan the governor will sign and we need it as soon as possible,” Mr. Prieto, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This is too important for jobs — especially in our construction industry — and our economy to allow this to continue. ” | 0fake |
Israel settlements legal, Trump aide says, playing anti-Iran video message on Mount Zion | Politics Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the US 2016 presidential election
GOP nominee Donald Trump does not believe that settlements built by the Zionist regime of Israel in Palestine are illegal, his advisor on Israel says.
David Friedman, who was campaigning for the New York billionaire at a restaurant on Mount Zion (Jabel Sahyoun) in East Jerusalem al-Quds, made the comments to AFP after the Wednesday rally.
"I don't think he believes that the settlements are illegal," Friedman said.
He also said the former reality TV star is "tremendously skeptical" about the so-called two-state solution, promoted by the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama during his eight years in office, but to no avail. David Friedman (L) exiting the Federal Building with Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump, (R) following their appearance in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey, February 25, 2010. (Photo via Bloomberg News)
The Obama administration has already voiced criticism over Tel Aviv’s expansionist policies, considered illegal by the international community.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. A Palestinian man searches through his belongings after his family home was demolished by Israelis in Beit Hanina, near the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo (background) in EAst Jerusalm al-Quds, on October 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
All Israeli settlements are illegal under the international law. Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop the settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Guaranteeing enmity with Tehran
Some 150 people, including extremist Israelis and evangelical Christians, took part in the Trump rally in on Wednesday.
Friedman echoed previous remarks by Trump, saying the real estate mogul would recognize East Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel if he wins the White House in the US 2016 presidential election.
A short video message by Trump was also played at the event, in which he said, "Together we will stand up to the enemies like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people," Trump said. "Together we will make America and Israel safe again."
According to leaked emails from March 2015 by former US secretary of state Colin Powell, the regime has pointed 200 nuclear weapons at the Iranian capital. Loading ... | 1real |
FLASHBACK: MALCOLM X On Blacks Who Keep Voting For Democrats Who Lie To Them: You’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race” | The Democrats have been in Washington DC only because of the negro vote. You put them first, and they put you last. Because you re a chump. A political chump. Malcolm XIf Malcolm X were alive today, how would he feel about our first Black President ? How would he feel about Obama encouraging millions of illegal aliens and refugees to come to America and take the jobs of millions of unemployed Americans struggling to find work? The truth of the matter is, Obama will go down as the worst President in history for Blacks in America. While we definitely don t agree with some of the positions Malcolm X took, we do agree that the Democrats have been selling the black community a bill of goods for decades. Perhaps it s time to get off the Democrat Plantation and vote for a candidate who genuinely wants to put every unemployed black citizens back to work. Perhaps its time for someone with no political ties to come in and clean Obama s corrupted house. Larry Elder had a fascinating column discussing Malcolm X and how he really felt about the Democratic Party and black people who voted in lockstep with this party. He even goes on to show how the Democrats have continued to destroy almost every aspect of the black family and how their policies are exactly against what Malcolm X had been advocating.Back in 1964, the black community gave 80 percent of their vote to the Democratic Party. As a result of this, Malcolm X called them political chumps. Why? Because the black community had been betrayed by the Democrats. The white vote was so close that they always need to go back and recount, which means that if black people were to stick together, they have the power of determining who is ultimately elected. Still, the Democrats failed to deliver on a promised civil rights bill because they correctly anticipated that they could still count on the black vote and their blind support in the next election.https://youtu.be/7BYVv4LY_KQStrong words indeed. But it also begs the question of what would Malcolm X think about the situation today? Today, it is even worse, with about 90 to 95 percent of the black vote being in lockstep with the Democratic Party. Yet, the Democrats have not kept their promises of family stability, education, and job creation.Over the last 50 years, the black community and its family unity has been completely destroyed. Even when slavery prevented marriage, a black child was more likely to be raised in a home with their biological mother and father than today. According to economist Walter Williams, during the period of 1890-1940 a black child was slightly more likely to grow up with married parents than a white child.Back in 1965, 24 percent of black babies were born to unmarried mothers. Then, the War on Poverty began and today this number is up to 72 percent. Interesting to see that the more money we supposedly threw at helping the black family, the worse things have become. Plus, it has not helped to reduce the rate of poverty, either. Since 1965 the government has spent nearly $20 trillion fighting poverty. When this started, the poverty rate was 17 percent. After this spending started, the rate began to flat line (it had been consistently going down since 1949 before this) because people learned that they could marry the government and that men could abandon their financial and moral responsibility.Malcolm X was also fond of pointing out how he learned from a good library. Wonder how he would feel today about the Democratic opposition to school vouchers, allowing money to follow the student rather than the school? Urban schools, with predominantly black students, have unquestionably failed. They continue churning out kids who cannot read, write, and compute. The drop out rate approaches 50 percent in some districts. Teachers even send their own kids to private schools.Plus, there is 14 percent black unemployment thanks to our wonderful community organizer in chief. Heck, Emanuel Cleaver (Dem, MO), former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, has admitted that if this had happened under a white president, there would be hell to pay but Obama knows that blacks are going to show him more slack since he black himself.All of this is interesting to think about. It shows us just exactly what the Democrats really think of the black community. They have never been about actually doing something to help and improve the lives of their constituents. Rather, they are only focused on increasing their power. Starting with Kennedy and LBJ, the whole idea was to trap the black vote in a cycle of dependence so that they would need to rely on the government for everything. DownTrend | 1real |
Comment on Hillary Clinton failed to disclose $400,000 in pricey presents, private jets and vacations gifted to Bill by Hillary Clinton failed to disclose $400,000 in pricey presents, private jets and vacations gifted to Bill — Fellowship of the Minds | kommonsentsjane | DCG | 2 Comments
Rules are for little people.
From Daily Mail : Hillary Clinton did not disclose ‘expensive gifts,’ free vacations, and complimentary private jet travel her family received from business interests while she was at the State Department, according to leaked emails and federal disclosure records reviewed by the DailyMail.com.
Long-time Clinton aide Doug Band claimed in a confidential 2011 memo published by Wikileaks this week that he helped obtain free vacations and personal travel for Bill Clinton and his family as part of his duties.
During Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, she did not report any gifts or travel reimbursements for herself or her spouse in her financial disclosure filings.
‘In support of the President’s for-profit activity, we also have solicited and obtained, as appropriate, in-kind services for the President and his family – for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like,’ wrote Band in the Nov. 16, 2011 memo to attorneys conducting an internal review of the Clinton Foundation.
He added that his job involved ‘supporting [Bill Clinton’s] family/personal needs (e.g., securing in-kind private airplane travel, in-kind vacation stays, and supporting family business and personal needs).’
The memo did not say whether Hillary Clinton was one of Bill Clinton’s family members who received vacations, gifts, or personal travel. Band did not respond to request for comment.
In November 2011, according to the memo, the telecommunications company Ericsson agreed to give Bill Clinton $400,000 in private plane travel. The company also paid the former president an additional $750,000 to speak at its conference that month in Hong Kong.
It was the largest speaking fee Bill Clinton had received up until that point, and with the added plane fare, the payment reached well over $1 million.
Although Hillary Clinton reported in her disclosure filings that her husband received a $750,000 honorarium for the speech, she did not disclose the additional $400,000 in private plane expenses from Ericsson in the spousal income or gifts and reimbursements sections .
In another Nov. 17, 2011 email, Band complained that Bill Clinton was not required to submit an internal conflict-of-interest disclosure form – unlike other top officials at the Clinton Global Initiative – despite the fact that the former president received ‘expensive gifts’ for his home from CGI sponsors . Bill Clinton and Doug Band
Bill Clinton ‘does not have to sign such a document even though he is personally paid by 3 CGI sponsors, gets many expensive gifts from them, some that are at home etc,’ wrote Band.
Hillary Clinton did not disclose any gift or travel expenses that she or her husband received while at the State Department. The federal disclosure form requires officials to report gifts to themselves or a spouse totalling more than $350 from a single source, such as ‘tangible items, transportation, lodging, food, or entertainment’ and ‘travel-related cash reimbursements.’
However, a federal official does not have to disclose gifts to a spouse that are ‘totally independent of their relationship’ – for example, business-related benefits that a spouse receives from his employer. While many of the companies involved in CGI and Bill Clinton’s for-profit business had interests before the State Department, government ethics experts said it can be difficult to determine whether a gift to a public official’s spouse is connected to their relationship .
It is also unclear whether Hillary Clinton travelled on any of these ‘personal trips’ and ‘in-kind vacations,’ which Band wrote were given to Bill Clinton’s ‘family.’ The Clintons have a 36-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who is also involved in the Clinton Foundation.
A spokesperson for Clinton’s campaign did not respond to request for comment.
According to the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, failure to report certain gifts in a financial disclosure form could violate the Ethics in Government Act or the Federal False Statements Act.
Federal laws ‘require full disclosure of such expensive gifts and reimbursements when special interests use a spouse to target a government official,’ said Ken Boehm, chairman of the NLPC.
‘The just-disclosed emails of Clinton associate Doug Band that Bill Clinton and his family members benefitted from hundreds of thousands of dollars in free travel and gifts from special interests while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State raises substantial ethical and legal issues because the Financial Disclosure reports filed by Secretary Clinton does not show these expensive gifts and reimbursements,’ said Boehm.
DCG | 1real |
BOMBSHELL: President Carter Banned Iranians From America During Hostage Crisis | Thanks to Daniel Greenfield for digging up this bombshell of a fact: Carter did what Trump just announced he d like to do. This reminds us all (I hope) that we ve been doing this Muslim terrorism thing for waaay too long! It s been decades of dealing with this barbaric behavior and hate. If you ve never seen ARGO , please make time to watch it! It s a really great flashback of terrorism in the 70 s but we re STILL dealing with this evil remember Benghazi? Here s a trailer from the movie about the hostage crisis in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter: So who s the Hitler now? The name calling has been so over the top against Trump that it s almost embarrassing. The RINO Republicans (Lindsey Graham) and liberal press (Shepard Smith) were absolutely ridiculous! Take the emotion out of this and look at the facts!During the Iranian hostage crisis, Carter issued a number of orders to put pressure on Iran. Among these, Iranians were banned from entering the United States unless they oppose the Shiite Islamist regime or had a medical emergency.Here s Jimmy Hitler Carter saying it back in 1980.Fourth, the Secretary of Treasury [State] and the Attorney General will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly.Apparently barring people from a terrorist country is not against our values after all. It may even be who we are . Either that or Carter was a racist monster just like Trump.Meanwhile here s how the Iranian students in the US were treated.Carter orders 50,000 Iranian students in US to report to immigration office with view to deporting those in violation of their visas. On 27 December 1979, US appeals court allows deportation of Iranian students found in violation.In November 1979, the Attorney General had given all Iranian students one month to report to the local immigration office. Around 7,000 were found in violation of their visas. Around 15,000 Iranians were forced to leave the US.Meanwhile any Iranians entering the US were forced to undergo secondary screening.Interestingly enough, Carter did this by invoking the Nationality Act of 1952. A law originally opposed by Democrats for its attempt to restrict Communist immigration to the United States. If this oasis of the world should be overrun, perverted, contaminated, or destroyed, then the last flickering light of humanity will be extinguished, Senator McCarran said of the law. He was a Democrat.Now unlike Muslims, Iranians were not necessarily supportive of Islamic terrorism. Many were and are opponents of it. Khomeini didn t represent Iran as a country, but his Islamist allies. So Trump s proposal is far more legitimate than Carter s action. Carter targeted people by nationality. Trump s proposal does so by ideology.Read more: FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE | 1real |
UK's Johnson vows no stone unturned to free aid worker jailed in Iran | LONDON (Reuters) - Foreign minister Boris Johnson said Britain would appeal to Iran on humanitarian grounds to free a jailed aid worker but expressed reservations that granting her diplomatic protection would help secure her release, her husband said on Wednesday. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges. Johnson came under pressure to resign after comments he made earlier this month that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016. Critics said the comments might have prompted Iran to extend her sentence and he apologized for his remarks on Monday. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been on holiday and had not been teaching journalism in Iran. On Wednesday, Johnson met her husband Richard Ratcliffe and told him Britain would leave no stone unturned in its bid to free her, saying the British ambassador in Tehran had earlier raised her case again with the Iranian authorities. Johnson also stressed the importance of an appeal on humanitarian grounds, Ratcliffe told reporters, saying it had been a positive meeting. But officials had questioned whether it would help to grant his wife diplomatic protection - a move that would explicitly make Zaghari-Ratcliffe s fate an issue in state-to-state relations rather than a purely consular case. A legal opinion prepared for the human rights charity Redress on Zaghari-Ratcliffe s case said the British government could grant her diplomatic protection as she is predominantly a British citizen who has been denied a fair trial. I said I thought it would be important and helpful ... The foreign secretary and the Foreign Office expressed reservations, Ratcliffe said. The Foreign Office said lawyers would meet in the next fortnight to discuss the issue further. Iran s state news agency IRNA also signaled such a move could backfire, citing comments by an unidentified international law expert. In Iran s view, Zaghari is an Iranian citizen, and was tried, due to her illegal actions, and convicted in Iranian courts; and now she is serving her sentence, it quoted the expert as saying. Hence the UK s interference, other than through peaceful paths and humanitarian issues, is considered an intervention in Iran, and will (naturally) trigger Iran s severe reaction. Ratcliffe said Johnson was keen to take him on a trip to Iran planned before the end of the year, which could allow him to see his wife and three-year-old daughter, who is being cared for by relatives in Iran, for the first time in 19 months. For me it s very important to be going on that trip, to be standing alongside the foreign secretary and I understand that s a big ask. It s reasonably unprecedented, but I think it s important in our circumstances, he said. Ratcliffe, who said his wife appeared to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown and was due to have further tests after finding lumps on her breasts, said he thought she was being used as a diplomatic bargaining chip. There are fights that are nothing to do with us ... We re being used as a vehicle for those fights, he said. | 0fake |
People excited about Christmas adverts told about rest of human culture | People excited about Christmas adverts told about rest of human culture 08-11-16 PEOPLE who cannot wait for big shops’ new Christmas TV adverts have been told about books, films and art. Amid growing anticipation about whether the John Lewis advert will feature a lovelorn reindeer or a sad robin, people who love cloying corporate sentimentality have been informed about humanity’s other cultural output. Professor Henry Brubaker of the Institute for Studies said: “For many centuries before high street shops started creating 30-second seasonal narratives to sell jumpers, mankind has been telling stories. “These stories were written down in books, which are stored in libraries or on bookshelves. Some of them are pretty good. “Museums are another good starting point for learning about the things humanity has created that do not involve an animated creature breathing on a window and then drawing a heart in the steam. “Fuck it, even Netflix has some good stuff on it.” Mother-of-two Nikki Hollis said: “I actually tried to get the book version of the last John Lewis advert but apparently it doesn’t exist. “I hope the new one is about an otter who falls in love with Rita Ora and they have little half-human festive otter pups. Then they all go up in a balloon.”
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NEW WIKILEAK : Top Clinton Operative Believes “BLACK VOTERS ARE STUPID” – TruthFeed | NEW WIKILEAK : Top Clinton Operative Believes “BLACK VOTERS ARE STUPID” NEW WIKILEAK : Top Clinton Operative Believes “BLACK VOTERS ARE STUPID” Videos By TruthFeedNews November 2, 2016
A new email released as part of the Wikileaks Podesta dump features Clinton ally Brent Budowsky exposing Hillary operative David Brock of having a plan that relied upon black voters being “stupid.”
Why is their ZERO reporting of this on mainstream news?
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Organizer Calls Berkeley Riot ’Stunningly Successful,’ Warns Repeat if MILO Returns - Breitbart | An organizer for the group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) declared the riot against Breitbart Senior Editor MILO in Berkeley last week to be “stunningly successful” before warning that his group would respond again should MILO return to the college. [“We are happy with the results,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports Ronald Cruz, a former student at the college, told them. “We were able to meet Mr. Yiannopoulos’ fascist message with massive resistance. ” He went on to proclaim that his group and others “were united in shutting down the Milo event,” adding, “Everyone played a part. ” “Some engaged in breaking windows — others held signs and made sure that the fascists and the police did not attack anyone,” he explained. “This was . Windows can be replaced. People can’t be. ” After being made aware that the Berkeley College Republicans were attempting to invite MILO back to deliver his speech, which was shut down before it started after protesters set fires around the school, smashed windows, and stormed the venue, Cruz warned that his group would take action again if necessary. “I would be surprised if he tries to after his humiliating defeat,” he declared. “But if he wants to be defeated again, he will be if he tries. ” This week, another BAMN organizer proclaimed she had “no regrets” about the violent protest that took place last week. “ ” started several fires, smashed windows and ATMs, looted downtown stores, attacked cars, and assaulted dozens of MILO fans, male and female, who they falsely accused of being “Nazis. ” The San Francisco Chronicle reported that rioters caused around $100, 000 in damages at UC Berkeley, while the damage to downtown Berkeley was reported to be around $400, 000 to $500, 000. The day after, MILO’s tour bus was tracked down by “ ” and vandalized, forcing both him and his team to evacuate the premises after his location was leaked online. Despite a large amount of violence, only one suspect was arrested. By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) previously distributed flyers in Michigan likening MILO to Adolf Hitler and falsely stating that he “promotes” rape and violence. The extreme group have previously been involved in several violent riots and conflicts with law enforcement, and have also been alleged to have links with various terrorist organizations. Following the riot in Berkeley, Mayor Jesse Arreguin repeatedly smeared MILO as a “white nationalist” and declared that he would not be welcome back in the city, while several celebrities and news outlets expressed support for the riot, including Hollywood director Judd Apatow, who deleted his tweet shortly after, and Fusion, who smeared MILO as a “Nazi” and praised rioters before also deleting their tweet. UC Berkeley’s student newspaper also published several defenses of the violence that took place during MILO’s show last week, while UC Berkeley themselves have repeatedly spread a conspiracy theory claiming Breitbart News were “in cahoots” with rioters in an attempt to get the college defunded. Four were arrested last week after they became violent during a protest against libertarian commentator and VICE Gavin McInnes, who was speaking at New York University. DANGEROUS is available to now via Amazon, in hardcover and Kindle editions. And yes, MILO is reading the audiobook version himself! Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0fake |
Last Islamic State town in Syria falls to army: commander | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria s army and allies including Lebanon s Hezbollah have captured the last major Islamic State-held town in Syria, a commander in the military alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday. The commander added that Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces also took part in the capture of Albu Kamal, located in Syria near the Iraqi border on the Euphrates river. | 0fake |
Trump says options for dealing with North Korea are 'overwhelming' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday following the latest missile launch by North Korea that he is more confident than ever that our options in addressing this threat are both effective and overwhelming. Speaking to a group that included military personnel at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, Trump said North Korea has once again shown its utter contempt for its neighbors and for the entire world community. | 0fake |
Trump's Fed nominee has history of benefiting from bailouts | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s pick to lead bank supervision at the Federal Reserve benefited from the government bailing out or rescuing two banks during the 2008 financial crisis, but that may not prevent his confirmation by a U.S. Senate controlled by a business-friendly Republican party, policy analysts told Reuters in recent days. Randal Quarles, a former Wall Street lawyer and U.S. Treasury official who now runs an investment firm, was part of a team that invested in troubled or failed banks while he was an executive at private-equity firm Carlyle Group LP (CG.O). Those investments earned hundreds of millions of dollars for Carlyle, profits that would not have been possible without government support. A spokesman for Quarles did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Carlyle declined to comment. Democrats including Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown have said they intend to scrutinize Quarles’ ties to Wall Street during his confirmation hearing. Senator Elizabeth Warren described him as “straight off the Wall Street assembly line” in announcing her opposition in a statement. But both the White House and Congress are controlled by Republicans, who have the ability to approve Trump’s nominees with a simple majority after Senate rules were changed in 2013. Under previous rules, the party in power would have needed at least 60 votes. Quarles is viewed by many policy analysts as a business-friendly pick who benefits from having experience in the federal government and his business ties are unlikely to be viewed by senior senators his Wall Street ties as a handicap. “Profiting in the markets isn’t a scarlet letter in this Congress,” said Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at Compass Point Trading & Research LLC, in Washington. Before launching The Cynosure Group in 2014, Quarles was a partner and managing director at Carlyle. While there, he played a key role in making a $75 million investment in Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc (BPFH.O), and was also part of a group that decided to jointly acquire failed lender BankUnited Inc (BKU.N) from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), alongside private equity peers Blackstone Group LP (BX.N), Centerbridge Partners LP and WL Ross & Co, as well as banker John Kanas. Months after Carlyle’s equity infusion, Boston Private received a $150 million bailout from the Treasury Department, which it later repaid. Those taxpayer funds helped the firm weather the financial crisis, and allowed Carlyle to sell off its stake over time for a total of $150 million, effectively doubling its money, according to a Reuters review of share sales the firm disclosed in regulatory filings. The FDIC had absorbed BankUnited’s losses at an estimated cost of $4.9 billion before selling healthier assets to the private equity consortium for $945 million. BankUnited later went public, with Carlyle selling shares worth around $428 million in portions through 2014, according to Reuters’ analysis of its disclosures. The tallies do not account for dividends or other undisclosed costs. Carlyle would not provide precise numbers for returns on those investments. Involvement with taxpayer bailouts helped sink the earlier nomination of General Electric Co (GE.N) executive David Nason for the Federal Reserve supervisory position. Nason withdrew from vetting after Republicans criticized him for having structured the bailout program inside the Treasury Department during the Bush administration. But Wilbur Ross, whose WL Ross & Co was part of the consortium that invested in BankUnited alongside Carlyle, successfully became U.S. Commerce Secretary. Quarles’ history on Wall Street may be a talking point during his confirmation hearings, but it is unlikely to bring down his nomination, lobbyists and financial regulatory lawyers said. “At the end of the day, it’s really a ‘nothingburger,’” said Bob Kurucza, a partner in Goodwin Procter’s financial industry and investment management practice. | 0fake |
Merkel says G20 communique makes differences with U.S. on climate clear | HAMBURG (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she was pleased that all Group of 20 members besides the United States had agreed in a communique that the Paris climate accord was irreversible. “I think it’s very clear that we could not reach consensus, but the differences were not papered over, they were clearly stated,” Merkel told reporters at the end of the two-day meeting. She said she did not share the view of British Prime Minister Theresa May who said on Friday that she thought Washington could decide to return to the climate agreement. Merkel sharply condemned what she described as the “unbridled brutality” exhibited by some protesters in the northern city of Hamburg after violent clashes injured hundreds of police officers. | 0fake |
Why Obama is changing tune on pulling troops from Afghanistan | The White House has revised existing plans to withdraw the majority of troops from Afghanistan by the end of the Obama administration.
Uber in court: Is it a digital service, or an unlicensed taxi company?
Uber in court: Is it a digital service, or an unlicensed taxi company?
Why are authorities slow to call the Ohio State attack 'terrorism'?
President Obama returns a salute prior to boarding Air Force One before his departure from Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Oct. 9. Obama will keep 5,500 US troops in Afghanistan when he leaves office in 2017, according to senior administration officials.
President Obama will announce Thursday plans to slow efforts to bring US troops home from Afghanistan, and instead maintain the current level of 9,800 through much of 2016 before attempting another drawdown effort, senior administration officials said.
"Our mission won't change," an official told Reuters.
US troops will keep training and providing oversight to Afghan forces, while working to prevent Al Qaeda from threatening US security, the officials said.
The Obama administration originally aimed to bring all but a force of about 1,000 troops for American embassy officials' security based in Kabul before leaving office in January 2017. Officials are now saying troops will be brought down to 5,500 starting sometime in 2017, under a new administration, and based out of the cities of Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad, and Kandahar.
Maintaining a presence of 5,500 troops in four places will cost about $14.6 billion per year, a marked increase over the original plan to keep a smaller force at the Kabul embassy for an estimated $10 billion, the official said.
The decision involved months of negotiations between Washington, Afghan leaders, and commanders in the field about how to support Afghan forces, senior US administration officials said.
At the end of 2014, Obama announced an end to the combat mission in Afghanistan, which spanned 13 years following 9/11. Since that proclamation, Afghan troops – supported by US and NATO forces – have led national security for the country.
But late last month, Taliban militants overtook the northern city of Kunduz. For 15 days insurgents sent civilians fleeing their homes, destroyed government buildings, freed prisoners, and hunted officials. The city siege was the first since US troops have been engaged in Afghanistan, and signaled that Afghan security forces are not well equipped to handle the Taliban on its own.
"Certainly we're watching and seeing how the Afghan security forces engage quite tenaciously in the fight in Kunduz," an official told Reuters.
NATO allies are also considering a continued presence, the official said. More than 6,000 non-US forces are now in Afghanistan as part of the "Resolute Support" mission.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah have advocated for a continued US military presence and last March discussed a slowed-down timeline with US military and administration officials while on a visit to the White House, according to officials.
"The Afghan government is very comfortable with this commitment. They've been indicating a desire for this commitment for some time," an official told Reuters.
This report contains material from Reuters and The Associated Press. | 0fake |
Gupta emails still under investigation: top South Africa prosecutor | CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa s top prosecutor said police were still examining a trove of leaked documents detailing relations between the wealthy Gupta family and President Jacob Zuma, but it was too early to say if a prosecution should be launched. Wednesday s comments to lawmakers by Shaun Abrahams were the first time the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has spoken publicly about the Gupta case. The leaked emails need to be investigated, Abrahams told a parliamentary committee in response to a question on whether his department had taken a position on the matter. How can you make a determination on its admissibility if that (police) investigation is still ongoing? , he said. The elite Hawks police unit, which probes organized and commercial crime and major corruption, is investigating the Gupta allegations, NPA officials told a parliamentary briefing. Under the South African system, police investigate a case and then send a report to the NPA, which decides whether to take the case further. Senior ANC members and the opposition accuse the brothers of using their relationship with Zuma to wield influence and win government contracts, allegations that in part stem from a trove of 100,000 documents and emails leaked to reporters. The Gupta family of Indian-born businessmen were not immediately available for comment on Abraham s remarks. The brothers, who own a computer business and uranium mine, have previously denied any wrongdoing. Atul Gupta, one of three Gupta brothers, said last month that the emails were fake. Zuma has also denied any wrongdoing but his relationship with the Guptas has deepened a divide within his ruling African National Congress ahead of a conference in December where Zuma s successor as party leader - and therefore president - will be chosen. Zuma survived a no-confidence motion in August. He can remain president until a 2019 election but some opposition politicians have demanded he resign over material in the leaked emails. | 0fake |
Obama plans up to 18 more Guantanamo prisoner transfers before leaving office: source | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to transfer as many as 18 more prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison before leaving office, a source close to the matter said, further shrinking the inmate population but still far short of meeting his longtime pledge to close the facility. The Obama administration notified Congress it intends to send the detainees, nearly a third of the remaining 59 held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, the source said. The notification came just before this week’s deadline, which by law requires Obama to give Congress 30 days’ warning before moving prisoners out of Guantanamo. It will be the last in a flurry of recent transfers aimed at leaving as few inmates as possible for the next administration. But the transfer plan – first reported by the New York Times - also signifies that despite Obama’s pledge dating back to the 2008 presidential campaign to close the facility, it is all but certain to be turned over to Trump. He has vowed to keep it open and “load it up with some bad dudes.” The administration wants to move out 17 or 18 of the 22 prisoners who have been declared eligible for transfer in parole-style hearings, the source said, while cautioning that it was still possible one or more of the countries could back out. If the transfers go according to plan, 41 or 42 prisoners would be left at Guantanamo, including 10 alleged plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks charged in military tribunals. The others have not been charged but are deemed too dangerous to release. The White House and Pentagon declined to comment. Obama, who inherited 242 detainees when he took office and has called it a “recruiting tool” for terrorists, has slowly whittled the number down to the lowest since shortly after his predecessor George W. Bush opened the facility to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the Sept. 11 attacks. Under Bush, the prison came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Obama’s efforts to close the prison have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the U.S. mainland. Foot-dragging by Pentagon officials has also been blamed for slowing repatriation and transfers to third countries. Administration officials have made clear that Obama has no intention of resorting to the legally risky option of using executive action to close the prison before leaving office. Critics of Guantanamo, however, appeared to hold out hope. “While welcome, these transfers are not nearly sufficient,” said Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA’s director of Security with Human Rights. “We are demanding and expecting bold moves from President Obama to finally shutter the detention camp at Guantanamo in his final days. He must not leave it to Trump.” | 0fake |
Senate Republicans gain moment on tax reform budget measure | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday gained crucial support for a vote on a budget resolution that is vital to President Donald Trump’s hopes of signing sweeping tax reform legislation into law before January. Two Republican lawmakers, once seen as potential ‘no’ votes, said they would likely support the measure. A third, Senator Rand Paul, may vote ‘yes’ depending on what the final resolution looks like. “I am leaning ‘yes’,” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters as the chamber prepared for what is expected to be a late Thursday vote on the fiscal 2018 spending blueprint. Senator Susan Collins of Maine announced on Sunday that she will likely vote ‘yes.’ Both the Senate and House of Representatives must agree on a budget resolution to unlock a legislative tool known as reconciliation that Republicans need to move tax legislation through the Senate without support from Democrats. After failing to overturn Obamacare earlier this year, Republicans must pass legislation to cut taxes for businesses and individuals or face a backlash from their constituents in next year’s congressional midterm election campaign. Though Murkowski said her final decision would depend on what amendments are added to the budget, her qualified support reduces the possibility of failure. Murkowski was one of three Republicans who sank the Senate healthcare bill in July. Paul of Kentucky told reporters there is a possibility he will vote yes. “We’re in discussions on it. We’re trying to get it to a document that we think represents what we stand for,” Paul said. Without a budget and reconciliation, Republicans would need 60 votes in the Senate, where they hold a 52-48 majority. Republicans usually can lose no more than two votes. But with Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi ill, their margin of error for the budget has shrunk to only one “no” vote. Earlier, the White House released a report saying middle-class Americans would eventually see their incomes rise more than $4,000 from the Trump plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. Democrats have lambasted the Trump tax plan as a giveaway for the wealthy. Trump fired back in a separate tweet on Monday: “The Democrats only want to increase taxes and obstruct. That’s all they are good at!” | 0fake |
Donald Trump Owes HUNDREDS Of Ordinary People Money | A new report reveals that Donald Trump swindled hundreds of people out of money. These aren t super rich investors (though he was involved in ventures that lost them money, too) but ordinary Americans who worked as carpenters, dishwashers, painters, even his own lawyers. They did work for Trump and he didn t pay them.USA Today uncovered Trump s big dodge while investigating the thousands of lawsuits he is involved in.Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will protect your job. But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.Trump has portrayed himself when not bashing immigrants, women and Muslims as a friend of the working class, arguing that he will turn the Republican Party into a worker s party. USA Today also found that Trump s companies have been cited at least 24 times since 2005 for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage. There also over 200 mechanic s liens that have been filed against Trump, his companies, or his properties, showing that he still owes money for work, some dating as far back in the 1980s.But his track record shows once again that Trump is a really rich guy (though probably not actually a billionaire) who didn t think twice of stepping on the little guy so he could get what he wants.In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources.You can t make America great again if you re hurting it now.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
Five Kenyans killed by mobs for looting in opposition processions: police | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s police service said five people were killed by mobs on Friday for looting during unauthorized processions called to welcome opposition leader Raila Odinga back to the country after a trip abroad. Reuters photographers had earlier counted two bodies with gunshot wounds sustained in the violence as police tried to disperse Odinga s supporters who walked alongside his convoy from the airport. | 0fake |
Trump Now Praises Poll That He Said Were Rigged Now that He's Up 2 Points In Florida? | Trump Now Praises Poll That He Said Were Rigged Now that He's Up 2 Points In Florida? And so will you lemmings. Anonymous Coward Re: Trump Now Praises Poll That He Said Were Rigged Now that He's Up 2 Points In Florida? And so will you lemmings. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 58059507 Report Copyright Violation Re: Trump Now Praises Poll That He Said Were Rigged Now that He's Up 2 Points In Florida? I see London I see France I see Op's underpants not to big and not to small just right for a cannonball Page 1 | 1real |
GROSS! MADONNA OFFERS UP Sexual Services If You Vote For Hillary | [Warning: Story contains graphic language]Pop star Madonna got raunchy while introducing comedian Amy Schumer at a performance in New York City Tuesday night, promising the crowd sexual favors in exchange for their support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. If you vote for Hillary Clinton, I will give you a blowjob. OK? the 58-year-old Rebel Heart singer told an audience at New York s Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. I m really good. I m not a douche, and I m not a tool. I take my time, I have a lot of eye contact, and I do swallow. The comments came as Madonna warmed up the crowd with a very brief standup set ahead of the Trainwreck star s performance at the Garden Tuesday night, according to the New York Daily News.Schumer took the stage afterward for her first stand-up gig since hundreds of supporters of Republican candidate Donald Trump stood up and walked out of her performance in Tampa, Florida earlier this week after the comedian called him an orange monster. As Breitbart previously reported, Shumer was widely booed during the performance at Tampa s Amalie Arena, where she instructed security to remove hecklers.During her performance Tuesday night, Schumer read aloud a letter she composed in response to the Trump fans who walked out on her show in Tampa. Dearest Tampa, I m sorry you didn t want me, a comedian who talks about what she believes in, to mention the biggest thing going on in our country right now, Schumer said, adding: How could I think it was OK to spend five minutes having a peaceful conversation with someone with different views? After the show, I want you to know that I will go straight to a rehab facility. Read more: Breitbart | 1real |
BARACK OBAMA SHOWS HE’S SERIOUS About Fighting Terrorism…Releases Osama Bin Laden’s Bodyguard From Gitmo | Obama doing what Obama does best putting radical Muslims who are a serious threat to our national security back on the battlefield against America The Obama administration has released from the Guantanamo Bay prison an al Qaeda terrorist who served as terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden s personal bodyguard, according to an announcement by the Defense Department.Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi, a top terror operative who had planned to participate in the 9/11 attacks and who received training to be a suicide bomber, was freed from Gitmo and transferred to Montenegro.Al Rahabi is just the latest accused terrorist to be released from prison by the Obama administration as it pursues an end-of-administration effort to clear out Gitmo and shut it down.The release was condemned by some in Congress who have opposed the administration s efforts to shutter Gitmo. The administration is playing Russian roulette with America s safety by releasing 9/11-plotter Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi from Gitmo, Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) said in a statement. Rehab s transfer abroad is all the more alarming after terrorist Ibrahim al-Qosi resurfaced in December 2015 in the Arabian Peninsula as the top recruiter for al Qaeda after being transferred from Gitmo to Sudan. Via: WFB | 1real |
57 Years Later, Even the Library Had Stopped Counting the Fines - The New York Times | In her apartment on the East Side of Manhattan, on a recent Saturday afternoon, Barbara Roston was busy explaining that she was definitely not a thief. “It was a youthful indiscretion,” she said, “I didn’t mean to steal it. ” And yet, there it was, sitting on her desk: A faded green copy of “Gone With the Wind,” by Margaret Mitchell, that belonged to the Brooklyn Public Library. It was 57 years overdue. In her retirement, Ms. Roston, 72, decided to reread the book, which she had kept on her bookshelf for years, when she noticed the library’s markings. On the last page, stuck to the paper pocket, was a sticker explaining the library’s policy: “Give your NEIGHBOR a chance to borrow this book. Return it on or before DUE DATE SHOWN ABOVE. The fee is 5¢ per calendar day for each book kept overdue. ” This volume was due back on Nov. 18, 1959. After 20, 842 days since, Ms. Roston would owe the library $1, 042. 10. Ms. Roston, a Brooklyn native, checked out the book when she was 15. At the time she was a sales audit clerk at Macy’s, making $1 an hour. Since then, she has lived in Massachusetts and Illinois, was married (her first wedding dance was to “Tara’s Theme” from the film version of “Gone With the Wind”) raised four children and got divorced. All the while, the book had been with her. Until that Saturday this month, when she returned it. Ms. Roston is hardly the first New Yorker to have a really, really overdue book. In 2013, a guide to divorce was returned to the New York Public Library 36 years late. That same year, the New York library system received a copy of “The Fire of Francis Xavier,” which had been checked out in 1958. Today, the Brooklyn Public Library charges 15 cents for each day that a piece of print material is overdue. After a patron racks up a $25 balance, and after 60 days, the library may report the borrower to a collections agency. The Crown Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is a squat building topped with a large clock on New York Avenue. When Ms. Roston entered, she grabbed the nearest librarian and began whispering. She slowly pulled the book out of a tote bag. What followed was a lot of hushed giggling. “Oh, wow, this looks like, from a really long time ago,” said Stefanie Sinn, a children’s librarian. “This is, like, a relic. ” “Well, I’m kind of a relic, too,” Ms. Roston said. The book was quickly shuttled to circulation. “We have a return, from the ’50s,” Ms. Sinn said. Fortunately for Ms. Roston, the book was not registered in the library’s computer system, so she did not have to pay a late fee. “I’ve seen books returned late, but never one this old,” said Lisa Rosenblum, the chief librarian of the Brooklyn Public Library, who later said she was delighted to have the book back in the library, “for its geeky, historical perspective. ” “I showed my younger colleagues how you used to have to stamp a card, and what an accession number is,” she said. “They just looked at me blankly. ” For her part, Ms. Roston made a $50 donation to the library. But the book will not be joining the library’s 59 other “Gone With the Wind” copies. It’s too old and fragile. Instead, the library plans to put it on display, Ms. Rosenblum said. “It’s a great reminder that it’s always important to return your books,” she said. “Even 60 years late. ” | 0fake |
Russia or the Neocons: Who endangers American democracy? | OffGuardian | by Vladimir Golstein, via The Duran
Political discourse of American mass media is inundated with another wave of Russophobia and fear mongering. Besides the obvious military threat (Russia’s nuclear arsenal), or the challenges to the US foreign policy (the conflicts in Ukraine or Syria), a new fear has been introduced into the news: the US political system is endangered by Russia’s computer hacking, informational warfare, and its support of Donald Trump.
The newspaper titles sound like a commercial for the upcoming Invasion of the Body Snatchers sequel. The Washingon Post announces: “Russia Is Now a Threat. The US Should Treat It Like One.” Time magazine raises the stakes: “Russia Wants to Undermine Faith in the U.S. Election.”
The Atlantic warns of the “The Dangers of the Putin-Trump relationship,” articulating the already familiar litany of complaints: “Russia is directly interfering in the US elections … it is a dangerous escalation that threatens the integrity of the US electoral process.” While US Today allows notorious neocon named Max Boot to discover not just the threat, but an actual war. His “Time to Get Real About Russia Cyber War,” is rather blunt: “Our democracy is under attack by Russia, but almost no one is treating the situation with the gravity it deserves.”
Well, nobody treats the situation with the gravity it deserves because they are treating it with much greater gravity. In fact, some of the commentators are so grave, that they are ready to give in already. Zack Beauchamp concludes his tirades against Russian hacking in the following manner: “Russia’s strategy is even more dangerous that it appears. Not only does it undermine democracy using the press but it actually gets the press to undermine itself. And there’s not much we can reasonably do about it, either.”
Reading all this, one might think that the former Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal , has been resurrected along with his 1949 battle-cry: “The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming. They’re right around. I’ve seen Russian soldiers.”
What is behind this Russophobia? A real Russian threat? A smokescreen intended to cover failed policies of recent administration? The meeting between the Russophobic minds of a particular candidate (Hillary Clinton) and a particular group of voters (neocons)?
I believe that these Joe McCarthy type accusations against both Russia and Trump seem to pursue only one goal: to give the veneer of respectability to the neocons’ and other Republican luminaries’ desertion of their own party. Thus, endless “confessions” of reformed Republicans and hardcore neocons , expressing their born-again zeal for the Democratic Candidate, Hillary Clinton.
The neocons are not switching parties because they’ve seen the light. They are enamored with Hillary Clinton’s record of foreign policy and her willingness to embrace the US globalist claims. As reported by Rania Khalek in Intercept , Robert Kagan, one of the leading neocons, the co-founder of the notorious PNAC (Project for the New American Century, the blueprint of the recent policies of aggression and regime change intended to cement US hegemony in world affairs), has been on the record for quite some time: “I would say all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump,” Kagan told …at a “ foreign policy professionals for Hillary ” fundraiser… –I would say that a majority of people in my circle will vote for Hillary.”
The neocons are very public about their desertion, and bear it as a badge of honor. Dubious honor, since in their pursuit of an ideal candidate for their agenda, neocons do not just betray their former party, but the very foundations of American democracy: the two party system.
Their desertion reveals that American political system has finally internalized Francis Fukuyama proud words about the end of history. We’ve reached the consensus; there is no need to argue or challenge, history has ended, the truths are revealed and they are now the property of the elites united into one globalist Imperial party bent on equating American prosperity with the American hegemony over world affairs.
To any objective observer it is clear that is not Russia that endangers US democracy but the political corruption, the rule of 1% oligarchy, and mad pursuit of PNAC policies. Even greater danger to democracy lies in the neocons’ desertion to the Hillary camp.
Unsavory as the corporate rule and globalism might be, one can argue for and pursue these goals, provided they leave the room for the alternative vision. It is this neocons’ dismissal of the alternatives that betrays the very foundations of democracy, at least, in the way, a political philosopher Karl Popper formulated them in his celebrated 1945 treatise, Open Society and Its Enemies .
The list of neocons and other prominent Republicans rushing toward one party system has been compiled by Eleanor Clift in Daily Beast at the end of June, and had obviously grown since then. Some of them, Max Boot in particular, are pretty explicit about the reasons for his desertion: in his May 8, 2016, article in LA Times , Boot announces simply that, “The Republican Party is Dead.”
Why? Because it is no longer led by the likes of McCain, Rubio and Romney, for whom Boot served as foreign policy advisor, but by Donald Trump, “the ignorant demagogue” intending to break up “the most successful alliance in history — NATO.” Furthermore, Trump has “kind words for tyrants such as Vladimir Putin.” Indeed, how can anyone in the US political establishment have kind words for Putin? We keep our kind words only for “our SOBs.”
The simplicity if not poverty of this argumentation makes it difficult to distinguish it from exaggerations, simplification, or ignorance, for which neocons consistently fault Trump. But neocons were never friends of irony; otherwise, they would not make statements about NATO’s spectacular success with a straight face.
The alliance that followed every whim of its paranoid members, such as Baltic Republics or Poland, and which intended to drag Ukraine into NATO pushing the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation? If this is success, how does one define failure? And talking about exaggerations: “The risk of Trump winning, however remote, represents the biggest national security threat that the United States faces today.”
As if being “dead” is not bad enough, Boot feels the need to drive a stake into the heart of the Republican Party: the party is stupid . Writing for NYT , the publication that never misses a chance to print something nasty about Republicans, Boot bemoans Republican complicity with Donald Trump phenomenon: “How the Stupid Party’ Created Donald Trump.”
Why can’t there be an alternative to the neocons’ doctrines of world domination in the form of a populist, nationalist movement that wants Americans to take care of Americans first, before overextending the country’s economic and military reach? And should this alternative be immediately called stupid?
Yet, for many neocons, it is Hillary or bust. James Kirchik goes out of his way trying to convince his fellow conservatives that it is Clinton who is a true conservative, and therefore, the last American hope: “It’s come to this: Hillary Clinton is the one person standing between America and the abyss.”
Referring to a profound conservative thinker, Michael Oakeshott, Kirchik observed that Oakeshott “defines the conservative disposition as one that ‘prefers small and limited innovations to large and indefinite’ ones and ‘favors a slow rather than a rapid pace, and pauses to observe current consequences and make appropriate adjustments.’ … Clinton is the candidate of the status quo, something that conservatives, by definition, are supposed to uphold.”
Kirchick fails to mention, however, that it is Clintons’ and Obama’s implementation of neocons’ policies which is nothing short of revolutionary. Military adventures, drastic regime changes, alliance redrawing, the willingness to sacrifice American lives and money in their pursuit, all these misguided policies that meet no political resistance –that’s what revolutionary.
Trump’s realism and pragmatic approach to politics appears as revolutionary only to the ideologues who refuse to pause in their drive to reshape the modern world according to their childish dreams.
This radical reworking of democratic and conservative process of slow incremental improvements into the hegemony of corporate sponsored elites is indeed revolutionary: a modern day version of Lenin’s hegemony of proletariat and its avant-garde, the elite party, all over again.
Hillary Clinton is as conservative as Brezhnev, who, in his failure to modify or change the radical agenda set up by the party of Lenin and Stalin, was indeed, a conservative. Only an intellectual of Kirchick’s magnitude can see something Oakeshottian in this embrace of one party system.
As someone who lived under one party rule in the former Soviet Union, I fully appreciate Popper’s rather minimalistic, but fundamental view of democracy, as the society that boasts a two party system and which guarantees the ease of deposing a ruling party in case of its failures.
Karl Popper insisted on the necessity and practical usefulness of the two-party system, so that the loss of power would lead to self-scrutiny and therefore improvement. While the two parties and their loyal press try to police each other, they keep each other busy, allowing the rest of the citizens to live in peace and pursue their goals without too much interference or control.
Obviously, all this goes down the drain with the one party system of globalists and the elites, the party that mocks and dismisses as ridiculous or deplorable anyone who happens to challenge it.
In his The Open Society and its Enemies Popper proposes a rather paradoxical, yet extremely sensible theory of a democratic society. What is important for Popper, is not the discovery of a perfect government, but a much more mundane and pragmatic question: how to avoid the blatantly bad ones. And democracy does it better than any other system. Insisting on this pragmatism, Popper highlights the following syllogism:
And we do not base our choice on the goodness of democracy, which may be doubtful, but solely on the evilness of a dictatorship, which is certain. Not only because the dictator is bound to make bad use of his power, but because a dictator, even if he were benevolent, would rob all others of their responsibility, and thus of their human rights and duties. This is a sufficient basis for deciding in favor of democracy—that is, a rule of law that enables us to get rid of the government. No majority, however large, ought to be qualified to abandon this rule of law.”
Popper wrote this elucidation for The Economist ; where he explains his paradoxical thought in the following manner:
In ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’ I suggested that an entirely new problem should be recognized as the fundamental problem of a rational political theory… how can we best avoid situations in which a bad ruler causes too much harm?
When we say that the best solution known to us is a constitution that allows a majority vote to dismiss the government, then we do not say the majority vote will always be right. We do not even say that it will usually be right.”
For Popper, the two-party system is a requirement not because any of these parties possesses the truth, but because they can lose, be removed from power, and thus given a chance to think things through and improve. Consequently, it is the very possibility of losing, and therefore improving, that makes democracies dynamic and progressive:
From the point of view of the new theory, Election day ought to be a Day of Judgment. As Pericles of Athens said in about 430 BC, ‘although only a few may originate a policy, we are all able to judge it.’ Of course, we may misjudge it; in fact, we often do. But if we have lived through a party’s period of power and have felt its repercussions, we have at least some qualifications for judgment…In order to make a majority government probable, we need something approaching a two-party system…. for such a system encourages a continual process of self-criticism by the two parties.”
For Popper, the two –party system is preferable since “an inclination to self-criticism after an electoral defeat is far more pronounced in countries with a two-party system than in those where there are several parties.” It is this self-criticism of a losing party; this desire to reform and modernize that provides healthy development for democracies.
The rule of the last two decades did not improve the economic life of the majority of Americans; in fact, it resulted in the drastic redistribution of wealth. It didn’t bring peace to the world stage. In fact, we are standing on the threshold of nuclear confrontation.
Yet, in the manner of the Germany in 1930s, we are rapidly overstepping democratic principles for the sake of one party and its global ambitions, of the consensus formulated by the PNAC, Council of Foreign Affairs, Atlantic Council, and other think tanks, along with the State Department, and the press, all of whom argue for the same policies all over again. Even now, weeks before the elections, we are reading about the same bureaucrats in Pentagon, CIA, or State Department, haggling for the place in the future Hillary cabinet.
It is those rascals that can be sent home, who are worthy of being voted in. And conversely, it is those rascals, who want to stay in power no matter how wrongheaded, dangerous, or unpopular their policies are that should be thrown out.
There is no absolute truth in politics, there is no end of history, and there is no one size fits all. Popper understood it much better than Fukuyama. History never ends: parties should continue to lose, and thus given a chance to come up with better policies for the next election. Only when Democratic Party is forced to take a back seat, it will contemplate on how it can improve, and offer new policies for the country.
Propping up Hillary as the best embodiment of the failed policies, allowing the same bankers, diplomats, and generals to metastasize into next election and hold the same key positions in the Pentagon, the State Department, CIA or Treasury, is ultimately, the embrace of one party system; it provides a profound disservice to the United States and its democratic tradition.
At the last presidential debate this electoral season, Hillary Clinton pretended to be appalled by Trump’s hypothetical refusal to accept the results of the November elections. Mass media echo chambers went into the override mode bemoaning Trump’s disrespect for the venerable political tradition of peaceful transition of power. Trump was never in power, however.
What is truly appalling is the real, not the hypothetical threat of turning US into a one party system, the system which is so entrenched that it can only mock, dismiss, and conspire to denigrate its opponents. Maybe Mr. Forrestal was right after all. Russians, or rather Soviets, are here, but they do not hack the emails, they write them. Rate this: | 1real |
‘Man Bites Dog’: New York Times Does Some Actual Journalism | What this story shows is that while there are some conscientious journalists at the New York Times who have made a concerted effort to discover the truth about President Trump s somewhat outlandish claim that the Cuban government have deployed sonic attacks against US diplomats in Havana the paper s editors also ran with the predictable mainstream conspiracy theory that Putin might be behind this malicious high-tech assault on US foreign service officials.Is there an internal struggle underway in mainstream media institutions between those who want to retain their integrity, and gatekeepers determine to use these outlets to peddle Establishment propaganda?Consortium News Exclusive: When the Trump administration blamed Cuba for a sonic attack on U.S. diplomats, a New York Times reporter did something unusual for his newspaper: he tried objectively to assess the evidence, as Robert Parry reports By Robert ParryI often criticize The New York Times, Washington Post and other major mainstream media outlets for a very simple reason: they deserve it especially for their propagandistic, unprofessional and reckless coverage of foreign crises.But there are occasional moments when some reporter at an MSM outlet behaves responsibly and those instances should be noted at least under the classic definition of news something that is unexpected or as the old saying goes, dog bites man is not news; man bites dog is news. One such moment occurred earlier this month when a Times science editor assigned science reporter Carl Zimmer to look into the mysterious illnesses affecting U.S. diplomats in the recently reopened U.S. embassy in Cuba.About two dozen U.S. diplomats supposedly were suffering hearing loss and cognitive difficulties due to what has been labeled a sonic attack. The Trump administration blamed the Cuban government even though the Cubans claimed to be mystified and would seem to have little motive for disrupting a long-sought d tente with Washington along with the expected boon to their tourist industry. President Trump retaliated by expelling 15 Cuban diplomats.Zimmer recounted the background to his story in a reporter s notebook piece on Oct. 6: On Tuesday, Michael Mason, my editor on the science desk, shot me an email. Would I consider writing an article about this sonic attack business ? I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had been vaguely puzzled about this business for months. Checking Out the StoryZimmer then did what professional journalists are supposed to do: he started contacting impartial experts to get their assessments of what was possible, what was likely, and what didn t make sense. I decided to try to find something out not as a political reporter but as a science writer, Zimmer wrote in the sidebar that accompanied his news article. I usually base my ideas on scientific research that has matured far enough that it is beginning to get published in peer-reviewed journals. I knew that an article on sonic weapons would be very different from the ones I usually write. I learned there was not even an official medical report. I decided to try to draw some boundary lines for all the speculation swirling around the story. Is the idea of a sonic attack plausible, based on what scientists know about sound and the human body? So I hit the phone. I didn t want to talk with just anyone I looked for people with lots of experience in research that had direct bearing on this question. I started with Timothy Leighton, whose job title at Southampton University is, literally, professor of ultrasonics and underwater acoustics. Better yet, Dr. Leighton has published the only thorough recent scientific review of the effects of environmental ultrasound that I m aware of. When I interviewed Dr. Leighton and others, I made clear I didn t expect them to solve this mystery; I just wanted them to reconcile the question with what we know through science. The consensus was that it was extremely unlikely the diplomats were the victims of a sonic weapon. It would be necessary to rule out less exotic possibilities before taking that one seriously. Yet, despite this skeptical scientific consensus among experts, Zimmer noted, The notion [of a sonic attack] has ricocheted like mad around the press, making it possible for readers to assume that [the sonic attack explanation] has been generally accepted by experts. But it most certainly has not. I ll be curious to see if articles like mine can put the brakes on the speculation. Suspecting PutinWell, Zimmer could have read the Times editorial in the same day s (Oct. 6) newspaper for a partial answer. While critical of the Trump administration for rushing to judgment in blaming the Cuban government and expelling 15 diplomats, the editorial concluded: The sonic attacks on Americans are too serious to be used for cynical political ends. So much for the editorial writers reading their own newspaper, but clearly they were driven by a higher agenda. A New York Times editorial about some unpleasant topic anywhere in the world these days wouldn t be complete without taking the opportunity to blame Russia or, in this case, at least suggest Russia as a possible villain in the mystery.The Times wrote: Other parties, most notably Russia, must also figure as suspects: President Vladimir Putin would probably welcome a setback to American-Cuban relations. Yes, every possible conspiracy theory must somehow circle back to Vladimir Putin, a real-life Dr. Evil. When he is not plotting how to flood Facebook with images of puppies or manipulate Americans in their pursuit of Pokemon Go characters, he is building secret sonic weapons to disorient U.S. diplomats in Havana and provoke President Trump to act rashly (when we all know how cool and collected Trump normally is) Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE ABOUT MSM REPORTING AT: 21st Century Wire Media Cog FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Hong Kong is Riddled with Unrest Again | New Eastern Outlook | Country: China The political situation in Hong Kong (more precisely in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China) has once again fallen under the influence of another “ autumn escalation “. One of the most large-scale protests was a mass rally of thousands of students in September-October 2014, which was coined the Umbrella Movement by the Western media. It’s almost a year later and new riots, albeit significantly less serious ones, have taken place. As in 2014-2015, the nature of this stage of political turbulence in Hong Kong is the same. In general, it can be described with the slogan “the price you have to pay for the transition period”. This concerns the difficulties of actual implementing the beautiful concept “One Country – Two Systems” created by Beijing when preparing to regain control over Hong Kong from Great Britain in 1997. Later, this concept was tested out for the possible (hypothetical and elusive) return of the lost province of Taiwan to the bosom of the Motherland. The procedure of transferring Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China was provided for by the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984 during a visit of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to China. The strained relations between Beijing and Hong Kong are entirely based on events that preceded the handover. It’s important to remember that in the mid-19th century, Hong Kong was under the control of Great Britain following the so-called Opium Wars (which can be considered a “crime against humanity” by today’s standards). The following 150 years, Hong Kong formed a community of citizens that were very different from the citizens in modern-day China both in terms of mentality and living standards. Today, the latter is perhaps the major factor, which determines the mood of Hong Kong’s population. However, the Western media describe the wariness of Hong Kong citizens in respect of the gradual integration into China as a mantra on “the strive for democracy and freedom”. However, the same “fraudsters” that appeared during the decline of the USSR, then in the Middle East, and now in Ukraine, are manipulating the situation with fake ideas of “democracy” and “freedom”. There was no democracy in British Hong Kong. It only started to appear after the accession to the People’s Republic of China. According to many Hong Kong citizens, this is not enough as it currently does not allow it to maintain distance from China. But this is another issue that is indirectly linked to the phenomenon of democracy as a specific social and political structure of the society. In terms of Hong Kong, it functions in compliance with the Basic Law of the Hong Kong developed in China in 1990, which came into effect in 1997, i.e. the moment Hong Kong was transferred to the Beijing’s control. Article 104 of this document requires all the representatives of the authorities pledge allegiance to the Basic Law and to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region when assuming office. The same allegiance must be pledged by the Chief Executive, whose powers can be compared to those of the head of the fiercely Presidential Republic. Article 104 is aimed at ensuring China’s control over the entire system of political and administrative management of Hong Kong, including its key structure. Nonetheless, the authors of the Basic Law neglected one very important element. They did not foresee the answer to the question of what would happen to those who distort the letter and intent of Article 104 when assuming office. This question arose on October 12, 2016, when several newly elected deputies of the local Legislative Council (Parliament) took the liberty of not only distorting the content of this Article but also shouting out words and provocative slogans about Beijing during their swearing-in ceremony. Moreover, they unfurled the banner “Hong Kong is not China”. A few days later, during a repeat of the swearing-in ceremony, “pro-independence” deputies left the session hall depriving the Legislative Council of the necessary quorum. On this, the Global Times published an editorial entitled “Defiant Hong Kong legislators must be barred “. It seems that on November 7, this question was answered. This concerns the “interpretation” of Article 104 that was employed that day at the regular session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (China’s Parliament), which assumes the status of the very same law as the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region itself. In other words, from now on, violators of Article 104 are subject to the full extent of the law. The reaction on the “streets” of Hong Kong to Beijing’s message proved to be immediate and upon the signing of the Article, events similar to the Umbrella Movement of Autumn 2014 broke out. It is worthwhile pointing out some important issues: – the outlined process of (this certain) “crackdown” on Hong Kong fits into the overall trend of the strengthening role of the Communist Party of China and its leader Xi Jinping in China’s life, which was the main outcome of the 6th Plenum of the 18th Congress of China’s leading party; – the strong statements made by the USA and the EU on the violation of human rights in Hong Kong will hardly affect the degree of the aforementioned crackdown. For example, after producing its latest report on the situation in Hong Kong, Great Britain was strongly advised to refrain from interfering ; – the anticipated “moderate nature” of the policy of tightening control over the social and political life in Hong Kong will be determined by the need to maintain at least something of Taiwan’s positive appraisal of the “One Country – Two Systems” concept. The fact that the resolution of the Taiwanese problem remains a priority task for China’s leadership is confirmed by the deliberate attention on Hung Hsiu-chu who visited Beijing in late October 2016 . She took the charge of Kuomintang after the crushing defeats in the last two general elections in Taiwan ; – it is likely that the current Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying, will resign as a result of the above-mentioned events as well as others that have taken place in Hong Kong. He has always been pro-Beijing, and according to experts, he is close to a group inside the Communist Party leadership, which is competing with Xi Jinping. Hong Kong can currently be compared with a chicken that Beijing would have wrung the neck of a long time ago (despite any agreements with London) unless it continued laying financial “golden eggs”. In addition, ill-considered harsh measures in respect of Hong Kong may prevent the resolution of China’s key Taiwanese problem. Therefore, Beijing has to exercise patience and carefully plan its steps in respect of the former British colony. Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the issues of the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “ New Eastern Outlook ”
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With Connecticut Foundations Crumbling, ‘Your Home Is Now Worthless’ - The New York Times | STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. — Sandra Miller was at work in January when her daughter called from their home here on Oakridge Drive with alarming news. The house was making loud noises, as if someone had jumped off the counter and landed with a bang. For seconds afterward, the house shook. A while later, it happened again, and again. Over the next several hours, terrifying bangs rattled the house. The next morning, Ms. Miller called Bill Neal, a structural engineer, who delivered the same stunning assessment to her that he has now told hundreds of homeowners: The concrete foundation was crumbling and, as a result, her house was gradually collapsing. Across nearly 20 towns in northeastern Connecticut, a disaster is unfolding, as local officials and homeowners wrestle with an extraordinary phenomenon. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of home foundations that have been poured since the 1980s are cracking, with fissures so large you can slip a hand inside. “This is such an emotional roller coaster,” said Tim Heim, a homeowner who started the group Connecticut Coalition Against Crumbling Basements. “You can’t eat, you can’t sleep. When you’re told your home is now worthless and your biggest investment is now worthless, it’s devastating. ” The scope of the problem is so vast that state officials have begun an investigation, and they recently announced that the crumbling foundations had been traced to a quarry business and a related concrete maker, which have agreed to stop selling their products for residential use. The stone aggregate used in the concrete mixture has high levels of pyrrhotite, an iron sulfide mineral that can react with oxygen and water to cause swelling and cracking. Over the past 30 years, the quarry has provided concrete for as many as 20, 000 houses. As officials continue their investigation, the cascade of crumbling foundations poses a thicket of legal, emotional and financial issues and has prompted the state to create an official web page dedicated to the problem. Connecticut is also seeking help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s the psychological toll of the uncertainty,” said Jonathan A. Harris, the commissioner of the State Consumer Protection Department. Beyond the financial hit, Mr. Harris said, a person’s home is “where their kids were born and grandchildren play. ” “There’s an intangible side to this that’s horrible,” he continued. Insurers have generally refused to pay for repairs, strictly defining the coverage of collapse by inserting the word “abrupt” in policy language. Repairing the homes requires replacing the entire foundation at costs that typically range from $100, 000 to over $200, 000. So far, 223 residents have filed formal complaints about crumbling foundations with the department, but officials believe many homeowners may be reluctant to contact the state, fearing problems from their banks and insurers. Because the affected swath of the state is home mostly to and families, many face financial ruin since their homes represent the biggest part of their nest egg. Ms. Miller, whose insurance company has provided no financial assistance, rented a nearby condominium after she was told that her family was no longer safe in their home. But Ms. Miller said she could not pay both the monthly rent and the mortgage. Paying out of pocket to replace her home’s foundation, she said, is well beyond reach. “I don’t know too many people that have $170, 000 in their wallet,” she said. “And that’s what it’s going to cost to fix my home. ” Mr. Neal, the structural engineer, has inspected hundreds of houses. In nearly all, he found concrete walls with distinctive crack patterns that resemble a road map with lines and fissures snaking in all directions — much different than the vertical cracks typically seen in foundations as they settle. After hearing from tearful, angry residents at packed public meetings, state officials stepped in. In October, the state’s Insurance Department warned insurers not to cancel policies because of a foundation’s condition. Since insurers are denying claims, that warning may not help with the concrete problem, officials say, but it should at least prevent homeowners from losing insurance protection all together. Last month, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill that would, among other things, allow homeowners with failing foundations to request a reassessment of their property values and require contractors to record the supplier of concrete for residential foundations. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, signed the bill into law last week. Another measure that sought to ease victims’ financial losses was less successful. State Senator Tony Guglielmo, a Republican, had proposed a $50 million bond to help homeowners. But Democrats in the State House rejected it, arguing such a measure should wait until the full extent of the problem was better understood. “I’m not a guy, by any stretch, but there are some problems where you need government intervention because of the magnitude,” Mr. Guglielmo said. “We’ve had meetings where there were 500 people, and it’s been very emotional. ’’ After an investigation by the NBC station WVIT, the governor directed the Consumer Protection Department and the attorney general to investigate possible wrongdoing and to determine the scope of the problem and what, if any, assistance was available for homeowners. While the state has traced the affected concrete to the quarry business, Becker Construction Company, which operates in Willington, officials have not ruled out other factors. One riddle is the absence of official reports of failing concrete in public or commercial projects that used material from the same quarry, and a concrete maker, the Joseph J. Mottes Company. John Patton, a spokesman for both companies, has attributed the crumbling foundations to improper installation, specifically the tendency of some contractors to add water to wet concrete to make it pour faster. That was especially true, he said, during a building boom in the 1980s. By law, Mr. Patton noted, inspectors are on site during commercial and public jobs, ensuring that concrete is mixed and installed properly. “We also know that during the time frame in question, other ready mix providers in the area used the same aggregate from the same source,” he said. Stephan Lackman, a former Mottes employee, said the Becker family, which owns both Mottes and Becker, started using material from the Willington quarry after its gravel supply was depleted during the 1980s. Mr. Patton acknowledged that Mottes first began using aggregate from the quarry in the 1980s, but said the company’s original gravel supply was in use until 2014. The mineral has been identified as a culprit in disintegrating foundations elsewhere. In April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada repeated a pledge to allot $30 million in aid to homeowners in the province of Quebec whose foundations were failing. “I saw with my very own eyes the difficult situation in which too many families live because of pyrrhotite,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters. As officials seek answers in Connecticut, homeowners are looking for someone to hold accountable. A lawsuit filed in February accuses insurers of a “concerted scheme” to deny coverage. And some residents are angry that it has taken the state so long to address the problem. Mike Halloran, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said some of his neighbors and acquaintances also had cracking foundations. “Ken the plumber,” Mr. Halloran, a hospital mechanic, said. “A nurse in the O. R. A guy my wife works out with at the gym has it. ” Mr. Heim, the homeowner who started the coalition, faulted state officials for ignoring warnings from a number of homeowners with the problem in the early 2000s. In 2003, a meeting was held in Hartford among lawmakers, homeowners and representatives of the attorney general’s office and Consumer Protection Department. Nothing came of it. “They had the power to stop this problem,” Mr. Heim said, “and they chose not to. ” It was only after the report by WVIT last summer that politicians at the state level took action, homeowners said. Fifteen years ago, Linda J. and Robert Tofolowsky filed a formal complaint with the Consumer Protection Department against Mottes. It detailed the cracks that had formed in the foundation of their home here during the . The couple said several other homeowners had similar problems with concrete supplied by Mottes. The couple sued the company in 1995 and lost. But before the resolution of the lawsuit, Mrs. Tofolowsky, in a handwritten note attached to the 2001 complaint, warned of the calamity to come. “It has been six years since we filed against J. J. Mottes,” she wrote. “But I am not waiting for the court to make a decision, since we have found these seven other homes with failed foundations. I need to let the public know about this company, J. J. Mottes. So that maybe someone else will not lose their biggest investment, their home. ” | 0fake |
U.S. firm Air Products, China's Yankuang plan to build $3.5 billion coal-to-syngas plant in China | BEIJING (Reuters) - A top Chinese coal miner, Yankuang Group, and U.S. industrial gas supplier Air Products and Chemicals Inc on Thursday said they planned to build a $3.5 billion coal-to-synthesis gas (syngas) plant in China. The announcement on the facility in the province of Shaanxi comes as part of U.S. President Donald Trump s state visit to China, the world s biggest consumer of coal. The deal is yet to be finalised, although the companies said in a statement that they would look to do this as soon as possible. Syngas is a combination of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some carbon dioxide that is typically manufactured by gasifying a solid hydrocarbon fuel. It can be used to create energy or to help churn out products such as methane or methanol. Under the agreement, Air Products and Shaanxi Future Energy Group Co (SFEC), a subsidiary of Yankuang, will form a joint venture, in which Air Products will have a majority stake. It will build, own and operate an air separation, gasification and syngas clean-up system in the city of Yulin to supply SFEC, the firms said in a statement. The air separation units are expected to produce about 40,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of oxygen to support the production of about 2.5 million normal cubic meters an hour of syngas. SFEC will supply coal, steam and power and receive syngas under a long-term, onsite contract. Air Products currently supplies SFEC s Phase 1 project in Yulin with 12,000 TPD of oxygen. The addition of Phase 2 would make the complex one of the largest coal-to-fuel and chemicals facilities in China, with SFEC Phase 2 producing 4 million tonnes per year of liquid fuels and downstream chemicals, it said. The companies expect the overall project to come onstream in 2021. | 0fake |
White House says intelligence report covered more than cyber attacks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday would not comment on whether a U.S. intelligence report referred to unsubstantiated allegations that Russia had compromising information on President-elect Donald Trump. But Earnest said the report, presented to President Barack Obama and Trump last week, discussed a number of tactics employed by Moscow in addition to cyber attacks in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Nov. 8 election. “There’s a discussion of this fake news phenomenon in the report as well,” Earnest said at a news briefing. “It’s important to understand that the report that was compiled by the intelligence community goes beyond just the malicious cyber activity that Russia engaged in.” | 0fake |
Turkish PM says Idlib operation aims to prevent migrant wave from Syria | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey s military operations in Syria s rebel-held province of Idlib aim to prevent a wave of migration into Turkey, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday. Turkey has said it will provide assistance to rebels it has long backed as it implements a de-escalation agreement designed to reduce fighting with pro-government forces in the area, the most populous pocket of Syria still in rebel hands. On Sunday, a Turkish army reconnaissance team scouted the Idlib province before an expected military operation to impose peace in the bitterly contested Syrian northwest. The reason for our activities is to prepare the groundwork and prevent a potential migrant wave into our country and lower tensions, Yildirim told a parliamentary meeting of the ruling AK Party. Turkey, which is already hosting around three million Syrians, has been one of the biggest supporters of rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the six-and-a-half-year war, but its focus has moved from ousting him to securing its own border against jihadist and Kurdish groups. Yildirim also said Turkey aimed to create control points in Idlib for future deployments, and that the activities of the armed forces in Idlib would help prevent internal conflicts between civilians and militant groups in the region. | 0fake |
Tim Kaine Stuffs Handful Of Goldfish Crackers In Ballot Scanner - The Onion - America's Finest News Source | Hillary Clinton Waiting In Wings Of Stage Since 6 A.M. For DNC Speech PHILADELPHIA—Saying she arrived hours before any of the members of the production crew, sources confirmed Thursday that presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been waiting in the wings of the Wells Fargo Center stage since six o’clock this morning to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Depressed, Butter-Covered Tom Vilsack Enters Sixth Day Of Corn Bender After Losing VP Spot WASHINGTON—Saying she has grown increasingly concerned about her husband’s mental and physical well-being since last Friday, Christie Vilsack, the wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, told reporters Thursday that the despondent, butter-covered cabinet member has entered the sixth day of a destructive corn bender after being passed over for the Democratic vice presidential spot. DNC Speech: ‘I Am Proud To Say I Walked In On Bill And Hillary Having Sex’ A friend of the Clinton family describes a Hillary who America never gets to see: the one he saw having sex. Trump Sick And Tired Of Mainstream Media Always Trying To Put His Words Into Some Sort Of Context NEW YORK—Emphasizing that the practice was just more evidence of journalists’ bias against him, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated Thursday that he was sick and tired of the mainstream media always attempting to place his words into some kind of context. Who’s Speaking At The DNC: Day 4 Here is a guide to the major speakers who will be addressing attendees on the final night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention Bound, Gagged Joaquin Castro Horrified By What His Identical Twin Brother Might Be Doing Out On DNC Floor PHILADELPHIA—Struggling to free himself from the tightly wound lengths of rope binding his wrists and ankles together, bruised and gagged Texas congressman Joaquin Castro was reportedly horrified by what his identical twin brother, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, might be out doing on the floor of the DNC Thursday. Obama: ‘Hillary Will Fight To Protect My Legacy, Even The Truly Detestable Parts’ PHILADELPHIA—Emphasizing the former secretary of state’s competence and tenacity during his Democratic National Convention address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama praised Hillary Clinton as someone who would work tirelessly to defend and advance the legacy he had built, even the “truly repugnant parts.” Tim Kaine Clearly Tuning Out In Middle Of Boring Vice Presidential Acceptance Speech PHILADELPHIA—Describing the look of total disinterest on his face and noting how he kept peering down at his watch as the speech progressed, sources at the Democratic National Convention said that Virginia senator Tim Kaine clearly began tuning out partway through the boring vice presidential acceptance address Wednesday night. Cannon Overshoots Tim Kaine Across Wells Fargo Center PHILADELPHIA—Noting that the vice presidential nominee had been launched nearly 100 feet into the air during his entrance into the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, sources reported that the cannon at the back of the Wells Fargo Center had accidentally overshot Tim Kaine across the arena, sending him crashing to the stage several dozen feet beyond the erected safety net. Biden Regales DNC With Story Of ’80s Girl Band Vixen Breaking Hard Rock’s Glass Ceiling PHILADELPHIA—Devoting a large portion of his speech to the “pioneering, stiffy-inducing” all-female quartet, Vice President Joe Biden regaled the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night with the rousing story of the metal band Vixen breaking hard rock’s glass ceiling in the late 1980s. | 1real |
GOP Rep Dave Brat HUMILIATES MSNBC Host Craig Melvin Over Liberal Media Bias…Makes Melvin Wish He Never Interviewed Him [VIDEO] | Republican Congressman David Brat wasn t sitting back and waiting for MSNBC host Craig Melvin to attack him or Republican President Donald Trump. Much to the MSNBC host s surprise, Rep Brat (R-VA) immediately went on offense telling Melvin, But non one gets to play the innocent here! Brat went on to explain how the media funds the Democrat Party and yet they expect Americans to believe they are being objective when they report the news. Brat used media donations to Hillary s presidential campaign as an example: Hillary raised $2 billion dollars in the Hillary foundation from foreign money and CNN and all the biggies never found anything on that. The Washington Post is great on Watergate, but they missed Clintongate . It may be because 97% of the donations from mainstream folks (media) go to the Democrat Party. Gee I wonder if that could, ya know, influence the news at all? MSNBC host Craig Melvin attempted to blame the New York Times and Washington Post for the alleged media bias. Melvin then tried to convince his small audience that media bias doesn t exist: Even if that bias did exist which, I mean, Dave, it doesn t even if it did Brat shot back: If it exists? Now, you got to come clean with me on that one. Brat s best line in the exchange however, came near the end, when Melvin mockingly said, All of us are in cahoots together .Brat responded: No, you just have a systematic bias toward liberal outcomes and growing the federal government. It s okay it s America I don t know if it s illegal. Watch: | 1real |
Texas governor signs bill to limit insurance coverage for abortions | AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Republican governor of Texas signed into law on Tuesday a measure that will restrict insurance coverage for abortions, compelling women to buy a supplemental plan if they want coverage for the procedure. Governor Greg Abbott said the measure known as House Bill 214 would protect abortion opponents from subsidizing the procedure. Democratic critics decried it as forcing people to buy “rape insurance.” Texas, the most-populous Republican-controlled state, has been at the forefront in enacting abortion restrictions, with many of its measures followed by other socially conservative states. But when HB 214 goes into law on Dec. 1, Texas will be the 11th state to restrict abortion coverage in private insurance plans written in the state. “As a firm believer in Texas values, I am proud to sign legislation that ensures no Texan is ever required to pay for a procedure that ends the life of an unborn child,” Abbott said in a statement. The Republican sponsor of a Senate bill on abortion insurance restriction, Brandon Creighton, has told local media supplemental coverage would cost $12 to $80 a year. House Bill 214, which passed both chambers this month, mostly on a party-line vote, does not offer exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Abortion rights groups said they plan a court fight to prevent it from becoming law. “By signing HB 214 into law, Governor Abbott has told women and parents they must pay extra for what is tantamount to ‘rape insurance,’” Democratic Representative Chris Turner, who opposed the bill, said on Tuesday. There are 25 states with restrictions on abortion coverage in plans set up by state exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act under former Democratic President Barack Obama, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks such legislation. Also on Tuesday, Abbott signed another measure that expands reporting requirements for complications arising from abortions. | 0fake |
END OF THE GLOBALIST ERA? Bush and Romney Families Make Big Announcement On 2016 Election | The globalists aren t happy which is a signal that the Republican party chose the right guy. The people spoke and their guy is Trump like it or not.The Bush family just announced they re going to be MIA during the 2016 election and now the Romney family has followed suit.The Republican National Convention in July is going to be missing some of the party s most recognizable faces. All of the living former Republican nominees for president said they are skipping the Cleveland convention with the exception of Bob Dole, the 1996 GOP nominee.An aide to Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, confirmed to ABC News that he has no plans to attend the convention. Romney has been one of Trump s most scathing critics. In March, he gave a speech urging the party to reject the real estate mogul, calling him a phony, a fraud. The news that he is not attending this year s convention was first reported by The Washington Post.On Wednesday, the last two Republican presidents, George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, also said they had no plans to back Donald Trump, the party s presumptive nominee.Read more: ABC | 1real |
WOW! HILLARY SUPPORTER CAUGHT On Undercover Camera Saying “It’s Okay” To Rip Up Republican Voter Registrations [VIDEO] | Democrats are on the move. They are panicking over the size of Trump s rallies vs. Hillary s. They will do whatever is necessary to hold on to power. Americans need to vigilant. We all need to get involved in working to help out with voter registration and to keep an eye on the process. We all need to get involved with the GOP and become poll challengers on election day in precincts, and to help to count absentee ballots. We cannot trust that if we leave this election up to the people who have traditionally been allowed to count our votes or supervise our elections, that we will have a fair result on November 8th. Watch this stunning undercover video taken by James O Keefe s group Project Veritas of one of Hillary s operatives breaking the law, when he suggests it s okay to take away a newly registered voter s right to vote: | 1real |
Israelis Donate Winter Clothes to Syrian Refugees | Ynetnews reports: The crisis in Syria hasn’t been ignored by Israel. Various Israeli youth movements, including the Youth Federation for Working and Studying, The Dror Movement, and the committed for the fight against genocide are leading a wide scale operation to collect winter clothes for Syrian refugees. [The operation, codenamed “Human Warmth,” has opened up 15 collection centers around the country where Israelis can go and donate winter clothes. The centers are in Druze, Arab, and Jewish communities. The winter clothes will then go off to the Syrians who are in need of assistance. Read more here. | 0fake |
Ryan wants to end Obamacare cost protections for sick consumers | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan called on Wednesday for an end to Obamacare’s financial protections for people with serious medical conditions, saying these consumers should be placed in state high-risk pools. In election-year remarks that could shed light on an expected Republican healthcare alternative, Ryan said existing federal policy that prevents insurers from charging sick people higher rates for health coverage has raised costs for healthy consumers while undermining choice and competition. The rule, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, has been praised by patient advocates for providing access to medical care for people who previously could not afford private health insurance. The Affordable Care Act also bars insurers from excluding coverage for pre-existing conditions. “Less than 10 percent of people under 65 are what we call people with pre-existing conditions, who are really kind of uninsurable,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, told a student audience at Georgetown University. “Let’s fund risk pools at the state level to subsidize their coverage, so that they can get affordable coverage,” he said. “You dramatically lower the price for everybody else. You make health insurance so much more affordable, so much more competitive and open up competition.” Charging the same rates to individuals regardless of their medical history is also a key part of group health plans in the private sector. House Republicans, after repeated votes to repeal Obamacare, have promised to produce their own alternative to the Affordable Care Act as part of a broader policy agenda intended to attract voters in the Nov. 8 presidential election. The policy document is expected just ahead of the Republican presidential nominating convention in July. High-risk pools, which existed before the healthcare law, are state-level entities that guarantee coverage for people with health problems. Analysts say they can be prohibitively expensive and offer less than optimal health coverage. Republicans have proposed state-based risk pools as an Obamacare alternative in the past. Last week, the conservative Republican Study Committee recommended risk pools as part of the House policy agenda, saying premiums should be capped at 200 percent of a state’s average. | 0fake |
PAY TO PLAY : Hillary’s Two Big Favors For Morocco Netted Her $28 Million – TruthFeed | PAY TO PLAY : Hillary’s Two Big Favors For Morocco Netted Her $28 Million PAY TO PLAY : Hillary’s Two Big Favors For Morocco Netted Her $28 Million Breaking News By TruthFeedNews October 31, 2016
By Richard Pollock – DailyCaller
Hillary Clinton did two huge favors for Morocco during her tenure as secretary of state while the Clinton Foundation accepted up to $28 million in donations from the country’s ruler, King Mohammed VI, according to new information obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group.
Clinton and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lisa Jackson tried to shut down the Florida-based Mosaic Company in 2011, operator of America’s largest phosphate mining facility.
Jackson’s close ties and loyalty to the Clintons were revealed when she joined the Clinton Foundation’s board of directors in 2013, just months after she left the EPA. Jackson is also close to John Podesta , Clinton’s national campaign chairman.
Morocco’s state-owned phosphate company, OCP, would ostensibly have benefited from Jackson’s move to shut down Mosaic. Mohammed donated up to $15 million to the Clinton Foundation through OCP.
Clinton also relaxed U.S. foreign aid restrictions on Morocco, thus allowing U.S. funds to be used in the territory of Western Sahara where OCP operates phosphate mining operations. The aid restrictions stemmed from Morocco’s illegal occupation of the territory since 1974.
Morocco is repeatedly condemned for seizing the territory and for unilaterally extracting the country’s valuable minerals, impoverishing what’s left of the local Sahrawi Arabs.
No nation recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara and the United Nation’s Security Council legal office and the International Court of Justice both demand that Muhammed withdraw his claim over the territory and end illegal extraction of minerals.
An email WikiLeaks made public last week illustrated how Clinton, while acting as secretary of state, negotiated an additional $12 million donation to the Clinton Foundation from Muhammed in return for holding the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in Marrakech, Morocco. Another $1 million payment came from OCP to cover the expenses of the CGI meeting.
The regulatory assault against the U.S. phosphate industry began in earnest when Jackson launched a barrage of intimidating regulatory initiatives against Mosaic. Environmental concerns about phosphates date from 1979 but the EPA did little to address concerns related to phosphate mining until Jackson’s 2011 moves.
The regulatory assault on the U.S. phosphate industry encompassed several agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS aircraft flew at low altitudes over Mosaic’s central Florida operations in search of environmental problems. The EPA also threatened large Superfund penalties, which could have bankrupted Mosaic.
Phosphates are essential ingredients in fertilizers used in American farming. Closing or reducing Mosaic’s output would have cost tens of thousands of American jobs and injured the country’s agricultural productivity.
It also would leave the U.S. dependent upon foreign phosphate producers, but particularly Morocco’s OCP. The only other countries that mine phosphates are Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.
Rep. Dennis Ross, a Republican congressman who represents the Florida district where Mosaic operates, told TheDCNF he now sees why the EPA went after Mosaic.
“The tactics makes perfect sense as to why the EPA, under Lisa Jackson’s tutelage, targeted Mosaic’s phosphate operations in my district. I was never given any answers when I questioned Lisa Jackson about the EPA’s deliberate actions against Mosaic,” Ross told TheDCNF.
“Now I know why. An environmental concern never existed. This targeting was all done as a payback to Morocco for donating millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation,” Ross said.
An uproar from Florida regulators push-back from the state’s congressional delegation and the agency’s tenuous legal position all forced the EPA to end its threats against Mosaic.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who is vice-chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and a vocal critic of the Clinton Foundation, agreed with Ross, saying “these facts seem to reveal the possibility of more pay-to-play activities at the Clinton Foundation.”
“It would be especially troubling if the Clinton Foundation was working with the EPA to suppress the American phosphate industry in favor of Morocco. The EPA and Clinton Foundation should be forthcoming about their dealings with the Moroccan government and the American phosphate industry.”
Clinton’s 2012 support of a rider on the U.S. foreign aid bill permitting foreign aid to be sent to the Western Sahara arguably legitimized Moroccan occupation of territory and depopulated the Sahrawi Arabs. Native Moroccans were sent into the country by the government to extract the minerals.
The rider approved by Clinton said that U.S. foreign aid funds “may be used in regions and territories administered by Morocco,” meaning, the Western Sahara. The Western Sahara is classified a “Non-Self-Governing Territory” under international law.
“Previously, United States excluded Western Sahara from bilateral assistance to avoid seeming to endorse Moroccan control,” said Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law, in a legal review of occupied territories around the world.
Hans Corell, the U.N. Security Council’s Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs, said in January 2002 that “if further exploration and exploitation activities were to proceed in disregard of the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara, they would be in violation of the international law principles applicable to mineral resource activities in Non-Self-Governing Territories.”
A Dec. 10, 2015 report by the International Court of Justice ruled that “the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over Western Sahara is not recognized by the European Union or its Member States, or more generally by the UN, and the absence of any international mandate capable of justifying Moroccan presence on that territory.”
But none of that mattered to former President Bill Clinton, who said nothing about the world’s condemnation of Morocco’s exploitation of the area for its phosphate industry, while speaking at the Clinton Foundation’s 2015 Marrakech CGI conference. Instead, he praised it.
“The Moroccans who are here will tell you that in the last several years, they have become the Saudi Arabia of phosphates, and what they have done with it, to diversify their economy and to make it part of a comprehensive strategy instead of another example of resource curse, is very impressive indeed,” Clinton said.
“Hillary Clinton sold her soul when they accepted that money,” reported Politico the day after the Marrakech CGI conference.
H/T – DailyCaller
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BREAKING: CLINTON AIDE HUMA ABEDIN Dumps Sexting Husband Anthony Weiner After Disgusting Photos Exposed | Huma Abedin announced she is dumping her sexting hubby Anthony Weiner, hours after The Post revealed his latest online dalliances. After long painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband, Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, said in statement.ANTHONY WEINER DELETED HIS TWITTER ACCOUNT AFTER THE PHOTOS AND TWEETS WERE PUBLISHED IN AN EXCLUSIVE BY THE NEW YORK POST:Is this guy Bill Clinton s twin separated at birth or what? Both of these men are just total pervs! Weiner resigned from Congress over his last escapade with sexting women. This time Weiner is even more disgusting in his messages to a beautiful brunette. He brags about his manhood and even says: I d put someone s eye out with this thing. This is baby-sitting Anthony Weiner-style.While his wife, Huma Abedin, travels the country campaigning for Hillary Clinton, the disgraced ex-congressman has been sexting with a busty brunette out West and even sent her a lurid crotch shot with his toddler son in the picture.The stay-at-home cad shot the revealing photo while discussing massage parlors near my old apartment shortly after 3 a.m. on July 31, 2015, a screenshot of the exchange shows.Weiner was clearly aroused by his conversation with the 40-something divorcee when he abruptly changed the subject. Someone just climbed into my bed, Weiner wrote. Really? she responded.Weiner then hit Send on the cringe-inducing image, which shows a bulge in his white, Jockey-brand boxer briefs and his son cuddled up to his left, wrapped in a light-green blanket. You do realize you can see you[r] Weiner in that pic?? the woman wrote.Moments after forwarding the photo, Weiner freaked out over the possibility he had accidentally posted it publicly just as he did during the infamous episode that forced him to resign from Congress in 2011. Ooooooh . . . I was scared. For half a second I thought I posted something. Stop looking at my crotch, Weiner wrote back. Whatever. You did it on purpose, she replied.Read more: NYP | 1real |
Mark Cuban Hints at 2020 Presidential Run Against ’Idiot’ Trump - Breitbart | Friday on ABC’s “The View,” when asked if he wants to run for president in 2020 billionaire businessman and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban did not rule it out. Joy Behar asked, “So Mark your name has actually been tossed around as a potential presidential candidate. Let’s make news here. Are you into it?” Cuban replied, “Definitely. No. We’ll see what happens. ” Discussing Trump’s tweets, Cuban said “He is an idiot. I don’t care what he says. Right? I got a thick skin. He doesn’t. ” Cuban said that it is not Trump’s inexperience that is the problem saying, “No one is ever totally qualified to be the president. What it takes is leadership skills, so you know what you don’t know … You’re never going to know everything to be the president. You have to be smart enough to say, here’s where my strengths are. Here’s what I don’t know, and let me find the best people to do that. And then listen to those people. You can make an argument that Donald Trump has hired some good people around him. Maybe some you don’t love. He has hired good people, but he never listens. And if you are not willing to listen, if you are not willing to learn — the entire job — the only certainty of the job of president is the uncertainty. You don’t know what’s next. ” He added that Trump was “oblivious to life. ” “He has no . He has no contextual awareness, but other than that, he is a great president. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Russia urges dialogue to solve Gulf crisis | JEDDAH (Reuters) - Arab countries and Qatar should enter into direct talks to solve a diplomatic dispute, Russia s foreign minister said on a trip to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, urging all parties to restore regional unity. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups - a charge it denies. We have confirmed our position (that we are) in favor of settling the disagreements by means of negotiations, by directly expressing concerns and achieving solutions which would take into account the concerns and the interests of all parties, the minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a news conference in Jeddah. We are interested in all those mediatory efforts that are currently being made producing results and the unity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) being restored, he added. Kuwait and the United States have been mediating to reach a breakthrough in the three-month long crisis that has put the whole region on edge, and prompted Turkey to send troops to the wealthy Gulf state in a sign of support. Last week, Saudi Arabia suspended any dialogue with Qatar, accusing it of distorting facts , just after a report of a phone call between the leaders of both countries suggested a breakthrough in the Gulf dispute. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the news conference that Qatar needed to show seriousness in finding a solution to the crisis. We want clarity in the Qatari position, we want seriousness in finding a solution to this crisis that leads to the implementation of principles which all countries support: no supporting terrorism, no welcoming unwanted guests, no spreading hate, no intervention in others affairs, Jubeir said. The two ministers also discussed the planned de-escalation zones in Syria and unification of the Syrian opposition. The kingdom supports the creation of de-escalation zones and looks forward to starting a political process that will end the Syrian crisis, Jubeir said. President Bashar al-Assad s negotiators have not met directly with the opposition because there is no unified delegation from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) and two other groups, known as the Cairo and Moscow platforms, all claim to represent the opposition. | 0fake |
Conyers defiant as Democratic leaders call on him to resign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The three top Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives called on Democratic congressman John Conyers on Thursday to resign in light of the sexual harassment allegations he faces, but Conyers’ attorney said he was not thinking of stepping down. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the allegations were “serious, disappointing and very credible” as she shifted away from comments four days ago in which she said Conyers, the longest-serving House member, was an “icon” who deserved due process. “Zero tolerance means consequences for everyone,” she told reporters on Thursday. “The brave women who came forward are owed justice ... Congressman Conyers should resign.” Pelosi’s call was echoed by her second-in-command, Representative Steny Hoyer, and the No. 3 Democrat in the House, Representative James Clyburn. Like Conyers, Clyburn is known for his activism during the civil rights movement. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top House Republican, also said Conyers, who is 88 and has served since 1965, should step aside. An attorney for the congressman said Conyers would not be hounded from office. “It is not up to Nancy Pelosi,” attorney Arnold Reed told reporters in Detroit, Michigan. “Nancy Pelosi did not elect the congressman, and she sure as hell won’t be the one that tells the congressman to leave.” “That decision will be completely up to the congressman. He’s not thought of that,” Reed said. Instead, Conyers was focusing on his health after being hospitalized late on Wednesday after suffering dizziness, light-headedness and shortness of breath, Reed said. Conyers, who is facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, is one of numerous prominent men in U.S. politics, media and entertainment who have been accused in recent months of sexual harassment and misconduct. Others include former Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein, Democratic Senator Al Franken and Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Conyers has acknowledged settling with one former staffer over her claims of harassment, but he has denied wrongdoing. He has relinquished his post as the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and has said he will cooperate with the ethics probe. The resignation calls came after one of Conyers’ accusers, Marion Brown, detailed her allegations in a television interview on Thursday morning. Brown told NBC’s “Today” show that the congressman had “violated my body” and frequently propositioned her for sex. “No one should have to go through something like that, let alone here in Congress, so yes I think he should resign. He should resign immediately,” said Ryan. Reuters has not verified the allegations. Republican and Democratic House members introduced a bill on Wednesday that would bar public funds from being used to settle sexual harassment claims against members and require previously made payments to be made public. U.S. media have reported that Conyers used public funds to settle a claim with one of the women who had worked in his office. | 0fake |
Mattis plays down split between Trump, Tillerson on North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday played down an apparent split between the U.S. president and his top diplomat over outreach to North Korea, saying America’s focus was still on finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute with Pyongyang. President Donald Trump, who has traded insults and threats with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks, said on Sunday Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Tillerson, during a trip to China on Saturday, said the United States had direct channels of communication with the North and was probing Pyongyang to see if it was interested in dialogue. He expressed hope for reducing tensions with North Korea, which is fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. “I do not see the divergence as strongly as some ... have interpreted it,” Mattis said. Both Mattis and Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, broadly backed Tillerson’s efforts as they testified at the hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “President Trump’s guidance to both Secretary Tillerson and me has been very clearly that we would ... pursue the diplomatic effort to include with the various initiatives with China,” Mattis told a Senate hearing. “I believe that Secretary Tillerson is accurately stating that we are probing for opportunities to talk with the North. All we’re doing is probing. We’re not talking with them, consistent with the president’s dismay about not talking with them before the time is right.” Trump has vowed to halt North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and tensions have escalated in recent months, with Pyongyang conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3. It has also threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. Dunford, the top U.S. military officer, strongly backed Tillerson’s efforts to tighten an economic squeeze on North Korea. The international community’s sanctions will need to be strong enough to convince Kim he cannot survive in power unless he changes course, he said. Dunford said Kim sees possession of ballistic missiles and a nuclear capability as inextricably linked to regime survival, adding: “What I think Kim Jong Un needs to realize is that he cannot survive with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons because the international community will not allow him to survive.” Dunford said Kim was particularly sensitive to the flow of oil into North Korea, saying when there has been a cut-off in the past “there’s been a change in Kim Jong Un’s behavior.” “The fact is he needs economic resources external to the country to survive,” he said. U.S. Senator Jack Reed questioned whether some degree of communication was vital between Washington and Pyongyang, given the risks of miscalculation by either side that could lead to conflict. Mattis suggested that the Trump administration was exploring a host of ways to influence the North, including through diplomacy. “I think the president dispatching Secretary Tillerson to Beijing here within the past several days to carry messages and to look at the way we can work with them is the most accurate answer to your question, that in fact this is part of a whole ... integrated effort that we have underway right now,” Mattis said. It was not the first time the White House and State Department have seemed at odds on policy issues, but the White House has said Trump still had confidence in Tillerson. Trump has vowed to halt North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and tensions have escalated in recent months, with Pyongyang conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3. It has also threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. The fate of Americans held in North Korea is also a bone of contention. The Trump administration has demanded North Korea release three U.S. citizens it has detained: missionary Kim Dong Chul and academics Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song. The Trump White House and State Department have taken divergent stances on other foreign policy issues. When a dispute over Qatar erupted this year, Trump strongly backed Gulf Arab leaders who accuse Qatar of supporting Iran as well as Islamist militants. Trump accused Qatar of being a “high-level” funder of terrorism even as the Pentagon and Tillerson cautioned against the military, commercial and humanitarian effects of a boycott imposed by Arab states. Months into the dispute, Trump adopted a position more in line with that of the State Department. | 0fake |
Larry Summers: Paper By Trump Officials Navarro and Ross ’Economic Equivalent of Creationism’ - Breitbart | During a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg, Harvard Professor and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers criticized a paper written by Trump economic officials Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross as “well beyond voodoo economics. ” Summers said the transition to a new administration is a matter “of enormous uncertainty, and I don’t think that’s fully recognized by markets. ” Summers also criticized a paper written by White House National Trade Council head Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as “well beyond voodoo economics. ” And, “The logic of it, the arguments made, are so far out of the mainstream of any kind of responsible economic thinking that they’re the economic equivalent of creationism. ” He also compared the paper to scientists who don’t believe in global warming. ( Business Insider) Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 0fake |
STUNNER: Donald Trump is Next President of United States | 21st Century Wire says Republican candidate Donald J Trump will be the 45th President of the United States.History has been made, as he will be the first person ever to hold office despite having no previous political or military experience Trump s victory was definitive. By breaking through the seemingly impregnable Blue Wall in the northern rust belt of Wisconsin and Michigan, Trump effectively ran the table on Democrat favorite Hillary Clinton in what pundits are calling one of the biggest political realignments in decades. It s time for America to bind the wounds of division, said Trump in front on a crowd of thousands at his acceptance speech at the Hilton in downtown Manhattan.Trump s victory over Clinton is now regarded as the most stunning upset in US political history upending the establishment s false polling and the mainstream media s collusion with the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign. Neither the polls or the pundits saw this coming.It s reported that Hillary Clinton called Trump to concede the race before he addressed his supporters. I ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton, said Trump. She congratulated us, it s about us, on our victory. And I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. I mean, she fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a very long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. And I mean that very sincerely. Earlier this week, Trump predicted his victory, likening it to the UK s surprise BREXIT vote this past summer, saying it would be Brexit Plus Plus. After being written off by the media and the party establishment in the GOP primaries, and then again in the general election, Trump still managed to capture the imagination of one of the biggest insurgent voting blocks in electoral history. Before the results came in, yesterday 21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen commented on the key to Trump s success, explaining: Granted, half of the American population have been conditioned to hate Trump for various reasons. But many of them are missing the key point in the Trump story, just like they did in the Sanders story. Trump offered millions of voters something profound: the idea that even in today s insulated political fortress that is Washington DC, anything is still possible in American politics where an outsider can come in and shake up a stale and corrupt ruling class. Stay tuned for more updates.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Alabama court allows release of evidence against governor | (Reuters) - An Alabama state court on Friday rejected Governor Robert Bentley’s request to block a legislative committee from releasing evidence about wrongdoing stemming from his relationship with a former aide to be used for impeachment proceedings. A Montgomery County State Court judge was still hearing arguments on Friday evening over the governor’s motion to halt impeachment proceedings in the Alabama House of Representatives. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin the process on Monday. Bentley, who is accused of using state resources for personal use, has denied any wrongdoing and has refused to step down, as demanded by top political leaders. Bentley’s troubles began last year when recordings surfaced of him making suggestive remarks to a former senior adviser, Rebekah Mason, before his wife of 50 years filed for divorce in August 2015. Bentley has denied having a physical affair with Mason, who is married. She resigned as questions about the pair’s relationship began to dominate Alabama politics. On Wednesday, the Alabama Ethics Commission found that Bentley probably violated ethics and campaign finance laws. The Judiciary Committee’s report on Friday accused Bentley of ordering state law enforcement officers to track down copies of an embarrassing recording that suggested an affair with the Mason. It also accused him of retaliating against an official who discovered the relationship. The committee plans to begin its impeachment process on Monday. The panel’s process would lead to a recommendation to the full House on whether to impeach. Bentley remained defiant at news conference on Friday. “Once again, let me say, I do not plan to resign,” he told reporters without taking questions. “I have done nothing illegal. If the people want to know if I misused state resources, the answer is simply no, I have not.” The Ethics Commission on Wednesday said it found that Bentley had accepted a contribution and made a loan to his campaign outside the legal time frame, and that he used campaign funds to pay the legal fees of Mason, local media reported. The commission has declined to disclose the evidence of its finding because it was referring it to the Montgomery district attorney’s office, which could bring criminal charges against the governor. | 0fake |
Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked - The New York Times | SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo, already reeling from its September disclosure that 500 million user accounts had been hacked in 2014, disclosed Wednesday that a different attack in 2013 compromised more than 1 billion accounts. The two attacks are the largest known security breaches of one company’s computer network. The newly disclosed 2013 attack involved sensitive user information, including names, telephone numbers, dates of birth, encrypted passwords and unencrypted security questions that could be used to reset a password. Yahoo said it is forcing all of the affected users to change their passwords and it is invalidating unencrypted security questions — steps that it declined to take in September. It is unclear how many Yahoo users were affected by both attacks. The internet company has more than 1 billion active users, but it is not clear how many inactive accounts were hacked. Yahoo said it discovered the larger hacking after analyzing data files, provided by law enforcement, that an unnamed third party had claimed contained Yahoo information. Security has taken a back seat at Yahoo in recent years, compared to Silicon Valley competitors like Google and Facebook. Yahoo’s security team clashed with top executives, including the chief executive, Marissa Mayer, over the cost and customer inconvenience of proposed security measures. And critics say the company was slow to adopt aggressive security measures, even after a breach of over 450, 000 accounts in 2012 and series of spam attacks — a mass mailing of unwanted messages — the following year. “What’s most troubling is that this occurred so long ago, in August 2013, and no one saw any indication of a breach occurring until law enforcement came forward,” said Jay Kaplan, the chief executive of Synack, a security company. “Yahoo has a long way to go to catch up to these threats. ” Yahoo has made a steady trickle of disclosures about the 2014 hacking, which it has been investigating with the help of federal authorities. The company said Wednesday that it now believes the attacker in that breach, which it says was sponsored by a government, found a way to forge credentials to log into some users’ accounts without a password. Bob Lord, Yahoo’s chief information security officer, said in a statement that the actor in the 2014 attack had stolen Yahoo’s proprietary source code. Outside forensics experts working with Yahoo believe that the hackers used Yahoo’s code to access user accounts without their passwords by creating forged “cookies,” short bits of text that a website can store on a user’s machine. By forging these cookies, attackers were able to impersonate valid users, gaining information and performing actions on behalf of their victims. The company has not disclosed who it believes was behind the attack. In July, Yahoo agreed to sell its core businesses to Verizon Communications for $4. 8 billion. Verizon said in October that it might seek to renegotiate the terms of the transaction because of the hacking, which had not been disclosed to Verizon during the original deal talks. After the latest disclosure Wednesday, a Verizon spokesman, Bob Varettoni, essentially repeated that position. “As we’ve said all along, we will evaluate the situation as Yahoo continues its investigation,” he said. “We will review the impact of this new development before reaching any final conclusions. ” Mr. Lord said Yahoo had taken steps to strengthen Yahoo’s systems after the attacks. The company encouraged its users to change passwords associated with their Yahoo account and any other digital accounts tied to their Yahoo email and account. In the hacking disclosed Wednesday, Mr. Lord said Yahoo believed an “unauthorized third party” managed to steal data from one billion Yahoo user accounts. Mr. Lord said that Yahoo had not been able to identify how the hackers breached Yahoo’s systems, but that the company believed the attack occurred in August 2013. Changing Yahoo passwords will be just the start for many users. They will also have to comb through other services to make sure passwords used on those sites are not too similar to what they were using on Yahoo. And if they were not doing so already, they will have to treat everything they receive online, such as email, with an abundance of suspicion, in case hackers are trying to trick them out of even more information. Yahoo recommended that its customers use Yahoo Account Key, an authentication tool that verifies a user’s identity using a mobile phone and eliminates the need to use a password on Yahoo altogether. Security experts say the latest discovery of a breach that happened so long ago is another black mark for the company. “It’s not just one sophisticated adversary that gets in,” said Ben Johnson, and chief security strategist at Carbon Black, a security company. “Typically companies get compromised multiple times due to the same vulnerability or employee culture. ” Mr. Johnson added that the scale of the breaches is only increasing as companies store more and more troves of information in similar databases. “When you have these huge databases of information, it’s millions — and now billions — of accounts lost,” he said. | 0fake |
Rubio signals support for tax bill after child tax credit tweaks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Marco Rubio signaled his support for a sweeping tax bill on Friday, saying changes that had been made at his urging to increase the refundability of a child tax credit marked “a solid step toward broader reforms.” “Increasing the refundability of the Child Tax Credit from 55% to 70% is a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker,” Rubio, who had threatened to vote against the bill, said on Twitter. | 0fake |
Brazil Supreme Court sends new Temer graft charges to Congress | BRASILIA (Reuters) - A majority of the judges on Brazil s Supreme Court voted on Wednesday to send new graft charges against President Michel Temer to the lower house of Congress, which must authorize any trial of a sitting president. Last month, Temer s allies in Congress blocked the first corruption charge against the president, saving him from facing a possible Supreme Court trial that could have ousted him from office. | 0fake |
IMMIGRANT Ghanaian Woman Pleads Guilty To $3.6 Million in Food Stamp Fraud…Media Ignores Her Immigrant Status | How many more are out there doing the same thing as Vida? If we ever needed a wake up call that this SNAP program is out of control this is it! This is your money but it gets worse Though Causey s massive fraud was noted none of the media reports mentioned her immigrant status.* In 1980 the U.S. had 10,000 immigrants from Ghana and by 2000 we had 235,000 immigrants from Ghana.She was more than forthcoming about it in an interview in 2007 that described her as a Ghanian native.At Ghana Celebrities.com they had this to say about Causey:Trust certain Ghanaians to take their shenaniganism to the backyards of whoever opens his country for them and while at it, they are sure to make global headlines with their get rich schemes. A Ghanaian based in Worcester, USA has pleaded guilty to $3.6 million fraud after she was busted for screwing the United States food stamp benefit system, which is to help support people of low income.She attended Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana from 1991-1994, according to her LinkedIn page. She enrolled in Quinsigamond Community College between 2003-2005 in Worcester where she studied electronics.In 2011 her community college bragged about her and called her a success story. CONVENIENCE STORE FRAUDSTER TAKES $3.6 MILLION FROM THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERSConvenience store owner Vida Ofori Causey out of Worcester, Mass. was charged in federal court Monday after pleading guilty to $3.6 million worth of food stamp fraud.According to authorities, Causey abused the program between 2010 and 2014. Food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is run by local and federal agencies. It is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). She was able to scam the program by buying food stamp benefits from receipts for half the actual value. Causey purchased the benefits at a discounted value of approximately fifty cents for every SNAP dollar, a press release from Department of Justice stated. By so doing, Causey caused the USDA to electronically deposit into a bank account controlled by her the full face value of the SNAP benefits fraudulently obtained. As a result, recipients had cash on hand to buy restricted items. The restricted items could include alcohol, cigarettes and even drugs. The program is supposed to be used to provide food to low-come individuals and families. In total, Causey defrauded the USDA for approximately $3,638,900.SNAP is the nation s largest food-assistance program. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the program has increased from 17 million participants in 2000 to nearly 47 million in 2014.JUST A LITTLE MORE INFORMATION ON IMMIGATION FROM GHANA TO WORCESTER, MASS:The demographics of the City of Worcester underwent a considerable change between 2000 and 2010, according to a new report from the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. In Worcester s Demographic Trends: 2010 Census, the Research Bureau found that the city s African American population increased by 77 percent during the first decade of the 21st Century. During the same period, the Latino population grew by 45 percent and the Asian population grew by 31 percent as well.Meanwhile, the number of residents identifying as white decreased by more than 5 percent, even as the city s overall population grew by almost 5 percent to 181,045.Since bottoming out in 1980, Worcester s population has grown by nearly 20,000 residents, an increase of almost 12 percent over three decades.Surprising Demographic Shifts I think the most surprising was where people are coming from, said Roberta Schaefer, president and CEO of the Research Bureau.As of the 2010 Census, 3,401 residents, or 9.63 percent of the city s foreign-born population, immigrated from Brazil, earning the South American country the top spot on the list.With 3,356 foreign-born residents, or 9.51 percent of the immigrant population, originating from Vietnam, the country came in a close second. Ghana rounded out the top three as the home country for 3,049 residents, or 8.64 percent of the foreign-born population in Worcester.Read more: Go Local WorcesterRead more: Daily Caller | 1real |
OBAMA’S WAR ON COPS Takes Toll On Black Communities: Young Girl Cries Over #BlackLivesMatter Violence In Her Milwaukee Neighborhood [VIDEO] | Communities like Ferguson, Baltimore and now Milwaukee, didn t ask for this war on cops, it was thrust upon them. It was organized, paid for and well-orchestrated by Obama and other Democrats players from a variety of backgrounds. Former Attorney General Eric Holder was caught paying protesters with taxpayer money to come to Sanford, FL to march against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case that got Obama s Race War/War on Cops started back in March, 2012. With so many stories about the violence and crime coming out of Milwaukee, a bright ray of hope comes from a prayer rally created by a community torn apart by Obama s war on cops.A young girl bravely speaks out against the violence in her neighborhood. The sadness and despair in her shaking voice is truly heartbreaking. These people are trapped in a neighborhood overrun with crime, violence and despair. They re trapped in a neighborhood run by greedy Democrat politicians who have substituted government control for self-respect and dignity. They have taken away these citizens desire to do better, they have stripped them of the belief that they truly can escape their situation. They ve set up Planned Parenthood abortion mills on every corner to keep their population down and have given them just enough to sustain themselves, but not too much to escape government control.Rotten school officials and union leaders tasked with improving their education are only out for themselves, always looking for the next pay raise or special perk that comes with the job. What these self-serving politicians and school administrators are giving to these communities of mostly fatherless kids are a poor education, low self-esteem and no hope for a better life.These young adults are choosing a life of crime over a job. They re choosing to drop out of school instead of getting a job at a local fast-food restaurant while attending a local community college or technical training center. These young adults don t know, or understand the value of sacrificing today for a future tomorrow, because the Democratic Party has convinced them they don t need to worry about the future. They ve convinced them they don t need to be self-sufficient. The only thing they need is the government and that s enough. That s also the reason this frightened little girl seen in the video below, is trapped in this tragic neighborhood filled with violence and crime and may never get out as long as Democrats continue to fool the voters in these crime-ridden cities they are on their side.Thank goodness these citizens, (who are truly a ray of hope in these uncertain times) are able to turn to God for guidance and to ask for protection for their community, and for law enforcement officers who keep their neighborhoods safe. | 1real |
WATCH: CIA Operative Resigns In Disgust, Torches ‘Delusional’ Trump in EPIC Rant | The people who actually know what is at stake when it comes to national security under a Trump administration are not happy at all. That would be the likely reason for the unprecedented number of leaks coming from within the government regarding the Trump White House and the activities therein. One such person is long time CIA Operative and National Security Council Spokesman Edward Price.Price wrote an absolutely scathing indictment of Trump in the Washington Post regarding his inability to continue to work in the intelligence community with Trump as Commander-in-Chief, and even put out a video revealing what he thinks of the person currently leading the nation as well. While noting that he has been proudly serving his country for years regardless of which party controlled the White House, Price noted how Trump s issues go beyond anything he has seen before and could ever tolerate: I watched in disbelief when, during the third presidential debate, Trump casually cast doubt on the high-confidence conclusion of our 17 intelligence agencies, released that month, that Russia was behind the hacking and release of election-related emails. On the campaign trail and even as president-elect, Trump routinely referred to the flawed 2002 assessment of Iraq s weapons programs as proof that the CIA couldn t be trusted even though the intelligence community had long ago held itself to account for those mistakes and Trump himself supported the invasion of Iraq. Price then went on to go all in on Trump s disgraceful comments in front of the CIA Memorial Wall, where he should have been there to thank the intelligence community s officers for keeping us safe, and to honor those who so bravely did in the line of duty in service to all of us. Instead, Trump relitigated his election victory, and boasted about crowd sizes and criticized the press. Price says of that event: Trump s actions in office have been even more disturbing. His visit to CIA headquarters on his first full day in office, an overture designed to repair relations, was undone by his ego and bluster. Standing in front of a memorial to the CIA s fallen officers, he seemed to be addressing the cameras and reporters in the room, rather than the agency personnel in front of them, bragging about his inauguration crowd the previous day. Whether delusional or deceitful, these were not the remarks many of my former colleagues and I wanted to hear from our new commander in chief. Finally, Price gives us the straw that really broke the camel s back for him, the way Trump elevated white supremacist Steve Bannon on the NSC:The final straw came late last month, when the White House issued a directive reorganizing the National Security Council, on whose staff I served from 2014 until earlier this year. Missing from the NSC s principals committee were the CIA director and the director of national intelligence. Added to the roster: the president s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who cut his teeth as a media champion of white nationalism. It is great to see good patriots like Edward Price coming out so bravely and saying what needs to be said: That Trump is unfit to be president, and is making dangerous and reckless decisions as Commander-in-Chief. We can only hope that there is some mechanism in place for these good people to be able to refuse reckless orders from this clearly mentally ill narcissist who belongs in the nut house rather than in the White House.Watch Edward Price scorch Trump in absolutely epic form below:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Trump attacks Clinton on trade, says he should be handed victory | TOLEDO, Ohio; WINSTON SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump criticized Democrat Hillary Clinton on Thursday over her trade policies, saying she would handle trade deals so badly that the country should “just cancel the election” and name him the victor. Speaking to supporters in Toledo, Ohio, Trump said the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, had led to the outsourcing of thousands of Ohio jobs to Mexico, a practice he vowed to stop if elected president on Nov. 8. “We should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right?” he said. “What are we even having it for? Her policies are so bad.” Trump said he believed Clinton would seek passage of the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership, President Barack Obama’s signature Asian trade deal, which she now opposes. Trump’s remarks came as the New York businessman tries to steady rocky poll numbers amid a series of controversies and self-inflicted wounds. He has struggled to handle the fallout from the release of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video that showed the then-reality TV star talking on an open microphone about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. The video was taped only months after Trump married his third wife, Melania. Trump said on Thursday it was “certainly illegal” for NBC to release the tape and he left open the option of seeking legal action against the network after the election. Since the video’s release, a series of women have accused Trump of groping them or kissing them without their consent. Trump has called the allegations “absolutely false.” The latest RealClearPolitics poll average showed Clinton with a nearly 6-point national lead over Trump, fueled by declining support among women for his candidacy. Trump, without evidence, has blamed his sagging poll numbers on a rigged election, and said the media had fixed the opinion polls in order to inflate Clinton’s numbers. Numerous studies have shown that voter fraud in U.S. elections is very rare, and a number of prominent Republicans have denounced Trump’s claim that the system is unsound. While Trump campaigned in Ohio, a plane carrying his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, skidded off the runway after landing at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on Thursday night. There were no injuries, the Pence campaign said. Clinton on Thursday made her first joint campaign appearance with one of her most powerful supporters, first lady Michelle Obama, at a North Carolina rally to urge young people and women to vote. Clinton, a former first lady who lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama before becoming his secretary of state, praised Michelle Obama for standing up for the rights of girls and women worldwide, drawing a sharp contrast with her Republican rival. “I wish I didn’t have to say this. ... But indeed, dignity and respect for women and girls is also on the ballot in this election,” Clinton told a crowd of about 11,000. “And I want to thank our first lady for her eloquent, powerful defense of that basic value.” Michelle Obama’s stinging denunciation of Trump after a leaked 2005 video showed him making lewd remarks and bragging about groping women was seen by many as one of the campaign’s most striking condemnations of the New York businessman. Without naming Trump, Obama took him to task again in North Carolina, asking the crowd which candidate they wanted to represent their daughters from the White House. “We want a president who takes this job seriously, and has the temperament and maturity to do it well. Someone who is steady. Someone who we can trust with the nuclear codes,” Obama said. “I would not be here lying to you: I believe with all of my heart that Hillary Clinton will be that president,” she said. Although Michelle Obama was critical of Clinton during the hard-fought 2008 Democratic nominating race, any trace of bitterness appeared long behind them. The two women showed an easy rapport. They embraced and smiled. Obama called Clinton “my girl” and made a point of telling the crowd they were tight. “If people wonder: Yes, Hillary Clinton is my friend,” she said. Clinton promised to take good care of Obama’s White House vegetable garden if she won and wistfully praised the athletic first lady’s dancing skills. “One could only hope,” Clinton said. She also lauded Obama’s work for children and military families and in what was perhaps a nod to African-Americans she hopes will vote for her in the state, said Obama had faced challenges she had not as a presidential spouse. “Let’s be real. As our first African-American first lady, she’s faced pressures I never did, and she’s handled them with pure grace,” Clinton said to applause. Although a sometimes reluctant campaigner, the first lady has thrown herself into the race, and the Clinton campaign has deployed her strategically to increase support among young people and blacks, with whom she is especially popular. | 0fake |
[VIDEO] BUMBLING US DEFENSE SEC. CAN’T ANSWER QUESTION ABOUT Whether Or Not We’ll Defend The 60 Syrians We’re Training To Fight ISIS | Yeah you know the Obama regime is serious about taking down ISIS when they send in 60 Syrian rebels and leave them unprotected against the Assad regime. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) went straight for the jugular in questioning Defense Secretary Ash Carter at a Tuesday Senate hearing on the Obama administration s strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.McCain criticized President Obama s comments at the Pentagon on Monday citing recent progress against ISIS as delusional, and he ripped Carter over the Pentagon s slowness in training Syrian rebels.He said ISIS overall is gaining territory in Iraq and Syria and that there is no compelling reason to believe the administration s strategy is going to succeed in limiting the group. McCain disparaged the Pentagon for failing to provide military support to the few Syrian rebels it is training after Carter said the military would decide how to provide support once they are in the field. Via: The HillSenator John McCain: And is it true that with these people that you are training and equipping to fight in Syria that they re only there to fight ISIS and not Bashar Assad? Is that true?US Defense Secretary Carter: Ah..we re uh..yes, we are telling them to uh uh that we arming and uh .training them uh in the first instance, to go after ISIL and not uh..the Assad regime and that is our priority. McCain:So, in other words if they are barrel bombed by Bashar Assad, they are not Carter: No I think we have SOME obligation to them once they re inserted in the field. Again, we don t expect them to be McCain: Is that to defend them against barrel bombing?Carter: Well that decision will be made when we introduce fighters into the field.McCain: That s a small comfort to those people you re recruiting right now that that decision will be made later on.Is that fair to these young men to say: We are sending you in to fight ISIS only, and by the way, we will decide on the policy whether to defend you if you are barrel bombed?Carter: They know that we will provide support to them. Exactly what kind of support McCain: Does that mean you will defend them against Bashar Assad s barrel bombing?McCain s final question: So you re recruiting them, but not telling them that you ll defend them because you haven t made a decision yet? And yet you want to train them quickly and send them in? | 1real |
World War 3 Alert U S Navy’s new $20 billion WEAPON will dominate the South China Sea | November 6, 2016 at 10:19 am
Here again that bitch is downloading old videos from 2015 which is obviously NOT her work but she simply steal others video. All her videos are obviously outdated and she download them. What a thief. I invite everyone to unsubscribe from her channel which just bring confusion on what we are now. She can't even do a video from her search but simply steal others. | 1real |
CHAOS! Woman Says Trump RAPED Her at Age 13, Schedules Press Conference, Then FALLS APART! | 0 comments Reporters filled the room for the alleged victim’s Press Conference, then it went down like this… An anonymous woman, known as Jane Doe, scheduled a Press Conference today to speak publicly, for the first time, about her story of rape. She says that, in 1994, she was offered modeling work and money in exchange for her attendance to a series of parties. These parties were to be held at the home of Jeffrey Epstein, who is now a convicted, registered sex offender. Epstein served thirteen months of an eighteen month sentence for running a prostitution process that involved minors. It should be noted that former President William Jefferson Clinton, husband of Democrat Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton, has been tied to Jeffrey Epstein. Allegedly, Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s jet multiple times, and even ditched his Security Detail more than once to do so. Epstein is reported to run a vacation island where wealthy individuals can go to have sex with strangers. According to Jane Doe, she attended four parties at Epstein’s venue, and Donald Trump approached her in a sexual way at every party. Allegedly, Trump raped her at the fourth and final party that she attended. Now, one week before the Presidential Election of 2016, Jane Doe scheduled a Press Conference to speak of her experience, publicly, for the first time. Doe is represented by Lisa Bloom, daughter of celebrity ambulance-chasing lawyer Gloria Allred. She is asking for $75,000 in damages. Trump’s response to the allegation is clear. “The allegations are not only categorically false, but disgusting at the highest level and clearly framed to solicit media attention or, perhaps, are simply politically motivated. There is absolutely no merit to these allegations. Period.” The Press Conference was to happen today, but, unfortunately for Jane Doe’s lawyer, was cancelled. Lisa Bloom cancels press conference said Jane Doe against Trump accuser has received threats and is too scared pic.twitter.com/et5HnhfOJk
— Claudia Rosenbaum (@CJRosenbaum) November 2, 2016 According to the attorney: “Jane Doe has received numerous threats today, as have all the Trump accusers that I have represented,” Bloom told reporters. “She is living in fear. She has decided that she is too afraid to show her face. She has been here all day, ready to do it, but unfortunately, she’s in terrible fear.” So, too bad for Hillary, as well, the photo op did not happen. In the event that this event is new to you, here are “5 Fast Facts” about the case: 1. She Says Trump Raped Her When She Was 13 Years Old 2. Donald Trump Knew Jeffrey Epstein at the Time 3. The Statute of Limitations for Rape in New York Has Expired 4. Trump Calls the Allegation ‘Categorically False’ and ‘Disgusting’ 5. Her Attorney is Lisa Bloom, the Daughter of Gloria Allred Will this case amount to a hill of beans in the 2016 Election? Probably not, but who knows at this time. One thing is certain: more craziness is to come! | 1real |
Brazilians Speak Portuguese, but the Olympics Must Use French - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — Michaëlle Jean, secretary general of the International Organization of la Francophonie, spent a recent morning at the sultry Lagoa Olympic venue, where the world’s most exciting rowing was taking place. She was not so interested in what was happening on the water. “You will notice that the commentators are not speaking French,” she said, indignantly. “In the venue, none of the signs are in French. ” Monitoring the use of French at the Olympics is a frustrating and quixotic job, particularly when the Games are being held in a country preoccupied with matters like street crime, economic chaos and how to cram thousands of excitable spectators into the beach volleyball venue. But Rule 23 of the Olympic charter states that the Games have two official languages, and Ms. Jean’s organization, which represents 80 Francophone countries, is determined to make sure nobody forgets that one of them is French (the other is English). “It’s a struggle each time you have the Olympic Games, in a different country and a different city,” Ms. Jean said. “We must be there to make sure the French signs and documents and information are there. We have 3, 000 athletes and a lot of people in the public from Francophone countries. ” Rule 23 is no accident. As the founder of the modern Olympic Games at the turn of the 20th century, Pierre de Coubertin got to choose what language they would be in, and he was French. But as the century wore on, and English became more dominant as a common international language, French usage at the Games began to fall by the wayside. This alarmed the world and the Francophonie organization, one of whose goals, it says, is to “combat the perverse effects of globalization on languages. ” At each Olympics since Athens in 2004, the group has appointed a person known as le Grand Témoin — the Great Witness — whose job is to make the case for, and keep track of, French usage at the Games. This year’s Grand Témoin is the internationally celebrated jazz saxophonist Manu Dibango of Cameroon. (Ms. Jean, a former governor general of Canada, had the job in London in 2012.) Responsibilities include negotiating with the International Olympic Committee and the host country, closely monitoring the French situation at the Games, and producing a report afterward. The reports tend to reflect a mixture of hopefulness and dismay. “In Beijing, all Olympic signage appeared first in French, then English and Chinese,” the Sochi report says, for instance. “In Sochi, the signage addressing the international audience was trilingual, but that addressing the spectators appeared in Russian and English. ” In addition, it pointed out, “the arrival of some new sports to the Olympic program (slopestyle and halfpipe) was not accompanied by a terminology sufficient for these disciplines to be discussed with French terms in the media. ” The Olympics are “obviously a very important showcase,” said Mr. Dibango, who is also serving as a cultural ambassador, performing with Brazilian and musicians in Rio as a way to promote the international nature of French. “I see the job as being the of the 300 million people around the world who speak French,” Mr. Dibango said. The average member of the public may have little idea that any of this is going on, but the Francophonie organization takes the issue so seriously that no sooner does one Olympics end than it starts negotiating the terms of the next one. Early discussions about French at the Rio Games were positive, Ms. Jean said, because the Brazilian government was sympathetic and because Carlos Nuzman, the president of the Brazilian organizing committee, speaks fluent French. But then the economy collapsed and the friendly government fell. When the new government came in, it had a lot on its mind, and that did not include the use of French at the Olympics. As the day of the opening ceremony approached, the Francophonie organization had no idea how the evening — traditionally a fine time for the world to hear and appreciate a lot of beautifully enunciated French spoken by important international officials — would go. It turned out to be a runaway success. All the main announcements and speeches were delivered in French, along with English and Portuguese. Even better, Ms. Jean said, “everything was announced first in French — did you notice?” The opening ceremony is one thing the rest of the Olympics is another. Ms. Jean visited the athletes’ village, only to discover that there were signs in the cafeteria but nowhere else. She attributed it to Rio’s budget woes — translation is expensive — and the frantic nature of preparations. While she understood, she said, “We were very disappointed at the situation. ” Visitors to the Games, too, will see that the thousands of signs at the various event venues are printed only in English and Portuguese, not in French. (Not that the English signs are anything to get excited about, seeming at times to owe more to Google Translate than to a sentient being. “Press the wheelchair button if you have locomotion issues,” a sign next to an elevator at the media center reads. ) At the rowing venue on Saturday, the events moved along so quickly that sometimes it was all the announcers could do to pack in the commentary in both Portuguese and English, never mind any other languages. In the stands, several ( ) spectators said that, to be honest, language was not at the forefront of their minds. “I hadn’t really thought about it,” said Amy Burba, 44, of Virginia. “But I heard the people behind us speaking French. ” Scott MacRae, a Scottish chef who was holding a beer and wearing his Union Jack on his head as a form of sun protection, said that except at the opening and closing ceremonies, French should be kept out of the Olympics. “I like the French passion,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s appropriate to use French at the Olympics when you have them in a country that is not France. ” Several rowing officials at the site bemoaned the loss of French not just at the Olympics but also in sports (and in the world) in general. Americans in particular, they said, do not speak other languages and do not really want to. French used to be the official language of rowing’s governing body, FISA, but it is now used less frequently, said Jean Christophe Rolland, FISA’s president. Even FISA, whose acronym stands for Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Aviron, has had to adopt a zippy English World Rowing, which it uses for “commercial purposes” but which is slipping more and more into the rowing lexicon, he said. As Mr. Rolland talked nostalgically about the days when rowing meetings were held in French and English speakers had to listen to the translation on headphones, the Rolling Stones song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” began playing over the loudspeakers. “It’s a daily fight,” he said. “A daily fight. ” | 0fake |
MICHAEL FLYNN’S LAWYER Releases Statement Scorching “Highly Politicized Witch Hunt” | 1real | |
Highlights: The Trump presidency on March 31 at 6:19 p.m. EDT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday: Trump backs a decision by his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to seek immunity in congressional investigations of possible ties between his campaign and Russia, but there is no immediate sign the request will be granted. The Trump administration slams China on a range of trade issues from its chronic industrial overcapacity to forced technology transfers and longstanding bans on U.S. beef and electronic payment services. Beijing seeks to play down tensions with the United States and put on a positive face ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first meeting with Trump next week. Senate Democrats step closer to having enough votes to block a confirmation vote on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with three more Democratic senators coming out against Neil Gorsuch for the lifetime job as a justice. Trump seeks to push his plan for fair trade and more manufacturing jobs back to the top of his agenda by ordering a study into the causes of U.S. trade deficits and a clampdown on import duty evasion. Trump has neither a clear White House tax plan nor adequate staff yet to see through a planned tax overhaul, according to interviews with people in the administration, in Congress and among U.S. tax experts. Democrats are trying to counter Trump’s boldest move yet to defang the U.S. consumer financial watchdog, with 40 current and former lawmakers defending the agency in court. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific integrity watchdog is reviewing whether EPA chief Scott Pruitt violated the agency’s policies when he said in a television interview he does not believe carbon dioxide is driving global climate change, according to an email seen by Reuters. Trump will seek to rebuild the U.S. relationship with Egypt at a meeting on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi focused on security issues and military aid, a senior White House official says. Trump will host Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House next week to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants, the Syria crisis and advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House says. A U.S. judge approves a $25 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that claimed fraud against Trump and his Trump University real estate seminars. | 0fake |
Is Nothing Sacred? Ivanka Trump’s Passover Family Photo Has Been Exposed As A Fake | There are big scandals like Trump s ties to Russia, his repeated flaunting of conflict of interest violations, the nepotism and then there are small ones. It s the small ones that are most disturbing because of how completely avoidable they are. The Trump family just assumes you re too stupid to notice.Here s a particularly galling example:Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump released a family photo during Passover. That, in and of itself, wouldn t be newsworthy except for the fact that it was a much-needed break from the Trump administration s repugnant treatment of the Jewish community. Kushner s Jewish faith is extremely important to Trump because his staff is rife with anti-Semitic thinkers.Trump s advisor Steve Bannon is a life-long anti-Semite, whose own wife once said he refused to allow his daughters to attend a school with Jewish kids. Trump s Press Secretary Sean Spicer went on a nonsensical Holocaust denial rant and only apologized hours later when the nation of Israel openly said he needed to resign. Trump s inner circle includes a guy who pledged an oath of loyalty to a pro-fascist Nazi-allied group. In the middle of all of this, Trump no-showed on a Passover seder dinner the White House hosted.So a photograph of Trump s daughter and son-in-law, two key members of his team, celebrating a Jewish holiday might send a positive message to the country. However, like clockwork, even Kushner s Passover family photo quickly turned into something offensive.It turns out that the photo was not, in fact, taken during his Passover celebration. It is an old photo taken on what seems like the Sunday after the inauguration. CNN s Betsy Klein noticed that fact when she realized the entire Trump clan was wearing the same outfits they were photographed in during services at the National Cathedral.It appears the Passover Trump-Kushner family photo was taken the Sunday after inauguration following services at the National Cathedral: pic.twitter.com/p0htM7V8Pi Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) April 13, 2017Just so incredibly lazy. And unfortunately, that s the message they are sending.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
USDA chief says farmers looking ahead to possible Cuba markets | LIMA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday that farm officials want to lay the groundwork so American agricultural exporters can seize new opportunities in Cuba if the trade embargo on the country is lifted. The normalization of trade relations would allow U.S. farmers to use lower transportation costs to edge in on the European Union’s food exports to Cuba, Vilsack said. President Barack Obama has been using his executive powers to chip away at the half-century-old trade embargo, imposed on the communist-ruled nation in 1960, but cannot lift it without approval from Congress that is unlikely under current Republican leadership. “There are still preliminary steps that can be taken to prepare for that day,” Vilsack said in an interview in Peru. “When it happens, the United States will be in a very good position to reclaim a portion of the market we’ve lost.” Vilsack cited soybeans, rice, poultry and biofuels as new markets U.S. farmers could tap in Cuba, which in turn could sell organic products to its former Cold War foe. The Obama administration is asking Congress for $1.5 million for on-the-ground studies into challenges to agricultural trade in Cuba, from pests to a diplomatic void left by decades of hostile relations. “We have not had people on the ground,” Vilsack said. “We need to develop relationships with the people in Cuba so we know who to do business with and who actually makes the deals.” Vilsack, who visited Cuba last month, said state agricultural commissioners and secretaries have also been traveling to the island on trade missions. “They have been down to Cuba and they have come back with small contracts for commodities,” Vilsack said. Vilsack said farmers were the most excited about the reopening of relations with Cuba, once a global sugarcane powerhouse. The U.S. would aim to meet 50 percent of Cuba’s food and agricultural needs if trade resumes fully, up from less than 15 percent now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement to Reuters after the interview. Vilsack also said he was optimistic Obama would persuade Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal before the end of his term, despite the recent surge in anti-trade rhetoric in presidential campaigns. “The president is very committed to getting it done and he intends to work as long and hard as he needs to ultimately get it passed,” Vilsack said. | 0fake |
EXCLUSIVE: “AMERICA 2021” Hilarious Poem Describes What America Looks Like After 4 Years Of President Trump | Trump is off and running now, and I m here to confirm,There ll be a lot of changes by the end of his first term. Let s put the turbulence on hold and have a little fun . . . Here s my look at where we ll be in 2021.Trump s been re-elected with another strong campaign, Defeating Oprah Winfrey and her running mate . . . McCain. The wall has been completed and Obamacare is dead. America is great again . . . just like the Donald said.The president would not allow a migrant infestation, So, coastal California has become a separate nation. They opened up their borders and adopted the Quran, Made Ashley Judd their leader . . . and they called it Libastan.With Libastan seceding . . . and the lipstick off the pig, Waters and Pelosi had to find another gig. They both went into acting and received a handsome fee, For starring in the new release of Dumb and Dumber 3 .NBC and CNN have all but gone away. The day fake news was outlawed . . . they had nothing left to say. They doubled down on Trump and non-existent Russian spies. Now, Chuck Todd is at McDonalds . . . in the drive-up serving fries.And, wacky Rachel Maddow still has all the breaking news, Like the loss of the Titanic . . . and the death of Howard Hughes. Tonight, she has a bombshell scoop that s sure to make her shine . . . . . . Trump got a parking ticket back in 1989.Hillary has settled down with roommate Cheryl Mills. She keeps a secret server in their cell at Bedford Hills. There s little cause to worry on her 20-year vacation , She had Slick Willy neutered prior to incarceration.Al Gore waits for the ice to melt outside his padded room. An inconvenient outcome for his prophecy of doom. The world no longer buys the hoax that he has tried to sell em. The only thing that s melting is his unused cerebellum.For years, we ve speculated on the mental health of Schumer. The doctors then announced that in his butt there was a tumor. All the surgeons gathered round, and despite initial dread, When they looked a little closer, they could see it was his head.Fauxcahontas Warren has been banished by her tribe. She spent her people s wampum, and accepted heap big bribe. They say she spoke with forked tongue, and did some crazy deeds. She traded Massachusetts for a blanket and some beads.The pigment-challenged Dolezal is back to being white. Despite a valiant effort, she proved all her critics right. Three decades in a tanning booth . . . she failed at getting blacker. Everybody knows you don t put chocolate on a cracker.There s lots of stars in Tinseltown no longer on the clock. The earthquake they called Trump created quite an aftershock. Then came a tsunami of depression and despair, The kind of feeling we all get when we see Whoopi s hair.Entertainment s better now that Hollywood is gone. Billy Ray has moved away . . . likewise, his demon spawn. Yes, Miley pledged allegiance to the U.K. s Union Jack But, once the British got a taste . . . they tried to give her back.Rosie still plays Bannon for the skits on SNL. She bears a close resemblance . . . too much time at Taco Bell. She s mean and unappealing, and to use a metaphor . . . She looks like the result of cloning Slash with Michael Moore.Yes, the snowflakes are all melting and their binkies laid to waste. A fortune spent on therapy and loyalties misplaced. Now the country s being run by those that they deplore. There may not be a snowflake left by 2024.This poem (America 2021) is republished here with permission and attribution to author Tony Olson About the Author: Tony Olson is an American journalist, poet and bestselling author. His book SPIN GAME: Exposing Political Lies and Tactics was an Amazon Top Ten Bestseller. Tony also authored the recent poems Twas The Night Before Inauguration and Ode To Liberal Lunacy , both of which went viral. Tony currently lives in Boise, Idaho. | 1real |
Google to Get Fiat Chrysler Minivans for Self-Driving Tests - The New York Times | DETROIT — The development of cars in recent years has been primarily a competition between technology companies and automakers working independently of each other. But that dynamic changed markedly on Tuesday, when Google said it would expand its testing of autonomous vehicles by installing its technology in a fleet of minivans made by Fiat Chrysler. The deal is the most prominent example yet of a Silicon Valley company collaborating with a traditional automaker on vehicles. It could also prove to be a breakthrough in the generally wary relationship between technology and auto companies, and prompt more collaborative efforts. The deal is a major departure for Google, which previously had chosen to work mostly on its own in creating and testing vehicles. For Fiat Chrysler, the arrangement allows the company to gain access to Google’s expertise in driverless cars rather than develop its own technology. Analysts said Fiat Chrysler needed a partner to catch up to other car companies that are investing heavily in vehicles. “It couldn’t have picked a better one than Google, which is far down the road with cars,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with the firm Autotrader. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which calls for Fiat Chrysler to provide Google with 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans built specifically to accommodate features. The companies said that Fiat Chrysler would design and engineer the minivans, and that Google would then integrate sensors and computer systems into the vehicles. The arrangement is the first time Google has worked directly with an automaker to adapt vehicles for purposes. Until now, Google had used an automotive supplier to build its own prototypes. John Krafcik, the chief executive of the Google Car Project, said the deal was a critical step in efforts to create autonomous vehicles for everyday driving. He said the collaboration “will accelerate our efforts to develop a fully car that will make our roads safer and bring everyday destinations within reach for those who cannot drive. ” Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler’s chief executive, has been outspoken in recent months about his company’s desire to form technology partnerships, partly to defray the cost of developing systems on its own. “The experiences both companies gain will be fundamental to delivering automotive technology solutions that ultimately have commercial benefits,” he said. Other automakers, such as General Motors and Ford Motor, are also moving rapidly to develop cars. G. M. for example, has agreed to buy the technology company Cruise Automation to begin outfitting its cars with systems. At the same time, federal regulators are working on setting new guidelines for vehicles. Google is part of a coalition — which includes Ford and Volvo — that supports swift passage of rules to allow for driverless cars on the nation’s roadways. Google is testing its own prototypes in California and elsewhere. The company has also modified sport utility vehicles produced by Toyota to accommodate systems. But the Pacifica hybrid minivan is a larger vehicle that can accommodate more passengers. With features like electronically controlled sliding doors, the van could be well suited to ferrying larger groups of people without the need for an actual driver. There was no indication that Fiat Chrysler had an inside track to mass produce vehicles for Google one day. For now, the collaboration is said to be strictly for testing purposes. The companies said their engineering teams would work together at an unnamed location in Michigan. “It is a deal that should benefit both parties,” said Jack Nerad, an analyst with the firm Kelley Blue Book. Mr. Nerad said adapting a hybrid vehicle like the Pacifica was a logical extension of Google’s testing efforts. For Fiat Chrysler, the deal highlights the attributes of the new version of its bellwether minivan, which is going on sale this year. “It’s hard to look at this as anything but a ” he said. The nation’s top regulator, Mark Rosekind, said last week that technology had the potential to reduce traffic fatalities — currently 33, 000 a year — on American roads. The technology has also been supported by those who advocate vehicles for disabled people who cannot operate a car, as well as by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving that aim to reduce accidents involving alcohol consumption. Opponents of fully autonomous vehicles have said the safety of driverless cars has yet to be proved, and they cite wrecks involving Google prototypes on public streets. Currently, there are no federal rules that expressly prohibit autonomous vehicles. But California has proposed that cars require an actual driver behind the wheel to take control if autonomous systems fail to operate safely. | 0fake |
Iran's president says U.S. election offers only bad or worse choice | DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday the choice offered to voters in the U.S. presidential election was between “bad and worse” and that harsh exchanges in the debates pointed to a lack of morality in America, Tehran’s arch adversary. “America claims it has more than 200 years of democracy, and they have had 50 presidential elections, but there is no morality in that country,” Rouhani said in a speech, carried live by state television. “You saw the presidential debates, how they talk..., how they accuse and mock (each other),” Rouhani told a crowd gathered at a stadium during his visit to the central city of Arak. Rouhani said a head of state had asked him during his visit to the United Nations in September about who he preferred between Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. “I said should I prefer bad over worse or worse over bad?,” said Rouhani, a pragmatist politician and cleric who may run for reelection in Iran’s presidential polls in May 2017. He did not say to which candidate his descriptions referred. | 0fake |
Release of House tax bill delayed until Thursday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will delay the release of long-awaited tax legislation by one day until Thursday, the head of the chamber’s tax-writing panel said late on Tuesday. “In consultation with President Trump and our leadership team, we have decided to release the bill text on Thursday,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in a statement. “We are pleased with the progress we are making and we remain on schedule to take action and approve a bill at our Committee beginning next week,” the Republican lawmaker added. In a tweet on Tuesday night before Brady’s statement, President Donald Trump said: “The Republican House members are working hard (and late) toward the Massive Tax Cuts that they know you deserve. These will be biggest ever!” Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, are looking to tax reform for their first legislative victory since Trump took office in January. Democrats say the Trump tax plan is a giveaway to corporations and the rich. Two sources with knowledge of the discussions said earlier on Tuesday that the bill, which had been expected on Wednesday, would emerge a day later to give lawmakers additional time to address differences over the tax treatment of retirement savings accounts and a deduction for state and local tax payments. Trump and other top Republicans have proposed a plan that would cut taxes for corporations, small businesses and individuals by up to $6 trillion over a decade and pay for the reductions in part by eliminating trillions of dollars in deductions and other tax breaks that are often fiercely defended. The U.S. tax code has not undergone a major overhaul since 1986, when Republican Ronald Reagan was president. Earlier on Tuesday, House Republicans appeared to be nearing a deal on state and local taxes that would preserve a federal deduction for property taxes but not income taxes, potentially removing a major obstacle. Republican Representative Tom Reed of New York said the “sweet spot” compromise was gaining support among high-tax state lawmakers who have signaled their opposition to a proposal to repeal the state and local tax, or SALT, deduction. Another New York Republican saw things differently. “I’m still inclined to be opposed to it. The income tax is a major factor,” said Representative Peter King. “This is going to affect our country for the next 20 years, for good or bad. I think the last time we did tax reform, there was like two years of debate. We’re going to have 10 days,” he said. The SALT compromise would reduce, but not eliminate, a disproportional tax impact on upper middle-class families in high-income tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California. Those states send enough Republicans to Congress to derail a tax bill. The House bill is expected to cut the top corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and phase out the estate tax paid by the wealthiest taxpayers over two or three years. It may also set a repatriation rate for U.S. businesses with profits overseas, according to a source familiar with a Tuesday meeting between House Speaker Paul Ryan and conservative groups. It is also likely to set a 15 percent minimum tax on active foreign income of U.S. corporations, according to lobbyists with knowledge of negotiations. As the Trump administration escalated its pro-tax plan campaign, Vice President Mike Pence met with Republicans on Tuesday, while Trump hosted industry leaders and then Ryan, at the White House. Trump said at the White House he wanted Congress to pass tax reform bills by the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 23. A proposal to limit how much money Americans can direct to their 401(k) retirement accounts and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) on a pre-tax basis is meeting resistance, including from fund managers who handle 54 million such accounts. Republicans initially proposed capping tax-free 401(k) contributions at $2,400, down from $18,000 in 2017, but the figure is in flux. “We are either going to strengthen the 401(k)’s and IRA’s so people can save more, or we will leave them as is,” Brady told reporters. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, one of a few Democrats being courted by Republicans, said she could not support lowering the cap on tax-free retirement contributions. “I will not vote for that,” she told reporters. | 0fake |
State of Washington law paves way for organic marijuana market | (Reuters) - Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed a bill that paves the way for the state to create what is believed to be the first system in the United States to certify marijuana as organic. The sponsor of the bill, Republican Senator Ann Rivers, said marijuana certified as organically grown is likely to be on sale in Washington in about a year and a half. Washington is among a handful of U.S. states where voters approved the sale of recreational marijuana. Washington was the second state to begin legal recreational pot sales, in mid-2014, after its voters in 2012 approved it. “This is consumer-driven,” Rivers told Reuters by phone on Tuesday night. “As we have moved forward in the legal marijuana market, we’re hearing people say, ‘We don’t want any pesticides, fungicides, none of that stuff in our weed.’” The new law “creates a voluntary program for the certification and regulation of organic marijuana products,” to be administered by the Washington agriculture department, according to a state analysis of the new law. Rivers said the “heavy lifting” in certifying marijuana has been done by the system of doing the same for a multitude of food products on supermarkets shelves across America. That process just needs to be adapted for pot, she said. Rivers said that legal recreational marijuana is “the gift that keeps on giving....this year, we’ll make $768 million” in revenue for the state of Washington. This pays for drug education and drug addiction treatment as well as public education, she said. Organic pot was just one of a myriad of marijuana-related measures in the bill. Many state legislators wanted to vote for only one marijuana-related bill rather than have to go on the record favoring marijuana several times, Rivers said. The November 2012 measure to allow recreational marijuana in Washington passed 56 percent to 44 percent. While it is legal for adults to smoke marijuana in Washington, it is not legal to grow industrial hemp. The new law allows for the study of a method to allow hemp to be grown and used for industrial purposes. Last week, Vermont’s legislature approved a bill to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Unless the measure is vetoed, Vermont would be the first state to legalize pot without a public vote. Voters have approved legal recreational marijuana use in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, California, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. | 0fake |
Jeb Bush in 2016: The good, the bad and the ugly | Jeb Bush announced Tuesday morning that he has set up an exploratory committee to pursue running for president. Virtually every person who takes this step ultimately throws his or her hat in the ring. It’s only a matter of time.
How should we assess Jeb Bush’s candidacy?
Polls show him at or near the top of the prospective Republican nominees for 2016. The recent McClatchy-Marist poll has Mitt Romney and Bush leading with 19 and 15 percent respectively. And a PPP poll has Bush ahead of Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Paul Ryan and both Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
Despite this, Bush by no means has an insurmountable lead. And while the Bush name for some is a positive and will help Jeb enormously, for others it is an unalterable negative both because of prior history, ideology and perceived performance in office.
That said, there is one constituency that I fully expect to support Jeb Bush: the donors, bundlers and those who pursue independent expenditure. There’s every reason to believe that this community – the money community – will rally behind Bush’s candidacy and given the importance of independent expenditure political action committees in the last presidential election, it’s fair to assume that between his own campaign committee and outsiders, he will be the best funded candidate in the Republican field.
Nevertheless, it will be far from a cakewalk for Bush in the primary. His problems are three fold.
First, his ardent support for Common Core does not sit well with many in his party. Second, he has come out in support of comprehensive immigration reform, a hot button issue today with the GOP and its supporters, especially in light of President Obama’s executive action last month. And third, he’s considered tax increases as part of an overall reform package to help balance the budget in the past – anathema to those that control the GOP today.
For all these reasons, it may be hard for Tea Party Republicans and the right wing of the party more generally, to support his candidacy.
This is not to say that Jeb Bush will not be smart enough to try to neutralize these potential disadvantages. He surely will. To this end, Bush’s thoughtful and reasonable message at the Wall Street CEOs conference was a positive and uplifting one, exactly what the Republican Party needs to go mainstream and what the Tea Party itself abhors.
Should Bush make the general election he will be a compelling candidate against the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. The most recent poll numbers show the race between them tightening, and I suspect the campaign itself will reflect that reality.
Put another way, both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton represent the center of their parties and both are practical politicians, if nothing else.
They’re both also smart and serious about the issues and we can expect, if they’re the nominees, to have a thoughtful debate about America’s future with the possibility of candidate agreement on a number of issues, something we haven’t seen in decades.
I know Jeb Bush and I know Hillary Clinton. They are both considerate people, committed to the broader interests of the American people regardless of political party.
Jeb Bush’s entry into the race prospectively gives the Republicans their strongest candidate and possible nominee. It also gives the American people the prospect of the best debate and dialogue we’ve had in a very long time. | 0fake |
FBI obtains warrant to examine Clinton emails | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators have secured a warrant to examine newly discovered emails related to Hillary Clinton’s private server, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday, as a prominent Democrat accused FBI Director James Comey of breaking the law by trying to influence the election. The warrant will allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to examine the emails to see if they are relevant to its probe of the private email server used for government work by Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Comey came under heavy pressure from Democrats on Sunday to quickly provide details of the emails, as Clinton allies worried the prolonged controversy could extend beyond the Nov. 8 election and cast a shadow over a Clinton transition if she wins the White House. Comey’s disclosure of the email discovery in a letter to Congress on Friday plunged the final days of the White House race between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump into turmoil. Clinton had opened a recent lead over Trump in national polls, but it had been narrowing even before the email controversy resurfaced. The unexpected turn in the email controversy shook financial markets’ conviction of a Clinton victory in the election and the U.S. dollar slipped against major currencies in early Asian trading on Monday. U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Comey on Sunday suggesting he violated the Hatch Act, which bars the use of a federal government position to influence an election. “Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law,” Reid, a senator from Nevada, said in the letter to Comey. Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook questioned Comey’s decision to send a letter notifying Congress of the email review before he even knew whether they were significant or relevant. Comey’s letter was “long on innuendo, short on facts,” Podesta said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, and accused the FBI chief of breaking precedent by disclosing aspects of an investigation so close to the election. “We are calling on Mr. Comey to come forward and explain what’s at issue here,” Podesta said, adding the significance of the emails was unclear. “He might have taken the first step of actually having looked at them before he did this in the middle of a presidential campaign, so close to the voting,” Podesta said. Comey’s letter was sent over the objections of Justice Department officials. But those officials did not try to stop the FBI from getting the warrant, a source familiar with the decision said, because they are interested in the FBI moving quickly on the probe. Sources close to the investigation have said the latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The FBI already had a warrant to search Weiner’s laptop in that probe, but needed a warrant to look at the material that might be related to Clinton. Sources familiar with the matter said FBI agents working on the Weiner investigation saw material on a laptop belonging to Weiner that led them to believe it might be relevant to the investigation of Clinton’s email practices. Trump has highlighted the issue as proof for his argument that Clinton is corrupt and untrustworthy. “We have one ultimate check on Hillary’s corruption and that is the power of the vote,” Trump told a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday. “The only way to beat the corruption is to show up and vote by the tens of millions.” Comey, who announced in July that the FBI’s long investigation of Clinton’s emails was ending without any charges, said in his letter the agency would review the newly surfaced emails to determine their relevance to the investigation of her handling of classified information. Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, said he filed a complaint over Comey’s actions with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations. “We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power,” he said in a column in the New York Times. But Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia Law School, called the allegations that Comey improperly tried to influence the election “inane.” “Comey’s critics cannot show his letter violated the Hatch Act unless they can prove that the FBI director was intending to influence the election rather than inform Congress, which was Comey’s stated aim,” said Richman, who said he had advised Comey on law enforcement policy but not this issue. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Sunday showed Clinton with a statistically insignificant 1-point national lead on Trump. About a third of likely voters in the poll said they were less likely to back Clinton given Comey’s disclosure. Clinton, who told a Florida rally on Saturday that Comey’s letter was “deeply troubling,” did not address the issue directly on Sunday but referred vaguely to voters overcoming a “distraction.” “There’s a lot of noise and distraction but it really comes down to the kind of future we want and who can get us there,” she told a packed gay nightclub in Wilton Manors, Florida, where hundreds of supporters who could not get in lined the streets outside. “We don’t want a president who would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn marriage equality,” she said. | 0fake |
Timeline: Pivotal moments in Trump's presidential campaign | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s successful campaign for the presidency may have rewritten the political playbook. Here are key moments from his ascent. * June 16 - Trump descends an escalator in the marble-lined atrium of Trump Tower in Manhattan to announce his campaign and perhaps his best-known campaign pledge: to build a “great, great wall” on the southern border with Mexico. * July - Although his bid is initially dismissed as a sideshow by many commentators and journalists, opinion polls start showing Trump taking a lead in a crowded field of 17 Republican contenders. * Dec. 7 - Trump calls for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representative can figure out what is going on.” The call followed deadly attacks in Paris, for which Islamic State claimed responsibility. * Feb. 1 - Despite being ahead in the polls, Trump comes in second in the Iowa caucuses, the first state nominating contest, losing to Ted Cruz, a senator from Texas popular among evangelical Christians. * March 1 - Trump wins seven of the 11 states that vote on so-called Super Tuesday. * March 3 - Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in 2012, delivers a scathing speech calling Trump a “con man,” becoming an early mover in a wave of party leaders, including its living former presidents, who publicly reject Trump. * March 11 - Trump continues to draw huge crowds to sometimes volatile rallies, where protesters and Trump supporters would sometimes come to blows, but a rally in Chicago had to be canceled at the last minute amid sometimes violent protests outside the venue. * May 3 - Trump wins Indiana, becoming the party’s presumptive nominee after Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich withdraw from the race. * May 26 - Trump wins a majority of delegates, securing his nomination and foreclosing the possibility of a contested convention. * June 20 - Trump fires his original campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort takes over the running of the campaign. * July 15 - Trump announces Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. A far more traditional Republican figure, Pence often describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.” * July 21 - Trump accepts the Republican Party’s nomination on the final day of the party’s convention in Cleveland. * Aug. 17 - Trump taps Stephen Bannon, the chairman of the right-wing news website Breitbart News, as his campaign’s chief executive and promotes senior adviser Kellyanne Conway to the post of campaign manager. Days later, Manafort, who was facing controversy over his previous consulting work in Ukraine, quits the campaign. * Sept. 1 - Trump flies to Mexico to meet with the country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, culminating in a joint news conference. A brief diplomatic scuffle follows Trump’s return, where he and the Mexican president dispute whether or not they discussed Trump’s plan to have Mexico pay for the border wall. * September/October - Trump clashes with Clinton before an audience of tens of millions in three presidential debates that are marked by their unusually ugly tone - Trump at one point said Clinton should be in jail. Public polls show that most Americans thought Clinton prevailed in all three debates. * Oct. 7 - A recording surfaces of Trump boasting in 2005 of how his celebrity allows him to grope women and “grab them by the pussy,” prompting a dozen or so women to come forward to accuse Trump of making unwanted sexual advances. Trump dismisses the remarks as “locker room talk” and denies the accusations of unwanted advances. * Nov. 8 - Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in one of the biggest upsets in decades. | 0fake |
WATCH: PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FIRST LADY Receive Standing O and Cheers at Christmas Eve Church Service [Video] | PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP ATTENDED CHRISTMAS EVE CHURCH SERVICES:The Trumps arrive at Bethesda by the Sea church, where they were married, for Christmas Eve service pic.twitter.com/PZfXNcDDJy Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) December 25, 2017A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ARRIVAL: The President and First Lady arrived at The Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, FL earlier for Christmas Eve service. PO-56SU pic.twitter.com/b4wHqjBBl6 CNN Newsource (@CNNNewsource) December 25, 2017 DAN SCAVINO TWEETED OUT AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE CHURCH:President @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS Melania Trump are greeted by stand ovation and cheers upon their arrival to attend Christmas Eve church services, tonight, at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. #ChristmasEve2017 pic.twitter.com/DwKVMZtnvn Dan Scavino Jr. (@Scavino45) December 25, 2017 THE POOL REPORT:President Trump departed the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-sea at 12:19The president was seated in the third row in the spot closest to the aisle, on the right side of the church (if youre in the back looking toward the altar). The First Lady was the only member of the presidents family to attend mass with him.Reverend James Harlan, the churchs rector, gave the homily. It centered around the themes of the power of words and Gods light. He began by quoting Nelson Mandela, whom he noted rebelled against his government for its systemic oppression.The Mandela quote: It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die. Harlan connected the power of words especially as it pertains to Gods word to their ability to educate, enlighten and draw out the best in people, while he also cautioned words can be used to cause harm.Your words can have as much destructive potential as they do healing, Harlan said. Gods word is pure light.A crowd of people encircled the president to shake his hand when it came time for the peace-be-with-yous. The churchs live stream cut to another angle once the president stood up to take communion. Once it cut back, the president was standing in his pew, and appeared to be holding the communion, which he then took.Songs:* God rest ye merry gentlemen * O come let us adore him | 1real |
The Best Fall Cookbooks - The New York Times | Sam Sifton emails readers of Cooking five days a week to talk about food and suggest recipes. That email also appears here. To receive it in your inbox, register here. Good morning and welcome to the new cookbook season, which our Food reporters are celebrating in print and online today with our Cookbook Issue, a compendium of all the best new titles and recipes we could find on the shelves this fall. Of course, there are recipes, and we’ll get to them soon enough. Before we do, though, please make sure to read Kim Severson’s luminous profile of Alton Brown, which sees the television chef at a crossroads, hanging around his Georgia man cave and considering the future. Read, too, Melissa Clark’s delightful examination of the British food writer Diana Henry, who has been on a tear of late, publishing excellent cookbook after excellent cookbook. Both articles come with recipes, naturally: for Mr. Brown’s arctic char burger and his breakfast carbonara, and for Ms. Henry’s tuna and white bean casserole, lamb rib chops with dates, feta, sumac and tahini, and sweet potatoes with yogurt and chile. Tejal Rao filed a terrific primer on the latest trend in cookbook aesthetics — simple and modern. It comes with recipes as well: a spaghetti dinner with tomatoes and kale from “A Modern Way to Cook” by Anna Jones, and a Swiss chard slab pie from Kristin Donnelly’s “Modern Potluck. ” Check out Sara Bonisteel’s article on “Land of Fish and Rice” by Fuchsia Dunlop and “All Under Heaven” by Carolyn Phillips. And then cook: Shanghai noodles and bok choy, chicken congee, moo shu pork. Also: David Tanis on Naomi Duguid’s “Taste of Persia” and her recipe for Baku fish kebabs with sauce. Here’s Florence Fabricant on “Eat in My Kitchen” by Meike Peters and “Mozza at Home” by Nancy Silverton. It comes with a fine recipe for a Mozza staff meal of chicken thighs, and another for Ms. Peters’s sautéed endives with balsamic butter and marjoram. The presents keep coming! Oliver Strand dives into “Everything I Want to Eat” from the Los Angeles chef Jessica Koslow, and delivers recipes for sticky toffee date cake and for a socca with shredded vegetables. And Sara has a second article looking at “My Two Souths” by Asha Gomez she delivers Ms. Gomez’s recipe for weeknight fancy chicken and rice along with it. Here’s Christine Muhlke on Naomi Pomeroy’s cookbook “Taste and Technique,” which comes with a recipe for fennel gratin. And Margaux Laskey on “Poole’s: Recipes and Stories From a Modern Diner” by Ashley Christensen, with her recipes for hummingbird cake and a broccoli salad with Cheddar, bacon, grapes and pecans. Emily Weinstein helps round out the table with a look at Marcus Samuelsson’s “The Red Rooster Cookbook” and his recipe for the short ribs he cooked for President Obama. That’s a lot of new recipes for you! Of course, on a Wednesday night in late September, you may not want a recipe at all. Join us instead for a recipe for a tomato salad that we hacked out of Gabrielle Hamilton’s exquisite and bossy “Prune” this weekend. Get the best beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes you can find at the market today. (And they’re still out there!) Cut them into thick planks and arrange them prettily on a platter. Heat some good salted butter in a pan until it is foamy and about to brown, then pour it all over the tomatoes. Sprinkle some sea salt over the top and serve with bread. It’s legit the best meal imaginable for this time of the year. Or take a spin through Cooking to find something else. And if you run into trouble, reach out for help: cookingcare@nytimes. com. We want you to be happy. See you on Friday. | 0fake |
Hannity Throws A Complete Hissy Fit After Conservative Columnist Calls Him Unworthy Of Media Award | After all of the conspiracy theories and lies Sean Hannity has peddled over the years, he definitely does NOT deserve an award.But the right-wing Media Research Center is rewarding Donald Trump s top propagandist with a William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence anyway, and a New York Times columnist is having none of it.Bret Stephens is a conservative columnist for the Times, and he thoroughly ripped Hannity in a recent column pointing out exactly why he is unworthy of the award. If we have reached the point where rank-and-file conservatives see nothing amiss with giving Hannity an award named for Buckley, then surely there s a Milton Friedman Prize awaiting Steve Bannon for his insights on free trade, Stephens wrote. And maybe Sean Spicer can receive the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent for his role in exposing fake news. The floor s the limit. Or, in Hannity s case, the crawl space beneath it. Stephens went on to point out that Buckley once expressed his disgust about Donald Trump, calling him a demagogue and a narcissist. He warned Americans to not fall into Trump s trap. But conservatives fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Hannity fell even harder for it, going so far as to lob softball questions at him and then defend him on a daily basis. Hannity even committed hypocrisy by defending Trump for doing all of the things he complained about President Obama doing. When Hannity peddles conspiracy theories about Seth Rich, the young Democratic National Committee staffer murdered in Washington last year, that s an echo of John Birch, Stephens continued. And so we reach the Idiot stage of the conservative cycle, in which a Buckley Award for Sean Hannity suggests nothing ironic, much less Orwellian, to those bestowing it, applauding it, or even shrugging it off. The award itself is trivial, but it s a fresh reminder of who now holds the commanding heights of conservative life, and what it is that they think. Well, that set Hannity off on a Twitter rage in which he whined and bragged about himself just like Trump does.For the first time in my life I partly agree with @BretStephensNYT I do not deserve the WFB award. I also never deserved the 2 Marconis .. Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017Nor do I deserve the Radio Hall of Fame, Free speech awards from Talkers or the R&R tall host of the year awards I have won. Nor do I care Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017To my audience that has given me the honor of 30 years on radio 22 years on Fox, I thank you. You mattter, Faith, family Country matter Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017As long as you honor me with these opportunities I will continue to fight hard for the things I truly believe in. Not what WFB, Media, NYT s Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017Believes in. I m not Buckley, Rush, Mark, or anybody else. I m myself. I will fight for limited Govt, lower taxes, less regulation, Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017Energy independence, school choice, balanced budgets, secure borders, defeating Isis and radical Islam. And will battle a corrupt media. Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017I will also fight for the forgotten men and woman in America left behind, in poverty, on food stamps, and out of work. That matters to me. Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017So @BretStephensNYT I ll say to you and the @nytimes (Fake News) I do not care what u think. God bless America. Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017Can ANYONE think of just ONE memorable thing @BretStephensNYT has written? WFB was on my show numerous times, would WFB trust the @nytimes ? https://t.co/r0NnuDidUZ Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 7, 2017Except that Sean Hannity is the face of corrupt media. He spends so much time kissing Trump s ass that he might as well give him a blow job while he is down on his knees.22 years on Fox News is 22 years too many. He should never have been hired and he certainly should be fired now, especially after pushing the Seth Rich conspiracy theory in defense of Trump for as long as he did.William F. Buckley was an intellectual conservative. He was a graduate of Yale and he served this country as a United States Army officer. Hannity, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. There is nothing intellectual about Hannity. He s a college dropout who pretends to be a tough guy. He has made his money duping conservatives into believing his propaganda bullshit, which he peddles while offering little or zero evidence of his claims.Not only should Hannity by booted off the air, he should not receive a media award. A fake media award would be more appropriate.Featured Image: Rob Kim/Getty Images | 1real |
Pelosi: Trump Dishonored God By Walking Away From Paris Accord - Breitbart | Friday at her weekly press briefing, Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi ( ) said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement was a “dishonor ” to God. Pelosi said, “This is a matter of environmental justice. Lower income and minority families are disproportionately vulnerable to the ravages of the climate crisis. It’s civil rights issue. Environmental justice is. And we have a moral responsibility in addition to the national security, the economy and the health of our children. We have a moral responsibility. We must leave future generations with a healthy, sustainable planet. Faith leaders, starting with the Holiness Pope Francis, to the evangelical community, have urged us to be responsible stewards of the beauty of God’s creation. They believe as you live that this planet is God’s creation and we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of it. ” “When we work with evangelical communities, we put together our climate legislation ten years ago, nine years ago,” she continued. “They had their literature which said that we had a moral responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, and in doing so, we must pay special attention to the needs of the poor. I saw it as an environmental justice issue as well in the evangelical community. When the pope went to the White House, he talked about the dangers of air pollution when he was here. Just last week, the pope met with President Trump and gave him a copy of his encyclical, which made the strong case to halt the climate crisis. The pope wrote the climate is a common good belonging to all and meant for all. The Bible tells us to minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us and that is what we are doing by walking away from this accord. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Obama Moves to Block Chinese Acquisition of a German Chip Maker - The New York Times | HONG KONG — President Obama on Friday moved to block a Chinese deal to buy a company on national security grounds, an unusual step that could set the stage for greater tensions between his successor, Donald J. Trump, and a Chinese government determined to bolster its technological capabilities. The intervention in a Chinese company’s bid to buy a German semiconductor company, Aixtron, comes after Chinese companies have spent billions to acquire technology in Europe and the United States. American officials have increasingly moved to stop such deals, but Chinese companies have shown growing adeptness in getting around those restrictions to strike up relationships that could someday lead to greater access to technology. A statement from the Treasury Department said the administration blocked the purchase of the American portion of Aixtron’s business because it posed a national security risk relating to “the military applications of the overall technical body of knowledge and experience of Aixtron. ” It wasn’t clear whether other parts of the deal could be salvaged. Officials at the German chip company and its Chinese buyer, the Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund, did not immediately comment. By rejecting the deal, the Obama administration showed how far it would go to keep China from using its wallet to acquire sensitive technology from the West. It blocked previous Chinese technology purchases only indirectly, using an advisory panel of government and intelligence officials who can discourage — but not directly kill — foreign deals. That same panel earlier expressed skepticism over the Aixtron deal. Last year the United States accounted for more than of Aixtron’s sales. And nearly of its more than 700 employees are based in the United States. That indirect strategy kept Mr. Obama from looking like a opponent, especially when the company in question was not American, and softened any potential response from Beijing. But Aixtron and its Chinese suitor tested that strategy by plowing ahead despite the panel’s concerns, forcing Mr. Obama to act. Mr. Obama’s cancellation sets a stronger tone as Mr. Trump prepares to take the White House. As president, Mr. Trump will have considerable power to appoint the members of that advisory panel, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. He is likely to hear from members of Congress who have been pushing to toughen up and to broaden the panel’s reviews to encompass more types of deals. Mr. Trump has been critical of China’s trade practices. “It could feed into the narrative about how the Trump administration is going to get better deals for things, and this is the kind of deal he wouldn’t allow because it would affect U. S. jobs and U. S. manufacturing capabilities in one of the areas where we’re still the most competitive,” said Adam Segal, a technology security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. Still, simply rejecting deals is not so simple, Mr. Segal and others say. Wall Street sometimes pushes for such deals to go through, arguing that American companies can use Chinese money to invest or save jobs. Steven Mnuchin, a Wall Street veteran, is Mr. Trump’s pick to be Treasury secretary, heading a department with considerable say over the advisory panel. The panel is crucial to the outcome of future deals. Created in 1975 by President Gerald Ford, it includes representatives from 16 executive departments and intelligence agencies including Commerce, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security. It judges whether a foreign investment in companies with operations or business in the United States poses unacceptable security risks. Because its deliberations are confidential, little about it has been made public. Just the prospect of such an investigation can be enough to kill a deal. Under Mr. Obama, its scrutiny scotched Chinese deals for a European maker and an American manufacturer of microchips. But China has already been testing ways to get around the panel. Such methods do not necessarily give Chinese buyers access to crucial technology, but experts say they could open a route to access down the road. In some cases, it has struck other types of deals with Western companies, like licensing agreements, outside of the panel’s jurisdiction. When the panel opposed a Chinese bid for the American semiconductor firm GCS Holdings this summer, the American company instead signed a joint venture to make chips with its buyer. GCS makes an advanced chip with military uses. A spokesman for GCS said the joint venture makes products like cellphone chips that have long been commercially available, and that it follows U. S. government guidelines for all technology exports, whether sensitive or not. In another case, the Chinese buyer appeared to be testing how far it could push the panel. In September 2015, Tsinghua Unigroup, the main corporate vehicle for China’s microchip ambitions, offered $3. 8 billion for a board seat and a 15 percent stake in Western Digital, a maker of drives. Lawyers who specialize in Committee on Foreign Investment law say the deal structure was unusual: The size of the stake walked the line of where the panel has investigated in the past, and the agreement had a clause that allowed either side to call it off if the panel became involved. To many lawyers who studied the deal, it looked as if the Chinese buyer was trying to find out what it could get away with. Tsinghua did walk away, citing the panel, and began to look for smaller deals. In April, it successfully took a 6 percent stake in Lattice Semiconductor, despite the fact that in 2012 the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicted two Chinese men who it said illegally tried to procure chips from the company that could be used on spacecraft. In filings, Tsinghua said the stake had been taken for “investment purposes,” while Lattice has said military applications were only a tiny part of its business. Tsinghua has since sold some of its stake, and Lattice is now the target of a new acquisition offer by a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley but backed by Chinese government money. Lattice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Because information relating to its decisions is kept secret, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States remains one of the least understood parts of the United States government. The companies involved in the deal sometimes do not find out why a proposed acquisition was rejected. Foreign companies applying for approval have to submit information about corporate ownership, including passports and records of the military experience of shareholders. Emails go out across American military research and development laboratories to check whether companies might unwittingly be important to American security. For instance, some seemingly harmless technology may be a component of an American defense project. Companies can discuss with the committee what they will do if the proposed deal causes a public backlash, as has happened before. The committee can recommend changes or broker agreements that could include the sale of a sensitive part of the company. The panel has considerable investigative and intelligence resources at its disposal, but the new influx of Chinese money has led some to argue it does not provide enough protection. Critics say it can examine each deal only in isolation and not consider a more widespread campaign of purchases. Stewart Baker, a former representative to the committee under the Department of Homeland Security, also cites resources as an issue. “My sense is they do have the resources now,” he said, “but if Chinese deal flow continues to increase, it is going to be a challenge. ” | 0fake |
China tightens regulation of religion to 'block extremism' | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s cabinet on Thursday passed new rules to regulate religion to bolster national security, fight extremism and restrict faith practiced outside organizations approved by the state. The document passed by Premier Li Keqiang updates a version of rules put into place in 2005 to allow the regulation of religion to better reflect profound changes in China and the world, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The rules released by Xinhua use strong and specific language about the need to protect China s national security against threats from religious groups. Religious affairs maintenance should persist in a principle of maintaining legality, curbing illegality, blocking extremism, resisting infiltration and attacking crime, the regulations say. Any group or individual must not create conflict or contention between different religions, with a single religion or between religious individuals and non-religious individuals, they say. President Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to guard against foreign infiltration through religion and the need to prevent the spread to extremist ideology, while also being tolerant of traditional faiths that he sees as a salve to social ills. The officially atheist ruling Communist Party says it protects freedom of religion, but it keeps a tight rein on religious activities and allows only officially recognized religious institutions to operate. The rules, which come into effect on Feb 2, 2018, also place new oversight on online discussion of religious matters, on religious gatherings, the financing of religious groups and the construction of religious buildings, among others. They increase existing restrictions on unregistered religious groups to include explicit bans on teaching about religion or going abroad to take part in training or meetings. Much of China s religious practice, which has seen a revival in recent decades despite being effectively banned in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution, takes place in informal settings not recognized, though often tolerated, by the authorities. Religious education is also further brought under the umbrella of the state in the regulations, with explicit provisions on the establishment and registration of religious colleges. New provisions are included on the use and raising of religious funds and on taxation. Donations from foreign groups or individuals, for example, are banned, while donations over 100,000 yuan ($15,420) need to be reported to authorities. Fines for breaking the rules have also been increased in the new version and the organizers of unapproved events can now be subject to fines from 100,000 to 300,000 yuan, rather than the previous 1 to 3 times the amount spent on the event. | 0fake |
Police in Catalonia hunt for hidden ballot boxes in bid to foil referendum | MADRID (Reuters) - Armed police in Spain have raided several print works and newspaper offices in Catalonia in recent days in a hunt for voting papers, ballot boxes and leaflets to be used in an Oct. 1 independence referendum which Madrid vehemently opposes. The searches are part of a concerted effort by the government to prevent the ballot from going ahead, amid fears that a vote to break away could trigger a political crisis even if Spain does not recognize the outcome. On Friday, the government passed measures to tighten control over the region s spending to stop it using state cash to pay for the ballot, and earlier this week Madrid summoned over 700 Catalan mayors for questioning over their support for the vote. They ve lost the plot, said Albert Batet, mayor of the town of Valls and one of those summoned for questioning. They are persecuting mayors, the press, printers. They are stretching the limits of democracy. Catalonia s president Carles Puigdemont, who faces criminal charges for organizing the referendum, says he has over 6,000 ballot boxes ready to deploy next month, but their whereabouts are a secret. Right now, we have no idea where they are, said Toni Castejon, spokesman for the Catalan police force union. A spokesman for the Catalan regional government declined to say where the ballot boxes were or how the government was going to get them out of hiding to voting stations on Oct. 1. On Friday, police confiscated 100,000 campaign leaflets in a raid in Catalonia, the Interior Ministry said, without saying where. Catalonia s top court issued a warning on Friday to seven newspapers, many of them online, not to publish campaign notices for the referendum, a court spokesman said on Saturday. At the offices of Catalan newspaper El Vallenc in Valls, some 50 km west of Barcelona, six armed police knocked on the door last Saturday with a warrant to search the offices, said its editor, Francesc Fabregas. The search lasted five-and-a-half hours. They didn t say what they were looking for, Fabregas told Reuters, adding that he had not printed any voting papers. The raid led to an impromptu crowd gathering outside the building, with people singing the Catalan anthem and waving slips of paper chanting Where are the ballot papers? . When people saw that the streets had been cut off they started coming over with banners, they handed out roses to the police - the street turned into a party, said Fabregas. For some supporters of the independence movement, the search for the ballot boxes and voting papers has become a symbol of what they see as state repression. Images of the Catalan police force - the Mossos d Esquadra - seizing what for many are symbols of democracy would be highly inflammatory, police say. The Mossos report to the Catalan regional government and are highly regarded by Catalans, particularly after their handling of the Islamist militant attacks in the region in August that killed 16. But Spanish state prosecutors have ordered all police - including the Catalan force - to act. What no one wants is the image of the Mossos taking away the ballot boxes, said Castejon of the police union. That would lead to a lot of anger and even civil unrest. Madrid has the constitutional power to take over a regional government or send in the police to force Catalonia to drop the vote, but either step would rock Spain s decentralized model of government where power is devolved to 17 self-governed regions. Although polls show less than half of Catalonia s 5.5 million voters want self-rule, most in the wealthy northeastern region want the chance to vote on the issue, causing unease that is beginning to be felt in financial markets. The Budget Ministry said that uncertainty created by the stand-off could damage the economy and push up sovereign borrowing costs. Some investors sold Spanish government bonds and switched to Italian debt earlier this week. Puigdemont and Barcelona mayor Ada Colau on Friday appealed to the Spanish government for dialogue to avert a crisis. But Puigdemont has shown no signs of backing down. Does anyone think we re not going to vote? What kind of people do they take us for? he said to cheering crowds from a stage in a bull-ring in Tarragona to launch the referendum campaign on Thursday. | 0fake |
Media turn blind eye to Hillary Clinton’s glaring mistakes | When Hillary Clinton can study up, work out her one-liners, figure out the best way to deflect questions and fence with inquisitors she does well. She thrives, therefore, in a debate or as a witness. She is the quintessential “A” student. No one will cram harder before the big exam than she.
Left to her own devices, however, she is consistently her own worst enemy. Before she worked out her lines, spontaneous answers about her finances (“We were broke”) or her initial stance toward the Benghazi scandal (“What difference does it make . . .?) disastrous. Refusing to take scandals seriously, her first attempts at brushing back the press come across as evasive, haughty and just plain false. In supposedly friendly settings, with her guard down, she winds up saying ludicrous things that come back to haunt her.
If not for Jeb Bush’s self-immolation this week, more attention would have been paid to yet another clueless Clinton moment. Asked about the Veterans Administration scandal in a softball MSNBC interview, she argued that “it’s not been as widespread as it has been made out to be.” She claimed Republicans were exploiting the situation and wanted the VA to “fail.” Her instinct to cast blame and attack political opponents renders her entirely tone deaf at times.
As you will recall, the scandal first uncovered in Phoenix turned into a nationwide investigation, forcing out the secretary and prompting new legislation. (From the Arizona Republic: “The Office of Inspector General concluded that hundreds of thousands of patients were subjected to unacceptable delays in care, and many died while awaiting appointments; wait-time records were falsified or inaccurate at 70 percent of the VA facilities nationwide; and department leadership was contaminated by bullying, reprisal and a lack of accountability. The public furor forced out VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and other administrators, while prompting the largest reform in department history.”)
It is incomprehensible that she would want to downplay the suffering of vets. A series of officials at veterans groups decried her comment. Stars and Stripes reported:
Veterans groups lobbed criticism at Clinton this week for being out of touch with veterans issues. The conservative group Concerned Veterans for America charged Clinton with downplaying and ignoring the VA’s problems. Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, called her comments on the VA a “head-scratcher.” The VA scandal that began last year with an agency cover-up of health care delays “was so widespread it has its own Wikipedia entry,” Rieckhoff tweeted Tuesday.
And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle lashed out. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said he was “appalled.” Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) declared, “The problems we’ve seen at the Phoenix VA are devastating and real. The VA scandal has nothing to do with partisan politics and everything to do with systemic failure, negligence and lack of accountability.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted her, observing that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose Senate committee investigated the VA, was better on veterans issues than Clinton.
Her campaign tried to assure us she understands how “systematic” the problem is. No apology or correction from her was forthcoming.
[Opinion: Republicans are right. We in the media do suck.]
Now imagine if Republicans had said, well “Democrats are just exaggerating the impact of Hurricane Katrina.” The mainstream hardly blinked when it was Clinton, fresh from passing her endurance test at the House select committee on Benghazi.
The Republican opposition research team America Rising later put out a devastating ad, recounting one news report after another detailing the abuses, corruption and ensuing deaths. It ends with McCain saying, “She doesn’t understand veterans, she doesn’t understand what they need, and she is politicizing the issue. Shame on her.”
This episode reminds us of Clinton’s severe limitations as a candidate. It also should prompt Republicans to recognize the media is back in Clinton-rooting mood. Her outlandish statements will become headlines like: “Republicans try to exploit…” The media will shrug its collective shoulders at her inaccuracies and outright deceptions. This is all the more reason to find a superbly skilled nominee, one who can focus on her liabilities and cut through the media chatter.
At the recent debate and in subsequent interviews, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) used his time in the spotlight to focus on the evidence that immediately after the Benghazi attack she told family members and the Egyptian prime minister it was a terrorist attack while the administration perpetrated a false cover story for weeks.
Republicans cannot repeat often enough evidence of her ethical lapses and shoddy record. The press sure isn’t going to dwell on it. | 0fake |
Police Commissioner Explains Why It’s Hard To Hire Black Cops In NYC | It sounds like a perfectly legitimate reason it s likley NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has claimed it is hard to hire more black cops because so many of them have spent time in jail. We have a significant population gap among African American males because so many of them have spent time in jail, he told The Guardian. And, as such, we can t hire them. Partially to blame for the pool of eligible officers that is much smaller than it might ordinarily have been is the NPYD s controversial stop and frisk policy that was shut down in 2013, said Bratton.The NPYD commissioner said stop and frisk had unfortunate consequences as it resulted in a number of young black men receiving summons for minor misdemeanors.Stop and frisk, which allowed police to question and potentially search someone if they had so-called reasonable suspicion that person was committing an offense, was ruled unconstitutional in August 2013 by Judge Shira A Scheindlin.Scheindlin said the program was a violation of both black and Hispanic people s right to equal protection, as they were being stopped at much higher rates than those who were white.Both demographics made up 84 percent of the people who were stopped by officers using the policy, according to a report by the Public Advocate s office and cited by the Washington Post.Fifty-three percent of that figure was made up of black people.Black recruits made up only 6.86 percent of this year s police academy, according to another Guardian report, in a city where they represent 22 percent of the population.The NYPD stopped supporting the policy when Bratton returned as commissioner in 2014, after serving in Los Angeles.But he continued to defend a policy he had New York adopt in the early 1990s, dubbed broken windows, which some of his critics say is where the the real blame should lay.Robert Gangi, the director of the Police Reform Organizing Project in New York, said stop and frisk was not at the heart of the problem but a symptom of broken windows blatant racist policing .Via:UK Daily Mail | 1real |
Clinton says Trump presidency would be 'disastrous' for U.S. economy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that if Republican rival Donald Trump wins the White House, it will be a disaster for the U.S. economy, predicting a “Trump recession.” “Now I don’t say this because of typical political disagreements - liberals and conservatives say Trump’s ideas would be disastrous,” Clinton said. “Economists on the right, the left and the center all agree Trump would throw us back into recession.” Clinton’s speech in Columbus, Ohio, a state that will be a battleground in the Nov. 8 election, was the second in which she has argued the wealthy businessman is “temperamentally unfit” to lead the country. The first was on foreign relations and national security. “Donald Trump has said he is qualified to be president because of his business record,” Clinton said. “So let’s take a look at what he did for his businesses: He’s written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11; go figure,” Clinton said, in a jab referring to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Clinton then said Trump, a self-described “king of debt,” had allowed businesses to amass huge debts and declare bankruptcy, leaving hundreds of people without jobs and wiping out shareholders. Allowing the United States to accrue similar debt would rattle investors and could lead to economic catastrophe, she added. On Twitter during Clinton’s speech, Trump said, “I am ‘the king of debt.’ That has been great for me as a businessman, but is bad for the country. I made a fortune off of debt, will fix U.S.” Clinton also said the likely Republican nominee’s tax plan - which aims to simplify the tax code, along with slashing the top corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent - would benefit the wealthy over working families. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated the plan would increase the federal deficit by $9.5 trillion over the next decade. The former secretary of state also said Trump’s plan to scrap trade deals could start “trade wars” and that the agreements should instead be renegotiated if they do not benefit American workers. Clinton said Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport undocumented immigrants would shake the workforce and prove disastrous for the U.S. economy, creating a “Trump recession.” The tussle over the economy came as the two continued preparing for what is expected to be a fierce campaign. Trump was slated to give a speech criticizing Clinton in New York on Wednesday. As the presumptive Democratic nominee spoke on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign tested what appeared to be a more active rapid-response operation, sending emails saying Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, had backed bad trade deals and that her immigration plan would lower wages. | 0fake |
Vote Highlighted a Gender Gap, With Both Sides Feeling They’ve Lost Ground - The New York Times | Call it pink and blue America. To the many divides this ugly presidential campaign has exposed, add the chasm over the treatment of women, the plight of men and the proper roles of each. This was an election that showed how much we still talk past one another when we talk about gender. It made plain profound gaps in how men and women perceive one another’s lives and prerogatives. This was an election in which the grievances of white men — their economic upheaval, their cultural displacement — exploded. The fallout included toxic paroxysms of racism, Islamophobia, and sexism. Misogyny, it appears, thrives in corners of the United States. Donald J. Trump’s — the sexual swagger, the belittling of his opponents, his need to dominate — appealed to some men who believed he could restore them to their rightful place. Yet men at Trump rallies also spoke of their faith that Mr. Trump, whose business acumen they revered, would bring an outsider’s willingness to take on the elites who put them down. The campaign became a battle of two caricatures: male chauvinist pig against scheming, dishonest woman. It exposed parallel universes. In one, women flooded social media with their memories of sexual assault after Mr. Trump was caught on tape boasting about forcing himself on women. In another, men dismissed the tape as locker room talk or were surprised at how many women told them such harassment was commonplace. This is an intimate divide. The boundaries of pink and blue America are fluid, and they come up within households and communities. The gender chasm is bound up with class and confounds easy categorization. There are men who embrace violent misogyny and men who deplore it, women who shrugged off the “Access Hollywood” tape and hate Hillary Clinton with as much fervor as any man. A majority of white women voted for Mr. Trump, exit polls by Edison Research suggest. While polling does not reach into individual marriages, the results suggest a marital gap — 58 percent of married men voted for Mr. Trump compared with 47 percent of married women, according to exit polls. A YouGov poll published on Oct. 9 offered a glimpse into what the veteran pollster Celinda Lake calls the “Sure, Honey” factor: percent of married women said they planned to vote for Mrs. Clinton 33 percent of married men said they thought their spouse would vote for her. As in politics, so in the workplace. At work, women have made substantial inroads and dominate the (and lower paid) segments of the economy, the “pink collar” industries such as health and education. More than a fifth of American men between 20 and 65 had no paid work last year. But men consistently underestimate the barriers that women confront. In a study of more than 34, 000 employees at 132 companies, 54 percent of men thought that the best opportunities would go to the most deserving employees regardless of gender just 44 percent of women believed that. The survey, conducted by Lean In and McKinsey and Company and released in late September, found that a third of women thought their gender was a disadvantage in getting a raise or promotion. On campus, young men and women are facing off over what is assault and what is a sexual pass gone awry. Young men frequently protest that they are denied due process in campus hearings of sexual assault young women charge that their attackers too often go unpunished. Even reading habits diverge: Women read mysteries and true crime men read science fiction and history, according to Peter the president of Codex Group, which surveys reading patterns. There has been much talk of healing in this fervid season. The racism that President Obama’s election forced to the surface emboldened the but also forced many white Americans to acknowledge lasting inequities. That may well be the case during the tenure of President Trump: an eruption of sexism and an inability to deny its virulence. “Some men have this feeling that women are coming — in education, on polls, on social media, they have a voice,” said Marianne Cooper, a sociologist at Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research. “This upends a long history of women knowing their place. ” Katy Cockrell, 25, backed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but found herself weeping as she cast a vote for Mrs. Clinton and thought of her grandmothers. “They lived in this ‘Mad Men’ era, and I thought about how much I admired them as they fought the sexism they’d experienced,” she said. Now, she added of Mr. Trump, “the tough part for me and women of all ages is that we are going to look at him every day and be reminded of every time we’ve faced sexism in our own lives. ” Ron Ritz, who attended a Trump rally in Ambridge, Pa. last month, saw in Mrs. Clinton a symbol of all that’s gone wrong in his world. Steel and energy companies once dotted the area now they are gone. “We had industries that shut down,” Mr. Ritz, 69, said. “People have no jobs, things are bad. And she turns around and tells them they’re deplorable. That’s like kicking a dog that’s tied. ” Some research has found a backlash when men feel they are losing their status. Iris Bohnet, the director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, is a behavioral economist who believes in the principle of “nudging” people toward social norms. That typically means telling people, for example, that their friends have voted in order to prompt them to vote, too. To test if she could induce diversity in hiring, Ms. Bohnet told research volunteers that the group before them had hired a predominantly female team. Men balked and chose to hire more men than women, she found. So what comes next, now that Mr. Trump has defied political convention and political correctness? Some of the men who feel pushed aside are looking to him to rebalance the scales they feel have tipped against them. Many women are wondering whether words and deeds that a of feminism tried to put off limits will now be acceptable. The pink and blue divide may prove as deep, fractious and mutually incomprehensible as the red and blue. | 0fake |
New Zealand’s Earthquake Literally Lifted The Sea Floor Two Metres Into The Air - | @TonkinTaylor/Twitter / Via Twitter: @TonkinTaylor
Environmental and engineering consultants Tonkin and Taylor tweeted aerial shots of the destruction on Wednesday, two days after the quake. The scale of the “uplift” is estimated to be between two and two and a half metres. @TonkinTaylor/Twitter / Via Twitter: @TonkinTaylor
“This is not at all surprising as Kaikoura experiences the fastest uplift as it sits on the [tectonic] plates, which are pushing up under there,” marine geologist Neville Exon told BuzzFeed News.
“The kelp positioned on top shows it is an uplift of the seabed through the sand a couple of metres,” Exon said, commenting on a picture posted by Facebook user Anna Redmond. “The kelp positioned on top shows it is an uplift of the seabed through the sand a couple of metres,” Exon said, commenting on a picture posted by Facebook user Anna Redmond.
“So much devastation,” Redmond posted. One photo shows a disgruntled crustacean adjusting to life above sea level atop a bed of seaweed and abalone.
More than 600 Kaikoura residents were evacuated by boat and helicopter following the quake, which killed two people. But Kaikoura’s sewerage system is still not working and many train tracks and roads remain in ruins.
Some of the tourist town’s population of 2,000 residents have chosen to remain at home until the roads are cleared. | 1real |
Biden faces hurdles as he weighs late 2016 bid | Washington (CNN) As Vice President Joe Biden continues to contemplate a late entry into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, he faces obstacles toward arriving at yes -- not least of which is his own emotional state three months after his son's death.
After a week of meetings with key Democrats -- including influential Sen. Elizabeth Warren and labor leader Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO -- Biden on Friday didn't appear any closer to making a decision, which advisers still expect is weeks away.
He'll have more chances to consult members of his party next week, when he heads south to rally support behind the administration's nuclear deal with Iran. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, invited Biden to make the case for the agreement in person in south Florida on Thursday.
The DNC has kept Biden and his political team abreast of debate schedules heading into the fall, and most Democratic operatives say the vice president must decide by the first forum -- a CNN-sponsored event on Oct. 13 -- whether or not he's running.
Biden still faces the daunting proposition of raising enough campaign cash to compete with the tens of millions already collected by Hillary Clinton, and carving out support among key Democratic voting blocs to make a dent in her front-runner status.
But weighing heaviest, friends say, is the grueling toll a third presidential campaign could exact on his family.
He told a conference call of Democrats this week that he was still in the process of determining "whether or not there is the emotional fuel at this time to run," just months after his eldest son Beau Biden lost his battle with brain cancer.
Associates say the vice president's son Hunter supports a bid, and Beau encouraged his father to join the race before he died. But having weathered two previous presidential bids, the Biden family is intimately familiar with the withering pace and barbed attacks that would come with becoming a candidate again.
His wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is said to be apprehensive about joining another run for president as her family continues to grieve.
"I've given this a lot of thought and dealing internally with the family on how we do this," Biden told Democrats on the conference call this week, as first reported by CNN.
"The calculus for this has been evaluating his personal feelings, having just come off Beau's passing," said James Smith, a South Carolina state legislator who's a supporter of Biden's.
Deciding whether to run for president "has little to do with a calculation of his own ambitions," Smith said.
A Quinnipiac survey this week showed Biden faring well against potential Republican challengers; in potential general election match-ups against Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, he performs better than Clinton. His favorability rating was higher than any candidate actually running for the Democratic nomination. And even though he has yet to declare his intentions, he's still running ahead of former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chaffee or former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.
But even those numbers may not be enough to convince Biden that jumping into the race is worth it. Politicians merely contemplating a bid -- and not yet subject to the attacks of their rivals or scrutiny from opposition researchers -- often poll better than when they become full-blown candidates.
Case in point: Clinton, whose favorability stood near 60% last fall as she contemplated a run, but had dropped to 44% in the latest CNN/ORC survey taken in mid-August.
Clinton's campaign this week attempted to flex its organizing muscle by unveiling endorsements in key early voting states, including from former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, currently serving alongside Biden in the Obama administration as agriculture secretary.
Vilsack was the first cabinet secretary to declare an allegiance in the Democratic primary, though other key figures within the Clinton orbit were also signaling wariness about a Biden run.
"Running for office is one thing. You have to also have the energy for that process," said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as Obama's first chief of staff and supports Clinton in the primary. "You also have to have the energy for the job."
Former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, another Clinton supporter, told The New York Times this week that Biden has "served the country so well" but that making a run for president "I just don't think ... would be a wise move."
Clinton, speaking at the summer meeting of Democrats in Minnesota, said she wanted to give Biden the "space and time" to make up his mind.
"I have the greatest affection and admiration for the vice president," she said during a press conference in Minneapolis. "This is a difficult decision for him to make."
As she spoke, members of the "Draft Biden" group were eagerly making the case for a Biden candidacy to Democratic Party members and so-called "superdelegates."
Their pitch: that it's "too early to anoint" a front-runner in the Democratic race and that influential party members should remain open-minded about selecting a candidate to support.
"While the vice president is working through his process on whether or not he actually wants to run for president ... we continue to make the public case for why we think he's the best candidate for our party to put up for the presidency," said Steve Schale, an adviser to the group.
A key mission: developing a campaign infrastructure in early voting states Biden could utilize if he decides to jump in.
'Going to be up to the American people'
For Biden, the decision on entering the race risks dividing loyalists to President Barack Obama, who has repeatedly praised Biden's work as vice president while also proclaiming Clinton an exemplary secretary of state.
Some White House aides have expressed concern a Biden bid -- at this point, still a longshot against Clinton -- could end poorly, damaging the vice president's political legacy.
Obama discussed the potential of Biden joining the race during a regularly scheduled lunch with the vice president Monday, and hasn't dissuaded the vice president from running as he's publicly weighed a run over the past several months.
Asked this week about potentially having to decide between his vice president and his former top diplomat, Obama offered his typical demurral.
"Joe and Hillary are wonderful people and great friends," he told CNN Philadelphia affiliate WPVI during an interview at the White House Wednesday. "Joe's been as good a vice president as I think we've seen in American history. Been at my side on every tough decision I've ever made."
Clinton, meanwhile, "was one of our best secretaries of state and helped work on a whole range of important issues," Obama said. "The truth is, though, the great thing about American democracy is it's not up to me. I'm just one voter. It's going to be up to the American people."
The White House says Obama will indeed vote in the Illinois Democratic primary next year, and hasn't ruled out a presidential endorsement in the race. | 0fake |
AMERICA IS CLOSER TO BECOMING SWEDEN Than You Think…Don’t Believe Us? Watch This… | These videos will shock you. When you think of Sweden, do you think of Muslim gangs roving the streets in no-go zones lobbing hand grenades at warring migrant tribes? Do you think of Muslim men raping so many Swedish women, girls, men and boys, that it has now earned the designation as the rape capitol of the world? Do you think of children being taken from their homes for the crime of being homeschooled by their parents? Do you think of a nation of spoiled everyone gets a trophy children? Do you envision a nation where parenting your children is now considered taboo? Sweden can be proud today to have shed its long standing reputation as the most boring country in the world . The Nordic state finds itself in the grip of a terrifying crime wave instead, which even new Swedes describe as like being back in Syria .Grenade attacks in multicultural paradise Malm are now so commonplace the English-speaking media has all but stopped bothering to report them. Compounding the apparent disinterest in the descent of beautiful, historic Malm into a third-world ghetto where native Swedes are very nearly in the minority, is a striking dearth of facts about what is actually going on there.Did you know that it s ILLEGAL to home school your child in Sweden? So much for tolerance. You must learn what the state teaches you or you will be severely punished.It s been called one of the worst cases of government abuse ever committed against a home schooling family: the abduction by Swedish authorities of Domenic Johansson, a happy, healthy, 7-year-old boy taken from his parents Christer and Annie Johansson in 2009 as they waited to leave Sweden on a flight to India.After the abduction, the Johanssons story spread quickly on the Internet.But three years later, Domenic is still being kept from his parents, and Swedish authorities keep finding new reasons for why the child can t go home. This is about the most fundamental right you have. You have the right to your own children, or you should have, Christer told CBN News during the first television interview he and his wife have given since their only child s abduction.In 2008, Christer and Annie were making plans to leave Sweden for humanitarian work in Annie s native India.They decided it would be best for Domenic to be home-schooled during the final months before their departure, rather than enroll him in public school.Christer says Sweden s Ministry of Education told him they could home-school, but local officials levied steep fines and threatened the couple to discourage them from doing so.Then, as the parents sat on a plane at Stockholm airport for their scheduled trip to India, police came aboard and took Domenic away. They took Domenic from the plane, Christer recalled. Then he threw up until they took him to ER. That s how severe the trauma is. If someone throws up so you have to take him to the hospital, that s severe. I have no clue what went on, Annie added. There was just a stampede. My child had no clue, and I have no clue still what s going on. I can just hear the screams of my child all the time. Sweden s liberal approach to parenting has bred a nation of ill-mannered brats, a leading expert has warned in a new book which calls on parents to seize back control of their families. David Eberhard, who was a prominent psychiatrist before becoming a writer, warns in his new book, How Children Took Power, that Swedish parents are now unwilling to discipline their children in any way. Swedes in 1979 became the first to adopt a total smacking ban. We live in a culture where so-called experts say that children are competent and the conclusion is that children should decide what to eat, what to wear, and when to go to bed, he said. If you have a dinner party, they never sit quietly. They interrupt. They re always in the centre, and the problem is that when they become young adults, they take with them the expectation that everything is centred around them, which makes them very disappointed. He points to Sweden s growing truancy rates, a rise in anxiety disorders, and the country s declining performance in international educational league tables, as the tangible results of its liberal parenting approach. They don t say thank you. They don t open doors. If you see them on the subway, they don t stand up for elderly people or pregnant women. Stricter parenting is a taboo in Sweden, let alone advocating a return to smacking, a ban on which he believes has more to do with ideology than scientific evidence. It s very difficult to contradict. If you say I m putting forward a stricter way, then people think you re an idiot. Can you say #BlackLivesMatter movement? | 1real |
Netanyahu blasts ‘very, very bad’ Iran nuclear agreement | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the framework agreement reached by world powers to curb Iran's nuclear program, repeatedly calling it a "free path to a bomb" that will spark an arms race in the Middle East.
Under the framework announced last week, international sanctions would be lifted in phases if Iran meets its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency would conduct inspections to monitor significant limits on Iranian nuclear facilities, and the restrictions would be in place for at least a decade.
In a series of interviews on Sunday political talk shows, Netanyahu called for world leaders to strike a "better deal" that significantly — and permanently — rolls back Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Sanctions should be ratcheted up — not lifted — to pressure Iran until it stops its "aggression in the region," he said. Netanyahu questioned whether inspections would be effective, saying Iran has shown that it cannot be trusted.
"I wouldn't bet the shop on inspections," the Israeli leader said on CNN's "State of the Union." "It's not a country that you can place your trust in. And it's not a country that you're going to resolve its congenital cheating. You're just not going to replace it by placing more inspectors there."
The "very, very bad" agreement only allows Iran to build a vast arsenal by placing temporary restrictions and lifting sanctions that had crippled the country's economy, Netanyahu said. He repeatedly said the agreement would "pump up their terror machine worldwide." Echoing concerns among skeptics of the framework, Netanyahu said it would spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, with Sunnis states already seeing Shiite Iran as a major threat.
"I think this is a dream deal for Iran and a nightmare deal for the world," Netanyahu said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Netanyahu did not outwardly criticize President Obama, but he said there is a "legitimate difference of view" between the two leaders. Netanyahu said he believes Obama is doing what is best for the United States. But the agreement will jeopardize not only Israel but also surrounding countries in the Middle East, the Israeli leader said on ABC's "This Week." The framework agreement does not block Iran's path to nuclear weapons, and instead paves it, he said. | 0fake |
TOMI LAHREN: “I Guess Jill Stein Wants To See Hillary Be The First Female To Lose The Election, Twice” [VIDEO] | The shrill, old socialist Carla Marx wannabe who got less than 1% of the vote nationally, has requested an election recount in the Michigan even though Trump officially won that by 10,704 votes. She s also pushing for, and suing for a recount in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. So let s take a look at the totals to fully understand how ridiculous this is. | 1real |
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