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U.S.-backed forces in final push against Islamic State Raqqa | RAQQA, Syria (Reuters) - U.S.-backed militias battled foreign fighters defending the last pocket of Islamic State s one-time Syrian capital of Raqqa on Monday, bringing their four-month offensive for the city to the brink of victory. A Reuters correspondent saw smoke rising above the city and heard mortar fire, but did not see air strikes while in Raqqa. A field commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, said he expected the operation to end on Monday. The U.S.-led coalition that backs them said it could not give a timeline. SDF spokesman Mostafa Bali said they were fighting Islamic State in only one small zone of Raqqa in the evening, around the city s national hospital and stadium. Bali said he could not determine how much longer the battle would take. The clashes are ongoing, he added. A convoy of Syrian Islamic State fighters quit Raqqa on Saturday night with their families, leaving only 200-300 foreign jihadists to mount a last stand, the SDF has said. The SDF is now poised to end Islamic State s rule over a city where it had launched a string of lightning victories in 2014 and plotted attacks on civilian targets across the West. Its defeat in Raqqa mirrors its collapse across Iraq and Syria, where its enemies have driven it from cities, killed its leaders in air strikes and regained the oil fields that funded its self-declared caliphate. Islamic State lost Mosul in Iraq, its largest city and most prized possession, after months of fighting in July. The militants, which at their height ruled millions of people in both countries, are now forced back in Syria into a strip of the Euphrates valley south of Deir al-Zor and desert on each side. We have conducted some (air) strikes in the last 24 hours, but I suspect that that will pick up here very soon with the SDF advancing into the final remaining areas of the city, said coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon. The SDF said they gained control of six more districts on Monday. The coalition has supported the SDF with air power and special forces throughout its Raqqa campaign, which began in November with an offensive to isolate the city. The battle inside Raqqa started in June, and the intense air strikes and street-to-street fighting drove many of its people to refugee camps and left much of the city a mess of concrete debris. The field commander in Raqqa described Monday s fighting as a clearing operation and said he expected it to be completed by the end of the day with the SDF controlling the whole city. Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish leader who co-chairs the SDF s political affiliate, said earlier she expected the end of the offensive to be declared within hours or days. A Reuters correspondent was with an SDF sniper unit on a frontline facing the hospital complex that represents one of Islamic State s last strongholds in the city, and saw two men in camouflage clothing climb a building and raise a flag. Cars in the streets below had loudspeakers mounted on their roofs broadcasting messages to the last Islamic State fighters telling them they would not be ill-treated if they surrendered. Another SDF field commander, who gave his name as Ashraf Serhad, said he had heard that 250 IS fighters remained and on Sunday he had seen several vehicles leave the hospital carrying some who had surrendered. Saturday night s convoy included about 100 IS fighters and nearly 200 family members, said Omar Alloush, a member of the Raqqa Civil Council set up under SDF auspices to run the city. The fighters who left in the convoy, as part of a deal brokered by tribal leaders, are being held by security forces before interrogation and may be tried in court, he added. The deal also allowed civilians to leave IS-held districts. Dillon said about 3,500 civilians had left the militant-held parts of the city in the past week. The strongest group in the SDF is the YPG, a Kurdish militia that Turkey regards as an extension of the PKK, which has waged an insurgency against Ankara for three decades. YPG influence across swathes of northern Syria including in majority Arab areas, and its backing by the U.S., has provoked disquiet in Turkey. The U.S.-backed offensive has pushed Islamic State from most of northern Syria, while a rival offensive by the Syrian army, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi ite militias, has driven the jihadists from the central desert. When the jihadist group was entrenched in Syria and Iraq, it turned Raqqa into a planning and operations hub. Many of its leaders were at times based there, and former hostages said Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, imprisoned them along with those he later executed in a building near the city. The group killed dozens of captured Syrian soldiers there in July 2014 and made the city the site of a slave market for Yazidi women captured in Iraq and given to fighters. The coalition has said Raqqa was a center for attacks abroad, and in November 2015, after militants killed more than 130 people in Paris, France launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets in the city. But as the group defends its last patch of bomb-cratered ground in the city, the cost of the battle lies evident all around. Much of Raqqa lies ruined, hundreds of civilians have been killed, and thousands more have fled. | 0fake |
Clinton to release 2015 tax returns within days, criticizes Trump | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will release her 2015 tax returns and her running mate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, will release the last 10 years of their tax returns within days, according to a source close to Clinton. The returns will show Clinton paid an effective tax rate of 35 percent and gave about 10 percent to charity, CNBC reported. The release comes as Republican Donald Trump is facing criticism for not releasing his tax returns - a political practice that is not required by law but has been done by every White House nominee since 1973. “He refuses to do what every other presidential candidate in decades has done and release his tax returns,” Clinton said on Thursday in an economic speech in Michigan. Clinton’s campaign has already released tax returns going back to 2007. In addition, tax returns are publicly available for the eight years her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was in the White House. Prior years were released by his campaign. Tax returns filed by the Clintons have been made public, in some form, for every year back to 1977. Trump, a New York businessman, has refused to release his tax returns, saying they are under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. He has said he is unlikely to do so before the Nov. 8 presidential election. Critics, including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have blasted Trump for failing to disclose his tax rate and raised questions about what his returns say about his net worth and various business ties, particularly in Russia. Asked in a television interview in May what tax rate he pays, Trump replied “It’s none of your business.” The IRS has said Trump can release his tax returns even while under audit. Besides showing sources and amounts of income, tax returns show what percentage tax rate a person ultimately pays, as well as how much they claimed in deductions and the amounts given to charities. Earlier this month, at a Clinton rally in Omaha, Nebraska, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) conglomerate is based there, challenged Trump to make his returns public. “I’m under audit, too, and I would be delighted to meet him anyplace, anytime, before the election,” Buffett said. “I’ll bring my tax return, he can bring his tax return ... and let people ask us questions.” Trump has declined to do so. | 0fake |
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'Alt-Right' Meeting Full Video Replay: People Give Hitler Salute For Donald Trump |
“Hail Hitler” and “Heil Victory” – do they eerily sound the same? It’s because it is. Alt-Right groups are performing Nazi-like salutes for President-Elect Donald Trump. What is the Alt-Right?
The Alt-Right consists of white supremacist groups most likely composed of college-educated white men upholding the superiority of their skin color and believing in every right-wing propaganda.
Such groups have gone almost extinct under President Obama’s administration, reduced to a few sites and pages on social media. However, they surfaced with renewed vigor after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 elections.
Their leader, Richard B. Spencer, emerged as something of a wannabe Adolf Hitler and is calling for his followers to take back the U.S. as theirs.
Read Also: Russia Bombs Syria After Putin Speaks With Trump
On November 20, a crowd of people gathered in front of the Ronald Reagan pavilion in Washington to listen to Spencer’s speech.
After quoting the Nazi propaganda in German, Spencer called the assembled white people “children of the sun.” In his speech, he expressed the central idealism of the group – that white-skinned Americans were born to conquer, not follow.
The speech concluded with shouts of “Heil the people! Heil victory!” The people had their arms stretched out in front of them, reported the New York Times .
There was little doubt as to what Spencer meant when he reiterated the belief that white-skinned Americans should not live in the shadows anymore. That the time had come for their “awakening to their own identity.”
Read Also: US, Syria, Russia And Iran International Relations Improving After Donald Trump Win Donald Trump Cabinet
During his Presidential campaign, Trump’s demeanor and discourse were equated with the most notorious leader of all time, Hitler. However, after his victory, his cabinet choices are leaving little to the imagination.
Trump has picked Steve Bannon, founder of the Breitbart website, to be his strategist. Breitbart is widely known to to be a platform for alt-right news.
What’s more, Richard Spencer expressed that he is looking forward to Bannon shaking things up in the White House.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum vehemently condemned the “hateful rhetoric” spreading throughout the nation.
Read Also: Mike Pence Upholding Torture For Interrogation Under Donald Trump Administration?
“The Holocaust did not begin with killing, it began with words,” said the museum in a statement, reported Business Insider . “The Museum calls on all American citizens, our religious and civic leaders, and the leadership of all branches of the government to confront racist thinking and divisive hate speech.” Nazi-Like Salute For Trump
There are other instances of alt-right supporters celebrating Trump’s victory in a Nazi-esque fashion.
A restaurant called Little Italy in Washington D.C. recently issued an apology for mistakenly hosting a banquet for a group called National Policy Institute (NPI), reported CBS News . Apparently, the group had tweeted a photo of some of their members giving a Nazi-salute to Donald Trump .
“This expression of support of Hitler is extremely offensive to us, as our restaurant is home to Teammates and Guests of every race, religion and cultural background,” said the restaurant on its Facebook page .
“We want to sincerely apologize to the community of Friendship Heights for inadvertently hosting this meeting, which resulted in hateful sentiment,” it added. ICYMI! A restaurant unintentionally hosted a white supremacist dinner that included #TilaTequila ! https://t.co/jnVdtUUKkr pic.twitter.com/f6sdPCwVpS | 1real |
U.S. Elections “November Chaos”: What You’re Not Being Told | By GRTV The FBI’s October surprise has thrown the 2016 election into November chaos. But an examination of the trigger mechanism behind this event reveals... | 1real |
Hungarians take walking tour to overcome fears of Muslims | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A walking tour to learn about Budapest s Muslim community and its mosques has become popular with Hungarians as a way of overcoming fears and reservations amid a strident anti-immigrant campaign by the government. Budapest-based tour operator Setamuhely (Budapest Walkshop) runs 30 different walks taking visitors around the city s architectural and cultural sites and the Jewish and Muslim communities. I can say that this walk, Muslims who live among us , is the most popular tour, said Anna Lenard who runs the business. When the Muslim tour was set up three years ago very few people were interested. Most people have never met a Muslim in their life and this ... together with what they hear every day in the media causes a lot of tension and stress in daily life. I think this is the main reason why people are coming now. Most of the people on the four-hour walk have a college degree, and two-thirds are women, she said. Hungary s Muslim community, estimated to number about 40,000, grew with the migration crisis of 2015, though most of them arrived earlier to study at Hungarian universities. Though hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed into Hungary from the Balkans at the peak of the crisis the majority went on to richer parts of western Europe. Data from think tank Tarki shows the proportion of people deemed to be xenophobic and resentful of foreign immigrants shot up to 60 percent this year, rising 19 points from two years ago. About 80 people go on the Muslim tour per month, the organizers said. A typical group of around 30 people first goes to a small mosque hidden in an old apartment where Muslims come to pray at the time of the visit. I am very interested in everything multi-cultural and in cultures and religions that live among us, said Nauszika, a psychologist who did not want to give her full name. It is the best way to lose your fears if you start to ask the one who you (are) afraid of, added tour leader Marianna Karman, an Africa expert who converted to Islam herself. These people choose to come on these walks because they would like to talk about this problem. They want to fight against their fears. Other points on the tour can include Muslim food shops and Budapest s largest mosque, located in a former office building. | 0fake |
Iran calls for assassination of Netanyahu's children | Iran is encouraging its terror allies to pursue the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s children by publishing personal information about them, including photographs of the kids lined up in crosshairs, and declaring, “We must await the hunt of Hezbollah.”
The publication of the personal information and biographies of Netanyahu’s children follows an Israeli airstrike last week that killed several key Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian commander affiliated with the country’s hardline Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iranian military leaders affiliated with the IRGC threatened in recent days harsh retaliation for the strike and promised to amp up support for Hezbollah as well as Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The information was originally published in Farsi by an Iranian website affiliated with the IRGC and quickly republished by Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.
In addition to biographical details and pictures of Netanyahu’s children, the Iranians provided details about the families of former Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon.
Click for more from the Washington Free Beacon. | 0fake |
The Walter Scott outrage nobody is talking about | The horrific story of the unarmed Walter Scott’s death at the hands of Officer Michael Slager continues to reverberate. Aside from the incontrovertible evidence on the tape that the accused officer shot him in the back as if he were doing target practice, there has since emerged more tape of the traffic stop itself and audio of the officer speaking with his superiors on the phone raising even more questions about his state of mind at the time of the shooting. But as journalists have gone back and studied the officer’s record and found that he was previously investigated for taser abuse. And on even further investigation it was found that this jurisdiction is known as “Taser town”:
Until the eight shots heard ’round the world, cops in North Charleston, South Carolina, were primarily distinguished by their zesty use of Tasers. As computed by a local newspaper in 2006, cops there used Tasers 201 times in an 18-month period, averaging once every 40 hours in one six-month stretch and disproportionately upon African Americans. The Charleston Post & Courier did the tally after the death of a mentally ill man named Kip Black, who was tasered six times on one occasion and nine times on another. Black died immediately after the second jolting, though the coroner set the cause of death as cocaine-fueled “excited delirium syndrome.”
It’s important to note that Taser International has spent large sums convincing local coroners that this syndrome (which primarily seems to kill people in police custody) makes it the victim’s responsibility if they have the bad luck to die from being shot full of electricity with a taser. It’s not just illegal drugs in the system which can allegedly cause it. Adrenaline can as well. So if a person fails to remain calm in face of an arrest and finds the feeling of 50,000 volts going through their system to be stressful they have no one to blame but themselves if they die.
Those who have been following the story of Walter Scott understand the significance of the taser. It’s not just that the officer evidently lied about Scott taking his taser, thus somehow justifying his using lethal force, or the fact that he appears to have tried to plant the taser next to the slain man’s body to cover his tracks. The man who filmed the shooting said this:
It’s not unusual for people to try to escape from a taser if they can. It is, quite literally, a torture device designed to force compliance with terrible pain. The people of Taser Town, particularly African American men, undoubtedly understand exactly what is going to happen if they find themselves in the custody of a police officer. Here’s one example of how it would likely go down, as reported by The Guardian:
Slager is among three patrolmen named in a lawsuit filed by Julius Wilson, who said he was arrested after being stopped in his car in August last year. Wilson is also suing the city of North Charleston, the city police department and police chief Eddie Driggers. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Wilson described Slager and his colleagues as “bad, corrupt cops”. He said: “The use of excessive force or punishment to torture suspects is not something that should be tolerated by the North Charleston police department.”[…]
Wilson, who has a criminal record, said he was stopped on 25 August because his vehicle had a broken tail light. Scott, 50, was stopped for the same reason on 5 April before fleeing and being shot dead by Slager. Wilson was stopped by an Officer Edwards, he said, who was joined 10 minutes later by Slager and an officer Clemens despite Wilson calmly “making small talk and laughing”. After refusing to step out until he was told why he was being arrested, Wilson claimed, he was forcibly pulled out of his vehicle by Slager and the two other officers. The three then “forcibly restrained Wilson on his stomach on the pavement face down,” the lawsuit stated. Despite Wilson “not moving, nor resisting” and lying with his hands above his head, the lawsuit claimed, Slager broke a silence among the officers by shouting: “Watch out! I’m going to tase!” He then allegedly “shot his NCPD-issued taser into Wilson’s back”. The lawsuit alleged Wilson “writhed in pain from the electric shock”. It said when Slager warned his colleagues he was about to fire his taser, “Wilson was cooperating fully” and allowing the two other officers to place his hands behind his back.
Tasers guidelines vary by department and jurisdiction, but generally their use is only considered reasonable when the subject poses a safety threat. Clearly, shooting an unarmed 50-year-old man when he runs from the taser is not one of those cases. The video of the Scott incident shows that Officer Slager is confused on that issue, to say the least. And it’s just as clear, based on that same standard, that nobody could ever claim such force is justified when presented with an unarmed suspect facing down on the ground, with his hands behind his back. Using a taser in that situation is simply a form of unofficial street justice, a little torture at the hands of the authorities to make a point. Tasers are not simply used in place of lethal force, and they’re not always used to force compliance. They are very often used as on-the-spot punishment by police who want to teach citizens a lesson. Take the now notorious California incident that happened to be filmed by a local news station, in which a man on horseback led police on a chase through the desert. When he fell from the horse, police swarmed and he very clearly laid down on his stomach and put his hands behind his back. Then the police beat the hell out of him and tasered him repeatedly. This footage has garnered widespread criticism because of the beating, and for good reason. It’s brutal, primitive behavior. But you won’t find many people expressing outrage about the electric shocks being administered to this man over and over again. Here’s a typical news report of the incident: In video captured by cameras aboard a helicopter for KNBC, deputies gather around the man after he falls from a horse he was riding to flee from them. The video shows deputies using a stun gun on him and then repeatedly kicking and hitting him. KNBC reported that the man — identified by authorities as Francis Pusok — appeared to be kicked 17 times, punched 37 times and hit with a baton four times. Again, if you look at the footage, Pusok was on the ground, face down with his hands behind his back before anyone tasered him or physically assaulted him. And yet the tasering is apparently considered a-ok. At the very least, it isn’t mentioned as something that shocks the conscience the way the beating does.Perhaps this is because the searing pain of electro-shock doesn’t leave much in the way of a mark. But hideously painful it is. Yet for some reason, delivering this particular agony to a suspect is not something people reject when there is no danger to police or bystanders, and the suspect is compliant. But police do it routinely, and are rarely sanctioned for it. Some of this undoubtedly stems from the fact that popular culture has turned tasering into slapstick comedy. Movies and TV shows and countless Youtube videos portray it as a hilarious joke. “Don’t tase me bro” became as national catch phrase. But it’s not funny. Tasers can kill people. And regardless of what level of respect and compliance one thinks police are entitled to get from the public, they are not entitled to torture and punish citizens to teach them a lesson. Walter Scott ran from the pain of the taser and he was shot in the back numerous times for doing it. Francis Pusok was compliant and was tasered and beaten repeatedly anyway. It appears that such shootings and beatings, when captured on film anyway, are still considered beyond the pale in America these days. In both cases, officers will have to face some sanction for their behavior. Slager is facing a murder charge. It’s unknown what the California cops will face, but the FBI is investigating, so there may be some federal civil rights charges. It will be very interesting if any of the officers are charged with assault for using the taser. Let’s just say it will be among the vast minority of cases ever brought if they are. | 0fake |
EU's Tusk notes Brexit progress, hopes for trade talks by December | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU Chairman Donald Tusk said on Friday there had been progress in Brexit negotiations and he hoped that by December it would be sufficient to start talks with London on their relationship after Britain leaves. | 0fake |
Astroturfing: Journalist Reveals Brainwashing Tactic Uses to Manipulate Public Opinion | Vic Bishop Waking TimesOur reality is carefully constructed by powerful corporate, political and special interest sources in order to covertly sway public opinion. Blatant lies are often televised regarding terrorism, food, war, health, etc. They are fashioned to sway public opinion and condition viewers to accept what have become destructive societal norms.The practice of manipulating and controlling public opinion with distorted media messages has become so common that there is a whole industry formed around this. The entire role of this brainwashing industry is to figure out how to spin information to journalists, similar to the lobbying of government. It is never really clear just how much truth the journalists receive because the news industry has become complacent. The messages that it presents are shaped by corporate powers who often spend millions on advertising with the six conglomerates that own 90% of the media:General Electric (GE), News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS. Yet, these corporations function under many different brands, such as FOX, ABC, CNN, Comcast, Wall Street Journal, etc, giving people the perception of choice As Tavistock s researchers showed, it was important that the victims of mass brainwashing not be aware that their environment was being controlled; there should thus be a vast number of sources for information, whose messages could be varied slightly, so as to mask the sense of external control. ~ Specialist of mass brainwashing, L. WolfeNew Brainwashing Tactic Called AstroturfWith alternative media on the rise, the propaganda machine continues to expand. Below is a video of Sharyl Attkisson, investigative reporter with CBS, during which she explains how astroturf, or fake grassroots movements, are used to spin information not only to influence journalists but to sway public opinion. Astroturf is a perversion of grassroots. Astroturf is when political, corporate or other special interests disguise themselves and publish blogs, start facebook and twitter accounts, publish ads, letters to the editor, or simply post comments online, to try to fool you into thinking an independent or grassroots movement is speaking. ~ Sharyl Attkisson, Investigative ReporterHow do you separate fact from fiction? Sharyl Attkisson finishes her talk with some insights on how to identify signs of propaganda and astroturfing These methods are used to give people the impression that there is widespread support for an agenda, when, in reality, one may not exist. Astroturf tactics are also used to discredit or criticize those that disagree with certain agendas, using stereotypical names such as conspiracy theorist or quack. When in fact when someone dares to reveal the truth or questions the official story, it should spark a deeper curiosity and encourage further scrutiny of the information.This article (Journalist Reveals Tactics Brainwashing Industry Uses to Manipulate the Public) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Vic Bishop and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. READ MORE MSM PROPAGANDA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire MSM Watch Files | 1real |
Illinois marked 14th straight budget deficit in FY 2015: audit | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois’ overall financial condition deteriorated in fiscal 2015 as tax collections fell, with the state recording its fourteenth straight budget deficit, according to an annual audit released on Tuesday. The nation’s fifth-largest state ended fiscal 2015 on June 30 with a general fund deficit that grew to $6.9 billion from $6.7 billion in fiscal 2014, the comprehensive annual financial report by Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino showed. A temporary income tax hike enacted in 2011 partially expired midway through fiscal 2015, decreasing collections by $1.8 billion. “The state continues to show an inability to generate sufficient cash from its current revenue structure to pay operating expenditures on a timely basis,” the audit said. It also warned that budget deficits, along with growing unfunded liabilities for pensions and retiree healthcare, and credit rating downgrades “may impact the state’s ability to access credit markets to pay operational expenditures more timely and may increase interest costs of those borrowings.” Illinois, which already pays a big penalty in the U.S. municipal bond market, has the worst-funded pensions and the lowest credit ratings among the 50 states. The state is in its 10th month without a full fiscal 2016 budget due to an impasse between its Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature. Lawmakers returned to session this week after their spring break without any deal in sight for a fiscal 2016 or 2017 budget. The state’s liabilities, led by a $108.6 billion unfunded pension liability and $32.5 billion in payments due on bonds, dwarfed nearly $22 billion in assets, including buildings, infrastructure and equipment, resulting in a net deficit of $125.3 billion compared with $121.2 billion in fiscal 2014, the audit said. This left Illinois in the worst shape of the 42 U.S. states that have filed fiscal 2015 audits. Of the seven states that ended the fiscal year with a net position in the red - a list that also includes New Jersey, California and Kentucky - Illinois had the largest overall net deficit. Illinois’ budget stabilization fund was unchanged at $275.7 million, an insufficient amount to address cash management needs, according to state Comptroller Leslie Munger. Her office reported a $6.58 billion unpaid bill backlog on Tuesday. | 0fake |
Pop a Pill for Heartburn? Try Diet and Exercise Instead - The New York Times | Many Americans would rather take a drug than change their habits to control a persistent ailment. Yet, every medication has side effects, some of which can be worse than the disease they are meant to treat. Drugs considered safe when first marketed can turn out to have hazards, both bothersome and severe, that become apparent only after millions of people take them for a long enough time. Such is the case with a popular class of drugs called proton pump inhibitors, or P. P. I. s, now used by more than 15 million Americans and many more people worldwide to counter an increasingly common ailment: acid reflux, which many people refer to as heartburn or indigestion. These medications are now linked to a growing number of complications, ranging in seriousness from nutrient deficiencies, joint pain and infections to bone fractures, heart attacks and dementia. While definitive evidence for most of the risks identified thus far is lacking, consumers plagued by acid reflux would be wise to consider an alternative approach, namely diet and lifestyle changes that can minimize symptoms and even heal damage already done. Acid reflux is more than just a nuisance. It involves the backward flow of stomach acid into the tissues above it. It results when the lower esophageal sphincter, a ring of muscle between the esophagus and the stomach, fails to close tightly enough to prevent the contents of the stomach from moving up instead of down. Sometimes the upper sphincter, between the esophagus and the throat, malfunctions as well. Acid reflux is a serious disorder that can and must be treated to prevent symptoms and stave off potentially consequences. Known medically and commercially as GERD, the acronym for gastroesophageal reflux disease, repeated bathing of the soft tissues of the esophagus with corrosive stomach acid can seriously damage them and even cause esophageal cancer, which is often fatal. Contrary to what many believe, heartburn is but one of the many symptoms of GERD, and failure to recognize the others when heartburn is not among them can result in harmful untreated reflux. In addition to indigestion, GERD can cause a persistent dry cough, sore throat, frequent throat clearing, hoarseness, burping or hiccups, bloating, difficulty swallowing and a sensation of a lump in the throat. If, when faced with such an otherwise unexplainable symptom, your doctor fails to think of GERD as a possible reason, you might suggest it yourself. An examination of the esophagus may be the only way to find out if someone without obvious heartburn has acid reflux but doesn’t know it. Dr. Jonathan Aviv, an ear, nose and throat specialist affiliated with Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in New York, was in his when he developed a frightening symptom that turned out to be caused by acid reflux. He was suddenly awakened one night gasping for air and feeling like he was being choked. Because he’d never complained of heartburn, his own doctor had trouble believing that acid reflux could be the explanation. Yet treating this ailment brought relief and set Dr. Aviv on a yearslong journey to learn how best to manage it. He has now written a book, “The Acid Watcher Diet,” that both explains how the varied symptoms of acid reflux arise, and details a program for healing and prevention that can help many, if not most, people avoid the medications commonly prescribed to treat it. One characteristic often associated with acid reflux — being overweight, especially with abdominal obesity — largely explains why the condition has become so common in Western countries. Someone with a body mass index in the overweight range is almost twice as likely to have GERD as a person of normal weight. Losing weight is one of the best ways to find relief without having to rely on medication. Quitting smoking, limiting alcohol and avoiding carbonated drinks are also important protective measures. Smoking and alcohol can loosen tension of the upper esophageal sphincter and cause symptoms of reflux like hoarseness, postnasal drip and shortness of breath by irritating the mouth, larynx and trachea, Dr. Aviv reports. Eating big meals, lying down before a meal is digested, and exercising too soon after eating can also trigger symptoms. Reflux sufferers are often advised to eat five or six small meals a day rather than one or two big ones, and to avoid eating within three hours of bedtime. For further protection, the head of the bed can be raised by six inches or more. But while certain common foods — like raw onions, garlic, citrus juices, coffee and chocolate — are likely to cause reflux in most people with the condition, Dr. Aviv and other experts emphasize that everyone is different, and trial and error is the most effective way to determine an individual’s trigger foods and drinks. Specialists suggest keeping a food and drink diary for a week or two, recording everything consumed and the timing of symptoms to help identify a person’s trigger foods. A food does not have to be obviously acidic to be troublesome. foods are problematic for many people because they take a long time to digest. Dr. Aviv points out that many commercially produced foods and drinks are treated with substances to enhance flavor and shelf life. Accordingly, the “healing” diet he suggests consists almost entirely of natural, unprocessed foods, especially lean protein foods like poultry, fish, egg whites and dairy, beans (combined with whole grains) and nonacidic vegetables and fruits. foods are very helpful, “second only to eliminating acidic foods,” Dr. Aviv said. Fiber enhances digestion, reducing pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter, and can aid in weight loss and maintenance, among other benefits like reducing inflammation. Try to eat a pound of vegetables each day, half of which are cooked and the other half eaten raw, as well as half a pound of raw fruit. Good sources include broccoli, carrots, beets, green leafy vegetables, apples, berries, bananas, avocados and pears. Other helpful foods include almonds, walnuts, lentils, chickpeas and lima beans. If adopting the above measures fails to fully control acid reflux, taking a proton pump inhibitor may also be needed. But a P. P. I. should be used in the lowest effective dose at the correct time and for the shortest possible period, experts say. “Studies have revealed that 80 percent of Americans may be taking these powerful meds incorrectly,” Dr. Aviv wrote. He said they should be taken 30 to 60 minutes before eating breakfast or dinner (or both) but not used as an “antidote” to consuming acidic foods. | 0fake |
Jorge Ramos: America Is ‘Our Country, Not Theirs’—‘And We Are Not Going to Leave’ | Univision senior anchor Jorge Ramos declared on Friday that the United States belongs to Latino migrants, emphatically stating to a audience that “it is our country, not theirs. ”[Ramos took an unusual tack, pivoting from talk of diversity and togetherness into boasts of conquest. Mass immigration, particularly illegal immigration, was a fait accompli. There is nothing the U. S. can do about it, and they must accept that America is “not their” country and that illegal aliens, particularly Latinos, “are not going to leave,” he said. “I am an immigrant, just like many of you,” Ramos said in Spanish, as translated by the Media Research Center. “I am a proud Latino immigrant here in the United States. My name is Jorge Ramos, and I work at Univision and at the Fusion network. ” “And you know exactly what is going on here in the United States. There are many people who do not want us to be here, and who want to create a wall in order to separate us,” he said. “But you know what? This is also our country. Let me repeat this: Our country, not theirs. It is our country. And we are not going to leave. We are nearly 60 million Latinos in the United States,” he continued. “And thanks to us, the United States eats, grows and, as we’ve seen today, sings and dances. ” “So when they attack us, we already know what we are going to do. We are not going to sit down. We will not shut up. And we will not leave. That is what we are going to do,” he added. Ramos gave his speech on Friday during Premios Lo Nuestro, or “Our Awards,” on Univision. Ramos, who immigrated to the U. S. from Mexico, frequently portrays American law as unjust and prejudiced and supports open borders. “The taboo issue of an open border should be tackled. Not now. Politically it is impossible even to discuss that. But I don’t see why we can’t have in North America the same immigration that they have within the European Union,” Ramos said to Time magazine in 2014. The U. S. should not enforce its immigration laws even after illegal aliens kill Americans, he said during a CNN interview in August 2015, because that would be “completely unfair” to the illegal population. In June of 2016, Ramos told a crowd of illegal aliens gathered in Houston, Texas, “I think you the DREAMers are the Rosa Parks of this time. ” And Ramos’ views are not fringe ones in Mexico: A 2013 poll found that 66 percent of Mexicans believe the U. S. government has no right to limit immigration, while 52 percent said Mexicans have a right to be in the United States. Another 88 percent said it is fine to enter the U. S. illegally if one needs money. Over half, 56 percent, said they had friends or family who tried to immigrate to the U. S. illegally. | 0fake |
Raptors Escape Past, Ousting the Heat in Game 7 - The New York Times | TORONTO — As the Toronto Raptors assembled their lead in the third quarter, Air Canada Centre began to fill with an unmistakable sense that this team was not merely overpowering the Miami Heat. No, the Raptors were also escaping their past. All the exits. All the blown chances. All the disappointments. On Sunday afternoon, the Raptors turned the most significant basketball game in franchise history into a citywide celebration, defeating the Heat, in Game 7 of the teams’ Eastern Conference semifinals. Kyle Lowry scored 35 points with a sore elbow, and DeMar DeRozan added 28 with a sprained thumb. “I know one thing,” Coach Dwane Casey said. “Our guys compete. ” Nothing about this game was easy for the Raptors — not against the likes of Dwyane Wade, not after seven games, not with so many bodies. But for the first time in the team’s existence, the Raptors are bound for the conference finals. Their series with the Cleveland Cavaliers will start Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena. “We ain’t satisfied,” Lowry said. “That’s just our mentality. ” The Raptors erupted in the third quarter, building their lead possession by possession. To 11 when DeMarre Carroll sank a . To 14 when Bismack Biyombo got inside for a dunk. To 16 when Lowry drove to the rim for layup. The Heat trailed by as many as 28 in the fourth. “They wore us down,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Toronto beat us, fair and square. ” Wade and Goran Dragic scored 16 points each for the Heat, who were greeted by light snowfall when they left their hotel for the game. About a before tipoff, flurries gave way to hail. It was springtime in Canada, and the conditions — at least symbolically — favored the Raptors. (For the record, it did not snow in Miami for Game 6.) Thousands of fans filed into Jurassic Park, an outdoor viewing party on a block next to the arena. If people here were excited about the game, about this national event, then they were also opening themselves up to the possibility of more frustration, more misery, more sadness. The ghosts of postseasons past have haunted this franchise. Seven previous trips to the playoffs. Six flameouts. It has been particularly impossible for Toronto to forget 2001, when it came within seconds of advancing to the conference finals. But Vince Carter, after attending his college graduation ceremony that morning, missed a shot at the buzzer, and the Philadelphia 76ers escaped with a Game 7 win in the conference semifinals. That was 15 years ago. The Raptors finally seized another opportunity. “This organization deserves it,” DeRozan said. This was a physical series that featured nearly as many injuries as missed shots. Both teams had long ago lost their starting centers — the Raptors’ Jonas Valanciunas to a sprained right ankle, the Heat’s Hassan Whiteside to a sprained right knee. Others played on, through jammed thumbs and bruised wrists, through the toll of a series that manifested itself in bandages and braces. In Game 6, with his team hoping to extend the series, Spoelstra went small by starting Justise Winslow, a forward, at center. Spoelstra sought to generate more offense, and he instructed Winslow to set screen after screen along the perimeter, drawing Biyombo, his primary defender, away from the basket. The Heat ran away with the win. Ahead of Game 7, Casey expressed cautious optimism that his players would make the necessary adjustments. He wanted his defenders to focus on the ball, to contain Wade and Dragic and at least slow their dribble penetration. Casey advised his players to stop worrying so much about the coming screen. “Too many times, we’re looking to see where the screens are coming from,” Casey said, adding, “We have to do a good job of locking into the basketball. ” The arena practically shook when DeRozan scored the first points of the game on a midrange jumper. The crowd roared when Wade picked up his second foul and took an early seat. Neither team was particularly efficient, however, and this surprised no one after two weeks of turnovers and empty possessions. On Sunday, the Raptors and the Heat combined to miss nine of their first 10 attempts. DeRozan, though, was assertive. He scored 11 points on 12 attempts in the first quarter. Toronto took a lead into the second half. As the game wore on, others emerged for the Raptors. Biyombo finished with 17 points, and Patrick Patterson had 11 points and 11 rebounds. “I thought tonight we played big,” Casey said. “If you’re going to do that, you’ve got to make sure you plant your feet in the lane and do what you do. ” Late in the fourth quarter, with the final seconds melting away on the Heat’s season, a happy mob formed in front of the Raptors’ bench. Coaches embraced. Players exchanged . But back in the locker room, a dose of reality awaited: scouting reports on the Cavaliers, one for every player. “It’s another step for us,” Casey said. “But we’re not there yet. ” | 0fake |
Trump Surging, Now Tied With Clinton In Michigan As FBI WIPES OUT HILLARY 13-POINT LEAD | RedFlag News |
The Daily Caller
Republican nominee Donald Trump is tied with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Michigan, according to a Strategic National Poll.
The Michigan statewide poll revealed Trump is now dead even with Clinton, in a state that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.
Clinton enjoyed as much as a 13-point advantage over Trump in Michigan just two weeks ago.
“Trump is over performing in key segments of the electorate especially in rural areas and Macomb County while Clinton is failing to get the numbers she needs out of the city of Detroit,” John Yob, CEO of Strategic National , who conducted the poll, reported. | 1real |
Clinton would use executive action to end tax loophole: USA Today | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said, if elected, she would use executive action to end a tax loophole for wealthy Americans, according to an interview with USA Today on Wednesday. Clinton said that if Congress did not act, she would ask the Treasury Department to use its authority to end the tax advantage, known as the carried interest loophole, which allows hedge-fund managers to pay a lower rate than other taxpayers by counting their income as investment income. | 0fake |
Tillerson seeks to reassure worried Europe over Trump | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered a message of support to European allies in Brussels on Tuesday but their concerns about President Donald Trump’s foreign policy have created a rift on a host of issues. European allies are troubled by Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, his decision not to certify Iran’s compliance with a nuclear deal, his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and now plans to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Tillerson told Europe’s foreign ministers at the European Union and NATO that the U.S. government remains committed to transatlantic ties that Trump has previously questioned. Tillerson also sought to reassure U.S. diplomats posted abroad that his ideas to revamp the country’s foreign service were bearing fruit, saying he would reveal a modernization plan for the U.S. State Department soon. Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, said his visit showed “the strong commitment the U.S. has to the European alliance, the important role that the European alliance plays in our shared security objectives.” Before a lunch with EU foreign ministers, Tillerson stressed “shared values, shared objectives for security and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.” Trump visited the U.S.-led NATO alliance in May to admonish European leaders on their low defense spending. During his visit on Tuesday, Tillerson offered a more generous appraisal and gave an “unwavering” U.S. commitment to NATO’s mutual defense clause, which considers an attack on one ally as an attack on all. Tillerson ignored questions from reporters about whether he would be ousted from the White House, while his senior adviser R.C. Hammond said no EU or NATO foreign ministers raised the issue of whether Tillerson’s job was secure. In his first substantive public comments since reports last week of a White House plan for CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him, Tillerson said despite “a little criticism”, he was on top of his job. “While we don’t have any wins on the board yet, I can tell you we’re in a much better position to advance America’s interests around the world than we were 10 months ago,” he told senior U.S. diplomats and U.S. embassy staff at the U.S. mission to Belgium in Brussels. Tillerson’s trip will also take him to Vienna and Paris. While Trump said last week he was not leaving and Tillerson said the reports were untrue,, Trump has also said he alone determines U.S. foreign policy, saying in a tweet on Friday: “I call the final shots.” Tillerson told U.S. diplomats gathered at the embassy in Belgium that it had been “a bit of a shock” to meet Trump for the first time when he was approached as a possible secretary of state late last year. Diplomats said EU governments face a dilemma because Tillerson’s views are more closely aligned with theirs but may not reflect those of Trump. Foreign ministers had been open about sharing disagreements with the United States on various issues, Hammond said. One EU diplomat said it was “fairly predictable” given tensions on issues, including Trump’s handling of the North Korea nuclear crisis and his threat to “totally destroy” the secretive country. “Allies have been very frank today in sharing some of their views,” Hammond said, although he said it was important to be honest, adding that: “dialogues only work if they go two ways.” In a speech in Berlin before flying to Brussels, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned that the European Union could no longer rely on the United States as its closest ally. “The withdrawal of the United States under Donald Trump from its reliable role as a guarantor of Western-led multilateralism accelerates a change of the world order with immediate consequences for German and European interests,” Gabriel said. Standing next to Tillerson on the podium at the EU headquarters in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also warned the Trump administration about a possible plan to the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Trump is considering recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which Gabriel also said could unleash turmoil. “A lot of member states, including us, are concerned that the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will not calm the conflict but rather inflame it,” Gabriel said at NATO after the EU ministers’ lunch with Tillerson. The European Union, as the Palestinians’ biggest aid donor and Israel’s top trade partner, says it has a right to make its voice heard in any U.S. initiatives in the Middle East. | 0fake |
White House to Be Lit in Blue in Honor of Autism Awareness - Breitbart | The White House will light up in the color blue Sunday evening in honor of World Autism Awareness Day. [“I invite all Americans to Light it Up Blue, which Melania and I will do at the White House,” President Trump said in an announcement Friday, according to The Hill. “I call upon all Americans to learn more about the signs of autism to improve early diagnosis, understand the challenges faced by those with autism spectrum disorders, and to do what they can to support individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families,” he added. Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump promised “the late wife of his friend Bob Wright that he would illuminate the White House in blue if he won the election,” according to the Associated Press. Bob Wright and his wife Suzanne, who passed away in 2016, founded the Autism Speaks advocacy group in 2005, which has a blue logo. “Spicer says it’s in honor of the Wrights that the White House on Sunday will help draw attention to a ‘great cause,’” AP reports. “On World Autism Awareness Day, we highlight the importance of addressing the causes and improving the treatments for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs),” Trump said. | 0fake |
Obama's Supreme Court lawyer to step down | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer is leaving office at the end of June having won a string of major cases including fending off challenges to President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law and legalizing same-sex marriage. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has served in the Justice Department post since June 2011. He also held two other positions in the Obama administration. Verrilli’s deputy, Ian Gershengorn will take over, the Justice Department said in a release announcing Verrilli’s departure. “For five years, Solicitor General Don Verrilli has fought in our nation’s highest court for a better future, winning landmark cases that moved America forward,” Obama said in a statement. Verrilli twice successfully defended the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, against conservative challenges. In 2012, the court ruled 5-4 to uphold the law against a broad legal attack. Three years later, the justices rejected a second challenge on a 6-3 vote. “Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care,” Obama said. In other major victories, Verrilli urged the justices to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which barred the recognition of same-sex marriages for the purposes of federal benefits. The 5-4 ruling striking down the law in June 2015 helped pave the way for the court’s 5-4 landmark 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide, which Verrilli also advocated for. In another case, Verrilli successfully persuaded the court in 2012 to strike down provisions of a harsh anti-immigrant law in Arizona on a 5-3 vote. “Through these and many other cases – and through his thoughtful counsel and principled advocacy – Don has built a legacy of inclusion, expanding opportunities and civil rights for all Americans and moving our country forward,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement. Setbacks included the court’s 2013 ruling on a 5-4 vote striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, a law enacted to protect minority voters. He also lost a case 9-0 in which a company challenged Obama’s authority to appoint members of the National Labor Relations Board when the Senate was in recess. The court has yet to rule in several major cases Verrilli argued this year, including a challenge to a restrictive Texas abortion law and his defense of Obama’s executive action that would protect more than four million immigrants from deportation. | 0fake |
BLOCKBUSTER COURT RULING On Obama/Clinton Benghazi Emails Forces The Hand Of The State Department | Thanks to Judicial Watch for keeping it up with the effort to find out more on what happened in Benghazi. We know that the State Department was and still is protecting Hillary Clinton and Obama. We know that it s hard to keep up the hope that these crooks will be held accountable for what they did. Rest assured that Judicial Watch is calling out the State Department on this and especially Patrick Kennedy (see more on Kennedy below).(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch today announced that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered the U.S. Department of State to turn over to Judicial Watch eight identical paragraphs of previously redact material in two September 13, 2012, Hillary Clinton emails regarding phone calls made by President Barack Obama to Egyptian and Libyan leaders immediately following the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.Both emails had the subject line Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt and were among the emails stored on Clinton s unofficial email server.Judge Jackson reviewed the documents directly and rejected the government s contention that the records had been properly withheld under the FOIA B(5) deliberative process exemption.Judge Jackson ruled: the two records, even if just barely predecisional, are not deliberative. [The State Department] has pointed to very little to support its characterization of these two records as deliberative, and the Court s in camera review of the documents reveals that they do not fall within that category. The full emails may reveal what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama knew about the September 11, 2012, terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.Following Judge Jackson s March 20 ruling, the State Department asked the court to reconsider. The State Department argued that, due to an internal mistake, it failed to claim that the emails were classified and, therefore, exempt from production under FOIA Exemption B(1).In response, Judicial Watch argues that the failure was not a mistake, but instead was part of a deliberate effort by the State Department to protect Clinton and the agency by avoiding identifying emails on Clinton s unofficial, non-secure email server as classified.Judicial Watch s filing cites an interview of an FBI employee who told federal investigators that top State Department official Patrick Kennedy pressured the FBI to keep Clinton s emails unclassified. The employee told the FBI he believes STATE ha[d] an agenda which involves minimizing the classified nature of the CLINTON emails in order to protect STATE interests and those of CLINTON. :FBI documents say Kennedy offered the FBI additional positions overseas if the Secret label, the middle level of classification, would be removed. Clinton, who used a private server for her emails while she was secretary of state, has contended she never sent or received classified information. The FBI has ruled otherwise.4 KEY PEOPLE OUT PARTICULARLY PATRICK KENNEDY:Judicial Watch s filing also cites an interview of a State Department employee who told the FBI that the State Department s Office of Legal Counsel interfered with the FOIA processing of email from Secretary Clinton s server, instructing reviewers to use Exemption B(5) (deliberative process exemption) instead of Exemption B(1) (classified information exemption). According to the FBI interview:STATE s Near East Affairs Bureau upgraded several of CLINTON s emails to a classified level with a B(1) release exemption . [Redacted], along with [Redacted] attorney, Office of Legal Counsel, called STATE s Near East Affairs Bureau and told them they could use a B(5) exemption on a upgraded email to protect it instead of the B(1) exemption. However, the use of the B(5) exemption, which is usually used for executive privilege-related information, was incorrect as the information actually was classified and related to national security, which would be a B(1) exemption.Judicial Watch argues:An agency s deliberate withholding of a FOIA claim, either to gain a tactical advantage or, as appears to be the case here, to protect the agency s interests and those of its former head, is a motive undoubtedly inconsistent with FOIA s broad remedial purpose It counsels denying the Government s request. The emails in question were sent to then-top administration officials, including Clinton, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Clinton Deputy Chief of Staff Jacob Sullivan, Special Assistant Robert Russo, and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough. Does President Trump know his State and Justice Departments are still trying to provide cover for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. An extraordinary court ruling that could result in key answers about the Benghazi outrage is being opposed by the Trump administration. This may well be an example of the deep state trying to get away with a cover up if so then the Trump administration must put a stop to it. Judicial Watch obtained the original documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01511)). The lawsuit was filed on September 4, 2014, after the State Department failed to respond to a June 13, 2014, FOIA request seeking:All records related to notes, updates, or reports created in response to the September 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. This request includes, but is not limited to notes taken by then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton or employees of the Office of the Secretary of State during the attack and its immediate aftermath. The timeframe for this request is September 11-15, Judicial Watch s numerous FOIA lawsuits have forced the State Department to release hundreds of Benghazi-related documents.THIS IS ALL WE NEED TO SEE TO BE REMINDED TO KEEP UP THE FIGHT FOR TRUTH Via: Judicial Watch | 1real |
E.U. Lawmakers Call for End to Visa-Free Travel for Americans - The New York Times | BRUSSELS — The European Parliament has passed a nonbinding resolution calling for the reintroduction of visa requirements for American citizens, raising the stakes in a battle over the United States’ refusal to grant access to citizens of five European Union countries. In the vote on Thursday, European lawmakers played in their dispute with the United States, demanding restrictions on American travelers unless the Trump administration lifts travel requirements for citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania. “You’re talking about citizens from countries, like Poland, with a major diaspora” in the United States, Claude Moraes, the British lawmaker who leads the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament, said in a telephone interview on Friday. “You’re really seeing frustration and anger, and without any timetable, this is becoming increasingly seen as treatment. ” The resolution, while nonbinding, was an important political signal, and it increases pressure on the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, to confront the new administration in Washington, even though it may prove to be as intransigent on the matter as the Obama administration, if not more. The European Parliament also warned that it could take the further step of bringing the European Commission to court if it continues not to stand up to Washington. “Only when the U. S. fully gets that the European Commission is going to act are we going to get any kind of timetable from the United States,” Mr. Moraes said. “At the moment, the U. S. just believes the commission is not going to act but stick with the pragmatic argument that doing so would create damage that’s just too great. ” He continued, referring to Washington, “There’s no denying heightened concern about the current administration, but that’s more about uncertainty about who’s in charge and how the State Department is working. ” Mr. Moraes said the civil liberties committee could still recommend within two months that a case against the commission’s failure to act be brought to the bloc’s highest tribunal, the Court of Justice of the European Union. “It’s a question of using what options are open to us,” he said, explaining the possible resort to litigation. In the vote on Thursday, the Parliament gave the European Commission two months to take legal measures to impose visas for American travelers to the European Union unless the Americans offered reciprocity to all citizens from the bloc. European officials in Brussels have balked at making travel to Europe more difficult for Americans, saying doing so would have an economic cost and would most likely not even resolve the hurdles facing citizens of the five affected countries. The Parliament’s measure was approved in a show of hands and was not expected to worsen the standoff with the United States. But in the event that the court in Luxembourg were to rule in favor of Parliament, the commission might be forced to impose visa requirements on Americans. The Trump administration, finding itself in a battle over access, would then almost certainly do the same for travelers from the European Union. In 2014, the European Commission was notified that the United States and four other countries — Australia, Brunei, Canada and Japan — were failing to provide reciprocal, travel to citizens of some European Union countries. Australia, Brunei and Japan have resolved differences with the European Union, and an agreement with Canada is expected to take effect in December for all citizens of Bulgaria and Romania, according to a statement from the European Parliament. Margaritis Schinas, the chief spokesman for the commission, appeared to tamp down any expectations that it would impose visa requirements on Americans within two months, as outlined in the Parliament resolution. Instead, he said he advocated “continued engagement and patient diplomatic contacts” with Washington. The commission will issue a progress report on discussions with the United States, he added, but not before the end of June. | 0fake |
Long Island Plane Crash Kills 3 - The New York Times | SYOSSET, N. Y. — A plane crashed on Long Island on Tuesday, killing the three people onboard and showering debris over a area with dozens of homes, several schools and at least one busy thoroughfare, the authorities said. The crash was reported shortly after 2:30 p. m. on Cold Spring Road in Syosset, N. Y. according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane had two male adults and one female adult, who were traveling from Myrtle Beach, S. C. to Robertson Field in Plainville, Conn. outside of Hartford, officials said. The F. A. A. said the crash was under investigation, and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine its cause. Robert Gretz, a senior air safety investigator for the board, said on Tuesday night that the plane went off radar and “broke up in flight” over Syosset. The Nassau County police said no one on the ground had been injured, though a section of Cold Spring Road remained closed and residents were told by the authorities to stay close to their homes. Those who were away from home at the time of the crash said they had to park outside the police perimeter and be escorted in by officers. Syosset, a hamlet of about 20, 000 people near the eastern edge of the county, has homes with mostly wide, lawns and several schools. Cold Spring Road is among the busiest streets in the neighborhood, residents said, with school buses ferrying students throughout the day. At Harvest House, a retirement home with eight residents run by the Sisters of St. Dominic, Sister Mary Butler said she heard a noise while she was working at the computer. “You hear things, but you’re not quite sure,” she said. “You think it’s a big truck going by. ” Then she looked at the front yard of the home, where what appeared to be a piece of luggage had landed, and not far away, she saw a woman’s pocketbook. A piece of the aircraft landed near the driveway, she said. Police officers knocked on the door to tell them what had happened and then searched the property. Hours later, Sister Butler said in a telephone interview, she could still hear helicopters flying overhead and saw investigators at work on the street. Sue Gold, who lives nearby, said she was not at home at the time of the crash. But she could tell as she left work on Tuesday afternoon that something was wrong her job is near a Nassau County police precinct station house, and she saw a string of police vehicles, fire engines and ambulances heading toward the area. “I was thinking something might have happened at the high school,” she said. As she got closer to home, Ms. Gold said, she saw fire engines with their ladders extended so that investigators could climb up and survey the debris area. Her street was blocked off, so she had to park around the corner and was escorted in. A piece of the wing had crashed into her neighbor’s roof, she said, and a passenger seat had fallen in a yard. She also saw golf clubs strewed about. Ms. Gold said she was troubled by the crash, but she was also relieved because no one on the ground was hurt. “We feel terrible for the people who lost their lives,” she said. “It could have been a lot worse. You have to understand, it’s a major thoroughfare. There are so many school buses that go down the street at all times. ” On Tuesday evening, as investigators were still scouring the area, Ms. Gold waited eagerly for her husband to get home. She had tried to go see a friend who lives nearby, but the police told her to stay on her property. Still, she said, they made sure she was not by herself for too long. “I did not want to be inside the house alone,” Ms. Gold said. “Stay here,” she said a police officer told her. “We’ll stay here with you. ” | 0fake |
Tea Party Express Executive Director: “Conservative” Bubble Boys Risk Squandering an Historic Opportunity - Breitbart | If there is one thing some conservatives are good at, it is ruining a good thing. The Tea Party movement and President Donald J. Trump have successfully delivered to the Republican establishment exactly what they said they wanted: a unified, government. [Unfortunately, instead of recognizing victory and unifying to ensure the best conservative ideas are embraced, certain conservative leaders, particularly from the elitist D. C. segment, have decided to line up a good ol’ circular firing squad. Hours before President Trump took to the stage for his home run speech to the Joint Session of Congress, we heard cheap shots at him about budget rumors — since no presidential budget has been submitted yet. Republican Senators were asserting that any budget that included desperately needed cuts to the bloated State Department would be “dead on arrival. ” They are joined by a group we can only term as Conservative Bubble Boys and Girls. They’re a small, but vocal group of entrenched politicos who have clung to the conservative label as a way to stay relevant in the D. C. bubble. Regrettably, they spend far too much of their time finding fault with what other conservatives are doing. They’ve been out of touch for so long, it seems like they don’t really know whose team they’re on. Following President Trump’s speech on Tuesday, I released the following statement: Since 2012, Tea Party Express has hosted the official Tea Party response to the President’s address. Last night was the first night that our address wasn’t necessary. Not because the ideas of limited government and economic growth have fallen out of vogue — because they surely haven’t — but because that speech was delivered on the floor of the U. S. House of Representatives by the President of the United States. President Trump delivered an eloquent address, where he clearly and deliberately laid out his conservative vision for America. It should now be clear to everyone that the Tea Party movement is more than rallies and protests. We have arrived in D. C. through our elected representatives, to fulfill our mission and finally rein in government. But instead of covering this milestone for the conservative movement, the Bubble Boys and Girls used it to write the Tea Party’s obituary, claiming that we were dead because we somehow embraced a big government agenda void of a conservative vision. Huh? The Weekly Standard published the piece “RIP, Tea Party: ” and claimed, “The movement embraces big government. ” Why? Because they claim the President did not outline specific budget cuts, but only talked about spending priorities. Thus, they conclude — before a single piece of legislation is introduced — that he is a “big government conservative. ” Then, a senior editor at National Review asserted, “Maybe I’m crazy, but I’d bet that if President Obama (or a President Jeb Bush) had made a similar speech with similar spending commitments and no explanation of how to pay for them, the Tea Party Express would have mustered enough objections to respond. ” Yes, the National Review writer is right. We had no confidence that Barack Obama was going to rein in the size and cost of government we would have proudly stood with Jeb Bush if he had a cabinet. We would have given a lot of room to a President who had appointed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, or Scott Pruitt to the EPA or Tom Price to head up HHS. Furthermore, both authors oddly marginalized the President’s agenda, which includes historic tax cuts, massive regulatory reform, and bold education changes that will affect millions of children across the nation. And that doesn’t even touch the Administration’s unequivocal commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare. These are major conservative priorities — and priorities that have defined the Tea Party movement — but the Bubble Boys and Girls won’t let facts get in the way of an opportunity to bash the President. Admittedly, there are plenty of details to work through as the Administration and Congress prepare to honor the promises they made to voters. And none of us are under any illusion that we’ll be happy with 100 percent of every decision made. If the President or Congress deviates from the will of the voters, we should call them out — I know that Tea Party Express will. However, instead of impulsively attacking President Trump and fellow conservatives, let’s try to keep our powder dry and wait for there to be a fight. Maybe that way we will be ready and united to actually win some of the impending battles and deliver the best solutions for conservatives. Taylor Budowich is the executive director of Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee. | 0fake |
White House says Trump 'extremely concerned' about WikiLeaks CIA breach | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is “extremely concerned” about a security breach at the CIA that led to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks publishing agency documents on its hacking tools, the White House said on Wednesday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing that the Trump administration intends to be tough on leakers. “Anybody who leaks classified information will be held to the highest degree of law. We will go after people who leak classified information. We will prosecute them to the full extent of the law,” he said. | 0fake |
Venezuela opposition coalition split ahead of new vote | CARACAS/MARACAIBO, Venezuela (Reuters) - One of Venezuela s major opposition parties has decided to run in local elections next month despite a boycott by others, deepening a split in the Democratic Unity coalition to the glee of President Nicolas Maduro and his ruling Socialist Party. Three of the four main groupings in the coalition have vowed not to participate in the Dec. 10 balloting for 335 mayors and one governor because they believe the election system is rigged. But the fourth party, A New Time, based in oil-rich western Zulia state where the governorship is up for grabs, argues Maduro must still be fought at the ballot box to avoid simply handing him more political space. Manuel Rosales, a former Zulia governor who fled to Peru in 2009 after corruption charges leveled by the government of Maduro s predecessor Hugo Chavez, said on Thursday he would be running again on behalf of A New Time. I m not going to leave Zulianos alone, Rosales told supporters. Rosales was jailed in 2015 on his return from exile. Authorities lifted a ban on him running for office just this week. His party s stance has infuriated many anti-Maduro activists. Another opposition leader won the Zulia governorship in elections last month but was prohibited from taking office for refusing to bow to a pro-Maduro legislative superbody. He s a sellout, said Juan Carlos Rivero, 34, at an auto repair shop in Zulia state capital Maracaibo. He had voted for Rosales in the past but did not plan to in December. Having failed to oust Maduro via street protests earlier this year - which left at least 125 people dead - and having then performed badly in the Oct. 15 gubernatorial vote, Venezuela s opposition is in its worst crisis of recent years. Though polls show it has majority support, and Venezuelans are angry at Maduro over an unprecedented economic crisis, the opposition has failed to capitalize. Maduro has been exulting in the opposition disarray, saying parties ordering members to abstain next month were behaving undemocratically even as they accuse him of being a dictator. When they lose elections, they cry fraud and when they know things are against them, instead of fighting, they withdraw, Maduro said in a recent speech, adding that Venezuela s elections were clean. There is speculation the government may take advantage of opposition weakness by moving up the expected December 2018 date for Venezuela s next presidential election. Various opposition politicians, including twice-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, remain banned from standing for office on various charges of corruption or plotting. And rights groups say there are nearly 400 political prisoners, including well-known protest leader Leopoldo Lopez. Authorities deny political persecution, saying all detentions of politicians are for breaking the law. In the latest threats against opposition leaders, Maduro said in a speech on Friday that congress head Julio Borges should be tried for treason after lobbying against his government abroad, including in financial circles. The pro-Maduro Supreme Court, meanwhile, said opposition leader Freddy Guevara - who runs the militant Popular Will party in the absence of its leader Lopez - should be prosecuted for instigation and using children in protests. Guevara, who is congress vice president, was prohibited from leaving the country. | 0fake |
UPDATE: Anonymous Releases Data On First Attack Doxxing Trump, Promises More To Come (VIDEO) | Hacktivist group Anonymous has now commenced their war on Donald Trump, which has begun with a huge data dump on the most popular fascist in America. The dump includes Trump s social security number, multiple cell phone numbers of him, his bratty kids, and a few of his business associates. Also included are email addresses and website information for his businesses.Reports indicate that the attack is being led by Anonymous Red Cult, who are the ones responsible for #OpISIS and #OpAnonVerdict in the past. They have a long history of fighting back against entities, from individuals to entire governments, which they view as being oppressive against the common people. Red Cult also says that they are narrowing their current focus towards Trump and away from other fronts, promising that this is only the beginning of their attacks on him.The full Trump doxxing release can be viewed HERE. The name of the operation, white rose, was inspired by a resistance movement that started against the Nazis during World War 2. Anonymous has confirmed that more chapters are cropping up and forming a collective under the name White Rose Society, ensuring what will be an interesting 2016 election cycle.Trump s fascist rhetoric has already been responsible for multiple assaults on peaceful protesters at and around his political rallies, as well inflaming racist and xenophobic sentiment across the nation. We have already seen cases of hate crimes experiencing an upswing since his rise to dominance of the Republican party. Since the Republican party is unwilling and incapable of dealing with Trump, perhaps Anonymous will finally be able to bring an end to the credible threat of terrorism he personifies.Addicting Info is presenting this for informational purposes only and does not endorse in any way the misuse of the information released by Anonymous.Watch the official statement by Anonymous Red Cult at the beginning of #OpWhiteRose below:Featured image via ghostbin | 1real |
French arrest nine, Swiss one in joint anti-terrorism swoop | PARIS (Reuters) - French police arrested nine people and another was arrested in Switzerland in coordinated counter-terrorism swoops that follow a spate of deadly attacks in Europe in recent years. Swiss officials said a 23-year-old Colombian woman was taken into custody after police raids there. A Swiss man aged 27 was among those arrested in parallel French police swoops linked to Islamist militant activity, they added. French police conducted simultaneous raids on premises on the eastern edge of Paris and in the southeastern region that borders Italy and Switzerland, taking nine people into custody, a source in the French judiciary said. Those arrested were aged from 18 to 65 years, said the French source, who spoke on condition of anonymity standard practice for most French officials on such matters. Le Parisien newspaper said it was possible the raids had thwarted an attack. The French judicial source spoke of suspected participation in a criminal terrorist network and of communications via the Telegram network that many militants use because messages can be encrypted. A Swiss statement cited suspected involvement in terrorist activity and banned Islamist militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State. The arrests took place a week after France introduced tougher national security laws to permanently replace emergency powers given to police and intelligence services following deadly attacks by Islamist militants on Paris two years ago. More than 240 people have been killed in France since early 2015 in attacks by Islamist militants or assailants inspired by the Islamic State group, which has sought to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and called for attacks on France. France is among countries contributing to military operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who says 32 attack plots have been thwarted in the past two years in France, played down the latest operation when asked about it during a visit to Berlin. It s part of operations which, sadly, are conducted relatively regularly, where we arrest a number of people we consider dangerous, he said. | 0fake |
Bolton on London: ’Being Born on English Soil’ Doesn’t Strip Away Potential for Islamic Terrorism | Former U. N. Ambassador, John Bolton, joined Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday to discuss the London terror attack and issues involved in fighting terrorism in general. [As the March 22 London attacker was reportedly born in Britain, Bolton stressed, “As if a terrorist comes into a Western country, or a radical Islamist sympathizer, and they raise a family in that country, so they have a son or a daughter who’s born in Britain, as this terrorist reportedly was, it is as if being born on English soil strips away the terrorist possibility. I wish it were so magical. ” Bolton added, “If you go back to the London transportation attacks of 2007, those were all carried out by people born in Britain, as well. That to me is more terrifying than refugees or immigrants coming in because it proves, whether for Britain or the United States, you can be born in a free country, you can grow up experiencing all the possibilities and freedoms that these systems bring, and you can still consciously reject it all and turn to terrorism. That worries me more than the immigrants, frankly. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 0fake |
Kansas budget woes weigh on state's credit ratings | (Reuters) - Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday slapped a negative outlook on Kansas’ Aa2 credit rating, citing the state’s reliance on one-shot measures to balance its budget. That followed action late last month by Standard & Poor’s, which put Kansas’ AA rating on review for a possible downgrade after the state lowered its revenue estimates for the current and next fiscal year by $228.7 million. Governor Sam Brownback plans to divert $185 million in sales tax revenue from the state’ highway fund to the general fund and delay a $96.5 million fiscal 2016 pension payment to help fill the gap. “By continuing to balance its budget with unsustainable, nonrecurring resources, including pension underfunding, it is accumulating large and expensive long-term liabilities that it will be paying off for a long time,” Moody’s said in a statement. The credit rating agency also revised the outlook on $2.1 billion of Aa2-rated Kansas highway revenue bonds to negative from stable. The Kansas budget is feeling the effects from action taken by Brownback and the Republican-controlled legislature in recent years to cut corporate and other income taxes to help the state compete with bordering Missouri and other states for business development and jobs. The state’s fiscal year begins on July 1. | 0fake |
WHY AMERICANS SHOULD Care That Facebook’s CEO Is Threatening Users Against Muslim Refugee “Hate Speech” | We are two moms who have put our lives on hold to do everything in our power to fight the progressives on the left from stealing our freedoms and the future of this great nation from our children. Over four years ago, we started the 100 Percent FED Up! Facebook page with the goal of exposing the truth that so many frustrated Americans were not finding in the mainstream media. We ve suffered several cases of censorship by Facebook along the way, but we never gave up. We may disappear after we publish this article, but we ve made a commitment to exposing the truth and we re not going to back down now.It should frighten every person who uses Facebook, that a CEO of a the largest social media platform in the world, has openly expressed the view that America should give up our national security and follow Germany s lead when it comes to open borders for [Muslim] migrants. I suppose it s easy for billionaires who are surrounded by top security firms, and live a life far removed from the every day American, to say that we should accept these rapists, violent invaders, and YES, members of terror groups disguised as refugees into our neighborhoods and communities. After all, they won t be living next door to Mark Zuckerberg. He will likely never have a single encounter with them in his day to day life.Mark Zuckerberg recently admonished his workers for replacing Black with the word All in Obama s race war motto: Black Lives Matter. For anyone who s paying attention, asking your workers to essentially accept admonishment for being white from a group of domestic terrorists, is a dangerous precedent for an owner of any company, much less the largest social media organization in the world. We need to fight back against this. We need to not be afraid of censorship or the ramifications when we voice our opinions.Mark Zuckerberg praised Germany for their inspiring refugee policies during a visit to the country and reiterated his commitment to combating hate speech on Facebook.Speaking at a town hall event in Berlin, the 31-year old billionaire said German leadership in the refugee crisis has been insipiring and a role model for the world. I hope other countries follow Germany s lead on this, he added. I hope the U.S. follows Germany s lead on this. Speaking at the same event, Zuckerberg also emphasised his commitment to tackling hate speech on Facebook. Hate speech has no place on Facebook and in our community, he said. Until recently in Germany I don t think we were doing a good enough job, and I think we will continue needing to do a better and better job. Zuckerberg added that the company would place a special priority on tackling hate speech against migrants. Facebook s policies, he said, would now include hate speech against migrants as an important part of what we just now have no tolerance for. Zuckerberg was overheard after leaving his microphone on during a conversation about the refugee crisis with Angela Merkel. Are you working on this, the German chancellor asked him, according to Bloomberg. Yeah, he replied.The super-rich tech boss also said we need to do some work on the issue . We are committed to working closely with the German government on this important issue, said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman. We think the best solutions to dealing with people who make racist and xenophobic comments can be found when service providers, government and civil society all work together to address this common challenge. Since then, Facebook has dramatically expanded its anti-hate speech efforts, launching a new initiative to combat racist and xenophobic material on social media alongside European NGOs this January. Facebook is also cooperating with a task force set up by the Germany Justice Ministry to hunt down alleged racists on the platform.Some critics fear the social network is working with governments to silence any criticism of the refugee crisis.His censorship comments have now gone viral, provoking a debate about whether it is right to squash unpopular or potentially offensive views. | 1real |
DINGBAT MAXINE WATERS Tells Islamic Society Republicans Trying To Prevent Sharia Law From Being Enforced In America Is “Contrary To American Values…Threatens National Security” [VIDEO] | Is it simply pandering for votes, or is it possible Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters is really just a complete ignoramus? How much longer will America have to put up with the crazy antics of Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi? Will either of these women ever retire or more importantly, will their constituents ever tire of them? Many of the radical remarks made by Waters and Pelosi went under the radar because we had such a horrible president that he over-shadowed the left-wing nut-jobs California elected to represent them in Congress It s not hard to prove that Sharia Law is such a far-fetched idea when you see videos like the one below where Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters, while speaking to the Islamic Society of Orange County, CA at a town hall meeting in 2012, condemned Republicans in front of a Muslim audience for trying to make it unlawful for Sharia Law to be enforced in America. And that s supposed to be a bad thing? Maxine Waters Stood Before The Muslim Brotherhood & Openly DEFENDED & Advocated For Sharia Law. One Word: DEMENTED! pic.twitter.com/665dfp4Q21 Kevin W. (@kwilli1046) April 16, 2017As for the claim of strategy, one need only look to the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood to determine whether this is a strategy or a conspiracy theory. I ll go with what the Muslim Brotherhood has written concerning this issue. Mrs. Waters is either ignorant (without excuse) or she is complicit. In either case, this woman is not fit to hold office.She then declared that, at the time, at least thirteen states were looking to adopt legislation forbidding Sharia. What is wrong with that? We have a US Constitution. That s the law in the US. Each State has a Constitution and as far as I know, not one of them is Sharia compliant. But what happens when states try and push forward this legislation? You guessed it, the Islamists and their socialist and communist friends come out of the woodwork to try and beat it down. Just look at Oklahoma, where the federal government tried to force them to overturn anti-Sharia law and to pay Islamists $303,333!After speaking about Newt Gingrich s call for Sharia not to be recognized by any court in the United States, she smugly declared that she doesn t mind calling names and telling it like it is, but you will find absolutely no mention in her pre-written speech about the Muslim Brotherhood s goals, will you?In fact, the very document I reference speaks of:Hmmm, global Islamic State, eh? I m pretty sure Barack Obama knew about these goals before his speech the other night when he deceptively declared that the Islamic State was neither Islamic nor a state. But I digress.Islam means to change the very culture you live in and the laws you live under America. If you have any doubts, understand that a current imam at the Islamic Society of Orange County and former president of the Islamic Society of North America, Muzammil H. Siddiqi, issued this fatwa on Islamonline.net (the link has now dead, but did find it in the web archives here).-InfowarsHere is an excerpt from that document: It is true that Islam stands for the sovereignty of Allah the Almighty and Allah s rules are not limited to the acts of worship, they also include social, economic and political matters. By participating in a non-Islamic system, one cannot rule by that which Allah has commanded. But things do not change overnight. Changes come through patience, wisdom and hard work.I believe that as Muslims, we should participate in the system to safeguard our interests and try to bring gradual change for the right cause, the cause of truth and justice. We must not forget that Allah s rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead to that direction. | 1real |
Factbox: Points of contention in talks on German coalition | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative Bavarian allies meet the leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) on Wednesday to start exploring the possibility of governing together. The two groups have ruled in a grand coalition for the last four years, but the SPD had vowed to go into opposition after voters rewarded it with its worst-ever post-war election result. The collapse of talks on a three-way coalition forced the SPD to re-consider in the interests of political stability. The conservative bloc and SPD are likely to clash over healthcare, immigration, Europe, work regulations and pensions. The SPD wants to introduce citizen insurance, to end the differences between Germany s private and public systems which, it argues, cater for the rich and poor respectively. The SPD wants everyone to be insured in the same way via citizen insurance. However, conservatives, including Merkel, have rejected this, saying switching to one healthcare system would decrease market competition and lead to worse healthcare. The SPD wants to stabilize pensions at 48 percent of the average wage by 2030, to be financed from reserves in the pension fund in the next few years. It aims to raise the contribution rate faster from 2024. The total cost of the SPD s proposal will amount to 19.2 billion euros ($22.55 billion) in 2030. The conservatives want to first form a commission to debate what is necessary to do. The two parties agree in broad terms on a pro-Europe agenda for Germany, but the SPD wants deeper integration than the conservatives. SPD leader Martin Schulz has called for closer EU integration, with the aim of achieving a United States of Europe by 2025. This goes too far for Merkel s conservatives. [L8N1O90IU] Last October, Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) agreed with her conservative Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), to put a number on how many people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds. The SPD rejects such a cap. The two parties also disagree on the suspension of family reunifications for asylum seekers who were granted humanitarian protection in Germany. The SPD is against a conservative plan to extend a suspension for reunifications which will expire in March 2018. The two blocs are also at odds on the repatriation of Syrian refugees accused of crimes. [L1N1NZ1LI] | 0fake |
BUSTED! UNDERCOVER VIDEO Catches Teacher And Violent Radical Group Leader Brainwashing To Recruit Students: “Rich people want to deport illegal immigrants” [Video] | What a nut job! A 10th-grade teacher invited radicals into the classroom to brainwash and enlist children to join the radical group BAMN. A brave student recorded these commies describing stuff that s totally made up. This is total indoctrination and fear mongering that should never be allowed to take place in school.They re making Trump sound like he s doing something terribly wrong. Enforcing the law is pretty much a normal thing but we had 8 years of Obama s lawlessness that it s foreign for these people to understand the rule of law. A California teacher was caught on a cellphone camera having Livier Perez from BAMN, an organization known for promoting and acting upon violence, to speak to and recruit 10th-grade high school students. Towards the end of the video a student asks them to clarify their policy on immigration you ll love the answer: Open borders for everyone and free healthcare too! Unbelievable!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENlsl4IDe9AWe re being attacked every day by radials trying to brainwash our kids. Be aware! | 1real |
State Department admits to deliberately cutting briefing footage on Iran deal | State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that an unknown U.S. official made a request over the phone to delete several minutes of a December 2013 video of the exchange between reporters and a State Department spokeswoman. The State Department routinely posts on its site the briefing that it holds nearly every day with the diplomatic press corps.
Kirby said the department technician who made the edit could not recall who requested it.
The deleted portion of the video involves questions about a previous press briefing in 2012 in which then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland denied secret talks between the U.S. and Iran about a potential nuclear deal were taking place.
After it was revealed in December 2013 that secret talks between the U.S. and Iran actually had taken place, then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki admitted the administration lied in order to protect the secret negotiations.
Earlier this month Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes acknowledged to The New York Times that the administration was deceptive about the talks, creating a "narrative" that they did not take place. When James Rosen of Fox News -- who asked the original questions of Psaki -- tried to refer back to the video last month, he found the exchange had been deleted. Kirby, who originally called the deletion a "glitch," said Wednesday that he asked State Department lawyers to look into the matter after being notified about the omission. "They learned that a specific request was made to excise that portion of the briefing. We do not know who made the request to edit the video or why it was made," Kirby said. Another senior State Department official said the technician found the request "unusual" and consulted her supervisor before making the edit. The supervisor, who also could not remember the name of the person who called, approved the request because it came from someone "from a certain level and credibility" in the Department of Public Affairs. "Although this person did not remember the person who called her, or the person they were calling on behalf of, she remembers it was not (Jen) Psaki," this official said. "Jen did not request it, did not know about it and had nothing to do with it." Psaki, who now is the White House communications director, tweeted Wednesday that she was unaware of the episode: "I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while @StateDept." Kirby noted that the full briefing transcript, including the exchange on Iran, had always been available on the State Department website and that the omitted video has since been replaced with a complete version that had been archived with the Defense Department. He said that was the only instance he was aware of in which briefing videos were edited, though he couldn't be sure there weren't others. He announced a new policy Wednesday in which every video would be posted immediately with all edits disclosed. "To my surprise, the Bureau of Public Affairs did not have in place any rules governing this type of action," he said. "Therefore, we are taking immediate steps to craft appropriate protocols on this issue, as we believe that deliberately removing a portion of the video was not and is not in keeping with the State Department's commitment to transparency and public accountability." Because such rules weren't previously in place, Kirby said he found "no reason" to press forward with a more formal investigation. | 0fake |
France's conservatives choose leader to rattle Macron's perch | PARIS (Reuters) - In his first seven months in office, President Emmanuel Macron has faced little opposition. But come Sunday, the once-dominant Republicans elect a new leader they hope might recover the party s voice. Frontrunner to lead the party of former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy is Laurent Wauquiez, an ambitious 42-year-old who like Macron passed through the elite ENA school and promises to shake up the political establishment. There are few policy parallels between the two men, however. Wauquiez is a relentless critic of the 39-year-old president, dismissing him as out of touch with rural France, weak on security and too much in favor of closer European integration. In his campaign to lead the party, Wauquiez has charted a rightward path to attack Macron s social and economic reforms. The Right is waking up. It is back and I want to be clear: we re not going to be told what we can say or think any more, Wauquiez told Reuters. The future of France s democracy cannot be a centrist swamp that gathers both Socialists and right-wingers around Macron. He will inherit a party in disarray, divided in its response to both Macron s poaching of party stalwarts and economic policy that encroaches on their turf. Its candidate Francois Fillon was eliminated in the first round of this year s presidential election, and the party has had a caretaker interim leader since. Wauquiez bills himself as the champion of small-town, rural France - a France, he says, with which Macron has no connection as he pursues a start-up nation . They have no roots, they are completely out of touch with reality in this country, Wauquiez told a rally in Provins, outside Paris, referring to Macron and his lieutenants. Addressing campaign rallies in open-collar shirts, Wauquiez says Macron s tax policy will hammer the middle class and pensioners, denounces his labor reforms as a sham and accuses the government of being too soft on radical Islam. He has also drawn up future battlelines over the deeper European integration sought by Macron. He is the leader the Right needs, said Jacqueline Mercier, 72, after a rally in Paris. He is young, he is dynamic and his ideas truly represent us. Not all party loyalists agree and there is discord among its lawmakers too. While Wauquiez is popular with more conservative supporters, his bid to take the party fishing in waters of the far-right National Front alarms party moderates. Several senior-ranking party members have warned they could jump ship. If the right turns its back on the center, we will be in opposition for 20 years, said Mael de Calan, one of two junior politicians challenging Wauquiez s leadership bid. Even so, inside Macron s camp, some ministers are cautioning against underestimating the threat of Wauquiez. We need to be wary because he is very gifted, very strong and there s nothing he won t do. He will establish a violent fight, Gerald Darmanin, Macron s budget minister and former member of The Republicans, told the newspaper Le Monde. Polls show Wauquiez winning 60 to 75 percent of the votes on Sunday for an outright first-round win. More than 230,000 party members have the right to take part in the online election, but far fewer are expected to do so. France is due to hold its next presidential election in 2022. | 0fake |
Austria puts the squeeze on refugees with benefit cuts | VIENNA (Reuters) - Ahmed Ali, a 34-year-old teacher, fled the war in Syria two years ago and settled in a quiet Austrian town on the hilly border with the Czech Republic. He was hoping to raise a family there. But voter attitudes towards immigrants have hardened due to concerns about security and the economy after Austria took in more than 1 percent of its population in asylum seekers in 2015. This fueled support for the far-right party Freedom Party and its candidate came close to winning last year s presidential election. Immigration is still the dominant political issue ahead of the Oct. 15 parliamentary election. In January, lawmakers in Lower Austria, where Ali lived, reduced benefits for new arrivals. They said the benefits system needed protecting from being overstretched by the influx of refugees. Ali and his pregnant wife moved again to Vienna in July, where their benefits would still be paid in full. Most of us fled when the letter came telling us our social benefits would be cut. At first we didn t believe it but then we saw it on our bank balance, said Ali, who says his German is not yet good enough to find work. Three of Austria s nine provinces Lower Austria, Burgenland and Upper Austria have reduced benefits for new arrivals. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, leader of the conservative People s Party which is leading in the polls, wants to make similar cuts apply to the whole country. Chancellor Christian Kern, whose Social Democratic Party polls show competing with the Freedom Party for second place, has resisted the idea but said he could support them in cases where new arrivals turn down job offers. So far, the cuts have primarily impacted migrants like Ali who sought asylum in Austria when it opened its border in 2015 although some Austrians returning home have also been caught. In Burgenland the rules apply to all people seeking help who have spent fewer than five years of the six preceding their application for benefits in Austria. A statement accompanying the Upper Austrian bill painted the cuts as a way to tackle the problem of welfare magnetism in the context of refugees. The Lower Austrian government declined to comment due to a legal challenge against the cuts. In a case brought by a charity, Austria s Constitutional Court is expected to rule next year on whether the cuts by Lower Austria, decided in late 2016 and implemented since early 2017, are illegal. The 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention says host countries must grant refugees the same treatment with respect to public relief and assistance as their own nationals. A 2011 EU directive sets a similar rule. The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), which has denounced xenophobic debates in Austrian politics ahead of the election, has described the cuts as breaches of international and European law but no international cases have been started. A Burgenland spokeswoman defended the benefits changes, saying they targeted Austrian nationals as well. Therefore there is no violation of ... the EU directive and the refugee convention, she said. A spokesman for Kurz said legislation to expand the cuts would be passed and phrased in such a way that no doubt for the highest courts will emerge . The three provinces have cut benefits for new arrivals, even after obtaining asylum, to around 570 euros ($669) a month, less than half the poverty threshold of 1,200 euros, compared with around 850 euros for an Austrian who has never lived abroad. Benefits for a household have been capped at 1,500 euros. Rather than live off less than what is considered the bare minimum for most Austrians, many of those affected have moved, particularly to the capital. Ali moved to an apartment with his uncle and aunt in a dilapidated building on the outskirts of the city costing 1,100 euros a month. They don t care how many children you have. And maybe they ll cut again, Ali said in his living room with two sofas, a television set and a picture of Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani. He found more affordable apartments but the landlord did not want refugees as tenants. One landlady was concerned social benefits for refugees might be cut in Vienna, too. Instead of cutting the social safety net, integration and independence should be supported. We fear that language learning, training and the search for work will suffer if those affected don t know how to pay their rent anymore, said the chief the UNHCR s Austria office, Christoph Pinter. Although the Freedom Party and Kurz s conservatives have been the most vocal about cutting benefits for new arrivals, the three provinces that have put cuts in place are governed by various two-way combinations of all three main political parties. But most of those affected who spoke to Reuters fear an election victory for Kurz. If Kurz wins, it will be a big problem, said 24-year-old Basel from Deraa in Syria. He moved from Lower Austria to Vienna in July, leaving behind friends and a job as a hairdresser. He says the cuts paralyze people like him with fear. You stop thinking about the future. (For a graphic on Austria's parliamentary election, click tmsnrt.rs/2hKIi65) | 0fake |
Seattle Protesters Armed with Wooden Poles, Heavy Pipes, Shields - Breitbart | The Seattle Police Department has recovered “wooden poles, heavy pipes, and shields” from protesters, amidst and protests taking place in the city. [The Seattle Police Department posted a photograph of several of the recovered items to their Facebook account on Friday evening. They were recovered from protesters in Westlake Park. Unrest erupted in Seattle on Friday evening partially in response to the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Large crowds of protesters are also gathering at the University of Washington, where an event with Breitbart editor MILO is taking place. Anarchist protesters carried baseball bats and sharpened sticks with them before they were confiscated by law enforcement in the streets of Seattle. As a result of the chaos, MILO’s event has been postponed by 45 minutes. | 0fake |
EMBARRASSING! NYC MAYOR DE BLASIO Can’t Tell The Difference Between Trump And Obama’s Immigration Policy [Video] | CNN s Jake Tapper raised the point that Obama and former President Jimmy Carter had both taken similar moves during their presidencies as Trump did with his executive order restricting immigration from certain countries with terrorism problems. Now there have been times in the nation s history when detainees I m sorry, not detainees when refugees or immigrants from a specific country were put on hold, were suspended, Tapper said. Barack Obama did it with Iraqis for six months, Tapper continued. Jimmy Carter did it with Iranians during that hostage crisis. How is this different? Read more: WFB | 1real |
BREAKING: PICTURE OF MOTHER Whose Boy Climbed Into Gorilla Cage Is Revealed…Angry Black Twitter Users Humiliated After Blaming “White Privilege” For Gorilla’s Death | Here s what some ignorant race baiting Twitter users had to say about the recent tragedy that involved the killing of a Silverback Gorilla, after a 4 year old boy fell into the exhibit in the Cincinnati Zoo. One of the users claimed the white boy who was only saved because he was white. Meanwhile, one of these fools actually said if the boy was black the endangered gorilla would have only been tranquilized. LOL!Tweets are courtesy of Breitbart News:There are so many things we could point out that are wrong with these ignorant tweets, but clearly the most stinging mistake was the accusations being made about the skin color of the boy.Here s a picture the mother of the 4-year-old boy who fell into the Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo, which lead to the fatal shooting of Harambe the gorilla. She has been identified as Michelle Gregg. She is clearly not suffering from white privilege LOL!The 32-year-old mom of four and Cincinnati resident posted a now-deleted Facebook post thanking the zoo for making the difficult decision to shoot the gorilla to save her son.Here is her Facebook post explaining the incident:Harambe, a 17-year-old western lowland silverback gorilla, was killed after dragging the boy through a moat inside the exhibit.Watch video here: The Zoo security team s quick response saved the child s life. We are all devastated that this tragic accident resulted in the death of a critically-endangered gorilla, Zoo Director Thane Maynard said in a statement. This is a huge loss for the Zoo family and the gorilla population worldwide. Videos of the incident were recorded by a bystander and posted on social media. The videos show the 400-pound gorilla grabbing the 4-year-old boy and dragging him through a moat area. He then stops and stands over the boy, before dragging him further into the enclosure.During one part of the video, which you can watch below, Michelle Gregg can be heard talking to her crying son and saying Oh God, please protect him, while panicked zoo visitors call for help. Isaiah, be calm, Gregg calls out. Be calm, be calm. In another part of the video, she can be heard saying, Mommy s right here, and mommy loves you. Kim O Connor, who recorded video of the incident, said it appeared the gorilla was trying to protect the child. I don t know if the screaming did it or too many people hanging on the edge, if he thought we were coming in, but then he pulled the boy down away further from the big group, Kim O Connor told WLWT-TV.Cincinnati Fire Chief Marc Monahan said in a statement to NBC News that the gorilla was seen violently dragging and throwing the child. He said the gorilla was neutralized by a Cincinnati Zoo employee with one shot from a long rifle.The family issued this statement through a PR firm: We are so thankful to the Lord that our child is safe. He is home and doing just fine. We extend our heartfelt thanks for the quick action by the Cincinnati Zoo staff, the statement from Gail Myers Public Relations said. We know that this was a very difficult decision for them, and that they are grieving the loss of their gorilla. We hope that you will respect our privacy at this time. The 4-year-old boy was released from a local children s hospital on Sunday. He suffered serious, but not life-threatening, injuries, authorities said. Via: Heavy | 1real |
France suggests Hariri not free, urges he play role in Lebanon | PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign ministry on Friday nuanced comments made earlier by its minister, suggesting that former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri may not be free and urging that he continue to play his rightful role in the country. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had told Europe 1 radio that as far as France was aware, Hariri was free of his movements and that it was important he made his own choices. However, when asked by reporters in a daily briefing to clarify those comments, a foreign ministry spokesman said France wanted Hariri to be free, suggesting he may not be. We wish that Saad al-Hariri has all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role that is his in Lebanon, deputy foreign ministry spokesman Alexandre Georgini said. He added that France s envoy to Saudi Arabia had seen Hariri after a short-trip to the United Arab Emirates earlier this week. French officials said the ministry s latest comments were the most accurate. France s ambassador to Saudi met Hariri before President Emmanuel Macron s unscheduled visit to Riyadh to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday. Paris has close ties with Lebanon, a former colony, and with Hariri, who has a home in France after spending several years in the country. Macron said in Dubai on Thursday there had been informal contacts with Hariri, but no request to transfer him to France. Two top Lebanese government officials said on Thursday that Riyadh was holding Hariri captive and a third told Reuters that the Saudi authorities had ordered Hariri to resign while he was in Riyadh last weekend, and put him under house arrest. Le Drian is due in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 16 and is scheduled to also travel to Iran later in the month. | 0fake |
Sessions confirmed as U.S. attorney general after battle with Democrats | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bitterly divided U.S. Senate confirmed Republican Senator Jeff Sessions on Wednesday as the next attorney general of the United States after strong pushback from Democrats concerned about his record on civil rights. Sessions, 70, who has served two decades in the Senate from Alabama, was confirmed by a 52-47 vote largely along party lines after Democrats raised public opposition to his confirmation. In a rare move for a senator recently confirmed to a Cabinet position, Sessions took to the floor of the chamber after the vote and called for members of Congress to have some “latitude” in their relationships with members of the other party. “I want to thank those who after it all found sufficient confidence to confirm me as the next attorney general,” Sessions said. “Denigrating people who disagree with us, I think, is not a healthy trend for our body,” he said, referring to the Senate. On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a darling of the political left, was silenced in the Senate for reading a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., that criticized Sessions for his civil rights record. Democrats, civil rights and immigration groups have voiced alarm about Sessions’ record of controversial positions on race, immigration and criminal justice reform. With Sessions as attorney general, eight of President Donald Trump’s 22 Cabinet nominees have been confirmed. The Republican-led Senate also voted on Wednesday to advance Representative Tom Price’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Senate is likely to vote to confirm Price on Friday. Sessions, a known immigration hardliner, will take the lead of the Justice Department as its lawyers are defending Trump’s temporary entry ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries and all refugees, the most controversial executive order of the young administration. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is due to rule this week on whether to overrule a district court judge in Seattle who suspended the ban last week. Civil rights groups worry that the Justice Department’s civil rights division will not be aggressive in prosecuting abuses under Sessions. They cite his failure to win Senate confirmation to become a federal judge in 1986 because of allegations he made racist remarks, including testimony that he had called an African-American prosecutor “boy,” an allegation Sessions denied. Sessions said at his hearing in 1986 that groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union could be considered “un-American.” He also acknowledged he had called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a “piece of intrusive legislation.” The left-leaning Center for American Progress think tank questioned whether Sessions would be an independent legal voice to challenge Trump’s agenda. “Trump has shown little respect for the courts or the constitutional limits on his power, and there is no reason to think that Attorney General Sessions will act as an independent check on the president,” said Michele Jawando, vice president for legal progress at the think tank. Sessions has pushed to curb immigration into the United States, including by those who enter legally on work permits. He has also voted against many measures to reduce sentences for prisoners. The Republican National Committee pushed back against what it called “obstructing” by Democrats. “That Democrats would try to skew Sessions’ strong civil rights record and consistent adherence to rule of law in a partisan effort to block their colleague’s nomination shows their only commitment is to blindly obstructing this administration,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on Sessions’ confirmation. | 0fake |
Colbert Roasts Fiorina’s Creepy Singing: ‘It’s Like Disney Gave The Wicked Stepmother Her Own Song’ (VIDEO) | In case you haven t heard yet, creepy GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz has somehow decided that math doesn t matter and that he will win the Republican Party s nomination for president anyway. To that end, he has picked an equally creepy running mate in failed candidate Carly Fiorina. It seems that Fiorina wanted to make sure that she was just as creepy as Cruz, so during her speech when her status as running mate was announced, she chose to, for some bizarre reason, start singing to the crowd.It was seriously the worst thing ever for those listening, and the best thing ever for late night comedians. Late Show host Stephen Colbert wasted absolutely no time in ripping Fiorina for that ridiculous display. First, Colbert roasted Cruz himself for thinking he actually needed a running mate, since it s clear he won t be winning. The host began: That is bold. After Tuesday s huge wins by Clinton and Trump, Bernie Sanders saw the writing on the wall and laid off hundreds of staffers. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz saw the writing and covered it up with a hang in there, baby poster. He then pivoted to Fiorina, who he said was clearly honored to accept this important job that will never exist. After that, things got really good. Colbert ran tape of Fiorina s creepy singing about Ted Cruz s daughters. The whole thing was just downright weird. Colbert said of Fiorina s bizarre and creepy attempt at spontaneous singing: It s like Disney gave the wicked stepmother her own song. Colbert is right, of course. Carly Fiorina doesn t need to be singing to anyone, much less two little girls who are probably just as creeped out by her as America is by their own father. But hey, at least it s good for a joke or two. Hopefully both Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina disappear into the dustins of history where they belong when this primary is finally over.Watch Colbert s brilliance below:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
French court jails woman who sent money to son killed in Syria | PARIS (Reuters) - A French court on Thursday found a mother-of-three guilty of financing terrorism after she sent money abroad to her radicalised son who later traveled to fight in Syria, sentencing her to two years in jail. In a case which could set precedent in France, Nathalie Haddadi, 42, a non-practicing Muslim living in eastern France, said at no point had she known her son, Belabbas Bounaga, would use the money to fight alongside Islamist militants. But the judge said she was lying. Without your substantial help he would not have been able to reach Syria so easily and fight with Islamic State, the judge told Haddadi. You financed a terrorist organization. Haddadi s son is said to have been radicalised inside prison in 2014-2015, following convictions for drug dealing and other offences. After his release he left France to live with his father in Algeria, where he remained for six months before heading to Malaysia. While he was in those two countries Haddadi sent Bounaga several thousand euros, including several transfers in April 2016 after he received treatment in a Malaysian hospital. Shortly afterwards he arrived in Syria. In handing down her ruling, the judge did not order Haddadi s immediate incarceration and she may avoid spending the whole period in prison. What was I supposed to do? Ignore him because he did stupid things when he was younger, Haddadi said outside the courthouse, referring to the transfers she said were for his medical care. In August 2016, Haddadi says she received a call from Syria informing her that Bounaga had died a martyr at the age of 21. The two-year jail term was longer than the 18 months demanded by the prosecutor. The court also found Bounaga s younger brother and his best friend guilty of the same charge. In an interview with the Le Parisien newspaper earlier this month, Haddadi said she had feared her radicalised son might try to reach Syria when he came out of prison in 2015. She blamed the authorities for failing to help her save him at the time. I strongly condemn terrorism, said Haddadi after her conviction. Haddadi s lawyer said she had filed an appeal. France s interior ministry said last month that 18,500 French citizens had been flagged as radicalised, a 60 percent increase on two years ago. As many as 700 were thought to be fighting in Iraq and Syria in mid-2016. Haddadi s lawyer said other parents of radicalised children risked receiving the same treatment from France s courts. This fight no longer belongs to Mrs Haddadi alone but to all parents of sons radicalised in prison and who are threatened with prosecution by prosecutors who consider them responsible for their children s situation, Haddadi s lawyer, Herve Denis, told Reuters. | 0fake |
When Asked What His Favorite Bible Lesson Is, Trump Settles On The One With Facial Mutilation | Of all the biblical teachings Donald Trump could choose from, the Republican front-runner landed on the one best known for telling people to be vindictive.Donald Trump was a guest on WHAM 1180 AM when he got a question that by now he should have prepared for and somehow still clearly hasn t: What s your favorite Bible verse? Trump s flailing response speaks volumes.When host Bob Lonsberry asked him what passage particularly informed his character, Trump stumbled around before finally landing on eye for an eye. Well, I think many. I mean, when we get into the Bible, I think many, so many. And some people, look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. That s not a particularly nice thing. The adage goes that crimes should be punished by committing an equally severe punishment on the transgressor. If a victim loses an eye, then the assailant should have his ripped out. Notably, the New Testament is steadfastly against this form of justice. Even worse, Trump may very well think the founder of Christianity was weak for not agreeing with him. Jesus Christ famously condemned the practice and instead suggested people learn to turn the other cheek. You have heard that it was said, AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. The eye for an eye model isn t even unique to Judeo-Christian tenets. Long before Judaism, the Sumerians were doing the same. Needless to say, in the intervening thousands of years, legal codes and moral philosophers have evolved beyond this crude form of punishment. It seems part of Making America Great Again means rewinding ethical progress by about 4,000 years.During his interview he pivoted from the Bible to saying America is an embarrassment for not being more vengeful. If you look at what s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us. And they laugh at our face, and they re taking our jobs; they re taking our money; they re taking the health of our country.And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you. Astonishingly, this isn t even the first time Trump has gotten a softball religious question and managed to strike out. Earlier, he said his favorite quote from the Bible was never bend to envy a line which does not appear in the Bible. In this respect, Trump is getting a bit better. At least the things he s citing now actually exist even if they are the values Jesus deliberately spoke out against.But then who can blame Trump for being biblically illiterate, isn t there something in there about Heaven, camels, eyes of needles, and billionaire real estate tycoons?Featured image by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images | 1real |
DNC To Sue Trump For Telling Truth: Trump Admits Everything Is A Lie | The DNC is suing the Republican National Committee due to Donald Trump’s claims that Hillary Clinton is committing election fraud.
Via YourNewsWire
The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court in New Jersey and aims to silence Trump’s claim that the election is rigged, which the DNC are particularly sensitive about. The DNC alleges that the RNC has not done enough to reprimand Trump for claiming that the election is rigged, and seeks to have the court hold the committee in civil contempt as well as levy sanctions.
The DNC claims that because the RNC has done “ballot security” work, they are agreeing with Trump that the election is rigged. Marc Elias, Hillary Clinton’s campaign counsel, claims that there is also a racial element to Trump’s claims of voter fraud.
“Trump has falsely and repeatedly told his supporters that the November 8 election will be ‘rigged’ based upon fabricated claims of voter fraud in ‘certain areas’ or ‘certain sections’ of key states,” the Democratic attorneys, including Hillary Clinton campaign counsel Marc Elias, wrote.
“Unsurprisingly, those ‘certain areas’ are exclusively communities in which large minority voting populations reside.” Election Day is in 13 days.
| 1real |
Building Zaha Hadid’s Bold Afterlife - The New York Times | ANTWERP, BELGIUM — For architects, or at least for Zaha Hadid, there is an afterlife. On Sept. 22, nearly six months after this British architect’s sudden death at 65, one of her boldest buildings, Port House, opened in a ceremony on the newly christened Zaha Hadid Square in Antwerp. Under the soaring prow of a dynamically angled structure drifting like an airship over a palatial brick firehouse, a chorus and orchestra performed the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The score and backdrop amounted to a curtain rising on the second act of Ms. Hadid’s career, as operatic as any since Frank Lloyd Wright’s. Ms. Hadid’s moment signaled, with the recent opening of another building in Italy, the start of a posthumous career that promises to deliver nearly 50 more structures — as many buildings as were created in her lifetime. Ms. Hadid’s professional journey started late but gathered momentum, culminating with 36 projects under construction or in final drawings, and others in the pipeline. Her business partner, Patrik Schumacher, now principal of the firm, estimates it will roll out in 26 countries over the next decade. Zaha Hadid Architects will retain its name even as it evolves under his direction, “but always with Zaha’s DNA,” he said. At the opening ceremony, Marc Van Peel, president of the Port of Antwerp, called the faceted structure, its facade erupting in a stormy field of reflective triangles, a “diamond ship,” referring both to the city’s famous diamond trade and to the building’s site overlooking the sprawling port. Even taxi drivers had strong opinions: “I like it because it’s by a woman and because I like science fiction,” one said. “It’s magic. ” Starchitects don’t usually enter open competitions with such odds. But in 2008, Ms. Hadid signed up with a hundred other architects to vie for the chance to adapt and expand a fire station into an office building for the 500 employees who run the port’s operations. Rotterdam, just across the Scheldt River, is Europe’s largest port. Brussels, the capital, is the repository of Belgium’s and the European Union’s grandest public buildings. Antwerp tries harder. Before completion of Ms. Hadid’s $62 million design, when officials introduced foreign delegations to a port updated with the largest berths, deepest channels and latest technologies, they had to do so from a scrum of offices overlooking a vestigial harbor serving pleasure boats. According to the project architect Joris Pauwels,“They wanted their headquarters in a building that represents their port. ” Urban planners also wanted to stake a goal post for the growth of Antwerp’s residential district. “They wanted a statement piece of architecture that would pivot the north edge of the growing city to the southern edge of the expanding port,” said Mr. Pauwels, a Belgian who works in Ms. Hadid’s London office but hails from the Antwerp area. Ms. Hadid did her homework for the competition. Because the existing building, a copy of a Hanseatic structure, had historic designation, she hired a heritage consultant who advised that a spire originally designed for the firehouse, but never built, anticipated and justified an “accent” piece atop the base. Mr. Schumacher recalled that when Ms. Hadid saw a map and images of the site, she said its sheer scale — the Port of Antwerp is 10 times larger than the city itself — called for a signature piece “that would own the port but address the city,” he said. “Anything less would disappear. ” Mr. Pauwels recalled: “The importance to Zaha was the layering, setting a new structure over the old one” that would both read at a distance and liberate ground for public space. And Patrik wanted the new structure to overshoot the fire station and land on a single point. ” Ms. Hadid and Mr. Schumacher reviewed and changed numerous options developed mainly by Mr. Pauwels, based on the initial concept. From the beginning of her career, Ms. Hadid lofted her buildings, defying gravity: Air has been her design habitat. The architects perched the volume of new offices on a leaning, sculpted column housing a fire escape that meets the ground like a Louboutin heel, and on an elevator core rising up from the original courtyard. A tall space between old and new buildings is a promenade deck for viewing and receptions. Inside the addition, all floors are offices with rows of desks arranged on the bias the triangulated walls offer circumferential views of the city and the vast Scheldt estuary. In the brick firehouse, the architects stripped decades of accretions down to a shell that they restored inside and out their new glass roof transformed the courtyard into a reception area (now used to exhibit Ms. Hadid’s work). What provoked the “wows” often heard on Zaha Hadid Square is that the architects threw the hovering volume off balance, first by planting the addition to maximize light into the courtyard, and then by bending and stretching its shape, as though driven and distorted by invisible forces. The whole volume lists like a ship under sail, capturing the movement of a boat that, counterintuitively, looks as though it’s suspended in dry dock. Halfway down, the flat planes of the leaning sidewalls crack into a tessellated field of triangles that reflect light, activating the surfaces and dynamizing the shape. Edges are cut and beveled, sometimes for views, sometimes for interior stairways. At night, the whole structure resembles a huge suspended urban lantern competing with the moon. Like all of Ms. Hadid’s projects, especially in recent years, the design was produced by a firm that she structured, Mr. Schumacher said, “to encourage the survival of the best idea — an office that could think for itself. ” Despite the popular perception of Ms. Hadid as a design force, even a diva, she ran an open office where, according to Mr. Pauwels, ideas flowed democratically rather than hierarchically. Within the general principles she had broadly developed during 35 years of practice, Ms. Hadid, Mr. Schumacher and other architects, both senior and junior, brainstormed ideas together, and the younger design architects would then develop proposals that would lead to further sketches. “There was no recipe for design,” Mr. Pauwels said “She wanted to push boundaries. ” Ms. Hadid and Mr. Schumacher made the final decision together. He said that she had offered to share the masthead with him before she died, but he declined: “It was better to keep the focus on Zaha, and to avoid diluting our identity if there were eventually other partners’ names to add. ” If little has changed in the design process, the office that she had run for years as an informal, very personal atelier is more structured. Over the last dozen years, it grew to 400 from 40. “We couldn’t have hundreds of people on a zero hierarchy,” Mr. Schumacher said. “We restructured, organizing clusters under collegial leadership” and adding mechanisms to handle financial accountability. He noted that despite aggressive head hunting by some of London’s most prominent firms, no one had left. He is now the principal owner of Zaha Hadid Architects, though he said the details of the ownership were still to be determined. Since Ms. Hadid’s death, the office has received several major commissions, among them a central business district in Prague with nearly a million square feet of offices and retail, and the Sberbank Technopark headquarters in Moscow, said to be Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley. Several and a vast airport in Beijing are under construction. “Due to scale, we are looking for new drivers to give character and identity to buildings, new structural and environmental logics that will give buildings a new physiognomy,” Mr. Schumacher said. Clarifying how the Hadid DNA would endure even at a vastly larger, technologically driven scale that normally homogenizes design, he continued: “We want to bring technical ideas into an expressive area. Zaha believed in research, and of course, our interests in research will change. We’ve looked at shells in Saudi Arabia, tensile structures in London, new ideas for skeletons in Miami, New York and Chicago, and we’re looking at the mega atriums that Atlanta architect John Portman built into his hotels. ” There are headwinds. Though Mr. Schumacher has strongly stated that he favors “Brexit,” to liberate British offices from the European Union’s regulatory environment, the office will possibly lose access to competitions required by the European Union for large public projects. “‘Brexit’ could impact us,” he said. “It might exclude us. ” Then there is the issue of profits: “So far we have made profits only on a minority of projects, and often pay for the last project with the new project,” he said. “You can do that if you’re stable or growing, and we’re growing, but shrinking is a problem. We’re not allowed to shrink. ” There remains one potential issue of Zaha Hadid Architects without Zaha Hadid: Will the firm have the magnetic power to draw prestigious institutional and cultural clients without its charismatic leader? “For a long time, we’ve had a very distributed leadership and collective design process, so that won’t change,” Mr. Schumacher said. “But I’m not so well known in the project world of clients, and the question is, Will I have the credibility to attract commissions of cultural significance? For me, without Zaha, that will be the challenge. ” | 0fake |
House narrowly passes measure paving way for Trump tax cuts | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives helped pave the way on Thursday for deep tax cuts sought by President Donald Trump and Republican leaders, but barely overcame a revolt within party ranks that could foreshadow trouble ahead. The Republican-controlled House voted 216-212 to pass a budget blueprint for the 2018 fiscal year. The measure will enable the tax legislation, due to be introduced next week, to win congressional approval without any Democratic votes. But House Republican leaders came within two votes of failure. Democrats were unified in their opposition, and 20 Republicans voted against the bill, many expressing disapproval of a provision that would repeal an income tax deduction for state and local taxes. Discord is also looming over a potential provision to scale back a popular tax-deferred U.S. retirement savings program known as a 401(k). Both those provisions are aimed at offsetting revenue losses that would result from the planned sweeping tax cuts, particularly for companies. Democrats have called the tax plan a giveaway to the rich and corporations that would swell the federal deficit. Republicans are traditionally opposed to letting the deficit grow. But in a stark reversal of that stance, the party’s budget resolution, previously passed by the Senate, called for adding up to $1.5 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade to pay for the tax cuts. Several conservative Republicans voted against it because of deficit concerns. One of them, Representative Justin Amash, wrote on Twitter, “What happened to fiscal conservatism?” The outline of the Republican plan announced last month would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, the small business rate to 25 percent from up to 39.6 percent and the top individual rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent. Trump, who promised major tax cuts as a candidate last year, has asked Congress to pass the tax legislation by the end of the year. Even though his fellow Republicans control both the House and Senate, the president has been unable to secure passage of major legislation, having failed to repeal the Obamacare law. Republicans are also looking for a signature achievement as the 2018 congressional election year approaches. “Big News - Budget just passed!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has said he wants the House to pass the tax overhaul by the Nov. 23 Thanksgiving holiday, said passage of the budget resolution was an “enormous step” toward that goal. But he declined to take a position on the possibility of capping annual tax-free contributions into 401(k) plans, which for four decades have helped millions of Americans save for retirement by offering tax savings. Trump and Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means committee, reopened the door to the possibility of such caps on Wednesday as Republicans scramble to find sources of revenue to cover the tax cuts. Brady on Thursday said he was working toward an agreement on the 401(k) issue with Trump and Republicans who want to keep the tax break in place. “They made it clear. They need this problem solved before they vote ‘yes’ on tax reform,” Brady added. Brady said he planned to introduce the tax bill next Wednesday and to begin committee deliberations on it the following week, on Nov. 6. REVOLT FROM HIGH-TAX STATES Eliminating the deduction would hit middle-class voters in high-tax states like California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Republican Representative John Katko of New York, leaving a meeting with Brady, said supporters of the deduction “stood firm, saying ‘no’ as a group today to let them know we’re not kidding.” But one Republican senator warned that his party will have to stick to its commitment to eliminate tax breaks. “If groups see that you’re willing to deal something away if they raise enough Cain, the whole thing’s going to fall apart. We’ve gotta hang tough,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said on CNBC. The budget plan will enable the 100-seat Senate to pass tax legislation with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote super-majority, hard to reach given Democrats’ opposition. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 margin in the Senate. The White House and congressional Republicans excluded Democrats as they developed the plan. “Right here before our eyes, in this House, the Republicans are replacing the great American ladders of opportunity with the silver spoon of plutocracy and aristocracy,” top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi said during the debate on the budget measure. Independent analysts forecast last month that corporations and the wealthiest Americans would benefit the most and many upper middle-income people would face higher taxes under the tax outline unveiled by the Republicans. The proposal would cut taxes for companies and individuals by up to $6 trillion over the next decade, the analysts said. | 0fake |
IS SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM PLANNING To Make Hero Out Of Third Rate QB, Race Agitator Colin Kaepernick? | Martin Luther King Jr. would not likely be pleased to see such a divisive figure using his position as a professional athlete to promote a violent and threatening movement funded and promoted by politicians to divide our nation Colin Kaepernick s football career remains very much a question mark, but he s already left an impression on American culture, as his jersey and other gear from his protests in 2016 are now in the hands of the Smithsonian.The Smithsonian s National Museum of African American History and Culture continuously collects items of historic significance from African Americans involved in all phases of American life, and the sociologist and author Harry Edwards encouraged the museum to take a close look at Kaepernick. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback drew nationwide attention last year when he knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality in America.In September, 2016, the union for police officers who work San Francisco home games threatened a boycott of policing the stadium after the 49ers refused to discipline Colin Kaepernick for not standing during the national anthem and for his statements about law enforcement. If the 49ers organization fails to take action to stop this type of inappropriate behavior it could result in police officers choosing not to work at your facilities, the letter reads. The board of directors of the Santa Clara Police Officer s Association has a duty to protect its members and work to make all of their working environments free of harassing behavior. It also criticized what it called anti-police statements made by Kaepernick, calling them insulting, inaccurate and completely unsupported by any facts. Edwards arranged for the donation of a jersey and other equipment to the Smithsonian, but did so with a request. I said, Don t wait 50 years to try to get some memorabilia and so forth on Kaepernick, Edwards said, according to USA Today. Let me give you a game jersey, some shoes, a picture. And it should be put right there alongside Muhammad Ali. He s this generation s Ali. Daily Wire Adopted by white parents in Wisconsin, Kaepernick is the biological child of a white woman and a black man. He was born in 1987.Kaepernick explained his refusal to stand for the Star-Spangled Banner, expressing solidarity with the net-marxist racial narratives of Black Lives Matter: I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. Kaepernick describes himself as a black man in a society that oppresses black people. Kaepernick s refusal to stand for our national anthem was considered anything but brave by many of his fans. Here s a picture of a fan burning Colin s jersey, a trend that was started shortly after Kaepernick used his position to promote the violent Black Lives Matter movement on the field as the other players honored our nation:Kaepernick remains unsigned even as players like Ryan Fitzpatrick sign deals, and there is, of course, the question of how much his very public and very controversial political stances may be harming his marketability. Yahoo | 1real |
Cruz campaign vetting Fiorina as a possible VP pick: ABC News | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s campaign is vetting former business executive Carly Fiorina as a possible vice presidential pick, ABC News said on Friday. Earlier, Cruz’s campaign said it had narrowed its running mate options to a short list. Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett Packard, dropped out of the presidential race in February. | 0fake |
Texas Dem Arrested for Alleged DWI after Safe Driving Seminar | Dallas police arrested the Texas House Democrat voted “Freshman of the Year” late Tuesday night for driving while intoxicated. [Officers, responding to message that a vehicle hit a tree, later learned that the allegedly drunk driver was state Representative Victoria Neave ( ). Reportedly, she did not cooperate with law enforcement who arrived on scene. The arrest warrant described Neave, 36, as having a strong odor of alcohol, unsteady, and with bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, WFAA reported. Officers also documented the state lawmaker’s behavior as uncooperative, refusing to perform field sobriety tests, and give breath or blood samples. According to police records, Neave repeatedly told officers in slurred speech: “I love you and I will fight for you and I’m invoking my Fifth Amendment rights. ” Officers booked her into the Dallas County Jail at 3:30 a. m. (CDT) on Wednesday where she remained, waiting to see a magistrate. However, on Wednesday, shortly before 2 p. m. Neave took to social media with a public Facebook apology. She stated: “Last night, I disappointed my family, my constituents, and my supporters. I disappointed myself. I’m deeply sorry. I’m so grateful that no one was hurt. I will accept full responsibility for my actions and I will work to make this right. ” Ironically, Neave participated in a event promoting safe driving on Sunday, June 4. The often outspoken freshman representative has maintained a highly visible profile during the state’s 2017 legislative session. In April, she marched in Dallas against Texas sanctuary city legislation, Senate Bill 4, which Governor Abbott since signed into law. Breitbart Texas reported she tweeted: “Eleven years ago, I marched family. This time, I march as a State Representative fighting legislation at #txlege. ” A few weeks later, she led a hunger strike to oppose SB 4, asking other Democrat lawmakers and open border advocates to join her, as was reported by Breitbart Texas. She was also the organizer of the Dallas Women’s March and Texas House Democratic Caucus recently named her “Freshman of the Year. ” On Wednesday morning, Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Carol Donovan responded to the news of Neave’s arrest by issuing a statement: We understand, and are thankful, that no other person was involved or injured in the accident. Nevertheless, we look forward to speaking with her regarding the facts of her case and to insure she is alright. We wish her the very best and pray for her swift recovery so that she can resume her strong representation of the citizens of House District 107. Neave’s district encompasses East Dallas, Mesquite, and Garland. By trade, she is a lawyer with a practice in Dallas. Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter. | 0fake |
ID Clinic Handing Out Free Chastity Belts | GomerBlog | Tweet
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – An infectious diseases clinic is thinking outside the box in an effort to promote safe sex practices by passing out free chastity belts to their clinic patients and anyone who strolls into their clinic and simply asks for one. Their slogan is “Chas-T-D, yes… S-T-D, no!”
“If there’s one barrier more sturdy than a condom or a diaphragm , it has to be this,” said infectious diseases physician Mark Rappaport. He pulls back his white coat to demonstrate his iron chastity belt, which he’s wearing over his work pants. He knocks his knuckles against it a few times, causing a hard metallic clank to resonate. “Good luck trying to get me infected, STDs.”
“Remember that scene in Robin Hood’s Men in Tights where Robin Hood clanks his junk against Princess Marian’s chastity belt?” asked one of Rappaport’s patients Ariana Manning. “Sure, that scene is funny when you watch it, but it really makes you think. So I thought about it and I can’t wait to put this thing on. Safety first, right?”
Rappaport’s clinic teamed up with local welders to create thousands of sturdy chastity belts. Not only will the clinic offer these chastity belts and STD counseling for free, they will help any patients put their belt on and happily throw away the key to ensure lifelong abstinence.
“Urinating and defecating is a bit messy, but you get used to it,” admits Rappaport, blushing a bit. “That’s why I always have some Handi Wipes on me. For the leakage. There’s always some leakage.” He added later: “On the other hand, you never have to worry about any cheap shots to the nuts .”
Depending on the success of their program, Rappaport’s clinic may start customizing chastity belts for more widespread dissemination. “People like options, colors,” explained Manning. “If you were to tell me I could get a personalized chastity belt in rose gold so that it matches my iPhone and has my name on it, I’d be in heaven.” 146 Shares | 1real |
Kerry warns against pointing finger at religion after Orlando | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday warned Americans against pointing a finger at one religion or another after a gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group massacred 49 people at a gay night club in Orlando. “The worst thing we can do is engage in trying to point fingers at one group or one form of sectarianism or another or one religion or another. Those are not the values of our country,” Kerry told reporters as he posed for pictures before a meeting with Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides. | 0fake |
Saudi Arabia to behead disabled man for taking part in protests | Posted on November 5, 2016 by DCG | 3 Comments
From The Independent : Saudi Arabia is set to behead a disabled man for taking part in anti-government protests.
A specialised criminal court in Riyadh , the Arab kingdom’s capital, sentenced Munir al-Adam, to death for “attacks on police” and other offences they said took place during protests in the Shia-dominated east in late 2011 .
The 23-year-old is partially blind and was already partially deaf at the time of arrest; he alleges he is now completely deaf in one ear as a result of being severely beaten by police. His family issued a statement rejecting the verdict and claiming that Mr. Adam was tortured into confessing, The Times reported.
The steel cable worker said he had only signed a document admitting the offences after being repeatedly beaten. He said he had been accused of “sending texts” when he was too poor to own a mobile phone.
Forty-seven protesters and alleged supporters of al-Qaeda were executed in a single day in January. In July, the number of beheadings in Saudi Arabia reached 108 this year, putting the country, which has a population of nearly 29 million people, on track to exceed its 2015 execution total.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most prolific executioners. Research last year by human rights organisation Reprieve found that, of those identified as facing execution in Saudi Arabia, some 72 per cent were sentenced to death for non-violent alleged crimes, while torture and forced confessions were common.
“Munir Adam’s appalling case illustrates how the Saudi authorities are all too happy to subject the most vulnerable people to the swordsman’s blade,” said Maya Foa, of Reprieve. “Saudi Arabia’s close allies, including the UK, must urge the kingdom to release Munir, along with juveniles and others who were sentenced to death for protesting.”
The traditionally close relationship between Saudi Arabia and Britain has become strained in the past year as people in the West have protested against the use of the death penalty, including against minors. Protests also erupted across the Middle East in January.
Sara Hashah, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa spokesperson, said Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran were responsible for 90 per cent of all recorded executions globally and were out of step with the rest of the world .
“In Saudi Arabia, where people are routinely sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials, we have seen a dramatic surge in the number of executions in the past two years which has shown no sign of abating in 2016,” she told The Independent in July.
“This clearly demonstrates that Saudi Arabia’s authorities are increasingly out of step with a global trend of states moving away from the death penalty. “Saudi Arabia’s authorities must end their reliance on this cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment immediately.”
Mr. Adam was reportedly detained in February 2012 for taking part in protests in his home town of Qatif the previous year, when he was 18 years old.
Read the rest of the story here .
DCG | 1real |
'Bridgegate' witness casts more doubt on NJ Governor Christie's denials | NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - In December 2013, as the “Bridgegate” scandal was unraveling, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s chief spokesman learned the truth: that lanes had been closed at the George Washington Bridge to punish a local mayor for political reasons. That was the testimony from former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive David Wildstein on Wednesday, who told jurors in Newark federal court he informed Christie’s press secretary Michael Drewniak that he executed the scheme with the approval of Christie aides. Wildstein has said several key figures in Christie’s inner circle knew about the plot as it was occurring or soon afterward - including Christie himself, who was told of the closures by Wildstein as they unfolded in September 2013, according to Wildstein’s testimony on Tuesday. Christie, who is not accused of wrongdoing, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the plot at the time, but Wildstein’s testimony has bolstered the government’s assertion the governor knew about the scandal earlier than he has acknowledged. The scandal helped derail Christie’s bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and could endanger his best chance at a political future: a role in Donald Trump’s administration should the Republican presidential candidate win a Nov. 8 election. The governor’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and a former Port Authority executive, Bill Baroni, are charged with deliberately creating gridlock in Fort Lee, New Jersey, after the town’s mayor declined to endorse Christie’s 2013 re-election bid. Wildstein said on Wednesday he met with Drewniak on Dec. 4 and offered to resign. “I told him the stories were out of control,” Wildstein said. “This wasn’t going away.” Drewniak has previously confirmed that Wildstein told him of the closures, but has denied knowing it was political payback. Wildstein also said he met with Christie’s chief counsel, Charlie McKenna, two days later and told him about the scheme, though he did not say whether he disclosed the motivation for the plot. Wildstein previously said he informed Michael DuHaime, a Christie adviser, in November. He has also testified that Christie’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien; David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority; and a board member, Pat Schuber, were aware of the plot beforehand. Stepien’s lawyer has said he had no role in the scheme, while Samson and Schuber have denied advance knowledge. Defense lawyers began questioning Wildstein on Wednesday and sought to portray him as the true mastermind of the scheme, even though Baroni was nominally his superior. Michael Baldassare, a lawyer for Baroni, also suggested Wildstein’s testimony was biased because he is seeking a reduced sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy. | 0fake |
Why Trump Kicked This Writer Off His Golf Course | Donald Trump isn t used to being criticized, and now that he s weeks away from assuming the presidency the criticism is going to intensify to a level he s never seen before. And he can t handle it.That manifested itself again in another incident where Trump had the writer of an unflattering biography kicked off of his golf course.President-elect Donald Trump on Friday ejected from his West Palm Beach golf course one of his most critical biographers, Harry Hurt III, who had been preparing to play in a foursome with billionaire mega-donor David Koch.Hurt is the author of Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, a 1993 book that revealed among other things that Trump was accused of rape by his ex-wife Ivana Trump in a sworn deposition during their divorce proceedings.Hunt approached Trump on the golf course and congratulated him on the election win. In response, witnesses say Trump blasted Hunt over the content of his book. He then told Hunt, you re out of here and he was then removed from the course.Trump was golfing with David Koch, of the infamous right wing Koch Brothers but who did not support Trump in the 2016 election. Koch reportedly said he was appalled by Trump s petty behavior on the golf course.Hunt was previously forced to retract the claim of sexual assault in his Trump book after legal threats.Trump has shown a petty and vindictive streak towards detractors and others who have reported on him in an unflattering light before. It remains to be seen what he will do with the full power of the presidency behind him, and how he will utilize that power and the agencies beneath him to go after his perceived enemies.On the other hand, detractors will have the widest audience they ve ever had for Trump stories.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
Macedonian court sentences ex-secret police official to 18 months in prison | SKOPJE (Reuters) - A senior official of Macedonia s secret police was sentenced to 18 months in prison for destroying evidence that could have helped identify who was behind a wiretapping scandal that brought down a previous government. Goran Grujevski, who ran the secret police department conducting the wiretapping operations, was found guilty of destroying documents from the period when the wiretapping took place. He is awaiting extradition after being arrested in Greece last month. Macedonia was thrown into political turmoil in 2015, when opposition parties accused then-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his counter-intelligence chief of orchestrating the wiretapping of more than 20,000 people. The political crisis led the European Union to broker an agreement in which parties agreed to hold early elections and set up a special prosecutor to investigate the wiretappings. Wednesday s verdict is the first ruling in a case the special prosecutor opened two years ago. In June, Macedonia s special prosecutor filed charges against 94 people, including former high government officials, over their involvement in possible crimes revealed by the surveillance scandal. Macedonia s new government, which took over in May, said it would assist in investigating and bringing to justice the perpetrators of the wiretapping scandal. | 0fake |
Microsoft looks at whether Russians bought U.S. ads on search engine | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Monday it was looking into whether Russians bought U.S. election ads on its Bing search engine or on other Microsoft-owned products and platforms, after rival Google said it had discovered such ads on its products. We take reports of misuse of our platform seriously. We are therefore investigating and if inappropriate activity is found, we will take steps to minimize such misuse in the future, a Microsoft representative said in an email to Reuters. | 0fake |
UK PM May says believes Northern Irish accord possible; wants more talks | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she wanted to see more talks next week between Northern Ireland s main parties, adding she believed an agreement to restore the devolved power-sharing government in the province could be reached. I believe that the differences between the parties, the issues that are dividing them, are very small ... issues around culture, identity, legacy, the future stability of the devolved institutions, she said. I believe a way forward can be found so agreement can be reached. | 0fake |
Obama's Victory Lap? |
In between nearly daily campaign stops shilling for Hillary, President Barack Obama has been promoting his record as Head of State. To Obama’s credit, he talks nice and appears to be both thoughtful and rational, qualities that were not always evident in his predecessor in office. But the hype about what was achieved in his eight years appears to be more than a bit overblown, particularly if one considers the flagship domestic project, Obamacare. It is a program in which the government forces individuals to buy a product that has been crafted together by private, for profit companies. If the people do not buy, they will be penalized by the government. The companies in turn have learned that it is tough to make money insuring people who are actually sick so they are leaving the program while those individuals who have to buy their own coverage without government subsidies are discovering that the significant annual price increases mean that they cannot afford insurance at all. Donald Trump is right that the program is in crisis, is “over,” and should be repealed.
Against that, what has Obama accomplished domestically? I will not consider the constant pandering on gender and race because that is, after all, what Democrats do. But if one considers immigration a part of domestic policy, he is responsible for refusing to enforce immigration law, letting Haitians stay illegally in the U.S. as compensation for a hurricane that occurred in 2010, while also failing to deport whole categories of Hispanics who are in the country without visas or residency permits. Domestic would also include the continuation of several types of surveillance of citizens by the NSA and FBI, the hounding and prosecution of whistleblowers, and the increased reliance on the State Secrets privilege to derail the use of the judicial system to pushback against government overreach. And in a just concluded parole hearing involving a Guantanamo detainee who had been repeatedly tortured, the Obama Administration has now determined that some individuals can be held in prison forever without ever being charged with a crime or convicted.
But it is in the foreign and national security policy areas that Obama has been most visibly active as he has a relatively free hand based on what he considers to be his own “unitary executive” authority. In his famous Cairo speech delivered to the Muslim world in 2009 he promised change but basically did not deliver, though there have actually been several successes in foreign policy that date to the past year. He should get full credit for confronting the Israel Lobby and Congress (essentially the same thing) to obtain a nuclear program agreement with Iran. Likewise, he went against the Cuban Lobby and GOP in Congress (also essentially the same thing) to ease relations with Havana. He still might do the right thing by the Palestinians and allow the U.S. to recognize their statehood at the United Nations later this month or even support the French plan for a multinational conference to create a Palestinian state but I wouldn’t want to bet on it, particularly as the incoming Administration headed by Hillary Clinton will be firmly in the Israeli pocket and Obama would presumably defer to her before doing anything dramatic.
And Obama should also get credit for some things that he didn’t do. He did not exacerbate tensions with Russia by arming Ukraine with game changing offensive weapons in spite of intense pressure from Congress and the media and he did not get involved in a new land war involving tens of thousands of American soldiers in Asia even though some of his advisers were urging him to do so in Syria. But by the same measure starting yet another war by proxy, in Libya, was a complete failure, though it did not involve American boots on the ground. It was a war that might in part be attributed to the aggressive advocacy of Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State at the time.
And while it should also be recalled to Obama’s credit that he made no effort to maintain a troop presence in Iraq, he was unable to extricate U.S. forces from America’s longest war in Afghanistan, which continues and is likely to be on the presidential agenda for the next decade or even longer. Nor could he dissuade the Saudis from initiating their brutal and senseless war on Yemen, which has had devastating consequences with more to come for the entire region. And President Obama has also failed to closed Guantanamo prison in spite of promises made eight years ago to do so.
President Obama has also changed the actual mechanics of America’s intervention in the world, using drones and aerial bombardment instead of soldiers on the ground to enforce Washington’s diktat. A Pentagon press release in September boasted how over Labor Day weekend U.S. warplanes attacked targets in six countries. The United States was not at war with any of them. And then there is Anwar al-Awlaki and his son, American citizens who were executed in Yemen by drone without any legal process, by executive order, after they were placed on a “kill list” compiled by the White House.
But Obama’s poorest grades relate to his handling of Russia, Syria and Israel, all three of which might plausibly be seen as linked issues as Secretary Clinton once commented that Syria’s government would have to be brought down to benefit Israel while Russia is Syria’s most important ally. The problem with Syria is the policy itself. The only serious direct threat emanating from the country is ISIS, which has the capability to send suicide bombers and other dedicated terrorists to strike targets in the United States and Europe. To be sure, Washington is operating against ISIS, providing intelligence, equipment and training to its proxies and the “moderate” rebels that it supports in the country, but the effort is a mish mash, involving as it does feckless allies and clashing loyalties. The Pentagon and CIA have meanwhile been training batches of dubious recruits, some of whom turn their weapons over to the crazies at first opportunity. The Defense Department deflected completely accurate charges that it was supporting terrorists by changing the names of the groups involved. Amid the chaos, President Obama has even conceded that there are no moderate rebels.
Defeating ISIS would be relatively simple if everyone were on the same page, but the White House persists in seeing the removal of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as the top priority, as if creating a power vacuum in Damascus would be a solution to what ISIS has been doing. And pressuring al-Assad also creates and feeds the ongoing problems with Russia. As the beltway groupthink goes, Syria minus al-Assad and Vladimir Putin would magically become a place where all the moderate, nation-building and democratically inclined forces would be able to come together and form a new government that would immeasurably benefit the Syrian people.
That formulation is, of course, complete nonsense and it is Moscow that has a clear understanding of what is at stake, not Washington. The reality is that creating a power vacuum is precisely what provides the opportunity for militant groups to settle in and expand their authority. It is how al-Qaeda and ISIS both came into prominence. It happens because, as in Iraq and Libya, the Washington interventionists have no idea what might succeed as a post-civil war political system in Syria. Nor do they have any real plan for achieving a functioning polity.
U.S. administrations have already tried decapitation of existing leadership in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya with catastrophic results but one of the delights of the American political system is that all the key policy players change every four to eight years meaning that lessons learned are lost and have to be discovered a second time around, repeating as necessary. That regime change would work any better in Syria defies belief but it is nevertheless what Washington chooses to believe and by seeing al-Assad as an enemy it is hampering the effort against ISIS’s most effective asset: the Syrian Army backed up by Russian air support.
And then there is Israel. Israel is, according to many Congressmen and the media, America’s best friend and greatest ally. It is a judgment that also defies belief as Tel Aviv and more particularly its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been persistently pursuing policies that are nominally opposed by the United States government, most particularly the expansion of its settlements. It has also interfered in U.S. internal politics during elections and did not hesitate to exploit political divisions in Congress when Netanyahu was invited by GOP leaders to speak to a joint session to provide his perception of President Obama’s “misguided” negotiations with Iran. Israel is no friend of the United States even if it does receive an annual handout currently running at in excess of $3 billion and unlimited political cover in international bodies. Obama reportedly hates Netanyahu but did not have the courage to do anything about him.
So the Obama record is a mixed bag, but mostly a disappointment. His presidency will be somewhat untouchable by those who do retrospectives, as least for a while, protected by Obama’s status as America’s first black president. It would have been nice to see real health care reform, a backing off from police state norms in the war on terror, and less lethal engagement in other people’s quarrels overseas, but I suppose Obama would argue that GOP obstruction and the Establishment consensus caused him to support policies and engage in compromises that he really wanted to avoid. There may be some truth to that but ultimately Obama comes across as yet another morally deficient head of state who presumably saw the folly in the status quo but ultimately decided that loyalty to his party and dedication to its continuation in power was more important than doing what was right. Ultimately, the acquisition of money and power are everything in our system of government and the brief trajectory of Barack Hussein Obama is no exception to that rule. | 1real |
NEW DISCOVERY REVEALS BALTIMORE STATE’S ATTORNEY’S PARENTS WEREN’T MODEL COPS : Mom Received 20+ Disciplinary Actions, Dad Fired For Criminal Activity | Baltimore City State s Attorney Marilyn Mosby tells FOX News reporter during hostile exchange (at the 1 minute mark) that she comes from five generations of police officers in response to his statement that Baltimore Police officers are concerned she doesn t have their backs: https://youtu.be/nbDeRqCxJbsThe mother of Baltimore city state s attorney Marilyn Mosby faced numerous disciplinary actions during her 20-year career as a Boston police officer, though the public wouldn t know it based on the Freddie Gray case prosecutor s public statements touting her family s strong policing history.The 35-year-old Mosby has used her family s police ties to rebut critics who say she rushed to judgement and overcharged the six cops involved in Gray s April 12 arrest. The 25-year-old Gray died a week later, touching off rioting in Baltimore and nationwide protests. Law enforcement is pretty much instilled within my being, Mosby told MSNBC s Chris Hayes on May 1, the day she publicly announced charges against the officers. I come from five generations of police officers, she added, pointing out that her mother, father, grandfather and uncles have all served as cops.But there s more to the story than Mosby has let on.Personnel records obtained by The Daily Caller show that Mosby s mother, Linda Thompson, first violated the Boston police department s substance abuse policy in 2006. After serving a 45-day rehab stint, Thompson violated the drug code again and voluntarily resigned on Feb. 1, 2008, rather than be fired.The early retirement allowed Thompson, now 52, to draw a $1,810.69 monthly pension.Thompson is not the only member of Mosby s family to have had a rocky policing career. Mosby s father was fired from the Boston police department in 1991 following accusations that he and his partner robbed drug dealers at gun point. Mosby s uncle was fired from Boston PD in 2001 after testing positive for cocaine. Her grandfather was a well-respected Boston cop, but he ultimately and unsuccessfully sued the department for racial discrimination in the 1980s.Personnel records obtained by The Daily Caller show that Mosby s mother, Linda Thompson, first violated the Boston police department s substance abuse policy in 2006. After serving a 45-day rehab stint, Thompson violated the drug code again and voluntarily resigned on Feb. 1, 2008, rather than be fired.The early retirement allowed Thompson, now 52, to draw a $1,810.69 monthly pension.Thompson is not the only member of Mosby s family to have had a rocky policing career. Mosby s father was fired from the Boston police department in 1991 following accusations that he and his partner robbed drug dealers at gun point. Mosby s uncle was fired from Boston PD in 2001 after testing positive for cocaine. Her grandfather was a well-respected Boston cop, but he ultimately and unsuccessfully sued the department for racial discrimination in the 1980s.Mosby has not publicly mentioned any of that during her speeches when running for Baltimore state s attorney or since taking on the Gray case. A majority of police officers are risking their lives day-in and day-out, Mosby told Hayes during her interview. Recognizing that, because that s what my family did, I also recognize that there are those individuals that usurp their authority who will go past the public trust. When they do that, you have to hold those individuals accountable, Mosby added.Mosby s claims are disingenuous, say three retired Boston police officers interviewed by TheDC. Linda Thompson s daughter is lecturing police officers about the right thing to do? You ve got to be kidding me, said one former cop who reached the highest levels of the Boston police department and has known Thompson since the beginning of her career.The retired officer, who asked not to be named, said that Mosby s message has been, You can trust me, I come from a family of cops. Mosby has proved a polarizing figure so far in the Gray case. Elected to office last year, she became a national star to many after her public announcement of charges against the cops. But her many critics say her case is flimsy and that she charged the officers for political reasons.The prosecution s theory seems to be that the officers did not do enough to restrain Gray in the back of a police van after his April 12 arrest. Some of the six officers also failed to provide proper medical attention, Mosby has claimed.Gray s April 19 death was ruled a homicide due to an act of omission. Mosby charged the driver of Gray s police van with second-degree depraved heart murder and manslaughter. Three other cops face manslaughter charges.Mosby has also been heavily criticized for using activist rhetoric when publicly discussing the case. During her May 1 speech she said that she heard protesters battle-cry of no justice, no peace. Days before that speech and before the medical examiner s office had even determined Gray s cause of death she told a group of local clergy members that she was going to seek justice for Gray by any and all means necessary. Via: Daily Caller | 1real |
U.S., Philippines ties back on track as Trump, Duterte make up and bond | MANILA (Reuters) - Mutual praise, warm handshakes and even an impromptu love song at a lavish dinner suggest U.S. President Donald Trump and Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte want a fresh start after the biggest breakdown in U.S.-Philippine ties in years. Their meeting on Monday during a summit of Asian leaders in Manila was arguably the most anticipated of the three-day event and went off well, with Duterte s aides talking up the rapport the two had, and Trump boasting of his great relationship with the similarly mercurial Philippines leader. It came a little over a year after Duterte announced his separation from the United States and sought new alliances with China and Russia. Angered by Barack Obama s criticism of his war on drugs, he told the then-U.S. president to go to hell , shocking American businesses and a Philippine military heavily reliant on the help of the Pentagon. Central to the rapprochement this week was Duterte holding his tongue, and Trump not expressing concern about Duterte s centerpiece policy - the crackdown on drugs that has killed thousands of Filipinos. Tensions and damage inflicted during the Obama administration has somehow been repaired, looking at the executive relationship, it has essentially been normalized, said Richard Javad Heydarian, an author and a political science professor at Manila s De La Salle University. The modus operandi is, Trump doesn t openly criticize Duterte s war on drugs and Duterte tones down his direct attacks on the U.S. Even with Trump in the White House, Duterte had repeatedly railed at the hypocrisy of his country s former colonial ruler. He has accused Washington of treating the Philippines like a dog and said he would not visit the United States, because it was lousy . But there was none of Duterte s trademark hostility this week and some indications that both countries had taken a calibrated approach to ensure the two leaders hit it off. Contrary to traditional seating protocol for a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the two were seated next to each other at Sunday s gala dinner. Duterte sang a hit Filipino love song at that event, and joked it was on the orders of the U.S. commander-in-chief . Although Duterte s fallout with Obama was acrimonious, the fissures between the two long-term allies did not run deep, with joint programs across various sectors largely intact. That included dozens of annual joint military exercises over the past year. This year, the Philippines military relied on U.S. technical support in its biggest-ever urban battle, ending a five-month occupation of a southern city by rebels loyal to Islamic State. There were no signs of an exodus of American business under Duterte either, with $353 million of investments from the United States recorded in the first eight months of this year, compared to $90 million in the same period in 2016, according to the Philippines central bank. There were conflicting accounts of what was discussed between Trump and Duterte on Monday, however. A White House spokeswoman said human rights was talked about, in the context of the drugs war. Duterte s spokesman, Harry Roque, said that was not the case, although Duterte had explained his anti-drugs campaign to Trump, who nodded and seemed to be in agreement . The relationship appears to be very warm and very friendly, getting very candid, Roque said. They have similar feelings toward former U.S. President Barack Obama. Duterte had said last week he would tell Trump to lay off if he talked about human rights. But according to a senior White House official, Duterte raised the issue himself. He had an explanation and he pre-emptively brought it up, the official said, estimating Duterte did 90 percent of the talking. The two leaders agreed to further strengthen the decades-old defense alliance between them, one that Duterte had previously threatened to abort. Heydarian, the professor, however said that even with improved ties, Trump would be powerless to stop moves by Duterte to diversify foreign relations beyond the United States to include China and Russia, and tap them for anything from loans and infrastructure to rifles and jeeps. I don t think that the Trump-Duterte convivial hobnob will ever be enough to change Duterte s strategic orientation, he said. We have stopped the hemorrhaging of the alliance, but it will never go back to being special and sacred as it was before Duterte came to power. | 0fake |
97-Year-Old Woman Dies After Being Evicted From Her Lifelong Home (VIDEO) | Marie Hatch, a 97-year-old California resident who has been battling an eviction notice since early February, died on March 3.Ms. Hatch made national headlines last month, after a family member, Lisa Krieger, posted her story on gofundme.com. Marie Hatch is my sister s former mother-in-law, and she is 97 years old. She has lived in the same house in Burlingame for 66 years. As she has no email or tech savvy at 97 years of age, and as her life-long friend, I am starting this fund for her. On Feb. 11, she was served with a 60-day notice to vacate the house or be tossed out by sheriff s deputies. Marie is fighting her second battle with cancer and has no more in her savings account. The man who is evicting her inherited the house by default from his estranged wife who was murdered. His wife, her mother AND her grandmother all promised Marie that she could live out her natural life in the house. According to the post, Ms. Hatch worked hard throughout her life, in order to be able to remain in her home. She and her roommate, 85-year-old Georgia Rothrock, paid $900 a month to live in the 2 bedroom house.In February, ABC News interviewed the elderly woman at her California home.During the interview, Ms. Hatch was asked where she would go if she had to leave her home. I don t know, she answered, saying, I don t have the slightest idea where I m gonna go. She paused for a moment, before telling the interviewer, That s why I don t sleep good at nights. Watch the brief interview below.The Internet came together to try to help Ms. Hatch stay in her home. The gofundme.com page raised $47,212.People from all across the country made phone calls and wrote letters on behalf of the elderly woman.On March 3, Lisa Krieger informed supporters on gofundme.com of Ms. Hatch s death, writing, I m sorry to have to post this, but Marie passed away earlier this evening. She was unable to fight off the respiratory virus that landed her in the hospital a couple of days ago. She was at home with her son when she died. She has been through a lot since February 11, and her body and spirit were too weak to sustain her. Thank you for all your support. Currently, I m at a loss for words. Thank you. During an interview with Mercury News, the pro bono attorneys representing her said There is no doubt that the callous eviction of Marie Hatch has caused her death. According to ABC News, the two bedroom home which Ms. Hatch moved into in the 1950s, was valued at more than $1.5 million on today s market.It s a sad commentary on American values, that Ms. Hatch spent her last days on earth worrying about being ripped from her home of more than six decades, all because of another person s greed.Sadly, Marie Hatch is not alone.The rising cost of housing has forced many seniors from their homes in recent years.Seniors like Hatch are often forced to rely on a fixed income. As living costs continue to rise across the country, seniors find that their income is stretched beyond its limits. Many are forced to leave lifelong homes, taking up residence in low-income or government subsidized housing in response to rising costs.What s more, between 2007 and 2011, more than 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes to foreclosure. As the New York Times reports here, the highest percentage of those were seniors over the age of 75.Remember the American dream? That was when hard-working Americans were able to buy a home and pay off a mortgage before retirement age.For a growing majority of Americans, that dream will never be a reality. Instead, seniors are more likely to be forced from their homes at or near the end of their lives.That s something we need to change.RIP Marie.Featured image credit: video screen capture from ABC News | 1real |
U.N. rights team to visit Mexico after journalist murders | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday a group of experts on freedom of expression will visit Mexico at the end of November to assess the safety of journalists in the country, one of the most dangerous in the world for reporters. David Kaye, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, and Edison Lanza, who holds the same position at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, will visit from Nov. 27 to Dec. 4 after an invitation by the government. This visit is about the crisis the press is going through in Mexico, the exponential increase in violence, said Leopoldo Maldonado, the protection and defense program officer in Mexico at Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group. The visit comes as Mexico s journalists live through one of the worst waves of violence in recent history, with at least 11 reporters murdered in 2017, the same number killed in 2016. Over the past 17 years, 111 journalists have been killed in Mexico, more than one third of them under the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Reporters are also having to contend with other forms of intimidation. In June, activists, human-rights lawyers and journalists filed a criminal complaint after experts found that their smartphones had been infected with advanced spying software sold only to the government. The Mexican government said at the time that there was no proof it was responsible for the spying and that it condemned any attempt to violate the privacy of any person. The rights experts will travel to Mexico City and the states of Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa to meet legislative, executive and judicial authorities plus journalists and representatives of civil society, the U.N. said. Reporters Without Borders ranks Mexico at 147 out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index, below Venezuela, South Sudan and Bangladesh, and one place above Russia.{rsf.org/en/ranking#} | 0fake |
Putin says will run as independent candidate for new Kremlin term | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking a new term in office in a March election, said on Thursday he would run as an independent candidate while hoping for support from more than one political party. Putin, 65, told an annual news conference that Russia s political system must be competitive, but the opposition lacked a strong candidate to challenge him because his opponents, while creating a lot of noise, had very little to offer the nation. | 0fake |
Colombia's FARC say six ex-members murdered in restive province | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Armed gunmen this week killed six former fighters from Colombia s FARC rebels, the now-demobilized group said, reiterating its fears about attacks targeting former guerrillas. Thousands of members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels handed in their weapons under a peace deal signed with the government last year to end more than 53 years of war. The group is now a political party. Sunday s killings took place in the restive southwestern province of Narino, where criminal gangs, the smaller ELN rebel group and FARC dissidents who refused to demobilize are competing to control valuable territory for the cultivation of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine. We stand in solidarity with the families of our six comrades who were cowardly murdered in cold blood, the FARC said in a statement. The armed groups trying to take over territory in the area have no ideological aims, the FARC said on its website, but are stoking violence for economic gain. Former rebel leaders have repeatedly raised concerns that former guerrillas may be assassinated by right-wing paramilitary gangs or drug traffickers, in a replay of about 5,000 targeted killings during the 1980s, when the group first attempted to found a political party. | 0fake |
Pope Francis: ‘Muslim Terrorism Does Not Exist’ - Breitbart | In an impassioned address Friday, Pope Francis denied the existence of Islamic terrorism, while simultaneously asserting that “the ecological crisis is real. ”[“Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist,” Francis said in his speech to a world meeting of populist movements. What he apparently meant is that not all Christians are terrorists and not all Muslims are terrorists — a fact evident to all — yet his words also seemed to suggest that no specifically Islamic form of terrorism exists in the world, an assertion that stands in stark contradiction to established fact. “No people is criminal or or violent,” Francis said, while also suggesting — as he has on other occasions — that terrorism is primarily a result of economic inequalities rather than religious beliefs. “The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence yet, without equal opportunities, the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and will eventually explode. ” The Pope also reiterated his conviction that all religions promote peace and that the danger of violent radicalization exists equally in all religions. “There are fundamentalist and violent individuals in all peoples and religions — and with intolerant generalizations they become stronger because they feed on hate and xenophobia,” he said. While denying the existence of Islamic terrorism, Francis also seemed to condemn the denial of global warming, asserting that “the ecological crisis is real. ” “A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system,” he said. We know “what happens when we deny science and disregard the voice of Nature,” the Pope said. “Let us not fall into denial. Time is running out. Let us act. I ask you again — all of you, people of all backgrounds including native people, pastors, political leaders — to defend Creation. ” While acknowledging that science is not “the only form of knowledge,” and that “science is not necessarily ‘neutral’” and often “conceals ideological views or economic interests,” he still insisted that people of good will should not oppose “scientific consensus” regarding global warming. Leftist media like the liberal Guardian in the U. K. immediately politicized the speech, predictably claiming that the Pope was backing “ protests,” despite the fact that the Pope himself denied such a claim, explicitly declaring that “I am not speaking of anyone in particular. ” “I am not speaking of anyone in particular, I am speaking of a social and political process that flourishes in many parts of the world and poses a grave danger for humanity,” he said. Moreover, although the Guardian claimed that the Pope was “condemning populism,” in point of fact, he was speaking to populist movements and praised their commitment to democracy. “The direction taken beyond this historic ” Francis said, “will depend on people’s involvement and participation and, largely, on yourselves, the popular movements. ” Nevertheless, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said Monday that the Holy See is concerned over growing populist and nationalist movements, both in Europe and in the United States. In an interview for the Italian evening news on the RAI network, the Cardinal was asked whether the Vatican is worried about what the interviewer called “the spread of nationalism and populism not only in Europe but also in the United States with Donald Trump. ” “I think so, I think so,” Parolin said. “Certainly these closings are not a good sign,” since many of them “are born of fear, which is not a good counselor. ” In his address Friday, the Pope denounced “the guise of what is politically correct or ideologically fashionable,” which he described as a “hypocritical attitude,” while urging real solutions to unemployment, corruption, the identity crisis, and “the gutting of democracies. ” “The system’s gangrene cannot be whitewashed forever because sooner or later the stench becomes too strong,” he said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 0fake |
Being an utter cock no barrier to success | Being an utter cock no barrier to success 09-11-16 THERE is no ‘glass ceiling’ for utter cocks any more, it has been confirmed. Donald Trump’s election success has been hailed as a victory by the cock, arsehole and bellend communities, who have for centuries struggled to gain acceptance in mainstream society. Total cock Roy Hobbs said: “Farage gave us hope, Trump has given us freedom. No longer will being an utter penis be frowned upon. “I can polish the ‘No Turning’ sign at the end of my driveway with pride, and drive my white 2011 BMW 7 Series right up anyone’s arse without fear of reproach. “The world told me I was wrong. But I was right, or rather if I was wrong it doesn’t matter any more. “I am an utter cock, hear my cry.”
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Mainstream Liars Now Want to be Self-Appointed Monarchs of ‘Truth’ | This biggest failure of the mainstream media was their inability to police themselves. From partisan dishonesty to outright lies they have destroyed their own credibility, and amazingly, now they want to be the internet s truth task force Neil Clark RT OpEdgeThe Oxford Dictionaries have named post-truth as the word of the year. Fake news and post-truth politics have been blamed for both the Brexit vote in the UK and the victory of Donald Trump in America.It seems the uneducated plebs are falling for fake news they read in new media and the lies of dreadful rabble-rousing populist politicians who are relying on people s emotions, instead of objective facts, to get votes. It s all terribly worrying and poses a dire threat to Western civilization as we know it.Well, forgive me for laughing out loud. For this establishment fake news / post-truth politics concern is the funniest thing I ve come across in politics since Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, the very grand Chancellor of the University of Oxford, repeatedly called distinguished Sheldonian guest Mikhail Gorbachev, Mr. Brezhnev. Why is it so hilarious? Because the people and the outlets warning of the dangers of fake news and post-truth politics have been the biggest peddlers of fake news and post-truth politics out there. It s like receiving lectures on the immorality of bootlegging from Al Capone or being told to sit up straight by the Hunchback of Notre Dame.Without a doubt the best, or rather the worst example of fake news in the last 25 years or so, was the neocon lie that Iraq had WMDs in 2002/3. That wasn t peddled by obscure bloggers and new media, but by mainstream Western politicians, from mainstream political parties, establishment-approved experts on the BBC/ITV/CNN, etc., and Op-ed columnists in serious and respectable media outlets.@georgegalloway @Independent Tony Blair is a lying warmongering post-truth politician, of course he hates Corbyn. pic.twitter.com/6ZD4FWudyI Antony Warren (@Lovejoy999) November 20, 2016There was absolutely no evidence that Saddam possessed WMDs. The story was complete and utter BS. Yet this fake news dominated the headlines for months in 2002/3 and led to an illegal invasion in which many people lost their lives. Unlike today s manufactured fake news hysteria the Iraq war was no joke. An entire country was destroyed.And guess what? Those who pushed the Iraq has WMDs line are now coming on television to express their concern over fake news !John Hilley notes The BBC even had Alastair Campbell (Tony Blair s spin doctor), in the studio defending the term post-truth as a way of exposing the dangers of fake news.' Campbell stated: It s acknowledging that politics, which has always been rough, has moved to a different phase where politicians who lie now appear to get rewarded for it. (BBC2 Jeremy Vine Show, 16/11/2016).What might Orwell have said about Campbell, master spinner and Blairite warmonger, sitting inside the BBC being rewarded for his thoughts on post-truth and fake news? Hilley asks.Once again, I m sure old George is spinning in his grave in Sutton Courtenay.Then there s that serial warmonger Bernard-Henri Levy. The Sunday Telegraph today told us in its headlines: Leading French philosopher: Marine Le Pen may win election as people have lost interest in whether politicians tell the truth. Oh, the irony!Because if the French people really have lost interest in whether politicians tell the truth, Henri-Levy and his fellow liberal interventionist regime changers have got a lot to do with it. Think back to the war against Libya, which the leading French philosopher lobbied hard for. To sell the war to the Western public, we were told that Muammar Gaddafi was about to commit a Srebrenica-style massacre in Benghazi. Media Lens noted the claims that were made at the time.But again it was a load of rollocks. Five years after Libya, like Iraq before it, had been destroyed by Western interventionists, a report of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons declared: the proposition that Muammar Gaddafi would have ordered the massacre of civilians in Benghazi was not supported by the available evidence. It wasn t the only claim made about Libya by Western politicians that was not supported by the available evidence. In February 2011, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted that he had seen information which suggested that Gaddafi was on his way to Venezuela. An unnamed diplomat said that this was credible information. But it wasn t. It was the same old fake news that we get every time the Western elites are trying to achieve regime change. In April 2011 we heard that the devilish Gaddafi (who had not, after all, fled to Caracas), was supplying his troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape. REVEALED: The Real Fake News List https://t.co/1CkOSe25LU pic.twitter.com/lqb9Uze1pi Ron Paul (@RonPaul) November 19, 2016 Gaddafi s security forces and other groups in the region are trying to divide the people by using violence against women and rape as tools of war, and the United States condemns this in the strongest possible terms, declared Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose supporters are now complaining about post-truth politics.Again, no evidence was put forward for the Viagra/mass rape claim and, surprise, surprise, none was ever found.A clear pattern can be discerned. To get public support for its illegal regime change wars, the Western establishment energetically promotes a number of fake news stories. These stories are usually reported unquestioningly in respectable outlets and are regularly cited by neocon/liberal interventionist commentators as a reason for taking action against the target state. Anonymous sources feature heavily in these stories, which like MI6 s Operation Mass Appeal are often planted by the security services.Meanwhile, people s emotions are shamelessly played upon by the something must be done brigade of liberal laptop bombardiers, the same crowd, note well, who accuse populist politicians of ignoring objective facts and playing on people s emotions.The fake news continues while the regime change operation is ongoing. After its over, we re all meant to forget about the false stories we were fed and focus on the next New Hitler who needs to be dealt with. In 2011, it was the despicable Gaddafi, now it s the despicable Assad and the despicable Putin who we re told: have to be stopped. Every time 'MSM' report US-UK government claims of a perceived 'responsibility to protect' Iraqis, Libyans and Syrians, it's fake news. Media Lens (@medialens) November 19, 2016The term post-truth politics implies there was a time when politics was truthful. I doubt if that ever was the case, but certainly in the last 25 years, thanks to the influence of neocons and liberal interventionists , the lies have been off the scale. Remember the Niger uranium forgeries? And Saddam s horrific People Shredder ?And before the Iraq war, we had the humanitarian NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, where again fake news dominated. US Defense Secretary William Cohen claimed about 100,000 military-aged Kosovan Albanians were missing they may have been murdered. As John Pilger reminded us, Kosovo, the site of a genocide that never was, is now a violent free market in drugs and prostitution. It wasn t the only lurid claim that was made to sell the war. But again the genocide and hundreds of thousands killed stories were false, as a UN court itself ruled in 2001.Fake news also featured heavily in the neocon campaign to get Iran sanctioned for an entirely unproven nuclear weapons program. It s dominated the coverage of recent events in Ukraine, with Russia s non-existent invasion of Ukraine routinely referred to as a fact. The conflict in Syria too has been marked by fake news, and theories being reported as if they re 100 percent proven. How many times have you read that Assad gassed his own people at Ghouta in 2013, even though we still don t know for sure who carried out the attack?If it s official enemies we re talking about fact-checking and citing sources isn t all that important for those who pounce on a mere typo if it s an anti-war writer who s making a claim.Now, the same people who have disseminated fake news for so long and who are still, even after Iraq and Libya, embedded in the West s political and media establishments, are lashing out because they no longer control the narrative as they used to. The public is getting their news from a much wider variety of sources and voting for populist, i.e., non-neocon/liberal interventionist-anointed candidates/parties at elections.Instead of admitting that it s their fake news and post-truth politics which has caused people to switch off from establishment media and to stop voting for status quo candidates, the endless war lobby has the effrontery to accuse others of the things they have been guilty of.Concern over fake news and post-truth politics from the West s endless war propagandists?It s hard to think of a better example of what psychologists call projection. Follow Neil Clark @NeilClark66READ MORE ABOUT MSM LIES AT: 21st Century Wire MSM Watch Files | 1real |
Senator Lee to endorse Republican presidential candidate Cruz: reports | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah will endorse Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday, becoming the first member of the Senate to back Cruz, BuzzFeed News and Politico reported. Politico reported the pair would make the announcement later on Thursday at an event in Miami. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has slammed Cruz on the campaign trail for not having received any endorsements from fellow senators. Lee’s office could not confirm the reports. (Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Writing by Eric Beech) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
After 3 Years of Suffering 19 Year Old Girl Dies from Gardasil Vaccine Injuries | Print This Post After 3 Years of Suffering 19 Year Old Girl Dies from Gardasil Vaccine Injuries Kate was very tall for her age and a very accomplished athlete before receiving the Gardasil vaccine. She died at the age of 19 after suffering for years.
Health Impact News
The film VAXXED continues to be shown in new cities across the U.S., with the film crew also traveling to these cities to sponsor Q&A sessions after the filming. Producer Del Bigtree states that the story of the CDC whistleblower and cover-up told in the film is “ Bigger than Watergate. ”
The film crew also films parents of vaccine damaged or vaccine killed children who turn out to view the film and tell their own stories. Each city they go to reveals incredible stories of families who have suffered from vaccines, and wish they had known more about the risks before agreeing with doctors who seldom, if ever, discuss the side effects and risks.
In the video below, a tearful mother tells the story of the biggest decision she ever made and will regret the rest of her life, when she allowed her teen-aged daughter Kate, a tall and accomplished student athlete at the time, to receive the Gardasil HPV vaccine.
Her health began to decline, and the last 3 years of her life she suffered in terrible pain and had to be on a feeding tube. She tragically died at the age of 19.
Comment on this article at VaccineImpact.com. Young women whose lives were destroyed by Gardasil. More information about Gardasil Leaving a lucrative career as a nephrologist (kidney doctor), Dr. Suzanne Humphries is now free to actually help cure people. In this autobiography she explains why good doctors are constrained within the current corrupt medical system from practicing real, ethical medicine. FREE Shipping Available! Order here . Medical Doctors Opposed to Forced Vaccinations – Should Their Views be Silenced? eBook – Available for immediate download.
One of the biggest myths being propagated in the compliant mainstream media today is that doctors are either pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine, and that the anti-vaccine doctors are all “quacks.”
However, nothing could be further from the truth in the vaccine debate. Doctors are not unified at all on their positions regarding “the science” of vaccines, nor are they unified in the position of removing informed consent to a medical procedure like vaccines.
The two most extreme positions are those doctors who are 100% against vaccines and do not administer them at all, and those doctors that believe that ALL vaccines are safe and effective for ALL people, ALL the time, by force if necessary.
Very few doctors fall into either of these two extremist positions, and yet it is the extreme pro-vaccine position that is presented by the U.S. Government and mainstream media as being the dominant position of the medical field.
In between these two extreme views, however, is where the vast majority of doctors practicing today would probably categorize their position. Many doctors who consider themselves “pro-vaccine,” for example, do not believe that every single vaccine is appropriate for every single individual.
Many doctors recommend a “delayed” vaccine schedule for some patients, and not always the recommended one-size-fits-all CDC childhood schedule. Other doctors choose to recommend vaccines based on the actual science and merit of each vaccine, recommending some, while determining that others are not worth the risk for children, such as the suspect seasonal flu shot.
These doctors who do not hold extreme positions would be opposed to government-mandated vaccinations and the removal of all parental exemptions.
In this eBook, I am going to summarize the many doctors today who do not take the most extremist pro-vaccine position, which is probably not held by very many doctors at all, in spite of what the pharmaceutical industry, the federal government, and the mainstream media would like the public to believe. Read : Medical Doctors Opposed to Forced Vaccinations – Should Their Views be Silenced? on your mobile device! | 1real |
Obama says reducing leaker Chelsea Manning's prison term serves justice | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning had served a tough prison term and his decision to commute her 35-year sentence to about seven years served would not signal leniency toward leakers of U.S. government secrets. Obama told his final news conference as president that he felt it made sense to commute Manning’s sentence because she went to trial, took responsibility for her crime and her sentence was disproportionate to those received by other leakers. “Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence,” Obama said of his decision to reduce her sentence, which was announced Tuesday in a batch of 209 commutations and 64 pardons granted. “I feel very comfortable that justice has been served.” Manning gave classified information of more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2010, the biggest such breach in U.S. history. Congressional Republicans criticized the commutation as a dangerous precedent for leakers. Sean Spicer, the press secretary for President-elect Donald Trump, told reporters Wednesday it sent a “very troubling message.” Obama said the commutation was done without regard to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who said on Twitter last Thursday that if Manning was freed, he would accept extradition to the United States, where there is an open criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks. “I don’t pay a lot of attention to Mr. Assange’s tweets,” Obama said, adding that he did not see a contradiction with his administration’s approach to Assange and Manning and referring more questions on WikiLeaks to the Justice Department. “What I can say broadly in this new cyber age, we’re going to have to continually work to find the right balance of accountability and openness and transparency that is the hallmark of our democracy, but also recognize that there are adversaries and bad actors out there who want to use that same openness in ways that hurt us,” Obama said. Barry Pollack, a U.S.-based lawyer for Assange, said in an email Wednesday that Obama’s commutation of Manning fell “well short” of what Assange sought because he had called for her “to receive clemency and be released immediately.” A U.S. official said the Justice Department was investigating “civilian” individuals associated with the leaking of government secrets via WikiLeaks. “The Department of Justice is conducting an investigation and it remains ongoing. I am not able to provide any further information,” said Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Alexandria, Virginia. WikiLeaks returned to prominence during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, publishing hacked emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and the accounts of senior Democrats. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian intelligence agencies were responsible for the hacks and that they were carried out as part of a campaign by Moscow to help Republican Donald Trump win and discredit Democrat Hillary Clinton. Obama said the intelligence agencies were not conclusive in their assessment of the hacks “whether WikiLeaks was witting or not in being a conduit” for Russia’s efforts to use cyber attacks to influence the election. Assange has said the Russian government was not the source of the emails. Manning, formerly known as U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, was born male but revealed after being convicted of espionage that she identifies as a woman. The White House said on Tuesday that her sentence would end on May 17 this year. Manning twice tried to kill herself last year and has struggled to cope as a transgender woman in the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, men’s military prison. Her case became a rallying cause for civil liberties advocates who saw the punishment as too severe and an attempt to chill whistleblowers from speaking up about government misdeeds. | 0fake |
German SPD loses support after television debate: poll | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives widened their lead over the Social Democrats following a television debate in which Merkel came across as more convincing and reliable than her SPD challenger Martin Schulz, a poll showed on Thursday. The weekly survey by Infratest dimap for ARD television showed support for Merkel s CDU/CSU bloc holding steady at 37 percent while the SPD dropped two percentage points to 21 percent - their lowest reading in the poll since early January. The pollster questioned 1,503 voters from Monday to Wednesday, meaning the survey was the first fully conducted after Sunday s television debate in which hardly any policy differences emerged between Merkel and Schulz. The anti-immigration, euro-hostile AfD came in unchanged at 11 percent, making it the third-strongest political force. The radical Left followed with 10 percent, up 1 point. The business-friendly FDP scored 9 percent, also up 1 point, while the environmental Greens were unchanged at 8 percent. The polls indicated two parties FDP and the AfD should enter the Bundestag as they look set to beat the 5-percent threshold. The fractured political landscape could make it hard to form a viable alliance other than the current grand coalition between Merkel s CDU/CSU and the SPD. Another scenario could be a tricky three-way Jamaica coalition between Merkel s conservatives, the FDP and the Greens, though such a broad alliance has never been tested on the federal level before. | 0fake |
Comment on Bombshell Study Exposes Frightening Facts About Anti-Depressant Drugs & Pharmaceutical Companies by JOHNSON & JOHNSON ORDERED TO PAY $72 MILLION IN CANCER CASE CAUSED BY BABY POWDER – Ahileo | Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The title of this article might give you the impression that my aim is to frighten you. I assure you it is not. The realities of the pharmaceutical industry are admittedly difficult to swallow, but this is important information given the fact that so many people are taking anti-depressant drugs. While these details may be disturbing, especially if you or someone you know takes anti-depressant drugs, it is important to move past the fear of information and really look at what has happened with the modern day medical industry and the pharmaceutical stranglehold that plagues it today. “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – ( source )( source ) Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal The most recent example of this kind of corruption comes from a study that was published last week in the British Medical Journal by researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen. The study showed that pharmaceutical companies were not disclosing all information regarding the results of their drug trials. Researchers looked at documents from 70 different double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI) and found that the full extent of serious harm in clinical study reports went unreported. These are the reports sent to major health authorities like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tamang Sharma, a PhD student at Cochrane and lead author of the study, said:
We found that a lot of the appendices were often only available upon request to the authorities, and the authorities had never requested them. I’m actually kind of scared about how bad the actual situation would be if we had the complete data. ( source ) Joanna Moncrieff, a psychiatrist and researcher at University College London, elaborates:
[This study] confirms that the full degree of harm of antidepressants is not reported. They are not reported in the published literature, we know that – and it appears that they are not properly reported in clinical study reports that go to the regulators and from the basis of decisions about licensing. ( source ) Peter Gotzsche, a clinician researcher at Cochrane and the co-author of the study, actually tried to gain access to clinical trial reports almost a decade ago for anti-obesity pills. Unfortunately, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) denied them the reports:
They talked about commercial confidentiality although there was absolutely nothing in these reports that was commercially confidential. We explained that all this secrecy actually cost human lives, but they weren’t interested in that at all. ( source ) It took years of requests and complaints for this to happen and, while Gotzsche is pleased they were able to achieve this breakthrough, he reminds us that similar progress has yet to made in the United States. He went on to state that researchers need better access to data from clinical trials to conduct assessments unimpeded by industry influence:
It’s deeply unethical when patients volunteer to benefit science and then we let drug companies decide that we cannot get access to the raw data. The testing of drugs should be a public enterprise. ( source ) Moncrieff (quoted above) then goes on to express further concerns:
We really don’t have good enough evidence that antidepressants are effective and we have increasing evidence that they can be harmful. So we need to go into reverse and stop this increasing trend of prescribing [them]. ( source ) This Is Not The First Time This is not the first time that pharmaceutical companies have been caught manipulating science in order to get antidepressants onto the shelves. It was only a couple of months ago that an independent review found that the commonly prescribed antidepressant drug Paxil (paroxetine) is not safe for teenagers, even though a large amount of literature had already suggested this previously. The 2001 drug trial that took place, funded by GlaxoSmithKline, found that these drugs were completely safe, and used that ‘science’ to market Paxil as safe for teenagers. John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine and co-author of the study, is also the author of the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science (PLoS), titled Why Most Published Research Findings Are False . In the report, he states that “most current published research findings are false.” And this was more than 10 years ago — the situation has undeniably worsened in the interim. This echoes the words of Dr. Richard Horton, the current Editor-In-Chief of one of the most reputable reviewed medical journals in the world:
The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. ( source ) The Editor in Chief of the New England Medical journal, which is also considered to be one of the best in the world, has made similar assertions:
It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. ( source ) A couple of years ago, Lucia Tomljenovic, a PhD in biochemistry and a senior postdoctoral fellow in UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, uncovered documents that reveal vaccine manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and health authorities have known about multiple dangers associated with vaccines but chose to withhold them from the public. The documents were obtained from the UK Department of Health (DH) and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), who advise the Secretaries of State for Health in the UK about diseases preventable through immunizations. The JCVI made “continuous efforts to withhold critical data on severe adverse reactions and contraindications to vaccinations to both parents and health practitioners in order to reach overall vaccination rates.” She goes on to explain that, The transcripts of the JCBI meetings also show that some of the Committee members had extensive ties to pharmaceutical companies and that the JCVI frequently co-operated with vaccine manufactures on the strategies aimed at boosting vaccine uptake. Some of the meetings at which such controversial items were discussed were not intended to be publicly available, as the transcripts were only released later, through the Freedom of Information Act (FOI). These particular meetings are denoted in the transcripts as “commercial in confidence,” and reveal a clear and disturbing lack of transparency, as some of the information was removed from the text (i.e., the names of the participants) prior to transcript release under the FOI section at the JCVI website. ( source ) Below is a clip taken from the One More Girl documentary, a film which looks at the Gardasil vaccine, a medicine designed to prevent Human Papillomavirus. In it, Dr. Peter Rost, MD, a former vice president of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world (Pfizer), shares the truth about the ties between the medical and pharmaceutical industry. Rost is a former vice president of Pfizer, and a whistleblower of the entire pharmaceutical industry in general. He is the author of The Whistleblower, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman . Considering his work experience, it would be an understatement to say that he is an insider expert on big pharma marketing. It’s time to re-think current medical research and look at the bigger picture. Related CE Article: | 1real |
Pence visits Afghanistan, says U.S. will 'see this through' | KABUL (Reuters) - Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to meet its leaders and underscore U.S. commitment to the country four months after President Donald Trump agreed to an open-ended war against insurgents here. Pence arrived on a military plane at Bagram Airfield under the cover of darkness on Thursday night after leaving Washington on Wednesday night. He then flew by helicopter to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah at the presidential palace. Pence told the leaders he hoped his presence there was tangible evidence that the United States was here to see this through. In a reversal of his campaign call for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Trump in August pledged a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents and signaled the United States would send more troops to fight in what is the longest war in its history. At the end of August, there were some 11,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and more have since arrived. Ghani expressed gratitude to the U.S. government and said Afghanistan s partnership with the United States was cemented in sacrifice. Pence told reporters the strategy of increased troops on the ground and greater authorities for military leaders was paying dividends. The results are really beginning to become evident around the country, he said, adding that Ghani and Abdullah had said they ve begun to see a sea change in the attitudes among the Taliban. Pence said their hope was that eventually the enemy will tire of losing and be willing to talk peace. Asked if more troops would be needed, Pence said that would be a decision for Trump in the days ahead. Pence said he pressed the Afghan leaders for political reforms and Ghani assured him that an election commission was developing a framework for parliamentary elections in 2018. Pence had originally planned to travel to Israel and Egypt this week, but he postponed that trip to remain in Washington while Congress passed legislation to overhaul U.S. tax law. The short visit to Afghanistan, originally part of the Middle East trip, was shrouded in secrecy for security reasons. Reporters traveling with the vice president were asked not to reveal his whereabouts until after the delegation arrived back at the air base from Kabul and Pence had addressed U.S. troops. Pence almost did not make it to the presidential palace. The helicopters he and others were flying in came close to turning back to Bagram because of poor visibility, but the pilots were able to find a route in the end, a White House official said. Pence, who coordinated the process that resulted in Trump s new Afghanistan policy, has been one of the main interlocutors between the White House and the Afghan leadership since Trump entered office in January. He repeated his promise of U.S. commitment to the region during remarks to troops at Bagram. Under President Donald Trump, the armed forces of the United States will remain engaged in Afghanistan until we eliminate the terrorist threat to our homeland, our people once and for all, Pence said. Trump s views of the 16-year-long Afghan conflict have shifted since he came to power. As a presidential candidate he called for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces, which were bogged down through the presidencies of Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama after a U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Islamist Taliban government for harboring al Qaeda militants who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. But Trump, while acknowledging the decision went against his instincts, argued in August that a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for Islamic State and al Qaeda to fill. He declined to set a timeline for withdrawal or outline benchmarks for the new strategy s success. Echoing Trump s comments when he unveiled the new strategy, Pence had sharp words for neighboring Pakistan, which he said had provided safe haven to the Taliban and other groups for too long. Those days are over, Pence said. Pakistan had much to gain from partnering with the United States, and much to lose by harboring criminals and terrorists, he said at Bagram. U.S. troops are involved in training Afghan security forces and carrying out counter-terrorism operations, hoping to reverse gains by the Taliban and prod it to negotiate for peace. Some 2,400 U.S. forces have died in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion. | 0fake |
RABBI SHMULEY: Will AIPAC Honor Trump’s Defense of Israel at the UN? - Breitbart | President Donald Trump’s recent defense of Israel at the United Nations is almost unprecedented, and warrants the appreciation and gratitude of the American Jewish and community. [advertisement | 0fake |
This Comment About Trump’s Win Will Make You THINK HARD About The Full Horror Of What Just Happened | By Joe Clark Election 2016 , Politics , Racism November 9, 2016 This Comment About Trump’s Win Will Make You THINK HARD About The Full Horror Of What Just Happened
On November 8, 2016, an almost evenly divided America made a consequential choice.
And in the end, they chose to elect the least most qualified candidate in U.S. history to become the 45th President of the United States of America.
However, one Twitter user said something so profound, that it should send a chill up the spine of any decent and rational American. The tweet said:
“Our first black president will have to have over the White House to someone endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. Just let that sink in.” Our first black president will have to hand over the White House to someone endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. Just let that sink in.
— Salon (@Salon) November 9, 2016
Yes, we should all allow that sink in for a few moments.
After the election, neo-Nazis, Alt-Righters, White Supremacists, and the Ku Klux Klan are all celebrating Trump’s election.
Meanwhile, few, if any, minorities are doing the same, because they understand what his presidency will mean for their lives and the lives of their children.
And while we can keep telling ourselves that “this is not who we are,” it’s important to recognize that it was that same denial that brought us to this point in our history.
It’s time we took a hard look in the mirror and at the country we’ve created.
Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
null | It didn’t happen. Much like everything else Jeffy posts. The truth is he is a liberal bitch boy who would piss his pants at the sight of a real man in his path. So to compensate, he makes stuff up to feel important. | 1real |
Official: No formal Secret Service discussions with Trump camp on remark | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal official on Wednesday said the U.S. Secret Service had not formally spoken with Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign regarding his suggestion a day earlier that gun rights activists could stop Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from curtailing their access to firearms. Following Trump’s comment at a rally on Tuesday in which he suggested that gun rights activists could stop Clinton from appointing liberal anti-gun justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal official familiar with the matter told Reuters that there had been no formal conversations between the Secret Service and the Trump campaign. Earlier CNN had reported that there had been multiple conversations between the campaign and the agency. “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” Trump told a North Carolina campaign rally on Tuesday. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” he added, leading some critics to believe Trump was referring to gun violence against his rival. The controversy came as the campaign tried to stay on message after a contentious previous week. Trump weathered criticism within his own party for delaying endorsements of fellow Republicans and for a prolonged clash with the family of a fallen Muslim American U.S. Army captain. The campaign denied that inciting violence had been the intent of Tuesday’s remark, and on Wednesday said there had been no conversations with the Secret Service about it. “No such meeting or conversation ever happened,” Trump wrote on Twitter, accusing CNN of having made up the report. | 0fake |
Saudi cleric suspended over 'quarter-brain' women drivers quip | DUBAI (Reuters) - A Saudi cleric who said women should not drive because their brains shrink to a quarter the size of a man s when they go shopping has been banned from preaching, state television said. Saad al-Hijri was suspended from all religious activity after advising against allowing women to drive in a speech that contained comments diminishing human value , the broadcaster quoted a spokesman for the governor of Asir province as saying. Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving, despite ambitious government targets to increase their public role, especially in the workforce. Women in the kingdom are also bound by law to wear long robes and a headscarf and require the consent of a male guardian for most legal actions. In a video identifying him as the head of the religious edicts department in the southern province, Hijri asked what the traffic department would do it if it discovered a man with only half a brain. Would it give him a license or not? It would not. So how can it give it to a woman when she has only half? he said. If she goes to the market she loses another half. What is left? A quarter...We demand the traffic department check because she is not suitable to drive and she has only a quarter. The comments sparked anger on social media, which is hugely popular in the kingdom. Twitter users shared the video, many criticising it and making jokes about his remarks, under the Arabic hashtag Al-Hijri_women_quarter_brain Some users posted pictures of Saudi female scientists and academics in response and questioned Hijri s own intellectual capacities. His suspension, ordered by the provincial governor, was aimed at preventing the spread of views that spark controversy and do not serve the national interest, the provincial spokesman said, according to Ekhbariya TV s official Twitter account. Any others who used religious platforms to preach such views would also be banned. The government s modernizing reforms, backed by Saudi Arabia s business class, have sparked tensions with influential clerics upon whose support the ruling family relies. Some clerics have millions of followers on social media. | 0fake |
Top House Democrat says Puerto Rico bill prospects 'pretty good' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that she feels “pretty good” about the prospect for passage of a bill to address Puerto Rico’s financial crisis. | 0fake |
WOW! WATCH Journalist Cassandra Fairbanks: “Why I, A Bernie Supporter Prefer Trump To Hillary Clinton” | Cassandra s points about why she s supporting Donald Trump over Hillary are based on common sense and facts. These are all ideas that many, if not most Americans would agree with. Is the lure of having free stuff a Democrat in the White House so great, that many Democrats are willing to give up our national security and sovereignty in order to make that happen?Cassandra Fairbanks is a writer for Sputnik News. Here is her message to the over 69K fans who follow her on Twitter, many of whom have been attacking her for switching her allegiance to Trump:***LANGUAGE Warning*** | 1real |
Hurricane Matthew Approaches Florida Governor Urges 1.5 Million to Flee - The New York Times | Read Friday’s Storm Watch for the latest updates on Hurricane Matthew. Taking aim at Central Florida’s Atlantic coast, Hurricane Matthew intensified Thursday into a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 140 miles per hour and strengthening. The storm was blamed for the deaths of more than 280 people in Haiti. “Extremely dangerous, weather conditions are forecast in the next 24 hours,” the National Weather Service warned Thursday afternoon. “Airborne debris lofted by extreme winds will be capable of breaching structures, unprotected windows and vehicles. ” Residents were streaming away from coastal regions, jamming highways, after Gov. Rick Scott of Florida told 1. 5 million people living in evacuation zones: “You need to leave. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate. ” Developments dispatches from our reporters in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina a live storm tracker map and answers to reader questions will be updated below. ■ Some forecast models suggested late Thursday that the storm had moved slightly eastward, raising hopes that Florida would be spared a direct strike. ■ The eye of the hurricane was about 125 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, Fla. as of 11 p. m. on Thursday, moving northwest at 13 m. p. h. as it churned away from the Bahamas. The eye was projected to pass near Cape Canaveral at about 8 a. m. Friday, and to pass close to Jacksonville about 12 hours later. ■ President Obama declared a state of emergency in Florida and South Carolina on Thursday, allowing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts. ■ Mr. Scott activated 3, 500 National Guard troops to help with evacuations and prepare for operations. ■The Miami Herald published a series of storm preparation checklists. • To cover the storm and its aftermath, The New York Times has deployed journalists in Miami Orlando, Fla. Port St. Lucie, Fla. Titusville, Fla. Jacksonville, Fla. Atlanta and Charleston, S. C. Follow our correspondents on Twitter. Florida’s governor pleaded with people on Thursday to evacuate from the state’s east coast as Hurricane Matthew threatened to roar past as a Category 4 storm. “There are no excuses,” Mr. Scott said in Tallahassee, the state capital. “You need to leave. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate. ” Mr. Scott, who has spent days warning that the storm could be catastrophic in a state that has not had a major hurricane make landfall since 2005, added: “This storm will kill you. Time is running out. ” Evacuations were underway all along the state’s eastern coast. wind was expected to arrive by Thursday night, the National Hurricane Center said. The governor’s office said that more than 1. 5 million people were in evacuation zones, and that tolls had been suspended on the Florida Turnpike and other crucial routes. The Coast Guard closed major ports, including facilities in Fort Pierce, Miami and Palm Beach. — LIZETTE ALVAREZ in Miami and ALAN BLINDER in Atlanta Lizette Alvarez, a Times reporter, recalled her night in Florida City, Fla. in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew destroyed most of the motel she was staying in. Read more» NASA is preparing for what could be a disaster for the Kennedy Space Center. The last hurricanes to strike the facility where most of the nation’s spacecraft are assembled and launched hit in 2004, and were much weaker. Hurricane Matthew is expected to hit the space center on Friday, with sustained wind of 125 m. p. h. with gusts up to 150, and so it could cause far greater damage to the facilities than occurred in 2004. NASA closed the space center on Wednesday, and “essential personnel” prepared for the storm by checking the space center for loose debris. There’s a very valuable satellite that’s waiting for launch in a month: the a weather satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that was designed to improve, among other things, our tracking and intensity measurement of hurricanes. A NOAA posting on Reddit by the system program director for satellites, said that it was being held in a building in Titusville that can withstand a Category 4 hurricane. The space center, whose launchpads sit less than a mile from the beach, has been dealing with the threat of climate change for a number of years, and has had to fight beach erosion caused in part by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Why, then, put vital space infrastructure in such a vulnerable place? Much of the reason has to do with physics: launching rockets from a site relatively close to the Equator gives a speed boost into orbit. — JOHN SCHWARTZ in New York The Haitian government on Thursday said more than 280 people were now dead from the effects of Hurricane Matthew, drastically revising earlier estimates as more of the affected areas are reached by aid personnel, according to local reports. Now that transportation and at least some communication to the areas have been restored, the death toll appears to be rising drastically, according to a news conference held by the Ministry of Interior on Thursday morning. The deaths come amid a broad tableau of devastation: houses pummeled into timber, crops destroyed and large parts of towns and villages under several feet of water. — AZAM AHMED in Miami If they tell you to get out — get out. Water rises swiftly and is more powerful than most people could imagine. And put your valuables in the fridge. What one New York Times editor learned four years ago during Hurricane Sandy. Read more» People who live near the coast or in mobile homes or who just did not want to test their luck at home lugged suitcases, cases of water and clutched their favorite pillows as their minds drifted to what they left behind. Lois Paul, 78, was one of 130 people at an elementary school in Brevard County, Fla. that was being used as a shelter on Thursday. “My house is blue I call it ‘my blue heaven,’” Mrs. Paul said. “This one can blow your house away. ” Mrs. Paul brought patio cushions to sleep on, sheets, pillows, an extra set of clothes and a windbreaker. She has done this three times before, during Charley, Frances and Jeanne in 2004. “I’m afraid for my home,” she said. “The worst part is not knowing what’s going on there while you’re away. You just don’t know what you’re going to find when you get home. ” — FRANCES ROBLES in Titusville, Fla. They were boarding up the windows of the graceful city hall in Charleston on Thursday. Boarding up the Confederate Museum. Boarding up luxury hotels and graceful antebellum homes and businesses from the high end to the low. On Queen Street, a few blocks from the waterfront, Lese Corrigan, 59, was busy boarding up her art gallery. With red paint and a fat brush, she painted a paean to the hurricane aesthetic that has transformed the Charleston peninsula for now: “NATURE ART MAKES,” she wrote over the plywood. The adjacent storefront, also an art gallery, had just been boarded up by Nelson and Mary Ohl. Ms. Ohl, 52, a Charleston native, marveled that so many thousands of people had already evacuated. There were a few stragglers, but mostly the city was quiet and still. Ms. Corrigan had a theory. This country, she said, has been overcome lately by all kinds of events that people cannot control: attacks by terrorist sympathizers, a rash of controversial police shootings, a turbulent political season. Leaving town, she said, was a way for people to take charge of something. “This is an anxiety you can do something about,” she said. — RICHARD FAUSSET in Charleston, S. C. The effect of the storm is being felt on the presidential campaign, too. A joint appearance by Hillary Clinton and President Obama planned for Wednesday in Miami Gardens, Fla. was postponed. The Trump campaign was also affected: The Miami Herald reported that Ivanka Trump scrapped a Wednesday night at Trump National Doral golf resort. The hurricane could steal attention away from the campaign if it causes extensive damage. The Clinton campaign was preparing for that possibility, investing in advertising on the Weather Channel in markets across Florida, according to Politico. — ALAN RAPPEPORT in Washington John Schwartz, a New York Times reporter who covers climate change and the environment, is answering reader questions about the storm. He rode out his first hurricane, Carla, in his hometown, Galveston, Tex. at age 4. He has covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as well as other storms for The Times. Ask your hurricane questions here. What is the relationship between Hurricane Matthew and climate change? How important is it for the news media to depict and discuss this? — Cynthia Young Cynthia, this is one of the great questions of our age — not just establishing the role of climate change on extreme weather events, but also in stating clearly what we know and do not know. Short answer: It is difficult to attribute a particular storm to climate change, especially in the middle of the action. But climate scientists are working at quick attribution, and that science is developing. After interviewing Gabriel A. Vecchi, a climate researcher, I put it this way in an article a few weeks ago: Kerry A. Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the evidence suggested climate change would cause the strongest storms to grow even stronger, and to be more frequent. Unresolved questions surround the effect of warming on the weaker storms, but even those will dump more rain, leading over time to increased damage from flooding. Read more» Two veteran journalists discuss the challenges inherent in covering hurricanes. Read more» | 0fake |
Malcolm X on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump | A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Bruce A. Dixon W hen astute political commentary from a half century ago eloquently describes the current political conundrum it means we’ve been stuck in a bad place for a long time. Do we really want Malcolm’s observation to apply four or eight or twenty years further into the future? It’s that time again, it’s presidential election season, and as we hear every four years, THIS is the most important presidential election of our lives. The fact that you’ve heard that before should tell us something. It should us that in presidential years, many old things becomes new again, often because so much of what we’re told IS new is really pretty old. Malcolm X has been dead now a half century, dead for more years than he was ever alive. But since at least one of the tricks and traps deployed to fool, frustrate and neutralize our grandparents’ right to vote hasn’t changed much we might want to listen carefully to what Malcolm’s words in the aftermath of the 1964 presidential election. “ If Johnson had been running all by himself, he would not have been acceptable to anyone. The only thing that made him acceptable to the world was that the shrewd capitalists, the shrewd imperialists, knew that the only way people would run toward the fox would be if you showed them a wolf. So they created a ghastly alternative. And it had the whole world — including people who call themselves Marxists — hoping that Johnson would beat Goldwater.” Like today’s Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was a truly reprehensible and frightening figure, who had opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned racial discrimination in public accommodations, and who favored the use of nuclear weapons to defoliate the Vietnamese countryside. Also like Donald Trump, Goldwater never really stood a chance of winning the election. Goldwater the wolf was buried beneath a Johnson landslide, carrying only 6 out of the 50 states. Republican officeholders are running away from Donald Trump not because he’s a racist bufoon but because he’s expected to lose states Republicans are accustomed to winning. The fox, Lyndon Baines Johnson went on to start a war in Indochina that killed three million Vietnamese alone. LBJ defoliated the Vietnamese countryside with millions of tons of Agent Orange instead of nukes, causing hundreds of thousands of hideous and gruesome birth defects that continue to this day. The wolf and the fox this year are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Trump is a real estate con man, a racist and a hyper-entitled sexual predator who talks about building walls and banning Muslims. Fortunately for us all, Trump has never been in government. Hillary has scarcely ever been out of government. She’s fronted for Wal-Mart, executed bloody regime change in Libya, brought US troops to Ukraine on the Russian border, and publicly itches for a showdown in Syria. Thanks to Wikileaks there is copious evidence that Hillary’s public stands on a wide range of issues from charter schools to so-called trade agreements, to fracking and social security stand in stark contrast to the promises she makes to the powerful. Just as it worked 52 years ago, the overwhelming defeat of her wolvish opponent will give Hillary the appearance of a mandate. But the margin of Hillary’s victory provides those of us on the left an unprecedented opportunity. It means there is no need for those who imagine themselves on the of jobs, justice, peace and the planet to ride to Hilllary’s rescue and ensure the defeat of Donald Trump. Trump has already beaten himself. This election is our best chance to break out of the decades-old two party trap and build a new political force, a new political party. The Green Party is the only peace party, the only party that stands for people and planet over profit, and our only opportunity to vote our hopes, not our fears. It’s time to choose. We vote Green and build Green, we can consign the political conundrum Malcolm X eloquently described a half century ago to the garbage can of history. Or we can vote for Hillary, and Malcolm’s words will be as applicable four or eight years or twenty years from now as they have been for the last fifty. For Black Agenda Radio I’m Bruce Dixon. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bruce Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and the co-chair of the GA Green party. He lives and works near Marietta GA and can be reached at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com [3] . Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. 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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda? =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 1real |
China starts formal legal proceedings against disgraced senior politician | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s prosecutor began on Monday formal legal proceedings against disgraced senior politician Sun Zhengcai, once considered a contender for top leadership, who has been accused of corruption and other crimes. Sun was abruptly removed from his post as party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing - one of China s most important cities - in July and replaced by Chen Miner, who is close to President Xi Jinping. Later that month, he was put under investigation and in September, the party announced he would be prosecuted for corruption. Sun was accused of leaking secrets, bribery and abusing his power. In a brief statement, the prosecutor said that it had begun proceedings against Sun for suspected bribery and had approved the taking of coercive measures against him, a Chinese legal term that generally refers to detention. The case is proceeding, it added, without giving any other details. Sun was expelled from parliament last month, removing his immunity from prosecution that he had enjoyed as a member of that body. Chongqing is perhaps best known outside China for its association with Bo Xilai, another disgraced former party boss of the city. He, too, was once a contender for top leadership. He was jailed for life in 2013 after a dramatic corruption scandal. It has not been possible to reach Sun or a representative for comment since he was put under investigation. It s unclear if he has been allowed to retain a lawyer. The next likely step against Sun will be to put him on trial, where he is certain to be found guilty as the legal system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party which will not challenge the party s accusations against him. | 0fake |
OBAMA’S OPEN BORDERS: ILLEGAL ALIEN DEPORTED 14 TIMES Arrested On Meth Charges | He was just looking to the jobs most Americans won t do The transformation of America continues.An illegal immigrant who prosecutors said has been deported from the U.S. more than a dozen times was arraigned in Yellowstone County District Court Thursday on drug charges.Alejandro Gonzales Marquez, 37, denied Thursday the charge of felony criminal possession with intent to distribute.Deputy Chief County Attorney Juli Pierce said Marquez had already been deported 14 times when Montana Highway Patrol troopers arrested him on a Billings highway in July.Marquez does not speak or understand any English and had to be assisted in court by a translator.According to court records, Marquez was the passenger in a vehicle on Interstate 90 when an MHP trooper pulled the vehicle over for obstructed plates.The trooper reported smelling a strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle and asked the driver to perform a field sobriety test.In the vehicle, the trooper allegedly found more than one pound of methamphetamine along with a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic pistol.Both men were found to be in the country illegally and were arrested.Marquez is held at the Yellowstone County jail on a $10,000 bond.KRTV.com | Great Falls, MontanaThe co-defendant, Ignacio Figueroa Rodriguez, is charged with driving under the influence, possession of dangerous drugs and being an illegal alien, in addition to a felony charge of possession of drugs with intent to distribute.Via: KRTV | 1real |
BENGHAZI DAD Rips Into Hillary: Stood By My Son’s Casket and Lied…And What She Still Hasn’t Done For The Families That’ll Shock You [Video] | Charles Woods, father of Benghazi hero Ty Woods, spoke out about how Hillary Clinton lied to him at the funeral of his son and is STILL lying! The shocker that Hillary lied is not really a shocker BUT Mr. Woods revealed that Hillary has STILL never said she s sorry for the loss of his son! Unreal! There are two options. One, either Mrs. Clinton is lying or she has a bad memory because she of her age or her head injury that she suffered. As far as memory, I keep this little book and I ve shown it to the public many times And what I have written down here and this is verbatim soon after she spoke and here it is, I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand and she said we are going to have the filmmaker arrested who is responsible for the death of my son. | 1real |
Indiana Gov. Pence backs Cruz for president ahead of state primary | Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Friday backed Ted Cruz for president, days ahead of the state’s vital Republican primary contest.
The Republican governor announced his choice in an interview on WIBC radio. He prefaced his announcement by saying he likes and respects – and has met with – all three of the Republican presidential candidates.
“I’m not against anybody but I will be voting for Ted Cruz,” Pence said. “I see Ted Cruz as a principled conservative who’s dedicated his career to advocating the Reagan agenda.”
The announcement is a setback for Trump, who has been barnstorming Indiana – with famed Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight by his side – trying to rally voters ahead of Tuesday’s election and sideline Cruz for good.
Cruz is desperately seeking momentum in his fight to block Trump from claiming the delegate majority before the GOP's national convention in July.
Trump swept all five Northeastern primary elections earlier in the week and enjoys a massive delegate advantage over his Republican rivals. Cruz has been mathematically eliminated from earning the 1,237 delegate majority, but insists he can block Trump from the majority as well, as the 2016 contest shifts to "friendlier terrain" in the West and Midwest. The Texas senator declared he is "all in" on Indiana.
Cruz said earlier Friday he would "enthusiastically welcome" Pence's support.
Pence, who faces his own re-election this year, had been under enormous pressure from pro- and anti-Trump factions. Although he is more closely aligned with Cruz, he risks voter backlash in the fall if Tuesday's primary contest shows Indiana is filled with Trump voters.
Pence, though, made sure to praise Trump during his remarks Friday. He commended Trump for giving “voice to the frustration of millions of working Americans with the lack of progress in Washington, D.C.”
Fox News’ John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Why Director Comey jumped at the chance to reopen Hillary investigation | By wmw_admin on October 31, 2016 Ed Klein — DailyMail.com Oct 30, 2016
New York Times bestselling author Ed Klein has just published his fourth book about the Clintons since 2005, Guilty as Sin.
Klein had told how Bill Clinton enjoyed foot rubs, massages and romps in his presidential library with female interns and has described new details about Hillary’s medical crises. Guilty as Sin is available in bookstores and for order from Amazon.
James Comey’s decision to revive the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server and her handling of classified material came after he could no longer resist mounting pressure by mutinous agents in the FBI, including some of his top deputies, according to a source close to the embattled FBI director.
‘The atmosphere at the FBI has been toxic ever since Jim announced last July that he wouldn’t recommend an indictment against Hillary,’ said the source, a close friend who has known Comey for nearly two decades, shares family outings with him, and accompanies him to Catholic mass every week.
‘Some people, including department heads, stopped talking to Jim, and even ignored his greetings when they passed him in the hall,’ said the source. ‘They felt that he betrayed them and brought disgrace on the bureau by letting Hillary off with a slap on the wrist.’
According to the source, Comey fretted over the problem for months and discussed it at great length with his wife, Patrice.
He told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters piling up on his desk from disaffected agents. The letters reminded him every day that morale in the FBI had hit rock bottom
‘He’s been ignoring the resignation letters in the hope that he could find a way of remedying the situation,’ said the source.
‘When new emails that appeared to be related to Hillary’s personal email server turned up in a computer used [her close aide] Huma Abedin and [Abedin’s disgraced husband,] Anthony Weiner, Comey jumped at the excuse to reopen the investigation.
‘The people he trusts the most have been the angriest at him,’ the source continued. ‘And that includes his wife, Pat. She kept urging him to admit that he had been wrong when he refused to press charges against the former secretary of state.
‘He talks about the damage that he’s done to himself and the institution [of the FBI], and how he’s been shunned by the men and women who he admires and work for him. It’s taken a tremendous toll on him.
‘It shattered his ego. He looks like he’s aged 10 years in the past four months.’
But Comey’s decision to reopen the case was more than an effort to heal the wound he inflicted on the FBI.
He was also worried that after the presidential election, Republicans in Congress would mount a probe of how he had granted Hillary political favoritism.
His announcement about the revived investigation, which came just 11 days before the presidential election, was greeted with shock and dismay by Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the prosecutors at the Justice Department.
‘Jim told me that Lynch and Obama are furious with him,’ the source said.
As I revealed in my latest New York Times bestseller Guilty As Sin Obama said that appointing Comey as FBI direct was ‘my worst mistake as president.’
‘Lynch and Obama haven’t contacted Jim directly,’ said the source, ‘but they’ve made it crystal clear through third parties that they disapprove of his effort to save face.’ | 1real |
Jeb Bush Rally Becomes Counseling Session As Supporters Give Him Advice To Fix His Struggling Campaign | A desperate Jeb Bush held a campaign rally at a South Carolina golf course on Wednesday, and all his supporters wanted to do was give him advice on how to fix his struggling campaign.Bush was probably hoping to come out swinging as the South Carolina primary approaches, but his worried fans had different concerns.Like a child being advised on how to deal with being bullied, one Bush supporter named Edward Scott told Bush that he should raise the bar and rise above the bullying by Trump because his message is being lost the more Bush gets frazzled by the billionaire mogul. Your message doesn t resonate with the national community. I was wondering because of your civility if you could raise the bar in the next session and try to be beyond the bully because I think that s who you are and I think they try to knock you off center. It appears you do get knocked off center, like anyone would, because of the insults to your family. I don t think I feel shaken up by the bully, Bush replied. I m the only guy going after the guy who I believe is hijacking the party. David Villinger also voiced concern about Trump taking over the race while Bush desperately focuses on attacking him instead of focusing on delivering his own message. I think the campaign has been co-opted by the P.T. Barnum of our time. And I think he is getting you off your good message and all the times that you ve shared with us today. But I think I would encourage you to emphasize those things. Indeed, Jeb Bush is currently polling in a distant fourth place behind Trump, who leads the field with 34 percent while Bush only has under 10 percent.Cruz clocks in at second place with 17 percent and Rubio is a close third place with 16 percent. Clearly, nobody is really all that excited about Jeb.In the end, Jeb Bush not only received advice, he got bad news because South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley endorsed Marco Rubio even after Jeb sent his brother to meet with her. Jeb could only give reporters some parting sarcasm. It s all been decided, apparently. The pundits have already figured it out. We don t have to go vote. I should stop campaigning maybe. And that s probably the best idea Jeb Bush has had throughout his entire campaign. Featured image from Flickr | 1real |
Israeli troops reinforce West Bank after U.S. move over Jerusalem | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military said it was reinforcing troops deployed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday as Palestinians protested against the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Several new army battalions would be deployed and other forces put on standby, a military statement said, calling the measures part of the IDF s (Israel Defence Forces) readiness for possible developments . | 0fake |
EDF wants to take part in Saudi nuclear plans: CEO | PARIS (Reuters) - French state-controlled utility EDF (EDF.PA) wants to take part in Saudi Arabia s plans to build nuclear power reactors, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday. Saudi Arabia, which wants to reduce oil consumption at home, is considering building 17.6 gigawatts of nuclear-powered electricity generating capacity by 2032 and has sent a request for information to international suppliers to build two reactors. Sources familiar with the situation said last month EDF has already held talks with Saudi Arabia about selling Areva-designed European Pressurized Reactors (EPR) and that it wants to participate in a possible Saudi nuclear tender. Levy said that EDF wants to take part in the country s move away from relying on fossil fuels for its energy supplies. We will respond to this opportunity in all the energy technologies in which we have competencies, that is in solar, wind and nuclear, Levy said. Russian and South Korean companies have already said they plan to bid for the Saudi work on nuclear power while sources have said Toshiba-owned U.S. firm Westinghouse (6502.T) is in talks with U.S. peers to form a bidding consortium. In 2009 EDF and Areva lost out to South Korea s KEPCO (052690.KS) in the bidding to build nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates, the first such project in the Middle East. EDF is set to buy French nuclear group Areva s reactor engineering division Areva NP in a deal expected to be finalised before the end of this year. Levy said EDF is on track to finalize the deal before the end of this month. | 0fake |
Iraq refuses talks with Kurdistan about independence referendum results | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government will not hold talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) about the results of the unconstitutional referendum on independence held on Monday in northern Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said. We are not ready to discuss or have a dialogue about the results of the referendum because it is unconstitutional, Abadi said in a speech broadcast on state TV on Monday night. Masoud Barzani s KRG says the referendum is not binding and was meant to be a legitimate mandate to negotiate with Baghdad and neighboring countries over the secession of the Kurdish-controlled region from Iraq. The vote was expected to deliver a comfortable yes , and final results should be announced in 72 hours. | 0fake |
China tells U.S. not to be a 'human rights judge' after sanctions on Chinese official | BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday urged the United States not to set itself up as a human rights judge and denounced the U.S. Treasury Department for punishing a Chinese public security official for alleged rights abuses. Gao Yan was one of the targets of an executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday blocking the property of foreigners involved in human rights abuses. Gao had been in charge at Chaoyang Detention Centre in Beijing where a Chinese rights activist, Cao Shunli, was held and questioned prior to her death in hospital under police custody in March 2014. Rights groups say Cao was tortured and denied medical care. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that China opposed the United States using sanctions to target other countries citizens based on their own domestic laws. We urge the United States to impartially and objectively look upon China s human rights development and to stop acting as a so-called human rights judge, she said, adding that China s police maintain public security in accordance with law. The head of the Russian republic of Chechnya and four other Russians and Chechens were also included on the list of individuals to be targeted under the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law which freezes the bank accounts of those targeted. Hong Kong-based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement that they welcomed Gao being named, but that they regretted the inclusion of only a low-level Chinese official, calling for Fu Zhenghua, a deputy minister of public security, to also be included. Other higher-level police officials, who had command responsibility for Cao Shunli s death in custody and for other incidents of torture and human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, continue to enjoy impunity, they said. Beijing regularly rejects foreign criticism of its human rights record saying that its people are best placed to judge the rights situation in China and that the country is governed by law. President Xi Jinping has presided over a crackdown on rights activists and lawyers that has seen hundreds detained or jailed since 2015 in what advocacy groups have called an unprecedented attack on human rights in China. | 0fake |
HERE’S WHY MELANIA AND BARRON TRUMP Won’t Be Moving To The White House | The New York Post reported: Melania is extremely close to Barron, and they have become closer during the campaign, said a source close to Trump s transition team. The campaign has been difficult for Barron, and she is really hoping to keep disruption to a minimum. Another source said Melania Trump will travel to the White House as needed, but that her primary focus is on Barron. Melania is very supportive of her husband and is fully on board of doing everything that s needed as first lady, said the second source familiar with the Trump transition.That source said also that there is a possibility that Melania and Barron may move to the White House at the end of the school year, but no plans are in place. She is really devoted to Barron, said a source close to the family, adding that Melania has not relied on nannies to raise the child and is frequently seen picking the fourth-grader up from his prep school, where tuition is north of $40,000.Barron and Melania will each have an unknown number of Secret Service agents assigned to them in addition to a driver and armored vehicle to take Barron to school, Reese said. An advance team of agents will swoop down on the school each morning to make sure it s safe, he added. Read more: NYPBarron and Melania Trump got a taste of what their life will be like when they dropped in to have lunch at a local NYC restaurant. Serafina became a gawker s paradise when the two were spotted with Secret Service in tow:The spotlight was on this family before but will certainly be on them now that they re the First Family.Let s hope that Barron won t be picked apart by the main stream media.He s already receiving attention from around the world Barron has been named a Manga Idol in Japan. That means beautiful boy | 1real |
Jamila Bey: ’Milo Has Made Millions’ ’Bringing Violence and Bringing Terror’ - Breitbart | On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor,” radio host Jamila Bey argued, “Milo has made millions of dollars on going and bringing violence and bringing terror to individuals he doesn’t like. ”[Bey said that it is “absolutely” the case that the First Amendment only protects freedom of assembly. She added, “[T]hese young students at Berkeley, who are among the smartest in the world put themselves on the line in defense of their fellow students. One of the highest things that we hope our people do in battle and they’re doing it already at school, to say we do not accept the violence that Milo … brings to the people he chooses to out, bringing out their names of people who — . ” When asked about the Berkeley praising the violence, Bey said the students are “young people, and I’m sure that they may even change their minds, but the arguments they made were sound. ” She later added, “Milo has made millions of dollars on going and bringing violence and bringing terror to individuals he doesn’t like. ” ( Grabien) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
Russia to retaliate against U.S. in military observation flights row: agencies | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will retaliate against the United States in a row over a treaty that allows both states to conduct military observation flights over each other s territory, Russia s deputy foreign minister said, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday. In the latest sign of escalating tensions between the two countries, the United States has accused Russia of flouting the so-called Open Skies Treaty, an agreement designed to build confidence between the two countries militaries, and said it plans to take measures against Moscow. The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on Tuesday that would include restricting Russian military flights over American territory in response to what it said was Moscow preventing U.S. observation flights over its heavily militarized Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. Russian news agencies cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday as saying that Moscow was itself unhappy about Washington s compliance with the same treaty and would take its own measures against the United States in response to any new U.S. restrictions. I have no doubt there will be a (Russian) response, agencies cited Ryabkov as telling reporters. But before announcing something on this, we have to analyze the situation with our military and look at how we ll respond to the Americans. Ryabkov was quoted as describing Washington s approach to the disagreement as one-sided and as saying Russia would not yield to U.S. pressure for it to make concessions. U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the military s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that Washington believed it would be best if the Open Skies Treaty with Russia continued, but that it should not be in place if Moscow was flouting it. | 0fake |
NATION OF ISLAM Joins #BlackLivesMatter Terrorists To Shut Down Chicago’s Popular “Miracle Mile” On Busiest Shopping Day Of Year [Videos and Photos] | How can it possibly be legal for these terrorists to lock arms and block innocent shoppers from entering these stores? The Miracle Mile, located in the city of Chicago draws tens of thousands of shoppers every year at Christmas time. Imagine the faces of families of every ethnicity when they find out the City of Chicago is allowing these terrorists to prevent them from entering these stores? Roughly 3,000 demonstrators have shut down a large portion of Michigan Avenue in Chicago the Magnificent Mile in the middle of Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, to protest the shooting of black teenager Laquon McDonald.The 17-year-old was killed in October 2014, and was apparently armed with a knife at the time. Video of the shooting released on Tuesday, however, shows that he was walking away from police at the time he was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke.Turnout was strong despite 39-degree weather and rainy conditions. Demonstrators shouted 16 shots! and No justice, no shopping! The march started at Michigan and Wacker Drive and began walking north. They include demonstrators from the Nation of Islam, which is marching under the banner of Justice of Else ; RevCom, the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson s Rainbow PUSH coalition.100 Percent FED UP: Here, the terror groups can be seen (without any visible resistance from the police) chanting about shutting down the Apple Store, located on the Miracle Mile:Apple Store on Michigan just locked its doors. #LaquanMcDonald #BlackFriday @TouchVisionTV pic.twitter.com/y97WaHTQVT Lauren Mialki (@laurenmialki) November 27, 2015Shutting down Tiffany's over #LaquanMcDonald "No diamonds today" pic.twitter.com/ygHQdLKaUL Kathryn Pensack (@katpen6) November 27, 2015The #LaquanMcDonald protest is on the move, heading north on Michigan Avenue https://t.co/2E4mcauYv0 Whitney Dawn Carlson (@whitneydawn) November 27, 2015And of course, what would a #BlackLivesMatter protest be without pro-communism supporters?Old, White Communists Lead Anti-Cop Protests In Chicago Over McDonald Death: https://t.co/gVpflUqm6M #LaquanMcDonald pic.twitter.com/29PKqhcQ0A The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 27, 2015Yesterday, we shared a story about BLM terrorists attempting to rip down the iconic Christmas tree on Miracle Mile. Click HERE for the full story.The latter group is marching slowly, while the other groups have pushed ahead, effectively taking up five city blocks along Michigan Ave., with hundreds of Chicago Police Department officers lining the streets.Various groups begin marching down Michigan Ave in protest of Mayor @RahmEmanuel s handling of #LaquanMcDonald vid.Various groups begin marching down Michigan Ave in protest of Mayor @RahmEmanuel's handling of #LaquanMcDonald vid. pic.twitter.com/FF0XbYMOZ0 The Chicago Reporter (@ChicagoReporter) November 27, 2015 The Chicago Reporter (@ChicagoReporter) November 27, 2015Protesters are attempting to gain access to major department stores and shopping malls. Police turned them away at the entrance to Water Tower Place, but they continue to try to enter other shopping areas with the intention of blocking commerce from taking place. As of noon, the protesters were walking toward the John Hancock tower.Update 1:00 p.m.: Several stores have been blocked and effectively shut down, including Macy s, H&M, and others over six blocks. Shoppers are either stuck inside the stores or cannot enter. Some shuffle by, as protesters shout at them. Michigan Avenue itself, normally filled with traffic, is empty.)Photo- Lee Stranahan, Breitbart NewsIn conversations with demonstrators, Breitbart News has learned that the groups plan to target the Chicago Board of Trade, one of the world s most important commodities exchanges, in future demonstrations. The aim is to do as much economic damage as possible while drawing attention to perceived racism and abuse by the Chicago Police Department. The police have struggled to manage the city s rise in crime in recent years, and now labor under new suspicions of prejudice and political corruption. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
WATCH: Kieth Olbermann DESTROYS Trump For Mishandling Intelligence Way Worse Than Hillary Ever Did | Donald Trump continues to be a national embarrassment who is making our country less safe.At Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, Trump threw a party for his friends and random guests. And as that party went on, Trump was receiving sensitive information from aides as pictures were being taken all around him. Someone even managed to take a picture of and with the guy carrying the nuclear briefcase that the president needs to order a nuclear strike.Trump s lax attitude when it comes to national security intel is particularly alarming and hypocritical since he repeatedly accused Hillary Clinton of being irresponsible because of her emails.And Kieth Olbermann trashed Trump for it and pointed out that if Hillary Clinton has done what Trump is doing she would have been impeached immediately by the Republican-controlled Congress. It boggles the mind, Olbermann began. The president of the United States was reportedly receiving information vital to the security of the nation about a provocative North Korea missile test in a golf club restaurant. Not merely in a setting of insecurity, but surrounded by and photographed by people who could be anything from gawking tourists to Russian agents. And if this cannot get worse, the president couldn t be bothered to even leave the dinner to go to a slightly more private place where random passers-by cannot take souvenir pictures of a security briefing so they can post them later to Facebook. Oblermann went on to note that Trump staffers were trying to read the information handed to Trump via the flashlights on their cell phones, which can be hacked and used to transmit what they are reading to our enemies without them even knowing about it.Olbermann then destroyed Trump s hypocrisy. Trump slandered Hillary Clinton. You could argue Trump beat Hillary Clinton on charges on insecure handling of emails. Nothing she was ever accused of, nothing, comes close to this debacle near Trump s version of the Bushwood country club during the Korean missile crisis If Clinton had done just this, the Republicans would have impeached her before sunrise. Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump is reckless with our national security. His guests literally had a front row seat to the information he was being given. Any one of his guests could have easily been a spy from an enemy nation and they would now have information to use against us. This is a serious breach that Republicans in Congress must take seriously and that means they need to impeach Trump.Our national security is not a game. It s life and death for every American citizen.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Oregon standoff defendants found not guilty in ‘unbelievable, truly astonishing’ verdict | By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive on October 27, 2016
A jury Thursday delivered a stunning across-the-board acquittal to the leaders and participants in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation and a remarkable blow to the federal government as it tries to tamp down a national movement led by a Nevada family to open public lands to ranchers, miners and loggers.
The verdicts finding Ammon Bundy, older brother Ryan Bundy and five others not guilty of a federal conspiracy drew elation from defense attorneys who spent five weeks arguing that the armed takeover amounted to a time-honored tradition of First Amendment protest and civil disobedience.
“Maybe this is a lesson that that’s not the way to engage with these people, who want nothing more than just to be heard, just to have a forum to talk about the injustices like the case of the Hammonds and the treatment of ranchers,” said Lisa Ludwig, standby counsel for Ryan Bundy.
The high-profile case riveted the state and drew national and international attention to the isolated bird sanctuary in rural eastern Oregon. The jury’s decision proved no less dramatic and sets up a showdown in the next stage of the land-rights movement.
The Bundy brothers still face prosecution in Nevada with their father, Cliven Bundy, all accused in the 2014 standoff at the patriarch’s ranch over unpaid grazing fees that pitted the family and their supporters against federal Bureau of Land Management agents.
The Oregon prosecutors sat silently in front of their boss, U.S Attorney Billy Williams, and the head of the FBI in Oregon, Greg Bretzing, as the judge announced the “not guilty” pleas one by one.
Williams later thanked the jury in a written statement. “While we had hoped for a different outcome, we respect the verdict of the jury and thank them for their dedicated service during this long and difficult trial,” Williams said. “We strongly believed that this case needed to be brought before a Court, publicly tried and decided by a jury.”
Bretzing, whose agents led the response to the Jan. 2 refuge seizure, offered a slightly different take. “We believe now — as we did then – that protecting and defending this nation through rigorous obedience to the U.S. Constitution is our most important responsibility.”
Each defendant stood separately, facing the jury, as the judge read the verdicts. Ammon Bundy, his hands clasped behind his back, nodded as the “not guilty” came for him first. As he sat, he smiled and rubbed the shoulder of his lawyer, Marcus Mumford.
Ryan Bundy nodded his head and mouthed to jurors, “Thank you.”
“I had a very peaceful feeling but I didn’t know we’d all be found not guilty,” said defendant Shawna Cox. “… I’m so grateful to the jury.”
Defendant Neil Wampler hugged his defense lawyer and gave her a kiss.
But the trial fireworks weren’t quite over. A brawl broke out at the very end, when six to seven U.S. marshals surrounded Ammon Bundy’s lawyer as he stood before the judge, arguing and shouting for his client to walk out the door a free man. They tackled him and stunned him with a Taser gun. As Mumford yelled, “What are you doing?,” U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown ordered, “Everybody out of the courtroom!”
“All I was asking for was papers,” Mumford said after emerging from federal custody nearly two hours later. “Just show me you have the authority to take Mr. Bundy into custody.”
Mumford was cited by Federal Protective Services for failure to follow a lawful order and creating a disturbance. He said the marshals overreacted. Several fellow defense lawyers echoed his sentiments, though one questioned Mumford’s judgment.
As for the verdict, Mumford said, “Very pleased, very gratified. This jury was dedicated. They listened to our case.”
Prosecutors had argued the case was simple: The refuge occupiers took control of a wildlife refuge that wasn’t theirs. The heavily armed guards that manned the front gate and watchtower during the 41-day takeover, in an of itself, was “intimidating,” and prevented officers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from carrying out their work.
But defense lawyers said they believe the jury held true to the judge’s instructions, and couldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt that their “intent” was to prevent the federal employees from going to work.
Five of the seven defendants took the stand and said they were protesting the return to prison of Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who faced a minimum mandatory five-year sentence for arson to federal land. Steven Hammond was convicted partially of setting fire to refuge property. They also said they were protesting federal government overreach, and didn’t give much thought at all to the federal employees whose desks and offices they used throughout the refuge takeover.
While it may be easier to show that defendants charged in a drug trafficking conspiracy shared a common goal, in this case there was “no obvious underlying self-interest,” said Matthew Schindler, who represented Kenneth Medenbach.
Schindler also said he believed the judge’s decision to allow defendants to explain their “state of mind,” at the time of the occupation boosted the defense case. The pull of jurors from across the state, not just Portland, also helped defendants, particularly regarding the weapons charges, Schindler said.
The jury saw that the occupiers cared about the Hammonds and didn’t like how the federal government was treating them, said David Fry’s lawyer Per C. Olson.
“I think the jury saw through this that they were well-meaning, well-intentioned individuals,” Olson said. “It was the right verdict.”
Lisa Maxfield, who represented Wampler, came out of the courthouse, holding up her fists. She said she has never seen “anything like this happen,” where multiple defendants in a federal trial were all acquitted. It was one of the most significant cases in her career, she said.
“It’s a tremendous victory for rural America,” Wampler said outside the courthouse as supporter and fellow refuge occupier Brand Nu Thornton blew his shofar and another man rode his horse back and forth, hoisting an American flag.
But others, like Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, worried the verdicts would spur other similar armed standoffs against the government’s control of public lands that involve the militia.
“We are deeply disappointed in today’s verdict, which puts our park rangers and scientists at further risk just for doing their jobs. The outcome of today’s trial will undoubtedly embolden extremist groups,” Rokala said. ” It’s imperative that local, state, and federal law enforcement ensure the safety of our land managers.”
Oregonian Staff Writers Aimee Green and Jim Ryan contributed to this story.
— Maxine Bernstein | 1real |
Concerned by cyber threat, Obama seeks big increase in funding | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday sought a surge in funding to counter cyber security threats, as his top intelligence official warned Congress that computer attacks were among the most imminent security challenges facing the United States. In his fiscal 2017 budget proposal, Obama asked for $19 billion for cyber security across the U.S. government, an increase of $5 billion over this year While the White House’s overall fiscal plan faces tough going in the Republican-controlled Congress, increased cyber security funding has won bipartisan support of lawmakers in the past. The request comes as the Obama administration has struggled to address the growing risk posed by criminals and nation states in the digital world. In Congress, Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, warned that cyber threats “could lead to widespread vulnerabilities in civilian infrastructures and U.S. government systems.” The Obama initiative calls for a more than one-third increase from the $14 billion appropriated this year and would include $3.1 billion for technology modernization at various federal agencies. Cyber threats are “among the most urgent dangers to America’s economic and national security,” Obama said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Tuesday. The request for a cash infusion is the latest signal that the White House intends to make cyber security a priority in the last year of Obama’s presidency. It follows a series of high-profile hacks against the government and companies like Sony Pictures (6758.T) and Target (TGT.N) that were largely met with legislative inaction and administrative uncertainty on how best to address evolving cyber threats. Those difficulties played out publicly last year when the Office of Personnel Management announced it had fallen victim to a hack that lifted sensitive information on roughly 22 million individuals from its databases. The White House issued an executive order setting up a presidential commission on cyber security, which would make recommendations for strengthening defenses over the next decade. A new position of federal chief information security officer also would be established. A government watchdog report last month concluded the government’s cyber defense system, known as Einstein, is ineffective at combating hackers. Obama also signed another executive order creating a permanent Federal Privacy Council, which aims to connect privacy officials across the government to develop comprehensive guidelines for how personal data is collected and stored. The president’s budget proposal also called for $62 million to expand efforts to attract and retain qualified cyber professionals working for the government. | 0fake |
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