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Anthony Anderson Burns Stacey Dash: She’s ‘Ann Coulter Dipped In Butterscotch’ | In an amazing take down of Fox News contributor Stacey Dash, comedian Anthony Anderson compared her to Ann Coulter.Dash has received heavy criticism ever since she called for ending BET and the NCAA Image Awards in her backwards solution to ending racism in response to the condemnation of the Oscars for the lack of diversity. We have to make up our minds, Dash said on Fox News. Either we want to have segregation or integration. If we don t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you re only awarded if you re black. If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It s a double standard. There shouldn t be a Black History Month, the Clueless actress continued. We re Americans. Period. Well, the backlash was swift and merciless as BET and others responded by reminding Dash that she has made several appearances on television shows and music videos aired on the channel.But Anthony Anderson also chimed in on Friday while hosting the 47th Annual NAACP Image Awards and it s fair to say that Dash got totally roasted by the Black-ish star. Everybody give a round of applause for Stacey Dash! he began. What the hell is she doing here? Doesn t she know that the Fox network is using her? She s just an Ann Coulter dipped in butterscotch. That s all she is. Baby, don t let them use you! Come back to the black people and get back to work on some of those beautiful C-movies that you used to do! Anderson must have hit a nerve, because Dash responded with a weird post on Twitter.Well it s funny how woman who weighs 105 wet! Can get grown ass men to act like llittle girls! Haha Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) February 6, 2016Stacey Dash deserves the criticism she has been getting lately and Anthony Anderson made a spectacular comparison.The fact is that without BET or the NAACP, African-Americans would be even more underrepresented in the entertainment industry than they are now. Perhaps one day, there won t be a need for the Image Awards or BET. But that s going to depend on whether or not mainstream awards show like the Oscars get their act together and start treating black actors and actresses with the respect they deserve. Featured image from Facebook | 1real |
What Austria's election says about Europe's political landscape | BERLIN (Reuters) - After a series of setbacks for far-right parties in Europe this year, Austria s anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) delivered one of its strongest performances ever in an election on Sunday and could rejoin the government after a 12-year absence. Early projections showed the center-right People s Party (OVP), led by Sebastian Kurz, had won the most votes in Austria, with about 31 percent. The FPO was vying with the center-left Social Democrats (SPO) for second place, with both parties between 26-27 percent. Kurz could now look to form a coalition with the FPO, which was last part of a government in Austria between 2000 and 2005. Below are key take-aways from the Austrian vote and its implications for Europe. THE FAR-RIGHT IS NOT DEAD There was a temptation after the Dutch and French elections this year to declare an end to the far-right populist wave in Europe. But last month s German election, which saw the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party surge into the Bundestag, and now the Austrian election, say otherwise. Despite a hard shift right by the conservative OVP under Kurz, the FPO appeared close to the all-time high of 26.9 it won in 1999. That result paved the way for it to enter government, a move which prompted a horrified European Union to impose sanctions against Austria. If the FPO enters the government this time, expect little more than a whimper. The Austrian result showed that the refugee crisis of 2015 has left deep scars among European voters, especially in countries that were at the center of the storm. The number of asylum seekers entering Austria has fallen sharply over the past year. But migration was the dominant theme in the election. The German election brought populism back to the center of the debate and the Austrian election will strengthen that, said Cas Mudde, an expert on far-right politics at the University of Georgia. CENTER-RIGHT AND FAR-RIGHT CONVERGE The Austrian election showed that the lines between Europe s center-right and far-right parties are blurring, with mainstream conservatives adopting a much tougher tone on immigration, Islam and domestic security. Austria s Kurz is the poster-child for this shift and his success could encourage other centrist parties in Europe to adopt the same strategy. During the campaign Kurz denounced the welcoming culture towards refugees of 2015, said migrants rescued in the Mediterranean should be returned to Africa and promised to slash the benefits for newly arrived migrants. We see Kurz as a model for conservatives in Germany, a senior figure in Bavaria s Christian Social Union (CSU) told Reuters. We applaud him. He will change the dynamic in Europe. After bleeding support to the AfD in the German vote, the CSU is promising a far harder line on immigration - a headache for German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she tries to form a new coalition government. Elsewhere in Europe, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte successfully fought off a challenge from far-right leader Geert Wilders in March by talking tough on migration. In France, hardliner Laurent Wauquiez, is in pole position to take over the leadership of the centre-right Republican party. As centrist parties shift right on migration, radical right-wingers - from Austria s Freedom Party to France s National Front - are adopting a softer tone on Europe, dropping their threats to exit the EU and ditch the euro currency. Although differences on economic policy remain, the shifts could make the center-right and far-right virtually indistinguishable in some countries. A new Austrian coalition of Kurz s OVP and Heinz-Christian Strache s FPO would be a tougher partner for Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron as they push reforms of the euro zone and EU asylum policies. Kurz has praised Hungary s Prime Minister Viktor Orban for building a fence along his border to keep out immigrants. And Strache has said Austria should join the Visegrad group of central and east European states - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - that are united in their opposition to EU migrant quotas pushed by Berlin and Brussels. Both parties are skeptical about steps towards closer integration of the euro zone, especially changes that would centralize powers in Brussels, such as Macron s idea to create a budget and finance minister for the euro zone. Kurz, on track to become the next chancellor of Austria, is just 31 years of age - young even by the standards of Europe s recent youth movement, which saw Macron enter the Elysee Palace at the age of 39 and Christian Lindner, 38, lead Germany s liberal Free Democrats (FDP) back into the Bundestag. Kurz and Lindner showed that young new faces can inject dynamism into old establishment parties that have lost their way with voters. Kurz rebranded the OVP as the New People s Party and changed its colors from black to turquoise. Lindner used trendy black-and-white campaign posters that showed him staring at his smartphone to revitalize the FDP s image. Macron, who formed his own political movement, was able to paint himself as a rebel outsider despite having served for four years under failed French Socialist Francois Hollande. And don t forget Italy, where the two top candidates in next year s election are likely to be Luigi Di Maio, the new 31-year-old leader of the upstart 5-Star movement and former prime minister Matteo Renzi, who at 42 looks positively old by Europe s new standards. | 0fake |
How come the US keeps killing ISIS No. 2s? | On Friday morning, a US airstrike killed Abu Alaa al-Afri, a senior leader in ISIS, whom the US says it considers the organization's second-ranked leader.
This isn't the first time al-Afri has been reported dead — though the US government has allegedly verified his death.
But if (as seems likely) al-Afri is dead, this will be yet another instance in which ISIS's No. 2 official has been killed. In August of last year, for example, a US airstrike killed Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, then identified as the group's No. 2.
This continues a trend that news consumers may recognize from counterterrorism efforts against al-Qaeda, in which the group seemed to lose one third-in-command (after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri) after another.
As some Twitter wags noted, this all harks back to a 2006 Onion article, "Eighty Percent Of Al-Qaeda No. 2s Now Dead."
But what's actually going on here? Why is the US killing so many ISIS deputies while somehow failing to hit leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? And does it even matter when you kill top-level ISIS officials?
Analysts have developed a few theories as to why the US keeps hitting second-in-commands but not the leader. One of the most plausible is that Baghdadi is a much harder target, whereas the nature of the No. 2 job involves exposing oneself to greater risk of being targeted.
As a leader, Baghdadi serves as ISIS's chief executive and ideological head. He doesn't have to move around all that much or actually go out in the field; his job mostly involves issuing orders and, on occasion, making propaganda tapes.
That means he can sit wherever he's hiding out, avoiding the kind of contact with the outside world that makes it easier for US intelligence agencies to find you.
However, not every ISIS leader has the luxury of doing that. Baghdadi's top subordinates, the ones he gives orders to, have to go out in the field and run ISIS operations. If you command a major combat theater in Iraq, for example, you actually have to be in that part of Iraq. If you run ISIS finances, you need to make sure the extortion and oil operations are running smoothly.
When you're out actually doing the work — managing ISIS outposts, talking to people lower down on the food chain — you can't hide away like Baghdadi does. That makes it easier for US electronic, satellite, or human intelligence assets to find you — and serve up targeting data for an airstrike.
This difference in responsibilities probably explains why the US, despite targeting Baghdadi multiple times, hasn't managed to kill him — and yet has successfully taken out many of his deputies.
"That would be my guess," Will McCants, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told me.
While the US government is understandably trumpeting its alleged strike on al-Afri, there's reason to suspect that killing the group's No. 2 isn't actually all that consequential.
Groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda are bureaucratic by design, so they are often able to deal with drone-struck senior officers by rapidly promoting new people to replace them.
This theory got some quantitative support in a 2014 study by the University of Georgia's Jenna Jordan, who found that so-called "decapitation" strikes — in which the US killed a senior leader of a terrorist group — had little effect on reducing violence from that group.
In the paper, Jordan argues that this is because al-Qaeda is a bureaucratic organization: It has something like a formal command structure, division of labor, clear assignment of responsibilities, and the like. This allows lower-level leaders to take over after one is killed.
And this would likely apply to ISIS as well.
"Each individual decapitation doesn't cripple the organization," Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told me.
So al-Afri's killing probably will not, in itself, be that consequential for ISIS's future.
That said, Gartenstein-Ross pointed out that al-Afri had "strong connections within the al-Qaeda network." ISIS and al-Qaeda are at war in Syria, which distracts and thus weakens both of them, and there is little reason to believe that this is changing.
But Gartenstein-Ross points out that the possibility of rapprochement, while already quite low, may have just gotten a little lower with al-Afri's killing.
"Given his connections, [there was] a danger that he could be involved in rapprochement between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State," he said.
However, the ideological and personal gaps between the two groups will likely remain too wide to bridge anytime in the near future. That would have been true even if al-Afri had lived. So his death is probably not a substantial change for ISIS's prospects. | 0fake |
White House names retired Air Force general as first cyber security chief | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday named a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general as the government’s first federal cyber security chief, a position announced eight months ago that is intended to improve defenses against hackers. Gregory Touhill’s job will be to protect government networks and critical infrastructure from cyber threats as federal chief information security officer, according to a statement. The administration of President Barack Obama has made bolstering federal cyber security a top priority in his last year in office. The issue has gained more attention because of high-profile breaches in recent years of government and private sector computers. U.S. intelligence officials suspect Russia was responsible for breaches of Democratic political organizations and state election systems to exert influence on the Nov. 8 presidential election. Russia has dismissed the allegations as absurd. Obama announced the new position in February alongside a budget proposal to Congress asking for $19 billion for cyber security across the U.S. government. The job is a political appointment, meaning Obama’s successor can choose to replace Touhill after being sworn in next January. Touhill is currently a deputy assistant secretary for cyber security and communications at the Department of Homeland Security. He will begin his new role later this month, a source familiar with the matter said. Touhill’s responsibilities will include creating and implementing policy for best security practices across federal agencies and conducting periodic audits to test for weaknesses, according to the announcement. Grant Schneider, who is the director of cyber security policy at the White House’s National Security Council, will be acting deputy to Touhill, according to the announcement. | 0fake |
HANDPICKED SUCCESSOR And Son Of DISGRACED Lawmaker John Conyers Reportedly Body-Slammed, Spit Upon and Slit His Girlfriend With Knife | The disgraced Representative John Conyers (D-MI) was not about to quit his job as an elected official before he hand-selected his son as his successor. Never mind that his son has absolutely no experience in politics. His last name is Conyers , and that s apparently enough for the 88-year old politician. But is that really all they need to know about the 27-year old son of the disgraced lawmaker and the former Detroit councilwoman, Monica Conyers, who was recently released from prison after serving 2 years of a 3-year term for bribery? And should anyone be surprised by anything that comes out of the mouth of the 88-year old lawmaker, who, in 2010, was caught on video, as he brazenly read a Playboy magazine on a domestic flight in plain view of other passengers, and who has recently been accused by multiple women of either sexually assaulting or attempting to sexually assault them. John Conyers III also has an interesting background.According to NBC News, on February Feb. 15, John Conyers was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse but wasn t charged, after his girlfriend called the police. The unidentified woman said the younger Conyers accused her of cheating on him, then body slammed her on the bed and then on the floor where he pinned her down and spit on her, according to a district attorney s report quoted by NBC News. The woman claimed that Conyers III took her phone when she tried to call the police, he chased her into the kitchen and swung a knife at her, resulting in a cut on her arm.Conyers III asserted that the woman had been drinking and using marijuana and tried to throw him out of her home before they began pushing and shoving one another. He said she threatened him with a knife and cut herself as they struggled.NBC reported that the Los Angeles County District Attorney s Office chose not to move forward with the case, citing a lack of independent witnesses and investigators conclusions that it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim s injury was not accidentally sustained. FOX NewsConyers III also likes to think of himself as a rapper . He recently made this video where interestingly, he refers to his father as a f*cking player : Conyers III also caused public headaches for his father in 2010.Chicago Tribune In 2010, MLive.com reported that John Conyers III was cited for speeding in his father s Cadillac Escalade or rather, the government-leased vehicle his father used as a member of Congress.There were also reports that year that the younger Conyers had driven the vehicle to a rap concert and that it was broken into, according to MLive.com. The then-20-year-old reported to police that two laptops had been stolen from the Cadillac, along with tens of thousands of dollars worth of concert tickets.After the incident, the elder Conyers apologized. | 1real |
If You Liked This Kid’s Trump Impression, You’re Going To LOVE His Bernie And Hillary (VIDEO) | If there s anyone who can appreciate a good Donald Trump impersonation it s Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show. Fallon has been impersonating Trump throughout the entirety of this presidential election, and doing so pretty damn flawlessly.However, there s another Trump impersonator who is giving Fallon a run for his money, Jack Aiello, and he just nailed Trump perfectly during his 8th grade commencement ceremony.For comparison, here s Aiello doing his amazing Trump impression:Aiello did such a good job with his impersonation that it garnered the attention of Fallon, who then brought him onto The Tonight Show to play Little Donald, who now will be Trump s running-mate. Fallon, as Trump, said on the show: The only person good enough to be my vice president is me. Which is probably a very accurate guess as to who the real Donald Trump would actually like as his running-mate.Although, what the audience wasn t expecting, alongside the Aiello s brilliant Trump impression, was an equally as impressive, if not better impression, of Bernie Sanders, finger wave and all. And, of course, Hillary Clinton was thrown into the sketch for good measure as well with Aiello and Fallon having the candidates prank calling each other.Needless to say, this kid has a bright future in impersonating, and SNL may be calling him sooner rather than later.Watch the hilarious sketch here:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
North Korean defectors may have been exposed to radiation, says South | SEOUL (Reuters) - At least four defectors from North Korea have shown signs of radiation exposure, the South Korean government said on Wednesday, although researchers could not confirm if they were was related to Pyongyang s nuclear weapons program. The four are among 30 former residents of Kilju county, an area in North Korea that includes the nuclear test site Punggye-ri, who have been examined by the South Korean government since October, a month after the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a news briefing. They were exposed to radiation between May 2009 and January 2013, and all defected to the South before the most recent test, a researcher at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, which carried out the examinations, told reporters. North Korea has conducted six nuclear bomb tests since 2006, all in tunnels deep beneath the mountains of Punggye-ri, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions and international condemnation. The researcher cautioned that there were a number of ways people may be exposed to radiation, and that none of the defectors who lived had lived in Punggye-ri itself showed specific symptoms. A series of small earthquakes in the wake of the last test - which the North claimed to be of a hydrogen bomb - prompted suspicions that it may have damaged the mountainous location in the northwest tip of the country. Experts warned that further tests in the area could risk radioactive pollution. After the Sept. 3 nuclear test, China s Nuclear Safety Administration said it had begun emergency monitoring for radiation along its border with North Korea. And in early December, a state-run newspaper in China s Jilin province, which borders North Korea and Russia, published a page of common sense advice on how readers can protect themselves from a nuclear weapons attack or explosion. Cartoon illustrations of ways to dispel radioactive contamination were also provided, such as using water to wash off shoes and using cotton buds to clean ears, as well as a picture of a vomiting child to show how medical help can be sought to speed the expulsion of radiation through stomach pumping and induced urination. | 0fake |
Nearly All U.S. Banks Pass Fed’s Stress Test - The New York Times | All but one of the nation’s largest banks earned an unconditional passing grade from federal regulators on their annual stress tests, which measure their preparedness to weather a financial crisis. The one institution that did not pass unconditionally was Morgan Stanley, a Wall Street bank that has been struggling to regain its footing after the financial crisis of 2008. Regulators raised concerns over the company’s internal controls and processes. The Federal Reserve gave failing grades to the American subsidiaries of two European banks, Deutsche Bank and Santander, which both failed in previous years. The banking stress tests — which measure whether banks have enough capital and liquidity, management controls and other necessary safeguards to survive various situations — have been required of banks with more than $50 billion in assets since the passage of the Act, which took effect in 2010. The passing grades mean that all of the big banks — even Morgan Stanley — will be able to pay dividends and buy back stock from shareholders. The results, announced by the Fed on Wednesday afternoon, are the second part of the annual stress tests, which compel each institution to run a simulation of how it would bear up under various catastrophic conditions, like an abrupt rise in interest rates or unemployment, or a big crash in equity markets. Last week, the Fed said that all the big banks would be able to make it through a recession and still maintain adequate financial buffers. On Wednesday, a Fed official said that even with the concerns raised, the stress test results suggest that banks would be able to withstand an event like Britain’s exit from the European Union, which has rocked bank stocks over the last week. Since the financial crisis, banks have been required to create large capital barriers to cushion against losses from a recession or market shock. While the financial system has not encountered any problems close to the mortgage losses of 2008, banks have been able to withstand more recent challenges like the steep drop in oil prices and the turmoil in Europe. While tougher capital requirements may be helping to stabilize the banks, they are hampering profitability. The stock prices of many large banks have languished as investors question whether these companies can increase their profits substantially in such a stringent new regulatory environment. The stress test results announced Wednesday are no doubt a welcome relief, in particular, to Bank of America and Citigroup, which have had difficulty passing the test unconditionally in past years. Both banks have spent tens of millions of dollars and assigned some of their top executives to the task of ensuring that they gain the Fed’s approval. Shortly after the results were made public, Citigroup announced that it would more than triple its dividend, to 16 cents from 5 cents, and buy back as much as $8. 6 billion of stock. Bank of America said it would increase its dividend to 7. 5 cents from 5 cents and purchase $5 billion in shares. Even Morgan Stanley came forward to say that it planned to raise its dividend to 20 cents from 15 cents and increase its share buyback program to $3. 5 billion for the four quarters beginning July 1, from $2. 5 billion in the previous period. The three banks that were called out by the Fed on Wednesday all had big enough financial buffers, the regulators said. Rather, the criticism was with more qualitative aspects of the way the three banks operate internally. At Morgan Stanley, the Fed said, the problems “include shortcomings in the firm’s scenario design practices, which do not adequately reflect risks and vulnerabilities specific to the firm, weaknesses in some aspects of the firm’s modeling practices, and weaknesses in governance and controls around both scenario design and modeling practices. ” Morgan Stanley will be able to return money to shareholders, as planned, but it will need to improve its internal processes by the end of the year. If the bank does not make those improvements, the Fed could halt the bank’s payouts. The results are an unhappy hiccup for Morgan Stanley, which has been struggling to raise its profits to the level of its competitors’ and is in the middle of a significant campaign. In a statement, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, James P. Gorman, said, “We are committed to addressing the Fed’s concerns about our capital planning process and fully expect to meet their requirements within the established time frame. ” For Deutsche Bank and Santander, the failing grades raise bigger concerns about their ability to satisfy American regulators. The Deutsche Bank unit in the United States has failed twice in a row, and Santander three times. In this and previous years, the Fed has applied its tests only to parts of Santander and Deutsche Bank. These two banks, as well as other foreign banks, like Barclays, UBS and Credit Suisse, have large operations in the United States that have not undergone stress tests. But that will soon change. The large foreign banks now have to organize their American operations into a single “intermediate holding company. ” Next year, the Fed will do a trial test of these entities and keep the results private. But in 2018, these large holding companies will be subjected to tests, and the results will be made public. Failing those stress tests would be much more of a blow to Deutsche Bank and Santander than the hit they took on Wednesday. A Fed official said on Wednesday that all the big banks had been making progress but that Deutsche Bank and Santander still needed to make significant improvements. In a statement, Scott Powell, the chief executive of Santander Holdings USA, said, “We are financially sound. These results do not affect our ability to serve our customers. ” Deutsche Bank also emphasized that even though its American unit had failed the test, it still had adequate capital. “We appreciate the Federal Reserve’s recognition of our progress, and we will implement the lessons learned this year in order to strengthen our capital planning process,” Bill Woodley, deputy chief executive of Deutsche Bank Americas said in a statement. | 0fake |
California judge questions Trump's sanctuary city order | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California federal judge on Friday strongly questioned the U.S. Justice Department over whether to suspend an order by President Donald Trump to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities for immigrants. U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick III questioned the purpose of the president’s order as he heard arguments from two large California counties and the Justice Department in San Francisco federal court. Both counties have asked for a nationwide preliminary injunction to the order. As part of a larger plan to transform how the United States deals with immigration and national security, Trump in January signed an order targeting cities and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Sanctuary cities in general offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Sanctuary city is not an official designation. Santa Clara County, which includes the city of San Jose and several smaller Silicon Valley communities, sued in February, saying Trump’s plan to withhold federal funds is unconstitutional. San Francisco filed a similar lawsuit. On Friday, the counties described the order as a “weapon to cancel all funding to jurisdictions,” said John Keker, an attorney representing Santa Clara County. “All around the country, including here, people are having to deal with this right now.” Santa Clara County receives roughly $1.7 billion in federal and federally dependent funds annually, about 35 percent of its total revenues. The county argued that every day it is owed millions of dollars of federal funding, and its budgetary planning process had been thrown into disarray by the order. The Justice Department said the counties had taken an overly broad interpretation of the president’s order, which would impact only Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security funds, a fraction of the grant money received by the counties. The government also argued that there had been no enforcement action to date, and it was unclear what actions against the counties would entail. Judge Orrick asked the government what was the purpose of an executive order, if it only impacted a small amount of county funding. Attorneys for the government said the order had highlighted issues that the Trump Administration deeply cared about and a national policy priority. To win a nationwide injunction, local governments must demonstrate a high level of harm, the Justice Department noted in court filings last month. | 0fake |
WOW! “N” Word Used On Walmart Website To Describe Color Of Wig | Walmart was apologizing on Monday after an appalling description of a product by a third-party vendor made its way onto the retail giant s website.The retailer was slammed early Monday after the color of a netting weave cap used as a protective layer between a person s hair and sewn-in hair extensions on its site was described as the color N Brown. Twitter user Kwani Luni tweeted a message about the wig color on WalMart s website, asking them @Walmart what are you doing? Hey @Walmart what are you doing? pic.twitter.com/ermxukU5BX Kwani Lunis (@KwaniALunis) July 17, 2017@Walmart replied to Kwani Lunis: pic.twitter.com/OL19g3Hmcq Kwani Lunis (@KwaniALunis) July 17, 2017 Shortly after the controversy erupted, Walmart removed the racial slur and replaced the Add To Cart button with a message stating that the item was no longer available.A Walmart spokeswoman later apologized for the listing in a statement to The Post. We are very sorry and appalled that this third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace, spokeswoman Danit Marquardt wrote in a statement. It is a clear violation of our policy, and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened. NYP | 1real |
You Will Soon Be Obsolete: “Plan Your Future Before THEY Plan It For You” | The world is about to change drastically . Will you be ready for it?
The Future Doesn’t Need Us… Or So We’ve Been Told.
With the rise of technology and the real-time pressures of an online, global economy, humans will have to be very clever – and very careful – not to be left behind by the future.
From the perspective of those in charge, human labor is losing its value, and people are becoming a liability.
This documentary reveals the real motivation behind the secretive effort to reduce the population and bring resource use into strict, centralized control.
Could it be that the biggest threat we face isn’t just automation and robots destroying jobs, but the larger sense that humans could become obsolete altogether? | 1real |
Political Correctness for Yuengling Brewery; What About Our Opioid Epidemic? | We Are Change
In today’s political climate even our beer is up for debate. And why shouldn’t it be? This is America. We debate things here. That’s how democracy works. (At least when the issues aren’t taboo.) Recently, it’s shown up in the state of Pennsylvania with Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, garnering an endorsement for the Republican candidate from Yuengling, America’s oldest brewery.
And now the debate turns to political action.
With the most recent statement from Richard “Dick” Yuengling Jr., the 73-year-old owner of D. G. Yuengling & Son’s, located in Pottsville, Pennsylvania — the seat of Schuylkill County — Yuengling said that his company was “behind” Trump. Inevitably, a lashing out occurred in the digital realm with regard to political correctness and expressively personal views. Customers weren’t pleased. They were offended. In fact, some even claimed that they’d never drink Yuengling again.
This is what democracy is, and should be. Sure. And yet, something is lost in the politicized scramble of this ugly election year.
A Pennsylvania state representative, Brian Sims, announced on his Facebook page that he was saying “GOOD BYE” to Yuengling Brewery.
“I’m not normally one to call for boycotts but I absolutely believe that how we spend our dollars is a reflection of our votes and values! Supporting Yuengling Brewery, that uses my dollars to bolster a man, and an agenda, that wants to punish me for being a member of the LGBT community and punish the black and brown members of my community for not being white, is something I’m too smart and too grown up to do.”
Sims represents the 182nd district of Philadelphia , which includes a majority of Center City, in addition to parts of Rittenhouse Square, Grays Ferry, and South Philadelphia. I live here. I walk those areas of the city.
And I see, feel, and hear other elements of our society that go unnoticed or receive little to no attention. To observe this sort of outcry against a presidential candidate is expectantly what democracy was birthed upon, as we know in the city of Philadelphia. We take action. (We like to think.) However, along the way I’ve seen the incessant results of many issues that get buried, in favor of political expediency and trending topics that ultimately define our aggressive actions towards “voting with our dollars”.
If that’s the case, then what about all the other detriments to our standard of living? For instance, the opiate epidemic that is sweeping Pennsylvania and the surrounding states and the rest of the country by storm.
According to a June 2016 report from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health , entitled “The Epidemic of Overdoses From Opioids in Philadelphia”, drug deaths involving the fatal use of opioids, from 2000-2014, had tripled. In 2014, approximately 47,000 people died from overdoses in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). Sixty-one percent of that total was attributed to the use of opioids.
“Since 1999, the number of prescriptions for pharmaceutical opioid pain relievers in the U.S. more than quadrupled.”
Opioid-related overdose deaths in Philadelphia were nearly three times higher in men than among women in 2015. Those deaths were also more than two times as high among whites, as opposed to deaths among African Americans.
Between 2003 and 2015, in Philadelphia, cocaine and benzodiazepines were detected in overdose deaths in tandem with opioids at a rate of 70% and 90%, respectively. During that same period, overdose deaths related to heroin more than doubled in the city, with approximately 400 deaths reported in 2015.
In that same year, there were nearly 700 drug overdose deaths in Philadelphia. That’s more than twice as many deaths from homicide in that same year.
From 2014-2015, 10% of the nearly 1,300 overdose deaths in Philadelphia were from non-residents. Most of those non-residents were people from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and other parts of Pennsylvania.
Once the president is elected, these issues won’t go away. In fact, they’re extant — some as a surrogate to the system we attribute to healthcare. (One of the most hotly contested issues of partisan bickering in the country.)
Additionally, these effects are increasingly felt in Philadelphia hospitals.
“The percentage of Philadelphia hospital emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses increased from approximately 0.4% in 2007 to nearly 0.7% in 2015. In 2015, there were over 6,500 emergency department visits for opioid overdoses. For each opioid-related death, there were approximately 12 hospital emergency department visits.”
So while the country politically corrects itself — whatever that means — myriad issues get buried beneath picking and choosing a side, in response to the emotional disturbances of partisan bickering.
Rather than dealing with facts, the web of society becomes entangled with He Said, She Said.
Ultimately, this coercive cultural backwardness and evolutionary substandard, the rattle-mouthed bickering of intellectual thought and deceptive, manipulative action, that matches up more closely with the reptilian species, rather than the spirit of the human heart and the cultural celebration of life and all its wonder, is exactly what gave rise to Trump.
And our opioid epidemic.
Somewhere along the way, the facts were buried beneath the lie. And the truth has become something else, entirely.
Sources
http://www.phillyvoice.com/beer-drinkers-disavow-yuengling-after-owner-shows-support-for-trump/
The post Political Correctness for Yuengling Brewery; What About Our Opioid Epidemic? appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
WATCH: Father Of Purple Heart-Winning Muslim Soldier UNLEASHES On Trump, And It Is Amazing | Khizr Khan, the father of a slain purple-heart winning Muslim soldier absolutely laid into Donald Trump in his speech on the final night of the 2016 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.Khan s son, Captain Humayun S. M. Khan, was one of 14 American Muslims who have died while serving the United States military since 9/11.Standing next to his wife, Mr. Khan laid into Trump for arguing for a wall between America and Mexico, pointing out, We cannot solve our problems by building walls We are stronger together. Pointing out Trump s incendiary anti-Muslim rhetoric, the father asked, Let me ask [Trump], have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy! He then dramatically reached into his jacket and pulled out his Constitution.Concluding his speech, Khan gave a full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton: Vote for the healer not the divider. Their son was killed when a suicide bomber attacked his unit, serving in Iraq in 2004.Captain Khan was killed just north of Baghdad on June 8, 2004. A car approached the gates of the base he was tasked with protecting. As soldiers under Khan s command prepared to inspect the vehicle, his father told us, Captain Khan screamed for his men to hit the dirt and walked towards it himself and demanded the driver stop. Inside the car were two suicide bombers and a large amount of explosives. As the car reached the gate, the bomb was detonated, killing Khan and wounding 10 U.S. soldiers. His father believes many more men might have died without Khan s warning. Khan was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, two of the military s highest honors.The divisive nature of Trump s repeated attacks on Muslims has prompted the Khans to speak out against his candidacy for the presidency, and it resulted in an epic moment at the convention.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
HYSTERICAL! The Guy Who’s Spent Majority Of Both Terms On Golf Courses Makes THIS Insane DEMAND Of Congress | Of course Obama the putz blames too little government for the poisoned water crisis in Flint OBAMA TO CONGRESS ON FLINT AID: #DOYOURJOBOn a trip focused on letting Flint residents know they have not been forgotten, President Barack Obama put pressure on Congress to move a bill that would bring aid to Flint, Mich. and other communities at risk of lead contamination in their water systems.As Pro s Annie Snider reports, both houses are out of session until next week, but the Senate could, in theory, take up a water infrastructure bill that includes assistance to Flint and other cities with lead-pipe distribution systems. The bill easily passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee 19-1. Obama would like to see that bill move sooner rather than later. Congress, led by your congressional delegation, needs to act in a bipartisan fashion, do their job, make sure Flint has the necessary resources, Obama said Wednesday in a speech in Flint.President puns it like ME, calls small-government philosophy corrosive : The president used the speech to broadly attack the conservative philosophy of less-government-is-good-government, saying an anti-government attitude was at the root of the problems in Flint. I do think that part of what contributed to this crisis was a broader mindset, a bigger attitude, a corrosive attitude, that exists in our politics and exists in too many levels of our government, he said. It s a mindset that believes that less government is the highest good, no matter what. Boos for Snyder, but not from Obama: Gov. Rick Snyder also spoke at the event amid boos from the crowd of over 1,000 people. But Obama held off from attacking the governor, even trying to quiet the boobirds. No, no, Obama said. We re doing some business here. Via: PoliticoHow very big of you Barry...h/t WZ | 1real |
YIKES! TRUMP ANNOUNCES “Major Speech” About Hillary On Monday: “I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting” | Crooked Hillary has met her match: Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund. Here is Trump s speech in its entirety. It is one of his best speeches to date and truly worth watching to the end.https://youtu.be/nO7GAbBoIF0 | 1real |
Trump Ends A Recent Tradition Established By Obama | President Trump is once again proving that he will be running the White House in a vastly different manner than his predecessor.For the past several years Barack Obama welcomed ESPN to the White House to fill out the NCAA tournament bracket. The news called this Baracketology. The Sports network reached out to the Trump staff, asking if the president would be continuing the tradition, but according to The Washington Post, the offer was declined. We expressed our interest to the White House in continuing the presidential bracket. They have respectfully declined, an ESPN spokesman said in a statement.Unfortunately, this tweet might be correct, Baracketology may be the best thing Obama did while in office.the best thing Barack Obama did in his 8 years. #Baracketology #ObamaFarewell pic.twitter.com/Z1blhjN3rG nick stasiak (@1staz8) January 11, 2017(Source: IOTW Report, Daily Caller) | 1real |
Vietnam orders prosecution of oil firm official in corruption crackdown | HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese police have ordered the prosecution of an official at scandal-hit state energy firm PetroVietnam over financial losses, the Ministry of Public Security said on Tuesday. PetroVietnam is at the heart of a sweeping high-level corruption crackdown in the communist state. The ministry said in a statement that Phan Dinh Duc, a member of PetroVietnam s board of directors, would face prosecution on suspicion of violation of state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences . PetroVietnam told Reuters in an emailed statement it would cooperate with the authorities in the investigation. Former PetroVietnam chairman Dinh La Thang, 56, was arrested on Dec 8. Thang, also a former member of Vietnam s politburo, was the most senior executive arrested in the scandal. Police have said they are investigating alleged violations of state rules at PetroVietnam, which resulted in a loss of an 800 billion dong ($35.2 million) investment in local lender Ocean Bank. The corruption crackdown made global headlines in August when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former chairman of PetroVietnam s construction unit, in Berlin after he applied for asylum there. Vietnamese police denied he had been kidnapped saying he had turned himself in and returned to Vietnam, where he is in detention. The Communist Party has said Thanh will go on trial next month. | 0fake |
DETROIT FREE PRESS EDITOR Calls For Gruesome Murder Of MI GOP Lawmakers | Read anything Stephen Henderson has written over the past year and you will be hard pressed to find a single piece where he is not crying about some injustice either he or his fellow black man has suffered. Anyone who reads his whiny drivel for more than a couple of months will likely need some sort of therapy to keep them from wanting to jump off the nearest ledge on a tall building. Henderson is a perfect example of the wussification of the male in the United States. We ve met and spoken with him before. Henderson is not embarrassed to say he s a hardened liberal. He blames it on his U of D Catholic High School education. He claims they pumped liberalism and social justice through his veins. As a Catholic, I find this type of rhetoric gut-wrenching, irresponsible and the furthest thing from the type of love and compassion for my neighbor I learned as a young Catholic. If representatives of working citizens who live in the suburbs of Detroit, refuse to burden them with hundreds of millions of tax dollars to bail out the failed Detroit Public Schools (yet again), Stephen Henderson says they should be murdered.Stephen Henderson, the Pulitzer prize-winning editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press has called for the murder of Michigan lawmakers with whom he disagrees.The reason? The lawmakers voted for legislation that would give parents more choices to avoid Michigan s failing public schools. Detroit s public schools are failing academically and nearly insolvent, the New York Times wrote in January. The Detroit News wrote in March that the statewide opinion of K-12 education is downright ugly. That poll showed residents didn t think throwing money at public-union-controlled schools was the answer, with 63 percent saying it takes more than money to improve education.Yesterday Michigan s Republican legislators voted to bail out Detroit s abysmally run schools with $617 million in taxpayer funding. The same bill also fought efforts to constrain charter school choices in Detroit. Prior to the vote, Stephen Henderson wrote on his editorial page:We really ought to round up the lawmakers who took money to protect and perpetuate the failing charter-school experiment in Detroit, sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac.That s harsh. Maybe.But isn t that what the Romans or Greeks or some other early practitioners of democracy used to do with solicitous and unprincipled public officials?And this legislation that passed the state House of Representatives Thursday night, the one that bows to the thoroughly debunked theory that a free-for-all, market-based approach to public schooling will produce quality choices for Detroit parents?It is garbage.It is bought-and-paid-for work product from a legislative body whose leader, the maladroit thinker Kevin Cotter, has sold his caucus political soul to the high-bidding DeVos family and other charter advocates and told himself it s about belief, not money.In the most crass terms, the House of Representatives is telling parents in Detroit that the best we deserve is what we have now. Public schools that have been underfunded and torn asunder by depopulation and corruption. Charters opening and closing willy-nilly, many to profit off the traditioal public schools misery, but offering alternatives in name only to the public schools they claim to outperform. The bragging that charter advocates do about the sliver of daylight between the outcomes of charters and traditional public schools would be roll-on-the-floor funny if it weren t so condescending, and it it didn t heartily embrace the idea of calcified inequality.It is every bit deserving of an old-school retributive response.A sack. An animal. A lake.No lover of actual democracy could weep at that outcome.Stephen Henderson s tweeted his Detroit Free Press article and added this disgusting commentary:GOP House harlots deserve worse than hanging for selling out #detroit kids on #DPS bills. https://t.co/zbPajL81qq Stephen Henderson (@SHendersonFreep) June 3, 2016 | 1real |
White House: Obama would veto Keystone bill | This post has been updated.
President Obama would veto a bill that would allow for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, the White House said Tuesday.
"If this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn’t sign it," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
The White House’s announcement came as the Republican-controlled Congress was being sworn in. GOP leaders have pledged to pass a bill authorizing the pipeline’s construction. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) introduced legislation Tuesday authorizing the pipeline's construction.
“The president is going to see the Keystone XL pipeline on his desk,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
Senate Democrats narrowly blocked passage of the bill in November. The White House said at the time that the bill was something Obama "doesn't support."
"If this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn’t sign it either," Earnest said.
Earnest said there is a "well-established process in place" for approving projects such as Keystone. The $7.6 billion project would stretch nearly 1,700 miles and deliver 830,000 barrels of oil a day from western Canada to the United States. Earnest said that because there is a process, Congress should not meddle.
That process is held up by a lawsuit in Nebraska over whether the state legislature could allow the governor to make decisions on the pipeline rather than the state's Public Utilities Commission.
“I think the president has been pretty clear that he does not think that circumventing a well-established process for evaluating these projects is ... the right thing for Congress to do,” Earnest said.
Obama rejected a Canadian firm's application to build the pipeline in 2012.
At a year-end news conference in December, Obama sought to downplay the benefits of the pipeline. He said the benefits for U.S. citizens and workers from the pipeline would be "nominal."
"I think that there’s been this tendency to really hype this thing as some magic formula to what ails the U.S. economy," Obama said.
House Speaker John Boehner said Obama has sided with "fringe extremists" in the Democratic party who do not support Keystone, not Americans who do want the pipeline to be built. Boehner said the veto threat shows that Obama is "hopelessly out of touch" and has "no plans" to listen to his constituents.
"After years of manufacturing every possible excuse, today President Obama was finally straight with the them about where he truly stands. His answer is no to more American infrastructure, no to more American energy, and no to more American jobs," Boehner said in a statement.
Jack Gerard, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, said the group is "very disappointed" by the veto threat.
"And I think it doesn't bode well for relationships between the White House and Capitol Hill" Gerard said. "I'm disappointed the president has made that decision. I'm hopeful he and his advisers will reconsider."
The move angered not just Republicans and oil industry officials but some Democrats such as Manchin.
“It’s the most discouraging thing I’ve ever heard,” Manchin said in a phone interview, minutes after Earnest had made his comments. “For the leader of the country to say basically, ‘Forget it, this is all for naught,’ is not what this country is about, it’s not what we’re all about, and it’s not the process that I’m used to working through.”
Manchin said the move made a mockery of a legislative process under which Democrats as well as Republicans would have a chance to offer amendments to alter the bill. “To say that he won’t give it a chance is absolutely a disservice to our country,” he added.
At the same time that the White House issued its veto threat, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) objected to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holding a hearing Wednesday on the Keystone XL bill. Durbin said another Democrat, whom he did not identify, objected to the session.
“While this means we won’t be having a hearing tomorrow, it does not slow down the Keystone XL floor process,” the panel’s spokesman, Robert Dillon, wrote in an e-mail. “Sen. Murkowski was committed to moving legislation through regular committee order and having a robust hearing process. Working with the incoming ranking member, we had lined up witnesses from a labor union and the Center for American Progress (CAP) to testify on the Keystone XL. Democrats will no longer have an opportunity to hear that testimony or make statements. We think that’s unfortunate.”
“The new Republican majority in Congress wants to play pipeline politics with our future, and the president is focused on a single question: is the tar sands pipeline in our national interest,” said Bob Deans, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s not.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he applauds Obama "for standing up to Republicans trying to ram through Congress a bill to let a Canadian oil company ship some of the dirtiest oil on the planet across the United States on its way to overseas markets."
Supporters of Keystone argue that the pipeline will create jobs tied to the pipeline's construction and boost a source of reliable energy, helping the economy. Opponents counter that it will extract oil from dirty tar sands in Canada and do little to help the U.S. economy. | 0fake |
OBAMA LIED To Protect Hillary..New Wikileaks Email Proves It! | Remember Combetta is Hillary s Oh Sh*t IT guy:BREAKING: FEMALE LAW STUDENT Busts Hillary s Oh Sh*t IT Guy Who Was Seeking Help To Scrub Hillary s Name From Emails Wikileaks Applauds!The same day that President Barack Obama publicly insisted that he learned about Hillary Clinton s use of private email for government business from news reports, internal campaign emails show that Clinton staffers knew he wasn t telling the truth.Obama was asked by CBS in March 2015 when he learned about Clinton s use of an email system outside the U.S. government for official business as Secretary of State. The same time everybody else learned it, through news reports, he responded.In a hacked March 7, 2015 email released by WikiLeaks Tuesday, Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin highlighted Obama s comments in an email to other staffers. You probably have more on this, but it looks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news, he said.Clinton s former chief of staff at the State Department Cheryl Mills immediately followed up in a private email to campaign chairman John Podesta. We need to clean this up, she worried. He has emails from her they do not say state.gov. Read more: Mediate | 1real |
Louisiana governor to sign law making police killings hate crimes | (Reuters) - Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards plans to sign legislation making it a hate crime to kill a police officer or another first responder, bolstering penalties for an offense that already qualifies for the state’s death penalty, his office said on Tuesday. The legislation adds language to an existing law enhancing penalties for crimes targeting people based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and other identity categories to include “actual or perceived employment as a law enforcement officer, firefighter or emergency medical services personnel.” Edwards, a Democrat whose relatives have served as law enforcement officers, is expected to sign the bill sometime this week. The state legislature unanimously approved the measure last week. “Police officers and firefighters often perform life-saving acts of heroism, oftentimes under very dangerous circumstances, and are integral in maintaining order and civility in our society,” he said in a statement. “The members of the law enforcement community deserve these protections.” Supporters say police officers are facing increased threats simply because they wear a badge. Advocates for the law have dubbed the Louisiana measure “Blue Lives Matter,” a reference to the color of uniforms often worn by police. The name draws on a prominent national movement, known as Black Lives Matter, which has generated wide protest over the killings of unarmed black citizens by police officers. Yet opponents argued that the bill was unnecessary because state law already makes it a capital offense to kill police officers in the course of duty. Critics say it could weaken the hate crimes law by including a professional distinction that a matter of choice, in contrast to the color of someone’s skin. “Adding professional categories to the current Hate Crimes statue deters efforts from protecting against identity-based crimes,” Allison Padilla-Goodman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, said in a statement earlier this month. Louisiana would be the first state to use a hate crimes statute to enhance penalties for crimes against police officers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but other states allow for similar outcomes using different approaches. | 0fake |
Facebook to overhaul political ads after threat of U.S. regulation | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Thursday launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements, giving a concession to U.S. lawmakers who have threatened to regulate the world s largest social network over secretive ads that run during election campaigns. The company also said it would turn over to congressional investigators the 3,000 political ads that it says were likely purchased by Russian entities during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company, for the first time, would now make it possible for anyone to see any political ads that run on Facebook, no matter whom they target. Facebook will also demand that political advertisers disclose who is paying for the advertisements, a requirement that under U.S. law applies to political ads on television but not on social media. We will work with others to create a new standard for transparency in online political ads, Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg, broadcasting live on Facebook from company headquarters in Menlo Park, California, said the changes would help address concerns that governments including Russia are using Facebook ads to meddle in other countries elections. Earlier this month, Facebook said an internal review had shown that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on 3,000 Facebook ads promoting divisive messages in the months before and after last year s U.S. presidential election. The company initially declined to turn over details on the ads to Congress. U.S. congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are examining alleged Russian election interference, which Moscow has denied. Investigators are interested in other companies as well. Representatives for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) are set to meet next week with staff from the Senate Intelligence Committee in relation to inquiries into the 2016 election. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Thursday that he wants to hear from Facebook, Alphabet Inc s (GOOGL.O) Google, Twitter and others in public hearings. It will be important for the committee to scrutinize how rigorous Facebook s internal investigation has been, to test its conclusions and to understand why it took as long as it did, Schiff said in a statement. The political advertising changes represent a retreat for Facebook, which for years has resisted calls from transparency advocates and academics for the regulation of political ads. The company has instead treated them like all commercial ads. In the days after the November 2016 U.S. election, Zuckerberg said it was a crazy idea to think that misinformation on Facebook swayed the vote toward President Donald Trump. Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, this month compared political ads on social media to the wild, wild West and said legislation might be needed to address them. The U.S. Federal Election Commission last week sought public comment on possible regulatory changes to digital ads and considered whether to call Facebook and other tech firms before the commission for a public hearing. Facebook has grown to be the leading online platform for political ads because of its low costs and tools for targeting messages to narrow audiences. U.S. political campaigns likely spent $300 million on Facebook ads during the 2016 election cycle, according to Nomura analysts, though the exact amount is unknown. It remained unclear whether Facebook s voluntary changes would satisfy demands for government action. Warner and another senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, on Thursday sent a letter to colleagues inviting them to be co-sponsors of legislation they are writing that would formalize and expand the commitments Zuckerberg made. The legislation, they wrote, would require digital platforms with 1 million or more users to maintain a publicly available file of all election-related ads bought by people who spend more than $10,000, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters. Trevor Potter, president of the pro-transparency Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement that his group would carefully monitor Facebook s implementation of this new policy. He said Facebook helped create the secrecy that gave rise to foreign interference in the 2016 elections. In the past, Facebook has argued that ad details had to remain confidential unless released by the advertisers. Zuckerberg, who returned to work on Thursday after a month of paternity leave, laid out other steps the company would take to prevent governments from using Facebook to manipulate each other s elections. He said Facebook would hire 250 additional people; expand partnerships with election commissions around the world; and adapt systems to help deter political bullying. Facebook has not found an attempt at election-meddling in Germany, Zuckerberg said, but he added that the company would continue to examine fake accounts that it has removed in advance of Sunday s German national election. I don t want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy. That s not what we stand for, Zuckerberg said. Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch said in a blog post on Thursday that it was unusual for Facebook to voluntarily turn over information to government authorities, as it was doing by giving U.S. lawmakers copies of ads. The company has long had a rigid policy of refusing to turn over any user information without a court order or other legal process. But ultimately, Stretch wrote, We believe the public deserves a full accounting of what happened in the 2016 election. | 0fake |
AT&T chief executive, Trump meet amid planned Time Warner merger | NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) Chief Executive Randall Stephenson on Thursday met in New York with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, an opponent of the company’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N). A spokeswoman for Trump confirmed the meeting after Stephenson was seen entering Trump Tower. Stephenson, who was accompanied by Robert Quinn, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, would not answer questions from reporters. AT&T said later on Thursday that the company’s $85.4 billion deal for Time Warner was not discussed. “The conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally,” AT&T said in a statement. During his campaign for the White House, Trump said AT&T’s proposal to buy Time Warner, owner of CNN and the Warner Bros movie studio, was an example of a “power structure” that was rigged against him and voters. “It’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” said Trump, who has repeatedly accused the media of being biased against him and his campaign. Since the election, Trump has not commented publicly on the AT&T-Time Warner deal, but he has been critical of CNN. He sparred with a CNN reporter on Wednesday during a televised news conference. A person briefed on the matter said AT&T requested the meeting with Trump late last week. As Thursday’s meeting was about to get under way, Trump tweeted: “@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since election and their credibility will soon be gone.” Representatives from AT&T and Time Warner declined to comment on Trump’s tweet. A Trump transition official told Reuters earlier this month that the president-elect still opposed the deal, which would require antitrust approval by the U.S. Department of Justice. It could also face a review by the Federal Communications Commission, although the companies are considering ways to structure the deal to avoid that. Time Warner shareholders will meet on Feb. 15 to decide whether to approve the merger. | 0fake |
House Republicans Humiliated Reverse Plans to Gut House Ethics Oversight - Breitbart | House Republicans suddenly reversed plans to change the rules of the House Ethics Oversight panel, in a public humiliation to kick off the 115th Congress. [In a hastily arranged meeting on Capitol Hill, the Republican conference scrambled to kill the rules changes proposal before a scheduled vote and after Donald Trump publicly ridiculed them for their timing on the issue. Other tough ethics organizations, including Judicial Watch, criticized the proposed rule changes. “The American people will see this latest push to undermine congressional ethics enforcement as shady and corrupt,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The full House should seriously consider whether it wants to bear the brunt of public outrage and go through with the rule change this afternoon. ” Democrats and the media piled on as well, ridiculing Republicans for trying to weaken the panel despite many of them campaigning to drain the swamp. “Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress. ” House Speaker Paul Ryan was vocally opposed to the proposed reforms, according to a senior congressional source, but he ultimately failed to lead Republicans away from the public relations disaster that ensued. Republicans were split about the proposed changes, according to House sources. Some agreed that there were reforms needed to change the anonymous nature of the ethics accusations and leaks of investigations to the media, others thought that the reforms went too far. Many Republicans ultimately agreed that the timing of the reforms looked bad. Speaker Ryan tried to defend the reforms in a statement on Tuesday morning, before ultimately calling a meeting to revisit the proposition. The Republican conference unanimously agreed to cancel the changes, according to reports. | 0fake |
MIC DROP MOMENT: Veteran Senator Asked By A Testy Sen. Schumer Where He Was 8 Years Ago: “Eight years ago, I was getting my ass shot at in Afghanistan” | When President Donald Trump visited the CIA Saturday, he had hoped that CIA Director Mike Pompeo would accompany him. But when Trump arrived at the Langley, Virginia, headquarters of the Agency, he was instead accompanied by Congressman Mike Pompeo.Here s what happened between Schumer and Cotton on Friday:The Senate reconvened after the inaugural ceremonies on Friday, with Pompeo s nomination set to come up at 4:50pm. Cotton angrily confronted Schumer about his broken promise. According to witnesses, Schumer told Cotton to lower his voice and asked him move off of the Senate floor to an adjacent hallway for a private discussion. We need to take this out into the hallway, Schumer said. Cotton walked with Schumer but loudly rejected his first request. Don t tell me to lower my voice! he shouted, with an additional salty admonition tacked on for emphasis. Burr and Cornyn were present, as was Senator Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and several aides.Schumer told Cotton that the Senate had never previously confirmed a CIA director on Inauguration Day and if Cotton had been around eight years earlier, he d know that Republicans didn t extend that courtesy for incoming president Barack Obama. Eight years ago, I was getting my ass shot at in Afghanistan, Cotton snapped. So don t talk to me about where I was 8 years ago. Cotton asked Schumer why he d gone back on his word. Schumer claimed that he d only been speaking for himself when he promised to let Pompeo through. I said that I would not block him, Schumer said, emphasizing the personal pronoun, according to sources who witnessed the exchange. I never said that I could speak for 47 other Democrats. The Republicans were stunned.Senator Chuck Schumer is the poster boy for term limits. His actions on this are a stain on his already tarnished reputation.Thank you to GREAT PATRIOT TOM COTTON for your service and for standing up to this weasel!Read more: WS | 1real |
MUST READ: I’m Still Trying To Figure Out How Hillary Lost The Election… | Once you ve read this list, you re going to want to share this with everyone you know! Was it the Russian Uranium Deal? Was it Wikileaks? Was it Podesta? Was it Comey? Was it having a sexual predator as a husband? Was it Huma Abedin s sexual predator husband Anthony Weiner? Was it because the Clinton Foundation ripped off Haiti? Was it subpoena violations? Was it the congressional testimony lies? Was it the corrupt Clinton Foundation? Was it the Benghazi butchering? Was it pay for play?Was it being recorded laughing because she got a child rapist off when she was an attorney? Was it the Travel Gate scandal? Was it the Whitewater scandal? Was it the Cattle Gate scandal? Was it the Trooper-Gate scandal? OR . Was it the $15 million for Chelsea s apartment bought with foundation money? Or her husband s interference with Loretta Lynch & the investigation? Or having debate questions stolen & given to her? Or her own secret server in her house? Or deleting 30,000 emails? Or having cell phones destroyed with hammers? Was it the Seth Rich murder?Was it the Vince Foster murder? Was it the Gennifer Flowers assault & settlement? Was it the $800,000 Paula Jones settlement? Was it calling half the United States deplorable? Was it the underhanded treatment of Bernie Sanders?Was it Bill s impeachment? Was it the lie about being under sniper fire in Bosnia?Was it the $10 million she took for the pardon of Marc Rich? Or the $6 BILLION she lost when in charge of the State Dept.? Or because she is a hateful, lying, power-hungry, overly ambitious, greedy, nasty person? Gee I just can t seem to put my finger on it -Author unknown | 1real |
Former Attorney General Janet Reno has Died at 78 | We Are Change
Former Attorney General Janet Reno has died from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Reno was Attorney General during the Clinton administration. She was 78. (Nov. 7)
Reno, a former Miami prosecutor, served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton.
Reno died on Monday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, according to her granddaughter, Gabrielle D’Alemberte. Who informed the Associated Press that she died early Monday morning. She is best known in the alternative media community as serving as prosecutor and exonerating the officers involved in Ruby Ridge , Idaho, in 1992 and in Waco, Texas, in 1993. Reno was sworn in as the first female attorney general on March 12, 1993, under the administration of Bill Clinton where she served in the role until 2001.
According to Republican strategist Dick Morris, also a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. Clinton wanted to drop Reno after his first term in office but Reno threatened to tell the media that it was Clinton, not she, who ordered the raid on the compound in Waco that ended with 76 men, women, and children killed when the building was burned to the ground.
“Reno threatened the president with telling the truth about Waco, and that caused the president to back down,” he said. “Then he went into a meeting with her, and he told me that she begged and pleaded, saying that . . . she didn’t want to be fired because if she were fired it would look like he was firing her over Waco,” Morris said. ” And I knew that what that meant was that she would tell the truth about what happened in Waco. “Now, to be fair, that’s my supposition. I don’t know what went on in Waco, but that was the cause. But I do know that she told him that if you fire me, I’m going to talk about Waco.”
Morris said Clinton disliked Reno.
“That was after Clinton had told me, ‘Janet Reno was the worst mistake I ever made,'” Morris said. “He hated her.” ~ Source Follow WE ARE CHANGE on SOCIAL MEDIA SnapChat: LukeWeAreChange
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BOMBSHELL: Hillary’s Democrat Niece Is “100 Percent” Behind Her Choice For President…And It’s Not Her “Selfish” Aunt Hillary | Her husband s overseas in the military, and she s home working in a local salon. She s the everyday American woman Hillary claims to be the champion for. There s only one problem she s doesn t believe that selfish Auntie Hillary should be anywhere the White House Hopeless Hillary Clinton s own family has turned against her and endorsed Donald Trump for president! In a bombshell world exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, the only daughter of Bill Clinton s druggie brother, Roger, revealed she s voting for Hillary s Republican rival instead of her selfish aunt!Hairstylist Macy Smit has never met Hillary. Her father the former first lady s brother-in-law was a deadbeat dad who walked out on her mom when she was pregnant. Something tells me the Clinton side of the family looks at me and my mother as not good enough, but we re hard-working! Macy, 25, said from her home in Tampa, Fla. I support Donald Trump 100 percent! I have been a Democrat my entire life, but Trump is what we need right now somebody who is going to stand up for us. I think at this point Hillary just wants it for the history books to be the first woman president for selfish reasons. Macy works 10 to 12-hour days at a salon, while husband Derrick Smit, 25, is a meteorologist with the U.S. Air Force. He s on active duty in Kuwait, where he helps coordinate air operations into Iraq. He was deployed in July and will return in January. Last year, pregnant Macy suffered heartbreaking tragedy when she lost her baby. At the time, her husband was deployed and she claims she was abandoned by the Clintons.Macy said, They re not as good as everyone thinks they are. I went through some very personal things [without their support]. The Clintons are all talk! Macy s mother Martha, 50, told Radar. Hillary says she s all about family, but she s got a niece she s never met and never acknowledged. The Clintons have never helped us out. According to Macy, she has a distant relationship with her father. Although they talk regularly, Macy said Roger, 60, constantly makes promises he doesn t keep just like Hillary! Radar Online | 1real |
North Carolina Poll Workers Force Asian Couple To Take Spelling Test In Order To Vote | In 2013, North Carolina Republicans passed one of the most draconian voter ID laws in the country to prevent minorities from exercising their right to participate in the democratic process.Critics warned that this reminded them of when states in the South enacted literacy tests to keep black people from voting during the Jim Crow era.Well, it looks like such tests are returning.When Rudy Ravindra and his wife attempted to vote in the recent North Carolina primary, the Asian-American couple was actually forced to take a spelling test by poll workers who very clearly wanted a reason to prevent them from voting.Ravindra described the horrific treatment in an op-ed for the Raleigh News & Observer starting from the moment he handed his driver s license to the poll worker referred to as HW. I gave my driver s license to a poll worker, HW, Ravindra wrote. He kept it face down and ordered me to spell my name. Although I go by Rudy, my legal name is Rudravajhala. In order to save time, I requested HW look at my ID. He barked, You gotta spell it! So I took a deep breath and began. R-U-D- He repeated after me and typed each letter. When he typed a B instead of a D, I had to correct him, It s not B; it s D for dog. This farce went on a for a while, and each time he made a mistake, I patiently corrected. Meanwhile, voters in adjacent lines came and went briskly. I heaved a sigh of relief when HW finally entered my mouthful of a name into his computer and peered at the monitor. And then I had to pronounce it, and when he tried, he couldn t get it right.He asked, Your address? After repeating his address to the poll worker, Ravindra was declared the perfect voter and allowed to cast his ballot.Poll workers are not allowed to test voters, but this poll worker in North Carolina seemed to think that his state had returned to the days of Jim Crow and that he was entitled to demand Ravindra jump through illegal hoops to exercise his right to vote.When Ravindra brought his wife to cast her ballot later on, a different poll worker conducted the exact same test even though white voters were able to come and go as they pleased without having to deal with such harassment. Our two Caucasian friends who live in different areas of town voted at different polling places, Ravindra reported. In contrast to our humiliating experience, however, they did not have to pass the spelling test and after a cursory glance at their IDs were allowed to vote. With that knowledge, Ravidra and his wife felt discriminated against, especially since the rise of Donald Trump has caused overwhelming suspicion and hatred of people with foreign-sounding names. My wife and I couldn t help but feel that we were singled out. The poll workers could have simply looked at our IDs and saved a lot of time. That in a sea of white faces at both polling stations my wife and I were the only brown-skinned individuals also led us to suspect that we were victims of racial prejudice. In these days of Trumpism and shameless xenophobia and other assorted phobias, we can t be blamed if we are paranoid. Ravindra contacted the State Board of Elections whose director apologized for what the couple went through and confirmed that poll workers are only supposed to look at the ID. They are NOT supposed to force people of color to pass spelling tests in order to vote. In the final analysis, Ravindra concluded, this is a bad law and subject to over-interpretation by overzealous, and possibly rogue, officials. Clearly, Jim Crow is still alive and well in some red states and the has to be particularly embarrassing to North Carolina citizens who not too long ago lived in a thriving blue state on the cusp of achieving true progress far from its days as a slave state in the Confederacy.Featured Image: Think Progress | 1real |
Activist: ‘This is where you can make the most impact’ | 21st Century Wire says If you ve been following the events outside of Burns, Oregon, you ll have seen 99% of the news coverage has been about the presence of armed militia and endless rumors of FBI Waco Siege plots and not about the core legal issues surrounding the Hammond family. These stories often start out as local issues, then quickly spin out of control and end up being managed and contested at the Federal level.Sunday Wire host Patrick Henningsen spoke to independent activist Jason Casella from PANDA UNITE and the Solutions Institute about his recent experience at the Oregon Standoff, and also about America s crisis of liberty , as well as some positive trends in activism today. Casella advocates getting closer to the sources of power and decision making in your local community: You have to make sure that your city council and county commission is acting on behalf of the people, and acting within the restraints of the Constitution, before you can ask somebody in DC, for example, or even at your state level of representatives. This is where you can actually have the most impact. Listen to the full interview with Jason Casella below.LISTEN TO MORE SUNDAY WIRE: Sunday Wire Show Archives | 1real |
15 Civilians Killed In Single US Airstrike Have Been Identified | Videos 15 Civilians Killed In Single US Airstrike Have Been Identified The rate at which civilians are being killed by American airstrikes in Afghanistan is now higher than it was in 2014 when the US was engaged in active combat operations. Photo of Hellfire missiles being loaded onto a US military Reaper drone in Afghanistan by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/U.S. Air Force.
The Bureau has been able to identify 15 civilians killed in a single US drone strike in Afghanistan last month – the biggest loss of civilian life in one strike since the attack on the Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital (MSF) last October.
The US claimed it had conducted a “counter-terrorism” strike against Islamic State (IS) fighters when it hit Nangarhar province with missiles on September 28. But the next day the United Nations issued an unusually rapid and strong statement saying the strike had killed 15 civilians and injured 13 others who had gathered at a house to celebrate a tribal elder’s return from a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Bureau spoke to a man named Haji Rais who said he was the owner of the house that was targeted. He said 15 people were killed and 19 others injured, and provided their names (listed below). The Bureau was able to independently verify the identities of those who died.
Rais’ son, a headmaster at a local school, was among them. Another man, Abdul Hakim, lost three of his sons in the attack.
Rais said he had no involvement with IS and denied US claims that IS members had visited his house before the strike. He said: “I did not even speak to those sort of people on the phone let alone receiving them in my house.”
The deaths amount to the biggest confirmed loss of civilian life in a single American strike in Afghanistan since the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz last October, which killed at least 42 people.
The Nangarhar strike was not the only US attack to kill civilians in September. The Bureau’s data indicates that as many as 45 civilians and allied soldiers were killed in four American strikes in Afghanistan and Somalia that month.
On September 18 a pair of strikes killed eight Afghan policemen in Tarinkot, the capital of Urozgan provice. US jets reportedly hit a police checkpoint, killing one officer, before returning to target first responders. The use of this tactic – known as a “double-tap” strike – is controversial because they often hit civilian rescuers.
The US told the Bureau it had conducted the strike against individuals firing on and posing a threat to Afghan forces. The email did not directly address the allegations of Afghan policemen being killed.
At the end of the month in Somalia, citizens burnt US flags on the streets of the north-central city of Galcayo after it emerged a drone attack may have unintentionally killed 22 Somali soldiers and civilians. The strike occurred on the same day as the one in Nangarhar.
In both the Somali and Afghan incidents, the US at first denied that any non-combatants had been killed. It is now investigating both the strikes in Nangarhar and Galcayo.
The rate at which civilians are being killed by American airstrikes in Afghanistan is now higher than it was in 2014 when the US was engaged in active combat operations. Name | 1real |
WATCH What Happens When Random People Are Asked To Sign Petition Allowing ALL ILLEGAL ALIEN Murderers, Rapists To Be Freed From Prison [VIDEO] | Hilarious conservative media analyst and Youtube sensation Mark Dice took to the streets of Los Angeles in 2013 while President Obama was still occupying our White House. He asked random people walking down the street if they would sign a petition to support violent criminals to be released from our prisons and onto our streets. It s interesting to see how many people accept that illegal aliens in our prisons are not being treated unfairly without any evidence. This false narrative was successfully promoted by Barack Obama, our media and the Democrats, who decided that illegal aliens should be not just be given equal treatment to American citizens, but instead, they should be given special treatment above and beyond those afforded to American citizens.Watch the video and check out the new statistics below that were just released by Zogby, showing that Hispanics in America now support President Trump more than any other demographic. Apparently supporting illegal aliens who commit crimes in America is no longer cool under a Trump administration:Most of the people who are seen signing this petition, are Hispanic. But that s when we had a president who shamed Americans into believing that giving special privileges to illegal aliens was expected. Today however, is a different story In its latest survey, Zogby Analytics said that Hispanic support has hit 45 percent, two points higher than the president s generic approval.That is 55 percent higher than the total Latino vote for Trump in the election. He won just 29 percent. The biggest surprise in this new poll is Trump s approval among Hispanic voters, which is at 45 percent approval/51 percent disapproval. In February the numbers were less among Hispanics at 39 percent approval/53 percent disapproval, said Zogby.Via: Washington Examiner | 1real |
German minister says global climate deal will survive U.S. pull-out | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said on Friday she expected other countries would press ahead with the Paris global climate deal after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would pull the United States out of the landmark pact. “Regrettable though the American decision is, I’m optimistic that overall we’ll manage to push ahead with it and fulfill it,” Hendricks said of the climate pact. “The rest of the world is closing its ranks even more tightly so I’m very optimistic,” she added. | 0fake |
Senator Lindsey Graham wants billions in emergency funds for Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Lindsey Graham said on Thursday he would seek an emergency appropriation of “multiple billions” of dollars to help Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as they try to cope with the fallout from the war with Islamic State. Graham, who recently returned from a trip to the region, said the three countries are facing severe stresses as a result of the political and refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war and the overrun of parts of Syria and Iraq by Islamic State. “One thing I’m going to talk... about is an emergency appropriation that would help Egypt, Jordan and probably Lebanon to deal with the stresses they’re facing,” said Graham, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid. He said he also wanted money for Israel to help protect its borders, especially with Syria. Graham said he expected opposition from budget hawks, mostly his fellow Republicans. He said he expected Democratic support, although he acknowledged deep concern from some, including Senator Patrick Leahy, the party’s leader on his subcommittee, about Egypt’s human rights record. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted former President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against Mursi’s rule. Sisi then launched a crackdown on dissent, drawing allegations from rights groups of abuse, which his government denies. Sisi initially gained the support of millions of Egyptians, who saw him as a decisive figure who could deliver stability. But that support has thinned as the public has grown frustrated with unemployment and high prices. Graham said Egypt is too crucial an ally, to both the United States and Israel, not to bolster Sisi’s government militarily to fight terrorism, and economically, if he improves on human rights. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Graham said he would ask the Pentagon to approve Egypt’s requests for additional military equipment. “If al-Sisi did something that would be seen by me and others as a real serious move on the rights front, it makes it easier for a guy like me to help,” he said. Longer term, Graham said he wanted a “Marshall Plan” for the region, similar to what Washington provided to Europe after World War Two. “We need to think broadly as a nation about some kind of Marshall Plan for front-line states that would allow Egypt to have access to low-interest loans, preferential trade agreements and bolstering their civil society,” he said. | 0fake |
BREAKING EMAIL LEAK: “Bernie needs to be ground to a pulp…Crush him as hard as you can” | Hey Bernie how s that whole Queen of Wall Street/ Democrat mob boss endorsement working out for you?Wikileaks has released another batch of emails. One of those emails is likely from Joel Johnson, the Managing Director of The Glover Park Group, a Washington DC firm specializing in strategic communications and government relationsThe email was sent on Feb. 2, 2016 to John Podesta with the subject matter: Friendly advice. No mercy. From:Joel@gpg.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2016-02-22 00:09 Subject: Friendly advice. No mercy.Bernie needs to be ground to a pulp. We can t start believing our own primary bullshit. This is no time to run the general. Crush him as hard as you can. Other than that, hope all is well and congrats on Nevada!Only 4 days ago, The Hill named GPG s Joel Johnson as one their Top Lobbyists or Hired Guns for 2016:Joel Johnson, The Glover Park GroupClients have a trusted guide in Johnson, a former Clinton administration official who leads the advocacy efforts of the public relations powerhouse.Buzzfeed In September 2015, Susan Brophy, managing director of the Glover Park Group, emailed top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills on Oct. 4, 2011, telling her that a planned speech before a joint session of Congress by the Korean president was running into some hurdles. Brophy suggested that the State Department could move things along in Congress.The only problem was, Brophy was representing a country she wasn t registered to represent.Foreign Agent Registration Act rules require individual lobbyists to register the clients they represent, and lobbying firms are required to file their contacts on behalf of those clients.Brophy is a former Clinton White House official, and has raised money for Ready for Hillary, a pro-Clinton super PAC that shut down when the former secretary of state announced her presidential campaign. The Clintons attended her wedding to lawyer and diplomat Gerald McGowan in 1998.The speech by then-president Lee Myung-bak did proceed and took place on Oct. 13, 2011.Joel Johnson, a managing director for Glover Park Group, told BuzzFeed News that Brophy had in fact been on the team working on the South Korean account and that she should have been listed as doing so in their FARA documents. She absolutely was working on the account and had been throughout, and the fact that she had somehow not been listed directly as the principal working on the account was an administrative error, Johnson said.Johnson also said that Brophy should have reported that that contact had been made to the State Department and for whatever reason that was not included in our list of activities and it should have been, and I ll go back and make sure we do whatever is appropriate to amend that. Blah blah blah Is anyone else sick and tired of the Clinton s and anyone attached to the Clinton s not having to follow the same rules and laws the rest of America is expected to follow, or face the consequences of our actions? We take these reporting requirements seriously and we are as diligent as we ever can be, but in that case there s no question that the email she sent to [Mills] have been included in the list of contacts Glover Park Group had made on behalf of South Korea, he said.Yep So are we to believe you took Grounding Bernie to a pulp seriously? | 1real |
In The Last 24 Hours, Sean Hannity Has Undergone Some Sort Of Mental Breakdown | Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
It’s been a weird 24 hours if you happen to live inside the head of Sean Hannity. The Fox News pundit and Trump propagandist has been live tweeting some sort of mental breakdown and it’s entirely unclear what the endgame is.
It started like this: For reasons unknown, on his radio show Hannity told listeners that he would be asking Donald Trump for help in shipping the Obama family – all of whom are Americans – to Kenya after the election.
If you’re saying to yourself “Wow, that sounds pretty racist” the answer is yes, yes it is . There is no universe in which a person telling America’s first black president to go back to Africa cannot be construed as a racist statement. That is, unless you happen to reside in the fantasy world that Sean Hannity currently lives in.
After getting rightfully hammered for the comments, Hannity either got very drunk or had a psychotic break and tweeted out a profoundlymisspelled defense of what he said. The tweets wouldn’t pass a breathalyzer.
Tweet #1 (now deleted):
Liberal media. It’s was Josh Ernest who refuse to amswee teh ? Will Obama stay in the US if DT wins. I mentioned I’d pay a charter to …
“amswee teh ?” Really?
Tweet #2 (now deleted):
Liberal media 2 Any country they choose. 1- Canada where the satire piece was written Kenya where he visited
The second tweet also linked to the website of infamous conservative provocateur Chuck Johnson, a racist white nationalist who once proposed the theory that Obama was a gay prostitute. Johnson is so morally repugnant that he was officially permanently banned from ever holding an account on Twitter.
After waking up, Hannity got back on Twitter to do damage control. According to him, these incoherent cries for help weren’t what they looked like, he just didn’t have his glasses on… Half asleep and didn't put my glasses on. Lol. I wish I had a better excuse. https://t.co/GUvw7ef2AV
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 27, 2016
He also doubled down on his defense of telling Obama to go to Africa. I said I'll send him anywhere he wants to go. I mentioned Canada first, Kenya where part of his family is today, Jakarta where he once lived https://t.co/wvNxCMTXYu
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 27, 2016
None of which “answee teh ?” of why the Obama family should be exiled to another country in the first place. Glasses or not, that’s a level of fascist thinking that has been relatively unthinkable in American democracy. Only since the rise of Trump, and his avowed policy of going after his political and personal enemies after he’s elected, would the idea of banning a former president from the country even be imagined. Now it’s being normalized by a Fox News pundit with an audience of millions.
Sean Hannity has been a hack for many years, but Donald Trump finally completely severed his grip on reality. We’re witnessing what happens when a man with major delusions gets to indulge them in front of an audience of millions each night on a major network – and it isn’t pretty.
Featured image via Fox News Share this Article! | 1real |
(VIDEO) IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: GOP FULL DEBATE | The takeaway from the first debate is that the FOX news moderators tried to pose gotcha questions and should have asked more substantive questions about the issues facing America. It was disappointing to watch Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace attack certain candidates and play favorites to others (RINO s). If we didn t know better, we d almost believe FOX News had an agenda last night. Hmmm What do you think? | 1real |
Shallow 5.4 magnitude earthquake rattles central Italy; shakes buildings in Rome | 00 UTC © USGS Map of the earthquake's epicenter An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 rattled a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, on Wednesday (Thursday NZT), just two months after a powerful temblor toppled villages, killing nearly 300 people. There were no immediate reports of damage. Italy's National Vulcanology Center said the epicenter was near Macerata, near Perugia. The US Geological Survey said it had a depth of some 10 kilometres, which is relatively shallow. The quake was felt across a broad swath of central and southern Italy, shaking centuries-old palazzi in Rome's historic centre. The Aug. 24 quake destroyed hilltop village of Amatrice and other nearby towns. Wednesday's quake was felt from Perugia in Umbria to the capital Rome to the central Italy town of Aquila, which was struck by a deadly quake in 2009. The mayor of Aquila, however, said there was no immediate report of damage. The quake struck at 7.10pm on Wednesday (local time). "The earthquake only happened a few minutes ago. It's dark here, so impossible to determine if there has been any damage outside," one resident in Penna San Giovanni told EMSC. "All services - electricity, internet, etc - are still working normally." MORE TO COME | 1real |
9/11 Firefighters Reveal Bombs Destroyed WTC lobby | By anonews
“Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance” – Albert Einstein
Newly obtained video that was reluctantly released by NIST after a lawsuit by the International Center for 9/11 Studies shows two firefighters on 9/11 discussing how secondary explosions occurred immediately before the collapse of the twin towers, providing damning new evidence that explosive devices were used to bring down the buildings.
Firemen discuss how bombs were going off in the lobby of WTC1 as they were staging to move up the building.
They explain how the building had already been hit by the plane and fires were already burning. After two explosions in the lobby, a third went off and the whole lobby collapsed.
Listen To 9/11 Firefighters Tell How Bombs Were Going Off In The Lobby Of World Trade Center 1:
Even though it’s an old video, it’s useful to share given the fact that people are still waking up to the possibility that the official story presented to the public was false. | 1real |
Rheinmetall CEO says Turkey row holding up defense projects: DPA | FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Tensions between Germany and Turkey are holding up planned defense projects at Rheinmetall, the German company s chief executive told news agency DPA in an interview. Ties between the two NATO allies have been strained by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan s crackdown on opponents after a failed coup last year as well as Germany s refusal to extradite people Turkey says were involved in the plot. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said in the interview published on Monday that several projects, including the production of ammunition for fighter jets in Turkey and upgrades to Turkey s Leopard tanks, were still awaiting decisions by the two governments. If relations with Turkey don t improve it will be difficult to obtain clearance from Germany, he said. Poor relations have also dimmed Rheinmetall s prospects for playing a role in Turkey s Altay tank project, worth an estimated 7 billion euros ($8.13 billion), DPA said. Turkey s BMC, with which Rheinmetall has a joint venture in Turkey, is among the bidders for the first tranche to build around 100 to 200 of a planned 1,000 combat tanks, DPA said. If BMC wins the contract, Rheinmetall could in theory take part in the development of the tank via joint venture RBSS, in which the German company holds a 40 percent stake, but it would need an export clearance from the German government. Papperger said Rheinmetall had no plans to build its own tank factory in Turkey. | 0fake |
U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia cautions citizens after unconfirmed reports of foiled attack in Jeddah | RIYADH (Reuters) - The United States Embassy in Saudi Arabia warned U.S. citizens to exercise caution in the area around the Peace Palace in Jeddah on Saturday after reports on social media of an attack there. There were several unconfirmed reports that security forces had foiled an attack near the king s palace, leaving the attacker and several guards dead. The Saudi government has not issued an official statement confirming the incident. | 0fake |
Obsessing over Europe’s Refugee Crisis While Ignoring Africa’s Is White Privilege at Work | Obsessing over Europe’s Refugee Crisis While Ignoring Africa’s Is White Privilege at Work Mehdi Hasan, Washington Post, November 3, 2016
Have you not heard? Europe is in the throes of a refugee crisis. Hosting asylum-seekers from Syria is a “historic test of Europe,” says Germany’s Angela Merkel. “The most responsibility [for refugees] is and will continue to be placed on Europe,” adds European Council President Donald Tusk.
For President Obama, “uncontrolled migration into Europe” is a “major national security issue” for the United States. Even the Dalai Lama agrees that there are “too many” refugees inside the European Union.
Really? “Too many”? “Historic”? Consider these facts: More than 65 million people were forced from their homes by conflict or persecution in 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , including 21.3 million people classified as refugees living outside the borders of their own countries.
Admittedly, a record 1.3 million refugees sought asylum within the European Union last year, with thousands more applying for asylum every month. Yet what of Sub-Saharan Africa, home to 4.4 million refugees and a whopping 19.5 million “people of concern” to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees?
We don’t often hear about these particular refugees or asylum-seekers, do we? They are, to borrow a term from British historian Mark Curtis, “unpeople,” the poor, nonwhite residents of the developing world who tend to be ignored by the Western media.
Where is the rolling coverage of Kenya’s Dadaab camp, for example? Dadaab is the largest refugee camp in the world, but in a move that could displace as many as 300,000 people , Kenyan authorities are in the process of closing it down. It puts the recent British media frenzy over the so-called “Jungle” camp in Calais, France, with its 10,000 migrants, into some perspective, doesn’t it?
{snip}
Yet Europe’s refugee crisis continues to suck up all the oxygen of global publicity. The UNHCR fundraises for a whole host of “special situations” involving refugees. As of the end of October, the “ Central African Republic situation ” was 17 percent funded; the “ Somalia situation ” 21 percent funded and the “ South Sudan situation ” 25 percent funded. The “ crisis in Europe ,” however? Fifty-six percent funded.
The double standard is as brazen as it is shameful. Remember: The European Union accounts for 17 percent of global GDP ; Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for a little more than 3 percent .
{snip}
This is not just navel-gazing hyperbole but white privilege, plain and simple. How else to describe a collective tendency to obsess over a refugee crisis in (rich, white) Europe, rather than in (poor, black) Africa? In what warped world are thousands of penniless and homeless refugees considered to constitute a crisis only when they wash up on the shores of western Europe? | 1real |
Saudi women rejoice at end of driving ban long backed by clerics | RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian women awoke to news of a royal decree permitting them to drive starting next year - and some were already behind the wheel on Wednesday, even though licenses will not be issued for nine months. Saudi Arabia will never be the same again. The rain begins with a single drop, Manal al-Sharif, who was arrested in 2011 after a driving protest, said in an online statement. Online videos showed a handful of women driving cars overnight, after King Salman s decree was announced late on Tuesday. I wish I could translate my feelings right now. I feel like no one can understand it fully but us, said Abeer Alarjani, 32, who plans to start driving lessons this weekend. Now I ll finally dare to dream for more. The move represents a big crack in the laws and social mores governing women in the conservative Muslim kingdom. The male guardianship system requires women to have a male relative s approval for decisions on education, employment, marriage, travel plans and even medical treatment. Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has been widely criticized for being the only remaining country to forbid women to drive. King Salman s decree ends a conservative tradition seen by rights activists as an emblem of the country s suppression of women. [nL8N1M761P] It is expected to boost the fortunes of 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has ascended to the heights of power in the kingdom in three short years with an ambitious domestic reform program and assertive foreign policy. A muted response from Saudi s powerful clergy, which has long backed the ban, suggested power shared between the Al Saud dynasty and the Wahhabi religious establishment could be shifting decisively in favor of the royals. Many younger Saudis regard Crown Prince Mohammed s ascent as evidence that their generation is taking a central place in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of the old and blocked women s progress. Sharif, the activist, described the driving ban s removal as just the start to end long-standing unjust laws (that) have always considered Saudi women minors who are not trusted to drive their own destiny. The Saudi ambassador to Washington said on Tuesday women would not need their guardians permission to get a license, nor to have a guardian in the car when driving. In a country where gender segregation has been strictly enforced for decades in keeping with the austere Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam, the decree means women will have regular contact with unrelated men, such as fellow drivers and traffic police. Other rules have loosened recently, with the government sponsoring concerts deemed un-Islamic by the clergy, allowing women into a large sports stadium for the first time and permitting them to dance beside men in a central Riyadh street over the weekend. [nL5N1M509T] Amnesty International welcomed the decree as long overdue but said there was still a range of discriminatory laws and practices that needed to be overturned. That risks inflaming tensions with influential Wahhabi clerics with whom the ruling Al Saud has enjoyed a close strategic alliance since the kingdom s founding. The state-backed Council of Religious Scholars expressed support for the driving decree. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, who has repeatedly opposed women working and driving and said letting them into politics may mean opening the door to evil , has yet to comment. Some Islamist clerics are currently in detention in Saudi Arabia following an apparent crackdown on potential opponents of the kingdom s rulers this month. [nL5N1LW47G] Bernard Haykel, professor of Near East studies at Princeton University, said the driving announcement may help explain those arrests. They might have raised a storm against the government by mobilizing opposition in the name of religion. They have been stymied, he said. Still, some men expressed outrage at the about-face by prominent clerics, who in the past have sometimes justified the driving ban by saying women s brains are too small or that driving endangered their ovaries. Whoever says this is permitted is a sinner. Women driving means great evils and this makes them especially sinful, one Riyadh-based Twitter user wrote. Where is the (Grand) Mufti? said another. Evil has come to Arabs. | 0fake |
U.N. investigator says he does not have permission to go to Myanmar | GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. fact-finding mission probing violence in Myanmar s Rakhine state said on Tuesday he is still waiting for permission to enter the country. We have not been able to proceed further in planning the presence of a fact-finding team on the ground until there is a clear signal from the government of Myanmar that the fact-finding mission is in fact enabled to access into the country, Marzuki Darusman told the U.N. Human Rights Council. We continue to hold hopes, high hopes in fact, that this may be resolved. | 0fake |
Trump COMPLETELY Destroys His Promise To End Corruption On Wall Street (VIDEO) | Donald Trump has made many promises to the working class citizen. He promised he d side with them through it all and the he would make the working class thrive. Trump said he d make the middle class of America great and make our economy better than ever by destroying the corruption within the White House and Wall Street. Well, he was just telling everyone what they wanted to hear, and it was all a load of crap.Donald Trump is putting together his cabinet, and with every choice he makes we see that he never actually intended to make America greater for the middle class, just those who already have more money than they can spend. His cabinet consists of nothing but Wall Street millionaires who want nothing to do with the working class. Donald s choice of Steve Bannon as chief strategist, a man who has been tied to white nationalists, and his choice for secretary of labor, Andrew Puzder, who s worked against the working class for several years prove he cares nothing about the promises he made.The Democrats have put together a video that shows the 180 degree turn Trump s plan has taken:The people responsible for the Great Recession have a new home in the Trump administration: pic.twitter.com/nwNJTuGdtC The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) December 20, 2016Surely, many American s have began to see how badly Trump is screwing them over, and feel remorseful about their vote. They are know figuring out what we ve been saying this entire election, Trump could never be trusted, he s only in it for himself, not for America. | 1real |
WATCH TRUMP CROWD ERUPT: “We have no choice! Complete shut down of Muslims entering U.S.” | Trump reads his Muslim shutdown statement at a rally this afternoon: It s difficult to watch this gross incompetence that I watched last night. Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States, until our country s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. We have no choice. https://youtu.be/VxgkvfV-3qE | 1real |
Republicans, Democrats bicker over infrastructure plans | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans and Democrats argued over the best way to rebuild U.S. infrastructure - a high priority of President Donald Trump - with no agreement in sight following skirmishes on Tuesday between the two parties. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected a new, detailed $1 trillion proposal unveiled by Democrats that would rely heavily on new government spending. That came shortly after Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said his party could not accept the tax credit mechanism Trump has proposed to fuel the rebuilding of roads, bridges, sewers, airports and other public works. Schumer vowed to oppose any plan by Trump that would rely on “tax credits for developers” to spur rebuilding U.S. infrastructure. Trump earlier on Tuesday signed an executive action to expedite environmental approvals for high-priority infrastructure projects. That prompted Schumer to warn that Democrats would work to include environmental protections in any infrastructure measure that moves through the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promptly lambasted the Democrats’ proposal. “I don’t think we ought to borrow almost $1 trillion and plus-up a bunch of federal accounts, incur a lot of additional debt and don’t build any projects to speak of,” McConnell said, comparing the plan to President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus legislation that Republicans opposed. Democrats argue that an investment plan relying on developer tax credits would fail to generate enough construction and would result in the creation of too many toll roads to finance costs over the long term. Instead, Senate Democrats are seeking heavy investments by the government, including $210 billion to rebuild roads and bridges, $110 billion for water and sewage projects, $180 billion for rail and bus systems and $75 billion to rebuild schools. McConnell’s support would be essential to any infrastructure measure succeeding in Congress. Trump campaigned throughout last year on a promise to pursue a $1 trillion infrastructure program, which would come at a time when major public works projects are crumbling. The economy, however, also faces a shortage of the skilled workers needed to build roads, bridges, airports and other facilities. | 0fake |
Can Paul Ryan and Donald Trump coexist within the Republican Party? | House Speaker Paul D. Ryan attempted to lift the horizons of his party with a speech last week in which he called for a competition of ideas rather than insults, and constructive political debate rather than the politics of demonization.
Ryan’s speech was aimed at pulling the Republican Party away from Donald Trump’s embrace — though he never actually mentioned Trump by name. Events quickly showed what he is up against. The speaker was quickly drowned out by a snarling argument between Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas over their wives that almost eclipsed the terrorist attacks in Brussels in the U.S. media.
By week’s end, the Republican race had gone into the gutter over tabloid charges of infidelity, which the senator vehemently denied and for which he blamed the New York billionaire, who called it unfounded. A race that seemed already at the bottom managed to find another low.
Ryan’s speech was a relatively high-minded moment in the middle of this mud fight of a Republican nominating contest. His effort to rescue the party from a coming crisis is laudable, but the root causes of the condition go far beyond Trump.
The front-runner for the nomination of the Republican Party is as much a reflection of the condition as a cause, a reality that Ryan (R-Wis.) touched on only lightly in calling for a more positive and uplifting approach to politics by all sides. Which means stopping Trump alone won’t necessarily solve all of the party’s problems.
Four years ago, scholars Thomas Mann, then with the Brookings Institution, and Norman Ornstein, then and now with the American Enterprise Institute, published a book examining the breakdown in American politics. It was titled “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.”
The authors took aim at the gridlocked and dysfunctional politics of Washington and the broader issue of political polarization that has become endemic in recent years. They were unsparing but not even-handed in their critique. They were ahead of others in describing the underlying causes of polarization as asymmetrical, with the Republican Party — in particular its most hard-line faction — as deserving of far more of the blame for the breakdown in governing.
Mann and Ornstein are back again with a second and updated paperback edition, called “It’s Even Worse Than It Was.” The paperback arrives in the middle of the most raucous presidential campaign in memory, one that has exposed even more the fissures, fractures and divisions within the Republican Party coalition.
What played out primarily in the party’s congressional wing has come to consume the presidential nominating contest. In their own ways, Trump and Cruz have brought to the surface the economic and cultural anger among many of those in the party’s base as well as the distrust of the party leadership — the same motivating forces behind the Freedom Caucus rebels in the House Republican conference.
The current campaign only adds fuel to the Mann-Ornstein thesis of a Republican Party at war with itself in ways that have helped cripple the governing process. Trump and Cruz reflect the yearning within the Republican base for anti-establishment outsiders to topple the insiders in Washington.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the third remaining candidate for the nomination, is a dissenting voice, calling for cooperation and compromise. At this point, he is not just a dissenting voice; he is a minority voice in the presidential competition, unless he can start winning more primaries.
Trump and Ryan represent bookends in a political debate that has considerable consequences for the Republican Party and for the country. Trump’s position as front-runner not only highlights the degree to which the party is being taken over by anti-establishment forces but also foreshadows the possibility of a significant defeat in November if, as the GOP nominee, Trump is unable to reverse his standing among women, Hispanics, African Americans and other voting groups.
Ryan represents something far different, politics grounded in ideas and policies and an attitude of goodwill toward the opposition that he inherited from his mentor, Jack Kemp, the former House member from Buffalo who prodded his party to be more open and inclusive.
Yet Ryan’s speech left unanswered key questions about his capacity to change the behavior of his party’s conference in the House and in particular the degree to which he is willing to find a governing coalition apart from the hard-liners in the Freedom Caucus.
As the country’s highest-ranking Republican elected official, Ryan symbolizes the establishment’s backlash to Trump’s candidacy, a backlash that has so far failed to stop the New York businessman’s march to the nomination. The resistance might yet succeed. Whether it does or doesn’t, it raises the question of whether this presidential campaign ultimately will produce a true course change for the party or merely end up intensifying the forces that have brought it to this moment.
I put that question to Ornstein in an email exchange Friday: “This really is, I believe, an existential crisis for the Republican Party,” he wrote. “Will it be a Ryan-style conservative, problem-solving party, or will it be either a Trump-style, authoritarian, nativist and protectionist party, or a Cruz-style radical anti-government party content with blowing things up as they now stand? Or, just as possible, will the party break apart, with no clue as to what will replace it or how the pieces will fit into the broader political system?”
The prospects for a crackup are real, given what Trump’s candidacy has revealed about the party’s fractured coalition. Trump’s views on issues, outlined on the campaign trail and in a recent interview with The Washington Post editorial board, represent a fundamental break with many of the conservative ideas that have been at the party’s core for years.
Trump’s constituency finds his support for protecting rather than transforming Social Security and Medicare appealing. His words of praise for the work of Planned Parenthood, apart from performing abortions, are anathema to many religious conservatives. His views on trade run counter to the free-trade philosophy of the GOP elites. His comments about reevaluating the U.S. role in NATO shocked many in the Republican foreign-policy establishment.
That’s the threat Ryan and others in the party see as they watch the nominating contest move into the next rounds of primaries. But it isn’t clear that what the speaker advocated in his speech would be enough to put the Republican Party in a better place, even absent Trump. House Republicans are still an unruly group and, with some exceptions, the GOP still prefers to try to do business with itself.
The Republican Party remains a party of protest. It continues to struggle to demonstrate that, on the national level, it can be a true governing party. | 0fake |
DAMNING Texts Have Just Surfaced In Christie’s ‘Bridgegate’ Scandal | Chris Christie has always been adamant that neither he, nor his staff, knew anything about the Washington Bridge lane closures intended to create serious traffic problems for a town whose mayor refused to endorse his re-election bid in 2014. However, some new texts have surfaced in which two staffers discuss how Christie flat-out lied at a 2013 press conference where he insisted they were all innocent.The exchange was between Christina Renna and a campaign staffer, Peter Sheridan, and went like this: Are you listening? He just flat out lied about senior staff and (former campaign manager Bill) Stepian not being involved, the aide, Christina Genovese Renna, wrote in a text message to campaign worker Peter Sheridan as they watched the Dec. 13, 2013 press conference, when the so-called Bridgegate scandal was just beginning to unfold. I m listening. Sheridan replied. He added: Gov is doing fine. Holding his own up there. Renna wrote back: Yes. But he lied. And if emails are found with the subpoena or [campaign] emails are uncovered in discovery if it comes to that it could be bad.' Lawyers for Bill Baroni, one of Christie s allies who s going on trial soon for his role in Bridgegate, submitted those texts as evidence that the blame for Bridgegate really lies with other people. They re trying to convince the court that the government ignored key evidence in their investigations.Christie is becoming a well-known liar. When asked about these texts, he flat-out said: I absolutely dispute it. It s ridiculous. It s nothing new. There s nothing new to talk about. He also tried to cast doubt on the texts by saying they came from a defense lawyer, and not from someone under oath. Christie seems to think he can remain innocent in the eyes of, well, whoever thinks he s actually innocent, by implying the texts are either fabricated or taken so far out of context that they re meaningless.Christie hasn t been charged in the scandal. Depending on what happens with this new evidence, though, that may change. Either way, Christie looks worse than ever.Featured image by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Catalonia or Neverland? Humor relieves tension in Spain | MADRID (Reuters) - Shortly after the Catalan government defied Madrid and held a referendum on independence, Jaume Vives held his own vote on whether to separate his central Barcelona balcony from this Catalonia of madmen . Using a megaphone, the 25-year-old journalist declared the nine votes cast by his assembled friends and family were really 2.4 million - a slightly inaccurate reference to the 2.3 million who voted for a break with Spain. Then he suspended the decision just as Catalan president Carles Puigdemont had done with his Oct. 10 decision to pursue independence in the Catalan parliament. A video of the stunt has been watched 890,000 times on YouTube as people on both sides of the independence divide turn to satire to break the tension of a real-life drama that is both dividing and maddening the nation. The drama s two main actors - Puigdemont and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy - are the butt of most jibes. The anti-independence camp has aimed its jokes at Puigdemont and what they see as his reluctance to be decisive and his flip-flop statements on the independence question. In recent weeks, he has declared independence then suspended his declaration, accepted an invitation to address the Senate then declined it, and called for an independence vote in Catalan parliament and then deferred it. One bar in Barcelona recently put up a sign that declared free beer for all - but then, tongue-in-cheek, said the measure was immediately suspended pending talks with the beer company. One mock TV game show presented a puzzled Puigdemont considering his answer to the final question of an episode of Who wants to be a millionaire? What is Catalonia right now?, the question read on the screen, with the four possible answers listed as: A - a region ? B - Neverland ? C - a Republic ?, or D - a circus ? On the other side, satirists have homed in on Prime Minister Rajoy and his insistence that Puigdemont renounce independence as a condition of negotiations. In one online parody, Rajoy is shown with U.S. President Donald Trump s hair and a caption saying: I will build a wall, - and Catalonia will pay for it. At a recent pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona he appeared on a poster kissing Spanish dictator Francisco Franco - historically a hate figure in Catalonia - on the lips amid a burst of pink heart shapes. Another, shared hundreds of thousands of times on Whatsapp, shows Rajoy embracing Puigdemont and saying, He stays , in a parody of a famous tweet from FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique announcing that Brazilian star Neymar would not leave the club. Neymar signed for Paris Saint Germain days later. The satire highlights the fatigue that both sides feel. Barcelona has buzzed for the past two months with repeated, large-scale protests, mostly for independence but also including one rally of more than 300,000 against secession. Humor has become a means of escape from the seemingly endless tension. From his balcony in the upmarket residential neighborhood of Sarria-Sant Gervasi, Vives described his lone anti-independence as a Smiling Counter-Revolution . We are reducing to absurdity the absurd reality we are living, and the lies they tell us, Vives said. Doing this reduces the tension in the atmosphere. Jokes don t feed hatred. | 0fake |
Iraq hangs 38 Sunni militants in mass execution: justice ministry | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq hanged 38 Sunni Muslim militants on Thursday after they were sentenced to death on terrorism charges, the justice ministry said in a statement. The mass executions were carried out at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya, the statement said quoting the Justice Minister. On Sept. 24, Iraq executed 42 Sunni Muslim militants on terrorism charges ranging from killing members of security forces to detonating car bombs. The justice ministry said all the convicted were members of Islamic State. Officials have said all the appeal options available to the condemned had been exhausted, according to the statement. | 0fake |
Trump’s Pre-Inauguration Tweets Just Earned Him An Epic Smackdown From The Internet (TWEETS) | Though he is facing down six intelligence agencies investigations into alleged illegal payments Trump received from the Kremlin to fund The Donald s efforts to become President by any means necessary, Friday marks the day that he becomes President and if you thought assuming the most powerful office in the world would stop Trump from tweeting like an angst-plagued middle schooler, you were sorely mistaken.On Thursday, Trump hopped on Twitter to announce that he s headed to Washington D.C. and, of course, to quote right-wing icon Franklin Graham s idiotic claim that someone who isn t Trump (hint: Obama) being the guy who divided the country rather than the dude who called Mexicans rapists, wants to ban Muslims from entering the country, and who offered to pay legal fees if his supporters beat up black people at his rallies. It wasn t Donald Trump that divided this country, this country has been divided for a long time!, Stated today by Reverend Franklin Graham, Trump tweeted as part of his daily ritual. Getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C. The journey begins and I will be working and fighting very hard to make it a great journey for the American people. I have no doubt that we will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! "It wasn't Donald Trump that divided this country, this country has been divided for a long time!" Stated today by Reverend Franklin Graham. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2017Getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C. The journey begins and I will be working and fighting very hard to make it a great journey for.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2017the American people. I have no doubt that we will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2017Naturally, the internet swooped in to remind him how very wrong Mr. Graham is:@realDonaldTrump Going from Barack Obama to Donald Trump is like replacing Ramsay s fettuccine bolognese with a dented can of SpaghettiOs. Tommy Campbell (@MrTommyCampbell) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump yeah, you didn't divide the country by demanding anyone's birth certificate years ago? Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump During your campaign you attacked Muslim Americans, Hispanic Americans, Female Americans, Disabled Americans Mark Pygas (@MarkPygas) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump I'm sure you had nothing to do with it, though. pic.twitter.com/RILwITNPoA Mark Pygas (@MarkPygas) January 19, 2017@glogh1 @realDonaldTrumpNo smoke without fire . There's a reason these guys gave official support to Trump pic.twitter.com/sreB3BGCPd Tom Taylor (@YesTomTaylor) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump Well, if the dingleberry who thinks Obama was "born a Muslim" says so, it must be true! REAL NEWS!!! Ben Hooper (@BenHooperWrites) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump Oh go fuck yourself, traitor. Joe Harris (@joeharris) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump Are you aware if members of your staff were being monitored by the FBI w/r/t unusual comms. with Russian officials? Productivty Tips ?? (@productivyttips) January 19, 2017@realDonaldTrump Have you ever taken responsibility for your shitty actions..even once? Michelle (@RageMichelle) January 19, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Oh, geez. He praised your Vlad for "protecting children from any homosexual agenda." What a nut! https://t.co/DUpTZjIxwA Bess Kalb (@bessbell) January 19, 2017Trump may be taking office, but he is already plagued by who knows how many scandals at this point? The most important one surrounds Russia not the lady pee bit, but the very serious probability that his team was directly colluding with the enemy to install him in office. In any case, our country is fucked. He knows it, you know it, and Putin knows it.Featured image via Getty Images (Mario Tama)/screengrab | 1real |
SHE GREW UP BELIEVING BLACKS Could Only Support Democrats…Until She Took A Job With ACORN: WATCH The INCREDIBLE Story Of A Woman Who Took On Obama’s LEFTIST MACHINE [VIDEO] | Keep your eye on Anita Moncreif If knowledge is power she is the Democrat Party s worst nightmare. When you re on the left, and all of your friends are leftists, and your parents are leftists, you don t hang around with other people, and you only get the view of folks as what you see on TV, and how they present it to you. And you guys are seen as racist, angry people. Every time they get a chance, that s the image they push out there on TV. They try to find that one crazy Tea Party person and they try to get them to say something, and they make sure they play it on all the black stations. And you see that and you say, Okay, these people are nuts. So I didn t expect to find any kind of support from the Right. Everything Anita Moncreif believed to be true about the Left changed when she took a job with ACORN and quickly discovered the Democrat Party was not really looking out for the interests of the Black community or low income neighborhoods. When she began to understand they would do anything, including breaking the law, to grow the Democrat Party, she made the decision to expose them. She quickly found out how the mainstream media will go to any length to keep the truth about the criminal Left from the American people.Watch her amazing story here: Decades after his death, Saul Alinsky s vision has become reality. From Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton to ACORN to Black Lives Matter, Alinsky is more alive in his death now than in his four decades of community organizing.Anita is asking for the help of conservatives to make this movie a reality. She needs YOUR help to build momentum for this film.Please consider giving whatever you can today. Click HERE to donate $1, $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can afford. This is an independent fund. We have no big funders or organizations backing us yet. That s why we need you. We need to start shooting now. Reaching our goal will allow us to begin shooting footage at the two party conventions and buy us time to raise awareness to raise the production, administrative, and promotional budgets for this much-needed film.We re going to communicate with you the audience. Some of the footage we ll release before the film s debut. We ll also communicate some of our successes and our challenges along the way. Together, we can change the way films are produced and promoted.The American Left and the Right need to see this film and decide where we go from here.If the necessary funds aren t raised on Kickstarter, account funds won t be unlocked.Eight years after exposing ACORN, I have been immersed in training, speaking, and examining the effectiveness of the grassroots on both sides of the aisle. I felt that my journey was not over, and I had many more truths to tell. I am finally ready to offer a movement eye view of the legacy of Alinsky, and the rise of grassroots movements across the nation. It s a huge effort, it s expensive, and the stakes are high, so please chip in $15, $50, $500 or more to fund our efforts to film at the DNC and RNC conventions in the next few weeks.Donate now to The Children of Alinsky (Phase 1)Together, we can do great things and the possibility of a documentary filmed and funded by ordinary people determined to implement change will be a major step toward illustrating how bottom-up change is done.Your friend, Anita MonCriefHere is Part II of Anita s amazing story: | 1real |
Donald Trump Picks Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff and Stephen Bannon as Strategist - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump on Sunday chose Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and a loyal campaign adviser, to be his White House chief of staff, turning to a Washington insider whose friendship with the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, could help secure early legislative victories. In selecting Mr. Priebus, Mr. Trump passed over Stephen K. Bannon, a media provocateur. But the named Mr. Bannon his senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist, signaling an embrace of the fringe ideology long advanced by Mr. Bannon and of a continuing disdain for the Republican establishment. The dual appointments — with Mr. Bannon given top billing in the official announcement — instantly created rival centers of power in the Trump White House. Mr. Bannon’s selection demonstrated the power of activists who backed Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Some of them have long traded in the conspiracy theories and sometimes racist messages of Breitbart News, the website that Mr. Bannon ran for much of the past decade. The site has accused President Obama of “importing more hating Muslims” compared Planned Parenthood’s work to the Holocaust called the conservative commentator Bill Kristol a “renegade Jew” and advised female victims of online harassment to “just log off” and stop “screwing up the internet for men,” illustrating that point with a picture of a crying child. The activists may be angered by the selection of Mr. Priebus as chief of staff, viewing him as a deal maker who will be too eager to push the new president toward compromise on issues like taxes, immigration, trade, health care and the environment. In a statement Sunday afternoon, the transition team emphasized that the two men would work “as equal partners to transform the federal government. ” The arrangement appeared aimed at ensuring that both men would be required to sign off on many decisions jointly. And Mr. Bannon was assured that he reports directly to Mr. Trump, not to Mr. Priebus. The simultaneous announcement and competing lines of authority are consistent with Mr. Trump’s management style in his businesses and in his campaign: creating rival power structures beneath him and encouraging them to battle it out. It is also a reflection of who has the ear of the : his children, and especially his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner. Both had argued that the chief of staff job should not be held by someone too controversial, according to several people familiar with the inside the transition effort. Mr. Kushner is likely to wield great influence over the new president regardless of whether he holds a formal title. Mr. Kushner, who has no experience in politics or government, often has the final word in advising Mr. Trump. But while Mr. Trump apparently feels comfortable with Mr. Priebus, the people with knowledge of his weekend decision said Mr. Bannon was still the adviser who was better able to talk forcefully to the during difficult moments. The transition team appeared eager to appease concerns among Mr. Trump’s most fervent supporters that choosing Mr. Priebus meant the had already caved to the Washington “swamp” he had promised to drain. The team also wanted to mollify Mr. Bannon, and to that end, the official statement mentioned Mr. Bannon first. “We had a very successful partnership on the campaign, one that led to victory,” Mr. Bannon said in the statement. “We will have that same partnership in working to help Trump achieve his agenda. ” Mr. Priebus said he looked forward to working with Mr. Bannon and Mr. Trump “to create an economy that works for everyone, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare and destroy radical Islamic terrorism. ” Mr. Priebus is expected to have multiple deputies, including Katie Walsh, the chief of staff of the Republican National Committee, who is close to Mr. Priebus and helped ensure a tight working relationship between the party’s operational infrastructure and Mr. Trump’s campaign. A onetime Goldman Sachs banker, Mr. Bannon has transformed himself into a media figure who favors a style of politics and is deeply suspicious of the government establishment and the corporate elite. During the campaign, he pushed Mr. Trump to embrace a fierce populism that helped fuel his victory. Mr. Trump’s decision last summer to put Mr. Bannon in charge of his campaign was part of an effort to reset a candidacy that had been troubled by controversies surrounding campaign officials. Mr. Bannon’s appointment on Sunday set off a fierce response on Twitter and in Washington. The League issued a scathing statement calling him “hostile to core American values. ” “It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the ‘ ’ — a group of white nationalists and unabashed and racists — is slated to be a senior staff member in the ‘people’s house,’” the statement said. Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said, “It is easy to see why the K. K. K. views Trump as their champion when Trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of white supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide. ” Mr. Bannon brings to the post a background that includes misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and allegations that he threatened his wife with retribution if she testified in the criminal case, according to a police report and court records obtained by The New York Times. The charges date back two decades to the end of a troubled marriage to Mary Louise Piccard, who said he had attacked her at their home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was charged in February 1996 with domestic violence, battery and trying to dissuade a victim from reporting a crime, but the case was dropped when Ms. Piccard did not show up to court. In court records, Ms. Piccard later claimed that Mr. Bannon had instructed her to leave town to avoid testifying. Despite his image as a Mr. Bannon is also savvy at cutting deals to achieve his goals. But as chief of staff, Mr. Priebus will be the one who has several hundred White House staff members reporting to him. He will be the primary gatekeeper for Mr. Trump and the person most responsible for steering the president’s agenda through Congress. That role will be especially critical for Mr. Trump, who has never served in government and has few connections to important political figures. The selection of Mr. Priebus comes at the end of a year for the Republican Party, which saw Mr. Trump rewrite many of its policy orthodoxies, clash with its leaders in Congress and denigrate the Bush political dynasty. As Mr. Trump denounced the Republican primary process as rigged and, on occasion, threatened to quit the party and run on his own, Mr. Priebus remained neutral. And when Mr. Trump secured the nomination, Mr. Priebus stood by his side. Mr. Priebus worked with Mr. Trump on the nuts and bolts of presidential politics, trying to smooth his rough edges and staying in close contact as a campaign prepared to go up against the Clinton machine. On the surface, the two men could hardly be more different. While Mr. Trump, 70, is known for his brashness and at times his viciousness, Mr. Priebus, 44, is regarded for his low profile and humility. Born in New Jersey and a lawyer by training, Mr. Priebus has never held elected office. But he served as state treasurer and worked his way up through the Wisconsin Republican Party to become chairman, putting him on the Republican National Committee, where he eventually became general counsel to the chairman at the time, Michael Steele. Now the Republican National Committee chairman, Mr. Priebus was elected to the job in 2011, unseating Mr. Steele on the promise of modernizing the party and refilling its coffers. With his focus on and fiscal issues, Mr. Priebus let Republican leaders in Congress be the voices of the party during the early part of his tenure. His profile rose as the 2016 election got into gear. At times, Mr. Priebus, whose first name rhymes with “pints,” struggled to defend Mr. Trump’s antics, but he showed his loyalty by supplementing the campaign’s resources and by urging Republicans to fall in line behind the candidate in spite of their reservations. When Mr. Trump emerged onstage to give his victory speech early Wednesday, Mr. Trump made his appreciation clear, dismissing rumors of tension with Mr. Priebus and singing his praises. “I never had a bad second with him,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s an unbelievable star. ” | 0fake |
Paul Ryan ADMITS He Wants People To Work More Hours For No Added Pay | Knowing that hardworking Americans need to be paid fairly if they are putting in extra hours on the job hours away from their home and family, hours above and beyond what should ever be expected President Obama is now strengthening overtime pay rules.In an email from President Obama, he stated: We re strengthening our overtime pay rules to make sure millions of Americans hard work is rewarded. If you work more than 40 hours a week, you should get paid for it or get extra time off to spend with your family and loved ones. It s one of most important steps we re taking to help grow middle-class wages and put $12 billion more dollars in the pockets of hardworking Americans over the next 10 years. Adding: This is a step in the right direction to strengthen and secure the middle class by raising Americans wages. When workers have more income, they spend it often at businesses in their local community and that helps grow the economy for everyone. According the Department of Labor, the new rules will do the following:Basically, making sure people get paid for the hard work they re putting in.Of course, Republicans are already incredibly upset that workers will be paid fairly for being overused. Republicans seem to prefer people get overused AND underpaid.Speaker Paul Ryan (R-OH) has now admitted that he s furious with President Obama s new rules, claiming: His regulation hurts the very people it alleges to help. Who is hurt most? Students, nonprofit employees, and people starting a new career. By mandating overtime pay at a much higher salary threshold, many small businesses and nonprofits will be unable to afford skilled workers and be forced to eliminate salaried positions, complete with benefits, altogether. Yeah, more money in people s pockets is always harmful to their well-being, and making it so employers hire more employees if they want don t want to pay overtime is definitely harmful to economy. You know, because adding jobs and people being satisfied with their jobs, which in turn lowers turnover and increases quality, is a bad thing.OR NOT.Let s be blunt, Republicans seem want to make sure employers keep as much money as possible by making sure they re allowed to pay employees as little as possible. They seem to see giving money to top to let in trickle down is an investment in the economy, but investing more money in the people (or rather, consumers) who actually drive the economy, is a bad thing.Republicans have it exactly backwards, and the sooner they realize this the better. What s most ironic, Paul Ryan is paid an obscene amount to work only mere weeks per year.Featured Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images | 1real |
Trump Throws A Fit When Asked Why He Is Promoting His Hotel Instead Of Campaigning | Donald Trump had himself a tantrum on CNN after he was asked why he was spending the day promoting his hotel instead of campaigning in swing states.
Video: Dana Bash: Is your DC hotel opening free advertising?Donald Trump: “No, not at all” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/9HHqooom8r
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 26, 2016
With just 13 days until election day, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Trump why he is promoting his hotel instead of campaigning in swing states, “I say the following: You have been covering me for the last— long time. I did yesterday eight stops and three major speeches, and I’ve been doing this for weeks straight. For you to ask me that question is actually very insulting because Hillary Clinton does one stop and then she goes home and sleeps. And yet you’ll ask me that question. I think that’s a very rude question, to be honest with you.”
Trump can’t defend why he is wasting precious time promoting his business interests instead of campaigning. Trump doesn’t have a single campaign event scheduled until 7 PM. He has given up a critical day of campaign time to get publicity for his new hotel.
When Trump got called out for some very unpresidential scheduling priorities, his response was to attack the reporter.
The Republican nominee is not behaving like a person who is willing to give everything to be elected the next president, and every time he leaves his Fox News bubble, Donald Trump opens his mouth and reminds voters of why he should never be elected president.
Trump Throws A Fit When Asked Why He Is Promoting His Hotel Instead Of Campaigning added by Jason Easley on Wed, Oct 26th, 2016 | 1real |
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Following hurricane Matthew's failure to devastate Florida, activists flock to the Sunshine State and destroy Trump signs manually
Tim Kaine takes credit for interrupting hurricane Matthew while debating weather in Florida
Study: Many non-voters still undecided on how they're not going to vote
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Breaking: the Clinton Foundation set to investigate the FBI
Obama captures rare Pokémon while visiting Hiroshima
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White House edits Orlando 911 transcript to say shooter pledged allegiance to NRA and Republican Party
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As Obama instructs his administration to get ready for presidential transition, Trump preemptively purchases 'T' keys for White House keyboards
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Non-presidential candidate Paul Ryan pledges not to run for president in new non-presidential non-ad campaign
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Campaign memo typo causes Hillary to court 'New Black Panties' vote
New Hampshire votes for socialist Sanders, changes state motto to "Live FOR Free or Die"
Martin O'Malley drops out of race after Iowa Caucus; nation shocked with revelation he has been running for president
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Hillary campaign denies accusations of smoking-gun evidence in her emails, claims they contain only smoking-circumstantial-gun evidence
Obama stops short of firing US Congress upon realizing the difficulty of assembling another group of such tractable yes-men
In effort to contol wild passions for violent jihad, White House urges gun owners to keep their firearms covered in gun burkas
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University researchers of cultural appropriation quit upon discovery that their research is appropriation from a culture that created universities
Archeologists discover remains of what Barack Obama has described as unprecedented, un-American, and not-who-we-are immigration screening process in Ellis Island
Mizzou protests lead to declaring entire state a "safe space," changing Missouri motto to "The don't show me state"
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State officials improve chances of healthcare payouts by replacing ObamaCare with state lottery
NASA's new mission to search for racism, sexism, and economic inequality in deep space suffers from race, gender, and class power struggles over multibillion-dollar budget
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'Wear hijab to school day' ends with spontaneous female circumcision and stoning of a classmate during lunch break
ISIS releases new, even more barbaric video in an effort to regain mantle from Planned Parenthood
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Shocking new book explores pros and cons of socialism, discovers they are same people
Pope outraged by Planned Parenthood's "unfettered capitalism," demands equal redistribution of baby parts to each according to his need
John Kerry accepts Iran's "Golden Taquiyya" award, requests jalapenos on the side
Citizens of Pluto protest US government's surveillance of their planetoid and its moons with New Horizons space drone
John Kerry proposes 3-day waiting period for all terrorist nations trying to acquire nuclear weapons
Chicago Police trying to identify flag that caused nine murders and 53 injuries in the city this past weekend
Cuba opens to affordable medical tourism for Americans who can't afford Obamacare deductibles
State-funded research proves existence of Quantum Aggression Particles (Heterons) in Large Hadron Collider
Student job opportunities: make big bucks this summer as Hillary’s Ordinary-American; all expenses paid, travel, free acting lessons
Experts debate whether Iranian negotiators broke John Kerry's leg or he did it himself to get out of negotiations
Junior Varsity takes Ramadi, advances to quarterfinals
US media to GOP pool of candidates: 'Knowing what we know now, would you have had anything to do with the founding of the United States?'
NY Mayor to hold peace talks with rats, apologize for previous Mayor's cowboy diplomacy
China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices"
Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be'
Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1%
America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith
Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine
Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET
Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award ; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths
Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do'
Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State
President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise
Police: If Obama had a convenience store, it would look like Obama Express Food Market
Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males
NASA: We're 80% sure about being 20% sure about being 17% sure about being 38% sure about 2014 being the hottest year on record
People holding '$15 an Hour Now' posters sue Democratic party demanding raise to $15 an hour for rendered professional protesting services
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White House describes attacks on Sony Pictures as 'spontaneous hacking in response to offensive video mocking Juche and its prophet'
CIA responds to Democrat calls for transparency by releasing the director's cut of The Making Of Obama's Birth Certificate
Obama: 'If I had a city, it would look like Ferguson'
Biden: 'If I had a Ferguson (hic), it would look like a city'
Obama signs executive order renaming 'looters' to 'undocumented shoppers'
Ethicists agree: two wrongs do make a right so long as Bush did it first
The aftermath of the 'War on Women 2014' finds a new 'Lost Generation' of disillusioned Democrat politicians, unable to cope with life out of office
White House: Republican takeover of the Senate is a clear mandate from the American people for President Obama to rule by executive orders
Nurse Kaci Hickox angrily tells reporters that she won't change her clocks for daylight savings time
Democratic Party leaders in panic after recent poll shows most Democratic voters think 'midterm' is when to end pregnancy
Desperate Democratic candidates plead with Obama to stop backing them and instead support their GOP opponents
Ebola Czar issues five-year plan with mandatory quotas of Ebola infections per each state based on voting preferences
Study: crony capitalism is to the free market what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity
Fun facts about world languages: the Left has more words for statism than the Eskimos have for snow
African countries to ban all flights from the United States because "Obama is incompetent, it scares us"
Nobel Peace Prize controversy: Hillary not nominated despite having done even less than Obama to deserve it
Obama: 'Ebola is the JV of viruses'
BREAKING: Secret Service foils Secret Service plot to protect Obama
Revised 1st Amendment: buy one speech, get the second free
Sharpton calls on white NFL players to beat their women in the interests of racial fairness
President Obama appoints his weekly approval poll as new national security adviser
Obama wags pen and phone at Putin; Europe offers support with powerful pens and phones from NATO members
White House pledges to embarrass ISIS back to the Stone Age with a barrage of fearsome Twitter messages and fatally ironic Instagram photos
Obama to fight ISIS with new federal Terrorist Regulatory Agency
Obama vows ISIS will never raise their flag over the eighteenth hole
Harry Reid: "Sometimes I say the wong thing"
Elian Gonzalez wishes he had come to the U.S. on a bus from Central America like all the other kids
Obama visits US-Mexican border, calls for a two-state solution
Obama draws "blue line" in Iraq after Putin took away his red crayon
"Hard Choices," a porno flick loosely based on Hillary Clinton's memoir and starring Hillary Hellfire as a drinking, whoring Secretary of State, wildly outsells the flabby, sagging original
Accusations of siding with the enemy leave Sgt. Bergdahl with only two options: pursue a doctorate at Berkley or become a Senator from Massachusetts
Jay Carney stuck in line behind Eric Shinseki to leave the White House; estimated wait time from 15 min to 6 weeks
100% of scientists agree that if man-made global warming were real, "the last people we'd want to help us is the Obama administration"
Jay Carney says he found out that Obama found out that he found out that Obama found out that he found out about the latest Obama administration scandal on the news
"Anarchy Now!" meeting turns into riot over points of order, bylaws, and whether or not 'kicking the #^@&*! ass' of the person trying to speak is or is not violence
Obama retaliates against Putin by prohibiting unionized federal employees from dating hot Russian girls online during work hours
Russian separatists in Ukraine riot over an offensive YouTube video showing the toppling of Lenin statues
"Free Speech Zones" confuse Obamaphone owners who roam streets in search of additional air minutes
Obamacare bolsters employment for professionals with skills to convert meth back into sudafed
Gloves finally off: Obama uses pen and phone to cancel Putin's Netflix account
Joe Biden to Russia: "We will bury you by turning more of Eastern Europe over to your control!"
In last-ditch effort to help Ukraine, Obama deploys Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition to Crimea
Al Sharpton: "Not even Putin can withstand our signature chanting, 'racist, sexist, anti-gay, Russian army go away'!"
Mardi Gras in North Korea: " Throw me some food! "
Obama's foreign policy works: "War, invasion, and conquest are signs of weakness; we've got Putin right where we want him"
US offers military solution to Ukraine crisis: "We will only fight countries that have LGBT military"
Putin annexes Brighton Beach to protect ethnic Russians in Brooklyn, Obama appeals to UN and EU for help
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In a stunning act of defiance, Obama courageously unfriends Putin on Facebook
MSNBC: Obama secures alliance with Austro-Hungarian Empire against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
Study: springbreak is to STDs what April 15th is to accountants
Efforts to achieve moisture justice for California thwarted by unfair redistribution of snow in America
North Korean voters unanimous: "We are the 100%"
Leader of authoritarian gulag-site, The People's Cube, unanimously 're-elected' with 100% voter turnout
Super Bowl: Obama blames Fox News for Broncos' loss
Feminist author slams gay marriage: "a man needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
Beverly Hills campaign heats up between Henry Waxman and Marianne Williamson over the widening income gap between millionaires and billionaires in their district
Biden to lower $10,000-a-plate Dinner For The Homeless to $5,000 so more homeless can attend
Kim becomes world leader, feeds uncle to dogs; Obama eats dogs, becomes world leader, America cries uncle
North Korean leader executes own uncle for talking about Obamacare at family Christmas party
White House hires part-time schizophrenic Mandela sign interpreter to help sell Obamacare
Kim Jong Un executes own " crazy uncle " to keep him from ruining another family Christmas
OFA admits its advice for area activists to give Obamacare Talk at shooting ranges was a bad idea
President resolves Obamacare debacle with executive order declaring all Americans equally healthy
Obama to Iran: "If you like your nuclear program, you can keep your nuclear program"
Bovine community outraged by flatulence coming from Washington DC
Obama: "I'm not particularly ideological; I believe in a good pragmatic five-year plan"
Shocker: Obama had no knowledge he'd been reelected until he read about it in the local newspaper last week
Server problems at HealthCare.gov so bad, it now flashes 'Error 808' message
NSA marks National Best Friend Day with official announcement: "Government is your best friend; we know you like no one else, we're always there, we're always willing to listen"
Al Qaeda cancels attack on USA citing launch of Obamacare as devastating enough
The President's latest talking point on Obamacare: "I didn't build that"
Dizzy with success, Obama renames his wildly popular healthcare mandate to HillaryCare
Carney: huge ObamaCare deductibles won't look as bad come hyperinflation
Washington Redskins drop 'Washington' from their name as offensive to most Americans
Poll: 83% of Americans favor cowboy diplomacy over rodeo clown diplomacy
GOVERNMENT WARNING: If you were able to complete ObamaCare form online, it wasn't a legitimate gov't website; you should report online fraud and change all your passwords
Obama administration gets serious, threatens Syria with ObamaCare
Obama authorizes the use of Vice President Joe Biden's double-barrel shotgun to fire a couple of blasts at Syria
Sharpton: "British royals should have named baby 'Trayvon.' By choosing 'George' they sided with white Hispanic racist Zimmerman"
DNC launches 'Carlos Danger' action figure; proceeds to fund a charity helping survivors of the Republican War on Women
Nancy Pelosi extends abortion rights to the birds and the bees
Hubble discovers planetary drift to the left
Obama: 'If I had a daughter-in-law, she would look like Rachael Jeantel'
FISA court rubberstamps statement denying its portrayal as government's rubber stamp
Every time ObamaCare gets delayed, a Julia somewhere dies
GOP to Schumer: 'Force full implementation of ObamaCare before 2014 or Dems will never win another election'
Obama: 'If I had a son... no, wait, my daughter can now marry a woman!'
Janet Napolitano: TSA findings reveal that since none of the hijackers were babies, elderly, or Tea Partiers, 9/11 was not an act of terrorism
News Flash: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can see Canada from South Dakota
Susan Rice: IRS actions against tea parties caused by anti-tax YouTube video that was insulting to their faith
Drudge Report reduces font to fit all White House scandals onto one page
Obama: the IRS is a constitutional right, just like the Second Amendment
White House: top Obama officials using secret email accounts a result of bad IT advice to avoid spam mail from Nigeria
Jay Carney to critics: 'Pinocchio never said anything inconsistent'
Obama: If I had a gay son, he'd look like Jason Collins
Gosnell's office in Benghazi raided by the IRS: mainstream media's worst cover-up challenge to date
IRS targeting pro-gay-marriage LGBT groups leads to gayest tax revolt in U.S. history
After Arlington Cemetery rejects offer to bury Boston bomber, Westboro Babtist Church steps up with premium front lawn plot
Boston: Obama Administration to reclassify marathon bombing as 'sportsplace violence'
Study: Success has many fathers but failure becomes a government program
US Media: Can Pope Francis possibly clear up Vatican bureaucracy and banking without blaming the previous administration?
Michelle Obama praises weekend rampage by Chicago teens as good way to burn calories and stay healthy
This Passover, Obama urges his subjects to paint lamb's blood above doors in order to avoid the Sequester
White House to American children: Sequester causes layoffs among hens that lay Easter eggs; union-wage Easter Bunnies to be replaced by Mexican Chupacabras
Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse
Boy, 8, pretends banana is gun, makes daring escape from school
Study: Free lunches overpriced, lack nutrition
Oscars 2013: Michelle Obama announces long-awaited merger of Hollywood and the State
Joe Salazar defends the right of women to be raped in gun-free environment: 'rapists and rapees should work together to prevent gun violence for the common good'
Dept. of Health and Human Services eliminates rape by reclassifying assailants as 'undocumented sex partners'
Kremlin puts out warning not to photoshop Putin riding meteor unless bare-chested
Deeming football too violent, Obama moves to introduce Super Drone Sundays instead
Japan offers to extend nuclear umbrella to cover U.S. should America suffer devastating attack on its own defense spending
Feminists organize one billion women to protest male oppression with one billion lap dances
Urban community protests Mayor Bloomberg's ban on extra-large pop singers owning assault weapons
Concerned with mounting death toll, Taliban offers to send peacekeeping advisers to Chicago
Karl Rove puts an end to Tea Party with new 'Republicans For Democrats' strategy aimed at losing elections
Answering public skepticism, President Obama authorizes unlimited drone attacks on all skeet targets throughout the country
Skeet Ulrich denies claims he had been shot by President but considers changing his name to 'Traps'
White House releases new exciting photos of Obama standing, sitting, looking thoughtful, and even breathing in and out
New York Times hacked by Chinese government, Paul Krugman's economic policies stolen
White House: when President shoots skeet, he donates the meat to food banks that feed the middle class
To prove he is serious, Obama eliminates armed guard protection for President, Vice-President, and their families; establishes Gun-Free Zones around them instead
State Dept to send 100,000 American college students to China as security for US debt obligations
Jay Carney: Al Qaeda is on the run, they're just running forward
President issues executive orders banning cliffs, ceilings, obstructions, statistics, and other notions that prevent us from moving forwards and upward
Fearing the worst, Obama Administration outlaws the fan to prevent it from being hit by certain objects
World ends; S&P soars
Riddle of universe solved; answer not understood
Meek inherit Earth, can't afford estate taxes
Greece abandons Euro; accountants find Greece has no Euros anyway
Wheel finally reinvented; axles to be gradually reinvented in 3rd quarter of 2013
Bigfoot found in Ohio, mysteriously not voting for Obama
As Santa's workshop files for bankruptcy, Fed offers bailout in exchange for control of 'naughty and nice' list
Freak flying pig accident causes bacon to fly off shelves
Obama: green economy likely to transform America into a leading third world country of the new millennium
Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future
Obama promises to create thousands more economically neutral jobs
Modernizing Islam: New York imam proposes to canonize Saul Alinsky as religion's latter day prophet
Imam Rauf's peaceful solution: 'Move Ground Zero a few blocks away from the mosque and no one gets hurt'
Study: Obama's threat to burn tax money in Washington 'recruitment bonanza' for Tea Parties
Study: no Social Security reform will be needed if gov't raises retirement age to at least 814 years
Obama attends church service, worships self
Obama proposes national 'Win The Future' lottery; proceeds of new WTF Powerball to finance more gov't spending
Historical revisionists: "Hey, you never know"
Vice President Biden: criticizing Egypt is un-pharaoh
Israelis to Egyptian rioters: "don't damage the pyramids, we will not rebuild"
Lake Superior renamed Lake Inferior in spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness
Al Gore: It's a shame that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of polar bears
Michael Moore: As long as there is anyone with money to shake down, this country is not broke
Obama's teleprompters unionize, demand collective bargaining rights
Obama calls new taxes 'spending reductions in tax code.' Elsewhere rapists tout 'consent reductions in sexual intercourse'
Obama's teleprompter unhappy with White House Twitter: "Too few words"
Obama's Regulation Reduction committee finds US Constitution to be expensive outdated framework inefficiently regulating federal gov't
Taking a page from the Reagan years, Obama announces new era of Perestroika and Glasnost
Responding to Oslo shootings, Obama declares Christianity "Religion of Peace," praises "moderate Christians," promises to send one into space
Republicans block Obama's $420 billion program to give American families free charms that ward off economic bad luck
White House to impose Chimney tax on Santa Claus
Obama decrees the economy is not soaring as much as previously decreeed
Conservative think tank introduces children to capitalism with pop-up picture book "The Road to Smurfdom"
Al Gore proposes to combat Global Warming by extracting silver linings from clouds in Earth's atmosphere
Obama refutes charges of him being unresponsive to people's suffering: "When you pray to God, do you always hear a response?"
Obama regrets the US government didn't provide his mother with free contraceptives when she was in college
Fluke to Congress: drill, baby, drill!
Planned Parenthood introduces Frequent Flucker reward card: 'Come again soon!'
Obama to tornado victims: 'We inherited this weather from the previous administration'
Obama congratulates Putin on Chicago-style election outcome
People's Cube gives itself Hero of Socialist Labor medal in recognition of continued expert advice provided to the Obama Administration helping to shape its foreign and domestic policies
Hamas: Israeli air defense unfair to 99% of our missiles, "only 1% allowed to reach Israel"
Democrat strategist: without government supervision, women would have never evolved into humans
Voters Without Borders oppose Texas new voter ID law
Enraged by accusation that they are doing Obama's bidding, media leaders demand instructions from White House on how to respond
Obama blames previous Olympics for failure to win at this Olympics
Official: China plans to land on Moon or at least on cheap knockoff thereof
Koran-Contra: Obama secretly arms Syrian rebels
Poll: Progressive slogan 'We should be more like Europe' most popular with members of American Nazi Party
Obama to Evangelicals: Jesus saves, I just spend
May Day: Anarchists plan, schedule, synchronize, and execute a coordinated campaign against all of the above
Midwestern farmers hooked on new erotic novel "50 Shades of Hay"
Study: 99% of Liberals give the rest a bad name
Obama meets with Jewish leaders, proposes deeper circumcisions for the rich
Historians: Before HOPE & CHANGE there was HEMP & CHOOM at ten bucks a bag
Cancer once again fails to cure Venezuela of its "President for Life"
Tragic spelling error causes Muslim protesters to burn local boob-tube factory
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: due to energy conservation, the light at the end of the tunnel will be switched off
Obama Administration running food stamps across the border with Mexico in an operation code-named "Fat And Furious"
Pakistan explodes in protest over new Adobe Acrobat update; 17 local acrobats killed
White House: "Let them eat statistics"
Special Ops: if Benedict Arnold had a son, he would look like Barack Obama | 1real |
OBAMA TO GRANT WORK PERMITS FOR SPOUSES OF ILLEGAL ALIENS ON MAY 26, While 89% of Long-term Jobless Americans Would ‘Search Harder’ If Benefits Ran Out | 40% of Americans have given up looking for work. Obama logic: Don t cut or reduce benefits for those unwilling to look for work, just give their jobs to illegal aliens makes perfect sense.A Large Percentage Of Americans Have Given Up Looking For WorkA new survey by staffing firm Express Employment Professionals shows that 40% of America s unemployed have given up looking for work.Not only are the long-term jobless being left behind but nearly 50% hold themselves responsible for not finding a job, the firm s The State of the Unemployed survey found.The survey of 1,553 jobless Americans age 18 and older was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between 7 and 29 April 2015. This survey shows that some of the troubling trends we observed last year are continuing. While the economy is indeed getting better for some, for others who have been unemployed long-term, they are increasingly being left behind. Meanwhile, more than 2 out of 5 unemployed Americans have been jobless for more than 2 years. That represents an increase from Y 2014, when 32% said they had been out of work for more than 2 years.48% report not having an interview in the last month; among them, 87% have not had an interview since the beginning of Y 2014 or earlier with 77% not having been on an interview since Y 2013.Among the unemployed, 14% are receiving unemployment benefits.Of those receiving benefits, 89% say they would search harder and wider for work if their benefits ran out before finding a job.Via:American workers who lost their jobs to foreign replacements are suing the federal government over a new rule that will allow more foreign workers into the job market.In a stated effort to encourage guest workers to stick around permanently, the Department of Homeland Security will now grant their spouses work permits in addition to visas. DHS estimates more than 100,000 spouses will be eligible to apply when it begins accepting applications May 26.The complaint, filed by the Immigration Reform Law Institute on behalf of the displaced workers, alleges DHS does not have the authority to make the rule, and that the rule violates federal labor protection law. IRLI is asking the judge to halt implementation of the rule until the case is heard. The larger implication is that Obama is arguing he has the executive authority to allow anyone to work in the United States, John Miano, the attorney for the displaced workers, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. [He] started with the children, then the parents, and now the spouses of H-1B workers. An update to the federal register indicates the Obama administration is also looking at expansions to other visa programs, he said. If the president can let illegal aliens work, he can let anyone work and he s doing it. The workers are former employees of tech giant Southern California Edison, which was recently investigated for firing hundreds of American workers after forcing them to train their foreign replacements. (RELATED: Senators Ask Feds to Investigate Guest Worker Visa Abuse)The biggest challenge will be convincing a judge the workers he represents have legal standing to bring the case, Miano told TheDCNF.He ll argue the rule is relevant to the displaced workers because it will result in more competition in their job market. The government will counter that the workers can t prove the rule will affect their future job prospects.If the judge agrees to hear the case, Miano will then make the case that DHS overstepped the bounds of its authority and that the rule violates labor protection law. The law states that foreign work permits cannot adversely affect American wages, but all we ve seen during this administration is standards of living fall and outsized corporate profits continue to rise, IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox said in a statement. Via: The Daily Caller | 1real |
Senate bill would count munis toward bank liquidity | CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bonds sold by U.S. states, cities, schools and other issuers in the municipal market could be held as liquid assets by banks under legislation introduced on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate, bolstering the case for purchasing the debt while helping financial institutions weather market crises. The bipartisan measure would classify high-quality municipal bonds at the same level as corporate debt, allowing banks to use munis to comply with new 30-day federal liquidity requirements. Federal rules approved in 2014 and effective next year are aimed at ensuring big banks will be able to access sufficient cash during a financial crisis. But the rules excluded muni bonds from the types of securities that count as high quality liquid assets, or HQLAs. Muni debt issuers fear the exclusion would deter banks from buying muni debt, hurting their ability to fund everything from schools and bridges to water treatment plants and hospitals. “If banks retreat from the muni-bond market, it could choke off a critical source of investment on which our cities and localities rely. This bill protects the stability of our markets while providing continued access to muni bonds for local governments,” Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. Schumer, along with Senators Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, led a group sponsoring the legislation. Putting munis on par with corporate debt “would be acceptable,” according to Washington State Treasurer James McIntire, president of the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), which has been pushing for the inclusion of munis under the rules. A House bill would also allow banks to count munis toward banks’ liquidity but at a higher face value, 85 percent, versus 50 percent in the Senate bill, according to NAST. | 0fake |
Myanmar finds more bodies in mass grave; U.N. seeks rapid aid increase | YANGON/DHAKA (Reuters) - Myanmar s army unearthed the bodies of 17 Hindu villagers on Monday, taking to 45 the number authorities suspect were killed by Muslim insurgents last month at the onset of a wave of violence that has sent 436,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh. The bodies have been found since Sunday buried outside a village in Rakhine State in western Myanmar, where bloodshed erupted on Aug. 25 when Rohingya Muslim insurgents launched coordinated attacks on about 30 police posts and an army camp. The United Nations has described a sweeping military response to those attacks as ethnic cleansing aimed at driving Rohingya out of Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Myanmar rejects that, saying it is fighting terrorists. There is no ethnic cleansing. There is no genocide, Myanmar s U.N. Ambassador Hau Do Suan told the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Monday. The leaders of Myanmar who have long been striving for freedom and human rights would not espouse such policies. We will do everything to prevent ethnic cleansing and genocide, the diplomat said. It is the responsibility of every government to fight against terrorism and protect innocent civilians. We condemn all human rights violations and violent acts. Myanmar said before the mass graves were found that more than 400 people had been killed, most of them insurgents. Members of Myanmar s small Hindu minority appear to have been caught in the middle. Some have fled to Bangladesh, complaining of violence against them by soldiers or Buddhist vigilantes. Others have complained of being attacked by the insurgents on suspicion of being government spies. A search was launched on the weekend after a refugee in Bangladesh contacted a Hindu community leader in Myanmar to say insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) marched about 100 people out of their village on Aug. 25 and killed them, the government said. Twenty-eight bodies were found on Sunday. This afternoon, a suspicious place was found about 400 meters northeast of the mass grave where the remains of Hindus were found yesterday, the army said in a statement. Seventeen bodies of men were retrieved. The government has not speculated as to why the Hindus were killed. The army said the security forces and Hindu community leaders would continue the search. Access to the area by journalists as well as human rights workers and aid workers is largely restricted. An ARSA spokesman denied his group had killed the Hindus, saying Buddhist nationalists were trying to divide Hindus and Muslims. ARSA has internationally pledged not to target civilians and that remains unchanged, no matter what, the spokesman, who is based in a neighboring country and identified himself only as Abdullah, told Reuters through a messaging service. The violence in Rakhine State and the refugee exodus is the biggest crisis the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since it came to power last year in a transition from nearly 50 years of military rule. Myanmar regards the Rohingya Muslims as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and communal violence has flared periodically for decades. Most Rohingya are stateless. In Bangladesh, the head of the U.N. refugee agency said the Rohingya seeking shelter from unimaginable horrors faced enormous hardship and risked a dramatic deterioration in circumstances unless aid was stepped up. They (have) seen villages burned down, families shot or hacked to death, women and girls brutalized, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a news conference in Dhaka after visiting camps near the border on the weekend. Solutions to this crisis lie with Myanmar , he said, though for now, the world had to help and aid should be rapidly stepped up . A Reuters reporter in Bangladesh said refugees were still arriving, with about 50 seen on Monday. The crisis has also threatened to drive a wedge into the Association of South East Asian Nations, with Muslim-majority Malaysia disavowing a statement on the Myanmar situation from the bloc s chairman, the Philippines, on the grounds it misrepresented the reality and did not identify the Rohingya as one of the affected communities. Myanmar, which is a member of the regional grouping, objects to the term Rohingya, saying the Muslims of Rakhine State are not a distinct ethnic group. This month, Malaysia summoned Myanmar s ambassador to express its grave concern over atrocities there. | 0fake |
Text: Ex-FBI Director Comey's prepared testimony to Senate panel | (Reuters) - Following is the full text of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony as prepared for delivery to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. Comey is scheduled to testify at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday as part of the committee’s investigation into U.S. intelligence agency allegations that Russia tried to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by President Donald Trump’s campaign. Russia has denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion. The committee posted Comey’s opening statement on its website on Wednesday: “Chairman Burr, Ranking Member Warner, Members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today. I was asked to testify today to describe for you my interactions with President-Elect and President Trump on subjects that I understand are of interest to you. I have not included every detail from my conversations with the President, but, to the best of my recollection, I have tried to include information that may be relevant to the Committee. January 6 Briefing “I first met then-President-Elect Trump on Friday, January 6 in a conference room at Trump Tower in New York. I was there with other Intelligence Community (IC) leaders to brief him and his new national security team on the findings of an IC assessment concerning Russian efforts to interfere in the election. At the conclusion of that briefing, I remained alone with the President-Elect to brief him on some personally sensitive aspects of the information assembled during the assessment. “The IC leadership thought it important, for a variety of reasons, to alert the incoming President to the existence of this material, even though it was salacious and unverified. Among those reasons were: (1) we knew the media was about to publicly report the material and we believed the IC should not keep knowledge of the material and its imminent release from the President-Elect; and (2) to the extent there was some effort to compromise an incoming President, we could blunt any such effort with a defensive briefing. “The Director of National Intelligence asked that I personally do this portion of the briefing because I was staying in my position and because the material implicated the FBI’s counter-intelligence responsibilities. We also agreed I would do it alone to minimize potential embarrassment to the President-Elect. Although we agreed it made sense for me to do the briefing, the FBI’s leadership and I were concerned that the briefing might create a situation where a new President came into office uncertain about whether the FBI was conducting a counter-intelligence investigation of his personal conduct. “It is important to understand that FBI counter-intelligence investigations are different than the more-commonly known criminal investigative work. The Bureau’s goal in a counter-intelligence investigation is to understand the technical and human methods that hostile foreign powers are using to influence the United States or to steal our secrets. The FBI uses that understanding to disrupt those efforts. Sometimes disruption takes the form of alerting a person who is targeted for recruitment or influence by the foreign power. Sometimes it involves hardening a computer system that is being attacked. Sometimes it involves ‘turning’ the recruited person into a double-agent, or publicly calling out the behavior with sanctions or expulsions of embassy-based intelligence officers. On occasion, criminal prosecution is used to disrupt intelligence activities. “Because the nature of the hostile foreign nation is well known, counterintelligence investigations tend to be centered on individuals the FBI suspects to be witting or unwitting agents of that foreign power. When the FBI develops reason to believe an American has been targeted for recruitment by a foreign power or is covertly acting as an agent of the foreign power, the FBI will ‘open an investigation’ on that American and use legal authorities to try to learn more about the nature of any relationship with the foreign power so it can be disrupted. “In that context, prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President-Elect Trump’s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question, I offered that assurance. “I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the President-Elect in a memo. To ensure accuracy, I began to type it on a laptop in an FBI vehicle outside Trump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting. Creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with Mr. Trump was my practice from that point forward. This had not been my practice in the past. I spoke alone with President Obama twice in person (and never on the phone) – once in 2015 to discuss law enforcement policy issues and a second time, briefly, for him to say goodbye in late 2016. In neither of those circumstances did I memorialize the discussions. I can recall nine one-on-one conversations with President Trump in four months – three in person and six on the phone. January 27 Dinner “The President and I had dinner on Friday, January 27 at 6:30 pm in the Green Room at the White House. He had called me at lunchtime that day and invited me to dinner that night, saying he was going to invite my whole family, but decided to have just me this time, with the whole family coming the next time. It was unclear from the conversation who else would be at the dinner, although I assumed there would be others. “It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks. “The President began by asking me whether I wanted to stay on as FBI Director, which I found strange because he had already told me twice in earlier conversations that he hoped I would stay, and I had assured him that I intended to. He said that lots of people wanted my job and, given the abuse I had taken during the previous year, he would understand if I wanted to walk away. “My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting, and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. That concerned me greatly, given the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch. “I replied that I loved my work and intended to stay and serve out my ten-year term as Director. And then, because the set-up made me uneasy, I added that I was not ‘reliable’ in the way politicians use that word, but he could always count on me to tell him the truth. I added that I was not on anybody’s side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense, a stance I said was in his best interest as the President. “A few moments later, the President said, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’ I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner. “At one point, I explained why it was so important that the FBI and the Department of Justice be independent of the White House. I said it was a paradox: Throughout history, some Presidents have decided that because ‘problems’ come from Justice, they should try to hold the Department close. But blurring those boundaries ultimately makes the problems worse by undermining public trust in the institutions and their work. “Near the end of our dinner, the President returned to the subject of my job, saying he was very glad I wanted to stay, adding that he had heard great things about me from Jim Mattis, Jeff Sessions, and many others. He then said, ‘I need loyalty.’ I replied, ‘You will always get honesty from me.’ He paused and then said, ‘That’s what I want, honest loyalty.’ I paused, and then said, ‘You will get that from me.’ As I wrote in the memo I created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood the phrase ‘honest loyalty’ differently, but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further. The term – honest loyalty – had helped end a very awkward conversation and my explanations had made clear what he should expect. “During the dinner, the President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them. He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative. He said he would think about it and asked me to think about it. “As was my practice for conversations with President Trump, I wrote a detailed memo about the dinner immediately afterwards and shared it with the senior leadership team of the FBI. February 14 Oval Office Meeting “On February 14, I went to the Oval Office for a scheduled counterterrorism briefing of the President. He sat behind the desk and a group of us sat in a semi-circle of about six chairs facing him on the other side of the desk. The Vice President, Deputy Director of the CIA, Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and I were in the semi-circle of chairs. I was directly facing the President, sitting between the Deputy CIA Director and the Director of NCTC. There were quite a few others in the room, sitting behind us on couches and chairs. “The President signaled the end of the briefing by thanking the group and telling them all that he wanted to speak to me alone. I stayed in my chair. As the participants started to leave the Oval Office, the Attorney General lingered by my chair, but the President thanked him and said he wanted to speak only with me. The last person to leave was Jared Kushner, who also stood by my chair and exchanged pleasantries with me. The President then excused him, saying he wanted to speak with me. “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn.’ Flynn had resigned the previous day. The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify. “The President then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information – a concern I shared and still share. After he had spoken for a few minutes about leaks, Reince Priebus leaned in through the door by the grandfather clock and I could see a group of people waiting behind him. The President waved at him to close the door, saying he would be done shortly. The door closed. “The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, ‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot.’ He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’ I replied only that ‘he is a good guy.’ (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would ‘let this go.’ “The President returned briefly to the problem of leaks. I then got up and left out the door by the grandfather clock, making my way through the large group of people waiting there, including Mr. Priebus and the Vice President. “I immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior leadership. I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign. I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls. Regardless, it was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency. “The FBI leadership team agreed with me that it was important not to infect the investigative team with the President’s request, which we did not intend to abide. We also concluded that, given that it was a one-on-one conversation, there was nothing available to corroborate my account. We concluded it made little sense to report it to Attorney General Sessions, who we expected would likely recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related investigations. (He did so two weeks later.) The Deputy Attorney General’s role was then filled in an acting capacity by a United States Attorney, who would also not be long in the role. After discussing the matter, we decided to keep it very closely held, resolving to figure out what to do with it down the road as our investigation progressed. The investigation moved ahead at full speed, with none of the investigative team members – or the Department of Justice lawyers supporting them – aware of the President’s request. “Shortly afterwards, I spoke with Attorney General Sessions in person to pass along the President’s concerns about leaks. I took the opportunity to implore the Attorney General to prevent any future direct communication between the President and me. I told the AG that what had just happened – him being asked to leave while the FBI Director, who reports to the AG, remained behind – was inappropriate and should never happen. He did not reply. For the reasons discussed above, I did not mention that the President broached the FBI’s potential investigation of General Flynn. March 30 Phone Call “On the morning of March 30, the President called me at the FBI. He described the Russia investigation as ‘a cloud’ that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia. He asked what we could do to ‘lift the cloud.’ I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit, if we didn’t find anything, to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then re-emphasized the problems this was causing him. “Then the President asked why there had been a congressional hearing about Russia the previous week – at which I had, as the Department of Justice directed, confirmed the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. I explained the demands from the leadership of both parties in Congress for more information, and that Senator Grassley had even held up the confirmation of the Deputy Attorney General until we briefed him in detail on the investigation. I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. I reminded him I had previously told him that. “He repeatedly told me, ‘We need to get that fact out.’ (I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change.) “The President went on to say that if there were some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out, but that he hadn’t done anything wrong and hoped I would find a way to get it out that we weren’t investigating him. “In an abrupt shift, he turned the conversation to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying he hadn’t brought up ‘the McCabe thing’ because I had said McCabe was honorable, although McAuliffe was close to the Clintons and had given him (I think he meant Deputy Director McCabe’s wife) campaign money. Although I didn’t understand why the President was bringing this up, I repeated that Mr. McCabe was an honorable person. “He finished by stressing ‘the cloud’ that was interfering with his ability to make deals for the country and said he hoped I could find a way to get out that he wasn’t being investigated. I told him I would see what we could do, and that we would do our investigative work well and as quickly as we could. “Immediately after that conversation, I called Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente (AG Sessions had by then recused himself on all Russia-related matters), to report the substance of the call from the President, and said I would await his guidance. I did not hear back from him before the President called me again two weeks later. April 11 Phone Call “On the morning of April 11, the President called me and asked what I had done about his request that I ‘get out’ that he is not personally under investigation. I replied that I had passed his request to the Acting Deputy Attorney General, but I had not heard back. He replied that ‘the cloud’ was getting in the way of his ability to do his job. He said that perhaps he would have his people reach out to the Acting Deputy Attorney General. I said that was the way his request should be handled. I said the White House Counsel should contact the leadership of DOJ to make the request, which was the traditional channel. “He said he would do that and added, ‘Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.’ I did not reply or ask him what he meant by ‘that thing.’ I said only that the way to handle it was to have the White House Counsel call the Acting Deputy Attorney General. He said that was what he would do and the call ended. “That was the last time I spoke with President Trump.” | 0fake |
A Government of Scoundrels, Spies, Thieves, Ruffians, Rapists and Killers | . A Government of Scoundrels, Spies, Thieves, Ruffians, Rapists and Killers “There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few.”— Lawrence Le... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/a-government-of-scoundrels-spies.html “There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few.”— Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor The U.S. government remains the greatest threat to our freedoms. The systemic violence being perpetrated by agents of the government has done more collective harm to the American people and our liberties than any single act of terror. More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the U.S. government has become a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to protect us. Image: They Live film This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls. As I explain in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , when the government views itself as superior to the citizenry, when it no longer operates for the benefit of the people, when the people are no longer able to peacefully reform their government, when government officials cease to act like public servants, when elected officials no longer represent the will of the people, when the government routinely violates the rights of the people and perpetrates more violence against the citizenry than the criminal class, when government spending is unaccountable and unaccounted for, when the judiciary act as courts of order rather than justice, and when the government is no longer bound by the laws of the Constitution, then you no longer have a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” What we have is a government of wolves . Worse than that, we are now being ruled by a government of scoundrels, spies, thugs, thieves, gangsters, ruffians, rapists, extortionists, bounty hunters, battle-ready warriors and cold-blooded killers who communicate using a language of force and oppression. Does the government pose a danger to you and your loved ones? The facts speak for themselves. We’re being held at gunpoint by a government of soldiers — a standing army. While Americans are being made to jump through an increasing number of hoops in order to exercise their Second Amendment right to own a gun, the government is arming its own civilian employees to the hilt with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment, authorizing them to make arrests, and training them in military tactics. Among the agencies being supplied with night-vision equipment, body armor, hollow-point bullets, shotguns, drones, assault rifles and LP gas cannons are the Smithsonian, U.S. Mint, Health and Human Services, IRS , FDA, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Education Department, Energy Department, Bureau of Engraving and Printing and an assortment of public universities. There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government civilians armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines. That doesn’t even begin to touch on the government’s arsenal, the transformation of local police into extensions of the military, and the speed with which the nation could be locked down under martial law depending on the circumstances. Clearly, the government is preparing for war — and a civil war, at that — but who is the enemy? We’re being robbed blind by a government of thieves . Americans no longer have any real protection against government agents empowered to seize private property at will. For instance, police agencies under the guise of asset forfeiture laws are taking property based on little more than a suspicion of criminal activity. In one case, police seized $53,000 from the manager of a Christian rock band that was touring and raising money for an orphanage in Thailand. Despite finding no evidence of wrongdoing, police kept the money. Homeowners are losing their homes over nonpayment of taxes ( for as little as $400 owed ) and municipal bills such as water or sewer fees that amount to a fraction of what they have invested in their homes. And then there’s the Drug Enforcement Agency, which has been searching train and airline passengers and pocketing their cash , without ever charging them with a crime. We’re being taken advantage of by a government of scoundrels, idiots and cowards. American satirist H.L. Mencken calculated that “Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.” By and large, Americans seem to agree . When you’ve got government representatives who spend a large chunk of their work hours fundraising , being feted by lobbyists, shuffling through a lucrative revolving door between public service and lobbying, and making themselves available to anyone with enough money to secure access to a congressional office , you’re in the clutches of a corrupt oligarchy . Mind you, these same elected officials rarely read the legislation they’re enacting, nor do they seem capable of enacting much legislation that actually helps rather than hinders the plight of the American citizen. We’re being locked up by a government of greedy jailers . We have become a carceral state , spending three times more on our prisons than on our schools and imprisoning close to a quarter of the world’s prisoners , despite the fact that crime is at an all-time low and the U.S. makes up only 5% of the world’s population. The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery? Which is in contrast with... Netherlands is Closing 19 Prisons Because of Criminal Shortage . The rise of overcriminalization and profit-driven private prisons provides even greater incentives for locking up American citizens for such non-violent “crimes” as having an overgrown lawn . As the Boston Review points out, “America’s contemporary system of policing, courts, imprisonment, and parole … makes money through asset forfeiture, lucrative public contracts from private service providers, and by directly extracting revenue and unpaid labor from populations of color and the poor. In states and municipalities throughout the country, the criminal justice system defrays costs by forcing prisoners and their families to pay for punishment. It also allows private service providers to charge outrageous fees for everyday needs such as telephone calls. As a result people facing even minor criminal charges can easily find themselves trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of debt, criminalization, and incarceration.” We’re being spied on by a government of Peeping Toms . The government is watching everything you do, reading everything you write, listening to everything you say, and monitoring everything you spend. This is George Orwell's 1984 on steroids. Omnipresent surveillance is paving the way for government programs that profile citizens, document their behavior and attempt to predict what they might do in the future, whether it’s what they might buy, what politician they might support, or what kinds of crimes they might commit . The impact of this far-reaching surveillance, according to Psychology Today, is “ reduced trust, increased conformity, and even diminished civic participation .” As technology analyst Jillian C. York concludes, “Mass surveillance without due process — whether undertaken by the government of Bahrain, Russia, the US, or anywhere in between — threatens to stifle and smother that dissent, leaving in its wake a populace cowed by fear .” We’re being ravaged by a government of ruffians, rapists and killers . It’s not just the police shootings of unarmed citizens that are worrisome. It’s the SWAT team raids gone wrong that are leaving innocent citizens wounded, children terrorized and family pets killed. For trying to run from the principal’s office . For, at the age of 12, getting into a fight with another girl . We’re being forced to surrender our freedoms — and those of our children — to a government of extortionists, money launderers and professional pirates . The American people have been repeatedly sold a bill of goods about how the government needs more money, more expansive powers, and more secrecy (secret courts, secret budgets , secret military campaigns, secret surveillance) in order to keep us safe. Under the guise of fighting its wars on terror, drugs and now domestic extremism, the government has spent billions in taxpayer dollars on endless wars that have not ended terrorism but merely sown the seeds of blowback, surveillance programs that have caught few terrorists while subjecting all Americans to a surveillance society, and militarized police that have done little to decrease crime while turning communities into warzones. Not surprisingly, the primary ones to benefit from these government exercises in legal money laundering have been the corporations, lobbyists and politicians who inflict them on a trusting public. Whatever else it may be — a danger, a menace, a threat — the U.S. government is certainly no friend to freedom. To our detriment, the criminal class that Mark Twain mockingly referred to as Congress has since expanded to include every government agency that feeds off the carcass of our once-constitutional republic. In fact, there’s a very good reason you don’t hear much in the way of specifics about the government’s tyranny from politicians: it’s because they can’t afford to upset the apple cart (i.e., jeopardize their posh lifestyles). So no matter which party wins the White House, controls Congress or appoints future Supreme Court justices, rest assured that the menace of the shadow government — the permanent, unelected bureaucracy that operates beyond the reach of the Constitution, the courts and the citizenry — will continue uninterrupted. Our backs are against the proverbial wall. The government and its cohorts have conspired to ensure that the only real recourse the American people have to express their displeasure with the government is through voting, which is no real recourse at all. The penalties for civil disobedience, whistleblowing and rebellion are severe. If you refuse to pay taxes for government programs you believe to be immoral or illegal, you will go to jail. If you attempt to overthrow the government — or any agency thereof — because you believe it has overstepped its reach, you will go to jail. If you attempt to blow the whistle on government misconduct, there’s a pretty good chance you will go to jail. For too long, the American people have been made to act like puppets dancing to a tyrant’s tune. We have obeyed the government’s dictates, no matter now extreme. We have paid its taxes, penalties and fines, no matter how outrageous. We have tolerated its indignities, insults and abuses, no matter how egregious. We have turned a blind eye to its indiscretions and incompetence, no matter how imprudent. We have held our silence in the face of its lawlessness, licentiousness and corruption, no matter how illicit. We have suffered. How long we will continue to suffer depends on how much we’re willing to give up for the sake of freedom. America’s founders provided us with a very specific explanation about the purpose of government and a roadmap for what to do when the government abuses its authority, ignores our objections, and establishes itself as a tyrant. We must choose between peaceful slavery (in other words, maintaining the status quo in servitude to the police state) and dangerous freedom . That will mean carving out a path in which we begin to take ownership of our government, starting at the local level, challenging the status quo, and raising hell whenever a government official steps out of line. By John W. Whitehead — Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People . Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. / Cover image: They Live . 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Mexico president says he's willing to meet with Trump | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday he was willing to meet with Donald Trump, months after comparing the Republican presidential candidate to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. “Yes, I would meet with him,” Pena Nieto said, referring to Trump in a pre-taped television interview broadcast on Tuesday night. “I have never met him. I can’t agree with some of the things he has said, but I will be absolutely respectful and will seek to work with whomever becomes the next president of the United States.” Trump has sparked outrage in Mexico with his campaign vow to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and to make Mexico pay for it. In a Mexican newspaper interview in March, Pena Nieto said Mexico would not pay for the proposed wall under any scenario, likening Trump’s “strident tone” to the World War II era dictators. But at a June summit in Canada, Pena Nieto said he only drew the comparison as a reminder of the devastation wreaked in the past. | 0fake |
Under Trump, future of U.S. nuclear arsenal slowly taking shape | JULIETT-01 MISSILE ALERT FACILITY (Reuters) - About 70 feet (21 m) below ground, in a shielded military capsule that can launch nuclear missiles, 23-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Tia Hewuse is concerned that Americans have the mistaken impression that her mission is a gloomy one. “America doesn’t understand what we do,” says Hewuse, whose post sits below a tiny U.S. base surrounded by vast expanses of windswept North Dakota farmland. “This is what keeps our enemies at bay,” she says with a smile. Hewuse is one of the U.S. Air Force missileers who met Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday as he oversees a Pentagon review of America’s aging nuclear arsenal. Experts say it could cost a trillion dollars or more to modernize it. Critics of the intercontinental ballistic missiles have argued that the silos scattered across thousands of square miles of the upper Great Plains are sitting ducks in a war and that, given the costs of modernizing ICBMs, the United States should spend its money on weaponry that could better survive a first strike by an enemy. Mattis himself questioned in 2015 whether the three legs of America’s nuclear “triad” of ballistic missile submarines, bombers and land-based missiles should perhaps be reduced to a “dyad.” But in the latest sign that places like Hewuse’s Cold War-era missile alert facility will be around for years to come, Mattis said on Wednesday he believed all three portions of the triad were vital. “I have been persuaded that the triad, in its framework, is the right way to go,” Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Minot Air Force Base, where he got a firsthand look at U.S. land-based nuclear missile facilities and nuclear-capable bombers. Mattis declined to set a deadline for the review, which is expected to take months to complete. Mattis’ tour of America’s doomsday weaponry comes as President Donald Trump uses bellicose rhetoric about the “fire and fury” that could await North Korea, should it choose to attack the United States. North Korea has responded with similarly bellicose warnings after it staged its sixth and largest nuclear test this month. In July, Pyongyang tested an ICBM that experts believe was capable of reaching most of the United States. U.S. officials have also noted that America’s nuclear modernization is lagging behind Russia’s upgrade of its own nuclear triad. General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress in August he believed Moscow was already two-thirds through its nuclear modernization process. The Arms Control Association estimates that the total cost of upgrading the U.S. nuclear forces will be between $1.25 trillion and $1.46 trillion over the next 30 years. Mattis, without offering a figure, suggested that nuclear deterrence was worth the investment. “America can afford survival,” he said. Mattis says his goal would be to ensure that an adversary concludes that there is no viable prospect for successfully attacking the United States and surviving. “We want the enemy to look at it and say this is impossible,” he said. The land-based, nuclear-capable missiles are a big part of that. The U.S. forces who staff these facilities near the U.S. border with Canada have to endure bitter cold in the winters, which can get so bad that missileers can be stuck in their posts for up to 72 hours, officials said. Officials says morale has improved since the nuclear forces were rocked by test-cheating and drug scandals under the Obama administration and a 2007 incident under the Bush administration, when the Air Force accidentally flew live nuclear weapons between Minot and another U.S. base. Hewuse uses her free time to study for a postgraduate degree in entrepreneurship. She has also brightened her capsule by painting the lock used to keep nuclear missile launch keys shut in a cabinet above her head. She painted the lock gold, with sparkles. “I’m a pretty sparkly person,” she said. “There’s no sunshine in here. So that’s my sunshine.” | 0fake |
Criticizing Israel, Bernie Sanders Highlights Split Among Jewish Democrats - The New York Times | It was the sort of question — Does Israel have a right to defend itself as it sees fit? — that had often caused candidates, especially those with designs on winning a primary in New York, to produce paeans to the strength of the relationship and a stream of orthodoxy. But Senator Bernie Sanders dug in. “There comes a time when if we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time,” Mr. Sanders said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, amid cheers from the crowd at Thursday’s Democratic debate in Brooklyn. He added: “All that I am saying is we cannot continue to be . There are two sides to the issue. ” Jewish Democrats, like the rest of the party, have been struggling for years over the appropriate level of criticism when it comes to Israel’s policies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. But that debate burst onto a big national stage this week thanks to Mr. Sanders, the most successful Jewish presidential candidate in history. Mr. Sanders’s comments, in the de facto capital of Jewish American politics, buoyed the liberal and increasingly vocal Democrats who believe that a frank discussion within the party has been muzzled by an older, more conservative Jewish leadership that is suspicious of criticism of Israel. Jeremy the president of J Street, a progressive lobbying group whose more critical view of the Israeli government has gained influence on Capitol Hill, said Mr. Sanders’s comments were “very different from the stale talking points that have dominated those types of discussions before” and contributed to a “meaningful redefinition of what it means to be . ” But the comments, as measured as they were striking, worried more traditionally Jewish Democrats and Jewish organizations trying desperately to maintain bipartisan support for the Israeli government but watching it slowly being chipped away. “I thought that Bernie Sanders’s comments were disgraceful and reprehensible, and I thought he was just over the top,” said Eliot Engel, a Jewish congressman from the Bronx who supports Hillary Clinton. He said that Mr. Sanders’s comments were irresponsible, giving radical elements in the party more license to attack Israel. “Maybe he feels like he has to bend over backwards because he’s Jewish?” Mr. Engel said, adding, “It bothers me a great deal. ” Even before the debate, unease over Israeli policies within the Democratic Party was rising. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, delegates lustily booed officials who reinstated in the party platform a recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, at odds with the United States’ official position that the city’s status must be negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians. Protesting Israel’s policies and advocating boycotts to pressure its government are practically electives for liberal college students furious about the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In Washington, relations between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are acrid, and last year more than 50 members of the Democratic caucus boycotted Mr. Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in which he criticized Mr. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Mr. Sanders’s response on Thursday was to a question about his past statement that Israel had used disproportionate force in responding to Hamas’s rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli towns. One of the moderators, Wolf Blitzer of CNN, asked whether Israel had a right to defend itself. Mr. Sanders said Israel had “every right in the world to destroy terrorism. ” “But,” he said, “we had in the Gaza area — not a very large area — some 10, 000 civilians who were wounded and some 1, 500 who were killed. ” The applause and cheers that accompanied Mr. Sanders’s answers — someone yelled “Free Palestine!” — might have been the most vocal signs yet of shifts in the Democratic Party. A Pew Research Center poll in 2014 about violence in Gaza found that Americans under 30 were more likely to blame Israel than to blame Hamas, though half blamed both or did not have an opinion. and Hispanics also blamed Israel more often than Hamas. Those surveyed who were over 30 found Hamas more responsible, and the older the respondents were, the less they blamed Israel. “The roar in the crowd was telling,” said Peter Beinart, a leading voice in the liberal Zionist movement. “A Democratic Party dominated by progressive millennials, and Latinos will gradually defect more and more from the line,” he added, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. “Those aren’t their values,” Mr. Beinart continued. “What Bernie said last night, and the crowd’s response, were a sign of things to come. ” Younger Jews’ waning support for Israel in its dealings with Palestinians may not be so surprising. Unlike their parents and grandparents, who grew up when Jews were still reeling from the Holocaust, they know Israel primarily as a powerful nation rather than an existential necessity. Andy Bachman, a prominent Brooklyn progressive rabbi, said the energetic applause at Mr. Sanders’s criticism of Israel “spoke to this growing rift in the Democratic Party — it was proof of a major crisis in the Jewish community that no major Jewish organization has resolved or figured out to handle. ” Mr. Sanders, who is not observant, has spoken at times about family members killed in the Holocaust, and he spent time in an Israeli kibbutz after college. But he has had some stumbles related to his views on Israel. His hiring of a young activist leader, Simone Zimmerman, as his Jewish outreach director turned out to be a rare blunder for his campaign when Facebook posts turned up in which she referred to Mr. Netanyahu with a vulgarity. She was suspended a few hours before the debate. Supporters of Mrs. Clinton raised concerns about the substance of Mr. Sanders’s statements, arguing that he showed his haphazardness on the issue in a recent Daily News interview in which he greatly exaggerated the number of civilians killed in Gaza, saying more than 10, 000 had died. Clinton supporters also said he had supplied no specifics when he called for an “evenhanded” approach. In Mrs. Clinton’s response to the same question Thursday night, she stopped short of endorsing Israel’s response but echoed its argument that Hamas fighters were often mixed in with civilians. She noted her experience dealing with both sides as secretary of state and said — to applause — “I believe that as president I will be able to continue to make progress and get an agreement that will be fair both to the Israelis and the Palestinians without ever, ever undermining Israel’s security. ” Mr. Engel, the congressman, said he took solace in the fact that Mrs. Clinton still had a large delegate lead. “I don’t have a fear because he’s not going to be the nominee,” Mr. Engel said of Mr. Sanders. “Hillary is going to be the nominee, and she’s just fine. ” Still, Jewish activists who are highly critical of Israel said they would be thankful for his contribution even if he did not win. Minutes after the debate, Rebecca Vilkomerson, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a growing organization that advocates pressuring Israel with the threat of boycotts, released a statement calling Mr. Sanders’s remarks “heartening” and added, “Today showed that the movement for Palestinian rights is shifting the discourse at the highest political levels. ” | 0fake |
CNN Host Scolds Conway on Trump's Treatment of Reporters. Then She Flips Script With 1 Big Question | Share on Twitter
Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway took incoming fire on behalf of her boss about the candidate's treatment of reporters covering his campaign.
Wolf Blitzer asked Conway to convince Trump not to ridicule reporters at his rallies, saying that they are “scared” violence will go down:
“He shouldn't be doing that. I mean, can you talk to him? And say to him, 'Mr. Trump, we only have a few days left, these are hardworking young journalists, they deserve to have some security,' if you will, because some of those Trump supporters out there, they get pretty nasty with what they're screaming at these young people.” Image Credit: Screenshot/CNN
Conway said she would tell him. And then, she calmly withdrew her rhetorical scalpel, checked the glinting blade by the bright studio lights and carved out the reasons for Blitzer on why the reporters who cover the candidate deserve ridicule.
She mentioned the WikiLeaks email which showed reporters had sought approval for stories from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta:
"...[T]hat's not journalism, that's advocacy and, frankly, that's collusion. So if there's any spectrum between coziness to collaboration to collusion—any of that would bother us.
Many journalists have admitted that Donald Trump has compelled them to suspend objective standards of journalism. I think Americans deserve to have the race covered fairly."
Blitzer interrupted to mention the scared young reporters who might be harmed by Trump supporters.
Conway said:
“[T]he only violence I saw at rallies so far was what we saw on video tape by somebody whose cohorts were at the White House 346 times, actively paying people—$1,500 a pop—to be protesters to incite violence at Trump rallies. That's being done by Democratic operatives. The stink goes all the way up the chain through the DNC and related groups to Hillary Clinton's campaign. That's all I saw, but I'll make a deal with those embeds [cross talk with Wolf]...I'll excuse some of their tweets, but their twitter feed for some of them—we've done an analysis— 85%-90% negative toward Donald Trump.” Image Credit: Screenshot/CNN
Then Conway asked Blitzer a final, rhetorical question about the coverage of the campaign:
“I wonder if the way the news is being covered in this election cycle, particularly in the last few weeks, is the way Americans actually see the news and see the race? It's not clear to me that they're being told is what they think is important to them is what is being reported to them.”
Conway claimed that what people at Trump rallies are concerned with are jobs, ObamaCare and defeating ISIS, not necessarily what's being reported. | 1real |
HYPOCRITE BILLY CRYSTAL INJECTS JAB At Trump In Eulogy To Ali That’s Curiously Similar To A Clinton Speech | The bashing of Donald Trump is getting so old and tiresome. People with common sense know the truth and know what the left is trying to do. It s the same old playbook of demonizing what you don t like repeatedly. The problem is that Americans are finally wising up to this Alinsky strategy. You d think the liberals are all coordinating their talking points .hummm Billy Crystal bashed Trump during his eulogy of Ali in a line similar to Clinton s speech on Tuesday: life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls. Do you think for one minute that Trump would have gotten where he is if he d not reached out to people and built bridges literally and figuratively? The reason Trump wants to build a literal wall with Mexico is that, without borders, we don t have a country . We can certainly reach out to others but Trump knows open borders DO NOT WORK! Just take a look at Europe and the EU! What a mess! Trump has said he wants LEGAL IMMIGRATION and doesn t want ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION! He s protecting the people of America and that s putting America first!The problem with Billy Crystal s swipe at Trump is that he isn t practicing what he preaches. Anyone who knows Los Angeles knows that the homes have gates and walls. Well, Billy Crystal has walls and a fence surrounding his home people in glass houses!It was easy to get photos above of the fence and wall around Billy Crystal s home but we can t just walk onto his property uninvited. Isn t that the same as people walking over our border illegally?Comedian Billy Crystal gave an emotional tribute during Muhammad Ali s funeral on Friday, but may have sneaked in a low-key dig at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Crystal, a friend of The Champ s for more than 40 years, said at the end of his eulogy for the boxer in the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky that Ali taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls. That line Crystal said sounds similar to what Hillary Clinton said during her victory speech on Tuesday. We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls, the Democratic presidential candidate front-runner said. Read more: Daily Mail | 1real |
Trump’s Ex-Manager: He Didn’t Even Know What A Gold Star Family Is | Comments
Donald Trump, the draft-dodging Russophile who cloaks his xenophobia and bigotry in a veneer of false patriotism, reportedly had to ask what a Gold Star family was after he attacked the Muslim-American parents of war hero Capt. Humayun Khan. Trump has thus once again proven his patriotic rhetoric to be nothing but ignorant and self-serving bombast.
The Trump-Khan feud arose after Khizr Khan, Capt. Khan’s father, gave a powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention over the summer repudiating Trump’s hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric. Khan said that Trump had “sacrificed nothing” while he and his wife had paid the ultimate sacrifice for America, and famously held up his pocket-size Constitution and offered to lend it to Trump. Trump, who seems physically incapable of responding to criticism with anything other than blustering attacks, went on a tirade against Mr. Khan, adding for good measure that his wife Ghazala was not allowed to speak at the DNC because she is a Muslim.
When one of Trump’s advisers warned him against attacking a Gold Star family, Trump reportedly responded, “what’s that?” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, apparently had to repeatedly explain to the candidate that a Gold Star family is a family that has lost a loved one serving in war. In a surprising bit of pushback from a Trump campaign staff that seems to consist overwhelmingly of yes men, Manafort reportedly told Trump in response to his feud with Khan that the election “is about the American people, it’s not about you.”
That Trump has the audacity to criticize war heros like Capt. Khan and Sen. John McCain after using his privilege to avoid war and knowing nothing of their sacrifice, that he is so presumptuous as to adopt the mantle of fighting for America while knowing nothing about American institutions, is proof that he is nothing but an opportunistic demagogue who will say anything to appease his own ego. In stark contrast to Trump’s sleaze, however, Khizr Khan has, in the best American tradition, taken the high road.
Khan has continued to speak out for American values and against Trump’s hate-peddling. Last week he said that “there comes a time in an ordinary citizen’s life where you have to gather all the courage you have and you stand up and speak against tyranny and speak against un-American hate.” Khan has continued to get under Trump’s skin, with the nominee replying to that speech with the hackneyed lie that he opposed the Iraq war. Perhaps the reason Trump has been so irritated by Mr. Khan is that he has demonstrated so much better than Mr. Trump himself what it means to be a true American. | 1real |
GOP Candidate Completely Screws Up And Admits What Republicans Are Really About (VIDEO) | It s hardly a well-kept secret. Forty years of Republican policies have proven that they don t give a crap about the people who voted them in. Progressives know that, but there are still millions of people who are buying the GOP lie. Now, a GOP candidate for Congress is under fire for being honest. She told a debate crowd on Tuesday that the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans don t care whether people are able to make a living, even if they work full-time.In a televised debate just two weeks ahead of the high-profile special election that will fill the vacant House seat in Georgia s Sixth Congressional District, Republican Karen Handel delivered her opponent what one commentator called a gift-wrapped present Tuesday night by declaring her opposition to a livable wage. I do not support a livable wage, she said, adding that this is an example of the fundamental difference between a liberal and a conservative. No, that was not out of context. She doesn t think the people who serve our food or the people who sell you your necessities or the people who care for your children are worthy of having a living wage, and it s not just her. It s the entire Republican Party.Here she is saying it:.@karenhandel doesn t want workers to make enough money to livepic.twitter.com/9Gxiahq8Zb jordan ? (@JordanUhl) June 7, 2017Did you catch her contradicting herself? She wants fewer regulations and lower taxes so small businesses can create well-paying jobs, but to her, apparently, well-paying doesn t need to be enough to live on. Also, there s the fact that wages and regulations do not correlate.If Twitter is any indication, she might have just put the final nail in her own electoral coffin. If there s anything Republicans hate, it s honesty.someone explain, with a serious face, how paying people less creates better paying jobs for people who don t make enough to live on. John (@johnwjohnsoniii) June 7, 2017It is class war out in the open. And it isn t Dems waging it. Steve Douglas (@Duramadera) June 7, 2017That SHOULD be enough to hand the election to Ossoff. Northernsmasher (@jaharrison763) June 7, 2017Who needs a livable wage ? Who needs clean air or water? So proud to be a conservative Karen Handel? Adam Bernstein (@Iamthebassman) June 7, 2017Are u fuckng kidding me? U don t support a LIVABLE WAGE? Why should workers not be able to live to support business so they can thrive? Linda Di (@lpassionflower) June 7, 2017OK? so creating more non-livable wage jobs is her goal for small business? American Monkey (@SAmericanMonkey) June 7, 2017If they are living in the gutter outside the workplace they have no excuse for being late. Glenn Holmes (@Koalaburger) June 7, 2017Then again, Republicans are heartless and the people who will be voting for her don t give a sh*t about anyone. Republicans don t believe hard-working Americans deserve a home, food, childcare or healthcare. Corporations, and the wealthy, though, need their tax cuts and an extra subsidy on top of that. The truth is that if a business won t pay living wages, taxpayers end up making up the difference through public benefits like food stamps.This particular election has become a symbolic referendum on Donald Trump and in Republicans in general. That district is generally considered a Republican stronghold, but with ineffective and corrupt leadership in D.C., the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff has a decent chance of winning. While it s too early to get polls from last night s debate, Ossoff s odds are looking much better.Featured image via WSBTV video screen capture | 1real |
BREAKING: Benghazi Committee Shuts Down After Trump Win, Proving It Was Just A Clinton Witch Hunt | It s finally over. Now that Donald Trump has been kinda-sorta elected president by a historic minority of voters and a system put in place thanks to lobbying by slave owners, Republicans have decided that a headline-grabbing fake investigation into Hillary Clinton just isn t necessary anymore.In multiple desperate attempts to blame the tragic Benghazi terrorist attacks on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Republicans spent years betraying taxpayers by knowingly wasting millions of their dollars doing their best not to uncover the truth, but to turn public perception against the president and the former secretary of state. Principled conservatives and other stupid people rallied around the cause as Trump and Stein supporters, unable to tell fact from fiction, used Benghazi and any other fake scandal they heard about on Infowars to demand that Clinton be jailed or even executed for imagined crimes.Yes, it was propaganda it was effective taxpayer-funded propaganda. But it s over now. Trump will be our next president, the committee has lost interest, and (most importantly), the truth of the millions-of-dollars-worth of investigations is laid bare: it was all an effort to hoodwink voters. Every. Single. Bit. Of. It.While the panel s chairman, Trey Gowdy, loudly trumpeted every facet of this witch hunt at every step of the way, the final report was added to the official house record without so much as a peep from him. The reason? He d accomplished his purpose. There s no longer any need for him to abuse his position to play politics now that the game he was playing is over. USA Today has a nice rundown of the damage that was done:The special committee was created in May 2014 to investigate the terrorist attacks at the U.S. compound in eastern Libya where four Americans died, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.In June, the Benghazi Committee report was endorsed by the Republican committee members but not the Democrats. It severely criticized military, CIA and Obama administration officials for their response as the attacks unfolded and their subsequent explanations to the American people. It accused the government of incompetence at various levels, including a failure to deploy needed military assets, CIA intelligence reports that were rife with errors, and misguided planning even in the midst of the violence. The report did not single out wrongdoing by then-secretary of State Hillary Clinton, although some Republicans on the panel alleged that overall concern for her political future influenced and hampered some of the decision-making surrounding policy in Libya.Clinton s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State was revealed as part of the Benghazi investigation, but the committee did not investigate whether the setup led to improper handling of classified information. The FBI declined to pursue criminal charges regarding the email system, but it was a major issue in the 2016 presidential election.Gowdy on Monday called the report the final, definitive accounting of the Benghazi attacks. The committee is proud to have been able to tell the story of the ingenuity and bravery displayed by our nation s heroes in Benghazi, who banded together to save one another when no other help was ever on the way, Gowdy said when asked about the report. But Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel s Batman to Gowdy s Aryan Joker, was quick to call it what it was. Republicans voted on this partisan report five months ago, but delayed filing it and completing the committee until after the election, Cummings says. Republicans promised a process that was fair and bipartisan, but the American people got exactly the opposite. If any Republican mentions any aspect of the Benghazi investigation to you ever again, be sure to point out that conservative principles only exist long enough for them to work to someone s political benefit. Then they just disappear like this investigation did after Trump won and Ebola after the midterms.Featured image via Getty Images/Mark Wilson | 1real |
CHER ATTACKS TRUMP: Compares Bill Clinton’s Infidelities To Trump’s 3 Marriages…Forgets One Important Fact | Really Cher? We re not excusing infidelity, but it should be pointed out that Donald Trump, who fell in love with Marla Maples, ended up marrying her. How many twisted affairs that Bill had during his marriage to Hillary had a happy ending for the women involved? Did Bill have multiple affairs with women because he loved them, or simply because he s a pervert who clearly has no respect for the sanctity of marriage? We all make mistakes, and comparing a single affair that Trump had, to a serial philanderer is simply not a fair comparison.TRUMP CANT THROW ONE STONE AT PRES CLINTON, REGARDING CHEATING. TRUMP HUMILIATED BOTH HIS WIVES IN HEADLINES 4WKS,BECAUSE OF HIS CHEATING Cher (@cher) January 5, 2016Marla Maples and her true feelings about Donald Trump:And then there s the our former President, convicted liar and serial pervert, Bill Clinton: SAID THIS B4,BUT MUST REITERATE,IF THERES PRES TRUMP2016,U CAN THANK THE MEDIA NEWS SOURCES HAVE HANDED HIM WIN ON A SILVER PLATTER,4FREE Cher (@cher) December 30, 2015Honestly Think Pathological Side Of Trump Has Always Existed..However,This Campaign has opened Pandora s Box.He s Lowest Common Denominator Cher (@cher) December 29, 2015By way of comparison,(aside from the famous White House affair with teenager and intern, Monica Lewinsky) here s the list of accusations against serial pervert, Bill Clinton:Juanita Broaddrick (AR)- rapeEileen Wellstone (Oxford) rapeElizabeth Ward Gracen rape quid pro quo, post incident intimidationRegina Hopper Blakely forced himself on her, biting, bruising her Kathleen Willey (WH) sexual assault, intimidations, threatsSandra Allen James (DC) sexual assault22 Year Old 1972 (Yale) sexual assaultKathy Bradshaw (AK) sexual assaultCristy Zercher unwelcomed sexual advance, intimidationsPaula Jones (AR) unwelcomed sexual advance, exposure, bordering on sexual assaultCarolyn Moffet -unwelcomed sexual advance, exposure, bordering on sexual assault1974 student at University of Arkansas unwelcomed physical contact1978-1980 seven complaints per Arkansas state troopersMonica Lewinsky quid pro quo, post incident character assaultGennifer Flowers quid pro quo, post incident character assaultDolly Kyle Browning post incident character assaultSally Perdue post incident threatsBetty Dalton rebuffed his advances, married to one of his supportersDenise Reeder apologetic note scanned | 1real |
Senior House Democrats want briefing on Flynn, Russians | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives Democratic leader and the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee asked U.S. intelligence on Thursday for an immediate briefing on contacts between Russian officials and President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Adding to the clamor from Congress for more information about the matter, Leader Nancy Pelosi and Representative Adam Schiff wrote to Michael Dempsey, the acting director of National Intelligence, asking for an immediate “comprehensive” briefing and access to uncensored transcripts of Flynn’s conversations with Russian officials. | 0fake |
After threats, EU lawmakers seek 'protection' on Malta visit | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers have asked for protection when they visit Malta this week to probe accusations of high-level corruption on the island, citing death threats made against some members of the EU parliament. The legislature passed a motion this month voicing concerns about democracy and the rule of law in the EU s smallest state, following the killing of a journalist who had accused some political leaders of graft and money laundering. A group of seven MEPs will visit Malta on Thursday and Friday. In a letter seen by Reuters, Manfred Weber, the German leader of the center-right bloc, wrote to European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on Wednesday asking him to remind the Maltese authorities of their duty to protect the delegation and allow them to carry out their duty free from fear . The stark terms of the letter underscored the depth of feeling in Brussels about recent developments in Malta. It also reflected Tajani s call on Monday for the Polish government to ensure the safety of MEPs after a far-right protest there over an EU parliament motion about democracy in Poland. Centre-left Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says Malta does not tolerate crime and promised justice for the murdered journalist, who had leveled personal accusations against him as well as against members of the center-right opposition party. Sven Giegold, a German member of the EU parliament s Greens party and a leading campaigner on financial crime who will be part of the delegation, told Reuters he was not very worried but added: I hope the security will be guaranteed. Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, wrote that there were serious concerns about the independence of the Maltese police and referred to MEPs being threatened with their lives for speaking out in defense of the rule of law in Malta . One of his group s members, Maltese center-right MEP Roberta Metsola, has faced public death threats on social media after speaking on the issue, parliamentary officials said. Mr Weber can rest assured that, as in previous occasions, Malta will offer maximum hospitality to the MEP delegation , a spokesman for the Maltese government told Reuters. | 0fake |
OBAMACARE WEBSITE OF OBAMA’S HOME STATE SHUT DOWN BUT NOT FOR LACK OF FUNDING | This is just another example of a big free-for-all for anyone and everyone connected to a government program. Where did this money go? We ll never know because of the lack of oversight but I ll bet it went into some pockets. It spent nearly $24,000 per person on the website! This is YOUR hard earned money! Unreal! In total, HHS provided nearly $4.5 billion to Hawaii and other state exchanges, with little federal oversight and virtually no strings attached. Despite over $205 million in federal taxpayer funding, Hawaii s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down. Since its implementation, the exchange has somehow failed to become financially viable because of lower than expected Obamacare enrollment figures. With the state legislature rejecting a $28 million bailout, the website will now be unable to operate past this year.According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the Hawaii Health Connector will stop taking new enrollees on Friday and plans to begin migrating to the federally run Healthcare.gov. Outreach services will end by May 31, all technology will be transferred to the state by September 30, and its workforce will be eliminated by February 28.While the exchange has struggled since its creation, it is not for lack of funding. Since 2011 Hawaii has received a total of $205,342,270 in federal grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In total, HHS provided nearly $4.5 billion to Hawaii and other state exchanges, with little federal oversight and virtually no strings attached.Despite this generous funding, the exchange has underperformed from day one. In its first year, Hawaii enrolled only 8,592 individuals meaning it spent almost $23,899 on its website for each individual enrolled. Currently over 37,000 individuals are enrolled in Hawaii s exchange well below the estimated 70,000 enrollees that is required to make the website financially viable. Unfortunately, taxpayers will have to hand out an additional $30 million so that Hawaii can migrate to the federal system.This is not the first time that a state exchange has failed, and taken millions of dollars in federal funds down with it. Earlier this year, Oregon s state exchange was officially abolished at an estimated cost of $41 million.Read more: Americans For Tax Reform | 1real |
Trump says he regrets past remarks that 'caused personal pain' | CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump apologized on Thursday for past remarks that “may have caused personal pain” as he sought to refocus his message in the face of falling opinion poll numbers in his first speech since shaking up his campaign team this week. “Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing,” Trump told a crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.” Trump did not cite any examples of such remarks. The New York businessman has made his “tough talk” and brash style a selling point of his campaign for the Nov. 8 election, rarely apologizing in the face of criticism even from within his own party for own party for comments insulting women, Muslims and Mexican immigrants. In his presidential announcement speech last year, he described some Mexican immigrants as “criminals and rapists.” He recently faced a barrage of criticism for belittling the family of a Muslim American soldier who died in Iraq in 2004, after the soldier’s father spoke out against Trump at the Democratic National Convention last month. The campaign for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, quickly dismissed Trump’s apology, saying: “Donald Trump literally started his campaign by insulting people. “We learned tonight that his speechwriter and teleprompter knows he has much for which he should apologize,” the campaign said in a statement. “But that apology tonight is simply a well-written phrase until he tells us which of his many offensive, bullying and divisive comments he regrets — and changes his tune altogether.” Trailing Clinton in national opinion polls, Trump has tried to reset his campaign, announcing on Wednesday a shake-up of his senior campaign staff for the second time in less than two months. In the past week, he has abandoned his free-wheeling style of campaigning, instead using a teleprompter at every rally. Trump also began adding non-rally events to his campaign schedule, visiting a police lodge on Thursday afternoon and hosting a roundtable on Wednesday morning. Previously, Trump had eschewed such events that historically comprise a significant portion of a candidate’s time. Trump’s speech on Thursday night, echoing remarks earlier in the week in Wisconsin, reached out to minority voters and accused Clinton of being dishonest. “So while sometimes I can be too honest, Hillary Clinton is the exact opposite: She never tells the truth,” Trump said. “In this journey, I will never lie to you. I will never tell you something I do not believe.” Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, promised on Thursday he would stick to a more disciplined and uplifting message to voters in the final dash to Election Day without crimping his freewheeling style. Conway said the candidate’s White House bid could preserve his “authenticity” and still move past a long string of controversies to focus on issues. “We would like to take an uplifting, optimistic, policy-centric message directly to the American people,” Conway told CBS’s “This Morning,” adding she was confident the former reality television star could stick to a sharper message. Wednesday’s campaign reshuffle also brought on Steve Bannon, a combative conservative who headed the Breitbart News website, as chief executive officer, in a move seen as giving Trump a chance to emphasize his unconventional style. Conway said the more disciplined approach by Trump, who has never held elective office, would not mean jettisoning his more off-the-cuff and unpredictable style. “We’re going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin - that he doesn’t lose that authenticity that you simply can’t buy and a pollster can’t give you,” she said on CNN. “Let him be him, in this sense.” Trump has so far been unable to extend his appeal beyond white middle-class voters who pack his rallies. Conway said her rise to campaign manager showed Trump valued a more policy-driven approach that would appeal to women and independent voters. “The way to speak to women and all Americans is through issues. We’ve got to get away from this content-free campaign and on to the substance,” she said. The campaign will put two ads on the air in five states this week, the first campaign ads Trump has aired in the general election, Conway said. He will also continue a series of policy-focused speeches after giving speeches in the past two weeks on jobs, national security and law and order. “He’s going to give these policy speeches,” she said on CNN. “You’ll see more of those. Next week is immigration week, followed by education week.” | 0fake |
Key U.S. lawmaker suggests openness to encryption legislation after Apple order | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker expressed a new willingness to support legislation establishing ground rules for when technology firms should grant authorities access to their products, after Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said it would fight a court order to unlock an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino shooting rampage. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that the “complex issues” raised by the Apple case, as well as the prevalence of strongly encrypted devices and communications, “will ultimately need to be resolved by Congress, the administration and industry, rather than the courts alone.” Two weeks ago, Schiff told reporters he considered a legislative approach to the issue neither “feasible or even desirable.” On Tuesday, a federal judge in Los Angeles said that Apple must provide “reasonable technical assistance” to investigators seeking to unlock the data on an iPhone that had been used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook, who, with his wife, killed 14 people on Dec. 2. Apple said it would fight the court order, which it said would set a dangerous precedent that could ultimately undermine the security of its iPhones. While lawmakers are far from a consensus on the issue, Schiff said, “the court’s decision will likely accelerate our consideration of how to weigh the competing privacy, security and competitiveness issues.” Schiff’s pivot could signal renewed interest from lawmakers in an encryption debate that so far has found little traction in Congress. The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on encryption on March 1 and has invited Apple to attend, according to a congressional source. Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate intelligence panel respectively, have said they want to pursue encryption legislation, though neither has introduced a bill yet. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Thursday that Burr was working on a proposal that would levy “criminal penalties” on companies that did not comply with court orders to decrypt communications, though it said negotiations were still fluid. However, Burr’s spokeswoman Becca Watkins told Reuters he “is not considering criminal penalties in his draft encryption proposals.” Momentum for a law that would require companies to provide government access to the contents of encrypted devices relevant to a criminal investigation faltered last summer when the White House stopped pushing for a bill amid intense opposition from technology companies and privacy advocates. It is difficult to gauge the Apple case’s impact on Congress, as both the Senate and House of Representatives are on recess this week. But congressional aides say any encryption legislation likely still faces a steep climb. That is especially true in the House, which in 2014 passed an amendment to a defense funding bill that would have barred the government from forcing an organization to build a technical “backdoor” into its products. The measure was later removed during negotiations. Federal officials have privately dismissed a theory that the Apple case was choreographed to stir up support for encryption legislation. But Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said she believed the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing the case in California with one eye on Congress. “It’s a win-win for them,” she said. “If they prevail in court, they don’t need a law. And if they lose, they have it set up to go to lawmakers and say: This is what we need, the courts didn’t give it to us, so we need a new law.” | 0fake |
Obama addresses human rights, ethnic divisions on final day of Kenya visit | NAIROBI, Kenya — President Obama spoke out Sunday about corruption, ethnic divisions, terrorism and human rights in a rousing televised speech on his last day in Kenya, his father's homeland.
Speaking to thousands at the Kasarani National Stadium, Obama encouraged Kenyans to “choose the path to progress” by fighting corruption and terrorism and by treating women and girls as equal citizens.
"Kenya has come so far in just my lifetime," said Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to visit the African nation. "Kenya is at a crossroads, a moment filled with peril but enormous promise. Because of Kenya's progress, because of your potential, you can build your future right here, right now."
He called for an end to ethnic divisions and described corruption in the country as a “cancer.”
"Treating women and girls as second-class citizens is a bad tradition. It's holding you back," he added.
Some Kenyans said they were pleased that Obama addressed human rights, ethnic divisions and equality. But for many, just seeing Obama — who was born in Hawaii but his father was from Kenya — was the main goal.
“I should be seeing President Obama live today,” said Collins Njehia, 28, a Nairobi resident camping outside the stadium before the speech. “We’ve been denied access by security officers, but I need to see him, even if it means climbing a tree.”
“Obama is our son, and we love him dearly," said Peninah Mwangi, a vegetable vendor in Nairobi. "I want to make sure I see him today before he leaves."
Many Nairobi residents tried to get to the stadium to watch the event live after officials mounted a huge screen there for those who couldn't get inside. But security measures that all but locked down the capital's streets thwarted those efforts. Some instead headed to bars and hotels to watch the speech.
Agreeing with Obama, Erick Nyariyo, a Nairobi resident, said, “This government will soon become a dictator if some issues are not dealt with,” Nyariyo said. “The government needs to control every institution in the country, including ... the electoral body so that they can rig elections."
The Kenyan government has consistently denied allegations of election fraud.
In his address, Obama warned that ethnic and tribal divisions would lead to further cracks in the country's unity.
"Politics that's based on only tribe and ethnicity is doomed to tear a country apart," he said. "It is a failure — a failure of imagination."
“I was surprised that Obama knows everything about our country,” said Martin Kiprotich, a local leader from western Kenya, who traveled here to attend the speech in the stadium. “I’m happy because he talked about tribalism. Our nation is divided along tribal line(s), and as leaders we need to address it.”
During his three-day visit, Obama spoke to Kenyan leaders about security and terrorism before departing Sunday for Ethiopia.
Kenya has witnessed a rise in high-profile terror attacks over the past two years, including a 2013 assault at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi that resulted in almost 70 deaths. Al-Shabab, a Somali-based group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the mall attack and another attack this year at a university in Garissa in eastern Kenya that killed almost 150 people, mostly students. The extremist group said the attacks were in retaliation for Kenya military action against them in Somalia.
Obama told Kenyans that while security measures must be strengthened, the war on terror must be approached while respecting the rule of law and human rights. Some Muslims cheered at his message, saying that they are always targeted after every terror attack in Kenya.
Nazlin Umar Fazaldin Rajput, head of the National Muslim Council of Kenya, said: "The oppression Muslims face in Kenya are (outrageous). People are persecuted, unlawfully detained for prolonged periods, maliciously arrested (and) prosecuted with trumped-up charges."
David Juma, 29, a businessman who owns a dairy farm, said, “I am inspired by Obama’s story. It does not matter where you were born. Anyone can move from scratch to becoming a great leader like him. His speech has changed my life forever.” | 0fake |
HIGH-LEVEL WHISTLEBLOWER Exposes Astonishing Evidence Of Exaggerated Global Warming Data Used To DUPE World Leaders Into Investing Billions | This isn t the first time scientists have been caught manipulating evidence in their quest to convince the world global, warming, cooling, climate change is real, and it certainly won t be the last.Thank goodness for whistleblowers The UK Daily Mail on Sunday today revealed astonishing evidence that the organization that is the world s leading source of climate data rushed to publish a landmark paper that exaggerated global warming and was timed to influence the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.A high-level whistleblower has told this newspaper that America s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) breached its own rules on scientific integrity when it published the sensational but flawed report, aimed at making the maximum possible impact on world leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015.The report claimed that the pause or slowdown in global warming in the period since 1998 revealed by UN scientists in 2013 never existed, and that world temperatures had been rising faster than scientists expected. Launched by NOAA with a public relations fanfare, it was splashed across the world s media, and cited repeatedly by politicians and policy makers.But the whistleblower, Dr John Bates, a top NOAA scientist with an impeccable reputation, has shown The Mail on Sunday irrefutable evidence that the paper was based on misleading, unverified data.It was never subjected to NOAA s rigorous internal evaluation process which Dr Bates devised.His vehement objections to the publication of the faulty data were overridden by his NOAA superiors in what he describes as a blatant attempt to intensify the impact of what became known as the Pausebuster paper.His disclosures are likely to stiffen President Trump s determination to enact his pledges to reverse his predecessor s green policies, and to withdraw from the Paris deal so triggering an intense political row. Daily Mail | 1real |
REAL INDIAN, GOP Senate Hopeful Shiva Ayyadurai Just Got Great News…FAKE INDIAN Elizabeth Warren Aligns Herself With Hillary Clinton In New Fundraising Email | Mass Live Ayyadurai, who announced his Republican U.S. Senate bid in February, said that while he may not be the GOP establishment s candidate, his track record of overcoming barriers and fighting big institutions makes him the best person to take on the high-powered incumbent. I know that Warren in spite of (what) people think she is is extremely weak, he said in an interview. She s a formidable enemy, but weak in the sense that where she s fundamentally coming from, her basis of where she s coming from, has massive weakness and I know how to expose that weakness. Ayyadurai, 53, moved to the U.S. from India as a child. He compared the Democratic senator and former Harvard University professor to those at the top of India s caste system a social structure in which he said his family held a low position. If you look at what we have today, we have a neo-caste system and at the top of that heap is people like Warren, he said. They are the academics, career politicians and lawyer/lobbyists. And that clan is extremely spineless, they never expect to be challenged. And I ve challenged them. Last month, Ayyadurai made news when he sent Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren a DNA kit for her birthday (which she rejected) after Warren was caught lying about being a Native American on a application for a teaching position at Harvard University, allegedly hoping that her fake minority status would place her ahead of other applicants for the job.Senator Elizabeth Warren is not only a liar, she s also not very bright. Warren sent out an email today that was clearly designed to appeal to women. In the email, Warren names the very unpopular Hillary Clinton, not only once, but twice. Warren starts out the email by mentioning Hillary s name in the first sentence:Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village, and she was right. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community, or lift a country totally alone. Warren used Hillary s name again near the end of her email:Every minute counts to get a campaign off the ground. It mattered the most when the DSCC helped launch my Senate campaign, and when they were there for Hillary when she launched her Senate career 17 years ago.Apparently, Warren missed the dreadful polls showing how the wildly unpopular Hillary Clinton s like ability continues to plummet, even after the race.If Warren stays the course and continues to align herself with Crooked Hillary, the very successful entrepreneur and President Trump supporter Shiva Ayyadurai will no doubt be able to use her embarrassingly bad decision to his advantage.Mass Live- If elected, Ayyadurai said he hopes to bring a sense of innovation to the Senate when it comes to addressing hot-button issues, as well as to look at problems from an engineering and science perspective.Casting himself as a Lincoln Republican, the entrepreneur said his campaign platform will largely focus on three areas: immigration, education and innovation.As an immigrant, Ayyadurai said he believes it is important that the U.S. secure its borders, root out so-called sanctuary cities and ensure people enter the country legally.He added that he also supports ensuring parents and students have choices when it comes to public education, and argued that more must be done to address what he called pay-to-play academic science research.Ayyadurai, who holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the founder and chairman of CytoSolve, a startup that has developed a computational platform for scalable integration of molecular pathway models used in drug development.He is one of three Republicans who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for the Massachusetts Senate seat in 2018.To donate to Shiva Ayyadurai s senate campaign, click HERE.Here is Warren s email:Friend Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village, and she was right. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community, or lift a country totally alone. I ve seen what a village, a community, and a movement can do, one action at a time. And I ve seen how women can help women especially when we run for office.I sure remember what it was like running for the Senate as a first-time candidate in 2011. I had to learn everything it took to raise money, build a grassroots organizing operation, and stand up to a Republican incumbent with $10 million in the bank and I had to do it fast.And here s what I know: I absolutely, positively couldn t have done it on my own.So when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told me they wanted a strong launch of the Women s Senate Network for the 2018 cycle, to help women run and make sure more voices like mine and Hillary s are in the Senate, I immediately told them:I m all in.Today, I m asking you to join me in becoming a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women s Senate Network. Because you were there for Hillary, I m hoping you ll add your name to help us build a community to support women who run for office.Now let me be blunt: 2018 is going to be a hard year for Democrats. We ve got 10 women who are up for reelection to the Senate, including me more than ever before in history. And many are in some really tough races.That s why the DSCC s Women s Senate Network is ramping up its 2018 efforts early to elect and protect smart, tough, and experienced candidates to fight for what s right senators who understand that being a woman is not a pre-existing condition, that we deserve equal pay for equal work, and that we sure as heck need Planned Parenthood and affordable health care for hardworking families.Let s continue our fight and get more women in leadership in this country.I m counting on you to keep fighting for what we all started: become a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women s Senate Network today. You ll even get your very own Nevertheless, She Persisted sticker when you do!Every minute counts to get a campaign off the ground. It mattered the most when the DSCC helped launch my Senate campaign, and when they were there for Hillary when she launched her Senate career 17 years ago.And with your help, we can be there for the women who need help defending their seats now and for the next generation of women candidates ready to move into leadership. Early help makes all the difference.Thank you for owning a piece of this.Elizabeth | 1real |
Election 2016: A Political System In Crisis | Share This: BY NILE BOWIE T he outcome of strangest and most consequential election cycle in recent American history will soon be upon us. Regardless of who becomes the next president, this election will forever be synonymous with the rogue candidacy of Donald Trump and the demographic shifts that have emboldened the right. Though it may be a close election, it is widely presumed that public antipathy towards Trump – the first major party candidate who is near-universally opposed by both major parties – will tilt the odds in Hillary Clinton’s favour. Nonetheless, Trump’s support base of primarily white, blue-collar Americans will be a major factor for the political establishment to contend with in the years ahead. These voters are frustrated by their economic marginalisation wrought by neoliberal trade deals and economic policies and are contemptuous of traditional political elite, their internationalism and liberal identity politics. For these voters, fear of immigration is entwined with the precarity of being working class, their troubling prejudices notwithstanding. Economic disempowerment and political disenfranchisement have accelerated under President Obama, to the detriment of the American middle class. White, blue-collar Americans have witnessed the offshoring of their jobs and the erosion of their status in society, and Trump has masterfully stroked their resentment and discontent by playing on their fears of Muslims, immigrants and minorities. Trump’s views often contain unusual contradictions and seem to be delivered impromptu. What remains consistent are his authoritarian views on crime and justice, vows to close the borders to refugees, Muslims and economic migrants, scepticism of overseas ‘democracy promotion’ and America’s role in international alliances, foreign policy views both isolationist and belligerent and of course, his distinctive megalomaniacal hubris. Trump’s real problem with the Washington establishment is that he isn’t part of it. His campaign represents an insurgent faction of the oligarchical class that aims to displace and replace the standing political elites. Bipartisan opposition to Trump is grounded in the belief that he would be an unreliable proxy and a liability, someone too narrow and unpredictable to manage the common affairs of the ruling class and the US deep state. Moreover, the US establishment is not interested in being led by such a contentious figure, who would draw protest and public opposition in a way that more conventional establishment candidates largely do not. For example, Trump’s rhetoric on immigration seems to engender more public outrage than the immigration policy under Obama, who has deported more people than any other president in history. That being said, Hillary Clinton is a more dangerous candidate in many ways. Trump understands that the political system is rigged and the economy is oriented to serve various elite interests, a message that resonates across the political spectrum, even with anti-Trump segments of the electorate. As a hated political outsider not tied directly into the power and the money structure of the political system, there would be no shortage of gridlock and checks on the authority wielded by Trump in the unlikely event that he becomes president. By contrast, Clinton wields enormous political influence inside the corridors of political and corporate power through personal relationships and connections. Policy and legislation shaped by donor money, lobbyist groups and special interests have been a hallmark of the Clintons’ time in public office. The very fact that she is standing for office while being investigated by the FBI, having committed actions that would have ended the careers of other politicians and government employees, speaks for itself. It has been reported by various sources that the FBI’s recent decision to reopen the investigation into the Clinton email scandal less than two weeks before election day has been motivated by an internal backlash within the agency’s rank and file, forcing FBI director James Comey’s hand as a means of addressing internal critics who believe he buried the Clinton probe for political reasons. Clinton’s email scandal is not the real issue. She has spent her political career ruthlessly advancing the interests of high finance, the military industrial complex and corporate America, with dramatic repercussions for minorities and the marginalised inside the United States, and the civilian populations of countries targeted for US military intervention and destabilization during the her time as an influential first lady, senator and secretary of state. Clinton has spent her long career advocating hawkish US military supremacy and banking deregulation, expanding the private prison industry to the detriment of impoverished African-American communities, dismantling the social safety net that marginalised families rely on, and enabling the consolidation of corporate power through secretive trade agreements. On the campaign trail, she has characterised her work as advancing the interests of women and families. Rather than addressing the political substance of revelations uncovered by WikiLeaks, the Clinton campaign, backed by Obama administration officials, has reverted to neo-McCarthyism by labelling opposition voices as surrogates of Russia, explicitly accusing Moscow of meddling in the US election process. The Clinton campaign has repeatedly evoked the historic struggle for civil rights and aspirational rhetoric of ‘breaking glass ceilings’ in the interest of a faux-feminism which prioritizes the equal opportunities of women to lead the nation’s highest office, while at once tone-deaf to the consequences faced by women and families on the receiving end of executive policies. The Democratic Party has become a parody of moral posturing, self-relishing its candidates with rhetoric that has no connection with policies in reality. It is the party of establishment insiders and corporate donors who openly engineer the presidential nomination process to favour their preferred candidate by virtue of the undemocratic super-delegate system. Bernie Sanders, whose campaign inspired millions of Americans for good reason, has proven himself to be tepid and cowardly in the face of practices that have proven beyond doubt that the Democratic Party establishment conspired against him. Bernie’s campaign centred around a rather modest, comparatively tame centre-left progressive platform that did not seriously question US militarism and the values of American exceptionalism. For the Democratic Party at large, the Sanders campaign represented a concession too far. The Clinton campaign even had the impudence to directly hire disgraced Democratic chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after leaked emails exposed her partisanship. Rather than addressing the political substance of revelations uncovered by WikiLeaks, the Clinton campaign, backed by Obama administration officials, has reverted to neo-McCarthyism by labelling opposition voices as surrogates of Russia, explicitly accusing Moscow of meddling in the US election process. Accusations of Russian interference without accompanying evidence are at best a short-sighted means of deflecting responsibility for the corrupt actions of the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party insiders. The next American president will have to confront the realities of strained relations with Russia. Clinton is known for her public enmity toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and would at best perpetuate the status quo of mutual distrust and limited cooperation. At worst, her policies could risk a military confrontation with Russia should she pursue the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syrian airspace, which she publically advocated during the presidential debates. Trump is the most prominent American political figure to advocate détente with Russia, openly breaking with his neoconservative running mate Mike Pence. Trump has criticised Clinton for supporting anti-government insurgents in Syria and called for jointly targeting ISIS with the Russian, and by extension, Syrian militaries. Trump, being very critical of Iran, also signalled he was willing to fight against ISIS on the same side as Tehran. He has also offered support for the establishment of a safe zone inside Syrian territory, potentially in cooperation with the Syrian government and its allies. Both candidates would pursue a different policy approach from the incumbent administration in Syria, but Clinton’s no-fly zone holds greater potential to deepen military hostilities between major powers. Clinton has generally been critical of Obama’s foreign policy in Syria and elsewhere for not asserting US power strongly enough. Despite the differences in style and demeanour, the range of policies offered by the entrenched two-party system is limited to varying shades of centre- to far-right. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the least trusted and most unpopular presidential candidates in modern history. Despite the public disillusionment with major party candidates, it remains to be seen whether American voters will cast ballots for third parties such as the Libertarian Party or Green Party, which are seeking to garner 5 percent of the popular vote to become eligible to receive public campaign funding. More likely than not, American voters will cast their ballots ‘against’ Trump by voting for Clinton and vice versa, fueling the cyclical politics of the lesser evil that have been a feature of American presidential elections for decades. More than any other US election in recent history, the candidates represent the rot of an American political establishment marred by scandal, hypocrisy and the relentless pursuit of hegemony. To advocate one over the other is ultimately defeatist. 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 Nile Bowie is a columnist with Russia Today (RT) and a research assistant with the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), an NGO based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 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. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com
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U.N. warns of new Syrian refugee wave to Europe if aid dries up | GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian refugees could again seek to reach Europe in droves if aid programs are not sustained in five neighboring countries hosting the bulk of them, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was giving details of the $4.4 billion appeal to support 5.3 million Syrian refugees in surrounding countries as well as to host communities in Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt that have taken them in. The agency, which has received only 53 percent of its $4.63 billion appeal for 2017, needs international support, Amin Awad, director of UNHCR s Middle East and North Africa bureau, told a news briefing. He listed many reasons , including: The vast number of refugees that we have in the region, the geopolitical status of that region, the risk that a population of 5.3 million people can bring to an area, a small region already volatile as it is, if there is no assistance. We had the experience of 2015, we don t want to repeat that, he said. The lack of funding led to an acute shortage of services that year, when one million refugees fled to Europe, he added. About half were Syrians, UNHCR figures show. An EU-Turkey deal has largely halted the flow, but a UNHCR funding shortfall has led to fresh cutbacks in vital programs providing food, health care, education and shelter to Syrian refugees, Awad said. That means we re not able to provide stoves, we are not able to deliver kerosene, we are not able to deliver enough thermal blankets, we are not able to winterise tents, we are not able to drain water and snow from camps, we are not able to do engineering work to insulate some of the buildings. People are sitting in cold, open buildings, he said. Turkey currently hosts 3.3 million Syrian refugees, the largest number, followed by Lebanon with one million. These are the biggest donors, these are the real donors. They provided space, international protection, Awad said. Now the material assistance is left to the donors and international community... And that s not coming through. So we have to be prepared for consequences, he said. Awad, asked about countries in the region closing their borders to Syrian refugees, replied: Borders are managed, in some instance are closed. Host countries have cited concerns over security, economic crises, and xenophobia, but Syrians continue to arrive, he said. Lebanon is still accepting vulnerable cases, medical cases, so is Turkey, Awad said. There have been cases of refoulement , returning refugees to places where they could face war or persecution, in violation of law, he said. We are seeing expulsion, we are seeing people sent back. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards declined to provide specifics on Syrian refugees being expelled. | 0fake |
Preventing Crime in New Jersey | (7 fans) - Advertisement -
Recently, around midnight, two young men were trying to steal some money from my car. Unknowingly, they tripped the car alarm and I woke up as soon as it went off since my bedroom is very close to the driveway. They stole my registration and insurance card. I immediately called Middle Township Police. The police were very kind and helpful, and I'd like to thank them. This is one example of many of increasing terror/criminal activities in New Jersey, which is an issue we need to address without delay. We have to make sure we are taking appropriate action to deter crimes throughout New Jersey. According to a report on NJ.com, the 2015 FBI data showed there were 363 murders in New Jersey -- up from 349 the previous year. The slight bump increased the rate to 4.1 murders per 100,000 residents. Sexual assault, murder, manslaughter, rape, and robbery are also increasing. Last month, in some counties, disputes between police and criminals resulted in shootings. Crime seems to be rising steadily and violently at an accelerating rate in New Jersey's major counties. The above-mentioned issues might affect tourism, which in turn will affect New Jersey's economy as a whole. New Jersey is a beautiful state but recently, higher taxes, limited job opportunities, crimes and poorly paid workers are adding to poverty, and need to be addressed properly. I think this has and will hinder the growth of New Jersey's economy and the rise of crime now and in the future. The executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, told the Convention in Vienna, the 2030 agenda for sustainable development acknowledged that confronting crime and promoting the rule of law were essential to the achievement of the sustainable-development goals. World Health Organization said, "We need to integrate violence prevention into social and educational policies, and thereby promote social equality." There is a variety of intervention programs we need to implement that may help people, especially young people, stop committing crimes. If our goal is to reduce crimes then programs related to those should be located in local areas. We also need a systematic approach to support schools to activate their involvement against crime activities to develop these kinds of programs that will demonstrate positive results. We also need to teach crime-resolution skills to our small children. In my opinion, the key to making New Jersey less dangerous is to reduce the time and effort that makes it so expensive to arrest and convict the guilty people, costing more for New Jersey as a whole. I think creating more job opportunities will reduce the crime. It is a basic human right to live crime-free and from being a victim of one. - Advertisement - However, many countries around the globe failed to identify the problems and have no program against it that has left many people with no choice but to become a victim of crime. There is an urgent need for crime protection and human-rights monitoring. - Advertisement - | 1real |
Donald Trump, president of the Confederacy: The Southern strategy created the GOP civil war | Of course, Republicans and conservatives find these twin facts offensive and unbelievable. They hold onto their founding myth of Lincoln and “Great Emancipator” while simultaneously being dependent on voters from the former Confederacy for power—states that still fly and honor the American swastika, a rebel flag of treason and anti-black hatred.
Despite their protests, the evidence is overwhelming.
The ascendance of Donald Trump and his coronation as the presumed 2016 Republican presidential candidate is the logical outcome of a several decades-long pattern of racism, nativism, and bigotry by the American right-wing and its news entertainment disinformation machine.
For example, in response to the triumphs of the black freedom struggle and the civil rights movement, the Republican Party has relied on the much discussed “Southern Strategy.” Lee Atwater, master Republican strategist and mentor to Karl Rove explained this approach as:
You start out in 1954 by saying, “N****r, n****r, n****r.” By 1968 you can’t say “n****r”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N****r, n****r.”
Ronald Reagan and other Republican elites would leverage Atwater’s approach to winning white voters and elections. To point, Reagan began his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the locale where American civil rights freedom fighters Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney were killed by white racial terrorists. In that speech, Reagan signaled to the ghosts of Jim and Jane Crow and the neo-Confederacy by stating his support for “states’ rights.”
Reagan would continue to use overt and coded racial appeals to gin up white support through his references to a “lazy,” “violent” and “parasitic” class of black Americans who he described as “welfare queens” and “strapping bucks.” George Bush would continue with the Southern Strategy when he summoned up white racist stereotypes and fears of “the black beast rapist” in the form of Willie Horton during the 1988 presidential election.
The Age of Obama witnessed an explosion of anti-black racism by the Republican Party and conservatives en masse. Birtherism, the rise of the Tea Party, the use of antebellum language (which was used to defend the Southern slaveocracy) such as “secession” and “nullification”, both overt and coded racist invective by Republican officials and news media, and a pattern of disrespect towards both the idea and literal personhood of Barack Obama as the United States’ first black president has been the norm. This deluge of anti-black animus towards Barack Obama does not exist in a separate universe outside of American society: it has real impact on the values and behavior of citizens.
To wit: in discussing his recent work on racial attitudes and political polarization, Professor Michael Tesler has noted how:
In all, Barack Obama’s presidency has been so disruptive to the white right-wing political imagination that it has resurrected a type of overt racism which was thought to be largely vanquished from American public life.
The intersection of white racism (“modern” and “old-fashioned”), nativism, a sense of white victimhood, and grievance mongering in the form of conspiracy theories and other unfounded beliefs is evident in other ways as well.
Fifty-four percent of Republicans believe that Barack Obama is a “secret Muslim.” Forty-four percent also believe that Obama was not born in the United States. Forty-two percent of Republicans believe that Muslims should be banned from the United States. Sixty-four percent of Republicans believe that “racism” against white people is as big a problem as discrimination against black Americans.
In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 66 percent of Republican and Republican-inclined respondents want to return to the “good old days.. This number is higher for Trump backers. It is important to note that this era was one of Jim and Jane Crow anti-black racism, legal sexism, and unapologetic discrimination against gays and lesbians. This yearning for a return to a fictive golden age of white male Christian domination over American social and political life is reflected in other work that shows how white people are much more pessimistic about their futures than Hispanics and African-Americans. Donald Trump is not a political genius. He understands what the Republican base yearns for and has been trained to believe–like a sociopolitical version of Pavlov’s dog–by its leaders. Trump says that Muslims should be banned from the United States because Republican voters respond to such hatred and intolerance. Trump lies that undocumented Hispanic and Latino immigrants are rapists and killers who want to attack white women because Republican voters find such rhetoric compelling. Trump uses social media to circulate white supremacist talking points about “black crime” because modern conservatives nurtured on “law and order” politics believe that African-Americans are out of control “thugs” possessed of “bad culture” who live to prey on innocent and vulnerable white people. Trump talks about China “raping” the United States because this arouses anger and fear of a new “yellow peril” where the manhood and honor of (white) America is sacrificed to a “sneaky” and “scheming” “Oriental” horde who twist their Fu Manchu mustaches and seduce white women in opium dens while simultaneously negotiating multibillion dollar trade deals. And perhaps most damning, Donald Trump has been endorsed by neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and the Ku Klux Klan: he has been reluctant to publicly reject and denounce their support. The corporate news media has aided and abetted “Trumpmania” by normalizing his racist, nativist and bigoted behavior. In response to Trump’s crucial win in last week’s Indiana primary, Slate’s Isaac Chotiner skewered this failure of journalistic integrity and responsibility among the TV news chattering class as: On TV Tuesday night, there was hardly a whimper. CNN, MSNBC, and Fox contented themselves with bright chatter about Ted Cruz’s hurt feelings, about Donald Trump’s political skill, about the feckless, pathetic Republican establishment. None of the commentators I saw mentioned the import of what was happening. Large chunks of the media have spent so long domesticating Trump that his victory no longer appeared momentous. He is the new normal….There was little talk of ideology, or racism, or bigotry, or fascist appeals. Instead, the conversation was about process; Trump had been fit into the usual rhythms of an election season. The closest thing I heard to open-mouthed shock came from Rachel Maddow, who wondered, correctly, why out of 330 million people the Republican Party had chosen this particular reality-television star. Elizabeth Bathory was a 16th century Hungarian countess who killed hundreds of young virgin girls and then bathed in their blood with the hope that it would maintain her beauty. Since at least the end of the civil rights movement, the Republican Party and movement conservatives have followed a similar “beauty” regimen. Instead of the blood of female virgins, they have washed themselves in racism and bigotry in order to buoy their political vitality. Donald Trump decided to move this political ritual out of the shadows and into the light of prime time television and the 24/7 news cycle. Trump, with his background in professional wrestling and reality TV simply took what has always been implied by the American Right-wing and made it obvious. The question now becomes, will Trump’s version of Elizabeth Bathory be enough to defeat Hillary Clinton and win the White House in November 2016? | 0fake |
Obama’s Last Stand Against War on Syria | Obama’s Last Stand Against War on Syria November 4, 2016
Exclusive: For five years, President Obama has resisted neocon/liberal-interventionist pressure to go to war against Syria, but – as his departure grows near – the hawks see more “regime change” wars coming into view, says Joe Lauria.
By Joe Lauria
Through five years of war in Syria, President Obama has been in a constant internal struggle with hawks in his administration who want the U.S. to directly intervene militarily to overthrow the Syrian government.
On at least four occasions Obama has stood up to them, although at other times he has compromised and gone half way toward the hawkish position. Now, with less than three months to go in office, Obama appears to be leaving his Syria policy to those aligned with the lead hawk who might soon take Obama’s place. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
As Secretary of State until early 2013, Hillary Clinton failed to convince Obama to consistently take a tough line on Syria. She wanted him to realize her two main policies, which she still clings to: a “safe zone” on the ground and a “no-fly zone” in the air – meaning that Syrian government forces and their allies, including the Russians, would be barred from operating in those areas.
Protected by U.S. air power and other military means, rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would, in effect, have an untouchable staging area to launch attacks on the government without its ability to hit back. Clinton has called removing Assad a top foreign policy priority.
Clinton followed a similar model in 2011 when she convinced a reluctant Obama to adopt a plan in Libya to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi under the pretext of “protecting civilians” when Gaddafi launched an offensive against rebels in eastern Libya whom he identified as terrorists. After the U.S. and European military intervention, Gaddafi was ousted, tortured and murdered – prompting Clinton to quip “we came, we saw, he died” – but the “regime change” turned Libya into a failed state.
Indeed, the Libyan chaos – now with three rival governments and terrorist enclaves – has become emblematic of the disarray following “regime change” that has marked nearly two decades of neoconservative influence in Washington, a strategy of dividing and weakening defiant states while U.S. contractors profit from the chaos that bleeds the locals to death.
Lost Lessons
Obama learned from Libya, which he deemed his biggest regret for having no plan for the aftermath. The fiasco left him deeply skeptical about intervention in Syria, although – given his prescient opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq – he should have already understood what happens after the U.S. overthrows regimes these days. Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi shortly before he was murdered on Oct. 20, 2011.
In the early years of the CIA — in Syria in 1949, Iran in 1953, and Guatemala in 1954, as illegal and as unjustified as those coups were — the agency had viable leaders groomed to take over. But all that changed after the Cold War ended. Then careless wishful thinking replaced any careful planning.
“We can use our military in the Middle East and the Soviets won’t stop us,” arch-neocon Paul Wolfowitz boasted before the Iraq invasion.
Today neoconservatives and liberal interventionists (such as Clinton) act like gamblers who can’t leave the table. Disasters for Iraqis, Libyans and others haven’t dissuaded these American war advocates from pushing more chips onto the table over Syria. Indeed, their failures – and the lack of any personal accountability for their catastrophes – seem to have only emboldened them to keep gambling.
These “regime change” schemes – in the guise of “spreading democracy” in the Middle East – have only spread chaos and terrorism, but those conditions only give the hawks more reasons and excuses to intervene, thus creating more chaos and making more money, while weakening nations defying Washington.
Clinton began laying a bet on “regime change” in Damascus by pushing to arm rebels in the summer of 2012. One of her leaked emails explains her motive: to break up the Teheran to Damascus to southern Lebanon supply line to Hezbollah — a longstanding Israeli objective.
At that point, Obama refused to arm the rebels, but the President apparently didn’t have full control over his national security bureaucracy, which seemed to have found ways to aid the Syrian rebels despite Obama’s reluctance, possibly by encouraging U.S. regional allies, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel.
An August 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document , which was made public last year, showed that U.S. intelligence agencies were well aware of where these operations were headed, with or without Obama’s approval.
Ret. Gen. Mike Flynn, who ran the DIA at the time, has said it was a “willful decision” in Washington to support a “Salafist principality” — a safe area for jihadist rebels — in eastern Syria to put pressure on Assad’s government in Damascus. Flynn didn’t say who in Washington ultimately decided on this risky scheme, but the DIA document warned that the Salafists could join with jihadists from Iraq to form an “Islamic State.” And indeed two years later, that was exactly what happened.
While this “Salafist principality” was gestating in summer 2013, Obama again showed some independence on Syria after assessing the disastrous consequences of the Clinton-led “regime change” in Libya, i.e., a failed state radiating arms and jihadis to Syria and the Sahel.
However, at this point – battered by think-tank and media commentaries decrying him as “soft” and “weak” – Obama compromised with the hawks and eventually agree d to arm and train some of the rebels, supposedly the “moderate” kind. But he resisted pressure to launch cruise missiles against Syrian government targets after his “red line” was supposedly crossed by a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus that killed hundreds of people.
As we now know, the CIA did not think it was a “slam dunk” that the Syrian government did it, though the mainstream U.S. media imposed a “group think” blaming the sarin attack on Assad. But significant evidence pointed to the rebels trying to create an incident that would draw the U.S. military into the war directly on the jihadist side.
Sensing that a trap was being laid to entice the U.S. into another Mideast war, Obama instead took Russia’s offer to have Syria give up its chemical weapons stocks, which in time it did, infuriating the neocons.
An Even Bolder Putin Offer
Russian President Vladimir Putin followed with another offer to the United States in September 2015, delivered from the podium of the U.N. General Assembly. He proposed joint U.S.-Russian airstrikes against the now fully formed Islamic State and associated jihadists. Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (UN Photo)
More than three years earlier, I reported that Russia’s motive to support Assad was to stop the spread of jihadism that threatened the West and Russia. Before the U.N., Putin put it on the record, invoking the World War II alliance between the Soviet Union and the West to confront a greater threat, Nazism.
“Similar to the anti-Hitler coalition, it could unite a broad range of parties willing to stand firm against those who, just like the Nazis, sow evil and hatred of humankind,” Putin said.
By then, the jihadists had clearly become the greater evil in Syria with their practice of decapitating Western hostages as well as locals deemed religious “apostates.” In time Islamic State also would plan or inspire terror attacks in France, Belgium, Germany, Egypt and the United States. By contrast, Assad was an undemocratic leader governing a police state but he posed no threat to the West.
However, by 2015, the demonization of Vladimir Putin was well underway and his offer was spurned by Western leaders. Obama, who faced mainstream ridicule for “failing to enforce his red line” in Syria and for not being tough enough on Russia, joined in rejecting Putin’s offer.
We now know why. In a leaked audio conversation with Syrian opposition figures in September, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S., rather than seriously fight Islamic State in Syria, was ready to use the growing strength of the jihadists to pressure Assad to resign, just as outlined in the DIA document.
“We know that this was growing, we were watching, we saw that Daesh [a derisive name for Islamic State] was growing in strength, and we thought Assad was threatened,” Kerry said. “We thought however we could probably manage that Assad might then negotiate, but instead of negotiating he got Putin to support him.”
Russia began its military intervention in late September 2015 without the United States, with the Kremlin’s motives made abundantly clear by Putin and other Russian officials.
For instance, last month, Putin told French TV channel TF1: “Remember what Libya or Iraq looked like before these countries and their organizations were destroyed as states by our Western partners’ forces? … These states showed no signs of terrorism. They were not a threat for Paris, for the Cote d’Azur, for Belgium, for Russia, or for the United States. Now, they are the source of terrorist threats. Our goal is to prevent the same from happening in Syria.”
Such clear explanations are rarely reported clearly by Western corporate media, which instead peddles the line from officials and think tanks that Russia is trying to recover lost imperial glory in the Middle East.
Worries about Damascus
But Kerry knew why Russia intervened. “The reason Russia came in is because ISIL [another acronym for Islamic State] was getting stronger, Daesh was threatening the possibility of going to Damascus, and that’s why Russia came in because they didn’t want a Daesh government and they supported Assad,” he said in the leaked discussion. Kerry’s comment suggests that the U.S. was willing to risk Islamic State and its jihadist allies gaining power in order to oust Assad. Secretary of State John Kerry with Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N., at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 20, 2016. (UN Photo)
Kerry’s comments echoed those of senior Israeli officials who have pronounced the “Shiite crescent” from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah’s territory in Lebanon as Israel’s greatest strategic threat and have expressed a preference for an Al Qaeda or even an Islamic State victory in Syria to shatter that centerpiece of the “Shiite crescent.”
In September 2013, in one of the most explicit expressions of Israel’s views, its Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, then a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Jerusalem Post that Israel favored the Sunni extremists over Assad.
“The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc,” Oren told the Jerusalem Post in an interview . “We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.” He said this was the case even if the “bad guys” were affiliated with Al Qaeda.
In June 2014, Oren reiterated his position at an Aspen Institute conference. Then, speaking as a former ambassador, Oren said Israel would even prefer a victory by Islamic State, which was then massacring captured Iraqi soldiers and beheading Westerners, than the continuation of the Iranian-backed Assad in Syria.
“From Israel’s perspective, if there’s got to be an evil that’s got to prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail,” Oren said.
Israel’s preference extended into a tacit alliance with Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Syria, with which the Israelis developed essentially a non-aggression pact, even caring for Nusra fighters in Israeli hospitals and mounting lethal air attacks inside Syria against Lebanese and Iranian advisers to the Syrian military.
In hoping that the jihadists could spearhead the overthrow of Assad while somehow not achieving a full-scale victory, U.S. officials may have thought they could somehow eat their cake and have it, too.
Yet, that represents a major risk, essentially assuming that Assad would step down in some orderly transition of power rather than be ousted in a chaotic fight to the finish. But U.S. officials were apparently willing to take the chance of an Al Qaeda/Islamic State victory in Damascus.
Putin warned the General Assembly about such a gamble with terrorism: “The Islamic State itself did not come out of nowhere. It was initially developed as a weapon against undesirable secular regimes.” He added that it was irresponsible “to manipulate extremist groups and use them to achieve your political goals, hoping that later you’ll find a way to get rid of them or somehow eliminate them.”
Stopping the Jihadists
Russia’s intervention seriously reversed the jihadists’ advances, alarming Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In February, they demanded that the U.S. support their invasion of Syria. It was a momentous moment for Obama: Would he risk war with Russia to save another “regime change” project? Video of the Russian SU-24 exploding in flames inside Syrian territory after it was shot down by Turkish air-to-air missiles on Nov. 24, 2015.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, a committed neocon, “welcomed” the Saudi-Turk plan to launch an invasion by air from Turkey’s Incirlik NATO air base and by land through the wastelands of Jordan or western Iraq. The Saudis staged a 30,000-man invasion war game in the desert. But Obama again stood up for reason and stopped it, at least for a time.
In July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his backers crushed an attempted coup . Erdogan seized the opportunity to eliminate almost all opposition to his near-total one-man rule. By late August, Erdogan was ready to make his next move with no one left in Turkey to oppose him.
On Aug. 24, with U.S. air cover, Turkey invaded Syria. This time Obama did not stop him. Washington clearly approved as its planes protected Turkish tanks and infantry rolling across the border. Vice President Joe Biden was in Ankara a day before the invasion.
The pretext was to fight Islamic State, but it became clear immediately that Turkey’s main target was to block advances by the Syrian Kurds, one of Islamic State’s toughest foes on the ground. The U.S. protested those attacks, but Washington surely knew what Turkey’s intentions were.
The date – Aug. 24 – was significant because it was the 500 th anniversary of the start of the Ottoman empire when the Ottomans left Turkey and invaded their first country — Syria.
It was hardly a coincidence when one considers Erdogan’s history. He spurred a violent police crackdown in Istanbul’s Ghezi Park in 2013 against demonstrators protesting his plan to build a replica of an Ottoman barracks in the park. In April, Erdogan named a new bridge over the Bosphorus after Osman, founder of the Ottoman Empire.
An initial target of the invasion also was significant. On Oct. 16, Turkish-backed rebels captured the Syrian town of Dabiq from Islamic State, the site of a victory in 1516 that established the Ottoman Empire.
Listening to Russia
Still, Obama continued to drag his heels regarding a deeper U.S. role in Syria. Obama resisted the hawks again this summer by allowing Kerry to negotiate with Russia on Putin’s offer at the U.N.: to form a military alliance against Islamic State and Al Qaeda in Syria. Russia’s 2015 entry had turned the tide of the war in Syria’s favor but the war against the insurgency has stalled in Aleppo, where a third of the city remains largely under Al Qaeda control. Map of Syria.
While Obama publicly slammed the Russians, projecting that they were on an imperial adventure that would wind up in a quagmire (exactly what has afflicted U.S. imperial adventures in various theaters), he kept plans for a safe zone and no-fly zone on hold.
Nearly a year after Putin’s U.N. offer and after months of intermittent talks, Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sept. 9 finally reached a deal to jointly fight terrorists in Syria. It was clear the agreement would ground the Syrian air force, resume humanitarian aid and agree on the identity of rebels to be jointly attacked, but U.S. officials insisted the terms remain secret.
But Defense Secretary Ash Carter made no secret of his objection. On Sept. 8, he said : “In the current circumstance, it is not possible for the United States to associate itself with — let alone to cooperate in — a venture that is only fueling violence and civil war.”
It was an extraordinary act of insubordination for which Carter was not punished. Once again Obama chose not to completely stand up to the hawks while authorizing a policy that they opposed.
But then Carter’s objection to the deal went beyond words. Two days before it was to go into effect, warplanes from the U.S. military coalition killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers near Deir ez Zor in an air strike the Pentagon later said was an “accident.” U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power was hardly repentant as she condemned Russia’s attempt to discuss the incident at the Security Council as a “stunt.”
Four days later, a U.N. aid convoy was attacked near Aleppo, killing more than 20 aid workers. The U.S. immediately blamed Russian air strikes without presenting any evidence. Russia says rebels were responsible. The U.S.-Russia deal was dead.
Moscow eventually revealed the deal’s terms. At its heart was the separation of U.S.-backed rebels from Al Qaeda, which dominates a third of Aleppo. But once again, despite repeated pledges to do so, the U.S. government failed to separate them. Indeed, some “moderate” groups double-downed on their alliance with Al Qaeda.
Syria and Russia had enough and declared all rebels fighting with Al Qaeda to be fair game. They commenced a furious bombardment of east Aleppo to crush the insurgency there once and for all. Putting all of Aleppo back into government hands would be a major turning point in the war but it has not proven easy. Instead the fierce aerial assaults have claimed numerous civilian lives, handing Russia’s opponents a public relations coup.
Complaints of War Crimes
Washington, London and Paris are leading the chorus of war crimes accusations against Russia (though the U.S. and Britain invaded Iraq without Security Council authorization in an act of aggression that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and can reasonably be seen as the supreme war crime.) British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush shake hands after a joint White House press conference on Nov. 12, 2004. (White House photo)
Russia’s actions in Aleppo have been compared to Israel’s in Gaza. Two U.N. reports have said Israel may have been guilty of war crimes in 2012 and 2014 attacks on Gaza, but Israel has not been prosecuted at the International Criminal Court.
The differences between Gaza and Aleppo are stark, however. Gazans are an indigenous people attacked by an Occupying Power. Syria and Russia are attacking the occupiers of east Aleppo – many of them foreign-backed mercenaries.
People in Gaza cannot escape the city because of their attackers, while people in east Aleppo can’t escape because civilians who attempt to leave come under sniper fire. Also, rebel rockets fired from east Aleppo into west Aleppo kill large numbers of civilians, unlike Hamas’ rockets fired into Israel.
But the most significant difference between the two cases of terrible human suffering is that the West defends Israel and deflects charges of war crimes while it accuses Russia and Syria of war crimes.
Isolated from the context of the entire Syrian war against a foreign-backed rebellion, the battle for east Aleppo (usually reported as the whole city) has been framed by Western liberal media in the same way Sarajevo was in the 1990s.
Then a highly complex war was boiled down to one battle, where Bosnian Serbs fired into civilian areas as part of a larger war aim (although the attacks were portrayed as simply a lust to kill civilians). Today it is Russia that Is accused of acting out of the pure intent to kill civilians with no other motive.
The media’s reaction to the bombardment of east Aleppo has led to a sharp increase in rabid calls for Western military intervention against the Syrian government and possibly against Russia. The British parliament held a Russia-bashing session in October, including calls for war against Moscow. Neocon newspapers, such as The Washington Post, are itching for battle. A British general said the U.K. would be ready to fight Russia in two years — enough time for a Clinton administration to prepare.
Already, U.S. neocons and liberal hawks are dreaming about “regime change” in Moscow with Putin replaced by a Wall Street-friendly leader like Boris Yeltsin who let Western interests plunder Russia’s resources during the 1990s. Yet, that may be just another example of the U.S. failure to anticipate the likely consequences of interventions.
Even if Russia could be destabilized sufficiently to unseat Putin, the more likely result would be the rise of a fierce Russian nationalist, not a pro-Western “liberal” in the mold of Yeltsin. That might increase the risks of nuclear war, rather than give the West another compliant Russia.
Plus, Putin would not be easily ousted, especially given his strong popular support, according to opinion polls. Indeed, some internal criticism of Putin has been that he has tried too hard to accommodate the West.
But Washington’s modus operandi has been to continually provoke and blame a country until it becomes an adversary and stands up for itself, as Putin’s Russia has done. Then, the West accuses the country of “aggression” and justifies attacks against it as “self-defense.”
We see these winds of war blowing in Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland and the Balkans — with NATO’s military posturing to counter “Russian aggression”— and in Syria, where neocon calls are increasing for the U.S. to strike the Syrian government.
One More Stand
Obama, apparently for the fourth time, kept the hawks at bay after a White House meeting last month in which military action was turned down in the face of Russia’s warning that it would target attacking U.S. aircraft. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressing the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. on March 21, 2016. (Photo credit: AIPAC)
Over the past five years, Obama has been almost the only brake on keeping the Syrian conflict — and relations with Russia — from spiraling completely out of control. But his voice is fading as he prepares to leave office on Jan. 20, 2017.
Into this fevered environment steps Hillary Clinton who may win the White House within the week. She continues to call for a safe zone and a no-fly zone, despite the warning last month from Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs, that that would mean war with Russia.
Still, Hillary Clinton has continued pushing for a military intervention as recently as the last presidential debate.
“I’m going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria … not only to help protect the Syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees, but to gain some leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians,” Clinton declared.
She said this after admitting in one of her paid speeches , released by Wikileaks, that a no-fly zone will “kill a lot of Syrians.”
The “safe zone” is supposed to shelter internally displaced Syrians to prevent them from becoming refugees. But it could also be used as a staging ground to train and equip jihadists intent on regime change, as was done in Libya. A safe area would need ground troops to protect it, although Clinton says there will be no U.S. ground troops in Syria.
But Turkey also has been clamoring for a safe area on the ground for the past few years. Erdogan called for one (as well as a no-fly zone in northern Syria) as recently as last September in his address to the U.N. General Assembly.
Russia’s reaction has been defiant, setting up an ominous game of chicken that could go nuclear. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russia would shoot down any American plane attacking the Syrian government. Russia has also deployed sophisticated air defenses in the country. This has given U.S. brass deep pause about confronting Russia in Syria. So far Russia has come out on top there, lessening the risks of confrontation that could escalate to the most dangerous levels.
But would Hillary Clinton back down from her harsh rhetoric if she’s elected? Or would she appoint more hawkish military leaders? Obama’s half-way measures in Syria have left the door open to a Clinton administration that appears determined to ratchet up the regime change operation by calling Putin’s bluff.
She also seems poised to arm the Ukrainian government and perhaps give Putin an ultimatum: give back Crimea or else. But what if Putin calls Clinton’s bluff and refuses, given the fact that the people of Crimea voted by 96 percent in a referendum to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia? It’s a roll of the dice the hawks might be ready to toss.
Washington’s hawks appear to have bested Obama this last time, since he has not stood in the way of Clinton’s allies inside his administration letting Erdogan pursue his neo-Ottoman fantasy (even to the point of fighting U.S.-backed Kurds) in exchange for Turkish NATO forces establishing a safe area without U.S. ground troops. Turkey and its rebel forces already control about 490 square miles in northern Syria.
With less than three months left in office, Obama appears to have finally surrendered on Syrian policy, ceding it to the next president.
Joe Lauria is a veteran foreign-affairs journalist based at the U.N. since 1990. He has written for the Boston Globe, the London Daily Telegraph, the Johannesburg Star, the Montreal Gazette, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. He can be reached atjoelauria@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @unjoe . | 1real |
Rights watchers slam Myanmar's ban on protests in biggest city | YANGON (Reuters) - Human rights monitors on Wednesday urged Myanmar to withdraw a ban on protests in its largest city, Yangon, amid fears that free speech is under pressure under the government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi led efforts to end decades of military rule and won a landmark election in the Buddhist-majority country in 2015, but her civilian government shares power with the military and has no control over the army and police. She has also been roundly criticised in the West for failing to rein in the military over its alleged role in atrocities against minority Rohingya Muslims which the United Nations has described as textbook ethnic cleansing. The ban on protests, issued this month by a military-controlled ministry, restricts all applications for processions or assemblies in central Yangon in order to avoid public annoyance and anxiety and disturbance of traffic , according to official documents reviewed by Reuters. The curb came weeks before Pope Francis visit to Yangon, when he is expected to raise the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled the country after a Myanmar army offensive in August. It underscores rising concerns over free speech after recent arrests of journalists and activists in Myanmar. There is no legitimate reason for imposing a ban on all protests in major sections of Burma s largest city, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, referring to Myanmar by its old name. This directive was issued by a military officer and should be seen by the civilian government as a direct challenge to its commitment to basic rights for Burmese citizens. The government needs to reverse this ban and uphold the rule of law and refuse to capitulate to arbitrary actions by the military. The order, issued by Yangon Region Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Aung Soe Moe, instructs authorities in 11 townships to deny all applications for assemblies. It does not say how long the curb will last. A senior official from the military-run General Administration Department in Yangon s Ahlone Township confirmed that his office has received the order. He declined to be named as he s not authorized to speak to the media. Reuters was unable to contact Yangon s police deputy chief by telephone. The office of Yangon s chief minister Phyo Min Thein declined to comment. A Myanmar court last week jailed for two months two journalists along with their interpreter and driver for violating an aircraft law by filming with a drone. Police on Sunday arrested an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk who has a history of stoking sentiment against the Rohingya. Since Suu Kyi s government took power last year, 93 people including journalists and activists have been charged or arrested under a controversial law that some worry is used to curb criticism of the authorities, according to advocacy group Research Team for Telecommunications Law. | 0fake |
Top Hillary-Hater: We’re Going To Keep Hounding Hillary Because Reasons | Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has such a hate-on for Hillary that he s going to continue the probe into her emails, despite the fact that the whole debacle only became a massive controversy because the GOP was trying to take Hillary down before the election. Despite millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on investigating Hillary six ways from Sunday, it appears that this isn t going away just yet.Chaffetz seemed to try and make it about a responsibility to find out the truth about the largest breach of U.S. security at the State Department, but it s not and we see right through him. Chaffetz just that full of hate for Hillary. What can they really accomplish now with this? What does he hope to accomplish?Millions of taxpayer dollars have already been wasted on fruitless attempts to find Hillary guilty of something, and now he s proven he just can t drop it: I still have a duty and obligation to get to the truth about one of the largest breaches of security at the State Department. And foreign hacks aren t massive breaches of security? Where are all the investigations into how those are happening? Oh, wait, Hillary had nothing to do with them, so they re non-issues. Very tiny, insignificant breaches at worst, if breach is even the right word.Chaffetz has also proven just how terrified he is of looking like a failure. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) already faced possible disgrace after his Benghazi investigation was complete. He couldn t prove Hillary had done anything wrong there, so even though he won re-election, there was a period recently where he looked like a complete failure.Chaffetz? He s basically saying, We re going to nail Hillary to the wall so we can go down in history as the people who finally managed to take down a Clinton. That s how this reads. And not everyone is on board. Rep. Elijah Cummings (R-MD) responded to this with: After everything our country has just been through and particularly given that Donald Trump and Paul Ryan have both called for healing our nation s divisions I think the American people deserve more from Congress than to continue squandering taxpayer dollars on these baseless Republican accusations and partisan attacks. It s time to give it up, guys. This is just absurd now.Featured image by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images | 1real |
Closed primaries, 'warped' democracy? | Political parties choose their presidential nominees. But with more Americans opting out of parties, is the process representative of what America wants? The New York primary – and others ahead – offer insights.
How SNL's 'the bubble' sketch about polarization is all too true
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to supporter Michael Cantalupo while taking a walk in New York's Times Square Tuesday. Mr. Cantalupo said he is unable to vote in the New York primaries
Denise Guardascione, a waitress for nearly three decades at the Shalimar Diner in Queens, thinks the New York primary process was rigged.
She’s a vocal supporter of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, but as a registered Democrat, Ms. Guardascione missed the deadline to switch her registration to become a Republican – which, shocking to her, was more than six months ago.
And now, the independent-minded waitress has become bewildered by what seems to be the complicated, back-room system of electing party delegates both in her own state and across the country.
“It’s antiquated, it belongs in the Smithsonian, next to Archie Bunker’s chair!” says Ms. Guardascione, a Queens native who works six days a week slinging eggs and coffee for this well-known political haunt. “It’s just for the [expletive] bigwigs and muckety mucks, not us, not the people who just want to vote.”
In truth, presidential primaries have never been more open. Since 1972, primaries have gone from being the province of party bosses to vibrant voter-driven contests. But in this year of populist revolt in both parties, “more open” looks to many voters like “still pretty antiquated.”
That is by design. Parties, after all, are not democratic. They can choose their nominees in whichever way they think is best. But at a time when Democrats and Republicans are a shrinking share of the population, closed primaries are shutting more and more of America out.
The irony is that America is no less partisan. Research suggests the growing ranks of independents are just as partisan as the parties. These voters have just abandoned parties because they are ashamed by how the parties act.
The anger over closed primaries, superdelegates, and convention arcana isn’t likely to help. (Nor are allegations of irregularities in the New York primary. On Thursday, the state's Elections Board suspended the top official in charge of Brooklyn after numerous allegations, the most serious of which is that 125,000 Democratic voters were incorrectly purged from the rolls before polls opened.)
The question is, whether the spotlight of this election could force further change ahead, both in states and in the nation.
“New York and other states have long given power to the parties and to the establishment,” says Jeanne Zaino, a political scientist at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. “But who has higher voting turnout? States that have early voting, states that have mail in ballots and same day registration. We in New York allow none of that. This was not just a closed primary, this was an ultra-closed primary. Whether you’re running for office or voting, you had to be on top of your game to be a part of it.”
The knock against closed primaries in this election season has been that they hurt insurgent candidates like Trump and Bernie Sanders. But the picture isn’t so simple.
Yes, Senator Sanders of Vermont has done much better among independents. But his biggest wins – in Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington state – all came in closed primaries or caucuses.
Trump, meanwhile, has in many cases actually done better among Republicans than independents.
What is clear is that the primary rules disenfranchise those who most dislike the parties. “So why is Sanders doing so well among independents?” asks Dan Hopkins of the FiveThirtyEight data journalism website. “It appears to be driven not by their ideology so much as their dislike of partisan politics.”
In one respect, that makes sense. Why would parties give vote to someone who doesn’t like them?
Yet those people are a growing share of the American electorate. Some 39 percent Americans now identify as independents; 32 percent say they’re Democrats, and 23 percent say they’re Republicans, according to a Pew Research Center survey last year.
In 2000, 29 percent were independents, 33 percent were Democrats, and 28 percent were Republicans, Pew found
In Tuesday’s closed primary, “three million people in the state of New York who are independents have lost their right to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary,” Sanders said. “That’s wrong.”
It almost certainly hurt Sanders. In Michigan, for example, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic vote by 58 to 40 percent – similar to the 58 to 42 percent margin in New York. But since Michigan was an open primary where independents could vote, Sanders won the state by taking 71 percent of independent voters.
Eight of the 16 remaining primary contests – including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland – are closed contests.
Sanders and his supporters have also complained about the fact that 15 percent of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention – 712 out of 4,763 – are party leaders known as “superdelegates,” who overwhelmingly support Mrs. Clinton.
In short, the deck is stacked against Sanders. And intentionally so.
Sanders isn’t a Democrat; he’s an independent who describes himself as a democratic socialist. It is not illogical that Democratic primaries should favor an actual Democrat.
The same is true, in different ways, for Trump. The GOP front-runner won a solid victory in New York. But he's getting little help from the establishment in navigating the complex delegate rules – rules that he says are rigged. Meanwhile, the well-organized campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz outmaneuvered him in Louisiana and swept Colorado’s state convention contest.
Presidents have always gone through a complex, multilayered processes in which voters, local officials, and party leaders each have their role, scholars say. Party leaders should have no small say in choosing their party’s presidential nominee, the thinking goes.
But even within the parties, there is some restlessness for change. “Closed primaries poison the health of that system and warp its natural balance,” said Charles Schumer (D) of New York, now the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, to The New York Times in 2014.
As America’s political balance increasingly settles outside either of the two parties, 2016 is showing how even a more open system can be warped.
“And if part of that story is about disenfranchisement, it is about these younger voters, people who are new to the process, or who disengaged from it and didn’t register, or registered as independent and couldn’t vote,” says Professor Zaino.
“You’re talking about Sanders supporters who are going to be on the losing end of that.” | 0fake |
Johnson & Johnson Lose Third Multimillion Dollar Case Over Baby Talc | Johnson & Johnson Lose Third Multimillion Dollar Case Over Baby Talc Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay over $70 million in third cancer case Posted on November 1, 2016 by Carol Adl in News , US // 0 Comments
Big Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson has lost yet another legal battle in a row over its talcum powder which allegedly causes cancer.
A St. Louis jury awarded over $70 million dollars to a California woman as a result of her lawsuit which claimed that her ovarian cancer was caused by years of using Johnson & Johnson’s baby talc.
The trial started on September 26th and ended on October 27th and is the third successful lawsuit this year against Johnson & Johnson. RELATED CONTENT
Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, California was diagnosed with the disease in 2012 and accused the company of ‘negligent conduct’ in making and and marketing the baby powder.
The lawsuit claimed Mrs Giannecchini contracted the disease after using baby powder in an intimate area.
Jim Onder, Mrs Giannecchini’s lawyer, said: ‘We are pleased the jury did the right thing. They once again reaffirmed the need for Johnson & Johnson to warn the public of the ovarian cancer risk associated with its product.’
However, the company has rejected there is any risk to using their product – even in intimate areas – and will appeal the massive award.
Carol Goodrich, spokesman for the company said: ‘We deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by ovarian cancer. We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.’
Earlier this year, two other lawsuits in St Louis ended in jury verdicts worth a combined $127million. But two others in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said there wasn’t reliable evidence that talc leads to ovarian cancer, an often fatal but relatively rare form of cancer.
Ovarian cancer accounts for about 22,000 of the 1.7million new cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in the US this year.
About 2,000 women have filed similar suits, and lawyers are reviewing thousands of other potential cases, most generated by ads touting the two big verdicts out of St. Louis – a $72million award in February to relatives of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer, and a $55million award in May to a South Dakota survivor of the disease.
Much research has found no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, and most major health groups have declared talc harmless. Johnson & Johnson, whose baby powder dominates the market, maintains it’s perfectly safe.
But Onder of the Onder Law Firm in suburban St Louis, which represented plaintiffs in all three St Louis cases, cited other research that began connecting talcum powder to ovarian cancer in the 1970s.
He said case studies have indicated that women who regularly use talc on their genital area face up to a 40 per cent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. | 1real |
White House says it is reviewing House bill on Russia sanctions | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said it was reviewing a bill passed on Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives imposing new sanctions on Russia, North Korea and Iran. “While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President’s desk,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. | 0fake |
Blocking abuse of lower small business rate slows U.S. tax overhaul | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plan by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to slash taxes on so-called pass-through businesses is testing lawmakers’ ability to design rules to prevent wealthy people from dodging taxes by paying a lower rate meant to help small businesses grow. Businesses ranging in size from the corner Mom-and-Pop shop to accounting firms and industrial conglomerates are called pass-throughs because their profits flow to owners and are taxed as individual income, often at the top 39.6 percent rate. By contrast, publicly held corporations have their own top corporate income tax rate of 35 percent, at least on paper. Corporate profits are further taxed when they flow through to shareholders as dividends. Republicans including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan have vowed to get tax legislation to Trump’s desk before the end of 2017, but pass-throughs are one of the thorniest issues in their effort to enact the first comprehensive tax overhaul since 1986. The Republican timeline is in doubt because of complexities posed by pass-throughs and other difficult issues that could roll the debate into 2018 and beyond, analysts and lobbyists said. Trump and Republicans, who control the House and Senate, want to give pass-throughs their own tax rate of 15-25 percent, saying such a low rate would help unleash economic growth by leaving owners with more money to hire and invest. The danger with this proposal is that high-income people who pay the top individual tax rate could reap enormous windfalls simply by reclassifying their wages and salaries as pass-through business income to qualify for the new low rate. Tax avoidance schemes along these lines could erase up to $584 billion from government coffers over the next decade, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimates that over 28 million businesses are organized as pass-throughs. Income from them has been taxed at the same rates as wages and salaries since the individual income tax was enacted in 1913. “These are tough, tough questions. And politics aside, they’re what has held up tax reform for so long,” said one corporate lobbyist, who asked not be identified. “This is an area where there’s still a lot of discussion and no solution.” To address this, policymakers are looking at limiting how much of a business owner’s income should get pass-through treatment. But that’s hard to define because pass-throughs range from sole proprietorships and partnerships to S-corporations. Rebecca Boenigk, chairman and chief executive of the pass-through manufacturer Neutral Posture, worries that Congress could choose solutions that inadvertently add complexity for small businesses and deny business owners the capital they need. “There’s always a rule that’s put into place to take care of the 1 percent of people who are bad, and that rule ends up affecting the 99 percent of people who are good,” said Boenigk, who began making ergonomic furniture with her mother 28 years ago in their family garage. One proposal under consideration would apply the pass-through rate to only 30 percent of a business owner’s income, while giving taxpayers the option of qualifying for more favorable treatment from the Internal Revenue Service, congressional sources and lobbyists said. The remaining 70 percent of income would be taxed at the higher individual rate. The National Federation of Independent Business, a small business lobbying group in Washington, wants Congress and the Trump administration to apply the lower tax rate to 50 percent of a business owner’s income. Some lobbyists warn against the idea of allowing business owners to qualify for a higher percentage of income for the pass-through rate with the IRS, saying an additional layer of complicated procedures could backfire and encourage fraud. Keith Hall, president of the National Association for the Self-Employed, would rather see business owners pay individual tax on a portion of their income set by living standards data for the geographical areas in which they live. But if lawmakers adopted the 70-30 approach, Hall said, higher earners should see the larger portions of their income qualify for the pass-through rate to maximize the amount of capital they can invest in their businesses. Other proposals would limit the pass-through rate according to the business owner’s capital or stock value; exclude income from partnerships engaged in “personal services” such as law, accounting, medicine and engineering; or exclude passive income from royalties, rents, dividends and income. With Republicans pushing to overhaul the tax code before year-end, analysts say tax legislation could include a number of anti-abuse rules. “Lawmakers aren’t going to know which anti-abuse measures work. If they’re risk-averse, they may throw in more than one,” said Scott Greenberg, senior analyst at the Tax Foundation. | 0fake |
Neil DeGrasse Tyson SCHOOLS Rapper B.O.B Over Flat Earth Conspiracy (TWEETS) | If you were not aware there is a seriously old and debunked new theory going around the interwebz that the Earth is really flat after all. Yes, seriously. Recently, rapper B.o.B posted a bunch of evidence to support his belief that we ve all been lied to about the shape of our planet. Unfortunately for him, it got really embarrassing when astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson got involved and schooled him.A couple of weeks ago, singer Tila Tequila tweeted about the #FlatEarth movement, claiming that the Earth isn t really round because buildings in New York City are all straight.Why are all the buildings in NYC standing straight up? If earth was round then some of the buildings would have a slight tilt. #FlatEarth Tila Tequila (@AngelTilaLove) January 7, 2016Apparently she isn t the only nutjob, because rapper B.o.B started tweeting the same mind-boggling nonsense:A lot of people are turned off by the phrase "flat earth" but there's no way u can see all the evidence and not know grow up B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016No matter how high in elevation you are the horizon is always eye level sorry cadets I didn't wanna believe it either. B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016y'all be like "you're not high enough to see the curve keep going" pic.twitter.com/dzgYpIIao3 B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016how do you explain the horizon always being at eye level ? https://t.co/Kzuc4r77CK B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016There is tweet after tweet with this same crazy speak. About twenty tweets into his flat Earthfest, Neil deGrasse Tyson decided that he could no longer handle the dumbf*ckery and slapped down the rapper s loony conspiracy theory:@bobatl Earth's curve indeed blocks 150 (not 170) ft of Manhattan. But most buildings in midtown are waaay taller than that. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016@bobatl Polaris is gone by 1.5 deg S. Latitude. You ve never been south of Earth s Equator, or if so, you've never looked up. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016@bobatl Flat Earth is a problem only when people in charge think that way. No law stops you from regressively basking in it. Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016@bobatl Duude to be clear: Being five centuries regressed in your reasoning doesn t mean we all can t still like your music Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 25, 2016If you thought B.o.B would listen to one of most prominent astrophysicists in the world, you d be wrong. Instead of admitting that he had no idea what he was talking about, the rapper posted this:@neiltyson why can't the curvature of the earth be measured anywhere in nature? why does only NASA have photos of the curve ? r u a mason? B.o.B (@bobatl) January 25, 2016He continued on like this for the rest of the day, convinced that he knows more than Tyson.Neil deGrasse must have realized that the rapper was completely bat sh*t because he just stopped responding.We don t blame him.Although many American children are taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the Earth was not flat, the belief that it is round dates back all the way to 6 Century B.C., but was proven by Aristotle. It was then reaffirmed throughout history.There are a lot of mindnumbing conspiracy theories out there, but this one is exceptionally stupid. Why B.o.B thinks he knows more than the scientific community is anyone s guess, but he really should keep his crazy off of social media sites before he embarrasses himself further.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Top Trump Aide Steve Bannon: Virulent Anti-Semite or Ardent Zionist? | STEVE BANNON Donald’s Trump’s Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor
“As a Jew who has worked for years with Steve Bannon, I can tell you he is not an anti-Semite or a white nationalist. He doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in his body.” — David Horowitz, Jewish founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and editor of FrontPage Magazine .
When president-elect Donald Trump named Steve Bannon, the controversial media figure behind the alt-right website Breitbart News Network, as his “senior strategist” — major Jewish groups raised the alarm.
The Anti-Defamation League condemned the move, saying Bannon’s website was home to racists and fostered hatred against Jews. But to his Jewish defenders — which include Breitbart’s CEO and senior editors for the site — he is an ally and proud Zionist.
“I can say, without hesitation, that Steve is a friend of the Jewish people and a defender of Israel, as well as being a passionate American patriot and a great leader,” Joel Pollak, an Orthodox Jew and a senior editor for Breitbart News, wrote on Monday.
Indeed, Breitbart’s origin story has its roots in Israel, according to Larry Solov, Breitbart’s CEO and president, another close Jewish colleague of Bannon.
In a November 2015 post on Breitbart News, Solov describes the conception of the news site in 2007. It happened, Solov writes, during a trip to Israel with Andrew Breitbart, the Jewish founder and namesake of the website.
The site was born to defend the Jewish state.
“One thing we specifically discussed that night was our desire to start a site that would be unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel,” Solov wrote. “We were sick of the anti-Israel bias of the mainstream media.”
Solov and Breitbart were “blown away by the spirit, tenacity and resourcefulness of the Israeli people on that trip,” Solov wrote.
Breitbart died in 2012 and Bannon became editor of the site.
Under Bannon’s leadership, the site became one of the best known platforms and gateways for the alt-right, a diverse group that traffics in white nationalism and racism. Richard Spencer , a founder of the political movement who advocates for the creation of a “white ethno-state,” called Breitbart a “gateway” to alt-right ideas and writers.
During Trump’s campaign, the site became particularly enamored with the Republican candidate and lampooned and attacked his opponents.
For Ben Shapiro, a former writer at Breitbart News, Bannon betrayed the original vision of the site’s founder.
“Andrew Breitbart despised racism,” Shapiro wrote on Monday. “With Bannon embracing Trump, all that changed. Now Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website … pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.”
But even as the site may have appealed to anti-Semites, it retained its Zionist bona fides under Bannon.
In 2015, Bannon launched a Jerusalem branch of Breitbart News, which covers events in Israel. It is edited by Israel-based American reporter Aaron Klein, another Bannon advocate. Klein, a Yeshiva University graduate, is also a columnist for the Jewish Press, a weekly newspaper with a conservative bent.
Klein recently called the anti-Trump protests across the country a product of “professional agitators” who are seeking the “downfall of the U.S. capitalist system.”
The activist Pamela Geller, known for her anti-Islamic campaigning, also counts herself among Bannon’s Jewish allies. On Twitter, Geller defended Bannon recently, dismissing those who were characterizing Bannon as an anti-Semite.
“He partnered [with] Breitbart — a Jew,” she wrote. “He partnered [with] Larry Solov (after Breitbart died) a Jew. He worked [with] me — a Jew.” Then she added: #Zionist.
David Horowitz, founder of the conservative think tank David Horowitz Freedom Center also came to Bannon’s defense, saying Bannon does not have an “anti-Semitic bone in his body.”
“As a Jew who has worked for years with Steve Bannon,” Horowitz wrote in an email to the Forward, “I can tell you he is not an anti-Semite or a white nationalist.” LD : For further proof that Steve Bannon is not going to do anything to challenge Jewish power in America or stand up to Israel, see this thought-provoking article in the Occidental Observer : Anti-Semitism as Political Assassination: The Smearing of Steve Bannon. I really do feel at this stage, though of course I could be wrong, that diehard anti-Semites and ardent White Nationalists are most unlikely to see any of their dreams come true in the foreseeable future. That’s what makes anti-Semites and White nationalists the angriest people on earth: their dreams are constantly being shattered as they see the Jews becoming more powerful and tyrannical at their expense. Constant defeat leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Like this? Share it now. | 1real |
Republican Lawmakers Helped Orchestrate The Bundy Standoff, Wanted War With Feds (AUDIO) | These Republican politicians should be in jail right next to the Bundys.As it turns out, there is more to the armed standoff that took place at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. And Americans should be outraged.According to Oregon Public Radio (OPB) several Republican lawmakers, including Nevada state Rep. Michele Fiore, Oregon state Rep. Dallas Heard, Idaho state Rep. Judy Boyle, Washington state Rep. Matt Shea and others, knew Ammon and Ryan Bundy were planning to illegally lead an armed takeover of federal property in Oregon before it happened, and they chose not to warn law enforcement.Fiore, Shea, and other GOP lawmakers are part of a group known as the Coalition of Western States which seeks to force the federal government to surrender federally protected lands to the states.Greenlee County, Arizona, Commissioner Robert Corbell, who went to Nevada to support Cliven Bundy s standoff with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014, admitted to OPB that after being a largely ignored group after that confrontation ended, the Coalition of Western States caught wind of another standoff that would be going down in Oregon and kept quite about it so that their group could get more attention for their illegal cause.Corbell told OPB that coalition leadership knew Ammon Bundy planned to take over U.S. government property in Harney County before it happened, but were unsure which federal outpost it would be.We knew he was going to do something, Corbell said.COWS believes it is unconstitutional for the federal government to own land even though the Constitution specifically gives the federal government the power to own and regulate lands through what is known as the Property Clause.Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2 states:The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.Yet, Fiore and her fellow GOP lawmakers actively conspired to spark a land war with federal authorities in an effort to force the government to comply with their demands and give up their constitutional powers.OPB reports that despite being warned by Judge Steve Grasty during a meeting to stay away from the militants so as not to embolden them and cause the occupation to last weeks or months, Fiore and her little band did so anyway.The lawmakers acknowledge they fed the militants information gathered from that meeting, and militant leaders talked openly about what they learned from those disclosures.These Republicans literally presented themselves as negotiators with the intention to end the standoff so that they could enter the seized compound and help the armed militants extend the hostilities.The lawmakers wanted information from law enforcement, including what tactics the FBI anticipated taking against the militants. They wondered aloud, for example, whether refuge power would be cut. Law enforcement personnel repeatedly declined answering. The lawmakers continued to ask.They also wanted to know what criminal charges the occupiers might face. After getting nowhere with that line of inquiry, coalition members asked with whom they could negotiate on behalf of the Ammon Bundy-led militants.Former Washington GOP state Rep. Graham Hunt also participated in the meeting and actually attempted to persuade the FBI into agreeing with militant s demand for a transfer of federal lands. Would it be possible for somebody, whether it s the U.S. Attorney s Office, to say that We agree that there needs to be a conversation at another level, Hunt asked.But wait, there s more.Fiore and the coalition aided and abetted the militants in more ways than just feeding them information and trying to coerce the FBI from doing their job. They also helped organize press events and enlisted Anthony Bosworth, a failed candidate for Sheriff, to act as a security specialist at the compound. Bosworth even helped militants flee the occupation when it became clear that the FBI wasn t messing around.In the end, Fiore and her group decided that since the jig was up, they might as well look like the heroes, so they reluctantly convinced the last of the militants to surrender.And now they have another goal. They want to keep the Bundys and their fellow terrorists from facing significant criminal punishment for their crimes. They re even going so far as to tell the arrested militants to learn the names of the judges and prosecutors, perhaps as some sort of way to intimidate them into dropping the charges or going easy on them.Here s the report via OPB.The fact is that Republican lawmakers knew this standoff was going to happen and did nothing to prevent it. One person was actually killed and many more could have died on both sides because these sorry excuses for politicians chose to pursue their agenda rather than keep the public safe.Add in the fact that these lawmakers basically acted as spies against the United States by gathering and passing information to the militants as well as egging them on to keep the standoff going longer than it would have and it s clear the FBI needs to arrest and jail a few more people.These Republicans conspired against the United States by aiding the militants and warning them about what law enforcement was doing to end the standoff. They don t belong in places of political power. They belong in prison awaiting sentencing for treason. Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Trump Thanks Putin for Slashing US Embassy Staff: ‘It Cut Our Payroll’ | 21st Century Wire says Speaking to reporters from his summer golf retreat in New Jersey, President Donald Trump publicly thanked Russian leader Vladimir Putin for previously ordering the US to slash its embassy staff in Moscow and close two of its storage facilities there. Much to the chagrin of the adversarial media, Trump crowed, that Putin has helped him achieve a smaller payroll. Last month 21WIRE reported how Russia ordered Washington to remove 755 its 1,200 US embassy staff in Moscow as part of a retaliatory diplomatic tit-for-tat after the US leveled another round of sanctions against Russia. I want to thank him because we re trying to cut down our payroll and as far as I m concerned I m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people, said Trump.Meanwhile, it emerged this week that FBI special counsel Robert Mueller ordered a pre-dawn raid on former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, seizing personal documents and equipment.Trump told reporters, They do that very seldom. I was surprised to see it, and I thought it was a very strong signal. Sympathising with Manafort s situation, he added that the raid was a pretty tough stuff. Trump also went on to comment on the North Korea situation and defensed his previous comments against the regime in Pyongyang.Watch the full press conference here: . READ MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russia FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
How to Close a Gender Gap: Let Employees Control Their Schedules - The New York Times | The main reason for the gender gaps at work — why women are paid less, why they’re less likely to reach the top levels of companies, and why they’re more likely to stop working after having children — is employers’ expectation that people spend long hours at their desks, research has shown. It’s especially difficult for women because they have disproportionate responsibility for caregiving. Flexibility regarding the time and place that work gets done would go a long way toward closing the gaps, economists say. Yet when people ask for it, especially parents, they can be penalized in pay and promotions. Social scientists call it the flexibility stigma, and it’s the reason that even when companies offer such policies, they’re not widely used. A new job search company, Werk, is trying to address the problem by negotiating for flexibility with employers before posting jobs, so employees don’t have to. All the positions listed on the Werk site, including some from Facebook, Uber and Samsung, are highly skilled jobs that offer some sort of control over the time and place of work. People can apply to jobs that let them work away from the office all the time or some of the time, and at hours other than part time or with minimal travel. Another option gives workers the freedom to adjust their schedules, no questions asked, because of unpredictable obligations, like a sleepless night with a toddler or a trip to the emergency room with an older parent. “Nobody wants to be the female in the department who says, ‘My kid threw up on me this morning I can’t come in,’ ” said Annie Dean, who worked as a lawyer before starting Werk with Anna Auerbach, a former consultant. “Eighty percent of companies say they offer flexibility, but it’s a black market topic. You raise it and you’re not taken seriously. ” For now, Werk is a limited experiment. Most of the employers are small companies, and it is aimed at an elite group of women — highly educated and on a leadership track. But it could provide lessons for how to improve work and make it more equal for a broader group. Women who have less education or are paid hourly wages have significantly less flexibility than professional women to begin with. It makes working and caregiving that much harder. Motherhood presents a different challenge for the elite women that Werk was made for. The careers that pay the most and require the most education, like business and law, also have the most gender inequality. Why? Economists have found it’s a result of the long hours and limited flexibility. When educated mothers leave their jobs, it’s often because they feel pushed out by inflexible employers, according to sociologists. It’s a big reason the top of corporate America is still so male 4 percent of the chief executives of companies in the S. P. 500 are women. “They want top leadership roles,” said Ms. Dean, who thought of the idea for Werk with Ms. Auerbach after they each had children. “The only reason they’re not getting there is they’re going through this phase in their life where working 16 hours at a single desk is incompatible with their life. ” Seventy percent of working mothers say having a flexible work schedule is extremely important to them, according to a Pew survey. So do 48 percent of working fathers. Workplace flexibility reduces turnover and conflict, according to much of the research, including a study by 10 researchers from seven universities published in December. Yet when people get flexible work arrangements, they’re generally isolated cases — for longtime employees whom companies trust and don’t want to lose. The employers using Werk say they get access to highly skilled employees who might not otherwise apply. Gerard Masci, founder and chief executive of Lowercase, a eyeglass maker in Brooklyn, just hired a vice president for communications on Werk. She works and remotely, except for monthly meetings. “I don’t care if this week you work less if in a month you work more, and whether they work in the space or not is irrelevant,” Mr. Masci said. “All I care about is the productivity in the end. ” “The happier she is in her flexibility,” he said, “the more engaged she’s going to be in her work. ” Erin Fahs turned to Werk after her husband was transferred to Fort Myers, Fla. and she needed to find a new job. She wanted to work part time and from home because she was pregnant and the primary caregiver for their daughter. She found three jobs on Werk that would let her do that, and took one as the business manager for the Collective Good, which does consulting for nonprofits. “Getting to have those direct conversations with the C. E. O. about what matters made it so much different from when I was applying for jobs earlier in my career,” Ms. Fahs, 33, said. She has a baby sitter 10 hours a week and works the other 10 hours when her daughter is sleeping. She has a few set meetings, which she attends via Google Hangouts — and gives her daughter an iPad for a diversion if there is a work emergency. She plans to expand to work after maternity leave. This type of flexibility, while valuable, would not magically solve workplace problems. For one, any solution would need to be for both women and men. Some jobs have to be done at a certain time and place, like teaching and food service. And even at companies where it’s possible to let employees work at the time and place of their choosing, a different type of manager is required. Best Buy tried it for corporate employees, then revoked it. “There are a vast number of jobs that could be handled in an way, but it’s just easier to measure performance by presence,” said Slaughter, the chief executive of the think tank New America, who has written about gender and work and advises Werk. “So it is a real adjustment for managers. ” | 0fake |
Political exclusion risks tearing Kenya apart, says opposition leader | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s main opposition leader said on Thursday that anger over last month s presidential election ran so deep it threatened to tear the country apart. Raila Odinga boycotted the Oct. 25 election because he said it would be unfair, leaving President Uhuru Kenyatta to win with 98 percent of the vote. The Supreme Court called the poll after it annulled a first presidential election held in August on procedural grounds. Mainstream Kenyans feel so deeply cheated they are openly toying with the idea of secession, Odinga told an audience in Washington, D.C. His speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank, was broadcast live on Kenyan television. The biggest problem in Kenya right now is exclusion ... unless they (the problems) are addressed they will tear the country apart, he said. As things stand now, anger and radicalization is growing by the day. A small number of politicians in Odinga s opposition alliance have discussed the idea of his strongholds seceding from Kenya but the idea has not gained wide popularity. Odinga s supporter base is concentrated along Kenya s coast, in city slums and in his western strongholds, areas that have traditionally felt excluded from political power and the opportunities for patronage it offers. Odinga s supporters are currently boycotting three companies they say are backing the government. The opposition has called for protests on Friday. In his speech, Odinga noted Kenya s four presidents since independence had all come from the Kikuyu or Kalenjin communities, even though the country had 44 recognized ethnic groups. Kenyatta is a Kikuyu and his deputy, who has made clear his intention to run in the next election, is a Kalenjin. Earlier this week, Odinga told Reuters he wanted a caretaker government for six months while preparations were made for new elections. Government officials reject the idea, saying Odinga had his chance to compete in October. The Supreme Court is due to start hearing petitions on the legality of the October elections next week. | 0fake |
JUST IN: Trump Wants To Bring Reality Television To The White House (AUDIO) | It would appear Donald Trump not only wants to become President of the United States, but he wants to make a lot of money off of it as well, because of course he does.While speaking on the podcast The Takeaway, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sarah Ellison revealed that Trump refers to the electorate as an audience. In fact, Ellison has been talking about this since June when it s been shown that Trump doesn t so much want to win the White House, but build a media empire, and grow an audience from his popularity in the election.According to Ellison s piece in Vanity Fair: Trump is indeed considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid to become the next president of the United States. According to several people briefed on the discussions, the presumptive Republican nominee is examining the opportunity presented by the audience currently supporting him. Trump basically wants to create his own right-wing media empire. Ellison added: He has also discussed the possibility of launching a mini-media conglomerate outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC. He has, according to one of these people, enlisted the consultation of his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who owns the The New York Observer. Trump s rationale, according to this person, is that, win or lose, we are onto something here. We ve triggered a base of the population that hasn t had a voice in a long time. For his part, Kushner was heard at a New York dinner party saying that the people here don t understand what I m seeing. You go to these arenas and people go crazy for him.' And now, according to The Hill, Trump has been in talks with an NBC executive to continue on with The Apprentice from the White House if he were to win. [NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke and Trump] outlined, presumably fantastically, that Trump should run for president; and on the off chance that he won, he would continue to star in The Apprentice from within the White House, Ellison wrote about a 2011 conversation between the two. I don t know about you, but the only job the President of the United States should be worried about is being the President of the United States. Add this to the reasons to make sure he doesn t win this November.Here s audio revealing Trump s intentions:Featured Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images | 1real |
Exclusive: Christ’s Burial Place Exposed for First Time in Centuries | Store Exclusive: Christ’s Burial Place Exposed for First Time in Centuries Restorers working in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Israel uncover stone slab venerated as the resting place of Jesus Christ Image Credits: Wiki Commons .
For the first time in centuries, scientists have exposed the original surface of what is traditionally considered the tomb of Jesus Christ. Located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, the tomb has been covered by marble cladding since at least 1555 A.D., and most likely centuries earlier.
“The marble covering of the tomb has been pulled back, and we were surprised by the amount of fill material beneath it,” said Fredrik Hiebert, archaeologist-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, a partner in the restoration project. “It will be a long scientific analysis, but we will finally be able to see the original rock surface on which, according to tradition, the body of Christ was laid.”
According to Christian tradition, the body of Jesus Christ was laid on a shelf or “burial bed” hewn from the side of a limestone cave following his crucifixion by the Romans in A.D. 30 or possibly 33. Christian belief says Christ was resurrected after death, and women who came to anoint his body three days after the burial reported that no remains were present. | 1real |
DICK MORRIS: HOW HILLARY Hired “Secret Police” To Threaten, Smear Bill’s Rape, Sexual Assault Victims [VIDEO] | Secret police ? Sounds like a strong arm tactic you d find a political leader using in a communist country to force your will on other people. Hmmm https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/786697347254419456 | 1real |
U.S. looks to Facebook, private groups to battle online extremism | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government, acknowledging its limited success in combating Islamic extremist messaging, is recruiting tech companies, community organizations and educational groups to take the lead in disrupting online radicalization. The change in strategy, which took a step forward on Wednesday when the Justice Department convened a meeting with social media firms including Facebook Inc, Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s Google , comes despite what critics say is scant evidence on the effectiveness of such efforts. The meeting was “a recognition that the government is ill-positioned and ill-equipped to counter ISIS online,” Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said after attending the event, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. The federal government is not best placed to counter extremist online recruitment efforts with messaging of its own, said George Selim, director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office that coordinates the government’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) activities. The goal now, he said, is to help “communities and young people to amplify their own messages.” Those messages stem from so-called “counter-narrative” programs underway at schools and community groups that have varying degrees of government support, according to government officials and private sector experts. Past campaigns by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to thwart extremist propaganda globally were widely regarded as too reliant on fear-based rhetoric and graphic imagery to be effective. But whether the new joint effort with the private sector will fare better remains unclear, say experts in countering extremism. The Obama administration has had an uneasy relationship with Silicon Valley in recent years. Twitter and other tech firms have been reticent to appear too cozy with authorities on how they manage their content, though most have cautiously drifted toward being more compliant over the past year. Facebook last year partnered with British research group Demos to examine the impact of “counter-messaging” against hate speech in four European countries. The study, released in October, concluded it was “extremely difficult to calculate with any degree of precision” whether such efforts have a real impact on long-term attitudes or offline behavior. “You don’t necessarily know if something is going to change the way someone thinks offline, but we can measure whether somebody shares that content or interacts with it,” Monica Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told Reuters. One of the new programs, funded partly by Facebook and multiple government agencies, underwrites “peer-to-peer” (P2P) college courses that teach students to create their own anti-militant messaging. Facebook declined to say how much it was investing in the program, though Selim described Facebook’s overall investment in CVE initiatives as “very significant.” Fatemah Yousef, a student at Kuwait Gulf University for Science and Technology student, flew to Washington this month to join a Facebook event showcasing counter-messaging projects created by students. Yousef, 23, exhibited a blog that encourages Kuwaiti students to denounce violent extremism on social media. Another P2P finalist, a group from the University of Arkansas, produced a video showing graphic Islamic State executions set to heavy metal band Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” Half way through, the video switched to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” as captions urged viewers to “raise a flag” against extremism. After viewing the video, a judge in the contest told the students that “probably about 90 to 95 percent” of the images in the video had been used in violent extremist recruitment videos. “We’ve had this problem in other places where people try to instill fear in target audiences by showing all this mayhem, but it actually does the reverse with some,” said the judge, Quintan Wiktorowicz, a former White House director for community partnerships. Another effort is underway at WORDE, a Muslim educational organization in Maryland, which last week launched a campaign that aims to refute Islamic State messages through catchy videos and live broadcasts of discussions about mainstream Islam. WORDE plans to use software or survey questions to gauge the impact of its new counter-messaging campaign, said Hedieh Mirahmadi, the group’s president. “Everybody creates stuff but doesn’t really care about whether it’s connected to the science of evaluations,” Mirahmadi told Reuters. Democratic New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told Reuters that he is working on two bills — one of which has already passed committee in the Senate — that would give DHS the authority to fund more college classes and research on how to best counter Islamic State’s slick propaganda campaigns. “Government messages do not prove to have that type of virality,” Booker said. The P2P program is the only private sector counter-messaging initiative that acknowledges receiving training from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but a senior FBI official said the agency provides information to other non-governmental groups whose CVE-related work may include counter-messaging. Some efforts avoid federal funding altogether. Mohamed Magid, a Virginia imam who has counseled several youth targeted by Islamic State recruiters, leads an Islamic foundation soliciting donations to create a 24/7 online operation that would answer each Islamic State video with peaceful messages. “If we say this is a government thing, it might not have legitimacy,” Magid said. “We’re challenging the Muslim community to say, on this, yourself, respond to the challenge.” | 0fake |
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