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CBS Offers Pathetically Slimy Correction To Its MILO ’White Nationalist’ Lie - Breitbart | The local CBS News affiliate in Seattle issued a correction to an article in which they called Breitbart editor MILO a “white nationalist. ”[The original article, which falsely branded MILO a “white nationalist,” and a leader of the movement was slightly modified. It now repeats the false claims of others instead of making the claims itself. “Yiannopoulos — who had been invited to speak Friday by the University of Washington College Republicans — who has been called a white nationalist and “ ” leader, a charge that Yiannopoulos has repeatedly denied,” the article now reads. Claiming that an individual “has been called” a certain something is questionable with regards to journalistic standards because it does not require the reporter to substantiate the claim. Unlike the local CBS affiliate, several other news outlets have issued whole corrections after falsely branding MILO a “white nationalist. ” | 0fake |
Syrian Observatory: 300 ISIS Child Soldiers Killed in Past Two Weeks Around Mosul | Share This
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 300 Syrian children, recruited as child soldiers by ISIS, have been killed over the past two weeks in fighting in and around the Iraqi city of Mosul. The brigade is called the “cubs of the caliphate.”
Locals reported that the loss of children in fighting around the Syrian town of Daquq was spun by ISIS religious leaders as minor compared to the gains they would secure in Mosul. The fighting is fierce around Mosul, and the casualties are high.
The Observatory said that at least 480 Syrian fighters had been killed in fighting around the Mosul area since the fighting began two weeks ago. This means that a strong majority of those casualties were actually children.
The US has claimed they believe between 800 and 900 fighters have been killed overall around Mosul. This indicates that the fighting outside of Mosul is heavily between invading Iraqi forces and ISIS’ Syrian auxiliaries. Large numbers of ISIS fighters are believed to have remained within Mosul, preparing to defend the city itself. | 1real |
CNN Cuts Off Black Trump Supporter When He Answers ‘White Guilt’ Question [Video] | CNN uses their go-to move when they don t like what someone is saying during an interview..they cut you off! A CNN broadcast Saturday cut off an African-American Trump supporter in the middle of answering a question about white guilt posed by a reporter. I have seen one shirt that said no white guilt, things like that. I mean, there have been some messages that might not be that open to folks from diverse perspectives. What would your message be to folks like that? Trump supporter Diante Johnson answered, When it comes to no white guilt, I I agree with that, I actually just made a post about it on my page and a video about it There are some White Americans that feel guilty for what their ancestors did, you know, this and that, and the thing about it is, they shouldn t have to feel guilty, this is America The video was then cut off.The reporter continued, Certainly, an interesting perspective there from an African-American who supports Donald Trump and is here today. The CNN video comes from coverage of a rally held on the National Mall Saturday.Johnson is president of the Black Conservative Federation.Via: Daily Caller | 1real |
TERROR THREAT WARNING MONDAY | RedFlag News |
CBS NEWS
NEW YORK -- CBS News has learned about a potential terror threat for the day before the election.
Sources told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that U.S. intelligence has alerted joint terrorism task forces that al Qaeda could be planning attacks in three states for Monday.
It is believed New York, Texas and Virginia are all possible targets, though no specific locations are mentioned.
U.S. authorities are taking the threat seriously, though the sources stress the intelligence is still being assessed and its credibility hasn’t been confirmed. Counterterrorism officials were alerted to the threat out of abundance of caution.
A senior FBI official told CBS News, “The counterterrorism and homeland security communities remain vigilant and well-postured to defend against attacks here in the United States. The FBI, working with our federal, state and local counterparts, shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety.”
Intelligence about potential threats always increases during holiday seasons and when big events are approaching.
As Election Day nears, federal law enforcement is planning for several worst-case scenarios.
Earlier this week, an alert warned local police of “polling places” being seen as “attractive targets” for “lone wolf”-type attacks by individuals motivated by violent extremist ideologies, sovereign citizen or other extremist activity. | 1real |
Berkeley Mayor Is Member of Antifa Facebook Group that Organized Riots - Breitbart | Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin is a member of the Facebook group, By Any Means Necessary, which orchestrated the riots that occurred ahead of a scheduled lecture by Milo Yiannopoulos. [Berkley Mayor Jesse Arreguin was revealed to be a member of the group, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) on Facebook. BAMN orchestrated the violence that shut down a scheduled lecture at UC Berkeley featuring Milo Yiannopoulos in early 2017. Arreguin is allegedly also friends with BAMN leader, Yvette Felarca, on Facebook. They were also involved in the violent clashes earlier this month. @CassandraRules #Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin not only member of #BAMN but also friends of #RadicalLiberalTerrorist Yvette Falarco #AntiFA #DefundBerkeley pic. twitter. — TX Intense TV (@TxIntenseRadio) April 21, 2017, Felarca defended the violence that occurred ahead of Yiannopoulos’ scheduled event in a local television interview following the riots. BAMN was investigated for engaging in terrorist activities in 2005 by the FBI. In 2009, the Department of Defense classified the group’s activities as “ terrorism. ” In June 2016, BAMN led a violent outside a white nationalist rally that resulted in ten people being hospitalized with stab wounds. Often described as a “militant ” activist group, BAMN frequently engages in violent forms of protests. A Berkeley newspaper noted in 2001 that the group was a front for an “an obscure Trotskyist political party called the Revolutionary Workers League. ” Breitbart News has reached out to Mayor Arreguin for comment. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 0fake |
NANCY PELOSI ARROGANTLY DISMISSES Questions on Crooked Democrat IT Employees Under Investigation [Video] | Pleading ignorance is a perfect ploy for Nancy Pelosi Who wouldn t believe she s clueless on pretty much everything. Pelosi claims she s been busy with lots of things . That s laughable! This case is a big deal! Here s what The Daily Caller had to say about this stain on the Democrats:U.S. Capitol Police and other agencies are probing the cyber activities of three brothers who had jobs as congressional staffers at the office of information technology for lawmakers on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported. Brothers Imran, Abid and Jamal Awan also provided their services for other Democratic members in the lower chamber.When they came under suspicion by law enforcement for accessing the House network without permission last February, they were all banned from accessing it. While some Democratic lawmakers dismissed Imran from their employ when the story, others, like Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz kept him on.Are the Democrats helping these two men hide the evidence? | 1real |
New York City mayor presents $82 billion budget, warns of challenges | NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio presented an $82.1 billion preliminary budget for the city’s 2016-17 financial year on Thursday, noting the city’s strong economic position but striking a cautionary note over the economic outlook. New York City, which sits at the center of one of the biggest regional economies in the world, has seen strong growth since the recession that followed the 2007-09 financial crisis. That has allowed officials to build budget reserves, but doubts remain whether that growth will continue. “There are lots of real challenges that are coming through to make us uncertain about what our economic future is,” de Blasio said during a presentation at City Hall. “We as New York City have to protect ourselves.” The mayor highlighted concerns over China’s economy, question marks over global growth, the current plunge in the U.S. stock market and terrorism as threats to the city. The city added 213,000 jobs in 2014 and 2015, the strongest two-year gain in recent history. The number of jobs are at an all time high of 4.2 million. Yet de Blasio said the economy may be overdue for a recession and pointed to the devastating effects of the last recession. The budget has nearly $5 billion in budget reserves, including $3.4 billion for retiree health benefits and $1 billion in general reserves in case the city has to “go it alone” during a recession, de Blasio said. The total budget represents a small increase over the previous year’s $81.7 billion. De Blasio, a left-leaning Democrat who took office at the start of 2014, highlighted signature programs such as raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour for all city workers, an initiative that will cost the city $115 million when fully implemented. He also outlined plans to tackle the city’s homelessness problem through millions of dollars for shelter repair, prevention initiatives and programs to move people out of shelters to permanent housing. Dean Fuleihan, the city budget director, said the budget was balanced in the current and coming financial year. He said $1 billion in savings in the 2016-17 budget will come from reductions in debt service and savings in agency spending. The city’s public pension system will consume a larger chunk of revenues as increased mortality projections mean the city will have to pay an additional $600 million. That brings the city’s total annual pension bill to $9.4 billion. | 0fake |
Hillary Tweets Out Article Calling Her “Most Corrupt, Least Popular” Candidate of All Time | One of two things just happened, folks.
Either Hillary Clinton finally lost every single last one of her marbles…
Or, perhaps, she has accepted the painful truth, which is that no one can stand her.
On Monday, the Democratic nominee tweeted out an article referring to her as one of the “most corrupt, least popular candidates of all time.”
Yeah, not exactly something you want to brag about… A guide to help you make your choice for president. https://t.co/QzK7XZYmJW
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 31, 2016
“A guide to help you make your choice for president,” she captioned the odd tweet.
And Twitter reacted… | 1real |
Contenders for senior jobs in Trump's administration | (Reuters) - The following are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump works to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and media reports. Trump has already named a number of people for other top jobs in his administration. * Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City * Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * David Petraeus, retired general and former CIA director who pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information that he shared with his biographer, who also was his mistress * Jon Huntsman, former Republican Utah governor and ambassador to China under President Barack Obama; ran for Republican presidential nomination in 2012 * James Stavridis, retired Navy admiral * John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, foreign policy adviser to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney * Rex Tillerson, president and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp * Joe Manchin, Democratic U.S. senator for West Virginia * Dana Rohrabacher, Republican U.S. representative of California and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee * Alan Mulally, former CEO at Ford Motor Co and former executive vice president at Boeing Co * Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota * Joe Manchin, Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Rick Perry, Republican former Texas governor * Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, Republican former U.S. representative from Michigan * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York * Debra Wong Yang, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed by former President George W. Bush * Ralph Ferrara, a securities attorney at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP * Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner who heads Trump’s transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies * Daniel Gallagher, Republican former SEC commissioner * John Allison, a former CEO of regional bank BB&T Corp and former head of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank * Paul Atkins, former SEC commissioner * Thomas Hoenig, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp vice chairman and former head of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank * Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel producer Nucor Corp * Robert Lighthizer, former deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration * Mick Mulvaney, Republican U.S. representative from South Carolina * David Malpass, former chief economist with investment bank Bear Stearns and a senior Trump adviser * Rick Perry, former Texas governor * Chuck Conner, a former acting secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department and current head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives * Tim Huelskamp, Republican U.S. representative from Kansas * Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner * Sonny Perdue, former Georgia governor * Scott Brown, former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor * Jeff Miller, former Republican U.S. representative from Florida who was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee * Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a hedge fund partner and former FDA deputy commissioner under former Republican President George W. Bush * Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who previously served in the Department of Health and Human Services, also under Bush The Trump transition team confirmed the president-elect would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. | 0fake |
Hybrid Wars 8. Strategies Against Africa (1A) | Africa , Hybrid Wars By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)
The introductory text prefaced the general concepts that the author will be extrapolating on further in the research, and now that the basics of the overall analytical foundation and the contours of the reference map are out of the way, it’s time to begin exploring the influence of hegemonic and institutional regionalism on African geopolitics, widely investigating the asymmetrical threats endemic to each area, and start elucidating China’s overall Silk Road vision for the continent.
African Regions, Their Respective (And Prospective) Leaders, And Interregional Conflict Scenarios
The author’s preferred method of explaining Africa’s geopolitics is to begin as broadly as possible and then gradually become more specific, with the entire continuum of study eventually leading to the reader’s solid understanding of China’s visionary plans. To start off, it’s necessary to divide Africa into five separate regions and identify the state within each which holds the most influential demographic, economic, and military sway (cumulatively described as leadership) and has the most promising long-term potential (operative word) to become a regional heavyweight if it isn’t one already:
* Brown – North Africa – Egypt * Orange – Horn And East Africa – Ethiopia * Blue – Central-South Africa – Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) * Red – Southern Cone – South Africa
Interpretation:
It should immediately be said that the above map is a conceptualized representation that includes both current and prospective realities (the latter in reference to the DRC), and that the shaded areas are rough estimates of the approximate spread of each region. There are certainly limits to each identified core country’s influence and it’s predicted that there will obviously be competitive coalitions both within its own sphere and outside of it that assemble to challenge the given state’s leadership over the said region. For example, this can currently be seen by the former French colonies of West Africa having their own Paris-controlled currency and collectively viewing Nigeria’s regional ascendency with suspicion, which has been particularly evident when it comes to Chad and its uninvited (but unopposed) anti-terrorist military involvement in northeastern Nigeria. While admittedly imperfect in certain respects, the simplified map does present a relatively accurate snapshot of the broader geopolitical processes that are presently underway in Africa and allows observers to relatively accurately extrapolate on their predicted trajectory. Therefore, the map should only be seen as a basic working model through which the reader can acquire a generalized idea about the continent and a prism of perspective through which they can thus interpret the rest of the unfolding Hybrid War analysis.
Focal Points Of Overlap:
The introduction spoke about some of the overlap potential between the earlier-identified regions of Hybrid War study, but seeing as how the most recent map is somewhat different in categorizing the entire continent into geographic blocs, it’s necessary to succinctly touch upon some of the areas of overlap that may not have been addressed previously.
North-Central Nexus:
This tinderbox of a locale is defined as the convergence area between Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, and South Sudan, and it’s marked by an array of interlinked involvement between state and non-state actors in each other’s affairs. Chad and Sudan had earlier vied for influence in the latter’s region of Darfur, and N’djamena also exerts influence in the Muslim reaches of Northern CAR. Khartoum is involved in a back-and-forth proxy war with Juba along their shared frontier which sees both sides supporting a mix of non-state rebel actors (some of which are defined by the respective targeted governments as terrorists), and the globally notorious non-state bogeyman of Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army operates between CAR and South Sudan. The below map conceptualizes the dangerous interplay between forces in this totally destabilized region and shows how the only missing factors are the ‘geographic diagonal’ involvement of Chad in South Sudan and Sudan in CAR, and a possibly disruptive humanitarian/militant influence emanating from CAR to Chad (which is not unlikely if confessional tensions spike once more):
Mountain Mayhem:
The next most conflict-prone area of regional overlap is the mountainous area that straddles the DRC and Uganda, Rwandan, and Burundian borders. After the end of the Second Congo War (“Africa’s World War”), Ugandan and Rwandan pro- and anti-government militia groups ended up controlling this part of the DRC and seizing the profitable mining deposits located here. There’s a lot of legal and illegal cross-border traffic between the two sides, and it’s well known that conflicts from one part of the mountains could easily spill over to the other due to the well-established economic and demographic connections that link them. Burundi figures into the equation because it’s the ‘weak man of East Africa’, a recent civil war state that is now being pushed back to the brink as part of the US’ Hybrid War agenda against China (which will be addressed in full later on at the appropriate section). Destabilization in this country could easily move west and north to DRC and Rwanda, creating a tri-state ethno-regional conflagration that would inevitable come to involve Uganda as well.
For the time being, though, dominant influence between the two identified African regions is pretty one-sided, with Rwanda and Uganda exerting control over the DRC and not the other way around. This is primarily due to their respective nationals and affiliated militias (both pro- and anti-government ones) creating a sort of ‘strategic depth’ that has profoundly penetrated just about all levels of life in the eastern DRC. However, if the DRC ever got back on track after being spectacularly sidelined by the West’s covert war against it in the early 1960s and further weakened by the First and Second Congo Wars, then it’s foreseeable that the cross-border flow of influence could either be equalized or even reversed if the right demographic factors were leveraged under the proper geopolitical conditions.
Regardless of the ‘positive’ movement of influence in either direction, if cross-border Hybrid War triggers are activated, then it’s likely that the general destabilization could also involve Tanzania and possibly even Zambia. The last possibility is more likely so if a renewed Katanga separatist or anti-government campaign is ever launched within the region, which might pan out to be the case if popular former governor and “ opposition ” leader Moisi Katumbi stirs the pot of regionalism should President Kabila run for what would at this point be an unconstitutional third term , delays the elections, or is accused (whether rightfully or wrongfully) of committing voter fraud that helps him or a hand-picked political successor win at the polls.
Sahara Terror:
The next interregional conflict overlap in Africa deals with terrorist groups in the Sahara, in particular the interplay between transnational militant organizations operating in the broad expanse between Mali, Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, and Libya. The NATO War on Libya destroyed the most prosperous and stable state in Africa and was the catalyst for destabilizing the rest of the aforementioned states ‘downstream’ via the newly opened weapon and militant channel that was created in the former Jamahiriya. This wide space is sparsely populated but is rich in oil, natural gas, and uranium deposits. For this reason, Sahara terrorism directly affects the global commodities trade and the interests of certain Great Powers and their most prominent transnational corporations.
As a fitting example, France’s nuclear leader Areva controls uranium mines in Niger, and the in-country French military contingent there is also tasked with protecting them, among its other responsibilities. Furthermore, the mixture of destabilization in the region, low energy prices, and rapid LNG industry developments have led to the indefinite shelving of the tentative proposal for a Trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to southern Europe via Niger and Algeria, but this idea nonetheless still remains a possibility that might one day be revived .
Widening the interregional scope of the Libyan-originated destabilization that is now plaguing the Sahara, the terrorist hijacking of the Tuareg’s 2011-2012 “Azawad” self-determination movement in Mali has also led to a spillover effect of Islamic/Salafist violence in Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast , non-Sahara countries which are part of the greater West African region. Therefore, the two launching pads of inter- and intra-regional destabilization can be identified as Libya and Mali, with the latter becoming totally unbalanced only after the former’s collapse following the US-led NATO war against it.
Malawi In The Middle:
Formerly part of the British Empire and administered together with Zambia and Zimbabwe as a member of the “Central African Federation” in the closing days of colonialism, Malawi is categorized as part of the Southern Cone sphere of regional influence because most of its international trade runs through Mozambique. The landlocked country is one of the world’s poorest and least-developed nations, and the state’s dire poverty has created a situation where anti-government sentiment can be easily manipulated.
While Malawi isn’t directly a part of China’s larger integrated Silk Road network in Africa, the two countries have quickly moved closer to one another economically over the past couple of years after the African state disowned its prior decades-long relationship with Taiwan, thus raising the covert consternation of the US and pushing Washington to order its top diplomat in the country to prepare for a coup and possible Hybrid War attempt.
Malawi’s geopolitical position is such that any large-scale destabilization within the country’s borders could easily spread to Mozambique, but most important for the research’s focus, it could also just as likely move northwards to Zambia and Tanzania, two pivotal countries that are involved in China’s transcontinental Silk Road projects. Because of the conflict overspill potential that a seemingly tiny and assumedly geopolitically irrelevant state like Malawi can have, it’s accurate to label it a “Second Burundi” in terms of the chances that it could be used to trigger a regional conflagration that could subsequently offset China’s integrative vision for the continent.
If timed to coincide with a Hybrid War in Burundi, then a prospectively planned one in Malawi would deal double a dose of destabilization to Tanzania and could be used to spark a larger transregional conflict zone between Uganda and Mozambique.
Furthermore, there exists the potential (which will be discussed at a future point in the research) that this could either trigger the renewed Katanga secessionist crisis or anti-government movement that was mentioned before or be timed to coincide with it in its own right during the elections that are tentatively forecast for late 2016. If this scenario eventuates, then the simultaneously exploding series of latent conflicts would certainly spell the end for all of China’s transcontinental integrative plans, although it might still be possible to salvage the ones dealing only with East African coast (and which will also be described later on in detail).
The Real African World War:
The nightmare scenario that could one day transpire in Africa is if the super- and sub-equatorial active and potential conflict zones find a way to interlink with one another and turn the whole continent into a massive Hybrid War battleground. While somewhat far-fetched at the moment and tactically hindered by the DRC’s jungled geographic ‘firewall’, if another ‘African World War’ takes place in the Congo, then the resultant destabilization could be enough to surmount this physical difficulty and summon a Black Hole of Chaos that sparks a real “African World War’ which ends up connecting the Saharan-based terrorists with the Lake Malawi militants. This could most realistically be achieved via an outbreak of large-scale turmoil in the Nigerien-Chadian buffer zone and the Zambia-Tanzania-Katanga Province New Silk Road infrastructural nexus. Non-African Foreign Military Bases
Keeping with the present security theme, non-African foreign militaries have left a remarkable footprint on the continent. For the most part, it’s primarily the US and France that have spread their units far and wide, although Washington “officially” claims that it only has a single military facility in Djibouti. Despite the technical ‘legalese’ of the Pentagon’s pronouncements, investigative journalist Nick Turse has unearthed piles of evidence proving that drone bases, logistics hubs, and other covert warfare-facilitating outposts are surreptitiously being utilized all across Africa. The reader is strongly encouraged to read this author’s works and become familiar with his findings, as they detail the contours of the shadow war that the US has been waging on Africa ever since 9/11. To summarize the US role in Africa in the most concisely pertinent way, the Pentagon regularly conducts training exercises with almost every single African military in one capacity or another, and it keeps a more lasting presence in the contiguous Sahara-Sahel-jungled area that stretches from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and has been called “ The New Spice Route ”. As taken from the last hyperlinked source, here’s a map displaying how this network, which has also been nicknamed “the hippo trench”, looks from a continental perspective, but it should be kept in mind that Ethiopia is no longer a formal part of this arrangement after it asked the US to remove its drone base in early 2016 in the months following the original article’s publication:
The other military power most actively involved in Africa is France, which had earlier colonized a large chunk of the continent in the late-19 th and early-20 th centuries. The most active part of its force is deployed in the Sahel region as part of “ Operation Barkhane ” which stretches across what has been referred to as the “G5 Sahel” countries of Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. In addition to this, Paris also keeps troops in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Central African Republic (CAR), and Djibouti. Here’s what France’s military deployments look like when they’re mapped out:
* Red: G5 Sahel * Pink all others
Comparing the two maps, it’s possible to observe a military overlap between the US and France in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, CAR, and Djibouti:
While most of the double concentration of foreign military bases lies in Western and Central Africa, the fact that this is also present in Djibouti mustn’t be overlooked. In fact, the miniscule East African nation has a disproportionate military significance in that it concurrently hosts American, French, Japanese , Chinese , and soon even Saudi bases, making it by far a global military anomaly in this regard. With the focus now on East Africa, it’s timely to state that this part of the continent beyond Djibouti is also becoming heavily militarized by foreign forces as well. The UAE is suspected of having a naval base in Eritrea and is purportedly prospecting for facilities in Somalia’s autonomous breakaway region of Somaliland, while Turkey is also building a military base in the civil war-torn country. On top of all of this, Qatar maintains a small amount of “peacekeepers” in both Eritrea and Djibouti ever since 2010 as part of its UN-related responsibility in supposedly “mediating” between the two asides after a tense border dispute in 2008. This strategic concentration of forces has the effect of creating the perception that landlocked yet economically promising Ethiopia is being encircled, especially by the GCC-member states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, which will be an important fact that will be returned to later on when the research addresses the Horn of Africa region.
* Red: Horn of Africa states with foreign military bases * Orange: Ethiopia African Military Blocs
Although there’s a diversified non-African military presence all throughout the continent, Africa has still been able to assemble a loose network of regional military-security blocs that operate under the nominal aegis of the African Union (AU). The African Standby Forces , as they’re known, are divided according to Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regions and given defined areas of responsibility. The economic boundaries of most of these geographic blocs overlap with their military ones and will be described more in the next section, but for the time being, here’s what the AU’s allocation looks like:
* Brown: North Africa Regional Capability * Yellow: ECOWAS * Purple: Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) * Orange: East African Standby Force (EASF) * Red: Southern African Development Community (SADC)
NOTE: South Sudan is not yet a full member of the East African Standby Force, while Angola and Burundi are listed as having dual responsibilities within their shared ECCAS and SADC and the EASF, respectively. Additionally, it’s important to point out that the East African Community is divided between South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi’s commitment to the EASF, Burundi’s additional responsibilities to the ECCAS, and Tanzania’s incorporation into the SADC zone of responsibility. Also, because Morocco is not part of the AU as per the Western Sahara dispute, it’s not party to the African Standby Forces agreement in any capacity.
The last thing that’s important to point out about Africa’s military blocs is that Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad have aligned their forces to battle the Boko Haram threat that afflicts their shared Lake Chad basin. Documenting this on a map, it superficially looks like a formidable military alliance, but it’s actually a poorly coordinated and internally competing force dominated by mutually suspicious Nigeria and Chad:
To be continued…
Andrew Korybko is the American political commentator currently working for the Sputnik agency. He is the author of the monograph “ Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change ” (2015). This text will be included into his forthcoming book on the theory of Hybrid Warfare.
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Ex-KGB Chief Who Leaked Incriminating Trump Info Found Dead In The Back Of A Car In Russia | Trump and his allies expect us to dismiss the 35-page dossier that details Donald Trump and his team s ties to the Russian government, but a lot of crazy stuff keeps happening that makes it impossible.When it was just former MI6 agent and author of the report Christopher Steele, who is in hiding to protect himself from both Trump and Putin s goons, saying that President Asterisk s closet is overflowing with skeletons (and Russian hooker urine) it was one thing, but the existence of audio and even video of Trump engaging in incriminating acts was confirmed by at least four sources, including one in the American intelligence community. Israeli intelligence officials have also been warned about sharing intel with Trump s administration for fear that it will be leaked to Vladimir Putin. And then there s the little matter of what happened to a gentleman who helped Steele compile his incriminating yet not entirely verified report Oleg Erovinkin was a former general in the KGB and the FSB. He is suspected of feeding information to Steele, and he was found dead in his car on Boxing Day. Russian state-run media initially reported that foul play was involved when Erovinkin s body was found in a black Lexus [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin s body was sent to the FSB morgue. Since then, the cause of death has been downgraded to heart attack. The Telegraph reports:Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, who is repeatedly named in the dossier.Erovinkin has been described as a key liaison between Sechin and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Mr Steele writes in an intelligence report dated July 19, 2016, he has a source close to Sechin, who had disclosed alleged links between Mr Trump s supporters and Moscow.The death of Erovinkin has prompted speculation it is linked to Mr Steele s explosive dossier, which was made public earlier this month. Mr Trump has dismissed the dossier as fake news and no evidence has emerged to support its lurid claims.The Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Erovinkin s body was found in a black Lexus [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin s body was sent to the FSB morgue .No cause of death has been confirmed and the FSB continues to investigate. Media reports suggested his death was a result of foul play.It was later claimed he died of a heart attack. Christo Grozev, an expert on Russia-related security threats, believes Erovinkin is the key source to whom Mr Steele refers in his dossier. Insiders have described Erovinkin to me alternately as Sechin s treasurer and the go-between between Putin and Sechin . One thing that everyone seems to agree both in public and private sources is that Erovinkin was Sechin s closest associate, Grozev says. I have no doubt that at the time Erovinkin died, Mr Putin had Mr Steele s Trump dossier on his desk. He would arguably have known whether the alleged story is based on fact or fiction. Whichever is true, he would have had a motive to seek and find the mole, he adds. He would have had to conclude that Erovinkin was at least a person of interest. At this point, it will be difficult for our own intelligence agencies to get to the bottom of this situation. Recently, for example, Trump decided to retain James Comey yes, the guy who interfered in the election on his behalf as the head of the FBI. The Donald also has the power to fire Comey if the ongoing investigation is not positive for Trump. At around the same time as the announcement, the Bureau cleared Michael Flynn of any wrongdoing in his numerous, suspicious calls to the Russian ambassador.Our country is in a bad place and we need more information to correctly determine what is going on with any of this information the current administration and his despotic allies will go to any lengths to hide.Was Erovinkin murdered because of his knowledge of information that could greatly hurt Trump and his BFF Putin? Maybe, maybe not. Putin is exactly the sort of person who has been known to leave a trail of dead journalists in his wake for reporting too much. It s not outside the realm of possibility that he had a former KGB agent murdered for knowing too much.Featured image via Getty Images (Drew Angerer)/Twitter | 1real |
WATCH THE FIREWORKS! NAACP President FREAKS When He’s Asked If He’d “Be Okay With A Congressional White Caucus? [VIDEO] | Watch NAACP s Cornell William Brooks, who was at loss for words Thursday after he was asked a hypothetical question about allowing a Congressional White Caucus to be formed during a debate on CNN s Anderson Cooper 360.The racially charged exchange began during a discussion of President Trump having asked an African-American reporter from a black-focused new radio outlet if she knew the leadership of the Congressional Black CaucusThe best part of the video comes when Cornell William Brooks DEMANDS an apology from Lord for using KKK member David Duke to make a perfectly logical analogy of how dividing our lawmakers down racial lines could get very ugly if it s allowed to continue. Frankly I used to think the Congressional Black Caucus, when it was first formed, was a good thing, Lord began. I changed my mind on this. I don t think there should be any caucuses in the House of Representatives that are divided by race. I mean, heaven forbid, if David Duke got elected and wanted to form a Congressional White Caucus, that would be appalling, he said, explaining his change of heart. Sir, Jeffrey, that is I m looking for a word here. Beyond it s completely preposterous. To compare the Klan to the Congressional Black Caucus, Brooks smilingly replied, visibly upset by the analogy his fellow panelist drew. You would be okay with a Congressional White Caucus? Really? Lord shot back, interrupting Brooks explanation of the Black Caucus s purpose. I didn t say that, was Brook s immediate reply. Daily Caller | 1real |
Comment on WATCH: A Group Of Librarians Cover Queen With ‘Librarian Rhapsody’ by i love my financial systems plc | Subscribe
One of the best things about my childhood was that I lived within walking distance of a library. It wasn’t a huge library, but it fed my hunger for escape and story.
Because of this, I have a special place in my heart for librarians. I’m pretty sure I was a hella annoying kid (none of us really changes over time….we only become more fully what we are. – Anne Rice). But our librarian never let on if I annoyed her. Or maybe she was just the kind of saintly librarian who enjoyed kids who liked learning? I dunno. But we’d go and spend hours, whole days even. It was Nirvana!
From ForReadingAddicts : This is an absolutely brilliant Parody of Bohemian Rhapsody, created by the Shoalhaven Library Staff to celebrate the end of the the school year, and all I can say is….. ‘Well, that escalated!
Indeed. Don’t be fooled by the slow start of this video. These brainiacs drop the mic!
Watch: About Tiffany Willis
Tiffany Willis is a fifth-generation Texan, a proponent of voluntary simplicity, a single mom, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with “the least of these" -- disadvantaged and oppressed populations, the elderly, people living in poverty, at-risk youth, and unemployed people. She is a Certified Workforce Expert with the National Workforce Institute , a NAWDP Certified Workforce Development Professional, and a certified instructor for Franklin Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens . Follow her on Twitter , Facebook , or LinkedIn . She also has a grossly neglected personal blog , a Time Travel blog , a site dedicated to encouraging people to read classic literature 15 minutes a day , and a literary quotes blog that is a labor of love . Find her somewhere and join the discussion. Click here to buy Tiff a mojito. Connect | 1real |
Steyn: Expect More Beating-Type Incidents as Long as the Left Is Invested in Identity Politics - Breitbart | Friday while filling in as a guest host on “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” conservative commentator Mark Steyn offered his thoughts on the Chicago beating incident early this week that led to four individuals being charged with hate crime in addition to other charges. Steyn blamed the motivation for the incident on identity politics, which he argued has a “dehumanizing” effect and as long as identity politics remains part of the left’s playbook, more of those types of incidents would occur in the future. “I think we’re going to get a lot more of this stuff in the future because it is the logic of identity politics,” Steyn said. “It is where identity politics leads. It is about ultimately the dehumanization that attends identity politics. ” “The minute you have identity groups — the minute you have identity politics that what matters is whether people are black, or white, or gay, or straight, or transgendered, or cisgenerded, or Muslim, or infidel — then you do not see the humanity in your fellow man,” he continued. “All you see is the disfavored group and eventually you end with what happened in this situation. ” “There will be more of this in the future as long as the left is invested in identity politics as the organizing principle of society,” he added. “Identity politics is a polite word. The actual term for what it is is a return to tribalism where don’t see people as individuals equal before the law, citizens, the of others. What matters more and more is what group you belong to. This crime is ultimately where identity politics leads. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0fake |
74 children executed by ISIS for 'crimes' that include refusal to fast, report says | The blood-soaked executioners of ISIS have spared neither women nor children since the jihadist army established its caliphate a year ago, putting an estimated 74 kids and even more women to death for such offenses as practicing “magic” and refusing to fast during Ramadan.
A total of 3,027 people have been executed by ISIS since it declared itself a state under strict Islamic law in Syria and Iraq last June, according to a new report by the UK-based group, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Many of the charges against those executed are recorded as blasphemy and spying, but others include sorcery, sodomy, practicing as a Shia Muslim," the report states.
Just this week, two children whose ages were not known were crucified in the Mayadin, Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria after ISIS accused them of not properly fasting during Ramadan. The children’s bodies, put on public display on crossbars, each bore a sign explaining their violation during the holy month for Muslims that runs June 17 to July 17. With each execution justified by ISIS' medieval interpretation of the Koran, the group is attempting to portray itself as the true practitioners of Islam, say experts.
“Underlying all these executions is the apocalypse ideology of the final battle between the believers and the unbelievers,” said Jasmine Opperman, the director of Southern Africa Operations at the Terrorism, Research & Analysis Consortium. “ISIS is using executions to show its followers -- and would-be followers -- that the group is the only true representative of believers, not only in word, but action, which is why executions are featured so prominently.”
Other children died fighting for their lives.
“The violent Islamist group appears to demonstrate a particular interest in children, releasing videos of children fighting in cages and undertaking military training,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said. “The report also details moves undertaken by the group to entice children to join, which include setting up offices called "cubs of the caliphate" that recruit children to fight for ISIS.”
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report in February, documenting the many horrors ISIS has imposed on children who are Kurdish, Yazidi, Christian and even Muslim. Children – even those who are mentally challenged – are being tortured, crucified, buried alive, used as suicide bombers and sold as sex slaves, the report said.
“ISIS is hoping to spur current supporters around the world who are dormant, of which there are millions, into joining their caliphate by advertising acts like these, of which there are millions,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for the Clarion Project, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the threat of Islamic extremism. “They know that they can greatly increase their numbers by appealing to current radicals rather than the broader masses.”
Women are not spared the cruel brutality of ISIS, either.
The Syrian Observatory found that the terror group carried out more executions this week, murdering two married couples by beheading them publicly with a sword for “sorcery.”
“The Islamic State group executed two women by beheading them in Deir Ezzor province, and this is the first time the Observatory has documented women being killed by the group in this manner,” Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the Daily Mail.
Other citizens suspected of practicing black magic or sorcery also have been killed, the organization reports, including a magician beheaded in recent weeks in the Iraqi province of Salahuddin.
“The practicing of anything that is not approved by Islamic State under their very strict interpretation of Islam is ‘Haram’ or forbidden,” said Veryan Khan, editorial director for the Florida-based Terrorism, Research & Analysis Consortium. “If the Islamic State thinks that sorcery is real, then black magic would be a threat to them and seen as a danger.”
ISIS stepped up its killing spree this week as it celebrated both Ramadan and its one-year anniversary as a caliphate in Iraq and Syria with three straight days of ruthless public punishments and executions. On June 30, 11 workers from al-Miadin endured live crucifixion and were forced to wear signs saying "70 lashes and to be crucified for 1 day for breaking the fast in Ramadan."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the most recent killing spree is less than a week, after ISIS released a video of 15 men executed in three terrible ways: Drowned in cages, having their head blown off with explosives and burning them alive in a car hit with a rocket launcher.
Last Friday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the death of 38 people in Tunisia who were gunned down, and another 27 people who died after a bomb rocked a Shia mosque in Kuwait.
“Islamic State executions are not merely retribution by the state for behavior seen as illegal,” said Khan, noting executions by the Islamic State include everything from burning alive victims, firing squads, beatings and beheadings, to drowning, explosions, and throwing people off of buildings. “The Islamic State uses executions to intimidate and dominate the local population, for diplomatic communiqués to world leaders, for recruitment purposes and to demonstrate the organization is in complete control.” | 0fake |
Defense disputes nerve agent used to kill North Korean leader's half-brother | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Lawyers for two women accused of murdering the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Tuesday low enzyme levels in his blood may have been caused by liver disease or hormone pills rather than a lethal nerve agent. Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, a Vietnamese, are charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX, a chemical poison banned by the United Nations, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13. The women have pleaded not guilty, saying they thought they were involved in some sort of prank for a reality TV show. They face the death penalty if convicted. Nor ashikin Othman, a chemical pathologist with Kuala Lumpur Hospital, told the court outside Kuala Lumpur blood samples taken from the victim showed low levels of cholinesterase - an enzyme needed in muscle control - which could be caused by exposure to poison such as insecticide or a nerve agent such as VX or Sarin. But she agreed with the defense that low enzyme levels could also have been due to other causes such as liver disease or the taking of female hormones by a man. Yes, the enzyme levels could be slightly lower by the taking of hormone pills by a man, she said. In response to a question, Nor ashikin also said it was possible the accused had had no contact with VX whatsoever as their blood samples yielded normal levels of cholinesterase. But they could have also been exposed to a low dose of the poison, washed their hands with soap and water or ingested an antidote, she said. Siti and Huong are accused of smearing the deadly nerve agent on the victim s face and eyes. The trial has so far referred to the victim as Kim Chol, the name on the passport used by Kim Jong Nam. The post mortem report, made available to the media, said that VX was detected on swabs of Kim Jong Nam s eyes and face, in the blood, plasma and urine. The report described the victim s body as covered with tattoos. These include a large black tattoo on the chest of a man with two fish-like fingers, and one of abstract-like motifs on his upper right arm that extends to his upper back. Police have also named four North Koreans as suspects in the case and an Interpol red notice, an international alert just short of an arrest warrant, has been issued for the four, who remain at large. The trial continues on Wednesday. | 0fake |
Kremlin says Paris climate deal unworkable without U.S.: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Paris climate deal is unworkable without the participation of the United States, the RIA news agency cited Kremlin aide Andrei Belousov as saying on Friday. On Monday, President Donald Trump said the United States would be withdrawing from the 2015 landmark deal which is designed to fight climate change. Trump said the Paris accord would undermine the U.S. economy, cost U.S. jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world. Russia has signed but not yet ratified the Paris accord. RIA cited Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich as saying earlier on Friday that Russia would not alter its decision to join the agreement despite the U.S. withdrawal. | 0fake |
US Officials, FBI See No Link Between Trump and Russia | US Officials, FBI See No Link Between Trump and Russia But The Clinton Campaign Demands FBI Affirm Trump's Russia Ties. Be Sociable, Share! Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Sunrise, Fla.
With the 2016 election campaign winding down, the Clinton campaign is ratcheting up demands for the FBI to publicly confirm the campaign’s allegations that Republican nominee Donald Trump is secretly in league with Russia. Sen. Harry Reid (D – NV) went so far as to claim the FBI has secret “explosive” evidence of coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government that it is withholding. FBI officials familiar with their investigations into the allegations, which the Clinton campaign started publicizing around the Democratic National Convention, say they’ve turned up nothing to connect Trump and Russia , leading FBI Director James Comey to decide against making any statements to that effect.
The Clinton campaign has been making the allegations so long that they have taken to claiming “everyone knows” that they are true, and appears unsettled by the FBI’s refusal to sign off on the claims simply because they haven’t been able to find real evidence corroborating the story.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly denied ties to Russia, but that didn’t stop Clinton from calling Trump a “puppet” of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the final presidential debate. The calls have grown since Friday’s FBI report to Congress about further Clinton emails being sought.
With Clinton’s main campaign scandal growing in the waning weeks of the deal, some in her campaign have suggested that affirming Trump as secretly in league with the Russians would only be fair. Absent any evidence, however, it appears that won’t be happening.
This article originally appeared on Antiwar.com. Be Sociable, Share! | 1real |
American Companies Tailor Responses to Trump Election - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump’s victory in the presidential race has presented some companies with a new challenge: how to find the right balance in their postelection messages to employees and customers. Matt Maloney, the chief executive of the online food delivery company GrubHub, found himself in a clash of business and politics this week after he sent an email to employees on Wednesday that appeared to say that anyone who disagreed with the company’s policy of inclusion and diversity should resign. “As we all try to understand what this vote means to us, I want to affirm to anyone on our team that is scared or feels personally exposed, that I and everyone else here at GrubHub will fight for your dignity and your right to make a better life for yourself and your family here in the United States,” Mr. Maloney wrote. “If you do not agree with this statement, then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here,” he said. But on Thursday, in a sign of the new political flash points on the corporate landscape, a message was posted to the company’s website with the original email attached. The new message said the message had been misconstrued. “I want to clarify that I did not ask for anyone to resign if they voted for Trump,” Mr. Maloney wrote. “I would never make such a demand. To the contrary, the message of the email is that we do not tolerate discriminatory activity or hateful commentary in the workplace, and that we will stand up for our employees. ” The footwear company New Balance also encountered a postelection backlash after its vice president for communications, Matt LeBretton, said after Mr. Trump’s victory that “we feel things are going to move in the right direction. ” The remarks were made in an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter, Sara Germano, who published them on Twitter on Wednesday. The reporter also tweeted that the remarks were made within the context of global trade, noting that New Balance has publicly opposed the Partnership. New Balance says it makes more than four million pairs of athletic footwear in the United States per year, which represents a limited portion of its sales. Some interpreted the comments as supportive of Mr. Trump, and they drew a backlash. Online, images of New Balance footwear being burned or thrown in the garbage were posted, and there were calls for a boycott. On Thursday, New Balance emailed a message to other news media outlets and Sole Collector, which reports on the sneaker industry and its culture: “As the only major company that still makes athletic shoes in the United States, New Balance has a unique perspective on trade and trade policy in that we want to make more shoes in the United States, not less. ” “New Balance publicly supported the trade positions of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump prior to Election Day that focused on American manufacturing job creation and we continue to support them today,” it said. Another New Balance message was published on Twitter on Thursday that also seemed to allude to the controversy, saying it welcomed “all walks of life. ” Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, congratulated Mr. Trump on Twitter on Thursday. Mr. Bezos added that he had an “open mind” and wished Mr. Trump “great success in his service to the country. ” But comments below the message spoke of canceling Amazon Prime subscriptions and boycotting Amazon altogether, although some were supportive. The New York Times this week examined the views of some business leaders in the postelection climate here. Some American companies have a tradition of using their unique hold on consumer attention to express support for the causes they believe in. The ice cream company Ben Jerry’s posted statements on its website advocating for voting rights and climate change action. After Mr. Trump’s election, it published an open letter to Mr. Trump on Thursday that it described as a “challenge” to “hear the voices of all Americans. ” “Whoa, does your new title sound as weird to you as it does to us?” the letter said, addressing Mr. Trump. “Well, we’ll all get used to it quickly. ” “And while we recognize that this is the outcome that many wanted, this is also an outcome that leaves half of our country feeling sadness and shock,” it said. “We want to honor all of our nation’s experience. ” Chris Miller, the activism manager at Ben Jerry’s, said in an interview on Friday that the letter to Mr. Trump had reached about 350, 000 people on the company’s Facebook page and that the feedback had been “overwhelmingly positive. ” But he said the letter took longer to draft than the company’s other statements about causes it supports because more “eyeballs” were put on it as the company strove for balance between people who were saddened by the result and those whom “mainstream establishment candidates” did not reach. “We wanted to be part of setting the tone here,” Mr. Miller said. | 0fake |
British police arrest second man over London train bomb | LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a second man over the bombing of a London commuter train on Friday that injured 30 people and the security services lowered the threat level for an attack from its highest setting. The 21-year-old man was detained under Britain s terrorism laws in the west London suburb of Hounslow just before midnight on Saturday, London police said in a statement. Police earlier arrested an 18-year-old man in the departure lounge of Dover port in what they called a significant step and then raided a property in Sunbury-on-Thames, a town near London and about four miles (six km) from Hounslow. The home-made bomb shot flames through a packed carriage at west London s Parsons Green Tube station during the Friday morning rush hour but apparently failed to detonate fully. Islamic State claimed responsibility, as it has for other attacks in Britain this year, including two in London and one at a concert by American singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in May. Interior minister Amber Rudd said on Sunday the second arrest showed it was not a lone-wolf attack but there was no evidence Islamic State was involved. She said the threat level had been lowered to severe from critical , meaning another attack was highly likely rather than expected imminently. It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State, or Daesh, will reach in and try to claim responsibility. We have no evidence to suggest that yet, Rudd told the BBC. But as this unfolds, and as the police do their investigations, we will make sure that we find out exactly how he was radicalized, if we can. Police said on Sunday they were searching a home in Stanwell in the county of Surrey near the perimeter of London s Heathrow Airport, in connection with the Hounslow arrest. Police continued to search the house in Sunbury nearby but said there were no safety risks to local residents. Local media said the home belongs to a couple who have fostered hundreds of children, including refugees. The BBC said the couple, 88-year-old Ronald Jones and Penelope Jones, 71, had been honored by Queen Elizabeth for their work with children. The bomb struck as passengers were traveling toward the center of the British capital. Some suffered burns and others were hurt in a stampede to escape. Health officials said none was thought to be in a serious condition. Prime Minister Theresa May put Britain on its highest security level late on Friday and soldiers and armed police were deployed to strategic locations such as nuclear power plants. On Saturday, armed police patrolled the streets near government departments in Westminster and guarded Premier League soccer grounds hosting matches. The last time Britain was put on critical alert was after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at the Ariana Grande concert. On that occasion, the threat level remained at critical for four days while police established whether the bomber had worked alone or with others. Prior to that it had not been triggered since 2007. | 0fake |
Video Of Buzz Aldrin Dying Inside As Trump Goes On Rambling, Idiotic Speech About ‘Space’ Goes Viral | This week, Donald Trump joined a collection of scientists, engineers, and astronauts to sign an executive order renewing the National Space Council. It was not exactly a meeting of the minds.Trump had a prepared speech but at several points veered wildly off script, leaving the people standing around him including renowned former astronaut and national hero Buzz Aldrin to squirm, grimace, and cringe at the sheer stupidity of what was coming out of his mouth. Even worse, on the very same day Trump was holding the photo op, the last three members of the White House science office (all holdovers from the Obama administration) left the job. Trump hasn t bothered to staff the office with anyone else. Science is not exactly a priority of his.The awkward affair was caught by television cameras meant to record the event and Aldrin s pained expression quickly went viral.Buzz Aldrin thinking he would much rather live on the Moon right now pic.twitter.com/wXVfCgt6cT Paul Szoldra (@PaulSzoldra) July 1, 2017At the time, Trump was rambling about space a concept he apparently did not fully understand. And security is going to be a very big factor with respect to space and space exploration. At some point in the future, we re going to look back and say how did we do it without space? Those are words, sure, but what is he trying to say? Nobody in the room seemed to know.Making matters worse, near the end of the signing, Aldrin cracked a joke that went so far over Trump s head it could have landed on the moon. As Trump sat down to sign the order, Aldrin said to infinity and beyond! The reference to Toy Story s resident space ranger was missed on Trump who came out with this incredible word salad about the concept of infinity. This is infinity here. It could be infinity. We don t really don t know. But it could be. It has to be something but it could be infinity, right? Buzz Aldrin once decked a crackpot stalker who was harassing him by shouting that the moon landing had been faked. Now, he s forced to stand next to a man with just as many crackpot ideas and call him Mr. President. His face says it all.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
DID HILLARY Just Lose Her “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card?…Senior Trump Advisor: “Trump Has Not Ruled Out Criminal Probe” Against Hillary | A senior Donald Trump adviser is calling Hillary Clinton s decision to join a recount effort incredible and noting that the president-elect has not ruled out pursuing a criminal investigation into his former Democratic rival.Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told CNN s State of the Nation that Trump has not ruled out a criminal probe into Clinton s use of a private email server as secretary of state, even though Trump recently indicated he d rather not do so.Conway said, He s been incredibly gracious and magnanimous to Secretary Clinton at a time when, for whatever reason, her folks are saying they will join in a recount to try to somehow undo the 70-plus electoral votes that he beat her by. She added, The idea that we are going to drag this out now where the president-elect has been incredibly magnanimous to the Clintons and to the Obamas is pretty incredible. Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning to condemn the Green-Party backed recount effort as a scam. Clinton s team joined the effort in Wisconsin after Green Party nominee Jill Stein filed paperwork formally requesting a recount. AP | 1real |
Ohio State Campus Carry Proponent Shot and Killed Near Campus - Breitbart | Tarak Underiner — a Ohio State University student and campus carry proponent — was shot and killed near campus early Thursday morning. [A motive for the shooting is not known, but police believe the incident was not random. According to WCPO, police responded to a 911 call which indicated someone had been shot. Upon reaching the scene they found Underiner, who had been “shot multiple times. ” He was pronounced dead at the scene. WSYX reports that police found no evidence of forced entry and that Underiner’s two roommates are not considered suspects. Ohio Students for Concealed Carry director Michael Newbern posted the following message to Facebook following news of Underiner’s death: I am deeply saddened by the tragedy that occurred last night near The Ohio State University. Tarak Underiner was both a personal friend of mine and a bright young man with a promising future ahead of him. His work as a member of Buckeyes for Concealed Carry on Campus to restore the right to on Ohio’s college campuses put him in an elite class obtained by very few others in our movement. At this time, few facts are known and speculation on the circumstances surrounding his death is unwarranted. We are committed to working with law enforcement to the best of our ability in their efforts to solve this case. We also plead with anyone that may have any relevant information to reach out to OSUPD at (614) CPD at (614) . On December 19, 2016, Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) signed legislation allowing college and university systems to allow campus carry by concealed carry permit holders if they so choose. OSU president Michael Drake has made it clear that he opposes allowing students to be armed on campus for . AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0fake |
TUCKER CARLSON Outs Human Rights Exec. Director As A Partisan Hack: “Obviously partisan motives diminish your mission” [Video] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkRCtn0nEvU | 1real |
FOX LEGAL EXPERT: Susan Rice Committed 3 Crimes…“Better Get Herself a Good Criminal Defense Attorney” [Video] | FOX News Legal Expert Gregg Jarrett dropped a bomb on Susan Rice when he said she likely committed three crimes. Jarrett was on with Sara Carter of Circa News when he made the claim of criminal behavior by Rice.Gregg Jarrett: Susan Rice, whose got a lot to answer for. She is sort of the Queen of the False Narrative which is a polite way of saying lie. She not only lied about the Benghazi case and Bowe Bergdahl but then she hauls off and tells Judy Woodruff, I don t know anything about incidental collection and then when she gets caught red-handed she says, OK, I knew all about it, but I never asked for the unmasking on Trump Transition officials. Well now the NSC has the goods on her and that appears to be a lie as well. So she may have actually committed three potential crimes here. One, it s a crime to lie about your masking request. Two, it s a crime for you to use your office for political purpose. Three, it s a crime to leak unmasked details. She better get herself a good criminal defense attorney.OUR LATEST REPORT ON SUSAN RICE WHO JUST CAN T FIGURE OUT WHY SHE S BEING TARGETED: Susan Rice, the Obama national security adviser under fire over her alleged involvement in the unmasking of Trump associates during the 2016 presidential election, suggested in a fresh interview that race and gender might be playing a role in the scrutiny she s faced. PLEASE NOTE OUR PREVIOUS REPORT BELOW ON THE RADICAL PAST AND RACISM OF SUSAN RICE. The nerve of this woman who went on 5 morning shows after Benghazi and LIED to the American people! In an interview with journalist Michael Tomasky for New York Magazine, Rice reportedly questioned the criticism she s faced dating back to the Benghazi controversy. Why me? Why not Jay Carney, for example, who was then our press secretary, who stood up more? she asked.Tomasky noted in the piece that Carney isn t an African-American woman, of course and apparently asked Rice whether that is the key factor. Rice, in response, left the door open: I don t know I do not leap to the simple explanation that it s only about race and gender. I m trying to keep my theories to myself until I m ready to come out with them. It s not because I don t have any. But Rice mentioned other prominent female figures like Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice who faced ad hominem attacks, suggesting a correlation.Asked about the comments, a Republican Capitol Hill source pushed back. This is screaming out for attention She s saying I don t know why they all started picking on me to begin with. As to the suggestion of race and gender being a factor, the source countered, then why would there be a subpoena for a white male? That was a reference to the fact that Rice is not the only focus of the congressional probe into unmasking. Investigators have issued subpoenas to three different agencies: NSA, CIA and FBI.Playing the victim is the usual tactic of leftists like Susan Rice she was a college radical before she cleaned up her resume and put on a business suit:RACIST VICTIM SUSAN RICE HAD A STRING OF FAILURES IN AFRICA BEFORE BENGHAZI HER RACIST CLAIM THAT NATIONAL SECURITY ISN T DIVERSE ENOUGH SO NOT AS EFFECTIVE CAUSED A FIRESTORM:From 1995 to 1997, Rice served as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for African Affairs at the NSC at the White House.The Daily Caller: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, reportedly the leading contender to be President Barack Obama s next national security adviser, failed during the 1990s to prevent unnecessary deaths in Rwanda, provide adequate security prior to the bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, or deal effectively with Robert Mugabe s dictatorship in Zimbabwe.A former State Department military adviser to Africa thought Rice s inexperience caused President Bill Clinton s feckless response to the Rwandan genocide when she served as National Security Council director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping. And documents sent to The Daily Caller from the National Legal and Policy Center show Rice failed to take seriously repeated Islamist threats against the U.S. embassies in the prelude to deadly bomb attacks. This woman has ZERO credibility and is a true racist who would be tossed out of her job if she were white and said government was too black. Furthermore, she s giving a commencement speech and she s politicizing it!SUSAN RICE FELT STUDENTS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO TAKE BLACK HISTORY: In a 1986 book by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, the future diplomat argued for the aggressive inclusion of a black history curriculum in American schools, claiming that its omission had crippling effects by providing a child with no more than a white interpretation of reality. She s yet another one of Obama s minions with a radical racist past who s pushing the Obama agenda of a fundamental transformation . Rice attended Stanford University and was a black radical back in the day is anyone surprised by this? Probably not In a White House often accused of being stacked with loyalists, President Obama s national security adviser said Wednesday there are too many white people in key government posts, endangering national security because they think alike.Speaking at Florida International University s commencement, Susan E. Rice, who is black, said a diversified government workforce is more likely to yield better outcomes than a predominantly white one.Referring to criticism that the U.S. national security workforce is white, male and Yale, Ms. Rice told the graduates, In the halls of power, in the faces of our national security leaders, America is still not fully reflected. By now, we should all know the dangers of groupthink, where folks who are alike often think alike, she said. By contrast, groups comprised of different people tend to question one another s assumptions, draw on divergent perspectives and experiences, and yield better outcomes. Her comments were reminiscent of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said in a speech in 2001, before Mr. Obama appointed her to the high court, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn t lived that life. Ms. Rice elaborated in her speech on how having more minorities in the national security field would better protect the homeland.Read more: WT Read more: FOX News | 1real |
In day of pro-Trump rallies, California march turns violent | BERKELEY, Calif./LANSING, Mich. (Reuters) - Supporters of Donald Trump clashed with counter-protesters at a rally in the famously left-leaning city of Berkeley, California, on a day of mostly peaceful gatherings in support of the U.S. president across the country. At a park in Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco, protesters from both sides struck one another over the head with wooden sticks and Trump supporters fired pepper spray as police in riot gear stood at a distance. Some in the pro-Trump crowd, holding American flags, faced off against black-clad opponents. An elderly Trump supporter was struck in the head and kicked on the ground. Organizers of the so-called Spirit of America rallies in at least 28 the country’s 50 states had said they expected smaller turn-outs than the huge crowds of anti-Trump protesters that clogged the streets of Washington and other cities the day after the Republican’s inauguration on Jan. 20. MORE FROM REUTERS * White House asks for Obama investigation * ReutersTV: Energy pros face a future that doesn’t need them * Slideshow: Brutal street battle for Mosul “There are a lot of angry groups protesting and we thought it was important to show our support,” said Peter Boykin, president of Gays for Trump, who helped organize Saturday’s rally in Washington. In many towns and cities, the rallies did not draw more than a few hundred people. At some, supporters of the president were at risk of being outnumbered by small groups of anti-Trump protesters who gathered to shout against the rallies. In Berkeley, the total crowd of both supporters and detractors numbered 200 to 300 people, police spokesman Byron White said. Three people were injured in the clash, including one who had teeth knocked out, and police made five arrests. One Trump supporter who took part in the violence came equipped with a baton, a gas mask and a shield emblazoned with the American flag. White said police did break up fights between the two sides. “We’ve made a number of arrests, it’s one of those things where we monitor the situation and take action as necessary,” he said. The violence comes a month after mask-wearing protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, shut down a planned speech by a provocative far-right commentator by lighting fires and smashing windows. On Saturday, smaller skirmishes broke out in other parts of the country. In Minnesota, 400 Trump supporters packed the state capitol rotunda in St. Paul and were met by a smaller group of counter-demonstrators, according to the Star Tribune. Scuffles erupted and six counter-protesters were arrested, the newspaper reported. In Nashville, Tennessee, Trump supporters and counter-protesters cursed at each other and occasionally made physical contact, but state troopers broke up the fighting, according to the city’s public radio station. Most rallies appeared to take place without any disruption or violence, like one outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. “How can anyone be disappointed with bringing back jobs? And he promised he would secure our borders, and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” said Meshawn Maddock, one of the organizers of the rally which drew about 200 people. Brandon Blanchard, 24, among a small group of anti-Trump protesters, said he had come in support of immigrants, Muslims and transgender people, groups that have been negatively targeted by Trump’s rhetoric and policies. “I feel that every American that voted for Trump has been deceived,” Blanchard said. More than 200 supporters of the president rallied in downtown San Diego. “After this, I think people will take the hint,” said former U.S. Marine David Moore, 42, a participant in the rally. “It’s okay to voice support for the president and the country.” In Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump is staying this weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, the president’s motorcade stopped and Trump stepped outside his car to wave at a crowd of dozens of supporters. A smaller group of protesters stood across the street. In New York, about 200 people demonstrated their support for the president in front of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. In Washington, about 150 people marched from the Washington Monument to Lafayette Square in front of the White House to show their support for the president. | 0fake |
Why now, John Kasich? | On Wednesday, after defeat in Indiana, John Kasich is announcing he is suspending his campaign.
Which raises the question: Why?
Why now? What changed?
It was not as though he was ever winning. Losing Indiana seemed like a classic Kasich move. I thought his whole strategy was: “Win Ohio, and then just sort of amble along the campaign trail until the convention, at which point some kind of miracle will occur.”
That was even what his ads suggested! They bordered on the fantastical. They were all missing several key steps. He appeared to be running a full “South Park” Underpants Gnome strategy (“Phase One, Collect Underpants. Phase Two, ?, Phase Three, Profit”) with a big question mark hanging high in the sky until the convention.
“John Kasich is the nominee,” his PAC’s ads ran, “because [mumble mumble].” This, I thought, was the plan. Somehow, out of a clear blue sky, everyone was supposed to wake up and realize what was going on, and do the right thing.
This was already a science fiction premise.
I thought “oblivious” was the strategy. I thought this was the campaign equivalent of a filibuster, where you just keep going until everyone around you is exhausted and succumbs.
Was he not doing this on purpose?
He kept pointing out that he was good enough and smart enough and, durn it, people liked him, especially in counterfactual scenarios. The theme of the Kasich campaign was the sound of one hand hypothetically clapping. (Not to be confused with the Jeb! campaign, the sound of one hand forgetting to clap.) He was a particular favorite of hypothetical voters in a hypothetical general. Unfortunately, these days, hypothetical voters are not enough.
Still, I thought that he was supposed to continue along on the Road Runner principle where, if you never look down, you never notice that you are running basically unsupported and can coast on to victory. You don’t need supporters as long as people basically don’t mind that you are sticking around.
As Donald Trump kept pointing out, the percentage of states Kasich won got smaller and smaller with each new state added to the total. What was keeping him in the race?
The dream of a contested convention? Look, the odds that, if Trump failed to get 1,237 delegates, those who made it to the floor would wind up choosing Kasich were only marginally better than the odds that Trump reached 1,237 delegates and they miraculously picked Kasich anyhow. “Some miracle occurs” was always an integral part of the Kasich strategy. Why not stay, just in case?
When you are the last thing standing between the GOP and Trump is not the time to suddenly remember how this is supposed to work. | 0fake |
Unions brace for pro-business shift in labor policy under Trump | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unions in the United States face sweeping changes to labor law and regulations under a new Republican administration that is expected to tilt policy toward employers. Republicans will take control of the presidency and both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s elections, after unions failed to deliver key industrial states to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s loss could have wide-ranging consequences for unions. Donald Trump and a Republican-led Senate will likely pick the next justice for the Supreme Court, which often hears labor-related cases. “I think it’s going to be a very difficult period,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who said he was surprised by the election outcome despite knocking on doors and talking to members in several states. Among his concerns, he listed a Supreme Court case this year in which public-sector unions scored a victory related to funding organized labor – but only because the court deadlocked 4-4. The appointment of a new conservative judge by Trump to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia could change that. Republican nominees will control the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which under Democratic President Barack Obama has sought to make it easier for unions to organize. The NLRB is pursuing litigation to establish that McDonald’s Corp is a “joint employer” of workers at its franchised restaurants, a determination that could compel the company to bargain with unions representing employees of its independent franchisees. Republicans will control federal agencies that govern the formation of unions, overtime rules and more. For example, in September the Obama administration finalized an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide sick leave to workers, as well as rules expanding the types of data employers are required to provide on pay. A separate Labor Department rule expanding which employees are eligible for overtime pay is scheduled to take effect next month. Those actions drew criticism from business groups, and all could be reversed under a Trump administration. “We don’t have a firewall now,” said Tom Buffenbarger, a prior president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who campaigned for Clinton. Trump has expressed support for so-called right-to-work legislation, which allows workers to avoid paying union dues. Republican leaders in Congress have consistently sought such a change at the national level. Labor unions say such laws are aimed at undermining collective bargaining and workers’ rights. William Gould, chair of the NLRB under Democratic President Bill Clinton and now a professor at Stanford Law School, said on Wednesday that Trump was likely to partner with Congress in dismantling a host of administration labor initiatives from Obama. Republicans “regard unions as first amongst fair game” because of their support for Clinton, he said. Steven Bernstein, a partner at law firm Fisher Phillips, which represents employers, said the Trump administration and Congress may also target recent NLRB rulings that allowed workers to picket on private property, expanded the type of worker activity protected by federal labor law and gave graduate students the right to unionize. “It’s also fair to assume that Trump will be inclined to repeal a host of executive orders supporting unions,” particularly rules that apply to federal contracts, Bernstein said in a statement. Organized labor is a key Democratic constituency – contributing everything from volunteers to votes for Democratic candidates. Trump nonetheless carried union-heavy states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and even Michigan, home to the United Auto Workers (UAW). In Ohio, for example, a Fox exit poll said Trump won 52 percent of union workers. An exit poll from ABC News suggested Clinton got no advantage among union households, even after Obama won those voters by 23 percentage points. (abcn.ws/2eUMxpx) (fxn.ws/2eULxS8) David Lephart, a 58-year-old UAW pipefitter at a General Motors Co plant in Marion, Indiana, voted for Trump. He earns about $100,000 a year, with overtime, he says, and has put both of his kids through college. He said union leaders pressed hard for members to support Clinton, but the union has nOt kept its promises to workers in recent years. “I don’t have a tendency to believe what you tell me — when you haven’t fulfilled the promises you’ve made,” he said. UAW President Dennis Williams in a statement on Wednesday said, “we have high hopes that elected officials heard the American people loud and clear about trade, jobs, education and the inequality in this country.” | 0fake |
HARD CORE: Ten GITMO Detainees Released To Oman | Ten more hard core prisoners from GITMO have been released only to go to Oman where they ll probably continue their terrorist ways. The recidivism rate for former detainees is pretty high so we can only assume The Obama administration on Thursday quietly transferred 10 Yemeni detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay to neighboring Oman so quietly, in fact, that the news was first reported by state-run Middle East news agencies. And once the news got to Capitol Hill, it set off alarm bells given the host country s proximity to Al Qaeda s most active branch.The transfer is the largest batch of detainees shipped out of the Cuba prison camp so far this year. It is part of a wave of transfers as the administration steps up efforts to shrink the prison population, with the ultimate goal of closing the facility despite congressional resistance.Fox News reported earlier this week that the 10 detainees were slated for transfer, but the destination at the time was not known. The state-run Oman News Agency published a brief statement Thursday morning saying the detainees had arrived in Oman. Read more: FOX News | 1real |
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Opponents of Cruz White House bid take case to N.Y. appeals panel | ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - Lawyers for two New York residents seeking to throw Ted Cruz off next month’s presidential primary ballot in the state urged an Appeals Court panel on Wednesday to consider whether the U.S. senator from Texas is eligible given his Canadian birth. The case put forward by New York residents Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, had been dismissed by a Supreme Court judge earlier this month because it was filed after a procedural deadline. Lawyers Roger Bernstein and Judith Hancock urged the five judges of the Appellate Division of New York to consider the merits of their case to block Cruz from the April 19 New York state primary election. The objectors attached Cruz’s birth certificate showing he was born in December 1970 in Calgary, Alberta. Bernstein told the panel the primary ballot must only contain constitutionally eligible presidential candidates, and argued the appeals judges should give greater weight to the importance of the issue than the missed deadline. Their petition to block Cruz came 19 days beyond the three-day limit after a candidate files a request to be placed on the ballot, Cruz’s lawyers said, adding that the objection should not go forward because it was tardy. The appeals judges are expected to rule later this week. The case is one of several similar challenges to Cruz’s eligibility to run for the White House - including lawsuits in Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas - filed since Republican front-runner Donald Trump brought up questions about whether Cruz meets the constitutional requirement to be president. The Constitution says that to be president, a person must be a “natural-born citizen” of the United States. Cruz has argued that he is eligible to run because of his mother’s U.S. citizenship, and many legal experts say it is unlikely any judge in the United States would block his presidential bid. The lawyers representing the New York objectors are also representing the appeal of Carmon Elliott, who is complaining about Cruz being on the ballot in Pennsylvania. | 0fake |
L.A. Mayor Silent on City’s Rising Violent Crime - Breitbart | Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s campaign traded barbs with mayoral challenger (and fellow Democrat) Mitchell Schwartz last week over the city’s rising violent crime rate. [During a Northridge East Neighborhood Council candidate forum, Schwartz accused Garcetti of concealing rising crime statistics by not holding an annual news conference on them at the end of the year, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. Garcetti spokesman Yusef Robb slammed Schwartz’s “conspiracy theory” as he tried to explain away the lack of news conference as a scheduling matter. He went on to claim that L. A. crime is at “historic lows” and blamed the state for failures associated with prison sentence reductions under 2014’s Proposition 47. Violent crime in Los Angeles was up 10 percent in 2016 from 2015, according to the Daily News, which noted that the crime statistics were quietly rolled out on the police department’s website. In prior years the statistics were announced jointly and very publicly by the mayor and chief of police. Schwartz has been campaigning on his goal to add 2, 500 police officers to the city’s police department, according to the report. Another mayoral challenger, Paul Amori, piled on the criticism of Garcetti, saying that “crime is up massively” under Garcetti’s watch, though he didn’t blame Garcetti alone. This week, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer highlighted San Diego’s decrease in violent crime while noting in a statement that violent crime in Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Antonio and Dallas had higher rates. In January, Garcetti spent several days fundraising in Chicago, Washington D. C and New York for his bid. Earlier the same month, former Vice President Joe Biden appeared at a fundraiser for Garcetti in Beverly Hills. In early February, Garcetti took time to appear on MSNBC, stating that if Los Angeles police were enforcing immigration law, they couldn’t be out solving crimes. Garcetti has repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump’s plans to enforce immigration law and warnings that sanctuary cities face losing federal dollars. Aides to Garcetti said that on March 3 Garcetti and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck will roll out a “public safety initiative. ” Garcetti has also been the target of protests by Black Lives Matter activists, who President Trump and other critics have blamed for making the tasks facing police in inner cities more difficult. Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 0fake |
UK PM May says Trump dossier author has not worked for Britain for years | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said the person who wrote reports containing details of compromising material Russia allegedly collected on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has not worked for the British government for years. “It is absolutely clear that the individual who produced this dossier has not worked for the UK government for years,” May said at a news conference on Friday. The author of the dossier has been named as Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer who once worked under diplomatic cover in Russia. Steele has so far not commented. | 0fake |
Bill Maher Lights Up A Joint And Gets Real About Pot Legalization (VIDEO) | Bill Maher is a hardcore supporter of the legalization of marijuana. On Friday, during a segment of New Rules on the HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, the host laid out his case for legalizing marijuana. He also admonished Congress for refusing to legalize marijuana, despite historically high (no pun intended) levels of support for the legalization of the drug.Maher even went as far as to light up a joint while he railed against the powers in place that are preventing marijuana legalization efforts from succeeding. This is the first time that Maher has smoked marijuana on his show. It is, however, not the first time someone has smoked marijuana while on the show.In the fall of 2010, Zach Galifianakis appeared on the show as a guest. During the middle of a segment, Galifianakis quietly and calmly lite up a joint, with hilarious consequences.Maher noted how horrible it is that people who use medical marijuana cannot use their medicine in other states where it is not legal. It s not a tenable situation. When I leave Colorado, Oregon, Washington or Alaska, my back pain doesn t go away. Or whatever it is I have. I m kidding I use medical marijuana because my third eye has glaucoma. Maher pointed out how utterly ridiculous it is that in 2016, Congress has not made any serious effort to pass marijuana legalization legislation. Maher says: Somehow, this is the year that everything from socialism to mass deportation is on the table and voters love the authentic guys who speak their minds, but when it comes time for Congress to consider common-sense pot legislation, it s like smoking a joint with Woody Harrelson; they just won t pass it! I couldn t agree with Maher more. It s time for the self-described Republican lovers of small government in Congress to put their legislation where their mouth is. Marijuana is now is legal in twenty-three states, as well as the District of Columbia, in one form or another. Of those, four states and Washington D.C have fully legalized recreational marijuana. That number is expected to dramatically increase over the next few years.You can watch the segment from the show below.Featured image from video screenshot via YouTube | 1real |
Animal Protein, Pregnancy, and Childhood Obesity | Animal Protein, Pregnancy, and Childhood Obesity VN:F [1.9.22_1171] Close Transcript Transcript: Animal Protein, Pregnancy, and Childhood Obesity
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
If you expose pregnant crickets to a predatory wolf spider, her babies will hatch exhibiting increased antipredator behavior—and, as a consequence, improved survival from wolf spider attack. The mother cricket appears to be able to forewarn her babies about the threat when they were still inside her, so they would be pre-adapted to their external environment.
This even happens in plants. If you grow two genetically identical plants—one in the sun, one in the shade—the sun-grown plant will produce seeds that grow better in the sun, and the shaded plant will grow seeds growing better in the shade, even though they’re genetically identical. So, what we’re dealing with is epigenetics—external factors changing gene expression.
Vole pups born in the winter come out growing thicker coats. Vole mothers are able to communicate the season to their babies in utero, and tell them to put a coat on, even before they’re born. And people are no different. You know how some people have different temperature tolerances, resulting in battles of the bedroom—do you turn the AC on or off; open the windows? It’s not just genetics. Whether you’re born in the tropics or in a cold environment determines how many active sweat glands you have in your skin.
But what does this have to do with diet? Can what a pregnant woman eats permanently alter the biology of their children in terms of what genes are turned on or off throughout life? Or, what they don’t eat?
What happened to the children born during the 1945 Dutch famine imposed by the Nazis? Higher rates of obesity fifty years later. The baby’s DNA gene expression, reprogrammed before birth to expect to be born into a world of famine, to conserve calories at all cost. But, when the war ended, this propensity to store fat became a disadvantage. and don’t eat doesn’t just help determine the birth weight of the child, but the future adult weight of the child.
For example, maternal protein intake during pregnancy may play a role in the obesity epidemic—but not just protein in general. Protein from animal sources, primarily meat products, consumed during pregnancy may increase the risk of their children growing up overweight. Originally, they thought it might be the IGF-1—a growth hormone boosted by animal product consumption—that may increase the production of fatty tissue. But weight gain was tied more to meat than dairy.
Every daily portion of meat intake during the third trimester resulted in about an extra percent of body fat mass in their children by their sixteenth birthday, potentially increasing their risk of becoming obese later in life, independent of how many calories they ate, or how much they exercised. But no such link was found with cow’s milk intake, which would presumably boost IGF-1 levels just as high.
So, maybe, instead it’s the obesogens in meat—chemicals that stimulate the growth of fatty tissue. Emerging evidence demonstrates that environmental factors can predispose exposed individuals to gain weight, irrespective of diet and exercise. After all, even our infants are fatter—you can’t blame that on diet and exercise. Animals too. And not just our pampered pets, even rats in labs and subways. The likelihood of 24 different animal populations from eight different species all showing a positive trend in weight over the past few decades by chance is less than one in a million. And so, it appears there’s something else going on—like obesogenic chemicals.
One such candidate is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—found in cigarettes, spewing out of exhaust pipes, and in grilled meat. This nationwide study of thousands found that the more children are exposed, the fatter they tended to be. They could measure the level of these chemicals right out of their urine. And, it can start in the womb. Prenatal exposure to these chemicals may cause increased fat mass gain during childhood, and a higher risk of childhood obesity.
If these pollutants sound familiar, I’ve covered them before, in relation to increasing breast cancer risk in the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project. So, maybe they’re not just obesogens, but carcinogens as well—perhaps explaining the 47% increase in breast cancer risk among older women in relation to a lifetime average of grilled and smoked foods.
If you look at one of the most common of these toxins, smokers get about half from food, and half from cigarettes. But for nonsmokers, 99% comes from diet. The highest levels are found in meat, with pork apparently worse than beef. But, as you can see, even dark green leafies, like kale, can get contaminated by pollutants in the air. So, don’t forage your dandelion greens next to the highway, and make sure to wash your greens under running water.
Now, these are fat-soluble pollutants, so need lots of fat to be absorbed. So, even heavily contaminated plant-based sources may be safer, unless you pour lots of oil on your food—in which case the toxins would presumably become as readily absorbed as the toxins in meat.
The good news is that they don’t build up in your body. If you expose people to barbecued chicken at time zero here, you can see they get a big spike in these chemicals, like up to a hundred-fold increase, but your body can get rid of it within about twenty hours.
The problem, of course, is that people who eat these kinds of foods every day may constantly be exposing themselves—which may not only affect their health, and their children’s health, but maybe even their grandchildren’s health.
Being pregnant during the Dutch famine didn’t just lead to an increase in diseases among their kids, but even, apparently, their grandkids. So, what a pregnant woman eats now may affect future generations.
The issue of generation-spanning effects of poor conditions during pregnancy may help shed some light on the explosive epidemics of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease associated with this transition towards Western lifestyles.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site. women's health Doctor's Note
Epigenetics is the science of altering the expression of your genes. No matter your family history, some genes can be effectively turned on and off by the lifestyle choices you make. See, for example:
I previously touched on PAHs in Meat Fumes: Dietary Secondhand Smoke .
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Wow! I’m speechless for once! This falls under the category of mind-blowing for me. NFmoderatorRenae
It’s fascinating right?! HaltheVegan
Fascinating stuff for sure. I’ve heard of epigenetics, but this takes it one step further. I’ll have to watch this video a few more times for all this to sink in :-) First question that arises: can the gene expression be changed somewhat after the child is born by what the child eats? This video implies they’re stuck with the gene expressions that are inherited at birth, depending on what the mother was exposed to. Joanne B, RD
Hi HaltheVegan – some food for thought …. have you heard of the expression, “genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger” ? plant_this_thought
Strictly speaking, epigenetics concerns itself only with traits that are not inherited. It has to do with gene expression as influenced by environmental factors. The fetal environment influences genetic expression in the unborn baby, and whatever environment the newborn and growing child encounters will continue to affect, for better or worse, its genetic expression. :) baggman744
Not inherited? plant_this_thought
baggman744: Correct. Two individuals with identical DNA can exhibit very different traits depending on their environment. These differences are then said to be attributable to epigenetic factors, and in many cases they are reversible. It becomes more complicated when epigenetic factors result in a genetic mutation, an actual change in the DNA. Genetic changes have roughly 100,000 times the permanence of epigenetic ones. NFmoderatorRenae
I just wrote the same thing haha I love it! Wade Patton
The sooner we all move away from the idea that genetics are a “LOCK” on anything, the sooner well have a better understanding of the interplay amoungst all the factors affecting expression. I read a good book on it just a few years back, but cannot recall the title at this moment. Blair Rollin
T. Colin Campbell talks a lot about this in “The China Study” and “Whole”. Mutated genes aren’t a problem if they don’t express themselves. Cancer cells aren’t a problem if they don’t proliferate. This is obviously true. But, my understanding of, what Campbell says is that what causes expression of mutated genes and what causes cancer cell proliferation is animal protein. Particularly bad is casein, dairy protein (we have learned also on NF how dangerous dairy is in other ways). He says that a very small percentage of cancers are genetic. (Just a couple of percent as I remember?) NFmoderatorRenae
The best explanation I have heard is from Dr Neal Barnard- ‘Genetics load the gun, but diet/environmental/lifestyle pull the trigger’. So genes may give you predispositions, but in most cases (particularly with chronic diseases) YOU still have the CHOICE as to what the outcome is :) HaltheVegan
Thank you for the explanation. That is the understanding I had before I watched this video. I remember the Dean Ornish study where cancer genes were “turned off” with a plant based diet. So I still agree with the interpretation that genes can expressed or not expressed due to diet (ie. internal environment). But what threw me off in this video is the statement: ” even our infants are fatter—you can’t blame that on diet and exercise.” This statement seems to be saying that the infants were fatter regardless of what they ate or how much exercise they got. Similarly with the sweat gland example in the video. If one is born in a cold environment, then the person will have fewer active sweat glands. Do the inactive sweat glands become active when one moves to a warm climate? How long would it take? Or will the person always feel hotter because he/she has fewer active sweat glands. These are simply rhetorical questions. Seems to me this is a very fertile area for continued research! Alexandre
Ok but werent they during the famine eating less of animal protein? Im confused Tom Goff
They were eating fewer calories overall so yes they were consuming less animal protein.
It is important to remember that most things don’t usually have just a single cause. Starvation in parents.may predispose offspring to obesity. Chronic exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by parents may also predispose offspring to obesity. Alexandre
I understand that.. but its still confusing.. so the best way to make sure your kids wont be obese is to be obese yourself so their body wont feel the need to store as much energy? confusing Tom Goff
No. It does not follow that parents must be obese so that their children are not.
In fact there is some evidence from animal studies that, if you do not want your children to be obese, you must not eat a high fat diet.
The best thing that you can do is maintain a healthy weight, eat a healthy diet and follow a healthy lifestyle. And teach your kids to do the same. plant_this_thought Lori Tompkins
I’m 99% vegan and I’ve recently read about the woes of Lectins, which my vegan diet is high in. I don’t see Lectins discussed on this site and would really like Dr. Greger’s take on this subject. A low lectin diet seems to be more meat oriented. Thea
Lori Tompkins: I found one blog post on NutritionFacts which talks about lectins. Here is a quote:
“Modern paleo advocates claim that these foods weren’t part of Paleolithic-era diets, but new research challenges that assumption.5 They also argue that lectins naturally present in these starchy foods are harmful to human health. Consuming too many lectins can cause significant gastrointestinal distress. However, because legumes and grains are almost always consumed in a cooked form—and lectins are destroyed during cooking—eating beans and grains doesn’t result in lectin overload. Sprouting also reduces lectin levels in plants, although not as effectively as cooking. Generally, pea sprouts, lentil sprouts, and mung bean sprouts are safe to consume, as are sprouted grains, which are naturally low in lectins. Most larger legumes contain higher amounts and should be cooked. ” from: http://nutritionfacts.org/2014/09/23/will-the-real-paleo-diet-please-stand-up/
Since I eat my grains and legumes cooked, I consider the lectin brouhaha to be much ado about nothing. Todd
@disqus_EXJURIXKLQ:disqus I don’t think it’s quite true that lectins are destroyed during cooking, but they are significantly reduced, and the more thoroughly they are cooked the more the lectins are reduced. But many lectins are fairly heat resistant, so it’s not an all-or-nothing situation. I’ve noticed that occasionally when I cook black beans in the Instant Pot, I get some transient gastric distress, probably because they weren’t quite well done enough.
There is one thing, however, that consistently causes me to have gastric distress: ground flax seed. I know it’s an important source of omega-3, but when I put it in food I invariably experience a stomach ache for ten or fifteen minutes. I’m pretty sure it’s the lectin content.
I think there’s still a lot we don’t understand about how lectins affect the body. We tend to assume that they are “bad,” since they are part of the plant’s self-defense against being eaten. But we used to say the same about phytates, which we now know to have positive aspects as well for health. Thea
Todd: I don’t have any references one way or another to say whether or how much cooking destroys lectins. Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina are usually pretty careful with their words on these topics, but maybe they got lazy in that sentence and only some lectins are destroyed. Either way, I’m not aware of a body of evidence that says the general human population needs to worry about the lectin content of our cooked beans, intact grains, or raw nuts and seeds.
Of course, if you are getting a reaction from eating a certain food, say ground flaxseed, you need to consider that situation regardless of what is in the flaxseed that is causing it. I wonder if you ate your flaxseed in something cooked (like a muffin?) if that would help your tummy issue??? I have no idea if that’s a good suggestion or not. Just trying to be helpful. Vege-tater
Mind blown here too, the poor grandkids! Pretty disconcerting also how many potent chemicals are now ubiquitous and the myriad of effects…and we are supposed to be the brainy species? NFmoderatorRenae
Scary isn’t it?! Heidi
Interesting. However, this does not account for the fact that Americans have been eating animal protein going back to the 1800s. However, the obesity epidemic has only started in the 1980s. People were consuming a lot of animal protein in the 1950s and 60s, but very very few Americans were obese. You can tell by looking at the photos of that time as well. However, the difference came with the addition of sugars and high fructose corn syrup as well as a high intake of fatty carb rich foods like fries and chips. Fructose is leading contender. We can see the rise in obesity related to the rise in sugar consumption world wide. Hunter gatherer societies that consume animal protein but do not consume processed sugars do not gain weight and are no obese. However when those people are introduced to processed foods with sugars added they immediately gain weight and become obese. When looking at the overall picture, fatty meats, fried chicken and fish for sure would be a factor, but the sugars issue shows a much closer connection to the problem. linda
hello Heidi, I thought you might be interested in this usda brochure that tables the increase in meat since the 1950s as 57 lbs per person per annum to the year 2000. A huge rise in cheese consumption fro 7.7lbs to close to 30 lbs ! per year for the same time period. http://r.duckduckgo.com/l/?kh=-1&uddg=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usda.gov%2Ffactbook%2Fchapter2.pdf Foroogh – NF Moderator
This video by Dr. G. is very educational about Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and childhood obesity. Also Heidi you make a good point about sugar and sugar industry in contribution towards obesity in the 1980’s era to which I also like to add salt, processed food, meat, dairy, egg industries have great part to play in confusing general public about nutrition. Big Salt – Getting to the Meat of the Matterhttp://nutritionfacts.org/video/big-salt-getting-to-the-meat-of-the-matter/ NFmoderatorRenae
If you look at Agricultural data, the amount of animal products consumed has increased greatly since the 1800s. John
The size of the animals is larger, they aren’t running around on pasture, they are creating an environmental mess, and it is cheaper to eat this kind of meat. John S Tom Goff
This is just keto and paleo ideology. There is no solid science to support it apart from some spurious observational correlations, misrepresented studies and industrial-strength speculation. People may have been consuming a lot of animal protein in the 1950s and 1960s but cardiovascular disease death rates were very high then. There was less obesity simply because people consumed fewer total calories then than in later decades.. | 1real |
Conservatives have concerns about Sessions as Trump's attorney general | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named his earliest and staunchest supporter in the Senate, conservative Republican Jeff Sessions, to become the next U.S. attorney general, triggering an outcry from civil rights groups as well as some conservatives outside Congress who are uneasy about Sessions’ positions. If approved for the job by a simple majority in the Republican-dominated Senate, Sessions, 69, would lead the Justice Department and the FBI. He brings a record of controversial positions on race, immigration and criminal justice reform that Democrats may target. Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and Trump critic, said on Twitter, “Jeff Sessions, considered too racist to be a judge in the ‘80s, is Trump’s AG.” Holly Harris, executive director of U.S. Justice Action Network, a sentencing reform advocacy group that includes powerful conservative tax reform lobbyist Grover Norquist, said Sessions’ nomination “obviously presents a challenge.” Sessions has opposed lowering mandatory minimum sentences for low-level offenders. Many civil rights and immigration groups also have concerns about Sessions with the American Civil Liberties Union saying his positions on gay rights, capital punishment, abortion rights and presidential authority in times of war should be examined. Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told Reuters: “Our nation deserves an attorney general who will be committed to enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws and who will not turn the clock back on progress that has been made.” Trump spokesman Jason Miller defended Sessions against allegations of racism, saying: “When Senator Sessions was U.S. attorney he filed a number of desegregation lawsuits in Alabama, and he also voted in favor of the 30-year extension of the Civil Rights Act... So we feel very confident that Senator Sessions has the background and the support to receive confirmation.” Sessions’ office did not respond to a request for comment on his nomination or criticism. Sessions was a federal prosecutor in 1986 when he became only the second nominee in 50 years to be denied confirmation as a federal judge. This came after allegations that he had made racist remarks, including testimony that he had called an African-American prosecutor “boy,” an allegation Sessions denied. Sessions said he was not a racist, but he said at his hearing that groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union could be considered “un-American.” He also acknowledged he had called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a “piece of intrusive legislation.” Sessions, a four-term senator from Alabama, has friends on Capitol Hill. Convivial, with a pixie-like demeanor and soft Southern accent, his gentle manner belies his hard-line positions. No members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold Sessions’ confirmation hearing, had expressed outright opposition to his nomination as of Friday morning, but many Democrats said he would get a thorough and tough confirmation hearing. “Given some of his past statements and his staunch opposition to immigration reform, I am very concerned about what he would do with the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice and want to hear what he has to say,” said Charles Schumer, the newly elected Democratic Senate leader. Judiciary Committee member Senator Jeff Flake, a moderate Republican on immigration issues and a long-time critic of Trump, said on Twitter that he will support Sessions, who he said is “well regarded, even by those who don’t always agree with him.” The Justice Department under Democratic President Barack Obama has been criticized for siding with protesters over police in matters of racial profiling or unlawful use of force. His Justice Department opened investigations of 23 police departments around the country for patterns of civil rights violations and Sessions, as attorney general, would have the discretion to drop investigations that are still open. Jim Pasco, the executive director of Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, said police have had a good relationship working with Sessions, especially on policies that allow police to keep assets seized from criminals. “The door (to Sessions) has been open and we expect it to remain open,” Pasco said. Sessions’ hard-line and at times inflammatory statements on immigration are similar to Trump’s but have angered other members of Congress. He opposes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and was an enthusiastic backer of Trump’s promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico. As a senator, Sessions opposed Obama’s nomination of Loretta Lynch as attorney general on the grounds that she would carry out an Obama immigration policy that shielded many undocumented immigrants from deportation. Sessions also has questioned the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to everyone born in the United States, and opposes plans to admit more immigrants from war-torn Middle Eastern countries. As attorney general, Sessions would be able to turn more to state governments to enforce federal immigration laws. He also could increase enforcement on companies that outsource technology jobs. As a senator, Sessions criticized U.S. companies that brought guest workers to the United States on temporary visas. Sessions first endorsed Trump’s presidential bid in February, surprising those who had expected him to embrace Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a fellow Southerner and the favorite of the chamber’s most conservative wing. Sessions was Trump’s only backer in the Senate for months and became a powerful member of his inner circle. He has led Trump’s national security committee since March and was named vice chairman of the transition’s executive committee last week. Sessions defended Trump in October when a leaked video showed him bragging about groping women, leading dozens of Republican officials to drop their support. | 0fake |
OOPS! MIT Researchers Debunk Global Warming Data…Report Confirms President Trump Was Right To Pull Out Of Paris Climate Agreement | B b..but Al Gore and Barack Obama say Scientists were exposed for manipulating climate data during the 2011 Climategate scandal when 5,000 emails were released from scientists proving that the science behind their studies is inconclusive and mostly a result of manipulating climate data to fit the political message they were trying to convey.Three themes emerged from the emails that were released in the Climategate scandal: (1) prominent scientists central to the global warming debate are taking measures to conceal rather than disseminate underlying data and discussions; (2) these scientists view global warming as a political cause rather than a balanced scientific inquiry and (3) many of these scientists frankly admit to each other that much of the science is weak and dependent on deliberate manipulation of facts and data. ForbesA new report on global warming data has now proven President Donald Trump to be right to pull out of the Paris Agreement. The report analyzed climate data such as Global Average Surface Temperature (GAST), the NOAA, and HADLEY.SHFTPLan reports: According to the report, which has been peer reviewed by administrators, scientists and researchers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and several of America s leading universities, the data is completely bunk: In this research report, the most important surface data adjustment issues are identified and past changes in the previously reported historical data are quantified. It was found that each new version of GAST has nearly always exhibited a steeper warming linear trend over its entire history. And, it was nearly always accomplished by systematically removing the previously existing cyclical temperature pattern. This was true for all three entities providing GAST data measurement, NOAA, NASA and Hadley CRU.As a result, this research sought to validate the current estimates of GAST using the best available relevant data. This included the best documented and understood data sets from the U.S. and elsewhere as well as global data from satellites that provide far more extensive global coverage and are not contaminated by bad siting and urbanization impacts. Satellite data integrity also benefits from having cross checks with Balloon data.The conclusive findings of this research are that the three GAST data sets are not a valid representation of reality. In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data. Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published GAST data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever despite current claims of record setting warming.Finally, since GAST data set validity is a necessary condition for EPA s GHG/CO2 Endangerment Finding, it too is invalidated by these research findings. (Full Abstract Report) Fox News reported on President Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement per his campaign promise: he is leading. President Trump is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.It is the right decision for a number of reasons.First, the Paris Accord is being treated by many as a treaty with treaty obligations, but President Obama never submitted it to Congress for passage.Second, though President Trump could have left it in place and done nothing, his successor could have easily revived it if left in place.Third, the structure and implementation of the Paris Accord set a terrible precedent. President Obama worked for what amounts to a global agreement with voluntary measures, but those measures would impact the American economy. But, despite that impact, President Obama did not present the Paris Accord to Congress for ratification or debate. Members of the liberal establishment were outraged.Obama criticized President Trump s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement with the following statement : A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children.It was steady, principled American leadership on the world stage that made that achievement possible. It was bold American ambition that encouraged dozens of other nations to set their sights higher as well. And what made that leadership and ambition possible was America s private innovation and public investment in growing industries like wind and solar industries that created some of the fastest new streams of good-paying jobs in recent years, and contributed to the longest streak of job creation in our history.Simply put, the private sector already chose a low-carbon future. And for the nations that committed themselves to that future, the Paris Agreement opened the floodgates for businesses, scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation on an unprecedented scale.The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we ve got. But of course, like all Champagne Socialists, their credo is do as I say, not as I do, with Obama jacking up his carbon footprint when abroad. Who could forget Obama s massive convoy during a recent speaking gig in Milan?The Independent Journal Review reported: Former President Barack Obama traveled to Italy this week to make a speech on climate change at the Seed & Chips: The Global Food Innovation Summit in the city of Milan.It seems like Obama has taken a page out of Leonardo DiCaprio s book of do as I say, not as I do and took a private jet to Milan. Not only that, he had a 14 car convoy to get into the city, which also included protection from above with a helicopter.It doesn t end there. According to The Daily Mail, 300 police officers were used to protect the former president.The fleet of 14 included multiple SUVs, police cars, and sedans not to mention a few motorcycles. Here s another look at the convoy:While in Milan, Obama also met with former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who was a close partner during their respective times in office. Gateway Pundit | 1real |
SHOCKER! IS MITT ROMNEY Being Considered For A Trump Cabinet Position? | 1real | |
Venezuela's Maduro approval rises to 23 percent after Trump sanctions: poll | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro s approval rating rose to 23 percent in September, up 6 percentage points from 17 percent in July, according to a poll by local firm Datanalisis. The rebound followed several rounds of sanctions by U.S. President Donald Trump s administration as well as a sharp drop-off in four months of violent anti-government protests. Nearly 52 percent of respondents opposed the Trump administration sanctions that came in response to the creation of a legislative superbody called the Constituent Assembly, which critics call the consolidation of a dictatorship. Fifty-seven percent said they disagreed with the United States using a military option to push for change in Venezuela, in reference to Trump comments in August that were met with condemnation around the region. Maduro s low approval is not unusual in Latin America. Presidents Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia and Michel Temer in Brazil have shown lower poll numbers this year. But Maduro s popularity has been falling since he was narrowly elected in 2013 following the death of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. The decline has largely resulted from an economic crisis driven by triple-digit inflation and Soviet-style shortages. The opposition says the crisis is the result of a failing socialist model and rampant corruption. Maduro blames the situation on an economic war by the opposition with the support of Washington. The poll, which surveyed 1,000 people between Sept. 8 and Sept. 22, showed that 86.9 percent of respondents believed the country s situation was negative. The survey s margin of error was 3.04 percentage points. | 0fake |
The Masquerade Ball: Fall’s Ghosts and Our Election Farce | [Graphic from the Dorian Gray Wiki Project .] =By= Edward Curtin “They didn’t act like people and they didn’t act like actors. It’s hard to explain.” J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye “Eleanor Rigby…Lives in a dream/Waits at the window, wearing a face/That she keeps in a jar by the door/Who is it for?” The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby Editor's Note The analogy of the mask and the role it plays in our lives provides fertile ground for discussion of this (endless) political season. That each of us plays some role in this farce (in the classic sense of that word) is an important recognition. More than any election in my lifetime I have heard “you can’t make this shit up.” A classic statement of life imitating art imitating fantastical life. Unfortunately, for many of us, myself included, this feels more like a nightmare from which I cannot wake myself. There is a world in the balance. One could say that there always in when dealing with a deck stacked with the arsenal of the United States. However, now we are dealing with an unfolding environmental catastrophe which will leave more dead than we can count. The new estimate from the World Wildlife Fund is that two-thirds of the world’s wildlife will be extinct by 2020. That is less than 4 years. Those species deaths will certainly be accompanied by the decimation of countless human lives as well. So pick your stage and which play is real. T he idiocy of the Presidential election race will soon be over, as will the endless pseudo-debates and the droning of the commentators, who have been prattling on for more than a year, as if there were something to consider about this sick farce; as if the deep state had not been directing this life-movie from the start.
Gore Vidal got a laugh when years ago he referred to Ronald Reagan as our “acting president.” But we’ve had four acting presidents since and their acts have left millions dead and wounded around the globe, including thousands of American troops. Now we have the sordid spectacle of an election campaign that is so patently phony that “delusionary” is the only word that can describe the thinking of those who take it seriously. Many Americans have acquiesced in this ongoing tragedy, playing their parts in this deadly charade. The ghosts of all America’s victims walk among us, and they will haunt us until we come to life by admitting our own complicity in their deaths. The show must not go on, but it will, as long as we keep acting our parts.
Norman O. Brown so well describes our stage set: “Ancestral voices prophesying war; ancestral spirits in the danse macabre or war dance; Valhalla, ghostly warriors who kill each other and are reborn to fight again. All warfare is ghostly, every army an exercitus feralis (army of ghosts), every soldier a living corpse.”
The Obama administration repeatedly sets the stage by talking about and waging an endless war, a thirty year war, a long struggle, an open-ended war. Soon Obama’s feral, war loving understudy, Hillary Clinton, will take center stage as he exits right, after promoting her. “This is not me going through the motions here,” he recently said. “I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton.” The role-playing, black face of empire will be replaced by the role-playing female face of empire as the audience cheers, hiding from their masked selves their part in a face-saving, phony performance. Without a complicit audience, the performance can’t go on. But it does, or, as Kurt Vonnegut put it, “so it goes.” But the act is wearing thin.
The autumnal season and especially the Halloween weekend of ghosts, the dead, and masks has me thinking of my own experience with acting, and how understanding the nature of our complicity in a mass act of bad faith is so important.
Having grown up as the only brother among seven sisters, I was always my parents’ favorite son. With such dumb luck, I never felt the need to be someone I wasn’t and so accepted my favored fate. But from an early age I learned from my sisters what it meant to “put on your face.” Like most girls in a cosmetic culture, they would stand or sit in front of a mirror dutifully applying lipstick, cover-up, and mascara (Italian, maschera , mask) in preparation for their entrances onto the social stage where they would face so many other faces facing and eyeing them. Mirrors meeting mirrors, looking-glass selves. It seemed to the boy I was, such an exhausting act.
At the time I had only a dim awareness of life the movie.
Then, when I was a young teenager, I had the great opportunity to learn how to be a public phony and put on a face. I got to lie to a national television audience and got paid for my deception. The show was a very popular one – To Tell the Truth – one of many game shows my parents, sisters, and I appeared on. We were a “theatrical” family, not trained actors, but a brood of faces unconsciously hoping to discover who they were through their acts. My parents had started this by accepting an invitation to appear on a show hosted by Johnny Carson, Do You Trust Your Wife? (The show was later renamed Who Do You Trust? – an apt, albeit grammatically incorrect, appellation for the paranoid Cold War years.) But I didn’t then care about politics; I just wanted to put on a good face and lie well while ostensibly telling the truth. I succeeded by convincing two of the celebrity panelists that I was who I wasn’t – Robert McGee – and getting paid $250 for my act. Lying seemed so easy; all you needed was a good mask and a convincing demeanor. This was my public lesson in “putting on your face.”
Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by masks, liars, and the role of acting on the social stage. Ghosts of the Past by Ian Kath.
As the Halloween weekend transpires, this enchantment increases. I think of how all persons are, by definition, masked, the word ‘person’ being derived from the Latin, persona, meaning mask. Another Latin word, larva, occurs to me, it too meaning mask, ghost, or evil spirit. The living masks light up for me as I think of ghosts, the dead, all the souls and spirits circulating through our days. While etymology might seem arcane, I rather think it offers us a portal into our lives, not just personally, but politically and culturally as well. Shakespeare was right, of course, “all the world’s a stage,” though I would disagree with the bard that we are “merely” players. It does often seem that way, but seeming is the essence of the actor’s show and tell. But who are we behind the masks? Who is it uttering those words coming through the masks’ mouth holes (the per-sona , Latin, to sound through).
Halloween. The children play at scaring and being scared. Death walks among them and they scream with glee. The play is on. The grim reaper walks up and down the street. Treats greet them. The costumes are ingenious; the masks, wild. The parents stand behind, watching, smiling. It’s all great fun, the candy sweet. So what’s the trick? When does the performance end?
As Halloween ends, the saints come marching in followed by all the souls. The Days of the Dead. Spirits. Ghosts walk the streets. Dead leaves fall. The dead are everywhere, swirling through the air, drifting. We are surrounded by them. We are them. Until.
Until when? Perhaps not until we dead awaken and see through the charade of social life and realize the masked performers are not just the deadly politicians and celebrities, not only the professional actors and the corporate media performers, but us.
Lying is the leading cause of living death in the United States, and the pharmaceutical companies have no prescription for this one. Not yet, anyway, as far as I care to know.
It seems to me that Albert Camus was right, and that we should aspire to be neither victims nor executioners. To do so will take a serious reevaluation of the roles we play in the ongoing national tragedy of lie piled upon lie in aggressive wars around the world and in election farces that perpetuate them. The leading actors we elect are our responsibility. We produce and maintain them. They are our mirror images; we, theirs. It is the danse macabre , a last tango in the land of bad actors, our two-faced show. This masquerade ball that passes for political reality is infiltrated by the ghosts of all those victims we have murdered around the wide world. We may choose not to see them, but they are lurking in the shadowy corners. And they will haunt us until we make amends.
“Do you not know there comes a midnight hour when everyone has to throw off his mask?” warned Kierkegaard, “Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it?”
“Whenever I take up a newspaper,” Ibsen added, “I seem to see ghosts gliding between the lines. There must be ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sands of the sea. And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.”
Edward Curtin is a writer and sociologist. He teaches at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Educated in the the classics, literature, theology, and sociology, his writing on a wide variety of topics has appeared widely over many years. He tries to write as a public intellectual for the general public, not as a specialist for a narrow readership. Originally published by Intrepid Report .
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MIKE ROWE: A LESSON ON LIBERTY That Everyone Should Hear [Video] | Mike Rowe of the show Dirty Jobs has become a common sense voice for conservatives. His message is always on target and his delivery is usually pretty light hearted. We just love the guy!The Way I Heard It Holiday Edition I wrote this last night around 7pm. I m posting it this morning around 7am. I point this out because optics seem to matter more than ever in this day and age, and I d hate to confirm the mistaken belief held by some that I drink beer in the morning. Even on a holiday. | 1real |
Russia’s Most Potent Weapon: Rapidly “Hoarding Gold” As Global Currency War Is Upon Us |
This article was written by Jay Syrmopoulos and originally published at The Free Thought Project .
Editor’s Comment: He who holds the gold makes the rules? Fresh attempts at containing Russia and continuing the empire have been met with countermoves. Russia appears to be building strength in every way. Putin and his country have no intention of being under the American thumb, and are developing rapid resistance as the U.S. petrodollar loses its grip and China, Russia and the East shift into new currencies and shifting world order.
What lies ahead? It will be a strong hand for the countries that have the most significant backing in gold and hard assets; and China and Russia have positioned themselves very well. Prepare for a changing economic landscape, and one in which self-reliance might be all we have.
Russia is Hoarding Gold at an Alarming Rate — The Next World War Will Be Fought with Currencies
by Jay Syrmopoulos
With all eyes on Russia’s unveiling their latest nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which NATO has dubbed the “SATAN” missile , as tensions with the U.S. increase, Moscow’s most potent “weapon” may be something drastically different.
The rapidly evolving geopolitical “weapon” brandished by Russia is an ever increasing stockpile of gold, as well as Russia’s native currency, the ruble.
Take a look at the symbol below, as it could soon come to change the entire hierarchy of the international order – potentially ushering in a complete international paradigm shift – and much sooner than you might think.
image: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/bankofrussia-e1475520013798.png
The symbol is the new designation of the Russian ruble, Russia’s national currency.
Similar to how the U.S. uses the dollar sign ($), the U.K. uses the pound sign (£), and the European Union uses the euro symbol (€), Russia is about to begin exporting its symbol internationally.
After the failed “reset” in U.S./Russian relations by the Obama administration, and the continued deterioration of the countries relationship, Washington began targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy, as well as specific individuals, meant to impose an economic burden so severe that it would force Moscow into compliance.
Instead of decimating Russia, what it precipitated was a Russian response of gradually weaning themselves off of the hegemony of the U.S. petrodollar, and working with China to create an alternative to the SWIFT payment system that isn’t solely controlled by Western interests (see Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , New Development Bank).
According to the Corbett Report :
New reports indicate that China is ready to launch its SWIFT alternative, and for those who have their ear to the ground this is the most significant move yet in the unfolding process of de-dollarization that is seeing the BRICS-led “resistance bloc” breaking away from the financial stranglehold of the US-led “Washington Consensus.”
For those who don’t know, SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and is shorthand for the SWIFTNet Network that is used by over 10,500 financial institutions in 215 countries and territories to transmit financial transaction data around the world. SWIFT does not do any of the clearing or processing for these transactions itself, but instead sends the payment orders that are then settled by correspondent banks of the member institutions. Still, given the system’s near universality in the financial system, it means that virtually every international transaction between banking institutions goes through the SWIFT network.
This is why de-listing from the SWIFT network remains one of the primary financial weapons wielded by the US and its allies in their increasingly important financial warfare campaigns.
Recently, financial guru Jim Rickards, author of the book “Currency Wars,” wrote that “Russia is poised for a major comeback in its economy. Russian bonds and stocks and the Russian currency, the ruble, will all benefit.” Rickards believes a “strong turnaround” is coming within Russia, and that this comeback will benefit the ruble.
While still suffering from the economic warfare being waged by the U.S., Russia has realized that as long they are subservient to the petrodollar, there remains a clear and present danger of the Russian economy being devastated by the whims of Washington.
The Bank of Russia, that nation’s central bank, is extremely clear about its mission, and monetary policy declaring on its website:
Monetary policy constitutes an integral part of the state policy and is aimed at enhancing well-being of Russian citizens. The Bank of Russia implements monetary policy in the framework of inflation-targeting regime, and sees price stability, albeit sustainably low inflation, as its priority. Given structural peculiarities of the Russian economy, the target is to reduce inflation to 4% by 2017 and maintain it within that range in the medium run.
In layman’s terms, that means that monetary policy, similar to nuclear weapons and the military, are “an integral part of the state policy” in Russia. While many analysts have noted the increased build-up in Russia’s military arsenal, seemingly few have highlighted the massive build-up of Russian gold reserves over the past decade.
Below is a chart showing Russian gold reserves between 1994 and last year, 2015:
Since 2006, there has been a year-on-year increase that reveals a significant upward trend. The chart clearly reveals that Russia’s state policy of increasing state monetary assets, in the form of gold. Additionally, the Russian government has been converting state rubles into gold assets. From 2006 to 2015, Russia’s state holdings of gold tripled.
Within just the past year Russia has substantially increased its gold holdings
According to the Business Insider :
In July of this year, the central bank of Russia added 200,000 ounces of gold to its reserves. The one-month uptick in Russian gold reserves — 200,000 ounces — is approximately equal to the entire annual output of Barrick Gold’s Turquoise Ridge gold mine in Nevada.
At that same rate — 200,000 ounces per month — in a mere five months, Russia would add to state gold reserves the equivalent of the entire annual output of Barrick’s massive Goldstrike mine in Nevada.
Currently, Russian gold reserves rank seventh in the world. It’s clear that there is a concerted effort by Russian authorities to build up the country’s gold reserves as part of a national strategy to negate the effects of economic warfare waged by the United States.
Rickards, in his 2011 book “Currency Wars,” theorized that Russia and China could combine their gold reserves to form a global gold-backed currency to compete against the U.S. dollar. Currently, Russian reserves stand at roughly 1,500 tonnes, with Chinese reserves totaling over 1,800 tonnes (according to China — it’s likely more), which would amount to a combined total of roughly 3,300 tonnes of gold.
The U.S. is about to lose overarching control of policymaking within the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thus the U.S. lockup on global gold is about to vanish, according to Business Insider.
Imagine for a moment the distinctly real possibility that Russian-Chinese alliance could exercise indirect (or even direct) control over the IMF’s gold reserve of over 2,800 tonnes. Russian, Chinese and IMF gold combined would equal roughly 6,100 tonnes, and would allow for direct competition with the U.S. gold reserves, estimated at 8,100 tonnes.
Russia and China have realized that the petrodollar is wielded by Washington as it’s weapon of choice when opposing a well-armed state, and clearly see the writing on the wall – thus working together to create a new global financial paradigm.
The reality is that the United States is $20 trillion dollars in debt, and eventually the time will come when the U.S. economy begins to implode — and all the fiat currency people are stuck holding will essentially be worth nothing more than the paper it’s printed on. Hard assets, such as gold and silver, should be bought and taken custody of while there is still an opportunity to do so, as a means of hedging against the potentially disastrous results of the U.S. using the petrodollar as a “weapon.”
Ultimately, the United States, Russia and China are all controlled by centralized power-hungry tyrants attempting to command powerful global bureaucracies like the IMF, the World Bank, SWIFT, New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
It’s not Russian nuclear weapons that people should fear, as the policy of mutually assured destruction essentially voids any benefit of a state launching a first-strike nuclear attack. The true threat to America is our economic house of cards, built upon the back of a neoliberal trade policy that puts the “rights” of corporations over that of people .
This article was written by Jay Syrmopoulos and originally published at The Free Thought Project . | 1real |
Fox News Channel Cancels ’Red Eye’ - Breitbart | Fox News Channel has canceled its news program Red Eye. [According to AdWeek‘s TVNewser, which first broke the news, the last episode of Red Eye will air Friday, April 7 at 3 a. m. The irreverent news program with the timeslot launched in 2007 with host Greg Gutfeld, who left the show in 2015. Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart played a pivotal role in Red Eye‘s inception. Breitbart was a frequent guest on the program, which also regularly featured Gutfeld’s “repulsive sidekick” Bill Schulz, “ombudsman” Andy Levy and Tom Shillue, who became permanent host of the show in 2015. In a 2012 segment honoring the late conservative icon, Gutfeld said that Red Eye “would not exist” without Breitbart’s involvement. “It was him who talked to Fox to get me a job,” Gutfeld explained shortly after Breitbart’s passing. “I was living in England, and he talked to people at Fox. I met with people at Fox, and the next thing you know it was Red Eye. And everybody here who’s sitting here … we never would have met if it wasn’t for Andrew Breitbart bringing us together, because that’s what Breitbart does. ” The March 2, 2012 episode of Red Eye was dedicated to Breitbart, with the show airing clips of the late conservative icon’s most memorable appearances. In a column for Breitbart News following his departure, Gutfeld said Red Eye was successful because of a “beautiful deal made between its staff and its viewers. ” “The Redeye gang would refuse to underestimate the viewer’s intelligence, and the viewers would forgive us for our incoherence,” Gutfeld explained. “We attracted people that we would drink with, given the chance. These were late night types — up in the lonely hours for different reasons. Some had graveyard shifts. Others were nursing moms. Many, I learned were sick — or in hospitals, desperate for a distraction. ” According to TVNewser, current Red Eye hosts Tom Shillue and Andy Levy will remain with Fox News. A representative for Fox News Channel said the show’s 3 a. m. slot would be filled by repeats of Tucker Carlson Tonight. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0fake |
MILO Takes Selfies With UC Davis Protestors - Breitbart | Whilst leading a free speech countermarch across the UC Davis campus, MILO managed to take a couple of selfies with protestors who had come out for the second day in a row, following the forced cancellation of last night’s event with Martin Shkreli.[ The protestors followed the march at the beginning, screaming chants such as “No Milo, No KKK, No Fascist USA,” and generally trying to interrupt the proceedings, before eventually deciding to give up. The march involved MILO finally getting to chance to speak on the campus, to a crowd of over 300 people, where he discussed the importance of free speech and challenging the consensus on American college campuses. At the end, MILO and the Davis College Republican group reenacted the UC Davis pepper spray incident that took place in 2011, when protestors from the Occupy Movement were pepper sprayed by police after refusing to leave, leading to a nationwide controversy on the use of force by police. | 0fake |
SHOCKING VIDEO CONNECTS BEYONCÉ And OBAMA TO DALLAS COP KILLER | Because Bob Price at Breitbart News had the courage to attend and film an unbelievable Black Panther rally aimed at threatening cops in Houston last year, America was able to see just exactly how hateful and dangerous this group really is. Obama s celebrity bestie, Beyonc promoted the Black Panthers to a staggering 114.4 MILLION viewers in her anti-cop, anti-white performance during her Super Bowl 2016 halftime act. Her over-the-top performance included Black Panther clad dancers who proudly displayed the divisive black power fist.The mainstream media ignored her hateful performance. Impressionable young Americans who ve been watching Obama s race war unfold didn t. Beyonc wasn t promoting the Girl Scouts of America, she was promoting a HATE group who openly vocalizes their desire to KILL COPS! Thanks to Bob Price, we now know the Dallas cop killer was part of that group.Only hours before the Dallas cop killer took the lives of 5 innocent American law enforcement officers, Beyonc posted this rant to her website:Dallas cop killer Micah X. Johnson was a member of the radical, violent Black Panthers, the same group that Beyonce promoted at the 2016 Super Bowl. Our current President marched with them in 2007. Obama s AG, Eric Holder gave them a pass, after they were caught in the act of blatantly intimidating voters during the 2008 election. Micah X. Johnson was a member of the Houston New Black Panther Party for a short period of time. He was reported to be a member for about six months a few years ago.Quanell X told reporters at KPRC NBC2 in Houston that Johnson was a member of the Houston Chapter of the New Black Panther Party for a short time a few years ago. He said he parted ways with Johnson after about six months because Johnson would not follow the chain of command.During negotiations with the Dallas Police Department Friday morning during the ambush shooting that left five officers dead and seven other people shot, Johnson said he was not part of any group. He stated he wanted to kill white people and white police officers.WATCH this shocking video showing the Black Panthers (including Dallas cop murderer) openly calling for the killing of cops: Breitbart Texas was present at an armed march carried out by the Houston New Black Panther Party in Waller County last summer. This writer took photos and video of the armed marchers at that time. One of the members holding an AR-15 style rifle appears to be Micah Xavier Johnson.During the march, the armed members of the New Black Panther Party stood off against Harris County Sheriff s Deputies who came to Waller County responding to a request for assistance from Sheriff Glenn Smith.This writer stood between the protesters and the deputies to take these photos and video. Via: Bob Price, Breitbart NewsNot surprisingly, Barack Obama also has a history with the vile, racist Black Panther group. Obama appeared and marched with members of the New Black Panther Party as he campaigned for president in Selma, Ala., in March 2007.BigGovernment.com posted the photographs, reporting the images were captured from a Flickr photo-sharing account before they were scrubbed.Among the people visible in the pictures with Obama is NBPP Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, a defendant in the voter intimidation case that Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed in 2009.Shabazz himself has given scores of speeches condemning white men and Jews.The NBPP s official platform states white man has kept us deaf, dumb and blind, refers to the white racist government of America, demands black people be exempt from military service and uses the word Jew repeatedly in quotation marks. WNDIt should come as no surprise to anyone that Beyonc has endorsed the pandering Hillary Clinton. Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton paid a surprise visit to Beyonc during last week s fundraising trip to Los Angeles. Hillary praised Beyonc while speaking to a crowd at a town hall in Iowa City, Iowa in December. I want to be as good a president as Beyonce is a performer, Hillary responded after she was asked if she would rather be Beyonc or president. Breitbart NewsThis hateful movement promoted by our President and supported by celebrities and hate groups across America is growing. America needs to wake up to this hate and division and stop supporting those who are working behind the scenes to promote it. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX. | 1real |
WATCH: TSA’S PAT-DOWN At Dallas Airport Leaves Mother Enraged: “We have been through hell this morning” [Video] | TSA allows for a pat-down of a teenage passenger, and in this case, all approved procedures were followed to resolve an alarm of the passenger s laptop, spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in an email.Huh? Was the laptop given a full groping too? Why would they need to do this if the teen set off no alarms but a computer did?For at least two minutes, the TSA officer at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport gives the boy a going-over that just seems a little too thorough.Read more: WaPoTSA SEXUALLY MOLESTS TEEN AT LAGUARDIA: This is so scary for anyone out there but especially for parents who fly their kids to different places alone. This TSA agent took advantage of this young girl who was probably scared to death. Horrible!A college student was sexually molested at LaGuardia Airport by a uniformed TSA agent who demanded she go into a bathroom with him after she got off a flight so she could be searched, sources told The Post.The 22-year-old victim, who is Korean, had gotten off the plane from Salt Lake City around 8 p.m. Tuesday when the agent approached her on the third floor of Terminal B. He lured her into the bathroom by demanding she be searched and then molested her, the sources said. The woman filed a complaint with cops, and witnesses at a money exchange booth were able to help identify the sex fiend. The alleged assailant a 5-foot-9, heavyset man wearing a TSA uniform has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse, the sources said. The student picked the suspect out of a photo lineup. His identity was not immediately released. A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration was not immediately able to provide any information about the arrest. | 1real |
MASSIVE WIKILEAKS DROP Exposes CIA Spying via iPhones, Android Phones and Samsung TVs [Video] | WIKILEAKS JUST DROPPED DOCUMENTS EXPOSING THE CIA SPYING AND HACKING:The CIA hacks iPhones, Android phones and TVs Via Wikileaks:Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named Vault 7 by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.The first full part of the series, Year Zero , comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA s Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina. It follows an introductory disclosure last month of CIA targeting French political parties and candidates in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election.Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized zero day exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive. Year Zero introduces the scope and direction of the CIA s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of zero day weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple s iPhone, Google s Android and Microsoft s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.Since 2001 the CIA has gained political and budgetary preeminence over the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA found itself building not just its now infamous drone fleet, but a very different type of covert, globe-spanning force its own substantial fleet of hackers. The agency s hacking division freed it from having to disclose its often controversial operations to the NSA (its primary bureaucratic rival) in order to draw on the NSA s hacking capacities.By the end of 2016, the CIA s hacking division, which formally falls under the agency s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other weaponized malware. Such is the scale of the CIA s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook. The CIA had created, in effect, its own NSA with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.In a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency. The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.CHINA IS ALSO GETTING IN ON THE ACT: | 1real |
May confident of winning Brexit deal that works for Britain, EU | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday she understood that some are finding the Brexit talks frustrating but that she was confident of getting a deal that will work for both Britain and the European Union. According to the text of her closing speech at the Conservative Party annual conference, she told members that the government was planning for every eventuality in the Brexit talks and said EU citizens living in Britain were welcome. | 0fake |
Halliburton and Baker Hughes Call Off $35 Billion Merger - The New York Times | For a year and a half, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, two big oil field services companies, had been focused on their $35 billion merger. That distraction, even as commodity prices deteriorated and their peers cut costs to survive, is finally over. The two companies announced in a statement on Sunday that they had decided to terminate their merger. The news came after an excruciatingly long regulatory review process that culminated in a lawsuit last month by the Justice Department to block the deal on antitrust grounds. “While both companies expected the proposed merger to result in compelling benefits to shareholders, customers and other stakeholders, challenges in obtaining remaining regulatory approvals and general industry conditions that severely damaged deal economics led to the conclusion that termination is the best course of action,” said Dave Lesar, chairman and chief executive of Halliburton, in Sunday’s statement. The deal was one that raised eyebrows from the start on whether it would get past regulators. The two companies were seeking to band together to compete with the likes of Schlumberger, and, in the meantime, to erase billions in costs related to operations and research and development. Things changed drastically soon after the deal was signed in November 2014. Oil prices sank to their lowest levels in years, a burden that has affected the entire industry. Sales of assets, which were necessary to appease regulators’ concerns that the combination was just too big, suddenly became more challenged. buyers turned inward to manage their own business during the downturn, and private equity stayed on the sidelines. With the companies’ inability to shrink, the Justice Department sued in April to block the deal, saying it would “eliminate vital competition, skew energy markets and harm American consumers. ” That left the companies with little will to fight. “What Halliburton may have miscalculated here is the severity of the downturn and certainly the appetite of the Department of Justice to flex its muscles in a large corporate merger,” said Matt Marietta, an analyst at Stephens Inc. As compensation for the breakup, Halliburton agreed to pay Baker Hughes $3. 5 billion by May 4, according to Sunday’s statement. It is a lofty price, especially when cash flow is tight in the energy industry. That high fee was necessary because the deal almost did not happen two years ago. The two companies struggled initially, in the fall of 2014, to find a suitable price and breakup fee. But then, Halliburton threatened to turn over Baker Hughes’s board to restart discussions. The plan worked, with Halliburton raising its bid and agreeing to a fee if the deal were to fail to win regulatory approval. At the time, the fee was a symbolic commitment from Halliburton to do whatever it took to make sure the deal cleared the Justice Department. As companies, though, analysts say both Halliburton and Baker Hughes should be able to survive. Halliburton has about $10 billion of cash on its balance sheet that it could use toward the breakup fee or potentially other transactions, according to data by SP Capital IQ. “I don’t see a risk of either of the companies being bankruptcy risks,” Mr. Marietta said. “I think both companies are well positioned to manage through the downturn. ” Shares of both companies have surged about 20 percent each since the Justice Department’s lawsuit was disclosed on April 6. For many investors, the lawsuit was a way of dissipating the cloud of uncertainty that had covered the deal for 18 months. The move by the Justice Department was the latest tough stance from an administration that has been seen as taking more aggressive actions against large deals. The previous one was Pfizer’s attempted $152 billion merger with Allergan, which was terminated after the Treasury Department came out with new rules that eliminated many of the benefits of the deal. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, also raised concerns about the Hughes deal. “The transaction raised competition concerns on a very large number of markets related to oil field services provided to oil and gas exploration and production companies” in Europe, Margrethe Vestager, the European Union competition commissioner, said in a statement. She said that “a number of customers contacted us to raise issues with the proposed transaction. ” The date by which Halliburton and Baker Hughes would have to decide whether to continue on their path of regulatory approval or terminate their merger agreement was extended to April 30. As a result, Halliburton postponed its earnings call to Tuesday, which many analysts assumed was done to discuss the deal. Since the downturn started at the end of 2014, Halliburton has reduced its head count by about a third, the company said in its April 22 earnings statement. The company also said it would reduce the infrastructure that it had kept in anticipation of a deal with Baker Hughes. Both companies have experienced significant slumps in revenue and reduced rig counts over the year. | 0fake |
Hollywood Hypocrite George Clooney Angers Neighbors With Over-the-Top Security Around European Home…Slams Trump For Being “Intolerant” Of Illegal Aliens | Another bleeding heart progressive who s willing to welcome illegal aliens to America with open arms as long as they don t get too close to one of his luxury European fortresses Hollywood actor George Clooney described GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as idiotic and intolerant during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend.According to Us Weekly, during a TIFF press conference for the upcoming film Our Brand Is Crisis on Saturday, which Clooney produced, the star was asked about Trump s position on illegal immigration.Clooney, who is known for going to great lengths to keep interested parties from coming on or near his properties, responded, Clearly, what he said is idiotic, of course it s idiotic. Clooney added, Anybody who says as intolerant words as those should be laughed at and that s pretty much [what] I think eventually history will do. Who d have thought Donald Trump would be at 30 percent? During his June presidential announcement, Trump ignited a firestorm when he said, The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else s problems, and the United States has no idea what kind of people might be coming across the border. They re sending people that have lots of problems, said Trump. They re bringing those problems with us. They re bringing drugs. They re bringing crime. They re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. Clooney came under fire in July, when he sought to install security cameras around the property of one of his expensive European homes, in order to keep unwanted guests away.Neighbors complained the added security measures jeopardized the privacy of the neighborhood.Lake Como, Italy also has special fines in place, specifically for Clooney, which are designed to keep out of towners from entering his private property. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
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Trump BETRAYS House Republicans, HUMILIATES Them For Trying To Weaken Ethics Office (TWEETS) | Yesterday, House Republicans set themselves up for loads of humiliation after they quietly voted to take away the independence of the Office of Congressional Ethics without giving any warning whatsoever.Republicans in Congress had been trying to take away the ability of the ethic watchdog to do its own independent investigations. As soon as the announcement was made, these GOPers were faced with an onslaught of criticism for trying to help aide corruption and keep the public in the dark. To make the criticism even more humiliating, one of those people was President-elect Donald Trump.On Tuesday morning, Trump decided to abandon the Republican Party and blast them on Twitter for making the gutting of the ethics office their first priority when there were more pressing matters at hand:Twitter TwitterIt is important to note that Trump isn t necessarily condemning the House GOP s choice to limit the ethics office Trump is merely upset about the timing of it. Sean Spicer, Trump s incoming press secretary, set the record straight with reporters that Trump s annoyance with the Republicans had nothing to do with the action itself, as Jennifer Bendery pointed out:TwitterThe GOP has been so humiliated by the response from Trump and many others that they ve practically been forced to take back their vote. Shortly after Trump tweeted his disapproval of the initiative, the House GOP held an emergency meeting where they unanimously voted to abandon the issue for now. Many Republicans plan to return to the idea later on, once the criticism has died down.TwitterThe GOP has truly gotten an embarrassing start to 2017, already having to back down from one of their corrupt ideas after their own Republican Party leader trashed it. If the GOP thought Trump was going to have their back all the time, they have another thing coming.Featured image via Mark Wilson / Getty Images | 1real |
Trump budget would cut State budget up to 31 percent: congressional aides | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A budget proposal to be released by President Donald Trump on Thursday will call for spending cuts of up to 31 percent for the U.S. State Department and 28 percent for foreign aid, congressional aides said on Wednesday. The reduction in the State Department budget, while steep, is below the 37 percent cut some officials in recent weeks had said was possible. | 0fake |
Hacker Guccifer 2.0 Says Election Could Be Rigged, Promises to Monitor 'from Inside' | Pin
( ZHE ) Before the recent torrent of daily Podesta email dumps brought renewed attention to Wikileaks (and accusations Julian Assange was working with the Kremlin despite his recent denial, which ultimately cost him his internet access), the media’s attention was closely focused on the recently emerged hacker known as Guccifer 2.0, who claimed to be behind the hacking of the nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee emails and other documents distributed over the summer by WikiLeaks, and who likewise was accused of cooperating with Russia.
Earlier today, after a two week silence, Guccifer 2.0 reemerged, with a post on his blog , in which he alleges that he has information from inside the Federal Election Commission, according to which “democrats may rig the elections.” He then adds “this may be possible because of the software installed in the FEC networks by the large IT companies.”
“INFO FROM INSIDE THE FEC: THE DEMOCRATS MAY RIG THE ELECTIONS
“I’d like to warn you that the Democrats may rig the elections on November 8. This may be possible because of the software installed in the FEC networks by the large IT companies.
“As I’ve already said, their software is of poor quality, with many holes and vulnerabilities.
“I have registered in the FEC electronic system as an independent election observer; so I will monitor that the elections are held honestly.
“I also call on other hackers to join me, monitor the elections from inside and inform the U.S. society about the facts of electoral fraud.”
It is unclear what FEC information the hacker was in possession of, or was referring to, and how he intends to observe the elections. A recent video by Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting provided a real-time demo of the GEMS vote-fraud system, “fraction magic,” an election theft mechanism with context and explanation. There is much more detail on the BlackBoxVoting website . Sign up for the free Anti-Media newsletter the establishment doesn't want you to receive
The demonstration below used a real voting system and real vote databases and takes place in seconds across multiple jurisdictions. Over 5000 subcontractors and middlemen have the access to perform this for any or all clients. It can give contract signing authority to whoever the user chooses. All political power can be converted to the hands of a few anonymous subcontractors. It’s a product. It’s scaleable. It learns its environment and can adjust to any political environment, any demographic. It runs silently, invisibly, and can produce plausible results that really pass for the real thing.
It is possible that this is the process that Guccifer is referring to, although we are merely speculating. We are confident he will provide more detail shortly.
While we wait, watch the following video explaining how elections can be (and perhaps are) rigged. | 1real |
There Are More White Voters Than People Think. That’s Good News for Trump. - The New York Times | One of the biggest reasons Donald Trump is considered to be a long shot to win the presidency is the diversity of the country. As Joe Scarborough of MSNBC put it, “There are not enough white voters in America for Donald Trump to win while getting routed among minorities. ” But a growing body of evidence suggests that there is still a path, albeit a narrow one, for Mr. Trump to win without gains among nonwhite voters. New analysis by The Upshot shows that millions more white, older voters went to the polls in 2012 than was found by exit polls on Election Day. This raises the prospect that Mr. Trump has a larger pool of potential voters than generally believed. The wider path may help explain why Mr. Trump is competitive in early general election surveys against Hillary Clinton. And it calls into question the prevailing demographic explanation of recent elections, which held that Barack Obama did very poorly among whites and won only because young and minority voters turned out in record numbers. This story line led Republicans to conclude that they had maximized their support from white voters and needed to reach out to Hispanics to win in 2016. Those previous conclusions emerged from exit polls released on election night. The new data from the census, voter registration files, polls and the finalized results tells a subtly different story with potential consequences for the 2016 election. The data implies that Mr. Obama was not as weak among white voters as typically believed. He fared better than his predecessors among white voters outside the South. Demographic shifts weren’t so important: He would have been even with an electorate as old and white as it was in 2004. Latino voters did not put Mr. Obama over the top, as many argued in the days after Mr. Obama’s . He would have won even if he had done as poorly among Latino voters as John Kerry. This is all good news for Mr. Trump. There’s more room for him to make gains among white voters than many assumed — enough to win without making gains among nonwhite or white voters. But Mr. Trump’s narrow path could close if he loses ground among voters and alienates even more nonwhite voters than Mitt Romney did four years ago. His ratings among these groups remain poor, and he continues to draw fresh criticism, most recently for saying the judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University is biased because of his Mexican heritage. When you hear about the demographic challenges facing the Republican Party, almost all of the data comes from exit polls: surveys conducted with tens of thousands of voters at precincts across the country on Election Day, along with a supplemental telephone survey with early voters. The exit polls are excellent surveys. But like any survey, they’re imperfect. The problem is that analysts, including me, have treated the exit polls like a precise account of the electorate. “There are campaigns and journalists who take the exit polls as the word of God about the shape of the electorate and their voting propensities,” said Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida who researches voter turnout. “They’re meant to tell us why people voted. They’re not designed to tell us much about the demographic profile of the electorate. ” The exit polls have a series of subtle biases that depict a younger, and more diverse electorate. Mr. McDonald tentatively reached this conclusion in 2005, and the pattern has been seen in a broader set of data. The evidence for a whiter, and older electorate comes from two main sources. The first — and — source of alternative data is the Current Population Survey, known as the C. P. S. Conducted by the Census Bureau, it is the same monthly survey that yields the unemployment report. After elections, it includes a question about whether people voted. A second source is the voter file: a compilation of local records on every American who has registered to vote, including address, age and whether the person voted in a given election. The voter file data used for analysis here comes from Catalist, a Democratic data firm that offers an academic subscription. Researchers have found that the data is unbiased and more accurate than public voting records. These sources show a 2012 electorate that was far whiter, older and less educated than the exit polls indicated. Over all, the exit polls suggest that 23 percent of voters in 2012 were white, over age 45 and without a college degree. Catalist puts this group at 29 percent, and the census at 30 percent — implying 10 million more voters than the 23 percent figure. What’s the best estimate? That’s a matter for debate. “The truth, if you could ever get to it, is probably somewhere between the three measures,” said Joe Lenski, the vice president at Edison Research, who runs the exit poll, “because they all have their faults. ” They do have their faults. Just about every year, the census reports more people voted than actually did — especially in Southern states with a large black population. The census also has a challenge with people who decline to say whether they voted. Things can go wrong with the voter file, too, if, say, the state erred in data entry or updates. The models are imperfect as well. But for many experts in the field, these issues pale next to those facing the exit polls. For Bernard Fraga, a professor of political science at Indiana University, there is “no question that the exit poll is not as accurate. ” He added, “It’s clearly much more reliable to look at the C. P. S. or even better to look at the voter work. ” Today, virtually all major campaign polling, voter targeting and election law litigation is conducted using voter file data. The actual results also tend to imply that the census and Catalist figures make a lot more sense in many of the cases where the disagreements are greatest. Take Ohio, where the exit polls show that the black share of the electorate increased by four percentage points to more than 15 percent of voters in 2012. If these figures are taken as precise, it would imply that nearly 250, 000 more black voters turned out than in 2008, with the turnout reaching 88 percent of adult black citizens. There is no trace of this kind of surge in turnout in the actual result. The black turnout in Cleveland actually dropped — to 55 percent of adult citizens. This type of story repeats itself across the battlegrounds. It also plays out with age, where the exit polls imply that youth turnout was higher than turnout among seniors with education, where the exit polls show that more college graduates voted than actually live in America or Hispanics, where the exit polls show that white and Hispanic turnout was nearly equal, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. You can see more of this data here. The larger number of white voters implies that Democrats are far more dependent on winning white voters, and therefore more vulnerable to a populist candidate like Mr. Trump. Over all, 34 percent of Mr. Obama’s supporters were white voters without a college degree, compared with 25 percent in the exit polls, according to an Upshot statistical model that integrated census data, actual results and 15, 000 interviews from various surveys. The model yields a full alternative to the exit polls that assume an older, whiter electorate like the one depicted by the census. (For those interested in the details about our estimates, we’ve written a technical sidebar.) “This is a great way to deal with the limits of traditional surveys,” said Andrew Gelman, a professor at Columbia who popularized the statistical technique known as multilevel regression and . “It smooths out noise, reduces bias and arrives at better estimates for smaller groups. ” Mr. Obama’s dependence among white voters might seem surprising in light of the 2012 postelection consensus. But it won’t be surprising if you think just a little further back — to the story line. Mr. Obama’s advantage heading into the election was thought to be a “Midwestern Firewall” — a big edge in Midwestern battlegrounds where white voters supported the auto bailout and were skeptical of Mr. Romney, who was criticized for his time at Bain Capital. The story line was tossed aside when the national exit polls showed an electorate that was even more diverse than it was in 2008, while showing Mr. Obama faring worse among white voters than any Democrat since Walter Mondale in 1984. But the Upshot analysis shows that all of Mr. Obama’s weaknesses were in the South — defined as the former Confederacy plus Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky and West Virginia — where he won just 26 percent. Outside the South, he won 46 percent of white voters, even running ahead of Mr. Kerry and Al Gore in earlier elections. Many of the regions where Mr. Obama lost ground in white areas outside the South — like the areas of North Dakota or Appalachia, Mormon Utah, culturally Southern stretches of Southern Illinois, or Mr. Kerry and Mr. Romney’s home state of Massachusetts — were exceptions that proved the rule. The Upshot obtained similar estimates for 2012 from Mr. Ghitza, who matched polling data to the Catalist voter registration file, in his dissertation on the use of big data in politics. Mr. Ghitza found similar figures as The Upshot’s estimates using different data sets and different models. Demographics Overrated. The data implies that demographic shifts played a somewhat smaller role in Mr. Obama’s than the postelection narrative suggested. Even if the electorate were as old and as white as it was in 2004, Mr. Obama would have won, because of the gains he made among white voters in states like New Mexico, Colorado and Iowa. Hispanic voters played only a modest role in Mr. Romney’s defeat. They cost him Florida — a state for Republicans, but also the closest contest. Elsewhere, Mr. Obama would have easily survived even if Mr. Romney had equaled George W. Bush’s 2004 share of Hispanic voters. All of this is good news for a Republican who intends to win with greater strength among white voters, like Mr. Trump. There is a downside for him. The lower turnout among Hispanic and young voters implies that it’s possible — even easy — to imagine a huge increase in Hispanic and youth turnout in 2016. And Mr. Obama’s strength among Northern white voters raises doubts about whether the Republicans, including Mr. Trump, can assume that white voters are receptive to conservative candidates. The best case for Mr. Trump is that white Northerners reluctantly backed Mr. Obama because Mr. Romney was successfully caricatured as a rapacious plutocrat. Yet it’s hard to argue that the attacks on Bain Capital were responsible for Mr. Obama’s gains among young and white voters. These voters moved decisively in Mr. Obama’s direction, perhaps in part because of cultural issues. If that’s right, Mr. Trump will be hard pressed to reverse Mr. Obama’s gains — and there’s plenty of evidence he could slip further. The Theory. There has long been a notion that Mr. Romney was hurt by “missing white voters,” those who voted in 2008 but skipped the 2012 presidential election. And the G. O. P. ’s hope is that Mr. Trump could benefit with a surge of those voters. But that view of 2012 is largely unsupported by the data. The decline in white turnout in 2012 was particularly marked among registered Democrats, according to data from Catalist. Republican turnout dropped a bit as well, but it was less than the drop among Democrats across every age cohort. And among voters over age 60, Republican turnout increased. According to data from L2, a nonpartisan voter file vendor, the missing white voters were far more likely to be registered Democrats, or to have participated in Democratic primaries, than the white voters who actually did turn out. Is it possible that some of these Democrats are actually ready to vote for Mr. Trump? Yes. But it’s a stretch to argue that a huge share of them would have voted for Mr. Romney or would vote for Mr. Trump, especially considering how young they are. (Mr. Trump’s support is weaker among the young). They could just as easily be supporters of Bernie Sanders. Even if the missing white voters were disproportionately Republican, a return to previous turnout levels wouldn’t have been anywhere near enough to get Mr. Romney over the top. There were far fewer missing white voters in the battleground states than there were nationally. There weren’t close to enough of them to flip the outcome in key states. The real pool of missing white voters are those who haven’t participated in any recent election, or aren’t even registered to vote. There are millions of these missing white voters — but they will be much harder to mobilize. Many are young, and might not be especially favorable to Mr. Trump. The older ones are true bystanders in American politics. To win, Mr. Trump will need to make gains among white voters. The earliest evidence, and polling this early can be quite inaccurate, suggests that he is doing that handily. So far, Mr. Trump leads Mrs. Clinton by 27 points among white voters without a degree, 58 percent to 31 percent, in the last six national surveys from major news organizations. In the final 2012 polls, Mr. Romney led by just 19 points among such voters, 58 percent to 39 percent, over Mr. Obama. One of the big questions for Mr. Trump is whether his polling gains among that group, should they hold, will manifest themselves in battleground states. Mr. Romney’s national gains over Mr. Bush did him relatively little good: They were concentrated in the South and Appalachia, where they had little influence on the Electoral College. For now, it’s an open question whether Mr. Trump will make outsize gains in important states like Iowa, Ohio or Wisconsin, where he struggled in the primary season. Mr. Trump’s big advantage among white voters hasn’t translated to a much stronger position in national polls. That’s because he is underperforming Mr. Romney’s 2012 results among white voters with a college degree and nonwhite voters, often by a far greater amount than he’s gaining among whites. The same polls show Mrs. Clinton leading among white voters by 47 percent to 42 percent. It’s a reversal from 2012, when Mr. Romney led that group by six points, 52 percent to 46 percent in the final polls. Even modest additional gains for Mrs. Clinton among white voters or nonwhite voters would quickly start to make things very challenging for Mr. Trump. If Mr. Trump lost five points among white voters and Hispanics, which is how he’s doing in current polls, his target for white voters would quickly skyrocket. In a battleground state like Colorado, for example, he would need to gain 15 percentage points more of the white working class. Whether Mr. Trump can suppress his losses among voters and Latinos will be decided by a lot more than demographics. Usually, the fundamentals — including the current president’s approval rating and the pace of economic growth — play a big role in determining whether voters will support the incumbent’s party. This year, there are other big questions: whether Mr. Trump’s penchant to offend goes too far, and whether Mrs. Clinton has an advantage with women and faces a penalty among men (and which is bigger). So far, the polls suggest he will lose too much ground among and nonwhite voters to win. But the diversity of the country in itself does not rule out a victory for Mr. Trump. | 0fake |
Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring – FBI Insider | EndingFed News Network | Email Print An FBI source has confirmed that evidence has emerged from the Clinton email investigation that a massive child trafficking and pedophile sex ring operates in Washington. According to reports , at least 6 members of Congress and several leaders from federal agencies are implicated in the pedophile ring, which they say was run directly with the Clinton Foundation as a front. According to an NYPD source, emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop detail trips made by Weiner, Bill and Hillary Clinton on convicted pedophile pal billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s plane ‘Lolitta express‘ to a place known as “ Sex Slave Island “. Will this be the fatal shot? NYPD talking about Child Porn ring involvement. This is NOT confirmed, but would gut Dems. #GoHillary #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ke8YTz4DMh
— ALWAYS TRUMP! (@Always_Trump) October 31, 2016 An archived thread on 4chan in which an FBI insider originally hinted that the Clinton email server investigation was merely a distraction from the more sinister Clinton Foundation and its connection to pedophilia: Are the people leading the investigation blackmailed pedophiles? > The people under the magnifying glass do have an affinity for children. Please before you sleep speak a little on the child prostitution ring. Sex rings are popular in all governments, but pedophilia is primarily in British parliament & Saudi Arabia, and that’s why HRC and BC love foreign donors so much. They get paid in children as well as money. Dig deep and you can find it. It will sicken you. Stay connected by subscribing to our news letter. Click on the button. | 1real |
Russian lawmaker says U.S. sanctions hits joint fight against terror: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Cooperation between Russia and the United States in fighting terrorism will be complicated if possible at all due to a draft U.S. sanctions bill targeting Moscow, the RIA news agency cited prominent Russian senator Franz Klintsevich as saying on Wednesday. | 0fake |
Iraqi parliament 'has no right' to remove Kirkuk's governor: senior Kurdish official | ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq s parliament has no right to remove Kirkuk s governor from office, a senior Kurdish official said on Thursday, after parliament voted him out following a request by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He is an elected governor of the council of Kirkuk, said Hoshyar Zebari, a close adviser to Kurdish President Massoud Barzani. That is the only body that can remove him. The decision to remove the governor, Najmaddin Kareem, comes after Kirkuk - an oil-rich province claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq - voted to take part in a referendum set for Sept. 25 on Kurdish independence. | 0fake |
Here’s The New Way Trump Is Scamming Republican Donors Who Give The GOP Money | Donald Trump has claimed to be a billionaire who was willing to spend major dollars in order to secure the White House and remain independent. In reality, Trump has been stingy with his money and the evidence has mounted that he is worth far less than he claims and he won t release his tax returns to prove otherwise.Now in the most recent filings, Trump again has been shown up as a liar, donating far less of his own money to the campaign even as Hillary Clinton began to increase her lead in nearly every national poll.Donald Trump cut his routine $2 million monthly check to his campaign last September after repeatedly suggesting that he would increase his donations during the campaign s stretch run.Trump s campaign, along with Republican joint fundraising committees, said it raised $100 million last month, more than it has in any previous month though well short of the $154 million Hillary Clinton s operation took in.The report also showed that unlike in other years, big pocketed Republican donors have not lined up to support the Trump campaign. In all likelihood they are seeing the writing on the wall and are staying away from a campaign circling the drain.Since freaking out over former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, the release of his sexual assault audio tape, and the stream of women now coming forward to allege that Trump molested them, his polling numbers have collapsed. Combined with Republican officials rescinding their support, Trump is now seen as with only about a 10 percent chance of winning the election according to most polling analysis.At the same time, Hillary Clinton has consolidated most of the Democratic Party base behind her, and has top-tier surrogates like President Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigning on her behalf.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Obama says he would have outrun Trump, but Trump says, 'No way!' | HONOLULU (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Monday that he would have won most Americans’ support if he had been able to run against Donald Trump for a third term. “No way!” Trump countered in a tweet, citing as liabilities U.S. companies taking jobs overseas, the fight against Islamic State militants and Obama’s signature healthcare law. Barred by the U.S. Constitution from seeking a third four-year-term, the president told his former adviser David Axelrod in a podcast that Americans would have backed Obama’s vision. “I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said, referring to his 2008 campaign message of hope and change. A wealthy businessman, the Republican Trump will assume his first public office when he succeeds Obama on Jan. 20. He defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 with a promise to clean up Washington. In a tweet, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said Obama would have beaten Trump and Clinton would have won if not for an FBI statement shortly before the election disclosing new material on Clinton’s email practices as secretary of state. Clinton’s aides have said FBI Director James Comey’s announcement, which led to no charges, swung the election, a charge Trump’s team has dismissed. Obama said Clinton “performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances.” He said she focused on Trump’s flaws and could have argued more that the Democratic Party agenda helped working people. Trump garnered more than 270 of the 538 state-by-state electoral votes to win the presidency. Clinton won 48.2 percent of the popular vote compared with 46.1 percent for Trump, according to the Associated Press. | 0fake |
Most South Koreans doubt the North will start a war: poll | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has ratcheted up international tension and fear with its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday, but South Koreans feel increasingly doubtful it would start a war, a poll showed on Friday. A Gallup Korea survey found that 58 percent of South Koreans felt there was no possibility North Korea will cause a war, while 37 percent said they thought it would. Gallup Korea began asking South Koreans the question in 1992, and the percentage of respondents this time who thought the North would not start a war was the second highest since then. In the first poll in 1992, 69 percent of those questioned thought the North would start a war while only 24 percent thought it would not. The survey released on Friday showed South Koreans were considerably less concerned about war compared with June 2007, nine months after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, in September 2006. In 2007, 51 percent of respondents said they expected a war, while 45 percent did not. North Korea says it needs to develop weapons to protect itself against U.S. aggression. It has been steadily pursuing its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of international condemnation and has threatened more action in response to any new U.N. sanctions and U.S. pressure. Despite the North s fiery rhetoric, South Koreans are generally calm, going about their lives with no sign of panic. The survey results show South Koreans have likely grown accustomed to its repeated threats of provocation after over 60 years in a ceasefire state, Gallup Korea said in a statement. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. The poll also found that 60 percent of those surveyed believed South Korea should arm itself with nuclear weapons while 35 percent disagreed. Those in their twenties were most opposed to the idea of acquiring nuclear weapons, while respondents 50 and above said the South should have them. Gallup also said 59 percent of respondents were against the idea of the United States attacking North Korea first should North Korean provocations continue, while 33 percent said it should. Gallup Korea said the poll was carried out from Sept. 5 to 7. A total of 1,004 South Koreans over the age of 19 were polled by telephone, it said. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent. | 0fake |
Chrisette Michele Defends Inauguration Performance after Backlash | After coming under fire from her fans and celebrity colleagues, RB and soul Chrisette Michele is defending her decision to perform at an undisclosed event during Donald Trump’s inauguration. [“We can’t be present if we’re silent,” Michele wrote in an open letter she posted to Twitter Friday. The says she is willing to take the heat if it means she can “be a bridge” to bring people together. “I am willing to be a bridge. I don’t mind These Stones, if they allow me to be a voice for the voiceless,” the singer wrote. https: . | An Open Letter pic. twitter. — chrisette michele (@ChrisetteM) January 19, 2017, Though Michele has worked with the likes of Jay Z, John Legend and will. I. am, the star has faced backlash for agreeing to perform for Trump. Film director Spike Lee said he’s no longer using Michele’s song “Black Girl Magic” in his new Netflix series after he learned of her inauguration event. “I Wuz Thinkin’ ’bout Using Chrisette’s BLACK GIRL MAGIC In My Netflix Series SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT … . NOT ANYMORE,” Lee wrote in an Instagram post. Good Morning Folks. I Wuz Sorry To Read That ”Sistuh Girl” Is Singin’ At DT’s Inauguration (And To Use His Fav ). I Wuz Thinkin’ ’bout Using Chrisette’s BLACK GIRL MAGIC In My Netflix Series SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT … . NOT ANYMORE. And Dat’s Da Truth, Ruth. A photo posted by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on Jan 19, 2017 at 4:10am PST, Questlove, drummer for The Roots, the longtime band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, tweeted on Wednesday that he would pay Michele not to perform at Trump’s inauguration. I’d pay Chrisette to NOT perform 😔 — Questlove Gomez (@questlove) January 18, 2017, Michele joins a growing lineup of inaugural performers many of them, including Toby Keith, and rock band Three Doors Down, are expected to perform Friday for the “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration. ” Soul singer and civil rights activist Sam Moore, who also recently defended his decision to perform at the inauguration, is also expected to tale the stage on Friday. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0fake |
RED FLAG IN CLINTON’S FBI INTERVIEW Shocks Former Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy | Finally, something else about those lawyers. I nearly fell out of my chair upon reading the very first paragraph of the notes of Clinton s interview, which identifies the lawyers for Clinton who were permitted to be present for the interview. Among them is Cheryl Mills, Clinton s longtime confidant and chief-of-staff at the State Department.Readers may recall that I suggested back in May that the fix was in in the investigation of the Clinton emails. The reason was that the Justice Department was allowing Cheryl Mills a witness, if not a subject, of the investigation to invoke attorney-client privilege on behalf of Mrs. Clinton in order to thwart the FBI s attempt to inquire into the procedure used to produce Clinton s emails to the State Department. Mills was a participant in that procedure and it is the procedure in which, we now know, well over 30,000 emails were attempted to be destroyed, including several thousand that contained government-related business.When she worked for Clinton at State, Mills was not acting in the capacity of a lawyer not for then-Secretary Clinton and not for the State Department. Moreover, as Clinton s chief-of-staff, Mills was intimately involved in issues related to Clinton s private email set up, the discussions about getting her a secure BlackBerry similar to President Obama s, and questions that were raised (including in FOIA requests) about Clinton s communications.That is to say, Mills was an actor in the facts that were under criminal investigation by the FBI. Put aside that she was not Mrs. Clinton s lawyer while working for the State Department; as I explained in the May column, Mills, after leaving the State Department, was barred by ethical rules from acting as Mrs. Clinton s lawyer in connection with a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee. There is no way Mills should have been permitted to participate as a lawyer in the process of producing Clinton s emails to the State Department nearly two years after they d both left.I thought it was astonishing that the Justice Department indulged her attorney-client privilege claim, which frustrated the FBI s ability to question her on a key aspect of the investigation. But it is simply unbelievable to find her turning up at Mrs. Clinton s interview participating in the capacity of a lawyer under circumstances where Clinton was being investigated over matters in which Mills participated as a non-lawyer government official.FLASHBACK: REMEMBER WHEN CHERYL MILLS WALKED OUT OF FBI MEETING: Read more: NRO | 1real |
Madonna Has One Word To Describe Donald Trump’s Animal-Murdering Sons | Madonna just called out Donald Trump s privileged sons and it s EPIC.The Republican nominee s sons Eric and Donald Jr. often go hunting for sport because that s what rich white assholes do with their spare time.In 2011, the douchy duo went on a safari and killed a majestic leopard that they held up like a trophy while getting their picture taken. They then posted the image on the Internet to brag about their kill because apparently they think killing an animal that is decreasing in overall population somehow makes them men.Well, Madonna has seen the picture and she is NOT impressed and she really only had one word to describe Trump s little boys. How Big of [a] Pussy Do you have to BE to kill this Noble Animal for sport? Madonna wrote on Instagram along with the photo. Just ask Donald Trump Jr and his brother Eric. Then she endorsed Hillary Clinton because she doesn t need to shoot animals to prove how tough she is.How Big of. Pussy Do you have to BE to kill this Noble Animal for sport? Just ask Donald Trump Jr and his brother Eric. One more reason to vote for Hilary! ???A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on Aug 31, 2016 at 11:23pm PDTAs mentioned above, the leopard population is decreasing and the species has been designated as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union, so the Trump s hunt is definitely something worth being enraged about. After all, we are witnessing a decline of many of the world s animal species and these two assholes are contributing to the problem.In addition, the brothers have killed elephants, which is an endangered species facing a catastrophic decline. And that s just the tip of the iceberg since there are photos of many other animals they have killed. Law enforcement might want to make sure two aren t serial killers, because killing animals is how that usually starts. Instead of spending their daddy s money on killing sprees, perhaps they should spend the money on making sure these animals are here for future generations to enjoy. But that would be asking a lot of these heartless pricks.Featured image via The Mirror | 1real |
THE “PEACEFUL” TRANSITION Of Power Continues As Domestic Terrorists Light Limo In D.C. On Fire [VIDEO] | Domestic terrorists torched a limousine in D.C.near the parade. Because nothing says, I hate President Donald Trump like lighting a perfect strangers vehicle on fire.Keep it up you bunch of loser criminals and you ll never win another election Fire on 13 & K looks like a car was torched. Some #DisruptJ20 protesters leaving the area now pic.twitter.com/xTVCOy9PwC Ryan Lovelace (@LovelaceRyanD) January 20, 2017Protesters set fire to a limo as part of anti-Trump demonstrations in Washington #PresidentTrump #inauguration https://t.co/9bajc0H2BU Sky News (@SkyNews) January 20, 2017Folks, I present to you the modern left! #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/wFkJnrAcfK Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) January 20, 2017 | 1real |
UNREAL! CBS’S TED KOPPEL Tells Sean Hannity He’s “Bad for America” [Video] | 1real | |
Catalan leader must drop independence by Thursday: Spain deputy PM | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s government will take control of Catalonia and rule it directly if Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont does not drop a bid to split the region from Spain by Thursday at 1000 a.m. (0800 GMT), deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said. Mr Puigdemont still has the opportunity to start resolving this situation, he must answer yes or no to the declaration (of independence), Saenz de Santamaria said. Madrid had given Puigdemont until Monday 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) to clarify his position on independence with a Yes or No , but the Catalan leader did not directly answer the question. | 0fake |
Congressional Black Caucus Signals That They Absolutely Intend To Impeach Trump | The Congressional Black Caucus, like most Democrats and reasonable people everywhere, have never had very warm feelings toward Donald Trump to put it mildly. After all, this is a section of the House of Representatives dedicated to protecting the interests and rights of Black Americans, and Trump is a lifelong open and avowed racist. However, they have, for the most part, seemed to stop short of calling for Trump s removal with the exception of Rep. Maxine Waters, who is, of course, in a league all her own.This level of restraint being exercised by the majority of this powerful group of lawmakers has definitely changed as of late, though. Ever since Trump s disgraceful response to the horrific events in Charlottesville at a rally of neo-Nazis that resulted in countless injuries and the death of a brave young woman, it seems that the Black Caucus is done playing. They want Trump out of office, posthaste. During a conference call held with the press on Monday, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) said of Trump: You can make an argument based on pure competency and fitness to serve, and that s the conversation the caucus will have. Am I concerned about high crimes and misdemeanors? Absolutely. Am I concerned about this president s fitness to serve? Absolutely. Richmond also indicated that Charlottesville was the last straw when it came to giving Trump the benefit of the doubt when it comes to whether or not he really has the concerns of Black America at heart. Granted, all of this is a pipe dream for now. The GOP will criticize Trump until the cows come home, but they sure as hell won t do anything about him. They won t even formally censure him, much less move to remove him from office.All of that could change, however, if the House is returned to Democratic control in 2018. Folks, if we want to save our republic, we ll give the Congressional power to the Democrats next year while we still have a country to save.Featured image via Law Officer | 1real |
Watch The ‘Liberal Redneck’ Compare Anti-Trans Protesters To Michele Bachmann On Bath Salts | Trae Crowder, known on YouTube as The Liberal Redneck, has returned again with yet another damned funny commentary on the recent creepy obsession that Republicans have with what people do in public restrooms.Crowder started by taking aim specifically at the new wave of idiots that are invading Target department stores, in order to loudly protest the fact they allow transgender people to use the restrooms in their department stores. One case in particular was one where a woman was walking up and down the aisles in target, towing along what appeared to be half of her 12 children she claimed to have.Sympathizing with the woman, in the comedic sense, he said he could understand how with 12 kids she was crazier than Michelle Bachmann on bath salts. You gotta agree with his logic. With 12 kids, and having to manage them in a militant Christian household that you KNOW she runs, she s probably crazier than an outhouse rat.Crowder is sick of hearing about how Republicans are going to take their country back as well, and suggested that they all move somewhere that religion and government are the same like Saudi Arabia. Crowder said I know what you re thinking Eww, they re brown, gross. But check it out: they love screaming, they hate books, they throw rocks at queers you d fit right in. What a great point. Right?Watch Trae completely own every person who can t stop thinking about people peeing below:Considering how many Republicans get caught doing bad hings in public rest rooms, you would think that they d be focusing more on their own party, instead of an entire segment of society that already lives in such fear of going to the bathroom they are in-and-out while drawing as little attention to themselves as possible.Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
O’Reilly on Sessions Saga: Democrat Hypocrisy ’Is on Full Display’ - Breitbart | Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly weighed in on the allegations that Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to acknowledge meeting with the Russian ambassador during his confirmation hearing earlier this year. O’Reilly declared Sessions was right to recuse himself from any investigations involving the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. However, he said this situation exposed hypocrisy of Democrats, who were silent on General Loretta Lynch’s recusal when presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was being investigated for her use of an unauthorized server while secretary of state. Transcript as follows: O’REILLY: Hi, I am Bill O’Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuses himself in the Russian investigation. That is a subject of this evening’s “Talking Points” memo. Okay. Here’s the deal. The Democratic Party in much of the national press wants to produce evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government in defeating Hillary Clinton. There is no question about that. The cost of the Russian hacking, a serious issue, there were hearings held in Congress. And by extension, when then Senator Jeff Sessions testified at his confirmation hearing for Attorney General, the Russian issue came up. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. AL FRANKEN (D) MINNESOTA: If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? JEFF SESSIONS (R) SENATOR: Senator Franken, I am not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians. And I am unable to comment on it. (END VIDEO CLIP) O’REILLY: Now, last night, “The Washington Post” publish a story that said, Sessions did meet with the Russian ambassador twice last year. But if you are listening closely, the question was about the Trump campaign, not the former senators duties on the Armed Services Committee. Today in a press conference, the Attorney General reiterated that he was answering the Russian question in the context of the Trump campaign. He said he did nothing wrong, told the truth, but is recusing himself from the case. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SESSIONS: My staff recommended recusal. They said that since I had involvement with the campaign, I should not be involved in any campaign investigation. I have studied the rules and considered their comments and evaluations. I believe those recommendations are right and just. Therefore, I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign. (END VIDEO CLIP) O’REILLY: “Talking Points” believes Mr. Sessions did the right thing. The FBI is currently investigating whether Russians influence the presidential vote and he was involved. The investigation has to be above reproach. And that is why the Attorney General is now out of it. One footnote. Not one single Democrat in Congress, not one, called for General Loretta Lynch to recuse herself from the Hillary Clinton investigation after she met with Bill Clinton at a Phoenix Airport. There was absolutely no call for recusal by the Democrats, so once again, hypocrisy is on full display. Now, here is what should happen going forward. The FBI should continue with its investigation and Director Comey should testify in front of Congress. If during that testimony there is evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in any way, then, a special prosecutor should be appointed. That is what should happen. A methodical investigation by the FBI and a determination by Congress whether a special independent probe is necessary. I think that is a fair, honest, and efficient game plan in this intense political climate. Finally, even though the press does want to destroy President Trump, the American people should want to know, we should want to know if there were any secret dealings with the Russians during the campaign. That is a very important story that should be defined. And that is the memo. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 0fake |
Vladimir Poutine est élu 45e Président des Etats-Unis >> Le Gorafi | null | 1real |
HYSTERICAL! HERE’S WHY TRUMP SAID TO REPORTER: “I’m president and you’re not” | Read more:WT | 1real |
RUSSIA HAMMERS ISIS…Kills 600 Jihadis, As China Reportedly Join Forces With Putin To Wipe Out ISIS | Remember when the US had a President who took the lead in the war on terror? Russia has carried out a series of deadly airstrikes against the terrorist group and Vladimir Putin has now sent the country s most elite special forces team into the war zone.And speculation is heightening that offensive will be bolstered by the China s People s Liberation Army, following a number of reports of military movements in the region backed up by strong words from a senior government member at a United Nations meeting.Reports emanating from the Middle East last week said China was planning on joining the fight against ISIS in the coming weeks , according to a Syrian army official.While Beijing insists it will abide by the United Nations (UN) in the region, hints of an action were backed up when it spoke strongly about a coordinated response to the rising terrorist threat.Speaking of the Syrian crisis China s foreign minister Wang Yi said at the UN Security Council session in New York: The world cannot afford to stand by and look on with folded arms, but must also not arbitrarily interfere. He added that nations should stand united against violent extremist ideology .Mr Wang and his opposite number in Russia, Sergey Lavrov met at length last week and afterwards Mr Lavrov said the two countries are in similar positions on many domestic and international issues.China has also shown solidarity with Syria, joining Russia in vetoeing UN proposals against Bashar al-Assad, which are likely to prevent him being referred by the council to the International Criminal Court.The latest actions at the UN conference have come amid reports, citing key military sources, Chinese warships have made their way to Syrian shores through the Suez Canal.It was said China s J-15 warplanes would launch from an aircraft carrier for attacks on ISIS.Russian media followed that up by quoting Igor Morozov, a member of the Russian Federation Committee on International Affairs, confirming Chinese aircraft carrier, Lianoning, and a guided missile cruiser were heading to the area, and adding Chinese military advisers were already in the region.Mr Morozov said: It is known that China has joined our military operation in Syria. The Chinese cruiser has already entered the Mediterranean, followed by its aircraft carrier. These reports have not been verified by China and satellite images show the Syrian port of Tartus, currently empty.However, China come under threat from ISIS in recent months increasing the theory an attack is in the pipeline. Via: Express UK | 1real |
Denmark passes law that could ban Russian pipeline from going through its waters | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark passed a law on Thursday that could allow it to ban Russia s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from going through its waters on grounds of security or foreign policy. The measure amends Denmark s regulatory framework to allow the authorities to cite security or foreign policy as reasons to block a pipeline. Previously these were not valid grounds for objection. Denmark has been caught in a geopolitical conflict as Russia s Gazprom and its European partners have sought to build Nord Stream 2, a giant pipeline to pump natural gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing existing land routes over Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. The proposed route goes through Danish waters, but the pipeline consortium is investigating an alternative route north of the Danish island Bornholm which would run in international waters and therefore not be impacted by a potential Danish ban. Nord Stream 2 has already applied for permission in Denmark and its application is being assessed at the Danish Energy Agency. The change to the law will take effect from Jan. 1 but apply to applications that have already been submitted. In June, Danish energy and climate minister Lars Christian Lilleholt said he expected the agency to have completed its assessment during early 2018. | 0fake |
Man Booker Prize Shortlist Is Announced - The New York Times | LONDON — The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction, among the most prestigious literary honors in the world, includes six books by authors from Britain, Canada, South Africa and the United States, the prize committee said on Tuesday. The nominees for the award, which comes with a cash prize of £50, 000, or around $66, 400, were chosen from a longlist of 13 names, which was announced in July. The shortlisted books are: ■ The Canadian author Madeleine Thien’s “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” about the legacy of the Cultural Revolution in China. ■ The American writer Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” a satire on black life in the United States. ■ The author David Szalay’s “All That Man Is,” a series of nine stories about male protagonists. ■ The Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet’s “His Bloody Project,” a historical thriller inspired by a multiple homicide in the 19th century. ■ The South British novelist Deborah Levy’s “Hot Milk,” a story about a young woman. ■ “Eileen,” the debut novel by the American author Ottessa Moshfegh, which centers on a young woman working at a juvenile detention center in 1960s New England. Ms. Levy is the only author on the list to have been shortlisted before, in 2012, for “Swimming Home. ” Neither “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” by the Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, nor the Nobel Prize laureate J. M. Coetzee’s “The Schooldays of Jesus,” both of which made the longlist, reached the final stage. In 2014, the Man Booker, which had been limited to writers from Britain, Ireland, the Commonwealth and Zimbabwe, opened up to include submissions from any author whose work was published in Britain and first written in English. The Jamaican author Marlon James won the prize last year for his epic, “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” which revolves around a 1976 assassination attempt against Bob Marley. Past novelists who have won the award include leading literary names like Hilary Mantel, Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 25. | 0fake |
BREAKING: FREDDIE GRAY HEAD INJURY MATCHES BOLT ON DOOR OF TRANSPORT VAN | This answers questions but also raises many more questions in this case. Why did the van stop four times? The police van driver hasn t given testimony yet so perhaps he can shed some light on what happened to Freddie Gray An investigation into the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray has found no evidence that his fatal injuries were caused during the videotaped arrest and interaction with police officers, according to multiple law enforcement sources.The sources spoke to ABC7 News after being briefed on the findings of a police report turned over to prosecutors on Thursday. Sources said the medical examiner found Gray s catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van.Details surrounding exactly what caused Gray to slam into the back of the van was unclear. The officer driving the van has yet to give a statement to authorities. It s also unclear whether Gray s head injury was voluntary or was a result of some other action.The medical examiner s office declined to comment on this open investigation and said it does not release preliminary findings. Via: WJLA | 1real |
Lynch's delayed confirmation vote | The last-ditch effort to stop Donald Trump is gaining momentum. | 0fake |
Lest We Forget, the U.S., Too, Spent Time in the Doping Wilderness - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — Early in 1987, Kerry Lynch, a bright hope of the American ski team for an Olympic medal, boarded a plane for Germany. There, he met an American doctor who performed a transfusion that packed his blood with red blood cells, an elixir for endurance athletes. A few days later, at the 1987 world championships, he finished second in the Nordic combined, a grueling event that featured ski jumping and skiing. It was the best performance ever by an American in that event. The plot came undone, Lynch confessed, and it turned out that Jim Page, director of the United States Nordic program, had given his blessing to the doping. The International Ski Federation booted Page for life. The United States Olympic Committee was far gentler. Page remained and became its managing director of sports performance. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, the United States had a pervasive doping problem in Olympic sports that was enabled by the U. S. O. C. Test results disappeared, athletes ran and jumped and swam their way to medals, and complicit coaches prospered. Our Olympic leaders and corporate sponsors and many of us in the news media placed hands over eyes and blocked ears at talk of American doping. I page through this history not by way of offering a backdoor defense of Russia. Two exhaustive reports establish that the Russian government engaged in doping, and that is a blot on world sport. More athletes now are speaking out on doping, and the timidity of the International Olympic Committee in punishing the Russians dishonors their efforts. But as we rage and stomp about Russia’s doping, we might recall those decades when doping was a slice of American pie. Ours had no labs creating Frankenstein drugs and athletes, nor did government officials play a role. But we had much malfeasance, from Lance Armstrong and his United States Postal Service team to Carl Lewis, who dominated several Olympics and was the greatest American track athlete of his time. In 2003, Lewis admitted that he had failed three tests for stimulants in 1988 and that Olympic executives had looked the other way. In fairness, Lewis tested positive for a small amount of stimulants, which, he said, came contained in a cold medication. Perhaps this is so. His statement, however, spoke to a culture of complicity. “There were hundreds of people getting off,” he said in 2003. “Everyone was treated the same. ” A few examples: Dr. Wade Exum, the U. S. O. C.’s antidoping director, claimed in a lawsuit filed early in the last decade that the committee’s lust for medals had helped it overcome moral good sense. His lawsuit was dismissed, but he gave documents to Sports Illustrated that showed that American Olympic officials had covered up more than 100 tests from 1988 to 2000. The Orange County Register revealed some years back that at least 34 American track and field athletes had tested positive before the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and had most likely gone on to compete and win medals. The next Summer Olympics was in Seoul in 1988. Pat Connelly, a prominent track coach, later testified in Congress that as many as 20 American female athletes had “probably” used anabolic steroids in preparation for those Games. Evelyn Ashford, a top American sprinter, testified that she knew of two female American gold medalists who had used steroids, although she declined to identify them. On and on it goes. It is striking how many of the best track performances from that time still stand as world records. Doping tolerance suffused our culture: American baseball rode the broad backs and swings of the in the 1990s with the knowledge of its leaders and team owners the N. F. L. per usual, was an zone. I called up Max Cobb, president of U. S. Biathlon, who is a courageous crusader for clean sport. He looks back at that time with a grimace. “In the 1970s and the 1980s, it was the wild, wild West out there,” he said. Russia’s defenders might clap at this as hypocrisy exposed. Let’s pause before tumbling down that rabbit hole. I’m not inclined to shrug off conclusive evidence that Russia, with the helping hands of its state security service, has overseen systematic doping. Those athletes who wished to remain clean found that their access to the best coaches and to the most competitive meets had disappeared. Late last year, the recently defrocked chief of Russia’s antidoping agency wrote an email to a British reporter, saying he wanted to write a book about sports doping in Russia and the country’s secret laboratory. Two months later, this man went out to do some skiing and died. “It was,” the Russian minister of sport noted, “a very unexpected death. ” About the same time, another general director of the antidoping agency also died unexpectedly. book deals, not to mention knowledge of the inner workings of Russian sports, appear to be bad for your health. Thomas Bach, the pliable chief of the I. O. C. has made it clear this week that the idea of barring Russia from the Rio Olympics fills him with horror. To levy such a punishment, he said, would result “in death and devastation. ” I have no idea what interior horror movie Bach was living through when he uttered those words. If we’ve learned anything from America’s experience with decades of athletic doping, and its efforts to clean up that culture, it’s that the unyielding effort by antidoping agencies carries its own reward. The United States Agency now aggressively pursues dopers and bars their coaches. I am not a fan of lifetime bans I dislike playing grand executioner. But Justin Gatlin, the best of the great American dash men, offers a case study in the new approach to dopers. He was booted for four years in 2006 after testing positive for testosterone. His punishment resulted in humiliation and lost earnings that ran into millions. That strikes me as suitably tough, in that it allowed him a second chance. This, however, has not pleased the Madame Defarges in the press corps, who adore denouncing Gatlin. “The expectation in the United States now is that you will be tested and there will be no shortcuts,” Cobb said. “We have really narrowed the advantage that can be obtained through doping. ” A coda, perhaps. But after decades in the wilderness, an expectation has been set, a standard established. | 0fake |
Venezuela Maduro warns of repeat elections in states won by opposition | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state elections may be repeated in the five states won by the opposition if the governors-elect continue to refuse to be sworn in by a controversial pro-government legislative superbody, President Nicolas Maduro warned on Friday. His warning came in a televised speech after the government on Sunday unexpectedly won 18 of 23 states in a vote which the opposition calls fraudulent. Authorities have mandated that all elected governors participate in a ceremony before the pro-government Constituent Assembly, but the five opposition winners did not take part. Anyone who wants to be governor will have to recognize the Constituent National Assembly; otherwise elections will be repeated in states where the Assembly is not recognized, Maduro said at the inauguration of one of the socialist candidates in western Lara state. The opposition says that by law, the oath must be taken before regional parliaments and not before the Constituent Assembly, but so far none of their candidates have undergone that process and formally assumed their roles. Venezuela s opposition leaders have said they would travel abroad to denounce what they call dirty tricks by the government and outright fraud in the minerals-rich state of Bolivar. Maduro says the opposition cries fraud whenever it loses elections and that Venezuela s electoral system is the most secure in the world. | 0fake |
Separate mothers and children: How a Trump threat deterred illegal migrants | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has won the first major battle in his war on illegal immigration, and he did it without building his wall. The victory was announced last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which released figures showing a 93 percent drop since December of parents and children caught trying to cross the Mexico border illegally. In December, 16,000 parents and children were apprehended; in March, a month in which immigration typically increases because of temperate weather, the number was just over 1,100. It was a remarkable decline - steeper than the 72 percent drop in overall apprehensions - but for eight DHS officials interviewed by Reuters it was not surprising. Trump has spoken about the need to crack down broadly on all illegal immigrants. But, internally, according to the DHS officials familiar with the department’s strategy, his administration has focused on one immigrant group more than others: women with children, the fastest growing demographic of illegal immigrants. This planning has not been previously reported. In the months since Trump’s inauguration, DHS has rolled out a range of policies aimed at discouraging women from attempting to cross the border, including tougher initial hurdles for asylum claims and the threat of prosecuting parents if they hire smugglers to get their families across the border. The department has also floated proposals such as separating women and children at the border. DHS Secretary John Kelly told a Senate hearing on April 5 that the sharp drop in illegal immigration, especially among women and children, was due to Trump’s tough policies. To date, it has been the threat of new policies rather than their implementation that has suppressed family migration. Mothers and children aren’t being separated - and DHS has shelved the plan; parents haven’t been prosecuted, and there is no wall along most of the border. Yet the number of migrants trying to cross – especially women and children – has dropped drastically. Asked to comment on the policy of targeting women with children, DHS spokesman Jonathan Hoffman referenced the March drop, saying, “Those were 15,000 women and children who did not put themselves at risk of death and assault from smugglers to make the trip north.” The White House declined to comment and referred Reuters to DHS. For months, Central Americans had heard about Trump’s get-tough policies. And public service announcements on radio and television presented bleak pictures of what awaited those who traveled north. Some of the ads were funded by the United States, others by United Nations agencies and regional governments. One radio ad in Honduras featured a mother, saying, “It’s been a year and I don’t know if she is alive or dead. I’d do anything to have her here with me. Curse the day I sent her north.” The possibility that mothers and children might be separated at the border caused particular alarm, Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Maria Andrea Matamoros told Reuters “That worries any mother that wants to go to the United States with their kid, and being separated drastically changes their plans,” she said. The policies targeting women and children have their roots in a working group consisting of Capitol Hill staffers and others called together by Trump’s transition team in the weeks after the Nov. 8 election. The group was asked to develop policies to discourage illegal border crossings and more quickly expel illegal immigrants after they crossed the border, according to two of the DHS officials and a congressional aide. One goal was to help Trump fulfill a major campaign promise: ending so-called “catch and release,” the practice of apprehending illegal immigrants but then freeing them to live in the United States while their asylum or deportation cases were resolved. The group quickly identified a major obstacle - the large numbers of women and children continuing to cross the border, said the DHS officials and the aide. Because a federal court ruling bars prolonged immigration detention of juveniles, the Obama administration generally released mothers and children to live in the United States while awaiting resolution of their asylum or deportation cases. The incoming Trump administration viewed that policy as providing encouragement for women to make the dangerous journey north with their children in tow. But the new administration was bound by the same court ruling. After Kelly’s confirmation as Homeland Security chief in late January, several members of the original working group stepped into key roles at DHS. Gene Hamilton, who had worked for then Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, became senior counselor to Kelly, and Dimple Shah, who had been staff director of the House National Security Subcommittee, became deputy general counsel. Kathy Nuebel-Kovarik, formerly a staffer for Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, became policy chief at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Julie Kirchner left her position as executive director of the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform to become a top policy adviser at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. None of the group’s members agreed to be interviewed by Reuters. Several DHS officials said that in their new roles they continued to focus on the issue of women and child migrants. Soon, they had the bare bones of a plan: Since the court ruling on children was an obstacle to prolonged detention, why not separate them from their mothers, sending children into foster care or protective federal custody while their mothers remained in detention centers, the two DHS officials and congressional aide said. The group also advocated two other policies directly affecting mothers and children: raising the bar for asylum and prosecuting parents as human traffickers if they hired human smugglers. The thinking was that “if they can just implement tough policies for eight weeks - or even threaten to do that - they would see the numbers of families crossing just plummet,” said one DHS official familiar with the planning. On Jan. 25, five days after taking office, Trump issued an executive order ending “catch and release.” (A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the agency still releases most women and children in compliance with the federal court order.) A week later, in a town hall with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services officers, Chief Asylum Officer John Lafferty outlined the possibility of separating women and children in a semi-public setting for the first time, according to notes of the meeting seen by Reuters. For more than a month after that meeting, the proposal did not leak, but after Reuters broke news of it in early March, Kelly confirmed that it was under consideration. Democratic members of Congress blasted the proposal, and within days it had made headlines across Mexico and Central America. That month, the number of children traveling with guardians apprehended at the border fell to one-third of what it had been in February. When Kelly and his advisers saw the numbers dropping, they announced they were shelving the idea of separating women and children – at least for now. Asked whether it may be revived, DHS spokeswoman Jenny Burke said, “Families caught crossing the border illegally, generally will not be separated unless the situation at the time requires it.” | 0fake |
Trump Just Made His 2 Most DUNDERHEADED Moves Yet After Firing Comey (DETAILS) | As if firing FBI Director James Comey wasn t stupid enough, Trump has gone and driven two more nails into his own coffin this evening. First, he hired an outside law firm to send a certified letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that heard testimony from James Clapper and Sally Yates on May 8, regarding the Russia probe.Second, he s meeting with Vladimir Putin s top diplomat to the U.S., Sergey Lavrov, in the White House Wednesday morning. The Associated Press says that this could be a signal that our relationship with Russia is improving again, but in the wake of the clusterfuck that was Trump s entire Tuesday, this does not look good at all.First, the law firm and the letter. Trump wants the letter to Sen. Graham to claim that he has no connections to Russia.Seriously.He s hired an outside law firm to draft and send a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham claiming that he has no connections business or otherwise to Russia. Because obviously.But wait! This move achieves the impossible by getting even more ridiculous than that! Sean Spicer briefed the White House press corps on this development, and said: The president, obviously, was aware of Senator Graham s suggestion after he made it today and he s fine with that. He has no business in Russia. He has no connections to Russia. So he welcomes that.In fact, he is already charged a leading law firm in Washington, D.C., to send a certified letter to Senator Graham to that point that he has no connections to Russia. If he knows he s got no connections at all to Russia, and he knows he s completely innocent of all these allegations, then why hire an outside law firm to send a letter to Sen. Graham reiterating that? That s not what someone who s sure of their innocence does.Now, his meeting with Lavrov is taking place after Lavrov meets with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Both meetings will supposedly focus on stabilizing Syria the Trump administration seems to think that we need to work with Russia to accomplish anything there. But, as the AP notes in their story: [T]he meeting will be impossible to separate from the Trump administration s unfolding political drama in Washington, where FBI and congressional investigations are looking into possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and the Kremlin related to last year s presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies accuse Moscow of meddling to help Trump s chances of victory. That, combined with this letter he s sending to Sen. Graham (and we have to wonder exactly how such a letter is going to prove that he s got no connections to Russia at all), just looks really, really bad. In fact, it s starting to look like the world is about to come crashing down around him.Featured image by Olivier Douliery Pool via Getty Images | 1real |
Jeff Sessions Says He Would Be Independent and Stand Up to Trump - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions, Donald J. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, pledged on Tuesday to “say no” to Mr. Trump if he tries to go beyond the law, and he spoke out against torture, a ban on Muslim immigration and other ideas that had been floated by Mr. Trump. Mr. Sessions, a deeply conservative Republican from Alabama who was an early Trump supporter, appears headed for confirmation after completing more than nine hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Sessions and his allies had girded for a coordinated attack on his civil rights record, but Democrats tempered their criticism and Republicans mounted a defense, describing him repeatedly as a man of integrity. In his two decades on Capitol Hill, Mr. Sessions has questioned whether the Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States, has said courts have interpreted the separation of church and state too broadly and has declared marriage a threat to American culture. He also voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Much of the hearing focused on Mr. Sessions’s long record as a prosecutor and a senator, but Mr. Trump proved a dominant figure in absentia for much of the debate as Democrats sought to question the by proxy. They asked whether Mr. Sessions supported Mr. Trump’s most controversial statements and questioned whether he had the independence to rein in the Mr. Trump if he seeks to exceed his presidential authority. In his cool, Southern drawl, Mr. Sessions vowed repeatedly that he would, saying that an attorney general “cannot be a mere rubber stamp” for the president. “If an attorney general is asked to do something that’s plainly unlawful,” he said, “that person would have to resign ultimately before agreeing to execute a policy that the attorney general believes would be unlawful or unconstitutional. ” But he indicated that he did not believe he would reach that impasse. If he advises Mr. Trump that a policy is illegal, he said, “I am confident that he would” heed that advice. A Methodist, he also pledged to set aside his personal beliefs and aggressively enforce all federal laws — even in areas like abortion, gay rights and hate crimes where he has made his opposition well known. “I don’t think it would be hard for me to be impartial and enforce laws that I didn’t vote for,” he said. “I think I can separate my personal votes of maybe years ago from what my responsibilities is today. ” He was asked, for instance, about a law he opposed in the Senate making attacks based on sexual orientation a hate crime. “The law has been passed, the Congress has spoken, and you can be sure I will enforce it,” Mr. Sessions said. Many of Mr. Sessions’s answers appeared calculated to distance himself from some of Mr. Trump’s most contentious threats and pledges on the campaign trail. He said, for instance, that current law “absolutely” bans waterboarding and the use of other torture techniques against prisoners — even though Mr. Trump promised to reinstitute the practice and Mr. Sessions himself supported it for years. Asked about last week’s report by intelligence agencies that Russia tried to influence the American election, he said that “I have no reason to doubt that and no information that would indicate otherwise” — a sharp contrast from Mr. Trump’s weeks of skepticism. Mr. Trump last week called the uproar over Russia’s role a “political witch hunt. ” He said he also opposed creating a registry of American Muslims or banning Muslim immigrants, as Mr. Trump proposed repeatedly during the campaign in response to terrorist attacks. “I have no belief and do not support the idea that Muslims as a religious group should be denied admission to the United States,” Mr. Sessions said. But he said he supported using “extreme vetting” of immigrants that might take into account religious beliefs — an idea Mr. Trump now appears to have endorsed. Mr. Sessions also appeared to play down the prospects that his Justice Department would seek to jail Hillary Clinton over her private email server, another pledge that Mr. Trump made repeatedly during the campaign. Mr. Sessions surprised lawmakers by declaring that he would recuse himself from any decisions on Mrs. Clinton’s emails or the Clinton Foundation because he said that critical statements he made about her during the campaign might pose a conflict. Mr. Sessions had previously supported appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Mrs. Clinton. The F. B. I. ’s investigation into her private email server is closed, and while a preliminary investigation into the Clinton Foundation is open, senior law enforcement officials say there is little basis for the case to move forward. He deflected questions about Mr. Trump with a calm stoicism, but he grew angry and emotional when Democrats pressed him on a more personal matter: accusations of racial insensitivity toward his employees and others as a federal prosecutor, which doomed his nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986. Protesters in the ornate Senate hearing room, who disrupted the proceedings more than a dozen times during the day, erupted in chants of “Sessions is a racist!” and “No Trump, no K. K. K. no fascist U. S. A. !” Two men dressed as Klansmen in white robes and hoods shouted their mocking support for Mr. Sessions before security officers hustled them out of the room. With his voice rising, Mr. Sessions called accusations that he had made racist remarks in the 1980s “damnably false. ” Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican friend who introduced Mr. Sessions for the hearing, came to his defense, pointing to Mr. Sessions’s prosecution of Klan members in an Alabama murder and his appointment of the first chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee’s Republican staff. “These are not the actions of an individual motivated by racial animus,” she said. Mr. Sessions was the first senator to endorse Mr. Trump’s presidential bid in early 2016, and they bonded over their shared agreement that immigration had had devastating effects on working people. While Mr. Sessions sought to distance himself on Tuesday from some of Mr. Trump’s controversial stances, he embraced the ’s focus on toughened immigration laws and a “law and order” agenda — priorities he himself has stressed for years. He promised to escalate federal arrests and prosecutions of undocumented immigrants, drug dealers, gun traffickers and violent criminals in response to a rise in crime in some cities, and he declared that “protecting the American people from the scourge of radical Islamic terrorism will continue to be a top priority. ” Critical to that agenda, he said, will be improving federal relations with the police after the intense scrutiny that has followed a string of police shootings of black men, often unarmed. “Law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the unacceptable actions of a few of their bad actors,” Mr. Sessions said. “They believe the political leadership in the country has abandoned them. ” Indeed, Mr. Sessions questioned the Obama administration’s use of civil rights lawsuits and consent decrees to force changes in training and policies at police departments that have been accused of unconstitutional tactics. Although Mr. Sessions has completed his testimony, the hearings will continue on Wednesday with testimony by advocates on both sides. Witnesses supporting Mr. Sessions will include former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Larry Thompson, a former deputy attorney general. Testifying against him will be officials from the American Civil Liberties Union and the N. A. A. C. P. as well as Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, a rare case of a senator testifying against a colleague. | 0fake |
Storm Maria brings fear, pain and shock to Puerto Ricans | SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Miguel Cruz awoke to the descent of Hurricane Maria on his home on Wednesday morning when the massive storm peeled off most of the roof, sent his belongings flying in all directions, but left intact an icon of Jesus hanging above his bed. Cruz was one of thousands of Puerto Ricans picking through the wreckage left by Maria after the hurricane devastated basic services on the debt-laden U.S. territory, pitching most of its 3.4 million residents into darkness as night fell. Crashing into Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, Maria flipped the tops off buildings, knocked out phones and electricity across the island and turned low-lying roads into swollen rivers awash with debris. I was terrified. I prayed to God that the door and windows wouldn t open, said Sonja Alvarez, 52, who spent 10 hours shut in a bedroom with her family while Maria raged outside. But there came a point when I thought they would. Trees were torn apart, windows shattered and exposed homes turned inside out by Maria, which killed at least one man, who was struck by a piece of flying lumber. The storm also killed at least nine elsewhere in the Caribbean. By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), Maria was drifting away from Puerto Rico. The slowing storm was blowing maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph) and was 55 miles (90 km) off the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center said. The brutal winds left streets in the historic Old Town of the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan, strewn with rubble, from collapsed balconies to fallen lamp posts and dead birds. Among the most dramatically damaged areas in the capital was La Perla, a small barrio nestled into the steep hill separating the stone walls of Old San Juan from the sea. Once a notorious slum, La Perla s image has brightened in recent years as it has become an artsier enclave with colorful homes providing the setting for the megahit Despacito by Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. However, the red, wooden home of area resident Cruz was reduced to a roofless jumble, with the front door hanging at right angles to the frame. Behind it, a painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus looked out from a bare white wall. (Maria) has turned my house into a convertible. I can see the stars, the 45-year-old self-employed laborer said wryly, after relating how he had fled to a bunker downstairs with his pit-bull, Estrella. I m sort of used to these things, Cruz added. But this was tough. Down the slope from his home stood the shattered hulk of a concrete and steel garage with five cars trapped under the roof and sidewall that gave way under Maria s battering. Beyond his home, near the stone walls of the 500-year-old city, a cooker, a fridge and a toilet stood exposed atop another wooden house with views of the Caribbean. There used to be another floor, said Angela Torres, 32, explaining that the rest of the kitchen, two bedrooms and living room had been stripped from the building by Maria. After the rooms flew off, Torres, who had hunkered down on Tuesday night with her 87-year-old grandmother one floor below, learnt that Maria had knocked down one wall and the balcony of her own home a few miles away. I almost died when they sent me the photos, she said. But I haven t been able to go yet because you can t get out. Many in the capital left their coastal homes for refuge elsewhere, filling hotels across the city. Some returned to find their flats ruined by Maria, battered and full of water. Gingerly entering her sodden fifth-storey flat in the heart of Old San Juan, Aida Pietri was suddenly gripped by panic as the battered door to her rooftop terrace slammed open and shut in the wind and a bird flew through it. Where are my daughter s ashes? she said, rummaging through the scattered cushions, plants and papers. Eventually her eyes alighted on a metal box, and she found them, undamaged. | 0fake |
This Writer HILARIOUSLY Pranked Trump After Tricking The GOP Candidate Into Following Him (TWEETS) | Hillary Clinton often talks about how Donald Trump can be baited with a tweet, and thus he s ill-suited to be President of the United States because he can t be trusted with his Twitter account, let alone the nuclear codes.One Twitter user just tested this theory, and the results were absolutely hilarious.Eric Curtin, otherwise known as @dubsteps4dads on Twitter, is a self-described writer for things and to the rest of us, he s a f*cking genius.He recently tweeted out this series of images that shows his brilliant level of trolling. And who did he troll? None other than Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.Trump doesn t follow many people at all on Twitter, but when Curtin tweeted @realDonaldTrump follow me back so I can DM i have important info about hillary the GOP nominee quickly took the bait and followed him back.What happened next is pure comedy genius.First, came the initial invitation to Trump:Then came the follow by Trump:Followed by the direct message to Trump: Then the immediate block by Trump:Curtin then tweeted out a wrap-up of all that transpired with the simple caption: life comes at you fast. life comes at you fast pic.twitter.com/eh48IXb3nP spooky turtle (@dubstep4dads) October 23, 2016I don t know about you, but that s pretty damn hilarious. Not only that, it proves Hillary correct that Trump can very easily be baited with a tweet. He s also apparently extremely desperate for dirt on Hillary because he followed back a random Twitter account.This is yet another reason Trump can t be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office.Featured Photo by Scott Olson, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Twitter | 1real |
CUBAN INVASION: 7,000 Crossing Border Into U.S. With The Help Of The Feds [Video] | Thanks to Obama s open border policy and a recent agreement with Costa Rica (where these Cubans were waiting), we re bringing in thousands of Cubans. Once again, our open borders president and our DHS are in cahoots with Central America in screwing the American people who ll be footing the bill for this. What the local article below doesn t tell you is that the Cubans are being assisted by the feds which only promotes more and more Cubans to come to the U.S. Hey, didn t we just normalize relations with Cuba so things are supposed to be just peachy there now, right? WHY IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION APPROVING THOUSANDS OF CUBANS TO BE BUSSED INTO AMERICA?Central American nations have agreed to let stranded Cubans be airlifted and then bussed into America. Why not send them home? Well, it s because of yet another stupid policy to accept Cubans who ve made it to dry land from Cuba. Do we really need to keep this stupid policy in place? We re just making it more appealing for more and more Cubans to come to America. Heck, we re even providing transportation for them! Crazy!This is just more lawlessness from the Obama administration thinking nothing of bringing even more people to take care of. Unreal!Central American nations have reached an agreement to allow several thousand Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica for over a month to continue their journey towards the United States.The migrants will be airlifted to El Salvador and put on buses, which will take them to the US. American legislation gives Cuban migrants preferential treatment. If they arrive at the US border by land they are allowed to enter the country and apply for residency. Those who are intercepted at sea are sent back, under the special immigration policy known as wet foot, dry foot .Read more: !00% FED Up!The activity at the Hidalgo International Bridge continues. For 40 years, Jose Angel Rodriguez has made his living driving a cab.He said he s seeing more Cubans crossing the port of entry. They get here every night, in the morning, and at night they get here. They go to Laredo, too, Rodriguez said.Rodriguez remembered taking a few to a hotel or store. It gets busier each week that passes by.Down the road from the bridge were a handful of 15-passenger vans. They had Florida license plates. Giovanni Acosta is one of them. In Cuba, there s nothing. There s no freedom. We came from Cuba because the pressure that we have there, Giovanni Acosta said.Acosta said he s waiting for his wife to come to the bridge so he can take her back to Miami. She s taking the same track as he once did. I did the same path, like all the Cubans did. I came from Ecuador. I walked for 27 days on the road, he said.Congressman Henry Cuellar s office said Cuban refugees are coming to Laredo s Point of Entry every day and the numbers are increasing. They re coming from Central America through Mexico to the border.Acosta s van can take more than just his family. He said he can help the Cuban refugees, but his goal is to pick up his family, to bring them safely back home.CHANNEL 5 NEWS spoke to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to see if they were prepared for the influx. They released a statement that said in part, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is prepared to process the expected increase in Cubans applying for admission at South Texas ports of entry. CBP officers will process Cuban nationals in accordance with established procedures as expeditiously as possible while maintaining requirements and standards for individuals in our care. Via: krgv | 1real |
Trump Continues To Solicit Illegal Donations From Foreign Lawmakers | Foreign nationals, including lawmakers and other political types, cannot legally donate to or influence U.S. elections. However, the Donald Trump campaign, even after they have been called out on this unlawful activity, continues to send fundraising emails to foreign leaders.MSN reports:Foreign members of parliament from the United Kingdom and Australia confirmed to The Hill that they received fundraising solicitations from the Trump campaign as recently as July 12 two weeks after a widely publicized FEC complaint issued on June 29 by non-partisan watchdogs Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center.Australian progressive MP Terri Butler spoke with reporters from The Hill via telephone, and says that the emails she received were unsolicited spam from Team Trump. I haven t signed up for any Trump lists, she said.United Kingdom House of Commons MP Bob Blackmon has also received these solicitations to his official government email address. He says that they were unsolicited spam as well: I did not sign up, these are sent unsolicited. Yet another foreign MP, UK member Peter Bottomley, says he reached out to the Trump family for an explanation for the spam. He said: Neither [Trump s] sons nor anyone else has answered my questions about how they acquired my email nor why they were asking for financial support that I suppose to be illegal for [Trump] to accept. Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, who watches out for campaign finance violations, says of Trump s activities: This is kind of absurd. I don t know of anyone else in this situation who would just go on keeping on soliciting money from foreign interests. I think the fact circumstances here are unprecedented.If they are put on notice that their fundraising solicitations of potential foreign donors are illegal and they keep doing it, then you potentially have knowing and willful violations of the law which moves this from civil violations to criminal violations.It s open and shut that federal candidates can t solicit contributions from foreign donors. There s kind of an arrogance about this. It s Trump, so of course he s being arrogant. He s the man who literally said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him. He seriously believes he can do no wrong, and that apparently also includes flagrantly breaking the law in an effort to raise money for his pathetic, broke campaign.Larry Noble, an attorney for the Campaign Legal Center, described the Trump camp s illegal activities as really outrageous, and continued: It is a serious violation of federal law to solicit political contributions from foreign nationals.There is no reason this should be happening. While U.S. citizens do live abroad, they usually don t have foreign government email addresses or are members of parliament, so they can t try to explain this by saying they thought they were soliciting U.S. citizens abroad.If the Trump campaign has continued to solicit foreign nationals after the matter first came to light in June, this looks like either gross incompetence, gross negligence or willful conduct. Exactly right. This is either incompetence or willful and knowing violation of federal law. Either way, everyone involved in this needs to be investigated and charged. Trump needs to learn that no, he isn t above the law, even if his ridiculous supporters seem to think he can do no wrong.Featured image via John Sommers II/Getty Images | 1real |
ENABLERS WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES…Why Hillary Embracing Porn Star, Former Beauty Queen Will Backfire | The woman whose husband made several trips to pedophile island with his convicted pedophile friend, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein mocks Trump for liking to be around beauty contests ? Hillary used what she thought would be a good zinger against Trump during the debate when she boldly stated, He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around with them. Really Hillary? Don t you wish your own husband limited his desire for other women to simply enjoying being around them? Think of how many less women you d have to threaten to keep quiet if Bill only looked at other women and didn t actually sexually assault them.Hillary Clinton s new anti-Trump poster child is literally a porn star who was accused of driving the getaway vehicle for a murder attempt and later threatening to kill a judge.But the media is saying Trump is the villain of the piece because he once said she was overweight (despite CNN reporting the same thing).Let that sink in.Hillary brought up Alicia Machado, who won the Miss Universe pageant owned by Trump in 1996, during the debate on Monday night, claiming that Trump once called her Miss Piggy because she gained a lot of weight while representing the pageant.The whole stunt was designed to play into Hillary s feminist image and portray Trump as anti-women.Donald Trump once called a woman overweight vs Hillary Clinton repeatedly threatening Bill Clinton s sexual abuse victims.Which story is the media interested in and which one won t they touch? No prizes for guessing the correct answer.But that s not even the worst part of it.Machado, who is now a fully signed up Hillary campaign surrogate, was accused of driving a getaway car to aid her boyfriend in a plot to murder his brother-in-law at the funeral of the dead man s wife and then threatening to kill the judge who was in charge of convicting Juan Rodriguez Reggeti.Despite giving conflicting stories on where she was at the time, the judge said there was insufficient evidence to prove she was at the scene of the crime.When CNN s Anderson Cooper confronted Machado with her own sordid past, she didn t try to deny it, simply waving her hand and scoffing, I have my past, everybody has a past, I m not a saint. | 1real |
Mattis likely to become defense secretary, despite Democrats' concerns | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress is expected to approve President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of retired Marine Corps General James “Mad Dog” Mattis as secretary of defense, despite Democratic concerns that it ignores a long tradition of civilian control of the military. For Mattis to be confirmed, the Senate and the House of Representatives both must pass a waiver exempting him from a law written when the Department of Defense was created to ensure that the military is under civilian command.Legislators have granted such a waiver only once, in 1950, when Congress passed an act that allowed General George Marshall, who had retired in 1945, to serve as Pentagon chief. The 66-year-old Mattis, who is revered by fellow Marines, retired 3-1/2 years ago. The 1947 National Security Act requires a seven-year gap between active duty military service and the Cabinet position, leaving the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff as the Pentagon’s top uniformed military position. Another Marine general, Joseph Dunford, is the current chairman, serving a two-year term that ends in mid-2017. Mattis was once Dunford’s commander. Lawrence Korb, who was an assistant secretary of defense under Republican President Ronald Reagan, said having a military officer as secretary of defense would rob the Pentagon of needed perspective. He noted, for example, that social change in the military - from ending segregation to allowing women in combat - has always been pushed by civilians. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a military person as secretary of defense,” he said Friday in a telephone interview. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. After Trump announced his selection on Thursday, Democrats joined many Republicans, who control majorities in both houses of Congress, to heap praise on Mattis. But a few also raised concerns about having too many generals in the top tiers of the government. Trump’s choice for national security adviser is Michael Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The president-elect is also said to be considering David Petraeus, another retired Army general, as secretary of state, and retired Marine General John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said on Thursday she would not back a waiver for Mattis. Chris Murphy, another Senate Democrat, said on Friday he was “deeply fearful” that the precedent of civilian control of the military could wither, although he would talk to Mattis and spoke highly of the military leader. “It would be a really dangerous precedent to break here,” he told a news conference in Connecticut, his home state. Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, had high praise for Mattis but said the House should perform a full review, including committee hearings, if it were to consider overriding the prohibition on recent military officers leading the Pentagon. “Civil control of the military is not something to be casually cast aside,” Smith said in a statement. | 0fake |
Obama Details His Disappointment With Netanyahu In First Post-Election Comments | The president's comments cap a geopolitical backlash sparked by Netanyahu's statement on Monday that a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch. The Israeli prime minister has since insisted that he remains open to a two-state solution under very specific, restrictive conditions. But the damage appears to have been done, with the White House offering only the most perfunctory of diplo-speak to obscure its frustrations.
"We indicated that that kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions. That although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly," said Obama. "And I think that that is what's best about Israeli democracy. If that is lost, then I think that not only does it give ammunition to folks who don't believe in a Jewish state, but it also I think starts to erode the meaning of democracy in the country."
In his first public comments on Tuesday's elections in Israel, Obama's deepest discomfort was saved for Netanyahu's Election Day warning about Arab Israeli voters going to the polls "in droves."
Though he pledged to keep working with the Israeli government on military and intelligence operations, Obama declined to say whether the United States would continue to block Palestinian efforts to secure statehood through the United Nations. In a phone conversation the two had on Thursday, he said he indicated to Netanyahu that "it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible."
"We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn't happen during his prime ministership, and so that's why we've got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don't see a chaotic situation in the region," the president said in an interview with The Huffington Post on Friday.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is operating under the assumption that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not support the creation of a Palestinian state, despite the Israeli leader's post-election efforts to recast himself as amenable to a two-state solution.
Besides the pressing international matters, Obama also discussed challenges on the domestic front. In forceful terms, he chastised Senate Republicans for holding up his attorney general nominee , Loretta Lynch, and encouraged Democrats to buck demands that they first pass a human trafficking bill with a controversial anti-abortion provision.
"Our goal," he added, "is to get this done in a matter of weeks, not months."
Negotiators took a hiatus for the observation of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. The president on Friday encouraged everybody involved to use that time to grow more "comfortable with the current positions that are being taken."
Standing in the way of that final deal, according to recent reports, are lingering disputes over limits on new types of centrifuges that Iran wants to develop and the pace of international sanctions relief to be given to the country after a deal is struck.
"Frankly," he said, "they have not yet made the kind of concessions that are I think going to be needed for a final deal to get done. But they have moved, and so there's the possibility."
While he expressed worry about the strain that Netanyahu had placed on Israel's democratic fabric, Obama did not see the Israeli prime minister's electoral victory as having a tangible impact on current negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. With just days to go before those talks between Iran, the U.S. and five other countries are scheduled to wrap, Obama offered a markedly sober assessment about the prospects for a deal.
An even bigger fight between the parties could be on the political horizon. The president flatly said that he would not sign an appropriations bill to fund the government if it did not alleviate the spending cuts brought about by sequestration. With spending cuts set to return in October 2015, his declaration ups the ante for lawmakers and portends another government shutdown showdown.
"I’ve been very clear. We are not going to have a situation where, for example, our education spending goes back to its lowest level since the year 2000," said Obama. "We can’t do that to our kids, and I’m not going to sign it."
Even without Congress' input, there are initiatives that Obama can pursue during his closing year-and-a-half in office. During the roughly 25-minute interview in the White House Cabinet Room, he said that two major ones will be coming.
"Relatively soon," Obama said, he will be raising the annual salary threshold at which companies are required to pay overtime to employees who work more than 40 hours a week. The president didn't tip his hand as to how much he would lift the current level of $23,600.
In addition, Obama said he would be exercising his pardon and clemency powers "more aggressively for people who meet the criteria." There has been ongoing criticism that he has utilized those powers less than many of his predecessors.
One place where Obama will not go in the closing months of his second term is back to the negotiating table over a "grand bargain" on long-term deficit or debt reduction. Despite Republican criticism that a crisis still looms, he insisted that the times allow for a different approach
"The truth is, is that circumstances changed," said Obama, when asked why he no longer highlights issues like entitlement reform. "At that time, we were seeing significantly higher deficits, and the economy was just beginning to grow. We now know that we’ve got strong growth."
His unwillingness to re-open those talks he had in 2010 and 2011 isn't indicative of some ideological drift, he added. Asked if he'd become a more progressive president over time -- as recent comments from his former top adviser Dan Pfeiffer indicated -- the president answered, emphatically, "No."
"What we have done," Obama said, "is consistently looked for additional opportunities to get stuff done. ... By hook or by crook, we're going to make sure that when I leave this office, that the country is more prosperous, more people have opportunity, kids have a better education, we're more competitive, climate change is being taken more seriously than it was, and we are actually trying to do something about it. Those are going to be the measures by which I look back and say whether I've been successful as president." | 0fake |
Scientists See Push From Climate Change in Louisiana Flooding - The New York Times | Climate change has increased the likelihood of torrential downpours along the Gulf Coast like those that led to deadly floods in southern Louisiana last month, scientists said Wednesday. Using historical records of rainfall and computer models that simulate climate, the researchers, including several from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found that global warming increased the chances of such intense rains in the region by at least 40 percent. “But it’s probably much closer to a doubling of the probability” of such an event, or a 100 percent increase, said Heidi Cullen, chief scientist for Climate Central, the research organization that coordinated the study. “Climate change played a very clear and quantifiable role,” she added. A storm carrying large amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico stalled over southern Louisiana in bringing several days of apocalyptic rain — up to two feet in 48 hours — that caused record flooding in Baton Rouge and elsewhere. The authorities said 13 people were killed and about 55, 000 homes and 6, 000 businesses were damaged in what is now considered the nation’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, the storm that hit the Northeast in 2012. Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was forced to flee the flooding with his family, said damage was expected to be close to $9 billion. Climate scientists have long said that a warming atmosphere and oceans should lead to more intense and frequent rainstorms, because there will be greater evaporation, and warmer air holds more moisture. But until recent years most scientists have said it was not possible to link any single event to climate change. That is changing with the development of attribution studies, which use statistical analysis and climate modeling to compare the likelihood of an event occurring before industrialization, when there were essentially no emissions, and now, when the world is putting tens of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year. Normally such studies can take months, largely because of the computer time required to run climate simulations. But the Louisiana study is the latest “ ” research intended to determine the effect, if any, of climate change as close to the event as possible, to help inform policy makers and the public. To speed the research, World Weather Attribution, the research team that conducted this study, used models that have already been run. They were developed by NOAA scientists at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N. J. and are sophisticated enough to capture the many different elements that contribute to weather in the Gulf Coast region, said Karin van der Wiel, a research associate at the laboratory. “Hurricanes, frontal systems, thunderstorms — there are so many different ways to get a lot of precipitation” in the region, Dr. van der Wiel said. “It’s very important that the models realistically represent the weather. ” World Weather Attribution has conducted several similar studies in the past two years, including one earlier this year that linked floods in France in April to climate change. But the Louisiana study was the most difficult one yet because of the many factors involved for the Gulf Coast, said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a member of the team from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. This was the first time that NOAA has participated in a rapid attribution study. Monica Allen, a NOAA spokeswoman, said the agency would consider taking part in future studies. “Researchers, communities and businesses alike see the value in these analyses,” she said. “They help us grapple with what has happened and strengthen our ability to stay resilient to future events. ” Barry D. Keim, Louisiana’s state climatologist and a professor at Louisiana State University, said that while he was not familiar with World Weather Attribution’s methods, “I’m just not convinced that we can attribute any single event to climate change. ” Nonetheless, he said, “there are some general consistencies between this event and climate change. ” | 0fake |
8 YEARS LATER: OBAMA TELLS Most Dangerous City In America, “I’ve Got Your Back” | Tell that to the 87 year old woman who was raped in broad daylight on the crime-ridden streets of Flint. Obama doesn t care about Flint, MI anymore than he cares about the violence and out-of-control crime in his own backyard of Washington DC. The only reason Obama and his Democrat cronies are showing any concern for the citizens of Flint today, is because they are using their water crisis as a political football. They re attempting to blame the Republican Governor of MI for the water crisis, while doing everything in their power to hold Obama s evil EPA Director, Gina McCarthy harmless. If Obama cared so much about the residents of Flint, MI, why wouldn t he be as concerned about helping them to find employment as he is about phony climate change? Flint President Barack Obama s assurances Wednesday that Flint s water is safe to drink from faucet filters was met with skepticism among residents of this predominately African-American city beset by fears of lead lingering in their pipes.Obama used his visit to the crisis-stricken city of 100,000 residents to promote the use of lead-removing faucet filters in an effort to bring some calm among residents distrustful of government. Although I understand the fear and concern that people have, and it is entirely legitimate, what the science tells us at this stage is you should not drink any of the water that is not filtered but if you get the filter and use it properly, that water can be consumed, Obama said in a speech at Northwestern High School. That s information that I trust and I believe. Via: Detroit NewsFlint, MI has been living in crisis mode for decades. It s very likely they believed that when Barack Obama took office, he would do something to improve the conditions of their hell-hole of a city. They couldn t have been more deceived: Business Insider We ve been ranking America s most dangerous cities for several years, and there s one city that keeps making the top of the list Flint, Michigan.Flint had 66 homicides in 2012, tying a record it hit two years ago.Forbes has also ranked Flint as one of most dangerous places for women. The most striking attack of 2012 occurred when an 87-year-old woman was raped outside her home in broad daylight. She decided to leave Flint. GM s Flint operations employed 80,000 people in 1978. At the time, New York City had a reputation for being the most dangerous place in America not Flint.However, the tide started to turn for Flint in the 80s. That s when GM started setting up factories in Mexico and dramatically reduced its operations in Flint. By 2006 GM employed just 8,000 people in Flint, according to Flint s city manager.With no major industry in Flint, the city s unemployment and poverty rates have soared as many people have fled the city. Here are some factors that contribute to making Flint a dangerous place:Flint only employed 122 police officers in 2012, down from 265 five years earlier because of budget cuts, Mlive.com reported. With 122 officers, Flint employs one officer for about every 830 people. Comparatively, New York City (which didn t even make the top 25 most dangerous cities) covers about 235 people per cop.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Flint s unemployment rate rests as 16.0 percent. Though not as low as Detroit s, which rings in at 17.5 percent, Flint s lack of work doesn t bode well for the local economy. More than 38% of people there live below the poverty level, according to the most recent Census numbers. Poverty and crime are known to go hand in hand.Drugs are a known accelerant for crime, including violent crime. Heroin use has increased dramatically among people between 18 and 29, the Flint Journal reported in 2011. That year, two teenagers died of overdoses within three days of each other.As things get worse in Flint, its population continues to drop off. There were nearly 125,000 people living there in 2000, but that number declined to roughly 101,000 by 2011. This decline suggests Flint is no longer a place where people want to live. | 1real |
Trump Gives Insane Warning On Religious Right Network To Scare People Into Voting For Him (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is continuing his campaign of fear-mongering, this time insisting that the 2016 election will be the last actual election unless Americans put him in the White House. Appearing for an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump told host David Brody that Republicans will never have a chance at the White House again because you re going to have illegal immigrants coming in and they re going to be legalized and they re going to be able to vote and once that all happens you can forget it. So, in other words, Trump is once again blaming immigrants for all of the Republican Party s problems. The thing is, though, the GOP s issues are of their own making. They are on the wrong side of history on issues of race, women s issues, their fervent bigotry against the LGBTQ community, their denial of science, and any other number of issues. In other words, until they stop being the party of bigotry, they will never appeal to anyone but bigots, and there just aren t enough of them left in the general electorate for a majority to want to put an obvious racist in the White House. Here is the transcript of that exchange, via Right Wing Watch:Trump: I think it s going to be the last election that the Republicans can win. If we don t win this election, you ll never see another Republican and you ll have a whole different church structure. You re going to have a whole different Supreme Court structure. That has to do a lot with what we re doing because the Supreme Court, as you know with Justice Scalia gone, I think you could probably have four to five judges picked by the next president. Probably a record number, David, probably a record number of judges. If they pick the super-liberals, probably to a certain extent, people that would make Bernie Sanders happy, you will never have a Supreme Court, we re going to end up with another Venezuela, large scale version. It would be a disaster for the country.Brody: Just so I understand, when you say last election are you referring to what Michele Bachmann was talking about with citizenship because Hillary is talking about potentially providing citizenship for many of these illegals. Florida and Texas could be gone.Trump: I think this will be the last election if I don t win. I think this will be the last election that the Republicans have a chance of winning because you re going to have people flowing across the borders, you re going to have illegal immigrants coming in and they re going to be legalized and they re going to be able to vote and once that all happens you can forget it. I guarantee you, you re not going to have one Republican vote. And it s already a very hard number. Already the path is much more difficult for the Republicans. You just have to look at the maps and the path is much more difficult.And here is the video:The thing is, Republicans have no one to thank for the mass defection from their party but themselves. They ve trafficked in hate, conspiracy theories, science denial, and theocratic bigotry for decades. Donald Trump is the natural result of cultivating those sorts of uninformed, ignorant voters the voters that make up their base that they have to pander to. But, of course, they ll never admit it, and their hateful, archaic party will go into the ash heap of history and into irrelevancy at the national level where it belongs.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1real |
FLASHBACK: Bill Clinton Had 93 Of 94 U.S. Attorneys FIRED IN ONE DAY…No Media Outrage [VIDEO] | WATCH:FLASHBACK: When Bill Clinton had 93 out of 94 U.S. Attorneys FIRED IN ONE DAY. CNN didn t say a word..#peoplepower Preet Bharara pic.twitter.com/eLUpjY42mk Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) March 12, 2017Even today, after the media was called out on ignoring Clinton s firings, the New York Times tried to prove that Trump s firings were somehow more mean-spirited:They even went as far as to suggest President Trump was simply taking marching orders from TV and radio talk show host Sean Hannity when he had them fired: | 1real |
When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers - The New York Times | A Tennessee woman slipped into a coma and died after an ambulance company took so long to assemble a crew that one worker had time for a cigarette break. Paramedics in New York had to covertly swipe medical supplies from a hospital to restock their depleted ambulances after emergency runs. A man in the suburban South watched a chimney fire burn his house to the ground as he waited for the fire department, which billed him anyway and then sued him for $15, 000 when he did not pay. In each of these cases, someone dialed 911 and Wall Street answered. The business of driving ambulances and operating fire brigades represents just one facet of a profound shift on Wall Street and Main Street alike, a New York Times investigation has found. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity firms, the “corporate raiders” of an earlier era, have increasingly taken over a wide array of civic and financial services that are central to American life. Today, people interact with private equity when they dial 911, pay their mortgage, play a round of golf or turn on the kitchen tap for a glass of water. Private equity put a unique stamp on these businesses. Unlike other companies, which often have years of experience making a product or offering a service, private equity is primarily skilled in making money. And in many of these businesses, The Times found, private equity firms applied a sophisticated moneymaking playbook: a mix of cost cuts, price increases, lobbying and litigation. In emergency care and firefighting, this approach creates a fundamental tension: the push to turn a profit while caring for people in their most vulnerable moments. For governments and their citizens, the effects have often been dire. Under private equity ownership, some ambulance response times worsened, heart monitors failed and companies slid into bankruptcy, according to a Times examination of thousands of pages of internal documents and government records, as well as interviews with dozens of former employees. In at least two cases, lawsuits contend, poor service led to patient deaths. Private equity gained new power and responsibility as a direct result of the 2008 crisis. As cities and towns nationwide struggled to pay for basics like public infrastructure and ambulance services, private equity stepped in. At the same time, as banks scaled back their mortgage operations after the crisis, private equity firms — which face lighter regulation than banks, and none of their capital requirements — moved in there as well. The power shift has happened with relatively little scrutiny, even as federal authorities have tightened rules for banks. Unlike banks, which take deposits and borrow from the government, private equity firms invest money from wealthy individuals and pension funds desperate for returns at a time of historically low interest rates. Since the 2008 financial crisis, private equity firms have gone from managing $1 trillion to managing $4. 3 trillion — more than the value of Germany’s gross domestic product — according to the advisory firm Triago. Retirement nest eggs are fueling the growth and sharing in private equity’s risks and returns: Nearly half of private equity’s invested assets come from pensions. “There is private equity — a lot of it — and it’s happening everywhere,” said Vikram Pandit, a former Citigroup chief executive who is now head of the Orogen Group, which invests in financial businesses. Across the financial landscape, he said, “New champions will emerge. ” Warburg Pincus, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Company, and other major private equity firms have invested in emergency services, a business that routinely holds the lives of customers in its hands. While this represents one small corner of private equity, which traditionally used debt to seize underperforming companies, it captures the industry’s newfound pervasiveness. K. K. R. — a firm memorialized in “Barbarians at the Gate,” a book that chronicled a defining 1980s Wall Street deal — also invested in public water services. Blackstone is now America’s largest landlord of rental houses. And in the mortgage industry, until recently the province of banks, the Fortress Investment Group controls a huge bill collector. In many of the fields where private equity now operates, it has not necessarily performed better or worse than the banks and governments it replaced. In some cases it financed projects that others wouldn’t fund and provided crucial public services, including emergency care. And because these firms do not rely on the government for loans, and are much smaller than Wall Street banks, they pose far less risk to the broader economy. “Over 11 million Americans work for businesses, and millions more rely on private equity performance for their retirement security,” said James Maloney, a spokesman for the American Investment Council, the industry’s leading lobbying group. Private equity, Mr. Maloney said, helps “advance both our economic and societal . ” But the Times investigation of emergency services shows that hasn’t always been the case. Of the 12 ambulance companies recently owned by private equity, three filed for bankruptcy in the last three years, according to public filings and SP Global Market Intelligence, a research service that tracks over 1, 100 major ambulance companies in the United States. Those three companies had problems that predated private equity. But no other ambulance company tracked by the research firm filed for bankruptcy during that period. The latest blowup came in February, when TransCare EMS, controlled by the firm Patriarch Partners, filed for bankruptcy, closing its doors forever. One day, cities and towns up and down the East Coast had TransCare services the next, they didn’t. “Private equity has, in this case, threatened public safety,” said Richard Thomas, the mayor of Mount Vernon, N. Y, which relied on TransCare. “It’s not the way to treat the public. ” Patriarch’s owner and founder, Lynn Tilton, said in a statement that she was “deeply saddened by the unfortunate circumstances that triggered the abrupt end to TransCare’s operations and the heartache it has caused for many of its devoted employees. ” She noted that TransCare, like other ambulance companies, “faced the obstacles inherent to its business model. ” long one of the nation’s largest ambulance companies and one of the few operators of private fire departments, did a tour through bankruptcy, although it reorganized and stayed in business. One private equity investor took into bankruptcy, and another helped get it out. During that period, ’s response times slowed in certain towns and it instituted more aggressive billing practices across the board, records show. While under the control of Warburg, once sent a $761 collections notice to an infant girl born in an ambulance. “The matter may be reported to a national credit reporting agency,” the notice read, effectively threatening a baby with a bad credit report. “Obviously there were problems with ” said Ron Cunningham, a spokesman for ’s new parent company, Envision Healthcare, which is not a private equity firm. “We are continuing to hire paramedics and E. M. T.s and what you are seeing is that the response times are improving. ” In a statement, Warburg said it “invested in with the objective of growing and strengthening the company’s business. ” “Despite several initiatives undertaken by the company’s board and management team,” the statement said, the “challenges faced were too difficult to overcome. ” While private equity firms have always invested in a diverse array of companies, including hospitals and nursing homes, their movement into emergency services raises broader questions about the administering of public services. Cities and towns are required to offer citizens a free education, and they generally provide a police force, but almost everything else is fair game for privatization. “We’re reaching new lows in the public safety services we will help provide, especially in very poor cities,” said Michelle Wilde Anderson, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in state and local government. Private equity firms, she said, “are not philanthropists. ” A TransCare ambulance pulled into a hospital parking lot in Westchester County. Employees in windbreakers, “EMS” emblazoned on the backs, hopped out and headed for the emergency room door. They were there not to bring in a patient or sign paperwork, but to go “E. R. shopping”: swiping supplies to replenish critical items TransCare could not afford to replace in its ambulances. After an ambulance finishes a run, hospital staff members often restock medications as a courtesy. But TransCare emergency workers described pressure from supervisors to go further and raid supply carts, sometimes without the hospital’s blessing. On occasion, one TransCare worker would act as lookout while “the other one would just be grabbing stuff,” said Emanuel Almodovar, a former employee. Chez Valenta, an veteran of TransCare, said employees often had no choice. Medications in the ambulances were expired and supplies were depleted. “There’s only a couple of things that terrify paramedics,” Ms. Valenta said. “Being without your critical medications is one of them. I make no apologies. ” The supply shortage — and the extreme measures taken to address it — was just one warning sign of TransCare’s demise. In February, it became official: Employees received an email from a supervisor declaring, “We are being told to cease operations immediately. ” TransCare’s unraveling, told through internal documents and interviews with former employees, provides a case study in private equity’s ambulance experiment. The company’s implosion followed the bankruptcies of two other ambulance companies owned by private equity, and First Med. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Private equity investors swept into the ambulance business with high hopes. “Tremendous growth potential,” Warburg Pincus said in a statement in 2011 when it bought with plans to acquire rival ambulance services and improve bill collection. Other firms bet that fragile towns would outsource emergency care. And, the thinking went, President Obama’s health care overhaul would insure millions more people, providing new paying customers. But many newly insured Americans turned out to be on Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Medicaid restricts some of the most aggressive billing tactics. “It didn’t quite play out like they had hoped,” said Mike Ward, executive director of the National EMS Management Association. So some private equity firms fell back on a moneymaking strategy: slashing costs. The case of TransCare shows the perils of that approach. In 2003, Patriarch helped rescue TransCare, which had previously been owned by other private equity investors, from another bankruptcy. For years the company, which once had 2, 000 employees, showed signs of improvement, with ample resources and high morale. Patriarch’s owner, Ms. Tilton, liked to put a friendly face on private equity, shunning the stereotype of Wall Street raiders out to strip companies of valuable assets or flip them for a quick profit. Ms. Tilton starred in a reality television show, “Diva of Distressed,” and has famously said, “It’s only men I strip and flip. ” The TransCare mess was a mere blip for Patriarch, which manages a sprawling portfolio of more than 70 companies, including the mapmaker Rand McNally. And Ms. Tilton, who said she “worked tirelessly” to try to save the company, attributed TransCare’s collapse to problems beyond Patriarch’s control. The business requires costly investment in medical gear, she said. “With limited free cash flow, any disruptions in the business can cause unsustainable deterioration. ” Yet Ms. Tilton was very much in charge of TransCare as it crumbled. She was the sole owner of the Patriarch Partners fund that had a controlling stake in TransCare. And although she never held an executive or management role, she was TransCare’s sole board member — a situation almost in corporate America. Only 3 percent of private companies have two or fewer board members, according to survey data from the National Association of Corporate Directors, which called a board “likely a recipe for governance failure. ” Former TransCare employees described pressure to cut costs and increase billing as the company weakened in recent years. Patients were transported unnecessarily in ambulances, they said. And ambulances regularly broke down. On the day TransCare filed for bankruptcy, more than 30 percent of the company’s vehicles were out of service, some for hundreds of days, according to internal documents. “We drove buses on the 911 unit where the brakes didn’t work properly,” said Rayshma Raghunath, a former TransCare employee, referring to her ambulance. She started feeling uneasy during the Ebola scare in 2014, when she said workers had trouble getting enough sanitary wipes to disinfect their ambulances. Caitlin Cannizzaro, another former employee, said that even starting the ambulances became tough. One morning, it took four hours to get some running, she said. “You really had to become a MacGyver in the field. ” By early 2015, the company had racked up health department violations for failed ambulance inspections, internal documents show. Employees spotted bedbugs in the Brooklyn dispatch center. Suppliers refused to provide drugs or repair ambulances because of unpaid bills. “We were constantly having problems with the heart monitors,” said Mr. Almodovar, the former emergency medical technician. “It started getting scary. The last thing we want is for a patient to die on us because the equipment is failing. ” By February 2015, shortages became critical. According to meeting minutes reviewed by The Times, TransCare executives discussed how their New York locations would be “unable to make it through the weekend with current medical supplies. ” Supervisors regularly paid for supplies out of their own pockets and hoped for reimbursement, emails show. Some workers said the ambulances carried expired medications. Others went “E. R. shopping. ” In March 2015, a new problem emerged: Some TransCare employees did not get paid on time. Then in July, it happened again. When it looked like payroll might be delayed another time, TransCare sent sample questions and answers to managers, “to help you communicate” with frustrated employees. It read in part: In the first few days of 2016, the trouble accelerated. Eviction warnings had piled up. High levels of carbon monoxide in the Brooklyn office sent at least one employee to the hospital, according to medical records. The company lost a major customer, the city of New Rochelle, N. Y. Less than 48 hours later, employees learned the chief executive had stepped down — the third in four years to leave. “Recent events have been a call,” the chief operating officer wrote to the staff to announce the chief executive’s departure. The note signed off, “Here’s to a great future together!” A month later, the company filed for bankruptcy, leaving a mess for cities and employees alike. Workers rushed to the company’s offices in Brooklyn to collect their final paychecks. Worried the checks might bounce, some piled into emergency vehicles and raced to a store. James Bradley, deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains, blamed Patriarch for TransCare’s woes. “That’s where the problems lie,” he said. The city of Mount Vernon, another former customer in New York, hired a new private company at a cost to taxpayers, and is developing its own ambulance operation within its fire department. In New York City, where TransCare had operated 27 ambulances, the fire department paid its own ambulance workers overtime to fill the void. “I am highly upset with Patriarch. They lied to us,” said Jay Robbins, a former director of operations at TransCare who was at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “I told my employees to come in and work, and now they won’t be getting paid,” he said soon after the bankruptcy, his voice shaking. The bankruptcy also disrupted litigation pending against the company, including a malpractice case that raises questions about TransCare’s training procedures. During an Aerosmith concert at Madison Square Garden in 2012, Robert Albrecht, a businessman with a wife and three children, suddenly collapsed. TransCare arrived within minutes — it was stationed in the building. But a paramedic mistakenly inserted a breathing tube into Mr. Albrecht’s esophagus, medical records and the lawsuit show, pumping air into his stomach instead of his lungs. He was pronounced dead minutes later. The case was scheduled for preliminary settlement talks, according to the family’s lawyer, Jonathan C. Reiter, when TransCare went under. Today Mr. Albrecht’s widow is a creditor in the bankruptcy, in line with medical suppliers and unpaid workers. In Loudon County, Tenn. another ambulance company was unnerving local officials. After 11 years of relying on the Tennessee county wanted to part ways in 2014. So it sent letters to the company outlining grievances: employees slept through an emergency call. A driver refused to transport a dead body because it would “stink up” his ambulance. Another worker, who later said she offered to respond to an emergency even though she was off duty, had enough time to smoke a cigarette while the company scrambled to assemble a full crew. The patient later died. In the year since private equity had led the company into bankruptcy, had endangered “the health and welfare” of its citizens, Loudon County said in a letter to the company. It was, as the letter put it, “a complete system failure. ” Data on the quality of an ambulance company’s performance is scarce at the national level and difficult to compare or . A basic metric — how often ambulances are late — is often defined differently, if it is measured at all. Still, data can show how one company changes over time, and a Times analysis of data obtained under freedom of information laws from five of ’s major markets suggests that service in four areas suffered under private equity ownership. The Times examined where operated exclusively, in or near cities. In one town, response times surged in another, penalties skyrocketed. In a third, county officials time and again received a dreaded alert: no available ambulances. The first private equity investor to back was Warburg Pincus. It was just one investment for a firm that manages roughly $40 billion. But the 2011 takeover was the sort of acquisition that tarred private equity firms in the public mind as corporate raiders out to make a fast dollar. Warburg financed its roughly $730 million purchase by adding more than $500 million in debt to ’s balance sheet — a deep hole to climb out of. Initially, Warburg invested in the company and its ambulances. acquired two ambulance companies, helping increase capital spending by 20 percent and payroll by 15 percent in 2012. But the deals added to overall debt, contributing to cutbacks that potentially affected patient care. Some ambulances weren’t promptly restocked, employees said. In Arizona, the company’s home state, it shelved a program that gave raises to senior staff. It also slashed pensions there. “It was a train wreck,” said Aaron Chamney, a former fire captain who said he was dismissed a month into Warburg’s ownership after he was injured on the job. The financial results were also a mess. which operates ambulances in 20 states, told investors it would book higher revenue than it ultimately did, leading bondholders to sue Warburg for fraud, a case that continues. Warburg denies the accusations. As Warburg’s investment spiraled toward bankruptcy, service suffered. In Arizona, just days before the August 2013 bankruptcy, the health department wrote to demanding data on its 911 response times. was failing to respond on time, state records show. Tacoma, Wash. waived almost all of ’s fines for lateness in 2012 because the company was meeting overall standards. Then, however, performance collapsed. paid fines for nine straight months. In the first half of 2013, average monthly penalties, both waived and not, nearly quintupled from the same period a year earlier. “Throughout our ownership of Warburg Pincus always supported a high standard of customer care and the best possible results for all of the company’s stakeholders,” the firm said in a statement, citing “increased spending to improve operations and processes, increased capital investment and strategic acquisitions. ” But as Warburg’s investment was crumbling, something interesting happened: Other investors saw an opportunity and snapped up ’s bonds. This is a classic strategy in which Wall Street firms hunt for investments (in this case, distressed debt) expecting them to bounce back. But didn’t recover. It filed for bankruptcy. Suddenly those bondholders had a choice: revive the company, or lose their money. The biggest bondholder was Oaktree Capital Management, an investment manager that specializes in distressed bonds and private equity deals. Oaktree invested $88 million in loans and stock, helping wipe out Warburg’s stake in the company. By January 2014, Oaktree was the single largest shareholder in . But Oaktree, which owned nearly 40 percent of did not halt the slide. In Rochester, monthly penalties averaged $58, 950 in the first half of 2015, during Oaktree’s tenure, more than double the average during the first half of 2013, when Warburg owned the company. In July 2014, the Mesa, Ariz. fire chief formally complained about ’s “unprecedented reduction of ambulances, which in turn delayed patient care. ” The fire chief of the Superstition Fire and Medical District, in Apache Junction, Ariz. accused of appearing “more focused on cutting corners and canceling contracts than quality of care. ” In Aurora, Colo. awarded medals of valor to some employees for responding to the 2012 movie theater shooting. But the city issued increasing penalties to the company, on an average basis, for late responses and other problems after the bankruptcy. Last year, during Oaktree’s tenure, Aurora chose to award its contract to a different ambulance company. In a statement, Oaktree said ’s board was unaware of “any contracts that the company lost due to deficient response times or supplies. ” “The board’s foremost focus was patient safety,” Oaktree said, adding that it “never contemplated any expense cuts that would have affected response time or patient care. ” Not everyone was displeased with . In Wheat Ridge, Colo. the company has been considered compliant since 2011. When suffered delays, “There were always reasonable explanations,” said Daniel Brennan, chief of police. Similarly, San Diego considered compliant under Warburg’s and Oaktree’s ownership. However, the city’s records show that it excused several hundred late responses over the last five years for circumstances like bursts of emergency calls. Officials in Knox County, Tenn. said they started worrying in April 2015 when alerted them twice that it had no ambulances available for emergencies, forcing them to rely on other providers. That is known as a “level zero,” and it had happened only once before in recent years. In 2015, the county penalized $110, 000 for . also must tell the county if three or fewer ambulances are available. During the second half of 2015, it notified the county of such shortages an average of 106 times per month — quadruple the average of the same period in 2013. “What we’ve been told is that their challenge is around staffing,” said Dr. Martha Buchanan, director of the county’s health department. She cited the bankruptcy and a new law requiring more worker certifications, making hiring tougher. also reported increased lateness, defined as taking 10 minutes or longer to reach an emergency. In the second half of 2015, was late, on average, about 9. 4 percent of the time, up from 6. 8 percent two years earlier. Though the company still met overall standards, the county said “had increased difficulty in doing so. ” Since Envision took over in late 2015, replacing private equity, the company has shown signs of improvement, Knox County officials said. It has purchased new ambulances and raised salaries. In neighboring Loudon County, officials noticed response time problems after the bankruptcy, when Oaktree was the largest shareholder. The final straw came after an 911 call in August 2014. Donna Maher, 81, couldn’t breathe. “They’re coming as quick as they can,” the 911 operator promised. But ’s ambulance had not yet left the station. Surveillance video showed an emergency worker standing beside her ambulance, smoking a cigarette. Ms. Maher eventually reached the hospital, but died 10 days later. Later that year, Loudon County negotiated an early exit from its contract. And the ambulance worker, Cortney Bryson, was fired. Ms. Bryson sued for wrongful termination, saying the company was “covering up improper scheduling, staffing and response criteria” in a way that “could have been shown to be a direct factor in the death of a citizen. ” In an interview, Ms. Bryson said she had worked two shifts before the call about Ms. Maher came in. Ms. Bryson was technically off the clock, she said, but a replacement hadn’t yet arrived. Ms. Bryson said that she offered to go with another colleague, but that they needed permission because the colleague lacked full credentials. While waiting, she smoked. Jennifer Estes, the 911 center director, says it is difficult to link a delayed ambulance to a death. But this case, she said, “leaves some room for someone to wonder, ‘Could the extra time have made a difference? ’” After private equity took over new posters appeared on the walls of ambulance and fire stations, featuring a caricature of a uniformed employee delivering a mandate: Get a signature. In other words, get patients to sign documents that can be used to bill them. “Almost always, if the patient is alert, they will be able to sign,” he says. And if the patient can’t sign? Then go to a family member, or a nurse. “They’ll sign — because I don’t give up. ” The posters — just one element of ’s aggressive billing practices while owned by private equity — promoted “Do the Write Thing,” a policy instructing employees to document every detail of a patient’s treatment. It paired with another initiative, the “Care to Cash” checklist, also instituted during Warburg’s tenure. Warburg Pincus said it was not aware of those specific initiatives. The policies, said, would help patients by ensuring that bills were accurate. But employees complained that the process distracted them from caregiving and put them in the awkward position of seeking signatures from ill or medicated patients. Do the Write Thing “didn’t sit well with the firefighters,” said Nico Latini, who has worked at for a decade. “We operate under a high level of integrity and we do the right thing every day — with an R, not a W. ” In the four years that private equity led the company was fighting for financial survival. It raised its prices, but patients couldn’t afford those bigger bills. Against that backdrop, the company intensified its collection efforts. And when people didn’t pay, took them to court. After Warburg left the company, eliminated Care to Cash and Do the Write Thing. But even under its new equity owner, it still sues to collect some unpaid bills from fire and ambulance customers. ’s new owner said it “will continue to utilize the legal system to pursue payment when appropriate,” but added that it first asks “customers who need assistance to work with us to develop a payment plan that meets their needs. ” ’s fire departments sell homeowners an annual subscription for fire protection, often ranging from $100 to $500, depending on the property. If a nonsubscriber suffers a fire, will still answer the call, unlike some other private departments. But then it sends a bill well above the subscription price. Even before private equity took over, the company sued to collect fire bills. Under private equity, this practice flourished. The Times examined court filings in the areas where operates fire departments and identified dozens of lawsuits filed since 2011, when private equity took over. In these lawsuits, which are at public fire departments, the company pursued unpaid bills ranging from a few hundred dollars to $59, 000. In Knoxville, Tenn. Lester Day faced one of those lawsuits. When his chimney caught fire in March 2013, he dialed 911. When firefighters arrived almost an hour later, 911 records indicate, the house had been reduced to ashes. That didn’t stop from charging Mr. Day for their response and then placing a $15, 000 lien on his home, which he had since rebuilt. “Now I’m having to sell everything we’ve got,” Mr. Day said in an interview. “It ain’t right. ” also filed hundreds of lawsuits against ambulance patients in the same time period, including claims against families of people who died. Public providers are generally less aggressive than private ones, and some opt not to sue at all. The New York Fire Department said it sends letters to ambulance patients but stops short of suing. And yet, patients may not always have the chance to ride in a government ambulance. Private companies now represent about 25 percent of all ambulance providers, according to the National Association of State EMS Officials. ’s community fire service, which operates in Arizona, Oregon and Tennessee, is one of the nation’s few private fire departments. Only 4 percent of Americans rely on a private fire service. mainly serves unincorporated areas without public fire departments, where often there is no government contract or public oversight. The Times spoke with more than a dozen people who had been sued by the company after fires on their property. Many homeowners in ’s jurisdiction did not realize they had to pay for fire protection separately, on top of their taxes. Some thought the subscription fee was unwarranted. “I thought the fire department was paid out of taxes,” said Alice Addie, who lives with her husband, LaVern, in Mesa, Ariz. In 2013, filed a roughly $7, 000 lawsuit against the Addies after their mobile home caught fire. Mr. Addie, a Navy veteran, at first disputed the charges, storming into his local fire department to question the suit. Ultimately, the company allowed the Addies to pay off their bill in monthly installments. But in the backyard of his home, in the shadow of the rugged mountains of Maricopa County, he explained how they were still struggling with that debt. “We just eat two meals a day instead of three,” he said. | 0fake |
null | I thought Trump didn't like people who were captured... | 1real |
EPIC NEWS CONFERENCE About Milwaukee Riots DEMOCRATS Won’t Want You To See: “Stop Trying To Fix The Police…Fix The Ghettos” | Bravo Sheriff Clarke! Registered Democrat Sheriff David Clarke is the only person in a position of authority in law enforcement who is brave enough to call the Black Lives Matter movement what it truly is. He is also one of the only black leaders in America who is willing to say why we are seeing a race war and war against cops in America today. He is truly a breath of fresh air and deserves to be applauded for his courage and dedication to truth. The idea that he s a Democrat is enough to make liberal heads explode!Watch his epic news conference here: | 1real |
HOW SENATE DEMOCRATS PLAN TO FORCE GUN-CONTROL Amendment On GOP’s Bill To Repeal Obamacare | No word yet on plans to de-fund State Department s Refugee Resettlement Program, that brings hundreds of thousands of Muslims to America from countries who hate us Reeling from the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Democrats will try to force the Senate to vote Thursday on legislation to stem gun violence.The specific measures are still being considered, but they would be proposed as amendments to a GOP package to repeal the Affordable Care Act.Passage of any effort to limit access to firearms appears unlikely, as Congress has been unable to build support for toughening the nation s gun-control laws in the face of opposition from the Nation Rifle Assn. Even in the aftermath of the mass shooting of elementary schoolchildren at Newtown, Conn., a measure to beef up laws failed.Other measures, including one to provide funding for federal health officials to study gun violence, may find broader support in Congress.We're going to force the Senate to vote today on amendments that do something to stop gun violence. Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) December 3, 2015Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said after Wednesday s shooting in California that gun violence has become a cancer on the nation. We are better than this, Reid said. This madness must stop. Via: Los Angeles Times | 1real |
Trump WHINES Like A B*tch On Twitter After NFL And Democrats Tell Him To Go F*ck Himself | The Democrats and the NFL both told Donald Trump to go f*ck himself.For weeks, Trump has been demanding that the NFL force players to stand for the national athem, a move that would crush protests against police brutality and racial injustice while shredding First Amendment rights.Well, Trump s demand backfired as more players than ever before have been taking a knee during the anthem.And NFL owners decided earlier this week in an annual meeting that they will not adopt a rule to force players to stand.Of course, this infuriated Trump and he whined about it on Twitter, accusing the NFL of disrespecting the country.The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017The kicker is that Trump both disrespected our country and our troops and their families by failing to acknowledge the deaths of four soldiers this week. He has also neglected to call the families and when he contacted the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson he insulted her by telling her that he knew what he was signing up for. Trump s words were relayed to the media by Rep. Frederica Wilson, whom he lashed out at on Twitter.Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017If Trump really has proof, he should release it immediately. But, as usual, Trump is probably bluffing so we should not expect him to actually provide any proof at all.Trump also attacked Democrats as a whole for not supporting his massive tax cuts for the wealthy.The Democrats will only vote for Tax Increases. Hopefully, all Senate Republicans will vote for the largest Tax Cuts in U.S. history. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017Donald Trump is a deranged lunatic who thinks he is a king. It s time to oust him from office and put him in prison where he belongs.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Kremlin says got Trump adviser email about tower project but ignored it | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman confirmed on Wednesday he had received an email in January last year from an adviser to Donald Trump about a Moscow real estate project, but said he had neither replied nor discussed it with Putin. The Washington Post reported this week that Michael Cohen, one of Trump’s closest business advisers, had emailed Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, seeking his help in advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow. Trump was running to become president at the time. Peskov, answering questions about the matter on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, said he had seen the email among many others he said he received every day, but had not responded to it because the request was not the kind of thing he dealt with in his job as Kremlin spokesman. “I can confirm that among the mass of e-mails there was an e-mail from Mr. Michael Cohen. This really happened,” said Peskov. He said Cohen had written about “a certain Russian company and certain people” who wanted to build a skyscraper in Moscow and wanted his help in making the stalled project a reality. But Peskov said the request was off topic and that responding to it fell outside his job description. “Because we do not react to such (questions about) business themes, and this is not our job, we left this matter without a response,” said Peskov. He said the Kremlin had not received any other similar requests on the subject and that he had not raised the subject of Cohen’s original email with Putin. “We cannot discuss the hundreds and thousands of various requests from different countries we get with President Putin,” said Peskov. | 0fake |
As Wildfires Rage, Israel Suggests Arson and Asks for Foreign Help - The New York Times | JERUSALEM — Parts of the port city of Haifa in northern Israel were ablaze on Thursday as wildfires raged through the country for a third day, devouring forests, damaging homes and prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. Asked how long Haifa was likely to be battling the blazes, Mayor Yona Yahav told reporters, “This is a question that has to be referred to God. ” Israeli officials said the fires had been fanned by unusually strong winds and made worse by a dry atmosphere, but they also said they suspected that many of them had been caused by arson and negligence. Dozens of people have been slightly affected by smoke inhalation, but no serious injuries or fatalities have been reported. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s public security minister, told Army Radio that the professional assessment was that almost half the fires were the result of arson. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attributed the fires to “natural and unnatural” causes and said that “any fire caused by arson or incitement to arson is terrorism in every sense of the word, and we will treat it as such. ” Arab leaders in Israel protested the widespread allegations that Palestinian nationalists were behind many of the fires, saying their land was burning, too, and they condemned what they viewed as unfair accusations against Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up about a fifth of the population. Ahmad Tibi, a veteran Arab lawmaker in the Israeli Parliament, wrote on Twitter: “I called Yona Yahav. Our homes are open to the evacuees. Sad and painful. Let’s join hands to overcome the fire and let’s also douse the flames of incitement. ” Mr. Netanyahu spoke on Thursday with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who promised to send two huge firefighting aircraft. Firefighting planes and teams from Cyprus and Greece had already arrived, and the Israeli police and Foreign Ministry said that more help was on the way from Croatia, Italy and Turkey. The Palestinian Authority also sent some fire engines to tackle the fires. The Israeli emergency services are more prepared and better equipped than they were in 2010, when a fierce fire raged through the Carmel Forest area near Haifa. More than 40 people, most of them officer cadets from the prison service, were killed in that blaze when their bus was engulfed in flames as they were on their way to evacuate a prison. That episode counted as Israel’s worst natural disaster. The government of Mr. Netanyahu, who assumed office in 2009, was accused of being woefully unprepared. It was the first time that Israel, which often provides doctors and aid workers for disasters abroad, had to rely on international help. Israel has since added firefighting planes, but they do not have the capacity of larger aircraft like those that Russia was expected to send, nor can they operate at night. The police and emergency services have been going door to door evacuating homes, schools, two prisons, neighborhoods and, in some cases, whole communities. Noy Parati, a student at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, described scenes of panic, with people pushing one another out of the way to evacuate. “As soon as they tell me where to go, I will leave,” Ms. Parati told Israeli television, adding, “Everyone is trying to escape. ” Yael Hamer, a resident of the Romema neighborhood of Haifa, said people were leaving on foot and by car. “My house was filled with smoke,” she told reporters by phone from her car, with the sirens of fire engines and ambulances audible in the background. “And the smell,” she added, “it was impossible to stay there. ” Local authorities in Haifa said they had set up gathering points and temporary shelters in community centers, in an auditorium and in a stadium. The police reported heavy traffic on highways around the city, and the train service to and from the city was suspended. By nightfall, about a quarter of Haifa’s population of 280, 000 had been instructed to evacuate. The Israeli military said that it had deployed two battalions from its Home Front Command to assist evacuation efforts, and that it had called up reservists to help fight the fires. Several homes have been destroyed in recent days in the town of Zikhron Yaaqov, south of Haifa, and in Nataf, a village in the hills outside Jerusalem. Flames have also threatened Talmon, a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. And on Thursday night the police reported a fire near Shuafat, a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The first major fire began in the forest surrounding Neve Shalom, known in Arabic as Wahat or Oasis of Peace, a small cooperative community about halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where Israeli Jews and Arabs live together. Despite the suspicion of arson in many cases, the Israeli authorities were cautious in assigning blame. But some Israeli news organizations were labeling the wave of fires an “arson intifada,” alluding to a Palestinian uprising. Mr. Erdan, the public security minister, noted that Jewish extremists had been charged with arson attacks in the past, including one last year in the West Bank village of Duma that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents. Mr. Erdan has instructed the police to focus efforts on locating incitement to arson on social networks. By Thursday night, Mr. Erdan said, the fires had been brought under control, though there were fears that the weather conditions could whip up the flames again. Some Palestinians were celebrating the fires on social media, posting congratulatory messages on Facebook. “Enjoy the burning of your homes, you Zionists,” one wrote. Others described the fires as divine retribution for legislation being advanced in Israel, with Mr. Netanyahu’s backing, to ban or restrict the use of loudspeakers by mosques and other houses of worship across Israel. Ayman Odeh, another Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, noted that several Arab cities in northern Israel, such as Umm had also been affected by the fires. | 0fake |
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