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Brexit talks put back a week, EU expects May speech | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union postponed a new round of Brexit negotiations by a week until the end of the month in what EU diplomats said was to allow time for Prime Minister Theresa May to make a key speech in about 10 days. In confirming a delay until Sept. 25, which Brussels had been expecting, the British government said in a statement it was a joint decision taken because more time for consultation would give negotiators the flexibility to make progress . There has been no confirmation in London that May will make any speech around Sept. 21. There was no immediate official comment from the European Commission, which is the EU executive. However, diplomats in the EU capital said they had been told on Tuesday that the negotiations had been put back for reasons of the UK political calendar rather than for any reason in Brussels. EU officials and diplomats expect May to make a keynote speech around Sept. 21 and believe she may use it to outline the kind of transition arrangements Britain wants once it leaves the Union in March 2019 and before a long-term treaty setting out a free trade pact can be fully negotiated and implemented. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has, like his counterpart British Brexit minister David Davis, played down the significance of the precise timing of talks in Brussels. After the last round in late August, Barnier said the sides were far apart on the terms on which Britain will leave. That raised doubts about whether two further rounds scheduled before an EU summit on Oct. 19-20 would show enough progress to let leaders agree to launch negotiations on the post-Brexit relationship. EU sources doubt that May will be ready to give ground as early as this month on EU demands, notably that Britain pay it tens of billions of euros (dollars) on leaving. In early October she faces a tricky first Conservative party conference since she lost her parliamentary majority in an ill-advised snap election. Rather, some EU officials expect May to speak in more detail later this month on the transition. She may explain to impatient Brexit supporters that Britain may remain inside some EU structures - and pay Brussels for the privilege - for some years to avoid a cliff-edge disruption to trade and business. Such a policy statement by May, whose divided ministers have lately spoken more unanimously in favor of such a transition, would not in itself mean a shift in the negotiating stance on divorce issues, such as expatriates rights, how much Britain will pay on leaving or land border controls with Ireland. However, delaying the Brussels talks may make it easier for the prime minister to get her message over without distraction. Britain is keen to move on to discuss the future relationship and the transition to it as soon as possible, arguing that all these issues are ultimately intertwined. The other 27 national leaders insist, however, that the divorce talks must show sufficient progress - a deliberately vague phrase - before they will negotiate a future trade deal. | 0fake |
Google Confirms Chrome Browser to Feature Ad-Blocker by 2018 - Breitbart | Google has confirmed that the company’s popular Chrome web browser will feature a native by 2018. [VentureBeat reports that following rumors for the past six weeks relating to the implementation of a native within Google Chrome, the company has finally stepped forward to set the record straight. Google has joined the Coalition for Better Ads, a group that sets specific standards in order to improve ads for consumers. Chrome will reportedly begin to block all ads that do not meet the Coalition’s guidelines, “starting in early 2018. ” In practical terms, Google will use the Chrome browser to cut off advertising revenue to sites that don’t meet their standards. The browser will be taking a hardline stance towards websites — if one of their ads doesn’t meet guidelines then all ads will be blocked, resulting in a total loss of revenue. It seems that Google’s hope with this integrated is to make third party extensions redundant. Many ad blockers block all outright, while Google’s new blocker will only filter poorly optimized ads that they claim hurt publishers “and threatens the sustainability of the web ecosystem. ” Despite the fact that Google actually makes the majority of their revenue from the company says that they see this type of selective ad blocker as the future of internet browsing and natural evolution of ad blockers. As well as the development of their own ad blocking software, Google has also launched the Ads Experience Reports which enables users to provide Google with screenshots and videos of annoying experiences in order to help websites find and fix their faulty . Once website owners have removed the offending ads, they are eligible to their website for review which should prevent them being blacklisted by Google in teh future. Google has suggested that website publisher review the new best practices guide to ensure that their website runs smoothly. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 0fake |
Donald Trump Vote Broke Up This Couple’s Marriage | The 2016 election has been particularly hard on relationships. Social media is beginning to resemble a large echo chamber, with people with diverse views unfriending each other. It s not hard to imagine that those disagreements would go beyond social media, but it s especially shocking when political differences actually end a marriage.Gayle McCormick is a retired prison guard from California. She describes herself as a Democrat leaning toward socialist. Her husband, though, voted for Trump, and for that, their marriage is over. It totally undid me that he could vote for Trump, said McCormick, 73, who had not thought of leaving the conservative Republican before but felt betrayed by his support for Trump. I felt like I had been fooling myself, she said. It opened up areas between us I had not faced before. I realised how far I had gone in my life to accept things I would have never accepted when I was younger. Source: IndependentIt might seem silly to leave a 22 year marriage over a political disagreement, but this election was about much more than typical Democrat vs. Republican rancor. We aren t just talking about federal government vs. state government or the size of people s taxes. This election was largely about who we are as people. While it s clear that not everyone who voted for Trump is racist, misogynistic and xenophobic, everyone who voted for Trump doesn t see racism, misogyny and xenophobia as deal breakers.Through accusations of corruption hurled at Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump has shown himself to be far more corrupt than any Clinton could dream of. Trump has been given carte blanche to run the government like a child dictator, tweeting fantasies of revenge over every perceived slight. Donald Trump is toxic. Hell, the world is about to break up with us over Trump s election. It stands to reason that personal relationships wouldn t fare much better.Read more:Featured image via Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
House panel to probe possible Russia-Trump campaign collusion: Democrat | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee will investigate allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, the top Democrat on the panel said on Wednesday. “We have reached a written agreement, the minority and the majority in the House intelligence committee, that we will investigate allegations of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign,” Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said on MSNBC. U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that Russia tried to help Trump win the White House by discrediting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her party through cyber attacks. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, expelled Russian diplomats in retaliation in December. Trump has denied any of his associates had contacts with Moscow before last year’s election and dismissed the controversy as a “scam” perpetrated by a hostile news media. Moscow has denied the accusations. Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on Monday U.S. intelligence officials had not yet presented the panel with evidence of contacts between Trump campaign staff and Russian intelligence. Nunes was a member of Trump’s presidential transition team. The committee, which has been probing contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia, said in a statement that Nunes and Schiff had agreed on a classified six-page document laying out the scope of their investigation. It said one question they would seek to answer was whether the Russian actions included “links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns or any other U.S. Persons.” The statement did not refer specifically to the Trump campaign. Earlier on Wednesday, Nunes told Fox News that the committee would receive a briefing from intelligence officials on Thursday. Trump fired his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, last month for misleading Vice President Mike Pence over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. | 0fake |
History Lesson: America’s Renegade Warfare | Nicolas J S Davies Consortium NewsSeventy-seven million people in North and South Korea find themselves directly in the line of fire from the threat of a Second Korean War. The rest of the world is recoiling in horror from the scale of civilian casualties such a war would cause and the unthinkable prospect that either side might actually use nuclear weapons.Since the first Korean War killed at least 20 percent of North Korea s population and left the country in ruins, the U.S. has repeatedly failed to follow through on diplomacy to establish a lasting peace in Korea and has instead kept reverting to illegal and terrifying threats of war. Most significantly, the U.S. has waged a relentless propaganda campaign to discount North Korea s legitimate defense concerns as it confronts the threat of a U.S. war machine that has only grown more dangerous since the last time it destroyed North Korea.The North has lived under this threat for 65 years and has watched Iraq and Libya destroyed after they gave up their nuclear weapons programs. When North Korea discovered a U.S. plan for a Second Korean War on South Korea s military computer network in September 2016, its leaders quite rationally concluded that a viable nuclear deterrent is the only way to guarantee their country s safety.What does it say about the role the U.S. is playing in the world that the only way North Korea s leaders believe they can keep their own people safe is to develop weapons that could kill millions of Americans?The Changing Face of WarThe Second World War was the deadliest war ever fought, with at least 75 million people killed, about five times as many as in the First World War. When the slaughter ended in 1945, world leaders signed the United Nations Charter to try to ensure that that scale of mass killing and destruction would never happen again. The U.N. Charter is still in force, and it explicitly prohibits the threat or use of military force by any nation.It was not just the scale of the slaughter that shocked the world s leaders into that brief moment of sanity in 1945. It was also the identities of the dead. Two-thirds of the people killed in the Second World War were civilians, a drastic change from the First World War, only a few decades earlier, when an estimated 86 percent of the people killed were uniformed combatants. The use of nuclear weapons by the United States raised the specter that future wars could kill an exponentially greater numbers of civilians, or even end human civilization altogether.War had become total war, no longer fought only on battlefields between soldiers, but between entire societies with ordinary people, their homes and their lives now on the front line. In the Second World War: Fleets of warplanes deliberately bombed cities to dehouse civilian populations, as British officials described their own bombing of Germany. As I write this, George Orwell wrote from London in 1941, Highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. Submarines sank hundreds of merchant ships in an effort to starve their enemies into submission. General Carter Clarke, who was in charge of interpreting Japanese intelligence for President Truman, said in a 1959 interview that Japan surrendered because it faced mass starvation due to the sinking of its merchant shipping, not because of the gratuitous U.S. nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was estimated that 7 million more civilians would die of starvation if Japan fought on until 1946. Genocidal mass extermination campaigns killed civilians based only on their political affiliation or ethnicity. Under cross-examination by a young American prosecutor, Benjamin Ferencz, SS Gruppenfuhrer Dr. Otto Ohlendorf explained patiently to a courtroom in Nuremberg why he found it necessary for the preemptive defense of Germany to order the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians. He explained that even children had to be killed to prevent them too becoming enemies of Germany when they grew up and found out what happened to their parents.Despite the U.N. Charter and international efforts to prevent war, people in countries afflicted by war today still face the kind of total war that horrified world leaders in 1945. The main victims of total war in our modern world have been civilians in countries far removed from the safe havens of power and privilege where their fates are debated and decided: Yugoslavia; Afghanistan; Iraq; Somalia; Pakistan; Yemen; Libya; Syria; Ukraine. There has been no legal or political accountability for the mass destruction of their cities, their homes or their lives. Total war has not been prevented, or even punished, just externalized.But thanks to billions of dollars invested in military propaganda and public relations and the corrupt nature of for-profit media systems, citizens of the countries responsible for the killing of millions of their fellow human beings live in near-total ignorance of the mass killing carried out in their name in these red zones around the world.People in ever-spreading war zones are living under the very conditions of total war that the world recoiled from at the end of the Second World War. Like Orwell in London in 1941, they hear highly civilized human beings flying overhead trying to kill them, human beings who know nothing about them beyond the name of the city where they live and its strategic value in wars that offer them, the victims, nothing but death or destitution.In the case of drones, the human beings trying to kill them from the other side of the world are so highly civilized that they can hop into cars and drive home to have dinner with their families at the end of their shifts, while another team member efficiently takes over the joy-stick and carries on killing.People in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya have been subjected to hunger and starvation under sieges and naval blockades that are as brutally effective as German and American submarines were in World War Two. Millions of people in Yemen face an imminent danger of starvation under the U.S.-backed naval blockade and Saudi and Emirati bombing of Yemeni ports.In retaliation for one missile fired at Riyadh, the Saudi capital, last week, the U.S.-backed coalition completely closed all Yemen s ports, tightening the blockade on millions of starving people. The requirements of necessity and proportionality, which have been basic principles of customary international law since the Nineteenth Century, lie buried in the graveyards of Iraq and Afghanistan.Continue this article at Consortium News READ MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire War on Terror FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
German Panzers to Rumble Once More Along Russian Borders | Citizen journalism with a punch German Panzers to Rumble Once More Along Russian Borders
Germany confirms it will be sending Leopard 2 tanks to Lithuania Originally appeared at Defence Talk
Germany has confirmed it is sending Leopard 2 tanks to Lithuania as part of NATO plans to reinforce the Baltic states. But the presence is largely symbolic, since Russia is still militarily superior in the region.
Protecting Lithuania from Russia is to be Germany’s responsibility, according to the new NATO defense plans that emerged at this week’s summit in Brussels. The German Defense Ministry showed on Wednesday evening just how seriously it is taking this task, confirming to the DPA news agency that next year it will be sending Leopard 2 tanks to the Baltic country’s Russian border in addition to the 650 soldiers it had already promised – though it would not clarify how many.
The move is part of NATO’s wider plan to protect its Baltic members, who have all shown concern about Russian ambitions following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent war in eastern Ukraine.
A NATO battalion of around 1,000 soldiers will be stationed in Lithuania as of June next year, and will then be rotated every six months. Around 450 to 650 of these troops are to be supplied by the Bundeswehr, while the others will come from France, Belgium and Croatia. German media reported that the combat-trained unit will also be equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, snipers, and engineers.
Defending the defensive measures
Each of the alliance’s major powers is sending troops to bolster the defenses of the countries bordering Russia, so while Germany is helping Lithuania, Poland will be protected by the US, Latvia to be manned by the Canadians, and Britain is to help reinforce Estonia.
The plans are likely to further antagonize Russia, whose government has criticized NATO’s military plans in the region before. “The alliance is concentrating its forces on limiting a non-existent threat from the East,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in the summer.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen defended the measures, calling the deployment “exactly appropriate” and “defensive.”“This is a clear signal that an attack on one NATO country will be considered an attack on all 28 NATO countries,” she said.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also indicated that the mission was a response to Russian aggression. “Russia is prepared to use its military power,” he said in Brussels. “It is necessary for NATO to answer that.”
Gustav Gressel, Russia specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations, believes that NATO’s new plans are actually fairly measured, given the circumstances. “Russia still enjoys military superiority in that area of about five-to-one,” he told DW. “It’s not at all an offensive threat against the Russians – but rather a cautious, small-scale reaction to the build-up and military mobilization Russia has been undergoing. It doesn’t change the military balance in the Baltics.”
Stoltenberg said NATO had no choice but to respond
In fact, the Baltic states would have liked NATO to commit more troops to their border areas, Gressel argued. “Since 2009, Russia has trained its forces in scenarios of invading the Baltic countries,” he said. “For the Baltic countries, this is a real thing, this is not something that might at some point happen.”
Even though it is economically isolated and can ill afford to take new territory, Russia’s political system requires shows of military power for its own population, Gressel argued. “It is increasingly difficult to predict what Russia will do, or when Russia will perceive military provocation. So you’d rather be on the safe side and signal to Russia that there is no free ride in the Baltics.”
But at the same time, NATO is trying to strike a balance. “You have to hedge against the risk that Russia gets adventurous,” he said. “But on the other hand, you don’t want to maneuver Russia into its self-fulfilling prophecies of a threat. In my view, Russia’s saber-rattling is for domestic consumption and their military knows that NATO is not going to invade.”
Germany has contributed to NATO’s biggest rearmament drive since the end of the Cold War, last year ordering an extra 100 Leopard 2 tanks – mostly by modifying previously decommissioned vehicles. At the same time, the upper limit of 225 tanks that had been agreed as part of the military reform of 2011 was increased to 328. | 1real |
Schumer: ’Lots’ of Democrats Could Beat Trump in 2020 - Breitbart | Friday on MSNBC, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) said “lots” of Democrats could beat President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Partial transcript as follows: HUNT: I would like one short answer to this question. Who in the Democratic Party can beat President Trump in 2020? SCHUMER: Lots of people. HUNT: Lots of people. One name? SCHUMER: I’m not going to pick a name. If he continues at the rate — HUNT: Who is the leader of the Democratic party, you? SCHUMER: We have a bunch of leaders. I’m the leader of the Senate and try to represent the Democratic Party, but we have a bunch of good voices. It’s much too premature to handicap . But I’ll tell you this if the president continues this way, there is even a chance we could take back the Senate. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Germany will await prosecution 'ok' before delivering Israeli subs: Spiegel | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will wait for Israeli prosecutors to conclude all investigations in a corruption scandal involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before delivering three submarines in a $2 billion defense deal, German magazine Der Spiegel reported. The weekly magazine reported that the German government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israel under which a declaration by the Israeli government would not be regarded as sufficient evidence that the affair was concluded. The 2016 deal has been under public scrutiny since it emerged that Netanyahu s personal lawyer also represented the local agent of the German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems set to build the vessels. | 0fake |
POCAHONTAS WARREN Wants GOP’s Scalp…Tells Crowd She’d Like To “Cut Open Republicans” [VIDEO] | The woman who wants to be the next Democrat candidate for president is doing exactly what Democrats do best these days, expressing their desire to harm anyone who holds an opposing political view. Oh, we know fake indian and US Senator Elizabeth Warren was only kidding when she told a crowd that she would like to cut the Republicans open . After all, she s just pandering to her base. Isn t that how the majority of Democrats operate these days? Trash Trump suggest violence against his supporters then talk about how intolerant Republicans are.In a discussion about the repeal of Obamacare, Democrat Elizabeth Warren (who is famous for lying on her application to Harvard and University of Pennsylvania about having Cherokee and Delaware Indian heritage) mocked the Republicans attempt at offering Americans a better option than the horribly failed government controlled health care that Warren voted to support. I hope they leave their bodies to science. I would like to cut them open, Warren said during an event in Chicago on Saturday. God, what planet do they live on? Warren asked, before sharing her wish to cut open their bodies.Warren then told the crowd she hoped Republicans donated their bodies to science so she could cut them open when they died.Ladies and Gentlemen Introducing the the first Native American presidential candidate for 2020 The future face of the Democrat Party LOL! | 1real |
U.S. State Department nominee Tillerson fights climate deposition | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rex Tillerson, the former oil executive under consideration for U.S. secretary of state, is trying to avoid giving testimony in a federal lawsuit over climate change, according to a lawyer for a group of teenagers who filed the suit. Lawyers for the teenagers, who sued the federal government claiming it violated their constitutional rights by causing global warming, were scheduled to depose Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, in his capacity as a board member of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group. The lawyers planned to ask Tillerson when he first learned of the impact the burning of fossil fuels was having on the Earth’s atmosphere. His answers might then be used to prove the government, working with the energy and manufacturing industries, continued to allow activities harmful to the environment despite knowing the risks to future generations, said Julia Olson, a lawyer in Eugene, Oregon, who is executive director of Our Children’s Trust and representing the teenagers. Tillerson’s deposition was set for Jan. 19, a day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. But Olson said the API’s lawyers told her in a letter that Tillerson should not have to testify because he is no longer affiliated with the group. Her team has asked API to prove Tillerson had left the group on Dec. 28, when they sent notice of their intent to depose him. “If he was still on the board on the date of notice of deposition, he can still be deposed,” Olson said. The lawsuit, brought in federal court in Oregon, says the U.S. government helped to cause climate change through its policies, thus denying a group of young people their constitutional right to life, liberty and property. The API and two other industry groups intervened in the case, claiming a judgment requiring the government to tighten environmental regulations would harm their business interests. Tillerson announced he was retiring from ExxonMobil on Dec. 14, a day after Trump announced his nomination as secretary of state. The API has not announced any change to Tillerson’s role in its organization, but its president released a statement congratulating Tillerson on his nomination on Dec. 13. An API spokesman, lawyers for the API and a spokesman for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case is Juliana v. U.S., U.S. District Court, District of Oregon (Eugene), No. 15-cv-01517. (This version of the story was refiled to say the API’s lawyers told her in a letter, not that they told her by telephone, in paragraph six) | 0fake |
Sean Spicer F**ks Up, Accidentally Admits DEVASTATING Fact About TrumpCare (VIDEO) | Donald Trump s rollout of TrumpCare is already crashing and burning (just like everything he tries to do) and his White House Press Secretary certainly isn t helping him. Earlier today, Sean Spicer tried to address the questions surrounding the much-hated TrumpCare plan, and accidentally admitted that tons of people are going to lose their health care coverage because of it.Spicer basically said that it didn t matter how many people would be covered under the new horrible Obamacare replacement:You can watch Spicer f**k up in the video below:Spicer went off on Obamacare, incorrectly stating that people had cards under the Affordable Care Act, yet they were not receiving care. This is absolutely false, as Obamacare had measures put in place to guarantee that people would be covered by insurance companies unlike TrumpCare, which doesn t have any of those regulations.So far, the GOP has fallen silent over how many people would be covered under their Obamacare replacement measure. They purposely avoided running TrumpCare past the Congressional Budget Office a move that is being highly criticized for its lack of transparency. Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that this secrecy was to prevent word getting out that millions of Americans will lose their coverage under the new plan. This looks like yet another thing that Trump won t be able to deliver. Let s not forget that Trump promised again and again that his new health care plan would cover everyone. He once said: I am going to take care of everybody everybody s going to be taken care of, much better than they re taken care of now. Trump also promised America that he was so good at making deals that the government would basically pay for everyone s coverage:How do we go from everyone being covered to not being able to even say how many people were going to be covered and trying to spin the issue to be about people not getting care? What Spicer is doing is trying to reframe Trump s campaign promises, because the White House knows they can t be delivered. TrumpCare is an abomination compared to Obamacare, and millions of Americans are going to suffer because of the GOP s incompetence.Featured image is a screenshot | 1real |
House Democratic leader Pelosi backs Clinton for president | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidency on Tuesday as voters in California, the nation’s most populous state, head to the polls. In a statement, the California Democrat praised the former U.S. secretary of state and called on supporters of rival Bernie Sanders “to advance our shared fight.” | 0fake |
BREAKING VIDEO: BRICKS AND ROCKS HURLED AT POLICE BY TEENS (7 injured) IN BALTIMORE AS THEY PREPARE FOR A NIGHT OF MORE VIOLENCE | High school kids out of control? Noooo! We ve been reporting of the huge groups of high school kids getting violent at malls and other places in towns across America. Basically they re organized riots There were reports of an organized riot, called a purge, to be carried out by students from three Baltimore high schools in the name of Freddie Gray and unrest over police brutality.// <![CDATA[ var p = new anv_pl_def(); p.config = {}; p.config.width = 640; p.config.height = 360; p.loadVideoExpressV3('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|1000011|SPS'); // ]]>At least seven police officers were injured. At least one police officer suffered a broken bone. Another officer was knocked unconscious.Read more: abc2news | 1real |
AG Lynch Told Comey | DaisyLuther.com October 31, 2016
According to a report in the New Yorker, James Comey, Big Kahuna of the FBI, went full-on cowboy in releasing details of the new Clinton email inquiry. Apparently, the Department of Justice advised him not to release the information just days before the presidential election.
Gosh. I wonder if the same advice would have been given if it was Donald Trump who was being investigated by the FBI.
Comey explained his decision in a letter to FBI employees :
“We don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.”
The DoJ – and by DoJ I mean Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who famously had a secret meeting on an airport tarmac with Bill Clinton to talk about her non-existent grandchildren – is implying that Comey is not playing fair and that the move is inconsistent with the rules which have been designed to make it seem like they are not interfering in an election.
Here’s Comey’s letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Really?
The DoJ thinks that the public shouldn’t know that the person they may be voting for is being investigated by the FBI?
That’s the most absurd thing I have heard for quite some time, and considering this election, that’s really saying something.
This is from the New Yorker report, emphasis mine.
On Friday, James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting independently of Attorney General Loretta Lynch , sent a letter to Congress saying that the F.B.I. had discovered e-mails that were potentially relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server. Coming less than two weeks before the Presidential election, Comey’s decision to make public new evidence that may raise additional legal questions about Clinton was contrary to the views of the Attorney General, according to a well-informed Administration official. Lynch expressed her preference that Comey follow the department’s longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election, but he said that he felt compelled to do otherwise .
Comey’s decision is a striking break with the policies of the Department of Justice, according to current and former federal legal officials. Comey, who is a Republican appointee of President Obama, has a reputation for integrity and independence, but his latest action is stirring an extraordinary level of concern among legal authorities, who see it as potentially affecting the outcome of the Presidential and congressional elections. ( source )
Is this investigation the iceberg to HRC’s Titanic campaign?
Hillary Clinton has said she finds the development “unprecedented and deeply troubling.” (source )
Oh, I’ll bet she does.
I’ll bet if Trump had been the target of the investigation she would have been up on the stage, gripping the podium to stay upright, saying how wonderful it was that Comey decided to break the news so that voters could be aware that they might be voting for someone who was suspected of having broken federal laws. I’ll bet she’d be saying that the public has a right to know if a candidate was under investigation. I’ll bet she’d take the high road and say that those elected to the office of President of the United States have to be above and beyond reproach.
Of course, when it’s her, things are a little different, aren’t they?
We do have a right to know. We absolutely have a right to know that a person who could be elected to know all of the secrets was careless when she only knew some of the secrets. It seems like a no-brainer that the public should know that a candidate is being investigated for a second time for being criminally negligent with information entrusted to her.
And the fact that we know has severely damaged Clinton’s campaign. Although previous polls were incredibly skewed to the point of being outright fake , it looks like the mainstream is now trying to save face with a new batch of polls. A poll from ABC news and the Washington Post , both hotbeds of liberal voters, has shown that her lead has dropped to within a single point over Donald Trump due to the Clinton email scandal.
“About a third of likely voters say they’re less likely to support Clinton given FBI Director James Comey’s disclosure Friday that the bureau is investigating more emails related to its probe of Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state. “
Finally, some people are actually paying attention to the character of Hillary Clinton.
But it may not be enough. There was one finding that was astonishing to me, even though it probably shouldn’t be:
“Given other considerations, 63 percent say it makes no difference.”
Meanwhile, on social media, the FBI emails are somehow not a trending topic. It certainly appears that Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Buzzfeed are blacking out the topic.
My biggest question is this: Why now?
Why did James Comey, who has probably committed career suicide, along with a potential actual “suicide” via a shot to the back of his own head like others who have run afoul of the Clintons, feel the need to break the news, particularly after giving her a pass during the last investigation?
Opponents will jump on the fact that he’s a Republican and will say that he did it for political reasons.
They won’t admit that perhaps he felt guilty for being complicit in letting her off the hook in the first investigation into the Clinton email negligence.
They will never, ever admit that maybe his integrity and belief in the office he holds made it impossible for him to keep quiet until after the election and that, perhaps, when he was given a chance to right a previous wrong, he took it.
Clinton isn’t taking it gracefully.
Clinton’s complaints, which have appeared in the press around the world, make her look even worse than she did before.
This is from The Telegraph , a UK publication:
Hillary Clinton was furiously fighting to keep her Presidential bid on track on Saturday night as her lead in the polls narrowed, after the FBI’s bombshell announcement that it had reopened its investigation into her emails.
James Comey announced on Friday afternoon that fresh evidence had emerged for his investigation into whether Mrs Clinton was criminally negligent in her handling of classified material.
On Saturday, the latest poll of polls by tracker site RealClearPolitics put Clinton 3.9 percentage points ahead of the Republican nationwide, down from 7.1 points just 10 days previously.
But wait – it gets better:
The Clinton campaign has responded with what amounts to a declaration of open warfare against Mr Comey, alleging that his actions are backed by a political motive. And Mrs Clinton herself called the decision “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling”.
“It’s pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election,” she complained, addressing cheering supporters at a rally in the must-win state of Florida.
Democrats questioned the timing of the agency’s decision, which comes as polls showed Mrs Clinton’s lead falling just 10 days before the presidential election.
“This is like an 18-wheeler smacking into us, and it just becomes a huge distraction at the worst possible time,” said Donna Brazile, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
“The campaign is trying to cut through the noise as best it can.
“We don’t want it to knock us off our game. But on the second-to-last weekend of the race, we find ourselves having to tell voters, ‘Keep your focus, keep your eyes on the prize.’”
Hillary’s campaign manager sounds pretty desperate to me. As for the complaints from HRC, they just make her sound like the out-of-touch, money-grabbing, power-hungry, deceitful | 1real |
(VIDEO) BALTIMORE MAYOR GIVES TOTALLY INSANE REASON FOR GIVING $6.4 MILLION TO FREDDIE GRAY FAMILY | The reason the Baltimore Mayor gives for the huge settlement to the Gray family is just insane! Just listen to her state that this settlement could prevent a future riot. Who is she trying to fool here? Is she getting a kick back from this settlement? A much better use for the $6.4 million would be to help the businesses who lost everything in the riots because the police were told to stand down and do nothing while the city burned. | 1real |
Just How Big Is The Asia Trade Deal Obama Wants? It's A Beast | Just How Big Is The Asia Trade Deal Obama Wants? It's A Beast
One of the most basic facts about the Trans-Pacific Partnership is also the most important: It's huge.
The trade deal got over a big hurdle Friday when the Senate voted in favor of giving the Obama administration "fast-track" authority to negotiate the deal with Canada and 10 Asian nations.
That leaves the U.S. House, and it's unclear it has the votes yet. If it passes, though, TPP, which has angered many in the president's party, would be by far the largest free trade agreement the U.S. has in effect.
The 12 nations involved in TPP make up about 36 percent of global gross domestic product, or GDP, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. That sets the TPP well apart from the 14 free trade agreements the U.S. currently has in effect with 20 countries (to be fair, the U.S. accounts for nearly 23 percent of global GDP by itself).
Not only that, but these nations together account for about one-third of global trade, according to the Brookings Institution.
So the TPP stands apart from other trade agreements in its size. But that's only one dimension of its impact. Another way the TPP is gargantuan is tougher to quantify in a bar graph: its scope. It not only covers basic trade issues like tariffs, but also a variety of other areas like labor and environmental and intellectual property.
The size and scope of TPP matter because they are at the center of the debate. The Obama administration sees the deal's broad reach as positive — the agreement, the administration says, will open up the U.S. to all kinds of new markets and business.
Agribusiness companies, for example, are excited about having new avenues for their products. The labor and environmental provisions, the administration also argues, will force other nations to up their game on those issues, "leveling the playing field."
Not only that, but the TPP's size is all the more important for the one economic superpower that isn't included in it: China. One of the administration's top arguments for the deal is that in negotiating TPP, it "writes the rules" for trade with a large swath of eastern Asian countries before China can with its own trade agreements.
But opponents, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., worry about the sweep of the deal. Leaked chapters have intellectual property advocates, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, worried it goes too far in areas like extending copyright laws and fair use rules. Doctors Without Borders has also argued the deal could make for more expensive generic drugs, restricting access to medicine for some consumers.
However, some wish the pact went further — environmental groups like the Sierra Club, for example, believe the provisions won't do enough to address overfishing.
But then, no one outside members of Congress, negotiators and a small group of cleared individuals has access to the pact, so it's hard to know exactly how far it will (or won't) go. And that is perhaps the source of the most tension in the TPP debate: that such a big deal is being negotiated behind closed doors.
If Congress grants the administration fast-track (also known as Trade Promotion Authority), it will mean two to four months for public comment before Congress gives the deal an up-or-down vote, with no amendments or debate.
The administration argues that this is unprecedented transparency for a trade deal. Opponents, however, believe it would be too little, too late in what has now been a seven-year negotiating process. | 0fake |
RNC Spokesman Hilariously Ridiculed After Invoking ‘My Little Pony’ Defense Of Melania (SCREENSHOTS/VIDEO) | Sometimes, politics can get so ridiculous that one is forced to wonder if what he or she is seeing is really happening. One of those moments occurred on the second day of the GOP convention. After Melania Trump blatantly plagiarized part of Michelle Obama s 2008 Democratic convention speech, the GOP leaped into action, offering every ridiculous excuse they could muster to defend the prospective next First Lady including the Trump campaign s official hamburger delivery boy Chris Christie s well-she-didn t-plagiarize-all-of-it-so-it-wasn t-plagiarism defense.But the most insane thing to come out of this scenario is perhaps Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer s My Little Pony defense. Melania Trump said, You work hard for what you want in life. Akon said, Work hard for what you get in life. John Legend said, Work hard, Spicer offered during an interview on MSNBC. You re quoting Akon and John Legend? asked host Craig Melvin. Hold on, it s getting better, Spicer continued. And he was right it did get better: Melania Trump said, The strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them. Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said, This is your dream, anything you can do in your dreams. A simple Google search of three phrases comes up with everything from Sparkle Pony to John Legend to Akon, Spicer said, ignoring that an entire paragraph was quoted by Mrs. Trump nearly word-for-word.Naturally, the internet had a lot of fun with this:A presidential campaign quoting from MY LITTLE PONY. There just isn't enough popcorn in all the world for this. pic.twitter.com/wMl166jHQZ Scott Sigler (@scottsigler) July 19, 2016My Little Pony is trending, my 7yr old girl is going to be ecstatic, a new movie! Then I come to realize, it's even better!! Jason MacDonald (@jasonm_stones) July 19, 20164wait they actually cited my little pony?! kath bishop (@holeygeorge) July 19, 2016Why is my little pony trending . Oh god CHOROMATSU GIRL (@zero_ukai) July 19, 2016I always go watch My Little Pony to find phrases I can use in my speeches. Doesn't everyone? Bella Elle (@Preciosa_Liz) July 19, 2016Republicans are trying in every which way possible to defend Melania stealing that speech ?? they're out here quoting my little pony ? Gabby (@LoveeeGabby_) July 19, 2016When "My Little Pony" is being referenced seriously in political discourse, you know the end is near. pic.twitter.com/xPkmcQMKau Candace Blessed (@blessedcandace) July 19, 2016YOU GUYS @seanspicer just quoted Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony to defend Melania Trump and I am DONE Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) July 19, 2016RNC, why are you bringing My Little Pony into this?! What did Twilight Sparkle do to you?! https://t.co/ouEIt88shg Kimberly Ann (@KimmyEason) July 19, 2016The My Little Pony defense like totally works here pic.twitter.com/vMcGXyHU3K Max (@MaxDeChiara) July 19, 2016The My Little Pony defense? Could this election get any crazier? (The answer is yes, I know, I know.) #MelaniaLovesMichelle Noah Evslin (@nevslin) July 19, 2016My little pony Really? pic.twitter.com/AyhkCDgX1Z Jill (@jedichica) July 19, 2016So she also plagiarized "My Little Pony"? Has she no shame? https://t.co/wQ5xZbHXXi Lenny (@DimeStoreNinja) July 19, 2016I can't even with this using "My Little Pony" as a defense? Really?! The absurdity has become surreal. (((Jeff))) (@progpoet) July 19, 2016The bottom line #MelaniaTrump did commit #plagiarism if not of #MicheleObama then of My Little Pony ? #PlagiaristMelania Souad (@minouche_tlm) July 19, 2016Oh well if she was just paraphrasing My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic then it s totally less idiotic https://t.co/P64WN0iUtr Rebecca Marie Kocsis (@BeccaMarie82) July 19, 2016@CNN so your future First Lady has the same mindset as my little pony!! Is that what you're saying?!? _______ (@DontCare_w) July 19, 2016Why couldn't Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony save me when I handed in that paper in 9th grade? Adam Parker (@goatsonparade) July 19, 2016GOP's Sean Spicer defends Melania Trump against accusations she plagiarized Michelle Obama by suggesting Melania plagiarized My Little Pony. I, Hoebot. (@eclecticbrotha) July 19, 2016So she has also plagiarized My Little Pony and Kid Rock. What noble leaders to emulate. https://t.co/YMTR3TrGj8 Cassie Gibbs (@trojan_roo) July 19, 2016I bet this is one My Little Pony the RNC isn't down with. pic.twitter.com/aLAaRaiylp Dolly Llama (@BrandonLBC) July 19, 2016OMG,my Little Pony and then they include John Legend!.Just like they ignored Brian May's( Queen's)copyright! https://t.co/9ccPz4LMsm Angels4Autism (@Angel4Autism) July 19, 2016If Republicans are now messing with My Little Pony, I m pretty sure that crosses a line. They re at risk of losing the key brony vote. Mike Knell (@mpk) July 19, 2016With the My Little Pony defense of Melania Trump s plagiarism, GOP proves Partisanship is Magic. https://t.co/4a4ObPrau8 Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) July 19, 2016Please tell me the RNC did NOT just go into My Little Pony oh what a year! Diz Foley (@DizFoley) July 19, 2016You know how all those guys were like "Girl Ghostbusters ruined my childhood?"Well the RNC quoting My Little Pony is doing nothing for mine Marla Rosenthal (@half_shiksa) July 19, 2016Let s say Spicer is 100% correct in that Michelle Obama lifted the phrases from My Little Pony. He s not, but let s pretend that this is some alternate universe where rabid, tentacular beasts rule the planet, the sky is constantly on fire, and a smart, classy woman like Michelle Obama needs to dip into the brilliant and thought-provoking scripts of My Little Pony in order to write a speech.Does it really make it any better that Melania Trump lifted quotes third-hand from a children s TV show? Is the fact that Mrs. Trump couldn t steal from someone more respectable than a show about magic horses actually comforting?Here s the thing, though. While Spicer really had to reach to connect Trump s (and Obama s) to My Little Pony, the difference in wording between the two speeches was minimal. In any case, this tweet from California Senate candidate Thomas Del Beccaro keeps getting more hilarious by the minute.#MelaniaTrump proved tonight she is total opposite of #MichelleO. No anger. No complaints. Just about what can happen through opportunity. Thomas Del Beccaro (@tomdelbeccaro) July 19, 2016Watch this ridiculous attempt to defend Mrs. Trump below:And watch him double down on CNN here:Featured image via screengrab (NBC)/screengrab | 1real |
Man whose job it was to rig US Presidential election fired | Wednesday 9 November 2016 Man whose job it was to rig US Presidential election fired
The man whose job it was to rig the election for Hillary Clinton has been fired without a reference this morning.
53-year-old NWO black ops operative Simon Williams spent the last six months programming voting machines to flip votes, and mailing bundles of blank voting forms to registered Democrats.
However, his failure to swing the result means he is unlikely to get the fat payoff and pension contributions he had been counting on.
Williams is also concerned that his lack of a reference to explain how he’s spent the last few years of his life might count against him in the job market, with employers as far afield as Russia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela refusing to accept his word as an expert that he’s good at controlling electoral outcomes.
Sources inside the Democrat party have highlighted this as just the first American job lost by Trump and warned there could be many more, specifically in the polling and political punditry industries.
“It’s outrageous,” Simon told us.
“I heard there was a great role coming up as stage manager for the CIA, but they won’t even talk to me unless my resume contains what I’ve been doing for the last few years.
“Which is a bit rich coming from them, if I may make so bold. You’d think they of all people would be more understanding.
“Still, I hear Francois Hollande has an election coming up in France. Does anyone have his number? I’m sure he could use a hand.” Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently witterings below - why not add your own? | 1real |
U.S. judge blocks transgender, abortion-related Obamacare protections | (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a court order barring enforcement of an Obama administration policy seeking to extend anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act to transgender health and abortion-related services. The decision sides with Texas, seven other states and three Christian-affiliated healthcare groups challenging a rule that, according to the judge, defines sex bias to include “discrimination on the basis of gender identity and termination of pregnancy.” In granting an injunction one day before the new policy was to take effect, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor held that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing rule-making practices. The judge also ruled that plaintiffs were likely to prevail in court on their claim that the new policy infringes on the rights of private healthcare providers under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. As explained in O’Connor’s 46-page opinion, the plaintiffs argued that the new regulation would “require them to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender transitions and abortions, regardless of their contrary religious beliefs or medical judgment.” The same judge issued a similar court order in August blocking a separate Obama administration policy that would have required public schools, over the objections of 13 states, to allow transgender students to use restrooms of their choice. It was not immediately clear whether the Obama administration, which has just 20 days left in office, would seek to appeal the latest injunction. White House spokeswoman Katie Hill decried the ruling. “Today’s decision is a setback, but hopefully a temporary one, since all Americans - regardless of their sex, gender identity or sexual orientation - should have access to quality, affordable health care free from discrimination,” she said. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 with an anti-discrimination section designed to prevent insurers from charging customers more or denying coverage based on age, race, national origin, disability or sex. The rule in dispute on Saturday was adopted by the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Department to implement those provisions, including definitions for sex discrimination that encompassed transgender and abortion services. According to the court opinion, gender identity was defined under that rule as “an individual’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female, and which may be different from an individual’s sex assigned at birth.” The state of Texas has led a string of legal cases brought by Republican-controlled states contesting various social policies advanced by President Barack Obama, most notably his 2014 executive action to protect millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and give them work permits. That plan, challenged by Texas and other states, has been barred by the courts. But the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 issued rulings that kept the Affordable Care Act, his top legislative achievement, intact. | 0fake |
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Actress Famous for Her Glamour (and Her Marriages), Dies at 99 - The New York Times | Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian actress whose glamour and marriages to millionaires put a luster of American celebrity on a long but only modestly successful career in movies and television, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 99. The cause was heart failure, her longtime publicist Edward Lozzi said. Married at least eight times, calling everyone “Dahlink,” flaunting a lifestyle and abetted by gossip columnists and tabloid headline writers, Ms. Gabor played the coifed platinum femme fatale in plunging necklines in dozens of film and television roles, many of them cameos as herself. Her career, which began with the title Miss Hungary in 1936, was still going strong in the 1990s, outlasting those of her sisters, Eva and Magda, celebrities in their own right. She was the last surviving Gabor sister. “A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it,” Ms. Gabor once said. Her husbands included a Turkish diplomat, the hotel heir Conrad Hilton, the actor George Sanders, an industrialist, an oil magnate, a toy designer, a divorce lawyer and a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony. Another marriage that nobody counted — a case of bigamy at sea with a Mexican actor — lasted only a day and was annulled. In 1989, she was arrested for slapping a police officer who had pulled her over for a traffic violation and found that her license had expired and that she had an open vodka bottle in her car, a Corniche convertible. Breezing into court, she took the stand and, by turns haughty, coquettish, weepy and coarse, spoke of Gestapo tactics in Beverly Hills. The judge gave her 72 hours in jail. “You just cannot drive a in Beverly Hills anymore, because they have it in for you,” she said after things had blown over. Ms. Gabor appeared in more than 60 television movies and feature films, mostly although some were Italian, French, German and Australian. Critics said her best roles were early in her career, in “Moulin Rouge” (1952) and “Lili” (1953). She also appeared as a nightclub manager in Orson Welles’s 1958 classic “Touch of Evil” and, the same year, as a sexy alien in “Queen of Outer Space,” a camp favorite about virile American astronauts landing on a planet populated by scantily clad women. From the 1950s into the ’90s, she was also on scores of television programs: talk shows, game shows, comedy specials, westerns, episodic dramas. On the 1960s series “Batman,” she played the Minerva, whose mineral spa fleeced swells by extracting secrets from their brains. “A real vicked voman,” she described the character in her Hungarian accent. Exploiting her naughty celebrity, Ms. Gabor, with the help of collaborators and ghost writers, published four books: “Zsa Zsa Gabor: My Story” (1960) “Zsa Zsa’s Complete Guide to Men” (1969) “How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man” (1970) and “One Lifetime Is Not Enough” (1991). In addition to her steady appearances in movies and on television, Ms. Gabor operated a cosmetics company. She once offered $1 million to anyone who could prove she had had a . In 1974, she bought a villa in Bel Air built by Howard Hughes and formerly owned by Elvis Presley. Her multitiered clothes closet — 30 feet long, 12 feet deep and 14 feet high — contained 5, 000 garments that, except for favored gowns, were given to charities and replaced with a new wardrobe from time to time, according to her official fan site, zsazsagabor. org. In early 2009, Ms. Gabor discovered that she had joined a long list of celebrities who were victimized by Bernard L. Madoff, the financial swindler whose worldwide Ponzi scheme that cost investors tens of billions. Her lawyer Chris Fields said she lost at least $7 million and possibly as much as $10 million. Ms. Gabor had been in and out of hospitals for years. She suffered head and other injuries and was hospitalized for a month in 2002 after a car driven by her hairdresser struck a utility pole in West Hollywood. It left her in a wheelchair, and she retreated from the spotlight. She suffered a stroke in 2005 and had surgery for a blocked carotid artery. In 2007, she again underwent surgery to treat a leg infection and aftereffects of the stroke. In July 2010, she underwent surgery after a fall at her home in which she also suffered a concussion. Released from the hospital in August, she was readmitted two days later for treatment of unspecified complications. In January 2011, her right leg was amputated above the knee after an infection proved resistant to antibiotics. Doctors said the operation was necessary to save her life. Two months later, shock over the death of her friend Elizabeth Taylor sent her to the hospital with high blood pressure, and Ms. Gabor’s publicist, John Blanchette, quoted her as saying she feared she was next. In November 2011, she had emergency surgery after blood began flowing through a feeding tube inserted in her stomach. Born Sari Gabor in Budapest in 1917 — she always gave a birth date of Feb. 6 or 7, but not the year, though Mr. Lozzi confirmed on Sunday that it was 1917 — Ms. Gabor grew up in relative prosperity, the second of three daughters of Vilmos and Jolie Gabor. Raised for stardom, the sisters attended private schools and were chauffeured to acting, dancing, music and fencing classes. On the eve of World War II, Ms. Gabor, her mother and her sisters emigrated to the United States, and by the 1950s the Gabor sisters had become as well known for their love lives as for their careers. Magda, who acted on radio briefly and helped her mother operate a chain of jewelry boutiques, died in 1997, as did her mother. Eva, who was best known for her role on television’s “Green Acres” in the 1960s — and whom the public sometimes confused with Zsa Zsa — died in 1995. Zsa Zsa, who divorced seven of her eight husbands, was first married to Burhan Belge, a Turkish diplomat in Budapest, from 1937 to 1941. Her second marriage, to Mr. Hilton, lasted from 1942 to 1947. Their daughter, Francesca Hilton, an actress, was Ms. Gabor’s only child. She died in 2015. Her other marriages were to Mr. Sanders ( ) who later married Magda Gabor the Herbert L. Hutner ( ) the oil magnate Joshua S. Cosden Jr. ( ) Jack Ryan, an inventor and toy designer who helped create the Barbie doll ( ) Michael O’Hara, a lawyer ( ) and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, whom she married in 1986. Mr. Prinz von Anhalt, often described in the news media as a prince or the Duke of Saxony, was born Hans Robert Lichtenberg, the son of a police officer in Germany. He changed his name to include what sounded like a title after Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt, the Duchess of Saxony, adopted him in 1980 as an adult. The adoption, widely reported to have been a business transaction, conferred only an illusion of nobility, reinforced by the name change. Some biographies of Ms. Gabor also mention a 1983 marriage to Felipe de Alba, a lawyer who appeared in films in Mexico in the 1940s and ’50s, but Ms. Gabor said it lasted only a day. The ceremony was performed by a ship’s captain at sea but was probably illegal because the ship was not in international waters, and Ms. Gabor was technically not yet divorced from Mr. O’Hara. It was later annulled, just to make sure. There were also notorious affairs with Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican playboy, and with Rafael Trujillo Jr. the son of the Dominican dictator. Ms. Gabor is survived by her husband, Mr. Prinz von Anhalt. Ms. Gabor’s many public appearances included a 1987 address to the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco, where she spoke to the family law section at a luncheon. “We’ve had enough of the routine speakers,” the chairman said, introducing Ms. Gabor as “an optimist who still believes in marriage. ” Telling her tales of marital joys and woes, Ms. Gabor confided, “I have learned that not diamonds but divorce lawyers are a girl’s best friend. ” Then, inviting questions, the chairman said, “Let’s keep it on direct, not on cross. ” “What does that mean?” she asked. “That means they’ve got to be nice to you. ” | 0fake |
Another Pervert Out At Fox News Over Allegations Of Sexual Harassment | Fox News has a problem with sexual predators in its ranks. Their gross corporate rape culture is costing them television personalities left and right. First, it was the now-deceased mastermind behind the network, Roger Ailes. Then it was Bill O Reilly (who was, by all accounts, their main star) who had to be canned to save the network s brand after millions were paid to his victims. Now, it is happening again only this time it is Eric Bolling.Bolling had his own program, called The Specialists, which was relatively new, but he had been with the network for a decade. Fox News released a curt statement that read: Fox News Channel is canceling The Specialists, and Eric Bolling and Fox have agreed to part ways amicably. We thank Eric for his ten years of service to our loyal viewers and wish him the best of luck. There was no mention of the sexual harassment charges, but that was clearly the reason. Bolling has been accused of sending lewd photos of penises to female Fox News employees. Bolling, for his part, is, of course, denying the allegations. His lawyer released a statement that reads: Mr. Bolling recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made. This all comes on the heels of Bolling being suspended after Yashar Ali of the Huffington Post came out with an explosive report regarding Bolling s conduct in the workplace. Bolling is filing a $50 million lawsuit against Yashar for character defamation. It likely won t go anywhere as no one in their right mind would write such a story without concrete evidence.That network of right-wing propaganda needs to go down the toilet with the rest of the sewage. They are misogynistic, racist, and all around bigoted to their core. They are also pathological liars who should not be allowed to call themselves news. So long, Bolling. Hopefully the rest of that vile network follows.Featured image via Logopedia | 1real |
#BREAKING: TRUMP USHERED OFF STAGE IN NV SUSPECT DETAINED | We Are Change
Donald Trump on Saturday was quickly ushered off the stage by Secret Service agents in the middle of a campaign speech in Nevada after an incident in the crowd near the front of the stage.
Secret Service rushes Trump off stage at Reno rally https://t.co/n82d9jXopX
— Chrissy (@omgitsmechrissy) November 6, 2016
Video shows that Trump was in the middle of his speech when the incident occurred. He was looking into the crowd, his hand over his eyes to block the glare from the stage lights, when Secret Service agents grabbed him and escorted him off the stage. Trump ducked his head as he left the stage. The crowd panicked with frightened looks on their faces, as the Secret Service and police tactical units rushed in to quickly arrest the man. Early unconfirmed reports suggest a man was armed in the crowd according to some witnesses. The man was then detained by police officers, Secret Service agents and SWAT armed with assault rifles and taken to a side room for questioning. Trump returned to the stage minutes later and proceeded to continue his speech before thanking the Secret Service and police. “Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never be stopped. We will never be stopped. I want to thank the Secret Service. These guys are fantastic.”
~Donald Trump, said.
(THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY AND WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW DETAILS BECOME AVAILABLE.) The post #BREAKING: TRUMP USHERED OFF STAGE IN NV SUSPECT DETAINED appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
BREAKING: Active Shooter Reported Outside Los Angeles Polling Location – 1 Dead | An active shooter situation is developing in Los Angeles outside a polling place in Azusa. Not much is known at the moment, including whether the shooting is political in nature or not. However, the fact that it happened outside a polling location automatically makes it suspicious.According to the Los Angeles Times, the shooting happened sometime after 2 p.m. Pacific time, so just before polls closed on the East Coast. Police are not reporting the exact location of the shooting in order to protect the safety of the officers, victims, and bystanders in the area.One victim was rushed to the hospital where they died. Three others were wounded. One voter told CNN: At first, I thought it was construction but people came running into the room saying they see a guy with a bulletproof vest and a white shirt. As of right now, they just have us in the voting room and are trying to keep us calm. The polling station and two schools were on lockdown at the time of this posting. The L.A. County registrar was urging voters to steer clear of the area. Police have said the shooting is contained now:#UPDATE: Police say shooter in Azusa has been contained,but shelter in place order remains for those nearbyhttps://t.co/C7J0v5eLFd Good Day LA (@GDLA) November 9, 2016Given that this is the most contentious election in modern history, and it s been fueled by some of the worst right-wing hate there is, it s not hard to wonder whether the shooting was related to Donald Trump s calls for supporters to ensure that everything at polls around the country is the up-and-up. It s also possible that someone wanted to scare people away from the polls.NOTE: We are not saying that this is the case because we don t know what happened right now. It s entirely possible that this is completely unrelated to the election authorities aren t releasing much information.Police are saying that the shooter has been contained, but voters are still going to alternate polling places.Featured image via screen capture from embedded tweet | 1real |
THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER Who Won’t Go Away: Obama Reportedly Setting Up Shadow Government In DC To Undermine Trump’s Presidency [VIDEO] | Ed Klein: For the past 100 years every president who is outgoing has packed up his stuff gone home and not criticized his successor. This is not what the Obamas are planning to do. They rented an eight-bedroom mansion in the section of Washington near Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton s last press secretary. In that house there s enough room for Valerie Jarrett and Michelle and the kids. A place for ten cars to park. They are setting up what they are calling a shadow government.Pete Hegseth: The Obamas claim it is because the children want to stay in D.C..Ed Klein: That s not the real reason they are staying there. They are staying there because despite what the president said in his press conference, he s in a sense of outrage over this incoming Trump Administration, which he thinks is going to wipe out his legacy. So he s setting up this kind of almost insurgency, picking people in foreign affairs, labor, abortion, union matters and setting them up to start appearing on television, making speeches and doing op-ed pieces for next four years, you re going to see not only a Trump Administration but you re going to see a shadow government opposing the Trump Klein said it was an insurgency by the left starting on Inauguration Day with the mass demonstrations organized by Michael Moore. Gateway Pundit | 1real |
“This has got to STOP!”…JUDGE JEANINE Goes After Nordstrom For Nasty Treatment Of Ivanka Trump [Video] | The presidents of Nordstrom sent an email criticizing President Donald Trump s ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations entering the United States just days before the retail giant dropped Ivanka Trump s clothing line:In the note, brothers Peter, Erik, and Blake Nordstrom told employees of the company that they would do all they could to help those who might be impacted by the ban while celebrating the many things the immigrant community have contributed to the retailer over the years.The Nordstrom brothers also pointed out that the company was founded by an immigrants, their great grandfather John.Two days later, the Seattle-based retailer announced that they would no longer be carrying Ivanka Trump s line of clothing, handbags, shoes and accessories. Read more: Daily MailThe left had also organized an effort to harm the Ivanka Trump brand months ago by pushing retailers to drop her. While sales of the Ivanka Trump brand have risen about 32%, the effort to tarnish the brand succeeded with the petty effort from the group Grab Your Wallet . Nordstrom dropped Ivanka and it was most certainly a political move. Judge Jeanine is as FED UP as we are with the childish and hateful treatment of a woman who should be celebrated by the so-called feminists. She let em have it: | 1real |
#InNorthDakota ~~ PALESTINIANS STAND WITH THE SIOUX | #InNorthDakota ~~ PALESTINIANS STAND WITH THE SIOUX
October 26, 2016
Palestinians know too well the threat to their own water supply ….
As Native communities face an ongoing genocide and continue to resist the imperialist settler-colonial regime of the United States, Palestinians are too experiencing a genocide and ethnocide within our homelands from the settler-colonial state of Israel.”
Image by Carlos Latuff “Water is life for all of us”: Palestinian activists join Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protest DAPL Palestinians join Standing Rock Sioux to protest Dakota Access Pipeline
Nadya Raja Tannous “Perhaps only in North Dakota, where oil tycoons wine and dine elected officials, and where the governor, Jack Dalrymple, serves as an adviser to the Trump campaign, would state and county governments act as the armed enforcement for corporate interests. In recent weeks, the state has militarized my reservation, with road blocks and license-plate checks, low-flying aircraft and racial profiling of Indians. The local sheriff and the pipeline company have both called our protest “unlawful,” and Gov. Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency. It’s a familiar story in Indian Country. This is the third time that the Sioux Nation’s lands and resources have been taken without regard for tribal interests. The Sioux peoples signed treaties in 1851 and 1868. The government broke them before the ink was dry. When the Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Missouri River in 1958, it took our riverfront forests, fruit orchards and most fertile farmland to create Lake Oahe. Now the Corps is taking our clean water and sacred places by approving this river crossing.” – Dave Archambault II , Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, opinion piece in the NY Times The Bakken formation in the northern United States and southern Canada is listed by US energy companies as one of the most promising options for national oil extraction, only surpassed in size by the oil fields in Alaska . The fields in North Dakota have been increasingly targeted for Bakken shale oil resources over the past years and they are quite familiar with public controversy: many of us remember the proposal of the infamous Keystone XL pipeline from 2008-2015, which was held in starkly low public opinion and struck down twice by the Obama administration . The proposed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is not so different from its failed counterpart. It is mapped out for the same length of 1,172 miles as the Keystone XL and is targeting the same Bakken shale reserves for carry across the upper Midwest . The proposed $3.8 billion dollar DAPL would transport 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day across four states and cross the Missouri River itself. Parent company, Energy Transfer Partners is selling the pipeline as an economic booster, job creator , and sure investment for the future of the American people. Yet, who exactly are they referring to and who did they consult? In the hills outside of Bismarck, North Dakota is the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, sitting along the banks of the Cannonball River, a tributary to the Missouri River. The pipeline construction sites can now be seen from the reservation, but many people here saw the pipeline coming before it even arrived. Just as Energy Transfer Partners and TransCanada failed to consult Native Tribes who live along the planned pipeline route and whose sacred lands, ancestral lands, and main water sources will be compromised by construction, there has not been a single tribal consultation around the proposed DAPL. On April 1st , Sacred Stone Spirit Camp was erected on the bank of the Cannonball as a residence for water protectors, many whom came from within and off the reservation to stand against pipeline construction, call for water preservation, and call for recognition of the Federal treat ies held with the Great Sioux Nation. What started out as a few hundred people quickly increased into the thousands, stemming the creation of the Oceti Sakowin and Red Warrior Camps on the other side of the Cannonball. Protectors, support, and solidarity with Standing Rock are arriving from all edges of the world, many of them representing Indigenous Nations . My own caravan set out from California the 2nd week of September, preceding the Palestinian Youth Movement-USA Caravan that arrived soon after. As a contingent of Indigenous peoples in diaspora and recent settlers on Turtle Island , we attest that those standing at Standing Rock are standing for our present and future as well. We must in turn stand for each other against the present, future, and historical supremacies of erasure, the active legacy of settler-colonialism, and the viciousness of greed. The pipeline company seems to remain unconcerned by the risk of polluting the reservation’s main water source, the highly probable degradation of land and sacred sights, and their trespass against a series of federal laws , and they are becoming increasingly reactionary to the flow of protectors in and out of the protector camps and surrounding areas. Just a few weeks ago, on September 28th, alarming images and video were released of armed police and military-style vehicles cornering protectors holding a prayer ceremony at a North Dakota construction site. The video portrayed the intensity on the ground and just how vulnerable the protector camps are without the gaze of the public eye: “They are moving in” “They won’t let us leave. They have locked us in on both sides” “They’ve got their weapons drawn” “They’ve got snipers on top of the hill” “They’re blocking me on Facebook” “They are arresting everyone now. Everyone is running” “Share this far and wide” – Transcript of LiveStream video via Unicorn Riot The militarized forces blocked the only exit from the site to the public road before arresting 21 protectors . Other attendees posted photos of a crop dusting plane releasing a gas or chemical over the crowd. There has been little clarity thereafter of the makeup of the compound or the purpose of the spray. The participation and planning of direct actions against DAPL construction, however, are continuing, with over 100 cars caravanning out to 5 construction sites the week of October 3rd and successfully halting construction for the day. Local authorities, private security hires, and the National Guard are seemingly disturbed by the presence of protectors as well, and are going out of their way to restrict access in and out of the protector camp area and intimidate newcomers. Indeed my own caravan coming from California was discouraged from approaching the reservation on the main road running from Bismarck, ND due to the checkpoints erected by North Dakota authorities. Our longwinded encounter with the highway patrol on our way to North Dakota — who insisted on not only checking all of our IDs followed by standing on the side of the highway outside of the car for an hour but also “passed our information down the line to the authorities higher-up” including suspicions of illegal activity — seemed to be motivated to dissuade an influx of supporters into the area. Stories of license plate checks, racial profiling of Native and ethnic drivers and/or car passengers, as well as arrests at roadblocks, circulated through the camps. Democracy Now , The New York Times , Huffington Post , and many independent news sources also reported these same tactics. Why did I go in the first place? Because somewhere in the awkward power dynamic of being a US citizen, a non-native inhabitant of Turtle Island , and a Palestinian in the Diaspora, I saw the struggle for livelihood and culture, the struggle against settler-colonialism, the struggle to protect the sacred and maintain your own legitimacy, and the ever ominous force of erasure and historical amnesia. What I later saw at Standing Rock both embodied this and became bigger than it; as a Mohawk Elder said to me, “Without water, we [humans] are infertile dust”. At a council fire in Oceti Sakowin during my stay, 280 Indigenous Nations were thanked for their support and representation at the camps. Movement leaders at Sacred Stone Spirit Camp have repeatedly stated that the gatherings of different Indigenous Nations near Cannonball, ND is the largest in the past 150 years on the North American continent . The council fire sits at the mouth of the main entrance of Oceti Sakowin Camp, outlined by rows of flags representing many of the Indigenous Nations who have come to stand with Standing Rock. At the end of one of the rows is the Palestinian flag. Seeing it filled me equally with joy and sadness because it confirmed two things that I had pondered throughout the long drive from California to North Dakota: the first thought is that the power of collective resistance against greed and settler-colonialism is a mighty force. That thought was embodied by my joy to see a representation of will by the presently unseen Palestinian siblings who had come to take a stand against destructive powers. The second thought was embodied by sadness for, if the struggle for protection of water, culture, land, heritage, and livelihood is truly mirrored in Standing Rock and Palestine, then the struggle ahead is both vast and uncompromising. I spoke with many inspiring protectors from the Maori in New Zealand, indigenous representatives from Ecuador, Canadian representatives from the Blackfoot Nation who were longtime activists in the “Idle No More” mobilizations, and Dakota/Lakota/Nakota from Standing Rock and the neighboring reservations among so many others. From a variety of perspectives and personal stories, the same foundational message was repeated back to me: this stand isn’t just about standing for Native rights, it is about protecting the water, protecting our earth and securing the livelihood of our next generations. Water is life for all of us. Myself and fellow members of the Palestinian Youth Movement–United States Branch had reflected on the latter thought when we authored our statement of solidarity “with the Standing Rock Sioux, the Great Sioux Nation and our other native sisters, brothers and siblings in the fight against the DAPL”, circulated on September 7th. Segments read: “We condemn all forms of state violence against our First Nation siblings and denote that the undermining of their sovereignty and livelihood is a part of the continuing dialectic of settler-colonialism transnationally. Since the arrival of settlers on Turtle Island, First Nations have resisted genocide and displacement. From seizure of land to reservations, from boarding schools to massacres, the state has done everything in its power to erase and eradicate First Nation peoples. Yet, they are still with us today and they continue to resist. Protecting their land, people, and future generations from the DAPL is a testament to their strength and resilience. …. As Native communities face an ongoing genocide and continue to resist the imperialist settler-colonial regime of the United States, Palestinians are too experiencing a genocide and ethnocide within our homelands from the settler-colonial state of Israel.” The comparisons are uncanny. I had spent most of the hours on the road to North Dakota contemplating the connections between the obstacles and oppressions facing those in Standing Rock and the obstacles and oppressions facing we Palestinians under occupation and apartheid. However, upon arriving at Standing Rock, I no longer just thought about the similarities, I felt them in my bones. When protectors at Standing Rock asked me about what Palestinians experience in our own fight against settler-colonialism , oppression, and greed, I answered sometimes through the language of statistics. Yet, more often, I told them narratives of genocide, exile, delegimitzation, broken promises, and resounding resilience. Sitting around a fire, burning sage and cedar wood, Darlene Meguinis of the Blackfoot Nation in Canada reflected on the beginnings of the Idle No More movement, in which she is still an active organizer. She told me: “Everything must start with prayer and ceremony, especially organizing.” She reminded me that the founders of Idle No More , elders Nina Waste, Jessica Gordon, Sheelah Mcleen, and Sylvia McAdams, had rooted the movement in ceremony. The result of doing so, Meguinis maintained, was to center the focus of the collective actions for change. Native youth in the #NoDAPL Youth Council at Standing Rock reiterated similar ideas about DAPL actions. Two youth leaders recounted to me, “we are striving for the results that we want to see but are being directed by our ancestors. We are here, acting now, for our children.” Intention and prayer surrounded much of the daily camp life and easily dispersed the tensions outside, even as the DAPL Company and National Guard helicopters flew low over the camps each morning, afternoon and night (something that pointedly reminded me of life in Palestine). Some mornings along the bend of the Cannonball River, which delineates Oceti Sakowin/Red Warrior Camp from Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, Native artists reflected the beauty around them in paintings and art installations. One of the organizers was Albuquerque artist Monty Singer, whose picture is shown below. The time set out to create art and music, to gather around fires and drum circles, to participate in prayer and ceremony with each other uplifted the vibrant energy of the camps and the people within them. We cheered, prayed and supported the direct actions as best we could every day; donations from across the U.S. and internationally flooded into the main entrance in the afternoons and community kitchens and donation booths ran 24/7 to maintain the swelling of protector numbers. Hundreds of people ebbed and flowed into the camps every single day. The sheer power required to uphold the movement is sobering: in light of the failed injunction by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the US Army Corps of Engineers at the lower court level, a Federal Appeals court officially halted construction of the pipeline, underlining the same temporary hold parameters as the decree proposed on September 9th by the Department of Justice (DOJ ). That hold applies solely within 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe near the Missouri River. Other locations on the planned pipeline route are still open for construction and, though direct actions at sites of DAPL construction have not wavered, they are increasingly receiving less and less media attention with increasingly severe charges being applied to protectors. For example, the 5 protectors who strapped themselves to bulldozers at an active DAPL construction site 100 miles down Hwy 94 from the reservation during my stay at Oceti Sakowin Camp were slapped with felony charges for “criminal trespassing”, the same charges outlined against Amy Goodman in her arrest warrant as a result of her coverage of the DAPL in early September (although her charges at the time constituted a misdemeanor and were thankfully dropped October 17th after a court hearing ). Some of those arrested were even extradited back to their home states to face their charges from North Dakota in addition to preexisting protest charges in other states. My last night in Standing Rock, I spoke with a woman by the name of “Terry”, a resident of Bismarck, ND. I asked her why I had met so few non-natives from the local area at Standing Rock. Her response was direct and had very little to do with the sheriff’s implemented checkpoints and roadblocks: “It is because of the media propaganda. For example, during the dog attacks, Bismarck news covered a worker’s injury at the site and the hospitalization of a guard. No one gave popular air time or writing space to cover the effects of the dog attacks on protectors.” She mentioned that an article in the conservative paper, Town Hall , soon after the attacks read: “ So dogs were unleashed on these protestors. Good ”. She and a few others from Bismarck came to the camps because they saw past the media pressure. “We understand that the fight for clean water and recognition of Native sovereignty affects everyone in the surrounding area”, she told me, which would become increasingly apparent if oil leakage wells up in the Bakken region. In Geneva, on September 20th, Dave Archambault II, Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, urged the UN Human Rights Council to stand with the tribe in opposing the DAPL project and advocate for the recognition of their sovereign rights, including the protection of water and sacred places . Protectors are remaining vigilant on and off site, many walking to pay respects to the graves of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota ancestors that have been disturbed by construction. Martina Looking Horse, a longtime writer from Cheyenne River Reservation, has been camping at Standing Rock for over a month. She told me that she and her family plan to stay until the pipeline is defeated but stressed that the conditions at camp are not easy to live under. The torrential rainstorms, the swings of hot and cold, and the impending North Dakota winter discourage many from staying longer than a few weeks. Yet, Looking Horse affirmed her belief that she and many others will carry on, with or without the support of mainstream media. The hope, she reaffirmed, is that the national and international people of conscience will continue to support in all the ways that they can, hold the US government accountable to their promises, and not forget that the protectors are still there taking a stand. The day that I left, the PYM-United States Branch’s official caravan came into Oceti Sakowin, bringing supplies, people power, and small gifts for the tribal council as visitors to the land. They also read our statement at the tribal council fire and met many people, as I had, who stated how glad they were to see Palestinians supporting the front lines against movement suppression. The solidarity with Palestine for all of us who participated in caravans from PYM was overwhelming. What was supposed to be a few-day trip was extended into a week. Inspired by the stories, the people, the call to our moral responsibility to protect each other and the water that keeps us alive, we hope to return back to Standing Rock and bring supplies for winter. Friends of Sabeel North America also sent forward a statement of solidarity , in part remarking: “we know that settler colonialism depends on the exploitation of land and natural resources to the detriment of indigenous communities…Today, we see you, the Sioux nation and members of the other 280 Native American tribes who have joined you to protect the water of the Missouri River and stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, taking a stand for all life, the embodiment of resilience. As the Israeli occupation continues, Palestinian land is stolen, ancient olive trees are uprooted, and blood is shed, your struggle inspires our work and we redouble our efforts to witness and nonviolently resist. We stand in full support of indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.” The light of hope in Standing Rock is not fizzling out. Upon returning to the Bay Area, I came across many art builds and donation efforts, and have been seeing many more events publicized by friends and family in New York State, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona. Thanks to Caleb Duarte and the wonderful youth from Fremont High School in Oakland (recently arrived unaccompanied youth from Chimeltenango, Guatemala) who made this solidarity banner: Art build in Oakland, CA : Recent unaccompanied minors from Guatemala write “Water is Life” in Maya. (Photo: Nadya Tannous) * Dignidad Rebelde woodblock print at the Oakland Art Build for Standing Rock. (Photo: Nadya Tannous) I remember thinking as I left Standing Rock to return to California: peoples suppressed by power and greed have strength when they rise together. There is a poignant uniting force through something as important as the world that sustains us. The river was quiet when I left, with lots of green and tall grass on its banks. The river flats lay muddy and fertile, the slow current reflecting the sky day and night, the water turning pink and orange by sunset. A water protector strapped to heavy machinery down the Hwy 94 shouted out , before being removed to jail, “This pipeline is a pipeline to the past. We need to be building sustainable infrastructure for the future, not destructive unsustainable industries that hurt land, that hurt water, that hurt people. Everything is wrong about this pipeline… We’re here standing in solidarity with millions of people from around the world that are against this pipeline.” (via Unicorn Riot) The collective call for justice is ringing loud and clear. Mni Wiconi –Water is life. Please support Standing Rock. Donate here to Sacred Stone Spirit Camp. Donate here to the Sacred Stone Camp Legal Defense Fund. Donate here to the next PYM caravan to Standing Rock. Source and more photos HERE Share: | 1real |
EU leaders urge full inquiry into Malta journalist murder | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders called on Malta on Thursday to carry out a full investigation with international help over the killing of the country s best-known journalist, and the EU parliament agreed to hold a debate on media freedom on the island. Malta s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has already called in foreign investigators to help look into the car bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote about widespread breaches of the rule of law and corruption on the island. Malta is the smallest EU country but is home to a disproportionately large financial services sector and is the continental hub for the flourishing online gaming industry. Muscat, who himself had sued Caruana Galizia after she accused him and his wife of wrongdoing, promised a thorough investigation of the killing. We will not exclude any sort of path, any sort of measure to make sure we get to the bottom of it, Muscat told reporters arriving to the EU summit in Brussels. The president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani said he raised the issue in a meeting with EU leaders. I called for an international investigation to fully clarify an event of unprecedented gravity, he said, adding that the leaders broadly shared the view. During the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed an international investigation, EU officials said. Diplomats said that France, Spain and Portugal had also stressed the need for involvement of foreign investigators. Before the meeting Muscat said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Dutch investigators would help in the case and other security forces, including London s Scotland Yard, could join. The chief of the Maltese police later denied possible involvement of the British police. Political leaders of the EU Parliament agreed to hold a debate next Tuesday on protection of journalists and the defense of media freedom in Malta , according to a draft agenda adopted on Thursday. Malta is a Mecca for money launderers and tax avoiders, Greens EU legislator Sven Giegold said. Malta s center of power suffers from a culture of impunity unlike hardly any other country in the EU. Europe must no longer turn a blind eye to the way in which the rule of law is flouted in Malta. Muscat has rejected criticism that he has allowed wealthy foreigners to hold great sway over Malta, and says the financial services sector is as transparent and compliant as any other European jurisdiction. | 0fake |
Negative tone of White House race sours young voters | BOSTON (Reuters) - The exceptionally negative tone of this year’s race for the White House is souring young Americans, turning some away from the democratic process just as the millennial generation has become as large a potential bloc of voters as the baby boomers. Reuters/Ipsos polling shows that Americans aged 18 to 34 are slightly less likely to vote for president this year than their comparably aged peers were in 2012. Some political scientists worry that this election could scar a generation of voters, making them less likely to cast ballots in the future. Young Americans on the left and right have found reasons to be dissatisfied with their choices this year. Senator Bernie Sanders had an enthusiastic following of younger people before he lost the Democratic primary race to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, some are unwilling to vote for Donald Trump, citing the New York businessman’s sometimes insulting rhetoric on women, minorities and immigrants. Brandon Epstein, who turned 18 on Monday, had looked forward earlier in the year to casting his first vote for Sanders. Now, the resident of suburban Suffolk County, New York, plans to sit out the vote on Election Day, Nov. 8. “It’s because of the selection of the candidates. I find them to be not just sub-par, but unusually sub-par,” said Epstein, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Something’s gone terribly wrong.” That sentiment is broadly reflected in poll data that show that young Americans are less enthusiastic about their choices in November than they were four years ago when Democratic President Barack Obama faced a re-election challenge from Republican Mitt Romney. Some 52.2 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 told Reuters/Ipsos they were certain or almost certain to vote, compared with 56.1 percent who reported that level of certainty at the same point in 2012. The national tracking poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states. It included 3,088 people between 18-34 years old who took the survey from Oct. 1 to Oct. 17, and 2,141 18-34 year olds who took the poll on the same days in 2012. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points for both groups. For at least the past half century, young Americans have voted at lower rates than their elders. But this year’s decline in enthusiasm is of particular concern because it comes as the millennial generation - people born from 1981 through 1997 - has become as large a bloc of eligible voters as the baby boomers - born between 1946 and 1964. Each group’s number of eligible voters is approaching 70 million people, according to the Pew Research Center. “This generation has never trusted the government, Wall Street or the media less,” John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, said of the millennials. “That’s likely to result in turnout of less than 50 percent and of those who do turn out, there is still a deep cynicism regarding the impact of their vote, whether or not it will make a difference.” The projected low turnout is a particular concern given recent research showing how important habit is in encouraging voter participation. Put simply, a person who votes in one election is about 10 percent more likely to vote in the next than an eligible voter who opted to stay home, said Alexander Coppock, an assistant professor of political science at Yale University. “If you extend that logic, if you have an election that fails to turn people on to voting, you’d expect that you wouldn’t get that cumulative effect,” said Coppock, whose article “Is Voting Habit Forming?” was published in this month’s issue of the American Journal for Political Science. However, not all young voters unhappy with their choices will be staying home. Some plan to cast a ballot anyway, even if only in protest, rather than sitting out. That group includes Cameron Khansarinia, a 20-year-old vice president of the Harvard Republican Club, who said he would cast a ballot even though he opposed Trump. “I will definitely vote, I just don’t know if I will be writing someone in or voting for (Libertarian) Gary Johnson or even voting for Hillary Clinton when it gets down to it,” said Khansarinia, who is registered to vote in heavily Democratic California. “Once this is over, come Nov. 9, we will need people here to rebuild the party.” | 0fake |
Scotland can still offer choice on independence from UK: Sturgeon | GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuters) - Nicola Sturgeon told her Scottish National Party on Tuesday that Britain s impending exit from the European Union strengthened the case for Scottish independence from the UK and that her party still has a mandate to offer a choice. With the UK government so engulfed in chaos and taking the country down a path of self-imposed decline, the need to (make the case for independence) has never been greater, she told the party faithful gathered in Scotland s biggest city, adding that it was not clear when a new vote would be held. We have a mandate to give the people that choice, she said. That mandate was won fairly and squarely. But exercising it must be done with the interests of all of Scotland at heart. However Sturgeon, who also heads the devolved Scottish government, saw her party lose more than a third of its seats in Britain s June election after it mistimed a push for another vote on secession. In a 2014 referendum, Scotland voted to stay part of the UK. Two years later, when Britain held its referendum on EU membership, Scots voted overwhelmingly to stay but Britain as a whole voted to leave. The SNP said the prospect of being dragged out of the EU against their will meant Scots should revisit the question of independence. But the wider public does not seem to have embraced the prospect of yet another vote on constitutional change. This summer the SNP put vote plans on hold, and much of the conference centered on measures such as doubling childcare and banning fracking aimed at seizing the initiative and squaring up to criticism that it has been ignoring day-to-day affairs. As Brexit drags on, support for the EU in Scotland is rising, according to polls, but backing for Sturgeon s independence proposal has stayed roughly where it was in 2014. Britain s economy has slowed sharply this year as consumers felt the pinch from rising inflation, caused largely by a fall in the value of the pound and by weak wage growth. Some delegates expressed concern at the limited traction that they feel Scotland has regarding Brexit, the biggest change in British politics in 40 years. Scotland and Wales are angry because they say they have not been given a meaningful role in the Brexit process, something the UK government denies. They are threatening to withhold legislative consent to the UK government s EU withdrawal bill which they say would water down their devolved powers. The bill, currently going through parliament in London, is designed to convert all existing EU laws into domestic ones and is part of Britain s plan to provide legal clarity before it parts ways with the EU. I think the SNP is being very vocal and people like (Scotland s Brexit minister) Mike Russell are doing a good job, said Mhairi McCabe, 58, a retired food safety expert. But I don t think they are being listened to. It s quite frustrating. Infighting within the British government over the shape of Brexit means nothing can be taken for granted, Sturgeon has said, and Scotland will use the opportunity to continue to argue for the UK to stay in the European single market. | 0fake |
Rich tycoon takes on Iraqi Kurdish leaders over independence | SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - On the eve of an independence referendum in Iraq s Kurdistan region, one man is campaigning against a Yes vote which he fears could stoke tension in the Middle East. With the 5 million Kurds in Iraq who are eligible to vote united by dreams of statehood, the outcome of the Sept. 25 referendum in the autonomous region in northern Iraq is in no doubt. But with Baghdad making clear it opposes independence for a region that has abundant oil reserves, some voters fear now is not the time to start moves to break away from Iraq and rich businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid Qadir has taken up their cause. Despite being branded a traitor by political enemies, he has taken on the establishment by launching a No for now campaign to explain the economic and political risks of a Yes vote. A No vote is better for our people, better for Kurdistan s future, the 39-year-old businessman told Reuters after a rally on Saturday in a soccer stadium in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan s second largest city. Warning against the consequences of an independence declaration, he said: It will bring to our people an unstable situation after the referendum. Qadir s goal is not to resist independence forever. But he fears a Yes vote now would unleash the wrath of governments in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria which could see it as a precedent that could encourage separatist-minded Kurds in those countries. Iraq s parliament voted on Tuesday to reject the referendum and authorized the prime minister to take all measures to preserve Iraq s unity. Western powers want a delay because they are worried the vote will derail cooperation between Iraq and the Kurds against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Qadir is almost alone among Kurds in raising his voice openly against the Yes campaign led by President Masoud Barzani and his Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), which say independence would be preceded by dialogue with Baghdad. But Qadir believes there are others who share his concerns. At the rally in Sulaimaniya, Qadir was welcomed into the stadium by dancers in colorful traditional dress and by a crowd chanting his name. But he delayed the start by an hour to allow the stadium he helped refurbish to fill up and it never did. About 2,500 people attended, filling only about one third of the arena. After he began speaking, a scuffle broke out when a man in the crowd tried to throw something at Qadir during his speech. The businessman says he is undeterred by criticism and attacks which he says have affected his business. I m ok with all of it, because I believe in another way for Kurdistan, he said. Critics say Qadir has used his media conglomerate to advance his agenda and the fortune he made through a business empire that includes real estate, television stations and a theme park make his life very different to those he says he represents. Many Kurds have been hit by Baghdad s decision to cut funding to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 in protest at its construction of a pipeline to export oil to Turkey. Such actions by Baghdad have increased antagonism among the Kurds, who suffered under late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and increased their desire for independence a desire uniting the about 30 million Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. But interviews by Reuters in several cities in Iraqi Kurdistan showed that some voters are worried about the possible fallout of the referendum even though they favor independence. Some are worried it could embolden the entrenched elite in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has long been plagued by political disunity and where Barzani has been a powerful force for more than two decades and president since 2005. This referendum is not for the country, it s for the dictators in power, said Ahmed Nana, a 22-year-old barista at a coffee shop in Sulaimaniya. We all want a passport, a nationality, we want a reason to be proud, to have our own country. But right now, this referendum is a sideshow to distract from our political problems. Parliament has not met since a coalition government broke up in 2015 and some factions support independence but not necessarily under Barzani s leadership. The regional government has called presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1, but many Kurds doubt the voting will go ahead and the independence referendum has widened political divisions. Nothing has polarized Kurdish society as much as this vote, said Bahra Saleh, an analyst at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. Compounding the stalemate is the economic crisis triggered by Baghdad s decision to cut funding and compounded by low oil prices and the conflict with Islamic State. The region is billions of dollars in debt and public salaries have been steeply cut since 2014, particularly affecting civil servants, Peshmerga fighters and teachers. Before holding the referendum, the regional government needs to prepare the region economically for the region to sustain itself, said Mohammad Tofiq Raheem, a leader of the Gorran party which was part of the coalition that ended in 2015. The regional economy depends partly on Turkey s goodwill to allow oil exports but also on trade with Iraq. There is also a generational split. Older Kurds hope the long struggle for statehood, dating at least to the division of the Middle East by colonial powers after World War One, will now end but younger people are driven by more than nationalism. Independence is what we ve been dreaming of for years, the said Saleh, the analyst. But not like this. In a way that makes sense, in a way that won t risk civil war. | 0fake |
Media Links Domestic Drone Surveillance to Trump with ZERO Evidence | 21st Century Wire says This is why nobody takes the mainstream media seriously.Foreign Policy has released a new article hyping up the dangers of mass surveillance, specifically talking about the relatively unknown National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. It talks of the potential for drones to be able to track the movements of every person in a city, and 90% of the article is solely concerned with generating fear.Then, in literally the final two paragraphs the author links the fear and problems, which they have just spent the previous twelve paragraphs hyping up, saying that Trump could use these systems against, innocent American citizens . This is not journalism.Stuart J. Hooper examines the propaganda piece in the following video, and also discusses which candidate Foreign Policy supported during the election. Can you guess who it was? READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Tim Kaine Presses Donald Trump on Health, Mocking a Doctor’s Letter - The New York Times | ERIE, Pa. — Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, challenged Donald J. Trump on Tuesday to be more forthcoming about his health, taking aim at Mr. Trump over an issue he has tried to use to undermine Mrs. Clinton. As part of a lengthy critique of Mr. Trump, Mr. Kaine mocked a letter signed last year by a doctor for Mr. Trump, which proclaimed the candidate’s strength and stamina to be “extraordinary” and declared that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. ” The doctor, Harold N. Bornstein, told NBC News last week that he had written the letter in five minutes while a black car waited outside his office to collect it. As for his choice of words about Mr. Trump, Dr. Bornstein said he “picked up his kind of language and then just interpreted it to my own. ” Mr. Trump “won’t even release credible information about his health,” Mr. Kaine said at a waterfront rally, where the picturesque backdrop included a boat with the initials V. P. (for Victorian Princess, not vice president). Mr. Kaine, 58, accused Mr. Trump, 70, of withholding critical information from the public on a variety of fronts, including his tax returns and details about his business ties. “Hillary Clinton has met every test of disclosure we expect of presidential candidates — in many cases, has gone even further,” Mr. Kaine said. “Donald Trump has failed all of these tests miserably. ” Mrs. Clinton’s health has been the subject of conspiracy theories. Mr. Trump himself has raised questions about her fitness to serve as president, saying that Mrs. Clinton, 68, “lacks the mental and physical stamina” needed for the job. On that subject, Mr. Kaine offered a firsthand defense of Mrs. Clinton. Though he mostly campaigns separately from Mrs. Clinton, he testified to her energy on the campaign trail and told the crowd that she had been “running on full speed” for nearly a year and a half. “Can I give you an on this?” he asked. “I have been on the trail with Hillary for five weeks, and I can barely keep up with her. ” Mr. Kaine, a lawyer by training, then offered his own medical appraisal. “I can tell you, Hillary Clinton is one tough and one healthy person,” he said. “Very, very tough and very, very healthy. ” And Mr. Kaine could not resist addressing Dr. Bornstein’s contention that Mr. Trump would be the healthiest president, especially given the White House’s current occupant. “I’d like to see him go one on one with President Obama,” he said. “That’s for another day. ” | 0fake |
China court releases video of Taiwanese activist confessing to subversion | BEIJING (Reuters) - A Taiwanese activist on trial in China confessed on Monday to attempting to subvert the Beijing government, according to videos of his hearing released by Chinese authorities, although his wife refused to recognize the court s authority. Lee Ming-che, a community college teacher known for his pro-democracy and rights activism, went missing on a trip to mainland China in March. China s authorities later confirmed that he was being investigated on suspicion of damaging national security. Lee said he accepted the charge of subversion and expressed regret in videos of his comments released on social media by the Yueyang City Intermediate People s Court in central Hunan province. I spread some attacks, theories that maliciously attacked and defamed China s government, the Chinese Communist Party and China s current political system, and I incited the subversion of state power, Lee said, referring to comments written in an instant messaging group. Taiwan s presidential office said in a news briefing on Monday afternoon that the government is engaged in an all-out effort to assist Mr. Lee Ming-che s family. His relief is our top priority. The position of this government has been very clear. Mr. Lee is one of our citizens, an office spokesman said, adding: We ll do everything in our power to ensure his safe return. Lee stood trial alongside Chinese national Peng Yuhua, 37, who confessed to creating instant messaging groups and founding an organization that sought to promote political change in China. Lee had been involved in both, Peng said in testimony released on video by the court. Taiwanese rights activist Xiao Yiming traveled to the mainland for the trial, but said he was barred from entering the courtroom. Xiao suspected Peng was being used by authorities to help strengthen the state s case against Lee, as he was unaware of any previous connection between the two men. Taiwan has democratic freedoms and Lee has the right to share his ideas, Xiao told Reuters by phone, describing Lee as a prisoner of conscience . Lee Ching-yu, Lee s wife, attended the hearing. Before leaving for China she had asked that Lee s supporters to forgive him for anything he might say that disappoints them during the hearing. She wrote a letter to her husband on Monday morning before the trial began, photographs of which were seen by Reuters. I do not recognize this court. I also did not hire any lawyers, she wrote. After the hearing, she tearfully repeated her request for forgiveness and unveiled what appeared to be two new tattoos on the underside of each of her forearms that read, Lee Ming-che and I am proud of you , videos sent to Reuters showed. No one answered the court phone when called by Reuters on Monday. Releasing videos and transcripts of court hearings has become increasingly common in China as part of a push for greater judicial transparency and oversight. But rights activists say that in sensitive cases holding open trials allows authorities to demonstrate state power and deter others, with statements and verdicts usually agreed in advance. Ties between Beijing and Taipei have been strained since President Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, took office last year. Tsai s refusal to state that Taiwan and China are part of one country has angered Beijing, as have her comments about human rights on the mainland. Beijing maintains that the island of Taiwan is part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control, while proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being governed by the Communist Party rulers in Beijing. | 0fake |
To Protect and Swerve: Police Chief Caught Speeding, Gets a Laugh but No Ticket (Video) |
Video footage of a police chief being pulled over for traveling at speeds above 100 miles per hour was only released after one irritated citizen watched the top cop drive into the sunset without as much as a ticket.
Some criminals are let off with a slap on the wrist, but one Arkansas police chief got off with a slap on the wrist for speeding, with responding officers laughing during the traffic stop.
Brinkley Police Department Chief Edward Randle was pulled over by a state trooper who had been called for assistance by a Brinkley police officer. However, any concern the trooper may have had quickly disappeared when he recognized Randle while approaching the truck.
“ Where are you going so fast? ” the trooper asked Randle, chuckling. Randle told the trooper that he was heading to “ the game ,” a football game he was refereeing later that evening, KTHV reported .
When the Brinkley officer approached the vehicle, Randle proceeded to give him a hard time, saying: “I know you didn’t call the state police!” The officer explained that he did not announce the truck’s license plate into the reading, saying, “ I didn’t have your plate, so it didn’t go over. ”
The only time the reason for Randle’s speeding was mentioned in the recording was when the state trooper told him, “ I had you locked in at 107 [miles per hour]. ”
“ It won’t go over 95, ” Randle replied.
Randle continued to defend himself using this argument, telling KTHV that the truck has a governor device on the engine that prevents it from going above 95 miles (153 km) per hour. However, the officer told Randle that he was driving 90 miles (145 km) per hour and was still only trailing Randle.
Randle denied going close to 95 miles per hour, he even denied the trooper’s comment that he had been driving “ 71 (114 km) at the curve. ”
The confrontation ended quickly with all parties going their separate ways after a sum total of 45 seconds. The whole issue would have likely flown under the radar, had it not been for a citizen who witnessed it.
Benjamin Martin was leaving Clarendon, a nearby town, when he noticed the Brinkley police car in Clarendon city limits and pulled over to watch. What he saw troubled him, to say the least.
“ I find it, you know, very disheartening, that anyone, public official or not, would show such blatant disregard for the speed limit, and put the lives of innocent others at risk, ” Martin told KHTV, adding, “ I just feel that no one’s above the law, and you know, if it was me, I would’ve gotten a ticket. ”
Martin continued, “ As a chief of police, and as a law enforcement officer, you’re sworn to protect and serve, which is the opposite of putting the lives of others at risk. ”
However, Randle feels differently and claimed that after nearly three decades in law enforcement, he knows better than to put others at risk with dangerous driving. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Joy Behar Drops DEPRESSING Truthbomb About Why Trump Won (VIDEO) | While most of us are still in a state of shock over the results of the 2016 election, the women of The View tried to reassure Americans and help them process the fact that we are now facing a Donald Trump presidency.While many Americans like to make arguments about policy and Hillary Clinton s emails, co-host Joy Behar wasted no time in pinpointing what one of the major issues of this election were. Behar went right to the root of the problem and declared that without a doubt, gender had played a huge role in how this election played out.Whoopi Goldberg began the conversation by voicing her concerns about Trump, stating that his misogyny and racism truly make him a terrifying choice for America. She said: I have to say, given the bigger picture of what Donald Trump represents, it is not so comfortable for me because not only does he now threaten how things are going to be done with kids of color, with women s rights, with my right to decide what is right for my body, not what somebody else says what is right. Goldberg wondered whether we are a nation who believes in people s rights as they are Constitutionally guaranteed. Behar responded with a brutal truthbomb, making reference to the fact that even in the year 2016, sexism allows less qualified men (or in this case, completely UNqualified men) to come out ahead of women who are over-qualified. Behar said: You know what I learned. I learned that, as usual men can get away with anything and women can get away with nothing. That s what I learned. He was unbelievably decisive, bigoted, racist, homophobic, against handicapped people, against John McCain, and yet he won. She made some mistakes, but not like that. Exactly. There is no other plausible reason why a reality televison star with zero political experience and several lawsuits (including fraud and sexual assault cases) against him should have been able to win a presidential election over a former Secretary of State who has given the last several decades of her live to serving this country.You can watch Behar speak the truth below:This election showed America that we are far from the post-racial society we thought we were, and that sexism is more than alive and well today. It s going to be an intense next four years, but we must never stop fighting for what s right.Featured image via screenshots | 1real |
Syria peace talks not yet scheduled: Russian foreign minister | DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - A Russian-sponsored Syrian peace initiative has not been scheduled yet, Russia s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Reuters on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam. The Syrian Congress on National Dialogue had been expected to be held in southern Russia on Nov. 18 but was postponed. | 0fake |
Trump’s Labor Pick, Andrew Puzder, Is Critic of Minimum Wage Increases - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump on Thursday chose Andrew F. Puzder, chief executive of the company that franchises the outlets Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. and an outspoken critic of the worker protections enacted by the Obama administration, to be secretary of labor. “Andy Puzder has created and boosted the careers of thousands of Americans, and his extensive record fighting for workers makes him the ideal candidate to lead the Department of Labor,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. Mr. Puzder, 66, fits the profile of some of Mr. Trump’s other domestic cabinet appointments. He is a wealthy businessman and political donor and has a long record of promoting a conservative agenda that takes aim at President Obama’s legacy. And more than the other appointments, he resembles Mr. Trump in style. He seems to delight in bashing elites — he complained that “big corporate interests” and “globalist companies” were supporting Hillary Clinton in the presidential election — and is prone to the occasional streak of political incorrectness. On policy questions, he has argued that the Obama administration’s recent rule expanding eligibility for overtime pay diminishes opportunities for workers, and that significant minimum wage increases would hurt small businesses and lead to job losses. He has criticized paid sick leave policies of the sort recently enacted for federal contractors and strongly supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he says has created a “ restaurant recession” because rising premiums have left people with less money to spend dining out. Speaking to Business Insider this year, Mr. Puzder said that increased automation could be a welcome development because machines were “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a or an age, sex or race discrimination case. ” And on the political incorrectness front, Mr. Puzder’s company, CKE Restaurants, runs advertisements that frequently feature women wearing next to nothing while gesturing suggestively. “I like our ads,” he told the publication Entrepreneur. “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American. ” Richard L. Trumka, president of the A. F. L. . I. O. said Mr. Puzder was “a man whose business record is defined by fighting against working people. ” As labor secretary, Mr. Puzder would oversee the federal apparatus that investigates violations of minimum wage, overtime and worker safety laws and regulations. According to a Labor Department database, many Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. stores have been investigated over the past 15 years, and some have been fined or ordered to pay back wages, though most of the cases appear to have been at stores owned and operated by franchisees, not CKE itself. Such investigations are relatively common in the industry. Matthew Haller, senior vice president for public affairs and communications at the International Franchise Association, of which Mr. Puzder is a board member, said Mr. Puzder saw “a role for government to provide advice to employers, rather than simply deterrence by ‘gotcha’ enforcement,” an allusion to the Obama Labor Department’s enforcement of laws and regulations in the industry. Mr. Haller and other allies of Mr. Puzder said that those who took the time to look beyond his most provocative statements would find the wisdom of a man who has toiled on labor issues for years. “His position on the minimum wage is more nuanced than people want to give him credit for,” Mr. Haller said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s middle ground” on the overtime rule, he added. “He’s a business person, a deal maker. ” There is some evidence to support that view. In a Wall Street Journal article after his comments on automation, Mr. Puzder wrote that humans remained important “to assure smooth experiences” for customers. In an appearance on Fox Business in May, he said that he was “not opposed to raising the minimum wage rationally I’m opposed to raising it to the point where workers, Americans, young people, minorities, are losing the jobs they need to get on the ladder of success. ” Though he did not explain what a “rational” increase would entail, he opposed the Obama administration’s efforts to raise the federal minimum wage to $10. 10 from $7. 25, where it has stood since 2009. That is far below the $15 per hour that many advocates have called for and that a variety of cities and states have enacted in recent years, albeit on a gradual timetable. Economic research suggests that an increase to the vicinity of $10. 10 per hour would have little or no effect on employment in much of the country, though the impact could be larger in areas. Mr. Puzder has raised concerns about the effects in those regions. On other issues, Mr. Puzder has taken positions that leave less room for negotiation. Perhaps most prominent is the joint employer doctrine that the Obama administration and its agency appointees have put forth in recent years. Under that doctrine, large companies that have franchises or hire other companies as contractors are more likely to be held liable for violations of employment laws by those contractors or franchisees. Parent companies typically argue that they have no legal responsibility in these cases. Mr. Puzder has been unambiguous in his disdain for the new standard. As labor secretary, there are certain immediate steps he could take to undo it, though there are some applications, like to the law governing unions, that would require action by the National Labor Relations Board or federal courts to overturn. Perhaps the biggest question surrounding Mr. Puzder is how he would be perceived as a wealthy chief executive charged with looking out for workers’ interests. According to a 2012 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Puzder’s base salary that year was more than $1 million and his total compensation over $4 million, down from more than $10 million the year before. “Annual base salaries should be competitive and create a measure of financial security for our executive officers,” the filing said. During the 2016 election cycle, Mr. Puzder and his wife gave more than $300, 000 to Mr. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. But for all his populist rhetoric, his previous political contributions — as well as his positions on most business issues and regulations, and his reading habits — suggest he is more of an orthodox Republican than Mr. Trump. Before backing Mr. Trump, he donated to the campaigns of Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush, and he helped shape Mitt Romney’s economic plan in 2011. When asked to provide some insight into what Mr. Puzder was like away from the job, Mr. Haller said he was an avid reader who loved Ayn Rand, the libertarian novelist. According to a 1989 article in The St. Louis Mr. Puzder helped draft a Missouri law banning most abortions at public facilities and requiring doctors to test the viability of fetuses starting at 20 weeks. But according to another article, after his accused him of domestic violence, he offered to resign from a task force convened by Gov. John Ashcroft to study a Supreme Court decision upholding the law. Mr. Puzder, who declined to comment for this article, eventually did resign from the task force, but he denied the allegations. The Trump transition team forwarded a recent letter from his declaring that she had been “counseled then to file an allegation of abuse. ” She added, “I regretted and still regret that decision, and I withdrew those allegations. ” “You were not abusive,” she said. | 0fake |
HILARIOUS! #BlackLivesMatter Protest Hillary At #DNC: Carry “HILLARY, DELETE YOURSELF” Banner [VIDEO] | Pandering Hillary s getting a little karma Black Lives Matter are now protesting at the #DNCinPHL with the sign 'Hillary, delete yourself.'pic.twitter.com/QU9HZCmdRj Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 26, 2016 | 1real |
Clinton Snaps as Bernie and Trump Supporters Join Forces to Disrupt Rally | We Are Change
Supporters of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump joined forces to disrupt a Hillary Clinton rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday evening — causing the former First Lady to snap.
Pro-Trump heckler escorted out of Hillary rally by police. Goes out shouting "Trump 2016" pic.twitter.com/d3GQjSFHHz
— Jeff Poor (@jeff_poor) November 2, 2016
In the video, a protester is heard shouting “Bill Clinton is a rapist,” before a weak chant of “Hillary” begins from her low-energy crowd. This lead to groups chanting “Donald Trump” and other groups chanting “Bernie Sanders.”
In the video, as the Gateway Pundit notes, you can hear a Clinton supporter telling security, “there’s a whole bunch of them.”
Hillary Clinton gets protested in Ft Lauderdale by #Trump Street Team and others yelling Bill Clinton's a Rapist @charlespm777 @o_soflagrl pic.twitter.com/Cr9lBPNvwe
— Trump Street Team FL (@ChatRevolve) November 2, 2016
As this was going on, Clinton appeared to reach her limit and snap.
HILLARY LOSES IT! Goes Off On ‘Bill Clinton Is a Rapist’ Protester at FL Rally #HillaryForPrison screech voice?? pic.twitter.com/S6mkxvPSTh
— J.C. (@Hashtag1USA) November 2, 2016
The candidate began taking shots not at her opponent, but his supporters, you know, the ones she has also called “irredeemable” and “deplorables.”
“I get sometimes a little overwhelmed by the fact that I love this country,” Clinton shouted. “I think we already are great. I think we could be greater, and, you know, I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior of people who support Donald Trump. It is time for us to say, ‘No, we are not going backwards. We are going forward into a brighter future.’ So how do we do that? For the next seven days, we focus on what is important, do not get distracted or diverted – focus on the kind of country and world that we want to help create.”
She also urged her supporters to stage an “intervention” for anyone who would dare to vote against her corruption and frighteningly hawkish stance.
“I want you to do me another favor, if you know anybody who says they are thinking of voting for Trump, I want you to stage an intervention,” Clinton said. “And I want you to talk to this person because unless they are a billionaire who avoided paying taxes for 20 years and lost a billion dollars running casinos, they do not have anything to gain from Donald Trump.”
It’s funny, since it seems to be only her billionaire friends who benefit from her being in any position of power — just ask the people of Haiti .
Buy the new We Are Change t-shirt because you will enjoy shredding the Clinton News Network in public!
The post Clinton Snaps as Bernie and Trump Supporters Join Forces to Disrupt Rally appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
Britain worried by violence in Catalonia but says vote was not constitutional: Johnson | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Britain is worried by violence during a banned referendum in Spain s northeastern region of Catalonia but sees the vote as unconstitutional, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Sunday. We are obviously worried by any violence but clearly the referendum, as I understand it, is not constitutional so a balance needs to be struck, Johnson told Reuters. We hope very much that things will calm down. | 0fake |
People smugglers test new migrant sea route through Romania | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - About 500 migrants from the Middle East reached Romania across the Black Sea from Turkey in about a month, coastguards said on Monday, in a sharp increase the European Union says shows smugglers are testing alternative routes into Europe. Since 2015, the EU has been struggling to bring down the number of refugees and migrants smuggled or trafficked from the Middle East and Africa to its shores. A 2016 deal with Turkey shut the route to EU state Greece and the bloc is now cracking down on arrivals from Libya to Italy. All in all, Mediterranean arrivals to the bloc fell from nearly 28,000 people in June to below 10,000 in August, according to U.N. data. But the Romanian coast guard told Reuters on Monday that 475 people reached its shores in about one month in August-September, including from Iraq and Iran. Seven people smugglers from Turkey, Bulgaria, Syria, Iraq and Cyprus had been arrested. While still low compared to thousands of migrants reaching Greek islands daily at the height of the arrivals in 2015, the figure marks a sharp increase from a total of 500 migrants who completed the same route in two years in 2013-2015, according to Romanian data. The EU s border agency Frontex has said it is monitoring the situation and that people smugglers might be looking for alternative entries to the bloc after the Mediterranean crossings were made more difficult. While it is too early to talk about the opening of a new migratory route, the recent incidents of intercepted wooden boats with migrants on the Black Sea suggest that smugglers might be looking to revive this route, said a Frontex spokesman, Krzysztof Borowski. Frontex said the Black Sea route was last active in 2014 but did not expect it to develop on a large scale due to difficult sailing conditions on the Black Sea, especially as autumn nears. On Aug. 13, the Romanian coast guard said it had rescued 101 adults and 56 children from Iraq and Iran crowded onto a small fishing boat, in distress amid strong winds. They were packed in there ... The boat could (only) safely accommodate a dozen people, a coastguard officer said. In Romania s neighbor Bulgaria, interior ministry data showed no illegal migrants had been stopped at its sea border in 2017. Both countries are still outside of the EU s Schengen zone of free travel and hope to join as soon as possible. While the bloc s executive has said it will soon recommend bringing them in, many other EU states are skeptical. How the two will manage any migratory flows would be crucial to determining whether they meet the criteria. Since joining the EU in 2007, both are also under monitoring by the EU executive arm in Brussels over justice reforms and concerns over corruption. While Ankara has cracked down on smuggling across the Mediterranean, many refugees and migrants who had made it across before are being stranded on Greek islands in poor conditions. As the bloc s relations with Turkey have grown increasingly strained since the 2016 migration deal, Brussels and EU states worry that President Tayyip Erdogan might one day walk away from the accord. Erdogan has just lifted a lid to keep pressure on the EU. It s flexing muscles, Romanian political analyst Mircea Marian said of the recent increase in arrivals from the Turkish coast across the Black Sea. | 0fake |
After Trump Shocker, One Market Is In Freefall! And What Is Happening In The Gold Market Is Unbelievable! | From Bloomberg: London-based gold dealer Sharps Pixley Ltd. is running out of bars and coins as buying surges after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency. The company’s store, a short walk from Buckingham Palace, has arranged emergency imports of Britannia coins and kilogram (2.2 pound) bars to meet demand. “We keep running out of product — we’ve had to increase our credit lines to allow us to keep more stock on site,” Norman said, keeping a customer waiting on another line. “Swamped!” The reality is that trading volumes have skyrocketed across the globe. In other words, physical gold demand is off the charts right now. It will be very interesting to see how long the central banks can restrain the price of gold in light of the skyrocketing physical demand.
***KWN has now released the extraordinary audio interview with Egon von Greyerz, where he gives KWN listeners a look what is really happening behind the scenes globally and in the gold market, and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
***ALSO JUST RELEASED: Gold Spikes Over $60 Before Pulling Back After Trump Upset Shocks The World! But Here Is The Real Shocker… CLICK HERE.
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Obama defends record on terrorism in national security speech | TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned that the United States would not be able to wipe out terrorism with military might as he offered a sweeping defense of his administration’s national security record. In his final major speech on counterterrorism as president, Obama argued that his administration had been able to make al Qaeda “a shadow of its former self” and had put Islamic State on its heels, but said terrorism would remain a threat to the United States. “Rather than offer false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping more bombs or deploying more and more troops or fencing ourselves off from the rest of the world, we have to take a long view of the terrorist threat and we have to pursue a smart strategy that can be sustained,” Obama said during a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Obama will turn over the White House on Jan. 20 to Republican President-elect Donald Trump who has been sharply critical of his administration’s approach to fighting terrorism. Trump referred to Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as the “co-founders” of Islamic State during the presidential campaign, blaming them for the initial spread of the militant group. The White House said Obama’s national security speech had been planned long before the Nov. 8 election and was not aimed specifically at the incoming Trump administration. But during his speech, Obama spoke of the importance of adhering to American laws and values and against reinstating the use of waterboarding or imposing a religious test on immigrants, two positions that Trump has supported in the past. “The whole objective of these terrorists is to scare us into changing who we are and our democracy,” Obama said. Obama signed an executive order after taking office in January 2009 that banned waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” or EITs. Such executive orders can be rescinded by a president’s successors. Many lawmakers and human rights groups have denounced waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, as torture. While Trump is now calling for “extreme vetting” of certain refugees admitted to the United States, during the campaign he proposed banning foreign-born Muslims from entering the country. Obama came into office planning to unwind U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and promising to focus on fighting militant groups that threatened the United States wherever they were. Instead, he has been forced to return some U.S. troops to Iraq and keep thousands in place in Afghanistan after more than 14-1/2 years of war. Obama said his administration’s approach of providing support to local partners and not undertaking massive ground invasions has been effective and is making progress in the fight to take Mosul in Iraq from Islamic State. Some counterterrorism experts have pointed to the rise of Islamic State as an example of Obama being too slow to respond to an emerging threat. While the United States has been successful in killing some key militant leaders, Obama’s “legacy has been tarnished by the way terrorist groups have regenerated and strengthened in the latter parts of his presidency,” said Robin Simcox, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. | 0fake |
Trump to Iranian President Rouhani: ’Better Be Careful’ - Breitbart | Reuters reported: ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) — U. S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Iran President Hassan Rouhani “better be careful” after Rouhani was quoted as saying that anyone who speaks to Iranians with threats would regret it. [Trump was asked in a brief appearance in the press cabin aboard Air Force One about Rouhani’s reported remarks to a rally in Tehran to celebrate the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Rouhani was quoted in media reports as saying Iran had shown in the 38 years since the revolution that “it will make anyone who speaks to Iranians with the language of threats regret it. ” “He better be careful,” Trump said. Read the full story here. | 0fake |
Trump Panics As 28% of Florida GOP Early Votes go to HILLARY (VIDEO) | Comments
The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC just aired a unique new poll must already have the Trump campaign reeling. O’donell reports that over a quarter of the state of Florida’s registered Republicans tell this that they’ve already voted early for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. It’s actually the first poll that includes only actual early voters, surveyed by William and Mary College and TargetSmart. This new poll also shows that Hillary Clinton leads Florida 48-40 which TargetSmart says, “challenges conventional wisdom.” That’s not even the most shocking result…
“ Hillary Clinton is winning 28% of registered Republicans ,” said TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier, “ who have already voted already .” According to their surveys of early voters, Hillary Clinton has won 53% percent of early votes cast thus far in the 2016 election, and there’s more data in the video below. 28% of Florida early voting Republicans have voted for @HillaryClinton
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) November 2, 2016
“This includes absentee ballot voters who tend to trend more Republican and 28% of those voters are crossing over, when we look at Democrats,” said TargetSmart’s Bonier, “there’s almost no crossing over. Trump has only won 6% of those voters. Yes. These are people that have already voted, and these Republicans are not just saying it to pollsters, but they’re doing it in Florida. These are voters that are not waiting for election day.”
If this poll result holds up, there’s absolutely no path to victory for the Republican campaign, as there is literally no likely scenario resulting in electoral victory for Trump when he loses Florida to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Take a look: | 1real |
WATCH: “NASTY” SAN JUAN MAYOR Continues To Bite The Hand That Feeds The People Who Elected Her | San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz tore a book from the nasty Democrat women s playbook on Wednesday and wore a black t-shirt emblazoned with the word nasty during an interview with Univision s Jorge Ramos. In case anyone forgot, Hillary Clinton actually was called a nasty woman by then-candidate Trump during one of the presidential debates. Hillary and her liberal Hollywood friends turned Trump s remark about her into a fundraiser to support abortion. The t-shirt was in response to President Trump s tweet criticizing the politician where he referred to her actions as nasty and NOT the mayor. It hasn t taken the American public long to figure out that the mayor of San Juan is not only nasty , but ungrateful and apparently, someone who just can t get enough attention. Does she really believe that constantly criticizing the President of the United States is going to help the people who are relying on her to speed up or improve the aid they re getting? Cruz told Ramos she wore the shirt because it was one of the expressions that the president used to describe me. I was a nasty mayor, People reported. When it bothers somebody that you re asking for drinking water, medicine for the sick and food for the hungry, that person has much deeper problems than what we can discuss in an interview, Cruz said."What is truly 'nasty' is to turn your back on the Puerto Rican people": mayor of San Juan pic.twitter.com/2GVgJNqmve Al Punto Univision (@AlPunto) October 5, 2017 What really is nasty is showing your back to the Puerto Rican people, Cruz added.The island was recently hit by powerful Hurricane Maria and has been working to restore power and clean water to the territory.Cruz criticized the Trump administration s hurricane response to the island. Last Friday, the mayor appeared on television in a black shirt with white letters that read, HELP US, WE ARE DYING. Cruz argued that federal aid had been slow to reach Puerto Rico following Maria, which knocked out power to the entire island.In response, Trump tweeted on Saturday, Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. FOX News | 1real |
Ashutosh attempts suicide at protest rally, rescued while proofreading suicide note | Ashutosh attempts suicide at protest rally, rescued while proofreading suicide note Posted on Tweet (Image via shiningindianews.com)
Delhi police has foiled a suicide attempt by Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Ashutosh during a protest rally organized by his party. He was apprehended when he and his team were proofreading his suicide note before attempting suicide.
He was later sent to 14 days judicial custody where he is currently undergoing a refresher course in grammar and spelling.
The incident happened yesterday when AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal organized an impromptu protest rally at Jantar Mantar to expose Narendra Modi, but unfortunately no one from the media turned up for the event. Crestfallen, Mr. Kejriwal decided to go back on Twitter and continue his service for his constituency when an idea crossed his mind. He shared the idea with Ashutosh and urged him to commit suicide.
“But this is not what I was looking forward to when I joined AAP,” retorted Ashutosh.
“No, you are not going to die. You will just attempt a suicide. We will call media to cover the event. Just imagine, you will be making headlines, you will be trending on Twitter, everyone will be talking about you. It will be so cool!”
“Ok, you do it then if it’s so cool.”
“No, I need to oversee the whole event. See, there are two options for you, either do it or find another party.”
‘‘Which party will take me if I leave AAP?’ he pondered for a while and said, “Ok, let’s do it.”
“Cool, now write a suicide note and let’s get on with this.”
“Ok.”
AAP party workers gathered around Ashutosh as he typed the opening line on Microsoft Word that read, “I holed Modi resoncible for my deth…”
A crack team of 5 proof readers was formed immediately, who advised him about the correction the sentence demanded.
He grinned and typed, “ sorry responcible …not resoncible .. ”
“No, you can just delete the words and…”
Another 5 proof readers were hired urgently to strengthen the team as he continued to type the letter.
By the time he completed the letter, the language settings on MS Word had automatically turned into Spanish.
“Done,” Ashutosh pronounced with a satisfactory smile as he beheld his creation for a few seconds before calling police to inform them about his plan.
“Sir wait, we haven’t started proofreading yet,” implored one of the newly hired proofreaders.
“Do you want me to die for real or what?”
“No but at least the attempt should look genuine and not a hoax.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve informed Darya Ganj Police Station. By the time they beat the traffic to reach here, we will not only complete the proofreading but will also complete the suicide…attempt.”
3 proofreaders immediately started to decode the message in the letter in a separate document, another 3 changed the language settings of MS Word, and the rest started deleting the word ‘why’ which he had added at the end of every sentence. But it was too much of an ask for 10 mortals and they couldn’t even rewrite half of the letter when police arrived at the scene.
Kejriwal tried to cover up the whole mess and handed over the letter to the police inspector, saying, “See, what Modi has done to him! He was about to commit suicide.”
The inspector held the suicide note in front of him and mumbled, “Oh, Ashutosh. We would need some help here.”
Experts, including the ones who decoded Nostradamus’s predictions, were flown in from various parts of the world to decipher the message in the letter, however, they haven’t quite succeeded in their endeavor as reports last came in. | 1real |
CNN Just Accidentally Aired Girl Flipping Off Trump Tower, And It’s Spectacular (IMAGE) | After Donald Trump won the Indiana primary on Tuesday and Ted Cruz dropped out, Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee. This means, that a reality television star and real estate mogul who puts down women and minorities, as well as also being endorsed by the KKK, is going to represent the GOP this November at the ballot box for President of the United States.This is a moment when satire becomes reality, and all you can really do is hold up hope that the Democrats will win.Trump as president is a horrifying prospect. He has zero public policy experience, no foreign policy experience, and is pretty much hated worldwide. The world is looking at the United States right now as if we have lost our ever-loving minds. How could such a vile person be a legitimate choice for leader of the free world?If you don t believe he is hated, because maybe you re a bigot yourself, or maybe you hate yourself enough to like him, or you are absolutely ignorant to reality, take a glimpse at what CNN just accidentally aired.Behind the CNN reporter speaking about Trump supposedly wanting to help the GOP raise money, there is a woman who is speaking for all of us in one united voice as she give Trump Tower the middle finger. Thus, flipping off Donald Trump.Here s the image that was captured as it happened:via CNNSome may think this is crude, but so is Donald Trump. If he can dish out insult after insult, and vile comment after vile comment, then he deserves to get a middle finger pointed in his general direction.Donald Trump should not and cannot be our next president. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, have enough wherewithal to do not only what is best for the nation, but also the world.No matter who VOTE BLUE.Featured image via screenshot of CNN | 1real |
Image of the United States has plunged under Trump, survey shows | BERLIN (Reuters) - The image of the United States has deteriorated sharply across the globe under President Donald Trump and an overwhelming majority of people in other countries have no confidence in his ability to lead, a survey from the Pew Research Center showed. Five months into Trump’s presidency, the survey spanning 37 nations showed U.S. favorability ratings in the rest of the world slumping to 49 percent from 64 percent at the end of Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House. But the falls were far steeper in some of America’s closest allies, including U.S. neighbors Mexico and Canada, and European partners like Germany and Spain. Trump took office in January pledging to put “America First”. Since then he has pressed ahead with plans to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, announced he will pull out of the Paris climate accord, and accused countries including Canada, Germany and China of unfair trade practices. On his first foreign trip as president in early June, Trump received warm welcomes in Saudi Arabia and Israel, but a cool reception from European partners, with whom he clashed over NATO spending, climate and trade. Just 30 percent of Mexicans now say they have a favorable view of the United States, down from 66 percent at the end of the Obama era. In Canada and Germany, favorability ratings slid by 22 points, to 43 percent and 35 percent, respectively. In many European countries, the ratings were comparable to those seen at the end of the presidency of George W. Bush, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq was deeply unpopular. “The drop in favorability ratings for the United States is widespread,” the Pew report said. “The share of the public with a positive view of the U.S. has plummeted in a diverse set of countries from Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa”. The survey, based on the responses of 40,447 people and conducted between Feb. 16 and May 8 this year, showed even deeper mistrust of Trump himself, with only 22 percent of those surveyed saying they had confidence he would do the right thing in world affairs, compared to 64 percent who trusted Obama. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with confidence ratings of 27 percent and 28 percent respectively, scored higher than Trump. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with a confidence rating of 42 percent, scored highest among the four leaders in the survey. The countries with the lowest confidence in Trump were Mexico, at 5 percent and Spain at 7 percent. The only two countries where ratings improved compared to Obama were Russia, where confidence in the U.S. president surged to 53 percent from 11 percent, and Israel, where it rose 7 points to 56 percent. Globally, 75 percent of respondents described Trump as “arrogant”, 65 percent as “intolerant” and 62 percent as “dangerous”. A majority of 55 percent also described him as a “strong leader”. The survey showed widespread disapproval of Trump’s signature policy proposals, with 76 percent unhappy with his plan to build the wall on the border with Mexico, 72 percent against his withdrawal from major trade agreements and 62 percent opposed to his plans to restrict travel to the U.S. from some majority-Muslim countries. On the positive side, the survey showed that 58 percent of respondents had a positive view of Americans in general. And in many regions of the world, a majority or plurality of respondents said they expected relations with the United States to stay roughly the same in spite of Trump. | 0fake |
Tilikum, the Killer Whale Featured in ‘Blackfish,’ Dies - The New York Times | Tilikum, the captive orca who killed a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla. in 2010 and later became the subject of the documentary “Blackfish,” died on Friday. The whale had been suffering from a persistent infection from a bacteria found in wild habitats and natural settings, but the exact cause of death will be determined by a necropsy, SeaWorld Parks Entertainment said in a statement. The orca, a male estimated to be about 36 years old, had been kept by the organization for 25 years. “While today is a difficult day for the SeaWorld family, it’s important to remember that Tilikum lived a long and enriching life while at SeaWorld and inspired millions of people to care about this amazing species,” the statement said. “Tilikum had, and will continue to have, a special place in the hearts of the SeaWorld family, as well as the millions of people all over the world that he inspired,” said the president of SeaWorld, Joel Manby. Tilikum’s caretakers had said in March that the whale was afflicted with the infection that was likely to lead to his death. The whale was at the center of an orca breeding program that SeaWorld ended last year. The company also ended its killer whale performances in San Diego, where state lawmakers had brought intense pressure on the company after the documentary’s release. With the death of Tilikum, SeaWorld now holds 22 orcas at its three facilities in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego. SeaWorld also noted that Tilikum was “inextricably connected” with the death of his trainer, Dawn Brancheau, in 2010. “While we all experienced profound sadness about that loss, we continued to offer Tilikum the best care possible, each and every day, from the country’s leading experts in marine mammals,” the SeaWorld statement said. Tilikum bit down on the ponytail of Ms. Brancheau, his trainer, before dragging her underwater and killing her. After her death, SeaWorld conducted an extensive review that resulted in trainers further isolating themselves from the animals for safety. In 2013, the documentary “Blackfish” examined Ms. Brancheau’s death by looking at the mental state of whales that are taken from their pods in the wild and raised at marine parks. But SeaWorld pushed back against the film’s claims that the whales in captivity suffer physical and mental distress because of confinement. Tilikum has also been connected with the deaths of two other people: Keltie Byrne, a student and trainer who slipped into a pool containing Tilikum and two other orcas in 1991, and Daniel P. Dukes, a man who slipped into SeaWorld after hours in 1999. Mr. Dukes was found dead, draped over Tilikum’s back. Tilikum came to SeaWorld in 1991 from Sealand of the Pacific in Canada, and the organization said it had not collected a whale from the wild in nearly 40 years. | 0fake |
Romania's former king Michael dies in Switzerland at age of 96 | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania s former King Michael died in Switzerland at the age of 96 on Tuesday, the Royal House was quoted by Digi 24 TV as saying on Tuesday. King Michael of Romania withdrew from public life because of illness in 2016. A cousin of Britain s Queen Elizabeth, Michael was forced to abdicate in 1947 after the post-war Communist takeover of Romania and has lived in exile in the West for decades. He underwent surgery for leukaemia and cancer. | 0fake |
President Obama Wants You To Vote So Badly He’s Ready To Make History To Do It | President Obama has officially endorsed the idea to make a national holiday set aside just for voting, in order to ensure that more Americans have the free time to exercise one of their greatest freedoms and responsibilities.A Rutgers student journalist from The Daily Targum was at the White House as part of a college journalism program. While he was there, he requested a one-on-one interview with President Obama and the president was happy to oblige.During the interview, Obama was asked about the relatively dismal voter turnout in America, compared to other countries.President Obama s response was nothing short of historic. A portion of the interview is below:THE TARGUM: You have pointed out many times that voter turnout in the United States is very low, especially compared to other developed nations. But in many other countries, the government automatically registers voters and holds elections on days that are weekend days or national holidays. Do you think it s time for the U.S. to follow their lead?PRESIDENT OBAMA: Absolutely. We are the only advanced democracy that makes it deliberately difficult for people to vote. And some of it has to do with the nature of our history and our Constitution, where we allow individual states to determine their own processes for structuring elections within certain boundaries.I think that we know some states like Oregon are doing a much better job at extending mail-in voting, increasing tools like online voting that are safe and secure, give people flexibility over a long period of time, (and) early voting. And so everything we can do to make sure that we re increasing participation is something that we should promote and encourage. Our democracy is not going to function well when only half or a third of eligible voters are participating.The single most dramatic political change that could occur in this country and the best way for us to relieve the frustrations that people feel around the political process would be if we had greater participation that was more reflective of the day-to-day concerns that people have.Source: SlatePresident Obama has made it clear for a long time now, that he would really like to do some things to increase political engagement among Americans. He s already said he was on board with making voting mandatory, but this was his first yet endorsement of a national holiday to facilitate it.Featured image via Getty | 1real |
Trump says will issue new order next week to protect Americans | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would be issuing an order next week aimed at keeping the American people safe, as his temporary ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries remains kept on hold by a federal court. “We will be issuing a new and very comprehensive order to protect our people,” Trump said at a news conference. | 0fake |
Clinton spokesman: IG report shows no Clinton missteps on emails | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department inspector general’s report shows Hillary Clinton’s email practices reflected those of other secretaries of state and that her use of personal email was known to government officials at the time, a Clinton spokesman said on Wednesday. “The report shows that problems with the State Department’s electronic recordkeeping systems were longstanding and that there was no precedent of someone in her position having a State Department email account until after the arrival of her successor,” spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. He also said the report, which was distributed to lawmakers, showed no successful breach of the private server she used. | 0fake |
Trump speaking by phone with Israel's Netanyahu, Jordan king, Abbas: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump was speaking on Tuesday with a number of Middle East leaders, the White House said, in advance of his expected announcement about the U.S. embassy in Israel. Trump had spoken to or planned to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan s King Abdullah, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. The president has calls scheduled this morning with Prime Minister Netanyahu, King Abdullah of Jordan and Palestinian Authority President Abbas. We will have a readout on these calls later today, Sanders said. Trump was expected to announce as soon as Wednesday that he will again delay moving the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but stress that he will wants to do so, a senior administration official said. The official said Trump was also likely to say that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. | 0fake |
Digging dung: South Africa's amaBhungane heaps pressure on Zuma | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A group of investigative journalists whose slogan is digging dung, fertilizing democracy is holding South African President Jacob Zuma to account over his widely criticized links to a family of wealthy businessmen. AmaBhungane, which means dung beetles in the Zulu language, was founded by three veteran reporters to expose wrongdoing in South Africa. Together with online news site the Daily Maverick, amaBhungane in June released leaked emails and documents that they said showed allegedly improper dealings in government contracts and influence peddling by the Guptas, a family with close ties to Zuma. Zuma and the Gupta family, which has said the emails were fake, have denied wrongdoing. Co-founder Stefaans Brummer said amaBhungane, which was founded in 2010, had spent several years probing Zuma s family business dealings, and had verified the authenticity of the leaked documents. Our very first stories as amaBhungane was a series called Zuma Inc and we looked at the Zuma family and how its business fortunes had grown since Zuma took the office of president, Brummer said. He said the Gupta name popped up in several of amaBhungane s inquiries into Zuma s family business links and the organization was well placed to process the trove of information in more than 100,000 emails and documents. You fight hard for every piece of information and when something like this happens it s like Christmas, you suddenly have a lot of information, said Brummer. Brummer said amaBhungane, which mostly uses external hard drives to store documents for safety reasons, had sent a copy of the leaked Gupta emails to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project - a global consortium of investigative journalism centers. Reuters has not independently been able to verify the allegations in the so-called GuptaLeaks emails, sent between the Gupta brothers and their associates. The allegations, which came after an anti-corruption watchdog report into claims of influence peddling, opened Zuma up to renewed scrutiny and deepened divisions within the ruling African National Congress. Zuma survived an attempt in parliament to force him from office on Aug. 8, but he was left politically wounded after some ANC members voted with the opposition. It s quite amazing that people in South Africa have woken up to state capture now in 2017 when amaBhungane have been exposing this for a decade, said Glenda Daniels, a senior media studies lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. Perhaps the nature of their exposes were rather intense and detailed for people to follow. Maybe they have now let some air into their writing and everyone is getting it. As a non-profit company, amaBhungane s 8 million rand ($600,000) annual budget is funded by grants from charitable foundations and public donations. It does not sell adverts or accept funds from the government or from companies. Sam Sole, another amaBhungane co-founder, said his desire to expose society s injustices drove him into journalism. Both Sole and Brummer started their journalism careers before the end of apartheid in 1994. During my subsequent conscription into the defense force I came face to face with the sharp, brutish reality of apartheid - and that was the impetus for my first piece of journalism, said Sole. Journalism, for me, was a way to fight against injustice. The third amaBhungane co-founder, Adriaan Basson, is now editor of News24, an online news site. Sole and Brummer have won numerous journalism awards, including for their reporting on a 30 billion rand ($2.3 billion) deal to buy military equipment in the late 1990s that was plagued by allegations of fraud and corruption. Zuma was linked to the deal through his former financial adviser, who was jailed for corruption. The president said last year that an investigation into the deal found no evidence of wrongdoing, but critics denounced the findings as a cover-up. All charges against Zuma were dropped in 2009, but a court last year ordered a review of the decision. Zuma is appealing the ruling. The arms deal scandal lasted much longer and was much slower burning, which gave us time to develop some of the skills we use now, Sole said. For amaBhungane, the aim was to probe the link between politics and money. We set ourselves a target of trying to find that sweet spot of where organized crime, politics and business intersect, Brummer said. Politics has its good side but it has its bad side, business has its good side and its bad side, organized crime is all bad, but there is always that intersection where the three come together and that s where you get the worst wrongdoing. But amaBhungane has been accused by a group called Black First Land First and some on social media of being run by racist white men and not doing enough stories on white monopoly capital , a phrase used to describe the fact that the white minority still control much of the economy. Brummer said the criticism has not deterred amaBhungane. We are not going to roll over and die. Investigative journalism is what we do and what we like to do, he said. | 0fake |
If You Are On Social Media, Then You Are Already Experiencing Life In The Mark Of The Beast System | SNAPCHAT: 100,000,000 people worldwide , with an estimated 8 billion daily views. YOUTUBE: 1,325,000 people worldwide , who watch 3,250,000,000 hours of videos per month. INTERNET: 3,200,000,000 people worldwide , or just under half the world’s population are surfing the web.
As you can see , Internet usage is huge with tons of room left to grow, and social media accounts is how all those billions of people communicate with each other. NTEB regularly gets emails from South Africa, New Zealand, All of the United States, Israel, Asia, you name it. The prophesied “global community” is not coming…it is, obviously, already here. And if you are reading this right now, either via email or on a website, you are a part of said global community. Now let me start to tie it together for you.
How often does one of your Facebook friends just “disappear”, and then 3 days, a week, 3 weeks later they pop back up and tell you that they were in “ Facebook Jail “? I see it happening a lot, and am sure that you do as well. Many people, when deprived of the ability to post and interact with their global community, get anxious, depressed and experience genuine psychological trauma. Over the last 10 years, we have been retrained to think differently, act differently, and experience life through the filter of the cyber-world. There are gatekeepers who control that world, and when you violate one of their silly rules, you are locked out. This is, in essence, exactly how life will unfold under the Mark of the Beast system.
How many of your social media friends who are frequent visitors of social media jail ever close thier accounts and stop the insanity? Almost none. They want the system, they need the system, and cannot live apart from the system. They rant, rave and rail against Facebook, and yet there they are. Addicted. No matter how often Facebook jails them, they come back.
“The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” Proverbs 30:28 (KJV)
What happens to things caught in a web? They stay caught until the spider shows up. Social media is the web, and the Spider is on the way. Want to play a fun game? Close your social media accounts, all of them for a month, and see what happens. The results will shock you. How It Works: Internet of Things
Under the rule of Antichrist , in order to be included in the global community, you are required to take the Mark. If you refuse, swift, severe and fatal judgment will be issued and you will cease to exist. The Bible says that people refusing the Mark will be decapitated. There is no forgiveness from God for taking the Mark, but if you don’t take the Mark you can’t feed your babies, pay your bills, or interact with the global community.
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4 (KJV)
Social media is training you to accept global rules in order to maintain membership in a global community. More people now connect to the web via hand-held devices than through desktop or laptop computers. Those devices control more and more of our daily lives. There are apps to regulate the air conditioning and heating in your home, open your garage door , deposit money to to your bank account , monitor your vital signs , or meet a date for Saturday night . We literally could not function in our society without these things. So will it really be a big leap from having your device on your belt to having your device under your skin? Nope, not at all. People will jump at the chance to do it.
“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 (KJV)
So the next time you try to login to one of your social media accounts, only to receive the dreaded warning of “Your account has been suspended for __ days for violation of our policies”, and you get first angry and then depressed, remember you’re part of the new global community. You have to live and play by global rules set to control the masses. The “secret government file” of yesteryear we all worried the FBI had on us cannot hold a candle to the interactive file that you created on yourself to be spied on with.
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)
The Mark of the Beast system ? It’s already here and you’re already in it. It will “activate” when the Beast shows up. If you would like to “check out” of here in the Rapture before the Antichrist comes to power, click here for the one thing you need to do.
| 1real |
Bill O’Reilly Plays Stump The Trump On Foreign Policy And Makes Him Look Like A Fool (VIDEO) | Donald Trump appeared on Fox News on Monday night, only to be embarrassingly stumped by Bill O Reilly.O Reilly wanted to know if Trump plans on taking military action against Iran if he becomes president, and Trump totally demonstrated his lack of foreign policy knowledge by dodging the question and ranting about things he really doesn t understand. If you re elected president are you going to take military action against Iran? O Reilly asked. Are you going to do something to that country? Well, I would want to help Saudi Arabia, Trump replied with what seems to be a reference to Iranians attacking the Saudi Arabian embassy in retaliation against a mass execution the Saudis recently committed on New Year s Day in which 47 were killed, including a Shiite cleric. I would want to protect Saudi Arabia, Trump claimed. But Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically Trump suggested that he might attack Iran if Saudi Arabia offered the right price but remained largely unwilling to say one way or another whether he would get America involved in yet another costly and bloody war in the Middle East.O Reilly continued to press Trump for an answer, calling him out for dodging the question.Trump then went on a tirade against the Iran nuclear deal, calling it a disastrous deal that Iran has already supposedly broken before claiming that Iran will have a nuclear weapon very soon. Clearly, Trump is not aware of the fact that Iran recently surrendered their entire stockpile of enriched uranium to the Russians, which is definitive proof that the Iran nuclear deal is a success because it is doing exactly what it was designed to do.The Iran nuclear deal stands as one of President Obama s greatest achievements, and should not be abandoned in favor of war when diplomacy is working. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is nothing more than ISIS posing as a legitimate nation. They use Sharia law and behead so many people every year that ISIS leaders must be envious. The only reason our government has failed to call the Saudis out for their horrible human rights record is because they control the second largest oil reserves in the world.This is why it is not only important for the United States to reject military action in the Middle East, we need to become energy independent so that we no longer have to rely on Saudi Arabia for our energy needs. Frankly, the United States government should grow a pair and strongly condemn Saudi Arabia right now for behaving like a terrorist organization.The bottom line, however, is that Donald Trump is unfit to be commander-in-chief. He not only wants to send American troops to die needlessly in Iran, he wants to make Saudi Arabia pay for it. Basically, Trump would turn America into a puppet for the Saudis. But more likely, he would damage relations with both nations and put America squarely in the middle of a potential conflict that could easily turn into World War III.America does not need more war. We need peace. And as O Reilly pointed out, voters have the right to know what Trump plans to do, even if Trump thinks they have no right to know at all.Here s the video via YouTube.Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Paul Ryan Quotes Mel Gibson In A Desperate Attempt To Not Be The Next John Boehner | Paul Ryan is learning quickly that John Boehner had good reason to cry all the time. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the leader of his or her party. The third most powerful person in the free world. Speakers enjoy visibility and influence above and beyond any other representative in the chamber.That s how it used to be, anyway, when the speaker was a position respected by their own party. From the days of Tip O Neil and Tom Foley to Dennis Hastert and even Newt Gingrich, the Speaker of the House commanded respect.Unfortunately for Republicans, their base began to die off and they needed to replenish, so they decided to go ahead and back the super-zealots of the Tea Party, who have now morphed into the Freedom Caucus, and things will never be the same. There have always been fringe-right congressmen and women. Michele Bachmann wasn t the first complete moron to deny science on the house floor, but she was one of the first to be counted among dozens who have actually come together to mold the Republican party platform into something even more conservative and stubborn than we re all used to.They pushed John Boehner right out of office and back to Ohio. They held the seat hostage until they found someone they could agree would do as much damage as possible. They grudgingly allowed Ryan to be elected, lest Nancy Pelosi steal the seat out from under the party, but promised that the honeymoon wouldn t last long.So far it s been easy for Ryan. Everything coming down the pike has been party-line and cut-and-dry. All of that will change when the budget process comes around again and the deal struck last year to pass the omnibus package has to stay glued together. The last thing Ryan and the Republicans want is for the Democrats to be able to point at them and laugh, yet again, because they couldn t be bothered to put aside their internal differences and govern. To quote William Wallace in Braveheart, Paul Ryan said on Wednesday morning, we have to unite the clans. It was the single sound bite he released to the press before a meeting of congressional conservatives. Uniting the clans, as he is finding out, is going to take a lot more than condescending looks towards the President during State of the Union addresses.He was fresh out of a meeting just half a day earlier that the Huffington Post said did not go well with those Freedom Caucus members whose entire purpose in Washington is to return the United States to 1789 and force a do-over, with the several states ruling themselves and the Federal government being a non-existent figure-head good for dinners with world leaders and state funerals.Ryan probably expected a long run when he accepted the job as speaker. If he can t gain control of his own party, he may be looking for a new job sooner than later.Featured Image by Gage Skidmore | 1real |
Malaysia's royals call for religious tolerance in rare public intervention | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia s royals made a rare intervention into public affairs on Tuesday, calling for unity and religious harmony after what they described as excessive actions in the name of Islam. Members of minorities have expressed concern in recent months about what they see as intolerance in Malaysia, which is 60 percent Muslim with sizable Buddhist, Christian and Hindu communities. In a statement issued on Tuesday and reported by state news agency Bernama, the nine sultans who serve as hereditary titular heads of individual Malaysian states said people must respect the constitutional principle that Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country. It is feared that the excessive actions of certain individuals of late can undermine the harmonious relations among the people of various races and religions, said the statement signed by the Keeper of the Rulers Seal, Syed Danial Syed Ahmad, according to the Bernama report. The Rulers feel that the issue of harmony has deep implication if any action is associated with and undertaken in the name of Islam. The comments, which come ahead of a gathering of the Conference of Rulers starting on Wednesday, are unusual as the sultans largely assume a ceremonial role and rarely speak on the functioning of the state or society. The statement referred to the opening of Muslim-only launderettes reported to have appeared in southern Johor state and northern Perlis state. Other instances which have made headlines in Malaysia in recent months, although they were not referred to directly in the royals statement, include bans on beer festivals and censorship of films and music. Unity among Malaysia s multi-ethnic and multi-religious people is key to ensuring the country s ongoing stability, the statement said. | 0fake |
BOOM! WATCH SEAN HANNITY Hit Back At Bogus Sexual Harassment Allegations: “I can no longer let the slander against me slide” [Video] | Thank you Sean Hannity for hitting back at the latest woman to claim harassment! Hannity released a statement and spoke out on his show last night (video below) about blogger Debbie Schlussel s attempt to charge him with sexual harassment and it s dead on!SEAN HANNITY S STATEMENT: LET ME BE CLEAR THE COMMENTS ABOUT ME ON A RADIO SHOW THIS WEEK by this individual are 100% false and a complete fabrication.This individual is a serial harasser who has been lying about me for well over a decade. The individual has a history of making provably false statements against me in an effort to slander, smear and besmirch my reputation.The individual has not just slandered me over the years but many people who this individual disagrees with.This individual desperately seeks attention by any means necessary, including making unfounded personal attacks and using indefensible and outrageous political rhetoric.My patience with this individual is over. I have retained a team of some of the finest and toughest lawyers in the country who are now in the process of laying out the legal course of action we will be taking against this individual.In this fiercely divided & vindictive political climate, I will no longer allow slander and lies about me to go unchallenged, as I see a coordinated effort afoot to now silence those with conservative views. I will fight every single lie about me by all legal means available to me as an American. THE BACKGROUND ON THIS BLOGGER FROM OUR PREVIOUS REPORT:During a discussion about sexual harassment charges against FOX News host Bill O Reilly, blogger Debbie Schlussel was asked by radio host Pat Cambell of 1170 Talk Radio if anyone at FOX News made her feel uncomfortable ? or if sexual advances were made on her? Campbell asked: What do you make of this whole thing? Schlussel responded, Well, only by Sean Hannity, not by Bill O Reilly. Campbell stopped her Whoa Wait, wait, wait! Say that again. Schussed responded: Only by Sean Hannity, not Bill O Reilly. Although listeners get the sense the whole interview was a set-up, Campbell appears shocked by this new sexual harassment allegation being made against Sean Hannity and asks again, Sean Hannity what? He hit on you, or he made you feel uncomfortable? to which Schlussel responded, Yeah. She then went on to explain her so-called experience with Hannity.After she finished her story where she claims Hannity asked her to come back to his hotel, and that she received horrible treatment from him and his executive producer after she declined his offer, She went on to claim that he never booked her on his show again and that she got a very weird feeling about it . This kind of stuff very uh all over the place at Fox News and with anything that has to do with Sean Hannity. She then went on to make an infer that Hannity s executive producer Jill Vitale quit the show because Sean Hannity wanted something from her and she wouldn t give it. Schlussel claimed that everyone should start looking into it because, it s not an above-board story. Here is Jill Vitale s response to the LIE Schlussel told radio host Pat Campbell, when she inferred the reason Vitale left Hannity s radio show had to do with Hannity s inappropriate sexual behavior:I left because I had kids! https://t.co/Ek81EVGkrH Jill Vitale (@Flirtyflipper) April 23, 2017Sean Hannity used to tease Vitale about being a liberal on his show, which makes her tweet defending Bill O Reilly very interesting:Bill O'Reilly's out. Who's next? Jill Vitale (@Flirtyflipper) April 19, 2017Vitale also advocates for O Reilly here where she tweets that NYC s top radio talk show should hire O Reilly. She doesn t exactly sound like a woman who left Sean Hannity s show because she was victim of sexual harassment:It'd be a smart decision for @77WABCradio to hire him! https://t.co/kOiG93QC7K Jill Vitale (@Flirtyflipper) April 20, 2017Schussed continued to make more accusations during her interview: And it s funny because I have a friend that s a radio host in a different city and, um that used to work for Rush Limbaugh. And whenever Sean Hannity would take about Jon Edwards and his love child, he would always call me and we would laugh about it because he could ve had a love child too, given that with some of the stuff we ve heard about him and some of the stuff I know about him. Schlussel went on to make another wild claim about Hannity, calling him a pimp for Roger Ailes and a Fixer for Bill O Reilly. Debbie Schlussel, a former Fox News guest, appeared on a local radio show on Friday and recounted an incident where Sean Hannity purportedly asked her to a hotel, and when she rebuffed his advances, she claims, she was ostracized by the network star. The story has since gone viral garnering headlines like Sean Hannity Accused of Sexually Harassing Fox News Guest in publications like The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post. Now, in an interview with LawNewz.com on Monday morning, Schlussel is denying that she was ever sexually harassed by Sean Hannity. While Schlussel stands by her description of the incident, Schlussel told us that she doesn t believe what happened between the two amounted to sexual harassment by any legal definition. I would never accuse him of that. Sexual harassment has a special meaning under the law, and I would never accuse him of that, Schlussel, an attorney herself, said. Schlussel said the interaction happened in the early 2000 s when Hannity was in Detroit taping a show. He tried to get me to go back to the hotel after the show after he and his executive producer Bill Shine treated me horribly, she said on the radio program. Schlussel later clarified that it wasn t his hotel room, but rather his hotel. She told LawNewz.com that she did go on the show following the incident, but after that was banned from Fox News. I never thought I was sexually harassed by Sean Hannity, I thought he was weird and creepy not someone I liked, Schlussel said.Following the radio interview on Friday, Hannity issued a strongly worded statement denying Schlussel s claims saying he plans to take legal action against Schlussel for possible libel. LET ME BE CLEAR THE COMMENTS ABOUT ME ON A RADIO SHOW THIS WEEK by this individual ARE 100% false and a complete fabrication, Hannity said in a statement obtained by LawNewz.com. This individual is a serial harasser who has been lying about me for well over a decade. The individual has a history of making provably false statements against me in an effort to slander, smear and besmirch my reputation. The individual has not just slandered me over the years but many people who this individual disagrees with. Schlussel responded to Hannity s legal threats, telling LawNewz.com she believed they were laughable, and that she is also contemplating countersuing him based on his statements on Sunday in which he called her a serial harasser. It s defamatory, Schussel said, Everything I said was true, and truth is an absolute bar to defamation. He on the other hand has a murky record on truth. The accuser has a history of making allegations against Hannity. Back in 2010, Schlussel, who Gawker claimed at the time was a crazy birther blogger, wrote a blog post claiming that the Freedom Alliance, a war veteran charity, which is supported by Hannity, was skimming donations, and was all a huge scam. According to a 2010 letter obtained by LawNewz.com, Thomas Kilgannon, the charity s founder and president, fired back in a note to donors: the blog posting accuses our friend Sean Hannity of personally benefiting from Freedom Alliance. This is FALSE. Freedom Alliance has never provided planes, hotels, cars, limos, or anything else to Sean. Sean gets nothing from Freedom Alliance except our gratitude for his personal generosity and for all he has done to help the troops and our organization. Hannity has reportedly donated more than a million dollars to the charity over the last several years. LawzNewz | 1real |
Obama: ‘We will be as aggressive as we can’ on immigration appeal | President Obama said Wednesday that the administration will be "as aggressive as we can" on a Texas judge's ruling that temporarily blocked the administration's deferred-deportation program and he will veto any potential congressional vote on whether or not his executive actions on immigration are legal.
“Unfortunately a group of Republican governors sued. They found a District Court judge who enjoined… but that’s just the first part of the process," Obama said at a town hall event hosted by MSNBC and Telemundo in Miami. "This is just one federal judge. We have appealed it very aggressively. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can. In the meantime, what we said to Republicans is, ‘Instead of trying to hold hostage funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is so important for our national security, fund that and let’s get on with passing comprehensive immigration reform.’”
Obama continued: “In the short term if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have vote over whether what I’m doing is legal or not they can have that vote. I will veto that vote because I’m absolutely confident it’s the right thing we do.”
Obama said that the administration was not surprised by the ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Texas. Obama compared his immigration actions to those of George H.W. Bush, which Obama said “were not challenged by Democrats” for political reasons. Obama said that the executive action program is on hold due to the court fight, but immigrants should be gathering their paperwork for their deportation relief applications so that they are ready to go after the legal fight is resolved.
The president said that no matter what happens, a bill on comprehensive immigration reform must pass Congress, because the changes from his executive order will only be temporary until the law is changed.
“We’ve got to pass a bill. The pressure’s got to continue to stay on Congress. The pressure’s got to continue to stay on the Republican Party that is blocking comprehensive immigration reform… For the next set of presidential candidates -- because I’m term-limited, Michelle’s happy about that -- when they start asking for votes, the first question should be, ‘Are you really going to deport 11 million people? If not, what’s your plan?’ ... We’re going to have to keep on the political process on a separate track.”
Obama met with 17 advocates at the White House, hours before the town hall in Miami. Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said Obama hopes that the funding issue will be resolved soon so he can talk about possible immigration legislation with Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Despite that, the president is concerned that "this congress will never pass a bill that he could sign into law," one that addresses the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants, she said.
However, Obama said in Miami that he hasn't "given up passing it when I’m president. … Don’t suddenly give up and say, ‘Oh we have to wait the next two years.’ … I’m not just going to stand still over the next two years."
Obama highlighted parts of his executive action plan that were not part of the court order, including refocusing border patrol agents on high-priority people, including felons, not families or people who have been in the country for years or decades. "Felons not families," Obama said when announcing the actions in November.
"He really wants to lift up the parts of the executive action that haven’t got as much attention that were not enjoined by the judge," said Frank Sharry, founder and director of America's Voice. Advocacy groups will also start highlighting that only one portion of the executive actions is part of the ruling.
Those include refocusing border patrol agents on high-priority people, including felons, serious criminals and people who recently crossed the border, not families or people who have been in the country for years or decades.
When asked by moderator Jose Diaz-Balart about the continued number of deportations despite the new policy, Obama said it takes time for a huge government to fully change.
“Every time you have a big bureaucracy and you change policy there is going to be one or two or three instances where people apparently haven’t gotten the message. But if you talk to the head of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, he is absolutely committed to this new prioritization. More important, I, the president of the United States, am committed. ... We’re going to be focusing on criminals; we’re going to be focusing on potential felons.”
If, for example, someone working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn't follow the policy changes, "there's going to be consequences to it," Obama said.
Obama said that he has used all the legal power he has to try to change the nation's immigration policies.
“Not only are we going to have to win this legal fight.. but ultimately we’re still going to pass a law through Congress. The bottom line is I’m using all the legal power invested in me in order to solve this problem," he said.
Attendees said advocacy groups will also stress that young people who received temporary relief under Obama's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, are not subject to the order and can still sign up and renew their status.
"We went into the meeting and left the meeting with the same sense, that the president acted within his full, legal authority when he announced these initiatives back on Nov. 20 and there’s an agreement between us," Hincapie said.
The administration on Monday filed a notice of appeal and motion to stay the decision. It argued that the states do not have standing to challenge federal immigration policy. The motion for stay cited the use of "prosecutorial discretion," where the government uses its discretion to decide how to best allocate resources and apply the law. While Hanen's order would halt the program nationwide, the administration argued that Texas is the "only State whose claims of harm the Court credited," and if a full stay is not granted the ruling should only apply to Texas.
Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, won support Wednesday from two of his Republican predecessors – Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff – who joined him in warning that a shutdown would hurt the department’s ability to protect the homeland.
Ridge, the department’s first secretary under President George W. Bush, acknowledged that he strongly opposed Obama’s executive orders on immigration, which triggered the funding battle. “I personally believe that the president has greatly overstepped his constitutional authority,’’ Ridge said at a news conference with Johnson and Chertoff.
But Ridge called it “wrong and folly” to express that opposition by refusing to fully fund DHS. “We would not think of not funding our soldiers,’’ he said. “These are soldiers at DHS. They wear a different uniform, but the goal and objective and mission is the same – keeping America as safe as possible.’’
Diaz-Balart pressed Obama as to why he didn't push harder for immigration in his first term.
“It wasn’t like I was sitting back not doing anything. We were moving aggressively on a whole host of issues. We wanted immigration done; we pushed for immigration to be done, but ultimately we didn’t have the votes to get immigration done. … I don’t regret having done the ACA," Obama said, referring to the health-care law.
Obama said that the changing demographics of the United States will ultimately resolve the issue.
"Over the long term, this is going to get solve because at some point there’s going to be a President Rodriguez or a President Shin because we’re a nation of immigrants. So what I would say to the next president is think ahead…think long-term,” Obama said.
After past contentious meetings with immigration activists, the mood was relaxed and advocates felt that they were on the same page as the administration.
"There’s been a lot of difficult meetings with the president over the years and this was not one of them," Sharry said. "Lots of mutual gratitude and a clear alignment on strategy and tactics and lots of optimism that we're going to win in the courts." | 0fake |
Truth is Out There: Astronomers Capture 234 Signals From Space | posted by Eddie Astronomers have recorded mysterious signals from 234 stars that they believe could indicate the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence – a notion that’s sure to excite alien truthers and beyond. Astronomers Ermanno Borra and Eric Trottier from Laval University in Canada analyzed 2.5 million stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS ) project. In their resulting study published in Solar and Stellar Astrophysics journal, the pair conclude that the peculiar signals they recorded could be from aliens trying to make contact with Earth. The researchers came to this potential explanation based on a previous study by Borra which predicted the shape of an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) signal. The 234 signals identified match this shape exactly. The fact that only a small fraction – 234 out of 2.5 million – of the stars in our sun’s spectrum emitted this signal also matches the previous ETI hypothesis. However the theory that these signals are the result of aliens is only one of a number of possibilities, according to the study, and they could in fact derive from any one of “several possibilities” such as “ rotational transitions in molecules” or “rapid pulsations”. So is this the discovery we’ve been waiting for to finally confirm we’re not alone in the universe? Not quite.. The authors admit that further work is needed to confirm this theory and are also considering the ‘unlikely’ scenario that the signals are due to highly peculiar chemical compositions in a small fraction of galactic halo stars. Breakthrough Listen Initiative , a scientific and technological exploration program that includes Stephen Hawking and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on its board , has announced plans to research the findings further but says a breadth of independently verified proof is required to substantiate the claims. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” the group points out in a statement . “It is too early to unequivocally attribute these purported signals to the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations.” “Internationally agreed-upon protocols for searches for evidence of advanced life beyond Earth (SETI) require candidates to be confirmed by independent groups using their own telescopes, and for all natural explanations to be exhausted before invoking extraterrestrial agents as an explanation,” they added. From Around the Web Founder of WorldTruth.Tv and WomansVibe.com Eddie ( 8968 Posts )
Eddie L. is the founder and owner of www.WorldTruth.TV. and www.Womansvibe.com. Both website are dedicated to educating and informing people with articles on powerful and concealed information from around the world. I have spent the last 36+ years researching Bible, History, Alternative Health, Secret Societies, Symbolism and many other topics that are not reported by mainstream media. | 1real |
Pakistani Islamists call off protests over blasphemy claim as govt. backs down | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A hardline Pakistani Islamist group called off nationwide protests on Monday after the government met its demand that a government minister accused of blasphemy resign, following weekend clashes with police that paralyzed major cities. The cleric-politician leading the nearly three-week blockade of the capital, Islamabad, thanked the army chief for helping resolve the stand-off, raising questions about the military s role. The new ultra-religious political party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan was protesting against a small change in wording to an electoral law changing a religious oath to a simple declaration, which it said amounted to blasphemy. The government climbdown will be seen as an embarrassment for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party ahead of elections likely in mid-2018, and underlines the power of religious groups in the nuclear-armed nation of 207 million. Seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded after a police bid to disperse protesters in Islamabad failed on Saturday, spurring demonstrators wielding sticks and iron rods to block key roads and motorways in other cities. Our main demand has been accepted, Ejaz Ashrafi, spokesman for Tahreek-e-Labaik, told Reuters, adding that part of the agreement was to free dozens of party workers arrested during the weekend crackdown. Our workers release is in process. Once that is done, we will leave. At nightfall on Monday, the protesters were still in place. Law minister Zahid Hamid handed in his resignation to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to take the country out of a crisis-like situation , state-run news channel PTV said on Monday. Government spokesmen did not respond to requests from Reuters for comment. The government called in the military to tackle the protests after a police operation failed, but there was no sign of troops around protest camps on Sunday. The military said the army chief in one telephone call had advised Abbasi to resolve the protests peacefully. Tehreek-e-Labaik leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi on Monday described the army s role in ending the standoff. The honorable chief of army staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, sent his special envoys to us. We said we do not want to talk to the government; they are our murderers, Rizvi said. So the general took personal interest and sent his team, saying we will become the guarantors, and have your demands fulfilled . So we said, All right. That is what we want. For more than two weeks, Tehreek-e-Labaik activists have blocked the main road into the capital, Islamabad, in a protest that blamed law minister Hamid for changing the wording in an electoral oath. The party says the words I believe , used to replace the clause I solemnly swear in a proclamation of Mohammad as the religion s last prophet, amount to blasphemy. The government blamed the change on a clerical error and swiftly restored the original format. Insulting Islam s prophet is punishable by death under Pakistani law, and blasphemy accusations stir such emotions that they are difficult to defend against. Even a rumor of blasphemy can spark mob violence, as in the case of a university student beaten to death in April. Labaik, one of two new ultra-religious political movements to reach prominence in recent months, has made defending the blasphemy laws a campaign centerpiece with some success. The party won a surprisingly strong 6 percent and 7.6 percent share of votes in two recent by-elections. Islamist parties are unlikely to win a majority in the elections expected next August, but could play a major role. Giving in to the group s demands had hit the government s reputation and credibility, said political analyst Hasan Askari. These protests will have emboldened this group, and they are going to assert themselves and put up candidates wherever they can in the next general election, or at least they will oppose the PML-N, he added. The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party accused the government of bungling the efforts to remove the protesters and called for early elections. | 0fake |
FUNNY! SNL’S SOLUTION To Democrat Election Denial: “Safe Space For Everyone” [Video] | Go to Article In The Bubble, life continues for progressive Americans as if the election never happened… Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 1real |
Trump Gets PUMMELED During TODAY Show Interview; Matt Lauer Did NOT Hold Back (VIDEO) | Ever since Matt Lauer threw Donald Trump some majorly softball questions during his Q&A with the president-elect during the campaign, many people have been criticizing how he didn t go hard enough on Trump to get some real answers.Well, Lauer clearly got the message, albeit a little too late, because he just absolutely went after Trump during a phone interview on the TODAY show Wednesday morning.Lauer said: You seem to understand that perhaps having fights on Twitter would not be appropriate for the president. I have not seen you backing off fights on Twitter In the time since you were elected, you ve targeted the cast of Hamilton, The New York Times, China, Boeing, the media, and SNL. Which, of course, put Trump on the defense pathetically trying to explain how going after SNL and a Broadway show are somehow justified. The president-elect also seems to think that Twitter is an appropriate form of communication, no matter how immature the tweets. He also, again, went after SNL, and when Lauer brought up the fact that he had previously hosted the show, Trump whined that it s gone downhill since then.Sure, Donald, that s it.Good on Lauer for finally being tough on Trump.Watch Lauer really press Trump here: WATCH: I like Alec, but his imitation of me is really mean-spirited and not very good. @realdonaldtrump on #SNL https://t.co/NEslxLZJuS TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 7, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
VIDEO: LAPD Shoots from Helicopter, Kills Armed Home Invasion Suspect | Video has emerged of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Swat officers shooting from a helicopter and killing an armed home invasion suspect in Sunland on Monday. [According to the Los Angeles Times, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said a woman alleged that she woke up to an intruder in her home. She fled out of a window and called police. When officers arrived, the suspect had armed himself, and a standoff followed. A SWAT team was called in as officers attempted to negotiate with the suspect, but negotiations failed. Beck said the home was on a hill and was “surrounded by bushes and debris,” making the SWAT team’s job difficult. Moreover, the suspect was using the elevated position to his advantage, shooting at the officers when they got close or came into sight. So the decision was made to bring in the helicopter. Officers then fired tear gas into the home, and the suspect was shot when he ran outside to get away from the gas. He exited the house about 2:45 pm: Officers on the ground and air fired on the suspect simultaneously. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that the man fell under the barrage of fire and “tumbled down a ravine. ” He was pronounced dead at the scene. According to KTLA, Chief Beck said “an autopsy would reveal how many times the [suspect] was struck by gunfire” and whether it was from officers on the ground or those in the air. 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 |
After decades of war, Colombia's FARC rebels debut political party | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia s leftist FARC rebel group is introducing its political party at a conference that began on Sunday, a major step in its transition into a civilian organization after more than 50 years of war and its first chance to announce policy to skeptical voters. The six-day meeting in Bogota of FARC members, who have handed in more than 8,000 weapons to the United Nations during their demobilization, is expected to conclude on Friday with a platform that the party will campaign on in elections next year. Under its 2016 peace deal with the government to end its part in a war that has killed more than 220,000 people, the majority of fighters in the group formally known as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were granted amnesty and allowed to participate in politics. Whether the rebels will get backing from Colombians, many of whom revile them, remains to be seen. The FARC s often old-fashioned Marxist rhetoric strikes many as a throwback to their 1964 founding, but proposals for reforms to complicated property laws may get traction with rural voters who struggle as subsistence farmers. The peace accord, rejected by a less than 1 percent margin in a referendum before being modified and enacted, awards the FARC s party 10 automatic seats in Congress through 2026, but the group may campaign for others. In a sight that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, FARC delegates arrived by bus to the center of the capital, escorted by police on motorcycles. From this event on, we will transform into a new, exclusively political group that will carry out its activity by legal means, FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, who is known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, told hundreds of attendees at the event center in Bogota. We have in front of us many challenges and many difficulties, Londono said. Nothing is easy in politics. Rural improvements will remain a focus for the party, he added. Many delegates wore conference t-shirts with the slogan A new party for a new country and carried branded tote bags. A painting featuring images of Cuban revolutionary leaders Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara, deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Jesus Christ was on display. The party will initially be called the Revolutionary Alternative Force of Colombia, preserving the FARC initials in Spanish. Both legislative and presidential elections will take place in 2018. It is not yet clear in which races the FARC will run candidates. I think the FARC will try for a regional consolidation, using the presence and influence they have in certain provinces, said Catalina Jimenez, politics professor at Externado University. At a national level, they need a large amount of votes they still don t have. The FARC is open to coalitions, the group said this week. Fractured by infighting, leftist parties have long struggled in conservative-leaning Colombia, despite some success in winning urban positions. Widespread corruption scandals will probably be a top issue for the crowded field of 2018 presidential candidates. Campaigns are also likely to focus on proposals to improve the daily lives of Colombians, many of whom say they desperately need better security, public education and healthcare. The FARC says the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, which gives a certain amount of regulated funding to each party, should help carry the costs of the conference, given the rebels have handed over their assets as reparations for victims of the war. But while the peace deal is the cornerstone of Santos legacy, the government has raised doubts about the veracity of the rebels $324 million asset list. The government said this week that it was forming a commission to verify that the FARC had included all profits it may have earned from extortion, ransoms and drug trafficking, and the group must play by the same rules as any other party. | 0fake |
INDIANA: “BLACK MALE” FIRES Several SHOTS At Truck With Make America Great Again, USA Flags…HELP Police Find Him | Indiana State Police say shots were fired at a truck carrying a Make America Great Again flag and an American flag on eastbound I-465 Tuesday.Officers believe the shots were fired from a newer white 4-door Chevrolet Malibu with a Louisiana plate near Emerson Avenue around 4 p.m.The victim and a witness informed police that the Malibu pulled up next to the pickup truck, a passenger held a handgun out of the window and then a male fired several shots.Police say no one was in injured in the incident.The driver of the Malibu was described as a black male around the age of 23. The passenger was described as a light skinned black male with a sleeve tattoo on his right arm.Via: FOX 59 | 1real |
HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS Pressured By Very Familiar Names To Back Ryan For Speaker | Congressman Paul Ryan received enough support from the House Freedom Caucus to secure his nomination for Speaker of the House as of Oct. 23, 2015. Congressman Louis Gohmert told One America News that Ryan may have gained some of the support because Senator Jim DeMint, now head of the Heritage Foundation, and former Speaker of the House and Congressman Newt Gingrich pressured Freedom Caucus members to cave and endorse Ryan for Speaker. | 1real |
3 CONSERVATIVE CELEBRITIES Visited Trump Last Night And Hilariously Trolled A White House Picture Of Hillary | Ted Nugent is all smiles, as he s pictured with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office:Rocker Ted Nugget s wife Shemane Nugent posted this video to Facebook of her husband excitedly telling fans about his visit to the White House as they flew to Washington DC:Shemane Nugent tells her Facebook followers what it was like to have dinner with President Trump:The best photo of the night was taken when Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock hilariously trolled the White House photo of Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin posted this picture of Kid Rock, his new fianc Audrey Berry, Ted Nugent and his wife Shemane Nugent along with Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol Meyer with the caption: So Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Sarah Palin walk into a bar With sons who hunt, the President is very aware of the misguided, anti-science and anti-hunting laws and regulations perpetrated by power abusing bureaucrats infesting our states and nation. I would say that the prognosis for hunter s rights has never been better for the future of hunting, fishing and trapping in America, I assure you.President Trump told me to not only give you his very best and a big presidential thank you for the phenomenal wildlife conservation force we have succeeded at, but also gave me his word that he is aware of the ongoing mistakes in wildlife mismanagement and his commitment to right the flurry of wrongs that get in the way of meaningful wise-use of our precious renewable wildlife resources.We didn t actually confirm that I will be organizing annual deerhunts at Camp David, but he is acutely aware of wise-use management versus politically correct misuses and vows to work diligently to make it right.We discussed various quality of life issues and how entrenched status quo political correctness has wrecked everything it has touched and how his administration is focused and dedicated to get back to the US Constitutional basics of government of, by and for the people.President Trump summed it up when he humbly and proudly stated that he works for we the people and he will not let us down.Sarah Palin speaks with President Trump in the Oval Office:Sarah Palin pictured speaking with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner:Kid Rock has made several trips overseas to visit and perform for our troops. He s been a huge supporter of veterans and has even purchased homes here in our home state of Michigan for wounded warriors.Here s a video we took of Ted Nugent performing at Trump s final rally in Michigan the night before the election: | 1real |
American politics has reached peak polarization | For a long time in American politics, we've been trapped in a cycle of ever-escalating political polarization. As measured by voting patterns in the US Congress, the two parties have pulled apart to distances we've never seen before. As measured by consistent partisan positioning among voters, the split in the electorate has reached a historic level of divisiveness.
But this is about to end. We've now hit peak polarization. The forces that have fueled the widening gap between the two political parties are now fueling fights within the two political parties, fights that will lead to new coalitions in American politics, eventually realigning the two parties. A new era of American politics is about to emerge.
The tautological reason polarization has increased in American politics is that over the past four decades, conflict in American politics has increasingly operated along a single dimension: Republican versus Democrat. A large number of issues that were once nonpartisan or non-ideological have become partisan issues. Almost every policy has now been swept into the maw of partisan jockeying, leaving almost no space for the cross-partisan cooperation our political system relies on to function.
In order for congressional polarization to persist, both parties have to maintain tight enough discipline over their members and the political agenda to ensure consistent party voting. And in order for public polarization to persist, parties have to maintain tight enough message discipline among their elites to ensure that their voters only hear one main message.
This is breaking down. Republicans are now in open warfare between Trump supporters and #NeverTrumpers. Democrats are far less divided, but internal rifts between their "establishment" (Hillary Clinton) and "insurgent" (Bernie Sanders) wings are also real and likely lasting.
This conflict is emerging on issues of international trade, on questions of corporate (especially Wall Street) power, and in growing anger over money in politics and corruption generally. In short, parties are increasingly divided on a growing range of issues that pit their less-educated, lower-income voters who feel left behind by the current political-economic system against their better-educated, higher-income voter who don't want to mess too much with the status quo. These conflicts are not going away anytime soon.
This moment is the culmination of four interconnected but ultimately unsustainable trends that have turbocharged polarization over the last two decades:
Close competition fueled partisan nastiness and increased the demand for campaign money. The demand for campaign money made the parties more dependent on wealthy donors, which made them less responsive to their voters. This lack of responsiveness provided plenty of evidence for corruption and the felt sense that politics was broken, which fueled anger. Both parties attempted to channel this anger against the other party to distract from their own failures and contradictions and win elections by rendering the other party toxic. This exacerbated the sense that politics was broken and corrupt.
These trends created contradictions, and now these contradictions have created openings. Ambitious candidates who could get past their parties' campaign finance gatekeepers had a lot of angry and left-behind voters eager for their message. And this is precisely what Sanders and especially Donald Trump have accomplished. Now there is no going back.
These are big claims. So let's flesh this story out a little more, this time with expanded detail.
The story could go all the way back to the decisive election of 1932, when Democrats became the dominant party in American politics for a generation, holding together a big-tent New Deal coalition that included Southern pro-segregationists with Northern urban progressives. But it was an uneasy alliance that could only last as long as civil rights legislation was bottled up. Then in 1964, the Democrats decidedly became the party of civil rights. And as Lyndon Johnson allegedly acknowledged upon signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Democrats "have lost the South for a generation."
Democrats had controlled the South ever since Republican-led Reconstruction (since Republicans were the party of Lincoln and of Reconstruction). But as Republicans came to be the party better aligned with the South on issues of race, conservative Republicans replaced conservative Democrats in Southern House and Senate seats, starting in the 1980s. By 1995, when Republicans won the House for the first time in 40 years, this transition was mostly complete. By 2011, it was absolute and total.
As this all happened, the ideological center of the Republican Party moved to the South, fusing social and economic conservatism. Northern liberal Republicans were marginalized and soon endangered. Democrats, meanwhile, lost their Southern, conservative wing, and the ideological center of the Democratic Party moved to the coasts and big cities, fusing social and economic liberalism.
As the parties became less internally diverse, individual members of Congress delegated more power to their party leaders. After all, they all now basically agreed on the issues. And they wanted leaders who could punish disloyal dissenters and control the agenda. So when Newt Gingrich took over the speakership in 1995, he centralized power in the position in a way it had not been centralized since 1910.
In the 1990s, American politics entered a somewhat unusual period of remarkably close two-party competition for control of the House and the Senate.
This, as political scientist Frances Lee explains, has been the catalyst for a very nasty brand of partisan fighting.
This seems exactly right to me, and there's lots of evidence to prove it.
But not only has this close competition fueled partisanship by turning legislating into zero-sum trench warfare, it has also turbocharged the fundraising dimension of political campaigning.
Parties are campaigning harder than ever to win over those swing seats, and this has meant raising ever-expanding sums of money. And in order to raise this money, both parties have had to lean more and more on their wealthiest donors.
But relying on these wealthy donors created a problem for both parties. On many issues, particularly economic issues, wealthy elites hold separate opinions from most voters.
Major Republican donors generally want fiscal austerity, and particularly a rolled-back welfare state. They also tend to be much more pro-immigration and pro–free trade than Republican voters, and not particularly worried about social issues. But schemes like privatizing Social Security and voucherizing Medicare have never been all that popular with actual Republican voters. And as the middle classes' wages have stagnated, especially for those without college degrees, and the share of foreign-born residents in the US has reached levels not seen since the 1920s (it hit 13.9 percent in 2015), the voting constituency for anti-immigration populism has grown considerably.
Democratic donors are somewhat more economically liberal. But they are not about to support Sanders-style socialism. They prefer Clinton's generally pro-market views. They will tolerate some regulation of business, but not that much, particularly when it's the tech and new economy businesses that they run and invest in.
Whereas Democrats once relied on labor unions to get out the vote, by the 1990s unions could no longer provide the support Democrats needed. Democrats instead moved to depend on the "professional class," deprioritizing workers' concerns to focus instead on the social and environmental concerns that went over much better in Hollywood and San Francisco and Manhattan fundraisers.
For a while, both parties could manage these contradictions, being responsive to their donors while pooh-poohing the economic concerns of their less affluent voters on the bland promise that a thriving economy was good for everyone. And for much of the 1990s and 2000s, the economy was doing okay, which generally kept voters from feeling too angry. And to the extent that individual voters weren't benefiting, it was, of course, the other party's fault.
As long as both sides were focused on the evils of the other side, and the economy was not in a major recession, party leaders could get away with ignoring many of their voters, and using the campaign contribution proceeds to make their case through more and more negative political advertising and aggressive media messaging.
This negativity translated into what political scientists Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster call "negative partisanship." As they explain:
All these interrelated trends have turbocharged polarization over the last two decades. But they relied on both sides being able to control the anger that they were stoking, and on both sides being able to convince their voters that all of the corruption and fecklessness in Washington was because of the other party. This could not go on indefinitely.
In fall 2008 the financial crisis hit, and the government bailed out the big Wall Street banks in a very public way. For many, this served as the decisive proof that things really were rigged: Washington and Wall Street were in a corrupt alliance, a conspiracy of career politicians and crony capitalists and lobbyists who were rolling in the money and laughing about it while everyone else was living paycheck to paycheck. As the economy stumbled through recession and then a jobless recovery, economic insecurity and political resentment increased.
Obama and the Democrats swept the 2008 election on the strength of anti-Bush feeling and the timeless energy of hope and change. For the first time since 1992, Democrats had unified control in Washington; Republicans were now out in the cold.
With their backs against the wall and Democrats as the new Washington establishment, Republicans now turned their anti-government rhetoric up to 11. Obama was Stalin. Obama was Hitler. Obama was a Kenyan-born Muslim bent on destroying America. Democrats responded to the charges with signature big-government legislation that taxed the middle class so that poor people could have government-subsidized health care. The Republican base went crazy. All their worst fears were confirmed.
In 2009, the Tea Party emerged, representing what felt like new anti-establishment radicalism but was really just the culmination of decades of Republican anti-government rhetoric now freed from any institutional responsibility for actually governing. In 2010, on the strength of Tea Party anti-Obama energy (and the fact that Democrats had won a bunch of majority Republican House districts in 2006 and 2008), Republicans swept back into control of the House. In the 2014 election, they finally won back the Senate.
But then nothing happened. Obamacare, the devil piñata of every Republican attack, was neither repealed nor replaced. Worse, Republican leaders were negotiating with Obama, Satan himself. They were letting Obama get away with an executive order on immigration. Here was the most corrupt, most crony capitalist administration in history, and what were Republicans in Congress doing? They were rolling over and being just as corrupt!
In June 2015, Donald Trump announced he was running for president and became the immediate frontrunner on the strength of his aggressive anti-immigration stance. Because he had his own money and his own media celebrity, Trump did not need to do the pro-austerity, pro-immigration, pro-free trade dance that other potential frontrunners had done to shake the big donor GOP money tree. He could just run for president, declaring everything was corrupt and he was the only one you could trust because he was the only one who didn't have a super PAC. And he could speak to the working-class Republican voters who had been left behind in this economy, by saying he'd go after China and give them Social Security and Medicare and go after the corrupt hedge fund rip-off artists.
And they loved it. For decades, they had been told, for partisan reasons, to be angry; they had been told, for partisan reasons, that Washington was corrupt, and that all Washington politicians were evil. Now they finally had somebody who could say those things while actually not embodying any telltale signs of the sins. They also had somebody who could finally and authentically call out all the "corrupt" things Republican establishment types themselves were doing.
A few months later, in September, Republican Speaker John Boehner announced he would resign from Congress, responding to efforts by the House Freedom Caucus to force him out. This was the first time since 1910 that an insurgent faction in the House had successfully challenged a sitting speaker. The anti-establishment anger that Republicans had courted had now finally turned on its leaders.
On the Democratic side, anti-Clinton progressives were hoping to draft Elizabeth Warren, who had demonstrated her anti-establishment bona fides in December 2014, sinking Obama's appointment of Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss for a top Treasury position (Weiss withdrew his nomination, instead accepting a counselor position to Secretary Jack Lew). Warren had also been a prominent opponent of Obama's major Asian free trade agreement.
But Warren didn't run. Instead, it was self-identified socialist Bernie Sanders who found the opening. Democratic donor gatekeepers had cleared the field for Hillary. This meant Sanders could get attention just for being the only real alternative, attention that he was able to snowball into a following. Sanders won't win the nomination. But he has done far, far better than anybody ever expected, because a sizable number of Democrat voters share his view that politics is a rigged game where the billionaires and the crony capitalists always win. And like Sanders, they are sick and tired of it.
If you briefly scroll back to the top of this article and look at the graph of polarization over time, you'll see a previous peak around 1910 or so. While historical analogies are never perfect, there are some notable similarities between now and around 1910.
For one, 1910 was the last time a sitting speaker of the US House had been effectively challenged from within the party. Second, in 1912 the Republican Party was so divided over its presidential nomination that the party splintered, with about half of Republicans supporting Howard Taft (the incumbent) and about half supporting Teddy Roosevelt (the previous incumbent). Democrat Woodrow Wilson won in a landslide.
Around 1910 was also when the last great anti-establishment movement in America, the progressive movement, emerged in response to growing concentrations of wealth and political power, concentrations that many Americans felt had left them behind. As political scientist Grant McConnell once wrote of "the progressive legacy," it consisted of a "charges made against virtually all the institutions of American society" with "one common theme — corruption. ... Corruption of such prevalence, disorder of such magnitude could only be explained by something more than the assumption of a slow-spreading decay. The theory of conspiracy was ready at hand and in one way or another it was invoked as an explanation." This resonates with today's anti-establishment mood.
Political scientist Hans Noel has argued that the emergence of the progressive movement "crosscut the parties and eventually reshaped them." Noel notes that progressives opposed existing authority structures, both economically (e.g., the "trusts") and politically (they disliked political parties and other authority structures).
In 1910, it was progressive Republican George Norris who led the internal House revolt against Speaker Joe Cannon, stripping Cannon of most of his authority and devolving considerable powers back to individual members, who had increasingly chafed under their marginalization. Like John Boehner in 2015, Cannon in 1910 represented the culmination of exactly 20 years of increasingly centralized leadership control in the House speakership. Just as Gingrich had radically centralized control in 1995, Speaker Thomas Reed had radically centralized control in 1890.
Parties depolarized in the 1910s and 1920s because, freed of centralized leadership structures, more legislating happened in committees, where a cross-cutting progressive coalition could more freely operate independently of the two parties. Interestingly, trade policy also became much less polarized in the 1920s, with cross-party coalitions on tariff issues.
Most likely, Trump will be the Republican nominee. Even if the #NeverTrump forces somehow wrest the nomination from him (unlikely, but possible), the anti-establishment forces in the Republican Party are not going away. If not Trump (though my guess is he will stick around for a while longer), somebody in the Tea Party, or possibly even Ted Cruz, will find a way to harness the Trump voters by following the Trump issues playbook. Where there are voters to be had, there are politicians to have them.
Meanwhile, in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan is already having difficulty building consensus around a budget process. No matter how many speeches he gives about the importance of decorum in politics, it seems increasingly unlikely that he can reconcile the conflicts that Boehner failed to resolve, which means he will have to eventually lean on Democrats to pass a budget and, like Boehner before him, alienate some of his party. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, much less beloved even within his party, will face similar problems.
Most likely, Hillary Clinton will become the 45th US president (she has led in every single head-to-head poll against Trump). And most likely she will use her agenda-setting powers to try to force the Republicans into open civil war by pushing many of the issues that already divide them, especially immigration and trade. Clinton's natural home is in the pro-business center, a position that will be advantageous to her and Democrats in the short term at least. But she has to be cautious. Emboldened by Sanders and by Elizabeth Warren, the progressive wing of the Democrats is growing, and will be unhappy with Clinton's pro-business instincts.
The internal fights will continue in both parties. The competing wings of both parties will feel that they are the true Republicans/Democrats. The growing importance of outside, non-party groups in elections will also force ideological diversity onto the parties. Party leaders might instinctually want to wrest power back from these outside groups, but they'd be wiser to open up their tent to allow for different ideas. After all, the party that does best in American politics is always the one that can build the broadest coalition, which means accepting ideological diversity.
Eventually, congressional leaders will realize (or be forced to realize) that the only leadership style that works is a less centralized, more committee-driven approach. This is the only way ideologically heterogeneous parties can effectively govern. A more decentralized Congress, with more fluid coalitions, will function better, assuming that a more committee-driven process is also accompanied by increases in congressional staffing capacity. Partisan control of Congress will mean less, since there will be more cross-party coalitions.
Many issues, like gun rights or affirmative action, will remain very partisan. But other issues, especially those of corporate/Wall Street power, antitrust, interventionist foreign policy, will likely split the parties. Trump Republicans and Sanders Democrats will find common cause against establishment centrists. Big organized interests, like the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate groups, will align less closely with Republicans, realizing that their future success will require the right mix of Republicans and Democrats to advance their agendas.
And as the parties become more ideological diverse, voters, who are generally more ideologically all over the place than the current party alignment would suggest, will identify less reliably with one or the other, since there will be more for them in both parties. They will again sometimes split their tickets, depending on who is running. Many will feel more passionate about individual issues and will align themselves with supporters of those issues in both parties, especially as individual interest groups become cross-partisan in order to achieve policy outcomes. In that respect, politics will come to look more like it did in the 1950s and 1970s, when liberal Republicans existed alongside conservative Democrats.
This is an optimistic scenario.
But it only works if party leaders tolerate diversity within their party and allow disagreements.
Another scenario is that establishment Republicans banish the Trump faction and Democrats banish the Sanders faction after the 2016 elections, and both parties go back to the predictable and intractable trench warfare battle lines that have become increasingly dug in over the past two decades, using nastier and nastier tactics to subvert internal divisions in service of the larger fight against a common enemy. This may be possible for a little while longer (especially if the economy improves significantly), but it is still probably long-term unsustainable for reasons I've described above. It also may mean that 2020 becomes an even more violent and nasty election.
Another possibility is that the parties realign quickly, with the Trump/Tea Party faction effecting a rapid transformation of the Republican Party into a downscale nationalist populist party, pushing the remaining upper-class moderate Republicans into a more pro-business Democratic Party, which in turn pushes some disaffected Sanders voters into the Republican Party. If this realignment happens too quickly, there is no period of depolarization. But this seems unlikely, given the stickiness of partisan identity and the strong disagreements between the two parties on a whole range of other issues.
Other scenarios are possible as well, especially if there are significant global crises.
But here's the bottom line: Something is different this year in American politics. The logic that has operated for the past two decades or so is breaking down, largely because the factors and trends that propelled it produced unsustainable contradictions. American politics is now entering a new logic, with new trends and forces that will push the lines of political conflict in directions we are only beginning to understand.
This feels like chaos, and it is. But it is also good news, because chaos scrambles the rules. We've hit peak polarization. Politics is slowly coming unstuck. A period of new possibilities awaits.
This post is part of Polyarchy, an independent blog produced by the political reform program at New America, a Washington think tank devoted to developing new ideas and new voices. See more Polyarchy posts here. | 0fake |
Saudi king warns Trump against U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem: agency | DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman told U.S. President Donald Trump that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before a permanent peace settlement is reached will inflame the feelings of Muslims, Saudi state-owned media said on Tuesday. They said that King Salman had received a telephone call from Trump about developments in the region and the world. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques asserted to His Excellency the U.S. president that any American announcement regarding the situation of Jerusalem prior to reaching a permanent settlement will harm peace talks and increase tensions in the area, state news agency SPA said. It quoted King Salman as saying that Saudi Arabia supported the Palestinian people and their historic rights and asserted that such a dangerous step is likely to inflame the passions of Muslims around the world due to the great status of Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque... | 0fake |
Trump has talked to top lawmakers about immigration reform: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken to congressional leaders about immigration reform and is confident that Congress will take action to deal with the status of illegal immigrants who have grown up in the United States, the White House said on Tuesday. “We have confidence that Congress is going to step up and do their job,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a briefing shortly after the administration scrapped a program that protected from deportation some 800,000 young people who grew up in the United States. “This is something that needs to be fixed legislatively and we have confidence that they’re going to do that,” Sanders said, adding that Trump was willing to work with lawmakers on immigration reform, which she said should include several “big fixes,” not just one tweak to the system. | 0fake |
Amid campaign troubles, Trump blasts Clinton as 'world-class liar' | NEW YORK — His campaign in turmoil, Donald Trump sought to get back on track Wednesday with a familiar tactic: attacking Hillary Clinton.
Clinton is "a world-class liar" who has "perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft," Trump said during a heavily promoted speech he delivered as members of the GOP continued to raise questions about his campaign organization and its ability to raise money.
In a remarkably negative speech against a presidential rival, the presumptive Republican nominee said Clinton "may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States," a line that drew that drew a standing ovation from supporters packed into a meeting room at a Trump hotel in Manhattan.
Echoing attacks he has made throughout the campaign, Trump again claimed the former secretary of State has used her position to solicit contributions to the Clinton Foundation she sponsors along with former president Bill Clinton. Trump accused the foundation of accepting money from foreign governments that brutalize women and gays, and he said "she ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund."
Reading his speech from a teleprompter, Trump also faulted Clinton over the economy, free trade and some of her campaign contributions. Citing a string of contributors across the world, he said donors "totally own her."
While Trump tries to make the fall election about Clinton, the Democratic candidate seeks to do the reverse, casting Trump as wholly unqualified for the presidency. "He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability, and immense responsibility," Clinton said this week.
As for Trump's attack speech, Clinton campaign spokesperson Glen Caplin said Trump offered only "more hypocritical lies and nutty conspiracy theories," all in an effort to distract voters from his campaign problems. At a rally in Raleigh, N.C., following Trump's remarks, Clinton said, "“He’s going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance.”
The Clinton team also noted in a statement that independent fact-checking organizations have frequently given Trump's statements failing grades.
Trump's speech in New York City came two days after he fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski,
The nominee-in-waiting's anti-Clinton speech — initially scheduled for last week, but delayed so that Trump could respond to the Orlando terrorist attack — is part of an attempt by the real estate mogul to move on after bad reports about the state of his campaign.
Hours after Lewandowski's dismissal, the Trump campaign filed a financial report showing it had only $1.3 million in the bank at the start of June; Clinton reported $42 million, one of the biggest financial advantages in the history of American politics.
Republicans continued to voice anxiety about the state of Trump's campaign, citing what they described as its small size, reluctance to invest in micro-targeting and other get-out-the-vote techniques and lack of message discipline.
Tom Rath, a Republican convention delegate from New Hampshire who is pledged to former Trump opponent John Kasich, said Trump's campaign trouble is not just a "process story."
It "guts his strongest argument — that he is an accomplished executive who makes large organizations work," Rath said.
Republican consultant Bruce Haynes, founding partner of Washington-based Purple Strategies, said the Trump campaign seems to be realizing that it has a different job in the general election than it did during the primaries, and "they have to make drastic changes fast."
Clinton on Tuesday delivered another speech describing Trump as temperamentally unfit for the presidency, focusing on economic polices that she said would lead to a recession.
As she did in an earlier speech hitting the Republican candidate over foreign policy, Clinton said, “every day we see how reckless and careless Trump is. He’s proud of it."
David Brock, who heads a pro-Clinton political organization called Correct the Record, said in a memo to reporters that Trump's attacks on Clinton rely on "right-wing books" that have been discredited. He described Wednesday's speech as an attempt to divert attention from his own troubles.
"Donald Trump's presidential campaign is melting down," Brock said.
In his speech Wednesday, Trump said he has built a multi-billion-dollar business, and "that's a talent our country desperately needs."
Attacking Clinton's stewardship of the State Department, Trump cited the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the deadly attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador, and her use of private email that is currently the subject of investigation, and, he suggested, could have been hacked by the nation's enemies.
The result has been "one deadly foreign policy disaster after another," the Republican candidate said.
Trump also cited a letter from a woman whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant, saying she wrote that Clinton "needs to go to prison to pay for the crimes that she has already committed against our country."
Trump cast the fall campaign as one pitting "the people" against "the politicians" who have "rigged" the system in their favor, and are symbolized by both Clintons. He also mocked the Clinton campaign slogan "I'm with her," saying instead, "I'm with you, the American people."
Reciting his favorite campaign themes, Trump linked his opponent to open immigration refugee policies, bad trade deals, President Obama's health care plan, and the weakening of the military, and he pledged a new approach on all of those issues.
Trump and associates have described Lewandowski's firing as part of an effort to re-orient his team toward the challenges of a fall campaign. They also downplayed the fundraising report, saying they have raised millions in June and that Trump can put in his own money if necessary.
Republican critics said Trump's problems are self-inflicted, and they still hope to somehow head off his nomination at next month's convention in Cleveland.
GOP strategist Liz Mair, who has headed up a "Never Trump" group, said "convention delegates — and indeed Trump himself — ought to be looking for a way out of this, whether that means delegates throwing out the rule book, or Trump withdrawing and going back to running his business." | 0fake |
WATCH: Trump’s EPA Stooge Gets His A** Handed To Him By Fox Host On Climate Change | Donald Trump is fuming after Fox New Sunday host Chris Wallace crushed his Environmental Protection Agency minion on the topic of climate change.As we all know, Trump is a climate change denier who thinks the whole thing is a scam created by the Chinese.So, of course, Trump chose a fellow climate change denier as his EPA Secretary.Scott Pruitt is an Oklahoma Republican who denies science, and during an interview on Fox, he found himself having to defend his anti-science views. Apparently, he hoped the interview would be a softball affair. But Chris Wallace repeatedly challenged him.Wallace began by slamming Pruitt s flawed logic that getting rid of President Obama s clean power plan will somehow improve air quality. You think that rewriting and, in fact, doing away with the clean power plan is going to improve air quality, which you say is a major goal? Wallace asked.Pruitt responded by claiming that President Obama was a tyrant who ruled through executive orders instead of letting Congress make the law.It should be pointed out that Donald Trump has signed 23 executive orders and he hasn t even served 100 days yet. He is on pace to sign 118 executive orders in his first year alone. President Obama only signed 276 over the course of eight years and signed less executive orders than Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan.Trump could very well end up signing more executive orders than any of them. So, Pruitt can t seriously claim that Trump is following the rule of law. If anyone is ruling by executive fiat, it s Trump.Wallace then pointed out that Trump s deregulation of environmental protections has ceded the moral high ground to China in the fight against pollution and climate change.Pruitt didn t really give a damn. He said America has nothing to apologize for. We have nothing to be apologetic about with respect to the leadership we ve show as a country, he claimed.Oh, but we do. Fighting climate change to save out planet will take international cooperation on a unprecedented scale. By withdrawing American leadership, Trump is sentencing the globe to disastrous climate change as if he thinks the United States is not part of the world and is somehow immune to what happens around us.Wallace proceeded to take on Pruitt s belief that humans are not responsible for climate change. Mr. Pruitt, there are all kinds of studies that contradict you, Wallace noted. The UN panel on climate change says it s 95 percent likely that at least half of the temperature increase since the mid-20th century is due to human activities. Mr. Pruitt, are we supposed to believe that s all a coincidence? In response, Pruitt contradicted his own claim that he and Trump are working to improve air quality by insisting that the EPA should not be able to regulate greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.Wallace called Pruitt out an dropped the hammer on him. Sir, you re sugar coating what you have said. You said that you would not agree that carbon CO2 is a primary contributor to global warming. And the question I have is, what if you re wrong? What if, in fact, the Earth is warming, what if it is causing dramatic climate change and that we as humans through carbon emissions are contributing to it? Don t you think the fact that we have these coal power plants belching carbon emissions into the air, you don t think that plays a role? Pruitt answered by claiming that America burns coal cleanly, which is not true at all. There is no such thing as clean coal, and making such a claim is asinine.Here s the video via YouTube.According to Popular Mechanics,Coal will never be clean. It is possible to make coal emissions cleaner. In fact, we ve come a long way since the 70s in finding ways to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen-oxide emissions, and more progress can be made. But the nut of the clean-coal sales pitch is that we can also bottle up the CO2 produced when coal is burned, most likely by burying it deep in the earth. That may be possible in theory, but it s devilishly difficult in practice.President Obama s clean power plan would have reduced carbon emissions more than they ever have been before. It was a crucial step toward fighting climate change and reducing America s role in causing it.But Donald Trump and his minions have reversed that progress and they are making things even worse. They are gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and have pulled America out the fight against climate change. So instead of moving forward, Trump is taking America backwards and that decision will have devastating results that Trump will personally experience once his Mar-a-Lago resort is under water because of sea level rise.Maybe when his precious golf club and resort is under water he ll admit that climate change is real. But by then, it will be too late.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
U.S. judge finds Texas voter ID law was intended to discriminate | (Reuters) - A Texas law that requires voters to show identification before casting ballots was enacted with the intent to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters, a U.S. federal judge ruled on Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos came after an appeals court last year said the 2011 law had an outsized impact on minority voters. The court sent the case back to Ramos to determine if lawmakers intentionally wrote the legislation to be discriminatory. Ramos said in a 10-page decision that evidence “establishes that a discriminatory purpose was at least one of the substantial or motivating factors behind passage” of the measure. “The terms of the bill were unduly strict,” she added. Spokesmen for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Jr. and Governor Greg Abbott, both Republicans, could not be reached for comment. In January, after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, Paxton said it was a common sense law to prevent voter fraud. The ruling on voter ID comes about a month after two federal judges ruled that Texas lawmakers drew up three U.S. congressional districts to undermine the influence of Hispanic voters. The measure requires voters to present photo identification such as a driver’s license, passport or military ID card. Plaintiffs have argued the law hits elderly and poorer voters, including minorities, hardest because they are less likely to have identification. They contend the measure is used by Republicans to suppress voters who typically align with Democrats. The legislation has been in effect since 2011 despite the legal challenges. Ramos said the law had met criteria set by the U.S. Supreme Court to show intent that included its discriminatory impact, a pattern not explainable on other than racial grounds, Texas’ history of discriminatory practices and the law’s unusually swift passage. Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the plaintiffs, said the ruling showed other states that discriminatory laws would not stand up to legal scrutiny. “This is a good ruling that confirms what we have long known, that Texas’ voter ID law stands as one of the most discriminatory voting restrictions of its kind,” she said. In a shift from its stance under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. Justice Department dropped a discrimination claim against the law in February. The department said that the state legislature was considering changing the law in ways that might correct shortcomings. | 0fake |
FACEBOOK HIRES PORN STAR And Husband Accused Of Defrauding “Snopes” Website To “Fact-Check” Mostly Conservative Websites | Facebook has announced plans to check for fake news using a series of organizations to assess whether stories are true One of them is a website called Snopes.com which claims to be one of the web s essential resources and painstaking, scholarly and reliable It was founded by husband-and-wife Barbara and David Mikkelson, who used a letterhead claiming they were a non-existent society to start their research Now they are divorced with Barbara claiming in legal documents he embezzled $98,000 of company money and spent it on himself and prostitutes In a lengthy and bitter legal dispute he is claiming to be underpaid and demanding industry standard or at least $360,000 a year The two also dispute what are basic facts of their case despite Snopes.com saying its ownership is committed to accuracy and impartiality Snopes.com founder David Mikkelson s new wife Elyssa Young is employed by the website as an administrator She has worked as an escort and porn actress and despite claims website is non-political ran as a Libertarian for Congress on a Dump Bush platform Its main fact checker is Kimberly LaCapria, whose blog ViceVixen says she is in touch with her domme side and has posted on Snopes.com while smoking potOne of the websites Facebook is to use to arbitrate on fake news is involved in a bitter legal dispute between its co-founders, with its CEO accused of using company money for prostitutes.Snopes.com will be part of a panel used by Facebook to decide whether stories which users complain about as potentially fake should be considered disputed .But the website s own troubles and the intriguing choice of who carries out its fact checks are revealed by DailyMail.com, as one of its main contributors is disclosed to be a former sex-blogger who called herself Vice Vixen .Snopes.com will benefit from Facebook s decision to allow users to report items in their newsfeed which they believe to be fake .It is asking a number of organizations to arbitrate on items which are reported or which Facebook staff think may not be genuine, and decide whether they should be marked as disputed .The others include ABC News, the Associated Press and fact-checking websites including Politifact.com.Now a DailyMail.com investigation reveals that Snopes.com s founders, former husband and wife David and Barbara Mikkelson, are embroiled in a lengthy and bitter legal dispute in the wake of their divorce.He has since remarried, to a former escort and porn actress who is one of the site s staff members.They are accusing each other of financial impropriety, with Barbara claiming her ex-husband is guilty of embezzlement and suggesting he is attempting a boondoggle to change tax arrangements, while David claims she took millions from their joint accounts and bought property in Las Vegas.The Mikkelsons founded the site in 1995. The couple had met in the early 1990s on a folklore-themed online message board, and married before setting up the site.Profiles of the website disclose that for some time before it was set up, the couple had posed as The San Fernardo Valley Folklore Society , using its name on letterheads, even though it did not exist.A profile for the Webby Awards published in October describes it as an entity dreamed up to help make the inquiries seem more legit .David Mikkeleson told the Los Angeles Times in 1997: When I sent letters out to companies, I found I got a much better response with an official-looking organization s stationery. In 2015, their marriage ended in divorce but a bitter legal dispute continues.Both stayed on as co-owners of Snopes which is registered under its legal name of Bardav, Inc. and were its sole board members.Legal filings seen by DailyMail.com detail a lengthy financial and corporate dispute which stretches long after their divorce, and which one lawyer describes as contentious in court documents.In the filings, Barbara, 57, has accused her former husband, 56, of raiding the corporate business Bardav bank account for his personal use and attorney fees without consulting her.She also claimed he embezzled $98,000 from the company over the course of four years which he expended upon himself and the prostitutes he hired .When contacted by the Dailymail.com, David said he was legally prohibited from discussing his ex-wife s allegations. I d love to respond, but unfortunately the terms of a binding settlement agreement preclude me from publicly discussing the details of our divorce, he said. Barbara Mikkelson said: No comment. In court records, Barbara alleged that her ex-husband removed thousands from their business accounts between April and June of 2016 to pay for trips for him and his girlfriend .One of the lead fact-checkers, Kim LaCapria, has also been a sex-and-fetish blogger who went by the pseudonym Vice Vixen. She described her blog as a lifestyle website with a specific focus on naughtiness, sin, carnal pursuits, and general hedonism and bonne vivante-ery. She regularly provided intimate advice and reviewed sex toys, including a vibrating wand that drives boys mad. If you are doing something to your fella, and you apply this to the base of his cash-and-prizes while you carry on, he will scream and perhaps cry, she wrote.She also recommended one book with the review: How to Tell A Naked Man What To Do seems like the perfect how-to for the dominatrix-in-waiting, or any girl looking to get in touch with her domme side. Mine, I wish I could shut her up sometimes, but there you go. In others posts, LaCapria claimed to be addicted to smutty HP [Harry Potter] fanfic. Describing her day-off activities on another blog, she wrote that she played scrabble, smoked pot, and posted to Snopes. She added, That s what I did on my day on, too. David Mikkelson told the Dailymail.com that Snopes does not have a standardized procedure for fact-checking since the nature of this material can vary widely. He said the process involves multiple stages of editorial oversight, so no output is the result of a single person s discretion. He also said the company has no set requirements for fact-checkers because the variety of the work would be difficult to encompass in any single blanket set of standards. Accordingly, our editorial staff is drawn from diverse backgrounds; some of them have degrees and/or professional experience in journalism, and some of them don t, he added.For entire story- Daily Mail | 1real |
Senate Dems back down on Iran, say won’t support sanctions bill yet | A group of Senate Democrats on Tuesday eased off their push for new Iran sanctions, potentially taking the wind out of the bipartisan effort to muscle through the legislation in the face of a President Obama veto threat.
In a reversal, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., announced at a Senate committee hearing that he and his Democratic colleagues had written to Obama telling him they would hold off on supporting legislation that he helped write. The bill was co-authored by Republican Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk.
"We will not support passage of the Kirk-Menendez bill on the Senate floor until after March 24, and only if there is no political framework agreement," Menendez announced.
The legislation would tee up new sanctions against Iran if the country fails to strike an acceptable deal curbing its nuclear program. Though the final deadline for those talks is the end of June, March 24 is the soft deadline to reach the outlines of a deal.
Menendez wants to give the Obama administration until that deadline to see whether the sanctions bill is necessary. His office later released the letter, signed by 10 Senate Democrats including Menendez, saying while they support the bill, they will wait until after March 24 "in acknowledgement of your concern regarding congressional action on legislation at this moment."
The pushback from Menendez and his colleagues could stall the legislation.
The Senate banking committee, which held Tuesday's hearing, is still set to consider and vote on the bill on Thursday. Asked for comment on Menendez' announcement, an aide to Kirk said only that the bill would be introduced "shortly" and has "broad bipartisan support."
But if enough Democrats peel off, it could deprive the 54-seat Republican majority of the 60 votes needed to pass the legislation. At the least, supporters likely would not have the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
The change-up could, for now, end up averting -- or delaying -- a looming veto showdown between Congress and Obama.
In his State of the Union address, Obama bluntly threatened to veto any bill that could disrupt nuclear talks.
"New sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails -- alienating America from its allies; making it harder to maintain sanctions; and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again," Obama said. "It doesn't make sense."
On Tuesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, urged Congress to hold off, warning of the consequences if lawmakers override a presidential veto. "If Congress acts to force the president's hand in the next few months by overriding his veto and if doing so contributes to the collapse of negotiation and our heading down the path toward a military confrontation, Congress, beginning with each one of us, will be held responsible."
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday backed Menendez' call to hold off on the bill, while saying he would still vote for it on Thursday so the legislation would be ready to go if needed later on.
But Republican lawmakers took issue with the administration's argument that passing the bill could derail negotiations. They argued that if Iran walked away from talks over "prospective" sanctions, it shows they weren't serious in the first place. And they reiterated their view that tough sanctions brought Iran to the talks, and it may take the threat of more sanctions to seal the deal.
"It's clear that sanctions brought Iran to the negotiating table and the threat of future sanctions represent Iran's only incentive to successfully conclude an agreement here," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the banking committee, said Tuesday.
Menendez said he's "hopeful" diplomacy will prevail in the nuclear talks while noting he's "deeply skeptical" Iran is willing to make the necessary concessions. | 0fake |
Israeli missiles hit military post near Damascus: Syrian state TV | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli missiles struck a military position near Damascus and Syria s air defence system responded on Saturday, destroying two of them, Syrian state television said. The Israeli enemy launched...several surface-to-surface missiles towards a military position, it said, adding there had been material losses at the site. An Israeli military spokeswoman had declined to comment on earlier reports of such an attack overnight. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles, probably fired by the Israeli military, struck an arms depot of the Syrian army or its allied forces after midnight. The Britain-based group, which monitors the war through a network of contacts in Syria, said the attack hit near al-Kiswa town south of the capital Damascus, causing loud explosions. The Israeli air force has said it struck arms convoys of the Syrian military and Lebanon s Hezbollah nearly 100 times during more than six years of the Syrian war. Israel has grown deeply alarmed by Iran s expanding clout during the conflict, and has warned it would act against any threat from its regional foe Tehran. Iran has provided critical support to President Bashar al-Assad s military in fighting Syrian rebels and Islamic State militants. Iran-backed Shi ite militias, including Hezbollah, have helped Damascus regain control of swathes of the country. On a visit to Damascus in October, Iran s military chief warned Israel against breaching Syrian airspace or territory. | 0fake |
What will Republicans do when they take full control of Congress? | Republicans taking control of Congress this coming week will try to overcome their reputation as a divided party hobbled by infighting by working to reshape policy in ways that Americans will feel in corporate boardrooms, on factory floors and at the gas pump.
Incoming committee chairmen are preparing fresh oversight of federal agencies while rank-and-file members will be encouraged to use a new budget plan and government spending bills to chip away at President Obama’s environmental regulations, health-care reform and outreach to Cuba and Iran.
After years of sparring with the White House, Republicans are eager to demonstrate productivity and some level of bipartisan cooperation with Obama and the Democrats. Public disgust with Washington gridlock remains high, and with the 2016 presidential campaign beginning in earnest, broader voter interest — especially among independents and Democrats — could put recent GOP gains at risk in less than two years.
“On the things where we agree, the goal will be to make a law, not just put something on [Obama’s] desk,” incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview, adding later: “I want to make it clear: Desire for a signature is not going to dictate everything that we do.”
Securing final passage of bills will require McConnell and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to compromise with Democrats while holding together their own ranks, which have clashed repeatedly over issues such as spending and immigration. Many GOP leaders hope that their differences can be set aside in favor of legislative wins.
The House and Senate formally reconvene Tuesday. New members will be sworn in and top leaders and committee chairmen formally installed on a day steeped in tradition and ceremony.
Boehner and McConnell will be backed by larger GOP majorities: 246 Republicans in the House — the party’s largest majority since just after World War II — and 54 GOP senators, an impressive gain but short of the 60 votes required to overcome most procedural hurdles that Democrats will have at their disposal.
In the Senate, the rebranding effort will begin with energy policy.
McConnell plans to start his tenure as Senate majority leader with a “full-throated” debate on national energy policy, ranging from a new oil pipeline to additional oil exploration. He has also promised consideration of liberal alternatives.
McConnell wants to use the controversial proposal to authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline as the genesis for a free-wheeling Senate debate about the United States’ energy future, in which both sides will have the opportunity to offer and debate more expansive energy issues than the narrow pipeline proposal.
“We can treat this like a serious and significant energy debate,” McConnell said in an interview before Christmas in his Capitol office.
Obama has resisted GOP efforts to authorize the pipeline, but dozens of moderate congressional Democrats support the bill and a broader energy debate.
Other Democrats are skeptical of McConnell’s plans.
“The $64,000 question as to whether the Congress can get anything done is which way the Republican leadership goes,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview Saturday. “If they let the tea party pull them to the right into the path of negativity and obstruction, we’ll get nothing done.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a lead author of the Keystone bill, said that Republicans plan to consider proposals allowing the export of liquefied natural gas; to give state governments greater power to oversee hydraulic fracturing; and to restrict the federal government’s role in the construction of cross-border gas pipelines.
“I don’t think we have an energy bill that doesn’t have a Democratic co-sponsor on it,” he said. “Because at the end of the day you’ve got to get at least 60 votes” to clear procedural hurdles.
The open process is part of McConnell’s effort to live up to his pledge to restore the Senate’s grand tradition of free and full debate, while also advancing conservative causes. A skilled practitioner in the use of the Senate’s arcane procedural rules to move or block legislation, McConnell has pledged to use those rules to score conservative wins. He has been coaching GOP senators that their most likely path to wins will come on the annual spending bills for the federal government — which Republicans have routinely opposed on the grounds that they spend too much taxpayer money.
Other party leaders echo those sentiments. “I think a majority [of Republicans] recognize that we have to govern responsibly,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who will become chairman of the Armed Services Committee. “We have to show that we can be a productive party, and that, I think, will have a direct effect on whether we’re able to elect a Republican as president in 2016.”
But now, with control of the House and Senate, Republicans have more leeway to attach policy riders to spending bills that will restrict federal agencies in their oversight of environmental, labor and other regulations. These still may draw presidential vetoes, but McConnell believes that Republicans will have leverage to get some restrictions included, just as the mammoth spending measure approved last month included language sought by Wall Street firms making risky trades.
In the House, most of the early weeks will seem like a do-over of the past two years — except that many of the bills passed will get swifter Senate consideration.
Up first is a veterans employment bill that passed last year with bipartisan support, according to senior leadership aides. There is also a bill to loosen work requirements set by the Affordable Care Act and a similar bill to authorize the Keystone pipeline.
The second week of January will be devoted to a new spending plan for the Department of Homeland Security. The spending bill funds DHS only until the end of February, a move designed to give Republicans more time to craft a legislative response to Obama’s decision to change immigration policy through executive actions. But no specific proposals have emerged, the aides said.
Then there are the investigations into alleged wrongdoing at agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“There are issues that haven’t been resolved,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
He is launching subcommittees to closely track Obama’s energy and environmental policies and created “administrative rules,” a panel that will “try to figure out what the administration is doing next with its rule-making authority. We’re going to jump on those as fast as we possibly can,” he said.
Before the work begins, Boehner is expected to face another leadership challenge. After he survived a close call two years ago, conservative blogs and radio shows are actively supporting another effort to unseat him.
Presuming that the 434 currently seated House members show up to vote Tuesday and that all Democrats vote against him, at least 28 of the 246 Republicans also would need to vote against Boehner to deny him the gavel. (The 435th House seat is held by Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.), who plans to resign Monday after recently pleading guilty to tax evasion charges.)
Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.), who opposed Boehner two years ago, said in a recent radio interview that he’ll do it again, adding that at least 16 to 18 Republican members might vote against the speaker. Among them is Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), who said Friday that he will vote against the speaker because the spending bill passed last month didn’t fully strip DHS of its funding.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a Boehner ally, said in an interview that “I expect a few scattered ‘no’ votes. But because Boehner has been strengthened by the gains in the election, the speaker election should mostly be an uneventful coronation.”
The opening weeks of the new Congress are also expected to include the confirmation of Ashton Carter, Obama’s pick to lead the Pentagon, and Loretta Lynch to be the next attorney general. Concerns with Iran are also expected to be an early focus. The Obama administration persuaded Senate Democrats last year to hold off debating a bipartisan proposal authorizing stronger sanctions against the Iranian regime.
But Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said, “My guess is fairly early on in some form or fashion the Senate’s going to want to weigh in on Iran.”
Corker also plans to launch “a rigorous hearing process” on Obama’s decision to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Republicans have threatened to block funding for a new embassy in Havana and confirmation of a new ambassador to Cuba. But Obama could veto spending bills that include such restrictions, sparking a showdown over whether the GOP is willing to shutter parts of the government over a new Cuba policy.
In 2016, Republicans will be defending at least 24 Senate seats and about a dozen first-term House members from swing districts around the country. Party leaders have a political imperative to govern and avoid short-term fights with Obama.
“We will see if there is an opportunity for a fourth quarter for President Obama that actually moves the country in the direction we’d like to go,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who also will be responsible for helping reelect GOP senators in 2016.
“Reagan did it a generation ago working with Democrats. Clinton did it almost two decades ago with welfare reform and deficit reduction,” he said. “So it can be done — if the president is disposed to move in that direction.” | 0fake |
Anti-Black Slur in Stamford Is Painted Over After Two Months - The New York Times | As mysteriously as an slur appeared on a house in Stamford, Conn. in January, it was covered over this week, officials said. What the house’s residents did after the slur first appeared caused as much of a stir as the graffiti itself. The residents, Heather Lindsay, who is white, and Lexene Charles, who is black, defied a directive by the city to cover it up because they wanted to make a point publicly about intolerance. The slur was discovered on the Saturday before Martin Luther King’s Birthday. After it had been up for three weeks, the city issued a citation for blight and warned the couple that they faced a fine of $100 a day. The police chief visited the home and offered to clean the slur, which was sprawled across a garage door. The mayor said he would help. The couple refused their offers and ignored the citation. Sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, someone covered the graffiti with black paint, Libby Carlson, a spokeswoman for Mayor David R. Martin, said in an interview on Thursday night. The covered graffiti was discovered on Wednesday morning and reported to the city. The police canvassed neighbors, who said they had not seen who painted over the slur, Ms. Carlson said. The investigation about who painted the slur in January remains open, she said. Neither Mr. Charles nor Ms. Lindsay could be reached to comment on Thursday evening. Ms. Carlson said the city would not fine them for failing to address the graffiti. Stamford, a diverse coastal city about 30 miles northeast of New York City, and the couple have tussled over blight before. After a citation in 2012 for debris at the property, the city sued Ms. Lindsay for disregarding the notice. The fees, which continued to accumulate, exceeded $130, 000. Ms. Carlson said the mayor, the city’s lawyer and the couple were to meet on Friday in an effort to resolve that case. The city was trying to acquire the property in a foreclosure lawsuit set to go to trial next week. The couple had said the graffiti was the latest in a string of racially motivated insults directed at them, especially Mr. Charles, a Haitian immigrant. Ms. Lindsay said that since they moved into the house in 1999, several people yelled racial obscenities at him and told them that they hurt property values. Jack Bryant, the president of the Stamford N. A. A. C. P. said in an interview on Thursday night that he had met with city officials about not fining the couple. He noted that “no one has been brought to justice” for the slur, which he considered to be an isolated incident. “I don’t want people to look at Stamford as a racist town,’’ he said, “because it isn’t. ” | 0fake |
Tech Firm Suing BuzzFeed for Publishing Unverified Trump Dossier - Breitbart | BuzzFeed is facing a lawsuit from a technology firm following its publication of an unverified dossier claiming President Donald Trump has close ties to the Russian government. [According to a report by McClatchy DC, XBT Holdings — a technology firm named in the dosser with Russian interests — is filing a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed, its Ben Smith, as well as former British intelligence spy Christopher Steele, for the publication of what it describes as “libelous, unverified and untrue allegations. ” “The dossier included libelous, unverified and untrue allegations regarding XBT, Webzilla and Gubarev. The lawsuits seek yet undetermined compensation for the damages suffered by XBT, Webzilla and Gubarev as the result of the publication of the dossier,” a statement from XBT read. “We were shocked to see our good name wrongly included and published in this unsubstantiated report. We are confident that the courts will review the evidence of our and provide fair and reasonable compensation from the perpetrators of this outrageous allegation,” it continued. Some of the unverified claims included in the dossier were that Donald Trump had worked in collaboration with the Russian government in the hacking of DNC internal emails. as well as that Trump had participated in extremely graphic sexual fetishism in the Moscow . The dossier also implicated the Russian technology entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev as being heavily involved in the collaboration, without providing any evidence to substantiate the claim. BuzzFeed has since retracted his name from the dossier and apologized for its publication, although the lawsuit contends that it has left his “personal and professional reputation in tatters,” and presented a threat to his family’s safety. Much of the intelligence provided in the dossier came from the former British spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by Trump’s opponents in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party to conduct research and investigate his past. Following its publication, Steele went into hiding. CNN also republished the claims, although they are not named in the lawsuit. Responding to the claims last month, Trump described the dossier as “fake news,” adding that BuzzFeed was “a failing pile of garbage. ” You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 0fake |
Another Mass Grave Dug by ISIS in Iraq, and a Ghastly Ritual Renewed - The New York Times | HAMAM Iraq — The battle was over in Hamam Iraq, an old spa resort town that the country’s security forces had wrested from the Islamic State a few days ago, but one Iraqi soldier was still on a very personal mission. The soldier, Zaman Mijwal, was looking for his older brother, Munther, a former policeman he described as “a quiet man, a poor man,” who lived in a nearby village but hadn’t been heard from in weeks. Mr. Mijwal’s circuit had taken him to a stretch of road flanked by two dirt fields. He pointed to one side, where decaying, headless corpses were lying in heaps of trash on a barren plot of land that had once been a shooting range for the Iraqi Army. “He may be there,” he said. He pointed to the other side of the road, just an expanse of earth that looked freshly moved. “Or he may be there. ” With every mile of territory the Iraqi security forces retake from the Islamic State, it seems another mass grave is uncovered. It has become nearly ritual, and despairingly regular. The legacy of the mass grave in Iraq is long, stretching back further than the Islamic State to the times of Saddam Hussein’s killings. It is the horrible symbol of what has been for decades a constant of Iraqi life: the disappearance of loved ones into the machinery of despotism. For Iraqis, the Islamic State, for which the mass grave is as much a part of the group’s infrastructure as makeshift prisons and slaveholding houses, is just a new form of tyranny with direct links to Mr. Hussein’s regime. Many former Baathist officers from Mr. Hussein’s security forces populate the top ranks of the Islamic State, mimicking the former dictator’s tactics. Lately, with the Islamic State under pressure from Iraqi security forces, the group’s cruelty has gone into overdrive: Many of the mass graves recently uncovered, the biggest of which was in Hamam contain the bodies of local men. Most of the buried were former members of the security forces who were executed only in recent weeks, after the campaign for Mosul began. There are those, like Jamal Abul Younis, who count themselves as lucky. Mr. Younis is a former policeman from Hamam who was also marked for execution, but survived by hiding in a hole in the ground, obscured by an air cooler, in his house. Of his time hiding out, he said, “Each one hour was like one year. ” He is now one of just a few surviving witnesses to the Islamic State’s killings in Hamam . One evening around 8 p. m. several weeks ago, he said, he watched from his rooftop as eight minibuses drove toward the area where the mass grave was discovered, and he heard gunshot after gunshot. “I saw Daesh bury 200 bodies over here,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL. (The official government estimate is that roughly 100 people were killed in Hamam . But Human Rights Watch, after carrying out its own investigation, believes that at least 300 were killed there.) In the days before the killings, he said, Islamic State militants herded hundreds of people — perhaps thousands — from nearby villages and took them to Hamam using them as human shields against the possibility of American airstrikes. In the city, he said, the militants gathered the people, reciting verses of the Quran and praying to God to protect them from Iraq’s Shiite militias and army. Then they separated out the former policemen, many of whom, after the Islamic State conquered their lands more than two years ago, repented for their service and made peace with their new rulers. Now, as government forces waged an offensive to reclaim these territories, the Islamic State saw them as potential spies, or a fifth column preparing to rise up and join the security forces, and ordered them killed. “I cannot believe I am still alive,” Mr. Younis said. For Iraqis, the pain of not knowing can be the worst of all. The International Commission on Missing Persons, a organization, has estimated that up to a million Iraqis have gone missing in recent history. That encompasses the war between Iran and Iraq, the mass killings ordered by Mr. Hussein after a Shiite uprising in 1991, the Iraqi government’s Anfal strikes against the Kurds in the late 1980s, and the more recent sectarian civil war of the last decade. The commission noted on its website that there are “millions of relatives of the missing in Iraq who struggle with the uncertainty surrounding the fate of a loved one. ” Go anywhere in Iraq, especially in the south where Shiites dominate, and knock on almost any door, and you will hear a story of a lost loved one and, improbably, of a remaining shard of hope. Nihad Jawad, a teacher from the southern city of Hilla, said that one night in 1991, her brother left home and was never heard from again. She has heard all sorts of rumors — that he was seen being apprehended by the military, that he was shot. “We searched everywhere for him, and we have found nothing,” she said. “We still have hope that he is still held in one of the secret prisons. ” The Islamic State’s brutality has written a new chapter in that dark history. The number of bodies has overwhelmed the capacity of the Iraqi government, and very few of them are ever identified by DNA testing. In Diyala Province, where the Islamic State was once strong, a father who lost his son about two years ago said he scours jihadist websites for videos that might show his missing child. He rushes to the scene of every mass grave uncovered in the province. “The most difficult thing is when my grandson asks me about his father,” said the man, who gave his name as Abu Marwan. “I answer, ‘He is on a trip and will return one day. ’” Mr. Mijwal, the soldier, like millions of others here who have endured the same painful ritual, has found no answers about what happened to his brother. “We have no information about him,” he said. “So I came here. It’s very difficult for me. I don’t know his destiny, his fate. At the very least, I need to find his body. This is the important thing for us. So we can have a funeral. ” He added, “Thousands of people don’t know the fate of their loved ones. ” There is a Iraqi novel called “Saddam City,” by Mahmoud Saeed, in which the protagonist disappears into one of the old Hussein regime’s many prisons, leaving his loved ones scrambling for information. In the novel, pondering his own fate as a prisoner, he recalls “the futility of trying to help a neighbor find her husband, who had disappeared. ” They visited a hospital, where “we were no more than the latest link in a long chain of people who visited hospitals inquiring about missing loved ones. ” A few pages later, Mr. Saeed wrote, “Events like this happened routinely. ” Just up the road from the Hamam killing grounds where Mr. Mijwal searched for his brother, others were looking for answers, too. A former policeman named Muneer Muhammed, 37, said that he hid on the night of the killings, but that his brother, Anmar, another former policeman, was among the hundreds rounded up. “They took the former policemen because they were afraid they would rise up,” he said. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. “I’m crying because I was able to save myself, but I couldn’t save him,” he said. | 0fake |
Fox News ‘Terror Analyst’ Pleads Guilty To Major Fraud, Faces 40 Years In Prison | Fox News has long since stood by a slogan that says We Report, You Decide and it seems they should tag on if what we are telling you is actually real or not. Time and time again Fox News has been caught in lies, but using a CIA Analyst who was never actually an analyst may take the cake.Wayne Simmons, who has appeared unpaid on Fox News since 2002, is a fraud and now he s now facing up to 40 years in prison for pretending to be a CIA Analyst, a lie that got him actual work with the United States government. The Washington Post stated: According to federal prosecutors, his claims of a 27-year career with the CIA were lies, and it was only by repeating such falsehoods that Simmons was able to briefly get actual security clearances and real government contracting work in more recent years. Well, the lies caught up with him, and last October Simmons was arrested and charged with making false statements, major fraud against the United States and wired fraud. If you want to check out some of Simmons time as a Terror Analyst for Fox News, you can find it here:According to Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia: His fraud cost the government money, could have put American lives at risk, and was an insult to the real men and women of the intelligence community who provide tireless service to this country. Now, Simmons has pleaded guilty to his charges. According to the Washington Post: Wayne Simmons, 62, pleaded guilty to major fraud against the United States, wire fraud and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He acknowledged that he made more than $78,000 from actual government contracting work he got in part because of his claim that he had worked for the CIA.Importantly, though, Simmons s written agreement with prosecutors does not include language in which he says outright that he lied about his clandestine past. He conceded only that the government would prove at trial that he never worked for the CIA. With Simmons saying: I believed then and I believe now that my skill sets could be used in Afghanistan to fight the global war on terror. Sure you did, buddy. You re a regular Captain America.Simmons sentencing is currently set for July 15.I know it s asking a lot for Fox News to maybe do a background check on their supposed analysts, but for all our sakes, it would be nice. We should all decide Fox News is full of sh*t.Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Boiler Room EP #82 – Mind-boggling Collusion | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis and Daniel Spaulding for the 82nd episode of BOILER ROOM. Dim the lights, dawn the headphones and indulge in a pre-election special broadcast of Boiler Room with the crew. This week we re turning the crank on the sausage grinder of media and cooking up some reality radio focusing on the strange, the real and the exo-political.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Listen to Boiler Room #82 Mind-boggling Collusion on Spreaker.Reference Links: | 1real |
Young Blacks Voice Skepticism on Hillary Clinton, Worrying Democrats - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — When a handful of liberal advocacy organizations convened a series of focus groups with young black voters last month, the assessments of Donald J. Trump were predictably unsparing. But when the participants were asked about Hillary Clinton, their appraisals were just as blunt and nearly as biting. “What am I supposed to do if I don’t like him and I don’t trust her?” a millennial black woman in Ohio asked. “Choose between being stabbed and being shot? No way!” “She was part of the whole problem that started sending blacks to jail,” a young black man, also from Ohio, observed about Mrs. Clinton. “He’s a racist, and she is a liar, so really what’s the difference in choosing both or choosing neither?” another young black woman from Ohio said. Young like all voters their age, are typically far harder to drive to the polls than and older Americans. Yet with just over two months until Election Day, many Democrats are expressing alarm at the lack of enthusiasm, and in some cases outright resistance, some black millennials feel toward Mrs. Clinton. Their skepticism is rooted in a deep discomfort with the political establishment that they believe the former first lady and secretary of state represents. They share a lingering mistrust of Mrs. Clinton and her husband over criminal justice issues. They are demanding more from politicians as part of a new, confrontational wave of black activism that has arisen in response to police killings of unarmed . “We’re in the midst of a movement with a real sense of urgency,” explained Brittany Packnett, 31, a St. leader in the push for police accountability. Mrs. Clinton is not yet connecting, she said, “because the conversation that younger black voters are having is no longer one about settling on a candidate who is better than the alternative. ” The question of just how many young will show up to vote carries profound implications for this election. Mrs. Clinton is sure to dominate Mr. Trump among black voters, but her overwhelming margin could ultimately matter less than the total number of blacks who show up to vote. To replicate President Obama’s success in crucial states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, she cannot afford to let the percentage of the electorate that is black slip far below what it was in 2012. And while a modest of black votes may not imperil Mrs. Clinton’s prospects, given Mr. Trump’s unpopularity among upscale white voters, it could undermine Democrats’ effort to capture control of the Senate and win other elections. Mrs. Clinton’s difficulties with young were laid bare in four focus groups conducted in Cleveland and Jacksonville, Fla. for a handful of progressive organizations spending millions on the election: the service employees union, a joint “super PAC” between organized labor and the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, and a progressive group called Project New America. The results were outlined in a presentation by Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster, and shared with The New York Times by another party strategist who wanted to draw attention to Mrs. Clinton’s difficulties in hopes that the campaign would move more aggressively to address the matter. Word of the report has spread in the constellation of liberal operatives and advocacy groups in recent weeks, concerning officials who saw diminished black turnout hurt Democratic candidates in the last two midterm elections. Adding to the worries is a separate poll of that Mr. Belcher conducted earlier in the summer indicating that Mrs. Clinton is lagging well behind Mr. Obama’s performance among young blacks in a handful of crucial states. In Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, 70 percent of under 35 said they were backing Mrs. Clinton, 8 percent indicated support for Mr. Trump and 18 percent said they were backing another candidate or did not know whom they would support. In 2012, Mr. Obama won 92 percent of black voters under 45 nationally, according to exit polling. Over 25 percent of are between 18 and 34, and 44 percent are older than 35, according to 2013 census data. “There is no Democratic majority without these voters,” Mr. Belcher said. “The danger is that if you don’t get these voters out, you’ve got the 2004 John Kerry electorate again. ” In Ohio, for example, blacks were 10 percent of the electorate in the 2004 presidential race. But when Mr. Obama ran for in 2012, that number jumped to 15 percent. What frustrates many blacks under 40 is Mrs. Clinton’s overriding focus on Mr. Trump. “We already know what the deal is with Trump,” said Nathan Baskerville, a North Carolina state representative. “Tell us what your plan is to make our life better. ” Such talk can be frustrating to Mrs. Clinton’s aides, who point out that her first speech of the campaign was on criminal justice and that she has laid out a series of proposals on the topic. “It is on us to make sure that that’s known,” said Addisu Demissie, Mrs. Clinton’s voter outreach and mobilization director, adding of young black activists, “We share their goals, we share their values and we want to make sure that’s reflected through our campaign. ” The focus groups and interviews with young black activists suggest many of them are not aware of Mrs. Clinton’s plans regarding police conduct, mass incarceration and structural racism broadly. Christopher Prudhome, 31, recounted a recurring conversation he has with other as he travels around the country as the head of a nonpartisan group dedicated to registering young voters: They do not like either candidate. “Young people feel discouraged and apprehensive about the political process as is, and then they look at the two options in front of us,” said Mr. Prudhome, adding of Mrs. Clinton: “Nobody has seen an agenda for millennials. I don’t think they believe she cares about them. ” Part of Mrs. Clinton’s problem, said Symone Sanders, a former top aide to Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign, is that the candidate is overly cautious and is conducting an outdated style of black outreach. Ms. Sanders has begun taking matters into her own hands. She said she was working with other young activists to recruit black celebrities for a millennial mobilization tour through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. “Black churches and an H. B. C. U. tour is just not going to cut it in 2016,” said Ms. Sanders, referring to historically black colleges and universities. “The Clinton campaign has to be willing to get out of what’s comfortable and get on the streets. ” Mr. Demissie said the Clinton campaign’s efforts were more expansive, pointing to voter registration efforts already underway in barbershops and salons as well as sneaker and video game stores. Mrs. Clinton has met with mothers of those who lost children at the hands of the police and has used the signature refrain that “black lives matter” in public remarks. But she and her husband also come from an earlier political tradition rooted in the Deep South, where black voters are primarily reached through the church and the threat of white conservative backlash is never far from mind. Today’s young voters are less likely to be found in black churches and more likely to be found in schools, loosely organized activist groups and online, said Ms. Packnett, the St. Louis activist. And the leaders are more diverse. “It’s not just heterosexual men,” she noted. Not only are younger black activists reached in different ways, they also have far higher expectations on leaders, dismissing boilerplate pleas for racial equality and justice as insufficient. “Gone is the day of patience,” said Tony J. Payton Jr. 35, a former Pennsylvania state representative. “No longer should we accept systemic racism. ” Doubts about how aggressively Mrs. Clinton will move to combat racism are at the heart of black suspicion toward her. Some said her 1996 reference to some young criminals as “” and the legislation that President Bill Clinton signed imposing stiff sentences on nonviolent offenders, have made today’s activists skeptical about her true intentions. “That stuff comes up unprompted,” Mr. Belcher said. Mr. Trump has turned to remarkably blunt language about blacks in recent weeks — portraying their communities as dystopian hellscapes and asking them, in courting their support, “What do you have to lose?” Some allies of Mrs. Clinton believe he is serving as her most effective lever. “He is literally saying something every day that is disrespectful to the black community,” said Michael Blake, a New York State assemblyman from the Bronx who worked on Mr. Obama’s campaigns and is close to many Clinton aides. Yet when voters in the focus groups were shown campaign fliers and asked to rate them, there was no mistaking what was most effective. A pamphlet with a picture of Mr. Trump that read, “We have to beat the racists,” fell flat with young black audiences. Scoring much higher were a stark black and white handout showing the names of those killed at the hands of the police and another with images of mothers of the victims that said, “Their Children Can’t Vote, Will You?” | 0fake |
Trump taps adviser Manafort to be campaign chairman: CNN | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, has tapped senior adviser Paul Manafort to be campaign chairman and chief strategist, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent said in a tweet on Thursday. In his tweet, CNN’s Jake Tapper cited campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks. | 0fake |
Electric Floors Could Generate Renewable Energy From Walking | Electric Floors Could Generate Renewable Energy From Walking Posted on Oct 29, 2016 Chuck Coker / CC BY-ND 2.0
LONDON—US scientists have found a new way to generate energy at home: the tribo-electric floor. Tread on it and it will convert the kinetic energy of a footstep into a current of electricity . And it’s made from the waste wood pulp that already serves as cheap flooring throughout the world. Xudong Wang , an engineer and materials scientist, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues report in the journal Nano Energy that they have taken cellulose fibres from forest waste material and chemically treated them in a way that creates an electric charge when they come into contact with untreated wood pulp fibres. The result: a patented, tribo-electric nanogenerator floor covering that can harness the energy of any footfall, and turn it into electric current that could light up a room or charge a battery. So far, it exists only as a laboratory prototype. It promises, the scientists say, to be cheap and durable. And it exploits a waste material available wherever there is a forest industry. “Our initial test in our lab shows that it works for millions of cycles without any problem,” Professor Wang said. “We haven’t converted those numbers into years of life for a floor yet, but I think with appropriate design it can definitely outlast the floor itself.” Long wait The gap between any laboratory experiment and a commercial success is huge, and many promising products never make it, or take years of further experiment. But this study is yet another example of the extraordinary explosion of ingenuity prompted by the need to generate energy in ways that sidestep the greenhouse gas emissions that have been driving dangerous climate change. Engineers, nanotechnologists and chemists have tested ways to make windows and even solar panels by making timber optically transparent . They have looked more closely at the tree’s relationship with the sun and fashioned a bionic leaf that can exploit sunlight 10 times more effectively to create biomass that could be turned into a liquid fuel. They have dreamed up an electric car battery that can renew itself with atmospheric carbon dioxide , and a bacterial fuel cell that generates electricity from waste water. Energy conserved And they have even devised the ultimate in power dressing – a fabric that as it rustles could charge a cellphone. Such research starts from the laws of thermodynamics, which dictate that energy must always be conserved. The energy involved in a plate of food, a footstep, the sprouting of a seedling or the turning of a turbine is still energy: there could be a way to recycle it rather than let it dissipate as heat into the atmosphere. What Professor Wang and his team have done is exploit the same property that creates static electricity in clothing: the tribo-electric effect which turns vibration into charge. The ground beneath the foot is a source of potential energy: the challenge is to find a way to plug into it. In theory, a busy motorway could become a renewable power source. Professor Wang and his team have already tested a nanogenerator that recovers energy from rolling tyres . Then they turned to the surface under the wheels. “We’ve been working a lot on harvesting energy from human activities. One way is to build something to put on people and another way is to build something that has constant access to people” “Roadside energy harvesting requires thinking about places where there is abundant energy we could be harvesting,” said Professor Wang. “We’ve been working a lot on harvesting energy from human activities. One way is to build something to put on people and another way is to build something that has constant access to people. The ground is the most used place.” The team have tested a fabric less than 1mm thick made of tiny chemically treated and untreated wood pulp fibres: in contact, electrons move from one to the other. This electronic transfer creates a charge imbalance that must be righted. But as the electrons return, they pass through an external circuit and deliver energy. In theory, the electric floor technology could be incorporated into all kinds of flooring. In theory, extra layers of the fabric could deliver even more power. The next step is to demonstrate the concept by putting a sheet of it down in a high-profile spot in the university campus. “This development shows great promises in creating large-scale and environmentally sustainable tribo-electric board for flooring, packaging and supporting infrastructures,” the authors write.
Tim Radford, a founding editor of Climate News Network, worked for The Guardian for 32 years, for most of that time as science editor. He has been covering climate change since 1988.
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The Global Trade Slowdown is Both True and Non-trivial | by Jerri-Lynn Scofield
Jerri-Lynn here: This short post by Jack Gao of the Institute for New International Thinking (INET) highlights a pressing problem afflicting the world economy: the slowdown of international trade. As the post summarises, there’s no consensus among economists on the causes for that slowdown.
One major quibble with the post. Gal’s passing statement below, “The desire of those hurt by globalization to shield themselves from foreign competition via protectionist or retaliatory policies is a growing influence in the political life of a number of countries, including the world’s most advanced democracies,” seems to fail to grasp the true basis for widespread opposition to pending so-called “trade agreements”. Opposition movements are not necessarily motivated by opposition to trade per se, but by concerns over transparency, how the gains from these agreements have and will be distributed, and limitations on sovereignty and regulation imposed by procedures such as the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism. And the responses to such concerns under discussion are not what I would describe as traditionally protectionist or retaliatory, but instead combine calls for greater transparency, attention to distributional issues, and a halt– or at minimum, profound rethink– of measures that constrain sovereignty or stymie effective regulation (e.g., threats to the European Union’s precautionary principle). To be fair, these issues are peripheral to Gao’s major aim in the piece, which is to account for the slowdown in international trade.
I should also remind readers who’re only familiar with Paul Krugman through his New York Times column that his initial academic work concerned international trade.
By Jack Gao, who is a Program Economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), with interests in international economics and finance, energy policy, economic development, and the Chinese economy. He previously worked in financial product and data departments in Bloomberg Singapore, and reported on Asian financial markets in Bloomberg News from Shanghai. Jack holds a MPA in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.S. in Economics from Singapore Management University. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking Website .
Challenged by mathematician Stanislaw Ulam to name one idea in economics that was both true and non-trivial, Nobel economics laureate Paul Samuelson famously nominated comparative advantage — the notion that even a country less productive in producing everything, could still benefit from international trade by specializing in the commodity it faces the least disadvantages in producing. But comparative advantage fails to explain why international trade, which has underpinned the global economy for much its modern history, is showing signs of a slowdown.
Originally attributed to the English classical economist David Ricardo and later formalized by generations of economists including Samuelson, trade theories rooted in comparative advantage hold that free trade should raise the overall welfare of all nations that engage in it. Wages of Chinese workers should rise, as would income levels of American capital owners, if the two countries open up to trade. And any negative impact domestically could be ameliorated by making the necessary transfers to compensate those hurt by trade. The remarkable rise in the living standards of citizens in Japan, the four “Asian Tiger” economies, and most notably China, are testaments to free trade working its magic.
However, many find the marked slowdown in global trade since the 2008 financial crisis as puzzling as the tepid GDP growth that has accompanied the recovery.
First, some facts. In the heyday of its economic expansion, China’s current account surplus stood at more than 10% of its GDP; that figure was a mere 2% for the first half of this year. The IMF has documented a 3% annual expansion of global trade since 2012, less than half of its annual growth rate in the previous three decade. This trend holds within developed countries, as well as between developed and developing countries.
Experts are debating the underlying causes of the trade slowdown. The most obvious explanation may be to point to the disruption caused by the 2008 financial crisis, and the prolonged weakness in subsequent economic activities. With the collapse of the western financial system, world economic growth dipped into negative territory for the first time in recent history — from its pre-crisis level of around 4% — and global trade decline ensued. Since then, however, trade, which has historically grown at twice the rate of GDP growth, has grown more or less in tandem with the sluggish output recovery. Clearly, something else is causing the breakdown.
Another explanation frequently offered has been the restructuring in China. The world’s second largest economy, which in recent decades powered the world’s economic activities, had been an even more important driver of growth in world trade. But after 2008, Beijing put more emphasis on domestic economic concerns instead of promoting foreign trade. This rebalancing, however, represents a response to the fall in external demand rather than a deliberate strategy to turn away from trade, and thus is unlikely to be causing the global trade decline.
The WTO warned that these trends could damage an already weak world economy. The desire of those hurt by globalization to shield themselves from foreign competition via protectionist or retaliatory policies is a growing influence in the political life of a number of countries, including the world’s most advanced democracies. But while they may pose serious threats to the future of globalization, protectionist policies have not been implemented on a time frame that could have caused the trade slowdown. Nor is the decline in trade restricted to commerce between countries where populist influence is strongest.
Economist Paul Krugman sees the answer lying in the relative speed of technological progress in transportation and the rest of the economy. Real transport costs could rise, according to Krugman, if the technological advances in transportation are slower than the economy-wide technological changes. Economists in the IMF believe believe changes in the pace of international vertical specialization, the decision to use domestic versus imported inputs, are causing the lackluster expansion of trade. All of these explanations, however, seem unlikely in the context of a world of such great differences in cost and technology — precisely the conditions under which, through the logic of comparative advantage, free trade promised such universal benefits.
If the causes of a slowdown in global trade remain a matter of ongoing debate, its impact and implications for the global economy are unmistakably real and increasingly urgent. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1real |
"Russia is concentrating" 2.0: Putin's new policy of "active defense" | October 28, 2016 - By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ- translated by J. Arnoldski -
At yesterday’s session of the international Valdai Discussion Club, Vladimir Putin made a number of statements about the system of international relations. He reminded listeners that American hegemony has already left a long trail of military invasions of sovereign countries - Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. This was followed by the reminder that Russia “opened up” in the mid-1990’s and hoped for equal dialogue, but did not receive the expected.
By this Putin had in mind the (naive) trust in Western countries during the decade of Yeltsin’s rule that was unprecedented in Russian history. The United States responded to Russia’s openness with attempts to maximally weaken Russia from within (including by means of ‘reforms’ and privatizations carried out with the participation of American specialists) and from without, such as by creating a chained perimeter of border countries controlled by Washington around Russia’s borders. Russia was forbidden from having its own interests beyond its borders while US’ interests stretched up to Russia’s borders and even inside the country.
President Putin also could have added that he himself, at the beginning of his presidency, pursued policies maximally open towards the West. After all, it was he who first lent a hand to the American people after the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001 by clearly condemning this act of terrorism and allowing America to establish air bases in Central Asia. Patriotic experts harshly condemned Putin for this. The Russian president also closed the country’s last military bases and intelligence stations in Cuba and Vietnam. After the closure of Russia’s last military bases abroad, NATO expanded its borders East and accepted the former Warsaw Pact countries and union republics (the Baltic states) into its ranks. If not for Russia’s tough diplomatic resistance, Georgia and Ukraine also could have been added to the list of NATO member countries.
This was a huge mistake on Moscow’s part, but the president gained invaluable experience and is now no longer inclined to trust the pseudo-democratic demagogy of Washington, now constantly calling on Eastern European countries (Poland and the Baltics) to defend against the mythical Russian threat.
In fairness, let us note that many serious observers in the West have spoken against the disastrous policy of pushing Russia into a corner. Very bold predictions were made (which seemed fantastical 16-20 years ago) that Russia would revive its military might and restore the country to the status of a great world power.
The semi-marginal, “light-heavyweight” American politician Patrick Buchanan, for example, called for relying on Russia’s remaining strength rather than constantly annoying it. Today, his views do not appear to be marginal even though, as far as we can see, they remain the ideology of the minority. On the other hand, in Russia there is the marginal liberal minority whose ideology is that of unilateral concessions to the West. Putin’s popularity lies in that he is supported in foreign policy issues and issues of national security even by opposing trends, from communists to nationalists.
In his Valdai speech, President Putin demonstrated a realistic understanding of the external and internal challenges and threats facing Russia. Russia has a number of domestic problems ranging from economic and social to demographic ones, but the US has no less such problems.
Hence why Russia is not going to pursue and is not pursuing an expansionist policy. Not only because this contradicts its principles, but also because it is contrary to Russia's national interests. In NATO itself there are those who don’t believe that Russia actually has plans to conquer the Baltic states or Poland. Pushing this line is, perhaps, in the interests of these countries (or rather, their comprador establishments), but not Russia's.
What Russia is interested in is searching for allies in Europe and even the US itself, mainly those outside of the these countries’ political classes that are so tightly controlled by Washington.
As shown by the legislation on "plutonium disarmament" and Putin’s speech yesterday, Russia is already tired of giving unilateral concessions and sacrificing its own interests without getting even moral compensation. Thus, Vladimir Putin’s strategy in recent years and even months can be called a transition to active defense.
Russia is outlining the (not too extensive) circle of its interests outside its borders and concentrating on its internal problems. As the foreign minister of the Russian Empire, Prince Gorchakov, said after Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War and the signing of the humiliating Treaty of Paris in 1856, “Russia is concentrating.” After a long 20 years, Russia has come to pursue a policy of active defense, carefully avoiding occasions for war.
Russia has not suffered any defeats in 2016, but it still faces the same problems, such as concentrating on resolving internal tasks. But Russia does not intend to surrender its positions, whether inside our outside the country. This idea was the main message of Vladimir Putin’s speech on October 27th.
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Native Americans move to frontlines in battle over voting rights | BELCOURT, North Dakota (Reuters) - Elvis Norquay, a member of the Chippewa Indian tribe, has lived most of his 58 years on North Dakota’s remote Turtle Mountain reservation and says he’s never had a problem voting. That was before 2014, when he hitched a ride with a friend to cast a ballot in local and congressional elections and was turned away. Embarrassed, he asked why he couldn’t vote. He was told he lacked proper ID under new state requirements. He has no phone, no current driver’s license and his tribal ID lacks a street address. “When we left, my friend said, ‘that’s not right’,” said Norquay, who has lived on disability since 2002 in a rural county near the Canadian border. Norquay is among a growing number of Native Americans embroiled in court battles over changes to voting laws that could influence the outcome of some tight races in the November 2016 presidential and congressional elections. While the Native American population is small nationally, lawsuits involving tribes over voting problems have proliferated since the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, a signature legislative achievement of the 1960s civil rights movement. North Dakota is one of 17 states that have new voting restrictions in place since the last presidential contest, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. Many of these changes have sparked lawsuits and accusations that black, Hispanic and other minority voters could be disenfranchised. Five federal lawsuits involving Native Americans have been filed since the Supreme Court decision, including three this year alone. Suits in North Dakota, Utah, South Dakota and Arizona claim new voting rules passed in majority Republican states are discriminatory and could reduce voting by tribal members, who tend to back Democrats. A suit in Alaska, for example, claimed the state violated federal rules by failing to translate voting materials for tribal voters. The tribes say changes to voting rules in those states disproportionately affect Native Americans, an allegation the states and counties deny. The Native American vote is not big enough to flip a safe Republican state such as North Dakota into the Democrat column in this year’s presidential election, but Native Americans are a growing proportion of the population and a majority in some counties where increased voter turnout in recent years has tipped the balance in some congressional races. In many states, the number of Native Americans is growing faster than the population as a whole. Between 2000 and 2010, the Native American population rose by 26.7 percent to 1.1 million, compared to 9.7 percent growth in America’s overall population, census data showed. Recent changes to voting laws, such as North Dakota’s new voter ID law, are part of “a much broader, deliberate, and concerted effort by Republicans to reduce turnout among particular groups of voters on election day,” said Pratt Wiley, head of voter protection issues at the Democratic Party in Washington. “Those voters are more vulnerable today than they were before the Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013,” he said of Native Americans. Republicans deny that voting law changes passed by Republican-dominated legislatures are discriminatory and say they are intended to reduce fraudulent votes. “These are popular common sense laws to protect elections from fraud,” said Lindsay Walters, national spokeswoman at the Republican National Committee. At issue in North Dakota are revisions pushed largely by Republican state legislators in 2013 and 2015 to a 2003 state elections law that eliminated a provision that had allowed people without proper identification such as Norquay to vote if they were recognized by a poll worker or if they signed an affidavit swearing to their identity. Norquay and six other members of his tribe sued the secretary of state in January in U.S. District Court in North Dakota. They said they were refused the right to vote in November 2014 because many old tribal IDs such as Norquay’s don’t list a current residential address. It says some tribal members can’t afford a new tribal ID or struggle to obtain proper identification because there are no state offices that provide driver’s licenses on the reservations. Richard McCloud, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said widespread unemployment and poverty among tribal members meant that some struggle to afford the $10 needed to obtain a new tribal card. “Ten dollars is three pounds of hamburger and some macaroni for a family,” said McCloud at the tribe’s headquarters on the reservation of about 4,274 people a few miles (km) south of the Canadian border. “Maybe it’s no big deal if you work, but it’s a big deal to people that don’t have access to $10,” he said. North Dakota’s secretary of state, Al Jaeger, the only defendant in the suit, said in an interview that the law is not discriminatory and simplifies the voting process in the only state in the country that does not require voters to register ahead of an election. He said his office has spent heavily on ad campaigns to educate voters about what IDs are accepted. Jaeger’s deputy, Jim Silrum, said the ID requirements are not a barrier for the 97 percent of state residents with driver’s licenses, an accepted form of ID, so the number of people affected by the changes is miniscule. Those with no driver’s license, can get a non-driver state ID allowed at the polls from the motor vehicle department for free. Jaeger and Silrum said they could not respond directly to an assertion in the lawsuit that residents on reservations have to travel long distances to obtain a state ID. Republican state Representative Jim Kasper from Fargo repeated his party’s argument that the changes were aimed at reducing the risk of voter fraud, but Silrum said there was little evidence of such irregularities. In the 2012 presidential election, there were only nine cases of people voting twice, but that was because they used the same ID rather than a lack of proper identification, he said. State Representative Kylie Oversen, a Democrat from Grand Forks, said the changes could alter tight elections in favor of Republicans. She said Republicans pushed for the bill after Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 by less than 3,000 votes. In sparsely populated states such as North Dakota, with just 739,000 people, congressional elections have been decided by just a few thousand votes. Rolette County, surrounding Norquay’s reservation, is one of two counties in the state where about 75 percent of the population is Native American. Those two counties were the only places in North Dakota that gave President Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote in 2012. After the changes in the ID law were implemented in North Dakota, voter turnout in Rolette County dropped by more than 12 percentage points between the 2010 and 2014 mid-term elections, more than any other county in the state, election data from the secretary of state’s office shows. “What has happened is the Native American vote has become something that can tip elections,” said Jean Schroedel, a professor at Claremont Graduate University in California who studies Native American voting. The Native American Rights Fund, a non-profit law firm representing Norquay and other members of his tribe in the lawsuit against the state, plans to file a motion by June 30 requesting that the court invalidate the changes to the ID law ahead of November’s election, according to court documents. | 0fake |
From life as thugs to baking, El Salvador's ex-gang members seek peace | SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Gang life in the poor Central American country of El Salvador is hard, but for a dozen former members of the feared 18th Street Gang, building a new life outside is no less difficult. Wilfredo Gomez, 40, joined a gang as an adolescent in Los Angeles, the U.S. city to which his parents emigrated. He said he was enticed by the guns, the girls and the camaraderie of gang life. He wound up in jail before being deported back to his native country. With few links to El Salvador, he quickly returned to gang life. A 10-year jail sentence for stealing an Uzi submachine gun gave him time to reckon with his choices. Returning to civil society is arduous in the midst of the government s militarized battle against the maras, which has led to claims of rights abuses and, according to police, an average daily tally of 16 dead. Former gang members often struggle to find lodging and work, and may be rejected by their families. For Gomez and 12 other ex-gangsters, the Eben-Ezer evangelical church in the gang-ridden neighborhood of Dina in San Salvador, the capital, has been a lifeline, offering food, accommodations, and a spiritual second chance. I ve only had losses being part of the gang, Gomez said. I haven t won anything. I lost my youth, which was spent in jail. I lost my family due to my bad decisions. I lost my home, my woman, my son, and I lost the best years of my life due to a pointless ideology. Gomez now runs a bakery that employs 10 other former gang members. Now, my fun, my enjoyment, is to see them smile, to have dreams, Gomez said. They say they re going to open a bigger bakery, and that one day we ll have our own store and compete against Pizza Hut. Rejected by a society weary of violence, they nonetheless struggle to eradicate the stain of gang life. In October, police went to the bakery and stripped the employees to expose their gang tattoos. They were arrested on suspicion of illicit association, a crime that carries a 5-year sentence. A week later, they were released without charges. Once known as The Shadow, Raul Valladares, 34, is undergoing a painful process to remove tattoos from his face and arms. He has received death threats from his former gang associates because removing gang insignia is punishable by death. It s definitely cost me a lot to leave the gang, he said. But I m fighting to keep going. Related photo essay at reut.rs/2j5X7Oj | 0fake |
Anti-terrorism crackdowns may have spurred attackers, Belgian prosecutor says | The four men — two of them brothers — who turned ordinary morning commutes in Brussels into blood-soaked nightmares may have been spurred into action by fears that authorities were closing in on them, according to a note left by one of the attackers that was described by a prosecutor Wednesday.
Days before the attacks on Tuesday, counterterrorism police had raided their Brussels safe houses. An ally who took part in November’s Paris carnage was shot and captured by authorities. And Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, a 29-year-old Belgian with a thick rap sheet, wrote that he did not want to wind up in a prison cell, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said Wednesday.
The men — at least two of whom had direct ties to the Islamic State attacks in Paris — knew they had to act decisively. So they set out with explosives that ripped open a Brussels subway car and shattered the city’s main airport terminal, killing at least 31 people and injuring 300 in the bloodiest attack on Belgian soil since World War II.
Bakraoui detonated a suitcase full of nails, screws and powerful explosives at the airport, killing himself in the process, Van Leeuw said. So did Islamic State bombmaker Najim Laachraoui, 24, who is also believed to have prepared explosives for the Paris attacks, according to an Arab intelligence official and a European intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
An unidentified man who left an even larger suitcase of explosives at the airport is believed to still be at large, he said. That suitcase did not immediately detonate, sparing Belgium even more casualties.
The country held a national minute of silence Wednesday led by Prime Minister Charles Michel, who laid a wreath at the Maelbeek metro station in honor of the victims. Thousands of Belgians gathered in a somber ceremony in front of an ornate 19th-century stock exchange building to light candles and lay flowers.
The missive, contained in a computer that had been chucked into a garbage can near Bakraoui’s Brussels apartment, does not specifically cite recent raids across Belgium, including one that netted a key suspect in the Paris attacks. But its tone suggests a sense that the noose was tightening, Van Leeuw said.
The computer message also gives apparent insight into the organization and motivation of militants who apparently turned their attention to Brussels after pulling off the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
In the note, Bakraoui described feeling pressure bearing down. He wrote that he was “in a hurry, no longer knowing what to do, being searched for everywhere, no longer secure,” according to Van Leeuw’s description of the message, which was not made public.
Laachraoui’s involvement draws the boldest line yet between the Paris attacks and those in Brussels. His DNA was found on explosives in the Paris attacks, and authorities believe that he was versed in the Islamic State art of assembling powerful explosives from ingredients that are readily available. His participation in two attacks suggests that the Islamic State is increasingly able to strike on European soil — although his death may also mean that he feared imminent capture by European authorities.
Terrorism experts regard bombmakers, especially those trained in handling sensitive explosives, as among the most valuable and protected members of a terrorist organization. It is highly unusual for them to participate in suicide attacks themselves.
[Why is Brussels under attack?]
Laachraoui’s DNA was found in a Brussels apartment raided last week. The discovery of a militant cell there eventually led to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam on Friday. Abdeslam was the final at-large direct participant in the Paris attacks and is believed to have been the logistics mastermind.
The computer file that prosecutors cited Wednesday does not mention Abdeslam by name, but it says the attackers feared that if they did not strike quickly, they risked winding up in prison alongside “him.”
“If they drag on, they risk finishing next to him in a cell,” Van Leeuw said, paraphrasing the contents of the file.
Van Leeuw described the file as a “will” discovered on a computer. He did not explain why authorities believed the computer belonged to Bakraoui.
Bakraoui’s younger brother, Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27, is believed to have been the suicide bomber on a Brussels subway car that blew up as it sped out of a station underneath the heart of the European Union quarter of Brussels, an area packed with embassies and international organizations. That attack came 73 minutes after the one at the airport, meaning that commuters were already reading the news of the first explosions when the carnage reached them.
Khalid el-Bakraoui appears to have been a kind of surreptitious real estate broker for the plotters, according to a European security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. Using assumed names, he rented an apartment in the Forest area of Brussels where Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found and an apartment near Charleroi, Belgium, where Paris attack mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud stayed as he plotted the violence.
Both Bakraoui brothers served prison time for violent crime, the European security official said. The announcement on Wednesday that two of the attackers were brothers highlighted another emerging tactic from the militant group: They would be the third pair of brothers involved in an Islamic State attack in Europe in the past 15 months.
European security leaders planned to gather Thursday in Brussels to discuss whether to pursue new policies that would better pool information to counter terrorism.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, visiting Brussels on Wednesday to extend his condolences, repeated past calls for sweeping new powers to be given to European intelligence agencies. “In the years to come, the [E.U.] member states will have to invest massively in their security systems,” he said.
[Brussels terrorists probably used explosive nicknamed ‘the Mother of Satan’]
Van Leeuw, the Belgian prosecutor, said the brothers had not previously been suspected of ties to terrorism.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey had deported one of the attackers to Europe in July and warned European counterterrorism officials that it believed the man was a militant, suggesting a serious lapse by Belgian authorities. Interpol had also issued a “red notice,” effectively an international arrest warrant, for one of the suspects at the request of Belgian authorities. It was not immediately clear when that notice had been issued.
There were signs that an even bigger attack had been forestalled. Authorities found large stockpiles of bomb-building materials at Ibrahim el-Bakraoui’s apartment in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels, the prosecutor said: 33 pounds of TATP explosives, nearly 40 gallons of acetone, 8 gallons of hydrogen peroxide, detonators, and a suitcase full of nails and screws. Both acetone and hydrogen peroxide are easily obtainable; together they can be used to make potent explosives.
It remained unclear Wednesday how many Americans had been killed in the blasts. In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said that “approximately a dozen” Americans were injured but that “a number” of U.S. citizens remained unaccounted for on Wednesday — without providing more specific figures. He said that U.S. diplomatic missions in Brussels were working to account for all of their own staff.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry plans to visit Brussels on Friday on his return from a trip to Moscow.
Griff Witte, Missy Ryan, James McAuley and Anthony Faiola in Brussels and Brian Murphy and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
Live updates on the death toll, attack scenes and reactions around the world
Why is Brussels under attack?
At NATO headquarters, alert status raised just miles from attacks
Five stories you should read to understand the Brussels attacks | 0fake |
Trump Fans Are Crying In Their Milk After Their Hero Breaks Yet Another Promise To Them (TWEETS) | Trump made a bad decision, or so his ardent followers seem to think. His attempts to work something out with Congressional Democrats on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and also his remarks that current construction on his stupid border wall involves mostly existing fencing, have set off their ire. Big-time and small-time MAGAsh*ts alike are crying today, because their rigid, purist minds suffer from severe tunnel vision that doesn t include Trump doing, well, what he s done. They want Trump to do what he promised and damn the consequences to millions who aren t like them.Take Joe Walsh, for example. Walsh is a former U.S. Representative from Illinois 8th district, but his big claim to fame is being a deadbeat dad. All he wants is for Trump to cut his taxes and build the wall. With Trump s latest tweets on DACA and the wall, though, he s ready to abandon Trump and throw his support to probably someone worse:Trump: We re close to a deal on amnesty. The wall will come later. That s not why we voted for you. https://t.co/0eFMR9jvxT Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017This is the art of the deal right? Can someone remind the president why he was elected? Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017If true, Trump is done. Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017We voted for #MAGA, not #DACA.Pull your head out Mr President. Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017He ran on: BUILD THE WALL! He didn t run on: FIX UP SOME OF THE EXISTING FENCING! Not surprising. Just very disappointing. Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017I m tired of @fox news saying: It s not the Donald s fault. Big, bad GOP made him do it. Bullshit. Trump is responsible for what he does. Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017NONE of this is a surprise. I voted 4 Trump knowing he wasn t a Conservative & knowing he had no core.I voted 4 the wall & against amnesty Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 14, 2017Then we have Ann Coulter, who seems to have developed some serious regret about writing a book called In Trump We Trust. If Walsh is crying, Coulter is raging: Put a fork in Trump, he s dead. https://t.co/xEu5lwhmqO Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 14, 2017At this point, who DOESN T want Trump impeached? https://t.co/g1mMhmm8ng Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 14, 2017If we re not getting a wall, I d prefer President Pence. https://t.co/g1mMhmm8ng Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 14, 2017Let s play Jeopardy. ANSWER: An Easter egg. QUESTION: What s the only thing easier to roll than Donald J. Trump? Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 14, 2017Let s just tell @realDonaldTrump there was a hurricane at the border. Maybe he ll rush down there with FEMA and build a wall. Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 14, 2017What s the only difference between @realDonald Trump & Carrot Top? Carrot Top might actually build the wall. Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 14, 2017There are others who are sobbing over Trump s about-face on these issues, too. They were conned, they know it, but they were too dumb and blinded by the racist who said anything they wanted to hear to think this might happen prior to the election.Found this by the side of the road #amnestydon #burnmyMAGAhat pic.twitter.com/QivQ81xClG Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) September 14, 2017Trump s going to have to PAY people to attend his rallies now .and to chant Build that NEW RENOVATION OF OLD FENCES! Wait, what?? https://t.co/ouSYdSByjJ Mensans for USA (@Mensans4USA) September 14, 2017Disgusted I ever supported you. My family went through a lot supporting u. Cruz should have been nominee. Despise u & the other GOP traitors Patriotic Mama (@BluegillRises) September 14, 2017Live in apartment, can t burn. #AmnestyDon you broke my heart. @realDonaldTrump better look forward to retirement in 2020. #GoGetHimMueller pic.twitter.com/jdO5edLwqo Impeach Him (@GregPrill) September 14, 2017Trump used the grieving parents of those killed by illegal aliens as props then betrays them like this.#AmnestyDon mediacritic (@mediacritik) September 14, 2017Do you really want to be remembered as #AmnestyDon, the biggest traitor in US history since Benedict Arnold, and be a one term POTUS? Adorable Deplorable (@OliMauritania) September 14, 2017Do you really want to turn Florida blue and make our country look like a 3rd world hell hole? Tell us #AmnestyDon? Adorable Deplorable (@OliMauritania) September 14, 2017#AmnestyDon going to make himself a one term President just so he can get a week s worth of good headlines from the Liberal media. SAD! Craig ?? Norwalk (@LosGoyers) September 14, 2017I donated, volunteered, & trolled to help pull off the political miracle of the century, & all I got was a guy pushing amnesty. #AmnestyDon Coach Finstock (@RisenCoach) September 14, 2017Did ivanka cry again or something? #AmnestyDon Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) September 14, 2017.@CassandraRules is speaking for million upon millions of Trump supporters. #NoDACA #AmnestyDon pic.twitter.com/fz3rrzEyRm Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) September 14, 2017Dear @realDonaldTrump, We didn t elect you to give Dems whatever they want!! We elected you to do what you promised! ?#AmnestyDon #DACADeal CJ Schafer (@RaisedRightWI) September 14, 2017people aren t gettingJUST HOW F*CKING MADMAGA IS RIGHT NOW There will be no Amnesty - DT Arizona 8-31-16#AmnestyDon David Alvord (@davealvord164) September 14, 2017Poor Donald can t catch a break, but we can t feel sorry for him or his delusional MAGAs here.Featured image via Justin Merriman/Getty Images | 1real |
Looks Like The Matrix May Actually Happen – Check Out This Amazing New Brain Implant (VIDEO) | Depending on how you look at it, being able to control our minds with machines and computers could be either very terrifying or extremely awesome. However it looks like we re getting very close to connecting the two together.And according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): A DARPA-funded research team has created a novel neural-recording device that can be implanted into the brain through blood vessels, reducing the need for invasive surgery and the risks associated with breaching the blood-brain barrier. The technology was developed under DARPA s Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) program, and offers new potential for safely expanding the use of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) to treat physical disabilities and neurological disorders. via DARPAResearchers at the University of Melbourne are trying to reduce the need for invasive surgery, and success of this technique could change the way modern medicine is performed. Their hope is that with this non-invasive techniques doctors will be able to better treat a wide range of neurological ailments. One of which being PTSD.According to HuffPo: The idea shares some similarities to the film The Matrix where human beings are plugged into a virtual world through a data port in the back of the neck. However DARPA believes that the main barrier in place preventing humans from effectively communicating is that the cabling we use to transfer the data between the brain and the computer is far too simplistic. There s hope that eventually this will be a way for people to even use artificial limbs as though they were organic. This technology, if successful, is going to change the lives of millions of individuals around the world.Quite honestly, this is absolutely extraordinary.Watch here via HuffPo:Featured image: flixnerd | 1real |
Trump Just Lost His Damn Mind On Twitter After Bernie Endorsed Hillary (TWEETS) | After finding out that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was endorsing Hillary Clinton for president on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump took to Twitter, as he always does, to try to lure in as many angry Bernie supporters as possible. He put out such a tweet storm that it actually appeared that he lost his damn mind more than he already likely has.In a series of tweets, Trump showed how desperately he is trying to pander to Bernie Sanders voters who are mad at the Senator from Vermont for endorsing Hillary Clinton. It s so obvious, in fact, that he s trying to play to that crowd, that if it works, it probably says more about those who could so easily switch to the anti-Bernie that is Trump, than it actually says about Trump himself.He tweeted:Bernie Sanders, who has lost most of his leverage, has totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton. He will endorse her today fans angry! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016I am somewhat surprised that Bernie Sanders was not true to himself and his supporters. They are not happy that he is selling out! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016Bernie Sanders endorsing Crooked Hillary Clinton is like Occupy Wall Street endorsing Goldman Sachs. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016Bernie sanders has abandoned his supporters by endorsing pro-war pro-TPP pro-Wall Street Crooked Hillary Clinton. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016To all the Bernie voters who want to stop bad trade deals & global special interests, we welcome you with open arms. People first. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016And don t forget his pinned video:#CrookedHillary is not qualified!https://t.co/6qi7KTW43O Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016Now, if you ve proudly supported Bernie over the past year and his very progressive agenda, but now see yourself supporting a staunchly conservative racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic reality television star, you never actually felt the Bern, but rather just really hated the idea of Hillary Clinton as president. Which is fine. That s your choice, but don t pretend to be supporter of progressive ideology and making the nation better for all, not just the few on top.Trump does and says whatever is necessary to please the audience directly in front of him at any given moment. He s a fraud and a scam artist, and most certainly is not to be believed ever. He s a salesman and currently is just trying to sell himself to whoever will buy it Don t buy it.Featured Photo by John Moore/Getty Images | 1real |
Texas Supreme Court Rules That Christian Parents Can Keep Their Kids Stupid | Christian parents who homeschool their children have the right to keep them stupid and ignorant according to a new ruling by Texas conservative-dominated Supreme Court.Laura and Michael McIntyre have been refusing to educate their kids because they believe they ll be raptured soon and literally argued that they have the right to do so under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.Just think about that for a minute. A Christian couple is arguing that they should be allowed to not educate their kids because they think Jesus is coming back any day now to take them all to heaven.And the Texas Supreme Court actually agreed with them.According to the Associated Press;Friday s 6-3 decision on technical grounds was a win for Laura and Michael McIntyre, who once educated their nine children in the family s El Paso motorcycle dealership.The couple argued that school district officials violated their 14th Amendment rights by attempting to verify that its children were learning.The district was investigating relatives complaints the McIntyre children weren t being educated because they were waiting for Jesus Christ s second coming.It all started in 2004 when the religion-obsessed parents took their kids out of their private school to educate them at home. But instead of learning math, history, and science the kids were learning all about Jesus and how they ll be raptured.Michael s brother testified that the nine children were never being taught anything that had to do with the school curriculum and that he overheard one of the children informing a cousin that they don t have to learn because the End Times are allegedly near.In their first court appearance, the judge basically laughed at the McIntyres defense and ruled in 2014 that: No parents have ever prevailed in any reported case on a theory that they have an absolute constitutional right to educate their children in the home, completely free of any state supervision, regulation, or requirements. They do not have an absolute constitutional right to home school. But six dimwits on the Texas Supreme Court allowed the McIntyres to be the first parents to prevail on such a theory, thus giving conservative Christian parents across the state the ability to indoctrinate their kids with religion as their daily education instead of learning the subjects necessary for them to have a future and a brain that knows how to think critically. All they have to do now is yank their own kids out of school and claim they have a constitutional right to keep their kids stupid.The Texas Supreme Court basically just ruled in favor of what amounts to child abuse and neglect and the people of Texas should be embarrassed.Featured Image: Wikimedia | 1real |
Open Thread (NOT U.S. Election) 2016-38 | Open Thread (NOT U.S. Election) 2016-38
News & views NOT related to the U.S. election ...
(Use thread below this one for election news & views) Posted by b on November 7, 2016 at 01:27 PM | Permalink Comments
Russia Says Ceasefire in Syria's Aleppo in Place Unless Militants Attack TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Kremlin said Monday Russia's air force would stick to the ceasefire in Syria's Aleppo unless militants launch an offensive.
"The (Russian) president deems a regime when Russian air forces don't carry out strikes on eastern Aleppo as reasonable if militants don't start combat action," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters. Posted by: schlub | Nov 7, 2016 1:37:48 PM | 1
Daesh Launches Chemical Attack in Iraq’s Mosul
November, 07, 2016 - 10:56 TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group has used mustard gas during a military clash with government troops in Iraq’s Mosul, a report said.
Daesh on Sunday fired mortar shells containing chemicals at positions of Iraqi troops who are advancing against the terrorist group in Mosul, Sky News Arabia said on Sunday, citing Kurdish sources.
The report added that the Takfiri group had also deployed small drones carrying chemical explosives to blow up the government troops. Posted by: schlub | Nov 7, 2016 1:43:21 PM | 2 Verify your Comment | 1real |
Secret Meeting Reveals Trump Camp’s REAL Economic Plan, And It’s NOTHING Like What We’ve Heard | Trump has been telling the whole world about how he ll make our economy boom. He s going to cut taxes, but not cut Medicare or Social Security. He tells blue collar workers that he ll renegotiate all our trade agreements to bring their jobs back. He s going to balance the federal budget within seven years. He has something for everyone, but no plan to pay for any of it.Or does he?Trump s senior economic adviser, Stephen Moore, held a hush-hush meeting with the vice president of the Council for National Policy, Bill Walton. In that meeting, Moore revealed a lot of the ins and outs of the campaign s ideas for paying for his plan, and the whole thing smacks of far-right, free-market, trickle-down, anti-government conservatism unlike anything we ve seen before.Moore wants Trump to eliminate the Department of Education, Department of Commerce, and Department of Energy, just to start. That will cost, oh, about 150,000 jobs or so. Not to mention that, with the elimination of the Department of Commerce, we ll lose the U.S. Patent Office, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and more. Trump believes, however, that this is the source of a lot of crony capitalism and corporate welfare. So make it disappear!They also want to get rid of the Department of Education. That, however, will cost us a uniform accreditation process for colleges and universities, along with everything having to do with grants and student loans. No biggie, everyone can just get private student loans from their own banks, right? Right. Even if they re the poorest of the poor. They d have to, seeing as how it s not likely Congress will pass universal post-secondary education anytime soon.It s Moore that s pushing Trump to do something about the Department of Energy. including ending the energy subsidies. Eliminating the entire department will probably cost us every national laboratory we have that deals with energy research and development. This includes the famous Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was responsible for developing the atom bomb. They also work on nuclear research, cryogenics, and more (maybe they ll just hand these over to private companies with profit motives).He actually said, in that meeting: I mean, my God, why do we need an Energy Department? All the Energy Department has done in the last 25 years is make energy prices more expensive! Or it was due, at least in part, to giving utilities to private enterprises with a profit motive, but hey, he can think what he wants. They can, of course, move these agencies and offices to other departments, and maybe consolidate some, but the savings from doing this won t be near what they likely think.Moore believes in sending things like job training, health care and other medical services, back to the states. The federal government would give the states block grants to administer this stuff. Perhaps Trump would give them yuuuuuuuuuuuuuge block grants to administer all of the above things that will disappear with department elimination, too.And then they ll slowly go away as budgets get cut. States are notorious for finding ways around the strings attached to block grants, which allows them to divert that money to other things.But these kinds of proposals aren t exactly new for Republicans. What Moore also wants Trump to do is lift all (read: all) restrictions and regulations on mining, drilling and fracking. And here we have it: The answer to which energy subsidies would get cut. The ones going to renewables, because of course.Lifting the regulations on fossil fuel production would, in Moore s view, create 6 to 8 million new jobs. Those jobs would increase tax revenue. That, plus ending the subsidies to renewables so that fossil fuels no longer have competition, would bring a windfall of cash.Then Trump can pay for the tax cuts he plans to give his rich buddies.That is, of course, assuming that fossil fuel prices stay where they are, or rise. The energy companies have to see a profit in this plan, or they won t play ball. We can t stop the rest of the world from developing renewables and leaving us in the dust, and we can t stop OPEC from continuing to produce as much as they want to compete with us.Working as closely with a master businessman as Moore is, he should know that falling demand means falling prices. The energy companies have already put some brakes on fracking here because of the glut of oil worldwide. It s not as profitable to frack right now as they want.Plus, no regulation at all? Yeah. That ll work. You watch. It ll be great. We ll have the best market. Companies will become safer and more environmentally conscious because of competition.Or so the free-market capitalists wet dreams say.Moore really hopes that Trump will climb on board with all of this. After all, Moore just wants to help his candidate make America great again, and clearly, this will do it. It s foolproof!Featured image by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
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