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Legendary US Gymnastics Coach Bela Karolyi May Have Known for YEARS That Team's Doctor Sexually Abused Girls | Share on Twitter
An unidentified former Olympic gymnast who competed on the U.S. team from 2006 - 2011 just filed a lawsuit with the Los Angeles Superior Court—and it contains a bombshell accusation.
She alleges that longtime USA Gymnastics coaches Marta and Bela Karolyi turned a blind eye in allowing Olympic Dr. Larry Nassar to sexually abuse her and other athletes. Image Credit: IOPP/Getty Images
The 60-page lawsuit, filed Thursday by the unidentified athlete who goes as “Jane LM Doe” in court papers, states that the alleged abuse occurred at a Karolyi-run facility in Texas, which also served as the training site for the USA Gymnastics team. Dr. Larry Nassar, Michigan State University #MSU & fmr USA Gymnastics doctor fired & accused of sexual assault https://t.co/rMLFx9bLqv pic.twitter.com/5PtnYFaSBY — Michael Harris (@michaelharrisdr) September 21, 2016
According to reports, the new suit is just one of many filed against Dr. Nassar.
Dr. Nassar is said to have committed the abuse over several years. He would perform “intravaginal adjustment,” where he would “digitally penetrate” the victim's vagina in order to “adjust her bones.” More abuse claims against former USA Gymnastics doc: Dr. Larry Nassar is accused of sexually abusing at least... https://t.co/cm2t6lA9C6 — Mohamed Bakchich (@Bakchich073) September 25, 2016
The allegations against Dr. Nassar in the lawsuit claim:
“These vaginal examinations were well outside any recognized and/or accepted technique and were done for Nassar's own sexual gratification.”
The suit also states that Dr. Nassar was able to assault the athletes, many of whom were minors, due to his “unfettered and secluded access” to the girls.
He even lived and slept in the same quarters as the athletes:
“Using his position as team physician, Nassar would interact with [the alleged victim] under the guise of providing her care and treatments necessary for her to compete as a world-class, Olympic medal-winning gymnast.” — GNN Team (@GNNgymnastnews) September 22, 2016
To make matters even worse, the suit states the abuse was able to continue for so long because of the legendary coaches.
According to the reports, the Karoylis instilled intimidation and fear in the athletes by striking and scratching them as well as depriving them of food and water.
This suit, in particular, is unique because not only is Dr. Nassar being accused of assault, but so are the legendary coaches: Image Credit: Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images
The lawsuit states that this “toxic environment” gave Nassar the opportunity to commit sexual abuse. It also alleges that the Karoylis knew about the sexual abuse but concealed it in order to uphold their reputation and keep their program running.
This is not the first time Dr. Nassar has been accused of these crimes.
Over 20 women have come forward with accusations of sexual assault, but no criminal charges have been filed against him. Dr. Larry G. Nassar: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know https://t.co/vIaGiThwbf #News pic.twitter.com/gCjCsZFboM — PoliticallyCorrect (@EEUU_Politic) September 12, 2016
Just last month, Olympic gymnast Rachael Denhollander of Louisville, Kentucky filed a lawsuit against Dr. Nassar. She claims he sexually abused her in 2000 while she underwent treatment for lower back pain at Michigan State University, where Nassar is a faculty member.
According to Denhollander, Dr. Nassar assaulted her five times, the first time occurring when she was just 15.
As for why she never came forward, the gymnast stated she not only feared him but was ashamed:
"I was ashamed. I was very embarrassed. And I was very confused, trying to reconcile what was happening with the person he was supposed to be.
He's this famous team doctor. He's trusted by my friends. He's trusted by these other gymnasts. How could he reach this position in the medical profession? How could he reach this kind of prominence and stature if this is who he is?"
In Denhollander's lawsuit, she claimed that Dr. Nassar inappropriately touched her breast and vagina. She also said he brought up oral sex and even stated he had an erection while meeting with her.
Since the allegations were brought to light, the USAG released this statement to The IndyStar:
“As we have made clear when USA Gymnastics first learned of athlete concerns regarding Dr. Nassar, we dismissed him from further involvement and reported those concerns to the FBI.
Still, the allegations that have been made are troubling. USA Gymnastics is committed to promoting a safe environment for our athletes. Due to the pending litigation and ongoing investigation, however, we are unable to comment further.”
So far, Dr. Nassar has denied all allegations against him.
You can check out an interview with Denhollander below: | 1real |
These Charts Show Why We’re All Screwed Under The GOP Health Care Bill | During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump constantly made references to repealing and replacing the disaster that is Obamacare and Democrats collectively shuddered. We all knew that nothing good could come of this.Now after six months in office, despite discovering that nobody knew healthcare could be so difficult, President Trump is about to deliver on his campaign promise as the Senate returns from a one-week recess to get back to the task at hand; trying to come to an agreement on their new healthcare bill known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), one that they have predominately kept the public in the dark about.Things are looking bleak, however, as even the Republican party remains divided on a bill that is not only going to raise out-of-pocket costs and restrict access to services for many, but also cause tens of millions to lose their health insurance completely over the coming decade.These charts might be able to put the entire healthcare debacle into perspective:1. We All Know The Short-Term Medicaid Cuts Are Going To Suck: The new health care bill will save a ton of money, but roughly a quarter of those savings, or approximately $770 billion over the next decade, come from cuts to Medicaid. The result is that 15 million less people will be enrolled in Medicaid under the new GOP bill than compared to Obamacare:2. If You Thought That Was Bad, The Long-Term Effects Are Even Worse: The inflation rate for Medicaid spending beginning in 2025 is much slower, affecting those who rely on it the most, mainly children, the disabled, and the elderly. In fact, by 2036 federal Medicaid spending on children will be reduced by almost a third and by a quarter for the disabled and the elderly when compared to the current law according to an analysis by the health consulting firm Avalere Health:3. The Percentage Of Those Uninsured Will Rise In Every Single Age Bracket: That s right, under the BCRA 22 million people will lose their insurance (compared to 23 million under the version passed by the house) and every single age group will be affected, according to an assessment by the Congressional Budget Office:4. It Will Also Rise In Every State, Including Those Whose Overwhelming Majority Voted For Trump: Yes, the new bill will drive up the uninsured rate by at least 21% and even up to 300% in every state by 2022, a new study by the Urban Institute found:5. The Older and Poorer You Are, The More You Will Be Paying For Insurance Premiums If an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities is to be believed, health insurance premiums are going to go through the roof, but those hit the worst will be older Americans:6. The Older Middle Class Will be Hit Pretty Hard Too, As Their Tax Credits Will Go Through The Floor: The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities analysis also found that the tax credits that are available to help older people in the individual market afford health insurance are going to do just the opposite and plummet:7. Even Employer Plans Aren t Immune: The GOP s new bill cuts to Medicaid and individual market subsidies have given the 150 million Americans that receive their health insurance through their employer a false sense of security, but they re not safe, either. Not only will the new legislation bring back annual and lifetime limits in employer plans, as well as end penalties for companies that don t provide health insurance to their workers, but it will also allow employers to shift much of the cost of copays, deductibles and coinsurance onto their workers. The Center for American Progress calculated how many will feel the crunch:8. Hospitals Are Going To Feel The Crunch As Well: Hospitals aren t happy with the new bill and it is easy to see why, when you consider it will cause a large spike in uncompensated care for hospitals across all states: 9. Finally, The New Bill Will Cause Massive Job Loss, Particularly In The Health Care Sector: By 2026, more than 1.45 million jobs will be lost as a direct result of the BCRA go by the results of a report by the Commonwealth Fund and George Washington University. In fact, the report goes as far as to say that Every state except Hawaii would have fewer jobs and a weaker economy, however, it s not just health care employment that will be affected, but also retail and construction as well:So if you thought this latest rewrite of the GOP s health care legislation didn t affect you, you more than likely thought wrongly. Even if it isn t your health care that is directly affected, chances are you will still feel the ripple effects of the bill on the economy, both on a state and national level.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
Joe Biden: ‘I Wish to Hell I’d Just Kept Saying the Exact Same Thing’ - The New York Times | Joe Biden’s personal compartment on the modified Boeing 757 that serves as Air Force Two had the feel of a motel manager’s office equipped with communications gear. The room held a little black couch with a pullout bed he had slept on more times than he could count over the last eight years, during which he logged more than a million miles aloft. We were en route back to Wilmington, Del. from Cartagena, Colombia, in early December, and Biden was sitting in a black leather seat with a binder in his lap. It contained the speech he had given at the Democratic National Convention in July. He told me he had been rereading it. He began reciting aloud: “If you live in neighborhoods like the one Jill and I grew up in, if you worry about your job and getting decent pay. . .. ” His voice accelerated. “If you worry about your children’s education, if you’re taking care of an elderly parent, there’s only one person in this race who. . .. ” He looked up at me and sighed. “I wish to hell I’d just kept saying the exact same thing. ” Biden was afflicted with regret. He was sorry that, on the campaign trail, he had spoken so often about Donald Trump’s unfitness for office and not enough about what Hillary Clinton would do for the middle class. He was sorry he didn’t push harder inside the White House for a tax cut. And he was still torn over his decision not to run for president, a race that he said would have been “brutal” but that he also believed he could have won. I spoke with Biden intermittently in the months before and after Election Day, and I had no doubt as to why he didn’t jump in. He was still corny, gabby, lovable Uncle Joe, the guy who once said: “Stand up, Chuck! Let ’em see you!” to a man in a wheelchair. But nearly every speech and interview now included some moving mention of his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and how much Biden was doing, and intended to continue to do for the rest of his life, to speed the search for cancer cures. I saw Biden cry in Manchester, N. H. in October when holding an infant that he was told was named after Beau. I saw him near tears in West Mifflin, Pa. the weekend before the election, when he was joined onstage by the former Pittsburgh Steelers Franco Harris and Mel Blount — which reminded him of the footballs the team owner sent to young Beau and his brother, Hunter, in the hospital after they were injured in the 1972 car accident that killed Biden’s first wife and baby girl. On his deathbed, Beau advised his father to run, but many friends — including President Obama — didn’t think he was up to it emotionally, and the vice president finally agreed. “For all that’s important to me in almost a sacred sense,” he told me mournfully, the decision was unavoidable. “The family was broken, and I was more broken than I thought I was. ” How broken? “I don’t know what I’d do if I was in a debate and someone said, ‘You’re doing this because of your son,’’u2009” he told me one late November day in his West Wing office. “I might have walked over and kicked his ass. ” And yet minutes later, he was standing at his desk, fidgeting and replaying what might have been in 2016. The South Carolina primary would have given him a strong start, he said, citing his internal polls there. “Hard to believe, but I was more popular with blacks than Barack was. ” Biden clearly loathes the new president he said during the campaign that if he and Trump were in high school, he’d “take him behind the gym” for the way he bragged about groping women. Trump reminded him of the bullies who teased him as a child on account of his stutter, calling him “ . ” But the politician who has long believed all politics is personal wants to keep it impersonal with Trump. “The president and I have concluded that there’s no value in making that ad hominem argument,” he told me of Obama. “It gets you nowhere. ” Biden wasn’t shocked that Hillary Clinton lost. He had noticed before the election that Trump was connecting with the people he grew up with in Pennsylvania. This shaped his thoughts on how Democrats should respond. When the subject of Trump came up aboard Air Force Two, Biden referred to a story about how, as a freshman senator, he saw Jesse Helms, the archconservative North Carolina Republican, ripping into a piece of disabilities legislation. Biden was furious about it and began attacking Helms to Mike Mansfield, the Democratic Senate majority leader. Puffing on his pipe, Mansfield asked Biden if he knew that Helms and his wife had adopted a disabled boy no one else would take. “Question a man’s judgment, not his motives,” Mansfield instructed. Biden, who was invited by Helms decades later to give his eulogy, is convinced that absorbing Mansfield’s advice is what allowed him to work with Senate Republicans during the Obama years, to negotiate the approval of the New Start treaty, the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the expansion of the tax credit, among other accomplishments. His approach to Trump, he said, wouldn’t be fundamentally different. “It falls in that category,” Biden told me. “It’s one thing to say: ‘I think the proposal on the following is a serious mistake. I think it’s gonna do the following damage.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘The guy’s a fucking idiot, and he is an egomaniac who’s a whatever. ’’u2009” Biden suggested he might lobby former Republican colleagues when “circumstances generate blowback among mainstream Republicans. ” He remains in the shrinking camp that believes Trump may yet step up, at least a bit, to the demands of high office. His hope is that Trump’s “sense of grandeur is so immense that he’d rather succeed than unleash these forces. ” Given how many Trump voters would lose their insurance under full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, he may well back off of repealing it, Biden said. As for the rest of his own administration’s legacy, he said, “I’m not prepared to bet my granddaughter’s college tuition, but it’s less likely to be undone than frayed on the edges. ” Biden’s biggest worry is that Trump, for all his bluster, could be a global bystander, unwilling to engage a messy world with anything more than . “The question I get everywhere is: ‘Is American leadership going to continue? ’’u2009” he told me on Air Force Two. If Trump “just stays behind the lines — hands off — it could be very ugly. Very, very ugly. ” In July, the president of Latvia asked Biden to fly there as soon as possible and give a televised speech assuring the Baltic states that the United States would fulfill its NATO obligations and defend them against a Russian invasion. He did so, emphatically, but his promises offer little comfort Day. The prospect of Vladimir Putin fulfilling his dream of Russian hegemony over Eastern Europe is not far from Biden’s mind. “Now if we walk away — Hungary, Poland, even the Baltic states, these guys all start to hedge their bets,” he said. Biden’s national security adviser, Colin Kahl, who was with the vice president on the plane, interjected to outline the contradictions in Trump’s emerging foreign policy. If the United States is going to be more cooperative with Russia and Bashar ’s Syria but more confrontational with Iran, Kahl asked, how will Trump handle them joining together to fight ISIS? “It’s like a Rubik’s cube trying to figure this guy out,” Biden sighed. “We have no freakin’ idea what he’s gonna do. ” When they were Senate colleagues, and Biden was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden thought Obama was in too much of a hurry — and Obama found the chairman a tad condescending. But in the White House, the two men became exceptionally close. “There was never a point,” Obama told me recently, “where I thought he was distancing himself from me or positioning himself. Never been a time when he wasn’t telling me something he really thought. ” Their families, too, drew together. “Family has been central for us — that’s our baseline,” Obama told me. “We both feel freer to do what we think is right because if it doesn’t work out, our families will still love us. ” Biden later told friends that he thought the president was sincerely looking out for him in 2015 when he advised him not to run — though he also felt Obama had grown fond of the bright mark he could leave on history by passing the baton from the first black president to the first female president. The big question now is when, and how, they will the arena. Obama has already said that, unlike George W. Bush, he won’t refrain from commenting on his successor. Biden may go further. Amid discussion of resistance to Trump, he surprised me with talk of 2020, when he’ll turn 78. “I’ll run,” the vice president deadpanned, “if I can walk. ” Three days later, he informed the Washington press corps that he wasn’t joking. Biden isn’t likely to run, but keeping the door ajar gives him a bigger voice in Democratic Party debates. The one that worries him most is over repositioning to win back Trump voters. He has little patience with Democrats who want to move either left or right. “’u2009‘We gotta move to the center,’ ‘We gotta move to those white guys,’ ‘We gotta move to those people’ or ‘We gotta double down on the social agenda. ’’u2009” It’s a false choice, he said: “They are totally compatible. I have never said anything to the A. C. L. U. that I wouldn’t say to the Chamber of Commerce. ” This was the vision of the Democratic Party to which Biden had dedicated his career. “Amtrak Joe” famously commuted every day from Wilmington to Washington — three hours for 36 years. He told me that as the train neared Baltimore, he habitually peered into the rapidly passing homes close to the tracks — a flip book of families of various backgrounds who might have recognized themselves in his convention speech. “I wonder what the conversation at the dinner table is,” he told me. Sometimes he saw his own family in the early 1960s in those houses. He imagines the families’ struggles with everyday expenses: “’u2009‘Honey, we need a new set of tires, but you gotta get another 20, 000 miles out of them.’ That’s the goddamn discussion people are having! That’s their lives!” Before the election, Biden had begun to map out what his plans would look like. Soon he would be back on Amtrak, riding to and from a institute bearing his name at the University of Pennsylvania and a center at the University of Delaware, and continuing the “cancer moonshot” — a initiative marshaling resources in government and the private sector to accelerate cancer research. In the meantime, he’ll help play defense against Trump. “Even if the Democratic Party didn’t want me, I’m not walking away,” he said. “I’ve worked on this stuff my whole life. ” After Air Force Two touched down on the tarmac in Wilmington, I asked him about a line he liked to use before the election. “So do you still believe what your grandfather said, that God looks out for drunken Irishmen and the United States of America?” Biden said he wasn’t sure about the Irishmen, but he was about the country. “I have to believe that,” he said. “There’s no sense being in this business unless you’re an optimist. ” | 0fake |
WHAT THE MEDIA’S NOT TELLING YOU About The Manchester Terror Attack [VIDEO] | Just another nice immigrant family trying to assimilate in the country who so generously took them in The 22-year-old British-born attacker was heard chanting Islamic prayers loudly in the street outside his home in the south of the city. Not that anyone reported him. That would have been Islamophobic. It s a good thing we have Theresa May and the rest to tell us that this has nothing to do with Islam. He was chanting Islamic prayers loudly in the street : Neighbours of British-born Manchester suicide bomber tell of his strange behaviour in the weeks before deadly attack, by Nick Fagge, Paul Thompson and Julian Robinson, MailOnline, May 23, 2017: | 1real |
Handicapping the Hispanic vote for 2016 GOPers | The last Texas Republican to occupy the Oval Office, George W. Bush, took 49 percent of the state’s Hispanic vote in his 2004 presidential re-election, setting a relatively high bar for the handful of Texas-born or -raised Republicans who might be hoping to follow in his footsteps in 2016.
Republican presidential aspirants with ties to the Lone Star State must figure out how to hold the GOP base and attract conservative Hispanics if they want to be successful in Texas, political observers say.
So how do the party's four most prominent Texas affiliated might-be candidates — former Gov. Rick Perry; Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former presidents from the state; Texas’ junior U.S. senator, Ted Cruz; and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — stack up in the early going?
For Republicans to avoid a repeat of 2012, when presidential nominee Mitt Romney took only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote nationwide, they need to nominate a conservative candidate who can go into Hispanic communities and truly connect with voters, said Hector De Leon, co-chairman of the Associated Republicans of Texas, which reaches out to Hispanic voters.
“It’s all about paying attention,” De Leon said.
Hispanics made up 10 percent of the national electorate in the 2012 presidential election. But in Texas, they make up almost one-third of eligible voters. And there’s plenty room for improvement when it comes to voter turnout. Only 39 percent of Texas Hispanics eligible to vote cast ballots in 2012.
Political observers say candidates would be right to take a page out of George W. Bush’s playbook on Hispanic outreach. He solidified his winning record with Hispanics with help from Latino-media guru Lionel Sosa, who told The Texas Tribune he has been in talks with Jeb Bush about his possible presidential bid.
Sosa helped George W. Bush’s campaign craft several television ads that painted him as the candidate who understood Hispanic culture. The candidate who can mobilize on-the-fence Hispanic voters who usually do not turn out to vote could win the state.
“I do think the primaries will include a concerted effort by some candidates to speak to that constituency,” said Sylvia Manzano, a senior analyst for the nonpartisan political polling organization Latino Decisions. “In Texas, that’s 10 million people. That’s a number that cannot be ignored.”
Though it's still early in the game, many political observers say Jeb Bush is best positioned at the moment. He grew up in Midland, spent much of his childhood in Houston and is considered friendly to the Hispanic community, both personally and politically.
“Jeb Bush is not going to come in and play mariachi politics,” Manzano said. “He knows better than that.”
But this far out, all is speculation. As the candidates tiptoe toward the starting gate, here's how several political experts handicap the field.
Already holding a political advantage because he is fluent in Spanish, the former Florida governor has experience winning over Hispanics in a state where they make up a large part of the population. During his 1998 re-election campaign, Bush won an impressive 61 percent of Florida's Hispanic electorate. It's worth noting, though, that Florida’s mostly Cuban Hispanic population differs from Texas, where a majority of Hispanics have roots in Mexico.
What the experts say:
For Bush, reaching out to Texas Hispanics would be an extended family affair. Aside from benefiting from the groundwork his family has done in the state, expect to see Bush campaigning with his Mexican-born wife, Columba, and his son, Texas Land CommissionerGeorge P. Bush, at his side. George P. is also fluent in Spanish and helped found Hispanic Republicans of Texas, a political group that recruits and supports Hispanic Republicans running for public office.
Bush’s record on issues that resonate with Texas Hispanics, particularly immigration reform, could prove attractive to this voting group. He has urged Congress to pass immigration reform and has highlighted it as a key issue in helping Republicans win Hispanics. He also gained national attention last year when he said many of those entering the country illegally do so out of an “act of love” for their families.
As the state’s longest-serving governor, Perry has long courted Texas Hispanics. He has steadily improved his standing since winning only 13 percent of the Hispanic vote when he defeated Hispanic businessman Tony Sanchez of Laredo in 2002. By the time he was re-elected in 2010, Perry pulled in 38 percent of Hispanic voters.
What the experts say:
Perry’s efforts to broaden his appeal were buoyed by the passage of the Texas Dream Act during his 14-year tenure. Though the future of the law granting in-state tuition to some undocumented immigrants is unclear, Perry has stood by it both on the national stage and at home. During a 2011 presidential debate, Perry famously told opponents who challenged his support of the law that they had no heart. More recently, as the state’s new GOP leadership works to overturn the law, Perry has been vocal about his continued support for it.
Because he presided over the state’s economic boom in the last decade, Perry has a unique opportunity to appeal to Hispanics on economic issues. If Perry can convince Hispanic voters that they benefited from the so-called Texas Miracle, he may be able to sway some on-the-fence voters his way.
Though he is the only Hispanic in the group — and the first Hispanic senator from Texas — Cruz has largely avoided making heritage part of his political persona beyond recounting his father’s journey to the United States from Cuban as an exile in 1957. Still, he has done well with Texas Hispanics. In 2012, he outperformed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, taking 35 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to a Latino Decisions poll.
What the experts say:
Cruz arguably faces the toughest challenge courting Texas Hispanics given his divisive tone on immigration and health care. He has been vocal in his opposition to President Obama’s executive order on immigration, which will grant millions of undocumented immigrants work permits and reprieve from deportation proceedings. The order is widely popular among Hispanics. On health care, Cruz has been one of the biggest foes of the federal Affordable Care Act. Texas Hispanics — who make up a large portion of the state’s uninsured population —overwhelmingly support the health law.
Though Paul was elected to the Senate from Kentucky, where Hispanics make up only 3 percent of the population, he grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, where Hispanics are one-fifth of the population. Paul has spent the last few months preaching a message of Hispanic inclusion within the Republican ranks.
What the experts say:
Paul is someone to watch in the upcoming election when it comes to appealing to Texas Hispanics because of his views on growing the GOP’s number of Hispanic supporters. Because he is largely unknown among Texas Hispanics, Paul also has some room to improve his standing. A November 2014 poll by Latino Decisions found that almost a third of Texas Latino voters have no opinion of Paul. | 0fake |
Michele Bachmann Believes God Was Punishing Obama With Brussels Terrorist Attacks | While most of us probably wish former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) would just go away, she reared her head again on Wednesday to do what conservatives do best: blame and insult President Barack Obama.In a column for WorldNetDaily, Bachmann has written something so absolutely ridiculous and senseless that one has to wonder if she was intoxicated when she thought of it. In a blog post, Bachmann absolutely loses it and goes on an enormous rant on all of Obama s supposed failures, noting that This week, a United States president was humiliated on the world s stage by an aging, insulting Communist dictator. While the entire post is preposterous, the real kicker is when she reveals her belief that God sent terrorists to carry out the tragic Brussels attacks to humiliate Obama and punish him because he made a historical visit to Cuba instead of attending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. Seriously, she even titled the post Obama Visits Cuba While Civilization Burns . She wrote: Maybe our president s humiliation comes in a manner so devastating it makes one wonder whether the Creator of humankind isn t reminding this world of the inferiority of foolishness in the face of wisdom.The president once again mocked his nemesis, the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, by cleverly turning the international press corps toward his brilliant work in Cuba, instead of covering ongoing Islamic attacks against the Jewish state as outlined that very same day at the annual pro-Israel AIPAC meeting in Washington, D.C.History changed less than 24 hours later in the blink of an eye, and the rug was pulled out from under his well-laid plans.Obama s slavish press corps was forced to turn their uncritical gaze from adoring him to revealing the newest carnage in Brussels.Our eyes were spellbound. You can read the entire belligerent post here. To be perfectly honest, if Bachmann is trying to make Christianity look bad, she s doing an amazing job. Claiming that God would send terrorists to kill 31 and wound approximately 250 people just to soil Obama s reputation is not really a great approach for the religious right.We re sure numerous conservatives will stand behind Bachmann, confidently believing that if only the President had been at the AIPAC conference instead of Cuba, God would have been happy and the Brussels attack wouldn t have happened! Bachmann ended the post by accusing Obama for peddling the dangerous fantasy of multicultural diversity, globalization and one-world nonsense. And by saying: The choice is ours. Which leaders will we choose? Not little big man. Not today. Featured image via Getty Images | 1real |
Factbox: Trump fills top jobs for his administration | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday announced he has chosen David Shulkin, who currently heads the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system, to head the agency. Here is a list of Republican Trump’s selections for top jobs in his administration. NOTE: Senate confirmation is required for all the posts except national security adviser and White House posts. Tillerson, 64, has spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil Corp, where he rose to chairman and chief executive officer in 2006. A civil engineer by training, the Texan joined the world’s largest publicly traded energy company in 1975 and led several of its operations in the United States as well as in Yemen, Thailand and Russia. As Exxon’s chief executive, he maintained close ties with Moscow and opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea. Mnuchin, 54, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc before leaving the investment bank in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California’s largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized OneWest for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname, “Mad Dog.” He was rebuked in 2005 for saying: “It’s fun to shoot some people.” Sessions, 70, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country store owner, the lawmaker from Alabama and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Coats, 73, served as U.S. senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017, and was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005. He previously served as U.S. representative from Indiana’s 4th Congressional District. Zinke, 55, a first-term Republican U.S. representative from Montana and a member of the House subcommittee on natural resources, has voted for legislation that would weaken environmental safeguards on public lands. He has taken stances favoring the coal industry, which suffered during the Obama administration. The League of Conservation Voters, which ranks lawmakers on their environmental record, gave Zinke an extremely low lifetime score of 3 percent. Ross, 79, heads the private equity firm WL Ross & Co. Forbes has pegged his net worth at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign’s views on trade policy. He blames massive U.S. factory job losses on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization. Lighthizer, 69, served as deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration in the 1980s and has since spent nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases, currently with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. A harsh critic of China’s trade practices, Lighthizer in 2010 told Congress that U.S. policymakers should take a more aggressive approach in dealing with the Asian country. Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc [APOLOT.UL], which runs the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organized labor. U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is against abortion. Shulkin, 57, currently is under secretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, putting him in charge of the country’s largest healthcare system. Shulkin, a physician, was chosen by Democratic President Barack Obama for the under secretary post in 2015. He has spearheaded an effort to cut waiting times for care at VA medical centers. Trump promised during the campaign to improve medical care for veterans. Shulkin would be the first VA secretary who had not served in the military. Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson had been reluctant to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. He is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand Plc, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Co. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. Perry, 66, is an addition to the list of oil drilling advocates skeptical about climate change who have been picked for senior positions in Trump’s Cabinet. The selections have worried environmentalists but cheered an oil and gas industry eager for expansion. Perry, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and also briefly ran for president in 2016, would be responsible for U.S. energy policy and oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons program. DeVos, 59, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for expansion of charter schools. The final leadership role of Kelly’s 45-year military career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States’ southern border with Mexico. Priebus recently was re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman but will give up that job to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump’s agenda. Priebus, 44, was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of Obama’s measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits in with the president-elect’s promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011 and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney, 49, a South Carolina Republican, is a fiscal conservative. He was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Mulvaney was first elected to Congress in 2010. Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012 and was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign. U.S. Representative Pompeo, 53, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government’s sweeping collection of Americans’ communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. Walter “Jay” Clayton is a New York-based attorney who advises clients on major Wall Street deals, specializing in public and private mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising efforts. His past clients have included Alibaba Group Holding Company, Oaktree Capital Group and big banks. Retired Lieutenant General Flynn, 58, was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign policy. Tom Bossert, 41, who worked as deputy homeland security adviser to former President George W. Bush, will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. He currently runs a risk management consulting firm and has a cyber risk fellowship with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a “global power structure” that had robbed America’s working class. Navarro, 67, has suggested a stepped-up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. A professor at the University of California, Irvine, who advised Trump during the campaign, Navarro argued that Washington should stop referring to the “one China” policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei: “There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda.” Viola, 60, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a U.S. Army veteran who served in the famed 101st Airborne Division. He founded high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial Inc and served as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career. After the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, Viola helped found the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. He is an owner of the Florida Panthers ice hockey team. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELOR: STEVE BANNON The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump’s campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump’s dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump’s gatekeeper and agenda-setter. | 0fake |
JUDGE NAPOLITANO Drops A Bomb About Obama’s Surveillance [Video] | Judge Napolitano spoke out today about the unmasking of people in government by Obama. He began to discuss allegations Senator Rand Paul and another senator were under surveillance by the Obama administration but dropped a bomb on the Obama administration spying on the US Supreme Court.Judge Napolitano: Justice Scalia told me that he often thought the court was being surveilled. And he told me that probably four or five years ago If they had to unmask Senator Paul s name to reveal a conversation he was having with a foreign agent and the foreign agent was hostile to the United States they can do that. That s not what he s talking about. They re talking about unmasking him when he s having a conversation with his campaign manager when he s running in the Republican primary.During the discussion Judge Napolitano also said Barack Obama could be subpoenaed to testify if he viewed the unmasked intelligence. | 1real |
Clinton's 'girl power' push wins over women in their 30s, not 20s | DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - If Hillary Clinton pulls off a victory in her close race for the Democratic presidential nomination with Bernie Sanders, she will have women like Joan Pinnell to thank. Pinnell, a 32-year-old Chicagoan and former volunteer for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, has been knocking on doors in Iowa in support of Clinton, Obama’s Democratic former rival. Her dedication stems in part from the desire for a president who can “personally understand the struggle that it is to be female” – a factor that was far less important to her back in 2008 when she was in her mid-20s. “I get annoyed when I hear women say ‘it doesn’t matter at all,’” Pinnell says of the gender issue. “It matters.” With Iowans ready to cast the first votes of the 2016 presidential race on Monday, polls show Sanders and Clinton locked in a statistical dead heat in the state, although she leads the U.S. senator from Vermont in national polls. The enthusiasm that Sanders has sparked with college students and those just out of college – including young women – has generated buzz around his campaign. What has gotten far less attention, however, is the split that exists between women in their late teens and early 20s and their cohorts in their 30s. Though Democratic women aged 18 to 29 say they prefer Sanders to Clinton 57 to 24 percent, those aged 30 to 39, like Pinnell, prefer Clinton to Sanders 45 to 28 percent, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll of 3,466 respondents taken from Jan. 1 to Jan. 26. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/20bI5ry) In interviews with women voters aged 30 to 39 nationally, many said that in 2008 they had been drawn to Obama’s idealistic message of “hope” and “change,” but this time around they say they value the experience of Clinton, a former first lady, senator and secretary of state. After navigating their first apartments, careers, moves, marriages and children, these women also said they like Clinton’s emphasis on issues such as reproductive health and equal pay for women. Still, Sanders’ fiery rhetoric and liberal agenda are drawing support from young women like Abigail Gill, 19, a student at Keene State College in New Hampshire, who say gender does not matter. “To vote for Hillary just because she is a woman is just as bad as not,” Gill said. Clinton played down her gender in 2008 but this time around urges voters not to miss the chance to make history by electing the first woman president. She has worked hard to court women “Millennials” – the generation born beginning in the early 1980s. She taped an episode of “Broad City,” a sometimes raunchy comedy about two twenty-something women living in New York City and has created a “girl power” music playlist. She makes a point of calling on young women at town hall events and takes countless “selfies” with them. Clinton’s senior aide and protégé, Huma Abedin, 39, headlined a New York City networking event for women. Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, 35, has hosted a fundraiser at the trendy workout spot SoulCycle. Kellie Lewis, 36, brought her 19-month-old daughter and 5-month-old son to hear Clinton speak at a bowling alley in Adel, Iowa last week. Lewis said she is eager to help make history by supporting Clinton. “I feel like we’ve had men looking at government for so long, a new perspective is exactly what is needed to get a more equal society,” Lewis said. But Erin Batchelder, a junior at Smith College in Massachusetts, is conflicted. She says she’d like to see “one of my own” in the Oval Office but is drawn to Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist whose message centers on fighting income inequality and the excesses of Wall Street. Batchelder plans to vote for Sanders but her best friend, also a Smith student, recently switched from backing Sanders to supporting Clinton. “That’s what I’m grappling with right now, especially with my best friend making that shift, a lot of women at Smith are making that shift,” Batchelder said. (Editing by Caren Bohan and Mary Milliken) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 0fake |
French businesses seek clarity on Iran nuclear deal | PARIS (Reuters) - French businesses and foreign and finance ministry officials will meet next week as they work together to understand better the consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump s refusal to certify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Multi-nationals Total and Peugeot are among the most high profile companies to have signed new deals since the accord that provided sanctions relief for Iran and dozens of smaller French firms have also moved in or are looking to tap the Iranian market. According to an invitation sent to companies by the Medef business group, officials from the foreign ministry, finance ministry and France s business office in Tehran will offer on Tuesday an analysis of the consequences of the non-certification by Trump of the accord. European capitals are determined to keep alive an accord that offered Iran an economic lifeline and the Paris government wants to know how its companies might react to the U.S. move. We re still assessing how firms are reacting to the Trump decision, but we are trying to not be overly alarmist with them, said a French diplomatic source. While Trump did not pull the United States out of the agreement, he gave the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to re-impose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the pact agreed between Iran and six world powers. Despite a long history of commercial, political and social links with Iran that even saw Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei in exile near Paris in 1979, France took one of the hardest lines of the six powers negotiating the nuclear agreement with Iran. Since the deal was agreed, however, France has manoeuvred to deepen economic ties with Tehran and has repeatedly said it believes Iran is fully implementing the nuclear accord. According to a notice on the Medef website, the discussion points include an explanation on the next steps at the U.S. Congress, the position of the accord s other signatories - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union - and the immediate consequences on companies already operating in Iran. | 0fake |
Indonesian police officer killed in shooting near Freeport mine | JAKARTA/TIMIKA, Indonesia (Reuters) - An Indonesian police officer was killed and a second wounded on Wednesday, after both were shot in the back in an area near Freeport-McMoRan Inc s giant Grasberg copper mine in the eastern province of Papua, police said. The officers were patrolling an area close to where a Freeport vehicle was targeted in a shooting on Tuesday, Papua police spokesman Suryadi Diaz said in a statement. A helicopter flew the men to a hospital in the nearby lowland city of Timika. The main access road to Grasberg remained closed, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said, referring to a 79-mile (127-km) stretch from Timika to the mining town of Tembagapura that runs near a river rich with gold tailings from the mine upstream. A string of at least 15 separate shooting incidents in the area since mid-August that wounded at least 12 people and killed two police officers has been blamed by police on an armed criminal group , but linked to separatist rebels by others. In a statement, the separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), a group linked to the Free Papua Movement, claimed responsibility for Wednesday s incident. The group has said it is at war with police, military and Freeport. For decades, there have been sporadic attacks along the road where the shootings took place, but authorities efforts to catch the perpetrators have been hampered by thick surrounding jungle. The Indonesian Military (TNI) and police have urged the Armed Separatist Movement in Papua to surrender, but until now no one has turned themselves in, Indonesian military chief Gatot Nurmantyo said in a statement. Armed separatists cannot be left alone, he said, adding that reining in such activities was the domain of the military, which was preparing emergency measures in case persuasive approaches by the police and military failed. Papua has had a long-running, and sometimes violent, separatist movement since the province was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised 1969 U.N.-backed referendum. Foreign journalists have in the past required special permission to report in Papua, and once there, have had security forces restrict their movement and work. President Joko Widodo has pledged to make the region more accessible to foreign media by inviting reporters on government-sponsored trips, although coverage remains difficult. | 0fake |
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Final Bows in ‘Hamilton’ on Broadway - The New York Times | Miranda’s final bows for his farewell performance in “Hamilton” on Saturday night seemed routine, if overly humble for the departure of the show’s star and mastermind. He even shared his bows with the other cast members also exiting the show, including Phillipa Soo and the Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr. But then the theme song to “The West Wing” kicked in from the orchestra pit. Mr. Miranda giggled and took a couple of shy bows, only to turn around and be embraced then pushed back to the front of the stage by Christopher Jackson, who plays George Washington, for a proper bow. Still, the curtain call lasted no more than two and a half minutes, despite fervent applause, which had been consistent throughout the night. The opening number received multiple standing ovations, as did many others. But Mr. Miranda and other performers would pause for only a minute each time before moving the show forward. Afterward, in the pouring rain, hundreds and hundreds of fans filled West 46th Street, waiting for Mr. Miranda to emerge from the stage door at the Richard Rodgers Theater. Instead, Mr. Miranda appeared, “Evita” on a balcony atop the theater’s marquee. Holding an umbrella and waving to fans, he paced from one side of the marquee to the other, occasionally stopping to hold his left hand over his heart to show gratitude. Then he was gone. “It’s over, folks,” a police officer yelled as he tried to keep the crowd out of the street. “There’s no more. ” Despite the rain, many people were reluctant to leave, greeting other cast members at the stage door and holding out for another possible appearance by Mr. Miranda. Inside, he had gotten his hair cut, now that he no longer needed it long for the role. Fans had begun to wait for him much earlier in the day. An hour before the 8 p. m. curtain, hundreds of people flanked the stage door to watch cast members and V. I. P.s come and go, and others stood across the street. Many didn’t even have tickets. “Hamilton” merchandise abounded: posters and even a woman’s clutch that read “Talk Less,” the advice Aaron Burr gives Hamilton throughout the show. Around 7:10 p. m. Ms. Soo — who plays Hamilton’s wife, Eliza — entered through the stage door, escorted by her fiancé, the actor Steven Pasquale. He later walked out and approached a police officer, Mike Sullivan, who was standing near the box office and has been assigned to the theater’s block for six years. “Thank you for everything,” Mr. Pasquale said to him. Mr. Sullivan shook his hand, smiled and said, “Of course. ” Nearby, at the front of the line, was a family of four from Florida. They had bought their tickets in February when their daughters, Katie and Sarah Lafferty, fell in love with the cast recording. And their father, Mike, expected the show to be good, he said, because “the first lady says it’s the best art she’s ever seen in her life. ” So Mr. Lafferty looked ahead at a block of tickets. This weekend just happened to be the cheapest option. Not so much for recent ticket buyers. Clara Lacey, a from Los Angeles, flew to New York to see Mr. Miranda’s final performance, and her family bought her a single ticket just a few hours before the show. They paid about $1, 500. Once the house opened at 7:30 p. m. winners of the “Hamilton” ticket lottery — a small number of coveted $10 seats are distributed through an online system — could claim their prizes. Among them were a young actress, Haleigh Ciel, and her friend Byron Chang. Like many of the other winners, they were excited to have finally won and gotten a chance to see Broadway’s hottest show. But they had no idea this was Mr. Miranda’s farewell. “Oh my God,” Ms. Ciel said. “Now I feel so incredibly honored. ” Others did know, and they were understandably excited for the night. Michelle Foronjy, who works at a Toyota dealership on Long Island, said she screamed when she found out that she had won the lottery and expected to be squeezing her boyfriend’s hand with excitement all night. She was still holding on to him as they left the theater. Celebrities came through the box office doors at a steady pace. Jennifer Lopez, who recently collaborated with Mr. Miranda on a benefit song to aid those affected by the Orlando massacre, attracted attention with the flashes of paparazzi, as did John Kerry with his security detail. (Abigail, a dog, noticed them but seemed unfazed.) Spike Lee came for his eighth “Hamilton” performance. Mariska Hargitay showed up for the 10th time. No one seemed as devoted as Rosie O’Donnell, who said this was her 24th time, including performances Off Broadway at the Public Theater. Ms. O’Donnell lamented the cast departures, and Ms. Hargitay in particular was preparing for an emotional evening of saying goodbye to Mr. Odom. “There are going to be a lot of tears,” she said. “Oh no, I’m starting to cry just saying that. ” Among the stragglers was Charlie Rose, as well as two young women — one of whom, as she was walking through the lobby doors, looked at her ticket and said, “These aren’t great seats. ” Her companion replied: “Who cares? We get to see it. ” | 0fake |
SAY WHAT? Trump-Hater, RINO John McCain Admits HE Handed Smear Dossier Outlining Claims Of Kremlin Blackmail To FBI | Sworn Donald Trump enemy John McCain admitted Wednesday that he passed the dossier of claims of a Russian blackmail plot against the president-elect.The Arizona senator issued a public statement amid mounting questions of his exact role in the affair and how a document riddled with errors and unverifiable claims came to be published. Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public, he said. Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue. But the 2008 Republican loser, who disowned his party s candidate weeks before the election, may have been far more intimately involved than that.The chain of how the document reached the FBI is not officially known.However Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporter who contributed to the first story about its existence, published by CNN on Tuesday afternoon, suggested that McCain was handed it by a former British ambassador to Moscow. Arizona Senator who disowned Trump before election admits he handed document outlining claims of Kremlin blackmail to FBI Brief statement claims that he received it and gave it directly to FBI Director James Comey because he was unable to make judgment about accuracy But Washington reporter Carl Bernstein says former British ambassador to Moscow handed it to McCain Ambassador has not been named and author of report also gave to FBI agent he knew at its station in Rome months ago Report was apparently paid for first BY Republican enemies of Trump then by DemocratsBernstein told CNN: It came from a former British MI6 agent who was hired from a political opposition research firm in Washington who was doing work about Donald Trump for both republican and democratic candidates opposed to Trump. They were looking at Trumps business ties, they saw some questionable things about Russians, about his businesses in Russia, they in turn hired this MI6 former investigator, he then came up with additional information from his Russian sources, he was very concerned by the implications of it, he then took it to an FBI colleague that he had known in his undercover work for years, he took it to this FBI man in Rome who turned it over to the bureau in Washington in August. And then, a former British ambassador to Russia independently was made aware of these findings and he took the information to John McCain Senator John McCain of Arizona in the period just after the election, and showed it to McCain additional findings. McCain was sufficiently disturbed by what he read to take it to FBI director James Comey himself personally, they had a five minute meeting the two men, very little was said, McCain turned it over to him and is now awaiting what the FBI s response is to that information. The identity of the former British ambassador has not been disclosed.Only one former British ambassador to Moscow remains in UK government service, Sir Tim Barrow, who went on to be Foreign Office political director and is now Britain s ambassador to the European Union.The new information, which has not been independently verified, claims that Russian officials also gathered highly damaging information on Trump, but only released the details attacking Clinton through the WikiLeaks website.The Kremlin has denied all of the allegations, while Trump tweeted: FAKE NEWS A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT .Buzzfeed followed up a report by CNN which disclosed the existence of the explosive dossier, but only gave a brief outline of the contents.The 35-page document, which had been collated by a former British Secret Intelligence Service agent had initially been handed over to the FBI in August.Buzzfeed s Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith wrote an email to his staff shortly after publishing the document.Buzzfeed is one of the radical publications on the internet. It is known for pumping out hateful and negative Trump stories almost with a vengeance to its young readers on a regular basis. The release of this FAKE NEWS should surprise NO ONE! Daily Mail | 1real |
Muhammad Ali Sent Trump A Powerful Message That The World Needs To Read | The right wing loves to appropriate revolutionary icons. Muhammed Ali is very much one of those icons. Since his passing on Friday, the boxing champion and political agitator s legacy has been praised by those who have agendas that are antithetical to the The Champ s views on the world. This is probably best exemplified by the message that he sent to Donald Trump (though Trump was not named explicitly) and anyone else who wants to take Trump s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States seriously.Trump recently sent out a tweet, where he praised Ali for being a truly great champion and a wonderful guy. Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2016That tweet stands out in stark contrast to the disgusting one that Trump sent out about Muslim athletes just a few months prior to Ali s passing.Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015People were quick to point out how vile and asinine the statement was.And dude, @realDonaldTrump, you've met @MuhammadAli multiple times. pic.twitter.com/tIiIBgY80b Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 7, 2015While Trump and Ali had a friendly relationship prior to Trump s political campaign, Ali sent Trump a letter denouncing the idea that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States. I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.Speaking as someone who has never been accused of political correctness, I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people s views on what Islam really is. As we all know, Trump has not heeded that message. Trump s entire campaign stands in opposition to what Ali preached.Like the great man himself, Ali s powerful message floats with the grace of a butterfly, yet should sting those who they are addressed to like a bee.Featured image from Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images | 1real |
New Expose Details Just How Terrible Donald Trump REALLY Is With Women | Americans can thank that pesky liberal media for spotlighting just how awful presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump really is. While he has proven to be a blustering sexist all on his own with comments made towards women like Megyn Kelly, Rosie O Donnell and fellow Republican Carly Fiorina, the press is helping him along as well.But, despite Trump s own damning antics, it s a recent expose in the New York Times appropriately titled Crossing the Line: How Donald TrumpBehaved With Women in Private that really dives deep below the surface into Trump s misogynistic harassment towards multiple women:The lengthy expose meticulously details multiple instances of inappropriate conduct with women, from models in the Miss America pageant, to employees in his Trump empire, and they re vivid memories of his disgusting behavior:The New York Times interviewed dozens of women who had worked with or for Mr. Trump over the past four decades, in the worlds of real estate, modeling and pageants; women who had dated him or interacted with him socially; and women and men who had closely observed his conduct since his adolescence. In all, more than 50 interviews were conducted over the course of six weeks.Their accounts many relayed here in their own words reveal unwelcome romantic advances, unending commentary on the female form, a shrewd reliance on ambitious women, and unsettling workplace conduct, according to the interviews, as well as court records and written recollections.Such instances include:The list goes on and on. From his early days at the military academy in the 1960s to his presidential campaign now, Trump has lived a life of debauchery, sexism, borderline pedophilia, cheating, manipulating and pure misogyny.And now he s the nominee for a major political party for President of the United States. I can only imagine how he would treat interns and White House staff.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Cops Fire Tear Gas on Water Protectors as They Attempt to Reclaim Sacred Land | By Justin Gardner As the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline nears its planned Missouri River crossing, protesters are remaining strong in their fight to protect the... | 1real |
Jewish Home touts Trump victory as sign of change | November 9, 2016 Jewish Home touts Trump victory as sign of change
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) responded Wednesday morning to the news of Donald Trump’s election victory over Hillary Clinton, congratulating the new President-elect and offering his thanks to the former Secretary of State.“I congratulate Trump, and all the American people. We thank Hillary Clinton for her friendship with Israel,” said Bennett in a statementShaked also congratulated Trump, praising him as a “true friend of Israel.”Bennett pledged to strengthen the “special relationship” between Israel and the US, adding that Trump’s win offers the chance to scrap a central tenet of American foreign policy in the Middle East for five decades – Palestinian statehood, which was conspicuously absent from the Republican platform.“We are sure the special relationship between the United States and Israel will continue, and even grow stronger.” | 1real |
“HOW CAN WE GET BEHIND SUCH CORRUPTION?” CNN PANEL Shocked by Truth from Black Patriot After They Tried to Tell Him He’s Wrong About the Racist DNC [Video] | The video below is a classic from the campaign. It s rare that CNN doesn t cut people off like this man. Gary Frazier gives a dose of truth serum to the panel on CNN but they won t listen This is awesome!Katrina Pierson commented and then Frazier was asked to respond. Well, the last thing that CNN s Carol costello expected was agreement from Frazier. The other panelists try and tell Frazier he s wrong. LOL! You tried to send us Oprah then you sent us Obama The truth is that the DNC has used race as a tool to divide for decades. They don t want the black community to rise up and see the truth. It s been great for the Democrats to have the black community s support and they don t want to lose those votes. That s why you constantly hear people in power trying to create racial strife It s been profitable for them in so many ways. Until we start to have a real conversation about what we re going to do with those in the minority communities, how can we ever get behind such corruption? Thank you Gary Frazier for telling the truth!TRUMP S CHAIR FOR DIVERSITY OUTREACH SLAMS CUOMO THIS IS GREAT! | 1real |
Trump Fan Debates 12-Year-Old And HUMILIATES Himself (VIDEO) | One of Donald Trump s favorite morons you know, the poorly educated as he calls them managed to pick a fight he couldn t win with a 12-year-old boy outside a city council meeting in Huntington Park, California on Tuesday.The boy had just finished speaking to the city council when an angry man wearing a Trump flag asked him if he was an American. I was born here, but I am also half-Mexican, Joseph Moreno replied. Then Mr. MAGA learned that typical talking points he and his exceptionally stupid friends regularly throw at people on Twitter don t work when the target is twelve.Calling the preteen brainwashed, the Trump follower began angrily demanding to know if the boy, who (once again) is twelve, if he can vote in Mexico. So you can vote over there? the man asks. I. Am. Twelve. Years. Old, the kid says, emphasizing every word as though he was talking to a Trump voter (oh, wait, he was). I can t even vote here if I wanted to. Can you vote over there, the man repeated. I can t right now because I m 12, the kid replies.This is just one gem in a treasure trove of stupid, which you can watch below if you need a good laugh:(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));MUST WATCH! love this boy so much! . He gave an amazing speech at the podium at Huntington Park City Council Meeting. Mark my words.. he is a future leader! ?? Posted by Veronica Tomas on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 | 1real |
NYT’s RACE-OBSESSED Liberal Columnist GOES NUTS On CNN When Conservative Pundit Touches His Arm [VIDEO] | Blow wrote in his article today for the New York Times that he has no desire to work with Trump voters. He clearly stated that there is no room for compromise with anyone who doesn t agree with him: | 1real |
We May Be Leaving the Ken Bone Zone - The New York Times | This is an obituary for a fictional persona: Ken Bone, America’s Hero. This Ken Bone of our imaginations was born on Sunday, during a presidential debate, when the American public saw him and decided that he was more important than whatever those two nameless individuals running for president had to say. The real Ken Bone is still alive and well, of course. To prove it, he has tried, like any enterprising American, to capitalize on the country’s feverish, bewildering affection by accepting some sort of sponsorship deal from Uber, creating his own “Bone Zone” line, and conducting an interview with the people of Reddit on Thursday. Judging from his active account history and the breadth of Mr. Bone’s discussions, they are his sort of people. The media coverage has been so intense that it inspired one journalist to write existential poetry. In just a few short days, Mr. Bone broke Chewbacca Mom’s record for permeating our consciousness. But the pendulum of adoration must always swing back, it seems. Chewbacca Mom, whose real name is a lot less fun to say than “Ken Bone” or “Bone Zone,” made the transformation in the eyes of some to a symbol of racial privilege, or maybe an avatar of our modern tendency to award provocative people with gross amounts of money for doing very little. It all depended on who was watching, who was writing, and what they felt. Now the bell tolls for Mr. Bone. It is Mr. Bone’s turn to show the world that he is a flawed person — a human, even — who decided to take the ride when was given to him. He might also now be forced to acknowledge that he has said and done things that are bad, unpopular or even illegal. And the rest of us, in our indignant perfection, will shake our heads and tweet about it. As Mr. Bone conducted his Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, reporters at Gizmodo — a site literally hours ahead of anyone else in revealing the supposed badness of Mr. Bone — and their counterparts at The Daily Dot and The Daily Beast soon ferreted out Mr. Bone’s past Reddit history, finding tidbits that were sure to provoke somebody. It seems Mr. Bone had engaged in a discussion of his sex life after having undergone a vasectomy. Using the pseudonym StanGibson18, he had revealed that he enjoyed viewing the nude photos of the actress Jennifer Lawrence (that were, for the record, posted online without her consent). He also commented on pictures of scantily clad women on the Bodyperfection and RealGirls subreddits. “Beautiful human submarines,” he wrote on a post about pregnant women in an subreddit called PreggoPorn. Before anyone knew his real name, he had decided to tell Reddit about the most illegal thing he said he’s ever done, by claiming that he had once forged car insurance documents to keep his job as a pizza delivery driver. And four months ago, Mr. Bone summed up the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman as a “justified” episode: “Bad guy legally kills kid in self defense. Sucks for everybody,” he wrote, before blaming the news media. Under this Reddit account, Mr. Bone was a semiregular commenter, with about 150 comments made over the course of the year, not including the flurry of posts he made during his A. M. A. He posted about gun control and his job as an operator at a coal plant in Illinois. He voiced support for President Obama but said that he himself was “a pretty conservative guy. ” What else? He enjoys video games, is O. K. with calling himself “fat and bald,” and once offered words of comfort to a survivor of rape. “Your value has not changed due his words,” he wrote to that person, “or any assault you have endured. You are still valuable. ” Quite a mixed bag. But in this world of online only extremes break through. The echo chamber doesn’t do nuance. On Friday, Mr. Bone’s voice mail box was full. He did not reply to a text message, but he did eventually answer email questions about the criticism of his old anonymous comments on Trayvon Martin and Jennifer Lawrence. “If you read the whole post on the Trayvon Martin tragedy you’ll see that I said based on what I read, which was the release from the D. O. J. the shooting was ruled as legally justified,” he wrote. “It was also an awful thing to happen. Just because it was legal does not mean it was right. I wish Trayvon were still alive. ” (The Department of Justice said that the evidence surrounding the case did not meet the law’s high standard for prosecuting crimes.) On his posts about Ms. Lawrence, he had this to say: “It was a joke in poor taste made from my former anonymity. I take full responsibility for saying it. I wholeheartedly apologize and wish I could do so to her directly. ” Now that he is the opposite of anonymous, Mr. Bone would like everyone to know something: “My message has been one about elevating the level of conversation, and if I want to hold our leaders accountable for their words then I must be accountable for mine. ” In a later email, Mr. Bone ended this long and strange week by saying that his insurance fraud comments had been a fabrication: “That was a made up story, and even in the story no documents were passed to law enforcement. They were used for employment. ” | 0fake |
WOMAN Who Wants To Become DNC Chair: “My job is to shut other white people down when they say, ‘Oh no, I’m not prejudiced!'”[VIDEO] | The Democratic Party held a forum for race obsessed nut-jobs candidates who are running to become the new DNC Chair. The DNC Chair will replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz who was fired (took the fall for Hillary) when it was discovered through leaks in the hacked DNC emails that she helped to rig the primary election against Bernie Sanders to ensure a Hillary win. For a brief period of time, Donna Brazile was the interim replacement for Wasserman-Schultz, until she was caught passing debate questions to Hillary in advance of the debate while working as a commentator at CNN.It seems that the DNC has had a string of bad luck when it comes to finding an honest person to run their party. But who needs honesty when you re a Democrat right? All you need is to be able to effectively pander to minorities right? I mean, it worked so well for Hillary after all Watch Sally Boynton Brown pander to the minorities in the crowd during a forum that gave candidates a chance to tell everyone why they believe they are the best candidate for the job. It appears she has a single agenda, to shut white people up. The funny thing is, there are two black candidates sitting behind her who don t seem to be impressed with her speech until she starts talking about shutting white people down, at which time you can see their demeanor change and smiles can be seen from ear to ear. 8 years ago, this would have been seen as a partisan and unnecessarily divisive speech. But this isn t 8 years ago. This is post divisive-Obama and it will take years to unwind the mistrust, hate and division he has created between races that didn t previously exist.https://youtu.be/TCeoC7P7WmoSally Boyton Brown should have been laughed off the stage for her ridiculous claim that a white person is not allowed to say they have black friends without also admitting they re racists . Instead, the audience and the candidates behind her clap like seals in approval of a false narrative driven almost exclusively by Democrats for the purpose of keeping America divided, as they falsely believe this will somehow be the key to keeping them in power. It is my job to shut down other white people! It s my job to shut down other white people when they interrupt. It is my job to shut down white people when they say they re not prejudiced! | 1real |
HOW PEOPLE MAGAZINE COVER Proves Hillary Has ALWAYS Been Wildly Unpopular With Women | Does anyone else get the sense Hillary is not quite as popular with Americans as the media would like us to believe? She can barely fill a phone booth with supporters at her rallies and the activity with her social media accounts pale in comparison to Donald Trump s. Will the media be able to convince enough Americans that voters actually like or trust Hillary by November? Flashback to 2014, before the full-force of Hillary s reckless handling of highly classified emails put our national security at risk: People magazine has been a propaganda arm of the Left for decades. The June 16, 2014 cover promoting Hillary as our next President is no exception. Unfortunately, the propagandists at People Magazine underestimated the disinterest and dislike Americans had for Hillary Clinton when they made the decision to place her on their cover.According to AdWeek s report on the best and worst covers of 2014, the Clinton cover was People s most unpopular cover of the year, selling only 503,890 copies.Considering that 70% of People magazine s readers are women, this embarrassing cover flop should be of great concern to the campaign of the first female candidate for President Watch:The most successful cover? Unsurprisingly, Robin Williams memorial issue from August sold a total of 1,169,800 copies.- Huffington PostThis is just more proof of how UNpopular Hillary Clinton truly is with American voters and most especially with a demographic she can t afford to lose women voters. | 1real |
Merkel: Worried about Islamisation? Just Sing Christmas Carols | Merkel: Worried about Islamisation? Just Sing Christmas Carols Merkel: Worried about Islamisation? Just Sing Christmas Carols By 0 19
Angela Merkel has recommended that Germans who are concerned about Islamisation should play Christmas carols on the recorder to contain any possible threat.
At a national congress of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Wittenburg the German Chancellor told supporters that it’s up to them to hold off the growth of Islam in Germany, by preserving Christmas traditions.
Addressing points raised by the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party about Islamic law holding values that are antithetical to those of Germans, Merkel conceded: “I know that there are concerns about Islam.”
The CDU politician argued that it’s up to Germans to contain Islamisation in Germany, suggesting they do so by recalling Christian traditions. “How many Christmas carols do we still know? And how many of them are we passing on to our children and grandchildren?” she asked the crowd, rhetorically.
Merkel added: “You just have to copy a few [sheets of carol music], and ask someone who can play the recorder or the flute [to join in]”.
Met with some laughter at her suggestion that a woodwind rendition of Christmas songs could pose a challenge to Islamisation, the Chancellor insisted : “Yes I’m being serious. Otherwise, we will lose a piece of our homeland.”
Merkel’s suggestions were met with scepticism from AfD Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Beatrix von Storch, who co-leads the Eurosceptic party.
“Yes, I think it’s an excellent idea and it’s nice when… | 1real |
FLASHBACK: Chilling ’60 Minutes’ Interview with George Soros Nearly 20 Years Ago | 21st Century Wire says George Soros has been described as a philanthropist, yet many of the social movement projects funded by his Open Society Foundation, have led to violent civil unrest and societal instability in the form of color revolutions.In the video below we see a rare glimpse of the contoversial hedge fund mogul, the man dubbed The Man Who Broke the Bank of England, who openly admits to engaging in amoral activities in a 1998 interview with Steve Kroft on 60 minutes.Kroft presses the magnate about his dark past tied to the Nazi-era, as well as his profitable career as an investor/speculator and his escape from Securities and Exchange regulation.Witness the stark and chilling acknowledgement from Soros, as he calculatingly states the following: I don t feel guilty because I m engaged in an amoral activity which is not meant to have anything to do with guilt. READ MORE ON SOCIAL ENGINEERING: 21st Century Wire Social Engineering Files | 1real |
Why Hillary Clinton's gun control proposal is all wrong | Americans desperately want something done about mass public shootings. Hillary Clinton took a page from President Obama’s playbook Monday, vowing that as president she will bypass Congress and use executive action to change how guns can be purchased.
She is angry that Republicans "refuse to do anything" about mass shootings.
But that isn’t accurate. Clinton isn’t the only one to speak out boldly on this topic. On Saturday, Donald Trump said: “And by the way, it was a gun-free zone. ... I’ll tell you, if you had a couple of the teachers or someone with guns in that room, you would have been a hell of a lot better off.” Others such as Sen. Marco Rubio have made a similar point.”
The Republican push has at least the virtue of potentially stopping these crimes. The Umpqua Community College in Oregon shooting shows yet another case where guns were banned. With these killers explicitly picking places where victims are defenseless, at some point it should be impossible to ignore.
Clinton’s proposals wouldn’t have stopped these attacks. The “universal” background checks on private transfers may raise the cost of law-abiding citizens getting guns.
They wouldn’t have stopped any of the mass public shootings during Barack Obama’s presidency, including last Thursday’s in Oregon. At some point an enterprising reporter might ask Obama or Clinton to name just one of the cases they have used to push this law where the law would have stopped the attack.
Clinton is proposing three other measures:
1. Prohibiting domestic abusers and stalkers from buying and possessing guns. This sounds reasonable, but the change from existing law would allow people to have their guns taken from them without a court hearing. If people are committing crimes, they should be prosecuted for felonies or misdemeanors, but Clinton’s solution is to take away their guns even when they aren’t being prosecuted.
2. Closing the “Charleston Loophole,” where the federal background check worker didn’t contact the right law enforcement agencies. But the truth is more complicated. First, even a perfectly functioning background check system very likely wouldn’t have stopped the suspect, Dylann Roof, from getting a gun. Second, the current background check system is a much worse mess than Clinton recognizes.
Roof allegedly planned his attack for at least six months, so it’s hard to believe he couldn’t have figured out some way to obtain a gun. Indeed, he stole the gun he used in this attack.
The truth is, the databases the government uses to determine eligibility for gun purchases are rife with errors.
FBI Director James Comey’s comments in July about the FBI’s background check system focus on one type of error, where someone who should have been prohibited from getting a gun wasn’t stopped. But a much more common error involves people who should be able to buy guns but are stopped.
3. Repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which prevents the manufacturers and dealers of firearms from being held liable for crimes committed with their weapons. It might be hard to remember, but gun makers were being sued because they "specifically geared" their weapons to make them attractive to gang members. Among the offending characteristics listed are low price, easy concealability, corrosion resistance and high firepower. Suing an industry for making affordable products shows how far the liability-litigation madness has gone.
The lawsuits were simply an attempt to raise the costs of doing business and to bankrupt the companies. Hillary may claim she cares about the poor, but poor people in the highest-crime areas benefit the most from gun ownership, and they are the people who would be priced out of owning guns for protection.
Vowing to do something concrete about mass public shootings on the campaign trail may be popular. But Clinton’s proposed gun-control solutions refuse to address the obvious problem of gun-free zones and will make ultimately make Americans less safe.
John R. Lott, Jr. is a columnist for FoxNews.com. He is an economist and was formerly chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission. Lott is also a leading expert on guns and op-eds on that issue are done in conjunction with the Crime Prevention Research Center. He is the author of nine books including "More Guns, Less Crime." His latest book is "The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies (August 1, 2016). Follow him on Twitter@johnrlottjr. | 0fake |
A surprisingly fascinating theory for why Canada is so boring | Why is Canada so boring? It's a question that Canadian journalist Jeet Heer tried to answer in a series of tweets that are both quaintly earnest (this is a Canadian writing about Canadianness, after all) and surprisingly insightful. The question, it turns out, gets to the very core of what it means to be Canadian. That might sound to Americans like the setup to a joke, but to the country's 36 million citizens it's a very real — and not totally settled — issue.
The full series of tweets is embedded below and well worth your time, but Heer lands on two theories. (As he clarifies, these apply to English-speaking Canada, not to the culturally un-integrated French-speaking Quebec.)
The nice theory: Canadians have cultivated an identity of boringness as an alternative to the two other cultures that loom so large for them: the British, whose empire they were a part of until relatively recently, and the noisy Americans to the south. "Canadian boringness isn't intrinsic: it's something we work at, cherish and reward," Heer writes. Because both of those cultural forces exert such power in Canada, cultivated boringness is another way of saying, "We are not British and we are not American."
The less nice theory: Canada's self-made image of boringness is really just shorthand for whiteness. In other words, Canadian culture emphasizes "look at how charmingly boring we are" as a polite way of saying "this is a white, Anglo nation." Or, as Heer put it, "The constructed mask of boringness is also the mask of whiteness." This, he suggests, "presents the county as being much whiter than it is" and is a way to exclude First Nations and ethnic minorities from Canadian identity.
There is probably real truth to both of these.
One point I will add is that I've noticed Canadians frequently describe their culture in contrast to American culture. But talking so much about how you are different from Americans is really just another way of talking around all the ways you're similar, and this preoccupation with highlighting the differences and downplaying the similarities has always felt telling to me.
Canadian writer Bruce McCall, in a great 2013 Vanity Fair piece on why Canada produces so many successful comedians, explained it as a kind of resistance to American culture. "It is impossible to fully express Canadian resentment of America's cultural dominance, and the sense of impotence and helplessness," he writes. "Humor — subversive, ironic, usually dark — is one of the very few weapons available to the oppressed." But that's not just a reaction to American identity, of course; it's also a way of dealing with the fact that it leaves very little room for a distinct Canadian identity. Cultivated Canadian boringness is perhaps a way of owning that problem, and making it the identity itself.
Here's Jeet Heer's full series of tweets on the subject:
If you made it to the bottom, as a reward, here is a great old Jim Carrey standup bit on American conceptions of Canada that speak to my earlier points: | 0fake |
Moscow tells Tehran Russia remains committed to nuclear deal | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has told Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi that Moscow remains committed to the Iran nuclear deal, Russia s Foreign Ministry said in statement on Thursday. | 0fake |
November 11: Daily Contrarian Reads | November 11: Daily Contrarian Reads My daily contrarian reads for Friday, November 11th, 2016. You need to login to view this content.
David Stockman’s Contra Corner isn’t your typical financial tipsheet. Instead it’s an ongoing dialogue about what’s really happening in the markets… the economy… and governments… so you can understand the world around you and make better decisions for yourself.
David believes the world -- certainly the United States -- is at a great inflection point in human history. The massive credit inflation of the last three decades has reached its apogee and is now going to splatter spectacularly.
This will have lasting ramifications on how governments tax and regulate you… the type of work you and your family members will have available and what you get paid… the value of your nest egg… and all other areas comprising your quality of life. Login
| 1real |
NC State Provides Students with Post-Election Comfort Food, Therapy | In a campus-wide email to students, North Carolina (NC) State University chancellor Randy Woodson announced that grieving students would be provided with resources such as “conversation spaces” and “comfort” food such as | 1real |
Still Not Over: They Are Trying to “Flip the Electoral College” To Block Trump’s Win |
OK, theoretically, everything will go according to plan, and Donald Trump will be the next president.
But technically, the (s)election hasn’t really taken place yet.
Presidential electors of the mystified electoral college must still actually vote for the president, and there isn’t anything to keep them from ‘voting their conscience’ and choosing someone other than Donald Trump.
Moreover, it appears that there is an active effort to flip the electoral college to deny Trump the presidency, and toss the White House to either Hillary or a GOP loyalist.
The #NeverTrump crowd and plenty of bitter Hillary supporters are still hoping for a coup, though even they admit it is a long shot – completely unprecedented and anything but likely.
According to the Blaze :
Donald Trump may have won the electoral votes necessary to win the White House, but he he’s likely going to lose the popular vote to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. And now two electors have launched a last-minute effort to convince their colleagues to abandon the president-elect.
“This is a long shot. It’s a hail Mary,” Bret Chiafolo, a Washington state elector who previously pledged not to vote for Clinton, told Politico Monday. “However, I do see situations where — when we’ve already had two or three [Republican] electors state publicly they didn’t want to vote for Trump. How many of them have real issues with Donald Trump in private?”
Chiafolo along with Colorado elector Micheal Baca have launched what they call a “moral electors” movement in hopes of convincing 37 of their Republican colleagues to deny Trump their votes. Should they succeed in their radical effort, the presidential decision would be thrown to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
[…]
The Electoral College consists of 538 members who are expected to convene in their respective state capitals on Dec. 19 to formally vote for the next president… Baca said he hopes the move launches a serious national discussion about abolishing the Electoral College , which would require either a constitutional amendment or legislation in several states.
The speculation is that if this maneuver were to be successful, the GOP-led Congress could be persuaded not to choose Hillary, but to write-in a selection for a party loyalist – like Mitt Romney or John Kasich… maybe even a Bush.
Of course, there have also been reports that Team Hillary has been hard at work attempting to persuade electors to switch their votes in the hope, however desperate, that they can still flip the election and take the White House:
On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots. If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay!
We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton. Why? Mr. Trump is unfit to serve.
The larger issue here is that the system is badly broken, the people are harshly divided along demographic and political lines, and the future is gambling on extreme versions of itself – larger than life candidates, and bizarre back-door maneuvers in attempt to hack the system and bend it in one direction or another.
Trump has taken his place on the stage in a thunderous revolt of the people, but his legacy will be tested out the gates by the heavy pressures of Washington lobbyists, intrigue on the part of political insiders and the cults of opposition that are springing up in response to his controversial journey to the White House.
The entire political establishment have been knocked off their perch, though their hold on power has not necessarily been loosened.
A whole new era is born, and it remains to be seen how it will play out.
Read more:
It’s Not Over Yet: “They Are Probably Still Trying To Steal The Election” | Calls For Electoral College To Ignore Will Of People
Clinton Insider Confesses: Trump Protests Are Just More Pre-Paid “Soros Riots” to Stir Unrest
“Beware of the Shadow Government”: Ron Paul Advises President-Elect
Trump Surrounded By Bankers, Wall St. Insiders Banging on the Door to Get In: “Draining the Swamp?”
“Violent Revolution If Trump Lets Them Down”: People Remain Poised for Angry Revolt – Roberts | 1real |
Richard Gere Rips Trump Immigration Policy: We Must ’Embrace and Love’ Each Other | Actor Richard Gere weighed in on President Donald Trump’s recent executive action on immigration Friday at the Berlin International Film Festival, where he blasted the president’s decision to temporarily prohibit immigration from some countries and accused him of being a leader who “stimulates fear. ”[The actor — in town for the premiere of his latest film, The Dinner — called for unity, even as he reportedly said he wouldn’t attend a hypothetical dinner with President Trump. “The number of hate crimes went up enormously as soon as Donald Trump started running for president, in the United States and in Europe,” Gere told an audience at the festival, according to Deadline. He continued: “Unfortunately, we have leaders that stimulate fear, and that fear causes us to do really terrible things. I think that’s part of what we’re talking about in the film. We have to be really careful how we talk to each other and characterize each other. The most horrible thing Trump has done is conflate the terms refugee and terrorist. It means the same thing in the U. S. now. A refugee used to be someone who you had empathy for, who you wanted to help and give refuge to. Now we’re afraid of them. We have to really understand what he and this conservative movement has done and not forget we’re all in this together. We can’t escape each other’s realities. We have to embrace each other and love each other. ” In The Dinner, Gere plays ambitious politician Stan Lohman, who — together with his wife (Rebecca Hall) brother (Steve Coogan) and his brother’s wife (Laura Linney) — must decide what to do when their children are caught up in a heinous, crime. At the panel for the film, Coogan also got in a jab at Trump when he was asked whether his character, Paul Lohman, suffers from mental illness: “Yes, he does have a mental illness. But compared with the president of the United States, it looks like a mild headache. ” The 67th annual Berlinale kicked off this week and runs until February 18. The Dinner will compete with 17 other films for the festival’s top Golden Bear prize. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 0fake |
BOOM! FLORIDA PAPER Makes Unprecedented Apology After “Uncomfortably Sizable Number Of Readers” Complain About Anti-Trump Coverage | Is this apology too little too late? After one year of bashing Trump, and with only one week left before the election, does this apology really matter now?A central Florida newspaper has apologized to its readers for the decidedly anti-Donald Trump coverage that has been published during the election.The Daily Commercial published an editorial titled The media, the election and bias on Oct. 23 that explained the paper is reliant on wire services for much of its election coverage and those reports are weighted heavily against Trump. The Daily Commercial hasn t done enough to mitigate the anti-Trump wave in the pages of this paper, it wrote. You deserve a more balanced approach to the coverage of elections and other weighty issues. In what it described as an open letter that it described as part explanation, part reflection and part mea culpa the paper apologized to its readers. | 1real |
Crimean and Donetsk leaders comment on US elections | November 10, 2016 - Fort Russ News - PolitRussia - translated by J. Arnoldski -
Crimean leader Sergey Aksenov welcomed the choice of the American people in the US presidential elections despite what he called “numerous” violations in the electoral process.
Aksenov stated: “The American people have made their choice. Our president was clear: the Russian Federation is not interfering in or even making any attempts to influence the will of the American people. In my opinion, the elections were held with numerous violations. If this had happened in Crimea or Russia, then the elections would have been assessed differently by American politicians. They would say that everything was wrong and illegitimate. But the Americans did not allow Russian diplomats near polling stations and prevented the formation of an objective view of what was happening at polling stations and overall how the elections were being held in the US.”
Commenting on Trump’s pre-election promises in regards to Russia and the Republic of Crimea, Aksenov said: “Before elections, politicians usually make some statements, and then their program can radically change. Time will tell. I am sure that our president will make sufficient efforts so that Crimea will be recognized throughout the world.”
This summer, Trump stated that he would be ready to “look into” the question of recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and lifting the sanctions against Russia if he won the elections. He remarked that Crimeans want to be with Russia and that this should be considered by the international community. These words caused great anxiety in Kiev.
The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, was cautious in being optimistic towards Trump’s election as US president. Zakharchenko expressed concern that after Trump moves into the White House, he will become part of the American political system and there is no guarantee that he will be able to resist this system. For the DPR, Trump’s suggested policies could signal a change in attitude towards the Ukrainian crisis.
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Sean Spicer’s Twitter History Comes Back To Bite Him In The Ass, Trump PISSED (TWEETS) | No matter what Donald Trump does or where he goes, he s never actually doing the right thing and fulfilling his duties as POTUS.One might think that after suffering such a monstrous fail with his American Health Care Act, the president might double down and get right back to work on his quest to somehow improve Obamacare, which he insists is awful despite the fact the Americans overwhelmingly approve of it. But no instead, Trump decided to spend his Saturday the way he s spent pretty much every Saturday since he became president by playing golf.In the short 9 weeks of his presidency, Trump has already gone golfing 12 times which is far more than any of his predecessors and former President Barack Obama, whom Trump once criticized for taking any downtime to play golf. Trump has been getting blasted for his weekend golfing getaways, and the White House has gone to great lengths to hide it:However, Trump s cover was blown when some Instagram photographs of Trump surfaced, revealing to Americans what Trump REALLY does when he has his meetings. Pool was told Trump was in meetings at Trump National this afternoon. This Instagram photo posted from the course says otherwise pic.twitter.com/WMudqofGmO Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) March 25, 2017As you can imagine, the internet didn t take kindly to being lied to, and went after Trump. One of the gems that resurfaced from this Twitter attack was this amazing old tweet from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer which is going to basically make Trump explode:Wow. That s one tweet Spicer probably wish he d never posted during Obama s presidency, because now it s insulting HIS boss! To make this even more humiliating for Spicer and Trump, Spicer recently defended Trump s privacy when he was questioned about how often Trump golfs.Twitter is basically losing it over this hypocrisy, and we can t help but laugh along:@seanspicer ? pic.twitter.com/pw2LQVmW1h Parts Unknown (@nia_negasi) March 25, 2017 Featured images via Gage Skidmore / Flickr | 1real |
5-STAR MOOCH Tells Graduates: “Every Single Day, I Wake Up In A House That Was Built By Slaves” [VIDEO] | Poor 5-star Mooch. At least we know now why she spends so much time traveling around the world on our dime First Lady Michelle Obama touted the diversity of the 2016 graduating class of City College in New York by comparing it to her own life and experiences. It s the story that I witness every single day, when I wake up in a house that was built by slaves, Obama told the 3,000 graduates and their families Friday, adding:And I watch my daughters two beautiful, black young women head off to school waving goodbye to their father, the President of the United States, the son of a man from Kenya who came here to American to America for the same reasons as many of you: To get an education and improve his prospects in life.Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Trump refuses to say whether he'll accept election results | (CNN) Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to say he would accept the result of the presidential election if he loses to Hillary Clinton, raising the possibility of an extraordinary departure from principles that have underpinned American democracy for more than two centuries.
"I will look at it at the time," Trump said when asked during the final presidential debate whether he would concede if he loses on November 8, following his claims that the election is "rigged" against him.
He added: "I will keep you in suspense."
The comments at the Las Vegas showdown marked a stunning moment that has never been seen in the weeks before a modern presidential election. The stance threatens to cast doubt on one of the fundamental principles of American politics -- the peaceful, undisputed transfer of power from one president to a successor who is recognized as legitimate after winning an election.
The Republican nominee doubled down on his comments about the election Thursday during a rally in Delaware, Ohio, where he said he would accept the results "if I win."
Trump's debate performance could doom his chance to win over any remaining undecided voters at this late stage in the campaign. His comments about the election results came during a debate in which he spoke of "hombres," language that could offend Latinos. And he referred to Clinton as a "nasty woman."
His campaign manager sought to blunt the election comments, appearing on CNN's "New Day" Thursday.
"What Donald Trump has said, over time, if you take all of his statements together, he has said that he will respect the results of the election," said Kellyanne Conway, although she argued what he's saying is not without precedent.
"Everybody, including Al Gore in 2000, waits to see what those election results are," she later added. That's a flawed comparison, however, since Gore's fate was in the hands of an automatic recount due to the narrow margin of George W. Bush's lead in Florida. Gore did not question the integrity of the election before Election Day.
The election remarks also expose a divide with Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who told CNN's Wolf Blitzer before the debate, "We'll certainly accept the outcome of this election."
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who is leading Trump in most polls, said her competitor's remarks were "horrifying" and accused him of taking refuge in the idea that any event that turns out against him -- even an Emmy award that goes to a rival -- is "rigged."
"That is not the way our democracy works," Clinton said. "We've been around for 240 years. We have had free and fair elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what is expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election."
She continued: "He is denigrating -- he's talking down -- our democracy. And I for one, am appalled that somebody who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position."
Trump's remark about the election result is certain to dominate the aftermath of the debate with only 19 days to go before the election, and it seemed likely to overshadow the GOP's nominee's strongest performance in any of the three presidential debates.
A CNN/ORC instant poll found 52% of debate watchers viewed Clinton as the winner compared to 39% who felt the same about Trump.
Trump didn't have much margin for error going into the debate. He's down eight points in the latest CNN Poll of Polls and is nearly out of time to launch what would have to be one of the most remarkable comebacks of modern times.
The showdown began in a more civil and calm way than the two previous debates, in which Trump and Clinton repeatedly flung sharp, bitter jabs at one another. He was far more disciplined for much of the debate, and did his best to avoid taking Clinton's bait, showing restraint as he and Clinton debated the Supreme Court, the Second Amendment, abortion and the economy.
The billionaire reality star-turned-politicians did a better job than in the first two debates of prosecuting Clinton's weaknesses, lambasting her over her record as secretary of state and the controversy over her private email server, and painting her as the symptom of a tired political establishment who had achieved nothing in her 30 years in public life.
But Trump seemed to lose his cool as the debate went on, harshly criticizing Clinton and occasionally getting testy with the debate moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. The debate began to take a turn when Trump and Clinton clashed over the Republican nominee's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Clinton blasted Trump as a "puppet" of Putin and directly called on him to condemn what she said was a Russian effort to use cyberattacks to influence the election in her opponent's favor.
Trump replied that Putin had no respect for Clinton or President Barack Obama.
"That's because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States," Clinton said, implying that Putin wanted Trump to win the election.
"No puppet. You are the puppet," Trump said.
Trump said he had never met Putin but allowed that the Russian leader had said nice things about him, and said it would be good if Washington and Moscow worked together to fight ISIS.
But he added: "This is not my best friend."
Clinton and Trump also bitterly sparred over the theme of who is qualified to be president. Wallace pressed Trump on why so many women had come forward to accuse him of sexual assault if the allegations were not true.
Trump said the claims had been "largely debunked."
"I think they want either fame or her campaign did it," Trump said, referring to the women that came forward after he said at the last debate that he had never been abusive to any women.
Clinton noted that Trump had implied at several rallies that he could not have made inappropriate advances toward the women because they were not sufficiently attractive.
Trump wrongly denied that he had ever made such a remark.
"Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity and their self worth," Clinton said.
Clinton said that Trump's treatment of women was part of pattern of behavior that saw him insult a disabled reporter, go after the parents of a fallen Muslim soldier and question the impartiality of an American judge of Mexican descent.
She said such tactics were in line with a divisive and very "dangerous vision of our country."
The tone of the debate -- unusually substantial at the start -- never recovered once the atmosphere became charged. As the event wound down, Clinton said that under her economic plan, the payroll taxes of both herself and Trump would go up to ensure the solvency of Social Security -- unless her rival could figure out a way to avoid paying taxes. | 0fake |
NO TOILET PAPER?! SOCIALISM IS IN ITS FINAL STAGES FOR VENEZUELA SO BYOTP | Socialism doesn t work but I guess Venezuela didn t get the memo. No toilet paper? No food? Yes, it s come to that in this socialist hellhole Venezuela s product shortages have become so severe that some hotels in that country are asking guests to bring their own toilet paper and soap, a local tourism industry spokesman said on Wednesday . It s an extreme situation, says Xinia Camacho, owner of a 20-room boutique hotel in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada national park. For over a year we haven t had toilet paper, soap, any kind of milk, coffee or sugar. So we have to tell our guests to come prepared. Montilla says bigger hotels can circumvent product shortages by buying toilet paper and other basic supplies from black market smugglers who charge up to 6-times the regular price. But smaller, family-run hotels can t always afford to pay such steep prices, which means that sometimes they have to make do without. Camacho says she refuses to buy toilet paper from the black market on principle. In the black market you have to pay 110 bolivares [$0.50] for a roll of toilet paper that usually costs 17 bolivares [$ 0.08] in the supermarket, Camacho told Fusion. We don t want to participate in the corruption of the black market, and I don t have four hours a day to line up for toilet paper at a supermarket . Recently, Venezuelan officials have been stopping people from transporting essential goods across the country in an effort to stem the flow of contraband. So now Camacho s guests could potentially have their toilet paper confiscated before they even make it to the hotel. Shortages, queues, black markets, and official theft. And blaming the CIA. Yes, Venezuela has truly achieved socialism.But what I never understood is this: Why toilet paper? How hard is it to make toilet paper? I can understand a socialist economy having trouble producing decent cars or computers. But toilet paper? And soap? And matches?Sure, it s been said that if you tried communism in the Sahara, you d get a shortage of sand. Still, a shortage of paper seems like a real achievement.Read more: CATO | 1real |
Obama claims victory after drop in U.S. jobless rate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said Americans should feel good about the economy after the latest jobs report on Friday showed the U.S. unemployment rate at an eight-year low of 4.9 percent. Obama, in his eighth and final year in office, made a relatively rare and unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room to talk about how the economy had recovered under his watch. “We have recovered from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the worst in my lifetime and the lifetime of most of the people in this room,” Obama said, noting the unemployment rate was 10 percent in 2009, when he took office. “We’ve done it faster, stronger, better, more durably than just about any other advanced economy,” Obama said. The White House has griped that Obama does not get enough credit for turning the economy around, a complaint Obama joked about on Thursday during a visit from the Golden State Warriors basketball champions. “You defied the cynics, you accomplished big things, you racked up a great record, and you don’t get enough credit - I can’t imagine how that feels,” Obama said, drawing laughter. On Friday, he acknowledged that “there’s still anxiety and concern about the general direction of the economy,” noting the job losses, stock market plunges and free fall in the housing market in 2007-2008 were still fresh in Americans’ memories. Obama said “softness” in China, Europe and other economies presented challenges to U.S. exporters and he said it was important for the United States to “keep our foot to the accelerator” to further strengthen the economy. “We should feel good about the progress we’ve made, understanding that we have still got more work to do,” he said, noting the budget he will propose to Congress on Tuesday will have ideas for job creation and retraining. Obama slammed Republican candidates in the race to replace him in the Nov. 8 presidential election for “talking down” the economy. “I know that’s still inconvenient for Republican stump speeches as their doom-and-despair tour plays in New Hampshire,” Obama said, referring to the primary election in the state on Tuesday. | 0fake |
WATCH: Hilarious Leaked Video Shows Australian PM Mocking Trump And It’s Now The Best Thing On The Internet | During a private speech to journalists, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull let his inner comedian shine with a hilarious impersonation of Donald Trump. Not only does he nail the dialogue, he perfectly executes the portrayal down to Donald s awkward and childlike arrogance. The Donald and I, we are winning and winning in the polls, he said Wednesday in a leaked video. We are winning so much, we are winning, we are winning like we have never won before. The Journalists in attendance had agreed not to report or share the brilliant mockery they witnessed that night, but an editor from Nine Network couldn t help but share this gem with the world. I have this Russian guy. Believe me, it s true, it is true, added Turnbull, alluding to the Russian scandal playing out in the White House.In the wake of the backlash from the leaked video, Turnbull told Melbourne Talk Radio that his mockery was a light-hearted jest and a good-humored roast. He thinks people should lighten up about it.You can pretty much guarantee Trump won t be lightening up about this genius comedy act making fun of him in the best way possible. When respected world leaders are trying their hand at stand-up comedy to make fun of Trump, he s probably not going to take it lightly.Check out this amazing piece of comedy that is sure to go down in history as one of the great Trump portrayals:Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Palestinian rivals delay full Gaza handover by 10 days | GAZA (Reuters) - Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to delay final transfer of power of the Gaza Strip from Hamas to the Western-backed Palestinian government by 10 days to Dec. 10 to allow time to complete arrangements , officials said. The factions signed a reconciliation deal brokered by Egypt last month after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war. The deal bridges a bitter gulf between the Western-backed mainstream Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, an Islamist movement designated as a terrorist group by Western countries and Israel. The agreement states that Hamas, which has disbanded its administration, would complete the handover by December 1 but disputes over the transfer process have emerged in recent days and Cairo has sent a senior security delegation to the territory to try to resolve the deadlock. In a brief joint statement, Fatah and Hamas said they had asked Egypt to delay the timetable from Dec 1 so that they could complete the arrangements to successfully conclude reconciliation steps to which the Palestinian people aspire . Completion will also strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas s standing at any potential resumption of the stalled peacemaking process with Israel, analysts say. It was initially unclear whether the deadline extension would prevent the 40,000-50,000 Hamas-hired employees being paid their November salaries on time. Hamas has demanded that Abbas lift sanctions he has imposed on Gaza such as slashing salaries of Palestinian Authority-hired public servants and limiting electricity imported from Israel for Gaza. The Palestinian Authority has demanded that it must have full control of Gaza in order to be able to discharge its administrative powers there and failure to pay the salaries could endanger further reconciliation steps. Earlier on Wednesday, tension between the two factions rose when Hamas refused to allow Palestinian Authority employees to return to their jobs at three ministries as instructed by the government. | 0fake |
Man at dinner party may be leader of the Liberal Democrats | Man at dinner party may be leader of the Liberal Democrats 28-10-16
A SMARTLY-DRESSED man at a posh dinner party may well be Tim Farron, fellow guests have realised.
Suspicions began to grow that the man, who is in his mid-40s and of average height and weight, was the leader of a minority political party between the main and pudding courses.
Julian Cook of Devizes said: “He’s a Tim, but that doesn’t mean anything by itself. There are lots of Tims.
“But when I asked what he did for a living, he replied ‘Aside from the obvious?’ and told me actually it’s a very demanding position despite what happened last year, which left me no nearer.
“He does know Nick Clegg. Still, I suppose so do lots of people.”
Susan Traherne, who hosted the party, admitted she has known Tim since university but has never really been sure of his occupation.
She said: “He was planning to go into politics but I never heard anything else about it so assumed he’d given up on the idea. But the orange tie, the general hopelessness, I should’ve figured it out.
“I’ve a dreadful feeling I was slagging off the Lib Dems in the kitchen earlier in the evening. I hope he didn’t hear.”
Tim Farron said: “Oh for God’s sake. This is like the ninth time I’ve told them.”
Share: | 1real |
Trump says he will get intelligence briefing on Russia hacking on Friday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a briefing he is to receive from U.S. intelligence officials on allegations of Russian hacking of the U.S. election had been delayed until Friday. In a tweet, Trump voiced continued skepticism about the extent of Russia’s cyber hacking. He and top advisers believe Democrats are trying to delegitimize his Nov. 8 election victory by accusing Russian authorities of helping him. “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!” Trump tweeted. It was not clear when the briefing originally had been scheduled to take place. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump, who has cast doubt on U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic Party computers, said over the weekend he would discuss the hacking allegations on Tuesday or Wednesday. With his tweet, he suggested he would not address the subject until he had been briefed by intelligence officials. Trump has scheduled a Jan. 11 news conference in New York. He is expected to discuss separating himself from his far-flung business empire, and other topics, including Russia, are likely to come up. U.S. intelligence officials have said they are confident Russia was behind the hacks of political figures in an effort to help Trump win the presidential election. President Barack Obama retaliated to the hacking last week by ordering 35 Russian intelligence officials expelled from the United States and two Russian compounds shut down. Trump told reporters on Saturday at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort that he knew “things that other people don’t know” about the hacking, “so we cannot be sure” who was responsible. He said any computer was subject to hacks. “It’s very important. If you have something really important write it out and have it delivered by courier the old fashioned way,” Trump said, adding: “No computer is safe, I don’t care what they say.” | 0fake |
‘Vote All You Want, The Secret Government Won’t Change.’ | 21st Century Wire says Those who pull the strings behind the curtain will be a lot harder to get rid of than the puppets which they control.Watch a video of this report here:Tufts University political scientist Michael J. Glennon gave a strong warning to the American people back in 2014 that you can vote all you want but the Secret Government won t change.Glennon s argument is that a small clique of so-called national security experts, who might otherwise be called elites from the military industrial complex, are always influencing policy makers and over-emphasising security threats.Currently, the only candidate posing a real threat to these elites appears to be Donald Trump, who is claiming he wants to get along with foreign countries , particularly Russia.But, what is the main reason why we cannot fix this problem? Glennon says it s the pervasive political ignorance on the part of the American people .Here are the key questions and responses from the interview:What evidence exists for saying America has a double government?GLENNON: I was curious why a president such as Barack Obama would embrace the very same national security and counterterrorism policies that he campaigned eloquently against. Why would that president continue those same policies in case after case after case? Why would policy makers hand over the national-security keys to unelected officials?GLENNON: It hasn t been a conscious decision. Members of Congress are generalists and need to defer to experts within the national security realm, as elsewhere. They are particularly concerned about being caught out on a limb having made a wrong judgment about national security and tend, therefore, to defer to experts, who tend to exaggerate threats. The courts similarly tend to defer to the expertise of the network that defines national security policy.Isn t this just another way of saying that big bureaucracies are difficult to change?GLENNON: It s much more serious than that. These particular bureaucracies don t set truck widths or determine railroad freight rates. They make nerve-center security decisions that in a democracy can be irreversible, that can close down the marketplace of ideas, and can result in some very dire consequences.Couldn t Obama s national-security decisions just result from the difference in vantage point between being a campaigner and being the commander-in-chief, responsible for 320 million lives?GLENNON: There is an element of what you described. There is not only one explanation or one cause for the amazing continuity of American national security policy. But obviously there is something else going on when policy after policy after policy all continue virtually the same way that they were in the George W. Bush administration.This isn t how we re taught to think of the American political system.GLENNON: I think the American people are deluded to believe that the institutions that provide the public face actually set American national security policy. They believe that when they vote for a president or member of Congress or succeed in bringing a case before the courts, that policy is going to change. Now, there are many counter-examples in which these branches do affect policy. But the larger picture is still true policy by and large in the national security realm is made by the concealed institutions.Do we have any hope of fixing the problem?GLENNON: The ultimate problem is the pervasive political ignorance on the part of the American people. And indifference to the threat that is emerging from these concealed institutions. That is where the energy for reform has to come from: the American people. Not from government. Government is very much the problem here. The people have to take the bull by the horns. And that s a very difficult thing to do, because the ignorance is in many ways rational. There is very little profit to be had in learning about, and being active about, problems that you can t affect, policies that you can t change.Read Mark Glennon s 2014 epic Op Ed from the Boston Globe here GET THE FULL STORY ON THE 2016 ELECTION: 21st Century Wire Election Files | 1real |
Copenhagen police shoot, kill man near train station | Danish authorities mounted a nationwide manhunt Saturday for a gunman who opened fire on a free speech seminar at a Copenhagen cafe in an apparent attempt to kill a Swedish artist who had published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed eight years ago.
Hours later, the Associated Press reported that three people, including two police officers, were shot in a second incident in the Danish city, although it is unclear if it is connected to the first attack.
One person is dead and two were injured in the later attack, which occurred near a synagogue in downtown Copenhagen. The shooter fled on foot, police told the AP.
Police in Denmark shot and killed a man they had under surveillance in connection with Saturday's shootings.
Police will hold a press briefing at 10 am local time.
Police said the gunman in the first attack, who fled in a stolen car, killed one person and injured three police officers in the attack at the Krudttoenden cafe, which was hosting an "Art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression" event.
Police released a grainy photo of a man in a dark ski jacket and cap who may be linked to the attack. It was taken by a surveillance camera near the site where the gunman abandoned the dark-colored Volkswagen Polo that he had carjacked.
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called the shooting "a cynical act of violence" and an "act of terrorism."
The United States condemned the "deplorable shooting" and offered condolences to the loved ones of the deceased victim, according to a statement from National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan. U.S. officials have been in touch with Danish authorities and are ready to help with the investigation.
Danish authorities called on Germany and Sweden to be on the lookout for the suspect at their borders with Denmark. Authorities initially thought two people were involved in the shooting.
Police said the apparent target of the shooting was Lars Vilks, 68, who has endured several attempted attacks and death threats since he depicted the founder of Islam as a dog in 2007.
Vilks escaped unharmed after a bodyguard shoved him into the cafe kitchen when the gunfire erupted around 4 p.m.
"What other motive could there be? It's possible it was inspired by Charlie Hebdo," he said, referring to the Jan. 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the French newspaper.
"At first there was panic. People crawled down under tables," Vilks said. "My bodyguards quickly pulled me away."
"I heard someone firing with an automatic weapon and someone shouting. Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. I felt surreal, like in a movie," Niels Ivar Larsen, one of the speakers at the event, told the TV2 channel.
The dead victim was identified by police only as a 40-year-old civilian.
Francois Zimeray, the French ambassador to Denmark, was in the cafe at the time but was not hurt. "Bullets went through the doors and everyone threw themselves to the floor," he told the AFP news agency.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service described the gunman, who was carrying a black machine gun, as tall, with an athletic build. It said he had an "Arabic appearance, but with lighter skin than normal and black straight hair."
He wore a black or dark blue ski jacket and matching pants, possibly with gloves, the security service said.
The gunman did not get into the main room where the event was being held, but fired into it, according to several media accounts.
Police later found the getaway car abandoned near a metro station and promptly shut down the transit line between two stations to search for the suspect.
Danish TV2 reported that about 30 bullet holes hit the window of the cafe and that at least two people were taken away on stretchers, including a uniformed police officer.
Helle Merete Brix, one of the organizers of the event, told TV2 that Vilks ran to the nearby kitchen when the shots rang out.
"He was very cool," she said. "We stood and told each other bad jokes. His bodyguards did a tremendous job."
She told the TV station the attack was a "clear assassination attempt" of Vilks, who receives police protection when he is in Denmark.
Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, said he was "deeply horrified" by the shootings which appeared to be a "violent crackdown on freedom of expression."
"Unfortunately, there are people who react with violence when their entrenched mindset meets with the free debate and freedom of speech," Jensen wrote on his Facebook page. "We must stand firm on the values our society is built on, and never give in to fear."
Last year, a Pennsylvania woman received a 10-year prison term for a plot to kill Vilks. In 2010, two brothers tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden and were imprisoned for attempted arson.
After Islamist militants attacked the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris last month, killing 12 people, Vilks told the AP that even fewer organizations were inviting him to give lectures over increased security concerns.
Vilks said he thought Sweden's SAPO security service, which deploys bodyguards to protect him, would step up the security around him.
"This will create fear among people on a whole different level than we're used to," he said. "Charlie Hebdo was a small oasis. Not many dared do what they did." | 0fake |
Malaysian state's royal council urges sedition probe of former leader Mahathir | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian state s royal council on Thursday urged authorities to investigate former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for sedition over his alleged insult to those who trace descent from the southeast Asian region s ancient Bugis seafaring community. Over the past few weeks, Mahathir, 93, has been sharply criticized for comments at an opposition rally last month where he is reported to have described Prime Minister Najib Razak as a Bugis pirate . Mahathir s remarks about his former protege came in the context of alleged mismanagement of billions of dollars by state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), in which Najib has denied all wrongdoing. An investigation and legal action must be taken against Dr Mahathir under the Sedition Act, 1948, or any related laws, the royal council of the western state of Selangor said in a statement issued by its secretary, Hanafisah Jais. Mahathir s comments at the rally were excessive , it added, and could spark hatred for those of Bugis ethnicity, besides which the speech indirectly insults the Bugis lineage of the sultanate of Selangor. Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah urged all parties, particularly politicians, to avoid use of racial issues for political capital as this could disrupt harmony and unity, the statement said. The police were not immediately available for comment. Mahathir s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The former prime minister last month said his criticism targeted only those of Bugis ancestry who stole the people s money, news reports have said. A body representing Malaysia s Bugis community demanded that Mahathir apologize and retract his statement, state news agency Bernama said last month. Thousands of Malaysians rallied on Oct. 14 in the finale of a two-month-long opposition roadshow aimed at convincing majority Malay Muslim voters in rural battleground areas that Malaysia has suffered from Najib s handling of 1MDB. Najib has so far been able to weather the scandal, consolidating power by clamping down on dissenters and curbing domestic media and activists, even as he faces a fierce challenge from Mahathir, who was prime minister for 22 years. But Najib s popularity took a hit from persistent bad press linked to 1MDB, especially after the U.S. Department of Justice filed civil suits to recover more than $1.7 billion alleged to have been misappropriated from the 1MDB fund. Originally seafarers who hailed from Indonesia, the Bugis community established sultanates on the Malaysian peninsula. Their Malaysian descendants are considered to be part of the Malay majority, that makes up more than half of Malaysia s population of nearly 33 million. | 0fake |
Donald Trump's Super Pac backers worry candidate's errors are piling up | Super Pacs backing Donald Trump are off to a slow and rather rocky start as they try to raise funds because the candidate’s rhetoric and policy pronouncements are still so incendiary and he has sent mixed signals about how much financial help he wants from outside groups.
Trump’s campaign war chest is dwarfed by Hillary Clinton’s, who had $42.5m in the bank at the start of June compared with her Republican rival’s $1.3m, according to the Federal Election Commission. Trump has taunted big donors repeatedly, and bragged for months that his campaign was not going to rely on them or Super Pacs, before appearing to change his tune more recently.
Several donors backing Trump told the Guardian that the candidate’s errors are piling up. “He’s got to learn not to put his foot in his mouth,” said Stan Hubbard, a billionaire broadcaster who has donated $100,000 to the pro-Trump Great America Pac. “He needs a clearer message without name-calling.” Hubbard also called Trump’s recent trip to Scotland – where he was criticized for hailing the plunge in the pound post-Brexit as good for his golf course there – a mistake. “He should have let his kids do it.”
Likewise, potential Super Pac donors say Trump badly needs to curb his bombastic rhetoric and craft a better message. Michael Epstein, who raised big money for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and plans to vote for Trump but also “hold my nose and pray”, said that he might back a Super Pac if Trump has a strong GOP convention next month and really “turns it around”. But Epstein added: “I’m less and less hopeful. He can’t get out of his own way. He’s going to have to demonstrate more presidential behavior. They’re behind the eight ball and they’ve got to move fast.”
Four key pro-Trump Super Pacs have been formally launched, but between them they have run only about $5m in ads. By contrast, the leading pro-Clinton Super Pac, Priorities USA Action, in mid-May began a massive television and digital ad blitz in key states reportedly slated to cost almost $130m.
Signs of turmoil and slow growth among the Trump Super Pacs, which unlike campaigns can accept unlimited donations, are palpable.
Texas mega-donor Doug Deason, who in tandem with his billionaire father Darwin Deason recently met with Trump, said that the candidate’s top fundraiser had signaled to them that a new Super Pac, Make America Number One, backed by hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, was deemed the “official” one. In a twist, Make America Number One will seek big checks from GOP donors who are not ready to back Trump but want to stop Clinton, according to Bloomberg.
Deason said that he and his father would probably write a check to a Super Pac but stressed that “we’re waiting to see what Sheldon Adelson does”, a reference to billionaire Adelson, who has pledged some $100m to help Trump – which Deason thinks is the amount needed for a Super Pac to really have an impact.
Adelson has been considering setting up his own Super Pac and talking to key Republican operatives about cobbling one together to help Trump, fundraising sources told the Guardian.
But the casino baron has been typically cautious and slow in opening his checkbook after at least two meetings with Trump since late May.
Adelson is said to be talking to some other wealthy donors – including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and energy investor Toby Neugebauer – about teaming up on a Super Pac, say fundraising sources.
One GOP operative with ties to Adelson told the Guardian that the casino mogul may put up his funds in installments, predicting that about half would come after Trump picks his running mate. The operative said Adelson has been pressing Trump to choose the casino owner’s longtime ally Newt Gingrich, the ex-House speaker, or another staunchly pro Israel figure who shares Adelson’s hawkish views on Israel. “Adelson is very succinct about his expectations,” said the operative.
Meanwhile, the existing Super Pacs are trying mightily with mixed success to bring in big checks. The Great America Pac, which boasts veteran GOP operative Ed Rollins as a strategist, organized two events in June to woo big donors in Dallas and New York, where a luncheon at the 101 Club was hosted by Peter Kalikow, a wealthy real estate executive and Trump buddy.
Eric Beach, the co-chair of Great America, said the Pac has raised $5m and has commitments for another $4m. The Pac has plans for a few more events to court big donors in Los Angeles and Oregon before the Republican national convention and by election day hopes to raise $150m, he said.
In June, the Pac launched a three-week, $750,000 ad buy on Fox and cable channels to promote Trump. “Donors care about a path to victory,” Beach said, adding that he expects the Pac to focus on about 10 key states including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Other pro-Trump Pacs are ramping up their fundraising and ad drives.
Laurance Gay, the managing director of the Super Pac Rebuilding America Now and a former lobbyist and one-time partner of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, said it had raised $2m, most of which has paid for two TV ads.
“Our Pac is gearing up to keep Hillary Clinton’s head under water through the elections,” Gay said.
Rebuilding America Now expect to raise and spend close to $20m through the GOP convention next month and then hope to raise another $80m for the rest of the campaign season, Gay said.
The Guardian has learned that Gay and Tom Barrack, a private equity executive and old friend of Trump’s who played a big role in getting the Super Pac launched and told CNN it had $32m in commitments, met with Adelson in June to woo him but it is unclear if they will get a check. Gay said that it was no secret that “we’re well behind in fundraising”.
More broadly, veteran money man Fred Malek, who has been a top fundraiser for GOP governors, cautions that Trump’s policies and temperament pose obstacles for Super Pac fundraising Malek stresses that GOP donors and voters, “want to see a nominee who is more inclusive rather than divisive and recognizes that politics is a game of addition and not a game of subtraction.” | 0fake |
Why the Fashion World Is Obsessed With ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ - The New York Times | Her shoes were bedazzled platform moon boots. Her outfit was encircled by a tutu tilted at a particularly rakish angle. Her capelet, cresting in tusklike spikes, appeared to be from aluminum foil. Jeremy Scott, the fashion designer, leaned forward and fixed the contestant, Alyssa Edwards, with a look. “I will just come out of the closet here and say, This is fashion,” he said. And because this is also “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” — one of the reality TV shows in the empire overseen by RuPaul Charles, the drag “supermodel of the world” — Ms. Edwards, a drawling diva out of Mesquite, Tex. accepted the compliment and went on to Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It to My Heart. ” For the uninitiated, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is a competition on the Logo network to find “America’s next drag superstar. ” It is a campy, joyful pastiche of “Project Runway,” “America’s Next Top Model” and “America’s Got Talent,” requiring its superstars to sing, dance, act, strut and for the title. Along the way, in and out of drag, contestants design and make their own dresses, spackle on their own makeup and merrily talk trash about, and to, one another. Is it any wonder that it has become the fashion industry’s favorite show? “I’ve seen every episode,” said Marc Jacobs, who, like Mr. Scott, has been a guest judge on the show. (Mr. Charles and his friend and sidekick, Michelle Visage, are two of the constant judges, with a rotating roster of regulars and guests.) “It makes me laugh, it makes me cry. There’s a lot of power in it, and I’m not a big reality TV show fan at all. ” It was first recommended to him by the photographer Steven Meisel. Since its premiere in 2009, “Drag Race” has grown from minor curiosity into niche touchstone, largely by word of mouth and social media. This month, after being ignored by most major awards for years, Mr. Charles won his (and the show’s) first Emmy, for best host. Its audience is growing along with its acclaim. The first episode of the eighth season of “Drag Race,” its most recent, which concluded in May, was the most streamed in the history of the series. Viewership for the second season of “Drag Race All Stars,” in which previous contestants come back for a second chance at a crown, airing now, is up 28 percent over “Drag Race” (and more than 50 percent over the first season of “All Stars”). Winners and have gone on to perform around the world, record albums and music videos, team up with cosmetics companies and, in at least one case (Laganja Estranja, Season 6) debut a line of fashion, accessories and dog clothes. In some circles, the show has been celebrated for its politics of affirmation and visibility. In fashion circles, it is celebrated for this, too — but also for minting a class of who look great in a dress. “It’s happening,” said Miss Fame, 31, a contestant on Season 7. “The doors have been opening. ” Since being on “Drag Race,” she has attended New York Fashion Week (and will attend Paris’s this season) and made beauty videos for L’Oréal, which sent her to the Cannes Film Festival, where she walked the red carpet in a Zac Posen gown. Mr. Charles’s queens are now guests at fashion shows and fashion week parties, adored by the biggest names in the industry. Pat McGrath, the doyenne of runway makeup artists, posts images of contestants on her social media accounts. Miu Miu flew several contestants to Paris for a party to celebrate its perfume last July. They also appear in magazines and ad campaigns. Mr. Meisel was on the vanguard when he shot Carmen Carrera (an early contestant who has since announced she is transgender) for W magazine in 2011. In the years since, more have followed. Pearl, a contestant from Season 7, signed with Wilhelmina Models in 2015. This year, Mr. Jacobs featured Dan Donigan (better known by his nom de drag, Milk) a contestant from Season 6, in his spring ads, wearing his women’s collection. And in April, Naomi Campbell gave a to Naomi Smalls, a Season 8 who chose a drag name in Ms. Campbell’s honor. “I’m loving Naomi Smalls,” Ms. Campbell told a crowd in London. “It’s a kind of ” said Violet Chachki, 24, the winner from Season 7. “There’s a strong crossover there. ” Known on the show as a “fashion queen” (as opposed to a “comedy queen” or a “pageant queen”) Ms. Chachki’s signature look involved corseting herself to a so extreme that one of her accessories was an oxygen tank. Since her win, she has been invited to fashion shows by Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Scott, and was among those flown to the Miu Miu party in Paris (“” she said). The photographer Steven Klein shot her for Interview magazine, alongside the runway model Anna Cleveland, and for Italian Vogue, alongside other “Drag Race” alumni, for an article about the club promoter Susanne Bartsch. “I think that a lot of people in the fashion world have an eye on me, because I do have that crossover,” Ms. Chachki said. “It seems so normal to me now, but even three years ago I never would have imagined it. Now it seems I’m segueing into that world, more so than the drag world. ” “That world” is watching, and discussing. “I was on set shooting an ad campaign a few days ago, and I think half the set watched the show,” said the designer Jason Wu. “It was totally the topic of the day. Between the makeup artist and the set designer, we’re all huge fans. ” Mr. Wu has a long history with RuPaul as a doll designer before he worked in fashion, Mr. Wu worked on a series of RuPaul dolls. “There are many weekly discussions in the office,” said the designer Joseph Altuzarra, who called RuPaul “the heir apparent to Oprah. ” “A lot of people go into fashion — a lot of designers, certainly — because they love clothing, they love makeup and hair and beauty. And I think ‘Drag Race’ is such an extreme version of it that it only makes sense that people in this industry can appreciate it and latch on. ” Bianca Del Rio, 41, the winner of Season 6 and one of the show’s most visible stars, said, “Fashion people understand drag. ” She has toured the world with her comedy act, and stars in a new independent film, “Hurricane Bianca,” that comes out this week. “It’s a process, and you get to create absolutely anything you want. The only difference with a fashion show is it’s 15 minutes. For us, it’s usually two hours. ” Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, two of the executive producers of “Drag Race,” are also documentarians who directed “In ‘Vogue’: The Editor’s Eye. ” “We were a little anxious they might find out that we made ‘Drag Race,’” Mr. Bailey said about his initial meetings with Vogue editors. “The reverse was completely true. The embrace was fantastic, because they all watch it. ” The affection is mutual. Asked who else from the fashion industry he would most like to have on the show — besides Mr. Scott and Mr. Jacobs, the models Gigi Hadid and Chanel Iman have appeared — Mr. Charles said: “How fabulous would it be if we got Anna Wintour on the judges panel?” Of course, drag fashion is not runway fashion. Most of the queens on the show make or commission their outfits, only occasionally straying into designer pieces, which rarely come in regular women’s sizes, let alone ’s sizes. (“I can definitely make sample size work,” said Ms. Chachki dryly, “which is more than most. ”) More to the point, drag fashion satirizes high fashion as much as it celebrates it. “That’s part of the bohemian creed,” Mr. Charles said. “You reserve the right to simultaneously love something with all your heart and absolutely hate it to your core. I love creativity and beauty. Fashion is absolutely that. ” Which may in part explain why the fashion industry has found “Drag Race” easy to love. Runway fashion, with very few exceptions, exists in a state of permanent seriousness drag sends it up mercilessly, worshiping its extremes while mocking its pretensions with impunity. It comes as a relief. And that is exactly how some use it. After the grueling production of his most recent fashion week show, Mr. Jacobs said, he dragged himself home and got in bed. “I couldn’t move, I was so wiped out,” he said. “Eight o’clock came around I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we get to watch ‘Drag Race All Stars.’ What could be better? Lying in bed, eating pretzels with peanut butter stuffed inside them, watching ‘Drag Race’ with my boyfriend. ” | 0fake |
NERVOUS NANCY: Pelosi Gives Incoherent Response To Trump’s Saying Her Being Dem Leader Helps GOP | A nervous Nancy Pelosi responded Thursday to criticism from Democratic colleagues asking her to step down from her leadership post and President Donald Trump s subsequent tweet mocking her for helping Republicans politically.Some Republican members have said that it would be good for their party if Pelosi remains the top Democrat in the House. These remarks followed heavy criticism from Democratic lawmakers of Pelosi s leadership following Tuesday s special election losses in Georgia and South Carolina.Many within the Democratic party are calling for new leadership In other words, Nancy needs to go ASAP!President Trump went on Twitter to mockingly signal his support for the Pelosi:Conservatives like former speaker Newt Gingrich have been saying they hope Nancy Pelosi stays on as Minority Leader of the House She s good for the Republican Party. She s definitely on the hot seat right now but in true Pelosi fashion, she s oblivious to the reality that it s time to go. She even said she s a master legislator Um, no Check out the transcript of her comments at the press conference: So, you want me to sing my praises? Is that what you re saying? Why should I? Well, I m a uh um master legislator, I am a, uh, strategic, politically astute leader, I am a uh, uh, my, uh, uh my leadership is recognized by many around the country and that is why I m able to attract the support that I do, which is essential to our elections, sad to say. I m very pleased at the cooperation we re doing working with all the, um, social media and small donor community to change how we communicate but also how we attract resources, intellectual and financial, uh, to the party. I have experience in winning the congress. When people said to us in 05, you don t have a chance, be ready for a, uh, permanent Republican majority , I said, Harry Reid and I said, we don t accept that , so we proceeded, we took the president from 58 to 38, president Bush won the election. But the fact is, they will always make a target. Senator Reid was a target, Senator Daschle was a target, Tip O Neill was a target, I am a target, and they always want to choose our leaders, and usually they go after the most effective leaders because they want to take us diminish us uh the opportunity that we have. We have a Democratic caucus where members participate in the decisions and right now, the members are putting together our messaging as we go forward. I could have written something down on the page and said, this is what I think , but we don t do things that way, we listen to members, we re very proud of our, uh, policy and communications committee. Yikes!!!! | 1real |
Is the Fed Fix in for the election? | By David Haggith, the Great Recession Blog .
As we near Halloween, the US stock market looks like it’s whistling past the graveyard near the end of a year that I predicted would be the dawn of “the Epocalypse.” (By that, I meant an economic apocalypse, the likes of which we’ve never seen.)
So far, however, that prediction has not manifested. In fact, the market’s fibrillating heartbeat in this graph exhibits a preternatural and eery calm. But it is too calm — too calm to be natural. The stock market plunged on my predicted schedule at the start of the year in what turned into the worst January in the US stock market’s history. Then, suddenly, it was resurrected, great death defied; but, after a rapid recovery it lost consciousness and now behaves more like the walking dead.
I have never seen a more rigged looking stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has been flatlining in the narrowest range possible for almost four months. Coincidence, or has the Fed clandestinely set a threshold below which it will not let the market fall, just like it does openly for inflation — in order to make sure that nothing happens economically that would push voters toward Donald Trump? Is the Federal Reserve rigging the stock market in order to drag itself through this monstrous election cycle alive?
While the Fed is barred by law from buying stocks, it has been creating money for its banking proxies to buy stocks ever since the Great Recession hit. It’s common knowledge and also confessed this year by Fed officials , that the Fed has been pumping up the stock market; but I’m asking are they taking new extraordinary measures behind the scenes? The market now looks like it has been pushed as high as it will go and is being held against that ceiling by some mysterious levitating force.
Donald Trump recently made it clear that he’d love to put a stake in the heart of the Federal Reserve by firing Janet Yellen … if he could. The prospect of such an acrimonious relationship with a president, telegraphed so clearly by a candidate with a strong chance of winning, surely puts the Fed in a fearful state of self-preservation. All creatures in a state of self-preservation — especially the hideous ones — will do nearly anything to survive.
I can’t say that I know the Fed is doing anything new or different than what it has done for the past seven years; but I can say with certainty that this stock market doesn’t look like anything we’ve seen in the past seven years … or even that I’ve seen anytime in my career.
John Rubino of DollarCollapse.com calls it “The Boredom Before the Storm” and observes …
With all the surprising and disturbing things going on – Brexit, China’s soaring debt, US/Russia/China saber rattling, the unique US presidential race, the cyber attack that shut down big parts of the US Internet – you’d think that an unsettled world would be reflected in skittish financial markets. Instead we’re getting the opposite, with stock price movements becoming more and more placid as the year goes on.
Indeed. Like Rubino, I find it strange that, with so much disturbing news around the world, the stock market looks like a sea that is a smooth as glass (compared to how the market’s ups and downs have looked at any other time). You’d think there was never a season more calming to the nerves of investors than the last four months, even as Wall Street daily screams out its fears about a possible Trump victory.
In case you don’t think the above graph looks highly suspect, consider that the Dow has now closed below its fifty-day moving average every day without falling below its two-hundred-day moving average for thirty-two sessions. That may not sound like any technical big deal, but what that means is that the Dow has traded within the range of those two averages for the longest time in twenty-seven years ! In fact, the current stretch is three days longer ( and running ) than what the Dow managed back in 1989. (That’s just as far back as I had time to research to try to find a period that came close.) Is the White House also in on the fix … if a fix it is?
At a time when Barrack Obama has been boasting that his administration brought the national deficit down (and when I suspect the Obama Admin. would like to tamp it down as much as possible to make Democrats look good for the election), Federal government spending just leaped 67% in August over the month before and 23% over the year before. Another way of saying that is that this spending surge created a deficit for August that was 40% higher than last August’s deficit.
Why would the Obama administration risk losing its bragging rights over lowering the deficit so close to the election unless something more important than those bragging rights was at stake? (The president can, after all, do things by executive order to slow spending.) It could, of course, simply be that the King Pin and his henchmen recognized no one was buying their story, so they gave up maintaining the charade. Or … it could be that the economy began sinking so badly that massive efforts were needed to shore things up behind the scenes. Or … ?
While I don’t know the reasoning for the spending explosion at a time when the Obama wants to firmly establish his legacy as our savior from the Great Recession, I will note that there is nothing like a massive burst of last-minute government spending on top of whatever the Feral Reserve might be doing to superficially float the economy a little longer. If your boat starts leaking badly and you’re only a hundred yards from shore, the best solution is to power quickly toward shore, not spend time trying to make lasting repairs. No October surprise this October … so far … boo!
October has a reputation for being a nasty month for the stock market. It’s the month in which you had usually better buckle your seatbelt because October has seen more stock market crashes than any other month. Sixty-percent of the largest one-day drops in the US stock market have happened in October.
This Halloweenish month has broken more volatility records than any other month. That makes it especially odd that the VIX, which tracks market volatility, hasn’t been this steady in any month since the months that preceded the Great Recession. (Everyone thought everything was fine then, too.)
As short volatility market positions continue to build – largely as a consequence of central banks suppressing volatility to prevent recessions – maverick money manager Jesse Felder is warning the end result of the volatility trade could be a very painful lesson for investors with significant stock market repercussions. Having started out at Bear Stearns before co-founding his own multi-billion-dollar hedge fund, Jesse Felder is now more at home educating the masses on the truth in financial markets through his blog The Felder Report …. Felder expresses his concern that the lack of volatility will inevitably create more volatility, the likes of which have never been seen before. “I’m not calling for a stock market crash … but if you want to look at what’s the probability of that type of an event, it’s probably got to be as high as it’s ever been.” ( Business Insider )
Felder also says in a television interview that another sign of “way too much complacency” in the stock market is that…
…we’re seeing financial stress; everybody’s dismissing it…. It’s big-time denial.
Investor complacency or even irrational exuberance are the hallmarks of the final days before a stock-market bust because markets crash when people are most blind. (If they weren’t blind, they’d see the problem coming and avert catastrophe.) Everyone was complacent in 2007 about all warnings, just as no one now seems to care that the market has plowed its mushy head into a ceiling that is slowly squishing down upon it.
This October looks more sloppy than choppy, and that’s … in spite of just entering another reporting period of fairly weak earnings, in spite of the European Central Bank talking about backing away from quantitative easing, in spite of the US national debt hitting twenty-trillion dollars, in spite of the Federal Reserve edging toward a possible interest-rate hike now that inflation and employment have met the Fed’s stated targets, in spite of the Bank of Japan holding back on its QE, in spite of China looking like another round of collapse is imminent, in spite of the largest and oldest banks in Europe teetering on collapse, in spite of the great European unwind called “Brexit,” in spite of a proxy war between the US and Russia flaring up in the Middle East, and in spite of that scary, red-haired Chucky doll named Trump.
Hmm. Is history’s calmest stock market in the midst of all that a sign of peak complacency or irrationality? Or is it a sign that the market is being firmly fixed in place by the Fed and the government? Either way, looks like a crash is imminent. You decide. I’ll just note that the market looks as calm as the eye in the middle of the hurricane that is, itself, surrounded by hurricanes.
While the ride has been mysteriously quiet for the last four months, note that the trend over those months is ever so gradually downward. So, if the fix is in, it is a fix that is barely holding, despite all the Fed and the government can throw at it.
Are investors just treading water, as some commentators explain, waiting until the election decides who is president. If so, that’s something they have not done with this level of calm in any previous election cycles. Or are the Fed and the Gov lifting with all their combined might in hidden ways to try to hold up a lowering ceiling so that no one will suspect the Obama-praised Obama recovery is already dead?
I don’t actually know. I just want to make the stinking peculiarity of this zombie economy abundantly clear. | 1real |
Chilean president says Trump concerned about Venezuelan crisis | SANTIAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern about the political and humanitarian situation in Venezuela in a call on Sunday with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the Chilean president told reporters on Monday. Bachelet said she talked with Trump about the actions regional leaders were taking with regard to Venezuela, which has been wracked by an economic crisis in the last three years and is facing external pressure to make political reforms. “(President Trump) presented to me his worries about the situation in Venezuela,” Bachelet told reporters at the La Moneda presidential palace in Chile’s capital, Santiago. “I told him about the actions (Chile’s) foreign ministry is carrying out together with other foreign ministries, and we are staying in contact to see how we can help Venezuela have a peaceful exit from its domestic situation.” Venezuelans are suffering from severe shortages of basic goods, including food. The government of Nicolas Maduro blames private businesses for sabotaging the economy with price speculation and routinely denounces opposition activists as coup-plotters, intent on bringing down socialism in the country. Opposition leaders say the Maduro government has undermined democracy by canceling a key referendum and delaying local elections, among other measures. Last week, Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, said Venezuela should be suspended from the organization if it does not hold general elections as soon as possible. Relations between Venezuela and the United States have been rocky since former socialist president Hugo Chavez rose to power in 1999. The South American country has repeatedly criticized the United States for interfering in its domestic affairs. The U.S. blacklisted Venezuela’s vice president as a drug trafficker in February, and Trump later that month called for the release of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. | 0fake |
Environment 'Has Never Been A Partisan Issue' For EPA Administrator | WASHINGTON -- Before joining the Obama administration, Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy was a high-ranking official for two Republican governors -- Massachusetts' Mitt Romney and Connecticut's Jodi Rell. But in Washington, she's found herself the target of numerous attacks from conservatives.
"For me, the environment has never been a partisan issue," McCarthy told The Huffington Post. "I deal with science and facts. And I try to make the most reasonable decisions I can, so that the environment can be recognized as really part and parcel of the foundation of a growing economy."
"I have never had any difficulty working for either a Republican or a Democrat, as long as they allow me to do my job, as long as we can keep politics out of it and real policy involvement in it," she said. "I think that we do a pretty good job here at EPA in trying to stay out of the politics and stay in our lane, which is to really speak for the American public and protect their right to clean air and clean water and healthy land."
But McCarthy's agency is often the subject of attacks from the right. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pledged to do whatever he can "to get the EPA reined in." Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul has called the EPA "abusive and power-hungry," arguing that the agency has "done more harm than good." During the 2014 election, Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst said she'd like to shut down the EPA entirely.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently joked that he's glad he doesn't have McCarthy's job. "I wake up every morning, I say my prayers and I'm thankful that I'm not the EPA administrator," he told a House committee.
McCarthy shrugged off the attacks. "I’m happy that EPA is doing its job," she said. "I am honored to be able to defend the decisions of the agency and speak on its behalf."
"As long as we do the job that Congress gave us, with the authorities that Congress gave us, and we do it as well as we can within the law and science, we do it as transparently as we can, I will be able to stand up and be very proud of our efforts," she continued. "We’re doing the work we’re supposed to do. That’s why people are paying attention. But I work for the American public, that’s who I serve." | 0fake |
Comment on America Is Now At Its Greatest Risk Of a False Flag Attack by Toby | By Rahul Manchanda, Esq. on October 30, 2016 The Neo-Con/Communist natives are restless, they desperately want their World War 3...
by Rahul Manchanda, Esq.
Never in America’s history has she been in more danger of a “false flag” attack from her enemies, both foreign and domestic, than she is now.
The contemporary term “false flag” describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.
Historically, the term “false flag” had its origins in naval warfare where the use of a flag other than the belligerent’s true battle flag before (but not while) engaging the enemy has long been accepted as a permissible ruse de guerre ; by contrast, flying a false flag while engaging the enemy constitutes “perfidy.”
Operations carried out during peace-time by civilian organizations, as well as covert government agencies, can (by extension) also be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation.
America has been thoroughly infiltrated by a mighty and wealthy foreign power and menace, while her people are suffering financially, and she is now poised to be sacrificed on the altar of history for a one world government headquartered overseas.
The Neo-Con/Communist natives are restless, they desperately want their World War 3, and they are wanting to move their wealth and power to their next world empire, which will be the final one in their sick deluded minds, unopposed and permanent.
Now that Hillary Clinton has been “theoretically re-indicted” by the FBI for the email scandals (although they are being obstructed by our very own US Department of “Justice” under Attorney General Loretta Lynch) this has effectively ruined her chances of becoming President through legal channels, so they only have one more option – and that is a false flag attack leading us directly into World War 3 in a nuclear war, using all of their carefully placed traitors in the Pentagon, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, and cooperative local police departments all throughout the United States, with a declaration of a state of emergency in both the United States, and abroad.
This is why it is vitally important that all Americans, both in the private and public sector, start watching their government and elected leaders like “hawks.”
Americans need to use the Neo-Con’s mantra of “See Something, Say Something” against them.
The Neo-Con/Stasi/Communist’s Zersetzung (organized gang-stalking under Bill Clinton’s Community Oriented Policing “COPS” program) needs to be turned by the People against them, and the American People need to watch each and every single one of them like they would watch a lunatic holding an AK-47 in a mall. “Regime Change” Brigade
The Neo-Cons simply can not be trusted, as they work for the Plutocrats, who desperately want to hold on to their power, and will not willingly relinquish it to the People by way of Donald Trump and his Populist Revolt and Uprising.
Some examples of real false flags throughout history having routinely disastrous results, wherein the “winners” re-wrote history, include the:
(1) 1914 Battle of Trindad fought between the British auxiliary cruiser RMS Carmania and the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar which had been altered to look like Carmania;
(2) World War II German commerce raider Kormoran which surprised and sank the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1941 while disguised as a Dutch merchant ship, causing the greatest recorded loss of life on an Australian warship;
(3) trial of Otto Skorzeny, who planned and commanded Operation Greif, by a U.S. military tribunal at the Dachau Trials included a finding that Skorzeny was not guilty of a crime by ordering his men into action in American uniforms;
(4) 1788 incident wherein the head tailor at the Royal Swedish Opera received an order to sew a number of Russian military uniforms to stage an attack on Puumala, a Swedish outpost on the Russo-Swedish border allowing King Gustav III of Sweden, who lacked the constitutional authority to initiate unprovoked hostilities without the Estates’ consent, to launch the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790);
(5) September 1931 incident wherein Japanese officers fabricated a pretext for invading Manchuria by blowing up a section of railway;
(6) Gleiwitz incident in 1939 involving Reinhard Heydrich fabricating evidence of a Polish attack against Germany to mobilize German public opinion for war with Poland;
(7) November 26, 1939 incident wherein the Soviet army shelled Mainila, a Russian village near the Finnish border blaming Finland for the attack using the incident as a pretext to invade Finland, starting the Winter War, four days later;
(8) 1962 Operation Northwoods plot by the U.S. Department of Defense for a war with Cuba involving scenarios such as fabricating the hijacking or shooting down of passenger and military planes, sinking a U.S. ship in the vicinity of Cuba, burning crops, sinking a boat filled with Cuban refugees, attacks by alleged Cuban infiltrators inside the United States, and harassment of U.S. aircraft and shipping and the destruction of aerial drones by aircraft disguised as Cuban MiGs to be blamed on Cuba and a pretext for an invasion of Cuba and the overthrow of Fidel Castro’s communist government;
(9) Reichstag fire which was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on February 27, 1933 using as “evidence” by the Nazis that the Communists were beginning a plot against the German government, whereby Adolf Hitler, who was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany four weeks before, on 30 January, urged President Paul von Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree to counter the “ruthless confrontation of the Communist Party of Germany” – with civil liberties suspended, the government instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist parliamentary delegates;
(10) April 4 1953 incident wherein the CIA was ordered to undermine the government of Iran over a four-month period, as a precursor to overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh by carrying out false flag attacks “on mosques and key public figures” to be blamed on Iranian communists loyal to the government, code-named “TP-Ajax,” the tactic of a “directed campaign of bombings by Iranians posing as members of the Communist party” involving the bombing of “at least” one well known Muslim’s house by CIA agents posing as Communists;
(11) 2008 shooting of two minibuses carrying Georgians who lived in Abkhazia who wanted to cross the border so they could go and vote in the parliamentary election that day, in a volatile area on the border of Abkhazia and the Republic of Georgia, wherein President Saakashvili indicated that the attack had been an attempt to disrupt the election, implying that it had been Abkhaz or Russian forces who had been behind it, providing a favorable opportunity for the president to focus the nation’s attention on an external enemy, leading attention away from his domestic critics, as well as making use of his position as leader to rally the Georgians around his candidates in the election;
(12) assassination of Charlemagne Péralte of Haiti in 1919, after checkpoints were passed by military disguised as guerrilla fighters;
(13) Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s, wherein captured Mau Mau members who switched sides and specially trained British troops initiated the pseudo-gang concept to successfully counter Mau Mau;
(14) Algerian civil war in the middle of 1994 wherein death squads composed of Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS) security forces disguised themselves as Islamist terrorists and committed false flag terror attacks;
(15) Mexican wars of 1819 and 1846-48;
(16) Spanish-American War of 1898 involving the surprise explosion of the battleship Maine at Havana, Cuba wherein the Hearst Press accused the Spanish and the USA declared war on Spain conquering the Philippines, Guam and Cuba;
(17) World War I in 1914-1918 wherein a U-boat torpedo hit ocean liner Lusitania near Britain and some 1200 people, including 128 Americans, on board lost their lives, and subsequent investigations revealed that the major explosions were inside the Lusitania, as it was secretly transporting 6 million pounds of artillery shells and rifle ammunition, as well as other explosives on behalf of Morgan Banking Corporation to help Britain and France;
(18) World War 2 in 1939-1945 where a U-boat torpedo hit the ocean liner Athenia near Britain with some 1100 passengers, of which 311 were Americans;
(19) US naval intelligence planning and suggesting “8 insults” to bring Japan into war with the US, and where President Roosevelt executed this plan immediately and also added some other insults, enraging Japan, such as a total blockade of Japanese oil imports, as agreed between the Americans, British and the Dutch – FDR also declared an all-out embargo against Japan and forbade them the use of the Panama Canal impeding Japan’s access to Venezuelan oil;
(20) one of many incidents provoking Japan to attack Pearl Harbor some 6 months later;
(21) Korean War in 1950-1953 wherein South Korean incursions (the Tiger regiment etc.) into North Korea (1949) led to contrary claims and into war – the cause of this war was covert action involving leaders of Taiwan, South Korea and the US Military Industrial Complex (John Foster Dulles has been mentioned as an organizer of the hostilities);
(22) Vietnam War in “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident” wherein the American destroyer Maddox was supposedly attacked twice by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin – but which never happened;
(23) Grenada invasion whereby the Grenadian leader, Maurice Bishop, who favored the left and invited Cubans to build infrastructure to accommodate long range Soviet aircraft was deposed and executed in October 19, 1983 – six days later the US invaded, with the supposed reason that American medical students studying in Grenada were in danger due to a “Cuban presence”– and of course the new leader supported by the US favored more traditional values and the right;
(24) Panama invasion wherein an incident between American and Panamanian troops led to invasion and the earlier Carter administration plan to hand control of the canal over to Panama was cancelled;
(25) US-Israeli sponsored wars between Iraq and Iran from 1980-1988;
(26) Desert Storm War (First Gulf War) in 1991 wherein Saddam Hussein asked for permission from the US (via their ambassador April Gillespie) to invade Kuwait, and got an answer that the US was not concerned with “Arab quarrels” – this was a trap, and after Saddam occupied Kuwait, George Bush Sr. mobilized a coalition of some 40 nations to “liberate Kuwait” and smash the recently-built Iraqi military power base – this incident also involved a media hoax wherein the daughter of a Kuwaiti US Ambassador played a nurse on TV and testified to “witnessing” Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait;
(27) War on Terror launched by the Bush administration in October 2001 – claimed to be the response to terrorism, especially the 9-11 incidents;
(28) Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan invasion);
(29) Enduring Justice (Second Gulf war); and
(30) countless others.
Paragraph 43 of the Field Manual published by the War Department, United States Army, on 1 October 1940, under the entry Rules of Land Warfare states: “National flags, insignias and uniforms as a ruse – in practice it has been authorized to make use of these as a ruse. The foregoing rule (Article 23 of the Annex of the IVth Hague Convention), does not prohibit such use, but does prohibit their improper use. It is certainly forbidden to make use of them during a combat. Before opening fire upon the enemy, they must be discarded.”
The American Soldiers’ Handbook states: “The use of the enemy flag, insignia, and uniform is permitted under some circumstances. They are not to be used during actual fighting, and if used in order to approach the enemy without drawing fire, should be thrown away or removed as soon as fighting begins.”
The 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 (Protocol I) states:
Article 37. – Prohibition of perfidy – 1. It is prohibited to kill, injure, or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy. Acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence, shall constitute perfidy. The following acts are examples of perfidy: (a) The feigning of an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce or of a surrender; (b) The feigning of an incapacitation by wounds or sickness; (c) The feigning of civilian, non-combatant status; and (d) The feigning of protected status by the use of signs, emblems or uniforms of the United Nations or of neutral or other States not Parties to the conflict. 2. Ruses of war are not prohibited. Such ruses are acts which are intended to mislead an adversary or to induce him to act recklessly but which infringe no rule of international law applicable in armed conflict and which are not perfidious because they do not invite the confidence of an adversary with respect to protection under that law. The following are examples of such ruses: the use of camouflage, decoys, mock operations and disinformation.
Article 38. – Recognized emblems – 1. It is prohibited to make improper use of the distinctive emblem of the Red Cross, Red Crescent or Red Lion and Sun or of other emblems, signs or signals provided for by the Conventions or by this Protocol. It is also prohibited to misuse deliberately in an armed conflict other internationally recognized protective emblems, signs or signals, including the flag of truce, and the protective emblem of cultural property. 2. It is prohibited to make use of the distinctive emblem of the United Nations, except as authorized by that Organization.
Article 39. – Emblems of nationality – 1. It is prohibited to make use in an armed conflict of the flags or military emblems, insignia or uniforms of neutral or other States not Parties to the conflict. 2. It is prohibited to make use of the flags or military emblems, insignia or uniforms of adverse Parties while engaging in attacks or in order to shield, favour, protect or impede military operations. 3. Nothing in this Article or in Article 37, paragraph 1(d), shall affect the existing generally recognized rules of international law applicable to espionage or to the use of flags in the conduct of armed conflict at sea.”
It is vitally important to note that while the United States may have these codes and regulations, her enemies, both foreign and domestic, are not bound by these Rules.
The American People (and indeed the rest of the world) need to be exceptionally on guard and vigilant before the upcoming November 2016 election, and even many months afterwards, because the Neo-Cons/Communists may still try and get their World War 3, even if Donald Trump is elected.
After all, September 11, 2001 took place a full 9 months after George W Bush was sworn in at his Inauguration in January 2001, and this was blamed on Osama Bin Laden who was a known CIA Asset and who allegedly declared War on America in 1998 – he might have been the Neo-Cons’ insurance plan, cooked up during the 8 year Clinton Administration from 1992-2000.
And of course, 9-11 is what led to the wholesale bloodshed and regime changing wars for the past 15 years, leaving the Middle East in flames, with countless millions of innocent lives and refugees lost forever, the greatest genocide and bloodbath the world has ever known.
And don’t think that these crazed Neo-Con psychopaths won’t do it again, especially when there are only a few more countries left to “take out” now – Russia, Iran, and North Korea – as opposed to 20.
See: | 1real |
Puerto Rico oversight board approves revised government turnaround plan | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board voted unanimously on Monday to certify the government’s fiscal turnaround plan, on the condition it be amended to eliminate Christmas bonuses, impose employee furloughs, and further reduce pension spending. The plan, a cornerstone of the federal Puerto Rico rescue law known as PROMESA, will serve as the baseline for looming restructuring talks with holders of some $70 billion in debt that has pushed the U.S. territory to the brink of economic collapse. The government can avoid some of the austerity measures, which have sparked protest among Puerto Ricans, if it presents alternative cost-saving measures by April 30, the board said. PROMESA required Governor Ricardo Rossello to present a turnaround blueprint that would require sign-off by the board. The board rejected an initial draft last week, saying it relied on “overly optimistic” economic projections. The latest version rolled back those numbers, boosting the island’s 10-year projected funding gap to $67 billion from $56 billion, and contemplating $39.6 billion in new cash flows from spending cuts and revenue initiatives, up from $33.8 billion in the last plan. The new version forecasts the island would have $800 million a year to service debt, down from $1.2 billion in the draft. “The new plan is modestly worse than the old plan for creditors, as it implies larger haircuts,” Puerto Rico credit analyst Chas Tyson, of KBW Inc, said in a note on Monday. Approval by the board came with conditions: the government must reduce pension spending by 10 percent beginning in 2020, cut Christmas bonuses and implement employee furloughs as soon as July 1 to stave off a short-term cash crunch. The austerity push drew protests outside the meeting in lower Manhattan on Monday, including from teachers who claimed the furloughs would shorten the public school year by the equivalent of two months a year. The government can avoid the furloughs and bonus cuts if it presents the board with a plan by April 30 to shore up liquidity by $200 million. Rossello said he was confident the cuts would not be necessary. “I’m very confident we’ll have $200 million in reserve cash, so that we can jump over that obstacle,” Rossello said in an interview with Reuters after Monday’s meeting. The board said it will negotiate over the next 30 days with the government on how to cut pensions, a contentious issue on an island where retirement systems are already borderline insolvent thanks to decades of mismanagement by governments that routinely made overly generous promises to workers. “All stakeholders have been forced to sacrifice, and no one is exempt from that,” board member Andrew Biggs, a pension expert, told reporters after the meeting. He added the cuts will be orchestrated “in a way that would spare the lowest-income people from any reductions.” Rossello said he will not pass public policy that would hurt the poorest pensioners. “I don’t see any way I can reduce pensions of people already having a hard time getting medications and things.” In another controversial move, the board said it supported government efforts to seek additional concessions from bondholders of Puerto Rico’s power utility, PREPA, which is more than $8 billion in debt. The utility and its creditors have had a tentative restructuring in place for more than a year, but Rossello’s administration has said it would seek new terms, sparking concern and frustration among PREPA’s creditors. A subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources announced it will hold a hearing on March 22 on the status of the PREPA deal, the current version of which sees creditors taking 15-percent cuts. | 0fake |
Frank Deford Ends NPR Sports Commentaries After 37 Years - Breitbart | WASHINGTON (AP) — National Public Radio commentator Frank Deford has bid listeners goodbye after 37 years of discussing sports on the network. [Deford gave his 1, 656th and final commentary on NPR’s “Morning Edition” Wednesday, ending a run of what he calls “little homilies” that began in 1980. He thanked NPR for allowing him to choose his topics and allowing him “to treat sports seriously, as another branch on the tree of culture. ” The remains a contributing writer at Sports Illustrated, where he got his start in 1962. Deford has also served as a correspondent on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” since 1995. Deford received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2013 for “transforming how we think about sports. ” | 0fake |
Afghanistan Forces Struggle to Hold Firm Against Taliban in South - The New York Times | Afghanistan — As Taliban fighters push toward the southern city of Lashkar Gah, members of Afghanistan’s elite forces are trying to hold their ground here, about 10 miles from the city, the capital of Helmand Province and a critical link in the defense of the entire region. The Afghan government’s need to rely on the special forces, highly trained for commando raids, to guard the perimeter of the city exposes a stark reality. As Helmand, the largest province in Afghanistan and the center of its opium production, endures intense enemy fire this summer, the regular police and army forces have failed to stand firm, raising the possibility that the Taliban could overrun Lashkar Gah. “The police, as soon as they were inflicted with some casualties, gave up about 27 posts one after another without a fight, and our posts were surrounded by surprise,” said Col. Nematullah Khalil, the commander of the Afghan Army’s Third Regiment, 215 Corps, whose soldiers are trying to help the special forces hold the line in in the Nad Ali district. “The enemy planted a lot of mines wherever they reached, and that slows us down. ” Lt. Col. Mohammad Omar Jan, the police chief of the Nad Ali district, rejected that assessment. The army is blaming the police to cover up its own weakness, Colonel Jan said, adding that the army was responsible for ’s security because his forces were busy trying to secure the district governor’s compound. “The police are fighting in the front line and suffer heavy casualties more than any other forces,” he said. In the scorching heat on the front lines near members of regular police and army units looked tired on a recent day as they gathered in small clusters, resting in the shade of some buildings’ mud walls. The main road that separates the Afghan forces from the Taliban, who have been striking more forcefully and relentlessly this fighting season, is heavily mined. The cornfields around the largely abandoned homes look calm, but at night the forces regularly clash with the Taliban. The troops have managed to retake only about a mile in the 10 days since they lost much of the area, said Colonel Khalil, the Afghan Army officer. The entire area held by government forces in Helmand has shrunk in recent months. Four districts, including Musa Qala and Nawzad, that were the focus of thousands of American and coalition troops during the 2010 surge are under Taliban control. Frequent airstrikes and reinforcements are required to keep many of the other 10 districts, some only nominally in government control, from falling. While Afghan officials insist that Lashkar Gah will not be lost, their strategy seems unsustainable against an enemy that has proved to be mobile and resilient. Defending the district centers that have not fallen to the Taliban has required a delegation of senior generals and officials from Kabul to shuttle back and forth to monitor developments. On Thursday morning, the senior generals led the fighting, pushing their ground troops and calling in strikes by Afghan and American aircraft to fend off Taliban advances on the district center of Nawa, just south of Lashkar Gah and one of the safest places in Helmand until recently. The Taliban fire, including mortar barrages, damaged the government buildings and demolished the watchtowers. On returning to Lashkar Gah, the generals remained in emergency mode, constantly on the line with troops in other districts, urging them to hold their ground. The Taliban fighters, many of them retreating from Nawa, shifted to exert pressure on the center of the neighboring district of Garmsir. The generals rallied some commandos and then piled into helicopters to save Garmsir. Another team was busy trying to clear the main road to Kandahar Province, which had remained blocked for a week because of Taliban mines and check posts, officials said. Sultan Muhammad, the police chief of Maiwand District, who participated in the road clearance, said that the authorities had defused as many as 100 roadside bombs, and that teams were continuing to clear more even as they were being engaged by the Taliban. Late on Sunday, the convoy of the provincial police chief, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, struck a roadside bomb. The general and three of his guards were wounded, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. Why are the Afghan forces, who local security officials say outnumber the insurgents at least five to one and receive air support, struggling so badly in a strategic province? Helmand was a center of President Obama’s surge, in which tens of thousands of American and coalition troops were sent to try to secure the area, with hundreds of NATO military advisers still aiding the Afghans in the province. Some of the most senior members of the original Taliban are from Helmand, but they now operate from across the border in Pakistan, enabling them to move back and forth, often out of the reach of coalition forces. Beyond its symbolic value, Helmand remains a focus of their attacks not only because it is the gateway to other southern provinces, but also because its fields produce the highest amount of opium in Afghanistan and its vast deserts sit on the main opium trade route. Increasingly, the Taliban have come to resemble a drug cartel as much as an insurgency, relying heavily on the profits from the opium trade to fund their fight. Complicating the situation, officials in Helmand say, local strongmen are using their influence to plant their own men in provincial security jobs in outposts on the route. Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahman, the deputy interior minister, said more than 90 percent of the police officers in Helmand were residents of the province and thus vulnerable to meddling and conflicting loyalties. For example, if a commander is replaced because of incompetence or abuse, security officials say, he is apt to take hundreds of his men with him, leaving a hole in the area’s defense. Political ties can also undermine security. When the brother of a powerful lawmaker who served as the security chief of the Garmsir district was fired recently over allegations that he was involved in the drug trade, the lawmaker organized protests in Lashkar Gah and Kabul. (One of the lawmaker’s nephews remains the head of counternarcotics in the province.) Moreover, military goals pale compared with the allure of financial gain. “The most important thing for the forces in Helmand is their own interests and business in the province — they are trying to get the amount of money which they have been told,” said Muhammad Jan Rasulyar, a former deputy governor of Helmand, referring to the widely held belief that commanders in lucrative posts pay who help them get such jobs. “Differences between government authorities in Helmand made the Taliban stronger in the province, and this is the main reason for the increasing of conflicts. The authorities ward off each other instead of the enemy. ” The army itself has struggled to recover after suffering a record number of casualties in Helmand last year. Gen. Murad Ali Murad, the deputy chief of the army staff, said senior officers had tried to use the winter months to rebuild the 215 Corps. But the relentless pace of the fighting, in Helmand and in other parts of the country, derailed their efforts. New recruits with little experience were thrown into battle. “All of a sudden, the threats in Helmand increased and there was need for those forces to be used in the field, and we felt their deficiencies,” General Murad said. “We felt their lack of equipment and experience in the battlefield. ” Conversely, the Taliban seem to be growing in their actual fighting capability, or in their psychological hold over a struggling foe. Afghan commanders, security officials and fighters say the insurgents are physically tough and use goggles, snipers and sophisticated weapons. This phase of the war pits insurgents who plant mines and then swiftly disappear against an armed force that is lured into traps while chasing the insurgents. This happens even as the soldiers are supported by aircraft that can rain down fire that makes the holding of any area costly for the Taliban. But more than anything, it is an uneven fight between insurgents prepared to attack and die, and soldiers who would flee to live. It is also a story told by the disparity in the unverified number of casualties provided by Helmand’s governor, Hayatullah Hayat. In the most recent two weeks of fighting, 210 Taliban fighters were killed and 40 were wounded, compared with 15 dead and 35 wounded for the Afghan forces, the governor said (though other local officials have suggested that the casualties to Afghan forces could be much higher). | 0fake |
Part 4 Of O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Videos Has Americans Asking 1 Question | Part 4 Of O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Videos Has Americans Asking 1 Question Rebecca Diserio
The fourth part of James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas year-long sting operation was just posted today, and it’s shaken Hillary Clinton’s campaign in more ways than one. You’ll be shocked to learn more ways these Democrat thugs attempted to rig our election, taking illegal money and committing serious crimes that all point right back to Hillary. Pissed off Americans are now left asking just one question. Democratic thug Scott Foval
Robert Creamer, who has visited the White House over 300 times and met personally with Barack Obama 47 times, was caught in an undercover sting operation, illegally taking $20,000 for Hillary Clinton’s campaign from a “foreign donor” who was really an undercover journalist for Project Veritas, but it gets worse.
Project Veritas decided to give them the illegal contribution from a bank account that they set up in Belize to prove to Creamer they were not plants and to get Creamer to trust the Project Veritas journalist. Knowing Creamer was in deep, doing dirty deals for Hillary Clinton, it was worth risking the 20 grand, and at the very least, they busted the Democrat operatives taking an illegal donation.
Creamer took the bait in the form of 20 grand, and it gave the Project Veritas journalist access to all of the other lower level Democratic operatives who then confided all of their dirty dealings. Democratic operative dirty deal man Bob Creamer & his wife Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois)
Creamer spilled the beans, linking him directly to Hillary’s campaign, which is totally illegal under campaign finance laws. Plus, in earlier videos, Creamer was exposed for being guilty of inciting violence at Trump rallies and potential voter fraud schemes. Here’s Creamer talking, not knowing he is being recorded:
“Every morning I am on a call at 10:30 that goes over the message being driven by the campaign headquarters … I am in this campaign mainly to deal with what earned media with television, radio, with earned media and social media, not with paid media, not with advertising.” He also mentions a conference call discussing a woman potentially coming forward to accuse Trump of inappropriate behavior . [via Breitbart ]
Did you get that last sentence? He threw in there that he would be discussing another woman who they knew in advance was going to coming forward to accuse Donald Trump. That’s highly suspicious, to say the least. How would this guy, Creamer, know in advance about something like that?
Elsewhere in the video , Creamer adds, “I do a lot of work with the White House on their issues, helping to run issue campaigns that they have been involved in. I mean, for immigration reform for the… the health care bill, for trying to make America more like Britain when it comes to gun violence issues. ”
Look, so far, there are so many counts of illegal activity exposed here that the majority of comments from the American people are demanding an answer to one question: Where in the hell is the FBI?
Creamer is a major player who meets with the president 47 times and runs dirty operations for Hillary Clinton. He has taken 20 grand from an illegal foreign donor, which they give back after they find out Project Veritas busted them in a sting, but that doesn’t make it go away nor does it make any of the other crimes they have committed for Hillary go away either.
It’s time for the FBI to step up and do some law enforcing. Even if Obama continues to shield Hillary Clinton, a criminal who cannot be president, that doesn’t make these crimes go away. Just wait until Donald Trump wins this election — all of these criminals in Washington will pay. | 1real |
The NY Daily News Has Just LITERALLY Told Ted Cruz To F*ck Off For Trashing NYC Values (IMAGE) | If there s one thing you never do in life, it s piss off a New Yorker. If there s one thing you really never do in life, it s make fun of New York City on national television telling a city of millions, a city where liberty literally stands, that it has bad values.Well, Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz has now done both of those things, and needless to say, the city is pretty damn pissed. During the recent GOP debate, Cruz, tried to insult Trump by bashing New York values. He said: Donald comes from New York and he embodies New York values Everybody understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal and pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage. And focus on money and the media. Donald Trump then turned to Cruz and promptly ripped the a**hole to shreds for such a blatantly horrific remark.Trump wasn t they only one upset, here is the latest New York Daily News cover: Stop the presses! A new Page 1 DROP DEAD, TED: https://t.co/68hKgqmjBx pic.twitter.com/veDsxLYDTN New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 15, 2016The NY Daily News, alongside the Statue of Liberty offering the candidate the universal symbol for f*ck off, has instructed the Canadian-born Cruz to go back to Canada.Cruz, in his lame attempt to appeal to rural folks who are scared of the big, bad city, because people other than just folks who think like them live there, has now stepped in a monumental pile of sh*t made of his own word vomit.If Cruz needs a reminder of New York values let s give one to him.New York values embody a city that never sleeps, one that is always there, always vibrant, and always willing to take on the world, literally, it s where the UN is and where the Statue of Liberty stands. The statue that embraces all. A statue that is the very embodiment of the United States of America.New York is a city that has some of the most prestigious colleges, the best theater and art, and is home to millions of people who come from every corner of the earth.New York is a city, that when attacked in the worst domestic terror attack in the history of the nation, stood together, stood strong, never gave up on one another, and citizens literally gave their lives to save one another.THOSE are New York values, and for Cruz to trash New York City, he s showing himself as the un-American, horrible person that he truly is. Way to let your smarmy true colors shine, Ted.Featured image: Twitter | 1real |
Judges hit Trump lawyer with tough questions over revised travel ban | RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Federal appeals court judges on Monday peppered a U.S. Justice Department lawyer with tough questions about President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority nations, with several voicing skepticism that protecting national security was the aim of the policy, not religious bias. Six Democratic appointees on a court dominated by judges named by Democratic presidents showed concerns about reviving the Republican president’s March executive order that prohibited new visas to enter the United States for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for three months. But three Republican appointees on the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed to lean toward the administration, asking whether the president should be second-guessed when it comes to protecting the country’s borders and whether the plaintiffs bringing the suit had been sufficiently harmed by the order during arguments before 13 judges. Based on the judges’ questions, a ruling could hinge on whether the appeals court agrees with a lower court judge that past statements by Trump about the need to prevent Muslims from entering the United States should be taken into account. That would be bad news for a young administration seeking victory on one of its first policy changes. “This is not a Muslim ban,” Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, arguing for the government, told the judges during the hearing that lasted two hours, twice as long as scheduled. Judge Robert King, named by Democratic former President Bill Clinton, told Wall that Trump has never retracted previous comments about wanting to impose a ban on Muslims. “He’s never repudiated what he said about the Muslim ban,” King said, referring to Trump’s campaign promise for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Wall told the judges past legal precedent holds that the court should not look behind the text of the Trump’s executive order, which does not mention any specific religion, to get at its motivations. He warned that despite the “heated and passionate political debate” about the ban, there was a need to be careful not to set legal precedent that would open the door to broader questioning of presidential decision making on security matters. Judge Paul Niemeyer, appointed by Republican former President George H.W. Bush, told Omar Jadwat, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the plaintiffs who challenged the order, that they were asking the court to rule on a president’s national security judgments. “You have the judiciary supervising and assessing how the executive is carrying out his office,” Niemeyer said, pressing Jadwat, who seemed to stumble at times after pointed questioning by the judges. “I just don’t know where this stops.” The revised travel ban was challenged in Maryland by refugee organizations and individuals who said they were being discriminated against because they were Muslim and because they had family members adversely affected by the ban. They argue the order violated federal immigration law and a section of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment barring the government from favoring or disfavoring a particular religion. The administration appealed a March 15 ruling by Maryland-based federal judge Theodore Chuang that put the ban on hold just a day before it was due to go into effect. The arguments marked the latest legal test for Trump’s ban, which also was blocked by federal judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii in a separate legal challenge. An earlier version of the ban was also blocked by the courts. Chuang, in Maryland, blocked the part of Trump’s order relating to travel by people from the six countries. Watson, in Hawaii, also blocked another part of the order that suspended the entry of refugees into the United States for four months. To a packed audience in the ornate pre-Civil War era courthouse, Judge Pamela Harris said Trump’s action clearly had a disparate impact on Muslims, asking, “How is this neutral in its operation as to Muslims?” Judge Barbara Keenan, who like Harris was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama, said the order could affect some 200 million people. Regardless of how the 13 judges rule, the matter is likely to be decided ultimately by the U.S. Supreme Court. The full 4th Circuit took up the appeal but two Republican-appointed judges did not participate. That left nine judges appointed by Democratic presidents, three Republican appointees and one judge originally appointed by a Democrat and later re-appointed by a Republican. It was unclear when the court would rule. Trump issued the March executive order after federal courts blocked an earlier version, issued on Jan. 27 a week after he took office, that also had included Iraq among the nations targeted. That order, which went into effect immediately, triggered chaos and protests at airports and in several cities before being put on hold due to legal challenges. The second order was intended to overcome the legal problems posed by the original ban. The administration’s appeal in the Hawaii case will be heard in Seattle on May 15 by a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The three judges assigned all are Democratic appointees. Wall said the temporary ban was intended to give the government time to evaluate whether people from the six countries were being subjected to adequate vetting to ensure they did not pose a security threat to the United States. But he said the administration had not been able to proceed on all the work it wanted to do because of the litigation, noting “we have put our pens down.” | 0fake |
Donald Trump, François Fillon, Erdogan: Your Tuesday Briefing - The New York Times | Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • President Trump revised his travel ban, removing Iraq but leaving six other predominantly Muslim nations on a list of those whose citizens are barred from entering the U. S. Officials said the rewrite was meant to address legal concerns quickly to deal with what they say is a national security threat. But in the Middle East, it is still seen as amounting to a ban on Muslims. Separately, the White House said Mr. Trump “firmly believes” that former President Barack Obama had him wiretapped, though the F. B. I. director has said otherwise. Since Mr. Trump took office, he and Mr. Obama have criticized each other to an unusual degree. _____ • Republicans in the U. S. House of Representatives unveiled their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The bill would scrap the mandate for most Americans to have health insurance in favor of a new system of tax credits. But some Republican lawmakers have already expressed misgivings. _____ • Top officials for the Republicans, the French party, say they will continue to support François Fillon, the embattled presidential candidate. Mr. Fillon got a reprieve earlier in the day when Alain Juppé, a prominent rival, said he had decided “once and for all” not to run. But some in the party still doubt that Mr. Fillon’s campaign can overcome corruption allegations stemming from his employment of family members. _____ • Germany and Turkey are in an intensifying war of words about overseas campaign efforts for a Turkish referendum that would expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After two campaign rallies for Turks living in Germany were canceled over security concerns, Mr. Erdogan accused Berlin of using Nazi tactics. His critics say the Turkish president is defending his right to free speech in Europe, while denying it to dissident voices at home. Analysts say relations could calm down after the referendum in April. _____ • Nuclear concerns are on the rise. In Europe, there is serious talk about using France’s arsenal to establish an E. U. nuclear weapons program. And in South Korea, the United States has begun deploying an antimissile system, above, strongly opposed by China, a day after North Korea’s launch of four ballistic missiles. Japan is on heightened alert over North Korea’s capabilities, weighing whether it could be testing a “saturation attack” meant to overwhelm missile defenses. _____ • When Wilbur L. Ross, the new U. S. commerce secretary, was vice chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, he was more interested in forcing out Russian board members than working with them. • Two big British financial firms, Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management, have agreed to merge in a $4. 7 billion deal that would create one of Europe’s largest asset managers. • Turkey’s antitrust authority will look at whether Google unfairly promotes its app store and digital services by tying them to its Android operating system. • Office values in central London could decline as much as 20 percent this year amid concerns over Britain’s withdrawal from the E. U. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Members of Parliament called on the British government to tighten rules against dress codes that force women to wear high heels in the office. [The New York Times] • A Russian lawmaker wants to ban the new Disney movie “Beauty and the Beast” over a scene with a gay character. [The New York Times] • E. U. foreign and defense ministers reached a deal to create a military training headquarters, despite concerns about possible overlap with NATO. [The New York Times] • The police in France are searching for the remains of a family of four after a relative confessed to killing them over an inheritance dispute. [BBC] • Israel passed a law that prohibits entry to foreigners who publicly support an boycott. [Reuters] • The U. S. government has opened a criminal investigation into a secret Facebook group of Marines that shared thousands of naked and private photos of female colleagues. [The New York Times] • Should supplements be a part of your morning routine? The science is still mostly lacking. • Recipe of the day: Elegant mini almond cakes can be filled with cherry jam or, with a little effort, chocolate ganache. • In the Galápagos, the booby has no real predators, so the birds live proud, public lives. That has helped scientists learn their habits and even why the shade of their feet matters. (The color signals health.) • The Dutch soccer clubs PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar are exploring whether cognitive training can improve players’ mental performance. Experts have their doubts. • An apartment listed on Airbnb offered a prime location, luxurious appointments and a lot of security: It was inside Trump Tower in New York. The U. S. Postal Service’s stamp issue this week pays homage to the federal arts program that launched some of the 20th century’s most famous American artists. But it might not have. In the during the height of the Depression, unemployment was soaring at 25 percent. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration to put Americans back to work. Artists, who often didn’t have regular jobs in the first place, weren’t certain to be included. But Harry Hopkins, who directed the W. P. A. decided they should be. “Hell,” he said, “they’ve got to eat just like other people!” So the Federal Art Project of the W. P. A. was created. Over nine years, it spawned more than 100, 000 paintings and murals and nearly 20, 000 sculptures. Some of the artists the program employed would later be among America’s most famous, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. “I changed my attitude toward being an artist,” de Kooning famously reminisced. “Instead of doing odd jobs and painting on the side, I painted and did odd jobs on the side. ” Evan Gershkovich contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Read the latest edition of the U. S. briefing here and the latest for Asia and Australia here. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
4 of the Best Kinds of Milk That Aren’t Dairy | Now, numerous studies have concluded that milk doesn’t actually build bone and provide the same amount of calcium that we thought. A study published in the British Medical Journal , for example, followed more than 100,000 people in Sweden over periods of 20 to 30 years, with shocking results: The people who drank milk were more likely to die from heart disease and cancer. The women suffered more overall fractures and hip fractures as well. Different studies have also shown that higher dairy intake is linked to higher risks of prostate and ovarian cancer and can trigger type 1 diabetes. It is also linked to forms of acne, just to name a few effects. There is also the disturbing side of the dairy industry, where animals are abused to produce the milk we drink. A lot of dairy products are filled with the hormones that were given to female cows to keep them perpetually lactating so they produce an endless flow of milk. This doctor describes it perfectly when he says “cow’s milk is for baby calfs, just like human milk is for babies.” It is a substance we need while in crucial stages of development, but past a certain age, it becomes obsolete. While there are many alternatives to dairy milk, some are much better than others. Here are some of the better “milk” products out there. Almond Milk Raw organic almond milk is a great choice when you know where it’s coming from. As with many mass produced products, even some almond milks aren’t the best for us. An analysis of a UK almond milk brand showed that nuts make up only 2% of the drink itself. A single serving of almond milk has almost no protein. Compared with plain old almonds, it fares even worse. There is one place where almond milk comes out on top, of course: It has more potassium and more of the vitamins A and D. But almond milk is fortified with these nutrients — they’ve been added during the production process. Making almond milk yourself, however, is a fantastic option, and allows you to control exactly what goes inside it, ensuring there are no additives, preservatives, or substances you’ve never even heard of before. Rice Milk Rice milk is another good choice that works well as a dairy substitute, if you don’t mind the taste. It’s higher in carbohydrates than other milk choices and contains around the same amount of calcium as cow’s milk. Yet it contains almost no protein, so it needs to be balanced with other protein rich foods. During processing, the carbs break down into sugars and give the milk a sweet taste. It is filled with more sugar, around 10 grams for one serving, which is a lot more than something like coconut milk, which has around 3 grams. If you’re trying to have as little sugar as possible, rice milk may not be the best choice, but it’s certainly better than plain old dairy milk. Coconut Milk Coconut milk is definitely one of the healthier options here. When this milk is all natural, meaning there’s no added sugars, natural flavours, or preservatives, it is incredibly healthy for us. “ Coconuts are highly nutritious and rich in fibre, vitamins C, E, B1, B3, B5 and B6 and minerals including iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous.” The things that makes coconuts so good is the type of fat they contain. They have a form of medium-chain fatty acids rather than long-chain fatty acids, which are stored in our tissue for much longer. One of the beneficial acids within coconuts is called lauric acid. This gets converted inside the body into a beneficial substance called monolaurin acid, which acts as an antiviral agent. But unlike other milks, if you have access, you can go right up to a coconut tree and drink the milk straight from the coconut without the need for processing. This is one of the most pure and fresh ways to get some milk in you! Hemp Milk Ah, hemp; one of the most versatile plants on our planet. Hemp milk has a wide range of health benefits that a lot of other milks don’t. Some companies make fully organic, non-GMO, and unsweetened hemp milk, but it’s always good to check exactly where you’re getting your products from. Hemp milk has a more bean-like and nutty flavor to it, which still tastes great in many drinks or foods. It’s also packed with healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which help with our heart health. In a single 8-ounce glass of hemp milk you can find the following nutrients: Vitamin A | 1real |
Republican Marco Rubio not making a play for 2016 vice presidency | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on Thursday he would not be anybody’s running-mate in the Nov. 8 presidential election, slamming down rumors that he was seeking the vice presidential nod from former rivals. “No, I’m not going to be anybody’s vice president... I’m not interested in being vice president,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill. Rubio also ruled out both seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate and a run for the Florida governorship, which was speculated as a potential next step for the first-term U.S. senator from Florida. “I’m going to finish out my term in the Senate over the next 10 months... and then I’ll be a private citizen in January,” he said. Throughout his 2016 bid for the White House, Rubio repeatedly stated he was uninterested in returning to the Senate, instead focusing his campaign efforts solely on the Republican Party’s nomination. Asked whether he would rule out a run for a political office in the future, Rubio said: “I’m not running for governor, I’m not running for re-election to the Senate. Beyond that, who knows?” Rubio, once seen as the establishment favorite for the party’s nomination, suspended his campaign efforts on Tuesday following a loss in his home-state of Florida to party front-runner and political upstart Donald Trump. | 0fake |
Las frases más destacadas del debate de investidura | Las frases más destacadas del debate de investidura RESUMIMOS LA AGITADA JORNADA DE HOY EN EL CONGRESO Sesión de investidura
Mariano Rajoy no ha conseguido ser investido presidente en la primera votación a causa del rotundo “no” del PSOE. Una actuación muy poco creíble por parte de la bancada socialista, sobreactuada incluso, como cuando Rafael Hernando, portavoz socialista, se ha levantado de su escaño para votar y, justo después de hacerlo, le ha tirado un vaso de agua a la cara a Rajoy y ha fingido un desmayo. Fuentes del Congreso aseguran que Hernando ha guiñado el ojo a Rajoy en un par de ocasiones para tranquilizar al candidato a la presidencia.
Recopilamos a continuación algunos de los momentos más importantes de la jornada. Mariano Rajoy (PP)
“He aceptado el encargo del Rey para presentarme a la investidura porque, oigan, es el Rey”.
“Hemos ganado dos veces las elecciones, fácilmente. ¿Quieren que gane otra más? Cuando haga falta, yo no tengo prisa”.
“Algo le pasa a Cristiano. No está fino. Desde el Partido Popular intentaremos solucionarlo”.
“Hace tres días yo estaba en el paro. Y mírenme. Empieza la regeneración del empleo en España”.
“Estoy aprendiendo Twitter, ya sigo a Cristiano Ronaldo”.
“En Twitter soy @marianocrystal y me gustaría que me hicieran ‘hashtag’ sus señorías”.
(A Pablo Iglesias, tras la alusión a los SMS) “También he aprendido a usar los SMS mejor, como usted dice, aunque siempre llamo después para comprobar que han llegado”.
(A España) “Eres mía. Sólo mía. Miísima. Más mía no puedes ser. Y no porque yo te lo diga, sino porque así lo has decidido tú. Mía. Sólo mía. Miísima. Esa mía tan tuya de la que me he enamorado”.
“Sigan diciendo sus cosas y vayamos alargando debates estériles. Ustedes, y sólo ustedes, serán los responsables de eliminar el puente a todos los diputados”.
(A Joan Tardà) “Oiga, se lo diré hasta con cariño, han hecho ustedes llorar a Cristiano”. Antonio Hernando (PSOE)
“No le pondremos las cosas fáciles al PP. Sin ir más lejos: hoy he aparcado el coche muy pegadito al de Soraya. A ver cómo entra luego”.
“Vamos a hacer de oposición, señor Rajoy, hágase a la idea. Mal empezaríamos con artimañas como los vetos y los decretos […] Sea consciente, señor Rajoy, de que nos vamos a hacer respetar como oposición. No aprobaremos nada, absolutamente nada de lo que usted diga a la primera, lo haremos a la segunda”.
“Nos vamos a hacer respetar como oposición. Los ciudadanos nos exigen que les controlemos. Y lo haremos sin gritar ni utilizar la demagogia y con la camisa metida por dentro, que es algo que los españoles aprecian (en referencia a Podemos)”.
“Nos sobran razones para no confiar en usted, pero no hay razón para mantener el bloqueo político y llevar a los españoles a nuevas elecciones, sólo nos jugamos el país y además no tenemos candidato en el PSOE”.
“Somos de izquierdas, no les quepa ninguna duda. Y seguiremos cantando La Internacional con orgullo. Siempre y cuando La Internacional tenga papeles y esté en una situación regulada”.
(A la salida de la cámara, tras la pregunta de un periodista) “Pedro Sánchez y yo somos buenos amigos. Es más: este sábado, en la segunda votación, cantaremos ‘Escondidos’. Yo haré de Bisbal”. Pablo Iglesias (Podemos)
“Hay aquí mucho delincuente potencial. Lo sé porque me lo han dicho los precogs”.
“Mírenme a los ojos y díganme que no les doy miedo”.
“Me debo al honor de mi patria, de los ciudadanos de mi país y de la asociación de rol ‘Sword of Carabanchel’ que saludo desde aquí”.
“Supongo que Albert Rivera tendrá que buscar en Google algún Torrent de la película del 23-F pero yo se la puedo pasar en un pen”.
“Somos la única oposición real al PP. Errejón mariquita. Nuestra única misión es hacer frente a Rajoy. Íñigo, tonto. No tengan ni una duda de que nada ni nadie nos distraerá. Gafotas cuatroojos”.
(A Ferreras) “Ferreras, no me esperes para cenar, que esto va para largo”. Albert Rivera (Ciudadanos)
“¡Christian! ¡Que no te chivaste de mi cara!”
“¡Que te comiste 10 en una noche y no me diste ni media! ¡Y no me diste ni mierda!”
“Sí, el Chuky de Cieza, cuando quieras bajas a buscarme, que tengo yo que engancharte por la banda”.
“Gilipollas”.
“Te tengo que reventar, literalmente”.
“Que te chivaste a tu ma, a mi ma, te chivaste a la… ¡Ya verás!”
“¿Sabes lo que tengo ahí en mi coche? ¿Quieres verlo? ¿Quieres sentirlo en el pecho?”
(A Iglesias) “¿Ves los agujeros del techo? Eso sí que… ahí la Guardia Civil entrando y ¡pam! ¡pam! Eso sí es un Golpe de Estado… No hay que usar la palabra a la ligera. El que la saca para enseñarla es un parguela”.
(A Iglesias) “Así… ¡ñeeepam!” Joan Tardà (ERC)
“Ya que el señor Rivera ha usado el catalán entiendo que yo también puedo usarlo. El poble català veié una gran lluminària i cregué que la vida li mancava; mes, abans de perdre del tot la coneixença, encara sentí caure-li al damunt i enfonsar-se en ses carns la grapa peluda i alenada roent de la fera, senyor Rajoy.”
“Té nyirvis, senyor Rajoy? Mes l’encís ja estava romput i la terra, bella i tot com suara, no logrà revifar-li el caliu d’aquell primer anhel”.
“Li dic que matarem el llop”. Pedro Sánchez (PSOE)
“Perdona, ¿está ocupado este escaño? Ah, vale… No, no, ya sigo buscando”.
“Oye, ¿está libre este escaño? Ah… Bueno, si le estás guardando el sitio a alguien, poniendo las chaquetas encima, tranquila. Chao”. Ana Pastor, presidenta del Congreso
“Por favor, silencio. Señores del PSOE, un minuto de abstención. ¡De atención!” | 1real |
HILARIOUS: TRUMP EXPOSES STUPIDITY OF NBC PUPPET “REPORTER” [Video] | Trump made sure everyone got a chance to see his interview with NBC Reporter Katy Tur after he posted this telling clip from the interview on his Twitter account https://twitter.com/TrumpPatriots/status/630443452661133312 | 1real |
Secret Lives of Real Pets - The New York Times | The footage is grainy, randomly framed. A pit bull on the Upper West Side noses open a refrigerator door. A Pomeranian obsessively rearranges her bedding. A rabbit in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, waits for his nightly bowl of oats. A bulldog in the East Village makes passionate love to a pillow. All the while, as the animals go about their business, the cameras roll. This summer’s hit movie “The Secret Life of Pets,” set in a New York City, offers fantastical answers to the question: What do Fido and Fluffy do when we’re not around? In the film, they listen to heavy metal, massage themselves with eggbeaters, throw noisy parties, hijack trucks and tumble down sewers. But in real life in the age, there is no need to wonder. There are cameras — nanny cams, pet cams, indoor systems — streaming countless of empirical data each day across the screens of New Yorkers. So what do these animals do, cooped up in empty apartments? They sleep, a lot. Even when awake, they spend a lot of time just waiting around, especially if they’re dogs. “What they’re not ever doing is exactly what ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ is about, which is that they have independent lives that they resume when you leave,” said Alexandra Horowitz, director of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College. “This is not when they come into themselves. It is when they’re waiting for the person to return so they can resume normal programming. ” Yet in those hours of suspended animation, there are moments when life puts itself on display. In a brief YouTube video called “Home alone,” a Manhattan Labradoodle puppy named Kody knocks a roll of paper towels off a dresser, studies it, rolls it with a paw and begins to chew it to shreds: Project sought, project found. People — largely people with digitally oriented desk jobs, it seems — train surveillance cameras on their pets for a number of reasons. Because they want to make sure the dog walker shows up. Because they miss their companion or feel a little guilty about leaving it home all day. Or just because they can. “It’s like white noise — I just have it on in the background,” said Dave Stangle, 31, an advertising director for the dog product and entertainment company Bark Co. and owner of Frank, the bulldog. “It just provides peace of mind that when you’re not there, the dog is just walking around or sleeping. ” Jo Victor has noticed that her chocolate lab, Mista Pikle Butt (pronounced like pickle butt) is “basically like a human when I’m gone. ” “He just kind of walks around, sits on the couch, watches TV, gets up,” said Ms. Victor, the service coordinator for Swifto, the site. She leaves the television tuned to the Food Network for him. Others, like Kevin Dresser, find the sight of a bored animal disconcerting. Mr. Dresser, a TV pioneer, ran a popular webcam called Bklyn Bunny starring Roebling, a white buck with a stylish black eyepatch, from 2005 until Roebling’s death last year. “When we would be out to dinner with friends or somewhere traveling around the city and we would check in, it would be nice to know that he was there,” Mr. Dresser, a graphic designer, said. ”But sometimes it would make you a little sad because you think ‘I should be at home with him.’ ” Especially around Oaty Time. “At 10 o’clock every night, we would give Roebling a bowl of oats,” Mr. Dresser said. “So around 10 o’clock he would go sit by his oat dish and wait. If we weren’t home, we would get emails from people, ‘Hey, looks like Roebling is ready for his oats.’ ” “These camera companies talk about how great it is to be able to see your dog while you’re at work, but there is some kind of gloominess about it,” he added. “There’s your dog, sitting in the corner, and no one’s at home with him. ” Ms. Horowitz, the dog scientist whose new book, “Being a Dog,” will be published in the fall, concurred. A dog left alone may sleep all day, she said, “but that’s from lack of stimulation, not from need to sleep. “Think of any working dog who is given anything to do,” she said. “They are walking around pursuing whatever they’re doing for a full day and they don’t need to take naps. It’s just that these dogs don’t have a job. ” She got a second dog in part to keep her first dog company. Her finding: “Our two dogs spent a truly impressive amount of time asleep on the sofa. ” Pet cams occasionally transmit important news. Kody’s owner, Katelyn Lesse, once checked in on him just in time to see him raiding a container of allergy pills. “I ran home and rushed him to the vet,” Ms. Lesse, 23, a software engineer, said. (He had eaten three or four but was fine.) Dan Graziano learned a useful fact about his young goldendoodle, Theo: He poops on the floor, then eats it. “Of course when I get home, he wants to lick my face,” said Mr. Graziano, 27, an associate editor at CNET who lives on the Upper East Side. “I’m like, ‘No, I know what you did today.’ I’ll take a pass on the on those days. ” Sometimes the camera offers a disconcerting glimpse. Andy P. Smith’s terrier mutt, Luigi, goes to a doggy day care with a webcam. “Every time we check it,” said Mr. Smith, a writer who lives in Greenpoint, “he’s sitting off by himself, in a big room with 40 other dogs playing and having a good time around him. He’s like the weird kid at the playground. ” Sometimes, it solves a mystery. One evening, Ms. Lesse found shirts and underwear strewn across the bedroom floor. “I was like, ‘How did this happen?’ So I rewound the video and there was one tiny corner of a shirt sticking out of the drawer. Kody grabbed onto the shirt and the drawer opened and he got at everything inside. ” Lydia DesRoche, a Broadway animal trainer, got a camera to watch her pit bull, Red, after he got into a cabinet and ate a box of Kind bars. One day, she arrived to walk him and found the refrigerator door wide open. The remains of some fancy dog food lay on the couch. A pan of paella had been ravaged. Rewind, and there was Red, pushing the door open with his snout, then heading for the couch with a prize in his mouth. “He has no shame,” she said. Red has a kindred spirit in Banjo, a terrier mix, who has spent six years raiding the fridge of his owner, Garland Harwood, a publicist for Bark Co. Mr. Harwood has yet to catch Banjo in the act, but he has assembled an impressive array of crime scene photos. And then there are those times when seeing your pet’s secret life only deepens the mystery. One day, Richard Blakeley, a digital product director, got a motion alert on his phone. He tuned in to witness a outburst that he posted on YouTube under the title “Richard Blakeley has a dog named Bagel that goes crazy. ” Action: Bagel jumps on the couch and digs frantically between the cushions. She growls. Then she freezes. She leaps as if chasing prey. She runs from one end of the couch to the other, over and over. She barks and yips. She digs furiously. Finally she bounds onto a chair and out of view. “I just couldn’t believe that was my dog, because she’s never like that,” Mr. Blakeley said. “She’s a pretty timid dog. ” Lindsay Kaplan, Mr. Blakeley’s wife, has a theory about what Bagel gets up to when she thinks no one is watching: “She has an imaginary squirrel. ” | 0fake |
Is This Why The Smash In Gold & Silver Is Happening? A Shocking Game-Changer For Gold & Silver Is Now Unfolding… | 174 Views November 11, 2016 GOLD , KWN , KWN II King World News
With gold down over $31 and silver plunging $1.08, is this why the smash in gold and silver is happening? Today King World News is reporting on a shocking game-changer in the gold and silver markets that is now unfolding.
Eric King: “Keith, you are a legend in the business and you have been on a long road trip that’s taken you around the world, including into Asia and Europe. You are in London currently but talk about about what you discovered in Hong Kong? I understand that a huge transformation is coming to the gold and silver sector.”
A Game-Changer For Gold & Silver Is Now Unfolding Keith Neumeyer: “That’s correct, Eric. I have been building relationships in Hong Kong for many, many years, but up to now there has been no way for Chinese investors to invest in North American companies. But for the first time ever Chinese investors can set up an account through Interactive Brokers, which has just opened an office in Hong Kong. This is going to be a massive game-changer for the gold and silver sector… IMPORTANT: To hear which legend just spoke with KWN about $8,000 gold and the coming mania in the gold, silver, and mining shares markets CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
Keith Neumeyer continues: “What this means, Eric, is that for the first time ever Chinese investors will now be able to directly buy U.S. and Canadian mining stocks.”
Eric King: “When you talk about the Chinese coming into the mining share market, even though the sector is currently experiencing the final stages of a correction, you are talking over time about a radical flow of money into the mining shares, aren’t you?”
The Tip Of The Iceberg Keith Neumeyer: “Yes, and it will just be the tip of the iceberg compared to what is coming. This is a new phenomenon and as more and more Chinese investors open up new accounts through brokerage firms in both China and Hong Kong, they are going to be looking to add to their exposure in the gold and silver space and they will now be able to do that by investing in mining stocks for the first time ever.
We are in the beginning stages of a new bull market in gold and silver and the mining shares, so that will translate into huge money flowing into North American, and Canadian companies specifically, from China.”
Eric King: “I know you are familiar with the mania that took place in the mining shares in the late 1970s and into 1980 time frame. Despite the pullback, like the one we are seeing today and this week, what we will eventually see is a super-charged mania in gold, silver, and the mining shares because of the ocean of money that will be part of the secular bull market in gold and silver, this time around from China and the rest of Asia. Pierre Lassonde has spoken with me in the past about this but it was in relation to physical gold and silver prices. However, what you have uncovered now opens the door for oceans of money to eventually pour into the mining shares. Meaning, this mania will see upside moves that are difficult to comprehend because the Chinese are notoriously aggressive gamblers.”
Keith Neumeyer: “The key thing you and Pierre have discussed many times is the fact that the Chinese are gamblers. They love to play the stock market now and that will add a new dynamic to the gold and silver mining share market that we have never seen in the North American marketplace.
We have experienced bull runs in the mining share market over the last 15 or so years but it has never had the Chinese buyer coming in as part of the whole equation. What that means is that over the next few years in this new bull market in the mining sector we will see these new buyers, the Chinese, coming into the market and setting the stage for a major run in the mining shares.
China has a huge population, the largest population on the planet, and they are getting wealthier by the day. The Chinese are very familiar with the gold and silver markets and they love the physical metal. For them to be able to buy mining stocks, which generally trade at 3 – 5 times the move in gold and silver, they will be all over that upside leverage in the gold and silver markets.
Chinese Buying Causes A Major Silver Stock To Skyrocket! As I said earlier, Eric, this is a new phenomenon. I was just in Hong Kong with some of my staff and we met a large number of investors who are already shareholders in First Majestic Silver and First Mining Finance. This is quite interesting and it represents the beginning of what is going to be massive change in the mining share industry. We all know what happened to First Majestic Silver in the first six months of this year when it went from $4 Canadian to nearly $25 a share (see stunning 10-year chart below of First Majestic Silver).
Yes, the share price has corrected over the past couple of months but you can be assured that the massive spike to nearly $25 was due in part to Chinese buying.”
Eric King: “Keith, when I saw that move in First Majestic Silver I knew it was a short squeeze combined with new money entering the stock and I was trying to figure out where that money was coming from because the stock essentially went back to the all-time highs when the price of silver was around $50. Now I know where that new money was coming from — China. And of course this time the price of silver was only $20 and change when the Chinese money helped propel the stock back to the previous all-time high. Was that just a preview of what is to come in the mining sector and in First Majestic Silver? Because I am trying to figure out what happens to the share price of First Majestic Silver when the price of silver goes to $25 or $30 or even higher.”
Keith Neumeyer: “Eric, you mentioned an important point about short covering. First Majestic had 14 million shares short in January when the stock was $4 Canadian. The short position dropped to only 4 million shares by July. That’s when the stock peaked at nearly $25 Canadian. That was indeed a huge, huge move. And now today the short position is back to 18 million shares, which is ridiculous but it’s the highest short position in the First Majestic Silver’s history.
Interestingly, the price of silver went from $13.50 (U.S.) to around $21 in late July. But the price of First Majestic Silver went from a low of $2.40 (U.S.) to over $19 a share. You have to remember that is only with a little more than a $7 move in the price of silver. That was a pretty amazing move. So when we look forward to $25 or $30 silver, you will see some pretty interesting prices for First Majestic Silver.”
Neumeyer added: “Eric, we have also seen a very nice move in gold, even with the correction here, and I think this is a great opportunity for investors to take advantage of this down-move in gold and take a look at high-quality equities. One of those companies is First Mining Finance (symbol FF in Canada and FFMGF in the U.S.). I believe First Mining Finance has the best portfolio of development projects in the world. I don’t believe that the market fully understands what the company has achieved as a business.
The company has amassed 14 million ounces of gold in the ground with projects in great jurisdictions in the province of Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland. If a major is looking for a portfolio of gold projects, this portfolio will make their mouth water looking at what First Mining Finance possesses. The company has about 25 projects throughout Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
As I said earlier, it is probably the best assembly of projects in the world and the company’s share price is highly undervalued at current levels. At 68 cents a share (Canadian) we are talking about roughly $21 for every ounce of gold in the ground. And in a healthy market the price for gold in the ground should be priced at 3, 4 or 5 times that amount.”
Eric King: “Keith, where do you see the price of silver trading in 2017?”
Price Of Silver To Soar By The End Of The Year And Into 2017 Keith Neumeyer: “I would never have believed that the price of silver would have traded down from $50 to $13.50 an ounce and it happened for all kinds of ridiculous reasons, from manipulation and short selling to sentiment and other things your guests have pointed out on King World News.
I projected the price of silver would end at $21 an ounce by the end of 2016. The price of silver hit $21 in July of this year, which was a fantastic move, and has since pulled back. This has positively impacted First Majestic Silver with cash flows that we haven’t seen for 5 or 6 years and our treasury is building every week — at new record highs — and our balance sheet is extremely strong.
But getting back to the price of silver and the fact that it hit $21 in July of this year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see $21 to $23 by the end of 2016. And while we have seen about a $100 move down in the price of gold in the last couple of days, the price of silver has pulled back but it has remained much stronger and I think that bodes very well for the price going forward. So I am expecting $25 – $30 silver in 2017.” ***Within hours KWN will be releasing Andrew Maguire’s powerful interview, where he discusses what to expect next after the gold and silver smash.
For People Who Are Worried About Druckenmiller Selling His Gold… | 1real |
The Trump tightrope: Republicans weigh response with eye toward future | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With Donald Trump’s U.S. election prospects dimming and controversy swirling around him, future Republican presidential hopefuls may be weighing whether standing by their man is the savvy move. Party strategists fear voters fleeing Trump will also fail to support Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, possibly costing the party control of Congress. If Trump loses the Nov. 8 presidential election to Democrat Hillary Clinton, his polarizing candidacy may reverberate well past 2016, tarring future Republican White House hopefuls, potentially including House Speaker Paul Ryan, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Trump was struggling in opinion polls before a 2005 video released last week showed him talking in sexually aggressive terms about seducing women. Afterward came stories in several news outlets alleging Trump had inappropriately touched women. Trump has angrily denounced the stories, the media and Republicans who have declined to support him. “The brand has already been irrevocably damaged. There’s nothing we can do in the short term,” said Doug Heye, a former top official with the Republican National Committee. Looking to the 2018 U.S. congressional election and the 2020 presidential election, Heye said: “In two to four years, the stain on our party’s soul won’t be washed away.” To be sure, a Trump loss is no guarantee the Republicans would suffer for long. Four years after Barry Goldwater’s massive loss in 1964, Richard Nixon staged a Republican comeback. The conservative Heritage Foundation think thank has said Goldwater launched a shift to the right that would end half a century of liberal dominance in American politics. For Republicans weighing a run for president in four years, deciding whether to back Trump may be a defining moment equal to what politicians faced in 2002 when they decided whether to back Republican President George Bush’s Iraq invasion. By 2006, public sentiment had turned harshly against the Iraq war, some Republican politicians lost their jobs, and Democrats seized both the House and Senate. Republican presidential hopefuls of the future may be asking: How can I be loyal and stand by Trump while at the same time expand the party’s base to include sectors the candidate has alienated? More broadly, they may ask: What’s the right side of history? Trump’s candidacy has attracted passionate support from a core group of voters but also driven away some moderates and independents. Republicans such as Heye fear Trump, who already has alienated large populations of Hispanic voters because of his hard line on immigration, will cost the party a generation of women voters as well. Ryan, Rubio and Pence all have, to some degree, sought to distance themselves from Trump. Ryan this week told colleagues he would no longer publicly defend Trump, in essence washing his hands of him. Rubio, who ran against Trump in the Republican primary and is fighting for re-election in his home state of Florida, has criticized Trump’s remarks about women, but has not withdrawn his support. Pence is routinely forced to answer for his running mate’s conduct, but managed at last week’s vice presidential debate to outline policy differences with him. If Trump leads the party to crushing defeat next month, he may for years haunt Republican office-holders who supported him. “I predict a chaotic round of finger pointing after the election, as people try to justify their position,” said Jim Manley, a former top aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid who witnessed the Democratic wave in 2006 first-hand. Democrats are trying to link vulnerable Senate candidates to Trump at every turn. On Thursday, the advocacy group American Bridge highlighted Trump’s praise of Rubio on local Florida television, even as Rubio has avoided appearing at any Trump events in the state. Clinton on Twitter this week noted that Ryan has not recanted his endorsement of Trump. Strategists say Pence would have the hardest time emerging from Trump’s shadow. “I think for Pence, it’s really tough,” said Republican operative Liz Mair. Pence excited some conservative voters with his debate performance. A Politico/Morning Consult poll taken afterward showed him as the top choice for 2020 among Republicans, at 22 percent. Ryan, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Rubio followed. Cruz, who was Trump’s leading rival for the 2016 Republican nomination, illustrated the perils of trying to respond to Trump’s candidacy. After holding out, Cruz endorsed Trump last month, just before the candidate went into a public-opinion tailspin. Cruz and Rubio, as well as Ryan, have come under fire from some Republicans for appearing to waver on Trump, at times standing by him and at other times criticizing him. “People that waffle are going to have more trouble than people who pick a side,” said Brian Bartlett, a Republican strategist who worked for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. He said Ohio Governor John Kasich, another presidential candidate who consistently refused to endorse Trump, may emerge in the strongest position of all. Other potential 2020 contenders, such as South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, may benefit from not being on the ballot this year, thus being spared from being asked constantly about Trump while campaigning. But that assumes the anti-Trump forces in the party hold sway after the election. There will still be a significant chunk of the party who will view Trump’s critics as disloyal, Bartlett warned, which may put some establishment politicians on the spot to explain why they did not do more to support the nominee. | 0fake |
SPEAK ENGLISH…You’re In America! Owner Of Popular Frozen Custard Shop Defends His Policy [VIDEO] | Forcing employees in a mostly Hispanic area of a very liberal city to speak English seems like a bit of a risk. It appears however, that Mr. Schneider is unconcerned about the spotlight on his English only policy and is standing firm on his convictions. It s going to get disruptive if we have to become bilingual, trilingual or anything else. Ron Schneider, Leon s Frozen Custard ownerMILWAUKEE Leon s Frozen Custard has an English-only policy a policy some are questioning, and others are applauding.Ron Schneider, the owner of Leon s, says there s nothing wrong with his policy, and that it doesn t appear to be hurting his business.Leon s is located near 27th and Oklahoma on Milwaukee s south side.Leon s Frozen Custard is a Milwaukee institution but the custard isn t good enough for everyone to overlook the controversial policy. Most people that live here are Latino, Jorge Maya said. I don t think I m going to be back anytime soon. This all started on Tuesday, May 17th, when Joey Sanchez overheard one of Leon s employees interacting with a Spanish-speaking customer. She whispered to him in Spanish I m not allowed to speak Spanish to you,' Sanchez said.Sanchez was next in line. He also placed his order in Spanish. The employee gave him the same response. I m trying to understand or find the why. I need to hear from him, to hear why he has this policy, Sanchez said.Schneider told WITI his employees can only speak English on the job. Hey, c mon! It is America. We ve spoken English for a long, long time, Schneider said.Schneider says the policy has been in place for a decade, and it has never been an issue. Any foreign language is going to be a problem. What I m trying to avoid is when people come up here, get waited on in a different language because there happens to be an employee who speaks that language, Schneider said.Sanchez said he feels Leon s policy is just bad business. If they have the people who can speak Spanish and communicate with the customer better, why not? Sanchez said.Other customers said they side with Schneider. We do live in America, you know? Ryan Schmidt said.Schneider, who points out that his wife is Hispanic, says no customer has ever been turned away at Leon s. Via: FOX 2 Now | 1real |
Gov. Cuomo Defends Not Endorsing Mayor de Blasio…Speaks Up On ‘Offensive Statues’ Of Christopher Columbus | NY Governor Andrew Cuomo made two shocking announcements regarding the Christopher Columbus Statues and about his decision not to endorse NY Mayor de Blasio.During an appearance at the West Indian Day Parade on Monday, Gov. Cuomo said statues of the famous Italian explorer should remain in the public square: The Christopher Columbus statue is really about honoring Italian Americans. I for one for obvious reasons happen to believe in the Italian-American heritage. I believe in the contribution Italian-Americans have made, just as I believe in celebrating the Caribbean and the Israel day parade. NO ENDORSEMENT? A BATTLE ROYAL BETWEEN TWO DEM HEAVYWEIGHTSGov. Andrew Cuomo said he isn t endorsing Mayor Bill de Blasio for re-election because he lives in Westchester. I don t vote in the primary election. I m a Westchester resident, he said. I m not voting in this election, so I don t have any primary endorsements at this time. The Democratic primary is Sept. 12, and de Blasio is heavily favored to win. The mayor endorsed Cuomo months before the Democratic primary in 2014.Cuomo s non-endorsement of de Blasio is just the latest example of sniping between the two Democratic Party power brokers. We didn t ask for his support, said de Blasio campaign spokeswoman Monica Klein. A FIRESTORM OF CRITICISM If this doesn t sink the mayor s reelection efforts, we don t know what will! When de Blasio announced he would form a committee of people who would decide which statues are offensive then take them down, we knew it was going to be a rough go for de Blasio. You don t tell the Italian community to take down Christopher Columbus statues! Cuomo said it best when he finally came out with a statement in support of keeping the statues: The Italian American contribution and the Italian American culture is a big part if what makes New York, New York, Cuomo said.There have been several protests regarding this move by de Blasio so he s now backtracking on his decision:Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito have come under a firestorm of criticism for mulling the removal of a Christopher Columbus statues including the 76-foot structure in Columbus Square as part of a review of offensive monuments. The mayor has backtracked following the outcry. There s no plan to remove the Columbus statue, said de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips.While the Italian explorer is revered for discovering the New World, Columbus detractors said he mistreated and enslaved native Caribbean populations and doesn t deserve to be extolled.CUOMO NEEDED TO FIRST PUT HIS WET FINGER INTO THE WIND TO SEE HOW OPINION WAS GOINGIt s the first time Cuomo has waded in on the controversy after declining comment last week. The sniping has happened before between the aides of both camps:De Blasio, Cuomo aides engage in nasty Twitter feudREAD MORE: NYP | 1real |
null | Right. Starting with a war against Syria. Hillary must overthrow another government. She gets a high out of destroying other nations. | 1real |
Young musicians from France at Motorola funeral share their emotions at the Saur Mogila Memorial | November 25, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
- Christelle NEAN in DONiPRESS, translated by Tom Winter -
СПАСИБО! Thank you!
Donetsk 25 Nov 2016 The program of the third day of visit of the French group was totally turned around by the always moving news of the Donbass. That was the day of the funeral commemoration of Commander Motorola, murdered three days earlier during a bomb attack in the elevator of his building.
Our visitors took part in this moving ceremony, placing flowers near his coffin, and joining the people gathered in the center of Donetsk to bid farewell to one of the most emblematic and well-known commanders of the People's Republic of Donetsk (RPD).
They saw with their own eyes the incredible number of ordinary citizens who came to pay homage to this hero of the republic. The first approximate figures of 30,000 people were adjusted later to at least 50,000 people who were there to bid farewell and show their attachment to this commander who had come to help the people of Donbass to defend their freedom.
Billboards were installed in the city center with the photo of Commander Motorola and the phrase "Heroes do not die." It was only proper that we go immediately after the funeral to the high place of commemoration of the heroes fallen for the defense of freedom: the hill of Saur Mogila. What better place than this height, twice the subject of intense fighting, and twice retaken at great cost by soldiers defending freedom, to ponder on all those who have, like Commander Motorola, sacrificed their lives for this ideal?
The memorial is no more than a field of ruins, yet several times a year people come here by thousands to celebrate, for example, the Liberation of the Donbass in 1943 or the Victory Ceremonies of 1945. The tombs both at the foot and at top of the hill are there to remind that during the present war, again, the defenders of the Donbass have paid a heavy price for this freedom that they cherish so much.
"It's here in the Donbass that they are fighting for freedom, and in the West they're called terrorists," Roxane said.
The people of Donbass, like the people of Russia, cultivate and maintain their memory and their history, so that the errors of the past can no longer be repeated. Follow us for the interview of Antoine and Roxane at the end of this day full of emotions, with their comments on the soul of the Donbass, who are the real terrorists in this war, the support of the Donbass population towards their army, and what their journey has already brought them at the end of these three days:
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Burnt homes and broken promises: the Jungle evicted | [Graphic: Calais street scene by Harriet Paintin of Bow and Brush .] =By= Harriet Paintin and Hannah Kirmes-Daly Editor's Note The news of the destruction of the Calais refugee camp, known as “The Jungle”, has been pointed to by many as part of the hardening of European hearts to the terrible plight of refugees who have made it to their shores. It is relatively easy to make appropriate noises and go on with one’s life, but add a visual component and what remains is much more haunting. This can be particularly true with an artiti’s hand in the mix for his or her feelings and impressions are carried forward and the painting (or sculpture, or sometimes photograph) places us as a surrogate in that place and time. This clearly happens with this article so read at your own risk … and I hope you will. L ast week saw the brutal destruction of the Calais Jungle, Europe’s largest unregulated refugee camp and home to around 10,000 people who have built communities, collective solidarity and even an autonomous economy. The eviction of the camp yet again calls into question Europe’s asylum policy as refugees who have fled war, persecution and destruction once again witnessed their homes and community spaces razed to the ground, this time as part of a “humanitarian effort”. French authorities declared on Wednesday that the camp was empty, but hundreds of people — including unaccompanied minors — remain in an incredibly precarious position, sleeping rough and at risk of arrest. Unlike most refugee camps in Europe where food and facilities are provided by authorities, the Jungle evolved as a relatively autonomous entity, more like a shanty town than a camp. Restaurants, shops, barber shops and community spaces lined the muddy high street, which served not only as small commercial enterprises, but also as spaces of collective solidarity where people would gather, share information and build their community. Without these networks of support, the experience of being a refugee is infinitely more isolating and confusing. The Day Before the Eviction The day before the eviction a tense, uneasy mood settled among the residents of the Jungle, many of whom decided to leave on their own terms. Rather than giving up their autonomy and freedom for a place on one of the state provided buses to “Healthcare and Advice Clinics” (CAOs) and detention centers across the country, they left before they could be forced to leave, traveling to Paris, Marseille, anywhere they might have friends or hope of finding shelter. In one of the few restaurants which remained open, people attempted to keep a brave face as they spent the last day among friends with whom they had spent the last few months, years even. Some were resigned to whatever might happen the next day, throwing out light hearted comments to disguise their apprehension, “we’re not scared of the police! We’re Afghan, the police should be scared of us!” A young married couple had only just heard the news of the eviction; they were frantically trying to work out how they could avoid the risks of separation, of detention, and of becoming locked into the French asylum system which is already crumbling in its own inadequacy to provide aid, security and safety to the vulnerable. Aged just 18 and 20 years old, they had traveled together from Eritrea, fleeing the horrors of dictatorship and indefinite military conscription, in search of safety and a life worth living. “I just want a safe place for my wife. We want to build a life together; we can’t live in camps anymore, relying on the state for tiny handouts and waiting in line for food,” exclaimed the young man. The only reassurance they received from a British volunteer was that, as Eritreans, they face little chance of deportation as Europe has finally recognized that Eritrea is an unsafe country, unlike Afghanistan. A middle-aged Afghani man who had been listening in on the conversation interjected at this point, “who says Afghanistan is safe?! You ask your governments how Afghanistan can be safe, while drones and bombs fall from the sky, who sent them?! While your soldiers patrol our villages, who sent them?! Who is responsible for Al-Qaeda, for the Taliban?! Tell me!” Afghanis comprise a significant proportion of the Jungle’s residents. In light of a recent EU agreement with Afghanistan which means that European aid money is dependent on the Afghani government agreeing to accept 80,000 deportees, Afghanis stand little chance of being granted asylum in Europe. This man highlighted the painful contradiction felt by so many in the Jungle, that the nations responsible for so much of the violence in their country turn them away when they seek protection. So many have already had their asylum cases denied in various European countries and now expect to be deported. Their long journeys of flight and hope will end right back where they started. The high street, once a buzzing center of activity, was deserted; the closed shops, restaurants and barber shops reduced to empty shells with broken windows lining a muddy street. The police perimeter was already firmly in place, a man cycling past with plastic bags of clothes was pulled over and interrogated. “It’s just clothes! Nothing else,” he insisted as the policeman in full riot gear roughly pulled out the contents of the bags, revealing just clothes, nothing else. Misinformation and Confusion French authorities claimed that 7,500 beds had been made available, that a simple registration procedure would see people onto buses to transport them to three CAOs across the country, or possibly detention centers. Three different lines for single men, families, and minors, marked out by pictograms. This registration would take place on October 24 and 25, with the demolishment of the camp scheduled for the 25th. Women’s protest ( Harriet Paintin ) This information had been made available far too late to be translated and transmitted to the many languages and residents of the Jungle, meaning that Monday morning began with an overwhelming sense of chaos, disorganization and misinformation that would come to characterize the following days. Scarce scraps of information were filtered down through various organizations on the ground and painstakingly analyzed by everyone, volunteers and refugees alike, in an attempt to understand what was happening. As Clouchard states, “misinformation is to democracy what propaganda agencies are to totalitarian states”. In the context of this eviction the lack of information felt like not just an organizational slip-up, but a deliberate attempt to misinform and mislead people. In the confusion that ensued, people were unable to take balanced, well-informed and empowered decision about their futures; instead, they were herded onto buses that they didn’t even know the destination of. At one point, volunteers tried to hand out maps, to enable refugees to decide between the three locations that were supposed to be on offer to them. Officials shouted back, “this is not allowed, people don’t have a choice, don’t give them a map!” The Registration Process Calais police registration lines ( Harriet Paintin ) With a heavy media and police presence the mood was subdued and access was restricted to accredited media (500 people) and a handful of volunteer organizations. Inside, people packed up their homes and belongings in the cold, gray morning light and headed towards the police lines for registration. The long line of unaccompanied minors waited for their futures to be determined by one woman peering into their face for about 30 seconds to decide if they were under 18. Inside the Jungle however, far from the complete chaos which everyone had been expecting, there were pockets of relative normality as those who did not want to take the buses busied themselves with their daily lives, cooking lunch for their children, playing guitar. As for the official demolition, the police cordoned off a tiny section of the camp and invited journalists to watch as they carefully dismantled it. When the real demolition began the following day all access to the high look-out point in the camp was restricted to journalists, where they would have been able to see the bulldozers and cranes destroying houses, and countless fires breaking out across the camp. Jungle house on fire ( Harriet Paintin ) One of the most noticeable homes on fire was a beautifully constructed two-story building complete with a terrace. The inhabitants had set the house on fire themselves as a symbol of protest; they did not want their home and their memories to be destroyed at the hands of the police. As the smoke climbed into the sky, they laughed and reminisced about their past years in the Jungle. Only three people of a community of more than twenty were left, everybody else had already left, to Paris, to flats in Calais; not a single one was planning on taking the bus. In the midst of this dehumanizing chaos there were several moments of resistance like this where people, for a brief moment at least, were able to take control of their situation and express discontent. Faced with extreme police repression and no individual rights, these actions were incredibly powerful. Individuals carried flags of their home nations up and down the line of policemen who stood stoic and expressionless in their riot gear. The women of the camp, so infrequently visible that their presence has even at times been doubted, organized themselves and protested against their treatment, calling out for “safety and dignity for all women! Underage, overage, we’re all the same! In [camps in] Paris we sleep on the streets!” The Fire At about 3am on Wednesday morning a huge fire started, burning all the homes and possessions left behind. A fire which quickly spread out of control throughout the camp and razed it to the ground, leaving the high street looking like a devastated ghost town. Later, the registration area quickly descended into chaos as people were told that the last buses were leaving that afternoon. The line for minors closed early and hundreds were told to come back the next day. In the midst of this chaos and confusion the destruction of the camp continued in full force as the bulldozers and cranes moved in. Calais Jungle burning scene ( Harriet Paintin ) “It’s exactly like the scenes we have run away from, it’s just like watching our homes being burnt by the rebel forces” gasped one young man from Sudan as he gazed upon the desolation and destruction before him. After the last buses departed, the French authorities and some media outlets reported that the camp had been cleared and the eviction was a success, ignoring the hundreds left behind. Having been turned away by the authorities for the third day running, children were ordered back into a Jungle which by this time had become an apocalyptic scene of burning buildings, toxic smoke, exploding gas canisters. They had nowhere else to go but the streets, with no information about what options are open to them, if any. This eviction may have been dressed up as a “humanitarian effort” but the blatant contradictions between the official line of events and the reality on the ground reveals gaping fault-lines in Europe’s refugee policies. With unaccompanied minors left sleeping on the street, then by no stretch of the imagination has this been a successful operation. Rather, this is nothing but a complete failure on behalf of the authorities who are responsible for their protection. If the eviction was planned with the best interests of the Jungle residents in mind, then it would have worked out in a different way. There has been a refugee camp in Calais since the early 1990s, and after each eviction people have returned to rebuild. Long term residents of the Jungle believe that there is nothing that the authorities can do to stop people coming and trying to reach the UK; they are confident that before long, small camps will spring up again, but without the facilities and systems of mutual cooperation and aid that people have built in the Jungle their survival will be even more precarious.
Harriet Paintin is a freelance writer and musician, and Hannah Kirmes-Daly is a freelance reportage illustrator. They work together on documenting individual stories through art and music, focusing on refugee stories. Follow them at brushandbow.com.
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Smaller Bathrooms on Planes Pose Challenges for Passengers - The New York Times | Smaller lavatories are helping airlines to add extra seats to new and existing aircraft for more profit, but some passengers — if they can get into the bathrooms — say they are being shortchanged. The continuing installation of smaller and reconfigured bathrooms, which began in late 2013, has led to complaints about safety issues, say travelers and flight crew, who are concerned about restricted access for the physically disabled, as well as ease of use for other passengers Barry Brandes, a retired singer from Somers, N. Y. travels several times a year on United Airlines. At Mr. Brandes said that getting into the new lavatories on the Boeing a airplane, is not easy. “If I don’t duck, I hit my head on the door,” he said. “I can’t stand up completely, so I have to twist myself into a pretzel to use the facility. ” United has a total of 250 Boeing and aircraft that feature a combination of the new lavatory and the traditional lavatory, according to Erin Benson, a spokeswoman. In an email, she said the airplanes are reconfigured for the best use of space. In some aircraft, she noted, lavatories in first class have a new design, but have not decreased in size, while new lavatories located between first class and the first row of economy have decreased in size. The configuration of the toilets can make it especially difficult during medical emergencies to help travelers who are incapacitated or unable to move on their own, said Jeffrey A. Tonjes, a spokesman for United flight attendants in the Association of Flight a union that represents 50, 000 flight attendants at 18 airlines. “Both passenger and flight attendant are in harm’s way for injury or slowed response if we have difficulty getting to the passenger,” Mr. Tonjes said. “United Airlines is aware of this, and committed to addressing the issue about a year ago, but has been slow in getting the fix done. ” The square footage of the old and new bathrooms varies, depending on their location — whether they are in the back next to the galley, on the sides of the plane in front of the galley, in coach or in first class — and the model of aircraft. This reporter recently measured the lavatories on a Boeing which had the traditional, older bathrooms, and on a which had the newer bathrooms. The traditional lavatories in first class and coach on a Boeing measured, 41 inches long by 34½ inches wide by 75 inches high. On a Boeing the new bathroom in first class measured 36 by 27 by 77, and in coach measured 39¾ by 24½ by 77. The new lavatories, which had smaller sinks and trash receptacles, were a bit taller than the traditional bathrooms, but narrower and less deep. Ms. Benson, who declined to give official dimensions, said only that the newer bathrooms shrank three to four inches from the sink to the opposite wall, and lengthened two to three inches from the back of the toilet to the door. The smaller bathrooms, combined with smaller galleys and trimmer seats with less pitch, allow space for an extra row of seats in the rear. Doug Alder, a spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said that airlines choose their own lavatory, galley and seat arrangements from various suppliers to create optimal use of cabin space. He declined to reveal lavatory dimensions and added, in an email, that “there is currently only one supplier for lavs across all models of the 737 — Aerospace. ” Numerous phone calls requesting an interview with executives from Aerospace, which has its headquarters in Wellington, Fla. were not returned. Ms. Benson of United declined to comment on complaints about the smaller bathrooms and referred questions to Airlines for America, a trade group that represents major United States airlines. Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for the group, wrote in an email: “I’m not aware of issues or complaints on the matter. ” United is not the only airline to install smaller lavatories on its newer aircraft. Bobbie Egan, an Alaska Airlines spokeswoman, said six of its airline’s 153 Boeing 737s have lavatories that were slightly reduced in size, and that no customer complaints have been registered. “Separately, adjusting [the seat] pitch and removing a lavatory and closet on these six planes enabled us to add one row of seats,” Ms. Egan wrote in an email. Delta Air Lines flies the Boeing which all have the smaller lavatories, and Airbus 320s, which are undergoing cabin modification. “A small number of the A320s now have the smaller lavs,” said Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for Delta. He said that in customer surveys, there has been no significant feedback or complaints about the size of the lavatories, and no reports of related injuries. Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight has a different perspective. “The concerns are uniform across the industry,” said Ms. Nelson, who added that does not represent Delta flight attendants, who are not unionized. Describing facing lavatories, she said that “the doors of these restrooms open into each other, creating safety issues. There are a lot of injuries, with smashed fingers, doors hitting people, bumps and bruises. ” Ms. Nelson said that the rear cabin restroom doors also create a barricade between the cabin and the back galley when open, limiting the ability of crew to maneuver if a passenger in the cabin is in trouble. Some parents with small children say they cannot help their kids in the toilet unless the door stays open. Passengers of size, and those with physical challenges, say getting into the smaller lavatories is often not possible for them. Jake Fitzpatrick, who is in the process of introducing a that reviews travel accommodations for the physically challenged, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, which requires a caregiver’s help in order to use the restroom. When he takes Delta and Alaska Airlines, Mr. Fitzpatrick said, it’s impossible for him to get into their bathrooms, so he uses restrooms at the airport before boarding. “It’s hard to hold it, even for three to four hours,” said Mr. Fitzpatrick, who lives in Portland, Ore. “If I go before, it takes 30 to 45 minutes to board everybody, and when we land, we often have to wait for a gate. A to flight means someone with a disability might have to wait five to six hours to go to the bathroom. ” Department of Transportation rules require at least one accessible lavatory on aircraft, but do not require accessible lavatories on aircraft like the Boeing or Airbus 320, which are used for many to flights. Caitlin Harvey, a spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an email that the department has not received a significant number of written complaints from passengers with disabilities about the size of bathrooms on aircraft. However, she said, disability rights advocates have consistently raised the issue, advocating a rule requiring airlines to provide an accessible lavatory on aircraft. So the department has formed the Advisory Committee on Accessible Air Transportation, which comprises industry representatives, disability rights advocates and other experts, to look into it. “The committee is studying a range of promising design and layout solutions, both with respect to the lavatories themselves and with respect to onboard wheelchair design, that may be implemented in the and ” Ms. Harvey wrote in an email. “The committee is also studying the costs and that may come with imposing any new accessibility standards. ” Such changes can’t come soon enough for travelers like Wilma Abbey, a retired teacher from the Nashville area, whose two hip replacements have made maneuvering in airplane bathrooms very difficult. “Just wait until someone gets stuck in one of those bathrooms, causing an emergency landing, and the airline gets sued,” Ms. Abbey said. “How much money do the airlines have to make before they provide the basic necessities? I’d like to see airline executives sit in coach and use the bathrooms they’ve provided us. It’s just an insult to the customers. ” | 0fake |
The Weather Channel Just SLAMMED Breitbart For Climate Change Lies, And It’s GLORIOUS | Right-wingers everywhere have been trying to disprove overwhelming climate science that shows the earth is warming rapidly. They seem to believe that if it s cold outside, well, then the earth isn t actually warming.Breitbart news is no different, and they decided to try to use a video from The Weather Channel to disprove climate change and wrote an entire article touting claims that we re not actually warming. However, The Weather Channel just struck back and responded with their own article titled, Note to Breitbart: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and Please Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans. Note to @BreitbartNews: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans https://t.co/ipP0fD2BEg pic.twitter.com/ypSMJ4eML6 The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) December 6, 2016 Note to Breitbart: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real https://t.co/UfjMoFuiRq The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) December 6, 2016What s actually more horrifying than Breitbart trying to purposefully misinform people is that the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology actually tweeted the Breitbart article, giving it credit where absolutely no credit was due..@BreitbartNews: Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists https://t.co/uLUPW4o93V Sci,Space,&Tech Cmte (@HouseScience) December 1, 2016The Weather Channel then when through claim by claim made and thoroughly debunked the misinformation, and even said: Here s the thing, science doesn t care about your opinion. Cherrypicking and changing the facts will not change the future, nor the fact, note fact, not opinion, the earth is warming. Here are the debunked claims:CLAIM: Global land temperatures have plummeted by one degree Celsius since the middle of this year the biggest and steepest fall on record. TRUTH: This number comes from one satellite-based estimate of temperatures above land areas in the lower atmosphere. Data from the other two groups that regularly publish satellite-based temperature estimates show smaller drops, more typical of the decline one would expect after a strong El Ni o event.Temperatures over land give an incomplete picture of global-scale temperature. Most of the planet about 70 percent is covered by water, and the land surface warms and cools more quickly than the ocean. Land-plus-ocean data from the other two satellite groups, released after the Breitbart article, show that Earth s lower atmosphere actually set a record high in November 2016.CLAIM: It can be argued that without the El Ni o (and the so-called Pacific Blob ) 2014-2016 would not have been record warm years. (David Whitehouse, Global Warming Policy Foundation, quoted by Breitbart)TRUTH: NOAA data show that the 2014-16 El Ni o did not even begin until October 2014. It was a borderline event until mid-2015, barely above the El Ni o threshold. El Ni o clearly added to the strength of the record global warmth observed since late 2015. However, if the El Ni o spike is removed, 2016 is still the warmest year on record and 2015 the second warmest, according to climate scientist Zeke Hausfather (Berkeley Earth).CLAIM: Many think that 2017 will be cooler than previous years. Myles Allen of Oxford University says that by the time of the next big United Nations climate conference, global temperatures are likely to be no warmer than the Paris COP in 2015. This would be a strange thing to happen if, as some climate scientists have claimed, recent years would have been a record even without the El Ni o. (David Rose, U.K. Daily Mail, quoted by Breitbart)TRUTH: There is nothing unusual about a drop in global surface temperatures when going from El Ni o to La Nina. These ups and downs occur on top of the long-term warming trend that remains when the El Ni o and La Ni a signals are removed. If there were no long-term trend, then we would see global record lows occurring during the strongest La Ni a events. However, the last year to see global temperatures hit a record low was 1911, and the most recent year that fell below the 20th-century average was 1976.Watch the full video and breakdown from The Weather Channel HERE.As horrible as all of this is, it s actually kind of hilarious that The Weather Channel so thoroughly threw Breitbart under the bus. They deserve to be condemned and the fact remains that Climate Change is absolutely real and we need to start doing more to combat it.Featured image via The Weather Channel screen capture | 1real |
Survey: Top Ten Fears of 2015 | Truthstream MediaOut of 88 potential horrors this batch of 1,500+ Americans were asked to rank in regard to their personal level of fear in 2015, you ll never guess what the number one thing people are most afraid of in this country Or perhaps you will. What an amazingly sad statement on modern America and the times we are living in.The survey can be found here.Americans Deepest FearsAre Americans today afraid of criminals with guns or a government that would seek to disarm its citizens?The impositions of the system now rank higher among worry than hyped factors like terrorism with distrust at very high levels among citizens and consumers alike. People are becoming disconnected from the wealth and prosperity they once knew, and instead are facing a collapsing system that wishes to loot from its populace as the ship goes down.Dearly held rights in the American tradition are under threat today of vanishing, of being upended by a machine with secret designs.Corporate schemers, conniving bankers and corrupt government insiders are driving perpetual wars, a damaged economy, disappearing jobs and diminishing chances of achieving the American dream.Please share this article and story.Permission to repost or republish with attribution (to Truthstream Media) is granted under creative commons license.READ MORE SOCIAL ENGINEERING NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire SE Files | 1real |
Republican Has Epiphany: ‘Wracking My Brain To Think Of One [Positive] Thing Our Party Has Done’ | Just a few years after Republicans shut down the government. Then came so close to defaulting on America s debts that the nation s credit rating was reduced. Then nominated a reality television star and serial liar as president. Then elected said reality television star and serial liar to actually be president even after a tape was released where he bragged about sexual assault. Republican Representative Tom Rooney had an epiphany: Maybe maybe the Republican Party is a joke?It may seem obvious to some, but even Republicans themselves are starting to question whether or not the GOP has a single good idea in years.Rooney s epiphany came after he watched how his party botched a healthcare reform bill that the GOP had spent seven years promising to pass. From start to finish, the effort was a spectacular failure. The bill itself was a rush job and so poorly constructed that an independent assessment of its effects found that it would result in 24 million fewer people having insurance while also not saving the country any money. The bill s popularity hovered around 17%. Then the right-wing section of the Republican Party actually revolted against the bill because it didn t kick more people off of insurance. Then Trump demanded the GOP prove its loyalty to him by passing the bill anyway and nobody listened. The bill failed before it even got a vote, humiliating both Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan.Republicans, including Rooney, were shook. So much so that Rooney began saying the one thing you as a Republican are never supposed to say aloud.As the prospect of a loss became more real on Friday, the frustrations of GOP lawmakers loyal to the leadership began to boil over. I ve been in this job eight years, and I m wracking my brain to think of one thing our party has done that s been something positive, that s been something other than stopping something else from happening, Representative Tom Rooney of Florida said in an interview. We need to start having victories as a party. And if we can t, then it s hard to justify why we should be back here. Like many Americans, it s slowly dawning on Republicans that they really are the Party of No. Obstructionists. Haters. Fanatics. But not lawmakers.And Rooney wasn t the only one. The healthcare bill implosion was so incredible that other conservatives were having similar thoughts:GOP aide on CapHill: "I'm starting to think that while we're pretty good at winning elections, we're not great at the whole governing thing" Alex Roarty (@Alex_Roarty) March 24, 2017 Not great at the whole governing thing could very well be the official Republican motto.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Clinton leads Trump by 12 points ahead of Republican convention: Reuters/Ipsos poll | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump trailed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 12 percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, making him the clear underdog ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention. Forty-five percent of likely voters supported former Secretary of State Clinton, 33 percent supported Trump, the wealthy businessman, and the remainder supported neither, according to the July 11-15 online poll. The survey showed little change from Tuesday, when Clinton had led Trump by 13 percentage points. Clinton has been ahead in the poll since early January. Trump only approached her level of support in May, after his last two remaining rivals quit the race and he became the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump’s favorability has dropped since then, as his campaign began to focus on the Nov. 8 general election. Trump has faced criticism in recent weeks over his now-defunct Trump University venture, which is accused of making false promises, and over his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. The poll results were mostly gathered before Thursday night’s deadly truck attack in Nice, France, and before Trump’s announcement on Friday that Indiana Governor Mike Pence would be his vice presidential running mate. The poll results suggest that Clinton’s use of personal email for government business while secretary of state and her handling of classified information have not damaged her support among likely voters. But other polls show a closer race. The CBS News/NY Times telephone poll has the candidates tied at 40 percent each, while a McClatchy/Marist telephone poll has Clinton leading by just 3 percentage points, 42 percent to Trump’s 39 percent. Trump may get a bump in the polls following next week’s convention in Cleveland, where the party is expected to rally behind him as the nominee. In 2012, support for Republican nominee Mitt Romney rose about 5 percentage points following the convention that year. The Democratic convention is set for the following week, opening July 25 in Philadelphia. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,186 likely voters across the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points. | 0fake |
Ex-Army Sniper Gets 20-Year Sentence in Murder-for-Hire Scheme - The New York Times | A former United States Army sergeant with the nickname Rambo who led a team to kill a federal drug agent and a government informer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday in Manhattan. The Army veteran, Joseph M. Hunter, 51, had worked as a sniper instructor and senior drill sergeant and was honorably discharged in 2004 after two decades. But a few years later, prosecutors said, he went to work as a mercenary for a shadowy South African businessman, helping to orchestrate murders and other violence before becoming ensnared in a sting operation run by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. In late 2012, as part of the sting operation, Mr. Hunter began assembling a security team for what he had been led to believe were Colombian narcotics traffickers but were actually confidential sources working under the direction of the D. E. A. the government has said. The following March, he told team members that they would have the opportunity to do “bonus work” — that is, assassinations — for which they would be paid extra, prosecutors said. In May 2013, the government said, Mr. Hunter was asked if his team would carry out the killings of the drug agent and the informer, who was said to be a boat captain who had been providing tips to the D. E. A. “My guys will handle it,” Mr. Hunter responded, asking if he would receive a financial bonus as well. “He approached this murder plot as meticulously and thoroughly as he approached his legitimate work in his military career,” Judge Laura Taylor Swain of Federal District Court said before she sentenced Mr. Hunter. In court, Mr. Hunter, a burly man with a dark beard, wept at times as he addressed the judge. He apologized and acknowledged his crimes. “If I only had asked myself what God would want me to do,” he said, adding, “This is my biggest crime, and one that I intend to fix the rest of my life. ” Mr. Hunter’s lawyers have said in court papers that after leaving the Army, he passed the entrance exam for the New York Police Department, but declined to pursue a job with the police because he felt the cost of living would have been too high in New York. Mr. Hunter pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to murder the agent and the informer, to import cocaine into the United States and to possess a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He could have received a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors had sought a sentence within the range stipulated in federal guidelines of about 24 to 30 years. His lawyers had sought a sentence, the minimum he faced. They argued that Mr. Hunter had operated under duress while working as a mercenary for the South African businessman, Paul Le Roux, an international outlaw who had threatened to kill him if he did not follow his orders. (Mr. Le Roux was later arrested, and he has cooperated with the government.) Marlon G. Kirton, a defense lawyer, suggested that Mr. Hunter, who he said had stress disorder, believed that he had no choice but to carry out Mr. Le Roux’s orders. But prosecutors in the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, disputed that claim, arguing that Mr. Hunter knew Mr. Le Roux’s organization was involved in illegal activities, but nonetheless left the group and later rejoined it because he wanted to make money. “Greed, not duress” had led him to a courtroom, a prosecutor, Emil J. Bove III, said. Judge Swain made it clear she agreed, noting that Mr. Hunter had associated himself with Mr. Le Roux voluntarily and had remained with him after becoming aware of, and involved in, his illegal activity. “The safety of law enforcement agents, those helping them and of innocent people,” Judge Swain said, “depends on right choices, even if those choices are life or death choices. ” “As between killing someone sworn to uphold the law,” she added, “and risking his own demise at the hands of people he had chosen to join in criminal activity, Mr. Hunter made the dishonorable choice. ” | 0fake |
Racists Go CRAZY after Samuel L Jackson Trashes Trump On Jimmy Kimmel Live (VIDEO) | The racists came out in full force when Jimmy Kimmel put up a minute of video that is too outstanding to ignore. In a segment called, The Hateful 8 Ball, Kimmel gets advice from a mystical Samuel L Jackson inside a magic 8 ball toy. Jackson plays the part as you d expect, nailing the role of angry black man with iconic voice ever so perfectly.Definitely a great moment captured for all time not only for a funny comedic piece, but as a historical record for the kind of racism that follows Donald Trump around. On hearing the name, the Trump trolls who keep this buffoon relevant enough that he might just win the GOP nomination hopped all over the comments on The Patriot Nation, the right-wing propaganda rag posting the video for other racists to be outraged at.This rocket doctor doesn t understand why racism has to be about race:When Bill Taylor, who went to Ball State University, says that President Obama had no qualifications other than he s black to run for president, that s it. All bets are off, Obama is worthless. Bill was obviously far too involved with the investigation into how little Obama was vetted to notice the birther movement, college transcript fiasco and fake Barry Soetoro stuff that still thrives in circles of stupidity all over the internet.Bill says he s a racist, pretty sure it s because he s black, not sure if we re talking about Jackson or Obama anymore; It s very sad.Then there are the people who just really are that stupid:It takes a classy person to be a Donald Trump supporter. You have to be able to just hate so indiscriminately. Can you actually consider yourself to be fair if you truly hate everyone equally? Hate just for hate s sake.You can enjoy the comments and maybe even make yourself a new conservative friend HERE.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Libya considering UK extradition request for Manchester bomber's brother | TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan authorities are processing a request from Britain to extradite the brother of the bomber who killed 22 people in Manchester in May, but no decision has been taken yet, a government spokesman said on Thursday. The armed group holding the brother said that if the attorney general s office agreed to the request, the force would be ready for the next step . Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, blew himself up at the end of a show by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in the deadliest militant attack in Britain for 12 years. His victims included seven children. More than 500 people were injured. On Wednesday, British police said they had issued an arrest warrant for his brother, Hashem Abedi, for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion, and prosecutors had asked Libya to extradite him. An official request has been received through the Libyan ministry of foreign affairs and the Libyan authorities are cooperating to process (the request) in accordance with Libyan legal procedures, said Hassan al-Houni, a spokesman for the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. No decision has been taken yet. Days after the attack, the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), a counter-terrorism and anti-crime group aligned with the government, arrested Hashem Abedi and the brothers father Ramadan. The father was released in August. Various armed factions in Tripoli have aligned themselves with the government, some with semi-official status for law enforcement. However, the government, which struggles to impose its authority, has limited power over them. Rada initially said it would not extradite Hashem, but then said it was ready to cooperate. If there is agreement between the attorney general and the British authorities, we are ready for the next step, spokesman Ahmad Ben Salim said. The Libyan attorney general s office could not be reached for comment. Islamic State said it was responsible in the immediate aftermath of the bombing but security services have always treated the claim with scepticism. In June, Rada said Hashem Abedi had told them his brother had been radicalised in Britain in 2015. They had both flown from Britain to Libya in April and Hashem said he had helped buy the equipment necessary for the attack although he had not known that Salman was planning a bombing, Rada said. British police say Salman Abedi returned to Manchester on May 18, four days before his attack. The family had emigrated to Britain during the rule of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The brothers parents returned to Libya during the 2011 revolution. Police have previously said they believed Salman Abedi had built the bomb himself and CCTV showed him buying nuts from a hardware store that were used as shrapnel as well as the tin that was believed to contain the explosives. | 0fake |
INSULTS FLY During Obama’s Town Hall In Laos…EXCEPT The Insults Were Directed At AMERICANS! [Video] | 1real | |
A Heated Linguistic Debate: What Makes ‘Redskins’ a Slur? - The New York Times | Growing up as a member of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, Brian Howard attended an elementary school that was within the boundaries of Phoenix and beyond those of his reservation. There, in the third grade, he was first called “redskin. ” Did the white classmate intend it as a term of endearment, akin to buddy? Or was it used as a verbal fist, intended to hurt and to sting? “A slur,” said Mr. Howard, 28, a legislative associate for the National Congress of American Indians. “Oh, yeah. Yes. ” But the widespread acceptance of the term as a pejorative — “now considered by many to be an offensive term,” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary — has apparently been tossed into linguistic uncertainty by a recent Washington Post poll that centers on the name of a certain professional football team. Suddenly, the poll seems to suggest, “redskin” is not so bad after all, raising the question of how society should decide what constitutes a slur. After all, if the victims of the term are not offended, then. … According to the poll, nine of 10 Native Americans said they took no offense in the name of the Washington Redskins, a contentious, litigious issue that has pitted advocates against the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, and Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League. In addition, the poll — a survey of 504 people across the country — found that more than 70 percent of those questioned said they did not consider “redskin” to be disrespectful to Native Americans. What’s more, 80 percent said they would not be offended if called that name by someone who was not an American Indian. (An interesting might be to spend a day or two at, say, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, walking up to random members of the Oglala Lakota community and calling them “redskin” — and recording how well that goes over.) The poll’s results have been interpreted as some kind of vindication for Mr. Snyder. It also led to a humbling admission by Robert McCartney, a longtime Washington Post journalist who had written many opinion articles calling on his favorite football team to drop the name, which he considered a racial slur. While acknowledging that he remains “deeply uncomfortable” with the term, Mr. McCartney said that “it’s unsettling to learn now that I vented all that energy and passion on behalf of such a small fraction of the Native American population. ” The connotation of words can evolve over time. Not long ago, for example, “queer” was considered a pejorative for gays and lesbians now it has become what linguists call a reclaimed epithet — a word adopted by a group in empowering defiance. In addition, accepted use might depend on the circumstances: The sharing of a certain racial slur among does not entitle white people to use that term, so freighted is its ignominious history. Things can change in a mere generation. As a boy in Boston in the 1970s and early 1980s, Eugene Chay identified himself as Oriental, or . It was the accepted term. “I grew up using ‘Oriental’ and being referred to as ‘Oriental,’” recalled Mr. Chay, who is a senior staff lawyer for a civil rights organization called Advancing Justice. But by the Mr. Chay had become aware of a shift in the language — of the growing sentiment that “Oriental” was geocentric, ethnocentric, and disparaging to Asians. It was a rhetorical tool of separation and otherness, he said. “We didn’t refer to people in the West as Occidental,” he said. “I eventually reached a point in my teens where I did not want to be referred to as Oriental, and where I took to task people who referred to me as Oriental. I asked to be referred to as Asian. ” But redskin? Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, who served as an expert for Native Americans petitioning to have the federal government cancel the Washington Redskins organization’s trademark registration, said the term was a qualified form of a reclaimed epithet. Some scholastic teams in Indian country have nicknames that include Redskins and Braves, he said, sort of as a way to say, “If you want redskin savages, then we’ll give you redskin savages. ” “It’s used in those schools in that reclaimed way,” Mr. Nunberg said. “But that doesn’t license its use by third parties. ” The term has come to be associated with hostility, and savagery, and a mélange of popular culture stereotypes that include “F Troop” and “Davy Crockett,” removed in some way from the fact of sustained genocide and mistreatment. “A word can be offensive simply because of its history,” Mr. Nunberg said. “You can’t pluck this term out of its history and say, ‘Because my intentions are honorable, it’s O. K.’” Debra Krol, a journalist in Arizona and an enrolled member of the Xolon Salinan Tribe, on the central coast of California, characterized the opposition to the term as symptomatic of the broader movement by blacks, Latinos and to “strip our language of these terms that are offensive, demeaning. ” “These terms make it easier for people to think of us Indians as not really Americans,” she said. “Kind of like of a person that blacks used to be under the U. S. Constitution. ” Ms. Krol also said there was disagreement among American Indians about the seriousness of the issue. “There are a lot of people out there who have a problem with it,” she said. “But there are a lot of other people who really don’t care either way — who say we have bigger problems to worry about than a sports team’s mascot and a name. ” But Tara Houska, a tribal lawyer and a member of the Couchiching First Nation in Canada, along the Minnesota border, pointed out that during the American Indian Movement of the 1960s, tribal leaders across the country cited mascots and team names like the Redskins and the Cleveland Indians as racist and dehumanizing. “This goes back long before I was born,” said Ms. Houska, 32, who helped organize a protest in Minneapolis in 2014 against the appropriation of Indian culture for team names and mascots. She questioned the methodology of the Post poll — which mirrored the results of a poll conducted in 2004 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center — saying that a survey of 504 people could hardly represent the feelings of 5. 2 million Native Americans. She also said that those who clung to family lore — of, say, being part Cherokee on their mother’s side — had experiences profoundly different from those who actually lived the Native American life, whether on or off a reservation. And, she said, the damage has been documented. A decade ago, the American Psychological Association recommended the immediate retirement of Native American mascots and symbols, in part because they appear “to have a negative impact on the of American Indian children. ” Ms. Houska, who lives in Washington, said she was bracing for all the people who would be waving the poll in her face — “the poll, the poll, the poll” — and saying she had no right to be offended by the name of the local football team. That the matter is even up for debate baffles her. “It’s a slur,” she said. “It’s a racial slur. It should be a — but somehow, it’s not. ” | 0fake |
The map is tough for any Republican. It’s completely daunting for Donald Trump. | Every preliminary electoral-map forecast this spring paints a bleak picture for Donald Trump in his effort to win the presidency against Hillary Clinton. The consensus is that there is only a very narrow path to victory, and that will probably shape the opening phase of the general-election campaign.
Among the earlier forecasts, the University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato sees a Clinton romp in the making. A year ago, his forecast showed Democrats with an advantage in states adding up to 247 electoral votes, Republicans with an edge in states adding up to 206 and six states totaling 85 votes rated as toss-ups. Today, Sabato sees no states as toss-ups. Instead, he shows Clinton with 347 electoral votes and Trump with just 191.
The Cook Political Report shows a similarly dire map for Trump: 304 electoral votes leaning or solid for Clinton, 190 leaning or solid for Trump and 44 up for grabs. The four states Cook rated as toss-ups include three carried by Obama in 2012 (Iowa, New Hampshire and Ohio) and one carried by Mitt Romney (North Carolina).
The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report offers a more conservative estimate, but one no less daunting for Trump and Republicans: 263 leaning or solid for the Democrats, 206 for the Republicans and the remaining as toss-ups. The toss-ups in this analysis are Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
These forecasts are the reason so many elected Republicans are worried about Trump at the top of their ticket. If he crashes, so too might their current majorities, particularly in the Senate. No wonder House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) remains a holdout in his willingness to fully embrace Trump and why Senate leaders expressed their concerns to the presumptive nominee when they met Thursday.
To hold the Senate, Republicans must fend off a series of Democratic challenges in states that are traditional presidential battlegrounds or, worse, states that have been in the Democrats’ presidential column repeatedly.
Cook’s Senate list shows six Republican-held seats as toss-up races. Three are in presidentially blue states: Mark Kirk in Illinois, Patrick J. Toomey in Pennsylvania and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. Three others are in traditional battlegrounds: Rob Portman in Ohio, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire and the seat being vacated by Marco Rubio in Florida. Only one Democratic seat is currently a toss-up, that of retiring Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
If it becomes necessary, these embattled Republican incumbents will distance themselves from Trump in an instant to run their own campaigns — but will need to defy recent history to be successful. For some years now, voters increasingly have cast their votes for Senate in line with their presidential preference. This election could become a major test of whether that trend toward straight-ticket voting in recent years can be reversed.
A counter to the electoral-map projections showing Trump a potentially sizable drag on other Republican candidates came last week, when Quinnipiac University released polls from Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Clinton and Trump were neck and neck in Florida and Pennsylvania, and Trump led narrowly in Ohio.
Critics of the surveys asserted that the samples understated the likely size of the nonwhite vote and overstated the percentage of Republicans. It’s also worth noting that all of the surveys had a relatively high percentage of undecided voters.
More evidence is needed, and subsequent surveys will either ratify or contradict those numbers. But the three states in question are one path to the presidency for Trump. If he could hold all of the states that Romney won — by no means a certainty — and flip Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he would become president.
Many Democrats express the belief that there are traditional GOP states that may be in play in November, starting with Arizona. Clinton strategists are not assuming major changes in the geography of the battlegrounds. To that end, the key will be to prevent Trump from bringing out disaffected white, working-class voters while energizing the Obama coalition.
The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip described one step that the Clinton campaign is planning to protect states that are must-wins this fall, which is by starting to organize as early and as robustly as possible in Midwestern states with white, working-class constituencies, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
All three states have voted for the Democratic nominee six times in a row, although Obama won Pennsylvania, where there was no real campaign, by just more than five points in 2012. That five-point margin was almost identical to the margins by which he won the contested states of Colorado and New Hampshire and is a source of potential concern for Clinton’s team.
[Nine House committee chairs endorse Trump, but not yet Speaker Ryan]
The Clinton camp has been eager to get moving on its general-election operations for weeks, knowing that it takes time and resources to build the kind of organization they need to get all of their voters to the polls in November. The persistence of the challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont notwithstanding, the leadership of Clinton’s campaign in Brooklyn is now moving ahead on that front.
Clinton’s other strategy will be to disqualify Trump to any possible persuadable voters, among them independent women, and to generate the biggest possible turnout among Latinos and African Americans.
Clinton’s liabilities as a candidate make it more difficult for her simply to run a positive campaign to win over these voters, although she will need to do that. In addition, she and her outside allies will probably emulate the strategy followed by Obama against Romney four years ago by unloading soon.
The barrage will come in the form of TV ads and other means of communication — through social media, surrogates and talking heads, all recounting the many controversial things Trump has said about women, about Mexicans, about Muslims and anything else that might be in the opposition research files.
Trump should expect an all-out assault from the Democrats starting in early June. The goal will be to make it as difficult as possible for him to gain a foothold in the places where he will need it most. Whether Trump and the Republicans, who are all scrambling to try to unify as best as they can, will be ready to answer is a major question.
Trump has proved to be largely impervious to attack in the primaries, but he’s now facing a much different electorate. If he isn’t ready for what is coming at him, the opening phase of the general election could prove decisive. | 0fake |
U.S. Senators McCain, Graham: Order may help recruit terrorists | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s order halting arrivals of refugees and others from seven Muslim-majority countries may do more to help recruit terrorists than improve U.S. security. “Ultimately, we fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism,” they said in a statement, adding that the United States should not stop green card holders “from returning to the country they call home.” “This executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country. That is why we fear this executive order may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security,” said McCain, of Arizona, and Graham, of South Carolina. | 0fake |
Trump EPA pick says backs biofuels program, but open to tweaks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Wednesday he would honor the intent of the U.S. biofuels program, but remained open to tweaking it. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires the EPA set annual quotas for the use of ethanol and biodiesel in transportation fuels. More than a decade old, the standard is fiercely defended by the U.S. corn industry that provides most of the ethanol, but it has been a source of frustration for oil refiners. They say the goals are unrealistic without an overhaul in automobiles and infrastructure, and are calling for changes. Pruitt said during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he was committed to Congress’ plan, laid out in 2007, to annually increase the amount of ethanol and other renewables blended with petroleum fuels. He said the waivers that EPA has already used to set requirements below those targets to accommodate market conditions should be used “judiciously”. He explained his view that the EPA should not use those waivers to “undermine commitments” from Congress but that they are needed in some cases, including when there is lower-than-expected fuel demand. The comments quelled some concerns from within the industry over the nominee, who as Oklahoma’s attorney general had described the program as “flawed” and “unworkable.” Renewable Fuels Association Chief Executive Officer and President Bob Dinneen described Pruitt’s comments as “heartening” in a statement. While generally supportive of program, Pruitt said it was too soon to say whether it needed to be altered. Oil refiners including HollyFrontier Corp and Delta Air Lines Inc’s Monroe Energy have requested that the responsibility of blending renewables like ethanol into their fuel be shifted from them to companies further down the supply chain. The EPA moved to deny the request, but is seeking public comment on the decision. When asked about the idea, Pruitt said he did not want to “pre-judge” the outcome of the comment period. Trump has separately tapped billionaire and RFS critic Carl Icahn as a special advisor on regulations, raising industry speculation that the incoming administration will be more likely to consider the change. Pruitt is one of several of Trump’s senior Cabinet picks to face Senate hearings since last week. | 0fake |
Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitaries deploy to Syrian border | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi ite paramilitary groups have deployed to the frontier to back up border guard forces who came under fire from within Syria over the past three days, one of their commanders said on Friday. There was no immediate word on who opened fire from Syrian territory, but forces arrayed against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria expect the group will resort to guerrilla warfare after losing its urban bastions earlier this year. After several Iraqi border guard positions came under several attacks by missiles, and backup from security forces was late, the 13th brigade of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) was deployed and targeted the origins of the launch, PMF commander for west Anbar, Qassem Mesleh, said in a statement. Operations command and the infantry brigade are now present on the Iraqi-Syrian border in border guard positions to repel any attack or movement by the enemy, Mesleh said. This area is not within the PMF s remit but it is our duty to back up all security forces. The PMF is an umbrella grouping of mostly Iran-backed and trained Shi ite militias that formally report to Iraq s prime minister but are separate from the military and police. Sunni Muslims and Kurds have called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to disarm the PMF, which they say are responsible for widespread abuses against their communities. An Iraqi military spokesman confirmed the deployment. Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told Reuters it was temporary, however, and very normal because it was the PMF s duty to back up government forces. The PMF were officially made part of the Iraqi security establishment by law and formally answer to Abadi in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Abadi has said the state should have a monopoly on the legitimate use of arms. Iraqi forces on Dec. 9 recaptured the last swathes of territory still under Islamic State control along the frontier with Syria and secured the western desert. It marked the end of the war against the militants, three years after they overran about a third of Iraq s territory. Rasool, the military spokesman, denied backup to the border guards had been late. The primary responsibility for the borders lies with the border guards and the army, however, said Rasool. He said Iraqi forces coordinate with both the Syrian army, which is backed by Russia, Iran and Iran-backed Shi ite militias, and the U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He said parts of Syria - including many areas on the border with Iraq - were still under Islamic State control. | 0fake |
WHOA! Did Donald Trump Just Imply Obama Is Working On Behalf Of Muslim Terrorists? [VIDEO] | And if Trump did indeed imply Obama was working on behalf of Muslim terrorists do you believe he s correct? | 1real |
EVIL HILLARY SUPPORTERS Yell “F*ck Trump”…Burn Truck Of Daddy Fishing With 2 Yr Son Over Of Trump Bumper-Stickers [VIDEO] | These people are sick and evil. They will stop at NOTHING to get their way. Laws mean nothing to them, because they mean nothing to their President and his regime A California man says a stranger hurled expletives and set his truck on fire Thursday after seeing a pro-Donald Trump sticker on the bumper.Hao Lee had taken his 2-year-old son fishing on a pleasant November afternoon in Sacramento. He parked his white Dodge Ram truck with a pair of Trump stickers on the bumper along Garden Highway. About a couple hours into fishing I heard someone yelling out F Trump, Lee told KTXL.Lee and his son were only about 50 yards from where his truck was parked, near the edge of the river.Their peaceful fishing trip was about to take an abrupt and scary turn. After that I heard glass breaking, I called 911 and a couple of minutes later I saw smoke, he said.Lee said his first concern was the safety of his son, so he decided to stay put, near the water. When the voices and commotion were gone, Lee approached his truck. But it was too late. Flames were shooting out the windows. The truck was a complete loss. I didn t think anyone would do this kind of stuff over bumper stickers. It s not right, he said. Q13FOXWATCH: | 1real |
Rival Tuaregs sign deal to end years of Mali fighting | BAMAKO (Reuters) - Rival Tuareg groups said on Thursday they had signed a peace deal in northern Mali, raising hopes of an end to years of fighting and broken ceasefires. Senior members of the separatist CMA and their pro-government opponents known as the Platform said they had settled their differences in the arid region, which is still reeling from a 2012 Islamist insurgency. Past deals have fizzled as goodwill faded - though observers said they were optimistic, as the pact had been signed in Bamako on Wednesday night under the watch of the United Nations, government officials and international mediators. We assure that in future we will respect all the commitments we have made before you and before the international community, senior Platform official Fahad Ag Almahamoud said on state radio. CMA official Bilal Ag Cherif echoed the message, saying: all parties must respect this document in their behavior and their everyday actions . Rival Tuareg groups have fought over territory and politics for years. More recent clashes have complicated efforts to counter al Qaeda-linked militants who took the north in 2012 before a French-led intervention pushed them back. The peace deal followed a temporary ceasefire agreed last month which allowed the regional governor to return to the city of Kidal. This seems like a more permanent agreement (following the ceasefire) and could hold for now, said Andrew Lebovich, of the European Council on Foreign Relations. It depends on the internal calculations of each group and if people are simply using the agreement to rebuild their forces. | 0fake |
Trump’s Education Secretary Gets ROASTED After Saying Guns In Schools Will Prevent Bear Attacks (TWEETS/VIDEO) | Our children are at risk, people! Fortunately, there is one woman who is willing to take a brave stand and confront this danger head-on Trump education secretary pick Betsy DeVos. On Tuesday, supergenius DeVos was asked a very simple question: Do you think guns have any place in or around schools? Now, most of us would have answered that question with a simple no, but not DeVos. She sees a danger the rest of us are missing: bears.But never fear! Trump would never appoint someone who is completely unqualified to any position. Sure, she doesn t know that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a thing, but DeVos has the perfect answer to this hidden and severe threat against our children a whole bunch of motherf*cking guns.DeVos says the decision to allow guns in schools is best left to locales and states to decide because bear attacks are apparently a thing, and we wouldn t want students undefended while Yogi searches their school for a pic-a-nic basket, would we? I will refer back to Senator Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming, DeVos said. I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies. As it turns out, Wyoming schools do not keep a pile of guns around to deal with an ever-looming threat of bear attacks.UPDATE: Teacher at Wyoming school Betsy DeVos said needed guns to shoot "grizzlies" says that's "absolutely" untruehttps://t.co/dWneudD0Tf pic.twitter.com/oVb8kEdAgL Tom McKay (@thetomzone) January 18, 2017But, hey, at least the folks on Twitter are having fun:Screenshot from the National Geographic special Betsy DeVos watched to prove grizzly bears are a threat to schools pic.twitter.com/c3ATfOdMJy Guy Fi-hairy (@ih8_mayo) January 18, 2017Betsy DeVos took @StephenAtHome very literally. #GrizzlyBears #DeVosHearing pic.twitter.com/OKpsE3UQNk FooseBallsOFire (@FooseBallsOFire) January 18, 2017We can't tell you how many times in the past year we've had a lockdown because #grizzlybears. ? #NotMySOE #StopDeVos #DeVosHearing Wa Badass Teachers A (@WaBATs_) January 18, 2017Maybe grizzly bears can home school your kids. Grizzlies aren't that bad and they're quite good at quadratic equations. #DeVosHearing Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) January 18, 2017Betsy DeVos said we need to have guns in schools to protect children from grizzly bears. What is wrong with these people? #DeVosHearing pic.twitter.com/eLeagUHrDo nnydi g ? (@bennydiego) January 18, 2017DeVos: Guns in schools so kids can protect themselves from grizzly bears. 200+ school shootings since 2013, 0 grizzly attacks. Peter Ambler (@PeterMAmbler) January 18, 2017#BetsyDeVos says we need guns in schools to protect kids from grizzly bears.Not even kidding. #DeVosHearing pic.twitter.com/SIeTT0pusL Chad R. MacDonald (@ChadMac19) January 18, 2017Guys, I'm very worried about grizzly bears in Ohio's public schools. John Scalzi (@scalzi) January 18, 2017DeVos won't say guns shouldn't be in schools.Because sometimes kids need to be defended against grizzly bears.SERIOUSLY SHE SAID THAT S Dynarski (@dynarski) January 18, 2017The Bible teaches us that God uses bears to kill children who disrespect elders. (2 Kings 2:23-24) Why is Betsy DeVos against God's plan? Alexandra Erin (@alexandraerin) January 18, 2017I'm confused. Betsy DeVos wants to bring God into schools but also guns because I guess God isn't powerful enough to stop grizzly bears. Sarcasticsapien (@Sarcasticsapien) January 18, 2017COMMITTEE: Yes or no. Would you enforce a school-wide fight to the death like Battle Royale? DEVOS: (breathing heavy) oh god yes Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) January 18, 2017Betsy DeVos answering questions at the senate hearing was like listening to a 4 year old try to explain what happens while you're asleep. Johnny Taylor, Jr. (@hipsterocracy) January 18, 2017We need a Secretary of Education that will work hard to end all of the grizzly bear on bear crime in schools.OHHHHH BETSY DEVOS! Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 18, 2017Asked if she would support Trump s plan to allow guns in schools, hospitals, day cares, and anywhere else a federal ban on gun-free zones would allow people to bring their firearms, DeVos explained that her heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence. She did not say whether or not this includes the children who will be slaughtered as a result of Trump s policies.Watch what is quite possibly the dumbest thing you will hear from DeVos until the next time she opens her mouth:Featured image via Getty Images (Drew Angerer)/screengrab | 1real |
**Livewire** President Trump’s First Address to a Joint Session of Congress | Welcome to the Breitbart News Livewire of President Donald Trump’s first address to a Joint Session of Congress. The president will address the nation at 9:00 pm eastern from the Hall of the House of Representatives, where he is expected to lay out a broad vision of his administration’s agenda. [Topics he’s expected to address include Obamacare, immigration, the border wall, his budget, military buildup, veteran affairs, national security, trade, economy, education, and law enforcement. He’ll touch on the same themes that propelled him to the White House. Look for an emphasis on America First — with the phrase “buy American and hire American” as his administration’s policy lodestar. Capitol Hill is looking for any indication of Trump’s preference on the various Obamacare replacement proposals. Politico, however, reports that Trump is unlikely to embrace any specific plan. Breitbart’s Sean Moran offers a primer on the various Obamacare replacement plans. Trump’s budget is also being hotly debated. Jonathan Swan at Axios reports that Trump is not expected to explicitly endorse Speaker Paul Ryan’s border adjustment tax tonight, which, Swan reports, Trump’s team is “divided on. The nationalist wing of the White House — led by Steve Bannon — supports the plan to raise $1 trillion by hiking taxes on imports. Officials closer to corporate America, including top economic advisor Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, are said to be deeply skeptical. ” Ryan wants the border adjustment tax to offset any Trump tax cut proposal. Swan has updated his initial story to note the White House talking points about the address state: “We must have fair trade for our workers — foreign countries can no longer be allowed to tax our exports while shipping goods into our country for free. ” This language might suggest an openness to the border adjustment tax concept or simply signal a willingness to use tariffs. The budget debate is also expected to be contentious in the coming weeks with Sen. Lindsay Graham ( ) declaring the president’s budget “dead on arrival” because of Trump’s proposed cuts to the State Department. Meanwhile, there are also reports that Trump might be open to “an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides. ” As Breitbart’s Neil Munro points out, take these reports with a grain of salt until further details of such a deal are hashed out. We can also expect the usual D. C. partisan drama tonight. Some Democrat lawmakers are boycotting the address, including Rep. Maxine Waters ( ). Others are bringing illegal immigrants with them as their guests. First Lady Melania Trump’s guests, on the other hand, reportedly include Jessica Davis, Susan Oliver, and Jamiel Shaw, Sr. — each of whom lost loved ones to illegal immigrant criminals. Stay with us throughout the evening as we offer live updates. All times eastern. Watch the speech live on Breitbart’s Facebook here. *** 12:09 am — Watching the cable news replay of the speech one is struck again by the impolite manner in which Democrat lawmakers refused to even clap as a show of acknowledgment or greeting to the president at the beginning of his address. Republicans were never this impolite to President Obama during his State of the Union addresses. The closest thing that comes to mind is South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson’s infamous “you lie!” outburst during Obama’s address to Congress in 2009, but even that was widely condemned by his fellow Republicans, which is the sort of you’ll never see Democrats do among themselves and certainly not for any slight given to this president. 11:31 pm — America liked it. Bigly. . @CNN poll for #JointAddress: 57% very positive, 21% somewhat positive, 21% negative 69% say Trump’s policies will move USA in positive dir, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, . @CNN poll shows 78% — 4 out of 5 Americans! — said Trump’s #jointaddress speech was ”very” (57%) or ”somewhat” (21%) positive. A triumph. — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 11:28 pm — Coulter in fine form tonight as usual. The best speech I’ve have ever witnessed from Washington. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 1, 2017, MSNBC weirdly silent. Scribbling notes — any ideas? I got nothing. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 1, 2017, The media’s job tonight is to keep Trump’s numbers from skyrocketing tomorrow. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 1, 2017, I love when Democrats pretend to be salt of the earth, straw hat hayseeds. https: . — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 1, 2017, Next year, the Dem response will be from a square dance. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 1, 2017, 11:22 pm — A new record: Twitter: With 3M tweets, tonight’s @POTUS speech was most tweeted #SOTU or #JointSession address ever, surpassing previous record of 2. 6M. — Garance (@thegarance) March 1, 2017, 11:21 pm — Even Alexrod … Axelrod: Trump will get a bump in polls from speech https: . — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 11:16 pm — Team DNC … The DNC response to #JointAddress on @MSNBC features BOTH @TomPerez and @keithellison pic. twitter. — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 11:14 pm — Sad. When asked about the speech DNC Chair Perez sarcastically clapped: ”oh, he read a TelePrompTer!! It’s like my kid ate and didn’t spill!” — Michael LaRosa (@MichaelLaRosaDC) March 1, 2017, 11:09 pm — Here’s video of Van Jones’ comments … Van Jones: Trump ”became President of the United States” when he honored the widow of the Navy SEAL killed in Yemen https: . — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 1, 2017, 11:06 pm — hail to the chief … . @WhiteHouse staff welcomes @POTUS back after historic powerful #JointAddress pic. twitter. — Sean Spicer (@PressSec) March 1, 2017, 11:05 pm — . @newtgingrich to @seanhannity on Trump #JointAddress ”Best speech of his career. I’m blown away … very profound … Democrats were startled.” — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “This Was Probably, Without A Doubt, One Of His Best Speeches” https: . via, — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 1, 2017, Speechless … McConnell predicts Trump approval rating will rise: “I rarely find my counterpart, Chuck Schumer, speechless.” — Brett LoGiurato (@BrettLoGiurato) March 1, 2017, 10:57 pm — Grumpy Chuck … ”Speeches go away very quickly,” says @SenSchumer hopefully to @CNN. I’ve never seen him so unhappy in front of a camera ever #JointAddress, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 10:52 pm — For what it’s worth, here is more from Luntz’s focus group: ”This is the ’Donald Trump’ Donald Trump needs to be, and the next thing he needs to do is delete his Twitter,” focus group member says. pic. twitter. — CBS News (@CBSNews) March 1, 2017, 10:51 pm — Was he someone’s guest? A @JoeNBC sighting. pic. twitter. — Maegan Vazquez (@maeganvaz) March 1, 2017, 10:48 pm — So awkward … I have no idea who Steve Beshear is, but neither does Steve Beshear pic. twitter. — The Swog Blog (@TheSwogBlog) March 1, 2017, Senator Rand Paul ( ) reminds Beshear … As @realDonaldTrump just said in #JointAddress, we have already taken taken action to help Kentucky coal miners. https: . — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 1, 2017, 10:45 pm — From the New York Times’ LA bureau chief: Winners tonight: The teleprompter. — adam nagourney (@adamnagourney) March 1, 2017, And they wonder why Trump calls them the “opposition party. ” 10:42 pm — Wow. Van Jones re: Carryn Owens — ”He became President of the United States in that moment. Period.” #JointAddress, — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 1, 2017, Yikes! Van Jones just said ”Donald Trump just became president in that moment.” #JointAddress #CNN pic. twitter. — Stephe96 (@Stephe96) March 1, 2017, Fox News’ Juan Williams just said @realDonaldTrump was ”playing the fear card” when he talked about VOICE for victims of illegal alien crime, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, . @krauthammer on #Trumpaddress: ”Without a doubt, the best speech he ever gave.” Says he should have given it at Inauguration. #jointaddress, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 10:41 pm — Watch the video of Trump’s address here. 10:32 pm — 2020 … If this is the best response the Dems can come up with, @realDonaldTrump just won 2020 in a landslide. #JointAddress, — John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 1, 2017, Tucker Carlson on Fox News commenting on the Democrats’ response: “They found the only person in Kentucky who didn’t vote for Donald Trump. ” 10:29 pm — Even Beck … Not a fan of nationalism, progressivism, populism or Bannon (essence of this speech),BUT: well done and connected . #jointsession #sotu, — Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) March 1, 2017, Other reactions: #Trump critic @brithume of @FoxNews: the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump ”struck the balance as well as I’ve ever seen it struck” #Trumpaddress, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, More @brithume on #Trumpaddress: ”[M]ost emotional moment I’ve ever seen was Ryan Owens’ widow, standing there … and reacting as she did.” — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, President Trump should also talk about police violence and the 1, 000 people killed by police every year. #JointSession, — ACLU National (@ACLU) March 1, 2017, Pelosi reacts > pic. twitter. — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 1, 2017, 10:26 pm — Sad. Kentucky governor @Steve__Beshear had a senior moment at the beginning of the Democratic response. Here’s what he was supposed to say: pic. twitter. — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 1, 2017, This isn’t working. #DemResponse, — Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 1, 2017, I’m not sure what the point of the #Democraticresponse to #Trumpaddress is, but I have a sudden thirst for a fountain soda pop with some ice, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 10:22 pm — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin tells Breitbart News that “Trump articulated real hope without the dope. It was refreshing and a relief after all that we’ve experienced over the past 8 years. ” 10:14 pm — 21 focus group members: • 19 said Trump’s speech was better than expected, • 9 are Clinton voters#JointAddress pic. twitter. — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 1, 2017, 10:10 pm — Sad behavor from these Democrats. As JFK famously once said about Nixon: “No class. ” Sobbing widow of slain Navy Seal receives 2 minute standing ovation. Debbie Wasserman Schultz Keith Ellison stay firmly seated, no claps, — Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 1, 2017, Democrats disgrace themselves by clearing out from @POTUS @realDonaldTrump speech as soon as possible not offering applause. #Trumpaddress, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 10:10 pm — Trump calls on all Americans to seize the moment … “The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us … I am asking all citizens to embrace this Renewal of the American Spirit. I am asking all members of Congress to join me in dreaming big, and bold and daring things for our country. And I am asking everyone watching tonight to seize this moment and — Believe in yourselves. Believe in your future. And believe, once more, in America. Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless these United States. ” 10:06 pm — Trump is concluding his address on a positive, upbeat message of American greatness. “When we have all of this, we will have made America greater than ever before. For all Americans. This is our vision. This is our mission. But we can only get there together. We are one people, with one destiny. We all bleed the same blood. We all salute the same flag. And we are all made by the same God. ” 10:05 pm — Trump articulates a foreign policy message that harkens back to George Washington. “America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where shared interests align. We want harmony and stability, not war and conflict. ” 10:03 pm — Big applause for this: “My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America. ” Trump called for NATO to pay their fair share. 10:01 pm — Sustained applause for this: “We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a U. S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens. Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero — battling against terrorism and securing our Nation. I just spoke to General Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, ‘Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies.’ Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity. ” Ryan’s wife, standing next to Ivanka Trump, holds back the tears. Trump ad libbed: “Ryan is looking down right now, and I think he’s very happy, because he just broke a record. ” Trump continues: “The Bible teaches us, there is no greater act of love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Ryan laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom — we will never forget him. ” 9:53 pm — Trump says: “I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American Victims. The office is called VOICE — Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests. ” He then points out the stories of Jamiel Shaw, Susan Oliver, Jenna Oliver, and Jessica Davis — whose families were victims of illegal immigrant criminals. Very emotional reception for families who were forgotten for so long. There was, however, an audible groan from Democrats when Trump mentioned VOICE. Groans and murmurs in the Democratic crowd as Trump announces new VOICE program for victims of illegal immigrant violence, — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 1, 2017, 9:52 pm — Trump calls for support of the men and women of law enforcement and the victims of crime. “We must build bridges of cooperation and trust — not drive the wedge of disunity and division. ” 9:49 pm — Trump repeats a line that former President George W. Bush often said, “Education is the civil rights issue of our time. ” He calls for school choice. He highlights another guest — Denisha Merriweather, who attended a private center of learning and “with the help of a tax credit scholarship program. Today, she is the first in her family to graduate, not just from high school, but from college. Later this year she will get her masters degree in social work. ” The pride on Denisha Merriweather’s face as @POTUS tells her story of perseverance success at private school is just amazing #trumpaddress, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 9:47 pm — Trump introduces Megan Crowley, who was diagnosed with Pompe Disease, but her own father “founded a company to look for a cure, and helped develop the drug that saved Megan’s life. Today she is 20 years old — and a sophomore at Notre Dame. ” Trump highlights the story in order to call for reform of the Food and Drug Administration. 9:46 pm — This isn’t the sort of thing you’d expect to see from a Republican president, but it’s very much a populist message: “My administration wants to work with members in both parties to make childcare accessible and affordable, to help ensure new parents have paid family leave, to invest in women’s health, and to promote clean air and clear water, and to rebuild our military and our infrastructure. ” 9:42 pm — Trump lays out his vision of Obamacare replacement. It still includes coverage for conditions, health savings accounts, tort reform, taking on big pharma to bring down price of drugs, and allowing the ability to purchase insurance across state lines in order to create “a truly competitive national marketplace. ” House Democrats give Trump “Thumbs down” after he says he will repeal and replace Obamacare pic. twitter. — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 1, 2017, 9:41 pm — Corporate America may not like this speech, but focus groupers of both parties do not want them to leave the country. #JointAddress pic. twitter. — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 1, 2017, 9:39 pm — Huge applause when Trump says he’s calling on Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare. And he comes out against the individual mandate! “Mandating every American to buy health insurance was never the right solution for America. ” 9:38 pm — Trump on his infrastructure plan: “To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking the Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure of the United States — financed through both public and private capital — creating millions of new jobs. ” 9:36 pm — Trump addresses immigration reform: “Switching away from this current system of immigration, and instead adopting a system, will have many benefits: it will save countless dollars, raise workers’ wages, and help struggling families — including immigrant families — enter the middle class. I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation’s security, and to restore respect for our laws. ” 9:35 pm — . @POTUS: We’ve defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross. https: . pic. twitter. — FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) March 1, 2017, 9:32 pm — Trump gets a laugh when he mentions his meeting with Harley Davidson executives. He makes the case for fair trade to protect American workers. “I believe strongly in free trade but it also has to be FAIR TRADE. The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, warned that the “abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government [will] produce want and ruin among our people. ” 9:33 pm — Sad. WATCH: Dems heckle Trump’s ”drain the swamp” line https: . pic. twitter. — The Hill (@thehill) March 1, 2017, 9:30 pm — Not very many Democrats in this chamber pic. twitter. — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 1, 2017, Justice Kagan not looking too happy pic. twitter. — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 1, 2017, Make sure to keep this in mind during the #JointAddress. #IStandWithPP pic. twitter. — Planned Parenthood (@PPIAction) March 1, 2017, . #Trump notes, among his accomplishments so far, that he has ”reaffirmed our unbreakable alliance with the State of #Israel.” #trumpaddress, — Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 1, 2017, 9:27 pm — Big standing ovation when he mentions he will appoint judges who will defend our Constitution. He points out that Maureen Scalia, the late Justice Scalia’s wife is the guest of First Lady Melania Trump. Applause at the mention of his SCOTUS nominee Judge Gorsuch. 9:26 pm — No equivocating in this language: “As promised, I directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan to demolish and destroy ISIS — a network of lawless savages that have slaughtered Muslims and Christians, and men, women, and children of all faiths and beliefs. We will work with our allies, including our friends and allies in the Muslim world, to extinguish this vile enemy from our planet. ” 9:25 pm — He makes the case for vetting: “We have seen the attacks in France, in Belgium, in Germany and all over the world. It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high honor of admission to the United States should support this country and love its people and its values. We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America — we cannot allow our Nation to become a sanctuary for extremists. ” 9:22 pm — Here is the Trump who won the election: “We must restore integrity and the rule of law to our borders. For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border. It will be started ahead of schedule and, when finished, it will be a very effective weapon against drugs and crime. As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens. Bad ones are going out as I speak tonight and as I have promised. ” He calls out Dems directly: “To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I would ask you this question: what would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one, because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?” 9:20 pm — Sad … Democrats laughing and hollering when Trump says he has begun to ”drain the swamp of government corruption” — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 1, 2017, 9:18 pm — Trump gets applause for mentioning he cleared the way for the Dakota Access Pipeline, and we’ll be using American steel on all the pipelines. 9:16 pm — He explains what he has already done to keep his promises to bring jobs back to the U. S. He also mentions the stock market bump and the cost cutting savings he’s already done. He notes the hiring freeze and the efforts to “drain the swamp” by putting a ban on lobbying for former government officials and a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign governments. He also mentions his order to cut regulations. 9:13 pm — Trump sounds the same themes of his inaugural address and campaign — explaining the movement of the forgotten men and women who propelled his victory in order to “Make America Great Again” by putting Americans first. He gets a standing ovation. 9:10 pm — Trump opens with a unifying statement condemning the recent acts of and hatred with the desecration of Jewish graves. 9:04 pm — And here he is. President Trump enters the Chamber. No applause from some Democrat lawmakers, just standing in stony silence. The Democrat women in white are notably silent. 9:00 pm — Here is the text of the prepared remarks: TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and Citizens of America: Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our Nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that still remains. Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms. Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice — in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present. That torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light up the world. I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart. A new chapter of American Greatness is now beginning. A new national pride is sweeping across our Nation. And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp. What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit. Our allies will find that America is once again ready to lead. All the nations of the world — friend or foe — will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free. In 9 years, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding — 250 years since the day we declared our Independence. It will be one of the great milestones in the history of the world. But what will America look like as we reach our 250th year? What kind of country will we leave for our children? I will not allow the mistakes of recent decades past to define the course of our future. For too long, we’ve watched our middle class shrink as we’ve exported our jobs and wealth to foreign countries. We’ve financed and built one global project after another, but ignored the fates of our children in the inner cities of Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit — and so many other places throughout our land. We’ve defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross — and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate. And we’ve spent trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled. Then, in 2016, the earth shifted beneath our feet. The rebellion started as a quiet protest, spoken by families of all colors and creeds — families who just wanted a fair shot for their children, and a fair hearing for their concerns. But then the quiet voices became a loud chorus — as thousands of citizens now spoke out together, from cities small and large, all across our country. Finally, the chorus became an earthquake — and the people turned out by the tens of millions, and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial demand, that America must put its own citizens first … because only then, can we truly MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Dying industries will come roaring back to life. Heroic veterans will get the care they so desperately need. Our military will be given the resources its brave warriors so richly deserve. Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways gleaming across our beautiful land. Our terrible drug epidemic will slow down and ultimately, stop. And our neglected inner cities will see a rebirth of hope, safety, and opportunity. Above all else, we will keep our promises to the American people. It’s been a little over a month since my inauguration, and I want to take this moment to update the Nation on the progress I’ve made in keeping those promises. Since my election, Ford, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart, and many others, have announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs. The stock market has gained almost three trillion dollars in value since the election on November 8th, a record. We’ve saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing down the price of the fantastic new jet fighter, and will be saving billions more dollars on contracts all across our Government. We have placed a hiring freeze on and Federal workers. We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a 5 year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials — and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government. We have undertaken a historic effort to massively reduce job‑crushing regulations, creating a deregulation task force inside of every Government agency imposing a new rule which mandates that for every 1 new regulation, 2 old regulations must be eliminated and stopping a regulation that threatens the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners. We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs — and I’ve issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American steel. We have withdrawn the United States from the Partnership. With the help of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we have formed a Council with our neighbors in Canada to help ensure that women entrepreneurs have access to the networks, markets and capital they need to start a business and live out their financial dreams. To protect our citizens, I have directed the Department of Justice to form a Task Force on Reducing Violent Crime. I have further ordered the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, along with the Department of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to coordinate an aggressive strategy to dismantle the criminal cartels that have spread across our Nation. We will stop the drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth — and we will expand treatment for those who have become so badly addicted. At the same time, my Administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security. By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone. We want all Americans to succeed — but that can’t happen in an environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of law to our borders. For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border. It will be started ahead of schedule and, when finished, it will be a very effective weapon against drugs and crime. As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens. Bad ones are going out as I speak tonight and as I have promised. To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I would ask you this question: what would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one, because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders? Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the United States. We are also taking strong measures to protect our Nation from Radical Islamic Terrorism. According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted for offenses since came here from outside of our country. We have seen the attacks at home — from Boston to San Bernardino to the Pentagon and yes, even the World Trade Center. We have seen the attacks in France, in Belgium, in Germany and all over the world. It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high honor of admission to the United States should support this country and love its people and its values. We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America — we cannot allow our Nation to become a sanctuary for extremists. That is why my Administration has been working on improved vetting procedures, and we will shortly take new steps to keep our Nation safe — and to keep out those who would do us harm. As promised, I directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan to demolish and destroy ISIS — a network of lawless savages that have slaughtered Muslims and Christians, and men, women, and children of all faiths and beliefs. We will work with our allies, including our friends and allies in the Muslim world, to extinguish this vile enemy from our planet. I have also imposed new sanctions on entities and individuals who support Iran’s ballistic missile program, and reaffirmed our unbreakable alliance with the State of Israel. Finally, I have kept my promise to appoint a Justice to the United States Supreme Court — from my list of 20 judges — who will defend our Constitution. I am honored to have Maureen Scalia with us in the gallery tonight. Her late, great husband, Antonin Scalia, will forever be a symbol of American justice. To fill his seat, we have chosen Judge Neil Gorsuch, a man of incredible skill, and deep devotion to the law. He was confirmed unanimously to the Court of Appeals, and I am asking the Senate to swiftly approve his nomination. Tonight, as I outline the next steps we must take as a country, we must honestly acknowledge the circumstances we inherited. million Americans are out of the labor force. Over 43 million people are now living in poverty, and over 43 million Americans are on food stamps. More than 1 in 5 people in their prime working years are not working. We have the worst financial recovery in 65 years. In the last 8 years, the past Administration has put on more new debt than nearly all other Presidents combined. We’ve lost more than of our manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was approved, and we’ve lost 60, 000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Our trade deficit in goods with the world last year was nearly $800 billion dollars. And overseas, we have inherited a series of tragic foreign policy disasters. Solving these, and so many other pressing problems, will require us to work past the differences of party. It will require us to tap into the American spirit that has overcome every challenge throughout our long and storied history. But to accomplish our goals at home and abroad, we must restart the engine of the American economy — making it easier for companies to do business in the United States, and much harder for companies to leave. Right now, American companies are taxed at one of the highest rates anywhere in the world. My economic team is developing historic tax reform that will reduce the tax rate on our companies so they can compete and thrive anywhere and with anyone. At the same time, we will provide massive tax relief for the middle class. We must create a level playing field for American companies and workers. Currently, when we ship products out of America, many other countries make us pay very high tariffs and taxes — but when foreign companies ship their products into America, we charge them almost nothing. I just met with officials and workers from a great American company, . In fact, they proudly displayed five of their magnificent motorcycles, made in the USA, on the front lawn of the White House. At our meeting, I asked them, how are you doing, how is business? They said that it’s good. I asked them further how they are doing with other countries, mainly international sales. They told me — without even complaining because they have been mistreated for so long that they have become used to it — that it is very hard to do business with other countries because they tax our goods at such a high rate. They said that in one case another country taxed their motorcycles at 100 percent. They weren’t even asking for change. But I am. I believe strongly in free trade but it also has to be FAIR TRADE. The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, warned that the “abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government [will] produce want and ruin among our people. ” Lincoln was right — and it is time we heeded his words. I am not going to let America and its great companies and workers, be taken advantage of anymore. I am going to bring back millions of jobs. Protecting our workers also means reforming our system of legal immigration. The current, outdated system depresses wages for our poorest workers, and puts great pressure on taxpayers. Nations around the world, like Canada, Australia and many others — have a immigration system. It is a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially. Yet, in America, we do not enforce this rule, straining the very public resources that our poorest citizens rely upon. According to the National Academy of Sciences, our current immigration system costs America’s taxpayers many billions of dollars a year. Switching away from this current system of immigration, and instead adopting a system, will have many benefits: it will save countless dollars, raise workers’ wages, and help struggling families — including immigrant families — enter the middle class. I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation’s security, and to restore respect for our laws. If we are guided by the of American citizens then I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that has eluded our country for decades. Another Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, initiated the last truly great national infrastructure program — the building of the interstate highway system. The time has come for a new program of national rebuilding. America has spent approximately six trillion dollars in the Middle East, all this while our infrastructure at home is crumbling. With this six trillion dollars we could have rebuilt our country — twice. And maybe even three times if we had people who had the ability to negotiate. To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking the Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure of the United States — financed through both public and private capital — creating millions of new jobs. This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy American, and Hire American. Tonight, I am also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and at the same time, provide better Healthcare. Mandating every American to buy health insurance was never the right solution for America. The way to make health insurance available to everyone is to lower the cost of health insurance, and that is what we will do. Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits. As an example, Arizona went up 116 percent last year alone. Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky just said Obamacare is failing in his State — it is unsustainable and collapsing. One third of counties have only one insurer on the exchanges — leaving many Americans with no choice at all. Remember when you were told that you could keep your doctor, and keep your plan? We now know that all of those promises have been broken. Obamacare is collapsing — and we must act decisively to protect all Americans. Action is not a choice — it is a necessity. So I am calling on all Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to work with us to save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster. Here are the principles that should guide the Congress as we move to create a better healthcare system for all Americans: First, we should ensure that Americans with conditions have access to coverage, and that we have a stable transition for Americans currently enrolled in the healthcare exchanges. Secondly, we should help Americans purchase their own coverage, through the use of tax credits and expanded Health Savings Accounts — but it must be the plan they want, not the plan forced on them by the Government. Thirdly, we should give our great State Governors the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out. Fourthly, we should implement legal reforms that protect patients and doctors from unnecessary costs that drive up the price of insurance — and work to bring down the artificially high price of drugs and bring them down immediately. Finally, the time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across State lines — creating a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring cost way down and provide far better care. Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing, and hope. Our citizens deserve this, and so much more — so why not join forces to finally get it done? On this and so many other things, Democrats and Republicans should get together and unite for the good of our country, and for the good of the American people. My administration wants to work with members in both parties to make childcare accessible and affordable, to help ensure new parents have paid family leave, to invest in women’s health, and to promote clean air and clear water, and to rebuild our military and our infrastructure. True love for our people requires us to find common ground, to advance the common good, and to cooperate on behalf of every American child who deserves a brighter future. An incredible young woman is with us this evening who should serve as an inspiration to us all. Today is Rare Disease day, and joining us in the gallery is a Rare Disease Survivor, Megan Crowley. Megan was diagnosed with Pompe Disease, a rare and serious illness, when she was 15 months old. She was not expected to live past 5. On receiving this news, Megan’s dad, John, fought with everything he had to save the life of his precious child. He founded a company to look for a cure, and helped develop the drug that saved Megan’s life. Today she is 20 years old — and a sophomore at Notre Dame. Megan’s story is about the unbounded power of a father’s love for a daughter. But our slow and burdensome approval process at the Food and Drug Administration keeps too many advances, like the one that saved Megan’s life, from reaching those in need. If we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA but across our Government, then we will be blessed with far more miracles like Megan. In fact, our children will grow up in a Nation of miracles. But to achieve this future, we must enrich the mind — and the souls — of every American child. Education is the civil rights issue of our time. I am calling upon Members of both parties to pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of and Latino children. These families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school that is right for them. Joining us tonight in the gallery is a remarkable woman, Denisha Merriweather. As a young girl, Denisha struggled in school and failed third grade twice. But then she was able to enroll in a private center for learning, with the help of a tax credit scholarship program. Today, she is the first in her family to graduate, not just from high school, but from college. Later this year she will get her masters degree in social work. We want all children to be able to break the cycle of poverty just like Denisha. But to break the cycle of poverty, we must also break the cycle of violence. The murder rate in 2015 experienced its largest increase in nearly half a century. In Chicago, more than 4, 000 people were shot last year alone — and the murder rate so far this year has been even higher. This is not acceptable in our society. Every American child should be able to grow up in a safe community, to attend a great school, and to have access to a job. But to create this future, we must work with — not against — the men and women of law enforcement. We must build bridges of cooperation and trust — not drive the wedge of disunity and division. Police and sheriffs are members of our community. They are friends and neighbors, they are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters — and they leave behind loved ones every day who worry whether or not they’ll come home safe and sound. We must support the incredible men and women of law enforcement. And we must support the victims of crime. I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American Victims. The office is called VOICE — Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests. Joining us in the audience tonight are four very brave Americans whose government failed them. Their names are Jamiel Shaw, Susan Oliver, Jenna Oliver, and Jessica Davis. Jamiel’s son was viciously murdered by an illegal immigrant gang member, who had just been released from prison. Jamiel Shaw Jr. was an incredible young man, with unlimited potential who was getting ready to go to college where he would have excelled as a great quarterback. But he never got the chance. His father, who is in the audience tonight, has become a good friend of mine. Also with us are Susan Oliver and Jessica Davis. Their husbands — Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis — were slain in the line of duty in California. They were pillars of their community. These brave men were viciously gunned down by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record and two prior deportations. Sitting with Susan is her daughter, Jenna. Jenna: I want you to know that your father was a hero, and that tonight you have the love of an entire country supporting you and praying for you. To Jamiel, Jenna, Susan and Jessica: I want you to know — we will never stop fighting for justice. Your loved ones will never be forgotten, we will always honor their memory. Finally, to keep America Safe we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war and — if they must — to fight and to win. I am sending the Congress a budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the Defense sequester, and calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history. My budget will also increase funding for our veterans. Our veterans have delivered for this Nation — and now we must deliver for them. The challenges we face as a Nation are great. But our people are even greater. And none are greater or braver than those who fight for America in uniform. We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a U. S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens. Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero — battling against terrorism and securing our Nation. I just spoke to General Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, “Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies. ” Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity. For as the Bible teaches us, there is no greater act of love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Ryan laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom — we will never forget him. To those allies who wonder what kind of friend America will be, look no further than the heroes who wear our uniform. Our foreign policy calls for a direct, robust and meaningful engagement with the world. It is American leadership based on vital security interests that we share with our allies across the globe. We strongly support NATO, an alliance forged through the bonds of two World Wars that dethroned fascism, and a Cold War that defeated communism. But our partners must meet their financial obligations. And now, based on our very strong and frank discussions, they are beginning to do just that. We expect our partners, whether in NATO, in the Middle East, or the Pacific — to take a direct and meaningful role in both strategic and military operations, and pay their fair share of the cost. We will respect historic institutions, but we will also respect the sovereign rights of nations. Free nations are the best vehicle for expressing the will of the people — and America respects the right of all nations to chart their own path. My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America. But we know that America is better off, when there is less conflict — not more. We must learn from the mistakes of the past — we have seen the war and destruction that have raged across our world. The only solution for these humanitarian disasters is to create the conditions where displaced persons can safely return home and begin the long process of rebuilding. America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where shared interests align. We want harmony and stability, not war and conflict. We want peace, wherever peace can be found. America is friends today with former enemies. Some of our closest allies, decades ago, fought on the opposite side of these World Wars. This history should give us all faith in the possibilities for a better world. Hopefully, the 250th year for America will see a world that is more peaceful, more just and more free. On our 100th anniversary, in 1876, citizens from across our Nation came to Philadelphia to celebrate America’s centennial. At that celebration, the country’s builders and artists and inventors showed off their creations. Alexander Graham Bell displayed his telephone for the first time. Remington unveiled the first typewriter. An early attempt was made at electric light. Thomas Edison showed an automatic telegraph and an electric pen. Imagine the wonders our country could know in America’s 250th year. Think of the marvels we can achieve if we simply set free the dreams of our people. Cures to illnesses that have always plagued us are not too much to hope. American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream. Millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect. And streets where mothers are safe from fear — schools where children learn in peace — and jobs where Americans prosper and grow — are not too much to ask. When we have all of this, we will have made America greater than ever before. For all Americans. This is our vision. This is our mission. But we can only get there together. We are one people, with one destiny. We all bleed the same blood. We all salute the same flag. And we are all made by the same God. And when we fulfill this vision when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American Greatness began. The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us. We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts. The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls. And the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action. From now on, America will be empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears — inspired by the future, not bound by the failures of the past — and guided by our vision, not blinded by our doubts. I am asking all citizens to embrace this Renewal of the American Spirit. I am asking all members of Congress to join me in dreaming big, and bold and daring things for our country. And I am asking everyone watching tonight to seize this moment and — Believe in yourselves. Believe in your future. And believe, once more, in America. Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless these United States. 9:01 pm — Some pregame talking points from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz ( ) … Debbie Wasserman Schultz calls attention to incidents https: . via @politicofl pic. twitter. — POLITICO (@politico) February 27, 2017, 8:59 pm — The VA Secretary Shulkin is the “designated survivor” tonight. 8:58 pm — No surprise … Ginsburg will skip Trump’s address to Congress: report https: . pic. twitter. — The Hill (@thehill) March 1, 2017, 8:58 pm — The First Lady has entered to applause. And then the cabinet. 8:55 pm — Democrat women are donning “suffragette white” … For tonight’s #JointSession, our suffragette white represents our commitment to defending women’s rights now and always. #WomenWearWhite pic. twitter. — Grace Meng (@RepGraceMeng) February 28, 2017, 8:45 pm — From the White House Press Pool’s Anita Kumar: Motorcade departed the White House at 8:34 pm on cold, rainy night. POTUS is en route to the Capitol to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress. WATCH: President Trump departs White House for #JointAddress #JointSession pic. twitter. — CSPAN (@cspan) March 1, 2017, 8:35 pm — Breitbart’s Adelle Nazarian reports on the events at the protest tonight: Approximately 300 progressives braved the rain Tuesday evening to attend a rally resisting President Donald Trump ahead of his first joint address to Congress. Speakers from the event included the ACLU, DailyKos, Food Water Watch, MoveOn. org, Our Revolution, National Nurses United, and others. Rosie O’Donnell also headlined the event where she called for continued resistance against the president. O’Donnell read from the Declaration of Independence, saying, “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government. ” She added, “That is why we are here. ” “This is not Russia. To Donald Trump and his pathetic band of white, privileged criminal businessmen, I would like to say to him, ‘Nyet! Sir, nyet! nyet! nyet! nyet! ’” “No we won’t. We have seen what you have done, sir. We have seen your connection with Russia. The game is over. The Internet rules,” O’Donnell said. She added, “He lies! He lies! He lies! He lies!” O’Donnell chanted, until several other women in the crowd repeated her words. “And it’s about time they all started saying that, instead of it appears as if he hasn’t been speaking the truth. Cut it down to the like he does,” she said, later adding that they were going to go “down and dirty like Donald Trump. ” “You know what the truth is? A very handsome conservative man stopped me on my way up with his iPhone, to ask me with his very charming, Irish, face, if George Soros has paid me to come here. And I said, ‘Sir I have never met George Soros, but he seems like a lovely man. One day I’d like to share a souvlaki with him. ’” She said she’s only met Trump twice. One at his wedding to Marla Maples where she said Trump “shook the hands of the guests at the wedding as he walked down the aisle to take his vows. Warning! Warning! Warning Will Robinson!” O’Donnell said. She added, “We will get him out! Thank you, peace and don’t fear the rain. ” 8:19 pm — Bernie Sanders reacts to Trump’s excerpt, ”time for trivial fights is behind us”: ”I hope he’s right” #Trumpaddress https: . — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 1, 2017, 8:18 pm — Per Fox News’ John Roberts, excerpts from Trump’s speech show the president will focus on a broad array of issues. “My budget will also increase funding for our veterans. Our veterans have delivered for this nation and now we must deliver for them,” the president will say, per Roberts. “We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside of America. We cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists,” Trump will also say. On Obamacare, per Roberts, Trump will say: “Tonight I’m also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs and at the same time provide better health care. ” The president will also call for stronger immigration enforcement. “By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars and make our communities safer for everyone,” President Trump will say, according to Fox’s Roberts. 8:07 pm — Some speech excerpts trickling out already, including excerpts from the Democrats’ response to Trump’s address. There seems to be some dispute as to how long the speech is expected to run. I’m told @POTUS speech to Congress will be about 45 minutes long. Applause breaks may take it longer. @realDonaldTrump @FoxNews, — John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) February 28, 2017, Trump speech expected to run 1 hour and 15 minute later tonight, we are told. — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 28, 2017, Democratic response excerpt: Pres. Trump ”needs to understand that people may disagree with him — but that doesn’t make them his enemies.” pic. twitter. — David Goodman (@davidgoodmanFBN) March 1, 2017, 8:00 pm — Breitbart’s Adelle Nazarian and Lee Stranahan reported from the scene of the protest led by Rosie O’Donnell that took place at Lafayette Park in D. C. across from the White House. Stranahan notes that some of the signs on display at the protest were provided by MoveOn. org (note the writing on the bottom right of the sign): | 0fake |
WOW! Suppression Of FREE SPEECH And GUN CONTROL For 2nd Graders Upheld By Circuit Court Judge | Americans need to know that gun control is not just an issue leftist legislators are pushing. Educators and school administrators are making it clear that even the suggestion or thought of a gun by students, regardless of age, is evil and will be punished. When this story first came out in the news, we thought it had to be fake. Once we realized it was a real story and that a 2nd grader had actually been suspended for chewing a pop-tart into the shape of a gun, we applauded his father for taking the matter to court. We assumed any reasonable judge would rule against the irresponsible parties involved in their reckless decision to suspend this 7 year old boy, and that the boy s suspension would be reversed. Were we ever wrong The suspension of second grader who chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun was upheld by a circuit court judge last week.Joshua Welch was suspended from Anne Arundel County s Park Elementary in March 2013 after chewing his pastry into the shape of a gun and [pretending] to fire it. The student s father, B.J. Welch, took the matter to court in hopes of having the suspension reversed and expunged from his son s record.But WJZ 13 reports that an Anne Arundel County circuit judge upheld the suspension, ruling that Joshua s actions were disruptive. Anne Arundel County Schools reacted to the ruling by releasing a statement which said, We have believed from the outset that the actions of the school staff were not only appropriate and consistent, but in the best interests of all students. Welch family attorney Robin Ficker lamented the ruling and pointed out there was no violence, no real weapon, no ammunition. But the suspension will now be on [Joshua s] record in school every time he goes into a new grade. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Livewire: 59th Annual Grammy Awards | The 59th annual Grammy Awards kick off Sunday night at 8 p. m. Eastern live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. [Beyoncé leads all artists with nine nominations, including for Album of the Year for her Black Lives album Lemonade, though she will face stiff competition from British superstar Adele in several of the night’s top categories. Singer Rihanna and rappers Drake and Kanye West are up for eight nominations apiece. Late Late Show host James Corden is set to MC the proceedings. Meanwhile, producer Ken Ehrlich has indicated that artists could get more political with their acceptance speeches than usual. Follow along with the Breitbart News livewire as the Grammys get underway in Los Angeles. All times Pacific. Latest updates at the top. 8:45 P. M. — Well, that’s a wrap on the . Stay tuned to Breitbart’s Big Hollywood for coverage and more from music’s biggest night. Good night. 8:40 P. M. — Well, she’s done it. Adele picked up Album of the Year for 25. In the “Adele vs. Beyoncé battle” that the music press spent the last couple months pushing, that’s a decisive win for Adele. In her acceptance speech, a tearful Adele called Beyoncé’s album “monumental” and appeared to drop another leading to another dead air pause from CBS. Adele wins Album of the Year, dedicates it to Beyonce: ”I can’t possibly accept this award.” #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 13, 2017, 8:35 P. M. — Adele wins again, this time for Record of the Year for “Hello. ” That’s two big wins over Beyoncé so far. A win in Album of the Year would complete the British singer’s sweep. Stay tuned … . 8:28 P. M. — The Grammys pay tribute to the musicians lost over the past year with an “In Memoriam” segment hosted by John Legend and Cynthia Erivo. Legend and Erivo perform a poignant rendition of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows. ” We honor those we have lost in the music community this year: https: . #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — Recording Academy (@RecordingAcad) February 13, 2017, 8:24 P. M. — Recording Academy President Neil Portnow calls on President Trump and Congress to uphold the country’s commitments to the arts. The industry may be afraid that Trump will get rid of the National Endowment for the Arts, as it was reported he might do last month. 8:20 P. M. — James Corden teases that Kanye West will present at the show and for a second, it seems like the broadcast could take a turn for the more entertaining … Alas, Corden introduces Recording Academy President Neil Portnow. 8:12 P. M. — winner tonight Chance the Rapper performs with the backing of a full orchesta. 8:08 P. M. — Pentatonix* just wrapped an impressive a capella version of the Jackson 5’s “ABC. ” Three hours in and the show feels very long. Could have done with fewer performances three hours would be a good length for the show. As it is, probably around 40 minutes left to go tonight. *Pentatonix, not Little Big Town. Like I said, the show’s length is taking its toll. 7:50 P. M. — A reunited The Time and Bruno Mars take the stage to perform a tribute to Prince. Full video when the performance is wrapped. This is a fitting tribute to Prince, especially with Mars in full purple getup. Immeasurably better than Madonna’s horrific attempt at the same tribute at last year’s Billboard Music Awards. 7:39 P. M. — Busta Rhymes joins the surviving members of A Tribe Called Quest for a tribute to Phife Dawg, who died last year. Busta goes off on Trump, calling him “President Agent Orange” and accusing him of “spreading hate” throughout the world. More on this here. 7:36 P. M. — Adele wins Song of the Year for “Hello,” beating out fellow frontrunner Beyoncé’s “Formation. ” “First of all, I really do apologize for swearing,” the singer says, explaining that she wanted to get the performance just right to honor the memory George Michael. 7:25 P. M. — Tori Kelly, Little Big Town, Andra Day and Demi Lovato perform a tribute to the . 7:15 P. M. — Album of the Year nominee Sturgill Simpson performs a collaboration with the the backing band for the late soul singer Sharon Jones, who died last year after a battle with cancer. 7:09 P. M. — Fresh off of her Super Bowl halftime show, Lady Gaga teams with Metallica for a performance of, well, not really sure yet. But James Hetfield seemed to be having trouble with his mic. Video shortly. A pissed off James Hetfield tosses his guitar 😡😡😡😡😡 #Metallica #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — Troy Hughes (@TommySledge) February 13, 2017, 7:04 P. M. — Chance the Rapper wins Best Rap Album for Coloring Book. As he did with his first win of the night, he thanks God. 6:50 P. M. — As Roger Friedman reported this afternoon, Adele is back to perform George Michael’s “Fastlove. ” Wow. CBS bleeps out Adele during the performance as the singer swears and is forced to restart the song after a rocky start. Full video coming shortly. Other than the initial flub, Adele sounded much better on this one than in her “Hello. ” Full video: Watch Adele’s tribute to George Michael in full here: pic. twitter. — Adele Daily (@AdeleDailyInfo) February 13, 2017, “I’m sorry, I can’t mess this up for him. ” 6:45 P. M. — Maren Morris performs “Once” alongside Alicia Keys. 6:36 P. M. — Beyoncé wins Best Urban Contemporary Album for “Lemonade. ” 6:33 P. M. — Gary Clark, Jr. and William Bell perform a bluesy “Born Under A Bad Sign” in one of the night’s better performances. 6:33 P. M. — James Corden gets in another quick jab at Trump with a bit about during the show. #GRAMMYS @JKCorden jokes: ”Any fake tweets you see are not real tweets. The negative tweets are fake.” https: . pic. twitter. — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 13, 2017, “Any fake tweets you see [on the bottom of the screen] are fake news!” he says, as apparently negative tweets float by on the screen, including a fake one from Trump himself. 6:30 P. M. — Katy Perry delivers the first real onstage political statement by wearing a sparkly armband reading “Persist”* on her right arm during the performance of her new song, “Chained to the Rhythm. ” *From where I was sitting, it looked like the armband had said “Resist. ” Chained to The Rhythm — Katy Perry Feat. Skip Marley (At the #GRAMMYs) pic. twitter. — Katy Perry Activity (@KatyActivities) February 13, 2017, 6:28 P. M. — Little Big Town introduces Katy Perry by singing a few bars of “Teenage Dream. ” 6:16 P. M. — After an performance of “Sweet Caroline” featuring Corden, Keith Urban, Neil Diamond, Blue Ivy Carter and a bunch of others from a cardboard cutout car, Bruno Mars performs “That’s What I Like” backed by a band and a chorus of backup singers. #GRAMMYs: @JKCorden brings Neil Diamond, @JLo, @JohnLegend and Blue Ivy together for ’Sweet Caroline’ Carpool Karaoke. pic. twitter. — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 13, 2017, 6:10 P. M. — Maren Morris wins Best Country Solo Performance for “My Church. ” “Thank you to the Recording Academy … ” 6:04 P. M. — One hour into the broadcast and there’s been very little in the way of overt partisan political commentary so far, apart from Corden’s jab at Trump in his opening routine. Then again, there’s still two hours to go … 5:54 P. M. — A very pregnant Beyoncé takes the stage for a trippy performance of “Love Drought” and “Sand Castles. ” The performance apparently incorporates footage along with some impressive live choreography. Beyoncé herself is taking it easy with the dance moves. Full video: 5:51 P. M. — Lukas Graham performs his massive hit “Seven Years. ” 5:44 P. M. — David Bowie wins Best Rock Song for “Blackstar. ” “Like all musical heroes, his music is forever,” the presenters say in accepting the award on his behalf. That’s now 5 posthumous Grammys that Bowie has won tonight. 5:38 P. M. — James Corden copies Twenty One Pilots and introduces Ed Sheeran without his pants on. Sheeran performs his new song “The Shape of You” by himself, using an looping rig to provide his own backbeat. The could become the first artist in Grammy history to win Song of the Year two years in a row if he wins for “Love Yourself. ” 5:31 P. M. — Twenty One Pilots wins the Grammy for Best Pop Performance for “Stressed Out. ” Before accepting the award, the duo take their pants off before they take make their way onto the stage. Guys you really don’t have to do this #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — Mashable (@mashable) February 13, 2017, 5:25 P. M. — Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood take the stage to perform “The Fighter,” which is most definitely not a country song. John Travolta introduces them as the most dynamic duo since “Danny and Sandy. ” So glad they kept Daft Punk on stage to play Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood. #GRAMMYs, — New Slang (@_NewSlang) February 13, 2017, 5:17 P. M. — The Weeknd performs “ Feel It Coming” with Daft Punk, in all their glory. We don’t remember this part in #StarWars. #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — Entertainment Weekly (@EW) February 13, 2017, 5:14 P. M. — Chance the Rapper wins Best New Artist in a crowded field for the night’s first award. “Glory be to God. I claim this victory in the name of the Lord,” the rapper says in his acceptance speech. “I wanna thank God for my mother and my father who supported me when I was young. ” 5:10 P. M. — Host James Corden takes the stage and it’s ten minutes into the show before we get our first jab at Donald Trump. During a rapping bit, Corden mentions, “With President Trump, we don’t know what happens next. ” . @JKCorden: ”Live it all up because this is the best and with President Trump we don’t know what comes next” #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 13, 2017, 5:00 P. M. — Adele kicks off the show with her massive hit song “Hello. ” . @Adele opens up the show with a performance of ”Hello.” #GRAMMYs pic. twitter. — The FADER (@thefader) February 13, 2017, 4: 50 P. M. — Johnny Stevens from the rock band High Suspect (nominees for Best Rock Song) makes a statement by wearing a jacket with the word “Impeach” stenciled on the back: 4: 40 P. M. — Green has arrived at the ceremony: that exploding phone was apparently ’s supervillain origin storypic. twitter. — Al Shipley (@alshipley) February 13, 2017, 4:30 P. M. — Showbiz 411’s Roger Friedman reports that Adele will open the show and will perform the tribute to late British pop star George Michael, with the song “Fastlove. ” The evening is also expected to include a tribute to Prince featuring a reunited The Time and Bruno Mars. 4:25 P. M. — Early winners on the night include Adele (Best Pop Vocal Album for 25 and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Hello”) Beyoncé (Best Music Video for “Formation,”) Sturgill Simpson (Best Country Album for A Sailor’s Guide to Earth) and Drake (Best Rap Song and Best Performance for “Hotline Bling. ”) The late pop icon David Bowie also won four Grammys Sunday (Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Performance, Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album, ) for his final studio album, Blackstar. Other early winners include Patton Oswalt (Best Comedy Album) The Beatles: Eight Days A Week, The Touring Years (Best Music Film) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Best Score Soundtrack). 4:15 P. M. — Singer Joy Villa made an early splash on the red carpet Sunday evening by donning a “Make America Great Again” dress, in an apparent show of support for President Donald Trump. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum, Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 0fake |
The Truth U.S. Government Does NOT Want You To Know About The War In Syria | Share on Facebook The people of the world should ask Western leaders and their allies: Why are you prolonging this war? Why do you continue funding and enabling the terrorists? Isn't five years of civil war enough? Is overthrowing the Syrian government really worth so much suffering and death? WASHINGTON — (Analysis) In late April, President Barack Obama announced that 250 U.S. special operations troops are being deployed to Syria. Unlike the Russian and Iranian forces aiding anti-terrorism efforts in the country, the U.S. military personnel have entered Syria against the wishes of the internationally recognized government. In terms of international law, the United States has invaded Syria, a sovereign country and United Nations member state. This is the not the first time, though — Arizona Sen. John Mccain crossed into Syria without a visa to meet with anti-government fighters in 2013. While the new U.S. boots on the ground have officially been dispatched for the purpose of fighting Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the organization known in the West as ISIS or ISIL), they will most likely be working to achieve one of the Pentagon's longstanding foreign policy goals: violently overthrowing the Syrian government. As the terrorism of Daesh and other extremists grows more intense, and as millions of Syrians have become refugees, the heavy costs of the U.S. government's “regime change” operation in Syria should come into question. Education, Health Care And National Rebirth The independent nationalist Syrian government, now being targeted by Western foreign policy, was born in the struggle against colonialism. It took decades of great sacrifice from the people of Syria to break the country free from foreign domination — first by the French empire and later from puppet leaders. For the last several decades, Syria has been a strong, self-reliant country in the oil-rich Middle East region. It has also been relatively peaceful. Since winning its independence, Syria's Baathist leadership has done a great deal to improve the living standards of the population. Between 1970 and 2009, the life expectancy in Syria increased by 17 years. During this time period infant mortality dropped dramatically from 132 deaths per 1,000 live births to only 17.9. According to an article published by the Avicenna Journal of Medicine , these notable changes in access to public health came as a result of the Syrian government's efforts to bring medical care to the country's rural areas. A 1987 country study of Syria , published by the U.S. Library of Congress, describes huge achievements in the field of education. During the 1980s, for the first time in Syria's history, the country achieved “full primary school enrollment of males” with 85 percent of females also enrolled in primary school. In 1981, 42 percent of Syria's adult population was illiterate. By 1991, illiteracy in Syria had been wiped out by a mass literacy campaign led by the government. The name of the main political party in Syria is the “Baath Arab Socialist Party.” The Arabic word “Baath” literally translates to “Rebirth” or “Resurrection.” In terms of living standards, the Baathist Party has lived up to its name, forging an entirely new country with an independent, tightly planned and regulated economy. The Library of Congress’ Country Study described the vast construction in Syria during the 1980s: “Massive expenditures for development of irrigation, electricity, water, road building projects, and the expansion of health services and education to rural areas contributed to prosperity.” Compared to Saudi-dominated Yemen, many parts of Africa, and other corners of the globe that have never established economic and political independence, the achievements of the Syrian Arab Republic look very attractive. Despite over half a century of investment from Shell Oil and other Western corporations, the CIA World Factbook reports that about 60 percent of Nigerians are literate, and access to housing and medical care is very limited. In U.S.-dominated Guatemala, roughly 18 percent of the population is illiterate, and poverty is rampant across the countryside, according to the CIA World Factbook . What the Western colonizers failed to achieve during centuries of domination, the independent Syrian government achieved rapidly with help from the Soviet Union and other anti-imperialist countries. The Soviet Union provided Syria with a $100 million loan to build the Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River , which was “considered to be the backbone of all economic and social development in Syria.” Nine-hundred Soviet technicians worked on the infrastructure project which brought electricity to many parts of the country. The dam also enabled irrigation throughout the Syrian countryside. More recently, China has set up many joint ventures with Syrian energy corporations. According to a report from the Jamestown Foundation , in 2007 China had already invested “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Syria in efforts to “modernize the country's aging oil and gas infrastructure.” These huge gains for the Syrian population should not be dismissed and written off, as Western commentators routinely do when repeating their narrative of “Assad the Dictator.” For people who have always had access to education and medical care, it is to trivialize such achievements. But for the millions of Syrians, especially in rural areas, who lived in extreme poverty just a few decades ago, things like access to running water, education, electricity, medical care, and university education represent a huge change for the better. Like almost every other regime in the crosshairs of U.S. foreign policy, Syria has a strong, domestically-controlled economy. Syria is not a “client state” like the Gulf state autocracies surrounding it, and it has often functioned in defiance of the U.S. and Israel. It is this, not altruistic concerns about human rights, that motivate Western attacks on the country. Syria Needs Reform, Not Terrorism In 2012, Syria ratified a new constitution in response to the protests during the Arab Spring. In compliance with the new constitution, Syria held a contested election in 2014 , with international observers from 14 countries. One thing that distinguishes Syria from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and various other U.S.-aligned regimes throughout the region is religious freedom. In Syria, Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Jews, and other religious groups are permitted to practice their religious faith freely. The government is secular, and respects the rights of the Sunni Muslim majority as well as religious minorities. In addition to religious freedom, Syria openly tolerates the existence of two strong Marxist-Leninist parties. The Syrian Communist Party and the Syrian Communist Party (Bakdash) openly operate as part of the anti-imperialist coalition supporting the Baath Arab Socialist Party. Communists lead trade unions and community organizations in Damascus and other parts of the country. Though Syrian President Bashar Assad is an Alawite, his wife, Asma, is Sunni like the majority of the country. Historically, the biggest opponents of the Syrian government have been supporters of the Muslim brotherhood, with a bloody episode taking place in 1982. Hoping to heal the longstanding tension, President Assad has made many gestures of solidarity toward the Sunni community in recent years. He has made a point of engaging in religious practices not commonly done by Alawites, such as praying in mosques and studying the Quran. Shortly after fighting began in 2011, the Syrian government granted autonomy to Kurdish regions and transferred political authority to leftist Kurdish nationalist organizations . Syria's political system is certainly in need of reform and modernization, and representatives of the Syrian government such as U.N. Ambassador Bashar Al-Jaafari readily admit this. However, the civil war which has raged across Syria for the last five years, is not about reform, democratization or modernization. The BBC published a “guide to Syrian rebels” in 2013. Among them are not only the infamous “Islamic State” organization, which now horrifies the world, but also the Nusra Front, previously known as Al-Qaida in Syria. Other organizations with names like the “Islamic Front,” the “Islamic Liberation Front,” and the “Ahfad al-Rasoul Brigades” are also listed. While Western media presents the Syrian civil war as a “battle for democracy” led by “revolutionaries,” the primary goal of almost every insurgent organization is creating a Sunni caliphate — one that does not actually suit Sunnis though, but rather a perverted politicized version of Sunnism created by Saudi Arabia to ideologically control that region. The unifying religious perspective of the Syrian “rebels” is the interpretation of Sunni Islam practiced and promoted by Saudi Arabia, known as Wahhabism. Foreign Fighters, Chemical Weapons And Child Soldiers A large number of the insurgents are not Syrian. Impoverished people from throughout the Middle East have been recruited to fight against the Syrian government. Facilities in Bahrain train recruits to kill , and send them to Syria. Terrorist training facilities exist in many other U.S.-aligned Gulf states. Foreign fighters from as far away as Malaysia and the Philippines have been found among the ranks of the foreign Wahhabi insurgents that are trying to depose the Syrian government. The flow of violent insurgents into Syria is not accidental. It has been directly facilitated by the U.S. and its allies. The CIA has spent billions of dollars on training camps in Jordan for anti-government fighters . The Israeli government has made a point of aiding the Wahhabi extremists by providing them medical care in the occupied Golan Heights . Israel has also made a point of targeting allies of the Syrian government with airstrikes . While Western media has highlighted allegations that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons, Carla Del Ponte from the United Nations confirmed that the foreign-backed insurgents have long been been using sarin nerve gas and other chemical weapons. As the insurgents make life unlivable in Syria, kidnapping for ransom, bombing schools and hospitals, beheading people, torturing people, they do it with thousands of child soldiers among their ranks. Impoverished children from across the Arab world have been recruited to work toward violently overthrowing the Syrian government, according to UNICEF . Between 50 and 72 percent of the population lives in areas controlled by the Syrian government . Meanwhile, even USAID confirmed that the turnout in Syria's 2014 elections was more than 70 percent . While the barrage of foreign fighters and extremists, aligned with a minority of the population and armed by Western powers and their allies, is committed to bringing down the Syrian government, the Syrian people clearly disagree. The fact that the Syrian government remains strongly intact after a five-year onslaught shows that the country is dedicated to preserving its independence. Time magazine and other mainstream media outlets have even been forced to admit that President Assad is unlikely to be deposed. How Can The War End? As foreign fighters have flowed into Syria, hundreds of thousands of people have died over the last five years, and Western media continues to blame the Syrian government for the conflict. However, the war would have been a very short one if not for the foreign support given to the extremists. As an independent country with a centrally planned economy, Syria has serves as an example to the world. It has proven that without neoliberalism and Western economic domination, it is possible to improve living conditions and develop independently. The Syrian government has made huge sacrifices to aid the Palestinian people and their resistance against Israel, and this has been a contributing factor to Syria's inclusion on the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list . Syria has close economic relations with Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The war in Syria is not a domestic conflict. This is a war imposed on Syria by Israel, the U.S., and other Western capitalist powers. The primary promoter of Wahhabi extremism around the world has been the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a U.S. client state. Turkey and Jordan, U.S.-aligned countries bordering Syria, keep their borders open so that weapons, supplies and money can continue to flow into the hands of Daesh and other anti-government terrorists. At least 470,000 people are dead , and millions of others have been forced to become refugees, but Western leaders and their allies do not end their campaign. The insane chorus of “Assad Must Go” has transformed a small, domestic episode of unrest into a full-scale humanitarian crisis. The war has nothing to do with the calls for democratic reform and the peaceful protests of 2011. As Daesh now threatens the entire world, the consequences of the Wall Street regime change operation, promoted with “human rights” propaganda, are becoming far more extreme. The Syrian government rallies a coalition of Christians, Communists, Islamic Revolutionaries, and other forces who are fighting to maintain stability and defeat Takfiri terrorism. (The term “Takfiri” refers to groups of Sunni Muslims who refer to other Muslims as apostates and seek to establish a caliphate by means of violence.) The only real peace plan for Syria is for the U.S., France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, and other powers to end their neoliberal crusade. The internationally recognized and recently re-elected Syrian government could easily defeat the insurgents if foreign meddling ceased. As U.S. media bemoans the humanitarian crisis, somehow blaming on the Syrian government and its president, and the U.S. directly sends its military forces into the country, the people of the world should ask Western leaders and their allies: Why are you prolonging this war? Why can't you just leave Syria alone? Why do you continue funding and enabling the terrorists? Isn't five years of civil war enough? Is overthrowing the Syrian government really worth so much suffering and death? Related: | 1real |
E.U. Leaders Chart Future as David Cameron Leaves Brussels - The New York Times | BRUSSELS — With Britain’s prime minister omitted for the first time, European Union leaders at a summit meeting wrestled on Wednesday with an existential question: how to salvage a venture that has provided peace and relative prosperity to 500 million people but has lost public support. “We all need to wake up and smell the coffee,” President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania said at the start of private talks in Brussels on how to relaunch the European Union after the shock of Britain’s vote last week to leave. In the absence of Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, who was already back in London after attending an initial day of talks, the group’s remaining 27 leaders all agreed that the European Union needs to change the way it works if it is to curb a rising tide of populism driven in large part by hostility toward Brussels. Presenting the leaders with his own analysis of why 52 percent of Britons had voted to withdraw from the European Union, Mr. Cameron, at a somber dinner late Tuesday, said the main reason was immigration. Polls in other countries show deep opposition to an influx of foreigners. But reducing immigration, or at least the right of European Union citizens to move wherever they want in the bloc, is currently impossible, because the free movement of citizens is an inviolable principle of the whole European project. At the same time, slowing the flow of migrants from outside Europe is something that officials in Brussels consider a notable success. It took a long time and many meetings, but, under a controversial deal with Turkey, last year’s flood of nearly a million people into Europe through Greek islands has slowed to a trickle. Migrants are still arriving in Europe after hazardous journeys across the Mediterranean from North Africa, but they are far fewer than the number who arrived last year through Greece — the people used by campaigners in Britain to rally opposition to the European Union. With no easy fixes to Europe’s public image and no consensus on what a reformed union might look like, the main agreement reached on Wednesday was familiar: to hold another meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, in September. In a final statement, the leaders acknowledged that the British referendum “creates a new situation for the European Union,” and that “many people express dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. ” Europeans, they added, “expect us to do better when it comes to providing security, jobs and growth, as well as hope for a better future. ” Changing a complicated system that has three presidents, two seats of Parliament in cities hundreds of miles apart and, at least until Britain formally departs, 28 member countries, was never going to be decided in a few hours. “The response to this new challenge for Europe will take time to find,” Frans Timmermans, a former foreign minister of the Netherlands and the first vice president of the union’s executive arm, the European Commission, cautioned earlier this week. “We must be brutally honest with ourselves as we debate the path forward. Today, there are more questions than answers. ” François Lafond, a professor of European integration at Sciences Po, the Paris university, said the task of finding answers was so big that it should be entrusted to a special convention of experts and officials who would be given at least six months to create a new approach. Otherwise, “the populists will continue to grow,” he said. “We have to give a clear signal of change. ” A critical issue, Mr. Lafond said, is which functions should be returned to individual nations and which should fall within the powers of the union. Arguments over this division of labor have dogged the European project since it began more than six decades ago in response to World War II, and have caused numerous crises. One of the most serious came in 1965, when President Charles de Gaulle of France objected to proposals from Brussels that he saw as weakening national sovereignty and pushing Europe toward becoming a giant state. Infuriated by what he viewed as an intolerable infringement, he pulled French officials from the Brussels institutions of what was then the European Economic Community. Their departure, a narrow, bureaucratic version of Britain’s, became known as the empty chair crisis. It was resolved, as most European crises have been, through haggling and an elaborate compromise ensuring that France would retain its national prerogatives on major issues. The crisis unleashed by the British vote, however, offers no bureaucratic fix, as it involves what have long been the European project’s most vulnerable points: its remoteness from ordinary people and lack of democratic legitimacy. The European Parliament, elected by popular vote since 1979, was meant to fill this gap. But given no power to actually introduce legislation, it is mostly seen as a noisy, expensive forum that merely approves measures proposed by the Commission. Perhaps the most significant role played by the European Parliament has been to provide a megaphone for some of the union’s most impassioned enemies, notably politicians from the U. K. Independence Party, or UKIP. The party — whose leader, Nigel Farage, and 23 followers hold seats in the assembly — campaigned fervently for Britain’s exit from the European Union. They and allies like Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London, call the European Union a meddling and alien force, a message that has resounded elsewhere, particularly France. Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front party, wants the nation to hold its own referendum. France’s deeply unpopular Socialist president, François Hollande, who is struggling to rescue his own political future as well as Europe’s, said on Wednesday that drastic change was needed. “Keeping the status quo would be the worst,” he said, “because populists would continue to challenge Europe. ” But many of the things Mr. Hollande and European politicians want to see, such as more pooling of resources from shared European funds — are anathema to Germany, the dominant power on the Continent, which wants to enforce fiscal prudence but resists moving toward a federal state. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany shut the door on any overhaul involving the revision of European treaties, a laborious process that requires referendums and has often stoked sentiment. Ms. Merkel said Europe needed to recover its élan and inspire ordinary citizens with an ambitious vision, as the United States did with its space program. “When Russia, many years ago, sent the first people into space, America said, ‘Now we have to send someone to the moon,’” Ms. Merkel said, citing an observation she said a fellow leader had made in private discussions. “So we have to set a positive agenda, positive goals, and try to show we have an ambition, an aspiration to produce prosperity for our people. ” | 0fake |
Cop Caught on His Own Body Camera Stealing Money From Unconscious Crash Victim | Home / Badge Abuse / Cop Caught on His Own Body Camera Stealing Money From Unconscious Crash Victim Cop Caught on His Own Body Camera Stealing Money From Unconscious Crash Victim Matt Agorist November 1, 2016 1 Comment
Denver, CO — A Denver cop has been arrested and suspended without pay after his own body camera footage caught him stealing $1,200 in cash from a crash victim.
Instead of helping an unconscious crash victim, officer Julian Archuleta took advantage of the situation for his own personal gain by going through the man’s clothing and robbing him. Archuleta now faces charges of misdemeanor theft, 1st-degree official misconduct and tampering with physical evidence.
According to an arrest affidavit, Archuleta responded to a call of shots fired in the early morning hours of October 7. The call then led to a short pursuit which ended as the car crashed. The driver got away while the passenger of the vehicle was knocked unconscious.
Archuleta’s body camera then recorded the officer for the next 24 minutes and 40 seconds. In the footage, he took pictures of the scene and then searched the man’s clothing which had been removed by paramedics.
In the video, Archuleta finds a stack of cash in the man’s pants with a $100 bill on top, according to the arrest affidavit. He then separates the $100 bill from the stack and a $1 bill remains on top.
Throughout the footage, Archuleta shuffles money and rearranges paperwork in his patrol car, the affidavit said.
According to the Denver Post, when a detective collected the cash and logged it into the property bureau as evidence, he counted $118 and did not find any $100 bills, the affidavit said. But while reviewing Archuleta’s body camera footage as part of the investigation, the detective noticed the $100 bill.
Amazingly enough, instead of covering up the theft, the detective crossed the thin blue line and reported the inconsistency with the $100 bill to internal affairs. When confronted by investigators, Archuleta told them he would “check his war bag” to see if any of the money had slipped into a crevice in his patrol car.
According to the arrest affidavit, Archuleta called the detective back an hour later and claimed he found 12 $100 bills that “must have fallen in his bag.” After being caught red-handed, Archuleta then turned in the money.
According to the Post, the Denver district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the shooting suspect because of the missing cash and because Archuleta allegedly moved evidence inside the suspect’s vehicle before detectives had a search warrant, the affidavit said.
Earlier this year, the Denver police department was equipped with body cameras. We now know why it took so long for the department to adopt them. Archuleta will now go down in history as the first Denver cop to be criminally charged based on body camera evidence.
Like most cases of police theft, this incident is not isolated. In fact, just 2 months ago, Grants Police Department Sgt. Roshern C. McKinney, 33, was arrested after an investigation found that he’d stolen both money and marijuana from the police department. Like Archuleta, he entire theft was captured on the officer’s own body camera. McKinney has since been charged with marijuana distribution, conspiracy, and felony embezzlement.
State police also charged McKinney’s 23-year-old girlfriend Tanicka Gallegos-Gonzales, for drug distribution and conspiracy. Both were arrested in Albuquerque and booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center, according to KOB.
Public Information Officer for the New Mexico State Police, Elizabeth Armijo said Grants police chief, Craig Vandiver alerted state police after the department found video from Mckinney’s lapel camera that “exposed possible illicit activity by a Grants Police Department sergeant.”
What does it say about the criminal tendency of some police officers when they are unable to practice restraint from theft — knowing that they are being recorded? Share Google + The Kali Whrite Boi
Ok am NOT cool with corrupt criminal cops, but still this MSM puppet is infuriating. This “civilian” was fleeing a scene of “shots fired” leading the cop in a short chase before crashing.
Stupid MSM puppets. | 1real |
SUNDAY SCREENING: ‘A Noble Lie’ (2011) | 21st Century Wire says Our weekly documentary film curated by our editorial team at 21WIRE The 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was an event that shook the United States domestic scene. Up to that date, it was the largest act of domestic terrorism in America, killing some 168 people including nineteen children. However, many have questioned the government s official account of events. A Noble Lie re-investigates the bombing and re-examines the event s alleged perpetrators, as well as other unlikely role player on the periphery. What this film reveals may shock many viewers who thought they knew what happened that day, exposing information never before examined or brought to the attention of the American public. Watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHDIhxeMOcI . Run time: 2 hours Director: James Lane Writers: Wendy Painting, Holland Vandennieuwenhof Production: Free Mind FilmsSEE MORE SUNDAY SCREENINGS HERESUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV | 1real |
China, Philippines agree to avoid force in South China Sea dispute | BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) - China and the Philippines have agreed to avoid force to resolve their differences over the South China Sea, according to a joint statement issued on Thursday by China at the end of a visit to Manila by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. China and the Philippines have long sparred over the South China Sea, but relations have improved considerably under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines claim some or all of the South China Sea and its myriad shoals, reefs and islands. China claims most of the waterway and has been aggressively building and militarizing artificial islands. The joint statement, carried by China s official Xinhua news agency, said China and the Philippines reaffirmed the importance of peace in the South China Sea and of freedom of navigation and overflight. There should be no violence or threats of violence and the dispute should be resolved via talks between the relevant sovereign countries , it added. Both sides believe that the maritime dispute is not the full sum of the China-Philippines relationship, the statement said. In a separate statement summing up discussions at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, Duterte took note of the improving relations between ASEAN and China in the South China Sea. In view of this positive momentum, we looked forward to the announcement of the start of substantive negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) with China he said, hopefully in early 2018 in Vietnam, where the two sides will meet at the earliest. ASEAN and China have been discussing a set of rules on how to behave in the disputed waters to avoid accidents and raising tension. Duterte said the two sides also had successfully tested the hotline among foreign ministries on how to manage maritime emergencies. In our view, these are practical measures that could reduce tensions, and the risks of accidents, misunderstandings and miscalculation, he said. | 0fake |
BREAKING: 4 AMERICAN HOSTAGES TAKEN BY IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN | These 4 hostages must certainly feel a sense of comfort knowing that our strong Commander In Chief would never desert an Ameri never mind It was reported weeks ago that the American government has abandoned citizens in Yemen, forcing them fend for themselves. Now we re facing the prospect of Iranian allies holding our countrymen hostage.It really is amazing how many parallels Obama shares with Jimmy Carter. Here s a pretty awful one:The rebel group that has seized power in Yemen has taken at least four U.S. citizens prisoner, according to U.S. officials who said that efforts to secure the Americans release have faltered.One of the prisoners had been cleared for release in recent days only to have that decision reversed by members of the Houthi rebellion that toppled the U.S.-backed government earlier this year and now controls most levers of power in Yemen.The Americans are believed to be held at a prison in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, which has been bombed repeatedly as part of an air campaign led by Saudi Arabia aimed at dislodging the Houthis from power. The United States has provided intelligence support to that operation.The detention of the Americans has complicated U.S. efforts to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the Houthi takeover, which displaced a government that had cooperated extensively with the United States on drone strikes and other counterterrorism operations against a dangerous al-Qaeda affiliate in the country.U.S. officials said three of the prisoners worked in private-sector jobs and that a fourth, whose occupation is unknown, has dual U.S.-Yemeni citizenship. The officials said none of the four were employees of the U.S. government.Via: SooperMexican | 1real |
AN ARROGANT Obama Admits He’s Learned Nothing As President | A legacy of hate and division from an unapologetic and arrogant President who promised to transform the United States of America. And so it goes, America s first black President has successfully divided our nation, pitting American against American, while elevating those who break the law over those who risk their lives to protect our neighborhoods and communities. He has offered cover for those who illegally entered our country, while ignoring the danger he poses to our national security by allowing unvetted immigrants into our country from nations who hate us. Yet unbelievably, while America burns, the Left is arguing we need to elect our first female President to carry out his dangerous and destructive legacy. Sorry, but we ll pass News flash: President Obama didn t learn anything in eight years in the White House. And he s proud of it.Sadly, this is the only promise Obama kept to the American voters:As Obama admitted in an interview with New York magazine: If you go back and you read speeches I made when I was running for the US Senate in 2003, or if you go back further and you look at statements I made when I was on the Harvard Law Review, my worldview is pretty consistent. The comment was a point of pride, which makes it doubly tragic. Once the smartest man in the room, always the smartest man in the room.Never mind that the world is on fire, that America is polarized, angry and scared. Or that ObamaCare is a sick patient, that the economy is growing at a snail s pace and that many cities are racial war zones.It s not Obama s fault. None of it. He would do it all again.With voters fixated on his successor, Obama is fixated on his legacy. A large part of his effort on the way out the door is explaining what he did, and insisting that what he did was right. Always.There s no news there, but there is some valuable insight from the ways he defends the indefensible. Let it be a warning to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton about the pitfalls of the power they are seeking.If nothing else, the winner should take the oath of office next January armed with the knowledge that hubris is the common thread in Obama s many failures.For example, the president says his secret sauce was that he trusted my judgment but didn t trust the noise out there, meaning Republicans, talk radio, cable TV and pretty much everybody else who didn t agree with him.At some point, he said, he concluded his critics were not even trying to be fair-minded in their assessments or recommendations, and he found that liberating because he could ignore them.Whether it was enforcing his red line in Syria, which he didn t, or substituting executive orders for congressional action, he expressed no regret. He was right and everybody else was wrong.It s a remarkable notion, yet plainly a trend when government is the largest special interest, one that uses and abuses its power to look out for itself. Especially under liberals, it only admits failure to demand more power.This is no small feat. Consider that way back in the reign of George W. Bush, it was universally accepted that a president ought to be held accountable for national problems. A war that didn t work out as planned, a natural disaster or an economic one all fell on the head of the occupant of the Oval Office.But Obama and his apologists cleverly reversed the dynamic. Now the American public is to blame when things go wrong.It s because people are deplorables or some other ignorant form of life that leads them to resist wise choices government makes for them. If only the people were smart enough and honest enough to understand how lucky they are, the country would be better off.Throughout this interview and others, it is clear that Obama is leaving office with both his worldview and his prejudices firmly intact. Recall that during the 2008 campaign, talking to donors in San Francisco, he said that white working-class people in Pennsylvania and places like it were falling behind economically and they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren t like them. That s the most quoted part of his remarks, but the rest of it was equally snobbish: Those same people, he said, also cling to anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. Imagine if Obama had listened to those people, instead of shutting them out as noise. Imagine if he had seen their problems as legitimate, instead of seeing them as backwoods bigots.But he didn t, and so he leaves the country more bitterly divided than when he began. And, as I have said before, Trump s rise through his focus on immigration and trade are a big part of Obama s legacy. Via: NYP | 1real |
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