title stringlengths 1 456 ⌀ | text stringlengths 1 143k ⌀ | label class label 2
classes |
|---|---|---|
A "Gesture of Thanks": Turkey arrests terrorists for extradition to Russia | November 3, 2016 - Fort Russ News - RusVesna - translated by J. Arnoldski -
On October 27th, 2016, as a result of joint operative-investigative activities between Russian and Turkish intelligence, in Instanbul were arrested leaders and active participants of an underground gang from the North Caucasus region and Crimea, who were hiding from Russian law enforcement on Turkish territory.
During the course of the operation, representatives of the Crimean branch of Hizb -ut-Tahrir and the North Caucasus wing of ISIS, totaling 80 people, were arrested.
In line with the agreement with Turkey’s intelligence services, their extradition to Russia is being resolved.
A high-ranking source in security structures explained to Russian Spring that Turkish intelligence services’ transfer of information on the Crimean Tatar and North Caucasus terrorist network to the Russian side, timed for the meeting between Putin and Erdogan in Sochi, was a gesture of thanks for intelligence warnings about the coup that failed in July, 2016.
Follow us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Donate!
| 1real |
NATO Vassals Eager to Poke the Bear in Black Sea | Wed, 26 Oct 2016 20:12 UTC © Daniel Mihailescu / AFP US, Turkey and Poland are among the NATO member states which confirmed their readiness to dispatch naval units to the Black Sea in 2017, boosting the alliance's presence in the region, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Stoltenberg noted "progress" in in strengthening NATO's presence in the Black Sea Region in his statement after the meeting of the block's defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. "With a Romania-led multinational framework brigade on land and we're working on measures in the air and at sea," he said. According to the secretary General, several member-states " indicated their willingness to contribute to our presence in the Black Sea region on land, at sea and in the air, including Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and the US ." "Other allies are also looking into how they can contribute," he added. Comment: Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the US have no business in provoking tensions with Russia in the Black Sea. Of the countries listed, only Turkey has shores on the Black Sea. Interestingly, Bulgaria isn't listed. Perhaps they learned their lesson in botching their involvement in Russia's Nord Stream project. Zing! The plans on enhancing Black Sea presence will be finalized during another meeting on NATO ministers in February. Following Crimea's reunification with Russia, NATO has been increasingly concerned about the Black Sea is turning into a "Russian lake." Since the spring of 2014, NATO warships, including missile cruisers from the US and other allied nations, have been patrolling the Black Sea on a rotational basis, never leaving the area unattended. NATO decided to increase their presence in the Black Sea during a summit in Warsaw in July, calling it a response to Russia's increasing military capabilities and is a gesture of support to its Eastern European members. Comment: Baloney. Eastern European members are under no threat from Russia. This operation is part of the information war to create the image of a Russian threat. The military beef-up in the region is expected lead to the creation of NATO's Black Sea Fleet to be formed by member-states with direct access to the sea. Stoltenberg also said that 17 NATO countries will delegate their units to join the four multinational ground battalions to be deployed in Poland and the Baltic State early next year. The battalions will be led by the US, UK, Canada and Germany, while the countries sending their forces included France, Poland, Albania, Romania, Croatia and others. The Secretary General stressed that NATO was monitoring the movement of Russian vessels in the Baltic Sea. "I can confirm that two Russian warships have recently entered the Baltic Sea, and NATO is monitoring this movement in the way we always do," he said. However, Stoltenberg stressed that, despite its buildup in Eastern Europe, the alliance is ready for dialogue with Moscow. "We are concerned about Russia's behavior. Bur dialogue is even more important when tensions run high. And allies stand ready to hold an ambassadorial meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in the near future," he said. | 1real |
Bernie Sanders Open To Being Clinton’s V.P. (VIDEO) | Hillary Clinton is on the path to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. As the convention nears, Clinton and Sanders are still battling for every last vote, and rightfully so. But as the contest continues, supporters of both sides have descended into a fighting match over who would be the better option.But what if they both joined forces to take down Donald Trump?Well, while appearing on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, Bernie Sanders left the door open to being Hillary Clinton s vice presidential running mate. When asked, Sanders responded: Right now, we are focused on the next five weeks of winning the Democratic nomination. If that does not happen, we are going to fight as hard as we can on the floor of the Democratic convention to make sure that we have a progressive platform that the American people will support. Then, after that, certainly Secretary Clinton and I can talk and see where we go from there. Imagine if Sanders and Clinton joined forces to take down the xenophobic blowhard Donald Trump. Uniting liberals, progressives, moderates and independents with two strong candidates could bring a landslide election that Democrats need to cement a longer lasting legacy.While Republicans are jumping ship at the prospect of Trump being their nominee, Sanders decides to keep the greater good in sight.Sanders has already pledged to work with Democrats on building a progressive party platform, as has Clinton. The prospect of a Clinton-Sanders ticket would push the frontrunner further to he left, a move her campaign says will not continue. Should Clinton continue to move left, her campaign fears, would turn off moderate and independent voters who might be swayed by Donald Trump s impending softer image.Media outlets have listed an impressive group of progressive leaders to be Clinton s V.P. pick, including Senators Sherrod Brown (OH), Tim Kaine (VA), Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Bernie Sanders. Others include Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Health and Human Services Secretary Julian Castro, and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.Senator Sanders hasn t named off any potential V.P. picks yet, considering his climb to nomination is steep. Clinton hasn t come out with any selections yet, but that doesn t mean outlets aren t itching to guess.Some say Clinton shouldn t pick Sanders, saying Vermont is not strategic, and could be seen as a pander and a power grab.But we say it could be a powerhouse of progressive values that would resonate with the majority of Americans.Watch the Senator s remarks, courtesy of CNN: Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
First Time in 30 Years: US Deploys B-52 Bombers to Qatar to bomb… ISIS? | 21st Century Wire says Is Washington preparing to carpet bomb Raqqa? If so, what will be the trigger for this boldly adroit military maneuver to deploy B-52 Bombers to the Middle East?Back in Dec 2015, GOP contender Ted Cruz vowed he would carpet bomb ISIS if elected president (and to hell with any collateral damage). He recently repeated that call on FOX network s Kelly File show. If I am elected president, we will defeat radical Islamic terrorism, and we will utterly destroy ISIS, he said. And yes that means carpet bombing them into oblivion. But it s not Cruz ramping up the Pentagon s military footprint it s Barack Obama who is the international aggressor, but he s leading from behind safely in the background in order to preserve his party s fast-diminishing dovish allure in a delicate election year.Regardless, the U.S. are desperate to save face in the Middle East after 5 years of failed policy and arming terrorists in Syria and northern Iraq while acting as if they were forming a Coalition to defeat the terrorists a totally fraudulent narrative (yes, you read that correctly, and the evidence is now in).Is this a sign of thing to come..?In a conventional conflict, the B-52 can perform air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime operations. During Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces. It is highly effective when used for ocean surveillance, and can assist the U.S. Navy in anti-ship and mine-laying operations. Two B-52s, in two hours, can monitor 140,000 square miles (364,000 square kilometers) of ocean surface. All B-52s are equipped with an electro-optical viewing system that uses platinum silicide forward-looking infrared and high resolution low-light-level television sensors to augment the targeting, battle assessment, flight safety and terrain-avoidance system, thus further improving its combat ability and low-level flight capability. (U.S. Air Force photo) RTAmerican B-52 Stratofortress bombers have been sent for their first Middle East operational deployment since the 1991 Gulf War 26 years ago. The aircraft are flying from Qatar to bomb Islamic State targets.An undisclosed number of B-52s have arrived at the Al Udeid Air Base on Sunday, the US Air Force said. The B-52 will provide the coalition continued precision and deliver desired airpower effects, Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., commander, US Air Forces Central Command said in the statement.The B-52 is a long-range multi-purpose heavy bomber. The Central Command last used them during Operation Desert Storm against Saddam Hussein s Iraq, when the aircraft flew sorties from Saudi Arabia.The deployment is meant to replace a contingent of B-1 Lancer swing-wing bombers which departed the Middle East in January for maintenance and a series of upgrades, the US Army s Stars and Stripes reported. The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on Daesh and defend the region in any future contingency, Brown said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic-language acronym.The deployment comes shortly after Russia used its long-range Tupolev Tu-22, Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers to strike terrorist targets in Syria. The Russian aircraft flew from their home bases over the Caspian Sea, Iran and Iraq to reach the Syrian territory.READ MORE PENTAGON NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Pentagon Files | 1real |
HILLARY’S “KHAN MAN”: Who Is KHIZR KHAN? The SHOCKING Truth About His Job, His Ties To Hillary, Saudi Arabia And The Muslim Brotherhood | Clock Boy Part II. When you peel back the rotten Clinton onion, you usually find the scary truth. In the case of the poor believed parents Hillary and the DNC held up as model immigrants, the truth could not be any more damning. We published a letter from a US Marine and Navy veteran earlier today. If you want to know how military members feel about this fraud, check out the letter HERE.Khizr Muazzam Kahn moved from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates prior to emigrating into the U.S. Kahn is directly affiliated with the advancement of Muslim immigration into the United States.Mr. Kahn runs a law firm in New York called KM Kahn Law Office:Kahn s primary area of expertise -as advertised- is legal aide and legal services for Muslim immigration assistance.Attorney Khizr Kahn also used to work for Hogan, Hartson and Lovells law firm within Washington DC which has direct ties to the Clinton Foundation.Hogan, Hartson, Lovells are one of the lobbying entities for Saudi affairs in Washington DC.[ ] Hogan Lovells LLP, another U.S. firm hired by the Saudis, is registered to work for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia through 2016, disclosures show. Robert Kyle, a lobbyist from the firm, has bundled $50,850 for Clinton s campaign Many lawyers at Hogan Lovells remember the week in 2004 when U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan lost his life to a suicide bomber. Then-Hogan & Hartson attorneys mourned the death because the soldier s father, Khizr Khan, a Muslim American immigrant, was among their beloved colleagues Mr. Khizr Kahn is not some arbitrary Muslim voice called upon randomly to speak at the Democrat National Convention on behalf of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Attorney Kahn is a well documented, and well compensated, conscript and activist for the advancement of Islamic interests into the United States. So it should come as no surprise to see the Clinton Machine use Kahn to serve both of their interests in this political election season. The Conservative TreehouseWell, will you look at that! What a coincidence Loretta Lynch was also employed by Hogan and Hartson:It s well known that if the FBI recommends prosecution in the Hillary Clinton email case, the decision will be put in the hands of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.But little known is the fact that Lynch was a litigation partner for eight years at a major Washington law firm that served the Clintons. Lynch was with the Washington-headquartered international law firm Hogan & Hartson LLP from March 2002 through April 2010.According to documents Hillary Clinton s first presidential campaign made public in 2008, Hogan & Harrison s New York-based partner Howard Topaz was the tax lawyer who filed income tax returns for Bill and Hillary Clinton beginning in 2004. GRThe Muslim who attacked Donald Trump, Khizr Muazzam Khan, is a Muslim Brotherhood agent, working to bring Muslims into the United States. After reading what we discovered so far, it becomes obvious that Khan wanted to trump Trump s Muslim immigration policy of limiting Muslim immigration into the U.S.Khizr Muazzam Khan graduated in Punjab University Law College, as the New York Times confirms. He specialized in International Trade Law in Saudi Arabia. An interest lawyer for Islamic oil companies Khan wrote a paper, called In Defense of OPEC to defend the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an intergovernmental oil company consisting of mainly Islamic countries.But more than this, Khan is a promoter of Islamic Sharia Law in the U.S. He was a co-founder of the Journal of Contemporary Issues in Muslim Law (Islamic Sharia). Khan s fascination with Islamic Sharia stems from his life in Saudi Arabia. During the eighties Khan wrote a paper titled Juristic Classification of Islamic [Sharia] Law. In it he elucidated on the system of Sharia law expressing his reverence for The Sunnah [the works of Muhammad] authentic tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). A snapshot of his essay can be seen here:But Khan s fascination with Islam isn t the only issue. What is more worrisome is that at the bottom of the intro, Khan shows his appreciation and the source of his work and gives credit to an icon of the Muslim Brotherhood: The contribution to this article of S. Ramadan s writing is greatly acknowledged. This alone speaks volumes. Khan used the works of S. Ramadan to lay his foundation for his inspiration regarding the promotion of Sharia. S. Ramadan is Said Ramadan, head of the Islamic Center in Geneva and a major icon of the Muslim Brotherhood, the grandson of Hassan Al-Banna the founder and hero of the Muslim Brotherhood which spread terrorism throughout the world.In regards to his son and his sacrifice, on the other side of the coin, many were the Muslim martyrs who joined the US military. Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed, for example, enlisted in the Special Forces of the US Army; he was a double agent for Al-Qaeda. How about Hasan K. Akbar, a Muslim American soldier who murdered and injured fifteen soldiers. There was Bowe Bergdahl, an American Muslim soldier who deserted his men to join the Taliban, a desertion which led to six American being ambushed and killed while they were on the search looking for him. And of course the example of Nidal Malik Hassan, who murdered fourteen Americans in cold blood in Fort Hood. What about infiltration into the U.S. military like Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, a major Muslim thinker for the Muslim Minority Affairs, an icon of the Abedin family (Hillary s aid Human) who, while he served in U.S. military, called on arming Muslims to fight the U.S? Al-Alwani is an IMMA (Institute of Muslims Minority Affairs) favorite, Taha Jaber al-Alwani, whom the Abedins say is the source for their doctrine (see Abedins-Meii-Kampf) is an ardent anti-Semite who by the way, runs the United States Department of Defense program (out of all places) for training Muslim military chaplains in the U.S. military. Via: Shoebat.com | 1real |
OOPS! DOCTOR DRAGGED Off United Airlines Flight Has Dark History [VIDEO] | Is it possible the good Dr. Dao was simply setting himself up to be the benefactor of a massive lawsuit against United Airlines? You be the judge First underreported fact:Initially, United insinuated that flight 3411 was overbooked. However, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin told USA Today that was not the case. He said that all of the 70 seats on the plane were filled, but that didn t make it over capacity.Instead, a regional affiliate that was operating the flight Republic Airlines opted to move four of its passengers because four crew members were considered must-ride passengers. Second underreported fact: The airline said its agents were left with no choice except to call Chicago Aviation Police to get Dao off of the flight. When they arrived, security officers were unable to get Dao to cooperate with their instructions and physically removed him through the aisle.In the scuffle, Dao s face struck an arm rest and his mouth became bloodied. A short time after officials got him off the plane, he returned to the cabin and ran to the back, holding onto an object and pled to let him go home.Is Dr. Dao playing to the crowd on the flight or is he truly traumatized after being physically removed from his seat?#flythefriendlyskies my husband was on that flight. Screw you United!! @united pic.twitter.com/4EcxrMy5jZ Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017Watch the short video taken by a passenger here. It appears that the good doctor is either very good at drama or has some sort of disorder which causes him to violently scream when touched:@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017Here s some of the background on Dr. Dao, the passenger who was physically removed by airline cops from the United flight leaving from Chicago:The passenger hauled off a United flight is a lung doctor with a taste for gambling, a history of angry outbursts and a conviction for trading narcotics prescriptions and cash for gay sex in motels.Dr. David Dao of Elizabethtown, Ky., confirmed Tuesday that he was the inadvertent star of a viral video stirring outrage around the globe and said he was undergoing hospital treatment in Chicago.In an interview from his bed, Dao, 69, told Louisville TV station WLKY that he wasn t feeling well.In 2003, Dao was charged with 98 counts of illegally prescribing and trafficking prescription painkillers such as hydrocodone, Oxycontin and Percocet. You can read the criminal complaint above, along with other documents related to the case and Dao s medical license.David Dao by Heavy on ScribdHe was a co-defendant in the case along with Brian D. Case, who was indicted on 33 felony drug charges.Dao was caught on surveillance video meeting patients and supplying them with painkillers, mainly hydrocodone.According to a criminal complaint on at least one occasion, Dao received $174 in exchange for the pills in an unlabeled bottle. From 2001-2003, Dao unlawfully prescribed controlled substances to patients, court documents said.The criminal complaint in the case went onto say that Dao would solicit homosexual relations with a male patient in exchange for a prescription for hydrocodone. The meetings occurred at motels and it was found that Dao had written out personal checks to the patient on more than one occasion.The patient was arrested at a Walgreens Pharmacy and brought in for an interview, where he confessed about his and Dao s relationship. The man was brought into police custody because he was calling the pharmacy to order prescriptions and saying that he was in fact Dao, picking up prescriptions under numerous aliases.Dao was eventually arrested by police at a hotel room in Jefferson County on July 25, 2003. The room was under surveillance by the Louisville Police Department and Dao was seen with the male patient without a shirt on and with his pants undone. The patient gave Dao money for a bottle of pills and police stormed the room to arrest him upon the exchange.Dao was officially charged with unlawful prescribing, trafficking in a controlled substance and complicity in obtaining drugs by fraud and deceit and pled not guilty to the charges.Some of those charges ended up being dismissed, but Dao was eventually convicted on six counts. He was found guilty of complicity in obtaining a controlled substance (hydrocodone) by fraud and sentenced to two years, eight months in prison, a sentence that was suspended, and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. HeavyOn the day he was busted, Dao was secretly videotaped with Case in a Red Carpet Inn in Jefferson County, Ky., with his shirt off and his pants undone, the records say.Dao was convicted after a trial and sentenced to five years probation after the judge agreed to suspend a prison term of two-plus years recommended by the jury.He agreed to surrender his medical license in 2005, but had it provisionally reinstated in 2015 so he could work one day a week for another doctor in Elizabethtown.The licensing records also reveal how Dao was the subject of many complaints while working at Hardin Memorial Hospital.The Medical Executive Committee there took a strong stance in 2002, and put [Dao] on a corrective action plan due to his disruptive behavior and referred him for evaluation and anger management, the papers say. NYP | 1real |
Amnesty urges independent probe into atrocities, bombings in battle for Philippines Marawi city | MANILA (Reuters) - The war in the Philippine city of Marawi saw Islamist insurgents execute civilians or use them as human shields, while military air strikes killed non-combatants and may have been used in excess, an Amnesty International report said on Friday. The investigation by the rights group on the bloody five-month battle was based on interviews with 48 witnesses from September until early November and called for an independent inquiry. The conflict in Marawi, the only predominantly Muslim city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, was the country s biggest and longest battle since World War Two. More than 1,100 people, mostly insurgents, were killed, including 166 soldiers and 47 civilians, according to the authorities. At least 350,000 people were displaced and large parts of Marawi have been decimated by air strikes. Witnesses described at least 10 separate incidents where at least 25 people were executed by the Muslim extremists because they were Christians. Amnesty described those as war crimes. It also said 10 hostages may have been killed in a single bombing run by the armed forces, and said an independent inquiry should include an assessment as to whether the air strikes were proportionate to the threat. They must initiate a prompt, effective and impartial investigation into whether its bombings of civilian neighborhoods was proportional under international humanitarian law, Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International s crisis response director, said in a statement. The Philippine authorities must bring those responsible for torture and other violations to justice and ensure that the victims receive adequate reparations. Major-General Restituto Padilla, armed forces spokesman, said the military was aware of the report and would respond in full later. He said troops were given strict instructions to observe and respect international humanitarian law and human rights. We will not tolerate and condone these abuses and will act on them, he told a regular news briefing on Friday. The 34-page report, The Battle of Marawi: Death and destruction in the Philippines , quotes a survivor who said he was spared by rebels because he could recite the shahada , a statement of Islamic faith, but a Christian ambulance driver was shot dead because he could not do the same. Other survivors said hostages were executed or physically abused, forced into labor and used as human shields. Some hostages who escaped alleged they were detained and tortured by security forces who suspected them to be militants. Amnesty said it talked to eight men, including seven Christians, who said they were badly treated by the authorities. I was punched and kicked. They tied our hands and feet with electrical wire, the report quoted one survivor as saying. The military was angry because 13 of their men were killed. Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis praised the Philippine military for ending the war without a single credible human rights abuse allegation. Amnesty noted that the military was responding to concerns about looting by soldiers but must follow through on promises of compensation . | 0fake |
Trump's whirlwind start draws admiration on French far-right | LYON, France (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office have left some European politicians leaders aghast but are drawing cheers from France’s far-right National Front (FN) as its leader Marine Le Pen launches her own bid for power. Buoyed by Trump’s election and Britain’s shock ‘Brexit’ vote to quit the European Union, the anti-immigration, anti-EU FN hopes Le Pen can ride the same populist wave to victory in this spring’s presidential election. Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has moved quickly to implement his “America First” vision by pulling out of a Pacific trade deal, barring travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and confirming his intention to build a wall along the border with Mexico, among a flurry of other executive orders, though the travel ban has since been blocked by a judge. His actions have provoked condemnation from some European governments and prompted one EU leader, European Council President Donald Tusk, to say he poses a “threat” to the bloc, alongside Russia, China and Islamist militants. But they win approving responses from members of the FN, which favors curbing migration, rejecting international trade treaties and introducing “intelligent protectionism” to support French firms. “What surprises me is not what Donald Trump does, but that people are surprised that a candidate elected on a program actually implements it,” said Victor Birra, a 23-year-old business school student. “Here, politicians have been elected for 40 years on manifestos they never implement,” said Birra, who heads the FN youth section in the city of Lyon, where Le Pen launched her campaign at the weekend. “I think it’s a good thing that he puts Americans first.” Claire Richert, a 69 year-old retired teacher who joined the FN three years ago, agreed. “He’s taking measures to protect his country against terrorism and that’s a good thing,” she said. She said a similar ban could help protect France, where Islamic State militants have killed more than 230 people in a series of attacks over the past two years. The FN is not the only group in Europe to be embracing Trump. Austria’s far-right Freedom Party and the former leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, are among his fans. Le Pen herself was spotted on a visit to the Trump Tower in New York last month. Top FN officials share the rank-and-file’s positive view of the new U.S. president. “He’s been implementing some measures we’ve had in our program for a long time, so we won’t say we’re surprised or opposed to it,” said Jean Messiha, who has been overseeing the drafting of Le Pen’s presidential manifesto. “He’s doing it the American way and there are some things we wouldn’t do here,” he said. But he added: “Each should do as they wish in their own country according to their country’s best interest.” Opinion polls suggest 48-year-old Le Pen is likely to follow in the footsteps of her father Jean-Marie, who made it through to the run-off of the 2002 presidential election but was defeated by Jacques Chirac. Current surveys show she is likely to lose in the second round to independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, who has surged at the expense of scandal-hit conservative candidate Francois Fillon. But after Trump’s shock win over Hillary Clinton in November, Le Pen supporters believe anything can happen. “We were told that it was absolutely impossible for Trump to win the election. He was elected,” said William Penel, a 24-year-old bank employee from Marseille. “We were told the British would never leave the European Union ... but the Brexit was voted for. “Why couldn’t we do the same?” | 0fake |
ManTracker: How to Be One and How to Avoid One – 10/31/16 | ManTracker: How to Be One and How to Avoid One Jeremiah Johnson
ReadyNutrition Readers, we’re going to cover some of the basics on how to track man, and some tips on how to keep from being tracked by men . All of your camouflage is to no avail if you are awakened by a boot kicking you in the ribs as you’re curled up in your sleeping bag in a hidey-hole. Please keep in mind: this is a post-SHTF action and/or a life-threatening situation that would call for the tracking of another human being. Man is the Most Dangerous Creature of All
Be aware: this is not deer-hunting or tracking a game animal . The rules are different, because a deer won’t double back on you, climb a cliff, and snipe you with a suppressed .308 as you cross a predetermined, pre-ranged spot. If you are adept at tracking game, these skills can help you, but keep in mind you’re tracking the most dangerous, intelligent, and resourceful creature of all: man. You’re tracking down a creature with the natural and learned instincts of a hundred thousand generations of hunters and killers…no matter what culture or creed. Man is the most dangerous creature of all. Never forget that. Respect the potential of the guy or gal you’re tracking. Respect it, and let it temper your emotions and judgment as you’re tracking.
To track a man, you need to be aware of your surroundings, the changes in it, and use deductive reasoning all in combination as you’re moving. There are some questions you always need to ask yourself as you are following a man as well as observations you must make: Are you keeping aware of the potential for ambush? Most people don’t like to be followed, and in a SHTF situation you can bet the other guy is playing for keeps. Are you walking right into a trap? As you study the terrain in front of you, are you “gaming” it in your mind? Remember Rule #1: the hunter can (and often does) become the hunted at any time .
NOTE: THIS QUESTION # 1 AND RULE # 1 BOTH APPLY CONCURRENTLY AT ALL TIMES! THEY ACCOMPANY AND SUPERCEDE ALL OF THE SUBSEQUENT QUESTIONS AND RULES! Minor deviations in the terrain (path) that would not normally be there: Broken hardwood branches at chest or head height, broken or “moved/displaced” vegetation, the tracks on the ground, bark rubbed from the face of fallen logs…. all of these are good indications that man has come this way. Major deviations in the terrain/path : perhaps a small mound of earth in the woods with what appears to be a “dent” followed by a long groove and crushed grass to either side…a good indicator your quarry stepped on the mound and slipped. Perhaps some good-sized trees chopped down, or good sized branches removed with an edged tool. These could be either fighting positions/lean-to’s/fortifications, or ground cover respectively. Look for signs of the hand of man where it is obvious. Changes to the earth . This means the ground . You’ve been tracking your quarry through a swamp, and now you emerge in a grassy field. Look for signs of tracks, and for mud to be tracked through the grass as well. If you’ve been walking through a dry riverbank with clay for a bed, then the color of clay will show up in front of you in the tracks of your target. Trash/detritus . Man is a messy creature, and no matter how careful he always messes up. It could be a food wrapper, or a cigarette butt he forgot to tote out with him. It could be a piece of paper or a dropped tool or even ammunition. It could also be part of a meal…even something so innocuous as crumbs. Your job as the tracker is to spot these deviances as they come out to meet your eyes. Smell . Man is (especially after several days in the bush or after physical exertion) a stinky creature. Yes, you can smell many things of man: his sweat, his deodorants and perfumes, his tobacco products (you can smell a cigarette for a long distance in the woods), and, of course, his stool. This last one (don’t laugh) is a really good giveaway, as most people will relieve themselves and not worry about covering up what they produce. This is not mentioned relative to hygiene, however, but in relation to tracking. Such people not caring about how they relieve themselves won’t give much consideration to someone using it to trail them. Noise . Man is, indeed, a noisy creature. He breathes heavily, belches, flatulates, grunts, groans, complains, talks loudly, and snores. All of these can be used to your advantage to find your quarry. He also drops things, bangs and bumps into things, and clatters metal against metal. He falls down, breaking branches and he curses or moans, depending on how badly he hurts himself. He also communicates to his fellow humans, either with a radio or with his voice. Light Discipline : man is as stubborn as they come on this one. Those flashlights are never “red lensed” and kept under a poncho or jacket as they should be…just everyone flashing the lights all over the place. Same for the cigarettes. Instead of cupping their hands around them and keeping the cigs low, there’s that orange dot right out to your front, head height. Man loves to use the flashlight when he’s moving around at night. It can be his undoing, and to your advantage if you look for your quarry being careless with the light. Changes to the quarry’s flight . A hunted man will always know he is being hunted. You need to be aware of an increased pace, a change of direction, changes in elevation…all factors that will indicate either distress or concern on the part of your quarry. The pace change can be noticed by footprints, especially the distance widening or shortening between them. Widening means he’s taking off. Shortening means the terrain is becoming more difficult or he’s tiring, or both. The runner usually uses the balls of his feet with a shallow heel-print. The walker sets his heels into the soil more deeply. Tread Depth : we covered this a little in #9, and in addition, if the guy has a size nine boot print and is really sinking into the earth? Well, he’s probably carrying some serious stuff in the form of supplies and/or weapons.
If your search is proceeding too well and too smoothly? It’s an ambush . We’ve covered these fundamentals, because believe it or not, it is easier to avoid the hunter if you first have been the hunter. What we just covered forms the basis for avoiding someone who is pursuing you. Believe it or not, you can practice this stuff in the woods with family and/or team members. It makes for both a good workout and a challenge to actually implement stuff you learn. Part Two we’ll focus on how to get away from the bad guys trying to find you. Until then keep studying and practicing. It’ll pay off in the end…especially after the SHTF. JJ out!
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson was a Special Forces Medic, EMT and ACLS-certified, with comprehensive training in wilderness survival, rescue, and patient-extraction. He is a Certified Master Herbalist and a graduate of the Global College of Natural Medicine of Santa Ana, CA. A graduate of the U.S. Army’s survival course of SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape), Mr. Johnson also successfully completed the Montana Master Food Preserver Course for home-canning, smoking, and dehydrating foods.
Mr. Johnson dries and tinctures a wide variety of medicinal herbs taken by wild crafting and cultivation, in addition to preserving and canning his own food. An expert in land navigation, survival, mountaineering, and parachuting as trained by the United States Army, Mr. Johnson is an ardent advocate for preparedness, self-sufficiency, and long-term disaster sustainability for families. He and his wife survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Cross-trained as a Special Forces Engineer, he is an expert in supply, logistics, transport, and long-term storage of perishable materials, having incorporated many of these techniques plus some unique innovations in his own homestead.
Mr. Johnson brings practical, tested experience firmly rooted in formal education to his writings and to our team. He and his wife live in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with their three cats. This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition | 1real |
Western Banking System COLLAPSE | Jim Willie | Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The western banking system is broken. With U.S. treasuries selling off, the banking system will be caught on the wrong side of the trade when it comes to derivatives on interest rate swaps. As the U.S. banks collapse, get ready for foreign banks to take their place. This and much more with a viewers’ questions edition of the Silver Doctors’ podcast with the one and only Dr. Jim Willie!
CLICK HERE to SUBSCRIBE for free to the Silver Doctors’ YouTube channel so you do not miss part 3! | 1real |
Vito Acconci, an Artist as Influential as He Is Eccentric - The New York Times | In the late 1960s, the artist Vito Acconci wandered into a movie theater near Times Square hoping to catch an art film and was confused to see a group of musicians take the stage. That group turned out to be the Velvet Underground, whose first album sold poorly but whose influence was so profound, as Brian Eno later said, that everyone who bought the record started a band. The same sentiment might be expressed about Mr. Acconci’s influence in the contemporary art world. The genetic impact of his performances, photographs and video works from just an period — 1968 to 1976 — is so pervasive that it is difficult to trace. But Mr. Acconci, who turned 76 this year, has not had a retrospective in the United States in more than three decades, and his most important work can now sometimes seem more like legend than fact. That is set to change on June 19, when MoMA PS1 in Queens opens “Vito Acconci: Where We Are Now (Who Are We Anyway?) 1976,” which traces his career from his early days as a poet through his heyday and around the corner of a radical turn in the when he abandoned the gallery world and remade himself as a highly unorthodox architect and designer, to the confusion of many. In a series of interviews over the last three months as the PS1 show was being planned, Mr. Acconci spoke about his perpetual unease in the art world, and before that the poetry world, where he said he always felt like an outsider, someone with a relentless creative drive for which a genre had not — and still has not — been invented. Almost because of this, he has opened bold new avenues over the years for artists as important and widely varied as Laurie Anderson, Martin Kippenberger, Mike Kelley and Tania Bruguera. “I hated the word artist,” he said. “To me, even in the years when I was showing things in galleries, it seemed to me that I didn’t really have anything to do with art. The word itself sounded, and still sounds to me, like ‘high art,’ and that was never what I saw myself doing. ” As far as the art world was concerned, his leap into architecture — designs for things like public parks, airport rest areas and a island — was almost as if Mr. Acconci decided to enter the witness protection program. But he disappeared right in the art world’s midst, continuing to teach generations of art students (at Brooklyn College and at Pratt Institute) working in a cluttered, studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn and lecturing so often over the years that his presence — his long unruly hair, his wardrobe, his voice with its distinctive loping stutter and, before he quit, the endless cigarettes he would light and stub out and light again — became a kind of ongoing work in itself. Born in the Bronx into a Catholic Italian family, the overprotected only son of a bathrobe manufacturer and a mother who later worked in a cafeteria, Mr. Acconci came of age in the politically agitated years when artists began trying to find ways around the making and selling of objects. They turned to their bodies, their ideas and their actions as the currency of a new realm. Along with peers like Chris Burden, Adrian Piper, Dan Graham and Valie Export, Mr. Acconci began conceiving and documenting performances — at a rate of sometimes one a day in what he called “a kind of fever” in 1969 — that were conducted on the streets or for audiences so small that they seemed almost not to have happened. In Mr. Acconci’s case, the work grew out of an experience as an aspiring poet and fiction writer whose fascination with the physical space of the page eventually led out into the world. In 1962, in thrall to postmodern writers like Alain and John Hawkes, he enrolled in the graduate writing program at the University of Iowa, taking along with him a short story he had written, titled “” that when read anonymously in the class provoked a minor riot. Its subject, a horrifying vision, was a recently limbless man. It began: “They cut him up and since the chairs had just been varnished for the celebration, he was set down on a giant floor urn. The jar was for most people, but not for Rockram, because he had no legs. ” “When the professor asked for reactions,” Mr. Acconci recalled, “one guy said that whoever wrote it should be chucked out the window into the Iowa River. ” Back in New York City after getting his degree, in the wastelands of the Lower East Side, the East Village and SoHo, Mr. Acconci began experimenting with using the city as another means of making literature. In one of his early works, “Following Piece,” from 1969, he spent each day for almost a month following a person picked at random on the street, sometimes with a friend following Mr. Acconci to record the action. The rules were only that he had to keep following the person until he or she entered a private place where Mr. Acconci couldn’t go in. During years when crime and urban paranoia were spiking, the work might be seen as a creepy metaphor for vulnerability, but Mr. Acconci saw it essentially as an and in many ways optimistic narrative. “It was sort of a way to get myself off the writer’s desk and into the city — it was like I was praying for people to take me somewhere I didn’t know how to go myself,” he once told the musician Thurston Moore. (The band Sonic Youth was formed not long after Mr. Moore first met Mr. Acconci and began playing in various arrangements with Kim Gordon and Mr. Acconci’s girlfriend at the time, Anne DeMarinis.) The dozens of performance pieces that followed through the early 1970s, many of them now contained varying elements of existential unease, bodily discomfort, exhibitionism and gender play — elements he shared with some other artists of the time, particularly with female artists — but also a kind of wit and a Svengali aura that were Mr. Acconci’s own. In “Trademarks,” (1970) Mr. Acconci sat naked on a floor and bit himself wherever he could reach, then applied printer’s ink to the marks and stamped them on paper and other surfaces. In “Pryings” (1971) Mr. Acconci and Kathy Dillon engaged in a disturbing in which she clenched her eyes shut as he grabbed her face and tried to force them open. (Ms. Dillon, with whom Mr. Acconci lived for a time, is a powerful presence in his early performances after they separated they fell out of touch. “Or a better way to say it would be that she thought she had to get away from me because I was taking too much of her life, which I guess I was,” he said.) In “Seedbed,” (1972) — undoubtedly Mr. Acconci’s piece, which has in a sense unfairly overshadowed much of his other work — he constructed an angled false floor at the Sonnebend Gallery in SoHo and hid himself beneath it with a microphone, speaking luridly to the people who walked above him, masturbating as he spoke. The piece became a touchstone of performance art in part because of its sheer, outlandish audacity. But it also drew a remarkable line through the preoccupations that began Mr. Acconci’s career and carry it up to the present day. The idea for the act under the floor arose linguistically, after he turned to a thesaurus to find synonyms for the word “foundation” and was struck by the poetry of “seedbed. ” And in constructing the floor, he was already beginning to explore his interests in architecture and public space, in this case a space in which he could merge with the building, ceasing to be a discrete human presence and becoming instead a kind of quantum field. “I wanted people to go through space somehow, not to have people in front of space, looking at something, bowing down to something,” Mr. Acconci said of the performance. “I wanted space people could be involved in. ” Holly Block, the executive director of the Bronx Museum, which commissioned an architectural environment from him in 2009, said: “A lot of people don’t understand Vito’s turn to architecture, but I think he wanted to be more ambitious and make pieces that lived in the world — and in people’s lives — in a different way than artworks usually do, and it was a risky and courageous thing to do. ” Klaus Biesenbach, the director of PS1 and the organizer of the show, which was conceived as part of the institution’s 40th birthday, said: “He’s one of the most influential artists of his time because of the way he connects the private with the public sphere, the body with the street, the media space with the personal space. He’s challenging our limits about what we want to be private and what we want to be public, and those questions have only become more important. ” The show, which is being designed by Acconci Studios, the firm that Mr. Acconci runs in close collaboration with his wife, Maria, has been a kind of fragile over the past months, threatening at times to collapse under his unpredictably evolving ideas and inspirations. “You have to think about him deciding ‘Maybe I should go to China tomorrow,’” said Mr. Biesenbach. “That’s just how Vito is. With great artists — and Vito is one — sometimes you have to have unprecedented flexibility. ” But the tension also comes from Mr. Acconci’s longstanding desire not to have his career bifurcated into and . “There are people who like to keep Vito in what I call a prison of a few years, and it’s not right,” said Maria Acconci, 36, a writer who met Mr. Acconci after seeing his work at a retrospective in Barcelona in 2004 and is a fierce defender of his prerogatives. Mr. Biesenbach said he believed the show would strike a delicate balance to reveal the connections between the early work and Acconci Studio — the “two Vitos,” as he calls it — though even as recently as late May he remained uncertain whether the exhibition would open as planned. Mr. Acconci, around the same time, seemed to be leaning toward it actually happening — legend becoming fact. “I never liked museums,” he said. “They always seemed artificially separated from real life. But you have to be seen, and I guess I’ve never cared enough about that. Maybe I should have. ” | 0fake |
Donald Trump: Good Education ‘Enriches Both the Mind and the Soul’ | President Donald Trump visited St. Andrew Catholic School in Pine Hills, Florida, on Friday to draw attention to his plan to open up education opportunities to every child with school choice. [During the visit, Trump quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who hoped that “inferior education would become a thing of the past. ” He commented that the school was doing a “fantastic job” and pointed out that education at St. Andrew “enriches both the mind and the soul. ” “That’s a good education,” he added. Trump spoke to a class of about 25 students, asking them what they wanted to do with their lives and where they wanted to go to college. One student said she hoped to open her own business. “That’s a good idea. Make a lot of money, right? But don’t run for politics after,” Trump replied. Trump was joined by Florida Governor Rick Scott and Senator Marco Rubio, as well as Secretary of Education Betsy Devos. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner also joined the trip. Ivanka Trump signed one ’s cast: Might be only kid that would ever want to keep a cast on. @IvankaTrump signs 8th grader’s cast at school visit. pic. twitter. — Sarah H. Sanders (@SHSanders45) March 3, 2017, The president repeated a slogan from his speech to Congress on Tuesday, calling education the “civil rights issue of our time. ” “Betsy’s going to lead the charge, right?” he asked, looking at his choice to lead the Department of Education. “You bet,” DeVos answered. | 0fake |
Robert DeNiro Ignorantly Allows Anti-Vaxxer Propaganda At Tribeca Film Festival | Because idiots haven t harmed America enough yet.An anti-vaxxer propaganda film will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, and you can blame Robert DeNiro for the resulting drop in America s overall IQ and the outbreak of preventable disease.DeNiro is a legendary actor who is apparently willing to torpedo his reputation and career by allowing disgraced British medical doctor Andrew Wakefield to screen his so-called documentary Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe at the festival that had been an annual event since 2002.Wakefield published a paper in 1998 claiming that there is a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. But as it turns out, Wakefield s study was bogus and has been thoroughly debunked by scientists and medical professionals who then booted Wakefield out of the medical field for professional misconduct.Celebrities such as Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy, and Kristin Cavallari have jumped to Wakefield s defense in recent years, which has caused thousands of the fans among others to hold back from vaccinating their children. And as the anti-science movement continues to grow, the public health becomes more and more at risk.Just last year, a measles epidemic hit the United States for the first time since the disease had been largely eradicated from our shores in 2000, causing the first death of an American by measles in 12 years.Even Fox News own medical expert roundly condemned the anti-vaxxer movement. Let me be clear on this, I see no debate whatsoever, NYU Langone Medical Center associate professor of medicine Marc Siegel said. This is the greatest vaccine that has ever been created in the history of vaccines. You know we stamped out measles in the United States in 2000. It was incredible because measles is the most contagious virus known to man. If you had measles there would be a 90 percent chance that I would get it by sitting next to you if I weren t vaccinated. It s so much more contagious than the flu. We were talking about Ebola, this is a million times more contagious than Ebola! But Robert DeNiro wants to have that debate anyway even though it will just give credibility to a moronic movement that deserves none whatsoever. And the backlash has been so great that DeNiro released a statement on Facebook defending the screening. Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming. However this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening VAXXED. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue. No, Mr. DeNiro. All you are doing is giving an open platform to anti-vaxxers to spread their misinformation and scare more parents into not getting their kids vaccinated. You are perpetuating their lies and anti-science views and you should be ashamed of yourself for it. America is already witnessing the return of viruses such as whooping cough, measles, rubella, and many others because a growing number of parents ridiculously believe their kids will get autism if they get them vaccinated even though there is zero scientific evidence linking autism to vaccines.Wakefield s goal with this propaganda film is to assert that the government and scientific community are covering up the link and that vaccines have caused an autism catastrophe in this nation because of it. There is no true debate in this film and there won t be a real conversation after it is screened. It ll just be one big echo chamber designed to indoctrinate more believers into the anti-vaxxer movement, which DeNiro looks to be apart of despite his claims otherwise. And when children die because of his stupidity, their blood will be on his hands.Featured image: Wikimedia | 1real |
This Fox News Host Is Personally Begging Trump To Come To Their Debate (VIDEO) | The spectacle of Donald Trump rejecting Fox News debate got even more ridiculous on Wednesday night as the network s highest rated host, Bill O Reilly, got involved in the clown show.Despite shunning Fox, Trump still decided to appear on The O Reilly Factor in a satellite interview with the host. Discussing Trump s public tantrum, O Reilly all but got down on bended knee and asked Trump to reconsider his decision: I m trying to convince you that your tack is wrong, because it s better for the folks to see you in the debate format, Mr. O Reilly said.He pointed to Newt Gingrich using negative questions during the debate in South Carolina in 2012 to great effect as he pummeled the moderator John King of CNN in the Republican primary campaign. Mr. Gingrich later won the primary in the state. I m telling you, that s the way to go here, Mr. O Reilly said. This has to do with the stupidity of Fox and what they did, Mr. Trump said.O Reilly even pointed to his cheek, asking the reality TV star and current Republican front-runner to turn the other cheek after being angered at the network for a combative press release reports indicate was personally written by network boss, Roger Ailes.Trump rebuffed the overture, telling O Reilly he is more in the mood for an eye for an eye, wounding Fox in his perspective by hurting the ratings for the network and its advertisers.In addition to Trump s direct refusal to engage, his campaign cronies have also been spreading the conspiracy theory that Fox is in cahoots with Hillary Clinton, despite the network s pivotal role over the last 20 years in attacking and smearing Democrats, particularly the former Secretary of State.Taking advantage of the chaos, fellow candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has asked Trump to hold a one-on-one Lincoln/Douglas style debate with him. Trump has refused, and some believe the gambit is Trump attempting to opt out of debates even if he is the Republican nominee, an unprecedented cowardly move.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
Hurricane Irma kills five as it sweeps through island of Saint Martin | AMSTERDAM/PARIS (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma has killed at least five people and left a trail of destruction on the part-French, part-Dutch Caribbean island of Saint Martin, government officials in France and the Netherlands said on Thursday. Packing winds of around 175 mph (290 kph), the storm lashed several small islands in the northeast Caribbean, including St Martin and St Barthelemy, tearing down trees, flattening homes and causing widespread damage. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Thursday said four bodies had been recovered on the French side of the island, revising down an earlier death toll. The death toll is still uncertain because clearing operations are under way, Philippe told a news conference at a crisis centre in Paris. About 50 people have been injured. There is considerable damage, Philippe said, adding that local authorities in Saint Martin said 95 percent of the houses there had been damaged, and 60 percent were uninhabitable. There is no electricity, no drinkable water, gasoline is unavailable. Philippe said the government would on Friday declare a state of emergency, facilitating insurance compensation. Government officials in the Netherlands said the hurricane had caused enormous devastation on the Dutch side of the island, killing one person and injuring several others. The Dutch navy, which has two ships stationed off the coast, tweeted images gathered by helicopter showing damaged houses, hotels and boats. Sint Maarten, as it is known in Dutch, is an independent nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands with a population of around 40,000 people, about the same as on the French side of the island. Images of the Dutch side s Juliana Airport showed the landing strips appeared intact, although the navy said the airport was unreachable for now. | 0fake |
Trump's legal team spokesman resigns amid reported shake-up | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s outside legal team spokesman has resigned amid media reports the team is being reorganized as investigations continue into alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign. Mark Corallo confirmed his departure on Friday in an emailed statement. His resignation comes amid reports regarding the role of Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s attorney handing the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. NBC reported on Friday that Kasowitz was no longer leading the legal team but would remain on board to provide guidance. The New York Times reported late on Thursday that his “role ... will be significantly reduced.” A source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday that Kasowitz had not left the team. Separately, Trump is considering appointing Wall Street financier and long-time supporter Anthony Scaramucci as his White House communications director, according to a senior White House official. The staff changes come amid other media reports that some of Trump’s lawyers are considering ways to limit U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the effort, reported late Thursday that Trump’s legal team is seeking to limit or undercut the investigation by targeting Mueller’s team and is exploring Trump’s pardoning authority. The New York Times also reported that Trump’s lawyers are looking into the background of Mueller’s investigators, citing three people familiar with the research effort. Moscow has denied any interference with last year’s U.S. presidential election. Trump has also said there was no collusion. | 0fake |
Oddsmaker Adds Kamala Harris to List of 2020 Candidates at 33-to-1 - Breitbart | A sports betting website has added U. S. Senator Kamala Harris ( ) to its list of possible presidential winners in 2020, entering the charts at odds. [BetOnline. ag favors President Donald Trump to win at odds. However, he is also favored to leave office before the end of his first term. “Even though he is the favorite, his odds are pretty long,” said Dave Mason, the sports betting book manager for BetOnline. The winner in 2020 is not a Democrat. It is Vice President Mike Pence, at odds. The most favored Democrat is Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( ). At odds, she is the frontrunner on the left. Warren is followed by former First Lady Michelle Obama, at odds. Mrs. Obama said in April that she would not run for public office. However, other than Elizabeth Warren, she remains the most likely Democrat to win in 2020, according to BetOnline. Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan are both long shots at . Others joining Harris at are former Obama administration cabinet member Julian Castro, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, Facebook pioneer Mark Zuckerberg, and Sen. Amy Klobucher ( ). Not much is known about Harris, Mason said, but is beginning to gain attention. “If they’re a hot story, bets come in,” Mason said. Harris is making all kinds of news — most recently for creating a playlist for Music Appreciation Month. It is illegal to bet on political outcomes in the United States, though it is legal to buy stakes in prediction markets, and legal to “bet” in indirect ways (i. e. by donating to favorites in the hope of preferred access or influence after a victory). Some Americans bet on politics through overseas bookmakers, using foreign bank accounts. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0fake |
NOT FUNNY! What These “MORONS” Did For Crooked Hillary Should FRIGHTEN Every American [VIDEO] | It s easy to see why there are so many Americans who would rather keep their heads firmly buried in the sand than know the truth about how inept our government officials really are Hillary Clinton is facing damaging new revelations about the lax security surrounding her emails.Watch Hillary try to make voters believe she is a victim in this insane security risk she has subjected our entire nation to:A Daily Mail Online investigation has found that a second firm hired to store a back-up of Clinton s secret server was so lax in its security employees failed to change passwords frequently and left computers logged in, unattended for extended periods and its own clients stumbled upon other clients data.Datto Inc, the company in question, was hired to store Hillary s emails by Platte River, the mom-and-pop company contracted to maintain her homebrew email system.Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Online on condition of anonymity, one former employee at Datto, said the company was woefully exposed to being hacked. If you re talking about high-level data security, at the political, presidential level, the security level of data [at Datto] hired by Platte River, was nowhere near something that could have been protected from a good hacker that knows how to spread out their points at which to infiltrate, he said.The emails emails, 30,000 of which Clinton deleted, are now part of an FBI investigation into her handling of classified material while she was Secretary of State.A total of 22 have been deemed to contain top secret material out of 2,075 found to contain classified material and questions have mounted about whether her account was successfully hacked, which the Clinton campaign claims did not happen.The existence of the emails only came to light because of a House investigation into the deaths of four American in an Islamist attack on the mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 2012.The probe concluded this week with an excoriating report by the majority Republican members of the committee, who accused her of shameful conduct with her secret email account.Clinton dismissed the report, saying it was time to move on and went to California to launch her policies on the tech industry.But now it can be disclosed that Datto Inc is accused of major security failings by people who worked for it and also those who used its services.The failings included allegations that security was so lax that customers warned the firm they had stumbled on other clients data; that in 2010, the company s internal servers were hacked; and that staff were not required to regularly change passwords, seen as a basic requirement for keeping systems secure.Staff computers which had access to servers holding confidential client information were left logged in while unoccupied for extended periods of time, whistleblowers said.And Datto headquarters were easily accessible and had no security guards on their floor, while employees opened and held doors open for others which should only have been accessible with a security pass.A longtime Datto partner, Marc Tamarin, told Daily Mail Online: Those guys were really morons. They weren t qualified to handle our back-up and that was the biggest concern for us. The former employee speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Online on condition of anonymity, spent three years at Datto, and said the company was woefully exposed to being hacked. It s not something that Datto was focused on. It was more about getting the data off-site quickly and cost-effectively than securing the data and keeping it from being hacked. There s no doubt in my mind that someone could easily hack them even today. Datto was named last October as the second data storage company to be investigated by the FBI over what threat Clinton s server posed to national security.One of the Datto insiders told Daily Mail Online that around 2010, the startup had its internal network hacked, leading to the authorities being called. Via: Daily Mail | 1real |
null | I'm waiting for the one that puts a pussy on my face | 1real |
Pastor freed from prison in Iran to return to U.S. on Thursday: wife | (Reuters) - A pastor from Idaho who was among five American prisoners released by Iran over the weekend will return to the United States on Thursday from Germany, his wife said on Wednesday. “Saeed will be landing on American soil Thursday evening,” Naghmeh Abedini said in a Facebook posting. Saeed Abedini, 35, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained in 2012. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013 after being accused of harming Iran’s national security by setting up home-based churches in his native country. “He will spend a few days with his parents and then the kids and I will join him on Monday,” his wife said. The couple have two young children. The Americans’ release coincided with the implementation of a nuclear deal under which international economic sanctions against Iran were lifted in return for curbs on Iran’s atomic program. The White House offered clemency to seven Iranians who were convicted or facing trial in the United States. Abedini, along with Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and former Marine Amir Hekmati, arrived at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, on Sunday. Also released by Iran were Iranian-American Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, who stayed behind, and American student Matthew Trevithick. | 0fake |
In-Person Coaching at University versus Technology: Proactive, Constant Contact Matters | by Lambert Strether
Lambert here: Apparently, then, Neoliberal U plans to build “trust-based relations” and offer “personalised attention” by gutting tenured faculty, shifting the teaching load to contingent faculty, redistributing salaries to administrators, and socking money into fancy facilities. Let me know how that works out.
By Philip Oreopoulos, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Toronto, and Uros Petronijevic, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, York University. Originally published at VoxEU .
Questions over the value of a university education are underscored by negative student experiences. Personalised coaching is a promising, but costly, tool to improve student experiences and performance. This column presents the results from an experiment comparing coaching with lower cost ‘nudge’ interventions. While coaching led to a significant increase in average course grades, online and text message interventions had no effect. The benefits of coaching appear to derive from the trust-based nature of relationships and personalised attention.
Policymakers and academics share growing concerns about stagnating college completion rates and negative student experiences. Recent figures suggest that only 56% of students who pursue a bachelors’ degree complete it within six years (Symonds et al. 2011), and it is increasingly unclear whether students who attain degrees acquire meaningful new skills along the way (Arum and Roska 2011). Students enter college underprepared, with those who procrastinate, do not study enough, or have superficial attitudes about success performing particularly poorly (Beattie et al 2016).
Personalised Coaching to Improve Outcomes
A promising tool for improving students’ college outcomes and experiences is personalised coaching. At both the high school and college levels, an emerging recent literature demonstrates the benefits of helping students foster motivation, effort, good study habits, and time-management skills through structured tutoring and coaching. Cook et al. (2014) find that cognitive behavioural therapy and tutoring generate large improvements in maths scores and high school graduation rates for troubled youth in Chicago, while Oreopoulos et al. (forthcoming) show that coaching, tutoring, and group activities lead to large increases in high school graduation and college enrolment among youth in a Toronto public housing project. At the college level, Scrivener and Weiss (2013) find that the Accelerated Study in Associates Program – a bundle of coaching, tutoring, and student success workshops – in CUNY community colleges nearly doubled graduation rates and Bettinger and Baker (2014) show that telephone coaching by Inside Track professionals boosts two-year college retention by 15% across several higher-education institutions.
While structured, one-on-one support can have large effects on student outcomes, it is often costly to implement and difficult to scale up to the student population at large (Bloom 1984). Noting this challenge, we set out to build on recent advances in social-psychology and behavioural economics, investigating whether technology – specifically, online exercises, and text and email messaging – can be used to generate comparable benefits to one-on-one coaching interventions but at lower costs among first-year university students (Oreopoulos and Petronijevic 2016).
Several recent studies in social-psychology find that short, appropriately timed interventions can have lasting effects on student outcomes (Yeager and Walton 2011, Cohen and Garcia 2014, Walton 2014). Relatively large improvements on academic performance have been documented from interventions that help students define their long-run goals or purpose for learning (Morisano et al. 2010, Yeager et al. 2014), teach the ‘growth mindset’ idea that intelligence is malleable (Yeager et al. 2016), and help students keep negative events in perspective by self-affirming their values (Cohen and Sherman 2014). In contrast to these one-time interventions, other studies in education and behavioural economics attempt to maintain constant, low-touch contact with students or their parents at a low cost by using technology to provide consistent reminders aimed at improving outcomes. Providing text, email, and phone call updates to parents about their students’ progress in school has been shown to boost both parental engagement and student performance (Kraft and Dougherty 2013, Bergman 2016, Kraft and Rogers 2014, Mayer et al. 2015), while direct text-message communication with college and university students has been used in attempts to increase financial aid renewal (Castleman and Page 2014) and improve academic outcomes (Castleman and Meyer 2016).
Can Lower-Cost Alternatives to One-On-One Coaching Be Effective?
We examine whether benefits comparable to those obtained from one-on-one coaching can be achieved at lower cost by either of two specific interventions (Oreopoulos and Petronijevic 2016). We examine a one-time online intervention designed to affirm students’ goals and purpose for attending university, and a full-year text and email messaging campaign that provides weekly reminders of academic advice and motivation to students. We work with a sample of more than 4,000 undergraduate students who are enrolled in introductory economics courses at a large representative college in Canada, randomly assigning students to one of three treatment groups or a control group. The treatment groups consist of: A one-time, online exercise completed during the first two weeks of class in the autumn; The online intervention plus text and email messaging throughout the full academic year; and The online intervention plus one-on-one coaching in which students are assigned to upper-year undergraduate students who act as coaches.
Students in the control group are given a personality test measuring the Big Five personality traits.
Figure 1 summarises our main results on course grades. Overall, we find large positive effects from the coaching programme, amounting to approximately a 4.92 percentage-point increase in average course grades; we also find that coached students experience a 0.35 standard-deviation increase in GPA. In contrast, we find no effects on academic outcomes from either the online exercise or the text messaging campaign, even after investigating potentially heterogeneous treatment effects across several student characteristics, including gender, age, incoming high school average, international-student status, and whether students live on residence.
Figure 1 . Main effects of interventions
Our results suggest that the benefits of personal coaching are not easily replicated by low-cost interventions using technology. Many successful coaching programmes involve regular student-coach interaction facilitated either by mandatory meetings between coaches and students or proactive coaches regularly initiating contact (Scrivener and Weiss 2013, Bettinger and Baker 2014, Cook et al. 2014, Oreopoulos et al. forthcoming). Our coaches initiated contact and built trust with students over time, in person and through text messaging. Through a series of gentle, open-ended questions, the coaches could understand the problems students were facing and provide clear advice, ending most conversations with students being able to take at least one specific action to help solve their current problems.
Our text messaging campaign offered weekly academic advice, resource information, and motivation, but did not initiate communication with individual students about specific issues (e.g. help with writing or an upcoming mid-term). The text-messaging team often invited students to reply to messages and share their concerns but was unable to do this with the same efficacy as a coach, nor were we able to establish the same rapport with students. Our inability to reach out to all students and softly guide the conversation likely prevented us from learning the important details of their specific problems. Although we provided answers and advice to the questions we received, we did not have as much information on the students’ backgrounds as our coaches did, and thus could not tailor our responses to each student’s specific circumstances.
Our coaches were also able to build trust with students by fulfilling a support role. Figure 2 provides an example of how the coaching service was more effective than the text messaging campaign in this respect. The text messages attempted to nudge students in the right direction, rather than provide tailored support. The left panel of Figure 2 shows three consecutive text messages, in which we provide a tip on stress management, an inspirational quote, and a time-management tip around the exam period. As in this example, it was often the case that students would not respond to such messages. In contrast, the student-coach interaction in the right panel shows our coaches offering more of a supportive role rather than trying to simply nudge the student in a specific direction. The coach starts by asking an open-ended question, to which the student responds, and the coach then guides the conversation forward. In this example, the coach assures the student that they will be available to help with a pending deadline and shows a genuine interest in the events in the student’s life.
Figure 2 . Distinguishing the text-messaging campaign and the coaching programme
Coaches also kept records of their evolving conversations with students and could check in to ask how previously discussed issues were being resolved. Although we kept a record of all text message conversations, a lack of resources prevented us from conducting regular check-ups to see how previous events had unfolded, which likely kept us from helping students effectively with their problem and from establishing the trust required for students to share additional problems.
Concluding Remarks
In sum, the two key features that distinguish the coaching service from the texting campaign are that coaches proactively initiated discussion with students about their problems and could establish relationships based on trust in which students felt comfortable to openly discuss their issues. Future work attempting to improve academic outcomes in higher education by using technology to maintain constant contact with students may need to acknowledge that simply nudging students in the right direction is not enough. A more personalised approach is likely required, in which coaches or mentors initially guide students through a series of gentle conversations and subsequently show a proactive interest in students’ lives. These conversations need not necessarily occur during face-to-face meetings, but the available evidence suggests that they should occur frequently and be initiated by the coaches. While such an intervention is likely to be costlier than the text messaging campaign in our study, it is also likely to be more effective but still less costly than the personalised coaching treatment. | 1real |
Scott Walker's stealth 2016 strategy | A verdict in 2017 could have sweeping consequences for tech startups. | 0fake |
WORLD WAR 3 is Now * HILLARY Clinton Is Mushroom Cloud Waiting to Happen | source Add To The Conversation Using Facebook Comments | 1real |
Myanmar to charge journalists on assignment for Turkish state TV: officials | NAYPYITAW/YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar police said on Saturday they were preparing to charge journalists working for Turkey s state broadcaster TRT, their local interpreter and driver for bringing a drone into the country without permission. The police were also expecting to obtain court permission to remand the four for up to 15 days as they prepare to charge them under Section 8 of the Export and Import Law. Violators of it can be jailed for up to three years. The journalists - Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia - plus their interpreter Aung Naing Soe and driver Hla Tin have been detained since Friday for flying a drone near the parliament in Myanmar s capital Naypyitaw. The development comes amid tension between Turkey and Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis. In early September, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the death of the Rohingya constituted a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region, a charge Myanmar denies. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the majority-Buddhist Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh since security forces responded to Rohingya militants attacks on Aug. 25 by launching a crackdown. Turkish broadcaster TRT said on its website that the network is in discussions with Myanmar authorities to secure their release. Both journalists had valid visas . Myanmar police spokesman Police Colonel Myo Thu Soe told Reuters the journalists illegally imported the drone and all four will be charged under the Export and Import Law. The law does not specifically refer to drones, but it says that no person shall export or import restricted, prohibited and banned goods, and that, without obtaining license, no person shall export or import the specified goods which is to obtain permission. We are going to the court now to obtain the arraignment, we will get it today, said Police Lieutenant Tun Tun Win. He said that the remand will be for up to 15 days but police expect to file charges within 10 days. Several journalists in Myanmar have been arrested this year, leading rights groups to warn that the gains made in press freedom since the end of military rule risk being reversed under the administration of national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The two foreign journalists are detained at police station no. 1 in Naypyitaw, while the two Myanmar nationals have been transferred to a prison in the nearby town of Pyinmana. On Friday night, about 25 police staged an evening raid on the Yangon house of the Myanmar interpreter, well-known domestic reporter Aung Naing Soe, seizing his computer memory sticks and searching documents. Myanmar state broadcaster MRTV said the ministry of foreign affairs had informed the Singaporean and Malaysian embassies about the matter. | 0fake |
Republicans Had Total Control Of This State And Its About To Collapse | Bobby Jindal abandoned his home state of Louisiana to mount a completely pathetic campaign for President. He pranced around with cast members of Duck Dynasty, cheered the far right, and made a fool of himself, exiting the race long before a single vote was cast.Behind him, he left Louisiana, which has a Republican-dominated legislature and is facing an unprecedented calamity which now has to be repaired by its new Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards.Louisiana now stands at the brink economic disaster. Without sharp and painful tax increases in the coming weeks, the government will cease to offer many of its vital services, including education opportunities and certain programs for the needy. A few universities will shut down and declare bankruptcy. Graduations will be cancelled. Students will lose scholarships. Select hospitals will close. Patients will lose funding for treatment of disabilities. Some reports of child abuse will go uninvestigated. Doomsday, said Marketa Garner Walters, the head of Louisiana s Department of Children & Family Services. If the state can t raise any new revenue, her agency s budget, like several others, will be slashed 60 percent.Jindal cut taxes for the wealthy during his eight years in office, and created brand new giveaway subsidies to big business that created a giant deficit, even though conservative Republicans claim to be fiscal geniuses.And now Louisiana may be forced to raise taxes on a population where 18% live below the poverty line, as well as implement cuts on services helping those same people who need it the most.The state is a mess, but it isn t out the ordinary for Republican-run states that often claim they are perfect examples of the right s philosophies, in a positive way.On the same day that the overall national jobs report beat expectations and the country continued its jobs growth record under President Obama, Republican-dominated Kansas again had a major failure. The state LOST 4,000 jobs all in the month of January, and has only added 1,400 jobs across the entire state in the last 12 months. The state has only grown 0.1 percent while the country has grown 1.9 percent.Republican-run states have a terrible future in front of them, but their GOP leaders are so blinded by ideology they don t even notice the lives they are ruining.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
WATCH SHERIFF’S Honest Response After a School Shooting: “The gun didn’t change…” [Video] | When it gets down to it, what this sheriff said is the heart of the problem. He nails it!Spokane County Sheriff Knezovich was brutally honest after a school shooting last September: You started glorifying cultures of violence you ve glorified the gang culture, you ve glorified games that actually give you points for raping and killing people. Gun didn t change. We changed. Of course, he was brutally attacked for telling the truth. They said he blamed everything but the gun Yes he did.This young gentleman got sucked into a counterculture of violence, a culture that is enamored with school shootings. And media, you are to blame for that, because you keep giving these people headlines. You keep using their names. You have made them heroes to some people. If I had my way, none of these people s names would ever be remembered.Where did we really go sideways in raising our kids? Perhaps we taught them to glorify the wrong things. All this violence that they constantly consume has come home to pay a major price. It is time for each and every one of us to say no more to the hate that we see, to the violence that we see.Lawmakers on both the right and the left, you re both enamored by radicalized hate. You seem to hate everybody and everything. It s time for you to end that too.They [the federal government] have pushed this problem to the local level, and the local level is not equipped to deal with it. This is a state and national issue that they better wake up and start dealing with.You started glorifying cultures of violence. You glorified gang culture. You glorified games that actually give you points for raping and killing people. | 1real |
Paul Ryan Emerges From Health Care Defeat Badly Damaged - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — For two days in January, all seemed right in the Republican Party. Gathered in Philadelphia for their annual congressional retreat, less than a week after President Trump’s inauguration, lawmakers exulted in the possibilities of total government control, grinning through forums about an aggressive agenda that began with honoring a central campaign promise: repealing the Affordable Care Act. Adult beverages flowed. Members were given socks. And the president showered praise on his most important partner, the man with the pen, the man who would find the votes. “Speaker Paul Ryan — very, very special,” Mr. Trump said. “He is writing his heart out, right? And we’re actually going to sign the stuff that you’re writing. ” “Now,” the president said, “it’s going to happen. ” It is not going to happen. At least not this time. Less than 18 months after being elected speaker, Mr. Ryan has emerged from the defeat of the health care bill badly damaged, retaining a grip on the job but left to confront the realities of his failure — imperiling the partnership that was supposed to sustain a new era of conservative government under unified Republican rule. So far, to the surprise of some close to Mr. Trump, the president has remained upbeat on Mr. Ryan, a frequent punching bag during the 2016 campaign and an ideological mismatch whose instincts informed the molding and selling of the health bill far more than the president’s own. But after a humiliating defeat, which many Trump advisers are eager to pin on the speaker, Mr. Ryan is now tasked with defending not just his leadership abilities but his very brand of conservatism in a party fitfully searching for a coherent policy identity that can deliver tangible victories. In this first fight, Mr. Ryan’s more orthodox vision was only halfheartedly by Mr. Trump, who has few fixed political beliefs, in service of a bill the president never well understood, even as he laid on the superlatives in praising it. Now, Mr. Ryan must tug a ruptured conference toward future agenda items, like overhauling the tax code, made all the more difficult by this initial failure. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll get blamed,” Representative Billy Long, Republican of Missouri and a vocal Trump supporter, said of the speaker as he left the Capitol on Friday, making clear he did not believe this would be fair. “He’ll get blamed for everything. ” The episode not only demonstrated an inability to honor a longstanding pledge that powered Republicans through a string of election cycles. It was also a remarkable setback for Mr. Ryan as the body’s principal in his first major test as the speaker under a Republican president. In January, he coasted to with almost unanimous party support, prompting allies to gloat that he had tamed the House Freedom Caucus far more deftly than his predecessor, John A. Boehner. By Friday, his bill had at once alienated those archconservatives and more moderate members who abandoned the legislation as Mr. Ryan and Mr. Trump began caving to demands of the far right, to little effect. “We were a opposition party, where being against things was easy to do,” Mr. Ryan said at a sheepish news conference shortly after the bill was pulled, adding with uncharacteristic candor that Republicans were not yet prepared to be a “governing party. ” “We will get there,” Mr. Ryan said, “but we weren’t there today. ” His job will not get easier. With disparate coalitions in his conference, outside groups like the political arm of the Heritage Foundation pushing lawmakers to pursue conservative purity, and a president whom some members have appeared more willing to buck recently, there are few establishment forces helping Mr. Ryan keep the peace. “There is a lot more safety in opposition than there used to be,” said Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader who was ousted by a more conservative challenger, citing pressure from the outside groups. At the same time, several Trump allies have suggested that Mr. Ryan has still failed to grasp fully the lessons of the president’s election and its rejection of traditional political dogma. The most ominous signals have proliferated on sites like Breitbart, often the online id of Mr. Trump’s orbit. Its lead headlines on Saturday morning included: “Polls: GOP Legislators Dodged 2018 Headache When Leaders Dropped Ryancare” and “Speaker Ryan Crippled? Replacement Chatter Erupts on Hill. ” But as the bill circled the congressional drain, Republicans appeared broadly supportive of Mr. Ryan, grateful for his steady hand and policy fluency and mindful of the risks he took last year as Mr. Trump’s campaign nemesis, giving members cover during a tumultuous election cycle. Most suggested there was nothing he could have done differently to secure the necessary votes. “If he can’t deliver them, they can’t be delivered,” said Representative Chris Collins of New York, a close Trump ally. “I’m certainly not blaming Paul Ryan in the least. ” Others grew more wistful, recalling that Mr. Ryan had to be coaxed into seizing the speaker’s gavel in the first place. “He didn’t ask to do it,” said Representative Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota. “We wanted a speaker who could articulate our principles, who could go on everybody’s radio shows and everybody’s TV shows, and go district to district in many cases, selling and articulating our philosophy, as well as sometimes pretty nerdy legislative stuff. He was tireless in that effort. ” A handful of Republicans took veiled swipes at the House leadership as the bill flailed. Representative Justin Amash of Michigan wrote Friday night on Twitter that the House was “supposed to be a deliberative body where outcomes are discovered, not dictated. ” “Compromise consensus cannot be centrally planned,” said Mr. Amash, a member of the Freedom Caucus. But the chief wild card, as ever, is Mr. Trump. In his private conversations, the president has remained supportive of Mr. Ryan, declining to join in his advisers’ frustrations over how the bill was handled in the House. One adviser described him as still “smitten” with Mr. Ryan. “I want to thank Paul Ryan. He worked very, very hard,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “I will tell you that. He worked very, very hard. ” Mr. Trump’s praise for Mr. Ryan seemed to owe, at least in part, to the fact that the speaker had repeatedly kept him informed throughout the negotiations. Mr. Ryan was also exceedingly deferential to the president, casting him for days as the consummate closer and a winner of the highest order. “The president gave his all in this effort,” he said on Friday. “He’s really been fantastic. ” Dynamics could shift quickly. Several of Mr. Trump’s advisers have for days been casting blame on Mr. Ryan, who is close with the president’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus. Mr. Trump is also known to grow angrier over time, particularly if faced with public embarrassment. On Friday, Mr. Ryan was quick to adopt Mr. Trump’s favored rationale during the health fight, arguing that Republicans had been doing Democrats a grand favor by dismantling President Barack Obama’s health law in the first place and that Democrats would eventually suffer the consequences. “I’m sure they may be pleased right now,” Mr. Ryan said, but when they see “how bad” things get, “I don’t think they’re going to like that, either. ” Mr. Ryan spoke from the same room where, just two weeks earlier, he delivered a slide show presentation live on cable, holding the attention of the political world — clicker in hand, sleeves peeled above his forearms — with a meditation on insurance premiums and Medicaid spending. For all the outward displays of collaboration, the exhibition demonstrated the gulfs, both philosophical and stylistic, that divided Mr. Ryan from the Trump White House. The administration had sought a different visual as the bill debuted to a critical panning: arranging competing stacks of paper in the White House briefing room, meant to demonstrate the relative simplicity of the Republican proposal compared with the thicker Affordable Care Act. “This is government,” Sean Spicer, the press secretary, said at the time, gesturing first to the Democrats’ bill, then the new one. “This is not. ” | 0fake |
WIKILEAKS: Hillary Got $12 Million for Clinton Charity As Quid Pro Quo For Morocco Meeting | Email
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arranged a $12 million donation from Moroccan King Mohammed VI to her family’s charity in 2014 in return for the Clinton Global Initiative hosting its international meeting in the North African Muslim nation, according to an email made public Thursday by Wikileaks.
The Moroccan monarch’s funds went to the Clinton Foundation’s endowment and to CGI. The Jan. 18, 2015, email was included in Wikileaks’ latest batch of communications to and from Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta.
The email from Huma Abedin, Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff at the State Department, was addressed to Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook. Hillary Clinton was a director of the foundation at the time.
Singapore and Hong Kong officials reportedly were also vying to convene the CGI meeting in their countries, but the North African nation ultimately hosted it in a five-star hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2015. Abedin told Podesta and Mook that Morocco was not CGI’s “first choice.”
The actual meeting was paid for by OCP, the Moroccan-government-owned mining company that has been accused of serious human rights violations. Clinton vigorously supported the Moroccan King when she was Secretary of State and the U.S.-financed Export-Import Bank gave OCP a $92 million loan guarantee during her tenure as Secretary of State.
The mining company also contributed between $5 million to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to the charity’s web site.Abedin described the arrangement in the email as having been organized by her boss. Hillary Clinton “created this mess and she knows it,” she told Podesta and Mook.She said the Moroccan deal was entirely dreamed up by her boss. “This was HRC’s idea, our office approached the Moroccans and they 100 percent believe they are doing this at her request. The King has personally committed approx. $12 million both for the endowment and to support the meeting.” HRC stands for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Abedin said Clinton’s attendance at the CGI event was a condition of the $12 million contribution. “Just to give you some context, the condition upon which the Moroccans agreed to host the meeting was her participation. If hrc was not part if it, meeting was a non-starter,” Abedin said.
Politico in 2015 reported that Clinton “was seen by Rabat as among its most ardent supporters in the Obama administration.” Rabat is the capital of Morocco.
The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice charged OCP with “serious human rights violations,” including exploitation of workers by not “adequately compensating the impoverished people who live there.”
Mohamed Yeslem Beisat, the Washington envoy for the Polisaro Front, as reported by AL-Monitor, a Middle East news site in 2015 that “OCP is the first beneficiary of the war and the first beneficiary of the occupation — it is the one that is cashing in on the misery of thousands of refugees and hundreds of political detainees for the past 40 years.”
Polisaro claims to lead a Moroccan government-in-exile based in Tindouf, Algeria.
“They’re doing this because they know Hillary has some chances of being president of the United States. And they want her to support their brutal occupation of Western Sahara,” Beisat charged.
The Moroccan firm mines phosphates. Human rights critics have called OCP’s mining product “blood phosphates,” appropriating the term “blood diamonds” for gems mined in operations that kill and injure local workers
OCP is not the only mining company linked to human rights violations that has donated to the Clinton Foundation. The foundation accepted a $100 million pledge from Lukas Lundin, who owns mining and oil drilling operations in North Africa and in the Congo. (RELATED: Clinton Foundation Got $100M From ‘Blood Minerals’ Firm)
OCP retained the law firm of Covington & Burling, one of Washington’s lobbying giants, paying the firm $1.4 million in fees from 2012 to 2015.
Stuart Eizenstat, a former White House domestic policy chief under President Carter and an influential Democratic Party insider, was the main lobbyist for the mining firm. He was also President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the European Union, a Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and Under Secretary at the Department of Commerce.
Eizenstat specialized in foreign trade issues at Commerce where he worked in the International Trade Administration.
Hillary Clinton officially visited Morocco twice, in November 2009 and in February 2012, meeting with the King on both occasions. The two also met in New York in December 2013 where it was believed the two discussed Morocco’s bid to host the CGI meeting and the King’s $12 million donation.
The Moroccan World News described the meeting as showing “renewed friendship between the royal family and the Clinton family, as well as Hillary Clinton’s esteem for Morocco and its people.”
Abedin warned both campaign executives that if CGI decided to renege on the agreement, it would hurt Clinton’s relationship with the King. “It will break a lot of china to back out now,” she wrote.
Ultimately, Clinton did not attend the meeting because it was close to the launch of her presidential campaign, but the former president and daughter Chelsea were present and during the conference were guests at one of the Moroccan King’s palaces. | 1real |
Education Secretary DeVos faces largely silent protest at Harvard speech | CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was confronted by largely silent protesters holding signs opposing the Trump administration’s promotion of for-profit schools and changes to how colleges handle sex assault allegations at a speech at Harvard University on Thursday. DeVos ignored the protesters, but took questions from audience members on issues, including a White House move to reverse Obama-era guidance on how colleges should handle allegations of sexual assault on campus. “One sexual assault is one too many, but by the same token, one that is denied due process is one too many,” DeVos said. “So we need to be sure that policy is fair to all students.” More than a dozen protesters stood in the crowd holding signs reading “protect survivors,” and “our students are not 4 sale.” Many others stood or sat with raised fists. As the event wrapped up and DeVos headed for the exit, the crowd broke into loud chants, including: “This is what white supremacy looks like!” The administration last week reversed guidelines established under former President Barack Obama on how colleges should handle sexual assault allegations, saying the prior policies led to too many students being falsely charged and disciplined. The prior rules outlined a strict set of steps for schools to follow or risk losing funding under Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education. Opponents of those rules said that they allowed schools to use lower standards of evidence of those followed in criminal proceedings. While the cheers and jeers of protesters gathered outside the venue could faintly heard as DeVos spoke, the event avoided the scenes of students shouting down conservative speakers seen at universities around the United States over the past year. That trend that has drawn the scrutiny of the Justice Department. Several activists also expressed concern that the administration’s support of shifting funding from public schools to charter, private and for-profit schools would hurt low-income and minority communities. “If you are trying to help a community, first you need to listen to what they need,” said Latoya Gayle, a mother of three. “If she listened more, I think she would hear that what people need is not what she thinks they need.” DeVos, a billionaire who has drawn fire for her advocacy of for-profit schools, is married to the heir and former chief executive of Amway. She was confirmed in February when Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. | 0fake |
IS OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT Being Stolen By Thugs? Young Man Saved By Cops After He Was Savagely Beaten By Black Lives Matter Mob For Wearing Trump Hat [VIDEO] | ***WARNING***This video is GRAPHIC!*** | 1real |
PATRIOT Act At 15: Do You Feel Safer? | Posted on October 28, 2016 by Joe from MassPrivateI Streamed live 21 hours ago by RonPaulLibertyReport Fifteen years ago yesterday, President George W. Bush signed the PATRIOT Act into law. It was said to be a necessary – and temporary – response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. It has since become a permanent scar on the Fourth Amendment and the national-security state in Washington D.C. tells us we are in more danger than ever. Is this working? Share this: | 1real |
Clinton gets down to campaign business with Rust Belt trip | HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took her newly energized White House bid on the road on Friday for a tour of crucial “Rust Belt” states Pennsylvania and Ohio, but the campaign’s focus was clouded by a newly disclosed cyber attack. Reuters on Friday reported that the computer network used by Clinton’s campaign, which is based in Brooklyn, had been hacked as part of a broad cyber attack on Democratic political organizations, citing people familiar with the matter. The campaign said a data program maintained by the Democratic National Committee and used by the campaign and other entities was accessed as part of a cyber attack on the DNC. The Clinton campaign said outside experts had found no evidence that its internal systems had been compromised. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the party’s fundraising committee for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives had also been breached, the second such incident after last weekend’s leak of DNC emails. Revelations from the DNC emails gave the Democratic convention a rocky start, threatening a bid to reunify the party after a bitter primary campaign. Even so, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed Clinton leading Republican rival Donald Trump by 6 percentage points. Nearly 41 percent of likely voters favor Clinton, 35 percent favor Trump, and 25 percent picked “other,” according to the new July 25-29 online poll of 1,043 likely voters, which overlapped with the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. After a speech Thursday night in which she became the first woman to accept a major party’s presidential nomination, Clinton launched a three-day bus tour of Ohio and Pennsylvania, which like other Rust Belt states have been hit by the decline in U.S. manufacturing. Clinton and her vice presidential running mate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, on Friday attended a rally at Philadelphia’s Temple University, toured a factory in Hatfield and ended the day in Harrisburg. They will continue onto Ohio on Saturday and Sunday. Clinton is likely to face a tough challenge in such states from Trump, a New York businessman who is trying to win white working-class voters with rhetoric blasting free trade and illegal immigration. Clinton and Kaine are using the Rust Belt tour to highlight manufacturing successes and discuss how they plan to boost wages for the middle class. In the process they aim to contrast their vision for the country with the one offered by Trump. “If you’re looking for a kind of pessimistic, downbeat vision of America, we’re not your folks,” Clinton said in Hatfield. “We do not buy into that dark, divisive, image that was presented at the Republican convention last week.” Opinion polls show a potentially tight race in Ohio and Pennsylvania, both of which President Barack Obama won in the 2012 election. “The differences are stark,” Kaine said in Harrisburg. Clinton and Trump are essentially tied in Ohio, where the Republicans held their convention last week, according to an average of polls by RealClearPolitics. Clinton has a lead of 4.4 percentage points in Pennsylvania, the website’s average of recent polls showed. Ohio and to a lesser extent Pennsylvania are among a handful of competitive states traditionally viewed as decisive in presidential elections, because they do not lean heavily Democratic or Republican. In her speech on Thursday, Clinton, 68, a former first lady and U.S. senator, promised to make the United States a country that works for everyone if she is elected. “We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against. But we are not afraid,” she said. Clinton portrayed Trump as a threat to the country, saying, “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.” Trump, 70, sent out a flurry of comments on Twitter on Friday morning lambasting media coverage of the speech as “a joke,” calling the address “very long and very boring” and accusing Clinton of wanting to shut down “coal mines, steel plants and any other remaining manufacturing.” He campaigned in another swing state, Colorado, on Friday and was scheduled to visit Ohio next week. The U.S. television audience for Clinton’s acceptance speech was smaller than the viewership of Trump’s address a week earlier, according to ratings data released on Friday. An estimated 29.8 million people watched Clinton across 10 broadcast and cable networks, Nielsen data showed. Trump drew 32.2 million viewers in his July 21 address at the Republican National Convention. Economic issues will be crucial as the White House campaign enters its final three-month stretch. The U.S. economy grew by only 1.2 percent in the second quarter, far less than expected, the Commerce Department said on Friday. During the Rust Belt trip, Clinton will detail her pledge to raise wages and create jobs by unveiling a major infrastructure package within the first 100 days of her presidency, and encouraging companies to invest in workers. The start of the Democratic convention was overshadowed by the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who quit over leaked emails showing party officials favored Clinton over her primary rival Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator of Vermont. Cyber security experts and U.S. officials said on Monday there was evidence that Russia engineered the release of the emails in order to influence the election. The Kremlin has denied the accusations. Yet another hack came to light on Thursday, when four people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a cyber attack against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raises money for Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives. The DCCC confirmed on Friday that it had been the target of a cyber security incident. | 0fake |
Gold & Silver: Light At The End Of The Tunnel | Financial Markets , Gold , Housing Market , Market Manipulation , Precious Metals , U.S. Economy Comex fraud , First Majestic , Gold , LBMA fraud , silver , silver eagles admin
Gold and silver and the mining stocks still have tremendous YTD gains despite the highly manipulated take-down that has been orchestrated since early Wednesday morning. The smash has been executed entirely in the paper derivatives in London and NYC. De rigeur for the Central Banks.
Eric Dubin discusses why we’ve probably seen the last of the downward manipulative pressure on gold and silver: Gold and Silver Decline Is Fading, Dow Rolling Over and Rory Hall published an article on Trump that accompanies the precious metals analysis and our Shadow of Truth episode to be released later today: The Trump Trojan Horse
I moved checking account cash into my Bitgold account on Saturday, Sunday evening and this morning. I shorted Capital One at the open today and added to my First Majestic calls. At least I put my money where my mouth is, unlike most of the alternative fear porn promoters… Share this: | 1real |
TRASHY, AGING Pop-Star Madonna Uses Picture Of Pubic Hair To Recruit Females For Anti-Trump Inauguration March | Madonna took to Instagram late Thursday to promote an upcoming anti-Donald Trump protest march by sharing a photo of a woman with shoe company Nike s Just Do It logo apparently shaved into her public hair. Yasssssssss! Just Do it! @nakid_magazine, Madonna wrote, adding, 1 Million Women s March!! Be There!! Washington D.C. Jan. 21. Yasssssssss! Just Do it! @nakid_magazine 1 Million Women's March!! Be There!! Washington D.C. Jan. 21. photo by Marius SperlichA post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Jan 12, 2017 at 2:02pm PSTAs Breitbart News previously reported, thousands of women are expected to travel to the nation s capital for the Women s March on Washington to protest President-elect Donald Trump s inauguration.The organization said it wants the event to send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women s rights are human rights. Earlier this week, singers Katy Perry and Cher and actresses Scarlett Johansson, Zendaya, Debra Messing, and Julianne Moore were announced as being expected to participate in the January 21 event.The 58-year-old Rebel Heart singer spent months slamming Trump s campaign, while drumming up support for Hillary Clinton. In October, Madonna famously offered oral sex to anyone who voted for the former Democratic nominee.Last month, Madonna admitted that Trump s election left her devastated. For entire story: Breitbart | 1real |
Malaysia to Buy Ships From China in Another Blow to US Regional Dominance | US Keen to Keep South China Sea Nations Buying From Them, Not China by Jason Ditz, October 28, 2016 Share This
United States determination to keep its South China Sea territorial disputes with China going rests heavily on having nations with active claims in the sea as US client states, particularly those with claims that conflict with China’s. That used to be, with several nations having such claims.
But the US is struggling to keep those nations exclusively buying US arms. Today’s big loss was from Malaysia , which has announced they intend to buy littoral mission ships from China, instead of the United States. Details on the decision-making process are unclear, but the US problems with their own littoral combat ships breaking down, so that might’ve hurt their chances.
It’s a comparatively small deal, but part of a growing trend. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been making headlines for weeks with his interest in ending long-standing reliance on the US. While this has grown into complaints about general US-Philippines relations, one of the early grievances was his not liking the US dictating arms sales, and expressing interest in buying from China and Russia instead.
If these countries start buying their arms from China, they’ll have a strong incentive to resolve maritime disputes with China diplomatically, which could severely limit their interest in having warships patrolling through the area to “confront” China. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 1real |
Comment on AT&T Secret Spy Program Unveiled: Project Hemisphere by lloyd Lisco | Posted on October 27, 2016 by Ryan Banister
Project Hemisphere, a secretive program developed by AT&T, searches trillions of call records in order to analyze cell phone data, spying on the activity of private individuals in order to identify who they are speaking with and why, as well as GPS tracking on the location of each individual connected to the call, and it transmits this information to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In 2013, Project Hemisphere was shown in a Powerpoint presentation produced by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The New York Times reported this as a partnership between AT&T and the DOJ, primarily deployed for drug-enforcement task-forces. All information collected in this program is accessible to the federal agencies authorized by the DOJ.
AT&T specifically developed and marketed this product for use by the DOJ, who would promise hundreds of millions in funds on behalf of taxpayers, using the taxpayers’ own money to spy on their every move. This is an invasion of privacy without a warrant. This is a federal spy program by proxy, working through corporations.
AT&T promises law enforcement that it will not disclose Project Hemisphere’s involvement in active investigations that are made public. AT&T is is attempting to lower liability for their customer and limit scrutiny to information transmitted to federal agencies through their network.
While it should not be surprising that your cell phone company is working with bureaucrats to collect incriminating evidence on you, there is a staggering number of people who still carelessly use their cell phone as if the information being transmitted through the device will be kept private.
News flash! It’s never been private. They have always wanted to use your information as a product to sell to the highest bidder. Your data is their product, and you are paying them to take it from you.
Video Report:
Contributed by Ryan Banister of The Daily Sheeple . Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 1real |
Trump Gets STEAMROLLED By Ex-CIA Chief For Using CIA Speech To Stroke His Own Ego | Just as his press secretary, Sean Spicer, made a complete idiot of himself stroking Trump s ego and blasting a flabbergasted White House press corps, Trump himself made a complete idiot of himself addressing the CIA today. Except in Trump s case, he wasn t just dumb, he was offensive. And former CIA chief John Brennan had something to say about it.Standing in front of the CIA s Memorial Wall, Trump whined and cried that the media was lying about his numbers at the inauguration, claiming that there had to have been at least 1.5 million people there. He devoted just a couple of minutes of the entire speech to actually talking to the CIA. In response to that, Brennan said, according to his former chief of staff, Nick Shapiro: Former CIA director Brennan is deeply saddened and angered at Donald Trump s despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of CIA s Memorial Wall of Agency heroes. Brennan says that Trump should be ashamed of himself. Brennan wasn t alone in this. Another former CIA official said he was embarrassed by Trump s free-wheeling, narcissistic diatribe. Yet another said, Not quite a this is hallowed ground moment. Former CIA Director Mike Hayden, who is Republican but stood against Trump, actually took a hell of a dig at him for it: I was heartened that the President gave a speech at CIA. It would have been even better if more of it had been about CIA. [emphasis mine]A DNC senior adviser, Zac Petkanas, issued a blistering statement, too: After he finished ranting about crowd sizes on the National Mall, I hope President Trump sat down for an interview with the CIA to help with their investigation into his team s possible collusion with the Kremlin to win the election. Next, he can sit down with the FBI who have sought warrants to monitor his team for the same reason. For his part, Trump had to drop this piece of insanity into his speech: And I know maybe sometimes you haven t gotten the backing that you ve wanted, and you re going to get so much backing. Maybe you re going to say, please don t give us so much backing. Lords, gods and minor deities, really? That s reminiscent of when he said we were going to start winning so much that we d get tired of it.At least he didn t ask them to raise their hands if they voted for him.We all know Trump has no shame. He loves to lie and he s got his staff lying their asses off for him, too. But this disrespectful display is over the top for a man occupying the highest office in the U.S.Worse, he was greeted by cheering CIA officers when he arrived there, and he proceeded to talk all about himself. That wall, with 117 stars representing agents who have died in the line of duty, is a sacred place. Trump desecrated it with his childish egotism and accusations of lies. Most presidents who speak there choose their words and tones very carefully out of respect for fallen agents and the families they ve left behind.But not Trump! Trump has to make everything all about himself. He deserves to be blasted for it.Photo of John Brennan by Evy Mages/Getty Images, photo of Donald Trump by Olivier Doulier Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
Donald Trump’s Own Email Scandal Actually Broke The Law And He Should Be In JAIL | This is hypocrisy of the highest order and proves that Donald Trump would only make a mockery of our government institutions if he became president.The Republican nominee has made Hillary Clinton s emails one of his central campaign talking points, much to the delight of his rally crowds who chant lock her up at every opportunity because they think she somehow broke the law even though it has been determined by law enforcement that she has not.Trump has called Hillary s email circus worse than Watergate, which has drawn sharp criticism from anyone with a fully functioning brain, including former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman, who called the comparison absurd.As it turns out, Donald Trump has his own email scandal that really did break the law.According to Newsweek, Trump s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders since 1973 when he and his father fought the federal government after they got caught discriminating against African-Americans when it came to housing.Again, we are talking about thousands of emails and documents that multiple judges ordered Trump and his companies to provide to the court. Yet Trump flouted the orders and had the evidence destroyed rather than produce something in court that might help his opponent win the case.This is what is known as spoliation of evidence which is the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. Such actions are a criminal act and are punishable by a fine or imprisonment.As many times as Trump has committed these acts, he should have been behind bars by now. And he certainly should not be allowed to be president, because it s clear that Trump has no problem ordering his employees to break the law and would most definitely run one of the most secretive administrations in American history. Transparency would no longer exist because Trump hides anything that could hurt him.He has already demonstrated this behavior on the campaign trail by refusing to release his tax returns and his medical records, and now we know that Trump regularly destroys documents and email evidence despite such evidence being ordered provided by a court of law.Hillary Clinton s emails were a one-time mistake that other former Secretaries of State have made, including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both of whom are Republicans who served in Republican administrations. Nobody made a fuss when they used private servers, yet Trump and his rabid fans are whining about Hillary doing the same thing. If anything, Hillary Clinton is way more transparent than Trump has ever been. She didn t permanently delete the emails. They have all been recovered, which means there wasn t an actual effort to nefariously hide anything. Furthermore, she has released her medical records and tax returns. And she has never destroyed evidence in defiance of a court order.So while Trump s supporters are chanting lock her up, it s actually Donald Trump who should be in prison right now.Featured Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Ron Paul: ‘Education System Broken — Let’s Try Ed-Exit’ | Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/ron-paul-education-system-broken-lets.html Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently signed an executive order forbidding Maryland public schools from beginning classes before Labor Day. Governor Hogan’s executive order benefits businesses in Maryland’s coastal areas that lose school-aged summer employees and business from Maryland families when schools start in August.However, as Governor Hogan’s critics have pointed out, some Maryland school districts, as well as Maryland schoolchildren, benefit from an earlier start to the school year.Governor Hogan’s executive order is the latest example of how centralized government control of education leaves many students behind.A centrally planned education system can no more meet the unique needs of every child than a centrally planned economic system can meet the unique needs of every worker and consumer.Centralizing education at the state or, worse, federal level inevitably leads to political conflicts over issues ranging from whether students should be allowed to pray on school grounds, to what should be the curriculum, to what food should be served in the cafeteria, to who should be allowed to use which bathroom.The centralization and politicization of education is rooted in the idea that education is a right that must be provided by the government, instead of a good that individuals should obtain in the market. Separating school from state would empower parents to find an education system that meets the needs of their children instead of using the political process to force their idea of a good education on all children.While many politicians praise local and parental control of education, the fact is both major parties embrace federal control of education. The two sides only differ on the details. Liberals who oppose the testing mandates of No Child Left Behind enthusiastically backed President Clinton’s national testing proposals. They also back the Obama administration’s expansion of federal interference in the classroom via Common Core.Similarly, conservatives who (correctly) not just opposed Clinton’s initiatives but called for the abolition of the Department of Education enthusiastically supported No Child Left Behind. Even most conservatives who oppose Common Core, federal bathroom and cafeteria mandates, and other federal education policies, support reforming, instead of eliminating, the Department of Education.Politicians will not voluntarily relinquish control over education to parents. Therefore, parents and other concerned citizens should take a page from the UK and work to “Ed-Exit” government-controlled education. Parents and other concerned citizens should pressure Congress to finally shut down the Department of Education and return the money to American families. They also must pressure state governments and local school boards to reject federal mandates, even if it means forgoing federal funding.Parents should also explore education alternatives, such as private, charter, and religious schools, as well as homeschooling. Homeschooling is the ultimate form of Ed-Exit. Homeschooling parents have the freedom to shape every aspect of education — from the curriculum to the length of the school day to what their children have for lunch to who can and cannot use the bathroom — to fit their child’s unique needs.Parents interested in providing their children with a quality education emphasizing the ideas of liberty should try out my homeschooling curriculum. The curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes courses in personal finance and public speaking. The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.Parents interested in Ed-Exiting from government-run schools can learn more about my curriculum at ronpaulcurriculum.com . By Ron Paul / Image Credits: Pink Floyd - The Wall , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). | 1real |
North Korea says Trump has 'lit the wick of war:' Russia's TASS agency | MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has lit the wick of war with North Korea and his country will be made to pay with a hail of fire , a Russian news agency quoted North Korea s foreign minister as saying on Wednesday. Tensions between North Korea and the United States have risen in recent weeks over Pyongyang s nuclear weapons and missile programs. North Korea has test-fired several missiles and conducted what it said was a test explosion of a hydrogen bomb as it advances toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Speaking to Russia s state-run TASS news agency, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country s nuclear program guaranteed peace and safety in the region and would not be a matter of discussion. With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us, TASS quoted Ri as saying. We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words. Ri has previously called Trump President Evil and his comments are likely to fuel an escalating war of words between the U.S. President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. We have almost reached the last point on the journey toward our final goal - to achieve a real balance of power with the United States, he said. Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations. | 0fake |
FL Man Hurls Live Alligator Through Wendy’s Drive-Thru Window (VIDEO) | Joshua James, a 24-year-old resident of Jupiter, Florida, is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, illegal transportation of an alligator, and theft.The charges were filed after James threw a three-and-a-half foot long, living American alligator through a Wendy s drive-thru window.According to investigators at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Division, James and a friend were driving on Southern Blvd. near Loxahatchee, in Palm Beach County, when he noticed the alligator at the side of the road.He pulled his four-door pickup truck to the side of the road and then wrangled the reptile into the backseat.After capturing the animal, James drove to a gas station, where he proceeded to fill up his gas tank, with the live alligator in the backseat.He then headed off to the Wendy s drive-thru, where he ordered a large drink.After the server handed him his beverage, he reached into the back of the truck, grabbed the alligator, and threw it through the drive-up window, into the restaurant.Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers were called to the scene to remove the alligator from the restaurant.Conservation officials took this picture.Image credit: screen capture from NBC 5, via youtubeOn February 9, Judge Joseph Marx released James on $6,000 bail.As part of the terms of his release, James is barred from visiting any Wendy s restaurants. He is also barred from coming into contact with any animals, except for his mother s dog.Under Florida law, it is a third-degree felony to kill, attempt to kill, possess or capture an alligator or its eggs without a license. James faces up to five years in prison on that charge alone.Conservation officials managed to capture the gator. It was released into a nearby canal, where it can hopefully live out the rest of its life without further contact with idiotic humans.According to James, throwing the alligator was just a funny prank. The people working inside the restaurant didn t find it so funny. Thankfully, neither the employees nor the alligator were injured during this stupid stunt, although things could have ended much differently.Here s more on this story from NBC 5, via YouTube. Featured image from screen capture from NBC 5, via youtube | 1real |
BOOM! NAVY SEAL VET DESTROYS Whiny Organizer Of ‘Veterans Against Trump’ [VIDEO] | There is a stark difference between these two veterans. Perry O Brien, the crybaby veteran who has organized a group against Trump is put in his place more than once during their interview with CNN s Don Lemon. Former Navy Seal Carl Higbie brilliantly calls out and embarrasses conscientious objector Perry O Brien for attempting to label him a racist because he doesn t agree with a particular religious ideology.We re not really fans of CNN, but they actually do America a favor when they bring guests like the conscientious objector, Perry O Brien onto their show to go head to head with a brave and passionate defender of America. This interview provides a pretty good representation of the how the Left has wussified the male vs. the strong conservative male who stands ready to defend his nation. If I were Trump I d pick the latter to be on my team. The reality is, when the sh*t hits the fan 99% of Americans are going to want veteran Carl Higbie on their team. We re not going to give a damn about whether or not he s passed a sensitivity course we just want to keep our nation safe from those who would like to take away our freedoms and destroy our way of life Anti-Trump and pro-Trump veterans debate Donald Trump's record https://t.co/u52Ea97Ny8https://t.co/jpUvhlw2zn CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) June 1, 2016 | 1real |
Fox News Host Leaks That Spicer Is Getting Fired, Claims She’s Already In Talks To Take Over His Job | Already demonstrating her inability to keep her mouth shut, Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle seemingly leaked the fact that Trump has made up his mind to fire Sean Spicer as press secretary. She told Mercury News that Trump s staff have already contacted her and she s in talks to take over once the deed is done.This is news to everybody because the Trump White House has so far refused to confirm rumors that Spicer is on his way out. Guilfoyle seems pretty convinced. She spoke with the self-assured tone of a person who has already committed to the job in her head. I m a patriot, and it would be an honor to serve the country, Guilfoyle said. I think it d be a fascinating job, it s a challenging job, and you need someone really determined and focused, a great communicator in there with deep knowledge to be able to handle that position. Leaving nothing to chance, she also took pains to bash Sean Spicer with some ruthless concern trolling. If you want to be successful and do communications with President Trump, you have to be someone who he actually wants to spend a little bit of time with, she said on the air. You ve got to insist on getting in front of POTUS, talk to him, and have like five, six minutes with him before you go out there and take the podium, and otherwise you re driving blind. It has to be somebody with a very close relationship, where there s trust there, there s inherent loyalty, someone who s been there from the beginning, she added. Loyalty has become a major sticking point for Trump, whose paranoia and sense of alienation has left him with very few friends even among the White House.Adding more fuel to the fire, Guilfoyle (mockingly?) wished Sean Spicer the best going forward.Spicer was noticeably absent from Tuesday s press briefing. The last time reporters saw him, he was engaged in a screaming match with Steve Bannon and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.WH comms staffers just put the TVs on super loud after we could hear yelling coming from room w/ Bannon, Spicer, Sanders Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) May 15, 2017Despite having nothing to do with either decision, Trump reportedly blames Spicer for both the James Comey and Russia classified intel leaks. Shortly after the Comey scandal erupted, Axios reporter Jonathan Swan was hearing that Trump was finished with Spicer.I can independently confirm reporting that President Trump has been sounding people out about removing Sean Spicer as Press Secretary. 1/2 Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 11, 2017Guilfoyle, however, may have screwed up her chances by blowing the story open before Trump was ready. As the New York Times Maggie Habermann points out, one way to lose an opportunity is to confirm it s happening. Trump, who hates anyone stealing his limelight, has previously torpedoed done-deals after they were leaked to the press out of sheer spite.This is quickest way to end a negotiation with Trumpland, to talk about it https://t.co/lLEYoNw0A2 Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 16, 2017It s likely Guilfoyle decided to risk a high-stakes gamble. The best way to make your case to Trump is through the media and with massive doses of flattery. The risk is getting too much attention and angering Trump. Her bet was that Trump would like the nice things she said about him more than he hated that she undermined his decision. (If all of this seems a bit high school drama, that s because it is.)Now it is left to be seen whether her gamble will pay off.Featured image via Allison Shelley/Getty Images | 1real |
Explosion kills three Chadian U.N. peacekeepers in northern Mali | ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Three United Nations soldiers from Chad were killed and two others wounded by an explosive device as they were escorting a convoy in northern Mali on Thursday, the peacekeeping mission in the West African nation said. More than 80 members of the UN mission, known as MINUSMA, have been killed since 2013 in attacks by militant groups active in the country s north and center, making it the world s deadliest peacekeeping operation. The mission said in a statement that the peacekeepers vehicle struck the explosive device between the northern towns of Tessalit and Aguelhok around 2:30 p.m. (1430 GMT). MINUSMA spokesman Olivier Salgado later told Radio France Internationale that the soldiers involved were from Chad, which has one of the region s most effective armies. I condemn with the greatest energy such abject acts, whose only objective is to destabilize the country and harm the peace process under way in Mali, said interim mission chief Koen Davidse. The rise of jihadist groups - some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State - in the arid Sahel has alarmed Western powers like France, which has deployed thousands of troops to the region in response. Four U.S. Special Forces troops were killed earlier this month in neighbouring Niger by fighters believed to belong to a local Islamic State affiliate operating out of Mali. Militants have exploited porous borders - particularly between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso - to step up attacks on military and civilian targets, including tourist sites in regional capitals. The G5 Sahel, an anti-terrorism taskforce of soldiers from those three countries, as well as Chad and Mauritania, plans to launch its first joint operations in the coming days. | 0fake |
Trump Threatens To ‘Change Libel Laws’ To Sue People Who Criticize Him In Twitter Meltdown | Here s another hole in the leaky ship that is the argument Trump shouldn t be taken literally when he makes threats. Trump has circled back to his campaign promise to make changes to libel laws that would allow him to go after journalists and news organizations which publish things he doesn t like. He held out for less than three months.Trump s rediscovered love of censorship comes on the heels of several straight days of Trump freaking out about the New York Times reporting on his various scandals. And it s probably no coincidence that Trump is reconsidering press freedom right as his approval rating hits historic lows (the worst since Nixon was impeached and a record low for any president at this stage in office).In a culmination of Trump s rant against the New York Times, he called for a change in libel laws and used an article written by the New York Post a right-leaning daily owned by Rupert Murdoch to pretend his troubles are due to the liberal media and not his own incompetence.The failing @nytimes has disgraced the media world. Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws? https://t.co/QIqLgvYLLi Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017The article shows how thoroughly unserious it is just three sentences in when it repeats the lie that the New York Times apologized to readers for being so biased against Trump. The paper did no such thing. The only other person who routinely suggests that it did is none other than Trump himself. The relationship between the New York Post and Donald Trump is an orange-painted echo chamber.Trump s belief that he can pass libel laws to restrict what the press says about him is terrifying, but not original. He made similar remarks during the campaign. Here s Trump channeling a dictator in February 2016: One of the things I m going to do if I win, and I hope we do and we re certainly leading. I m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they re totally protected. As the old adage goes, he told us who he was, we should have believed him.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
LONDON’S MAYOR HAS HARSH WORDS For Our Community Organizer In Chief: “Butt Out, Mr. Obama” | Our country is spinning out of control. Obama s orchestrated efforts with race baiters like Al Sharpton and leaders of Black Lives Matter terrorists have created a divide between races like my generation has never known. Obama skips Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia s funeral and the funeral of iconic First Lady, Nancy Reagan, but finds time to take a few pot shots at GOP presidential front-runner, Donald Trump while attending a hipster festival with Michelle. Barack s proven over and over he doesn t have the time or desire to behave like a leader, and now, he s going to tell the Europeans what they need to do as it relates to the EU? When I heard from the Baron today that our current president is planning to go to Britain to make a case to the public for staying in the European Union, I was momentarily stunned. What happened to leading from behind and letting other countries handle their own affairs?By now we re all jaded by this president. He does nothing for free, nothing in which there is not some eventual pay-off to him. So sticking his nose into Britain s affairs should come as no surprise, given his track record of the last interminable years of his time in office.Or maybe he doesn t know how deeply disliked he is by anyone who didn t sign onto his pathetic Peace Prize back in the beginning of his reign? Maybe he believes what the sycophantic press tells him? Or or wait! Is he using a kind of reverse psychology on the British i.e., knowing how much he is held in contempt, anything he suggests, they would oppose? Nah he s far too removed from reality to grasp that concept.So here we have London Mayor Boris Johnson s take on the subject. He s far more interesting to follow on this than any national government figures would be. Via: Gates Of ViennaThese excerpts are from The Telegraph. The only thing Mr J got wrong is the extent to which Obama has undermined America s sovereignty, particularly at our southern border and on the subject of changing our culture and monolingual character. One could say that Mr. Obama s decision to drop in and lecture the Brits on this particular subject is not contradictory at all; it is congruent with his own behavior and sentiments regarding America s sovereignty.Obviously, Mr. Johnson hasn t been paying attention to the American presidential campaign. But they why would he? Had he done so, though, he d have seen an unprecedented populist following for Donald Trump, based on that theme: sovereignty.We want ours back in one piece.I love America. I believe in the American dream. Indeed, I hold that the story of the past 100 years has been very largely about how America rose to global greatness and how America has helped to preserve and expand democracy around the world. In two global conflicts, and throughout the Cold War, the United States has fought for the founding ideals of the republic: that government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth.So it is on the face of it a bit peculiar that U.S. government officials should believe that Britain must remain within the EU a system in which democracy is increasingly undermined.Some time in the next couple of months we are told that President Obama himself is going to arrive in this country, like some deus ex machina, to pronounce on the matter. Air Force One will touch down; a lectern with the presidential seal will be erected. The British people will be told to be good to themselves, to do the right thing. We will be informed by our most important ally that it is in our interests to stay in the EU, no matter how flawed we may feel that organisation to be. Never mind the loss of sovereignty; never mind the expense and the bureaucracy and the uncontrolled immigration.The American view is very clear. Whether in code or en clair, the President will tell us all that UK membership of the EU is right for Britain, right for Europe, and right for America. And why? Because that or so we will be told is the only way we can have influence in the counsels of the nations.It is an important argument, and deserves to be taken seriously. I also think it is wholly fallacious and coming from Uncle Sam, it is a piece of outrageous and exorbitant hypocrisy.There is no country in the world that defends its own sovereignty with such hysterical vigilance as the United States of America. This is a nation born from its glorious refusal to accept overseas control. Almost two and a half centuries ago the American colonists rose up and violently asserted the principle that they and they alone should determine the government of America, and not George III or his ministers. To this day the Americans refuse to kneel to almost any kind of international jurisdiction. Alone of Western nations, the US declines to accept that its citizens can be subject to the rulings of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. They have not even signed up to the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Can you imagine the Americans submitting their democracy to the kind of regime that we have in the EU?So why is it essential for Britain to comply with a system that the Americans would themselves reject out of hand? Is it not a blatant case of Do as I say, but not as I do ?For entire letter, go to: The Telegraph | 1real |
White House seeks $44 billion hurricane aid, far short of requests | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday said it had asked Congress for $44 billion in supplemental disaster assistance to help those hurt by recent hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands, far short of the aid some officials have called for. The White House said it expected to seek additional funds after a fuller analysis. U.S. Representative Frank Pallone and Senator Ron Wyden, both Democrats, called the request “a dereliction of duty by the Trump administration to American citizens in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that need our help. “This woefully inadequate funding request does not provide the necessary resources required to properly respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis,” they added. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello asked for $94.4 billion to rebuild the U.S. territory’s infrastructure. Texas was seeking $61 billion and Florida had asked for $27 billion. The $44 billion would be in addition to about $50 billion Congress previously approved for hurricane and disaster relief. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan that the $44 billion “does not represent the final request” for assistance for the victims, especially in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, where needs were still being assessed. “At this time, the administration is requesting an additional fiscal year 2018 funding in the amount of $44 billion and the necessary authorities to address ongoing recovery efforts,” Mulvaney said in the letter. The administration also wants Congress to approve new tax relief for victims of recent California wildfires, which mirror what Congress awarded recently to hurricane victims. The White House also wants to make houses of worship eligible for disaster relief funding. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, on Thursday dismissed the latest request as “wholly inadequate” for his state. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders defended the request. “Up until this point Texas has not put any state dollars into this process. We feel strongly that they should step up and play a role and work with the federal government in this process. We did a thorough assessment and that was completed and this was the number that we put forward to Congress today,” she said. She said the new request “primarily addresses Texas and Florida Those storms took place ahead of Puerto Rico. The assessment for Puerto Rico hasn’t been completed yet. Once that’s done, we fully anticipate that there will be additional requests at that time.” | 0fake |
Former Ambassador Andrew Young calls for end to water fluoridation, “Civil Rights Issue” | VIDEOS Former Ambassador Andrew Young calls for end to water fluoridation, “Civil Rights Issue” A letter has been sent demanding hearings to investigate why water fluoridation is being continued in the state despite all the reasons to end it By Brandon Turbeville - October 31, 2016
Anti-fluoridation activists in Georgia received a major boost of support when former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young, sent a letter to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and House Speaker David Ralston demanding hearings to investigate why water fluoridation is being continued in the state despite all the reasons to end it.
Ambassador Young is asking for a written response. His letter was also sent to the CEO of the American Water Works Association, David LaFrance.
“What’s clear to me is that we need a repeal of Georgia’s water fluoridation law, and hearings to look into how fluoridation has continued all these years, long after there were plenty of reasons to end it,” Ambassador Young wrote.
“This is a civil rights issue, and the people have the right to have the full story given to them, rather than highly edited, misleading talking points.”
Young also addressed the sketchy nature of the pro-fluoridation argument when he wrote, When someone’s story keeps changing, there are quite often motivations behind their changed stance that may not be aligned with the best interests of the public. The story offered by water fluoridation promoters keeps changing…and changing…and changing. There are key groups such as seniors, kidney patients, diabetics, communities of color, thyroid patients and people who drink a lot of water due to their occupation that are especially effected by Fluoridegate.
“I am calling for Fluoridegate hearings, here, in Georgia and I am calling for a repeal of Georgia’s fluoridation law, immediately,” Young added.
You can read the full text of Young’s letter here . We congratulate Ambassador Young on having the courage to speak out on this issue and we eagerly await the written response to it. Even more important, we are looking for an end to water fluoridation in Georgia. | 1real |
Pennsylvania governor to let state budget become law | (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said on Monday he would allow an unbalanced budget of just under $32 billion to become law at midnight after state lawmakers failed to agree on a plan to close a $2 billion deficit. Wolf had 10 days from June 30th to either sign or veto the legislation. He chose to let it become law automatically at midnight without his signature. The legislature approved the spending part of the budget June 30th, beating a July 1 deadline by just hours. However, Republicans, who dominate both houses of the legislature, were unable to agree on a way to close the budget gap. “In the coming days, it is my hope that the General Assembly will come together to pass a responsible solution to balance our books,” Wolf, a Democrat said in a statement. “There are many options available to balance the budget in the long-term.” The fiscal 2018 budget is about $450 million larger than last year. The budget shortfall is due in large part to revenue collections this fiscal year which were $1.6 billion below expectations. In order to close the gap, the state is considering borrowing $1 billion, to be repaid with money U.S. states still receive every year from their 1998 legal settlement with tobacco companies for health expenses. Republicans have also discussed a wide expansion in casino gambling, and discussed but rejected placing as many as 40,000 video gambling devices around the state. Democrats want a severance tax on oil and gas production that would feed the general fund. That idea has failed to pass in previous years. “Every year our Commonwealth borrows money and uses accounting gimmicks to meet our obligations, digging us deeper and deeper into a hole,” said Democratic Senator Daylin Leach. “We need new sustainable revenue just to keep the lights on and avoid yet another credit downgrade,” he said. On July 6, S&P Global put Pennsylvania’s AA-minus credit rating on watch for potential downgrade due to budget concerns. | 0fake |
Trump Adds Muslims To List Of Minorities He Thinks Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Be Judges (VIDEO) | After widespread, bipartisan outrage and several high profile calls by Republican colleagues to knock it off, Donald Trump decided instead to triple down on his racist comments about the judge presiding over his Trump University fraud case and then start adding other minority groups that he also feels can t be trusted.During a sit down with CBS s John Dickerson on Face the Nation, Trump said it was common sense to keep minorities out of positions of authority or else they might be biased against people like Trump. When Dickerson pressed Trump to justify his overtly racist attitudes by using a hypothetical Muslim judge instead of a Hispanic one, the Republican nominee said he would similarly ask that a Muslim recuse himself under the assumption that given what he has said about Muslims, the judge would be unable to give him a fair trial.It led to this mind-blowing exchange: Isn t there sort of a tradition though in America that we don t judge people by who their parents were and where they came from? Dickerson replied.And Trump countered again, I m not talking about tradition I m talking about common sense, OK? Trump has repeatedly insisted that he really does stand behind the accusations that the judge in his case, Indiana-born Gonzalo Curial, is a Mexican hater who wants to punish Trump for his promise to build a wall on the border. Now he has expanded it to Muslims as well. What group is next?Clearly a position that in more decent times would disqualify a candidate, instead Republicans have opted to tsk tsk Trump while at the same time pretend to believe that what he said isn t racist, just brash. It s unclear whether even they buy that particularly pathetic excuse.There is, of course, little need to debunk Trump s offensive approach to the justice system, but a UCLA law professor summed it up nicely: Trump s theory is, apparently, that anyone can get any judge disqualified for conflict of interest just by saying things that the judge finds offensive enough, Volokh wrote. Don t like the Jewish judge on your case? Say things that are critical of Jews, and now the judge presumably has to step aside because of a conflict of interest. Don t like the female judge? Say things that women tend to find offensive. Don t like the judge who was a Republican activist? Say nasty things about Republicans. In other words, the only person Trump thinks is qualified to judge Trump is Trump. Or perhaps, men who share his same skin color.Watch Trump s egregious comments below:Would a Muslim judge also be out of the question here? @realdonaldtrump: It s possible, yes. https://t.co/49qUfRCrLV Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 5, 2016Featured image via CBS | 1real |
Russia's New MiG-29K Carrier-Based Fighter to Be Battle Tested in Syria - Andrei Akulov | Citizen journalism with a punch Russia's New MiG-29K Carrier-Based Fighter to Be Battle Tested in Syria
The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is on its way to Syria. It’ll be its first-ever combat deployment and the first battle test of its MiG-29K fighters Originally appeared at Strategic Culture Foundation
The MiG-29K is all-weather ship-based multirole 4++ generation fighter aircraft developed by the Mikoyan design bureau . Along with the Su-33, the aircraft is now part of the mixed wing on the Admiral Kuznetsov, the Russian aircraft carrier sailing to deploy in the Mediterranean. The MiG-29 K/KUB version is a two-seated variant which also can be used as a training aircraft.
The MiG-29K was originally built for the Indian Navy, according to a contract signed in 2004. India has purchased 45 of MiG-29s over the last decade to be based on aircraft carriers: Vikramaditya and the future INS Vikrant set to become India’s first indigenous carrier in 2018. India might yet increase its MiG-29K fleet. The Mediterranean deployment is the best chance to showcase the ship-based jet’s capabilities to potential clients.
The aircraft is in service with the Russian Navy since 2010. At the end of 2015, the MiG aviation company fulfilled a government contract for the delivery of 24 fighters for the naval aviation to be delivered to the Navy before the end of the year. The Mig-29K will eventually replace the Su-33.
The fighter looks like the land-based version of the MiG-29. In reality, this is a completely different aircraft with foreign electronics replaced by domestic versions, and the «friend or foe» identification system completely rebuilt. The modification is devised for rigors of deck operation. The MiG-29K has folding wings, reinforced landing gear and an arrestor hook for carrier operations. It can perform short take-offs and land at low speeds.
The plane is able to attain very high angles of attack. It has upgraded pilot displays and radar-absorbent coatings to reduce its radar signature. The open architecture allows the installation of new equipment and weapons. The MiG-29K boasts composite materials and an integrated digital «fly-by-wire» system with multiple backups. It is designed to operate from unprepared airstrips with its air intakes specially protected against debris.
The aircraft has a length of 17.3m, height of 4.4m and a wingspan of 11.9m. The maximum take-off weight is 24,500 kg.
The weapons suite includes a 30 mm cannon with 100 rounds in the port wing root, RVV-AE and R-73E air-to-air missiles, Kh-25ML/25MP, Kh-29T, Kh-31G/31A, Kh-35U air-to-surface missiles . The Kh-31A is a supersonic anti-ship missile resistant to air-defence. The Mig-29K is the only platform to carry it. The short-range R-73 infrared-guided missile can be targeted and fired through a helmet-mounted sight without the plane being pointed at an enemy fighter. Other armaments include rockets and guided aerial bombs. Kh-31P passive radar seeker missiles are used as anti-radiation weapons. The plane can carry 6.5 tons of precision-guided munitions.
According to the plans, the aircraft may test the new Kh-38M (X-38) missiles in Syria. The missile has folding wings and tail fins for internal carriage, and would have a variety of seeker heads for different variants. Depending on the variant, it can have laser, active radar, IR or satellite guidance. The weapon’s range is up to 40 km (21.6 nmi). The speed is Mach 2.2. It can be armed with HE fragmentation, cluster warhead, armor-piercing warhead weighing up to 250 kg (551 lb). The Kh-38 has a 5-meter (16-ft) circular error probability.
The MiG-29K has two RD-33MKs turbofan engines to give it excellent acceleration and a top speed of Mach 2.25. Equipped with smokeless combustion chamber and new full authority digital engine control (FADEC) system they are engineered to reduce infrared signature and improve aircraft camouflage . With 4,560 kg of internal fuel, a combat radius is 850 km (531 mi). It can be increased to 1,300 kilometers with 3 underwing fuel drop tanks.
The fighter can both conduct aerial refueling and «buddy» refuel other aircraft.
The MiG-29K is equipped with three multifunctional color liquid-crystal displays a four-channel digital fly-by-wire flight control system, passive anti-radar missile homing system, Sigma-95 GPS receiver, TopGun helmet-mounted targeting system and electronic countermeasures (ECM). An onboard oxygen generating system eliminates the need for heavy oxygen canisters. The types of combat missions can be increased by adding optronic/infrared imaging reconnaissance pods.
The avionic suite is based around the Zhuk-ME pulse Doppler radar. With a detection range of up to 120 km, the Zhuk-M radar is capable of terrain mapping and following. In the air targeting mode, the Zhuk-ME can track up to ten air targets while engaging four targets simultaneously. In air to surface mode the radar can detect a tank from up to 25 kilometres (16 mi) away and a bridge at the distance from 120 kilometres (75 mi) away, a naval destroyer could be detected up to 300 kilometres (190 mi) away, while up to two surface targets can be tracked at once. The radar has a scanning area of +/- 85 degrees in azimuth and +56/-40 in elevation. The fighter has multichannel infra-red search and track (IRST) system with target designation system. IR and laser sighting devices for ground targets illumination can also be installed.
The MiG-29K boasts low radar cross section, advanced aerodynamics, electronic-warfare capabilities, standoff weapons and a melee of air-to-ground weapons to strike terrorist targets.
A deployment of ship-based strike aircraft in the areas far away from the mainland is something only a first-rate world power can do. Russia showcases it’s a member of the club. The deployment will significantly beef up the strike capability of Russian forces deployed in Syria. The overall strengthening of the Navy in the Mediterranean supports the policy aimed at strengthening Russia’s foothold in the Middle East and North Africa. | 1real |
GUT WRENCHING: OBAMA Meets With Rappers To Discuss Criminal Justice Reform…Doublespeak For Pardoning Criminals, Investigating Cops | Is there any question what Obama s priorities are in his final 8 1/2 months in office? His legacy will most certainly be that of the most divisive President (and First Lady) to ever occupy the White House. Every law enforcement officer in America should be concerned about his obsession with taking them down a few notches.President Obama is meeting with a group of music stars on Friday to discuss his push for criminal justice reform and his initiaitve dedicated to helping young men and boys of color.Rappers Busta Rhymes, Common, J. Cole, Wale, Ludacris and Chance the Rapper are all attending the meeting, according to a senior administration official.The meeting comes as Obama is trying to beef up support for the My Brother s Keeper Initiative, which is designed to help young African-Americans get an education, college degree and job training.Obama and his supporters launched a nonprofit group last May that will allow the president to continue the work once he leaves office.The president has also tried to keep momentum behind a bipartisan coalition looking to pass legislation in Congress that would reduce prison sentences for many non-violent drug offenders. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and My Brother s Keeper task force chairman Broderick Johnson also attended the meeting.War On Cops: President Obama says his criminal justice reform doublespeak for pardoning criminals and investigating cops is gaining bipartisan support. New FBI crime data should stop the movement in its tracks.Last fall, we argued that Obama s war on police, prosecuted with the help of his Black Lives Matter goons, sparked a national crime wave. Violent criminals are getting the upper hand as the Ferguson effect takes hold in cities across the country, we noted. Less-aggressive policing has emboldened the bad guys, leading to a nationwide spike in murder. Officers fear violating softer new use-of-force and arrest policies, pushed on cities by the Obama Justice Department, will open them up to civil-rights prosecution. Many have backed off patrols and stops in dangerous urban areas as a result. The result: Year-over-year homicide rates are up 76% in Milwaukee; 60% in St. Louis; 56% in Baltimore; 44% in Washington, D.C.; 22% in New Orleans; 20% in Chicago; 20% in Kansas City; and 17% in Dallas. Single-digit rises have been seen in New York and other cities. Soon after, FBI Director James Comey indicated that spiking murder rates may be partly due to the Ferguson effect police reluctance to carry out their duties over fear of being investigated for abuse or discrimination, or shot by angry thugs in the line of duty.Police chiefs echoed his concerns, prompting the attorney general to gather major police chiefs and mayors together in Washington for a crime summit. It was supposed to be a closed meeting, no press allowed.But a Washington Post reporter snuck in and recorded Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel complaining that all the vitriol thrown at cops had put them in a fetal position. Obama s former chief of staff said they were backing off crime in gang-infested areas of his city.Obama pooh-poohed the city-by-city reports of climbing murder rates, arguing that there wasn t any aggregate data to show a national trend. But now we have the national data from the FBI. It confirms that the U.S. murder rate shot up 6.2% in the first half of 2015 from a year earlier. The spike reverses a three-year downtrend.Overall violent crime murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault rose almost 2%, in contrast to a nearly 5% drop in the comparable period of 2014. Violent crime rose in all but one of the nation s four regions, the FBI said, and all but two city groupings.If liberal pundits and politicians want to stop soaring crime rates, they should stop vilifying cops. And they should start speaking out against the Black Lives Matter race-mongers and their criminal-justice reforming patrons in the White House. | 1real |
U.S. has lost trust in South Sudan, Trump envoy tells president | JUBA (Reuters) - The United States has lost trust in South Sudan’s government for fueling the country’s civil war and it must bring peace or risk losing support from Washington, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the nation’s President Salva Kiir. Haley was the first senior member of President Donald Trump’s administration to visit South Sudan, which spiraled into civil war in 2013, just two years after gaining independence from Sudan. She met one on one with Kiir for some 45 minutes. “I let him know that the United States was at a crossroads and that every decision going forward was going to be based on his actions,” Haley told reporters after the meeting in the capital Juba. The United Nations has warned that the violence in South Sudan, which has forced some 4 million people to flee their homes, was providing “fertile ground” for a genocide. Kiir’s government has denied U.N. allegations of ethnic cleansing. Haley had to cut short a visit to a camp for South Sudanese displaced by the violence amid rowdy anti-Kiir protests. “He understood that Americans were disappointed in his leadership in South Sudan, I made that very clear. And he understood that all the aid or help that he hopes will go forward is not a given,” she said. Haley did not elaborate on what further action Washington could take, but said that Kiir “got what I was trying to say.” On Monday she said Washington was considering how to pressure Kiir into peace, though noted that withdrawing aid may not work. The Trump administration last month imposed sanctions on two senior South Sudanese officials and the former army chief. “We have lost trust in the government and we now need to regain that trust and the only way to regain that trust is through the actions of taking care of all of the people,” Haley told South Sudan’s Eye Radio. She demanded that Kiir allow full and consistent humanitarian aid access and bring peace and stability to the country. She said she pushed a timeline for Kiir to act, but declined to elaborate. Nhial Deng Nihal, a senior adviser to Kiir, said the president told Haley his government and a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan had established “mechanisms that work jointly to improve and address the humanitarian problems.” He also told reporters that Kiir said government troops “will also be observing a cessation of hostilities in order to create an atmosphere for dialogue.” The civil war was sparked by a feud between Kiir, a Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer. It has plunged parts of the world’s youngest nation into famine. A fragile peace deal broke down last year and Machar fled the country. He is being held in South Africa to stop him stirring up trouble, sources told Reuters in December. Haley had to cut short a visit to a camp in Juba, where U.N. peacekeepers are protecting some 30,000 displaced people, after hundreds of rowdy pro-Machar protesters blocked nearby roads, yelling “Salva Kiir is a killer” and “Welcome USA.” Protesters held a large sign that read “South Sudan IDPs (internally displaced people) and refugees love President Trump, the peacemaker and supporter of human rights.” A spokeswoman for the U.N. mission said the protest “started to gain momentum after (Haley) left, IDPs became upset that she was not able to meet with them.” Haley was meeting with a displaced family when she had to leave early due to security concerns. The previous U.S. administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama were heavily involved in the birth of South Sudan, which signed a peace accord with Sudan in 2005 and gained independence in 2011. | 0fake |
ISIS Calls Ohio State University Attacker a ‘Soldier’ - The New York Times | COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the attack at Ohio State University, calling the student who drove his car into pedestrians and then slashed people with a butcher knife a “soldier” of the terrorist group. A day after the assault injured 11 people, local and federal law enforcement agencies were searching for evidence to determine whether it was an act of terrorism and whether the assailant acted alone, while the large Somali immigrant community here denounced the attack and braced for a possible backlash. The attacker, identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a Ohio State student, was shot and killed by a police officer. The Islamic State, which has urged Muslims to carry out attacks in the West, released a statement on its news wire, via the messaging app Telegram, that included the same stock phrases it has used in previous claims. Although there was no immediate evidence that Mr. Artan had declared allegiance to any terrorist group or claimed allegiance to one, the vast majority of attacks claimed this way by the Islamic State have eventually been shown to at least have been inspired by the group’s propaganda. Shortly before the attack, the student had warned on social media about what he called mistreatment of Muslims, NBC News reported. If the United States wants “Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace with ‘dawla in al sham,’” Mr. Artan was said to have written on a Facebook page that has since been taken down, referring to the Islamic State’s territory in Syria and Iraq. In the same post, he wrote, “Every single Muslim who disapproves of my actions is a sleeper cell, waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America. ” Mr. Artan was admitted to the United States in 2014 as the child of a refugee, his mother, and before that he lived for seven years in Pakistan, federal law enforcement officials said. Catholic Charities of Dallas said Tuesday that investigators had contacted the group because it had supplied “shelter, clothing and other basic humanitarian services for a short time in 2014” to a person who might have been a family member of the attacker. In Columbus, Mr. Artan lived with his mother, several siblings and possibly other family members crowded into a townhouse apartment in the southwest part of the city. Leaders of local mosques and Somali community groups said they did not know him or his family. On Tuesday, the police and federal agents could be seen entering and leaving the apartment, and questioning other residents of the complex. “They just seemed like a normal family,” said Joe Brickner, a neighbor. “They always parked right here, that’s the only thing weird about them,” he said, pointing to a fire hydrant, “like they didn’t understand no rules. ” Mr. Artan, who was in his first semester studying management at Ohio State, earned an associate degree with honors this year at Columbus State Community College. Ohio State said he was 18, but investigators say there are conflicting records, and he might have been older. The university police said they had never encountered Mr. Artan before Monday, and local court records show no cases involving him. In August, he was featured in The Lantern, a campus publication, saying that he had not found a place for a Muslim to pray at Ohio State, and that he was afraid of how people would react if he prayed in the open “with everything that’s going on in the media. ” He voiced a similar concern at Columbus State, a fellow student recalled. “He didn’t talk a lot, but when he did, it was about his beliefs,” and was at times “a little preachy,” said Myranda Thompson, a Columbus State student who was Mr. Artan’s partner for a project in a sociology class. “You could tell he had a passion for his religion. I remember him being upset having to pray around here in the cafeteria,” and a concern about how others would see it. Even so, “He was always smiling and seemed happy,” and she had no sense that he might snap, she said. “Going to a bigger college like O. S. U. there were more people to pick on him he may have had a breaking point. ” Other Somalis and Muslims said this week that Mr. Artan’s complaints about a place to pray, or an adverse reaction, rang hollow. “It’s a nonsense excuse,” said Mahamud Kassin, a math teacher in Columbus who graduated from Ohio State in 2014. “Every library has a place you can worship. ” Jibril Mohamed, a lecturer in Somali language and culture at Ohio State, and adviser to the Somali Students Association, said he had never encountered Mr. Artan, but he spoke with a student who was taking an accounting class with him. “He said he was a quiet, intelligent young man, he was the kind of guy who knows his content before class, he asks the right questions,” he said. “All of a sudden for him to attack people and lose his life, it makes no sense. ” Over three decades, millions of people have fled Somalia, a country racked by civil wars and terrorism. The Columbus area has the Somali population in the United States, after the . Paul area, estimated by the Somali Community Association of Ohio at 38, 000 people. “We have not had any serious incidents up until now, so this is frightening,” Mr. Mohamed said. “Many of the young Somali people on campus are really scared. ” Nabeel Alauddin, a president of the university’s Muslim Students’ Association, said the attack worried him “because it is getting to be increasingly challenging to be an American Muslim. ” But as a Buckeye, he said, he was angry because “this really was an attack on student safety. ” On Tuesday afternoon, three victims remained hospitalized, and one who was released recounted the attack at a news conference. William Clark, an emeritus professor of materials science and engineering, said he was among several people standing outside Watts Hall, which had been evacuated because of a fire alarm. They were about to the building, when “I suddenly heard a shout and then this tremendous crash,” he said, as a silver car drove onto the sidewalk, and slammed into a concrete and brick planter. “It clipped the back of my right leg, and basically flipped me up in the air and I landed on concrete. ” Officials have said that Mr. Artan got out of the car and began slashing people with a butcher knife, and ignored commands by Alan Horujko, a university police officer, to drop the knife. The officer fatally shot him. “I never heard the assailant say anything,” Professor Clark said. The entire episode seemed to last just “15 to 30 seconds,” he said, but he and others, unsure if it was over, went inside and took shelter in a basement laboratory. He did not realize he had two deep lacerations above his right ankle until a student pointed out that he had left “footprints of blood all the way down the hall. ” The attack put the sprawling campus on lockdown for about an hour and a half, as people barricaded themselves in academic buildings and dorms. The claim of responsibility “doesn’t prove that there is a connection to the Islamic State, but it increases the probability that there was one,” said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. In its propaganda, the Islamic State has stressed that supporters do not need to plan complex attacks, explicitly calling on them to commit violence with cars, knives or whatever else is at hand. Hours after the attack, Telegram channels run by Islamic State supporters referred to the assailant as “brother” and used an Arabic hashtag that translates to #OhioAttack. The statement on Amaq, the Islamic State’s news agency, said the attacker had acted “in response to calls to target the citizens of the international coalition. ” | 0fake |
NOT SO FUNNY GUY, WILL FERRELL Throws His Support Behind Cankles… | Supporting Hillary is about as funny as an ebola outbreak in America Will Ferrell no longer feels the Bern. The 48-year-old actor-comedian appeared alongside former President Bill Clinton in Nevada on Saturday to urge residents to caucus for Hillary Clinton despite being one of the earliest celebrity endorsers of her rival for the Democrat presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)16% .On Saturday, Clinton s campaign tweeted a short video of Ferrell asking Nevadans to caucus for Hillary ahead of the state s nominating contest, a contest Clinton ultimately won by a narrow margin.Will Ferrell has a message for you, Nevada: Caucus for Hillary today at 11AM. Your location: https://t.co/39foMYsmhfhttps://t.co/FGIu9RkgXg Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 20, 2016 It s really important that everyone shows up to caucus, the comedian tells Clinton supporters in the short clip. Ferrell is also seen sampling amazing chocolate custard frozen yogurt and reminding supporters of the 11 a.m. caucus start time.Ferrell s name was among those listed at Artists for Bernie, a coalition of more than 120 entertainment industry figures who are publicly supporting Sanders s presidential run.Ferrell s name, which had been on the list since its release in September, has now disappeared and a spokesperson for Clinton s campaign told CNN that the funnyman has donated to Clinton and will co-host a fundraiser for the former Secretary of State in Los Angeles on Monday.Ferrell joins other celebrity Clinton supporters including Lena Dunham, Katy Perry, Elton John, Tom Hanks and Barbra Streisand, while Sanders has earned the support of some of the Hollywood community s more progressive stars, including Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Silverman, Danny DeVito, Susan Sarandon and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Trump mulling lifting status of Cyber Command: sources | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is close to making a decision to elevate the status of the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, signaling more emphasis on developing cyber weapons to deter attacks, punish intruders and tackle adversaries, current and former officials told Reuters on Thursday. A current U.S. official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump could make a decision as early as Friday. The official added that the timeline could be pushed back if the White House was dealing with more pressing issues. The Pentagon and White House declined to comment. Two former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the plan said that the proposal awaiting Trump’s approval would elevate Cyber Command and lead to a 60-day study to determine whether Cyber Command would be separated from the National Security Agency, a spy agency responsible for electronic eavesdropping. That would lead to Cyber Command becoming what the military called a “unified command,” equal to combat branches of the military such as the Central and Pacific Commands. It would give Cyber Command leaders a larger voice in arguing for the use of both offensive and defensive cyber tools in future conflicts. Currently, the NSA and Cyber Command organizations are based at Fort Meade, Maryland, about 30 miles north of Washington, and led by the same officer, Navy Admiral Michael Rogers. NSA’s focus is gathering intelligence, officials said, often favoring the monitoring of an enemy’s cyber activities. Cyber Command’s mission is geared more to shutting down cyber attacks and, if ordered, counter attacking. The NSA director has been a senior military officer since the agency’s founding in 1952. Under the plan, future directors would be civilians, an arrangement meant to underscore that NSA is not subordinate to Cyber Command. Established in 2010, Cyber Command is now subordinate to the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees military space operations, nuclear weapons and missile defense. | 0fake |
OOPS! DONALD TRUMP’S NAME MISSING From Ballots In Florida | Oh never mind, the snafu has been explained It s simply because voters didn t get the correct one. Problem solved Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump s name was left off Florida primary ballots according to reports relayed by Fox News Jennifer Eckhart on Twitter who said the local Fox affiliate has received dozens of complaints. Eckhart wrote the irregularities are in Jupiter County which does not exist. She probably meant the town of Jupiter or Palm Beach County where Jupiter is located. Palm Beach County is where Trump s Florida base Mar-a-Lago is located.Hearing reports from friends in my home state of Florida that @realDonaldTrump is left OFF of voting ballots at various polling stations Jennifer Eckhart (@JenniferEckhart) March 15, 2016 Hearing reports from friends in my home state of Florida that @realDonaldTrump is left OFF of voting ballots at various polling stations @realDonaldTrump Up to 15 people now have called me to complain that Trump is left off their voting ballot in Florida @DonaldJTrumpJr Jennifer Eckhart (@JenniferEckhart) March 15, 2016.@samuraiEighty returned ballot said they were given the "wrong one" called local Fox affiliate they've received dozens of complaints Jennifer Eckhart (@JenniferEckhart) March 15, 2016If you're a registered voter in Florida and you've received a ballot w/ @realDonaldTrump OFF the ballot contact me. @FoxNews on the story. Jennifer Eckhart (@JenniferEckhart) March 15, 2016Via: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Lavrov dismisses claims Moscow behind Democrats' email hack | VIENTIANE (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday brushed aside accusations that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails. “I don’t want to use four-letter words,” Lavrov told reporters, when asked whether Russia was responsible for the hacking of emails. He was speaking at the start of talks with Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos. | 0fake |
MOTHER OF CRYING BABY AT TRUMP RALLY: “Mr. Trump NEVER kicked me or my child out”…Liberal Reporter Backs Up Her Story | When you re Donald Trump (or any Republican for that matter) and the Washington Post comes to your defense, you know it means there are too many untruths surrounding the story to pull off this particular lie Donald Trump is complaining that the media has spun a fable that he kicked a baby out of his rally in Ashburn, Va.The New York Post, for instance, headlined its article: Trump loves crying baby, then kicks the tot out of his rally. The New York Daily News, in its article on the incident, began: What a baby. Donald Trump booted a fussy baby from a rally Tuesday because the tot was wailing over the businessman s speech. The Guardian newspaper even used the incident to declare that this is a core problem with Trump that he has a total lack of empathy. In reality, this is a situation when the video can lie and Trump s odd sense of humor can backfire. Let s roll the tape.The FactsThere are two parts to the video. During his speech a baby starts to cry, and Trump says: Don t worry about that baby, I love babies. I hear that baby crying. I like it. What a baby. What a beautiful baby. Don t worry, don t worry. The mom s running around like don t worry about it, you know. It s young and beautiful and healthy, and that s what we want. But then about a minute later he says: Actually, I was only kidding. You can get the baby out of here. I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I m speaking. So, just from watching the video, Trump sounds rather cruel. But what s missing is what the mother was doing. As it happens, Daniel Dale, a reporter from the Toronto Star, was sitting right behind her and wrote that the entire incident was mischaracterized.The baby was one row in front of me, three or four rows from the stage, at Trump s event at a high school in Ashburn, Va. When it began to cry, Trump said, Don t worry about that baby, I love babies. I love babies. I hear that baby crying, I like it. I like it. What a baby, what a beautiful baby. Don t worry, don t worry. The mom s running around don t worry about it. People applauded. One minute later, though, the baby began to cry again. This time, the mother quickly decided to take the baby out of the room. Trump, looking in our direction, appeared to notice that she was on her way to the exit.And then he said, Actually, I was only kidding. You can get the baby out of here. That s all right. Don t worry. I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I m speaking? He cupped his hand over his eyes to watch her leave. That s okay, people don t understand. That s okay. A joke? Possibly. An insensitive, heartless, ordinary-person-embarrassing remark? Possibly. Trump s tone is eternally hard to read. But, to my eyes, it certainly was not an ejection it was an unusually barbed endorsement of the mother s own decision to depart.One other salient fact is missing from all the pieces on babygate. Mom and baby, very much not kicked out, came back to their seat a bit later.The baby was sucking a pacifier, silent.Dale had this perspective because he was not sitting in the news media corral. I almost never request press credentials from the Trump campaign anymore partly because I like being in the crowd rather than the pen, he told The Fact Checker. I was lucky, this time, that the usher people seated me very close to the stage, and one row behind the baby. There was one empty seat up there. Virtually no one in the media noticed Dale s version of events. He said he did not seek to interview the mother himself, as he did not realize until later how much attention had been paid to this incident. Washington PostWithin days, the Clinton campaign highlighted the baby affair in a video trashing Trump s week:Trump just said he doesn t throw babies out of his rallies Let s review the record.https://t.co/u3a8RDNNrr Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 5, 2016Trump responded (as only Trump can) to this ridiculous allegation while speaking at a rally in WI last night:The mother of the baby who Trump allegedly ejected from his rally, Devan Cierra Ebert is speaking out and setting the record straight about what REALLY happened.Statement from Devan Cierra Ebert who was removed with her crying baby at a Trump Rally: I was the mother in his rally on Tuesday, August 2nd, in Ashburn, VA, with the baby who started to cry. I would just like him to know personally that I, by no means felt I was ever kicked out of his rally.I excused myself and my child when he awoke from his nap and began to cry. It was only because I had to grab my child s belongings and then make my way out of the aisle I was seated in that I wasn t out of there sooner.I realize Mr. Trump doesn t know me personally, but for those that do, know that I am the first one to excuse myself and my child when he begins to cry because I personally believe it s rude to disturb anyone else s ability to hear what they came to see. I ve left movies, violin recitals, and other events if I felt my child was disturbing others. It is the considerate thing to do. I stood right outside the doors of the auditorium continuing to watch and listen to what Mr. Trump had to say. In fact, the police that were right outside in the same hallway with me, treated me with so much respect it was incredible. They were so kind and made me feel welcomed to stand with them.One officer commended me on my bravery to bring my child to Mr. Trump s rally.I fully support Mr. Trump. I thought he responded very graciously to my child crying and he made a lighthearted moment out of what I usually consider to be stressful. I actually was out of the auditorium before he even made his follow up comment about my child and even then, when I was informed of his comment,I laughed. I understand he says things jokingly, and I understand no one wants to speak over or struggle to listen over a crying baby.I am in no way offended and I again reiterate, Mr. Trump NEVER kicked me or my child out of the Briar Woods High School, Trump rally.And for the record, while my child and I stood outside of the auditorium, my eleven year old stepdaughter and my Grandmother sat inside the auditorium and continued to support and listen to everything Mr. Trump had to say.We all were so excited to be able to see Mr. Trump so close to home. I didn t have a babysitter to watch my kids and honestly, to me it was a historical moment that I am happy that my kids were there for.I apologize for the trouble this has caused Mr.Trump. The media has severely blown this out of proportion and made it out to be something that it wasn t and is clearly using this as political gain for the Democratic party.I hope this message sheds light to what really happened.Thank you for your time. Best of luck! You have our vote. Trump 2016 Via: Facebook | 1real |
Republicans Offered Condolences For Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin When He Died | Republicans need to stop whining about President Obama offering condolences for Fidel Castro s death, because they ve offered condolences for even worse monsters.After news of the longtime Cuban dictator s death, President Obama issued the following statement:At this time of Fidel Castro s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans in Cuba and in the United States with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him. Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro s family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America.President Obama s statement was much different from Donald Trump s, which seemed to celebrate Castro s death. Indeed, Trump s statement is the kind of dangerous reaction that could damage international relations between nations at a time when we should be seeking peace.Republicans, of course, have been attacking President Obama ever since. Marco Rubio called Obama s statement pathetic. Ted Cruz says the United States should not send anyone to represent America at the funeral.But once again, just like they did when President Obama did not attend former First Lady Nancy Reagan s funeral, Republicans are conveniently forgetting history and precedent.As it turns out, the Republicans themselves sent condolences after a brutal dictator died on two occasions. In 1953, President Eisenhower offered condolences upon learning that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was near death.At this moment in history when multitudes of Russians are anxiously concerned because of the illness of the Soviet ruler2 the thoughts of America go out to all the people of the U.S.S.R. the men and women, the boys and girls in the villages, cities, farms and factories of their homeland.They are the children of the same God who is the Father of all peoples everywhere. And like all peoples, Russia s millions share our longing for a friendly and peaceful world.Regardless of the identity of government personalities, the prayer of us Americans continues to be that the Almighty will watch over the people of that vast country and bring them, in His wisdom, opportunity to live their lives in a world where all men and women and children dwell in peace and comradeship.That s right. Republicans sent condolences for a brutal dictator who murdered at least 10 million people and is known as one of the worst mass murderers of the 20th century.After Stalin died, Eisenhower even offered praise of Stalin and reached out to the Russian people in his Chance for Peace speech.The world knows that an era ended with the death of Joseph Stalin. The extraordinary 30-year span of his rule saw the Soviet Empire expand to reach from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, finally to dominate 800 million souls.The Soviet system shaped by Stalin and his predecessors was born of one World War. It survived with stubborn and often amazing courage a second World War. It has lived to threaten a third.Now a new leadership has assumed power in the Soviet Union. Its links to the past, however strong, cannot bind it completely. Its future is, in great part, its own to make.The United States was even represented at Stalin s funeral by U.S. Ambassador Jacob Beam.And when Mao Tse-tung died in September 1976, President Gerald Ford sent the following condolences: Mrs. Ford joins me in extending to you our deepest sympathy on the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Chairman Mao had a profound impact on his era. . . . Please accept my personal condolences. So by attacking President Obama, Republicans are being total hypocrites. Yes, Fidel Castro was a terrible person. But he was still a human being and many people are mourning him in Cuba. Sending condolences is the human thing to do and it s the American way even if the foreign leader who died was our enemy. By extending our hand in friendship, we are sending a message to the Cuban people letting them know that we are with them and that we still want to work with them to make a better world for both of our nations. It s how diplomacy works. Petty statements like Trump s only do more harm than good.Featured image via Cagle | 1real |
EP #19: Patrick Henningsen LIVE – SEASON FINALE – Open Phones | This is the final episode of Patrick LIVE on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX and globally at Alternate Current Radio THIS WEEK: Episode #19 This week we we wrap-up an amazing run on 1100 AM KFNX first hitting the headlines with Al Gore s hot air, BREXIT and the liberal academia s attack on 21st Century Wire and new scourge of alternative narratives . So we ask our listeners: is there any objective integrity left in America academia? We ll find out Tonight, host Patrick Henningsen is joined a Motley cast of VIP callers to hit the issues of the day, one last time Listen to EP #19: Patrick Henningsen LIVE with Open Call Line on Spreaker.For the last five months this program has been broadcasting LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm and 9pm PST, in the post-drive time slot and after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.com and syndicated on the Alternate Current Radio Network. LISTEN TO MORE INTERVIEWS AT PATRICK HENNINGSEN LIVE SHOW ARCHIVES | 1real |
The Huge January Trade Deficit Shows Trump’s Hard Job Ahead - The New York Times | President Trump says that the United States’ persistent trade deficit is a scourge that must be eliminated. But new data Tuesday shows the complexity of the costs and benefits of trade — and how reducing the trade deficit, if not done right, could leave Americans worse off. What really matters is not whether the trade deficit is rising or falling. What matters is why. The trade deficit rose 9. 6 percent in January, to the highest level since 2012 (though it remains lower as a share of the total economy). It’s in the details of that $48. 5 billion gap between what the United States exported and what it imported, though, that you see why the economy is more complex than the “trade deficits are bad” framing of the Trump administration. Picking apart the January numbers, you see just how that way of looking at trade can be misleading. The challenge for the Trump administration, if it sticks to its guns of reducing the trade deficit as a top economic goal, will be to do so by focusing on what really matters for Americans’ standards of living. The trade deficit fell a great deal during the 2008 recession, for example. No one would argue it made Americans (or pretty much anyone else) better off. The United States actually exported 0. 9 percent more goods in January than it did in December (the numbers are adjusted for the usual seasonal variations). If your concern is that other countries haven’t been buying enough goods made in U. S. factories, the January numbers pointed in a positive direction. The United States exported $1. 3 billion more in automobiles and $2. 1 billion more in industrial supplies in January than it did in December. The details show the economic idea of specialization at work. The $1. 3 billion rise in automotive exports was paired with a $900 million rise in automotive imports. The overall balance didn’t shift much, but that suggests that the United States is shipping cars and trucks that it makes more efficiently while importing those that others make more efficiently. The reason the trade deficit rose is that imports rose faster than exports. But even that isn’t entirely a negative. Imports of consumer goods rose by $2. 4 billion in January, with a particularly strong rise in imported cellphones. That reflects the relative strength of the U. S. economy. American consumers have rising incomes, and inevitably they spend part of that income on imported goods. In effect, the higher trade deficit in January is in significant part caused by U. S. economic strength. It is the inverse of what happened during the 2008 recession. Buying more imported consumer goods because you are making more money is generally a good thing, not a bad thing. Some exports of products were down in a few sectors where the United States has important competitive advantages. Exports of civilian aircraft — think Boeing jets sold across the globe — fell by $611 million, and shipments of other capital goods like aircraft engines and telecommunications equipment were also down. Such sectors tend to be volatile, so these may turn out to be blips. But if global demand softened for these products made by skilled workers with advanced technology, it would be bad news for Americans. Meanwhile, a persistent strength of the U. S. economy has been in services, but the balance of trade in services worsened by $5. 3 billion. This may reflect a rise in the value of the dollar. For example, when travelers from abroad visit the United States and spend money at hotels and restaurants, that counts as a services export. That number fell by $89 million in January. It is worth watching whether that falls further, as it might should the dollar keep rising and should the Trump administration’s ban on travel from several countries dissuade travelers. Given the vast numbers of American jobs tied to service industries, it would be bad news if that trend continued. A big piece in the rise in imports was crude oil and other petroleum products. They were up by a combined $2. 2 billion. (Exports of those products also rose, by $1. 2 billion, but combined that means oil contributed to the widening of the trade deficit.) But that seems less worrisome if you know that the price of crude oil rose 9 percent from the start of December until the start of January. A rise in the price of oil or any other commodity benefits its producers and costs its consumers. It will affect, over time, patterns of imports and exports of that product. But when the trade deficit rises or falls because of those shifts, it’s not really because of trade per se, but because of underlying shifts in supply and demand for the commodity in question. Put it all together, and while the January trade report has some weak spots and areas for concern, it is not nearly the unabashed bad news that a simplistic reading of the trade deficit would suggest. If the trade deficit falls during the Trump administration because sales of automobiles, jet airliners or services overseas boom, that will be great news. If it falls because Americans’ spending collapses, it will be bad news. If it falls because of commodity price swings, it will depend on which commodities exactly, and where they’re made. The trade deficit is important. But using it as a simplistic scorecard doesn’t tell the full story. | 0fake |
WATCH! Clueless Anti-Trump “Protesters” Asked Why They’re Protesting Give Hysterical Answers [Video] | 1real | |
Norwegian policeman jailed for 21 years in drugs case | OSLO (Reuters) - A former senior Norwegian police officer was sentenced to 21 years in prison on Monday for aiding drug smugglers and taking bribes in a case that captivated a nation accustomed to clean law enforcement. Eirik Jensen, 60, now retired, was once in charge of combating Oslo s criminal gangs. He had denied the accusations against him and his lawyer said he would appeal. Prosecutors accused Jensen of aiding a smuggling ring for more than a decade by providing information on police and customs staffing, much of it via hundreds of cryptic mobile phone text messages, in return for illegal payments. Jensen s co-defendant Gjermund Cappelen, who admitted organizing the imports of tonnes of hashish, was the prosecution s key witness and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. This case is unique in Norwegian legal history, Oslo District Court Judge Kim Heger said as he read the unanimous verdict against the police officer. Jensen has actively and deliberately contributed to a well-organized and extensive import of hashish, he said. Jensen and his lawyers argued during the trial that the evidence of contact with criminals was merely a result of normal police work intended to extract information and that he had not received any money or gifts. We lost the battle, but we hope to win the war, Jensen s attorney John Christian Elden told reporters after the verdict was made public. There will be an appeal. Such cases are rare in Norway, ranked the world s sixth-least corrupt country by watchdog Transparency International, and this case generated vast media coverage, including an unusual live television broadcast of parts of the trial. In neighboring Finland, also among the least corrupt nations, the former head of Helsinki s drug squad was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for drug smuggling, official misconduct and other crimes, including tampering with evidence. That case is the subject of an appeal. | 0fake |
Stars at Obama’s White House Farewell Bash Party Until 4 A.M. | A litany of celebrities braved temperatures to attend President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s final party at the White House on Friday. [The crowd at the Obama’s farewell bash included George and Amal Clooney, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Stevie Wonder, David Letterman, George Lucas, Paul McCartney, and many more. Cell phones were reportedly confiscated, forcing stars to snap and post photos and videos to their social media accounts from outside the White House. “Stumbling out of the White House at 4am after an incredible night celebrating 8 incredible years,” wrote actress Olivia Wilde in a Twitter post in which she was posing next to her partner, actor Jason Sudeikis. Stumbling out of the White House at 4am after an incredible night celebrating 8 incredible years. 😭 A photo posted by Olivia Wilde (@oliviawilde) on Jan 7, 2017 at 2:10am PST, “The one party we’ll wait in line to get into,” wrote Dj Cassidy in an Instagram post featuring Singer John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, and Jerry Seinfeld and his wife. The one party we’ll wait in line to get into … @johnlegend @chrissyteigen @jerryseinfeld @jessseinfeld @mimisam28 #whitehouse, A photo posted by djcassidy (@djcassidy) on Jan 7, 2017 at 2:20am PST, Musicians Usher, Kelly Rowland, and Wale, who often collaborated with Michelle Obama on her high education initiative, posed for a photo alongside Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah and TV personality La La Anthony. When the squad takes over The White House #squadgoals 💪🏽 A photo posted by LaLa (@lala) on Jan 7, 2017 at 9:22am PST, Bruce Springsteen, Bradley Cooper, J. J. Abrams, Oprah, Gloria Estefan, Tyler Perry, Robert De Niro, Jon Hamm, Ken Burns, Al Roker, Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham were also in attendance. Sports mogul Magic Johnson, fashion icon Anna Wintour, Hollywood super producer Harvey Weinstein, and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels also made an appearance at Friday night’s bash, which lasted well into the night. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson. | 0fake |
U.S. Republican VP candidate Pence endorses House Speaker Ryan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence on Wednesday said he endorsed U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is seeking re-election in a primary contest next week. Pence made the comments in an interview on Fox News, one day after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump declined to endorse Ryan in the Wisconsin race. | 0fake |
Trump on Twitter: Hillary is 'Brainwashed' | Donald Trump took to Twitter Saturday morning where he launched his latest attacks on Hillary Clinton, calling her "brainwashed" after she acknowledged that she "short-circuited" when making a misstatement.
When speaking to members of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington Friday, Clinton sought to "clarify and explain" a statement she made that FBI Director James Comey said that her previous answers about her private email use were "truthful."
"I may have short-circuited [her answers] and for that I will try to clarify," Clinton said.
Trump not only labeled her speech as "habitual lying," but he also took to Twitter noting that it's proof she is not fit to be president: | 0fake |
WATCH: TRUMP STAYS ABOVE FRAY In Flint After Democrat Operative Minister Sets Trap To Humiliate Him During Speech | Even the Democrat ministers can t help themselves from shutting down anyone that would dare to come into their city with an (R) after their name. And people ask why Republicans don t do more outreach in minority communities. These people are clearly not throwing out the welcome mat for the man who will likely be our next President of the United States. Wouldn t it have been refreshing to see this minister embrace Donald Trump s message of jobs for citizens and of hope for broken communities that have been ignored by Democrat ruled cities for decades? The minister of a Methodist church made national headlines after she scolded Donald Trump for injecting politics into a campaign stop.The Rev. Faith Green Timmons came on stage and stopped Trump in the middle of his remarks at Bethel United Methodist Church.Watch:She told him to stay focused on the water crisis and not Hillary Clinton. I invited you here to thank us for what we ve done in Flint, not give a political speech, the reverend told Mr. Trump.Trump graciously complied with her demand.But something doesn t pass the smell test. Check out this screen screen shot from Rev. Timmons Facebook page: We have our chance to show Donald Trump that this nation is filled with intelligent, wise black citizens of integrity many of whom live right in Flint, Michigan, she wrote. What he will see is how we are braving a man-made catastrophe. HE WILL NOT USE US, WE will EDUCATE HIM!!! Well, I guess the Rev. Timmons showed Mr. Trump ambushing him in a House of Worship. I will give her credit for hushing up a protester who kept interrupting his remarks.Mr. Trump showed great restraint and class as he complied with her request. And he deserves credit for at least trying to start a dialogue. Via: Todd Starnes | 1real |
Nazi’s Bodyguard Stabbed 9 Times After Trump Rally, Doesn’t Have Insurance | A bodyguard to a much-reviled white supremacist picked a fight outside a Trump rally and was stabbed nine times as a result. Now he needs medical treatment and (despite working as a bodyguard) doesn t have health insurance to help with the costs.Tony Foreman, bodyguard to notorious racist and rabid Trump fan, Baked Alaska (or Tim Gionet, if you prefer to use his real name), was stabbed by two men on Saturday after picking a fight with two men, Edgar Khodzhafaryan, and Arsen Bekverdyan, in the parking lot.According to Baked Alaska the bodyguard, a member of white wing extremist group the Oath Keepers, was attacked for being white in Los Angeles and because of his allegiance to The Donald. The police, however, say the attack was not tied to race or political ideology but rather to the argument, which was not related to either.Interestingly, as Republicans work overtime to take healthcare away from millions of Americans like Mr. Foreman, his Nazi supporters are complaining that he lacks insurance. They even set up a medical fund on fellow white supremacist Charles Johnson s crowdfunding site, which eats up about 25% of the money raised in fees (compared to GoFundMe s 8%).According to Santa Monica police spokesman Lt. Saul Rodriguez, the dispute began when the not-so-friendly white nationalist made a comment to the suspects which led to an argument. Everyone got out of their vehicles and a fist fight began. Ultimately, the bodyguard was stabbed. Rodriguez says that there is nothing here that would lead us to believe it was targeted or a hate crime or anything like that no matter how much the alt-right screams that he was attacked for being a cracker.Nevertheless, the Nazi wing of American politics is quite sure that this happened because Foreman is white:Anti-Trump and anti-white violence is escalating in the United States of America. From eggs, to fists, to bike locks, and now knives, everyday Trump supporters seem to be in real danger in their own country.It s unfortunate that he picked a fight and got himself stabbed, but the victim mentality on the Right needs to end.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
BRAINIAC Gets Rejected After Trying To Buy BMW With EBT Card…What Happens Next Is HYSTERICAL! | Does anyone else out there see a future BMW car commercial with this story? You really can t make this up! it s what we ve come to with the entitled people who think they can buy a BMW with their EBT card. Unreal! Actually, you can buy almost anything else with your EBT card which is soooo wrong and not what this entitlement was intended for. It s come to this though:A Florida man has been arrested after allegedly stealing a $60,000 BMW a day after a car dealership turned him down from buying it with food stamps.Nicholas Jackson went to an auto dealership where managers declined his business when he tried to buy the BMW with a credit card and his Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, authorities said.On Thursday night, the Pompano Beach dealership was burglarized and the BMW was missing along with keys belonging to 60 other cars, according to the Martin County Sheriff s Office.Authorities said 36-year-old Jackson did not have money to fill the tank of the stolen BMW and subsequently ran out of gas at an intersection.When officers responded to a suspicious person call on Friday morning, they found Jackson, the BMW and the stolen keys, according to the sheriff s office.Via: Daily Mail | 1real |
Reporters Covering Inauguration Day Anti-Trump Protest Face 70 Years In Prison (VIDEO) | On January 20 this year, more than 230 people were arrested without warning in relation to the anti-Trump protests that took place in Washington DC. Now some of those involved face up to 70 years behind bars, including the reporters and photographers who were just trying to bring us the news.Heavily-armed riot police closed off an entire city block in Washington on the day of Donald Trump s inauguration, encircling the bulk of the protestors, however, the order to disperse never came, police just started arresting protestors. It didn t even cross my mind that was what was happening, said independent photographer and videographer Alexei Wood. I was waiting for an order of dispersal and the mass of people showed no sign of resistance when the police completely surrounded them. Almost all of the protests that took place that day went by without violence or arrests on a mass scale, with the exception of Black Bloc anarchists and anti-fascists clashing with police. Wood was unfortunate enough to be scooped up when police retaliated by firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the protestors, as well as launching concussion grenades into the crowd.When the smoke had cleared, more than $100,000 worth of damage had been inflicted on property, cars, and buildings, according to the U.S. Attorney s Office for the District of Columbia. The following day, more than 230 people, including Wood and several other journalists, were arrested for felony rioting, a charge that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $25,000, however, some were lucky enough to have the charges dropped.Things went from bad to worse for Wood and company when, on April 27, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment giving additional charges to 212 defendants, three of whom hadn t even been previously charged. These new charges include urging to riot, conspiracy to riot and destruction of property and could see the defendants spending between 70 and 80 years in prison. Wood alone faces five felony property destruction charges and three felony rioting charges.Alexei Wood, based in San Antonio, Texas, focuses on social justice struggles and resistance movements in his work, but now he finds himself in the exact same position as those for whom he tries to do justice, stating that the implications of the defendants cases are humungous for striking fear into protesters. The state is not just going after window-breakers, which in itself may not be justified. Instead, the state seeks to criminalize dissent by indiscriminately arresting more than 200 people and imposing a slew of felony charges that carry the potential of decades in prison, Wood continued. But it also means if we re [journalists] too close to a newsworthy story, we could be facing more than 70 years. Wood posted live footage of the anti-fascist march on his Facebook page, the 42-minute video showing him complying with police orders, while at no stage suggesting that he took place in any violent acts. The livestream speaks for itself. It s right there for everybody to see. I love that it s there for everybody to see because I want individual people to see my work and make their own decision, he said. I think it s a very clear case. Take a look at the livestream and decide for yourself if the man filming it deserves to spend what could possibly equate to the rest of his life in prison.(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'));Anti fascist black bloc DCPosted by Lex Shoots on Friday, January 20, 2017Featured image via Kevin Dietsch Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
NYT Fact-Checked Donald In Real-Time And It Was GLORIOUS | The second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Sunday night was bizarre to say the least. Donald lurked behind Clinton onstage, lied and even threatened to jail the Democratic presidential nominee. The debate occurred during Donald s most recent scandal in which a tape was released showing Trump casually discussing predatory behavior towards women. That issue was brought up during the debate. The lies, though, were abundant.Reporters for The New York Times fact-checked the statements made by Clinton and Trump during the debate and the results are pretty damning for the GOP presidential nominee.The Times rated the following statement by Trump to be Just flat wrong, : Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton has never used the phrase radical Islamic terrorism. In June, Hillary Clinton broke from President Obama and used the term radical Islamism to describe an attack on an Orlando night club. Whether you call it radical jihadism or radical Islamism, I m happy to say either. I think they mean the same thing, she said on CNN in June.But Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have argued that using that term plays into the hands of the Islamic State. We are not at war with Islam, Mrs. Clinton said on Sunday night.Hillary Clinton said that she had helped eight million children obtain health coverage, Sept. 11 responders receive medical care and children get safer medicines. She can back it up, the Times notes.Lawmakers of both parties who led the fight for the Children s Health Insurance Program in 1997 said then that Hillary Clinton had played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in lining up support for it.She was a tenacious advocate for legislation that provided medical monitoring and treatment to emergency workers and cleanup workers at the site of the World Trade Center attacks. She was also a leading proponent of the Pediatric Research Equity Act of 2003, which has increased the study of drugs in children.After Trump said Clinton wants amnesty for everybody, come on in, come on over, the Times said that s not her position. Naturally, the Benghazi attacks came up during the debate.Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton ignored 600 requests for increased security from J. Christopher Stevens, the ambassador to Libya, and communicated only with Sidney Blumenthal.That little nugget was rated extremely misleading. On Trump s taxes, which he refuses to release:Mr. Trump admitted that he used a $916 million loss declared on his 1995 tax returns to avoid paying federal income taxes. But he refused to say how many years he paid no income tax and simultaneously claimed to have paid a tremendous amount of taxes.The Times responded to that with, More questions than answers. It s impossible to know exactly what Donald J. Trump has or has not done with regard to taxes. He s the only presidential candidate in decades to refuse to release his tax returns. The $916 million loss declared on 1995 tax returns obtained by The New York Times could have allowed Mr. Trump to avoid legally paying income taxes for up to 18 years. There is evidence, the Times reports to Clinton saying Trump supported the Iraq war before it began.While one statement by Hillary was deemed Misleading, the lies told last night belong to Donald J. Trump. Photo by Scott Olson via Getty. | 1real |
Disparate crises distract from Obama bid to sign off on Asia shift | ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - Barack Obama starts his last trip to Asia on Saturday as U.S. president, aiming to put a final stamp on his signature policy shift toward the Pacific but distracted by crises ranging from Brexit to the battle against Islamic State. With the clock ticking down on his presidency, Obama will attend a G20 summit in China, a visit that will underscore the challenges he has faced with a rising world power that is both an economic partner and strategic rival. His final meetings in the region with Chinese President Xi Jinping could set the tone for his White House successor, who will be elected in November and take office in January. Obama will seek to highlight his legacy of stronger ties with Southeast Asia, particularly during the first-ever U.S. presidential visit to Laos, and his success in elevating the issue of climate change on the world stage. But there will be few bright spots in talks with fellow world leaders, who are grappling with the sagging global economy, fallout from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, increasing suspicion of globalization, the fight against Islamic State militants and territorial disputes in East Asia. During his past nine trips to Asia, Obama has sometimes been distracted by other international developments from the emphasis he sought to place on boosting U.S. military and economic ties to the fast-growing region, leading critics to doubt whether the U.S. commitment will last. The latest visit coincides with the race to succeed Obama in the Nov. 8 presidential election, where Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state and co-architect of his Asia strategy, has opposed his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, raising concerns among the 12 nations in the pact. Republican nominee Donald Trump has alarmed allies like Japan and South Korea by suggesting they should pay more for their security and even develop their own nuclear weapons to protect against the threat posed by North Korea. Derek Chollet, a former defense adviser to Obama, said one of the challenges the United States faces is reassuring governments in Asia that the United States means what it says when it comes to rebalancing towards the region. “Asia partners are suspicious that even if we really mean it, that we’re easily sidetracked,” said Chollet, author of “The Long Game,” a book about Obama’s foreign policy. LOW EXPECTATIONS FOR OBAMA-XI TALKS Obama will start his visit on Saturday with China’s Xi. The leaders have forged cooperation on combating climate change and curbing Iran’s nuclear drive but have failed to narrow their countries’ main differences. Irritants include U.S. accusations of Chinese cyber hacking, disputes over trade and Beijing’s pursuit of contested claims in the South China Sea. Michael Green, a top Asia adviser to former Republican President George W. Bush, said he did not expect the Obama-Xi meeting to yield much. “No grand joint declaration as we saw early in the administration, no celebration - perhaps some agreements on climate change - but a pretty rough and scratchy relationship,” Green said. Obama faces another tricky meeting when he holds talks with NATO ally Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, with relations strained over strategy on Syria’s civil war and concerns about Erdogan’s crackdown on opponents after July’s failed coup. White House aides have left open the prospect of an informal encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which whom Obama is sharply at odds over Syria and Ukraine. China will closely watch Obama’s first meeting with brash new Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, slated for Tuesday at an East Asia summit in Laos. In July, the Philippines, with U.S. backing, won a challenge against China’s South China Sea claims at an international arbitration court. Despite the longtime U.S.-Philippines alliance, Duterte recently insulted the U.S. ambassador, calling him a “gay son of a whore.” Evan Medeiros, Obama’s former top Asia adviser, said such comments plus Duterte’s skepticism about the U.S. relationship meant that trust needed to be rebuilt. The White House has said Obama will not pull his punches over human rights concerns, which include thousands of extra-judicial killings since Duterte took office two months ago, according to date released this week. Strains with Duterte could add to Obama’s difficulties in forging a united front on the South China Sea with Southeast Asian partners. China may see an opportunity to “drive a wedge” between the United States and Philippines as Beijing seeks a bilateral arrangement with Manila over the South China Sea, Medeiros said. Western diplomats in Beijing, however, said the Chinese government had its own difficulties reading Duterte. “He seems to change his mind every 24 hours,” said one senior Western envoy, referring to Duterte’s China policy. | 0fake |
Trump says he has not thought about firing Russia probe special counsel | BEDMINSTER, N.J. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he has not given any thought to the possibility of firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Speaking to reporters at his New Jersey golf club, Trump also said he was surprised by the FBI raid last month of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, adding that it sent a “strong signal.” | 0fake |
MIKE ROWE SENDS A BRUTAL MESSAGE To The Media Trying To Label TRUMP Supporters As “Uneducated” | An electrical contractor wrote to the 54-year-old host of Dirty Jobs to say that he finds it offensive when the media constantly refers to majority of the Republican nominee s supporters as uneducated white men. If the media is referring to Trump supporters who happen to be male caucasians suffering from a lack of knowledge brought about by an absence of formal or practical instruction, than I guess uneducated white men is a fair description, Rowe responded in a lengthy Facebook post. However, if the Trump supporters in question are being dubbed uneducated, simply because they didn t earn a four-year degree, I d say the media s slip is showing. Let s assume that Donald Trump is indeed popular among white men who didn t graduate from college. The first question is, so what? Is this information newsworthy? Obviously, thousands of journalists think it is. To your point, the words uneducated white men now appear in hundreds of articles about Trump. But if this is truly important information, where were these reporters four years ago? In the last election, an even greater majority of African-American males who voted for President Obama had no college on their resume. Maybe I missed it, but I don t recall any headlines or articles that delved into Obama s popularity among uneducated black men. If the media didn t care about the lack of college among black men supporting Obama, why do they care so much about the lack of college among white men supporting Trump? Moreover, when exactly did a lack of college become synonymous with a lack of education? There are many ways to become educated that don t involve the purchase of a diploma. Why would the media ignore thousands of apprenticeship programs, on-the-job-training opportunities, and all the other alternative educational options that have led so many people into so many successful careers? The answer is obvious many in the press are looking for ways to impact the election. If a biased reporter can get away with labeling Trump supporters who didn t graduate from college as uneducated, he can simultaneously imply that any ballot cast for Trump is the hallmark of an uneducated voter. It s impossible for me to have this conversation and not think of my grandfather. Pop never made it to college. In fact, he never made it out of the 7th grade. But he never stopped learning or studying. He started as an electrician s helper, became an apprentice, a journeyman, a master electrician, a contractor, and then a small business owner. Later, as an electrical inspector for the state, he was responsible for guaranteeing the safety of hundreds of buildings in Maryland, as well as all the rides on the carnival midway at the State Fair. He was a modest man of real intelligence, admired and respected by everyone who knew him. But today, he d be right there with you, Albert swelling out the ranks of uneducated white men. Closing the skills gap and making college more affordable is beyond my pay grade, but it seems like we could start by reminding the media that a college degree is not the only path to success. It s well and good to promote higher education, but it s crazy to suggest the most expensive road to enlightenment is the best path for the most people. And it s equally nuts to pressure our kids to keep borrowing vast sums of money to become educated in careers that no longer exist. The media has minimized your work, insulted your intelligence, and ignored your contribution to civilized life. Try not to take it personally. Just keep doing what you do. Run your business. Vote your conscience. Keep the lights on for the rest of us. Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
WIKILEAKS BOMBSHELL RELEASE: #Unfit Hillary’s Advisors Contacted NFL Commissioner For Advice On “Cracked Head” [VIDEO] | Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines at the State Department contacted the NFL Commissioner in 2012 to inquire about severe head injuries.Hillary Clinton thanked Reines and added, Having a cracked head is no fun at all. The email was sent on December 24, 2012. GPAfter being gone for a month due to illness, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to work on January 7 to cheers and gifts.Clinton who first went on leave for a stomach virus, was delayed on her return when she fell resulting in a concussion, before being hospitalized for a blood clot according the Associated Press via The Christian Science Monitor.Watch the State Department cover for #Unfit Hillary here. It s all fun and games until a crooked candidate with poor health runs for the highest office in our nation. | 1real |
Carrier Employee Speaks Out On Trump: ‘He Blew Smoke Up Our A**es’ | At a rally last year, Donald Trump said there was a 100 percent chance he would save the jobs at Carrier, the heating and air-conditioning manufacturer. The deal wasn t a very good one because Indiana taxpayers will shoulder some of the costs of Trump s unfortunate attempt to promote himself. At the same Carrier factory where Trump boasted of having crafted the deal to save jobs, it has begun laying off workers. 338 employees were just laid off. One female employee did an interview with The New Yorker and she didn t hold back.Brenda Darlene Battle, 55, worked at the Carrier Corporation for the past 25 years. Trump came in there to the factory last December and blew smoke up our asses, Battle told The New Yorker. He wasn t gonna save those jobs. And, if that s the case, he would have saved us and Rexnord, a company around the corner from us that makes parts. She said that Trump supporters at the factory have gone quiet since the layoffs began. We had a mix of Trump supporters and Clinton supporters at the factory, I d say. The ones that really supported him are quiet right now, she said. Some of them got let go yesterday, too. She said that some of them wore the hats. Not anymore, though, in reference to the red Make America Great Again hats. Personally, I think the President is a rubber room politician. He s crazy. He needs a straitjacket. He s in there for his self. He s not in there to help America keep jobs. Because if he was we wouldn t be in the predicament that we re in every day, she continued. He keeps howling, Make America great. But he can t make America great if all the jobs are leaving the States and going to Mexico. People can t support their families. As for Trump s visit last December to Carrier, she said she thought it was all for show. I think the C.E.O. of Carrier and Trump was in bed together the whole time, she said. That day Trump came to Carrier, those two were too chummy. The way they sniggled and giggled. That sneaky kind of sh*t-eating grin. As for Ms. Battle s plans now, she said she s going to be taking it very easy for a few months and do some of the things that my dad wants to do. She added that her 77-year-old father thinks Trump blew smoke up our asses, too.The layoffs must really sting for the Trump supporting Carrier employees during Made in America week.Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images. | 1real |
Scott Walker Accidentally Gives Dems A GREAT Reason To Vote Hillary And Nobody Can Stop Laughing |
Scott Walker may be the governor of Wisconsin but Scott Walker is not a smart man.
Just one week until Election Day, Walker decided he would use his social media account to help get Donald Trump elected. Instead, he gave every single Democrat in the country more than enough of a reason to vote for Hillary. Oops.
On his Twitter account, Walker tweeted a photo of Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama embracing, he captioned the moment “If you like the past 8 years, vote Hillary Clinton.” If you like the past 8 years, vote @HillaryClinton . pic.twitter.com/cQEtIgPsEz
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) November 1, 2016
In Walker’s right-wing bubble that may be a stinging critique. To most of America, that’s a great reason to vote Hillary. President Obama is currently seeing his favorability ratings surging. His presidency, and the accomplishments he’s made during it, are very popular. At this moment, Gallup found 54 percent of Americans said they approved of Obama. His popularity outstrips Republican icon Ronald Reagan at the same time during his presidency.
Lots of people like the past 8 years under Obama .
The internet was bemused by Walker’s tone-deaf plea. It seems like this could literally be a Clinton campaign tweet given Obama’s approval rating. https://t.co/oHi573bllj | 1real |
November 2: Daily Contrarian Reads | November 2: Daily Contrarian Reads By David Stockman. My daily contrarian reads for Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016. | 1real |
More Police Violence at Standing Rock | Waking Times
Now that the establishment corporate and liberal media have declared open war on so-called ‘ fake news ,’ already rolling out plans to flag, censor, robotically restrict and demonetize the efforts of independent journalists, the world waits with bated breath to see exactly what form the control of information will take.
The 24/7 talking heads on cable news are already repeating ad nauseam the ‘fake news’ talking points, as they do whenever there is a top-down agenda to push onto our supposedly free society.
In this case: America is divided because of fake news, fake news is a dangerous threat to democracy, fake news looks just like real news and we need experts to tell us what’s what, if we don’t stop fake news then people will be misled, fake news causes confusion and disrupts society, facts have no meaning when there’s fake news, fake news is information warfare and needs to be treated like terrorism.
You may be wondering, what, then, is real news?
Here’s an example, hot off the press.
At the ongoing Standing Rock civil disobedience action in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, some 167 people were injured last night by militarized police forces who assaulted a bridge occupied by peaceful protestors including men, women, children and elderly persons. The temperature was well below freezing and for hours the police sprayed the crowd water cannons, fired many rounds of flash bang grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas, and used the LRAD acoustic weapon to disperse dissidents.
Here’s a video of the assault, from TYT .
During the assault, at least one elder was left in critical condition and it is reported that 13-year old girl suffered serious injuries when shot with a rubber bullet.
This is happening in America, to Americans, by American police, which makes it quite newsworthy to Americans.
We know without question, without even having to ask, that any crackdown on ‘fake news’ will not in any way apply to mainstream, corporate news sources such as the major newspapers and the major cable news networks.
A scan of ‘real news’ sources the morning after this major confrontation between police and resistors at Standing Rock reveals that stories like this, stories of resistance to corporate rule and government authoritarianism.
These Sources Did Not Report On This:
CNN.com – Although the homepage of CNN features around a hundred stories, as of the time of this post, there was no mention whatsoever about the Standing Rock confrontation last night.
MSNBC.com – No mention whatsoever of this event on this mainstream news site. The top 6 posts at the time this article was written were all about Donald Trump, his cabinet picks, and how his administration was going to be terrible.
CBS News – No coverage of this story on the CBS News homepage.
DrudgeReport.com – This story has not been aggregated on the Drudge Report.
These Sources Did Report on This:
FoxNews.com – The confrontation did make it the homepage of Fox, but not as a headline story. A short video was included, and the coverage was short and to the point. | 1real |
German SPD to start talks with Merkel next week if members agree | BERLIN/MUNICH (Reuters) - The leader of Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) said on Monday he would launch talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives on forming a government next week if members of his center-left party gave him the green light at a congress this weekend. The remarks by Martin Schulz raised hopes that the two parties that suffered losses to the far right in an election in September could renew an alliance that has ruled Germany since 2013 and end the political deadlock in Europe s largest economy. Merkel turned to the SPD after failing to form a three-way alliance with the left-leaning Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, plunging Germany into a political impasse and raising doubt about her future after 12 years in power. We ll explore whether and how the formation of a government is possible in Germany, Schulz told journalists. The SPD party board leadership had earlier set down its key demands for coalition talks with the conservatives. On the divisive issue of immigration, one of the main reasons for the collapse of Merkel s first effort, the SPD said it opposed a conservative plan to extend a ban on the right to family reunions for some asylum seekers. Family reunions and family cohabitation lead to good integration, the SPD document said. That s why we are against extending the suspension of family reunions. In a sign of the tensions likely to bubble up between the parties, Horst Seehofer, leader of the arch-conservative Bavarian sister party to Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU), warned the SPD not to try to prevent attempts to extend the ban on family reunifications. That would lead to such a huge migrant influx again that Germany s ability to integrate them all would be completely overstretched, Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), told Bild newspaper. Merkel could also face complications from her own camp. Her arch-conservative CSU allies in Bavaria on Monday named right-winger Markus Soeder to be their candidate for the state premiership in a regional election next autumn, potentially weakening her hand as she negotiates with the SPD. Merkel s CDU and the CSU bled support to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) in September s federal election because of anger at the chancellor s decision in 2015 to open Germany s door to more than a million asylum seekers. The CSU now fears losing more votes at regional level. The future of Seehofer had been in question since the election. After the losses, Merkel reluctantly accepted a CSU demand to put a limit on the number of asylum seekers Germany will accept each year. Asked why he was clearing the stage for Soeder to lead the CSU in next year s vote in Bavaria, Seehofer said: The past doesn t win you any elections. Soeder, who has accused Merkel of pulling the conservatives to the left and took a hard line on Greece during the euro zone crisis, is likely to be a bigger thorn in Merkel s side than Seehofer, who is expected to remain party leader. For its part, the SPD, which has governed in coalition under Merkel since 2013, suffered its worst election result in postwar history in September, and had been reluctant to join another grand coalition . It dropped its pledge to go into opposition only after Merkel failed to form a government, bowing to pressure from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to ease the deadlock. The SPD will hold a party congress in Berlin this weekend, where it is expected to debate its position on coalition talks. Kevin Kuehnert, the head of the SPD s youth wing - which opposes another grand coalition - told Die Welt newspaper that the outgoing CDU-CSU-SPD government had been characterized by cheap and often quite bad compromises, such as on urgently needed investment in education and infrastructure . The SPD did not stake out a position on the conservatives upper limit on refugees in its policy document. But it did say Germany should work with French President Emmanuel Macron on strengthening the European project through policies geared to fight high youth unemployment. It did not mention key proposals by Macron that the euro zone should have its own budget and finance minister, but it did refer to his plan for closer defense cooperation. On the economy, the SPD s proposals for more rights for workers and employee-friendly regulation of the large temporary work sector could draw fire from the CSU. The long political impasse is starting to worry investors. An investor sentiment survey tracking Germany fell in December. The research group Sentix said investors wanted to know how expensive a tie-up with the SPD would be. | 0fake |
BREITBART’S JOEL POLLACK Brilliantly Shuts Down “The View” Lunatics [Video] | Watch Joy Behar as she hilariously attempts to tie anti-semitism to Breitbart News while interviewing their senior editor who happens to be an orthodox Jew. When Behar s attempt to prove that Breitbart is an anti-semitic news site, her leftist co-host Sunny Holstein attempts to pin racism and anti-semitism on Breitbart s former boss Steve Bannon. When that didn t work, Joy Behar attempts to say that it doesn t look like Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus get along because of the their body language. When Pollack dispels their ridiculous attempts to convince their viewers that Trump s top officials in his administration don t get along, Behar just resorts to the behavior one would expect from a 3 year old and calls President Trump a liar .You almost have to feel sorry for these unhinged rabidly leftist hags almost. | 1real |
Robert F. Kennedy's son announces run for Illinois governor | (Reuters) - Businessman Chris Kennedy, a member of the Kennedy family political dynasty, on Wednesday officially announced his campaign for governor of Illinois in the November, 2018 election. After months of speculation, the Democratic candidate formally filed paperwork with the Illinois State Board of Elections, said his spokesman, Mark Bergman. Kennedy, son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, said he will run against Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and will work to create more jobs and restore the economy. “Today, I am announcing my run for Governor because I love Illinois, but we have never been in worse shape,” Kennedy said in an emailed statement. “We don’t need incremental improvement - we need fundamental change in state government.” Since taking office in 2015, Rauner has feuded with the Democratic-led state legislature, leaving the nation’s fifth most-populated state without a full-year operating budget. No other state has gone 19 months, as Illinois has, without passing a budget. Bergman said Kennedy had previously considered a U.S. Senate run in 2009 but concluded it was not the right time. Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe said in a statement that Kennedy secretly met with the state’s House of Representatives Speaker Mike Madigan to “kiss his ring.” Rauner has said Madigan’s law firm poses a conflict of interest for the speaker. Kennedy, 53, a Chicago resident, is a former chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. He leads Top Box Foods, a nonprofit organization he co-founded with his wife that provides affordable, healthy foods to Chicago neighborhoods. He also managed the Merchandise Mart, a landmark Chicago exhibition hall, and currently oversees Wolf Point, a real estate development project in the city’s downtown. Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while serving as a U.S. senator. His uncle, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963 during his first term as president. | 0fake |
Comey Letter on Clinton Email Is Subject of Justice Dept. Inquiry - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general said Thursday that he would open a broad investigation into how the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey, handled the case over Hillary Clinton’s emails, including his decision to discuss it at a news conference and to disclose 11 days before the election that he had new information that could lead him to reopen it. The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, will not look into the decision not to prosecute Mrs. Clinton or her aides. But he will review actions Mr. Comey took that Mrs. Clinton and many of her supporters believe cost her the election. They are: the news conference in July at which he announced he was not indicting Mrs. Clinton but described her behavior as “extremely careless” the letter to Congress in late October in which he said that newly discovered emails could potentially change the outcome of the F. B. I. ’s investigation and the letter three days before the election in which he said that he was closing it again. The inspector general’s office said that it was initiating the investigation in response to complaints from members of Congress and the public about actions by the F. B. I. and the Justice Department during the campaign that could be seen as politically motivated. For Mr. Comey and the agency he heads, the Clinton investigation was politically fraught from the moment the F. B. I. received a referral in July 2015 to determine whether Mrs. Clinton and her aides had mishandled classified information. Senior F. B. I. officials believed there was never going to be a good outcome, since it put them in the middle of a bitterly partisan issue. Whatever the decision on whether to charge Mrs. Clinton with a crime, Mr. Comey, a Republican former Justice Department official appointed by President Obama, was going to get hammered. And he was. Republicans, who made her use of a private email server a centerpiece of their campaign against Mrs. Clinton, attacked Mr. Comey after he decided there was not sufficient evidence she had mishandled classified information to prosecute her. The Clinton campaign believed the F. B. I. investigation was overblown and seriously damaged her chances to win the White House and resented Mr. Comey’s comments about Mrs. Clinton at his news conference. But the campaign was particularly upset about Mr. Comey’s two letters, which created a wave of damaging news stories at the end of the campaign, when Mrs. Clinton and her supporters thought they had put the email issue behind them. In the end, the emails that the F. B. I. reviewed — which came up during an unrelated inquiry into Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin — proved irrelevant to the investigation’s outcome. The Clinton campaign said Mr. Comey’s actions quite likely caused a significant number of undecided voters to cast ballots for Donald J. Trump. F. B. I. officials said Thursday that they welcomed the scrutiny. In a statement, Mr. Comey described Mr. Horowitz as “professional and independent” and promised to cooperate with his investigation. “I hope very much he is able to share his conclusions and observations with the public because everyone will benefit from thoughtful evaluation and transparency,” Mr. Comey said. Brian Fallon, the former press secretary for the Clinton campaign and the former top spokesman for the Justice Department, said the inspector general’s investigation was long overdue. “This is highly encouraging and to be expected, given Director Comey’s drastic deviation from Justice Department protocol,” he said. “A probe of this sort, however long it takes to conduct, is utterly necessary in order to take the first step to restore the F. B. I. ’s reputation as a nonpartisan institution. ” Mr. Horowitz has the authority to recommend a criminal investigation if he finds evidence of illegality, but there has been no suggestion that Mr. Comey’s actions were unlawful. Rather, the question has been whether he acted inappropriately, showed bad judgment or violated Justice Department guidelines. It is not clear what the consequences would be for Mr. Comey if he was found to have done any of those things. The Justice Department and the F. B. I. have a longstanding policy against discussing criminal investigations. Another Justice Department policy declares that politics should play no role in investigative decisions. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have interpreted that policy broadly to prohibit taking any steps that might even hint at an impression of partisanship. Inspectors general have investigated F. B. I. directors before, but rarely. The most example was the investigation of William S. Sessions, who was fired by President Bill Clinton after an internal inquiry cited him for financial misconduct. In recent years, the inspector general has investigated accusations of wrongdoing by the F. B. I. involving some of its most sensitive operations, including a number of surveillance and counterterrorism programs. As part of the review, the inspector general will examine other issues related to the email investigation that Republicans have raised. They include whether the deputy director of the F. B. I. Andrew G. McCabe, should have recused himself from any involvement in it. In 2015, Mr. McCabe’s wife ran for a State Senate seat in Virginia as a Democrat and accepted nearly $500, 000 in political contributions from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a key ally of the Clintons. Though Mr. McCabe did not assume his post until February 2016, months after his wife was defeated, critics both within the agency and outside of it felt that he should have recused himself. The F. B. I. has said Mr. McCabe played no role in his wife’s campaign. He also told his superiors she was running and sought ethics advice from F. B. I. officials. Mr. Horowitz said he would also investigate whether the Justice Department’s top congressional liaison, Peter Kadzik, had improperly provided information to the Clinton campaign. A hacked email posted by WikiLeaks showed that Mr. Kadzik alerted the campaign about a coming congressional hearing that was likely to raise questions about Mrs. Clinton. Investigators will be helped in gathering evidence by a law that Congress passed just last month, which ensures that inspectors general across the government will have access to all relevant agency records in their reviews. The law grew out of skirmishes between the F. B. I. and the Justice Department inspector general over attempts by the F. B. I. to keep grand jury material and other records off limits. The new law means Mr. Horowitz’s investigators should have access to any records deemed relevant. Mr. Trump has not indicated whether he intends to keep Mr. Comey in his job. When he cleared Mrs. Clinton of criminal wrongdoing during the campaign, Mr. Trump accused him of being part of a rigged system. Although the president does not need cause to fire the F. B. I. director, a critical inspector general report could provide justification to do so if Mr. Trump is looking for some. | 0fake |
Dan Rather Says What Every Person With A Moral Compass Is Thinking Regarding Sean Spicer & Trump | It s gotten to the point where if Donald Trump doesn t fire Sean Spicer for his egregious remarks about the Holocaust, Assad and Syria, he should be seen as agreeing with Spicer s sentiment as well as condoning it.It s disgusting, to say the least, and the legendary Dan Rather just released a statement that should summarize what every person with a decent moral compass is thinking right now.Rather wrote: It is with sadness that I do not know where to begin. Today in a briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer issued a statement that is so far beyond the pale, so tone deaf and blind to history and our precarious moment in world affairs, that it is with only a heavy heart that I even bring attention to it. There can be no joy in such incompetence.In trying to make the case for the Administration s policy in Syria and vis a vis Russia which is confused to be generous, and wildly chaotic to be more precise, Mr. Spicer said, We didn t use chemical weapons in World War II. You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn t even sink to using chemical weapons. He continued, So you have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself: Is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with? When asked to clarify, Mr. Spicer said, I think when you come to sarin gas, he (Hitler) was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing. Mr. Spicer went on to mention Holocaust centers, in an apparent reference to the Nazi concentration camps.This line of rhetoric is so unhinged, so amateurish, so lacking in the context and perspective necessary for statesmanship and diplomacy that I do not see how Mr. Spicer can be allowed to continue in his current position. But in the end, this is less about him and more about an Administration that is inserting itself in a civil war and now is plunging into a drastic reformulation of American foreign policy without any clear sense that they have a plan. When you try to explain such a situation, it is understandable that your words don t make sense.A bar, already set low, continues to drop. If Trump doesn t fire Spicer then he is fully condoning Holocaust denial within his administration. This shouldn t only outrage America, but cause a massive resistance against the current administration that has never been seen before. This must not be condoned or accepted. It is not okay.Featured Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images for SiriusXM | 1real |
Alaska scrambles to prevent Obamacare collapse | Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 0fake |
UK's Mr Brexit says no vacancy for ambassador to United States | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Brexit Secretary David Davis said on Tuesday there was no vacancy for the job of ambassador to Washington as the incumbent was very good. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said many people would like to see Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage as British ambassador to Washington. “People can say what they like but the simple truth is there’s no vacancy. The ambassador there is very very good, as we’ve seen,” Davis told the BBC. “We believe in free speech - we have a very good ambassador in Washington, Kim Darroch, and he’ll be there for years,” Davis said. Darroch did not reply to requests for comment. | 0fake |
Samantha Bee Explores the Dangerous Rise of the Alt Right in American Politics (Video) | Samantha Bee Explores the Dangerous Rise of the Alt Right in American Politics (Video) Posted on Nov 2, 2016
The “Full Frontal” host discussed the “white nationalist ghouls” of the “racist fringe” that have taken over the Republican Party in a two-part segment on Monday. | 1real |
Obama Has Hit The DGAF Portion Of His Presidency, And This Video Is Proof | President Barack Obama has officially hit the stage of his presidency where he does not give one f**k.
At least that's according to a video that played ahead of his speech at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night.
After the video played, Obama said he was recently asked if he had anything left on his presidential bucket list.
"Well, I have something that rhymes with 'bucket list,'" Obama said. "Take executive action on immigration? Bucket. New climate regulations? Bucket, it's the right thing to do."
Watch the video above, and see more from the dinner below: | 0fake |
Hillary Clinton: The Alt-Right Has 'Effectively Taken Over the Republican Party' | "From the start," Hillary Clinton declared today in Reno, "Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia. He has taken hate groups mainstream, and [is] helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party." The speech that followed those words was an extended argument that her opponent is a racist, a conspiracy theorist, and a man temperamentally unfit to be president.
Clinton's campaign had promoted this in advance as an address about "Donald Trump and his advisors' embrace of the disturbing 'alt-right' political philosophy"—the alt-right being an umbrella term for an assortment of racist micro-movements and online subcultures. Yesterday I suggested that making the alt-right the stars of such a speech could only give a signal boost to what is, after all, a rather obscure political faction. But Clinton's comments about that faction took up only about a minute of her remarks. And while that minute was pretty juicy, the alt-right wasn't really the rally's star villain after all.
The star villain was Donald Trump. Everyone else that Clinton brought into the address—the alt-right, Breitbart, Alex Jones, David Duke, Nigel Farage, Vladimir Putin—was there in a supporting role.
Some of Clinton's arguments didn't make a lot of sense. She led her litany, oddly, by quoting Trump's recent remarks about how bad blacks have it in America. ("Poverty. Rejection. Horrible education. No housing. No homes. No ownership. Crime at levels nobody has seen.") Most people would call his comments a clumsy attempt to reassure voters that he cares about the black community's problems, but Clinton declared them "a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters." She also wildly overstated the alt-right's influence, declaring that "the de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign" means the alt-rightists have "effectively taken over the Republican Party." She was on sturdier ground at other moments, as when she mentioned Trump's habit of retweeting white nationalists or his false claim that he watched thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheer the 9/11 attacks.
Running through all her claims, both the weak ones and the strong ones, was one basic theme: Donald Trump is a bigot and a nut. And while that's an idea you've been hearing ever since the mogul turned reality TV star entered the race, this was as forceful and concentrated an expression of it as I've ever heard emerge from Hillary Clinton's mouth. It's bound to fire up her supporters, and I expect it will help her get out the vote. Whether it also leads a bunch of curious conservatives to Google "alt-right" depends, I suppose, on how much coverage that minute of the speech gets in the next few days.
But the guy who must be really delighted right now is Alex Jones. Hillary Clinton just attacked him by name! His listeners will be hearing clips from this speech til Ragnarok. | 0fake |
Donald Trump Tells Security To Throw Bernie Sanders Supporter Out Into The Cold Without His Coats (VIDEO) | It seems Donald Trump s cruelty knows no bounds, especially after his latest campaign rally.During a rally in the middle of a very cold winter night in Vermont, Trump ordered security to throw a Bernie Sanders supporter out of the building without his coat.Several Sanders supporters gained entrance into the Burlington rally at the Flynn Center throughout the evening in order to heckle and interrupt the Republican presidential wannabe.Of course, the Sanders fans managed to annoy Trump to the point where his campaign team actually began to screen people to make sure they were Trump fans. Considering how Trump has treated protesters and hecklers during previous rallies, it was only a matter of time before he treated them heartlessly.At one point in particular, Trump directed attention toward one man and ordered security to escort him out. This normally would not be unusual since hecklers and protesters are escorted out of rallies all the time, but in this instance, Trump noted the extremely cold temperature outside and told security to throw the man out into the freezing air without his coat. I thought I heard a little voice over there. Get him outta there! Don t give him his coat. Keep his coat. Confiscate his coat. You know it s about ten degrees below zero outside. No, you can keep his coat. Tell him we ll send it to him in a couple of weeks. And Trump s supporters cheered the cruelty as the man was parted from his coat and forced to go without it during a freezing night in Vermont.Here s the video via YouTube.Trump went on to acknowledge that he expected some Sanders supporters to interrupt his rally since he was in Vermont, Sanders home state.Sanders and Trump have engaged each other recently through media and social media, the most notable of which occurred when Sanders criticized Trump for not supporting wage increases for workers during an interview on CBS. The very next day, Trump flip-flopped on the minimum wage, posting on Twitter that it s bad that workers haven t received much of a raise in years.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
FIDEL CASTRO MOCKS President Obama…Blasts Him For Meddling In Communist Country’s Affairs | B..b b but what about the wave the baseball game, the posing in front of Che Guevara artwork? We were under the impression that our communist leader and Cuba s communist leader had an understanding, or at least a special bond between kindred spirits Fidel Castro speaking out for the first time since President Obama s historic visit to Cuba blasted the US leader for trying to meddle in his country s affairs.In a letter titled Brother Obama and published Monday in El Granma, the official state newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, the island nation s former president scoffed, We don t need the empire to give us any presents. Castro, 89, ripped Obama for assuming that Cuba trusted him when he said the US government is done trying to overthrow the Communist regime and that this will help the island move more quickly toward economic and political reform. My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn t try to develop theories about Cuban politics, Castro said. No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights, he wrote. We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with the work and intelligence of our people. He even took a swipe at Obama s relative youth. Native populations do not exist at all in the minds of Obama. Nor does he say that racial discrimination was swept away by the Revolution; that retirement and salary of all Cubans were enacted by this before Mr. Barack Obama was 10 years old, Castro said.Obama had said in a speech that it is time, now, for us to leave the past behind, but the diehard Commie retorted, I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the President of the United States. Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in 2008. Obama met with Raul last week, the first time a US president had been to Cuba since 1928. Via: NYP | 1real |
Macedonian Media: Ruling Party About To Win Over Western Mercenaries | 'The Others' Alliances , Balkans , Hybrid Wars By Andrew KORYBKO (USA) We are publishing the exclusive English source of the interview given by the American political analyst Andrew Korybko to the Macedonian NetPress agency. He speaks about the forthcoming early parliamentary elections to be held in Macedonia on 11 December 2016 which are likely to be won by the ruling VMRO party of Nikola Gruevski, the effective defeat and demoralization of the globalist agents in the Balkans, and geoeconomic implications of the new political landscape in the region:
Less than one month before the early parliamentary elections in Macedonia, the polls indicate a clear victory for the ruling party of VMRO-DPMNE lead by Nikola Gruevski. This on the other hand represents a mayor failure for the Western elements and their NGO/media machinery that in the past 2 years have been trying to overthrow the democratically elected Macedonian government together with the opposition lead by SDSMs Zoran Zaev, using methods such as Color Revolutions, public broadcasting of illegally wiretapped conversations, violent opposition protests, terrorist attacks, the formation of the so-called “special” prosecution, fabricating false scandals with alleged phantom voters and fake IDs, etc. What can we expect to be happening in Macedonia ahead of after the 11 December elections?
It’s clear that VMRO will be handed a resounding victory by the people, but voters still need to go to the polls in order to make this the largest success that it can be and give Gruevski the unquestionable mandate that he will need to govern the post-crisis country. All surveys indicate that this will be the case, but people mustn’t become apathetic and assume that it’ll be a landslide just because everyone else is supposedly going to vote and instead choose to stay home. Everyone needs to go to the polls and make this election the crowning achievement of the patriotic counter-Color Revolution movement. If VMRO can clinch an overwhelming majority of the votes, then the rest of the world will see once and for all that the people have spoken and democratically expressed both their support for the legitimate government and their rejection of the Western-orchestrated Color Revolution. Nikola Gruevski
In the run-up to the vote, there were clear signs that efforts were made by SDSM to unite the opposition into a solid bloc, but this failed because nobody really trusts Zaev. If a man will betray the entire country by becoming the figurehead of a Western regime change operation, then he’ll surely sell out any of his “political allies” if given the opportune chance to do so. Most patriotic opposition members recognize this and thus don’t want to contaminate their political brand, which is why the effort has thus far been a failure. Similarly, Zaev’s shameless pandering to Albanian voters has also been a dud. The demographic is aware that they’re being exploited, and while some admittedly find it flattering, many of them don’t want to be part of his international political games and know that the doesn’t truly have their best interests at heart.
By and large, there’s no reason to second guess that VMRO and Gruevski are headed for an historic win in this election. Should this come to pass as expected, then Macedonians can look forward to a new era of stability and prosperity, with their country working equally with the West and East (Russia, China, BRICS) in order to maximize its geostrategic position as the prime infrastructural gateway to Europe. Russia is moving ahead with the Balkan Stream gas pipeline while China is making progress on the Balkan Silk Road high-speed rail system which will eventually link Budapest to Piraeus. Western investment, while having likely been impacted to an extent by the manufactured political crisis, hasn’t fled the country like it ordinarily would have in many other cases. Businessmen understand that Macedonia is growing and is an attractive place to set up shop because of its irreplaceable mainland location at the civilizational crossroads of Afro-Eurasia.
All of this is indeed possible so long as the US pulls back from its recent history of destabilizing the Republic of Macedonia. Washington and its conspirators have already been beaten back twice – something which no other country has managed to do – and are slated for at third defeat during the December elections. The US’ behavior during this time will be contingent on how it’s “deep state” (the permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies) decides to response. The US is undergoing the most transformational phased regime change event that it has ever experienced in history with Obama’s government giving way to President-elect Trump’s, so it remains to be seen if the “deep state’s” subjectively determined cost-benefit calculation will continue to lean in favor of asymmetrical destabilization.
A reasonably confident argument can be made that won’t. Commencing yet another wave of failed Color Revolutions would be a waste of time, money, and resources if Trump simply decides to stop it once he enters office. On the other hand, Obama and his neoconservative “deep state” backers might be conspiratorially vengeful enough that they’d want to sabotage Trump’s incoming presidency by forcing him to inherit a legacy of conflict. Even if that’s the case, however, it doesn’t seem likely that this would succeed, since it’s obvious to all observers that the Macedonian people have repeatedly proven that all foreign-concocted plots against their statehood are determined to fail. Because of this, the US probably won’t opt to continue with this failed plan any longer, and will attempt to ‘save face’ by recognizing VMRO and Gruevski’s imminent victory, hoping that this can allow them to earn back some of the goodwill that they needlessly squandered over the years.
Seen from this perspective, one can definitely conclude that the western sponsored wing together with their patrons, failed in Macedonia big time. What are the main factors that according to you helped Macedonia deal with these foreign sponsored crises, which can be used as an example for other countries that are or will be fighting these kinds of Western sponsored crises?
Macedonians were able to withstand and repel the US’ Hybrid War pressure because they came to master the art of what I call the Resistance Circle, which is a counter-Color Revolution innovation which must absolutely be applied to all countries that are experiencing this form of aggression. Here’s an illustration of this concept, and then I’ll explain what each part of it means in practice: Media:
Macedonians were already an educated and aware even before the Hybrid War started, and this can be attributed to the prevalence of patriotic media outlets in the country, both mainstream and alternative. They kept the public informed of the US’ various regime change machinations across the world before Washington inevitably came to victimizing their homeland. Once the destabilization began, the media kept the people up to date on what was really going on and the larger forward-looking reasons behind it, which had the effect of heightening the already strong sense of patriotism that most Macedonians feel. Patriotism:
Macedonian patriots formed the core of the counter-Color Revolution movement. They were inspired by the media and what they saw happening all around them and conveyed the extent of the regime change plot to the rest of their fellow citizens. They knew that this wasn’t just an operation targeting Gruevski personally, but a far-reaching scheme that affects all Macedonians through its goals of changing the constitutional name, “federalizing” (internally partitioning) the country, and thus advancing a dangerous and treasonous scenario which could result in the dismantlement of Macedonia’s hard-fought statehood. Organizing:
The patriots utilized reverse-Color Revolution technology by applying some “traditional” models of large-scale crowd organizing through their skillful employment of social media and allied NGOS. This produced attention-grabbing demonstrations in support of the government and culminated most spectacularly in the May 2015 demonstrations that decisively dealt a death blow to the first failed Color Revolution. The external manifestation of the Macedonian people’s patriotism and their backing of the democratically elected and legitimate government sent a powerful normative message all across the world, especially since it came on the heels of Zaev’s comparably much smaller rally. International Networking:
Macedonia’s patriots networked with foreign friends and journalists to spread the truth about the regime change operation underway in their country, particularly relying on the influential power of Russian mass media, experts, and think tanks to champion their resistance.
This propelled heavy alternative media coverage of the events and put pressure on the plotters by exposing their links with the US and Soros, thus discrediting the false narrative that this was an ‘indigenous democratic uprising’ and revealing it as the Western Color Revolution that it always was.
At this point, the multipolar media coverage, analysis, and investigations into the unrest were channeled back into Macedonia’s patriotic mainstream and alternative media outlets for domestic consumption, which fuelled the patriotism and encouraged even more counter-Color Revolution demonstrations and related activity.
It’s quite interesting to see the shock of the fifth column in Macedonia after Donald Trump won the USA elections, which was quite similar to their reaction to the Brexit as well. Why is there such despair among the Western mercenaries in Macedonia and what does Trump’s victory mean for the Western-sponsored crises and Color revolutions elsewhere?
The reason why they’re so upset is because they realize that Trump’s election will likely herald in a sea change of American policy in some (operative word) vectors, notably how it relates to Soros and Color Revolutions . Trump’s campaign team and alternative media surrogates such as Breitbart made a point of emphasizing the disruptive role that Soros has been playing in the US, such as shedding light on his support for pro-Clinton Super PACs, funding the urban extremist group known as “Black Lives Matter”, and even indirectly being connected to some electronic voting machine companies. In fact, one of the least-discussed but most important aspects of Trump’s election is how it affects Soros and his worldwide network now that the billionaire Color Revolution financier’s chief foe will be in the Oval Office. Trump and his base are antipathetic to Soros in all ways, even more so nowadays because of the shadowy figure’s role in organizing the nationwide riots against the President-elect. To put it bluntly, Soros has declared war on Trump, and the incoming President is expected to push back in all ways in order to safeguard his Presidency.
There’s a lot that can be written about the dynamics of this struggle and the widespread influence that Soros commands among The Establishment and its “academia’, pop culture, media, and social elites, but explaining all of that would require a lot more time and a broader scope than is presently available. How all of this relates to the Balkans, and specifically to Macedonia, is rather simple, in fact. Soros, preoccupied with tackling Trump, will probably direct a lot less time and energy towards his traditional stomping grounds, especially considering that he’s already failed two times in trying to topple the Macedonian government. Furthermore, Soros won’t have the incoming Trump Administration’s foreign policy and covert support to back him up. Remember, Trump disdains Soros, and the feeling is mutual. They’re not going to cooperate on any major schemes together, or at least not right away, but here’s where the possible scenarios get rather interesting. Trump and Soros want to destroy one another, but it’s possible that they could reach a ‘ceasefire’ arrangement between themselves in putting their mutual differences aside and focusing on areas of ‘shared interest’.
What this means in practice is that the neoconservative elements of the American “deep state” (the permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies) might be able to influence Trump and his team to the point where they come to appreciate the covert foreign policy utility of the worldwide Soros network. If this happens, and provided that Soros is on the retreat due to the Trump Administration’s relentless hounding of him, then it’s possible for the President to reach a deal with the Color Revolution architect whereby Soros would stop or lessen his anti-Trump attacks in exchange for the new American government being able to utilize his global regime change ‘services’ again. On the other hand, however, it’s also possible that Trump defeats Soros and takes over his organization, investing time and resources to ‘retool’ it from a “far-left/hyper-liberal” group to something more aligned with the global conservative and “right-wing” zeitgeist in order to make it more attractive and operationally effective in this day and age. It’s still too early to tell which way things may or may not go, but these are reasonable ideas to countenance given the existing state of affairs.
The point in bringing this all up is to emphasize the very real split between Soros and his American governmental facilitators/criminals-in-arms. Trump’s Administration will be the first time when the US won’t blindly support Soros in all of his endeavors, and is ironically one of the mastermind’s targets this time around. This paramount asymmetrical conflict can’t help but interfere with Soros’ other operations all across the world, which, to get back to answering the main part of the question, is why the fifth column is so distraught at Trump’s victory. They also know that the “politically incorrect” President-elect doesn’t support their wild post-modern “liberal” views such as attacking conservative societies through the weaponization of homosexuality and destabilizing their centuries-old value systems. It’s indeed possible that Trump might be convinced by the CIA and some other “deep state” actors to tolerate the mild continuance of this campaign in some key geostrategic states, but seeing as how it’s so spectacularly failed in Macedonia, the Balkan country probably won’t be a top priority for him like it was for Obama.
Iran, however, will be, since several high-profile voices around Trump and a few of the people who he’s rumored to be considering for crucial Cabinet positions have openly declared that the US must foment regime change in the Islamic Republic, but of course, the specifics of this could be discussed at another time. It’s just important to know that Color Revolutions won’t become an outdated weapon of the past just because of the Trump-Soros War, and everyone should always remember that the President of the US is still the leader of the world’s pioneer in unconventional destabilizations. The US still wants to retain and strengthen its hegemony, but Trump and his team feel that some fundamental tweaking must be made to the system in order for it to become much more effective. Most of the substance will remain the same, but it’s just that some of the style will change. I explored some of the details pertaining to this in my Sputnik article titled “ Here’s What Trump’s Foreign Policy Will Look Like ”, and I welcome all interested readers to check it out if they want to have a more comprehensive forecast about the future nature of American behavior abroad.
I must say, however, that no one should get their hopes up that Trump’s rule will herald in the US’ retreat from abroad – he’s been very clear from the start that his guiding mantra is “America First”, and while opposed to some of Obama’s foreign policy platforms, he’ll probably end up retaining some of them even if he rebrands them with his own style. He’s a pragmatic businessman who knows how to make deals, which is why the Great Powers of Russia and China have cautiously optimistic hopes that he’ll usher in a period (however brief) of New Détente in the New Cold War, but just because Trump might ease up the US’ pressure on one or both of these Eurasian anchors doesn’t mean that he won’t up the ante against Iran, Pakistan, and perhaps some other unforeseen targets of Washington’s wrath.
Greek diplomatic sources have briefed Greek media that the implementation of the Turkish stream is now moving faster than expected and the projections are that the construction will begin this year, while ending in 2019. Some information says that Gazprom and the EC are now getting close to agreement. What does your information say?
I don’t have any exclusive information about this project, but my analysis about its progress is that things have been moving along quite well ever since the game-changing Russian-Turkish rapprochement over the summer, which, to remind everyone, was the reason why the US hastened to clumsily arrange a failed coup attempt against President Erdogan. I discussed the specifics of this more thoroughly in my Oriental Review article about “ Reassessing The Reasons For The Failed Turkish Coup Attempt ”, and just like with my Sputnik piece which I reference in my last answer, this article might also be interesting for some readers to go through if they have the time and inclination to do so. I bring up the failed pro-US coup attempt in Turkey because it was hatched with the motivation of reversing the strategic gains that Russia and Turkey were poised to make, one of which is obviously Balkan Stream.
With Ankara back on board with this Russian megaproject, the only other actor left which needs to fall in line is the EU, which – regardless of its US-ordered and politically driven rhetoric – desperately needs to secure reliable energy sources in the future, and will more than likely end up reaching some agreement with Russia around the time that the first part of the pipeline is completed. The anti-Russian sanctions regime has been cracking for the past year and many Eastern European countries want to ease the restrictions and work with their Russian partners in order to spearhead creative workarounds that would be mutually beneficial for both sides. Sooner or later, the EU will probably give in to its natural self-interested desire to restore relations with Russia and end up hashing out a deal for Balkan Stream. The major impediment to this, however, will remain the Third Energy Package, which Bulgaria clung to as its excuse two years ago in pathetically pretending that it was just “following the law” and wasn’t under any American pressure to obstruct South Stream.
This totalitarian piece of legislation decrees that a company is not allowed to own both the pipeline and the gas which transits through it. Gazprom argued that this law entered into effect after it had already concluded negotiations on the project and should thus be exempt from its restrictions, but the EU didn’t accept this and said that the Russian company must “play by the rules”. Since Bulgaria was supposed to be the terminal point for the project and the first EU country through which South Stream was planned to pass, it took the vanguard role in stopping the pipeline and thus sacrificed billions of dollars of transit revenue as a result. The same problem could predictably repeat itself with Greece, but I think that Russia preparing a handful of possible solutions for dealing with this. The most realistic one would be to partner up with trusted companies and jointly own either all of the pipeline or each national section that it’s supposed to transit through, even if Gazprom gets 49% and its ally has a 51% controlling stake.
Since Balkan Stream will pass through a bunch of countries, it’s more realistic for each leg to be jointly owned by a different national partner, so for example, this could be DEPA in Greece, just like it’s Botas for Turkey. The model of working with individual partner companies in each transit state could be replicated all throughout the line’s forecasted route, but the liability is that unexpected disputes with one or another partner could lead to downstream disruptions if a national actor decided to “pull a Ukraine”, though there’s nothing at this time to suggest that such a scenario will happen. Likewise, being overly dependent on one or two major regional companies which could jointly operate the entire line with Russia could create a situation where the said company feels overly empowered and tries to push Russia around one day (whether on its own initiative or under pressure from the US). Therefore, having multipole stakeholders all along the route could ironically be a much more stable alternative because it means that everyone else would put pressure on the disruptive actor in the event that they ‘go rogue’ and do the US geostrategic bidding.
What we need to look forward to now is the business diplomacy that will inevitably commence sometime in the future and monitor this to the best of our abilities in order to get a clearer picture of Balkan Stream’s technical-administrative aspects. Gazprom will obviously look to enter into deals with its partners in order to get around the Third Energy Package, but knowing the Russian giant, it’ll probably conduct a lot of these in secret in order to keep the details under wraps so it might be difficult to find out what’s really happening. This is why it’s so useful to use models such as the joint ownership one which I just explained in order to have an initial framework for testing hypotheses and seeing how well they correlate to the unfolding reality. I don’t have any idea about the timeframe for these negotiations, but it’s safe to say that the ones with Greece will definitely be concluded by the time that the first part of the pipeline is completed with Turkey, and Russia might also by that time line up agreements with Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary in order to move as fast as possible from that point onwards in pairing Balkan Stream’s logical northwards expansion with China’s Balkan Silk Road high-speed rail project.
Andrew Korybko is the American political commentator currently working for the Sputnik agency. He is the author of the monograph “ Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change ” (2015). RELATED POSTS | 1real |
WORKPLACE MICROAGGRESSION: ISIS Yells “Alluha Akbar” While Accidentally Blowing Themselves Up [VIDEO] | Obviously not the smartest cowards in the desert https://youtu.be/QsZN_0barc8h/t Weasel Zippers | 1real |
Obama confident U.S. will move in right direction on climate | MILAN (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was confident that the United States would keep moving “in the right direction” on climate change, although the process might slow down under the current administration. Before taking office, President Donald Trump pledged to cancel a deal signed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, which aims to limit rising temperatures by phasing out use of fossil fuels. Trump, who wants to boost the U.S. coal industry, is expected to announce in the coming days whether he will scrap an accord for which his predecessor campaigned. Just over three months after leaving office, Obama told a food industry conference in Milan that climate change was a challenge “that will define the contours of this century more dramatically, perhaps, than any other”. He urged big industrialized countries such as the United States and China to lead the way. “Because of current debate in Washington, it could be that policies move more slowly but I am confident that the United States will continue to move in the right direction,” he said. Policy-making in the last decade has prompted the private sector to invest in both renewable energy and technology to improve fuel efficiency, Obama said. The United States committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 26 percent and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 - a level that Trump is unlikely to support. The European Union has been scrambling to persuade Trump to stick to the deal. Many U.S. companies and several Republican lawmakers, who see it as a way to protect American industrial interests overseas, have also urged him to stay in. The Paris treaty did not set high enough standards to solve the issue entirely, Obama said but “it put together the architecture and mechanism so that each country can reduce its problem of emissions”. | 0fake |
Cruz's Iowa victory could show Big Corn's waning influence | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s victory on Monday in corn-rich Iowa could represent a major blow to the country’s controversial biofuels program, reflecting its waning influence over politicians even in the U.S. farm heartland. Cruz, a conservative senator from Texas and outspoken opponent of the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, upset billionaire businessman Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses, the first of the state-by-state battles to pick party nominees for the Nov. 8 election. Cruz won with 28 percent of the vote, compared with 24 percent for Trump, in a victory that included taking Kossuth County, the state’s biggest corn-producing county. The result was a setback for corn farmers in the country’s biggest ethanol-producing state, who have lobbied hard to protect the policy from being dismantled after more than a decade. The program requires the use of ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply and is aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, utilizing cleaner, domestic energy sources and boosting rural economies. Cruz now supports a phase-out of requirements for renewable fuel, rather than the immediate repeal he was pushing for in 2013. Still, the fact he won Iowa without the backing of the ethanol and corn lobby may raise doubts as to whether candidates still need to garner its support in the long term, potentially removing a big pillar of support for the lobby’s agenda. “The conversation inside of Congress in the morning will change instantly, as Republicans realize they can be against the mandate and still win,” said Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist and energy lobbyist, speaking of a Cruz win. For some voters, terrorism and healthcare are bigger issues than the state’s ethanol industry. “I think the clear message coming out of Iowa is that whatever political influence ethanol used to have in the state, those days are now over,” said George David Banks, Executive Vice President of the American Council for Capital Formation. RFS has come under heightened criticism from oil groups, which say the volumes set by Congress are unachievable. Environmentalists also question the benefits of corn-based ethanol, which represents the vast majority of an 18-billion-gallon biofuels industry. Attempts to reform or repeal the program have been unsuccessful. A repeal amendment tacked onto a Senate energy bill being considered this week is expected to be rejected, if it even goes to a vote. Ahead of Monday’s caucuses, some equity traders had played down the impact of the vote on U.S. ethanol producers, noting it is too early in the election process to be meaningful for individual stocks. Shares in Green Plains Inc and Pacific Ethanol Inc were down over 4 percent in thin trading on Tuesday morning, underperforming the broader equity market. BB&T cut its price target on Green Plains on Tuesday. Reinforcing the weak outlook for ethanol margins on Tuesday, Archer Daniels Midland reported weaker-than-expected earnings, blaming poor biofuels prices. Shares were down almost 8 percent at $32.73, on track for its worst daily performance in 4-1/2 years. Iowa, the top ethanol-producing state, remains the stronghold of support for the program. The industry accounts for more than $4.9 billion, or 3.5 percent, of the state’s gross domestic product. Ethanol has already broken into the transportation fuel infrastructure, representing about 10 percent of blended gasoline, and some experts said the majority of Iowa voters still supported RFS. Eric Branstad, Iowa director of the pro-RFS group, America’s Renewable Future, said on Monday night that although Cruz’s position would be devastating to the state’s economy, “We feel good about our results.” “The vast majority of our candidates and the vast majority of caucus-goers realize the economic, national security, and environmental benefits of the RFS,” Branstad said in a statement. “If the RFS doesn’t win in Iowa, where does it win?” said Bruce Babcock, an economics professor at Iowa State University. “It goes against what the Republican establishment has been pushing for years.” (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington DC and Josephine Mason in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney and Frances Kerry) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 0fake |
WATCH: Why NFL Players Taking A Knee Is Total Bullsh*t…It’s Really About “Trump-Derangement-Syndrome” | Outspoken conservative Paul Joseph Watson is, as usual, spot on with his analysis of what is happening today with the overpaid, petulant athletes in the NFL who are taking a knee during our national anthem, as a way to protest the injustices against blacks by cops. Watson points out that while they re protesting the deaths of blacks at the hands of cops in their communities, they completely ignore the rampant black on black crime and the actual high crime rates by blacks in the cities where the alleged injustices are taking place. Watson also claims the NFL players are ignoring the fact that white people are more likely to be shot dead by cops than blacks.This week, NFL players and even some coaches, turned their ire against President Donald Trump for daring to suggest that NFL owners should be taking disciplinary action against players who disrespect our flag that represents the lives sacrificed by so many brave men and women who died giving them the right to protest.Paul Joseph Watson reminds Americans how prevalent violence is with many of the thugs who play in the NFL. Watson even suggests, Maybe they all hate the police so much because the cops are the only ones stopping them from beating up their own wives and girlfriends. This new incarnation of take a knee isn t about protesting police murders of black people. There haven t even been any high-profilee cases of that for months. It isn t about patriotism. It isn t about free-speech. It s just the latest manifestation of mass hysteria of Trump-derangement-syndrome. Watch: | 1real |
Donald Trump Just Took Credit For Christmas And Twitter Is Tearing His F*cking Throat Out (TWEETS) | Americans have been spending well over $2 trillion on Christmas since at least 2000, with that number topping $3 trillion in recent years. But if you ask Donald Trump, Americans rather typical spending this year is all thanks to him.Seriously he took credit for Christmas.The world was gloomy before I won there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016Yes, all those thoughtful gifts you bought your family weren t because you would do that any year they were all because less than half of the country kinda-sorta elected The Donald to lead the country for the next four years (if we last that long).Trump s delusions of grandeur are at this point something that invites nothing but mockery and Twitter, as usual, delivered spectacularly.The world is gloomy AF since you won. And as far as the markets Thanks Obama! https://t.co/tKziYS8b6r Sarah Wood (@SarahWoodwriter) December 26, 2016Seriously, though, he's like a sports fan taking credit for the team winning a game because he wore his lucky socks during the 4th quarter. Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 26, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Honey, I know I said to buck up, but attributing everyone's Christmas presents to your big win is going a little too far. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) December 26, 2016Exactly what @laurenduca was talking about with "gaslighting." @realDonaldTrump's actually taking credit for regular holiday consumer habits Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) December 26, 2016@realDonaldTrump to himself: "You're responsible for all the gifts people bought for their families! You did it!" pic.twitter.com/zEa1iHSZMY Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump why does it sound like you're always trying to convince yourself you're a cool person or some shit. Keep patting ur back ? COBAMASAMA (@Cobanermani456) December 26, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Do you think that people are buying more this year because it may be our last Christmas? Jon Donahue (@JonDonahue) December 26, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Are you seriously taking credit for Christmas? Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 26, 2016@realDonaldTrump Christmas spending has been over 2 trillion dollars since 2000. But go ahead, take the credit. pic.twitter.com/nJcEU6YiIH Neil Claxton (@MintRoyale) December 26, 2016.@realDonaldTrump Obama is still in office, junior. Let's see what happens within your first term Jonathan Sadowski (@sadowski23) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Spending money is not the only gauge of whether people feel hopeful. I had a lot of hope before the election. Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun) December 26, 2016@realDonaldTrump Are you trying to take credit for Christmas happening? You are literally one of the saddest people alive. Jon Bershad (@JonBershad) December 26, 2016@realDonaldTrump lol chill bro, literally no one is buying more gifts because you re president-elect Zach Holman (@holman) December 26, 2016@realDonaldTrump you single handily saved Christmas! Whiteboy7thst (@Whiteboy7thst) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump You're praising yourself for things that you had nothing to do with. Worse, you don't even realise that. Anirvan Ghosh (@anirvanghosh) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump why don't you also take credit for curing polio, you played a big role in that too Shit Britain (@ShitBritain) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump Suicides are up too, taking credit for that? Happy Holidays (@thelukeleal) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/LltQFFPMyw andrea (@twennywonpilots) December 27, 2016@realDonaldTrump have you convinced yourself you saved Christmas? You're truly awful. bob clendenin (@bobclendenin) December 27, 2016It takes a special level of delusion to genuinely believe that you saved Christmas because you were elected President especially when spending is on par with previous years. But sorry little Johnny and little Susie, your presents aren t under the tree because your parents want to make you happy or even because of Santa. They re there because America threw away anything resembling a moral center and elected a racist, xenophobic hatemonger to office.As for stock prices, they ve been fairly steady since about 2010 but you won t hear Trump saying that, and you won t catch his idiot followers believing it.Featured image via Getty Images (Drew Angerer)/screengrab | 1real |
Austria's far-right stakes claim to interior ministry ahead of coalition talks | VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Wednesday named control of the interior ministry as its price for joining a future coalition government following its strong showing in a parliamentary election. The anti-immigrant, anti-Islam FPO won around 26 percent of votes cast in Sunday s election. The conservative People s Party (OVP) won most votes by also taking a hard line on immigration, while the centre-left Social Democrats took second place. Asked if the FPO would stick by its pre-election insistence that it would only join a future coalition if its candidate became interior minister, party leader Heinz-Christian Strache told reporters: Yes. We won t go down on our knees for anyone. At 26 percent we naturally aim to implement our (FPO) policies in government, Strache added. The interior ministry in Austria oversees asylum claims and the fight against terrorism, among other responsibilities. Austria s president will on Friday formally ask Sebastian Kurz, leader of the OVP, the largest party at around 32 percent, to start negotiations on forming a new coalition government. The OVP and the FPO overlap in their plans to curb immigration, cut social benefits for refugees, reduce the tax burden on companies and work towards repatriating powers to national governments from Brussels while strengthening external border security. (Click tmsnrt.rs/2yVUDsq for Election graphic) All parties have kept their coalition options open, but the Social Democrats (SPO) are technically still bound by a party conference decision from 2014 that bans it from entering into a coalition government with the Freedom Party. Under Austria s outgoing Social Democrat chancellor, Christian Kern, the SPO has opened up significantly to the Freedom Party by introducing a so-called value compass for potential partners which does not specifically rule out working with the Freedom Party. But Strache said on Wednesday that as long as there was no fresh vote among the Social Democrats base to formally annul the 2014 decision, talk of his party teaming up with the SPO was theoretical . Influential FPO official Manfred Haimbuchner told newspaper Der Standard that he definitely preferred his party to form a government with the conservatives. The FPO was founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s and first became a major political force in the 1990s under the charismatic Joerg Haider, who praised Hitler s employment policies. Today the party says it has put its Nazi past behind it and purged its ranks of anti-Semitism but still frequently has to expel members for anti-Semitic comments. It has, however, stopped calling for Austria to leave the European Union. For more stories on Austria s election, please see | 0fake |
FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Why Obama is Guilty of REAL Hillary Obstruction [Video] | Former AG Mukasey went there during two morning show appearances today. He told Bill Hemmer he sees no crime in the Russia probe then told Maria Bartiromo of FOX Business (video below) that Obama may be guilty of obstruction in the investigation into Hillary s email: President Obama s statement that he thought she shouldn t be charged because she didn t intend to violate the law is the real Clinton obstruction because that is a statement by him that this is the way I want that investigation to come out A take on the matter, for what it s worth. Mukasey: I don t see evidence of any crime in Russia probe https://t.co/b4KNztDyLk Mister Eerie (@Psychogrotesque) June 13, 2017 Mukasey: He was introducing an element that was not in the statute to know you re violating the law and he was saying that, that was the way he wanted the investigation to end. Obviously the Justice Department picked up on that. In his testimony last week, former FBI Director James Comey said Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked him to call the Hillary Clinton probe a matter, not an investigation, but Mukasey said that s not breaking the law. That s, I think, not obstruction because she s simply playing the same card the Clinton campaign is playing, Mukasey said.On Tuesday, President Trump said on Twitter that Lynch committed a crime and gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. A.G. Lynch made law enforcement decisions for political purposes gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. Totally illegal! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2017Meanwhile Democratic lawmaker Diane Feinstein said she wanted to open an investigation into Loretta Lynch s statement, but Mukasey said calling it a matter is just the tip of the iceberg. Then you re talking about how come the Justice Department didn t use the Grand Jury. How come they interviewed her at the end and two days later Jim Comey came out with a statement, Mukasey said, noting that the Lynch interview was not recorded. This was an un-serious investigation. FORMER AG MUKASEY DIGS INTO COMEY: DEVIOUS Former AG Michael Mukasey considers #Comey s calculated move regarding his memo extraordinarily devious ! #DrainTheDeepState @POTUS #1A pic.twitter.com/ploVQsdFzf eternal vigilance (@uspatrol) June 11, 2017WOW! To call the FBI Director devious is huge!Read more: FOX News | 1real |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.