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Exclusive-Ways and Means Chair Brady: Border Adjustment Tax How Congress Turns Trump Rhetoric into Reality - Breitbart | The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee told Breitbart News the new Border Adjustment Tax is the way for Capitol Hill conservatives to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to reform the tax code and reverse American trade disadvantages, as well as unleashing trillions of dollars currently sitting on the sidelines. [“We know what our competitors do to beat us,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R. ) who took over one of the House’s most powerful committees from Speaker Paul Ryan (R. .) upon Ryan’s taking up the gavel. “China, Canada, Germany, Mexico, and these others, they beat us on low rates, but not anymore,” Brady said. “They border adjust. ” The chairman said virtually every other country in the world has a system in place, where they take major taxes off of a product as it is exported to the United States and they slap a tax on products coming into their country from the United States. Brady said the president is deeply involved with the chairman’s tax reform effort, because it lines up with his campaign rhetoric. “President Trump gets it,” he said. “He knows it is not a level playing field and American workers and American communities are really getting hurt by this, so we are having very good discussions about how to end the ‘Made in America Tax’,” he said. “I am very encouraged with our talks with President Trump,” Brady added. Helping Brady’s cause is the popular support for what he promises the Border Adjustment Tax achieves. According to a confidential poll by Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio and his partner David Lee that is circulating Capitol Hill offices and was made available to Breitbart News, 58 percent of the voters in 14 states key support the BAT, and 29 oppose it. Among Republicans, 80 percent support the BAT with Democrats split: 45 percent oppose and 39 percent support. The poll asked: “( ) people say that they would prefer a tax code that incentivizes goods imported and sold in American stores for lower prices. ( ) People say that they would prefer a tax code that incentivizes American manufacturing of goods to be sold in American stores and exported throughout the world.“ percent chose to incentivize American goods, and 13 percent chose to incentivize foreign goods. The poll was conducted among 1, 000 registered voters from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22 in 14 states and the District of Columbia. percent of the calls were made over landlines, and 44 percent were made on cell phones. The poll carries a 3. 1 percent margin of error with a 95 percent level of confidence. Brady’s BAT is not a small piece of the puzzle it is the puzzle. It is estimated that the tax will reassign a macro tax burden by roughly $1 trillion, or about of federal revenues. The legislative lift alone is massive, given that this is the most significant restructuring of the tax code since President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 reform. That reform reduced the individual tax code to three brackets, lowered the rates, and eliminated hundreds if not thousands of tax breaks. The BAT’s $1 trillion haul then allows conservatives to achieve long overdue items on their agenda, such as the full repeal of the tax on estates, lowering the tax rates on personal and business taxes, and elimination of the tax code’s infestation of tax loopholes written in for special interests. Brady said the estimates vary, but it is safe to say that American businesses are sitting on $6 trillion in cash that they were unwilling to use to hire new workers or invest. “Because of President Obama’s constant attack on the free enterprise system, businesses didn’t feel comfortable unleashing that investment,” he said. “Under the Republican blueprint, we allow businesses to immediately write off from their taxes all their new investment, new buildings, new equipment, new technology, and new software,” the Texan said. “We’ll bring all that investment off the sidelines and inject it right into the US economy,” he said. “That’s where you are going to see lots of growth as well. ” Under the current system, low American trade barriers and the tax rebate other countries offer on exports means that American companies have a solid incentive to move manufacturing overseas and then send their products into the United States as our competitors do. Brady said the BAT equals out that disadvantage and fosters an environment where businesses are comfortable hiring and investing. During the campaign, Trump promised to lower the business tax to 15 percent from its current 35 percent. This rate is one of the highest in the world and creates the conditions for lawmakers to give their friends tax breaks. Were Congress to lower the business tax from 35 percent, there would be less reason to hire lobbyists to secure a tax loophole. One other advantage of lowering the business tax rate is the estimated $2. 5 trillion parked overseas by companies unwilling to pay 35 percent off the top when they bring those profits home — those funds suddenly become reasonable to repatriate, he said. “Those profits, stranded overseas, we want them reinvested in America in new jobs, new research, and new growth. ” The chairman said his goal is to have the bill marked up out of committee by the end of spring and signed into law before the end of 2017. “You want to give the Senate plenty of time to act on their tax reform as well,” he said. “After 30 years, the prospects of getting tax reform done this year are the best they have ever looked. ” | 0fake |
Obama to delay Spain visit until government is formed: foreign minister | MADRID (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will not visit Spain until its parties manage to form a government and end over 100 days of political deadlock, delaying a trip that had been under consideration for July. “What (Obama) told me is let’s see if we form a government, because he is keen to visit Spain,” Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo told reporters after meeting Obama at a dinner on Friday night for a nuclear security summit. Margallo said Obama had been considering a trip in July, but given Spain could return to the polls the month before, the president would prefer to wait. George W. Bush, Obama’s predecessor, was the last U.S. president to visit Spain in 2001. | 0fake |
Tennessee House Speaker Warns Interns To Stay Far Away From Sleazy Male Lawmakers | Apparently, male Tennessee Republican lawmakers are so sleazy and horny that the female House Speaker has warned interns to stay far away from them.In the wake of state GOP Rep. Jeremy Durham resigning his position as Majority Whip after getting caught creepily sexting female interns, House Speaker Beth Harwell is instructing the Director of the Internship program to institute new rules to keep interns safe from the wandering eyes of male lawmakers. As a precautionary measure, I have instructed the Director of the Internship program that interns are not to attend receptions or events related to the legislature, and they are not to give their cell phone numbers to members, she announced on Monday.Harwell also announced the formation of a committee to review the 20-year-old sexual harassment policy that somehow hasn t been changed over the years. If any personnel have suggestions for improvement, I urge them to give the committee their recommendations, Harwell said. At the conclusion of this review, the members will go through sexual harassment training. But Talking Points Memo reports that Democrats are criticizing the new rules because they appear to be blaming the female interns for the behavior of male lawmakers instead of focusing on keeping the lawmakers in check. Signaling out one group of women and asking them to change their behavior is a completely inadequate and inappropriate response to a problem with alleged behavior by a lawmaker, Rep. Mike Stewart said.Stewart does have a point. At the very least, new restrictions could be instituted regulating how lawmakers interact and behave around female interns. Instead of focusing on just the interns, focus on the lawmakers equally.As for Durham, Harwell and other GOP leaders have called for him to reign his seat entirely. If the rumors I continue to hear regarding Representative Durham are true, Representative Durham needs to focus on his family and receiving the help he needs, Harwell said.GOP Chairman Ryan Haynes also called for Durham to step down. In light of these recent revelations, I do think it is important that Representative Durham step down from his position as a member of this body so that the legislators can continue to focus on the important work that Tennesseans expect us to focus on. Seriously, Tennessee. You need to get your act together because this is just embarrassing. Featured image from Twitter | 1real |
Dutch tourist group cuts South Africa visit short after armed bus robbery | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A group of 36 Dutch tourists were flying out of South Africa on Tuesday after they were robbed at gunpoint on Sunday in a brazen heist while traveling from Johannesburg s main international airport to their hotel, officials said. The incident is an embarrassment for South Africa, a country keen to promote itself as a tourist destination but scarred by violent crime. Tourism accounts for 3 percent of GDP and is seen as a bright spot in an otherwise moribund economy. Journalists saw the group pull out of the hotel in a bus under police escort after they met with South Africa s police minister and tourist minister as well the ambassador from the Netherlands. We ll bring these criminals to book. We ll find them, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula told journalists after the meeting. The bus was stopped on Sunday night by a vehicle with police markings and one man in police uniform with five accomplices in civilian clothing robbed the tourists at gunpoint. Nobody was shot but two people were injured, police said. Dutch ambassador Marisa Gerards said most of the tourists had to cut their visit short because all of their belongings were taken. Ironically, she said many of the tourists had booked this organized trip out of safety concerns. South Africa entices tourists with first-rate infrastructure, sunshine, beaches, wildlife and an exchange rate that makes its food and wine cheap by global standards. But a jobless rate of over 25 percent and glaring income disparities have worsened its problems with violent crime. The murder rate is 34 per 100,000 people, according to data released by police last year, almost seven times the rate in the United States. | 0fake |
LISTEN TO THEM LAUGH! Undercover VIDEO Captures Diabolical Remarks At National ABORTION Federation Conference…”An Eyeball Just Fell Into My Lap..And That’s Gross” | A shocking new video has just been released by the Center for Medical Progress, the undercover investigative group that in 2015 released videos showing that Planned Parenthood affiliates have profited from selling the body parts of aborted babies.This latest video is a preview of footage that CMP investigators gathered at the 2014 and 2015 National Abortion Federation conventions, attended by hundreds of members of the abortion industry each year. (The NAF is a major trade group of North American abortion providers, and Planned Parenthood makes up about 50 percent of its members and leadership.)Notice the audience laughing at some of the most vile comments you have ever heard about the killing and dismembering of babies in the womb:https://youtu.be/Sq1ycCmX3uUHere are some of the most horrifying remarks from the brand-new undercover footage. Attendees made some of these comments during official presentations, and others directly to undercover CMP investigators.Dr. Lisa Harris, the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Michigan: Given that we actually see the fetus the same way, and given that we might actually both agree that there s violence in here. . . . Let s just give them all the violence, it s a person, it s killing, let s just give them all that.Dr. Ann Schutt-Aine, the director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (which has been referred to local law-enforcement for criminal charges related to fetal-tissue trafficking): If I m doing a procedure, and I m seeing that I m in fear that it s about to come to the umbilicus [navel], I might ask for a second set of forceps to hold the body at the cervix and pull off a leg or two, so it s not PBA [partial-birth abortion].Dr. Stacy De-Lin, the director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood of New York City: But we certainly do intact D&Es [dilation and extraction, otherwise known as partial-birth abortion, a method that is illegal under federal law].Dr. Uta Landy, the founder of the Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA): An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross! [laughter from the crowd]Talcott Camp, the deputy director of the ACLU s Reproductive Health Freedom Project: I m like Oh my God! I get it! When the skull is broken, that s really sharp! I get it! I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that calvarium. Dr. Susan Robinson, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte: The fetus is a tough little object, and taking it apart, I mean, taking it apart on Day One is very difficult. . . . You go in there, and you go, Am I getting the uterus or the fetus? Oh, good, fetus. [Robinson makes a stabbing sound effect] What have I got? Nothing. Let s try again. Below are some comments from the footage that provide further evidence of Planned Parenthood s involvement in illegally profiting from fetal-tissue trafficking.Dr. Leslie Drummond, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (a PPFA affiliate that contracted with a biotech firm to be paid per fetal organ provided): I get a lot of oohs and ahhs from StemExpress [biotech firm]. You know, they re wanting livers. . . . Last week I was in Sacramento, and she said, I need four intact limbs. And I said, you want what?This part of the video should dispel any doubt Americans had about Planned Parenthood selling baby parts for profit:Dr. Stacy De-Lin, the director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood of NYC: But I think a financial incentive from you guys [CMP investigators posing as tissue buyers] is going to be like . . . the people who we have to get this approved from will be very happy about it. Dr. Paul Blumenthal, the former medical director for PP of Maryland: I know Planned Parenthood sells a lot of stuff [fetal organs] to people. Both the NAF and Planned Parenthood sought and obtained a preliminary injunction against the Center for Medical Progress to prevent the release of these undercover videos. That civil suit is currently on appeal. But California s attorney general took matters into his own hands in late March, charging CMP investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with 14 felony counts of illegally recording confidential communications. The state refuses to name the 14 accusers in the criminal case, even though Daleiden and Merritt have themselves been charged publicly.Read more at: National Review | 1real |
CHURCHGOERS TRAPPED INSIDE CATHEDRAL After Man Hits Police Officer Guarding Church In Head With Hammer…Authorities Calling It Act Of Terror [VIDEO] | France s armed police officers were at least prepared to handle the terror attack after shooting the terrorist, thereby preventing any further acts of terror by what police believe to be a lone wolf incident. Many questioned the how the UK can effectively deal with terrorism when their law enforcement officers are unarmed, like in the most recent attack in London where unarmed police officers were seen running away from the scene of the crime, and citizens were forced to use chairs to protect themselves from terrorists with knives A man with a hammer bashed a police officer in the head outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Tuesday, in an attack that investigators called an act of terror.The wounded officer fired twice at the hammer-wielding man in the square in front of the cathedral, French police told Fox News. The attacker was hospitalized; the specific conditions of both men were unclear.UPDATE:French Minister G rard Collomb: Notre Dame cathedral attacker said This is for Syria. pic.twitter.com/cDeOD3csEK Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 6, 2017 Police can be seen here rushing to terror scene:Police rush to Paris s Notre-Dame cathedral following reports man attempted to attack officer with a hammer. pic.twitter.com/VHJdRRMpdG Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 6, 2017Visitors to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral are trapped inside until police can clear the scene:Photo of visitors locked inside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris following reports man attempted to attack officer with a hammer. pic.twitter.com/3GNPK2sN6k Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 6, 2017Police asking everyone to raise their hands in the church pic.twitter.com/y5KkyWqdWK Matthew CurrieHolmes (@mch2k) June 6, 2017The French interior minister said the suspect had been threatening several policemen and passersby at the time.Paris has been under high security after a string of Islamic extremist attacks in recent years. Security Message: ongoing security incident at Notre Dame Cathedral U.S. citizens should avoid the area & follow advice of authorities U.S. Embassy France (@USEmbassyFrance) June 6, 2017The French U.S. embassy alerted American citizens to avoid the area and follow advice of authorities following the incident.On social media, people reported that they were trapped in the cathedral for an incident outside. One person in the cathedral said officers instructed them to raise their hands. Later in the day, they said officers were starting to let them out. FOX News | 1real |
Jews ‘blamed for Holocaust’ at House of Lords event | Jews ‘blamed for Holocaust’ at House of Lords event Jews ‘blamed for Holocaust’ at House of Lords event By 0 60
Israel has condemned a “shameful” event hosted by the British House of Lords in which Jews were blamed for the Holocaust and Israel was compared to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
The session marked the launch of the Balfour Apology Campaign ahead of the Balfour Declaration centenary. The 1917 declaration pledged British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy said the gathering “gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike.”
According to the Times, an audience member was applauded after suggesting Hitler only decided to kill Jews after being provoked by anti-German protests led by a rabbi, Stephen Wise, in New York.
“[He] made the boycott on Germany, the economic boycott… which antagonized Hitler, over the edge, to then want to systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them.”
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The speaker also said Rabbi Wise told the New York Times in 1905 there were “6 million bleeding and suffering reasons to justify Zionism.” This quote is often used by Holocaust deniers to suggest the figure of 6 million Jews later killed by the Nazis was a myth.
The audience member – reportedly a member of the anti-Zionist strictly Orthodox Neturei Karta sect – also compared Israel to IS.
“Just as the so-called Jewish state in Palestine doesn’t come from Judaism. This Islamic State in Syria is nothing with Islam. It is a perversion of Islam just as Zionism is a perversion of Judaism.”
Another audience member said, to applause: “If anybody is anti-Semitic, it’s Israelis themselves.”
David Collier, a blogger who attended the session, says he “witnessed a Jew-hating festival at the heart of the British estate.”
The event run by Baroness Tonge, a former Liberal Democrat MP who sits as an independent, and the Palestinian Return Centre.
Tonge reportedly made no attempt to challenge the comments.
She has run into trouble for her own anti-Israeli outbursts and resigned as the Lib Dem whip after claiming the state of Israel was “not going to be there forever.”
The House of Lords event was also run by the Palestinian Return Centre.
Campaigners are calling on Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration and show remorse for its “past colonial crimes” in Palestine.
Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license. | 1real |
How Obama Abandoned Democracy in Iraq | W hen trying to explain the current unrest in the Middle East, from Iraq to Syria to Yemen, American officials often resort to platitudes about Sunni and Shia Muslims fighting each other for “centuries” due to “ancient hatreds.” Not only is this claim historically inaccurate, but it also ignores the unintended consequences that the Iraq War more recently leashed on the region. That war—and the manner in which the United States left it behind in 2011—shifted the balance of power in the region in Iran’s favor. Regional competition, of which Iran’s tension with Saudi Arabia is the main but not only dimension, exacerbated existing fault-lines, with support for extreme sectarian actors, including the Islamic State, turning local grievances over poor governance into proxy wars.
Nothing that happened in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 was pre-ordained; different futures than the one unfolding today were possible. Recall that violence declined drastically during the 2007 U.S. troop surge, and that for the next couple of years both Iraq and the West felt that the country was going in the right direction. But the seeds of Iraq’s unravelling were sown in 2010, when the United States did not uphold the election results and failed to broker the formation of a new Iraqi government. As an adviser to the top U.S. general in Iraq, I was a witness.
“My greatest fear,” General Raymond Odierno, the then commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, told me in early 2010, “is that we stabilize Iraq, then hand it over to the Iranians in our rush to the exit.”
General O (as he is known), had recently watched the 2007 movie Charlie Wilson’s War, which recounts how U.S. interest in Afghanistan ceased once the mujahedeen defeated the Soviet Army in 1989 and drove them out. Now, he had a premonition that the same could happen in Iraq. “I’ve invested too much here,” he said, “to simply walk away and let that happen.”
I had first met Odierno in 2003, when he was the commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division responsible for the provinces of Salah al-Din, Diyala and Kirkuk in the early days of the Iraq War; I had been the representative in Kirkuk of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American-led transitional government that controlled Iraq after Hussein’s fall. Now, as his political adviser, I was helping General O ensure that the United States kept its focus on the mission in Iraq while drawing down U.S. forces.
Odierno wanted U.S. engagement with Iraq to continue for years to come, but led by U.S. civilians, not the military. He believed that, in order to train Iraqi security forces and provide the psychological support needed to maintain a level of stability, 20,000 or so U.S. troops needed to stay in Iraq beyond 2011, when all American troops were scheduled to be withdrawn. But the real engagement, General O believed, should be from the other instruments of national power, led by the U.S. embassy.
Every time a congressional delegation visited us in Baghdad, General O put up a slide showing why the United States should continue to invest in Iraq through the Strategic Framework Agreement that the two countries had signed in 2008. General O knew that for the mission to succeed, there needed to be a political agreement between Iraqi leaders. Otherwise, all the security gains that the American troops had fought so hard for would not be sustainable. He took every opportunity to educate and communicate these complexities to the new Obama administration.
For six months, General O had tried hard to support the leadership of Chris Hill, the new American ambassador who had taken up his post in April 2009. But Odierno had begun to despair. It was clear that Hill, though a career diplomat, lacked regional experience and was miscast in the role in Baghdad. In fact, he had not wanted the job, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had persuaded him to take it; she admitted as much to General O, he told me, when he met her in early 2010 in Washington to discuss the dysfunction at the embassy. General O complained that Hill did not engage with Iraqis or with others in the diplomatic community—his only focus appeared to be monitoring the activities of the U.S. military.
It was frightening how a person could so poison a place. Hill brought with him a small cabal who were new to Iraq and marginalized all those with experience in the country. The highly knowledgeable and well-regarded Arabist Robert Ford had cut short his tour as ambassador to Algeria to return to Iraq for a third tour and turned down another ambassadorship to stay on in Iraq and serve as Hill’s deputy. But Hill appeared not to want Ford’s advice on political issues and pressured him to depart the post early in 2010. In his staff meetings, Hill made clear how much he disliked Iraq and Iraqis. Instead, he was focused on making the embassy “normal” like other U.S. embassies. That apparently meant having grass within the embassy compound. The initial attempts to plant seed had failed when birds ate it all, but eventually, great rolls of lawn turf were brought in—I had no idea from where—and took root. By the end of his tenure, there was grass on which the ambassador could play lacrosse.
The national elections took place on March 7, 2010, and went more smoothly than we had dared hope. After a month of competitive campaigning across the country and wide media coverage of the different candidates and parties, 62 percent of eligible Iraqis turned out to vote.
The European Union and others had fielded hundreds of international poll-watchers alongside thousands of trained Iraqi election observers, while the United Nations provided the Iraqis with advice on technical matters related to elections. All this helped to sustain the credibility of the process. Insurgents sought to create a climate of fear by planting bombs in water bottles and blowing up a house, but the Iraqi security forces stood up to the test.
“We won the elections!” Rafi Issawi, the deputy prime minister, shouted excitedly to me on the phone. I could hear celebratory gunfire in the background. We had not expected Iraqiya—a coalition headed by the secular Shia Ayad Allawi and leaders of the Sunni community, and running on a non-sectarian platform—to do so well. The coalition had won 91 seats—two more than the incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition.
I accompanied General O and Hill to a meeting with Maliki the next day. Maliki, a Shia, had been prime minister since 2006. Americans and Iraqis alike initially viewed him as weak, but his reputation grew after he ordered military operations against Shia militias. Since then, Iraqi politicians had become increasingly fearful of his authoritarian tendencies. He had insisted on running separately in the election—as State of Law rather than joining a united Shia coalition as had happened in 2005—in large part because the Shia parties would not agree on him to lead the list. Nobody wanted a second Maliki premiership.
When Hill asked Maliki that day about his retirement plans, it was immediately apparent that he was not contemplating stepping down. Instead, he claimed there had been massive election fraud and that the Mujahideen al-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group locked away in eastern Iraq’s Diyala province, had used satellites to tamper with the computers used to tally the voting results—even though the computers were not connected to the Internet and thousands of election observers had monitored the voting. But Maliki’s advisers had told him he would win big with more than a hundred seats, so he demanded a recount. Maliki was becoming scary. | 0fake |
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie Modernizes New York Hip-Hop - The New York Times | There’s a moment in the rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s single “Friend Zone” that encapsulates the conundrum — and also opportunity — facing New York . In the song, after meeting a girl, he tries talking her up. “I’m from New York,” he tells her. “She like my accent. ” That the tongue of New York — the birthplace of — would be anything but the genre’s normative voice is a reality that local rappers have been ignoring for years now, even as rap’s center abandoned this city for ones far away: Atlanta, Miami, Toronto and beyond. New York is rap’s ancestral home, and also, it turns out, home to its greatest stylistic conservatives, stubbornly standing their ground while the crowds disperse. And yet New York retains a sort of mystique: To become the sound of the city still feels like a goal. But for more than a decade, such consensus has been tough to come by — every attempt at a new New York style was greeted with skepticism and reluctance. A Boogie may have cracked the code. “I think about it a lot every day,” he said one evening last week. “I’m responsible for things right now in my city. It’s a lot of pressure. ” The rapper was in the back seat of a black S. U. V. slowly making its way around Highbridge, a geographically isolated corner of the southwest Bronx where he was born and largely raised. Every now and again, he would open up the window to call out to an old friend or point to a personal landmark and tell a story. Over there, an apartment building where he used to record in a closet. A couple of blocks away, a stoop on which he wrote the lyrics for “Bando,” one of his hits. When the driver tried to turn onto one busy block, A Boogie stopped him: “This is the bad block right here,” he said. At the beginning of this year, A Boogie — born Artist Dubose — was still a fixture in this neighborhood. But on Valentine’s Day, he released his debut mixtape, “Artist,” full of songs that merged sensitivity and bluster delivered in strident, melodies. By this summer, a handful of his tracks — “Friend Zone,” the tough “Bando,” the breezy “My ______” — had become fixtures on New York radio and made A Boogie the most promising young rapper the city has produced in some time. He has found a way to make a New York rap sound that’s modern, not preoccupied with the formalist bullies of the 1990s (the L. O. X. DMX) that still define the city to so many. A few times in recent years, new New York sounds arrived and threatened upheaval: ASAP Rocky’s polyregionalism, French Montana’s morbid celebrations, the occasional “Chicken Noodle Soup” novelty. But A Boogie’s sound acknowledges the youthful power of the internet and the inclusion of melody in while still being rooted in New York roughneck business. “There’s so few New York movements — we’ve got to be a part of this one,” said Craig Kallman, the chairman and chief executive of Atlantic Records, who signed Highbridge the Label, A Boogie’s label, to a joint venture. Several of the songs on “Artist” were inspired by a rocky situation with a girlfriend, including a pregnancy scare. While writing about that experience, A Boogie began experimenting with how to best manipulate his voice, landing on a creaky, sweet, melodic style delivered with a bruiser’s cadence. “I was always scared to use that around people,” he said. “Even to this day, I’m still developing my voice. I used it again in a different type of mood song, like a hood song, and it sounded crazy again and I was like, ‘Damn, this is the voice right here.’ It made me want to do mad music in different moods. ” That’s meant flexibility in approach: sometimes his most rugged subject matter — on “Artist,” and also “Highbridge the Label: The Takeover Vol. 1,” the mixtape he released in May with his labelmate Don Q — comes in the softest voice, and vice versa. If there is a New York legacy A Boogie belongs to, it is perhaps the long tail of the era of gangsters, from Biggie Smalls and the Bad Boy label to the days of 50 Cent and Ja Rule. Still, Mr. Kallman noted, “I don’t think necessarily the focus on the history is essential. ” Besides, it is a promising moment for young New York rappers, from A Boogie and Don Q to sly ruffians like Young M. A. to sharp lyricists like Dave East. Indeed, A Boogie’s rise has been almost completely — reminiscent of Bobby Shmurda’s rapid ascent in 2014, but without a dance to encourage virality. He began by posting songs on Soundcloud, and also Facebook, where he would ask fans who liked samples of his songs if he could tag them when the full version was released. That became a sort of street marketing team. Soon after he released “Artist,” he first heard one of his songs on Hot 97, the venerated New York radio station, while he happened to be streaming on Facebook Live. By April, he performed a show at B. B. King Blues Club Grill. Around that time, he began a string of club performances alongside the Hot 97 D. J. and longtime New York rap agitator Funkmaster Flex, who first learned about A Boogie from the bloggers on his website, and from requests in Bronx nightclubs. “For the first time in a while, that New York sound, people are looking to put in their clubs up and down the East Coast,” Funkmaster Flex said, before adding, “I don’t want to rush anything and say we’re back. I don’t want to jinx it. ” When A Boogie was young, he said, he sold marijuana “to get the money to get to the studio. ” After getting in trouble as a teenager, he and his family relocated to Florida, where he was arrested at least five times, on charges including burglary and drug possession. (“I didn’t hurt nobody,” he said.) His last year there, he was on house arrest, though he would sneak out to work with a local producer. He returned to Highbridge last summer, but a few months ago moved to a house in Westchester, and more recently, to one in New Jersey, which he shares with Don Q and the label’s owners, QP and Bubba. “There’s a lot of hate,” he said. “Not in the neighborhood, but outside the neighborhood, and people bring that over here. I don’t never know who’s out here no more. ” A few weeks ago, one of his friends was shot and killed in the neighborhood. “I felt like it could have been me,” he said. Around the same time, he performed onstage with Drake during three consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden. After the visit to Highbridge, A Boogie’s S. U. V. made its way to Blast Off Productions near Times Square, a tiny hotbox of a studio with Drake platinum plaques on the lobby wall and speakers strong enough to shake the doors. Even though he was feeling under the weather, he bought a box of Raw rolling papers in the smoke shop downstairs, then headed upstairs for a recording session. After a quick meal from Steak ’n Shake, A Boogie began rolling up some weed in the lobby while in the background, a surly beat throbbed. Soon he began singing in that appealingly cracked voice: He mumbled a few musical phrases to himself, then tried a couplet: “Right when you thought that I was so ’s when you turned me into a savage,” lingering over the vowel sounds and pushing his voice even further into scratched territory. “I ain’t wanna make that type of song just now,” he said. “I’m happy today. ” But the beat was putting him in a different head space, and squeezing out a different voice. “I’m gonna get back in that bag, talk about my feelings,” he said, then closed his eyes and found the melody. | 0fake |
Libertarian Gary Johnson Polls at 10 Percent. Who Are His Supporters? - The New York Times | Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president, may be on track to win more votes than any candidate in 20 years, if current polling holds up. Who are his supporters? Mr. Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, is relying heavily on the backing of young people and independent voters disillusioned with the two major parties’ nominees. More than 70 percent of his backers are younger than 50, and over are political independents, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. Over all, Mr. Johnson, who will be on the ballot in all 50 states, has the backing of 10 percent of registered voters, the Pew poll found. Mr. Johnson’s coalition is relatively diverse, particularly compared with that of Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Thirteen percent of Mr. Johnson’s backers are black or Latino, compared with just 6 percent for Mr. Trump. And while just 42 percent of Mr. Trump’s supporters are women, the Pew center found that Mr. Johnson’s are evenly divided — 51 percent women, 49 percent men. Republican strategists have long said that their party must do more to appeal to voters who are younger, nonwhite and women. Mr. Trump trails Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, by almost 20 points among women, and by far more among minority voters, Pew found. “Something is happening where the coalition is no longer able to appeal beyond its disparate and shrinking constituencies,” said Michael Madrid, a principal at GrassrootsLab, a Republican consulting firm. “That’s the main problem facing Republicans. ” As Mr. Trump departs from Republican orthodoxy on issues including free trade and entitlement reform, he remains burdened by the thing that may be most unpopular about the party: its own brand. More than six in 10 Americans view the Republican Party unfavorably, according to a New York News poll from July. Originally an entrepreneur, Mr. Johnson has cast himself as an alternative to Mr. Trump by focusing on reducing the size of the government while embracing a approach to social issues. He advocates abolishing the income tax, removing regulations on internet companies and moving aggressively to balance the federal budget. But much of Mr. Johnson’s message has focused on social policy. His support for abortion rights and legalized marijuana appeals to many young people, while putting him out of step with his former party. “When you get past the rhetoric and past the primary politics that Republicans and Democrats each have to play, the real majority of Americans are essentially fiscally responsible and socially inclusive,” said Joe Hunter, a spokesman for Mr. Johnson. “Right now, neither of the two major parties — particularly the Republican Party — is representing that view,” Mr. Hunter said. Mr. Johnson has strongly opposed Mr. Trump’s proposal for a wall along the border with Mexico, saying instead that the government should make it easier for immigrants to enter the United States legally. The ascent of Mr. Johnson — who garnered less than 1 percent of the vote as the Libertarian candidate in 2012 — owes partly to dissatisfaction with Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, who both receive negative ratings from most voters. It also reflects the fact that a plurality of Americans today identify as independents. A Washington News poll from August put Mr. Johnson’s overall support at 8 percent, but showed him earning 14 percent among independents. He is drawing support about equally from voters who would otherwise lean toward Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Johnson is pushing to reach 15 percent in the major national polls, which would qualify him to participate in nationally televised presidential debates. The business mogul Ross Perot ran as an independent presidential candidate in 1992, earning 19 percent of the popular vote with a platform of socially moderate and fiscally conservative policies not unlike those of Mr. Johnson. He, too, drew most of his support from younger voters. Mr. Perot ran again in 1996 and got 8 percent of the vote. Mr. Johnson is currently nowhere near where Mr. Perot was in 1992, when he briefly led both Bill Clinton and George Bush in the polls. And there are distinct vulnerabilities in Mr. Johnson’s appeal. He leans heavily on the Western states, drawing about a third of his support from there, according to two recent Washington News polls. And the Pew survey shows Mr. Johnson polling at just 4 percent among voters 65 and older. He is doing equally poorly among those who describe themselves as very conservative. For now, older voters and the conservative base remain crucial to the Republican Party. Despite its troubles in presidential elections over the past 25 years, the party controls both houses of Congress and most state legislatures. But Mr. Trump faces an uphill battle, and if he loses, the Republicans will once again have to rethink how they pick their presidential nominee and how to widen their appeal to a changing electorate. “This is likely to be the sixth election out of the last seven when Republicans lose the popular vote,” said Richard Born, a political scientist at Vassar College who studies political polarization. “They’re going to have to moderate, and immigration rights will be one place they have to moderate. ” If Mr. Trump loses in November, he added, the Republican Party’s 2020 nominee could be “somewhere in between a Gary Johnson and a Mitt Romney. ” | 0fake |
Tech billionaire Thiel says Trump movement 'not going away' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel, a lightning rod for criticism in Silicon Valley for his support of Donald Trump, predicted on Monday that the movement the Republican presidential nominee has created would carry on even if he loses his bid for the White House on Nov. 8. “No matter what happens in this election, what Trump represents isn’t crazy, and it’s not going away,” Thiel said in a speech to reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. Thiel, who announced earlier this month he was donating $1.25 million to help Trump get elected, said the New York businessman was laying the groundwork for “a new Republican Party” that will go “beyond the dogmas of Reaganism.” Thiel attacked Washington in his remarks, saying its elite insiders were out of touch with ordinary Americans and that Trump was shaking up a system in need of change. “The truth is, no matter how crazy this election seems, it is less crazy than the condition of our country,” said Thiel. While it is impossible to predict what will happen to Trump and his followers after the election, Thiel is not alone in his view. “This will certainly continue after Nov. 8, whether Donald Trump is leading the movement or not,” Republican strategist Alice Stewart said on Monday, arguing that the movement surrounding Trump will have lasting effects on the Republican Party. “Without a doubt, Trump has tapped into an electorate that has felt like their voices have not been heard in quite some time,” she said, adding that the Republican Party old guard would have to work with followers of Trump’s newer brand of conservatism, regardless of the outcome of the election, if the party is to survive. Thiel, who was born in Germany and came to the United States as a child, is best known as a co-founder of online payment service PayPal Holdings Inc and an early backer of online social network Facebook Inc. His support for the real estate developer and reality TV star has made him a target for scorn in liberal-leaning tech circles, especially after his full-throated endorsement of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July. The only major-name Trump backer in Silicon Valley, Thiel has attracted criticism and some have called for Thiel’s removal from Facebook’s board. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has insisted on Thiel staying, citing the importance of diversity of opinion at the company. Trump’s tirades against cross-border trade agreements and immigration run counter to the views of most in the U.S. tech industry, which sells its products worldwide and has leaned heavily on talented programmers coming to the United States from overseas. On Monday, Thiel accused the media of taking too literally many of Trump’s more controversial proposals, including imposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. He also said the comments Trump made about groping and kissing women in a 2005 video that was made public earlier this month were “clearly offensive and inappropriate.” But Thiel said he and other Trump supporters were voting on policy, not personality. He added that both Trump and White House rival Democrat Hillary Clinton were “imperfect people, to say the least.” On top of his political views, Thiel has faced a backlash in the media for secretly funding a lawsuit against the online publishing company Gawker Media by former professional wrestler Terry Bollea, known professionally as Hulk Hogan, that ultimately led to the bankruptcy and sale of Gawker. Thiel on Monday defended his decision to bankroll the suit against the site, which a decade earlier outed Thiel as gay in an article entitled “Peter Thiel is totally gay, people.” Thiel said the judicial system was too costly for all but the very rich. “If you’re a single-digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to the legal system,” he said. Clinton holds a 5-point lead over Trump in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, with the backing of 44 percent of likely voters compared to Trump with 39 percent. | 0fake |
CREEPY BERNIE Calls For Trump To Step Down…What About Disgusting Essay BERNIE SANDERS WROTE About Women Fantasizing About Being Gang Raped or Men Fantasizing About Sexually Abusing Women? | Yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went on a media blitz that was clearly coordinated by the Democrat Party, at about the same time Senator Al Franken (D-MN) was reluctantly resigning. Sanders took to his allies in the media to call on President Trump to resign over unproven allegations of sexual misconduct that were made against him during his campaign. By the way, it should not go without mentioning that we haven t heard a peep from any of Trump s accusers since he won the election. The Democrats are not going to give up that easily when it comes to ousting President Trump. Just this week, Democrats gave up the fight for Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Senator Al Franken (D-MN) (both of whom represented safe districts for Democrats), after multiple allegations of sexual assault and abuse. It was a clear play at attempting to convince voters that the Democrats are suddenly the party of morals.Do Democrats really believe Americans will be duped into believing that the party who cheated Bernie Sanders, (who wrote about how women fantasize about being gang-raped) out of the chance to be the Democrat nominee for President, to make Hillary Clinton, (a woman who has been accused of enabling her accused rapist husband, who has also been accused several times of sexual assault, and was impeached for lying about having sex with a 19-year old intern under his desk in the Oval Office) is somehow now the moral party?Here s what Bernie had to say about President Trump yesterday:Washington Examiner We have a president of the United States who acknowledged on a time widely seen all over this country that he assaulted women, so I would hope that maybe the POTUS might pay attention to what s going on and also think about resigning, Sanders told CBS News on Thursday.Bernie recently said it was not up to the Senate or Democrat Party to call on Senator Franken to step down. Watch, as Sanders glosses over the question when asked about his previous statement (before Democrats decided Franken was a scalp they could spare for the sake of the party)."What I worry about right now, as we speak, in restaurants and in offices all over this country where you have bosses who are not famous, there is harassment of women and women are being intimidated. We need a cultural revolution in this country." @SenSanders pic.twitter.com/GTxAf0PVGA CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) December 7, 2017Watch Sanders (the presumtive leader of the Democrat Party) as he calls on President Trump to step down:"We have a POTUS who acknowledged on a tape widely seen all over the country that he's assaulted women, so I would hope maybe the president of the United States might pay attention of what's going on and also think about resigning." @SenSanders pic.twitter.com/fy4ucYUEkv CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) December 7, 2017The senator was referencing a tape from Access Hollywood made public during the 2016 election on which the president was heard talking about grabbing women without their consent. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.Several of Sanders colleagues in Congress have been accused of inappropriate behavior, and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., is expected to make a speech on the Senate floor addressing the allegations against him late Thursday morning.Speaking of words Trump used decades ago when referring to a woman, during a private conversation with another man, what about the disgusting and degrading essay Bernie Sanders wrote about women in 1972?Daily Wire A 1972 essay written by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) expressed his views on human sexuality in which he claimed that women fantasize about being gang-raped and men fantasize about sexually abusing women.The article Man and Woman, came to light after Mother Jones published it during the 2016 presidential election before Sanders started to gain significant momentum in the race.Sanders piece was originally published in the Vermont Freeman and was a reflection on his views of gender and sexuality, the Washington Examiner reported.The first two-paragraphs in Sanders article drew the most controversy:A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.A woman enjoys intercourse with her man as she fantasizes being raped by three men simultaneously.Sanders was 31 years old at the time he wrote the essay and had just launched his first campaign for Senate, which proved to be the first of several losing campaigns before he became mayor of Burlington nine years later.WATCH:Bernie Sanders 1972 essay:"A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.""A woman enjoys intercourse with her man as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously."A sitting US Senator thinks these things. pic.twitter.com/WyxY9CFFwu Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 26, 2017 | 1real |
Warren on Why She Attended Trump’s Inauguration: ’I Wanted It Burned in My Eyes’ - Breitbart | Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( ) said she attended President Trump’s inauguration because she wanted the event “burned” in her eyes. [Warren explained her rationale for attending the event on Real Time with Bill Maher as she promoted her new book This Fight is Our Fight. “I went to Trump’s inauguration. I watched. I wanted to see it. I wanted it burned in my eyes,” Warren told Maher. “My view on this was if there was ever going to be a moment where I was like, ‘Oh I’m too tired to get up,’ all I had to do is close my eyes and it’s like, ‘Oh god, I’m up. I’m ready. I’m back in the fight,’” she continued. Warren said it was that event that inspired her to keep up the fight against Trump’s policies. The book This Fight is Our Fight ends with the Women’s Marches that took place the weekend after the inauguration, which Warren said was the day “the world changed. ” That was “the day we made our voices heard,” she said. The progressive firebrand has been one of Trump’s fiercest critics, giving the president an “F” for his first 100 days for not living up to his promises to help the working class. | 0fake |
An Army Captain Takes Obama to Court Over ISIS Fight - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — A Army officer on Wednesday sued President Obama over the legality of the war against the Islamic State, setting up a test of Mr. Obama’s disputed claim that he needs no new legal authority from Congress to order the military to wage that deepening mission. The plaintiff, Capt. Nathan Michael Smith, an intelligence officer stationed in Kuwait, voiced strong support for fighting the Islamic State but, citing his “conscience” and his vow to uphold the Constitution, he said he believed that the mission lacked proper authorization from Congress. “To honor my oath, I am asking the court to tell the president that he must get proper authority from Congress, under the War Powers Resolution, to wage the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” he wrote. The legal challenge comes after the death of the third American service member fighting the Islamic State and as Mr. Obama has decided to significantly expand the number of Special Operations ground troops he has deployed to Syria aid rebels there. Mr. Obama has argued that he already has the authority he needs to wage the conflict against the Islamic State under the authorization to fight the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, enacted by Congress shortly after the attacks. That argument is controversial because the Islamic State is at odds with the leadership of Al Qaeda and its affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front. Critics contend that the administration is stretching the Sept. 11 authorization too far by applying it to an organization that did not exist in 2001 and that operates far from Afghanistan. The administration has countered that its position is legitimate because the Islamic State used to be a Qaeda affiliate in Iraq during the Iraq war. In an April 2015 speech, Stephen Preston, then the top Pentagon lawyer, argued that the fact that Al Qaeda splintered after the death of Osama bin Laden did not mean that the authority to keep fighting each successor faction came to an end. Administration officials have also said the fight against the Islamic State is covered separately by the 2002 authorization President George W. Bush obtained from Congress for the invasion of Iraq, although they are not relying on it. The administration has asked Congress to enact new authorization for using military force against the Islamic State, but lawmakers have not acted on that request. They have, however, passed military appropriations bills that earmark funds for the effort against the Islamic State, which could suggest that lawmakers have acquiesced to the executive branch’s theory. Captain Smith’s lawyers are David Remes, who has represented many Guantánamo detainees in habeas corpus lawsuits, and Bruce Ackerman, a Yale Law School professor who published a column in The Atlantic last year arguing that the war against ISIS was illegal and that a serviceman ordered to fight in it would have standing to challenge it in court. “We want to get this back on the agenda,” said Mr. Ackerman, calling the precedent Mr. Obama is setting a “turning point” for whether constitutional checks and balances on a president’s ability to initiate a new war at his own discretion will survive. Current and former administration officials have said that in 2014, when confronted by the Islamic State’s rapid conquest of Iraqi territory, Mr. Obama’s advisers presented him with a choice: he could say that bombing ISIS was part of the existing war, or he could say it was a new war. Each theory, they told him, was defensible, but each had its own downsides. Mr. Obama decided to go with the first one — that the Islamic State campaign was part of the existing . 11 war — because he believed that immediate intervention was necessary to halt a disaster but that the House of Representatives was too dysfunctional to vote on any war authorization within 60 days. That was important because the War Power Resolution, a law, says presidents must withdraw deployments into “hostilities” after 60 days if Congress has not authorized the operation to continue. In 2011, Mr. Obama’s air war intervention in Libya, which lasted longer than 60 days without congressional authorization, prompted criticism inside and outside the administration. Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor who has criticized the administration’s use of the 2001 war authorization to cover the Islamic State but is not involved in the suit, said the case was significant because it could overcome a major hurdle to getting a court to review that theory. But Mr. Goldsmith said Captain Smith faced many other hurdles, including precedents that suggest that when Congress appropriates money for a conflict it has implicitly authorized it. He also predicted that if a court did rule that the conflict was illegal, Congress would authorize the fight to continue — perhaps giving it broader scope than Mr. Obama has wanted. “We’re in a terrible equilibrium where Congress doesn’t want to step up and play its part in this military campaign and so the president has basically gone forward and done what he thinks he needs to do,” Mr. Goldsmith said. “It would be a lot better for everyone, including the president, if Congress got more involved. ” | 0fake |
Boiler Room EP #131 – Gender Fluid Scouts, Hollyweirdness & Eminem The Establishment Rapper | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Andy Nowicki (The Nameless One), Randy J and Fvnk$oul (ACR and 21Wire contributors) for the hundred and thirty first episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on Boiler Room the ACR Brain-Trust is examining the change in the Boy Scouts of America allowing girls into the club, Harvey Weinstein s perverted history in Hollywood, the potential ramifications of his being outed as a sexual predator who s been covered for by the mainstream media and leftist politicians for many years and giving a good beat down to rapper, Eminem, who foolishly decided to throw his rap stylings into the political realm and failed miserably.Direct Download Episode #131 Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research: | 1real |
PAY-TO-PLAY: Ivanka Uses Official Europe Trip To Beg For Donations | If Hillary Clinton were in the White House and she hired her daughter, Chelsea, to work in the West Wing and then let her fundraise for the Clinton Foundation, the GOP House would be drawing up Articles of Impeachment. That is exactly what is happening in President Donald Trump s White House. First daughter, Ivanka, is currently in Germany representing him. She works in the West Wing and is one of the main people the President listens to.Many have been wondering what Ivanka has been up to in her job at the White House. Now at least some of her time can be accounted for. She has set up a fund to help female entrepreneurs and has been soliciting funds from foreign countries. Axios is reporting that several have already donated. They include several Middle East countries.Axios is also reporting that her father is a big supporter of the idea. This is curious, given the President s problems with the Clinton Foundation, which also did a lot of good work and asked for money from foreigners and foreign governments. Trump and others brought up the idea that donations were made in order to gain access to the then Secretary of State. During the campaign, he went as far as to call the Clinton Foundation a criminal enterprise. Trump told FOX News Chris Wallace, Saudi Arabia given $25 million, Qatar, all of these countries. You talk about women and women s rights? These are people that push gays off business, off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly and yet you take their money. So I d like to ask you right now why don t you give back the money that you ve taken from certain countries that treat certain groups of people so horribly? It is hard to see any difference between what Trump accused Hillary of doing and what his daughter is doing now. It s going to be interesting seeing how White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tries to explain this one.Featured image via Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images | 1real |
Yandex Email Account Proves DNC Hacker Was NOT Russian - Jeffrey Carr | Taming the corporate media beast Yandex Email Account Proves DNC Hacker Was NOT Russian
Or, who in Russian intelligence doesn’t dpeak Russian? Originally appeared at Medium.com
On March 22, 2016 William “Billy” Rhinehart, a regional field director at the Democratic National Committee, received an email from Google warning him that someone tried to access his account and that he should immediately change his password. He complied.
Unfortunately for Mr. Rhinehart, it wasn’t Google who sent him that email. He, along with many others, were a victim of Threat Group 4127 — the SecureWorks designation for Fancy Bear (CrowdStrike), APT28 (FireEye), and Sofacy (Kaspersky Lab). Secureworks assesses that TG 4127 “is operating from the Russian Federation and is gathering intelligence on behalf of the Russian government.”
Thanks to a bizarre twist involving Guccifer 2.0’s solicitation of a journalist at The Smoking Gun (TSG) to write about the DCLeaks emails in exchange for giving TSG an early look at some of the stolen documents, TSG was able to obtain the original spear phishing email directly from Billy Rhinehart and shared it with ThreatConnect, who posted this screenshot of the email’s headers and identified the actual sender of the email:hi.mymail@yandex.com. 1-ibuqqojl1spagetqb9oumq.png
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Yandex is the Google of Russia. Like Google, Yandex is a search engine, and, like Gmail, Yandex‘s users can open a free email account.
When you visit Yandex.ru and create a new email account, the email assigned to you has the .ru domain. However, hi.mymail@yandex.com has a .com domain. There’s only one reason why something like that would happen, but first, here’s what a Russian user would see when he creates a Yandex email account on RUNET (the Russian Internet).
Step One: Pretend that you‘re in Russia
Secureworks says that you work on behalf of the Russian government. CrowdStrike says that you’re an employee of the Russian government. And everyone else believes that you’re Russian so for this little experiment to work, you need to be on the Russian Internet.
Assuming that you aren’t already in Russia, you’ll need to connect to a Russian proxy server. I have an account with PrivateVPN and used vpn-ru1.privatevpn.com for my test.
Once you’re connected, run a test to make sure that you’re on RUNET by visiting http://www.ip2location.com/ . It will show you your IP address and geolocation.
Step Two: Go to Yandex.ru
Type Yandex.ru into your browser’s address bar. You should see it resolve to https://yandex.ru/ . | 1real |
The ‘P’ in PBS Should Stand for ‘Plutocratic’ or ‘Pentagon’ | The ‘P’ in PBS Should Stand for ‘Plutocratic’ or ‘Pentagon’ Posted on Oct 27, 2016 ( WikiMedia )
In a television commercial that the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) ran for years, “PBS NewsHour” host Gwen Ifill declared that she loved her job because it allowed her to “ask not only all of my questions but also and more importantly all of your questions .” This assertion was and remains absurd, just like her network’s regular fundraising claim to be free of corporate sponsors.
The claim has long been contradicted by the string of corporate-image commercials (purchased by leading financial, defense, auto, insurance and rail corporations) that appear before the network’s nightly “NewsHour” broadcast—along with a list of corporate-sponsored foundations and superwealthy individuals who pay for the show, along with “regular viewers like you.”
Consistent with those commercials and despite its name, the news and commentary one finds on PBS is in rich tune with the narrow capitalist parameters of acceptable coverage and debate that typify the more fully and explicitly for-profit and commercialized corporate media. As progressive journalist David Sirota suggested two years ago , reflecting on recent investigations showing that supermoneyed, right-wing capitalists such as the Koch brothers and Texas billionaire John Arnold had (along with more liberal software mogul Bill Gates) influenced PBS content through multimillion-dollar donations, the “P” in PBS often seems to more properly stand for “Plutocratic,” not “Public.”
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None of this should be surprising to anyone familiar with the distinctively big-business-dominated history of U.S. broadcast media . Because the United States fails to provide anything like adequate funding for public broadcasting, both PBS and National Public Radio (a regular vehicle for neoliberal business ideology) depend upon foundations, corporations and wealthy individuals to pay for much of their programming. Beneath their standard claims to have no interest in shaping public media content, these private funders have bottom-line agendas, meaning that their contributions come with strings attached—strings that undermine the integrity of the “independent” journalism they bankroll. (For what it’s worth, between 1994 and 2014, the “NewsHour” was primarily owned by the for-profit firm Liberty Media . Liberty Media was run by the conservative and politically active billionaire John Malone, who had a majority stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, the show’s producer.)
The Pentagon Broadcasting System?
What might seem more surprising, perhaps, is the remarkable extent to which the “P” in PBS often seems to stand for “Pentagon,” or perhaps “Presidential,” when it comes to foreign policy content. Whatever the global issue of the day or week, “NewsHour” anchors and their invited “experts” can be counted on to report and reflect in accord with the doctrinal assumption that Washington always operates with the best of intentions. They almost uniformly treat the U.S. as a great, benevolent and indispensable force for freedom, democracy, security, peace and order in a dangerous world full of evil and deadly actors.
The show’s invited commentators are drawn primarily from the nation’s imperial establishment. They are commonly current or retired insiders from within the Pentagon, the White House, the “intelligence community” and/or the nation’s elite network of foreign policy think tanks: the Council on Foreign Relations (the granddaddy of all U.S. ruling-class think tanks ), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Aspen Institute, the Atlantic Council, the Rand Corp. and the Hoover Institution, to name a handful. “NewsHour” anchors and guests generally agree that the United States’ officially designated enemies are malevolent bad guys who need to be contained, controlled and even attacked by the ultimate good guy, Uncle Sam.
Not surprisingly, the long and ongoing record of U.S. imperial arrogance and criminality (more on that below) is swept down George Orwell’s memory hole even as new entries are added to the ugly registry. When reported by the “NewsHour,” horrific crimes committed by the U.S. military are always treated as well-intended mistakes. Along with the rest of the mainstream U.S. media, the “NewsHour” “insist[s] that Russia deliberately bombs hospitals, etc., whereas if we do it, it is, of course, an accident .”
There’s some room for disagreement between and among the show’s invited experts—including the show’s semi-loopy foreign policy authority, Margaret Warner—about specific U.S. foreign policy tactics, strategies and actions. There’s no space for serious debate about the immorality, lawlessness or imperial nature of that policy. On the rare occasions “NewsHour” anchors seem to challenge guests from the White House or Pentagon on foreign policy matters, it is generally to ask why the U.S. isn’t going harder at the officially certified bad guys.
America as Umpire, Not Empire
The foreign policy coverage and commentary doesn’t get much better in the documentary division of PBS. A recent documentary (first aired nationally last week) shown by PBS bears the risible title “American Umpire”—an obvious World Series season play on what the filmmakers see as the preposterous notion of an American empire. It is narrated by ex-Marine and former “NewsHour” host and producer Jim Lehrer. Developed by the right-wing Hoover Institution and “targeted for PBS” (the organization’s own revealing phrase), “American Umpire” takes the doctrinal “American exceptionalist,” U.S.-good-and-civilized-rest-of-world-dangerous-and-bad narrative to absurd lengths.
It provides extensive “expert” commentary from such former imperial operatives as Madeline Albright (the onetime U.S. secretary of state who led the charge to criminally bomb Serbia and who went on CBS’ “60 Minutes” to say that the death of more than half a million Iraqi children killed by Washington-led “economic sanctions” was “a price worth paying” for the advance of U.S. foreign policy goals), Condoleezza Rice (George W. Bush’s neoconservative national security adviser before and during the arch-criminal U.S. invasion of Iraq), Gen. Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis (an Iraq invasion commander and a former chief of the U.S. Central Command, who two years ago told a San Diego audience that “it’s fun to shoot people”), George Schultz (the Reagan-era secretary of state who called the Sandinista government in Nicaragua “a cancer in our own land mass” that must be “cut out”) and Karl Eikenberry (a retired Army lieutenant general who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan 10 years ago).
With further commentary from a handful of mostly conservative academicians—above all the nationalist Texas A&M historian Elizabeth Cobbs ( author of a book on which the documentary is based), “American Umpire” portrays 20th and 21st century U.S. foreign policy as nothing more than a noble effort to selflessly provide welcome and fair rules and discipline on the rest of a childish, dangerous and reckless planet (think “Lord of the Flies”) that lacks the exceptional historical experience bequeathed to U.S. leaders by the nation’s far-seeing Founding Fathers. The only substantive criticism of U.S. foreign policy in “American Umpire” is the complaint, voiced by numerous interview subjects, that America harms itself to the benefit of others (the Europeans above all) by taking upon its shoulders too much of the burden of benevolently policing the planet. We are just too good for our own good.
Our Real Task
There is not space here to discuss in responsible detail the epic historical deletions and distortions this narrative imposes. The omissions are staggering. They range from the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos resisting U.S. imperial invasion and occupation at the last century’s outset to the restoration of de facto slavery in Haiti and the Dominican Republic after World War I; the unnecessary atom bombing of Hiroshima and, even worse, of Nagasaki (really the first shots of the Cold War ); the toppling of more than 50 governments by U.S. coups and invasions since the end of World War II; the liquidation of perhaps as many as 5 million Southeast Asians in the so-called Vietnam War between 1962 and 1975; the Cold War-era sponsorship of Third World fascism from Chile to South Africa and Indonesia; the attempted assassinations of Fidel Castro and numerous CIA-directed terror bombings in socialist Cuba; the near instigation of global thermonuclear war on at least three occasions; the development and sponsorship of Osama bin Laden and other radically arch-reactionary, jihadist Muslim, paramilitary forces to fight the Cold War against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan; the “Highway of Death,” when U.S. warplanes engaged in an aerial traffic jam as they rushed to slaughter tens of thousands of surrendered Iraqi troops retreating from Iraq in 1991; the coordination and sponsorship of a mass-murderous civil war on peasants, workers and intellectuals (with a death toll well into the many hundreds of thousands) in Central America during the 1970s and 1980s; the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq (responsible for at least 1 million Iraqi deaths); the calamitous U.S. toppling of the Libyan Gadhafi regime; the calamitous destabilization of the Syrian regime; the U.S. funding and encouragement of civil war in central Africa; the enablement and protection of a vicious right-wing coup in Honduras in the spring and summer of 2009; the criminal U.S. global war of terror, replete with rampant “targeted assassinations,” torture, illegal renditions, endless drone war and special-forces killing operations across the Muslim world and other places as well.
“American Umpire” hides these horrific transgressions and the imperial calculations behind much of U.S. foreign policy past and present. As numerous key U.S. planning documents reveal over and over, the goal of that policy was to maintain and, if necessary, install governments that “favor[ed] private investment of domestic and foreign capital, production for export, and the right to bring profits out of the country.” Given the United States’ remarkable possession of half the world’s capital after World War II, Washington elites had no doubt that U.S. investors and corporations would profit the most. Internally, the basic, selfish, national and imperial objectives were openly and candidly discussed. As the “liberal” and “dovish” imperialist, top State Department planner and key Cold War architect George F. Kennan explained in Policy Planning Study 23, a critical 1948 document: “We have about 50% of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. … In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. … To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming. ... The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
The necessity of dispensing with “human rights” and other “sentimental” and “unreal objectives” was especially pressing in the “global south.” Washington assigned the vast periphery of the world economic (capitalist) system—Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the energy-rich and thus strategically hypersignificant Middle East—a less than flattering role. It was to “fulfill its major function as a source of raw materials and a market” ( actual State Department language ) for the great industrial (capitalist) nations (excluding “socialist” Russia and its satellites). It was to be exploited both for the benefit of U.S. corporations/investors and for the reconstruction of Europe and Japan as prosperous U.S. trading and investment partners organized on properly capitalist principles that were hostile to the Soviet bloc.
“Democracy” was fine as a slogan and benevolent, idealistic-sounding mission statement when it came to marketing this core, underlying, ultra-imperialist U.S. policy at home and abroad. Because most people in the “Third World” had no interest in neocolonial subordination and subscribed to what U.S. intelligence officials considered the heretical “idea that government has direct responsibility for the welfare of its people” (what post-World War II U.S. planners called “communism”), Washington’s real-life commitment to popular governance abroad was strictly qualified, to say the least. “Democracy” was suitable to the U.S. as long as its outcomes comported with the interests of U.S. investors/corporations and related U.S. geopolitical objectives. It had to be abandoned, undermined and/or crushed when it threatened those investors/corporations and the broader imperatives of business rule to any significant degree. As President Richard Nixon’s coldblooded National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger explained in June 1970, three years before the U.S. sponsored a fascist coup that overthrew Chile’s democratically elected leftist President Salvador Allende, “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.”
The selfish imperial cynicism of U.S. foreign policy continues to this day, into the post-Cold War and post-9/11 era. As leading Dutch political scientists Bastiaann van Apeldoorn and Nana de Graaff write in their important new volume , “American Grand Strategy and Corporate Elite Networks: The Open Door Since the End of the Cold War,” “From the end of the 19th nineteenth century onward, American grand strategy has pursued a liberal expansionism aimed at the creation of a global hegemony premised upon open, “free” markets, to which global capital—and, above all, U.S. transnational capital—has full access. … The global Open Door has continued to define the ends of the American grand strategy throughout the post-Cold War era.” Because—as during and before—the Cold War’s end, Washington’s commitment to “democracy” and “human rights” is conditional and hypocritical: The noble principles are fine insofar as they serve the free-market hegemony of global and especially U.S. transnational capital. They are dispensed with, even as U.S. policymakers trumpet them, when they do not. | 1real |
Former US Attorney for DC: New Hillary Email Probe Was Result of ‘Revolt’ Inside FBI | Former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Joe diGenova suggested Friday James Comey’s reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails was the product of a “revolt” inside the FBI.
While speaking with WMAL’s Larry O’Connor , diGenova was asked what Comey meant by saying newly discovered Clinton emails from Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s devices “appear to be pertinent” to the FBI’s prior investigation.
“It tells me that the original investigation was not thorough, and that it was an incompetent investigation,” diGenova said, “otherwise they would have discovered this — and I’ll tell you why.”
“These were found on the phone that was used by Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin,” he said. “Why was that phone not looked at originally?”
“There could be one explanation: Huma Abedin may have denied that any other phone existed, and if she did, she committed a felony. She lied to the FBI just like General Cartwright, and if she did, she’s dead meat, and Comey knows it, and there’s nothing he can do about it.”
diGenova continued: “And why this letter was sent today was very simple: the agents came to Comey yesterday, they told him about the evidence, and he said oh ‘S’, and realized that his goose was cooked, that this would prove conclusively that his original investigation was incompetent, and he knew that the agents running the Weiner case would leak it if he did not send this letter to congress.”
“And I’ve also been told something very significant, it’s been reported that those laptops [belonging to Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson] were destroyed, they were not, and the reason is the FBI agents refused to do it.”
diGenova went on to say he believes “there is a quiet but serious revolt against the director right now.”
“He sent those letters today because he is in deep trouble inside the bureau,” he said. “Comey sent this letter today because he had to. He has no moral authority inside the agency right now, he’s a joke, he’s a laughingstock of the agency, and among former FBI agents, he has become an anathema.”
Listen to the full interview courtesy of WMAL:
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Senate Judiciary Committee seeks Comey memos, possible Trump tapes | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday asked the FBI to provide memos related to former FBI Director James Comey’s dealings with his superiors in the Trump and Obama administrations. It also asked the White House to provide records of interactions with Comey, including those “relating to the FBI’s investigation of alleged ties between President Trump’s associates and Russia, or the Clinton email investigation, including all audio recordings, transcripts, notes, summaries, or memoranda,” according to a statement. | 0fake |
Trump Rips Sessions Over Russia, Says He Never Should Have Made Him AG (AUDIO) | Donald Trump is obsessed with the Russia investigation. He has a right to be; after all, this is the modern day cancer on the presidency that Richard Nixon was warned about, and we all know what happened there. However, Nixon knew how to keep his mouth shut, and Trump definitely doesn t.In a new interview with the New York Times, Trump rails against Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding Sessions decision to recuse himself from all things related to Russia. Of course, Sessions really had no choice after it was revealed that he lied to the Senate committee about his own meeting with the Russian Ambassador in order to get confirmed as Attorney General. That matters not to Trump, though. He says he would never have appointed Sessions had he known there would be a recusal. Trump told the Times: Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, Thanks, Jeff, but I m not going to take you. It s extremely unfair and that s a mild word to the president. Here is audio of that clip:Newsflash, you 71-year-old toddler: It is not Jeff Sessions job to engage in an investigation in which he has a clear conflict of interest. Further, had he done that with the intention of providing cover for you and your criminal family, he would be in legal trouble himself. Jeff Sessions is a lawyer, and he knew this. It seems that you literally expect your officials to risk losing law licenses or even going to jail over loyalty to you.This administration is literally cannibalistic. The second anyone does anything that is even perceived as being harmful to Trump, or disloyal as he likes to call it, they fall out of favor and Trump starts threatening them.I d be willing to bet that right about now, Sessions is wishing he had never helped get Trump elected, much less taken a job in his administration. In Donald Trump s world, the only person who is safe is Donald Trump himself.Featured image via Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
FOOT-SOLDIERS IN OBAMA’S WAR AGAINST COPS ARRESTED: Plan To Use Rocket Launcher Thwarted | Michael Conger was arrested by Eustis police once on a violation of a probation warrant and Jeremy Robertson had never been arrested by the Marion County Sheriff s Dept., They only knew of Robertson s whereabouts after a tip came in to inform them that he was in the area and had a criminal history. Based on their past history with this particular Sheriff s Department, it s easy to see why they had a bone to pick with them or maybe they just caught the F*#k the police fever? Thanks for placing a bullseye on the backs of our law enforcement officers Barack Marion County sheriff s deputies seized 22 firearms after receiving a tip that a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and missiles would be used against Eustis police, St. Mary of the Lakes Catholic Church and a local Elk s Club.The weapons, along with several containers of black powder, marijuana, powdered and crack cocaine, prescription pills, scales, other drug paraphernalia and two bulletproof vests were found in a Marion County shed, authorities said Monday.Deputies said they received information that the occupants of the shed intended to use the rocket launcher on the Eustis Police Department on Monday because of recent run-ins with officers.Eustis Police Chief Fred Cobb told Local 6, however, that he was blindsided by the threat because his department had little to no contact with two men arrested in the case.https://youtu.be/OjuOydtNJD4Cobb said Christopher Michael Conger was arrested by Eustis police on a violation of probation warrant. Cobb said that his department knows about Jeremy Robertson only because his staff received a tip notifying them that he was in the area and was known to carry drugs and weapons. It s a reminder for the public that we serve that this is a dangerous profession, Cobb said. Even in small-town U.S.A., Eustis, Florida. Via: Click Orlando | 1real |
Democrats raise doubts about Trump's high court nominee Gorsuch | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, on Monday emphasized the need for judicial independence even as Trump castigates jurists who have ruled against him, while Democrats questioned whether he would rule against abortion rights and gun control while favoring corporations. With the ideological balance of the Supreme Court at stake, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened its confirmation hearing for Gorsuch, a conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado. Republicans praised Gorsuch, 49, as highly qualified for a lifetime appointment as a justice. “I think we’re off to a good start,” Republican Chuck Grassley, the committee’s chairman, said afterward, with senators getting their first shot at questioning Gorsuch on Tuesday. Committee Democrats noted Gorsuch has the chance to join the court only because Senate Republicans last year refused to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama’s nomination of federal appellate judge Merrick Garland. Despite slim chances of blocking his nomination in the Republican-led Senate, Democrats raised questions about Gorsuch’s suitability for the job. “Our job is to determine whether Judge Gorsuch is a reasonable, mainstream conservative or is he not,” said the panel’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein. Speaking publicly for the first time since Trump nominated him on Jan. 31, Gorsuch defended his judicial record in the face of Democratic criticism of his rulings. Gorsuch, speaking mostly in generalities that could not cause him any trouble, emphasized the need for “neutral and independent judges to apply the law,” warned against judicial overreach, and referred to “the modest station we judges are meant to occupy in a democracy.” “If judges were just secret legislators, declaring not what the law is but what they would like it to be, the very idea of a government by the people and for the people would be at risk,” Gorsuch said in comments in harmony with conservative criticism of unelected “activist judges.” Gorsuch, a cool-headed and amiable jurist, gave Democrats very little ammunition to use against him, although there could be more drama when he takes questions. The hearing could last four days, providing classic Washington political theater. Grassley said the panel is likely to vote on the nomination on April 3, with the full Senate vote likely soon after. If Gorsuch is confirmed by the Senate, as expected, he would restore a narrow 5-4 conservative court majority. The seat has been vacant for 13 months, since the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal underscored the importance of judicial independence at a time when Trump has excoriated federal judges who have ruled against him on matters including two executive orders, put on hold by courts, to block people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. Blumenthal said it was not “idle speculation” to suggest the Supreme Court might be asked to enforce a subpoena against Trump, citing FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before Congress on Monday confirming an ongoing investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Republican Ted Cruz said there is no reason for Gorsuch to be questioned about Trump, noting that previous nominees have not had to speak about allegations made against the president who nominated them. Democrats highlighted cases on which Gorsuch has ruled and questioned the influence of conservative interest groups in advising Trump on his selection. Feinstein emphasized abortion. Conservatives have long opposed the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide. Feinstein called that ruling and others since then buttressing abortion rights “super precedents” deserving special deference. Feinstein cited two Gorsuch legal opinions in which she said he “argued in favor of making it harder to convict felons who possess guns.” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said he was worried that Gorsuch’s conservative method of interpreting the Constitution “goes beyond being a philosophy and becomes an agenda” that is anti-abortion, anti-environment and pro-business. “Will you allow the government to intrude on Americans’ personal privacy and freedoms? Will you elevate the rights of corporations over those of real people? Will you rubberstamp a president whose administration has asserted that executive power is not subject to judicial review?” Leahy said. Many Democrats contend Trump’s party “stole” a Supreme Court seat by freezing out Garland. “Your nomination is part of a Republican strategy to capture our judicial branch of government,” Senator Dick Durbin told Gorsuch. “That is why the Senate Republicans kept this Supreme Court seat vacant for more than a year and why they left 30 judicial nominees who had received bipartisan approval of this committee to die on the Senate calendar as President Obama left office.” Gorsuch said he has tried to treat all who come to court fairly and with respect. “I have decided cases for Native Americans seeking to protect tribal lands, for class actions like one that ensured compensation for victims of nuclear waste pollution by corporations in Colorado,” he said. He also said he has ruled for disabled students, prisoners and workers alleging civil rights violations, and for immigrants who entered the country illegally. The court’s ideological leaning could help determine the outcome of cases involving the death penalty, abortion, gun control, environmental regulations, transgender rights, voting rights, immigration, religious liberty, presidential powers and more. Republicans hold 52 of the Senate’s 100 seats. Under present rules, Gorsuch would need 60 votes to secure confirmation. If Gorsuch cannot muster 60, Republicans could change the rules to allow confirmation by a simple majority. | 0fake |
Republican Senators Corker, Toomey reach deal on budget resolution | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Pat Toomey and Bob Corker, both members of the Budget Committee, said on Tuesday they had reached an agreement on a budget resolution that would allow for tax cuts over a 10-year period. “While each member of the caucus will have to make their own decision, I believe our agreement gives the tax writing committees enough headroom to achieve real tax reform that eliminates loopholes and lowers tax rates for hardworking Americans,” Corker said in a joint press release with Toomey. Toomey said: “I am confident the budget agreement I have reached with Chairman Enzi and Senator Corker will give the Finance Committee the headroom needed to write a pro-growth tax plan that reforms the code, causes the economy to surge, and ultimately results in reduced federal budget deficits.” | 0fake |
ISRAEL WILL NAME New Train Station Near Western Wall After President Donald Trump | Israel s transportation minister is pushing ahead with a plan to extend Jerusalem s soon-to-open high-speed rail line to the Western Wall, where he wants to name a future station after President Donald Trump. The Western Wall is the holiest place for the Jewish people, and I decided to name the train station that leads to it after president Trump following his historic and brave decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz told the Jerusalem Post.The national daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth was first to report Tuesday that Katz had approved final construction plans for the train, which will include excavating a 2-mile tunnel from the Umma (nation) station at the entrance to the city to the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter.The route will take travelers through downtown Jerusalem and under the politically and historically sensitive Old City. The Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can pray.Transportation Ministry spokesman Avner Ovadia said Wednesday the project is estimated to cost more than $700 million and, if approved, would take four years to complete.Katz s office said in a statement that the minister advanced the plan in a recent meeting with Israel Railways executives, and has fast-tracked it in the planning committees.Katz said a high-speed rail station would allow visitors to reach the beating heart of the Jewish people the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. Donald Trump: It s time to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital.Trump s announcement acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel s capital and his pledge to move America s embassy there enraged Palestinians and much of the Muslim world.The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution last week rejecting the U.S. s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, with several traditional American allies voting in favor of the motion.The Western Wall train proposal will likely face opposition from the international community, which doesn t recognize Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem and the Old City, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. ThePalestinians seek east Jerusalem and the Old City, home to Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites, as capital of a future state. Daily Mail | 1real |
Snapchat’s Parent Files for a Stock Offering - The New York Times | The clock has started for one of the most eagerly awaited market debuts of 2017: that of Snapchat, the popular messaging service. The social network’s parent, Snap Inc. has filed confidentially to go public, with an eye toward being valued at more than $30 billion, people briefed on the matter said Tuesday. That would make Snap the technology company at the time of its market debut, after Alibaba and Facebook. The company is aiming to begin having its shares traded as soon as March, though the final timing for an offering has not been determined. The confidential filing, made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before the presidential election last week, comes amid a relative drought in the market for initial public offerings. There have been 96 offerings of companies with a market value of more than $50 million in the United States so far this year, down 41 percent from 2015, according to data from Renaissance Capital. A successful debut of Snap could help revive that market, encouraging other technology companies to go public. It would be the first “unicorn” — Silicon Valley lingo for private companies valued at $1 billion or more — to go public next year. Unlike Uber, Airbnb or the lender SoFi, however, Snap has a main business that is not subject to a web of government regulations that make a public listing complicated. A Snap share sale is also expected to eschew the complexities of previous technology initial public offerings like Google’s in 2004. Still, like Google, Facebook and other tech companies, Snap’s recently amended corporate charter shows that a different class of stock would enable its top executives, including its Evan Spiegel, to maintain control even after the service is publicly traded. Yet Snap will encounter intense scrutiny from potential investors, as rivals try to encroach on its turf by copying some of the photo messaging service’s signature features. In August, Facebook’s Instagram rolled out its version of the Snapchat Stories photo and video service. A spokesman for Snap declined to comment on the filing, which was reported earlier by Reuters. Founded in a Stanford University dorm room in 2011, Snapchat has become a darling of the tech world, as it has grown from a simple service into a digital video phenomenon. Its lofty goal is to essentially become the online generation’s equivalent to television. It has built up its popular Stories service, in which users upload photos or videos and share them with followers. And it gained new levels of popularity after rolling out features like lenses, which lets users transform their likenesses into cartoon dogs, silly faces — or Taco Bell tacos, paid for by sponsors. Such has been the popularity of Snapchat that media organizations have rushed to establish beachheads on the service. Even the White House has set up a Snapchat account, and President Obama has given an interview on the company’s political show. Analysts have estimated that Snap, which began its advertising business less than two years ago, could reach $1 billion in sales next year, up from more than $350 million this year. Snap’s financial information will be known when its offering filing is publicly disclosed — if the company decides to go ahead with a sale of its shares. The confidentiality of Snap’s filing was made possible by the Jumpstart Our Business . or JOBS, Act of 2012, which permits companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to conduct much of their preparation for an I. P. O. away from the glare of public scrutiny. Twitter, GoPro, Box and even the English soccer club Manchester United have filed confidentially for stock listings in the United States in this way. Under the law, companies must publicly disclose their offering documents some 15 days before they start pitching the proposed share offering to prospective investors in what is known as a “road show. ” The investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been hired to lead the offering, people briefed on the matter have previously said. Unlike some private companies, Snap has had no trouble raising money on the private markets, so investors were not given preferential treatment regarding how many shares they will get in the event of a public offering, according to corporate documents filed in Delaware. This sets Snap apart from offerings from Square and Box. Both of those companies had to give some of their private investors special deals that diluted other early shareholders. When Square went public last November, some investors received an additional 10. 3 million shares, which came at the expense of other investors. Similarly, when Box went public in 2014, some of the company’s earlier private investors were entitled to extra shares. “Snapchat will certainly be an indicator of whether there is a big pile of investor cash ready to go into the market,” said Doug Bontemps, Silicon Valley Bank’s managing director of corporate finance. “But Snapchat is unique. It’s growing quickly, is doing some interesting things with glasses and has gotten a lot of attention. There aren’t a lot of that ilk. ” | 0fake |
Why It’s Necessary To Relax Into A Stretch | In a previous article , I discussed stretching—namely, why stretching is important for the masculine man, and several stretches that you should use in your training to maximize your physical fitness. And while that advice is still valid, I neglected a very important concept in that first article: the techniques that detail how to stretch.
I am not referring to a specific stretch or some sort of hypothetical “stretching mindset,” but rather a set of techniques that can be utilized for any stretch to increase ones flexibility immediately. But before I can discuss those, I have to discuss the incorrect way of stretching that many people still use.
How Not To Stretch Many people believe that stretching is a literal act of forcing the muscles and connective tissue to stretch— avoid this at all costs ! First and foremost, as I have discussed previously in these pages, you should never apply any stretching pressure to the connective tissue. They evolved solely to “hold fast” and keep things in one piece, they should never be stretched at all!
The muscles are the anatomical feature that stretches, as they evolved to do. When stretching, your body should always be positioned in a way where the connective tissues are stable and the muscles are moving.
Even when you are positioned properly, no part of stretching should involve the athlete forcing his muscles to stretch, as that risks muscular tearing which is a nagging injury that never truly goes away. This is because the human body has naturally evolved what is referred to as the “ anti-stretch reflex ” to prevent muscular tearing-stretching the muscles increases in difficulty the farther and deeper the stretch is, and your body responds to this stress with pain. This is a biological sign telling you that if you go further you’ll be risking muscle tears, and should normally be a heeded warning.
However, if you want to do advanced stretching (such as that nigh-impossible benchmark of fitness the splits), you will have to find a way to overcome this reflex without hurting yourself. And as luck would have it, there is!
Relax Into Stretching Reflexes can be overcome with gradual and repeated practice—just ask your friendly neighborhood hooker about how she overcame her gag reflex! Similarly, your anti-stretch reflex that keeps your “joints” (actually your muscles) stiff and immobile can be overcome with a few techniques.
The most basic of these techniques is the one that I have had the best results with (as usual, the simple but difficult answer is usually the correct one), and that is the titular concept of “relaxing into a stretch”—with thanks to Pavel Tsatsouline for naming the concept.
To use this technique, take an easy form of the stretch you want to do: using the splits as an example, you would do a seated groin stretch. Engage the stretch just to the point where you feel tension in the target muscle, and then…sit and wait.
Yes, paradoxically, relaxation is the key to increasing your physical fitness in this context. You are literally going to sit there and wait for your muscles to stop fighting the stretch—in other words, you’re going to exhaust your reflex until it stops being reflexive.
This is not something that happens quickly—from my experience, it will take 5-10 minutes per stretch, so it is perfectly acceptable for you to get a book or watch TV while doing this. As a side note, this is literally the only time where it’s acceptable to have a visual distraction during exercise, in my opinion.
As you might expect, once your muscles have relaxed and the pain has melted away, you can increase the stretch a little bit more, and hold it for another 10 minutes. Repeat this process until your muscles are in pain and you judge that you can’t go any further—this is a personal call that you will have to decide for yourself, as I can’t judge when your muscles are demanding you to stop.
This technique can be utilized for any stretch, and in many cases will give you the progress that you so desire. However, there are other methods in the “Relax Into Stretch” family of exercises that can be utilized as well, such as meditation—mentally relaxing will lead to muscular relaxation.
Or you can try “forced relaxation”, where you flex the muscle simultaneously while stretching, forcing the muscle to relax.
Either way you slice it, don’t just brute force your stretching, utilize these techniques for better results.
Read More: Why Stretching Is Essential For The Body (With 6 Beginner Stretches To Get You Started)
| 1real |
As China's leaders gather, market reform hopes fade | BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping s rule in China has been marked by a muscular stance in many areas from corruption to foreign policy - but investors and business leaders hoping that the nation s most powerful leader in decades will drive market reforms are girding for disappointment. As he gears up for his second term, hoped-for market liberalization is increasingly being viewed as secondary to Xi s state-centered approach to economic policy and his focus on stability. The Communist Party Congress beginning on Wednesday in Beijing is expected to see Xi consolidate his power and is unlikely to see a change in his priorities. Party spokesman Tuo Zhen told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that China will persist with opening up and expanding market access. But foreign executives and analysts question whether these kinds of comments will mean a lot on the ground. I don t see market opening coming. It s all about discipline and control, said one senior China-based American executive, who declined to be identified. China s State Council Information Office referred questions on market reforms to the country s economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, which did not respond to a faxed request for comment. Some Chinese policy insiders said that they don t expect any significant speeding up. We will not rush on reforms. The pace of changes will not change dramatically, said one advisor to the Chinese government who was speaking on condition of anonymity. Xi s sweeping anti-corruption campaign and his move to personally take charge of economic policymaking had initially been seen by China analysts as early signs that he would use his consolidated power to push tough reforms through entrenched bureaucracies. The party s 2013 pledge under Xi s then-new administration to let the market play a decisive role in the economy had also given hope to those pushing for reform. But many analysts and business leaders now see Xi s faith in markets as tenuous, and that 2013 reform pledge as a mere holdover from his predecessors. A lack of follow-through over the past several years on repeated State Council vows to open markets to the world have left foreign businesses with promise fatigue , as the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China put it last month. Those delays coincide with the passage of a raft of new national security and cyber security laws and regulations that China s trading partners complain will put them at a disadvantage. For the past 20 or 30 years it was economic development at all costs, and I think we are seeing a new paradigm now where national security is dominant and economic issues are channeled through that lens, said Jude Blanchette, who studies the party at The Conference Board s China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing. Blanchette said true market reforms in Xi s second term would mean walking back much of the control he has fought to acquire, an unlikely prospect. Other painful reforms that many economists say are needed have also moved slowly under Xi. They include overhauling China s debt-laden state sector, fixing the fiscal system to tackle local government debt, bringing in new property taxes to ward off housing bubbles, and allowing farmers to sell their land more freely. Capital controls, including restrictions on some outbound investment deals, have helped stabilize the yuan, but at the cost of hampering China s ambition to internationalize the currency. Chinese reform advocates say the government has been avoiding potentially disruptive changes due to concerns over economic and social stability and resistance from vested interests, such as powerful state-run companies. If there are no such reforms, the conflicts will keep accumulating while risks will be even higher, which could destroy our prospects to move forward, said Jia Kang, director of the China Academy of New Supply-Side Economics, a Beijing-based think tank. In 2015, Xi espoused his own state-led supply side structural reform doctrine, an effort in part to tame an explosion of debt by cutting capacity in heavy industries, and reduce risk from bad bank loans. While Xi can tout continued robust economic growth - the government had set a 2017 GDP growth target of around 6.5 percent but it now looks like it will be closer to 7 percent - it is still reliant on credit and investment as opposed to more sustainable consumption. And expanded state control over the economy is at the center of key Xi initiatives, including the Made in China 2025 plan, which funnels billions of dollars into robotics, semiconductors, and other industries deemed strategic. Despite government talk this year about opening some restricted sectors to overseas investment, some foreign business groups express scepticism, even as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to seek some concessions for American businesses during his planned visit to Beijing in early November. Until we see the equity cap lifted from 49 percent to 50 percent or higher with foreign banks, or until we see foreign insurance companies able to fully access the market, we re just having the same conversation we had five years ago, said Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council. Xi has also reasserted that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should be the commanding heights of the economy. Foreign experts on Chinese markets point to government efforts to merge state companies into even larger champions as proof of how the state s vision of reform does not necessarily mean increased use of free markets. In recent years, Beijing has required state firms to reassert their Communist Party committees hold on corporate decision-making. A 2015 blueprint for SOE reform made no mention of the 2013 pledge for the decisive role of the market. One senior western diplomat in Beijing told Reuters it has become increasingly clear that the top priority for Xi remains strengthening the primacy of the party and stability. When further opening up comes into conflict with that priority, the argument for stability tends to win, the diplomat said. | 0fake |
Pot legalization group says to meet White House officials | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Activists in a group supporting marijuana legalization said on Wednesday that White House officials had invited them to a meeting next week to talk about issues surrounding the substance. “I hope to establish an ongoing dialogue with the White House and cannabis reformers,” said Adam Eidinger, co-founder of the DCMJ activist group. “This meeting is hopefully the beginning of many meetings where the White House will make reforms before this administration’s time ends,” said Eidinger, who has led efforts to legalize pot in the nation’s capital. The White House had no immediate comment. President Barack Obama’s final term ends in January. DCMJ had written to Obama, his senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and other White House officials asking for a meeting. A source at the group said the meeting on Monday would be held with officials from the White House’s Office of Public Engagement, but he did not know exactly what marijuana issues they wanted to discuss. The group wants the federal government to remove marijuana from the so-called list of Schedule One drugs that includes substances like heroin and cocaine. Activists say many Americans, especially blacks and Latinos, are needlessly jailed and medical research into cannabis is delayed because of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act that initiated the listing. It was signed into law by former President Richard Nixon. Obama has long said he supports decriminalizing marijuana but not legalizing it. He has called for reform of the criminal justice system for disproportionately incarcerating African-Americans for non-violent drug offenses like possession. Last year, Obama, who has been open about smoking pot in high school, said young people should care more about issues like climate change than legalizing the substance. | 0fake |
Strategist Now Backing Donald Trump Previously Called Him a Danger - The New York Times | A veteran Republican strategist now helping lead a “super PAC” in support of Donald J. Trump argued in a confidential memo last year that it would be dangerous to give Mr. Trump the power to launch a global war. The strategist, Alex Castellanos, has acknowledged that he had been publicly critical of Mr. Trump, but said on Sunday that he now considered Mr. Trump a superior choice to Hillary Clinton. In a private document presented to top Republican donors last fall, however, Mr. Castellanos suggested that Mr. Trump could be a threat to American security as president. He and another strategist, Gail Gitcho, drew up plans for a group named ProtectUS, and proposed to spend heavily against Mr. Trump in the Republican primaries. In the memo, Mr. Castellanos proposed to urge voters not to put Mr. Trump “in the Big Chair in the Oval Office, with responsibilities for worldwide confrontation at his fingertips. ” He also intended to highlight Mr. Trump’s past bankruptcies and predicted that his nomination would be ruinous for Republicans. Republican voters, Mr. Castellanos wrote, must be made to “see the danger and risk of a Trump Presidency. ” “Once these doubts are raised, Trump’s business record of bankruptcies, as well as his support of health care and other positions he shares with Hillary Clinton, can begin to pry GOP voters away,” the memo said. By nominating Mr. Trump, it continued, Republicans would be “assured that we lose the White House. ” “If Trump wins, everyone loses,” the memo said. “We not only lose the White House in 2016, but we also lose the Senate, competitive gubernatorial elections and moderate House Republicans, making Speaker Ryan’s job exponentially more difficult. ” Mr. Castellanos won no takers for his pitch, and the plans for ProtectUS were discarded. The New York Times first reported the existence of the memo in late February. On Monday, Mr. Castellanos did not respond to an email and a phone call seeking additional comment on the evolution of his views about Mr. Trump. But the original battle plan Mr. Castellanos drew up against Mr. Trump was strongly reminiscent of some of the tactics Democrats are now using against the presumptive Republican nominee. Mrs. Clinton argued in a speech last week that Mr. Trump could not be trusted with the powers of the commander in chief. And several Democratic leaders have called for a revival of the “Daisy” ad Lyndon Johnson produced to attack Barry Goldwater in the 1964 campaign, warning that Mr. Goldwater could trigger a nuclear war. | 0fake |
How to Survive Being Lost in the Woods: Tips & Tricks that May Save Your life – 11/17/16 | Posted by Devin Peterson on 11/16/2016 to Outdoor Survival Many of us head out into the woods or the wilderness to “lose ourselves” in the beauty of Mother Nature, but this stops being fun and can become horrible if we are unlucky enough to actually get lost while out there. You might not think it can happen to you, but even the best, most experienced hikers get lost. There are loads of things to consider once you realize you are lost and it is helpful to have an action plan in case it ever happens to you. We’ve come up with a list of questions you should ask yourself once you determine you are in fact lost to try and help you take control of the situation. This is a good way to start, but to get a full idea of what you need to know check out this complete guide of how to survive being lost in the woods . 1. Can I get help?
Once you have admitted to yourself that you are lost one of the first things you want to consider is how you are going to get help. Here’s a few ways that you could do this, some more obvious than others. Check your cell phone - obviously if you have service and can reach either a friend or can call 9/11, this situation is going to be much easier. Stay in the area and yell - you never know who might be in the area or how close to a trail you might be. Stick around in the same spot and shout at the top of your lungs for help. If someone is in the area, they’ll come find you. Make a fire - if you are in an area where it might be hard to find you, try to make a small fire using heavier, smokier woods. This could alert someone to your presence and could direct anyone looking for you to where you are. 2. What time is it?
Now that you have tried a few things to try and get help, you need to assess the situation and the time of day that it is will play a huge role in what you decide to do next. Depending on what your clock says you can: Begin looking for a place to camp Retrace your steps Rest until it gets cooler Have an idea of which way is East and which way is West.
The idea of using the sun to help you orient yourself is useful, but obviously depends on you knowing where it is you are headed. You may think East is the way back, but if you are already East of where you started this could be dangerous. Also, the sun is actually very rarely aligned perfectly with East and West. This could be helpful in some situations, but be careful basing major decisions on this information. 3. Do I have enough water?
No matter if you have enough time to try and find your way back to where you came or if you have decided to make camp, you are going to need water. Also, since you are now lost, it is important that you ration the water you do have until you find a new source. If you decide to walk around looking for where you came from, you are going to get thirsty and want to drink, which will deplete your supply. If you can find a water supply, stick to it and start thinking about how you can purify it to make sure it is safe to drink. Here are some of the most effective ways: Boil the water - this is relatively easy and safe to do, but it might be difficult if you are not carrying a pot or some other receptacle to hold the water Make a filter - you can make a filter using rocks and leaves and any burnt wood you might be able to find. This is not the cleanest way to do this, but could be effective in desperate situations Use chemicals - if you are a prepared hiker you might be carrying some iodine or chlorine with you that you can drop into the water you collect in order to make sure it is clean. If you don’t have this, see the first two options.
If it is impossible to do any of these, the only thing left to do is to look for a running stream and chance drinking out of it. This is risky and not recommended, but if you really need water you may not have any other choice. If you can’t find a stream you could use one of the following water collection techniques: Collect condensation from trees with plastic bags Collect rain water with a shirt or a towel Neither of these is ideal, but desperate times call for desperate measures. 4. Where can I get food?
If you are not carrying any food with you or it looks like you are going to be on your own for a while, you are going to need to figure out where your food is going to come from. If you are near a lake or a pond or in an area with wildlife, you could try to be inventive and fashion a fishing pole or a spear out of some branches to try and get food. However, if the area you’re in doesn’t allow for this or you’re not handy enough, there are some plants easily found that can be eaten that offer nutrients for emergency situations. Here are a few: Pine needles - sounds weird, but they are full of Vitamin C, especially the light green parts that come out in Spring Dandelion leaves - they taste quite bitter, but are full of iron and will help you maintain your energy level Elder weed - legend has it that the Roman army helped feed itself on this plant while out campaigning. It’s got lots of nutrients and can be found anywhere.
When you have to resort to eating in the woods, just be careful. The most harmless looking berry can be poisonous. You should be okay, but play it safe. Hopefully you never need this
It is good information to have in case you ever are lost in the woods, but hopefully proper preparation and practicing safe hiking techniques will mean you will never have to ask yourself the questions we’ve discussed. Having said that, do you have any experience surviving in the woods? Let us know what you did to stay alive, but again, let’s hope it doesn’t happen. | 1real |
New Jersey Governor Christie halts road, bridge projects | (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ordered a halt to non-essential road, bridge and mass transit projects late Thursday after lawmakers failed to reauthorize the state fund that pays for them. Christie’s executive order calls for the state Department of Transportation and New Jersey Transit to devise a plan before midnight Saturday for the “orderly” shutdown of projects funded by the Transportation Trust Fund. Federally funded projects will continue, Christie said in his executive order. The state expects to receive an estimated $906 million of federal transportation aid, according to the state treasurer’s annual report. New Jersey’s ability to borrow for new transportation projects ran out on Friday, the start of the new fiscal year. The trust fund already has about $16 billion of outstanding debt for existing road projects. The fund has roughly $80 million left, said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski, who called Christie’s executive order “pure theater.” Without new appropriations or bond proceeds, the authority cannot pay vendors for construction. Projects at any stage - procurement, design and construction - are affected by Christie’s order, the Department of Transportation said. About a month ago, lawmakers discussed issuing grant anticipation revenue bonds, or so-called GARVEEs, as a stop-gap measure, but the idea was never acted upon, Wisniewski told Reuters. The flow of federal money backing those bonds is often uncertain from year to year. “You can’t do an annual capital program on GARVEE bonds,” he said. Christie ordered the remaining money in the fund to be held only for the most essential projects “in order to protect the health, safety and welfare” of New Jerseyans, he said. Christie had hatched a late-night deal earlier this week with the Assembly to raise the state gasoline tax by 23 cents to 37.5 cents per gallon to replenish the fund. In exchange, the sales tax rate would shrink 1 percentage point to 6 percent, which could lead to an annual $1.7 billion shortfall in future budgets. But the Senate ended its session on Thursday without replenishing the program, which is expected to run out of money in August. Senators were pushing their own bill, which would have phased out the estate tax on wealthy residents instead of reducing sales taxes. Christie also stripped several items out of the legislature’s budget on Thursday, signing a reduced $34.5 billion budget for fiscal 2017 that is just 2.1 percent higher than that for fiscal 2016. | 0fake |
Ever Meet Someone Who Felt Eerily Familiar? One Man’s Story | Share on Facebook Share on Twitter At one time or another most of us have met someone for the first time and experienced a feeling about that person that’s beyond causal. Somehow, this particular new person generates a reaction within us that sparks our primal instincts beyond the usual associations registered when meeting a new person. One of the most baffling encounters occurs when meeting a person for the first time and so strongly sensing you’ve known this person before. It’s an uncanny feeling that too often is dismissed as a “past-life connection” or simply being reminded of another person whom you cannot for the life of you recall. It might be an instant dislike or an affinity, even those “love at first sight” moments. Whatever the case, there’s a short-term overwhelm happening while we’re taking their measure, a subconscious reading. Personally, I’ve always been taken aback by these moments, so much so that it can prevent me from being able to react in expected social dialogue. I’m preoccupied, trying to observe what is it that’s so charging me and why. There’s a kind of knowing, a recognition taking place that’s occurring down in the subconscious — or possibly through some astral dimension. Is this experience similar to déjà vu? Cognitive science explains this sensation as a chemical reaction in the brain which floods our senses with a feeling that we’ve lived the moment before. Perhaps something similar is happening upon meeting people who cause this effect? I’m not buying it, however, and here’s why. There have been several times in my life when this sensation occurred, and it was shared mutually with the person whom I had just met. In effect, we’re both having the same feeling that we’ve known each other before, somehow, somewhere. The most vivid example I will share is from a trip to China. I was in a small village in a remote area, walking along a canal with my Chinese hosts. Approaching us was another group, all Chinese, and upon passing each other, this one Chinese gentleman stops and turns; simultaneously, I was doing the exact thing. There we were, facing each other, both of us grinning like school children, with tears forming in our eyes. He spoke no English and I no Mandarin, yet we were both speaking softly to each other. My Chinese guide returned to my side, providing translation: “This man says he knows you. Ask where have you been?” my guide said. Evolve Your Inbox & Stay Conscious Daily Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. “I feel like I know him too, somehow,” I replied, “Has he ever been to California?” “No, he says he’s never been outside of China,” my guide continued, somewhat perplexed and embarrassed by our exchange. “But I know him,” I protested. “We, we were friends, good friends, but I cannot remember where or when?” “That’s what this fellow just said about you,” my guide lamented, feeling such talk inappropriate. “I know, you didn’t have to translate. I knew what he was saying,” I answered, trying to control my emotions. “This strange person, he says, he says he misses you,” the guide stated, now officially embarrassed. “I miss you too, my old friend,” I said, staring into the man’s eyes. We exchanged business cards, and he bowed to me, and I to him. We shook hands, and then, much to the horror of my guide, this total stranger and I embraced. Somewhere in a cluttered cubbyhole I still have his card, my long lost friend who has slipped back into the ethers. Yet, what I actually want to speak to is something quite different from my warm Chinese anecdote. This is a vastly more unsettling subject — encountering someone who does not read as a human being. By that, I mean there’s something so otherly about the person that, at the visceral level, you can’t ignore your reaction. This might not be a common experience for most people, but among my spiritual colleagues, we’ve spoken of this kind of encounter, so it’s not just me. There are myriad theories as to what’s going on here, the prime one being that these are alien beings from various star systems composed as hybrids of animal, fairy, cyborg, or other essences who live within a human form and have agendas that may be beneficial for or malevolent toward the human race. There’s a plethora of literature on such things readily found in metaphysical bookstores, not to mention online. And the subject matter can range from angels and spirit guides to a complex ontological philosophy that incorporates quantum physics. Yet, the common thread to all of this is the perception that we, meaning us humans, are not alone. And this of course opens the question: What is the agenda of these others — why are they here? This is where the speculation ramps up and the wormholes open. While it can be amusing to think of certain individuals fitting such a description, it’s a serious matter for those who monitor this subject. Movies and books have employed this concept to create various storylines for their plots. I, too, in my books have used this sense that other beings, non-humans, are among us. In Call of the Forbidden Way , an alien threat to colonize our planet is at the core of the drama. But I didn’t come to this idea casually. No, I have always felt an awareness of other beings active on our planet. And I have had my share of encounters with an assortment of folk who, to me, simply didn’t register as authentically human — some far from it. So, while prevailing logic requires me to present such ideas as fiction, I write with much more than a casual what-if attitude on the subject. Perception, be it accurate or not, is how we experience the world. My own perception seems to register that we’re not alone.
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 1real |
Senate bill would cut Medicaid spending 35 percent in 2036: budget analyst | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Spending on the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor would be 35 percent lower than under current law in 2036 if a draft bill to repeal Obamacare proposed by Senate Republicans were to become law, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday. The CBO estimated in a report requested by Senate Democrats that under current law Medicaid spending would grow 5.1 percent a year over the next two decades. Under the Republican Senate plan, it projected growth of just 1.9 percent a year through 2026 and about 3.5 percent per year in the subsequent ten years. | 0fake |
EU leaders to give mandate for next phase of Brexit talks: Lithuanian president | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will agree on Friday to move forward with Britain s exit negotiations to prepare a future trade deal, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said. We will give the mandate for preparation for the Commission and ourselves for the negotiations for the future of our relations, that will probably start in March, she said. Asked if Britain might agree a trade deal with the European Union going beyond the bloc s deal with Canada, sometimes described as Canada Plus , she said: We hope to have a lot of pluses for all sides. | 0fake |
Members of Libyan parliament signal backing for U.N. transition proposals | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya s eastern-based parliament voted on Tuesday to approve some U.N. proposals aimed at unifying the divided North African nation, although major obstacles remain for a deal to stabilize the oil producer. The U.N. launched a new round of talks in September to end years of turmoil in Libya following a 2011 NATO-backed uprising and unite the rival governments and parliaments in Tripoli and the east. Choosing the members of the presidency and the government, and settling the question of military leadership are seen as the biggest hurdles to any deal. Only a minority of members of the House of Representatives in Benghazi took part in Tuesday s vote, so it is unclear to what extent it will advance the latest push for a political deal. Opposition in the House had been a key obstacle to previous U.N. peace efforts. A rival assembly in Tripoli is also meant to approve the proposals. The U.N. talks were suspended in October, but the organization has been working behind the scenes. Its envoy Ghassan Salame said last week that delegations from rival assemblies were close to a consensus . On Tuesday, a majority of about 75 members of the House present approved U.N. proposals regarding the broader structure of a future government, said Fathi al-Marimi, an adviser to House speaker Agila Saleh. An unspecified number were flown in by Saleh on a private plane, he said. The House session had originally been planned for Monday but was postponed when a U.N. flight carrying some deputies based in western Libya was prevented from landing. The U.N. proposals are aimed at relaunching a deal signed in December 2015, which produced a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli that has struggled to assert its authority and never been accepted by factions that control the east of the country. Salame said last week that he was planning to hold a national conference in February to agree how to finalize a transition, and that the U.N. was working to establish the right conditions for holding new elections. | 0fake |
GA SUPREME COURT Denies KKK Right To “Adopt A Highway”…While IL City “Unanimously, Proudly” Names Street After Black Panther | Is our government telling us certain hate groups are more acceptable than others?Does the Ku Klux Klan have a constitutional right to adopt a highway ?That question was at the center of a high-profile battle Monday before the Georgia Supreme Court, where the Klan is challenging the state s refusal to let it participate in the popular Adopt-A-Highway program.The hate group, with the American Civil Liberties Union by its side, is casting its bid as a free speech issue. The government cannot be a censor of free speech, Alan Berger, an attorney for the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said.But the Georgia Department of Transportation has resisted the KKK s efforts ever since 2012 to join the program.For its part, GDOT maintains it should be allowed to exclude certain groups from the program and stands by its claim that the KKK s long rooted history of civil disturbance would cause a significant public concern. Monday s arguments centered around Georgia s claim of so-called sovereign immunity a legal doctrine that shields the state from civil suit or criminal prosecution. The state had appealed a lower court decision by Judge Shawn LaGrua, who ruled Georgia was not protected against the KKK suit because the group claimed the discrimination involved a violation of its constitutional rights. The state denied the application, not because of safety hazard or some other compelling government interest, but because the state disagrees with what the KKK represents, Maya Dillard Smith, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, told FoxNews.com. It is precisely this kind of government action the Constitution prohibits. While Smith admits that many people who hear about the case have a visceral reaction to it, she warns its outcome could have a dangerous ripple effect. What may seem as chipping away only at the KKK s free speech right, will, in fact, open Pandora s box and create legal precedent that justifies curtailing the free speech rights of religious evangelicals, abortion protestors and even Black Lives Matter supporters and opponents, she said.A judgment is not expected for a couple of months, Berger told FoxNews.com following Monday s oral arguments. In the meantime, GDOT has suspended Adopt-a-Highway applications.This isn t the first time a state has gone rounds with the white supremacist group.In 1994, Missouri tried to block the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan from participating in its Adopt-A-Highway program.The group which excludes anyone who is black, Jewish, Mexican or Asian had requested a half-mile section of road on Interstate 55, one of the routes that had been used to bus black students to school as part of desegregation efforts near St. Louis.The state denied the KKK s request.In that case, lawyers for the state unsuccessfully argued that it had a right to control its own speech and that allowing the Klan to participate would violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act s ban on racial discrimination in federally funded programs.The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, thereby forcing the state to allow the group to take part in its Adopt-A-Highway program. However, the state later kicked the group out, saying it failed to do its job and pick up the litter on its adopted stretch of highway. Via: FOX NewsSo what about the YMCA which houses the Fred Hampton Aquatic Center on former Oak Street In Maywood, IL that was officially named after Black Panther, Fred Hampton who was slain in a police raid in 2007. September 9, 2007From now on, Oak Street in Maywood will be known as Fred Hampton Way.Relatives of the slain Black Panther leader joined congressmen, activists and Maywood residents Saturday to dedicate the street and a statue of Hampton that now sits in front of the Fred Hampton Family Aquatic Center.Last year, efforts to name a street on Chicago s West Side for Hampton failed amid controversy that Hampton and the Panthers advocated violence against police.But there was no such debate in Maywood, whose mayor, Henderson Yarbrough, said the village council unanimously, proudly voted to give Hampton his due. There ought to be some footprints in the sand in relation to this man, said the Rev. Al Sampson, one of about 75 people at the ceremony. Fred Hampton represents part of the tradition of liberation freedom fighters. Killed in police raid in 69 Maywood s police chief attended the event, along with U.S. Representatives Danny Davis and Bobby Rush, a co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party.Hampton, who grew up in Maywood, and fellow Panther Mark Clark were gunned down by Chicago Police in a 1969 raid at Hampton s apartment. Hampton had helped bring the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to national prominence and also brokered a nonaggression pact between gangs. | 1real |
Netanyahu’s Office Denies Report It Was Informed Trump Would Not Move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem | The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office denied on Wednesday reports that it had received notice that US President Donald Trump has decided not to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. [“Israel’s position is that all embassies, particularly the US embassy, should be in Israel’s capital — Jerusalem,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Israeli outlet NRG cited unnamed sources as saying the White House had relayed the decision about scrapping plans for the controversial move to the government in Jerusalem. It remains to be seen whether Trump will make any announcement on his campaign pledge of moving the US embassy during his first visit as president to Israel and the Palestinian territories on May . Palestinian and Arab leaders have warned the US against the move, saying it would trigger violence in Israel and elsewhere. Read more here. | 0fake |
U.S. Defense Dept needs to better manage its finances: GAO | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department needs to better manage its finances if it hopes to rebuild and modernize the U.S. Armed Forces, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released on Tuesday. The Pentagon needs to give its decision makers and weapons buyers more accurate budget and cost information so they can make better decisions as they modernize weapons systems, the report said. U.S. President Donald Trump’s $4.1 trillion fiscal 2018 budget proposal included $603 billion in defense spending for the Department of Defense as well as nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy and other national defense priorities. The GAO report comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis presented lawmakers in the House and Senate with a $33 billion wish list of unfunded military needs. The report said despite increased defense funding under Trump, efforts “underway to rebuild readiness for portions of their military forces” are at risk without more comprehensive planning efforts at the Pentagon. The federal agency, which oversees government resources, also said the Defense Department could police global hot spots with less expensive and more numerous regular troops instead of U.S. special forces. “DOD has not taken steps to examine whether additional opportunities exist to reduce the high demand on these (special) forces by sharing some of their responsibilities with conventional forces,” the report said. U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal gave the military a modest boost to their budget, 3 percent more than what former President Barack Obama had sought in his long-term budget plan. The $574.5 billion for the Department of Defense would go to warfighting readiness and critical program requirements. GAO said it has made approximately 3,100 recommendations to DOD since 2006. Of these about 1,037 have not been acted on, including 78 priority recommendations. The report released on Tuesday made no new recommendations. | 0fake |
Silver Signals The Flight To Real Safety Is On Again | Financial Markets , Gold , Market Manipulation , Precious Metals , U.S. Economy dollar collapse , silver , silver eagles , stock bubble admin
Gold is powering higher because the dollar is dropping. The dollar index is down 1.7% in the last 3 1/2 trading sessions. It’s down 2.3% vs the euro in the last 5 1/2 days, down 2.1% vs the yen in the last 3 days and down nearly 2% vs. the Swissie since Sunday night.
This is NOT about the political chaos connected to the U.S. election. That’s a sideshow distraction to the real problems going on behind the scene.
The U.S. economy is starting to collapse. This is becoming glaringly evident from most of the data, notwithstanding the highly manipulated economic reports like auto sales.
The movement back into non-fiat assets is starting again – anything connected to debt, like housing, is a de facto fiat asset. The best indicator of this is not gold, but silver. Silver was correlating with SPX for most of October, when the investment “thesis” was “a strengthening economy is good for industrial metals.”
The graph below illustrates this. It shows silver’s movement vs. the SPX for the last 3 months:
Silver correlated almost perfectly with the movement of the SPX for most of October (shaded area on the graph). But silver has moved up while the SPX has been selling off (including today, Nov 2nd) the past 4 trading sessions. This signals a switch from silver performing as an “industrial” metal to silver functioning as a “monetary” metal.
Certainly based on the gold-silver ratio, silver is extraordinarily cheap to gold and thus represents a prototypical “value” trade as the markets begin to accept and reflect economic reality and reject the politically-charge propaganda about a “healthy” economy coming from the Fed, the White House and the Democratic candidates.
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Trump Mocks Biden's Dare To Take Him 'Behind the Gym' |
In the schoolyard of American politics, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stood tall Tuesday as he fired back at Vice President Joe Biden for a slam Biden sent his way last week.
“The press always asks me: Don’t I wish I were debating him? No, I wish we were in high school — I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I wish,” Biden said last week while attacking him for comments that surfaced from Trump’s past.
Trump commented on that remark Tuesday during a rally in Tallahassee, Fla.
Related Stories Trump Dedicates D.C. Hotel: ‘The Future Lies With The Dreamers’ Trump Sets GOP Fundraising Milestone In Small-Donor Contributions Newt Gingrich Defends Donald Trump Against ‘Sexual Predator’ Accusations “Did you see where Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn?” Trump asked his fans.
Donald Trump responds to Joe Biden saying he'd like to take Trump "behind the gym": "I'd love that! Mr Tough Guy." https://t.co/1vwBSd9c79
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 25, 2016
“ I’d love that . I’d love that,” Trump added. “Mr. Tough Guy. He’s Mr. Tough Guy. You know, he’s Mr. Tough Guy, when he’s standing behind a microphone by himself.”
Trump seemed to relish the thought.
“Some things in life you could really love doing,” Trump said.
I'm trying to envision something more fitting than this election actually ending in a Biden-Trump fist fight and i cannot
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 26, 2016
many, many, many economic problems could be solved by making a biden – trump boxing match pay-per-view
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) October 26, 2016
Trending Stories Frustrated With Media Bias, Trump Campaign Takes Its Case Directly To Voters With Nightly Show On Facebook Independent Voters Push Trump To The Front In Florida And Ohio RNC Official Takes CNN Host To Task For Claiming There Is No Media Bias Trump also threw a jab at the media.
“By the way, if I said that, they’d say, ‘He’s violent. How could he have done that?'” Trump said.
Trump, who according to one recent poll has a narrow lead in Florida, told supporters that he was confident of victory .
“In 14 days we are going to win the state of Florida and we are going to win back the White House,” he declared.
“We have a thing going on that they have never seen before. It is a movement. They have never seen anything like it before. We are going to win and we are going to bring back a lot of good things including common sense to the White House,” Trump added.
“We have the power in our hands,” he said. “In just 14 days – 14 days? Can you believe this? I started, it was a year and a half. Now we’re down to 14 days.”
“We had unbelievably tough, nasty primaries. We’re proud to say they were the most difficult and toughest primaries they say in the history of politics. And now we have a nasty, nasty election. But we have the facts on our side,” he added.
What do you think? | 1real |
Tribunal Rejects Beijing’s Claims in South China Sea - The New York Times | BEIJING — An international tribunal in The Hague delivered a sweeping rebuke on Tuesday of China’s behavior in the South China Sea, including its construction of artificial islands, and found that its expansive claim to sovereignty over the waters had no legal basis. The landmark case, brought by the Philippines, was seen as an important crossroads in China’s rise as a global power and in its rivalry with the United States, and it could force Beijing to reconsider its assertive tactics in the region or risk being labeled an international outlaw. It was the first time the Chinese government had been summoned before the international justice system. In its most significant finding, the tribunal rejected China’s argument that it enjoys historic rights over most of the South China Sea. That could give the governments of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam more leverage in their own maritime disputes with Beijing. The tribunal also said that China had violated international law by causing “irreparable harm” to the marine environment, endangering Philippine ships and interfering with Philippine fishing and oil exploration. “It’s an overwhelming victory. We won on every significant point,” said the Philippines’ chief counsel in the case, Paul S. Reichler. But while the decision is legally binding, there is no mechanism for enforcing it, and China, which refused to participate in the tribunal’s proceedings, reiterated on Tuesday that it would not abide by it. Speaking at a meeting with European leaders, President Xi Jinping was defiant, reasserting China’s claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea “since ancient times,” the People’s Daily reported. His remarks echoed a statement from the Foreign Ministry. The tribunal’s decision “is invalid and has no binding force,” the ministry said. “China does not accept or recognize it. ” The foreign secretary of the Philippines, Perfecto Yasay Jr. welcomed the ruling as “significant” and called on “all those concerned to exercise restraint and sobriety. ” The five judges and legal experts on the tribunal ruled unanimously, and the decision was so heavily in favor of the Philippines that there were fears about how the Chinese leadership would react. Many in the region worry that Beijing will accelerate its efforts to assert control over the South China Sea, which includes vital trade routes and fishing waters as well as possible oil and mineral deposits. “Xi Jinping has lost face here, and it will be difficult for China to do nothing,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “I expect a very tough reaction from China, since it has lost on almost every point. There is virtually nothing that it has won. ” The Philippines filed its case in 2013, after China seized a reef over which both countries claim sovereignty. There has been speculation that Beijing might respond to the decision by building an artificial island at the reef, Scarborough Shoal, a move that could set off a conflict with the Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States. The State Department spokesman, John Kirby, said Washington expected China to comply with the ruling. “The world is watching to see if China is really the global power it professes itself to be and the responsible power that it professes itself to be,” he said. The main issue before the panel was the legality of China’s claim to waters within a “ line” that appears on official Chinese maps and encircles as much as 90 percent of the South China Sea, an area the size of Mexico. The Philippines had asked the tribunal to find the claim to be in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both China and the Philippines have ratified. In its decision, the tribunal said any historic rights to the sea that China had previously enjoyed “were extinguished” by the treaty, which lays out rules for drawing zones of control over the world’s oceans based on distances to coastlines. The panel added that while China had used islands in the sea in the past, it had never exercised exclusive authority over the waters. The panel also concluded that several disputed rocks and reefs in the South China Sea were too small for China to claim control of economic activities in the waters around them. As a result, it found, China was engaged in unlawful behavior in Philippine waters, including activities that had aggravated the dispute. The tribunal cited China’s construction of a large artificial island on an atoll known as Mischief Reef. China has built a military airstrip, naval berths and sports fields on the island, but the tribunal ruled that it was in Philippine waters. The judges also said that Beijing had violated international law by causing “severe harm to the coral reef environment” and by failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from harvesting endangered sea turtles and other species “on a substantial scale. ” In an early indication of the regional response, Vietnam — which has fraternal Communist ties to China but also significant territorial disputes with it, including over oil exploration rights — quickly issued a statement endorsing the tribunal’s decision. China has argued that the tribunal had no jurisdiction in the case. Because the sovereignty of reefs and islands in the sea is disputed, Beijing asserted, the tribunal could not decide on competing claims to the surrounding waters. The treaty covers only maritime disputes, not land disputes. In a tough speech in Washington last week, a former senior Chinese official, Dai Bingguo, said that the findings would amount to no more than “waste paper” and that China would not back down from its activities in the South China Sea even in the face of a fleet of American aircraft carriers. But with the geopolitical stakes high, Mr. Dai also counseled moderation, saying that the situation in the South China Sea “must cool down. ” The issue could have ramifications for domestic politics in China. Mr. Xi has made defense of maritime claims a central part of the governing Communist Party’s narrative that it has restored the nation to global greatness after long periods of humiliation by bigger powers. Any challenge to that narrative is seen in Beijing as a challenge to the party’s rule. On Wednesday morning, an escalating propaganda campaign in China against the tribunal reached a new pitch, with all the major news outlets condemning the decision and trumpeting China’s refusal to be back down. “We do not claim an inch of land that does not belong to us, but we won’t give up any patch that is ours,” said a editorial in The People’s Daily, which ridiculed the tribunal as a “lackey of some outside forces” that would be remembered as a “laughingstock in human history. ” Some Chinese commentators have said in recent days that the leadership may respond with immediate military maneuvers in the South China Sea. “Whether it will be significant or large scale I cannot say,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. China is hosting the Group of 20 summit meeting in September, a major international forum that it hopes will proceed without the distraction of conflict. But Mr. Shi said he was not sure the government had “that kind of patience” to wait until after the gathering before taking some sort of action. In a surprising opinion article on the India Today website over the weekend, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, Shen Dingli, wrote that Beijing needed to “revise its stance” and “employ a more effective approach” that maintained China’s “ ‘smiling’ image. ” The new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has signaled that he will be more accommodating toward China than was his predecessor, Benigno S. Aquino III. The case before the tribunal was filed at the initiative of Mr. Aquino, whose term ended June 30. Soon after the case was filed, China began building artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, much of which is claimed by the Philippines, in a move that many saw as a demonstration of contempt for the international court system. Experts in international law said that negotiations could be the most positive outcome of the case. In 1986, some noted, the United States ignored a ruling from the International Court of Justice that declared its mining of the harbors of Nicaragua to be illegal. Washington had not ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea, and it still has not. But the ruling 30 years ago by the judges in The Hague emboldened congressional critics to cut funds for the Reagan administration’s campaign against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, and it galvanized countries in Central America to seek a settlement of the conflict. China is not expected to vacate or dismantle the artificial islands it has built. That makes the legal arguments important, analysts said. “ “The tribunal rulings will move the goal posts towards the Philippines and the smaller countries,” said Markus Gehring, a lecturer in law at Cambridge University. In Manila, the former foreign secretary, Albert F. del Rosario, who brought the case after years of failed negotiations with China, said the path was now open for a lasting settlement of disputes in the South China Sea. “The award provides a basis to further talks and cooperation to encompass all parties, including China,” he said. | 0fake |
LULAC Files First Lawsuit Against Texas ’Sanctuary’ Ban | The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) took little time in filing the first lawsuit to try to stop the Lone Star State’s recently signed jurisdiction bill. LULAC sued the State of Texas, its governor, and the state’s attorney general. [The mayor of the small Texas border city of El Cenizo joined with the organization whose stated mission is to “advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States. ” A sheriff and a constable from an adjacent county are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit. El Cenizo is in Webb County right on the Border. Its population is approximately 3, 300 and is 99. 2 percent Hispanic. The city has long considered itself “a safe haven” for illegal aliens. In 1999, city officials passed an ordinance which prohibits city employees from asking a person about their immigration status. El Cenizo Mayor Raul L. Reyes, and Maverick County’s Sheriff Tom Schmerber and Constable (Pct. ) Mario A. Hernandez are the named plaintiffs in the LULAC lawsuit against the State of Texas, Governor Greg Abbott (in his official capacity) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Maverick County is adjacent to Webb County just northeast of the county. “The League of United Latin American Citizens has filed suit against Texas Governor Gregg Abbott seeking to block implementation of SB 4 as a violation of multiple protections in the US Constitution,” stated LULAC National President Roger C. Rocha, Jr. “We believe it is unconstitutional for the State of Texas to attempt to coerce local law enforcement into becoming de facto federal immigration agents. ” A statement obtained by Breitbart Texas from LULAC provides: “The complaint which was filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens against the State of Texas and key government officials seeks declaratory and injunctive relief from the courts to stop the state from discriminating against individuals based solely on the color of their skin. The complaint, which was the first to be filed by a civil rights organization in response to the signing of SB 4, maintains that SB 4 violates the U. S. Constitution. The statute seeks to extend local law enforcement into a field preempted by federal law. Specifically, SB 4 impermissibly extends immigration enforcement to local officials by forcing local government entities to cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts in a way that violates federal law both constitutionally and statutorily. In addition to the statute being unconstitutional, it is bad policy. SB 4 will promote distrust between local law enforcement and the community at large. ” Breitbart Texas reported in an exclusive interview with Texas Governor Greg Abbott that law enforcement and other officials who implement sanctuary policies and release criminal aliens with detainers will now be subject to the “stiffest penalties in America. ” Governor Abbott made these comments immediately following his signing of the historic bill that not only effectively outlaws sanctuary jurisdictions, but provides for criminal penalties and removal from office if violated by law enforcement officials. Abbott also strongly refuted the attempts of media, legislators, law enforcement officials, and others that “The controversial part of this law is what some label as the ‘show your papers’ component. ” He explained: “And what everyone seems to get wrong is they think that that provision was stricken down in the Arizona law. To the contrary, the provision in the Arizona law is stricter than the Texas law. The Arizona law required that law enforcement ASK for papers. The Texas law does not require it it allows it so there is that one difference. ” “But despite that difference, the Arizona law was upheld by every U. S. Supreme Court justice, including the liberals. ” “The controversial part of this law has been ruled on by the U. S. Supreme Court and upheld,” the governor emphasized. The author of the bill, Senator Charles Perry ( ) said during a QA on the Senate Floor during final passage of the bill that police can already inquire about the immigration status of a person they detain. He said this bill doesn’t change anything in this regard and citizens and legal residents do not need “carry papers” to prove they are here legally. As to criminal penalties for law enforcement officers that thumb their nose at the law after it becomes effective on September 1: All law enforcement officers are going to be required to follow this law. If they refuse to follow this law, or if they adopt sanctuary city policies, they are subject now to the stiffest penalties in America for adopting sanctuary city policies — which includes jail time where sheriffs could wind up in the same jail they may be releasing inmates from who are the subject of ICE detainer requests. “But these officials also are subject to a removal action,” Abbott advised, “and the counties or cities in which they operate are subject to very stiff fines. ” The law makes ignoring an immigration detainer a Class A misdemeanor, Breitbart Texas reported. When asked about Travis County Sheriff “Sanctuary Sally” Hernandez and Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, the Texas governor had this to say during the interview: “If they don’t change their policies, if they continue to handle detainers on a basis that means they will be in violation of this law and subject to its penalties. ” The lawsuit filed in San Antonio in the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has been assigned to Chief Judge Orlando L. Garcia. Judge Garcia has ruled against Texas in redistricting lawsuits brought against the state. Interestingly, the federal complaint (below) bears the name “Bexar County Constable Pct. 1 Ruben C. Tejeda” as a plaintiff but it has been manually . The governor of Texas believes this legislation will protect its citizens and free them from danger. He clarified: “This law makes Texans safer because it prevents the types of policies that California has that lead to the tragic murder of Kate Steinle. It prevents the types of policies that were adopted by the Travis County sheriff who had policies that release back out on the street, people who are either accused of, or even convicted of, very dangerous crimes and so Texas is going to be a safer place by ensuring that law enforcement will work with federal officials to ensure that we keep behind bars, and remove from this country, those who pose a danger to our fellow Americans. ” Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2. LULAC Lawsuit Against Texas on Sanctuary City Ban by lanashadwick on Scribd, | 0fake |
The Failure of Democracy -- How The Oligarchs Plan To Steal The Election | License DMCA
I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.
Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this is not endeared to the oligarchs.
Who are the oligarchs? -- Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put five banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks' balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.
-- The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power.
-- The neoconservatives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China. - Advertisement -
-- The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs.
-- Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, hebicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops.
-- The extractive industries -- energy, mining, fracking, and timber -- that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply.
-- The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israel's way.
What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes' reporting and the facts on the ground. - Advertisement -
According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner.
I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary's public appearances are unattended but Trump's are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:
"Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and stickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages."
I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity. | 1real |
White House: Congress has more work to do on spending bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday welcomed the latest plan from congressional Republicans to fund the federal government past Sept. 30 but said it was still disappointed in parts of the proposal, such as a lack of funding for the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, among other issues. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a daily briefing that it “is not at all clear to me” that President Barack Obama is prepared to fund the spending bill “because he believes that Congress has got more work to.” | 0fake |
Trump: Israel is a ray of hope to the world | November 11, 2016 Trump: Israel is a ray of hope to the world
Just two days after his stunning election victory, President-elect Donald Trump delivered a message to Israel, describing his personal affection for the Jewish state and hopes that his administration will be able to strengthen ties strained by eight years of tense relations between Israel and the Obama administration.
Calling Israel a “ray of hope,” Trump released the statement to the Israel HaYom newspaper, which is owned by prominent Jewish Republican donor, Sheldon Adelson. Adelson backed Trump in this year’s election towards the end of the race, giving tens of millions of dollars to the Trump campaign and pro-Trump political action committees.
“I love and respect Israel and its citizens,” wrote Trump. “Israel and the US share so many common values, like free speech, freedom of worship, and the special emphasis on creating opportunities for all citizens to fulfill their dreams.”
“I look forward to strengthening the unbreakable bond between our two great peoples. I know well that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and that it is the only one that defends human rights, and that it is a ray of hope for many people.”
Along with his praise for the Jewish state, Trump also touched upon the thorniest issue in the Israel-US relationship – the two-state solution. | 1real |
In U.S. Jails, a Constitutional Clash Over Air-Conditioning - The New York Times | JENNINGS, La. — The air inside the Jefferson Davis Parish jail was hot and musty. Prisoners, often awakened by the morning heat, hoped for cooling rain after nightfall. And ice, one inmate recalled, brought fleeting relief in the cell she called a “sweatbox. ” Even though summer temperatures routinely roar past 100 degrees here, the jail, like scores of other jails and prisons across the country, has no . “It’s hot,” Heidi Bourque, who was locked up this month for theft, said of the jail as she sat in her home, where the glowing red digits of the living room thermostat showed the temperature as a chilling 62. “It’s miserable. ” Her complaints are unlikely to move local residents, who approved funding to build a new jail after local leaders promised two years ago that it would not pamper inmates with . But they speak to a broader debate about the threshold for when extreme temperatures become cruel and unusual punishment. Judges from Arizona to Mississippi to Wisconsin have declared over the years that the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution forbids incarceration in decidedly hot or cold temperatures. Still, prison reform activists encounter deep resistance in their quest to cool the nation’s cellblocks. “It’s almost impossible for courts to deny the constitutional violation because extreme heat undoubtedly exposes individuals to substantial risk of serious harm,” said Mercedes Montagnes, a lawyer for three inmates with health issues who challenged conditions on Louisiana’s death row. “Now what we’re grappling with is the remedy. ” Officials offer a range of justifications for the absence of and for their reliance on cold showers, plentiful liquids and fans to help prisoners manage in the heat. Some contend that cooling systems are prohibitively expensive to install, particularly in older facilities. In places like Louisiana and Texas, sweltering states where elected officials cherish credentials, it is politically poisonous to be perceived as coddling prisoners. And many officials simply say that temperatures are not anywhere near as dire as prisoners and their lawyers claim. “For the first 20 years of my life, I lived in a house with no ” said Jim Willett, the director of the Texas Prison Museum and a former warden at the state’s death house. “I just have a hard time sympathizing with anybody over . ” The Louisiana Department of Corrections declined to comment, citing the lawsuit by Ms. Montagnes’s clients, who said that they had at times chosen to sleep “on the hard floor, in spite of the risk of bites from fire ants, because the floor is slightly cooler than their beds. ” A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which is facing an array of lawsuits over the issue of jail temperatures, including a case, said in a statement that “the of staff and offenders is a top priority for the agency and we remain committed to making sure that both are safe during the extreme heat. ” The spokesman, Jason Clark, said that 30 of his agency’s 109 facilities are fully but he asserted that retrofitting all the department’s other prisons would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The disputes surrounding the climate of modern incarceration can be partly traced to 1981, when the Supreme Court concluded that “the Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons. ” About 35 years later, states, counties and cities are interpreting the court’s words in their own ways. In Texas, state regulations require that temperatures in county jails “shall be reasonably maintained between 65 degrees Fahrenheit and 85 degrees Fahrenheit in all occupied areas. ” But that standard does not apply to state prisons. In Louisiana, the placement of a city or parish border can dictate the relative comfort of a night in a local lockup. Pretrial inmates here in Jefferson Davis Parish, a rural area of about 31, 000 people where the heat index on a recent afternoon hit 106 degrees, spend their days and nights in the small jail on the third floor of the courthouse. There are fans, but no . “We don’t want to make it real comfortable for them because we don’t want them to want to come back,” Christopher Ivey, the chief sheriff’s deputy, said in his office two floors beneath the jail. “We try to get it and keep it at a level that it’s comfortable enough that they can survive. ” Mr. Ivey, who said no parish inmate had suffered a illness since the sheriff took office in 2012, said he believed the jail’s temperature never exceeded 80 degrees. But a jailer who dropped by Mr. Ivey’s office suggested that temperatures regularly reached the . “You don’t leave there not moist,” Mr. Ivey acknowledged. Parish officials, who have not faced a court challenge about jail temperatures, did not agree to requests for a tour of the facility or interviews with current inmates. But after her release, Ms. Bourque, 25, described an environment where inmates found little relief. “It’s hot as hell,” she said. “The church ladies come over there, and I told her that. And she was like, ‘No, I believe hell is hotter.’ And I was like, ‘It’s just an expression. It’s hot as hell. ’” Inmates, lawyers and doctors described similar conditions inside other jails across the South, and some said that temperatures endangered the lives of prisoners with health problems. “Once these buildings heat up in the summertime, they never really do ever cool back down again,” Keith M. Cole, a plaintiff in the Texas case, said at the Navasota prison where he is serving a life sentence for murder and is being treated for heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. “ to me wouldn’t be a comfort. It’s a necessity — it’s a medical necessity. ” Mr. Cole, 62, said that he understood public skepticism of for prisoners, and that he might have even embraced such an opinion before he was sentenced in 1995. But in an interview, he said, “This isn’t about comfort. This is about life or death. ” Dressed in the plain white uniform of a Texas inmate, he spoke for nearly an hour in the prison’s visitation center. “This is beautiful,” he said. “This is paradise right here. You couldn’t ask for anything better than this. ” The state said that adding at Mr. Cole’s prison would cost of more than $22 million, with about $478, 000 in annual operating costs. Many of the pending cases could take years to resolve. A federal judge in Baton Rouge, La. ruled in Ms. Montagnes’s favor in 2013, but lawyers for the state and the prisoners are still haggling over fixes after an appeals court’s ruling. One proposed solution, detailed in a court filing this month, is what officials described as a “Cajun cooler,” which both sides said “essentially consists of a combination of an ice chest, a fan and a duct that emits cool air. ” And as the court battles continue, both sides question why the issue has become such a protracted, expensive battle. “In the South, almost everybody has ” said Jeffrey S. Edwards, a lawyer for Mr. Cole. “This isn’t a luxury anymore. Almost everyone has it, except for these inmates. ” In Jefferson Davis Parish and elsewhere, plenty of people wonder why climate control is even before the courts. Prisoners are serving punishments and do not merit, as people here repeatedly put it, “a country club jail. ” (Such worries are common: The Florida Department of Corrections felt compelled to list “prisons are ” at the beginning on a list of “misconceptions. ”) But since the May 2014 vote here, law enforcement and civic leaders in Jefferson Davis Parish received what they regarded as dispiriting news: Some electronic features of the new jail will need to be kept cool to remain operational. So the prisoners will get after all. | 0fake |
U.N. Report: Police Killings Of Black Men In U.S. Is ‘Human Rights Crisis’ Reminiscent Of Lynching | The epidemic of black men being killed at the hands of police officers in America has not gone unnoticed on the international stage. According to aAccording to a report by a United Nations working group, which will be debated at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, this situation constitutes a full-blown human rights crisis that is reminiscent of the days of lynchings. Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching, said the report by the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.The U.N. report draws a stark comparison between modern day fatal shootings at the hands of law enforcement and the lynchings of blacks that swept the nation in the 19th and 20th centuries. The report comes as racial tensions in America have boiled over yet again in the wake of more deadly shootings that have rocked the country.Historically, the majority of African Americans killed in lynchings were hanged. The Equal Justice Initiative released a report in 2015 which said that between 1877 and 1950, an estimated 3,959 black people were murdered in racial terror lynchings throughout the country s southern states.The U.N. report follows a January visit to the U.S. by a five-member group, which was chaired by Filipino law professor Ricardo A. Sunga III. The group says that despite efforts at reform, they still remain extremely concerned about the human rights crisis facing blacks living in the U.S., and this is especially true considering protesters are once again flooding the streets of American cities to protest the killings of still more black men in recent days. In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent. Impunity for State violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The experts group pointed out that these killings go unpunished because the investigation is biased and tainted from the beginning since police departments are investigating their own. Adding to this is the fact that prosecutors have discretion when it comes to presenting charges and U.S. law enforcement officers are not held to international standards for use of force.To address the situation, they recommended that the U.S. institute a system to reliably track police killings nationwide and instances of excessive use of force. They also said that racial profiling must be brought to an end, which is a rampant practice and seriously damages the trust between African-Americans and law enforcement officials. The group also said that improving race relations will also require education that must be accompanied by acts of reconciliation in order to successfully overcome the bigotry that plagues the U.S. and the past injustices that have been perpetrated against black people on American soil. The report added that the lasting negative effects caused by enslavement and racial injustice must be recognized by both federal and state laws.Featured image via video screen captures | 1real |
Senior Intelligence Official Slams Trump To The Ground On Intelligence Briefings | America s intelligence community doesn t trust Donald Trump. At all. Period. While both Hillary and Trump are slated to start getting intelligence briefings now that they ve formally accepted their parties nominations, many intelligence officials are very wary of briefing Trump. In fact, one senior official had nothing good to say about Trump when it comes to giving him those briefings.The official spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, but didn t mince words at all: I would refuse. He s been so uninterested in the truth and so reckless with it when he sees it. Boom! That s an indictment of Trump s trustworthiness if there ever was one.The official is understandably concerned with Trump s comments about Vladimir Putin, but in addition to that, he s noticed that Trump doesn t want to actually learn anything about, well, anything. He s absurdly stuck on what he thinks are his own merits, and nobody s going to dissuade him from his preconceived notions.Not even intelligence officials.The issue is so volatile and so controversial that the reason these officials talked to the Post on the condition of anonymity was just so they could comment on this. They re that upset with his plea to Russia to hack Hillary s emails, which Trump and his campaign later dismissed as sarcasm and as a call to Russia to turn over any emails they already had. It s clear the intelligence community isn t buying either of those sorry excuses.Some in the intelligence community are also a little wary of Hillary, but Trump is the one who is the loose cannon he claims Hillary is. At least Hillary has extensive experience with intelligence briefings that are far more specific than she ll get as a presidential candidate. Trump has none, and there s absolutely no way, whatsoever, to know how he d handle such information. It s particularly frightening if he thinks that information is juicy; he d probably put it on Twitter for all to see.The official that won t brief Trump said that it s entirely possible Trump will refuse those briefings, because he already knows all that. Given that Trump s ego is the size of Russia and growing big enough to make his tiny hands microscopic by comparison, it s not likely he ll refuse them because those briefings will make him feel important.And nothing is more important to Trump than feeling important.Members of the intelligence community aren t the only people worried about Trump getting intelligence briefings. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid flat-out said he hopes that they ll give Trump fake briefings because he s so untrustworthy. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) called on President Obama to deny those briefings to Trump altogether.Considering those briefings happen at the discretion of the sitting president, Obama could very well do it. Trump is a national security disaster waiting to happen. It s really no wonder that officials are nervous about giving him even the broadest of briefings.Featured image by Joshua Lott/Getty Images | 1real |
Russia says U.S. decision on Jerusalem may worsen Israeli-Palestinian conflict | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The decision by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel risks aggravating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russia s foreign ministry said on Thursday, while calling on all sides involved to show restraint. Russia calls on all the parties concerned to refrain from actions that risk dangerous and uncontrollable consequences , the ministry said in a statement. | 0fake |
Man with unfashionable front door feared by neighbours | Man with unfashionable front door feared by neighbours 07-11-16 A MAN without a trendy oak panelling front door is a dangerous non-conformist, neighbours believe. Retail worker Tom Logan has caused concern by having a cheap-looking plastic front door instead of a sleek, sturdy modern one. Neighbour Donna Sheridan said: “Most people in the street have got a proper light brown oak panelling door, ideally with a vertical silver handle, but Logan thinks he’s different with his shitty white plastic door that looks like it came out of a skip. “I don’t know what he gets up to in there, probably druggie sex parties where they all wear masks to make it extra-perverted. At least the door will be easy to bash in when the police arrive. “I just wish a nice family with a normal door would move in, although it’ll be hard to sell the property if there are male prostitutes under all the floorboards.” Logan said: “Most evenings I just watch telly or use my vast occult library to open portals to evil dimensions.”
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This Is The Future: Tree-Shaped Vertical Farms That Grow 24 Acres Of Crops | By 2050, the world’s population is estimated to reach 9.7 billion people. Already, 795 million people go to bed hungry each evening. Catching up to – and alleviating – the problem of... | 1real |
WATCH: Paul Ryan Gets Slapped In The Face With A Huge Dose Of Reality About Obamacare (VIDEO) | Last week, Republicans in Congress decided to once again waste everyone s time and tax dollars trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They know that there isn t a snowball s chance in hell that President Obama was going to approve any of their attempts to repeal the law. However, they continued the ritual of passing doomed legislation anyway, only to have it vetoed by President Obama on Friday.Speaker of the House Paul Ryan discussed the Republicans atest attempt to repeal the ACA on Sunday during an interview on Face the Nation. During the interview, the show s host John Dickerson grilled Ryan on the Party s lack of a viable option to the ACA. You said that you wanted the Republicans to offer an alternative to the president. One of the first things you did this year, though, was offer that repeal, Dickerson reminded Ryan. How is than an alternative? Dickerson asked. It s not, Ryan responded. It s why we have to come up with an alternative. So, you re right about that one. Will you? Dickerson asked, skeptically. Absolutely, Ryan stated, earnestly. My goal I don t know how far it will go given we have a filibuster and a guy named Obama who s not going to replace Obamacare but my goal is that, we as Republicans, if we don t like these laws, don t like the direction the country is going, I think we have to be more than just an opposition party. It should be noted that during the rest of the 10-minute interview, Ryan names a plethora of problems in the United States, yet doesn t offer anything resembling any actual solutions to those problems. We have to be a proposition party, went on to say. So, if we don t like this, we ve got to show how we would do things differently. And we really think Obamacare is failing, whether it s premiums, restricted access, high deductibles, families losing the insurance they wanted to keep. People are hurting and we need to offer a solution. So, yes, on this and many other issues, we need to offer alternatives. And that s exactly what I intend on having us do. Which is exactly what every Republican has said since the ACA became law. They have absolutely nothing to offer the American people to replace the ACA with. The only viable place for healthcare to move forward in the United States at this point, is to create a single payer system. And of course, the Republican Party isn t going to propose that any time too soon.You can watch the full interview below.Featured Image Credit: Screenshot via YouTube | 1real |
Obama AWOL in Paris: Message to America, allies is we don't care | Sunday, President Obama morally abdicated his place as the leader of the free world.
His decision to stay home instead of standing side by side with French President Hollande as millions marched in Paris in solidarity with the slain journalists of Charlie Hebdo in opposition to radical Islam – an enemy fiercer than we have seen in decades – sent a clear message to the world: Obama just doesn’t care.
His words about the horrendous terrorist attack this week were not enough. They came off as inauthentic at best and offensive at worst.
To speak about the most serious terrorist attack on Western soil since 9/11, London and Madrid, in between speeches about his free community college plan demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding for the gravity of the situation in Paris and, indeed, the world.
To this end, it is not surprising that President Obama is the only Western leader who has refused to call this attack Islamic terrorism, even though President Hollande has declared that France is it at war with radical Islam. And to not even send Vice President Joe Biden or Secretary of State John Kerry in his place shows a level of disrespect that makes me ashamed of our nation.
We are at war with radical Islam. And President Obama needs to say it.
Many have tried to understand why President Obama made this choice. It’s certainly not possible that Obama has different intelligence than the French. Or that he and his advisers can’t see what the rest of the world has seen and come out against – the radicalization of Islam, the greatest threat of our time.
Incredibly, in a speech on Friday Egyptian President el-Sisi called upon the Islamic leaders in his own country to stand up to the extremism that is destroying Islam. “We are in need of a religious revolution…You, imams, are responsible for Allah. The entire world…is waiting for your next move…because [the Islamic world] is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost – and it is being lost by our own lands.”
Sisi’s words strike at the heart of the problem in Islam today, where radicals and extremists have hijacked a religion for their own hateful means. He doesn’t condemn the whole religion by calling out the terrorists for what they are.
So why is our own president afraid to do the same?
A condemnation and declaration of war against Islamic extremism does not mean a condemnation and declaration of war against Islam. They are separate and distinct and the president shows a profound lack of understanding for today’s world and threats to America and, indeed, the world without being honest about what’s at stake here.
I made these same points Sunday night on Fox News Channel with my colleagues on "Political Insiders" when we talked with Harris Faulkner and will continue to do so.
I have been disappointed by President Obama many times during his six years in office, but perhaps never more so than this weekend. He is redefining what it means to be a lame duck as well as giving the world a master class in what it means to let the world down. | 0fake |
Philippines president likely to return police to drugs war soon: spokesman | MANILA (Reuters) - There is a strong likelihood Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will lift a suspension on police from his war on drugs, his spokesman said on Thursday, a move likely to alarm activists who accuse police of committing murder under the guise of drug busts. Amid international concern over the staggering death toll and several killings of youngsters, President Rodrigo Duterte last month suspended police anti-narcotics operations for a second time and put the country s undermanned drugs enforcement agency, PDEA, in charge. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque reiterated Duterte s concern expressed last week that the drugs problem could intensify and gains might be lost with the Philippine National Police (PNP) sidelined. A decision will soon be made, Roque told a regular briefing. That s the president s call. If he thinks it (the war on drugs) must be returned (to the PNP) then it must be, the PDEA has been given enough time. He added: Effectively he has manifested already a decision to return it to the PNP. Close to 4,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos have been killed in what police say are anti-drug operations. Human rights groups and political opponents say executions of drug users and small-time peddlers have been widespread, but police insist those killed were all dealers who put up violent resistance. Police have rebuffed criticism and cite 117,000 arrests as proof that their policy is to preserve life. They also deny links to at least 2,000 mysterious street killings of drug users. Roque said Duterte knew the police had flaws and would not tolerate abuses, but he still believed in them. He suspended police in January and reinstated them five weeks later, arguing that drugs were pouring back to the streets. It is unclear why he removed them again on Oct. 11. His directive was to bring order to the campaign, but in angry, at times incoherent speeches, he suggested he was trying to appease the international community. Duterte last week oversaw his biggest international summit yet but there was no known challenge from other leaders to his war on drugs, including from U.S. President Donald Trump. The volatile Duterte did, however, lash out afterwards about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling it an insult that he should express his concern to him. Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said people should brace for more bloodshed and called again for a United Nations-led international investigation. Until that happens, the number of victims denied justice and accountability will likely only continue to grow, he wrote in a web posting. | 0fake |
Maher: Trump ’Is Mentally Ill’ - Breitbart | On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Bill Maher stated that President Trump “is mentally ill. ” After former CNN host, winner of “Celebrity Apprentice” when Trump hosted the show and Dailymail. com Piers Morgan denounced the “hysteria” over Trump where you get tarred and feathered “if you don’t say that Trump’s the new Hitler,” Maher stated, “But he is mentally ill. ” Morgan then said, “He’s not mentally ill. He’s the president of the United States. He won a free, democratic election. ” Maher responded, “You don’t think kings can be mentally ill?” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
null | What difference does it make when Most , Americans [military and civilians] do not unite to do anything about it! | 1real |
Court Forces Ohio To Allow Millions Of Illegally Purged Voters Back On The Rolls | Donald Trump is semi-right: this election might be rigged. However, this election is rigged against the people, not him.Take a look at Ohio, a key battleground state in the never-ending 2016 election. After purging more than two million voters from the roles, a high court smacked down Republican Secretary of State John Hustad for violating the National Voter Registration Act.Hustad s purge, which included some dead people and those who moved out of state, also included those who moved in the same county and those who have not voted in past elections (at least since 2011). Those who were purged were overwhelmingly black, low-income and Democratic voters. A Reuters investigation found that in the state s major cities (Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati) the voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods and precincts were illegally purged at twice the rate as in Republican.So, on Wednesday night, while everyone was watching the final presidential debate (in which Trump again claimed the election is rigged against him), the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, at the behest of Republican appointee Judge George C. Smith, ordered the voters save the dead and moved back onto the rolls immediately and have their voting rights restored.Judge Smith accused Hustad of voter disenfranchisement, writing:If those who were unlawfully removed from the voter rolls are not allowed to vote, then the Secretary of State is continuing to to disenfranchise voters in violation of federal law.The case was originally heard by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled against Hustad, but was sent back to the District Court for a rehearing. Obviously, both courts realized the illegal power grab by the state at the behest of the GOP, and they weren t having it.Time and time again the courts have struck down illegal rigging practices by the Republicans, thus saving the nation from an unbalanced electoral system. Voting is a right in this country, and partisan politicos should not have the power to take it away just because.If anyone can complain about a rigged election, it s Hillary Clinton.Featured image via John Sommers II/Getty Images | 1real |
Republican Mark Kirk Just Lost His Race Against Tammy Duckworth With A Single Racist Comment (VIDEO) | Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
Republican Mark Kirk’s political career imploded tonight live on a debate stage in Illinois. RIP Mark Kirk’s political career. Thoughts and prayers.
In what may be the biggest foot in mouth moment of any political campaign since Todd ‘Legitimate Rape’ Akin’s self-immolation, Kirk, who is running for U.S. Senate against the very popular Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D) to represent Illinois, decided to use the senate debate stage to go completely and profoundly racist.
It started when Duckworth told voters about her families long military tradition, one that dates back all the way to the Revolutionary War. Her point was a good one. Her family has sacrificed for the country for generations and far too many politicians flippantly go to war without thinking about who they will put in harms way.
“My family has served this nation in uniform going back to the revolution. I am a daughter of the American Revolution. I’ve bled for this nation. But I still want to be there in the Senate when the drums of war sound because people are quick to sound the drums of war and I want to be there to say this is what it costs and this is what you’re asking us to do. And if that’s the case, I’ll go. It’s families like mine that bleed first. But let’s make sure that the American people understand what we are engaging in and let’s hold our allies accountable because we can’t do it all.”
Kirk interjected by saying a line that will haunt him for the rest of his very short career.
“I had forgotten your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.”
A problem: Duckworth’s family did fight in the Revolutionary War. Kirk assumed because she was of mixed heritage that they couldn’t have. Mark Kirk is not a smart man. She's an active DAR member. And Sen. @MarkKirk –who lied about his own military record–is questioning her family's military service.
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) October 28, 2016
The stunned silence both from the moderator and from Sen. Duckworth kind of say it all.
So long, Mark Kirk. Have a good retirement!
Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
CRAZY VIDEO: Anarchist Tries To Burn American Flag Then Something Awesome Happens [Video] | A protester at the RNC in Cleveland attempted to light the American flag on fire in a pitiful; attempt at anarchy. She couldn t even light the flag but the beautiful thing is the police step in and yank her up like a rag doll. Awesome! Crowd following group of police who just arrested a woman https://t.co/vPMs0EzZTS #ResistRNC #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/QWiBqp7SON Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) July 20, 2016 | 1real |
SHRILLARY GIVES BITTER CONCESSION SPEECH In New Hampshire | Will the Democrats ultimately choose a Marxist who s never accomplished a thing in his life or a serial criminal socialist? Choices choices MANCHESTER, N.H. Hillary Clinton spoke of being knocked down and having problems with young voters in a bitter concession speech after losing to Sen. Bernie Sanders Tuesday night in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. I don t know what we d have done tonight if we d actually won. This is pretty exciting, Clinton said to her crowd of supporters shortly after 9 PM Eastern Time, flanked onstage by husband Bill and daughter Chelsea, who did not speak. I just want to say, I still love New Hampshire and I always will. People are angry. But there s also hungry. They re hungry for solutions. What are we going to do?, Clinton said. I know I have some work to do, especially with young people, Clinton said. Even if they are not supporting me right now, I am supporting them It s not whether you get knocked down that matters, it s whether you get back up. Clinton devolved into an angry, ranting style by speech s end, calling for human rights for gays, women, workers, and others. She also pivoted to focus on South Carolina, which will be decided by the black vote, talking about how African-American parents should not have to worry about their kids being harassed or shot, and immigrant families should not have to lie awake at night waiting for a knock on the door signaling deportation.She also spoke of the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan and of a hypothetical grandmother forced to choose between rent or food because some drug company raised medicine prices by 4,000 percent an apparent reference to scandal-ridden former drug CEO Martin Shkreli.Clinton lost resoundingly to Sanders in the Granite State. By the time she finished her speech, Sanders was beating her 58.5 percent to 39.7 percent with 37 percent of the precincts reporting. CNN called the race for Sanders at approximately 8 PM.Sanders win was fueled by a massive turnout by independent voters and non-Democrats.Forty-one percent of Democrat voters were independents and only 55 percent were registered Democrats, according to CNN exit polling. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
TRUMP HITS BACK After Cowgirl Congresswoman Trashes Him Over Words Said to Grieving Widow | The left is going ballistic over supposed words said by President Trump to a grieving military widow. President Trump made a call to Myeshia Wilson that s been turned into a political football by the left to make Trump out to be crazy . Wilson s husband was killed in Niger while serving in our military so President Trump was making a sympathy call to Mrs. Wilson. Unfortunately, Wilson s family has been put in the middle of an effort to bash Trump.The media also wasted no time covering this story. They re doing their best to try and make Trump look as bad as possible Just another day in the life of the lefty media.Far left Congresswoman Frederica Wilson jumped right in to trash Trump after the call. She s following the left s narrative by claiming Trump is a sick man . It s pretty funny that Wilson calls Trump crazy while wearing a glittery cowgirl hat 24/7.The Resist movement includes Wilson who refused to go to Trump s inauguration. Wilson also attacked the president in May when she said said he needs psychological help and is desperate for attention. Perhaps Cowgirl Wilson should look in the mirror .According to left leaning propaganda news NBC: He said, But you know he must ve known what he signed up for, the Democrat recounted Trump saying more than once during the call to express his sympathy. According to Wilson, the conversation lasted somewhere from three to five minutes. Everyone knows when you go to war you could possibly not come back alive but you don t remind a grieving widow of that, Wilson said. That s so insensitive. Trump didn t even remember his name, Wilson recalled Myeshia Johnson telling her after the call ended, the congresswoman told MSNBC s Morning Joe Wednesday. She hung up the phone and said, He didn t even remember his name, Wilson said. That s the hurting part. The White House said Tuesday that the president had called the families of all four service members who were killed. He offered condolences on behalf of a grateful nation and assured them their family s extraordinary sacrifice to the country will never be forgotten, the White House said.Asked about Wilson s characterization of the call, a White House official said Tuesday night that the president s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private. PETE HEGSETH POINTED OUT THAT THIS IS HOW FAR THE LEFT WILL GO TO TRASH TRUMP:Pete Hegseth said on Fox & Friends that this is another example of Trump s opponents taking every opportunity to twist or spin his words, even if it involves a fallen soldier. They want to question at every turn what he says he s committed to, Hegseth said. There s no one more committed, I believe, to our service members, to our veterans than this president. He said this shows how committed Democrats are to resisting Trump no matter what.TRUMP HITS BACK:Trump hit back at the claims saying he has proof of what was said on the call:Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017Wilson took no time in shooting back that Trump is a sick man . She s clearly milking this for all it s worth. It s sick that this Democrat would use this call to a grieving widow to bash our president. | 1real |
Rohingya refugees scoff at Myanmar's assurances on going home | COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh were skeptical on Tuesday about their chances of ever going home to Myanmar, even though the government there has given an assurance it would accept people verified as refugees. More than half a million Rohingya have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine State launched in late August that has been denounced by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing, saying it is fighting Rohingya terrorists who have claimed attacks on the security forces. The government has said anyone verified as a refugee will be allowed to return under a process set up with Bangladesh in 1993. Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan, and a Myanmar government spokesman confirmed it would go along with it, provided people could verify their status with paperwork. But many refugees in camps in Bangladesh are scornful. Everything was burned, even people were burned, said a man who identified himself as Abdullah, dismissing the chances that people would have documents to prove a right to stay in Myanmar. At the root of the problem is the refusal by Buddhist-majority Myanmar to grant citizenship to members of a Muslim minority seen by a mostly unsympathetic, if not hostile, society as interlopers from Bangladesh. Though Myanmar has not granted Rohingya citizenship, under the 1993 procedure, it agreed to take back people who could prove they had been Myanmar residents. But a day after Bangladesh and Myanmar announced apparent progress, a Bangladeshi foreign ministry official appeared resigned to a difficult process. This is still a long procedure, said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media. There were already nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, but Myanmar had said it would only accept, subject to verification , those who arrived after October 2016, when a military offensive in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi official said. We said that many Rohingya refugees have no documents, so this process should be flexible. Myanmar said they will decide who will get involved in the verification, the official said, adding that Bangladesh wanted international agencies to be involved. Myanmar s government spokesman said under the 1993 pact, even a hospital record was enough to prove residency, but it was only Myanmar, not Bangladesh, that could verify citizenship. We have a policy for the repatriation process and we will go along with that, the spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters. But even if refugees have documents, many are wary about returning without an assurance of full citizenship, which they fear could leave them vulnerable to the persecution and curbs they have endured for years. Amina Katu, 60, laughed at the thought of returning. If we go there, we ll just have to come back here, she said. If they give us our rights, we will go, but people did this before and they had to return. Last month, Anwar Begum told Reuters she had fled from Myanmar three times. The first time was to escape a 1978 crackdown, and she returned the following year. She fled again in 1991 and returned in 1994. I don t want to go back, the 55-year-old added. I don t believe the government. Every time the government agrees we can go back, then we re there and they break their promise. Investigators appointed by government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and led by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan recommended in August that Myanmar review a 1982 law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a meeting in Geneva on Monday that the link between statelessness and displacement was nowhere more evident than with the Rohingya. Denial of citizenship is a key aspect of the discrimination and exclusion that have shaped their plight, he said. Grandi called for a two-track approach to tackle issues of citizenship and rights and inclusive development to stamp out poverty in Rakhine State. Separately, the U.N. refugee agency and Bangladesh authorities are working to contain an outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases in the camps, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a briefing in Geneva. Refugees are still crossing into Bangladesh, though at a slower rate, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration said. A Reuters photographer saw smoke plumes on the Myanmar side of the border but it was not clear what was alight. Rights groups say more than half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine State have been torched. Myanmar officials have said they have attempted to reassure groups of fleeing Rohingya but they could not stop people who were not citizens from leaving. | 0fake |
WHAAAT? DNC PLATFORM MEMBER Makes EXTREME Statement About Gun Ownership [Video] | Wow! This lady who is a DNC Platform Committee Member who honestly thinks we should take guns away from EVERYONE! | 1real |
Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa says against any form of 'vengeful retribution' | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa has called on citizens to remain peaceful and desist from any form of vengeful retribution , days after Robert Mugabe resigned from power. Mnangagwa s supporters were angered by his dismissal early this month, a move that triggered the military to intervene. Some of the supporters have been calling for unspecified action against the G40 group that backed Mugabe and his wife. | 0fake |
Half of Britons support a second vote on Brexit, poll finds | LONDON (Reuters) - Half of Britons support a second vote on whether to leave the European Union and a majority think the government may be paying too much money to the EU to open the way to trade talks, according to a new opinion poll. The poll, published in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, found 50 percent of people supported another vote on the final terms of Britain s exit deal, 34 percent rejected another referendum and 16 percent said they did not know. The newspaper said it was the first major opinion poll since last week s media reports that Britain is preparing to pay about 50 billion euros ($59 billion) to help to move on to talks on a future trade pact with the EU. Mike Smithson, an election analyst who runs the www.politicalbetting.com website and a former Liberal Democrat politician, said on Twitter it was the first time any pollster has recorded backing for a second Brexit referendum. Since the referendum in 2016, high profile opponents of Britain s exit - from French President Emmanuel Macron, to former British prime minister Tony Blair and billionaire investor George Soros - have suggested Britain could change its mind and avoid what they say will be disastrous for the British economy. Blair said on Sunday he was trying to reverse Brexit because claims by the leave campaign, such as the National Health Service getting an extra 350 million pounds a week once Britain leaves the EU, have been proved false. Blair told the BBC that the government aims in the Brexit negotiations will fail because it wants to leave the single market, but retain all of the benefits, and voters can change their minds. It s reversible. It s not done until it s done, he said. When the facts change, I think people are entitled to change their mind. Brexit supporters argue any attempt to halt the exit process would be anti-democratic. According to the Survation poll only 11 percent of voters said Britain should pay 50 billion pounds to quit the EU, while 31 percent said the government should not pay anything at all. The poll also found 35 percent of those surveyed said they would be worse off financially after Brexit, while 14 percent said they would be better off. The online poll, carried out by research firm Survation, interviewed 1,003 adults in Britain between 30 November and 1 December. Survation said it carries out polls for media organizations including the BBC, Sky News, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian. The polling agency correctly predicted a narrowing in the vote between the ruling Conservative party and the opposition Labour Party in this summer s general election that resulted in May leading a minority government. ($1 = 0.8411 euros) | 0fake |
FBI POSTS $5,000 REWARD For Person Who Committed “Hate Crime” With Bacon? [VIDEO] | Americans were warned by Attorney General, Loretta Lynch to not offend Muslims or they would pay a heavy price. Did anyone think she, or her boss were kidding? Barack Obama offends Christian Americans on a regular basis when will the FBI place a bounty on his head? The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information that helps them find the person who put raw bacon on the door handles of a Las Vegas mosque.The FBI said in a statement Wednesday that agents are trying to find the man seen in a surveillance video putting the meat on the entrances of the Masjid-e-Tawheed mosque. Authorities call it a desecration of the Islamic worship center.The Quran, the holy book of Islam, prohibits Muslims from eating pork, and pigs have been used to taunt or offend Muslims.Both the FBI and Las Vegas police say they re investigating the case as a possible hate crime.Las Vegas police spokesman Larry Hadfield said the bacon was wrapped on the door knobs, and was also found on the ground and fences.Officials at the mosque couldn t immediately be reached for comment.The FBI said the incident happened about 3:15 a.m. Dec. 27. The culprit is described as a white man wearing a dark blue hat, jacket and black-framed glasses. He had black or dark brown hair with long, thin sideburns.The site west of the Las Vegas Strip wasn t damaged, and no one was hurt. The mosque was empty at the time, and the case was reported by members who came to worship later that morning.Several threatening incidents at mosques have been reported in recent weeks. A Molotov cocktail went off at an Islamic center in Tracy, California, days ago, and a severed pig s head was found outside a Philadelphia worship site earlier this month. Via: APThe vandalism, which is being called a hate crime, has left the Las Vegas Muslim community on edge, according to KSNV. | 1real |
Young Chinese woman chases dream abroad, but looks wistfully home | BEIJING (Reuters) - Zuo Aining has always been a striver, always making plans. After excelling in high school in the rustbelt city of Changchun, in northeast China, she was exempted from the country s dreaded college entrance exam when a leading business university in Beijing offered her early acceptance. After graduating from the school, University of International Business and Economics with a degree in business English, she got to work on her next plan. Zuo dreamed of going abroad to study, an increasingly common path for the children of the affluent families that have proliferated in China after years of breakneck growth. She applied to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., which her parents - her father is an accountant, her mother a technician for electronic instruments - were able to afford. She was accepted, and earned a Master s degree in accounting, which landed her a job as a tax consultant in Washington. Her plans to stay on in the United States were threatened after she failed to get a coveted U.S. work visa for two straight years in the annual lottery. That meant Zuo had to sign up for expensive MBA courses at a night school to keep her legal status as a student. At the same time, she worked full time for an accounting firm, until she finally got her visa last year in her third attempt. But now, after achieving her dream, Zuo - the granddaughter of former soldiers in the People s Liberation Army - has been looking wistfully at her homeland. She has always had clear career goals, but also a strong sense of pride in her country. In college, she spent the summer of 2009 marching with schoolmates in preparation for a huge parade that October in Beijing s Tiananmen Square to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People s Republic of China. Zuo and her marching cohort only flashed on TV screens around the country for a few seconds, among the tens of thousands of others also participating. But it was a proud moment for her and her parents. Now, as she watches China s rise with equal pride, she wonders if it s time to go back. Many industries in China are developing rapidly, it is likely that China might surpass the U.S. in terms of technology and market one day, she said. Relaxing in a park in Beijing, where she returned this autumn to take care of some official paperwork, Zuo said she was stunned by the changes she saw in China. The advances in financial technology, fast rendering Chinese cities cashless, were surprising. Things like app-linked bike sharing, which has become ubiquitous in Chinese cities, amazed her. Something new started gnawing at her. This time back in China the feeling that I have is one of worry that it would be very easy to be left behind if I return to the U.S., she said. That might make her recalibrate her plans, she said. My life is going as I planned five years ago, she said thoughtfully. But, if there is a better platform and opportunity for me to do what I want to do, I will come back without any hesitation. | 0fake |
CHILD PORN, JIHADI WEBSITES Found On Phone After “12 Year Old” Migrant Assaults Foster Parent | Doesn t America already have enough legal citizens who are experts at gaming our system to maximize their benefits? Do we really need to import rapists and violent criminals who have no valid identification or past criminal history, so they can steal from working Americans as well?An Afghan who claimed to be just 12 is revealed to be in his twenties after assaulting his British foster father.The Afghan teen, who had arrived in Britain illegally via Calais, was actually registered as a child but after a dental examination found that he had rotting wisdom teeth, a dentist suggested he was more likely to be an adult.The revelation came after another British carer also reported that she was sexually assaulted by an alleged teen she was looking after.MPs have now called for new rules regarding age assessment for immigrants despite a petition backed by celebrities such as actor Benedict Cumberbatch and Virgin tycoon Richard Branson saying that refugee children should be reunited with their British relatives.If they enter Britain as children, asylum seekers are immediately put into the care of social services which often leaves youngsters separated from their parents for long periods of time.Conservative MP for Monmouth David Davies spoke to MailOnline about an attack on one of his female constituents who was looking after the 12-year-old immigrant.The Afghan was taken in by the Welsh foster family but refused to live by their rules and would skip school and disappear for long periods.He told social services that he wished to move to Bristol but when told he would have to live with a foster family, he became angry and attacked his foster father.It was after the fracas that the man s phone was confiscated and indecent images of children and visits to Jihadi websites were found.Mr Davies said: They did a dental check on him and discovered that his wisdom teeth were rotting. The dentist said he had to be in at least his 20s but the Home Office strike people down to 16 if they don t know what their age is for certain, so he was listed as 16. Mr Davies said that Britain was being fooled by fraudster immigrants who knew how to play our system. Via: UK Daily Mail | 1real |
Two Thirds of Germans Fear Becoming Victims of Terror Attacks | An alarming 66 per cent of Germans are afraid they will become the victim of a terrorist attack, with 10 per cent perceiving an “acute threat” to their safety. [The fear is even more widespread among women, the study published by German legal expenses insurance group ROLAND found. Of the female respondents, 74 per cent said they sometimes feel unsafe in crowded places, and nine per cent felt permanently threatened and scared. The authors state: “A large part of the population doesn’t feel safe anymore when visiting crowded places. The fear of becoming the victim of a terrorist attack with a high number of casualties is considerable. “A total of 45 per cent of respondents feel uneasy when visiting crowded locations like stations, festivals or even in the downtowns. “Three percent of the population feel permanently unsafe when visiting a public place along with many other people. ” The poll, of 1, 458 citizens over was conducted in October, before the Islamic State truck attack on the Berlin Christmas market in which Tunisia migrant murdered 12 people. The truck rampage was Germany’s worst terror atrocity since the 1980s, but followed 21 months of Islamist suicide bombings, shootings, and axe attacks. The terrorist killers responsible have included numerous “refugees” from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Algeria, as well as several German citizens of Turkish descent indoctrinated in radical Islam. Around seven of the plots and attacks are thought to have been linked to Islamic State. Germany appears to have become a target of Islamist aggression since the beginning of the migrant crisis in the summer of 2015, with some blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open borders mass migration policy. Several serious plots have been foiled by security forces. In February last year, three Algerians said to have “lived in refugee shelters” were arrested for plotting to attack Berlin. The men had links to Islamic State, and the Berlin prosecutor’s office said they were aware of a “concrete” plan to target the German capital. | 0fake |
MAINSTREAM MEDIA STANDS DOWN: Fire Alarm Pulled During Conservative “When Diversity Becomes a Problem” Speech…150+ FREE SPEECH TERRORISTS Threaten, Block Fellow Students [VIDEO] | Free speech is under attack in America like never before. Any views that are in opposition to views on the left are considered out of bounds and will be dealt with SEE Ben Shapiro s AWESOME speech BELOW.Breitbart News editor Ben Shapiro delivered a speech to the Young America s Foundation at California State University Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, despite initial efforts by the university to shut down the event.Students were prevented from entering by approximately 150 demonstrators standing outside the front entrance.However, attendees managed to slip into the auditorium through the back entrance, prompting Shapiro to observe that in today s America, conservatives were forced to exercise their First Amendment rights by the back door. Ben Shapiro s response to protestors:Facts don't care about your feelings. Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 5, 2016Some demonstrators entered the building and began chanting slogans, such as Racists go home! and No hate speech! Watch Free Speech Terrorists work together to attack and shut down opposing views, by using threat of violence against anyone who disagrees with them:This is how the "tolerant" Left reacts when ONE conservative comes to campus. Scary situation at CSULA.https://t.co/4oB4wz08NP YAF (@yaf) February 26, 2016Earlier, demonstrators from the Black Student Union had assaulted Breitbart News reporter Adelle Nazarian.WATCH HERE:And then there was this desperate act to silence an opposing view:.@yaf liberal protester pulls fire alarm during Ben #shapiro speech Ben says "you are not going to stop us." Adam Shapiro (@Ajshaps) February 25, 2016Initially, administrators at the taxpayer-funded public university tried to force the postponement of the event in favor of a later event where Shapiro would have to appear alongside speakers who disagreed with him. Shapiro vowed to speak at the original time scheduled, and the university backed down, releasing a statement Thursday:Author Ben Shapiro was invited to speak this afternoon at Cal State LA by the Young Americans for Freedom, which is a registered student organization. The event, When Diversity Becomes a Problem, was funded by the Associated Students, Inc., the student government..@yaf #Shapiro "the safe spaces of the people outside (protesters) are just fascist spaces cleared of all ideas that could hurt feelings" Adam Shapiro (@Ajshaps) February 25, 2016Leading up to the event, there were a number of emails and social media posts that caused concern for the campus community. Given threats and expressions of fear, President William A. Covino proposed a rescheduled event that would be civil and inclusive, and in which Mr. Shapiro and speakers with other viewpoints could offer their perspectives in an organized forum. My decision was made in the interest of safety and security, Covino said. I am disappointed that Mr. Shapiro has not accepted my invitation to speak in such a forum. He has indicated that he will come to Cal State LA to speak today at the University-Student Union Theatre, where he was originally scheduled to deliver his talk, Covino told the University community Thursday morning.Covino added: I strongly disagree with Mr. Shapiro s views. But if Mr. Shapiro does appear, the University will allow him to speak. We will make every effort to ensure a climate of safety and security. In his remarks, Shapiro blasted Covino and other faculty members who tried to stop the event from taking place, and who had threatened violence against Shapiro, including professors Robert Weide and Melina Abdullah.He called them disgusting and described Covino as a totalitarian and an idiot whose behavior exemplified an insane society created by the American left who says that anybody that disagrees with them must be silenced. He explained that there are three kinds of diversity: diversity of color, diversity of values, and diversity of ideas. Only the last kind, he said, was valuable to society and could create stable and healthy communities. Via: Breitbart NewsHERE IS BEN SHAPIRO S AWESOME SPEECH: | 1real |
OREGON: Feds Cover-up Foul Play in Finicum Death, Feds’ Shell Casings ‘Have Gone Missing’ | 21st Century Wire says As it turns out, we were right about the ambush, and we were right about the cover-up. After all this, the quislings at the The Oregonian are still trying to tart-up this FBI and OSP debacle by calling it a traffic stop . While forced to now admit that there was foul play on the infallible government s part, mainstream media gatekeepers are still trying to paint the incident as a traffic stop which is beyond a joke.Get ready for another government-issued magic bullet fairy tale to protect the hired guns.How long before we can call this an assassination? New findings by law enforcement officials suggest that an FBI agent on the scene of the fatal shooting of Bundy-affiliated protester LaVoy Finicum during a Jun. 26 felony stop might have fired two shots that were not reported, and agents on the scene might have disposed of bullet casings to cover them up.According to The Oregonian, investigators believe that the shots were fired approximately at the moment at which LaVoy Finicum was exiting his truck with his hands up, prior to when he appears to reach into his jacket and is shot by two Oregon State Police troopers. The above-embedded slow-motion video shows the moment at which investigators believe the shots were fired.Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson and Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norri, who investigated the incident, concluded that the Oregon State Police officers were justified in shooting Finicum, but also announced that they believe that an FBI agent took two unreported shots and then lied about it. The U.S. Department of Justice has subsequently launched a criminal investigation into the conduct of the FBI agents on the scene.The Oregonian s Les Zaitz wrote, A state trooper later described to investigators seeing two rifle casings in the area where the [FBI] agents were posted. Detectives tasked with collecting evidence didn t find the casings, police reports indicate. He added, FBI aerial surveillance video shows that before the detectives could get there, the FBI agents searched the area with flashlights and then huddled, according to law enforcement sources who have seen the video. The group then broke and one agent appeared to bend over twice and pick up something near where the two shots likely were taken. Police reports indicate that detectives showed up to collect evidence around 90 minutes after the moment in the surveillance video in which the FBI agent appeared to pick items up from the ground.All of the FBI agents on the scene that day claimed that they did not take any shots. A state trooper said he had fired three shots while the truck was speeding towards police and two more at Finicum as he was reaching into his jacket after he had exited the vehicle. Police inventory records show that the trooper was missing five rounds after the incident, apparently confirming his story.A fourth bullet hole in the truck came from a different angle of trajectory suggesting that an FBI agent had fired the shot. Investigators believe a second shot, which missed Finicum and did not strike the truck, was also fired by an FBI agent Continue this story at Truth In MediaREAD MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS: 21st Century Wire Oregon Files | 1real |
Beijing hits brakes on subway boom over debt concerns | SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has hit the brakes on subway projects in at least three cities and Beijing is asking others to slow down their plans, local governments and media have reported, indicating concerns over high debt from city-level infrastructure spending. China has been in the grips of a metro-building binge with more than 50 cities working on over 1 trillion yuan ($150.8 billion) worth of projects, after population restrictions were loosened last year to allow more cities to have metro systems. Such infrastructure spending has helped to shore up economic growth but is now being scrutinized more closely after the government pledged to clamp down on financial risks. Policymakers have warned about the risk of asset bubbles due to high levels of corporate and household debt in the economy. China s overall debt has jumped to more than 250 percent of GDP from 150 percent at the end of 2006. Financial magazine Caixin, citing unnamed sources close to the matter, reported that authorities in Inner Mongolia s Hohhot and Baotou cities have scrapped approved projects worth billions of dollars in recent months due to concerns over finances. Xianyang city which wants to build six lines to link up to central Shaanxi province s capital of Xi an, said in a statement this month some of its plans had not yet been approved by the state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission. The NDRC has become more cautious about approving metro construction plans and it will be difficult to achieve approval within the year, it said, adding that one of the factors was debt concerns over the Baotou metro. The Economic Observer newspaper said it was told by the Wuhan city planner that the NDRC was re-evaluating the country s subway construction situation. The Baotou city planner declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Wednesday. The NDRC and authorities in Hohhot and Wuhan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Guotai Junan analyst Gary Wong said such a crackdown on metro projects was appropriate given that many remote and financially weak cities had undertaken metro projects. He said he did not anticipate a large impact on locomotive suppliers such as CRRC Corp who have shifted focus to metros to offset the slowing high-speed rail market. They are already full with orders, even if they don t get new orders at the moment they will still be busy for the next 2-3 years, he said. China would overtake Europe and the Americas if all 50 cities went ahead with their metro plans, data from the International Association of Public Transport showed. Europe has 46 cities with metro systems, and America has 33 cities. The China Association of Metros said in July that 30 cities currently have metros. | 0fake |
Bill Maher Shows America Why Donald Trump Must NOT Be President (VIDEO) | Bill Maher is not shy about what he thinks of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Maher unleashed a 6 minute destruction of the billionaire demagogue, at one point calling him a pu**y and a whiny little bit*h, saying that Trump fit American stereotypes about 1950 s housewives. Maher said: Never forget, Lady Trump, that Hillary Clinton was born a woman. But you chose to live your life as a whiny little b*tch. Which is why, if Hillary is the Democratic nominee, I ll be voting for the only one who has balls. Maher continued: And like a daffy housewife of the 50s, Trump can t balance a checkbook. In a skit where Maher appeared to voice bewilderment and frustration that someone like Donald Trump actually has a shot at the presidency, Maher pointed to his personal experiences with the GOP demagogue, including the time Trump sued him for challenging him to prove he was not the son of an orangutan in response to Trump s birther rhetoric about President Barack Obama.Maher also criticized Trump s business dealings, pointing to his failures: Trump Airlines, Trump Casinos, Trump University, Trump Steaks. He s got the Midas touch if every time Midas touched something it exploded. Maher is able to sum up the absurdity that is Donald Trump. It s important that we do all we can to make sure he doesn t become president by going out and voting this November.Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB4sGX0R5ak]Featured image via video screenshot. | 1real |
WATCH: Liberal Redneck Completely Demolishes Ted Cruz (VIDEO) | Yesterday, Trae Crowder, otherwise known as the Liberal Redneck, released an awesome YouTube comedy segment celebrating the demise of Ted Cruz.After his devastating loss in Indiana on May 3, Cruz solemnly resigned from the republican presidential primary race. While a few of his supporters booed at the announcement, the overwhelming majority of Americans were anything but sad to see Cruz drop out.Crowder devoted a short segment to the topic, beginning his monologue by announcing that everyone s favorite murder-lizard has dropped out of the race. He goes on to recite the story of how Ted Cruz came to run for president, explaining: The Cruz family spent hours praying about about whether or not he should run, until god came down and spoke to his wife directly and said he should. Continuing with the story, he says and so Ted hit his knees and offered himself up and said I m your servant lord, use me in this as you see fit. Now that Ted has admitted that there is no possible way he can ever become president, Crowder surmises what this means, saying: To Ted, the use that his lord picked out for him was to completely destroy the republican party as we know it, while getting dusted by a carny-handed mango man. It s comedy, but the Liberal Redneck makes some great points in the segment, honing in on the message that Cruz s abject humiliation sends to right wing Christian extremists.That message is clearly ya ll have lost. Crowder points out that Cruz could not beat a guy who could come out tomorrow and announce Hulk Hogan as his running mate. But the ultimate message sent to the Christian right by Cruz s butt- spanking is that we re done with this. Crowder sums it up by saying: We re done with you wasting our time on trivial bullshit like laws about who uses what bathroom and how gay a cake s allowed to be before you gotta call a prayer circle. We re done. Watch the video below, courtesy of Liberal Redneck via YouTube. Featured image via video screen capture via Trae Crowder on Youtube | 1real |
Trump supporters see Iraqi, Syrian refugees as major threat: report | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of Donald Trump, the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee, see refugees arriving from Iraq and Syria as one of the greatest threats to the United States, according to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Eighty-five percent of respondents who said they supported Trump saw the refugees fleeing the Islamic State militant group as a threat, compared with 74 percent of Republicans overall, said the study. Only 40 percent of Democrats viewed the refugees from the region as a major threat. Trump’s campaign said in a statement last December that he was “calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” His comments followed fatal attacks in Paris claimed by Islamic State and a deadly shooting spree in San Bernardino, California, by a Muslim couple who the FBI said had been radicalized. U.S. President Barack Obama’s promise to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year has sparked a backlash from Republicans, concerned that violent militants could come into the United States posing as refugees. More than 30 governors have tried to block refugees from their states. There are nearly 5 million registered Syrian refugees according to the United Nations, a result of a war in which more than 250,000 people have been killed. The Pew report, based mostly on telephone interviews with about 2,000 U.S. adults from April 12 to 19, found that 65 percent of Trump supporters also saw the U.S. involvement in the global economy in a negative light. There were also contradictions among Americans when asked about U.S. defense spending and foreign military action. Although 35 percent of all respondents said they were in support of increasing defense spending, the highest level of support since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, almost 60 percent said other countries should deal with their own problems. Respondents overall saw Islamic State as the top foreign policy concern, followed by cyber attacks and global economic instability, according to the report. | 0fake |
FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: FBI’s Comey Considered To Be “Dirty Cop” And Here’s Why [Video] | Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova slammed FBI director James Comey s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton s private email server. DiGenova says people both currently in the FBI and with the FBI consider Comey to be a dirty cop. | 1real |
[Video] DEM PREZ CANDIDATE BOOED OFF STAGE, FORCED TO APOLOGIZE FOR SAYING “All Lives Matter” | When you have a crowd of people listening to this kind of idiotic drama, I think it s safe to say you should expect to be booed off the stage if you don t tow the line. Here r the Black Net Roots speaker s dramatic introduction for Governor O Malley: Let s be clear Every single day folks are dying! Not being able to take another breath! We are in a state of emergency! We are in a state of emergency and if you don t fill that emergency you are not human! As the Washington Examiner noted Saturday, former Maryland governor and current presidential candidate Martin O Malley was being interviewed at the annual Netroots Nation conference and was making a statement about the need for civilian police review boards. The interview was interrupted by a group of protestors chanting, Say, black lives matter! In response to a question by one of the protestors about alleged instances of police brutality against African Americans, O Malley stated, I think all of us have a responsibility to recognize the pain and grief caused by lives lost to violence. Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter. The statement is said to have drawn boos from the crowd. A minute or two later, O Malley apologized.The incident illustrated neatly illustrated the cultural divide between the left and the rest of America. Most people, without much of a thought, would agree that all lives matter, whether they belong to someone killed in an altercation with police or say a Marine gunned down by a terrorist. The crowd at Netroots Nation disagreed.More importantly, O Malley failed the Sister Souljah test by apologizing for saying something that should be axiomatic. A Sister Souljah Moment refers to an incident during the 1992 presidential campaign in which then Governor Bill Clinton condemned a rapper named Sister Souljah for racially incendiary lyrics in some of her songs. The statement caused a great deal of consternation, but Clinton received praise for taking on an extremist who was part of an important Democratic constituency. Clinton went on to be elected and then reelected four years later. Via: The Examiner | 1real |
SYRIA CEASEFIRE? Lavrov, Kerry Agree to Fight Al-Nusra, No Strikes on ‘Rebels,’ Aleppo Relief | 21st Century Wire says After a long drawn out round of bilateral peace talks in Geneva Switzerland this week, Russia and the United States announced a plan for a 48 hour ceasefire in Syria, scheduled to take effect at sundown Monday.Incredibly, the cornerstone of this agreement rests on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, both agreeing (for now anyway) that they would both be targeting the terrorist opposition force, Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria, supported covertly by both the Saudi Arabia and the US/CIA) who recently rebranded themselves to Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham in cynical desperate move to avoid being targeted by military airstrikes.Back in May, when another ceasefire was proposed, 21WIRE warned that it was only a ploy by the US to buy more time for rebels to re-arm and repair broken rat lines from Turkey into northern Syria. That turned out to be 100% correct, despite the fact the western media outlets were duped by Washington s desperate diplomatic ploy reinforced by a multi-million dollar, New York City-based PR campaign targeting social media and funded by George Soros and others, which was marketed using the tagline #AleppoIsBurning.Are we seeing more of the same this week in Geneva?For a comprehensive analysis on what this latest temporary ceasefire agree really means, and where it could be heading, watch his excellent segment featuring political analyst Ammar Waqqaf. Watch: According to Kerry, the plan is to ensure that Syrian government forces will not carry out combat missions where the so-called moderate opposition is present.Speaking of fight against Al-Nusra and its efforts to blend with moderate rebels, Kerry stressed going on Al-Nusra is not a concession to anybody but is profoundly in the interests of the US. 'Going on Al-Nusra is profoundly in the interests of the US' #Kerry https://t.co/1MeCyNAvE5 #LavrovKerry #Syria pic.twitter.com/fjvctBZJFa RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2016Kerry also outlined an establishment of the Russian-US Joint Implementation Centre (JIG) that would serve the purpose of delineation of territories controlled by Al-Nusra and opposition groups in the area of active hostilities. Taking the floor, the Russian FM confirmed that Russia and US had agreed to coordinate airstrikes in Syria, provided there is a sustained period of reduced violence. The first step toward the implementation of this clause will be a 48-hour ceasefire in Syria, Lavrov said.Lavrov elaborated that the ceasefire comes into effect on September 12 and should last for at least seven days.( ) Despite the mistrust and attempt to disrupt what we have agreed upon, we managed to work out a package of documents, there are five of them. It allows us to set an effective coordination in the fight against terrorism, to expand the humanitarian access to distressed population, first and foremost in Aleppo, Lavrov said.Due to the sensitive nature of the information contained in the agreements, they will not be made available to general public, Lavrov said. We cannot make these documents public. They contain rather serious, sensitive information. We don t want it to fall into hands of those who would surely try to disrupt the implementation of the measures stipulated within in the framework of humanitarian delivery supplies and in other parts of our agreements. Continue this article at RTREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 1real |
Muslims in Kashmir observe martyrdom anniv. of 4th Shia Imam | Muslims in Kashmir observe martyrdom anniv. of 4th Shia Imam Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:7PM Shia Muslims in Kashmir mark the martyrdom anniversary of 4th Shia Imam Zainul Abideen. © Press TV
Syed Ali SafviPress TV, Indian-controlled Kashmir
Mourning processions have been held across Indian-controlled Kashmir to mark the martyrdom anniversary of 4th Shia Imam Zainul Abideen. As Press TV's Syed Ali Safvi says, black-clad mourners have marched through the streets of Kashmir, beating their chests and reciting soul-stirring eulogies. Loading ... | 1real |
Colombia's defense minister says drug policy must be long-term | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia must maintain eradication and substitution of coca crops as a long-term policy across the Andean nation s isolated jungle and mountain zones to permanently defeat drug trafficking and consolidate peace, the defense minister told Reuters. A new government, which will be elected next year, must keep up the policy if the nation hopes to stamp out the illegal drugs industry, which has funded Colombia s half century war that has killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions. There can be no interruption to this policy because there s a new government, not in 2018, nor in 2022 or 2026, Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas, 60, said in an interview. It has to be a process of at least a generation so that it bears fruit and that there s true peace. Since signing a peace accord last year with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the government has focused efforts on clearing coca from areas once controlled by the rebels. Coca, the raw material that makes cocaine, is cultivated in about 188,000 hectares across Colombia by subsistence farmers who have few other opportunities to feed their families. Criminal gangs, right-wing paramilitaries and Marxist rebels form the purchasing chain that has helped make Colombia one of the biggest producers of cocaine. Cocaine seizures reached 300 tons so far this year and may exceed the record 362 tons seized last year, said the minister, who formed part of the government s peace negotiating team with the FARC. As part of the policy, the government plans to invest in development programs - building schools, health centers and roads - to allow poor farmers to improve their social conditions and sell legal crops like cacao, fruits, coffee and palm oil. Colombia s vast rural expanse lacks roadways, so Villegas said infrastructure that brings communities closer to market are vital for eradication to work. It s not enough to plant cacao to replace coca ... thousands of miles of tertiary roads are needed, he said. Colombia wants to manually eradicate 100,000 hectares of coca this year, with farmers voluntarily destroying half of it. The United States has raised concerns about the increase in coca production and cultivation, which has reached levels seen a decade ago, arguing that the increase is a result of Colombia s ban on aerial fumigation. Despite pressure to resume spraying, using glyphosate, a chemical linked to cancer, Villegas ruled out the possibility. It s off the radar, he said. | 0fake |
How Effective Are Books On Fitness? | We’re all about self-improvement here at Return Of Kings. A man should always be seeking to improve himself in some fashion, and when he has achieved one goal, he should move onto the next one. In short, never rest on your laurels.
Combining this desire for self improvement with the masculine independence and minimalist lifestyle that other writers on this fine website should inculcate in you a desire to improve yourself while being thrifty and relatively solitary. As this article deals with fitness, you know what I’m going to say: personal trainers, or at the very least, the ones at your average commercial gym, should be avoided at all costs. And while most long-term fitness enthusiasts and professionals will likely either train by themselves or have one of the few trainers that knows what he’s doing, most of us have to train alone, especially beginners who have naught but common sense to light his path. But there is another option: books
Yes, books, that simple yet elegant method of transferring knowledge directly to its viewer. There are certainly plenty of books out there pertaining to the various fields of fitness and athletics. But the question remains: how effective is a book in physical training?
As an avid reader of fitness-related tomes (and many others, but that’s neither here nor there), I own many of these books. And I feel that their effectiveness can be judged by grouping them based on “genre”.
Weight Lifting and Calisthenics When I first started getting into physical culture as a young teenager, I turned to the nearby commercial gym, as most tyros tend to. In that commercial gym, I quickly found myself being attached to a well-meaning jackass who gave me a machine-heavy program that, according to him, would “develop strength, size and endurance.” And like most naive young men, I followed him, developing none of those things, but lining the trainer’s pockets.
Eventually, realizing that I had been lied to, I embarked on a search for enlightenment, coming to the various corners of the internet that deal in such interests. One of the first things that I came across were books that I have repeatedly referred to in these pages, and still consider to be some of the best writing on general fitness out there—the works of men such as Paul Wade and Pavel Tsatsouline. Upon reading books such as Power to the People and the Convict Condidtioning series, and using a bit of common sense, I deduced that these books were superior than the typical tomes on fitness that the commercial gyms would sell at the counter for a few reasons:
One, they advocated a physical philosophy of simplicity and “purity”. Rather than advocating a julienne of exercises; their routines were efficient and targeted all muscles of the body. Two, the credentials of the men were a cut above the average writer: as a maximum security convict and a Spetsnaz veteran (respectively), I knew that these men needed to train their muscles to fighting trim for purposes of survival, rather than “doing curls for the girls”. And third, they referred to the strongmen of old like Maxick and Eugen Sandow, “standing on the shoulders of giants” and opening my eyes to the wider world of fitness writing, much of which I have further consumed.
In general, I would argue that writing on weightlifting and calisthenics are the most effective books on fitness, as these are solitary activities, and the books are typically written by one man speaking to another man. Thus, the techniques there in are written to be easily understood and practiced by the user without a partner.
Martial Arts As I have repeatedly stated on this website , martial arts in general should be taken with a massive grain of salt—while I’m not so stupid as to say “there’s no point in training any sort of refined fighting style because of adrenaline” (and yes I have seen this boneheaded argument made), I have also spent a substantial amount of time debunking the overly flowery and outright fictitious martial arts styles that many hack authors and film-makers propagate, on my own website as well as my Youtube and Dailymotion channels. Sadly, thanks to martial arts being more or less an unregulated market in the United States, any clown has the full legal right to proclaim himself a “master”.
With that being said, some martial arts books are effective, thoroughly explaining the proper mechanics of a move and/or explaining proper situations in how to use them. While I have a background in “proper” study, I have also utilized books to teach aspects of martial arts that I was not formally taught—such as grappling. And again, I sought out accomplished and legitimate fighters that were decorated in their field: men like Farmer Burns ( Lessons in Catch Wrestling and Physical Culture ) and Masao Takahashi ( Mastering Judo ) wrote detailed and efficient books for fighting “in the clinch”, and I have also used Dr. Sang Kim’s books on Taekwondo such as Complete Kicking for learning some of the more exotic kicks that my own background didn’t teach me. And of course I practiced on resisting opponents, some of whom had been wrestlers themselves and thus could shore up my technique.
The most important thing to bear in mind when using a martial arts book is that you MUST practice these techniques against a bag/dummy at the VERY least, and preferably with a sparring partner that will put up a fight. And while this is also the case for any book on physical culture, I would argue that it’s the most important for martial arts—namely because martial arts techniques are, by definition, used in panic situations. In contrast, weightlifting is almost always done in a state of relative calmness—not counting the fake screaming idiots use to “pump themselves up”.
Mindset/Meditation/Etc Books such as the Kundalini Meditation Manual by Yogi Bhajan, which I have only recently started to use, are simultaneously the most simple and most complicated books on self-improvement to use. They are simple because in very basic terms the advice they give is basically “think really hard about something”, but it is precisely that abstractness that can make them difficult-meditation is a nebulous concept for the best of us to grasp immediately, and in some ways changing one’s mindset and behavior is the most difficult thing anybody can do.
While I admittedly do not have the depth of knowledge in these that I do with the other two topics, I would say that these are hard to grasp but easy to practice once they have been “grokked” in the words of Anthony Burgess: After all, every second of every day of your life will involve you utilizing your mindset. And thus, its difficulty lies in the original understanding.
Conclusion Looking at these three broad “genres” of male self-improvement books, we can see that they differ greatly in content, but, speaking from a position of experience, I can safely say that to a great extent they are effective, and they can teach you new things, but only if you get one of the relatively few books that aren’t written by armchair alpha males, and only if you diligently practice the information contained within them.
Read More: 4 Effective Fighting Techniques That Every Man Should Know
| 1real |
Mondelez Abandons Its Efforts to Combine With Hershey - The New York Times | For two brief months, it looked as if there was a possibility of a more than $20 billion takeover that would combine the makers of Oreos and Hershey Kisses. But chocolate lovers’ hopes were dashed on Monday, when the deal discussions ended. Mondelez International, the owner of snack brands like Oreo and Nabisco, said on Monday that it was no longer seeking to acquire the Hershey Company. Hershey rebuffed a $23 billion offer from Mondelez in June, but on Monday it became apparent that they had restarted talks more recently. “Following additional discussions, and taking into account recent shareholder developments at Hershey, we determined that there is no actionable path forward toward an agreement,” Irene B. Rosenfeld, the chairwoman and chief executive of Mondelez, said in a statement. “While we are disappointed in this outcome, we remain disciplined in our approach to creating value, including through acquisitions, and confident that our advantaged platform positions us well for performance over the long term. ” Shares of Hershey tumbled almost 12 percent in trading, while those of Mondelez gained about 3 percent. Mondelez’s offer in June consisted of $107 in cash and stock for every Hershey share — a 10 percent premium at the time. Over the last few weeks, Mondelez floated an offer of about $115 a share, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. Hershey indicated that the figure had to be at least $125 to continue negotiations, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the talks publicly. That gap in pricing, as well as uncertainty surrounding the status of Hershey’s largest shareholder, were the primary reasons the bid was abandoned. A representative from Hershey confirmed that there were additional communications with Mondelez and that Mondelez was no longer pursuing a deal. She declined to comment further. The Hershey Trust Company, which wields 81 percent of the voting power of Hershey shares, has been a thorn in many of the company’s efforts in years past. That was true when Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company wanted to buy Hershey in 2002, and again when Hershey wanted to buy Cadbury eight years later. The charitable trust votes Hershey shares on behalf of the Milton Hershey School for underprivileged children, which was started in 1909 and named for the company’s founder. More recently, the trust has come under fire over corporate governance mishaps. In July, the trust reached a settlement with the Pennsylvania attorney general, which restricted the amount of time directors could remain on the board as well as their compensation. The trust’s board, which has already experienced tremendous turnover, will be reshaped as the agreement requires three trustees to step down by the end of the year. Two others will remain until the end of 2017. Mondelez had offered other concessions to make a deal work, including keeping jobs and moving the combined entity’s operations to Hershey, Pa. Mondelez also planned to keep the Hershey name. Mondelez, which was spun out of Kraft Foods in 2012, has had to contend with the wishes of its own shareholders. Two of the biggest are prominent hedge funds: Trian Fund Management, led by Nelson Peltz, and Pershing Square Capital Management, led by William A. Ackman. Mr. Peltz, who took a seat on Mondelez’s board in 2014, had been pushing for a merger between PepsiCo and Mondelez, and then a spinoff of its snack operations with Mondelez’s. He ultimately dropped this plan and recently sold his stake in Pepsi. | 0fake |
Obama is 'fired up' for Clinton as Democrats seek to unify party | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama formally endorsed Hillary Clinton’s White House bid on Thursday and called for Democrats to unite behind her after a protracted battle with Bernie Sanders for the party nomination. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also backed Clinton on Thursday, telling MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was “a genuine threat to the country.” Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said it “means the world” to her that Obama had her back in a bruising campaign for the Nov. 8 election. Clinton also said she had the “highest regard” for Warren, a fiery critic of Wall Street, and was “really pleased to have her good ideas and support.” Vice President Joe Biden also waded into the campaign on Thursday. “Whoever the next president is, and God willing in my view it will be Secretary Clinton,” Biden said in a speech at the American Constitution Society in Washington. The Obama endorsement increases pressure on Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, to bow out of the race and lend his support to Clinton so that the party can focus on defeating Trump. “It is absolutely a joy and an honor that President Obama and I over the years have gone from fierce competitors to true friends,” Clinton told Reuters in an interview. After an unexpectedly tough battle against Sanders’ challenge from the left, former first lady Clinton made history when she reached the number of delegates needed to win the party nomination this week. That made her the first woman to lead a major U.S. party as its White House candidate. Obama, who enjoys rising approval ratings as he nears the end of eight years in office, will appear with Clinton on the campaign trail next week in Wisconsin. The two were opponents in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, which Obama won, but they buried their rivalry and she served as his secretary of state for four years. Clinton is the 2016 candidate who the White House believes will best safeguard Obama’s legacy. “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” Obama said of Clinton in a video. “I’m with her. I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.” Trump assailed the endorsement on Twitter: “He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!” Clinton’s campaign tweeted a brash response: “Delete your account.” Sanders, who galvanized young voters with his calls for more social equality and measures to rein in Wall Street, has been reluctant to concede the race, despite concerns among leading Democrats that continuing party divisions could hamper Clinton’s efforts to beat Trump. Obama and other senior Democrats are seeking a delicate balance of rallying the party behind Clinton, while not alienating Sanders and his supporters. In what appeared to be an attempt to gently ease Sanders toward giving up his campaign, Obama met the democratic socialist for about an hour in the White House, laughing warmly as they walked into the Oval Office. Although Sanders told reporters afterward that he still planned to compete in the final nominating contest in Washington, D.C., next Tuesday, he said he would work with Clinton to defeat Trump. Sanders was then welcomed on Capitol Hill by Senator Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate. Reid said the lawmaker from Vermont was in a “good place” with his Democratic colleagues. He suggested that Sanders was close to acknowledging defeat by Clinton. “I didn’t hear a single word about him trying to change the fact that she is the nominee, I think he’s accepted that,” Reid told reporters. In the endorsement video, Obama recalled the party unity that followed his prolonged primary battle against Clinton in 2008. “Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders may have been rivals during this primary, but they’re both patriots who love this country and they share a vision for an America that we all believe in,” Obama said. Warren told MSNBC she was endorsing Clinton because “a female fighter in the lead is exactly what this country needs.” Warren’s populist credentials will boost Clinton’s ability to court Sanders voters as she prepares to battle Trump. Warren was the only female Democratic U.S. senator who did not endorse Clinton during the primary race. Clinton told Reuters she and Warren had similar views about issues such as economic policy and protecting the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Warren pushed to start. Trump said in an interview with Reuters last month that he would try to dismantle the Dodd-Frank law. In the interview with Reuters, Clinton said her overall economic package, including plans to rein in Wall Street and cut taxes for the middle class, would come during the first 100 days of her presidency if she defeats Trump. Clinton previously said a plan to generate jobs by investing in transportation and other infrastructure spending and immigration reform would be among other early priorities. “One of the things that President Obama said yesterday is he thought his job was to remind the American people what a really serious job this is, the tough choices, the hard decisions, the high stakes in choosing a president and commander in chief,” Clinton said. “And I know how important it is to get off to a really good start in the White House,” she said. Trump, a wealthy real estate developer who became the party’s presumptive nominee last month after seeing off a large group of rivals, is well behind Clinton’s campaign in terms of fundraising and policy infrastructure. On Thursday, his top donors were holding their first official meeting in New York. Trump also met with industry leaders in New York at an event organized by oil billionaire Harold Hamm. | 0fake |
Teen Records Himself Abusing Girl: ‘This Is What You Do When People Act Up’ (VIDEO) | A young man recorded himself as he maliciously abused a young woman, apparently his girlfriend. He then uploaded the video to the internet. The man, who appears to be in his mid-to-late teens, seems to think that his horrific treatment of the girl in the video is either funny or cool.The 34-second video shows the male seated behind the wheel of his car. The first thing he says is, I just don t want people to act up. The girl is standing outside the vehicle, her arms folded across her chest in a protective stance.By the five second mark it becomes obvious that he has her trapped by the hair, which is rolled up in the window of the car.At this point he explains, clearly amused with himself, that this is exactly what he has done. Pull her hair through the window, he says. Roll the window up. He then laughs as he begins to put the car into gear.The young woman is clearly terrified, and begins to beat on the window of the car. The driver laughs harder, as she becomes more visibly frightened by his behavior, pleading with him to Stop, stop. He continues to laugh, saying something that sounds like it could be the girl s name, Jenny, repeatedly.Watch the 34-second video below, via LiveLeak.https://youtu.be/SF0s9ycMi9oThe video appears to have been uploaded anonymously. The young man who did this needs to be named and shamed. Not only that, but the video needs to be turned over to police, so that they can arrest him on charges of domestic abuse.In most states, if the police have sufficient evidence to believe that domestic abuse has occurred, they do not need the victim to cooperate or press charges, in order to arrest the perpetrator.The young woman in this video may well be too afraid of what this abuser will do if she reports him.Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence. The actions of the perpetrator in this video are clearly designed to terrify this young girl. By his own admission, he s using terror-tactics to control her behavior or keep her from acting up. One in four U.S. women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Two out of every three female homicide victims are killed during an act of domestic violence.The perpetrator and victim in this video happen to be Black. But research shows that domestic violence impacts women from all walks of life, regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic circumstances.While Black women between the ages of 20 and 24 are more likely to experience domestic violence than white women, in all other age groups, Black women and white women experience domestic violence at an equal rate. So before you even start to imply that the couple s race has something to do with it, don t. Domestic violence is not an issue that is confined to any race.While the couple in this video may appear to be young, women between the ages of 16 and 24 years are most likely to be victims of intimate partner abuse.Domestic violence is everyone s problem. Between 2003 and 2012, domestic violence accounted for more than 20 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. It costs society $37 billion annually in law enforcement involvement, legal work, medical and mental health treatment, and lost productivity.While the perpetrator in the above video is unidentified at this time, the internet has a way of finding people out.What if the young lady in this video was your daughter, sister or friend?Our society needs to send a clear message that this kind of terror-inducing behavior is not funny and it is certainly not cool. This is a sadistic crime, and the young man that committed it needs to be held accountable for his actions. | 1real |
Obama says his departure may fix what ails Obamacare | MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday that his departure from office in January might be what it takes to begin to heal the political scars over Obamacare and allow for needed fixes to his signature healthcare law. The 2010 Affordable Care Act tipped off a long and bitter political and legal battle between the White House and Republicans in the U.S. Congress who said the 2010 law creates unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and private industry. Republicans have been quick to highlight a recent barrage of negative headlines about rising health insurance premiums and shrinking doctor networks for people participating in subsidized insurance plans offered under the law. Obama acknowledged the law is not working perfectly, but said the problems could be fixed by legislation, encouraging lawmakers to create a government-run health insurance option to help U.S. states where there is little or no competition among private insurers. “Maybe now that I’m leaving office, maybe Republicans can stop with the 60-something repeal votes they’ve taken and stop pretending that they have a serious alternative ... and just work with the next president to smooth out the kinks,” he said in a speech at Miami Dade College. “They can even change the name of the law to Reagancare, or Paul Ryan care,” Obama said, evoking the name of the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives. “I don’t care. I just want it to work.” But Ryan, in a written response, said he would continue to seek to repeal and replace the law. “At this point, one thing is clear: this law can’t be fixed,” Ryan said. Obama was later slated to headline a rally in Florida, a battleground election state, for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Clinton has said she would add a public option and expand tax incentives for healthcare costs. Republican nominee Donald Trump has pledged to repeal and replace the law. The government forecasts 13.8 million people will sign up for Obamacare plans in 2017, up 1.1 million from 2016. There are 10.7 million uninsured people who are eligible for the exchanges but have not enrolled, and about 40 percent of those are young, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said on Wednesday. Obama said that nationwide, not enough young and healthy people have signed up to provide a revenue stream that offsets the costs of covering members with serious illnesses. As a result, several big insurers, including UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N), Aetna Inc (AET.N) and Humana Inc (HUM.N), are pulling out of the online marketplaces selling the subsidized plans, citing bigger-than-expected financial losses. Monthly premium prices have climbed, which further discourages some people from signing up. “Next year will tell whether those are growing pains, or they are more serious issues,” Drew Altman, chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in an interview. Analysis conducted by the nonpartisan foundation suggests at least 16 million people need to enroll before the online Obamacare insurance marketplaces stabilize. Obama said expanding insurance coverage for millions of people and reforming the healthcare system was a key reason he ran for office. He said he gets letters from Americans every day thanking him for the difference it has made in their lives. The law cut the number of uninsured Americans from 49 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2015. Much of the decline is due to the law’s provision allowing states to expand Medicaid health coverage for the poor. The law also prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage to Americans for existing medical problems, and allowed parents to keep children insured on their health plans until age 26. Some health policy experts on both the political left and right say Congress may be more receptive to bipartisan efforts to fix the Affordable Care Act after Obama leaves office. Some Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid may also be more willing to do so after the election - a change that would expand coverage for about 4 million people. “I think the piece of Obamacare that people don’t like is Obama,” Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s former Health and Human Services secretary, who oversaw the program’s launch, said in an interview. “This has become a very personal battle about this president, which is I think really unfortunate.” | 0fake |
This Sexist Comment From Trump’s Victory Speech Caps Nightmare Night For GOP (VIDEO) | Donald Trump cruised to huge victories in all five of the Republican primaries held on Tuesday night, racking up double digit victories in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware. While a triumph for the candidate as he moved close to the psychologically significant 1,000 delegate mark on his way to the 1,237 needed to win the nomination, he also made remarks that could foretell the death of all Republican hopes.At the end of a long, directionless, rambling press conference and victory celebration, Trump decided to unleash a sexist attack on Hillary Clinton that is sure to echo with many American women who have been put down in the workplace.Donald Trump: "If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5% of the vote." https://t.co/Z5FJK1qaf8https://t.co/IhBbfhcRVv ABC News (@ABC) April 27, 2016Trump told his supporters and the reporters on scene: If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don t think she d get 5% of the vote. He added, women don t like Hillary. In fact, polls have shown that it is Trump s historic unpopularity with especially women voters, thanks to his long track record of sexist, misogynistic, and insulting attacks on women like Megyn Kelly and Rosie O Donnell, that have Clinton well-positioned to beat him.Chris Christie s wife, Mary Pat, grimaced as Trump made his sexist attack:Mary Pat Christie made this face behind Trump after his comments about Clinton and the woman card pic.twitter.com/oIxm9XRp2d Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) April 27, 2016Earlier in the evening, Clinton responded to Trump s previous whining that her candidacy was based on playing the woman card, telling her supporters to raucous applause: Deal me in. The Republican Party was already in trouble with female voters before they were saddled with a nominee like Donald Trump. The party has lost the female vote in every presidential election since 1992, losing that key demographic even when they have won the overall election.The party has tried to keep its positions that are unpopular with women out of the public spotlight, preferring to fight against abortion and birth control at the state level, rather than nationally. But with a female candidate the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, along with a slate of women nominees running for Senate seats across the country, this could turn out to be a nightmare of epic proportions for the GOP.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
THESE “POLLS” DON’T LIE! HILLARY PLANS HUGE Black Baptist Church Rally…Massive Number Of Empty Seats…Workers Forced To “Shrink” Room | The way Trump is packing in thousands of supporters at every rally in every state he visits, it s pretty clear his popularity way overshadows that of #CrookedHillary. She s barely getting enough people to fill a phone booth at her rallies! This event, at the Baptist National Convention in Kansas City turned out to be downright embarrassing for Hillary and her campaign. In a venue meant to hold 5,000 people, Hillary only drew about 1,000. Perhaps there just isn t a huge amount of interest with Baptist church members in Kansas City when it comes to spending time listening to a sociological liar Workers cutting the room down by a third with lower than expected turnout for #clintonkc speech. pic.twitter.com/L60YFfBpO1 Frank Morris (@FrankNewsman) September 8, 2016Check out the number of empty seats!Convention hall turned out lights in un-occupied part of hall for @HillaryClinton speech, now partitioning it off pic.twitter.com/O5Az8EfiRD Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) September 8, 2016Here are the requested "during speech" pics of KC convention hall pic.twitter.com/ZRGOm77xnO Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) September 8, 2016And finally, only 1,000 people filled a venue meant for 5,000. Who needs polls that are rigged by leftist media or polling firms with an agenda. From now on, we re going to continue to use the number of supporters who actually take time out of their busy day to see the candidates as a true indicator of who s leading in the race Front of press constituted 10 rows. 14 seats per section, 6 sections. Less than 1,000 of the >5k setup https://t.co/C6BcyCIl9F Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) September 8, 2016h/t Gateway Pundit | 1real |
The role of the US and Nato in EU relations with China, by Manlio Dinucci | The role of the US and Nato in EU relations with China by Manlio Dinucci Participating in an international conference, the Italian geographer Manlio Dinucci ties together the various strands of his analysis of the weapons that the US has at its disposal to dominate the entire world. Yet the importance of this article goes beyond that. For it is on account of this domination, this unipolar global order, that Syria, Russia and China, challenge today the use of force.
Voltaire Network | Rome (Italy) | 28 October 2016 français Español I will get straight to the heart of the issue. I do not think it possible to speak of relations between the European Union (the EU) and China independently of the influence the United States wields over the EU directly and [indirectly], through Nato.
Today 22 of the 28 (27 once Great Britain has left the EU), EU member states with more than 90% of the EU population, are members of Nato, recognized as the “foundation for collective defence”. And Nato is under US command: the US Supreme Allied Command in Europe is always appointed by the US President and all the other key commands are in the US’s hands. Accordingly, the EU’s foreign and military policy is fundamentally subordinated to the US strategy to which the major European powers have aligned themselves.
Such a strategy, clearly announced in official documents, is sketched out at that moment in history when, following the dissolution of the URSS, the world situation changes. In 1991, the White House declares in the National Security Strategy of the United States :
“The United States remains the only State with the force, capability and influence in every dimension – political, economic and military – that is effectively global. Nothing can substitute for US leadership”.
In 1992, in the Defense Planning Guidance , the Pentagon emphasizes:
“Our primary objective is to prevent any hostile power dominating a region whose resources would be sufficient to generate a global power. These regions include Western Europe, Eastern Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union and South-West Asia”.
In 2001, in the report Quadrennial Defense Review – published a week before the US/Nato war in Afghanistan, an area of primary geostrategic importance in relation to Russia and China - the Pentagon announces:
“It is possible that a military rival may emerge in Asia with a formidable resource base. US armed forces must maintain their capabilities to impose the US’s will on any adversary, so as to change the regime of an enemy state or to occupy a foreign territory so that US strategic objectives can be realized”.
On the basis of this strategy, US-led Nato, has launched an offensive on the Eastern front: after demolishing by war the Federation of Yugoslavia, from 1999 to date, it has subsumed all the countries of the former Warsaw Pact, three of the former Yugoslavia, three of the former URSS and very soon will incorporate others (starting from Georgia and Ukraine – the latter a de facto Nato member), moving bases and forces, nuclear included, ever closer to the Russian borders.
At the same time, on the Southern front, closely connected to the Eastern front, the war waged by the US-led Nato has demolished the Libyan State and has tried to do the same thing with the Syrian State.
USA and Nato have tried to make the Ukraine crisis explode and, accusing Russia of “destabilizing European security”, have dragged Europe into a new Cold War, intended particularly by Washington (at the cost of European economies damaged by sanctions and counter-sanctions) to fracture EU–Russian political and economic relations damaged by US interests. This same strategy also includes an increasing deployment of US military forces in the Asia/Pacific region for anti-Chinese reasons. The U.S. Navy has announced that in 2020 it will concentrate 60% of its naval and air forces in this region.
The US strategy is focused on the South China Sea and Admiral Harris, head of the US Command for the Pacific, emphasizes the importance of this: through this sea passes maritime trade with an annual value of more than 5,000 billion dollars, including 25% from global export of oil and 50% of natural gas. The US wants to control these routes in the name of which Admiral Harris defines “the freedom of navigation fundamental for our way of life here in the US”, accusing China, in his very words of “aggressive actions in the South China Sea, similar to Russian action in the Crimea”. For this, the US Navy “is patrolling” the South China Sea. Riding on the back of the US, the biggest European powers arrive: last July, France has requested the European Union to “coordinate the naval surveillance of the South China Sea to ensure a regular and visible presence in these waters over which China has illegally asserted title”. And while the US established in South Korea anti-missile systems which are also capable of launching nuclear missiles, similar to those installed against Russia in Romania and very shortly in Poland, as well as on board the war ships in the Mediterranean, on 6 October, the Nato Secretary General Stoltenberg receives South Korea’s Minister for Foreign Affairs at Brussels, to “strengthen Nato’s partnership with Seoul”.
These and other facts demonstrate that the same strategy is implemented in Europe and Asia. It is the extreme attempt of the United States and other Western Powers to maintain their economic, political and military supremacy in a world, radically transformed, where new states and social subjects are emerging. The Shanghai Organization for Co-operation, born out of a strategic Chinese-Russian agreement, provides resources and working capacities, making it the biggest integrated economic area in the world. The Shanghai and BRICS organizations are capable, with their financial organizations, of largely displacing the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that, for more than 70 years, have allowed the USA and major western powers to dominate the global economy through loans that fetter the economic sovereignty of indebted countries and other financial instruments. The new organizations can, at the same time, achieve a de-dollarization of their trade agreements, depriving the US of its capacity to off-load its debt on the other countries, by printing dollar notes used as the dominant international currency.
To maintain its supremacy, increasingly wavering, the US relies not only on the strength of its weapons, but also weapons more efficient than “weapons” in the strict sense of the word.
The first weapon: the so-called “Free Trade Agreements” such as the “Transatlantic Partnership on Trade and Investment” (TTIP) between the USA and the EU and the “Transpacific Partnership” (TPP), both of which have economic, geopolitical and geostrategic objectives. This is why, Hillary Clinton defines the EU-US partnership “the biggest strategic aim of our transatlantic alliance”, proposing an “Economic Nato” that integrates that the political with the military. The plan is clear: to form a political, economic and military US-EU block, increasingly under US command which acts as a countervailing force to the following:
• the Eurasiatic area, now on the rise and based on cooperation between China and Russia;
• the Brics; and
• Iran and any other country that manages to escape Western domination.
The TTIP negotiations are struggling to make headway due to a conflict of interests and vast opposition in Europe. But that obstacle is now circumvented through the “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” (CETA) between Canada and the EU: a TTIP in disguise, given that Canada is already party to NAFTA which also binds the USA. The EU will probably sign off CETA when the Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau visits Brussels this 27 October.
The second weapon: penetrating the target countries from within. Leverage is drawn from the weak points that each country has to varying extents: corruption, a greed for money, political ascent, secessionary movements fed by local power groups, religious fanaticism, the vulnerability of the great masses for political demagogy. Playing as well, in certain cases, on a justified popular dissatisfaction with the actions of their own government. The instruments used to penetrate? The so-called “non-governmental organizations”. These are, in actual fact, the long hand of the Department of State and the CIA. These NGOs, endowed with deep pools of financial resources, have organized the Eastern European “colour revolutions” and replicated the same operation with the so-called “Umbrella Revolution” in Hong Kong, aiming at developing similar movements in other parts of China where the national minorities live. The same organizations operate in Latin America, with the primary objective of subverting Brazil’s democratic institutions, thereby threatening Brics from within. Instruments to achieve the strategy are terrorist groups, such as those armed and infiltrated in Libya and Syria to sow seeds of chaos, contributing to destruction of whole States attacked at the same time from outside.
The third arm: “Psyops” (Psychological operations), launched through the global media chains, defined as follows by the Pentagon: “Planned Operations to influence, through specific information, the emotions and mindset, and thus the conduct of public opinion, organizations and foreign governments, so as to induce or strengthen conduct favourable to pre-established objectives”.
Such operations, prepare public opinion for warlike escalation and create the impression that Russia is responsible for tensions in Europe just as China is for the tensions in Asia, as well as accusing them at the same time of “violating human rights”.
1965: Manlio Dinucci, and his wife, Carla, before the ancestral home of Mao Tse Toung. A final consideration: during the sixties, my wife and I worked in Peking, contributing, inter alia, to the publication of the first Chinese journal in the Italian language. I experienced a life-changing learning experience when China – liberated from the colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions for at least 15 years – was completely isolated. Neither the West nor the United Nations recognized it as a sovereign state. This period imprinted on my mind, the ability of the Chinese people (at the time totalling 600 million), to resist, their consciousness and commitment under the guide of the Communist party to constructing a society with a brand new economic and cultural foundation. I think that this capacity is today still needed so that today’s China, that is developing its enormous potential, can resist new plans for imperial domination and contribute to the decisive struggle for the future of humanity: a world free of wars; where peace, inextricably linked to social justice, prevails.
Manlio Dinucci Translation
Anoosha Boralessa | 1real |
Japan court rules Tepco liable over Fukushima: media | TOKYO (Reuters) - A court in Japan on Friday ordered Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to pay compensation to a group of former Fukushima residents, the second such ruling following the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster, Japanese media reported. However, the ruling by the Chiba district court, east of Tokyo, did not find the government liable for compensation, in contrast to a March ruling in another court that ordered both the government and Tepco to pay compensation to a separate group of evacuees. Tepco is facing mounting legal claims over the disaster, with about 12,000 former Fukushima residents filing about 30 similar class action lawsuits seeking compensation, media reports said. In the Chiba case, a group of 45 residents sought damages totaling about 2.8 billion yen ($25 million) for the emotional distress of fleeing their homes as radiation spread from the meltdowns at Tepco s Fukushima Daiichi plant after an earthquake and tsunami more than six ago. Tepco was ordered to pay a total of 376 million yen ($3.36 million) for 42 of the evacuees, Kyodo and Jiji reported. Tepco on Friday said it would review the contents of the ruling before making a response. Some 15,000 people died in March 2011 when three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered meltdowns after a magnitude 9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated a swathe of Japan s northeastern coastline. Tepco has long been criticized for ignoring the threat posed by natural disasters to the Fukushima plant and both the company and government were lambasted for their handling of the crisis. In December, the government nearly doubled its projections for costs related to the disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($192 billion), increasing pressure on Tepco to step up reform and improve its performance. | 0fake |
PRESIDENT TRUMP Makes TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People In The World” List…Readers Stunned By Person Who Gave Him Rave Reviews | TIME s 100 Most Influential People in the World list was released, and liberals aren t keen on all of the people who made it. Rather, they re upset Republicans are in positions of power and are actually making things happen in the nation and across the globe. As gossip maven Perez Hilton wrote, Unfortunately, it s a sad (SAD!) reality that Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner top the list of the year s most influential people. Sigh. Truth RevoltWhen fans of President Trump heard he made TIME magazine s Top 100 Most Influential People In The World list, they were a surprised that the liberal magazine would risk losing subscribers by including the controversial president on their list. What was even more surprising, is the person who wrote the glowing review of President Donald Trump that TIME published alongside his name. It s entirely possible that Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, like so many others, made assumptions about Donald Trump that turned out to be completely inaccurate. Maybe after watching Trump in action Ryan realized that he underestimated how much this president loves our country and the lengths he s willing to go to, to protect and defend it. The other possibility is that Ryan, like many others who ve encountered President Trump in action have developed a strong respect for one of the hardest working and toughest people in America.What a difference 100 days can make Paul Ryan had this to say about President Trump:Wendi Murdoch on Ivanka Trump:Michael Duffy on about Stephen Bannon: | 1real |
Live Blog: Voting Fraud Exposed Nationwide | We Are Change
We will being keeping track of all election anomalies, poll rigging, blocking of the polls, and other shady voting fraud tricks throughout the day that may be used to rig the election this will be updated periodically all day so check back for new information. To make this easy to read and to inform you the voter we will break this down into sections by state in alphabetical order just like I did in August, for the Democratic primary . We really hope that we won’t have fill up this whole list and that many remain blank oh yeah and oh good friend James O`Keefe and crew are out there want to become famous? Go ahead rig the election we dare you..
If you're committing #VoterFraud , we're going to find you. #VeritasIsEverywhere #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/qHULNMuEQ4
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 8, 2016
If you have a tip regarding any type of electioneering you may email me at An0nKn0wledge@protonmail.ch or Andrew@wearechange.org.
Edward Snowden shows how easy it is to HACK into a US voting machine with a £24 memory card ALABAMA:
ALASKA:
ARIZONA:
ARKANSAS:
CALIFORNIA:
COLORADO:
CONNECTICUT:
DELAWARE:
Washington District of Columbia:
FLORIDA:
GEORGIA:
HAWAII:
IDAHO:
ILLINOIS:
INDIANA:
IOWA:
KANSAS:
KENTUCKY:
LOUISIANA:
MAINE:
MARYLAND:
MASSACHUSETTS:
MICHIGAN:
MINNESOTA:
MISSISSIPPI:
MISSOURI:
MONTANA:
NEBRASKA:
NEVADA:
Clinton’s Campaign Just Got Busted Impersonating Union Nurses in Nevada
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
NEW JERSEY:
NEW MEXICO:
NEW YORK:
Misleading NYC Election Mailer Could Be Bad News for Trump, Sanders
NORTH CAROLINA:
NORTH DAKOTA:
OHIO:
VOTER FRAUD! Before The OH Primary, Voters Noticed Something STRANGE On The Ballot… Do You See It?
OKLAHOMA:
OREGON: PENNSYLVANIA:
View post on imgur.com "My name is Brittany Foreman… and today I witnessed Voter Fraud." #VoterFraud ILLEGAL. Please SHARE pic.twitter.com/5Plk8FszuT
— Philly GOP (@PhillyGOP) November 8, 2016
In Philadelphia tailing a pastor's bus that's bussing people to the polls. #VeritasIsEverywhere & we will catch your #VoterFraud . @PhillyGOP pic.twitter.com/FY9UPOQolp
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 8, 2016
Puerto Rico:
RHODE ISLAND:
SOUTH CAROLINA:
SOUTH DAKOTA:
TENNESSEE:
TEXAS:
UTAH:
VERMONT:
VIRGINIA:
Virgin Islands:
WASHINGTON:
WEST VIRGINIA:
WISCONSIN:
WYOMING:
The post Live Blog: Voting Fraud Exposed Nationwide appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
Chile election ends era of female presidents in Latin America | SANTIAGO (Reuters) - When Chile s President Michelle Bachelet leaves office in March, it will mark the end of a generation of women leaders in Latin America, leaving the region without a female head of state as it shifts to the right politically. At the start of this decade, women held the top jobs in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Chile, collectively representing about 40 percent of the population in a region better known for its machismo. But conservative Sebastian Pinera s victory in the second round of Chile s presidential election on Sunday drew that period to a close. Bachelet was the first of her female counterparts to rise to power in a leftist tide that swept South America during a commodities-fueled economic boom. She served as president from 2006 to 2010 before winning re-election in 2013. Together with Brazil s Dilma Rousseff and Argentina s Cristina Fernandez, Bachelet embodied the major strides made by women across a region that has passed laws deterring rampant violence against women and set quotas for political participation that have given Latin American women a bigger share of parliamentary seats than in Europe. But now some worry that progress on women s rights could stall. We re seeing a shift to conservative politics that is questioning the advances of the last 15 to 20 years, said Eugenia Piza-Lopez, who works on gender in Latin America for the United Nations Development Program. Conservative groups are targeting gender equality across the region, said Piza-Lopez. Protests over curriculums aimed at empowering girls to rise above traditional female duties have helped topple education ministers in Peru and Colombia. During campaigning in Chile, Pinera voiced concerns about the country s declining birth rate as he took aim at changes to abortion laws under Bachelet, who loosened a strict ban to make exemptions for rape, unviable fetuses and the risk of death during labor. While there is no definitive study showing female leaders do more to advance women s wellbeing than men, Farida Jalalzai, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University, said her research on Latin America suggested that was the case. Dilma (Rousseff), for example, would take a policy that was already in existence and reframe it in ways that made it clear it was a women s issue, whether it was poverty or home ownership, Jalalzai said. Piza-Lopez said Fernandez, who ruled Argentina from 2007 to 2015, helped narrow the gender poverty gap with her generous spending on social programs aimed at women. Stella Zervoudaki, head of the European Union delegation in Chile, pointed to Bachelet s creation of a ministry of women, her programs to finance companies led by women and work for marriage equality. I m not sure this would have been as forceful without a woman leader, Zervoudaki said. She said Bachelet had pressed for a chapter on gender in an update to an EU trade agreement that called for progress on equal pay, fair maternity leave and better access to technology for women. In a region where corruption scandals often hurt presidencies, South America s women leaders were no honorable exception. Rousseff was removed from office in 2016 on accusations she manipulated budget laws and was later charged with graft. A judge in Argentina has charged Fernandez, now a senator who is also under investigation for graft, with treason for allegedly covering up Iran s possible role in a 1994 bombing. Both women deny wrongdoing. Rousseff recently visited Fernandez in her apartment in Buenos Aires to commiserate, and has said sexism played a role in her own impeachment. Brazil s conservative President Michel Temer appointed an all-male cabinet after Rousseff s exit. She was voted out after lawmakers held up signs saying bye, dear! In contrast, Pinera said on Monday he would announce the women and men who would form his team, a sign he would create a balanced cabinet, perhaps taking his lead from Bachelet, whose first cabinet was exactly half men and half women. Bachelet s own approval ratings were hit hard after her daughter-in-law was accused of using political ties to get access to a bank loan. Although Latin America is poised to hold six elections next year - in Costa Rica, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil - the chances for another female president are slim. In Mexico, leftist frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has repeatedly referred to his rival Margarita Zavala as the wife of Felipe Calderon - her husband and a former president - angering her supporters, who charge it is sexist. She is polling around 10 percent of votes. In Brazil, Marina Silva, who has lost the presidency twice, recently joined the race and lies third in most polls. A number of female candidates are expected to compete in Colombia s presidential race, though none is expected to win. Maria Eugenia Vidal, the governor of Argentina s largest province of Buenos Aires, is the country s most popular politician, according to several polls, but is not expected to run for president in 2019. Still-rampant sexism and sexual harassment in politics remain deterrents to women who want to rise to the top, said Mercedes Araoz, Peru s Prime Minister and a former presidential candidate. I ve been a victim (of sexual harassment), Araoz recently told journalists. It s important to realize how discouraging it can be. | 0fake |
Open Borders Groups Gird for H-1B Fights | The open borders lobby is bracing for a fight with President Donald Trump’s administration over the foreign guest worker program, which opponents say is discriminatory against American workers. [In a piece by the Hindustan Times, a newspaper based out of India, open border proponents with the Indian group “Immigration Voice” are decrying the Trump Administration’s expected effort to not defend an rule that allows foreign guest workers’ spouses to also work in the U. S. Sudarshana Sengupta, who is specifically cited by Immigration Voice, is currently in the U. S. on an visa, which is given to spouses of workers as they await green cards. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime opponent of massive foreign guest worker programs, did not immediately defend the open borders lobby in a Washington court case, Immigration Voice denounced the move. The Washington court case was filed by Save Jobs USA, an organization comprised of IT workers who have been fired from their jobs after being replaced by cheaper, foreign workers under the program. “The recent statements from the government present an unacceptable risk for Immigration Voice members that the department of justice might decide after 60 days to adopt the position of Save Jobs USA,” of Immigration Voice Aman Kapoor wrote in a statement. Immigration hawks at NumbersUSA say the open borders lobby appears to be opposing every position the Trump Administration holds on immigration. “I think that the advocacy groups are going to scream and yell about any single thing that anyone proposes that is not open borders,” NumbersUSA Government Affairs Director Rosemary Jenks told Breitbart Texas. “They’ve decided that it’s in their interest to fight everything Trump wants to do. ” Jenks said the “coalition” between the business community, who wants continued cheap, foreign labor, and the Hispanic advocacy groups, who want to see higher levels of illegal and legal immigration, will continue as a united front in order to give the illusion that they care about workers and business. “The business community doesn’t really have much stake in chain migration issues,” Jenks told Breitbart Texas. “And the advocacy groups like La Raza don’t have a lot of stake in the foreign guest worker issues. They’re going to look like they’re defending the interest of business in order to keep that coalition going. ” Trump and Sessions’ positions on foreign guest worker programs remains highly popular with the American public, as only 30 percent of Americans said in a recent poll that the visa was necessary, Breitbart Texas reported. The vast majority of Americans also said the number of visas allotted every year to companies should either be kept on level or decreased. Only 23 percent of Americans said the number of visas given out should be raised. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0fake |
WATCH: KELLYANNE CONWAY Gives Dreaded Answer To Liberal Hack, “This Week” Host George Stephanopoulos’ Question About Trump’s Plans To Run In 2020 | ABC host George Stephanopoulos sat down with Kellyanne Conway for an interview this morning on This Week . Stephanopoulos started out the interview by mentioning the new jobs report and the explosion of the stock market under President Trump. He barely took a breath before he jumped directly to a poll that showed despite all of his many accomplishments, that Trump isn t very popular. Kellyanne Conway was quick to point out, that although Trump s poll numbers aren t as strong as she d like them to be, he s keeping his head down and focusing on his agenda. In other words, President Trump is laser focused on honoring the campaign promises he made to American people who elected him. What a novel idea One can only imagine the disappointment Stephanopoulos must have felt when he got the dreaded answer from Conway to his question about President Trump s plans to run in 2020. After all, who could forget when George Stephanopoulos wife promised (but of course, didn t follow through) that she would move her family to another country if President Trump won the election?Watch:Conway responded to Stephanopoulos question about Trump running in 2020: The president says privately and publicly, often, George that he ll be president for seven and a half more years, so he plans on being a two-term president. Last week, the New York Times article attempted to convince their readers that the Republican Party is divided and fractured and that many of the members of the party were attempting to convince Vice President Mike Pence to run for president in 2020.Pence was furious at the accusation that he was somehow involved in a potential coup against President Trump. So much for the wishful thinking of not very credible and very biased New York Times.And finally, it wouldn t be an interview with the mainstream media if they didn t ask about Trump s phony Russia connection. Kellyanne Conway didn t disappoint with her answer as she blasted Stephanopoulos for pushing the fake narrative: People just can t get over that election, George. It s corrosive to our body politic | 1real |
Final tally in NZ election strengthens Labour in negotiation talks | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A possible Labour-Green coalition narrowed the gap with the ruling National Party in New Zealand s final election tally, strengthening their position ahead of talks on Sunday with the small nationalist party which holds the balance of power. The final Sept. 23 election results released on Saturday showed National won 56 seats and Labour and Greens together took 54 seats, leaving them both reliant on New Zealand First s nine seats to meet the 61 seats needed for a majority in parliament in New Zealand s proportional representation system. National lost two seats to the Labour-Green bloc compared with preliminary results - a development which Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said buoyed their position at the negotiating table. We will continue our negotiations in earnest with potential support parties beginning this weekend, Ardern told reporters in Auckland. This now means that we have a strengthened mandate to negotiate and form a durable, stable coalition government. Ardern, 37, took over the Labour leadership nearly two months before the election, quickly drawing comparisons with youthful, cosmopolitan leaders like Canada s Justin Trudeau and France s Emmanuel Macron. She has almost single-handedly brought Labour to within reach of forming government. New Zealand First said in an emailed statement that it would hold discussions on Sunday with the National Party at midday and with the Labour Party in the afternoon. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told local media that knowing the facts puts us in a better position to make judgements . Peters has said he would only make a decision on which party to back after the final tally and after the results become official on Oct. 12. Prime Minister Bill English told reporters in Queenstown that the final results did not change the nature of the negotiations, which would now likely focus on the economy. I don t think it weakens it significantly at all, he said, referring to National s negotiating position. The fundamentals haven t altered, and that is National has significantly more seats than Labour, we are larger than a Labour-Greens combination. If New Zealand First chooses to go with Labour, which are thought to have more in common in terms of policy, the gain in seats for the Labour-Greens bloc would make it easier for Peters to justify the move, analysts said. Both parties have said they want to curb immigration, renegotiate certain trade deals and adjust the role of the central bank albeit in different ways. If Labour, the Greens and NZ First had formed a government with a majority of one (seat)...that wouldn t have sat comfortably with many people, Richard Shaw, politics professor at Massey University, referring to preliminary results. A Labour, Greens, NZ First coalition would now hold a three-seat majority after the final tally. But some say Peters could be swayed to go to National given it would be a straightforward coalition between two parties. Peters, a veteran New Zealand politician who has now held the balance of power three times, has in past elections formed coalition governments with both the National Party and Labour. The National Party won 44.4 percent of the votes, the Labour Party 36.9 percent, New Zealand First 7.2 percent, the Green Party 6.3 percent. | 0fake |
NOW FIVE FBI FIELD OFFICES ARE PROBING CLINTON CHARITY, ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE | Home › POLITICS › NOW FIVE FBI FIELD OFFICES ARE PROBING CLINTON CHARITY, ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE NOW FIVE FBI FIELD OFFICES ARE PROBING CLINTON CHARITY, ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE 4 SHARES
[10/31/16] FBI field offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Little Rock, Ark., are investigating the Clinton Foundation concerning allegations of pay-to-play financial and political corruption, according to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday.
Mirroring information provided by a former senior law enforcement official that “multiple FBI investigations are underway involving potential corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation,” the Journal confirms what The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group reported in August .
FBI field offices in three cities, specifically, New York, Little Rock and Washington, D.C., were coordinating with the U.S. Attorneys working in those cities. FBI agents in Miami are also joining the probe, TheDCNF has since learned.
The Clinton Foundation has numerous programs operating in Haiti, the Caribbean, Latin America and South America.
“Los Angeles agents had picked up information about the Clinton Foundation from an unrelated public corruption case and had issued some subpoenas for bank records related to the foundation” and described the unusual field office initiative as “at times a sprawling cross-country effort,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Several polls released Saturday and Sunday show a rapid deterioration of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s lead in the wake of Friday’s disclosure by FBI Director James Comey that he is reopening the email server investigation. Comey said in August that he did not believe the FBI’s investigation of Clinton and her use of private servers and private email addresses to conduct official diplomatic business would be productive.
Comey’s announcement Friday was related to a separate investigation of child pornography allegations against former Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat who is married to Clinton’s closest confidant, Huma Abedin. Weiner and Abedin separated earlier this year following a third disclosure of his sexting with an underage girl. Post navigation | 1real |
DIAMOND & SILK: Liberals Respect President Trump or Get Out! [Video] | Diamond and Silk: Liberals are trying to destroy this country. They want us to live in a third-world country. We don t want socialism. I don t want globalism I want to live free. I want to be happy, and I want to help President Trump make America great again. .@DiamondandSilk: "Liberals are trying to destroy this country. They want us to live in a third-world country. We don't want socialism. I don't want globalism I want to live free. I want to be happy, and I want to help @POTUS make America great again." pic.twitter.com/2MVgYGQbDr Fox News (@FoxNews) December 16, 2017The ladies are spot on! They are fighting the good fight for President Trump. If you don t love America then you can leave!The ladies visited the White House recently:We had a magnificent time with our man, the @POTUS, @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS Melania Trump at the White House Christmas Party while hanging out with @ScottBaio (Chachi from Happy Days) and so many more beautiful people on the Trump Train. Merry Christmas. We Love You all. pic.twitter.com/GDSLDEHygD Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) December 13, 2017OUR FAVORITE DIAMOND & SILK MOMENT IS A VISIT ON THE VIEW : They re President Trump s #1 fans and they ve been with him from the start of his campaign. The wildly popular, hilarious and outspoken Diamond and Silk duo have been hitting it out of the park on YouTube with their videos that rely entirely on pro-Trump commentary. They never use vulgarity or threats and their videos are always G-rated (Well, okay, a few of their videos may be PG-13). Apparently supporting the President of the United States now violates YouTube s monetization policies. Their videos have received millions of hits and had such an effect on liberals that Youtube recently made the decision to pull 95% of their revenue.Conservative Trump supporters Lynnette Hardway and Rochelle Richardson of North Carolina, know they re never going to get an invitation to leftist The View show, so, by using a few special effects, Diamond and Silk have decided to make a surprise visit to The View hags and give them a piece of their mind. The result is hilarious!Watch, as Diamond and Silk school Whoopie, Joy Behar and the rest of the liberal hags on The View about who is, and who is not our President, and remind them of what the President s role is and what is expected of Congress.Enjoy:.@DiamondandSilk have been anxious to get Whoopi & the ladies from The View straighten out because they've gotten a lot of stuff twisted. pic.twitter.com/ddkgKcW7yF Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) September 9, 2017WE LOVE THESE LADIES! | 1real |
"The people have spoken," Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa tells cheering crowd | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is due to be sworn in to replace Robert Mugabe as president on Friday, told a cheering crowd in Harare on Wednesday that the country was entering a new stage of democracy. The people have spoken. The voice of the people is the voice of God, Mnangagwa told thousands of supporters who had gathered outside the ruling ZANU-PF party s offices. Today we are witnessing the beginning of a new and unfolding democracy. Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe s president on Tuesday, a week after the army and his former political allies moved to end four decades of rule by a man once feted as an independence hero who became feared as a despot. | 0fake |
Trump Inches Toward Naming Domestic Cabinet Members - The New York Times | Earlier Today: The New York Times had an exclusive interview with Donald Trump. See how it unfolded on our . Donald J. Trump is moving toward choosing his domestic policy team, suggesting that the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson could be his housing secretary and speaking at length to a Democrat, Michelle Rhee, about education. Meantime, Mr. Trump suggests that his will bring peace to the Middle East and seems to reverse tack on climate change. Through his spokesman, Ben Carson has said he does not have the experience to run a major federal agency, yet there he was, cozying up to be the next secretary of housing and urban development. What a neurosurgeon knows about housing policy is not clear, but Mr. Carson is clearly in the running. “Well, you know our inner cities are in terrible shape, and they definitely need some real attention,” he told Fox News on Tuesday. “You know, there have been so many promises made over the last several decades and nothing has been” done. The housing post was “one of the offers that’s on the table,” Mr. Carson confirmed. Another name surfacing for a domestic cabinet post? It’s former Representative Harold Ford Jr. a moderate Democrat, as possible transportation secretary. Why Mr. Ford? He is a frequent guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and the Joe Scarborough has the ’s ear. Michelle Rhee, a Democrat who has been willing to ruffle feathers on education, didn’t exactly take herself out of the running to be Mr. Trump’s education secretary, but she did push back at critics who do not approve of her visits to Trump Tower. Mr. Trump, as it turns out, didn’t care all that much about Mrs. Clinton’s private email server. But there are consequences. When his senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, announced that the incoming administration would not pursue the investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s private email server, the response from the right was swift. “Broken Promise,” blared Breitbart, the conservative website that promoted Mr. Trump’s candidacy and gave him the mastermind of his campaign, Stephen K. Bannon. The conservative provocateur Ann Coulter was no more subtle. Judicial Watch, the conservative legal organization that has doggedly pursued Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, also chimed in: Ms. Conway said Tuesday that it was now Mr. Trump’s intention to move beyond the issues of the campaign and focus on the task of running the country instead. “If Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing,” Ms. Conway said on the MSNBC’s “Morning Joe. ” Of course, the attorney general is supposed to be independent, but things may not work the usual way with President Trump. “I think when the who’s also the head of your party, tells you before he’s even inaugurated that he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone and content” to fellow Republicans, Ms. Conway said. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who is expected to serve somewhere in the new administration, told the news media at Trump Tower that the was making a tough call. “Look, there’s a tradition in American politics that after you win an election, you sort of put things behind you,” Mr. Giuliani said. “And if that’s the decision he reached, that’s perfectly consistent with sort of a historical pattern of things come up, you say a lot of things, even some bad things might happen, and then you can sort of put it behind you in order to unite the nation. So if he made that decision, I would be supportive of it. I’d also be supportive of continuing the investigation. ” But Mr. Trump has lofty ambitions. James Mattis, a former Marine Corps general, is no fan of waterboarding, which could present problems if he becomes secretary of defense. Why? Because the is a really big fan. As recently as Monday night, Trump said in a video that he would scuttle President Obama’s energy and environmental regulations — put in place to fight climate change — to unleash coal and hydraulic fracturing. Yet in his meeting Tuesday with Times reporters and editors, he seemed to soften on climate change, which he used to call a hoax. But: Donna Brazile, the interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, took to Medium to make the case that Democrats need not panic, but they do need to get back to work. On the one hand, she noted: On the other, with Republican gains in state legislatures, the party is working off a structural disadvantage. She explained: As a candidate, Mr. Trump proposed ramping up surveillance of mosques and a moratorium on Muslim immigration, compelling to a surge in American Muslims registering to vote. Surprisingly, a lot of them actually voted for Mr. Trump. According to an exit poll of 2, 000 Muslim voters conducted by the Council on Relations, or CAIR, 13 percent backed Mr. Trump, while 74 percent supported Mrs. Clinton. That is nearly twice as much support as Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, received from Muslim voters four years ago. Robert McCaw, a spokesman for CAIR, said Mr. Trump’s strength with Muslims was somewhat surprising, but that about 15 percent of Muslims do identify themselves as Republicans and that Mrs. Clinton did little direct outreach to Muslims. “There were aspects of Trump’s candidacy that either appealed to them or it was a vote against Hillary Clinton,” Mr. McCaw said. “It might not necessarily have been as much a vote of confidence for Trump as an expression of no confidence in Clinton. ” The votes may have been significant, since Mr. Trump won Michigan — which has one of the largest Arab populations in the country — by barely more than 11, 000 votes. Some Muslims of Syrian descent voted for Mr. Trump, believing he would support President Bashar of Syria. More broadly, there may have been a split in the rust belt, where Shiites more generally favored Mr. Trump. David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post continues his dogged pursuit of the Trump Foundation, reporting Tuesday that the ’s charitable organization has apparently admitted that it violated the legal prohibition against “ . ” That prohibition prohibits nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses, or their families. The news came in a tax filing for 2015 that was posted on the nonprofit tracking service Guidestar on Monday — less than two weeks after Election Day. Mr. Trump famously told the world and Mrs. Clinton during a presidential debate that he would appoint a special prosecutor if elected with the express purpose of putting his political opponent in jail. There may be a practical reason the new president would pull back. The latest tally shows Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Trump in the popular vote by 1, 754, 204 votes. Pursuing her might not prove very popular. Her leadership is being challenged. The complaints about an aging slate of commanders are growing louder. So Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, 76, the House minority leader, has issued a plan. In a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday night, she promised to create No. 2 posts on each House committee to be filled by a Democrat with four terms or less in the House. When the post of assistant Democratic leader (now filled by Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, who is also 76) is vacant, it will be filled via an election with a member who has served three terms or less. (The No. 2 House Democrat, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, is 77.) Other offers were made along with a vow to fight any effort by the Republican leadership and Mr. Trump to privatize the Veterans Affairs hospitals and add private insurance vouchers to compete with Medicare. | 0fake |
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