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How to Interpret the Trump Administration’s Latest Signals on Mexico - The New York Times | The White House floated an idea on Thursday afternoon that, in initial reports, sounded like a major tariff on Mexican imports — something that would have gone a long way toward unwinding one of the United States’ deepest economic relationships. The reality of what Sean Spicer, the press secretary, suggested is a lot less dramatic. But it sends important signals about how people in the Trump administration are thinking about overhauling the tax code — and how they’re thinking about claiming victory on some of the president’s audacious campaign promises. It is a sign of just how fluid things are in this moment when so much of American public policy around taxes, trade and diplomacy is in flux. Mr. Spicer suggested a way the administration could accomplish President Trump’s goal of building a border wall paid for by Mexico. A 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico would do the trick, Mr. Spicer said. That might sound as if Mr. Spicer was proposing that the United States slap a new tariff meant to punish Mexican exporters. Such a move would result in higher prices for American consumers, create profound challenges for industries with supply chains that span the border, and possibly prompt the collapse of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But you get a different picture when you put Mr. Spicer’s words into the context of the rapidly evolving debate in Washington around overhauling corporate taxation. He was pointing out that in an overhaul of taxes that House Republicans are considering, imports from all countries would be taxed at 20 percent while American exports would be tax free. It’s called border adjustment, and it would make the United States corporate tax code more closely resemble the tax that is commonplace in other countries. House Republicans see the policy as a way to reshape the tax code to give businesses less incentive to move operations overseas while also generating revenue they can use to reduce tax rates. Opponents of the plan, which include major retailers, are skeptical. Among the risks: It could drive up consumer prices for all sorts of imported goods, from German cars to Mexican avocados, if the dollar does not rise as much as economists predict. And the policy may violate World Trade Organization rules, which could tangle it up in legal proceedings. But that Mr. Spicer was floating that plan as a way to fulfill Mr. Trump’s Mexican wall promises is interesting on two levels. First, less than two weeks ago, the threw cold water on the House plan. “Anytime I hear border adjustment, I don’t love it,” Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal. “Because usually it means we’re going to get adjusted into a bad deal. ” On Thursday, Mr. Spicer was explicitly suggesting that a border tax could be used to pay for a border wall. Referring to the tax plan, he said, “This is something that we’ve been in close contact with both houses in moving forward. ” The border adjustment strategy has plenty of enemies, and there’s no certainty that it will become part of a tax overhaul bill. But the latest tea leaves suggest the administration is more open to it than it may have seemed. The second lesson from the incident is that the Trump administration looks inclined to be flexible in finding ways to satisfy campaign promises without doing major damage to the economy or international relations. Thursday was one of the roughest days for relations between the United States and Mexico in some time, with the cancellation of a planned visit by President Enrique Peña Nieto and tough talk from Mexico City, which adamantly refuses to pay for an expansion of a border wall. But Mr. Spicer’s comments, which he later said were meant more to offer an example than a concrete policy proposal, suggest that the administration will look for creative ways to proclaim victory on Trumpian promises. In other words, he will proclaim that Mexico has paid for the wall as promised — even if the Mexican government never literally cuts a check to pay for new concrete. Advocates of the border adjustment tax have been fond of it because it would produce enough revenue to allow a deep reduction in tax rates. But money is fungible. So if the president can claim political victory by stating that the revenue from Mexican imports is going to pay for the wall, no one is going to stop him. It is a messy time for the making of economic policy. The Trump campaign was notoriously light on policy detail, and the Trump administration still has many key vacancies in economic policy jobs. Nominees for Treasury secretary, commerce secretary and U. S. trade representative have not yet been confirmed, and key jobs on the Council of Economic Advisers and most undersecretary and assistant secretary jobs remain unfilled. So the gaps are still being filled in on what the Trump administration economic policy will really mean in practice. The way to read the latest Mexico comments is as one more hint. | 0fake |
Sentencing for Murderer of Rare Book Dealer | This past week, on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016, a judge with the Oxford Crown Court in the United Kingdom sentenced Michael Danaher to life in prison for murdering rare book dealer, Adrian Greenwood. The purpose of the crime was to steal a rare first edition of the book, “The Wind in the Willows.” Danaher argued he killed Greenwood in self-defense, yet it only took two hours to render a unanimous guilty charge. Adrian Greenwood, 42, was found dead after being stabbed 30 times at his Oxford home in April.
Prosecuting Attorney Oliver Saxby told the court that this was a “brutal” murder that included stab wounds to the “chest and neck and a deep wound to his back.” There was also evidence of torture and blunt wounds indicating Greenwood had been “stamped on.” The sentence Danaher received for murdering the rare book dealer was life in prison or no less than 34 years. Saxby explained to the court that Danaher stabbed Greenwood until the knife broke, after which he began beating him. Saxby went on to say that Danaher, “cool as you like, he helped himself to that first edition of ‘The Wind in the Willows,’ and Adrian Greenwood’s phone, and his laptop and his wallet.”
The book is valued at £50,000 but Danaher listed it on eBay for only £2,000 after returning home from murdering Greenwood. Danaher learned that Greenwood was in possession of the book after he tried selling a copy on eBay in August of 2015. Danaher had been planning the crime for some time. He also had a list in an Excel file on his laptop titled “Enterprises” of other wealthy persons who were targets. It included their addresses, the method to be used like “stun gun” and the “expected take” from each target. Next to Greenwood’s name on the list Danaher wrote “Modus: Any!! Expected take: rare books.”
Saxby, the prosecutor, told the jury the wealthy targets on Danaher’s list “exudes a sense of resentment. It is almost as if these people who, because of their wealth . . . deserve to be subjected to what he has planned.” The jury was comprised of four women and eight men. The names on the list included Simon Cowel, Kate Moss, Jeffery Archer and others. About two weeks before Danaher’s attack on Greenwood, he tried to break into wealthy businessman Adrian Beecroft’s house pretending to be a delivery man, but Beecroft’s wife believed the man to be suspicious and “raised the alarm,” which caused Danaher to flee. He later drafted a letter on his laptop to Mrs. Beecroft demanding 200 bitcoin or about £96,000 for leaving them alone. The letter was never sent.
The sentencing handed down by the Oxford Crown Court for murdering book dealer Greenwood over “Wind in the Willows” is perhaps a relief to those who were on his list. The author of the book is Kenneth Grahame and it was published in 1908. “Wind in the Willows” is a children’s book known for its “mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality and camaraderie.” Its text is available online for free as part of Project Gutenberg.
By Joel Wickwire
Sources:
BBC News – Man Guilty of Murdering Adrian Greenwood Over “The Wind in the Willow” Book
The Guardian – Alleged Killer of Antiques Deal Had List of Famous Targets, Jury Told
The Las Angeles Times – British Book Dealer Slain for His First Edition of “The Wind in the Willows”
Top and Feature Image Courtesy of Ken Wilcox’s Flicker Page – Creative Commons License
In-Line Image Courtesy of Karen Cox’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
book | 1real |
China backs U.N. call for justice in Yemen, U.S. and Saudis don't | GENEVA (Reuters) - China signaled on Wednesday it was willing to back an international inquiry into atrocities in Yemen, as demanded by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, but Saudi Arabia and the United States said they did not support the idea. For three years running U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein has asked the 47 countries in the U.N. Human Rights Council to set up an independent investigation into Yemen s war, which has killed at least 10,000, destroyed the economy, led to a cholera epidemic and pushed millions to the brink of famine. Despite his pleas, they have twice supported a Saudi plan to let Yemen investigate by itself. On Wednesday, the Netherlands and Canada unveiled a draft resolution to establish an international commission of inquiry (COI) to ensure that perpetrators of violations and abuses, including those that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, are held accountable . The three-page text was supported by many countries when diplomats met to discuss amendments. We agree with the actions, including the COI, to promote the political solving of the Yemen crisis, a Chinese delegate told the meeting, which was boycotted by the Arab group of countries supporting a rival Saudi-led resolution. Britain and the United States said they wanted to see consensus around a single resolution. We do have concerns that a full international independent Commission of Inquiry is not likely to get us there, U.S. diplomat Michele Roulbet told the meeting. Saudi Arabia, which leads an international coalition battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen, said the time was not right for an international inquiry. Although Zeid has said Yemen is not up to the job of investigating its own war, Saudi Ambassador Abdulaziz Alwasil said Yemen s national commission was in a better position to investigate for the time being. We have no objection to the inquiry itself, we just have a discussion about the timing, whether this is the right time to establish an international commission, with the difficulties on the ground, Alwasil told reporters. Georgette Gagnon, head of field operations at the U.N. human rights office, said Yemen s own human rights commission was established by, is funded by and reports to a party to the conflict and said it was way past time for an effective probe. Not having an international inquiry would be a green light to the parties to the conflict, said Radhya Al-Mutwakel, co-director of Yemen s Mwatana Organization for Human Rights. Zeid said on Monday there had been only minimal efforts at holding people to account in what the United Nations has branded the world s worst humanitarian crisis. The Saudi envoy said the international community should focus its efforts on gaining access for humanitarian personnel. The Saudi-led coalition has also has set up a team to investigate civilian casualties. On Tuesday it said it had found a series of deadly air strikes had been largely justified. | 0fake |
Key points in Juncker's 2017 annual EU address | STRASBOURG (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made key proposals in his annual State of the European Union address to the European Parliament on Wednesday. For more on the speech, see: A vice president of the European Commission to chair the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers and play the role of European Finance and Economy Minister, promoting reforms in states and deploying EU financial instruments to help states in recession or crisis. But he rejects French ideas of a separate euro zone budget and parliament, rather a strong euro area budget line within the EU budget and EU parliamentary scrutiny. He backs that argument by calling for all EU states to adopt the euro and offering technical and financial help for countries that need it. With non-euro Britain leaving in 2019, only eight states accounting for 15 percent of EU GDP will be outside the euro zone. However, the likes of Poland and Sweden are wary politically of being drawn into the single currency. Juncker also wants all states to join the European Banking Union, making bank supervision common across the bloc and more common standards in labor and social policies. He wants to set up a European Labour Authority and also wants governments to give up veto rights in areas such as corporate taxation and VAT harmonization efforts and a new financial transaction tax. The Commission will propose in December ways to transform the euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) into a broader regional equivalent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the European Union as well as the creation of a double-hatted European Minister of Economy and Finance. He also suggested making his successors as chief executives also the chairs of EU summits, fusing the roles of presidents of the European Commission and that of the European Council so as to make EU structures more comprehensible at home and abroad. Western Balkan states should have a realistic chance of joining the EU after 2019 but Turkey s abuse of fundamental rights rules out it joining in the foreseeable future. Britain s departure is tragic and the British too will come to regret it but it should not prevent the rest of the Union forging ahead with integration in an ambitious way, in the knowledge that favorable conditions will not last for long. Juncker made no policy statements on how Britain s exit should be handled or on plans for a new relationship. He called for an EU summit in the once German-speaking Transylvanian city of Sibiu on March 30, 2019, the first day Britain will no longer be in the Union. Romania will be chairing EU meetings then. It should agree plans for the future ahead of bloc-wide elections to the European Parliament scheduled for two months later. The EU is to launch new, transparent free trade talks with Australia and New Zealand and aim to conclude those as well as ongoing negotiations with Japan, Mexico and South American nations by the end of Juncker s mandate in late 2019. The EU is taking advantage of a cooling of the United States on free trade. Addressing unease in Europe about such deals, Juncker stressed their power to create jobs and impose EU standards in areas such as the environment on trading partners. New deals will also be stripped of controversial elements such as special business tribunals to make them easier to ratify. While being open, the EU will also introduce at Union level some of the powers which some governments have to review foreign investments in strategic assets such as infrastructure or sensitive security or technology firms and raise objections. A new European Cybersecurity Agency to be set up. He also wants a new European intelligence unit to coordinate sharing of information on suspected militants and to give the new European Public Prosecutor powers to investigate terrorism offences. A European Defence Union, supported by NATO, to be ready by 2025. The EU is to propose ways to increase from 36 percent the rate of failed asylum seekers being deported back to their homelands. This is seen as essential to get member states to agree new rules on asylum to share out responsibilities and give more help to genuine refugees. Juncker wants states to make good on pledges of aid to Africa to promote growth and slow emigration. Romania and Bulgaria should be brought into the Schengen passport-free zone without delay and Croatia as soon as possible part of a strategy to push all EU member states into all the bloc s structures, including the euro and banking union. After blasting carmakers many of them German for deliberately misleading consumers on the emissions of diesel vehicles, Juncker proposed an Industrial Policy Strategy to help industries stay or become world leaders in innovation, digitization and decarbonization . While pointedly demanding that EU governments respect EU law and court judgments a barb aimed mainly at ex-communist states in the east like Poland and Hungary Juncker stressed that the poorer east must not be treated as second class. He proposed efforts to ensure children are vaccinated to the highest standards across the bloc, fair pay and treatment for workers backed by a new Labour Authority and stronger national powers to punish companies which offer lower quality products in the east under the same labels as better produce in the west. Slovaks do not deserve less fish in their fish fingers. | 0fake |
Nunes ’Unmasking’ Report Vindicates Trump Claims on Surveillance - Breitbart | House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes ( ) announced on Wednesday that he had learned that members of President Donald Trump’s transition team had been under surveillance by the Obama administration, that individual names had been “unmasked” by the intelligence community, and that those names had been leaked to the media. [Nunes’s information — which he said he would deliver to the White House later — vindicates the bulk of Trump’s claims earlier this month. Nunes said that while there was no direct “wiretap” by President Barack Obama of Trump Tower, there was indeed surveillance — perhaps collected incidentally — of people close to Trump, possibly including Trump himself. Much of that had been suspected, on the basis of mainstream media reports, but Rep. Nunes reported something new: that the surveillance did not involve the ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inquiry into Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Indeed, none of the surveillance had intelligence value, he said. “I believe it was all done legally,” Nunes told a press conference. The question, he said, was why names of those swept up in the surveillance had been leaked. The collection of the intelligence appeared to have been legal, but the leaking may have been illegal. Most of the activity occurred during the transition period from November to January. Furthermore, Nunes said, he did not know whether phone calls — including phone calls involving Trump — were among the communications captured. Nunes added that the new information had come to light after Monday’s hearing with FBI Director James Comey, when the congressman had appealed to anyone with new information to come forward. He said the new revelations had been “legally brought to me by sources who thought that we should know it. The new information vindicates earlier reporting by Breitbart News, Mark Levin, and others, and which President Trump may have relied upon in tweeting the wiretapping claim Mar. 4. Following Monday’s hearing, the mainstream media appeared to celebrate Comey’s statement that there was no evidence of wiretapping at Trump Tower. Politicians, too, piled on — including some Republicans, like Sen. Jeff Flake ( ) who demanded that Trump apologize to Obama. However, the only new revelation at the hearing was that senior members of the Obama administration may have been involved in “unmasking” former General Michael Flynn in intelligence reports. Wednesday’s revelations by Rep. Nunes confirm earlier media reports of surveillance of Trump aides and associates, with the added twist that the revelations were unrelated to investigations of Russian ties to the Trump campaign. No evidence of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign has been found, and former Obama administration intelligence officials have said publicly that such evidence does not exist. Though the media, and the political opposition, had attacked Trump for his claims about wiretapping, he later clarified that he had used the term to refer to surveillance in a general sense. He also suggested that more evidence would soon emerge. The result is a vindication of Trump’s controversial claims. Questions remain about whether President Obama himself knew of the surveillance, which other Obama administration officials were involved, and whether Trump was monitored directly. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0fake |
(Video) Hillary Clinton Bashes Trump In SNL Appearance But Avoids Talking About THIS… | What a joke! Hillary decides to go on SNL and make it one big campaign commercial bashing Republicans and promoting herself. Not one mention of the e-mail scandal! That s pretty interesting and shows she s thin-skinned and SNL did everything to put her in the best light. Reminds me of the Palin bashing but I doubt Americans are buying this unfunny attempt at bashing candidates.The front-runner for the Democratic nomination appeared on the season opener of Saturday Night Live as a wise bartender named Val who pours a drink or two for, ahem, Hillary Clinton (played by SNL regular Kate McKinnon).Most political candidates play themselves on SNL, often for just a cameo in a sketch or to declare the show s famous tag line, Live from New York it s Saturday night! Seldom do they go all-out thespian and play a character in a sketch. So, Hillary, Clinton asks McKinnon, what brings you here tonight? Well, I needed to blow off some steam, McKinnon says. I ve had a hard couple of 22 years. Asked what she does for a living, McKinnon says in imitation of Clinton s earnest monotone: First, I am a grandmother. Second, I am a human, entrusted with this one green Earth. Oh, Clinton says, you re a politician. And just who is Val? Clinton deadpans, I m just an ordinary citizen who believes the Keystone pipeline will destroy our environment. Republicans didn t fare nearly as well as SNL began its 41st season. The opening sketch made fun of Trump and his wife, Melania, and a faux commercial pitched a pill that cures people of thinking they can be president specifically low-polling GOP candidates Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore. | 1real |
‘Vaccine Choice’ Mom Gets Jail Time for Not Jabbing Her Kid | 21st Century Wire says We ve been covering the anti-vaccine movement (and the science) for quite some time. The dangers of aluminum and the neurotoxicity of vaccines are well-documented. Now, this debate has turned up in a court of law. Which prompts us to ask this question again: Should the government force parents to vaccinate their kids?Rebecca Bredow, a self-proclaimed vaccine choice mom from Detroit, has just been sentenced to seven days in jail for contempt, defying a court order that states she agreed with her ex-husband to vaccinate their 9-year-old son.The judge also ordered to have the child vaccinated within one week, while Bredow is serving her jail sentence. Attorneys for the anti-vaxxer mom, who refused to jab her son based on her personal and religious beliefs, have said they will be filing an appeal. I would rather sit behind bars standing up for what I believe in, than giving in to something I strongly don t believe in, Bredow said in her statement to the court.As WXYX-TV Detroit reports, the son s father must get the child vaccinated before his mother gets out of jail, or this story could take yet another controversial turn WATCH: READ MORE VACCINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Vax FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Kerry Washington Just Delivered A PERFECT One Liner To George W. Bush’s Daughter (VIDEO) | On the red carpet at Sunday s Golden Globe Awards, one of the highlights of the evening was when former First Daughter Jenna Bush Hager was interviewing Kerry Washington, the star of Scandal.Hager and her twin sister Barbara were well known as big time partiers during their father s time in the White House and Washington is famous for playing a woman who famously had trysts in the White House. She s also a big Obama supporter and an apparent friend of the First Family. Washington attended the farewell party at the White House on Saturday, so Hager teased her about it. Washington teased back. I saw on your Instagram that you left the White House at 3:30 a.m.? Hager marveled. I did! replied Washington sunnily. You know a little something about late nights at the White House. I do?! Hager deadpanned.Damn!Here s the exchange:Wait y all catch this too?! I swear I love Jenna Bush though. ??? pic.twitter.com/p48gYLUH3S DK Uzoukwu (@DKuzLA) January 9, 2017If you recall, during the Bush years, the girls were known for being trouble makers. They were both cited on alcohol charges and Jenna was even cited for using someone else s ID to buy alcohol. They were just 20 at the time, a year below drinking age.Jenna, who less than a month ago pleaded no contest to possession of alcohol charges, was cited for showing another person s identification to buy drinks. Barbara, along with a 20-year-old friend who was with them, was cited for possession of alcohol. The Austin Police Department said today a hearing had been scheduled for June 12.Source: ABC NewsNot that long ago, Hager spoke of her experiences:With a huge grin, Hager cited her own rocky experiences in the spotlight as the daughter of George W. Bush. (The Today show correspondent and her twin sister Barbara were cited for underage drinking in June 2001 when they were freshmen in college.) Obviously I had a hard time [when my dad was in the White House], she confessed on WWHL, but it s also a privilege. Source: US MagazineI will give Hager credit, though. She seemed to take Washington s little dig in good spirits.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 1real |
U.S. lawmakers ask Facebook, Twitter for information on anti-fracking ads | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House committee investigating whether Russia has tried to influence U.S. public opinion on fossil fuels asked Facebook (FB.O), Twitter (TWTR.N) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) on Wednesday to turn over information about Russian entities that may have bought anti-fracking advertisements. House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and climate change denier, asked the CEOs of the technology companies to turn over documents by Oct. 10 that detail the involvement of Russian-based or funded entities detected on their platforms, information on ads they purchased, and any communications concerning ads advocating for “so-called green initiatives.” Smith and the Republicans on the committee that oversees U.S. scientific agencies have targeted mainstream climate change scientists, questioning their integrity and calling for eliminating federal funding for climate research. They have also accused environmental groups of colluding with Russians to push for regulations to curb fossil fuel extraction. “The committee is concerned that divisive social media and political messages conveyed through social media have negatively affected certain energy sectors, which can depress research and development in the fossil fuel sector and expanding potential for natural gas,” Smith wrote in letters to the CEOs. The committee, which oversees U.S. scientific agencies, believes such anti-fracking ads reflect “the Russian government’s concern about the impact of fracking ... on the global energy market and potential challenges to profitability” of Russian energy companies, the letter said. The letter says Russia’s meddling in the U.S. energy market has been “well documented in the public domain” and seeks information similar to what Facebook is providing to the U.S. Senate about anti-immigration propaganda and advertising. Both parties in Washington have been stepping up scrutiny of major internet firms, and considering whether to create new disclosure rules for online political ads after Facebook revealed this month that suspected Russian trolls purchased more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on its platform during the 2016 election cycle. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations is probing whether President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election. Trump and officials from the campaign have said there was no collusion. Smith is dismissive of local and national protests that have emerged around the country objecting to the process of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas because of its affect on water quality, as well as the construction of pipelines to transport fracked oil and gas. | 0fake |
Donald Trump, Global Warming, Facebook: Your Wednesday Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good morning. Just a reminder, we’re off tomorrow for Thanksgiving and back on Friday. Here’s what you need to know today: • Team Trump’s possible new members. Donald J. Trump named Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina to be ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Trump is also moving closer to filling more domestic cabinet positions. His Republican primary rival Ben Carson is being considered for housing secretary. Two Democrats, Harold Ford Jr. who represented Tennessee in the House, and Michelle A. Rhee, the former chancellor for Washington, D. C. public schools, have surfaced as contenders to run the transportation and education departments. • Trump at The Times. The retreated from vows to pull out of the Paris climate accord and to investigate Hillary Clinton during his interview with Times reporters and editors. Mr. Trump also said that he didn’t “want to energize” white supremacists and that he had no legal obligation to step away from his business empire. Here are more highlights and the full transcript. • West Wing vs. left wing. Resistance is building against Representative Keith Ellison’s bid to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. His supporters, who include Senators Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, view Mr. Ellison as a fresh face for the party. But President Obama’s advisers, uneasy with the progressive Minnesota lawmaker, are looking for an alternative, according to some party officials. Some in the president’s inner circle hoped that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would want the job, but his office said he’s “not interested. ” • Global warming news. Exxon Mobil, under fire over its past efforts to undercut climate science, is accusing the Rockefeller family of masterminding a conspiracy against it. The descendants of John D. Rockefeller, who founded the company that became Exxon Mobil, have long backed environmental causes. Separately, the ecology of the Arctic is being altered on a vast scale because warmer air and less ice has caused algae that form the base of the oceanic food chain to wildly proliferate, according to new research. The changes are likely to have a profound impact on birds, seals, polar bears and whales. • Autocrat’s cuddly makeover. Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the warlord leader of Chechnya, is appearing on a Russian reality TV show that echoes “The Apprentice” in an effort to change his brutal reputation. In one episode, Mr. Kadyrov described his motivation: “People believe my image that was created by the liberals, that I am frightening, that I will kill whoever says anything about me, that I will put them in a dungeon and stab them. ” • A regulation expanding by millions the number of eligible workers for overtime pay was hit with an injunction by a federal judge in Texas. He ruled that the Obama administration had exceeded its authority in raising the salary limit below which workers automatically qualified for overtime pay to $47, 476 from $23, 660. • Facebook has devised software to suppress posts in an effort to gain access to China, where it is blocked. The company does not intend to block the posts itself, but it would offer the software to enable a third party to decide whether posts should show up in users’ feeds. • Americans are expected to spend more than $880 billion during the holiday shopping season this year. But if you’re planning to shop on Black Friday this week, beware, most deals are duds, our technology writer warns. • U. S. stocks were up on Tuesday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • A twist on Thanksgiving. Our latest 360 video looks at a San Francisco restaurant that hosts a holiday meal for its employees and serves Burmese delicacies. • Sound is no barrier. Lee of South Korea is an professional tennis player ranked 143rd in the world. Lee is also deaf, and no deaf player in the sport’s history has reached these heights. Top players say that hearing the ball is crucial for quick reactions, but Lee is less certain. “It doesn’t really matter,” he said of his impairment. He is concerned, however, about a different physical limitation: Lee is 5 feet 9, and most players ranked in the top 50 are over 6 feet. • Mindful traveling. Flying during the holidays is often stressful. Here are some meditation tips for coping with long security lines and anxiety on the plane. • Recipe of the day. For a simple dinner, roast a fish and pair it with an aioli. Finally, we’ve been talking a lot about Thanksgiving dinner, but what do you serve before the meal? Here are some recipes for appetizers on the big day. A handwritten poem scrawled by Anne Frank in a friend’s notebook was up for sale in the Netherlands today. The item was sold to an anonymous buyer for 140, 000 euros, or about $148, 500, according to Bubb Kuyper Auctions. (The poem was expected to fetch up to €50, 000.) Anne penned the short poem in a notebook belonging to her friend Jacqueline van Maarsen’s older sister, Christiane. The work is dated March 1942, just a few months before Anne, her older sister, her parents and another family went into hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. Only her father survived the Holocaust. Only a few of her writings aside from the diary she kept while in hiding have emerged. This spring, a Massachusetts museum bought a copy of Grimm’s fairy tales in which Anne had inscribed her and her sister’s names. In 1989, another short piece of verse written in a friend’s notebook went on sale at Christie’s. The poem’s opening features traditional lines of encouragement and can be traced to a 1930s Dutch periodical. The closing verses, which the auction house has not traced, may be Anne’s own. “If others have reproached what you have done wrong,” the poem ends, “Then be sure to amend your is the best answer one can make. ” Christopher D. Shea contributed reporting. _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning. What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes. com. You can sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox. | 0fake |
YIKES! SHOCKING FOOTAGE Of Black Lives Matter Protesters Being Hit By Vehicles Caught On Camera [VIDEO] | It s pretty safe to say if you stand in front of moving traffic, or intentionally blocking passage of a vehicle, there s a good chance someone is going to get hurt. How do these rioters protesters know where these vehicles they re blocking are going? What about the panicked parent who s trying to get their kid with appendicitis to the hospital, or the cancer patient who can barely drive who s on their way to the clinic for a treatment? Or how about the expectant mother whose anxious husband is desperately trying to navigate around a terrorists who are blocking the road as he tries to get his wife to labor and delivery? And what sort of violence or punishment by law enforcement should these innocent drivers expect if they disobey these thugs and drive through their human roadblock? Why doesn t the news talk about the danger these terrorist are putting everyday Americans in?From Todd Starnes, FOX News Black Lives Matter protesters laid siege to a number of cities over the weekend including my hometown: Memphis, Tennessee.They shut down the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River stranding thousands of motorists for hours in sweltering heat.Blocking a roadway is a crime under Tennessee law.Yet Memphis police officers were told to stand down and allow the agitators to block the Hernando-Desoto Bridge. They used to call that kind of behavior aiding and abetting.Not a single person was arrested.Police say it was a peaceful protest. But photographs taken from the bridge showed a very different situation. In one instance, young men climbed atop a tractor-trailer- raising their fists in defiance.I wonder if the driver of that tractor-trailer thought it was a peaceful demonstration?Television station WMC reported that protesters even blocked a car trying to escort a child to St. Jude Children s Research Hospital. Apparently that child s life did not matter to the protesters.The car was eventually allowed to pass but only after police intervened.We have no idea how many emergency responses were hampered by the gridlock created by the BLM crowd. We have no idea how many people missed family events or missed work because they were trapped on the interstate.In St. Paul, Minnesota, at least 21 police officers were injured during a full-scale riot on Interstate 94, according to the Star-Tribune.Violent thugs hurled rocks, concrete and rebar at officers as they protested the killing of Philando Castile.One of those officers suffered a broken vertebra after someone dropped a concrete block on his head.Could someone explain to me how fracturing a police officer s spine and preventing a child from getting to the hospital advances the Black Lives Matter agenda?The police-involved shootings in Baton Rouge and Minnesota were terrible tragedies.If investigators determine the officers broke they law they should and must be brought to justice.But both shootings are still under investigation so to be honest no one knows for certain what happened.Yet, the mainstream media, the Obama administration and the professional race agitators have once again rushed to judgment just like they did in Ferguson, Missouri.They never let a crisis go to waste, do they?It feels like our nation has been sucker-punched. You can see it on people s faces. Sorrow. Frustration. Anger. Helplessness.I understand that frustration but it does not give us a license to disobey the law.Peaceful protesting is one thing. Domestic terrorism is another.Here s a look at what happens when lawbreakers obstruct the roadway. We re uncertain how many of these accidents were intentional or truly accidents. We re certainly not condoning hitting Black Lives Matter terrorists who block the safe passage of vehicles, but seriously this is what happens when you intentionally put yourself in harms way! | 1real |
Trump Makes Startling Admission About His Wife And Run For The White House | With Donald Trump taking the Republican Party and the nation by storm, it s easy to say that no one really saw him getting as far as he has during this election cycle. And while many of us wish he never threw his name into the ring as a GOP contender, it looks as though we re not the only ones who didn t want him to run.Even though she will be campaigning for him for the first time in Wisconsin this coming week, Melania Trump definitely had her reservations about her husband running in the first place.During an interview with the Washington Post, Trump revealed that Melania wasn t excited about the possibility of him becoming a candidate. According to Trump: She said, We have such a great life. Why do you want to do this? And in a very Trumpian fashion, Trump responded to her as though he s Superman needed to come to the rescue of the nation: I said, I sort of have to do it, I think. I really have to do it. . . . I could do such a great job. But Melania said: I hope you don t do it, but if you run, you ll win. However, Trump being Trump and unable to respect a woman s opinion on pretty much anything, he ignored his wife s wishes to just continue on with their life as usual to be with their son and run his business ventures. Instead, he decided to run for dictator of the universe, or at least that s sure as hell how it seems.It s becoming more clear than ever that Donald Trump is in this election not for the country, but rather for Donald Trump. Within the mind of the narcissist, he believes that he, with no experience whatsoever in political and diplomatic leadership, can take the reins of the United States of America. And while his applause lines may work on the nincompoops within the Republican party for the primary elections, they most certainly will not work in the general election among people who can actually critically think the Democrats. However, we must make sure he and his imbecilic following doesn t even remotely get the chance to win, so remember no matter who, vote blue.Featured Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Mike Pence’s Journey: Catholic Democrat to Evangelical Republican - The New York Times | When Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana was in college, he found himself admiring a gold cross hanging from the neck of his fraternity “big brother. ” The response he received left such a powerful impression that he would recall it decades later on the floor of Congress. “Remember, Mike, you have got to wear it in your heart before you wear it around your neck,” Mr. Pence said his fraternity brother told him. Soon after this exchange, at a Christian music festival in Kentucky, Mr. Pence took a very different sort of pledge from the one he had taken to join Phi Gamma Delta. “I gave my life to Jesus Christ,” he recalled years later, “and that’s changed everything. ” It was a decision that would redefine Mr. Pence, setting him on the path to becoming an evangelical Christian and one of the country’s most outwardly religious and socially conservative legislators. But it also caused him to break with two institutions that had been central to the Pence family: the Roman Catholic Church and the Democratic Party. Mr. Pence, 57, who accepted the Republican nomination for vice president on Wednesday night, is the only one of six Pence siblings who is no longer part of the Catholic Church. Though the family remains close, his embrace of evangelical Christianity was long a source of disappointment to his mother, according to the Rev. Clement T. Davis, the priest at the church in Columbus, Ind. where Mr. Pence was baptized. The family’s Irish Catholic roots run deep. Mr. Pence’s maternal grandfather, with whom he was especially close, came to America in 1923 from Ireland and settled in Chicago, where he eventually became a bus driver. The family idolized John F. Kennedy, the nation’s first president. As a teenager, Mike Pence was the youth coordinator for the Bartholomew County Democrats. All four of the Pence brothers were altar boys at their church, St. Columba, and attended its parochial school. They were at church six days a week, sometimes seven, if they were serving Saturday Mass. Even after they all went off to college, the church would call the Pence house during vacations or over the summer when it was in need of an altar boy. “Our life revolved around the church,” Gregory Pence, one of Mr. Pence’s two older brothers, said in an interview, adding that he still went to morning Mass there a few times a week with his mother. But at Hanover College, a small college in Indiana near the banks of the Ohio River, Mr. Pence came to feel that something was missing from his spiritual life. The Catholicism of his youth, with its formality and rituals, had not given him the intimacy with God that he now found himself craving. “I began to meet young men and women who talked about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said years later in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. “That had not been a part of my experience. ” Still, it was not easy for him to leave behind the church in which he had been raised. After graduation, he worked as a Catholic youth minister and even considered becoming a priest. He described himself for years as “an evangelical Catholic. ” Friends say he wrestled with how to square his religious past and his religious future. “He was part of a movement of people, I’ll call it, who had grown up Catholic and still loved many things about the Catholic Church, but also really loved the concept of having a very personal relationship with Christ,” said Patricia Bailey, who became close to Mr. Pence when she and her husband, Mark, worked with him at a law firm in Indianapolis in the . Mr. Pence’s wife, Karen, was also part of that movement. They met when he was in law school at Indiana University. After they started dating, she bought a gold cross with the word “Yes” engraved on it, and kept it in her purse until he proposed. “She’s been very much a part of his faith journey,” said Mark Bailey, who often started his day by praying with Mr. Pence in one of their offices at the law firm. “He would refer to his wife as the prayer warrior of the family. ” By the Mr. Pence and his wife were attending an evangelical church in Indianapolis. Years later, the break from Catholicism still stung his mother, Nancy, according to Father Davis, who has been the priest at her church, now called St. Bartholomew, since 1997 and has grown close to her. “You could see Nancy just shake her head about it,” Father Davis said inside the rectory before Mass on Saturday. “She was disappointed. She had hoped he could find his way back to the church. ” Others in Columbus who knew the Pence family were also surprised. “They were just known as such a big Catholic family,” said Janie Gordon, a friend of Mr. Pence’s from high school. Mr. Pence’s mother declined to comment. The governor also declined to be interviewed about his conversion, but he authorized his brother to speak about his family’s faith. As Mr. Pence’s faith was changing, so were his politics. He voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 but soon gravitated to Ronald Reagan, and to the Republican Party’s staunch opposition to abortion. His evangelical Christianity is now the driving force behind his political agenda, whether he is working to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood or to make it legal for religious conservatives to refuse to serve gay couples. “I sign this law with a prayer that God would continue to bless these precious children, mothers and families,” he said in March, putting his pen to a sweeping abortion bill prohibiting a woman from aborting a fetus because it has a disability such as Down syndrome. (A federal judge blocked the law last month.) “Pence doesn’t simply wear his faith on his sleeve, he wears the entire Jesus jersey,” Brian Howey, a political columnist in Indiana, once put it. During Mr. Pence’s days on Capitol Hill, he would not attend events without his wife if alcohol was being served. Fellow representatives sometimes joked about the need to clean up their language when he appeared. Mr. Pence would not even engage in attack ads, having sworn off negative campaigning after running a particularly nasty and unsuccessful congressional race earlier in his political career. “Christ Jesus came to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all,” he wrote after the election, quoting a line from Scripture. When Mr. Pence was in a tight race for governor in 2012, his media strategist, Rex Elsass, invoked a different line from the Bible in an effort to persuade him that attacks from his Democratic opponent justified a direct and forceful response, as long as it was truthful, Mr. Elsass recalled. Mr. Pence refused. In recent days, however, he has not hesitated to hammer Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee: He has called her “corrupt Hillary,” mimicking Donald J. Trump’s label “crooked Hillary. ” When Mr. Pence returned to his alma mater in 2008 to deliver a commencement address, his speech built toward what he considered to be the most profound experience of his college career. “There was one other person I met during my years here who changed my life more than all the friends and family combined,” he said, referring to Jesus Christ. “Thirty years ago this spring, I embraced the truth,” he continued, before quoting a verse from Scripture. Today, Mr. Pence and his wife often worship at College Park Church, an evangelical megachurch in Indianapolis with three huge video screens, colored spotlights and Christian bands. On Sunday, the day after Mr. Trump formally introduced Mr. Pence as his running mate in Midtown Manhattan, they sat in the balcony of the auditorium there, standing and clapping in rhythm with the music. Several church members talked about their experiences of deepening their faith in God. There was no talk of Mr. Pence or the election, but one song, its lyrics flashing across the big screens, encouraged the faithful: “Set your church on fire, win this nation back. ” It was a far cry from the wooden pews and kneelers of St. Columba, the austere Catholic church of Mr. Pence’s youth. Gregory Pence said he did not see his brother’s turn to evangelical Christianity as a rejection of their Catholicisim, but rather as a reflection of the fact that he had different spiritual needs. The two of them still pray together, just not usually in church. Indeed, Gregory said that when his brother called after learning that Mr. Trump had chosen him as his running mate, they wept and swapped verses from Scripture. (“Well done, my good and faithful servant,” Gregory Pence told his brother.) He declined to say whether he had been supporting Mr. Trump before his brother joined the ticket. But asked if he thought his brother might have had some doubts about signing on with a man whose résumé includes three wives and a casino empire, and who liberally invokes coarse language and imagery, he answered without hesitation. “Judge not lest ye be judged,” he said. | 0fake |
In parting words, SEC's White calls for regulator to avoid political meddling | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outgoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White had some harsh parting words for Congress on Tuesday and a plea to the incoming administration to ensure the regulator remains independent and insulated from political pressures. In what was likely her final speech before stepping down after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on Friday, White lamented the “prescriptive” rule-writing requirements that Congress has imposed on the SEC and said such efforts harm the agency’s ability to get things done or exercise discretion on complicated market issues. “The strength and utility of the agency’s structure depends on an environment that rewards expertise and frank dialogue, not partisan affiliation and political games,” White said in prepared remarks to the Economic Club of New York. “If the ability and resolve of commissioners to act independently diminishes, so too will the opportunity for solutions that, while politically unpopular, best serve investors and markets.” White became SEC chair in the spring of 2013. Unlike her predecessors, she did not have to deal with putting out fires from market crises. Her tenure was marked largely by efforts to complete a lengthy list of rules required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Trump’s choice to head the SEC, attorney Jay Clayton, has not opined publicly on his priorities or future rule-making plans. On Tuesday, White urged the SEC to resist lobbying by interest groups or other pressures, and to do what is best for investors and the economy. “Continuing to build an effective post-crisis market regulator will mean imposing measures that sometimes draw sharp outcry from interest groups,” she said. White reflected on her own tenure at the SEC, which she acknowledged has often been marked by “hard decisions that have attracted criticism from both political parties.” She also took a parting shot at some legislation being pushed by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. One bill, approved last week, would impose additional requirements on the SEC to conduct economic analyses before it can adopt new rules. White said it would “provide no benefit to investors” and hamstring the agency from responding to a market crisis. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling shot back at White later Tuesday, saying the SEC had failed to help small companies or analyze costs, and should be held accountable. “Congress created the SEC, not the other way around,” the Republican congressman said. | 0fake |
PANDA ‘PHOTOBOMBS’ MELANIA TRUMP On Trip to Beijing Zoo and ‘Amazing’ Great Wall of China | First Lady Melania Trump toured the Beijing Zoo and The Great Wall of China during her extended stay in China. While President Trump went on to APEC in Vietnam, Melania enjoyed the Panda Exhibit where a beautiful panda photobombed her in a great shot with 20 young school children: Notice the adorable bald eagle stuffed animals that Melania passed out to the children The children, who held Chinese and American flags, were waiting for her outside of the zoo s Panda House.Melania has a way with children The children sang for her as she exited the zoo s Panda House.GREAT WALL:First Lady Melania Trump admired China from a rare position on Friday as she walked an empty section of the Great Wall along the outskirts of Beijing during a personal tour.Wearing a long tan skirt, black jacket and ballet flats, the 47-year-old former model took a cable car up to her destination, where she was greeted at the wall by an official.Mrs. Trump signed a guest book at the wall and accepted a scroll as a gift.She then climbed a flight of stairs and spent 30 minutes walking the Mutianyu section of the long wall one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.As she returned to her cable car, Mrs. Trump paused to look out over the expanse. This is beautiful. This is amazing, she said according to a US official standing with her on the platform.Read more: Daily Mail | 1real |
Virginia court rules for Trump in travel ban dispute, order still halted | (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge in Virginia ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump’s travel ban was justified, increasing the likelihood the measure will go before the Supreme Court as the decision took an opposing view to courts in Maryland and Hawaii that have halted the order. U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga rejected arguments by Muslim plaintiffs who claimed Trump’s March 6 executive order temporarily banning the entry of all refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries was discriminatory. The decision went against two previous court rulings that put an emergency halt to the order before it was set to take effect on March 16. The order remains halted. Trump has said he plans to appeal those unfavorable rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed, and differing opinions by lower courts give more grounds for the highest court to take up the case. Trenga, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said the complaint backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, found that more than 20 individuals who brought the suit had been able to show they were harmed by the travel ban since they might be unable to reunite with their relatives. But he also ruled that Trump’s revised order, which replaced a more sweeping version signed on Jan. 27 and rejected by courts, fell within the president’s authority to make decisions about immigration. He said that since the order did not mention religion, the court could not look behind it at Trump’s statements about a “Muslim ban” to determine what was in the “drafter’s heart of hearts.” Trump has said the ban is necessary to protect the country from terrorist attacks, but his first order was halted by a federal judge in Seattle and a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco due to concerns it violated the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against religious bias. “We’re confident that the president’s fully lawful and necessary action will ultimately be allowed to move forward through the rest of the court systems,” said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at a briefing. CAIR said it would appeal the decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Lena Masri, CAIR’s national litigation director, said the 4th Circuit and the Supreme Court “are the judicial bodies that will ultimately decide whether the Constitution protects the rights of Muslim Americans.” A ruling by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii - an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama - put a stop to the two central sections of the revised ban that blocked travelers from six countries and refugees, while leaving other parts of the order in place. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland, also an Obama appointee, only put a halt to the section on travelers. The Virginia lawsuit sought to strike down the revised ban in its entirety. Watson scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to decide whether his temporary order blocking the travel and refugee restrictions should be converted into a more formal preliminary injunction. The Justice Department has said it would oppose that bid. The government has appealed Chuang’s decision in Maryland, also to the 4th circuit, and a hearing in that case is scheduled for May 8. Other lawsuits against the ban continue to move forward around the country. Also on Friday, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups filed a new complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on behalf of Muslim community organizations. | 0fake |
The Secret to Good Toast? It’s Your Freezer - The New York Times | Toast lovers, I have a modest proposal for you: Do not bother with bad bread. Say goodbye to sweet, cottony, lightweight toast, the kind that squishes under a butter knife or slumps under a blanket of jam. Just get the good stuff instead, the best bread you’re able to buy, preferably handmade loaves with sturdy crusts and tender crumbs, imbued with the flavors of fermentation. It’s more expensive, and that’s no small thing. But unlike some other items for which you may pay more, good bread is worth a little extra. Then always keep it on hand. I would argue that the best way to store bread isn’t to wrap it in foil, plastic or brown paper bags, sheath it in a pillowcase or stash it in the breadbox. The best way to keep bread is to put it into the freezer — sliced. The slicing is crucial here. (It’s also a minor heresy, but hear me out.) Home bread bakers know that a whole loaf freezes incredibly well. But when you defrost it, you replicate the problem of a whole loaf fresh out of the oven: Unless you have a full house, it’s a race to finish it before it goes stale. (Yes, you could make bread crumbs, but with apologies to devotees of schnitzel and gratins, who actually needs that many bread crumbs?) There are only two of us at my place, so a big loaf of fresh bread is difficult to take down. By contrast, slices of good bread in the freezer practically qualify as convenience food: single serving and ever ready, the base of a luxuriously simple breakfast, a satisfying lunch, a restorative snack, a relaxed supper. And because you have stored your slices in the freezer, they do not degrade in the quick and nasty style of sliced bread left to languish at room temperature. Here’s what I do: Whenever I see an alluring loaf of bread, I buy it, take it home, then start slicing, cutting about half the loaf into thick, slices. I put the pieces in a plastic zipper bag and pop them into the freezer. (Halved bagels work well, too.) Then any time I want a piece of toast, I take a slice out of the freezer and put it directly into the toaster. Professional bakers may blanch, but I think the results are nearly as good as toasting a slice from a loaf on the counter. You don’t need any particular type of toaster. But you do need to think of your freezer periodically. You don’t want to just abandon bread to time and freezer burn, though I can tell you from experience that neglected slices will still work, even if the toasted texture won’t be nearly as good. Whatever you do, do not drag the microwave into this, no matter how deeply frozen the bread. This is between you, the freezer and the toaster. Bear in mind that the fresher your bread is when it goes in the freezer, the better your results will be. So gauge how much you want to eat fresh, and just freeze the rest. You could even freeze it all at once, a formidable supply of toast in case the craving strikes. | 0fake |
BRITAIN’S ISLAMIC REALIST Tommy Robinson Tears Into Leftist Reporter: “50,000 British Muslims Downloaded A Terrorist Magazine Last Year…These People Are Waging War On Us!” [VIDEO] | Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson went to town on a reporter today after he was interrupted in the midst of a Rebel Media interview at the scene of the London terror attack.Robinson was speaking with Rebel Media s Caolan Robertson on the unsurprising nature of the incident in light of the suspected perpetrator s identity being released. This isn t a shock to me, said Robinson. I don t understand people who are surprised by this. We have over 3,000 Muslims who are monitored 24 hours a day 7 days a week at a cost of nine billion [pounds] a year. We re following them, waiting for them to do this. As Robinson continued to rant, a crowd apparently formed around him and began filming. Among them was a reporter who quickly took the offense against Robinson. Do you have information that no one else seems to have? inquired the reporter. I have information that shows there was four terrorist attacks last week in France, shot back Robinson. There was 12 planned last year. Driving your car like this man has done is exactly what the Inspire magazine, which is Al Qaeda s magazine, which was downloaded by 50,000 British Muslims last year 50,000 British Muslims downloaded a terrorist manual. Milo | 1real |
Obama Receives Standing Ovation In New York Restaurant While Trump’s Popularity Nose Dives (VIDEO) | Many of Obama s harshest critics are suddenly very quiet. The former president who the right relentlessly smeared during his time in office is seeing a surge in popularity in his post-White House life as Americans begin to realize just how good they had it. Trump has a way of clarifying things like that.In another reminder of just how popular Obama is (and by contrast, just how unpopular Trump is), a New York restaurant ground to a halt and gave the former president a standing ovation as he made his way through the seating area. According to witnesses, everyone was cheering and some were crying. This is what a beloved statesman looks like:O-B-A-M-A ??A post shared by Alexa Smith (@alexasmithny) on Mar 10, 2017 at 4:45pm PSTAnd here s another angle:I m dying. I m dead. PRESIDENT OBAMA is at lunch w us. We all clapped and cried.A post shared by Mackenzi (@mackenzi) on Mar 10, 2017 at 11:19am PSTMeanwhile Trump is hounded by protesters wherever he goes. During a recent vacation to Florida (Trump s 5th since taking office two months ago) he had to stoop as low as to pretend the protesters were really supporters in an humiliating moment that quickly went viral.Here are the people lining the street as you left. You lied again, @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/8MGLJM9xcP Lesley Abravanel (@lesleyabravanel) February 12, 2017Adding to that, Obama s policies are becoming more popular as people face the GOP s assaults on Obama s legacy. Now that the Republicans actually have the ability to repeal Obamacare, support for the law has become stronger than ever.Support for 2010 health care law has reached a new high https://t.co/4LcI8uH0bq pic.twitter.com/fMgLJxuSG3 Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) March 11, 2017For years, Republicans assured America that Obama and his policies were not in line with voters. Now it appears that it s their ideology that Americans abhor.In Trump s mind, it s more personal. Videos of Obama being applauded are sure to infuriate Trump. Staffers close to him tell reporters that the is consumed by a bitterness towards Obama and a seething jealousy that Obama has accomplished more than he has. It s no secret that Trump craves approval and attention both are things that Obama has earned by his actions. Trump is learning that you can t buy people s respect and it s killing him.Featured image via Instagram | 1real |
Timber Company Tells California Town, Go Find Your Own Water - The New York Times | WEED, Calif. — The water that gurgles from a spring on the edge of this Northern California logging town is so pristine that for more than a century it has been piped directly to the wooden homes spread across hills and gullies. To the residents of Weed, which sits in the foothills of Mount Shasta, a dormant volcano, the spring water is a blessing during a time of severe and prolonged drought. To the lumber company that owns the land where the spring is, the water is a business opportunity. Roseburg Forest Products, an company that owns the pine forest where the spring surfaces, is demanding that the city of Weed get its water elsewhere. “The city needs to actively look for another source of water,” said Ellen Porter, the director of environmental affairs for Roseburg who led the company’s negotiations with the city. “Roseburg is not in a position to guarantee the availability of that water for a long period of time. ” For the past 50 years, the company charged the city $1 a year for use of water from the Beaughan Spring. As of July, it began charging $97, 500 annually. A contract signed this year directs the city to look for alternative sources. Roseburg has not made public what it plans to do with the water it wants to take back from the city. But it already sells water to Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring, which bottles it in Weed and ships it as far away as Japan. Crystal Geyser is looking to increase its overall supply. Residents of Weed, including the current mayor and three former mayors, say the water was always intended for municipal and domestic use and should not be sold to the highest bidder. “The corporate mentality is that they can make more money selling this water to Japan,” said Bob Hall, a former mayor of Weed and currently a member of the City Council. “We were hooked at the hip with this company for years,” he said of the timber company, the largest private employer in the area. “Now, they are taking advantage of people who can’t defend themselves. ” plants have met with resistance and in some cases protests in a number of places across California, including a Nestlé plant last year in Sacramento. In the towns in the shadow of Mount Shasta, residents have raised concerns over proposed bottling plants that they say could severely diminish local water supplies. A measure on the ballot in the November election in Siskiyou County, where the towns are, would for the first time require that companies obtain permits to export water. The disputes echo California’s broader water wars. Five years of drought have escalated competition among farmers, factories and residents over water use and have pitted the arid south against the more north. “Water is money,” said David Webb, a resident of the city of Mount Shasta who follows the water disputes in the area. “If you can get it, you can make money from it. ” The mayor of Weed, Ken Palfini, says the value of the city’s water was emphasized during a visit several weeks ago by Pierre Papillaud, the founder of the company that owns Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring. In what the mayor and another participant described as a tirade of abuse, Mr. Papillaud demanded that the city give up its spring water so that his company could have more. “He said if he didn’t get his way, he was going to blow up the bottling plant,” Mr. Palfini said of Mr. Papillaud’s visit. “He said that twice. ” Mr. Papillaud’s son Ronan Papillaud came to Weed in to apologize for the brusque treatment and to rescind his father’s demands. But Mr. Palfini said it was a lesson on how small municipalities in the area need to protect themselves from companies. “They are just corporations,” Mr. Palfini said. “They are not your friend. ” Residents of Weed, which is still rebuilding after a major wildfire two years ago, say they believe that their dispute with Roseburg will end in the courts and that they have a document showing that the previous owner of Roseburg’s timber business here, International Paper, handed over water rights to the city in 1982. But they describe a David and Goliath battle between Roseburg, a wealthy corporation capable of paying for lawyers, and a relatively poor city with just 2, 700 people. Residents in Weed followed the legal battles of Missoula, Mont. where the State Supreme Court ruled in August that the city could seize water from a private company by eminent domain to secure the municipal water supply. The alternative to legal proceedings for now is to drill a new well at a cost of around $2 million, according to Ron Stock, the Weed city administrator. Roseburg has suggested a site on its property, but city officials say it is potentially dangerous: The well would be located a few hundred yards from a former wood treatment facility that is contaminated with highly toxic chemicals including arsenic. The facility, which is managed by Roseburg, was fenced off in 1986 and has been declared a Superfund site. Because of the complex hydrology of the area, including lava tubes that carry water in various directions under the mountains, the city would not know whether the water was safe until it drilled a test well, Mr. Stock said. “The city has to be very careful,” he said. “We don’t want a Flint, Mich. situation. ” Ms. Porter, the Roseburg representative, said the proposed well site was “well outside any area of contamination. ” In an interview at the company’s timber plant outside Weed, where logs are spun and shaved into thin sheets used for plywood, Ms. Porter blamed Mr. Hall, the city councilor, and others in the city for casting Roseburg in a bad light. “We are becoming the corporate bad guy, and that’s really unfortunate,” she said. The city already has wells that serve around half the population, she said. Ronan Papillaud, the president of CG Roxane, which owns Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring together with a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Otsuka, was also defensive when asked about his company’s plans. “We do not belong in this story,” Mr. Papillaud said. “We are not depriving anyone of anything. ” CG Roxane has bought water from Roseburg since the late 1990s and dedicates one of its production lines in its Weed plant to bottling water bound for Japan. Mr. Papillaud described his deal with Roseburg as a simple relationship between a buyer and seller. “Is this blood water? Are they involved in child labor?” he asked rhetorically. “We are clients, end of story. ” Watching the water dispute warily are members of the Winnemem Wintu, a small Native American tribe that considers the slopes of Mount Shasta sacred. According to tribal beliefs, one of the springs on the mountain is the place where animals and mankind emerged into the world. Six years ago, for the first time in the oral history of the tribe, that spring dried up, according to Luisa Navejas, a tribe member. The water around Mount Shasta is not limitless, she said. “This mountain is calling us now, and we need to listen,” Ms. Navejas said of the inactive volcano. “This mountain will talk,” she said. “The time will come. ” | 0fake |
Civil Rights Hero Nearly Killed By KKK Has A Warning About Donald Trump | Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was nearly killed by the Ku Klux Klan while helping to lead the Freedom Rides in Alabama in 1961. He knows the destructive power of racist hatred first hand, and he is now warning about the forces that have been stirred up by the divisive presidential campaign of Republican candidate Donald Trump. I ve been around a while and Trump reminds me so much of a lot of the things that George Wallace said and did, Lewis said in an interview with The Times after speaking at Cal State L.A. I think demagogues are pretty dangerous, really. We shouldn t divide people, we shouldn t separate people. Sometimes I feel like I am reliving part of my past. I heard it so much growing up in the South, he said. I heard it so much during the days of the civil rights movement. As a people, I just think we could do much better. Trump launched his campaign with a divisive message of racism, accusing Mexicans of being criminals and rapists. Since then, it has gotten worse. Trump-inspired thugs have attacked Latinos. His campaign supporters have on multiple occasions attacked black demonstrators at Trump s own rallies, sometimes egged on by the candidate himself. And Trump has also proposed a ban on Muslim travel to the United States.As former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Rep. Lewis is the last of the big six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement still alive (the others are Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young).Lewis was attacked by the KKK while participating in the Freedom Rides, buses of young activists that went to register black voters in segregated Alabama. The Klan deflated the tires of the bus he was on and forced it to stop. They attacked Lewis and the other riders, beating them for trying to accomplish their peaceful mission. Speaking about the attack years later, Lewis explained, It was very violent. I thought I was going to die. I was left lying at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery unconscious. Lewis was also beaten by Alabama State Troopers on Bloody Sunday as civil rights marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. His skull was fractured after he and others were hit with night sticks.For his role in the civil rights struggle, Rep. Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2011.Featured image via The White House | 1real |
Turkey says Trump told Erdogan weapons won't be supplied to Kurdish YPG | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out. Our discomfort regarding the provision of weapons to the YPG was conveyed to Mr Trump once again... Trump very clearly said he had given instructions to not provide weapons to the YPG, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara. We welcome the promise of not providing weapons to the YPG, and want to see it implemented practically. Cavusoglu also said that Russia, Iran and Turkey would decide jointly who would attend Syrian peace talks. Turkey has said it would not accept the presence of YPG representatives. | 0fake |
Indian tycoon Mallya appears in UK court on new money-laundering accusations | LONDON (Reuters) - Indian businessman Vijay Mallya, who India wants to extradite from Britain on fraud charges, faces further accusations of money-laundering with some funds allegedly going to his Force India Formula One motor racing team, a London court heard on Tuesday. The flamboyant Indian liquor and aviation tycoon, 61, was first arrested by British police on behalf of the Indian authorities in April. He was rearrested on Tuesday after India laid new charges against him. India is seeking Mallya s extradition over loans to him tied to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the businessman, co-owner of the Force India team, moved to Britain in March last year. Banks want to recover about $1.4 billion that the Indian authorities say Kingfisher owes. Launching new extradition proceedings at London s Westminster magistrates court, Mark Summers, the lawyer representing the Indian government, said the original allegations related to fraudulently obtaining and misusing funds. The new charges concerned the distribution of those funds, Summers said. The government alleges for example some of the funds have ended up with the Force India Formula One team, he said. Mallya, wearing a blue jacket and open-necked white shirt, denies any wrongdoing and said he did not consent to being extradited. He was released on police bail and declined to comment after the short hearing. The next hearing in his case will take place on Nov. 20 with a full eight-day extradition hearing due to start on Dec. 4. The judge will then make a decision based on whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and whether the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. That ruling can be challenged in a higher court before being passed to the Home Secretary (interior minister) for approval. The minister s decision can also be appealed to the courts. | 0fake |
U.S., Russia set for likely U.N. row over Syria toxic gas inquiry | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it would push the United Nations Security Council to renew within days an international inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, setting the stage for a likely showdown with Russia. Russia has questioned the work and future of the joint inquiry by the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and said it would decide whether to support extending the mandate after investigators submit their next report. The inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), is due to report by Oct. 26 on who was responsible for an April 4 attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed dozens of people. We would like to see it renewed prior to the report coming out, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told reporters. The Russians have made it very clear that should the report blame the Syrians suddenly they won t have faith in the JIM. If the report doesn t blame the Syrians then they say that they will. We can t work like that, Haley said. A separate OPCW fact-finding mission determined in June that the banned nerve agent sarin had been used in the Khan Sheikhoun attack, which prompted the United States to launch missiles on a Syrian air base. Haley said she would circulate a draft resolution to the 15-member Security Council later on Wednesday to renew the mandate for the JIM, which is due to expire in mid-November. It was unanimously created by the council in 2015 and renewed in 2016. A resolution must get nine votes in favor and not be vetoed by any of the council s five permanent members - Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France - in order to pass. The JIM has found that Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State militants used mustard gas. Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during a civil war that has lasted more than six years. Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry s non-proliferation and arms control department, said on Friday there were serious problems with the work of the inquiry. In order to judge if it deserves an extension of the mandate, we need to see the report ... and assess it, Ulyanov told a briefing at the United Nations to present Moscow s view on the Syrian chemical dossier. | 0fake |
Fake news hurts trust in media, mainstream outlets fare better: poll | LONDON (Reuters) - Controversies over fake news have damaged trust in media in the United States and elsewhere, but the impact is far worse for social media and online-only outlets than it is for traditional print and TV outlets, a survey has found. The research and data company Kantar, in a survey of 8,000 people in the United States, Brazil, Britain and France, found that newspapers, magazines and TV news outlets had retained a greater measure of public trust than digital specialists had. In the United States, mainstream media have reported on the online spread of fabricated stories aimed at helping Donald Trump win the presidency last year. Meanwhile, Trump has accused the mainstream media itself of producing fake news. Overall, 58 percent of those surveyed said that as a result of becoming aware of fake news they had less trust in social media news stories about politics or elections. For mainstream media, the figure was 24 percent. The efforts to brand mainstream news media as fake news have largely failed, Kantar said. The survey drew a link between depth of coverage and trust levels. The findings showed that a much higher proportion of people rated magazines, TV news channels, radio and newspapers highly for in-depth commentary and analysis, than did so for social media news. News audiences are far from dumbing down. They demand serious content and the provision of this type of content will help deepen the nature of consumer relationships with news organizations offline and online, the survey said. Kantar said its analysis showed usage of the expression fake news had surged in mainstream news around the time of the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, and had peaked on Trump s first day in office in January this year. However, there was a lack of consensus and clarity on the definition and origin of fake news. Asked what that expression meant, 58 percent of respondents said it referred to stories deliberately fabricated by a mainstream news organization. Forty-two percent said it described stories put out by someone pretending to be a news organization. Of the four countries surveyed, Brazil had the highest proportion of people who believed fake news had influenced the outcome of elections in their country, at 69 percent. In the United States, the figure was 47 percent. The term fake news has been used by the U.S. president so frequently that it comes as no surprise that U.S. audiences are more aware of its impact, the survey said. In Brazil, however, although a national election has not been held since 2014, a series of corruption scandals have likely raised news audience sensitivity to political news. | 0fake |
No Health Insurance Is Hard. No Phone? Unthinkable. - The New York Times | SPRINGVILLE, Utah — As the health care debate thundered away in Washington, Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah stirred up a social media squall the other day by suggesting that uninsured Americans should invest in their own health care “rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love. ” Here in Mr. Chaffetz’s solidly Republican district, one of those uninsured Americans watched the viral CNN interview on — what else? — her cellphone. Not a new iPhone, though, but a Samsung with a cracked screen, one that Shari Hunter and her husband, Anthony, bought with their tax refunds two years ago. “An iPhone and insurance are not the same thing at all,” Ms. Hunter, 32, said. “If you need to be able to decide between an iPhone and health insurance, you need to look at: Why is that the choice?” To Mr. Chaffetz’s supporters, his comments sounded like a defense of individual responsibility in the midst of a knockdown debate over the government’s role in providing health care to Americans. To his critics, they sounded like a callous and obtuse dismissal of the hard choices that struggling families face every day — and one that echoed earlier, racially noxious arguments over “welfare queens” and criticisms of programs that helped provide phone service to poor people. The Hunters have thought plenty about trying to cut out the $100 they spend on cellphone service every month. Yes, they said, it’s a lot, especially when they don’t have health insurance and they stretch the last dollars from their $1, 800 monthly income to buy diapers and gasoline. But the cellphone tethers the couple together when Mr. Hunter leaves for his nearly $ job at a call center and Ms. Hunter stays home with their three children — 9, 4 and 3 years old — here in the Utah Valley. They chat on his breaks. It pains Mr. Hunter to be away from the children, so Ms. Hunter texts him photos of them making a snowman or playing on the backyard swing set. He sends her inspirational quotes from elders in the Mormon Church, to which they are both devoted. The Hunters said they voted for Mr. Chaffetz in November, but Mr. Hunter said his comment sounded like something a “ person” would say — not a parent receiving food stamps, whose children are covered by Medicaid and who usually has $86 left over after paying the month’s mortgage and other bills. Here in the heavily Mormon cities that run along the Wasatch Range, several of Mr. Chaffetz’s uninsured constituents said that, of course, they would love to be rid of the cellphone bills that cost their families $30, $50, $100 every month. But they said the savings would hardly be enough to afford monthly health plans for their families. And how would they get by without their phones? “A cellphone is a lifeline,” said Myla Dutton, executive director of Community Action Provo, a food bank and nonprofit. Jose Valdivia, 61, said he wouldn’t be able to quickly look up the latest engine modifications when he was repairing vehicles at the mechanic’s shop where he works. His wife said they wouldn’t be able to send photos to relatives in Mexico City. The couple spoke as they waited for an appointment at a free health clinic run by volunteer nurses and doctors two nights a week in Provo. Not surprisingly, smartphones abounded in the waiting room. People texted about dinner, called relatives with updates, held their children’s attention with a game. Without her phone, Joana Delacruz, 45, said, she wouldn’t be able to see job postings from nursing employers, or check whether she should bring home some food for her son after finishing her p. m. shifts managing a McDonald’s in Provo. Ms. Delacruz said she had not had health insurance since she lost her job as a nursing assistant after she fell over a wheelchair last July and hurt her back. Workers’ compensation took care of the medical bills. But despite physical therapy and cortisone shots, her back still hurt, and she did not want to aggravate it by returning to a job that required lifting and moving patients. She earns about $1, 300 a month and has little left after paying $750 in rent (her son sometimes helps out) a $400 car payment and the $50 cellphone bill. The phone keeps her connected with her mother in Mexico. Her son texts her to remind her to get quarters for their building’s laundry machines. She scans job postings that arrive in her inbox. “There’s no other way,” she said. “It’s for work. It’s for relationships, it’s for my kids, it’s for my friends, everything. Life is hard to be by yourself. ” At home in Springville, the Hunters’ phones buzzed at 7 a. m. on Friday with text messages of support. It was a big day: Mr. Hunter had been taking computer classes after work at the call center, and Friday was the day he would take a test for his A+ certification, the first step toward what the family hoped would be a job working on computer systems. The texts were from the Hunters’ “allies” — wealthier families who volunteer to provide social support to families in the area. “Good luck, Anthony,” the messages read. “We’re thinking of you. You got this. ” “We’re praying for you. ” “Did you text them back?” Ms. Hunter asked her husband as he fried two eggs from their backyard henhouse. The couple said they had searched online but had been unable to find an affordable plan under the Affordable Care Act, and had paid tax penalties for not having insurance. They are both healthy, though when Mr. Hunter’s back pain flares up, he deals with it by lying on the floor, strapping on a back brace or getting a massage from his wife. They consider themselves conservative and think that health care should not be a federally mandated purchase, but should be left to individual states. If they lived one state over in Colorado, which expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, they might have qualified for it. Utah approved a small Medicaid expansion, but the Hunters said it did not cover them. On her cellphone, Ms. Hunter said, she frequently checks her family’s bank account balances, updates her husband about filing their tax returns and sends notes of encouragement when he is gone. “He needs to know we believe in him,” Ms. Hunter said. “That’s the biggest thing. ” At 2:41 p. m. on Friday, two loaves of bread were baking in the oven, the two youngest children were playing in the living room, and Ms. Hunter was starting to chop potatoes for dinner when her phone chirped with news from her husband’s test. It had not gone well. “Do you know how far off you were?” she texted. “Yeah,” he replied. “Enough. ” Mr. Hunter said he would get gas and head home. Retaking the test could cost more than $100, but they would talk about their next steps when he got home. “We’ll have to wait,” Ms. Hunter said, phone in hand. “It looks like he probably doesn’t want to text. ” | 0fake |
Bad News, Republicans: Two Scholars Figured Out How To Defeat Your Gerrymandering | Named for Founding Father Elbridge Gerry who signed a law in 1812 as Massachusetts Governor creating distorted voting districts in shapes such as that of a salamander, gerrymandering has been the primary tool of the Republican Party to guarantee and keep power in recent years.Despite getting more votes from the American people, Democrats still wound up with fewer seats in the House of Representatives than Republicans. Republicans even gained dominance over state legislatures in Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, and several others all thanks to deviously drawn voting districts that weaken the impact of Democratic voters while giving a total advantage to the GOP.Twelve years ago, the Supreme Court had difficulty deciding whether districts in Pennsylvania had been gerrymandered or not, leading Justice Anthony Kennedy to throw his hands up in frustration that the Court could not grant relief to those who were screwed over by conniving lawmakers. But he did call for seeking a remedy that would nail lawmakers to the wall for gerrymandering. And now Wisconsin Republicans and Republicans across the nation are panicking because a pair of academic scholars have finally found a solution and it all has to do with the nemesis of conservatives everywhere: math.According to ThinkProgress:In a paper published in the University of Chicago Law Review last year, law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos and political scientist Eric McGhee propose a mathematical formula judges can use to identify suspect maps an objective test that can be used by judges across the country to sort suspect maps from permissible ones. A hundred different judges can examine the same maps and, provided that they are all skilled at arithmetic, all reach identical conclusions about which maps fall within an acceptable range and which ones should be presumed to be unconstitutional.In other words, Republicans are f*cked if the Supreme Court adopts the formula to make rulings in gerrymandering cases.Wisconsin Republicans have launched legal attacks against the formula, but a three judge panel that includes two Republican-appointed judges have dismissed attempts by GOP lawyers to have the case killed before a full trial proceeds.If the formula is successfully adopted by the judicial branch as the standard of determining if lawmakers unfairly drew gerrymandered districts, it could mark a critical turning point that gives Democrats a chance to compete fairly in red states again, and that could devastate the Republican Party for many elections to conservative lawmakers will have to learn how to campaign competitively instead of relying on cheating to win. Featured image via baystateconservativenews.com | 1real |
Ho’oponopono: Healing For Ourselves & Our World | Ho'oponopono: Healing For Ourselves & Our World Nov 14, 2016 0 0
We live in a world that is guided by the universal law of cause and effect. What we as individuals, groups of people, communities, societies and countries put out into the world through our thoughts, manifests. What we put into our collective consciousness has an effect. The cause being the thought. Everything is energy. All things have an energetic effect. We are all responsible for the shape of our lives and our world. We are all connected and bound together through this principle. When we hurt one another, whether intentionally or not, it is truly important for us to find forgiveness and healing. “I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.”
This is Ho’oponopono. These four sentences. It is a healing tool we can utilize for forgiveness. At this time, we may offer it to our newly elected world leaders, friends, family or a situation such as the turbulent US presidential election. For those of us unfamiliar with Ho’oponopono, these four sentences offered to both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as an example, may feel like an instant trigger of built up internal emotions as many people have been going through anger, fear, hurt, confusion, and sadness both during and after this election. This healing modality can help take us from those feelings to feelings of deep forgiveness, acceptance, love and peace.
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boese
If there is a need to heal hurtful differences you have had with others around the issue of this election, then you are in right the place right now by reading this piece. What is Ho’oponopono?
Ho’oponopono is the Hawaiian ritual of forgiveness, and it belongs to an ancient system of teachings called Huna (Hu=Knowledge, na=represents Wisdom). The Hawaiian islands also go by ‘The Land of Aloha’, the land of love. It is in this essence and spirit of Aloha that we find Ho’oponopono.
We all share a common path. Along that path, there is only one great universal power that accompanies us, and that is the power of unconditional love. It is the essence of God, and the place where compassion and unity spring forth. Ho’oponopono also means “compassion in action”. It helps us move past the duality behind good and evil, which is where we become separate from one another through judgment and condemnation. Through 4 simple sentences, Ho’oponopono can bring us to inner peace, harmony and unity. It offers us a solution to solving a problem while returning us to our divine plan.
A paradigm shift: “I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.”
“Ho’oponopono is a spiritual-soul method of purification that cleanses us from fears and worries, destructive relationship patterns, and any religious dogmas and paradigms that oppose our personal and spiritual development. It cleans out the blockages in our thoughts and cell structure, for our thoughts are made manifest in our body. This is the paradigm change.”
When we notice disturbances in our harmony and thought process because of a person, event or situation, then we can take this conflict and make a Ho’oponopono: I’m sorry (add the person’s name). We come to a stillness, and connect within our being. We contemplate, recognize and accept the problem, and ask for support through courage and peace. Please forgive me. We view the problem and all of its nuances, and we go within our own heart to seek out any part we may share in the problem. We take on 100% responsibility for the existence of the problem within us, another and our world. (100% responsibility=100% power). This could, for example, be in the form of a past experience where we have been hurt, and we are thus intensifying the current situation with the past. Perhaps we ourselves have made a judgement that has contributed to the conflict. These are all examples of things that require healing from within. I love you. Forgiveness takes place unconditionally, and we pardon ourselves and others. Thank you. With these words we express our faith and trust, and we let go. A prayer of gratitude may be offered to end.
“If we can accept that we are the sum total of all past thoughts, emotions, words, deeds and actions and that our present lives and choices are colored or shaded by this memory bank of the past, then we begin to see how a process of correcting or setting aright can change lives, our families and our society.” – Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona
It has been through Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, who took over the leadership of the Foundation of I Institute, that Ho’oponopono became known throughout the world.
He spent 4 years working in the psychiatric department of the state prison in Hawaii, which had conditions described as “the hell”. Thirty prisoners were confined there. There was a chronic shortage of security and staff. Many employees put in their notice as soon as possible after beginning employment, and even handcuffed prisoners were known to inflict violence upon staff.
While Dr. Hew Len worked there, he never met with a single prisoner. Instead, he spent his days in his office reading their case reports several times daily. With each prisoner’s report, he looked inward, and asked himself what darkness, negativity, power and hatefulness could possibly be within him that it too could be in another, and thus exist in his world. When he found something within himself, he did a Ho’oponopono.
After 1.5 years, the atmosphere and mood of the prison hospital had completely altered. After 18 months, none of the prisoners needed to wear handcuffs, and they walked freely. People came happily to work, and the illnesses declined. Therapeutic conversations could then be held with the inmates, and after 4 years all of the inmates, except for 2, were completely cured. The institution closed.
How was this possible? Through Ho’oponopono, Dr. Hew Len worked to continually cleanse his own heart, and take 100% responsibility for the existence of the prisoners in his life.
This study has been well documented, and Ho’oponopono is now an acknowledged therapy in the USA. There are also more than 50 studies for forgiveness at the diplomatic level.
“You are today where your thoughts have brought you, and tomorrow you will be where your thoughts will bring you.” – James Allen
Another form to do the Ho’oponopono is to begin with I love you for unification at the beginning: “Before the sun goes down, forgive.”– Hawaiian Proverb
Please, take the time to say it aloud. Some people have reported that it has had a miraculous effect when they even whispered it. Looking into your own eyes in a mirror while saying those 4 healing sentences can also be quite a testament to it’s extraordinary effect.
“Forgiveness is not a one-time thing, forgiveness is a lifestyle.” – Dr. Martin Luther King
If we all practice Ho’oponopono, look within, forgive, heal and love, then perhaps we can begin to see a shift in our lives as well as in our governments. Through cleansing what we have witnessed during this election season, there is hope for a deep shift within and without. It’s time to love ourselves and each other more. We all need more love. Let’s open ourselves to Ho’oponopono as a way to heal our inner and outer world.
Deepest love and appreciation to Ulrich E. Dupree for writing the book, ” Ho’oponopono: The Hawaiian Forgiveness Ritual As The Key To Your Life’s Fulfillment”. This little book has been with me for 2 years now. Thus, a lot of the information I have shared in this article has come from it. I am grateful for the balance, peace and healing that it continues to bring into my life.
This is the website of Dr. Ihaleakalal Hew Len.
To read testimonials of peoples’ experiences during and after Ho’oponopono, click here .
Finally, Aloha International has a wonderful list of books and resources (some free) to help understand more about the Huna healing art of Hawaii and Hawaiian Shamanism.
If you have other resources or references that may help people heal through Ho’oponopono and Huna, please leave a link in the comment section for us to all access and, thus, from which we can continue to heal and grow.
Peace begins with me. I am a part of the Universe. When I change, the world changes too. Peace begins with each and every one of us.
“There is only one corner of the Universe you can be sure of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley
Aloha, ‘I see the divine in you, and I see the divine in myself.’ May we all find the healing we need, and may we all treat ourselves and others with respect, dignity, compassion, acceptance and love. When we heal ourselves, we heal the world. Peace be with me, and peace be with you.
Ulonda Faye is a certified wellness practitioner, holistic esthetician, and Rejuv Miracles Practitioner. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she offers online and in-person education in holistic skincare, self-love, beauty rituals, and life coaching. | 1real |
U.S. makes $500 million grant to climate change fund: State Department | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has made a $500 million grant to the Green Climate Fund, meant to help developing nations combat climate change, the State Department said on Tuesday. The move, coming days before U.S. President Barack Obama hands over power to Donald Trump, was “long-planned,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a news briefing. | 0fake |
PR specialist says set up meeting between Trump's son, Russian lawyer at a client's request | (Reuters) - The public relations specialist who arranged a meeting last year between President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian attorney said on Monday he did so at the request of singer-songwriter-businessman Emin Agalarov, a Moscow-based client of his. Public relations specialist Rob Goldstone said in a statement that Agalarov asked him to help facilitate a meeting between Trump’s son and Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, who he said had apparently claimed to have information regarding illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee. Goldstone said Veselnitskaya opened the meeting with the younger Trump with a few remarks on campaign funding before switching to the issue of a ban on U.S. adoption of Russian children, at which point Trump halted the meeting. “Nothing came of that meeting and there was no follow up between the parties,” Goldstone said. | 0fake |
Who Lost: A Biased Media, Pundits, Pollsters, Political Parties, Warmongers, the Corporatocracy, Pay-to-Play Grifters, Neoliberals | Leave a reply Charles Hugh Smith – Sometimes who lost is more important than who won. Let’s review who lost the election: 1. Let’s start with the Corporatocracy, which expected to once again wield unlimited influence by funding political campaigns with millions of dollars in contributions and speaking fees. 2. A biased mainstream media. My mom-in-law was watching CBS all night, so that’s what we watched. All the pundits/anchors spoke in the hushed tones of a funeral. For two hours, the only images of campaign workers shown were the sad faces of Clinton supporters; not one image of jubilant Trump supporters was broadcast until Trump gave his acceptance speech. When one of the talking heads noted that Hillary never generated the enthusiasm of the Sanders or Trump campaigns, his comment was followed by a stony silence. That he had given voice to a self-evident truth was not welcome. 3. Mainstream punditry: they got it wrong from the start and remained close-minded and arrogant in their postured superiority. The punditry applied a double standard to Trump and Hillary. Trump’s speeches and ethically questionable history were judged by moral standards, and he was declared unfit. Hillary’s actions, on the other hand, were judged by strictly legalistic standards: well, you can’t indict her, so she’s fit for office. Dear punditry: you can’t use double standards to promote your biases and retain any shred of credibility. 4. Pollsters. Having rigged the polls via over-sampling and under-sampling, they were laughably wrong. Here is a typical headline from election night, from the New York Times: Trump Takes Florida, Closing In on a Stunning Upset. Only the pollsters and the MSM were stunned. 5. Political parties. As my friend G.F.B. observed, both parties ran 20th century campaigns in the 21st century. Both parties lost for this reason; both are hopelessly out of touch with a rapidly changing America. Democrats upset with losing should look at their party’s system of Super-Delegates that squelched Bernie Sander’s bid. 6. Warmongers. Many Americans are sick and tired of interventionist, globalist warmongering. The only possible way they could register their opposition to warmongering was to vote for Trump. 7. Pay-to-Play Grifters. Let the investigations, indictments, prosecutions and convictions begin as soon as Trump is sworn in. 8. Neoliberals. Globalization boils down to freeing mobile capital to rove the globe for opportunities to strip-mine cheap resources, assets and labor and then move on, leaving ruined communities behind. 9. Bonus loser: Fake Progressives. Fake Progressives are perfectly fine with soaring inequality and corrupt governance, as long as everyone’s public utterances are politically correct. So the oppressor class is acceptable as long as they speak respectfully while stepping on your neck. Real Progressives see jobs and community as solutions, not welfare and central planning. Real Progressives see the eradication of warmongering Imperial pretensions and corrupt pay-to-play grifting as the essential projects of liberty and democracy. Charles Smith is a Contributing Writer for Shift Frequency SF Source Of Two Minds Nov. 2016 Share this: | 1real |
STUDENTS AT MAJOR UNIVERSITY: Black Students, Including Inmates Should Get FREE Tuition, Room And Board…Check Out Who’s NOT Included | Description advertising racist wear from Facebook: White folk or those who see themselves as white are given said power inherently regardless of socioeconomic class, education etc. This is why white men created race in the first place to maintain power. Racism gave birth to the idea of race. This is a [sic] oversimplified definition Fast forward to today, where the student government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said on Wednesday that black students should be offered free tuition and housing because blacks were legally barred from education during slavery and university remains out of reach for black students today.The Associated Students of Madison said in a resolution that suburban high school students are over-represented. The group said consideration of ACT and SAT scores in applications upholds white supremacy because it restricts opportunities for the poor.The college has proposed measures aimed at improving diversity.So what about Native Americans? What about Asians, Hispanics, refugees, Eskimos, European immigrants, descendants of the holocaust who died before we entered the fight? And what about the Irish who were treated horribly by other immigrants right here in America, after fleeing their homeland to escape the potato famine? What about descendants of Salem Witch trials? What about families who lost their primary bread winner fighting for our nation overseas, or as a first responder? Are they not worthy of a FREE education? What about poor white people? You know, there is such a thing. Despite what these snowflakes and their radical leftist educators would like you to believe, there are actually white families who struggle to make ends meet and live in ghettos or dirt-poor rural areas. Where does it stop? And who gets to decide that the only protected and special group who deserves a FREE college education are blacks? The proposal calls for 10 percent of donations from the college to bolster financial aid and study the feasibility of test-optional and geographically weighted admissions.Madison enrollment is currently made up of about two-percent of black students.University spokeswoman Meredith McGlone noted that the proportion of students of color has grown from 11 percent to 15 percent over the last decade.McGlone said the Chancellor proposed giving first-generation transfers from two-year schools free tuition for a year, contingent on funding in state budget, and a recent $10 million donation will be invested in expanding the Chancellor s Scholarship Program.-FOX News | 1real |
COLLEGES MAY BE FORCED To Stop Pushing Qualified White Students To Back Of Line.. DOJ Will Take On Affirmative Action In College Admissions | The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions. The announcement suggests that the project will be run out of the division s front office, where the Trump administration s political appointees work, rather than its Educational Opportunities Section, which is run by career civil servants and normally handles work involving schools and universities.The document does not explicitly identify whom the Justice Department considers at risk of discrimination because of affirmative action admissions policies. But the phrasing it uses, intentional race-based discrimination, cuts to the heart of programs designed to bring more minorities to university campuses.Supporters and critics of the project said it was clearly targeting admissions programs that can give members of generally disadvantaged groups, like black and Latino students, an edge over other applicants with comparable or higher test scores.For entire story: NYT sIs it legal for colleges and universities to use race as a deciding factor for purposes of admission? In 1997, one brave student took on the University of Michigan and their unfair practice of making the race of the student applicant a much higher priority than the accomplishments of the student when making admission decisions. Meanwhile, a second lawsuit on behalf of Barbara Grutter against the University of Michigan Law was also filed. Both Gratz and Grutter s cases ended up in the US Supreme Court.Here s what happened:In 2003, the Supreme Court decided the landmark cases of Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger. Several years after CIR s historic victory in the Fifth Circuit, Hopwood v. Texas, which struck down the use of racial preferences in all states in the Fifth Circuit, the Sixth Circuit court of Appeals upheld the use of the racial preferences program at the University of Michigan. Because of the contrary conclusions of law reached by the Circuit Courts, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.CIR successfully urged the Supreme Court to strike down the racial preferences system at the University of Michigan s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, but the Court left the door open for universities to continue using racial preferences under narrow circumstances and allowed the University of Michigan s law school to continue its practice of utilizing race-based admissions.Jennifer Gratz applied to the University of Michigan s undergraduate College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences in 1994, when she was still a high-school senior in a suburb of Detroit. In high-school, she worked as a math tutor, a cheerleader, and served as her Class Congress Representative. She scored 25 on the ACT (in the 83rd percentile) and graduated high-school with a 3.765 GPA. Despite these accomplishments, Gratz was put on a waitlist before ultimately being denied admission to the University.At the time Gratz applied, the University analyzed prospective applicants under a grid system. Gratz combined ACT/GPA scores placed her just outside the presumptive admit portion of the grid used to analyze her results. However, the University had a separate grid for analyzing potential applicants it considered underrepresented minorities. On this second grid, Gratz s score placed her far above the minimum threshold of automatic admission.On their own merit, Gratz s achievements gave her a competitive chance of gaining admission. But if the University had considered Gratz as a favored minority applicant, she would have had a 100% chance of gaining acceptance. For Gratz, race was the difference between rejection and acceptance.Two years after Jennifer Gratz was rejected from the University of Michigan undergraduate program, Barbara Grutter applied to the University Of Michigan School Of Law. Barbara Grutter had graduated from Michigan State University in 1978 with high honors and a 3.81 GPA. Even though she scored a 161 on the LSAT, Grutter postponed a Law School career to start a successful health care information firm.In 1996, at age forty-three, Grutter returned to pursue her ambitions of attending law school. Despite a life-long record of achievement, Grutter was wait-listed and eventually denied admission to the University of Michigan Law School.Like the undergraduate admissions process, the Law School used a grid system to evaluate potential candidates for admission. A white female applicant with Barbara Grutter s scores had less than a 9% chance of admission on the grid. However, under the same system, a favored minority applicant with the same scores had a 100% chance of gaining admission. As with Gratz, Grutter s race was ultimately the difference between automatic acceptance and automatic rejection.Lawsuits FiledIn 1997, CIR filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jennifer Gratz against the University of Michigan s undergraduate admission system, and a second lawsuit on behalf of Barbara Grutter against the University of Michigan Law School. Combined with CIR s recent victory in Hopwood v. Texas, these challenges made it substantially more likely that the Supreme Court would take the case.CIR argued that the University violated the Fourteenth Amendment s promise of equal protection by discriminating against Gratz and Grutter. Neither institution could profer a compelling justification for the discrimination, nor could they argue that the system of racial preferences was narrowly tailored to avoid harming students like Gratz and Grutter.In light of the ongoing lawsuits, the University of Michigan changes its admission system. The undergraduate school abandoned the grid system in favor of a points system. Under the new system, an application to the school could score a maximum of 150 points. The higher the number of points, the more likely an applicant would be admitted.The method in which points were allotted made race a decisive factor in the admission process. If the University considered an applicant an underrepresented minority, the applicant was awarded an automatic twenty points, or one-fifth of the total points needed to guarantee admission. The University did not weigh any other factors or considerations as heavily as race. The resulting method meant that an applicant with extraordinary artistic talent could only be awarded a maximum of five points for his talent, while another applicant could receive twenty points by virtue of belonging to a certain racial group.This mechanical method of assigning points based on outward characteristics alone, is a prime example of what Shelby Steele called the disappearance of the black individual. In his classic essay for Harper s magazine, Steele lamented that institutions, like the University of Michigan, failed to treat African Americans as individuals with real accomplishments. These institutions, Steel argued, cared more for their own image than they did for helping individual African-Americans.District Court VictoriesCIR s two cases were heard by different judges in the District Court. In Gratz, Judge Duggan ruled that the grid system under which Jennifer Gratz had been rejected was unconstitutional, but that the points system in place since then was a justified means of attaining a diverse student body.In Grutter, Judge Bernard Friedman issued a more direct and clear cut victory for CIR and Barbara Grutter. Judge Friedman held, in accordance with Hopwood v. Texas, that diversity is not a compelling government justification for discrimination. The court accordingly struck down the Law School s race-based admissions system.The University of Michigan appealed both cases, and a divided en banc panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Grutter s victory at the district court and held that the University was justified in using racial preferences to achieve diversity. The Sixth Circuit never issued a ruling in Gratz.The Supreme CourtAfter the Sixth Circuit loss in Grutter, CIR petitioned the Supreme Court, asking them to hear both cases as they presented an urgent question of constitutional law. The Court agreed and handed down decisions in June of 2003.Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the Court in Gratz, struck down the University of Michigan s undergraduate admissions system. Justice Rehnquist reasoned that the points system, assigning points based on outward characteristics, treated applicants in a manner that prized their race over their individual accomplishments. The failure of the University to treat applicants as individuals constituted a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.In Grutter, however, Justice Sandra Day O Connor upheld the Law School admissions system and reasoned that fostering diversity in higher education is a compelling government interest. Justice O Connor argued that a distinction could be made between the mechanical racial preferences used in the undergraduate system and the racial preferences employed by the law school. Essentially doing away with the strict scrutiny analysis that racial classifications require, Justice O Connor deferred to the law school to determine whether racial preferences are necessary. The Court did, however, limit the legality of racial preferences to a period of twenty-five years, when the government will no longer have a a compelling justification to foster diversity.Justice Clarence Thomas, who dissented from the ruling, agreed that racial preferences would be unconstitutional in twenty-five years. However, he also argued that what is unconstitutional twenty-five years from now is also unconstitutional today. Either the Constitution forbids the use of racial discrimination or it does not.While the combined cases of Gratz and Grutter failed to end the government s use of racial preferences, it achieved the minor victory of placing limits on when and how the government may use such preferences.Gratz and Grutter are not the end of the story. CIR s client, Jennifer Gratz, was later able to end racial preferences at the University of Michigan by leading the effort to pass an amendment to the Michigan constitution that banned the use of racial preferences. When an activist group challenged the constitutionality of the amendment, CIR once again came to the aid of Jennifer Gratz. In Schuette v. Bamn, CIR successfully defended the amendment before the Supreme Court. Read more about that case here.Furthermore, almost twelve years after the Supreme Court decided Gratz and Grutter, the issue is once again back before the Supreme Court in the case Fisher v. University of Texas. CIR has filed two amicus briefs before the Supreme Court in that case that urge the Supreme Court to apply the strict scrutiny that Justice O Connor failed to apply in Grutter. In an initial opinion, Justice Kennedy agreed with CIR and ruled that even after Grutter courts may not punt on applying rigid constitutional analysis. After being remanded to the Fifth Circuit, that case is once again before the Supreme Court. Read more about CIR s ongoing efforts to challenge racial preferences in Fisher here. Case Status: Partial Win: The Supreme Court struck down the UM undergraduate admissions system but upheld the law school system.Via: CIR | 1real |
Treasury chief sees 'competitive' corporate tax rate: CNBC | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 15 percent corporate tax rate backed by President Donald Trump may not be possible, but businesses will see a “competitive” rate as Republicans push their tax reform plan through Congress, the U.S. treasury secretary said on Tuesday. “Ideally, he’d like to get it down to 15 percent. I don’t know if we’ll be able to achieve that given the budget issues, but we’re going to get this down to a very competitive level,” Steven Mnuchin said, speaking at an conference hosted by CNBC. | 0fake |
Colombia defends anti-drug efforts after Trump critique | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia on Thursday defended its anti-narcotics efforts after U.S. President Donald Trump said he considered downgrading the country in a White House assessment because of an uptick in the cultivation of coca, the base ingredient for cocaine. Tens of millions of dollars in development and security funding and logistical help could be in danger should the United States decide the South American country is not doing enough, and such a decision could even jeopardize Colombia’s access to monies from multilateral organizations. The two countries have long been close allies in the fight against illegal narcotics but in recent years have broadened the focus of their relationship to include trade and Colombia’s peace process with leftist guerrillas. However, Trump said this week he had contemplated declaring in the White House’s annual review of countries it considers hubs for narcotics trafficking that Colombia is not meeting its drug fight obligations because of decade-high coca production. The government of President Juan Manuel Santos took issue with Trump’s statement. “Colombia is without a doubt the country which most has fought drugs, and which has had the most success on that front,” the government said in an early morning statement. “No one has to threaten us to confront this challenge.” In the last seven years, the country has confiscated 1,621 tonnes of cocaine, the statement said. The United States has expressed its worry about a sharp uptick in coca cultivation and cocaine production at the close of last year, after Colombia signed a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), its largest rebel group, and halted the spraying of powerful herbicide glyphosate over health worries. Coca cultivation was up to 188,000 hectares (464,000 acres), while cocaine production capacity climbed to 700 tonnes annually, the highest figures for at least a decade. Colombia is counting on more than $400 million in funding help from the United States for implementing the FARC deal and has rejected the possibility of restarting fumigation with glyphosate, something Washington has backed. Instead, Colombia favors manual eradication and crop substitution in concert with rural communities, as agreed upon in the FARC deal. The country is planning to manually eliminate 50,000 hectares of coca. Rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and crime gangs have all been involved in drug trafficking during Colombia’s five-decade conflict, which has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions from their homes. | 0fake |
NEW “Fair Share” App, “EQUIPAY” Allows Users To Split Restaurant Bill Between Guests, Based On Gender, Sex and Race | A Socialists dream! Now you can check your privilege at the door. With the Equipay app, you ll never have to walk away from a restaurant with friends wondering if you paid your fair share It s a huge dilemma for progressives: on the one hand, it s terribly patriarchal for a man to pay for a woman s dinner. On the other hand, the gender pay gap of feminist mythology holds that women only make 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. So isn t the failure to pay just another contribution to structural sexism?Equipay, a new app for Android and the iPhone has a solution. Developed by San Francisco-based comedian Luna Malbroux, the app divides bills between dinner guests according to their race and gender. For example, black women, who allegedly make just 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, would only pay 64 per cent of their share of the bill.According to the app s website, Equipay helps you avoid the entrenched discrimination that exists in our society. It doesn t split the bill equally it splits it equitably. You pay what you should to balance out the wage gap. The app is free to use unless you re a member of a high-privilege group. Then there s a surcharge. As the site explains: When dining out with a high privilege group, Equipay automatically adds an EquipayItBack Surcharge. This fee subsidizes meals for others and funds Equipay s charitable arm. Thanks! Last but not least, the app allows users to let their followers know whenever they ve used the app to smash the patriarchy at the dinner table. In a live presentation of the app, Melbroux described how a user, Graham shares his Equipay-powered purchase on social media to show that he is a social justice ally. Of course, having informed the world of his use of Equipay, it remains to be seen if Graham will ever be invited out for a meal again.The app won first prize at San Francisco s Comedy Hack Day, which brings comedians, developers, and designers together. However, Melbroux insists that the app isn t a joke. In an interview with Care2, she expressed hopes that the app would start a serious conversation: I hope that this, more than anything, starts a discussion and helps people to start thinking a little bit differently about how we can use more technology and more innovation to address inequality and wage inequality. For the rest of us, the app s social media sharing function will give us a useful list of people to never invite out for dinner. Via:Breitbart | 1real |
BREAKING: NYC PROTEST GETS UGLY: Anti-American Protesters BATTLE WITH COPS [Video] | NYPD assaulting protestors, violent arrests happening on 50th st approachin 9th ave #NYPDKKK pic.twitter.com/cy4xsfT7Q9 Millions March NYC (@MillionsMarch) April 15, 2016 A LONE TRUMP SUPPORTER IS PUSHED THROUGH THE CROWD BY THE POLICE:Lone racist Trump supporter running away #HATEFREENYC #ShutDownTrump4Akai pic.twitter.com/4RuL9e7sZJ Millions March NYC (@MillionsMarch) April 14, 2016 PROTESTER CHANTS: EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE Protestors storming back entrance of Grand Hyatt NY #ShutDownTrump4Akai #HateFreeNYC pic.twitter.com/EfPu1p9hvs Millions March NYC (@MillionsMarch) April 14, 2016 THE NY STATE GOP GALA IS IN NYC TONIGHT and the paid protesters are out in force. We ll be reporting on anything important but here are a few pictures of the cast of characters at the protest:All you need to see to let you know that the Trump protests are NOT grassroots is the picture below but the last picture is a shocker (why would a Ted Cruz supporter hang with these protesters?): ILLEGAL ALIENS who say it s racist and hateful to want to have borders go figure Obama s Purple Army SEIU is marching with the socialists:A Ted Cruz supporter joins the communists and anarchists to protest Trump: | 1real |
SHOCKING MOB SCENE Caught On Video: Men With Mexican Flags ATTACK Female Trump Supporter, Throw Objects At Her Face And Head | What is amazing about this video is that it captures the unimaginable positive attitude of the female Trump supporter in the face of an angry mob of Trump haters. These men waving Mexican flags and shouting expletives can be seen throwing eggs and other unknown objects at her face and head while yelling Mexico ! This brave woman just smiles and flashes a peace sign at the angry mob. Talk about composure!These men waving Mexican flags are more than likely illegal aliens. They are becoming increasingly more violent as the prospect of being sent back to Mexico or Latin America is becoming closer and closer to a reality. The gravy is train is pulling out and these uninvited criminals who have been living in our country under the cover of progressivism are scared to death they re about to get the boot. This will only get worse before it gets better. If America is serious about sending these lawbreakers back to their homeland, we need to use the woman in this video as an example of courage and steadfast commitment to saving our nation.Watch: The moment a Trump supporter, surrounded by protesters, is egged in the face, hit by other food. pic.twitter.com/qYFdwJWvrS Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016Here is a view from another angle of the mob of Mexican men assaulting the lone female:https://twitter.com/JaredWyand/status/738645772409970688 | 1real |
‘BIZARRE’ HILLARY CLINTON After Election Tells of Screaming Into Her Pillow [Video] | In a bizarre interview with Irish TV, wacky grandma Hillary Clinton talked about her election loss. She took it upon herself to say she was totally worried about Trump becoming our president. Maybe it was visions of that orange prison jumpsuit and a jail cell that kept going through her head.She also admitted that she had no concession speech prepared. Really? That s just stupid! You paid those pollsters to lie. You must have known the truth or did you figure that no one could overcome as much election fraud as you and the Democrat Party had committed?Either way, Hillary, Donald Trump is President, you are not, and We the People are the grateful winners.The interview takes on a narcissistic tone when she describes how she had to go lie down and would scream in her pillow to get over the pain of losing the election to Trump. I would have to go lie down because it was so excruciating , she joked to interviewer Ryan Tubridy in a candid conversation, filmed near her home in Chappaqua, New York. I was in a state of shock. I had not prepared a concession speech, the former presidential candidate revealed, explaining that whilst expecting a close result, her campaign remained confident of victory up until early election night returns began to suggest otherwise. EVERYONE WAS SO CONFIDENT Following a final rally in Philadelphia, appearing with then president, Barack Obama, husband Bill Clinton and celebrities including Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, Clinton recalled that on the eve of polling day everyone was so confident. Whilst discussing the inauguration of President Trump, asked if she wanted to scream, Clinton told RT , Oh, I did. But that was a common occurrence in those days. You know, scream into the pillow when I saw what was happening. I would have been disappointed and really unhappy if I had lost to a normal Republican. But to lose to someone who I believed profoundly was not ready for the job, was temperamentally unqualified for the job was such a burden. I just thought, I ve let everybody down, I ve let my country down, I ve let the world down. How did this happen? Clinton recalled.TOSSING THE BLAME TO EVERYONE BUT HERSELF Acknowledging the role of the email scandal and various shortcomings in her campaign, Clinton also blamed Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the propagation of fake news as factors in the election of President Trump. I knew there were these other forces at work that needed to be unpacked and analyzed. It s not only about what happened, it s about preventing it from happening again, she added. SLIGHTLY WACKY GRANDMA With links to Ireland since her involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s, Clinton, who segued from imposing political figure to slightly wacky grandma according to one reviewer, told Ireland s RT Television that she was not going to let the experience turn her bitter and cynical and that she would use her platform to fight against what she saw as politically damaging trends emerging in the US.SHE NEEDS TO GO AWAY! | 1real |
Gorsuch: Scalia A ’Lion of the Law’ - Judges Should Look to What Law Demands, Not What They Prefer - Breitbart | After the announcement of his nomination to the US Supreme Court on Tuesday, Judge Neil Gorsuch praised former Justice Antonin Scalia as a “lion of the law. ” And stated, “it is for Congress and not the courts to write new laws. It is the role of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people’s representatives. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge, stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands. ” Gorsuch said, “I pledge that if I am confirmed, I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great country. ” Gorsuch then talked about his experience on the bench, saying that he’s been inspired by the judges he worked with who he has watched “fearlessly tending to the rule of law, enforcing the promises of our Constitution, and living out daily their judicial oaths to administer justice equally to rich and poor alike, following the law as they find it and without respect to their personal political beliefs. I think of them tonight. Of course, the Supreme Court’s work is vital not just to a region of the country, but to the whole, vital to the protection of people’s liberties under law, and to the continuity of our Constitution, the greatest charter of human liberty the world has ever known. ” He further said former Justices Antonin Scalia and Robert Jackson were “towering judges” and Scalia was “a lion of the law. ” He also praised Justice Byron White, who he worked for, as “one of the smartest and most courageous men I’ve ever known. ” Gorsuch also praised Justice Kennedy, who he clerked for, as a man who taught him “so much. ” Gorsuch further stated, “[W]hen we judges don our robes, it doesn’t make us any smarter, but it does serve as a reminder of what’s expected of us: impartiality and independence, collegiality, and courage. As this process now moves to the Senate, I look forward [to] speaking with members from both sides of the aisle, to answering their questions, and to hearing their concerns. I consider the United States Senate the greatest deliberative body in the world, and I respect the important role the constitution affords it in the confirmation of our judges. I respect, too, the fact that in our legal order, it is for Congress and not the courts to write new laws. It is the role of judges to apply, not alter, the work of the people’s representatives. A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge, stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
Despicable Balfour: A Story of Betrayal – Part 1 | ‹ › Stuart Littlewood worked on jet fighters in the RAF then pursued a career in industrial marketing. More recently he worked as a freelance and with innovation consultancies. Psychology degree Exeter University, Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Served as a Cambridgeshire county councillor 1993-7 and on the Police Authority. Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. Since retiring has been a newspaper columnist and produced two photo-documentary books. He is a regular contributor to a number of internet news magazines. Stuart’s book Radio Free Palestine , with Foreword by Jeff Halper, tells the plight of the Palestinians under brutal occupation. It can now be read on the internet by visiting RadioFreePalestine.org.uk . Despicable Balfour: A Story of Betrayal – Part 1 By Stuart Littlewood on October 29, 2016 by Stuart Littlewood
November 2 marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which began the still-ongoing colonisation of Palestine and sowed the seeds of an endless nightmare for the Palestinian people, both those who were forced to flee at gunpoint and those who have managed to remain in the shredded remains of their homeland under Israel’s brutal military occupation.
A movement called the Balfour Declaration Centenary Campaign is urging action and wants an apology. “We call on the international community and all peace and justice loving people to join the campaign to call on the Government and Parliament of the United Kingdom to:
1 Reject the Balfour Declaration including its role as an instrument of displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people;
2 Issue an official apology to the Arab Palestinian people for their role in issuing the Balfour Declaration and making possible the displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people
3 Acknowledge their historic, legal and moral responsibility for damages sustained as a result of the implementation of the Balfour Declaration
4 Institute reparations to the Palestinian people in accordance with the provisions and principles of international law, justice and equity, which guarantee the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland and the right of self-determination.”
A Century of Ethnic Cleansing and Denial of Palestinian Rights A seventeen-year-old girl trembling with grief and rage told me how she witnessed her teenage cousin being shot through the head by Israeli soldiers. They had been walking to school together and the soldiers were taunting him. In response he had picked up a rock. She accused me and all Americans of knowing about these daily abuses against Palestinians but not caring. I tried to tell her that most Americans do not know about these tragedies, and that we would never support those who perpetrate them. But her belief that the average American is savvy about international politics was as strong as it was naive. “Of course Americans know we’re suffering over here,” she retorted.“You’re the most powerful nation on earth. And everyone has a television. I know you know.”
These words are from David Hazard’s excellent book Blood Bothers , which charts the life of Father Elias Chacour, a remarkable Christian Palestinian who grew up on the shores of Galilee and saw his beautiful world shattered by the Israeli occupation. Like countless others he was made a refugee in his own country.
Americans aren’t alone in ignorance of their complicity. British people too seem largely unaware of how tragedy was allowed to overtake the Palestinians, and how this once-peaceful province of the Ottoman Empire, renowned for its antiquities and culture, became a land scarred by conflict, where everyday the humiliation of illegal occupation stokes the fires of hatred. You cannot get in or out, or move around, without running the gauntlet of Israeli customs, baggage searches, roadblocks and checkpoints under the sneer of contemptuous, sunglassed troops. Even in remote countryside you’ll run into one of six or seven hundred armed checkpoints. And that’s what visitors have to put up with. Imagine what it’s like for residents.
The Israeli Defence Force is largely made up of National Servicemen and women – teenagers drafted in and trained to use lethal force. They have a reputation for being trigger-happy. Of course, they don’t all wish to play the thug or necessarily agree with their orders.
The truth about Palestine doesn’t sit well with Britain’s now crumbling reputation for fair play. Its name has been airbrushed from maps and purged, like a dirty word, from the diplomatic lexicon. Even today the subject is only haphazardly taught in our schools. For older generations like mine it was never on the curriculum. To understand why, one must at least dip a toe into the complicated history of the last 100 years. To help readers over this hurdle, I offer this ‘potted’ version. At least it will explain why, ten years ago, I went to see Palestine for myself. For centuries long our land enslaved by Turkish kings with sharpened blade. We prayed to end the Sultan’s curse, the British came and spoke a verse. “It’s World War One, if you agree to fight with us we’ll set you free.” The war we fought at Britain’s side, our blood was shed for Arab pride. At war’s end Turks were smitten, our only gain, the lies of Britain.
Stephen Ostrander’s simple verse manages to cut through a mountain of rhetoric to the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
There was a Jewish state in the Holy Land some 3,000 years ago, but the Canaanites and Philistines were there first. The Jews, one of several invading groups, left and returned several times, and were expelled by the Roman occupation in 70AD and again in 135AD. Since the 7th century Palestine has been mainly Arabic. During the First World War the country was ‘liberated’ from Turkish Ottoman rule after the Allied Powers, in correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and Sharif Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca in 1915, promised independence to Arab leaders in return for their help in defeating Germany’s ally.
At the same time, however, a new Jewish political movement called Zionism was finding favour among the ruling élite in London, and the British Government was persuaded by the Zionists’ chief spokesman, Chaim Weizman, to surrender Palestine for their new Jewish homeland. Hardly a thought, it seems, was given to the earlier pledge to the Arabs, who had occupied and owned the land for 1,500 years – longer, say some scholars, than the Jews ever did.
The Zionists, fuelled by the notion that an ancient Biblical prophecy gave them the title deeds, aimed to push the Arabs out by inserting millions of Eastern European Jews. They had already set up farm communities and founded a new city, Tel Aviv, but by 1914 Jews numbered only 85,000 to the Arabs’ 615,000. The infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917 – actually a letter from the British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, to the most senior Jew in England, Lord Rothschild – pledged assistance for the Zionist cause with apparent disregard for the consequences to the native majority. Calling itself a “declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations”, it said:
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing and non-Jewish communities….”
Balfour, a Zionist convert, later wrote:
“In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country. The four powers are committed to Zionism and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now occupy that land.”
There was opposition. Lord Sydenham warned: “The harm done by dumping down an alien population upon an Arab country may never be remedied. What we have done, by concessions not to the Jewish people but to a Zionist extreme section, is to start a running sore in the East, and no-one can tell how far that sore will extend.”
The American King-Crane Commission of1919 thought it a gross violation of principle. “No British officers consulted by the Commissioners believed that the Zionist programme could be carried out except by force of arms. That, of itself, is evidence of a strong sense of the injustice of the Zionist programme.”
There were other reasons why the British were courting disaster. A secret deal, called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, had been concluded in 1916 between France and Britain, in consultation with Russia, to re-draw the map of the Middle Eastern territories won from Turkey. Britain was to take Jordan, Iraq and Haifa. The area now referred to as Palestine was declared an international zone. The Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Balfour Declaration and the promises made earlier in the McMahon-Hussein letters all cut across each other. It seems to have been a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right was doing in the confusion of war.
Some distinguished Jews opposed a ‘national home’ in Palestine
After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Lenin released a copy of the confidential Sykes-Picot Agreement into the public domain, sowing distrust among the Arabs. Thus the unfolding story had all the makings of a major tragedy. Subsequent crimes – on both sides – flow from this triple-cross. The Zionist organization asked permission to submit its proposal for Palestine to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, hitching a ride on the British request to be granted a mandate over Palestine in order to implement the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist case included the statement that “the land itself needs redemption. Much of it is left desolate. Its present condition is a standing reproach. Two things are necessary for that redemption – a stable and enlightened government, and an addition to the present population which shall be energetic, intelligent, devoted to the country, and backed by the large financial resources that are indispensable for development. Such a population the Jews alone can supply.”
Prominent US Jews opposed to this move handed President Woodrow Wilson a counter-statement objecting to the Zionists’ plan, and asked him to present it to the peace conference. It said the scheme to reorganise the Jews as a national unit with territorial sovereignty in Palestine “not only misrepresents the trend of the history of the Jews, who ceased to be a nation 2000 years ago, but involves the limitation and possible annulment of the larger claims of Jews for full citizenship and human rights in all lands in which those rights are not yet secure. For the very reason that the new era upon which the world is entering aims to establish government everywhere on principles of true democracy, we reject the Zionistic project of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.”
Foreseeing the future with uncanny accuracy, it went on to say, “We rejoice in the avowed proposal of the Peace Congress to put into practical application the fundamental principles of democracy. That principle, which asserts equal rights for all citizens of a state, irrespective of creed or ethnic descent, should be applied in such a manner as to exclude segregation of any kind, be it nationalistic or other. Such segregation must inevitably create differences among the sections of the population of a country. Any such plan of segregation is necessarily reactionary in its tendency, undemocratic in spirit and totally contrary to the practices of free government, especially as these are exemplified by our own country.”
The counter-statement quoted Sir George Adam Smith, a noted biblical scholar and the acknowledged expert on the region, who had said: “It is not true that Palestine is the national home of the Jewish people and of no other people… It is not correct to call its non-Jewish inhabitants ‘Arabs’, or to say that they have left no image of their spirit and made no history except in the great Mosque… Nor can we evade the fact that Christian communities have been [there] as long as ever the Jews were… These are legitimate questions stirred up by the claims of Zionism, but the Zionists have not yet fully faced them”.
America, England, France, Italy, Switzerland and all the most advanced nations of the world, it said, are composed of representatives of many races and religions. “Their glory lies in the freedom of conscience and worship, in the liberty of thought and custom which binds the followers of many faiths and varied civilizations in the common bonds of political union…. A Jewish State involves fundamental limitations as to race and religion, else the term ‘Jewish’ means nothing. To unite Church and State, in any form, as under the old Jewish hierarchy, would be a leap backward of two thousand years.
Tasked with dispossessing Palestinians and expanding the Jewish State… Israeli troops: teenage gunslingers sometimes friendly, sometimes not. All the time I was aware of a third guard nearby with a gun on my back.
“We ask that Palestine be constituted as a free and independent state, to be governed under a democratic form of government recognizing no distinctions of creed or race or ethnic descent, and with adequate power to protect the country against oppression of any kind. We do not wish to see Palestine, either now or at any time in the future, organized as a Jewish State .”
But Wilson apparently failed to put the document before the Conference.
In 1922 the League of Nations placed Palestine under British mandate, which incorporated the principles of the Balfour Declaration. Jewish immigration would be facilitated “under suitable conditions” and a nationality law would allow Jews taking up permanent residence to acquire Palestinian citizenship (in sharp contrast to the Jews-only law now operated by a dominant Israel). But the high commissioner was soon recommending a halt to Jewish immigration for fear that it would create a class of landless Arabs. That same year the British government, aware of Arab concerns that the Balfour Declaration was being interpreted in an “exaggerated” way by Zionists and their sympathisers, issued a White Paper to clarify the position.
“The terms of the Declaration referred to,” it said, “do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded ‘in Palestine’. In this connection it has been observed with satisfaction that at a meeting of the Zionist Congress, the supreme governing body of the Zionist Organization, held at Carlsbad in September, 1921, a resolution was passed expressing as the official statement of Zionist aims the determination of the Jewish people to live with the Arab people on terms of unity and mutual respect, and together with them to make the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which may assure to each of its peoples an undisturbed national development…
“It is also necessary to point out that the Zionist Commission in Palestine, now termed the Palestine Zionist Executive, has not desired to possess, and does not possess, any share in the general administration of the country. Nor does the special position assigned to the Zionist Organization in Article IV of the Draft Mandate for Palestine imply any such functions. That special position relates to the measures to be taken in Palestine affecting the Jewish population, and contemplates that the organization may assist in the general development of the country, but does not entitle it to share in any degree in its government.
“Further, it is contemplated that the status of all citizens of Palestine in the eyes of the law shall be Palestinian, and it has never been intended that they, or any section of them, should possess any other juridical status.
“It is necessary,” said the White Paper with masterly ambiguity, “that the Jewish community in Palestine should be able to increase its numbers by immigration. This immigration cannot be so great in volume as to exceed whatever may be the economic capacity of the country at the time to absorb new arrivals. It is essential to ensure that the immigrants should not be a burden upon the people of Palestine as a whole, and that they should not deprive any section of the present population of their employment.”
However, the White Paper flatly denied that a promise had been made to the Arabs ahead of the Balfour Declaration. “It is not the case, as has been represented by the Arab Delegation, that during the war His Majesty’s Government gave an undertaking that an independent national government should be at once established in Palestine. This representation mainly rests upon a letter dated the 24th October, 1915, from Sir Henry McMahon, then His Majesty’s High Commissioner in Egypt, to the Sharif of Mecca, now King Hussein of the Kingdom of the Hejaz. That letter is quoted as conveying the promise to the Sharif of Mecca to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs within the territories proposed by him. But this promise was given subject to a reservation made in the same letter, which excluded from its scope, among other territories, the portions of Syria lying to the west of the District of Damascus. This reservation has always been regarded by His Majesty’s Government as covering the vilayet of Beirut and the independent Sanjak of Jerusalem. The whole of Palestine west of the Jordan was thus excluded from Sir Henry McMahon’s pledge.
“Nevertheless, it is the intention of His Majesty’s government to foster the establishment of a full measure of self-government in Palestine . But they are of the opinion that, in the special circumstances of that country, this should be accomplished by gradual stages…”
From then on, the situation would go from bad to worse. Despicable Balfour: A Story of Betrayal – Part 2
November 2 marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which began the still-ongoing colonisation of Palestine and sowed the seeds of an endless nightmare for the Palestinian people. The UK Government needs to make amends for its crimes against the Holy Land. Campaigners are calling on it to apologise.
Part 2 continues the Story of Betrayal….
In 1937 the Peel Commission declared that British promises to Arabs and Zionists were irreconcilable and unworkable. Too late, Britain dropped its commitment to the Zionists and began talking about a Palestinian state with a guaranteed Arab majority and protection for minorities.
The Zionists reacted furiously. Their underground military wing, the Haganah, and other armed groups, unleashed a reign of terror in the run-up to World War II. They continued their attacks on the British after the war and tried to bring in hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees.
In 1946 they blew up the south wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed the British mandatory government, killing 91. This terrorist act was ordered by David Ben-Gurion in retaliation for the arrest of Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang members suspected of attacks on the British. He then thought better of it and cancelled the operation but Menachem Begin, who led the Irgun, went ahead. Both Ben-Gurion and Begin, who had a big price on his head as a wanted terrorist, became Israeli prime ministers.
Throughout this period the United States were reluctant to allow Jews fleeing Europe to enter the empty spaces of North America, preferring to play the Zionist game and see them funnelled into Palestine. In 1945 the new US president, Harry Truman, offered Arabs this excuse: “I am sorry, gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands of those who are anxious for the success of Zionism; I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.”
However, Truman was frequently exasperated by the Zionist lobby and on one occasion had a delegation thrown out of the White House for their table-thumping antics. He wrote: “I fear very much that the Jews are like all underdogs. When they get on top they are just as intolerant and cruel as the people were to them when they were underneath.”
American author Gore Vidal provided an intriguing insight. “Sometime in the late 1950s, that world-class gossip and occasional historian, John F. Kennedy, told me how, in 1948, Harry S. Truman had been pretty much abandoned by everyone when he came to run for president. Then an American Zionist brought him two million dollars in cash, in a suitcase, aboard his whistle-stop campaign train. ‘That’s why our recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast.’ As neither Jack nor I was an antisemite (unlike his father and my grandfather) we took this to be just another funny story about Truman and the serene corruption of American politics.”
By now this monster Britain had breathed life into, was running out of control. The Arabs, tricked and dispossessed, were outraged. The collision has been fatally damaging to the West’s relationship with Islam ever since. As the violence escalated, Gandhi was moved to comment: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English. They (the Jews) have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism.”
With the mandate about to expire in 1948 an exhausted Britain handed over the problem to the United Nations and prepared to quit the Holy Land, leaving a powder-keg with the fuse fizzing. The newly-formed UN thought it would save the situation by partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states and making Jerusalem an international city. But this gave the Jews 55 percent of Palestine when they accounted for only 30 percent of the population. The Arab League and the Palestinians of course rejected it. Map 1: 1947 UN Partition of Palestine Under the UN Partition Plan the Jews received 55% of the country (including both Tel Aviv/Jaffa and Haifa port cities, the Sea of Galilee and the resource-rich Negev) although they accounted for only a third of the population (548,000 out of 1,750,000) and owned only 6% of the land. The Jewish community accepted the Partition Plan; the Palestinians (except those in the Communist Party) and the Arab countries rejected it.
The UN Partition of Palestine never did stand close scrutiny. At that time, as some commentators have pointed out, UN members did not include African states, and most Arab and Asian states were still under colonialist regimes. The UN was pretty much a white colonialist club. The Palestinians themselves had no representation and they weren’t even consulted.
The first vote failed to reach the required two-thirds majority: 25 for partition, 13 against and 19 abstentions. To ensure success in the second vote a good deal of arm-twisting was applied to the smaller countries, but again it fell short. At the third attempt France was persuaded to come “on board” after the US threatened to withdraw desperately needed post-WW2 aid, and on November 29 the UN voted to partition Palestine into three parts: a Jewish state on 14,000 sq km with some 558,000 Jews and 405,000 Palestinian Arabs; and an Arab state on 11,500 sq km with about 804,000 Palestinian Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Jerusalem, including major religious sites, would be a ‘corpus separatum’, internationally administered. Map 2: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories By the end of the 1948 war Israel controlled 78% of the country, including half the territory that had been allocated by the UN to the Palestinians. Around 750,000 Palestinians living in what became Israel were made refugees: only 100,000 remained in their homes. More than 418 villages (two-thirds of the villages of Palestine) were systematically destroyed by Israel after their residents had left or been driven out. The Arab areas were now reduced to 22% of the country, the West Bank was taken by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt. The 1949 Armistice Line (the “Green Line”) remains the de facto boundary of the State of Israel until today. Since 1988, when thePalestinians recognized Israel within that boundary, it has been the basis of the two-state option.
This ludicrous carve-up was quickly followed by shameful incidents at Deir Yassin, Lod and Ramle. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were uprooted from their homes and lands and to this day are denied the right to return. They received no compensation, and after their expulsion Jewish militia obliterated hundreds of Arab villages and towns. No sooner had Britain packed her bags than Israel declared statehood on 14 May 1948 and immediately set about expanding control across all of Palestine.
The following day, 15 May, is remembered by Palestinians as the Day of al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), which saw the start of a military terror campaign that forced three-quarters of a million Palestinians from their homeland to make room for the new Jewish state. Some 34 massacres were allegedly committed in pursuit of Israel’s territorial ambitions.
An event permanently etched on the Palestinian memory is the massacre at Deir Yassin by Zionist terror groups, the Irgun and the Stern Gang. On an April morning in 1948 130 of their commandos carried out a dawn raid on this small Arab town with a population of 750, to the west of Jerusalem. The attack was initially beaten off, and only when a crack unit of the Haganah arrived with mortars were the Arab townsmen overwhelmed. The Irgun and the Stern Gang, smarting from the embarrassment of having to summon help, embarked on a ‘clean-up’ operation in which they systematically murdered and executed at least 100 residents – mostly women, children and old people. The Irgun afterwards exaggerated the number, quoting 254, to frighten other Arab towns and villages. The Haganah played down their part in the raid and afterwards said the massacre “disgraced the cause of Jewish fighters and dishonoured Jewish arms and the Jewish flag”.
Deir Yassin signaled the ominous beginning of a deliberate programme by Israel to depopulate Arab towns and villages – and destroy churches and mosques – to make room for incoming Holocaust survivors and other Jews. In any language it was an exercise in ethnic cleansing, the knock-on effects of which have created an estimated 4 million Palestinian refugees today.
By 1949 the Zionists had seized nearly 80 percent of Palestine, provoking the resistance backlash they so bitterly complain about today. Many Jews condemn the Zionist policy and are ashamed of what has been done in their name.
UN Resolution 194 had called on Israel to let the Palestinians back onto their land. It has been re-passed many times, but Israel is still in breach. The Israelis also stand accused of violating Article 42 of the Geneva Convention by moving settlers into the Palestinian territories it occupies, and of riding roughshod over international law with their occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. But expulsion and transfer were always a key part of the Zionist plan. According to historian Benny Morris no mainstream Zionist leader was able to conceive of future co-existence without a clear physical separation between the two peoples. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, is reported to have said: “With compulsory transfer we have a vast area (for settlement)…I support compulsory transfer. I don’t see anything immoral in it.”
He showed astonishing candour on another occasion when he remarked: “If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. We have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it is true, but 2,000 years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti- Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country.”
General Moshe Dayan, hero of the Six Day War (1967), made it known to Palestinians in the territories that “you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes, may leave, and we shall see where this process will lead.” That appears to have been the general attitude ever since.
In 1967 Israel perceived a number of Arab threats designed to check Zionist ambitions, including a blockade of their Red Sea port. In a series of pre-emptive strikes against Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, Israel succeeded in doubling the area of land under its control.
Indeed, in the wake of the 1967 Six Day War Israel confiscated over 52 percent of the land in the West Bank and 30 percent of the Gaza Strip, violating both international law and the UN Charter, which says that a country cannot lawfully make territorial gains from war. It was reported that Israel demolished 1,338 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and detained some 300,000 Palestinians without trial.
The UN issued Security Council Resolution 242, stressing “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and calling for “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict”. It was largely ignored, thus guaranteeing further discord in the region.
Israel’s most notorious prime minister, Ariel Sharon, made a name for himself in 1953 when his secret death squad, Unit 101, dynamited homes and massacred 69 Palestinian civilians – half of them women and children – at Qibya in the West Bank. His troops later destroyed 2,000 homes in the Gaza Strip, uprooting 12,000 people and deporting hundreds of young Palestinians to Jordan and Lebanon. Then in 1982 he masterminded Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which resulted in a massive death toll of Palestinians and Lebanese, a large proportion being children. An Israeli tribunal found him indirectly responsible for the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps and removed him from office. But he didn’t stay in the background for long.
By the end of 1967 there were just 3 illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. By the end of 2005 the total was 177. “When we have settled the land,” the then chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Force, Rafael Eitan, remarked in 1983, “all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
By 2015 there were 196 illegal Israeli settlements in addition to 232 settler outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, and upwards of 750,000 settlers residing there.
Apartheid and occupation: “in practice there is little difference”
So what sort of person was responsible for this misery and mayhem in the Holy Land – the “running sore” Lord Sydenham predicted? At Cambridge Arthur Balfour read moral sciences (no, seriously!). Much good it did the poor Palestinian Arabs he helped dispossess.
Described as born lazy, aloof and having an attitude problem, he was convinced of his personal superiority and wished to keep the vulgar world at arm’s length. Balfour famously remarked: “Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all.”
He had been Prime Minister (1902-1905) and was regarded as weak. At the time of the Declaration blunder he was Foreign Secretary. In the words of one commentator Balfour’s career “stretches before our eyes in a flat and uneventful plain of successful but inglorious and ineffective self-seeking”. He was said to be a man who would make almost any sacrifice to remain in office. In this case, he sacrificed the Arab homeland. In 1922 the League of Nations put Palestine under British mandate, which incorporated the principles of the Balfour’s Declaration.
How have things turned out?
John Dugard, a professor of international law and former Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, explained on Aljazeera the differences and similarities between apartheid South Africa and apartheid Israel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/11/201111395153781378.html
Of course, the regimes of apartheid and occupation are different. Apartheid South Africa was a state that practised discrimination against its own people. It sought to fragment the country into white South Africa and black Bantustans. Its security laws were used to brutally suppress opposition to apartheid. Israel, on the other hand, is an occupying power that controls a foreign territory and its people under a regime recognised by international law [as] belligerent occupation.
However, in practice, there is little difference. Both regimes were/are characterised by discrimination, repression and territorial fragmentation (that is, land seizures).
Israel discriminates against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in favour of half a million Israeli settlers. Its restrictions on freedom of movement, manifested in countless humiliating checkpoints, resemble the “pass laws” of apartheid. Its destruction of Palestinian homes resembles the destruction of homes belonging to blacks under apartheid’s Group Areas Act. The confiscation of Palestinian farms under the pretext of building a security wall brings back similar memories. And so on. Indeed, Israel has gone beyond apartheid South Africa in constructing separate (and unequal) roads for Palestinians and settlers.
Apartheid’s security police practised torture on a large scale. So do the Israeli security forces. There were many political prisoners on Robben Island but there are more Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
Apartheid South Africa seized the land of blacks for whites. Israel has seized the land of Palestinians for half a million settlers and for the purposes of constructing a security wall within Palestinian territory – both of which are contrary to international law.
Dugard suggested there is sufficient evidence for a legitimate enquiry into the question whether Israel violates the prohibition of apartheid found in the 1973 Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute.
Sydenham’s “running sore” has been festering for a century, crippling the Middle East and turning the Holy Land into an abomination. Balfour and his fellow Zionist stooges in the corridors of British power clearly had no understanding of the true purpose and base methods of Zionism.
This is also true of present-day Christian-Zionists. Some Christian churches have rejected Zionist doctrine as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation. They deplore the cosy relationship between Christian Zionist leaders and the governments of Israel and the United States that impose their pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. And they condemn the teachings of Christian Zionism that support those policies as they encourage racial exclusivity and perpetual war.
In other words, no Christian with a functioning brain cell should touch Zionism with a bargepole. Yet the upper echelons of our government and many Western churches are riddled with Zionist sympathisers. Unless they are smoked out, a hundred years from now an outraged civil society will still be calling for government apologies for the actions of that lunatic Balfour and his successors. Related Posts: | 1real |
U.S. bill would ban American tourist travel to North Korea | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic U.S. congressmen introduced a bill on Thursday that would ban Americans from traveling to North Korea as tourists and require them to obtain special permission for other types of visits. Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Joe Wilson said their proposed North Korea Travel Control Act followed the detention of at least 17 Americans in North Korea in the past decade. North Korea has a record of using detained Americans to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations. “With increased tensions in North Korea, the danger that Americans will be detained for political reasons is greater than ever,” the congressmen said in a statement. Given North Korea’s “demonstrated willingness to use American visitors as bargaining chips to extract high level meetings or concessions, it is appropriate for the United States to take steps to control travel to a nation that poses a real and present danger to American interests,” they said. Four Americans are being held in North Korea as diplomatic tensions with Washington have heightened. Two of them, detained in the past month, are affiliated with a private university in the North Korean capital. A congressional source said the bill would ban tourist travel by Americans outright, while any other visits would require a special license from the Treasury Department, which is enforcing a wide range of sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. North Korea this month asserted its sovereign right to “ruthlessly punish” U.S. citizens it has detained for crimes against the government. It said calling such arrests bargaining ploys was “pure ignorance.” North Korea said on May 7 it had detained Kim Hake Song, who worked for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, on suspicion of “hostile acts.” Another American, Kim Sang Dok, who was associated with the same school, was detained in late April on the same charge. The other two Americans are Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old student detained in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years hard labor for attempting to steal a propaganda banner, and Kim Dong Chul, a 62-year-old Korean-American missionary. Kim was sentenced to 10 years hard labor for subversion last year. | 0fake |
Senator says Russian internet trolls stoked NFL debate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator on Wednesday said Russian internet trolls, seeking to polarize Americans, helped fuel a debate ignited by President Donald Trump over whether NFL players should have the right to kneel during the national anthem. The assertion, made by Republican James Lankford, comes as congressional investigators probing Moscow s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election are focusing on how Russian agents used social media to spread divisive political content. We watched, even this weekend, the Russians and their troll farms, their internet folks, start hashtagging out #TakeAKnee and also hashtagging out #BoycottNFL, Lankford, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a hearing on threats faced by the United States. They were taking both sides of the argument this weekend ... to try to raise the noise level of America and make a big issue seem like an even bigger issue as they are trying to push divisiveness in this country, Lankford said. Lankford did not provide evidence to corroborate his statement. A Lankford aide said U.S. intelligence shared with senators showed that Russian troll operations relied on social media to meddle in U.S. issues going back to last year s presidential election in an effort to divide Americans. Such activity has also been occurring in Europe for years, the aide said. A website built by researchers working with the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic project to counter Russian disinformation, showed tweets promoting both sides of the football debate from 600 accounts that analysts identified as users who spread Russian propaganda on Twitter. A Senate aide said the website was viewed as credible among congressional investigators. Facebook this month revealed that suspected Russian trolls purchased more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on its platform during the 2016 election cycle. Twitter is expected to privately brief the Senate panel on Thursday, and the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday technology companies would testify about Russian interference in an open hearing next month. Trump last week said that football players should be fired for kneeling during the national anthem. The players want to draw attention to what they say is social and racial injustice. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia orchestrated a multi-pronged cyber offensive on the 2016 election to discredit Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump, a Republican, win. Russia denies seeking to influence the U.S. election, and Trump has dismissed claims of collusion as fake news. (This version of the story has been refiled to remove extraneous word layers in paragraph 11) | 0fake |
Enter the 'petro': Venezuela to launch oil-backed cryptocurrency | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked to the world of digital currency to circumvent U.S.-led financial sanctions, announcing on Sunday the launch of the petro backed by oil reserves to shore up a collapsed economy. The leftist leader offered few specifics about the currency launch or how the struggling OPEC member would pull off such a feat, but he declared to cheers that the 21st century has arrived! Venezuela will create a cryptocurrency, backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, Maduro said in his regular Sunday televised broadcast, a five-hour showcase of Christmas songs and dancing. The petro, he said, would help Venezuela advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade. Opposition leaders derided the announcement, which they said needed congressional approval, and some cast doubt on whether the digital currency would ever see the light of day in the midst of turmoil. The real currency, the bolivar, is in freefall, and the country is sorely lacking in basic needs like food and medicine. Still, the announcement highlights how sanctions enacted this year by U.S. President Donald Trump s administration are hurting Venezuela s ability to move money through international banks. Washington has levied sanctions against Venezuelan officials, PDVSA executives and the country s debt issuance. Sources say compliance departments are scrutinizing transactions linked to Venezuela, which has slowed some bond payments and complicated certain oil exports. Maduro s pivot away from the U.S. dollar comes after the recent spectacular rise of bitcoin, which has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world. The announcement bewildered some followers of cryptocurrencies, which typically are not backed by any government or central banks. Ironically, Venezuela s currency controls in recent years have spurred a bitcoin fad among tech-savvy Venezuelans looking to bypass controls to obtain dollars or make internet purchases. Maduro s government has a poor track record in monetary policy. Currency controls and excessive money printing have led to a 57 percent depreciation of the bolivar against the dollar in the last month alone on the widely used black market. That has dragged down the monthly minimum wage to a mere $4.30. For the millions of Venezuelans plunged into poverty and struggling to eat three meals a day, Maduro s announcement is unlikely to bring any immediate relief. Economists and opposition leaders say Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, has recklessly refused to overhaul Venezuela s controls and stem the economic meltdown. He could now be seeking to pay bondholders and foreign creditors in the currency amid a plan to restructure the country s major debt burden, opposition leaders said, but the plan is likely to flop. It s Maduro being a clown. This has no credibility, opposition lawmaker and economist Angel Alvarado told Reuters. I see no future in this, added fellow opposition legislator Jose Guerra. Maduro says he is trying to combat a Washington-backed conspiracy to sabotage his government and end socialism in Latin America. On Sunday he said Venezuela was facing a financial world war. | 0fake |
Iraq to declare final victory over Islamic State after desert campaign | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after IS militants were routed in the desert. Iraqi forces on Friday captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Islamic State control, signaling the collapse of the group s caliphate proclaimed after it overran much of Iraq s north and west in 2014. Securing desert and border areas is what remains in the campaign against Islamic State, military commanders say. From a military perspective, we have ended the presence of Daesh in Iraq, Abadi said while addressing a weekly news conference, referring to Islamic State by an Arabic acronym. God willing we will announce very soon after the end of the purification operations victory over Daesh in Iraq. Abadi s comments came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State while a senior Iranian military commander thanked the thousands of martyrs killed in operations organized by Iran to defeat the militant group in Syria and Iraq. Political disagreements will pave the way for the Sunni militant group to carry out attacks, however, Abadi said. He was referring to the central Baghdad government s dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government over the latter s declaration of independence following a Sept. 25 referendum. Any disagreement between political factions will encourage Daesh to carry out terrorist attacks, he said. I call on our Kurdish brothers to avoid fighting. Hours before Abadi spoke, at least 23 people were killed and 60 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a crowded marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of the oil city of Kirkuk. Abadi praised a federal court verdict that ruled the Kurdish referendum unconstitutional and called on Kurds not to resort to violence. Iraq s Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday that the referendum was unconstitutional and the results void, bolstering Baghdad s hand in a stand-off with the Kurdish region watched closely by neighbouring Turkey and Iran. I hail the federal court s decision to void the Kurdish region s referendum, he said. Kurds voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq in the referendum, defying Baghdad and alarming neighboring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities. The Iraqi government responded to the referendum by seizing Kurdish-held Kirkuk and other territory disputed between the Kurds and the central government. It also banned direct flights to Kurdistan and demanded control over border crossings. | 0fake |
Egypt arrests dozens in crackdown on gays | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has arrested 22 people in the past three days as part of a crackdown on gays after a rainbow flag was raised at a concert, activists and rights groups said on Monday. At least 33 people have been arrested since Sept. 23, a day after a group of people were seen raising the flag, a rare public show of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the conservative Muslim country. The public prosecutor announced an investigation after local media launched a highly critical campaign against those who raised the rainbow flag at a Mashrou Leila concert, a popular Lebanese alternative rock band whose lead singer is openly gay. On Monday police arrested Ahmed Alaa and Sarah Hegazy, the latter being the first woman involved in such an incident in years, in relation to the case, their lawyer said. They were both charged with joining a group formed in contrary to the law and propagating that group s idea . Hegazy faced a further charge of promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery and the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered them detained for 15 days, lawyer Amr Mohamed told Reuters. Two men had been arrested earlier in relation to the flag incident but one was released. The remaining arrests were unrelated to the incident but have all been over the perceived sexual orientation of the defendants and came after it. At least 10 men were arrested between Sept. 28-30 and six others earlier that week, judicial sources said. All 16 went on trial on Sunday charged with promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery , euphemisms for homosexuality. A verdict is due on Oct. 29. One man has been sentenced to six years in jail over similar charges. Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. Those arrested are subjected to anal examinations to determine whether they have had gay sex, which rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say amounts to torture. Five such examinations have taken place, Amnesty International said on Monday. Judicial sources do not deny the examinations take place but say they are legally carried out and are not a form of abuse. In a matter of days the Egyptian security forces have rounded up dozens of people and carried out five anal examinations signaling a sharp escalation in the authorities efforts to persecute and intimidate members of the LGBTI community following the rainbow flag incident, said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty. In 2001, 52 men were arrested when police raided a floating disco called the Queen Boat. | 0fake |
Dennis Rodman Gives North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un Trump’s ’Art of the Deal’ - Breitbart | Dennis Rodman gives Kim Jong Un eclectic gifts that include ”Where’s Waldo,” Trump’s book, mermaid puzzle and soap. https: . pic. twitter. NBA Hall of Fame’s Dennis Rodman is in North Korea visiting dictator Kim “trying to open a door” between the North Korea leader and United States President Donald Trump. Thursday, Rodman did just that, giving North Korea’s sports minister a copy of Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” among other gifts, intended for Kim . Along with Trump’s book, Rodman gifted the North Korean dictator with two autographed generic basketball jerseys, bath soap sets, a mermaid jigsaw puzzle and a “Where’s Waldo?” book. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
MEET THE NASTY WOMEN Responsible For Promoting Hate And Intolerance On Nazi-Themed Trump Billboard [VIDEO] | A menacing Donald Trump is gazing down on Phoenix s Grand Avenue.The president is flanked by mushroom clouds and swastikas configured like dollar signs. I think a lot of people are feeling this way and I m just trying to express what I think is on a lot of people s minds these days, the billboard s artist, Karen Fiorito, said Friday in an interview from her California home. Something that really concerned us was this idea of a dictatorship where things were going in a certain direction. The billboard art was commissioned by the billboard owner, Beatrice Moore, a longtime patron of the arts on Grand Avenue. Some of these issues are so important you can t not speak out, Moore said in an interview.The Trump billboard went up Friday at 11th Avenue and Grand, to coincide with the start of the annual three-day Art Detour event in downtown Phoenix. Moore said it would remain up as long as Trump is president.Were Moore s remarks about Hitler what inspired this hateful billboard?This isn t the first time Fiorito and Moore put up controversial billboard art.In 2004, Fiorito created a billboard of President George W. Bush and top government officials for her master of fine arts thesis on political propaganda at Arizona State University. Dear America, the billboard said, we lied to you for your own good. Now trust us. Moore and Fiorito did expect blowback from Trump supporters. Fiorito said she has received death threats over the Trump billboard. A lot of hate. Things have gotten a lot more escalated now, she said. I just hope that everyone involved in helping bring this message out is safe and that we all get through this unharmed, Fiorita said. 12 News | 1real |
TRUMP’S DOJ CHOOSES SIDES In Supreme Court Case Of Baker Who Refused To Make Cake For Gay Wedding | The double standard in our judicial system today, as it relates to the protection of religious rights for Christians in America is stunning. Activist judges have been legislating from the bench for far too long when it comes to the protection of religious rights. Will President Trump s DOJ put an end to the persecution of Christians with this very important upcoming case? In a major upcoming Supreme Court case that weighs equal rights with religious liberty, the Trump administration on Thursday sided with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a brief on behalf of baker Jack Phillips, who was found to have violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by refusing to created a cake to celebrate the marriage of Charlie Craig and David Mullins in 2012. Phillips said he doesn t create wedding cakes for same-sex couples because it would violate his religious beliefs.The government agreed with Phillips that his cakes are a form of expression, and he cannot be compelled to use his talents for something in which he does not believe. Forcing Phillips to create expression for and participate in a ceremony that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs invades his First Amendment rights, Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall wrote in the brief. WaPoComedian Steven Crowder made a powerful (and hilarious) video that was seen by over 5 MILLION viewers, exposing how the left twists the narrative to promote their radical ideology. Crowder went undercover to several Muslim bakeries in Dearborn, Michigan to see how many of them would be willing to bake a cake for a gay couple. Keep in mind, the left is the champion of Muslim communities in America when it comes to protecting their rights.Watch:In 2015, Star Transport lost a high profile case after two Muslim Somali immigrant drivers who worked for them were fired for refusing to deliver alcohol, as part of their job. Star Transport was forced to pay $240,000 to the two Muslim men after the jury found them guilty of violating the Muslim men s faith. The Federal Judge in the case EEOC alleged that in 2009, Star Transport fired Mohamed and Bulshale after they were required to transport alcohol. Both men told Star Transport that they believed doing so would violate their religious beliefs under Islamic law.Does anyone see a pattern of protection for certain religious beliefs, but not for others?In another very high profile case, the very successful Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery was forced to shut down, after a leftist judge ruled against the owners, owners Melissa and Aaron Klein, for not agreeing to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding.Watch, as they discuss the shut down of their bakery in this interview:And who could forget this heartbreaking story of Arlene, an adorable little owner of Arlene s Florist, who refused to supply a regular customer flowers for his gay wedding: | 1real |
THE POLLS CAN NO LONGER BE RIGGED THIS ELECTION | We Are Change
In this video Luke Rudkowski interviews Matt a computer programmer who’s allowing everyone to run there own election polls. Already 800,000 people in the U.S were independently polled and the findings contradict the main stream media polls.
https://www.callforamerica.com/
The post THE POLLS CAN NO LONGER BE RIGGED THIS ELECTION appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
Sean Hannity Barely Spends 6 Seconds On Last Night’s Drubbing – Revisits Trump ‘Victory’ Instead | Fox News host Sean Hannity spent a whopping 6 seconds covering Tuesday night s election results in which Democrats gained seats across the country in a referendum to Donald Trump and his policies. Hannity, an ardent defender of Trump s, explained the Democratic electoral victories in three of the states by saying, Those results in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York not states Donald Trump won. Hannity devoted 14 words to cover the election results in which Democrats trounced Republicans. In fact, as Shareblue notes, Democrats flipped 14 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates the largest Democratic gain in a single election in the state since 1899. Hannity just shrugged it off.Watch:Sean Hannity's election coverage pic.twitter.com/l8DNJbfVRq John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) November 8, 2017After the hate-march in Charlottesville, Virginia in which tiki-torch carrying bigots terrorized the city while marching in Trump s name, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer, the Commonwealth rejected hate and bigotry at the polls yesterday.Newly elected Virginia state delegate Danica Roem, an openly transgender woman, defeated Bob Marshall, a Republican incumbent who billed himself as the commonwealth s chief homophobe. Instead of covering the big news, Hannity, a man who can be spotted usually humping on Trump s leg, decided to cover the former reality show star s speech in South Korea and his 2016 victory. Tonight on #Hannity we will cover President Trump s speech in South Korea and election results with @SebGorka, @AmbJohnBolton, @peterschweizer, @MonicaCrowley, @GreggJarrett and more Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 8, 2017And Trump is the reason Republicans lost so many seats last night, but Hannity wants to sing his praises and ignore the massive beating the GOP took.The Internet decided to rub it in his face.What's your take on the election results, Sean? Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 8, 2017Will you discuss the look on their faces? pic.twitter.com/U63kUEeZ4s Eric McAlister (@stankfunkmusic) November 8, 2017Did the election results come in yet? pic.twitter.com/fzFjxjeZMA ?BlueTexan?? (@lkjtexas) November 8, 2017How about the election in VA big guy? Thoughts? johnny foosball (@funkmnm) November 8, 2017Let me save you a broadcast: Election results LOL pic.twitter.com/AKX5j2JSeG Jazzie (@baddogs4343) November 8, 2017Feeling a little BLUE tonight? IAmTaniaNow! (@IAmTaniaNow) November 8, 2017What about the election landslide results in Virginia and New Jersey? Sara Burns (@VelvetBarracuda) November 8, 2017Will you be covering the crushing election defeat of the Republican Party? Or do your viewers not need to hear about that? Jason (@berg0887) November 8, 2017That s some real in-depth reporting there, Sean. The Fox News host likes to routinely call liberals snowflakes but he s the snowflakiest snowflake on TV. It s probably better for Hannity that he didn t report the actual news, though. It looks like he was about to cry. Although, drinking Hannity s salty conservative tears is kind of satisfying after Trump stumped so hard for Ed Gillespie s campaign on Twitter.Image via screen capture. | 1real |
Oregon Ignores GOP To Become First State To Choose 100 Percent Clean Energy | Oregon is showing Republicans in Congress how to get sh*t done.Republicans in Congress may be refusing to adhere to the Paris climate agreement, but Oregon Democrats are rolling ahead with legislation that would make the state the first in the nation to rely on 100 percent clean energy for all of their electricity needs.In fact, both the statehouse and the state senate passed the Clean Energy and Coal Transition Plan despite Republican cries that going full renewable energy will make energy costs skyrocket, which isn t true. As it turns out, clean energy sources are poised to become less expensive than energy generated by coal and gas, both of which are finite resources.When Governor Kate Brown signs this bill into law Oregonians will get to work enacting it to get the state completely off of the coal grid by 2035. In a statement, Brown praised the legislation, saying it equips Oregon with a bold and progressive path towards the energy resource mix of the future. Oregon already draws 43 percent of their electricity generation from hydropower, and making the state 100 percent clean energy means Oregon will not be contributing near as big of a carbon footprint as other states in the country. According to Oregon utility company Pacific Power, the new measure would reduce carbon pollution the equivalent of taking over six million cars off the road.This is the second major liberal victory in Oregon this week.Earlier this month, Governor Brown signed a minimum wage bill into law making Oregon the state with the highest minimum wage in the nation.Even the White House praised Oregon s determination to boost the paychecks of hardworking Americans and help support millions of workers trying to make ends meet, while also urging Republicans in Congress to do the same for the rest of the American people.So not only is Oregon leading the way on making sure Americans make a fair wage, they are leading the way to make sure people have an environment and a planet to enjoy in the future.Featured Image: Wikimedia | 1real |
LOL! OPEN BORDERS SEAN PENN Responds After New PRO-REFUGEE Movie Gets DESTROYED By Critics At Cannes | Is it possible the French have lost their appetite for our pro-open borders Hollywood liberals misrepresenting the truth about the inundation of Muslim men into their towns and communities? CANNES Another day, another dud. In its early days, the 69th Cannes Film Festival was one of pleasant surprises, including a three-hour German-language art-house comedy, Toni Erdmann, that had critics applauding during as well as after the film. Then there was Paterson, a Jim Jarmusch creation starring Adam Driver as a bus driver who writes poetry. The well-received film plays out like something of a poem itself. And even if it doesn t win any official prizes, it has already captured the Palme Dog for best canine performance, by a bulldog named Nellie.But many of cinema s big names have proven less reliable. Woody Allen s Caf Society and Stephen Spielberg s The BFG, both opening out of competition, were solid but hardly the directors best work. A Thursday night screening of The Neon Demon, written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Elle Fanning, drew jeers for its lurid, over-the-top stew of vampirism, cannibalism and a touch of necrophilia.That was followed the next morning by The Last Face, Sean Penn s fifth film as a director and his first since 2007 s Into the Wild. It s a story of refugee crises and humanitarian aid (subjects with which the activist Penn is intimately familiar) but also, as an opening text explains with a thud: about the love (pause) between a man (pause) and a woman. You could hear the groans from the crowd.Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem lead an international cast that includes Britain s Jared Harris and French star Jean Reno. They are aid workers whose tumultuous love affair plays out over a decade and many explosions and, lest we doubt their passion, through a variety of slow-motion scenes, soft-focus lenses and choral music.Penn had little to say about the negative reaction to The Last Face. I ve finished the film so it s not a discussion that I feel I can be of any value to, he said. I stand behind the film as it is, and everybody is going to be well entitled to their response. Via: National Post | 1real |
Boiler Room – #UniteTheRight Coverage with Hesher, Andy Nowicki, Patrick Henningsen, FunkS0ul & Randy J | 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 host Hesher and along side Andy Nowicki (the Alt Right Novelist) reporting LIVE from the #UniteTheRight rally in VA, Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire and FunkSoul & Randy J (21WIRE & ACR contributors), for this special broadcast of BOILER ROOM.Today on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is having an emergency meeting to cover Andy Nowicki s experience at the Unite The Right rally in VA. Hesher, FunkSoul, Randy J and Patrick Henningsen were also covering the live updates of the news scene at the very same rally, where several cars were involved in a hit and run style event that ended with multiple injuries and fatalities reported.Direct Download Episode #121Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research: | 1real |
Daughter of Holocaust Survivors Running for Senate Supports 2nd Amendment | Daughter of Holocaust Survivors Running for Senate Supports 2nd Amendment She also warns Americans to take Islamic threats serious Millie Weaver | Infowars.com - October 26, 2016 Comments
Millie Weaver interviews Beverly Goldstein, Republican candidate for Ohio U.S. Senate Seat District 11.
Mrs. Goldstein, who is a daughter of Holocaust survivors, is a strong proponent of the 2nd Amendment and warns Americans to take Islamic threats serious. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles Download on your mobile device now for free. Today on the Show Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars crew. From the store Featured Videos FEATURED VIDEOS Donald Trump Has Won The 2016 Presidential Election - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . BREAKING: Michael Moore Admits Trump Is Right - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . ILLUSTRATION What are the chances of a US/Russia nuclear exchange? 0% © 2016 Infowars.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC Company. All rights reserved. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice. 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force | 1real |
BUCKLE UP AMERICA: Dinesh D’Souza’s Is About To EXPOSE The Democrat Party In “Hillary’s America”…WATCH The Powerful NEW Trailer HERE | No one exposes the truth about the corrupt and self-serving Democrat party better than Dinesh D Souza. For decades, the Democrat party has been able to sweep their role in slavery under the rug this movie could change that. The movie is set to be released on July 25,2016. It all began when the Obama Administration tried to shut me up. What did I learn? The system doesn t go after them because they run the system. It s time to go behind the curtain discover the soul of the Democratic Party. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets or to find out if Hillary s America is playing in a theater near you. If there is no theater willing to show Hillary s America near you, click HERE to demand your local theater shows this important film.The Blaze Tucked among talk about his new book, upcoming documentaries and the future of the United States, Dinesh D Souza made a major prediction on the next American president: If I had to bet now, I regret to say, I would bet on Hillary. [quote_box_center] [Clinton s campaign staff] fight like it matters to them, D Souza said on The Glenn Beck Program. They re in a knife fight, not a chess match, and we have to up our game. [/quote_box_center][quote_box_center] I respect their ruthlessness, D Souza said. If you look at Hillary, her political strategy is to doggedly move ahead and dare everybody else to bludgeon her to the ground and sit on her, otherwise she s going to keep moving you ve got to respect that. [/quote_box_center] Her ambition is to establish a kind of stranglehold of control over the leaders of wealth and power in America, D Souza posited. I don t just mean the government. I mean the private sector, over the lives of American citizens. D Souza compared the presidential contender s ambition to a Napoleonic hunger for power and tyrannical impulse, claiming Clinton would not be satisfied if everything is not at your command if everyone is not at your behest. | 1real |
WATCH WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHRISTIAN MAN ASKS 13 GAY BAKERIES TO MAKE PRO-TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE CAKE [Video] | I was wondering if I could get a cake that says: Gay marriage is wrong. The tolerant answers that follow this question show the astounding hypocrisy of the left.Say that Bestiality Is Wrong or Polygamy Is Wrong and it s not considered hate speech, but if you have the opinion that Gay Marriage Is Wrong the whole world jumps up and down screaming racism bigotry and hatred .This is becoming the politically-correct norm, but no matter what one argues, this is suppressing free speech.No one targeted pro-gay bakeries, but gay activists target Christian bakeries. Support Gay Marriage is one Christian bakery was sued for refusing to put that slogan on a cake for an event to support the gay agenda. Yet Christian bakeries that refuse to make pro-homosexual marriage cakes are getting sued left, right, and center. They get fined, they get death threats, and they lose their businesses. This experiment proves beyond doubt that the gay agenda is not just about their freedom to practice a sexual orientation, but the suppression of free speech.To make our case we provided 3 video clips, the third one is a video showing homosexual activists in Ireland used the state to force a Christian bakery to make a cake with the slogan Support Gay Marriage for a pro-gay marriage event, but he refused which added a tremendous loss to his business. Several Christian bakeries were sued in the United States with several who lost their businesses and we said enough is enough.So Shoebat.com decided to call some 13 prominent pro-gay bakers in a row. Each one denied us the right to have Gay Marriage Is Wrong on a cake and even used deviant insults and obscenities against us. One baker even said all sorts of profanities against Christians and ended the conversation by saying that she will make me a cookie with a large phallus on it.It was all recorded. It will stun the American people as to how militant and intolerant the homosexual bakers were. Even after we completed our experiment we got a ton of hate messages saying that we were hateful for simply giving them a taste of their own medicine. They argued that the slogan Gay Marriage Is Wrong is not the same thing as Support Gay Marriage as if an opposite view of a view is hateful. This would mean that the majority of Americans who oppose gay marriage are bigoted and hate filled . Support Polygamy or Polygamy is Wrong are views, yet the first which the Muslim supports and the second most Americans would never support, but both are opinions and are considered free speech.Watch what happens when a customer wants to buy a cake for his pro-traditional marriage event:****WARNING****STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT*** Language used by baker to customer on phone is extremely vulgar:https://youtu.be/AJaroR_qTNshttps://youtu.be/ptgAKywiHG0The homosexual activist in this third video said you can t choose who you serve, as though he is taking a purely objective position, but when we ask for the reverse of the same message, all of a sudden the saying of you can t choose who you serve, does not apply to us, the Christians.OUR POINTHere is our point. A Christian making a homosexual cake with Support Gay Marriage goes against his faith and a homosexual putting Gay Marriage Is Wrong goes against his faith as well. Now of course we honor their right to say no, this is not the issue, but what about honoring the Christian right to also say no?CONCLUSIONThe big lie of the homosexual agenda is this: They claim that they are only fighting for equality and tolerance.This is false.What then is their agenda?Via: Christian Patriot | 1real |
Bundy Ranch ‘Standoff’ Defendants Prepare for Trial in Nevada | 21st Century Wire says Defendants in the Federal case against Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy, his sons and a group of their supporters have had a key weapons charge against them dropped in a recent pretrial hearing but there is still a major legal battle ahead of them. The charges stem from an event in April 2014 when Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agents tried to seize Bundy s cattle over a dispute between the Ranchers and the government about grazing fees in what the ranchers saw as federal over-reach in management of public land being at the heart of the dispute.Mark Anderson reports on the developing story of the Bundy Ranch Trials in the article below from American Free Press Mark Anderson American Free PressA key charge on weapons was recently dropped from the charges that were filed against Nevada ranchers Cliven Bundy, his sons, and several of their supporters over their protest in 2014. So far, the case has been split into three separate trials, set to start soon in Las Vegas. AFP will continue to follow this case as it evolves throughout the summer.LAS VEGAS, Nev. A federal judge in a pretrial hearing on Feb. 2 dismissed the third count, related to firearms, in the 16-count indictment against rancher Cliven Bundy and 17 others stemming from their April 2014 resistance of a crackdown carried out by federal agents in Bunkerville, located in southern Nevada.The standoff happened when federal agents unsuccessfully tried to seize Bundy s cattle following a decades-long dispute that, according to the government, was over unpaid grazing fees. The event is widely seen as a collision of two worldviews emblematic of Western landowners longtime efforts to resist and turn back what they see as heavy-handed federal micro-management of vast stretches of Western lands.While the Las Vegas Review Journal online called U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro s decision to drop count three as a minor victory for the men accused of organizing a mass assault on law enforcement, other observers have insisted that federal agents, especially those from the Bureau of Land Management, were the actual assailants.Judge Navarro ruled to drop that count amid requests by the defense for several of the charges contained in the federal indictment to be dismissed, according to the Journal.Paralegal Tatum Wehr, assistant to Bret Whipple, attorney for Cliven Bundy, told this AFP writer Feb. 3 that Navarro s decision applies to all the defendants awaiting trial. That was seconded by Roger Roots, an astute Montanan who s a legal adviser to both Cliven Bundy and his son, Ryan.Roots explained to AFP in a phone interview that, while the dropped count has to do with the alleged use of a gun to impede federal officers, the three other similar gun counts that weren t dropped allege the use of a gun to assault, threaten, and interfere with federal officers. In his view, those are just three ways of saying the same basic thing and that such wording is a deliberate way for the feds to get something to stick.Roots added that a motion to dismiss the case was filed on Feb. 2. That will be ruled on in a couple weeks. Unless that succeeds, this thing is definitely going to trial, he said, adding, This case is a big exposure for these guys. We re talking high stakes. According to Roots, the three remaining gun counts carry mandatory minimum sentences of several years each under what he described as an evil statute [USC 18, Sect. 924 (c)]. It carries stiff sentences (especially for second offenses) and mandates that the sentences be served consecutively, instead of the usual concurrent approach. The defendants could be looking at 25 years to life, depending on how many counts stick, as Roots understands it.Roots also said the federal government has been withholding critically important evidence from the defense, amid severe moral and ethical breaches and enormously wasteful and improper spending of tax dollars during the standoff by BLM agent Dan Love, a key figure in this saga.And with Love s testimony being the only thing the grand jury heard in the Bundy case before issuing its indictment meaning that the grand jury s inherent right to do its own investigation was never exercised the federal case evidently is far weaker than many people assume.An insightful overview of Love s behavior concerning the Bunkerville standoff and related matters can be heard here in an interview with Brianna Bundy, wife of defendant Mel Bundy, conducted by KSDZ-FM The Twister in Nebraska. They [BLM agents] laugh and joke about shooting women, shooting children, and dogs and horses, Brianna told KSDZ, referring to evidence in the form of body-cam footage evidently being withheld from public knowledge. Love is accused of egging other agents on to aggressively view Cliven Bundy and his supporters as an allegedly mortal threat. The discovery process could bring this matter to light, but that has yet to happen Continue this report at American Free PressREAD MORE BUNDY RANCH NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Bundy Ranch FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Franken to make 11:45 a.m. announcement after harassment accusations | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Al Franken, facing intense pressure to step down following allegations of sexual misconduct, will make an announcement at 11:45 a.m. (1645 GMT) on Thursday, his office said. Franken spokesman Michael Dale-Stein said Franken would make a statement on the Senate floor but did not elaborate. | 0fake |
Lady Gaga Protests Donald Trump Outside of Trump Tower | Lady Gaga Protests Donald Trump Outside of Trump Tower 11/09/2016
E! ONLINE
Lady Gaga took to Trump Tower early Wednesday morning to protest the results of the U.S. election.
The “Bad Romance” singer, a well-known Hillary Clinton supporter, stood outside Donald Trump ‘s building and held a sign that read “Love trumps hate.” As the hours passed Tuesday night and it became clearer that Trump would win the presidency, Gaga tweeted, “In a room full of hope, we will be heard. Stand up for kindness, equality, and love. Nothing will stop us. Say a prayer America.”
Gaga campaigned for Clinton earlier this week, attending a rally where she spoke of Clinton’s strengths. “She has a career in politics that spans decades of experience, education, leadership, and wisdom. She’s ready to be president,” she said. “She kept going and she kept fighting for women’s rights. She kept fighting for the care of our children. She kept fighting for those that are in need.”Trump’s victory was declared around 2:30 a.m. ET, and during his speech he praised Clinton’s efforts throughout the election. He said she was owed a “deep debt of gratitude” for all her hard work. “We will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. We will deal fairly with everyone. We will seek common ground, partnership not conflict,” he added in his speech. “America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our destiny.” | 1real |
JUDGE ROY MOORE BLASTS Latest Accuser’s Press Conference With Same Liberal Lawyer Who Tried To Take Down Trump: “I Don’t Even Know The Woman” | Even though the media and the their allies in the Democrat Party are maniacly focused on doing whatever it takes to bring down the popular Alabama GOP Senate candidate, only one month before the election, Judge Roy Moore still has a sizable lead in the most recent polls.Accusations from four decades ago, by women that range from a woman who worked for Hillary and promotes Democrat candidate for Senate, Doug Ross on Facebook, to a woman who has a history of accusing several pastors of sexual misconduct are suddenly coming out of the woodwork.One of Moore s accusers, Leigh Corfman apparently has a history of claiming pastors made sexual advances on her.Purportedly Moore s main accuser Leigh Corfman has had three divorces, filed for bankruptcy three times, and has been charged with multiple misdemeanors.Posts on Moore's FB page indicate that Corfman, has claimed several pastors at various churches made sexual advances at her. James Hirsen (@thejimjams) November 10, 2017Another one of Moore s accusers Debbie Wesson Gibson wasn t clever enough to delete postings from her Facebook page that show she s a Hillary supporter, she hates President Trump and oh yeah, she asks her friends (more than once) to vote for Moore s Democrat opponent, Doug Ross.Today, leftist media whore, Gloria Allred marched another accuser, Beverly Young Nelson, out in front of the cameras with a four decades old story about how she was sexually assaulted by Roy Moore. This time, however, Roy Moore, and his wife Kayla are not just sitting back and watching his reputation be destroyed by the liberal machine. Watch, as Moore and his wife come out swinging, at the lies being told by the latest accuser. Roy Moore tells the crowd of his supporters and the media, I don t even know the woman. I don t even know where the restaurant was or is. :Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore and his wife, Kayla Moore, react to new sexual misconduct allegations brought against him by an Alabama woman, Beverly Young Nelson, who claims Moore assaulted her when she was 16 years old pic.twitter.com/FSJlntUant Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 14, 2017Moore s wife Kayla, who is planning to sue the Washington Post, reminded her friends on Facebook that the media whore lawyer Gloria Allred tried the same stunt with Donald Trump only months before the election:Gloria Allred is currently under two separate bar investigations for alleged misconduct:Anti-Trump Celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is under two bar investigations https://t.co/OzbyYWaHLD via @MailOnline Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) November 13, 2017Yesterday, this letter was published by dozens of pastors, who came to the defense of Judge Roy Moore:Pastor s LetterDear friends and fellow Alabamians, For decades, Roy Moore has been an immovable rock in the culture wars a bold defender of the little guy, a just judge to those who came before his court, a warrior for the unborn child, defender of the sanctity of marriage, and a champion for religious liberty. Judge Moore has stood in the gap for us, taken the brunt of the attack, and has done so with a rare, unconquerable resolve. As a consequence of his unwavering faith in God and his immovable convictions for Biblical principles, he was ousted as Chief Justice in 2003. As a result, he continued his life pursuit by starting the Foundation for Moral Law, which litigates religious liberty cases around our Nation. After being re-elected again to Chief Justice in 2012, by an overwhelming majority, he took another round of persecution for our faith as he stood up for the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. You can know a man by his enemies, and he s made plenty from the radical organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU to the liberal media and a handful of establishment politicians from Washington. He has friends too, a lot of them. They live all across this great State, work hard all week, and fill our pews on Sunday. They know him as a father, a grandfather, a man who loves God s Word and knows much of it by heart, a man who cares for the people, a man who understands our Constitution in the tradition of our Founding Fathers, and a man who deeply loves America. It s no wonder the Washington establishment has declared all-out war on his campaign. We are ready to join the fight and send a bold message to Washington: dishonesty, fear of man, and immorality are an affront to our convictions and our Savior and we won t put up with it any longer. We urge you to join us at the polls to cast your vote for Roy Moore. In your service, Dr. Tom Ford, III, Pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama Pastor Stan Cooke, Kimberly Church of God, Kimberly, Alabama Pastor Jonathan Rodgers, Dothan, Alabama Pastor Joseph Smith, Pine Air Baptist Church, Grand Bay Alabama Dr. David E. Gonnella, Pastor, Theodore, Alabama Pastor Mike Allison, Madison, Alabama Dr. Terry Batton, Christian Renewal and Development Ministries, Eufaula, Alabama Pastors Tim and Elizabeth Hanson, Smiths Station, Alabama Pastor Mark Liddle, Dominion Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama Pastor Steve Sanders, Victory Baptist Church, Millbrook, Alabama Dr. Richard Fox, retired Baptist pastor Dr. Randy Cooper, Pastor, Warrior, Alabama William Green, Minister, Fresh Anointing House of Worship, Montgomery, Alabama Maurice McCaney, Victory Christian Fellowship Church, Florence, Alabama Pastor Jamie Holcomb, Young s Chapel, Piedmont, Alabama Pastor Paul Elliott, Young s Chapel, Piedmont, Alabama Pastor Rodney Gilmore, Covenant Christian, Gadsden, Alabama Pastor Mark Gidley, Faith Worship Center, Gadsden, Alabama Pastor Bill Snow, Edgewood Church, Anniston, Alabama Pastor Michael Yates, Webster s Chapel, Gadsden, Alabama Pastor Mark Holden, Webster s Chapel, Gadsden, Alabama Pastor Joshua Copeland, Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, Anniston, Alabama Pastor Bruce Jenkins, Young s Chapel, Piedmont, Alabama Pastor Keith Bond, Young s Chapel, Piedmont, Alabama Pastor Jim Lester, Fannin Road Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama Pastor Thad Endicott, Heritage Baptist Church, Opelika, Alabama Bishop Fred and Tijuanna Adetunji, Fresh Anointing House of Worship, Montgomery, Alabama Pastor David Floyd, Marvyn Parkway Baptist Church, Opelika, Alabama Pastor Bruce Word, Freedom Church, Gadsden, Alabama Pastor Paul Hubbard, Lakeview Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama Rev. Carl Head, Lakeview Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama Pastor Duwayne Bridges, Jr., Fairfax First Christian Church, Valley, Alabama Rev. Edwin Roberts, Adams Street Church of Christ, Enterprise, Alabama Pastor John McCrummen, Open Door Baptist Church, Enterprise, Alabama Rev. Mickey Counts, Open Door Baptist Church, Enterprise, Alabama Rev. Alex Pagen, Open Door Baptist Church, Enterprise, Alabama Pastor Glenn Brock, Eufaula, Alabama Rev. Tim Head, Montgomery, Alabama Pastor/Elder Ted Phillips, Christ Church, Odenville, Alabama Tim Yarbrough, Elder, Trinity Free Presbyterian, Trinity, Alabama Pastor Myron Mooney, Trinity Free Presbyterian, Trinity, Alabama Jerry Frank, Elder, Trinity Free Presbyterian, Trinity, Alabama Pastor Jim Nelson, Church of the Living God, Moulton, Alabama Pastor Earl Wise, Millbrook, Alabama Rick and Beverly Simpson, Summit Holiness Church, Alabama Pastor Lane Simmons and Margie Dale Simmons, First Assembly of God, Greenville Alabama Rev. Charles Morris, Pastor Grace Way Fellowship, Evergreen Alabama Dr. George Grant, Pastor, Parish Presbyterian Church Pastor David Whitney, Cornerstone Church Dr. Peter and Roseann Waldron, St. Francis Anglican Church Pastor Franklin and Mrs. Pamela Raddish, Capitol Hill Independent Baptist Ministries Dr. Michael Peroutka, Institute on the Constitution Reverend Bill Owens, Coalition of African American Pastors **Church names are listed for identification purposes onlyAfter the dust settles around what appears to be a coordinated assault by the left to destroy a man who they fear will take Jeff Sessions Senate seat in December, the voters in Alabama will have to decide who they believe. | 1real |
WATCH: Expert Says Republicans Blocked NC Black Voters With ‘Surgical Precision’ (VIDEO) | Voting rights expert, Ari Berman, sat down with Joy Reid during Saturday s broadcast of The Reid Report where he and Reid discussed a court ruling that found that the GOP worked to prevent black voters from voting in North Carolina.The segment begins with a reading of part of the Fourth Circuit Court s decision, which reads: The only clear factor linking these various reforms is their impact on African American voters. The record thus makes obvious that the problem the majority in the general assembly sought to remedy was emerging support for the minority party. This decision in North Carolina was the biggest victory for voting rights since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act because the fourth circuit court was so clear about what happened. North Carolina, as you mentioned, passed the country s strongest and most sweeping voting restrictions, Berman assesses. They did so just a month after the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act, Berman continued. John Roberts said it was a thing of the past. What the Fourth Circuit said all of these things they did were meant to target black voters, with almost surgical precision. The Republican Party have tried to position themselves as the champions of free and fair elections since the Voting Rights Act was struck down. In reality, the reforms that they have put in place have been nothing except an attempt to disenfranchise minority voters.The left has fought against these reforms since they began cropping up. Now, with this landmark decision, the left has much more more legislative muscle to fight back against these racist laws.You can watch the segment below, in full.Featured image from video screenshot | 1real |
AWESOME! DONALD TRUMP JR: Fifth Avenue Redneck: “Well, my love for the outdoors came from my grandfather, Milos Zelnicek” | Editor s note: It was late winter when I got a call from a mutual bowhunting friend who told me Donald Trump Jr. was a serious bowhunter and he might agree to an interview. I decided it would make an interesting article so I accepted the opportunity and that article appeared in our April/May issue.In that editorial I clearly stated this was not a political endorsement of Donald Trump Sr. Some readers were skeptical. But, the fact is, if Donald Trump Jr. were not an experienced bowhunter the article would never have appeared in Bowhunter Magazine or here now at Bowhunter.com. Take a look and let us know what you think.Q: So, how does the son of a wealthy New York real estate developer find his way to the woods carrying a bow and arrows?A: Well, my love for the outdoors came from my grandfather, Milos Zelnicek, a blue-collar electrician who lived in the Communist Czech Republic. He saw the lifestyle we lived here and understood both the good of that life, and the pitfalls, and he wanted to make sure we saw the other side of life. As youngsters, my brother Eric and I spent six to eight weeks every summer with him. He would say, There s the woods; go have fun, and my brother and I immersed ourselves in the outdoors. He taught us how to shoot homemade stickbows, and we were amazed how much amusement we could get out of those crude bows and arrows. I just had a knack for it. Since then, most of my bowhunting has been self-taught, so the learning curve was slow because I made every mistake possible. The good thing about that is those lessons are well-learned. By the time I went to college in Philadelphia, I was driving back and forth on the weekends to go bowhunting, and I ve been into bowhunting ever since.Q: I know you hunt with firearms, but what would your bowhunting resume look like? Do you have a favorite species to hunt?A: Well, favorite is subjective, and what I love about hunting is it is seasonal. So about the time I ve had enough of sitting in a whitetail stand, I get a bit of a lull and then I go right into turkey season. Then summer comes, and I ve been fortunate to have done quite a bit of bowhunting in Africa, and I ve taken 15 or 16 species there. Then fall comes and I m out west, where I ve taken elk and numerous mule deer. I ve also hunted sheep and caribou, but mostly with a rifle. Of course, whitetails are big for me because they re the most accessible. I can roll out of bed at my cabin and choose from five treestands within 500 yards of the front door.Q: What kind of archery tackle and gear do you hunt with?A: Well, I shoot both traditional and compound bows mostly traditional around home, and then a compound when I hunt out west. Right now I m shooting Mathews compounds, and I have a number of recurves, including DAS bows from 3Rivers Archery and a couple of Black Widows. I m a do-it-yourself kind of guy. I cut and fletch my own arrows, especially the traditional shafts. I think tuning is just as critical on traditional gear, because you have to tune the arrow more than the bow. A 25-grain change in point weight, especially with broadheads, can make a huge difference, and I m always tweaking my arrows to get the best flight. With a compound, I m tuning the bow more than the arrow. I have a bow press, so I do all that stuff myself.Donald-trump-jr-bowhuntingI shoot fixed-blade broadheads with my traditional gear, and mechanicals out of my compounds. Twenty years ago, when mechanicals first emerged, I had problems shooting deer broadside and having the arrow almost bounce off. The technology has improved, and now I m having great luck with Rage Hypodermics.Q: Your knowledge of all things archery and bowhunting tells me you re a detail-oriented guy. That is also very important in the corporate world. Which came first?A: Certainly it came from the outdoors, because I started so early. In archery, if you want to be good, you have to pay attention to details. I m not satisfied with a six-inch group at 20 yards. If my fletchings are not all touching in a tight group, I m working to find out why. Archery has taught me so much discipline, and a willingness to accept a challenge, and all that translates into the business world. My friends here in New York City call me the Fifth Avenue Redneck. Q: Is your brother as passionate about the outdoors as you are?A: Yes, he is. We work two offices down from each other, and every weekend we re doing some kind of shooting together. He s my number-one hunting buddy, and we don t do anything halfway.Q: You and your wife, Vanessa, have five children. Does she get out in the field or on the range with you?A: She will, but she is Mama Bear to the extreme, with five kids under eight years old. She s an incredible wife and mother, but she is a freakishly talented shooter, especially with a high-powered rifle. She has a PSE bow, and she shoots it well, too. I will say the archery industry has done a better job than any other industry in getting women into the game and encouraging them to participate, whether it s on the shooting side or the hunting side. And that interest filters down to the kids. My four-year-old knows a caribou from an elk, and a trout from a bass. It s amazing what they will absorb, and the whole family benefits.Q: Some hunters say they just don t have time to bowhunt. How does an ultra-busy New York real estate developer find the time to grab his bow and go hunting?A: Listen, it s about prioritization. The outdoor lifestyle is very important to me. We head for our country place every Friday night. With mobile technology, I can work anywhere in the world, and I don t think we ve spent a weekend in the city as a family since my daughter was born.I m not exaggerating when I say I am doing some form of shooting 48 weekends out of the year. I don t get that much vacation time, but I make sure I get in at least one major hunting trip every year. And there are times when I m working on a deal and I decide I am done for the day. That deal can wait until I am out of the tree and back on my computer. I make time for hunting and fishing.Q: What other benefits has hunting given you over the years?A: Well, the anticipation of an upcoming adventure keeps me sane, it helps me work harder when I am working, and it also helps keep me in shape. I don t work out because I love working out. If I have a sheep hunt coming up, I work hard to get in shape. Usually the guide will figure, yeah this guy talks a good game, but he s from the city, he s Trump s kid, and he ll never hold up. My goal is to show the guide I can handle myself on the mountain. If he knows I m up for it, he ll take me into places he may not take everyone else.Q: I imagine in your business life you run into antihunting types. How do you handle them?A:I m certainly not loved by a lot of those people because I don t apologize or renounce hunting and fishing, and I don t back down. That s not my style. Of course, they will never let the facts get in the way of their campaign against hunting, but I hit them back by saying, Here are the benefits for conservation, and here are the facts about wildlife and hunting. I m a big believer in the hunting and conservation mindset and the value that hunters bring, not only in this country, but all over the world.Q: How is your relationship with your father, and what does he think of your love of hunting?A: He s been very supportive, but he grew up in Queens, New York. He s an avid golfer who spent his life building a company. That was his focus. He takes pride in my accomplishments, but it s probably too late to introduce him to hunting and fishing. That said, my brother and I are good sounding boards for him.My father knows what he doesn t know, and he will defer to those who do know. You can bet Eric and I will be in his ear when it comes to things we value. And my father is a very vocal supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Maybe it s because he s a New York guy, but he doesn t get the credit he deserves for that support.Q: Do you think your father is surprised by how well he has done in the campaign?A: My father would never do anything that he didn t think he had a good shot at. He has done everything he wanted to do in his life and could sit back and play golf every day. But that s not his style. He s a true American and a true patriot, and he s sick of the lies and nonsense in Washington and the crony capitalism, which is why he s funding his own campaign. He doesn t want to be bought. He wants to do what s right for the country not what s right for some lobby group.Q: Some would say that with your resources, wouldn t it be easier to just spend all your time hunting and fishing? Why work?A: It s not so simple. Part of what makes me the person I am is we were not spoiled financially. We had to work. We were not just given everything, and I know it s hard to say that in America today. People throw out the old Silver Spoon thing, but that s not the way we were raised by my father and grandfather. We started work young, and my dad often made sure we had to earn whatever we got. Being a trust-fund baby is not my style.I graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, then moved to Colorado and spent 18 months working as a bartender and fly fishing and hunting all the time. I wanted to take a break before I started my career in the business world. I m just not programmed to not be working.Q: You once said, Hunting forces a person to endure, to master themselves, even to truly get to know the wild environment. Actually, along the way, hunting and fishing makes you fall in love with the natural world. Every hunter can identify with that quote. Do your nonhunting acquaintances get you? A: I m a pretty vocal proponent of the outdoors. I ve introduced dozens of New Yorkers to the outdoors who would likely never be exposed to it. I ve taken them shooting for a weekend, or hunting upland birds, and every one, even the ones who may have been squeamish about the idea at first, has said it was one of the most fun weekends of their life. My friends here in New York City call me the Fifth Avenue Redneck. They no longer call me when they have something planned in the city on the weekends, because they know I m in the woods somewhere. The outdoors has been good to me, and it kept me out of trouble. I believe in the outdoor lifestyle and the benefits it brings to my life, and I want to make sure it is still there for my children and other people s children in the future.Q: So what would you say is your most memorable bowhunting moment?A: I ve been really lucky to do some cool stuff all over the world, but I would have to say the first elk I got with a bow. It was during my time in Colorado when I had two friends who were U.S. Ski Team members. We spent 28 days hunting elk on public land. It was a DIY hunt, and we were in great shape and hunted hard. One of my buddies tagged his elk on the 15th day, and the other on the 20th day. We packed their bulls out on our backs, and had a great experience. On the very last day, the day before I was to drive back to New York to start my career, we were hiking up a very steep slope toward a bugling bull. Suddenly, I saw a hoof step down through the brush 10 yards in front of me. I couldn t see the bull, but I signaled to my buddy to start cow-calling. When the bull started moving toward an opening I drew my bow, and when the vitals cleared at seven yards, I took the shot. Luckily the bull ran downhill, which made the pack out quite a bit easier. But after 28 long days of grueling hiking and hard hunting, that 4 4 raghorn is still the greatest animal I ve been able to take because of the intensity of the hunt and the effort expended. The three of us defied the odds by all tagging out on bow-killed elk. It was an unforgettable experience.By now you know preconceived notions do not always translate into reality. Yes, there are plenty of big-city businessmen who are serious bowhunters, but prior to this interview Donald Trump Jr. would not have appeared on my list.He and his brother Eric are two great examples of the transcendent nature of hunting with a bow and arrow. This passion we all love casts a wide net across every walk of life from rich to poor, young to old, city to country. The flight of the arrow is capable of capturing the imagination of anyone given the opportunity to experience it.We can all learn from the late Milos Zelnicek. If you share the outdoors and archery with a youngster, or anyone for that matter, the magic will happen on its own.You just never know who will become one of us.Read more: Bowhunter | 1real |
In India's Punjab, Haley relatives cheer appointment as UN envoy | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nikki Haley may have been born in the United States but her extended family back in India is thrilled that the South Carolina governor has been named by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as ambassador to the United Nations. Haley’s parents hail from rural Punjab, in northwestern India. They moved to Amritsar - home to the Golden Temple that is the most holy place of the Sikh religion - before emigrating to North America in the early 1960s. Haley, 44, was born Nimrata Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina - she was called “Nikki” as a child and took the family name of husband Michael when they married in Sikh and Methodist ceremonies in 1996. Kanwaljit Singh Randhawa, a 70-year-old cousin, told Reuters family and friends were delighted by Haley’s appointment and said it could help improve relations between the United States and India. “It is a great achievement for Punjab and India. We are proud of the fact that (Nikki) has achieved this success,” Randhawa told Reuters by telephone. Randhawa, a retired lecturer, said he was in regular touch with Nikki’s father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, who grew up in the village of Pandori Ran Singh, south of Amritsar. India’s foreign ministry said it was happy to hear news of Haley’s appointment, describing her as a supporter of closer U.S.-India ties who had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited Washington in June. “We know Governor Haley very well,” said spokesman Vikas Swarup. India’s foreign secretary visited the United States earlier this month and interacted with “very senior levels” of the Trump transition team, he also said. Haley came only once to India as a four-year-old child, doesn’t speak Punjabi and has converted to Christianity. But she has visited India more recently in an official capacity, going to Amritsar in November 2014 on what she called “an emotional and very personal day”. “I always yearned to see Punjab - my motherland - and now I am so proud to be here after almost 40 years,” she told TV reporters at the time, her voice choking with emotion as she steadied herself with nips from a water bottle. Her biography is similar to that of Richard Verma, the first U.S. ambassador to New Delhi of Indian origin. He was born in the United States into a Punjabi family but visited often as a child. Verma was mobbed by relatives and locals when he visited his ancestral home in early 2015. Haley has little foreign policy experience, while Trump has expressed favorable views toward India, where he has real estate interests. The tycoon-turned-TV reality star told one cultural event put on by diaspora Republicans during the presidential campaign that he loved the country and its people. Trump’s stated intention of banning immigration by Muslims from countries that are a source of Islamist militancy has played well with many in India, a majority Hindu nation that has long been at odds with Muslim-majority Pakistan. Much of the diplomacy over the rivalry between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed powers, plays out in the corridors of UN headquarters in New York and Haley’s appointment is likely to be seen positively in New Delhi in that light. India, the world’s largest democracy, is also lobbying to be made a permanent member of an expanded UN Security Council, although it’s doubtful this would be a priority for Trump. Back in Punjab, relatives and old family friends are planning a major celebration to mark the elevation of Haley to the top diplomatic post. “We are going to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to pray for her success,” said Randhawa. “And we will speak to our friends and villagers to have a function in the next few days.” | 0fake |
Homeless Man Allegedly Broke into 4 Houses of Worship to ’Get Back at God’ - Breitbart | A homeless man allegedly broke into four houses of worship in New York during a three week period because he wanted to get revenge at God. [Joseph Woznik, 23, is accused of breaking into an Episcopal church, a Romanian Orthodox church, a Hindu temple, and a Roman Catholic church in Queens starting March 21, the Daily Mail reported. “I’m mad at God. I don’t like church no more. I don’t want to deal with religion. I’m sick and tired of hearing about religion. I don’t break into houses, only churches. I break in to get back at God,” Woznik allegedly told police. Woznik was arrested Tuesday and charged with multiple counts of burglary and grand larceny as hate crimes, the New York Post reported. If convicted, Woznik faces up to 15 years behind bars, police said. Police also said Woznik was caught on two video cameras during the burglaries and confessed to his crimes. Woznik is also wanted in a February 26 church burglary in Winter Garden, Florida, police said. Rev. Paul Lai of the St. James Episcopal Church in Flushing, Queens, said his parish was struck three times, once on March 23, once on April 2, and again on Monday. “He needs help,” Lai told the New York Daily News. “It’s hard to say why he has such hatred against God. … We don’t have anything here now. ” Woznik took $1, 800 the first time, a Canon digital camera the second time, and three checks from the church’s checkbook on his third Lai said. The first burglary was at the Bangladesh Hindu Mandir Temple in Flushing, where an employee of the temple, upon arriving at work on March 21, discovered three donation boxes forced open and cleaned out, officials said. The suspect also allegedly targeted Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians Church on Monday, using a hammer to break into a donation box. Reportedly, he also took $20 that was beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary. Police said he was finally caught on Tuesday, a day after allegedly stealing a communion tray from St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Church in Elmhurst. At his arraignment hearing in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday night, a judge ordered that Woznik be held on $200, 000 bail, placed on suicide watch, and remanded to face similar charges in Florida. | 0fake |
Checkmating Obama | Originally published by the Jerusalem Post .
In one of the immortal lines of Godfather 2 , mafia boss Michael Corleone discusses the fate of his brother, who betrayed him, with his enforcer. “I don’t want anything to happen to him while my mother is alive,” Corleone said.
Message received. The brother was murdered after their mother’s funeral. Last week it was reported that the Obama administration has delivered a message to the Palestinian Authority. The administration has warned the PA that the US will veto any anti-Israel resolution brought before the UN Security Council before the US presidential elections on November 8. Message received. Open season on Israel at the Security Council will commence November 9. The Palestinians are planning appropriately. Israel needs to plan, too. Israel’s most urgent diplomatic mission today is to develop and implement a strategy that will outflank President Barack Obama in his final eight weeks in power. Lobbying the administration is pointless. Obama has waited eight years to exact his revenge on Israel for not supporting his hostile, strategically irrational policies. And he has no interest in letting bygones be bygones. Before turning to what Israel must do, first we need to understand what Israel can do. A good place to begin is by considering what just transpired at UNESCO, where twice in a week, UNESCO bodies resolved to erase 3,000 years of Jewish history in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The fight that Israel waged at UNESCO is not the fight it needs to wage at the Security Council. The stakes at the Security Council are far higher. Like the UN General Assembly, UNESCO’s decisions are non-binding declarations that have no legal or operational significance. As such, there is no reason to expend great resources to fight them. For Israel, the goal of the fight at UNESCO is not to defeat anti-Israel initiatives. That is impossible given the Palestinians’ automatic majority. The purpose of the fight at UNESCO is to humiliate European governments that side with antisemitic initiatives, and to weaken the congenitally anti-Israel body itself. The government achieved both of these objectives. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s disavowal of his own government’s abstention from the vote on the first resolution – like the similar position taken after the fact by the Mexican government – was a diplomatic victory for Israel. So too, the fact that UNESCO’s own Secretary-General Irina Bukova felt compelled to disavow her own agency’s actions by rejecting the resolution’s denial of the Jewish people’s ties to Jerusalem was a significant victory for Israel. Her statement was deeply damaging for UNESCO and its reputation. Finally, the fact that Tanzania and the Philippines voted against the resolution was a testament to Israel’s capacity to convince other governments to abandon their traditional pro-Palestinian voting pattern. The Palestinians won the vote at UNESCO because they are more powerful diplomatically than Israel. They have an automatic anti-Israel majority. But they weren’t empowered by their victory. To the contrary. They were bloodied by it. In a sign of their weakening hold on member nations, the Palestinians and Jordanians felt compelled to send a threatening letter to the members of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee lest they dare to vote against the resolution. Powerful players don’t make threats. They don’t need to. Israel’s experience at UNESCO teaches us that there are governments that are open to counteroffers. Israel doesn’t need to hide in America’s shadow. It is capable of working on its own to blunt the impact of the Palestinians’ automatic majority. And it will need to use all of its resources to fend off a US-backed assault at the Security Council. Unlike UNESCO, the Security Council can pass legally binding resolutions. Israel needs to be prepared to bring all of its resources to bear to prevent such a resolution from being adopted against it. Obama’s intention to abandon Israel at the Security Council means that Israel comes to this battle severely hobbled. But there is one advantage to the US’s betrayal. Over the years, Israel’s ability to trust the US to veto anti-Israel resolutions at the Security Council was been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the US has secured Israel from diplomatic assaults. But on the other hand, our ability to trust Washington has made us diplomatically lazy and ineffective. Safe in Washington’s shadow, we have behaved as through all diplomacy is public diplomacy. That is, we have pretended that statecraft begins and ends with making the moral or strategic case for our side against the other guys. But public diplomacy is just one diplomatic tool. The Syrian regime, for instance, has no moral case for securing international support. Bashar Assad didn’t convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to support him by arguing that he is better than alternative regimes. He bought Putin’s support by offering him permanent air and naval bases in Syria. Then there is Morocco, another weak state with no public diplomacy case to make. Last March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outraged Rabat when he acknowledged the plain fact that Western Sahara, which Morocco occupies, is “occupied territory.” Morocco quickly secured the support of Spain and France and launched an all-out onslaught against Ban. How did Morocco manage? Morocco’s most powerful diplomatic resource is its control over migration flows from North Africa to Europe. Anytime it wishes, Rabat can open the migratory floodgates just as easily as it can keep them shut. And the French and Spanish know it. In less than a month, Ban issued repeated abject apologies. Game. Set. Match. Morocco. From reports to date, it appears that shortly after the US elections on November 8, the Malaysians or Egyptians will submit a Palestinian-backed resolution that defines Israeli communities in united Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as illegal. If the resolution is brought to a vote, the US will fail to veto it. Such a resolution, or a resolution obligating Israel to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines, would cause Israel grave harm. So what resources does Israel have to prevent this from happening? Of course, we have public diplomacy. And that might work with some friendly nations. But it won’t get us over the top. We need to learn from the Syrian and Moroccan examples and consider what we have to offer Security Council members in exchange for their support in scuttling the approaching onslaught against us. One such resource is the US Congress. Israel’s allies in Congress are sickened by the Obama administration’s devastating Middle East policies. A solid majority of lawmakers can be trusted to support actions that will reinforce Israel’s position. Israel has other resources as well that we can trade on. We have natural gas. And we have technologies that the governments of the world require to surmount the challenges of the 21 century. There is no reason to give these resources away when we can trade them for diplomatic support. As for the Palestinians, as the UNESCO vote showed, they are less popular now than at any time in the past 40 years. All they have to offer is threats and antisemitism. Both are powerful weapons. But they are no longer invincible. Israel’s goal must be to use our resources at the Security Council in a manner that will make it impossible for Obama to enable an anti-Israel resolution to pass. A method for achieving this goal has two components. The first component is to convince a friendly country on the Security Council to propose a balanced resolution that would counter the Palestinian-backed Israel-bashing one. Such a resolution could include four points. First, it could deplore efforts to deny Jewish history in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Second, it can condemn the PA/PLO for their continued unlawful funding of terrorists. Third, it can urge Israel to restrain settlement construction in areas that in previous negotiations have been identified as likely territory for a future Palestinian state. Fourth, it can call on Israel and the PA to reinstate negotiations immediately without preconditions. Israel has friendly ties with a few Security Council members, among them Uruguay and New Zealand. In the final weeks of the Obama era, it is possible that Israel will be able to convince one of them to submit a balanced resolution along these lines. Obama would be hard-pressed to oppose such a resolution in favor of one that singles Israel out for rebuke. But that still is insufficient. Obama can make Uruguay and New Zealand a better offer if he wishes. And so we move to the second aspect of the plan. If we learn nothing else from the Obama era, we must recognize that the time has come for Israel to stop sufficing with just one Security Council veto. Most states have several. And we need a few more. Russia today is the best place to start our search for a second veto. Putin is a dealmaker. As his agreement with Assad showed, he is willing to consider attractive offers. Obviously, Israel won’t offer Russia bases. But we do have other things to offer Putin in exchange for a veto. For instance, in exchange for a Russian veto at the Security Council, Israel can offer Putin to lobby the US Congress to cancel US sanctions against Russia over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Israel has no dog in that fight. And the sanctions are not getting the US anywhere. Putin might go for the deal for two reasons. First, by stepping into the breach and defending Israel against Obama, he will humiliate Obama. Second, if Israel succeeds with the Congress, he will reap economic rewards. For his part, Putin wouldn’t even have to openly side with Israel. All he would have to do is announce that in the interests of regional stability, Russia will not support an unbalanced resolution on Israel and the Palestinians. If Putin supports a balanced resolution, Obama will be checkmated. His plan to take revenge on Israel for not following him off the strategic cliff will be foiled. Israel will have survived his presidency. None of this will be easy. And success is far from assured. There are many more ways for Israel to fail than succeed. Our diplomatic weakness remains a millstone around our neck. But as the UNESCO resolutions showed, attacking Israel is no longer cost free. We are not powerless in the grip of circumstances. We have cards to play. And now is the time to play them for all they are worth. | 1real |
South Korea, Syria, C.I.A.: Your Morning Briefing - The New York Times | Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • A South Korean court ousted President Park from office, a first in the nation’s history that could reshape the strategic landscape in Asia. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans had taken to the streets in recent months to protest a sprawling corruption scandal that reached the presidency. Her downfall is expected to shift South Korean politics to the opposition on the left, whose leaders want more engagement with North Korea. Five executives at Samsung, including its de facto leader, Lee denied bribery charges in a related case on Thursday. _____ • Russia deployed a prohibited cruise missile, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the U. S. Congress. It was the first public confirmation that the Kremlin had violated a landmark arms control agreement. _____ • The U. S. is sending an additional 400 troops to Syria, nearly doubling the American forces deployment there. A spokesman for the U. S. command said the move was intended to support preparations for an assault on Raqqa, which the Islamic State claims as its capital. _____ • The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, moved to seize the moment after his organization released a new trove of classified information about the C. I. A. ’s cyberweaponry. Speaking from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has sought refuge since 2012, Mr. Assange presented himself as a defender of some of the biggest American technology companies against their own government. The C. I. A. described Mr. Assange as “not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity. ” _____ • Malaysia welcomed back two citizens who were allowed to leave North Korea, leaving nine Malaysian embassy workers and family members there as the countries continued to wrangle over the assassination of Kim . Regional tensions set off by North Korea’s provocations are rising. A wave of Korean sentiment has broken out across China in response to the South’s embrace of a U. S. missile defense system that Beijing sees as a security threat. Above, police officers outside a South Korean market in Beijing. _____ • In Australia, the arrest of a Lebanese Muslim accused of using the internet to try to help the Islamic State develop a guided missile has stoked fears of homegrown terrorism and intensified the country’s debate over immigration policy. Above, the suspect’s house in the small rural town of Young. • China granted preliminary approval for more than two dozen new trademarks to President Trump, which could add to criticism over potential conflicts of interest. • The European Central Bank held monetary policy steady, but faces growing pressure to begin the politically charged task of drawing years of stimulus to a close. • The chief executive of the global insurance giant A. I. G. will resign after a $3 billion loss. • Britain could be fined more than $2 billion after investigators found that British customs allowed undervalued Chinese goods a portal to flood into Europe. • Nike unveiled a stretchy hijab that it will begin selling in 2018, aiming to appeal to the growing ranks of female athletes in the Middle East. • Gold is on its longest slide since October. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused Germany of using “Nazi practices” to block him from campaigning among Turkish émigrés ahead of an April referendum on a new Constitution. [The New York Times] • In Washington, two House committees held marathon sessions and approved Republican legislation to undo the Affordable Care Act. [The New York Times] • Israeli lawmakers advanced a bill to curb the use of loudspeakers to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. [The New York Times] • Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will launch joint naval patrols in a sea lane preyed on by pirates, including Abu Sayyaf militants. [Al Jazeera] • Radioactive boars are making it difficult for residents of the Fukushima region in northern Japan to return home. [The New York Times] • A study of turtles in dozens of Chinese conservation areas warned of pervasive poaching of species valuable for food or trade. [Science] • As part of a media blitz surrounding China’s major legislative meetings, the state news media released an animated rap video about the “six things close to Xi Jinping’s heart. ” [SupChina for lyrics Xinhuanet for video] • Prefer cold brew coffee? Here’s how to do it right. • Recipe of the day: Treat yourself to the comfort of Swedish meatloaf and caramelized cabbage. • Want to get in tune with today’s music? Here’s a curated playlist featuring Future, Adele, Mitski (above) and more, with essays by some of our best culture writers. • Is religious pluralism over in Indonesia? A sentence for an Indonesian who regards himself as the son of God was the latest in the country’s crackdown on new religious movements. • And watch, in this interactive graphic, how spring weather rushed in more than three weeks early in parts of the U. S. Research shows a strong link to climate change. In this age of and Amazon, it might be surprising that an American book business started nine decades ago is still supplying readers with literary selections. Before lists and bookstores, the Book of the Month Club tried to steer a growing middle class to the “right” books. Having such titles in the home became a sign of status. In March 1926, “Lolly Willowes” by the British author Sylvia Townsend Warner was gaining acclaim, and a month later it became the club’s inaugural pick. Famously, a panel of literary experts made the choices over lunch and sherry around an oak table. Their credibility built the fledgling club’s membership. They had hits like “Gone With the Wind” and “The Catcher in the Rye. ” One miss was “The Grapes of Wrath. ” While critics viewed the club as middlebrow, it became a powerful literary institution in the U. S. Its influence diminished with the spread of bookstore chains in the 1980s, and further declined with online bookselling. But some of us still want to be guided by their judges. As an early club brochure said, “What a deprivation it is to miss reading an important new book at a time when everyone else is reading and discussing it. ” Adeel Hassan contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Re: When Americans Shall Say ‘Peace And Safety’… | When Americans Shall Say ‘Peace And Safety’… By Michael Snyder, on November 21st, 2016
Millions of Americans are expecting a new “golden age” for America under Donald Trump, but is that what they are going to get? There is always optimism when a new president is elected, but I don’t know if I have ever seen anything like the euphoria that many Trump supporters are expressing right now. Look, I voted for Donald Trump and I want him to be as successful as possible. But when Donald Trump becomes our next president on January 20th , that does not mean that all of the great problems that our nation is facing will somehow magically disappear. If you listen to some people, they make it sound like America is going to experience nothing but peace, prosperity and blessing for decades to come. I would love it if that was indeed going to be the case, but unfortunately that is simply not the truth.
We are currently on a path that leads to national suicide, and unless we change our ways it isn’t going to matter who is in the White House.
I keep hearing about how our new president is going to “unify” the nation, but that is going to be extremely difficult to do considering the fact that we are now more divided than ever. In fact, a brand new Gallup survey found that an all-time record high 77 percent of all Americans believe that we are “greatly divided when it comes to the most important values” .
I keep hearing about how we are now entering a golden age of peace and prosperity, but how is that supposed to happen while we are still butchering millions of innocent children in our abortion mills?
I keep hearing about how the economy is about to take off like a rocket, but how is that possible when we have already been on the greatest debt binge in world history ? The only way we have been able to maintain our massively inflated debt-fueled standard of living is by piling up debt at a faster pace than any generation in history. Today we have accumulated 12 trillion dollars in consumer debt, corporate debt has doubled since the last financial crisis, and the national debt is rapidly approaching 20 trillion dollars. How can Trump possibly pump up our standard of living with debt more than Obama has already done?
I keep hearing about how we are “going to make America great again”, but how can we be great when we are producing more pornography than the rest of the world combined?
I keep hearing about how “law and order is going to restored”, but meanwhile chaos has already been erupting in cities all over the nation and the far left is planning to turn Inauguration Day into a major riot .
I keep hearing about how “things are going to go back to the way they used to be”, but as I discussed in a previous article , “sexually-transmitted diseases are spreading at the fastest pace in decades, the percentage of births out of wedlock is more than 10 times higher than in 1940, and approximately two out of every three Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis.”
I keep hearing about how we are going “to drain the swamp”, and yet there are no plans to even reform the Federal Reserve system which is at the very heart of our financial problems as a nation .
I keep hearing about how good judges are going to be put on the Supreme Court, but how can we trust that when our new president just said that he is “fine with” the Supreme Court decision that forced all 50 states to redefine the institution of marriage?
I keep hearing about how we are going to be “an example” for the rest of the world, but how can we be “an example” when just about every form of evil imaginable is exploding in popularity inside our own country?
I keep hearing about how our government is going to be “blessed”, but how can a government that gives hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Planned Parenthood be “blessed”? Now that the Republicans have control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, this is their golden opportunity to defund Planned Parenthood. If it doesn’t happen now, it probably will never happen, and it will show what a complete and utter failure the Republican Party has become. Remember, Planned Parenthood is an organization that has been caught on camera admitting that they harvest organs from the babies that they kill and that they sell those organs off to the highest bidder.
Some would argue that America is already “great” at a lot of things. After all, the United States is number one in the world in television watching, legal drug use and illegal drug use.
We lead the world in plastic surgery, eating disorder deaths, teen pregnancy and lawyers per capita.
We have the highest STD infection rate in the industrialized world, the highest divorce rate in the industrialized world, and the largest prison population on the entire planet.
We also have the most complicated tax system in the entire world, the largest trade deficit in the entire world, and the largest national debt in the entire world.
So if we want to make America great again, we sure have a lot of work to do.
The complacency that I am seeing out there right now really alarms me. So many people seem to think that the battle is won because Donald Trump was victorious on election night. But that is not even close to reality.
If we do not fundamentally change course as a nation we will not survive. Tinkering with tax rates, regulations and trade agreements is not going to get the job done. So many people are acting as if we just have a few cuts and scratches, when the reality is what our country really needs is major heart surgery.
Donald Trump is not some sort of a messiah, and even if he is able to accomplish every single thing that he is promising right now it will not nearly be enough.
But for the moment millions of Americans are proclaiming “peace and safety” now that Donald Trump has won the election, and we shall see how it all turns out… November 21st, 2016 | Tags: Americans , Anxiety , Blessing , Donald Trump , National Suicide , Peace , Safety , Successful , Suicide , Trump | Category: Commentary We Are Being Set Up For Higher Interest Rates, A Major Recession And A Giant Stock Market Crash » | 1real |
George Soros Need to Be Renditioned By Special Forces to Remote Site Under the NDAA |
For crimes against humanity, when Soros was a Nazi collaborator, he needs to considered an alien, enemy combatant and under the NDAA sent to a rendition facility run by American Special Forces. In the furtherance of this endeavor, he is also guilty of terrorist economic tampering with the US economy. Soros is also guilty of election tampering, facilitating a bribe, election fraud for buying off voters in the electoral college.
Soros is a criminal’s, criminal and the NDAA was made for people like Soros, It is time to send him to a rendition facility. He gets no lawyer, no day in court, no phone call. Soros sits in a deep dark hole in repayment for the inhumane havoc he wreaked upon the world and specifically, the people of the United States.
Here is an impassioned appeal for US Special Operations forces to take action against Soros on behalf of the American people.
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Alabama Supreme Court allows impeachment of governor to proceed | (Reuters) - The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that impeachment proceedings against Governor Robert Bentley can start next week, halting a court order that had blocked hearings stemming from his relationship with a former aide. Bentley, a 74-year-old Republican, has battled impeachment efforts over the last year and has defied calls from political leaders that he stand down. The 7-0 decision by the high court allows impeachment proceedings to begin in the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee on Monday even as justices consider new filings in the case. Bentley, who is in his second term, is accused of inappropriate use of state resources. His troubles began last year when recordings surfaced of him making suggestive remarks to a former adviser, Rebekah Mason, before his wife of 50 years filed for divorce in August 2015. Bentley has denied having a physical affair with Mason, who is married. She resigned as questions about the pair’s relationship began to dominate Alabama politics. In its ruling, the Supreme Court stayed a temporary restraining order issued by a circuit court judge on Friday. The order had halted the impeachment process until hearings could be held on Bentley’s claim that lawmakers did not give enough time to present an adequate defense. Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Jones hailed the decision, saying in a statement, “This is a great day for the Constitution of Alabama.” The Judiciary Committee will make a recommendation to the full House on whether to impeach Bentley. Ross Garber, an attorney for Bentley, said his legal team would submit briefs to the Supreme Court by 1 p.m. CDT on Monday, the deadline set by the justices. “It’s disappointing to hear the Committee will plow forward while the Supreme Court is considering the case,” he said in a statement. A state court on Friday had rejected Bentley’s request to block the Judiciary Committee from releasing evidence about wrongdoing stemming from his relationship with Mason to be used for impeachment proceedings. The committee’s report accused Bentley of ordering state law enforcement officers to track down copies of an embarrassing recording that suggested an affair with Mason. It also accused him of retaliating against an official who discovered the relationship. On Wednesday, the Alabama Ethics Commission also found that Bentley probably violated ethics and campaign finance laws. Bentley said after the ethics commission findings that he had no intention of resigning. | 0fake |
Trump considering lawyer for White House Russia role: sources | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is considering adding a veteran Washington lawyer to the White House counsel’s office to deal with Russia-related issues, people familiar with the matter said. Ty Cobb, a white-collar defense lawyer with the firm of Hogan Lovells and a former federal prosecutor, met with Trump about a week ago, another person said. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the administration had “no announcement at this time.” Cobb did not respond to requests for comment except to say he was on vacation. Cobb, 66, represented a number of individuals in government investigations during the Clinton administration, including former Democratic National Committee fundraiser John Huang and former White House aide David Watkins. Trump has been seeking a senior-level lawyer to join the office led by White House Counsel Don McGahn to focus on the various Russia investigations, one of the people said. In addition to a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, several congressional panels are investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion by Trump’s campaign. Moscow has denied any interference and Trump has denied any collusion. The role Cobb met with Trump about is separate from the legal team gathering to represent the president personally. That team, led by New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz, now includes constitutional lawyer and evangelical radio talk show host Jay Sekulow, Washington lawyer John Dowd, and Michael Bowe, a partner at Kasowitz’s firm. According to sources familiar with the matter, lawyers from major firms have turned down joining Trump’s outside legal team, citing conflicts at their firms and concerns Trump would not listen to them. Others lawyers have also turned down the role for which Cobb is being considered. William Burck, a partner at Quinn Emanuel, and Emmet Flood, a partner at Williams & Connolly, both turned down the opportunity, according to people familiar with the matter. Cobb, a distant relative of the famous baseball player of the same name, graduated from Harvard University and earned his law degree at Georgetown. In the 1980s, he was a federal prosecutor in Baltimore, where he led a regional drug and organized crime task force. Cobb has some experience with leaks, which Trump has repeatedly complained about in relation to the Russia probes. In 2006, Cobb represented former CIA official Mary McCarthy, who was fired after she was accused of providing classified information to reporters. No charges were brought against McCarthy. (This version of the story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph four) | 0fake |
Stranahan: Steve Bannon Nailed It on the Media’s Fight Against Trump - Breitbart | Donald Trump’s chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon delivered a powerhouse presentation along with White House chief of staff Reince Priebus at CPAC on Thursday, in which one of Bannon’s main messages was that the media’s daily war against the Trump administration will continue unabated. [As Bannon explained to the CPAC audience: [President Trump] is going to continue to press his agenda as economic conditions get better, as jobs get better, [and] they are going to continue to fight. If you think they are going to give you your country back without a fight, you are mistaken. Every day, it is going to be a fight. Bannon also clearly and bluntly stated the reason that the media onslaught will continue, saying, “The corporatist, globalist media is adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has. ” Bannon’s message is solidly based in fact, and a deeper understanding of what he means by the “corporatist, globalist media” goes a long way toward explaining why the establishment media will be battling Trump tooth and nail. For one thing, the “corporatist, globalist media” is really a very small number of companies — something that Steve Bannon understands well given his background in both media and on Wall Street. As Business Insider reported five years ago, six corporations control 90% of the media in America, which puts a huge amount of power in the hands of a very few people. That number is down from 50 companies back in 1983. Who runs things? A ranking of the world’s largest media companies of 2015 says that Comcast Corporation is the largest media conglomerate in the U. S. with The Walt Disney Company, Century Fox, and Time Warner in the second, third, and fourth slots. The members of the media, the “opposition party at the back of the room,” are really just cogs in this machine — the foot soldiers who’ve been put through a rigorous program of indoctrination in journalism school. These members of the progressive left not only face corporate pressure to conform to certain narratives, but members of the modern American media have also been taught that they possess a moral superiority and are on a mission to help make the world a better place. This combination of corporate overlords and leftist propaganda is what allows the media to avoid the inherent contradictions in the system that they defend. It’s why the media can spread the message of “open societies” and a world based on “love, not hate” that is being directed by billionaire funders like George Soros and his multimillionaire allies like the Clintons. Now add in the internationalist factor at an ownership level, even with fundamentalist Muslim countries like the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As Forbes reported, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and the company Kingdom Holding have stakes in media ventures like Twitter and even the parent of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. The Saudi Prince owns about 1% of the company, plus 6. 6% shareholding in 21st Century Fox Inc. worth about $1. 7 billion. Kingdom Holdings also has substantial shareholding in Time Warner, the parent of CNN. This is just one small example of the complex world of globalist media that the Trump administration is facing and part of the reason that more and more people are turning to new media upstarts like Breitbart News to get real information. As former executive chairman of Breitbart, it’s a world that Steve Bannon sees clearly. | 0fake |
YOUR BLOOD WILL BOIL When You See Why College Students Were Forced To Stand Guard Over Thousands Of U.S. FLAGS Meant To Honor 9-11 Victims On Their Liberal Campus | This is how coddled kids who have never had to deal with losing an innocent family member, friend or co-worker at the hands of evil Islamic terrorists behaves At Occidental College on Saturday, vandals trashed 2,977 U.S. flags planted in the quad to memorialize those who died on Sept. 11.The students who planted the small American flags found them uprooted and thrown in campus garbage cans. Every last flag. Some were even snapped in half.Not only that, dozens of makeshift fliers accompanied the vandalism. Taped to benches and other surfaces, most of the fliers stated R.I.P. to 9/11 victims as well as to 1.45 million Iraqis who died during the U.S. invasion for something they didn t do. Sophomore Alan Bliss, a math and economics major who helped lead the effort to plant the flags, told The College Fix in a telephone interview Sunday that when he and a friend came across the destroyed memorial, three students confronted him and said they found the display triggering. He said the students also accused him of white privilege and ignorance.Occidental is a small liberal-arts college in Los Angeles known as far-left. President Barack Obama attended for two years before transferring to Columbia. So when the right or even moderates try to do something on campus there is extreme push back, Bliss said of his school, adding conservatives are a silent majority there and some students are even scared of speaking up against progressives for fear of retribution.As for the display, Bliss said it was installed Saturday afternoon by his conservative student club, which is affiliated with the College Republican National Committee and Young Americans for Freedom, the latter of which helped sponsor the Never Forget memorial project.Later that night Bliss said he learned bandits had uprooted and tossed the flags. When Bliss and his friend arrived at the scene, it was 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning. The three students who told Bliss the display is triggering denied involvement in the vandalism, he said.Campus safety was called and officers took statements from Bliss as well as the other three students.Meanwhile, Bliss added, as word spread on social media that the Never Forget memorial was razed, students left their dorm rooms in the middle of the night to help replant the flags. As students came home from parties, they chipped in, too. They were just like, I am not Republican, I am not conservative, but this is a terrible act, Bliss said. They stayed there late into the night, 2 a.m., planting flags. It was pretty amazing, it was pretty touching. A Facebook post from the club offers more details on the long evening: Later that morning, a few of us stood guard at the memorial. Four Occidental students came up and snapped a few flags right in our faces. When we confronted them, those cowards got away as fast as they possibly could. When Bliss (pictured) and his friends returned to the display after breakfast Sunday morning, he said he found another 100 flags trashed. And again, Bliss and his peers replanted.Bliss, 20, co-founder and president of the club, which he alanblisslaunched in the spring of 2016, said he plans to fight back. The College Fix | 1real |
U.S. committed to bringing American hostages home -Obama | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said the United States remains committed to bringing home Americans held captive overseas and helping their families, a year after the administration promised to overhaul its handling of hostage situations. “We will not stop until we can bring our fellow citizens back to their families,” Obama said in a statement on the anniversary of the White House’s policy review. Obama specifically named journalist Austin Tice who disappeared in Syria in 2012, Caitlan Coleman held in Afghanistan, and retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran more than nine years ago. Earlier this week, the families of four Americans killed by Islamic State urged Obama to do everything possible to bring home Tice, the only U.S. journalist known to be held in war-torn Syria. The parents of the slain hostages criticized Obama for not personally naming Tice in his remarks at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner when Obama said that he would “fight for the release of American hostages held against their will.” They said Tice’s return would be a test of the of the success of the administration’s new policy. The White House undertook a six-month review of its hostage policies after complaints from families that their initiatives to free relatives captured abroad had been discouraged and sometimes blocked by government officials. As part of the overhaul, Obama named James O’Brien special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department to help coordinate the efforts of law enforcement and diplomats. “But I know our work will not be done until our fellow Americans who are held against their will, and whose families mark their calendars by the days since they’ve held their loved ones, are reunited,” Obama said. | 0fake |
OINK, OINK! 2015 PIG BOOK SHOWS LAWMAKERS APPROPRIATING GLUTTONOUS SPENDING | WHAT MORATORIUM? These guys in Congress are getting around the moratorium and spending like drunken sailors er pigs Stop the madness!Congress has appropriated over $4 billion earmarks this year despite a ban on pork barrel spending, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced on Wednesday.The group unveiled the 23rd edition of its Pig Book at the Phoenix Park Hotel near Capitol Hill, revealing millions in earmarks for fish passage, embryo adoption awareness, and abstinence education. The 2015 Pig Book continues to prove that any earmark is a bad earmark, CAGW president Tom Schatz said. At a time when members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol continue to call for a restoration of earmarks, taxpayers should deliver a loud and clear message that it is time for earmarks to be permanently banned. Congress has been operating under a self-imposed earmark moratorium since 2010. However, lawmakers have found ways to get around the moratorium.CAGW found the cost of earmarks increased from $2.7 billion to $4.2 billion between fiscal years 2014 and 2015.The report highlights $2.6 million earmarked for the Denali Commission, a 1998 program to build infrastructure in rural Alaska that President Obama wanted to eliminate in 2012. Since FY 2000, 26 projects worth $295.8 million have been earmarked for the Denali Commission, including requests by Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee member Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska), and the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska), according to the Pig Book.Read more: WFB | 1real |
Homeland Security secretary expects wall to be 'under way' within two years | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a congressional panel on Tuesday that he expects a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to be “well under way” within the next two years. Kelly said the wall would be some kind of “physical barrier,” perhaps including a fence in some places. Republican President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. | 0fake |
John Lewis offers stark warning about cleaning animal faeces from trampolines | Thursday 10 November 2016 John Lewis offers stark warning about cleaning animal faeces from trampolines
John Lewis has today launched a public service announcement warning the public of the dangers of young children playing on trampolines covered in animal faeces.
The two-minute film shows the myriad of filthy animals that can come into contact with your child’s plaything during the night, carrying a wide range of germs and disease.
A spokesperson for John Lewis explained, “We are all about child safety, but we only had two minutes, which is why we didn’t show the Dad digging the trampoline in properly, per safety protocols.
“The important threat is the animals and their filth. Badgers can carry TB, did you know that? Do you want your child to get TB? Because not cleaning the trampoline is how your child gets TB.
“Would you let your daughter play with a dolls house that was covered in fox piss? No, of course you wouldn’t. Well, dirty trampolines are no better.
Film critic Simon Williams said, “It’s a very powerful film. You see how she stops at the end? That’s because it’s needs cleaning with anti-bacterial wipes to ensure she doesn’t get any animal faeces in her mouth.
“Disgusting.” Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently | 1real |
MASSACHUSETTS: Designated Terrorist Group CAIR demands synagogue cancel speakers who are pro-Israel anti-Islam | MASSACHUSETTS: Designated Terrorist Group CAIR demands synagogue cancel speakers who are pro-Israel anti-Islam The speakers include leading counter-jihadists Frank Gaffney of Investigative Project on Terrorism, General Jerry Boykin, and Tom Trento of The United West, all of whom are warriors in the battle to stop the Islamization of America. Somebody needs to tell the CAIR jihadists to mind their own damn business, the truth about CAIR and the death cult posing as a religion is getting out, despite their best efforts to whitewash it. | 1real |
The World War 3 Conspiracy – Episode 1 | November 9, 2016 at 3:25 am
These people are crazy, but not insane. Let it be said this fear of total war can and will be used to subjugate humanity into whatever form of synthesis they desire, and any thought of them not controlled by the same hidden hand is folly. If depopulation is on the menu, they will soon have the means without radiating the entire biosphere. | 1real |
Koch Groups To Spend Nearly $1 Billion On 2016 | WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Conservative political advocacy groups supported by the billionaire Koch brothers plan to spend $889 million in the 2016 U.S. elections, more than double what they raised in 2012, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
The newspaper said the goal was announced to donors at a weekend meeting in Rancho Mirage, California, hosted by Freedom Partners, a business lobby at the center of the Koch brothers' political operation. The Post cited a person who attended the gathering.
The money will be doled out by a network of 17 organizations funded by industrialists Charles and David Koch, who have become a major force in conservative politics in recent years, and other wealthy donors. The network raised $407 million for the 2012 campaign.
During the 2012 election cycle, the national Republican Party collectively spent about $675 million, according to election data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Post said the $889 million would be spent on field operations, technology, policy study and other expenses.
The Freedom Partners network spent almost $300 million on November's congressional elections, in which Republicans won control of the Senate and retained their majority in the House of Representatives.
The potential field for the Republican presidential nomination is fairly crowded and the Post said the Koch group was still considering whether it would support candidates in the Republican primaries, which could dramatically shape the campaign and possible lead to intraparty conflict.
Senators Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, all of whom are mentioned as possible presidential candidates, took part in the Rancho Mirage meeting, the Post said.
The newspaper said the Freedom Partners network included Americans for Prosperity and funded groups such as Concerned Veterans for America, the Libre Initiative and Generation Opportunity. (Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Peter Cooney) | 0fake |
Japan's Emperor Akihito likely to abdicate at end-March 2019: Asahi | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan s Emperor Akihito is likely to abdicate at the end of March 2019 and Crown Prince Naruhito is expected to ascend the throne in April, the first abdication by a Japanese monarch in nearly two centuries, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday. The government is in the final stage of formalizing the schedule, said the Asahi, citing several sources. In June, Japan s parliament passed a law allowing Emperor Akihito to abdicate and the government needs to hammer out the details including the timing. Japan s top government spokesman denied the Asahi report. We are not aware of the report and there is not such fact, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. We will continue to discuss appropriately and will do our best to carry out the emperor s abdication smoothly, he said. Akihito, 83, who has had heart surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, said in rare public remarks last year he feared age might make it hard for him to continue to fulfill his duties. He will be succeeded by Naruhito, 57, and a new era will start from April 1, the Asahi reported. The abdication law, which applies only to Akihito and not to future emperors, included a resolution to debate letting female royals stay in the imperial family after marriage but did not touch on the controversial topic of allowing women to inherit. Asahi said the expected 2019 abdication schedule would minimize the impact on people in changing to a new imperial reign from the current Heisei Era, which started in 1989 after the death of Akihito s father Hirohito, according to the Asahi. The Imperial Household Agency also wanted the transition to take place in spring 2019 as many ritual events are scheduled for the imperial family in autumn and winter, the report said. Akihito, the first Japanese emperor who was never considered divine, has worked for decades at home and abroad to soothe the wounds of World War Two which was fought in his father Hirohito s name. In a written remarks of her 83rd birthday on Friday, Empress Michiko said that she thought this year her travels with Emperor Ahikito around Japan might be their last and have become deeply emotional. The Empress also said she felt an immeasurable sense of peace that Akihito will be able to rest and spend quiet days after years of pursuing how the Emperor should be. | 0fake |
Chance of 'no deal' Brexit rises to 1-in-4: JPMorgan | LONDON (Reuters) - The probability that Britain exits the European Union without having agreed a divorce deal has risen to 25 percent, compared with 15 percent previously, JPMorgan said on Monday. With the possibility of no deal having been an active part of the UK political discussion for a couple of weeks, our confidence... has been shaken a little, JPMorgan economist Malcolm Barr said in a note to clients. As a result, we have revised our set of probabilities on March 2019 outturns to show a somewhat higher probability of no-deal. | 0fake |
Democratic lawmakers want probe of Trump adviser's Russia payment | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of top U.S. House of Representatives Democrats sent a letter on Tuesday asking the Department of Defense to review a paid appearance at a Russian event by retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser. The letter said it was “extremely concerning” that Flynn was paid to appear at a gala for Russia’s government-funded RT television. The anti-bribery “emoluments” clause of the U.S. constitution bars payments by foreign governments. “It remains unclear how much General Flynn was paid for his dinner with (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, whether he received additional payments from Russian or other foreign sources on separate occasions, or whether he sought the approval of the Department of Defense or Congress to accept any of these payments,” said the letter from the ranking Democrats on six House committees. Asked about the letter, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he thought the Department of Defense was an appropriate place for such a review. But he said it did not appear unusual. He noted that Flynn “like I think probably countless if not hundreds of retired flag officers, joined a speaking bureau and has given speeches at various places.” Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has had warm relations with Putin’s government, which has worried Russia hawks in Congress, who consider Moscow a U.S. opponent on issues ranging from the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine to the civil war in Syria and the hacking of last year’s U.S. election. Some lawmakers also have questioned Flynn’s relationship with the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was a paid lobbyist for a consulting firm led by the head of the Turkish-American Business Council, and after last November’s election wrote an article urging the U.S. to cultivate better relations with Erdogan. | 0fake |
China warns of imminent attacks by "terrorists" in Pakistan | BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday warned its nationals in Pakistan of plans for a series of imminent terrorist attacks on Chinese targets there, an unusual alert as it pours funds into infrastructure projects into a country plagued by militancy. Thousands of Chinese workers have gone to Pakistan following Beijing s pledge to spend $57 billion there on projects in President Xi Jinping s signature Belt and Road development plan, which aims to link China with the Middle East and Europe. Protecting employees of Chinese companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs who have followed the investment wave along what is known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has been a concern for Chinese officials. It is understood that terrorists plan in the near term to launch a series of attacks against Chinese organizations and personnel in Pakistan, the Chinese embassy in Pakistan said in a statement on its website. The embassy warned all Chinese-invested organizations and Chinese citizens to increase security awareness, strengthen internal precautions, reduce trips outside as much as possible, and avoid crowded public spaces . It also asked Chinese nationals to cooperate with Pakistan s police and the military, and to alert the embassy in the event of an emergency. It did not give any further details. Pakistan s foreign ministry could not be reached immediately for comment. China has long worried about disaffected members of its Uighur Muslim minority in its far western region of Xinjiang linking up with militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. At the same time, violence in Pakistan s southwestern Baluchistan province has fueled concern about security for planned transport and energy links from western China to Pakistan s deepwater port of Gwadar. The Taliban, sectarian groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State all operate in Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is at the center of the Belt and Road initiative. In addition, separatists there have long battled the government for a greater share of gas and mineral resources, and have a long record of attacking energy and other infrastructure projects. Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing two kidnapped Chinese teachers in Baluchistan in June, prompting the government in Islamabad to pledge to beef up security for Chinese nationals. It had already promised a 15,000-strong army division to safeguard projects along the economic corridor. China s security concerns abroad have grown along with its global commercial footprint. In 2016, a suspected suicide car bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, killing the attacker and wounding at least three people. | 0fake |
Speaker Of The Big House: Child Molester Dennis Hastert To Spend Over A Year In Jail | Former Speaker Of The House Dennis Hastert got handed the sentence of 15 months in prison for monetary payoffs he made to keep his sexual abuse of young boys silent. The judge in the case called him a serial child molester, and also ordered him to enroll in a sex-offender treatment program.Hastert was accused of molesting 4 boys aged 14 to 17, during his time as a coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois. The case came to light when one of them finally broke decades of silence on Hastert s conduct.If you re thinking 15 months for molesting 4 boys is outrageous, you d be correct. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has expired on the molestation cases. This forced the court to focus on illegal cash withdrawals that Hastert made to pay hush-money in order to keep the crimes buried.As is always the case with your average Republican who does something criminal, there is a news reel of them being hypocritical by attacking others for somewhat similar conduct. Hastert was a very vocal critic of then-President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Clearly, Bill was not in any sense as despicable as Hastert. However, that didn t stop Hastert from strongly attacking Clinton for it.Dennis Hastert on the House floor, 1998:When the allegations first came to light, Hastert did what all Republicans do; blame the victim. His initial response was to claim that the money withdrawal was because HE was the one being victimized by a blackmailer over a baseless claim of sexual abuse. This didn t end up working well for Hastert because the judge used it to hand down an even stronger sentence to him, with the judge telling him, You tried to make him a victim again. U.S. Attorney comments on Hastert:This is yet another case of the universal hypocrisy that is a chronic condition of the Republican party. During a time when Republicans everywhere are trying to pass bathroom laws to protect people from the theorized molestations they believe will occur if a transgender individual uses a public bathroom, their party heroes keep getting nailed for doing the very thing they claim to hate.Here s a better idea. Since Republican men do this more than transgender individuals, we will make a Republican Men s Bathroom. We can do voter ID checks to make sure Republican men can only use their assigned bathroom because it s a public safety issue, as they like to say regarding their anti-LGBT bathroom laws. While we re at it, we can make Republican male-only movie theaters, restaurants and stores to help protect the public from mass shooters.Featured Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images | 1real |
Merkel signals readiness for new election after coalition talks collapse | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would prefer a new election to ruling with a minority after talks on forming a three-way coalition failed overnight, but Germany s president told parties they owed it to voters to try to form a government. The major obstacle to a three-way deal was immigration, according to Merkel, who was forced into negotiations after bleeding support in the Sept. 24 election to the far right in a backlash at her 2015 decision to let in over 1 million migrants. The failure of exploratory coalition talks involving her conservative bloc, the liberal pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens raises the prospect of a new election and casts doubt about her future after 12 years in power. Merkel, 63, said she was sceptical about ruling in a minority government, telling ARD television: My point of view is that new elections would be the better path. Her plans did not include being chancellor in a minority government, she said after meeting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Steinmeier said Germany was facing the worst governing crisis in the 68-year history of its post-World War Two democracy and pressed all parties in parliament to serve our country and try to form a government. His remarks appeared aimed at the FDP and the Social Democrats (SPD), who on Monday ruled out renewing their grand coalition with the conservatives. Inside our country, but also outside, in particular in our European neighbourhood, there would be concern and a lack of understanding if politicians in the biggest and economically strongest country (in Europe) did not live up to their responsibilities, read a statement from Steinmeier, a former foreign minister who has been thrust centre-stage after taking on the usually largely ceremonial head of state role in March. Steinmeier s intervention suggests he regards a new election - desired by half of Germany s voters according to a poll - as a last resort. The SPD has so far stuck to a pledge after heavy losses in the September election not to go back into a Merkel-led broad coalition of centre-left and centre-right. Merkel urged the SPD to reconsider. I would hope that they consider very intensively if they should take on the responsibility of governing, she told broadcaster ZDF, adding she saw no reason to resign and her conservative bloc would enter any new election more unified than before. If new elections happened, then ... we have to accept that. I m afraid of nothing, she said. Business leaders also called for a swift return to talks. With German leadership seen as crucial for a European Union grappling with governance reform and Britain s impending exit, FDP leader Christian Lindner s announcement that he was pulling out spooked investors and sent the euro falling in the morning. Both the euro and European shares later recovered from early selling, while German bond yields steadied near 1-1/2 week lows, as confidence about the outlook for the euro zone economy helped investors brush off worries about the risk of Germany going to the polls again soon. FEAR OF FAR-RIGHT GAINS Earlier, Merkel got the strong backing of her CDU leadership. Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Germany weekly Die Zeit said she could rely on CDU support for now, but added: I will not bet on her serving out her entire four-year term. The main parties fear another election so soon would let the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party add to the 13 percent of votes it secured in September, when it entered parliament for the first time. Polls suggest a repeat election would return a similarly fragmented parliament. A poll published on Monday showed a new election would bring roughly the same result as the September election, with the Greens set to see the biggest gains. If Germans voted next Sunday, Merkel s conservatives would get 31 percent, the SPD 21 percent, the Greens and the AfD both 12 percent, the FDP 10 percent and the Left party 9 percent, the Forsa survey for RTL television showed. This compares with the election result of 32.9 percent for the conservatives, 20.5 percent for the SPD, 12.6 percent for AfD, 10.7 percent for FDP, 9.2 percent for the Left party and 8.9 percent for the Greens. The failure of coalition talks is unprecedented in Germany s post-war history, and was likened by newsmagazine Der Spiegel to the shock election of U.S. President Donald Trump or Britain s referendum vote to leave the EU - moments when countries cast aside reputations for stability built up over decades. Any outcome in Germany is, however, likely to be more consensus driven. The problem is stagnation and immobility, not instability as in Italy, said Joffe. The unravelling of the German talks came as a surprise since the main sticking points - immigration and climate policy - were not seen as FDP signature issues. Responding to criticism from the Greens, FDP vice chairman Wolfgang Kubicki said a tie-up would have been short-lived. Nothing would be worse than to get into a relationship about which we know that it will end in a dirty divorce, he said. Even if the SPD or the FDP revisit their decisions, the price for either party to change its mind could be the departure of Merkel, who since 2005 has been a symbol of German stability, leading Europe through the euro zone crisis. The inability to form a government caused disquiet elsewhere in Europe, not least because of the implications for the euro zone reforms championed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Germany s political impasse could also complicate and potentially delay the Brexit negotiations - Britain has just over a year to strike a divorce deal with the EU ahead of an exit planned for March 29, 2019. It s not in our interests that the process freezes up, Macron told reporters in Paris, adding he had spoken with Merkel shortly after the failure of talks. | 0fake |
Texas Lawmaker Files CRUCIAL Bill That Could Save Countless Lives (VIDEO) | On Tuesday, Senator Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio) filed a bill in Austin to expand the use of medical cannabis. The bill, titled Senate Bill 269, will allow for doctors to decide how much or which part of the plant to use in order to treat patients with chronic health conditions such as severe autism, epilepsy, PTSD and a wealth of other disorders that cause debilitating pain and mental and physical disabilities.After this unprecedented bill was filed in Texas on Tuesday morning, Menendez held a press conference along with citizens who were there to speak about why this bill is so important to their lives and what cannabis will do for their children and families who are suffering.Senator Menendez opens with his reasons for this crucial bill: No one has died from an overdose of cannabis in this country, said Menendez. 44 people are dying every single day from overdoses of painkillers, prescription painkillers. Why if we re such a state that is always been, we thrive on talking about our independence and less regulation and less government and all of these things, why are we deciding to put more government or a politician s decisions between a patient and their doctors. One mother, Debbie Tolany, spoke at length about her 13-year-old son, Miles, who is affected by autism, has intractable epilepsy and a rare endocrine disorder called hypoparathyroid disease. In 2015, Texas passed a bill allowing for the limited use of cannabis for certain patients with epilepsy which a giant leap for the red state, but unfortunately, it wasn t enough to help Miles and others like him. Doctors, having little control over the treatment they prescribe, are forced to use medicines with chemical side-effects that can be severely damaging to the brain and can continue to be a detriment to the well-being of their patients.Debbie had this to say about her son and the side-effects that Miles recently endured from chemical medications prescribed to him: I watched a child with low muscle tone and usually low endurance for physical movement run in frantic circles around my living room for 30 minutes. His face and lips were completely white and he cried out in pain, looking at me for support, which his body would not allow him to receive. No parent should have to watch their son suffer in such a way and no human being should be FORCED by doctors, who are supposed to be taking care of them, to ingest chemicals that only make things worse.The answer for these families is pretty simple. Please watch the full report below: You can also view the press conference, in its entirety, here.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Paul Ryan Must Step Down as Speaker of the House |
Rep. Paul Ryan must step down as Speaker of the House.
America rejected his big government, open borders globalism.
Paul Ryan rejected Trump all year long.
And now the majority are calling on Wisconsin lawmaker to step down.
Americans deserve a Republican Speaker who will support President Trump. A bridge, not a wall.
Sean Hannity spoke tonight on FOX after Donald Trump won the election for President of the United States. He noted that he spoke with Trump three times throughout the night after he said the following:
And on every objective measure, you know thank God the American people this is about one thing. They see that Washington is broken and by the way Republicans are just as guilty. Paul Ryan is not going to be the Speaker off the House in January. I was going to save that for my program tomorrow. He’s not going to be the Speaker. His state went for Donald Trump tonight.
I mean it’s an amazing turn of events because the establishment on both sides Republican and Democrat have lost touch with the real lives of real Americans that are really suffering and Donald Trump has now opened the door and said we’re going to fix it and we’re going to turn that table over and you know what, I wish him all the best cause it’s not going to be easy because it’s all the same people that opposed him in the lead up to tonight are going to be opposing him tomorrow.
Source
| 1real |
'This is slavery': U.S. inmates strike in what activists call one of the biggest prison protests in modern history | Trending Articles: Trending Articles: 'This is slavery': U.S. inmates strike in what activists call one of the biggest prison protests in modern history Published: October 28, 2016 Source: La Times
In his 29 years in prison, David Bonner has mopped floors, cooked hot dogs in the cafeteria and, most recently, cut sheets of aluminum into Alabama license plates.
The last job paid $2 a day — enough to buy a bar of soap at the commissary or make a short phone call.
"This is slavery," said Bonner, who is 51 and serving a life sentence for murder. "We're forced to work these jobs and we get barely anything.”
He was speaking on a mobile phone smuggled into his 8-by-12 foot cell in Alabama’s Holman Correctional Facility, where he and dozens of other inmates were on strike.
They’re among a growing national movement of prisoners who have staged work stoppages or hunger strikes this fall to protest dismal wages, abusive guards, overcrowding and poor healthcare, among other grievances.
Prisoners’ rights activists say the coordinated effort is one of the largest prison protests in modern history, drawing in at least 20,000 inmates in at least 24 prisons in 23 states.
Corrections officials have confirmed inmate protests in Michigan, South Carolina and Florida since early September. In California, at least 300 inmates have been involved in hunger strikes at jails in Santa Clara and Merced counties.
In several states, including Virginia, Ohio and Texas, officials have denied claims by activists that strikes have occurred.
Alabama officials acknowledged the protest at the Holman prison, 52 miles northeast of Mobile, though they said it was limited to a one-day strike by 60 inmates who worked in the kitchen and license plate plant — far less extensive than the 10-plus days in September and October that activists described.
"I know there are inmates who are saying there is this big, wide work stoppage but that is just not the case," said Alabama Dept. of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton.
Horton denied inmate reports that the prison had been on lockdown in response to strikes, which he described as "peaceful." But he also said he understood some of prisoners' complaints about living conditions. Holman is "overcrowded and understaffed," Horton said, adding that state officials were working to fix the problem. | 1real |
Roger Ailes Fused TV With Politics, Changing Both - The New York Times | Roger Ailes has died at 77. This assesment of his career by our chief television critic was originally published in July 2016, following the departure of Mr. Ailes from Fox News. American democracy is meant to be . Presidents win two terms, maximum. Supreme Court justices are one voice among nine (or, currently, eight) senators one in a hundred. To amass the kind of power that allows you to shape politics and culture geologically, like a river carving out a canyon, you have to go elsewhere. Roger Ailes found that place. At Fox News — the outlet Mr. Ailes created, ran and drove like a bullet train for two decades — he was a unitary force. And he was not until Thursday, when he stepped down over charges, which began with a lawsuit by the former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson, that he sexually harassed a series of women over the years. With Fox News, Mr. Ailes introduced a brash, style that influences much of today’s media. But the closest comparison for him might be less CNN’s Ted Turner than someone like J. Edgar Hoover: a power behind the power, unelected but mighty, outliving administrations and the ebbs and flows of elections, ruling by force and fear. Mr. Ailes was a TV guy before he was a politics guy, and then he became a TV guy again. But he recognized, faster than others, that on some level TV and politics were the same thing. They fed off the same energy and animal spirits. It was Mr. Ailes, then the executive producer of “The Mike Douglas Show,” who persuaded Richard Nixon of the importance of television in the 1968 election. The candidate, who seemed blindsided in 1960 by the new medium, won the presidency through the first modern campaign. Mr. Ailes became a media guru for Republicans, prodding voters’ centers of emotion and insecurity. For George H. W. Bush in 1988, he produced the sleazy and effective “Revolving Door” ad that tarred Michael Dukakis by association with murderers and rapists. In 1996, he signed on to start a cable news channel for the conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, as dispirited conservatives were looking down the barrel of a second Bill Clinton term. Fox News Channel, not Bob Dole or the Clinton impeachment case, would be conservatism’s next great weapon. Fox News Channel was a business opportunity rolled up in a political argument — conservatives’ belief that the news media were aligned against them. Its slogans, “We report, you decide” and “Fair and balanced,” were a wink and a promise. You decide to watch us, we’ll balance this situation out. Fox News gave Mr. Ailes an entire media outlet with which to abet and influence Republican politics, amplifying messages, sounding themes and picking winners. He ran Fox like a political operation, down to its messaging and tactics against perceived enemies. Fox public relations worked and fought, in the words of the media columnist David Carr of The New York Times, like “a kind of rolling opposition research operation. ” There was a parlor game, among types who covered media, of reading furious missives from Fox to detect the heat of Mr. Ailes’s personal voice. But Mr. Ailes also shaped TV news in the way that his generation shaped politics. It was a revolution of tone, production style and manners as much as ideology. Politics and media of the midcentury, era were shaped by norms of tone and content. You respected certain codes of gravitas. You practiced professional dispassion. You might chase ratings, but you recognized an interest in appearing like something other than entertainment. Even CNN, which shook up the broadcast news paradigm, featured stately battleships of dignity like Bernard Shaw. The idea of Fox News, journalistically and aesthetically, was: screw the norms. What if we just get right up in your face? Yes, a big part of that was political. The Fox model was bifurcated, with conservative hosts dominating prime time. Like the in “The Blues Brothers” that had “both kinds” of music, “country and western,” it offered a rightist sampler running from Sean Hannity’s Republicanism to Bill O’Reilly’s pugnacious East Coast populism. The daytime was structured like a standard news report, but it was coded — the tone, the choice of topics, the looks of the anchors — that in a way told conservatives they were at home. Fox daytime “played it straight,” was the network’s line. But if you had half an ear, you could pick up the tune. Fox also changed the aesthetics of news, reflecting Mr. Ailes’s instinct that messaging needs visceral pizazz. The graphics whooshed at you like a Blue Angels flyover. The soundtrack was percussive and martial. On Fox, the news was something to get pumped about, the mood always agitated — less Walter Cronkite, more Michael Bay. Fox’s format made a powerful political platform and a good ratings proposition. Traditional programs or stations lived or died on the news cycle. On Fox, there was always reason to watch, some provocation, some grievance, some P. C. liberal somewhere going too far again. After the attacks, Fox topped the ratings, and its competitors played . CNN, in a series of identity crises, remade and remade itself. MSNBC went through a feeble, phase as a network, a Fox Jr. before becoming a wonky, progressive . Other news media become more more willing to accept the proposition that everyone has a point of view, and might as well embrace it. Fox didn’t cause that alone — talk radio came before, the multiplicity of online outlets after — but it provided one model. Fox News became a dressing room in which conservatism could try on new outfits. During the early Obama and Tea Party years, Glenn Beck burned brightly and briefly, with his histrionics and a penchant for conspiracy theories that foreshadowed the current election cycle. And candidates lined up for appearances — what was called the “Fox primary. ” It was a revolving door of politicians who become contributors who become candidates: Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin. Now, as my colleague Jim Rutenberg noted, Mr. Ailes’s downfall comes as the Fox ethos has its apotheosis in the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, a being made of pure television. Fox News didn’t make Mr. Trump . But it made the conditions that made him. Resentment politics, for instance. Mr. Ailes, and thus Fox, recognized that an aggrieved group needed constant grievance, even in victory. Take the “War on Christmas,” which was fought annually on Fox. It became a throwaway line for Mr. Trump — people would say “Merry Christmas” in his America, by God! But the spirit of the war on Christmas is everywhere in his campaign. It’s in the idea of the fallen majority — that your thing (religious, racial, whatever) used to be the main thing in America, it used to be honored, and now it’s overwhelmed and disrespected, but we are going to bring it back. “Anchor babies. ” The “Ground Zero mosque. ” Birtherism. All these themes were on Fox, and embraced in the subculture of the Republican base, before Mr. Trump adopted them. Note by note, the channel built the instrument that Mr. Trump plays like a concert pianist. Beyond that, Fox bolstered the powerful idea, key to his campaign, that traditional gatekeepers and claims to expertise were illegitimate. “Fair and balanced,” after all, implied that no one else was balanced, and thus any other information could be dismissed. Newspapers, scientists, egghead — forget them. There was only Fox. This gave Mr. Trump, with his tendency to improvise his own facts, an assist — and, when he briefly went to war against Fox News and its anchor Megyn Kelly during the primary, a weapon. When he delegitimized Fox to his followers, there was no countervailing authority left. Now there was only Trump. Today Mr. Trump is at peace with Fox, because he won. And with Mr. Ailes gone, the populist spirit we’ve come to associate with Fox News may pass to Trump. (Completing the motif, Mr. Trump’s campaign is reported to be overtly modeling itself on the very 1968 “ ” campaign that Mr. Ailes helped win for Mr. Nixon.) Fox News after Mr. Ailes may remain a conservative destination. If nothing else, it still has a big audience. But Mr. Murdoch’s children don’t seem politically driven like Mr. Ailes, so the channel may never again be the same kind of singular, personally driven force. Of course, someone else’s media entity might be. There has been speculation, should Mr. Trump lose in November, that he might start his own media organization. And if he wins, he’ll be a media conglomerate in himself. One way or the other, for better or worse, he would be part of Mr. Ailes’s legacy. | 0fake |
Trump still standing, but damaged by Comey's testimony | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump survived one of the biggest threats to his presidency when Thursday’s hugely awaited congressional testimony by the FBI chief he fired did not yield any explosive new disclosures about his campaign’s alleged ties with Russia. But former FBI Director James Comey’s remarks to a packed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee left the Republican president far from unscathed. Comey recounted in vivid detail conversations with Trump that he viewed as an effort to undermine an investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also said Trump’s comments after firing him on May 9 that the FBI was in disarray and that its members had lost confidence in Comey “were lies, plain and simple.” Still, Comey handed Trump and his supporters some fresh ammunition when he confirmed he had told the president the investigation was not focused on him personally. Even Senator Marco Rubio, who was among a number of Republicans who battled Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, seemed to be advocating for him at times during the hearing. Rubio asked Comey why he did not directly tell Trump that he thought the president was making inappropriate requests of him. Comey replied that he did not know. “I was a bit stunned, and didn’t have the presence of mind,” he said. A Republican close to Trump said the president felt very good about Comey’s testimony, particularly since it bore out his earlier statement that the former FBI director had told him he was not under investigation. But the cloud from the Russia probe still hangs heavily over Trump’s White House. Comey’s firing set the stage for the appointment of a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who has taken over the investigation. Congressional probes, including one by the Senate intelligence panel, are ongoing. Russia has denied interference in last year’s presidential campaign. The White House has denied any collusion with Moscow. But Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who sits on the intelligence committee, said the matter was nowhere near over. “It’s a big investigation, and these are facts. ... You have to dig for, and do a lot of analysis.” Several Democrats said Trump’s conversations with Comey seemed to build a case of obstruction of justice. “The lawyers are going to dig into obstruction of justice,” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the intelligence panel, said after the hearing. “I believe the evidence just keeps piling up that there has been a very real presidential abuse of power.” But Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said Trump’s interactions with Comey may have reflected his lack of political experience rather than an effort to pressure the FBI director. Ryan said Trump may not have been “steeped” enough in the FBI’s independence from the White House. “He’s new in government, and so therefore I think he’s learning as he goes,” he told reporters. “I’m not saying it’s an acceptable excuse. It’s just my observation.” Trump could face even more problems over the coming months if the stream of details leaking out about the Russia investigation continues to grab the spotlight at a time when the White House wants to focus on priorities such as rolling back the Obamacare healthcare law and overhauling the tax code. “It distracts the administration and gives Republicans in the House and the Senate, many of whom have not been Trump supporters from the beginning, a reason to keep their distance and not get behind him,” said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducts political polling. “It’s going to be a long summer,” Smith said. Trump’s core supporters are hunkering down for a fight. Great America Alliance, one pro-Trump group, spent $400,000 this week running ads attacking Comey, said Eric Beach, who runs the group. The ad lambasted Comey as “just another D.C. insider” and included images of militant attacks abroad to suggest Comey had not been focused enough on protecting Americans. But the investigation has contributed to a steady erosion of Trump’s political capital. According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll taken from June 1 to 5, even before the Comey testimony - 38 percent of Americans said they approved of Trump, versus 58 percent who disapproved. “I think the situation is getting much more serious for Mr. Trump,” said Jon Bond, a political science professor at Texas A&M University. “The Mueller investigation is going on. I suspect that information that came out in today’s hearings is going to feed into that investigation. It looks like to me that the president is in increasing jeopardy.” | 0fake |
IN BRITAIN, Paki Muslim sex traffickers who rape and pimp out young white children go free but Christians who throw bacon at a mosque get thrown in jail | BNI Store Nov 2 2016 IN BRITAIN, Paki Muslim sex traffickers who rape and pimp out young white children go free but Christians who throw bacon at a mosque get thrown in jail Two British men have been jailed for going to a mosque and throwing bacon at a Muslim man in what the sharia-compliant British officials call a ‘callous hate crime.’ There you go, Londoners, keep on electing Muslim politicians and soon you’ll be stoned to death for insulting Islam. Metro Piotr Czak-Zukowski was found with an empty packet of bacon in his pocket when he was searched by police officers after the incident. He and Mateusz Pawlikowski had confronted worshippers at the Al-Rahman Mosque in Crowndale Road, Kings Cross, north London on October 2. BACON BANDITS Mateusz Pawlikowski and Piotr Czak-Zukowski Pawlikowski, 22, of Wilton Road, in Muswell Hill, north London, swore at a man and threw a rasher of bacon towards him, and chucked more bacon on the floor of the prayer room. The pair fled but Pawlikowski was detained near the mosque and Czak-Zukowski, 28, of Sneath Avenue, in Brent Cross, north London, was found at Camden Lock. Both men admitted criminal damage and a religiously aggravated public order offence last month. They were jailed for eight months at Blackfriars Crown Court. DC Tracey McMath, from the Camden Community Safety Unit, said: ‘The defendants showed a complete disregard for the faith and belief of others in this callous and highly offensive incident; and I hope their convictions highlight that we will not tolerate hate crime in any form. | 1real |
Russia summons U.S. envoy over missing consular flags | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s foreign ministry said on Friday it had summoned the U.S. Embassy charge d affaires in Moscow to protest against what it said was the removal of Russian flags from diplomatic premises that Russia had to vacate in the United States, Russia s RIA news agency reported. | 0fake |
‘Christian’ Conservatives Cheer After Fox Reports A Swarm Of Killer Bees Stung 20 Muslims (SCREENSHOTS) | Bee stings can have an impact ranging from mild swelling to death, depending on if the victim is allergic and the degree of the allergy. On Friday, a swarm of Africanized honey bees killer bees attacked a group of people in Phoenix, Arizona, stinging more than 20 unfortunate individuals. Normally, a bee attack would not be national news, but it happened to Muslims who were worshipping at a mosque, so Fox News was all over it.The bees descended on the mosque, sending at least one man to the hospital. firefighters fortunately arrived early enough to spray mounds of foam to get the bees under control and prevent further injury.@SKrafftFox10 After a bee stings you its stinger falls out and it dies.Ironic that a group of Muslims were just attacked by Suicide bees. Libertarian Larry (@Libertarian5000) April 2, 2016 It s always a bad situation when you re talking about Africanized bees, because once one bee creates a pheromone which sends off the other bees to attack, said Joseph Mikesell with Truly Nolen. It is unclear what set the bees off, but Mikesell warns that if you see bees you should call a professional rather than attempt to deal with a problem yourself. Experts say that the attack was unsurprising, as it is the height of swarm season. The attack left numerous prayer rugs and pretty much everything else drenched in foam that members spent an exhorbitant amount of time shoveling out of the mosque with whatever they could find, Fox 10 s Marcy Jones, who called the prayer rugs oriental, reported. She warns people not to wear black, red, or yellow because the bees might think that you are a bear and become more aggressive around you.It s fortunate that no one was hurt too seriously, but when Fox News Insider posted this important national story on Facebook, readers reacted exactly how one would expect people who have been groomed by Stupidville to react with utter glee.Some declared this to be God s judgement on the followers of Allah, completely ignorant that Allah is simply Arabic for God and the two religions actually worship the same deity. Others publicly wished that some of the Muslims injured in the attack had died. Some wanted more bees. The Stupid Part of America completely outdid themselves as they referenced Biblical plagues (because a swarm of bees is totally like a plague of locusts, while others seized upon the opportunity to tell each other how much they hate Muslims.In short, finding out about this bee attack was the best thing that happened to many conservatives this week: This is Trump s America, folks. The supposed Christian Right is so wrapped up in hate that they are unable to show a shred of compassion when a group of people are attacked by a tiny-yet-deadly creature all because they believe their imaginary friend is better than the other, who is actually the same guy.Watch a report on the attack below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
United States of America continues to dominate baseball World Series | Thursday 3 November 2016 by Danny Soz United States of America continues to dominate baseball World Series
The all-conquering Americans last night tightened their grip on the baseball World Series, leaving 195 other countries trailing in their wake.
This time it was the turn of the Chicago Cubs to reinforce America’s total domination of the series by beating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 on a thrilling night for their millions of fans worldwide.
Since it’s inception in 1903, no other country has come close to the world title as the American baseball juggernaut has rumbled over all-comers.
One of the first to congratulate the triumphant American team was presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, who spoke to reporters from Florida where he is currently on the campaign trail.
Forming an “o” with his thumb and forefinger and moving his hand up and down, Trump told reporters: “This is a tremendous win for America. It’s just tremendous.
“In fact, if I were to try to tell you how tremendous this is, you wouldn’t believe me. Under my presidency, this sort of tremendous event would be happening all the time.
“You would all be so proud. So proud. So proud of me and proud of your country. I can’t tell you how proud you would be because you wouldn’t believe me.
“However, under Hillary, none of these tremendous achievements would happen. Hillary is a crook who belongs in jail. She is not tremendous, and I will jail her. Jail…is…where…she…belongs!”
The triumphant Cubs team will now embark on a world tour of Illinois to celebrate their remarkable world-beating achievement. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently | 1real |
NOT EVERY HOLLYWOOD ACTOR Approved Of Meryl Streep’s Anti-Trump Rant Last Night…Check Out Vince Vaughn And Mel Gibson’s Reactions | Thank goodness there are still a few courageous, conservative actors in Hollywood like Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Patricia Heaton and Clint Eastwood, to name a few. Gibson and Vaughn were in attendance last night at the Golden Globe awards, and by the looks on their faces, they were obviously were NOT impressed with Streep s anti-Trump rant (video of her embarrassing speech can be seen below):Hollywood conservatives/libertarians #MelGibson & #VinceVaughn listening to #MerylStreep speech slamming @realDonaldTrump. #LockHerUp pic.twitter.com/i3sdtSbz1f Jacob Engels (@JacobEngels) January 9, 2017Here is Streep s rant:"As my friend Princess Leia said to me once: take your broken heart, make it into art." #MerylStreep pic.twitter.com/GzOHo7O729 #GoldenGlobes Richard Hine (@richardhine) January 9, 2017 | 1real |
Was Trump’s Tax Evasion Perfectly Legal, As He Claims? His Own Tax Lawyers Say Probably Not | Trump has repeatedly said that all the ways he avoided paying taxes was legal, and has even shown his ignorance about how our government works to paint Hillary as incompetent because she didn t single-handedly change these laws during her time in the Senate. However, while he was busy avoiding taxes in the 1990s, his own lawyers warned him against doing, well, exactly what he did.A new report in The New York Times explains that, order to avoid total financial ruin, Trump didn t report hundreds of millions that was technically income. He didn t just not report it, though the IRS would have seen through that immediately. Instead, his first step to avoiding taxes was successfully pushing his various bondholders to cancel the hundreds of millions he owed them.To the IRS, a dollar of canceled debt is a dollar of taxable income. That could have crippled the self-proclaimed master of debt and taxes about as badly as all that debt he couldn t pay. So what did he do? He used what s called a stock-for-debt swap maneuver.Except Congress banned that practice for corporations in 1993. However, Trump s real estate holdings in Atlantic City the ones that were all in trouble weren t corporations. They were partnerships. So he thought he could still swap what s called partnership equity for his debt.Apparently, this works even if the stocks, or, in Trump s case, the equities, are worth considerably less than the canceled debt. The Times says that this is as close as anyone can get to making taxes just magically disappear.But legally, this is fraught with its own problems and Trump s own lawyers actually warned him against doing it. He asked his tax attorneys for formal opinion letters on his plan, which all came back saying: The letters bluntly warned that there was no statute, regulation or judicial opinion that explicitly permitted Mr. Trump s tax gambit. Due to the lack of definitive judicial or administrative authority, his lawyers wrote, substantial uncertainties exist with respect to many of the tax consequences of the plan.' In other words, they felt that his scheme wouldn t stand up to IRS scrutiny. We don t know if the IRS went after him for this because nobody has the whole story. However, from what we do have, tax expert and former chief tax council for the House Ways and Means Committee, John L. Buckley, was able to say: He s getting something for absolutely nothing. Buckley also said: He deducted somebody else s losses. He is double dipping big time. Buckley means that the only people who should have been able to deduct those losses were the bondholders who canceled his debts, and thus, lost out on their investments.This could be one of the bombshells he s hiding in his tax returns. Since all of this involved partnerships, profits could go straight to his personal returns, as could other items. With Trump refusing to release those, though, we don t know just how badly he stretched the law, if not broke it altogether.This scheme quite possibly laid the groundwork for his massive $916 million loss in 1995, which may have allowed him to avoid paying taxes again for 20 years. In other words, not only has he possibly sailed along while Americans who earn an honest day s pay for an honest day s work dutifully paid their taxes, but he very likely broke the law in all his machinations here in a way that the regular Americans he claims to understand would never get away with (hell, we wouldn t even know where to start, most likely).Oddly enough, using partnership equity swaps to avoid taxes was banned by Congress in 2004. Among the Senators who voted to close that loophole was Hillary Clinton.Featured image by Brian Blanco via Getty Images | 1real |
BREAKING: Michael Flynn CRACKS – Will Testify To Mueller Against Trump Himself | Michael Flynn, Trump s embattled former national security adviser, has reportedly caved in and will testify to Robert Mueller and his team about Trump s collusion with Russia. According to an ABC News special report, Flynn has pleaded guilty to charges that include making false statements to the FBI. Most importantly, he admitted in his plea that officials on Trump s transition team directed his contacts with Russian officials.Furthermore, according to CNN s David Wright on Twitter, there s more to it than that. He s reporting that Brian Ross, who reported for ABC News, said that Flynn also says he s prepared to testify that Trump himself ordered him, directed him, to make contact with the Russians, which contradicts all that Donald Trump has said at this point. .@BrianRoss reports Michael Flynn is prepared to testify that President Trump as a candidate Donald Trump ordered him, directed him, to make contacts with the Russians, which contradicts all that Donald Trump has said at this point. David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) December 1, 2017.@BrianRoss: As well, we re told that Flynn made the decision to cooperate only in the last 24 hours. That he is distraught about this decision, but feels he is doing the right thing for his country David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) December 1, 2017.@BrianRoss: and that he is facing huge legal bills of more than a million dollars, and he said that finally he had to go and do this for that reason. He expects to put his house on the market. He is facing serious financial problems. David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) December 1, 2017For his part, Flynn issued a statement saying the following: Actions I acknowledged in court today are wrong, and through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions. The White House has said that this is merely more of what got Flynn fired in the first place, and that this will have zero effect on Trump. Har de har har don t make us laugh too hard. It hurts. Merry Christmas to Donald Trump and his entire treasonous family and administration! We hope you like orange jumpsuits!Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Illinois judge dismisses Cruz eligibility complaint | CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois voter’s lawsuit challenging Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for president of the United States because he was born in Canada was dismissed on a technicality on Tuesday by a state judge. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Maureen Ward Kirby in Chicago ruled that she did not have jurisdiction in the lawsuit - which had sought to have Cruz removed from the state’s primary election ballot - because it had not been properly served on the state Board of Elections. She found that the plaintiff, Lawrence Joyce, had not properly filed his petition for judicial review. Joyce, a lawyer and a pharmacist from the Chicago suburb of Poplar Grove who supports Cruz rival Ben Carson, initially filed a complaint in January with the elections board. When the board rejected the complaint, he filed the lawsuit seeking judicial review in Cook County. Kirby’s ruling came as voters in 12 other states were taking part in the Super Tuesday Republican and Democratic nominating contests, a milestone in the selection of candidates for the Nov. 8 election. Illinois’ primary is on March 15, but early voting has already begun. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned Cruz’s eligibility because of his Canadian birth. Joyce’s lawsuit argued that Cruz cannot run for president under the U.S. Constitution because the U.S. senator from Texas is not a “natural-born” citizen. Cruz gained citizenship at birth because his mother was an American citizen, but Joyce contends that was a form of naturalization. Cruz’s father is from Cuba. Cruz, himself an attorney, has maintained he is a natural-born American due to his mother’s citizenship. Kirby ruled that Joyce should have served the complaint directly to Cruz and the election board members, not to their lawyers, citing requirements in the Illinois election code. “I recognize that election decisions are of great importance to the public,” the judge said. “But it’s a matter of strict compliance.” She said she could not look at the issues presented in the case because it was not properly before her. Joyce said he has not yet decided whether he will appeal the ruling. He said it depended on whether Trump, as expected, dominates in the Super Tuesday contests and becomes the most likely Republican nominee. “My main concern all along has been keeping Senator Cruz from being the nominee of the party. Depending on what happens today on Super Tuesday, that whole point might become a moot point,” Joyce told reporters. Joyce said he did not want Cruz to win the nomination because he believes Democrats would then seek to have the Texan disqualified because he was born abroad. An attorney who represented Cruz in court, Sharee Langenstein, called the lawsuit “a misguided attempt to distract the voters away from the most qualified candidate we have for president, and that’s Senator Ted Cruz.” “There’s no issue here,” she said. “It’s very clear that Senator Cruz is a natural-born citizen.” Voters in New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Texas have also filed legal challenges to Cruz’s eligibility. Some legal experts do not expect any court to invalidate a presidential candidate on the issue. (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mary Wisniewski) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
Field commander in U.S.-backed SDF expects Raqqa fight to end Monday | BEIRUT (Reuters) - A field commander for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Raqqa said the alliance was carrying out clearing operations against Islamic State and expected to control the city by the end of Monday. Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish leader who co-chairs the SDF s political wing, said she expected the end of the Raqqa offensive to be announced within hours or days , but a U.S.-led coalition spokesman said he could not put a timeline on it. (This version of the story clarifies title of leader affiliated with SDF) | 0fake |
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