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POLICE DEPT CANCELS “HIGH-FIVE” A COP At Elementary School Over Concerns Of Offending “Undocumented Children…Kids Of Color” | It s official the inmates are running the asylum A police department in Northampton, Massachusetts is ending its High-Five Friday program at local elementary schools due to concerns that undocumented children and others may feel uncomfortable seeing an officer at school.The program, started by the Northampton Police Department in December, had officers stand outside of a school each Friday morning to high-five students as they walked in to begin the day. WFBToday was High-5 Friday at Bridge St School! Thanks to everyone who participated! The kids and officers all had fun! #highfiveHere are a few tweets that were sent out by the NPD highlighting their high-five program with kids:Today was High-5 Friday at Bridge St School! Thanks to everyone who participated! The kids and officers all had fun! #highfive pic.twitter.com/Trz0yoW3Qh Northampton Police (@NorthamptonPD) December 9, 2016Today was High-Five Friday! Thanks to Jackson St School for hosting! We hope that everyone had a great time! Happy Friday!! #highfive pic.twitter.com/MWY6JBlHlK Northampton Police (@NorthamptonPD) January 6, 2017Here is part of their Facebook explanation for doing away with the high-five program:This is the same Northampton Police Department by the way, that celebrated the great turn-out for the nasty women march that was really about protesting Trump and defending abortion. Does it make you feel any safer when you see a police department bragging about their promotion of lawless liberal politics? | 1real |
Reince Priebus Mansplained Hillary’s Behavior During Forum, And It’s REPULSIVE (TWEET) | If there s one thing strong, successful women love to hear from men who are jealous of their success, it s how they should behave. With that previous sentence being clearly sarcasm if you possess a brain, it needs to be noted that s what RNC Chair Reince Priebus just did to Hillary Clinton while watching NBC s latest presidential forum discussing veterans and military issues.Priebus thought it wise to write: Hillary Clinton was angry and defensive the entire time no smile and uncomfortable upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets. @HillaryClinton was angry + defensive the entire time no smile and uncomfortable upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets. Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 8, 2016Didn t you know that if you re to be taken seriously as a woman you need to be smiling at all times and look appealing? God forbid you have a face that reads you re taking Veteran issues very seriously and want to make sure they re given the respect and dignity they so rightfully deserve.This is yet just another example of a brutal double standard that still exists not only within modern politics but among the workplace in general.Donald Trump sat there during the entire forum without a smile on his face while discussing Veteran issues with NBC s Matt Lauer, but no one spoke of his lack of facial expression. Why? Because it s not expected of men. Women, on the other hand, are held to a different standard where they need to appear appealing at all times.It s bullshit is what it is.Let s stick to the issues, Priebus.Featured Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1real |
New England Patriots, Rex Tillerson: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Republicans used the muscle of their congressional majority to push forward some of President Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees, a sign of the struggle ahead for Democrats. The Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state in a narrow, contentious vote. Several more nominations cleared committees: Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary and Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services. But Betsy DeVos, above, is in trouble, after two Republican senators said they would not back her for education secretary. Here’s our full coverage of the new administration. _____ 2. Mr. Trump pushed back against any Democratic slowdowns in confirming his pick for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, above left, suggesting that the Senate majority leader could “go nuclear” in terms of floor procedures. Later in the day, Mr. Trump flew to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor the remains of the Navy commando killed in a raid on Al Qaeda forces in Yemen on Sunday, the first combat casualty of his presidency. In our new podcast, The Daily, our reporter Michael Barbaro covers the day’s big stories and ideas in 15 minutes, five days a week. Today: making sense of the Gorsuch pick. Listen here. _____ 3. The administration is beginning to confront knotty foreign policy issues. Iran argued that it had not violated a U. N. Security Council resolution with its recent missile test. The U. S. called for a Security Council meeting to discuss the matter. Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, said Iran was “on notice. ” Above left, President Hassan Rouhani at an exhibition on Iran’s achievements in space technology. _____ 4. Israeli security forces clashed with settlers defying a court order to evacuate the unauthorized settlement outpost of Amona in the West Bank. Hundreds of young activists burned tires, blocked roads and barricaded themselves at the site. Amona is a flash point for the settler movement, and the case had gone through the courts for years. But hours before the police entered Amona, the Israeli government made a major move, approving construction for 3, 000 new homes in the West Bank and calling for a new settlement to be established. _____ 5. Ban the former United Nations chief, said he would not run for the presidency of South Korea. The surprise announcement deprives conservatives of their likeliest candidate to succeed the country’s embattled leader, Park who is facing impeachment. “I was deeply disappointed by outdated and egoism among some politicians,” Mr. Ban said bluntly. “I have determined that it is meaningless to try to work with them. ” _____ 6. Men whose prostate cancer comes back after surgery are more likely to survive if, along with the usual radiation, they also take drugs to block male hormones. The finding, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, comes from a study that experts say will help clarify treatment for many patients. _____ 7. With user growth at an high, Facebook’s sales handily beat Wall Street estimates. The company said its sales had totaled $8. 8 billion for the fourth quarter of 2016, up about 51 percent from a year ago. _____ 8. Protect Alexa. With the proliferation of “smart” home devices like Amazon’s personal assistant, we offer some security tips to ensure that your purchase doesn’t become a surveillance nightmare. Experts advise doing some research: Make sure the device has security features built in. And put it on a guest network, not the one for your computing devices, so it can’t be used to snoop through your data. _____ 9. Here’s what you need to know about Super Bowl LI. It’s the New England Patriots vs. the Atlanta Falcons, playing in Houston. The Patriots are in the big game. The Falcons have made it there only once before, and they lost. It all starts at 6:30 p. m. Eastern. Lady Gaga is headlining the halftime show. Demonstrators have vowed to protest Mr. Trump’s immigration ban during the game. The authorities say they have security measures in place to handle the crowds. _____ 10. Finally, Beyonce’s announcement that she’s pregnant — with twins — came in her signature style. The singer posted a highly stylized portrait of herself on Instagram sporting lingerie, a gauzy veil and a noticeable baby bump. “We have been blessed two times over,” she wrote. The statement was signed “The Carters. ” _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Crowd On ‘The View’ Goes Wild When Bernie Calls Trump Exactly What He Is (VIDEO) | While speaking with the ladies from The View via satellite from Anaheim, CA, where he s been campaigning, Bernie Sanders was asked about Donald Trump and how Trump has been hammering the Clintons. He was asked if it s fair to go after Hillary Clinton for what her husband may or may not have done. Bernie immediately said it is not okay, and then goes on to tell the truth about Donald Trump.He flat-out calls Trump a demagogue and a bigot, which got audible loud cheers from the studio audience in attendance.Bernie also added: He has nothing to say about the important issues facing our country. He also made clear that Trump cannot be President of the United States.When pressed about the fact that some of his supporters have said they would vote for Trump over Hillary if he doesn t get the Democratic nomination, Bernie said not to believe the polls this early on. He seems to know that as the general election draws closer, and if Hillary is to be the nominee, many of his supporters will realize what s at stake and vote for Hillary, because the alternative is not only bad for the nation, but the entire world.Bernie Sanders genuinely wants what s best for the nation, and he knows that a Trump presidency would be catastrophic.Watch the segment here:.@SenSanders on Donald Trump: He has nothing to say about the important issues facing our country. https://t.co/bfTR1gdrx3 The View (@TheView) May 24, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Trump's abortion answer confirms GOP fears | (CNN) Donald Trump's suggestion that women who get abortions should face "some form of punishment" if the practice is banned is giving the #NeverTrump movement new urgency.
Faced with the prospect of Trump as the party's standard bearer, Republicans from across the ideological spectrum quickly condemned Trump's assertion -- but not before Democrats showed the damage Trump's words could have on the GOP.
And in what was a clear acknowledgment of the stakes, Trump did something he has rarely done in this campaign -- back away from his statement within hours.
His comments, which go against the GOP's anti-abortion stance, brought new potency to the anti-Trump wing of the party, including conservative radio hosts and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker , looking to stop Trump in next week's primary. Trump was already facing a media uproar this week over his comments about Heidi Cruz and over his handling of an incident involving his campaign manager and a female reporter that led to an arrest summons.
Of course, Trump has shown himself to be an unstoppable force who has offended pretty much everyone at this point without much harm to his poll numbers. But for Republicans worried about the damage Trump could do at the top of the ticket with off-the-cuff or controversial quotes, Democrats, including presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton , gave a harsh reminder.
"The Republicans all line up together," Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper.
"Now maybe they aren't quite as open about it as Donald Trump was earlier today, but they all have the same position," she said, noting anti-abortion positions taken by both John Kasich and Ted Cruz . "If you make abortion a crime -- you make it illegal -- then you make women and doctors criminals."
Wednesday's controversy unfolded less than a week before the April 5 Wisconsin primary, which will serve as a crucial test for the remaining GOP candidates before the race returns east.
Emily's List, a group that backs female candidates who support abortion rights, sent out a press release called The Comstock-Trump Agenda: Criminalizing Abortion Edition. It targeted Rep. Barbara Comstock, who is running for re-election in Virginia, a swing state.
"Donald Trump is leading the GOP charge to prevent women from making their own health care decisions, and Barbara Comstock is standing right beside him," said Emily's List press secretary Rachel Thomas.
Why I'm voting for Donald Trump
By suggesting that women who get an abortion should face punishment, Trump managed to unite advocates on both sides of the issue. Abortion opponents have pushed for punishment for doctors who perform abortions, but not women who receive them. That Trump struggled with this issue -- a core holding of these advocates — underscored for some that he is new to the conservative fight, an argument that his opponents have been making for some time to little effect. By suggesting that women who get an abortion should face punishment, Trump managed to unite advocates on both sides of the issue. Abortion opponents have pushed for punishment for doctors who perform abortions, but not women who receive them. That Trump struggled with this issue -- a core holding of these advocates — underscored for some that he is new to the conservative fight, an argument that his opponents have been making for some time to little effect.
Asked Wednesday by MSNBC's Chris Matthews whether a woman who got an abortion illegally should face punishment, the current GOP front-runner said he supported that idea.
"Yes, there has to be some form of punishment,"Trump said, adding that he didn't know what form of punishment would be acceptable. He also said that men involved in an unwanted pregnancy that led to an abortion would not face any type of punishment.
"It's the latest demonstration of how little Donald has thought about any of the serious issues facing this country," Cruz said after taping an appearance on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" Wednesday night.
"I am pro-life. Being pro-life means standing and defending the unborn," Cruz added. "But it also means defending moms. Defending women. And defending the incredible gift women have to bring life into the world. And Donald's comments, they were unfortunate, they were wrong and I strongly disagree with it."
The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List framed Trump as a candidate who is new to the issue.
"As a convert to the pro-life movement, Mr. Trump sees the reality of the horror of abortion -- the destruction of an innocent human life -- which is legal in our country up until the moment of birth," Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the group, said in a statement. "But let us be clear: punishment is solely for the abortionist who profits off of the destruction of one life and the grave wounding of another."
About three hours after he spoke to MSNBC, Trump reversed course, issuing a statement saying that his pro-life "position has not changed."
"If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman," the statement said. "The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb."
That didn't mollify opponents who have seen him as a fake conservative who has been a no-show on the big conservative fights.
"While Trump has since 'clarified' this position on punishing women, his statements suggest he should spend more time with pro-life conservatives to gain a better appreciation of what their goals and objectives really are," said Tony Perkins, Family Research Council Action president and Ted Cruz backer. "The pro-life movement values both mother and child and seeks to uphold the dignity of both by seeking to protect both from the damage of abortion and the predatory abortion industry." | 0fake |
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Has ’Less Kinetic’ Option in Afghanistan | President Donald Trump is deciding between two rival ideas — one more “kinetic” and the other “less kinetic” — for U. S. strategy in Afghanistan, according to a senior White House official. [On one side are the military strategists, who favor a robust U. S. military approach to resolving the Afghanistan war — hitting the Taliban harder and pressuring them back to the negotiating table. It would also include more spending on building the Afghan government’s capacity, and entail more overall funding, troops, and resources. On the other side are those who want to maintain the current level of troops but limit U. S. involvement in the war. That option would leave it up to the Afghan government and the Taliban to resolve the conflict, but assist the Afghan government with a minimal mission, also known as “foreign internal defense,” and assist local partners in fighting extremist ideology. It would also include a counterterrorism presence to target targets. It would take notably longer than the kinetic plan but would be significantly cheaper. “We don’t fight other people’s wars,” the official said. “We help our friends fight their own wars for themselves. ” Earlier this week, details of the more kinetic option leaked to the Washington Post. It would consist of an addition of at least 3, 000 more U. S. troops, and be matched by an increase in NATO forces. It would also loosen military restrictions in fighting the Taliban, and allow the Pentagon, instead of the White House, to determine how many troops are needed and where. It would bring the current number of U. S. troops in Afghanistan to at least 11, 400. That plan has drawn support from defense hawks on Capitol Hill and the Republican foreign policy establishment in Washington. “We need to break what has been described by our commander there as a ‘stalemate’ which is, after 15 years or so, an unacceptable situation that requires a new strategy, one for victory,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain ( ). But the plan has drawn skepticism from those inside the White House who favor winding down the U. S. presence and argue that more troops won’t resolve the war. The Obama administration’s 2009 “surge” sent 30, 000 troops to Afghanistan in order to pressure the Taliban to come to the negotiating table, but once the administration began to draw down the U. S. presence, the gains reversed. The Taliban now control areas with almost a third of the population. A poll last year showed a growing number of Americans who believed Afghanistan was a vital interest, but less than half surveyed supported staying another year. Three U. S. special operators were killed earlier this year in Afghanistan — already a fourth of all forces killed last year. Reducing the U. S. presence in Afghanistan could jeopardize gains made in building the Afghan military and air force crucial to giving them an edge over Taliban forces, and could lead to an increase in Afghan troop casualties, which are already steep. But proponents of the less kinetic plan argue that it’s not up to the U. S. to decide what Afghanistan looks like, and that the U. S.’s interests are fighting terrorists and to prevent another something that can be achieved with fewer forces. “What Afghanistan looks like is not up to America,” the official said. The U. S. has spent a total of $783 billion on the Afghanistan war between fiscal years 2001 to 2016, and the Obama administration had requested $43. 7 billion for fiscal year 2017, according to a Brown University study published in September. There are currently 8, 400 U. S. troops deployed on a basis to Afghanistan and 4, 600 NATO forces. Trump now must decide what to do, caught between his competing instincts to spend less on overseas wars and empower his top military advisers. His previous public remarks do not provide much insight into how he will decide. At a campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 8, he criticized the amount of spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “So we’re on track now to spend — listen to this — $6 trillion — $6 trillion. Could have rebuilt our country twice,” he said. “Meanwhile, massive portions of our country are in a state of total disrepair. It’s time to rebuild America. ” He also told the London Times in a January 16 interview: “I just looked at Afghanistan and you look at the Taliban — and you take a look at every, every year it’s more, more, more … and you say, you know — what’s going on? Afghanistan is, is not going well. ” However, he then said, “Now in all fairness, we haven’t let our people do what they’re supposed to do … we haven’t let our military win. ” The White House is not offering any clues into how Trump will decide, although Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday said the U. S.’s “main objective” in Afghanistan is to prevent it from being used as a safe haven for terrorists who attack the homeland, and called it the mission “going forward. ” “That is the main objective. We remain very focused on the defeat of al Qaeda, its associates, as well as the defeat of [Islamic State in Iraq and ] which is the ISIS affiliate there in Afghanistan. But that is, simply put, what the mission is going forward. ” Trump is expected to make a decision before the next NATO summit in Brussels on May 25. In anticipation of a U. S. troop increase, NATO members have already been considering increasing their troop numbers also. McMaster, who was one of the architects of the Iraq war troop surge and headed an task force in Afghanistan, is described as the “driving force behind” the more kinetic strategy, according to the Washington Post. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also backs the plan, according to the Post. McMaster is also connected to masterminds of the surge, former CIA Director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, and retired Army Lt. Gen. Jack Keane. Keane praised McMaster at a dinner Tuesday evening hosted by the Washington Institute. U. S. officials told the Post that increases in troop levels and support to the Afghan government would be “heavily conditioned” on the ability of the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to get rid of ineffective military commanders and reduce corruption. In an ominous sign, an Integrity Watch Afghanistan survey published in December said 71 percent of those surveyed felt corruption had worsened in the past two years. Proponents of the more kinetic plan have modest expectations for the enhanced military effort, according to the Post. The expectations are that Afghan forces would at best be able to “hold the line” this year and begin to recapture some key terrain from the Taliban next year. Their goal is to make “incremental progress” in coming years in order to persuade the Taliban to make concessions that will lead to peace, according to the Post. Not all retired military brass are convinced of the more kinetic option. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin took to Twitter on Wednesday to express doubt over the plan. “We have been in #Afghanistan for 16yrs and have never had clear objectives exit strategy. these, this could cost the #president,” he tweeted. “I do not want #America to spend any more good #soldiers or resources to #Afghanistan pursuing a losing strategy,” he added. “If sent defined objectives + appropriate ROE, I could be persuaded that this is a viable plan,” he tweeted, referring to rules of engagement. “Right now, I am not convinced. ” | 0fake |
Laura Bush Stuns Republican Party – Hinted That She Plans To Vote For Hillary Clinton | It s no secret Republican women hate Donald Trump. The GOP frontrunner has a net negative rating of 42 percent amongst Republican women (and a net negative of 50 amongst all women). Bottom line: women hate Donald Trump, and if Republican women revolt against the sack of hot air, he loses in a landslide to Hillary Clinton.Well Clinton may have gotten a boost from an unlikely source: former First Lady Laura Bush.Speaking to the Women in the World Summit in New York, Bush, who recently published a book on Afghan women, told the crowd: I want our next president, whoever he or she might be, to be somebody who is interested in women in Afghanistan and who will continue U.S. policies and that we continue to do what we re committed to do as a country. That s who I want or the kind of people that will do that and will pay attention to our history, and know what s happened before and know specifically how we can continue to do the good things that we do around the world. Considering Ted Cruz wants to carpet bomb the Middle East to see if sand can glow and Donald Trump wants to ban Muslims fleeing oppression from entering the United States, it doesn t take a genius to see what kind of candidate Bush is looking for.And when it comes to the issue of refugees, more than half of which are women. She stated she wanted the next president to protect the rights of women in Afghanistan. This eliminates both Trump and Cruz, so who s left?The Summit, focused on empowering women in a time of war, is a staple in Clinton s campaign message empowering all women, all across the world.Jenna Bush, Laura and George s daughter, was more candid. Holding her 6 month old baby, she bluntly said:I m worried about her future.Laura Bush, who objected to her husband s family values oriented 2004 campaign, has taken a more moderate approach to politics than her husband and his inner circle. Featured image via Jemal Countess/Getty | 1real |
Megyn Kelly Could Be Out-Is Judge Jeanine Her Replacement At Fox News? | Previous Next Megyn Kelly Could Be Out-Is Judge Jeanine Her Replacement At Fox News?
Although, as of this printing, nothing is official, but numerous rumors are swirling on New York City talk radio circles that F ox News is planning to replace Megyn Kelly with Justice Jeanine Pirro due to plummeting ratings and a total loss of credibility with Fox viewers.
Kelly’s most recent fall from grace came when Newt Gingrich eviscerated her on her own show over her biased coverage of Donald Trump’s alleged issues, while almost totally ignoring Hillary Clinton’s sociopathic and criminal behaviors.
This past Tuesday night on Fox News, host Megyn Kelly provoked Donald Trump supporter Newt Gingrich into a rage by insisting that Trump’s alleged history of sexual predation is a story worth covering. Gingrich, told Megyn Kelly that “ You are fascinated by sex and you don’t care about public policy. ” He followed up that outburst by demanding that Kelly repeat his words about Bill Clinton: “I want to hear you use the words, ‘ Bill Clinton, sexual predator .’ Say, ‘Bill Clinton, sexual predator. ’ ” Being that it was her show and she control the microphone, Kelly ended the interview ended with Kelly telling Gingrich, “ You can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them .” Fireworks on FAUX NEWS! Further, this shift accentuates the fact that Trump is leading Clinton by an overwhelming majority and Kelly has aligned with the losing side and it is going to cost her the coveted career that she has worked all of her life to obtain.
Since the Gingrich interview, Kelly’s already declining ratings, the result of her incessant Trump bashing, took a nose dive into the toilet and emptied out into the local sewer. Megyn Kelly is not likely to recover from the fact that she has been exposed as a Clinton supporter and denier of her crimes. Look for Judge Jeanine Pirro to take her place in the 9-10 PM Eastern time slot. Meanwhile, Sean Hannity’s ratings continue to climb for all the obvious reasons.
The Trump crowd has spoken, Megyn Kelly is on the wrong side of history. | 1real |
Hong Kong seeks law banning booing of China's national anthem | HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong will try to enact a law penalizing people who boo the Chinese national anthem as soon as possible , an official said on Wednesday, in a move that critics say undermines the Chinese-ruled city s autonomy and freedoms. In the past few years, some Hong Kong football fans have booed the national anthem during World Cup qualifiers and other games, mirroring a more recent protest in the United States with football players kneeling during the national anthem, a practice denounced by U.S. President Donald Trump. The Asian Football Confederation warned the Hong Kong Football Association on Tuesday over the conduct of fans who booed the Chinese national anthem in a match in October. China has passed a law stating that disrespecting the anthem could result in imprisonment. The law has come into force in China but has yet to be extended to Hong Kong. Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Patrick Nip said the city had a constitutional obligation to follow up the move by China s largely rubber-stamp parliament. The law will now be added to the annex of Hong Kong s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, and put to the city s 70-strong legislature. We will do it as soon as possible, Nip told lawmakers, while saying there would be a consultation process. Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a so-called one country, two systems formula that promises the city a high degree of autonomy, including an independent judiciary. China s growing reach into Hong Kong s affairs has, however, stoked tensions and mass protests including the 2014 Occupy civil disobedience movement that blocked major roads in the city for 79 days to pressure China to allow full democracy. Nip said no decision had been made on jail terms, but the government would make reference to existing laws concerning the desecration of China s national flag that carry a maximum sentence of three years. Some critics said this move would further erode Hong Kong s autonomy and was another instance of China s tightening iron grip. If a country (China) wasn t using totalitarian and autocratic ways to make people feel under pressure, I believe many more Hong Kong people would respect the national anthem, said Dennis Kwok, a lawmaker with the Civic Party. Over the past few years, Hong Kong fans have booed the national anthem at several football matches involving the Hong Kong team, with an upcoming Asian Cup qualifier between Hong Kong and Lebanon another potential flashpoint. Some inappropriate behavior...must be addressed, Nip said, without giving specifics. Chinese authorities have strived to instill greater patriotism into Hong Kong, while condemning a push from democracy activists to distance Hong Kong from Beijing by embracing the city s culture and core values, with some even advocating independence from China. In recent years, incidents of disrespecting the national anthem have occurred in Hong Kong, challenging the bottom line ... and triggering rage, said Zhang Rongshun, who leads a legislative affairs commission of China s parliament, the National People s Congress, according to the official Xinhua news agency. It is urgent and important to apply the National Anthem Law in Hong Kong in a bid to prevent and handle such offences. | 0fake |
Why Would Obama Regime Allow 23 Jihad Training Camps “Capable Of Mounting Terror Campaigns Within U.S.” To Remain Open? | In normal times, Americans would demand these jihad compounds be shut down. But we re not living in normal times. Americans have been bullied into submission by the leftist shame police. We ve been told we re racists and Islamophobes for even suggesting Islamic terrorists have any ties to Islam. Our government tells us, If you see something, say something. But beware of the wrath of the Left if you say something against someone who happens to be part of the protected victim class. If the fact that there are 23 jihad training camps within U.S. borders isn t frightening enough, the fact that president Barack Obama has done absolutely nothing about them should be.According to a document released by the Clarion Project, 23 confirmed terrorist Jihad compounds belonging to Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakastan Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda-related organization, were operating within our own borders.The group of Muslims of America (MOA) are documented to have a connection to terrorism with training inside the United States. There was a 2002 unsolved murder at one of these compounds in Texas. When the Clarion Project obtained the 2007 FBI document detailing the Texas Enclave of MOA, what they found was deeply disturbing.The organization says it has a network of 22 villages around the U.S., with Islamberg as its main headquarters in New York. TheClarion Project obtained secret MOA footage showing female members receiving paramilitary training at Islamberg. It was featured on the Kelly File on FOX News Channel in October. A second MOA tape released by Clarion shows its spokesman declaring the U.S. to be a Muslim-majority country.A 2007 FBI record states that MOA members have been involved in at least 10 murders, one disappearance, three firebombings, one attempted firebombing, two explosive bombings and one attempted bombing.It states: The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S. The documented propensity for violence by this organization supports the belief the leadership of the MOA extols membership to pursue a policy of jihad or holy war against individuals or groups it considers enemies of Islam, which includes the U.S. Government. Members of the MOA are encouraged to travel to Pakistan to receive religious and military/terrorist training from Sheikh Gilani. The document also says that, The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S. ~Clarion ProjectJamaat ul-Fuqra is known to be an extremely militant group of international terrorists. The compounds allaegedly provide paramilitary training to new recruits for jihad against America.The document also claimed that Jamaat ul-Fuqra was an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S. This document was obtained in 2007, but still nothing has been done about these compounds or their activities.If you re wondering why, the answer lies with our very own president and Department of Homeland Security, which refuse to classify Jamaat ul-Fuqra as a foreign terrorist organization even though plenty of evidence proving they are terrorists reportedly exists.The fact that Obama has done nothing to stop these groups only reinforces the notion that he chooses to support Muslim interests over American interests, and that is disturbing in every way.What kind of president allows this kind of training to happen in his own backyard?This is as good a reason as any for Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights. If our president is more worried about being politically correct than he is the safety of our country, then the people deserve the right to defend themselves.Via: Conservative Tribune | 1real |
Trump voter fraud official announces bid for Kansas governor | (Reuters) - Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as a member of U.S. President Donald Trump’s election fraud commission, said on Thursday he was running for governor of the state. Kobach, a Republican who has become a national leader in pushing for aggressive measures against undocumented immigrants and strengthening voter identification laws, touted his tough on immigration record at an announcement event for next year’s race. “Strong borders and respect for rule of law are essential to our country and to our state,” Kobach said. “Kansas is the sanctuary state of the Midwest. We are the only state in the five state area that has done nothing to discourage illegal immigration.” Measures would include ending sanctuary policies in Kansas counties, cutting public benefits and welfare to undocumented people, ending in-state tuition for undocumented students at state universities and insuring that state and local law enforcement cooperate with federal immigration authorities, he said. As secretary of state, Kobach was a strong proponent of tightening Kansas’ voter identification statutes since he was elected in 2010, making the state a symbol for mostly Republican Party supporters who said the rules were meant to prevent voter fraud. Opponents, mostly Democrats, said they discriminate against minorities and Kobach’s efforts faced numerous legal challenges. Trump created a commission last month to investigate voter fraud following his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally for his Democratic rival in the 2016 U.S. election. Since July 2015, Kobach has secured nine convictions for voter fraud in Kansas, according to a May statement from his office. Kobach, an Ivy League and Oxford educated former Department of Justice official, said in addition to tackling illegal immigration, he would crackdown on lobbying in state capital Topeka as well as fight tax increases if elected. He was highly critical of a move by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday to override a veto by Republican Governor Sam Brownback of legislation that would raise taxes, saying there was no need to feed the “government monster.” The measure essentially rolls back income tax rate cuts the state enacted in 2012 that led to budget shortfalls. The higher rates are expected to raise $591 million in fiscal 2018, which begins July 1, and $633 million in fiscal 2019, according to a legislative analysis of the bill. | 0fake |
Poverty Rose in 96% of U.S. House Districts, During Obama’s Presidency | Posted on November 5, 2016 by Eric Zuesse. Eric Zuesse On November 3rd, Morning Consult’s Jon Reid bannered, “Poverty on the Rise in Nearly All House Districts” and he reported that, “A Brookings Institution study , released less than a week before the election, shows that the number of people living in poverty has increased in 96 percent of congressional districts between 2000 and 2010-2014.” That finding fits along with others, such as that the economic ‘recovery’ after Barack Obama came into the White House in 2009, went virtually entirely to the very rich. According to the top experts on wealth-inequality in the United States, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, American wealth-inequality soared faster during 2003-2013 than ever since the period 1923-1928, right before the Great Crash of 1929. Their study “Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913” , published in the May 2016 Quarterly Journal of Economics , reported that ever since the remilitarization of the U.S. from the 2003 invasion of Iraq onward (and continuing under Obama, with boosts to NATO, and invasions such as of Libya in 2011), the percentage of total wealth owned by the richest .1% of American families (those families whose net worth was $111 million or higher) rose from 15% of the total in 2003, to 22% of the total in 2013, and this means that the percentage going to the lower 99.9% declined from 85% down to 78% during that time. America’s soaring inequality during the George W. Bush Presidency continued unaffected by the 2009 change of Presidential Administrations. In fact: whereas Bush’s stock-market plunge in 2006-2008 hit the richest the hardest, Obama’s coming into oiffice restored their lost wealth rapidly, while the wealth of the bottom 90% of the U.S. population flatlined throughout his Presidency. The Obama economic recovery was no recovery at all for the bottom 90% of Americans. Not just wealth but personal income also soared for the super-rich under Obama. The “Share of income earned by top 0.1% wealth holders” soared throughout Obama’s Presidency, at least up through 2012, which is the latest figure shown there for that. So: at least the bottom 90% of U.S. families have experienced none of the Obama economic recovery; what ‘recovery’ from the ‘recession’ there is, went only to the very rich. Findings such as those are consistent with, and might help to explain, the finding in the new Brookings study, that 96% of House districts have experienced increased poverty under Obama. The nation’s poor have gotten political rhetoric, but not much else, and the middle class also have received no net benefit, under Obama. | 1real |
RUSSIAN ROULETTE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT: Border Patrol Agents Given Awards For Putting Lives Of Armed Illegal Aliens Before Their Own | Mind blowing incompetence and reckless disregard for the lives of these brave men and women by politically appointed leftists A new service award recently created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for Border Patrol agents could actually put their lives at risk. The award recognizes an agent who does not use deadly force in a situation where they are confronted by an armed assailant. They want us to put ourselves in a bad tactical situation, National Border Patrol Council Vice President Shawn Moran told Breitbart Texas in an interview Friday evening. This could lead to one of our agents getting killed. The award is defined by the CBP as:The Use of Deadly Force Encounter Averted award is to recognize and employee who demonstrated clear situational awareness and courage while disarming a suspect using contact controls and verbal commands before the situation escalated to the use of deadly force. The act must demonstrate courage in the face of an armed suspect and result in no injury in accordance with agencies use of force policy. At first, I thought this was a joke, Moran told Breitbart Texas. But Border Patrol Agent Chris Cabrera contacted officials in the awards section of CBP and they confirmed it is true, he said. In addition to his Border Patrol duties Cabrera also serves as vice president of NBPC Local 3307 and as NBPC deputy spokesperson. This is a true indication about how the politically appointed leaders of the CBP truly feel about our agents, he said.Moran said he had not heard about the award before Cabrera brought it to his attention. I can t recall any official discussions between the union and the department over this, he explained. This is typical pandering by our executives to organizations like the ACLU and illegal alien advocates. The exacerbated leader of the NBPC which represents more than 18,000 men and women who protect our nation s borders said, They are more concerned about placating these groups than protecting Border Patrol agents. He said this is also typical for them to roll something like this out on the day before a big holiday weekend hoping no one will notice.The policy appears to put just one more thing an agent must think about when faced with a life threatening situation.The NBPC posted a copy of the award definition on its Facebook page earlier on Friday evening. Commenting on the award, the organization posted, This type of thinking will get Border Patrol agents killed. If that happens we will hold the creators of this award accountable. This is despicable. The CBP seems to be following the lead of the Los Angeles Police Department who rolled out a Preservation of Life Award. The policy was designed to recognize officers who hold their fire to avoid using deadly force, Breitbart News William Bigelow reported in November 2015.The Los Angeles Police Protective League had a similar reaction to that of the NBPC. The local police union responded that the award prioritizes the lives of suspected criminals over the lives of officers.NATO forces in Europe considered a similar idea but never implemented it, Bigelow reported. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
James Clapper: 1,934 US Persons Had Their Identities Unmasked in 2016 - Breitbart | Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Monday that 1, 934 U. S. persons had their identities unmasked in 2016 based on intelligence collected on foreign targets. [The revelation came during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 elections. He also revealed that he had requested the unmasking, or identity, of either Trump, his associates or members of Congress “once,” but said he could not discuss why in a public setting. Trump has asserted that the Obama administration had surveilled members of his campaign, and last month, it was revealed that Susan Rice had requested the unmasking of Trump transition team members. On Friday, Sen. Rand Paul ( ) a 2016 presidential candidate, announced that he had been told by several sources that the Obama administration had unmasked his or his campaign members’ identities, and has requested more information from the Trump administration and the intelligence community on that. Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham ( ) said prior to his subcommittee’s investigation on Russian interference in the election, he had not known a lot about unmasking, but that what he’s learned is “disturbing. ” Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, communications of U. S. persons can be legally captured during surveillance of a foreign target. Since it is illegal to gather intelligence on U. S. persons without a warrant, their identities are masked when caught up in such surveillance, unless there is a request to unmask their identities for legitimate national security reasons. A private phone conversation that appears to have been intercepted in such surveillance between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak was leaked to the Washington Post in a February 9 article. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates during the hearing said she had notified White House Counsel Don McGahn of that conversation on January 26, but that she did not know who later leaked it to the Washington Post. | 0fake |
We Finally Know Why Hillary Disappeared On Election Night: “She Was Crying Inconsolably… It Was Hard To Understand What She Was Saying She Was Crying So Hard” | As Donald Trump’s election to the highest office of the land became inevitable on Tuesday night The Daily Sheeple reported that the Clinton campaign mysteriously went dark:
“THEY KNOW” – NBC Reports Clinton Campaign Has Gone Completely Dark – No Longer Talking To Media #trump #hillary #itsover #election
— The Daily Sheeple (@TheDailySheeple) November 9, 2016
Even Hillary herself must have know it was over, because she published a not-so-victorious Tweet to her supporters several hours before the official counts started being confirmed:
This team has so much to be proud of. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for everything. pic.twitter.com/x13iWOzILL
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 9, 2016
As confirmation of Trump’s victory swept the world, many undoubtedly wondered what was going on in Hillary’s mind. Then, as reports of a Clinton concession came to the forefront, it turned out that Hillary, in an unprecedented move for a losing Presidential candidate, refused to take the stage in front of thousands of distraught party goers who were expecting a coronation and fireworks show.
Instead of Hillary, controversial campaign manager John Podesta took the stage to announce that the election wasn’t over and that votes were still being counted, implying that Hillary would not concede.
At that moment, we knew something was wrong:
Is something wrong with Hillary? Has she had another health episode? https://t.co/yP3fYWpinL #trump #hillary #vote #2016 #hillaryhealth
— The Daily Sheeple (@TheDailySheeple) November 9, 2016
Had Hillary suffered another health episode? Was she so emotionally destroyed by the loss that she couldn’t handle it mentally?
It turns out, according to Ed Klein who spoke with a close friend and confidante of Hillary, that she did, in fact, have a serious breakdown and was in no condition to speak to America on live television.
The shock of losing after having been a “98%” lock for the Presidency was simply too much to bare. And as you might expect from a Clinton, it was everybody else’s fault:
Here’s what I know, not my opinion. About 6:30 this morning she called an old friend. She was crying inconsolably. She couldn’t stop crying. And her friend, her female friend from way, way back said it was even hard to understand what she was saying she was crying so hard. This is Hillary we’re talking about.
Eventually her friend said she could make out that she was blaming James Comey, the Director of the FBI, for her loss, and, I don’t understand exactly, the president of the United States for not doing enough.
Via Gateway Pundit
If all goes well, Hillary will be crying again when they put the handcuffs on her after President Trump’s special prosecutor recommends charges, that is, so long as Trump didn’t make a secret deal to let Hillary off the hook .
| 1real |
Sean Spicer, Trump Press Secretary, Is ‘Not Here to Be Someone’s Buddy’ - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — In his first, rocky week as President Trump’s press secretary, Sean M. Spicer was scolded by his boss, pilloried as a liar, hammered by journalists, mocked by Stephen Colbert, taunted by the ice cream brand Dippin’ Dots and held up as the poster child for an administration that can play fast and loose with the facts. No wonder he was looking for his flak jacket. “Is this bulletproof?” Mr. Spicer asked one afternoon last week, peering into a closet in his sparse West Wing office as he hunted for the combat vest that, by cheeky tradition, is passed down from one presidential spokesman to the next. Until recently, Mr. Spicer was the public voice and chief strategist of the Republican National Committee, the epitome of establishment Washington. Now he is the face of an administration bent on upending the status quo and waging war on the news media, surprising colleagues here with how comfortably he has embraced Mr. Trump’s ire toward the press. The day after the inauguration, he marched into the White House briefing room on Mr. Trump’s orders and lambasted stunned reporters as “dishonest” while claiming, against available evidence, that the inauguration had been the most attended in history. (He later said his count included viewers watching online.) The ironic hashtag #spicerfacts was soon trending online. Days later, Mr. Spicer defended Mr. Trump’s false claims about rampant voter fraud, referring to studies that do not back up the assertion and saying the president “believes what he believes. ” On Thursday, he had to walk back his suggestion that Mr. Trump would impose a major tax on Mexican imports, jolting global markets. The reaction has been harsh. “There’s no learning curve on a moral compass,” said John Weaver, a Republican strategist who has advised Senator John McCain of Arizona and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio. “You don’t need a learning curve to tell the truth from fiction. ” If he’s bothered by the blowback, Mr. Spicer, 45, who had long dreamed of standing behind the White House lectern, is not showing it. “We have a free press — I get it,” Mr. Spicer said last week during an interview in his office, where a giant television broadcasts four stations at once. “But the press doesn’t like it when you call out their errors the same way they call out everyone else’s. ” Statements from the White House, Mr. Spicer argued, should be given the same leeway afforded a news organization. “I don’t know how many corrections are in The New York Times any given day,” Mr. Spicer said. “But I don’t wake up every day and go, ‘O. K. you’re all liars. ’” Over a conversation, Mr. Spicer — who ate ice cream from a cup branded with the presidential seal — was by turns defensive and relaxed, and still excited by the novelty of working in the West Wing. Grabbing a history book, he flipped to a page with a list of previous press aides. “Diane Sawyer had that office!” he said, proudly. A framed photograph of himself at the White House lectern, taken days earlier, was displayed on a mantel. A note from Barack Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, was nearby. “It was very, ‘What an amazing honor it is,’” Mr. Spicer said of the letter. Asked if he was bothered by Mr. Trump’s unpredictable Twitter posts, Mr. Spicer shrugged. “You get the ability to wake up and have an issue or an idea become front and center in a second,” he said. “That’s a huge thing. ” The president “drives the news,” Mr. Spicer said. “I help provide updates. ” A stocky Navy reservist who grew up in Rhode Island, Mr. Spicer prides himself on persistence. He attended a prestigious Catholic high school on a scholarship, sending away for brochures for the school without his parents’ knowledge. After graduating from Connecticut College, he bounced around working on campaigns, briefly living in an R. V. without heat or hot water. Years ago, a line drive at a softball game smacked into Mr. Spicer’s jaw, leaving his mouth wired shut for weeks. “Be careful,” his teammate told doctors on the way to the hospital. “He talks for a living. ” He climbed his way up the Washington ladder, representing Republicans in Congress before landing in the office of the United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration. His jaw has since recovered: The Washington Post reported that Mr. Spicer chews, and swallows whole, more than 20 pieces of Orbitz cinnamon gum a day. He is still finding his place in Mr. Trump’s inner circle. A Washington insider among political outsiders, Mr. Spicer joined the Trump campaign in August, against the advice of friends who warned against tying himself to an unpredictable candidate. On the eve of the election, Mr. Spicer privately told several journalists that Mr. Trump’s odds of victory were slim. Expressing those misgivings may have been a move to soften the blow to the party in case of a Trump defeat, but was the sort of disloyalty that is anathema in Trump World. “Sometimes he was a little less enthusiastic about our direction than other times,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist. “But he hung in there. ” Mr. Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, rarely speaks to reporters on the record. But he reached out to a reporter unprompted to praise Mr. Spicer after learning of this profile, a sign of the Trump White House’s support for Mr. Spicer after a tumultuous first week. Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Spicer’s initial fiery appearance in the White House briefing room, urging him to wear a sharper suit and appear more confident, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations. (“He was disappointed with how the overall news cycle was going,” Mr. Spicer said in the interview, declining to elaborate.) But Mr. Trump was pleased with Mr. Spicer’s briefing on Monday, calling Mr. Spicer a “superstar. ” “He’s a fighter,” Mr. Bannon said in a telephone interview, during which he also urged the news media to “keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. ” “Sean Spicer is much too polite to the media,” Mr. Bannon added. “I’m the guy who wanted them out of the building. ” (He was referring to a proposal, scrapped for now, to move the White House briefing room from its current West Wing home.) Mr. Spicer has also heard from supporters who say his of the news media was long overdue. “Accountability goes both ways,” said former Representative Mike Pappas, a New Jersey Republican who hired Mr. Spicer in the 1990s, adding that Mr. Spicer’s complaints were . “There’s a clear bias against people like me, and people like him, and people like the man he works for,” Mr. Pappas said. “You have a right to your bias, but don’t report it as factual. ” Clifford Hobbins, Mr. Spicer’s high school history teacher, dismissed questions about his former student’s integrity. “He is as honest as the day is long,” said Mr. Hobbins, who said he had voted for Mr. Trump. “I’ve been very proud of the way he handled himself. ” Mr. Spicer, who was barely known outside Washington, is still adjusting to national fame. More than five million people tuned in for his first formal press briefing last week, with cable news channels and some broadcast networks taking the proceedings live. The discovery that he had posted on Twitter multiple times about his disdain for Dippin’ Dots, and its slogan, “The Ice Cream of the Future,” prompted the company to send him an open letter that went viral. Mr. Spicer sounded exasperated when the subject came up. ”It’s a joke,” he said. “How long can they be ‘the ice cream of the future’? You can’t actually be the future forever. ” Finishing his ice cream — which was not — Mr. Spicer shrugged. “You’re not here to be someone’s buddy. You’re here to enact the president’s agenda,” he said of his job. “And if you think it’s going to be anything bad, then this isn’t the job for you. ” Still, when asked about his first weekend, when he blasted the news media on instructions from an aggrieved boss, Mr. Spicer allowed himself a grimace. “That wasn’t the Saturday I thought I was waking up to,” he said. | 0fake |
Democracy Now Standing Rock Special | Democracy Now Standing Rock Special Share on Facebook Tweet Part 1 - Unlicensed #DAPL Guards Attacked Water Protectors with Dogs & Pepper Spray Many across the United States are celebrating this Thanksgiving holiday. But many for Native Americans observe it as a National Day of Mourning, marking the genocide against their communities and the theft of their land. We spend the hour looking at the standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota—the struggle... read more
Part 1 - Unlicensed #DAPL Guards Attacked Water Protectors with Dogs & Pepper Spray
Many across the United States are celebrating this Thanksgiving holiday. But many for Native Americans observe it as a National Day of Mourning, marking the genocide against their communities and the theft of their land. We spend the hour looking at the standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota—the struggle against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that has galvanized the largest resistance movement of Native Americans in decades. The movement has largely been ignored on this year’s presidential campaign trail and by the national corporate media. But Democracy Now! has been covering the standoff closely. We begin with our report from North Dakota Labor Day weekend. It was Saturday, September 3, when unlicensed Dakota Access security guards attacked water protectors trying to defend a sacred tribal burial site from destruction. - 13mins
Part 2 - Standing Rock Special: Historian Says Dakota Access Co. Attack Came on Anniv. of Whitestone Massacre
While reporting from the standoff at Standing Rock in September, Democracy Now! sat down with Standing Rock Sioux tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard to speak about another attack against her tribe—this one on the same day 153 years before. On September 3, 1863, the U.S. Army massacred more than 300 members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in what became known as the Whitestone massacre. LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is not only the tribal historian, she’s also one of the founders of the Sacred Stone Camp, launched on her land April 1, 2016, to resist the Dakota Access pipeline. - 7mins
Part 3 - Dakota Excess Pipeline? Media & Water Protectors Face Strip Searches, Jail
Today we’re revisiting Democracy Now! reports on the ongoing standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota, where thousands of Native American water defenders are resisting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, over concerns a pipeline leak could contaminate the Missouri River, which provides water for millions of people. Their resistance has been met by increasing repression by hundreds of police officers from North Dakota and surrounding states, as well as by unlicensed pipeline security guards, who unleashed dogs and pepper spray against Native American protectors on September 3. Five days after the Democracy Now! report on the attack went viral, Morton County issued an arrest warrant for Amy Goodman. The original charge against her was criminal trespass. Yet, on Friday, October 14, after Democracy Now! returned to North Dakota to challenge the charges and to continue covering the resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline, we learned that the state’s attorney, Ladd Erickson, had dropped the criminal trespass charge for lack of evidence, but had filed a new charge: riot. We feature part of our live broadcast from outside the Morton County Courthouse on the morning of October 17 as we waited to see whether Judge John Grinsteiner would approve the new riot charge, and speak with Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth, and with Anishinaabe activist Winona LaDuke, co-founder of Honor the Earth. - 21mins
Part 4 - Dallas Goldtooth on Police Violence & Repression of Movement Against DAPL
We continue our look back at Democracy Now!'s coverage of the ongoing standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota, where thousands of Native American water defenders are resisting the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. In recent months, the repression against the water protectors—and journalists covering the movement—has continued to intensify. The state of North Dakota has approved $10 million to police the ongoing protest, and Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier has called in hundreds of deputies from neighboring states. North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has also activated the National Guard. Riot police with military-grade equipment have attacked the Native American protectors with pepper spray, tear gas, bean bag rounds, rubber bullets and sound cannons called LRADs—that's a long-range acoustic device. Water protectors also report near-constant surveillance from police planes and helicopters. Over 400 people have been arrested during the ongoing protests, and many report being subjected to strip searches while in the Morton County jail in North Dakota. On October 31, we spoke with Dakota and Dine activist Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network about a violent police raid on a frontline camp established at the site of the same sacred tribal burial ground where unlicensed Dakota Access security guards attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray on September 3. - 14mins [watch video below] | 1real |
BREAKING: Trump Goes Full Racist AGAIN, Pardons Sheriff Joe Arpaio | Donald Trump has an endless history of racism that dates back decades, so it comes as no surprise that he has now pardoned the very bigoted and controversial former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. This is a man who was convicted of being a bigot and using the law and the powers of his office to racially profile and brutalize Latino citizens. He was found in criminal and civil contempt of court, but of course, since he was targeting Latinos, who Trump hates, that is just A-Okay with the orange fascist.Generally, when people receive pardons, they have served some time, and shown some remorse. This is nothing more than an extension of Trump s open and visible contempt for non-white immigrants and those from Mexico in particular and all minorities, really this comes as no surprise, reprehensible as it is.Also, to top it all off, Sheriff Joe is a birther, and he constantly went to the press to dispute the validity of President Obama s birth certificate in explicitly racist terms. This, of course, was Trump s number one crusade in his original foray into presidential politics, and it was a huge factor in his gaining real traction with the racist Republican base voters.Of course, we cannot forget the infamous tent city in which imprisoned immigrants were housed in tents and forced to be humiliated with pink underwear. It goes on and on.This is disgusting. A racist who was found to have used the power of his elected office to enact racism as policy is now going free because the guy squatting in the Oval Office is a racist, too.All I can say is that at least the people of Maricopa County voted him out after all of these years and all of this open bigotry as policy.If there isn t GOP backlash from this, we need to all rise up. This is beyond appalling. With this pardon, racism is officially law in America.Featured image via Ralph Freso/Getty Images | 1real |
How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West’s Secrets - The New York Times | Julian Assange was in classic didactic form, holding forth on the topic that consumes him — the perfidy of big government and especially of the United States. Mr. Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks, rose to global fame in 2010 for releasing huge caches of highly classified American government communications that exposed the underbelly of its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and its sometimes cynical diplomatic maneuvering around the world. But in a televised interview last September, it was clear that he still had plenty to say about “The World According to US Empire,” the subtitle of his latest book, “The WikiLeaks Files. ” From the cramped confines of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum four years ago amid a legal imbroglio, Mr. Assange proffered a vision of America as superbully: a nation that has achieved imperial power by proclaiming allegiance to principles of human rights while deploying its apparatus in “pincer” formation to “push” countries into doing its bidding, and punishing people like him who dare to speak the truth. Notably absent from Mr. Assange’s analysis, however, was criticism of another world power, Russia, or its president, Vladimir V. Putin, who has hardly lived up to WikiLeaks’ ideal of transparency. Mr. Putin’s government has cracked down hard on dissent — spying on, jailing, and, critics charge, sometimes assassinating opponents while consolidating control over the news media and internet. If Mr. Assange appreciated the irony of the moment — denouncing censorship in an interview on Russia Today, the propaganda channel — it was not readily apparent. Now, Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks are back in the spotlight, roiling the geopolitical landscape with new disclosures and a promise of more to come. In July, the organization released nearly 20, 000 Democratic National Committee emails suggesting that the party had conspired with Hillary Clinton’s campaign to undermine her primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders. Mr. Assange — who has been openly critical of Mrs. Clinton — has promised further disclosures that could upend her campaign against the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. Separately, WikiLeaks announced that it would soon release some of the crown jewels of American intelligence: a “pristine” set of cyberspying codes. United States officials say they believe with a high degree of confidence that the Democratic Party material was hacked by the Russian government, and suspect that the codes may have been stolen by the Russians as well. That raises a question: Has WikiLeaks become a laundering machine for compromising material gathered by Russian spies? And more broadly, what precisely is the relationship between Mr. Assange and Mr. Putin’s Kremlin? Those questions are made all the more pointed by Russia’s prominent place in the American presidential election campaign. Mr. Putin, who clashed repeatedly with Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state, has publicly praised Mr. Trump, who has returned the compliment, calling for closer ties to Russia and speaking favorably of Mr. Putin’s annexation of Crimea. From the outset of WikiLeaks, Mr. Assange said he was motivated by a desire to use “cryptography to protect human rights,” and would focus on authoritarian governments like Russia’s. But a New York Times examination of WikiLeaks’ activities during Mr. Assange’s years in exile found a different pattern: Whether by conviction, convenience or coincidence, WikiLeaks’ document releases, along with many of Mr. Assange’s statements, have often benefited Russia, at the expense of the West. Among United States officials, the emerging consensus is that Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks probably have no direct ties to Russian intelligence services. But they say that, at least in the case of the Democrats’ emails, Moscow knew it had a sympathetic outlet in WikiLeaks, where intermediaries could drop pilfered documents in the group’s anonymized digital inbox. In an interview on Wednesday with The Times, Mr. Assange said Mrs. Clinton and the Democrats were “whipping up a hysteria about Russia. ” There is “no concrete evidence” that what WikiLeaks publishes comes from intelligence agencies, he said, even as he indicated that he would happily accept such material. WikiLeaks neither targets nor spares any particular nation, he added, but rather works to verify whatever material it is given in service of the public, which “loves it when they get a glimpse into the corrupt machinery that is attempting to rule them. ” But given WikiLeaks’ limited resources and the hurdles of translation, Mr. Assange said, why focus on Russia, which he described as a “bit player on the world stage,” compared with countries like China and the United States? In any event, he said, Kremlin corruption is an old story. “Every man and his dog is criticizing Russia,” he said. “It’s a bit boring, isn’t it?” Since its inception, WikiLeaks has succeeded spectacularly on some fronts, uncovering indiscriminate killing, hypocrisy and corruption, and helping spark the Arab Spring. To Gavin MacFadyen, a WikiLeaks supporter who runs the Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of London, the question for Mr. Assange is not where the material comes from, but whether it is true and in the public interest. He noted that intelligence services had a long history of using news organizations to plant stories, and that Western news outlets often published “material that comes from the C. I. A. uncritically. ” Recent events, though, have left some transparency advocates wondering if WikiLeaks has lost its way. There is a big difference between publishing materials from a like Chelsea Manning — the soldier who gave WikiLeaks its war log and diplomatic cable scoops — and accepting information, even indirectly, from a foreign intelligence service seeking to advance its own powerful interests, said John Wonderlich, the executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a group devoted to government transparency. “They’re just aligning themselves with whoever gives them information to get attention or revenge against their enemies,” Mr. Wonderlich said. “They’re welcoming governments to hack into each other and disrupt each other’s democratic processes, all on a pretty weak case for the public interest. ” Others see Mr. Assange assuming an increasingly blinkered approach to the world that, coupled with his own secrecy, has left them disillusioned. “The battle for transparency was supposed to be global at least Assange claimed that at the beginning,” said Andrei A. Soldatov, an investigative journalist who has written extensively about Russia’s security services. “It is strange that this principle is not being applied to Assange himself and his dealings with one particular country, and that is Russia,” Mr. Soldatov said. “He seems to think that one may compromise a lot fighting a bigger evil. ” WikiLeaks was just getting started in 2006 when Mr. Assange, an Australian national, sent a mission statement to potential collaborators. One of his goals, he said, was to help expose “illegal or immoral” behavior by governments in the West. Mr. Assange made clear, though, that his main focus lay elsewhere. “Our primary targets are those highly oppressive regimes in China, Russia and Central Eurasia,” he wrote. Shortly after releasing the war logs in 2010, Mr. Assange threatened to make good on that promise. WikiLeaks, he told a Moscow newspaper, had obtained compromising materials “about Russia, about your government and your businessmen. ” But Mr. Assange’s life was soon upended. On Nov. 20 of that year, an international warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, which he denies. Eight days later, WikiLeaks’ release of a cache of State Department cables cast unvarnished — and unwelcome — light on the United States’ diplomatic relationships. As Mr. Assange pointed out in the interview with The Times, many of the cables involved blunt judgments on Russia one called it a “mafia state. ” But the documents proved far more damaging to the United States’ interests than to Russia’s, and officials in Moscow seemed unperturbed. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, dismissed Mr. Assange as a “petty thief running around on the internet. ” Mr. Assange, asked soon after by Time magazine whether he still planned to expose the secret dealings of the Kremlin, reiterated his earlier vow. “Yes indeed,” he said. But that promised assault would not materialize. Instead, with Mr. Assange’s legal troubles mounting, Mr. Putin would come to his defense. In late November 2010, United States officials announced an investigation of WikiLeaks Mrs. Clinton, whose State Department was scrambled by what became known as “Cablegate,” vowed to take “aggressive” steps to hold those responsible to account. The next month, Mr. Assange was arrested by the London police to face questioning by the Swedes, who he feared would turn him over to the Americans. Out on bail, he holed up and fought extradition at a Georgian country house owned by a supporter, Vaughan Smith, who said in an interview that he believed Mr. Assange to be the victim of an “intense online bullying and disinformation” campaign. One day after Mr. Assange’s arrest, the Russian president appeared at a news conference with the French prime minister. Brushing off a questioner who suggested that the diplomatic cables portrayed Russia as undemocratic, Mr. Putin used the opportunity to bash the West. “As far as democracy goes, it should be a complete democracy. Why then did they put Mr. Assange behind bars?” he asked. “There’s an American saying: He who lives in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones. ” It was the first of several times that Mr. Putin would take up Mr. Assange’s cause. He has called the charges against Mr. Assange “politically motivated” and declared that the WikiLeaks founder is being “persecuted for spreading the information he received from the U. S. military regarding the actions of the U. S. A. in the Middle East, including Iraq. ” In January 2011, the Kremlin issued Mr. Assange a visa, and one Russian official suggested that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, in April 2012, with WikiLeaks’ funding drying up — under American pressure, Visa and MasterCard had stopped accepting donations — Russia Today began broadcasting a show called “The World Tomorrow” with Mr. Assange as the host. How much he or WikiLeaks was paid for the 12 episodes remains unclear. In a written statement, Sunshine Press, which works as his spokesman, said Russia Today “was among a dozen broadcasters that purchased a broadcasting license for his show. ” But on June 19, 2012, Mr. Assange’s narrative quickly took a different turn. He broke bail after losing an appeal against extradition to Sweden and was granted asylum in the tiny embassy of Ecuador in London, overlooking the back of Harrods department store. One year later, a man who would soon eclipse Mr. Assange in terms of fame boarded a plane in Hong Kong. His name was Edward J. Snowden, and he was a National Security Agency having stunned the world and strained American alliances by leaking documents that revealed a United network of global surveillance programs. Mr. Snowden had not given his thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Still, it was at the suggestion of Mr. Assange that the flight Mr. Snowden boarded on June 23, 2013, accompanied by his WikiLeaks colleague Sarah Harrison, was bound for Moscow, where Mr. Snowden remains today after the United States canceled his passport en route. In fact, worried that he would be seen as a spy, Mr. Snowden had hoped merely to pass through Russia on his way to South America, Mr. Assange later recounted, a plan he had not fully endorsed. Russia, he believed, could best protect Mr. Snowden from a C. I. A. kidnapping, or worse. “Now I thought, and in fact advised Edward Snowden, that he would be safest in Moscow,” Mr. Assange told the news program Democracy Now. Years earlier, during a November 2010 meeting with New York Times journalists negotiating for access to the diplomatic cables, Mr. Assange had mused about seeking refuge in Russia. Anticipating the likely fallout from the cables’ release, Mr. Assange spoke of relocating to Russia and setting up WikiLeaks there. His associates were openly skeptical of the idea, given the Kremlin’s ruthless surveillance apparatus and tight control over the news media. That Mr. Assange would now advise Mr. Snowden to travel that path is a measure not just of his worldview, but also of his circumstances and personality, friends and former colleagues say. Suelette Dreyfus, a longtime friend of Mr. Assange’s and an academic who studies says his sole motivation is a belief that governments and other large and powerful institutions must be held in check to safeguard the rights of individuals. “This is not an fight,” she said, though “it is being presented as such by people with an agenda. But even as other longtime supporters continue to see Mr. Assange as a courageous crusader — “a moral individual in a world of mass societies,” as one put it — they say he can be vain and childlike, with a tendency to see the world as divided into those who support him and those who do not. During his time isolated in the Ecuadorean Embassy, under constant surveillance, his instinctive mistrust of the West hardened even as he became increasingly numb to the abuses of the Kremlin, which he viewed as a “bulwark against Western imperialism,” said one supporter, who like many others asked for anonymity for fear of angering Mr. Assange. Another person who collaborated with WikiLeaks in the past added: “He views everything through the prism of how he’s treated. America and Hillary Clinton have caused him trouble, and Russia never has. ” The result has been a “ confrontation with the U. S. A. ,” Daniel who before quitting WikiLeaks in 2010 was one of Mr. Assange’s closest partners, has said. And the beneficiary of that confrontation, played out in a series of public statements by Mr. Assange and strategically timed document releases by WikiLeaks, has often been Mr. Putin. While the release of the Democratic Party documents appears to be the first time WikiLeaks has published material that United States officials assert was stolen by Russian intelligence, the agendas of WikiLeaks and Mr. Putin have repeatedly dovetailed since Mr. Assange fled to the embassy. Mr. Assange has at times offered mild criticisms of the Putin government. In a 2011 interview, for instance, he spoke of the “Putinization” of Russia. On Twitter, he has also called attention to Pussy Riot, the punk band whose members were jailed after taking on Mr. Putin. But for the most part, Mr. Assange has remained silent about some of the Russian president’s harshest moves. It was Mr. Snowden, for instance, not Mr. Assange, who took to Twitter in July to denounce a law giving the Kremlin sweeping new surveillance powers. Mr. Assange, asked during Wednesday’s interview about the new law and others like it, acknowledged that Russia had undergone “creeping authoritarianism. ” But he suggested that “that same development” had occurred in the United States. Mr. Assange has also taken a decidedly view of hostilities in Ukraine, where the Obama administration has accused Mr. Putin of supporting the separatists. The United States, Mr. Assange told an Argentine newspaper in March of last year, has been the one meddling there, fomenting unrest by “trying to draw Ukraine into the Western orbit, to pluck it out of Russia’s sphere of influence. ” After the annexation of Crimea, he said Washington and its intelligence allies had “annexed the whole world” through global surveillance. Like Mr. Trump, who stood to gain from the Democratic Party leak, Mr. Assange supported Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and he has repeatedly gone after NATO — taking on two organizations that Mr. Putin would like nothing more than to defang or dismantle. In September 2014, for instance, Mr. Assange wrote on Twitter about what he called the “corrupt deal” that Turkey engineered to force the suppression of a television station in Denmark in return for allowing that country’s prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to take the helm of NATO. The timing of his Twitter post was curious on two fronts. It relied on a diplomatic cable that had garnered headlines when WikiLeaks released it four years earlier. And it followed a monthslong tit for tat between Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. Putin, with the Russian president taking the NATO chief to task for secretly recording their private conversation, and Mr. Rasmussen accusing Mr. Putin of playing a “double game” in Ukraine by issuing conciliatory statements while massing troops on the border and shipping weapons to the separatists. Mr. Assange again recycled the story this past June — days after President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine named Mr. Rasmussen a special adviser — this time via a video appearance at a Russian media forum attended by Mr. Putin and timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Information Bureau. Then there are the leaks themselves. Some, such as hacked Church of Scientology documents, are of no obvious benefit to the Russians. But many are. The organization has published leaks of material from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are United States allies, but also to varying degrees from authoritarian regimes. The leaks came during times of heightened tension between those countries and Russia. The Saudi documents, for instance, which highlighted efforts to manipulate world opinion about the kingdom, were published months after Mr. Putin accused the Saudis of holding down oil prices to harm the economies of Russia and its allies Iran and Venezuela. Another set of leaks indirectly benefited Rosatom, Russia’s atomic energy company. Those documents detailed a “corrupt war by Western and Chinese companies” — including Rosatom’s chief competitors — to obtain uranium and other mining rights in the Central African Republic. WikiLeaks seems aware of a perception problem when it comes to Russia. When Russia Today began broadcasting Mr. Assange’s television program, he joked in a statement that it would be used to “smear” him: “Assange is a hopeless Kremlin stooge!” And Sunshine Press, the group’s public relations voice, pointed out that in 2012 WikiLeaks also published an archive it called the Syria files — more than two million emails from and about the government of President Bashar whom Russia is supporting in Syria’s civil war. Yet at the time of the release, Mr. Assange’s associate, Ms. Harrison, characterized the material as “embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents. ” Since then, Mr. Assange has accused the United States of deliberately destabilizing Syria, but has not publicly criticized human rights abuses by Mr. Assad and Russian forces fighting there. Many of the documents WikiLeaks has published are classified, such as a C. I. A. tutorial on how to maintain cover in foreign airports. But what may be WikiLeaks’ most intriguing release of secret documents involved what is, on the surface, a less sensational topic: trade negotiations. From November 2013 to May 2016, WikiLeaks published documents describing internal deliberations on two trade pacts: the Partnership, which would liberalize trade between the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries, and the Trade in Services Agreement, an accord between the United States, 21 other countries and the European Union. Russia, which was excluded, has been the most vocal opponent of the pacts, with Mr. Putin portraying them as an effort to give the United States an unfair leg up in the global economy. The drafts released by WikiLeaks stirred controversy among environmentalists, advocates of internet freedom and privacy, labor leaders and corporate governance watchdogs, among others. They also stoked populist resentment against free trade that has become an important factor in American and European politics. The material was released at critical moments, with the apparent aim of thwarting negotiations, American trade officials said. WikiLeaks highlighted the domestic and international discord on its Twitter accounts. American negotiators assumed that the leaks had come from a party at the table seeking leverage. Then in July 2015, on the day American and Japanese negotiators were working out the final details of the Partnership, came what WikiLeaks dubbed its “Target Tokyo” release. Relying on N. S. A. documents, the release highlighted 35 American espionage targets in Japan, including cabinet members and trade negotiators, as well as companies like Mitsubishi. The trade accord was finally agreed on — though it has not been ratified by the United States Senate — but the document release threw a wrench into the talks. “The lesson for Japan is this: Do not expect a global surveillance superpower to act with honor or respect,” Mr. Assange said in a news release at the time. “There is only one rule: There are no rules. ” Because of the files’ provenance, United States intelligence officials assumed that Mr. Assange had gotten his hands on some of the N. S. A. documents copied by Mr. Snowden. But in an interview, Glenn Greenwald, one of the two journalists entrusted with the full Snowden archive, said that Mr. Snowden had not given his documents to WikiLeaks and that the “Target Tokyo” documents were not even among those Mr. Snowden had taken. The same is true, Mr. Greenwald said, of another set of N. S. A. intercepts released by WikiLeaks that showed that the United States bugged conversations of United Nations officials and European allies, including private talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and the United Nations secretary general, Ban . On Wednesday, Mr. Assange said he had his own separate sources for N. S. A. material. That raises the question of whether another, N. S. A. is leaking documents to WikiLeaks, or whether the files were obtained from the outside via a sophisticated cyberespionage operation, possibly sponsored by a state actor. That question was underscored by Mr. Assange’s statement a few weeks ago that he would release the codes that the United States uses to hack others. And that has some former collaborators questioning just who is giving Mr. Assange his information these days. “It’s not in his temperament to be a cat’s paw, and I don’t think he would take anything overtly from the F. S. B. ,” said one, referring to the Russian intelligence agency. “He wouldn’t trust them enough. But if someone could plausibly be seen as a hacker group, he’d be fine. He was never too thorough about checking out sources or motivations. ” In April of this year, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists unleashed a torrent of articles that reverberated around the world. Based on 11. 5 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm that specialized in creating secretive offshore companies, the “Panama Papers” offered a look inside a shadowy world in which banks, law firms and asset management companies help the world’s rich and powerful hide wealth and avoid taxes. It was the largest archive of leaked documents that journalists had ever handled, and so it was no surprise that WikiLeaks initially linked to the consortium’s work on Twitter. But what shocked some of the journalists involved was what WikiLeaks did next. Among the biggest stories was one showing how billions of dollars had wound up in shell companies controlled by one of Mr. Putin’s closest friends, a cellist named Sergei P. Roldugin. Nearly a dozen news organizations, including two of Russia’s last independent newspapers, Vedomosti and Novaya Gazeta, had collaborated in tracing the money. But WikiLeaks seized on the contribution of just one: the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. In a series of Twitter posts after the revelations about Mr. Roldugin, WikiLeaks questioned the integrity of the reporting, noting that the project had received grants from the Soros Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development. Mr. Assange, in an interview with Al Jazeera, reiterated the suggestion that the consortium, with a agenda, had the documents it chose to release. “There was clearly a conscious effort to go with the Putin bashing, North Korea bashing, sanctions bashing, etc. ,” he said. In fact, the consortium’s opening salvo featured many articles with Western targets, including one on the use of offshore companies in tax havens by the father of Minister David Cameron of Britain. Another focused on an offshore company set up by the Ukrainian president, Mr. Poroshenko, a Putin enemy. Nevertheless, Mr. Putin seized on WikiLeaks’ take on the controversy to defend himself. He declared that while the articles suggested that “there is this friend of the Russian president, and they say he has done something, probably in fact there is no corruption involved at all. ” “Besides,” he added, “we now know from WikiLeaks that officials and state agencies in the United States are behind all this. ” Gerard Ryle, the consortium’s director, chalked Mr. Assange’s actions up to professional jealousy. The leaker, who remains anonymous, said in a manifesto in May that the Panama Papers had first been offered to WikiLeaks, but that multiple attempts to contact the organization had gone unanswered. (Mr. Assange said he had no knowledge of that.) But Mr. Soldatov, the Russian investigative journalist, was so furious that he confronted Ms. Harrison, Mr. Assange’s associate, at a journalism conference in Italy the next day. “Many journalists at Novaya Gazeta were killed” after reporting on Mr. Putin’s Russia, he told her, “and now their integrity is questioned by WikiLeaks?” It is striking, Mr. Soldatov said in an interview, that Mr. Snowden, who is stuck in Moscow, is far more willing to criticize Mr. Putin than is Mr. Assange, whom he sees as an apologist. Roman Shleynov, who worked on the project first at Vedmosti and then as an editor at the Organized Crime and Reporting Project, said that he, too, was “at a loss” to explain Mr. Assange’s attack on the Panama Papers. “For me it was a surprise that Mr. Assange was repeating the same excuse that our officials, even back in Soviet days, used to say — that it’s all some conspiracy from abroad,” Mr. Shleynov said. “I understand his struggle with the United States,” he added, “but I never thought he’d use our work, the work of Russian journalists, to make such a statement. I respected and still respect what Julian Assange has done, but I have changed my opinion of him as a person. ” Mr. Assange has always insisted, “I am WikiLeaks,” and it seems truer now than ever. Four years into his time at the Ecuadorean Embassy, he is increasingly isolated. Now 45, he lives in two small rooms: an office equipped with a bed, sunlamp, phone, computer, kitchenette, shower, treadmill and bookshelves, and a conference room where he can meet with visitors and oversee the operation with the help of a few dozen employees, mostly in Berlin. One person familiar with the setup called it “a gas station with two attendants. ” Melinda Taylor, one of Mr. Assange’s lawyers, said that he needed dental work and a magnetic resonance imaging scan for a painful shoulder, but that those procedures could not be done inside the embassy for practical and insurance reasons. He also has a vitamin D deficiency from a lack of sunlight, she said, and “severe depression exacerbated” by his legal travails. Mr. Smith, who still supports and visits Mr. Assange, said, “Julian’s a big bloke, with big bones, and he fills the room physically and intellectually. ” “It’s a tiny embassy with a tiny balcony,” he added, “small, hot and with not great air flow, and it must be jolly difficult for everyone there. ” And public spats with allies are not uncommon. One involves Mr. Assange’s insistence that document troves should be published in their entirety, not curated by journalists who might have agendas. In his interview with The Times on Wednesday, Mr. Assange criticized the Panama Papers consortium for not making all the documents in its possession public, calling it censorship. “It is not the WikiLeaks model,” he said. “In fact, it is the model. ” WikiLeaks did collaborate with journalists on the war logs and diplomatic cables. But Mr. Assange’s decision to abandon that approach in the name of total transparency is what led Mr. Snowden to work with Mr. Greenwald and another journalist on the N. S. A. revelations. Mr. Snowden felt openness should be balanced with concern for people’s privacy and safety. After the release of the Democratic Party documents this summer, Mr. Snowden criticized WikiLeaks on Twitter for not redacting the Social Security numbers and credit card information of private individuals named in the trove. WikiLeaks shot back on Twitter: “Opportunism won’t earn you a pardon from Clinton curation is not censorship of ruling party cash flows. ” Mr. Greenwald said of Mr. Assange, “He’s alienated a lot of people. ” “It’s often hard for me to separate my personal views of Julian with my views of WikiLeaks” he added. “I do think on balance WikiLeaks is a force for good. ” Friends can differ, Mr. Assange said in the interview. Still, some of his staunchest supporters, like the heiress Jemima Goldsmith Khan, have turned on him, troubled by what they see as a double standard. In an opinion piece for the New Statesman, Ms. Khan wrote that WikiLeaks, which was created to produce a more just society, “has been guilty of the same obfuscation and misinformation as those it sought to expose. ” In February, Mr. Assange received legal news that he hoped would be a game changer. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that he was being arbitrarily detained and should be released freely and with compensation for the violation of his rights. But the opinion was nonbinding and has been rejected by British and Swedish courts. “The U. S. and the West will hold out a U. N. working group decision when it is in their favor,” said Jennifer Robinson, one of his lawyers. “But when it’s about Julian Assange, they criticize and undermine. ” A few weeks ago came a possible breakthrough: an agreement for Swedish prosecutors to question Mr. Assange about the rape allegations. But Ms. Taylor said that even if the Swedes declined to prosecute, Mr. Assange still feared being held by Britain on charges and turned over to the United States, where an investigation into his leak activities remains open. “The uncertainty gets to him,” she said. Mr. Assange tries to keep his mind off his troubles with his guitar and a cat given to him by his children, but what really lifts his spirits is publishing new leaks like the Democrats’ files. “The work keeps him going,” said his colleague, Ms. Harrison. Is there an October surprise in his back pocket? “Julian loves misinformation it’s his passion,” Mr. Greenwald said. “He’d likely say this just to make the Clintons uncomfortable. ” For his part, Mr. Assange is looking a bit further on. “Let’s leap forward a couple of years,” he said in the interview. “Let’s imagine that rival intelligence services — in the U. S. in China — went to settle their conflicts about who is right, who’s the good actor, who’s the bad actor, on a particular situation by presenting the public the truth. “That’s the most amazing advance I can think of. ” | 0fake |
Trump is a ------: White House hopeful plays fill-in-the-blanks with voters | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump speaks volumes in what he doesn’t say. The Republican presidential hopeful often fails to finish his thoughts during his speeches, abruptly breaking off a sentence or substituting a vague word for a more precise one. Those half-finished sentences aren’t throwaways. They’re enthymemes, a rhetorical device at the heart of a persuasive speaking style that has helped catapult the billionaire to the top of national polls ahead of the November 2016 election. To his supporters, Trump is a politician who doesn’t sound like one: He says what he thinks, happily insults rivals and can appear unscripted, particularly when he leaves his thoughts to trail off unfinished or peppers sentences with ambiguities. Take his comments during a recent Republican debate in which he defended his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States: “I talked about Muslims,” he said. “We have to have a temporary something, because there’s something going on that’s not good.” It was left up to the listener to decipher what Trump was saying. What this means in practice is that supporters can tailor his statements to their own beliefs, rhetoric professors said. It also allows Trump, consciously or not, to avoid boxing himself in with quotes that rivals can use against him. Strictly speaking an enthymeme is a form of argument in which at least one premise remains unstated. The concept isn’t new - it was described by the Greek philosopher Aristotle - and has been used in American politics in the past. In practice, enthymemes come in various forms, including dramatic pauses, unfinished sentences and the place-filling “somethings” Trump employs, according to the experts, who study U.S. public and political speech. In each case, listeners fill in the blanks. Trump has used enthymemes when taking on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and one-time rival Carly Fiorina; he has used them in describing his opposition to a New York City mosque; he routinely uses them in speeches when talking about subjects ranging from immigration to trade wars. In the case of Kelly, Trump, recounting a heated exchange between them during a televised debate, said she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her - wherever.” His statement caused a furor among many who concluded Trump had meant Kelly was menstruating and hormonal and therefore irrational. Trump denied it and supporters came to his defense, pointing out he had never spoken the words. Trump’s habit of leaving listeners to fill in the blanks isn’t new; it’s apparent in recorded interviews done well before his presidential bid. And it’s not clear whether he does it consciously. His spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, called it a symptom of a racing mind. “People have said Mr. Trump’s speeches are like a game of chess - an intricate web of great genius,” she said. Enthymemes can have a potent effect on listeners, said Baylor University rhetoric professor Martin Medhurst. “You have involved them psychologically and helped to persuade them by having them persuade themselves.” But the rhetorical device carries risks, especially in instances where the unfinished thought is so vague that listeners can complete it with either a positive or a negative statement. In a Jan. 29 speech, for example, Trump described his views that China is exploiting the United States. “They’ve taken our jobs, they’ve taken our base, they’ve taken our money, and I love China, they get along great with me, I told you I have all these people, I do business with China, they agree with me. They can’t —.” A clip of the statement was shown by Reuters to a group of students in a public policy class at New York’s Hunter College, who disagreed among themselves about what Trump’s next words would have been. One student, Alexandre Alvalade Ximenes, a freshman studying political science and philosophy, completed Trump’s unfinished thought this way: “They can’t believe how intellectually inferior we are.” Another, Matthew Locastro, also a political science major, filled in the blank with, “There’s no way they can disagree with him because of his working relationship with them.” Trump isn’t alone in using enthymemes to effect. In an interview last September with Rolling Stone, Trump mocked the looks of Fiorina. “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” To some listeners, Trump was communicating that he thought Fiorina was ugly. Trump later denied he meant that. Fiorina responded with her own enthymeme: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.” | 0fake |
Elementary School Goes On Lockdown After Right-Wing Dad Threatens Teachers Over Sex Ed Class | If there is one thing conservatives hate more than President Obama, it is the thought of their children receiving a well-rounded education especially one that involves comprehensive sex education. In fact, an Iowa father was so enraged about the health class being taught that he caused an elementary school and others to go into lockdown.Decorah police say Bruce Deano Divers, Jr. has been arrested and charged with three counts for causing the lockdown when he threatened two teachers on Facebook and sent an email promising to retaliate against the school because of health classes. The Decorah School District released a statement on Sunday night telling parents that schools would be in lockdown on Monday as a precautionary measure.According to KWWL News after they ran the original story, Divers reached out to them and sent them a copy of the email he sent the school. It read: Decorah schools spiritually declared war against my house today. When I retaliate Monday morning Apparently, this right-wing nutjob believes that a holy war has been waged because his child was given health information. Ironically, he could have avoided the entire situation if he d done his job as a parent months ago, according to Superintendent Mike Haluska. Interestingly enough, we have paper work available at the beginning of the school year for anyone who wishes to have their children exempted from any conversations that have to do with that type of subject matter. So what exactly were the kids learning about that pissed him off so much? It had to be about sex, right?WRONG.Superintendent Haluska said that the fourth-grade students were learning about puberty and human body growth. He freaked out because his kid was taught about puberty. Seriously. That s how crazy science-hating conservatives are. Let s forget for a minute that comprehensive sex education is vital to reducing the occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases and reducing the rate of teen pregnancy, learning about their bodies in a health class is absolutely vital to be able to function in society.We ve all seen the movie Carrie, do you remember when she got her period but had no idea what the hell it was because of her crazy religious mother kept her sheltered?That s what right-wing, anti-education parents what to subject their kids to.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
Jamie Dimon: I’ll Help Trump Because I’m a Patriot - Breitbart | Jamie Dimon told a hostile crowd of shareholders Tuesday morning that he supports President Donald Trump out of a sense of patriotic duty. [“He is the president of the United States, he is the pilot flying the airplane. I’d try to help any president of the US because I’m a patriot. That does not mean I agree with every policy he is trying to implement,” the chairman and chief executive of J. P. Morgan Chase said at the bank’s annual meeting Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware. Dimon has compared the president to an airplane pilot in the past. “When you get on the airplane, you better be rooting for the success of the pilot,” Dimon said at a townhall event hosted by Yahoo Finance in April. During the question and answer portion of the annual meeting, a number of shareholders called on Dimon to publicly disavow Trump and his policies, particularly Trump’s immigration stance. Dimon listened to several speeches from shareholders before he responded. Dimon said that he agreed with Trump’s plans to reform the corporate tax system. “Our corporate tax system is driving capital and brains overseas and excessive regulation is reducing growth and business formation particularly for small businesses,” he said. The chief executive also commented on bank regulation, saying that some of the rules put in place after the financial crisis went too far and should be pulled back. “We are not looking to throw out the entirety of or other rules. It is, however, appropriate to open up the rulebook in the light of day and rework the rules and regulations that don’t work well or are unnecessary,” Dimon said. | 0fake |
Whether Clinton or Trump, Tensions Will Escalate with China and Russia Under Next U.S. President | by Jerri-Lynn Scofield
Jerri-Lynn here: There are many reasons to despair at the choice US voters face in tomorrow’s election. The danger that either candidate will goad Russia or China, without respect to consequences, is perhaps the most immediate and frightening. While many media hounds chase the false scent of alleged Russian manipulation of Trump, the election, and Wikileaks, to name just a few of the crazy allegations being discussed, this more serious threat has not been pursued nearly as vigorously.
In this Real News Network interview , journalist John Pilger and TRNN’s Paul Jay discuss why the very real prospect of another World War is not taken seriously by the US media. Pilger argues that whoever is elected, tensions with China and Russia will escalate. I tidied up the rush transcript as best I could. Please excuse any remaining errors.
PAUL JAY, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay.
In a few days, Americans are going to decide who the next President of the United States is going to be. Of course, this is an issue of global concern, given that the United States considers itself hegemon of the world and acts that way. What will be the difference perhaps is the foreign policy of the next President, whatever it is, Clinton or Trump. Based on what we’ve seen the last few years and how does one assess all of this? I think we’re assessing the degree of danger to the world. There doesn’t seem to be any other measurement here.
Now joining us to discuss all of this is John Pilger. John joins us from London. John is an award- winning very celebrated filmmaker and journalist. His films have been broadcast on major broadcast platforms and channels around the world. His latest film is The Coming War on China , which will be released in December. Thanks very much for joining us John.
JOHN PILGER: You’re welcome.
JAY: So as I said in the opening, it’s a kind of a question of who is more dangerous. There doesn’t seem to be any question. I think in most thinking peoples minds that one way or the other, US foreign policy is going to be dangerous for people of the world, particularly in the Middle East but not only. What is your assessment in this moment?
PILGER: Well it’s always dangerous. I sometimes think that it’s extraordinary I’ve gotten to this stage in life and I haven’t been blown up by US foreign policy. But so we all of us outside the US quake before a US election. That said, the US isn’t run by presidents, it’s run by a vast national security machine and that hasn’t changed in the last 15 years or so. I think the other 2 candidates. One is clearly a rogue candidate and that’s Donald Trump and the other, Hillary Clinton, is the candidate of this vast national security machine.
I think what’s been a pity for all of us outside the United States and indeed for all Americans, is that the hysteria over Donald Trump has obscured the fact that Hillary Clinton may well turn out to be one of the more dangerous presidents, assuming she does win as the polls suggest, though she may not of course. Because she is the president. She is almost the embodiment of a status quo that since 9/11 has left us all in a very precarious state. It’s left the Middle East in a precarious state. But above all, it’s brought us to the brink of some kind of very serious confrontation with Russia and the taunting of Russia, the intimidation of Russia is now unabated and just over the horizon there is a similar baiting of the other great nuclear power, China.
Now this issue which of course amounts to the prospect of another world war, even another nuclear war, have not been touched on.
Well they have been touched on. Ironically in the first debate, Donald Trump was asked about this and he said words to the effect, words that I would not go nuclear. I would not do a first strike. This wasn’t used. It wasn’t published. Now I would’ve thought for whatever it’s worth, he might not have meant it. Trump says a lot of things he doesn’t mean. Contradicts himself. But I would’ve thought that difference between Trump and Clinton on the issue of nuclear war, of war and peace was pretty critical. At least an issue to be debated. But it wasn’t.
JAY: Yeah, the American media is totally involved in this salacious part of Trump’s history and as usual, not very interested in any issues of polices of substance. You can find things on both of these candidates that would give one the chills. Starting with Trump, the great danger of Trump is that it won’t be President Trump, it will be President Pence. Pence has been asked who he’s going to model his Vice Presidency after and he says Cheney and in terms of foreign policy outlook, there seems to be no difference between him and Cheney.
PILGER: Well, what’s the difference between any of them frankly? I mean neocon is a terrible word but it describes them all. Trump is perhaps more interesting because he seems to have upset all the establishment. The CIA wants him beaten, the Pentagon wants him beaten, the State Department wants him beaten, even his own party wants him beaten. I mean something recommends him and just his enemies do. So, whether there is a difference I think there’s a difference of that much. I do emphasize this, that as you mentioned all these salacious stories about Trump but you know what do people want? Do they want to hear salacious stories or do they want to hear about the prospects of war and peace? Do they want to hear about whether we’re entering an extremely dangerous period in relation to Russia or not?
These issues have not been addressed and I don’t think theres any doubt that Clinton who has very unusually named a cabinet already in a sense and a very good article by one of the independent journalists in Washington, Gareth Porter, listed these people and they’re all war hawks. And she said it in the last debate. Im going to have a no-fly zone in Syria. That means attacking Russian planes.
JAY: I think there’s no doubt whichever of these people get elected president, in spite of Trump’s rhetoric and if you look at what Pence says, I think both Clinton and I will say a Pence Trump, and I put Pence first because I think that’s the more likely scenario, are going to be looking for provocations with Russia. Both Clinton and Pence are using Russian rhetoric to try and engage but using more than rhetoric. There’s this very interesting WikiLeaks that I don’t think has received nearly enough attention which shows something about the State Department under Clinton’s mentality.
It said in the WikiLeaks that it’s not said who it’s to or from but when I asked some of the people we know who have some expertise in this, they say it sounds like a State Department briefing. It says to get the Israelis in support or not in active opposition to the Iran deal we need to get rid of Assad. And essentially– and one assumes the reason for getting that will please Israel is to undermine Hezbollah– but it kind of shows what drives a lot of State Department thinking and I don’t think it’s a big stretch to think it drives Clinton thinking.
PILGER: Yeah, well, she hasn’t hidden it. She’s had an obsequious relationship with Israel– it’s well known. Her tough talking, her militarist talking, is all out there in the open. She’s made it clear that she’s going to face off Vladimir Putin. She’s going to talk tough to the Chinese. As a kind of insanity about all this. I mean US foreign policy is actually run in a straight line since 1945. But it’s become more extreme in the last 10-15 years. That’s what worries most of us outside the United States and ought to worry those of you in the United States that it’s become so extreme now. So extreme that the prospect of an accidental war at the very least. Here we are at centenaries of the first world war where all the lessons of there are glaring out at us of not quite accidental war. Intended war that lit up and became a slaughter partly by accident. I don’t for a moment think that this verbose provocateur who is currently the Defense Secretary, Mr. Carter, who is forever shouting his militarist slogans around the world. I don’t for a moment think that he actually wants nuclear war. But he sure is trying to bring it on. I’ve never known anything quite like his constant aggression. And this campaign of sending out these admirals and generals. Like Admiral Harry Harris in the Pacific speaking like Lord Palmerston in the 19th century. You know how much he runs from the world. You know what you say from Bollywood to Hollywood. You know these rather absurd people but with very great power.
JAY: The overall agenda of American dominance I don’t think changes much between the various administrations or parties. But do you not think sometimes individual and specific agendas within the complexity of the America elites plays a role? I’ll give you a couple examples. First of all, Cheney clearly drove the Iraq war. John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent said there was a morning meeting with the heads of all the major agencies and top Pentagon officials in the year leading up to the Iraq War and that that completely quite out of the ordinary, that morning phone call was chaired by Dick Cheney. And that in that phone call, and Kiriakou was apparently on it sometimes with some of the CIA people, most of the heads of agencies, most of the officialdom of the military complex were against invading Iraq. Cheney actually threatened these people saying resign or do what you’re ordered to.
There are times when specific agendas can take hold. Like for example the people I guess that what the Real News, they heard us talk about Project for New American Century often enough. The very far right type of agenda. The other one where I think it did make a difference is if you look at the Obama-McCain election. This is not to say Obama has not been aggressive and has not committed war crimes because he has. On the other hand, this is John Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran McCain and Obama does make a deal with Iran. I mean there are differences within these corridors of power which are sometimes important are there not?
PILGER: Obama decided not to attack Iran. I don’t know about making a deal with Iran. They decided not to attack Iran. Attacking Iran would’ve been a disaster of course for the people of Iran and in the Middle East. But it would’ve also been a disaster for the United States.
JAY: As the Iraq War was.
PILGER: He decided not to attack them. So yes, but Obama has run probably more wars simultaneously than any other president. He’s run probably the most comprehensive terror campaign in his drone warfare of assassination. You know we can sit here and say that one is slightly better.
JAY: I wouldn’t even use the word better. I would say in specific circumstances.
PILGER: I was searching. I was going to say less insane than the other. Sure. But in the end, here we are in 2016 in a presidential campaign and I’ve covered 4 US presidential campaigns and I thought no you couldn’t have Nixon as president. Well looking back on Nixon compared with some of the others who have come since, maybe a little less insane there. I don’t know. But here we are in 2016 with this political freak show in the United States that spells great danger for all of us.
JAY: John talk a little bit about the film you’re working on and why you think there’s such a looming confrontation with China, what’s driving it?
PILGER: Well it’s not what I think. The evidence is very clear. I mean Obama, the one who’s done the deals, hes announced that he went to Australia in 2011 and announced what was known as the pivot to Asia and that was the deployment, the transfer of almost two-thirds of US naval forces into the Asia Pacific region by the year 2020. And at the moment there are 400 US bases ringing China. They start in Australia and they go all the way through Asia, up through the Pacific, Korea, Japan, across Eurasia, Afghanistan, India. If you look at them on a map, you can understand why the Chinese have apparently changed their nuclear policy to a first strike policy. They never had that. They used to keep the missiles and warheads separate. They don’t anymore.
In the informed literature, the Journal of Concerned Scientists and there have been a number of articles that have described in some detail how the Chinese have changed their nuclear profile. They’re worried. I was there not long ago and I spoke to a number of strategists and people are worried– rather confused actually– but worried and some of them are quite angry. The whole building of air strips on the Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea was a defensive move. Last year the United States conducted possibly the biggest naval exercise in history. Talisman Saber in which it rehearsed a blockade across the Malacca Straits through which comes 80% of China’s oil and its raw materials.
The Chinese understand all of this. They know all of this. If it’s not explained to us through our media, they certainly know about it. This kind of provocation against China has been almost, I wouldn’t say a sideshow but it’s another chapter. The first chapter of course is the provocation of Russia. And that is probably the most dangerous. Does anyone in the United States know what the Russians are thinking? What people in Russia are thinking? That they’re having civil drill exercises. What the Russian press is saying? What people think about this?
There is a sense in much of Russia that the United States is about to attack them. This is very, very dangerous because it puts a country in a defensive position, and that’s when accidents can happen. There is no debate about this in what is it? Constitutionally the free-est place in the world, in the United States? Nothing. Read the New York Times for the last couple of days. It’s become a sort of Cold War propaganda sheet. Stories that are clearly nonsense.
JAY: The objective seems to be one would think to weaken Putin but if anything’s going to strengthen Putin it’s this kind of threat that creates an increased amount of nationalism and such.
PILGER: Well I don’t know if it will strengthen Putin at all. I don’t know enough about Russia. But the little I do know suggests that Putin is one of those who is always talking about being a partner of the United States. He does want to be a partner. He sees Russia’s future in Europe. There are others in Russia who have had enough of the talk of partnership and who drink in a deep well of Russian nationalism and Russian memory of all their great invasions of their country. So, I don’t know whether it strengthens Putin or not. Perhaps it doesn’t. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous.
JAY: You mean in other ways it could be strengthening far more nationalists and fascistic forces that could actually-
PILGER: Well not fascistic. In fact, there are plenty of fascists in Ukraine. You wouldn’t know that reading the US press. There was a coup in 2014. Fascist led. Paid for by the United States. The truth of that is inverted and it has Russia invading Ukraine. I mean couldn’t make it up but that’s the received wisdom. Now I’m not sure about the fascistic elements in Russia but there could be militarist elements and there could be those in the very powerful national security sector in Russia that say we have to prepare and they are preparing of course. Their weapons industry has been developing in a very sophisticated way in the last few years. Their air defenses and so on. But this is all war preparation. You know whether it’s Clinton or Trump it’s deeply worrying and deeply disturbing when reckless politicians like Hillary Clinton can stand up and beat every war drum that is put in front of them. That’s reckless.
JAY: Alright thanks very much for joining us, John.
PILGER: You’re welcome.
JAY: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1real |
World War 3? Barack Obama Could Take A Major Step Toward War With Russia | Fatal error : Out of memory (allocated 18087936) (tried to allocate 552480 bytes) in /home/pakalert/public_html/wp-settings.php on line 255 | 1real |
United Airlines Passenger Is Dragged From an Overbooked Flight - The New York Times | The disturbing scene captured on cellphone videos by United Airlines passengers on Sunday went beyond the typical nightmares of travelers on an overbooked flight. An unidentified man who refused to be bumped from a plane screamed as a security officer wrestled him out of his seat and dragged him down the aisle by his arms. His glasses slid down his face, and his shirt rose above his midriff as uniformed officers followed. At least two passengers documented the physical confrontation and the man’s anguished protests, and their videos spread rapidly online on Monday as people criticized the airline’s tactics. A security officer involved in the episode has been placed on leave, the authorities said, and the federal Transportation Department is investigating whether the airline complied with rules regarding overbooking. Tyler Bridges, a passenger on Sunday’s flight who posted a video to Twitter, said in a telephone interview on Monday that “it felt like something the world needed to see. ” The shocking scene raised questions about the common practice of overbooking and how far airlines will go to sell all of their seats. Particularly annoying, Mr. Bridges said, was that the airline was looking for extra seats for some of its employees. The videos show a security officer removing the unidentified man from his seat and dragging him off the plane as he screams. The flight was scheduled to depart O’Hare International Airport in Chicago for Louisville, Ky. at 5:40 p. m. but was delayed two hours. Charlie Hobart, a United spokesman, said in a telephone interview on Monday that “we had asked several times, politely,” for the man to give up his seat before force was used. “We had a customer who refused to leave the aircraft,” he said. “We have a number of customers on board that aircraft, and they want to get to their destination on time and safely, and we want to work to get them there. “Since that customer refused to leave the aircraft, we had to call” the police, and they came on board, he said. The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement on Monday that the incident “was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure” and that an officer had been placed on leave pending a review of the matter. The department declined to identify the officer. Airlines routinely sell tickets to more people than the plane can seat, counting on several people not to arrive. When there are not enough airlines first try to offer rewards to customers willing to reschedule their plans, usually in the form of travel vouchers, gift cards or cash. The arrangement — which is usually negotiated before passengers board the plane — can be lucrative to flexible travelers and is crucial for airlines to maximize profit. “A bakery doesn’t want to have a lot of extra pastries at the end of the day they have to throw out,” said Seth Kaplan, managing partner at Airline Weekly, an industry publication. “To an airline, an empty seat is basically the same thing as stale bread. It’s something they can never sell again. ” But involuntarily bumping passengers is rare. In 2016, United involuntarily denied boarding to 3, 765 of its more than 86 million passengers on oversold flights, according to the Transportation Department. An additional 62, 895 people voluntarily gave up their seats. The event on Sunday was the second social media stir for United in two weeks. In March, two girls were barred from a flight because they were wearing leggings, which the company said violated its dress code for a benefit for United employees and their dependents. Critics called the policy sexist and overbearing. On Sunday, Mr. Bridges said that when he arrived at the gate about 20 minutes before boarding, United had announced that the flight was overbooked the airline was offering $400 vouchers to anyone who would give up their seat, Mr. Bridges said. As the passengers boarded the plane, “there was no indication anything was wrong,” Mr. Bridges said. An airline employee came on board and said United needed four people to get off, Mr. Bridges said, adding that the airline had by then increased its incentive to an $800 voucher. The airline later said that it offered up to $1, 000 in compensation. Mr. Hobart, the United spokesman, confirmed that United sought passengers willing to give up their seats with compensation but that none stepped forward. Another United employee told passengers that the plane would not leave until four people got off, Mr. Bridges said. The employee specified that the airline had four United employees who needed to get to Louisville, he said. Four passengers were selected to be bumped, and three left without incident, Mr. Hobart said. Mr. Hobart would not say whether the bumped passengers were chosen by a computer, an employee or some combination of the two. But factors can include how long a customer would have to stay at the airport before being rebooked, he said, and the airline looks to avoid separating families or leaving unaccompanied minors. A United employee first approached a couple who appeared to be in their Mr. Bridges said, and the pair begrudgingly got off the plane. Then the United employee went to a man five rows behind Mr. Bridges and told him he needed to get off the plane. Mr. Bridges said the man told the employee: “I’m not getting off the plane. I’m a doctor I have to see patients in the morning. ” Mr. Hobart said: “We explained the scenario to the customer. That customer chose not to get out of his seat. ” The United employee then told the man that if he did not get off the plane, she would call security. As she turned to leave, the man shouted after her, Mr. Bridges said. Specifically, he said, the passenger complained that he had been singled out because he was Chinese. “It was really intense, really uncomfortable,” he said. The situation also became uncomfortable for the United employees who then got on board and took the vacated seats, Mr. Bridges said. They were berated by passengers and told they should be ashamed, he said. The man who had been removed returned to the flight briefly, Mr. Bridges said. Video shows him jogging through the aisle, repeatedly saying, “I have to go home. ” Jayse Anspach, a seminary student who was also on the flight, said that when the man returned to the plane, he ran toward the back. It was not clear how the man had managed to board again. At one point, the authorities and medics surrounded the man and gave him tissues for his mouth, which was bleeding, Mr. Anspach said. Eventually the man moved to the front of the plane and collapsed sideways into a seat before being taken off the plane on a stretcher, Mr. Anspach said. In a statement, Oscar Munoz, the chief executive of United Airlines, called the episode “an upsetting event. ” He said the company apologized for having to “reaccommodate” the customers. “Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened,” he said. “We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation. ” In a statement, United said, “We apologize for the overbook situation. ” Andrew D. Gilman, the chief executive of CommCore Consulting Group, a crisis communications firm, said the situation would probably make people reconsider whether they wanted to fly United. That could be particularly damaging with business passengers, a lucrative group that is “outraged as much as anybody,” he said. “As somebody who flies hundreds of thousands of miles, I’m saying, ‘I thought once I was on the plane, it was my seat,’” Mr. Gilman said. “They unfortunately disrupted a number of certainties that people tend to rely upon, so I think it’s a big trust thing. ” Mr. Gilman said the episode was “also going to be really hard on their employees for a while. ” “It’s a hard enough job — high stress, tense people, delays — and now you have people who are suspicious of you,” he said. “How they can communicate that they were sincere and meant well is going to be very challenging. ” | 0fake |
Obama says faith a cure for fears stirred by war, hard times | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, taking on Republican presidential candidates for stirring up anxiety among Americans, told leaders at Washington’s national prayer breakfast on Thursday that faith could conquer fear brought on by war, technology, and economic troubles. “It is a primal emotion, fear, one that we all experience. And it can be contagious, spreading through societies, and through nations,” Obama said. “For me, and I know for so many of you, faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good cure for fear. God gives believers the power, the love, the sound mind required to conquer any fear. And what more important moment for that faith than right now?” he said. Obama’s remarks came a day after his first visit to a U.S. mosque, where he sought to allay fears of Americans accustomed to pop-culture portrayals of Muslims as terrorists and to reassure Muslim American youth about their identity. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Obama, a Christian, said his faith had helped him deal with the challenges of being president and was bolstering him as his children grew up and prepared for adulthood. “It helps me deal with the common, everyday fears that we all share. The main one I’m feeling right now is that our children grow up too fast. They’re leaving!” he said to laughter. The president said he had drawn on his faith when comforting the parents of children killed by gun violence, a subtle reference to his failed effort to sharpen U.S. gun control laws. He said that people of faith had helped take in Syrian refugees, a subtle jab at Republicans who oppose allowing them into the country. | 0fake |
Senate Democratic leader Schumer calls for speedy Puerto Rico relief | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Monday said lawmakers from his party insist Puerto Rico be included in any supplemental federal disaster relief packages for hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico last week, tearing apart buildings and infrastructure, flooding communities and downing communications to nearly all of the U.S. territory s 3.4 million residents. Puerto Rico has taken a serious punch to the gut, Schumer said during his opening remarks on the Senate floor. They need our help they, need it now. Schumer also urged his constituents to add the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were ravaged by Hurricane Irma several weeks ago, and western U.S. states ravaged by wildfires to future hurricane-related federal relief packages. He asked for additional aid packages to be prepared quickly. President Donald Trump signed a bill on Sept. 8 extending the government debt limit for three months and providing about $15 billion in aid for states struck by Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Irma. Puerto Ricans are U.S. residents but they do not pay federal income tax or vote in presidential elections. There is a growing movement by residents to have their island become the 51st U.S. state, giving them more access to federal funds and the right to vote for U.S. president. | 0fake |
BREAKING: Biden Won’t Run…Is It Because Biden And Obama Can’t Risk Repercussions Of Exposing Hillary? [VIDEO] | This announcement seems to indicate that the Obama regime already knows Hillary is going to be walking away unscathed from the Benghazi hearings tomorrow Fox News host Andrea Tantaros is pretty sure that Vice President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he will not run for president as part of an administration-wide plan to cover up the Benghazi scandal.During a discussion about Biden s decision not to enter the Democratic presidential primary on Outnumbered, Tantaros said that the timing of Biden s announcement was suspicious. But when you look at the two scandals that we re facing, that all eyes are going to be on tomorrow, Benghazi, and the email scandal these are administration-wide scandals. All three of them, President Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton were there that night. This is their scandal as well, she said. This email scandal is their scandal as well. There is no way, there is no chance, that Joe Biden, and President Obama, and their national security team did not know that she was using a private server, breaking the law. They are all in on this, and they are circling the wagons. I cannot stress this enough. This goes all the way to the West Wing, both Benghazi, and the email scandal, and you re watching it play out exactly today. The timing is not a coincidence! Tantaros continued.John Bolton, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush, agreed with Tantaros. This is an administration-wide problem because it wasn t just Hillary Clinton s failure on Sept. 11, 2012, it was the failure of the administration s world view, Bolton said. I really think this was careful political planning. I think they knew today was the right day to do it. Watch Joe the Clown s announcement here:Conservatives sometimes cry distraction when breaking news interrupts coverage of a scandal that Republicans are obsessing over. In particular, conservatives often try their hardest to link any news back to Benghazi, a favorite Obama administration scandal.Via: TMP | 1real |
Nigel Farage fails to incite a mob | Sunday, 6 November 2016 Farage. Just an unbelievable cunt!
Nigel Farage has threatened to create "political disturbances in the street" after recent developments in the government's implementation of Brexit. Due to his belief that he is destined to become the unelected dictator of a newly "independent" Britain, he has conspired with his millionaire tabloid-owning friends to try to start a sort of beer hall putsch to propel himself to power.
Sadly, nobody followed his advice. Mainly because his supporters are too old to form a mob, they don't know how to organise using social media, and most of them would rather stay indoors watching The Antiques Roadshow.
Mr Farage was disappointed with the response. The would-be tyrant with a German wife has been seen practicing his goose-step for months, although he actually marches more like a duck.
Police have said that it is probably just as well that Farage's supposed violence did not appear, because it would make his incitement a criminal offence. Mr Farage has not been discouraged however, and is planning to hire a crowd of cheap Eastern European labourers to form a mob for him. Make Sir Geoffroy Cockface's | 1real |
LOL! KEURIG CEO APOLOGIZES After Customers Boycott and SMASH Coffee Makers…Unfortunately, The Apology Isn’t For Keurig Customers | When Keurig decided to side with Soros against Sean Hannity and Roy Moore s right to defend himself against serious, and shady sex allegations, they released a genie that they re not going to be able to put back in the bottle Three days ago, a Twitter user by the name of Angelo Carusone tried to shame Keurig for adverising on the Sean Hannity Show after Sean interviewed the Repbulican Alabama Senate candidate, Roy Moore, allowing him to tell his side of the story, after 4 women came forward 4 decades later to announce that he sexually abused them when they were teens. The stories of at least 2 of his accusers have been unraveling after non-mainstream media uncovered that one of the anti-Trump accusers worked for Hillary and openly promoted Moore s Democrat opponent on her Facebook page. The mother of another accuser is challenging the truth behind the Washington Post s hit story as well.Curiously, the person who sent the tweet that Keurig responded to is none other than Angelo Carusone, the president of GEORGE SOROS Media Matters of America. Here is Carusone s tweet to Keurig.Angelo, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention. We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show. Keurig (@Keurig) November 11, 2017Hannity followers were quick to defend the Fox News host, while calling for a boycott against Keurig:Throwing my Keurig unit and all the coffee in the trash was the first thing I did today after getting back to London where I base. @seanhannity made it very clear he was NOT defending Moore and his exclusive interview was not to clear him BUT to interrogate him thoroughly. Jenifer Stevens (@JeniferStevens) November 12, 2017Twitter users like Kaya, slammed Keurig for thir decision to pull their advertising from the Sean Hannity show:Well good luck with the people. We don t support companies who play politics @Keurig Should have stayed neutral! @seanhannity has an army behind him. You ll see that this holiday season #BoycottKeurig https://t.co/Z0dcxupyTo KAYA (@KayaJones) November 12, 2017Even actor James Woods got into the game of helping to boycott Keurig on social media with this hilarious tweet:You re going to be so unhappy you made this decision. #BoycottKeurig https://t.co/VFHm4VVZuZ James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) November 13, 2017Watch:Join me & @AngeloJohnGage in the #KeurigSmashChallenge & learn how to crush your drives as a bonus.#BoycottKeurig#IStandWithHannity#BuyBlackRifleCoffee#MAGA pic.twitter.com/WH3unkpADI Snoop Bailey (@vol80) November 12, 2017Another conservative Twitter user, Colin Rugg posted a video of a Keurig Green Mountain coffee maker being dropped over the railing from the second story of a apratment building. The tweet was accompanied by a message asking Twitter users to retweet the video to offend a liberal . Liberals are offended by this video of a Keurig being thrown off of a building. Please retweet to offend a liberal. Liberals are offended by this video of a Keurig being thrown off of a building.Please retweet to offend a Liberal.#BoycottKeurigpic.twitter.com/0qbHlmyqcA Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 12, 2017This video is hiarious, but comes with a ***Language Warning***. Black Rifle coffee company is a company dedicated to selling coffee that s produced and sold by American veterans. Fresh roasted freedom . To order Black Rifle coffee, go HERE :#BoycottKeurig Make Coffee Great Again! #StandWithVets BUY #BlackRifleCoffee Stay woke with patriotism, guns and a double shot of humor. #SundayFunday #StandWithHannitypic.twitter.com/2hTpojmF35 gh -or- c (@NiaMAGA3X) November 12, 2017Keurig CEO Bob Gamgort apologized to his employees on Monday for ostensibly taking sides in a Media Matters-led boycott of Sean Hannity s advertisers.Media Matters president Angelo Carusone spent his weekend tweeting at Hannity s advertisers and falsely accusing the Fox News host of defending sexual predators. Hannity has said repeatedly that Senate candidate Roy Moore has no place in politics if the allegations that he is a predator are true.In a memo leaked to Erik Wemple of The Washington Post, Keurig s Gamgort apologized to his employees for the way the situation was handled. The decision to publicly communicate our programming decision via our Twitter account was highly unusual, Gamgort wrote. This gave the appearance of taking sides in an emotionally charged debate that escalated on Twitter and beyond over the weekend, which was not our intent. Gamgort assured the employees that it was outside of protocol for Keurig to announce the ad pulls on Twitter and would make sure this never happens again. I apologize for any negativity you experienced as a result of this situation and assure you that we will learn and improve going forward, he stated. Daily Caller | 1real |
Snap of Clinton reading Pence email headline goes viral | (Reuters) - A photo of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton glancing at a newspaper headline about U.S. Vice President Mike Pence using private email has gone viral on social media, with thousands of people commenting on it. Pence and others involved in the Republican presidential campaign last year criticized Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as U.S. Secretary of State. Clinton was on an airplane traveling from Boston to New York on Friday when a fellow passenger snapped a photo of her glancing down at Friday’s USA Today newspaper front page headline “Pence used personal email in office”. Pence’s use of an AOL email account was first reported by the Indianapolis Star on Thursday. It said Pence used the account, which was hacked last summer, at times to discuss sensitive matters and homeland security issues while he was governor of Indiana. Pence said on Friday he had complied with Indiana laws in his use of the email account, and he had an outside attorney review his private email records and archive those related to state business. During the campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump and Pence said Clinton’s use of a private server broke the law and endangered national security - complaints that led their supporters to chant “Lock her up!” at rallies. The State Department’s internal watchdog said Clinton’s use of a private server broke department rules. The FBI reviewed her emails for classified material, but it found that no criminal charges were warranted. | 0fake |
Reuters journalists in Myanmar appear in court, remanded for another 14 days | YANGON (Reuters) - Two Reuters journalists who have been detained in Myanmar for the past two weeks were remanded in custody for a further two weeks on Wednesday as a probe continues into allegations they breached the nation s Official Secrets Act. Judge Ohn Myint granted the 14-day extension in the case of the journalists, Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, at the request of the police, who then took them to Yangon s Insein prison. They were previously being held in a police compound. When they appeared at the Mingaladon court for the proceedings, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were allowed to meet their families and their lawyer for the first time since their arrest. The two journalists had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis in the western state of Rakhine, where - according to United Nations estimates - about 655,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a fierce military crackdown on militants. They were detained on Dec 12 after they had been invited to meet police officials over dinner. The Ministry of Information has said they illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media and faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. The two journalists said they had not been mistreated in custody. The situation is okay, Wa Lone said after the hearing. We will face it the best we can because we have never done anything wrong, he said. We have never violated the media law nor ethics. We will continue to do our best. A Reuters spokesperson said they should be freed. These two journalists are being held for simply doing their jobs and have done nothing wrong. It is time for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to be released, the spokesperson said. About 100 journalists, lawyers and farmers held a protest in the town of Pyay, 290 km (180 miles) north of Yangon, to demand the release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, one of the participants said. Members of the Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists sat draped in chains in a public square in the center of the town and wrote the names of the two arrested reporters on their palms, an often used symbol in Myanmar of solidarity with those in jail. Government officials from some of the world s major nations, including the United States, Britain and Canada, as well as top U.N. officials, have previously called for their release. Dozens of reporters and cameramen were outside the courthouse in a northern district of Yangon for the appearance of the two journalists. They were brought in a white van, rather than a police truck, dressed in casual clothes and were not handcuffed. Their lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, who has been retained by Reuters, also said the two had only been doing their job as journalists. They are being accused under this charge while doing their work as media, he told reporters. Lieutenant Colonel Myint Htwe, a senior staff officer from the Yangon Police Division, said: We took action because they committed the crime. It needs to be solved in court. Only their lawyer and the families of the two journalists, along with police and government lawyers, were allowed into the courtroom. The families were later allowed to travel in the van as the two journalists were taken to prison. I believe that he didn t commit any crime, Pan Ei Mon, Wa Lone s wife, told Reuters. I would like to request the government to consider releasing them. Nyo Nyo Aye, a sister of Kyaw Soe Oo, said her brother told her he had not committed any offense. I believe that he can come home soon, she said. | 0fake |
HIGH ROAD! MARTIN LUTHER KING III MEETS WITH TRUMP: ‘Time to move forward’ [VIDEO] | Martin Luther King III met with president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, recognizing the holiday in honor of his father, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.After the meeting, King was questioned by reporters who repeatedly asked him to react to Trump s comments about Democratic Congressman John Lewis. Well, first of all I think that in the heat of emotion a lot of things get said on both sides, King said. And I think that at some point I am, as John Lewis and others are, a bridge builder. The goal is to bring America together and Americans. We are a great nation, but we must become a greater nation. When asked again about Trump s comments about Congressman Lewis, King replied that, At some point in this nation we ve got to move forward. AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! BELOW IS THE VIDEO OF THE STATEMENT: READ MORE: BREITBART | 1real |
BREAKING: Julian Assange Reveals MORE Bombshell Information On Clinton And Connections To ISIS [Video] | Julian Assange on Hillary Clinton in an interview with Russia Today (VIDEO BELOW):Rattansi: If there is any illegality in the pending emails you will release or malfesance in what you alreaday released President Obama could presumably act on it and get Hillary Clinton charged? Regardless on whether you are about to release any email which would mean that James Comey and the FBI would have no alternative but to arrest Hillary Clinton?Assange: Our view which we have already stated is if the evidence that the FBI has is enough for a grand jury to indict already But a prosecutor has to ask a grand jury to indict. And if a prosecutor doesn t ask, a grand jury won t indict. The US government at the times when Hillary Clinton was in charge of the foreign policy did use Libya as a conduit to get arms to jihadists in Syria. That is well-established not just by a range of raw materials but also by investigative reporters in the US, some of which were even published in The New York Times. La Farge, which is giant transnational concrete company was involved in Syria. There are more than 350 La Farge related emails in our Syria emails release. The investigations by Le Monde reveals that they paid ISIS money, taxes for their operations in certain areas, were engaged in a variety of business deals with ISIS. Money from La Farge in 2015 and 2016 went to Hillary Clinton foundation. There is actually a long-term relationship between La Farge and Clinton; she was a member of the board. There is also an extensive relationship between Hillary Clinton and Saudi Arabia , between the Clinton Foundation and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is probably the largest single donor to the Clinton Foundation and you can see Clinton s arms export policies when she was a secretary of state favoring extensively Saudi Arabia. | 1real |
War Less Imminent After Clinton Defeat | 2016 presidential campaign A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
Are most Americans warlike, or are they just easily misled into going along with the War Party that dominates both halves of the duopoly? In a certain sense, the distinction doesn’t matter. Most American don’t care enough about the lives of the millions of victims of U.S. empire to do much of anything to save them. And, if they voted for Hillary Clinton, they did not even have the presence of mind to save themselves from nuclear annihilation. War Less Imminent After Clinton Defeat A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
“Trump says he wants to cooperate with the Syrians and the Russians to defeat ISIS.”
With so many people who call themselves liberals and leftists tearing their hair out in dread of a President Donald Trump, it is necessary to point out that the prospects of avoiding nuclear war are much better than they were the day before the election. Hillary Clinton was committed to imposing a “no fly zone” over Syria that would have meant instant war with Russia, likely resulting in the annihilation of the human species. You’d think that would have made Clinton anathema to decent people. But Americans, including those who call themselves liberals, are not decent people – not really. Based on their political behavior, they just pretend to be decent, but support U.S. governments that have slaughtered millions since the end of World War Two. If you voted for Obama and Clinton, you gave your assent to continuing George Bush’s wars, allowing Obama to start two major wars of his own, in Libya and Syria, and to Hillary Clinton’s plans to roll the nuclear dice on the fate of humanity. The whole world knows that Americans are dangerous, to themselves and to others. But, decent? Since when, and to whom?
Donald Trump looks and talks like the ugly, racist, bullying American -- and he is exactly that, but he hasn’t killed anybody yet, and his public statements have been of a far more peaceful nature than the woman he beat at the polls. Trump says he wants to cooperate with the Syrians and the Russians to defeat ISIS. Trump also does not make distinctions between the various Islamic jihadist groups in Syria, unlike the Obama administration, which has directly and indirectly armed and funded all of the jihadist groups, and has spent much of the last several months trying to protect the al Nusra Front, the al Qaida affiliate in eastern Aleppo, from Russian bombing.
“The jihadists are in despair, and the prospects for driving them out of Aleppo look promising.”
No sooner had the votes been counted, than President Obama ordered U.S. Special Forces to go all-out to kill the leadership of al-Nusra.
This war has been entirely based on lies, so Obama will probably limit his Kill List to al Qaida leaders, while sparing the rank and file jihadist fighters for future use by the United States. But it is safe to say that, had Hillary Clinton been elected, the most warlike factions in the U.S. military, the CIA, the State Department, and the foreign policy establishment at-large would be setting the stage for full-scale confrontation with Russia and all of Syria’s allies under President Clinton. Instead, the jihadists are in despair, and the prospects for driving them out of Aleppo look promising. Hopefully, the Syrian government and its friends will be on the road to victory before Donald Trump’s presidency is decisively captured by the bipartisan War Party that runs the empire.
Syrian President Bashar Assad says it’s fine with him if Trump wants to fight the terrorists. But, Assad isn’t sure that Trump can deliver on his campaign pledge. “What about the countervailing forces within the administration, the mainstream media that were against him?” Assad asks . Assad thinks the notion of Trump bucking the War Party is “dubious.” He’s right. Half a million Syrians are dead because most Americans don’t much care who their government kills, as long as they’re not white. But, getting rid of Clinton has slowed the War Party down a bit, and maybe prevented a nuclear war. If you are a decent person, you should be pleased about that.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected] . | 1real |
Sarkozy admits French language a hoax after Wikileaks exposé | November 14, 2016
After yesterday’s Wikileaks revelations, Nicolas Sarkozy has today confirmed that the “French language” is indeed a one thousand year old hoax. The president of France revealed that what purported to be his native tongue was in fact complete gibberish, admitting the French really speak English, except in the presence of the British. This comes as Wikileaks published cables sent by French diplomats to countries such as Spain, China and Russia which were all found to be written in English.
During a speech given in received pronunciation, the French President came clean, stating that it all started off as a joke during William the Conquerer’s invasion to make the aggressors seem a bit more exotic. “What was initially a prank snowballed and after a few years we realised we’d look silly revealing the truth, so we had to keep up the façade,” said the Premier. “In the company of any Brits we would try to make convincingly “French” sounds, a mixture of guttural grunts and rapid-fire syllables.
But as soon as we were on our own we’d all heave a huge sigh of relief and revert to English. We developed a heavy reliance on hand gestures to cover up when we ran out of likely noises, and the shrug was a particular boon if inspiration dried up. In the end we became quite the raconteurs, with an impressive array of supposed vocabulary. So what began as a game for the élites, became a hobby across all levels of society, and it shocked us that the Brits were so naïve as to not see through the charade.”
Sarkozy claims Wikileaks will soon expose a number of other “languages”. “I mean, seriously guys, has anyone ever actually listened to “Arabic”? Je ne sais pas…..”
16 February 2011 | 1real |
Twitter Smacks Trump HARD After His Latest Ridiculous Attack On London’s Mayor (TWEETS) | On Monday, Donald Trump once again attacked London s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, for what he thinks Khan said about the London terror attacks. Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his no reason to be alarmed statement, Trump tweeted. MSM is working hard to sell it! Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017Of course, Khan didn t have to think fast about anything and the MSM didn t have to work hard at all to sell his remarks.The statement was, again, taken out of context. What Khan actually said was that there would be an increased police presence in the wake of the attack and that citizens have no reason to be alarmed. Naturally, people showed up to once again let Trump know he s a douchebag:Well at least he didn't follow that statement up by playing his 23rd round of golf this year, you lazy cretin. Jonathan Wier (@JonKMBZ) June 5, 2017You just vomit words with no thought PRESIDENT Lil Trump (@USAneedsTRUMP) June 5, 2017Pathetic excuse by American President who never thinks fast and is working hard to sell his bullshit presidency Jamie Lambert (@JamieCollabro) June 5, 2017You are, unfortunately, POTUS. How dare you speak this way about the Mayor of London, a far more noble statesman than you'll ever be? Bumble Ward (@BumbleWard) June 5, 2017Full quote: "Londoners will see an increased police presence today & over the course of the next few days. There's no reason to be alarmed." Liam Dryden (@LiamDrydenEtc) June 5, 2017He also knows his base will just take his word for it and not fact check anything he says Annafyock (@afyock2) June 5, 2017What the fuck is wrong with you? Jay Baruchel (@BaruchelNDG) June 5, 2017HE MEANT THEY SHOULDN'T BE ALARMED ABOUT INCREASED POLICE PRESENCE YOU FUCKING MASSIVE MORON Stefanie Iris Weiss (@EcoSexuality) June 5, 2017Your explanation for misquoting him is that he retroactively changed the quote you were misquoting? Morten verbye (@morten) June 5, 2017You actual mother fucker. Who the fuck do you think you are, twisting his words like that? You are literally disgusting. Ethan Lawrence (@EthanDLawrence) June 5, 2017This is the second time The Donald has attempted to completely misrepresent the London mayor s words. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that Khan says there is no reason to be alarmed? about the at least seven dead and forty-eight wounded.At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017Through a spokesman, Khan made it clear that he has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump s ill-informed tweet. Featured image via Getty Images/screengrab | 1real |
Islamic Leader Faces Deportation for Visa Fraud | An Imam in New Haven, Connecticut, is facing deportation after being ordered for removal out of the U. S. for allegedly defrauding a foreign national visa program. [Masjid mosque Imam Hafiz Abdul Hannan, an illegal immigrant from Pakistan, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents where they say they are enforcing a 2016 deportation order, according to the Associated Press. In 2006, Hannan was arrested by authorities for his involvement in filling out fraudulent applications in order to receive religious worker visas for foreign nationals. The investigation was a nationwide sting at the time. Now, Hannan who has been at the helm of the Connecticut mosque since 2013, is likely to be deported back to Pakistan, with mosque officials demanding attendees not to speak to the media about the case. “Community members should not contact media or give any statement regarding the current situation of Imam Hannan being detained by ICE,” the note from mosque officials states. “The majlis will make a statement if deemed necessary with more insight into the situation. ” John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 0fake |
World War 3 Russia Threatens America with Nuclear War | November 1, 2016 at 8:31 pm
With all the threats from the UN putting troops in our country we need to remind them what happened to the Nazis and the camp guards after the war. Not only the UN soldiers but the countries who sent them will be held accountable for the actions of their troops. If they think the UN can protect they need to wake up. If they send a bunch of sexual predators over here we will hold them responsible. Also, we need to send as many as we can home in a box. No mercy no forgiveness stay out of our country. | 1real |
Alabama’s Latest Assault On Gay Marriage Is Great News For Kim Davis Wannabes | Since the Supreme Court s ruling that legalized gay marriage, no state has worked quite as hard as Alabama to see to it that the Christian right s dependency on bigotry to exist is protected at all costs. This week the state senate took the next step in the battle against bigots and zealots having to acknowledge the law of the land by passing a bill that eliminates marriage licenses in the state altogether.Yes, rather than forcing clerks and judges to put their stamp of approval on what will undoubtedly cause the end of civilization as we know it, Senate Bill 143 takes the state completely out of the marriage game. Residents would instead sign affidavits of a civil union, which clerks would receive and record. That way, when the trumpets sound and the archangel Gabriel descends to turn Mobile into salt, those who issue marriage licenses will be able to stand at the pearly gates and plead their case to St. Peter with a clean conscience.The bill, which reads, All requirements to obtain a marriage license by the State of Alabama are hereby abolished and repealed. The requirement of a ceremony of marriage to solemnize the marriage is abolished, has been dubbed the three way bill by critics because it makes marriage between two people and their attorney. State Senator Greg Albritton told reporters: When you invite the state into those matters of personal or religious import, it creates difficulties. Early twentieth century, if you go back and look and try to find marriage licenses for your grandparents or great grandparents, you won t find it. What you will find instead is where people have come in and recorded when a marriage has occurred. Early twentieth century, if you go back and look, was a time before marriages had to be legal for income tax purposes because there was no income tax. It makes no difference what way Alabama Republicans try to spin it, this is bill is designed to save Christians from having to treat the gay community as people under any circumstances. The proposed law would still maintain a few state requirements for a civil marriage contract: Minors between the ages of 16 and 18 would still need parental permission and the state would refuse to record a marriage contract if either party was already married or related by blood or adoption.The funny thing is, had every state adopted a law just like this one when the issue came about, there would have been no need for a court case or a SCOTUS ruling. Two people dedicated to each other could enjoy all of the legal and tax advantages of their union while still being free to marry as their faith allows or requires, without interference from bigots at the clerk s office.We would also have had the added advantage of never having to hear the name Kim Davis.Featured image from AlabamaConnection.org | 1real |
Little Boy Humiliates Himself With What Sick Liberal Mom Made Him Wear | Little Boy Humiliates Himself With What Sick Liberal Mom Made Him Wear Posted on October 31, 2016 by Amanda Shea in Politics Share This @DebbersGar (left), the woman’s son in humiliating attire (right)
While all of the other children are showing up to class today dressed as their favorite cartoon characters or superheroes of some kind, an ultra-liberal mother used her son to make a sick statement instead. Too young to understand agendas, the little boy humiliated himself in front of his class, which he will have to live with the rest of the school year.
School administrators have a responsibility to report it when they feel something is wrong at home, which some would think is probably the case with this boy based on what this twisted woman dressed him as. Instead of being given the choice to be whatever he wants, his seemingly controlling mother convinced him to don what she thought was a pretty cool costume without thinking about the emotional damage it could do to her child.
The liberal mother, who goes by @DebbersGar  online, was proud that she got her son to dress up as her hero, Hillary Clinton, when she posted his photo online with the description, “Our 8-year-old son is with you @Hillary Clinton, today and every day.” Adding to the realistic nature of the female costume, she grew her boy’s hair out so it could be styled in Hillary’s signature winged bouffant. She completed the androgynous costume with a pantsuit, Hillary campaign pin, and slogan briefcase, then topped it off with a pair of pearlescent girl shoes. The 8-year-old boy dressed as Hillary Clinton in his mother’s post
While the look is atrocious regardless of gender and has no place in a second-grade classroom, the fact that she more or less forced her son to dress as a woman makes it worse â but it’s par for the course with gender-bending liberals.
While she made her political point and was clearly proud of it, her son likely sat alone at lunch and played by himself at recess in his yellow woman’s pantsuit, but she’ll blame other people’s “bad” parenting for raising kids who treated her son this way. | 1real |
White House says Trump did not know Flynn was representing Turkey | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump did not know until this week that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had been working as a representative for Turkey, although the issue was raised with the Trump team before the Republican took office. Flynn acted as a foreign agent representing the interests of Turkey’s government in exchange for more than $500,000 during last year’s presidential campaign even as he was advising Trump, the New York Times said on Friday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Flynn’s lobbying was a personal and business matter, and it was up to him to decide when to register. Asked if Trump had not been aware that former general Flynn was working as a foreign agent, Spicer said: “Correct... You wouldn’t know that until he filed. He didn’t file until two days ago.” Some U.S. lawmakers have questioned Flynn’s relationship with the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Before Trump’s inauguration, Flynn’s ties to Turkey were widely reported and he wrote an article urging the United States to cultivate better relations with Erdogan. Trump fired Flynn last month for discussing U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office on Jan. 20 and misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Before Trump took office, Flynn’s lawyer contacted the presidential transition team about his work for Turkey to ask what he should do, Spicer said. The lawyer was told “it was up to the personal lawyer to work with the appropriate authorities ... to determine what was appropriate and what was not appropriate in terms of filing,” Spicer said. “We trust people to fill out the forms that they are required to do so in an honest and legal manner, and in this case he retroactively filed the forms he was supposed to do,” he said. “We did the right thing then, and we expect every employee to follow the law.” Spicer said he did not know whether Flynn had disclosed his lobbying work in the security clearance review before he became national security adviser. | 0fake |
VOTE THEM OUT! SIX SENATE DEMOCRATS Up For Reelection In RED STATES Boycott Vote To Play Politics | Florida Bill Nelson (D) Indiana Joe Donnelly (D) Michigan Debbie Stabenow (D) Missouri Claire McCaskill (D) Montana Jon Tester (D) New Jersey Bob Menendez (D) North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp (D) Ohio Sherrod Brown (D) Pennsylvania Bob Casey (D) Virginia Tim Kaine (D) West Virginia Joe Manchin (D) Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin (D)These Democrats are sitting members on the Senate Finance Committee:These Democrats wanted to stall confirmation of President Trump s picks for Treasury and HHS by boycotting the committee hearing! This is playing politics with the wishes of the American people! Vote them out!Ron Wyden, Oregon, Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Maria Cantwell, Washington Bill Nelson, Florida Bob Menendez, New Jersey Tom Carper, Delaware Ben Cardin, Maryland Sherrod Brown, Ohio Michael Bennet, Colorado Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Mark Warner, Virginia Claire McCaskill, MissouriRead more: GP | 1real |
Santorum to attend Trump's rally, campaign says | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum plans to join party front-runner Donald Trump at a rally in Iowa later on Thursday, his campaign said. Santorum, a former U.S. lawmaker, will participate in the so-called “undercard” debate for Republican presidential candidates with less support in the polls before going to the event with Trump, who has vowed to skip Thursday night’s debate hosted by Fox News. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also said he plans to attend Trump’s event. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 0fake |
Celebrity Megaphone Fails to Lure Ordinary Users to Twitter - Breitbart | NEW YORK (AP) — Many people have heard of Twitter. Not enough of them are signing up to use it. [advertisement | 0fake |
It’s Really Happening: Trump Adviser Lays Out Plan For National Muslim Registry | Well, that didn t take long. In the short time since Americans kinda-sorta elected Donald Trump to be Pussygrabber-in-Chief, Trump has appointed a bona fide white nationalist to a high-level position and perform numerous other actions that months ago were considered extremely unlikely nightmare scenarios and the latest seems to be that the Muslim registry the media told us Trump was not serious about might actually happen.Under the Trump regime, Muslim immigrants coming to the United States from what Trump and Pals call terror-prone countries will soon have to register and check in regularly with the government if Trump adviser and Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, has his way.Kobach says that the Trump administration aims to quickly waste taxpayer dollars on The Wall and that they are moving forward on a proposal to get things rolling with a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. Reuters reports:Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped write tough immigration laws in Arizona and elsewhere, said in an interview that Trump s policy advisers had also discussed drafting a proposal for his consideration to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.Kobach, who media reports say is a key member of Trump s transition team, said he had participated in regular conference calls with about a dozen Trump immigration advisers for the past two to three months.Trump s transition team did not respond to requests for confirmation of Kobach s role. The president-elect has not committed to following any specific recommendations from advisory groups.The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, designed in part by Kovach under the Bush administration, was an ineffective program that singled out Muslims and did not manage to convict a single person of anything related to terrorism.During his campaign, Trump suggested not only monitoring mosques but added that there would need to be a lot of systems that extend beyond databases to keep an eye on Muslims.Kobach says that he and other advisers are also looking into how to get the construction of the border wall moving without approval from Congress. He says it can happen by reappropriating existing funds, but acknowledges that future fiscal years will require additional appropriations. Trump has shown us his character in whom he chooses to be part of his administration and through his actions since he has been elected. Some say to give him a chance, to see how he governs, but the answer is no. President-elect Pussygrabber has repeatedly demonstrated that he is completely lacking in morals, compassion, decency, and hand size.It is up to each of us to oppose Donald Trump at every turn, to protect what we can of the progress America has made over the last fifty years, to defend our nation in every way we can against this internal enemy. Recently, John Oliver reminded us not to allow what we are about to live through to become normalized. Keep reminding yourself this is not normal, Oliver said. A Klan-backed misogynist internet troll is going to be delivering the next State of the Union address, and that is not normal. Truer words have never been spoken.Featured image via Getty Images/Matthew Busch | 1real |
DISGUSTING VIDEOS Show Joe Biden Groping Little Girls…Watch Girls Elbow Biden To Keep His Hands Off Their Breasts | Joe Biden didn t earn his nickname Creepy Joe or Creepy Uncle Joe for his good behavior. Sadly, Creepy Joe earned his nickname after he was caught numerous times groping women and young girls on camera. Of course, the media gives Joe Biden a pass, because he s a Democrat, and if there s anything we ve learned over the past 4 decades, it s that high-profile members of the Democrat Party, like accused rapist Bill Clinton, can t be held accountable for their playful sexual advances towards women, and in the especially creepy Joe Biden s case, young girls.The first girl is a niece of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (R). The girl with the sharp elbow is apparently a relative of freshman Senator Steve Daines of Montana (R).An enlarged image from C-SPAN shows Biden s hand sliding over the chest of McConnell s niece.Another incident shows Biden s right hand sliding down a girl s shoulder and then his fingers creep over toward her breast [at about the 4:20 mark]. The girl elbowed Biden and stepped away from him, but Biden grabbed her and put his right hand back over her breast.Watch, as Joe Biden moves his hand down on this little girl s breast. You can see her elbowing him, as he s clearly making her uncomfortable. But Creepy Joe persists Here s a compilation of Joe Biden s sexual assaults in plain view of the camera and family members:One of the best videos in the collection of Creepy Joe moments caught on tape was when the camera caught the former Senator Jeff Sessions actually SLAPPING Joe s hands when he attempts to grab ahold of Sessions granddaughter. Watch:In another incident from that day, Biden is meeting Colorado Senator Cory Gardner and his wife and 11-year-old daughter. The daughter puts herself on the other side of Biden from her father. Biden reaches out to shake her hand and tires to pull her toward him such that the resisting girl stumbles in her heels. Biden then asks her to hold the Bible for the swearing-in of her father to get her next to him so he could fondle her. Biden drags her over by the arm and positions her close to him with both hands on her. Biden hugs her with his right arm after the ceremonial swearing-in, pulling her hip to his crotch. Biden then holds the girl near him for the family photo session and keeps his left arm around her waist during the photos. Biden finishes by leaning over and whispering in her ear.Note: Watch Biden s hand beginning at the 1:32 mark. He actually rotates his hand up to touch the side of the 11-year-old girl s breast.Via: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
‘What if You Weren’t Afraid?’ and 4 More Money Questions From Readers - The New York Times | mothers. fathers. Disapproving elders. Parents who warn about regrets. Others whose financial limits were a statement of their values. A week ago, I asked you to send me the best questions you’ve ever asked, or answered, about money, and published seven queries to start the conversation. Of the five best new ones that arrived in the last week, every one came with a story about a parent like the ones described above. This shouldn’t come as an enormous surprise. After all, what we spend, save and give says a lot about who we are. Value and values are just a letter apart, and given how much influence our parents often have on the latter, it makes perfect sense that we think of them when we ponder our financial situations as well. So consider the following five questions, or adapt them to your own financial forks in the road as needed. And if your parents are alive, ask them, too, though you may already know what they will say. Where are we staying in Florida? When Jan Even was in second grade in River Forest, Ill. many of her classmates discussed their pending spring break plans. Some were going to Fort Lauderdale. Others were headed to Sarasota. “I just kind of thought that we were going, too, and that my parents hadn’t told me yet,” she recalled. But they weren’t going, and when she asked about the family’s destination, here’s how her mother replied: It’s more important for you to be able to go to college at age 18 than it is for us to go to Florida now. Ms. Even’s family had enough money that this wasn’t a so much as a conscious choice. Both her parents grew up during the Depression, and her mother told stories of people coming to the back door of their farmhouse looking for food and Ms. Even’s grandmother feeding them dinner. Children make many assumptions about their lives and the lives of others based on where we choose to raise them. So you can’t fault Ms. Even, who is now 66 and lives in Redmond, Ore. for wondering aloud when she was young. Nor can you fault her parents for enforcing a bit of artificial deprivation. “Maybe they really were concerned about the money, but I think it was more an expression of their values,” she said. They did eventually take her to Florida — but not until senior year in high school, when the college fund was safe and she was six months away from starting at Northwestern University. Can you accept the fact that we can’t live the same life that you do? Plenty of parents hope that their children will climb at least one rung up the social class ladder once they are adults, and many more will fight hard to keep their children from slipping even a bit. So it can be jarring for parents when their adult children don’t strive for the same things they do. A reader in Baton Rouge, La. who did not want to use her name because she didn’t think her relatives would appreciate her sharing the story publicly, wrote in to describe the pressure she and her husband once felt to buy and spend and own and live the way that other, more established family members did. They ran up credit card debt before realizing they couldn’t keep up and didn’t really want to, either. Then, they had to gently explain to their family how they felt. “Sometimes, I think it’s easier to talk about sex with your parents than money,” she told me via email. “We choose a simple life. Experiences over possessions. ” Her note reminded me of one of the most haunting things I’ve ever read about families and money. In her book “A Wealth of Possibilities,” Ellen Miley Perry described the “centrifugal force” of abundance that swirls around financially successful families. And she described an acquaintance who summed up her relationship with her father this way: “He can’t accept the smallness of my dreams. ” What would you do if you weren’t afraid? In 2001, Daniel L. Anderson and his family were living in Reno, Nev. and loving the easy access to the outdoors, the low cost of living and the good schools. But he was slowly growing bored with his real estate job. He posted his résumé online and soon had a promising job offer in Houston. He also sought advice from his old mentor, who eventually offered him a different job in San Francisco, and then put that pointed question to Mr. Anderson when he wavered. The Houston company had a reputation as a terrific place to work. The word on the San Francisco employer was much more mixed. “His question caused me to my situation to make sure I wasn’t doing what was easy and comfortable,” Mr. Anderson recalled, adding that he had to get over a bit of macho denial about his own fear before he could really think it through. There were also the stories his mother told him about all of her retired friends who talked about their regrets over the roads not taken. “I did not want to be that person,” he said. Which is how he ended up moving to Walnut Creek, Calif. where his family thrived. And how he turned down the attractive offer from a company called Enron. What good is having a lot in the bank if you’ve never let yourself live? Lisa and Janice Woolery both grew up in families that didn’t have much money, and in their life together as a couple, they have been fairly careful. There is no mortgage on their home in Des Moines, and they’ve saved money for retirement. “But when you do some of those rather extensive retirement planning programs online, you just feel defeated,” Lisa said. “You start saying, ‘I’m going to die someday, and I want to live in a way that lets me do things that I have been putting off. ’” For the two of them, both 55, that means travel of the sort that might have felt fiscally irresponsible in previous years. New Zealand is high on their list. In an interview this week, I asked Lisa whether they’d been able to answer their big question in a way that had allowed them to put a trip like that on the calendar. “Not in the next year or two, yet,” she said. “But. ” Then a long pause. “It’s a … ” Then a deep sigh. “The safe answer is the answer I know to use,” she said finally. “Low to no risk. But at what point do you say that low to no risk isn’t living?” As I was writing this column, she followed up with an email. They’d booked a couples getaway to San Francisco, a place that holds fond memories for them from travel earlier in their relationship. It’s a good start. What is the most satisfying thing you’ve spent money on? By the time she’d scraped her way through college and graduate school, Trudelle Thomas recognized that she had inherited some heavy generational baggage from the Great Depression. So Ms. Thomas, an English professor at Xavier University, went to work on herself to see if she could derive more joy from the money that she chose to spend. When she finally persuaded herself to buy a new car, she didn’t draw much additional satisfaction from it. Nice meals out were often unhealthy and expensive. What she enjoyed much more, however, was the money she spent on and with others. She tithes and has contributed to the National Alliance on Mental Illness for a long enough period to feel as if she has been part of important policy changes. Another regular habit: taking her students, many of whom could not afford it, out for lunch in the campus cafeteria. And a few years ago, she took a niece, who otherwise might not have been able to travel, on a trip to California. She liked to dote on people, as she put it, and she reminded me that “thrive” is the root word of thrift. “My niece could think of me as her rich aunt,” she said. “But I want her to think of me as her thrifty aunt who splurges on her. ” | 0fake |
Western push at U.N. to boost backing for Syria gas attack inquiry | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council could vote as early as Wednesday on a push by the United States, Britain and France to bolster support for international inquiries into a deadly toxic gas attack in Syria, diplomats said, a move Russia had deemed unacceptable and unwarranted. The three countries have proposed a revised draft resolution, diplomats said, similar to a text they circulated to the 15-member council last week that condemns the April 4 attack and pushes Syria’s government to cooperate with investigators. Western powers blame the sarin gas attack, which killed scores of civilians - many of them children, on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Syria’s government has denied responsibility for the attack, which prompted a U.S. strike on a Syrian air base. The Security Council vote would come at the end of a visit to Moscow by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. A senior Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the most likely scenario appeared to be a veto of the U.N. resolution by Syrian ally Russia. Russia said last week the draft resolution was unacceptable and unwarranted. The senior diplomat said that last week the Chinese had been prepared to abstain in a vote. Russia is one of five council veto powers, along with China, the United States, Britain and France. “We cannot give up and we must try in good faith, the best we can, to have a text of the Security Council condemning the attack, asking for a thorough investigation,” French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters on Tuesday. An Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission is already investigating the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in a rebel-held area of northern Syria. If they determine chemical weapons were used, then a joint U.N./OPCW investigation will look at the incident to determine who is to blame. This team has already found Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and Islamic State militants used mustard gas. In February, Syrian ally Russia, backed by China, cast its seventh veto to protect Assad’s government from council action, blocking a bid by Western powers to impose sanctions over accusations of chemical weapons attacks. China has vetoed six resolutions on Syria. | 0fake |
Congress tax negotiators may have final bill before Dec. 22 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress may be able to wrap up tax negotiations before Dec. 22 and send a final bill to President Donald Trump, Republican Senator John Cornyn said on Wednesday. The Senate will vote on Wednesday whether go to conference with the House of Representatives on tax legislation. The House voted on Monday. Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said he thought tax negotiators should be able to meet a Trump administration request to iron out the differences between the two bills before Dec. 22. “They won’t be rewriting the bills, they’ll just be trying to reconcile those differences and I hope that can be done quickly because we need to get this to the president,” Cornyn told reporters. | 0fake |
Democrat Representative on House Floor: Trump ’Must Be Impeached’ | Rep. Al Green ( ) speaking on the House floor Wednesday morning, said President Trump “must be impeached. ”[“It’s a position of conscience for me,” Green said. “This is about what I believe. And this is where I stand. I will not be moved. The president must be impeached”: Rep. Al Green calls for Trump’s impeachment: ’No one is above the law and that includes the president’ pic. twitter. — Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 17, 2017, Green joined other Democratic lawmakers to call for the president’s impeachment, although Democratic leadership in Congress said it was too soon to move ahead with such action, Fox News reported. “I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the President of the United States of America for obstruction of justice,” Green said, suggesting that Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey obstructed an investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. “We cannot allow this to go unchecked — the president is not above the law, it is time for the American people to weigh in. ” Green was the first of his Democratic colleagues in the House to call for Trump’s impeachment, inspired by a New York Times report claiming that Trump asked Comey to end an investigation into the former National Security adviser, Michael Flynn. The Hill reported that Green started calling for Trump’s impeachment on Monday, when he said his colleagues in Congress should take up the mantra “ITN: Impeach Trump Now. ” Green originally said that he would wait a few weeks before starting impeachment proceedings, KHOU reported. Many Democrats and Republicans in Congress, however, are not ready to jump on the impeachment bandwagon just yet. “Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president such as accusations that he committed an impeachable offense,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick ( ) told lawmakers after the speech. Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff ( ) said Wednesday that impeachment is not something that should be rushed. “No one should rush to embrace the most extraordinary remedy for removing a president,” Schiff said. | 0fake |
Philippines' Duterte keeps open pit mining ban in policy clash | MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has not lifted a ban on open pit mining, his spokesman said on Monday, going against the stance of a government panel and the environment minister who are seeking to reverse the policy. Open pit mining is allowed under the laws of the Southeast Asian country, the world s top nickel ore exporter. But, the former environment minister Regina Lopez banned it during her 10 months in office, saying the environmental degradation ruined the economic potential of places where it was done. The Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC), an inter-agency panel that makes recommendations on mining policy, last month asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to lift the ban. Roy Cimatu, the new Environment and Natural Resources Secretary, supports removing the ban. Cimatu replaced Lopez when she stepped down in May after the Philippine Congress voted not to confirm her. I assure you that this is one of the instances when I personally asked the President if there s been a change in policy. And he says that s there s still no new policy on this, there s still a ban on new open pit mining, Harry Roque, Duterte s spokesman, told a media briefing. Roque said he was unsure whether the MICC recommendation has reached Duterte. The MICC is co-chaired by Cimatu and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez. Calls and messages to Cimatu seeking comment were not immediately returned. But Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin, who is an alternate for Dominguez on the MICC, said the policy on open pit mining is under Duterte s authority. The President has the final say on the matter, Agabin told Reuters in a text message. The ban would only affect new projects. Lifting the ban could open the door for some big-ticket ventures including the $5.9 billion Tampakan copper and gold mine. The Tampakan project in South Cotabato province on the island of Mindanao is the nation s biggest stalled mining venture. Operator Glencore Plc to quit the project in 2015 but development was first halted after South Cotabato banned open-pit mining in 2010. Lopez has said the project would cover an area the size of 700 soccer fields in what otherwise would be agricultural land. Duterte said in September he agreed with the open-pit mining ban given the environmental damage it causes, but would give mining firms time to find other ways to extract minerals. | 0fake |
Trump Interior nominee would consider more drilling on federal land | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Interior, on Tuesday said he would consider an expansion of energy drilling and mining on federal lands but would ensure sensitive areas remain protected. The former Navy SEAL sought to outline a measured approach to the job of managing America’s national parks, forests and tribal lands during a four-hour Senate confirmation hearing that was mostly cordial, lacking some of the hot-tempered grilling that has marked other sessions to vet Trump’s cabinet nominees. “Yes,” he said in response to a question from Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska about whether he would review drilling curbs imposed by President Barack Obama’s administration in her state, home to vast petroleum deposits both onshore and beneath Arctic waters. “I can guarantee you it is better to produce energy domestically under reasonable regulation than overseas with no regulation ... We need an economy.” But he added he was committed to protecting sensitive wildlife habitats and to keeping federal lands under federal control to ensure they are preserved for future generations, so “my granddaughter’s children can look back and say that we did it right.” The Interior Department oversees territories covering a fifth of the United States’ surface from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, including rich deposits of oil, gas and coal and important pasturelands for ranchers. Zinke, an avid hunter and angler, emerged as a surprise pick to head the department in part because he has embraced federal stewardship of public land, diverging from the Republican Party’s official position to sell off acreage to states. But as a congressman he has also fought for increased energy development, a position that has worried conservationists and which fits neatly with Trump’s campaign vows to bolster the U.S. energy sector by scaling back regulation. Over the last eight years, the Interior Department has sought to limit industry access to federal lands and played a key role in Obama’s agenda to combat climate change by curbing greenhouse gas emitting industries. Under Obama, the department banned new coal mining leases on federal property early in 2016. More recently the agency placed parts of the offshore Arctic and Atlantic off-limits to drilling and declared national monuments that protect large parts of Utah and Nevada from development. Zinke said he believed Trump could “amend” Obama’s moves to declare millions of acres of federal property as national monuments. But he said that any move Trump made to rescind a designation would immediately be challenged. He did not comment directly on whether he would seek to reverse Obama’s federal coal-lease ban but said he believed coal plays an important part in the U.S. energy mix and has previously pushed to end the moratorium. Zinke was the first of three Cabinet heads Trump has chosen to oversee his environment and energy portfolio to face Senate scrutiny this week. All three have opposed Obama’s measures to combat global climate change by targeting carbon dioxide emissions. Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, was to testify on Wednesday, and Trump’s choice for Energy secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, was to testify on Thursday. Zinke told committee members that he believes humans contribute to global climate change – a statement that appeared to clash with Trump’s views. Before running for the White House, Trump called climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to weaken U.S. businesses, a position he has since defended. “I do not think it is a hoax,” Zinke said. But he added that he believed there is still debate over the degree to which humans have an impact, and what should be done about it, adding that regulations could sometimes hurt jobs without helping the environment. He said, for example, he would support efforts by the U.S. Congress to cancel recent regulation imposed by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management aimed at preventing leaks of methane - another gas scientists blame for climate change - from oil and gas installations. In his opening remarks, Zinke struck a moderate tone, saying that he recognizes that some federal lands require strong protection. He also called himself an “unapologetic admirer of Teddy Roosevelt,” a former Republican president who pioneered public land conservation. Zinke also said he would tackle a multi-billion dollar backlog in maintenance at national parks and promised to ensure greater sovereignty for tribes. | 0fake |
TUCKER ON COMEY’S FIRING: “Dictatorship by the unelected…that’s the REAL danger” [Video] | TUCKER CARLSON Spoke out tonight on the firing of Comey He listed different times that Comey was inept or undermined the president. Clip after clip showed Comey s inability to keep politics out of the FBI Note the investigation into Hillary Clinton.Carlson says the firing was long overdue and that no one should have that much power . | 1real |
Israel hawks to Pope Francis: Stay out of politics | There is an path for Democrats to regain the presidency — and it does not run through Ohio, Michigan or Wisconsin. | 0fake |
Bernie Sanders Will Visit The Vatican To Speak About A ‘Moral Economy’ | Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, who faces an uphill battle with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New York s primary, may get a significant boost of confidence as he s scheduled to visit Vatican City to deliver a speech on the moral economy on April 15th.More specifically, according to the Sanders campaign, he will be attending a conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on social, economic, and environmental issues, which falls on the 25th anniversary of the church s Centesimus Annus, an encyclical from Pope John Paul II aimed at addressing the rights of workers around the world and fair economic treatment.On the same day Pope Francis issued a paper urging priests and leaders to be more accepting of gay men, divorcees and lesbians, the Vatican released their own statement, singling out Sanders: We re delighted to host this conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Centesimus Annus, bringing together world leaders, including U.S. Senator Sanders. Bernie Sanders praised His Holiness Pope Francis and the Vatican for the invitation on MSNBC s Morning Joe, saying:I was very moved by the invitation, which just was made public today. I am a big, big fan of the pope. Obviously, there are areas where we disagree, on women s rights and gay rights. But he has played an unbelievable role, an unbelievable role, of injecting a moral consequence into the economy.Whereas the honor of attending the Vatican may be huge for Sanders, the time he ll have to take off from campaigning in New York (four days before the primary) may be detrimental to overtaking Clinton, who is slated to win with a comfortable margin.Bernie Sanders has lauded Pope Francis in the past, calling him brave, compassionate, a very smart man, and a leader on the issues which Sanders has similarly adopted in his presidential campaign. It should come as no surprise the Vatican saw it fit to invite him. Francis focus on climate change and environmental issues have ignited positive attitudes in weary Catholics and non-Catholics who have grown dismayed with the Church s seemingly obsessive attitudes towards abortion and homosexuality, and embracing the Sanders rhetoric literally and figuratively will only continue to ignite more passion. Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images | 1real |
OBAMA IN GREECE: THE LAST FLIGHT OF THE LAME DUCK | Home » Obama in Greece: The last flight of the lame duck Obama in Greece: The last flight of the lame duck 15.11.2016
Barack Obama begins his last tour as US president on November 15th. He plans to visit Greece, Germany, and Peru. The first place that President Obama is going to visit will be Athens. Common mockery
According to the official statements of the White House, Obama is going to announce support for the "ongoing efforts to stabilize the Greek economy", as well as to appreciate the "hospitality of the Greek government and people extended to the refugees and migrants". Both statements may be considered an inappropriate joke: the Greek economy is still in very critical condition, and the country is facing a migration crisis leading to a humanitarian and demographic catastrophe. The Democrat’s requests
Moreover, Barack Obama is going to demand that the Greek government support the anti-Russian sanctions on the ballot in the EU in December, as well as ban Russian warships from entering Greek ports. In addition, Obama is going to demand that Greece remove its veto on Macedonia’s entry into NATO. National interests against neoliberal delusion
All of Obama’s demands for Athens are a classic example of the pressure exerted on national governments by globalists. Neoliberals demand the renunciation of individual countries’ own interests in favor of a "common good". However, the reality is that following this course leads to ruin, degradation, and sometimes the total destruction of states. Related links | 1real |
North Korea says sanctions hurting women, children | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea said on Wednesday it was working to uphold women s rights and gender equality but that sanctions imposed by major powers were taking a toll on vulnerable families. Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations in Geneva, also urged South Korea to return 12 waitresses kidnapped while working in China in April 2016, calling it a crime against humanity . Seoul has said the 12 women and one man had chosen to defect to the South. U.S. President Donald Trump arrived earlier in the day in China seeking help to rein in North Korea, telling the reclusive state s leader he was putting his country in grave danger by developing nuclear weapons. The United States and other hostile forces impede the enjoyment by our people of their human rights in every possible way, resorting to the vicious ways and means of all kinds in their attempt to stifle the ideas and system of the DPRK, Han told the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Washington, he said, had manipulated sanctions resolutions against his country at the U.N. Security Council that violated North Korean sovereignty and rights to existence and development, he said. Due to these inhumane economic sanctions, vulnerable peoples like women and children are becoming...victims. Such sanctions against humanity which block even the delivery of the medical equipment and medicines for maternal and child health and the basic goods for daily life including even children s bicycles threaten the protection and promotion of our women s rights and even the right to survival of the children. South Korea imposed unilateral sanctions on 18 North Koreans on Monday, barring any financial transactions between those sanctioned and any South Koreans, as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang s illegal cash flows. Japan said on Tuesday it would impose additional sanctions on North Korea in response to the continuing threat posed by its missile and nuclear programs. The U.N. panel, composed of 23 independent experts, was examining North Korea s record as part of a regular review. Its findings are due to be issued on Nov 17. | 0fake |
One Of Trump’s ‘Very Fine People’ Extradited To Charlottesville After Brutal Assault | Dennis Lloyd Mothersbaugh, 37, has a long and violent criminal record and was charged at least twice before with threatening African-American men before he was arrested in late September and now, he s being extradited to Charlottesville after Internet sleuths found out his identity when he was seen on video brutally punching a woman in the face during a protest. Writer and activist Shaun King sounded the alarm, then the Internet went to work to ID the vicious racist. Lifelong white supremacist/Neo-Nazi, Dennis Mothersbaugh, being extradited to Charlottesville, King tweeted. Wearing his God, Guns, & TRUMP shirt. Lifelong white supremacist/Neo-Nazi, Dennis Mothersbaugh, being extradited to Charlottesville.Wearing his God, Guns, & TRUMP shirt. pic.twitter.com/eQlj4cg2Xf Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 6, 2017Mothersbaugh has a lengthy record.He's a gem. pic.twitter.com/6RqfrZgXqo Wes Criswell (@CriswellWJ) October 7, 2017But wait there's more pic.twitter.com/2BpUjqXTM1 Wes Criswell (@CriswellWJ) October 7, 2017Here s a video clip of the Nazi punching a man in the face, then brutally assaulting a woman.ALL HANDS ON DECK!Who is this man? Slayer T-Shirt. White supremacist.Brutally assaulted 2 non-violent protestors in Charlottesville. pic.twitter.com/sZ29EPO0X0 Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 12, 2017Mothersbaugh was arrested in Jennings County, Indiana, and charged with assault and battery after he participated in the Aug. 12 Unite the Right hate rally. A lot of Nazis were identified following the violent protest in which Heather Heyer was murdered and left 19 others injured after another one of Trump s very fine people used his car as a weapon to mow down anti-racist protesters.Trump has repeatedly blamed both sides for the attack. Democrats and Republicans both condemned Trump s remarks.Last night, there was another torch rally in Charlottesville featuring human punching bag Richard Spencer. Videos and pictures are being circulated on social media. Although only about 30 Nazis showed up to intimidate the city again, they might suffer consequences for their actions, if identified. It s 2017, and we re witnessing Nazis storming down our streets and obviously, these Trump supporters aren t nice-time Nazis who use Hello Kitty computers.Like, for example, James Alex Fields, the 20-year-old Ohio man who was arrested on the day of the rally and charged with second-degree murder, among other counts, after driving a car into the crowd of anti-racists, killing Ms. Heyer. But Trump won t call it terrorism because they are his very fine people. Mothersbaugh needs a new t-shirt which reads, God, Guns, Trump, Prison. Image via Twitter. | 1real |
(Video) Yes! Cong. Chaffetz Announces Support For Cong. Trey Gowdy For Speaker! | What a fantastic choice!!! Congressman Trey Gowdy would be a fantastic Speaker of the House to replace John Boehner. It s like night and day! Gowdy is a man with loads of character! | 1real |
U.S. Navy carrier drills with Japanese, Indian navy in Sea of Japan | TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, conducted three days of drills with a Japanese destroyer and two Indian warships in the Sea of Japan, Japan s navy said on Tuesday. The exercise involving five ships, which ended Monday, came amid heightened tension in the region over North Korea s ballistic missile and nuclear tests and as U.S. President Donald Trump began a 12-day tour of Asia beginning in Japan on Sunday. The exercise helped improve fighting skills and deepened cooperation with India, Japan s Maritime Self Defence Force said in a press release. The 100,000-ton Reagan, which is based in Japan carries around 70 combat aircraft and is the U.S. Navy s most powerful warship in Asia. The Reagan will join two other carriers in the Western Pacific, the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt, in a potent reminder to Pyongyang of the U.S. ability to rapidly mobilize military force, U.S. officials told Reuters earlier. | 0fake |
France's CGT calls another strike against labor reform, others refuse | PARIS (Reuters) - France s hard-left CGT trade union called a third strike against President Emmanuel Macron s overhaul of employment laws on Monday but failed to get other unions to rally behind it. The three main unions have been divided over how to respond to the labor law reforms, with the Communist Party-rooted CGT taking to the streets while the more moderate CFDT, now France s biggest union, and the Force Ouvriere preferring negotiations. France was once a champion of social protest, with unions able to paralyze swathes of the economy and force ministers to back down on reforms. But hardline unions are now grappling for relevance as strikes become less frequent and less disruptive. Macron s government s spent weeks negotiating with the unions during the summer over measures to give companies more power to set working conditions as well as making it easier to hire and fire workers. Last month, it signed the bill into law by decree. We are continuing with the fight against the labor law decrees, Fabrice Angei, a senior CGT unionist, told reporters after a two-hour long meeting with the CFDT, FO and other unions. The CGT hopes it can win concessions for as long as the decrees are not physically written into the labor code. Up to now, the CFDT has said it will focus on other battles ahead such as reform of the pension and unemployment insurance systems. Monday s meeting over labor reform action came on the eve of a separate nationwide strike by public sector workers. Strike notices have been lodged in schools, hospitals, airports and government ministries over plans to axe 120,000 jobs, freeze pay and reduce sick leave compensation. It is the first time in a decade that all nine unions representing 5.4 million public workers have united behind a protest call and will be an important test of public appetite to protest against the reforms. If turnout is low on Tuesday, Macron could feel emboldened as he presses ahead with revamping France s generous unemployment insurance in a bid to spur those who lose their jobs to get back to work more quickly. | 0fake |
Eastenders gets the 8-bit treatment in “Super Mitchell Bros” | Next Prev Swipe left/right Eastenders gets the 8-bit treatment in “Super Mitchell Bros” Inspired by the success of Super Mario Bros, Nintendo released an Eastenders tie-in where you play as a drunken, crack pipe smoking Phil Mitchell as he fights his way through Albert Square. | 1real |
U.S. wants stronger India economic, defense ties given China's rise: Tillerson | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said before a visit to India next week that the Trump administration wanted to “dramatically deepen” cooperation with New Delhi, seeing it as a key partner in the face of negative Chinese influence in Asia. Speaking on Wednesday, less than a month before President Donald Trump is due to make his first state visit to China, Tillerson said the United States had begun to discuss creating alternatives to Chinese infrastructure financing in Asia. In another comment likely to upset Beijing, he said Washington saw room to invite others, including Australia, to join U.S.-India-Japan security cooperation, something Beijing has opposed as an attempt by democracies to gang up on it. The remarks coincide with the start of a week-long Chinese Communist Party congress at which President Xi Jinping is seeking to further consolidate his power. “The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries and disadvantages the U.S. and our friends,” Tillerson told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “India and the United States should be in the business of equipping other countries to defend their sovereignty, build greater connectivity, and have a louder voice in a regional architecture that promotes their interests and develops their economies,” Tillerson added. The U.S. decision to expand relations with India almost certainly will upset India’s rival, Pakistan, where Tillerson also will stop next week, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Pakistan was the main U.S. ally in South Asia for decades, but U.S. officials are frustrated with what they charge has been Pakistan’s failure to cut support for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, where the administration wants India to play a bigger role in economic development. As part of a South Asia strategy unveiled by Trump in August, Tillerson is expected to press Islamabad, which denies aiding the Taliban, to take stronger steps against extremists and allied groups and intensify efforts to pressure them to agree to peace talks with Kabul. “We expect Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups based there that threaten its own people and the broader region,” Tillerson said. Trump has threatened further cuts in U.S. aid to Pakistan if it fails to cooperate. China, a strategic rival to the United States and India, is also vital to Trump’s efforts to roll back North Korea’s efforts to create nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching the United States, an issue expected to top the agenda in Trump’s Nov. 8-10 Beijing visit. A senior State Department official defended the timing of the speech, saying Tillerson also said he wanted a constructive relationship with China. “For many decades the United States has supported China’s rise,” said the official. “We’ve also supported India’s rise. But those two countries have risen very differently.” In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hoped the United States could abandon bias when viewing its actions overseas. “China will never develop itself at the expense of other countries,” Lu told a regular briefing on Thursday. “At the same time we will never give up our justly deserved rights and interests.” Healthy relations between China and the United States are good for the people of both countries and are expected by the Asia-Pacific region, he added. Tillerson did not say what he meant by creating an alternative to Chinese infrastructure financing, but said the Trump administration had begun a “quiet conversation” with some emerging East Asian democracies at a summit in August. He said Chinese financing was saddling countries with “enormous” debts and failing to create jobs. “We think it’s important that we begin to develop some means of countering that with alternative financing measures.” “We will not be able to compete with the kind of terms that China offers, but countries have to decide what are they willing to pay to secure their sovereignty and their future control of their economies and we’ve had those discussions with them as well,” he said. | 0fake |
Saudi Arabia welcomes Hamas, Fatah reconciliation deal | DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia welcomed the reconciliation of rival factions Hamas and Fatah and said it will help Palestinians to gain their legitimate rights, the state news agency SPA reported on Friday. Citing an official source in the kingdom s foreign ministry, SPA said Saudi Arabia hopes the reconciliation will realize the brotherly Palestinian people s hope of ending divisions and achieving unity . Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation agreement on Thursday after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war. | 0fake |
Aetna CEO on Obamacare: Young People Will Choose Beer First | Politics | (Before It's News)
Remember when the media, Barack Obama, and Democrats were finger-wagging and tut-tutting Republicans for saying Obamacare was going to be a failure? Remember how Obama said premiums were going to go down?
For the last 18 months, Obama and his fellow Democrats have been reduced to bragging about how many people are now “covered” by health insurance as if it was some real accomplishment. Two points to consider:
It is mandatory. People are merely obeying the law and getting a plan. The law’s intention was for healthcare coverage to be more affordable, and that has not happened. Insurers are recognizing this problem. Younger people would rather be in a position where they pay the fine (which the administration is not enforcing), rather than the out of pocket costs for a health care plan. The CEO of Aetna said as much:
Healthier people will avoid buying Affordable Care Act health insurance plans as premiums climb, threatening the stability of the market, Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said.
“As the rates rise, the healthier people pull out because the out-of-pocket costs aren’t worth it,” Bertolini said at Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead Summit in New York. “Young people can do the math. Gas for the car, beer on Fridays and Saturdays, health insurance.”
Premiums for health plans sold to individuals under the ACA, known as Obamacare, are going up by about 25 percent on average for next year. Bertolini said that as costs rise, more individuals will decide not to buy health plans. That’ll push premiums even higher, unless a new president and lawmakers can find fixes for the new markets created by the 2010 health law.
The question over whether such problems get fixed is all dependent upon whether or no the President, be it Obama or Clinton, recognizes what divided government means. It is not to say, as President Obama believes, “Here is what I need, now pass it so I can sign it.” President Obama or President Clinton must recognize divided government means everything is on the table at the start of negotiations , not just what the President wants.
The post Aetna CEO On Obamacare: Young People Will Choose Beer First appeared first on RedState . | 1real |
Obama’s Legacy Before American Safety: Feds Looking At Different States For GITMO Terrorists | The Feds are looking at several states to transfer the GITMO detainees to putting the safety of Americans at risk over Obama s legacy. Obama is hell bent on closing Guantanamo and has been constantly trying to move the prisoners so he can close the prison and perhaps give Guantanamo Bay back to Cuba. Pentagon officials will visit state and federal prisons located in Colorado to weigh whether they could be used to jail Guantanamo Bay detainees as President Obama continues to push to close the military prison in Cuba.According to the Associated Press, a Defense Department team will visit both the Colorado State Penitentiary located in Canon City and the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative-Maximum Facility in Florence in the coming two weeks, anonymous senior officials said.The Pentagon has also considered the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as well as the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, as possible locations for the detainees.The Defense Department is particularly evaluating the cost of construction and other changes to the facilities that would be necessary to properly house the prisoners and perform military commission trials.In order for Obama to fulfill his longtime goal of shuttering the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Pentagon will need to determine countries that can take remaining prisoners and ensure that they will be properly monitored so as not to threaten national security.There are 114 remaining prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, more than half of which have been labeled too dangerous to release.Last week, the Defense Department said that it had released prisoner Abdul Shalabi, believed to have once served as Osama bin Laden s bodyguard, to Saudi ArabiaVia: WFB | 1real |
Chelsea Manning to Be Released Early as Obama Commutes Sentence - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted Mr. Obama’s administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures. The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to kill herself last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the men’s military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction. At the same time that Mr. Obama commuted the sentence of Ms. Manning, a enlisted soldier at the time of her leaks, he also pardoned James E. Cartwright, the retired Marine general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with reporters to F. B. I. agents investigating a leak of classified information about cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear program. The two acts of clemency were a remarkable final step for a president whose administration carried out an unprecedented criminal crackdown on leaks of government secrets. Depending on how they are counted, the Obama administration has prosecuted either nine or 10 such cases, more than were charged under all previous presidencies combined. In addition, Mr. Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was part of a Puerto Rican nationalist group that carried out a string of bombings in the late 1970s and early 1980s the other members of that group had long since been freed. Mr. Obama also granted 63 other pardons and 207 other commutations, mostly for drug offenders. Under the terms of the commutation announced by the White House on Tuesday, Ms. Manning is set to be freed on May 17 of this year rather than in 2045. A senior administration official said the delay was part of a standard transition period for commutations to time served, and was designed to allow for such steps as finding a place for Ms. Manning to live after her release. The commutation also relieved the Defense Department of the difficult responsibility of Ms. Manning’s incarceration as she pushes for treatment for her gender dysphoria, including sex reassignment surgery, that the military has no experience providing. But the move was sharply criticized by several prominent Republicans, including the chairmen of the House and Senate armed services committees, Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas and Senator John McCain of Arizona, who called her leaks “espionage” and said they had put American troops and the country at risk. Speaker Paul D. Ryan called it “outrageous. ” “President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes,” he said in a statement. But in a joint statement, Nancy Hollander and Vince Ward — two lawyers who have been representing Ms. Manning in appealing her conviction and sentence, and who filed the commutation application — praised the decision. “Ms. Manning is the in the history of the United States,” they said. “Her sentence for disclosing information that served the public interest and never caused harm to the United States was always excessive, and we’re delighted that justice is being served in the form of this commutation. ” In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering granting Ms. Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia. Asked about the two clemency applications on Friday, the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, discussed the “pretty stark difference” between Ms. Manning’s case for mercy and Mr. Snowden’s. While their offenses were similar, he said, there were “some important differences. ” “Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy. ” Mr. Earnest also noted that while the documents Ms. Manning provided to WikiLeaks were “damaging to national security,” the ones Mr. Snowden disclosed were “far more serious and far more dangerous. ” (None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed were classified above the merely “secret” level.) Ms. Manning was still known as Bradley Manning when she deployed with her unit to Iraq in late 2009. There, she worked as a intelligence analyst helping her unit assess insurgent activity in the area it was patrolling, a role that gave her access to a classified computer network. She copied hundreds of thousands of military incident logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which, among other things, exposed abuses of detainees by Iraqi military officers working with American forces and showed that civilian deaths in the Iraq war were probably much higher than official estimates. The files she copied also included about 250, 000 diplomatic cables from American embassies showing sensitive deals and conversations, dossiers detailing intelligence assessments of Guantánamo detainees held without trial, and a video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad in which two Reuters journalists were killed, among others. She decided to make all these files public, as she wrote at the time, in the hope that they would incite “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms. ” WikiLeaks disclosed them — working with traditional news organizations including The New York Times — bringing notoriety to the group and its founder, Julian Assange. The disclosures set off a frantic scramble as Obama administration officials sought to minimize any potential harm, including getting to safety some foreigners in dangerous countries who were identified as having helped American troops or diplomats. Prosecutors, however, presented no evidence that anyone had been killed because of the leaks. At her Ms. Manning confessed in detail to her actions and apologized, saying she had not intended to put anyone at risk and noting that she had been “dealing with a lot of issues” at the time she made her decision. Testimony showed that she had been in a mental and emotional crisis as she came to grips, amid the stress of a war zone, with the fact that she was not merely gay but had gender dysphoria. She had been behaving erratically, including angry outbursts and lapsing into catatonia midsentence. At one point, she had emailed a photograph of herself in a woman’s wig to her supervisor. Prosecutors said that because the secret material was made available for publication on the internet, anyone, including Al Qaeda, could read it. And they accused Ms. Manning of treason, charging her with multiple counts under the Espionage Act, as well as with “aiding the enemy,” a potential capital offense, although they said they would not seek her execution. Ms. Manning confessed and pleaded guilty to a lesser version of those charges without any deal to cap her sentence. But prosecutors pressed forward with a trial and won convictions on the more serious versions of those charges a military judge acquitted her of “aiding the enemy. ” In her commutation application, Ms. Manning said she had not imagined that she would be sentenced to the “extreme” term of 35 years, a term for which there was “no historical precedent. ” (There have been only a handful of leak cases, and most sentence are one to three years.) After her sentencing, Ms. Manning announced that she was transgender and changed her name to Chelsea. The military, under pressure from a lawsuit filed on her behalf by Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, has permitted her to partly transition to life as a woman, including giving her hormones and letting her wear women’s undergarments and light cosmetics. But it has not let her grow her hair longer than male military standards, citing security risks, and Ms. Manning said she had yet to be permitted to see a surgeon about the possibility of sex reassignment surgery. Until recently, the military discharged transgender soldiers. In June, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter changed that policy and said the military would instead provide treatment for them, eventually including such surgery if doctors said it was necessary. Donald J. Trump mocked that change as excessively “politically correct,” raising the possibility that he will rescind it. But even if he does, Ms. Manning will soon no longer be subject to the military’s control. | 0fake |
Billy Joel on Politics and Trump: Not My Job to ‘Tell People How to Think’ | Rock legend Billy Joel says when it comes to politics, entertainers are “more like court jesters than court philosophers. ”[In a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone, the “Piano Man” crooner said people don’t come to his concerts to hear him preach politics. “I try to stay out of politics. I am a private citizen and I have a right to believe in my own political point of view, but I try not to get up on a soapbox and tell people how to think,” Joel said. “I’ve been to shows where people start haranguing the audience about what’s going on politically and I’m thinking, ‘You know, this isn’t why I came here,’” the singer explained. “As a matter of fact, one of the biggest cheers of the night comes when we do ‘Piano Man’ and I sing, ‘They know that it’s me that they’re coming to see to forget about life for a while,’ and the audience lets out this huge ‘ahhhh’ and I say, ‘OK, yeah, don’t forget that. ’” The who’s scored hits and has toured the world for five decades, did say that he is “still flabbergasted” that Donald Trump won the White House. Joel joins the likes of actor Mark Wahlberg and Transformers: The Last Knight star Josh Duhamel, who recently told Fox News: “I don’t like to get involved politically at all. Nobody cares what I think politically. ” Joel has a residency at Madison Square Garden, a post he calls the “greatest gig in the world. ” “I’m doing a residency at the world’s greatest arena — I mean what’s better than that?” he said. “This is our fourth year and it’s still selling out. I thought it would kind of dissipate. But so far there hasn’t been any indication of that. When there is then we’ll probably stop. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0fake |
Trump Humiliated By Being Forced To Sign Russia Sanctions Bill Which Limits His Power | Amateur president Donald Trump signed was forced to sign a bill today to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 election despite his reservations to tighten sanctions against Moscow. The 71-year-old Twitter-addict did not hold a signing ceremony. In late July, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill giving Congress the power to block any effort by the White House to weaken sanctions on Russia. That move was a direct challenge to Donald Trump s authority. So, Trump really had no choice here especially since his campaign is the focus of the probe into Russia s meddling in the presidential election last year. The legislation was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.The bill limits Trump s ability to lift or waive sanctions against Russia. The bill keeps in place sanctions imposed by the Obama administration last year. Trump s limited power has unnerved the thin-skinned alleged president."I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars." https://t.co/iulSuyI3k7 Steven Shepard (@POLITICO_Steve) August 2, 2017Trump s statement:.@POTUS signing statement on sanctions bill pic.twitter.com/72m6nmLIIm Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) August 2, 2017Politico reports:It also allows the U.S. to deny entry and revoke visas for individuals who have engaged in certain activities, such as selling arms to the Syrian government or abusing human rights.Before the bill was signed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed that neither he nor the president approved of the sanctions, believing they hinder the administration s attempts to restore relations with Russia. The action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they did, neither the president nor I were very happy about that, Tillerson said on Tuesday. We were clear that we didn t think it was going to be helpful to our efforts. Russia responded to the sanctions by ordering the U.S. to cut its diplomatic staff in the country by 755 people by Sept. 1st.Trump has maintained that former President Barack Obama did nothing in response to Russia meddling in our election process, but that s untrue.Before the election, the Obama administration issued several warnings to Moscow about its activities and he expelled dozens of diplomats, as well as closing two Russian compounds.Trump was just humiliated by being forced to take action which he didn t want to take.Photo by Steffen Kugler /BPA via Getty Images. | 1real |
WHICH IS IT? DID SUSAN RICE Lie to Andrea Mitchell or Judy Woodruff Two Weeks Ago? [Video] | WATCH: Susan Rice insists I leaked nothing to nobody https://t.co/kAsbu4VJDN MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 4, 2017 I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today. What she says is a lie but who is surprised by this? We know that Susan Rice lied 5 times on 5 different morning shows the morning after Benghazi. Why wouldn t she try and cover this spying up to protect herself and others including Obama.Susan Rice is also giving conflicting stories on what she did so it might be a good idea for her to lawyer up right now. She claimed ignorance of the unmasking and spying but today she spoke about doing it. Yes, red flags are everywhere on this! The reality and truth is this was more of a political attack to destabilize the Trump presidency and embarrass him:Andrew McCarthy said it best: The national-security adviser is not an investigator. She is a White House staffer. The president s staff is a consumer of intelligence, not a generator or collector of it. If Susan Rice was unmasking Americans, it was not to fulfill an intelligence need based on American interests; it was to fulfill a political desire based on Democratic-party interests. The bottom line is that laws were broken when the names were unmasked Someone s in BIG trouble! | 1real |
FOX LEGAL EXPERT: Susan Rice Committed 3 Crimes…“Better Get Herself a Good Criminal Defense Attorney” [Video] | FOX News Legal Expert Gregg Jarrett dropped a bomb on Susan Rice when he said she likely committed three crimes. Jarrett was on with Sara Carter of Circa News when he made the claim of criminal behavior by Rice.Gregg Jarrett: Susan Rice, whose got a lot to answer for. She is sort of the Queen of the False Narrative which is a polite way of saying lie. She not only lied about the Benghazi case and Bowe Bergdahl but then she hauls off and tells Judy Woodruff, I don t know anything about incidental collection and then when she gets caught red-handed she says, OK, I knew all about it, but I never asked for the unmasking on Trump Transition officials. Well now the NSC has the goods on her and that appears to be a lie as well. So she may have actually committed three potential crimes here. One, it s a crime to lie about your masking request. Two, it s a crime for you to use your office for political purpose. Three, it s a crime to leak unmasked details. She better get herself a good criminal defense attorney.OUR LATEST REPORT ON SUSAN RICE WHO JUST CAN T FIGURE OUT WHY SHE S BEING TARGETED: Susan Rice, the Obama national security adviser under fire over her alleged involvement in the unmasking of Trump associates during the 2016 presidential election, suggested in a fresh interview that race and gender might be playing a role in the scrutiny she s faced. PLEASE NOTE OUR PREVIOUS REPORT BELOW ON THE RADICAL PAST AND RACISM OF SUSAN RICE. The nerve of this woman who went on 5 morning shows after Benghazi and LIED to the American people! In an interview with journalist Michael Tomasky for New York Magazine, Rice reportedly questioned the criticism she s faced dating back to the Benghazi controversy. Why me? Why not Jay Carney, for example, who was then our press secretary, who stood up more? she asked.Tomasky noted in the piece that Carney isn t an African-American woman, of course and apparently asked Rice whether that is the key factor. Rice, in response, left the door open: I don t know I do not leap to the simple explanation that it s only about race and gender. I m trying to keep my theories to myself until I m ready to come out with them. It s not because I don t have any. But Rice mentioned other prominent female figures like Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice who faced ad hominem attacks, suggesting a correlation.Asked about the comments, a Republican Capitol Hill source pushed back. This is screaming out for attention She s saying I don t know why they all started picking on me to begin with. As to the suggestion of race and gender being a factor, the source countered, then why would there be a subpoena for a white male? That was a reference to the fact that Rice is not the only focus of the congressional probe into unmasking. Investigators have issued subpoenas to three different agencies: NSA, CIA and FBI.Playing the victim is the usual tactic of leftists like Susan Rice she was a college radical before she cleaned up her resume and put on a business suit:RACIST VICTIM SUSAN RICE HAD A STRING OF FAILURES IN AFRICA BEFORE BENGHAZI HER RACIST CLAIM THAT NATIONAL SECURITY ISN T DIVERSE ENOUGH SO NOT AS EFFECTIVE CAUSED A FIRESTORM:From 1995 to 1997, Rice served as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior director for African Affairs at the NSC at the White House.The Daily Caller: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, reportedly the leading contender to be President Barack Obama s next national security adviser, failed during the 1990s to prevent unnecessary deaths in Rwanda, provide adequate security prior to the bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, or deal effectively with Robert Mugabe s dictatorship in Zimbabwe.A former State Department military adviser to Africa thought Rice s inexperience caused President Bill Clinton s feckless response to the Rwandan genocide when she served as National Security Council director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping. And documents sent to The Daily Caller from the National Legal and Policy Center show Rice failed to take seriously repeated Islamist threats against the U.S. embassies in the prelude to deadly bomb attacks. This woman has ZERO credibility and is a true racist who would be tossed out of her job if she were white and said government was too black. Furthermore, she s giving a commencement speech and she s politicizing it!SUSAN RICE FELT STUDENTS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO TAKE BLACK HISTORY: In a 1986 book by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, the future diplomat argued for the aggressive inclusion of a black history curriculum in American schools, claiming that its omission had crippling effects by providing a child with no more than a white interpretation of reality. She s yet another one of Obama s minions with a radical racist past who s pushing the Obama agenda of a fundamental transformation . Rice attended Stanford University and was a black radical back in the day is anyone surprised by this? Probably not In a White House often accused of being stacked with loyalists, President Obama s national security adviser said Wednesday there are too many white people in key government posts, endangering national security because they think alike.Speaking at Florida International University s commencement, Susan E. Rice, who is black, said a diversified government workforce is more likely to yield better outcomes than a predominantly white one.Referring to criticism that the U.S. national security workforce is white, male and Yale, Ms. Rice told the graduates, In the halls of power, in the faces of our national security leaders, America is still not fully reflected. By now, we should all know the dangers of groupthink, where folks who are alike often think alike, she said. By contrast, groups comprised of different people tend to question one another s assumptions, draw on divergent perspectives and experiences, and yield better outcomes. Her comments were reminiscent of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said in a speech in 2001, before Mr. Obama appointed her to the high court, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn t lived that life. Ms. Rice elaborated in her speech on how having more minorities in the national security field would better protect the homeland.Read more: WT Read more: FOX News | 1real |
Violence flares in Washington during Trump inauguration | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black-clad activists among hundreds of demonstrators protesting Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Friday clashed with police a few blocks from the White House, in an outburst of violence rare for an inauguration. At least 217 people were arrested in the melees, police said. The burst of civil disorder followed a fierce presidential campaign that ended in a stunning victory for Republican Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 and left the country divided. Many of Trump’s supporters traveled to Washington to cheer their new president on Inauguration Day. Tens of thousands of detractors are expected to march peacefully on Saturday. In the violence, knots of activists in black clothes and masks threw rocks and bottles at officers wearing riot gear, who responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades as a helicopter hovered low overhead. At one flash point, a protester hurled an object through the passenger window of a police van, which sped away in reverse as demonstrators cheered. Earlier, activists used chunks of pavement and baseball bats to shatter the windows of a Bank of America branch and a McDonald’s outlet, all symbols of American capitalism. Multiple vehicles were set on fire, including a black limousine. A knot of people dragged garbage cans into a street a few blocks from the White House and set them ablaze, later throwing a red cap bearing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan into the flames. Police said six officers were injured in scuffles with protesters. The people arrested would be held overnight before making court appearances on Saturday, Peter Newsham, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, told a news conference. Newsham added that police would continue to monitor security around the night’s celebrations. Friday’s protests played out just blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue, where New York businessman-turned-Republican politician Trump took part in the traditional parade a newly sworn in president takes from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. The various protest groups scattered around the city chanted anti-Trump slogans and carried signs with slogans including “Trump is not president” and “Make Racists Afraid Again.” “Trump is not going to be stopped at the top, he’s going to be stopped from the bottom, from people rising up,” said Ben Allen, a 69-year-old retired teacher from San Francisco. “We support the right of everybody in this country, no matter what nationality, what religion, the color of their skin, to be respected as a human being, and this guy doesn’t respect anybody.” Trump supporter Ryan Shiring, 21, stood nervously with a group of friends near a pile of smoldering trash cans. “We thought there would be protests but we didn’t expect violence,” said Shiring, a college student from Hartford, Connecticut. “We were hoping for a completely peaceful transfer of power.” Democratic officials, including Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, condemned the violence. The U.S. Secret Service, Washington police and other law enforcement agencies had about 28,000 officers in place to secure a roughly three-square-mile (7.8 square km) of the city. Trump, a former reality TV star, angered many liberal Americans during his stunningly successful campaign with demeaning comments on women and immigrants. His inauguration speech was a populist and nationalist rallying cry. Protesters and police said the violent activists were acting independently of organized opposition to Trump. The Disrupt J20 group on Twitter said its anger was not directed only at Trump, and that it would also have demonstrated had Democrat Hillary Clinton won the election last November. Not far from the White House, Bob Hrifko, a member of the Bikers for Trump group, said he was struck in the face with an aluminum chair when he tried to intervene in a scuffle involving police and protesters. “We need more order. This ain’t right,” said Hrifko, who was bleeding from a cut under his eye. The number of people who turned out for the midday swearing-in ceremony in the rain appeared to be significantly smaller than the estimated 2 million who attended Democrat Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. Overhead video of the National Mall showed sections of the white matting laid down to protect the grass were largely empty. The city’s Metro subway system reported ridership levels as of 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) at less than half of what was seen in 2013 or 2009 and roughly on par with George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005. Sympathy protests were held around the nation and the world, in cities including Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. In Seattle, one person was shot in the abdomen during a demonstration at the University of Washington, the Seattle Police Department said on Twitter. Demonstrators gathered there to protest Trump and conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who gave a talk on campus, local media reported. In Portland, protesters threw rocks, bottles and flares at police dressed in riot gear, who fired irritant and flash-bang devices back at them, according to local media and police. But in Moscow, Russians hoping Trump will usher in a new era of detente with their country celebrated his inauguration. In Washington, David Guthrie, a long-haired, bearded, 36-year-old from South Bend, Indiana, stood stark naked on a street corner with an obscenity and “Trump” written on his buttocks in black magic marker. As he stood, he was pepper sprayed by police, but stood with his eyes clenched, saying he wanted to prompt “a national conversation on the illegitimacy of the Trump presidency.” “I need a shower,” he said, as fellow protesters helped him walk away, wrapped in a silver blanket. | 0fake |
FIRE THIS MAN! STATE DEPARTMENT ASSHAT Mocks Reporters And Obama’s “Transparency” At Briefing [Video] | How unfunny! Does this not tell you something about the jackwagons in the Obama State Department? Unreal! | 1real |
Israel makes ‘Hail Mary’ move to influence US election – FBI commit treason? | NEO – RT’s Bank Accounts Closed – It’s Nothing to Do With Syria ‹ › Ian Greenhalgh is a photographer and historian with a particular interest in military history and the real causes of conflicts. His studies in history and background in the media industry have given him a keen insight into the use of mass media as a creator of conflict in the modern world. His favored areas of study include state sponsored terrorism, media manufactured reality and the role of intelligence services in manipulation of populations and the perception of events. Israel makes ‘Hail Mary’ move to influence US election – FBI commit treason? By Ian Greenhalgh on October 28, 2016 According to New York Times, federal officials discovered new emails in a separate review of the former NY Jewish congressman Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner in happier times [Editor’s note: As Gordon wrote yesterday, in his coverage of the Alex Jones attempt to boost Trump’s shattered credibility, Israel and the Zionist cabal are getting desperate, time is running out for them to influence the election in favour of their candidate. We have been expecting some kind of ‘October Surprise’ to happen, some kind of attempt to fatally undermine the Clinton campaign just as they did in 1979 to Jimmy Carter, a move that allowed them to get their candidate, Ronald Reagan, into office and we all know what that lead to – incredible damage to the US in so many ways. Reagan destroyed the credibility of the US on the world stage, he hugely increased military budgets, rigged the system in favour of the banks and big corporations, destroyed the economy, waged war on behalf of the cabal, overall he was a disaster for the US and it’s people. However, Reagan was just an actor playing a role, a puppet for the Zionist crime cabal, put in power by their intrigues and it was Roy Cohn who was behind it all, he was the enabler, the man who made it all happen. Today, the same thing is happening again, Cohn is long gone, but the Judeo-Zionist mafia – the ‘Kosher Nostra’ is still alive and well and they are attempting to repeat the same tricks that got their man Reagan into the White House. Do not forget for one second that Donald Trump was created by Roy Cohn and like Reagan, Trump is just an actor playing a role; he is not a billionaire successful businessman, he just plays one on TV. He is not at all a massively wealthy man, his main source of income is NBC and his reality TV show; he does of course, have assets, but how many of those does he really own? In most cases he is just the front man, the real owners of his assets being silent partners who are invariably, members of the Kosher Nostra. We have watched in disgust as Israel, via their Mossad disinfo operation Wikileaks have released more and more emails taken from Hilary’s email server. Invariably these emails have been modified, ‘sexed up’ in order to make Hilary look bad, all in an attempt to influence the US election in favour of Trump. As we have written several times already, there are no white hat hackers passing this info to Wikileaks, rather, the NSA has been monitoring all communications, passing the raw data to Tel-Aviv where the Mossad have filtered and vetted it in order to find anything they can use against Hilary, always with something added to make them seem more damning. This makes the NSA guilty of treason, they are aiding and abetting a hostile foreign power in it’s attempts to exert a nefarious influence over US politics. Today, with this new set of emails, the FBI has joined them in committing treason; make no mistake, the timing and nature of this latest ‘revelation’ is a most cynical attempt to swing things in favour of Trump and in announcing this investigation with just 10 days to go until polling day, the FBI have acted on behalf of Israel. The reason Hilary was using a private server in the first place was to attempt to keep her important communications away from the prying eyes of the Israelis, an act which shows that her loyalty is to the US and it’s people rather than to Israel, this sets her apart from the majority in Washington and brings her into the crosshairs of the Zionist cabal. It remains to be seen what the result of this new FBI email investigation will be, but I cannot escape the uncomfortable feeling that the Zionists have played a Hail Mary and may just score a touchdown that lands Trump in office and condemns the US and it’s people to even worse Zionist oppression than ever before. A truly frightening scenario. Ian] | 1real |
DISGUSTING: CLEVELAND COPS JOIN Hate Group Who Inspired Multiple Murders Of Fellow Officers To Disrespect Our Flag | Black Lives Matter, the group that many believe is a hate group or domestic terror group has inspired a wave of professional athletes to join in the disrespect our flag by taking a knee during our national anthem. Unbelievably, this cop-hating group has now found an unlikely ally in their fight against cops, Cleveland, OH law enforcement officers. How politically correct Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco quarterback, became the poster child for cop hate when he refused to stand for our national anthem prior to the start of the NFL games. Kaepernick used his display of disrespect for our flag to show his disrespect for our law enforcement. Kaepernick was not resigned by SF and did not receive another offer to play in the NFL. He is now the center of a huge controversy, as the NAACP has joined forces with BLM to demand that an NFL owner pick up the lackluster and controversial QB.The Cleveland Brown players have been known to display their over-the-top hate for law enforcement before. After Beyonce s racist halftime Super Bowl 2016 show, Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell posted this disgusting image on his Instagram account:Crowell apologized for posting the ISIS-like image of a police officer being decapitated, and all was forgiven Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns have decided to turn up the disrespect for our flag a notch. Several players are now taking a knee while the rest of the fans and players stand to honor our flag and our nation.The veterans in Cleveland are tired of watching the nation and flag they fought for being disrespected by these clowns who have never sacrificed a moment of their lives for our country. They posted this sign in front of their building to show the disrespectful Cleveland Brown players how they feel about their behavior:And now, in the most disgusting act of pandering to political correctness, the Cleveland Police officers have decided they will join the cop-hating group to disrespect our flag:Cleveland officers and EMS back out of plan to hold American flag on Browns field after 12 players refused to stand for anthem pic.twitter.com/HD5Jt9LDGT FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) September 1, 2017 | 1real |
The Surprising Voting Rights Issue Both Democrats and Republicans Support | The Supreme Court gutted a key portion of the law in 2013 and told Congress to provide a fix. But only a handful of Republicans support a House bill that would do so by specifying which states and localities with a history of minority voter suppression require extra scrutiny when changing their voting laws. In the Senate, Democrats still can't find a single GOP co-sponsor for their forthcoming bill.
"I think if someone is judged to have completed their debt to society, then that's certainly something that should be seriously considered," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "I don't think someone -- if they paid their debt to society -- why they can't re-enter society."
Currently, the question of whether an ex-offender can vote in a state or federal election is largely determined by where the person lives. Some states permanently revoke voting rights for people convicted of a felony. Other states, like Maine and Vermont, never strip felons of their voting rights, even while they are in prison. Most states do restore voting rights to ex-felons after they have served their full sentence, but the process for registering again to vote can be burdensome.
Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center, said that states are taking action on this front and the “general trajectory is to ease restrictions.” Since 1997, Brennan reports, at least 23 states have expanded voter eligibility or eased the process by which rights are restored.
The issue is also forging unusual alliances on Capitol Hill. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a potential 2016 presidential candidate, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are co-sponsors of the Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act of 2015, which would reinstate voting rights to nonviolent ex-offenders for federal elections, unless an individual is serving a sentence or a term of probation at the time of the election.
"A criminal record is currently one of the biggest impediments to voting in federal elections," Paul said in a statement. "The Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act will reform existing federal law and give low-level ex-offenders another opportunity to vote. This is an issue that I feel strongly about, and I will continue to fight for the restoration of voting rights in the hopes of giving non-violent ex-offenders a second chance."
Their bill doesn't have any other co-sponsors. But given the sentiments of Graham and McCain, for example, that may be more because it's not on people's radars right now.
But that bill goes further than the Paul-Reid plan: It would restore voting rights for federal elections to anyone, including violent offenders, who is not incarcerated and serving a felony sentence at the time of the election. That appears to be a line Republicans won't cross, given that none are signed onto that bill in either chamber.
HuffPost counted 10 Senate Republicans who are co-sponsors of at least one criminal justice reform bill, and reached out to all of them to see if they support restoring voting rights to ex-offenders. Besides Paul, Graham and Hatch, those senators include John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and David Perdue (Ga.).
Cardin did a little test recently to see what kind of support he'd get on a voting rights measure -- and he got decent results. During last week's Senate budget debate, he offered an amendment to fund an initiative to notify inmates of their voting rights and produce a report on the effect of criminal disenfranchisement laws on minorities. The vote was purely symbolic, but four Republicans supported it: Paul, Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.). | 0fake |
Aiming to sidestep Apple dispute, Obama makes case for access to device data | AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday made a passionate case for mobile devices to be built in a way that would allow the government to gain access to personal data if needed to prevent a terrorist attack or enforce tax laws. Speaking at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, the president said he could not comment on the legal case in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to force Apple Inc. to allow access to an iPhone linked to San Bernardino, California, shooter Rizwan Farook. But he made clear that despite his commitment to Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, a balance was needed to allow some government intrusion if necessary. “If technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system where the encryption is so strong that there is no key, there’s no door at all, then how do we apprehend the child pornographer, how do we solve or disrupt a terrorist plot?” he said. “What mechanisms do we have available to even do simple things like tax enforcement because if in fact you can’t crack that at all, government can’t get in, then everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket.” Last month, the FBI obtained a court order requiring Apple to write new software and take other measures to disable passcode protection and allow access to Farook’s iPhone. Apple, which declined to comment on Obama’s remarks on Friday, has not complied. It said the government request would create a “back door” to phones that could be abused by criminals and governments, and that Congress has not given the Justice Department authority to make such a demand. Obama’s comments were his most expansive on the subject since the dispute. He acknowledged skepticism about the government in the wake of the revelations about U.S. surveillance programs by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. But he pressed his point that a compromise that respected civil liberties and protected security had to be found. That solution would likely be a system with strong encryption and a secure “key” that is accessible to the “smallest number of people possible” for issues that were agreed to be important. “Setting aside the specific case between the FBI and Apple ... we’re going to have to make some decisions about how do we balance these respective risks,” Obama said. “My conclusion so far is you cannot take an absolutist view.” Adding to his argument, the president listed airport security and stops for drunk drivers as examples of measures that were intrusive but accepted. He also warned against “fetishizing” phones. “This notion that somehow our data is different and can be walled off from those other tradeoffs we make I believe is incorrect,” he said. Top White House officials have lobbied the industry aggressively to work with the government on the issue, which was brought to a head by the California shootings. The FBI says Farook and his wife were inspired by Islamist militants when they shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 at a holiday party in California. The couple later died in a shootout with police. | 0fake |
Comment on 11 Things To Let Go Of Before The New Year by 11 Things To Let Go Of Before The New Year – Motivate3.com | The new year is almost here and it’s often a time when we all start to think about what we want to change for the next year. I’ve never been much a fan of the whole cliche of changing because of the new year, but why not embrace it as a time where we can make change? Do a quick reflection right now. Do you feel like you have followed your dreams and passions this past year? Do you feel you got caught up in the stresses of life quite often? Did you feel judgement, negative self talk and anger were a big part of your days? Reflecting on how you’ve felt over your year and being honest with yourself about it gives you the chance to know how to adjust and move forward from this moment forward whether it be the new year or not. I’ve found in my own life that if I don’t pay attention to how I feel, what I create, what’s playing out in my life and take responsibility for it, it doesn’t change. It stays the same, I experience the same emotions or stagnant feelings, and I don’t move forward. But the moment I decide to take it into my own hands, I see how much I’m not a victim to what happens. 11 Things To Let Go of Before the New year 1. Stop all the negative self talk – It’s first because it’s probably one of the most important. The more we talk poorly about ourselves to ourselves or others, the more we disempower ourselves and empower all the things we wish to adjust about ourselves. Observe it, take note of it, and kick it. It’s not helping you. 2. Choose one bad eating habit and kick it! – Taking care of and fuelling your vessel is one of the most important things we can do in life to stay mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy. Pick one of your worst eating habits and aim to cut it out completely in 3 months. Whatever it might be, be honest with yourself and make it happen. Then take on the next bad eating habit in 3 months. 3. Let go of chasing ‘success’– So often we put up goals or plans for ourselves yet have this tiny limited scope of what success is. Next thing you know we bring stress, worry and fear into the equation throughout the whole journey because we may not be totally in line to hit this pin prick point of what success looks like to us. Instead, do your best to take the steps needed to get to where you want to go, but let go of the lure of success and what it looks like and means. There’s no such thing as failure. (more) 4. Kick the idea that you cannot achieve or follow your dreams – So often we have our ideas of what we are excited or passionate about, but let it go because we think we can’t do it or because it’s unrealistic. Instead of believing every word of that, take ONE step. One step towards making your passion or your dreams happen. The one step will lead to the next and the next, but you have to take the first one. Plan out that first step and take it! 5. Let go of the idea that you should run from your problems – We often get into this mentality that we just need to “get over it.” In theory this sounds sorta good, you move on from things that happen in the past or something to that effect. But by just forgetting about it, did we really move on? No, it gets triggered again later or lies dormant as a resented event etc. Instead, let’s face our problems and truly move past them. Journal about it, talk to someone else about it. Put the cards on the table to someone who cares about you and who can help you move past it. Pick someone who will see the bigger picture and be honest with you. You have all it takes to move past what challenges you. 6. Stop comparing yourself to others – This is a big one. So often we are looking at others and using what they have, do or are to compare it against us and make up a story. This whole game can make us sad or feel down about ourselves or it can feed our ego in a big way. Let it go, respect everyone’s journey, including your own and stop the need to compare yourself to others. 7. Stop judging others – Judging other people can become a habit and an addiction. It’s like something we can’t stop doing sometimes! Take a moment the next time you judge someone and observe it. Ask yourself why you did it, how did it make you feel? Etc. Make a conscious effort to stop. (more) 8. Stop the blame game – Blaming and pointing fingers when it comes to our challenges or what happens to us doesn’t allow us to look at and observe how we might have created or aligned with an experience to help make it happen. I’m not saying there’s no such things others can do to hurt you, I’m simply saying take responsibility for how you feel and don’t even point blame, it doesn’t help us. 9. Stop worrying and trying so hard to fit in and be accepted – This is something far too many of us do just to save face and not be “the weird one.” The reality is, it’s more ‘weird’ to be a version of yourself that isn’t genuine or real simply because you want to be accepted by others. It’s a choice you can’t maintain forever and the longer it goes the more uncomfortable you will feel. Be you, accept yourself, be genuine and don’t try to make others do the same when. Let it happen. Trust. 10. Let go of the need to control everything – Sometimes we can’t take a step forward in anything because we don’t know all the answers or all the variables. This is our obsession with control sometimes. Yes, observe a situation and make the best choices available to you, but don’t worry so much about needing to control or know every detail about it. Learn to leave things up to trust and knowing that things will work out as they need to. This doesn’t mean be reckless, just that you don’t need to control every thing, person and detail. 11. Stop procrastinating – This one goes with everything on the list. Stop putting it all off. Whatever it may be. The changes listed above, the hobby you want to, the career you want to explore, or the thing you want to tell to someone important to you. Stop putting it off and just do it!
| 1real |
Trump’s Response To USS John S. McCain Collision Was Just Heartless | It s common knowledge that Donald Trump is a self-obsessed narcissist, but he also considers himself to be somewhat of a patriot, so when the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain was involved in a collision on Sunday evening with an oil tanker near the mouth of the Strait of Malacca en route to Singapore, an incident that left 10 sailors missing and another five injured, one would expect the President of the United States to have some compassionate words.But that wasn t to be the case. Instead, President Trump had a simple three-word reaction for journalists That s too bad. The Commander in Chief reportedly didn t even offer any further comment for the media, instead taking to his preferred platform, Twitter, to send his condolences to those involved in the collision, offering the stock-standard thoughts and prayers response, but very little else.Thoughts & prayers are w/ our @USNavy sailors aboard the #USSJohnSMcCain where search & rescue efforts are underway. https://t.co/DQU0zTRXNU Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2017It is unknown whether the President had been briefed prior to commenting on the incident, but regardless, neither his comments to the media or those he later tweeted showed anything that came even remotely close to true compassion.According to the US Navy, the USS John S. McCain, based in Yokosuka, Japan, sustained damage to its port side after colliding with the merchant ship, the accident reported at 5:24 am Monday local time, as the destroyer passed the entrance to one of the world s most congested shipping routes, the Strait of Malacca. Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command s Joint Intelligence Center, claims the oil tanker also involved in the incident would have been at least three times larger than the USS John S. McCain.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
As President Joseph Kabila Digs In, Tensions Rise in Congo - The New York Times | KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — In a mansion along the Congo River, with a collection of expensive watches, expensive motorcycles and a chimpanzee in a cage, Joseph Kabila, the president of this vast and troubled country, should be packing up. Instead, he is digging in. His second term is up in a few days, the Constitution forbids him to run for a third, millions of people are threatening to mobilize against him, and still Mr. Kabila shows no signs of leaving. The Democratic Republic of Congo is already one of the poorest, most volatile nations on earth. Countless young people are out of work, and the security forces are brutal and loosely controlled. Add to that dozens of armed groups operating in the hinterlands. Many people here are terrified that if Mr. Kabila clings to power at all costs, as some of his counterparts across Africa recently have, Congo could explode. But the paradox is that Mr. Kabila may not especially want to stay in power. Instead, former confidants say, he refuses to give up for a simple reason: He is afraid — for his family, for his safety and, not insignificant, for his wealth. “He doesn’t have an exit plan,” said Martin Fayulu, an opposition politician. It is an old problem with a new twist. According to forensic investigators, mining executives and officials in his own government, Mr. Kabila has looted millions of dollars in public assets. Recent troves of documents shared with The New York Times — whose authenticity has been verified by current and former Congolese officials — reveal a string of suspicious bank transfers totaling $95. 7 million, dubious mining rights sales that have generated millions more and possible schemes involving a bank executive widely described as Mr. Kabila’s adopted brother. Authoritarian leaders used to be able to steal with impunity. But today, a with an iPhone can be a dangerous foe. The Papers, WikiLeaks world is an uncomfortable place for an autocrat. In a sense, Mr. Kabila is trapped. As Jason K. Stearns, the author of a book on Congolese politics, said, “He’s in a labyrinth of his own making. ” And cornered, he has begun to lash out. Mr. Kabila’s forces and their supporters have arrested journalists, jailed opposition politicians, firebombed opposition headquarters and assassinated a Catholic priest who held workshops on the Constitution and its limit of a presidency. Scores of protesters have already been shot dead, turning more people against Mr. Kabila each day. Opposition leaders are now threatening to flood the streets with millions of protesters on Tuesday, the day Mr. Kabila is supposed to be out of office. Seeing chaos on the horizon, top Western officials have shuttled in and out of the capital, Kinshasa, trying to draw the reclusive Mr. Kabila out from his riverside residence, where he lives under heavy guard. This year, Secretary of State John Kerry and other American officials have met with Mr. Kabila several times. But several people who know the president well said Mr. Kabila was increasingly isolated, moody and antisocial. They said he had been keeping irregular hours, becoming irritable with his staff members and staying up late to play Sony PlayStation 4 or race his fancy motorcycles up and down the dark boulevards of Kinshasa to blow off steam. As Mr. Kabila plays for time, the information on corruption keeps streaming in, from many directions. In September, an American hedge fund, Capital Management Group, admitted in a federal plea agreement to participating in a bribery scheme involving mineral deals and Congolese officials. The officials were not named in the plea agreement, but several analysts said the information published by the Justice Department made it obvious that one was an adviser who was extremely close to Mr. Kabila — possibly one of the only men Mr. Kabila really trusted — before he died in a plane crash in 2012. Other investigations are in the works, and the American government is trying to delicately warn Mr. Kabila that his chances of being prosecuted for corruption would be lower if he left now. “No one can guarantee no prosecution, but in the real world, there are priorities,” said Tom Malinowski, an assistant secretary of state. “I don’t think one of them would be going after the former president of Congo who did the right thing. ” Still, no one has come up with an exit plan. Even the Western diplomats tasked with appealing to Mr. Kabila, pleading with him not to drive his country off a cliff, admit they are at a loss for what to offer. Mr. Kabila is still relatively young, 45, and if he is worried about keeping his wealth and avoiding jail after he leaves office, how does one guarantee that? All he has to do is look at Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former president, who agreed to leave office under intense international pressure and was soon apprehended, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison. And what about his safety? Mr. Kabila has made many enemies in nearly 16 years as the leader of one of the world’s most violent states. As one mining executive who used to be close to Mr. Kabila argued, it is not as if the American government is going to assign SEAL Team 6 to guard him in perpetuity, even if he asks. Mr. Kabila is not your typical strongman. He was driving a taxicab in Tanzania not long before he was thrust into power. His father, a smuggler turned rebel leader turned president, was assassinated in 2001. The only person top advisers could agree on to lead the country, which was in the midst of a very confusing civil war, was the elder son, Joseph, at the time 29. Unlike Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea for the past 23 years, or Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (30 years) or Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence (36 years) Mr. Kabila has never tried to build a cult of personality. He is shy, mild and a careful listener. Confidants say he never wanted to be president and tried to turn down the job. But over the years, former aides and investigators say, he has amassed a fortune and developed a taste for the finer things. A former colleague said he sometimes wore two expensive watches at the same time — a Rolex and a Patek Philippe — one for each wrist. Mr. Kabila and his family own a network of homes and huge farms across Congo, sweeping up thousands of acres, analysts and former aides said. They also said Mr. Kabila was most at peace around animals. He is an avid breeder of cows, and he kept a menagerie of chimpanzees, a (a small antelope) birds of prey and parrots at his house in urban Kinshasa. A recent visitor said at least one chimp still lived there, screeching hoots from a cage as guests arrive. But these days, the stress of the job seems to be eating at him. Mr. Kabila has put on weight. The few times he was spotted in public he had huge bags under his eyes. More are coming forward, which may make him even less likely to quit if he believes that he can best protect himself and his assets by intimidating or neutralizing critics with his security forces. One Congolese government official said that on numerous occasions he had been instructed to take wheeled suitcases, stuffed with $100 bills totaling more than $7 million, to a minister’s office for “state’s use. ” The money came from a company. The official, along with several others, said it would be too dangerous for anyone but Mr. Kabila or his family to steal that blatantly. The Panama Papers — leaked confidential documents from a law firm in Panama — revealed that Mr. Kabila’s twin sister, Jaynet, using a different name, owned an indirect share in the nation’s largest mobile phone operator and through a company registered in Niue, in the South Pacific. Current and former Congolese officials described very complicated and suspicious business dealings involving foreign partners, joint ventures and lucrative mining concessions. One such deal recently attracted the attention of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, which is investigating Congo’s sale of mining rights through an Israeli tycoon who is a friend of Mr. Kabila’s. Because of Mr. Kabila’s lack of transparency, the International Monetary Fund halted a loan program worth hundreds of millions of dollars that Congo desperately needed. “It’s clear that the Kabila family has personally profited from the exploitation of natural resources and the manipulation of banks and companies,” said Sasha Lezhnev, a manager at the Enough Project, a nonprofit organization that recently reviewed thousands of pages of documents and conducted more than 100 interviews on corruption in Congo. In the past two decades, Congo’s wars over minerals, politics, ethnicity and land have killed millions, destabilizing a big chunk of the continent. But its history of gains goes back much further. Mobutu Sese Seko, Congo’s strongman during the Cold War, was one of Africa’s most notorious thieves, though back then it was easier to get away with corruption. None of the documents to emerge recently have Mr. Kabila’s signature on them, though the names of top aides and companies of Mr. Kabila’s associates are all over them. Lambert Mende, the chief government spokesman, said Mr. Kabila was “not a robber, not at all. ” “He has no account in Europe or the U. S. A. ,” Mr. Mende said. “He doesn’t have a single apartment outside of Congo. This is all storytelling. ” The most suspicious documents to emerge recently include a string of bank transfers to different accounts at different banks with the notation that they were “advance tax payments” from Gécamines, a struggling mining company, for Congo’s central bank. Starting late last year, the transfers reveal anomalies like instructions that $8 million be withdrawn from the teller — in cash — on behalf of the central bank. “That makes no sense,” said a former employee of Congo’s central bank who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he could be killed if he was identified. “We don’t get cash from a commercial bank. We import our own cash. We have a service in Switzerland that does that. ” Analysts at the Sentry, an investigative arm of the Enough Project, said that during the time of the supposed Gécamines transfer of $95. 7 million to the central bank, the central bank’s foreign reserves actually dropped — to $1. 17 billion from $1. 47 billion — pushing up inflation and causing issues for Congo’s economy. At the same time, Mr. Kabila’s government drastically cut spending on health care and the few services it provides. Sentry analysts said they were curious how Gécamines, a company with endless management problems, would have that much cash on hand for advance tax payments when thousands of employees had not been paid in months. Documents showed that Gécamines lost $82. 9 million in 2014. Mining executives said bigger, more profitable companies always paid much less in advance taxes. Some of the money apparently stolen in Congo may have moved through the American financial system, Sentry analysts say, and they are calling on the United States Treasury Department to take stronger measures to combat suspicious transactions from Congo. This past week, the Treasury Department sanctioned two Congolese officials close to Mr. Kabila, saying the officials were undermining democracy. Across Africa, term limits established years ago when democracy’s brand was stronger have been systematically dismantled, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Burundi exploded last year when its president plowed ahead with his plan to stay in office for a contentious third term. In October, Mr. Kabila’s aides struck a deal with a few opposition groups to delay the next presidential election until 2018 — the election was supposed to be held this year — but Congo’s major opposition groups, representing tens of millions of frustrated people, rejected that. Opposition leaders said they would never accept Mr. Kabila’s staying in office beyond Dec. 19. Congo’s political opposition, unlike Burundi’s, is not heavily armed. Most analysts say it would be difficult to overthrow Mr. Kabila. The security forces are still loyal to him, partly because he has made sure that soldiers and intelligence officers have been relatively well paid, no matter the dire straits of the national economy. In a recent meeting with delegates of the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Kabila remained characteristically cagey. According to a confidential United Nations report, he said that it was the “sovereign right of the Congolese people to decide in the next three or so years to amend the Constitution,” implying he may be considering another run. Mr. Stearns, one of the Congo analysts, argues that Mr. Kabila does not know how to get out of the corner he has put himself into. “That’s what makes this so difficult and volatile,” Mr. Stearns said. “My best guess,” he added, “is we’re headed into turmoil for several years to come. ” | 0fake |
Mexico attorney general resigns amid debate on new top prosecutor | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s Attorney General Raul Cervantes said on Monday that he presented President Enrique Pena Nieto with his resignation, as an intense political debate brews over the implementation of a new, autonomous anti-corruption system to replace his office. In the coming days the Lower House (of Congress) will be discussing new initiatives related to the attorney general s office and in order to not further delay the laws that Mexico needs I ve decided to send Enrique Pena Nieto and the Senate my irrevocable resignation, Cervantes tweeted. Opposition lawmakers have objected to allowing Cervantes to become the head of the new prosecutor general s office, a figure who will serve a nine-year term in a move away from the current system where the president nominates the attorney general. | 0fake |
Kenyan president says Supreme Court election ruling was 'coup' | (Corrects Sept. 21 story to remove reference to constitutional crisis if poll not held within 60 days, paragraph 15) By George Obulutsa and John Ndiso NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Thursday the country s Supreme Court staged a coup against the will of the people when it annulled his win in last month s presidential election, his toughest rhetoric yet in the wake of the Aug. 8 vote. His remarks came on the same day that the election board announced the repeat election had been delayed until Oct. 26. The president s criticism comes as Kenya s political temperature is heating up, reviving fears of political violence. Clashes killed around 1,200 people following a disputed 2007 presidential vote. A coup in Kenya has just been done by the four people in the Supreme Court, Kenyatta said in a televised meeting with supporters, delivered mostly in Kiswahili. (The court is saying) numbers don t matter, it is processes that matter. Immediately following the court s surprise Sept. 1 ruling to annul the vote, Kenyatta had called for calm and respect for the ruling. But he later started to criticize the court. The decision to nullify the race on procedural grounds was the first time a judicial body canceled the election of an incumbent African president. Kenya, a Western ally, has East Africa s richest economy and is a hub for diplomacy, security and trade in a region often battered by conflict. Any sign of political instability sends ripples through the region. The election board had said last month that Kenyatta won the Aug. 8 vote by 1.4 million more votes than his chief rival, veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who contested the result in court. Four judges and two dissenting judges gave a detailed case for voiding the election or upholding it in a marathon 12-hour court session on Wednesday. Kenyatta said in a televised news conference that the court had failed to adequately examine evidence that would have buttressed his win. The Supreme Court owes Kenyans an explanation how such a monstrous injustice took place, he said. It (the ruling) also now has the potential to throw our country into judicial chaos. He said lower courts could follow the precedent and overturn the will of voters in other electoral contests, like local or legislative seats, adding he had asked parliament to address the issues raised by the judgment. On Thursday, the cabinet approved 10 billion shillings ($97 million) to fund the repeat election. Odinga has said he will not take part in the repeat vote unless a list of demands, including firing of some senior staff at the election board, are met. The court said it had found no evidence of individual culpability by the staff of the board. The court ruled that the country must hold the election by the end of October. The court s detailed judgment given on Wednesday hinged on the failure of the election board to check electronic tallies, which are vulnerable to typos, against paper forms intended as a fail-safe backup before announcing results. Judges did not say they found evidence of rigging. Kenyatta said he would respect the court s decision but said it subverted the will of the people. We have reversed everything in this country by the decision of a few people. I don t know how history will judge these gentlemen, he said. The citizen has been told he does not have a voice ... If that is not dictatorship, then I don t know what to say. | 0fake |
SNL’s Hillary Clinton Parodies ‘Love Actually’ With A Very REAL Message For Electors (VIDEO) | Remember that cute scene in the movie Love Actually when The Walking Dead s Andrew Lincoln declares his love for Keira Knightley using a series of clever cue cards? Well, SNL just upped that scene with a very clever one of their own that we are sure Donald Trump will hate as much as he hates the cold opener.Cecily Strong, appearing as an elector in the scene, answers a knock at her door to find Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton standing there holding a stack of cue cards, attempting to sway her to vote for ANYONE but Donald Trump even John Kasich. I know that you re an elector And on December 19th, you re supposed to vote for Donald Trump But bish, he cray. The cards go on to read: Look, I know I lost the election And we may never know why **cough** Russia, You don t even have to vote for me Just vote literally for anyone else Like John Kasich Tom Hanks The Rock A rock. That advice is very convincing, but it gets better!Watch the full sketch here:Featured image via video screenshot | 1real |
NEW YORK TIMES WEASEL Behind Alleged Comey Memo Admits To Lyin’ Brian Williams He Never Actually Saw Memo [VIDEO] | Got News- New York Times Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim s blogger Michael Schmidt told professional liar Brian Williams that he hadn t seen the memos that James Comey allegedly wrote. Someone that had seen them recounted details to me, Schmidt said in what is a breach of journalistic protocol.Schmidt has been called out for getting a story wildly wrong before thanks to his anonymous sources. Schmidt, citing his anonymous federal law enforcement sources, claimed that one of the San Bernardino terrorists had talked about jihad openly. She didn t.His boss even reprimanded him and called for systematic changes to the way Schmidt and Carlos Slim s blog use anonymous sources.We guess our anonymous sources are better than the Times.Schmidt s open admissions on MSNBC confirm GotNews reporting Wednesday that Schmidt hasn t in fact seen the relevant Comey documents. | 1real |
Koch Industries takes aim at House Republican tax reform plan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Koch Industries, the private conglomerate owned by billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch, warned on Wednesday that a Republican tax reform proposal meant to encourage U.S. exports could have devastating effects on the economy and consumers. The proposal, known as border adjustability, is part of a larger tax reform plan backed by Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Speaker Paul Ryan. It has attracted the attention of advisers to President-elect Donald Trump as a potential tool for creating manufacturing jobs for blue-collar Americans. But the provision, which would tax imports while exempting U.S. exports from corporate income tax, has raised concerns in the retailing and energy sectors about its potential effects on prices for imported consumer items and foreign goods used in domestic production. Corporate lobbyists say that Trump’s threatened 35 percent import tax against U.S. companies that move jobs overseas could reflect an interest by the president-elect in a border-adjusted approach to tax reform. The Trump team and Republicans in Congress are currently trying to hammer out an agreement on tax reform for 2017. “The proposed border tax adjustment will distort the market, increase consumer prices and create an uneven playing field for companies and consumers,” Philip Ellender, who oversees government and public affairs for the Wichita, Kansas-based multinational, said in a statement. “The long-term consequences to the economy and the American consumer could be devastating,” added Ellender, who said Koch otherwise supports tax reform. Koch is the second largest private U.S. company, with operations that range from refining and chemicals to ranching and forest products. Its owners are known to spend heavily on conservative initiatives and to oppose government intervention in business. Representative Kevin Brady, Republican chairman of the House tax committee that produced the reform plan, welcomed the Koch statement as feedback but described border adjustability as “a key provision” that would level the playing field for “Made in America” products. Brady has said the plan would unleash economic and job growth by cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, simplifying the tax code and encouraging investment. Border adjustability would help pay for tax cuts by generating $1.2 trillion in revenues over a decade, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. The provision would also discourage U.S. companies from moving operations abroad as a result of another provision, which would eliminate U.S. taxes on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals. | 0fake |
Orlando gunman who pledged loyalty to ISIS was ‘homegrown’ extremist radicalized online, Obama says | ORLANDO — President Obama said the gunman who opened fire in a nightclub here Sunday appeared to be motivated by extremist propaganda online, while saying that investigators delving into the attacker’s background have not found anything linking him with radical groups.
Even as new details emerged from law enforcement officials about the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history — a massacre that left 49 people dead and dozens of others wounded — authorities said the widening investigation was still working to determine more about what motivated the attack.
The rampage also reverberated on the presidential campaign trail, as the leading presidential candidates offered dueling speeches Monday that pivoted off the attack.
Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, called for a ban on immigrants from any area of the world with a history of terrorist attacks against the United States, going beyond his previous calls to bar Muslims from traveling to the country. In her own remarks, Hillary Clinton, the expected Democratic nominee, said stronger gun control laws were needed to prevent suspected terrorists from having access to weapons.
While law enforcement officials were still working to determine what motivated the gunman — 29-year-old Omar Mateen — the FBI said Monday that he had been placed on a terrorism watch list during a 10-month period in 2013 and 2014 after he was investigated for inflammatory comments he made to co-workers.
During a three-hour hostage standoff with police after the shooting spree Sunday, Mateen referenced the Islamic State, and the militant group — also known as ISIS or ISIL — claimed Monday that Mateen was a “soldier” for its self-proclaimed caliphage. However, officials say that so far, no signs have emerged that he was guided by groups outside the country.
“We see no clear evidence that he was directed externally,” Obama said during remarks in the Oval Office. “It does appear that at the last minute, he announced allegiance to ISIL. But there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed by ISIL, and at this stage there’s no direct evidence that he was part of a larger plot.”
Obama said the shooting appeared so far to be a case of “homegrown extremism.”
The comments by Obama and other law enforcement officials Monday offered the sharpest look yet at what authorities believe may have motivated the gunman who attacked Pulse, a popular gay club in Orlando.
“We’re working hard to understand the killer, and his motives, and his sources of inspiration,” FBI Director James B. Comey said Monday. “We’re highly confident that this killer was radicalized, and at least in some part through the Internet.”
Even as this information emerged, police were still revealing details about the shooting and the hostage situation that followed, while relatives of victims were still awaiting word about whether their loved ones were among the wounded or dead.
[Classmates say Orlando gunman was ‘cheering’ on 9/11]
Comey said that during the three-hour standoff the gunman had with Orlando police officers, there were three different 911-related calls. The gunman called 911 about half an hour after opening fire and then hung up the phone, Comey said. Mateen then called a second time and spoke briefly to a dispatcher before hanging up again, and then the dispatcher called him back and they spoke briefly.
“During the calls, he said he was doing this for the leader of ISIL, who he named and pledged loyalty to,” Comey said.
However, Comey said there were no signs that Mateen was tied to any kind of network, and he added that it remained unclear exactly what extremist group this attacker supported.
In addition to referencing the Islamic State, Mateen also mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers as well as a Florida man who had joined an al-Qaeda affiliate and carried out a suicide attack in Syria, leaving his specific sympathies unknown, Comey said.
Law enforcement officials in Florida, meanwhile, offered a new accounting of the shootout. Orlando Police Chief John Mina said that police first encountered Mateen shortly after the initial gunfire at about 2 a.m., when an off-duty officer working at the club — Adam Gruler, a 15-year veteran of the force — exchanged shots with Mateen.
Additional officers called to the scene soon joined in another gun battle, at which point Mateen retreated further into the building and, eventually, into a bathroom. The police then held back because there were no more gunshots, Mina said, and they tried to negotiate with Mateen to avoid any more bloodshed.
Mateen was in a bathroom with four or five people, while another 15 or 20 were in another bathroom, Mina said. During these negotiations, Mateen was “cool and calm” and did not make many demands, Mina said.
After about three hours, police said they decided to storm Pulse after the shooter referenced bomb belts or explosives. Mina said the police used explosives and then an armored Bearcat to break a hole in the club’s wall. Hostages poured out, and Mateen — armed with a pair of guns — came out as well.
During the gun battle, Mateen was killed and one Orlando police officer — Michael Napolitano, a 14-year veteran of the force — was injured when a bullet struck his Kevlar helmet. In a statement Monday, police identified Napolitano and the other officers who fired shots at the nightclub. Following state protocol, all 11 of these officers have been relieved of duty while the state investigates their shootings.
However, much still remains unclear, including whether any hostages might have been injured or killed by crossfire.
In a news conference Monday, Mina said storming the building “was the right decision to make” because police thought other lives might be in danger.
Authorities say they are continuing to explore whether other people may be connected to the case. The investigation into Mateen has expanded to look at other people, and it stretches from Florida to Kabul.
Investigators also said Monday that they had found a third gun in Mateen’s car and were working to trace its origins after learning that the two weapons he had during the shooting — a handgun and an assault-rifle-type weapon — were purchased legally.
There is now “an investigation of other persons,” A. Lee Bentley III, the U.S. attorney for much of Central Florida, said at a news conference Monday. Bentley said prosecutors have “no reason to believe that anyone connected to this crime is placing the public in imminent danger,” but he offered no other details.
“We’ve been collecting a great amount of electronic and physical evidence,” Bentley said Monday. The FBI also said Monday that investigators have processed more than 100 leads so far.
Authorities said Monday afternoon that they had identified relatives or next-of-kin for nearly all of the victims, making notifications for 48 of the 49 people killed. (On Sunday, police had included Mateen when saying 50 people were killed.) For many, the hours stretching from Sunday into Monday were filled with dread as they awaited word about whether their loved ones were among the wounded or dead.
All the bodies were removed from the club by 11 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.
[Floor plans show interior of club where 49 were killed]
Orlando Regional Medical Center, where many shooting victims were taken, said Monday that the hospital was still treating 29 people, including five who were “in grave condition.” A number of victims were in critical condition or in shock, the hospital said. Hospital officials also said local blood banks had more than 600 units on hand due to the surge in people who donated blood after the shootings.
As the investigation into Mateen moved into its second day, many questions remained unanswered — including what, specifically, might have motivated him. Bentley said investigators were serving search warrants, and the FBI asked anyone with information about the 29-year-old’s life to call 1-800-CALLFBI.
In Orlando and beyond, the investigation was still trying to determine the steps that led up to the attack Sunday.
Comey said the FBI was working to determine the role anti-gay bigotry may have played in Mateen’s choice of a target. The Islamic State has carried out a relentless campaign against gay people, releasing videos showing its members gruesomely executing people they said were homosexual.
Mateen had been on the FBI’s radar twice in recent years. In 2013, agents opened an investigation that lasted 10 months after Mateen made comments to co-workers about terrorist groups and expressed a desire to martyr himself.
Investigators interviewed him twice, but Mateen said he made the remarks in anger because he felt co-workers were teasing him for being Muslim, and the preliminary inquiry was closed in 2014, Comey said.
Two months later, Mateen again came to the attention of federal agents looking into the Florida man who blew himself up in Syria, Comey said. Mateen and this man attended the same mosque, according to Comey. Again, the FBI interviewed Mateen, looked into his possible ties to the suicide bomber, determined that there were no strong ties and moved on.
Even given Mateen’s mentions of the Islamic State, the level of possible connections between the gunman and the militant group were unclear.
The Islamic State’s al-Bayan Radio described him Monday as “one of the soldiers” of its self-described caliphate, but it offered no further details on possible contact before the attack, said the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by extremist factions.
If it does appear that the Orlando gunman was radicalized from material available online, it would follow a pattern seen in earlier shooting rampages in San Bernardino, Calif., and Chattanooga, Tenn., last year.
A U.S. official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments, said that attacks inspired by the Islamic State, even when conducted without support from the group’s core operation, helped illustrate to followers that they remained a significant military force despite loss of territory in Iraq and Syria over the last year.
“In a sense, inspired attacks and attacks conducted in their name globally” allows them to perpetuate a key perception: continued expansion, the official said. Such attacks show would-be supporters that “they’re very much still alive and potent.”
Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter, speaking en route to Brussels, told reporters that the shooting should “further steel everyone’s resolve to defeat ISIL and its parent tumors in Iraq and Syria.”
[There was another terrible case of gun violence over the weekend]
As terrorism again surged to the forefront of the country’s political debate, Trump and Clinton shifted plans for events Monday to focus their remarks on national security.
Clinton, speaking in Cleveland, warned that the threat posed by the Islamic State is “metastasizing” and vowed to make “targeting lone wolves a top priority” if elected.
She also said that someone who has been watched by the FBI “shouldn’t be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked.” Clinton, echoing remarks Obama has made, also said the shooting was a reminder of the need for stronger gun control laws.
“It’s essential that we stop terrorists from getting the tools they need to carry out attacks,” she said. “I believe weapons of war have no place on our streets.”
Before his speech in New Hampshire, Trump made television appearances to reject calls for more gun control and repeatedly accuse Obama of being somehow sympathetic with radicalized Muslims.
“We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump said.
Orlando now joins the mournful list of terrorism-linked bloodshed — Brussels in March, Paris and San Bernardino last year, the Boston Marathon in 2013, London in 2005 and other sites — and is certain to strike deep into American debates over gun rights and how far authorities can go to track potential terrorism threats. And the shooting struck a popular gay club on its Latin night.
From around the world, condolences and pledges of support poured in. Vigils and memorials were held from New Zealand to Europe. The Eiffel Tower will be lit in rainbow colors Monday evening.
In Afghanistan, the country’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, said the Orlando attack “tells us that terrorism knows no religion, boundary and geography. Terrorism must be eliminated.”
Officials in Afghanistan — Mateen was born in the United States, while his parents were born there — also opened investigations into any possible connections between the gunman and militant groups. Yet Mateen’s father insisted his son had no Islamist terrorism ties and showed no warning signs the day before the shooting.
Mateen had legally purchased the two guns — which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said were an AR-15-type weapon and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol — within “the last few days,” according to Trevor Velinor of the ATF.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, said the FBI had found nothing in Mateen’s past that would have legally blocked him from purchasing a gun. The bureau’s previous inquiries, the official said, would have been insufficient to achieve that.
Mateen purchased two guns from the St. Lucie Shooting Center, shop owner Ed Henson said at a news conference Monday.
“An evil person came in here and legally purchased two firearms from us,” Henson said, adding that Mateen had multiple security licenses and passed a full background check before he was allowed to buy the guns.
Henson said if Mateen hadn’t bought the guns at his shop, he would have been able to buy them somewhere else.
“We happened to be the gun store he picked. It’s horrible,” said Henson, who spent two decades with the New York Police Department before retiring in 2002. “I’m sorry he picked my place. I wish he’d picked nowhere.”
Mateen’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusifiy, said he beat her repeatedly during their brief marriage, and she called him unstable.
Mateen’s father, however, called his son “very dignified.” In a video posted to Facebook shortly after midnight, Seddique Mateen, who lives in Florida, called the shooting “tragic” but said his son was “a good son and an educated son.”
He said his son shouldn’t have carried out the massacre because “God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality.”
“I don’t know what caused him to shoot last night,” said the father, who has hosted a U.S. -based television show on Afghan affairs and describes himself as an important figure in his homeland.
“No radicalism, no,” the father told The Washington Post late Sunday from his home in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “He doesn’t have a beard even. . . . I don’t think religion or Islam had anything to do with this.”
Berman reported from Washington. Emma Brown, Brian Murphy, Jenna Johnson, Missy Ryan, Adam Goldman and Jerry Markon in Washington; Katie Zezima, Hayley Tsukayama and Amanda Elder in Orlando; Abby Phillip in Cleveland; and Thomas Gibbons-Neff in Brussels contributed to this report. Also contributing: Greg Miller, Joby Warrick, Tim Craig, Sarah Larimer and Julie Tate.
The history of the AR-15, the weapon that had a hand in the United States’ worst mass shooting
Islamic State shows it can still inspire violence as it emphasizes attacks abroad
This story will be updated throughout the day. | 0fake |
‘Small Government’ GOP Rep. Wants A Law To Dictate Exotic Dancers’ Max Weight | Bill 468, something that the Louisiana state legislature has been working on, deals with strip clubs and will maintain the state s current laws that regulate those clubs. It does, however, add a new regulation: All dancers must be at least 21 years of age if the club serves alcohol. Makes sense.One lawmaker, however, saw that and just had to stick his own amendment in there that would also regulate the dancers weight. According to Rep. Kenny Havard (R), dancers between 21 and 28 should also weigh no more than 160 pounds.Right, because regulating women s weight is totally okay in a world where women are judged more on their appearance than on anything else. It s also totally okay coming from a guy who claims he s making a point about government overreach. Sure.Havard claims he did this as a joke, much like the proposals in other states that would regulate how men get things like Viagra in protest of laws restricting access to birth control for women. After all, regulating any business, even strip clubs, is massive government overreach with the tiny-government crowd. Dear Kenny here made a very bad joke.He also failed miserably to make his point the bill itself passed 96-0, meaning it had broad, bipartisan support, and that Havard himself voted for it after pulling his own little protest amendment out of the bill. If he could vote for it without that amendment that was supposed to make a point, then he must actually not see it as government overreach.The whole purpose of Havard s amendment is this: Havard, who immediately pulled the amendment, [said] he doesn t regret the joke and called it satire not sexism. He said he meant for the amendment to point out that the bill teeters on overregulation. Supporters of the bill say that they are trying to protect teens from human trafficking. It has won bipartisan support through the legislative process. Okay, so it s sexist satire and a sexist joke. It doesn t matter what Havard claims, he clearly doesn t understand sexism at all. There is nothing non-sexist about suggesting that we should regulate women s weight, even as a joke. Fortunately (or unfortunately for him) he brought the wrath of all his colleagues down onto himself, which is what caused him to pull the amendment. Can t have everyone mad at you for being a raving, sexist hypocrite after all.Exotic dancers actually further the sexual objectification of women, and for a man to say that these dancers, especially if they re young, should be svelte and slender under law sounds more like he wants to enshrine in law that the only women who fit his ideal of sexy and beautiful are the ones who get to be exotic dancers. A joke, a piece of satire, can still be horribly sexist. That s what Havard is and has done. He s outed himself as a sexist pig.Image By Jeffrey Schwartz. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons | 1real |
Mylan offers discounts on EpiPen amid wave of criticism | (Reuters) - Mylan NV said on Thursday it would reduce the out-of-pocket costs of its emergency EpiPen allergy injection for some patients amid a wave of criticism from lawmakers and the public over the product’s rapidly escalating price. The list price of the drug will remain the same, but the company said it would increase the maximum copay assistance program to $300 from $100 for patients who pay for the 2-pak in cash or who are covered by a commercial health insurer. The price of EpiPen has skyrocketed to $600 from $100 since it was acquired by Mylan in 2007. Mylan also said it is doubling the eligibility for its patient assistance program, which will eliminate out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and under-insured patients and families. Government paid programs are not eligible for the copay assistance program. Ronny Gal, an analyst with Bernstein, said when all is said and done he estimates a total price reduction for EpiPen of 32 percent. The price rose 27 percent in the second quarter of 2016 versus the same quarter a year ago. “Thus we are basically rolling back the increase of the past year,” he said. “In all, we estimate that today’s news results in a 20-25 percent hit on EpiPen revenues.” He expects that to translate into a 3-4 percent hit to Mylan’s earnings per share over the next few years. He estimates the company will earn $4.77 a share in 2016 and $5.58 in 2017. Mylan is the latest company to be caught up in the growing outrage at apparently egregious drug price increases. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc and Turing Pharmaceuticals have both been publicly excoriated for similar price increases. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has spoken out against escalating drug prices, “welcomes the fact that Mylan is now apparently open to taking steps to lower some of the cost sharing burdens imposed on families,” Tyrone Gayle, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. However, he added, “discounts for selected customers without lowering the overall price of EpiPens are insufficient, because the excessive price will likely be passed on through higher insurance premiums.” Clinton’s view was echoed by Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, who said Mylan’s move is nothing but a public relations stunt that does nothing to help the majority of patients who need the drug. “Offering a meager discount only after widespread bipartisan criticism is exactly the same tactic used by drug companies across the industry to distract from their exorbitant price increases,” he said in a statement. “Nobody is buying this PR move any more.” Mylan Chief Executive Heather Bresch, defending the price in an interview on Thursday on CNBC, said her company had spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving EpiPen, including making its needle invisible, since acquiring the device from German generic drugmaker Merck KGaA. “When we picked up this product, they (Merck) weren’t spending a dollar on it,” said Bresch, Bresch said Mylan recoups less than half of EpiPen’s list price because pharmacy benefit managers, which often require discounted prices or rebates from drugmakers, are involved, along with insurers and others. Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said Mylan’s action was a “welcome relief” to many who are struggling to afford the medication, but said it does not address the root of the problem of rising drug costs. Earlier this year, Clinton chastised drug companies for exorbitant pricing and unveiled a plan that she said would cut costs, making the issue not only a hot election discussion topic but potentially an issue that could have policy implications if she is elected. On Wednesday, Clinton pressed Mylan to voluntarily cut the EpiPen price, sending the company’s share price lower and pushing down biotech stocks. Mylan shares fell more than 10 percent this week before rising 3.2 percent on Thursday after announcement of the discount program. EpiPens are preloaded injections of epinephrine (adrenaline) used in case of a dangerous allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis that could cause death if untreated. Anaphylaxis can occur in as little as a couple of minutes of exposure to the allergen, which can come in the form of food such as peanuts or insects such as bees. Certain medications or latex can also cause a severe reaction. Symptoms include itching, swelling of the lips, tongue and roof of the mouth, tight chestedness and difficulty breathing. People who are susceptible to such reactions are frequently advised to carry an EpiPen, which can deliver an immediate emergency jolt of adrenaline to reverse the symptoms. A group of lawmakers said on Wednesday they had written the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking about its approval process for alternatives to the EpiPen. FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said in a statement the agency is reviewing the questions posed in the letter “and will respond directly to the Congressional members.” She noted that the FDA does not have the authority to review or approve drug prices. Bresch, daughter of Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said she contacted members of Congress over the past two days and asked to meet with them to discuss what she called an “unsustainable” drug pricing system. She said one of the calls was to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who recently wrote a letter to Mylan asking for an explanation of big EpiPen price increases. | 0fake |
WALMART WILL MELT CLASS RINGS WITH CONFEDERATE FLAG: [Video] Refuses To Fulfill Order For Arkansas Woman…Will Refund Payment | An Arkansas woman who went to pick up the class ring she ordered from Walmart left disappointed, after store officials told her the retailer s new policy barred them from turning the item over because it bore an image of the Confederate flag.Elaine Glidewell told KFSM someone from the store in Fort Smith called her to pick up the ring she d ordered for her nephew, but when she arrived on Tuesday, a clerk told her she couldn t have it. The ring had been ordered before Walmart stopped selling items bearing images of the flag, in the wake of controversy that stemmed from a racially-charged shooting in South Carolina. I wanted to cry, Glidewell told KFSM, adding that the store clerk said the ring would be melted. Glidewell said she paid $320 for the ring and was going to present it to her nephew, who recently graduated. He had expressed interest in a design that bore a Rebel mascot that incorporates the Confederate battle flag. She got her money back, but no ring. They wouldn t let me have the ring. It had a note on it, was in a plastic bag, it said do not sell. It was signed by the store manager, Glidewell said.Brian Nick, spokesman for Walmart, told FoxNews.com Glidewell was denied the ring because her transaction came after the retailer made a business decision to stop selling items with the Confederate flag on it.Via: FOX News | 1real |
Nerve agent VX found on shirts of women accused of North Korean murder, expert says | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Traces of a deadly nerve agent that killed the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were found on the clothes worn by the two women accused of the sensational murder, a Malaysian court was told on Thursday. Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, a Vietnamese, are charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX, a chemical poison banned by the United Nations, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13. A chemical weapons expert with the Malaysian government said his analysis showed traces of VX, its precursors and degradation products on the sleeves of a T-shirt worn by Huong, as well as VX degradation products on Siti Aisyah s sleeveless shirt. The presence of precursors and VX confirms the presence of VX itself, the expert, Raja Subramaniam, told the court outside the Malaysian capital. I also found degradation products of VX, which confirms the presence of VX. The testimony was used to back the prosecution s position that VX was used in the murder and was the sole cause of death, a scenario defense lawyers disputed this week. [nL4N1ME159] In response to a prosecution question, Raja agreed that VX could be applied on a bare palm and potentially have no effect on a person if washed off quickly enough. The lethality of VX depended on the dosage and where on the body it was applied, he added. The concentration required varies by a factor of 26, from the cheek, which is sensitive, to the palm, which is least sensitive, to have the same effect, Raja said. Raja said penetration of VX into the body is highest in areas with higher concentrations of blood, such as the head, neck, eyes and ears. On the least sensitive areas, such as the palm, where larger amounts of tissue and fat deposits block absorption, Raja said an individual would have up to 15 minutes to wash off the nerve poison with running water. If you decontaminate within 15 minutes, most likely no effect or delayed effect (from VX), Raja said, citing studies on human test subjects. The women have pleaded not guilty, saying they thought they were involved in some sort of prank for a reality TV show. They face the death penalty if convicted. [nL4N1MD1MK] The trial will resume on Monday. | 0fake |
Canada bans its agencies from sharing information that could lead to torture | OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada, which has been accused of sharing intelligence that led to the torture of prisoners abroad, on Monday issued rules to prevent its security agencies from disclosing or requesting information from other countries if it would result in mistreatment. The rules also prohibit Canada s spy agency, border services agents and federal police from using information likely obtained through torture, unless it is necessary to prevent death or significant injuries. The directions replace 2011 rules put in place by the previous Conservative government that was replaced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau s Liberals in 2015. The Liberals appear to have publicized the rules to repair the government s reputation, according to experts who noted that it is unusual for a country to publicly disclose such guidelines. Canada has taken the lead in this regard, partly because it has been stung by past history, said University of Ottawa professor Wesley Wark. In one high-profile case, the Conservative government in 2007 apologized and paid C$10.5 million to compensate Maher Arar, who was deported to Syria by U.S. agents after Canadian police mistakenly labeled him an Islamic extremist. Earlier this year, Canada apologized to three Canadian men of Arab descent who said they had been tortured in Syria and blamed Canadian secret services for their ordeal. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency will be prohibited from disclosing or requesting information that would result in a substantial risk of mistreatment, the government said. Information that was likely obtained through torture also cannot be used if there is a risk it would lead to further mistreatment. The government of Canada unequivocally condemns in the strongest possible terms the mistreatment of any individual by anyone for any purpose, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a statement. Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, said the clearer rules were an improvement over the previous directions that allowed for information to be shared with other countries in exceptional circumstances. There s been a lot of pressure in Canada over the last several years as the previous guidelines came to light and all of the inadequacies in those guidelines gathered quite a bit of concern, said Neve. | 0fake |
Talks on future EU-UK ties before divorce settled would weaken EU: Macron | TALLINN (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday the European Union would be weakened if it agreed to discuss its future trading relationship with Britain before Brexit divorce terms are settled. If we accept speaking about life after (Brexit) we will open 27 debates on the future life that are profoundly weakening for the EU. That s why the chosen method is the good one, Macron said when asked why the EU did not soften a negotiating approach that has frustrated London. | 0fake |
Comment on Breaking: Podesta Told Mills ‘Dump All Those Emails’ on Day News of Clinton’s Private Email Server Broke by T. Mohr | Cop Fired After Shooting Own 11-year-old Daughter at a Halloween Party Home / BREAKING NEWS / Breaking: Podesta Told Mills ‘Dump All Those Emails’ on Day News of Clinton’s Private Email Server Broke Breaking: Podesta Told Mills ‘Dump All Those Emails’ on Day News of Clinton’s Private Email Server Broke Jay Syrmopoulos November 1, 2016 1 Comment
Washington, D.C. – In what could prove to be the proverbial nail in the coffin of Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions, an email released by WikiLeaks this morning – the 25th batch of emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta – reveals potential criminal intent to violate a court order for subpoenaed documents.
John Podesta sent the message only hours after the New York Times reported that Clinton might have violated federal records requirements by using the server, according to the latest batch of Podesta emails released by WikiLeaks.
The email in question , sent by Podesta on March 2, 2015, reveals the Clinton campaign chair directing Cheryl Mills, Hillary’s attorney and Chief of Staff, to destroy emails that had already been subpoenaed.
The email exchange between Podesta and Mills came suspiciously on the same day that news broke regarding Clinton’s use of a private email server.
After news of Clinton’s private email server became public, Podesta wrote to Mills: “Not to sound like Lanny, but we are going to have to dump all those emails so better to do so sooner than later,” Podesta told Mills. Mills responded: “Think you just got your new nick name.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what Podesta meant by “dump” the emails, when taking into account the fact that this was transpiring just as news of the private server was breaking. What this email does is provide insight into the coverup process — and exposes a willful intent to break the law. Additionally, it reveals exactly how swiftly the Clinton camp moved to obscure the truth from both investigators and the public alike.
According to a report by the New York Post :
In December 2014, Hillary Clinton — now the Democratic presidential nominee — turned over about 55,000 pages of work-related email to the State Department, but that fact wasn’t revealed until the Times reported on her use of the private server.
On March 10, 2015 — a week after the Podesta-Mills exchange — Clinton addressed the email scandal, and announced she had deleted about 30,000 personal emails.
The email’s reference to “Lanny” is likely in reference to lawyer Lanny Davis, who served as special counsel to then-President Bill Clinton, as well as spokesperson for the President and the White House on matters regarding campaign-finance investigations and other legal issues.
Interestingly, Zero Hedge reports that a search for Lanny Davis reveals a suspicious exchange between Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook and Podesta from March 8, 2015, just days after the above mentioned exchange in which Mook tells Podesta:
“We gotta zap Lanny out of our universe. Can’t believe he committed her to a private review of her hard drive on TV.”
Hillary’s team was apparently upset that Bill Clinton’s special counsel was engaging in a transparent course of action, and moved to “zap Lanny out of our universe.”
While it isn’t clearly spelled out exactly which emails Podesta is referring to in his email, the fact that he wrote “better do so sooner than later,” on the day news broke publicly regarding Clinton’s email server, strongly indicates that the actions were a responsive measure meant to obscure any investigation into the matter.
Clinton’s entire narrative regarding her private email server has seemingly unraveled, and her methodical plan to strategically impede the State Department/FBI investigation, by deleting the evidence, is now on full display for the public to see.
Hopefully WikiLeaks’ next upcoming Podesta email dumps can provide even further context to this already damning email. Of course, Hillary’s spin doctors are hard at work thinking up a new narrative to work around this latest revelation regarding the willful attempt by Clinton’s team to usurp a federal investigation.
Mainstream media is trying to censor this information, so please share this story to overcome corporate censorship and to expose the truth! Share Google + T. Mohr
Thank God! The whole lot of them will go down together. Liers the lot of them, proven today. | 1real |
Trump Accuses Clinton of Guiding Global Elite Against U.S. Working Class - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump on Thursday accused Hillary Clinton of guiding a “global power structure” that has rigged the economy against the working class, language that some suggested echoed themes. Mr. Trump made the accusation in a speech in West Palm Beach, Fla. in which he also defended himself against several accusations of sexual harassment, published by The New York Times and others. Early in the speech, he said that a global elite had “stripped” the United States of its wealth in order to line the pockets of corporate and political interests. “The Clinton machine is at the center of this power structure,” he said. “We’ve seen this firsthand in the WikiLeaks documents in which Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U. S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors,” he said, referring to the group that has, most recently, published thousands of hacked emails from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman. The remarks drew criticism from some who said they resembled prejudicial language used by . “Whether intentionally or not, Donald Trump is evoking classic themes that have historically been used against Jews and still reverberate today,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the League, a group that fights discrimination, said in a statement. Mr. Greenblatt said the group feared that white supremacists might see the comments as tacit encouragement. “Mr. Trump focused on the very issues and themes that obsess conspiratorial : They believe that there is an elite group of Jews who control the media, the government, and banking, and who are trying to destroy white America,” he said. “They also believe that most of Hillary Clinton’s donors are Jewish. ” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Others drew a more direct comparison between Mr. Trump’s words and those of . In the speech, Mr. Trump also accused the “Clinton machine” of wielding control over the news media, as well. “The most powerful weapon deployed by the Clintons is the corporate media, the press,” he said to jeers from the audience. While the allegations were aimed at Mrs. Clinton, who is a Methodist, Jews have long been accused of conspiring to control institutions like banks and the media in order to amass wealth and power. In 1931, for example, the author A. N. Field described the creation of the American Federal Reserve as the moment the “ engine of control” enslaved the United States, according to the League. That conspiracy theory has survived the ensuing decades and, even today, such beliefs remain prevalent around the world, according to A. D. L. polling. In West Palm Beach on Thursday, reporters covering Mr. Trump returned to a table reserved for the press to find a sign bearing a swastika and the word “MEDIA” scrawled on it, Jim Acosta, a senior CNN White House correspondent, reported. | 0fake |
Gym Employees Accuse Black Seahawks Star Of Trying To Rob Them (TWEETS) | When 2014 Super Bowl champion Kam Chancellor isn t kicking butt for the Seattle Seahawks he is running fitness boot camps for women. So, when the star came across a recently closed gym in Redmond, Washington he decided that he wanted to buy it for his classes. Unfortunately, this curiosity resulted in the police being called and him being accused of trying to rob the place.Two female employees of the Redmond Athletic Club called the police when Chancellor looked through the window of the gym and tried to get some information about how to buy it. Seriously. Apparently nobody told Kam that he can t buy a business while black.The football player explained what happened on Twitter, Wednesday:The funniest thing just happened too me in Redmond. I went to go get info on a gym that was closed and 2 ladies called the cops on me Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016 They told the cops I was trying to rob the place because I was looking into the glass asking for help. I took a picture of the two employees Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016Good thing the cops know I m a good guy and stealing isn t in my blood. I work for everything I get Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016 No I was mad because all I wanted was a number to call and they waved me off like a fly without answering me https://t.co/eAJnjw3vJv Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016Yes two younger ladies. I took a picture of them calling the cops on me https://t.co/5qzWUpwirB Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016 I guess I won t put a gym in Redmond then. I m not qualified. I want to post her face so bad on the phone looking disgusted. Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016Although he doesn t tell us the race of the women who called the cops on him, another one of his tweets makes alludes them possibly being white. @djparker25: @Kam_Chancellor that s crazy bruh smh not all people are like that so I don t blame the world. I blame their parents Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016@Wizdom80@djparker25 true Kameron (@Kam_Chancellor) March 3, 2016I only know of one race that is privileged and that is mine: Caucasians.There is no doubt in my mind that the women who called the police did so because they were scared of the big, scary black guy. If a white man of a smaller stature had looked in that window and motioned them for help there is little chance the cops would have been called.Thankfully, the police immediately recognized the Chancellor and he wasn t arrested or shot. We all know that in 2016 it isn t an uncommon thing to see African-Americans gunned down for absolutely no reason, so he s one lucky guy. Featured image via Instagram | 1real |
House Votes to Upgrade International Religious Freedom Law | Congress is upgrading the role religious freedom plays in U.S. foreign policy.
On Monday, House lawmakers unanimously approved the Frank Wolf Religious Freedom Act. The bill updates a 1998 law sponsored by the former Virginia congressman.
"Nearly 20 years ago, led by U.S. Congressman Frank R. Wolf, the Congress had the foresight to make advancing the right to religious freedom a high U.S. foreign policy priority," Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., the bill's author, said.
"Today religious freedom is still under attack and we must upgrade our programs and methods to meet the challenges of the 21st century," he added.
The original law established a framework to investigate religious freedom abuses, name the world's worst violators and suggest courses of action.
The new bill will target radical jihadist groups like Nigeria's Boko Haram and the Islamic State.
"The world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of international religious freedom," Smith said, "a crisis that continues to create millions of victims, a crisis that undermines liberty, prosperity and peace; a crisis that poses a direct challenge to the U.S. interests in the Middle East, Russia, China and sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere."
The legislation now moves on to the Senate. | 0fake |
‘Jersey Boys’ Will Close in January - The New York Times | Bye bye baby: “Jersey Boys” is closing on Jan. 15. The jukebox musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons opened on Nov. 6, 2005, and won four Tony Awards, including for best new musical, in 2006. It is now the show in Broadway history at its closing, it will have played 4, 642 performances. The show has played all over the world — in addition to Broadway, it is running in Las Vegas, where it is scheduled to close this month, and in London, and is touring in North America over its history, it has been presented in 162 cities in 11 countries. “Jersey Boys” has grossed $2 billion worldwide, according to the producers. The Broadway production, at the August Wilson Theater, has seen a considerable drop in box office receipts over time. In its early seasons, it regularly grossed more than $1 million a week last week, it grossed $538, 955. The songs featured in the show were written by Bob Gaudio with lyrics by Bob Crewe the show’s book is by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The show began its life in 2004 at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, and was directed by Des McAnuff, who was the artistic director there the lead producer for the commercial production is Dodger Theatricals. Clint Eastwood directed a film adaptation in 2014. | 0fake |
Obama’s Legacy: Washington is Lying About ISIS, and Lying About Syria | 21st Century Wire says ISIS inspired. Assad s barrel bombs. We are at war with ISIS. We are only arming the moderate rebels. The Russians are bombing hospitals. ISIS claims responsibility for stabbing in Minnesota. We must save 100,000 children in Aleppo from Assad and the Russians! Lies, lies, and more lies. All paid for by the US taxpayer. Watch: | 1real |
Trump says unsure if Tillerson will remain secretary of state | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he was unsure whether his top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, would remain in his post for the rest of Trump’s term in the White House and was “not happy” that some State Department staff were not supporting his agenda. In an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News late Thursday, Trump attacked the department under Secretary of State Tillerson and said he alone determines U.S. foreign policy. “The one that matters is me,” Trump said. “I’m the only one that matters because, when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.” Asked if he planned to keep Tillerson on board for the rest of his term, Trump told Fox, “Well, we’ll see. I don’t know.” Trump left on Friday on a trip to Asia with Tillerson following months of conflict between the two. Trump’s comments drew criticism in Congress, where many fellow Republicans have joined Democrats in objecting to Trump’s plan to slash spending on diplomacy and foreign aid, and his failure to fill key foreign policy jobs. “One would hope that if he’s the only one that matters that he at least gets some feedback from top staff who perhaps can know a little bit more about some of these things than he does,” Representative Eliot Engel, top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told Reuters. Tensions between Trump, a real estate developer and reality television star in office since January, and Tillerson, former chief executive at Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), resurfaced last month amid reports Tillerson had called Trump a “moron” and considered resigning. Tillerson later said he never considered leaving. Trump said they had a good relationship but criticized Tillerson as weak. Tillerson’s State Department has also been at odds with the White House over global issues including rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program. Richard Haass, president of the Council of Foreign Relations, said Trump’s comments spelled trouble not just for the current secretary but for overall foreign policy. “It’s not just about Rex Tillerson, it’s about who comes after Rex Tillerson. If the president is not determined to make sure his secretary of state will succeed, the secretary of state can’t succeed,” Haass told CBS News. Tillerson has made overhauling the department a top priority and tightened control by consolidating his authority. Critics have decried the reorganization and unfilled jobs at a time when international crises continue around the world. At a recent meeting of former national security advisers, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security advisor, that the administration was gutting State. McMaster replied that there were people who did not support the president’s agenda, two people present told Reuters. On Thursday, Trump said many of the posts were not needed and he is “not happy” with others already there. “I want my vision, but my vision is my vision,” he said. “Rex is in there working hard ... he’s doing the best he can.” (This version of the story has been refiled to add dropped words in 11th paragraph) | 0fake |
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