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Spanish prosecutor accuses sacked Catalan leader of rebellion | BARCELONA/MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s state prosecutor accused sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont on Monday of rebellion and sedition as the former regional president traveled to Belgium with other members of his ousted administration and hired a lawyer there. As Madrid began direct rule of Catalonia, Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza called for charges of rebellion, sedition, fraud and misuse of funds to be brought against Catalan leaders who organized an illegal referendum on independence from Spain. The Oct. 1 vote in the prosperous region with its own language and culture has triggered Spain s biggest crisis in decades. On Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed Catalonia s secessionist government, called a regional election for Dec. 21 and said the central government would take direct control. That process began smoothly on Monday as employees ignored calls for civil disobedience and turned up for work, while secessionist parties agreed to stand in the December poll. A senior Spanish government official said on Monday that Puigdemont had traveled to Belgium. He drove to the French city of Marseilles to catch a flight to Belgium with five other members of his sacked administration, Spanish media reported. Belgian lawyer Paul Bekaert, whose website says he is involved in a human rights organization, said he had taken on Puigdemont as a client but would not confirm whether he was working with him on a political asylum claim. I can confirm Carles Puigdemont has appointed me as his legal representative, as he is currently in Belgium, Bekaert told Reuters. At the moment there are no specific dossiers I am preparing for him. Bekaert told Belgian broadcaster VTM that Puigdemont had not fled Catalonia, was not hiding and would make a public appearance in Brussels on Tuesday. After what he described as an hour-long meeting in his office in western Belgium, the lawyer - who quoted his experience with asylum and extradition cases, as well as with Spain - said his client was in high spirits, driven by strong support among his backers in Catalonia . Some of the most prominent ousted Catalan leaders, including Puigdemont and Vice President Oriol Junqueras, had said they would not accept their dismissal. But their respective parties, PdeCat and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, said on Monday they would take part in the election called by Rajoy, a tacit acceptance of direct rule from Madrid. The regional parliament canceled a meeting for Tuesday, another signal lawmakers accepted they had been dismissed. A call for widespread civil disobedience from the main civic groups behind the secessionist campaign failed to attract many followers. Public-sector workers such as teachers, firefighters and the police mostly started work as normal on Monday and there was no sign of widespread absenteeism. A trade union, Intersindical-CSC, which had called for a general strike in Catalonia, said on Monday it had canceled it. Other regional leaders did not turn up to their offices, although some of their staff did. One of 140 senior officials appointed directly by the outgoing government described the situation as normal and said he had not yet received any letter of dismissal. We civil servants want everything to be normal. Things have to carry on. The day-to-day work still has to be done, he said. Some 200,000 public-sector workers receive salaries paid by the Catalan region, and 100,000 others in the region rely directly on the Madrid government. Hundreds of thousands of supporters of a unified Spain marched on Sunday in one of the biggest shows of force yet by the so-called silent majority that has watched as regional political leaders push for Catalan independence. Two opinion polls showed support for independence may have started to wane. A Sigma Dos survey published in El Mundo showed 33.5 percent of Catalans were in favor of independence, while a Metroscopia poll published by El Pais put that number at 29 percent. That compared with 41.1 percent in July, according to an official survey carried out by the Catalan government. Opponents of secession largely boycotted the Oct. 1 referendum, when participants voted overwhelmingly for independence on a turnout of 43 percent. Spain s interior ministry named a new chief for the regional police on Saturday, who has insisted that the 17,000 officers of the force should remain neutral. The force has already withdrawn protection for dismissed regional government members, who were also left without their official cars. Their portraits were removed from the walls of public buildings. The government s move to impose direct rule received the backing of several influential Catalan business lobbies, which called on firms to stay in the region. The chaos has prompted an exodus of businesses from Catalonia, which contributes about a fifth of Spain s economy, the euro zone s fourth-largest. Credit ratings agency Fitch said on Monday the escalation of tensions in Catalonia significantly worsened the outlook for Spain s economic growth and could prompt negative action on the country s rating. | 0fake |
Is Hillary Clinton too big to indict? (+video) | Many see a double standard in the FBI's recommendation not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her use of a personal email server. But some say there's good reason for that.
US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has come under fire from the FBI for "extremely careless" handling of classified messages, which she kept on a personal server as Secretary of State.
Is Hillary Clinton too big to fail? In other words, does her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president protect her from criminal charges related to her use of a personal server for State Department communications?
That’s what top Republicans are saying in the wake of Tuesday’s announcement by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey that the bureau won’t recommend prosecution of Mrs. Clinton for her handling of classified emails. It’s one reason why the GOP-controlled House will hold a hearing Thursday on the FBI’s decision.
That hearing could be a pivotal forum for Clinton’s foes. They’d like to portray the former secretary of State as the undeserving beneficiary of what presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump labels a “rigged system.”
After all, voters already give Clinton low marks for trustworthiness. Anything that reinforces that feeling could be good for the Trump campaign. Plus, it could keep the spotlight off Mr. Trump’s own controversies – at least, for a while. For Trump supporters, extending the period of Clinton’s troubles is now job one.
“This is one of the reasons why people are so dissatisfied, so upset about government. They think that people live by a different set of rules, and the Clintons, they take the candle on this one,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan during an appearance Tuesday on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show.
Mr. Ryan and other Clinton critics say that the split nature of Director Comey’s press conference was disorienting.
At first, the FBI director listed what Clinton did wrong, noting among other things that on her private server she’d sent and received messages that were classified at the time. Her handling of secret material was “extremely careless,” Comey said.
It seemed as if he might be leading up to a recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute Clinton, after all.
And then he said, in essence, “never mind." The agency would not urge the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton, he said. “No reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” according to Comey.
Why not? President Obama’s Justice Department has a history of pursuing officials who leak secrets, points out journalist Glenn Greenwald, who wrote some of the initial reports on classified information provided by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The Obama administration has brought more cases under the 1917-era Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined.
While the Snowden case hinged on massive leaks, many of these prosecutions didn’t. Former Central Intelligence Agency employee Jeffrey Alexander Sterling and former NSA executive Thomas Andrews Drake were both convicted of various charges related to small amounts of classified material.
“Had someone who was obscure and unimportant and powerless done what Hillary Clinton did – recklessly and secretly install a shoddy home server and worked with Top Secret information on it, then outright lied to the public about it when they were caught – they would have been criminally charged long ago, with little fuss or objection,” writes Mr. Greenwald at The Intercept.
Perhaps. Motivation is a factor here, however. Both Messrs. Sterling and Drake leaked information to reporters. (As did Mr. Snowden, obviously.) Clinton did not.
In Clinton’s case, there is no evidence of clear and willful mishandling of intelligence, or any inference of disloyalty to the United States, according to the FBI’s Comey. That’s a big reason why she wasn’t charged.
“In looking back at our investigations into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts,” said Comey at his Tuesday press conference.
But wasn’t isn’t the same as couldn’t. Under federal law, it’s illegal to handle classified information with “gross negligence.” And Comey himself said that Clinton acted with “extreme carelessness.” Aren’t those phrases descriptions of pretty much the same thing?
They might be. However, Comey also emphasized that an examination of past cases played a large role in the FBI’s decision on Clinton. What that means, according to right-leaning Washington Post pundit Jennifer Rubin, is that the FBI did indeed think Clinton had violated federal law – but they could find no instances of anyone being prosecuted under the “gross negligence” standard. They weren’t about to set a new precedent and blow up US presidential politics in the bargain.
“We actually do require a high level of proof for prosecuting high government officials so as to avoid politicized harassment of public officials,” writes Ms. Rubin. “Call that a double standard of justice, but frankly it’s one with which investigators and prosecutors are very familiar.”
Rubin says this result will not satisfy everyone but might still be judicious. Comey’s description of Clinton’s actions regarding her email server was scathing. Many of her defenses have been exposed as untruths. Voters can now make up their own minds. It is not the fault of the FBI that Clinton’s electoral opponent is someone with even lower public approval ratings. | 0fake |
Half a Million Children Are Trapped in Syria, United Nations Says - The New York Times | With violence escalating in Aleppo and elsewhere across Syria, the United Nations said Saturday that the number of children trapped in besieged areas had doubled in less than a year to half a million. A report by Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, said the children were among hundreds of thousands of civilians in 16 areas under siege across the country who had been “almost completely cut off from sustained humanitarian aid and basic services. ” The report said some of these areas had received little or no aid in nearly two years, despite repeated efforts by international relief agencies to provide food and medicine. “This is no way to live,” Unicef’s executive director, Anthony Lake, said in the report. The report estimated that 100, 000 of the trapped children were among the civilians pinned down in eastern Aleppo, the portion of what had been prewar Syria’s commercial epicenter. Eastern Aleppo is now a focal point of the war, pitting an array of insurgents and militant jihadists against the forces of President Bashar of Syria and their Russian allies. The top United Nations diplomat seeking a negotiated end to the Syrian conflict, Staffan de Mistura, has repeatedly pleaded for a humanitarian halt to the fighting in Aleppo and has even offered to escort the militants out of the city. But Mr. Assad and his subordinates have said they intend to retake all of Aleppo, apparently regardless of the cost in lives and destruction, as he feels increasingly emboldened that the nearly war is moving in his favor. The Russian forces who have been assisting Mr. Assad for more than a year have been escalating their bombings against insurgent targets in northern Syria since . Syrian state news media reported Saturday that government troops had captured the Hanano district of eastern Aleppo, which was among the first to fall to insurgent control when fighting broke out in the city in 2012. In another indication of the deprivations confronting residents of eastern Aleppo, the Middle East coordinator of the World Food Program, the United Nations agency, said people had been scrounging through garbage for food scraps since the last rations, delivered in July, were distributed a few weeks ago. The coordinator, Muhannad Hadi, said in an interview with The Canadian Press that “people are looking through garbage to find something to eat — that’s if they find garbage in Aleppo. ” Mr. Hadi made the remarks during a visit to Ottawa to brief Canadian officials on the Syria crisis. | 0fake |
Turkey links U.S. judge in sanctions case to wanted cleric | ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman said on Wednesday the U.S. judge hearing the trial of an executive at Turkey s state-owned Halkbank had taken part in events organized by a cleric Ankara blames for last year s failed military coup. The issue has gone beyond a legal case, it has become a political case, spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in reference to the New York trial of a deputy general manager at the bank, who is charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. The executive has pleaded not guilty and Halkbank says it has abided by Turkish and international law. Erdogan s government has portrayed the case as a plot against Turkey by the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it alleges engineered last year s coup attempt. It is known that the judge has participated in events upon Gulen s invitation, Kalin told a news conference, without giving details. Turkish newspapers have said Judge Richard Berman attended a legal symposium in Istanbul in 2014 organized by Gulen supporters. Berman could not be reached for comment. At the first hearing in the case he said he was one of five U.S. legal experts who spoke at the symposium and moderated a panel discussion on independent and effective judiciary. In response to previous criticism from Turkey, the United States has said its judicial processes are independent. Already strained ties between NATO allies Ankara and Washington have deteriorated further over the court case, in which Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, has detailed a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions. Zarrab has implicated top Turkish politicians, including Erdogan. Zarrab said on Thursday that when Erdogan was prime minister he had authorized a transaction to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Although he has not yet responded to the courtroom claims, Erdogan has dismissed the case as a politically motivated attempt, led by Gulen, to bring down the Turkish government. We will continue watching it within the framework of the law, but the public is seeing how this is trying to be used as an instrument of blackmail, Kalin said. We have not done anything in violation of international laws, we carried out our activities transparently, Kalin said. Turkey has repeatedly requested Gulen s extradition, but U.S. officials have said the courts require sufficient evidence before they can extradite the elderly cleric, who has denied any involvement in the coup. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. | 0fake |
Republican Ted Cruz says Senate should not vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday said the Senate should not vote on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. “Merrick Garland is exactly the type of Supreme Court nominee you get when you make deals in Washington D.C.,” he said in a statement that also criticized rival Donald Trump, who often boasts of his ability to close deals. “A so-called ‘moderate’ Democrat nominee is precisely the kind of deal that Donald Trump has told us he would make - someone who would rule along with other liberals on the bench like Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor.” | 0fake |
Under speaker pressure, signs pointing to a reluctant Paul Ryan | As soon as Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) shocked his fellow Republicans by withdrawing from the race for House speaker, Paul Ryan knew what was coming.
“I will not be a candidate,” the Wisconsin Republican said in a release issued less than 20 minutes after McCarthy’s stunning Thursday announcement, in an immediate bid to cut off any pressure for him to do a job he has repeatedly said he does not want.
But this time, it didn’t take. By mid-afternoon, outgoing speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) had spoken to Ryan at least twice, trying to convince the reluctant congressman that he was the only man who could save House Republicans from their self-created chaos.
By day’s end, after hunkering down for two hours in his ceremonial office a few steps from the House floor, after listening to pleas from friends to take the reins of the bitterly divided Republican caucus, he emerged, declining to explicitly state his plans.
“I’ve got no news for you guys,” Ryan told reporters, exiting the Capitol. “I’ve got nothing to add right now. . . . This is not the time or place, guys.”
Boehner and several other prominent Republicans are turning to their party’s 2012 vice-presidential nominee out of desperation, believing that he is the only member of the House with the stature to be speaker. Two other members, Reps. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), have announced their candidacies, but they are widely seen as too inexperienced or underwhelming to handle the job.
Although Ryan has the standing and experience — at 45, he has already been in office 17 years — it is not clear that he is suited to the role, either. He has never held an elected leadership position, never had to spend hours listening to every complaint possible from rank-and-file lawmakers. A self-styled policy wonk, Ryan prefers to spend time in a committee room cobbling together legislation than working the fundraising circuit in New York and Florida — a modern-day requirement of any House speaker.
Even if Ryan does win the job, some supporters question whether the most respected member of the House Republican Conference would be able to tame the divisions to push a unified agenda: The same 30 to 40 conservatives who have helped usher Boehner toward the door, and who appeared ready to deny McCarthy the job, plan to be just as hard on whoever the next speaker is when it comes to showdowns with President Obama and Democrats.
“He’s still going to have to deal with the same dynamic,” said Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a leader of the small moderate wing and a backer of Ryan’s ascension. “That may be part of the reason why he’s denying this so far — he knows the dynamic.”
Yet by 6:15 p.m. Thursday, as McCarthy increased the pressure on Ryan to run for the job and the Capitol press corps camped outside his office, Ryan’s spokesman resorted to Twitter.
But everything has changed, according to his colleagues.
As they voted on the House floor late Thursday, Ryan was besieged by his GOP colleagues. As the lawmakers huddled, Ryan aides canceled his fundraising and political events for the next
48 hours, a move interpreted by his friends as a signal that he had gone from a hard “no” to undecided after speaking with Boehner.
His party’s elder statesmen, long enamored with Ryan’s policy inclinations since his days as a disciple of Jack Kemp, said he needed to answer the call. But that doesn’t mean the door is shut.
“Knowing him, if it becomes clear to him, as it is to so many others, that he’s first among peers, he may do it,” William J. Bennett, an education secretary in the Reagan administration and a close friend of Ryan, said in an interview Thursday.
The situation is more dire than the one Ryan confronted two weeks ago when Boehner, under intense pressure from the right flank, shocked the House Republican Conference by announcing his plan to resign Oct. 30, setting
Oct. 29 as the original date for a full vote of the House on his successor.
Walking out of that Sept. 25 meeting, Ryan said then — and has consistently repeated — that he did not want the job and that it would be a terrible one for a man with three school-age children living in Janesville, Wis., 75 miles southwest of Milwaukee.
His long game, according to those close to him, is not rising up in the House. He has been touted as a potential treasury secretary in a GOP administration. He declined to run for president this time, but he still has a couple of decades ahead of him.
That future could crumble if he listens to his colleagues. Not since Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) left as speaker in 1986 has anyone retired from that job in good standing. Today’s House is more rife with pitfalls than it was even a decade ago.
Many of his colleagues, such Rep. Bill Flores (R-Tex.), head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, were calling on him Thursday to gamble his future to meet the present need.
“I would say, unequivocally, if I could choose the perfect person to be speaker, today, for this conference, it would be Paul Ryan,” Flores said.
Karoun Demirjian, Kelsey Snell and David Weigel contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Donald Trump Recognizes American Tourist Killed In London Terror Attack | President Donald Trump recognized the death of Kurt Cochran, an American citizen that was killed in the terror attack in London on Wednesday. [“A great American, Kurt Cochran, was killed in the London terror attack,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “My prayers and condolences are with his family and friends. ” Cochran and his wife were tourists, according to Breitbart London, and among the first people hit by the extremist’s vehicle as he drove into the crowd on Westminster Bridge. Cochran was killed, but his wife is recovering in the hospital. Vice President Mike Pence also expressed his condolences. | 0fake |
Watch: Alex Marlow Talks Media, Free Speech, and Rhetoric with Bill Maher - Breitbart | On Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, host and comedian Bill Maher interviewed Breitbart News Alex Marlow. The two discussed Breitbart’s coverage, the media, Russia, free speech, the shooting at a congressional baseball practice, and political rhetoric. Marlow said that Breitbart is “not going to cover the exact same stories the exact same way as all the other outlets. We’ll leave that to the rest of the establishment press. We’re very much trying to highlight stories that we don’t think get their fair day. ” After the discussion turned to Russia, Marlow stated that there was no evidence of collusion or obstruction of justice, adding, “You guys continue to talk about this story in the establishment press instead of talking about the president’s agenda, which is by design. Because you guys won’t apologize if it turns out there’s nothing, no one will come out on MSNBC, they’ll just move on to the next hysteria, and that’s a huge advantage for people like me who are covering the rest of the news. ” Marlow later said, “I love highlighting Muslim voices who are progressive and reformist and want to take out some of the misogyny and some of the hatred associated with radical elements of it. And I think that’s an important place to start, but to bring back what Breitbart does different than anyone else, is we cover stories the establishment press doesn’t want to cover. ” On free speech, Maher and Marlow agreed that if the depictions of the assassination of President Trump were of President Obama, the reaction on the left would be different. Maher then raised corporations pulling ads from people who engage in speech they do not like. Marlow said, “This really started — in my view — in the modern era, with Breitbart — where a lot of people are boycotting Breitbart. And what they’re doing is, there’s a lot of anonymous people online, cowardly people. We don’t know who’s funding them. We don’t know who they are, who are putting out all of this misinformation about who we are and what we stand for, and they’re trying to round up corporations to boycott us. And so, what’s happened is that corporations are now deciding what’s free and fair speech, who can make a living, what opinions you can make a living saying now, and, of course, now, you’re seeing the right fight fire with fire and want boycotts of when the left takes it too far in their Trump hatred. So it’s a very dangerous path we’re on, and I really do think, Bill, and I appreciate you giving me this opportunity, people on the left and the right who are free speech advocates need to come together right now and say that corporations are not going to define the First Amendment and free speech in this country. ” Marlow said that he does not believe Bernie Sanders is at fault for the congressional baseball practice shooting and continued, “When you have a climate where you have, CNN, for example, calling Breitbart to the number one platform for the Nazi salute over a video we never played and CNN played, when you have the New York Times accusing Breitbart of putting racist dog whistles out, when the media lies so much about people, calling Trump supporters racists, despicable, deplorable, all of these things over and over … ” Maher cut in, “They have been racist, despicable, and deplorable. ” Marlow concluded, “I encourage everyone to go to breitbart. . You can meet some of the Breitbart reporters, the Breitbart editors. They’re the most wonderful, diverse, influential journalists on the planet, and no one is interested in their real story because they’re so quick to call people racist. And it’s not working. That is why so many Democrats are losing across the country. … And so, if you want to play that game, Bill, if you want to keep calling us racists, I don’t think it’s going to work for you, so please, have at it. ” Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo. | 0fake |
Aktif Bank says has not violated U.S., international sanctions | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish lender Aktif Bank said on Thursday it had not violated any U.S. or international sanctions, after it was mentioned in the U.S. case regarding Iran sanctions violations. Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is a witness, testified on Wednesday that he had initially handled Iranian transactions through Aktif Bank. He said Aktif Bank at first hesitated to open an account for him and it shut down the account after receiving a warning from the United States. No transaction violating U.S. or international sanctions has occurred on behalf of our bank, the lender said in a statement. We have and continue to cooperate with international and national institutions and the result of this case will not have negative impacts on us. Zarrab said he used Halkbank to continue his transactions with Iran after Aktif Bank stopped working with him. A Halkbank executive, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, is a defendant in the case. Atilla has pleaded not guilty. | 0fake |
Zimbabwe protest crowd heads to Mugabe's Harare compound | HARARE (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters seeking to remove Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe from office heeded a call from a leader of the powerful liberation war veterans on Saturday to march on the 93-year-old s residence in the capital. Let us now go and deliver the message that grandfather Mugabe and his typist-cum-wife should go home, war veterans secretary-general Victor Matemadanda told an anti-Mugabe rally in the Harare township of Highfield. As he spoke, people started leaving the rally to head towards Mugabe s lavish Blue Roof residence, live television pictures showed. | 0fake |
Oops! BILL CLINTON SAYS Hillary Has Had Other “Episodes”…CBS Edits Out To Cover For Hillary! | Bill Clinton somehow seems to sabotage Hillary quite frequently. It s kind of funny but she s probably not too happy with Bill. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Bill Clinton makes a major admission about Hillary s episodes . The most disturbing part about this is that this part of the video will not vein the interview to air tomorrow on CBS! Because frequently, Clinton began, according to CBS website, before correcting himself, well not frequently, rarely but on more than one occasion, over the last many, many years, the same sort of thing happened to her when she got severely dehydrated. Bill Clinton s attempt on Monday at downplaying his wife s recent fainting spell may have backfired.During an interview with CBS News Charlie Rose, the former president said that Hillary Clinton has on more than one occasion had a fainting episode after becoming severely dehydrated. Rose asked Bill Clinton if the episode indicates that his wife has more serious medical issues. Well if it is, it s a mystery to me and all of her doctors, he responded. Because frequently, Clinton began, according to CBS website, before correcting himself, well not frequently, rarely but on more than one occasion, over the last many, many years, the same sort of thing happened to her when she got severely dehydrated. She s doing fine, she was even better last night before she went to sleep, he continued.Clinton s frequently slip is not included in CBS s broadcast of the interview.Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
Ammosexual Anti-Obama Organizer Shoots Fellow ‘Patriot’ In Drunken Fight Over A Gun (VIDEO/SCREENSHOTS) | The planned right-wing extremist event Paul Revere 2016 Final March to Restore America hit a snag on Monday when one of the organizers was shot dead. No, the socialist Communist Muslim atheist fascist tyrant Obama didn t have him killed, and he certainly wasn t taken out because he threatens the New World Order s agenda to use chemtrails and HAARP to kill Christians Charles Carter died at the hands of a fellow conservative in an argument over (shockingly) a gun.Authorities have not released details of the shooting, which occurred in Grayson County, Texas, but the Paul Revere event page announced Carter s death in an emotional plea to God to give the poster understanding of the incident.Apparently, God responded, as the event page s current administrator, an organizer of the failure that was the 2 Million bikers 2 DC rally, Bill Williamson, had many more details later in the day. I am behooved as to what has happened with Charles Carter and Vincent Smith from the Paul Revere event, the admin complained. The event that sky rocketed in a week has gone to hell and a handbasket in less then 24 hours Charles is dead, shot in the fore head by Vincent Smith. The administrator explained that Carter attacked fellow organizer Smith in a drunken argument over a gun (though Smith was allegedly sober):I was in chat with Charles Carter most of the morning and I could see in his post that shit was not right within him. Shortly after Vincent shot Charles then I was on the phone with him and he explained what happened, Vincent was attacked by Charles that was liquored up and enraged. Charles attacked Vincent, snatched his side arm from him and was going to shoot Vincent. Vincent had a spare gun on him and was SOBER and faster then Charles Carter. Vincent Smith I Pray for You Brother as I am Praying for Charles Carter. I Pray that you both find peace. The Texas Marshal has ruled this a self defense, and from talking to Vincent IN DEPTH I Bill Williamson BELIEVE HIM! the administrator wrote. If I am wrong them so be it. Right-wing online radio host Keith Williams also shared his sorrow over the unnecessary example of responsible gun ownership. Williams says that Carter was killed by a fellow patriot who was suppose to be his brother in arms and friend. One of their fellow patriots says Carter was shot between the eyes. Recently, the state of Texas made it completely legal to open carry handguns. While it is a felony in the state to carry any firearm while intoxicated, conservatives have traditionally opposed any and all firearms safety laws, viewing them as some sort of plot to grab guns from patriots like them. Unfortunately, we can expect to see responsible gun owners and good guys with guns (as the NRA calls every (white) person carrying a weapon until, of course, they commit a crime) shooting their friends family members, and enemies alike until we reform our firearms laws.Watch a video of Carter ironically begging conservatives to stop fighting with each other below:(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Stop behaving like childrenPAUL REVERE 2016 FINAL MARCH TO RESTORE AMERICA ( PAGE )WAKE UP AMERICA ( PAGE )Posted by Charles Carter on Saturday, January 9, 2016Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Hillary Clinton Snags Coveted Endorsement Of The Congressional Black Caucus | If there was any doubt about whether or not Hillary Clinton had the black vote locked up, said doubts are sure to be squashed now. The Congressional Black Caucus will formally endorse the former Secretary of State for president on Thursday morning, according to The Washington Post. Endorsing isn t all they are doing, either.Following the planned meeting with the Democratic National Committee to officially hand Clinton their nod, Caucus leaders will send their troops out into states where the black vote is a make-or-break situation to make sure that they have as much support for their candidate as possible. They are intensely focused on South Carolina, where getting the black vote out will definitely be a boost for whichever candidate takes that state s primary. From the Washington Post: It s one thing to endorse and do nothing. It s another thing to endorse and to go to work, said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the CBC PAC. These lawmakers are, Meeks said, people that can actually testify [to] the work that Hillary Clinton has done. This is so true. Endorsements hold power, but the work that goes along with them is just as if not more than important. A whopping 90 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus is on board with endorsing Clinton. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D- NC), who chairs the Caucus, says of the endorsement of Clinton over Sanders, despite the fact that Sanders message is popular with young progressives: Many of these are first-time voters and Senator Sanders message resonates with the younger generation because of the promises that he is making. But Mrs. Clinton and others are going to challenge the message by suggesting that it is unrealistic to believe that we can accomplish all of the things that Senator Sanders proposes. They need to understand that when a candidate presents a message, you ve got to pierce the message to determine whether or not it s realistic, given the political climate that we live in. It s not a negative, it s not an aspersion on the new voter. It s the fact that many of them are inexperienced and have not gone through a presidential election cycle before. And that is what is important they aren t against Sanders just because they are for Clinton. It is important for folks here on the left to realize you can support one candidate over the other during the primary, but to ultimately vote blue in November.Congratulations, Secretary Clinton!Featured image via Hillary Clinton Twitter | 1real |
How To Lower Blood Pressure Naturally | Bel Marra Health October 31, 2016
Here’s a snapshot of America’s health when it comes to the heart: Heart disease is the number one killer. High blood pressure is a contributing cause of about 1,000 deaths a day – and one in every three American adults has the condition. About seven in 10 don’t realize it, putting them at risk for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease.
About seven in 10 adults with high blood pressure use medication to control it.
That’s according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While we’re not quibbling with the necessity for medication to get blood pressure under control, there are natural remedies for high blood pressure, including spices and herbs that can help. Since keeping your blood pressure in the healthy range is something you need to do all your life, it’s better to control it without drugs, if you can.
Natural home remedies for high blood pressure
You’ve likely heard a lot about lifestyle factors that can have a huge impact on your blood pressure, like stress, alcohol, lack of exercise, smoking, and diet. The most important of these, in our books, is a heart-healthy diet. Focus on watching your salt intake (and balancing it with more potassium from foods like bananas, lima beans, melons, and squash), limit your sugar, and cut down on caffeine.
As part of your heart-healthy diet, consider the following spices and medicinal herbs to lower high blood pressure. You can incorporate them into your cooking, baking, and meal prep – as a little extra something to help your heart. They’re nature’s way of providing us with the good things we need to stay healthy.
Medicinal herbs and spices to lower blood pressure quickly
Basil: This is good news for cooks and foodies. Versatile, fragrant basil for lowering blood pressure is a great addition to many culinary favorites. Tear some fresh basil leaves and sprinkle liberally on your next pizza or bruschetta, use for a Thai curry, or try it chopped and beaten into softened butter and melted over roast chicken or crushed boiled new potatoes.
Try keeping a small of the herb in your kitchen garden (for easy, fresh access) and then it’s even more convenient to add to your cooking on a regular basis.
Tasty, yes, and good for helping to lower your blood pressure. The U.S. National Library of Medicine reports that extract of basil has been shown to lower blood pressure, although only briefly. But that’s a start to get you on track. It may work in a similar way to medication by affecting levels of endothelins, which are proteins that constrict blood vessels. When blood vessels are constricted, blood flow is slowed down or partially blocked – not good!
You need good blood flow for circulation and overall health. Your body depends on the nutrients and oxygen in your blood to be carried efficiently through your veins and arteries.
Garlic: Another kitchen staple and one of the top natural remedies for supporting healthy blood flow, this pungent seasoning brings wonderful flavor to foods. Add it fresh to your dishes, like soups, stews, and stir-fries.
If it’s a little on the strong side for your preference, roast it first in the oven. Trim the end off the bulb and drizzle a bit of olive oil over each exposed clove. Then cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 to 35 minutes. Try spreading this deliciousness on party toasts at your next gathering.
Not only addictive and good to eat, garlic can help with healthy blood flow (good for your heart and blood pressure).
Cardamom: This seasoning comes from India (think fragrant chai tea) and is often used in traditional dishes of South Asia. It has a sweet flavor similar to grapefruit and ginger, if you can imagine that. Scientists in India have studied its effects on blood pressure, and recommend a teaspoon of cardamom powder taken with honey twice a day for healthy blood pressure.
Other options? Include cardamom seeds or powder in soups and stews, spice rubs, and in baked goods for a kick and a positive health benefit.
Cat’s claw: When it comes to medicinal herbs to lower high blood pressure, cat’s claw has been used in China for thousands of years. Studies have suggested its effectiveness. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), rhynchophylline, an alkaloid or certain organic compound in cat’s claw, has demonstrated an ability inhibiting both the formation of plaque on arterial walls and formation of blood clots in the brain, heart, and arteries.
You’ll find cat’s claw in supplement form in health stores and supplement sections at your supermarket.
Celery seed: Another herb popular in traditional Chinese medicine, celery seed has been used to help with hypertension. You can use the seeds to flavor soups, casseroles, and other savory dishes – and you can also juice the whole plant. It has a salty taste, making it a good mix with the sweeter fruit juices. Try carrot, apple, and celery first thing in the morning for a terrific pick-me-up. It’s a nutrient powerhouse in a glass. You might like it better than your morning coffee (we said might!).
Celery in your diet can act as a natural diuretic, so its potassium and sodium content helps to regulate body fluids. It also has a nutrient called phthalide, reported to promote cardiovascular health.
These are a few medicinal herbs to lower high blood pressure. As you can see, going the natural route is an appetizing one. So start with your diet, and spend more time in your kitchen preparing fresh, whole foods and sampling these heart-healthy herbs and spices. Tags: | 1real |
Blizzard of charges and countercharges melts away as opinions of Trump and Clinton are frozen | This has turned into the whiplash election, and it’s virtually impossible to keep up with the head-snapping revelations.
Even the most diligent journalist can get vertigo trying to investigate and evaluate each disclosure, which damages Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump and spawns dire predictions that their campaign is toast, only to fade in a news cycle or two.
Some developments that in a “normal” election would badly wound a presidential candidate get meager exposure in the rest of the media because they are overshadowed by other mega-stories. No one has the bandwidth to do it all.
This is more than a mere campaign; its craziness has become the beating heart of American culture, debated in every cubicle and coffee shop and at every level of the increasingly toxic stew of social media.
Just look at the last few weeks:
Democrats and many members of the media have taken up weapons and stormed a place called Comey Island.
The FBI director shook up the race by revealing a probe of emails that wound up on the laptop of a top aide’s estranged husband under investigation for sending illicit messages to an underage girl.
The New York Times reported that Trump avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes through a loophole scheme so dubious his own lawyers advised him that the IRS could declare it improper.
The Clinton campaign got advance questions before CNN town halls from a top Democratic Party official who was also a paid contributor at the network, which booted her.
The Washington Post reported that Donald Trump has repeatedly “sought credit for charity he had not given — or had claimed other people’s giving as his own.”
Back on Comey Island, the FBI chief was reported to have argued that the administration shouldn’t accuse Russia of using cyberwarfare to interfere with the presidential campaign because—yes--it would look partisan so close to the election.
Hacked emails revealed that the daughter of the Democratic nominee’s husband, himself a former president, complained that his aides were cashing in on the Clinton Foundation and siphoning money from her parents.
The Trump Foundation was ordered to stop fundraising by the New York attorney general, a Democrat and Clinton supporter.
Clinton’s top advisers, reeling after the email scandal broke, complained that said she had terrible instincts and a pathological aversion to apologizing, according to hacked emails.
Back on Comey Island, the FBI looked into whether Trump’s company had a secret email server communicating with a Russian bank but found no direct link.
A Clinton aide complained in a hacked email that “we…speak in such a tortured, nuanced way when we don’t get any advantage from the nuance, and just wind up looking political.”
Back on Comey Island, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation of Trump’s former campaign manager and his ties to Russian interests, which Paul Manafort said he knew nothing about.
Trump boasted a decade ago on a Hollywood entertainment show that as a celebrity he could grab women by the genitals, which he now dismisses as locker-room talk.
Back on Comey Island, FBI agents were investigating financial and ethical issues at the Clinton Foundation but were told to stand down by top law-enforcement officials, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Eleven women accused Trump of sexually propositioning them or unwanted kissing or touching, all of which he denounced as lies.
Trump held a news conference before a debate with Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey, who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, and Juanita Broaddrick, who has accused him of rape, which he has denied.
Hillary Clinton nearly collapsed while getting into a car and belatedly revealed that she had pneumonia.
And, well, I could go on.
Many of these cases prompted media firestorms, complete with predictions that Trump or Clinton would be seriously or even fatally damaged. But then the stories were overtaken by some new allegation or outrage.
In the case of Comey’s renewed email investigation, polls so far suggest that it hasn’t moved the needle much beyond the tightening that was already taking place in the race.
It may well be that we’ve all become numb in this whiplash campaign. The race is so polarized, and public attitudes toward Trump and Clinton so firmly established, that each new front-page headline or cable obsession changes few minds.
Perhaps the only consensus is a sense of relief that this long, strange trip is finally coming to an end.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. | 0fake |
Obama’s DOJ Just Got Serious About Institutional Racism And Class Warfare In The Court System | One of the positive effects of the racial tension in Ferguson, Missouri that began with the killing of Michael Brown was the subsequent resignation and replacement of the city s municipal court judge. After a Department of Justice review found the former judge ran his court as a for-profit entity, squeezing fine after fine from a city held hostage to his abuse, the new judge made some radical changes that allowed an entire city to breathe a little easier.The judge removed all warrants and license suspensions for non-payment of fines from the previous year, solving several problems in one fell swoop. First, people could stop fearing that the police would pull them over or stop them on the street at random looking for a collar and a few more dollars for the city s coffers. Next, it allowed citizens to have a new day in court in front of a judge who wasn t there to stock the prison system with cheap labor and add fines to people who already couldn t pay. People lined up to pay their old fines if they could or make payment arrangements or ask that they are dismissed if they couldn t.The end result was a city that had been victimized by class warfare and institutional racism being given a new start. No longer would 70 percent of households have no right against illegal searches just because someone inside had a bench warrant for not paying a fine they couldn t afford. No longer would police be able to pull people over at random, almost certain to make their arrest quota by ruining the livelihoods of people forced to drive on suspended licenses or lose their jobs.Ferguson was a perpetual circle of hell for its residents when it came to the police and the court system. It was also the perfect place to start a movement to reform it. Now Justice Department civil rights prosecutor Vanita Gupta is taking the philosophy that s working so well in Ferguson and trying to spreads it nationwide. While the letter she wrote to state courts doesn t carry the full weight of the law, it does carry the seal of the United States Justice Department and the full support of the executive branch of the U.S. government.That letter, which is a stern warning to judges and clerks to be wary of tactics that target the poor and minorities, including setting bail amounts beyond reason for charges filed and using bench warrants as a way to make money. Imagine if every court in the country took the same steps Ferguson did. People wouldn t have to be afraid every time they see a police officer. Why do seem nervous could be eliminated from a cop s line of questioning when they pull someone over. What police call routine traffic stops of people they know have warrants for outstanding fines after running their tags could be eliminated from the for-profit system.Ferguson basically hit the reset button. With the help of our president s Justice Department, maybe other courts in low-income neighborhoods will follow suit.Featured image from Wikipedia | 1real |
OBAMA SNUBS NANCY REAGAN: Will Attend Hipster Festival And Skip Funeral | So Obama is skipping Nancy Reagan s funeral for the South by Southwest festival in Austin. It s a big event for the tech world but you d think Obama would feel a duty to go to the funeral of the former First Lady. Our president is like a petulant child who does exactly what he wants to do without regard for anyone else. He s sending Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton is going what a snub! A White House official confirmed this afternoon that President Barack Obama will not be in attendance at former First Lady Nancy Reagan s funeral on Friday, instead opting to attend a popular multimedia festival in Texas.Obama will be represented at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library by his wife, Michelle. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she will be attending the service in Simi Valley, California, as well. In late February, Obama drew widespread criticism after skipping the funeral for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The president is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Friday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin. The annual event features movie screenings, musical performances and conferences on interactive media and technology, and has become known as a must-attend date for those in the tech world and Silicon Valley. Read more: Daily Mail | 1real |
Things I Wish I Had Known When My Dog Died - The New York Times | On Jan. 4, 11 years and 26 days after I walked out of an animal shelter in New Jersey with a little white and brown dog attached to the end of a leash, she died. On this day, an undiagnosed tumor pressed down on Emily’s brain and told her that she needed to escape, which made her usually soft, cuddly and often napping body go wild, endangering herself and me. The humane thing to do was put her down. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for that moment, or the searing grief that followed. But if I could go back in time to console myself, I would tell myself these six things: Most people will say the wrong thing. They will talk about dogs they knew and loved and put down, too, or, if they haven’t walked through this long, lonely tunnel yet, about how they can’t possibly imagine losing their very alive pet, which reminds you that yours is dead. They will also ask how old she was, and when you say 15, they will say, “Well, it was a good long life,” as if the ending of it would be less painful because of how long you were together. They may tell you other dog death stories, too, like the one about the dog who was so excited to be home from vacation that he bolted out of the car and was immediately run over while the whole family watched — stories that imply it could have been worse. They will shove shelter listings for other Jack Russell terriers at you, as if another dog could slip into that perfect little spot left by your beloved pet. Guilt overwhelms. I still tell myself that I killed Emily, despite the veterinarian telling me, after her body had been taken away, while I gripped both a counter and a vet tech to keep from collapsing, that all four of her paws had been bloodied as she had clawed at the floor, the door and the ground during her manic and desperate attempt to get away from my home. There is guilt, too, over the relief of no longer having to take care of a dog who was on multiple medications and who had arthritis, two defective heart valves and pulmonary hypertension. You will become unmoored. I adopted Emily soon after I became a freelance writer, and I wrote three books with her by my side. She was the metronome to my life. With her gone, I floated through a space she no longer occupied but haunted with every little white hair found on my blankets, on the floor, in my shoes. Once, in the first week following her death, I came up from the basement and looked at the spot where she would usually be waiting. I called for her with the foolish notion that she’d appear at the top of the stairs. But of course, no: just another sledgehammer reminder that she was really gone. Grief is exhausting. Last fall, I ran two marathons and an ultramarathon. After Emily died, I couldn’t drag myself through three miles, not to mention find the energy to get out of bed, put on clothes that were not my pajamas and shower at regular intervals. I pushed off assignments because the idea of putting my fingers to the keyboard was inconceivable when Emily wasn’t sleeping on her bed in the corner of my office. These were wretched, days, surrounded by a deafening silence. I went back into therapy after she died and was told I was depressed, which wasn’t surprising, as I had started to slip into bed at 8:30 p. m. and not get up until half a day later. Losing a companion and your routine all at once, especially if you’re single like me, could throw anyone into a tailspin. It will get better. You won’t want to hear it, or believe it, because the pain is so suffocating. It does ease, though, almost without you noticing it. But still, it slaps back. This may happen at predictable moments, such as when you decide to sell her crate, and sometimes not. Soon after Emily died, I got on a plane and went to Florida to bake out the pain with poolside sessions punctuated by midday drinks. It worked, somewhat, but on my last night there, my face cracked open at the World of Disney store when I saw a mug with the character Stitch that said “brave” on one side and “loyal” on the other. Only the cashier noticed that I paid with tears and snot running down my face. I then ran out of the store to stare at a lake. These days, I get up, I brush my teeth, I write, I run. I smile now and laugh sometimes. The pain still catches me, though, and I can now more clearly see why: I loved that dog, and in giving a scared, abused, imperfect Emily a home, she loved me back, and together our lives both bloomed. The loss of that joy is why the pain is so acute — and why, at some point in the maybe not so distant future, I’ll go back to that animal shelter with a leash, and do it all over again. | 0fake |
‘It Finally Clicked That This Wasn’t an Exercise’: Report Recounts San Bernardino Shooting - The New York Times | The two masked killers burst through a door and, without saying a word, swept the conference room with semiautomatic rifle fire, spraying more than 100 rounds before they fled, just two or three minutes later. A new report chronicles in vivid detail the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. where Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 24 others. The couple pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, committed the rampage and died hours later in a wild shootout with the police, when Mr. Farook was shot 25 times and Ms. Malik was hit 13 times. The report contains the first official account of how the killers were identified and tracked down, with a handful of officers playing crucial roles. And it reveals a wealth of specifics that had not been made public before, including the number of gunshots, and the horrors that officers and victims encountered. The scene that police officers found minutes after the massacre overwhelmed the senses: dozens of maimed or dead bodies, spattered and pooling blood, the haze and smell of gunfire, a shattered pipe pouring water from the ceiling, a wailing alarm. And wounded victims pleading for help, clutching at officers whose first priority was to find the attackers. The report was produced by the Police Foundation, a policy study group in Washington, with help from the Justice Department and local law enforcement agencies the authors interviewed more than 200 people, from police chiefs to survivors. After The New York Times obtained a draft version and reported on its contents, the Justice Department on Friday released the final document. Some details changed — including the number of times the killers were shot, how many shots they fired and how their vehicle was traced — but the overall picture was unaltered. Three men tried to stop the slaughter, rushing Mr. Farook, but he shot all three, the earlier version of the report said. It did not say whether the men survived. The anecdote was left out of the final report, but a Justice Department official confirmed that it was correct. The report shows how officers from multiple agencies handled a rapidly unfolding crisis, making decisions on the fly, often with little coordination or direction. The results were quick, sometimes heroic responses that may have saved lives but also created confusion and mistakes, though none proved fatal. Perhaps most disturbing, more than six hours passed before officers searched a bag the killers had left at the scene of the shooting. Inside were three pipe bombs. The victims were familiar with the site of the massacre, a conference room at the Inland Regional Center where about 80 employees of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health were attending a training session. They had met there before — in fact, many of them had attended training in that same room a year earlier. Mr. Farook, 28, was born in the United States to parents from Pakistan. Ms. Malik, 29, was born in Pakistan but had lived much of her life in Saudi Arabia. After they met and married in 2014 in Saudi Arabia, she moved to the United States, obtained legal residence and gave birth to a daughter. Mr. Farook, a food inspector whose colleagues never suspected him of radicalism, put the bag with the bombs in the room and left. He and his wife returned about half an hour later, shortly before 11 a. m. masked and clad in black, armed with rifles — a civilian variant of the military rifle — and semiautomatic pistols. Mr. Farook’s rifle had been modified in a failed attempt to make it fully automatic. The first people killed were two men sitting outside along the walkway to the conference room. One was shot while eating at a picnic table the other was found with his cellphone still in his hand. The couple then entered the conference room and opened fire, calmly emptying and reloading their rifles. A county official quoted in the draft version of the report said he thought at first that it was “the most glorified training I had ever seen,” adding, “probably on the second or third clip, it finally clicked that this wasn’t an exercise. ” Some people ran through the far door, deeper into the building. Others ducked under tables or hid in bathrooms, closets and cupboards. One woman dashed through the door the attackers had entered, but they shot her dead as she fled. A bullet ripped through a wall and wounded a woman in another room. One woman quoted in the earlier version of the report said that as she lay wounded, a female who had been shot in the head asked her to call her mother to say goodbye. She tried to comfort the other woman, saying she was all right. “‘I’m not, I’m bleeding from the mouth,’ the colleague said before closing her eyes for good,” the report said. Within six minutes of the first 911 call, San Bernardino officers reached the center — not a team, just the scattered few who arrived fastest. One was riding in a car driven by a trainee when the call came, he took the wheel, sped to the scene, grabbed his shotgun and helmet, and told the trainee to hide. Thinking the attackers were still present, the first four officers entered the south side of the conference room. They followed their training, arranging themselves like the points of a diamond. They stuck to the guideline “locate, isolate, evacuate,” meaning find and neutralize the threat before helping victims. Officers from the county Probation Department quickly arrived and set up a triage area for the wounded. “The terror in their eyes was unbelievable it was scarier than the wounds,” a probation sergeant said. The draft version of the report quoted another sergeant describing a woman with “a hole in her leg that was the size of a cereal bowl,” who said, with a blank expression, “I am going to die, please don’t let me die. ” A San Bernardino SWAT team reached the scene within 11 minutes of the first call. A second SWAT team, drawn from the police departments of surrounding cities, came shortly after. Soon there were legions of officers from several local agencies. Many of them “” heading to the scene without waiting for instructions, which produced a rapid response but also uncertainty about who was doing what. The report describes confusion and missteps similar to those that marked the police response to other mass attacks, like the Washington Navy Yard shooting in 2013 and the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. in 2012. But the authors of the report also praised San law enforcement agencies, noting that they had learned from previous episodes and had practiced working together. The SWAT teams went room to room through the multiple buildings of the Inland Regional Center, which houses social service agencies, but they had no protocol for marking which rooms had been searched. Officers stood outside with their guns trained on the second and third floors of one building, incorrectly suspecting that the shooters were hiding there. So many emergency vehicles were parked at random angles that ambulances could not get close to the complex, and officers carried the wounded out. Despite the confusion, emergency workers got all of the wounded to hospitals within 57 minutes of the first 911 call — inside the “golden hour” that experts say is a critical benchmark. All of them survived. Investigators spent almost three hours inspecting a package on the second floor that proved harmless, but officers did not notice the bag containing the pipe bombs until 5:08 p. m. After the shootout with the terrorists, some officers said that while they were still trying to record the crime scene, federal agents were already removing evidence like weapons and a cellphone. A rookie officer got a crucial piece of information while interviewing witnesses and forwarded it to his father, a police sergeant. A county health worker had noticed that Mr. Farook had left early and told the officer that “there was just something about the shooter, from his body language to his body composition, that seemed familiar. ” A search turned up several people in the region named Syed Farook, and officers were sent to all of the addresses. After the police put out word that a black S. U. V. had been seen leaving the center, several people called with tips, including one caller who had memorized a Utah license plate. A Police Department analyst found that the vehicle belonged to a rental car company and learned by calling the company that the S. U. V. had been rented by a Syed Farook. Word went out on the radio that he lived a few minutes away, in the city of Redlands. Among those responding was a San Bernardino police narcotics team, but other officers did not know that. The narcotics officers were undercover, driving unmarked cars and not talking on their radios, in case criminals were listening. As they neared the Redlands address, the narcotics officers saw the S. U. V. and followed it. One officer flagged down a passing Redlands police sergeant and told him what was happening the sergeant put the information out over the police radio. The sergeant and a sheriff’s deputy joined the undercover officers following the couple. After the couple drove back to San Bernardino, the sergeant tried to pull them over, alerting them that they were being followed. Ms. Malik started shooting at the officers through the back window of the S. U. V. Mr. Farook then stopped the vehicle and stepped out, firing his rifle as his wife kept shooting from the back seat. Together they fired at least 81 shots and had almost 2, 400 more rounds of ammunition, but as more officers arrived, they were heavily outgunned. Most of the shots that hit Mr. Farook struck his legs, possibly because officers believed — erroneously — that the couple were wearing body armor. Two of the 13 rounds that hit Ms. Malik struck her in the head. The shootout lasted about three minutes, but in that time, 24 officers fired at least 440 rounds, riddling the S. U. V. with bullet holes. By the time it ended, more than 175 local, state and federal officers were at the scene. Remarkably, only two officers were hurt, each with a wound to the thigh. One did not realize he had been hit until 13 hours later, when he took a shower. | 0fake |
An explanation for why the FBI re-opened Hillary's e-mails | Jimstone.is
October 31 2016
Huma's husband, Anthony Weiner (which blows the whole Huma/Islam meme into the gutter; all we are seeing with this is the fact the "Muslims" running Saudi Arabia are crypto Jews) – ANYWAY , Hillary was so sure she'd never be called to account with her e-mails that she was careless enough to have them end up on Weiner's personal laptop in a file he titled "life insurance".
Well, you know how the entire establishment is wrapped up in child sex and other similar crimes, and Weiner ended up getting his laptop seized by the NYPD in a kiddie porn/child sex investigation. When the NYPD went through the laptop, they found Hillary's e-mails in FULL UNADULTERATED PRISTINE FORM. They proved crimes of the highest order – at least 15 felonies found so far, with a majority of them related to treason and selling out the country.
SO THE NYPD OPENED UP A CASE ON HILLARY. The FBI said, NO, WE'LL TAKE THAT – and that is the ONLY reason why these investigations got re-opened: because if the NYPD handled it, huge portions of the FBI would be sent to prison. Now the FBI is under pressure to actually do its job, because they know the NYPD knows. No matter what the outcome, the FBI gains zero (0) ZERO credibility points from this.
So read my report DO NOT FORGIVE : it was BANG ON, they did this because they HAD TO, not because they had any intention at all of being good, and it really is time to drain the swamp.
Now let's all sit and wait for the suicide of Preet Bharara , the U.S. Prosecuting Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the NYPD who pushed this into the light. He's now a target of the FBI, the DNC, the Clinton death machine and God knows what else. PREDICTION (and I do not make predictions): THE DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATIONS FOR THE NYPD WILL "COMMIT SUICIDE" WITHIN 5 DAYS. He's a walking dead man.
The circle of crime in Washington DC is so entrenched and so intertwined that if you poke one part of it, there is a good chance the whole show will fall apart. Poking that monster in a way that hurts is something I do not believe anyone will survive; Preet might as well call himself a zombie.
The NYPD TRUMPED the FBI! That is why they had to investigate Hillary!
Well well, the NYPD is what busted the Hillary mails open while they were looking for kiddie stuff on Weiner's laptop, and THAT is why the FBI was forced to investigate Hillary. They had no choice. NYPD TRUMPS FBI!!!
Related:
Insiders Threaten to Expose Hillary's Pedophile Sex Ring!!! | 1real |
Review: Kesha, Dodging the Past, but Still Relying on It - The New York Times | Pop songs in the modern era are the products of collaboration — singers, writers, producers, engineers and many more all have a part to play. That arrangement engenders a perennial anxiety: Is it the songs that have fans, or the singer? And can the singer go it alone detached from the ecosystem that laid the foundation for her success? Kesha tested these questions in real time on Thursday night, when she played a show at Warsaw, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as part of her first proper tour in three years. That time has been tumultuous: In lawsuits seeking release from her contracts, she accused the producer Dr. Luke, her longtime collaborator and the chief of the label imprint to which she is signed, of sexual improprieties, including rape. He countersued, asserting defamation and breach of contract. As a result, she has released no original music since 2013 and has only recently begun performing her old songs live. But old songs are old memories, and as was clear at this show, Kesha was hoping to perform them in the most distanced manner possible, by completely reworking the arrangements from pop to, well, unfriendly rock. Throughout the night, she dismantled her old hits — “We R Who We R,” “Take It Off,” “Your Love Is My Drug” — and rebuilt them, backed by her band (the Creepies) as blowzy with light touches of psychedelia. Kesha was dressed in rockabilly chic — a outfit, including a jacket with rainbow fringe dangling from the sleeves — and the title of the tour, which includes an expletive, was spelled out in huge letters at the back of the stage. She sprinkled theatrics throughout the show, fighting off a pair of comrades in dinosaur masks during “Dinosaur” and attacking one on the floor of the stage during “Cannibal,” coming up for air with blood dripping from her mouth. The effect was carnivalesque, a presentation indebted to the Dr. Demento era of stylistic novelty and excessive quirk. Though it was awkward and rarely effective, Kesha’s taste for the outré wasn’t unexpected. For a time in the early part of the decade, she promised to be a different sort of pop star — stylistically limber, as comfortable rapping as singing, seemingly uninterested in the seamlessness megapop typically promises. Back then, it was never clear just how seriously Kesha took herself, or her music, an attitude that played well against the indestructibility of her records. Both of her albums — “Animal,” from 2010,” and “Warrior,” from 2012 — were excellent. But those songs, while still the currency that gained her entry into the pop stratosphere, have become albatrosses. Her performances of them here felt like rejections. When Kesha delivered her breakout hit “Tik Tok” at the end of her main set using essentially its original arrangement, it was like a sunbeam breaking through clouds. It was also a needling reminder of what made her songs so effective in the first place — the interplay of Kesha’s salacious abandon and the ecstatic drive of the production, by Dr. Luke and others. In recent months, Kesha’s battles have made her a cause célèbre countless other performers have offered their public support, and Taylor Swift said she would give her $250, 000 (“to help with any of her financial needs during this trying time,” a representative for Ms. Swift said in a statement). After “Dinosaur,” Kesha addressed the eager crowd of about 1, 000. “It’s been way, way, way too long,” she said, meeting a roar of nourishing cheers. “I honestly don’t know if I would have made it the past three years without you guys. ” The audience replied with encouraging chants. When they screamed “Free Kesha” over and again, she went to the side of the stage and retrieved a phone, so that she could film the moment. Though most of her claims against Dr. Luke have been rejected by a judge, her legal situation remains complicated. She played no new music here. In addition to the hits of her own, she filled out her set with covers, a necessary strategy but also a problematic one. Performing someone else’s music lays you bare and reveals what you can add to a conversation that’s long been settled. There was a lumpy cover of Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing” and a disjointed take on Britney Spears’s “Till The World Ends” (a song written in part by Kesha). During her unwelcome encore, she gnawed at the chorus of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” for a few melancholy minutes, then sang “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You,” a country standard written in part by her mother, closing out the tepid rendition by asserting, “I’m sick and tired of hearing people say I can’t sing, so there!” She was better when using songs to make statements: Lesley Gore’s defiant “You Don’t Own Me,” or Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” which closed the show. “Always have hope in your heart,” Kesha told the crowd, before shouting her way through the song, using it as a diary and a cudgel. | 0fake |
Elder President George Bush Is Hospitalized in Houston - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Former President George Bush, the 41st president, was in stable condition at a Houston hospital on Wednesday after doctors performed a procedure to clear his airway, his spokesman said. His wife, Barbara Bush, was also admitted to the medical center, Houston Methodist Hospital, on Wednesday morning “as a precaution after experiencing fatigue and coughing,” the spokesman, Jim McGrath, said in a statement. Mr. Bush, 92, was suffering from an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia when he was admitted to the intensive care unit at the hospital. After initial reports of Mr. Bush’s hospitalization, his office said he was expected to return home by the weekend. Mr. Bush, who served as vice president from and president from refused to support Donald J. Trump for president in last year’s election and had already declined to attend Friday’s inauguration, citing health concerns. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, said last fall that the former president had told her that he planned to vote for Hillary Clinton. His son, former President George W. Bush, and his wife, Laura, have announced that they plan to attend the inauguration, although former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who lost the Republican nomination to Mr. Trump, does not intend to be there. Also scheduled to be on hand are Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, as well as former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. | 0fake |
Hybrid Wars 8. In The Horn Of Africa (IIA) | Please read Introduction, Part IA and I B before this chapter.
The Horn of Africa has the second most globally geostrategic location on the continent behind North Africa, straddling the commercially vital Red Sea and providing international access to the world’s fastest-growing economy of Ethiopia. In this sense, the coastal states acquire a dual maritime and mainland importance through which their territories can be simultaneously used to exert influence along the waterway and the regional interior. Furthermore, as it relates to the Red Sea, this body of water occupies a crucial role in China’s grand strategy because it serves as the most geographically convenient route for facilitating the transit of goods between the East Asian state and the EU, which is particularly expected to climb with the completion of the Balkan Silk Road in a few years’ time. Due to the importance that China places on the One Belt One Road grand strategy and the need that it has for maintaining and strengthening its overseas markets (especially the large and ever-promising EU one) in order to sustain domestic stability and long-term growth, it logically has an inherent interest in preserving stability in the Horn of Africa so as to safeguard its Sea Line of Communication (SLOC) to Europe. For similar reasons, it also wants to tap into the allied Ethiopian economy and assist in the maximization of its potential so as to acquire a strategic presence there that allows it to deepen its presence further inland into the continent’s resource-rich interior.
It should be no surprise then that the Horn of Africa is the focal point of international military attention, as evidenced by the previous part of the research which described the vast array of foreign non-African military bases in Djibouti, the recent GCC presence in Eritrea, and the Turkish and Emirati plans for building a base in Somalia. Quite naturally and in accordance with its obvious interests, China is opening its first overseas military base in Djibouti in order take advantage of the country’s dual role in exercising maritime and mainland influence. It’s clear how and why the tiny coastal state can be used by Beijing for flexing its maritime muscles, but it’s less obvious how it plans to do this in the opposite mainland direction. It’s therefore relevant to recall the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway that China is building between the coastal city and the inland capital, since this large-scale infrastructure project will serve as the umbilical cord between the Chinese and Ethiopian economies and also allow the later to finally and reliably access the global market in general. Moreover, the connective vision that China is pursuing is complemented by the Kenyan-originating LAPSSET project that it’s also helping to finance , which eventually plans to connect Addis Ababa with the Indian Ocean port of Lamu by rail . Suffice to say, the completion of both transnational railways and the Djibouti-based military facility will catapult China into being the most influential country in the Horn of Africa region, although this seemingly inevitable reality will expectedly be opposed by the US using the methods of Hybrid War.
This part of the research therefore endeavors to explain all of the ways in which the US could apply Hybrid War strategy in order to conceivably offset China’s grand designs in the Horn of Africa region. It begins by offering a general overview of regional relations that sets the appropriate context for deeper analysis. After having established the state of affairs and provided a solid understanding of each examined countries’ interactions with the other, the second portion of the work then delves into a summary of these states’ strategic situations, focusing primarily on their most influential determinants. Finally, the last part of the regional study looks at the most realistic Hybrid War scenarios that the US could possibly provoke against China’s Horn of Africa interests. Thorny Relations In The Horn
The four states that occupy the Horn of Africa region – Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia – don’t all have pristine relations with one another, with the most obvious problems being between Eritrea & Somalia on one side and Ethiopia on the other.
Ethiopia-Eritrea
To explain the reason behind the abysmal relations between these two states, it’s necessary to begin by talking about Eritrea’s bloody three-decade-long secessionist war against Ethiopia which only ended in 1993. The roots of the conflict are many, but they can be summarized as starting during the imperial period when the Kingdom of Italy annexed Eritrea from the larger civilization-state of Abyssinia in 1890, thenceforth giving it a sense of identity separateness from Ethiopia and planting the seeds for future conflict after the two entities were reunified following the end of World War II. Addis Ababa’s unilateral 1962 abolishment of the ten-year-old Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea sparked the separatist war that raged throughout the proceeding decades, and even after independence, the two countries remained at tense odds with one another over the expectation that there would eventually be a continuation war sometime in the future.
This came to pass from 1998-2000, and despite ending in what has been described as a lingering stalemate , it killed over one hundred thousand people and undermined the economic development potential of these two dramatically impoverished states. In the years since, Ethiopia and Eritrea have still remained each other’s primary nemesis, with the two sides regularly accusing the other of attempting to subvert its stability and supporting various anti-government forces. Just like in the immediate years after independence, there still exists the very real possibility today that the two countries will go to war with one another at a moment’s notice, and this atmosphere of heightened militant tension is the most destabilizing interstate factor in the Horn of Africa. In fact, it will later be argued that this situation is being exploited by the out-of-regional powers inside the GCC as a means of acquiring leverage over Ethiopia and potentially pushing Eritrea into instigating a renewed round of debilitating violence.
Ethiopia-Somalia
Although not as bad as its ties with Eritrea, Ethiopia’s relations with Somalia are objectively pretty poor. Granted, on the surface of things there is positive and pragmatic interaction between both states at the government-to-government level, but the primary issue between them has always been the enticing idea of “Greater Somalia” that has captivated some Somalians on both sides of the border and even led to the Ogaden War between 1977-1978. This conflict is notable as being the last conventional attempt to create “Greater Somalia” and also as being the only time when the Soviets and Americans switched sides during a proxy war. The issue was over the status of Somalians in Ethiopia’s sparsely populated eastern region which has now been revealed to be rich i n oil and natural gas deposits, with Addis Ababa claiming that this is an integral part of Ethiopia’s territory and a native people to the multiethnic country while Mogadishu and Somalian nationalists assert that it’s an occupied region whose people must be united with their namesake nation-state. While Somalia has no realistic means of ever reattempting another Ogaden land grab anytime again in the foreseeable future, the appeal of Somalian nationalism is dangerous for Ethiopia and can easily be used by the US and others in order to engineer destabilization inside of Africa’s second-most populous country.
Complicating matters even further is Ethiopia’s 2006 anti-terrorist intervention in Somalia which aimed to overthrow the extremist Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that had seized control of most of the country. Covertly supported and egged on by the US, Ethiopia invaded its neighbor and succeeded in expelling the militia from the capital, however its subsequent three-year occupation of the country generated a lot of hostility against it and led to a surge in Somalian nationalism. This in turn was taken advantage of by Al Shabaab, an Al Qaeda- and Daesh-linked terrorist group that grew out of the ICU’s youth wing, which blended anti-Ethiopian sentiment, Somalian nationalism, and Islamic extremism in creating a lethal cocktail of hate that has made the group one of the most feared in all of Africa. The Somalian government’s inability to appropriately combat Al Shabaab and the sympathy that misguided Somalians (especially the youth) have to the organization’s twisted message has made it a major regional threat which has the very real potential of actively causing chaos inside of Ethiopia’s Somali Region (formerly called Ogaden). In response, the authorities have been compelled to implement harsh security measures as an anti-terrorist precaution to any Daesh-like attempts to create a transnational territorially administered “Islamic State” within the region, though this has had the inadvertent effect of drawing the ire of some Somali locals and cyclically leading to the same type of anti-government attitudes that Addis Ababa has sought to avoid.
Ethiopia-Djibouti
Perhaps the most fruitful and positive relationship in the region is between Ethiopia and its northern Djiboutian neighbor. Demographically and geographically mismatched, the two are inherently tied to one another due to regional circumstances. Ethiopia lost all of its coastal territory with Eritrea’s independence and thereafter became a landlocked state, and the sky-high tensions between it and its former province have precluded any possibility of pragmatic economic cooperation. Similarly, because of the anarchic instability and terrorist threat in Somalia, Ethiopia has been unable to use its territory in acquiring reliable access to the sea (although it has made some positive steps in this direction with the autonomous self-proclaimed and de-facto independent state of Somaliland via the port of Berbera). For the most part, Ethiopia’s economic potential was bottled up inside the Horn of Africa interior and unable to reach the global markets, but China’s visionary and proactive initiative in building the Ethiopia-Djibouti railroad changed all of that. The project essentially turned Djibouti into the ‘cork’ which controls the flow of economic riches into the Ethiopian ‘bottle’, making it a literal bottleneck state in pivotally opening up the massive economic possibilities of its southern neighbor.
Along the same lines, however, this breakthrough infrastructure development means the tiny country is disproportionately important to Ethiopia and can be used indirectly as a means of destabilizing the much larger and expanding economy of former Abyssinia. Domestic disturbances such as Color Revolution unrest or possible Afar separatism in Djibouti could disrupt access to the railroad and indefinitely cut Ethiopia and its partners off from one another, thus making it totally dependent on the LAPSSET corridor to its south which runs through Oromo-populated territory and could quickly become a tantalizing target for ethnic-affiliated rebel and terrorist groups. With this in mind, it becomes even more apparent why China chose Djibouti as the location of its first overseas military base, since it’s substantially easier to exert positive influence on small Djibouti in safeguarding the viability of its prized railroad investment than in doing so inside of Kenya or anywhere else, and plus, there’s of course the added maritime advantage in being located on the Red Sea. As for how China could predictably protect its railroad, it might either employ the direct use of its military as hinted at in its first-ever 2015 white paper on military strategy in order to protect its foreign interests, or it could end up utilizing private military corporations (PMCs) to indirectly do this instead.
The bottom line is that Djiboutian stability is absolutely integral for Ethiopia’s strategic security, and it’s for this reason that bilateral relations are extraordinarily close and will foreseeably remain so for the future. Djibouti benefits from this relationship by profiting off of its transit state status in facilitating access to and from the Ethiopian economy, so it has a vested self-interest in protecting the railroad as well. Therefore, it’s expected that it would use its military forces to safeguard the line in the event of any domestic troubles, likely applying the training that they acquired from their Chinese counterparts inside the country and probably even doing so under the supervision of Chinese advisors as well. By functioning as Ethiopia’s critical link to the outside world, Djibouti could also end up being targeted by Eritrea or by Somalian-based terrorist groups as a means of indirectly offsetting the regional hegemon, so this is of course a factor that must be considered.
Eritrea-Djibouti
In reference to the previous, Eritrea does not have positive relations with Djibouti and actually fought a brief border war with its neighbor in 2008. As per UN agreement, Qatar has deployed its troops to both countries in order to mediate the conflict and has remained in the region since 2010, presenting another factor of instability vis-à-vis Ethiopia which will be discussed later on. To continue with the state of bilateral relations between the two coastal countries, it’s worthwhile to also mention that Eritrea has actually had problems with all of its neighbors, and this includes Sudan and Yemen (the latter via the Hanish Islands conflict ), which together demonstrates a distinct pattern of Eritrean behavior. Therefore, the 2008 conflict with Djibouti mustn’t be seen in isolation, but rather as a continuation of long-standing Eritrean policy which regularly resorts to militant means to achieve its goals. It can’t be discounted that Qatar and Eritrea might conspire together in supporting Al Shabaab attacks inside of Djibouti in order to inflict strategic harm on Ethiopia, since not only has the Gulf state been convincingly linked to the terrorist organization, but Eritrea is actually under UNSC sanctions for allegedly aiding it in the past (although the latest findings indicate that this relationship may no longer be in effect). Therefore, Eritrea’s relations with Djibouti absolutely must be seen in the prism of its regional proxy war with Ethiopia which conceptualizes the neighboring state between them as a potential asymmetrical battleground.
Djibouti-Somalia
On the other side of things, Djibouti’s relations with Somalia are warm and friendly, despite Mogadishu having no de-facto control over the bordering region with the autonomous and self-proclaimed independent state of Somaliland. While there isn’t anything substantial to speak of in this regard, it’s worthwhile mentioning the latent threat that non-state-actor-promoted militant Somali nationalism might pose to Djibouti (including the perverted version espoused by Al Shabaab). The country is mostly populated by the Issa clan, which itself is regarded as a subsect of the Somalis and thus places them within the within the purview of “Greater Somalia”. While this ideal may have had some sway in the Cold War-era past and in the years before and immediately after the former French Somaliland’s independence, it no longer has much of an appeal in Djibouti after Somalia descended into failed state status in 1991, although that isn’t to say that there might not be some people who are still attracted to the romanticized version of this ideology. What’s most threatening, however, isn’t the possibility of passively sympathetic Djiboutians supporting “Greater Somalia” slogans, but Al Shabaab and other terrorist groups violently targeting the country’s nationals and infrastructure projects in order to ostensibly support this vision.
The varied deployment of so many international non-African military forces in Djibouti makes it unlikely that the terrorists would succeed in inflicting long-term harm to the country or the Ethiopia-Djibouti railroad, but their extremist ideology and willingness to die for their cause makes them very dangerous and leads to the impossibility of discounting this scenario. Still, the relatively better policed and more closely administrated Somaliland region serves as a stop gap in inhibiting Al Shabaab’s direct movement to Djibouti, although it’s of course possible that the organization could infiltrate its coastal target through more conventional means such as covertly entering it by means of the world-famous port and under an assumed cover instead of illegally sneaking across the international border. In any case, the only relevant factor of Djiboutian-Somalian affairs that’s applicable to the Hybrid War research is Al Shabaab and the ideology of “Greater Somalia”, neither of which are promoted at the state level but both of which could lead to serious problems for the targeted country. For this reason, the Djibouti-Somalia axis is the least relevant factor in the Horn of Africa’s regional political arrangement, at least on the official level, although it does have the potential to unconventionally become a major destabilizing issue in the future among certain non-state actors.
Eritrea-Somalia
Just like Eritrea views Djibouti, it also holds the same proxy battleground mentality for Somalia as well. If the UNSC’s suspicions about Eritrea’s support of Al Shabaab are to be believed, then it’s clear to see that Asmara is simply employing whatever tool it can get its hands on in order to destabilize Addis Ababa. Whether reckless or justified depending on one’s political disposition, it’s unmistakable that Eritrea’s burning hate for Ethiopia has spread the proxy conflict between them from the joint border all the way to the Somalian frontier, thereby engulfing the region in this turmoil and turning their rivalry into the single most important driver of the Horn of Africa’s geopolitical destabilizations. It’s likely that the Eritrean leadership is no longer as close to Al Shabaab as it was suspected of being before, partly due to increased international stigma and awareness of this relationship, but that doesn’t remove the fact that Asmara may have played a key role in the group’s early development and consequently makes the country responsible to an extent for the organization’s present existence and violent rise.
Accordingly, the only logical way to view Eritrean-Somalian relations is through the prism of the greater Eritrean-Ethiopian proxy war in the region and the relative benefit that each respective actor gets from Somalia’s stability or insecurity. With that being considered, it can be argued that Eritrea benefits more from Somalia’s instability and the prevalence of militant non-state actors there (including Islamic-affiliated terrorists and “Greater Somalia” nationalists) than it does if normalcy were to return to the country. The arrival of stability would preclude Somalian territory from ever again being used by Eritrea as an asymmetrical springboard against Ethiopia, and it would correspondingly limit Asmara’s strategic flexibility in dealing with its larger and better equipped rival. Since Somalia is gradually becoming more stabilized over the past couple of years, Eritrea’s strategy might shift from allegedly working with terrorist groups to harnessing its new yet unofficial GCC military partnership in order to make inroads with the autonomous and self-proclaimed de-facto independent state of Somaliland. The strategic fusion of Eritrean and GCC capabilities on Ethiopia’s northeastern border might portend a more concerted destabilization sometime in the future, whether of an Islamic terrorist, “Greater Somalian”, or blended nature thereof.
To be continued…
Andrew Korybko is the American political commentator currently working for the Sputnik agency. He is the author of the monograph “ Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change ” (2015). This text will be included into his forthcoming book on the theory of Hybrid Warfare.
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Georgian president vetoes new constitution draft | TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili on Monday vetoed a draft new constitution and sent it back to parliament with his objections which included opposing its call for an end to direct elections for president. Parliament, which is dominated by the Georgian Dream Party, adopted the new draft last week over objections from Margvelashvili and the opposition. Under this new proposed new constitution, direct elections for president would be abolished from 2024, the country would transfer to full proportional parliamentary representation and the system of electoral blocs would be scrapped. In a televised statement, Margvelashvili, who was elected in 2013 for a five-year term, said he remained in favor of direct presidential elections rather than a system in which the president would be appointed by parliament. He said he had proposed to the parliamentary majority to allow parties to form electoral blocs for the next parliamentary elections in 2020. He said he also supported scrapping the voting bonus system under which votes of parties that failed to muster enough support to enter parliament would be transferred to the winner of the election. He also supported a switch to a proportional electoral system in 2020. I will send my justified objection to the parliament today, Margvelashvili said. The next presidential election in Georgia is to be held in 2018 and it is not clear whether Margvelashvili, who is at odds with the ruling party on several issues, will stand again. MPs from the Georgian Dream said after adopting the new constitution that they would give ground on only two of the president s objections allowing the parties to form electoral blocs and scrapping the voting bonus system. The ruling party has a constitutional majority at the parliament, allowing it to overcome the president s veto. | 0fake |
Amazon Looks to ’Take Away the Need to Ever Use a Cable Box Again’ with Integrated Fire TV Sets - Breitbart | Amazon will start to ship television sets with Fire TV built in as early as next month, according to a report. [The TV sets, which support “4K video, and pack a processor, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage for apps,” will replace Amazon Fire sticks and boxes and are currently available to preorder in various sizes. “Amazon and Element as well as Westinghouse first announced Fire TV sets at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year,” reported Variety on Tuesday. “Now, the companies shared a number of additional details, including pricing. Element’s Fire TV Edition will retail for $449. A model and a model will cost $549 and $649, respectively, and a $ model will retail for $899. ” The sets also “directly integrate broadcast TV,” allowing users to switch between live shows and streaming services. “Right now, all of this only works with television, but Gupta said that the ultimate goal was to integrate with streaming TV providers like Sling TV and PlayStation Vue as well,” continued Variety, adding that it will eventually “take away the need to ever use a cable box again. ” “It will have a longer life cycle than a regular smart TV,” said Amazon’s Smart TV Vice President, Sandeep Gupta. “We see Fire TV Edition as a true cord cutter solution. ” Google are also expanding into the television industry with their upcoming YouTube TV package. The package will act as a “skinny bundle” to compete with current cable television providers and will cost just $35 per month. The monthly fee will get users “6 accounts, 3 of which can be used to stream live TV concurrently, and access to 40 different networks, including ‘ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, ESPN, regional sports networks, and dozens of popular cable networks,’” while it will also use an A. I. searching system similar to Netflix. Customers will, however, be forced to watch commercials on many programs that are not live and are recorded. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 0fake |
Twitter Adds New Ways to Curb Abuse and Hate Speech - The New York Times | SAN FRANCISCO — Social media companies are under increasing scrutiny for the amount of hate speech that thrives on their platforms, especially since the presidential election. Now, Twitter has unveiled several new measures to curb the online abuse, though the changes are unlikely to be enough to quiet the company’s critics. On Tuesday, Twitter said it was making it easier for its users to hide content they do not wish to see on the service and to report abusive posts, even when those messages are directed at other users. The company has given its support teams training to better identify mistreatment on Twitter. “There’s a fine line between free expression and abuse, and this launch is another step on the path toward getting rid of abuse,” said Del Harvey, Twitter’s vice president of trust and security. “We’ve been launching new products to address this, and the cadence of product releases is picking up. We have a lot planned on this path. ” Online harassment and hate speech have long festered on Twitter, but the incidents appeared to rise during the presidential campaign. Exchanges between supporters of Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton grew personal and acrimonious. Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters also relied on a series of images — some and others quietly coded as racist — to circulate hate speech on Twitter. Since Mr. Trump’s victory last week, Twitter has been filled with reports of racist and derogatory taunts against minorities. Many users have expressed fear and concern about the escalation of such behavior. When asked about harassment of minorities, Mr. Trump told “60 Minutes” that his supporters should “stop it. ” Twitter has not had a comprehensive response for dealing with hate speech, largely because the company did not want to limit freedom of expression on the service. But over time, Twitter has rolled out measures to tackle the problem. It has let people mute the accounts of other users, effectively making their content disappear from view. Last year, it issued an explicit prohibition against hateful conduct. The company is now taking more action. It is letting people more specifically block out what they do not want to see on the service, including muting words, phrases and even entire conversations. Twitter is also making it easier for people to report abusive behavior, even if they are only bystanders to the abuse, and for the company to evaluate those reports. And it has overhauled its approach to training support teams, holding special sessions on cultural and historical context for hateful conduct. “Someone looking at user complaints in Asia may not recognize something happening in the E. U. or the U. S. as hateful,” Ms. Harvey said. “We need to make sure there is a universal familiarity with the most common trends and themes we’re seeing that are abusive, but may not seem so at first glance. ” Critics said that while the steps are positive, they will not eliminate hate speech. Twitter’s changes “don’t stop the problem of posting abusive content,” said Mark S. Luckie, a former Twitter manager who now runs a digest of the topics trending among Twitter’s users called Today in #BlackTwitter. “People will find a way to abuse others online, but these changes may put users at ease and curb the perception of abuse on Twitter. ” Part of the reason abuse has thrived on Twitter is because the company allows anonymity, Mr. Luckie said. “But unlike other sites with anonymity, Twitter lets users broadcast to the world — so their abuse has a huge potential impact,” he said. “If you fight with a celebrity and the celebrity fights back, then you have potentially reached a global audience with your abuse. ” Ms. Harvey acknowledged that Twitter has not always moved fast enough to clamp down on abusive behavior. She said that the problem would probably never be entirely solved, but that the company was doing more to identify repeat offenders who create new accounts when Twitter shuts them down or who incite users to gang up on others. “When I hear that Twitter only cares about this now, that we’re only going through the motions, I understand where that perception comes from,” Ms. Harvey said. “But this is important to us because people are experiencing these abusive things, and we need to make sure they know what options they have and that we’re taking action to make things better. ” | 0fake |
China angered as U.S. considers navy visits to Taiwan | BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China accused the United States on Thursday of interfering in its internal affairs and said it had lodged a complaint after U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law an act laying the groundwork for possible U.S. navy visits to self-ruled Taiwan. Tensions have risen in recent days after a senior Chinese diplomat threatened China would invade Taiwan if any U.S. warships made port visits to the island which China claims as its own territory. On Monday, Chinese jets carried out island encirclement patrols around Taiwan, with state media showing pictures of bombers with cruise missiles slung under their wings as they carried out the exercise. On Tuesday, Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2018 fiscal year, which authorizes the possibility of mutual visits by navy vessels between Taiwan and the United States. Such visits would be the first since the United States ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 and established ties with Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said while the Taiwan sections of the law were not legally binding, they seriously violate the One China policy and constitute an interference in China s internal affairs . China is resolutely opposed to this, and we have already lodged stern representations with the U.S. government, Lu told a daily news briefing. China is firmly opposed to any official exchanges, military contact, or arms sales between Taiwan and the United States, he added. Proudly democratic Taiwan has become increasingly concerned with the ramped up Chinese military presence, that has included several rounds of Chinese air force drills around the island in recent months. Taiwan is confident of its defenses and responded quickly to the Chinese air force drills this week, its government said, denouncing the rise in China s military deployments as irresponsible. Taiwan presidential spokesman Alex Huang, speaking to Taiwan media in comments reported late on Wednesday, said the defense ministry had kept a close watch on the patrols and responded immediately and properly. Taiwan can ensure there are no concerns at all about national security, and people can rest assured , Huang said. Both sides of the narrow Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from its giant neighbor, have a responsibility to protect peace and stability, he added. Such a raised military posture that may impact upon and harm regional peace and stability and cross-strait ties does not give a feeling of responsibility, and the international community does not look favorably upon this, Huang was quoted as saying. Relations have soured considerably since Tsai Ing-wen, who leads Taiwan s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, won presidential elections last year. China suspects Tsai wants to declare the island s formal independence, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s security. Taiwan is well equipped with mostly U.S. weapons but has been pressing for more advanced equipment to deal with what it sees as a rising threat from China. The United States is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. | 0fake |
Fired Up Hillary Clinton Tells Dems How To Crush Trump | A fired up Hillary Clinton addressed members of the Democratic Party at a dinner in Columbus, Ohio two days before the primary there, and issued a call to rhetorical arms for the battle against Donald Trump and his racist and bigoted presidential campaign.Clinton went on the record with some of her strongest comments about the reality star turned Republican presidential front runner, just two days after his violent supporters caused the cancellation of a campaign rally in Chicago. Donald Trump is running a cynical campaign of hate and fear, for one reason: to get votes, she said. He s encouraging violence and chaos to get votes. He is pitting Americans against each other to get votes. As the Washington Post reports, Clinton s comments mark a sharp escalation in the tone of the former Secretary of State s about Trump. And she wasn t done there. After stoking every fire he can think of, Trump encourages his supporters to beat up anybody who disagrees with him literally punch them in the face and then offers to pay their legal bills, Clinton said.In 2012 when President Obama successfully ran for re-election in an atmosphere of right-wing demagoguery, he often told audiences who booed at the prospect of Mitt Romney becoming president, don t boo, vote. Clinton offered her version of the phrase in her speech: You and I know Donald Trump is not who we are, she said. Of course, we can criticize and protest Mr. Trump all we want. But none of that matters if we also don t show up at the polls. She added: If you want to shut him down, then let s vote him down. Some observers have worried that Democrats are not turning out to vote in the primaries in the same numbers as Republicans have been, and wondered if that will spill over to the general election, where Democrats have historically had a slight edge in turnout over the Republicans. But Trump s comments and overall campaign tone seem to have energized the core Democratic voters women and minorities needed to take the party s nominee to victory.Coupled with recent, direct denunciations of Trump s harmful rhetoric from Bernie Sanders as well, the left seems fired up and ready to go. Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Clinton's best defense -- there's no one else | (CNN) She's staring down the worst polling numbers of her campaign, struggling to overcome the scandal surrounding her private emails and grappling with persistent chatter that Vice President Joe Biden might challenge her.
But Hillary Clinton has one key advantage going into primary season: A firm perception that she's the only Democrat who can keep the White House.
"Except for Hillary who is there?" said Brent Budowsky, a Democratic insider who worked for party luminaries including former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. "There is really no one else at this moment who has a chance of winning. That is a problem that Democrats face -- that is the problem progressives face.
He added: "If for some reason she dropped out, there would be chaos."
As progressives swoon for Bernie Sanders and Biden allies float trial balloons and even rumors of an Al Gore comeback swirl, Budowsky's sentiment points to the reality at the heart of Clinton's 2016 efforts. While grassroots Democrats might not love the former secretary of state, who often seems to the right of the party's increasingly liberal base, they appear ready to make a pragmatic choice that she is their best -- or only -- hope on Election Day.
Though her lead has narrowed in some instances, Clinton is still on top of most polls of Democratic primary voters. And she beats potential Republican nominees in most match-up surveys.
Such is the power and aura of the Clinton family that few Democrats will go on the record as criticizing the former first lady and many say they respect her and will ultimately support her if she is the nominee.
But from multiple conversations with Democratic activists, it's clear that suspicion lingers over her true beliefs and instincts. Some fear, for instance, that she would prove to be more to the right of her current political position once in the White House.
All the love in a party that tends to fall hard for its favored candidates is going to Sanders. And after all, there is a precedent -- 2008 -- for Clinton's primacy as her party's apparently unassailable front runner being undermined by a grass roots revolt.
New polls are adding to the jitters.
A survey this week for the first time put Sanders in the lead in a key nominating state -- New Hampshire -- and Clinton's negative ratings continue to rise over the email controversy that has haunted her candidacy and looks set on to drag on for months, giving a torrent of material for the GOP to brand her secretive and shady.
Clinton's presidential campaign is hardly setting the party on fire either. She's failed so far to recapture the barnstorming persona which prolonged her battle against Barack Obama for the party nomination seven years ago.
And Clinton often seems a ponderous campaigner -- the undeniable connection she has with individuals does not translate easily to the campaign trail and she frequently suffers by comparison with the political magnetism of her husband -- former president Bill Clinton.
As she tries to prove that despite her wealth and life in the political bubble she's in touch with everyday Americans, Clinton's choice of campaign events also makes it hard to inspire.
For instance, on Friday in Iowa, Clinton held a wonkish event on cutting college debt -- part of an emerging attempt to lay a policy foundation under her presidential bid. Asked later about her repeated focus on mental health -- one of the core of issues on which she likes to focus in depth -- she was unapologetic.
"I think a president should try to help people have better lives," Clinton said, defending a strategy of narrowing in on issues that preoccupy everyday voters rather than big venue campaign events like the ones with which Sanders is packing out sports arenas.
The former secretary of state has also sometimes seemed an uneasy fit with progressives in a party that has undeniably moved left since 2008. She's dodged taking a stand on issues that fire up the party base in united opposition like the Keystone XL pipeline and Obama's push for a pan-Pacific trade deal -- a pact she supported as secretary of state.
Some Democrats are increasingly worried following Clinton's handover to the Justice Department of the private server she used as secretary of state, which is at the center of a controversy over classified intelligence.
There is so far no evidence that Clinton is the target of an investigation or could face criminal charges and her campaign says she never sent email with information that was classified at the time. But the latent fear of the unknown may be one reason why Clinton communications chief Jennifer Palmieri sent an email to the Democratic frontrunner's supporters this week assuring them the so-called scandal was mere campaign "nonsense" trumped up by Republicans.
Some senior Democrats believe it's too early to push the panic button for Clinton.
"It's in the DNA of Democrats to worry and to freak out and a lot of folks out there are worrying and freaking out," said Mo Elleithee, who worked on Clinton's 2008 campaign and now leads the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service. "Give it a couple of months. If the dynamics don't start to improve, then you start to worry but at this point there is no reason to worry."
There's another reason why the Clinton campaign is unlikely be to raising the alarm over nervousness in party ranks.
Despite Sanders' rise -- he's basking in adulation and drawing huge crowds for a campaign based on blasting Wall Street, demanding campaign finance reform, free college, a battle against climate change and universal healthcare -- many party insiders doubt America is ready to elect a 75-year-old self declared socialist as president.
And while Biden is beloved in the party, stirs deep sympathy following the death of his son Beau from a brain tumor, and enjoys the stature of office, there are still questions about his electability.
That's not stopping supporters of the vice president -- who wrapped up his last presidential campaign in 2008 after barely registering in the Iowa causes -- from laying the groundwork for a possible run.
A draft Biden movement has kicked into high gear, drawing more donations and support, at a time when reports say Biden is considering whether there is a path to run in 2016.
The group took in roughly $200,000 in the first quarter and has amassed almost 200,000 signatures.
But, those figures pale next Clinton's $45 million haul and the 18 million votes she got in 2008. That current landscape is part of Biden's calculus as he mulls challenging Clinton.
For the last week he has been vacationing in South Carolina and reaching out to supporters to gauge interest.
"If he does decide to enter the race, he will add more gravitas to the Democratic field," said Jon Cooper, the national finance chairman or Draft Biden 2016. "He has a strong capable hand and is ready to lead on day one without any learning curve."
That decades long resume, however, could also be an Achilles heel as polls show that voters are pining for outsiders and fresh faces.
Aside from Biden, the Democratic bench is scarcely populated by alternative power players. Two other Democrats in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, might pose tricky moments for Clinton in Democratic debates. But they're the longest of long shot challengers.
Meanwhile, the next generation of Democratic presidential possibles -- like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand -- have yet to emerge, partly because of the prohibitive presence of Clinton as the heir apparent.
Any late entrants to the race at this stage would run headlong in to the Clinton machine.
The campaign has quietly been building the kind of comprehensive grassroots voter identification structure in early states to swell her delegate count that she lacked in 2008.
And she's consolidated her support among Democratic Party elites -- a barometer of political strength that history suggests is just as important as polling in early states in the summer before nominating votes are cast.
On Friday, Clinton trumpeted the latest significant endorsement, welcoming the support of former Sen. Tom Harkin, a liberal Iowa political icon.
"I have had the privilege of knowing Hillary Clinton for a long time. She and I share many of the same deeply-held beliefs," Harkin said, in a statement that may help insulate Clinton from claims she is aloof from the economic woes of many Americans.
As often happens with Clinton, however, over a long political career marked by fierce fights with Republicans and questions about her trustworthiness, good news shares equal billing with unflattering headlines.
It's that trend that has some Democrats worried, and looking with some trepidation towards Clinton's prospects in an eventual general election.
In July, a Quinnipiac University poll of three swing states—Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia—showed Clinton lagging behind possible GOP opponents, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. As she has battled bad headlines about her personal e-mail account, her negative ratings have spiked in those states and her trust numbers have also taken a hit.
A CNN/ORC poll of Democratic voters in Iowa released this week shows that Clinton still beats Sanders overall, yet voters see the Vermont Senator as more trustworthy. And since July, Sanders has attracted cumulative crowds of 100,000 people with his soak-the-rich rhetoric.
"Hillary Clinton has been doing well in Iowa but her people there are rattled by the Bernie Sanders crowds which by Iowa standards are quite large," said David Yepsen, who has covered Iowa politics for decades. "The polls look good for her now but we are six months away and I've seen things change rapidly. The drip, drip, drip, drip, is causing some concern." | 0fake |
Trump-Backed Republican Candidate Bodyslams Journalist Night Before Election | The Montana Republican running for a congressional seat against a formidable Democratic opponent in a crucial special election just bodyslammed a journalist. In front of a bunch of other journalists. And a bunch of stunned bystanders. And a crowd of his own campaign volunteers and aides. The incident was so violent that the police were called.Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs says he was slammed to the ground by Republican Greg Gianforte so hard that the impact broke his glasses.Greg Gianforte just body slammed me and broke my glasses Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 24, 2017A Buzzfeed reporter who was there at the time described what she saw.This happened behind a half closed door, so I didn t see it all, but here s what it looked like from the outside Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 24, 2017Ben walked into a room where a local tv crew was set up for an interview with Gianforte Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 24, 2017All of a sudden I heard a giant crash and saw Ben s feet fly in the air as he hit the floor Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 24, 2017Heard very angry yelling (as did all the volunteers in the room) sounded like Gianforte Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 24, 2017Ben walked out holding his broken glasses in his hand and said he just bodyslammed me Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 24, 2017The assault was also apparently caught on tape. Jacobs says a local news crew has the audio.There was a local TV crew there when Gianforte body slammed me. Audio is posting soon at @GuardianUS Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 24, 2017Alexis Levinson also snapped a picture of cops and EMTs arriving on scene.This is the scene outside pic.twitter.com/xAin0jkhFo Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 24, 2017Gianforte reportedly fled the scene, leaving in a car full of his aides and bailing on the event. It s unclear if Gianforte will be charged with the assault, but attacking a reporter literally a day before an election is unprecedented. The local sheriffs department was seen taking witness statements.It s not clear what caused the assault, but Ben Jacobs had recently caught Gianforte secretly investing $250,000 in several US-sanctioned Russian companies. It seems likely that the two things are linked.This assault happens less than 24 hours before polls open in Montana. The seat is meant to replace former GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke who Trump picked to run the Department of the Interior. Trump selected Zinke in part because Republicans believed that no Democrat could win the deep-red Montana seat then Trump got into office, destroyed his credibility and that of the Republican Party and now the Democratic challenger Rob Quist has a real chance of winning.Naturally, the Trump family is linked to Gianforte. Add this to the numerous scandals and bad characters they ve attached themselves too. Trump s son, Don Jr. showed up at several Gianforte rally to help try to secure the seat for Republicans. The two have become close, spending quality time together during a recent a gopher hunting vacation. Seriously.And the audio just dropped. It s really, really bad.Here's the audio of Gianforte from The Guardian: https://t.co/kj0110kZvH pic.twitter.com/BJVqcd6baq Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 25, 2017Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
GLENN BECK’S BIZARRE FAREWELL To 40 Employees From Fake Oval Office [VIDEO] | What the what? I had to start firing people, people that I counted as my friends, best friends, partners. And the process that I began was the hardest process of my life. Yeah, almost as hard as picking myself up off of that carpet when I was facing suicide, that carpet that smelled like soup. But this time I had something I didn t have before: I had you. I knew you existed. I knew that you believed in the same principles I believe and that we no, that I had made a promise to you. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. In a special video posted to his website today, Glenn Beck addressed news reports of the latest mass layoffs at his troubled media empire.According to a report yesterday in the Daily Beast, Beck laid off 40 employees of his Blaze media organization in order to satisfy the requirements of a multimillion-dollar bank loan taken out recently to keep Beck s revenue-challenged enterprise running. As the Daily Beast noted, This latest round of mass firings comes as no surprise to insiders at The Blaze and Mercury Radio Arts, which laid off dozens of employees last May on a day referred to internally as Black Monday, around the same time that Beck was purchasing a private jetliner and a $200,000 Maybach sedan. In the video released today, Beck is seen seated at a replica of the Resolute desk in his mock Oval Office set delivering the opening monologue of his radio show. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
CNN CUTS FEED Of CONGRESSMAN As Soon As He Speaks About Refugee Crime…Anchor Claims It’s “TV Gremlins” [Video] | 1real | |
THEIR EVIL KNOWS NO BOUNDS: TALIBAN EXECUTES 5 “SAVE THE CHILDREN WORKERS” AS ISIS KIDNAPS 120 SCHOOLCHILDREN TO BE TRAINED AS TERRORISTS | The Taliban or ISIS? Does it really matter? Radical islam is just evil and knows no bounds.Killing aid workers is as low as they could go except now they ve brought it down to the kid level Five aid workers who d been kidnapped were found murdered:The bodies of five Afghan aid workers working for Save the Children were found on Friday, 39 days after their abduction by the Taliban in the central province of Uruzgan, a spokesman for provincial governor Dost Mohammad Nayab said.ISIS KIDNAPS 120 CHILDREN:The Islamic State group has abducted 120 schoolchildren in the embattled Iraqi city of Mosul, it was reported Sunday, and has transported the kids to an unknown locationAccording to Iraqi sources quoted by the German DPA wire service, the children, aged 12-15, were reportedly snatched from their classrooms and loaded on military vehicles by the Islamist extremists.According to local reports, the abducted children were taken by IS to be trained as fighters for the terror group. The children of wealthy families are said to be ransomed back to their families for significant sums that can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.On Saturday, Islamic State fighters launched suicide attacks against the Baiji oil refinery, Iraq s largest, a senior army officer said. The jihadist group claimed it broke in but the Iraqi army said the site, which has been the scene of fierce battles since IS swept across the region last year, remained under its control.The Islamic State group launched a massive offensive on northwestern Iraq in June and swept across much of the country s Sunni Arab heartland within days.Counter-terror and other forces tasked with protecting the vital Baiji refinery held out and remained besieged for months.VIA: GATEWAY PUNDIT | 1real |
Idols of Intellectual Perversity: How Ideology Corrupts the Minds of Smart People | By Jonas E. Alexis on November 1, 2016 The good thing about morality or practical reason is that it doesn’t have a particular political affiliation. It transcends political ideologies and that’s what make things very interesting. …by Jonas E. Alexis
You’ve probably seen Megyn Kelly in action. You’ve probably watched her babbling weird things, crazy things, and incoherent things. You’ve also seen how she has prostrated before the Powers That Be for money, power, and fame. [1] In fact, she has been seeking for a salary of $20 million with Fox News. [2]
In other words, Kelly is selling herself for the almighty dollar. If you haven’t noticed some of those phenomena, here is Kelly on the Howard Stern show talking about her husband’s genital, frolicking and other delicate things: YouTube - Veterans Today -
For Kelly, it is perfectly fine for Howard Stern to talk about those issues on his show. It is also fine for Stern to sexually degrade Kelly. For Kelly, Stern is obviously doing a great job.
But for people like Donald Trump to mention almost the same things on a private bus is an unpardonable sin. Sure, Trump’s remarks are disgusting and nasty. And there is no way to justify his immoral statement. It could even be conceived that Trump is just a nasty person who has been grabbing women, well, “by the pussy.”
But do we honestly think that Trump is the only nasty and disgusting guy in town? Can Kelly really explain to us what was she doing on the Howard Stern Show about six years ago? And how again can the same sex culture itself slam Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” phraseology and at the same time praise people like Wilhelm Reich or even Alfred Kinsey?
You see, the good thing about morality or practical reason is that it doesn’t have a particular political affiliation. It transcends political ideologies and that’s what make things very interesting. If you are looking at things from a moral point of view, then those who are condemning Trump ought to condemn the same sex culture which articulates Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” in a much subtle and interesting way.
Keep in mind that Wilhelm Reich, the man who coined the term “the sexual revolution,” was praised by the New York Times and other media outlets. Reich explicitly promoted and encouraged the sexualization of children and the clergy in his widely read text The Mass Psychology of Fascism . [3]
Reich taught that “Sexual inhibition prevents the average adolescent from thinking and feeling in a rational way.” [4] Reich didn’t stop there. He’s got more insights: “If one succeeds in getting rid of the childhood fear of masturbation and as a result thereof genitality demands gratification, then intellectual insight and sexual gratification are wont to prevail.” [5]
Then, Reich dropped the ideological bomb: “The mechanism that makes masses of people incapable of freedom is the social suppression of genital sexuality in small children, adolescents, and adults.” [6]
Now we’re talking. Now things get really delicious. And it is here that our story gets very interesting because again Reich, like his contemporary Alfred Kinsey, was never condemned for his immoral posturing. The sex culture gave both men great accolades for spreading their own version of “democracy” and “freedom” and for polluting the social order.
Kinsey, for his part, published “academic” books such as Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female , in which he forged data, pulled things out of thin air, [7] and deliberately selected samples of his “research” from male and female prostitutes to advance his wicked ideology.
Kinsey’s other methods were so bias and fraudulent that statistician John Tukey of the American Statistical Association declared then that “A random selection of three people would have been better than a group of 300 chosen by Mr. Kinsey.” [8]
Academic institutions such as Indiana University continue to protect Kinsey’s pedophilia. [9] Paul Gebhard, Kinsey’s protégé and former director of the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, deliberately removed anything from the Institute that would even remotely implicate Kinsey as a pedophile and not a scientist.
So, isn’t there a logical breakdown here? The sex industry complicated things when its advocates fired people for exposing Kinsey and documenting his immoral behavior. Are thing living in contradiction?
Indeed.
Now were are learning that the children of the same sex industry are implicitly sneaking in or even adopting moral themes by saying that “grab them by the pussy” is universally wrong. The sex industry shows that G. K. Chesterton was right all along when he said: “A man must be something of a moralist if he is to preach, even if he is to preach unmorality.” [10]
Perhaps this was one reason Kinsey died “a broken man” [11] in 1956. A sodomite and sadomasochist of the highest rank, Kinsey is indirectly the father of what is now “sex education.”
Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female contain chapter after chapter about pedophilia, group sex, orgies, etc. Kinsey was trained as a biologist, and it was no accident that he used his training to promote social engineering. [12]
Obviously the ideology upon which the sex industry is based is irrational, incoherent, and ultimately worthless. And if had had to give the sex industry a different name from a book, it would be Smeagol, who later changed to Gollum, from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings . Gollum is the actual character who loves and hates the ring of power at the same time, “as he loves and hates himself.”
In a similar way, the sex industry hates morality and fights against it in the cultural landscape, but the same industry always appeals to an implicitly moral code when someone else pursuits an immoral life. Hillary for example supported the Trotskyite group the Pussy Riot , a subversive band whose members deliberately performed orgies at a museum.
But the same Hillary finds Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” disgusting. Trump is nasty for calling people overweight, but Hillary herself called people out for their weight and even went so far as to say that they are “shit-kickers.” [13]
Sometimes, a “good morning, Mrs. Clinton” could drive her to say: “Fuck off! It’s enough that I have to see you shit-kickers every day…Do your goddamn job and keep your mouth shut.” [14] Judith Reisman
There is more here than meets the eye and ear . Judith Reisman was inevitably fired at the American University for meticulously and methodically documenting that Kinsey was a pedophile masquerading as a researcher.
Reisman, who has graciously sent me a copy of the fourth edition of her book, Stolen Honor Stolen Innocence: How America was Betrayed by the Lies and Sexual Crimes of a Mad “Scientist,” writes that Kinsey was “familiar with the work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. Kinsey’s friend, Dr. Harry Benjamin, had brought Hirschfeld to America to speak against the social reform accomplishments of the Purity Movement.“ [15]
Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), a German-Jewish physician and sexologist, used his medical training as a pretext to promote perversion and, in 1897, built his own system of “the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the first organization anywhere devoted to the protection of homosexual rights.”
Hirschfeld was also “the primary inventor of marriage counseling, Gay Liberation, artificial insemination, surgical gender ‘reassignment,’ and modern sex therapy…His goofy persona and conscientiousness transformed Sexology from an anthropological curiosity into a popular German science. The Berlin monthlies, starting in the mid-twenties, referred to Hirschfeld solicitously as ‘the Einstein of Sex.” [16]
Hirschfeld was the Einstein of sex because he “embraced a doctrine known as ‘sexual relativity.” [17] While the moral order dictates that there are only two sexes—male and female—Hirscheld postulated another doctrine, one more congruent with his subversive ideology. Hirschfeld “wrote that it was ‘unscientific’ to speak of two sexes. Between ‘full man’ and ‘full woman’ was an infinite string of sexual/gender possibilities.” [18]
The only force that could hinder Hirschfeld was the moral order and a will to act on it, but he attacked it before proceeding with his sexual revolution. [19] Hirschfeld spent a large part of his 1200-page book The Homosexuality of Men and Women deconstructing moral principles about sex. [20]
This began to take place in 1919 when Hirschfeld opened the Institute of Sexology in Berlin. Jewish scholar Mel Gordon of the University of California tells us that the institution
“quickly became one of the city’s most curious attractions. The Institute’s buildings, including a former mansion, were divided into areas for lectures, consulting offices, study rooms, laboratories, medical clinics, and a museum space devoted to sexual pathology.” [21]
Paul Johnson commented,
“The Foxtrot and short skirts, the addiction of pleasure in ‘the imperial sewers of Berlin,’ the ‘dirty pictures’ of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld or the typical man of the times took on in the minds of the average citizen a repugnance that is difficult to recall in hindsight without some historical effort.
“In a number of highly celebrated provocations, the stage of the ‘20s dealt with topics like patricide, incest and other crimes and the deepest inclination of the times tended to self-mockery.” [22]
A number of Jewish icons such as George Gershwin, Ben Hecht, Douglas Fairbanks, and Sergei Eisenstein visited the school. [23] Eisenstein “enjoyed the Institute’s collection of sailor-dolls—homemade paper toys that German homosexuals fashioned during the Great War.” [24]
The library of the school, “which contained the largest sex and pornographic book collection in Europe, remained accessible to all readers…Politically, the Institute provided a forum for progressive lawyers and government officials who sought to eradicate the laws against homosexuality and defend Germany’s legal abortion rights from the growing onslaught of fascist and religious parties.” [25]
The building contained all sort of sexual devices in order to advance the sexual revolution in Berlin. Mel Gordon again writes:
“Glass cases of fetishistic objects and sex aids from preliterate, Asian, and European cultures filled two other rooms. In the open counters and boxes were collections of Mandigo dildos that squirted a milky solution, Moche water bottles with penis-shaped spouts, Sanskrit sex manuals, miniature shoes worn by bound-foot Chinese courtesans, medieval chastity belts, torture instruments from a German brothel, sadistic drawings and assemblages created by Lustmord convicts, an entire picture window of ankle boots donated by a local fetishist, antique steam-driven vibrators, fake rubber breasts and vaginas taken from transvestite prostitutes, lacy panties found on the corpses of von Hindenburg’s heroic officers, and other such incontrovertible evidence of Hirschfeld’s new calculus of desire.” [26]
Magus Hirschfeld left Germany during the rise of the Nazi Party, never to return. But he obviously had a tremendously powerful influence on Alfred Kinsey , who went on to open his own “sex research” at Indiana University, which was partly based on Hirschefeld’s questionnaires. [27] According to Kinsey, things such as child pornography, bestiality and even sex among children are natural and should be encouraged and promoted. Kinsey wrote: “It is difficult to understand why a child, except for its cultural conditioning, should be disturbed at having its genitalia touched, or disturbed at seeing the genitalia of other persons, or disturbed at even more specific sexual contacts.” [28]
How did Kinsey bring this repulsive idea to the public, and who was he following? Reisman points out that Kinsey was an admirer and part-time disciple of the late Satanist Aleister Crowley, commonly known as “The Beast.” In fact, Kinsey made every effort “to acquire Aleister Crowley’s diaries for the Institute” at Indiana University. [29] He actually failed.
But failure was obviously not an option for Kinsey, as he went on to perform the same sex and Satanic orgies that Crowley himself performed. Kinsey “made a pilgrimage to Thelema Abbey, the temple where Crowley had ministered. Crowley’s first book, the pornographic White Stains, advocated sexual magic and was much favored by Kinsey. In fact, Kinsey was photographed in Crowley’s “Chamber of Horrors,” while he and Clara appear together in a photo following Kinsey’s return from the Abbey.” [30]
Kenneth Anger, a Crowley devotee, later admitted that Kinsey’s obsession with perversion was “highly reminiscent” of Crowley’s sex magic. [31] When Kinsey visited what one ought to call Crowley’s lab experiment in Italy at the Abbey, he saw depictions of children in “sado-sexual ceremonies,” and Kinsey never condemned the act. Kinsey “found Crowley’s savage child pornography, his homosexual magic, and his human sacrifice records to be ‘most open.’” [32]
We are now facing an inevitable conclusion. No one with an ounce of moral sense should applaud Donald Trump for uttering disgusting words about women. But will the same mass media devote the same amount of time to dethrone people like Hugh Hefner, who incidentally articulated the same thing that Trump was saying? Hefner declared: “Censorship is the tool of totalitarianism and repression. If it is used today to prohibit sexually explicit words and images, it might be used tomorrow to prohibit other forms of expression. “It might be used to justify the oppression of women in such areas as abortion rights, and to foil other efforts to bring about equality between the sexes. Censorship is insatiable. “It can erode the freedom of expression until there is only one acceptable point of view left. If that were to happen in our society, whose point of view would survive? “Playboy celebrates sex because sex is one of the good things in life. The freedom to express oneself without fear of censorship is another.” [33]
Here’s the kicker: Hefner wrote his piece in the L.A. Times , the same organ that is now condemning Trump for following Hefner’s advice!
What the sex culture is basically saying here is that it is sexually permissible to “grab them by the pussy.” After all, “Censorship is the tool of totalitarianism and repression.” But when Trump actually grabs them “by the pussy,” what was sexually permissible has magically become morally impermissible.
If these people cannot see the lunacy of their ideology, then I’ve got some hamsters to sell them in South Korea.
[1] See for example Erica Tempesta, “’She looks like she’s working for an escort agency!’ Megyn Kelly slammed online over risque low-cut dress she wore at the RNC, with critics claiming it looked like ‘lingerie,’” Daily Mail , July 22, 2016.
[2] Joe Flint, “Megyn Kelly Seeks Salary North of $20 Million in Contract Talks With Fox News,” Wall Street Journal , October 27, 2016.
[3] See E. Michael Jones, Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control (South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 2000).
[4] Quoted in E. Michael Jones, The Catholic Church and the Cultural Revolution (South Bend: Fidelity Press, 2016), kindle edition.
[6] Ibid.
[7] See E. Michael Jones, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior (South Bend: Fidelity Press, 2012), chapter 5.
[8] David Leonhardt, “John Tukey, 85, Statistician; Coined the Word ‘Software,’” NY Times , July 28, 2000.
[9] For a study on this, see E. Michael Jones, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior (South Bend: Fidelity Press, 2012), 83-108.
[10] G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (Nashville: Sam Torode Book Arts, 2011), 103.
[11] Simon LeVay and Elizabeth Nonas, City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1995), 51.
[12] See James H. Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997); Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, Sex the Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).
[13] Quoted in Christopher Andersen, American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004), 90.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Judith Reisman, Stolen Honor Stolen Innocence: How America was Betrayed by the Lies and Sexual Crimes of a Mad “Scientist” (Orlando, FL: New Revolution Publishers, 2013), 22.
[16] Mel Gordon, Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (San Francisco: Feral House, 2006), 153.
[18] Ibid., 153-154.
[19] Elena Mancini, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Quest for Sexual Freedom: A History of the First International Sexual Freedom Movement (New York: Palgrave, 2010), 13.
[20] See Magnus Hirschfeld, The Homosexuality of Men and Women (New York: Prometheus Books, 2000).
[21] Gordon, Voluptuous Panic, 126.
[22] Johnson, Modern Times , 115.
[23] Gordon, Voluptuous Panic , 164. | 1real |
Trump says U.S. media reports making it hard to strike deal with Russia | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday said reports in the U.S. media about his administration’s relationship with Russia may make it difficult for him to strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease tensions between Washington and Moscow. “Putin probably assumes that he can’t make a deal with me any more because politically it would be unpopular for a politician to make a deal,” Trump said at a press conference. | 0fake |
Florida governor vows aggressive probe of Irma nursing home deaths | (In Sept. 13 item, updates to correct spelling of the last name of Michael Beason from Benson, in 19th paragraph and throughout) By Andrew Innerarity and Ricardo Ortiz HOLLYWOOD, Fla./SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott vowed on Wednesday that the state would aggressively investigate how six people died at a nursing home that lost power when Hurricane Irma rampaged through the region, as millions coped with another day without electricity. The death toll from the storm approached 80 as officials continued to assess the damage after Irma powered through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record and slammed into the Florida Keys archipelago with sustained winds of up to 130 miles per hour (215 km per hour). Irma killed at least 36 people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, according to officials. Some 4.2 million homes and businesses, or about 9 million people, were without power on Wednesday in Florida and nearby states. Police opened a criminal investigation at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, north of Miami, where three elderly residents were found dead at the facility and three later died at a nearby hospital, officials said. I am going to work to aggressively demand answers on how this tragic event took place, Scott said in a statement. This situation is unfathomable. Every facility that is charged with caring for patients must take every action and precaution to keep their patients safe. More than 100 patients at the nursing home were evacuated on Wednesday along with 18 patients from a nearby facility that was cleared due to the criminal investigation, Hollywood officials said. Most of the patients have been treated for respiratory distress, dehydration and heat-related issues, Randy Katz, a spokesman for Memorial Regional Hospital, told reporters. Memorial Regional is located across the street from the nursing home. Police were first called to the facility at about 4:30 a.m. but did not arrive until after 6 a.m., officials said. The center had been without air conditioning, Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief told reporters on Wednesday. The building has been sealed off and we are conducting a criminal investigation inside, Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez told reporters on Wednesday. It was very hot on the second floor. Florida Power & Light said it had provided power to some parts of the Hollywood nursing home but that the facility was not on a county top tier list for emergency power restoration. Irma caused about $25 billion in insured losses, including $18 billion in the United States and $7 billion in the Caribbean, catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & Co estimated on Wednesday. The Florida Keys were particularly hard hit, with federal officials saying that 25 percent of homes were destroyed and 65 percent suffered major damage when Irma barreled ashore on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane. Most residents had left by then and police have barred re-entry to most of the Keys to allow more time to restore electricity and medical service and bring water, food and fuel. I don t have a house. I don t have a job. I have nothing, said Mercedes Lopez, 50, whose family fled north from the Keys town of Marathon on Friday and rode out the storm at an Orlando hotel, only to learn their home was destroyed, along with the gasoline station where Lopez worked. President Donald Trump is due to visit the region on Thursday. Irma wreaked total devastation in parts of the Caribbean, where at least 43 people have died. People who fled their homes in hard-hit islands including St. Martin and the U.S. Virgin Islands that were all but cut off from the world for days arrived in San Juan late Tuesday. Michael Beason, 65, of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, said he lost everything. My house, my business, both my vehicles, everything is gone, said Beason, who was stopping in San Juan before continuing to Boston to seek refuge with his wife s brother. But we have life. We rode out that horrible storm in a shower that I had reinforced after Hurricane Marilyn, Beason added. I told the man (who installed the shower), I told him, If the hurricane takes the rest of my house, I want this shower sticking up out of that slab like the last tooth in the mouth of a bum. And sure enough that s what s left. Irma hit the United States about two weeks after Hurricane Harvey plowed into Houston, killing about 60 and causing some $180 billion in damage, mostly from flooding. | 0fake |
CROOKED DEMOCRAT Congresswoman Corrine Brown Found GUILTY of STEALING Scholarship Money From Children…Blames RACISM For Verdict | Celebrated Congressional Black Caucus member, and legend Corrine Brown would like Americans to believe that stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from underpriveleged children in her district, and using the money to vacation with her daughter, is not the reason she s been found guilty of 18 counts of fraud and corruption, it s because she is black. Washington Examiner She partied with Nancy Pelosi, traveled on Air Force one next to President Obama, and cast her superdelegate vote for Hillary Clinton. But on February 9, 2017, Corrine Brown was in federal court for stealing scholarship money from school children.The disgraced congresswoman attempted to defend against charges that she funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from a non-profit charity, One Door for Education, into her own pocket.After her former chief of staff testified against her, the question was no longer whether or not she s guilty. It s why Democrat brass would continually cozy up to a congresswoman who was so clearly corrupt?From the beginning, Brown s been shrouded in controversy. Shortly after she won election in 1992, the Federal Election Commission accused Brown of violating numerous campaign finance laws. Most notably, she accepted donations from foreign citizens and failed to report the use of a corporate plane. And that s just the tip of the ethical iceberg.A convenient rap sheet, put together last July by the Florida Times-Union, documents every allegation of wrongdoing brought against Brown during her 27-year career. Hollywood couldn t have better scripted some of the highlights.In 1998, Brown cashed a $10,000 check from Rev. Henry Lyons, the disgraced president of the National Baptist Convention who spent five years in federal prison for fraud. The congresswoman said tthat she used the unreported money to bus her supporters to an event.In 2000, Brown battled back a House Ethics investigation into her efforts to free imprisoned West African millionaire Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko from federal prison. She appealed to Attorney General Janet Reno for help, asking her to spring Sissoko from prison. Though unsuccessful, Brown received a new Lexus worth $50,000 for her trouble.And in 2008, Brown took heat from the mayor of Jacksonville after she had sandbags delivered by the city to protect her home from Tropical Storm Fay. The congresswoman eventually pledged to pay the city $886.But none of this dissuaded Democrats from palling around the Florida woman. It s mind boggling that Brown not only fundraised with the president but also enjoyed prominent perches on the Transportation and Veteran Affairs Committees.First Coast News On Thursday, November 16, 2017, the former Jacksonville area Congresswoman Corrine Brown took the stand, and plead for mercy from federal judge Timothy Corrigan. I am sorry you have to be here today to see me in this situation, Brown said in her statement to the court. I never imagined I would one day be in court asking people to speak on my behalf never. In hindsight, I wished I had been more diligent in overseeing my personal and professional life The idea that some people could believe these charges hurt me because it runs contrary to everything I ve ever believed and done in my life. I hope and pray these proceedings to don t make them [ordinary people] lose faith in the system. I humbly ask for mercy and compassion. Brown was convicted on 18 counts of fraud and corruption in May.The lead prosecutor in the sentencing hearing argued Thursday that the former congresswoman should be sentenced to about 7.5 to 9 years in federal prison. Her defense attorney is seeking probation and community service.Brown s defense attorney James Smith objected to various aspects of the sentencing recommendations, including how much money Brown should be culpable for.Prosecutor Duva asked the court, What accountability does the law require? during his presentation.Duva said Brown was accustomed to receiving money she should not have received. She also lied about donations to colleges, churches and other entities.He also argued that Brown has made ludicrous comments during the investigation, including a comment where she essentially said that had investigators not been looking into her case, the Pulse shooting in Orlando would never have happened. She also referred to the charges as bogus and racist, implying that she was targeted for her race in the case.Duva objected to that notion by saying, She was targeted because she committed fraud, not because she was black or white. Corrine Brown had several witnesses come forward Thursday in support of her through witness testimony during the sentencing hearing.Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee provided a glowing character witness of Corrine Brown during her sentencing hearing Thursday.Jackson Lee described via telephone testimony it as her privilege to characterize Corrine Brown as a loving person. She said Brown has had a pointed and direct effort [in] helping others, not herself. The veterans community loved Congresswoman Brown, Jackson Lee said, stating that Brown has helped those with PTSD and other issues following fighting overseas. She also stated Brown helped tremendously with relief efforts during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. That shows a character of giving to others unselfishly, Jackson Lee said.Additional arguments by defense attorneyThe defense attorney belabored the point that they are against the notion that Brown abused a position of trust, which is established by the evidence presented in the trial.Smith explained the definition of obstruction of justice, which Brown is accused of doing while taking the stand by the prosecutor, stating that it is the intention or deliberate effort while on the stand to make material falsehoods. The judge wasn t so sure and asked the defense attorney to elaborate.Smith appeared to get emotional after posing two questions: What type of sentence does justice require in this case? and How do you sentence someone who is a legend? He attributes some of her actions to the progress our country has made in terms of relations for black people.Smith said he met with an Orlando attorney who was from Jacksonville and said the attorney described Brown as our Martin Luther King for black Jacksonville natives. None of those people had to push the boulder up the mountain like she did, said Smith, referring to others in Congress. She truly is a legend. There are a lot of moving parts in the case against Corrine Brown and her co-conspirators.Carla Wiley first became involved in the fraud scheme when she started dating Ronnie Simmons.She was president of a charity called One Door for Education, which was never actually registered as a 501(c)(3).The fake charity received more than $800,000 in four years, with about only $1,200 of it actually going to scholarships for students. That money is now gone.Simmons was dating Wiley when he told her he needed a nonprofit to financially back a reception for congresswoman Brown in 2012. Wiley offered One Door for Education as an option for that reception.The charity claimed to give scholarships to poor and underprivileged children seeking the become teachers.Lead prosecutor A. Tysen Duva argued during the trial that Ronnie Simmons worked under Brown and did her bidding by taking out $800 a day from the One Door for Education bank account and depositing it into Brown s personal bank account. He did this numerous times, according to Duva and evidence released earlier this month.The fake charity was essentially used as a slush fund for Corrine Brown s travels, expenses and shopping, according to the prosecutors.She used the money put in her bank account to go to Nassau, Bahamas with her daughter, fly to Beverly Hills and shop along Rodeo Drive, and attend a Beyonc concert, according to court documents and previous reports by First Coast News.The prosecutors also argued that Brown committed wire fraud, mail fraud and stole money from the government after she lied on tax documents.Brown had friends in high places, such as former CSX CEO Mike Ward. She would ask them for donation to Open Door for Education and many of them gladly donated, according to previous reports and prosecutor testimony.Ward, for instance, contributed $35,000 to One Door for Education after learning that the money would go toward providing students with iPads for learning.Prosecutors also argued that Brown lied about and inflated what she gave in tithes to various churches. The churches came forward in the trial and said the donations claimed to be given by Brown did not match their records, to which Brown said she sometimes gave anonymous donations.Other legitimate scholarship organizations came forward and said they had never received funds from Brown s charity.Meanwhile, Brown s tax returns claimed she contributed as much as $30,000 20 percent to a third of her income, to various charities. | 1real |
Turncoat Democrats Break Ranks, Back Trump On Stolen SCOTUS Seat (DETAILS) | When one votes for someone with a (D) next to their name, we expect certain things. Namely, in these troubling political times, that they will oppose the bigoted and disturbingly authoritarian Trump agenda at every turn. The problem is, though, that there are Democrats sitting in Congress right now who are acting more like Republicans than Democrats. The most infamous of such figures is one Senator Joe Manchin (DINO-WV). We ve already reported on how Manchin is a complete turncoat who should simply turn in his (D) for an (R) and stop fooling his voters into thinking he s some kind of liberal, because he isn t. Manchin is anti-gay, anti-choice, pro-gun, and pro-coal. Therefore, he is certainly no Democrat in the modern sense of the word, and it should come as no surprise that he is one of two DINOS in the Senate who has announced that he will vote for the Supreme Court nominee to fill the seat that the obstructionist Republicans stole from President Obama. The other turncoat on this issue is Heidi Heitkamp (D- ND).The Hill reports that Heitcamp says of Trump s Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch: After doing my due diligence by meeting with Judge Gorsuch and reviewing his record and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I ve decided to vote in favor of his confirmation. Heitcamp went on to say that Gorsuch is balanced, meticulous, and [a] well respected jurist who understands the rule of law. She obviously coordinated with Manchin to make this traitorous announcement, as it came just minutes after Manchin said of his own voting in favor of Gorsuch via Twitter: I will vote to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to be the ninth justice on the Supreme Court.:Luckily, there is already an organization that is actively working to deal with DINOs like Manchin and Heitkamp. Called We Will Replace You, the group is making sure to primary Democrats who refuse to oppose the Trump agenda and his disastrous nominees. While any Democrat is better than a Republican, these people need to stick to their guns and do what is right, not what they are being pressured to do by the Trump White House, the red state voters, and the Republicans in Congress. If they refuse to do their jobs on behalf of the Democrats who put them in Congress, they should be primaried and if the good people at We Will Replace you have their way, all of these Democrats who are voting across the aisle will be primaried in 2018.Remember folks there are plenty of people hiding behind a (D) who are in no way Democrats. Look at the candidate, not the party label, and #RESIST.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
Potential next French president Juppe says Trump 'a big worry' | PARIS (Reuters) - The prospect Donald Trump could become president of the United States is “a big worry,” Alain Juppe, the pollsters favorite to become President of France next year, was quoted as saying on Wednesday. “I don’t know Mr Trump, but there’s a question mark and a big worry,” Juppe, who hopes to be the main candidate of the country’s center right in April’s presidential elections, told the magazine Paris Match. “His total ignorance of Europe, his disdain for France, his isolationist and protectionist points of view, his outrageous simplifications, his constant changes of tack, are a real concern. But it is for the people of the United States to choose.” Trump is the Republican Party candidate for the U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 8. | 0fake |
ABC News: Trump’s Executive Order Could Mean Deportation for 11 Million Illegals - Breitbart | ABC News reports that the illegal immigrant population in the United States could face deportation as a result of the executive order President Donald Trump signed on Wednesday, according to legal experts. A 2014 Pew Research Center study estimated the number of illegals in the U. S. to be at least 11 million. [From Julia Jacobo and Lauren Pearle at ABC News: The order delineates several categories of undocumented immigrants who are priority for removal from the United States including those who have been “charged with any criminal offense” or those who have “committed acts that constitute as a chargeable offense. ” On the campaign trail, Trump has vacillated several times on the issue, at first indicating that all undocumented immigrants would be sent back” if they’ve done well they’re going out and they’re coming back in legally. ” Then he tempered his remarks to focus on undocumented immigrants who committed crimes. But Trump’s executive order appears to extend beyond this. “Many aliens who illegally enter the United States and those who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas present a significant threat to national security and public safety,” the order states. “This is particularly so for aliens who engage in criminal conduct in the United States. ” Anyone who came to the U. S. illegally — that is without passing through border inspection committed a criminal misdemeanor and could fall into the priority removal category, legal experts tell ABC News. Read the rest here. | 0fake |
Is ICE’s Help-Wanted Sign a Welcome Mat for Rogue Applicants, Too? - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — President Trump has vowed a hiring surge of 10, 000 immigration and customs officers to accelerate the deportation of unauthorized immigrants. But the aggressive pace he has laid out risks adding to the ranks of rogue agents who have been charged with abusing immigrants. Over the past decade, dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and contract guards responsible for the detention and removal of undocumented immigrants have been arrested and charged with beating people, smuggling drugs into detention centers, having sex with detainees and accepting bribes to delay or stop deportations, agency documents and court records show. One agent took pictures of himself having sex with a minor in a foreign country after dropping off deportees. In another case, an ICE lawyer pretending to be an immigration judge took bribes to remove official documents from the files of people awaiting deportation. These officials make up a small fraction of the work force at the agency, now comprising almost 20, 000 people, but former Homeland Security officials and human rights workers say that even a few bad officers can be a problem because they hold such power over a vulnerable population. John Roth, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, told a Senate committee in February that the agency would “face a number of challenges” in executing Mr. Trump’s executive orders because it had “inadequate systems to track and process applicants. ” Mr. Roth said his office was conducting an audit of previous hiring surges to help the agency avoid practices that may have led to corruption and misconduct by staff members. Human rights activists expressed similar worries about a hiring wave. “Given the things that have been documented in the past — beatings, sexual assaults and other abuses — it doesn’t seem like they have much oversight of the people they have now. And they want to add more?” said Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research for Amnesty International in New York. Mr. Mazzola’s concern is borne out in a number of cases in which ICE employees have been accused or convicted of abuse. In Philadelphia, Justin Ford pleaded guilty to stealing money from undocumented immigrants being processed for removal. In New Jersey, Arnaldo Echevarria was convicted on charges of extracting bribes from people facing deportation. And in Detroit, Clifton Divers was arrested after the authorities said he had provided false information to federal immigration authorities in order to delay the deportation of several immigrants facing removal. Mr. Ford and Mr. Echevarria were deportation officers who supervised unauthorized immigrants. Mr. Divers is a special agent with ICE Homeland Security Investigations who prosecutors say took $5, 000 from an immigration attorney to put off several deportations by claiming that the immigrants had information about crimes. John F. Kelly, the Homeland Security secretary, has directed the agency to “take all appropriate action to expeditiously hire 10, 000 agents and officers,” as sought by Mr. Trump in his executive order. Mr. Kelly said the agency would maintain a rigorous hiring process and add personnel to ensure that it would not be compromised. “I will not skimp on the training and the standards,” he told a congressional panel last month. According to immigration and customs officials, agents and deportation officers undergo security checks and full background investigations, and then every five or 10 years, depending on the sensitivity of the position. Still, some former Homeland Security officials said they worried that in an effort to accelerate hiring, the agency would be tempted to lower its standards. Leaked documents outlining plans to beef up a sister agency, the Border Patrol, first reported in Foreign Policy magazine, show that Customs and Border Protection officials are considering waiving polygraph tests for some applicants and applying less stringent background checks to speed the hiring of 5, 000 agents. ICE does not administer lie detector test to applicants. In 2016, the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility sought permission to use polygraph examinations for law enforcement applicants similar to those used by the Border Patrol and Secret Service, but the proposal stalled. James Tomsheck, a former assistant commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said that while polygraph tests were not foolproof, they could help weed out applicants susceptible to corruption. “What needs to be implemented are protocols for keeping bad people from getting in in the first place,” he said. “Background checks alone are insufficient at vetting people. ” Background checks failed to find problems with Mr. Ford, who authorities said was facing financial problems when he stole from the vulnerable immigrants he transported to detention facilities in New Jersey. He was arrested in March 2015 by a Philadelphia Police Department SWAT team as he dropped off an undercover agent at a detention facility. Mr. Ford, who told the authorities that he had taken only a few hundred dollars from detainees “a couple of times,” pleaded guilty in June 2015. Mr. Echevarria, who was indicted last year, accepted $75, 000 in bribes in exchange for employment authorization documents for several immigrants in the country illegally, the authorities said. Prosecutors said he also had demanded sex in at least one instance. From 2012 to 2014, they said, Mr. Echevarria made false statements to immigration authorities about the status of the undocumented immigrants under his supervision. Mr. Divers, who is awaiting trial, was arrested in October. According to court records, between 2009 and 2015 he took thousands of dollars from Charles T. Busse, an immigration attorney, to help with deportation cases.’ ”In one instance, Mr. Divers was accused of sending an email to officials at Homeland Security that falsely said one of Mr. Busse’s clients was assisting in a criminal investigation. As a result of Mr. Divers’s email, the client was not deported, court records show.” ’In another case, Mr. Divers arranged for a deportation deferral for another client of Mr. Busse, a Mexican man, after providing false information to ICE officials, according to court documents. “Some of these guys don’t have any respect for the people they are rounding up or deporting,” said an ICE deportation officer, who requested anonymity because he fears losing his job for speaking out publicly. “I’ve heard agents refer to all Somalis as ‘pirates’ and other ethnic slurs. Others are just hostile to aliens being here breaking the law. It’s not our job to judge. ” | 0fake |
“F*ck Trump! F*ck White People!” LEFTY GOES NUTS On Judge Jeanine…Proves She’s Clueless On Freedom Of Speech [Video] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ7GrEItGoo | 1real |
null | Wasn't he the guy asking the US for help with the south china sea? | 1real |
HOLY MOLY! TRUMP GIVES EPIC News Conference…SLAYS PRESS…Dresses Down CNN…”Your Ratings Are Lower Than Congress…Network Is All About “Hate” [VIDEO] | During Trump s press conference today, Jim Acosta of CNN bombarded him with one question after another. Trump responded to his dishonest network by calling out the HATRED and VENOM he constantly sees on CNN. Acosta pressed on and asked yet another question. Trump responded: We do have other people and your ratings aren t as good as the others. Trump told Acosta, I think you would do much better by being different. I m not ranting and raving. I m just telling you your dishonest people. I m changing it from fake news to very fake news.' Acosta asked Trump if he is undermining news by calling it fake news? Trump response was perfect, as he replied, I know what s good and I know what s bad, because I m there. So it s very important to me. I want to see an honest press. It s very important to the public to get an honest press. If you were straight and really told it like it was, I would be your biggest fan if you treated me right, including negative stories about me. But when story after story about me is bad, I won! You ve got to be a little bit fair. But when you take a look at some of your stories, and the bias and the hatred. The public is smart and they see it. The whole Russian thing it s a ruse | 1real |
UN Must Provide Proof of Alleged Russian Aerial Bombing in Aleppo - Churkin | Get short URL 0 14 0 0 United Nations should provide evidence if it claims that Russia is conducting aerial bombardments since the introduction of moratorium on air strikes, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said at a UN Security Council meeting.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, the Russian General Staff said the moratorium on Russian and Syrian airstrikes in the ten-kilometer radius (6.2 mile radius) around Aleppo, effective since October 18, will be extended. © Sputnik/ Mikhail Alaeddin Russia, Syria to Extend Moratorium on Airstrikes in, Around Aleppo "The moratorium on flights has been in place for eight days. Give us at least one proof or leave those narratives for a romance you would probably write later," Churkin stated on Wednesday.
Churkin made the comments in response to allegations by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brian earlier during the UN Security Council meeting.
The Russian ambassador further stated the parties to the conflict have not had the moral fortitude to allow medical evacuations from the besieged city, all the while "Syrian and Russian forces from air and land demonstrated a willingness to protect what meagre medical facilities still function inside eastern Aleppo." ... | 1real |
In Ohio, a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party is playing out | LOWELLVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - On a sweltering evening in a rural corner of Ohio, the struggle for the soul and identity of the Democratic Party is playing out over wine, meatballs and recriminations about Hillary Clinton’s defeat in last year’s presidential election. Joe Schiavoni, the former top Democrat in the Ohio state senate, is talking to a crowd at a fundraising event for his fledgling bid to become their next governor. He believes leaders of his party in Washington have lost touch with voters. It’s a familiar refrain among Democrats in a state that helped catapult Republican Donald Trump into the White House in November. “You can’t just talk about things and send out press releases,” says Schiavoni, a former boxer who revels in his blue collar roots. Many in the crowd, a few miles from the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, nod in vigorous agreement. Meeting voters and hearing their daily concerns is vital, he says. In Ohio, as in other politically competitive “swing” states that Democrats won in 2012 but lost in 2016, Democrats are struggling to come up with a clear message and identity to win back the voters they lost. Listening to voters is the key to moving forward, some three dozen Democratic Party members across Ohio said in interviews. But there was little consensus on how to win over those voters. Many of those interviewed said the party’s national leaders have not learned the lessons of last year’s defeat, when many voters rejected the party as too elitist and out of touch with working Americans. David Pepper, chairman of the state party, dismissed that criticism in an interview, saying he and his team have been traveling around Ohio, talking to voters and visiting their homes. They have been especially focused on two groups: the people who voted twice for President Barack Obama and then Trump, and Democratic voters who sat out the last election. Democrats across America, as in Ohio, are desperate to win again as they look ahead to next year’s congressional elections. The stakes are high. Without a significant shift in voting patterns, the party will fail to recapture the House of Representatives and could lose more seats in the Senate, where they are already in the minority. On Monday, the national Democratic Party unveiled an economic platform they said would help U.S. families. Called “A Better Deal,” it was the first major step by the party to try to reconnect with voters since the election. The plan called for creating 10 million jobs over five years and cracking down on monopolies and big corporate mergers. “But the plan was missing a vital piece,” said Alan Melamed, a longstanding member of the Ohio Democratic Party’s executive committee and a political consultant who has worked on dozens of campaigns for more than 40 years. “We need to show we are fighting for people. The plan failed to do that.” Since Clinton’s defeat in November, Tom Perez, the head of the Democratic National Committee – the body which runs the national party – has conducted a nationwide “listening tour” to hear why so many traditionally Democratic voters defected to Trump last year. Yet when he came to Ohio, some Democrats said, he didn’t do much listening – just a lot of talking. In June, the listening tour came to Youngstown. About 75 party stalwarts paid $25 each to attend a “Pizza with Perez” event at a local pizzeria. “What I saw was a typical campaign event, with the audience doing the listening while Democratic operatives touted their positions,” said John Russo, the former co-director of the Center for Working Class Studies at Youngstown University and a political analyst. “We paid $25 to be told by Perez what he thought we were thinking.” Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Perez, disputed that account, saying Perez had done a lot of listening at the event. “Too many in Ohio and elsewhere feel politically homeless because for too long the national party focused solely on electing the president of the United States at the expense of local concerns,” Tyler said. “That’s exactly why Ohio was among the first places Tom visited when he decided to run for DNC chair.” One of the national politicians unveiling “A Better Deal” in the town of Berryville, Virginia at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, was Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mention Pelosi to Democrats in Ohio and many roll their eyes. A California liberal, Pelosi is part of the problem, not the solution, they said in interviews. They view Pelosi as part of a coastal elite that does not understand the struggles of Americans in the Midwest. Christopher Celeste, the son of former Ohio governor Dick Celeste and a major Democratic Party donor at both the state and national level, said the retention of Pelosi as a party leader earlier this year was “mindboggling.” Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said the Democratic leader has raised almost $570 million for Democrats since becoming part of the party leadership in 2002, and was a master legislator and strategist. “While some may find it politically advantageous to engage in a circular firing squad, Leader Pelosi isn’t in Congress on a shift. She’s on a mission to protect the Affordable Care Act,” said Hammill, referring to Obama’s healthcare reform law which Trump wants to repeal. Joyce Beatty, a congresswoman from central Ohio, also defended Pelosi. “To just blame Nancy Pelosi is not only wrong, but it’s wrong for Democrats to do it. If there has been a failure we all need to own it.” Angered by last year’s defeats up and down the ballot in Ohio, a group of political consultants circulated a memo to every member of the state party’s executive committee in December. The memo, which has not been previously reported, lambastes the party leadership for the “electoral carnage” of 2016. (Read the memo here tmsnrt.rs/2h2sTgT) Clinton lost Ohio, a key battleground, by over eight points. Only one Democratic presidential candidate in the past 40 years – Walter Mondale in 1984 – won fewer counties in Ohio than Clinton. Ohio Democrats also lost the U.S. Senate race, both Democratic nominees for the Ohio Supreme Court were defeated, and state races were lost. Ohio’s Democratic congressional delegation in Washington is at its lowest in decades and Republicans control the governor’s mansion and both the state House and Senate. “The status quo cannot stand,” the memo says. It calls for “new messages – and more effective strategies for delivering them.” The memo does not make clear what those messages should be. A source close to the state party leadership dismissed the memo as sniping by disgruntled consultants. Pepper, the Ohio party leader, does not want to relitigate the past. “We need to go and talk to voters and win them back,” he said. | 0fake |
Is The World Going To See A Global Monetary Reset With QE Used To Purchase Gold? | (King World News) Paul Brodsky, Macro Allocation Inc. — Gold
To “take a flier” against consensus with long duration treasuries also suggests taking a flier with gold. Treasuries and gold are normally inversely correlated. In a typical economic cycle, declining treasury yields imply dollar strength, which in turn, suggests gold weakness. We argue that current conditions do not imply a normal economic cycle and that, in the current environment, long treasury positions may be best hedged – and potentially enhanced – with a long gold position. (For fixed income investors, this is reminiscent of hedging long MBS positions with long Treasury positions.)… IMPORTANT: To hear which legend just spoke with KWN about $8,000 gold and the coming mania in the gold, silver, and mining shares markets CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
In the current environment (imminent balance sheet recession), gold is the most convex asset we know. Gold hedges financial asset values by hedging the currency in which they are denominated. An increase in goods and service inflation reduces the purchasing power value of the currency while an increase in goods and service deflation reduces the supply of goods and services. The former is better understood than the latter because the frequency of inflation is so much greater. At the end of the day, gold is a hedge against balance sheet de-leveraging, whether it comes from a significant increase in the quantity of money or a significant decrease in the value of liabilities. A decrease in the value of treasury bonds, from either debt deflation or currency inflation would send the price of gold in the underlying currency higher.
King World News note: It is very important to understand what Brodsky is saying in the paragraph below about the problem of higher interest rates in relation to investor portfolios and overall consumption. The Real Problem With Higher Interest Rates It is true that higher treasury yields would provide investors with positive carry that gold would not (unless investors choose to lend out gold in return for interest). Lost on investors that succumb to this thinking, however, is that with almost $20 trillion of treasury and agency debt outstanding, rising treasury yields would produce more debt deflation on existing portfolios than higher income from newly issued treasuries would stimulate consumption.
You may find the discussion above dense, in large part because gold’s characteristics are unfamiliar to most financial asset investors. After all, it is a shiny rock with no utility or income, a monetary relic of pre- digital generations. The way to think about gold is as a necessary monetary anchor if/when leveraged fiat currencies can no longer be supported by global banking systems and the global productive economy. In extremis, there would be no fiat currency winners, even the dollar.
Simply, gold is the one item against which all currencies, and the assets and liabilities they value, can be re-valued by political and monetary authorities regardless of whether or not authorities coordinate a synchronized revaluation. It is the only politically-unsanctioned potential monetary asset banking systems cannot create and authorities cannot directly control. (Official gold holdings amount to about 22% of above-ground gold.) It is also the only asset on most central bank balance sheets that is not debt. The world’s largest central banks and the IMF continue to store and add to their gold reserves, we surmise, because it might come in handy one day.
The daily price of gold today, in dollars, euros, yen, etc., 1) handicaps the likelihood of the global monetary system failing; and 2) implicitly speculates an exchange rate against which fiat currencies would be converted if necessary.
A Global Monetary Reset With QE Used To Purchase Gold? Were gold to again become a sanctioned monetary asset, the transformation would likely be executed by the political dimension through their banking systems, as it always has been. We would speculate that such a transformation, if necessary, would be coordinated by the G10, agreed upon through a treaty, and overseen by the IMF and BIS. It would be a one-time monetary reset, rather than a reversion of the global monetary system to a fixed-exchange rate system.
Devaluing currencies to gold would be an expedient political solution to a global balance sheet recession. The reset would be similar in nature to debt jubilees periodically necessary since ancient times. The only difference here would be legal debt covenants would not have to be destroyed. Rather, the burden of servicing and repaying outstanding debt would be greatly reduced through inflation. The inflation would come from extreme central bank money creation used to purchase gold at higher prices – QE for gold. The new money would add a couple zeros to assets while keeping the principal value of liabilities constant.
A monetary reset that ties currencies to gold would not alter commerce. Consumers would not need gold in their pockets. Producers and merchants would be ostensibly satisfied that the debit cards consumers carry are backed by currency tied, even temporarily, to something finite.
Owning Gold Is Not Just About A Monetary Reset Investors should not necessarily own gold today in anticipation of a global monetary reset. Circling back to a contemporary discussion of whether to own gold in concert with long duration treasuries and other financial assets, the increasing potential for fiscal stimulation through deficit spending increases the odds that already indebted currencies will be rejected by goods and service suppliers. Gold priced in fiat currencies could rise if those currencies do not produce an equal amount of revenue and income. In short, gold should re-price higher if/when global GDP falls and global liabilities don’t.
*** KWN has just released one of legendary Art Cashin’s greatest audio interviews ever discussing the gold market at length, including the recent takedown in gold, what to surprises to expect in key markets as Trump becomes president, and what impact massive public works projects will have on the United States, inflation, gold, bonds, and much more. and you can listen to this extraordinary interview by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
***KWN has now released the extraordinary KWN audio interview with whistleblower Andrew Maguire, where he discusses the gold and silver smash, at what price the large sovereign wholesale bids are located, and much more, and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
As The Monetary Madness Continues, What Is Happening Is Stunning… CLICK | 1real |
Jared Kushner at Center of Media Spotlight on Russian Ties to Trump Campaign - Breitbart | The focus of the continuous media reports of alleged collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign has shifted to Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s husband of his daughter Ivanka, and top adviser. [Kushner is said to have discussed with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the possibility of establishing a direct and secure conduit for communication between Moscow and Trump’s transition team, established after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, the Washington Post reported on Friday. “ Trump made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U. S. officials,” the Post reported. “Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications. ” Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, also attended the meeting, according to the Post, which cites no sources for its report except “U. S. officials” and “people familiar with the matter. ” The White House acknowledged the meeting in March, but “played down it’s significance,” the Post reported, adding that the FBI now considers the meeting — and another with a Russian banker — worthy of investigation. “Neither the meeting nor the communications of Americans involved were under U. S. surveillance,” the Post reports that officials said. No one responded to requests for comments from the Post, including the White House, Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, and the Russian Embassy. According to the newspaper: Russia at times feeds false information into communication streams it suspects are monitored as a way of sowing misinformation and confusion among U. S. analysts. But officials said that it’s unclear what Kislyak would have had to gain by falsely characterizing his contacts with Kushner to Moscow, particularly at a time when the Kremlin still saw the prospect of dramatically improved relations with Trump. The Post’s reporting adds drama to the Kushner angle of the ongoing Russian saga: Current and former U. S. intelligence officials said that although Russian diplomats have secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushner’s apparent request for access to such channels was extraordinary. “How would he trust that the Russians wouldn’t leak it on their side?” one former senior intelligence official said, adding that a Trump transition member going in and out of the Russian embassy would cause “a great deal of concern. ” The entire idea, he said, “seems extremely naive or absolutely crazy. ” “It is common for senior advisers of a newly elected president to be in contact with foreign leaders and officials,” the story stated towards the end, citing U. S. intelligence’s belief in an “unprecedented campaign” by the Russians “to interfere in last year’s presidential race and help elect Trump. ” And, the “Obama administration officials say members of the Trump transition team never approached them about arranging a secure communications channel with their Russian contacts, possibly because of concerns about leaks,” the Post reported. And, “the State Department, the White House National Security Council and U. S. intelligence agencies all have the ability to set up secure communications channels with foreign leaders, though doing so for a transition team would be unusual. ” In addition, the Post reports they first heard about the Kushner meeting though an “anonymous letter, which said, among other things, that Kushner had talked to Kislyak about setting up the communications channel. ” “In addition to their discussion about setting up the communications channel, Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak also talked about arranging a meeting between a representative of Trump and a ‘Russian contact’ in a third country whose name was not identified, according to the anonymous letter,” the Post reported. | 0fake |
Tillerson to visit Pakistan as well as India: senior U.S. official | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will Pakistan next week during an Asian trip that will also take him to the country’s rival India, a senior official at the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday. | 0fake |
Watch Rubio Try REALLY Hard To Comeback At Trump, Then Fail Miserably (VIDEO) | In the spirit of remaining at a middle school maturity level, Marco Rubio bit back at Donald Trump insulting him by, well, trying to insult him right back. However, his attempt at doing this was pretty damn pathetic.Rubio, while speaking at a campaign event in Kennesaw, Georgia, asked the crowd, You guys want to have a little fun today?! Rubio then pulls out his phone and begins to go after Trump. He said: Last night he was actually pretty calm after I punched him around a little bit. Sure, if that s what you want to call that dismal debate performance, but please, go on: He s learning how to spell, I guess. But he s flying around on Hair Force One and tweeting. So here s the one tweet he put out, he put out a picture of me having makeup put on me at the debate. Which is amazing me to me, that the guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup. Okay, here it comes, the line we ve all been waiting for. The best comeback in the history of comebacks: Donald Trump likes to sue people; he should sue whoever did that to his face. OR not..@marcorubio slams @realDonaldTrump: He s flying around on Hair Force One and tweeting https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/dDo3Q0EA5B CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 27, 2016This comeback is VERY reminiscent of that Seinfeld episode when George was trying to come up with a comeback to someone saying to him, the ocean called, and they re running out of shrimp. George s comeback was, Well, the jerk store called, they re running out of you. It just doesn t quite work, and neither does the comeback by Rubio. I mean, he tried, really hard, and it might even work since the average Republican has the maturity level of a 12-year-old, but no, Rubio should really try harder. OR be an adult and ignore Trump s juvenile attacks. One thing is for sure, as scary as the Republican race is, it sure is entertaining.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oApBlWipc2AFeatured image: Twitter | 1real |
MICHELLE OBAMA Dishes Dirt On Barack: “He barely got his work done…He was a bum!” [VIDEO] | Thanks for the intel Mooch. Outside of his ambition to fundamentally change America, we re pretty sure nothing has changed since the first day our entitled President entered the Oval Office | 1real |
Biden backers to naysayers: Not so fast | Democrats loyal to Vice President Biden have a three-word response to the politicians and pundits who say Hillary Rodham Clinton’s performance in Tuesday’s Democratic debate makes a Biden campaign less likely: Not so fast.
Appearing eager to tamp down talk that the window of opportunity for the vice president to launch a campaign nearly closed after the debate, loyalists are taking steps to assure potential supporters that there is still a path to the nomination, however competitive and challenging, if Biden decides to run.
The clearest evidence came Friday as the International Association of Fire Fighters informed the vice president the union will endorse him if he enters the race, according to a source familiar with the union’s thinking. That followed a letter e-mailed late Thursday to Biden’s political support network by former senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware, who said a Biden campaign would be “optimistic,” “from the heart” and unscripted.
“If he runs, he will run because of his burning conviction that we need to fundamentally change the balance in our economy and the political structure to restore the ability of the middle class to get ahead,” Kaufman wrote.
Even as initial polls showed a bump for Clinton after her performance, Biden’s lingering shadow continued to leave a sense of instability over the Democratic race, leading to questions on the subject for President Obama during a Friday news conference with the South Korean president. “I am not going to comment on what Joe is doing or not doing,” Obama said. “I think you can direct those questions to my very able vice president.”
And in a television interview Friday, Clinton declined to embrace a suggestion from John Podesta, her senior campaign adviser, that Biden must make a decision soon because the race is already engaged. “That’s up to Vice President Biden,” she said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” “Certainly I’m not in any way suggesting or recommending that the vice president accept any timetable other than the one that is clicking inside of him. He has to make this decision.”
Kaufman’s words were arguably less significant than the author behind them. The former senator — appointed to the seat after his ex-boss became vice president — is Biden’s longest-serving adviser, bridging the divide between the generation of staffers who worked for Biden as a senator in the 1980s and a new crop of lieutenants who came up through the past decade of the family’s public service.
More important, Kaufman has been frequently portrayed as the most reluctant of the trio of inner-circle aides to the vice president to launch a bid and is known to be angry at the frequent portrayals of Biden as being on the brink of announcing his candidacy. A note from him to the alumni network is treated as having more credibility than any leak to the national press corps.
The main issue, still apparently unresolved, remains whether Biden and his family feel ready for the rigors of a presidential campaign so soon after the death of his oldest son, Beau, in May. Nothing Biden has said publicly in recent weeks has suggested an affirmative answer, but he has not addressed the issue directly since before Pope Francis’s visit to the United States last month.
According to those tracking the vice president’s deliberations, a decision could come at any time, although the only certain timetable is the one set by the deadlines for qualifying for primary and caucus ballots throughout the country. Those deadlines began to take effect at the end of the month.
Outside Biden’s tight circle of advisers, many Democrats have long assumed that, beyond personal and family considerations, the biggest factor in the vice president’s decision-making involved Clinton’s political vulnerability.
A month ago, as controversy over her use of a private e-mail account while serving as secretary of state damaged her image, she appeared seriously weakened. That prompted calls from nervous Democrats, or those in the party never particularly partial to Clinton, for Biden to jump in.
[Family issues weigh heaviest on Biden as he considers a 2016 run]
But assessments of Clinton brightened considerably after she delivered an impressive performance in Tuesday’s debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and two other candidates.
Biden loyalists have tried not to be swept up by shifting assumptions about the strength or weakness of the Democratic front-runner, believing she was never as damaged as some were suggesting a month ago.
At the same time, they are not persuaded that this week’s debate fundamentally changed the race in her favor. There is outside evidence backing up that view, including strong interest in Sanders on social media and the fact that the senator from Vermont raised more than $2 million in the 24 hours after the debate.
In recent days, Biden has kept in touch with leaders of key constituency groups, including calls Friday morning. One recipient of a Biden call, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the private conversation, said the vice president actively discussed the emerging campaign strategy, its structure and what constituencies he would win over. Biden believes he has a persuasive message for Democratic voters and would have the resources to run a competitive and potentially lengthy campaign, the call recipient said. Moreover, Biden’s view of the debate, this source said, was that it confirmed that Clinton’s current competition is subpar at best.
Polls and other evidence suggest that if Biden was to enter, the Democratic nomination campaign would quickly become a three-way contest. Clinton would remain the favorite, but it is clear that Sanders has more than enough money to continue well beyond the four earliest states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Biden has told those he has spoken with that he believes he, too, would have the money to remain in the race past those states. It remains unclear what other unions would follow the firefighters in endorsing Biden. “Any conversations I’ve had with the vice president would be private,” Harold A. Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said in a telephone interview Friday night.
None of the first four contests appears ready to tip to Biden, although because he is not a declared candidate, the polls are not reliable. But some of those partial to Biden have seized on a little-remembered fact from 1992 to offer hope that early defeats need not drive a candidate out of the nomination contest.
[As Biden weighs a 2016 campaign, does he want to be the anti-Clinton?]
In that campaign, Bill Clinton lost 10 of the first 11 contests, from early February through the first days of March. He then secured a string of victories in western and Southern caucuses and primaries, followed by wins in Illinois and Michigan that effectively broke the back of his opponents.
Hillary Clinton’s next major event will be an appearance Thursday before the House committee investigating the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012, along with her e-mail account. That highly charged appearance has taken a turn in her favor as a result of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggesting the goal of the committee had been to weaken her politically.
Then on Oct. 24, Clinton and other Democratic candidates will speak at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Iowa, a quadrennial proving ground for presidential hopefuls. Given the breadth of organizing that Clinton’s team has done in the Hawkeye State, Biden’s advisers assume the event will give her an additional boost, although Sanders will have plenty of supporters there, too.
All that would suggest that Biden could delay announcing a decision until after those two events.
There were many lines in Kaufman’s letter that suggested Biden still wasn’t ready to make a decision, despite the encroaching deadlines.
“I know in the daily ups and down of the political swirl, we all get bombarded with the tactics. So sometimes it’s good to take a step back and get real again. Let’s stay in touch,” Kaufman wrote. “If he decides to run, we will need each and every one of you — yesterday!” | 0fake |
Myanmar's Suu Kyi says trust has been eroded between Rakhine state communities | NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday there had been an erosion of trust and understanding between communities of Rakhine state, but did not refer to the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled since a military crackdown there. Of the many challenges that our government has been facing, the situation in the Rakhine has most strongly captured the attention of the world, Suu Kyi said in a speech at a ceremony to welcome Pope Francis in the capital, Naypyitaw, on the second day of his visit to the country. As we address longstanding issues, social, economic and political, that have eroded trust and understanding, harmony and cooperation, between different communities in Rakhine, the support of our people and of good friends who only wish to see us succeed in our endeavors, has been invaluable, she said. More than 620,000 Rohingya have left northern Rakhine state over the past three months to escape what Amnesty International has dubbed crimes against humanity , gathering in refugee camps at the southern tip of neighboring Bangladesh. The United States has accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, but China has stood by the country and Suu Kyi is due to travel to Beijing later this week. Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate and champion of democracy who for years faced down the junta that long ruled her country, has faced condemnation from around the globe for expressing doubts about reports of rights abuses against the Rohingya and failing to condemn the military. | 0fake |
Study: Running linked to extended lifespan and brain repair | Study: Running linked to extended lifespan and brain repair
Saturday, October 29, 2016 by: Amy Goodrich Tags: running , brain repair , longevity (NaturalNews) We don't have to be scientists to know that exercise is good for us. However, researchers at the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa in Canada have added another item to the long list of potential health benefits of regular exercise. They found that running triggers a particular molecule called VGF, a nerve growth factor that can help repair brain and nerve damage in mice with an unusually small cerebellum and a shorter lifespan. The cerebellum is the part of the brain important for balance and coordination.Although more research will be needed to determine how the healing process would work in a human brain, the Canadian researchers are hopeful that their groundbreaking discovery may open new doors in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Put on those running shoes and extend your life In the study, published in the scientific journal Cell Reports , the researchers reported that VGF production induced by running in a wheel extended the life of mice with smaller cerebellums and difficulties in walking. Typically these mice only lived for 25 to 40 days, but when they were allowed to run, they lived for over a year , which is the normal lifespan for a mouse.Furthermore, they discovered that the running mice had a better sense of balance, and showed increased levels of myelin production. Myelin plays a key role in a healthy brain . It is the insulating material of our nerves, and is best compared to the plastic material around electrical cables. Lose that protective layer and nerves will have difficulty carrying their messages as quickly or efficiently, resulting in a host of neurological issues.While running improved the quality and quantity of life for the mice, they had to maintain their healthy running habit. Once the opportunity to exercise was taken away, they began to degenerate again and their lifespans shortened once more. The positive effects of regular exercise Dr. Picketts, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa, said that these findings shine a new light on the effect exercise might have on people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, like multiple sclerosis (MS), that involve a loss of myelin or insulation of the nerve fibers."With multiple sclerosis, you get a lot of degeneration of the (neuron) insulation, and patients with MS go through these relapses and remissions," Picketts said. "We're really hoping that maybe if we could use VGF to limit the number of degenerations, (it would) really allow remissions to be more prevalent and longer," he added.Last month, another study published in the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair , showed that exercise helped gerbils who had a stroke to recover their memory, partly though myelin repair around the neurons.However, when Dr. Picketts and his colleagues analyzed myelin levels in healthy mice, running didn't seem to produce any significant change. These findings suggest that VGF-triggered myelin repair probably only kicks in when our brain or nerves are under attack."Generally, healthy people [already] have normal levels of myelin," noted Dr. Matias Alvarez-Saavedra, lead author of the study.Of course, that doesn't mean healthy people should not exercise. Many studies have linked regular exercise to healthy brain changes such as improved memory, increased blood flow and decreased inflammation in the brain. Sources for this article include: | 1real |
Donald Trump Hit With VERY Shady Voter Intimidation Lawsuit In Arizona (DETAILS) | 0 1661
Donald Trump wants so-called “poll watchers” to scare people into not voting? Fine, then Arizona Democrats will sue their state GOP’s sorry ass… And they’ve got a good chance of winning.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 was a huge win for the Republican Party. Since high voter turnout — especially high minority voter turnout — creates victories for Democrats, it makes sense for the GOP to keep as many people from voting as they possibly can. There’s just one thing the party of Donald Trump forgot: Voters still do have some rights, and the GOP doesn’t get to do whatever the hell it wants.
Donald Trump’s calls for “poll watchers” to prevent nonexistent “voter fraud” may land the Republican Party in some serious hot water. AZ Central reports the Democratic Party of Arizona filed a lawsuit and seeks a court order banning Mein Trumpf’s bands of brown shirts from the polling places.
‘The suit filed in federal court in Phoenix Monday seeks an order blocking volunteer GOP poll watchers from harassing or photographing people headed to polling locations. The suit says the state Republican Party is essentially an arm of Trump’s campaign and the campaign and its backers have been organizing “citizen journalists” and “poll watchers” to flood minority-heavy polling sites on Nov. 8.’
And despite the demise of key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, they’ve still got some ammo. Last week, Rachel Maddow talked about something the GOP forgot about: That pesky old legal consent decree. Back in 1981, the Republican National Committee (RNC) employed similar “poll watcher” tactics during a tight governor race in New Jersey. Their “Ballot Security Task Force” employed heavy-handed tactics in minority districts and won the race for their candidate by a razor thin margin.
Unfortunately, the GOP’s short-term win backfired and had long-term consequences: a 35-year consent decree that puts strong limits on their “poll watching” activities. These legal restrictions don’t expire until next year. Naturally, Donald Trump’s renewed call for “poll watchers” has triggered concerns on the part of DNC lawyers at the national level. Now, they’re demanding that the courts extend the consent decree through 2025. Watch: Rachel Maddow explains how Trump’s call for “poll watchers” is causing legal trouble for the RNC.
Of course, Tim Sifert, the state’s GOP spokesman, insists these poll watchers aren’t trying to intimidate voters. They’re just helping “monitor” polling places since — thanks to SCOTUS — we no longer have as many actual monitors for U.S. elections. But, as POLITICO points out, there’s a huge difference between having impartial observers around to provide advice and support for voters and poll workers and having “poll watchers” spreading misinformation and scaring voters.
‘Trump seems to be advocating for a type of election monitoring that relies on volunteers to use deceptive practices that are often used to prevent people of color from voting. Voter suppression has changed since the era of literacy tests and poll taxes. In 2016, suppression occurs in two distinct stages: one before the election, and one at the polling locations themselves.’
The POLITICO article explains how the GOP tries to scare people into not voting in two stages. Stage 1: Before an election, Republicans try to keep people from casting their ballots with false — and sometimes scary — information. In 2008, mailers went out telling Democratic voters in Virginia that Election Day had been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday. Meanwhile, black neighborhoods in Milwaukee (2004) and Philadelphia (2008) got plastered with flyers warning that people with unpaid child support and parking tickets might get arrested when they show up to vote. Stage 2: On election day, so-called “poll watchers” — often with fake badges and IDs that make them look like they’re in positions of authority — single out non-white voters with demands for ID and questions about their citizenship. They also often scare off eligible voters by taking photos and video footage (which sounds innocuous unless you happen to be among the roughly 7.5 million people being stalked each year).
And, let’s not forget — here’s what “poll watchers” looked like during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. | 1real |
Katrina Pierson Just Blamed Hillary Clinton For Trump’s Stop-And-Frisk Plan (VIDEO) | Following the presidential debate, Donald Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson opened her mouth on CBS and stupidity just flowed out of it. Pierson was on the show to discuss Donald Trump s debate performance on Monday. When Trump wasn t sniffling, he was interrupting Hillary Clinton.Naturally, Pierson blamed Hillary Clinton for Donald Trump touting the stop-and-frisk policy, which by the way, was ruled unconstitutional in 2013.During the post-debate panel, Pierson was asked to comment on Donald Trump s recent proposal to get more cities to adopt the kind of stop-and-frisk policy in New York that was found unconstitutional back in 2013. As a shock to no one ever, Rudy Giuliani, a huge Trump supporter, is and was a proponent of the racist policy.Pierson took another route and blamed Clinton, because of course: In responding, Pierson said that stop-and-frisk was effective at stopping crime and was not really racist but then she blamed Hillary Clinton for stop-and-frisk being necessary because of her own racism. It actually did work in New York, Pierson said of the stop-and-frisk policy. But we have to get down to why, because that s why we re here today. We have two candidates who have very different views. The reason why we have this problem, the reason why stop-and-frisk was implemented, was there were disparities with regard to who people were pulling over, she continued. She went on to say: And it s profiling, criminal profiling, not necessarily racial profiling, even though it comes across that way. But the reason why we had it was that we had the First Lady of the United States who went out on the national stage and dehumanized young black children this has been the conditioning of the American public where black children have been demonized, Hillary Clinton owns that. Watch:In late August, Trump tweeted, How quickly people forget that Crooked Hillary called African-American youth SUPER PREDATORS Has she apologized? Yes, Hillary Clinton made the super predators remark more than 20 years ago, but it was not directed toward African-American children.This is nothing new for Pierson. Just last month, she blamed President Obama for Iraq war deaths in 2004.Featured image via screen capture. | 1real |
British navy sacks nuclear submariners over cocaine use | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s navy has fired nine sailors serving on a nuclear-armed submarine after they tested positive for using cocaine, the country s defense ministry said on Saturday. The crew were from HMS Vigilant, one of four Royal Navy submarines which operate the Trident nuclear missile system. We do not tolerate drugs misuse by service personnel. Those found to have fallen short of our high standards face being discharged from service, a Royal Navy spokesman said. The Daily Mail newspaper reported that the sailors had failed drugs tests while the submarine was docked in the United States to pick up nuclear warheads and undergo work, and the sailors had been accommodated in hotels on shore. A defense ministry spokesman declined to comment on the location of the incident but said: There is no evidence to suggest any individual was under the influence while performing their duties. The ministry also confirmed the submarine s commander had been relieved of his command pending investigation, but declined to give details. Previous reports said this was due to an earlier unrelated incident. Britain s four nuclear-armed submarines each carry eight operational missiles and 40 nuclear warheads, and have a crew of 135. Since 1969 Britain has had at least one nuclear-armed submarine on patrol at all times. | 0fake |
This Man Has Spent A Decade In Prison Because His Court-Appointed Attorney SLEPT Through His Trial | Nicholas Ragin has spent a decade in prison because his court-appointed attorney slept through his 2006 trial. This week, his 30-year sentence has been thrown out by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia.Nicholas Ragin has waited a long time for justice. When he was first indicted in 2004, like so many Americans caught up in the justice system, he could not afford a lawyer to defend himself against the charges. Instead, he was appointed a public defender named Nikita V. Mackey.These were serious charges. Ragin and several others stood accused to running a prostitution ring in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was alleged that girls as young as 14 were being pimped out for $200 a night. Six women testified to being trapped in the service of Ragin and his alleged accomplices. This case demonstrated how devastating prostitution, drug trafficking and gun toting can be for the Charlotte community, U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert said in a written statement. The victims were preyed upon by individuals with no regard for their dignity. It took until 2006 for the case to go to trial, and all four of the accused were sentence to a mandatory 10 year sentence with the possibility of life behind bars.However, we would never know if the conviction was sound, due to the appalling behavior of Ragin s court-appointed attorney. Judge Roger Gregory of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Ragin s conviction for conspiracy and racketeering can be overturned, as he did not receive the defense he is due under the U.S. constitution. In his written decision, the Judge stated: We hold that a defendant is deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when counsel sleeps during a substantial portion of the defendant s trial. Nicholas Ragin s Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated not because of specific legal errors or omissions indicating incompetence in counsel s representation but because Ragin effectively had no legal assistance during a substantial portion of his trial, Attorney Peter Adolf testified at the appeal that during Ragin s trial, the Judge: leaned into his microphone, because we were all sitting there and (Mackey) wasn t moving and said, Mr. Mackey . . . very loudly. Mackey then jumped up and sort of looked around and was licking his lips and moving his mouth and looked sort of confused and looked all over the room, .Despite this clear ineffective assistance of counsel, Ragin s trial proceeded to conviction, without the Judge or any other authority stepping in to uphold due process.What s worse, is that Mackey has form. According to the New York Daily News:He resigned from Charlotte Police Department after 14 years as a cop when facing accusations that he falsified time sheets.Remarkably, four years later Mackey was elected as sheriff for the same police department, but the state quickly overturned it after a local news investigation uncovered questionable voting tactics.Mackey has bungled other legal cases, too, like when he failed to appear in court for two separate trials in 2007 and 2008 and once caused a client s adoption to fall through because he failed to communicate with them about the legal process.His job performance shortcomings aside, he was elected in 2008 as a North Carolina state representative and served two years in office.In 2010, the North Carolina bar suspended his license for three years for failing to pay taxes, despite his LinkedIn page saying he is a tax attorney.And so, Ragin s conviction has been overturned. Either an innocent man has spent 10 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, or a guilty man has been freed. Either way, the justice system has failed, catastrophically. And not just this once.As John Oliver highlighted during a 2015 episode of Last Week Tonight , even a gifted and determined public defender is unlikely to be able to offer up any kind of decent defense due to the hideous working conditions placed upon them. Many are being loaded up with 1,000 cases per year that s three cases per day: With caseloads that heavy, public defenders cannot possibly prepare an effective defense, Oliver said. A study in New Orleans, a few years back, found the city had some part-time defenders who could only spend an average of seven minutes per case. And that is not long enough to prepare anything. If I only had seven minutes to prepare this show, I would definitely not be talking about public defenders right now. I d be desperately trying to fill time right now by listing the Muppets in order of f*ckability. Those familiar with the Adnan Syed case made famous by Serial and later, the Undisclosed Podcast, will be familiar with the issues around ineffective assistance of counsel, and the devastating impact it can have on whole communities. Syed has spent 17 years in jail for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, in a case founded on so many inaccuracies and prejudices that it simply beggars belief that he was in jail longer than a day.The issue of whether we think a person is innocent or guilty of the crime is secondary to the issue of our justice system failing to deliver effective trials. Particularly to people who cannot afford to pay for their own defense. Without that guarantee, we do not have a justice system. We have a justice system for the rich, where the accused is presumed innocent until or unless they are found guilty. For everyone else, we have plea bargaining system where guilt is presumed, and it is simply a matter of negotiating the penalty. Not only does this strip people of their freedom, but in many states, their right to vote.While this situation is allowed to continue, the U.S. Justice system will continue to lag behind the rest of the developed world and Americans will continue to be denied justice.Featured Image via Mecklenburg County | 1real |
HERE’S A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY People Don’t Trust Muslims Living In Their Communities | The massive shroud of secrecy in Muslim communities around the world is what causes people to question the motives of every Muslim. Aren t non-violent Muslims who say they wouldn t report a terror plot as culpable as the radical Muslims who commit acts of terror? A new ICM poll has discovered two out of three Muslims in Britain would not give the government any information if they knew details about a terror plot.These disturbing poll results seem to indicate the government s counter-terrorism program, named Prevent, is unlikely to provide much usable information on active threats, if it passes along any information at all, The Express reports.The results also suggest the existence of a society deep inside Britain that is fundamentally opposed to its values and will actively subvert the government to protect its own members. Further questions in the survey revealed even more evidence that Muslims diverge entirely from British norms.For example, over 50 percent of Muslims think homosexuality should be illegal. A total of 23 percent of Muslims want Sharia law to become the dominant legal system in the country. Exactly 31 percent are completely comfortable with one man having multiple wives. Via: Daily CallerOn the bright side, 1/3 of British Muslims said they would report a terror plot. | 1real |
GOP HOUSE LEADERSHIP Place Political Careers Before National Security: Why They Are Reportedly Caving (Again) To Democrats | Is this why we worked so hard to get a GOP majority in the House and Senate? Spineless weasels Republican House members blasted their GOP leadership Wednesday for caving to Democratic leaders demand that they abandon the House s bipartisan bill to tighten screening of refugee applicants from Syria and Iraq. The bill to bolster the Syrian and Iraqi [refugee] vetting process passed with a veto-proof majority and is supported by a vast majority of Americans, said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC)57% , who is one of the two co-authors of the original House bill that GOP leaders are now abandoning. It would be a shame to bow to the wishes of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and the White House, leaving our country vulnerable to foreign terrorism, he told Breitbart News exclusively.After the Paris attacks that killed over 120 people, the House passed a bill with a huge bipartisan majority that would implement tough screening requirements for refugees. The bill was criticized by Democrats and President Obama, who vowed to veto the legislation and suggested that Republicans work with them to tighten oversight of visas given to legal visitors.Now, House Republican leaders are reportedly planning to abandon their original idea to tighten screening of refugees and are instead caving to Democrats who want to only fix security gaps in the legal-visitor visa program.Republican House leadership is backing away from the refugee problem because they fear their fix will be rejected by Democrats and lead to a partial government shut-down.Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) also told Breitbart News exclusively that he isn t surprised that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is following in the steps of former House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)32% by bowing to Democrats, rather than putting up a fight.He called the original vote a show vote that was arranged by the leaders, and told Breitbart News that the entire refugee program needs to be stripped of its funding.Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) told Breitbart News exclusively that GOP House leadership should fix both problems. This should not be an either or question, Babin said. Both should be addressed in a timely manner. We should concern ourselves first and foremost with the safety and security of the American people. Babin recently released a letter, signed by more than 70 of his colleagues, calling on House leadership to include language in the must-pass omnibus spending bill that would defund the refugee resettlement program. More than 70 of my colleagues joined me in calling for an immediate suspension in the refugee program to give us time to put in place security measures that the Administration has failed to implement Babin told Breitbart News. We must restore Congressional authority and ensure that Congress has a final sign-off on any Administration proposed Security measures. Congress has until December 11th to pass the omnibus bill.Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
China's Xi speaks with Saudi king: state media | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Saudi Arabia s King Salman by telephone on Thursday, Chinese state media reported. No matter how the international or regional situation may change, China s resolve to deepen cooperation with Saudi Arabia would not change, Xi said, according to the report. | 0fake |
Boiler Room EP #85.5 – Who’s Watching The Watchers? | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 5:00 PM PST | 7:00 PM CST | 8:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR host Hesher along with Boiler Room regular, Randy J, for episode 85 and a half of BOILER ROOM. Dim the lights, dawn the headphones and indulge in a special broadcast of Boiler Room. This week the Boiler is covering the House Oversight Committee s questioning of The Chief Strategy Officer of the Secret Service regarding the internal investigations in the wake of the Secret Service sex scandal in Cartagena and others. Hesher and Randy J break down the underlying themes and read between the lines with regards to the machinations of the deep state elements and the intent of the House Oversight Committee. The Boiler is also announcing its new time slot on Thursdays so adjust your calendars and routines accordingly and join the Boiler mind-trust for Boiler Room #68 on Thursday, Dec 1st.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Listen to Boiler Room #85.5 Who Is Watching The Watchers? on Spreaker.Reference Links: | 1real |
The Hillary Clinton File | *Articles of the Bound* / The Hillary Clinton File The Hillary Clinton File November 5, 2016, 6:37 am by Roger Aronoff Leave a Comment 0
Accuracy in Media
October certainly lived up to its reputation as being a month for surprises in this year’s presidential election, especially for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The media have done as much as they could to help minimize the damage, but a massive amount of new information came out that has confirmed and revealed a pattern of deceit, duplicity and corruption, unmatched in any presidential candidacy in modern times.
October Surprises
Until this recent information made its way into the public consciousness, the narrative for this upcoming election was largely intact. Hillary Clinton, the most intelligent, qualified, experienced, compassionate, and yes, the first ever female candidate was headed for an historic win. Sure, she had some people who didn’t find her honest or trustworthy, but that was just because they spent too much time watching Fox News or listening to conservative talk radio. Her opponent—a crude, rude, undisciplined, tax dodging, female-groping, reality television star with a checkered business career—was going down to defeat in historic fashion, while taking down what’s left of the Republican Party he did so much to destroy.
But with just one week until the most anticipated, feared, dreaded, controversial, shocking and unpredictable campaign in history comes to an end, and we enter the uncharted waters of a post-election that, if the race is close, could be a period of massive civil unrest regardless of which candidate wins—the narrative is in flux. For example, a Washington Post/ABC News tracking poll has shifted in one week from a 12-point lead by Mrs. Clinton, down to a one point lead. And as of November 1, Trump holds a one-point lead in that survey . Both sides largely view the other side’s victory as the end of the world as we know it, and simply unacceptable.
Despite the media’s best efforts to hold off this late rally by Trump, the cumulative effect of these various October Surprises has dramatically changed the landscape. While some aren’t complete surprises, they are corroboration and confirmation of a number of very damaging stories. First, we have the WikiLeaks revelations. At this point, with the latest release, there are more than 41,000 emails from what WikiLeaks is calling the Podesta file. John Podesta is a long-time Clinton associate who is the chairman of Hillary’s presidential campaign. He also served as chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton and counselor to President Barack Obama. And he is the former president, and now chairman of the Center for American Progress, a far-left Washington think tank.
The latest batch of 2,500 of Podesta’s emails has produced another major smoking gun, as if any more are needed. The New York Post is reporting that:
“Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman directed her former chief of staff to ‘dump all those emails’ the same day a bombshell report revealed Clinton’s use of a private computer server while U.S. secretary of state, WikiLeaks revealed on Tuesday.
“John Podesta sent the message to Cheryl Mills the evening of March 2, 2015, hours after the New York Times reported that Clinton may have violated federal records requirements by using the server, according to the latest batch of Podesta’s hacked emails.”
This sounds like intent to destroy evidence, and obstruct justice.
In these leaks we have learned much about how the Clinton Foundation leveraged Mrs. Clinton’s position as secretary of state to benefit her and the foundation, to bring massive wealth to the Clintons and their cronies, as well as foreign governments and other entities seeking access and favors. We have learned that many people in high-ranking positions in the Obama administration were using their private email accounts to conceal what they wanted to keep hidden from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Here is a very handy list of 100 of the most revealing and damaging of the hacked WikiLeaks emails. They aren’t all from Podesta. Some are from FBI documents, others are from Democratic National Committee leaks.
We continue to find out information from FOIA documents released by Judicial Watch , including a new batch of over 300 such documents that show how Hillary Clinton and her top aide Huma Abedin exchanged classified materials over Mrs. Clinton’s unsecured, home-brew server. According to Judicial Watch, these latest documents include:
“According to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions cited in the documents obtained by Judicial Watch, three of the Clinton-Abedin email exchanges contained material ‘classified to protect national security.’
“Also included in the newly obtained documents is an additional instance of the State Department doing special favors for a high-dollar Clinton Foundation donor. And the documents include instances of the distribution by State Department officials of Clinton’s government schedule to members of the Clinton Foundation staff.”
Project Veritas, run by James O’Keefe, has exposed the inner workings of the Democratic machine in action. It has documented direct ties between Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, a Clinton super PAC and far-left activist groups paying people to violently disrupt Donald Trump’s campaign rallies, and help arrange voter fraud in various ways. This is criminal activity that is getting virtually no attention in the media, other than through sites such as Breitbart, and Sean Hannity on his Fox News and radio shows. The media, if they mention it at all, simply say that it comes from the “discredited” O’Keefe, that the video has been edited, and that O’Keefe has previously been convicted of a crime while doing some of his undercover videos. They ignore the substance, which is extremely damning. Photo by BrookingsInst
The FBI is responsible for yet another October Surprise. On October 28, FBI Director James Comey dropped a bombshell with just 11 days to go before the election. He announced in a letter to Congress that new information had come to his attention about additional emails that they were previously unaware of that may have bearing on the Hillary Clinton email probe that he had said was completed back in July. It turns out that there were some 650,000 emails from and to Hillary’s top aide of approximately 20 years, Huma Abedin, the estranged wife of former New York Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner, who is under investigation by the FBI for alleged sexting with a minor.
Before that, the FBI summary of their investigation revealed that Clinton “couldn’t remember” 40 times during her three-and-a-half hour interview with the FBI on the Fourth of July weekend. She couldn’t remember, for example, if she had been briefed on protocols for handling classified material. According to the FBI summary, “Clinton could not recall any briefing or training by State related to the retention of federal records or handling of classified information.”
The Clinton Legacy from the ‘90s
While Hillary Clinton’s recent history has been plagued by scandal and failure, the recent debacles are not so different from the period of time that she and her husband spent in the White House back in the 1990s. We documented much of that corruption in the 1999 documentary, “The Clinton Legacy,” which we are re-releasing with this new report.
While most people remember Bill Clinton’s impeachment and scandals as being based on sex with an intern and lying about it under oath, there was more—much, much more. FileGate, TravelGate, and Whitewater each exposed Clinton administration corruption wherein the administration inappropriately housed FBI files in the White House, worked with corrupt individuals under criminal investigation, and generally used the full force of government, including the Internal Revenue Service, to retaliate against dissenters or those they did not favor.
ChinaGate, which resulted in greater Chinese nuclear strike capabilities, foreshadowed the revelations regarding Russia’s uranium purchase , and highlighted the dangers of the Clinton Foundation’s ongoing foreign conflicts of interest. It involved the handing over of missile technology in exchange for cash to the Clintons and their cronies.
With the help of Reid Collins, a reporter and anchor for CBS News for 20 years, and at CNN for 10 years, we tell the story of those years. People forget how bad these scandals really were, and we at AIM believed that had these been on the table, not only would Bill Clinton have been impeached, he would have been removed from office as well. As it was, half the Senate voted to remove him from office, but the Democrats came to his rescue.
Now both Democrats and the media are working on behalf of Hillary Clinton to obscure the facts surrounding a number of scandals which could undermine her bid for president.
Libya and Benghazi
As we have noted, Hillary Clinton claimed a prominent position in the Libyan intervention which led to the overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Her aide, Jake Sullivan, wrote that she had “leadership/ownership/stewardship of this country’s Libya policy from start to finish.”
Does that mean that Mrs. Clinton had a part in sending weapons to the Libyan rebels? Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi (CCB) member, and former CIA officer, Clare Lopez told WorldNetDaily that “We have ample evidence the Libyan gun-running operation was a White House operation and that the State Department under Hillary Clinton ran the show.” Many of these so called rebels were known al-Qaeda affiliated jihadist groups, which is why we called our first CCB report, “ How America Switched Sides in the War on Terror .”
But Hillary Clinton’s involvement in Libya has been more than an embarrassment—it has actually cost lives. The Obama/Clinton administration was offered a chance to negotiate Qaddafi’s abdication under a white flag of truce, as the CCB revealed. But they refused the offer, choosing war instead, and thousands of Libyans died as a result. Later, when four Americans were killed in Benghazi on September 11 and 12, 2012, Hillary was peddling the lie that the attack was based on spontaneous demonstrations in response to a YouTube video called “The Innocence of Muslims.” She knew that it was, in fact, a planned terrorist attack by jihadis, and said so to her daughter, and top officials in both Libya and Egypt. She then lied to the family members of the dead Americans, telling them that we were going to get the filmmaker of “The Innocence of Muslims,” who she said was responsible for their deaths.
Ever since the West’s intervention that prompted regime change concluded, Libya has devolved into a conflict-ridden haven for the Islamic State and other terrorists. AIM’s Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi has thoroughly documented this tragic blunder.
Russian Reset
Mrs. Clinton’s Russian reset hasn’t fared much better. As we have reported, President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s Russian re-set policy paved the way for Russian aggression in Syria and Ukraine, as well as “Vladimir Putin’s decision to give sanctuary to NSA defector Edward Snowden,” whose leaks have helped ISIS.
Back in 2014, Reuters admitted that the Russian reset had failed and that the “Cold War” was back . Now, with Mrs. Clinton running for president, the media portray her international experience as secretary of state as a grand success. The New York Times, in its January endorsement of Hillary , wrote that “The combination of a new president who talked about inclusiveness and a chief diplomat who had been his rival but shared his vision allowed the United States to repair relations around the world that had been completely trashed by the previous administration.” They asserted that Hillary “brought star power as well as expertise to the table.”
Clinton Foundation Corruption
Other things that Hillary Clinton brought to the table included a number of conflicts of interest and an endless string of donors who may have benefited from her term as secretary of state. As we reported, Peter Schweizer, author of Clinton Cash , wrote, “Any serious journalist or investigator will tell you that proving corruption by a political figure is extremely difficult.” He continues, “…That is also why investigators primarily look at patterns of behavior.”
In the case of the Clintons, the pattern of behavior is stunning. We have called it “ blatant, willful, and indisputable ” due to the growing number of examples of favors that were done, and donations accepted, while Hillary was secretary of state. The Associated Press reported that “More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money—either personally or through companies or groups—to the Clinton Foundation.” Hundreds of millions of dollars were involved. According to the AP, “Clinton met with representatives of at least 16 foreign governments that donated as much as $170 million to the Clinton charity, but they were not included in AP’s calculations because such meetings would presumably have been part of her diplomatic duties.”
In 2015, the Clinton Foundation announced that it would amend four years of tax returns because of an error in how it reported income from foreign government donations, according to Breitbart. The years refiled just happened to include most of the years that Mrs. Clinton served as Secretary of State—2010 through 2013—and involved $20 million.
While Trump University has garnered significant attention from the media, Laureate Education has received much less mainstream press attention. As Honorary Chancellor of Laureate Education, Bill Clinton received more than $16 million that he routed through a shell corporation, WJC, LLC, as we have reported . Then, “more than $55 million American taxpayer dollars flowed out of Hillary Clinton’s State Department to a non-profit run by Laureate CEO Douglas Becker.”
The recent WikiLeaks documents pertaining to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta reveal that Mrs. Clinton was invited to a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) event in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2014. However, the Moroccan King Mohammed VI pledged $12 million to CGI and the foundation under the condition that Hillary Clinton attend the conference herself.
Longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin writes in a November 2014 email that “no matter what happens, she will be in Morocco hosting CGI on May 5-7, 2015. Her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this.”
Ultimately, Mrs. Clinton did not attend—but her husband and daughter did. According to The Daily Caller, the CGI event was funded by the Moroccan government-owned mining company OCP, which has been charged with serious human rights violations by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice. “Clinton vigorously supported the Moroccan King when she was Secretary of State and the U.S.-financed Export-Import Bank gave OCP a $92 million loan guarantee during her tenure as Secretary of State,” reports The Daily Caller. “The mining company also contributed between $5 million to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to the charity’s web site.”
And speaking of mining, this section wouldn’t be complete without mention of the Uranium One deal. Breitbart reported that “ According to Clinton Cash [the book by Peter Schweizer] , the total donations from Uranium One shareholders to the Clinton Foundation exceeded $145 million, in the run-up to Hillary Clinton’s State Department approving the Rosatom deal, which gave Russia control over about 20 percent of U.S. uranium.” The New York Times deserves credit for following up on Schweizer’s reporting, and confirming his findings in a front-page story in 2015.
The Clinton Foundation has also received a number of donations from human (and women’s) rights violating countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Clintons have committed to not receiving additional donations from foreign governments, corporations, or U.S. companies should Hillary Clinton become president. But until then, the foundation remains a way for bad actors to purchase future influence over this presidential candidate.
Hillary also refused to discuss pay-for-play involving the Clinton Foundation—and talked over Donald Trump when he tried to comment on it. “…I’m thrilled to talk about the Clinton Foundation because it is a world renowned charity and I’m so proud of the work that it does,” said Hillary Clinton. “I could talk for the rest of the debate.” She touted the foundation’s achievements, but refused to address the lingering scent of scandal. “…we at the Clinton Foundation spend 90 percent of all the money that is donated on behalf of programs for people around the world and in our own country,” she said at the debate. In fact, Schweizer claims that only “six percent goes to other charities,” according to Breitbart. “The other 94 percent is in this stew of marketing, and management, and travel expenses, and sort of all these obscure things, that it’s really hard to dissect what is the end result of that 94 percent being spent.”
But don’t look to the mainstream media to broach these issues. Instead, the spotlight is on Trump. And those media elites who donate to presidential campaigns overwhelmingly support Mrs. Clinton.
Media Collaboration with Clinton and Obama
Despite the need for a fair, balanced, and objective press, we have cited the fact that 96 percent of the journalist donations tracked by the Center for Public Integrity went to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Politico’s Jack Shafer recounts how the WikiLeaks emails expose journalists trying to curry favor with the Clintons through compliments and sharing information about stories not yet published. “Reading the emails, we witness CNBC/ New York Times contributor John Harwood slathering Podesta with flattery, giving him campaign advice and praising Hillary Clinton,” writes Shafer. “In another email, the Washington Post ’s Juliet Eilperin offers Podesta a ‘heads up’ about a story she’s about to publish, providing a brief pre-publication synopsis.” In addition, “CNBC’s Becky Quick promises to ‘defend’ Obama appointee Sylvia Mathews Burwell.”
The list of embarrassing—and disturbing—media cozying up to the Clintons goes on. “POLITICO reporter Glenn Thrush sends Podesta a chunk of his story-in-progress ‘to make sure I’m not [f—–g] anything up,’” writes Shafer. “Beyond WikiLeaks, a January 2015 Clinton strategy document obtained by the Intercept describes reporter Maggie Haberman—then at POLITICO and now at the New York Times —as someone the campaign ‘has a very good relationship with,’ and who had been called upon to ‘tee up stories for us before’ and had never disappointed.” Yet Shafer, as a member of the mainstream media, concludes that these Clinton-pandering media examples are fine—so long as the resultant reporting is “creditable work that is accurate and useful to readers.” Shafer believes these reporters hit the mark, yet, as we have reported, some journalists question whether objectivity is even necessary or prudent during this election cycle.
The reporting about Hillary Clinton has been so biased that journalists can hardly congratulate themselves for an accurate and useful job well done. The scandals mentioned above were largely covered by the conservative media, with a few notable exceptions .
Yet media pundits such as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation , and journalists donating to the Clinton campaign, are working hard to disseminate false journalism which excuses or downplays these scandals.
Just as the press panders to Hillary Clinton, so, too, the presidential candidate uses the many opportunities supplied by the mainstream media to pander both to the liberal elite and others watching this broadcast media love-fest. Consider, for example, the March 9 Democratic Debate featuring Univision’s Jorge Ramos as a moderator. “You’re telling us tonight that if you become president you won’t deport children who are already here?” he asked Mrs. Clinton. “And that you won’t deport immigrants who don’t have a criminal record?”
Hillary answered emphatically “Yes” to both questions, engaging in what co-moderator Maria Elena Salinas called “Hispandering.” But the question of criminal records for illegals is moot; currently the Obama administration is releasing dangerous criminal illegal aliens with no intention of deporting them, we noted back in June. “Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) told Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon that ‘the administration is trying to suppress information about the release of some 86,000 criminal illegal immigrants who have committed 231,000 crimes in just the past two and a half years,’” we wrote. “The administration is not deporting these criminals after they are released from U.S. prisons, reports Kredo.”
Duplicity
An open borders policy already in the making threatens the safety of average Americans. Yet Mrs. Clinton wants to continue Obama’s lax immigration policies if, or when, she gains office.
While Hillary may claim now that she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, she once said that the TPP “sets the gold standard in trade agreements.” Now, as a presidential candidate, she says, “I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election, and I’ll oppose it as president.”
Yet Mrs. Clinton told Banco Itau that her “ dream ” was “a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, sometime in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.” Hillary said, in one of her many speeches to bankers, that she has both “a public and a private position” on Wall Street reform. Perhaps her “open trade and open borders” comment was yet another example of the presidential candidate holding a private opinion that is opposed to her public statements. Those speeches paid very well. Hillary collected nearly $22 million for 90 speeches in less than two years, between the time she left office as secretary of state until she announced she was running for the presidency. And that was just a fraction of the $153 million that she and Bill took in from speeches between the time they left the White House in 2001, and her announcement to run to get back into the White House.
For example, despite railing against Wall Street and the elite, she has taken millions from big donors—and is indebted to them. “Determined not to fall behind in the money race, Hillary Clinton ramped up her appeals to rich donors and shrugged off restrictions that President Obama had imposed on his fundraising team,” reports The Washington Post this October. “Even as her advisers fretted about the perception that she was too cozy with wealthy interests, they agreed to let lobbyists bundle checks for her campaign, including those representing some foreign governments, the [WikiLeaks] emails show.” By the end of September, the Post reports, Mrs. Clinton had raised $1.14 billion. “Unlike Obama, Clinton fully embraced super PACs from the very beginning of her race, helping pull in larger checks from donors than the president did.”
Hillary Clinton has lied again and again. One of her most notable lies is about the national security scandal that is EmailGate, in which Mrs. Clinton not only used a private email server for her business as secretary of state, deleting half of the emails, but also sent and received classified information through that server. She demonstrably placed national security secrets at risk in order to hide her affairs from the public, yet FBI Director James Comey decided not to recommend prosecution . The fix was in . So why did Comey bring the case back up with just 11 days until the election? Several reports suggested that FBI agents who were furious at Comey’s July announcement that he was recommending against an indictment, have now threatened to go public with the new information about Ms. Abedin’s emails unless he agreed to do it himself.
While the search for smoking guns implicating Hillary Clinton in criminal activity continues, through a mountain of emails, there are more than enough smoking guns hiding in plain sight. In a way, the endless search for a single smoking gun clouds the issue and makes it seem as if nothing consequential enough has so far been found. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The record of Clinton scandal, for both of the Clintons, extends back through a number of administrations. It wasn’t possible to cover all of the glorious legacy of Bill and Hillary Clinton in this one report. I encourage you to watch our documentary, “The Clinton Legacy,” which exposes the sordid truth about several of the real Clinton scandals when they occupied the White House back in the 1990s. Roger Aronoff
Roger Aronoff is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and a member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi . He can be contacted at roger.aronoff@aim.org . View the complete archives from Roger Aronoff . 0 | 1real |
WATCH: Cartoon Trump Has Something To Say About His Behavior And You Need To Hear It | Donald Trump isn t the guy you would think would be the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination, because Republicans are typically more slick about wanting to implement backwards and draconian policies. Trump, however, has taken GOP voters by storm with his calls for violence, his chauvinistic stances on women, and his blunt racist rhetoric against Muslims and Mexicans.Yet, somehow, Trump always finds a way of justifying his policies to the satisfaction of his vast support among a segment of America that has found its hero. That was all on display as cartoon Trump made on appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to justify his latest shenanigans. Colbert began the segment with Speaking of stupid and Mad Men, Donald Trump, and then the funny man unleashed his humorous fury on the Republican golden boy.Among Trump s wacky moments of the week was his exchange with Anderson Cooper when Cooper said Trump was acting like a five-year-old child in response to Trump saying that Ted Cruz started the wife bashing contest. Every parent has heard a kid say that about another kid, Cooper said, as Trump clearly looked embarrassed. Yet cartoon Trump found a way yo defend himself.Then there was his defense of Corey Lewandowski s alleged assault on a female reporter. She had a pen, Donald said. It could have been a bomb. The segment is brilliant because it highlights the absurdity of Trump, perhaps with the hope that voters can see the insanity and danger of voting for this person.Watch video here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Ivji-ph4A] Featured image via video screenshot. | 1real |
Egypt court frees 17 accused of inciting debauchery: sources | CAIRO (Reuters) - A Cairo court on Sunday released 17 people arrested last month during a crackdown by the authorities on homosexuality, judicial sources said. They had been charged with practicing homosexuality and inciting debauchery and were sentenced to three years in prison should they fail to pay a fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($285). The defendants have been given leave to appeal against the sentence in a higher court. Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. In October Egyptian security forces arrested 57 people in a wave of arrests triggered by the raising of a rainbow flag at a music concert. The overwhelming majority of those arrested were not involved in the flag incident, however, and were arrested over their perceived sexual orientation in the following days. | 0fake |
Western-led operation against ISIS a spectacle – Serbian President Nikolic | 15 mins ago 0 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes Drone footage shows the devastation caused by twin earthquakes that rocked Borgo Sant'Antonio, near Visso, which left buildings reduced to rubble or partially collapsed. Central Italy was struck twice in quick succession the previous day, with the first tremor hitting it at around 19:11 local time (17:11 GMT). The quake measured 5.5 on the Richter scale and could be felt as far as Rome some 240 km (149 miles). Shortly after a second quake of 6.1-magnitude, struck at around 21:18 local time (19:18 GMT). Buildings were shaking, some parts even caving in, and residents fled into the street to save themselves. Several dozen people have been treated across the region for light injuries, while four are said to have been seriously hurt. COURTESY: RT's RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE - FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tv Subscribe Like Leave a Reply Login with your Social ID Your email address will not be published. Name | 1real |
NAACP PRESIDENT Shocks Locals with Stance on Confederate Statues and Protests Against Them | I think it s all senseless. All senseless. Bethlehem, PA NAACP President Esther Lee Bethlehem, PA NAACP President Esther Lee brought some common sense to the craziness going on all around America right now. Leave it to the wise elderly lady to set everyone straight We love what she had to say!Esther Lee doesn t agree with the vandalism of Confederate monuments in Baltimore or condone the actions of those who tore down the statue in North Carolina, either. You know that s history. That was in that point in time. You can t eliminate what history is. So I disapprove with young people pulling down those statues, she says.Lee then adds, A young woman died. Two officers were murdered in a plane crash and all for what? Because somebody in their mind decided, we don t need to look at that anymore. It shouldn t be, she says softly.President Trump weighed in on the question about taking Confederate statues down by saying, This week, it s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder is it George Washington next week? Is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you do really have to ask yourself where does it stop? While Lee doesn t agree with President Trump on everything, she does think that history should be left to stand and advises others to join her in praying for the president. I would pray that he would gain the strength to do what s necessary in the job, at least for these four years, she says.Lee says maybe things aren t what they should be. But that doesn t mean hate and hurt need to win.She says, instead, what we should do, is widen our circle of compassion.A spokeswoman for Gettysburg National Military Park says they haven t received any complaints about their hundreds of monuments and markers and she says they have no plans to remove anything memorializing Confederates leaders or soldiers.Read more: WFMZ | 1real |
Schumer Calls on Sessions to Resign - We Need A Special Prosecutor - Breitbart | Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign over allegations he met with Russian officials from a Washington Post story published late Wednesday night. Schumer also called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate. Schumer said, “Last night, when I read the revelations regarding Attorney General Sessions’ contact with the Russian ambassador and his decision to mislead congress about those contacts, I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach. I worried about the future of our country with foreign influenceIin our elections. It goes to the very wellspring of our democracy. For weeks I have said that Attorney General Sessions needs to himself from any investigation into contacts between the president and his associates on the campaign and transition and Russia. For weeks, I made clear that I believe Attorney General Sessions’ close relationship with the Trump campaign requires that he recuse himself from the executive branch investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. ” “It’s a matter of Department of Justice guidelines that I’ve read to you several times that are very clear,” he continued. “The guidelines are clear as day. Yet Attorney General Sessions has demurred. The information reported last night makes it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that Attorney General Sessions cannot possibly lead an investigation into Russian interference in our elections or come anywhere near it. With these revelations, he may very well become the subject of it. It would be of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ quality of this administration were to sanction him to investigate himself. Recusal should have been given. But this goes beyond that. He had weeks, Attorney General Sessions had weeks to correct the record that he made before the Judiciary Committee. ” “But he let the record stand,” Schumer added. “There cannot be even the scintilla of doubt about the impartiality and fairness of the attorney general, the top law enforcement official of the land. After this, it’s clear Attorney General Sessions does not meet that test. Because the justice department should be above reproach, for the good of the country, Attorney General Sessions should resign. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Trump spoke with U.N. secretary general, met with union reps | (Reuters) - Republican President-elect Donald Trump continued to hold meetings on Wednesday at Trump Tower in New York as the Republican prepares to inherit the White House from Democrat Barack Obama in less than three weeks. Below is a list of meetings for Wednesday, according to Trump’s transition team. * United Nations secretary general (by phone) * President of the International Union Of Operating Engineers * Partner with Pitta Giblin & Baione, a law firm that represents labor unions * President of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council * Managing director for communications and political strategy firm SKDKnickerbocker | 0fake |
New Book Reveals HILLARY’S ANTI-SEMITIC SIDE: Blamed Bill’s Campaign Manager For Losing Congressional Race…Called Him A “F*cking Jew B*stard” | Hillary doesn t recall saying it, but Bill s campaign manager, Paul Fray clearly remembers her saying it. Just another Hillary lie what different does it make? Hillary Clinton is fighting a rearguard action to avoid further damage to her standing with the crucial Jewish vote in her campaign for a Senate seat after a claim that she once used an ethnic insult against one of Bill Clinton s aides.A book out today claims that 26 years ago she called Paul Fray, her husband s campaign manager at the time, a fucking Jew bastard .Mrs Clinton denied the allegation and pressed the president into supporting her, but the author, Jerry Oppenheimer, said: Three witnesses have now publicly acknowledged that she said it. I have never said anything like that, ever, Mrs Clinton said. I have in the past certainly, you know maybe, called somebody a name. But I have never used an ethnic, racial, anti-Semitic, bigoted, discriminatory, prejudiced, accusation against anybody. I ve never done it. I ve never thought it. Mr Clinton, who was trying to bring about a Middle East peace deal at Camp David, backed her up. I was there on election night in 1974 and the charge is simply not true, he said. She might have called him a bastard, I wouldn t rule that out. She s never claimed that she was pure on profanity. But I ve never heard her tell a joke with an ethnic connotation. She s so fanatic about it. It s not in her. Referring to a vast rightwing conspiracy in previous elections, he said: This is part of a pattern. They couldn t defeat me politically and they can t defeat her politically so they go after us personally. Accounts of the dispute on election night 1974, when Mr Clinton failed to win a congressional seat representing Arkansas, have appeared before without the ethnic insult.Those present at the inquest into the defeat were Mr Clinton, his then-girlfriend Hillary, his campaign manager Paul Fray, and Mr Fray s wife, Mary Lee. Neill McDonald, a campaign worker, was just outside the room and claims to have heard everything.The Frays and Mr McDonald are the three witnesses on whom Mr Oppenheimer, a former reporter on the National Inquirer tabloid, relies for the passage in his book State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton.Mr Fray, 57, said yesterday: I was a little defensive about it. I looked to the floor thinking How do I respond? I didn t mind being called a son-of-a-bitch, but when it came to attacking my culture, that s a whole nother ballgame. You ve got to understand it was the heat of the moment. We knew we had lost. It was a case of people lashing out at one another and it just got to that point. Mr Fray is actually a Southern Baptist but says that he is one-eighth Jewish through his great-grandfather.Mrs Fray said that her husband s recollection of the meeting, which lasted about an hour, was accurate. Mr McDonald said: I don t know what provoked it or what. I just remember that one little comment. Via: The Guardian | 1real |
DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMAN: Obama Is “Working Hand-In-Hand With Islamic Extremists…Should Not Be Sending Troops Into Harms Way” [VIDEO] | For anyone who s not paying attention to what s happening in the Middle East, she s talking about the reckless actions of the most dangerous man in the world Bill Maher tonight spoke with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard about an issue they agree on: the frustrating refusal of President Obama to accept Islamic extremism as a global threat.Gabbard said it s crazy because it s important to identify our enemy so that we can defeat them. She said it s ridiculous to blame poverty or thrill-seeking because just giving someone a house won t solve the problem.Maher brought up how sensitive liberals are about the mere suggestion that certain Islamic beliefs are considered barbaric in the Western world. Gabbard agreed that this kind of liberal philosophy gets in the way of being able to address serious matters.https://youtu.be/yaGKCKPuEEYBill Maher tonight spoke with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard about an issue they agree on: the frustrating refusal of President Obama to accept Islamic extremism as a global threat.Gabbard said it s crazy because it s important to identify our enemy so that we can defeat them. She said it s ridiculous to blame poverty or thrill-seeking because just giving someone a house won t solve the problem.Maher brought up how sensitive liberals are about the mere suggestion that certain Islamic beliefs are considered barbaric in the Western world. Gabbard agreed that this kind of liberal philosophy gets in the way of being able to address serious matters.Bill Maher Goes Off, Asks Dem Rep. Why Obama Won t Say Islamic Extremism Gabbard recalled how she was treated, as a woman, when she went to Iraq, by soldiers the U.S. was trying to train, though it did have a happy ending. Via: Mediaite | 1real |
Graham Hancock Explains Why So Many People Are Pro-Trump And Anti-Establishment | Hancock speaks a truth that most politicians don't want to hear. Credit: Audio Burst
Graham Hancock, a British writer and journalist, has offered some amazing insight into the current election in the U.S. As some are baffled by the number of people Trump has garnered support from, others are more surprised at those willing to vote for someone as allegedly crooked as Hillary.
Most citizens are completely over this election and can’t believe that their choices are a racist and misogynistic man who has no knowledge of political policies and a woman who is in bed with foreign regimes and domestic bankers and arms dealers, to name a few. But that is what it has come down to.
Those in favor of Trump are increasing, and it’s not because they’re suddenly realizing that they hate people from Mexico or men with awful spray tans. As Hancock stated,
“What’s driving [Trump supporters] in America is a deep distrust of authority and a deep distrust of anything that’s connected to the status quo. I’m not sure if politicians really got the message yet, there’s absolute revulsion at them.”
What Hancock is essentially saying is that a vote for Trump is a vote against the politicians that have been manipulating the system for decades now. It’s an interesting view, and not something that many have considered as they hear the awful words that come of some Trump supporter’s mouths. This movement against the establishment was primarily led by Bernie Sanders, but since he is out of the race, the torch has been somewhat handed to Trump. Hancock went on to say:
“It’s a vote against the system that has failed Americans again and again and again…. It’s a global system of control. I think people are aware of that, I think they’re fed up, and I think they want change. Trump is getting support because he’s certainly not part of that. He looks different, he sounds different, he feels different. Bernie Sanders got a lot of support for the same reason. They were saying different things, but both of them were anti-establishment figures. That’s what’s going on here, the establishment itself is losing its grip. We are seeing a kind of crazy chaos resulting from that. We will sort it out; human beings are capable of sorting things out. We don’t need leaders to sort things out, we can sort things out themselves.”
Despite this chaos, Hancock views this disillusionment and serious shift as a positive thing and a sign of progress. Now that people are more aware of what is occurring within politics, hopefully the conditions can only improve with each election.
Watch Graham Hancock speak with London Real below:
What are your thoughts on Hancock’s comments? Graham Hancock Explains Why So Many People Are Pro-Trump And Anti-Establishment | 1real |
Between the State and the Private Sector: a Need for Associations? | Email
This has been a debate garnering some attention in the UK for several years, mainly under the auspices of a contrast between “Red Tory” and “Blue Labour”.
This debate, which has about the need for a mutualism countering the bureaucratic state and providing collective resources for private individuals abandoned to laissez faire, has not however been significant in the US.
In the US, the function of the state is very much to aid and abet the oligarchy by blurring the line between the government and the private sector to the advantage of the latter, as opposed to being a check on it. US governments have therefore all but abandoned their role as the indispensable and major provider of essential welfare services.
Even “Tricky Dicky” Nixon, knave that he was, went along with such relatively ample provision by the state.
Today, however, American politicians, unless they are super-rich, can’t campaign effectively without monetary heft from a plutocratic private sector, to which they are then utterly beholden. Hillary Clinton anyone?
American politicians who mount the slightest challenge to this rapaciously dysfunctional political system—George McGovern in days of yore, Denis Kucinich a few years ago, and now Sanders– are sent packing by its upholders.
In the UK the Tories and New Labour have advanced on a similar neoliberal path since Thatcher, but encountered more resistance from voters, largely because its Celtic fringe adheres resolutely to the welfare state, and because there is still in the UK a solid bloc of voters to the left of the main parliamentary parties on several major issues (war, environmental protection, ringfencing the NHS, a commitment to public education, and the need for a fairer electoral system, being the most prominent).
The postwar settlements after 1945 in the countries of the west depended on a broadly Keynesian concordat, mediated by the state, between labour and capital.
In the 1970s this concordat fell into a crisis, and was dissolved by the governments of Reagan and Thatcher, whose names are often given to the succeeding neoliberal politico-economic paradigm.
However, neoliberalism, with its emphasis on supposed market forces, has failed to deliver a general prosperity while exacerbating economic inequality, as well as promoting unstable bubble economies as the sole alternative to a widespread stagnation.
In response to these failures of the social-welfare state (on the one hand) and a no-holds-barred neoliberal economic individualism (on the other), there has been a growth of interest in the UK in “mutualist” paradigms emphasizing cooperation, in self-governing and voluntary associations, on a scale smaller than the state but larger and more collective than that acceptable to a market-bedazzled or market-entrapped homo oeconomicus.
These voluntary and self-governing associations will be non-profit making and funded out of the public purse.
In the UK, the Blue Labour “tendency” (for it is no more than that in effective political terms) ratifies a form of mutualism, and in the US Bernie Sanders expressed interest in participatory political forms stressing mutualism, at least when he was still contending with Hillary Clinton for their party’s nomination to be a candidate for the 2016 presidential election.
However, a state-driven social democracy of the kind prevailing until the 1970s will be difficult to revive because the state favoured by neoliberalism is a Market-State in root and branch, with market-imperatives– or rather those of quasi-markets, because neoliberal markets are rigged and rent-seeking (as Michael Hudson , Guy Standing , and others have pointed out) — dominating the State’s core.
This neoliberal Market-State is more about entrenching the parasitic rentier-based oligarchy than promoting the fabled competitive markets extolled by classical liberalism.
So, the key question for us is whether new forms of cooperation and mutualism, socialist in nature, can emerge in an innovative kind of post-neoliberal state, forms which can then exist in concert with crucially-important local and regional formations.
Blue Labour’s proponents have identified a panoply of measures and steps as the way to inaugurate a full-blown associationism: co-operative ventures of all kinds, community banks and credit unions, community-sponsored daycare and eldercare, youth clubs, greatly augmented municipal government, proper apprenticeship schemes (as opposed to largely inconsequential “work your way in the hope you get a job” workfare arrangements), and so on.
However, if neoliberalism remains, there will be no real move to a sufficient mutualism. So, decisive steps must be taken to push neoliberalism to the side. Blue Labour purports to be an alternative to neoliberalism, but does not endorse (at least not explicitly) the revolutionary means needed to supplant the neoliberal order.
A mutualism which does not tackle the overridingly important issue of the ownership of assets, and fails to advance their common ownership, is going to be a paper tiger (to resort to the nomenclature of the Great Helmsman).
Other interim measures will include an overturning of regnant macroeconomic policy, to encompass the greater taxation of wealth; the abolition of opportunities to extract rentier-based incomes (neoliberalism’s modus operandi); the repatriation of capital that has migrated to Wall Street and the City of London; the introduction of capital controls; the reduction of military spending; greater provision of resources on infrastructure, health, and education; converting banks into public utilities whose sole role is the intermediation between buyers and sellers (as opposed to the emphasis on gratuitously unproductive forms of speculation and arbitrage so prevalent today); supporting trade unions; placing important services conducing to our overall good in the public domain, which need not necessarily be statist, since the public domain will perforce now include a variety of formations that are associationist.
Another significant step would be the disruption of the monetary symbiosis now existing between the corporate and political élites.
Also important will be the reduction, and ultimately the elimination, of the for-profit sector when this does not operate for the public good.
An example of how a project undertaken by a private company can easily be placed in the hands of a publicly-owned organization is the upcoming construction of London’s “super sewer” system. Balfour Beatty, the controversial giant construction company , has been awarded a £416m contract to build a section of this “super sewer” (and we can count on the almost inevitable cost overruns doubling and even tripling the sum stipulated in the original deal).
BB is a private company with shareholders and private investors. A project on this scale could easily have been undertaken by a publicly-owned and controlled body, which would return earnings to the public purse, as opposed to feathering the nests of a small group of private citizens.
Today colossally lucrative enterprises, making their originators some of the wealthiest people on earth, exist in a realm that can best be described as virtual.
Uber owns no taxis, Airbnb owns no rental properties, EBay/Alibaba possess no inventory, Facebook generates no content of its own, TaskRabbit and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (the latter’s motto being “giving you access to a scalable workforce”) create no sustainable jobs but use the internet to “match” individuals with substantial incomes needing someone to undertake menial tasks or run small errands, with a hapless “gig” clientele more or less willing to do this for chickenfeed.
In addition, high-speed stock traders sit at desks transmuting algorithms into computer pixels to generate obscene rental returns (“profit” generally being used in classical economics only to characterize gains accruing from actual productive investment) in a few clicks of the keyboard.
Dispensing with the stock-market racket will only require political will, admittedly not an easy undertaking since the political élites have also been allowed to feed at its trough.
At the same time, the other virtual enterprises can be put to social uses: Uber can become a communal car-sharing service, Airbnb can serve the homeless, and TaskRabbit and Mechanical Turk can service the needs of a market providing substantial employment beyond the level of “gig” jobs.
All citizens should have access to common basic entitlements, and associations will be publicly funded only if they are open to all and willing to provide services on the basis of public entitlements.
The removal of neoliberalism, and ultimately capitalism itself, is going to be the surest way to bring about an extended and long-lasting mutualism and associationism.
If neoliberalism and capitalism continue exist, we will be mired in an ethos based on the absurd proposition that we must first “create wealth”, then somehow find ways to prise the loot generated by this process out of the fingers of a fortunate few to “improve the quality of life” for the rest of us.
Is there any greater idiocy, apart from the possible notion that the interests of the generality of the US and the world will be adequately served by a Trump or Clinton presidency?
Kenneth Surin is Professor of Literature and Professor of Religion and Critical Theory Program in Literature and Critical Theory at Duke University. | 1real |
Rick Santorum hopes 99-county Iowa tour leads to success | Lyon County gave the former Pennsylvania Senator his biggest margin of victory in the 2012 Iowa caucuses, winning by 62%. The county, Santorum said, "Stood with us from the very beginning ... I'm just coming back to say thank you, Lyon County, for the wonderful support."
A visit to all 99 counties, dubbed "the full Grassley" after Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who visits every county every year, is an important organizing tactic to candidates looking to get to know voters in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Santorum is the first 2016 presidential candidate to complete the challenge, his second time personally completing the feat
Republican Party of Iowa co-chairman Dr. Cody Hoefert told CNN a visit to all 99 counties is "critically important" for candidates.
"It quite often turns out that the candidate that spends the most time, effort, and energy in Iowa tends to get rewarded on caucus night," Hoefert said.
If that's true, his efforts have yet to show in the polls. In a recent CNN/ORC poll of likely caucus-goers, Santorum had just 1% of support. In that same poll, 66% of respondents said they were still trying to decide who to support. This cycle, Santorum faces competition from other social conservatives in the race, including neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the caucuses in 2008. The former senator defended his standing in the polls to reporters, noting that his 99-county tour has been focused on building out the campaign's organization at the grassroots level. "It's a long, arduous process... People say, 'Oh, you're just trying to check a box.' No, no, no. This is how you win caucuses," Santorum said. "You meet people and you connect with folks like we have here in Lyon County, and then you recruit other folks to be your caucus chairs, to recruit other folks to speak for you in the caucuses. All of those things are sort of the nuts and bolts go unseen in a race like this that don't pay off five months before the election, they pay off five days before the election and on caucus night." In his pitch to the 200 or so Iowans assembled, Santorum focused on his record and work in elected office, particularly on social issues. "Let me assure you if you look at my track record, for 15 or 20 years, I have been standing up and taking the slings and arrows, not just for the right to life, not just on partial birth or things like the Born Alive Protection Act. But for marriage," said Santorum, who served in the House and Senate from 1995 until 2007. Asked about the support for outsider candidates during what's been called the "summer of discontent," he said, "People are ticked off." "They're understandably saying we just want someone new, somebody that can shake things up and then you'll hear candidates who for one reason or another are folks that they trust will actually do something different." | 0fake |
Trump felt Scaramucci comments to New Yorker inappropriate: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump felt Anthony Scaramucci, whom he fired as his communications chief on Monday, made inappropriate comments to The New Yorker magazine, the White House said. “The president certainly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position and he didn’t want to burden General Kelly,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said at a briefing, referring to John Kelly, who was sworn in as the new White House chief of staff earlier on Monday. Trump fired Scaramucci on Monday just over a week after naming him to the job in the latest staff upheaval to hit the Republican’s six-month-old administration. Scaramucci, appointed to the communications post by Trump 10 days ago, had attacked then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon in profanity-laden and vulgar terms in a telephone call to a journalist from The New Yorker magazine last week. The comments caused a stir among lawmakers and some religious leaders, but Scaramucci did not apologize. In response to the backlash he said on Twitter that he would refrain from using such “colorful” language again in his new position. Sanders declined to identify what specifically Trump found inappropriate about Scaramucci’s comments. | 0fake |
Japan's Abe calls for enforcement of sanctions against North Korea: NYT | TOKYO (Reuters) - The international community must remain united and enforce sanctions against North Korea after its repeated launch of ballistic missiles, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an editorial published in the New York Times on Sunday. Abe s editorial was published before world leaders gather in New York for a United Nations General Assembly meeting this week, where North Korea s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are expected to loom large over proceedings. North Korea launched a missile over Japan on Friday, its second in the past three weeks, and conducted its sixth and by far most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, in defiance of international pressure. Such tests are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and show that North Korea can now target the United States or Europe, Abe said. Diplomacy and dialogue will not work with North Korea and concerted pressure by the entire international community is essential to tackle the threats posed by North Korea, Abe wrote. A week ago, the 15-member U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted its ninth sanctions resolution since 2006 over North Korea s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. | 0fake |
Branded a ‘Terrorist’ for Reporting Two Sides of Ukraine’s War - The New York Times | I have had guns pointed at me, slept in a shipping container and walked past the corpses of shelling victims since the separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine began two years ago. But I had never been blacklisted as a terrorist before. So when my name recently appeared on a “terrorist” list of journalists published by a website with close ties to the Ukrainian government, I viewed it with a mix of trepidation and sarcasm. Trepidation because it suggested powerful people in Ukraine, a democracy that aspires to the free flow of information, were going after me and others on the list for simply doing our jobs: reporting both sides of the war, including the rebel side. And sarcasm because, this being Ukraine, the list was not likely to have much credibility elsewhere. I have not, for example, had any trouble flying after appearing on what may be the world’s first list of terrorist journalists. It is also not a secret that I and other reporters have reported from rebel territory our publications and broadcast outlets regularly use our names and note where we are. The list, published by a Ukrainian nationalist website called Myrotvorets, or the Peacemaker, appeared to have been born out of a simmering frustration. in Ukraine have been furious at the foreign press for some time now, arguing that any coverage of the rebels from their home base in the east played into Russia’s powerful propaganda machine. Russia has portrayed residents in the breakaway regions as victims of an unjustified Ukrainian military assault by a “fascist” government in Kiev. The list is a compilation of reporters and others who applied for press passes to work in territory controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic, Ukraine’s main enemy in the war in the east. Applying for accreditation from rebels, according to the website, was enough to be branded a “terrorist accomplice. ” The website said it had obtained the list of names, and personal information including emails, from hackers who had stolen the rebels’ data. Groups supporting journalists quickly condemned the publication of the names — and in some cases home addresses — for seeming to invite violence against reporters. A commentator living in Kiev, Oles Buzina, whose home address was publicized in a Myrotvorets post last year, was shot and killed on a street not far from his home days later. But this time, the site was publishing names and contact details for 5, 412 journalists, drivers, fixers, soundmen and translators. Not all of us can be rubbed out. Why were so many reporters accredited to cover the war in Donetsk? Because it served the media strategy of the rebels. About of the journalists and support staff on the list were Russian nationals or locals from eastern Ukraine, who might be expected to be sympathetic to the rebels. In addition, 1, 816 foreign reporters showed up over the two years and were accredited, according to the list. The ease of accrediting ensured, for example, broad coverage of stray Ukrainian artillery strikes hitting the city and sometimes killing civilians, helping discredit Ukraine’s actions to win back territory. The media strategy seems right out of Russia’s media playbook Western military analysts have noted Russia’s savvy at what they have called “hybrid wars” that blend lethal force with aggressive (and positive) press coverage. For reporters, press passes to travel in territory were invaluable for avoiding arrest, hands or detention in a basement. To get the coveted slips of paper, journalists visited Angela, a witty woman known as the “accreditation queen. ” Angela worked in a office of the separatist headquarters in central Donetsk. Reaching her space meant trekking up a dark stairwell festooned with coarse propaganda for the cause: One drawing showed President Obama’s head on the body of a monkey another showed a Ukrainian politician, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, dressed in a Nazi uniform. With few exceptions, Angela cheerily printed out press passes for anyone who asked — other than reporters from Ukraine. Many Ukrainians remain outraged that, as they see it, the groups have been able to deftly amplify their message with the megaphone of the Western media — despite the rebels’ virulently agenda. The war has now killed more than 10, 000 people. Still, Ukraine’s ombudsman, Valeria Lutkovska, condemned the release of the journalists’ names and urged the authorities to shut down the website for revealing personal information. President Petro O. Poroshenko on Friday called the release a “big mistake. ” Western ambassadors voiced concern. In the face of criticism, the Myrotvorets website has doubled down, posting a sarcastic rejoinder. “Many journalists demanded an apology from us, and now we understand the reason for this,” the site wrote on May 20, two weeks after publishing the list of “terrorist accomplices” in the media. “The staff offer their sincere apologies in regards to the list not being fresh. ” It then added new names. And the interior minister, Arsen B. Avakov, appeared to endorse the leak, or at least did not condemn it. “War is like war,” he wrote on Facebook. “A friend sincerely fighting is more important for me than opinions of liberals and latent separatists who think too much of themselves. ” | 0fake |
Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin to stay in New Zealand until lungs clear | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has been advised by doctors to stay in New Zealand until fluid from his lungs clears, days after he was evacuated from the South Pole as his condition worsened. The 86-year-old adventurer who was visiting the pole as part of a tourist group, was flown to Christchurch, New Zealand, early on Friday because of congestion in his lungs. His team posted details of his medical evacuation from Antarctica over the weekend, along with pictures of him in good spirits, on his official website as well as on Twitter. “I am being very well looked after in Christchurch. I’m looking forward to getting home soon to spend Christmas with my family and to continue my quest for Cycling Pathways and a permanent settlement on Mars,” he said on his website. In one of the photos on Twitter, Aldrin can be seen reading a newspaper in his hospital bed as he tweeted: “Catching up on the world while I’m stuck in quarantine.” His manager, Christina Korp, who travelled with him to Antarctica, posted photos on Sunday of him taking a walk with a nurse inside the hospital. Aldrin was a fighter pilot during the Korean War before joining the U.S. astronaut program. On July 20, 1969, he stepped on the moon about 20 minutes after Neil Armstrong took the historic first step. Their moonwalk, part of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, was watched by a then-record television audience of 600 million people. | 0fake |
Racist North Carolina Hospital Volunteer Loses Her Sh*t After She Meets A Black Family (VIDEO) | Republicans claim that racism doesn t exist anymore. But if that is true, why does this sh*t keep happening? An African-American man in North Carolina posted a horrifying video to YouTube that shows a crazy white lady UNLOADING on him and his family simply because they have skin darker than a freshly-bleached Klan hood. A volunteer at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center at Winston-Salem was captured on video screaming at Isaiah Baskins and his family when they visited the center.Before Baskins began filming, he says the woman called him a n*gger and ordered him to leave. At the start of the video, the woman is on the phone demanding that someone (apparently security) come up here and TAKE THESE PEOPLE OUT OF HERE. After she slams the phone, she begins pushing and shoving the man, who simply asks what is wrong with her, baring her teeth like someone just spilled grape juice on her freshly-washed robes just before an important cross burning. Get your damn underwear out of here, she screams. Gray underwear. Apparently, the color of Baskins underwear, which may or may not have poked above the waistline of Baskins pants, makes him a dirty old creep. She demands that the family be removed because she doesn t want to see it. On YouTube, Baskins sums up the situation:Went to Baptist hospital for my daughter appointment and went into the family resource center and became a victim of racism before I started recording she called me a nigger and said get my black kids out We wasent bothering anybody I was just taking to someone I just met in the hospital. After i grap my camera she say my pants and gray underweare keep it real u called me a nigger and my kid little black kids. Out of no where she flips and put me and my kids out them pushes me and kicks me Racism is still real Wake forest baptist medical center.In a statement provided to FOX8, Wake Forest explained that the woman is no longer a volunteer with the organization: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is shocked and appalled at the behavior demonstrated by our volunteer in this video. We deeply regret this and have apologized to those affected by this behavior. This behavior does not reflect our identity or our values. This individual is no longer a volunteer with our organization.Wake Forest Baptist is dedicated to providing an inclusive environment for all, with respect, dignity and compassion. This commitment is unwavering and reinforced every day by our dedicated faculty and staff. Watch the woman s insane rant below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
President Obama's Latest Scapegoat for the Obamacare Implosion is Nothing Short of Absurd | Getty - Saul Loeb The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
With ObamaCare premiums set to soar in some states by more than 50% in 2017, Barack Obama and the Democrats are busting their butts to blame anyone and everything they can for the staggering increases and unpopularity of the so-called 'Affordable' Care Act.
On Monday, ObamaCare architect Ezekiel Emanuel and CNN blamed Republicans for the price hikes, with Emanuel actually saying they're “not a big increase.”
Thursday afternoon, Obama came up with a new scapegoat: the media . THE MEDIA. — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 27, 2016
Some would argue that the so-called 'mainstream media' has carried Obama's water for eight years. Yet, they're to blame for the ObamaCare trainwreck? Yup.
Obama told more than 25,000 volunteers on a White House call:
"We're not going to get that much help from the media. This is going to be a ground game.
There is a faction of people who are continually trying to root for failure, despite the fact that we keep on insuring people and folks continue to get help."
That “faction of people” is a majority of Americans, by the way. Here's what a recent Gallup poll found:
51% disapprove of the law; 44% approve
18% say it has helped their families; 29% say it has hurt them
Long term, most Americans believe it will hurt or not make a difference
Anyway, Obama told the volunteers that they'll have to help him “clear the mud off the windshield” to get people to sign up— mud presumably put there by the media.
Speaking of the media, Townhall's Guy Benson and The Daily Caller's Derek Hunter were a bit 'skeptical' of Obama's charge: The press is sending those premium hike letters, canceling people's plans, and forcing insurers out of the exchanges?? Wow! ???? #whining https://t.co/0b2ffrdX7I — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 28, 2016 Yesterday it was Republicans' fault, now it's the media. Total number of media and Republicans who voted for/had any input in Obamacare = 0. https://t.co/rGjeM95bL4 — Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) October 28, 2016
As were other Twitterers: Oh. I guess the press wrote a dumpster fire law, passed it with trickery in the middle of night, after lying about it. Interesting take. https://t.co/kvVjLaIKZT | 1real |
Along the Mekong River, a Timeless Place Where Time Marches On - The New York Times | Deep in the folds of the hill, up steep stone stairs flanked with frangipani trees, stood the inner sanctum of the ancient Khmer temple of Vat Phou. We faced the mountain ridge, our backs to the waters of the Mekong River, looking for the chamber. From this angle, it was hidden. But other parts of the temple had begun revealing themselves to us. Down here, along the rutted stone path leading to the stairs, we watched as a construction crane lifted a block onto the wall of one of the outer chambers. To our right, a few carvers chipped away at other blocks with small tools. Through their hands flowed the tales of Hindu mythology, the narratives of gods in love and war that had originated on the Indian subcontinent and traveled to distant Java and to Khmer temples across Cambodia and Laos. Now that transmission of stories and beliefs and ideas was continuing here, like the flow of the Mekong, in the shadow of one of the most beautiful of those temples. Built more than 1, 000 years ago at the high point of an axis stretching from a range of mountains down to the Mekong, Vat Phou is one of the most sacred temples of the vanished Khmer kingdoms. The Khmer ruled a wide swath of Southeast Asia from the ninth to the 15th centuries, and their dedication to art and architecture is best embodied in the famous temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Lesser known and distinct from Angkor in its intimacy is Vat Phou, sometimes written in English as Wat Phu, which has been designated a World Heritage site by a United Nations agency. To see the temple and this stretch of the Mekong, my wife, daughter and I based ourselves for three nights at a new riverside hotel outside the town of Champasak. This was the middle leg of a whirlwind trip through Southeast Asia that we regarded as our farewell to the region. I had been reporting in China for The New York Times for eight years, and we had plans to leave in the coming year. We had a special attachment to Southeast Asia — my wife, Tini, is Vietnamese American and worked for seven years for The Associated Press in Vietnam before moving to China. And while in China, as a couple and then a family, we had spent much of our vacation time exploring the region. For many foreigners and Chinese ground down by living in China’s polluted, crowded and clogged megacities, the beaches, rivers and hills of tropical Southeast Asia provided a escape hatch. Neither Tini nor I had been to southern Laos before, so it made sense to choose it as the centerpiece of our final Southeast Asia vacation on this tour. Even if Laos was an authoritarian state, it was still the land of the Mekong, with palm trees lining the riverbanks, freshwater dolphins swimming between islets and fishermen casting nets over the side of skiffs. The pace of life was slower, much slower, than that of Beijing. But it would have been wrong to think of the region as timeless. The restoration of Vat Phou that we witnessed belied notions of ancient ruins lost in eternal mists. And it was there, near the entrance to the temple complex, that we discovered we were not the only escapees from the rush of development in China. As we set foot that morning on the eastern end of the pathway leading up to the inner sanctum, we met a Chinese couple from Shanghai who were in the middle of a monthlong trip through Laos with their daughter. Our daughter, Aria, instantly began following the older girl around. We told the family we were fleeing the notorious Beijing pollution. “The situation is very bad in Shanghai, too,” the father said. It was rare to see a Chinese family traveling alone in this corner of Southeast Asia, and I wondered whether they were a harbinger for a new wave of tourists. French travelers were ubiquitous here and had been so for more than a century, given France’s colonial history in Indochina, but Chinese travelers were rare, even though China bordered Laos. We had begun our trip with a flight from Beijing to Chiang Mai in Thailand to visit friends there, then entered southern Laos with a plan to spend one week before meeting other friends on a beach in Vietnam. We crossed the border near the Laotian town of Pakse. There, on a sleepy street (towns in Laos only have sleepy streets) we had lunch at Dok Mai, a restaurant run by an Italian, Corrado. He told us he had tried living and working in India, but that had been tough. “Pakse chose me,” he said. A young man sent from the River Resort then drove us the from Pakse to the hotel, built along the Mekong. We found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, but that was the point. The River Resort consisted of luxury buildings along the west bank of the Mekong, with a large room on each floor. There were two riverside swimming pools on the grounds. We had a balcony room overlooking the river. The entire wall and door facing the river was made of glass. We could wake up in bed gazing across the waters to the sunrise. At sunset, a golden light bathed the river and trees and stones. It was one of the most stunning hotels in which we had stayed in Southeast Asia. We would have enjoyed spending an entire day just on the riverbank, but Khmer civilization beckoned us. In the mountains looming to our west, hidden by jungle, lay Vat Phou. The next morning, we hired a taxi to drive us the 15 minutes to the temple. Along the range of hills, we could make out one peak that stood above the others. The builders of Vat Phou had noticed this and proclaimed it a natural lingam of Shiva. A hotel employee, Taiy, told me of the importance of rituals at the temple. “I’ve been to Vat Phou four times,” he said. “My family goes once a year. Because I have to work, I usually don’t go. I don’t have much time, so I would only be able to go at night. ” “There’s a big festival once a year,” he said. “I remember there were many people. This year, there will be a big one, and maybe I’ll have to go. ” After we met the family from Shanghai, we walked between rows of trees and up the stone steps to the inner sanctum. Along the main walkway, we passed a naga statue draped with yellow garlands. A bell rang somewhere. Inside the inner temple, a Thai family made offerings to a statue of the Buddha. They had bought incense sticks from a woman outside the temple. They prayed with the lit sticks. Sweet smoke drifted through the temple. On our walk, Aria had picked up a white frangipani flower, and now she placed it on a wooden table, atop dried candle wax. It was her offering. Around the sanctum were lintels carved with ornate scenes from Hindu mythology. One showed the god Indra atop a elephant. Another depicted deities taking part in the churning of the Ocean of Milk, an image that I had also seen a decade earlier at Angkor. Then there was the scene of Krishna tearing his uncle Kamsa in half. Outside, more worshipers were arriving. We walked along the slope of the mountain behind the temple. On the site were the ruins of a small library, a sacred spring and a cave shrine. At a cistern, Laotians anointed themselves with water that flowed from mountain springs. The Shanghainese girl told us to follow her, and she showed us a rock that our guidebook said might have been used for human sacrifices before the age of Angkor. It was the wider natural surroundings that cast a spell on us. Atop the hill, staring down the axis and toward the Mekong to the east, I could see the many frangipani flowers below, bursts of white on the brown landscape. The temple commanded the scene, as its cousins at Angkor did in the Cambodian jungles. After we walked down the stairs, four women holding umbrellas approached us. They went straight up to Aria and said “sabaidee,” or hello. She said it back, pronouncing the syllables carefully even if she did not know what the word meant. The next morning, we arranged with our hotel to take a boat over to the island of Don Daeng, in the middle of the Mekong. We had brought bicycles with us, and I strapped Aria to my back with a baby sling. A herd of water buffalo wandered languidly down the sandy beach to drink at the river. We biked along dirt paths to villages. There were five main ones on the island, with a total population of 3, 000. Locals walked from one to another or sat on the rear of trundling tractors. Outside their homes, women fried up rice cakes in pans. At lunchtime, we stopped at La Folie, a lodge. While our hotel was all modernist glass and concrete, La Folie had polished wooden panels on the floors and walls. It overlooked the river and faced the spine of mountains to the west. We could see Vat Phou in the hills. Top, a smiling man from Pakse, was working in the dining room. He had just started there one month earlier. When he found out I was from the United States, he asked about the Ultra Music Festival in Miami — Had I heard of it? Had I been there? I shook my head. “I really want to go,” he said. “My favorite D. J. s from around the world go there. ” He said that was his goal, to be a D. J. and that there were two bars in Pakse where D. J. s played. Timeless Asia, indeed. That evening, we took a sunset boat ride on the Mekong with a Dutch couple. Over canapés and bottles of Beerlao, we spoke with Kanh, a hotel worker accompanying us. He had begun working at River Resort three months earlier. He was from Pakse, he said, the son of a Vietnamese mother and a father who was Laotian and Chinese. While his mother had been born here, her parents were from Hue, the old imperial capital in central Vietnam. They had fled the fall of South Vietnam to Communist forces in 1975, only to eventually settle in another Communist country. “He’s the original mixed Southeast Asian,” Tini said with a laugh. Her ancestors, too, were from Hue, and she and her family had also fled Vietnam in 1975. They ended up deep in the American South. So went the vagaries of history. The next morning, we took a ferry across the river, followed by a bus to a river port to the south, where we hopped on a wooden boat crammed with backpackers for a ride to what is known as the Four Thousand Islands area, or Si Phan Don, on the border with Cambodia. This stretch of the Mekong was filled with small islets and rocks. Waterfalls abounded. It was here that French colonists were unable to navigate ships up the Mekong to southwest China without building a small railroad across Don Khon and Don Det. We stayed for a couple of nights on the northern side of Don Khon. We got a riverside room at Sengahloune Villa, a more rustic place than the River Resort. The narrow waterways, wooden skiffs and palm trees swaying among the islands reminded me of the backwaters of Kerala in southern India and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, where the Mekong emptied into the South China Sea. We spent our days biking around the island and watching the sunset from the old French railroad bridge next to our hotel. One afternoon, we hired a small boat off the southern tip of Don Khon, near the old railway tracks, to see the area’s famous freshwater dolphins. As we strained from our boat to catch a glimpse of the dolphins, we saw a group of monks in saffron robes sitting in a skiff. They had come over from Cambodia. Their boat flew the Cambodian flag, with an image of the main temple at Angkor Wat. They sat there with umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun and pointed whenever the head or back of a dolphin poked above the water for a few seconds. The river flowed onward, passing around their boat and continuing for hundreds of miles to the ocean far away. | 0fake |
null | People have made up their minds on president.
I’ve served as an elected District Attorney in Conservative Texas. Every DA is on a limited budget. We have to make choices. I believe in strict punishment for violent offenders and burglars. I rarely gave probation. Unfortunately we had to deal with all these annoying pot cases. Even when pot users got probation the understaffed probation officers had to make sure they were in by 10PM – I’d rather they checked on sex offenders.]
Revenues are another reason to legalize. The Washington Post reports for 2015 Colorado gained 18,000 pot-related jobs and $2.4 billion in revenue. 2016 will be much better. Use among teens has not increased both according to surveys from the Denver Post and Federal Government.
It’s best to vote “Yes”. | 1real |
MLK And Two Others Will Be on The Back Of The $5 Bill | Leave it to Obama to politicize our money some think the past presidents should be on the money but now Obama s made our money like a postage stamp. He s made this political and racial which really is what you d expect from this pitiful man.Abraham Lincoln will not be the only person depicted on the $5 bill much longer.The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will overhaul the design of the $5 note, a move overshadowed by its decision to revamp the back of the $10 bill to include women and to feature Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20.Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., famed opera singer Marian Anderson and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt will be depicted on the back of the updated $5 bill.All three will be portrayed in historical moments in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which is currently pictured on the back of the bill. King will be shown delivering his 1963 I Have a Dream speech. Anderson will be shown performing in 1939, when concert halls were still segregated and she was banned from singing in Constitution Hall, supported by Roosevelt.In redesigning the $5 bill, a previously unannounced step, the Treasury will disrupt Lincoln s long-running tenure on both the front of the bill, in a portrait, and on the back, captured as a statue within the Lincoln Memorial. The basic layout of the note hadn t changed since 1929.Read more: WE | 1real |
Battle over N.C. transgender law intensifies as lawmakers reconvene | RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) - Thousands of people flocked to North Carolina’s capital on Monday to show both support and disdain for a law that has thrust the state into the international spotlight over its restrictions on transgender bathroom access and gay rights. Lawmakers returned to Raleigh to begin a short session designed to address the state budget. But controversy over the new law, which has drawn reaction from U.S. presidential candidates, U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others, is expected to dominate. The measure puts the state at the center of a debate over equality, privacy and religious freedom as states propose legislation seen as discriminatory against gay and transgender people in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court last year ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. North Carolina became the first U.S. state to require transgender people to use restrooms in public buildings and schools that match the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity. Fifty-four people were arrested at the Legislative Building as they protested against the law on Monday, General Assembly police Officer Scott Cameron said. “Our state is a state of crisis,” Chris Sgro, executive director of the Equality North Carolina advocacy group, said earlier in the day before activists delivered petitions to Republican Governor Pat McCrory’s office demanding the law’s repeal. A group of Democratic representatives filed a bill seeking a repeal. But leading Republican lawmakers in the state have shown little willingness to back down, and they were greeted at a rally on Monday by thousands of people who came on church buses and held signs thanking them for the measure. Business leaders, entertainers and politicians including Obama and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump have come out against the law. Opponents contend it demonizes transgender people and limits government protections against discrimination for gays and lesbians. Supporters including social conservatives and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz say it is needed to protect women and children from sexual predators in bathrooms. On Monday, singers Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas joined a growing list of entertainers who have canceled shows in the state. Lovato wrote on Twitter that she and Jonas were protesting “this hateful law.” As part of the backlash, companies and associations have relocated conventions and halted job-creating investment projects initially slated for North Carolina. Republican State Representative Paul Stam criticized companies, including PayPal Holdings (PYPL.O), that have pulled jobs out of North Carolina over the measure. “They have offices in countries where homosexuals are executed,” he said. “The hypocrisy of those who oppose this bill is amazing.” | 0fake |
LAS VEGAS: ILLEGAL ALIEN ARRESTED For Filming Himself Committing Unspeakable Act Against 4 Year Old Girl | Did you know that in the state of Texas alone over the last few years, more than 2000 illegal aliens were deported after committing sex crimes?Did you know that in the state of Texas alone over the last few years, nearly a thousand illegal aliens have been convicted of sex crimes against children?Of course you didn t. The media has covered these horrors up for years, and even after Donald Trump dared reveal these horrors, the rape-deniers in the media continue to cover them up. The media is covering up all kinds of horrific statistic regarding illegal aliens. Before we get to those, let s start with why.To Democrats and their media allies, a few hundred raped children a year is seen as a small price to pay for the political benefits that come with an unsecure border. Mexicans vote 3-to-1 for Democrats.Of the 862 alien sex offenders deported by the Texas-based offices, about 27 percent were convicted of sex offenses against children. -BreitbartYesterday in Las Vegas, a Hispanic immigrant was been arrested for allegedly raping a toddler in Las Vegas. The man accused of raping a 4-year-old girl and videotaping the entire sexual assault on his cellphone has been placed on an immigrant detainer. It is not currently known if the accused child rapist is a legal or illegal immigrant.Julio Cesar Medrano, 23, also goes by the alias, Julio Rodriguez. The Las Vegas resident was arrested on child rape charges on April 21. The sexual assault happened on April 3, according to the time stamp on the 30-second cellphone video, police investigators.Julio Medrano was arrested after a woman found the video appearing to depict the immigrant raping the child. A tattoo on the hand of the man in the alleged child rape video aided Las Vegas law enforcement investigators in identifying the suspect, the Daily Mail reports.Julio Medrano has been charged with seven criminal counts in connection with the child sexual assault case. The charges levied against the Hispanic immigrant include sexual assault against a child younger than 14, child abuse or neglect, producing and possessing child pornography, possession of a dangerous weapon, and carrying a concealed knife without a permit, according to the Clark County Detention Center online records database.For entire story Inquisitr | 1real |
Russia hopes Turkey can stabilize situation in Syria's Idlib: RIA | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia hopes that Turkey can stabilize the situation in Syria s Idlib Province where Moscow believes there is a high threat of attacks by militants, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday, the RIA news agency reported. There is a pretty high level of tension there and there is still a threat of offensives by radical groups deployed there, the agency cited Alexander Lavrentyev, the head of the Russian delegation at the Astana talks on the Syria crisis, as saying. But we hope that our Turkish partners will in the end fulfill their part of the obligations concerning the Idlib de-escalation zone and will stabilize the situation there. | 0fake |
Republicans defend Trump court pick rated 'not qualified' | (Reuters) - Senate Republicans mounted a concerted defense of one of President Donald Trump’s nominees to a federal appeals court on Wednesday, suggesting a nonpartisan lawyers’ group rating of Leonard Steven Grasz as “not qualified” for the bench was biased. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Grasz’s nomination, the Republicans universally praised the Nebraska lawyer, whom Trump wants to fill a vacancy on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Negative assessments by the American Bar Association, which has been evaluating federal court picks for decades, are rare. It last gave an appeals court nominee a rating of “not qualified” in 2006. That nominee was withdrawn. The ABA’s 15-member standing committee on the federal judiciary voted unanimously on the poor rating for Grasz, with one member abstaining. The report focused largely on Grasz’s advocacy on conservative social issues, including his opposition to abortion rights. “Many questioned whether Mr. Grasz would be able to detach himself from his deeply held social agenda,” Pamela Bresnahan, chair of the group’s judicial nominee vetting committee, said in a statement. On Wednesday, Republican senators questioned the credibility of the process. “They do a terrific job ordinarily, but sometimes they’re just ridiculous, and in your case I think they’re not only ridiculous, they’ve been political,” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said, adding he would support Grasz’s appointment. The dustup over Grasz comes as the full Senate continues to confirm Trump’s judicial choices amid Republican complaints that Democrats are obstructing the process. Ten have been confirmed so far, including Joan Larsen, who was approved on Wednesday to sit on the federal appeals bench in Cincinnati. The ABA, the largest lawyers group in the United States, says its judicial evaluations are non-partisan, taking into account experience, knowledge of the law and other factors, but not political or ideological views. As Nebraska’s former chief deputy attorney general, Grasz defended the state’s “partial-birth” abortion ban, among other laws. Grasz told the senators he would be bound to follow the Supreme Court’s abortion precedents. He said that during the second interview by the ABA, “I was asked repeatedly for my personal opinions on social issues including abortion.” Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer, a Republican, called the ABA rating a “baseless political character assassination.” She claimed the two main evaluators both had ties with Democrats. Bresnahan declined comment on Wednesday. She will testify before the Judiciary Committee on Nov. 15. | 0fake |
Cliven Bundy’s Sons Occupy Oregon Wildlife Reserve With Armed Militia Of ‘U.S. Patriots’ (VIDEO) | Last year, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy made national headlines for his insane standoff with government officials over the illegal grazing of his cattle, and now his three sons have followed in his footsteps by taking up arms with about 150 armed and dangerous militia members in an Oregon wildlife reserve. They are occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ in protest of the expected detainment of two ranchers in the area who are expected to face federal arson charges. Ammon Bundy, the presumed leader of this ridiculous occupation, made a video that was later uploaded to social media, where he said: We re going to be freeing these lands up, and getting ranchers back to ranching, getting the loggers back to logging, getting the miners back to mining where they could do it under the protection of the people and not be afraid of this tyranny that s been set upon them. These people need to learn that they are not above the law. This occupation is illegal, and if they are taking up arms against the government they and all of their participants and supporters need to be hauled into federal custody and charged. That was the mistake before Cliven Bundy and his right-wing militiamen never spent so much as a day behind bars for their insanity. Now, Ammon Bundy, his brothers, and other like-minded morons want to rule themselves free from government oversight in their own nutty enclave.Another presumed group leader, a man by the name of Blane Cooper, speaks in the video and trashes the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as the equivalent of high school bullies : Until that line is drawn and say we ve had enough of this tyranny, you are going to leave us alone it will not change. Cooper goes on to encourage more occupations like this one across the country: It doesn t have to stop here. This could be a hope that spreads through the whole country, the whole United States. Everybody s looking for this hope because the government has beat us, and oppressed us, and took everything from us; they will not stop until we tell them no. Perhaps this time, the feds will take these lunatics seriously and arrest them.Watch the video of this insane anti-government speech below:// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Here it is. Please know these men will speak to people civilly. Do not go up there guns blazing. Stay safe and smart.Posted by Sarah Dee Spurlock on Saturday, January 2, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
If Donald Trump Pushes on Taiwan, How China Could Push Back - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he views the central basis for diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing — known as the “One China” policy — as ripe for review. Under that policy, the United States severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as part of its recognition of the People’s Republic of China. But in early December, Mr. Trump stunned officials across the globe by becoming the first president or to speak to a Taiwanese leader since at least 1979. Then on Sunday, he suggested that adhering to the One China policy could be used as a bargaining chip on contentious issues like China’s currency and its activity in the South China Sea. “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” he said in an interview. In trying to use Taiwan that way, Mr. Trump hit the most sensitive of what the Chinese Communist Party calls its “core interests. ” If Washington formally recognizes Taiwan, the Chinese are expected to break off diplomatic relations. Though the United States officially ended relations with Taiwan in 1979, it maintains an unofficial embassy there called the American Institute in Taiwan. It has also sold Taiwan advanced military equipment and has worked to promote its democracy. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, rejected Mr. Trump’s suggestion that American support for Taiwan was negotiable. “Taiwan is not a source of leverage,” Mr. Earnest said Monday. “It’s a close partner of the United States. ” The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid, put the matter more bluntly, saying Mr. Trump was “like a child in his ignorance of foreign policy. ” It added: “The One China policy cannot be bought and sold. Trump, it seems, only understands business and believes that everything has a price. ” Here are five ways the Chinese could make life difficult for a Trump administration: Chinese analysts say China has plenty of leverage to retaliate against Mr. Trump. One prominent target is Boeing, whose Seattle plant Xi Jinping, China’s president, visited in September 2015. In 2016, Boeing is expected to complete plane deliveries to China worth $11 billion, mostly 737s that have become the workhorse of China’s rapidly expanding airlines. The Global Times warned that it would be easy for China to switch orders to Boeing’s European competitor, Airbus. “On economic issues, China has more and more leverage,” said Wu Xinbo, the director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. “If we feel he is still pushing the Taiwan issue, we will take action. If he wants to keep it up on Taiwan, it will only backfire. ” American trade officials worry that China could intensify its discrimination against American technology firms by using the country’s antimonopoly laws. Last year, the Chinese government slapped a $975 million fine on Qualcomm, a San chip maker, for what it said were licensing infractions. A few years ago, there were worries that China might suddenly dump a large portion of its holdings of Treasuries, pushing up interest rates in the United States. Those fears ebbed as China pared its holdings gradually. Its holdings of Treasuries peaked at $1. 65 trillion in March 2014, declining to about $1. 3 trillion, said Brad Setser at the Council on Foreign Relations. Experts say that even if the country sold more, it may not have much effect because interest rates are already low, global demand for Treasuries has been strong, and the Federal Reserve could buy more bonds if needed to offset action by China. China could also weaken its currency, something Mr. Trump has argued it already does to make its products cheaper. But that could also result in more Chinese taking their money out of the country, as well as inflation for a nation that increasingly buys what it needs from abroad, like oil, because a weak currency means China must pay more for imported goods. Finally, China could order its companies and private enterprises to slow their investments in the United States. A recent study by the Rhodium Group, a New economic policy outfit, showed that since 2015, the amount of Chinese direct investment in the United States has outweighed the amount of American investment in China. Mr. Trump said on Sunday, “And frankly, they’re not helping us at all with North Korea. ” China has in fact cooperated with some American initiatives on curbing North Korea’s nuclear program, specifically backing United Nations economic sanctions last month aimed at checking the North’s foreign exchange earnings from coal, its biggest export earner. China could switch from being a reluctant ally of North Korea to a friendly neighbor. China is already angry at Washington for the recent decision to deploy a defense shield in South Korea, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as THAAD, which China argues is aimed at limiting its military capabilities. Among the tools China could use would be improved trade, aid and investment to strengthen the North’s rudimentary economy, said John Delury, an American analyst in Seoul, South Korea. As a longstanding ally, China could conduct joint military exercises with the North, he said. In return for promises by North Korea not to proliferate, Mr. Delury said, China could go beyond improved trade, and provide substantial economic backing in a Marshall initiative. President Obama spent much of his political capital with China ensuring that Beijing would agree to the international climate change agreement that committed the world’s two biggest carbon emitters to lower greenhouse gases. Critics of Mr. Obama say he failed to force China to open up its markets, stood by while China fortified islands in the South China Sea and remained largely silent while Mr. Xi carried out repressive human rights policies in order to save the climate change accord. Moreover, China’s agreement to the international deal was less a concession to American pressure than a restatement of its own goals. It was relatively easy for Mr. Xi to agree to a reduction in emissions given the outcry among the Chinese public about air pollution and contaminated food. The accord calls for China’s carbon emissions to reach a plateau or decline “around 2030” but without any specific target for reductions like those Mr. Obama pledged for the United States. Mr. Xi would be unlikely to touch the climate accord because of the popularity of the prospect of cleaner air among the Chinese public. But if he did decide to ignore it, Mr. Trump would probably not care. At one point, Mr. Trump said climate change was a “hoax” invented by China to hurt American trade. Later, he said he was joking. If Mr. Trump supports Taiwan, China’s first response may be to punish Taiwan rather than the United States, in an attempt to diminish its value to Washington. It could begin by intensifying efforts to persuade the 22 small sovereignties around the world, including the Vatican, that still maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan to sever them and recognize China instead. China might then take aim at Taiwan’s economy by restricting Chinese investments and limiting the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan. Taiwan already has de facto independence, but China has warned that it will go to war to prevent it a formal separation from the mainland. From Beijing’s perspective, the fear is that Mr. Trump’s moves could encourage Taiwan to declare independence or that other nations might follow the United States in recognizing Taiwan. If President Tsai of Taiwan declared independence, “and the whole world says Taiwan is independent,” then China “will take military action,” said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University. “But I don’t believe that is Tsai’s intention,” he added. China was a signatory to the nuclear accord reached with Iran in 2015 that lifted sanctions in return for Iran’s getting rid of 98 percent of its nuclear material. China now has unfettered access to its longtime friend’s economy. Through Iran, Beijing will seek to enhance its influence in the Middle East, with the goal of weakening American prestige in the region. But if the deal is scrapped and renegotiated, as Mr. Trump has called for, China would keep trading with Iran, isolating the United States, said Edward C. Chow, senior fellow for energy and national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. About of Iran’s oil exports go to China, and China is Iran’s top importer of goods. Thus China is Iran’s top trading partner, a position that would not change in the event of Mr. Trump’s renouncing Washington’s participation in the nuclear deal. “If anything, China would redouble trading and investment in Iran now that Trump has started on the Taiwan front,” Mr. Chow said. | 0fake |
Comment on WATCH: Hillary Aide RUSHES to Her Side to Help Her Climb ONE Step! by lloyd Lisco | Leaked Email: ‘If She Wins, Hillary Will Own The Supreme Court for the Next 30 to 40 Years’ → lloyd Lisco
Hillary is flipping out, Danny Williams Bill Clintons Black son by an Arkansas prostitute is making himself known to the Obsolete Main Stream Media and to the Legitimate news media on the internet. Hillary has lost control of this latest scandal. braindiseasecalledliberalism
She’s been brain dead for years – now her body is simply playing catch-up!
Most believe that a potted plant would have a better handle on running this country than the aspiring devil-in-chief! islamroastschildren
A new close-up discloses a gash on her right cheek….of her face…..possibly from a fall. lloyd Lisco
This Evil woman is Dying, She is Hooked on and is using so many Dangerous drugs to keep going, She cannot last much longer. In addition to the Coke and Alcohol she consumes she is taking Modafinil, A very powerful form of Speed, She is taking Ativan, Avonex, Eliquis, Warfarin, Moxatag, Tegretol, Reteplase and a long list of other less powerful drugs. This combination of super powerful drugs would kill a horse. This woman is not capable of running this Country, Her supporters want to see her in charge so that they can continue all the rackets they are using to rob the American people. At Hillary’s death she would be replaced by a body double or a clone, An occasional photo would fool the public along with the MSM scripted lies, So that the racketeers could continue stripping America. That is their plan, Hillary must be defeated. islamroastschildren
Sounds like she can be replaced by an automated PHARMACY. She can’t DIE fast enough to satisfy. westerling
Hillary needs to make one last step by entering a Mental instutition and forget the election! altogether
The real truth of Hillary’s medical condition, lies in the eyes of the beholders, such as her current Secret Service handlers, whom could impart a more truthful account of which the MSM is attempting to hide. If this latest episode of HRC’s pooor medical conditon transpired only yesterday, imagine how her condition will appear between now and November 8, 2016. I can only imagine that she will not be campaigning too often between now and then, not after this most recent attach of Parkinson’s disease. Jonathan Brooks
I think Hitlery needs to drop the pretence, and use a wheelchair and supplementary oxygen, since her flying demoncrat monkeys will steal the election with Soros backed vote fraud, and dead and illegal alien votes.
Why does she even make the effort to appeal to the voters when she is clearly a sick evil old fraud and the Demoncrats do not care. islamroastschildren
At THIS stage of her worthless life, it can ONLY be for ‘the Fame’ because she can no longer enjoy most of the fruits of what MONEY can buy, being near DEATH’S DOOR as she is. Jonathan Brooks
I think Fame is a good pick, but also revenge, because Hill will take out as many of her enemies before Death’s dark Design ends her reign of Evil
I have noticed that you have used the English word, “DROP,” therefore, to solve the current conundrum involving this worthless effn Com- munist, Hillary Rotten Clinton, she needs to “DROP” dead. Jonathan Brooks
Remove the mask, maybe? I do not want Hillary dead, but hiding in Dubaii, avoiding extradition, and praying to Allah or Lucifer that all her backers do not hunt her down for taking money and not paying off. Jonathan Brooks
I want Hillary to feel the embarrassment more than suffering.. Subscribe TODAY and Never Miss Another D.C. Clothesline Article Email Address | 1real |
Tillerson says NATO mutual defense guarantee is inviolable | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The NATO alliance’s mutual defense guarantee, Article 5, is inviolable, U.S. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday in response to a question during his Senate confirmation hearing. | 0fake |
Number of Refugees Admitted into U.S. Increased by Nineteen Percent in May, Slightly Fewer Are Muslim - Breitbart | The number of refugees admitted into the United States increased 19 percent in the month of May to 3, 969, which was 653 more than the 3, 316 admitted in April, according to the Department of State’s interactive website. [Slightly fewer of these refugees were Muslim. One thousand one hundred and ten Muslims were admitted to the United States as refugees in May, 19 fewer than the 1, 129 admitted as refugees in April. Muslims as a percentage of all refugees admitted declined from 34 percent in April to 28 percent in May. During the 4 months and 11 days of the Trump administration, 38 percent, or 6, 243 out of 16, 261 total refugees admitted, were Muslim. During FY 2016, the last full year of the Obama administration, 45 percent, or 38, 555 out of 89, 994 total refugees admitted, were Muslim. The percentage of all refugees admitted from the seven Middle Eastern countries whose residents were temporarily banned from obtaining travel visas to the United States under President Trump’s first travel ban executive order (EO 13769) has declined slightly from 43 percent (36, 722 out of 84, 994 total refugees) in FY 2016 to 38 percent (6, 181 out of 16, 261 total refugees) during the first 4 months and 11 days of the Trump administration. (Those seven countries were Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.) Most of the decline in refugees from these seven countries is due to a significant drop off in Syrian refugees, from 14. 8 percent of total refugees in FY 2016 (12, 587 out of 84, 994) to 9. 8 percent (1, 603 out of 16, 261) in the first four months and 11 days of the Trump administration. That drop off in Syrian refugees is accelerating in each successive month of the Trump administration. “The number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States under the federal refugee resettlement program has declined for the fourth consecutive month,” Breitbart News reported earlier this week. In February, the first full month of the Trump administration, 673 Syrian refugees were admitted into the country. In March, that number fell to 282. The decline continued into April, when 226 were admitted and the number admitted so far in May has declined further to 156. All told, since January 21, President Trump’s first full day in office, a total of 1, 603 Syrian refugees have been admitted into the United States, according to the State Department’s interactive website. News of the increase in total refugees in May, a fact not changed by the decline in Syrian refugees, appears to confirm the report last week in the New York Times that officials in the State Department have told the voluntary agencies that the number of refugees admitted to the United States will nearly double from the rate of 830 per week to about 1, 500 per week for the last four months of FY 2017. The Times report was further confirmed by The Huffington Post, which reported on Monday that “The United States appears to be resuming its longstanding efforts to resettle refugees after the program was derailed and almost completely upended abroad for several months. ” U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “has begun to expand its interview schedule in the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year,” public affairs officer Marilu Cabrera told HuffPost in a statement on Friday. The Department of Homeland Security is working with the State Department to plan for a “further expansion” through the end of fiscal year 2017, she added. The upsurge in refugees has perplexed critics of the federal refugee resettlement program, most of whom strongly supported Trump during the presidential campaign on the basis of his campaign promises to suspend the Syrian refugee program and tighten refugee vetting procedures. “[I]t does appear that the resettlement contractors are getting excited that it will flow with gusto soon since they are rehiring staff they let go shortly after Trump put out his first Executive Order,” Ann Corcoran wrote at Refugee Resettlement Watch on Wednesday. “The Republicans in Congress funded the US Refugee Admissions Program [in the budget passed in May for the balance of FY 2017] at a level for 75, 000 refugees to be admitted by September 30th (the last day of this fiscal year) and Trump signed it! . . . [T]he President has the power to set the ceiling in “consultation” with Congress. If Trump wanted to take them on he could ask for a rescission of those funds to admit the numbers he wants — which he said would be under 50, 000!” Corcoran continued. “Every day that the White House is silent on the stunning news we heard last week says to me that the White House agrees with the 75, 000 admissions this year,” she said: Why do the Republicans in Congress want to keep the pipeline going? It is because most of them work for their big business donors and the Chamber of Commerce to guarantee a steady supply of cheap immigrant labor! Adding insult to injury, your tax dollars support refugee families through the welfare system because wages are too low! You pay for the importation of the labor and for the laborers’ support once here! It is really quite a difficult obstacle for us (who wish to see the USRAP reformed) to overcome — big businesses and global corporations pushing cheap labor in conjunction with ‘religious’ charities (paid by taxpayers!) claiming this is all about humanitarianism while essentially acting as ‘head hunters’ for big business. As Breitbart News reported previously, “It is unclear if the State Department made this upward adjustment with the knowledge and approval of President Trump. ” One possible explanation is that Obama holdovers in the State Department and at USCIS at DHS, in combination with a recent State Department appointee who was, prior to the election, a Trump critic, have joined forces to undermine Trump’s refugee policies. In March, for instance, the Daily Caller reported that “Brian Hook, a Trump critic and former Bush administration official, is currently serving as the State Department’s director of policy planning. ” Foreign Policy magazine previously reported that Hook was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s favorite for the role and a department spokeswoman confirmed to TheDC Thursday that Hook got the job. The director of policy planning is a key position responsible for running the department’s internal think tank, which is home to the secretary of state’s speechwriters. Hook previously served in the Bush administration in several roles, including as assistant secretary of state for international organizations, and later served as a foreign policy adviser for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. The State Department official also the John Hay Initiative, a neoconservative group that organized a letter of over 100 Republican foreign policy experts who would refuse to back Trump. Eliot Cohen, another of the John Hay Initiative, has been a strong critic of the Trump administration. It is unclear, however, what, if any, influence Hook has had on the recent changes in the State Department’s Refugee Admissions Program policies. | 0fake |
TOM HANKS TO JOIN Hollywood Liberals In Facebook Live Fundraiser For Fight Against Trump Agenda | Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Amy Poehler are among the notables set to appear on a telethon to benefit the ACLU that will stream March 31 via Facebook Live. Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU is billed as a modern-day telethon to raise funds for the venerable advocacy organization that has been working overtime with legal challenges to aspects of President Trump s political agenda. Our work in the courts is essential right now to hold off the worst of the abuses, said ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero. But it is also the collective will and tireless actions of we the people that serve as a bulwark against unconstitutional and wrong-headed policies and executive orders. By supporting our work through this telethon, we can fight even harder to defend the rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Here s a little Facebook promo for the event:More talent is expected to sign on in the coming days. NYP | 1real |
KELLOGG’S PULLS ADVERTISING From Breitbart News As Punishment For Conservative News Slant…#BoycottKelloggs | Kellogg Co. is pulling its ads from the website Breitbart News, the right-wing news organization whose former chairman Steve Bannon was tapped as a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump.Brands that advertise on Breitbart have drawn flak in recent weeks, with activists saying the website espouses racist and anti-Semitic views. A screen shot showing an advertisement for Kellogg s Frosted Mini Wheats was part of an online campaign to get marketers to abandon the site. We regularly work with our media-buying partners to ensure our ads do not appear on sites that aren t aligned with our values as a company, said Kris Charles, a spokeswoman for Kellogg, which also makes Frosted Flakes and Special K cereal. We recently reviewed the list of sites where our ads can be placed and decided to discontinue advertising on Breitbart.com. We are working to remove our ads from that site. AppNexus Inc., one of the biggest digital advertising services, barred Breitbart from using its ad-serving tools earlier this month because it felt the publisher violated its hate-speech rules.AppNexus scrutinized Breitbart s website after Bannon was given the White House post. The digital ad firm decided the publication had breached a policy against content that incites violence, according to a spokesman for the company. Kellogg declined to name the third-party company that places its digital ads.Kellogg is the latest major brand to pull its online advertising from the news site. Other companies including Allstate, Nest, EarthLink, Warby Parker and SoFi have also blacklisted Breitbart from showing their ads, according to Digiday.The site had 19.2 million unique monthly U.S. visitors in October, up from 12.9 million a year ago, according to ComScore Inc. Breitbart doesn t rely on subscriptions, suggesting that advertising is a major source of revenue.Many marketers buy online advertising through third-party tech companies that distribute them widely across the internet, so they may not be aware of all the websites where they appear. But they also have the ability to control which websites display their ads. The creator of the Twitter account Sleeping Giants has been taking screen shots of ads appearing on Breitbart in an attempt to pressure those brands to take their ads down.Not all brands are shying away from advertising on Breitbart, though. After a screenshot showed a Nissan ad on the website, the automaker said in a statement that it places ads in a variety of sites in order to reach as many consumers as possible. The placement of Nissan advertising is not intended to be a political commentary and there are no plans to change the advertising mix at this time, the company said. Bloomberg | 1real |
WSJ: MILO’s Campus Tour Stirs Free-Speech Debate - Breitbart | From Douglas Belkin writing at the Wall Street Journal:[The tour by Milo Yiannopoulos is sparking reaction from more groups than any recent speaker has on college campuses, heightening tensions between free speech and public safety. “This is broader than anything we’ve seen in the past” few years, said Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for the University of California, Berkeley, where Mr. Yiannopoulos is set to speak Wednesday. Mr. Yiannopoulos, a writer for the Breitbart News Network, has been riling college campuses across the country since last year, when several private schools canceled his engagements, citing security concerns. Protests center on Mr. Yiannopoulos’s attacks on feminist and gay leaders and the Black Lives Matter movement. His university supporters say Mr. Yiannopoulos, who is gay and grew up in Britain, adds a perspective to a debate at universities that is dominated by the left. Read the rest of the story at the Wall Street Journal. | 0fake |
Russia to close down Syria communications line with Pentagon: Interfax | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Defence Ministry notified the Pentagon it would close down at 2100 GMT the communications line used to avoid accidental clashes in Syria, Interfax new agency said, citing the ministry spokesman. | 0fake |
Singer Joy Villa Sees Sales Spike after ’MAGA’ Grammys Dress | Singer Joy Villa’s album sales spiked significantly after the ’s Trump Grammys dress set social media on fire Sunday. [Villa walked the red carpet wearing a dress decorated with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Hours after unveiling the gown, digital sales for Villa’s album, I Make the Static, climbed to the top spot on Amazon’s list of top 100 digital albums. The 2014 rock album’s sales also spiked, hitting the number seven spot on the iTunes top albums list, Fox News reports. According to the screenshot she shared, the singer’s album was beating albums by more artists like Big Sean and Lady Gaga, the latter of whom performed during Sunday night’s ceremony. As of 9 a. m. Pacific Time on Monday, Villa’s album was at the #11 spot on the iTunes charts, while Lady Gaga’s The Fame was at #33 and Beyoncé’s Album of the Lemonade was at #90. Blown away and overwhelmed by the positive feedback, Villa thanked her “amazing fans and supporters,” which she said had left her “speechless. ” “I’m speechless … you, my amazing fans and supporters have put me to #16 on the iTunes Top Albums Charts! ,” the singer wrote on Instagram. 🎶I’m speechless … you, my amazing fans and supporters have put me to #16 on the iTunes Top Albums Charts! 😯😱🎶#imakethestatic #itunestopalbum #itunescharts #joyvilla #joyvillagrammys #maga #godblessamerica @mwprinc @thorstenovergaard @officialandresoriano @itunes @realdonaldtrump, A photo posted by Joy Villa (@joyvilla) on Feb 12, 2017 at 11:32pm PST, Villa said she wanted to make a statement and “go boldly and give no effs. ” The singer’s message was apparently though not everyone liked it. From calls for her death to degrading insults, the “tolerant” left smeared Villa for daring to express a political view not in accordance with their own. Last year, teenage classical singer Jackie Evancho saw sales of her albums skyrocket following news that she was to perform the National Anthem at Trump’s inauguration. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 0fake |
BREAKING NEWS: NYPD Cracking Down On Anti-Trump Terror Groups…WATCH Police ARREST Antifa Terrorists For Wearing Masks, Burning Flags [VIDEO] | Antifa terrorists have gathered in major cities across the world today to protest in solidarity against capitalism and free speech. In Paris, police officers were just lit on fire after being hit with petrol bombs by Antifa terrrorists. In LA, Antifa protesters were outnumbered by Trump supporters who showed up to rally on behalf of our president. In DC, Antifa thugs disrupted the streets with threats of violence. https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/859159780233015297Paris is like a war-zone!France needs #LEPEN @TEN_GOPBREAKING: Paris is in total chaos again, looks like a war zone. #MayDay2017 IS CHAOSpic.twitter.com/J35tuhUZ20 @THETRUMPBUREAU (@THETRUMPBUREAU) May 1, 2017In New York City, police are doing their best to get the situation under control while Antifa terrorists ignore their commands: #MayDay2017 protesters (ANTIFA) are disobeying lawful commands by the NYPD. They are being arrested en masse. pic.twitter.com/h51va4sOdm Based Monitored (@BasedMonitored) May 1, 2017NYPD officers are demanding that cowardly Antifa terrorists unmask themselves or face being arrested:The NYPD is telling ANTIFA to unmask themselves or be subject to arrest. #MayDay2017 pic.twitter.com/iwn5smNpWq Based Monitored (@BasedMonitored) May 1, 2017More arrests were taking place on the streets of NYC after Antifa and communist protesters were unlawfully disrupting the safe flow of traffic . They were warned by the police on a loudspeaker, but continued to block pedestrians from moving safely along the sidewalk. This is potentially a very dangerous and threatening situation for visitors to NYC and residents trying to get to and from work in the city.https://twitter.com/Pamela_Moore13/status/859165166092656642NYPD show these Antifa terrorists they re not messing around in this video, as they arrest an Antifa coward burning an American flag. The Antifa terror group becomes angered after the arrest and start to close in on the officers. The police handle the situation perfectly and should be commended for addressing these terrorists in such a professional manner. OOPS! It looks like someone s going to be getting a little break from their parent s basement tonight: https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/859177599435776000 | 1real |
How WiFi & Other EMFs Cause Biological Harm | How WiFi & Other EMFs Cause Biological Harm Professor Martin Pall, PhD – professor of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Science at Washington State... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/10/how-wifi-other-emfs-cause-biological.html Professor Martin Pall, PhD – professor of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Science at Washington State University, Pullman, says that WiFi & other EMFs can cause biological harm. In 2014 he said “I think this is going to be one of the major issues in the next few years. Most people are not aware of this, and the people who are mostly know the old data and there’s a lot of new stuff on this that’s extremely, extremely important”. According to some governments, it is not possible for microwaves from mobile phones, WiFi, ‘smart’ meters , etc. to cause harm, that research in the field is inconsistent and that there is no proof that such radiation can cause health issues. But Prof Pall who is an eminent physicist, geneticist and cell biologist, says they are wrong on all counts.In this video (below), Pall argues that research results showing harm are not “inconsistent” as is sometimes claimed, and that the health of the public now urgently needs to be protected. Pall’s extensive research over recent decades (some of his peer-reviewed studies on this subject are listed in the final two minutes of this presentation) shows that: Microwaves damage humans at levels far below present radiation limits, through mechanisms at the cellular level These biological mechanisms can – completely or partially – be behind growing “unexplained illnesses” like sudden cardiac death, ME, weakened immune system, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress, and increased DNA breakage, etc. The effects can in principle affect all multicellular animals, and is proven, for example, in mussels You need neither New Age, tendentious science or conspiracy theories to justify this. The conclusion to be drawn from Pall’s findings is that we face a new and increasingly present environmental pollutant. Some have called it the “21st century environmental bomb”, with implications for the environment, human health, construction of mobile towers, computers in schools, and handling of individuals presenting with symptoms of EHS. Martin Pall, prof. Em. at Washington State University, has an impressive body of work. His first article on EMFs and their role in VGCC activation earned a place in the “Global Medical Discovery” list of the most important articles in medicine in 2013. The video is footage from Arne Naess seminar 18th October 2014 Oslo: Source & reference: Yournewswire.com ; Video by Stop Smart Meters! (UK) | 1real |
Purchasing Loyalty with Foreign Aid | Purchasing Loyalty with Foreign Aid By Jacob G. Hornberger
FFF " - A dispute that is taking place between Saudi Arabia and Egypt indirectly demonstrates the nature of U.S. foreign aid. After dumping a walloping $25 billion in foreign aid to help the Egyptian military dictatorships economic woes, the Saudis are hopping mad.
Why?
Because last month in the United Nations, contrary to Saudi Arabias wishes, Egypt voted in favor of a Russian resolution on Syria.
In the world of foreign aid, thats a super no-no. When a regime has received $25 billion from another regime, it is expected to vote the way its benefactor wants it to vote.
In a remarkable admission regarding foreign aid, at least in this particular case, the New York Times , in an article on the matter, wrote, The Saudis may have thought they were buying loyalty . The Times article pointed out that to punish the Egyptians for their independence, The state-owned Saudi oil company, Aramco, postponed a promised shipment of 700,000 tons of discounted oil in October, and the spokesman for Egypts oil ministry said the fate of Novembers shipment remains unknown.
Although the New York Times would probably be reluctant to describe U.S. foreign aid in the same way, thats precisely what it is a way to purchase loyalty from foreign regimes, including dictatorships. The U.S. government loves to put foreign regimes on the federal dole because once that happens, U.S. officials know that they have bought them, lock, stock, and barrel. Once a regime is on the dole, it inevitably becomes dependent on it.
The racket works like this: The IRS collects money from hard-pressed U.S. taxpayers, which U.S. officials use to send millions of dollars in foreign aid to foreign regimes.
The foreign regimes then use the money to buy weaponry to fortify their hold on power or to just to line the pockets of government officials.
It doesnt matter to U.S. officials what the tyrants do to people within their country. They can abuse them, incarcerate them, torture them, or kill them. None of that matters to U.S. officials.
What matters to U.S. officials is the international arena. Like votes in the UN. Or public support for U.S. invasions, coups, interventions, assassinations, kidnappings, and the like. Or joining coalitions of the willing. Thats when U.S. officials expect loyalty, in the form of blind support, which was what Saudi Arabia was expecting from the Egyptian tyrants.
And heaven help any nation that takes the wrong position. The U.S. will respond in the same way the Saudis have responded to the Egyptians. It will threaten to do very bad things to the nation that opposes a U.S invasion, coup, or resolution within the UN. When a nation is on the U.S. dole, U.S. officials expect loyalty.
Americans cant do anything about foreign aid by the Saudi government. But they can do something about U.S. foreign aid. What they should do is demand that it be ended, immediately.
Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. | 1real |
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