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BREAKING! INVESTIGATION: Hillary Clinton Did NOT Comply With Records Rules | Was Hillary Clinton negligent or was she doing this on purpose? Either way, it s a really bad situation and gives more fodder for the Trump campaign. Keep at it!The State Department inspector general concluded that Hillary Clinton did not comply with the agency s policies on records, according to a report released to lawmakers on Wednesday that also revealed that Clinton and her top aides chose not to cooperate with the review.The agency on Wednesday released the long-awaited report to Capitol Hill, copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, providing just the latest turn in the headache-inducing saga that has dogged Clinton s campaign.While the report concludes that the agency suffers from longstanding, systemic weaknesses with records that go well beyond the tenure of any one Secretary of State, it specifically dings Clinton for her exclusive use of private email.The watchdog s findings could exact further damage to Clinton s campaign, and they provide fresh fodder for Trump, who has already said he will go after Clinton for the email scandal bigly. The Democratic frontrunner s bid for the White House has already been hindered by high unfavorability ratings, with people saying they don t trust her. The report represents the latest pushback in this case by a nonpartisan government entity against her campaign s claim that she did not break any rules and that her use of a private server was completely allowed. The report also details how some technology staff said they were instructed to not talk of Clinton s email set-up after they raised concerns about the unusual arrangement. It also includes conflicting information about whether the private email server had been approved by the State Department s legal staff. Read more: POLITICO | 1real |
Mexican senator to propose anti-Trump expropriation law | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican senator is proposing legislation to empower the government to retaliate if a U.S. administration led by Donald Trump inflicts expropriations or economic losses on his country to make it pay for a border wall. Republican presidential nominee Trump has vowed to have Mexico fund the planned wall to keep out illegal immigrants if he is elected, and threatened to fund it by blocking remittances sent home by Mexicans living in the United States. Armando Rios Piter, an opposition senator for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), will next week present the initiative he hopes will protect Mexicans, and highlight the risks of targeting them economically. The plan offers a taste of the kind of tit-for-tat measures that could gain traction between the two heavily-integrated economies if Trump wins the presidency at the Nov. 8 election. In a preliminary summary of the proposal, which also foresees giving the Senate the power to disavow international treaties when the interests of Mexico or its companies are threatened by other signatories, it states: “In cases where the property/assets of (our) fellow citizens or companies are affected by a foreign government, as Donald Trump has threatened, the Mexican government should proportionally expropriate assets and properties of foreigners from that country on our territory.” Total remittances to Mexico from abroad - most of which come from the United States - were worth nearly $25 billion last year, according to the central bank. Bilateral trade between the two nations is worth about half a trillion dollars a year. Trump has also threatened to tear up a trade deal with Mexico if it is not recast in the United States’ favor. He met President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City this week, sparking fierce criticism in Mexico of the government for hosting him. Afterwards, Trump repeated his pledge to make Mexico foot the bill for the wall. Mexico says it will not pay. It is yet to be established how such expropriations could work, nor is it clear what chance the bill could have of passing. The PRD and other leftist parties hold less than a quarter of the 128 seats in Mexico’s Senate. Rios Piter said his aim was to counter threats by Trump to target Mexicans in the United States and to stress that the economic welfare of both nations is at stake. “At a time like this, it’s vital for us to understand why this relationship benefits both. We’re neighbors, we’re friends, we’re partners,” he said. “He’s putting (that) at risk.” The initiative also seeks to protect Mexico against unilateral changes to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump has threatened to ditch. | 0fake |
U.S. suspends Obama airline transparency review | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Friday it is suspending action on an Obama administration decision in October to probe a long-time practice by some airlines of preventing various travel websites from showing their fares and whether to require transparency in airline baggage and other fees. The U.S. Transportation Department said in a notice Friday it is suspending a public comment period on the review of the practices to “allow the president’s appointees the opportunity to review and consider this action.” Airlines generated $3.8 billion in baggage fees in 2015 and the Obama administration said in October it was formally exploring requiring airlines and ticket agents to provide consumers with prices that include service fees for baggage and other services alongside fares at points of sale. Separately, the Trump administration is also extending the compliance date for a new regulation requiring reporting of data for mishandled baggage and wheelchairs in aircraft cargo compartments for one year - until Jan. 1, 2019. Airlines for America, the industry trade group representing American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O), United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL.N), Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) and others, praised the decision. “Today’s action is a common sense measure reinforcing that the airline industry is capable of making the decisions that best serve our customers, our employees and the communities we serve,” the airlines’ group chief executive Nicholas Calio said in a statement. The group added the “airline industry operates under 13,000 regulations across 13 agencies, many of which are outdated, obsolete and in need of reform.” President Donald Trump met with airline chief executives last month and asked them to identify regulatory hurdles preventing job growth in the industry. A study commissioned by a travel agencies’ trade group, the Travel Technology Association, in 2014 found that restricting the ability to comparison-shop would result in ticket prices increasing more than 11 percent. Airline shares rose on the news. JPMorgan said in a research note Friday that the “the protections never mattered in the first place - the financial impact of the Obama protections was largely irrelevant, in our view.” The Obama administration efforts were very modest, JPMorgan said, and did not propose limiting airlines’ ability to pursue ancillary revenue, such as an outright ban on bag fees. But JPMorgan added: “U.S. airlines appear to increasingly have the ear of a sympathetic, regulatory-averse administration.” | 0fake |
Get Ready For A Likely Market Crash After Election [Video w/ Transcript] | Leave a reply
Greg Hunter – Recently, I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Jim Sinclair and Bill Holter at JSMineset.com. They wanted to get my take on the state of journalism, or the propaganda mainstream media. They also wanted to get a read on what many of my guests have been saying over the past several months about what is coming for the economy.
I also got to turn the tables about half way through the interview (38:33) and ask questions of two of the smartest guys in the world on finance, markets and precious metals.
Interviewing Jim Sinclair and Bill Holter on anything to do with the economy is like interviewing Batman and Superman of the investment world. They have very dire views of what is going to happen in America and the world on November 9 th , the day after the Presidential election. They think we are finally going to get the “Houston we have a problem” moment and are warning that everyone should stock up and prepare for a very rough ride. Please keep in mind, this interview was conducted a few days before the FBI reopened its case on the Clinton email scandal.
Jim Sinclair and Bill Holter offer interviews like this to their JSMineset.com subscribers only. They were kind enough to allow me to post this interview for all to listen to on the USAWatchdog.com site and YouTube channel.
Join Greg Hunter as he is interviewed by Jim Sinclair and Bill Holter of JSMineset.com. SF Source USA Watchdog Nov. 2016 Share this: | 1real |
Trump’s Prospects Improve | Michael S. Rozeff https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/trumps-prospects-improve/
Trump shares have gained sharply in the IEM prediction market, rising from under 10 cents to about 29 cents. Ordinary polls also are showing the race tightening. Clinton leads, but the suddenly much higher volatility of prices means that Trump’s prospects have improved.
Trump released his contract with America 6 days ago. The biased media ignored it.
The failures of Obamacare made headlines coincident with Trump’s shares rising.
Donna Brazile’s passing debate questions to Clinton is also coincident with Clinton falling and Trump rising.
The continuous Wikileaks revelations about Clinton are also coincident with the Trump comeback. My guess is that a good many voters who (naively) respect the integrity of the FBI are dismayed as they learn how Clinton interfered with the investigation and how the FBI was corrupted. (These are voters, and there are many, who think J. Edgar Hoover is a hero and who have never heard of entrapment.) Others are bound to be affected by the huge sums of money handed over to the Clintons where quid pro quos are evident. Charitable giving cannot explain these transfers. Yet others who support the Second Amendment are being solidified against Clinton by revelations that she intends to use executive orders to get her way.
Clinton and Trump have taken opposite positions on the integrity of America’s voting methods. Trump’s position has been helped by recent complaints of machines that switched votes from one candidate to the opposition. Clinton’s position has been hurt by (a) her own manipulations during the Democratic primaries, and (b) her attempts to link Trump’s position with the bogeyman Russians.
Furthermore, Clinton accused him of treason when she said “We also know from the former head of our Counterterrorism Center, Matt Olsen, that the kinds of rhetoric and language that Mr. Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries.” Her extremism in this charge signals her fear of Trump’s challenge. It could only cause Trump supporters to close ranks behind him and assure greater voter turnout for him.
Clinton’s many baseless charges and wild exaggerations show yet again her fondness for character assassination and attacks on anyone she perceives as an obstacle to her ambitions. 11:52 am on October 28, 2016 | 1real |
Resistance: Democrats Plan to Withhold Federal Taxes to Protest Trump - Breitbart | Some Democrats prepare to withhold paying federal taxes in potentially the biggest tax boycott since the Vietnam War, according to a report from The Guardian. [The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) which campaigns for federal tax boycotts, says there has “renewed interest in war tax resistance following Trump’s inauguration,” with the website’s traffic doubling in the past month. “Something has clicked in the minds of thousands of people across the country … we don’t want to pay for Trump’s agenda! While many of the reasons people are fed up — extreme militarism, mass incarceration, police brutality, and mass deportations — are part of the foundation of our country, it is exciting to see many new people contacting NWTRCC and wanting to organize in their communities,” the website reads. The boycott has also attracted the interest of celebrities, with Mia Farrow saying “I refuse to pay a penny of my taxes toward Trump’s insane, insulting wall. ” Feminist activist Gloria Steinhem also pledges her support, telling The Guardian that she will deduct from her tax return money she believes should be going to Planned Parenthood. I refuse to pay a penny of my taxes toward Trump’s insane, insulting wall. #IstandwithMexico, — Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) January 26, 2017, In December, Time magazine published a column entitled “65 Million Americans Should Threaten to Not Pay Taxes,” urging the “approximately 65 million Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton [to] pledge that in the future if a Republican wins the presidency with fewer votes than a Democrat for the third time in our era, we won’t pay taxes to the federal government. ” California Democrats have already threatened to “cut off the feds” by withholding taxes, with former State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown claiming the state could become “an organized ” in a state of “ with the federal tax code. ” Before the election, dozens of celebrities promised to effectively boycott America by leaving the country should Donald Trump be elected. The list included singers Barbara Streisand and Miley Cyrus, the actor Bryan Cranston and the comedienne Amy Schumer. Since his election, none of their plans have materialized. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 0fake |
On The Fault Lines of Change: Globalization-v-Localization | By Julian Rose Virtually everything that conventional wisdom teaches about ‘economics’ is undergoing changes of an almost seismic nature at this time. Albeit mostly beneath... | 1real |
Court ruling favors Ghana in ocean border dispute with Ivory Coast | DAKAR/ACCRA (Reuters) - The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Saturday drew an ocean boundary favoring Ghana in a dispute with its neighbor Ivory Coast, opening the way for development drilling to resume on Ghana s multi-billion dollar TEN deepwater oil and gas project. The decade-old row between the two West African neighbors has slowed the development of oil fields and at times soured relations between the two oil producers, who also together grow 60 percent of the world s cocoa. The Special Chamber unanimously finds that Ghana did not violate the sovereign rights of C te d Ivoire, said Judge Boualem Bouguetaia, President of the Special Chamber. An official at the court said that the boundary delineated by the tribunal did not correspond with the claim of either party. However, the angle appeared to be very close to the line claimed by Ghana and politicians welcomed the news. The judgment is very consistent with Ghana s position all along and so we are thankful to God, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia said on local television on Saturday, describing the dispute as friendly and brotherly . Ivorian officials were not immediately available to comment. ...We can now restart work on the additional drilling planned as part of the TEN fields plan of development and take the fields toward their full potential, said Paul McDade, chief executive of London-listed oil company Tullow Oil, the lead operator of the project. Tullow said in a statement it now expected to resume drilling around the end of the year, which would allow production to start to increase toward the full capacity of the floating production, storage and offloading vessel of 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) from around 50,000 bpd currently. Kosmos Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and PetroSA also have stakes in the TEN project. The ruling, while expected since Ghana s claim was based on the customary equidistant line, comes as a huge relief for Ghana which is counting on oil revenues to boost its economic growth back to the levels hit before a 2014 fiscal crisis. Ivory Coast had been seeking compensation for oil field developments in the area but the tribunal rejected this claim. Analysts had predicted that a loss for Ghana would have resulted in complicated contract renegotiations and loss of significant revenue that could worsen the economy, dogged by high public debt. Tullow has said it has already invested around $4 billion in the TEN project. Ghana, also Africa s second largest gold producer, discovered oil in 2007, prompting its western neighbor which had been pumping oil for decades to revive a claim to some of its territorial waters. Several rounds of talks failed to result in a deal on the border which, like many other African sea borders, had until now never officially been set. | 0fake |
Trump says healthcare reform push may need additional money | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the Republican push to repeal Obamacare may require additional money for healthcare, but he did not specify how much more funding would be needed or how it might be used. Trump told Republican Senators joining him for lunch at the White House that their planned healthcare reform bill would need to be “generous” and “kind.” “That may be adding additional money into it,” Trump said, without offering further details. | 0fake |
null | He has quite a history , he sold the derivatives in Australia and is another homosexual as are most of the media and those in power , the woman who works with him in charge of police and law was ran the MK ULTRA ,ufrtd in Chelmsford hospitals . tHERE IS A GREAT BOOK ABOUT IT ALL FROM UNDERCOVER called sex collectors by Greg Hallet , they chased him out of NZ tried to kill him lots of times . He sats there is a huge pedo ring there in Gov . I am beginning to think Cathy Obrien would shakethe life out of Clintons she must have been telling the truth , it all fits http://www.stewwebb.com/2016/05/25/hillary-clinton-lesbian-demon-pedophile-child-rapist/ I think Stew wev might be a truth teller too he was onto this a long time ago and he has taken court action and some of the x agents that come on sound vey credible . If Trump apeared with Cathy i think Clintns would have a melt down her book is very detailed , names everyone and where in great detail including Tredeau .Duff is a UN scam , the UN is very involved in everything , The foundation that Gillard is noww running for girls /is very suspect , she transfered 300 million into it and she is also another gay commo and i haver talked to her class mates who knew her well , they sure had some stories much like Clinton . She was in charge of the Communist party claimed she was trained by the CIA. make no mistake she will be involved . | 1real |
IRAN HANGS “SPY” FOR THE U.S.: Did Hacked Hillary E-mails Expose Iranian Just Put To Death? | THIS $400 MILLION PAYMENT TO IRAN ISN T STARTING OFF TOO WELL Shahram Amiri Iranian nuclear scientist fed info to U.S .Hillary s emails exposed him: | 1real |
Mike Pence says “shalom” to Israel’s Republicans | Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Security Question: What is 5 + 13 ? Please leave these two fields as-is: IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-) Doom and Bloom | 1real |
Trump will send envoys to Middle East to discuss peace: official | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and negotiator Jason Greenblatt to the Middle East soon to meet regional leaders and discuss a “path to substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks,” a White House official said on Friday. Deputy national security adviser Dina Powell will also be on the trip, which will include meetings with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the official said. “While the regional talks will play an important role, the president reaffirms that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties and that the United States will continue working closely with the parties to make progress towards that goal,” the official said. Kushner, who serves as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, was charged with helping to broker a deal between Israelis and Palestinians after Trump took office. The president went to Saudi Arabia and Israel during his first post-inauguration trip abroad and has expressed a personal commitment to reaching a deal that has eluded his Republican and Democratic predecessors. The timing of the trip was pegged to the recent “restoration of calm and the stabilized situation in Jerusalem” after a spate of violence last month sparked by Israel’s installation of metal detectors at entry points to the Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount compound there. Trump directed that the talks focus on a pathway to peace talks, fighting “extremism,” easing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and identifying economic steps that can be taken to ensure security and stability, the official said. “To enhance the chances for peace, all parties need to engage in creating an environment conducive to peace-making while affording the negotiators and facilitators the time and space they need to reach a deal,” the official said. | 0fake |
Comey Drops BOMBSHELL On Sessions: I Don’t Want To Be Alone With Trump (VIDEO) | The entire nation is now waiting with bated breath for fired FBI Director James Comey to testify in open session Congress in what might be the biggest political event since election night. That will not take place until Thursday, and in the meantime, bombshells keep dropping from the White House especially on the subject of just how troubled Comey was by Trump s behavior. In fact, it seems that Comey was so uneasy that he actually told Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump.The New York Times is reporting that Trump s inappropriate requests for Comey and the FBI to drop certain elements of the Russian hacking investigations made him uncomfortable enough that he went to Sessions and told him that he and his agency needed him to be a firewall of protection from investigation meddling from the West Wing of the White House. Comey, however, never told Sessions specific details of just what had him so worried when it came to Trump; after all, Sessions and Trump are notoriously close, and it is not a certainty that Sessions is completely trustworthy in these matters, either.When asked about these conversations with the now-former FBI Director, the Department of Justice only said: The attorney general doesn t believe it s appropriate to respond to media inquiries on matters that may be related to ongoing investigations. So, in other words, there s no denial here that these conversations took place. This is quite a development, considering that the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was so deeply concerned about the behavior of the nation s chief executive that he simply could not bring himself to be alone in a room with him.Trump s problematic behavior causes Obama Justice Department Official Matthew S. Axelrod to weigh in. He said: You have the president of the United States talking to the director of the F.B.I., not just about any criminal investigation, but one involving his presidential campaign. That is such a sharp departure from all the past traditions and rules of the road. Indeed, if this behavior is not illegal, it is, at the very least, wildly inappropriate and unethical. Thursday should be a goldmine of new revelations from Comey. Hopefully, said revelations get us at least a step or two closer to being rid of this Trumpster fire of an administration. Here is video reporting of these revelations, via the New York Times:Featured image via screen capture from the New York Times | 1real |
Test: ¿Qué tipo de vecino eres? | vivienda
Las comunidades de vecinos son un hervidero de gente y personalidades, cada una diferente a las demás. ¿Tú de qué tipo eres? Con este test, te ayudamos a descubrirlo.
1. Hay que pagar, entre toda la comunidad, una rampa de acceso para un vecino minusválido. ¿Qué haces?
A. Muestras tu disconformidad y alegas que no es culpa tuya que todavía no se hayan inventado las sillas de ruedas voladoras. Como alternativa, propones que sus familiares lo suban por la ventana con una cuerda. “Así subí yo el sillón y va de puta madre”, añades.
B. Accedes, a condición de que el vecino minusválido vaya a ver tu obra “Desenfrena 2”, un espectáculo que, según tú, “mezcla el clown, la improvisación y toneladas de buen rollo”. El vecino minusválido va, pero no puede entrar porque la hacéis en el sótano de un bar de La Latina.
C. No has respondido a la circular que te metieron por debajo de la puerta para comunicártelo. Como tampoco respondiste a la de hace tres meses, en la que se te informaba de que se iba a reformar el ascensor, ni a la de hace un año, en la que se te recordaba que llevas dieciocho meses sin pagar los gastos de comunidad y sin responder a ninguna circular.
D. Afirmas estar totalmente de acuerdo, pero indicas que, antes de comenzar el proyecto, te gustaría “conocer la opinión de las bases y de todos y cada uno de los españoles, esa es la única forma de avanzar hacia el cambio”. El vecino minusválido sigue esperando a día de hoy a que te decidas.
2. El resto de vecinos se ha quejado de ti, ya sea por ruidos, malos olores u otras conductas molestas. ¿Cómo actúas?
A. Dices que es imposible que hayan oído la televisión, la minicadena o el transistor, pues llevas meses sin encenderlos por no gastar. Como mucho, te oirían a las dos de la mañana destrozando a hachazos un mueble para hacer leña con él, “que la calefacción no la regalan”.
B. Les explicas que has convertido tu piso en un espacio “off” de teatro y que no puedes controlar los aplausos y los vítores del público. En realidad, los vecinos se quejan de tus sollozos y tus súplicas cuando no va ni una persona a ver tu nueva obra: “Insomnium”, un thriller psicológico de sólo 3 minutos de duración.
C. Iban a meter un escrito oficial por debajo de tu puerta para comunicártelo, pero ya no caben más cosas, hay unas 587 cartas y circulares que sigues sin leer.
D. Les reúnes a todos y, con la voz entrecortada por las lágrimas, aseguras que la situación es fruto de una conspiración de El País y otras grandes compañías.
3. La vecina de al lado está sufriendo un incendio en su piso. ¿Cuál es tu reacción?
A. Aprovechas las llamas que salen por el balcón de la mujer para descongelar unas croquetas que no habías cocinado hasta ahora “porque el aceite tampoco lo regalan”, Una vez que la vecina ha fallecido devorada por las llamas, le das el pésame a sus hijos y les pides que te abonen los 25 céntimos que un día le dejaste a la señora en el súper.
B. Llamas a los bomberos y, cuando llegan, no te separas de ellos para preparar tu nuevo papel en “Fuego en la piel”, una comedia romántica que narra la historia de amor entre un bombero y una mujer que se está quemando viva, y que estrenarás dentro de poco en el desván del Bar Pruden e Hijos.
C. Tu vecina se resigna a morir y ni siquiera trata de pedirte ayuda. Sabe que no harás absolutamente nada.
D. Medio barrio observa el suceso desde la calle, así que sales a la ventana y aprovechas para dar un discurso de media hora sobre los beneficios del mestizaje ideológico.
4. Te toca ser el nuevo presidente de la comunidad de vecinos. ¿Cómo te desenvuelves con el nuevo cargo?
A. Lo primero que preguntas es dónde está tu coche oficial y tu tarjeta black.
B. En las juntas de vecinos, ya les has interpretado tus obras “5 microsegundos con Mario”, “Los monólogos de la crisis” y “What happened to our love?”. En una semana, medio edificio ha empezado a buscar otro piso al que mudarse.
C. Los vecinos llevan esperándote 4 horas, 56 minutos y 27 segundos en la primera reunión que debías presidir. Comienzan a sospechar que no vas a asistir.
D. Diecisiete vecinos se amotinan contra ti, negándose a reconocerte como presidente de la comunidad. Entre lágrimas, acabas dimitiendo y llamas a Jordi Évole por si le interesa una entrevista sobre el tema.
Mayoría de respuestas A: Eres el vecino rata . Es ridículo que te hayamos incluido en el test porque no vas a leer esto jamás, llevas más de tres años sin encender el ordenador por no gastar electricidad.
Mayoría de respuestas B: Eres el vecino actor de microteatro , sueñas con despuntar sobre los escenarios pero, por ahora, no te llega ni para pagar el teléfono.
Mayoría de respuestas C: Eres el vecino muerto . Nadie sospechó del terrible olor que salía de tu casa desde hacía meses porque, antes de fallecer, se te conocía como el vecino guarro.
Mayoría de respuestas D: Eres Pedro Sánchez . | 1real |
China state media warn Trump against renouncing free trade deals | SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese state media warned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday against flip-flopping on trade deals in Asia, as Asia-Pacific leaders gathered for a summit amid fears that growing protectionism will stunt global economic growth. During the raucous election campaign, Trump fuelled concerns among many of the United States’ trading partners by pledging to renegotiate trade accords such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and impose tariffs on imports from countries such as China. “Turning his trade-bashing campaign talks into actual policies could bash any hope that the Asia-Pacific will finally have its much-wanted free trade deal,” said a commentary in the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday. “Worse, it could drag his country and the wider world into deeper economic distress,” added the agency, which is a barometer of government thinking. Xinhua also said that the exclusion of China from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement was not about boosting trade and instead was U.S. President Barack Obama’s strategy to make sure Washington “rules supreme in the region.” Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Pacific Rim leaders are meeting at the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Peru this weekend. Though Obama championed the TPP as a way to counter China’s rise, his administration has now stopped trying to win congressional approval for the deal that was signed by 12 economies in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, but excluded China. Without U.S. approval the agreement as currently negotiated cannot come to fruition. China’s Xi is selling an alternate vision for regional trade by promoting the Beijing-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which as it stands excludes the Americas. Chinese state media has warned Trump against isolationism and interventionism, calling instead for the United States to actively work with China to maintain the international status quo. “The billionaire-turned-politician needs to prove that derailing the global economy has not been one of the reasons why he ran for U.S. president,” Xinhua said. | 0fake |
Uniting Against Bill O’Reilly, Women Share Stories of Workplace Harassment - The New York Times | An inappropriate touch. An insulting dismissal. A sexual ultimatum. A suggestion that a job is not fit for a woman. Droves of women have shared their own experiences with workplace sexual harassment on social media this week, spurred by claims against Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News host. The revelation that five women received settlements totaling $13 million after accusing him of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior has prompted more than 20 companies to pull advertising from his show, while others have called for his dismissal. The outpouring came six months after thousands of women posted accounts of being groped or assaulted in the wake of Donald J. Trump’s boasts on tape that he had forced himself on women. In each case, social media offered an outlet for women who said they had either been too afraid or too ashamed to describe their experiences publicly, or to report them in their workplaces for fear of retaliation. As reports circulated about the O’Reilly case, a hashtag, #droporeilly, was born, and it soon morphed into a meeting place for women to describe the professional mistreatment they said they had endured. One of those women, Kerri McKeand, 40, a paralegal from Chicago, offered her experience of working as an assistant to a project manager on the construction of Trump Tower in Chicago, about 10 years ago. When she was required to visit a construction site, she and a female colleague were asked to appear less feminine by taping down their breasts, not wearing makeup and hiding their hair with bandannas, she said in an interview on Wednesday. Ms. McKeand refused to comply with the restrictions, she said. During that visit, while on an elevator with men, she was sexually harassed, and a pornographic magazine was tossed at her feet, she said. She reported it to her boss who, according to Ms. McKeand, said, “I told you this would happen. ” It was clear that “nothing would be done about it,” she added. “It was just kind of this accepted culture in this industry. ” She said that those experiences had led her away from the construction field. Becoming a project manager seemed like the highest position a woman could attain, she said. Many other women shared similar experiences. Ms. McKeand said she was heartened by women’s willingness to share their stories on social media. “Silence is pervasive, and I think the more silent we are about it, the more it will continue,” she said. “It’s especially important for younger women to know that these things exist and to know what they can do when they are faced with these situations. ” “I had no idea when I was younger of what sexual harassment was, what my rights were,” she added, citing an incident when she was 17, when her boss made her sit on his lap. “So hopefully this dialogue puts that in the forefront, so women can go into the work force having an idea of what’s acceptable and what’s not. ” | 0fake |
Trump tweet not meant to confirm he is under investigation: source | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump was not confirming an investigation of him for firing FBI director James Comey in his comment on Twitter on Friday but was referring to a report in The Washington Post, a source close to Trump’s outside counsel said. “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” Trump said in a note on Twitter on Friday. The message was widely read as confirming a probe of Trump by the special counsel investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. But the source close to Trump’s outside counsel said on condition of anonymity that the president was not confirming the investigation but was referring to a Washington Post story on Wednesday based on anonymous sources. | 0fake |
Julian Assange: Why We Published What We Have on the US Elections | By Julian Assange / counterpunch.org
In recent months, WikiLeaks and I personally have come under enormous pressure to stop publishing what the Clinton campaign says about itself to itself. That pressure has come from the campaign’s allies, including the Obama administration, and from liberals who are anxious about who will be elected US President.
On the eve of the election, it is important to restate why we have published what we have.
The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks – an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself. Our organization defends the public’s right to be informed.
This is why, irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, the real victor is the US public which is better informed as a result of our work.
The US public has thoroughly engaged with WikiLeaks’ election related publications which number more than one hundred thousand documents. Millions of Americans have pored over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us. It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment.
We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish. We had information that fit our editorial criteria which related to the Sanders and Clinton campaign (DNC Leaks) and the Clinton political campaign and Foundation (Podesta Emails). No-one disputes the public importance of these publications. It would be unconscionable for WikiLeaks to withhold such an archive from the public during an election.
At the same time, we cannot publish what we do not have. To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump’s campaign, or Jill Stein’s campaign, or Gary Johnson’s campaign or any of the other candidates that fufills our stated editorial criteria. As a result of publishing Clinton’s cables and indexing her emails we are seen as domain experts on Clinton archives. So it is natural that Clinton sources come to us.
We publish as fast as our resources will allow and as fast as the public can absorb it.
That is our commitment to ourselves, to our sources, and to the public.
This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election. The Democratic and Republican candidates have both expressed hostility towards whistleblowers. I spoke at the launch of the campaign for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, because her platform addresses the need to protect them. This is an issue that is close to my heart because of the Obama administration’s inhuman and degrading treatment of one of our alleged sources, Chelsea Manning. But WikiLeaks publications are not an attempt to get Jill Stein elected or to take revenge over Ms Manning’s treatment either.
Publishing is what we do. To withhold the publication of such information until after the election would have been to favour one of the candidates above the public’s right to know.
This is after all what happened when the New York Times withheld evidence of illegal mass surveillance of the US population for a year until after the 2004 election, denying the public a critical understanding of the incumbent president George W Bush, which probably secured his reelection. The current editor of the New York Times has distanced himself from that decision and rightly so.
The US public defends free speech more passionately, but the First Amendment only truly lives through its repeated exercise. The First Amendment explicitly prevents the executive from attempting to restrict anyone’s ability to speak and publish freely. The First Amendment does not privilege old media, with its corporate advertisers and dependencies on incumbent power factions, over WikiLeaks’ model of scientific journalism or an individual’s decision to inform their friends on social media. The First Amendment unapologetically nurtures the democratization of knowledge. With the Internet, it has reached its full potential.
Yet, some weeks ago, in a tactic reminiscent of Senator McCarthy and the red scare, Wikileaks, Green Party candidate Stein, Glenn Greenwald and Clinton’s main opponent were painted with a broad, red brush. The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists.
In the end, those who have attempted to malign our groundbreaking work over the past four months seek to inhibit public understanding perhaps because it is embarrassing to them – a reason for censorship the First Amendment cannot tolerate. Only unsuccessfully do they try to claim that our publications are inaccurate.
WikiLeaks’ decade-long pristine record for authentication remains. Our key publications this round have even been proven through the cryptographic signatures of the companies they passed through, such as Google. It is not every day you can mathematically prove that your publications are perfect but this day is one of them.
We have endured intense criticism, primarily from Clinton supporters, for our publications. Many long-term supporters have been frustrated because we have not addressed this criticism in a systematic way or responded to a number of false narratives about Wikileaks’ motivation or sources. Ultimately, however, if WL reacted to every false claim, we would have to divert resources from our primary work.
WikiLeaks, like all publishers, is ultimately accountable to its funders. Those funders are you. Our resources are entirely made up of contributions from the public and our book sales. This allows us to be principled, independent and free in a way no other influential media organization is. But it also means that we do not have the resources of CNN, MSNBC or the Clinton campaign to constantly rebuff criticism.
Yet if the press obeys considerations above informing the public, we are no longer talking about a free press, and we are no longer talking about an informed public.
Wikileaks remains committed to publishing information that informs the public, even if many, especially those in power, would prefer not to see it. WikiLeaks must publish. It must publish and be damned.
Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. His most recent book is The Wikileaks Files (Verso). 0.0 · | 1real |
Factbox: Trump U.S. Supreme Court pick could affect pending cases | (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, due to be named on Tuesday, could have an immediate impact on cases already pending before the justices. The nine-seat court has been operating with only eight justices since the death of conservative Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13, 2016, with four liberals and four conservatives. The court has ended up with 4-4 split decisions in several cases. The new justice could cast the deciding vote in some cases being considered by the justices in their term that ends in June. Here is a look at some cases in which the new justice could be pivotal. Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. A major transgender rights dispute over whether a public school district in Virginia can prevent a female-born transgender student who identifies as male from using the boys’ bathroom. Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley A religious rights case from Missouri in which a church contends the state violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom by denying it funds for a playground project due to a state ban on aid to religious organizations. Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis A significant case for business and labor on whether companies can head off costly class action lawsuits by forcing employees to give up their right to pursue work-related legal claims in court as a group. Microsoft Corp v. Baker A class action case on Microsoft Corp’s bid to fend off claims by Xbox 360 owners who contend that the videogame console has a design defect that causes game discs to be gouged. | 0fake |
The rocky history of NAFTA | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Negotiators from Canada, Mexico and the United States kicked off a second round of talks about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Friday as the countries try to fast-track a deal to modernize the treaty by early next year. Following are key moments in the history of the deal: * June 10, 1990: U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari endorse a new, comprehensive free trade pact between the two neighbors, ordering talks to begin. Canada join the talks in 1991, paving the way for three-way negotiations. The United States and Canada signed a bilateral free trade deal in 1988. * Nov. 3, 1992: Running as an independent for president in the United States, Ross Perot claims the proposed NAFTA would lead to a giant sucking sound of jobs rushing to Mexico. Bill Clinton wins the election, defeating incumbent Bush. Perot wins 19 percent of the vote to place a strong third. * Dec. 17, 1992: NAFTA is signed by outgoing Bush, Mexico s Salinas de Gortari and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, creating the world s largest free trade area. The timing was, in part, aimed at making it harder for President-elect Clinton to pursue major changes; Clinton had endorsed the deal but insisted on environmental and labor side agreements. * Jan. 1, 1994: NAFTA comes into effect, and the Maya Indian Zapatista guerrilla army in southern Mexico launches an armed rebellion against neo-liberalism and explicitly against the free trade deal. The declaration of war against the Mexican government leads to days of fighting and dozens of deaths before the rebels retreat into the jungle. * Nov. 30, 1999: Tens of thousands of anti-globalization protesters converge on the U.S. city of Seattle, leading to widespread rioting coinciding with a ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization, which was seeking to launch new international trade talks. The protests underscore growing, if scattered, opposition to free trade deals like NAFTA. * Dec. 11, 2001: China formally joins the World Trade Organization, integrating the Asian giant more deeply into the global economy. Easing trade with China intensifies a trend that had been seen since NAFTA came into effect as the U.S. trade deficit soared to more than $800 billion by 2006. * July 16, 2004: Senior trade officials from Canada, the United States and Mexico issue a joint statement touting a decade s worth of expanded trade in North America. Three-way-trade more than doubled to reach $623 billion while cumulative foreign direct investment increases by over $1.7 trillion compared to pre-NAFTA levels. * Jan. 1, 2008: NAFTA is fully implemented as the last of its polices come into effect. In sensitive sectors such as sugar, NAFTA stipulates that trade barriers would only gradually be phased out, which was designed to smooth economic shocks in vulnerable industries. By this time, trade within the three North American nations has more than tripled. * July 19, 2016: Billionaire businessman and political outsider Donald Trump formally clinches the Republican presidential nomination, winning the traditionally pro-free-trade party s nod in part by denouncing NAFTA, calling it the worst trade deal ever. * Aug. 16, 2017: High-stakes talks aimed at modernizing NAFTA kick off in Washington, with both U.S. and Mexican officials aiming to conclude a new pact in early 2018 before elections later in the year in both nations might derail negotiations. A second round of talks takes place in Mexico in September. * Sept. 1, 2017: In the week ahead of the second round of talks in Mexico which begin on Sept. 1, Trump had said repeatedly he would likely end the agreement if negotiations did not go his way. Mexico said it would walk away from the table if Trump began the process of withdrawing from NAFTA. | 0fake |
#NoDAPL: Angry Man Fires 7 Shots Into Air Near Standing Rock Water Protectors | 16 mins ago 2 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes New Zealand's country's entire east coast and urged residents in low-lying areas to evacuate and seek higher ground. Waves of up to two meters (6 feet) could be possible for up to two hours, it said. Anna "That's reasonably significant so people should take this seriously," she told Radio New Zealand. New Zealand's Geonet revised up its estimated magnitude of the quake to 7.5, from 6.6 earlier. USGS Zealand's South Island. A 6.3 quake there in February 2011 killed 185 people and caused widespread damage. The "The whole house rolled like a serpent and some things smashed, the power went out," Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, a coastal town near the quake's epicenter, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents. Learn More: https://www.yahoo.com/news/magnitude-7-4-earthquake-strikes-near-christchurch-zealand-112145924.html http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ https://twitter.com/i/moments/797788639014989826 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22autoUpdate%22%3A%5B%22autoUpdate%22%5D%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22feed%22%3A%221day_m25%22%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-45.736859547360474%2C-192.777099609375%5D%2C%5B-38.410558250946075%2C-175.198974609375%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%5B%22plates%22%5D%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3A%5B%22restrictListToMap%22%5D%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22timezone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%5B%22list%22%2C%22map%22%5D%2C%22event%22%3A%22us1000778i%22%7D https://www.essentialdrugstore.com/ B Rich: https://twitter.com/Brian_T33NO https://www.youtube.com/c/BRichOfficial Erick M: https://twitter.com/letmeexplainit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcwB6XtfJtyWW4DXKoZVn5A ToBeFree: https://twitter.com/da52true https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdTd5-p_sBE8oTjUOqPpPg EnterThe5t4rz: https://twitter.com/Enterthe5t4rz https://www.youtube.com/user/Enterthe5t4rz Save On Official DAHBOO7 Gear with Code "5off" http://dahboo7.deco-street.com http://foodforliberty.com/dahboo7/ You can also cut cable bills forever and save $75 with code "tigerstream75" https://tigerstream.tv/go/tigerstream7/ | 1real |
"Hillary Clinton In 2013 ""I Would Like To See People Like Donald Trump Run For Office; They're Honest And Can't Be Bought"""
| Before running against billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump for the presidency, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience at a private, paid speech she wanted to see more successful businessmen and women run for office because they cant be bought.
In a speech made public by Wikileaks which released an email from Hillary for America Research Director Tony Caark containing three attached speeches given at a private Goldman Sachs events Clinton spoke and took audience questions at the Builders and Innovators Summit hosted by Goldman Sachs on October 29, 2013.
Answering a question about businessmen in politics, Clinton said that they are most often the people that look over the horizon, and therefore share a vision that many politicians of today lack. And thats a very good question and thank you for asking it. Yes, I would love to see more businessmen go into politics because I believe they would bring in an entirely different mindset and strategies than what were used to seeing traditionally, she opined.
And then she just had to go on. In fact, when you say businessmen and women, I cant help but think of a particular one that I would just love to see running for the presidency at some point in the future, Clinton added. I dont know what it is exactly about him, I cant quite put my finger on it, but my instinct is almost never wrong. And its telling me that Donald Trump would be very successful if he were to venture into politics in the future.
Asked to elaborate on her statement, the former Secretary of State argued that she thinks that businessmen cant be bought and that theyre very honest. And I think that goes especially for Donald Trump, whose successful projects and business ventures have made him synonymous with big business and, more importantly, creating thousands of jobs. I also think he understands the philanthropic and charitable side of things quite well, which is a crucial skill for any politician, she praised her current counter-candidate.
I think he has a lot to offer to this country and its people, especially when were talking about the economy, she continued. Donald Trump has single-handedly helped stop the recession, more so than dozens of other so-called billionaires. And I dont know how the experts on the matter feel, but in my book thats hard evidence of the mans business prowess and integrity, as well. And I think everyone would agree those are commendable character traits for anyone looking to tackle the most difficult problems and challenges in the world, quite literally.
So, yes Donald Trump is someone I could very easily see winning the support of the people. And I dont think he would do that with his flammable rhetoric and negotiation skills which are both things hes known for but with common sense and respect for his fellow countrymen. But, most of all I think his relationship with the opposite sex would bring him the most political points. I think he respects women and treats them as equals and I also think that would bring him a significant lead over anyone unlucky enough to be running against him, she ominously concluded in her 2013 speech. | 1real |
Trump says he had a 'very good talk' with Obama on Wednesday | PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he had a good conversation with President Barack Obama on Wednesday, after earlier tweeting that the transition was not going smoothly. “He called me. We had a very, very good talk ... generally about things. ... was a very, very nice call, and I actually thought we covered a lot of territory,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “Our staffs are getting along very well and I’m getting along very well” with him, Trump said. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump tweeted: “Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT!” | 0fake |
Trump open to Social Security changes if elected: adviser | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump would consider changes to Social Security and Medicare if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser to the New York businessman said on Wednesday, signaling a shift from Trump’s earlier stance that he would not touch so-called entitlement programs. Policy adviser Sam Clovis said at a Washington conference that Trump would be open to a bipartisan look at entitlement spending once he implemented his other policies, such as his tax plan. “I think after the administration’s been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare,” Clovis said at an event hosted by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The foundation is known for its attacks on deficit spending, and it supports revamping Social Security and Medicare. “We’ll take a hard look at those to start seeing what we can do in a bipartisan way,” Clovis said, adding Trump was not proposing any entitlement changes now. Trump, who became the likely Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 general election last week when his two remaining rivals dropped out, had said he wanted to leave those programs alone. On the campaign trail in Wisconsin last month, he attacked Republicans who he said would cut Social Security benefits. “It’s my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is,” Trump said during a Republican debate in March. “I want to make our country rich again so we can afford it.” Clovis said Trump’s economic policies would spur growth, and he estimated a $4.5 trillion to $7 trillion surplus over 10 years. The conservative Tax Foundation has estimated Trump’s tax plan, which calls for simplifying the tax code and slashing corporate rates, would cut U.S. tax revenues by about $10 trillion. Trump may retool that tax proposal to bring down the price tag, said Stephen Moore, a conservative economist with the Heritage Foundation. He said he and Larry Kudlow, who hosts a program on CNBC, have proposed changes to the tax plan. “What we were working with the campaign a little bit on is how can we get that cost down, cut it by half or more, without disrupting the main growth elements of the plan,” Moore told Reuters. Hope Hicks, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the tax plan was not being re-written. Moore said Trump had not yet signed off on any proposed tweaks. | 0fake |
WHOA! NEW DISTURBING VIDEO Shows HILLARY’S Campaign Likely FAKED Her Audience At NC Rally | On September 15, Hillary apparently held a rally in the Old Student Recreational Center at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, NC. This was her first public appearance since she convulsed and had to be lifted into her van following the 9-11 memorial in NYC. Hillary s campaign was quick to blame the heat until they discovered conservative websites were able to quickly access the weather and determine that it was a balmy 74 degrees in NYC! Hillary was quickly whisked away to her daughter Chelsea s apartment following her incident, passing more than one hospital on the way to recuperate. Did Hillary recover from her incident or was this rally faked to make it look like she did?Here is the first video of Hillary s Greensboro, NC rally that was causing viewers to ask what the heck are those cameras in Hillary s audience pointing at? If you look closely, it sure isn t Hillary!Watch this video first, and then the video below to get a closer analysis of what appears to be a phony rally for Hillary at https://twitter.com/WDFx2EU5/status/777263623915745280This stunning video takes the viewer through and shows step-by-step where the audience is faked:Here is the actual video from C-Span to prove nothing was doctored in the videos above. Holy moly! | 1real |
'We like Paris but are a bit scared,' Chinese tourists say after muggings | PARIS (Reuters) - In tight-knit groups with their backpacks hanging in front where they can keep an eye on them, Chinese tourists walked around Paris on their guard on Monday, alarmed by a recent mugging and other attacks targeting Asian visitors. We like Paris but we are a bit scared, Chinese tour guide Jenny Xu said as she lead a group around the department store district hours after China s foreign ministry said France needed to step up security after a high-profile robbery. Chinese tourists, they are afraid for their safety in Paris, said Xu, speaking in English as she recounted some of her own clients experiences of being mugged in shops or museums. We tell them again and again to have their bags in front of them. And I tell them not to take so much cash. France has in the past promised to do more to protect the safety of Chinese tourists, who come to Paris in ever larger numbers and have become more of a target for the cash they often carry and the luxury goods they buy. Last week, a group of 40 Chinese tourists was tear-gassed and robbed by four men in the parking lot of their hotel near Orly airport, south of Paris. While the muggings are not good for the city s reputation, and tourism was hit hard by the Islamist attacks of 2015, Paris still attracted 16 million visitors in the first half of 2017, making it one of the most popular cities in the world. Chang Hui Ying, a tour operator from Taiwan who leads Chinese and Taiwanese groups across Europe, said Paris was the city where she was most worried about client safety. One hour ago, when I was leaving the Louvre museum, two girls opened my bag and I was almost robbed, she said, adding that once a whole week s worth of wages was stolen from her bag in the French capital. There really are a lot of thieves, she said. But they still want to come. We like to shop here, she said as she led a group to a store especially dedicated to Chinese visitors which the Galeries Lafayette chain opened earlier this year. Tourists said they were taking extra precautions. We put a small wallet somewhere and more money deeper inside (our bag), and the bag always in front, said Chang Hui-Neng, speaking English with the help of her guide. A group of hoteliers deplored last week s mugging and called for more protection. More needs to be done to avoid such tragic events that have a lot of impact on Paris image and that of France as a tourism destination, UMIH said in a statement. With no backpack or shopping bags that would mark her as a tourist, 23-year-old Chinese student Wang Xi Qing, who has been living in France for 18 months, said she knew here way around and felt comfortable. But she said she tells friends who visit to be careful, especially since one of them got mugged in Notre Dame cathedral. It s important to be aware, she said. | 0fake |
Former CIA Chief DESTROYS Trump For Going 2nd Amendment On Hillary (VIDEO) | Just when you thought Donald Trump s constant stream of offensive comments had died down, he goes and calls for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to be shot.Trump s specific advice to his followers was, in the event that Clinton wins the election and can choose her own liberal Supreme Court Justices, that they should perhaps shoot her: Hillary wants to abolish essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Though the second amendment folks, maybe there is If a citizen had made a death threat like this against a government official, they would receive criminal charges and Trump should be no different. Soon after those shocking words left Trump s mouth, the former head of the CIA went on CNN to drive the point home that Trump should not be given a free pass on this.In an interview with Jack Tapper, retired four-star general Michael Hayden made it perfectly clear that if anyone else had said this about the Second Amendment, they d be in hot water. Hayden said: If someone else had said that outside the hall, he d be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him. Hayden recalled the advice that he used to give his seniors at the CIA: You re not just responsible for what you say. You are responsible for what people hear. Then, he tore Trump a new one: That was more than a speed bump. That is actually a very arresting comment. It suggests either a very bad taste with reference to political assassination and an attempt at humor or an incredible insensitivity it maybe the latter an incredible insensitivity to the prevalence of political assassination inside of American history. That is a topic that we don t ever come close to, even when we think we are trying to be lighthearted. You can watch Hayden rip Trump apart in the segment below:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images | 1real |
US charges 61 with India-based scam involving 15,000 victims | US charges 61 with India-based scam involving 15,000 victims US charges 61 with India-based scam involving 15,000 victims By 0 166
The US Justice Department has charged 61 people and entities with involvement in a major India-based scam that targeted thousands of Americans.
The scheme involved Indian call centers, where some workers called American citizens and convinced them to pay their non-existent debts by impersonating Internal Revenue Service (IRS), immigration and other federal officials, the Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday.
Some victims were even offered short-term loans or grants on condition of providing good-faith deposits or payment of a processing fee.
The scammers had stolen more than $300 million from at least 15,000 unsuspecting citizens, the department noted.
The victims’ money was laundered by an American network of criminals who used debit cards or wire transfers under fake identities, the indictment said.
Federal officials arrested 20 people across America on Thursday. Additionally, 32 individuals and five call centers in India were charged… | 1real |
Chase Sapphire Reserve Card’s Huge Bonus Will Be Slashed - The New York Times | When a Wall Street banking institution starts throwing bonuses at credit card customers, it may be best to grab them before they inevitably disappear. And so it goes with Chase Sapphire Reserve, a card that the bank, JPMorgan Chase, introduced last summer. The bank offered a bonus worth $1, 500 to people who spent $4, 000 on the card in the first three months they had it and then redeemed the bonus for travel. Now the bank is cutting the bonus in half. Jan. 12 will be the last day that people can earn it by applying for the card online, though people who apply at a bank branch will still be able to get the bonus until March 12. You need not be a current bank customer to apply at a branch, according to a bank spokeswoman, Ashley E. Dodd, who confirmed the changes. The bonus played a big role in bringing the card so much attention, landing it on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek and leading the bank to hand out so many perks that it caused a $200 million to $300 million hit to its earnings. Even without the outsize bonus, which was very rare in the history of credit card bonus offers, the card is likely to remain popular. While it has a steep $450 annual fee, cardholders receive a $300 credit each year for any travel spending they put on the card. And customers earn three points for every dollar they spend on all travel and dining, which can lead to better value than the rewards that most other cards offer for customers who spent a lot in those areas. The Points Guy blog first reported the slashing of the bonus. Many such sites now exist to help consumers take advantage of the most lucrative offers, while collecting commissions when they pass readers on to card issuers’ application sites. If those customers keep the cards for a few years (and especially if they run up balances and pay interest) the banks can come out ahead. With too many people gaming the offer, however, bank profitability can suffer, especially when the bonuses are so large that they attract hordes of consumers. | 0fake |
Pakistan army says state exploring how to integrate militant-linked groups | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistani army on Thursday said the government was discussing ways to try to integrate militant-linked groups into the mainstream of the country s politics. Milli Muslim League (MML), a new militant party controlled by Islamist Hafiz Saeed, backed a candidate in the September by-election for a seat vacated by ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the eastern city of Lahore. The United States has offered a $10 million bounty for Saeed s capture. Reuters reported last month that the foray into politics by MML and other Islamists groups followed the integration plan. Three of Sharif s confidants and a retired army general said it had been presented by Inter Services Intelligence to Sharif last year, but the then premier had rejected it. Army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor did not comment on the military s role in any such strategy but told a news conference in Islamabad the plan was aimed at developing a constructive role for them. Asked about the MML party loyal to Hafiz Saeed, whom the United States and India accuse of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, the army spokesman said it was part of a process that has started . It is in my knowledge that the government has started some discussion over it, that, how do we mainstream them, so that they could do constructive contribution, Ghafoor said. A government spokesman did not respond to calls. Pakistan s interior ministry has asked the country s electoral commission not to register Saeed s party, but hasn t taken any other steps to stop it. Another militant party is campaigning for a by-election later in October. It remains unclear whether the army or the ISI went ahead with its plan despite Sharif s rejection, or if the military and the civilian government have recently agreed on the idea. Another Islamist designated a terrorist by the United States, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, told Reuters he too planned to form his own party soon. Within two weeks of Sharif s ouster, the MML party was announced. It later got the backing of Saeed and his lieutenants in the by-election to secure five per cent of the vote. The other hardline party, Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan, gained over six per cent of votes by riding on the back of a blasphemy killer Mumtaz Qadri whom it called a hero and a martyr. Saeed has been under house arrest since January in the eastern city of Lahore. MML is the political wing of Saeed s charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, JuD. JuD and Khalil s Ansar ul-Umma organization are both seen by the United States as fronts for militant groups the army has been accused of sponsoring against neighbors, arch-foe India and Afghanistan - a charge the army denies. Reports of the plan to bring militant-linked groups into the political mainstream have stirred debate at home and abroad. Now, how to take it further - that, the time to come will tell, Ghafoor, the army spokesman said, For that, the government will take a decision. | 0fake |
This Viral Video Has Hillary Running Scared | This Viral Video Has Hillary Running Scared The wildest campaign ad you will ever see! Infowars.com - October 28, 2016 Comments
Share this video on YouTube and Facebook to join the fight and support the Infowar! NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles Download on your mobile device now for free. Today on the Show Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars crew. From the store Featured Videos FEATURED VIDEOS A Vote For Hillary is a Vote For World War 3 - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . The Most Offensive Halloween EVER! - See the rest on the Alex Jones YouTube channel . ILLUSTRATION How much will your healthcare premiums rise in 2017? >25% © 2016 Infowars.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC Company. All rights reserved. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notice. 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force Brain Force – 25% OFF 34.95 22.46 Flip the switch and supercharge your state of mind with Brain Force the next generation of neural activation from Infowars Life. http://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/brainforce-25-200-e1476824046577.jpg http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force http://www.infowarsstore.com/health-and-wellness/infowars-life/brain-force.html?ims=tzrwu&utm_campaign=Infowars+Placement&utm_source=Infowars.com&utm_medium=Widget&utm_content=Brain+Force | 1real |
Captagon and Western-backed rebels: New drug, old story | Captagon and Western-backed rebels: New drug, old story Captagon? What’s that you may ask? Tweet Captagon is the addictive drug used by some of the numerous terrorists, jihadis, mercenaries and Western-backed rebels in Syria – including Al-Nusra and ISIS . Captagon (aka fenethylline, Biocapton or Fitton) was first produced in 1961 as a mix of amphetamine and theophylline. It became illegal in most countries in 1986 due to WHO pressure. Being a stimulant, it fuels feelings of euphoria, fearlessness and power, gives you an energy rush before the crash, and numbs emotions and empathy. These are of course all qualities which are ideal for soldiers who want to kill and not feel the pain. Apparently, captagon is playing a significant role in the Syrian War , both economically and in terms of its mood-altering ability. Multiple drug busts have occurred since 2010. Last year in November 2015, Turkish authorities confiscated 11 million Captagon pills (1800 kg and worth an estimated US$220 million) that were destined for Syria. Last month in October, Lebanese police seized 3.5 million Captagon pills that were headed for Saudi Arabia. Is the drug another avenue by which the Western alliance (NATO-US-UK) is trying to influence and control the outcome of the Syrian War? Drugs and Soldiers: A Connection Old as Humanity Itself
There is long history of tyrants, monarchs, despots, army generals and military leaders feeding drugs to their soldiers to enhance their performance. A very early example is Alexander the Great, whose army relied on the opium poppy plant for its morphine (and from which modern heroin is made). The morphine allowed his soldiers to walk and fight with grave injuries and achieve astonishing feats of endurance. In more recent history, in both world wars, American and German soldiers used amphetamines during battle. Historian Norman Ohler recently released a book “Der totale Rausch” (which literally translates as “Total Rush”) which exposes the Nazi use of drugs during WWII. This article quotes Norman: “… the (German) soldiers used Pervitin, a German product patented in 1937 that contains methamphetamine, which is known today as crystal meth. It was freely available as a medicine until 1939. In Berlin, it became a drug of choice, like people drink coffee to boost their energy. People took loads of Pervitin, across the board. The company wanted Pervitin to rival Coca Cola. So people took it, it worked and they were euphoric …”
The Nazi rise to power was fueled by their military industrial complex (funded by Americans and Wall St.), including IG Farben, their powerful pharmaceutical conglomerate which was the ancestor of Big Pharma today. Hitler himself was said to be addicted to opiates: “The first thing I wanted to see were the personal notes of Hitler’s personal physician Dr Theodor Morell – … these notes were quite elaborate, describing how he treated Hitler over the years, including things like “injection as always” and “Eukodal,” which is a strong opiate.” Captagon: The Force Behind Crazed ISIS Fighters?
Can captagon explain, at least to some degree, the crazed attitude of ISIS fighters? We don’t have definitive proof, but we do have a collation of many anecdotes and quotes indicating that the amphetamine-based drug is a factor. The Washington Post collected these ones: “You can’t sleep or even close your eyes, forget about it,” said a Lebanese user (featured in this BBC documentary ) “and whatever you take to stop it, nothing can stop it.” “I felt like I own the world high.” “Like I have power nobody has. A really nice feeling.” “There was no fear anymore after I took Captagon.” “So the brigade leader came and told us, ‘this pill gives you energy, try it,’ ” he said. “So we took it the first time. We felt physically fit. And if there were 10 people in front of you, you could catch them and kill them. You’re awake all the time. You don’t have any problems, you don’t even think about sleeping, you don’t think to leave the checkpoint. It gives you great courage and power. If the leader told you to go break into a military barracks, I will break in with a brave heart and without any feeling of fear at all — you’re not even tired.”
The world was first horrified by the cruelty of mercenaries like ISIS who were defiling historic sites and beheading prisoners. Was some of that barbarism due to drug-induced states? Where is the Captagon Being Made?
The Cuban based website Prensa Latina released a short article in 2015 claiming that “according to experts, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began production of Captagon in 2011 in a laboratory in Bulgaria and it is now manufactured elsewhere in the world. Part of the profits from the illegal trade in Captagon, experts say, is used to finance armed extremist groups that are trying to overthrow the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad.”
The article, however, does not mention which “experts” it got its information from. While this fits in with what we know of NATO – a US-controlled, aggressive military organization which invades sovereign nations like Libya on the flimsiest of pretexts to gain territory and control for the New World Order – there still needs to be more research done to determine the source of captagon. Other sources suggest it is being produced in Sunni rebel areas. Captivated by Captagon
The word captagon, coincidentally, is a mix of the words “captivate” and “Pentagon” – interesting given the addictive nature of the drug and the potential US role in providing it. War and drugs have a long history together, whether it be because the soldiers are been fed drugs by their commanders, or because the war itself is being fought over the land and fields that grow the drug-producing plants (Vietnamese and Afghani heroin, Latin American cocaine). In his article CIA Drug Wars Could Explain Why Syrian ‘Rebels’, ISIS Violence Fuelled by Captagon Pills , journalist Patrick Henningsen writes that: “the deliberate strategic dispensing of potent narcotics in a paramilitary, insurgency theater … is a common technique employed by US intelligence agencies … more often than not, these drugs are the X-factor which fuels the extreme violence we see, and it’s used to terrorize local populations and produces more extreme graphic imagery for western media consumption. The result: it aids in the generation of western fear, and public calls for Washington & Co to “step-up” its military activity in the region – in order to “keep us safe” in cozy America. A vicious cycle. Isn’t this what we’ve seen in Syria so far?” | 1real |
DOJ MONITORS PATRIOT GUN-RANGE OWNER Who Banned Muslims From Her Gun Range | I will close my business before I will make any compromises that could jeopardize the safety and security of the members who shoot here. You can be certain the Feds are more concerned about those peaceful Muslims in America who want to kill me than they are about anything I might say or do that hurts the feelings of islamic (sic) terrorists. -Jan MorganOn Saturday, Breitbart.com s AWR Hawkins said the Department of Justice is monitoring Jan Morgan, the owner of Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who banned Muslims from her business in 2014, citing safety concerns. But Morgan isn t backing down and told Examiner.com Saturday she would close her business before putting her clients safety at risk.The Washington Post said the monitoring is the result of demands by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Both groups demanded a federal investigation after Morgan declared her range to be a Muslim-Free Zone. CAIR and the ACLU argue that Morgan s Muslim-free policy violates the public accommodation provision of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Times said. But Morgan disagrees, saying her range is a private club with dues-paying members.The DOJ confirmed it was monitoring Morgan, the Times added. The agency, however, did not say if it has plans to launch an investigation. CAIR said it was pleased with the action. We welcome this positive development and hope it leads to a thorough investigation of clear violations of the civil rights of American Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim by the gun range owner, said CAIR s civil rights litigation director Jenifer Wicks. But Morgan told Examiner there is a huge difference between monitoring and investigating.In fact, she said at her website, she has been under the watchful eyes of federal law enforcement authorities for a long time as a result of years of death threats from Muslims. The threats, she added, began long before she owned the range. Now, she lives her daily life under a federal microscope. I have nothing to hide, she said. I have no secrets from the federal government. Last year, she added, FBI counter-terrorism agents met with her and said ISIS is in Arkansas. The agency feared I was going to be a target of opportunity, and I was directed to take EVERY SECURITY PRE-CAUTION necessary to protect my life and the lives of all people in my presence at all times, she wrote.Morgan said that like the French cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, she has had her life threatened many times over her articles. She also acted upon the directive of the ATF to all FFL holders to err on the side of caution and not engage in any firearm transactions with anyone we suspect might use that firearm in the commission of a crime. So, CAIR and the ACLU, do you really think the idea of more monitoring of my daily life is somehow new or a threat to me in any way? she asked on Facebook. Of course the feds are monitoring me, she added. You can be certain the Feds are more concerned about those peaceful Muslims in America who want to kill me than they are about anything I might say or do that hurts the feelings of islamic (sic) terrorists. Morgan told Examiner she is prepared to deal with a federal investigation should one be launched against her. I was prepared to fight this from day one, she said.The bottom line, she added, is this: I will close my business before I will make any compromises that could jeopardize the safety and security of the members who shoot here. On her site, Morgan said she will continue to follow the advise of two agencies within the DOJ to protect and defend my own life, as well as the lives of innocent American citizens in my presence, from any and all threats of violence connected to, and or associated with any and all terrorist organizations. Anything less, she added, would be irresponsible, reckless, and life threatening. Via: Joe Newby, The Examiner | 1real |
German police arrest alleged Islamic State militant in ice rink truck attack plot | BERLIN (Reuters) - German police arrested a 29-year-old man they said was an active member of Islamic State who was plotting a truck attack on an ice rink. The arrest, a year after Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck and drove it into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, comes as security services have warned of growing numbers of radical Islamists in Germany. He was considering an attack on the ice rink on the Schlossplatz in Karlsruhe, police in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said, adding that the suspect was a German citizen whose name they gave only as Dasbar W. To that end he was assessing areas around Karlsruhe Castle and, from September 2017, had begun seeking employment as a delivery driver - without success, the police statement said. In 2015, the suspect traveled to Iraq to fight for Islamic State, receiving weapons training and working as a scout seeking potential attack targets in the city of Erbil, police said. He returned to Germany the following year. Before leaving for Iraq, Dasbar worked for Islamic State from Germany, producing propaganda videos and proselytizing to converts in online chat rooms, police said. Earlier this month, Germany s security service warned that the number of Salafists - followers of a radical Islamist ideology - had risen to an all-time high of 10,800, though the number prepared to mount attacks was in the order of hundreds. | 0fake |
OVER 100 COLLEGES WILL HOLD SEPARATE GRADUATION Ceremonies For Gays As Part Of A “Cultural Celebration” | A Bi-Product Of Obama s Divided America The LGBT community has been fighting a decades-long culture war to be included in the fabrics of American society and it s winning.Yet when it comes to their graduation ceremonies, it seems they d prefer exclusivity.More than 100 colleges and universities this spring will be holding separate graduation ceremonies for the LGBTQ population and their allies, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). This includes Georgetown University, Duke University, Harvard University and Boston College, among others.The graduation ceremony is called the Lavender Graduation, signifying pink triange that gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triange designating lesbians as political prisoners in Nazi Germany, according to HRC.The special ceremony was started in 1995 at the University of Michigan by Dr. Ronni Sanlo, a Jewish lesbian, who said she was denied attendance at her children s graduation because of her sexual orientation. These events provide a sense of community for minority students who often experience tremendous culture shock at their impersonalized institutions, HRC says on its website, explaining the need for such ceremonies. For many students they are the payoff for staying in school, and friends and families find the smaller, more ethnic ceremonies both meaningful and personal. They deem it a cultural celebration, that recognizes LGBT students of all races and ethnicities it acknowledges their achievements and contributions to the university as students who survived the college experience. Via: Washington Times | 1real |
Hillary, The Political Scientist | Happy Birthday, Hillary. You were destined to great things. And you knew it. *** I am astounded . I graduated in political science from the University of Naples, the university of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Giambattista Vico, and Benedetto Croce, in something like the 750 th graduating class; I have tried to keep up with the field as much as I could, even though I have preferred to concentrate on economics and political economy. I have always gotten along with the assumption that politics is "the art of the possible." But, let us give a good look at it. What is in this formula, if not a put down; a downgrading, so downgrading, characterization of this noble science? No wonder politics has become the art of bickering; the art of discord; the art of grasping at reefs, while we are drowning in perilous waters. No wonder, politics in the United States and much around the world has become polarized between two factions that fight for supremacy to the death. Not the death of the political class, but to the psychological and physical death of millions of people--in this country, the richest of the countries, the last best hope for mankind. Let alone the millions overseas. No wonder both the right and the left are focused on this set of policies: "Deny them their rights; take their dignity away; give them a warm soup in a cold winter night; and go to sleep in peace." What to say of this debasement of charity? What to say of this debasement of high morality? What to say of this debasement of politics? And there I was the other night, hearing and seeing the following words written on the screen of CNN, in their documentary on Hillary Clinton: - Advertisement - "Politics is not the art of the possible" politics is the art of making the impossible" possible." These are the words, not of Hillary of today or yesterday. These are the words of a young woman who breaks with tradition at the stodgy prestigious Wellesley College and becomes the first valedictorian in the history of that college. This is Hillary who is called to lead her class, not via invitation by academicians or administrators at Wellesley, but by her classmates who recognized the force of her leadership. This is Hillary Rodham, later to become Clinton, who throws away her prepared speech and delivers her oration extemporaneously: "Politics is not the art of the possible" politics is the art of making the impossible" possible." This is Hillary who is immediately recognized in the national press as a force of nature: woman's nature. This is a woman who could have been researching and writing and talking about political science for a lifetime. - Advertisement - This is a woman who could have climbed the rungs of academia with grace and ease. Instead" She preferred to practice what she had discovered at such a young age. She rolled up her sleeves and went to work to make it possible for children to have a better life than the one to which they were clearly doomed by a society in thrall of control and scarcity and fear . | 1real |
E-post – Hillary Clinton og Den muslimske brorskapen, av Thierry Meyssan | E-post – Hillary Clinton og Den muslimske brorskapen av Thierry Meyssan FBI-etterforskinga av Hillary Clinton sin private e-post er ikkje retta mot ei forsømmingssak gjeldande tryggleiksrutinar, men mot ein konspirasjon der ein prøver å eliminere eitkvart spor av korrespondansen hennar som skulle ha vore arkivert på serverane til den føderale staten. Denne kan innehalde utveksling om illegal finansiering eller korrupsjon, og om samband mellom Clinton-familien, Den muslimske brorskapen og jihadistane.
Voltaire Network | Damaskus (Syria) | 3 novembre 2016 ελληνικά English Español français Türkçe русский Deutsch Português italiano عربي Hillary Clinton og stabssjefen hennar, Huma Abedin Reprisen på FBI-etterforskinga av Hillary Clinton sine private e-postar handlar ikkje lenger om tryggleiksspørsmål, men heller om lureri og juksing på eit muleg høgforrædersk plan.
Teknisk sett så hadde utanriksministeren, i staden for å bruke ein av dei sikra serverane til den føderale staten, ordna med installasjon av ein privat server i heimen sin, for å kunne bruke internett utan å etterlate seg spor på noka maskin tilhøyrande den føderale staten. Fru Clinton sin private teknikar hadde tømt serveren før FBI kom, så det var umuleg å vite korfor ho hadde sett opp eit slikt nettverk.
Først la FBI merke til at den private serveren ikkje var beskytta med same tryggleikssystem som utanriksdepartementet sin server. Såleis hadde fru Clinton berre gjort seg skuldig i brot på tryggleiken. Deretter konfiskerte FBI datamaskina til tidlegare Kongress-mann Anthony Weiner, eksmannen til Huma Abedin som er stabbsjef for Hillary. FBI fann e-postar frå utanriksministeren på datamaskina hans.
Anthony Weiner er ein jødisk politikar med svært nære band til Clinton-familien som hadde ambisjonar om å bli borgarmeister av New York. Han måtte trekke seg etter ein svært puritansk skandale – han hadde sendt erotiske SMS’ar til ei ung kvinne som ikkje var kona hans. Huma Abedin separerte seg offisielt frå han under skandalen, men i røynda gjekk ho ikkje frå han.
Huma Abedin er ein US-amerikansk statsborgar som vaks opp i Saudi-Arabia. Far hennar er direktør for eit akademisk tidsskrift – der ho var medredaktør i mange år – som regelmessig trykker kommentarar frå Den muslimske brorskapen. Mor hennar er president for den saudiske foreininga for kvinnelege medlemmer av Brorskapen, og arbeidde saman med kona til den egyptiske presidenten, Mohamed Morsi. Bror hennar Hassan arbeider for sjeik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, det religiøse overhovudet til Brorskapen og andeleg rådgjevar for Al-Jazeera.
På ei offisiell reise til Saudi-Arabia besøker utanriksministeren høgskulen Dar al-Hekma, akkompagnert av Saleha Abedin (mor til stabbsjefen til Hillary), president for organisasjonen for syster-medlemmane til Brorskapen. Huma Abedin er i dag ein sentral figur i Clinton-kampanjen, ved sidan av kampanje-direktøren John Podesta, eks-generalsekretær av Det kvite hus under Bill Clinton. Podesta er også den utnemnde Kongress-lobbyisten for Kongedømet Saudi-Arabia – for den nette sum av $200 000 per månad. Den 12. juni, 2016 publiserte Petra, det offisielle pressebyrået til Jordan, eit intervju med kronprinsen av Arabia, Mohamed Ben Salmane, der han fortalde om kor moderne familien hans er, som hadde finansiert Hillary Clintons presidentkampanje i storleiksordenen 20%, sjølv om ho er kvinne. Dagen etter denne publiseringa kansellerte byrået dette telegrammet og hevda at internettsida hadde blitt hacka.
I følge Jordans offisielle pressebyrå Petra, publisert den 12. juni 2016, finansierte den saudiske kongefamilien 20 % av Hillary Clintons presidentkampanje. Fru Abedin er ikkje den einaste medlemmen av Obama-administrasjonen med band til Brorskapen. USAs presidents halvbror, Abon’go Malik Obama, er kasserar for Brorskapen sitt misjonsarbeid i Sudan, og også president for stiftinga Barack H. Obama Foundation. Han tar sine ordrar direkte frå Sudans president Omar el-Béchir. Ein Muslimsk bror er medlem av Det nasjonale tryggingsrådet – den høgaste administrative stillinga i USA. Frå 2009 til 2012 var dette Mehdi K. Alhassani. Vi veit ikkje kven som kom etter han, men Det kvite hus nekta for at en Muslimsk bror var medlem av Rådet inntil bevis kom fram i lyset. Ein Muslimsk bror, Rashad Hussain, er også US-amerikansk ambassadør til Den islamske konferansen [OIC, ein organisasjon med 57 medlemsstatar, stifta i Saudi-Arabia i mai 1971, til fremje av muslimsk solidaritet]. Dei andre Brørne som har blitt identifiserte innehar mindre viktige verv. Men vi må nemne Louay M. Safi, noverande medlem av Syrias nasjonalkoalisjon og tidlegare rådgjevar for Pentagon.
President Obama og halvbroren Abon’go Malik Obama i Det ovale kontoret. Abon’go Malik er kasserar for misjonsarbeidet til Den muslimske brorskapen i Sudan. I april 2009, to månadar før talen sin i Kairo, tok president Obama i løyndom imot ein delegasjon av Brorskapen på Det ovale kontoret. I løpet av sine første månadar som president hadde han allereie invitert Ingrid Mattson, presidenten for organisasjonen Association of Muslim Brothers and Sisters in the United States [organisasjonen for muslimske brør og systrer i USA].
Frå si side hadde Clinton-stiftinga sett inn Gehad el-Haddad som direktør for sitt eige «Klima»-prosjekt – han er ein av verdsleiarane for Brorskapen, og hadde inntil då vore leiar for eit koransk TV-program. Far hans var med på å stifte Brorskapen, då den vart skapt av CIA og MI6 i 1951. Gehad forlot Stiftinga i 2012, då han vart talsmann for kandidat Mohammed Morsi i Kairo, og deretter den offisielle talsmannen for Den muslimske brorskapen globalt.
Sidan alle dei jihadistiske leiararne i verda har kome frå enten Den muslimske Brorskapen eller Den sufistiske ordenen til Naqshbandî [ei militant grein av islam] – dei to komponentane til Den muslimske verdsligaen, den saudiske anti-arabiske nasjonalist-organisasjonen – skulle vi likt å vite meir om fru Clinton sine relasjonar til Saudi Arabia og Den muslimske brorskapen.
No har det seg faktisk slik at på laget til utfordraren hennes, Donald Trump, finn vi general Michael T. Flynn, som prøvde å motsette seg at Det kvite hus danna Kalifatet, og trakk seg ifrå leiinga av Forsvarets etterretningsbyrå (Defense Intelligence Agency) for å signalisere motstanden sin. Han arbeider jamsides med Frank Gaffney, ein historisk «kaldkrigar», no kvalifisert som «konspirasjonsteoretikar» for å ha dratt til felts mot nærværet av Brorskapen i den føderale staten.
Det er underforstått at all støtte til jihadistiske organisasjonar frå FBI sitt synspunkt er kriminelle brotsverk, uansett kva for retningslinjer CIA måtte ha. I 1991 hadde politiet – og senator John Kerry – provosert fram kollapsen til BCCI, ein pakistansk bank (sjølv om den er registrert på Cayman Islands) som CIA brukte til allslags hemmelege operasjonar i fellesskap med Den muslimske brorskapen og også Latino-narkokartell.
Thierry Meyssan Oversettelse
Monica Sortland | 1real |
93 Percent Of The Great Barrier Reef Is Nearly Dead Because Of Climate Change | In the book, The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean s are One, Marine Biologist Sylvia Earle wrote: Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea. A report released this week discovered roughly 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the largest living structure on Earth, has been damaged due to coral bleaching. We ve never seen anything like this scale of bleaching before, said Professor Terry Hughes in a press release. Professor Hughes is Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and leader of the National Coral Bleaching Task Force which produced the report. In the northern Great Barrier Reef, it s like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once. The task force evaluated 911 coral reefs by air around Australia, and found 93 percent were suffering from coral bleaching to some extent. The bleaching was found to be worse in the northern sector of the reef, where no coral has escaped its impact. Based on diving surveys, the researchers say they have seen nearly 50 percent coral death so far.According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the United States Department of Commerce, increased ocean temperatures caused by climate change are the leading cause of coral bleaching. Coral depends on algae to survive, which is very sensitive to temperature changes. If warm temperatures remain constant for a long period of time, the coral dispels the algae, leaving it colored white, and eventually leading to the death of the coral if the stresses are prolonged. In 2005, the United States lost half its coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea due to a massive bleaching event. High carbon emissions absorbed by the ocean also decrease Ph levels, leading to ocean acidification. Observation stations monitored by the US EPA in Hawaii, Bermuda, and the Canary Islands found that in the past two decades, carbon dioxide levels in the oceans have increased, directly resulting in the acidification. These changes also put stresses on marine life, diminishing the quality of their habitats and depleting food sources. If emissions aren t reduced soon, the negative effects already being seen in these environments will be irreversible. The bleaching doesn t necessarily mean the coral is dead, but the greater the stressors causing coral bleaching, the less likely the coral is able to recover. It can take thousands of years for coral reefs to fully form, so once the coral dies, those ecosystems are unlikely to ever recover. This is, by far, the worst bleaching they ve seen on the Great Barrier Reef, Mark Eakin, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration s Coral Reef Watch, in an interview with the Washington Post. Our climate model-based Four Month Bleaching Outlook was predicting that severe bleaching was likely for the [Great Barrier Reef] back in December. Unfortunately, we were right and much of the reef has bleached, especially in the north. Today on Earth Day, it is important to acknowledge and fully comprehend how dire the situation of our world s ecosystems are because of climate change. There is no time for incremental efforts. We must either make the necessary changes to mitigate the effects of climate change in the future now, or pay dearly for the consequences which will manifest exponentially in the near future. We can no longer treat our Earth as a source of infinite economic development when the resources on it are finite.Featured Image Courtesy of Flickr | 1real |
Fear is making the GOP’s job easier | Politics is not only about competing views on issues. It is also, and often most importantly, about which problems come to the forefront in the public conversation and in the minds of citizens and voters.
The battle over what matters most could determine the outcome of the 2016 election. One set of concerns, related to race, immigration and attitudes toward Islam, divides the country deeply. Another group of issues, involving economic inequities and the difficulties many Americans are having getting ahead, has broad reach across party lines.
Republicans want the first agenda to be paramount. This reflects both the attitudes of their supporters and a rational (if debatable) assessment of how they might win. It also explains the eagerness of Republican politicians to make blocking Syrian refugees from our shores the centerpiece of their initial response to the terrorist attacks in Paris. Casting Democrats as insufficiently mindful of the nation’s security — and charging them with being too responsive to the rights of religious and racial minorities — are among the oldest calls in the GOP political playbook.
Democrats, by contrast, have every interest in an election organized around core economic concerns. Economic growth has not been fairly shared and middle-class and less-affluent families alike need relief on matters ranging from wages to college access to work-family balance. It is no accident that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have largely structured their campaigns around these themes.
The importance of who gets to set the agenda was brought home by a poll released Tuesday by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). The survey, for which I played an advisory role, was conducted in cooperation with the Brookings Institution, before the attacks in Paris.
On the one hand, certain issues divided the country starkly across party lines. By a 66 percent to 26 percent margin, Republicans said that immigrants burdened the country more than they strengthened it. (Among supporters of Donald Trump, 80 percent said they were a burden.) Democrats, on the other hand, said immigrants strengthened the country by a nearly opposite margin, 63 percent to 32 percent.
Among Republicans, 76 percent said the values of Islam were at odds with “American values and way of life”; 43 percent of Democrats said this.
Especially sharp divisions emerged on controversies involving race and police practices: 64 percent of Republicans but only 28 percent of Democrats agreed with the statement that “discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities.” Among Republicans, 82 percent said the recent killings of African Americans by police were “isolated incidents” rather than “part of a broader pattern.” Only 32 percent of Democrats said they were isolated incidents.
These figures underscore two facts: Republicans are largely united in their views on these questions; and they are potentially disruptive subjects that could give the GOP a chance to pull a minority of Democrats away from their usual party loyalties — the classic definition of “wedge issues.”
On economic questions, by contrast, rank-and-file Republicans take many positions that are usually associated with Democrats. These are the “bridge issues.” Requiring companies to provide sick leave to their employees draws support from 96 percent of Democrats — and 69 percent of Republicans. Requiring leave time for new parents is even more unifying: 89 percent of Democrats endorse it, as do 75 percent of Republicans.
And on a series of questions, many Republicans identified with criticisms of the economic system that have been a hallmark of Sanders’s campaign. Offered the statement “Business corporations do not share enough of their success with their employees,” 92 percent of Democrats agreed or mostly agreed, and so did 76 percent of Republicans.
Democrats agreed more strongly, but the fact that so many Republicans could identify with this view — and with similar criticisms of the exporting of good jobs, the power of big money in elections and the advantages enjoyed by the wealthy — speaks to the potential political power of calls for greater economic justice.
Perhaps it goes too far to say that there is a Social Democratic America waiting to be born. Still, Democratic politicians have every interest in making a desire for a more equitable economy the driving force in the election.
There are equally good reasons for Republican politicians to encourage voters to think about their fears of terrorism, their worries about immigrants and their feelings toward Islam. For the moment, dreadful and genuinely frightening news is making the GOP’s job easier.
Read more from E.J. Dionne’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. | 0fake |
Britain's Boris Johnson jokes about dead bodies in Libya | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson quipped on Tuesday that Libya can become a new Dubai if it can clear the dead bodies away, the latest gaffe by Britain s top diplomat. Johnson, who has offended some allies with flippant remarks, told Conservative Party members that the Libyan city of Sirte could be turned into the next Dubai by British investors if they could clear the bodies. They ve got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte, with the help of the municipality of Sirte, to turn it into the next Dubai, Johnson said. The only thing they ve got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then we will be there. Some activists from Prime Minister Theresa May s party laughed at the joke before the chair of the event changed the subject, saying: Next question. Britain and France took a leading role in the attacks that helped rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country has since descended into chaos, with thousands of casualties. The Islamic State militant group took over Sirte in early 2015, turning it into their most important base outside the Middle East and attracting large numbers of foreign fighters into the city. It was later cleared of the militants. In a series of late night posts on Twitter, Johnson said he was referring to the clearing of booby trapped bodies of Islamic State militant fighters. Shame people with no knowledge or understanding of Libya want to play politics with the appallingly dangerous reality in Sirte, Johnson said. The reality there is that the clearing of corpses of Daesh fighters has been made much more difficult by IEDs and booby traps. When asked about Johnson s comments, PM May s deputy, Damian Green, said all ministers need to be careful with their language when dealing with sensitive issues but refrained from criticizing the foreign minister. The opposition Labour Party s spokeswoman for foreign affairs, Emily Thornberry, said Johnson s joke was shameful and questioned whether May would take any action to reprimand him. May s appointment of Johnson, who in the run-up to Britain s referendum on EU membership compared the goals of the European Union to those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon, caused consternation in some European capitals. Britain s ambassador to Myanmar was forced to interrupt Johnson earlier this year as he tried to recite a nostalgic colonial poem by Rudyard Kipling in public during a visit to the country s most famous Buddhist site. | 0fake |
BOOM! Conservative Support Grows For RINO John McCain’s Republican Opponent | It would be great to ditch McCain this next election. In fact, there are many more RINO Republicans that need to go. Dr. Kelli Ward could be the answer:Conservative Campaign Committee PAC came out swinging against entrenched Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)41% and his bid for re-election against conservative Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward (R-Lake Havasu City) in a Saturday email urging PAC supporters to back Ward.The practicing emergency room physician recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. during which she met with conservatives pressing for their support. The momentum is building for Conservative Republican Kelli Ward and with your help we can win this race! The most recent Gravis Marketing Survey shows Kelli Ward leading John McCain among Republican voters by a 9-point margin, 45% 36%, reads a portion of the CCC PAC message.McCain s actions calling conservatives whacko birds and crazies was called out among the PAC s grievances against the over three-decade D.C. insider.In January 2014 McCain s own party in Arizona censured the Senator for excessive liberal voting including support for the Gang of Eight amnesty plan. At the time of the Arizona State Committeemen meeting censure of the Senator, six of the state s fifteen county parties had censured McCain.Maricopa County s Republican Party Committee was among those and cited a long and terrible record of drafting, co-sponsoring and voting for legislation best associated with liberal Democrats, such as Amnesty, funding for ObamaCare, the debt ceiling, liberal nominees, [and] assaults on the Constitution and 2nd amendment, as an explanation for their decision.Read more: Breitbart | 1real |
MUSLIM ACTIVISTS LAUNCH VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE, As They Know 2016 Election Will Decide America’s Future | Who would ve guessed? A coalition of U.S.-based Muslim groups claiming that anti-Muslim backlash is on the rise in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino hopes to register one million people to vote before the 2016 election as part of a civic empowerment initiative. Oussama Jammal, the secretary general of the U.S. Council on Muslim Organizations, also announced in a press conference held Monday at the National Press Club that the group will seek to increase emergency preparedness for Islamic institutions and individuals to address the rising number of incidents of hate crimes that are unfortunately happening nationwide. While the press conference participants who hailed from such groups as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) focused little attention on the recent terrorist attacks, they focused on some of the political rhetoric that has followed.To address what they perceive as public and political backlash, the groups plan the massive Muslim voter outreach as well as a major educational outreach which will include a One America program aimed at helping non-Muslims understand Islam.One speaker, ISNA vice president Atlaf Husain, urged local, state and federal politicians who aspire to political victory to engage Muslims.He also cautioned: If you as a political candidate choose to spew hatred, bigotry and to vilify Muslim-Americans, you do so at your own political risk. We will use every democratic small d democratic means political strategies to ensure that your candidacy never succeeds. Press conference participants were vague on how the massive Muslim voter registration effort will unfold.Responding to a reporter s question on the matter, Jammal said that the coalition will mobilize the Muslim community through early voting efforts and by busing and shuttling voters to polling stations. Via: Daily Caller | 1real |
The Average American Has No Money | Marc Faber Blog October 28, 2016
They could essentially monetize everything, and then you have state ownership. And through the central banking system, you introduce socialism and communism, which is state ownership of production and consumption. You would have that, yes, that they can do.
The BoJ owns more than 50 percent of Japanese ETFs (exchange traded funds), which own large parts of the underlying companies. So indirectly they may own 20 percent of the Japanese companies, and they can go up to a higher level.
I don’t think the central bankers are intelligent and smart enough to understand the consequences of their monetary policies at present. They focus on inflation but in my view they shouldn’t do anything. They don’t focus enough on what it does to the average standard of living of the people, to the average household income.
The developed market central banks can go on for quite some time.If Zimbabwe prints money, the pain is more obvious right away because if you are Zimbabwe, and you print money and the others don’t, and the currency collapses, and you feel the pain much sooner.
If the major central banks, the Fed, the European Central Bank (ECB), the BoJ, the Bank of England, and the Chinese monetize and print money in concert and agreement with each other, they all talk to each other; then the currencies don’t collapse against each other. There may be fluctuations, but we don’t have a general collapse of a currency.
Paper money, in general, can then collapse, and it has to a large extent against asset prices like real estate around the world over the last 30 years, against equity prices, against bond prices—which have been rallying since 1981—and against precious metals since 1999.
Asset price inflation is less obvious to the average person in the street. The average American has no money, so he doesn’t care if prices for paintings and real estate go up—until it touches him. | 1real |
Trump Jr. Goes Full Dumba** On Twitter By Promoting Wrong Day Of Virginia Election | Oops.When you mistake a mistake one time, it s understandable. But Donald Trump s idiot son and namesake made the same error over and over again on Twitter, and it could hurt the candidate his father supports in the Virginia race for governor.Republican Ed Gillespie has been enjoying Trump s support for months. But he probably wishes Trump Jr. would shut the hell up.On several occasions on Tuesday, Trump Jr. urged Virginia conservatives to go out and vote for Gillespie on Wednesday, which is the day after Election Day.Let s take @EdWGillespie across the finish line tomorrow! Virginia: get out and vote for Ed & entire @GOP ticket #VAGov #VA Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 7, 2017Virginia, the future of the Commonwealth is at stake tomorrow. Find your polling place at https://t.co/j7EyqNhth4 to vote Ed for #VAGov Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 7, 2017Trump Jr s expert level idiocy earned him a righteous mocking on Twitter.Think you mean today not tomorrow Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 7, 2017Oh my dearest fuck. Jnr will bring the entire GOP down with his dimwitted and blind dumbfuckery. Theironfront (@Theironfront1) November 7, 2017dumbest trump family member KRANG T. NELSON (@KrangTNelson) November 7, 2017He's never voted. He has no idea when it is Chris Valotta (@ChrisValotta) November 7, 2017 pic.twitter.com/MYJ9TJfZuI Nancy Vigeant (@nancy02719) November 7, 2017Knowing things is hard. Especially when you re a Trump. Steve Bouchard (@sbouchard67) November 7, 2017If you had half a brain magnified a thousand time you could stick it up a nat s butt and it would rattle like a be-be in a box car. Robert Taraschi (@MilestoneIdeas) November 7, 2017Seriously, the apple did not fall far from the tree at all.Featured Image: David Becker/Getty Images | 1real |
Great Press Conference: Black Pastor Defends Trump And Tells Why Others Won’t Openly Support Him [Video] | Dr. Scott was interviewed after the meeting between black pastors and Donald Trump. He said that over 100 people were in the meeting and that those who hadn t endorsed Trump were going to pray on it. What really stuck with me is that one of the pastors said other pastors support Trump but are afraid to openly support him for fear of losing parishioners. Pretty sad, huh?(DAILY CALLER) Dr. Darrell Scott, Pastor of New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, said the Monday meeting between black pastors and Donald Trump was a meaningful dialogue and we voiced concerns that were sensitive to the African-American community. Scott, speaking at Trump Tower in New York City said, I didn t have concerns [with Trump] because I was already convinced, but there were concerns that the liberal media has put out portraying Mr. Trump in a light that I know he s not the type of person he was depicted to be. So what we were able to do today was allow to see his heart for themselves and to make up their own minds about him. And they find out that he s not the person that the media has depicted him to be. | 1real |
As Transition Pace Picks Up, Trump Nears Cabinet Nominations - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump’s transition team is nearing picks for heavyweight posts such as the secretaries of state and of the Treasury, attorney general, and ambassador to the United Nations. They were accused by detractors of being bosom buddies, in cahoots over underhanded efforts to rig the American election — accusations candidate Trump denied. Now, Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have spoken. The Kremlin released a readout Monday of the first call between Mr. Putin and the since he won the election, saying the men expressed mutual optimism about improving the dire state of relations between the two countries. According to the Kremlin, Mr. Putin said he hoped to work with Mr. Trump in an atmosphere of mutual respect without interfering in each other’s internal affairs. They also talked about fighting international terrorism and settling the crisis in Syria. The Trump transition team reported that “ Trump noted to President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia. ” While Mr. Trump said he hoped to have a constructive relationship with Russia, he insisted during one of his debates with Hillary Clinton that he was “no puppet” of Mr. Putin. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who once called Mr. Trump a “faker” who “has no consistency about him,” said on Monday what she likely wanted to avoid: Mr. Trump will make the Supreme Court whole again. “Most immediately our vacancy will be filled,” she told a meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America at a Washington hotel. “President Trump will fill it. ” She urged the Senate to act promptly on the ’s nomination to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. “Eight is not a good number,” she said. At full strength, the court has nine members. At a news conference on Monday before an overseas trip, the president struck a diplomatic tone. • On Stephen K. Bannon’s appointment as chief White House strategist, which civil rights groups, Democrats and some Republicans have criticized, President Obama demurred, saying, “It would not be appropriate for me to comment on every appointment that the starts making. ” • Faced with repeated questions about Mr. Trump’s temperament, Mr. Obama expressed hope that the presidency would be a reality check. “His gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest upsets in political history, hopefully he will put to good use,” Mr. Obama said. • On his Democratic Party, Mr. Obama said that a period of reflection was healthy, that new voices were necessary and that the stunning defeat should be a warning. “It takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality,” he said. “Hopefully it’s a reminder that elections matter. ” • On immigration, Mr. Obama urged Mr. Trump to “think long and hard” about endangering the status of young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. He described them as “American kids. ” The F. B. I. reported Monday that attacks against American Muslims rose last year, driving an increase of about 7 percent in hate crimes against all victims. The data, the most comprehensive look at threat crimes nationwide, expanded on previous findings by researchers and outside monitors, who have noted an alarming rise in some types of hate crimes tied to the intense vitriol of the presidential campaign and the aftermath of terror attacks at home and abroad since 2015. A wave of racially charged assaults, graffiti attacks and other episodes has swept the country since Election Day, prompting Mr. Trump to call for a halt to it during a “60 Minutes” interview broadcast on Sunday night. In its report Monday, the F. B. I. cataloged a total of 5, 818 hate crimes in 2015 — a rise of nearly 340 over the year before — including assaults, bombings, threats and property destruction against minorities, women, gays and others. Attacks against Muslim Americans saw the biggest surge: 257 reports of assaults, attacks on mosques and other types hate crimes against Muslims last year, a jump of about 67 percent over the year before. It was the highest total since 2001, when the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks saw more than 480 attacks. Attacks against transgender people also sharply increased, the data showed. Law enforcement officials acknowledge that the statistics give an incomplete picture because many local agencies still have a spotty record of reporting hate crimes, 26 years after Congress directed the Justice Department to begin collecting the data. “We need to do a better job of tracking and reporting hate crime to fully understand what is happening in our communities and how to stop it,” James B. Comey Jr. the F. B. I. director, said Monday. Mr. Trump has spoken with President Xi Jinping of China, the presidential transition team announced on Monday, and the world likely thought, “Interesting. ” According to the announcement, in a call that took place on Monday Beijing time, Mr. Xi congratulated Mr. Trump for “winning a historic election,” and the thanked the Chinese leader for his well wishes. “During the call, the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another, and Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward,” the statement said. No mention of whether Mr. Trump’s repeated campaign threats against Chinese trade practices came up, nor his statement that climate change was a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese, nor his promises on economic relations moving forward. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who mobilized a movement but not enough votes to win the Democratic presidential nomination, is stepping forward as an alternative to the party’s leadership and a stalwart against racial politics. Taking to his campaign Twitter handle on Monday, he decried the Democrats’ loss of white, voters to Trump. He added, “The Democratic Party has to stand with working people, feel their pain and take on the billionaire class, Wall Street and drug companies. But he also said that the new role of Mr. Bannon in the Trump White House as senior counselor and chief strategist should make the country “very nervous. ” The country has battled “discrimination and racism and sexism and homophobia” for hundreds of years, he said in an interview on ABC’s “The View” program on Monday, and the country could not afford to move backward. “We’re going to tell Mr. Bannon and any other advisers that we’re not going to be turning on each other,” Mr. Sanders said. “We’re going to be standing together. ” In concert, liberal activists staged a in the office of Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming Democratic minority leader, to demand a leadership position in the next Senate for Mr. Sanders. Civil rights groups, Democrats and some Republicans on Monday denounced Trump’s decision to appoint Mr. Bannon to a top White House position, warning that he represents nationalist and racist views that should be rejected by the incoming president. Read the full story. Alex Jones, an online broadcast host who has accused the government of conspiracies, says that Trump personally called him to thank him for his support during the campaign. Mr. Jones made the revelation on a brief clip on his website. “He said, ‘Listen Alex, I just talked to the kings and the queens of the world,’” Mr. Jones recalled, saying that Mr. Trump added, “I want to thank you, your audience. ” He said the incoming president promised to come on his program again in the next few weeks. He celebrated that Mr. Trump had triumphed over “hoaxes” such as Obamacare. Mr. Jones was an early booster of Mr. Trump, who appeared on his program during the end of the primaries. Mr. Jones has charged, among other things, that the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut in December 2012 was a hoax. | 0fake |
Thanks To Republicans, Obama Nominee Dies Waiting For Confirmation | It s no secret that Republicans have used their obstructionist tactics to block anything and everything President Obama has tried to do including nominees, from judicial to State Department.In a blatant attempt to hurt his ability to have a legacy, Republicans have targeted nominees, holding them hostage politically unless their demands are met. Some nominees waited hundreds of days for just a hearing, and others have waited even longer for a confirmation.And with that, one nominee, who has waited over 820 days for a confirmation, has died.The New York Times reports that Cassandra Butts, a worker in government and non profit entities, died suddenly at the age of 50 on May 24 of acute leukemia, which she did not know she had until shortly before her death. President Obama and the White House, recognizing her passion for helping others through public service, tapped her to serve as the United States ambassador to the Bahamas.Butts had worked for multiple branches of the government, including lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the White House counsel.Butts sailed through hearings in May 2014, and all seemed on track for a swift confirmation to a seemingly unimportant position, which urgently needed filling. So far, the Bahamas hasn t had a proper ambassador for 1,647 days.But, in typical Washington form, Republicans held up her nomination, not because she wasn t qualified, but because they literally hate President Obama.And it isn t fair to link all Senate Republicans to this hold up. Only two Republicans can be single handedly blamed for this: Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz.Is anyone surprised? Cruz, up in arms over the Iran nuclear deal, placed a hold on the confirmation on all State Department nominations, which of course included Butts.Cruz couldn t get his way, so naturally he unleashed a scorched earth policy on all those even remotely associated with the President.But it was Senator Tom Cotton better known as Tehran Tom by progressive advocates who proved to be a nefarious monstrosity in the whole matter. In seeking to punish the Obama Administration over a Secret Service leak of private information about a member of Congress, specifically targeted Butts and the Norwegian and Swedish ambassador nominees. After making a fool of himself, Cotton lifted the hold on the Scandinavian ambassadors. But he kept the hold on Butts.As the New York Times reports:Cotton eventually released the two other holds, but not the one on Butts. She told me that she once went to see him about it, and he explained that he knew that she was a close friend of Obama s the two first encountered each other on a line for financial-aid forms at Harvard Law School, where they were classmates and that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the presidentAnd there you have it. Because Republicans hate the President so much, they upheld a qualified, dignified, and devoted public servant from serving in a position that yields almost no political power.And now she has died, never getting the grace of a confirmation vote.That s how the Republicans have chosen to govern. They should be so proud of all their accomplishments. Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
Trump offers Sessions attorney general post: CBS News | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump has offered Republican Senator Jeff Sessions the job of U.S. Attorney General, CBS News and Bloomberg reported on Friday. Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer, who is involved in the Trump presidential transition, would not confirm the reports on CNN. “Until Donald Trump says it, it’s not official,” Spicer said. | 0fake |
Can Jeb Bush fire up the base like he’s fired up the establishment? | Jeb Bush’s nascent presidential campaign has already won over many of the big-dollar donors and GOP elites. What he needs to prove now is that he can win over the crowds.
Until visits to South Carolina and other early states this month, the former Florida governor hadn’t been on the campaign trail for himself in 13 years. He hadn’t sold himself to the deeply conservative, tea party-inspired crowds that have emerged as a driving Republican force in the Obama era. He’d never snapped so many “selfies” with admirers.
And he admits his delivery is a work in progress. “I’m learning along the way how to get better,” he told reporters in South Carolina this week.
And what has he learned? “I think if you’re on a long journey and you start at X, if you have any kind of aspirational nature in who you are, you’re expecting to get to 2X, 3X, 4X,” he said. “I’m goal-driven, and I can assure you I’ll get better at whatever it is I need to do.”
The exchange sums Bush up well. One moment he’s lofty; the next he’s granular. There are fleeting moments of personal connection, but mostly he’s proudly workmanlike — and unafraid to come off as the smartest guy in the room. He has a Bill Clinton-like ability to speak on multiple issues with fluency, but with a mechanical delivery in place of a friendly drawl.
Bush is casting himself as the experienced adult in a Republican field packed with younger, crowd-pleasing contenders, from Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The question is whether his wonky, somewhat stilted approach will have appeal beyond the ranks of the establishment GOP.
“Clearly, he’s smart, there’s no question about that,” said Bob Knight, a lobbyist who watched Bush speak in Greenville and Columbia, S.C. “You can buy that — but can you buy charisma? Does he have the charisma to win?”
Bush starts his standard stump speech with a quick nod to his family history. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he introduced himself as “George’s boy and W.’s brother,” but quickly put distance between himself and the former presidents.
“All of my mistakes I made in my life are my own doing. They have nothing to do with my family. I have a great family. But I’ve been on my own journey,” he said.
When he made his first stop on the tour in Las Vegas, a man asked Bush how he would be a different president than his father and brother were. He deflected by turning the question around at the crowd.
“You have brothers and sisters?” he asked the man.
“Are you exactly the same?” Bush asked.
Most Bush appearances last about an hour. He poses for a few pictures and shakes hands before giving about seven minutes of introductory remarks. Then he fields questions for at least 45 minutes on immigration, energy policy, Common Core education standards, Alzheimer’s research or the national debt.
He traveled Thursday to the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta for a brief stop, which coincided with a visit by Georgia-born rapper Ludacris, who was being honored for his charitable foundation.
Bush joked that he came “because I heard Ludacris was gonna be here.” Photos of Bush and Ludacris circulated widely on Twitter.
Repeatedly during events this month, Bush marveled about the future. Pointing to the Pebble Smartwatch on his wrist, Bush said most Americans will soon be wearing such devices to track their health, bank accounts and sleep patterns — part of a “technological revolution,” as he put it in both New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Bush is 6-foot-4, a few inches taller than his brother. He has a slight hunch in his shoulders, something he admitted he’s working to correct. He has lost more than 20 pounds in the past few months as he prepares for the expected campaign. Audience members commonly say that he’s much taller than they expected.
While talking with voters, he calls men “brother,” says he’s “all in” on his positions and frequently labels things “cool.” He goes out of his way to thank Hispanic waiters at restaurants and speaks to them in his fluent Spanish. He uses outdated expressions such as “Holy schnikes” and “Holy Toledo,” and decries the “yapping” and “food fight” in Washington.
He also has a dry, deadpan sense humor — so dry it often evaporates quickly. “There are some people that have been dying to ask a question back there,” he told the Las Vegas crowd. “I don’t want them to do that.”
At this early stage, most of Bush’s public appearances are hastily arranged. In the hotel ballrooms, community centers and restaurants, there are no campaign placards, no booming music, no bright T-shirts and very little staff. Sometimes, he’s showing up as the headline act at somebody else’s event, such as a Chamber of Commerce meeting.
His traveling posse includes similarly lanky, bespectacled men. There’s Josh Venable, who worked for Bush’s education foundation and advises him on policy matters. Coleman Lapointe is the “body guy” who once worked for Bush’s father and is tasked with taking photos on the cellphones of supporters. Tim Miller, Bush’s communications director-in-waiting, is the freshest face in the pack.
Other traveling companions have included Kristy Campbell, his press secretary who held a similar job when he was governor; Sally Bradshaw, a longtime consigliere tasked with recruiting top staffers and donors; and David Kochel, his campaign manager-in-waiting.
In each state, the group piles into a rented SUV and Bush sits in the front passenger-side seat — never in the back. He snacks on unsalted almonds as part of a strict “paleo” diet. That meant eating takeout from Ruth’s Chris Steak House on the ride from Columbia to Myrtle Beach on Tuesday night, or pulled pork with no barbecue sauce during a recent stop in Waukee, Iowa.
Virtually all the voters who show up to see Bush say they are reserving judgment until they see other candidates.
“I want to know more about him,” Dennis Cavanaugh of Murrells Inlet, S.C., said after Bush’s visit to Myrtle Beach. Cavanaugh said that after Obama, the country needs to do a better job vetting the next president. “Anybody and his brother can run for office — literally. I think that’s part of what the big problem is.”
His wife, Anne, seemed won over by Bush for a simple reason: He encouraged people to e-mail him questions to his personal address, jeb@jeb.org.
“I like that because I think if I e-mailed President Obama I wouldn’t get an answer,” she said.
As his travels continue, Bush seems increasingly convinced that he can outlast others in the field.
“It’s been a blast,” he told reporters late one day in Columbia. “Just for the record, I’m not a candidate — but as I’ve gone about listening to people and hearing their questions, it’s been fun, truly it has been joyful.” | 0fake |
The Dark Cypress School of Magic, an American "Hogwarts" | Thursday, 27 October 2016 The main campus building
For all the children inspired by the tales of Harry Potter, it will come as a pleasant surprise to learn that Americans themselves have been training in magic for some time.
One of the most illustrious schools is the Dark Cypress School of Magic in Louisiana. The school is located on an isolated, abandoned sugar plantation along the Bayou Teche.
Originally founded by a band of escaped French Louisiana slaves in the 1700's, the early school prospered with support from free blacks and creoles of New Orleans. The group used magic to live hidden in the area's swampy wilderness, but were willing to share their secrets with select outsiders. Their core magic teachings centered on Voodoo.
One of the school's great patrons throughout the 1800's was Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. She continued teaching at the school after death.
In the mid 1800's, macabre writer Edgar Alan Poe visited the group from the East Coast. Poe felt mysteriously called to visit a childhood friend who bought Bayside Plantation in the area. While staying with his friend Poe was secretly contacted and brought to see the school and learn. His spirit has been a regular visitor since his premature and mysterious death in 1849.
The early school joined forces with some of the planter society as a result of the Last Island Hurricane of 1856. The hurricane demolished a Louisiana barrier island that was a favorite vacation spot for the local rich. About 200 lives were lost on the island in the storm (half of those present) and another 133 lost at sea.
Many of the spirits of those lost in the hurricane joined the school. A mother and 2 children associated with the Shadows-on-the-Teche Plantation of New Iberia became part of the school's leadership. Frances Weeks and her daughters Mary Ida and Augustine brought knowledge of European-based witchcraft into the curriculum.
The school acquired 2 ghost ships as a result of this hurricane: the steamers Nautilus and Manilla.
The campus moved to its present location during the chaos of the civil war. The main school building, a stately Greek Revival style manor house, features a front facade of 2-story, white columns. The grounds boast lovely grand oaks dripping with Spanish moss. The estate is surrounded by swampland, guarded by alligators and spells.
No roads to the school exist. Any roads that once led to the plantation have long been overgrown and lost. Students reach the school by catching a ghost steamer in New Orleans. The boat travels up a branch of the bayou not shown on any maps.
Students are notified of their admission to the school each year by receiving a talisman. It appears one morning mysteriously under their pillow. Prospective students should watch for it in mid-March. Make pinkwalrus's | 1real |
Birleşik Krallık, Suriye’de cihatçıları eğitmeye yeniden başlıyor | Birleşik Krallık, Suriye’de cihatçıları eğitmeye yeniden başlıyor Voltaire İletişim Ağı | 2 Kasım 2016 français Español Deutsch Português italiano İngiliz Savunma Bakanı Michael Fallon, ülkesinin Özgür Suriye Ordusunu yeniden oluşturacağını duyurdu. Böylece İngiliz Hükümeti, 2014 yılında Başkan Obama tarafından başlatılan « ılımlı » olarak adlandırılan savaşçıların eğitim programını yeniden başlatıyor.
Özgür Suriye Ordusu, 2011 yılında El-Kaide’nin Libyalı önderi Abdülhakim Belhac çevresinde Fransa tarafından oluşturuldu. Söz konusu operasyon, Albay Riyad el-Esat önderliğinde Suriye Ordusundan firar edenlere yapılan bir yardım olarak sunulmuştu. Daha sonra ÖSO üyeleri zamanla El-Kaide’ye katıldı. 2016 yılında, ÖSO etiketi, Türkmen milisleri için bu adı kullanan Türkiye tarafından yeniden canlandırıldı.
ABD’ye gelince, yeni « isyancı savaşçıların » eğitimi için bir buçuk milyar dolar harcamıştı. Öte yandan bu eğitilen insanların tümü bugün El-Kaide’ye katılmış durumdadır.
Dolayısıyla da İngilizlerin yeni programlarının, El-Kaide’ye yönelik yeni bir örtülü yardım olması kuvvetle muhtemel.
Çeviri
Osman Soysal | 1real |
Why Ambassador Stevens Had a Hard Time Getting Through to Hillary | You are here: Home / political cartoon / Why Ambassador Stevens Had a Hard Time Getting Through to Hillary Why Ambassador Stevens Had a Hard Time Getting Through to Hillary October 28, 2016
Robert Gehl reports that when one of Hillary Clinton’s political cronies referred to the four Americans killed in the Benghazi attacks as “ the four guys ,” most Americans couldn’t believe it.
And when Mike Pence found out about it, he couldn’t stay silent.
Via Breitbart and WikiLeaks , we learned about the dismissive term that Clinton advisor Mandy Grunwald used for the four American heroes. She wouldn’t even mention their names (Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Ambassador Chris Stevens).
She was talking about a discussion to include the Benghazi attacks as opening statements for a speech:
Seems odd to put the tributes to the four guys into this statement, since it is mostly the repackaged testimony. We can’t overdo the tributes to them and I think they should be done in person.
Thx
Grunwald Communications
Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence didn’t respond well, Breitbart reports :
“This just came out today…when her staff was preparing her for testimony, an opening statement for the select committee on Benghazi, one of them actually mentioned in an email that she shouldn’t focus too much on the ‘four guys’ who were killed,” said Pence.
“Those were not four guys. Those were four American heroes,” Pence said to shouts of affirmation and applause.
“When she was questioned about the reason for the attacks she actually said of those four American heroes, she actually said, ‘What difference, at this point, does it make?’
He continued, “Let me tell you something, I’m a father of a United States Marine. Anybody who said that, anybody who did that, should be disqualified from ever serving as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.”
“It was Hillary Clinton who left Americans in harm’s way in Benghazi,” Pence remarked to the New Hampshire crowd earlier in his address.
Clinton and her staff’s dismissiveness of these four heroes – who she was responsible for – is absolutely unforgivable . | 1real |
U.S. Senator expands opioid probe to distributors, drugmakers | (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill on Thursday expanded an investigation into the causes of the opioid crisis plaguing the country, seeking information from four more drugmakers and three drug distributors. The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is focusing on the distribution of opioids and the efforts companies made to report and investigate the diversion of drugs for illicit use. The investigation comes at a time when lawmakers and regulators take steps to combat the epidemic of opioid addiction, with 91 Americans dying everyday as a result of overdose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. McCaskill requested for documents and information from opioid manufacturers Mallinckrodt Plc, Endo International Plc, Teva Pharmaceutical and Allergan Plc. In March, McCaskill asked Johnson & Johnson, Mylan NV, Purdue Pharma, Insys Therapeutics Inc and Depomed Inc for internal estimates of the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose of opioids. The senator also sent a request to McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc, focusing on their distribution of opioid products. McCaskill also requested for information on compensation provided that is in any way derived from revenue or profitability targets for sales of opioid products. “We appreciate Senator McCaskill’s inquiry and look forward to thoughtfully answering her questions,” a McKesson spokeswoman said in an email, adding that there was no link between the sale of controlled substances and incentive compensation for the company’s executives. AmerisourceBergen said it would respond to the letter from the Senator, adding it provides daily reports to the regulators about the quantity, type and receiving pharmacy of every single order of controlled substances it distributes. Endo said it received the letter and would provide the Senator with the requested information. Allergan said it is working with the Senator’s office to provide the requested information. The company also said its two branded opioid products – Norco and Kadian – account for 0.1 percent or less of all opioids prescribed in the United States. Israel-based Teva in an email said it is committed to the “appropriate use of opioids and responsible pain management”. Mallinckrodt confirmed receipt of Senator McCaskill’s request for information, adding it has previously met with and provided information to her staff and would continue working with her office. The company noted it manufactures “only generic and non-promoted branded opioids”. Cardinal Health declined to comment. | 0fake |
After ‘Hairspray Live!’: 7 TV Musicals and 5 Lessons Learned - The New York Times | We’re now three years and seven shows into the phenomenon. It’s time to begin drawing conclusions from this continuing experiment. You’ll recall that NBC began the parade in December 2013 with “The Sound of Music Live! ,” which starred Carrie Underwood as Maria. A year later came “Peter Pan Live! ,” also on NBC, and last December the network served up “The Wiz Live!” Fox got into the act this year with “Grease: Live! ,” “The Passion” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and on Wednesday night NBC resumed its December tradition with “Hairspray Live!” [ Review: “Hairspray Live!” Had Power Voices but Still Lacked Power ] Let’s cut to the chase: “The Wiz” was the best by far. But in terms of ratings, which is what this is really all about, “The Sound of Music” is the king (more than 18 million viewers) fueled no doubt by a curiosity factor, since it was first. “Grease” is second at about 12 million, then and “The Wiz” at 11. 5 million. Preliminary numbers for “Hairspray” put it somewhat behind those. But in general the bloom seems to be off the rose, and these musicals are settling into a ratings zone. So maybe the phenomenon continues indefinitely, maybe not. But at this point, we have a pretty good idea of how to make them work. Among the poorest ratings performers and least watchable productions was Fox’s “Rocky Horror” in October, which was not performed live. That made it little more than a remake of the 1975 film version, a wonderful cult favorite built around a performance by Tim Curry. Laverne Cox had the unenviable job of stepping into his shoes as and never looked as if she was doing more than imitating her onscreen predecessor, something that was true of the rest of the cast as well. And for the viewer the enterprise lacked that little bit of spark that comes from knowing you’re watching a live performance. Granted, these are heavily regimented productions with little risk of a catastrophic misstep, but still — it’s fun to dream. Ms. Underwood, the country singer and “American Idol” winner, was the unfortunate sacrificial lamb who proved this point in “The Sound of Music. ” She has a nice voice, but it’s not a stage voice, the kind a classic musical requires. (Also, she’s not an actress.) Anyone thrown into one of these productions as to attract viewers — and the ratings suggested that Ms. Underwood, with her substantial fan base, did attract viewers — is in danger of seeming inadequate next to whatever veteran stage actors are in the show. Ms. Underwood’s weaknesses were only underscored by the presence of Laura Benanti and Audra McDonald. Similarly, Allison Williams, as Peter Pan, was even more of a dud when compared with like Kelli O’Hara and Christian Borle. can work, but only when the production plays to the strengths of those performers. “The Wiz” did — its score was just right for Mary J. Blige and other recording artists in that cast. And Jennifer Hudson, who has starred on Broadway but is better known for her screen and singing careers, was a “Hairspray Live!” highlight, belting out powerful numbers like “I Know Where I’ve Been” and “Big, Blonde and Beautiful. ” Several of these productions, especially “Grease” and “Hairspray,” have gone to downright desperate lengths to try to make an impact on social media and with young demographics (or at least, young demographics that condescending TV executives apparently define as “too stupid to appreciate art for art’s sake”). “Hairspray” kept pausing to introduce us to its squad and to check in on viewing parties in various cities. It’s as if the producers don’t trust the musical itself to be interesting. The thing is, all of these works, even the pop ones like “Grease” and “Hairspray,” have story lines. Some of those stories, like the one in “Hairspray,” are pretty powerful if they’re left alone. But if they’re interrupted so we can hear from supposed fans dressed in period clothes at a viewing party in Philadelphia, they have no chance. “Grease” had a live audience viewing parts of the show. So did “Hairspray. ” But both of these productions sent their casts galloping about from set to set, so the audience wasn’t always there. And when it was present, it sometimes was more cheerleader than audience, whooping it up in a way that called attention to itself. Who wants to tune in a TV show to watch people watching other people perform? Either figure out a higher purpose for a live audience or jettison it, please. “Grease” went by in a blur of blandness. So did “Rocky Horror. ” But people will be talking about Ms. Hudson’s chilling “I Know Where I’ve Been” for a long time. And “memorable” doesn’t necessarily mean “wonderful. ” It can also mean “debatable. ” What other performance are people still talking about? Christopher Walken’s odd Captain Hook in the “Peter Pan. ” Was he lost, dazed, confused? Or slyly brilliant? Hard to say, but kudos for the casting decision. Harvey Fierstein, in contrast, was a safe choice for Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray,” since he played the part on Broadway. Sure, it’s fun to hear his growly voice, but the selection felt like an opportunity missed. | 0fake |
The Latest Test for the White House? Pulling Off Its Easter Egg Roll - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — President Trump received an urgent warning in February, informing him of a crucial date he was about to miss. “FYI manufacturing deadlines for the Easter eggs are near,” said a Twitter post directed at Mr. Trump the first lady, Melania Trump and the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump. “Please reach out!” The message came from Wells Wood Turning Finishing, the company that supplies commemorative wooden eggs for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, the celebration that has drawn 35, 000 people to the South Lawn in recent years. The staff of the company, based in Buckfield, Me. wondered whether the Trumps planned to continue distributing the wooden eggs as party favors, or whether they were even going to have a White House Easter Egg Roll at all. By early March, the White House announced that the roll was on — Monday, to be exact — and soon followed up with a rush order for the wooden eggs. By that time, the ovoid uncertainty had raised a question perhaps not as consequential as investigations into Russian interference in the presidential election, a legally dubious travel ban and a collapsed health care bill, but no less a window into the inner workings of the Trump administration: Could this White House, plagued by slow hiring and lacking an first lady, manage to pull off the largest, most elaborate and most heavily scrutinized public event of the year? “It’s the single most event that takes place at the White House each year, and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on,” said Melinda Bates, who organized eight years of Easter Egg Rolls as director of the White House Visitors Office under President Bill Clinton. “I’m really concerned for the Trump people, because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing is all hands on deck. ” White House party catastrophes have been the stuff of presidential nightmares in the past. During his first year in office, President Barack Obama drew harsh criticism for lax security procedures after a pair of aspiring celebrities successfully crashed a state dinner honoring the prime minister of India, with one of them managing to buttonhole Mr. Obama for a handshake. The late start in planning by the Trump White House points to a smaller and less ambitious Egg Roll than in previous years. There may be half as many guests, a fraction of the number of volunteers to manage the invasion of the South Lawn, and military bands in place of entertainers like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel and Silentó who have performed for Egg Rolls past. White House officials did not respond to several weeks’ worth of inquiries about the Easter Egg Roll, typically a heavily and enthusiastically promoted affair, and declined to provide basic information such as how many people are expected to attend. It is unclear, for instance, whether Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, will reprise his appearance in a bunny suit for the event, as he did a decade ago when George W. Bush was president and Mr. Spicer was an aide in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Stephanie Grisham, who started as Mrs. Trump’s communications director on Monday, had previously denied that the event was being scaled back from past years. But she acknowledged on Tuesday that attendance this year would be “a bit less,” based on feedback from former officials who had said “the event had become so large that many children were not able to enjoy the planned activities. ” “Our team has been working very hard to make this year’s event a success,” Ms. Grisham said. “I am confident that the success of this year’s Easter Egg Roll will speak for itself. ” The evidence points to a quickly affair that people close to the planning said would probably draw about 20, 000 people — substantially smaller than last year’s Easter Egg Roll, which drew 37, 000. It will be staffed by 500 volunteers, Ms. Grisham said, half the usual. Ms. Grisham said she did not have “firm numbers” on the overall number of attendees, and those who provided estimates did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the plans for the Easter Egg Roll, which are still evolving just a week before the event. The White House has ordered 40, 000 of the commemorative eggs — about half of the roughly 85, 000 ordered in 2016 — with 18, 000 to be given away at the Easter Egg Roll and another 22, 000 available for sale, according to Lara Kline, the vice president for marketing and communications at the White House Historical Association, the official retailer. The relatively small number, Ms. Kline said, “is due to the limited manufacturing window for this year’s Easter Egg Roll. ” The employees at Wells Wood Turning were not alone in wondering whether the White House would ever get in touch. public schools that normally receive blocks of tickets for as many as 4, 000 children have yet to hear from the White House, according to representatives for school systems in the District of Columbia Arlington, Va. and Alexandria, Va. Several groups representing military families, who have accounted for as many as 3, 000 guests in recent years, also said they had yet to be contacted. “I’ve had quite a few families from across the country reach out and say: ‘Hey, are we getting tickets? Our family wants to drive in for the event,’” said Ashley the president of the American Military Partner Association, which represents the families of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender service members and has received tickets for five to 10 of them for each of the last several years. “Unfortunately, the Trump administration has not reached out about it. ” But Ms. Grisham said on Tuesday that tickets had been set aside for schools, children’s hospitals and military families. She could not say how many. Even Curious George and Elmo did not know for sure that the Easter Egg Roll was happening until late last month, when the White House first contacted PBS Kids to ask if it could provide costumed characters. “We just got word about this year’s Egg Roll and are working on planning,” Jennifer Rankin Byrne, the senior director of media relations for PBS, said on March 20. The Easter Egg Roll has been crowded in past years with cast members from “Sesame Street,” but this year, there will be a lone emissary. “PBS asked us to participate with them, and we agreed to provide a ‘Sesame Street’ character,” said Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman, the vice president for strategic communications for Sesame Workshop. She declined to say which character would attend, referring questions to the White House. Members of Congress have not received word from the White House about whether they will get tickets to distribute to their constituents. One aide to a Republican lawmaker said White House officials “seem to be a bit behind schedule. ” Nor have the organizers of the Yoga Garden featured on the South Lawn during Easter Egg Rolls been asked to share their asanas. “No one has reached out to me about the 2017 event,” said Leah Cullis, the yogi who coordinated the Yoga Garden for all eight of the Obamas’ Easter Egg Rolls. Mrs. Trump, who lives in New York and has had a limited presence in Washington since her husband was sworn in, has been slow to hire a staff for the East Wing, which typically takes the lead on the Easter Egg Roll. She named a chief of staff and social secretary in early February but has yet to announce a director for the Visitors Office, normally the crucial player in the daunting execution of the event. “You don’t understand what a beast this thing is to plan until you go and plan your first one,” said Ellie Schafer, who organized Easter Egg Rolls for the Obamas as the director of the White House Visitors Office from 2009 to 2016. “Every administration tries to put its own stamp on it, but the stakes are high because it’s such a Washington tradition, and people just love it and have very strong feelings about it. ” Ms. Bates, whose memoir “White House Story” documents the challenges of planning Easter Egg Rolls, said the event was a window — up to a point — into the competence of an administration. “If you can pull off an Easter Egg Roll,” she said, “you can do anything. ” | 0fake |
Democrats and Feds in Dispute on Trump’s D.C. Hotel Lease - The New York Times | ■ The General Services Administration disputed House Democrats on Donald J. Trump’s need to sell off his Washington hotel. ■ Senators suggest Mr. Trump’s pick for national security adviser may not be eligible for a security clearance. ■ Senate Democrats to Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s choice for education secretary: Pay the fines for your campaign finance violations. In a letter to the G. S. A. four ranking Democrats on the committees or subcommittee that oversee federal contracting and ethics rules said the agency that controls federal acquisition policy had informed the that he must sell the Trump International Hotel, which he recently opened just blocks from the White House, or be in breach of his lease with the government the moment he is sworn into office. A spokeswoman for the G. S. A. came right back and said no, it hadn’t. That is quite a different characterization than the one House Democrats gave. They wrote: The problem is fairly straightforward. Mr. Trump will soon be in charge of the agency that issued the lease for the Old Post Office Building, which the transformed unto a luxury hotel. He will also appoint the head of the G. S. A. To avoid such an obvious conflict, the lease that Mr. Trump signed states: “No … elected official of the government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom[. ]” No word yet from Mr. Trump about how he will proceed. Not even the G. S. A. ’s deputy commissioner of public building services has heard a peep in response. But the G. S. A. is not exactly saying all is fine with the hotel. More like, let’s wait until Mr. Trump is actually sworn in. Two Democratic senators are raising a new issue about Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s choice for national security adviser: They are questioning whether he should be allowed to hold a security clearance, citing past investigations into charges that Mr. Flynn leaked classified information and into potential conflicts presented by a private intelligence firm he owns. His business, the Flynn Intel Group, has hazy ties to Middle Eastern countries and has appeared to lobby for the Turkish government, and that “creates potential for pressure, coercion and exploitation by foreign agents,” the two senators, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, said in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Personnel Management. The choice of Mr. Flynn, 57, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to serve as national security adviser has already faced widespread criticism. The job does not require congressional confirmation, and Mr. Flynn’s views on a range of subjects — from the threat posed by radical Islam and Iran to his penchant for conspiracy theories and his belief that the Obama administration has politicized the Central Intelligence Agency — tend to hew to the fringes of Republican Party. He also took a paid speaking engagement last year with Russia Today, a television network funded by the Kremlin, and sat next to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the network’s lavish anniversary party in Moscow. In addition, Mr. Flynn was investigated, but cleared of any wrongdoing, in 2010 for sharing sensitive data with Pakistan about the Haqqani network, a faction of the Taliban, and for providing highly classified intelligence to British and Australian forces fighting in Afghanistan. But it is Mr. Flynn’s business relationships that remain unresolved. He has said he plans to step back from the Flynn Intel Group and let his son, Michael G. Flynn, run it, according to the senators’ letter, which was provided to The New York Times before its release on Wednesday. But that still does not settle the issue, the senators said. “Any share of partnership profits he obtains from the Flynn Intel Group that are derived from its representation of a foreign government would appear to be a violation of his obligation as a retired general to abide by the emoluments clause of the constitution,” Mr. Blumenthal and Ms. Shaheen wrote. Senate Democrats have found a new bit of leverage against Ms. DeVos, the Michigan Republican Party leader who will soon be considered for the cabinet post of education secretary: her unpaid fines for campaign finance violations. Senators Tom Udall of New Mexico, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Wednesday called on Ms. DeVos to pay $5. 3 million in fines and penalties owed by her All Children Matter political action committee for campaign finance violations dating to 2008. All Children Matter broke Ohio election law by illegally sending $870, 000 from its national PAC to its Ohio affiliate. The state of Ohio levied a record fine against the group. But the debt remains unpaid, the senators said. And now a confirmation vote looms. Two billionaire Silicon Valley executives, Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla, and Travis Kalanick of Uber, joined Mr. Trump’s roster of major American business advisers. The addition of Mr. Musk and Mr. Kalanick to Mr. Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum bring big technology names to the inner circle of Mr. Trump’s transition that has had little engagement so far with Silicon Valley, except for the vocal support of the tech investor Peter Thiel. Mr. Musk and Mr. Kalanick engaged closely with the Obama administration, and their companies have increased their lobbying presence in Washington in recent years. Mr. Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, and his other firms, including Solar City and SpaceX, have been criticized by rivals for using federal and state subsidies. Uber, Mr. Kalanick’s business, has roiled the taxi industry and fought municipalities around the world for new regulations that allow it to operate. The forum, which includes the heads of Walt Disney and General Motors, will be led by Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chairman and of the investment firm the Blackstone Group, the Trump transition team announced Wednesday. The group is charged with providing Mr. Trump with their individual views on how regulations affect jobs and economic growth. Mr. Trump’s relationship with the tech sector has been tense. His election was greeted with dismay by many in Silicon Valley, who supported the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the internet policy of net neutrality, and an increase in the immigration of highly skilled workers. Mr. Trump has promised to unroll all of those efforts. Mr. Trump singled out Apple for manufacturing parts of their devices abroad. He also criticized Amazon for its dominance, and its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, for owning The Washington Post, which he said had been unfair in its campaign coverage of him. The announcement that Mr. Musk and Mr. Kalanick were joining his business policy group came ahead of a meeting with several tech leaders at Trump Tower on Wednesday, including Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer. To Mr. Trump, the job of the president is to focus on jobs. Virtually everything else is subservient to that: diplomacy, science, conservation. On Wednesday, he officially tapped former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas to lead the Department of Energy, an agency whose primary tasks are to maintain the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear arsenal, counter nuclear proliferation, clean up Cold War radiation contamination and pursue basic science through the government’s premier research laboratories. His announcement, language errors and all, mentioned none of those: After a rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, he thanked Wisconsin and reiterated his jobs message. It is the prism through which his selection of the Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex W. Tillerson for secretary of state, the Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, and the executive Andrew F. Puzder for labor secretary should be seen. Mr. Trump will meet on Wednesday with leaders of the technology industry, including Mr. Cook, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sandberg. The agenda? Creating jobs. As Mr. Trump prepares to meet with Big Tech, 19 organizations from the music industry, including the Americana Music Association, sent him a letter expressing their concern about content theft over shared platforms. Mr. Trump is familiar with musicians’ concerns about using music without permission — he was criticized during his campaign by artists who did not want their songs played at his rallies. The monumental traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge may have made Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey lie low — and thwarted his chances of getting a cabinet post for him. But it appears to have not affected the prospects of a former Christie aide, Bill Stepien, who mentored the central actors of the “Bridgegate” scandal. Mr. Stepien is now the leading contender to be the White House political director. Two people close to the transition said that Mr. Stepien, who was hired by Mr. Trump’s Jared Kushner, and his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, after the final campaign has been repeatedly mentioned for the role, although the decision is not final. Bridgegate aside, Mr. Stepien is credited by some of Mr. Trump’s closest advisers with helping him improve his field organization in crucial states, and contributing to his victory. Mr. Trump has chosen (who else?) a television star to sing the national anthem at his inauguration on Jan. 20. Jackie Evancho, a singer who gained popularity as a contestant on “America’s Got Talent,” said on Wednesday that it was “a great honor” to be asked to perform by Mr. Trump. Hers is the first name released by the inaugural planning committee for a day that typically features star power. President Obama had Beyoncé perform the anthem in 2013, and asked other artists like Aretha Franklin and James Taylor to deliver supplementary performances at his inaugurations. But there have been reports Mr. Trump is struggling to secure talent after a bruising campaign in which the celebrity class largely turned out to support his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Ms. Evancho met Mr. Trump at his resort in Palm Beach, Fla. in 2011, after she had finished as the on “America’s Got Talent,” NBC’s hit series. She was 10 at the time. “I’m so excited it’s going to be awesome,” she said after making the announcement on NBC’s “Today” show. Ms. Evancho, of course, is too young to vote. As evidence mounts of a effort by Russian intelligence agents to help elect not only Mr. Trump but also Republicans in Congress, Ms. Nancy Pelosi, of California, called for an independent investigation of foreign interference in the 2016 election. One day after top congressional Republicans said an investigation was necessary, Ms. Pelosi questioned their conviction. “That’s a statement of fact,” she told reporters. “That’s not a statement of action. ” She said a panel of outside investigators with subpoena power needed to be convened. “The people have a right to know why Republicans are afraid of the truth,” Ms. Pelosi said. Whether or not that is a good thing depends on your political affiliation: | 0fake |
Even The Author Of Bush’s Torture Memos Says Trump Has Gone Too Far (DETAILS) | The legal mind behind the Bush Administration s illegal wiretapping, torture and other violations of the Geneva Conventions, John Yoo, says that Donald Trump has gone too far with his executive power. When the man who wrote memos that gave the president the power to circumvent international law and ignore acts of Congress thinks you ve gone too far, you ve gone too far.Since Trump took office and began a string of questionable presidential actions, Yoo has become an in-vogue political pundit again. It s kind of like an old criminal helping the authorities profile the new criminal, except they never caught Yoo. In a New York Times op-ed Yoo wrote earlier this year, he suggested that Trump understand the Constitution s grant of executive power. He went on to say that the new President should lead, the executive branch in a unified direction, rather than viewing the government as the enemy. He should realize that the Constitution channels the president toward protecting the nation from foreign threats, while cooperating with Congress on matters at home. According to Charlie Savage, Pulitzer Prize-winning executive powers expert, Yoo thought that the President could do literally anything to stop terror and didn t have to confer with Congress when it came to war-time efforts. But surprisingly, John Yoo argued that the construction of a border wall and the withdrawal from trade deals, like NAFTA and TPP were unconstitutional. He even came out against Trump s Muslim ban.But before anyone thought about celebrating this most unlikely Trump critic, Twitter made sure to ask why anyone was listening to him anyway.Why am I still outraged the NY Times would give John Yoo, the Nazi torture jurist, op-ed space Dan O Sullivan (RIP) (@Bro_Pair) May 19, 2017It really, really bothers me that war criminal John Yoo is still an in-demand political pundit Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) May 18, 2017This one really digs in Dear @axios, please don t describe John Yoo as a leading thinker on executive power. Better to say Torture Memos author. Peter Daou (@peterdaou) May 18, 2017Yoo s most recent New York Times article is titled, Forget Watergate. Think Iran-Contra. It s hard to read a cerebral breakdown of executive powers dos and don ts this evil it feels like he s giving Trump actually good advice. The last thing we need is Trump to have an actual expert as an adviser. He writes that Trump should treat the Russia-Comey scandal like Reagan did the Iran-Contra. Reagan definitely got away with that. Yoo is definitely trying to help Trump. Though, he may have said to much. There is one reminder a silver lining in Yoo s article. It s a point that may have been forgotten. Contrary to common wisdom, impeachment does not require the president to commit a crime but instead refers to extreme political mistakes or even incompetence. | 1real |
Belgian mayor's throat slashed in cemetery, shocking country | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The murder of a Belgian city mayor whose throat was cut in a cemetery on Monday has shocked the country, and the country s prime minister expressed horror at the death of the retired national lawmaker. Citing the public prosecutor, Belgian media said Alfred Gadenne, 71, the conservative mayor of Mouscron, an industrial town of 57,000 just across the border from the northern French city of Lille, was found dead in a graveyard close to his home where he acted as caretaker and locked the gates each night. Local news service SudInfo, citing unnamed sources, said a suspect had handed himself in to police and that the motive was unclear. The case was handed to a local prosecutor rather than to national counter-terrorism investigators. I have learned with horror of the brutal death of Alfred Gadenne, Prime Minister Charles Michel, a liberal, said on Twitter. All my thoughts are with his family and friends. Among the many others offering condolences was Martine Aubry, the former French Socialist party leader and long-time mayor of metropolitan Lille. Philippe Courard, president of the parliament for Belgium s French-speaking south, tweeted: Terrifying. What kind of world are we living in? | 0fake |
At least 11 Afghan civilians killed in air strike, local official says | KABUL (Reuters) - At least 11 Afghan civilians were killed and 16 wounded on Wednesday when a NATO helicopter attacked a house where Taliban insurgents had taken shelter in Logar province, east of the capital, Kabul, the local governor said. There was no immediate confirmation that NATO or U.S. aircraft were involved, but a spokesman for Resolute Support, the NATO-led mission in Kabul, said in an emailed statement it was aware of the reports and was looking into them. Logar Governor Halim Fedaee said the incident occurred in Dashte Bari district near the provincial capital Pul-e Alam. The Taliban took position in a civilian house and fired a rocket at a NATO helicopter, the governor said. The house owner begged the Taliban to leave, but they didn t. The helicopter took a turn, came and hit this house that caused these deaths. The incident, a day after reports that an Afghan air strike killed at least 13 civilians in the western province of Herat, underlines the risk that a recent increase in air raids by U.S. and Afghan forces will increase civilian casualties. United Nations figures showed a 43 percent spike in civilian casualties from both Afghan and U.S. air strikes in the first half of the year, with 95 killed and 137 wounded, as the pace of air operations has increased. Civilian casualties caused by U.S. air strikes have long been a source of friction in Afghanistan, and the risk of further casualties may increase if the U.S. steps up operations as part of President Donald Trump s new strategy for Afghanistan. Earlier, Resolute Support denied a Taliban statement that a U.S. helicopter had been shot down in Logar province. It said a helicopter had made a precautionary landing for a maintenance issue. | 0fake |
YIKES! Tomi Lahren DEMOLISHES Hillary: “How Dare You Blame Donald Trump…EXCUSE ME?…Did 4 Americans Die On His Watch In Benghazi? [VIDEO] | Wow! Bravo Tomi! You really nailed it this time Enjoy! This notion that political incorrectness is somehow responsible for terror attacks is absolute BS! Do you think we are stupid? How dare you blame this crap on Donald Trump! Excuse me? Was he Secretary of State? Did 4 Americans die on his watch in Benghazi? | 1real |
CINDY MCCAIN Reportedly Accepts Trump Administration Position On Same Day Husband John McCain’s Outrageous Pro-Obama, Anti-Trump Remarks Are Released | The Hill released controversial comments sore loser and RINO Senator John McCain made about Trump s leadership:Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said American leadership was stronger under President Trump s predecessor, President Barack Obama, according to a Guardian report published Sunday.Asked if the country stood on sturdier ground under Obama s leadership, McCain said yes, according to the report. As far as American leadership is concerned, yes, said McCain, who also vocally criticized many of the Obama administration s foreign policy decisions.For months, President Donald Trump has been trying to convince Cindy McCain a respected voice on refugees and other humanitarian issues and wife of Sen. John McCain, a Trump critic to join his administration. Now, it s a done deal for both parties, according to two senior administration officials.After months of being offered and rejecting several potential posts in the Trump administration, Cindy McCain and the president came to the agreement of a Washington, D.C.-based ambassador-at-large position, which would focus on anti human trafficking efforts, refugees, and humanitarian-aid matters. The title being kicked around internally is U.S. ambassador-at-large for human rights, though that title is subject to change, and it is unclear if a new office within the State Department would be created for her. [Trump personally], aggressively courted her for this, one White House official told The Daily Beast. It s a done deal now The president had floated several positions before this is the one that stuck. A formal announcement of that new role is expected within a matter of weeks. Early last month, the Associated Press was the first to report that Cindy McCain was expected to be offered a prominent role in the Trump administration s State Department. For entire story: The Daily Beast | 1real |
[VIDEO] CARLY TAKES ON THE VIEW Hacks Only Days After Saying She Has A “Demented Face” And A “Halloween Mask” | So, if the hosts on this show are just comedians, does that mean the low information voters who follow them will stop taking these hacks so seriously? Friday on ABC s The View, Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina fought toe to toe with the co-hosts over their comments disparaging her face as demented and a Halloween Mask. After small talk, Whoopi Goldberg brought up the subject saying, How about humor? I m going the bring it up because there are going to be lots of comics saying lots of things. I wondered, because we saw some of the that you were a little upset with us about a comic comment that was made. And so, how will you steel your skin? How will you get a thicker skin to accept some of the humorous things that will be said about you? Fiorina said, Well, hey, if you meant your comment about my face being demented and a Halloween mask as humorous, so be it. I guess you misinterpreted Donald Trump s questions. I have a real thick skin. Joy Behar said, I defended you against Donald Trump s comment. He s running for president of the United States and he was making a nasty comment about your looks. I took him on. On this show, but, we are comedians here. I make fun of Hillary s pantsuits. Hillary s husband s sex life. Rep. John Boehner s tan. Who else? I don t understand why any politician is exempt from my jokes. Here s the clip from Carly s awesome interview:Fiorina answered, You know what, Joy. You know what, Joy? You can say whatever you want. You always have. You always will. I m not going to stop that. And don t worry, I have skin plenty thick enough to the take whatever people throw at me. I m making a different point. The different point is this. I think that there are real issues in this nation that we ought to be able to discuss in a fact-based, civil fashion. Michelle Collins said, I want to add that the demented comment was a poor choice of words. It was responding to something you said during the debates. That people were telling you the smile more. To me, it felt like it was not your natural state of mind. It was not on your looks, it was on your expression. It felt like you were being told to smile more. I m wondering, is that difficult for you? Do you have people coaching you to act or be a different way? Will that help you win the election? Fiorina shot back, First of all, I don t have people coaching me to act a different way or be a different way. There s a time to smile and a time to be serious. When you re talking about burying a child, it s not time to smile. There are serous issues facing the nation. Goldberg said, We had you here. I thought we were pretty respectful. I have to tell you, having watched some of the press that you have garnered based on this fake feud with The View, I m a little taken aback. Because you kind of said that that somehow liberal women are that we re made uncomfortable by conservative women. We were not uncomfortable with you. Did you think we were uncomfortable with you when you were on? Fiorina said, First of all, Whoopi. I enjoyed being on the show. The first time. and I m enjoying being on the show the second time. And I think The View garnered a lot of publicity over the feud as well. I think that s why we re on. Goldberg said, We haven t put out any ads or anything. Fiorina said, I haven t put out any ads either, Whoopi. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Sinjar: Kurds try to retake key Iraqi town from ISIS | Sinjar, Iraq (CNN) Plumes of smoke blackened the sky above Sinjar as Kurdish forces, backed by intense coalition air support, tried Thursday to take back the northern Iraqi town from ISIS .
The operation includes up to 7,500 Peshmergas -- the Kurdish military force -- who are attacking the city from three sides to take control of supply routes, according to the Kurdish Region Security Council.
CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is with one of the three fronts of fighters who launched their liberation operation early Thursday morning against a backdrop of airstrikes.
The U.S.-backed coalition Operation Inherent Resolve said coalition aircraft have conducted more than 250 airstrikes across northern Iraq in the last month. The strikes have reportedly destroyed ISIS fighting positions, command and control facilities, weapon storage facilities, improvised explosive device factories, and staging areas.
"A pitch-black sky was lit up by a lot of coalition airstrikes following days of bombing. At dawn, a large procession of Peshmerga started snaking their way through Sinjar mountain and behind it," Paton Walsh said.
The coalition strikes were pounding the strategic city itself, he said, with four different columns of smoke darkening the horizon above: "The strikes on Sinjar almost make the sky over it look black. There's a vast amount of air power -- more intense than the fight for Kobani."
According to a Pentagon spokesman, U.S. troops are in the field calling in airstrikes from positions in Sinjar.
"The Peshmerga forces are carrying this out with, as you said, the support of coalition advisers. There are U.S. personnel. My understanding is there are coalition advisers from other countries as well participating," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters.
He added: "Most of those folks as I understand it are behind the front lines advising and working directly with Peshmerga commanders. There are some advisers who are on Sinjar mountain assisting in the selection of airstrike targets."
Late Thursday, the Kurdish Region Security Council released a statement detailing the day's operations. It reported that more than 150 square kilometers (60 square miles) had been retaken from ISIS.
"Peshmerga units will continue from three fronts to set up defensive positions, allowing engineering teams to clear the heavily mined area. Peshmerga forces have already achieved two of three strategic goals, dealing a significant blow to ISIL morals," it read, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. "The final objective -- to enter and clear the city -- will be underway soon."
Reclaiming Sinjar is one big step toward dividing the "caliphate" that ISIS claims it is establishing across the region.
The artery that passes through the town links the Iraqi city of Mosul -- ISIS' prized possession -- with cities it holds in Syria.
Paton Walsh said the highway was a key goal for the Kurdish fighters, who were equipped with vehicles ranging from pickup trucks to armored Humvees.
"One of the targets of this offensive is the highway that runs through Sinjar, known as Route No. 47 to many. Now that's very important, not only of course because of what it does to liberate the population of Sinjar -- those who've not fled ISIS rule having endured it now for over a year -- but also because it is a vital supply route towards Mosul, another key target of any future coalition offensive," he said.
About 1.5 million people still live in Mosul, where prices are rising and activists report hunger.
The U.S.-backed coalition said "Operation Free Sinjar" was aimed at clearing ISIS from Sinjar and seizing portions of Highway 47.
"By controlling Highway 47, which is used by Da'ish to transport weapons, fighters, illicit oil, and other commodities that fund their operations, the Coalition intends to increase pressure on Da'ish and isolate their components from each other," it said in a statement. Da'ish is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"This operation will degrade Da'ish's resupply efforts, disrupt funding to the terrorist group's operations, stem the flow of Da'ish fighters into Iraq, and further isolate Mosul from Ar Raqqah," said coalition spokesman Col. Christopher C. Garver. The Syrian city of Ar Raqqah, also spelled Raqqa, is ISIS' de facto capital.
By Thursday afternoon, the Kurdish fighters pushing toward Sinjar had taken control of a number of villages near the Iraqi town.
"Along that highway there's one village, Kabara, that's been repeatedly hammered by airstrikes in the past hour or so and a lot of Kurdish forces have managed to move into the main road," Paton Walsh said. Tweets by Kurdish fighters showed that almost all the vehicles in the village had been "burned to a crisp."
Before the push to retake Sinjar began, Kurdish fighters said they knew it wouldn't be easy.
Peshmerga commanders estimate some 600 ISIS fighters are inside Sinjar, with recent reinforcements boosting the militants' numbers. The Kurdish fighters believe they will encounter hundreds of landmines and booby traps.
Paton Walsh said it was unclear how ISIS would respond to the offensive.
"As you've seen in the past, sometimes ISIS have decided that certain fights are not worth them staying for the long haul, and I think there is a certain amount of manpower and mass here -- and also coalition air power, which we heard from the top of Mount Sinjar, during a very dark, cold night yesterday, pound targets consistently around that particular city."
Paton Walsh said there had been a "substantial uptick" in airstrikes on Sinjar in the days leading up to the launch of the offensive.
Speaking to CNN's Fareed Zakaria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he's confident Sinjar will fall, but was reluctant to say when.
"But I am convinced that Sinjar will be liberated, as we have liberated Tikrit. And currently the Iraqi forces are moving on Ramadi," he said.
"President Obama, at the very beginning, said we're going to degrade and defeat ISIL. We're going to stabilize the countries in the region -- Jordan, Lebanon, work with Turkey -- and we are going to seek a political settlement," he said. "That is exactly the strategy today and it is working -- to a degree -- not as fast as we would like, perhaps, but we are making gains."
"I think the issue will be for ISIS, given the nature of the offensive -- from three different directions -- quite what their best strategy is: to sit here and try and symbolically hold it as long as they can, or pull out," Paton Walsh said.
"ISIS of course may also be feeling pressure on other fronts. There's been a lot of talk about the possibility of a move against Ramadi for the past few months.
"We've not seen any evidence of that at this particular stage but there is a genuine feeling that maybe the coalition -- after months of paralysis, months of calm -- might also slowly be beginning to get some kind of harmony or synchronicity here in terms of moving on separate fronts against ISIS and perhaps stretching what resources they have a little bit thinner."
A coalition spokesman in Baghdad told reporters later Thursday that Iraqi security forces had begun to encircle Ramadi, with support from coalition air power.
ISIS fighters swept into Ramadi in May, tightening control of Iraq's Anbar province and gaining a base of operations about 110 kilometers (70 miles) away from the capital, Baghdad.
Paton Walsh said the operation to retake Sinjar was important symbolically.
"The Peshmerga here want to show that they can be united with coalition air power, with Western military advisers, who we understand are in their midst here as well, to launch a successful -- and they hope brief -- offensive towards this town, but also strategically, because of what Sinjar could mean in the future, down the line."
He said the Kurdish fighters appeared optimistic they would take back Sinjar.
"I think the hope amongst the Peshmerga and the coalition is that the level of manpower they have here, their dominance in the skies, means potentially this could be over in days," he said. "But with a town of this size which had tens of thousands living in it before -- which ISIS has had months to prepare for an onslaught against -- this could turn out to be trickier than some are hoping."
Retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a CNN military analyst, agreed that the fight in Sinjar would be slow going.
"They're going to have to slog through this house by house, street by street," he said. "It's going to be very difficult."
More than a year under ISIS
Since then, Sinjar has become a chaotic jumble of demolished buildings held by ISIS fighters.
"There is no reliable estimate as to how many civilians still live inside of Sinjar," Paton Walsh said.
"You can tell how many seem to have fled, from the tents the Yazidis have erected up around Mount Sinjar -- even in this bitter cold -- still enduring a life here, wanting to be near their hometown. But that is the key concern obviously in situations like this. Many will be fearing that the amount of lead-up time has given ISIS adequate ability to ensure the civilian population are in place to assist them in protecting themselves."
The Peshmerga said they wanted to establish a buffer zone to protect the civilian population, but it was not entirely clear how that would physically work, Paton Walsh said.
With the operation to retake the town looming, some 5,000 Yazidi fighters were mobilized under the command of the Kurdish Peshmerga. Most are farmers; a very few have military experience.
The Yazidis are one of the world's smallest and oldest monotheistic religious minorities. Their religion is considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and the ancient monotheistic religion of Zoroastrianism. In ISIS' eyes, they're infidels.
The Yazidis and Kurds have lived side by side for thousands of years and are friendly neighbors.
The Kurds are Sunni Muslims, who have their own unique language and culture. They occupy an autonomous region in northern Iraq, but the Kurdish homeland also covers portions of Iran, Turkey, Armenia and Syria. | 0fake |
POPULAR CONSERVATIVE SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS Says Trump Is More About A Movement Than A Man…Tells PAUL RYAN To Get On Board Trump Train Or Get Run Over | Senator Jess Sessions tough love talk may be exactly what the dyed-in-the-wool establishment Republicans need to hear right now. The support for Trump is not going to go away, it s only going to get stronger as we watch the violent antics of the Left who are desperate to take him down. Americans have been witnessing un-checked corruption and outright lawlessness that has taken place at the hands of mostly Democrats in D.C. for decades. The unwillingness of the Republican leadership in Washington to stop the march of Socialism over the past eight years however, has hit us like a two-by-four between the eyes. Americans may or may not agree with everything Trump says, but one thing is for certain, we are looking for someone who has the will to fight, and that person is Donald J. Trump. Whether Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney or John McCain jump on board is of little or no consequence to the Republican voter who is 100% FED UP with the lot of them Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Donald Trump s friendly but fierce Alabama ally, has a message for Republicans still queasy about their party s nominee: Tide s about to roll over you. Sessions, a 69-year-old former state attorney general who famously donned the Make America Great Again trucker s cap at a massive rally in Mobile last August, thinks Trump is more a movement than a man. And this sprightly son of country preachers and teachers is on a mission to evangelize maybe-Trumpers like House Speaker Paul Ryan on the Gospel According to Donald with a sermon on self-preservation. I think [Ryan] needs to recognize, on some of these issues, Trump is where the Republicans are and if you re going to be a Republican leader you should be supportive of that, Sessions told me during a taping of POLITICO s Off Message podcast in his Senate office last week. My advice is to listen and accept the will of the American people, the Republican voters the Republican Party is the Republican voters, he added a pointed reference to Ryan s suggestion that he, and not the presumptive party nominee, represents authentic conservative values. Give me a break! A lot of our drift within our party has gotten away from [the will of the voters]. I think the leaders in all parties tend to adjust to reality. They just have to or they won t remain in office. Already many are sensing it. Via: Politico | 1real |
Draft-Dodger Trump Said Sleeping Around Was My ‘Personal Vietnam’ | In a 1997 Howard Stern interview, the future presidential candidate likened sleeping with multiple women to service in the war he repeatedly avoided.
Draft-dodger Donald Trump once said that the danger he faced from getting sexually transmitted diseases was his own “personal Vietnam.”
In a 1997 interview with shock jock Howard Stern, Trump talked about how he had been “lucky” not to have contracted diseases when he was sleeping around.
“I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there. It’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam-era,” Trump said in a video that resurfaced Tuesday on Buzzfeed, “It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
It wasn’t the only time the Republican frontrunner for president would liken his personal life to wartime service: Trump has claimed that his military-themed boarding school education was essentially equivalent to having being trained in the military.
When Trump had his chance to join the military and fight in Vietnam, he did not take it. Instead, the rich kid got multiple student deferments from the draft and a medical deferment. Meanwhile, men like John McCain were being tortured as prisoners of war, but Trump has said that is dishonorable. ’
“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said of McCain last year. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”
Trump has wrapped his campaign in veterans issues, routinely lamenting that they’ve been treated “terribly.” The candidate even held a fundraiser for veterans groups in lieu of attending a debate just before the Iowa caucuses.
Since running for office, Trump has made a show of fundraising for veterans—offering veterans groups six-figures to be props at campaign rallies. But when vets groups have stood up to him, refusing to be dragged into the campaign, scores of Trump fans have sent them vile and harassing messages.
In the 1980s, Trump tried to have disabled veteran street vendors thrown off Fifth Avenue, accusing the Vietnam-era soldiers of ruining how the street in front of Trump Tower looked. Before his presidential campaign, Trump’s charitable foundation gave more to the Clintons than to veterans organizations.
Trump has suggested he would be tremendous for veterans if elected president, but his efforts so far have been questionable.
In July 2015, Trump announced that he would be setting up a hotline for veterans to share their stories about the need to reform the VA. Today, a call to the hotline leads merely to a voicemail box, which instructs the caller to send them an email. | 0fake |
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Refuses To Debate Primary Challenger | Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz s career is in jeopardy as a wave of resentful backlash in the Democratic Party over corrupt politics has affiliated her with everything that is wrong with establishment politics. Her poor leadership and lack of impartiality as Chair of the Democratic National Committee has disenfranchised millions of Democrats around the country, and has inspired thousands of progressive independents to not only support Senator Bernie Sanders for president, but her Democratic Primary Challenger, Tim Canova, as well.Refusing to take money from corporations or Super PACs, Mr. Canova has raised over $550,000 in the first quarter of 2016 from small donations averaging $20 each. Ms. Wasserman Schultz s flailing public image began its downward spiral after allegations surfaced she rigged the debate schedule of the Democratic Primaries to shield Hillary Clinton, on whose campaign she served as co-chair in 2008, from exposure.Now Debbie Wasserman Schultz is shielding herself from exposure by refusing to debate her Democratic primary challenger. On April 11th, Tim Canova tweeted a video clip of a Debbie Wasserman Schultz s District Director, Jodi Bock Davidson, swatting a cell phone out of one of Mr. Canova s campaign staffers hand after asking Debbie Wasserman Schultz if she would agree to a debate. Most staffers of politicians would have lost their job after such an incident, but Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is no stranger to dirty politics, most likely applauded the response. Mr. Canova told a local South Florida newspaper he has sent three letters to the Debbie Wasserman Schultz campaign requesting to schedule a debate and has yet to receive any response. He has also started a petition on his campaign website for Debbie Wasserman Schultz to debate him. Debbie Wasserman Schultz continues to remain silent regarding his inquiries. She has often dodged questions about her primary opponent, hoping his surge will go away on its own if she ignores it. She told the Miami Herald Tim Canova won t change her campaign strategy, which makes little sense as she has never been challenged in her Democratic Primary since she entered Congress in 2004 until now, and her congressional district consists overwhelmingly of Democrats. It s no different than any other election I have. I have been on the ballot virtually every time. I do the same thing no matter whether I have primary opposition, she said in the interview.Ms. Wasserman Schultz also dodged a question regarding why she thinks Tim Canova has gained the popularity he has. I really don t know, answered Ms. Wasserman Schultz. I am focused as I usually do on my own campaign, doing the best job I can to represent my constituents and that s my first responsibility is to do my job in Congress, to help elect a Democratic president and to make sure that in running for re-election people know the work I have done on their behalf. I m not remotely paying attention to what my opponent does. Apparently, not remotely paying attention to her opponent is synonymous with ignoring their requests to debate so voters can grasp a sense of where the two candidates differ on important issues to the constituency base. Ms. Wasserman Schultz s failure to engage with Tim Canova in a debate setting is undemocratic and sets a terrible example for the rest of the Democratic Party from its own Chair.Featured image via Flickr | 1real |
Obama plans to increase number of refugees admitted to U.S.: media | (Reuters) - The Obama Administration plans to increase the number of refugees admitted to the United States by 30 percent in fiscal year 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an annual refugee report submitted to Congress. Secretary of State John Kerry presented the new target of 110,000 in the 2017 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, up from 85,000 in 2016, during a closed session to members of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Tuesday, according to the newspaper. Kerry has said repeatedly over the past year that the United States would admit at least 100,000 refugees in fiscal 2017 and try to admit more if it were able. | 0fake |
Final Republican tax bill slashes U.S. corporate rate, voting next week | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans on Friday unveiled the final version of their dramatic U.S. tax overhaul - debt-financed cuts for businesses, the wealthy and some middle-class Americans - and picked up crucial support from two wavering senators ahead of planned votes by lawmakers early next week. Passage of the biggest U.S. tax rewrite since 1986 would provide Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump their first major legislative victory since he took office in January. Prospects for approval soared after Republican senators Marco Rubio and Bob Corker pledged support. Three Republican senators, enough to defeat the measure in a Senate that Trump’s party controls with a slim 52-48 majority, remained uncommitted: Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Mike Lee. The final version hammered out between Senate and House of Representatives Republicans after each chamber previously passed competing versions contained no surprises. It would cut the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, according to a summary distributed to reporters by congressional tax writers. Corporate tax lobbyists have been seeking a tax cut of this magnitude for many years. The bill, the summary showed, would create a 20-percent business income tax deduction for owners of “pass-through” businesses, such as partnerships and sole proprietorships; allow for immediate write-off by corporations of new equipment costs; and eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax. Under a new territorial system, the bill would exempt U.S. corporations from taxes on most of their future foreign profits. It also sets a one-time tax for companies to repatriate more than $2.6 trillion now held overseas, at rates of 15.5 percent for cash and cash-equivalents and 8 percent for illiquid assets. If passed by Congress, the changes would be in effect for 2018 taxes, with tax returns for 2017 unaffected. Democrats have been unified against the measure, calling it a giveaway to corporations and the rich that would drive up the federal deficit. Bernie Sanders, a leading liberal voice in the Senate who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, called the bill “a moral and economic obscenity.” “It is a gift to wealthy Republican campaign contributors and an insult to the working families of our country,” Sanders said. Republicans have said the tax cuts are needed because the economy is not expanding quickly enough. “Now the American people are closer to a plan that will deliver higher wages, lower taxes, a simpler system, and a stronger American economy,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said. The House was expected to vote on the bill on Tuesday. Republicans have a large majority there, and passage was expected despite Democratic opposition. The bill would then go to the Senate. Republicans can afford to lose only two votes from within their own ranks and still win Senate passage. The tax bill was expected to add at least $1 trillion to the 20 trillion U.S. national debt over 10 years, making it an unusual example of deficit spending on stimulative tax cuts at a time when the economy is already expanding. For months, Trump has touted the bill as a middle-class tax cut. Studies from independent analysts and non-partisan congressional researchers have projected that corporations and the rich would benefit disproportionately. The Republican bill would maintain the existing seven individual and family income tax brackets with rates of 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35 and 37 percent. That top rate, for the highest-earning Americans, would be cut from today’s 39.6 percent. Republicans abandoned their quest to eliminate the estate tax on inherited assets, a move that would have benefited the richest Americans. But they did propose increasing the exemption for the tax to $10 million from $5 million person. The bill does not eliminate Wall Street’s so-called carried interest loophole that allows fund managers to claim a lower capital gains tax rate on profits from investments held more than a year. Getting rid of the loophole was a Trump campaign pledge. Instead, the legislation makes it harder for some fund managers to take advantage of the loopholes by requiring them to hold investments for more than three years before claiming it. Trump, who last year promised voters major tax cuts, wants a bill on his desk before the Dec. 25 Christmas holiday so he can sign it into law and finish 2017 with at least one big win in Congress before the 2018 mid-term election campaigns, when Republicans will defend their Senate and House of Representatives majorities. Since sweeping to power in Washington in January, Trump and his fellow Republicans have failed to pass major legislation including a promised healthcare overhaul, while Trump’s public approval ratings have remained low. Since last month, Republicans have lost hard-fought elections in Alabama and Virginia. Stock markets have been rallying for months in anticipation of sharply lower tax rates for corporations, wealthy financiers and business owners, all of which the bill would deliver. Wall Street’s three major stock indexes closed at record highs on Friday, driven by corporate tax rates that looked likely to pass. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.58 percent to 24,651.74, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.90 percent to 2,675.81 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 1.17 percent, to 6,936.58. As the tax package evolved, it tilted increasingly toward benefiting businesses and the wealthy. Provisions for offsetting the revenue costs of last-minute changes were troublesome for some lawmakers. Rubio said he would support the bill after its approach to the child tax credit was changed. The bill doubles the credit, meant to help reduce the costs of raising kids, to $2,000 per dependent child under the age of 17, with a refundable portion of $1,400. That refundable portion was raised from $1,100 at the last minute to win Rubio’s backing. Lee called the change to the child credit “a big win” but stopped short of endorsing the bill until he saw the details. Corker, a fiscal hawk who opposed an earlier bill that passed the Senate because of its deficit impact, said the final measure was “far from perfect” but he would support it, calling it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to help U.S. businesses. Collins has remained non-committal, in part out of concern about a provision that would repeal the fine imposed under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, on Americans who do not obtain health insurance. Flake has said he needs to see all the details before supporting the measure. The Senate vote outlook has been complicated by Republican Senator John McCain’s hospitalization for treatment for side effects of cancer therapy. His office said he “looks forward to returning to work as soon as possible.” Vice President Mike Pence has delayed a trip to the Middle East in case his vote is needed to break a Senate tie. | 0fake |
Twitter Just BANNED Martin Shkreli For Cyberstalking An Anti-Trump Teen Vogue Writer (SCREENSHOTS) | Martin Shkreli is a creep and not just because he raised the price of a life-saving medication astronomically then spent every waking hour snarkily defending that awful decision or any of the other bazillion terrible things he has done that have previously made headlines. Shreli finally did something so horrible that even Twitter couldn t tolerate it. Joining the ranks of white supremacist right-wing trolls Milo Yiannopolos and Charles Johnson , he now finds himself banned from Twitter after harassing a Teen Vogue writer.Lauren Duca, who penned the legendary and scathing Donald Trump is Gaslighting America op-ed that came as close as is possible to literally causing conservative heads to explode, received a rather creepy message from Shkreli on Thursday and decided to share it with the world. It was regarding Trump s inauguration, and Shkreli s desire for her to be his plus one. Obviously, this was intended to harass Duca rather than as an actual invitation; it is, of course, obvious that she would not wish to attend, so she offered the appropriate response: I would rather eat my own organs. I would rather eat my own organs pic.twitter.com/IgeCRZqk8w Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) January 5, 2017But Shkreli didn t stop there. He responded by adding a line to his Twitter bio, reading that he has a small crush on @laurenduca. Then, he changed his profile photo to that of Duca and her husband, with his own face Photoshopped on top of Mr. Duca s. Then, he changed his banner to a mega-creepy collage of photos of Duca and, just to top it all off, lyrics from All-4-One s I Swear.Shkreli s followers then bombarded Duca with more Photoshopped images of her together with him. Reached for comment shortly before the suspension, Shkreli told The Verge that he didn t view his actions as against Duca s will because she did not tell him to stop or respond to his creepy messages at all.Twitter banned Shkreli s account Sunday afternoon, shortly after Duca tweeted screenshots to CEO Jack Dorsey.Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Politifact’s Scorecards For Clinton, Kaine Versus Trump, Pence Should Make Every Republican Cry | Following all the idiotic drama of Donald Trump s choosing Mike Pence of Indiana for his running mate, Hillary Clinton s choice of Senator Tim Kaine may have seemed a little lackluster to some. However, Kaine compliments Hillary in a way that many people probably haven t thought of, and their pairing makes Trump and Pence look far worse now than before.Politifact, which Republicans revile because they think facts are pesky, annoying things to be ignored, put out a scorecard with the ratings of 27 statements Tim Kaine has made. It turns out that he has more statements rated True and Mostly True than he does Half True, Mostly False, and False put together. He has no Pants On Fire ratings at all.Compare that to Mike Pence. Politifact has rated 20 statements Pence has made, and of those 20, only four are True or Mostly True. Four! He has six Half True statements and six False statements. His only saving grace here is that he also doesn t have any Pants On Fire ratings.A look at Hillary Clinton s and Donald Trump s Politifact scorecards just drives home the point that the GOP is riddled with people who lie and spread misinformation. Trump, being the master liar he is, has more False and Pants On Fire statements than he does Mostly False, Half True, Mostly True and True statements combined.Hillary, on the other hand, has more True and Mostly True statements than she does Half True, Mostly False, False and Pants On Fire all together, just like her chosen running mate. These two are a good team just on that basis.So is it really any wonder that Hillary introduced her running mate as everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not? Of course, she was talking about the policies that Trump and Pence are putting together, but the ability to acknowledge facts and tell the truth is another major way in which Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are not, well, anything like any Republican we ve got.In other words, we have two presidential tickets that illustrate Republican honesty versus Democratic honesty, and Democratic honesty wins hands down. Facts don t lie, and unfortunately for the GOP, facts have a liberal bias.Photo of Clinton/Kaine by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. Photo of Trump/Pence by Alex Wong/Getty Images. Images merged by Rika Christensen | 1real |
(VIDEO) MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT SCORCHES AMERICAN FLAG STOMPERS | Medal of Honor recipient @Dakota_Meyer asking you to stand up against those who disrespect the flag #NeverOutgunned https://t.co/n8Fb9SjwAn FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) May 5, 2015 | 1real |
Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Still Faces Pushback - The New York Times | Today is Martin Luther King’s Birthday, the federal holiday that honors the assassinated civil rights leader. Well, not everywhere. All 50 states celebrate the public holiday on the third Monday in January, but not all states, cities and towns dedicate it solely to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Some package it as a broader celebration of both Dr. King and Confederate leaders. naming differences are remnants of fierce opposition to a holiday that was not officially recognized by all states until 1999. Here is a brief history of how Martin Luther King Jr. Day came to be. How Did Martin Luther King Jr. Day Become a Holiday? A federal holiday honoring Dr. King was first proposed four days after he was assassinated, in 1968, but it took almost two decades of campaigning for it to be approved and designated at the national level. In the meantime, according to the King Center, a few Northern states approved the holiday from 1973 to 1975: Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and, by court order, New Jersey. But momentum slowed and Congress did not act. Advocates led by Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, spent years lobbying for the holiday, testifying before Congress and gathering millions of signatures on petitions. President Jimmy Carter expressed support for the federal holiday in 1979. The singer Stevie Wonder became a prominent supporter, too, financing a Washington lobbying office and releasing a hit 1980 song in support, “Happy Birthday. ” The campaign finally succeeded in 1983, when Congress passed the King Holiday Bill and President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. The third Monday in January would be celebrated as Martin Luther King Jr. Day starting in 1986. Who Opposed It? Proposals to honor Dr. King met strong resistance in Congress, and when the holiday was enacted, many states were slow to acknowledge it. New Hampshire became the last state to officially recognize the holiday in 1999 after years of acrimonious debate. When the proposal to create the holiday was debated in Congress in 1979, Republicans led the charge against it. The strongest opposition came from lawmakers in the Deep South, such as Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, and Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, who ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform. Opponents argued that giving federal employees a new paid vacation day would be too expensive and that it was inappropriate to bestow such an honor upon Dr. King because he had never held elected office, according to an essay by Donald R. Wolfensberger, a congressional scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. When the measure failed in 1979, Representative Cardiss Collins, Democrat of Illinois and leader of the Congressional Black Caucus at the time, said she believed that racism had played a role. But by 1983, many Republicans in Congress had changed their minds. The King Holiday Bill passed the House and the Senate with bipartisan support and was signed by a Republican president. But not everyone came around to the idea. Mr. Helms had filibustered the bill and denounced Dr. King on the floor of the Senate as someone who advocated “ Marxism” and other “radical political” views. Where Does the Holiday Stand Today? Although Martin Luther King Jr. Day is commemorated by the federal government and, in some form, by all 50 states, some, like Arizona and Idaho, combine commemorations of Dr. King’s birthday with a holiday to honor civil rights. A release by Nueces County, Tex. referred to the day as a “County Civil Rights Holiday. ” Biloxi, Miss. drew backlash on Twitter last week after the city’s official Twitter account posted an alert to residents about municipal closings on the holiday, calling it “Great Americans Day. ” The tweet was later deleted. The controversy prompted a special City Council meeting to consider making the city’s holiday name match that of the federal holiday honoring Dr. King. On Monday morning, the council voted to do so (with one member absent) according to video footage from a local ABC station, WLOX. And then there are a few states in the Deep South — Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi — that combine celebrations of the civil rights icon and that of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. (Lexington, Va. even honors Lee and another Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson, with a parade and celebration during the weekend leading up to Dr. King’s birthday.) Critics have decried those arrangements as an unholy merger that commemorate both freedom and slavery — a combination that is nonsensical at best and inflammatory at worst. Arkansas lawmakers have tried in recent years to separate the two holidays, but the measures have been opposed from constituents who call the effort an affront to Southern heritage or by lawmakers who say they have better things to do. “We’re looking for a solution to a problem we don’t have,” Josh Miller, a Republican state representative in Arkansas, told The Associated Press. “I haven’t noticed any humongous Robert E. Lee parades that are taking place in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day. ” | 0fake |
Jeb Bush Confronted On Why He Wanted Rubio For VP In 2012 – Gives Worst Answer EVER (VIDEO) | Jeb Bush is campaigning against Marco Rubio we all get that. When a person becomes your rival in a presidential contest, all the gloves come off. Yet you d think the arguments presented would be somewhat in line with what that candidate s own thoughts were in the past. Not so in this case.Jeb Bush is trying to say Marco Rubio is inexperienced, but when confronted on why he recommended Senator Rubio to be Romney s Vice Presidential choice back in 2012, Bush became visibly flabbergasted.Here was the exchange between him and Fox News Bret Baier:Bret: Well, (Rubio) had enough experience that you recommended him for Vice President when Mitt Romney was looking.Jeb: Yeah, except he doesn t have the experience to make a tough decision.Bret: But, why recommend him for Vice President then if he didn t have the experience back then?Jeb: Because he would have earned it.What does that even mean? Look it s obvious Jeb is trying to wiggle his way out of this one, and on that front he failed, big time.For some more context on this, here was what Jeb said back when Romney was still mulling over his options for VP: Look he has more experience than Barack Obama had when he ran. And the practical experience he s certainly got the intelligent acumen and fortitude to be a good president and I have a special place in my heart for him. It s hard to describe the pride I have for his incredible success and how he has moved in to the job of being a U.S. senator with humility, not trying to be an arrogant guy, to learn the trade if you will. And people in Washington really admire him. Those are some very kind words. Not only that, but Bush even went further in another interview with Newsmax in April of 2012, when he said Rubio was probably the best choice out of every potential candidate. For Bush to now try to play the experience card is just absurd. He picked the wrong battle to fight on this one. This is just another reason people don t trust anything politicians say.Featured image from video screen capture. | 1real |
Obama Officials Were Forced To Take BIZARRE Measure To Ensure Trump Didn’t Hide Russia Documents | Investigations into Russian tampering and collusion during the election were gaining steam even before Trump took office, and the Obama administration was worried enough about it that they took an extraordinary measure to ensure that documents specific to the probe made it into the right hands.One former Obama official said that they had to create a list of document serial numbers to give to senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to NBC News. The numbers aren t classified, nor is the existence of such a series, however, to ensure that the Senate Intel Committee actually received the numbers, this official actually hand-delivered them.The numbers were intended to make it more difficult for the incoming administration to bury anything.We have an attorney general who committed perjury. We have a former national security adviser who lied about his contacts with Russia. We have a man in the White House who staffed his campaign with people with ties to Russia. The RNC paid an intel firm that works closely with Russia to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton. The chairman of the House Intel Committee made it clear that he feels more of an obligation to Trump than he does to conducting a fair, impartial and thorough investigation. The list goes on, and Trump, given some of his recent tweets, is running scared.Besides that, the chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intel Committee have their hands on an unprecedented number of documents from the intelligence community relating to the probe. Ordinarily, documents of this nature would not make it into a Congressional investigation like this, but they have. That s probably put the fear of all the gods there are and aren t into Trump s black and shriveled heart.Since he had proven that the word ethics meant zilch to him following the Nov. 8 election, it s really no wonder that the Obama administration would worry about documents ending up languishing with the CIA at Langley, or possibly destroyed altogether, without anybody ever discovering their existence.The numbers went to people on Capitol Hill who are authorized to view their corresponding documents.Photo of Obama by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. Photo of Trump by Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
Brazil's Temer signs tax renegotiation program into law | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer on Tuesday signed into law a new program for companies to renegotiate their overdue tax bills, providing extra revenue to cover a gaping budget deficit. The program, known as Refis, has collected 10.9 billion reais ($3.4 billion) in back taxes this year for the Treasury. Earlier this month, the Senate approved greater discounts to taxpayers in the program, depriving the cash-strapped government of about 3 billion reais. | 0fake |
BREAKING: DEMOCRATS Get Bad News…Why PA Recount Case Won’t Be So Easy To Pull Off | Tick tock! Time is running out for Hillary Clinton and George Soros to steal the Presidency from Donald Trump. Too bad they didn t get this little snag worked out ahead of time. It looks like it may not be as easy as Jill Stein, (the Green Party candidate who appears to be doing Hillary s dirty work, after getting only got 1% of the vote) thought it would be to throw the election Oops! Jill Stein forgot to mention to her donors that she cannot file a direct request for a recount in Pennsylvania.Stein would have to present a case showing voter fraud took place.Trump won Pennsylvania by 70 thousand votes. Stein would have to prove that fraud was probable. That does not seem likely. Then again, we are talking about the Clintons here. GPThe Inquisitr reported, via Free Republic:Per Pennsylvania regulations, there is only one way remaining for Jill Stein to get a recount in Pennsylvania and it is a complicated process. BillyPenn reports that Stein would have to file for a court appeal and present a prima facie case showing that voter fraud took place. While prima facie has a lower burden of proof threshold than beyond reasonable doubt, it is still significant. Stein would have to prove in court that fraud was probable. This is going to be very difficult given that even the computer specialists recommending the recount say there is no proof of hacking or fraud. | 1real |
Robert Durst Pleads Not Guilty to 2000 Murder in Los Angeles - The New York Times | LOS ANGELES — Robert A. Durst, the multimillionaire whose bizarre life of privilege and mayhem was the subject of a 2015 documentary, was arraigned here on Monday on charges of murdering a onetime confidante 16 years ago. Mr. Durst is accused of having shot his friend, Susan Berman, to stop her from revealing any secrets behind his first wife’s disappearance in 1982. Ms. Berman was shot once in the back of the head in her Benedict Canyon home shortly after Mr. Durst said she told him that the authorities in New York wanted to talk to her about what happened to his wife. Mr. Durst, 73, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace, appeared before Judge Mark Windham in Los Angeles County Superior Court and entered a plea of not guilty. He had orange prison slippers on his feet. Answeringa procedural question from the judge, Mr. Durst said in a hoarse, low voice: “I am not guilty. I did not kill Susan Berman. ” Later, outside the courthouse, his lead defense lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said the same thing. “Bob is not guilty,” Mr. DeGuerin said. “He did not kill Susan Berman. He doesn’t know who did. ” Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said the state would not seek the death penalty against Mr. Durst. Both sides agreed to convene again on Feb. 15 to set the date for a preliminary hearing. Mr. Durst was arrested in New Orleans in March 2015 on a murder warrant issued in Los Angeles. He subsequently pleaded guilty to the illegal possession of a firearm. On Friday, he was transferred here from federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. to stand trial. Suspicions have surrounded Mr. Durst since 1982, when his first wife, Kathleen Durst, disappeared from the couple’s stone cottage in Westchester County, N. Y. His friends and relatives believed that Mr. Durst, a member of the wealthy real estate family that runs the Durst Organization, was involved. He was never charged in connection with the case. Mr. Durst met Ms. Berman during the late 1960s at the University of California, Los Angeles, where they were students. Friends say there was an immediate bond. They came from wealthy families and had lost their mothers at a young age, possibly to suicide. Ms. Berman, the daughter of Davie Berman, a mobster who was a partner in Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, became a journalist and a screenwriter. “We became fast friends,” Mr. Durst said during courtroom testimony in Galveston, Tex. “We were never boyfriend and girlfriend. ” Mr. Durst counted on Ms. Berman to shield him from the press when his wife’s sudden disappearance generated tabloid headlines in New York. He walked her down the aisle when she married at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles in 1984. He left the family business in 1994 after his father, Seymour Durst, appointed his younger brother Douglas to take control of the Durst Organization. He has been estranged from his family since then — Douglas is expected to testify for the prosecution in Los Angeles — and for years led a peripatetic life, moving restlessly among California, New York and Texas, even as he became a suspect in three murders. But it was Mr. Durst’s own hubris that brought his freewheeling ways to an end. Beginning in 2010, he agreed to participate in the documentary — “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” — about his life and the murder allegations, which was eventually broadcast on HBO in February and March 2015. His friends and lawyers had advised him not to participate for fear of antagonizing prosecutors. But Mr. Durst told The New York Times he thought there was “no reason I shouldn’t say anything I want to anyone I want,” because it was unlikely that any prosecutor would undertake a “ ” investigation for a couple of cold cases. In “The Jinx,” Mr. Durst said Ms. Berman contacted him in October 2000 saying the authorities wanted to talk to her about his first wife. In quick succession, he married his current wife, Debrah Lee Charatan, and fled New York, renting modest apartments in Galveston and New Orleans while posing as a mute woman. In December of that year, Ms. Berman’s body was found in her Los Angeles home, the back door open and her dogs running loose. Initially, the police focused not on Mr. Durst but on Ms. Berman’s landlady and her agent. But the authorities came to suspect that Mr. Durst was the author of a short anonymous note sent to the Beverly Hills police the same day Ms. Berman was found dead, saying there was a “cadaver” in her home. The makers of “The Jinx” obtained a letter he wrote to her in which the lettering of the address on the envelope appears identical to that of the “cadaver” note, down to the misspelling of Beverly Hills as “Beverley. ” In 2001, when Mr. Durst was living in Texas, body parts of his elderly neighbor were found floating in Galveston Bay, and Mr. Durst was charged with his murder. He was acquitted in 2003, despite his testimony of how he sat in a pool of blood while cutting up the body. Mr. Durst insisted that the man’s death was an accident and an act of . Mr. Durst said during a 2015 interview that he did not have “the faintest idea” what happened to Ms. Berman, or to Ms. Durst, although he conceded in “The Jinx” that he had lied to the police about his whereabouts when his wife disappeared — “Nobody tells the whole truth,” he said — and that their relationship had descended into rounds of “fighting, slapping, pushing. ” “The Jinx” ended with Mr. Durst’s own words in an unguarded moment: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course. ” Just hours before the final episode of the documentary was broadcast, Mr. Durst was arrested in New Orleans. The police feared he was about to flee the country. There is very little forensic evidence in either case and no apparent witnesses as to what happened to either woman. Prosecutors will have to rely on the memories of the people who knew the two women and Mr. Durst. But Mr. Durst left footprints and provided leads for the authorities when he granted access to the producers of “The Jinx” to his credit card receipts, phone bills and legal papers, which put him in California at the time of Ms. Berman’s killing when he gave a lengthy deposition in 2005 as part of a lawsuit against the Durst family trust and when he spoke for 90 minutes with John Lewin, the Los Angeles prosecutor, after his arrest in New Orleans. But all of that is likely to be the subject of fierce litigation before trial, as the defense moves to exclude the material. Mr. DeGuerin has described “The Jinx” as a “sensationalized docudrama. ” Mr. Durst has also told falsehoods over the years, which could cast doubt over both his protestations of innocence and his damaging admissions. He told Ms. Berman and other friends that he witnessed his mother’s fall or leap from the roof of his childhood home in 1950, but Douglas Durst said that he was not there. He testified in court in Galveston that he was “relieved” that his father did not hand him the family business, after telling friends in the 1990s that he was so furious with his father that he refused to attend Seymour’s funeral. Even if Mr. Durst is ultimately found not guilty of murder, he will go back to prison to complete his sentence on the gun charge. | 0fake |
Melania Gets Last Laugh After Media Mocks Her “Inappropriate” Attire on Trip to Support TX Hurricane Victims [Video] | President Trump and First Lady Melania traveled down to Texas today to assist with and show support for flood victims. You d think the press would point out that this is a great gesture by the First Couple but that s not the case. The press could only focus on the fact that the First Lady wore heels on her departure to Texas. They mocked her saying she wasn t quite ready to help flood victims: Melania s shoes are impressive but perhaps not what I would wear to a city submerged in floodwaters, wrote Elizabeth Bruenig, an assistant editor at the Washington Post.Those stilettos should help her stay above the flood line https://t.co/dQ89fK18N5 Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) August 29, 2017Melania is wearing stilettos to a hurricane zone: https://t.co/29WIwlipab erica orden (@eorden) August 29, 2017She had on all black with a pair of black stilettos Who cares? At least she made the trip! We can t say the same for Michelle Obama during the Louisiana floods!We checked into what Michelle Obama wore to visit the Louisiana floods Oops! She didn t go! Remember that she was on vacation with Barack and the girls but then came home and didn t make the trip with Barack.We checked to see if Michelle went to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy Oops! She didn t go to that either!MELANIA GETS THE LAST LAUGH:Guess what Melania had on when she arrived in TEXAS? TENNIS SHOES! Is she ready enough now?First lady Melania Trump wore a baseball hat that said FLOTUS as she exited Air Force One upon landing in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday.First Lady Melania and President Trump arrive in Texas to be briefed on Harvey s devastating aftermath pic.twitter.com/Dz0IbQBRk3 Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 29, 2017The first lady had her hair pulled back in a ponytail under the black hat with white lettering.She also wore white sneakers, black pants, and a white button-up shirt.LOOKING GREAT!Read more: WE | 1real |
San Francisco Torn as Some See ‘Street Behavior’ Worsen - The New York Times | SAN FRANCISCO — From her apartment at the foot of the celebrated zigzags of Lombard Street, Judith Calson has twice peered out her window as thieves smashed their way into cars and snatched whatever they could. She has seen foreign tourists cry after cash and passports were stolen. She shudders when she recounts the story of the Thai tourist who was shot because he resisted thieves taking his camera. And that is her tally from the last year alone. “I never thought of this area as a neighborhood,” Ms. Calson, a retired photographer, said of this leafy part of the city, where tourists flock to view the steeply sloped, crooked street adorned with flower beds. San Francisco, America’s boom town, is flooded with the cash of technology workers and record numbers of tourists. At the same time, the city has seen a sharp jump in property crime, up more than 60 percent since 2010, though the actual increase may be higher because many of the crimes go unreported. Recent data from the F. B. I. show that San Francisco has the highest property crime rate of the nation’s top 50 cities. About half the cases here are thefts from vehicles, that scatter glittering broken glass onto the sidewalks. The city, known for a political tradition of empathy for the downtrodden, is now divided over whether to respond with more muscular law enforcement or stick to its forgiving attitudes. The Chamber of Commerce and the tourist board are calling for harsher measures to improve what is euphemistically called the “condition of the streets,” a term that encompasses the intractable homeless problem, public intravenous drug use, the large population of mentally ill people on the streets and aggressive panhandling. The chamber recently released the results of an opinion poll that showed that homelessness and “street behavior” were the primary concerns of residents here. “We are the wealthiest big city in the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country in the world, and we have this situation on our streets,” said Joe D’Alessandro, the chief executive of San Francisco Travel, a tourism organization. “People believe that everyone has the right to be on the streets. However, I think there is a tolerance limit to bad behavior. ” Visitors come to bask in the Mediterranean climate, stroll through the charming streets and marvel at the sweeping views of the bay and the Pacific. But alongside those views are tent encampments on sidewalks and homeless people in front of some of the most expensive real estate in America. The divided opinions on how to handle the problems are evident among members of the Board of Supervisors. Scott Wiener, a supervisor and an advocate for more aggressive law enforcement, said his constituents were urging him to act. “I can’t tell you the number of times where I have received emails from moms saying, ‘My kids just asked me why that man has a syringe sticking out of his arm,’ ” he said. “San Francisco at times is a zone,” Mr. Wiener said. “I’m not advocating extreme law and order, but there has to be consequences. Sometimes people might need to spend six months in jail to think about what they did. ” In a bitterly contested vote last year, Mr. Wiener led the passage of a measure adding several hundred officers to the city’s police force, the first increase since the 1980s, when the population was over 10 percent smaller. On the other side is David Campos, a supervisor who opposes the increase in police officers and describes Mr. Wiener’s views as “a very kind of punitive approach that is ineffective and inconsistent with the values of San Francisco. ” Mr. Campos and many others evoke the charitable spirit of the city’s namesake, St. Francis. “We are not going to criminalize people for being poor,” he said. “That criminalization is only going to make it harder for them to get out of poverty. ” San Francisco’s liberal ethos, Mr. Campos said, was changing as the city focused more on business and the needs of the tech industry. “I think there has been a shift in the people who have come to San Francisco,” Mr. Campos said of the city’s new arrivals, a group that is well educated and well heeled. He deplores what he describes as a growing “ ” ideology that stands in contrast to the city’s traditions. “I don’t know which San Francisco will prevail,” he said. At TLC Glass, a repair shop on the edge of San Francisco’s business district, the more prosaic consequences of the rise in car are on display. Customers regularly file in to repair car windows that have been smashed by thieves. “Every day we are full,” the shop’s owner, Louie Chen, said. One customer came in four times in six weeks. A customer who came to have a broken window fixed, Dan showed San Franciscan forgiveness. He said he felt sorry for whoever broke a window of his BMW twice, stealing his gym bag both times. “I have a lot of sympathy for folks who are in need in the city,” Mr. said. “This has become an extremely expensive city to live in. The divide between those who have and those who don’t is ridiculously ginormous. ” The people who commit the property crimes come from a variety of backgrounds, said Albie Esparza, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. “Some are homeless, some are in gangs, some are freelancers up to no good,” he said. People are rarely caught. “The problem with auto is that they happen so quickly, just a few seconds,” Mr. Esparza said. “Before anyone can do anything about it, they are long gone. ” Violent crime has increased 18 percent since 2010, but the city has a low murder rate relative to other large American cities. Police are barred by city ordinance from installing surveillance cameras that are commonly found in other cities, a restriction that even Mr. Wiener said he did not want changed. Ms. Calson, the retired photographer, said she offered to let the police mount a surveillance camera outside her Lombard Street apartment. The car happen so quickly that she has not been able photograph the perpetrators. On Wednesday, another car was broken into below her window. A woman who was dropping off her daughter at a day care center had parked for 10 minutes and returned to find her window smashed and her purse gone. “It’s just insane,” Ms. Calson said. “On and on and on it goes. ” | 0fake |
Philippines' Duterte takes aim at graft agency head for query on his wealth | MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday vowed to file an impeachment complaint against the head of the country s anti-graft body after she launched an inquiry into allegations that he has billions of pesos in undeclared funds in bank accounts. The firebrand leader said he also wanted the chief justice of the Supreme Court removed because she allowed herself to be used as a tool by his political opponents, who are conspiring to unseat him. We will file an impeachment case against her, Duterte told reporters, referring to Conchita Carpio-Morales, who heads the Office of the Ombudsman, the government s anti-graft agency. I would tend to believe she was part of the conspiracy. Duterte was angered when the agency confirmed last month it was examining allegations that he failed to disclose the full extent of his wealth in a mandatory asset declaration when he was mayor of a southern city prior to becoming president. In the end, they will discover, to their sorrow, there is no such amount, he said, challenging Carpio-Morales and Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to join him in making public their own bank accounts and resigning from office. He said Sereno did not disclose government earnings of 30 million pesos ($588,000) for serving as a private lawyer in an airport arbitration case. Sereno already faces a pending impeachment case in Congress. Sereno made no immediate comment, but her lawyers said they were ready to answer the complaint and prove she had not committed an impeachable offense. An impeachment complaint against Carpio-Morales, who is the aunt of Duterte s son-in-law, would be based on accusations of selective justice and the use of falsified documents , the president added. Carpio-Morales office did not respond to telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment. In an earlier statement, her office had said, This office shall not be intimidated. We will nonetheless proceed with the probe as mandated by the constitution. In the Philippines, the president, vice president, supreme court judges, heads of constitutional agencies and the ombudsman can only be removed through impeachment on the basis of high crimes such as treason, bribery, corruption, betrayal of public trust and constitutional violations. Duterte said the two women had conspired with members of the Liberal Party and with his critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes, who supplied the ombudsman with what he called illegally-acquired and stolen bank records. In an interview with reporters, Trillanes denied the president s latest allegations. For me, Mr Duterte, do not avoid the issue of hidden wealth with this malicious allegation, he added. The Liberal Party made no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters. | 0fake |
Confirmed: Public overwhelmingly (10-to-1) says media want Hillary to win | Print
[Ed. – Every now and then the facade cracks. Somebody asks a question the media haven’t intervened to spin yet, and a bit of truth peeks out about what the public really thinks. CNN is our poster child on this one, but it could be any number of them.]
Two national polls released late last week confirmed the public widely recognizes the news media’s agenda in favor of Hillary Clinton and decidedly against Donald Trump, a reality documented in a NewsBusters study earlier in the week.
“By nearly 10-1, all those surveyed say the news media, including major newspapers and TV stations, would like to see Clinton rather than Trump elected,” Susan Page and Karina Shedrofsky reported deep into a Thursday USA Today story on the latest USA Today /Suffolk University poll on the Clinton-Trump race.
The October 27 article elaborated on how even a solid majority of Clinton supporters also realize journalists want Clinton to win: “That includes 82% of Trump supporters and 74% of Clinton supporters. Six in 10 Trump supporters say the news media is coordinating stories with individual campaigns, rather than acting on its own accord. Three in 10 of Clinton supporters feel that way.” | 1real |
BREAKING: Trump’s Top Pick For Secretary Of State Announced; Should Horrify The World (DETAILS) | It has just been announced that Donald Trump and his transition team have former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a top favorite to be selected as the new Secretary of State.BREAKING: AP source: Rudy Giuliani the favorite to be Trump's secretary of state. The Associated Press (@AP) November 15, 2016CLEVELAND, OH OCTOBER 22: Rudy Giuliani introduces Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence during his campaign stop along side presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Photo by Justin Merriman/Getty Images)According to the NY Post: Rudy Giuliani is in the running to become the next secretary of state.The former New York City mayor is one of two candidates to be America s top diplomat, according to The Wall Street Journal.The other candidate is John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and a former high ranking State Department official. Many thought Giuliani may be picked for Attorney General so this is a bit of a surprise to some, and a horrifying reality for the rest of the world considering the man doesn t have much of any foreign policy experience and is a warhawk.Honestly, the pick doesn t make that much sense, and many thought former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had the role locked up. Which, in all honesty, would have made a whole heck of a lot more sense.The future Trump administration is getting more bizarre by the day and it s reading like a bad play where everyone runs for cover in the end.Featured Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Judge Faces Firing After Asking Rape Victim ‘Why Couldn’t You Just Keep Your Knees Together?’ (VIDEO) | Rape culture is not just an American problem, but rather an international epidemic. The latest proof of this is a Canadian judge who is facing firing after he asked a rape victim in his courtroom a litany of appalling questions. He implied that she was at fault for the sexual assault rather than her attacker because, after all, she probably wanted to have sex anyway.The allegations against Federal Court Justice Robin Camp are listed on the Canadian Judicial Council website. During the 2014 sexual assault trial, Camp reportedly asked the victim the following horrific question: Why couldn t you just keep your knees together? Why didn t you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn t penetrate you? He also reportedly told her that young women want to have sex, particularly if they re drunk. As if those comments weren t disgusting enough, he also told the victim that some sex and pain sometimes go together and that s not necessarily a bad thing. The woman had accused Alexander Wagar of holding her over a sink and brutally raping her during a house party. In September 2014, Camp acquitted Wagar of all charges. The woman appealed and Camp s ruling was overturned by the Alberta Court of Appeals and he is set for a new trial in November.In November of 2015, the Canadian Judicial Council began investigating Camp after a complaint was filed against him by four law professors. As a result, Camp later recused himself from all sexual assault cases. Not long after, members of the public began filing complaints as well.The Alberta attorney general filed a formal complaint against Camp in December and the matter was referred to inquiry committee, which consists of three judges and two lawyers. It will be up to this committee to decide if Camp will be removed from the bench.The Houston Chronicle reports that according to the notice of allegations, Camp s rude and derogatory comments belittle(d) and trivialize(d) the nature of the allegations. He also made stereotypical assumptions about how someone confronted with sexual assault would or would not behave.' CBC News reported that the woman said the judge s abhorrent comments made her hate herself. He made me feel like I should have done something, like I was some kind of a slut, she said.Camp says he s very sorry for his behavior and Frank Addario, his attorney, said he has consistently shown remorse for berating the rape victim. Since then, he has reportedly tried to educate himself and gain insight into his beliefs. Addario insists that Camp should not be removed from the bench because even though he made insensitive and inappropriate comments this can be remedied by education. The Chronicle adds that Camp has since gone through mentoring, counseling about how victims of abuse respond to trauma, and a crash course on the history and current state of sexual assault law. Camp, who grew up in South Africa, received degrees in commerce and law from the University of Stellenbosch but claims he never received any training in how to handle sexual assault cases. In Canada, his practice has mostly dealt with cases involving contractual, trust, oil and gas, and bankruptcy litigation.Watch more here:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
See Which 2016 Candidates Best Align With Your Views | There are just days left until Americans head to the polls to cast their ballots on Election Day.
While the most prominent battle is between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, key congressional races are happening around the country, too.
This tool from Societly — an independent, nonpartisan organization — can help you figure out which candidate best aligns with your personal views, values and priorities.
Check it out below: | 0fake |
Security Expert: My Fear is That More Churches Will be Targeted | The gunman walked into the church sanctuary and opened fire.
He showed no mercy – firing more than 100 rounds and exploding a pipe bomb in the balcony. There was nowhere to hide from the carnage.
Click here to follow Todd on Facebook for conservative conversation!
Seven people died that night. Seven others were wounded.
It was Sept. 15, 1999 – the day a madman slaughtered Christians inside Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
That was the year Carl Chinn began compiling statistic documenting violent attacks on churches and synagogues and other houses of worship.
Since 1999, he has recorded more than 1,000 such attacks – more than 150 so far this year.
Chinn tells me the attack on the pastor and parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the worst attack on an assembled congregation in American history.
“This was a calculated attack,” he said. “It’s just awful. I hurt for those people.”
And one of the nation’s foremost experts in church security fears the Charleston massacre could only be the beginning.
“Violence directed against the church has been growing over the past decade,” said Tim Miller, the president of LionHeart International Services Group. “My fear is what we saw in Charleston is one incident of many more to come.”
“Church security really matters,” he told me. “Churches are becoming more and more a major target. Dealing with this is really important.”
Miller, a retired Marine, served nearly 30 years as a former Secret Service agent, police officer and counter-intelligence officer. His team includes former Homeland Security agents, FBI agents and special-ops personnel.
“I spent my life learning how to protect others,” he said. “About three years ago, I realized the same threats we experienced overseas are now here. And we needed to pivot and direct our efforts to help those in churches and non-profits.”
Miller said churches are soft targets and what happened in Charleston should be a wakeup call.
“My first thought was to pray,” he said. “Having been in situations where that kind of carnage exists – the suffering is unimaginable. My second thought – was this is a realization of what we’ve been talking about and what we help churches prepare for.”
The difficulty is making the church a welcoming place for hurting souls – while at the same time preparing to deal with those who might commit violence.
“We welcome you on the one hand – while on the other hand if a gunman comes in – we have the resources to handle it,” he said.
I do believe the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah addressed such an issue: “We prayed to our God and posted a guard.”
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
| 0fake |
Conservative Columnist George Will: The GOP Is The Party Of White People (VIDEO) | Because of Donald Trump, Republicans are finally being forced to admit that their party is a racist haven that caters to whites only.During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, longtime conservative columnist George Will told host Chris Wallace that the Republican Party is now the party of white people and he specifically blamed GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for it. Trump is in the George Wallace tradition, Will said in reference to the staunch Alabama segregationist who ran for president back in 1964 and 1968. Will continued by saying that Wallace said that there s too much dignity in American politics, we have to have more meanness. Will noted that unlike Wallace, Trump has support all of over the country, but pointed out problems Trump and the Republican Party face. The problem is this. Not only are his negatives at 61 percent almost double his positives, they are at 32 percent but he s appealing entirely to white people. Will explained that appealing for white votes is not enough for any national candidate to win elections anymore unless they receive a ridiculous percentage of the vote and that candidates must receive a sizable percentage of votes from other ethnic groups as well if they want to achieve victory in 21st century America. Mitt Romney got 17 percent that s all of the non-white vote. Trump, by every measure, would do worse than that. Which means he would not have to get just the 65 percent of the white vote to win that Ronald Reagan got, sweeping 49 states. He would have to get 70 percent of the white vote. A, it won t happen and B, it would destroy the Republican Party by making it the party of white people. Here s the video via YouTube.Indeed, Trump s incendiary remarks about Hispanics and Muslims and the way his supporters have treated black protesters during rallies makes it highly unlikely he will capture many votes if any at all from those voting groups.When President Obama won a second term in 2012, he did so with 75 percent of the Hispanic vote and only less than half of eligible Hispanic voters actually showed up to vote. Trump s hateful comments toward the Hispanic community make it more likely that that both percentages will rise in 2016 to the benefit of the Democratic candidate.And not only did African-Americans have a higher turnout rate than white voters in 2012, 93 percent of them voted for President Obama.The outright racism of the GOP in this election cycle could very well be enough to drive pissed off Hispanics and African-Americans to the voting booth in droves. And that could spell doom for the GOP. Featured image via Free Wood Post | 1real |
Libyans flee by boat amid 'terrible' violence at home | ABOARD SEEFUCHS RESCUE SHIP (Reuters) - Just before the sun dipped into the Mediterranean on Saturday, rescuers spotted a tiny wooden boat on the horizon. It turned out to contain five young Libyans fleeing violence and turmoil who were waving their arms for help. The crew of the Seefuchs plucked them from the old fishing boat, gave them water and couscous and one of the men, 26-year-old Hamza Tekbali, explained why they had fled their country. Libya is terrible, Tekbali told Reuters as he waited to be transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel. In Libya, if you do not kill, they will kill you, he said, adding that he feared he would be sent straight back home. The Seefuchs, a ship operated by the humanitarian group Sea-Eye, carried the men to Catania, Italy, on Wednesday along with 16 other Libyans picked up on Sunday. Already this year some 800 Libyans have reached Italy by sea, more than double the number for the whole of 2016, according to data collected by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). The number is a fraction of the more than 100,000 non-Libyan migrants who have come to Italy from the country since January, but it suggests that the situation is deteriorating for Libyans in their own country. Migrants traveling through Libya from elsewhere in Africa en route to Europe already face terrible conditions. For the past few months we have seen more Libyans, said Marco Rotunno, who monitors migrant arrivals for UNHCR in Sicily. They mostly point to a lack of security as their reason for leaving. They talk about fighting, kidnappings, ransom and armed robberies. Conditions in Libya have deteriorated sharply since a 2011 uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Gangs frequently kidnap people for ransom, power and water outages are common, health services have been crippled and residents often have to line-up for days to withdraw cash from banks due to a liquidity crisis. The United Nations is making a new push to end the conflict that has opened the way for Islamist militants and armed smuggling groups who have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe. In mid-September, fighting erupted in Sabratha, a people smuggling hub on the Western coast, after an armed group clamped down on migrant boat departures, prompting a cross-town rival to retaliate. As of Friday, at least 26 civilians and combatants had been killed and 170 wounded. Islamic State militants conduct attacks in Libya as well, including one on Wednesday that killed at least four people and wounded 39. UNHCR says there are still more than 217,000 internally displaced people in Libya and more than 278,000 who have recently returned home and who are considered people of concern. Tekbali abandoned his hometown of Kikla, which is located southwest of Tripoli and said it was too dangerous to return. His friend Rafat, who did not give his last name, said he was fleeing Libya after having been kidnapped by a militia in 2016. He was released after nine days when his father paid a ransom of 120,000 dinar ($87,600) but said he feared a repeat. A third man, 24-year-old Alaa, said he was persecuted in Libya because his father had fought in Gaddafi s military. Tekbali said the five friends planned their voyage for a month and set out from a beach between Sabratha and Zuwara after paying 5,000 euros ($5,888) to smugglers for the boat and the small outboard engine. | 0fake |
How Trump Can Improve the Messy U.S.-Chinese Economic Relationship - The New York Times | The United States and China are locked in a mutually dependent, frequently dysfunctional economic partnership. The world’s biggest and economies are like a married couple that complain about each other constantly yet can’t even contemplate a divorce. The marriage enters a new phase Thursday, as President Xi Jinping of China visits for two days of meetings at the Florida estate of a president who made China a punching bag on the campaign trail. The question is whether President Trump can turn his bellicose language into concrete gains for American companies and workers. A look at the economics of the relationship between the nations, and conversations with former officials with battle scars from past negotiations, show a path for getting a better deal. That path to success may not include the kind of flashy, announcements that the Trump administration has tended to celebrate. In February, Mr. Trump called China the “grand champions at manipulation of currency. ” During the campaign, too, he frequently assailed China for artificially reducing the value of the renminbi to favor its companies versus American and other competitors. It is a view that is outdated. For years, China did intervene in financial markets to depress the value of its currency. But now it is intervening to keep the yuan from falling — actually doing the opposite of what Mr. Trump alleged. Economists generally think that the Chinese currency is close to the levels that would be set by purely market forces. That doesn’t mean currencies shouldn’t come up at . This moment of relative peace between the countries on currency policy could be the ideal time to develop an understanding for the future. “I think currency is still an issue, but it doesn’t make sense to discuss it under the rubric of manipulation,” said Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “China is managing its currency it’s just that it’s managing it right now in a way that is relatively advantageous to the United States. That understanding of how China intends to manage its currency in the future remains a issue. ” In other words, Mr. Trump could use this moment not to beat China over the head about what happened in the past, or where things stand today, but to develop an agreement on what it will do in the future, if a day comes when market forces start pushing the yuan upward. Mr. Trump has similarly assailed the United States trade deficit with China and other countries, often characterizing it as a scorecard, evidence that China is winning at trade and the United States losing, to the tune of $310 billion a year. The reality is more nuanced. The persistent trade deficit is indeed problematic, but that’s because of the factors that drive it and the imbalances they cause to build. Simply targeting a lower trade deficit could well leave both American and Chinese workers worse off, if carried out the wrong way. For example, a trade war that significantly reduces American imports from China while also reducing American exports to China would reduce the trade deficit but would mean lower incomes and fewer jobs in both countries. The U. S. trade imbalance is indeed driven in part by trade barriers that China enacts against American companies, including a 25 percent tariff on imported automobiles and various quotas and restrictions that reduce agricultural imports. If Mr. Trump can persuade China to loosen those restrictions, it might close the trade deficit by increasing American exports — the healthy kind of trade rebalancing. But the trade gap isn’t driven just by the details of trade arrangements. It is also driven by the flow of capital between countries. To oversimplify, when a company sells more abroad than it buys, it has to do something with that money. The flip side of a current account deficit, as an economist might put it, is a capital account surplus. China’s trade imbalances are a function not only of its trade practices, but also of its very high levels of savings, which are in turn invested around the world. For China to change that, it would have to change the very structure of its economy: away from savings and infrastructure investments, and toward consumer demand — including for products made both domestically and abroad. If the Trump administration really wants the trade deficit with China to come down over time, it’s not enough to look at only one side of the international economic ledger — flows of goods — while ignoring the flow of capital. In practice, this would mean making demands on some issues that might seem like purely domestic concerns only tangentially related to trade. That might include pushing China to allow more troubled enterprises to fail, so that their accumulated profits might be spread through the Chinese economy instead of funneled toward the purchase of foreign assets. A more generous pension system might spur demand among older Chinese citizens. If China allowed global financial companies more access to its market, it could both encourage more domestic spending and give a major American industry an opportunity it has long sought. President Trump prides himself on being a dealmaker, and his negotiating style is to lay out extreme requests in order to work back to agreement. But resetting economic relations with China will prove trickier than any real estate deal. One of the fundamental realities of the relationship is that while neither side is wholly comfortable with how it works, these are big, powerful countries that can’t be easily swayed by what a country on the other side of the Pacific Ocean wants to happen. The leverage that each side has to deploy is limited — at least so long as neither country is willing to shoot itself in the foot. So, for example, in trying to get more favorable Chinese treatment of American goods and services, the standard menu of carrots Mr. Trump has to offer for compliance is relatively modest. China wants things like United States membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that it started, and support for its “One Belt, One Road” program to build better transportation infrastructure stretching from Southeast Asia to Europe. Bigger Chinese goals, like achieving “market economy” status in the World Trade Organization, are likely to be nonstarters unless the country makes major progress on allowing international companies better access to its market. The United States could conceivably have more negotiating leverage by threatening punitive tariffs or other aggressive measures, as Mr. Trump did during his campaign, but those actions are just as likely to produce a painful blowback from China that damages the United States. Then there are noneconomic issues, which invariably could shape the contours of economic relationships. “In the Obama administration, China was a good citizen cooperating with us on Iran sanctions and on climate change, which I think made it hard for the U. S. to contemplate anything that harsh in the trade arena,” said David Dollar, a former Treasury Department official in Beijing and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “You could have something similar if the Trump administration wants China to cooperate more on North Korea. That could be hard to turn around and be harsh on them in the economic realm. ” Mr. Trump likes to announce big splashy deals, and given that the Chinese are looking for places to invest their capital in the United States, it would be easy enough to find something along those lines to announce. But in the context of the two giant economies, that kind of thing is small bore. This flawed economic relationship has been building for a long time, and the fixes are unlikely to come overnight. “Mr. Trump ought to pick the right fights rather than focus on issues that resonate with his political base but which are unlikely to help U. S. economic interest in either the short term or long run,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell and author of “Gaining Currency,” a book about China’s role in global finance. It’s unlikely that the first meeting between the new president and the Chinese leader will resolve issues that have been building for years or even decades. Rather, those who have worked in diplomacy advise looking beyond the current headlines to make progress on lowering Chinese trade barriers, increasing its domestic savings and committing not to return to the days of manipulating its currency lower. When you’re talking about commerce between two superpowers, things don’t change overnight. | 0fake |
Trump’s Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao Could Collect Millions From Wells Fargo For Taking Government Job | Elaine Chao, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Transportation, could collect up to $5 million in Wells Fargo preferred stock after assuming her new role in the Trump administration. [According to financial disclosure forms, Chao will receive a “cash payout for my deferred stock compensation” upon her confirmation as Secretary of Transportation. The annual payouts will begin in July 2017 and would continue through 2021. “This is a golden parachute for government services that the large banks are now increasingly famous for offering. It is not illegal yet, but it does provide the former employee with substantial financial rewards from Wells Fargo, potentially creating a sense of indebtedness from the government official toward the bank,” ethics expert Craig Holman told The Intercept after reviewing Chao’s disclosure forms and Well Fargo’s executive compensation agreement. “These golden parachutes for taking government positions are either a massively corrupting incentive structure — effectively a backdoor bribe to incoming government officials — or an abject waste of shareholder resources,” Kurt Walters, campaign director for Demand Progress, told the outlet. Chao, who served as labor secretary under George W. Bush, sailed through her confirmation hearing last week without scandal. “Elaine Chao Gets Cozy Reception at Confirmation Hearing” is how the New York Times described her hearing. Chao, the wife of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, served on Wells Fargo’s board between 2011 and 2015 and made an estimated $1. 2 million for her services to the San Francisco, bank. Coincidentally, 2011 was the same year the Obama Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says Wells Fargo began forcing its employees to “secretly open unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses. ” Nevertheless, Chao says she’s committed to avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest should she become Transoprtion Secretary — citing her intent to submit a waiver or seek exemption if she engages in any matter that directly affects Wells Fargo. To be sure, government golden parachutes are nothing new. But they are precisely the kind of shenanigans Trump promised to stomp out. Indeed, many of Obama’s top appointees came from financial firms that allocate six and payments to senior executives who accepted government jobs. Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew left Citigroup with $500, 000 stock options guarantees. Obama’s Counselor to the Secretary of the US Treasury Antonio Weiss was set to receive $20 million in preferential stock and deferential payments from his previous employer, Lazard, upon entering government. The news of Chao’s corporate payday comes on the heels of reports that Trump nominee for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will receive a retirement payout worth at least $180 million, should he be confirmed. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0fake |
WATCH: SEAN HANNITY FANS Make HILARIOUS Videos Showing How They Destroyed Their Keurig Coffee Makers…Sean Responds With Awesome Award For Best Video #BoycottKeurig | When Keurig decided to side with Soros against Sean Hannity and Roy Moore s right to defend himself against serious, and shady sex allegations, they released a genie that they re not going to be able to put back in the bottle Three days ago, a Twitter user by the name of Angelo Carusone tried to shame Keurig for adverising on the Sean Hannity Show after Sean interviewed the Repbulican Alabama Senate candidate, Roy Moore, allowing him to tell his side of the story, after 4 women came forward 4 decades later to announce that he sexually abused them when they were teens. The stories of at least 2 of his accusers have been unraveling after non-mainstream media uncovered that one of the anti-Trump accusers worked for Hillary and openly promoted Moore s Democrat opponent on her Facebook page. The mother of another accuser is challenging the truth behind the Washington Post s hit story as well.Curiously, the person who sent the tweet that Keurig responded to is none other than Angelo Carusone, the president of GEORGE SOROS Media Matters of America. Here is Carusone s tweet to Keurig.Angelo, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention. We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show. Keurig (@Keurig) November 11, 2017Hannity followers were quick to defend him, while calling for a boycott against Keurig:Throwing my Keurig unit and all the coffee in the trash was the first thing I did today after getting back to London where I base. @seanhannity made it very clear he was NOT defending Moore and his exclusive interview was not to clear him BUT to interrogate him thoroughly. Jenifer Stevens (@JeniferStevens) November 12, 2017Twitter users like Kaya, slammed Keurig for thir decision to pull their advertising from the Sean Hannity show:Well good luck with the people. We don t support companies who play politics @Keurig Should have stayed neutral! @seanhannity has an army behind him. You ll see that this holiday season #BoycottKeurig https://t.co/Z0dcxupyTo KAYA (@KayaJones) November 12, 2017Even actor James Woods got into the game of helping to boycott Keurig on social media with this hilarious tweet:You re going to be so unhappy you made this decision. #BoycottKeurig https://t.co/VFHm4VVZuZ James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) November 13, 2017Watch:Join me & @AngeloJohnGage in the #KeurigSmashChallenge & learn how to crush your drives as a bonus.#BoycottKeurig#IStandWithHannity#BuyBlackRifleCoffee#MAGA pic.twitter.com/WH3unkpADI Snoop Bailey (@vol80) November 12, 2017Another conservative Twitter user, Colin Rugg posted a video of a Keurig Green Mountain coffee maker being dropped over the railing from the second story of a apratment building. The tweet was accompanied by a message asking Twitter users to retweet the video to offend a liberal . Liberals are offended by this video of a Keurig being thrown off of a building. Please retweet to offend a liberal. Liberals are offended by this video of a Keurig being thrown off of a building.Please retweet to offend a Liberal.#BoycottKeurigpic.twitter.com/0qbHlmyqcA Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 12, 2017This video is hiarious, but comes with a ***Language Warning***. Black Rifle coffee company is a company dedicated to selling coffee that s produced and sold by American veterans. Fresh roasted freedom . To order Black Rifle coffee, go HERE :#BoycottKeurig Make Coffee Great Again! #StandWithVets BUY #BlackRifleCoffee Stay woke with patriotism, guns and a double shot of humor. #SundayFunday #StandWithHannitypic.twitter.com/2hTpojmF35 gh -or- c (@NiaMAGA3X) November 12, 2017Here s another great video (Rap song accompanying video has language warning):I pulled an "Office Space" with my Keurig Would be a shame if everyone else joined me in the Keurig Smash Challenge #BoycottKeurig #IStandWithHannity #SundayMorning pic.twitter.com/yEADeRC006 Angelo John Gage (@AngeloJohnGage) November 12, 2017Sean Hannity loved the videos so much, that he s buying 500 Keurig coffed makers for his followers toDeplorable friends, I am buying 500 coffee makers tomorrow to give away!! Details on radio and TV. Hint; best videos!! Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 13, 2017Apparently, Green Mountain Coffee (Keurig) is a top corporate sponsor to Senator Bernie Sanders:Keurig is a top corporate donor to Communist Senator Bernie Sanders pic.twitter.com/nP90rRLC4K Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) November 13, 2017 | 1real |
"The people have spoken," says Zimbabwe's new leader | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa told a cheering crowd in Harare on Wednesday that the country was entering a new stage of democracy following Robert Mugabe s removal as president after nearly four decades in power. Mnangagwa returned to the country earlier in the day, having fled for his safety when the 93-year-old former leader sacked him as vice president two weeks ago to smooth a path to the succession for his much younger wife Grace. The people have spoken. The voice of the people is the voice of God, Mnangagwa told thousands of supporters gathered outside the ruling ZANU-PF party s offices in the capital. Today we are witnessing the beginning of a new and unfolding democracy. Zimbabwe was once one of Africa s most promising economies but suffered decades of decline as Mugabe pursued policies that included the violent seizure of white-owned commercial farms and money-printing that led to hyperinflation. Most of its 16 million people remain poor and face currency shortages and sky-high unemployment, something Mnangagwa promised to address. We want to grow our economy, we want peace in our country, we want jobs, jobs, jobs, he told the crowd, adding: The will of the people will always, always succeed. Mnangagwa s dismissal was the trigger for the army and former political allies to move against Mugabe, feted as an independence hero when Zimbabwe broke with former colonial power Britain in 1980 but later feared as a despot. He resigned as president on Tuesday as parliament began an impeachment process, after resisting pressure to do so for a week. People danced in the streets following his downfall, some brandishing posters of Mnangagwa and army chief General Constantino Chiwenga, who led the takeover. Parliamentary speaker Jacob Mudenda said on Wednesday that Mnangagwa would be sworn in as president on Friday after being nominated by ZANU-PF to fill the vacancy left by Mugabe. The demise of Mugabe leaves Zimbabwe in a different situation to a number of other African countries where veteran leaders have been toppled in popular uprisings or through elections. The army appears to have engineered a trouble-free path to power for Mnangagwa, who was for decades a faithful lieutenant of Mugabe and member of his elite. He was also in charge of internal security when rights groups say 20,000 civilians were killed in the 1980s. Mugabe has gone but I don t see Mnangagwa doing anything different from that old man. This is not the change I expected but let us give him time, said security guard Edgar Mapuranga, who sat by a bank cash machine that was out of money. Restoring the country s fortunes and international standing will be a challenge. Alleged human rights abuses and flawed elections prompted many Western countries to impose sanctions in the early 2000s that further hurt the economy, even with Chinese investment to soften the blow. Staging clean elections next year will be key to winning fresh funds. Although Mnangagwa is almost certain to win any vote, German Chancellor Angela Merkel s personal representative for Africa, Guenther Nooke, said it would be a victory for Zimbabwe s old elites with the help of China. He will manage to get elected using fear or many tricks, and then we ll have a succession from one tyrant to the next, Nooke told broadcaster SWR2. China s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it respected Mugabe s decision to resign. In London, Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain wanted Zimbabwe to rejoin the international community now that Mugabe has resigned. Mnangagwa met neighboring South Africa s President Jacob Zuma before his return on Wednesday. Mugabe is one of the last of a generation of African leaders who led their countries to independence and then ruled, among them Ghana s Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Ivory Coast and South Africa s Nelson Mandela. The African Union said he would be remembered as a fearless pan-Africanist liberation fighter and the father of the independent Zimbabwean nation and that his decision to step down would enhance his legacy. But he also stifled democracy en route to winning a series of elections. His government is accused by the opposition and human rights groups of persecuting and killing opponents. The forced takeover of white-owned farms from around 2000 aimed to bolster his popular support but crippled foreign exchange earnings from agriculture. Mnangagwa s human rights record also stirs hostility in many Zimbabweans. The dark past is not going to disappear. They will be following him around like a piece of chewing gum on his shoe, International Crisis Group s southern Africa senior consultant Piers Pigou said. For him to really be seen to be doing the right thing, he s going to have to introduce policies that fundamentally undermine the power structures of ZANU-PF, through a shift to genuine political pluralism and a decoupling of the party and state. | 0fake |
LIVE FEED: Boom! Sessions Comes Out Swinging [Video] | Live feed of AG Sessions testifying NOW are below video of Opening Statement He s on fire! His opening statement refutes any and all claims he did anything wrong!FULL OPENING STATEMENT:LIVE FEED OF TESTIMONY FULL TRANSCRIPT OF OPENING STATEMENT BELOW LIVE FEEDThank you Chairman Burr and Ranking Member Warner for allowing me to publicly appear before the committee today.I appreciate the Committee s critically important efforts to investigate Russian interference with our democratic process. Such interference can never be tolerated and I encourage every effort to get to the bottom of any such allegations.As you know, the Deputy Attorney General has appointed a special counsel to investigate matters related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. I am here today to address several issues that have been specifically raised before this committee, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to questions as fully as I am able to do so. But as I advised you, Mr. Chairman, and consistent with long-standing Department of Justice practice, I cannot and will not violate my duty to protect confidential communications with the President.Now, let me address some issues directly: I did not have any private meetings nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel. I did not attend any meetings at that event. Prior to the speech, I attended a reception with my staff that included at least two dozen people and President Trump. Though I do recall several conversations I had during that pre-speech reception, I do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian Ambassador or any other Russian officials. If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian Ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it. After the speech, I was interviewed by the news media, which had gathered as I remember in a different room, and then I left the hotel.But whether I ever attended a reception where the Russian Ambassador was also present is entirely beside the point of this investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 campaigns. Let me state this clearly: I have never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie.Relatedly, there is the assertion that I did not answer Senator Franken s question honestly at my confirmation hearing. That is false. This is how it happened. He asked me a rambling question that included dramatic, new allegations that the United States intelligence community had advised President-elect Trump that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump s surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government. I was taken aback by these explosive allegations, which he said were being reported in breaking news that day. I wanted to refute immediately any suggestion that I was a part of such an activity. I replied, Senator Franken, I m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn t have did not have communications with the Russians, and I m unable to comment on it. That was the context in which I was asked the question, and in that context, my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it. It simply did not occur to me to go further than the context of the question and list any conversations I may have had with Russians in routine situations, as I had with numerous other foreign officials.Please hear me now. It was only in March of this year that a reporter asked my spokesperson whether I had ever met with any Russian officials. This was the first time that question had been posed. On the same day, we provided that reporter with the information related to the meeting I and my staff had held in my Senate office with Ambassador Kislyak, as well as the brief encounter in July after a speech that I had given during the convention in Cleveland, Ohio. I also provided the reporter a list of all 25 foreign ambassador meetings I had held during 2016. In addition, I provided supplemental testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain this. I readily acknowledged these two meetings. Certainly nothing improper occurred.Let me also explain clearly the circumstances of my recusal from the investigation into the Russian interference with the 2016 election. I was sworn in as Attorney General on Thursday, February 9th. The very next day, I met with career Department officials, including a senior ethics official, to discuss some things publicly reported in the press and that might have some bearing on the issue of recusal. From that point, February 10th, until I announced my formal recusal on March 2nd, I was never briefed on any investigative details and did not access information about the investigation; I received only the limited information that the Department s career officials determined was necessary to inform my recusal decision. As such, I have no knowledge about this investigation beyond what has been publicly reported, and I have taken no action with regard to any such investigation. On the date of my formal recusal, my Chief of Staff sent an email to the heads of the relevant departments, including by name to Director Comey of the FBI, to instruct them to inform their staffs of this recusal and to advise them not to brief me or involve me in any such matters. And in fact, they have not. Importantly, I recused myself not because of any asserted wrongdoing on my part during the campaign, but because a Department of Justice regulation, 28 CFR 45.2, required it. That regulation states, in effect, that Department employees should not participate in investigations of a campaign if they have served as a campaign advisor.The scope of my recusal, however, does not and cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department of Justice, including the FBI, which has an $8 billion budget and 35,000 employees. I presented to the President my concerns, and those of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, about the ongoing leadership issues at the FBI as stated in my letter recommending the removal of Mr. Comey along with the Deputy Attorney General s memorandum, which have been released publicly by the White House. It is a clear statement of my views. It is absurd, frankly, to suggest that a recusal from a single specific investigation would render an Attorney General unable to manage the leadership of the various Department of Justice law enforcement components that conduct thousands of investigations.Finally, during his testimony, Mr. Comey discussed a conversation he and I had about a meeting Mr. Comey had with the President. I am happy to share with the committee my recollection of the conversation I had with Mr. Comey. Following a routine morning threat briefing, Mr. Comey spoke to me and my Chief of Staff. While he did not provide me with any of the substance of his conversation with the President, Mr. Comey expressed concern about the proper communications protocol with the White House and with the President. I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow Department policies regarding appropriate contacts with the White House. Mr. Comey had served in the Department of Justice for the better part of two decades, and I was confident that Mr. Comey understood and would abide by the Department s well-established rules governing any communications with the White House about ongoing investigations. My comments encouraged him to do just that and indeed, as I understand, he did. Our Department of Justice rules on proper communication between the Department and the White House have been in place for years. Mr. Comey well knew them, I thought, and assumed correctly that he complied with them.I will finish with this. I recused myself from any investigation into the campaigns for President, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. At all times throughout the course of the campaign, the confirmation process, and since becoming Attorney General, I have dedicated myself to the highest standards.The people of this country expect an honest and transparent government and that is what we are giving them. This President wants to focus on the people of this country to ensure they are treated fairly and kept safe. The Trump agenda is to improve the lives of the American people. I know some have other agendas, but that is his agenda and it is one I share.Importantly, as Attorney General I have a responsibility to enforce the laws of this Nation, to protect this country from its enemies, and to ensure the fair administration of justice. I intend to work every day with our fine team and the superb professionals in the Department of Justice to advance the important work we have to do. These false attacks, the innuendo, and the leaks, you can be sure, will not intimidate me. In fact, these events have only strengthened my resolve to fulfill my duty to reduce crime, and to support our federal, state, and local law enforcement officers who work our streets every day. Just last week, it was reported that overdose deaths in this country are rising faster than ever recorded. The murder rate is up over 10 percent the largest increase since 1968. Together, we are telling the gangs, the cartels, the fraudsters, and the terrorists we are coming after you. Every one of our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to be safe in their homes and communities. And I will not be deterred, and I will not allow this great Department to be deterred from its vital mission.How said that this is happening to a very good man!FORMER AG MUKASEY BACKED UP THE INNOCENCE OF SESSIONS AND TRUMP EARLIER TODAY:Former AG Mukasey went there during two morning show appearances today. He told Bill Hemmer he sees no crime in the Russia probe then told Maria Bartiromo of FOX Business (video below) that Obama may be guilty of obstruction in the investigation into Hillary s email: President Obama s statement that he thought she shouldn t be charged because she didn t intend to violate the law is the real Clinton obstruction because that is a statement by him that this is the way I want that investigation to come out A take on the matter, for what it s worth. Mukasey: I don t see evidence of any crime in Russia probe https://t.co/b4KNztDyLk Mister Eerie (@Psychogrotesque) June 13, 2017 Mukasey: He was introducing an element that was not in the statute to know you re violating the law and he was saying that, that was the way he wanted the investigation to end. Obviously the Justice Department picked up on that. In his testimony last week, former FBI Director James Comey said Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked him to call the Hillary Clinton probe a matter, not an investigation, but Mukasey said that s not breaking the law. That s, I think, not obstruction because she s simply playing the same card the Clinton campaign is playing, Mukasey said.On Tuesday, President Trump said on Twitter that Lynch committed a crime and gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. A.G. Lynch made law enforcement decisions for political purposes gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. Totally illegal! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2017Meanwhile Democratic lawmaker Diane Feinstein said she wanted to open an investigation into Loretta Lynch s statement, but Mukasey said calling it a matter is just the tip of the iceberg. Then you re talking about how come the Justice Department didn t use the Grand Jury. How come they interviewed her at the end and two days later Jim Comey came out with a statement, Mukasey said, noting that the Lynch interview was not recorded. This was an un-serious investigation. FORMER AG MUKASEY DIGS INTO COMEY: DEVIOUS Former AG Michael Mukasey considers #Comey s calculated move regarding his memo extraordinarily devious ! #DrainTheDeepState @POTUS #1A pic.twitter.com/ploVQsdFzf eternal vigilance (@uspatrol) June 11, 2017WOW! To call the FBI Director devious is huge!Read more: FOX News | 1real |
Cambodia marks independence from France with doves, balloons | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodians on Thursday marked the 64th anniversary of the country s independence from France by releasing doves and balloons into the sky at the Independence Monument in the capital Phnom Penh. Late King Norodom Sihanouk declared Cambodia s independence from France in 1953 after seizing power a year earlier in a bloodless coup, but maintained good relations with the European nation. Thursday s independence ceremony was attended by current King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 30 years, and was attended by thousands of school children, civil servants and foreign diplomats. Cambodia was under French rule for almost a century before its 1953 independence. Hun Sen in a Facebook post credited King Norodom Sihanouk with devoting his life to fight for the independence. November 9 is the day that brought independence, territorial integrity, peace and development, Hun Sen said. Hun Sen s ruling Cambodian People s Party has cracked down on the opposition in recent months in the lead up to a 2018 election. His government has asked the Supreme Court to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. A court ruling is expected to decide the matter next week. | 0fake |
Trump Abuses Power, Punishes Qatar For Refusing To Give $500 Million Loan To Son-In-Law Kushner | It turns out that Donald Trump was abusing his power when he accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and allowed sanctions against them.Jared Kushner did not gain his position by getting confirmed by the Senate. He got his cushy White House job because he is married to Trump s daughter Ivanka.And he has been using his position in an effort to do business, and is using Trump s power as president to retaliate against those who refuse to do business with him.Just before Trump went on a tirade against Qatar, Kushner tried to get a loan from one of the richest men in the small country, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani.Kushner asked for a $500 million loan from al-Thani because he needs to come up with $1.3 billion in the next two years before the interest-only mortgage is due on his family s 666 Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan. The only stipulation to getting the loan was that Kushner had to come up with some co-funding for the project. Of course, Kushner failed to live up to his end of the deal, so al-Thani wisely walked away rather than risk that much money on someone who makes promises he can t keep.And because al-Thani rejected Kushner s request, Donald Trump retaliated against Qatar by accusing the Gulf nation of being too close to Iran and gave Saudi Arabia the green light to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and block transports there. Saudi Arabia is home to some Trump businesses, and Trump has been sucking up to the Saudi government, so of course, Saudi Arabia would gladly help Trump punish Qatar for refusing to give his family money.During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar look! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017Trump would repeat his claims against Qatar at the White House Rose Garden.It turns out that Russian hackers were responsible for making up statements by Qatari officials to make it look like they support Iran. But Trump refuses to stop punishing Qatar just because they refused to give money to Jared Kushner.This is what abuse of power looks like. Trump and Kushner are using the White House to punish nations who refuse to do business with them. That is grounds for impeachment right there. This is exactly why Trump should have been forced to cut all ties with his businesses, and why anyone who works in the White House should do the same to avoid these kinds of conflicts of interest.Clearly, Trump and his family are using the presidency as a way to enrich themselves.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Beyond Parody: Sean Spicer Blames Obama For Trump Hiring Foreign Agent Michael Flynn (VIDEO) | With questions mounting, Sean Spicer finally found an answer as to why Donald Trump hired known foreign agent and possible criminal Michael Flynn to be his National Security Advisor: It s Obama s fault.The Trump White House came up with their excuse seemingly overnight. Prior to Spicer s comments, the administration flailed for months. Meanwhile, Flynn s actions and Trump s cover up of them have swelled into a firestorm. Reporters have discovered that the now-fired Flynn was working for the Turkish government while on Trump s campaign, that Flynn told Trump s team that he was engaged in this illegal activity, and that the Pentagon had warned Flynn to cut it out as early as 2014.Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was warned by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 against accepting foreign payments as he entered retirement, according to new documents obtained by the House oversight committee.A final nail in Flynn s coffin when it was learned that he was also accepting money from RT, the state-sponsored television station which largely operates as a propaganda tool for the Russian government. Flynn hid these payments, adding an additional level of wrongdoing.None of which stopped Trump from hiring Flynn as his top military advisor, defending him for weeks, then ultimately saying he didn t think Flynn had done anything wrong despite his resignation. Trump, who once boasted that he only hired the best people, has predictably decided to blame Obama rather than accept responsibility. A sad pattern that he leans on for many of his failings.Asked about Mike Flynn s vetting by the Trump team, Spicer blames the Obama admin. for renewing Flynn s security clearance years before pic.twitter.com/iPkuxA7uCu Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 27, 2017Spicer:General Flynn was a career military officer who maintained a high level security clearance throughout his career in the military. His clearance was last reissued by the Obama administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities.Spicer overlooks the fact that the military actually forced Flynn out in disgrace that same year for being disruptive and a warmonger who didn t listen to his superiors. He also overlooks that Trump, who by then knew of Flynn s history, decided to hire him as a full-time surrogate for his campaign, host him at the RNC (where Flynn led lock her up chants), then promoted him to National Security Advisor once elected.Trump is a natural born scam artist but this desperate stab at passing the buck will be a hard sell even to his most ardent supporters.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
YEA BABY! Trump Reverses Obama Pro-Abortion “Parting Gift” To Planned Parenthood | President Trump just signed a law overturning a last-minute Obama-era regulation forcing states to fund Planned Parenthood, America s largest abortion business.The regulation, which pro-life groups call former President Obama s parting gift to the abortion industry, forced states to give Title X money to organizations that commit abortions. Now, states if they wish will be able to withold Title X money from abortion-committing organizations, instead prioritizing non-abortion businesses.Federal Title X dollars fund family planning services, but technically not abortion. However, government money Planned Parenthood receives helps the abortion-centered organization overall. This money is fungible, pro-life advocates say.REMEMBER OBAMA WAS THE MOST PRO-ABORTION PRESIDENT EVER! Audio of his cold-hearted testimony before the Illinois State Senate:In 2001, then IL State Sen. Barack Obama for the 2nd year in a row was the sole senator opposing Born Alive Infant bills:The U.S. House voted 230 to 188 to overturn this regulation on February 16. The U.S. Senate voted 50-50 on it on March 13. Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie, sending the bill to Trump s desk.Rep. Diane Black, R-TN, Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, and Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List were at the White House bill signing. This week the pro-life movement had two huge victories: first, the swearing-in of Justice Gorsuch and now, President Trump will undo former President Obama s parting gift to the abortion industry, said Dannenfelser. The resolution signed today simply ensures that states are not forced to fund an abortion business with taxpayer dollars. Rather, states have the option to spend Title X money on comprehensive health care clinics that better serve women and girls. Via: Life Site News | 1real |
WATCH: Former Reagan Adviser Is Totally DISGUSTED By Trump’s Divisive Rally Speech | Donald Trump treated Americans who oppose him as the enemy on Saturday and delivered the most divisive speech ever given by a president.Rather than attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump skipped the event instead to hold a rally in Pennsylvania where he displayed the kind of pettiness and divisiveness that are unprecedented in presidential history. It s time for all of us to remember that we are one people with one great American destiny, and that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, and we all share the same glorious freedoms of our magnificent country, Trump said, suggesting that Americans who oppose him are not patriots.Trump also bragged about the size of his crowd, despite the fact that it was not a record, and bragged about his achievements in his first 100 days even though he has been a complete failure who has done nothing but sign tyrannical executive orders and play golf while having no major legislation reach the Oval Office desk.Indeed, Trump s attempt to repeal the popular Affordable Care Act failed spectacularly and his executive orders on immigration have been blocked by the courts.Trump also treated a protester like shit at the rally, ordering security to get him out of here, as Nazis stood by in approval.Trump speech was not presidential. It was meant strictly to pander to his vile base of deplorable supporters who still supoort him no matter how much he lies or how much he destroys our country.And David Gergen, who served as an adviser to Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, trashed Trump s disturbing speech. This was the most divisive speech I have ever heard from a sitting American president, Gergen said. Others may disagree about that. He played to his base and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or opposed him, he treated them basically as, I don t give a damn what you think because you re frankly like the enemy. I thought it was a deeply disturbing speech. Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump should be impeached and everything he has done should be reversed and erased as if he never held office. He should also be put in prison for colluding with Russia, attempting to sabotage the United States, and violating the Constitution. Acting like a hateful and vengeful dictator should not be tolerated in this country.Featured Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Latest And Perhaps Last Debate Highlights Animosity Of Sanders, Clinton | Latest And Perhaps Last Debate Highlights Animosity Of Sanders, Clinton
If Bernie Sanders surprises pollsters and confounds expectations in the New York primary on Tuesday, April 19, his backers and staff will trumpet the effect of his ninth debate with rival Hillary Clinton on the night of April 14.
They will say the relentlessly aggressive strategy Sanders pursued in the latest CNN debate, with its steady stream of attacks on Clinton, provided the defining moment in a long campaign for a nomination that remains up for grabs.
And that assessment will have some basis in what took place.
But if Sanders' assault does not produce victory next week, then this latest Brooklyn faceoff may be the beginning of the end for Sanders' remarkable long-shot run. And it may also be the last debate in either party in this historically long and lacerating contest for the major party nominations.
On this occasion, both Sanders and Clinton showed flashes of animosity bordering on contempt. When Sanders suggested Clinton's 250-delegate lead was rooted in the deeply conservative Deep South, where he said she had "cleaned our clock," Clinton angrily fired off a list of states she had won outside that region.
When Clinton said she had "called out" the big banks after the 2008 meltdown over mortgages, Sanders could not contain his sarcasm: "They must have been very upset by this," he said, prompting howls of glee from his sizable contingent in the audience.
Throughout this event, the supporters of each candidate were loudly demonstrative, cheering not just at the end of answers but often at each sentence or phrase. At times, the raucous competition between the opposing contingents recalled competing grandstands at a high school basketball game.
They had more than ample provocation for their outbursts. Sanders put Clinton on the defensive regarding her vote on the Iraq War, her speeches to Wall Street firms and her late conversion to the $15-per-hour wage. He continued to hound her regarding the transcripts for her paid speeches to investment bankers.
But Clinton had Sanders back on his heels regarding his delayed release of tax returns, his remarks about NATO that recalled Donald Trump's denunciation of members of that alliance, and his empathy for Palestinians in the Middle East conflict. The latter position is especially sensitive in New York.
Prior to the addition of this debate to the calendar, the Democrats had seemed satisfied with eight debates. But the Sanders campaign pressed for another meeting prior to the New York primary. The clear strategy was to profit from the string of caucus-state victories Sanders has won in the West since mid-March, magnifying his momentum even as it failed to reduce Clinton's lead in delegates to any significant degree.
The debates have already reached an apparent end on the Republican side, where front-runner Trump has declined to participate in any more such events with remaining rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
The Democrats' debates began last fall, at which time Sanders offered a critique of Clinton that was relatively mild and muted and unlikely to disrupt the former senator and secretary of state's march to the nomination. He famously declined to criticize her on the vulnerable points of her private email server and the fatal attack on American diplomats in Benghazi in 2012.
But since then, as the primaries and caucuses have evolved and Clinton's lead among pledged delegates has remained stubbornly above 200, Sanders has chosen, or been forced, to adopt a different tack.
His campaign inner circle, which had long favored a more challenging approach, was able to make an urgent case: If you do not beat her in New York, where will you amass the delegates needed to overtake her in the pledged-delegate category?
Polls show Clinton leading by double digits in the state she represented in the Senate. Polls also show her with similar advantages in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut — all of which vote a week later, on April 26.
It should be noted that polls have been proved wrong in the past, especially where enthusiasm for Clinton on the primary voting day has been lacking in core constituency groups. Her double-digit lead in most polls prior to the Michigan primary in early March seemed to have vanished almost overnight when that state held its vote on March 8.
That could be why, in recent pronouncements, Sanders has repeatedly assailed Clinton's fitness for the nation's highest office by questioning her judgment. In general, he says, she has the resume to run for president. But does she have the judgment? He has returned to her vote for the use-of-force resolution that enabled President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003. And he has made a major theme of her paid speeches to investment bankers.
These attacks on Clinton are consonant with Sanders' larger indictment of the banking system, Wall Street, the financing of political campaigns in general and the presumptuous nature of the Clinton campaign in particular.
Both Clinton and Sanders argued in this debate that they would be the strongest prospective nominee against Trump (or another Republican nominee) in November.
Sanders noted that he does better in the polls, meaning that in hypothetical matchups against the various Republican candidates, he scores better than Clinton. Clinton noted that she had received 2.3 million votes more than Sanders thus far in the primaries (and about half that many more than Trump), giving her a lead among pledged delegates far above what Barack Obama enjoyed when he defeated Clinton for the nomination in 2008.
Sanders has suggested that Clinton's lead is based on her domination among the so-called superdelegates, who are entitled to vote at the national convention by virtue of their elected public office or party office. These delegates make up about 16 percent of the Democratic total. They have thus far shown a decided, even overwhelming, preference for Clinton. | 0fake |
Report: 90,000 Christians Killed for Their Faith in 2016 | During the year 2016, some 90, 000 Christians were killed for their faith around the world, according to a new study from the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR). [The director of CESNUR and leader of the study, Dr. Massimo Introvigne, told Breitbart News that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world, and the numbers of those affected are staggering. Christians are targeted primarily for two reasons, Introvigne said, “first because their proclamation of peace disturbs more belligerent groups and second, because their social teachings on life, family and poverty are opposed by powerful forces. ” While in the past century, atheistic communist regimes were the greatest persecutors of Christians, Introvigne added, the geopolitical landscape has changed considerably since then and the actors have changed as well. While “Communism’s last salvoes” are still responsible for some of Christians, Introvigne told Breitbart, “Islamic ” has taken its place as the agent of persecution. Introvigne’s findings coincide with those of other scholars and human rights groups. According to the 2016 “World Watch List,” for example, published by the Open Doors organization, nine out of the top ten countries where Christians suffer “extreme persecution” had populations that are at least 50 percent Muslim. The 2016 report found that “Islamic extremism is by far the most significant persecution engine” of Christians in the world today and that “40 of the 50 countries on the World Watch List are affected by this kind of persecution. ” Introvigne told Breitbart that in Nigeria, “over the last 12 years, the most reliable estimates assess at more than 10, 000 the Christians killed by the Islamic organization Nigeria’s Boko Haram. ” Yet while some groups, like Boko Haram, are private organizations, in a number of countries, “persecution of Christians is actually promoted by the governments,” Introvigne said. “Several Muslim countries still have laws punishing apostasy — converting from Islam to another religion,” he noted. “Others have laws against blasphemy, and some tend to consider any criticism of Islam as blasphemy. ” While tens of thousands of Christians are killed for their faith, Introvigne said, they are just the tip of the iceberg and much persecution takes place on a daily basis that never makes news. CESNUR’s annual study, which is slated for release next month, indicates that between 500 and 600 million Christians were in some way persecuted and prevented from freely practicing their faith. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter: Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 0fake |
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