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Trump Thug Chants “Jews S A” at Arizona Rally | By Adalia Woodbury on Sun, Oct 30th, 2016 at 1:43 pm A Trump supporter sporting a “Hillary for Prison” t-shirt chanted “Jews S-A” in support of his candidate during a rally in Arizona on Saturday. The target was the pen of reporters who have been fodder for Trump’s rhetoric at every rally. Share on Twitter Print This Post
A Trump supporter sporting a “Hillary for Prison” t-shirt chanted “Jews S-A” in support of his candidate during a rally in Arizona on Saturday.
The target was the pen of reporters who have been fodder for Trump’s rhetoric at every rally.
The context: While the crowd was chanting “USA” one man chanted “Jews S-A”. Words like that can’t be spun or read into. The intent and meaning were obvious to everyone.
Watch here on video obtained by The Huffington Post .
This sort of thing comes as no surprise considering that Donald Trump spent the last year spewing hate filled venom in every possible direction. It may seem superfluous to restate every category of people for which Trump has shown contempt, but it is not.
Muslims, Jews, immigrants, labor, taxpayers, Latinos, Hispanics, Mexicans, African-Americans, women, POW’s, veterans, people with disabilities, Gold Star Families, and the military have felt the sting of Trump’s words and the disdain in his heart.
Throughout this campaign season, the vitriol against Hillary Clinton saw no limit. Signs and T-shirts too disgusting to quote in this article. Chants of “lock her up” at the Republican convention and since. Trump promised his base of thugs, lowlifes, and haters he would weaken the first amendment, strengthen the second and establish the alt-right utopia.
Hillary Clinton was already the most qualified candidate in this race. She also proved to have more stamina than any previous candidate needed. Not only was she competing against a vicious and pathological liar, she was competing for who we are and who we could be. For all the Trump claims that the media is rigged in Clinton’s favor, it was Trump who got free advertising, who framed the narrative and whose words were the primary “news” stories of the campaign.
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton will keep her promise to fight for us. She has been doing it from the beginning of this campaign. Every time Hillary Clinton called out Donald Trump’s sexist comments, she was fighting for all women who were attacked, humiliated and sexually abused by men like Trump. Every time Clinton shamed Trump’s horrific and disgusting comments about the Khan family she was standing up for every Gold Star family. She was also standing up for every Muslim-American. The same is true every time Clinton condemned Trump for mocking a disabled reporter or resorted to alt-right stereotypes about African-Americans, inner-cities, and African-American communities.
Every time Trump spewed hate in whatever direction, Hillary Clinton defended the target.
So no, this isn’t about choosing the lesser of two evils. Like every election, this is about choosing our next president. More importantly, it’s about voting for who we are and who we aspire to be.
Image: Screengrab from video. | 1real |
A Struggling Theme Park Asks: Do You Still Believe in Santa? - The New York Times | NORTH POLE, N. Y. — On a snowy shoulder of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks, beyond signs advertising “North Pole, N. Y. ” and “Rides, Shops, Shows,” several parking attendants pushed a sedan, its tires spinning, into a packed lot. The car’s occupants spilled out, joining other families who through snowdrifts — just about everyone smiling, some tossing snowballs — toward the entrance to Santa’s Workshop, a theme park from another era. Inside, a line to Santa’s house snaked toward a North Pole, where families posed for selfies and a boy in a puffy snowsuit touched his tongue. Some families roasted marshmallows around a fire pit or wandered into the reindeer stable, where the animals were bedded down and out of reach of little hands. A boy raced from stall to stall, stopping in front of an empty one and shouting, “Where’s Donder? Where’s Donder?” (Donder and Dasher, an attendant elf later explained, had been feeling ill so they were recovering in a nearby pasture.) While it appeared to be a scene, Doug Waterbury, the owner of Santa’s Workshop, said, “It’s a challenge to keep the door open, frankly. ” “We lose money or break even every year,” Mr. Waterbury added. “Attendance is down. It’s hard to get up in the morning to push snow, feed reindeer and then look at all that red ink at the end of the year — and it’s not red because of Christmas. ’’ Santa’s Workshop in North Pole, in Wilmington, N. Y. is among the last of the theme parks in the region, outlasting the Land of Makebelieve, Frontier Town, Time Town, Gaslight Village and other Adirondack roadside attractions. Since 1949, Santa’s Workshop, an alpine village scaled for children, has welcomed families along the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, a scenic road that meanders toward the peak’s summit. Today, the park’s Technicolor buildings and rides are a kitschy throwback that draws dedicated fans fueled by nostalgia, who return with their children or grandchildren to share their childhood experience of seeing Santa and his reindeer. Near the Candy Cane Express train, Carrie McDonald, 41, who lives in Harveys Lake, Pa. and her sister, Erin Richburg, 37, who lives in Philadelphia, watched their children flap arms and legs into snow angels. “We came up in 1984 with our grandparents and have really vivid memories,” Ms. McDonald said. “We’ve made it a tradition to come back. Right now we’re choosing this over Disney. ” Ms. Richburg added, “It’s and simple. It’s all about Santa. ” Standing by the park’s outdoor amphitheater, where Mary and Joseph trudge to the manger, Corinne Curtis, her husband, Dave, and their children, Jack, Deacon, Kainen and Londyn, who range in age from 8 years old to 16 months, were back for a second year, visiting from their home in Binghamton, N. Y. “The feeling is what appeals to us,” Ms. Curtis said. And Santa, of course. “He’s a sweet Santa,’’ she said. “He takes the time with them. It’s not like other commercial places. ” But in the 21st century, a nice St. Nick might not be enough to sustain a theme park in a remote part of the state. Santa’s Workshop’s inaccessibility — far from metropolitan areas, including five hours from New York City along twisty mountain roads — is “part of the mystique of the place,” Mr. Waterbury said. But it has also contributed to its decline. In 1967, the final stretch of Interstate 87 — through the eastern Adirondacks — was completed, punching a direct route from New York City to Montreal. It bypassed communities with motels and cabin colonies as well as diners and attractions that had flourished in the years after World War II. In the 1940s, when three businessmen, Julian Reiss, Harold Fortune and Arto Monaco, came up with idea of a destination where it was always Christmas, they hadn’t anticipated roller coasters or parks built around Walt Disney’s characters. (In fact, before Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif. in 1955, Walt Disney visited Santa’s Workshop for inspiration and to consult with Mr. Monaco, according to Mr. Waterbury.) The recession of 2008 pummeled the Adirondack travel industry. The unpredictability of the weather has also presented challenges, including Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, which damaged the park. Attendance has dropped steadily since the 1970s, and now the park attracts no more than about 1, 000 people on most days — a far cry from the over 14, 000 customers who would show up in the 1950s. But the biggest hurdle for the theme park, Mr. Waterbury said, is the weakening hold that the story of Santa has on children today. In the 1950s “a might still believe in Santa Claus,” Mr. Waterbury said. “It’s unusual today that a kid over 7 or 8 still believes. There’s an urgency to get families to bring their kids here before they grow away. ” In the lobby of the Jack Jingle puppet theater, where juice glasses, coasters and other memorabilia are displayed, Danielle and Paul Raimondi, from Center Moriches, N. Y. showed their daughters, Isabel, 13, and Sophia, 10, sacks spilling over with 60 years’ worth of letters addressed to Santa Claus. After the girls wandered away, Ms. Raimondi whispered, “A lot of people in our ’s school were talking about not believing, and we wanted to show her that he still does exist. ” Mr. Waterbury, whose company, Empire Attractions, buys troubled assets, joined Bob Reiss, a son of Julian Reiss, as a in 2004. A decade later he bought out Mr. Reiss after earning his trust that he was committed to keeping the park’s spirit alive. Mr. Waterbury said he felt an obligation to loyal Santa fans, the community and the park’s history. Mr. Waterbury recently hired a new general manager, John Collins, who has many years of experience in the theme park industry. They’re trying to figure out ways to bolster summertime attendance, the workshop’s most dismal season. “I’m not going to let it go,” said Mr. Waterbury. “There are enough bad things. This place is about what’s good in life. ” | 0fake |
Chicago black pastors shun mayor's annual King breakfast | CHICAGO (Reuters) - A group of black pastors boycotted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s annual Martin Luther King breakfast on Friday, over his handling of police killings, and one pastor attended the event but interrupted it with protest chants before being escorted out. A handful of religious leaders joined protesters who blocked one entrance to the Hyatt Hotel where the breakfast was being held, chanting demands that Emanuel step down. But hundreds of Chicago’s African-American leaders did attend the breakfast - started in the 1980s by the city’s first black mayor, Harold Washington - and the event to honor civil rights leader King. “This boycott is not in opposition to Harold Washington nor Martin Luther King Jr. This boycott stands for the very cause that they stood for, it was through protesting that achievement was made. To sit by and do nothing is to endorse what is going on,” said Bishop Edgar Mullins, pastor of Grace Family Worship Center church, one of the boycotters. Local media showed footage of Rev. Matthew Ross interrupting the breakfast and chanting “16 shots and a cover-up,” in reference to the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, before security guards escorted him from the conference room. Police killings, mostly of men of color, have led to protests around the United States in the past year and a half. A wave of protests over police killings in Chicago, mostly of young black men, has forced Emanuel to fire his police chief and accept a federal probe of the police department. The city has also reversed its previous policy not to release video footage of police killings. On Thursday officials made public the images from surveillance cameras that show police killing Cedric Chatman, 17, in January 2013. Lawyers for his family say the video contradicts police statements that Chatman, a carjacking suspect, had a dark object that he pointed at them. Alderman Anthony Beale of the city’s ninth ward was among black leaders who attended the breakfast on Friday. He said he was there to honor King’s legacy, which made protests possible. “Either you’re part of the problem or part of the solution. I choose to be part of the solution ... Now is a golden opportunity for us to put real change in this city,” he said. | 0fake |
Ryan calls Trump, Cruz to discuss House Republican agenda: report | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan called Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, to brief them on House Republican attempts to create a bold, election-year agenda, the Hill newspaper reported on Monday. Ryan will also be calling U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich, the other contenders for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, the newspaper quoted a Ryan aide as saying. No other information about the calls was given, the paper said. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Peter Cooney) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
BREAKING BOMBSHELL: Blonde Clinton Neighbor, Dubbed The “Energizer” Gets $2 MILLION From Clinton “Charity” | Here s how Donald Trump reacted Donald Trump reacted Friday to a report that the Clinton Global Foundation provided millions to a power company partly owned by a rich, blond divorcee by saying that people have been whispering about her possible romantic ties to Bill Clinton for a long time.The commitment to Julie Tauber McMahon s firm from the Clinton Global Initiative was placed on its 2010 conference agenda at Clinton s urging, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.The initiative commits $2 million to support the work of Energy Pioneer Solutions, a company founded to deliver energy savings to communities in rural America, said a 2010 statement from the charity. People have been talking about this for years. I have no idea what went on. I certainly don t, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said on Fox & Friends. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the Clinton Global Initiative doled out $2 million to Energy Pioneer Solutions, which is partly owned by Julie Tauber McMahon.The fit, blond mother of three, who lives just minutes from Bill and Hillary Clinton s home in Chappaqua, West chester, is the daughter of Joel Tauber, a millionaire donor to the Democratic Party.McMahon, 54, is rumored to be the woman dubbed Energizer by the Secret Service at the Clinton home because of her frequent visits, according to RadarOnline.Secret Service agents were even given special instructions to abandon usual protocol when the woman came by, according to journalist Ronald Kessler s tell-all book, The First Family Detail. You don t stop her, you don t approach her, you just let her go in, says the book, based on agents accounts. Energizer is described in the book as a charming visitor who sometimes brought cookies to the agents.The book describes one sun-drenched afternoon when agents took notice of the woman s revealing attire. It was a warm day, and she was wearing a low-cut tank top, and as she leaned over, her breasts were very exposed, an agent is quoted in the book as saying. Energizer reportedly timed her arrivals and departures around Hillary Clinton s schedule.When asked about whether there should be a probe into money directed from the foundation a charity to the company, Trump said: Well, I assume you put the word charity in quotes. The interviewer, who cited the New York Post s cover story, told Trump that Clinton helped steer an $812,000 federal grant to the company through then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu.The interviewer also pointed out that nonprofits are not supposed to act in anyone s private interests. For entire story: NYP | 1real |
YIKES! Former Dem Pollster Makes Bold Prediction: “The Dam Is About To Break” [VIDEO] | Jimmy Carter s Democrat pollster Pat Caddell is predicting a Trump Tsunami, reminiscent of the Carter-Reagan election. Carter was ahead in all of the polls leading up to the election and Reagan shocked the world when he crushed him in a landslide Watch: | 1real |
Germany's Gabriel says ties with U.S. 'difficult', will improve | BERLIN (Reuters) - Relations between Berlin and Washington are in a difficult phase but the United States is “bigger and better” than the current spat shows and ties will improve again, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Tuesday. “It is true that we have a difficult situation in relations between the United States and Germany,” Gabriel said. “But the United States are older and bigger than the current conflict and so I think we will return to good relations in the future.” “Things are getting trivialized now. I think it is inappropriate that we are now communicating with each other between a beer tent and Twitter,” Gabriel added in Berlin. Chancellor Angela Merkel told her Bavarian allies in a beer tent in Munich on Sunday that Europe could no longer completely rely on its allies. U.S. President Donald Trump responded by criticizing Germany via Twitter earlier on Tuesday. | 0fake |
Trump meets Japan, Australia leaders over trade, North Korea threat | MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump raised North Korea s missile tests during talks on Monday with the prime ministers of Japan and Australia, and said a lot of progress had been made in negotiations on trade. On the sidelines of a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila, Trump met with Japan s Shinzo Abe and Australia s Malcolm Turnbull, and said discussions at the meeting would include tensions on the Korean Peninsula and trade. In brief remarks prior to news media being ushered out of the meeting, Turnbull said North Korea s recklessness needed to be stopped, while Abe said the most immediate challenge was to ensure regional peace and stability. Following the meeting, the White House said the three leaders reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining maximum pressure on North Korea in the effort to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. They also discussed expanded security cooperation for enhanced deterrence and defense against North Korean aggression, the White House said in a statement. The three men also discussed the need for free and open trade in the Indo-Pacific region and the need to pursue fair and reciprocal trade, the White House added. Trump, who campaigned heavily on U.S. trade issues, made pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Asian trade deal one of his first acts in office. His administration has instead pledged to reach bilateral pacts with individual nations. Countries remaining in the pact have said the deal is advancing without the United States. | 0fake |
Bernie Sanders Rises In The Senate, Prepares To Become Trump’s WORST Nightmare (TWEETS) | Addicting Info | The Knowledge You Crave | on November 16, 2016 4:56 pm ·
It was just a few days ago that Bernie Sanders responded to Trump’s election win with the perfect message from Democrats. He said :
“If Donald Trump takes people’s anger and turns it against Muslims, Hispanics, African Americans and women, we will be his worst nightmare.”
And from what was just announced, it seems that Sanders has every intention of making good on that warning. Earlier today, the Vermont Senator was named chair of outreach during a closed-door Senate Democrat caucus meeting, according to The Hill . In his new role, Sanders will lead outreach to blue-collar voters — the very voters who became Trump supporters this year. Sanders will also be the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee. Acknowledging that he has a “heavy responsibility to help shape the priorities of the United States government,” Sanders said: “I’m going to do everything that I can to make sure that the budget that leaves the United States Congress is a budget that represents the needs of working families and a shrinking middle class and not billionaires.” With the announcement of Sanders’ new position, Trump is definitely going to be a nervous wreck. He’s spent his entire presidential campaign claiming that he would help the working class, and now Sanders is in the position to challenge him and hold him to it for the next four years. By elevating Sanders to this new role, Democrats are moving to a more grassroots message, fully aware that Sanders’ presidential campaign and vision for America resonated with many voters. As we saw with Sanders’ popularity in the primaries, the Vermont Senator struck a nerve with workers and families, making him the perfect candidate to go up against Trump as he takes office. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) commented on Sanders’ new responsibility: “We want to expand on that, and he will be reaching out to all our allies. We have a tremendous amount of talent in our caucus and we want to make sure everyone is contributing.” Sanders hardly needed this promotion to upset Trump, as he’s been one of the most outspoken politicians on Twitter since Trump’s win: Twitter Twitter Twitter
However, Sanders’ new role is great news for our country, and we know he’s going to give Trump hell.
Featured image via Zach Gibson and Alex Wong / Getty Images Share this Article! Author: Vera My passion is bringing attention to human rights and equality issues. In addition to writing for Addicting Info, I also run a website and digital magazine dedicated to social issues and promoting equality in all forms. Search | 1real |
2015 Broke A New Climate Change Record And It’s Bad News For The Planet | Every year without fail, the first major snowstorm to hit the Northeast is greeted by Fox News as proof that global warming is a myth. It doesn t matter that the claim is nonsensical, it s picked up and mindlessly repeated by their viewers and reinforced by Republicans in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry. But this year might be a little different as scientists announced that 2015 is officially the hottest year on record, not just beating the record set in 2014, but smashing it:Scientists reported Wednesday that 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history by far, breaking a record set only the year before a burst of heat that has continued into the new year and is roiling weather patterns all over the world.In the continental United States, the year was the second-warmest on record, punctuated by a December that was both the hottest and the wettest since record-keeping began. One result has been a wave of unusual winter floods coursing down the Mississippi River watershed.Those floods have negatively impacted millions and killed dozens, if not more. And don t forget the bizarre spat of unseasonable winter tornadoes that have been ripping through parts of the country, destroying communities and costing more lives. But it s going to snow this weekend so everything is A-OK!Unfortunately, it doesn t matter what we do now. We re locked into some of the worst effects of Climate Change for the next couple of centuries. Our children and their children will be thanking us for the gift of wild and unpredictable weather. Even worse, doing nothing will guarantee that the planet will become completely incapable is sustaining human civilization as we understand it. Yet, Republicans are still fighting even the mildest of measures tooth and nail in pursuit of the short term profits of their fossil fuel masters.Let s hope that future generations will have the luxury of examining the past and not be forced to focus on simple survival in a climate rendered inhospitable to human life.Featured image via the New York Times | 1real |
Yemen's ex-president Saleh stable after Russian medics operate | DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh has had a successful operation at a Sanaa hospital after a Russian medical team was flown in to perform it, government sources said on Saturday. The Russian team arrived in Sanaa two days ago and operated on Saleh on Friday for wounds he sustained in an assassination attempt in 2011. Saleh s General People s Congress Party said the procedure was successful, and that his condition was stable. Saleh was severely wounded in an attack on the presidential palace in Sanaa in June 2011. He went to the United States for treatment on one occasion, before a travel ban was imposed. The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Saleh in 2014, accusing him of threatening peace and obstructing Yemen s political process, subjecting him to a global travel ban and an asset freeze. Government sources told Reuters the Russian team had arrived with approval from the Saudi-led Arab alliance but did not reveal the precise nature of the surgery. Saleh ruled Yemen for 34 years, but was forced from power after pro-democracy protests in 2012. Forming a surprise alliance with the Houthi movement when they seized Sanaa in 2014, Saleh s army loyalists and Houthi fighters have weathered thousands of air strikes by the Saudi-led military coalition in more than two years of war. | 0fake |
Upset by Brexit, Some British Jews Look to Germany - The New York Times | LONDON — Until Britain voted to leave the European Union, Philip Levine never thought deeply about his Jewish heritage. But looking for a way to ensure that he could still work and live in Europe once Britain leaves the bloc, Mr. Levine, 35, who was born in Britain and lives in London, decided to do what some Jews, including his relatives, might consider unthinkable: apply for German citizenship. He did so by employing a provision of German law that has been on the books since 1949 but that has been little used in recent years. With some exceptions, it allows anyone whom the Nazis stripped of their German citizenship “on political, racial or religious grounds” from Jan. 30, 1933, to May 8, 1945, and their descendants, to have their citizenship restored. (For those born before April 1, 1953, German citizenship can be derived through the father only.) Most of those who lost their citizenship during that period were Jews, though they also included other minorities and political opponents. He is not alone in turning to the German law after Britain’s decision to end its membership in the European Union, also known as Brexit. Since the vote in June, the German Embassy in London said it had received at least 400 requests from Britons for information about German citizenship under a legal provision known as Article 116. At least 100 are formal applications by individuals or families, said Knud Noelle, an embassy official. “We expect more in coming weeks,” he said, adding that the embassy normally receives roughly 20 such applications every year. The interest among British Jews is far greater than ever before, said Michael Newman, the chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, who said that he, too, was considering applying for German citizenship. The association is based in London. “I don’t remember hearing of requests before” for German citizenship in the association’s history, he said. “It’s taken Brexit to do this. It was a . ” The development is among the most surprising techniques being used by British and European citizens as they seek a second passport that would allow them to retain their ability to travel, work and live anywhere in the bloc even after Britain’s departure is complete sometime in the next several years. People from the Continent living in Britain, Britons living in Europe and Britons living at home but eager to retain the benefits of European citizenship are investigating their heritage, considering marriage, studying residency requirements and otherwise searching for legal paths to get around the effects of the British vote. “I didn’t realize how simple it is,” Mr. Levine said of the application process for German citizenship, adding that he had done it initially for practical reasons and because his brother brought it up. “It’s literally a back door” into Europe. Britain allows dual citizenship, and Jews interviewed for this article said they planned to keep their British nationality. They said they had no immediate plans to move to Germany, either. Rather, German citizenship would allow them to keep traveling inside the European Union and maintain other benefits of belonging to Europe. Many British Jews, especially the younger generations, are comfortable with Germany, which they say has done enough to confront its past. Richard Ferrer, the editor of Jewish News, which is based in London, said he did not plan to apply for German citizenship, but only because he was a “born and bred Brit. ” Germany has done everything in its power to right its past wrongs, he said. “I’m very and I’m very happy with Germany,” he said. But if the process of applying for citizenship is straightforward, it is wrapped in complex questions of identity and statehood that tore Europe apart in the last century, one more unintended consequence of Britain’s decision to go its own way after more than 20 years in the union. In Mr. Levine’s case, his grandparents fled Germany in 1939, at the start of World War II. They kept their documents, including old passports and entry visas into Britain, which are necessary for the application process. About 70, 000 Jews from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia arrived in Britain before 1939, Mr. Newman said. But those from Germany and Austria, enemy states, were regarded with suspicion by the British authorities. Many were held in internment camps in places like the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man, often together with Germans who had also decided to resettle in Britain. After the Nazi Party was declared the only legal party in Germany, the government passed a law to strip individual Jews of their German citizenship, with their names listed in the Reich Law Gazette. Jews living abroad lost their citizenship in November 1941. As deportations began and the first extermination camps were being built, Jews were stripped of their assets, leaving many stranded in Germany because their passports had been nullified. For some of the British Jews now applying for German citizenship, the process has led them to confront, for the first time, a painful family history. Some American Jews are going through the same process, albeit without the additional incentive provided by Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Mr. Levine is an artist and uses his shaved head as a canvas for what he calls headism, artwork intended to raise awareness of mental health issues. He grew up feeling very British, but has also traveled extensively across Europe and has many German friends. His grandparents avoided talking about Nazi Germany — and he did not ask. Not long ago, for the first time, Mr. Levine held in his hands a passport belonging to his grandfather, a large red “J” stamped on the cover to signify “Jude,” German for Jew. His aunt, who kept the document, also showed him a Nazi government letter notifying his grandfather that one of his names had been changed to sound more Jewish. In the space of a couple of weeks, as Mr. Levine asked questions and dug around his family archives, what was originally a practical decision took on a more personal meaning. “My reaction became — I want to spite the Nazis,” said Mr. Levine, who asked some of his German friends to translate the letter because he does not speak German. They, too, expressed outrage over its contents. It was only then that he fully realized his part in history, he said, and felt that “now I can do something about it. ” Thomas Harding is another Jewish Briton applying for German citizenship. “I feel much more comfortable about Germany and Germans,” he said. When Britain announced it was leaving Europe, “I felt really distressed,” he said. “I felt like I was losing something. ” The of Alfred Alexander, a prominent doctor in Berlin whose patients included Albert Einstein and Marlene Dietrich, Mr. Harding, 48, said that his desire for citizenship stemmed from a project to restore his ’s home, which was seized by the Nazis and only recently returned to the family. The summer house, on Berlin’s westernmost border in Gross Glienicke, Germany, and near what used to be a Nazi airfield, was awarded a landmark status in 2014 and turned into a memorial for truth and reconciliation. The project was the focus of his recently published book, “The House by the Lake. ” Villagers of Gross Glienicke had initially reached out to him for a separate project researching the village’s Jewish families, including his. In the beginning, “I still had a lot of antagonism toward Germany and the Germans,” Mr. Harding said. “I was very distrustful. ” But as his relationship with the villagers deepened, work on the house progressed and a tentative friendship blossomed, “it gave me the confidence of walking through the door,” he said. “And they welcomed me through. ” His attitude toward Germany brightened further when it began accepting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. “I was very grateful to the Germans, because I think it was incredibly brave, very difficult, very controversial, but the right decision,” he said. His sister, who lives in Germany and is married to a Syrian Kurd, brought over their Syrian relatives earlier this year. Mr. Harding said he felt a sense of wonder at how history is an endless repetition. “This is not about Germans or Jews or Syrians,” he said. “This is a human condition. This is going to happen all the time. ” That all came to a head at 9 a. m. on June 23, he said, barely two hours after Britain finished tallying the vote to leave the European Union. “I thought, ‘O. K. I actually do not want to be apart from Europe,’” Mr. Harding recalled telling himself. “I love the fact that I’m not applying for citizenship — I’m having my citizenship restored,” he said. “It’s in the initial basic law when Germany was created. I just think that is so powerful. ” | 0fake |
Georgian president reluctantly signs new constitution into law | TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili on Friday reluctantly signed into law a new constitution that will do away with direct election for president and switch to a system of proportional representation in parliament. Margvelashvili, who unsuccessfully tried to veto the draft bill, said it was personally difficult for him to sign the document, but he did so in the interests of stability in the country which straddles an energy supply route to Europe and is an arena of strategic rivalry between Russia and the West. Considering the country s internal and external challenges and the fact that we should do everything to avoid possible causes of detribalization, I am signing this document, Margvelashvili said in a statement. Margvelashvili had originally sent the draft back to parliament with his objections which included opposing a call for an end to direct elections for president. But parliament overturned his veto. Margvelashvili, who was elected in 2013 for a five-year term, criticized the ruling Georgian Dream party for adopting the constitution without a consensus with other political forces in the ex-Soviet country. It has been obvious since the very first day (of the constitutional reform process) that the ruling party aimed to adopt a one-party constitution, he said. The next presidential election in Georgia is to be held in 2018 and it is not clear whether Margvelashvili, who is at odds with the ruling party on several issues, will stand again. MPs from the Georgian Dream said the constitutional reform process set a new constitutional tradition and culture in Georgia. The amendments were introduced not to strengthen the ruling party s political positions, but ... to strengthen democracy in Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, a parliamentary speaker said. The new constitution will enter into force following the next presidential election next year. | 0fake |
Army Develops New Bullet to Pierce Body Armor of Islamic State Jihadists - Breitbart | The U. S. Army is working on a new bullet that will supplant the current 5. 56 mm round in at least some applications. It will be able to penetrate the body armor currently worn by Islamic State jihadists. [According to Army Times, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday and told them the Army is working on the new bullet. Milley said, “The 5. 56 round, we recognize there is a type of body armor it does not penetrate, and adversarial states are selling that stuff on the Internet for about 250 bucks. ” He then pointed out that the Army is already onto a solution, saying, “We know we have developed a bullet that can penetrate these new plates. ” Sen. Angus King ( ) asked if the new bullet requires a new rifle. Milley said, “It might, but probably not. ” King asked if the new rifle could be an “existing, ” model, and Milley said, “Yes, there are several options out there. ” For now, the Army is replacing the M4 with a Heckler and Koch 417 chambered in a 7. 62 mm “for squad designated marksmen. ” AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0fake |
REPORTER INTERVIEWING TRUMP Refers To CA Terrorists As “Regular people”…Trump’s Response Is Nothing Short Of Awesome | Well, I don t know. When you have pipe bombs laying all over the floor, I don t think they re regular people.' That s not all Trump had a few things to say about the Terrorist s family and some common sense advice for people who see something they suspect may be tied to terrorism in their neighborhoods as well https://youtu.be/9Vddc8t655E | 1real |
jeb! Bush Has Discovered The Secret To What America Really Wants In A President…And It’s Something You Never Expected | Apparently, jeb! thinks the tallest guy in the room is the only qualification for the person who has to clean up eight years of Obama s reckless presidency Who knew it was that easy?Watch video here of 6 3 jeb! standing on his tip-toes for photo shoot on GOP debate stage: | 1real |
Trophy Hunting Fees Do Little to Help Threatened Species, Report Says - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Advocates of trophy hunting, and even the United States government, have long justified the killing of protected wildlife in Africa by saying that taxes and fees from the hunts help pay for larger conservation efforts. But a new report by the Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee challenges those claims, finding little evidence that the money is being used to help threatened species, mostly because of rampant corruption in some countries and poorly managed wildlife programs. It concludes that trophy hunting may be contributing to the extinction of certain animals. It has been almost a year since an American hunter killed a beloved lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe, setting off an international debate over sport hunting and widespread anger on the internet. Since then, the Obama administration has placed lions in Africa under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, France has banned the import of lion trophies, and more than 40 airlines have said they will no longer transport hunting trophies. The House report, called “Missing the Mark,” says that while poaching remains the gravest threat to animals like lions, rhinoceroses and leopards, “trophy hunting also removes a significant number of animals from these rapidly declining populations. ” “As the tragic death of Cecil the lion showed us,” the report says, “trophy hunters do not always play by the rules, and the trophy hunting industry needs to be regulated and held accountable for there to be any hope of a consistent conservation benefit. ” In theory, elaborate hunts — which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, including trophy fees, professional guide payments, transportation and lodging — could help poor countries maintain robust conservation programs and give aid to residents. In the past, the money has been used to repair degraded environments, and the revenue from trophy hunting has been seen as deterring local residents from killing animals because they consider them a nuisance or a danger. However, the report says, “In assessing the flow of trophy hunting revenue to conservation efforts, we found many troubling examples of funds’ either being diverted from their purpose or not being dedicated to conservation in the first place. ” The Endangered Species Act says hunted trophies can be brought to the United States only if they do not contribute to the extinction of a species. That standard is not always met, the report says, and it recommends that the Fish and Wildlife Service improve its permitting process so that only trophies that actually enhance the survival of species are allowed into the country. The service has the authority to require an import permit for any species listed as threatened or endangered. In 2014, the agency suspended imports of elephant trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe because of “catastrophic population declines. ” But, according to the study, it has been reluctant to use its authority to restrict other trophy imports that do not meet the standards on protecting species. The agency has also used special rules to exempt from permitting requirements many imports of animals listed under the Endangered Species Act, the report says. For the species covered in the House report, the Fish and Wildlife Service required only one import permit from 2010 to 2014, though more than 2, 700 trophies eligible for permitting were imported during that time. For the 1, 469 leopard trophies that could have required an import permit, the agency required none. Because Americans bring home more trophies of protected species than hunters from any other country, some conservationists believe that the United States government has the responsibility and the leverage to force a change. The urgency for such change, however, can be largely credited to Cecil the lion. “Before Cecil, there was a certain complacency surrounding what to do about the lion, almost an indifference,” said Craig Packer, a lion expert who ran the Serengeti Lion Project in Tanzania for 35 years and has been critical of hunting practices in that country. “After Cecil, it became clear that the public was much more skeptical of sport hunting,” he said. “It shows the power of public opinion. ” | 0fake |
Suicide Bomb Attack Targets Baghdad Market | (AFP) — A suicide bomber blew up a car at the entrance of Baghdad’s main vegetable market on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens, security officials and medics said. [“A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomb after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car,” interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said. A police colonel and a hospital official said at least 11 people were killed and 35 wounded. Maan said the soldier who opened fire on the attacker was among the wounded. Jamila is the main wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad and lies in Sadr City, a vast, mostly Shiite, neighbourhood in the northeast of the capital which has been repeatedly targeted. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but all such recent bombings have been claimed by the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group. The most recent major attack claimed by IS was on January 2 — also in Sadr City — when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives among a crowd of day labourers waiting for work, killing 35 people. | 0fake |
Irony alert! What’s Paul Krugman trying to say about the election with this James Comey slam? | Irony alert! What’s Paul Krugman trying to say about the election with this James Comey slam? Posted at 3:07 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that the email would continue in light of new information. Going to be fun watching people who said "rigging" talk was an attack on our democracy now attack the integrity of the FBI.
— Jason C. (@CounterMoonbat) October 28, 2016
As we reported earlier, Paul Krugman was among the lefties who thought the FBI director’s decision and how it was handled was “shameful.” Krugman also added this: If we don't hear more from Comey, we just have to conclude that he was trying to swing election. And *that* should be the story.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 28, 2016
Is that so? In other words: @paulkrugman You mean it's rigged, nutboy? | 1real |
EU's Mogherini: U.S. says will fully implement Iran nuclear deal | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said on Friday she was reassured during meetings with President Donald Trump’s administration that it was committed to full implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. In her first visit to Washington since Trump took power, Mogherini came to present the European Union as a valuable friend to the United States with common priorities. In a nod to Trump’s preferred style of diplomacy, she said that the European Union could adopt a more formal “transactional approach” on some issues to appeal to the new administration. Mogherini, who met this week with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Trump’s advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and members of Congress, said her main intention in Washington was to discuss the nuclear accord, which granted Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Her visit suggests concern among European and other countries, including Russia and China, that the Trump administration may withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal. There have been increasing concerns since the White House put Iran “on notice” for test-firing a ballistic missile. Days later, Washington tightened sanctions against Iran by imposing measures against 25 individuals and entities for the missile test. “I was reassured by what I heard in the meetings on the intention to stick to the full implementation of the agreement,” Mogherini told reporters. Mogherini said she won assurances from members of the Trump administration that they believe Russia should abide by the terms of the 2015 Minsk agreement to end fighting in eastern Ukraine. Mogherini said she and Tillerson discussed how the Minsk agreement might be fully implemented. But Mogherini also signaled doubt about Trump’s commitment to U.S. policy towards Russia. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have expressed concern that Trump will be too conciliatory towards Moscow, perhaps by granting Russia relief from sanctions on its energy, defense and finance industries. “We agreed that as long as the Minsk agreements are not fully implemented, sanctions would remain in place,” Mogherini said later on Friday at a Washington think tank. “But I don’t know if this is going to be the consolidated policy ... I was not in the Oval Office when President Trump called President (Vladimir) Putin.” Mogherini avoided directly criticizing Trump, but said European history showed that blocking the movement of people is doomed to fail. Trump has vowed to build a wall along the U.S. southern border to block illegal immigration from Mexico. He has also issued an executive order barring people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except refugees from Syria, who are banned indefinitely. “We tend to celebrate when walls come down,” Mogherini said. “America has always been great because it has been made up of many people coming from different places.” | 0fake |
UK's Johnson has "constructive" call with husband of jailed aid worker: Sky | LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson had a constructive conversation with the husband of Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who is jailed in Iran, Sky News reported on Sunday. Citing unnamed sources, Sky said Johnson had spoken on the phone with Richard Ratcliffe. It gave no further details. | 0fake |
OKLAHOMA LAWMAKER BLASTED FOR SAYING: “Shouldn’t Mosques Be Removed After 911 by ANTIFA Logic?” [VIDEO] | Oklahoma State Rep. John Bennett made a comment on Facebook that was has since been removed after local Muslims didn t see any moral equivalency between removing Mosques after 9/11 and removing Confederate statues. Everyone freaked out about his comment even the governor of Oklahoma. We d like to know what you think See below for more info on this Patriot!OKLAHOMA CITY A Facebook post by an Oklahoma lawmaker is receiving a lot of attention after the post suggested removing mosques from America.The post by Rep. John Bennett suggests that if Confederate monuments are being removed because of the Civil War, mosques should also be removed due to 9/11. If we re removing Confederate monuments after the Civil War, I think we should also be removing mosques after 9/11, his Facebook post said. It is not an idol. It s a place where serve the poor, take care of the hungry and cure the sick. Making this association is extremely irrational, said Imad Enchassi with the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City. This is a place where American Muslims, Oklahoma Muslims, proudly serve fellow Oklahomans. The post has since been taken down.NO FREE SPEECH ALLOWED We re all supposed to just fall in line with what we re told TRUTH IS THE NEW HATE SPEECH Bennett is one smart cookie! He called for a suspension of Syrian refugees way back in November of 2015:SALLISAW, OK State Rep. John Bennett, Sallisaw-02 (R) has called on Governor Fallin to suspend Oklahoma s effort in resettling Syrian refugees in Oklahoma. According to the New York Times article on October 21, 2015, there have been dozens of Syrian refugees settled in Jenks, OK since 2012, said Bennett. What s disturbing is that when I contacted the Jenks Police Department about this issue, they advised that the New York Times article was the first time anyone in their office knew about these resettlements. Bennett continued, Given the light of the Paris attacks and that some of the terrorists arrived in France as Syrian refugees, I am calling on Governor Fallin to immediately suspend any current plans to relocate Syrian refugees in Jenks or elsewhere in Oklahoma and to identify those that have arrived under the relocation program since 2012. Via: Forty Six NewsThis is the kind of lawmaker trying to protect the people from terrorism Bravo! | 1real |
Our new country: Women and minorities hit hardest | Our new country: Women and minorities hit hardest Ann Coulter: Dems import 'cultures where rape, incest and spousal murder are acceptable' Published: 24 mins ago × Receive Ann Coulter's alerts in your email
BONUS: By signing up for Ann Coulter’s alerts, you will also be signed up for news and special offers from WND via email. error Print
Every ethnic group except whites bloc-votes for the Democrats. Coincidentally, the Democrats have brought in another 30 to 40 million nonwhite immigrants in the last few decades.
It doesn’t help that white voters can’t agree on what constitutes an acceptable candidate. In 2012, working-class whites sat out the election, rather than vote for the out-of-touch rich guy they saw in Mitt Romney. This year, the out-of-touch rich guys say they’ll vote for Hillary because Trump is tacky and gross.
The sad irony is that the only people who will be better off in our new country are mostly white plutocrats – the top .01 percent. The rest of us will be their servants.
The people who will be worse off are everybody else – the working class, the middle class (who will soon be working class) and, most of all, women, minorities, children, the elderly, the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.
Look to Mexico for your future – or any Third World country. Or to Univision’s Jorge Ramos. The ruling class in Mexico is composed of European-looking, white descendants of Spanish conquistadors who raped the native population, giving them only their Spanish names in return. (British settlers in America brought women with them.)
Explaining Latino culture’s acceptance of incest and child rape, criminal justice researcher Shana Maier writes in a book about rape that “the male is the head of the household, and women are subordinate to men. … Hispanics and Latinos are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to blame the victim. The victim, not the perpetrator, is blamed for bringing dishonor to the family.”
One American detective said that, today, police are being taught to keep an “open mind” about child rape because “it’s a cultural thing.”
When it comes to multiculturalism, you can’t say, We love the empanadas – but we don’t want 40-year-old men raping their nieces . This isn’t an a la carte menu. We get ALL the attributes of the cultures we’re importing.
As described in excruciating detail in “Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole,” our media already have a totally “open mind” about incest and child rape – and murder! – when it’s committed by immigrants.
Thus, for example, where I would have chosen the headline: “Illegal Alien Convicted of Incest, Child Rape,” the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press went with the less catchy: “Man guilty in case of human smuggling.”
And where I would have used the headline, “Illegal Alien Repeatedly Raped 14-year-old Girl at Job Site,” the Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Mississippi, went with the more subtle, “Columbus resident charged with molestation.”
Immigrant women arrive in America, thrilled to have escaped cultures where rape, incest and spousal murder are acceptable, only to discover that those crimes are perfectly acceptable in this country, too – provided the perpetrator is from the very culture they fled.
In 1989, Brooklyn Judge Edward Pincus sentenced a Chinese immigrant to probation for a premeditated murder of his wife, on the grounds that the murder flowed from “traditional Chinese values about adultery and loss of manhood.” The female head of the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Margaret Fung, applauded the ruling.
Somewhat amazingly, newspapers are more likely to report black crime than immigrant crime. (Anything to keep the Third World immigration flowing!)
In 2013, a 13-year-old girl was gang-raped by about a dozen illegal aliens, who cheered and videoed the attack.
When the news first broke, Shaneequa Jupiter, who lived with her children in the apartment building where the gang rape occurred, complained that neither the police nor apartment security had warned residents about the danger. (That could reflect poorly on illegal immigrants!)
Even if Shaneequa had scoured the headlines, she would have been on the lookout for “Austin men.” Or “Two.”
Compare these headlines about the same brutal sexual attack:
– “Two held in attack on child” – Austin American-Statesman (Texas), July 19, 2013
– “Two Mexicans placed on immigration detainers as third man is arrested over five-day gang rape hell of teenage runaway during which she smoked crack” – Daily Mail Online, July 24, 2013
Needless to say, the New York Times did not cover the Mexican illegal-alien gang rape at all.
The ultimate primer on the “blue-collar billionaire”— order Ann Coulter’s book “In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!”
By contrast, the Times, and every major American news outlet, extensively covered another gang rape – of a girl about the same age, at about the same time, in about the same place.
The second case only was “rape” because of the girl’s young age – she was 11. But she was an enthusiastic participant, sneaking out of her house at night to meet the men for sex.
Those rapes, just a few years earlier, got a full-court press. The defendants were African-American. The victim was Mexican.
That time, there were articles in the Huffington Post, GQ, Slate, Salon and Mother Jones. It even made the New York Times, despite no connection to a college fraternity or lacrosse team.
Similarly, within a few months of one another in 2013, two men were arrested in separate child rape cases in Decatur, Alabama, for assaults on 9-year-old girls. One suspect was African-American, the other was a Hispanic immigrant. Only one made the newspaper. Guess which one?
When excitable Muslims raped American reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square (another one of Hillary’s foreign policy successes!), journalists immediately set to work to find the shortest line from the Muslim rapists to white American men.
Conclusion: The real problem was the female reporters’ American bosses and colleagues. (Definitely not Islam!)
Sampling of New York Times commentary on Logan’s rape:
– “Why We Need Women in War Zones” (“I would never tell my bosses for fear that they might keep me at home the next time something major happened. … This attack also had nothing to do with Islam.”)
– “Reporting While Female” (“Women reporters face another set of challenges. We are often harassed in ways that male colleagues are not. … In my experience, Muslim countries were not the worst places for sexual harassment.”)
Perhaps American men could do better, but, as American women may soon discover: They never had it so good.
Manifestly, the purpose of our immigration policies is not to help Americans – or the immigrants who wanted to live in a place like America. They are designed to funnel welfare-dependent voters to the Democrats and cheap labor to the rich. (The Chinese immigrant who got probation for murdering his wife, for example, came to America based on his specialized skill of being a dishwasher.)
Our country will be Zimbabwe, but – if all goes according to the Democrats’ plan – they’ll get to be Mugabe!
That’s Hillary’s dream. If she wins, Joe Sobran’s parody of the typical New York Times headline (about anything) will come true: “Women and Minorities Hit Hardest.” Receive Ann Coulter's weekly commentaries in your email BONUS: By signing up for Ann Coulter’s alerts, you will also be signed up for news and special offers from WND via email. Name * | 1real |
ARE THE ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS Becoming The New “Ferguson” For Illegals And Democrats? [Video] | A California Donald Trump Rally turned into a violent riot by mostly young Latinos. This is the result of open borders lawlessness and disregard for other people s right to free speech:Hundreds of demonstrators filled the street outside the Orange County amphitheater where Donald Trump held a rally Thursday night, stomping on cars, hurling rocks at motorists and forcefully declaring their opposition to the Republican presidential candidate.Some video I shot of a police car being smashed by a protester: pic.twitter.com/aqHm5jP9y3 Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) April 29, 2016THE ILLEGALS ARE EXPRESSING THEIR FRUSTRATION BY THROWING ROCKS AT PEOPLE AND DESTROYING COP CARS Donald Trump is worthless! There won t be no United States without Mexicans. -Juan Carlos, 16 I m protesting because I want equal rights for everybody, and I want peaceful protest, said 19-year-old Daniel Lujan, one of hundreds in a crowd that appeared to be mostly Latinos in their late teens and 20s. This just happen #CostaMesa #DonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/t0hS8EEdIU Ruben Vives (@LATvives) April 29, 2016 Video footage showed some anti-Trump demonstrators hurling debris at a passing pickup. One group of protesters carried benches and blocked the entrance to the 55 Freeway along Newport Boulevard, with some tossing rocks at motorists near the on-ramp. Costa Mesa police confirmed that a total of 17 people 10 males and 7 females were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly. A MOTORIST GOT OUT OF HIS CAR AFTER BEING BLOCKED AND CONFRONTED THE PROTESTERS:SUV almost ran over protester. Passenger gets out and gets confronted by protesters near 55 Fwy #CostaMesa pic.twitter.com/LLA4K1rzEN Ruben Vives (@LATvives) April 29, 2016READ MORE: LA TIMES | 1real |
(VIDEO) REV AL SHARPTON BOTCHES THE NAME OF A FAMOUS BIBLICAL FIGURE…YES, HE’S A REVEREND.. | REVEREND AL MIGHT WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL OR CHURCH | 1real |
Fearing Election Day Trouble, Some US Schools Cancel Classes | Fearing Election Day Trouble, Some US Schools Cancel Classes Newsmax, October 26, 2016
Rigged elections. Vigilante observers. Angry voters. The claims, threats and passions surrounding the presidential race have led communities around the U.S. to move polling places out of schools or cancel classes on Election Day.
The fear is that the ugly rhetoric of the campaign could escalate into confrontations and even violence in school hallways, endangering students.
“If anybody can sit there and say they don’t think this is a contentious election, then they aren’t paying much attention,” said Ed Tolan, police chief in Falmouth, Maine, which decided to call off classes on Election Day and put additional officers on duty Nov. 8.
{snip}
Schools are popular polling places because they have plenty of parking and are usually centrally located. It’s difficult to say how many school-based polling places have been moved this year, given how decentralized the voting process is across the country.
But state and local officials say voting has been removed or classes have been canceled on Election Day at schools in Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and elsewhere.
“There is a concern, just like at a concert, sporting event or other public gathering, that we didn’t have 15 or 20 years ago. What if someone walks in a polling location with a backpack bomb or something?” said Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, co-chairman of the National Association of Secretaries of State election committee. “If that happens at a school, then that’s certainly concerning.”
{snip}
Easton Superintendent John Reinhart wanted to get voting out of schools altogether but was rebuffed by county election officials. So the school board canceled classes on Election Day.
“If you take the personalities away and cast the emotion with the election aside, one has to ask the question: ‘Are our schools the best places for that activity to take place?'” he said. “I just think we’ve reached the point where we need to look at other locations.”
{snip} | 1real |
Leftist Housewife Steals Dozens Of Trump Signs, Here’s Why… | Pinterest
In her Washington Post article explaining why she and her lady friends decided to drive around the neighborhood and steal Donald Trump signs from private property, there’s one line that explains perfectly the leftist mentality.
The liberal idea that your feelings are more important than the law – your personal opinions, or grudges, or perceived injustices grant you permission to commit criminal acts with little regard to the consequences.
Betta Stothart wrote her article in The Post on Tuesday (she provided a link to her Twitter feed, which was brand new at the time she wrote it, but has already been taken down) confessing to driving around her Falmouth, Maine, neighborhood with two other compatriots stealing dozens of Donald Trump signs from people’s yards.
She was caught and arrested and now has to go to court. She tells us she’s sorry, but she’s not. Because her feelings about this campaign are more important. Read how she describes her situation:
I committed a crime this month, along with two of my friends. I’m not the lawbreaking type. In fact, as a 52-year-old mom, my life is pretty predictable and boring. But this election, a particular candidate’s boasts about women pushed me over the edge.
In the suburban, upper-middle-class part of Maine where I live, Republicans and Democrats live together mostly in harmony. In every election cycle, there’s some tension. But the 2016 presidential campaign has been different. Tensions in my town are running at a fevered pitch.
Which is how three middle-aged moms came to be running down the road, tearing up the Donald Trump signs along our version of Main Street. We’d been talking about the infamous Billy Bush tape and the women who have since come forward to share their own stories of abuse. We were angry. Getting Trump’s name off our median strip seemed like the best way to express our rage.
These three women must have been proud of themselves, probably laughing heartily as they committed theft, trespassing and violated the First Amendment of their neighbors. Why? Because she thinks she was assaulted by the signs.
In retrospect, I realize I shouldn’t be proud of my transgression. Hanging out with a bunch of moms, we started grousing about the proliferation of signs. Can you believe someone would put that many Trump signs so close together on our roads? It’s so rude. Who is this jerk? We felt assaulted by the number of signs . The idea of “cleansing” our streets seemed like the fastest way to restore balance and alleviate our election stress — at least, that night it did.
“ Assaulted” ? This is exactly why the Left is so dangerous. They are “assaulted” by ideas – by mere thoughts or opinions that are not their own. They will do anything- and Ms. Stothart did – to silence any dissent.
And she writes that “ in retrospect, I realize I shouldn’t be proud of my transgression. ”
She doesn’t say she isn’t proud, she merely tells us that in retrospect she shouldn’t be proud.
Which tells us that she is . She is proud of what she did.
When asked what she would say to the victims of her trespassing and theft, she offers no apology, merely a justification that Trump is bad, and that because she herself was a victim of an unwanted sexual advance, it justifies her behavior.
She claims she’ll go to court in December with some sense of humility and shame – she’ll “explain” and “apologize.”
But she’s not sorry. Not really.
To her – and the millions of Leftists like her – the ends justify the means. Silence dissent, crush the opposition, tear down and destroy any thing that strays from your worldview.
This is the world that Ms. Stothart lives in. She still lives in it today. She takes pride in suppressing the political view of her fellow Americans.
She writes that the “agitation and fear is rising on both sides.”
No, Ms. Stothart. I have yet to see a single story about a Trump supporter violating the Constitutional rights of a Hillary Clinton supporter by stealing yard signs.
This is liberal America. This is Ms. Stothart’s America.
This is not the America I want to live in. | 1real |
WATCH: Dem Rep. Just BRAZENLY Called Out Trump’s Immaturity, And It’s Simply AMAZING | Democrats are more pissed off with Trump s behavior than Republicans, because Republicans apparently feel they need to march in lockstep with the president when the president is a Republican. Trump s behavior on Twitter, even though he s taken office and is supposed to be acting presidential, is abominable, and some members of Congress are sick of sugarcoating it.Rep. Kathleen Rice spoke to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, where she blasted Trump and his immaturity, and his inability to let personal slights go. She actually told Blitzer that his behavior was worse than juvenile: It s juvenile. It s actually an insult to actual juveniles to say that it s juvenile I don t even know what category to put this in. Yep, a U.S. Representative went on national cable news to say that Trump is so immature it s insulting to kids to say so. And she s right he went on a tear against Judge James Robart, the U.S. district judge who blocked Trump s Muslim ban, and even told his followers to blame Robart if something happens, because the decision means that anyone and everyone can just enter the country on a whim.He s repeatedly blasted The New York Times as being fake news (same with CNN). He blasts Saturday Night Live because they make fun of him (who don t they make fun of?). He couldn t let reports that his inauguration numbers were less-than stellar go for nearly two weeks. And the list goes on, and on, and on, ad infinitum and ad nauseam. He can t let anything go, and Rice touched on that, too, when she said: And I m hoping that he stops with the name-calling and the attacking every time someone says if it s a poll he doesn t like, if it s a comment that he doesn t like, if it s a court decision he doesn t like that s part of life. Exactly. It s part of life and it s a big part of life when you re a public figure, particularly a public political figure. The fact that she felt she had basically had no words for the level of immaturity Trump shows, and was willing to say so on national television, is very telling. Watch her full comments below:Rep. Kathleen Rice on Trump s name-calling: There s a certain amount of decorum that we expect from our president https://t.co/uh6WIwKPa1 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 6, 2017Read more:Featured image via screen capture from embedded video | 1real |
Trump to attend G20 summit in July in Hamburg | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will attend a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7 and 8, the White House said on Tuesday after Trump spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A statement said Trump spoke to Merkel to congratulate her on the outcome of a closely watched German election in the western state of Saarland, which Merkel’s conservatives won in a boost to her prospects of winning a fourth term in September’s national election. “The two leaders also used the occasion to reflect on the chancellor’s March 17 visit to the White House. The president said he looked forward to visiting Hamburg, Germany for the G20 summit on July 7 and 8,” the White House statement said. | 0fake |
Michigan Republicans Strip Flint Of Their Power To Sue The State Over Poisoned Water | The city of Flint, Michigan is suffering through a horrible man-made disaster that could have been easily prevented if state Republicans hadn t been so careless.After placing Flint under state control, officials chose to save money by switching the city s drinking water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which has not been the drinking water source for decades because it was poisoned and considered unsafe for human consumption.As a result, the city has been devastated by lead poisoning, which will have terrible consequences for years to come for the children who ingested the tainted water.Understandably, Flint is mad as hell so they decided to take the state to court. But because Michigan Republicans and Governor Rick Snyder are rats who hate democracy and justice, they shut down any potential lawsuit by stripping Flint of the power to sue.According to the Detroit Free Press:Though Flint has not been under a state-appointed emergency manager since April 2015, the state still exerts partial control over the city through a five-member Receivership Transition Advisory Board, whose members are appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder.The board moved quickly to change the rules under which Flint is governed so that the city cannot file a lawsuit without first getting approval from that state-appointed board.This is absolutely outrageous. It s like a woman having to get permission to file a lawsuit from the company whose CEO raped her.Michigan Republicans should not have the power to take away anyone s right to seek redress through the court system. It sounds like they are just scared that they will lose the case. And frankly, they should be.After all, it was their decisions that led to Flint being poisoned with tainted water and the cover-up that followed. The city of Flint absolutely should be able to sue the state in open court. But Republicans took that power away from Flint, and you can be damn sure that they would love to do that in every city across all fifty states if they have their way.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
Pakistan allows wife, mother to visit Indian man sentenced to death | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan allowed the wife and mother of an Indian man convicted of spying to visit him on Monday in Islamabad, eight months after he was sentenced to death by a military court. Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, a former officer in the Indian navy, was arrested in March 2016 in the Pakistan province of Baluchistan, where there has been a long-running conflict between national security forces and militant separatists. The case has added to tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who often accuse each other of violating a 2003 ceasefire along their disputed border in Kashmir, where the countries sometime engage in intense artillery duels. Pakistan released a picture of Jadhav s mother, Avanti, and wife, Chetankul, seated at a desk and speaking to him from behind a glass window. The mother and wife of Commander Jadhav sitting comfortably in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan. We honor our commitments, a spokesman for Pakistan s foreign office, Mohammad Faisal, said in an earlier Twitter posting when the women first arrived at the ministry in Islamabad. India s foreign affairs office has not responded to a request for comment on the meeting. After Jadhav was sentenced to death in April, India asked the World Court for an injunction to bar the execution, arguing that he was denied diplomatic assistance during what it says was an unfair trial. The World Court ordered Pakistan in May to delay Jadhav s execution, and said Islamabad had violated a treaty guaranteeing diplomatic assistance to foreigners accused of crimes. Pakistan authorities say Jadhav confessed to being ordered by India s intelligence service to conduct espionage and sabotage in Baluchistan to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan . Baluchistan is at the center of a $57 billion Chinese-backed Belt and Road development project that at first focused on Chinese companies building roads and power stations, but is now expanding to include setting up industries. In a transcript released by Pakistan of what it says is Jadhav s confession, the former naval officer says disrupting the Chinese-funded projects was a main goal of his activities. | 0fake |
NATO Accuses Russian Warships of Targeting Syrian Civilians | NATO Accuses Russian Warships of Targeting Syrian Civilians October 27, 2016 NATO Accuses Russian Warships of Targeting Syrian Civilians
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed suggestions from NATO that a Russian battle group in the Mediterranean would join the bombardment of Syria's Aleppo as absurd, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday. RIA cited the ministry as saying NATO had no reason to worry about the battle group NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday that the ships, headed for Syria, could be used to target civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo and to launch more air strikes.
(MOSCOW) - Andrei Kelin , a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, told RIA Stoltenberg's statement was unhelpful.
"The concerns are not based on anything as our planes have not come near Aleppo for nine days. Our battle group is in the Mediterranean. Our ships have always had a presence there," said Kelin.
"Why make some spurious suggestions and then make some political recommendations based on them? It is of course absurd."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has questioned Russia's statements about a moratorium on bombing Aleppo, saying the city has been hit by strikes since a lull in fighting ended on Saturday. | 1real |
Russian families with children in Europe have no way back to Russia | Russian families with children in Europe have no way back to Russia 03.11.2016 Finnish human rights activists said that Russian citizen Svetlana Rots had had her two daughters taken away from her. The Russian girls were accommodated in a Finnish private orphanage, but were later distributed between Finnish families. The children were taken away from their mother not to let the woman take the girls out of Finland to Russia. A press release from human rights activists says that Svetlana Rots, a citizen of the Russian Federation, was born in Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg). During the recent years, the woman has been residing in Finland with her family. In November of 2015, the Finnish authorities took the children away from their parents. The Russian mother has been completely isolated from her younger, five-year-old daughter Carolina. The girl holds only Russian citizenship. The girl was taken away from her mother after the police received information saying that the woman could take the girl to Russia. Svetlana's elder daughter Sophia, aged 13, is also a citizen of the Russian Federation only. The girl was seized as well, but the Finnish authorities allowed the girl to communicate with her mother on the phone twice a week for 15 minutes. Print version Font Size It just so happens that Russian citizens can take their children to Finland , but they can not take their children back to Russia as simply an intention to visit the motherland is viewed as an act of kidnapping in accordance with European laws. According to coordinator of Russian Mothers movement, Irina Bergseth , this is not the first incident when Russian citizens in Europe have their children taken away from them just because Russian parents intend to leave the EU and take their children to Russia. "Today, Russians with kids can enter Europe and can even have a child in Europe, but if a Russian family intends to return to Russia, Europe says that the Russian parents want to "kidnap" a child from the EU, so European officials act first to kidnap a child from Russian parents," said Bergseth. According to her, European child protection services used to kidnap Russian children mostly from mixed families (Russian-Finnish or Russian-Norwegian ), but presently, the practice has been expanded to the families where both parents are citizens of the Russian Federation. Russian human rights activists assess such incidents as a manifestations of hard core Russophobia . Currently, there is a large-scale campaign in Europe to "persecute" Russian families with children. "It is necessary to set clear rules and procedures to return children, Russian citizens, to their motherland. While these rules and regulations are being developed, the Russian authorities should properly inform Russian families in Europe what they should do, if they had their children seized and taken away from them," says Bergseth. Earlier, Russian citizen Victoria Medvedeva found herself in a similar situation in Finland. The woman came to Finland with an intention to work there on a temporary basis. She had three of her children withdrawn from her. The Finnish authorities accommodated the children in a local orphanage. The woman's children - two daughters and a son - hold only Russian citizenship. The children were returned to Victoria Medvedeva after a while, owing to their father's interference. The family intends to leave Finland and return to St. Petersburg. Pravda.Ru Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru | 1real |
REPORT: REAL REASON CHRIS CHRISTIE Was Demoted On Trump’s Transition Team | Something was bothering Donald Trump as he made his victory speech after the election. The newly minted president-elect took the stage with at least 40 of his closest aides and allies, but according to a high-level campaign source familiar with Trump s thinking, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie kept pushing to be near the president-elect and trying to get in shots. Trump got annoyed, the source told Yahoo News.The election night photo incident was one of several factors Trump insiders cited to explain why Christie was demoted from his position as transition team chair and replaced by Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Nov. 11.In addition to the three Trump campaign sources who spoke to Yahoo News, two junior staffers also described specific instances of alleged mismanagement by Christie that got the transition off to a slow start. The two staffers said Christie did alarmingly little work on the transition and was largely absent from the campaign during the weeks leading up to the election, when Trump was widely expected to lose. According to one account, campaign staffers had been so accustomed to Christie s absence that they were surprised to see him appear at campaign headquarters in Trump Tower on Election Day. | 1real |
China offers support to Spanish government amid Catalonia crisis | BEIJING (Reuters) - China understands and supports the Spanish government s efforts to protect the country s unity and territorial integrity, China s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, amid moves by Catalonia to declare independence. The wealthy region s intention to break away has plunged Spain into its worst political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981, with Madrid threatening to sack the Catalan government if it goes ahead. China was paying close attention, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing. China understands and supports the Spanish government s efforts to protect national unity ... and its territorial integrity, Hua said. China believes Spain has the ability to guarantee social order and people s interests in accordance with the law, she added. China says it adheres to a policy of non-interference in other countries internal affairs, but it generally takes a dim view of independence or secessionist movements around the world. At home, it contends with what it says are separatist movements in its western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, and also insists that the self-ruled island of Taiwan belongs to China. Though it generally remains officially agnostic on such issues abroad, Beijing has expressed more openness toward independence votes when both sides have agreed to them, such as Scotland s unsuccessful 2014 referendum to leave the United Kingdom, and South Sudan s 2011 vote in favor of independence from Sudan. | 0fake |
Aspartame Corporation Searle Created First Birth Control Pill: American Eugenics and Big Pharma, a History | Aspartame Corporation Searle Created First Birth Control Pill: American Eugenics and Big Pharma, a History
( Era of Wisdom ) Did you know that Aspartame producing corporation Searle also manufactured the first birth control pill ?
After Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford , he was the CEO of Searle , engineering their merger with Monsanto. A testament to his influence, he became Secretary of Defense again during the Bush Administration, participating in atrocious torture and war crimes such as the ones at Abu Ghraib.
One of the most veracious proponents for forced sterilization of blacks , the poor, and “imbeciles,” Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger , was a main contributor to what would culminate into Searle’s manufacture of “Enovid”: the first hormonal birth control pill. This philosophy is commonly known as “ eugenics ,” sometimes referred to as “dysgenics” or “epi-eugenics.”
Well summarized by the Embryo Project : “ Enovid was the first hormonal birth control pill. G.D. Searle and Company began marketing Enovid as a contraceptive in 1960. The technology was created by the joint efforts of many individuals and organizations, including Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick , Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Syntex , S.A. Laboratories, and G.D. Searle and Company Laboratories. Although there were many pieces and contributors to the final product, it was first conceived of and created by Gregory Pincus and Margaret Sanger through the Worcester Foundation in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was distributed by Searle, located in Chicago.”
To illustrate historical ties between “big pharma” and eugenics, let’s take a look at the legacy of Dr. John Hurty, an early chemist at Prozac producer Eli Lilly and Company in the 1870’s.
Hurty would go on to influence the passage of the United States’ first mandatory sterilization law, in 1907 Indiana .
He was a tireless eugenicist , who believed that the poor, colored people , the disabled, ect. were a burden to the state and society, unfit for reproduction, and should be sterilized.
Upwards of 60,000 Americans were involuntarily sterilized through to even the 1970’s , while Dr. John Hurty, Margaret Sanger, David Starr Jordan and others made major contributions. Reading from an article by renowned author Edwin Black : “Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in “colonies,” and persecuted untold numbers in ways we are just learning.”
Dr. John Hurty, first president of Stanford David Starr Jordan, and Margaret Sanger were members of the scientific, academic class which birthed eugenics, and eventually the world we live in today where Searle had a hand in both birth control, and suspicious toxins such as Aspartame.
Reading from this document, which is based on the 1946 book “ The Hoosier Health Officer: A Biography of Dr. John N. Hurty “ : “In 1873, John Newell Hurty went to work for Col. Eli Lilly in his newly established Eli Lilly and Company Pharmaceuticals in Indianapolis as his chief chemist. Then in 1879, Hurty opened his own drug store at the corner of Ohio and Pennsylvania streets. In the basement of that establishment, he set up one of the first analytical laboratories in the state. Among the variety of things he tested for purity was water for the Indianapolis Water Company. In 1884, Dr. Hurty established, and for a time taught at, the School of Pharmacy at Purdue University. In 1891, Hurty earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Indiana. In 1899, Dr. Hurty wrote a bill that became the first comprehensive food and drug legislation to be enacted in the United States. It was not only used as a model by other states, but the Federal Law of 1906 is taken almost word for word from Dr. Hurty’s bill.”
This article/video seeks to pose the question: was birth control created as part of eugenics, population control, as part of something that goes beyond money or some alleged philanthropic agenda? Are certain chemicals or pharmaceuticals in circulation designed to fulfill an agenda that goes beyond money, an agenda perhaps that extends into eugenics?
We are not suggesting people do one thing or another with their bodies, we are not asking you to make a decision about your health, but we are presenting you with historical info to better make decisions for yourself.
We’re making the case that Searle profited from the eugenic ambitions of people such as Margaret Sanger: while it is unclear at this moment whether Searle cared about simply money or something deeper. This should raise suspicion about why they pushed so hard for the legalization of Aspartame after the FDA had already banned it , under the direction of powerful Donald Rumsfeld.
Given all of this history, we would be wise to ask: could Aspartame possibly have roots in eugenics? Could certain pharmaceutical drugs have ties to eugenics? It is not a wild accusation or unreasonable question to ponder.
To take it even further: FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg is the daughter of not one, but two directors of the American Eugenics Society, which later was quietly renamed the “ The Society for Biodemography and Social Biology .” | 1real |
Bosnia making military progress in NATO bid - alliance general | SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia meets the military conditions needed to take the next step toward its eventual goal of NATO membership but it remains unclear whether it can satisfy the political requirements, the head of the alliance s military committee said on Tuesday. Bosnia wants to activate its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a formal step toward joining NATO, but must first complete full registration of all military assets in its two constituent, ethnically-based regions, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic. Complicating Bosnia s membership drive is the stance of the Serb Republic, which remains wary of a military alliance that bombed Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo in 1995 and 1999. The Serb Republic has said it would hold a referendum on joining NATO. The Bosnian Serbs have opposed registering their region s military assets to the country s weak central government in Sarajevo. However, the head of NATO s military committee praised Bosnia s progress at the military level. Our recommendation when it comes to the level of interoperability, the level of effort your armed forces are putting into reform, will be positive, said Petr Pavel, a Czech army general. But he stressed that the decision to give Bosnia the green light on activating MAP would be a political one. Dragan Covic, the chairman of Bosnia s tripartite presidency, has voiced optimism that NATO foreign ministers could decide to activate the country s MAP at a meeting in Brussels on Dec. 5-6. Participation in MAP is not in itself a guarantee of eventual NATO membership. Pavel said NATO had a strong interest in Balkan stability and cited various threats he said faced all of Europe, including a resurgent Russia, illegal migration and terrorism. Bosnia s inter-ethnic presidency, its central government in Sarajevo and the Bosniak-Croat Federation have long said joining NATO and the European Union are strategic priorities. But the Bosnian Serbs lean toward closer ties with Russia, aligning their policy with that of wartime patron and ally Serbia where NATO remains hugely unpopular after its 1999 bombing campaign to drive Serbian forces out of Kosovo and after 1995 NATO air strikes against rebel Serbs in Bosnia. | 0fake |
Why This New Book By Lib Writer And Radio Host Will Send Shock Waves Through The Democrat Party | Maybe the Queen of Incompetence isn t as popular as she had hoped with the Socialist Party of America, aka the former Democrat Party It s not just Republicans who get riled by the thought of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton ascending to the presidency. Some people on the left lock horns over Clinton often enough to suggest that Team Hillary still has a long way to go before she has shored up the traditional base of progressive voters.A controversial book cover is the latest flashpoint to lay bare the divisions in the Democratic base over the Clinton candidacy. The forthcoming book, My Turn, by Nation Magazine Contributing Editor Doug Henwood, critiques the former secretary of state s decades-long political career, calling out her foreign policy positions and purported connections to big-money interests, among other contentious points.And the book cover s flamboyant illustration featuring a stoic Hillary Clinton, in a blood-red dress, pointing a gun at the reader has sparked a heated debate among her supporters and detractors.Salon editor Joan Walsh and former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett both called the drawing gross. The leftist rag Salon.com has this to say about the new Hillary Clinton book: A stink bomb into liberals certainty : Doug Henwood on his anti-Clinton crusade.Here is a portion of Salon.com s review of Henwood s My Turn book:In this regard, Harper s latest (paywalled) cover story a cri de coeur against Hillary Clinton from economist, radio host, author and Left Business Observer founder Doug Henwood is no exception. A mix of biography and political analysis, Henwood s essay depicts the likely 2016 presidential candidate as a relatively unaccomplished conformist and careerist, one who s far more interested in acquiring power (and protecting the interests of her wealthy funders) than making real the progressive vision. What is the case for Hillary? Henwood asks. It s hard to find any substantive political argument in her favor. Even the author and the artist have different takes on the imagery. People often see in texts what they want to see. The reaction to this cover, which has been circulating less than 48 hours, has been a vivid reminder of this, Henwood told MSNBC. When I first saw the design I knew it would attract a lot of attention. But I couldn t have predicted the diversity of reactions. Where Henwood sees ruthlessness and hawkishness, in the image, the artist, Sarah Sole told the International Business Times she sees it as pulpy and sexy. Henwood is a well-known Clinton critic on the left who skewered the former secretary of state, senator and first lady in a controversial 2014 Harper s Magazine cover story titled Stop Hillary. In it he wrote:What is the case for Hillary (whose quasi-official website identifies her, in bold blue letters, by her first name only, as do millions upon millions of voters)? It boils down to this: She has experience, she s a woman, and it s her turn. It s hard to find any substantive political argument in her favor. She has, in the past, been associated with women s issues, with children s issues but she also encouraged her husband to sign the 1996 bill that put an end to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC), which had been in effect since 1935. Indeed, longtime Clinton adviser Dick Morris, who has now morphed into a right-wing pundit, credits Hillary for backing both of Bill s most important moves to the center: the balanced budget and welfare reform.1 And during her subsequent career as New York s junior senator and as secretary of state, she has scarcely budged from the centrist sweet spot, and has become increasingly hawkish on foreign policy.What Hillary will deliver, then, is more of the same. And that shouldn t surprise us. As wacky as it sometimes appears on the surface, American politics has an amazing stability and continuity about it. Obama, widely viewed as a populist action hero during the 2008 campaign, made no bones about his admiration for Ronald Reagan. The Gipper, he said,changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt [that] with all the excesses of the Sixties and the Seventies, government had grown and grown, but there wasn t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating.Now, the excesses of the Sixties and the Seventies included things like feminism, gay liberation, the antiwar movement, a militant civil rights movement all good things, in my view, but I know that many people disagree. In any case, coming into office with something like a mandate, Obama never tried to make a sharp political break with the past, as Reagan did from the moment of his first inaugural address. Reagan dismissed the postwar Keynesian consensus the idea that government had a responsibility to soften the sharpest edges of capitalism by fighting recession and providing some sort of basic safety net. Appropriating some of the language of the left about revolution and the promise of the future, he unleashed what he liked to call the magic of the marketplace: cutting taxes for the rich, eliminating regulations, and whittling away at social spending.What Reagan created, with his embrace of the nutty Laffer curve and his smiling war on organized labor, was a strange, unequally distributed boom that lasted through the early 1990s. After the caretaker George H. W. Bush administration evaporated, Bill Clinton took over and, with a few minor adjustments, kept the party going for another decade. Profits skyrocketed, as did the financial markets.But there was a contradiction under it all: a system dependent on high levels of mass consumption for both economic dynamism and political legitimacy has a problem when mass purchasing power is squeezed. For a few decades, consumers borrowed to make up for what their paychecks were lacking. But that model broke down once and for all with the crisis of 2008. Today we desperately need a new political economy one that features a more equal distribution of income, investment in our rotting social and physical infrastructure, and a more humane ethic. We also need a judicious foreign policy, and a commander-in-chief who will resist the instant gratification of air strikes and rhetorical bluster.Is Hillary Clinton the answer to these prayers? It s hard to think so, despite the widespread liberal fantasy of her as a progressive paragon, who will follow through exactly as Barack Obama did not. In fact, a close look at her life and career is perhaps the best antidote to all these great expectations.But the intimidating image glaring out from the front of My Turn was created long before Henwood penned the book, which he says was developed out of the Harper s piece and goes into greater detail about her long history in shaping the New Democrat agenda, an agenda which she now purports to be running against, Henwood told MSNBC.And then there s Sole, a diehard Clinton supporter and also a fan of Henwood s, according to International Business Times.Sole debuted the painting, along with other similarly themed pieces, last year. Later, the pieces were published in Politico magazine under the headline Extremely Ready for Hillary, according to the International Business Times. I love Hillary Clinton, I support Hillary Clinton, I very much want her to be president. I will certainly vote for her, Sole told International Business Times. What I don t get is the reaction that calls the cover sexist, Henwood told MSNBC. Hillary is tough and determined, characteristics that shouldn t be seen as off-limits to women. The political question is what she or anyone else does with toughness and determination, and that s what my criticism of her focuses on. I have no problem with ball-busting women, Henwood continued. I kinda like them, in fact. I just don t like [Hillary Clinton s] politics. Via: MSNBC | 1real |
WALMART Is Selling “Made In Mexico” Apparel Featuring Domestic Terror Group [VIDEO] | The domestic terror group, Antifa, has been around for a while, but since Donald Trump s inauguration in January, they ve become more visible and increasingly more violent. Well, good news for Americans who support violent, masked, molotov cocktail throwing, ax and hammer-wielding punks, who run through major cities in packs, busting out windows, setting fire to vehicles, and pretty much destroying anything or anyone in their path, as a way to show their resistance to a Donald Trump presidency, Walmart now offers a line of Antifa apparel for you. If you re struggling to find the perfect gift for your violent, snot-nosed, anti-Trump student, or unemployed basement dweller in your family this holiday season, you can find it online at Walmart. Walmart is selling Antifa clothing that will [allow you to] express yourself inside the opposition to the ideology, organizations, governments, and people from the far right (fascism). The mega-retailer is offering at least 13 different sweatshirts made in Mexico of 100% COTTON for all-day comfort promoting the group whose activities were formally classified by the Obama Administration as domestic terrorist violence as early as April 2016, according to Politico, despite the group s efforts to downplay this determination. Antifa, or Anti-Fascist Action, is an informal grouping of communist, anarchist, and other far-left street gangs. Drawing inspiration from the German Communist Party s street fighters of the 1930s, the modern movement grew out of the European far-left punk scene in the 1980s. These unapologetically violent bands of leftists were largely unknown in the United States until recent years, when America s post-Occupy Wall Street far-left began adopting the name.This (anti-Trump) video provides a window into the violent Antifa group and how they destroy other people s property while running from cops and calling for them to be killed. Listen to Antifa chanting: AK47 put the cops in piggy heaven on the streets of Washington DC during Donald Trump s inauguration at about the 1:20-minute mark. Watch what happens to the young Trump supporter who tries to speak reasonably with the Antifa terrorists about how using violence is not the answer, as he puts out a fire started by the terror group at the 9:20-minute mark:Antifa is well known for dozens of violent crimes against people they consider fascists on both sides of the Atlantic. Just remember to keep creating a better world, the clothing advertisements encourage.This glorification of Antifa was mirrored Friday by the New York Times, which published a fashion style guide for the group: practical advice on how to dress for a riot. In their guide, the Times explains why a uniform look is needed, from Breitbart News s Charlie Nash: These defensive methods work only if there are enough black-clad others nearby. A single person in all black and multiple face masks is an eye grabber. Finally, the Times claimed that dressing in black militant gear and concealing your face forms an emotional connection with other rioters. Tactical considerations aside, it s this emotional connection with other members of the bloc that many practitioners highlight the most in interviews, they proclaimed. It s why soldiers and police have uniforms. Walmart has come under previous criticism for selling Black Lives Matter shirts and other items. Following a request from the national Fraternal Order of Police, the retail giant eventually removed one of the items last December, shirts that said Bulletproof, but refused to remove the rest.As with the Black Lives Matter paraphernalia, the Antifa products are being sold by a third party manufacturer, in this case, Tee Bangers, on Walmart s website. Breitbart | 1real |
Israeli challenges German court ruling on Kuwait air travel ban | BERLIN (Reuters) - An Israeli man appealed on Monday against a German court s ruling upholding Kuwait Airways right to ban him from boarding a flight due to his citizenship, a legal decision that triggered sharp criticism from German officials and Jewish groups. The appeal argues that the ruling accepted a racist Kuwaiti law and allowed the airline to override German laws requiring that airlines transport any passenger with valid travel documents, according to the Lawfare Project, which filed the appeal. We cannot allow our laws to be subverted by the state-sponsored racism of other nations, said Nathan Gelbart, the German attorney for the group, which fights anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli discrimination around the world. He said the decision by the Frankfurt district court had allowed anti-Semitic discrimination to be imported into our country and helped whitewash and sanitize it. Kuwait Airways has not commented on the decision. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top officials have vowed to fight anti-Semitism and xenophobia with the full force of the law in recent weeks after protests that included the burning of Israeli flags. Merkel s spokesman Steffen Seibert said Germany had a historic responsibility to stand by Israel and Jews everywhere. Anti-Semitism remains a sensitive issue in Germany, one of Israel s closest allies, more than 70 years after the end of the Nazi-era Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed. The Frankfurt court last month ruled Kuwait Airways had the right to refuse to carry the Israeli man on a flight to Bangkok that began in Frankfurt and included a stopover in Kuwait City since it was abiding by the laws of Kuwait, a country that does not recognize the state of Israel. It said Germany s anti-discrimination law applied only in cases of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic background or religion, not citizenship. The ruling was sharply criticized by German government officials and the Central Council of Jews in Germany, which said the Kuwaiti law was reminiscent of Nazi policies. Three German state parliaments in Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, have passed resolutions condemning the airline for its policy. Acting Transportation Minister Christian Schmidt also raised concerns about the issue in a letter to Kuwaiti officials, saying it was fundamentally unacceptable to exclude citizens because of their nationality, according to the Lawfare Project. No comment was immediately available from Schmidt s office. A foreign ministry spokesman said Germany s ambassador to Kuwait had met Kuwaiti officials on Nov. 28 to deliver the letter and discuss the issue. A spate of anti-Semitic acts in Germany in recent weeks, including the burning of Israeli flags, have triggered concern and calls by top officials to put more emphasis on the Holocaust in integration courses for migrants. Rights groups say anti-Semitism and violent acts have increased in recent years amid growing support for far-right political groups and the influx of over a million migrants from Syria and other countries that are at war with Israel. | 0fake |
NUTJOB Missouri State Rep Beheads Live Chicken On Facebook Video To Make Point About Abortion | A Missouri state representative is making national headlines today after he shared a video on Facebook of him decapitating a living chicken to drive home his disgusting opinion about abortion.In the grotesque video, GOP state Rep. Mike Moon promotes his anti-abortion bill while he hangs a live chicken upside down from a tree branch.Mr. Moon then says, When the governor called for the second special session this year, I was right in the middle of my summer job. But like any good career politician, when I get the call, I m going back to work, he happily exclaims as he starts to slice into the neck of the chicken, causing it to writhe around and flap its wings.He then proceeds to mutilate the chicken, pulling out its heart while lecturing about the need to protect human lives. God gave us man dominion over life. He allows us to raise animals properly and care for them and then process them for food so we can sustain life. And that s what I m doing here with this chicken. So we ve been called back to this special session for the primary purpose of supporting life, protecting the unborn specifically. I think we need to get to the heart of the matter here. So today, I m filing a bill that will lead to the stopping of abortion in the state of Missouri and I hope you ll support it. The Springfield News reports that Moon s bill emphasizes that Missouri protect the right to life of all humans, born and unborn and to require due process of law before the life of any human, born or unborn, is ended prior to natural death. The National Abortion Rights Leauge didn t think the stunt was very funny and calls Moon out for playing political games with the healthcare of women. It was insulting watching Rep. Moon use the rights of women across Missouri as some kind of political prop, the organization said. His call to ban abortion is disturbing and dangerous, no matter what he does with that chicken. Hopefully, the backlash from this stunt will make Mr. Moon realize that women deserve access to healthcare, regardless of what he likes to do to chicken in the privacy of his own home.Feature image via Screen Capture | 1real |
null | Why Is It So Hard to Reduce the Pentagon Budget?
Money in equals policy out, and nothing is going to change until we make all campaigns publicly funded and make all lobbying efforts public record. | 1real |
‘Asian Grooming Gang’ Drugged and Raped 12-Year-Old Girl | Five men from Rotherham, allegedly part of “Asian grooming gangs” are facing 23 charges of sexually abusing two girls, aged 12 and 13, over a period. [In the first of two cases, a woman, now 28, claims she was forced to take drugs and drink alcohol before being raped by brothers Basharat Dad, now 32, and Nassar, now 36. She met the men after skipping school, and the alleged attacks 16 years ago left her unable to identify the father of her child when it was born. The crimes are alleged to have taken place in a flat owned by the brothers’ family. Prosecutor Sophie Drake told the court that the men had targeted “vulnerable young girls,” according to the Daily Mail. “She was scared so she let them do what they wanted. They both raped her and she submitted to them,” added Mrs. Drake, “The brothers knew she was only 12 at the time. They gave her alcohol and drugs and were aggressive to her and she felt she had no choice. ” A third brother, Tayab Dad, is standing trial separately for raping a who was attacked in the same flat. “As young teenagers in Rotherham they were sexually exploited by a number of men, they were vulnerable and given alcohol and cannabis and told to perform sexual acts,” Mrs. Drake said. The police were involved at the time, with the naming her attackers after she fell pregnant. The brothers were arrested in 2001, along with Matloob Hussain, a takeaway delivery driver, and Mohammed Sadiq, then 24. However, no charges were brought, despite the seriousness of the allegations. The government’s Jay Report describes how Rotherham authorities failed to intervene in numerous similar cases for fear of being labelled “racist”. Muslim rape gangs blighted the town Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, with more than 1, 200 girls affected according to a government report. However, the religion of this latest group of “Asian” attackers has not been reported. The alleged offences only resurfaced when South Yorkshire Police began investigating the sexual exploitation of young girls in Rotherham in 2014, shortly before the Jay Report was published. The victim said she remembers waking up naked in bed, arguing that this proves she could not have consented to sex, even if of age, as she was asleep. Mrs. Drake said: “The brothers were aware she was under 16 and knew she was at school. They supplied her with alcohol and cannabis so that they could do what they wanted to. ” | 0fake |
Trump is The Lesser Evil Because Hes Such a Narcissist : | Trump is The Lesser Evil Because Hes Such a Narcissist By Prof. Michael Hudson
She a vindictive dictator, punishing her enemies, appointing neocons
Well, both Hillary and Donald Trump say the election is about the lesser evil. So, if thats true, whos the greater evil? Posted November 08, 2016
Ross Ashcroft: Youve got two candidates in the U.S. and one is very pro-Wall Street, specifically Goldman Sachs. She might as well be on the payroll. In fact, she is on the payroll. And the other is a rent-seeker -in-chief, and hes built real estate and used the banks. So youve got Trump and youve got Clinton. Both of them are in bed with Wall Street, fundamentally. But the people get it now.
Michael Hudson: Well, I think Hillary Clinton has a 79 percent disapproval rating, and Trump has an 81 percent disapproval rating. So you have the two most unpopular politicians in the United States as the choice. So basically, the voters in the United States are given a choice: Yes,Yes, please, and Yes, thank you. I think Trump missed his big chance to make a populist push. Instead of saying hes going to cut taxes on Wall Street, he can say, Look, I stiffed the banks. I went bankrupt four or six times. I screwed the banks and they didnt get paid and I can screw the banks for you people. Vote for me. I know how to do it.
Ashcroft: Yes, hes missed that.
Hudson: I think that would have been his winning ploy.
Ashcroft: You should be his campaign strategist.
Hudson: Well, except I dont think Id have many friends if I worked for Donald Trump. And we dont know that if he agreed with me today what hed do tomorrow. Thats part of the problem. He doesnt play well with colleagues.
Ashcroft: You sort of prefer him thoughwould that be right? Because he doesnt play well with colleagues, because hes awkward, because hes a loner, becausebecause youre saying you dont want a resourceful, intelligent and influential type in the job because the jobs so powerful.
Hudson: Well, both Hillary and Donald Trump say the election is about the lesser evil. So, if thats true, whos the greater evil? Hillary has a whole crowd behind herthe neocons, who basically want to be very confrontational toward Russia and continue what she was doing in Libya to Syriamilitarily confrontational. Or you have Donald Trump, who doesnt really know who he can appoint and whether he can get enough people to work with him. So if the direction of America is to try to hold on to a unipolar worldmilitarily confrontationalyou want a president who is least able to do evil. And theres no question, Trump is the lesser evil because hes such a narcissist, and really sort of a blank slate. And Id rather take a pig in a poke than someone whoyou already know what Hillary will do. Shell do what the husband does. And itsthe Clintons have corrupted the Democratic Party. Thats what Bernie Sanders ran on against her
Ashcroft: And did very well.
Hudson: And did very well. But then he didnt realize that there really cannot be any progress by the labor unions, or consumers, or the 99 percent as long as the Democratic Party is controlled totally by Wall Street and by the Robert Rubin gang that they brought in. And theyre really like a mafia gang. If you think the financial sector and the banking sector as crimeand after all, remember, theyve paid billions and billions of dollars in civil fines without a single banker being sent to jailthats what a criminal wants to do. When the criminals take control of the justice system and take over the police force and bribe the judgesall the Hollywood movies in the 1930s were thatthen youve got the criminals in control. And youve got the financial sector criminalized. Thats what my colleague Bill Black at the University of Missouri at Kansas City has been emphasizing, and hes convinced all of us that the business plan of the big banksCitibank, Bank of America, weve just got, and Wells Fargo, with all of the huge frauds that are coming outthat was their business plan: fraud. And people are afraid to say that fraud is banking. Theyre afraid to say just exactly what the evidence is because its considered impolite to talk about reality.
Ashcroft: What sort of president then will Hillary Clinton be?
Hudson: A dictator. She a vindictive dictator, punishing her enemies, appointing neocons in the secretary of state, in the defense department, appointing Wall Street people in the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, and the class war will really break out very explicitly. And shellas Warren Buffet said, there is a class war and were winning it.
Ashcroft: As in the one percent are winning it.
Hudson: The one percent are winning it. And she will try to use the rhetoric to tell people: Nothing to see here folks. Keep on moving, while the economy goes down and down and she cashes in as shes been doing all along, richer and richer, and if shes president, there will not be an investigator of the criminal conflict of interest of the Bill Clinton Foundation, of pay-to-play. Youll have a presidency in which corporations who pay the Clintons will be able to set policy. Whoever has the money to buy the politicians will buy control of policy because elections have been privatized and made part of the market economy in the United States. Thats what the Citizens United Supreme Court case was all about.
Ashcroft: So thats another example of rent-seeking.
Hudson: Yes, political payoffs. And thats the largest rent-seeking of all. Basically, for paying one penny, you get a whole dollars worth of special privileges. And rent is really payment for a privilege. Its for a privilege thats created from the private sector. And basically as Balzac said, every great fortune originates in a great theft that isnt considered a great theft anymore because its all viewed as part of the market. Its viewed as if thats how the world works. So youll have a theft taking place and the Clintons will say, Thats just how the world operates and GDP is going up because were getting richer, enough to offset the degree by which you 99 percent are getting poor. | 1real |
OBAMA SIDEKICK VALERIE JARRETT In Hot Water Over Speaking Fee At Broke Public University | Remember when Valerie Jarrett signed with a Hollywood talent agency? Well, we think she thinks she s a BIG deal now. How do we know? She charges $30K to speak! Who would pay a penny to hear this commie speak?A college in her hometown would pay this except they re going broke!That s a whopper of a bill for a university in her hometown that s going broke. There was an outcry when is was discovered that she would speak and charge $30K. Someone came forward to donate the fee but wouldn t it have been a great move on her part to donate the money to the failing university?Valerie Jarrett found herself in hot water in her adopted hometown for agreeing to take a $30,000 speaking fee from a public university that s going broke, a new report said Tuesday.President Obama s longtime adviser and confidante eventually waived the fee for delivering a commencement address at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago after an outcry over the hefty payment, Politico reported.The university shut down over spring break and also announced unpaid furlough days for staffers, the most recent in a string of measures taken to fight financial woes caused by a lengthy partisan state budget debate.The Chicago Sun-Times first reported the details in Jarrett s contract, and that a private donor agreed to pay her fee once university leaders raised objections. While keenly aware of the financial challenges in Illinois, we were not aware of the specific issues facing Northeastern Illinois University or that a donor would be paying for the speaking fee, Amy Brundage, a Jarrett spokeswoman, told Politico. Jarrett notified [University] President [Richard] Helldobler this morning that she will not be accepting a speaking fee for the commencement address. Jarrett looks forward to addressing the graduates and other members of the NEIU community next month. NEIU board members were not amused about the deal paying so much for a speaker at a time the school is cutting programs and struggling to survive.Read more: NYP | 1real |
Trump Organization Moves to Avoid Possible Conflicts of Interest - The New York Times | In its latest effort to defuse a major public relations problem that might have loomed over Donald J. Trump’s presidency, the Trump Organization on Wednesday announced union accords at two major hotel holdings. The agreements resolve labor disputes that could have posed a conflict of interest for the and come on the heels of other similar moves in recent weeks. In November, Mr. Trump paid $25 million to settle a number of lawsuits surrounding fraud allegations at Trump University, his former education business, and this month the Trump Organization extricated itself from the management of a hotel project in Brazil, where the authorities were investigating allegations of corruption. Taken together, the moves suggest that Mr. Trump is sensitive to at least the perception that his business dealings could cast a shadow over his presidency, even if he has yet to detail how he might seek a more comprehensive solution to potential conflicts, such as outright divestment. “On the one hand, I think it’s important to acknowledge that this is meaningful, it does matter,” Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group, said of Wednesday’s agreements. “However, this piecemeal approach to dealing with conflicts is not going to deal with the bigger looming problem. ” The agreements also provide insight into Mr. Trump’s views on workers and labor unions. In contrast to the deal he helped broker at the Carrier plant in Indiana, which recently agreed to preserve about 850 jobs that it had planned to shift to Mexico, and which Mr. Trump was on hand to announce in person, the announcement of Wednesday’s deals came by way of a news release featuring statements from the Trump Organization and affiliates of the unions involved. The Trump transition team offered no comment and released no statement. One of the two labor agreements provides a union contract to workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, whose union the hotel had previously refused to bargain with. The second agreement eases a hurdle to unionization at a recently opened Trump hotel in Washington. The agreements reduce the probability that the National Labor Relations Board, which protects the labor rights of employees, will be called on to adjudicate disputes between workers and the Trump Organization. That possibility raised the prospect of a conflict of interest if Mr. Trump were to retain a stake in his business. As president, Mr. Trump will eventually nominate all five members of the labor board, as well as its general counsel, who typically has the final say on whether to issue formal complaints against employers. The speed of the negotiations at the hotel in Las Vegas suggested that Mr. Trump was eager to put the issue behind him before his inauguration in January, after the hotel resisted workers’ efforts to unionize there for most of the past year and a half. The hotel hired consultants who spoke with employees at mandatory meetings about the risks of unionizing, according to earlier statements from the union. In charges filed with the labor board, some workers alleged that they had been fired or suspended from their jobs because of their unionization efforts. After the successful union election last December, the hotel appealed within the labor board structure, arguing that workers had been intimidated into voting for the union. When the full board rejected its final appeal last month, the hotel appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Bethany Khan, a union representative, said the new labor agreement had come together over a few days of negotiation last week and been ratified by union members over the weekend. Under the accord, the workers will join locals for culinary workers and bartenders that are affiliated with Unite Here, a prominent national union that represents hotel workers. The two sides agreed to a contract beginning Jan. 1 and running through May 31, 2021, which follows a relatively standard template for hotels in Las Vegas by providing annual wage increases, pension and health benefits, and job protections. Under the second accord, the Trump International Hotel Washington D. C. agreed to remain neutral as workers seek to unionize under a agreement, enabling workers to simply sign authorization cards indicating that they want to unionize. The hotel will recognize the union if a majority of workers sign cards. The alternative, a election, typically occurs when the employer opposes the unionization effort, as was the case at the Las Vegas property. In a statement referring to the agreement in Washington, Eric Danziger, the chief executive of Trump Hotels, said, “We share mutual goals with the union, as we both desire to ensure outstanding jobs for the employees, while also enabling the hotel to operate successfully in a competitive environment. ” Wednesday’s agreements do not eliminate the potential for conflicts of interest involving Mr. Trump and the labor board. The board’s general counsel, whose replacement Mr. Trump will probably appoint next year, will be in a position to decide whether to issue complaints about allegations of labor rights violations, but could also leave the decision to career civil servants. Such allegations could include refusing to bargain with the union in the future, or firing or disciplining union stewards for sticking up for fellow members under procedures outlined in the contract. The decision on issuing a complaint is in some sense the critical step of the labor board process. There are typically 20, 000 to 25, 000 charges of unfair labor practices in a given year, of which only a fraction result in a complaint — about 1, 270 last year — although some are settled beforehand. Any complaint issued by a regional director or the general counsel could then come before the board, at least some of whose members are likely to have been appointed by Mr. Trump. But if the general counsel declines to issue a complaint, the charge is effectively dead and generally cannot be appealed. “It’s the gateway into litigation,” said Wilma Liebman, a former labor board chairman. There remains an open charge of unfair labor practices against the Trump Organization, which was filed on behalf of a worker advocacy group in September over the contract that employees of the Trump presidential campaign were required to sign. The group alleged the contract’s noncompete and confidentiality clauses illegally discouraged employees from exercising their labor rights. Mr. Trump and his organization faced a potentially punishing calculus in deciding to bargain with the union in Las Vegas, aside from the issues of conflict of interest. Even if the Trump hotel in Las Vegas had prevailed in its efforts to undo the union election in federal court, which was probably a long shot in itself, the culinary workers would probably have continued their unionization campaign, creating a lingering source of embarrassment for the . In September, workers at the Boulder Station casino in Las Vegas — owned by a company controlled by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who until recently operated the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts promoter — voted to unionize after a dogged campaign by the union that lasted more than six years. The campaign included the creation of a website highlighting the tirades of the president of the U. F. C. and an effort by union affiliates in New York State to fight the league’s attempts to overturn a law banning the sport there. “They fight really hard,” said C. Jeffrey Waddoups, an economist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who studies union bargaining in the hotel and gambling industry. “It would draw a lot of attention. ” | 0fake |
“Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away”…OBAMA’S MILITARY Gives 45 Minute Warning To ISIS Before Bombing Oil Tankers | Why would any sane person choose to enlist in our military when we don t even have a Commander In Chief who is fighting this war to win? Last week, in the wake of Russian and US airstrikes on ISIS oil convoys, we asked three important questions:Who are the commodity trading firms that have been so generously buying millions of smuggled oil barrels procured by the Islamic State at massive discounts to market, and then reselling them to other interested parties? In other words, who are the middlemen?Can it possibly be true, as officials now claim, that the Obama administration refrained from bombing Islamic State oil trucks because Washington thought the group was only making $100 million per year instead of $400 million?Is it likely, considering how cavalier the US is about collateral damage from drone strikes, that The Pentagon refused to take out Islamic State s revenue stream because the military was afraid of killing a few innocent truck drivers who by definition knew they were transporting illegal crude for a terrorist organization?The first question is, for now anyway, unanswerable. As to the second and third, here s what we said:Perhaps the US overestimated the effect its airstrikes were having on Islamic State s oil production capabilities and perhaps The Pentagon was concerned with killing innocent truck drivers, but it could also be that, as Sergei Lavrov suggested earlier this month, the US has until now intentionally avoided hitting ISIS where it hurts in order to keep them in the game and ensure they can still be effective at destabilizing Assad. If you cut off the oil trade, they lose the ability to battle the regime.Whatever the case, it s too late now, because just as Russian airstrikes and the Iranian ground presence forced the US to do something anything to prove to the world that America is serious about fighting terrorism, Moscow s targeting of ISIS oil convoys has forced the US to get on board (the Russians are going to hit them anyway, so there s no point in vacillating).American airstrikes reportedly destroyed 116 oil tanker trucks earlier this month and another 280 today in Paris mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud s former fiefdom of Deir ez-Zor.Of course the US would hate to catch ISIS off guard risk killing innocent truck drivers, so prior to the November 16 strike, US planes dropped leaflets warning the drivers to get out of your trucks now, and run away from them. Here s the leaflet (note the stick figures running for their lives):Here s some commentary from Colonel Steve Warren from Operation Inherent Resolve (delivered at a press conference earlier this month):Early Sunday morning in Al-Bukamal, which is the southern blue circle number two, you see two blue circles there. They both represent Tidal Wave II operations, but we re in the southern one the one further towards the bottom of your screen, there.In Al-Bukamal, we destroyed 116 tanker trucks, which we believe will reduce ISIL s ability to transport its stolen oil products.This is our first strike against tanker trucks, and to minimize risks to civilians, we conducted a leaflet drop prior to the strike. We did a show of force, by we had aircraft essentially buzz the trucks at low altitude.So, I do have copy of the leaflet, and I have got some videos, so why don t you pull the leaflet up. Let me take a look at it so I can talk about it.As you can see, it s a fairly simple leaflet, it says, Get out of your trucks now, and run away from them. A very simple message.And then, also, Warning: airstrikes are coming. Oil trucks will be destroyed. Get away from your oil trucks immediately. Do not risk your life. And so, these are the leaflets that we dropped about 45 minutes before the airstrikes actually began.And here s an amusing bit from the post-presser Q&A:Q: On Bob s question, too, if if it s so important to cut off the oil shipments, the critical revenue source for ISIS, why did it take so long to take out 116 oil tanker trucks?COL. WARREN: No, that s a great question, Jim. Thanks for asking it.So, a little history on Operation Tidal Wave II. Initially, we, you know, we have been striking oil infrastructure targets since the very beginning of this operation.What we found out was that many of our strikes were only minimally effective. We would strike pieces of the oil infrastructure that were easily repaired.When we came to that realization, we conducted some more study I think I talked about this last week, a little bit we conducted some more study, and determined how to better strike the oil infrastructure itself, different pieces of the system.During the course of that study, we also determined that part of the illicit oil system, from the oil coming out of the ground at a at a pump head, to the end of that chain, which is the distribution network.So, this is a decision that we had to make. We have not struck these trucks before. We assessed that these trucks, while although they are being used for operations that support ISIL, the truck drivers, themselves, probably not members of ISIL; they re probably just civilians. So we had to figure out a way around that. We re not in this business to kill civilians, we re in this business to stop ISIL to defeat ISIL.So basically, it took the US 13 months to figure out that the best way to cripple Islamic State s oil trade was to bomb the oil.To the extent that occurred to anyone previously, the idea was dismissed because the truck drivers are probably not members of ISIL. Well then who are they? Sure, they may not be suiting up in all black and firing RPGs at Toyota Corollas packed with spies for a propaganda video, but it s not like they don t know who they re working for.Also, as mentioned above, the US hasn t exactly been shy about engaging targets even when there are women, children, and bedridden hospital patients in the vicinity so it s hard to imagine that anyone at the Pentagon was worried about Islamic State s truck drivers.Whatever the case, the US is apprently set to give ISIS a 45 minute heads up when The Pentagon plans to bomb an oil convoy which we suppose makes sense.It s the least the CIA can do for an old friend. Via: Zero Hedge | 1real |
U.S. Representative Brown charged with fraud: Justice Department | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Corrine Brown, a Democrat from Florida, and her chief of staff were indicted on Friday for their roles in a scheme involving a fraudulent education charity, the U.S. Justice Department said. The department said Brown and Elias Simmons were charged in a 24-count indictment with participating in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, theft of government property, filing false tax returns and other crimes. | 0fake |
North Korean embassy official in focus at Kim Jong Nam trial | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Three men wanted for the killing of Kim Jong Nam were driven to the murder site in a car bought by a North Korean embassy official, a Malaysian court was told on Wednesday, bringing into focus the embassy s role in the sensational murder. Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese, are charged with conspiring with four North Korean fugitives to kill the North Korean leader s half-brother using banned chemical weapon VX, at the Kuala Lumpur international airport on Feb. 13. Defense lawyers say the women were duped into thinking they were playing a prank for a reality TV show. Closed circuit television recordings played in court on Wednesday showed three of the fugitives at the airport in a car registered to a North Korean suspect named Ri Jong Chol. Jong Chol, who was arrested and deported shortly after the murder, told investigators the car had been bought in his name by a North Korean embassy official named Chal Su in October 2016, lead investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz said. We made a request to the North Korean embassy to identify and question Chal Su, but did not receive any cooperation, Wan Azirul told the court. Airport video recordings screened in court earlier showed the embassy s second secretary and a manager for North Korean airline Air Koryo helping the four fugitives flee immediately after the murder. Wan Azirul on Wednesday named the two individuals as North Korean embassy second secretary Hyon Kwang Song and Air Koryo manager Kim Uk Il. Both men had gone into hiding at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, along with Ri Ji U, a 30-year-old North Korean also known as James, after warrants were issued for their arrest, Wan Azirul said. Police took statements from the embassy s second secretary and the Air Koryo official before releasing them, but did not pursue Ji U or Chal Su in the absence of instructions to do so, Wan Azirul said. During this probe, which involves international issues, I faced many constraints in investigating and needed to refer to my superior officers before taking any action, he added. North Korea has vehemently denied accusations by South Korean and U.S. officials that Kim Jong Un s regime was behind the killing. Kim Jong Nam, who was living in exile in Macau, had criticized his family s dynastic rule of North Korea and his brother had issued a standing order for his execution, some South Korean lawmakers have said. The murder unraveled once-close ties between Malaysia and North Korea. Malaysia was forced to return Kim Jong Nam s body and allow the suspects hiding in the embassy to return home, in exchange for the release of nine Malaysians barred from leaving Pyongyang. | 0fake |
Aid workers to return to Yemen at weekend but no aid yet: U.N. | GENEVA (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has given the United Nations permission to resume flights of aid workers to the Houthi-controlled capital on Saturday, but not to dock ships loaded with wheat and medical supplies, a U.N. spokesman said. The coalition fighting the armed Houthi movement in Yemen said on Wednesday it would allow aid in through the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif, as well as U.N. flights to Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country. About 7 million people face famine in Yemen and their survival is dependent on international assistance. The coalition has given clearance for U.N. flights in and out of Sanaa from Amman on Saturday, involving the regular rotation of aid workers, said Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). We re of course encouraged by the clearance of this flight which may be followed soon by clearances of flights from Djibouti to Sanaa, Laerke told a news briefing on Friday. But no green light have been received for U.N. requests to bring humanitarian supply ships to Hodeidah and Salif ports, he said. We are particularly talking about one ship which is offshore Hodeidah with wheat from WFP (the U.N. World Food Programme) and another boat which is waiting in Djibouti with cholera supplies and that is also destined for Hodeidah, he said. We stress the critical importance of resuming also commercial imports, in particular fuel supplies for our humanitarian response - transportation and so on - and for water pumping, Laerke said. The largest fuel importing companies in Yemen have indicated they will no longer be able to supply the consumer market at the end of this week, OCHA said in a report dated Nov. 23. UNICEF is also waiting to send vaccines, aid sources said. The charity Save the Children said an estimated 20,000 Yemeni children under the age of five were joining the ranks of the severely malnourished every month, an average of 27 children every hour . The commercial blockade is aggravating the food crisis, leading to a significant increase in child deaths from acute malnutrition and preventable diseases , it said in a statement. The U.S.-backed coalition closed air, land and sea access on Nov. 6, in a move it said was to stop the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying weapons. Jan Egeland, a former U.N. aid chief who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to Reuters in Geneva on Thursday, said of the blockade: In my view this is illegal collective punishment. After more than two weeks of blockade of these ports, there are various kinds of supplies essential for fighting famine, for fighting cholera and other types of humanitarian threats that millions of people are facing in Yemen today, Laerke said. | 0fake |
Jeb Bush invokes MLK as he unveils education plan | On Day 13, a video message and a meeting with media executives — but still no press conference, protective pool | 0fake |
BLACK CONSERVATIVE Student DESTROYS Black Lives Crybabies: “I Am Katie Danforth And I Am Working My A*S Off To Become Something” [VIDEO] | If you have the time, you should watch every minute of this video. If you can t watch it all, go to the 56 minute mark and watch DePaul University Junior, Katie Danforth give the Black Lives Matter Crybabies get an earful: | 1real |
Backed by Putin, Russian military pushes into foreign policy | MOSCOW (Reuters) - From Damascus to Doha, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has been showing up in unexpected places, a sign of the military s growing influence under Vladimir Putin. In the past few months, at times wearing his desert military uniform, Shoigu has held talks with Syria s president in Damascus, met Israel s prime minister in Jerusalem and been received by the Emir of Qatar in Doha. The defense ministry s forays into areas long regarded as the preserve of the foreign ministry are raising eyebrows in Russia, where strict protocol means ministers usually hold talks only with their direct foreign counterparts. The military is reaping political dividends from what the Kremlin saw as its big successes in Crimea, annexed from Ukraine after Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized control of the peninsula in 2014, and Syria, where Russian forces helped turn the tide of war in President Bashar al-Assad s favor. That has translated into more top-table influence, said a long-serving Russian official who interacts with the defense ministry but declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The Kremlin and the defense ministry did not respond to detailed requests for comment for this article, but three sources who know both ministries well confirmed the trend. The foreign ministry, in a Dec.15 statement to Reuters, said it was baffled by what it called assumptions it likened to rumors and gossip. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the leading but not the sole government department involved in foreign policy making, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman, said in the statement. Foreign policy making has long become a multi-faceted complex process involving many parts of government. One part of government seizing some kind of monopoly in international relations will not be beneficial and is hardly possible. The military s increased influence has, however, caused discontent among some Russian diplomats and unease among Western officials about the harder edge it is giving Russia s foreign policy. Foreign policy-making has become more bellicose and more opaque, and this makes new Russian military adventures more likely, some Western officials say. If you allow the defense ministry a bigger say in foreign policy it s going to be looking for trouble, said one, who declined to be named because of the subject s sensitivity. Shoigu s high profile has also revived talk of the long-time Putin loyalist as a possible presidential stand-in if Putin, who is seeking a fourth term in an election in March, had to step down suddenly and was unable to serve out a full six-year term. Shoigu, 62, is not involved in party politics but opinion polls often put him among the top five most popular presidential possibles. His trust rating is also often second only to Putin, with whom he was pictured on a fishing trip this summer. The military s influence has ebbed and flowed in Russia and, before that, the Soviet Union. It had huge clout at the end of World War Two and in the 1950s after the death of Soviet leader Josef Stalin when Georgy Zhukov, a commander credited with a crucial role in defeating Nazi Germany, was defense minister. But the ignominious Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, completed in 1989, two wars Russia fought in Chechnya after the Soviet Union s collapse, and the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine with the loss of all 118 people on board in 2000 left the military s prestige in tatters. Under Putin, a former KGB agent who as president is the armed forces commander-in-chief, its stock has risen. Defence spending has soared, the military has been deployed in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria and its actions are used to foster patriotism. The military s growing political and foreign policy muscle is most noticeable when it comes to Syria. After going to Damascus twice earlier this year for talks with Assad, Shoigu was at Putin s side this week when the president flew in to meet the Syrian leader. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has not visited Syria at all in 2017. Unusually for a defense minister, Shoigu has been involved in diplomatic efforts to bring peace to Syria. In this role he has spoken about the importance of a new draft constitution for the country, met the U.N. special envoy on Syria and had talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. A Western official who has direct contact with the foreign and defense ministries said the Russian military had real heft in Damascus of a kind the foreign ministry did not. There was strong mutual trust between the Russian military and senior people in Damascus, the official said, because the Russians saved their asses and the Syrians respect that. The foreign ministry retains strong Middle East experts and continues to play an important Syria role, helping run peace talks taking place in Kazakhstan. But Lavrov s own efforts to secure a U.S.-Russia deal on cooperating in Syria have shown how differently the foreign and defense ministries sometimes think. Lavrov is still seen as a formidable diplomat whom Putin trusts and respects. But Western officials say he is not summoned to all important meetings and is not informed about major military operations in Syria. The military s other foreign policy interventions include a role in Russia s alleged interference in last year s U.S. presidential election, U.S. intelligence agencies say. They say the GRU, Russia s military foreign intelligence agency, hacked email accounts belonging to Democratic Party officials and politicians, and organized their leaking to the media to try to sway public opinion against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump s main rival. The Kremlin denies the allegations. Other policy interventions included a news briefing in December 2015 at which the defense ministry said it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from illegal smuggling of oil from Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq. Erdogan said the allegations, made at a briefing held a week after a Turkish air force jet shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border, amounted to slander. The defense ministry s response to the incident was much sharper than that of Russian diplomats, part of a wide-ranging communications policy that has included frequent criticism of the U.S. State Department and Washington s foreign policy. Other areas of interest for the defense ministry have included Egypt, Sudan and Libya. Shoigu was involved in talks between Putin and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Moscow last month and the ministry hosted Khalifa Haftar, Eastern Libya s dominant military figure, aboard its sole aircraft carrier in January. During the visit, Haftar spoke to Shoigu via video link about fighting terrorism in the Middle East. One Western official told Reuters such incidents were fuelling fears that Russia plans to expand its footprint beyond Syria, where it has an air base and a naval facility, to centers such as Yemen, Sudan or Afghanistan. The military s influence in domestic policy-making has expanded too, Russian analysts and Western officials say, with Putin seeking its views on everything from the digital economy to food security. That is in part because Putin, since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, has altered the way he takes decisions and widened the scope of what the Security Council, which he chairs, discusses to include many domestic policy questions. At a time when there s a feeling that Russia is increasingly surrounded by enemies, Putin is consulting the intelligence services and the military more when he takes all decisions. He s meeting them all the time, said Tatyana Stanovaya, head of the analytical department at the Center for Political Technologies think tank. Stanovaya said that did not mean the military was initiating ideas, but that its opinions were taken into account far more by Putin now than in the past and that it now had an important voice on domestic policy areas. | 0fake |
AG JEFF SESSIONS Warns Leakers…Taking Steps to Stop the Leaks that “Hurt Our Country” [Video] | Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced today that the DOJ is taking steps to reduce the amount of leaking from the White House:Sessions said during his Friday press briefing that everyone in government can do better and must practice more discipline when it comes to the leaking of classified information. Simply put, these leaks hurt our country, Sessions said. All of us in government can do better. To prevent these leaks every agency and Congress have to do better, Sessions said. We are taking a stand. This culture of leaking must stop. Sessions said that there are multiple steps being taken by the National Insider Threat Task Force to prosecute those who leak classified information. Since January the department has more than tripled the number of active leak investigations compared to the number pending at the end of the last administration, Sessions said. And we ve already charged four people with unlawfully disclosing classified material or with concealing contacts with federal officers, he said.AG Sessions also said he s Considering Reviewing Policies Involving Media Subpoenas: | 1real |
Tribal militia kill 43 in South Sudan's Jonglei state, abduct women, children | JUBA (Reuters) - A tribal militia killed at least 43 people in South Sudan s Jonglei state, local officials said on Wednesday, extending a spate of tit-for-tat revenge killings. Raiders from the Murle ethnic group killed 20 men, 22 women and one child, and injured 19 people in the village of Duk Payel on Tuesday, Jonglei Information Minister Jocab Akech Deng said. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a separate statement that among those killed were six staff members of local aid organizations. The killings are the latest chapter in a chain of revenge attacks, cattle raiding, and child abduction between the Murle and the Dinka Bor tribe. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said that about 60 women and children had been abducted. Oil-rich South Sudan dissolved into civil war in 2013 and is riven by rivalry between rebels, the military and tribal militias. More than a third of the country s 12 million population have fled their homes. Kudumoch Nyakurono, the information minister of neighboring Boma state where the Murle are based, said his government was trying to find the culprits. There are some villages which were attacked by some youth from Murle in Pibor, said Nyakurono. The government of Boma state has condemned this attack and we have sent commissioners and representatives from here to go and find out which village has organized this attack so that we can bring them to justice. UNMISS said it was sending a peacekeeping patrol and human rights monitors to the area of the attack. UNMISS deplores any incidents in which innocent civilians are killed. The mission will continue to support reconciliation efforts on the ground between communities to ease tensions and end the cycle of revenge, said UNMISS spokesman Daniel Dickinson. | 0fake |
Trump to propose five-year lobbying ban on ex-executive branch officials | GREEN BAY, Wis. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday will propose a five-year ban on executive branch officials lobbying after they leave government if he is elected, according to excerpts of a speech on fixing ethics problems in Washington. Trump also will say he plans to ask Congress to impose its own five-year ban on former lawmakers and their staff lobbying as well as set a lifetime ban on senior executive branch officials lobbying for foreign governments. | 0fake |
OBAMACARE: Wheels Slowly Falling Off The Socialized Healthcare Train…Billions Wasted | Wasn t the point of Obamacare to provide health insurance for everyone? After BILLIONS spent on a website that was unworkable and BILLIONS spent to set up exchanges across America, it looks like the ones who need Obamacare the most can t afford it .the irony is certainly not lost on us! Just ten days ago we described the latest unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, when Colorado s largest nonprofit co-op health insurer and participant in that state s insurance exchange, Colorado HealthOP, announcing it was abruptly shutting down ahead of the November 1 start of enrollment for 2016, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016.It wasn t the first: the Colorado co-op was at least the fifth in the nation to collapse. Similar nonprofit insurers have already failed in Louisiana, Iowa/Nebraska, Nevada and New York. A health insurance cooperative in Tennessee announced this week that it would stop offering new policies.The insurer failed because it would fail to be profitable, in the process burning through $23 million in taxpayer-funded loss that would not be repaid. Taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars in loans given out to the CO-OP, money that will likely never be repaid, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said in a statement after the announcement.And while many had anticipated from the beginning that the Obamacare tax was merely a subsidy for the large insurance companies (or rather, their public shareholders), few had expected a far more sinister consequence of the Affordable care plan: that the employer mandate would turn out to be unaffordable for a vast majority of low-income workers the very people who were supposed to benefit from it.It is the failing of Obamacare to address the needs of America s struggling lower-middle class, those women and men who work long, hard hours, often at minimum wage, scrambling to make ends meet. It is them, that the NYT writes about in its recent scathing critique of Obamacare (traditionally, it has been the WSJ that gives scathing reports on the disaster that is Obamacare, usually involving soaring monthly premiums for those who were dragged into the Scotus-enabled tax beyond their will).Take the case of Billy Sewell who began offering health insurance this year to 600 service workers at the Golden Corral restaurants that he owns. He wondered nervously how many would buy it. Adding hundreds of employees to his plan would cost him more than $1 million a hit he wasn t sure his low-margin business could afford. His actual costs, though, turned out to be far smaller than he had feared. So far, only two people have signed up. We offered, and they didn t take it, he said.But isn t that against the stated primary objective of Obamacare: to make affordable health insurance more accessible and affordable to everyone? The answer, according to the NYT, is no.The Affordable Care Act s employer mandate, which requires employers with more than 50 full-time workers to offer most of their employees insurance or face financial penalties, was one of the law s most controversial provisions. Business owners and industry groups fiercely protested the change, and some companies cut workers hours to reduce the number of employees who would be eligible.But 10 months after the first phase of the mandate took effect, covering companies with 100 or more workers, many business owners say they are finding very few employees willing to buy the health insurance that they are now compelled to offer. The trend is especially pronounced among smaller and midsize businesses in fields filled with low-wage hourly workers, like restaurants, retailing and hospitality. (Companies with 50 to 99 workers are not required to comply with the mandate until next year.) Hold on, aren t those some of the best performing job categories in the past year? Why yes they are, in fact, with 11.1 million workers, those employed by food service and drinking places are the single largest job subcategory tracked by the BLS. It is almost as if the bulk of the jobs growth went to fields that would be mostly disadvantaged by Obamacare.Well, there may be millions of waiters and bartenders in the US, but contrary to what Obamacare promised the vast majority are and will remain uninsured: Based on what we ve seen in the marketplace, we re advising some of our clients to expect single-digit take rates, said Michael A. Bodack, an insurance broker in Harrison, N.Y. One to 2 percent isn t unusual. The reason? What was supposed to be affordable remains painfully unaffordable for the lowest rung of the employment pyramid.Here is the actual math as experienced by both the abovementioned Mr. Sewell of Golden Corral restaurants, and his mostly minimum-wage employees.He employs 1,800 people at the 26 Golden Corral franchises he owns in six Southern and Midwestern states, and previously offered insurance only to his salaried management staff. In January, when the employer mandate took effect, he made the same insurance plan, with a bigger employer contribution, available to all employees working an average of 30 or more hours a week.Running the math on his plan a typical one for the restaurant industry illustrates why a number of low-wage workers are falling through gaps in the Affordable Care Act.The annual premium for individual coverage through the Golden Corral Blue Cross Blue Shield plan is $4,800. Mr. Sewell pays 65 percent for service workers, leaving them with a monthly cost of $140.The health care law defines affordable employer-sponsored insurance as that priced at 9.5 percent or less of an employee s annual household income for individual coverage. (Because employers do not know how much money their workers relatives make, there are several safe harbors they can use for compliance, including basing their calculation on only their own employees wages.) Mr. Sewell s insurance meets the test, but $65 per biweekly paycheck is more than most of his workers are willing or able to pay for insurance that still carries steep out-of-pocket costs, including a $2,500 deductible.And this is where Obamacare s employee mandate fails for a vast majority of US workers.Clarissa Morris, 47, has been a server at the Golden Corral here for five years, earning $2.13 an hour plus tips. On a typical day, she leaves the restaurant with about $70 in tips. Her husband makes $9 an hour at Walmart but has been offered only a part-time schedule there, without benefits. Their combined paychecks barely cover their rent and daily essentials. It s either buy insurance or put food in the house, she said. On the rare occasions that she gets sick, she visits a local clinic with sliding-scale fees. It costs her $25 for a visit, and $4 to fill prescriptions at Walmart.Other business owners find the same paradox:Brad Mete, the managing partner of Affinity Resources, a staffing agency in Dania Beach, Fla., began offering insurance this year to most of his workers only because the law required it. He said the alternative, paying a penalty of about $2,000 per full-time employee, was unthinkable, That would put us out of business, in one swoop. Trying to persuade his hourly workers to buy the insurance is like pulling teeth, he said. His company s plan costs $120 a month, but workers making about $300 a week are reluctant to spend $30 of it on insurance. That s ok if you beleive the Obama administration, wages are about to soar.Or maybe not.What is truly tragic, however, that just like in the case of punishing work when Earned Income Tax benefits for those living around the poverty line, see their after tax pay rise above what comparable workers who make up to $50k per year, Obamacare seems to have been designed only for those making above the median US wage and above:A study by ADP, the payroll processing giant, found an income tipping point at which most employees who are eligible for health insurance will buy it: $45,000 a year.Workers making $15,000 to $20,000 a year buy employer-sponsored individual insurance when it is offered only 37 percent of the time. That rate rises at every income increment ADP studied until $45,000, when it reaches 82 percent and levels off. Further income gains have virtually no effect on the rate, ADP found. And so the wheels slowly fall off the socialized healthcare train Read more: ZERO HEDGE | 1real |
Attorney General Lynch seeks funds for expanded gun checks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A battle over gun ownership between President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress kicked off on Wednesday as lawmakers began weighing whether to fund the administration’s unilateral moves to tighten background checks on buyers. This month, Obama stirred conservative ire with executive action clarifying that all dealers selling guns, including at shows, flea markets, on the Internet or in stores, are required to get licenses and run background checks on buyers. A Senate appropriations panel that funds Justice Department activities used its first hearing of the year to zero in on the new federal guidance that pits gun rights advocates against gun control organizations energized by a series of high-profile mass shootings. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the Republican-controlled panel the actions would “bring progress on a number of fronts” in the face of “an epidemic of gun violence.” In urging Congress to approve millions of additional dollars to help her agency hire more agents and conduct background checks around the clock, Lynch said she had “complete confidence” Obama’s moves would survive any court challenges from opponents who argue he has over-stepped his authority. But Senator Richard Shelby, the Republican chairman of an appropriations subcommittee, told Lynch the public fears Obama “is eager to strip them of their Second Amendment rights” to bear arms and warned that the panel “will have no part in undermining the Constitution and the rights it protects.” Obama issued his executive orders after Congress over the past few years refused to pass gun control legislation and as shooters carried out fatal attacks including on an elementary school in Connecticut, a movie theater in Colorado, a Virginia university and a community center in California. Senior Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski decried a “growing nexus of drugs, crime, guns, violence and murder” that she said resulted in more than 350 people being killed last year just in Baltimore, in her home state of Maryland. Amid the infighting, Republican Senator James Lankford said there likely is common ground on the need for states to improve reporting to federal authorities on people convicted of crimes under state law. “Alabama currently has zero felonies running into the (federal background check) system; California has 4,032. ... Delaware has zero, Maryland, 12, my fine state of Oklahoma has one,” Lankford complained. Congressional appropriators will spend much of this year wrangling over fiscal 2017 funding, such as money for gun background checks. | 0fake |
OBAMA GIVES ILLEGAL ALIENS IN FLINT, MI Amnesty So They Can Get Free Sh*t From Taxpayers | Because people who scale border walls and break the law to get into our country deserve the same taxpayer funded benefits as legal citizens right?Caving into the demands of the open borders movement and pro-immigrant Spanish media, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will refrain from enforcing immigration laws in areas of Flint, Michigan affected by a water crisis. The water amnesty is the latest of many reprieves issued by the Obama administration to help illegal immigrants nationwide. Judicial Watch has reported on many of them, including recent hurricane, earthquake, Ebola and severe weather amnesties.This one involves the widely reported water situation in Flint, which is located about 66 miles northwest of Detroit. Last year researchers discovered that the city s drinking water was contaminated with lead from decaying old pipes. The problem arose after a switch in 2014 in the city s water source to save money. Soon complaints mounted that the water smelled and looked strange and academic researchers discovered that it was toxic. This all occurred after a 7-1 vote by the Flint City Council to stop buying Detroit water and join a new pipeline project, according to a local news report.Now there s a state of emergency and the feds have stepped in, supplying the area with free bottled water and special filters to install at home until the local water supply is clean. For weeks immigrant rights groups complained that residents had to show identification to receive their free goods from the government and illegal aliens were being left out. National Spanish-language media outlets blasted the Obama administration for discriminating against illegal aliens. One reported that undocumented immigrants weren t getting help for fear of being deported, instead opting to drink contaminated water or pay out of pocket to buy some. Another major Spanish-language newspaper wrote that illegal immigrants and their children suffered lead poisoning and couldn t get clean emergency water because they didn t have identification cards. When the National Guard went door to door distributing potable water, many were scared to open because they feared the uniformed persons were immigration agents who would deport them, the paper wrote.The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which claims to combat bigotry and protect civil rights for all, joined the cause expressing horror and indignation that the government denied undocumented immigrants free water and filters because they couldn t provide a photo ID or Social Security number. In a Spanish-language statement the group s Michigan chapter referred to news reports that Flint-area fire department stations distributing water were requiring identification. But even in places that aren t requiring ID, illegal immigrants are scared to come out and get their potable water out of fear that they will be deported, the ADL stresses in its announcement. We are calling on the National Guard to order all fire departments and other centers distributing supplies that no one be rejected. Like a good lapdog the Obama administration obliged. This week DHS issued a statement in English and Spanish guaranteeing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would not conduct enforcement operations at or near locations distributing clean water in Flint or surrounding areas. Moreover, DHS officials do not and will not pose as individuals providing water-related information or distributing clean water as part of any enforcement activities, the statement assures. The agency s priority is to support state and local government efforts to distribute clean water, the statement says, adding that DHS stands ready to assist those in need. Via: Judicial Watch | 1real |
Trump says hurricane does not look good, eyes debt ceiling debate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the hurricane moving toward Florida and Puerto Rico looks to be record-breaking and said a meeting with congressional leaders would show whether they could work out challenges the country faced. We have many many things that are on the plate. Hopefully we can solve them, he said during a meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. Maybe we won t be able to, he said. Asked if he would accept a three-month debt ceiling increase tied to disaster relief funding, Trump said: We ll see. | 0fake |
Factbox: What are the U.S. budget, debt limit issues spooking markets? | (Reuters) - Financial markets are fretting about the fiscal situation in Washington, with deadlines looming in late September and early October on the U.S. budget and the federal debt ceiling. Republican President Donald Trump stoked anxieties by threatening on Aug. 22 to shut down the government if Congress does not fund his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Here is what you need to know about the budget and the debt ceiling, separate issues but ones that are politically connected: Congress is supposed to pass annual spending bills around the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 to fund most of the U.S. government, but disagreements often prevent this. When that happens, lawmakers usually pass a temporary bill extending current spending levels with no changes for days, weeks or months, while they work on a long-term agreement. When even a short-term budget patch cannot be agreed in Congress, or if the president decides to veto either a long-term or short-term budget measure, the government shuts down. This year, when Congress returns on Sept. 5 from its long summer recess, lawmakers will have only about 12 working days to pass a budget measure, probably a short-term patch, known as a continuing resolution, to keep the government open. If a budget measure is not passed before Oct. 1, or if Trump vetoes a budget deal over his Mexican border wall demand, portions of the government will begin to shut down and non-essential employees will go without pay until an agreement is reached. The last time the government shut down, in October 2013 for about two weeks, was because of a dispute over funding for former Democratic President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. There were three shutdowns in the 1990s, the longest lasting 21 days. In the 1970s and 1980s there were 14 shutdowns, most brief and some only partial. Shutdowns hurt federal workers, rattle financial markets and shake confidence in the U.S. government abroad, but to date they have done little lasting economic damage, according to analysts. The “debt ceiling” is a legal cap on how much money the U.S. government can borrow through bonds and other debt issued by the U.S. Treasury. It now stands at about $19.8 trillion, very close to the actual national debt. Since March, the Treasury has been using financial “extraordinary measures” to stave off hitting the ceiling. Once the ceiling is hit, Congress must raise it. If it does not, the government cannot keep borrowing. This matters because the government spends more than it collects in taxes. That accounts for the federal budget deficit. So Washington continually borrows money to cover its bills. The Treasury has said that Congress must increase the debt ceiling by Sept. 29. However, default likely could be staved off a few more weeks by extraordinary measures, analysts said. In any case, legislation to raise the debt limit will need to be adopted, at the very latest, by mid-October, they said. If the debt ceiling is not raised and the government can no longer pay its bills, default results, along with a likely downgrade in the U.S. credit rating. Political gridlock has never led to the United States’ reaching its debt ceiling and its bills going unpaid, but there have been some close calls. A standoff in August 2011 cost the country its top-notch bond rating from the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s and caused the most jarring two weeks in financial markets since the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. The two move on separate tracks, but are likely to get tangled, with Republican opponents of increasing the debt ceiling probably demanding federal spending cuts. Some analysts said Congress may try to tackle both issues at the same time, perhaps in a single piece of legislation. Both the spending and debt ceiling bills can pass the Republican-led House of Representatives by a simple majority vote. But in the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 of 100 seats, 60 votes are needed to pass, meaning the bills will need some Democratic support. Trump made his U.S.-Mexico border wall a central promise of his 2016 presidential campaign. He also promised that Mexico would pay for it, but Mexico has steadfastly refused to do so and Trump has largely stopped talking about that pledge. Conservative House Republicans agree with the president on the need for a wall and say border-wall funding should be a priority in any spending legislation. Some have already indicated they are willing to shut down the government to get it. Moderate Republicans have called a shutdown unwise, and Republican leaders are determined to prevent one, fearing it would worsen doubts about the party’s ability to govern. Democrats are uniformly opposed to Trump’s wall and say any blame for a shutdown would rest solely with Republicans. The Trump administration reversed course earlier this month and said it would back a “clean” raising of the debt ceiling, meaning it would not be tied to other policy measures. Democrats and moderate Republicans also support a clean debt-ceiling increase. But conservative Republicans, especially in the House, often use debt-ceiling legislation to insist on changes to spending, making them opposed to a clean bill. | 0fake |
Fiat Chrysler Announces Recall of 1.1 Million Autos - The New York Times | DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler said on Friday that it was recalling 1. 1 million vehicles that can roll away unexpectedly and cause injuries when the transmission is not used properly, adding to a spate of recent safety actions by carmakers. Safety recalls in the United States have continued to mount this year as automakers react to tougher enforcement efforts by regulators. This year’s total is unlikely to match the record of more than 60 million vehicles set in 2014 after General Motors recalled millions of small cars with faulty ignitions that were ultimately linked to 124 deaths. But over all, the pace of recalls so far in 2016 exceeds the number in a typical year before the G. M. crisis. G. M. and other automakers, including Fiat Chrysler, have been subject to heavy fines by regulators for failing to promptly fix defective vehicles. In addition, automakers are being scrutinized by other government agencies, including the Justice Department, for their conduct related to recalls and safety defects. In recent weeks, G. M. announced a major recall to fix seatbelts in its trucks, and other companies have announced safety actions to repair faulty airbags. The recall blitz has even included the electric carmaker Tesla Motors, which said last week that it would recall its new Model X sport utility vehicle to prevent seats from folding forward in a collision. On Friday, Fiat Chrysler said it would recall 811, 586 cars and S. U. V.s in the United States after reports of 41 injuries linked to transmission problems. The automaker also will recall more than 300, 000 vehicles for similar problems in various international markets, including Canada and Mexico. The vehicles affected include Jeep Grand Cherokee S. U. V. and Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans. An investigation by the carmaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that drivers were leaving their vehicles without shifting the transmission into the “park” position when the engine was running. According to Fiat Chrysler, the drivers were unaware of how to properly use electronically controlled shift levers. Unlike conventional transmissions, the levers do not change position when shifted. Instead, the levers return to the same position after shifting, and gear selection is indicated by lights. “Unless due care is taken, drivers may draw erroneous conclusions about the status of their vehicles,” Fiat Chrysler said. According to documents from the auto safety regulator, more than 300 incidents were reported in which vehicles rolled away after improper shifting, resulting in more than 100 accidents. Among the injuries were a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, cuts, sprains and severe bruising. Regulators also found that shifters in the affected vehicles were unreasonably difficult to operate. “The shifter is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection,” regulators said. Fiat Chrysler said it would enhance the warning systems and otherwise modify the transmission systems in the recalled models. The company said it had already updated the shifters in newer versions of the vehicles. | 0fake |
Democrats Implode | By Nick Kollerstrom on November 4, 2016 Terror on the Tube — Nov 3, 2016 This just keeps getting better and better. Are we are ready for IMPACT on 9/11? It will be unforgettable. Yes this is a 9/11 date – 9 th November, when the results come out. The world will change. November: NYPD BLOWS WHISTLE ON HILLARY EMAILS: CHILD SEX CRIMES & EXPLOITATION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLAe3UeddUI The FBI is investigating a huge Clinton DC sex network, according to insider claims. The NYPD may have evidence ‘to put Hillary Clinton and her crew away for life.’ Clinton herself and associates are linked to money laundering, sex crimes with minors including children, obstruction of justice & perjury – for a start! The Clinton Foundation has now been connected to a massive child-trafficing and sex ring operating within Washington DC. Having it all come out six days before the election, does that not look like Divine Providence? Top NYPD officer: what’s in the emails is staggering and it turned my stomach. There is not going to be any Houdini-like escape. New York police are so angry and fed up about this, that there is no possibility of the FBI backing down on either of the TWO ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS they now have on Hillary Clinton. More here: http://www.abeldanger.net/2016/11/nypd-hillary-clinton-child-sex-scandal.html#more NYPD sources say, files on Weiner’s newly found laptop which he shared with his wife Huma Abedin, show evidence of a political pedophile ring operating within Washington, involving members of Congress as well as numerous top Clinton aides and insiders. According to reports , a folder on Weiner’s laptop named “life insurance” contains explicit evidence that both Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin helped run and cover-up a Washington pedophile sex ring. And this is coming out on Fox News! – This case is ‘not going to go away any time soon’ and will likely lead to ‘an indightment.’ Media hacks in all the Western media have been supporting Hillary, and how do they feel now? ONLY ONE US newspaper has supported Trump, and how do all the others feel now? Media hacks see Trump getting tens of thousands of people turning out to hear him, while Hillary whom they support can barely get a hundred, indeed she can’t even show up now because of the angry voices – do they realise how wrong they’s been? The Clinton crime family seem to be making plans to flee the country and may have transferred 1.8 billion dollars from the Clinton Foundation to Quater Central Bank https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNdaFFcnpfY – Quatar does not have an extradition treaty with the US so they’d be ‘safe from Trump’ therere. Governor of South Carolina says she has changed her mind, will support Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNdaFFcnpfY All five of Hillary’s closest people are currently under investigation. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3889994/Influence-peddling-acting-Putin-s-ally-hiding-classified-secrets-sexting-FIVE-separate-FBI-cases-probing-virtually-one-Clinton-s-inner-circle-families.html Hillary cancels public appearance due to a large crown chanting ‘Lock her up!’ (Pompano Beach Ampitheatre, November 1st.) To remind ourselves, this is has been a campaign of one man, scoffed, vilified and ridiculed by the entire Western media, against the establishment. If you need reminding of how any positive coverage of his campaign has been forbidden, watch this. During a visit to Detroit, he was blessed and given a prayer shawl by a black Bishop. Listen to how, during this wonderful ceremony, Reuters orders to cut the filming! | 1real |
British PM May's voice repeatedly fails in keynote speech | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May struggled to deliver her keynote speech to the Conservative Party s annual conference on Wednesday, repeatedly coughing and losing her voice. With the party members applauding to keep May going, she had to stop on several occasions to drink water and take a cough sweet which she said came from Chancellor Philip Hammond. Shows what good the chancellor s cough sweet is, she said, as she continued to attempt to give her speech. Earlier in the speech she was heckled by a protester who held up a P45 paper in front of her, a document handed out to employees leaving a job. | 0fake |
Former Bush adviser Wolfowitz to vote for Clinton: Spiegel | BERLIN (Reuters) - Paul Wolfowitz, a Republican adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, plans to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election despite his “serious reservations”, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday. Wolfowitz, who served as deputy defense secretary under Bush and also as president of the World Bank, said he viewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a security risk because of his admiration of Russian President Putin and his views on China, the magazine reported. “It’s important to make it clear how unacceptable he is,” the magazine quoted Wolfowitz as saying in an interview. Wolfowitz joins a long list of Republicans who have said they will not vote for Trump. “I wish there was a candidate whom I could support enthusiastically. I will have to vote for Hillary Clinton, although I have serious reservations about her,” he said. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed that Clinton would win the key swing states of Florida, Ohio and Virginia, and have a 95 percent chance of beating Trump if the election were held now. Wolfowitz rejected a common description of him as a key architect of the 2003 U.S. war against Iraq, saying that if he had truly been the architect many things would have gone differently, the magazine reported. Wolfowitz said the goal had been to free the country, not occupy it, creating tensions with many Iraqis. He also defended the decision to invade Iraq, saying it was based on intelligence that later turned out to be faulty. “Of course we would have proceeded differently if we had known that Saddam Hussein was not stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, but was only planning to do so,” he said. “We would not have invaded.” In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine in May 2003, several months after the invasion, he suggested there were multiple reasons for it, but the Bush administration highlighted Iraq’s supposed WMD as the justification for the war as the most politically convenient. “For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on,” he said at the time. (This version of the story has been refiled to correct typo in second paragraph) | 0fake |
House panel to interview former Trump adviser | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Caputo, who was an adviser to President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, said on Thursday he would testify on Friday to a U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating possible Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Caputo, a political consultant, issued a statement saying he would testify on Friday at a closed meeting of the House Intelligence Committee. The committee does not comment on people it plans to interview or when. Caputo resigned from the Trump campaign last year after writing: “Ding Dong the witch is dead!” on Twitter after Trump fired campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in June 2016. | 0fake |
White House slams Russia over veto on Syria chemical weapons probe | (Reuters) - The White House admonished Russia on Wednesday after it vetoed a United Nations plan to continue an ongoing investigation that recently found Syria killed dozens of people with chemical weapons and implored the international body to renew the probe. Russia cast a veto at the United Nations Security Council eight days ago, preventing the renewal of a mandate for a mission by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) - that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Russia s attempts to undermine and eliminate the JIM show a callous disregard for the suffering and loss of life caused by the use of chemical weapons and an utter lack of respect for international norms, the White House said in a statement. The JIM found that the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad is to blame for a chemical attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed dozens of people last April, according to a report sent to the United Nations Security Council last Thursday. This unconscionable attack marks the fourth time that the JIM has confirmed that the Assad regime used chemical weapons, underscoring the brutal and horrifying barbarism of Bashar al-Assad and making the protection provided by Russia even more egregious, the White House said. JIM was unanimously created by the 15-member U.N. Security Council in 2015 and renewed in 2016 for another year. Its mandate is due to expire in mid-November. The United States implores the UN Security Council to renew the mandate of the JIM so that we may continue to identify the perpetrators of these horrific attacks and send a clear message that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated, the White House said. In their 14th report since 2011, U.N. investigators said they had in all documented 33 chemical weapons attacks to date. Twenty-seven were by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, including seven between March 1 to July 7. Perpetrators had not been identified yet in six attacks, they said. The Assad government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons. It said its strikes in Khan Sheikhoun hit a weapons depot belonging to rebel forces, a claim excluded by U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria chairman Paulo Pinheiro. That attack led U.S. President Donald Trump to launch the first U.S. air strikes on a Syrian air base. | 0fake |
Trump says meeting with Mexican president would have been 'fruitless' | PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday that his now-scrapped meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto would have been “fruitless” if Mexico will not agree to treat America “with respect.” “The President of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting for next week,” Trump told Republican lawmakers gathered in Philadelphia for a retreat. “Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly - with respect - such a meeting would be fruitless. And I want to go a different route,” said Trump, who wants to build a wall on the southern border of the United States. He says Mexico will pay for it but Mexico insists it will not. | 0fake |
Canada to take in migrants at 'gradual' pace amid integration concerns | TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada has to take a gradual approach to boosting immigration, with the government concerned about anti-immigrant sentiment and the country s capacity to integrate newcomers, a minister said on Thursday. Canada s new three-year immigration plan, unveiled on Wednesday, will see it increase its immigration intake by 13 percent over three years to help meet the needs of an aging population. But the increase is below that recommended by a government advisory council in 2016, which had wanted the figure to rise by 50 percent over five years. It s easy to bring somebody in, it s another thing to make sure they succeed in Canada, Immigration and Refugee Minister Ahmed Hussen said by telephone from Ottawa. Canada s immigration system focuses on bringing in skilled workers, but has struggled to connect them with job opportunities in keeping with their skills and credentials. The immigration minister, himself a former refugee from Somalia, said bringing newcomers to Canada was only half of the job, and that supports were needed to ensure they integrated well into society. Canada has resettled more than 40,000 Syrian refugees since 2015 and seen more than 15,000 asylum seekers walk across its border with the United States this year, with many saying they fear a U.S. immigration crackdown. Many of the latter group have gone to Quebec, sparking an anti-immigrant backlash in the French-speaking province. The military set up a tent encampment to house asylum seekers while they are processed. Both Hussen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say they are wary of anti-immigrant sentiment in Canada. I think in Canada we re lucky that, broadly speaking, we have support (but) it s not consensus, there are people who oppose immigration, Hussen said. Canada isn t some magical place that doesn t have worries about immigration, worries about security, worries about division and intolerant minds, Trudeau said at a Toronto conference on Thursday. Trudeau made international headlines in January with tweets touting Canada s welcome of refugees, coinciding with U.S. President Donald Trump s first travel ban. But two years after mobilizing the country to bring in Syrians, the Canadian government is dialing down its involvement. About 30 percent of resettled refugees in the next three years will be government-sponsored, compared with 46 percent in the previous three years. Look, we can t take every refugee from the world, Hussen said. What we can do is we can play our part. Hussen said Canada offered to resettle some of the more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled their homes in Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh, but was told by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees that was not necessary. Jean-Nicolas Beuze, the UNHCR s Canadian representative, said the agency is focused on providing for the immediate needs of Rohingya refugees, with an eventual return to their homes in Myanmar as the best solution. Canada s three-year immigration plan would see immigration rise by 40,000 to 340,000 people annually in 2020. That is below an increase to 450,000 by 2021 recommended by the advisory council, to offset an aging population and strains on the social safety net. | 0fake |
How the FBI Creates ‘Domestic Terror’ in the United States | 21st Century Wire says This is a bit of an oddity as far as TED talks go Investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson actually delivers a TED presentation which calls out the FBI for being the party responsible for creating the majority of so-called domestic terror and Islamic terror busts in the US since 9/11.Just this week, the FBI are boasting of a high level domestic extremist terror bust of a militia group in Kansas, but when you read the fine print of the case, it features several FBI confidential informants, no doubt helping to egg-on and steer their prey into a preconceived trap.21WIRE has been saying this for years, and it s refreshing to see what is normally a bland, mainstream talking shop like TED actually allow a speaker to present a real anti-establishment subject like this one.In truth, the FBI s shady record in this area stretched back well before 9/11, when FBI informants (under FBI supervision) helped to organize the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing. Despite this, idiotic mainstream media and politicians in the US still claim that the 1993 WTC event was linked to al Qaeda. NOTE: The following speaker Trevor Aaronson claims that both the Boston Bombing and the attempted Times Square car bombing. This statement is very likely to be incorrect. It has already been confirmed that the FBI s lead suspect in Boston, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was being active recruited by the FBI for at least two years prior to the event in question, as well as being associated with a CIA front org called the Jamestown Foundation. Similarly, the alleged Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, appeared to have fled to Pakistan with a handler who has connections to the CIA and MI6. Otherwise, we welcome this topic raised by journalist Aaronson.Brasscheck TVGuess who is behind more terrorist incidents in the US than al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and ISIS combined?The FBI and when given the change to set the record straight, they don t dispute it.As law enforcement scams go, this is one of the most reprehensible. The FBI finds mentally ill people, puts ideas into their heads, works up plans for them and then gives them the money to carry them out an then arrests them for terrorist plots.They then declare victory in the war on terror. Domestic anti-terrorism efforts cost $100 billion a year or $1 trillion per decade.And you, your kids and grand kids pay for all this in the form of a reduced standard of living to make sure this useless anti-American scum get nice big paychecks and bloated tax-payer guaranteed pensions for their years of service. Watch:. READ MORE DAILY SHOOTER NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Daily Shooter Files | 1real |
Economy Gains 227,000 Jobs in January Under President Trump - Breitbart | The U. S. economy gained 227, 000 jobs in January according to statistics released by the Labor Department on Friday, while unemployment ticked up slightly to 4. 8 percent. [Wages also increased 2. 5 percent compared to January 2016, rising six cents in December. The economy added 157, 000 jobs in December and unemployment stood at 4. 7 percent. A number of companies announced before Trump’s inauguration they planned to expand in the U. S. not overseas, and hire American workers. These included Ford, SAP SE, Amazon. com, Lockheed Martin, GM, Bayer AG, Walmart, and many more. Employers have also found themselves managing a tighter employment market, according to the New York Times: Regardless of government estimates, however, employers across sectors and across the nation have increasingly complained about the difficulty of finding workers, a competition that kept the increase in the average hourly wage ahead of a 1. 6 percent price inflation rate. “We’re still continuing to see wage pressure as the candidate market continues to shrink,” said Amy Glaser, senior vice president of Adecco Staffing USA, which has 300 branch offices. In addition to the omnipresent hunger for engineers, Ms. Glaser said there is a demand for those with trade skills like welding that fell into disuse during the recession, as well as warehouse and light assembly workers. “Employers are getting very creative,” said Ms. Glaser, whose office is in Lexington, Ky. “We’re seeing bonuses. They have added sabbaticals to their packages, increases to stock options, free child care on site and free meals. Anything to get a competitive edge. ” After Election Day, many companies, especially small businesses, responded with soaring optimism. During his inaugural address, Trump said: “We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American. ” | 0fake |
Trump Explaining The Star Is Now WAY Worse Than The Star Itself (TWEET) | Even though the fact that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee tweeted out Anti-Semitic imagery is bad enough, Donald Trump has now decided to defend himself. Because of course. Trump doesn t believe he s ever wrong, and an apology would be sacrilegious to whom he worships most himself.Here s the original tweet before his campaign staff scurried to replace the Star of David with a circle: And even though it s already been proven that the original meme came from a white supremacy forum, Trump still takes to Twitter to try and spew the same cover-up story others have been trying to claim, and that is that the star is not actually the Star of David, but just a sheriff s badge, or a regular star.Here s Trump Monday morning: Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff s Star, or plain star! Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff's Star, or plain star! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016Well, which is it, Trump? A sheriff s star or a plain star. Or maybe it s just a poor excuse for a poor excuse of a human being tweeting out imagery from white supremacists depicting Hillary Clinton on top of a pile of money next to a Star of David.It s surprising Trump still has internet privileges at this point in his campaign. In all honesty, he could have just let this topic go and within a few news cycles it might have been gone, but nope, he decides to make a horrific thing even worse by defending it.We need to make sure we do all we can to keep him out of the Oval Office. VOTE BLUE.Featured Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1real |
Parents fearing deportation pick guardians for U.S. children | SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Parents who immigrated illegally to the United States and now fear deportation under the Trump administration are inundating immigration advocates with requests for help in securing care for their children in the event they are expelled from the country. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) advocacy group has been receiving about 10 requests a day from parents who want to put in place temporary guardianships for their children, said spokesman Jorge-Mario Cabrera. Last year, the group said it received about two requests a month for guardianship letters and notarization services. At the request of a nonprofit organization, the National Lawyers Guild in Washington D.C. put out a call this week for volunteer attorneys to help immigrants fill out forms granting friends or relatives the right to make legal and financial decisions in their absence. In New Jersey, immigration attorney Helen Ramirez said she is getting about six phone calls a day from parents. Last year, she said, she had no such calls. “Their biggest fear is that their kids will end up in foster care,” Ramirez said. President Donald Trump’s administration has issued directives to agents to more aggressively enforce immigration laws and more immigrants are coming under scrutiny by the authorities. For parents of U.S. citizens who are ordered removed, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency “accommodates, to the extent practicable, the parents’ efforts to make provisions” for their children, said ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez. She said that might include access to a lawyer, consular officials and relatives for detained parents to execute powers of attorney or apply for passports and buy airline tickets if the parents decide whether or not to take the children with them. Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington-based non-profit that analyzes the movement of people worldwide, said that while putting contingency plans in place is a good idea, he does not think the level of fear is justified. During the previous administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, the likelihood of both parents being deported was slim, Capps said. He doubts there will be a huge shift under Republican Trump toward deporting both parents. “The odds are still very low but not as low as they were – and this is just the beginning of the administration,” he said. About five million children under the age of 18 are living with at least one parent who is in the country illegally, according to a 2016 study by MPI. Most of the children, 79 percent, were U.S. citizens, the study found. In the second half of 2015, ICE removed 15,422 parents who said they have at least one U.S.-born child, according to ICE data. Obama was criticized for being the “deporter in chief” after he expelled more than 400,000 people in 2012, the most by any president in a single year. In 2014, the Obama administration began focusing on a narrower slice of immigrants, those who had recently entered the country or committed serious felonies. Trump has said he would still prioritize criminals for deportation. In rural New Jersey, Seidy Martinez and her husband Jose Gomez have begun the difficult conversations with their 10-year-old daughter about what would happen if her parents were deported. Martinez, a house cleaner, and Gomez, who works on a horse farm, are both from Honduras. They entered the United States illegally, and do not have papers, unlike their daughter, who has been granted asylum, and their 3-year-old son, a U.S. citizen. “Now we are worried all the time. We don’t have anything that would allow us to stay here,” said Martinez. “Our main concern is what will happen to our children.” She has told her daughter that she could live with her aunt in Miami and is considering drafting paperwork that would give her relative some legal rights if she and her husband are deported. The 10-year old tries to comfort her mother. “She tells me, ‘Mami, tranquila. Don’t be afraid, I am scared too but don’t worry everything will be OK.’” Rebecca Kitson, an immigration attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says she advises her increasingly nervous clients to have the kind of conversations Martinez and her husband are having with their children. She said she urges parents to be specific in their instructions. “If Mom doesn’t come home by a specific time, who do [the kids] call?” said Kitson. Immigration groups are offering low-cost services. CHIRLA, for example, offers a free sample letter and help filling it out, which then must be notarized at a cost of about $10. But some parents here illegally say they have had trouble finding affordable help. Melvin Arias, 39, a New Jersey landscaper from Costa Rica who entered the United States illegally 13 years ago, said he decided after hearing news of stepped-up immigration enforcement to take legal precautions for his five-year-old son and six-month old daughter, who are both U.S. citizens. But when he asked for help from two different lawyers, Arias was told preparing legal documents would cost him between $700 and $1,250. He is looking for a cheaper way to obtain the paperwork he needs. “If there comes a time when both of us have a problem, I want there to be a responsible person who can come and get [the children] for us, to take them to wherever we might be,” Arias said. | 0fake |
Former Iranian President Rafsanjani Dies | (AP) Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a wily political survivor and multimillionaire mogul who remained among the ruling elite despite moderate views, died Sunday, state TV reported. He was 82. [Iranian media reported earlier Sunday that he was taken to a hospital north of Tehran because of a heart condition. State television broke into programming to announce his death. Rafsanjani’s mix of sly wit and reputation for cunning moves — both in politics and business — earned him a host of nicknames such as Akbar Shah, or Great King, during a life that touched every major event in Iranian affairs since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. His presence — whether directly or through back channels — was felt in many forms. He was a steady leader in Iran’s turbulent years after overthrowing the U. S. shah, a veteran warrior in the country’s internal political battles and a covert in intrigue such as the arms deals in the 1980s. He also was handed an unexpected political resurgence in his later years. The surprise presidential election in 2013 of Rafsanjani’s political soul mate, Hassan Rouhani, gave the former president an insider role in efforts that included Rouhani’s push for direct nuclear talks with Washington. Rouhani’s victory was also another example of Rafsanjani’s remarkable political luck. Rafsanjani was blocked from the ballot by Iran’s election overseers — presumably worried about boosting his already influence. But, in the end, many liberals turned to Rouhani as an indirect vote for Rafsanjani. It came after years of dwindling influence. Another presidential comeback bid was snuffed out by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s surprise victory in 2005 elections, which left Rafsanjani and his powerful clan as fierce critics of Ahmadinejad. | 0fake |
Trump plans to name former Bush staffer Cha as Seoul envoy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to name a Washington-based academic and former White House official, Victor Cha, as the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea, an administration official said on Tuesday. Cha is a former director for Asian affairs on the White House National Security Council and served as deputy head of the U.S. delegation in multilateral talks with North Korea over its nuclear program during the administration of President George W. Bush. An administration official said he expected the appointment, which will be subject to a Senate confirmation hearing, to be announced “soon,” and added that it had “been in the works for a long time.” The move came as President Donald Trump faced perhaps his biggest foreign policy challenge over North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States. Cha, a Korean American, will replace Mark Lippert, a political appointee who served in Seoul during the Obama administration. Cha did not respond to a request for comment. He is currently the Korea Chair at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies and director of Asian studies at Georgetown University’s Department of Government and School of Foreign Service. In a op-ed published in the Washington Post in July, Cha called for a new approach to diplomacy towards North Korea, arguing that China must be a central part of future negotiations and should pay for Pyongyang to halt and roll back its nuclear and missile programs. South Korea is a long-time U.S. treaty ally. | 0fake |
10 Signs of Vitamin B12 Deficiency (And best food sources of Vitamin B12) | 10 Signs of Vitamin B12 Deficiency (And best food sources of Vitamin B12) http://blogs.naturalnews.com/10-signs-vitamin-b12-deficiency-best-food-sources-vitamin-b12/
By Twain Yobra
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 at 10:11am EDT
Vitamin B12 is crucial for the brain, nerves, DNA and blood cells. Unfortunately, it becomes harder and harder for our bodies to absorb vitamin B12 as we age. In fact, 4 in every 100 women between age 40 and 60 have vitamin B12 deficiency . But age isn’t the only contributing factor – avoiding certain foods is what’s making you vitamin B12 deficient.
Here are signs of vitamin B12 deficiency and the foods you should eat to combat them.
Signs of vitamin B12 Deficiency Being sleepy all the time despite getting adequate sleep at night Strange sensations in the body – pins and needles sensations Feeling of weakness and sluggishness Loss of memory and impaired thinking Feeling dizzy while doing simple things like walking Skin looks pale (yellow) Tongue gets swollen and red Anemia Blurry vision
Note that very low levels of vitamin B12 can have more harmful effects. Also, vegan and vegetarian diets don’t offer enough vitamin B12 so you’ll need supplementation if you’re either. But non-vegetarians can get enough vitamin B12 from their diet. Below are great sources of vitamin B12
15 Best food sources of vitamin B12
1. Oysters: Oyster has high amounts of vitamin B12, it is also a great source of zinc. Zinc boosts testosterone, libido and benefits the ovaries.
2. Clams: Clams contain more vitamin B12 than any other food. They’re also rich in potassium.
3. Mussels: Other than vitamin B12 mussels are also rich in protein, potassium, omega 3s and vitamin C.
4. Sardines: This fish is known for its omega 3 properties, it can also fight vitamin B12 and D deficiency.
5. Crab: Crabs are loaded with lots of nutrients, they’re rich in magnesium, zinc, and vitamins A, B and C.
6. Salmon: 3 ounces of cooked salmon have 4.8 mcg of vitamin B12. Salmon is also contains vitamin D and omega 3s.
7. Trout: This fish can help you fight inflammation and improve brain function.
8. Tuna: Just make sure the tuna is bred in a clean environment. It’ll give you lots of omega 3s and vitamin D.
9. Grass-fed beef: Beef will give you lots of proteins and B vitamins.
10. Haddock: This fish has low amounts of mercury and it will give you omega 3s.
11. Milk: Not only is milk a good source of vitamin D and calcium, recent studies show it can reduce PMS symptoms.
12. Yoghurt: Yoghurt is rich in probiotics, magnesium, calcium and protein. Plain greek yoghurt is the best option.
13. Whole eggs: Eggs will also give you vitamin D and aid absorption of calcium in the bones.
14. Chicken: Chicken will give you lots of protein and keep you full.
15. Turkey: Turkey has small amounts of vitamin B12 so it may not be the best option for folks with severe deficiency.
For more information on eating healthy and staying fit, download your FREE 3 Weeks Flat Stomach Guide to help you improve your health and physique. And like our Facebook page . You might also like… | 1real |
EU LEADERS PLEDGE EXTRA €1 Billion In Aid To Refugees…Slovakia Will Take EU To Court Over Forced Refugee Quotas | It won t lead to any solution. It s a kind of European Union dictatorship towards smaller members An extra 1 billion ( 733 million) has been pledged by EU leaders to help tackle the refugee crisis following an emergency summit in Brussels.It comes as Slovakia says it will go to court to challenge compulsory quotas for relocating 120,000 refugees approved by European Union ministers.Britain has not signed up to the plans, instead opting for a relocation scheme to take 20,000 Syrian refugees from countries in the Middle East over the next five years. Via: itvFour of the 28 EU countries voted against the quota system on Tuesday, with Finland abstaining. Slovakia, one of the loudest critics of the decision, which was advocated strongly by Germany and France, announced it would challenge it in court. We will go in two directions: first one, we will file a charge at the court in Luxembourg secondly, we will not implement the (decision) of the interior ministers, the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told reporters on Wednesday, before leaving for an EU leaders summit in Brussels. We have been refusing this nonsense from the beginning, and as a sovereign country we have the right to sue, he added, saying his country would not submit to the quota as long as he leads it.Slovakia, which has a population of 5.4 million, objects to the relocation of 120,000 migrants and refugees from Italy and Greece throughout the EU. It currently has only a small migrant community and the public opinion is against accepting Muslim asylum seekers, who make up the majority of those looking to enter Europe this year.Fico called the decision passed by a rare vote, rather than the accepted unanimous vote by all EU member states, a dictate of the majority and said the plan fails to address the core issues of the refugee crisis.Meanwhile, Jurgen Elsaesser, editor-in-chief of the German-based magazine Compact, told RT that the way the quota vote took place, threatens European unity, while it was also a total nonsense in practical terms. It won t lead to any solution. It s a kind of European Union dictatorship towards smaller members, he said, speaking to RT. Brussels tries to press them into accepting more refugees, but the people and the governments of these countries are not willing to do so. This will become a serious rift within the European Union. Via: RT | 1real |
What's Marco Rubio's strategy against Donald Trump? | Marco Rubio has been forced to speed up plans for an all-out assault on the billionaire businessman's character.
How SNL's 'the bubble' sketch about polarization is all too true
A flood of mainstream Republican officials and donors have lined up behind Marco Rubio in the week since former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended his campaign for president.
And yet Rubio's team concedes that neither the influx of support, nor the conversion of many of Bush's wealthy donors, is enough to stop Donald Trump.
Instead of riding the wave of new support alone, Rubio has been forced to speed up plans for an all-out assault on the billionaire businessman's character.
Rubio had hoped to wait until the chaotic Republican nominating campaign had shrunk to a two-man race. But with a growing sense of urgency among GOP stalwarts to settle on a Trump alternative, the young Florida senator is trying to simultaneously slow Trump and cast himself the savior of the party's future.
"I will never quit. I will never stop until we keep a con man from taking over the party of Reagan and the conservative movement," Rubio thundered at a rally with 2,000 people in Oklahoma City on Friday.
Rubio, a 44-year-old first-term U.S. senator, is trying to project leadership in the party while also going after Trump using his own game, marked by mockery and uncanny aim for his opponent's vulnerabilities.
But the hard-nosed strategy is necessary, says Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, Rubio's latest big endorsement.
"Rubio looked around and thought, 'Well, I might not like it, but that's what the media is covering and that's what people are responding to.'"
But Rubio is quickly getting a feel for what he began during Thursday's debate, launching a direct challenge to Trump's appeal to working class voters.
In recent days, Rubio has dished about Trump's on-stage perspiration and alluded, jokingly, that Trump may have wet his pants. He's also taken to referring to the billionaire businessman as a "con artist" dozens of times a day while campaigning.
"It's amazing to me. A guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup," Rubio charged as he campaigned in Georgia on Saturday. "Donald Trump likes to sue people. He should sue whoever did that to his face."
Over the weekend, Rubio and Cruz attacked Trump for refusing to c ondemn the endorsement from David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader.
Rubio went further in a message to thousands of supporters in Leesburg, Virginia: "We cannot be a party who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan," Rubio said. "Not only is that wrong, it makes him unelectable. How are we going to grow the party if we nominate someone who doesn't repudiate the Ku Klux Klan?"
But make no mistake: Rubio's new tack is a fight for survival.
He trails Trump in virtually all of the 11 states holding nominating contests on March 1, known as Super Tuesday. The Florida senator has finished in no better than second place in the first four primary contests. Trump has won three out of four. And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remains a top-tier contender, even after finishing in third place in the last three contests.
Given Trump's momentum, Rubio's team says publicly the senator's best chance for the nomination might be a contested national convention in July. That could happen only if Rubio prevents Trump from accumulating the majority of delegates in the months-long primary season that extends through June.
Some Florida-based donors, as well as top donors and fundraisers in Washington, D.C., Chicago and elsewhere were ready to join Rubio's team immediately after Bush left the race.
"There are a number of us, now that Gov. Bush is out of the race, who were very impressed with his debate Thursday, and see him as the one to take down Trump," said Chicago investor Craig Duchossois, who shifted from Bush to Rubio. "He showed he's not going to take any crap from him."
In the past two weeks, Rubio has also won the backing of four governors and 20 members of Congress, more than all of his Republican rivals combined.
Rubio had hoped to forestall a one-on-one brawl with Trump until there were only two. Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson remain in the race, although none have the level of support from as many governors and members of Congress as Rubio.
In a year of the outsider, however, it's unclear how much that will boost his momentum.
And in the meantime, Rubio's assault on Trump's character continues.
Audiences in Super Tuesday states Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama ate up the tough talk as he whipped through Southern states.
"It's about time he take his gloves off and start fighting," said Gary Baker from Okmulgee, Oklahoma. "I think he should have started punching sooner."
Better late than never, said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster and former adviser to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
"The Rubio campaign needs to set-up a contrast on Trump, equate Trump to the culture of corruption Americans hate — where the rich get richer and middle class pays the price," Strimple said.
Rubio says there's time, but none to waste.
"If you sense a sense of urgency, it's not just about winning," Rubio said. "It's about the idea that the party of Reagan and the conservative movement could fall into the hands of a con man, who's pulling the ultimate con job on the American people." | 0fake |
New Jersey Woman Charged After Her Son, 6, Fatally Shoots His Brother, 4 - The New York Times | A New Jersey mother was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after her son fatally shot his brother while playing with a gun, the authorities said. Officials with the Essex County prosecutor’s office said the mother, Itiyanah Spruill, 22, of East Orange, N. J. was arrested on Saturday and was also charged with a weapons violation. Bail was set at $310, 000, and she was being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark. East Orange officials said the older boy had been playing with his mother’s gun in the family’s apartment shortly before 11 a. m. on Saturday when he shot his brother in the head. The younger boy died a few hours later at University Hospital in Newark. Ms. Spruill was home when the shooting occurred, the authorities said. Thomas S. Fennelly, chief assistant prosecutor, said that the shooting appeared to have been accidental and that the legal ownership of the gun was under investigation. The brother was released into the custody of a family member, he said. | 0fake |
Hillary Clinton Tops "Islamist Money in Politics" List | Hillary Clinton Tops "Islamist Money in Politics" List
There are some very dubious awards out there that you just don't want to win. Being one of the top recipients of Islamic money in politics certainly tops that list. Hillary Clinton likes to complain about dark money. This is as dark as money gets. As the Middle East Forum's research shows .
Hillary Clinton tops the list, raking in $41,165 from prominent Islamists. This includes $19,249 from senior officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates on November 15, 2014.
For example, Mrs. Clinton has accepted $3,900 from former CAIR vice-chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras, who has defended numerous Islamists in Ohio indicted – and later convicted – on terrorism charges.
Among other current presidential candidates, Jill Stein has accepted $250. Donald Trump and Gary Johnson have not received any Islamist money.
Other top recent recipients of money from the enemy include Rep. Keith Ellison ($17,370) and Rep. Andre Carson ($13,225).
The top ten list includes nine Democrats, one independent (Sen. Bernie Sanders accepted $9,285), and no Republicans.
I don't think that's too surprising to anyone. Though you have to feel sorry for Jill Stein. She hates Israel and announced she wouldn't have killed Osama bin Laden. What's a girl gotta do to get ahead on Jihad Street anyway? | 1real |
TWO TOP Media Leftists DESTROY The Clintons: “They’ve spent their whole lives searching for cash”…Chelsea’s Just As Bad | 1real | |
Fifteen Years Into the Afghan War, Do Americans Know the Truth? |
Last week marked the fifteenth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, the longest war in US history. There weren’t any victory parades or photo-ops with Afghanistan’s post-liberation leaders. That is because the war is ongoing. In fact, 15 years after launching a war against Afghanistan’s Taliban government in retaliation for an attack by Saudi-backed al-Qaeda, the US-backed forces are steadily losing territory back to the Taliban.
What President Obama called “the good war” before took office in 2008, has become the “forgotten war” some eight years later. How many Americans know that we still have nearly 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan? Do any Americans know that the Taliban was never defeated, but now holds more ground in Afghanistan than at any point since 2001? Do they know the Taliban overran the provincial capital of Kunduz last week for a second time in a year and they threaten several other provincial capitals?
Do Americans know that we are still wasting billions on “reconstruction” and other projects in Afghanistan that are, at best, boondoggles? According to a recent audit by the independent US government body overseeing Afghan reconstruction, half a billion dollars was wasted on a contract for a US company to maintain Afghan military vehicles. The contractor “fail[ed] to meet program objectives,” the audit found. Of course they still got paid, like thousands of others getting rich off of this failed war.
Do Americans know that their government has spent at least $60 billion to train and equip Afghan security forces, yet these forces are still not capable of fighting on their own against the Taliban? We recently learned that an unknown but not insignificant number of those troops brought to the US for training have deserted and are living illegally somewhere in the US. In the recent Taliban attack on Kunduz, it was reported that thousands of Afghan security personnel fled without firing a shot.
According to a recent study by Brown University, the direct costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars thus far are nearly five trillion dollars. The indirect costs are virtually incalculable.
Perhaps Afghanistan is the “forgotten war” because to mention it would reveal how schizophrenic is US foreign policy. After all, we have been fighting for 15 years in Afghanistan in the name of defeating al-Qaeda, while we are directly and indirectly assisting a franchise of al-Qaeda to overthrow the Syrian government. How many Americans would applaud such a foreign policy? If they only knew, but thanks to a media only interested in promoting Washington’s propaganda, far too many Americans don’t know.
I have written several of these columns on the various anniversaries of the Afghan (and Iraq) wars, pointing out that the wars are ongoing and that the result of the wars has been less stable countries, a less stable region, a devastated local population, and an increasing probability of more blowback. I would be very happy to never have to write one of these again. We should just march home. | 1real |
Trump Finalizes Betrayal Of LGBT Community With First Speech To Hate Group By A President | After a campaign in which he shamelessly pandered to the LGBT community, Donald Trump has betrayed them so completely that his prior rhetoric is all but unrecognizable. He is slated to speak at the Values Voters Summit on Friday, hosted by the hate group Family Research Council and their extremist president Tony Perkins, a man who believes that gays should be put to death.The speech Trump gave at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July 2016 came just one month after the deadly shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando Florida. That hate crime, sometimes referred to as a terrorist attack based on the religion of the perpetrator, claimed the lives of 49 mostly Latino gay club-goers and wounded 58 more. It was the first time Facebook s Safety Check feature was ever used inside the United States, with users marking themselves as safe to let family and friends know they were okay.Although witnesses at Pulse said they remembered the attacker being a patron of the bar perhaps a jilted lover, even Trump took the opportunity in that Cleveland speech to make a vow to his LGBT voters: As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. And what did those voters look like?Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThey looked like kids who believed him.The man who became the first Republican to even mention the LGBT crowd at a national convention went on to reverse himself in every way possible.He had already said earlier that year that transgender people should use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. At a Colorado rally in October, Trump waved a rainbow flag with the phrase LGBTs For Trump scrawled across the middle.But all of his promises, all of his platitudes, were meaningless.He unilaterally made the decision to expel transgender soldiers from the military, then lied about it, saying that he had consulted with military leaders about the issue. He revoked Obama-era bathroom guidelines that favored the community in public schools. He went so far as to remove the entire section on LGBTQ rights from the official White House website.Now that Trump s Justice Department, under the bigoted tutelage of notoriously anti-gay asshole Jeff Sessions, has asserted that it is legal to actually discriminate against transgender employees, you d think that Donald Trump would make sure the statement on the White House site in which he vowed to uphold protections for them would be taken down out of shame, or at least consistency. He can t be bothered.So what does it mean that Trump is the very first president to speak at the Values Voters Summit? It means that his hypocrisy has come full circle. It means that his lies are all finally exposed. It means that he is shameless enough to not only adopt religion in order to solidify his base, but to pander to even the extremist wing of that religion, even if they openly advocate for the persecution of the community Donald Trump once promised to protect.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
HOLLYWOOD LIBS CREATE INSANE PROPAGANDA VIDEO FOR OBAMA: Warning Iran Will Bomb Us With Nukes If Congress Blocks Obama’s Deal,”Like a really dark unpleasant death toast” | Hmmm .If we didn t know better, we d almost think Obama and Valerie Jarrett had a hand in writing this whacked out script. Don t let some hot-headed member of Congress screw this up. ???This propaganda piece was clearly created for the low information voter A group of celebrities and public figures have come together in a new video to get behind the Obama administration s nuclear deal with Iran, urging the public not to let Congress sabotage the agreement.Actors Morgan Freeman and Jack Black joined forces with Queen Noor of Jordan and former US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Pickering to suggest that the result of the Iran deal falling through would have dangerous consequences.The video was produced by Global Zero, a non-profit organization with the stated mission of the elimination of all nuclear weapons. It would be like a really dark unpleasant cloud of death, Black says, referring to the possibility of a nuclear attack on the United States in a tongue-in-cheek manner.Queen Noor makes it clear that paranoia about Armageddon isn t what they are selling, though. We re not actually worried about Iran dropping a nuclear weapon on the United States, she says. It is true that if Congress sabotages this deal, there would be nothing stopping Iran from getting the bomb, Pickering adds. That would likely spark an arms race throughout the region. Ultimately, we could be forced into a war with Iran, another dangerous, drawn-out and expensive conflict in the Middle East with many lives lost, says Freeman.Meanwhile, Natasha Lyonne from the popular Orange is the New Black TV show chimes in with: Don t let some hot-headed member of Congress screw this up. Via: RT Since they were nice enough to give you Congress phone number, we re going to do the same: 877-630-4032. We re going to ask that you make the call and DEMAND Congress STOPS Obama from making a reckless deal with Iran, a country who is still chanting Death to America! There s a reason we don t negotiate with terrorists and it s not because we don t want peace it s because we understand that a peaceful resolution can never be reached with people who only want to see your country wiped off the map | 1real |
Hillary visits voters early polling stations, thus BREAKING THE LAW on camera – yet again nothing happens to her | November 2015 Ads Hillary visits voters early polling stations, thus BREAKING THE LAW on camera – yet again nothing happens to her Oct 26, 2016 Previous post
N.C.G.S. §163-166.4(a) No person or group of persons shall hinder access, harass others, distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election-related activity in the voting place or in a buffer zone.
The buffer zone will be 50 feet from the entrance to the polling place except where deemed by the Wake County Board of Elections to be necessarily closer, but no less than 25 feet from the entrance to the polling place. There will be publication of information regarding the entrance location and distance of the buffer zone no later
FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK | 1real |
Is Something Wrong With Hillary? Will NOT Concede Tonight – Refuses To Speak To Crowd – Health Episode? | Is something wrong with Hillary Clinton?
In an unprecedented move and with just 6 electoral votes to go for a Donald Trump Presidency, Hillary Clinton refused to address the country and sent her aid John Podesta to address supporters at Javits Center.
We can wait a little longer, can’t we? They’re still counting votes and every vote should count. Several states are too close to call so we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.
( Watch At Youtube )
While the New York Times is now projecting a Donald Trump victory with 95% certainty, Clinton will not concede.
A candidate would normally address the crowd if there was a question as to the validity of results. Or, in what is quite possible the most important Presidential election in American history, the candidate could at least stay up until the votes are counted.
This begs the question: Did Hillary have another medical episode?
Perhaps Hillary isn’t ready for that 3AM phone call after all.
| 1real |
California Today: Yes, They’re Still Counting the Presidential Primary Votes - The New York Times | Good morning. We’re trying something new this week: California Today, a morning update for our California readers. Tell us what you’d like to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com We like to think of California as the center of the tech universe. But, apparently, all that has not helped us figure out how to run more efficient elections. Three weeks after the state’s Democratic presidential primary, half a million votes remain uncounted. The final tallies, whenever they come in, are not expected to change the result. Hillary Clinton declared victory the night of the June 7 primary, when she was up by more than 10 points. In videos, in blog posts and on social media, some supporters of Bernie Sanders are pointing to the uncounted ballots as evidence that Mr. Sanders was robbed. Long waits for final totals are not rare in California. Most of the 2. 5 million votes that were not counted by June 7 were ballots that were not returned until Election Day, or even a few days after. But the vote also exposed “mechanical problems” in the electoral system, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data, a consulting firm based in Norwalk, Calif. A flood of voters registered right before the election. Many did not receive ballots until after Election Day, when they were useless. Independents voting by mail also had a hard time getting the right ballots. Both groups were more likely to support Mr. Sanders. Many cast provisional ballots, which take a long time to count because each has to be verified. Since June 7, Mr. Sanders has slightly cut into Ms. Clinton’s lead. She was ahead by roughly 440, 000 votes on election night. Now, it’s 414, 500, or about eight percentage points. Still, it’s a sizable margin. “The Bernie folks have legitimate gripes,” Mr. Mitchell said. “But they’re all going to be resolved when these provisional ballots are counted. ” • Hillary Clinton released her technology policy initiative, which targets young entrepreneurs. It reflects a view that tech should be an engine of equality. • Facebook announced that it will be shifting your news feed away from, well, news, and toward posts by friends. Our tech columnist writes that the company will always prioritize baby pictures over keeping users informed. • American drivers are regaining their appetite for gas guzzlers, unloading hybrid and electric vehicles in favor of bigger cars, pickups and S. U. V. s. • Airbnb is now in disputes with both San Francisco and New York that could end up pushing thousands of illegal listings off the site. The company is in talks for a new round of investment that could value it at about $30 billion. • “An irresistible and indispensable guide to the new technology establishment. ” That’s our book reviewer’s take on “Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley. ” • Visitors to the United States may be asked to voluntarily disclose their social media accounts, a step that is intended to help in screening for ties to terrorism. • “Zoolander 2. ” “Independence Day Resurgence. ” Why are so many sequels arriving many years after the original? We look at the trend. • Paul Draper, the winemaker at Ridge Vineyards, is retiring. Over 47 years at the vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Sonoma County, he has been lionized as a leading light in American wine. • An initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use has qualified for the November ballot. Just about everyone expects it to pass. [Los Angeles Times] • More than 70 Bay Area news organizations have teamed up to force local attention onto the region’s homelessness crisis. Coverage includes profiles of homeless people, a look at causes and suggested solutions. [SF Homeless Project] • In Washington, the National Rifle Association is an force. Not so much in Sacramento. [Sacramento Bee] • Scientists have found a bonanza of water beneath the state’s Central Valley. But it still won’t end the drought. [Science] • Koreatown. Little Tokyo. The corridor. Los Angeles has more ethnic corridors than you can easily count, but one writer has done his best to map them by hand. [Boom] Mission Dolores in San Francisco is turning 240 years old today. The mission is older than our republic itself: the first Mass was held on June 29, 1776, a few days before the Declaration of Independence was signed, and nearly 75 years before California statehood. The adobe church, which the congregation moved into in 1791, is the oldest building still standing in San Francisco. It survived the 1906 earthquake, and the fires that followed. Of the nine missions founded under the Rev. Junipero Serra in California, it is the only one whose original chapel is intact. So what is Mission Dolores — as it has long been known, though the official name is Misión San Francisco de Asis — doing to celebrate its anniversary? Not much. Though the mission’s website proudly proclaims its founding in June, anniversary ceremonies will not be held until October, the date when official “paperwork was sent from Mexico,” said Gustavo Torres, the mission’s director of development. In the meantime, if you’re in the area, you can still visit the old mission, its cemetery and its gardens, as roughly 300, 000 people do each year. California Today is a weekday roundup that stays live from 6 a. m. Pacific time until late morning. What would you like to see here to start your day? Tell us at CAtoday@nytimes. com, or reach us via Twitter using #CAToday. Follow the California Today columnist, Ian Lovett, on Twitter. | 0fake |
BREAKING: Obama Just Caught Trying to Sabotage New Clinton Email Investigation… This is SICK | EndingFed News Network | Email Print You know Hillary Clinton is getting desperate when she begins resorting to cheap tricks like this one… As you already know, yesterday the FBI announced that they will be reopening the Clinton email investigation following the discovery of new emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop that Hillary thought she had deleted. Well, as a last ditch effort to try and save her career, President Obama stepped in last minute and Ordered Attorney General Loretta Lynch to tell Comey to back off and not release the information to the public! You see, technically Loretta Lynch is in charge of the FBI by being attorney general. She approached Comey directly when she learned about the information and ordered him to stand down, saying he was violating Department of Justice policy. According to her, it would “interfere with the election.” James Comey, however, was apparently sick and tired of being bossed around. He stared back at her and declared that he had a duty to Congress and the American people to let them know what is REALLY going on. Comey said, “I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.” So thank you, FBI Director Comey, for finally growing a pair and standing up to the Hillary Clinton and Obama machine. Now the American people know the TRUTH about Hillary Clinton, and that will end her reign of terror. If you want to show Comey your support, then share this out so everyone can see that the man is a hero just in case Obama uses some dirty trick to try and sabotage him too… Join us on Facebook to Stop The Takeover. Click on the button to subscribe. | 1real |
U.S. Congress panel postpones work on Puerto Rico debt bill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to help Puerto Rico climb out of a debilitating debt crisis hit new resistance in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, prompting Republicans to cancel a planned work session that was set for Thursday on the measure. The House Natural Resources Committee’s planned “markup” of legislation Republicans unveiled late on Tuesday was being called off, panel Chairman Rob Bishop announced in a statement. He said the Obama administration was still negotiating provisions and that it would be “unfair to all members to force a vote” with the talks ongoing. One congressional aide said the abrupt move was being taken because there was not enough support among panel members to get the legislation approved and sent to the full House of Representatives for debate. It was unclear when the committee would reschedule a work session. Earlier on Wednesday, a U.S. Treasury official told the committee that the U.S. Congress must allow Puerto Rico to erase a share of its debt or investors will face a long, uncertain fight to recover their money from the cash-strapped island. Republicans who control Congress outlined a plan this week to help Puerto Rico write off billions of dollars in debt if an agreement with creditors is out of reach. That plan would create a forum for investors to negotiate with Puerto Rico officials while the island’s government tries to curb deficit spending that has created $70 billion in debt. Such a plan would signal to Wall Street that the Puerto Rico financial crisis is manageable, said Antonio Weiss who is handling the issue for the Treasury Department. Without congressional action, Weiss said, investors face years of combat in the courts. “Chaos will ensue and the (Puerto Rico) economy will face another lost decade,” he told the Natural Resources panel of the House of Representatives. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico answers to Congress and its people are American citizens. Roughly 2.5 percent of the island’s population is migrating to the mainland each year to escape the financial crisis, Weiss said. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday said the Congressional rescue plan was the right move but many Republicans disagree. Wall Street would be rattled if Congress rewrote the terms of Puerto Rico debt and that could sour investor appetite for other municipal bonds, said Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina. “I believe we’re going down a slippery slope here,” Duncan said on Wednesday at a hearing on the proposal. Rather than meddle in markets, he said lawmakers should stand aside and let Puerto Rico settle its disputes with investors. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who also sits on the Natural Resources panel agreed. “Congressional intervention at this point would serve to alter the rule of law,” he said in a statement. Weiss told lawmakers that the current rescue plan was not perfect but it was the cheapest option since it only involves rewriting some rules for investors. “The alternative to this legislation ... will in fact become a bailout,” Weiss said. He noted that the Zika virus is spreading across Puerto Rico and the island is poorly-equipped to handle that emergency while the financial crisis looms. | 0fake |
MAJOR DONATIONS TO CLINTON FOUNDATION From Country Who Tortures Dissidents And Provided Lavish Digs For Bill and Chelsea During CGI Conference | What s a million dollars between friends? To hell with human rights violations Hillary s got a campaign to win!A major Clinton Foundation donor regularly arrests dissidents and brutally tortures them to extract confessions, according to a new report from Amnesty International.The New York Times reports that despite promises of reform, the Moroccan government continues to use violent interrogation tactics to crush dissent. Moroccan King Mohammed VI recently hosted Bill and Chelsea Clinton at a Clinton Global Initiative conference in Marrakech, where guests were chauffeured across the city to an opulent 56-room palace that boasts a private collection of Arabian horses, overlooks the snow-capped Atlas Mountains and serves a fine-dining menu of biolight cuisine, according to the Washington Post. During the conference Bill cited Morocco s longstanding friendship to my family, and thanked the king, who pledged as much as $500,000 toward the construction of the Clinton Library, as well as the OCP Corporation, a government-owned phosphate mining company that has donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. In interviews with POLITICO, former OCP miners described witnessing verbal and physical abuse doled out by the government against member of a minority advocating for independence in Western Sahara.Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty blasted the Moroccan government in a statement, saying: Morocco s leaders portray the image of a liberal, human-rights-friendly country. But as long as the threat of torture hangs over detention and dissent that image will just be a mirage. According to the report, Moroccan dissidents are repeatedly subjected to beatings, stress positions, asphyxiation, simulated drowning, psychological and sexual violence, as a means of securing confessions for alleged crimes against the state. One tactic, known as the roast chicken, involves suspending detainees from an iron bar by their wrists and knees. It is not known whether Bill Clinton met with any Moroccan detainees while hobnobbing at the Clinton Foundation event, which featured a lavish palm-tree-lined golf resort with a cocktail reception featuring Moroccan hors d oeuvres and a saxophonist serenading about 50 donors. Via: Washington Free Beacon | 1real |
FIGHTING BACK: [VIDEO] Ben Carson’s Brilliance Was More Than CNN’s Chris Cuomo Bargained For As He Desperately Attempts To Paint Him As A ‘homophobe’ | It s so refreshing to see these GOP candidates who are unwilling to allow the left to misrepresent their beliefs and create a distorted view of their positions on social issues.Having identified what they perceive as his Achilles heel, the liberal media continues to go at potential Republican presidential contender Ben Carson over gay issues.But Carson is clearly learning.The latest attempt at gotcha jornalism took place early Thursday when the retired neurosurgeon sat down with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who started off lecturing Carson about not being able to duck issues as president. As president of the United States, do you understand that you wouldn t be able to duck issues just because they make you uncomfortable or you don t do well on them? Cuomo asked. You understand that?(Gone are the days when such a condescending question would have resulted in a widespread media outcry of racism after all, Carson is a Republican.)Taking the question at face value and asking what issues Cuomo had in mind, Carson was hit with gay issues, which Cuomo called a very important issue to the development of the American culture. https://youtu.be/GE0O5AwP97sCarson responded with understated class, noting sexuality is a personal issue that he didn t find it nearly as interesting as Cuomo, who then tried to swing the conversation to gay marriage. Carson countered to say he would like to see the rights of Christians receive the same intensity, which prompted an interesting exchange. I would like to see as much emphasis on the rights of Christians as there is to some of the other groups, Carson said. I would like to see a much greater conservation about Christians and their rights. Why are we not talking about that? We are right now, Cuomo replied. The LGBT community gets far less legal protection, as you know No, not as I know, Carson interjected. How do you not know that? Cuomo asked.Carson then hit home on the crux of what defines the Democratic Party identity politics. The important thing is for us as a nation to recognize that all citizens of the United States are protected by our Constitution, he said. We need to stop deciding that one group versus another is the flavor of the day. Via: Biz Pac Review | 1real |
A nation ‘WRECKED’ by immigration: A civil war is brewing as do-gooding Swedes turn against Muslim migrants’ violence, rapes and murders | By REBECCA PERRING
For years Sweden has regarded itself as a “humanitarian superpower” – making its mark by offering refugee to those fleeing war and persecution.
But people’s patience with their visitors is wearing thin following a year of violence, sickening sex assaults and the death of social worker Alexandra Mezher , 22, who was knifed to death at an asylum centre for unaccompanied children at the hands of a Somalian migrant who claimed he was 15.
At the time, her grieving mother, an immigrant herself from the Middle East said: “Immigration has destroyed Sweden.”
Sweden, a country of 9.8million, took 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
The influx included 35,400 unaccompanied minors – nine times more than 2015.
But nothing could prepare Stockholm for the rise in crime and an abuse of the criminal system.
And so much so, a nation, which once prided itself on giving a warm welcome to outsiders, has reported a rise in arson attacks against migrant shelters, while support for the right-wing Swedish Democrats has surged.
In January, authorities were forced to admit there were at least 70 girls in migrant centres were asylum child brides, according
FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK | 1real |
In a Stand-Up Act, Leslie Jones Finds the Humor in Being Hacked - The New York Times | Not long into a raucous, set she performed on Thursday night at Carolines on Broadway, Leslie Jones described the experience of having to explain to an elderly aunt why there were pictures of Ms. Jones’s naked body on her computer screen. The awkward conversation followed an episode from last summer, when, amid a series of online abuses that Ms. Jones suffered, her personal website was hacked and explicit images of her were posted there. “Now I got to explain this to my aunties,” said Ms. Jones, 49, a cast member from “Saturday Night Live. ” “They old, and they from civil rights. They just now getting computers. ” Slipping into the quavering voice of one of these relatives, Ms. Jones said, “She was like, ‘Was it the Klu’s Klux Klan? ’” She examined her niece’s anatomy and added, “I didn’t raise you like that. ” Ms. Jones said she answered: “Just go back to sleep, auntie. Don’t turn the computer on. ” For Ms. Jones, this set — the first of six she is scheduled to play at Carolines this weekend — seemed to cap an exuberant reassertion of her comic self (on “S. N. L. ,” at the Emmys, on Twitter) after she was the target of vicious internet attacks. Most of her focused on drawing distinctions between the person she seems to be on television and the person she is in real life. At Carolines, Ms. Jones was louder, more playfully confrontational, even more openly libidinous and less easily embarrassed than any character she plays on “S. N. L. ” (On more than one occasion, she told the crowd, “I’m a horrible person. ”) And when she did talk about the internet harassment, Ms. Jones showed that she could still find humor in some devastating personal circumstances. When the nude photos of her were posted online, she said, “I actually laughed. ” “I was like, they don’t understand how many people I’ve actually tried to show that to,” she added. “You really just helped a sister out. Thank you for the distribution. ” Last summer, after the release of a new “Ghostbusters” movie that Ms. Jones with a predominantly female cast, she was bombarded on Twitter with racist and sexist insults. At one point, she wrote that she was “in a personal hell” and was stepping away from her Twitter account. Shortly after, Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos, the inflammatory commentator who had been a ringleader of those attacks. The hacking of Ms. Jones’s website occurred a few weeks later, but she gradually returned to the spotlight, addressing the indignities in her barnstorming and unabashed comedy. At the Emmy Awards in September, she appeared onstage with the Ernst Young accountants who tabulate its votes to jokingly ask for their help in protecting her online. “Y’all over here using your skills to protect best in a French sitcom,” she said at the time. “Meanwhile, I’m on CNN. ” In a “Saturday Night Live” monologue in October, Ms. Jones said she had not been embarrassed by the trolling or the hacking, and she taunted her internet assailants. “I am very comfortable with who I am,” she said. “I am an open book. I keep my porn in a folder labeled ‘porn. ’” This week, as Mr. Yiannopoulos, her onetime antagonist, lost a book deal and a prominent speaking gig and resigned from Breitbart News amid the furor over a past interview in which he condoned pedophilia, Ms. Jones did not gloat too much. Without mentioning Mr. Yiannopoulos by name, she wrote on her Twitter account that people were devoting too much energy to his woes. “Been done and moved on,” she wrote. “He has no space here!” In her set, Ms. Jones urged her female audience members not to be defined by how men perceive them — “Own your craziness,” she told them — and said there was no undoing the freedoms they had won. “All women are like me now,” she said. “We make our own money. ” Wondering aloud if she would ever find true love, Ms. Jones drew connections between her single status and the political era of President Trump. “I want to be in love,” she said. “I want to do that, but it’s 2017, and we got a pig in office. The world is about to end. ” But liberals, too, could be misguided, she suggested. “If I see another white woman from Williamsburg saying ‘black lives matter,’ I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” Ms. Jones said. “Stop doing that. ” When she observes these political protests, Ms. Jones said: “Not one black woman out there. Black woman at home watching ‘Housewives of Atlanta. ’” During a riff about rescue dogs and pet owners who say things like “Did I rescue the dog, or did the dog rescue me?” Ms. Jones spun a wicked fantasy. “How about both of y’all get caught in a fire, and neither one of y’all get rescued?” she said. Without waiting for the laughter of her aghast crowd to subside, Ms. Jones invoked her mantra from earlier in the night. “I told you, I am horrible,” she said. | 0fake |
In Washington’s Daily Trump Wars, Devin Nunes Becomes a Human Shield - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — Even on Fox News, Representative Devin Nunes, the beleaguered Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, could not escape the venom from his left. Mr. Nunes, the California lawmaker, stood inside the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Thursday evening, assuming a familiar set of positions: in front of a camera, giving cover to President Trump and defending himself. The subject this time was his decision on Wednesday to brief Mr. Trump, whose campaign his committee is investigating, about possible “incidental” surveillance of the president or his associates. “I still think it’s the right call,” Mr. Nunes said of his decision not to tell members of his committee about his trip to the White House. But as he spoke inside the Capitol, a committee colleague, Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, peered into a different camera, belonging to CNN, a few feet to the left. “It is almost inconceivable,” Mr. Himes said of his chairman’s behavior, more than loud enough to hear nearby. “Lo and behold, a couple of hours later, Donald Trump gets to put the barest of fig leaves on the outrageous tweet about Barack Obama wiretapping him. ” Since Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Nunes has proved an eager purveyor of executive fig leaves. As the leader of an investigation involving the campaign of a man he cheered vocally and served directly as a transition team official, the congressman has often appeared almost incurious about the chief subject of the inquiry. Of greater concern in the intelligence sphere is his recent burst of media exposure, with a public speaking style that can at times seem cavalier while discussing sensitive information. This has led to misgivings about sharing national security details with him, a senior American intelligence official said. Many lawmakers crave attention, racing to microphones and pounding lecterns in search of cable news glory. But Mr. Nunes, who can seem by turns earnest and reticent in person, is something different: After over a decade in the House, he has appeared to lurch haphazardly into the spotlight, like Kramer entering a room on “Seinfeld,” straining to keep his balance as a human shield in Washington’s daily Trump wars. Mr. Nunes said on Fox News that he felt he “had a duty and obligation” to tell Mr. Trump about the possible surveillance. “Because as you know, he’s taking a lot of heat in the news media. ” Now the president has company in that regard: Mr. Nunes, a former dairy farmer, elected to Congress in 2002 at age 29, from a section of a state. The Democratic National Committee has even adopted a new label for him: “White House stooge. ” It was not always thus. Mr. Nunes was 23 when he was first elected to public office, as a board member of a local community college where he had started his higher education. Eyeing his first campaign, Mr. Nunes sought advice from Representative Jim Costa, a Democrat who is also from the Central Valley in California and was serving in the State Legislature at the time. Both belonged to the area’s Portuguese community. Mr. Costa said he recognized a familiar drive. “We all show that kind of interest when we’re in our 20s and 30s, and we want to try to get an opportunity to see if we can make a difference,” Mr. Costa said. Until recently, Mr. Nunes’s most memorable flourish in the House was his blistering assessment in 2013 of Republicans who were willing to shut down the federal government over President Obama’s health law: “lemmings with suicide vests. ” Now, he has largely retained the support of his colleagues, despite complaints from Republicans like Senator John McCain of Arizona over his committee stewardship, amplifying calls for an independent commission to investigate Mr. Trump’s connections to Russia. On Friday, Mr. Nunes summoned reporters once more to relay information that Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman with questionable ties to Russia, had volunteered to appear before the committee. Mr. Nunes also announced the cancellation of a public meeting with former intelligence and law enforcement leaders, citing a desire to bring in James B. Comey, the F. B. I. director, and Michael S. Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency, for a closed session instead. Both testified before the committee this week. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the committee’s top Democrat, suggested that once again the chairman had acted unilaterally, this time to scuttle the hearing. And in a sign of how far their relationship has fallen, Mr. Schiff — who for weeks stood by Mr. Nunes’s side before reporters and defended him — accused him of taking that action because the White House had told him to. This was the capper to an eventful few days for Mr. Nunes. Presiding over a committee hearing on Monday — when Mr. Comey took the extraordinary step of announcing the agency’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election — Mr. Nunes mustered deeper alarm over anonymous sources revealing an inquiry’s details to journalists than over the contents of the investigation. On Wednesday, he told reporters he had received information that Mr. Trump or members of his team may have been “incidentally” swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies. Pressed on whether the White House had provided him the information to produce a “feedback loop” that might aid the president, Mr. Nunes has declined to reveal his sources, saying he does not want to discourage others from coming forward — a rationale analogous to reporters’ arguments for protecting anonymous sources. It has also not always been entirely clear what Mr. Nunes is talking about. “Was the president also part of that incidental collection, his communications?” one reporter asked on Wednesday. “Yes,” Mr. Nunes said, after glancing at the floor for a moment. Heads snapped up from their phones and notepads. “Excuse me, let me just clarify,” another reporter began. “The president of the United States’ personal communications were intercepted as an incidental part of intelligence gathering — ” Mr. Nunes appeared to reconsider. “When we talk about intelligence products here, we’ve got to be very careful,” he said. By Thursday evening, he still did not seem certain about the contents of what he had divulged. He has said he could decipher the identities of Trump associates from reading reports about intercepted communications that were shared among Obama administration officials with top security clearances. But he has stressed that he did not have evidence to support Mr. Trump’s claim of being personally wiretapped. Regardless, the president and some allies have seized on the comments as validation. “I mean, look, my guess is there’s probably a lot more than what I was able to see,” Mr. Nunes said, when asked if Mr. Trump was indeed vindicated. “And then he’ll have to make up his own mind. ” Democrats have said that Mr. Nunes apologized for leaving them out of the loop. Mr. Nunes, who said he would not do anything differently if given the chance, said he understood why some were upset. But he chafed at discussions of his private conversations. “That stuff,” he said, “is not supposed to leak out. ” | 0fake |
California Today: Questions Persist After the Oakland Fire - The New York Times | Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Sign up.) Ten days have passed since a fire ripped through an Oakland warehouse during an electronic music show and killed 36 people. The Times is chasing a number of questions that arose after the fire. The latest of what we know: • The victims: On Wednesday, firefighters ended their search of the structure that had housed a rambling artists’ colony. The final toll made it the country’s deadliest structure fire since 2003, when 100 people died at a nightclub in West Warwick, R. I. The Oakland victims, many of them artists and musicians who ranged in age from 17 to 61, have been profiled in The Times, The Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and East Bay Times, among other publications. On Sunday, the first funerals were held for two of the victims — Jonathan Bernbaum, 34, and Draven McGill, 17 — the Chronicle reported. • The cause: Investigators have not figured out how the fire erupted, but no evidence has suggested arson, they say. Scrutiny has centered on a possible electrical source. On Friday, officials ruled out an appliance that had seemed a likely culprit: a faulty refrigerator. Jake Jacobitz, who did electrical work at the warehouse, told East Bay Times that all of the structure’s power came from a single line threaded through a wall. Electrical breakers blew out frequently, he said. The authorities have warned we may never know for certain what caused the Dec. 2 blaze. Reporters from The Times’s graphics department illustrated how the mazelike layout of the warehouse complicated escape from the fire. • The owner: Chor Nar Siu Ng, the warehouse owner since 1988, has not been heard from. Examining city records, The Times’s Julie Turkewitz learned that Ms. Ng owns a number of properties in Oakland and has been fined in the past for “nuisance or substandard or hazardous or injurious” conditions. Several people who have stayed at the Ghost Ship said Ms. Ng had visited the warehouse, which was not permitted for residents. But it was unclear if she knew what was going on inside. • The master tenants: Derick Ion Almena and his wife, Micah Allison, who ran the Ghost Ship, have also avoided the public eye. Friends, associates and former tenants speaking in the news media have variously depicted the couple as misunderstood or manipulative. In an anguished interview on “Today” last week, Mr. Almena was asked whether he should be held accountable. “Should I be held accountable?” he said. “I can barely stand here right now. ” • The aftermath: Artists dwelling in illegal structures across the Bay Area are worried that inspectors would target them after the fire. The crackdown has been nationwide. There have been reports of spaces scrutinized or shut down in Baltimore, Nashville, Philadelphia, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, New Haven and Dubuque. Libby Schaaf, the Oakland mayor, said the city was weighing new measures to address fire safety, among them stricter requirements for smoke alarms and emergency exits. A criminal investigation into the fire is continuing. As Times reporters investigate the Ghost Ship fire, we are doing something new: posting regular updates on our findings. To share a tip or suggestion, email oaklandfire@nytimes. com. • Family members of victims killed in the 2011 Seal Beach salon shooting pleaded for a conclusion to the case. [Orange County Register] • San Jose drinking water is going to receive fluoride, years behind other Bay Area cities. [The Mercury News] • In college, but without a home: California students describe living in cars and sneaking into campus buildings to spend the night. [KQED] • Restorative justice practices at Fresno schools have curbed harsh punishments. But some teachers say their classes are out of control. [Fresno Bee] • Nina Jacobson is a Hollywood power player who brings the underrepresented to the big screen. [The New York Times] • Rabbi David Wolpe on sharing biblical stories and 100 years of life lessons with Kirk Douglas. [Opinion | Los Angeles Times] • No American company of Los Angeles Opera’s size is more committed to new and unusual work. [New Yorker] • Stanford University’s marching band was suspended after administrators found “a systemic cultural problem. ” [SFGate. com] • Property values have risen rapidly in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights, but there’s still a communal vibe. [The New York Times] • The best hot springs in California: Big Sur, Ojai and beyond. [Vogue] • On Sunday, “La La Land” won big at the Critics’ Choice Awards. The Golden Globe Awards nominees will be announced on Monday morning, followed by the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees on Wednesday. • Catch performances of “The Nutcracker” in San Diego, Costa Mesa, Los Angeles, Modesto, San Francisco, Sacramento and Ukiah. • The California Economic Summit begins in Sacramento on Tuesday. The gathering of public and private leaders will discuss how the state can meet its water, housing and work force needs. • Can’t get to the snow? Winter Fest at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa has you covered. Along with a snow play area, the festival offers lights, rides and ice skating. Opens Friday. Admission: $10. It’s getting close to that time when we start to ponder the year gone by. In that spirit, we’d like to inaugurate a contest, “Californian of the Year” — with you as judge. We’d love to know who you think deserves the recognition. Who can you nominate? Anyone. The nominee could be someone who made an impact in your community or on a larger stage. It could be a professor or an athlete, a librarian or a politician. In short: Tell us the Californian, in your view, who defined 2016. Email CAtoday@nytimes. com, and please be sure to include: • The name of your nominee. • A brief description of why you think he or she deserves the title. We’ll present a slate of finalists later this week and ask for your votes, then reveal the winner by the end of the year. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 0fake |
Turnout high as Iraqi Kurds defy threats to hold independence vote | ERBIL/SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict. The vote organized by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable yes for independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region. Turnout among 5.2 million eligible voters was 78 percent, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said, and vote counting had started. Final results are expected within 72 hours. Voters were asked to say yes or no to the question: Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country? For Iraqi Kurds - part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago - the referendum offered a historic opportunity despite intense international pressure to call it off. We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades, said Talat, waiting to vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as a group of smiling women, in colorful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign that they cast their ballot. At Sheikh Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of Kurdish fighters waited to vote at a former school. Most emerged smiling, holding up ink-marked fingers. In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Kurds sang and danced as they flocked to polling stations. Opposition to the vote simmered among the Arabs and Turkmen who live alongside the Kurds in the northern Iraqi city and there were rumors that the vote would not take place in mixed areas. Officials later ordered an overnight curfew. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services to protect citizens being threatened and coerced in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Kurdish officials say no such coercion happened. The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq. But with 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered across the region - mainly in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria - Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations. President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the Kurds. After this, let s see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it, Erdogan said in Istanbul. We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it s done. The Iraqi army started major manoeuvres with the Turkish army at the border, the Iraqi defense ministry said, outlining coordinated measures by the two countries against the Kurds in retaliation for the referendum. Turkey later took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters. The U.S. State Department warned the Kurds last week that holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilizing . Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters on Monday: We hope that it does not become a distraction and take away the focus on destroying ISIS (Islamic State) and beyond that obviously this (is) an issue for Iraq, you know, they are going to have to sort that out. The referendum was held not only in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, but also in areas in the north of the country where Kurdish forces have advanced against Islamic State. These areas also have large non-Kurdish populations. Turkey said it did not recognize the referendum and would view its outcome as null and void, adding that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the whole region. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his government was evaluating possible punitive steps regarding its border with northern Iraq and air space in response to the vote. Erdogan said traffic was only being allowed to cross from the Turkish side of the border into Kurdish areas of Iraq. Ankara s forces are again fighting a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey following the collapse of a peace process. Iran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria. Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said Iran regarded the referendum as treason against the Iraqi Kurds. Iran has blocked air traffic to this region but we are hopeful that the four neighboring countries will block the land borders with Iraq too, he was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. Tehran supports Shi ite Muslim groups who have been ruling or holding security and government positions in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum. Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barxani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey and the referendum was not a threat to Ankara. The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders, he said in Erbil. If the Yes vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully. Opposition to the vote emerged among non-Kurdish populations in areas disputed by the KRG and Baghdad, mainly the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. Iraq is against the Kurds, so are the Turks, the Iranians, the whole Arab region and Europe. They are going to live in a cage, said Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati, a Shi ite Turkmen and a local leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organization paramilitary group in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk. In Sulaimaniya, a center for political groups opposed to Barzani, queues at polling stations were shorter than in Erbil. There were fewer billboards celebrating the referendum, reflecting resentment that a yes vote could be seen as a plebiscite for the Kurdish leader. I will not vote, the referendum is not good, and it could be dangerous because of the threat from Turkey and Iran, said a shop owner in Sulaimaniya, Ali Ahmed. | 0fake |
Iranian-backed militias routed in last Syrian militant stronghold | AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants regained control of Albu Kamal, their last stronghold in Syria, after Iranian-backed militias who claimed to have captured the city a few days earlier were ambushed and forced to retreat, tribal leaders, residents and a war monitor said on Monday. Fighters from Lebanese Shi ite Hezbollah in Syria who joined forces with Iraqi Shi ite fighters crossing the border into Syria were taken by surprise by militants hiding inside tunnels in the heart of the city they said they had taken on Wednesday, they said. The Shi ite fighters had launched a ground offensive on the city, in Syria s eastern Deir al Zor province where the Euphrates river meets, after months of mainly heavy Russian bombardment against the city that killed dozens of civilians and caused widespread destruction. Islamic State militants began surprise attacks with suicide bombers and rocket attacks after the Iranian militias were duped that Daesh (Islamic State) had left the city, said Qahtan Ghanam al Ali, a tribal leader in touch with relatives. The Syrian army had on Thursday declared victory over Islamic State, claiming it had killed many militants while scores surrendered. It said the capture of Albu Kamal marked the collapse of the militants three-year reign in the region. The army made no mention of the loss of Albu Kamal but Hezbollah s media unit said intensive aerial strikes pounded Islamic State hideouts in the western countryside of the city. The offensive was spearheaded by elite forces from Hezbollah fighting inside Syria alongside an array of Iraqi and Afghan Shi ite militias that had entered from Iraq, a commander in that alliance told Reuters. These militant attacks lead to big human losses in the ranks of fighters supporting the regime, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Albu Kamal, a major supply and communications hub for the ultra-hardline militants between Syria and Iraq, was a big prize for the Iranian-backed militias. The militants control of the city and its sister border town of al Qaim on the Iraqi side had disrupted the strategic Baghdad-Damascus highway that had long been a major arms supply conduit by Iran to its Syrian ally. The Syrian opposition and some Western countries say Iran s strong military intervention on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, alongside its backing of other Shi ite militias, is fuelling the sectarian dimension of the Syrian civil war by radicalizing mainstream Sunni rebels. An overstretched Syrian army is now more than ever dependent on Shi ite militias on the ground and Russia s military fire power to recapture ground from Sunni insurgents. Islamic State, the jihadist group that once laid claim to a self-styled caliphate spanning swathes of Syria and Iraq, has seen its proto-state crumble in recent months under the pressure of multiple offensives. On Sunday, jets believed to be Russian intensified their third day of bombing of Albu Kamal and its outskirts, with at least 50 civilians, mostly women and children, killed since Friday, the monitor and residents said. In retaliation for their losses, Iranian militias who were forced to withdraw shelled villages east of the city where hundreds of families who fled Albu Kamal had found temporary refuge, the U.K.-based war monitor said. In one air strike on the town of Sukariya, east of the city, at least thirty people were killed, mostly women and children from three families, two former residents of the city in contact with relatives said. Other aerial strikes hit villages of Marshada and Sousa near the river crossing where hundreds of civilians were targeted as they fled in small boats and dinghies, they added. Albu Kamal has been a target of intensive strikes believed to be conducted by Russia across Deir al Zor province which has killed hundreds of civilians in recent months, according to the monitor and local figures. Military experts and Syrian opposition figures say Russia has stepped up a scorched earth policy in the province with its aerial bombing in recent months to secure a rapid military victory at any price for its military and its allies. | 0fake |
Suckers! Sarah Palin Bought This Mansion With The Money Conservatives Gave Her (PHOTOS) | It pays well to be a failed right-wing candidate. Sarah Palin, who served a half term as Alaska s governor and made a halfhearted attempt to become vice president next to John McCain, has profited quite nicely from her place in the conservative universe.After losing the 2008 election, Palin quickly quit being governor of Alaska and became a pundit on Fox News Channel. She signed a book deal and pumped out several tomes (her most recent book is Sweet Freedom: A Devotional), likely ghostwritten by writers who will be forever anonymous, and set up a political action committee, SarahPAC, that went to work buying thousands of her own books helping to send them up the bestseller charts.While her deal with Fox was ended by the network (after they built her a custom studio at her Alaska home, she rarely appeared on the network outside of goofy appearances on Sean Hannity s program), she ran an online subscription TV service for a while before that abruptly ended, and now appears on the fringe One America News Network. That network has promoted itself as the conservative alternative to Fox News, but does not have mainstream satelitte or cable tv coverage.In 2011 Palin purchased a mansion in Arizona for $1.695 million, and is now selling the property for $2.499 million. She ll make a profit on the home, thanks in part to the Obama agenda she opposed improving the economy and the real estate market.While Palin styles herself as just a hockey mom who loves her country, the 8,000 square foot home is not exactly a humble home on the range.The nearly 8,000-square-foot home was built in 2001. Some of its features include high ceilings, chandeliers and wrought-iron railings.The home also boasts a media room/theater, a wine cellar, six bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms. One of the two master suites includes a rooftop deck.The outdoor area features a built-in grill station, a fire pit, a pool, a spa, a water-saving synthetic lawn and a lighted sports court complete the more than four-acre equestrian-zoned grounds. There s also a six-car garage.The home is inside a gated community, so not just anyone can come inside to pal around with the Palins.Here s how the realtor sells the property to prospective buyers:This pristine gated estate is sure to impress as you enter from a wraparound drive to access the private gated entrance. Masterfully designed & built this 7971 sqft home showcases 6 bedrooms, 6.5 baths, a 6 car garage & breathtaking mountain views from virtually every room! Quality & care echoes throughout, with beautiful finishes, fixtures, fireplaces, chandeliers, soaring ceilings, media theater, wine cellar & more. Craftsmanship extends to the resort themed backyard with fireplaces off the covered patio, veranda & rooftop deck off of the master suite. Luxury abounds with a built-in grill station, fire-pit, sparkling blue pool, spa, synthetic grass & a lighted sports court. This 4.9 acre equestrian estate offers opulence at it s finest.Here are some photos of Palin s mansion, are you in the market? Featured image via Wikimedia CommonsPhotos via Keller Williams Realty | 1real |
Catalan leader backs mediation to resolve regional crisis | BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalan regional leader Carles Puigdemont said on Wednesday he was in favor of mediation to find a way out of the Catalan crisis but that the Spanish government had not accepted it. This moment calls for mediation. We have received various offers in the last hours and we will receive more. All of them know I am ready to start a mediation process, he said in a televised address. I will repeat it as many times as necessary: dialogue and agreement are part of the political culture of our people. However, the state has not given any positive answer to those offers, he said. The Catalan parliament is expected to unilaterally declare independence from Spain next Monday after a referendum that the Spanish government and courts have declared illegal. I am sure that in the next few days we will show the best of our country when the institutions of Catalonia will have to apply the results of the referendum, Puigdemont said. | 0fake |
FAKE BOMB INCIDENT Wasn’t First Time Muslim Clock Boy Was In Trouble | Even though the Muslim Clock Boy s attention seeking radical father won t allow the school to tell their side of the story, sooner or later the real truth eventually leaks out Before he was put in handcuffs for bringing a homemade clock to school and became an overnight celebrity, Ahmed Mohamed racked up weeks of suspensions and clashed with authority while in middle school, the Dallas Morning News reported.While attending Sam Houston Middle School in Irving, Texas, Mohamed mastered electronics and English, once built a remote control to prank the classroom projector and bragged of reciting his First Amendment rights in the principal s office, according to the report.Despite rumors about the 14-year-old s past disciplinary problems, Mohamed s status as a minor has prevented the Irving Independent School District from speaking out on the matter.Critics have argued that his past behavior may have influenced how school officials responded to the clock that officials thought could have been a hoax bomb. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne recently told TheBlaze that the Mohamed family has ignored requests by the school district to allow officials to speak out about the case. The context, she said, would help explain why the situation progressed as it did.However, his seventh-grade history teacher, Ralph Kubiak, has become the first person to open up about the weird little kid that sat in his classroom. I saw a lot of him in me. That thirst for knowledge he s one of those kids that could either be CEO of a company or head of a gang, he told the Dallas Morning News.Kubiak also confirmed that Mohamed would regularly bring gadgets to school that were much more complicated than the clock assembled in a pencil box that recently got him into trouble.Via: The Blaze | 1real |
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