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Ted Cruz Suspends His Campaign for President - The New York Times | INDIANAPOLIS — Less than a month ago, Senator Ted Cruz seemed to have done it. He had won Wisconsin. Former rivals were holding their noses to support him. He was dominating delegate elections, positioning himself for what seemed increasingly likely to be a floor fight at the Republican convention in July, as the campaign of Donald J. Trump fell into internal disarray. “Tonight is a turning point,” Mr. Cruz said on primary night in Milwaukee. “It is a rallying cry. ” It was neither. On Tuesday, Mr. Cruz ended his campaign, his loss in Indiana extinguishing any chance of denying Mr. Trump the nomination. “Together we left it all on the field in Indiana,” Mr. Cruz told supporters here as cries of “Nooo!” rained from the crowd. “We gave it everything we’ve got. But the voters chose another path. ” Yet to dismiss Mr. Cruz as an would diminish his unlikely feat in outlasting nearly every rival: His calls for conservative purity were, for better or worse, the most consistent message in the field, his rage against the “Washington cartel” a signal of the nation’s view of its leaders. In a year when many voters flocked to the candidate they hoped could startle Washington into submission, Mr. Cruz galvanized millions of supporters drawn to his more ideological conservatism, quoting founding documents and texts. He was the most candidate to even sniff the nomination in at least a . Long before Mr. Trump careered into the race, Mr. Cruz staked perhaps the loudest claim to the boiling national anger among conservatives in the age of President Obama. He was . “Ted Cruz’s theory of the race was that conservatives were angry,” said Ben Domenech, the publisher of The Federalist, a conservative online journal. “It turns out that everyone was angry. ” For a candidate who appeared, just a few weeks ago, to have a plausible path to the nomination, the descent came quickly. The calendar did not help. Hours after his Wisconsin victory, he charged headlong into New York City, earning Bronx jeers that foretold a hostile reception across a Eastern states that were never a natural fit for him. “Manhattan has spoken!” Mr. Cruz joked bitterly in Indiana. “Everyone give up and go home. ” But the problems ran deeper. Given an opening to unite the party in opposition to a man many see as an existential threat to it, Mr. Cruz was unable to consolidate support, leaving Republican leaders lurching toward a fateful bet: Live with the risk of a Trump nomination rather than elevate a figure they loathe. His advisers insisted that he was a more versatile candidate than past Iowa caucus winners like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, but he failed to sufficiently expand his appeal much beyond the party’s most religious and ideological voters. His surrogates in Indiana looked much the same as in Iowa, with testimonials from the radio host Glenn Beck and Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas. “Conservatives are uniting,” Mr. Cruz said often on the campaign trail, long after it felt true. But his efforts were undercut, in large measure, by his toxic relationships with Senate colleagues and a manifest indifference to repairing them. Soon, the indignities mounted. He named Carly Fiorina his prospective running mate, despite trailing by several hundred delegates, briefly rousing a partly full Indianapolis pavilion. He earned scorn in Indiana for referring to a basketball rim as a “ring. ” He was heckled by a young boy in La Porte and several men in Marion. “Sir, with all respect,” Mr. Cruz pleaded, after approaching one of them for a chat on Monday, “Donald Trump is deceiving you. He is playing you for a chump. ” On Tuesday morning, he at last unburdened himself in full, promising to tell reporters “what I really think of Donald Trump” for the first time. “This man is a pathological liar,” Mr. Cruz said, ticking off Mr. Trump’s distortions, his infidelities, his penchant for conspiracy theories. “The man is utterly amoral. ” It is possible there is nothing more Mr. Cruz could have done. Mr. Trump has proved immune to political gravity. He has been largely impervious to attacks, once Mr. Cruz backed away from his monthslong embrace and began hammering him. Most critically, Mr. Trump’s success in early states across the South, thought to be Mr. Cruz’s firewall, forced a rewrite of the Cruz campaign playbook on the fly. But while few politicians have better absorbed the lessons of the party’s rightward tilt in recent years, Mr. Cruz found himself outmaneuvered on issues like trade and national defense by an outsider whose political antenna had a crisper signal. Even on immigration — where Mr. Cruz’s grasp of the party’s id helped vanquish a foe, Marco Rubio, who came to regret embracing a pathway to citizenship — Mr. Trump managed to go bigger and louder. That Mr. Cruz lasted this long anyway was a triumph of management guile and considerable hustle: No Republican campaign more effectively marshaled its finances, holding the most cash on hand for much of the race, and no candidate worked harder than he did, frequently dashing through six events a day in Iowa. With a showman’s itch and a singular manner of speaking — the long pauses, the controlled twang, the easy deployment of words like “élan” and “hosannas” on the stump — Mr. Cruz registered at times like an actor playing the role of presidential candidate. He often resorted to gimmickry, from movie scenes to lawyerly theatrics to his grandest stunt of all: adding Mrs. Fiorina to an imagined ticket. But these last few, flailing weeks belied a campaign that for months had followed its initial strategy to the letter. Mr. Cruz and his advisers often likened the election to a college basketball tournament bracket, where opponents like Scott Walker and Mr. Rubio were to be muscled out one by one. (They also griped that Gov. John Kasich of Ohio failed to leave the court, despite the score.) When Mr. Cruz entered the race, his team openly cheered its meager position, roughly 5 percent in the polls, reasoning that he could energize his core supporters first. “You have to own a base in the Republican primary,” his campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said the day Mr. Cruz announced his run at an evangelical university last year. “If you own the base, then you can grow it. ” Mr. Cruz’s most consequential choice might have come last year when he defended Mr. Trump as a credible outsider and a force for good in the race as rivals began taking swings. As late as December, he celebrated Mr. Trump as “terrific,” rising quietly in the polls as Mr. Trump absorbed the slings and arrows directed to a . Even after Mr. Trump began disparaging Mr. Cruz’s Canadian birth, the senator initially resisted a barrage. Eventually, his broadsides were frequent and scattershot: Mr. Trump was too unsteady, too shifty, too consumed by social media, too much like Hillary Clinton. Recently, as Mr. Cruz’s growth seemed to reach its outer bounds, he leaned increasingly on this sort of messaging potpourri. He tried positioning himself as the party’s champion of women. He cast himself as the heir to President Obama’s generational promise, debuting a new slogan — “Yes, we will!” — that was quickly abandoned. Then there was his habit of declaring as fact things he wished to be true. Mr. Cruz often described the “hard ceiling” of support that Mr. Trump would surely brush up against, estimating it to be 35 to 40 percent. “Donald has been a minority candidate, a fringe candidate,” Mr. Cruz told reporters last week. The next day, Mr. Trump received at least 54 percent of the vote in all five primaries. And if Mr. Trump’s chosen moniker for Mr. Cruz (“Lyin’ Ted”) was not quite as instantly devastating as some of his others (“ ” Jeb Bush, “Little Marco” Rubio) the Cruz campaign contributed to lending it a ring of truth — not least because of his abrupt antagonism toward Mr. Trump after reams of praise. While Mr. Cruz steadied himself, rebounding in his home state of Texas and winning several smaller contests and delegate conventions, his successes were too few. Even in victory, Mr. Cruz spoke often in apocalyptic terms. Facing defeat, his pleas grew pained. “If Indiana does not act,” he said hours before Tuesday’s vote, “this country could well plunge into the abyss. ” | 0fake |
Priebus: Trump Doesn’t Want to ’Meddle with Medicare or Social Security’ - Breitbart | Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Donald Trump does not want to “meddle with Medicare or Social Security. ” Priebus said, “I don’t think Trump wants to meddle with Medicare or Social Security. He made a promise in the campaign that was something he didn’t want to do. But what he wants to do is grow the economy, help shore up Medicare and Social Security for future generations and if we can get create, five, six percent growth we will do that and explode the economy and bring jobs back and make trade more fair across the world, lower rates for everyone and I think hopefully get businesses going again so people can put more money in their pocket. ” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Providing Balanced Information Is Not Facebook's Goal - NYTimes.com | Catherine R. Squires is a professor of communication studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is also the director of the Race, Indigeneity, Gender and Sexuality Studies Initiative.
Facebook is a for-profit company that makes money packaging its users' information to sell to advertisers and other entities. The company's goal is not to produce a "balanced" information diet for its users. People who are shocked that Facebook might be skewing their newsfeed probably shouldn't have trusted them with their news diet in the first place, given its history. Remember those confusing and ever-changing privacy settings, and that experiment to see whether users' moods could be manipulated by changing the newsfeed? This is not the company I'd trust to tell me what's important in the world.
But the uproar over the role of human editors at Facebook — or at least, in the "Trending Topics" section — does revive an important question: In an information age when people can customize their news diet, how should Facebook editors decide what issues, opinions or events deserve prominence?
Given their newfound reliance on social media companies like Facebook, traditional media editors have been grappling with the same question. Any news publication with a website makes ad revenue off of popular articles, but that can be a dangerous incentive. Though important news can also be popular, all of the major publications are guilty of publishing dumbed down "clickbait" to attract wider audiences.
So then, perhaps the question is whether Facebook, or even the news media, is narrowing the field of news so that we, as citizens, are unable to engage in effective political and social discussions.
A Facebook newsfeed that was completely dictated by algorithms without human interference wouldn't be any better. Algorithms reflect the imperfect biases of the humans that build them. Algorithms rely on data sets, which are structured by the decisions of data gatherers guided by particular goals. For example, as most of the people who work in computing are male, it's not surprising that scholars found a gender bias in the Google's Image search: In searches for C.E.O., 11 percent of the people depicted were women, compared with 27 percent of U.S. C.E.O.s who are actually women.
Data and news can be skewed on many levels on the Internet, but competent editors could explain how they and their algorithms work. Then, at least, the public would know how and why news sites elevate certain stories.
But bias in the media is not new. These basic questions have to be worked out by each generation, confronted by each new development in media technology. They are ethical and practical questions that require a human touch. | 0fake |
Detroit Suburb Elects First Muslim Majority City Council In America [VIDEO] | Michigan s Republican Governor, Rick Snyder is throwing out the welcome mat for an undisclosed number of Muslim refugees who will be dumped around the state. Meanwhile, Southeastern MI is watching another major city once rich in Polish tradition be turned into a mini Fallujah video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo playerThe reporter and all of the Muslims quoted in this news report herald the diversity of America s first Muslim majority city council, the Hamtramck City Council is going to reflect diversity. What s diverse about a Muslim majority? Is the anything less diverse and more oppressive than Islamic law? What Muslim countries are diverse? Muslims won t even let Jews pray at the most holy of Jewish sites. Muslim countries under the sharia subjugate their religious minorities.The Polish flocked to Hamtramck in the 1900s and evidence of the city s Polish roots remain.However, over the last few decades a new wave of immigrants, primarily from the Middle East, South Asia and Southeastern Europe, has dramatically changed the face and culture of this community.Now, the Hamtramck City Council is going to reflect that diversity.Now, the Hamtramck City Council is going to reflect that diversity. We are very proud and we are very happy for that achievement, what we have done in this city, for our city, said Jamal Alturki, a voter.Voters gave Abu Musa and Anam Miah another term in office. Saad Almasmari was elected for the first time. Now four of the six City Council members will be of Muslim faith.It s said to be the first majority Muslim City Council not only in Hamtramck but in the entire country. I think that sends a message not only to Hamtramck but throughout the region that people want their representation in offices, Miah said. Via:Click on Detroit | 1real |
Yemeni-Americans shut hundreds of shops in NY City to protest travel ban | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of New York City bodegas, grocery stores and restaurants owned by Yemeni Americans closed for hours on Thursday in protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, organizers said. Loyal patrons who rely on the stores for staples of daily life had to look elsewhere for lunch after more than 1,000 locations shut their doors from noon to 8 p.m. in a move coordinated by groups including the Muslim Community Network and the Yemeni American Community. Bodega, a Spanish word meaning wine shop, is New York City slang for small stores selling everything from deli foods to newspapers and cat litter. “We want to send the message that we’re here,” said Sulaiman Alaodyi, a 24-year-old cashier at the Best and Tasty deli in the borough of the Bronx, a bodega that is normally open around the clock. This was the first time it closed its doors since it started business nine months ago. The protests followed the decision by Trump’s administration to put a four-month hold on letting refugees into the United States and to temporarily bar travelers from Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Somalia. The order, which is being challenged in U.S. courts, left some travelers stranded and others held at airports on arrival. It provoked an outpouring of anger and dismay from immigrants, refugees and supporters. Many store owners and workers who shut up shop were going to rally and hold public sundown prayers outside Brooklyn Borough Hall. “We’re going to go out and support all our brothers and sisters who are detained in airports and in other countries that can’t get back,” Alaodyi said. “This is just not fair.” New York City is home to many immigrants from Yemen, a country of about 24 million in the Arabian Peninsula. Many live in Brooklyn, but some are in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. Golden Deli, a Yemeni-owned bodega in Manhattan, was swelling with customers who picked up early lunches before it closed. Nermin Radoncic, 22, walked up shortly after workers pulled down the shutters at noon. Radoncic, who lives nearby but is moving to Queens, was disappointed he could not buy a pastrami and Swiss sandwich on his last day in the neighborhood. But he said he supported the protest. “They make the bomb sandwiches,” Radoncic said of Golden Deli. “This is like the best deli out here. Trump is a jerk.” | 0fake |
Homeland Security announces steps against H1B visa fraud | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced steps on Monday to prevent the fraudulent use of H1B visas, used by employers to bring in specialized foreign workers temporarily, which appeared to fall short of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to overhaul the program. A White House official said Trump may still do more on the program. Trump had promised to end the lottery system for H1B visas, which gives each applicant an equal chance at 65,000 positions each year. Lobbyists for businesses who rely on H1B visas, commonly used by the tech sector, had expected Trump to upend the lottery in favor of a system that prioritized workers who are highly skilled and would be highly paid in the United States. The lottery for fiscal year 2018 opened on Monday without changes. The start of the lottery was seen by those watching the issue as the unofficial deadline for the Trump administration to enact H1B visa reform, and the failure to meet that deadline signals that Trump’s promised overhaul of the system may be off the table or long delayed. “More oversight is a good start, but employers can still use the program legally to depress wages and replace American workers. That falls short of the promises President Trump made to protect American workers,” said Peter Robbio, a spokesman for Numbers USA, a Washington-based group that advocates for limiting immigration into the United States. The Trump administration has taken other steps to crackdown on H1B visa abuse, such as issuing a Justice Department warning to employers and announcing plans to increase transparency on applicants. “These are important first steps to bring more accountability and transparency to the H1B system,” a White House official said. “The administration is considering several additional options for the president to use his existing authority to ensure federal agencies more rigorously enforce all aspects of the program.” Tech companies rely on the program to bring in workers with special skills and have lobbied for an expansion of the number of H1B visas awarded. Proponents of limiting legal immigration, including Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller, have argued the program gives jobs that Americans could fill to foreign workers at a less expensive cost. The measures announced by DHS on Monday focus on site visits by U.S. authorities to employers who use H1B visas. In future site visits, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agents will investigate incidents where an employer’s basic business information cannot be validated; businesses that have a high ratio of H1B employees compared with U.S. workers; and employers petitioning for H1B workers who work off-site. | 0fake |
Gorsuch, Like Previous Supreme Court Nominees, Keeps Views Hidden - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — As he met with Neil M. Gorsuch in the Capitol last week, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois posed to the Supreme Court nominee what he considered a fairly basic question on the relationship between the executive and judicial branches. “He really backed away from it,” recalled Mr. Durbin, an influential Democratic voice on judicial issues with long service on the Judiciary Committee. “Even in the most general constitutional terms, he didn’t want to discuss it. From where I am sitting I don’t think there is a more important question in light of this president. ” Democrats preparing for hearings next month on President Trump’s first nominee to the nation’s highest court say it is not a matter of getting the answers they want from Judge Gorsuch it is a matter of getting any pertinent answers at all. “He refused to say anything about potentially relevant questions,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and former state attorney general who also sits on the panel that will consider the nomination. The test of wills promises to provide friction at hearings scheduled to begin on March 20 as Democrats try to pin down Judge Gorsuch on what he sees as the role of an independent judiciary in constraining the executive branch, given their rising fears about Mr. Trump. It is also the latest match in the longstanding over how far judicial nominees should or should not go in responding to questions from lawmakers. Given fierce partisan tension over Supreme Court seats, it has become an uncomfortable norm for nominees to avoid providing bountiful answers both in private interviews and during the confirmation hearing. They lean heavily on the excuse that the issue could end up before the court and they would hate to prejudge it. In the current environment, the view is clearly the less said, the better the chances of confirmation. “Everyone knows you are going to ask your best question and they are not going to answer it,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, of the difficulty of inducing a nominee to say something truly revealing. No one expects a nominee like Judge Gorsuch to address how he would rule on a specific case — like President Trump’s contested immigration order — or offer a detailed view on federal policy likely to land before the court. But Democrats say that Judge Gorsuch must be willing to discuss the merits of past Supreme Court decisions as well as his judicial principles and philosophy if they are to make a judgment on his fitness. “It’s always important for a Supreme Court nominee to tell senators his or her views on the Constitution, but given how aggressively this president is testing the Constitution so early in his term, senators deserve those answers more than ever,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. Lawmakers say that Mr. Gorsuch assured them during their meetings that no one in the Trump White House had asked him how he would rule in specific cases. But Democrats note that his nomination was promoted by leading conservative groups such as the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. In the absence of information to the contrary from him, they say they will have to assume he shares the views of those groups on such issues as abortion and gun rights. “His refusal to answer these questions leaves us with the inescapable conclusion that he has passed the Trump litmus test,” said Mr. Blumenthal, who, like other lawmakers, found Judge Gorsuch personable and impressively prepared. For their part, Republicans have voiced nothing but praise for the nominee. “I met with Judge Gorsuch for more than an hour and was tremendously impressed with his intellect, his humility and his respect for the rule of law,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. She said they had an extended discussion about precedent and that Mr. Gorsuch said he believed that “it is not sufficient to overturn a precedent for five current judges to believe a previous decision was wrongly decided. ” That position could be interpreted by lawmakers who support abortion rights, like Ms. Collins, to mean he would not overturn Roe v. Wade even if he were part of a majority that disagreed with it. Kelly Ayotte, the former New Hampshire senator who is serving as Judge Gorsuch’s sherpa through the Senate process, said she found him quite forthcoming during the 58 meetings with lawmakers she attended and added that he talked at length about his rulings on the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. “He’s obviously saying as much as he can without violating his responsibility as a judge not to offer opinions on cases that may come before the court,” she said. In trying to forestall Democratic complaints that Judge Gorsuch has not been sufficiently revealing, Mr. McConnell has reminded Democrats of the “Ginsburg standard” — a reference to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s repeated refusal at her hearing in 1993 to answer many direct questions on the grounds she could not “preview or forecast” her decisions. But Republicans had their own differences in the past with the reluctance of nominees to be direct. Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who now heads the Judiciary Committee, opposed the nomination of Elena Kagan in 2010, saying she failed to provide candid answers. One contemporary nominee did pride himself on his ability to take on members of the Judiciary Committee in a full exchange of views. Judge Robert Bork answered nearly every question from senators over five days of testimony in 1987. At the time, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said he hoped Mr. Bork’s willingness to engage would “set a pattern for the future. ” It did. After Mr. Bork’s nomination was famously defeated, nominees have been very stingy with their answers to avoid blowing up their chances of success. | 0fake |
Investing in an Emotional Trust Fund for Your Children - The New York Times | PARENTS think a lot about what their money might one day do for their children. Will it give them options in life to accomplish something meaningful, or rob them of ambition? Or will a lack of family money leave them at a disadvantage? Of course, there are a lot of other outcomes. But fear about the bad things that money can do to children sends some parents to lawyers and advisers to create trust documents with rules stating what children need to do to obtain the money. Even parents of modest means are encouraged to own life insurance policies in trusts to inhibit their children from getting all the cash at once should the parents die. These are necessary in certain cases. But long before children are aware of what they might inherit, there are more foundational conversations that parents should have. What if parents thought about the capital — yes, financial, but also emotional and intellectual — that they were spending on their young children as assets in an “emotional trust fund” with trustee duties inherent in it? That’s the concept being advanced by Jacalyn S. Burke, a former nanny, a commentator on parenthood issues, and the author of “The Nanny Time Bomb: Navigating the Crisis in Child Care” (Praeger, 2015). She argues that thinking in financial terms when it comes to parental choices could make a difference in shaping children who grow up to live meaningful lives — regardless of whether any money comes to them. The essential components of an emotional trust fund are analogous to those of a conventional one — cash, stocks, bonds and property as the holdings, with trustees directing the investments in each, with an eye toward the recipient’s best interest. How investments in those assets are divided up, though, is what matters. “That same structure we use for our financial lives could be applied to how we raise our children,” Ms. Burke said. “The different components could relate to a child’s life. A nanny comes in as a massive part of that portfolio, particularly if they work with them 9 to 5 and sometimes longer. ” Nannies and child care workers more broadly are the stocks in the emotional trust fund. Their influence on children is a bet on the future, and just like stocks, no one makes a selection thinking it will underperform. Like stocks, some nannies do well from the start. Others pay dividends over time. And then there are the ones that seem like but prove to be disappointments. Ms. Burke said this is where her thinking started, largely because she found parents not putting enough time into selecting someone — or enough money into paying such a crucial person in their children’s development. Cutting corners and hiring a disengaged nanny early on, she said, could hurt a child’s ability to form relationships over the long run. To choose well, she said, parents need to do their due diligence. “For someone who you’re employing for the majority of the time when you’re out of the home, you should go back and see how that stock has performed in the past,” she said. “Did it perform well for six months or for 10 years? A reliable performer is someone with various credentials who shows up each week — that’s a solid stock that’s not going to wobble. ” Karen Kaufman, a clinical psychologist in Manhattan, who also wrote the preface to Ms. Burke’s book, said distracted nannies can inflict lasting damage on children. (The same goes for parents.) “Just about every nanny I see is on the phone,” Dr. Kaufman said. “They’re distracted. It’s all these little tiny disruptions that make kids question if they’re enough. ” Separating good from bad nannies is as difficult as trying to select a stock. Ms. Burke recommends detailed background checks but also visiting the nanny at home or where she was last working, to gauge her interaction with that family. This also serves to make sure the nanny is telling the truth. “I was routinely asked by other nannies to pretend I was a parent and be a reference,” she said. For people who have consistently chosen nannies who didn’t work out, Ms. Burke suggested finding a consultant to work with the family on finding the right fit, much as one would go to an adviser to help with selecting securities. And as with stocks, trustees need to be dutiful managers — in terms of nannies’ work but also their happiness in their jobs. “When nannies got together and complained, you’d think the No. 1 complaint would be the awful wages they got paid,” Ms. Burke said. “It wasn’t. It was the lack of respect. ” Of course, it may take time before parents can judge how well their child care money was spent — or they may have an anchoring bias that keeps them with a mediocre nanny for fear that others will be worse. Enrichment activities are different. They’re the bonds in the portfolio. Just as analysts following the declining prices of municipal bonds knew Detroit and Puerto Rico were headed into trouble long before a crisis hit, parents can measure their children’s responses to enrichment fairly quickly. Ms. Burke said she is not focused on the number or kind of activities for a child, but on how those activities are inspiring or hurting a child. “There is so much value in doing something outside their school curriculum,” she said. “There’s a consummate value in enriching your children but not overextending them. ” Community, broadly defined, is the property component of the emotional trust fund. “A cloistered sense of the world does not do them well,” Ms. Burke said. “At the weekends, walk the dog around the neighborhood, have pancakes, play ball in your neighborhood, get involved in your church or synagogue. It gives your kid a great grounding in life. ” How parents spend time with their children is the cash in the emotional trust fund. It can be spent wisely to maximum benefits or it can be squandered on things that don’t matter or could do harm. In some ways, spending that cash carelessly dovetails with too much enrichment — activities scheduled throughout the weekend keep families apart. Instead, Ms. Burke calls for parents to spend their emotional cash on experiences — sitting, playing, baking, talking — and not on more things. “Cash is switching your phone off and doing things with your children,” she said. “What I hear from children is they just want down time with their parents. I can’t tell you how many extremely wealthy children say ‘I just want to play ball with Dad. ’” Like any trust fund, an emotional one needs a balance between what the trustees — the parents — are doing and how those actions are received by children — the beneficiaries. “The nannies can provide a tremendous amount of education,” Dr. Kaufman said. “But the main theme is no one is as important as the parents. It’s encouraging parents to be more physically present, not to be on their devices, to make eye contact. ” None of this is to say that parents can substitute an emotional trust fund for talking to their children as they grow up about wealth and the responsibilities that come with it. “Financial wealth is not a free ride — it’s a powerful tool,” said Kristen Armstrong, a wealth dynamics coach with U. S. Bank’s Ascent Private Capital Management. “In high school, having some conversations about being a family with significant wealth and being a family who has some opportunities is important. ” Given the amount of time and money parents spend on their children today, the emotional trust fund is an interesting concept. If nothing else, thinking in these terms might reframe how people spend time and money in their family. | 0fake |
October Surprise: ABC Uncovers “Millions” of Payments From Russia To Trump | Comments
Republican nominee Donald Trump has been treading treasonous territory for months now, raising eyebrows around the nation for a foreign policy that openly supports the ambitions of Vladimir Putin, the dictator of the Russian Federation. He’s surrounded himself with men with close ties to the Kremlin and the oligarchs that pull the strings behind the scenes; he’s being openly supported by Russian state-controlled media and by Russian intelligence services, who have breached the electronic servers of Democratic Party operatives and released selected pieces of information in an attempt to sow discord.
Throughout all of this, Trump has insisted that he has no business ties to Russia. “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” he tweeted in July. Now – brace yourself, this might come as a shock – it appears he’s been lying to us the whole time.
An ABC News investigation has found that Donald Trump has “numerous ties” to Russian interests both here in the United States and in Russia. “The level of business amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars — what he received as a result of interaction with Russian businessmen. They were happy to invest with him, and they were happy to work with Donald Trump. And they were happy to associate—[and] be associated with Donald Trump” says Sergei Millian, who heads a U.S.-Russia business group.
Trump has reaped huge profits off his business deals with Russian oligarchs that stretch from hosting the 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow and selling Trump-branded real estate to “large numbers” of Russian buyers – so many that the Sunny and Hollywood Islands in Florida became known as “Little Moscow.”
The oligarchs of Russia made their fortunes by making deals to acquire huge numbers of shares in the state-owned companies of the former Soviet Union as the country shifted to a free-market economy, turning them into billionaires overnight. Towards the end of the Boris Yeltsin era, the oligarchs controlled 50% to 75% of all Russian finance. Now, they use their influence and wealth to prop up the Putin regime, while he turns a blind eye as they rob the country blind. Putin himself has amassed a fortune of $70 billion that could be as high as $200 billion .
The oligarchs are constantly looking to funnel their ill-gotten gains out of the country, and it turns out purchasing Trump properties was a favored way to do so. It makes sense – they are all men cut from the same gold cloth. They are self-entitled narcissistic materialists who care for nothing but increasing their own personal wealth.
“I think material wealth for them is a highly emotional and spiritual thing. They spend a lot of money on their own personal consumption…They don’t read books. They don’t go to [art] exhibitions. They think the only way to impress anyone is to buy a yacht” says former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev , who went on to describe them as “cultural ignoramuses…not interested in social justice.” Sound like anyone we know?
When the US State Department leveled sanctions on the Russian oligarchs in 2014 following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea, the oligarchs had one of their key money-laundering tools cut off. If Trump were president, however, he could end the sanctions and allow them to continue to enrich themselves – and Trump himself. “We’ll be looking at that, yeah we’ll be looking” said Trump on the issue of sanctions in July.
These business dealings obviously present a great conflict of interest between the personal finances of a potential President and the foreign policy of our nation, which seeks to curtail the disruptive and corrupting influences of the Russian oligarchs and put a check on Russian territorial aggression in Eastern Europe. Would President Trump be able to put his personal profits aside? If this election has taught us anything at all, it’s that Trump cares about nothing but himself. We cannot allow him and his Russian cronies to take their corruption to the White House.
Watch ABC News’ report here: | 1real |
Watch Mitt Romney Totally Humiliate Himself In Front Of Trump (VIDEO) | Mitt Romney got a lot of praise and a lot of headlines this past year when he came out and attacked Donald Trump s presidential campaign, and made himself the de facto head of the Never Trump movement. But now he has completely humiliated himself by sucking up to Trump after the election, first appearing to him to beg him for the Secretary of State job, then going out to dinner with Trump and RNC chairman Reince Priebus in New York.After dining with the man who made fun of him at every turn for months on end, Romney appeared without his dignity after the meal to heap more praise on Trump:WATCH: @MittRomney addresses reporters following dinner with President-elect @realDonaldTrump. #Breaking #KellyFile pic.twitter.com/eWakmDTnuU Fox News (@FoxNews) November 30, 2016Romney s decision to humiliate himself and his family name (his father Gov. George Romney marched with Martin Luther King) is a disgusting moment in American politics, and shows once again that the moral outrage demonstrated by Never Trump was as phony as a three dollar bill.And perhaps it shouldn t be surprising. When Trump was best known in politics for pushing the racist birther conspiracy, it was Mitt Romney who first elevated his stature in mainstream Republican politics. Against advice from his team and against good taste, Romney held an event in 2012 where Trump endorsed him and the two men stood on stage together, slapping each other s backs.Later in the campaign, when Trump was pushing conspiracy theories about Obama s college record, Romney also enlisted Trump to cut advertising for him in the form of robocalls to help get out the vote.So Romney going to Trump, on bended knee in front of cameras from the international and national press, is just another chapter in the story of once-powerful men humiliating themselves in front of a clown, abandoning whatever little shred of principles they had left, just to get a sip of the power. Gross.Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
Muslim Radical Salman Hossein says Hillary will win | ( henrymakow.com ) “Salman Hossein (left) was forced to flee Canada in 2010 with police on his tail for antisemitic activities. From his exile in Dhaka, Bangladesh, he says Hillary will win and lead the US to world war. Masonic Jewish central bankers can’t allow Trump to win because he will turn on them. They are already losing world control and Trump would be the final nail in their coffin.” — Henry Makow
LD: Salman was a prolific commenter on this site whose posts had to be carefully monitored because of their constant obscenities and bloodcurdling threats of mass extermination. A Muslim radical, to put it mildly.
Salman’s prediction that Hillary will win is not, in my opinion, a far-fetched one. I think it is a distinct possibility if all this, as I suspect, is pure theater. A huge surprise could be in store for us in the next few days.
A sudden announcement by FBI Director James Comey, two days before the election, giving Hillary a clean bill of health over her problematic emails, could result in a last-minute surge in support of Hillary that could sweep her into the White House. According to one report, the FBI “may be able to sift through them [the emails under investigation] before election day .” Additional information harmful to Trump, involving “ his close links to the Kremlin “, could also be manufactured in a bid to help Hillary.
All this, however, is pure speculation. [LD]
SALMAN HOSSEIN : After 9-11, there were eight regimes that had not submitted to the authority of the Jewish bankers. Four of them either got taken out or bullied/bribed/coerced into bowing down – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan. The only problem is that recently China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Turkey have broken out of the sphere of control. Syria is still independent and fighting to maintain its sovereignty against Israeli expansionism and Banker domination.
Putin recently put out an arrest warrant for George Soros for currency manipulation and has issued a decree banning the Rothschild clan from Russia. Russia is also causing problems for the Israelis and the West by defending the regime of Bashar Al Assad from Nusra and Da’esh/ISIS. Israeli expansionism has been kept in check by Russia. China has also more or less wrested free of control from the International Jewish oligarchy. As a pro-Israeli asset , Trump is not a threat to Israeli expansionism in Gaza and the West Bank. He has even opened up a campaign office in Israel. He is essentially aligning white gentile power with the Israeli-Jewish supremacist camp. He only cares about Israel and will facilitate even worse oppression of Arabs and Muslims not only in Palestine and the rest of the Greater Middle East but in the Western world as well. He consistently repeats the false “ Muslim terrorist “ narrative. He is even worse than George W. Bush Junior . As the alternative to the US Dollar, the new BRICS monetary system is also challenging Jewish control of international finance. The heavyweights in the BRICS alliance are Russia and China. There are those who claim that BRICS is also covertly run by the Jewish bankers. I don’t buy this. The Chinese are fully aware of the Jewish question . The Russians kicked out Jewish criminals . They won’t be able to penetrate the economy as well as they have done in the Western world. THE DILEMMA OF JEWISH SUPREMACISM Jewish supremacists view European gentiles as either pawns for their game of global conquest and perpetual warfare or if that is not feasible – their targets of destruction and hatred. Historically speaking, Jews have been expelled over 109 times in history. 105 of these times have been in Europe. That is why left-wing Jewish groups are so vehemently pushing for the replacement and liquidation of indigenous Europeans by either making them a minority or making those countries uninhabitable via the anticipated thermonuclear warfare which they are instigating . Most White Americans, Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders are also of European ancestry – and are also targets for destruction/revenge by these Jewish extremists/supremacists for many decades now. The influx of refugees by Jewish groups with the assistance of organized crime gangs is Talmudic vengeance par excellence. For the Diaspora Jews, its an all-or-nothing zero sum game. They either take their chances with NATO and go all in against China, Iran, Russia, and eventually Turkey or eventually risk losing more countries from their grip and/or control. However, going head on against them will lead to World War Three. Their hatred for white gentiles is so great (due to past perceived historical injustices) that they are willing to risk death themselves in the process of getting others killed. There is no where the so-called (Jewish dominated) elite can really hide or travel to. All their contingency plans are being exposed . TRUMP IS LESSER OF TWO EVILS Trump is the lesser of the two evils because he does not appear insane enough to go after China and Russia at the same time. However, I personally prefer NATO going up against China and Russia. The West has been killing defenseless people as target practice alone for the last few centuries alone – they need a challenge this time. Russia along with assistance from China will put them in their place. The great news is that the Jewish war-mongers have already won! Hillary has already been declared the war president of the United States. I support Hillary Clinton in her desire to go to war against Russia. I have been praying for the day this would happen. In fact, thermonuclear warfare is just right around the corner. Nobody should be complaining about this. Without thermonuclear warfare, there is no way International Jewry’s grip on temporal power can be crushed. That is the other reason I left Canada! I’d like to end this piece by sending out the following Halloween message to everyone: Enjoy the party while it lasts! Make sure you have a blast! Hasta La Vista Baby!!! Like this? Share it now. 8 thoughts on “ Muslim Radical Salman Hossein says Hillary will win ” LD says: | 1real |
US Delta Force Begins Targeting ISIS in Iraq, Threatens ‘Unilateral Operations in Syria’ | 21st Century Wire says While you were watching the presidential reality show, the Pentagon was busy putting boots back on the ground in Iraq and threatening to invade Syria.Watch a video of this report here: CNN reports that the unit has been setting up safe houses, establishing informant networks and coordinating operations with Iraqi and Peshmerga units in the past few weeks.Defence Secretary Ash Carter said: The only thing I ll say is the Expeditionary Targeting Force (Delta) is in position, it is having an effect and operating, and I expect it to be a very effective part of our acceleration campaign, Carter explained that the deployment of special forces was to make ISIS fear that anywhere, anytime, it may be struck. Delta Force is 200-men strong in Iraq, and will be carrying out raids on targets, recovering hostages, eliminating terrorist commanders and gathering intelligence from enemy locations.Carter also said: This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations in Syria. What Carter is really saying is that Delta Force may be used illegally in Syria, as they have no mandate from the sovereign Syrian government, or the UN for that matter, to conduct any operations at all on Syrian territory.Some might even say this is an American threat to invade Syria.Russian actions, on the other hand, are absolutely legal under international law, as they are fully sanctioned by the Syrian government.Earlier this week we learned that the Russian special forces unit Spetznaz was infiltrating ISIS with undercover operatives, which enabled airstrikes to hit within just three meters of their targets.Do you think Delta Force will have a real effect on the fight against ISIS?GET THE FULL STORY ON THE SYRIAN CRISIS: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 1real |
Remembering Frank Legge | Posted on October 29, 2016 by Kevin Ryan
Scientist and scholar Frank Legge passed away on October 20 th 2016. Frank was a leader of the international 9/11 Truth Movement. He had been a co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies and a founding member of both Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice and Scientists for 9/11 Truth. His contributions to research into 9/11 will be remembered as among the most important in history.
Frank had a long and fulfilling life before and beyond the events of 9/11. He was a husband, father, and grandfather as well as a farmer, pilot, research scientist, and entrepreneur.
After obtaining a Diploma of Agriculture (Longerenong, Victoria, Australia), Frank spent his early years as an agricultural employee, then a contractor, in the state of Queensland. He then obtained a “conditional purchase” block of virgin bush in Western Australia, which he cleared and developed as a sheep and grain farm. On completion of this, Frank moved to Perth and enrolled at the University of Western Australia. During this period he obtained a pilot’s license and acquired a share in a plane, which was useful in enabling him to easily visit and continue operating the farm.
On graduating with a Ph.D. in chemistry, in 1983, Dr. Legge worked as a research officer for the Department of Agriculture for a number of years. This included research into the manufacture and use of biodiesel. He was also involved with the Australian Merino Society in the development of their sheep-breeding index. With a colleague, he then formed a company, Solar Track Pty Ltd, and embarked on a project manufacturing solar tracking devices, based on a patented concept they developed in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture. Lastly he moved to consulting.
Frank’s understanding of the events of 9/11 was set out in his website, now maintained by David Chandler. http://www.scienceof911.com.au/
This site includes links to many papers on the subject, including those Dr. Legge wrote and co-authored. He believed that the evidence for explosives in controlled demolition of all three of the buildings at the World Trade Center was convincing and that the failure of the U.S. agency NIST to consider this possibility was prima facie evidence of corruption and obstruction of justice.
Some of Dr. Legge’s most important contributions to the 9/11 debate: He was a prolific contributor to the Journal of 9/11 Studies , starting with the first publication in June 2006. His careful, logical approach was the basis for a dozen articles and half a dozen letters published by the Journal . In October 2007, he joined as co-editor and continued in that capacity until July 2012. Among his most important articles was an early examination of the fall of WTC Building 7 in which Dr. Legge examined video and graphed the acceleration of the building. This paper, published ten years ago, initiated a series of similar calculations that led to irrefutable arguments in favor of demolition. Dr. Legge’s insights and expertise were often less visible than the work of his colleagues. That fact is exemplified by his listing as fourth author of eight on the seminal article Extremely High Temperatures During the World Trade Center Destruction . His co-authors would agree that his leadership on the article was invaluable. He was co-author for articles that brought the unanswered questions of 9/11 into mainstream scientific discussion. These included a search for common ground with official investigators called Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the Destruction of the World Trade Center . Frank was also an important contributor to the breakthrough article entitled Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe . Collaborating with Warren Stutt, Dr. Legge provided a study of the data file from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) for the flight that was reported to have hit the Pentagon. The purpose of this work was to show that, contrary to widespread belief among activists, the data portrayed a flight that corresponded with the official reports of the course of the aircraft. Frank’s position was that there were many reasons to doubt the truthfulness of the 9/11 reports but the data from the FDR was not one of them. His hope was that this information would help to unify the Truth Movement as it would reduce the tendency to assert claims, based on misinterpretation of the FDR file, that the plane did not hit the Pentagon. As co-author with David Chandler, Legge examined the case that the Pentagon was hit by a plane , and that it did not fly over, as asserted by some activists. Again Dr. Legge’s hope was to unify the Truth Movement. This was followed by an Addendum that strengthened the case.
Although a sound scientific approach was characteristic of his work, Legge’s personality was also important in that he was often the most mature participant in any discussion. This is not to say he was merely the oldest but that he was levelheaded and composed in many heated, ego-driven, arguments. That is, Frank Legge was the grown-up at times when it was most needed.
This fact was exhibited in many of his writings and communications. For example, in order to achieve incremental improvement in the debate about what hit the Pentagon, Legge advocated a “precautionary principle,” urging everyone to assert only what was truly known. In order to address arguments raised in support of the “flyover” case, Legge wrote a paper on the Search for Consensus to seek common ground.
In the last decade of his life, Frank Legge had a tremendous influence on many people around the world. He led scientific inquiry into one of the most controversial subjects in history and he collaborated positively with many fellow citizens to reveal the truth. Those of us who worked with him during this time will remember his intelligence, dignity, and respect for others. | 1real |
Republican U.S. presidential hopefuls say Zika quarantine may be needed | MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Two Republican U.S. presidential hopefuls said on Saturday they would implement quarantines of travelers if necessary to stop the spread of the Zika virus. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who garnered international attention in 2014 when he quarantined a nurse who returned to the United States after treating Ebola patients, said he would not hesitate to do it again. “You bet I would,” Christie said during a debate in New Hampshire with other Republican contenders for the White House. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, said using a quarantine is “not a simple issue” but if there was evidence that Zika infection is spreading, he too would utilize a quarantine. The Zika virus is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit it to humans. Two suspected cases of sexual transmission in the United States also raise questions about other ways that Zika may spread. The virus is affecting large parts of Latin American and the Caribbean. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak an international health emergency on Feb. 1, citing a “strongly suspected” relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly - a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems. | 0fake |
Wrenching Choice in South Sudan: Starve or Risk Rape - The New York Times | JUBA, South Sudan — At a sprawling displacement camp on the outskirts of the capital, women have faced a wrenching choice: risk starvation or sexual assault. When her family ran out of food last month, Angelina Nhokmar, a mother of two, ventured outside the camp’s gates. She said she was lucky to have made it to the market and back unharmed, because dozens of women were raped by government soldiers in recent weeks as they made the same journey. “It’s not safe,” she said, tossing handfuls of sorghum into a pot of boiling water. “Our enemies are outside. ” The civil war that ripped apart South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended on paper months ago. But an eruption of clashes between the country’s rival factions in July put a chokehold on regular food distribution for the tens of thousands of people stranded in United displacement camps. As families struggled to find sustenance, they endured an increase in health care crises, ethnic tensions and sexual violence. Nearly 30, 000 people have been sheltering at United Nations sites around the capital, Juba, since South Sudan erupted into civil war in 2013. For more than two years, soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir — who belongs to the Dinka ethnic group, South Sudan’s largest — battled troops led by Riek Machar of the Nuer ethnic group, which is believed to be the second largest. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the war, and troops on both sides committed human rights abuses against civilians on a devastating scale. A peace deal officially ended the fighting last year. Mr. Machar, who had served as vice president before being fired in 2013, agreed to become Mr. Kiir’s deputy again and moved back to Juba in April. But then fighting broke out again between the two sides on July 7, killing hundreds. Mr. Machar’s residence was destroyed, and he fled the capital. He has refused to return to Juba unless more international troops are deployed. Mr. Kiir opposes this, arguing that the 12, 000 United Nations peacekeeping troops already stationed here are enough. For years, the displacement camps have been worlds unto themselves: communities complete with churches, shops and schools. But they are also plagued by overcrowding, recurring shortages of basic goods, and the uncertainty faced by residents who have no idea when, if ever, they will feel safe enough to leave. So they stay, cloistered inside fences guarded by United Nations troops who have failed to keep peace in the capital or even to prevent assaults just outside the camps’ perimeters. Sexual assaults in Juba surged last month, to at least 217 reported cases, the United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad said Thursday in a statement. Members of South Sudan’s own national army, he said, seemed to be responsible for most of the assaults. And most of the victims, he added, were displaced Nuer women and girls. Many were women living in the camps who ventured out to the markets when food ran out. Others were fleeing the clashes and making their way to the displacement sites for the first time. The civilians who came to these camps in 2013 were overwhelmingly Nuer. Last week, thousands of them demonstrated against Mr. Kiir for recognizing a new vice president to take Mr. Machar’s place, calling it a violation of the peace deal. Such a gathering would be unimaginable now in central Juba. The streets of the capital are firmly under the control of the president’s forces, though they are still tense. Many properties have been destroyed, and many more looted — often by men wearing army uniforms. International partners have also suffered, including the United Nations peacekeeping mission, which lost two Chinese soldiers to crossfire inside the camp last month, and the World Food Program, whose main warehouse in South Sudan was looted from top to bottom in one of the worst such episodes the organization has experienced in years. It wasn’t just the food, which totaled about 4, 500 metric tons and consisted mostly of nutritional supplements for children and pregnant or nursing mothers, according to a spokeswoman, Challiss McDonough. “Everything was stripped,” she said. “Technical equipment, generators, fuel stocks — every single thing was gone. ” Also stolen were several trucks specially outfitted to deliver food across the country, a task for normal vehicles in the current rainy season. That means the warehouse looting in Juba, which would have required a herculean effort involving hundreds of people over several days, will have ripple effects all across this desperately hungry country. Last week, the World Food Program, which still has a smaller warehouse in the vicinity of the capital, delivered a new shipment of food to the camps. But there is not enough for everyone. People said they had been asked to share their rations with thousands of newcomers. This has led to some friction, said Charles Longa, 25, a new arrival. Like many of the most recently displaced, he is not Nuer but Equatorian, a catchall term encompassing ethnic groups from the country’s diverse south. “The people who have been living here for a long time are telling us we’d better go home,” he said, blaming food shortages for the rising tensions. “We Equatorians don’t want to be in here, begging. We want to be out there, farming. ” Like many other new arrivals, Mr. Longa and his children had not yet been given a tent and were sheltering in a school in the center of the largest displacement site. He said he feared for his safety when, shortly after he arrived, an Equatorian was blamed for a killing just outside the camp, spurring a brief protest outside the school. William Tejok Toch, a community leader in the camp, acknowledged that the schoolyard had briefly been targeted, requiring intervention from United Nations police officers. “In the camps, we have our criminals,” he said. “But we manage the situation. ” Some who fled the clashes last month crowded into schools and churches in Juba, saying they did not want to risk the journey to the United Nations camps. Others said they had made the dangerous trek, but were turned away. “If you give shelter, you should give it to everyone,” said Azen Aziuphia, 41, who said that he, his wife and his son had been denied entry. He accused the peacekeepers of refusing to admit Equatorians like him, though the United Nations says it does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity. The United Nations humanitarian chief, Stephen O’Brien, acknowledged that the sites had limited space, and that the registration of newcomers had been slow. He added that the camps were meant to accommodate only those with nowhere else to go. The camps were caught in the crossfire during the clashes last month, and at least 16 people died. Some families have buried loved ones on the edges of the camp, just beyond a coil of barbed wire. Now, the refuge is hemmed in on two sides by rows of shallow graves topped with makeshift crosses. Gatleak Jal, 32, who fled to the camp in 2013, suspects that Mr. Kiir’s troops deliberately targeted the United Nations sites. When gunshots were fired just beyond the walls three weeks ago, he was shot three times in the arm as he ran toward his tent, and then two times more — once in the abdomen, once in the leg — after he ducked into a trench for shelter. In a crowded medical center inside the camp, he lifted his shirt to reveal a patchwork of bloody bandages. “They didn’t put any medicine on this, because they ran out,” he said. “They’re only washing it with water. ” Mr. Longa, the new arrival, grew wistful thinking about the three brothers he had lost in three separate conflicts. One died in the war for independence against Sudan, another in the civil war two years ago, and one more in clashes last month, he said. All three were members of the army, he added. But now he wonders what they were fighting for. “We used to go to war for land, or for freedom,” he said. “But now they are confusing us, and making it about tribe. ” | 0fake |
Kellyanne Conway Says Trump Should Be Treated With The Respect He Deserves (AUDIO) | Whiny White House advisor Kellyanne Conway does not like how the media treats her illegitimate president, Donald Trump. She s continuing her crusade against the First Amendment. Interestingly, she, President Steve Bannon, and Trump, have treated the press very badly, yet they feel they should get favorable coverage anyway. Conway appeared on Sean Hannity s radio show, and talked about how mean the press is to Donald.Hannity asked Conway if the media at large was being beyond disrespectful to Trump and his staff, according to Mediaite. Conway agreed then said that the coverage was inciting mob mentality if not mob violence. The coverage never changed [of Trump]. It never progressed, it never matured, Conway said.Conway said she thought protesters had a very low level of literacy of the issues against which they demonstrated, when the truth is that her boss s grammar sits at just below a 6th grade level. It never took on the aura of respect that it deserved, and if you are not showing the President and his main spokespeople respect, then you re not showing the office respect, and you are inciting mob mentality if not mob violence, she said. You are encouraging people to go out there and unpeacefully protest and block airport entrances for people who are going to visit a sick parent and can t make their flight, or are going for a bereavement call and can t make their flight. Listen below:People are treating Donald with the respect he deserves. Protesters know exactly why they went to airports across the country. People were being unconstitutionally detained and handcuffed, even children. Conway said at the time that the whole idea that these people are being separated from their families is temporary. She called it an inconvenience. So, Kellyanne, just consider the treatment Trump is getting an inconvenience, and something that is temporary until his impeachment.She literally complained that the press is being mean to Donald to a Fox News host who treated former President Barack Obama like dirt for 8 years . Quit being so PC, Kellyanne. Conservatives tell me it s destroying our country.Featured image by Mark Wilson via Getty Images. | 1real |
Evan McMullin, Anti-Trump Republican, Mounts Independent Presidential Bid - The New York Times | Evan McMullin, a former C. I. A. official and a Republican who passionately opposes Donald J. Trump, announced Monday that he would run for president as an independent candidate. Mr. McMullin, who until recently worked on policy development with the House Republican Conference, has missed the deadlines in more than two dozen states. But Mr. McMullin, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints, studied in Utah and could take votes from Mr. Trump in the heavily Mormon state. In an interview, Mr. McMullin said he was strongly opposed to both Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. But his harshest words, and his clearest motivation, appeared to come from Mr. Trump’s candidacy. “Really what’s impacted me is the way Trump’s treated our veterans, our heroes,” he said. “The things he said about John McCain, the things he said about the Khan family, and Mrs. Khan. ” Mr. Trump last year disparaged Mr. McCain’s status as a war hero because the Republican senator from Arizona was captured, and more recently he insinuated that Ghazala Khan — the mother of a fallen Muslim soldier who appeared with her husband, Khizr, at the Democratic convention — did not speak because she was not permitted to by her religion. Mr. McMullin is said to be backed by the group Better for America, which earlier this year began an effort to get on the ballot in as many states as possible, with the hopes of drafting a candidate. The group is backed by John Kingston, a donor who had supported Mitt Romney. Mr. Kingston has worked with the pollster Joel Searby. Rick Wilson, a Republican consultant and Trump foe, is the main strategist on the effort. Polling shows that Mr. Trump’s support in Utah is very low for a Republican presidential candidate, and it has particularly suffered amid his battles against Mr. Romney, a Mormon who was the Republican nominee in 2012. If Mr. McMullin is competitive nowhere else but Utah, he still could nonetheless have an effect on the race: Mr. Trump cannot win the presidency without holding the states that Mr. Romney won, his aides have concluded. That Mr. McMullin has a national security background makes him a more appealing option, potentially, to conservatives who cannot bring themselves to support Mr. Trump, but who strongly dislike Mrs. Clinton. Not everyone sounded pleased with Mr. McMullin’s entry into politics. A spokesman for the House Republican Conference, Nate Hodson, said, “The House Republican Conference has zero knowledge of his intentions. ” | 0fake |
'Day of Rage' - a knife, a fake bomb belt, a death | NEAR RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - I went to the road just outside Ramallah, as on previous days, because that is one of the places in the West Bank where Palestinians have been protesting against U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. The 100-metre stretch leads from the city limits of Ramallah to the Jewish settlement of Beit El, and has a filling station and a traffic circle. Earlier on Friday, which Palestinians were calling a Day of Rage , I had tried working at the Kalandia crossing point into the West Bank, but the Israelis had thrown tear gas and I knew this would make taking good photographs difficult. Outside Beit El, a group of paramilitary Israeli police had driven back hundreds of Palestinians who were throwing rocks and burning tyres. I was photographing the protesters, and did not see another Palestinian who apparently emerged close to the Israeli squad from a hiding place near the traffic circle. I heard the Israeli police shooting, and turned around. On instinct, I started taking pictures, all the time trying to keep well out of the line of fire. When the Palestinian fell, I could see that he was holding a knife, and wearing what looked like a suicide bomb vest. Israeli police said he had managed to stab and wound one of their number before being shot. Palestinian medics later said the attacker was dead, and that his bomb belt had been fake. | 0fake |
Payday Loans’ Debt Spiral to Be Curtailed - The New York Times | The payday loan industry, which is vilified for charging exorbitant interest rates on loans that many Americans depend on, could soon be gutted by a set of rules that federal regulators plan to unveil on Thursday. People who borrow money against their paychecks are generally supposed to pay it back within two weeks, with substantial fees piled on: A customer who borrows $500 would typically owe around $575, at an annual percentage rate of 391 percent. But most borrowers routinely roll the loan over into a new one, becoming less likely to ever emerge from the debt. Mainstream banks are generally barred from this kind of lending. More than a dozen states have set their own rate caps and other rules that essentially prohibit payday loans, but the market is flourishing in at least 30 states. Some 16, 000 lenders run online and storefront operations that thrive on the hefty profits. Under the guidelines from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the watchdog agency set up in the wake of 2010 banking legislation — lenders will be required in many cases to verify their customers’ income and to confirm that they can afford to repay the money they borrow. The number of times that people could roll over their loans into newer and pricier ones would be curtailed. The new guidelines do not need congressional or other approval to take effect, which could happen as soon as next year. The Obama administration has said such curbs are needed to protect consumers from taking on more debt than they can handle. The consumer agency — which many Republicans, including Donald J. Trump, have said they would like to eliminate — indicated last year that it intended to crack down on the payday lending market. “The very economics of the payday lending business model depend on a substantial percentage of borrowers being unable to repay the loan and borrowing again and again at high interest rates,” said Richard Cordray, the consumer agency’s director. “It is much like getting into a taxi just to ride across town and finding yourself stuck in a ruinously expensive journey. ” Lenders say the proposed rules would devastate their industry and cut vulnerable borrowers off from a financial lifeline. “Thousands of lenders, especially small businesses, will be forced to shutter their doors, lay off employees, and leave communities that already have too few options for financial services,” said Dennis Shaul, the chief executive of the Community Financial Services Association of America, a trade group for payday lenders. According to the group’s website, “More than 19 million American households count a payday loan among their choice of credit products. ” The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the median fee on a storefront payday loan was $15 for every $100 borrowed. Both sides agree that the proposed rules would radically reshape the market. Loan volume could fall at least 55 percent, according to the consumer agency’s estimates, and the $7 billion a year that lenders collect in fees would drop significantly. That will push many small stores out of business, lenders say. The $37, 000 annual profit generated by the average storefront lender would instead become a $28, 000 loss, according to an economic study paid for by the trade association. Companies and individuals could go through the courts to try to overturn the rules or they could seek legislative action. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a frequent target of scathing criticism from Republican lawmakers. Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has said that he wants to repeal or dismantle nearly all of the act, the law passed in the aftermath of the financial crisis that created the agency. The Democratic presidential candidates generally support stricter lending rules. Senator Bernie Sanders has called for a 15 percent rate cap on all consumer loans and for post offices to become basic banking centers, a change that could “stop payday lenders from ripping off millions of Americans,” he said in a January speech. Hillary Clinton praised the payday lending proposals that the consumer agency released last year and urged her fellow Democrats to fight Republican efforts to “defang and defund” the agency. Consumer advocates are eager for new payday lending rules, but some say the bureau’s rules do not go far enough. “This misses the mark,” said Nick Bourke, a research director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, which has conducted extensive research on lending. “The C. F. P. B. is proposing an underwriting process, which is helpful, but clearer product safety standards are needed. ” In particular, Mr. Bourke said he was frustrated that the agency had dropped a proposal to require that loan payments consume no more than 5 percent of a borrower’s monthly income. The draft rules instead simply require that lenders make sure that customers can afford to repay the loans and still cover their basic living expenses and other debts. But others interested in consumer issues said they were happy for any new protections at all in an area of the lending market that has been operating as something of a Wild West. “We’ve been working toward this day for years,” said George Goehl, an executive director of People’s Action Institute, a group that says it fights for racial and economic justice. “For decades, predatory payday lenders have gotten away with taking money from people who didn’t have much to begin with. ” Candice Byrd, 29, is a former payday borrower who welcomes more restrictions on an industry she views as rapacious and destructive. In 2011, while working a sales job, she took out a $500 loan from a storefront in Bloomington, Ill. to help cover a car payment that was due. The loan had a duration, but halfway through the period, the lender suggested that she roll it over into a new loan. “She was like, ‘You’re a good customer. This would be helpful for you,’” Ms. Byrd recalled. “It was the worst idea ever. ” The second loan set off a worsening cycle that lasted two years as Ms. Byrd borrowed repeatedly to cover the carrying costs on her mounting debt. Unable to pay her bills, she said, she lost her car and her apartment. To extricate herself, she walked away from her final two loans, leaving her credit report in tatters. Ms. Byrd now pays cash for anything she needs. She doubts that the rules the consumer agency has planned would have prevented her from going into debt, but they probably would have ended the cycle sooner. “These places want you to keep borrowing,” she said. “They don’t want you to climb out of the hole. ” | 0fake |
US State Department Talking Head Transforms into Al Qaeda’s Spokesperson | 21st Century Wire says The real cause of the great upheavals which precede changes of civilisations, such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Arabian Empire, is a profound modification in the ideas of the peoples . The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought . The present epoch is one of these critical moments in which the thought of mankind is undergoing a process of transformation. ~ Gustav Le BonThe following display of servitude to Washington s geopolitical agenda in Syria, over and above any concern for human life, or heaven forbid, the truth, is only one of the many triggers that are precipitating a universal awakening globally. Newly appointed US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert (a former FOX News weekend anchor) is transformed into Nusra Front aka Al Qaeda s spokesperson under questioning from RT International s Caleb Maupin. Watch ~***READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire SYRIA FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Hannity Interview with Julian Assange: Wikileaks Source is NOT The Russian Government | 21st Century Wire says Fox News Sean Hannity has broken away from the majority of Western news reporters and has gone to Wikileaks Julian Assange to ask him directly, Was your source for the DNC leaks of Russian origin? Watch the interview below: How refreshing to see a mainstream media commentator actually look into the unfounded claims of Russian hacker involvement in the DNC leaks and the US Presidential election. Alex Christoforou The DuranHannity interviews Julian Assange, who once again confirms that Russia had no role to play in the Wikileaks email leak.Fox News Sean Hannity is perhaps the first main stream media commentator who has gone deeper on the Russian election hacker fake news story than other MSM journalist.Hannity interviewed Julian Assange, who once again confirmed that Russia and no state actor was the source of the Wikileaks Podesta emails or DNC leaks.Hannity is also the only MSM show to explore the Craig Murray report, that chronicles the genesis of the leaks stating that the former Ambassador had met with the source of the email leaks confirming and corroborating Assange s factual claim that no state actor, including Russia, was involved in any kind of hack or leak.Continue this article at The DuranREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files | 1real |
Hacker who exposed Hillary Clinton's email server pleads guilty | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Romanian computer hacker who revealed the existence of a private email server used by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state pleaded guilty to hacking-related offenses on Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said. Marcel Lazar, who used the alias “Guccifer,” entered his guilty plea before Judge James Cacheris in U.S. District Court, Alexandria, Virginia, the department said in a statement. Sentencing was set for Sept. 1. In recent media interviews, Lazar claimed he had easily hacked into Clinton’s controversial private email server. But the Justice Department statement did not confirm this claim, and a law enforcement official said investigators did not find evidence to support the claim. | 0fake |
THIS PICTURE OF HARRIET TUBMAN Should Be Used On The $20 Bill…If For No Other Reason Than To Drive Anti-Gun Left Crazy | Obama has filled his cabinet with radical yes men and women who hold similar anti-American, leftist views. His radical Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew is no exception.Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced yesterday that Alexander Hamilton s face will remain on the front of the $10 bill and Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill.What the Left forgot in their haste to replace a racist white (Democrat) President on the front of the $20 bill was the fact that Harriet Tubman was more than just a black abolitionist, she also serves as an excellent example of why our Second Amendment is so important.Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; 1820 March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. She carried a revolver, and was not afraid to use it . . .Once a slave agreed to join her expedition, there was no turning back; she threatened to shoot anyone who tried to return. Tubman told the tale of one journey with a group of fugitive slaves, when morale sank and one man insisted he was going to go back to the plantation.She pointed the gun at his head and said, You go on or die. Several days later, he was with the group as they entered Canada. It is more than likely that Tubman carried the handgun as protection from ever-present slave catchers and their dogs.Via: The Truth About GunsBreaking: Treasury throws founder of the Democratic Party off $20 bill, replaces with gun-toting Republican pic.twitter.com/G9dVXpTaXv David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 20, 2016Tubman s reliance on her firearms to fulfill her mission of freeing slaves was essential. So it only seems fitting that the US Treasury would use this picture of Republican, Harriet Tubman to replace the first Democrat President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. | 1real |
Why Do Health Costs Keep Rising? These People Know - The New York Times | DANVILLE, Pa. — The Geisinger Health Plan, run by one of the nation’s health care organizations, foresees medical costs increasing next year by 7. 5 percent for people buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act. So when Geisinger requested a rate increase of 40 percent for 2017, consumer advocates were amazed. And Kurt J. Wrobel, Geisinger’s chief actuary, found himself, along with other members of his profession, in the middle of the health care wars still raging in this political year. Actuaries normally toil far from the limelight, anonymous technicians stereotyped as dull and boring. But as they crunch the numbers for their Affordable Care Act business, their calculations are feeding a roaring national debate over insurance premiums, widely used to gauge the success of President Obama’s health care law. Health plans around the country have just filed proposed rates for 2017. State insurance commissioners are still reviewing them. But questions about the proposed increases are reverberating through the health care system and into the political campaign. “Historical experience is the lifeblood of what we do,” Mr. Wrobel said, in an interview at Geisinger’s headquarters here. “We take that experience, adjust it for the underlying growth of health costs and project it into the future so we can estimate the expected costs for a particular insurance policy. ” Such niceties may be lost in this scorching campaign season. “There is panic and anger as health care costs explode!” Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, wrote in a recent Twitter post, seizing on increases of nearly 60 percent sought by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. Obama administration officials are more sanguine. Consumers, they say, should not worry. Proposed rate increases are often reduced by state officials. Federal subsidies will generally rise along with premiums, offsetting much of the additional costs, and consumers can, in any event, switch to cheaper health plans next year. But as they prepare for the fourth year of coverage under the Affordable Care Act, many insurers are struggling to find the best ways of providing care to their new customers. The giant UnitedHealth Group, having lost money on individual policies under the federal health law, is pulling out of many insurance exchanges next year. A number of health insurance cooperatives created under the law have shut down. Geisinger is different. During debate on the 2010 health care law, Mr. Obama and members of Congress repeatedly hailed it as a model providing “ care at costs well below average,” in the president’s words. Geisinger serves residents of rural central and northeast Pennsylvania, and its roots in the community are as deep as the coal mines that once flourished here. Dr. David T. Feinberg, the president and chief executive of the Geisinger Health System, said its health plan was losing $30 million a year on coverage sold on the federal exchange in Pennsylvania. But leaving the market here would be unthinkable. “For its shareholders, United made the right decision,” Dr. Feinberg said, “but we don’t answer to shareholders. We answer to the nice people of Danville, Shamokin and Bloomsburg. ” It would be difficult to find a health plan more aligned with the goals of the federal law. The Obama administration recruited a former chief executive of the Geisinger Health Plan, Dr. Richard J. Gilfillan, to be the first director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, created by the health law to test ways to improve care and cut costs. Geisinger has been a pioneer in the use of electronic health records and genomic medicine, recruiting 100, 000 patients for DNA sequencing studies in the last two years. It has embraced “pay for performance,” offering a warranty for major surgical procedures and promising not to charge extra if complications occur. But innovation has been no match for the actuarial surprises dealt out by the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Wrobel said Geisinger had simply underestimated how much care its new customers would need. “Our rates for Medicare, Medicaid and insurance have been relatively stable, but those products have to bear the cost of our losses on exchange business,” Mr. Wrobel said. Last October the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, headed by a former Obama administration official, approved a 20 percent increase in Geisinger’s rates, about half of what the company had requested. “But based on experience,” Mr. Wrobel said, “the 2016 premium rate is too low, so we want to correct it in 2017. ” Julia T. Philips, an actuary who worked 19 years for the state of Minnesota, said insurance regulators generally do not let a company make up for past losses with future rate increases. “But regulators often allow companies to catch up,” she said. “If you assumed that claims would average $400 per member per month in 2015 and the actual cost was $440, you can use the higher number as a starting point in predicting claims costs for 2017. ” Obama administration officials suggest that insurance companies seeking big rate increases have been slow to adapt to the new law. But Geisinger executives welcome innovation, and they have celebrated the reduction in the number of uninsured under the Affordable Care Act. Geisinger is not alone. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department says insurers have proposed premium increases averaging 23. 6 percent for individual coverage for 2017. “People with conditions are now getting treatment,” said Antoinette Kraus, the director of a statewide consumer group, the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, “and it’s more expensive because they were shut out of the market for many years. ” But, she added, “we expect that they’ll eventually become healthier, so we won’t see these huge rate increases every year. ” Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace, acknowledged that “ demand for health care is greater than people expected and is lasting longer than expected. ” In April, before most insurers had filed their rate requests for 2017, the Obama administration began a campaign to play down their significance. “Proposed rates aren’t what consumers pay,” the Department of Health and Human Services said. “Most people receive tax credits and can buy a plan for less than $75 per month. ” Moreover, the administration says that the health law created a competitive market in which consumers can shop for the best deal. As evidence that this market is working, the administration boasts that more than 40 percent of returning consumers switched to different plans for 2016. However, Mr. Wrobel said, such turnover is making it more difficult for insurers to predict costs. “The whole point of what we do, the foundation of good health insurance,” he said, “is to develop relationships with our members and to make investments in their health. It’s not like buying a book on Amazon. ” Besides, he said, substantial numbers of consumers do not receive subsidies. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 12 million people will receive subsidies, in the form of tax credits, next year. But it says that an equal number — three million on the exchanges and nine million buying insurance outside the exchanges — will have to pay the full unsubsidized price. “When we developed rates for 2014,” Mr. Wrobel said, “we had no historical data. It was basically an educated guess. ” Mr. Wrobel said rates were still being affected by a federal policy, adopted in late 2013, that allowed some people to keep and renew insurance that did not meet standards in the Affordable Care Act. “Healthier people chose to keep their plans,” he said, “so the collective cost of care for people buying insurance on the exchange was higher than expected. ” Many insurers hope to profit from the Affordable Care Act, but for Geisinger, the calculus is a little different. “Geisinger has been here for 100 years, and we expect to be here another hundred,” Mr. Wrobel said. “We are going to be taking care of the people in this community one way or another. So it’s really important for this program to be financially stable and sustainable. ” | 0fake |
A Must Watch Video! Brilliant Take On How Hillary Clinton’s Lawlessness Gets Ignored | Hillary Clinton breaks the law, gets people who work for her killed, lies to the American people and she s still a media darling? How is that possible??? | 1real |
TRUMP CALLS OUT Washington Post #FakeNews Reporter For Posting Fake Pictures Of Rally Hours Before It Started…Posts Actual Pictures Of Packed Stadium | Washington Post reporter took to Twitter to post an image of the venue where Trump was to appear in several hours. The only problem is, the Washington Post reporter didn t say the image was taken several hours before President Trump appeared on stage.Here is Dave Weigel s #FakeNews post, that he has since deleted:As someone who attended Trump s final campaign rally, the night before the election in Grand Rapids, MI, I can attest to the incredible amount of security Trump supporters must go through before entering the venue. Trump supporters were lined up for miles to get into the event we attended, and after several hours, many of his supporters were seen trickling in, hours after the event started, after waiting to get through security..@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo! pic.twitter.com/XAblFGh1ob Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017Here are a few of the pictures Trump posted in his tweet above to show the actual size of the crowd: After the Washington Post reporter was outed by President Trump, for lying on Twitter about the size of Trump s crowd at his rally, he apologized:Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I'd gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner. https://t.co/fQY7GMNSaD Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 9, 2017President Trump responded to Dave Weigel s apology on Twitter. Trump called for his firing for pushing #FakeNews on Twitter..@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017Many of Trump s supporters came to his defense on Twitter as well, posting images of a packed stadium for everyone to see:Here s what the line outside of the Trump rally actually looked like:HAPPENING NOW!Trump Rally Pensacola!pic.twitter.com/549Oq74upD TRUMP News 24/7 (@MichaelDelauzon) December 8, 2017Here are several shots of the Pensacola venue from inside:STADIUM PACKED at Trump Rally in Pensacola, Fl!We aren't going ANYWHERE! We are just getting started .again! Make America Great Again #ThingsITrustMorethanCNN #ResistanceIsImportant #TrumpRally pic.twitter.com/61RcSUG2dO Kambree Kawahine Koa (@KamVTV) December 9, 2017For those saying Pensacola Bay Center was empty tonight for Trump Rally pic.twitter.com/zZqVYK8xIf Bard Law (@TwoLameDucks) December 9, 2017Crowds gather for Trump Rally in Pensacola today!! pic.twitter.com/eRJy92nz6m ssd (@Pismo_B) December 8, 2017A video view from inside the Pensacola Trump rally tonight, as the president talked about illegal immigration pic.twitter.com/VoPbEBqijE David Martosko (@dmartosko) December 9, 2017 | 1real |
Trump Dominates South Carolina, Dooming The Republican Party | Iiiiiitttt ssssssss a wonderful day in the (White) neighborhood. It s a wonderful day in the (White) neighborhood. Won t you be my (White) neighbor?Donald Trump came to South Carolina and summoned the darkness at the heart of conservative politics like the Pied Piper incarnate. No amount of Bible-thumping, gun-toting or terrorist fear-mongering could draw the crowds away. They wanted one thing and one thing only: Someone to tell them that not only was their hate of Those People permissible, it was proper and necessary to make America great again. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Trump had won 32 percent of the vote and led his nearest rivals by about 10 percentage points. He was likely to capture all 50 delegates at stake in the state. Mr. Trump s victory here was not as sweeping as the one in New Hampshire, and there were warning signs as he showed weakness among women and younger voters. But he still won among both independents and Republicans, and among self-described evangelical Christians. He also seemed to have built a coalition that will remain with him through adversity: More than half of voters who made their decisions over a month ago picked Mr. Trump, exit polls showed.That is exciting news! Trump simply has no chance in the general election where his obnoxious racism would turn off much of the country and his general incompetence would lead many conservative voters to not vote. But more importantly, as I ve said many times, Trump has destroyed the illusion that the right wing cares about religion, morals or fetuses. They care about hating Those People and maintaining white supremacy. It s been their motivation for much of this country s history and that s why Trump is their man.Once Rubio or Cruz drop out of the race, the other might consolidate the remaining voters and pass Trump but there s little reason for either of them to do so. Cruz is in it for himself and Rubio is the pick of the Establishment. Trump, of course, is running on pure ego at this point. If this dynamic continues, all signs point to Trump as the nominee and that s the best news possible for Sanders and Clinton.Featured via AI archives | 1real |
Donald Trump’s Other Campaign Foe: The ‘Lowest Form of Life’ News Media - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump was on the defensive all week, battered from all sides for his heated statements hailing the Second Amendment and linking political opponents to the Islamic State. But on Friday morning, Mr. Trump rose early to strike back at his favorite adversary. “Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) ‘the founder’ of ISIS,” Mr. Trump fumed on Twitter shortly after dawn. “THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?” He soon fired off another gibe. “I love watching these poor, pathetic people (pundits) on television working so hard and so seriously to try and figure me out,” Mr. Trump taunted. “They can’t!” The broadside was no aberration. Long a vehement critic of the political news media, Mr. Trump has increasingly organized his effort around antagonizing the press. He dedicates long sections of his speeches and innumerable tweets to savaging individual outlets, and claiming that media bias could effectively “rig” the election for Hillary Clinton. At times, his enthusiasm for venting anger about the news media has seemed to rival his interest in criticizing Mrs. Clinton. In Erie, Pa. on Friday, Mr. Trump swerved back and forth between attacks on Mrs. Clinton and an extended airing of grievances about the press. The news media, he said, was determined to cover up Mrs. Clinton’s missteps and highlight his own. (Mr. Trump allowed that Fox News, home to several anchors who openly favor his candidacy, was an exception.) “These people are the lowest form of life, I’m telling you,” he said, pointing at the journalists covering his rally. “They are the lowest form of humanity. ” In Altoona, Pa. on Friday evening, Mr. Trump continued his diatribe: “It is so ridiculous, the pile on,” he complained of the coverage of his campaign. “Every single day, story after story after story. ” Mr. Trump’s allegations of news media malevolence also serve a tactical purpose: Providing him license to revise or play down his remarks. After stating several times this week that he considered Mr. Obama to be the founder of the Islamic State, Mr. Trump reversed course on Friday with a declaration that he had only been speaking sarcastically and that the press simply did not understand. In Pennsylvania, he reiterated that he had been sarcastic, but added: “Not that sarcastic, to be honest with you. ” Republicans often complain about the national news media, arguing that most reporters and publications are tilted against them. In the 1992 presidential race, Republicans even produced a bumper sticker urging voters to “annoy the media” by President George Bush. And in his 2016 primary campaign, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida accused the press of being the equivalent of a “super PAC” for Democrats. On the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont fulminated this year about the “corporate media,” which he described as hostile to liberal ideals. And aides and supporters of Mrs. Clinton routinely complain that reporters treat her unfairly. But the Trump campaign has made accusations of news media bias a pervasive theme, and has attacked publications and reporters with virulence. Since last year, Mr. Trump has made a practice of riling up his crowds with mockery of the media, often pointing to the press risers and describing reporters as dishonest. In Erie on Friday, his audience jeered each time Mr. Trump mentioned a news outlet, and at one point many in the crowd turned their backs on him to face the press and express their contempt with a variety of shouts and gestures. “Dinosaur media is failing!” one man yelled. Mr. Trump’s slashing attacks have generated embarrassing scenes for his campaign, as agitated Trump fans have acted on his goading. On Thursday night, video circulated widely online of an angry Trump supporter berating reporters and making an obscene gesture in their direction in Kissimmee, Fla. In one instance during the primaries, Katy Tur, a reporter for NBC News, reported she was escorted to her car by the Secret Service after a rally in which Mr. Trump assailed her by name. If bashing the media proved an effective way of rallying the Republican base to his side during the primaries, Mr. Trump must now prove himself to a broader community of voters in the general election, who are far less preoccupied with the notion of press bias. Republican strategists see Mr. Trump’s offensive mainly as an exercise in defensiveness, rather than a shrewd political strategy. Kevin Madden, a former spokesman for Mitt Romney’s and George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns, said Mr. Trump was veering away from issues actually weighing on swing voters, which he said were “economy and . ” “Whining about media coverage is just that: It’s whining,” Mr. Madden said. Of complaints, Mr. Madden said: “Any campaign that tells you it makes a difference with swing voters is just lying to themselves and lazy, because it’s easier than developing an actual strategy or message. ” Still, Mr. Trump has intensified his comments, and his top surrogates have raced to join him: Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, engaged in a tense colloquy on CNN on Thursday, insisting that the media had wronged Mr. Trump in its treatment of his candidacy. “A lot of coverage is rigged,” Mr. Giuliani said. And the Trump campaign, which for months has kept a list of outlets barred from receiving press credentials to cover his events, has now taken to putting out regular emails that attack newspapers and websites for alleged bias. The emails feature lengthy denunciations of the offending outlet, accompanied by an image of the publication with a red or yellow stamp over it reading: “Media bias offender. ” The messages also include offensive headlines, highlighted with circles around them, mimicking Mr. Trump’s habit of cutting out newspaper articles and circling in marker what he finds objectionable. Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary under Mr. Bush, said Mr. Trump was so far behind in the campaign that his fixation on the press was unlikely to help. Mr. Fleischer, who holds that there is an “overarching ideological edge” toward Democrats in the media, said Mr. Trump was using claims of news media bias to cover for his own missteps. Mr. Trump’s offhand comment about “Second Amendment people,” which was widely interpreted as a joke about assassinating politicians, was a case in point, Mr. Fleischer said. “When I first heard it and then saw the print coverage of it, I thought: This is the media again, taking it too far,” Mr. Fleischer said. “And then I watched the video and I thought: What a fool. This is bona fide. He’s created this problem for himself. ” | 0fake |
Hillary Clinton Broke The Internet With Trump Trolling Site | Hillary Clinton broke the internet, or at least one of her sites, when an anti-Trump site, owned by the Clinton campaign went down on Thursday from traffic overload.The site is actually a subdomain of her main site, HillaryClinton.com. It s called TrumpYourself.org and it s an interactive (but not terribly scientific) sort of hateful Trump quote roulette. I say not scientific because when I rolled the dice it told me that Donald Trump doesn t think I should be able to get married. I happen to be among those who have legally been marrying for centuries. Naturally, though, it is an important issue for my LGBT friends.Here are some samples of what you might get, when you can get on the site:Introducing #TrumpYourself: Discover what @realDonaldTrump thinks about people like you. https://t.co/cSY7ozT4tr pic.twitter.com/KvVt2tGwFd Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 21, 2016 Now we know what Trump really thinks about us. Sad! https://t.co/o3ohaHfR77 #TrumpYourself pic.twitter.com/rYYXMCLjyr Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 21, 2016YAY MISOGYNY #TrumpYourself pic.twitter.com/7gLfIRHLho Tara Rodham Dublin (@taradublinrocks) July 21, 2016 Alright @HillaryClinton team, this #TrumpYourself thing is pretty funny. Well done. pic.twitter.com/7vbehDENqD Danny Davies (@greatheights1) July 21, 2016Too many to choose from! I got octo-Trumped. Thanks, @HillaryClinton! #TrumpYourself https://t.co/BbpEx5vrq5 pic.twitter.com/IK5aDtQUL2 Ebroodle (@ebroodle) July 21, 2016If the viral traffic means you have to try several times to get on the site, you get this for your 404 page, which is worth it by itself. The #TrumpYourself 404 page is pretty great: https://t.co/b1oY1YiiLU pic.twitter.com/kahJRbh84D Rachel Sklar (@rachelsklar) July 21, 2016It even gets better, there s a quote that says, Look at that traffic, is that small traffic? We guarantee you there s no problem. We guarantee. The Clinton campaign seems to have mostly fixed the problems. Try it out; the site is a lot of fun. Beware, though, you will be invited to donate to the Clinton campaign (of course) and to add your name and email to her database.Featured image via Hillary Clinton s Twitter | 1real |
Thai hotels booked up ahead of funeral of revered king | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Hotels in Bangkok s bustling old town, home to a backpacker enclave favored by foreign tourists, are booked up as Thailand prepares to host the lavish funeral of its revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej next week, the hotel association said on Monday. The funeral of King Bhumibol, who died on Oct. 13 last year after seven decades on the throne, will run for five days next week, with most events centering on the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang, a public square in the historic quarter. About 250,000 mourners are expected to attend the funeral, which will feature gold-tipped pavilions built for the occasion, and Oct. 26, the day of the cremation, has been declared a national holiday. Many Thais wishing to attend the cremation feel it would be more convenient having a place to stay nearby, so most hotels have been booked out already, Supawan Tanomkieatipume, president of the Thai Hotels Association, told Reuters. A Reuters survey of three hotels on the Khao San Road, the main artery of the Banglamphu backpacker area, found no rooms were available. We are fully booked during the royal cremation, said Preechaya Amngeun, 23, a guest services agent at the Ibis Styles Bangkok Khaosan Viengtai, part of French hotel group Accor. Around 80 percent of the guests we have are Thais. The other 20 percent are foreign tourists. Thailand s tourism industry, which accounts for 12 percent of GDP, has been a rare bright spot for an economy that has struggled since a 2014 coup. It has weathered political turbulence and a major natural disaster over the past decade. (This story has been refiled to insert place in dateline) | 0fake |
Jails, justice system at breaking point as Philippine drugs war intensifies | MANILA Reuters) - In a teeming prison for undertrials in the Philippines capital Manila, Rody Lacanilao, an inmate for 18 months, says he prays for clear weather at night. A downpour, he says, will prevent him and hundreds of fellow prisoners in the Quezon City jail from sleeping on plywood mats in an outdoor hallway. The cells themselves are overflowing with an influx of detainees from President Rodrigo Duterte s year-long war on drugs. Thousands of people have been killed in Duterte s campaign, mainly drug users and small-time peddlers. Tens of thousands of others have been thrown into jail, and both prisons and courts in the Southeast Asian nation are creaking under the pressure. Since the war on drugs started, it became harder to sleep, Lacanilao told a Reuters team allowed access to the Quezon City jail. We have no place to go to when it rains. The 37-year-old is facing trial on a drugs charge. The prison was initially built for 262 inmates, but now has 2,975, three-quarters of them jailed for drug-related offences. At night, its basketball court, chapel, classrooms and walkways become sleeping areas for detainees. Inmates who spoke to Reuters said living conditions were unbearable, made worse by the prospect that it could be years before their trials are decided. Many of them are not eligible for bail or cannot afford to pay the bond. Prisoners came in one after the other. If you have money, you can buy a spot in the sleeping quarters, said Junjun Vallecer, who says he has been in the jail for four years for possession of drugs but is still being tried. He says he has to wait four to six months between court appearances. The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) put the prison population in the country, including undertrials and convicts, at 137,417 as of the end of June, up 22 percent since Duterte took office at the end of June last year. Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested 96,703 suspected pushers, users and chemists from July last year until earlier this month, according to police data. A staggering 94 percent of people jailed for drug offences are still undertrials, according to BJMP. Police in Manila arrest nearly 100 drug suspects each day, says Oscar Albayalde, the capital s police chief. Whether they are minor charges or not, we have to arrest these people, Albayalde told Reuters. We make these arrests that contribute to the over-congestion of the detention cells ... but what can we do? Including a backlog, the BJMP says 303,534 narcotics cases were at trial or being processed as of June. Most of the cases are defended by the Public Attorney s Office (PAO), a legal aid agency attached to the Department of Justice. At the end of 2016, the agency had a backlog of 303,000 drugs cases, compared to about 82,000 at the end of June 2016, just before Duterte unleashed his fierce anti-drugs campaign. The agency says it has 1,665 lawyers to handle a total of 709,128 criminal cases currently pending, meaning an average of 426 cases for each of them. We have tons of work, said public defender Karen Jay Sabugo, eating a meal of instant noodles at her desk. There are times when I return to the office so exhausted that I can t speak with colleagues anymore. The 30-year-old, in her first year as a trial lawyer, told Reuters she attends more than a dozen court hearings a day. In the morning, we attend court hearings and in the afternoon, we prepare pleadings and meet clients. I go to jails to prepare our defense. Boxloads of documents are piled up inside the PAO s office in Quezon City. Most are related to cases, but some are applications for about 750 new positions the government has agreed to create in the agency in the next two years to handle the overflow of cases. Typically, trials in the Philippines begin some years after arrest, said Maria Socorro Diokno, executive director of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), an organization of human rights lawyers. Trial last two to three years on average in regional courts, and another two or three years are taken up by appeals. Even before Duterte s anti-drugs crackdown, the Philippines had the third-most-congested prison system in the world after Haiti and El Salvador, according to the London-based Institute for Criminal Policy Research. An average of six inmates occupy a space of 4.7 square meters, the space intended for one prisoner, data from the BJMP showed. One Philippine prison officer watches over 63 prisoners on average, far from the stipulated one-to-seven ratio, and there are insufficient numbers of guards to escort suspects to court hearings, the data showed. The ratios are really wild, said Martin Perfecto, deputy director of the Philippines Bureau of Corrections. FLAG lawyer Alex Padilla says judicial reform is not a priority in the Philippines because there is scant sympathy for those accused of crimes. Duterte is extremely popular because people are fed up with crime and many support the killings in his campaign, he said. Judicial reform is the last reform because it s dirty, Padilla said. These are criminals ... they are the garbage of the society. (GRAPHIC: Lawyers, jails inundated by Duterte's war on drugs - tmsnrt.rs/2vNCFW4) | 0fake |
Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa opens amnesty window for return of stolen funds | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Tuesday announced a three-month amnesty window for the return of public funds illegally stashed abroad by individuals and companies. Upon the expiry of the amnesty at end of February next year, the government will arrest and prosecute those who have failed to comply, Mnangagwa said in a statement. Mnangagwa was sworn-in as president on Friday and promised to tackle corruption, which had become endemic under former president Robert Mugabe s 37-year rule. Those affected are thus encouraged to take advantage of the three-month moratorium to return the illegally externalized funds and assets in order to avoid the pain and ignominy of being visited by the long arm of the law, Mnangagwa said. Zimbabwe s new president is under pressure to deliver, especially on the economy, which is in the grip of severe foreign currency shortages that have seen banks failing to give cash to customers. Mnangagwa told heads of government ministries on Tuesday that he was putting together a leaner government, which would see the merging of some departments to enhance efficiency. Critics say Zimbabwe has a bloated civil service, which chews more than 90 percent of the national budget. Mnangagwa, however, said only workers of retirement age would be laid off. He promised to rebuild the economy and improve the livelihoods of Zimbabweans. My government will have no tolerance for bureaucratic slothfulness, which is quick to brandish procedures as an excuse for stalling service delivery to citizens, investors and other stakeholders, Mnangagwa said in a statement read to the government officials. After recovering under a unity government between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition between 2009 and 2012, the southern African nation s economy has unraveled with the unemployment rate above 90 percent. Mnangagwa is expected to announce a cabinet this week, with all eyes on whether he breaks with the past and names a broad-based government or selects old guard figures from Mugabe s era. An official at parliament said Mnangagwa had asked for curriculum vitaes of ZANU-PF legislators on Tuesday as he moves to put the new cabinet in place. Meanwhile, deputy parliament speaker Mabel Chinomona told the house that she had been informed by ZANU-PF that the party had recalled five legislators from parliament, indicating the five had been dismissed as ZANU-PF lawmakers. The members, all linked to the G40 group that supported Mugabe s wife Grace, include former ministers Savior Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo and Ignatius Chombo, who is facing corruption charges in court. | 0fake |
Obama Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ To Malia Is The Most ‘Dad’ Thing You’ll Ever See Him Do (VIDEO) | On July 4, we celebrate our independence each year, but the Obama family has had another reason to celebrate for the last 18 the birth of the President s eldest daughter, Malia. This year s annual White House Fourth of July picnic on the lawn had to be canceled due to rain, but the President and Michelle Obama decided to move the party inside where they hosted numerous military families. Since it was his daughter s birthday, President Obama decided to do what dads do best embarrass her by being her dad. It just so happens we celebrate our country s birthday on the same day as my oldest daughter s birthday, so just a quick Happy Birthday for Malia, the President told the crowd. He then broke into a croaky, frankly terrible rendition of Happy Birthday that was somehow perfect in every way.As he wrapped up the song, Malia stepped in to give her father a huge hug in what is possibly the most touching father-daughter moment of the many we have witnessed.Preceding this touching moment between Obama and his daughter were some beautiful remarks about our country. Obama called the United States a miracle, saying that we are lucky that people generations ago were willing to take up arms and fight for our freedom. Independence is not something that just happens, he told the crowd. It s something that we have to fight for every single day. It s something that we have to nurture and we have to spread the word and we have to work on. President Obama said that the most important thing about freedom is that we ensure that everyone has opportunities in this country that they can put a roof over their heads and contribute to society. It is important to recognize imperfections and fight to make things better for everyone, Obama said.Watch this touching scene unfold below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
BREAKING: STATE DEPARTMENT Asked FBI To Switch Clinton ‘Classified’ Email To ‘Unclassified’ For ‘Quid Pro Quo’…Intent! | In the documents, an unnamed person interviewed by the FBI said Kennedy contacted the FBI to ask for the change in classification in exchange for a quid pro quo.' Whether or not Clinton sent classified emails from her private server that could have jeopardized national security has become a key issue ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8, when Clinton will face Republican nominee Donald Trump.Catherine Herridge of FOX News is a class act and out there telling the truth day after day. Here s her truth bomb on this effort to protect Hillary Clinton:FBI releases docs showing a State Dept exec wanted changes to email classification that would benefit dept & shield HRC, Herridge reports. pic.twitter.com/JMNethoRmX Fox News (@FoxNews) October 17, 2016 VIA: REUTERS | 1real |
Co-leader of Germany's far-right AfD to quit in major blow | BERLIN (Reuters) - Frauke Petry, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, said on Tuesday she was leaving the party in a major blow to its credibility just two days after it surged to third place in a national election. The anti-immigrant AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote in Germany’s election on Sunday, becoming the third-largest group in parliament and the first from the far-right to win seats in the Bundestag since the 1950s. Petry, the highest-profile figure in the AfD’s more moderate wing, had shocked other senior members by saying on Monday she would not sit with the AfD in the Bundestag (lower house) but rather as an independent member of parliament. Her husband, another senior AfD figure, is also leaving the party. “We tried to change course but you have to realize when you reach a point when that is no longer possible,” Petry, a 42-year-old chemist, told reporters in the eastern city of Dresden. “I have five children for whom I am responsible and ultimately you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror.” Petry has clashed with other senior members, arguing for the party to take a more moderate course to make it possible for it to join a coalition government. Her husband, Marcus Pretzell - head of the AfD in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and also an MP in the European Parliament - is quitting the party and will become an independent MP, a spokesman for the AfD in NRW said. The spokesman said Pretzell and another AfD lawmaker in NRW’s regional assembly who is also leaving the party had made the decision for reasons of “personal integrity”. On Monday, four of the 17 AfD lawmakers in the assembly of the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern announced they were bolting because the party had become more radical. Europe’s far-right parties have a history of infighting among their various factions. Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, last week lost her deputy over policy differences. Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, the AfD’s top candidates during the election campaign, were elected as chairs of the party’s parliamentary group on Tuesday. Gauland is a supporter of Bjoern Hoecke, a senior AfD member who has courted controversy by denying that Adolf Hitler was “absolutely evil” and calling Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial a “monument of shame”. Weidel was originally an opponent of Hoecke but has not been so critical of him lately. Weidel said she did not expect other lawmakers to quit the party but added: “We’ll have to see. The step surprised us all, but there are not yet any trends recognizable in the future parliamentary group.” Senior AfD member Dirk Driesang, who in July founded a moderate group within the AfD called the “Alternative Centre”, with which Petry was said to sympathize, told news magazine Der Spiegel that the group could not understand Petry’s decision and would not be following in her footsteps. He said the group would continue to fight for the AfD to take a moderate course and added that “a spin-off from the AfD is a stillbirth”. Driesang pointed to the example of Bernd Lucke, who founded the AfD then left in 2015 due to what he saw as rising xenophobia and then formed a new, unsuccessful party. Petry was the most recognizable face in the AfD during its swift rise over the past two years. But she said on Monday she could not stand with an “anarchistic party” that lacked a credible plan to govern. For months, Petry has urged the AfD to soften its stance and prepare to join coalition governments, while others wanted the party to stick to opposition. Mainstream parties refuse to work with the AfD. She had also distanced herself from some of the AfD’s more radical senior members, saying their comments were putting voters off. Gauland caused a scandal during the election campaign by saying Germans should be proud of their World War Two soldiers. He also said the integration minister should be “disposed of” in Turkey, where her parents come from. As the AfD convened in Berlin on Tuesday for its first parliamentary group meeting, Gauland said discussions in the Bundestag would not echo those of the party’s campaign. “It’s clear that the talks during the campaign are different to those held in parliament,” he said. | 0fake |
Tillerson says U.S. willing to talk to North Korea without pre-condition | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that the United States was willing to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, appearing to back away from U.S. demands that Pyongyang first accept that any negotiations would have to be based on North Korean disarmament. Let s just meet, Tillerson said in a speech to a Washington think tank, offering a new diplomatic opening amid heightened tensions over North Korea s weapons advances. We can talk about the weather if you want. We can talk about whether it s going to be a square table or a round table. Then we can begin to lay out a map, a road map, of what we might be willing to work towards, Tillerson said, suggesting that any initial contacts would be about setting the ground rules for formal negotiations. | 0fake |
FACTORY WORKER RIPS INTO Speaker Paul Ryan on the “Do Nothing” Congress [Video] | We love this guy! Factory worker Keith Ketzler: For eight horrible years I heard, We don t have control of the House. We don t have control of the senate. We don t have the presidency and when we get in we got a plan and we re going to change stuff. Well I tell you what, you re in there now and all I see is infighting. It s very dysfunctional.This guy just said whatever American would like to say to Paul Ryan! Notice how the answer was just more rhetoric blah, blah, blah All talk and NO ACTION!Paul Ryan is in the back pocket of the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups. He s talking out of both sides of his mouth. He needs to go!PAUL RYAN AUDIO GIVES US INSIGHT INTO HOW HE REALLY FEELS ABOUT TRUMP:AUDIO RELEASED: Paul Ryan Caught On Tape: I am not going to defend Donald Trump not now, not in the future We all know Paul Ryan was no fan of President Donald Trump while he was running for office. Sadly, unlike the Democrats who held their noses and went all in for Hillary, our Republican Speaker of the House went out of his way to NOT support Trump during his highly contentious campaign. Now that a new audio tape has emerged, proving that Ryan went out of his way to make sure his colleagues in the House understood that he would never support Trump, this leaves Ryan looking pretty foolish considering the public support Trump has offered Ryan and his increasingly unpopular Obamacare Lite proposal.On a never-before-released private October conference call with House Republican members, House Speaker Paul Ryan told his members in the U.S. House of Representatives he was abandoning then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump forever and would never defend him ever again. In the Oct. 10, 2016 call, from right after the Access Hollywood tape of Trump was leaked in the weeks leading up to the election, Ryan does not specify that he will never defend Trump on just the Access Hollywood tape he says clearly he is done with Trump altogether. I am not going to defend Donald Trump not now, not in the future, Ryan says in the audio, obtained by Breitbart News and published here for the first time ever.Now, Ryan still the Speaker has pushed now President Donald Trump to believe his healthcare legislation the American Health Care Act would repeal and replace Obamacare when it does not repeal Obamacare. Ryan has also, according to Trump ally Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), misled President Trump into believing that Ryan s bill can pass Congress. Paul and others believe the bill is dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate since a number of GOP senators have come out against it, and there are serious questions about whether it can pass the House. This is the first major initiative that Trump has worked on with Ryan and the fact it is going so poorly calls into question whether Speaker Ryan, the GOP s failed 2012 vice presidential nominee who barely supported Trump at all in 2016, really understands how Trump won and how to win in general.The October conference call apparently was intended only for House Republican members. It s unclear which or how many House Republicans took part in the call, whether the participants knew it was being recorded, who made the recording, or whether a recording exists of the entire call. The remarks on the portion provided to Breitbart News certainly sound like they were coming from Speaker Ryan, who seemed to be abandoning his party s presidential nominee altogether just weeks before the election. He says not only will he not defend the Access Hollywood comments, but he will not campaign with Trump at all between this call on Oct. 10, 2016, and the general election for the presidency on Nov. 8 and that Ryan would not defend Trump on anything generally. For entire story- Matthew Boyle, Breitbart NewsLISTEN: | 1real |
Trump to testify in Trump University lawsuit after Nov. 8 vote: reports | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump will testify after the Nov. 8 presidential election in a class-action lawsuit that accuses him and his now-defunct Trump University of defrauding people who paid up to $35,000 for real estate seminars, media reports said on Friday, citing his attorney. Court documents showed a federal judge ordered the trial to start in San Diego on Nov. 28. This raised the possibility that Trump could take the stand as president-elect but also ensured that he will not have to testify in the case while he campaigns. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee plans to attend much of the trial and would take the witness stand, Trump lawyer Daniel Petrocelli was quoted as saying by the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times. Petrocelli did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim the school lured “student-victims” into its doors, only to defraud them once their checks were cashed. Another Trump lawyer, Alan Garten, last year called the allegations “totally lacking in any merit” and said that Trump would prevail in the end “whether it be by motion or at trial.” Trump also faces another lawsuit in Manhattan over Trump University brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which Garten has said is “politically motivated.” Schneiderman is a Democrat. That fraud lawsuit, filed in 2013, seeks $40 million in restitution plus penalties and other costs. | 0fake |
BREAKING! — New shattering Wikileaks info implicates Clintons in shocking allegations of rape, satanism, blood drinking, and child sex in hot tubs | November 7, 2016 at 6:55 pm
Flopot,
Yes, I know it makes your blood boil to consider the “lesser of two evils” scenario. But LD has always been a conscientious non-voter and is therefore unlikely to be voting for either Trump or Hillary. Nor am I for that matter, since I am a UK resident and do not get to vote in the American elections.
You really must reconcile yourself, Flopot, to the fact that Hillary is held in such visceral loathing that her millions of haters feel they have no option but to vote for her opponent, Donald Trump, even though they are aware of the Donald’s many faults and his Zionist connections.
It’s either not voting at all or voting for the lesser of two evils. | 1real |
Israel’s Blockade of Gaza Is Inherently Violent | Share This
This fall, the U.S. agreed to provide $38 billion in military aid to Israel over the next ten years, ensuring America’s continued role in funding the occupation of Palestine. Meanwhile, my friends and colleagues here in Gaza live in fear of another significant Israeli attack in the near future.
They have every reason to fear another major escalation – violence is a daily reality in Gaza. In two recent incidents, a rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel without causing damage or injuries, and in both instances Israel responded by bombing targets throughout Gaza.
In August alone, Israel bombed more than 50 locations in the small territory .
The simple story told about these events focuses on action and reaction: Palestinians attacked Israel with a rocket and Israel responded. We hear this logic after nearly every event of this sort, but it’s woefully incomplete.
In both instances, the rockets fired weren’t fired by Hamas, but rather by small radical armed groups at odds with Hamas, which governs Gaza. These groups seek to incite Israeli attacks on Hamas with the goal of destabilizing its control over Gaza, because they see Hamas as too comfortable with the status quo.
Since seizing power in 2007, Hamas has worked to control and limit violence from the territory. Outside of periods of defined military escalation – which tend to be precipitated by Israeli attacks – they have effectively stopped attacks against Israel from Gaza.
This explains why, as noted by the Israeli press, there were only 14 rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel between January and August this year. None were fired by Hamas, so Israel’s decision to target Hamas as a response makes no sense.
Of course, 14 rockets fired from Gaza is 14 too many for those of us committed to ending all violence, and none of this should be taken as an apology for other violence perpetrated by Hamas.
But, as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories reports , there were also 45 Israeli military incursions into Gaza this year, resulting in 7 Palestinian deaths and, on average, injuring five Palestinians in Gaza every week.
This is the part of the story that isn’t told.
Gaza also remains under an Israeli-imposed blockade that severely limits travel, trade, and life for Gazans. Despite assurances that restrictions would be lifted in the 2014 Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement, the blockade remains in effect.
Israel, with support from the US government, claims this decades-long blockade is in place to pressure the people of Gaza to rise up against Hamas and provide security for Israelis.
If those are Israel’s raisons d’etre, then it’s a complete failure. It hasn’t stopped violence, it hasn’t weakened Hamas, and it hasn’t brought Israelis or Palestinians security.
While the blockade hasn’t succeeded in achieving the changes Israel claims to be seeking, its impact on the civilian population of Gaza has been immense.
Over two years after the end of the last large military operation there, much of Gaza remains in ruins.
Of the 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza who were displaced during the 2014 Israeli bombardment, over 65,000 remain homeless, as 70 percent of the homes seriously damaged or destroyed haven’t been rebuilt. This is largely because reconstruction materials remain blocked from entering Gaza.
This important context is too often missing as US pundits and politicians consider the situation in Gaza.
Given the blockade and regular military incursions imposed by Israel, the firing of less than 2 rockets per month by Palestinians cannot be seen as the core reason for violence.
If the US is serious about promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, preventing future violence in Gaza, and guaranteeing security, then it must recognize the violence inherent in the Israeli occupation and end the blockade.
The next attack on Gaza, feared by my friends who live there, is an inevitable reality if nothing changes.
Mike Merryman-Lotze has worked with the American Friends Service Committee as the Palestine-Israel Program Director since 2010. Distributed by OtherWords.org . | 1real |
One week to cross a street: how IS pinned down Filipino soldiers in Marawi | MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - With a grimace, Brigadier General Melquiades Ordiales of the Philippines 1st Marine Brigade recounted the painful gains made against Islamist militants in Marawi City. It took us one week from this point to that point, to cross that street, he said, casting his eyes to the other side of a two-lane road in the heart of the southern Philippines city, lined by three-storey buildings shattered by air strikes and the remaining walls riddled with bullet holes. It was really very, very tough. The grinding urban warfare that has destroyed much of the grandly named Sultan Omar Dianalan Boulevard shows just how much of a threat Islamic State is to the Philippines and potentially other countries in the Southeast Asian region. But when the fighting started, Philippine authorities were unfazed. After the Islamic State-backed militants took over large parts of picturesque, lakeside Marawi in May, the country s defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, predicted the entire conflict would be over in one week. Now, after four months of intense aerial bombardment and house-by-house battles, Philippine commanders believe they are in the final stages of the operation to oust the rebels from the city. In the past two weeks, military officials say they have conquered three militant bastions, including a mosque, and restricted about 60 remaining guerrillas to about 10 devastated city blocks in the business district. Patrols have been increased on the lake to prevent the supply of armaments and recruits to the holed-up militants. HIGH-POWERED WEAPONS Military officers who have skirmished for years with Islamic insurgents in the southern Philippines say the battle in Marawi has been more intense and difficult than earlier encounters. The Islamic State militants are better armed, with high-powered weapons, night vision goggles, the latest sniper scopes and surveillance drones, said Captain Arnel Carandang, of the Philippines Army First Scout Ranger Battalion. He said he has served for almost a decade in the remote jungles and mountains of Mindanao, the southern Philippines region that has long been wracked by insurgencies. Now, Carandang says, the military is in unfamiliar urban terrain. The militants have exploited the battlefield to their advantage and held off Philippines forces despite a 10-to-1 numerical advantage for the government troops. Borrowing heavily from Islamic State tactics in the Iraqi city of Mosul, they have surrounded themselves with hostages and used snipers and a network of tunnels. Marawi s underground drainage system and rat holes - crevices in the walls of high floors allowing access to adjacent buildings - have enabled the rebels to evade bombs and remain undetected, soldiers at the battlefront said. We believe there have been some foreign terrorists that have been directing their operations that s why they are, how do I define this, really good, said Carandang. We have seen some cadavers of foreigners. Some are white, some are black and some tall people we guess are Asians (from outside the Philippines). We have been hearing in their transmissions some English speaking terrorists. Hostages - many of them Christians - have been deployed to build improvised explosive devices, scavenge for food and weapons in the heat of battle and fight for the Islamist rebels, according to those who escaped. When we were first moved to the mosque, there were more than 200 of us, an escaped hostage, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons, told Reuters last week. We gradually became fewer. People would go on errands but they wouldn t come back. They either escaped or died. By the time I left, there were only about 100 of us. The account could not be verified, but military officials confirmed the man escaped from Marawi in early August. The hostage said the militants were excited by their successes in Marawi, speaking often of the advantages of urban warfare and talking about some of their next possible targets, including other cities in Mindanao and the Philippines capital Manila. They said they could hide well in the cities. They can get civilians to become hostages and it s more difficult in the mountains with only the soldiers, he said. Many of the fighters are young recruits, who are fanatical and accomplished fighters, the soldiers said. By the way they move and their tactics, you can see they ve been trained, said Colonel Jose Maria Cuerpo, deputy commander of the 103rd Brigade fighting in Marawi. For a description of how Mindanao youngsters are recruited by militants, click on [nL3N1KB1Z5] Much of this bloodshed could have been avoided, local political leaders told Reuters. Naguib Sinarimbo, a Muslim leader who has negotiated between the military and Islamic separatists for years, said he and other elders had urged the armed forces to allow militias and rival Islamist groups to take the lead in ousting the Islamic State militants. The groups were familiar with Marawi s terrain and, through family and clan links, could influence many of the fighters to lay down their weapons, they told the armed forces. The proposal was rebuffed, Sinarimbo said. Air power, the military assured them, was the path to a quick win. Zia Alonto Adiong, a provincial politician, said the military also had doubts about the loyalty of some of the political personalities offering to provide their militias to push out the fighters. The result was a city in ruins, hundreds of thousands of residents displaced and emboldened Islamists, Sinarimbo said. They proceeded with the aerial bombing but they didn t take the city, Sinarimbo said. The military lost authority. In addition, the devastation of the city will play into militants hands, creating resentment and further radicalising many youngsters, he said. Marawi residents in evacuation centers or staying with relatives elsewhere are becoming increasingly frustrated, said Adiong, who is a spokesman for the local government s crisis management authority. Some residents were disappointed and angry that requests for a moratorium on bank loan repayments had not been met, he told Reuters. Philippines central bank governor Nestor Espenilla told Reuters legislation would be needed for a debt moratorium and was being studied. Mindanao has long been marred by the decades of Muslim hostility to rule from Manila. After years fighting insurgent groups and then long negotiations, the government signed an agreement in 2014 to give Muslim majority areas in Mindanao autonomy. But the deal has been long delayed. This part of the Philippines is fertile ground to plant violent extremism, Adiong said. There is a narrative of social injustice that is strong. Young people are fed up with the peace process and nothing concrete or sustainable has developed. [The militants] use this as the basis to entice people, to get support of the local people. In Marawi, some in the armed forces are hopeful that at least some militants will surrender and hand over between 45 to 50 civilian captives. Carandang, the Scout Rangers captain, however said indications were the rebels are preparing for a bloody final stand. We are monitoring the enemy s transmissions and it s like during these final days they are being more fanatical, he said. Transmissions indicate they are preparing for suicide bombings. An unused suicide vest was discovered this month in Marawi s Grand Mosque, a former stronghold of the militants, government sources told Reuters. Suicide attacks are rare in the Philippines despite decades of Islamist insurgency. That s the difference between here and Syria and Iraq, said Ordiales, the marine general. It s almost the same war tactics and fighting tactics, the one thing that s not the same is the human bomb or the suicide bombing. It hasn t happened, not yet. | 0fake |
U.S. calls for special Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces talks - Russia accepts | Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:29 UTC The United States has called for a special meeting with Russia over alleged violations of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty - a landmark Cold War-era agreement. Washington wants the Special Verification Commission (SVC) to discuss the problems related to the treaty's compliance . The event is expected to take place in mid-November. The INF set up the Special Verification Commission as a way to deal with disputes surrounding the treaty. Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan can also attend the meeting because they housed intermediate range missiles before the disintegration of the Soviet Union and remain parties to the treaty. No SVC meeting has been convened since 2003. Russia welcomes the United States' offer. «We have responded positively», said Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of Foreign Ministry's Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department. The treaty, which bans testing, producing, and possessing ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 to 5,500 kilometers, eliminated an entire class of missiles from Europe, and set up an extensive system of verification and compliance. Two years ago, the United States first asserted that Russia was in violation of the treaty , by developing a missile system that fell within the INF prohibitions. Last year, Rose Gottemoeller, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said that Russia risked provoking «military and economic countermeasures» if it continued to stonewall the INF issue. The US has not released any specifics about which exactly Russian missile is the source of the violation. It should be noted that if Washington cannot present compelling evidence of the Russian non-compliance, the United States could be seen by the world as the party that killed the INF Treaty . The only thing the State Department has said is that an unspecified Russian ground-launched cruise missile breaches the agreement. The issue has been in focus of US media outlets recently. For instance, an article published by The New York Times on October 19 said « Russia appears to be moving ahead with a program to produce a ground-launched cruise missile». According to the article, «the concern goes beyond those raised by the United States in July 2014, when the Obama administration said that Russia had violated the 1987 treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces». On the very same day, The Wall Street Journal chimed in saying «The US is escalating a dispute with Russia over its accusations that Moscow possesses banned missile technology» . On October 17, two top House Republican chairmen - House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (Texas) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (Calif.) - wrote a letter to the US president saying «It has become apparent to us that the situation regarding Russia's violation has worsened, and Russia is now in material breach of the treaty» . Russia, in turn, has accused the US of violating the pact. According to Russia's officials, the Aegis Ashore missile defense system that the US has activated in Romania and plans to install in Poland represents a violation of the treaty. Aegis Ashore uses the naval Mk-41 launching system, which is capable of firing long-range cruise missile. This is a blatant violation of the INF Treaty provisions. The treaty bans launchers capable of firing intermediate range missiles. Mk-41s deployed in Europe may launch short and intermediate range cruise missiles deep into Russian territory . A US intermediate range weapon launched from Romania or Poland would require only a short flight time to reach beyond the Urals. Russia has also said that American armed drones violate the treaty. The US plans to arm tactical aviation in Europe with modernized B61-12 guided warheads will virtually nullify all the benefits of the INF Treaty from the point of view of Russia's security. The aircraft could fly from bases in Lithuania, Estonia and Poland to Russia's largest cities in 15-20 minutes - not that much longer than the flight time of the missiles scuttled by the INF treaty. If the US really wants the talks to produce a positive result, all these concerns should be part of the agenda. The SVC meeting will take place against the background of Russia's withdrawal from the plutonium disposal deal with the US because of Washington's non-compliance , recent movement of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad , rising tensions over NATO's ground forces to deploy near Russian borders in 2017, US withdrawal from the agreement over Syria and apparent disintegration of arms control regime. Only political unity among the major global powers can reverse the disintegration process. Non-compliance, technical or material, is not the only problem the INF faces. Russia and the US adherence to the treaty's provisions does not prevent other countries from efforts to acquire ground-based intermediate range nuclear capability. The treaty should become multilateral. Russia and the US could cooperate in an effort to reach this goal with the help of the United Nations. It may be kind of forgotten today as so many things have happened since then, but in October 2007 Russia and the United States issued a joint statement to call on all countries to join a global INF Treaty addressing the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) of the UN General Assembly. Setting the existing differences aside, the parties could revive the process in an effort to involve other states. The SVC meeting may become a venue for addressing other issues related to arms control. The concerns are there. Candid talk is the best way to address the burning problems of mutual interest. The US has demonstratively refused to discuss the host of problems related to the ballistic missile defense in Europe. This stance is erroneous. The US should change its approach to the problem. The two great powers do need a venue for arms control dialogue. The reached agreement to restart contacts within the framework of SVC against the background of US presidential election gives hope that the tide may gradually turn. Comment: As usual, the U.S. blames Russia for what the U.S. is doing. And as usual, they provide no evidence or argumentation. They can't even say which Russian "missile" violates the treaty! Thankfully, these talks will give Russia the opportunity of bringing up the issue of the U.S.'s very real violation of the INF treaty. | 1real |
Trump: Terrorism ’One of the Gravest Threats to Religious Freedom’ - Breitbart | During Friday’s Weekly Address, President Trump stated that “one of the gravest threats to religious freedom remains the threat of terror. ”[Transcript as Follows: “My fellow Americans, This is a season of great hope. This week, Jewish families across our country, and around the world, celebrate Passover and retell the story of God’s deliverance of the Jewish people. The story of the Exodus is a story of freedom. It is the story of an incredible people who were liberated from oppression and raised up the face of humankind. Down through the centuries, the Jewish People have lived through one persecution after another — and yet, they persevered and thrived and uplifted the world beyond measure. And now, the State of Israel stands as a monument to their faith and endurance. Another day of faith and celebration is also upon us. This Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the promise of eternal salvation. It is a holy day of reverence and worship it is a sacred time that fills the spirit of our Nation with the faith of our people. America is a Nation of believers. As families gather in houses of worship across the Nation, we are grateful for the tremendous blessings of this land, our home. We have a beautiful country, an abundant countryside, and an amazing people with a truly bright and wonderful future. From the beginning, America has been a place that has cherished the freedom of worship. That is the promise the first settlers saw in our vast continent — and it is the promise that our bravest warriors have protected for all of our citizens in centuries since, a long time ago. Sadly, many around the globe do not enjoy this freedom — and one of the gravest threats to religious freedom remains the threat of terror. On Palm Sunday, as Christians around the world celebrate the beginning of Holy Week, ISIS murdered at least 45 people and injured over 100 others at two Christian churches in Egypt. We condemn this barbaric attack. We mourn for those who lost loved ones. And we pray for the strength and wisdom to achieve a better tomorrow — one where good people of all faiths, Christians and Muslims and Jewish and Hindu, can follow their hearts and worship according to their conscience. With God’s grace, life always triumphs over death, freedom overcomes oppression, and faith extinguishes fear. This is the source of our hope — and our confidence in the future. I also want to give a special message to those struggling Americans who have felt for too long the bitter taste of hardship. I want you to know: this White House is fighting for you. We are fighting for every American who has been left behind. We are fighting for the right of all citizens to enjoy safety and peace — and to work and live with the dignity that all Children of God are entitled to know. As long as we have faith in each other, and trust in God, we will succeed. Thank you. Have a Happy Easter, and a Happy Passover. God bless you. And God bless America. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
Senate repeals Labor Dept. municipal retirement plan rule | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. Senate on Thursday killed a regulation that had exempted city-run retirement savings plans for low-income workers from strict pension protection laws. Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, the resolution’s sponsor, has said he expects the Senate to soon repeal a related rule on state-operated retirement plans. That resolution may face a tougher time than the one on municipal plans, which barely passed in a 50-49 vote. States are farther along establishing retirement programs for people who do not have workplace savings plans, and Republicans who advocate for states’ rights are more skeptical of the resolution. The House of Representatives has already passed both resolutions. Thursday’s vote marked the 12th time the Republican-controlled Congress has successfully killed an Obama-era regulation through the use of an obscure 1996 law known as the Congressional Review Act. The law lets Congress repeal a newly minted rule through simple majority votes in the House and Senate, and a signature from the president. A “substantially similar” rule can never be enacted in its place. The Labor Department rule was finalized after May 2016, putting it into the window of time set by the law when Congress can repeal it. Using the resolutions, Republicans have sent rules spanning a variety of areas to the chopping block in hopes of loosening regulation they say constricts economic growth. Thursday’s resolution and its near-twin for state plans counters the trend by maintaining regulatory requirements. Toward the end of President Barack Obama’s tenure, his Labor Department exempted both state and city-run retirement plans from the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, a law designed to protect workers’ savings with detailed compliance requirements. Private-sector workers whose employers do not offer 401(k) or other retirement benefits, and who often have low incomes, are automatically enrolled in the plans being launched in states such as California, Illinois and Oregon. States say the ERISA exemption lets employers pass workers’ money into plans without footing compliance costs. They also say Wall Street wants to block the plans because they create competition. But the Investment Company Institute, a mutual funds trade group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others in financial services say the exemptions shortchange workers from important federal pension protections that other workers receive. | 0fake |
U.S. APOLOGIZES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AT U.N. REVIEW TO COUNTRIES WITH WORSE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS | Obama s apology tour for the greatest country in the world continues The United States heard widespread concern Monday over excessive use of force by law-enforcement officials against minorities as it faced the U.N. s main human rights body for a review of its record.Washington also faced calls to work toward abolishing the death penalty, push ahead with closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center and ensure effective safeguards against abuses of Internet surveillance. Its appearance before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva is the second review of the U.S. rights record, following the first in 2010.A string of countries ranging from Malaysia to Mexico pressed the U.S. to redouble efforts to prevent police using excessive force against minorities. Welcome to Mexico. It to likely you ll find any human rights violations here. Oh and here s a prison in Malaysia. Nothing to see here The U.N.Human Rights Council has more pressing issues to deal with like hmmm .maybe their concerned about whether or not the terrorists we re keeping in our Guantanamo Bay Prison have soccer balls that are properly inflated We must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our civil-rights laws live up to their promise, Justice Department official James Cadogan told delegates, adding that that is particularly important in the area of police practices and pointing to recent high-profile cases of officers killing unarmed black residents. These events challenge us to do better and to work harder for progress through both dialogue and action, he said at the session s opening. He added that the government has the authority to prosecute officials who wilfully use excessive force, and that criminal charges have been brought against more than 400 law-enforcement officials in the past six years.Several countries, including Brazil and Kenya, voiced concern over the extent of U.S. surveillance in the light of reports about the National Security Agency s activities.David Bitkower, a deputy assistant attorney general, responded that U.S. intelligence collection programs and activities are subject to stringent and multilayered oversight mechanisms. He added that the country doesn t collect intelligence to suppress dissent or to give U.S. businesses a competitive advantage, and that there is extensive and effective oversight to prevent abuse. Faced with widespread calls for a moratorium on executions and a move to scrap the death penalty, Bitkower noted that it is an issue of extensive debate and controversy within the U.S. He pointed to heightened procedural safeguards for defendants prosecuted for capital offenses.Brig. Gen. Richard Gross, the legal counsel to the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, told the council that President Barack Obama has said closing Guantanamo in which he has been thwarted by Congress is a national imperative. The remaining detainees are detained lawfully, he said.Via: AP News | 1real |
The Yale Record Just Published The BEST Non-Endorsement Of A Candidate EVER! | The Yale Record Just Published The BEST Non-Endorsement Of A Candidate EVER! By Marty Townsend on October 27, 2016 Subscribe
The Yale Record , America’s Oldest College Humor Magazine, has NOT endorsed Hillary Clinton – in a most spectacular way.
The Yale Record is based in the college town of New Haven, Connecticut and was founded by Edward Anthony Bradford , James Heartt VanBuren , Samuel J. Elder , E.H. Lemis , and Henry Ward Beecher Howard in 1872, publishing their first weekly issue on September 11, 1872. They gleefully point readers to their lengthy Wikipedia page to prove their validity, claim the invention of the word “hot dog,” and ponder whether the face of the New Yorker would look different if they hadn’t been doing what they’re doing.
The Record adopted “Old Owl” as their mascot over a century ago, but the actual date of acquisition wasn’t recorded anywhere. The mascot , described as a connoisseur of Cutty Sark , is: “… a congenial, largely nocturnal, 360-degree-head-turning, cigar-smoking bird who tries to steer the staff towards a light-hearted appreciation of life and the finer things in it.”
From Wikimedia Commons available under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
With such an illustrious past, how could anything they produce not be spectacular? Let’s see what Old Owl had to say.
The non-endorsement begins with a simple explanation of why they aren’t endorsing any candidate: “In its 144-year history, The Yale Record has never endorsed a Democratic candidate for president. In fact, we have never endorsed any candidate for president. This is, in part, due to our strong commitment to being a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, which mandates that we are ‘absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.'”
And: “The Yale Record believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code.”
With that explained, one would ordinarily assume they were done. But no, they had a bit more to say : “In particular, we do not endorse Hillary Clinton’s exemplary leadership during her 30 years in the public eye. We do not support her impressive commitment to serving and improving this country—a commitment to which she has dedicated her entire professional career. Because of unambiguous tax law, we do not encourage you to support the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history, nor do we encourage all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton on November 8. “The Yale Record has no opinion whatsoever on Dr. Jill Stein.”
So there it is… absolutely the best non-endorsement EVER.
Featured image courtesy of Heat Street . About Marty Townsend
Active in Michigan with several groups and organizations, including the National Action Network (NAN), Occupy Detroit, Save Michigan Public Schools, Dearborn PTA Council, Michigan Petitioners, and several other small groups working together to make Michigan a better place. Concentrates on educational issues, but also covers human interest, liberal politics, Michigan, environmental issues and Detroit, including the fight against Emergency Managers, the Education Achievement Authority, and fighting the corporate take-over of Michigan and the United States. Buy me a <a href=" cup of coffee Connect | 1real |
Hillary Clinton To Announce Presidential Bid On Sunday | Updated at 11 a.m. ET
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will officially announce her intention to seek the 2016 Democratic nomination for president on Sunday afternoon, ending years of speculation over her plans to pursue the Oval Office, NPR has learned.
People familiar with the campaign plan say that Clinton, long presumed to be the Democratic front-runner even without a formal announcement, will make the announcement possibly via a video and social media, some sources suggest.
"So far, Mrs. Clinton faces scant competition for the Democratic nomination. Polls barely register former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley or former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb. One potential heavyweight — Vice President Joe Biden — has said he is considering a campaign but has taken few apparent steps to prepare for one. "On Thursday, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee surprisingly joined the field, and offered a biting critique from the left of Mrs. Clinton's record on foreign policy. 'The biggest question will be: What exactly did you accomplish in your four years as secretary of state?' he said in an interview. 'There was a lot of dust in the air. Not many concrete accomplishments.' "
Announcing now gives an edge to Clinton, who lost a bitter contest to then-Sen. Barack Obama for her party's nomination in 2008. The head start would give her fundraising team more time to generate the hundreds of millions of dollars typically necessary to mount a successful presidential bid.
Following the Sunday announcement, Clinton is "expected to travel to the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa early next week for campaign events. Democratic strategists and advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because Clinton has not yet finalized all aspects of her announcement plan," The Washington Post writes.
NPR's Mara Liasson reports that Clinton is "expected to stay [in Iowa] for at least a month of small, unscripted, events with small groups of voters." | 0fake |
Erdogan says Turkey backing FSA move on Idlib | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkish soldiers were not in Syria s Idlib yet, but that Free Syria Army was carrying out the operation, news channel NTV reported. Erdogan said in an earlier speech that a major military operation was underway in the Syria s northwest province of Idlib, which Free Syrian Army rebel groups said they were preparing to enter with Turkish backing. NTV reported that Erdogan told reporters after his speech that Russia was backing the operation from the air, while Turkish soldiers were supporting it from inside Turkish borders. | 0fake |
Britain says Johnson comments do not justify more Iran charges against jailed aid worker | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Monday that comments by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson about jailed Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should not be used by the Islamic Republic to bring additional charges against her. Johnson told the British parliament s foreign affairs committee last Wednesday that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching people journalism, a statement that the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organization for which she works, said was incorrect. Last week s remarks by the Foreign Secretary provide no justifiable basis on which to bring any additional charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said. While criticizing the Iranian case against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Foreign Secretary sought to explain that even the most extreme set of unproven Iranian allegations against her were insufficient reason for her detention and treatment. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager, is serving a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran s clerical establishment. She was brought again into court on Saturday, three days after Johnson s remarks, and accused by a judge of spreading propaganda against the regime . She is not a journalist and has never trained journalists at the Thomson Reuters Foundation where she is project manager in my Media Development team, Monique Villa, Thomson Reuters Foundation chief executive, said in a statement. I see a direct correlation between this statement by Boris Johnson, who rightly condemned the treatment that Nazanin has received in Iran, and the fact that Nazanin was brought once again into Court on Saturday 4 November. The charges against Nazanin were denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News. Tulip Siddiq, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, said Johnson had failed to retract his comments, which she said had undermined efforts to secure Zaghari-Ratcliffe s release. By suggesting Nazanin was in Iran teaching people journalism , Boris Johnson has endangered the cause to secure her release, Siddiq, who is the lawmaker for the area where Zaghari-Ratcliffe lived in London, said in an emailed statement. The Foreign Secretary s failure to retract his comments to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee is unforgivable, Siddiq said. His comments were both untrue and unhelpful to her case. The Iranian Embassy in London could not be reached for comment. | 0fake |
Even The Dad Of Pro-Trump Act ‘USA Freedom Kids’ Plans To Sue Campaign | The U.S.A. Freedom Kids performed at a rally for Donald Trump in Florida last January and played a song containing lyrics which were terrifying unless you re pro-war. After that, the kids were a hit, featured at media appearances, with the three pre-teen girls even telling Inside Edition that Donald told them that he planned to listen to their CD all night long. However, that cozy relationship has changed since then.The father of one of the Freedom Kids, Jeff Popick, who authored Freedom s Call, told The Washington Post Monday that he is planning to file a lawsuit against the Trump campaign for violating its agreement with the group. This is not a billion-dollar lawsuit, Popick told the Post. I m doing this because I think they have to do the right thing. And if this means having to go through the court system to enforce them doing the right thing, then that s what I have to do. I m not looking to do battle with the Trump campaign, but I have to show my girls that this is the right thing. Popick said that promises were made by various agents of the Trump campaign.It started in Pensacola. When Popick first reached out to the Trump campaign about performing, he spoke with various people including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. His understanding from the campaign was that the Kids would make two appearances in Florida, where Popick lives. The first event didn t come to fruition, and Popick says he asked for $2,500 in payment for the second performance, in Pensacola. The campaign made a counter-offer: How about a table where the group could presell albums? Popick took the deal.After arriving at the venue, the group found that there was no table, and he said it ended in complete chaos, adding, They clearly had made no provisions for that. Afterward, Popick attempted to contact the Trump campaign to no avail. Popick said money was spent on promotional material for the table, which never existed. In addition, Popick said he lost several promotional opportunities over the confusion with his relationship with the campaign.After Donald opted not to be featured during the Fox News debate due to friction with the network, a Trump campaign representative called Popick to see if the Freedom Kids might perform. Popick tell me if this sounds familiar was promised that there would be huge exposure for the kids from the event, so an agreement was made.The Freedom Kids and their parents flew out to Iowa only to find a message from the campaign saying there was a change of plan. The performers attended the rally but were told not to talk to the media. They just were constantly coming over, wanting pictures, Popick said of the news media. They wanted to take pictures, they wanted to ask questions and I had to be a real jerk. In the end, the trip, flights, rental car and hotel were all paid by Popick.After that, he kept reaching out again and again and again and again, without luck. He was passed around between staffers; calls went unreturned even after calls were promised. Emails Popick sent to the campaign (which he shared with The Post) detail the interaction between himself and the campaign and his ultimate request. We are now asking and DEMANDING for what has been promised to us and is now long-overdue (and has been rightly earned by us); that is, a performance at the convention, an email dated July 9 reads. Or, be made whole. These are guys that insist they re straight shooters, Popick said. I ve invested a lot of time, effort, money, he continued, and it s just been complete silence. Popick has consulted with an attorney who believes that he has a very strong case.Popick was a fan of the reality show star-turned GOP nominee but he s not so sure anymore. At this point, my position is that I have no position, really, Popick said. What he s done to my group or what he s not done for my group doesn t necessarily make him the best candidate, it doesn t make him the worst candidate. I still have to mull that over. He might still be the best candidate as president of the United States or not. This whole story sounds familiar. It sounds like the Trump University scam. We re not sure what Mr. Popick has to mull over. If a person is ripping off your kid, then you wouldn t normally cast a vote for them but we re not going to tell the father of the Freedom Kids how to freedom.Stand in line, Mr. Popick. Donald has been involved in 3,500 lawsuits.Featured image via via screen capture. | 1real |
WATCH: These White Trump Supporters Call Black People Lazy And Then Get Their A**es Handed To Them | Not long before Donald Trump pathetically admitted that President Obama was born in the United States, two of his white supporters stood outside the Republican nominee s new Washington D.C. hotel and claimed that black people don t work as hard as white people.And that was an incredibly bad idea considering they were standing in a city that would not exist without the back-breaking labor of slaves who built many of the buildings around the city, including the White House.So when these two Trump supporters ran their mouths, Carlos Maza of Media Matters starting filming them just as a black man rode up on his bicycle and informed them of just how wrong they are. You see these buildings down here? Black people built the buildings on slave labor, he said using Georgetown University as an example. So a lot of black people have residual anger for their ancestors building this country as free labor. Indeed, white racists would rather pretend black people had nothing to do with constructing our nation s capitol rather than acknowledge that they played a major role.But the man was not finished schooling Trump s supporters. As soon as a white person steps into America, they have an advantage just by being white, the man pointed out before going on to explain that systemic racism has been built into the system.The Trump fans tried to change the topic by claiming that thousands of Europeans have been killed by Muslims, which is incorrect. Hundreds of Europeans have been killed by terrorists, not true practitioners of Islam.A white people standing by the black man then asked the Trump duo if they have really ever experienced discrimination and they admitted that they haven t.Here s the video via Twitter.Here s a Trump supporter getting schooled on systemic racism after suggesting white people work harder: pic.twitter.com/gbHPkT4A2o Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) September 16, 2016And yet Donald Trump wonders why black people don t want to vote for him.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
South African, Angolan leaders to visit Zimbabwe ob Wednesday | JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma and his Angolan counterpart, Joao Lourenco, will travel on Wednesday to Zimbabwe, where 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe is under growing pressure to resign, South Africa s state broadcaster said. | 0fake |
Germany's CSU denies report Seehofer to quit as Bavaria premier | MUNICH (Reuters) - A spokesman for Bavaria s Christian Social Union (CSU) denied a German media report on Thursday that Horst Seehofer is to stand down as state premier and hand over to rival Markus Soeder, but stay on as head of the Christian Social Union (CSU). Broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk, citing no sources, had reported the move. A shakeup has been widely expected as senior CSU members meet on Thursday. But a spokesman for the CSU said the media report was absolutely wrong . Any changes, which would come as Germany struggles to find a way out of a political crisis caused by the collapse of coalition talks on Sunday night, could end a longstanding power struggle within the CSU, sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU). | 0fake |
WATCH: President Obama Doesn’t Give A F*ck About Donald Trump’s Birther Annoucement | President Zero F*cks Left Obama strikes again.Donald Trump addressed his leading role in the birther conspiracy regarding President Obama s birth certificate on Friday, but President Obama isn t impressed.On Thursday, the Republican nominee refused yet again to answer whether he believes that President Obama was born in Hawaii, telling the Washington Post, I ll answer that question at the right time. I just don t want to answer it yet. Following the interview, Trump s campaign issued a disgusting statement making Donald Trump look like a hero while painting Hillary Clinton as the villain in the story. In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. The problem is that Hillary and her campaign had nothing to do with the birther conspiracy. As Politifact pointed out when it debunked Trump s claim last year, it was a mere volunteer who started the conspiracy via email. No campaign official, nor Hillary Clinton herself, ever questioned President Obama s citizenship.Donald Trump, however, engaged in a vicious racist witch hunt over President Obama s birth certificate. Trump constantly claimed that President Obama was not an American and that he was born in Kenya. Of course, Trump was utterly humiliated by President Obama when he released his full birth certificate to the public for all to see, even though he did not have to do so.But Trump has refused to personally acknowledge that President Obama is the legitimate Commander-in-Chief and has never apologized for his attacks.On Friday, Trump finally acknowledged that President Obama was born in America, but still didn t apologize. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, Trump said before adding, Period. But it doesn t matter what Trump says because President Obama doesn t give a damn about what Trump has to say.When asked about Trump s upcoming announcement prior, President Obama slammed Trump and his birtherism. I m shocked that a question like that would come up at a time when we ve got so many other things to do well, I m not that shocked actually. It s fairly typical. We got other business to attend to. I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well an my hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that. Here s the video via Twitter.Obama: I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well. https://t.co/R7dhUtPg4e https://t.co/HclWVwzYZw CNN (@CNN) September 16, 2016It s not enough for Donald Trump to acknowledge the truth. He needs to man up and apologize for leading a persecution effort that did much damage and divided this country, especially if he wants any African-Americans to even consider voting for him in November.Featured image via Pete Souza/White House | 1real |
BREAKING: At Least 14 US Coalition Military Officers Captured by Syrian Special Forces in East Aleppo Bunker | Syrian Army soldier holds up Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria) flag in the Umayyed Mosque, Old City, after government troops liberated terrorist-occupied East Aleppo this week (Image: Vanessa Beeley for 21st Century Wire) 21st Century Wire SPECIAL REPORTDAMASCUS According to two reports coming out of Aleppo today, at least 14 US Coalition military officers were captured this morning in an East Aleppo bunker by Syrian Special Forces.This story was quietly leaked by Voltaire.net, who announced, The Security Council is sitting in private on Friday, December 16, 2016, at 17:00 GMT, while NATO officers were arrested this morning by the Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in East Aleppo. Fares Shehabi MP, a prominent Syrian Parliamentarian and head of Aleppo s Chamber of Commerce published the names of the Coalition officers on his Facebook page on the 15th December (emphasis added):Mutaz Kano lu Turkey David Scott Winer USA David Shlomo Aram Israel Muhamad Tamimi Qatar Muhamad Ahmad Assabian Saudi Abd-el-Menham Fahd al Harij Saudi Islam Salam Ezzahran Al Hajlan Saudi Ahmed Ben Naoufel Al Darij Saudi Muhamad Hassan Al Sabihi Saudi Hamad Fahad Al Dousri Saudi Amjad Qassem Al Tiraoui Jordan Qassem Saad Al Shamry Saudi Ayman Qassem Al Thahalbi Saudi Mohamed Ech-Chafihi El Idrissi MoroccanListen to Fares Shehabi s interview on the Sunday Wire radio show: Liberation Aleppo In addition to Voltaire.net, the other original report was provided by Damascus-based Syrian journalist Said Hilal Alcharifi. According to Alcharifi, captured NATO officers were from a number of member states including the US, France, Germany and Turkey, as well as Israel. Here is his statement (translated from French): Thanks to information received, Syrian authorities discovered the headquarters of high ranking western/NATO officers in the basement of an area in East Aleppo and have captured them alive. Some names have already been given to Syrian journalists, myself included. The nationalities are US, French, British, German, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi, Moroccan, Qatari etc. In light of their nationalities and their rank, I assure you that the Syrian government have a very important catch, which should enable them to direct negotiations with the countries that have tried to destroy them. Although these initial reports describe the individuals in question as NATO officers, it s unlikely they would have been carrying NATO colors on a covert operation and might be more accurately labeled as US Coalition officers. Note that early reports suggest that these are not standard street rebel or jihadi terrorists but actual Coalition military personnel and field commanders.SEE ALSO: The REAL Syria Civil Defence Exposes Fake White Helmets as Terrorist-Linked Imposters21WIRE also received unconfirmed reports yesterday that militants had fired a missile into the Ramousa area and then tried, unsuccessfully, to get cars out of East Aleppo. It s possible this incident could be related to today reports of captured western operatives.This report from the Syrian Arab News Agency (emphasis added): The agreement on evacuating militants and weapons from the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo city has been suspended after terrorist groups breached it, special sources told SANA correspondent in Aleppo.The sources said that the suspension of the agreement will remain in place until obtaining guarantees that oblige the terrorist groups to abide by all the agreement s provisions, stressing on the Syrian side s full adherence to the agreement and its keenness to end the bloodshed and restore security and stability to the entire city of Aleppo. Earlier, SANA reporter said that the terrorist groups have breached the agreement as they smuggled heavy weapons, including TOW missiles, heavy machineguns and kidnapped people via the buses and cars transporting terrorists and their families towards the southwestern countryside of Aleppo city.The reporter added that the terrorist groups fired shells and sniper bullets on the buses and ambulances at al-Ramousseh crossing, noting that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which are supervising the evacuation process had to withdraw all buses and cars from the crossing.Over the past 24 hours, some 8079 terrorists and members of their families were evacuated via busses and ambulances from the neighborhoods of Salah-Eddin, al-Ansari, al-Mashhad and al-Zibdiyeh to the southwest countryside of Aleppo city If true, this latest news would also mean that both the Syrian and Russian governments would have additional leverage going forward in any bilateral negotiations with the US-led Coalition.If, however, this story is kept under wraps by NATO member governments and is summarily blacked out by the US and European media outlets, then it might indicate that a deal has been struck, albeit behind the scenes, for the return of captured NATO operatives in exchange for other concessions.If today s report from East Aleppo is accurate, this might also help explain the hysterical behavior by the US State Department and western UN officials who have been demanding an immediate ceasefire despite the fact that 99% of East Aleppo has already been liberated by Syrian government forces.The western establishment hysterical reactions to Al Nusra s defeat in Aleppo have included wild claims that the Syrian Army had unleashed death squads, on its own residents in East Aleppo and were openly executing women and children in the street, and burning children in the street, as well what appear to be more fictional reports circulated in US media mainly by Michael Weiss of The Daily Beast via CNN, claiming that Syrian Army was committing mass rape against residents of East Aleppo. His article entitled, Women in Aleppo Choose Suicide Over Rape, Rebels Report, made a number of outlandish claims including: Activists and rebels in the besieged city say mass executions have begun and children are burned alive as Assad s Iranian- and Russian-backed forces move in. Not surprisingly, aside from unnamed UN sources , Weiss claims to have received his information from none other than the discredited US and UK-financed pseudo NGO known as the White Helmets.SEE ALSO: Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Bill to Stop US Government Funding and Arming Jihadist Terrorists in SyriaBack in September, numerous reports suggested that a western command center located behind terrorist-held lines had been targeted and destroyed by a Russian missile strike. Prof Michel Chossudovsky wrote: The US and its allies had established a Field Operations Room in the Aleppo region integrated by intelligence personnel. Until it was targeted by a Russian missile attack on September 20, this semi-secret facility was operated by US, British, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari intelligence personnel. This report was neither admitted, nor was it denied by US Coalition sources at the time. However, one mainstream Israeli source, The Times of Israel, did report the incident.For anyone who has been paying close attention to the Syrian Conflict, seeing NATO special forces or contractors working with rebel or terrorist fighters inside of Syria is nothing unusual. Numerous reports have been filed of British soldiers assigned to fighting groups to help with training, strategy and logistics. In June 2016, The Telegraph admitted that British special forces were helping one rebel group, with logistics, like building defences to make the bunkers safe, said one rebel fighter. Other reports, including the LA Times which detailed CIA operations used to arm militants, including Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria) who were the terrorist force in charge in East Aleppo. Other revelations of US covert involvement include The New York Times, and also information on US (NATO by another name only) covert operations provided to the Wall Street Journal.South Front also notes: Earlier in December, SF already noted that the US despearate attempts to push a diplomatic solution in Aleppo could indicate that the Obama administration stalling for time to extricate US mercenaries and special service members from the Aleppo pocket: Considering that US-led coalition military advisers have been widely operating across Syria, training and assisting to the so-called moderate opposition openly linked with al-Qaeda, the recently appeared reports are likely true.For instance, British military advisers have officially arrived to Syria to restore combat capability of the moderate opposition, retreated from Aleppo 21WIRE can also point out that throughout fighting in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, during the period of May 2014 to the present, numerous incidents have been reported where NATO military soldiers and operatives have been both spotted, and captured by rebel forces, and in most cases these reports have been muted, more than likely because of horse trading taking place as an extension of wider diplomacy.Contributors to this report were Patrick Henningsen and Vanessa Beeley.STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES . READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Crowd Boos GOP Governor Off Stage For Not Supporting LGBT Protection Bill (VIDEO) | It should be the easiest question in America to answer, especially in Massachusetts, but the Republican governor flubbed it and drew the ire of the audience.Massachusetts new Republican governor proved that he is just like every other bigoted Republican in the country after he failed to throw his support behind a bill moving through the state legislature that would provide anti-discrimination protection to LGBT people.As Governor Charlie Baker took questions during a corporate networking event, he was asked whether he would sign the bill into law unlike other Republican governors in the South who signed laws legalizing discrimination in their states.Again, this is an easy question to answer. This is the United States and discrimination is not a value this nation holds.Of course, being a Republican, Baker chose to sidestep the question instead and refused to give a definitive answer. We should not discriminate against anyone here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Baker said. But then he declared that he would listen to both sides on the issue, which means he would allow bigots the chance to persuade him to enshrine bigotry in the state, likely using the guise of religious liberty as the excuse of choice.That s when the audience turned on Baker and began booing him and shouting him down until he left the stage and the building.Lorelei Erisis, who attended the event, slammed Baker for not distancing himself from the extremist Republicans in states like North Carolina and Mississippi, which passed anti-LGBT laws that have brought economic backlash. I mean that s not even a very brave thing to say, to say that he would sign a bill, if it came before his desk. And if he had done that, it would have given him the moderate Republican image that he s trying to have, Erisis said.Here s the video via YouTube.All Baker had to say is that he would sign a bill protecting LGBT people from discrimination. That s it.But he didn t. Instead, he teeter-tottered and angered the audience. And to add insult to injury, Baker s office issued a statement claiming to support a 2011 law that expanded protections but still refused to say that he would support the new bill, saying only that he would review it.To be blunt, Baker is a coward who had a chance to distinguish himself as a moderate Republican who has no connection to the bigoted Republicans who dominate his party at the moment. Governor John Bel Edwards certainly didn t shy away when he had a chance to sign an executive order protecting LGBT people, and he s a Democrat in the deep red state of Louisiana.And when the Governor of Louisiana is more courageous on the issue of LGBT rights than the Governor of Massachusetts, that s a sign that Massachusetts voters picked the wrong candidate to lead them.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
Juncker announces new code of conduct for EU executive members | STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Members of the European Commission will have to wait two years before taking up new employment after they quit the EU executive under a new ethical code of conduct proposed by the President of the Commission on Wednesday. Seeking to bolster the public s trust in the EU institutions, Jean-Claude Juncker called for more enforced ethical standards and greater transparency in the Commission. The code of conduct will be enforced from Feb. 1, 2018, and will apply to all current members. This comes after Juncker s predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso caused public uproar after joining U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it on Brexit, and former Commissioner Neelie Kroes was reprimanded for not declaring income that would effectively have reduced her pension. The cooling off period between a Commission term and the start of new employment was extended from 18 months to two years for members and three years for the president. The code also requires members to declare investments above 10,000 euro ($11,900) and establishes an Independent Ethical Committee to advise on all ethical issues. | 0fake |
Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... | Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... I'm ok. Your turn. Go! Anonymous Coward Report Copyright Violation Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... Pretty rank these last few days. Wash day on Friday so not long till Im feeling fresh again. Have an itchy anus too. Anonymous Coward Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... My underarms smell like the end of times Anonymous Coward ( OP ) Report Copyright Violation Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... Pretty rank these last few days. Wash day on Friday so not long till Im feeling fresh again. Have an itchy anus too. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 73271021 You need to wash everyday. Why do you Europeans walk around stinking like that? You know better than that! Go hit the shower now! | 1real |
New Song by Michael Heseltine: “Who Snuffed the Dogs Out” | Home | World | New Song by Michael Heseltine: “Who Snuffed the Dogs Out” New Song by Michael Heseltine: “Who Snuffed the Dogs Out” By Trinny Tatler 01/11/2016 19:28:47
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE – England – A song released by former Conservative MP Michael Heseltine aka Tarzan, has shot into the UK charts at number 2.
Released by the 83 year old former MP’s own record label Ungawa Records, the song is simply about strangling his dog.
“Who snuffed the dogs out? Who snuffed the dogs out? Hezza! Hezza! Hezza!” a sample of some of the lyrics which go on a permanent loop for three and a half minutes include a soundbite from Margaret Thatcher saying “Get orf my neck!”
The eighties drum machine sound is very retro, and also the very realistic sound of a gurgling dog in the background while Heseltine conducts an almighty Tarzan wail makes for interesting listening.
All proceeds of the record will not go to the RSPCA but will instead be funnelled into Heseltine’s latest acquisition, a duck house in his large pond, so he can shoot the shit out of the ducks when they’re trying to nest. Share on : | 1real |
UPDATED VIDEO: IS THIS AMERICA? CONSERVATIVES And Their Families Experience SHOCKING ABUSE And SHAMING In Their Homes Ordered By Leftist DA As Part Of Insane Vendetta | This story should send chills down the spine of every American. Communism is on our doorstep THEY CAME WITH A BATTERING RAM. Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin s Act 10 also called the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs frantic barking. The entire house the windows and walls was shaking.She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full view of the police. Some yelled at her to grab some clothes, others yelled for her to open the door. I was so afraid, she says. I did not know what to do. She grabbed some clothes, opened the door, and dressed right in front of the police. The dogs were still frantic. I begged and begged, Please don t shoot my dogs, please don t shoot my dogs, just don t shoot my dogs. I couldn t get them to stop barking, and I couldn t get them outside quick enough. I saw a gun and barking dogs. I was scared and knew this was a bad mix. She got the dogs safely out of the house, just as multiple armed agents rushed inside.Some even barged into the bathroom, where her partner was in the shower. The officer or agent in charge demanded that Cindy sit on the couch, but she wanted to get up and get a cup of coffee. I told him this was my house and I could do what I wanted. Wrong thing to say. This made the agent in charge furious. He towered over me with his finger in my face and yelled like a drill sergeant that I either do it his way or he would handcuff me. They wouldn t let her speak to a lawyer.She looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off. The neighbors started to come outside, curious at the commotion, and all the while the police searched her house, making a mess, and according to Cindy leaving her dead mother s belongings strewn across the basement floor in a most disrespectful way. Then they left, carrying with them only a cellphone and a laptop.Here is a videotaped interview of a neighbor who witnessed the police invasion of her home: IT S A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH. That was the first thought of Anne (not her real name).Someone was pounding at her front door. It was early in the morning very early and it was the kind of heavy pounding that meant someone was either fleeing from or bringing trouble. It was so hard. I d never heard anything like it. I thought someone was dying outside. She ran to the door, opened it, and then chaos. People came pouring in. For a second I thought it was a home invasion. It was terrifying. They were yelling and running, into every room in the house. One of the men was in my face, yelling at me over and over and over. It was indeed a home invasion, but the people who were pouring in were Wisconsin law-enforcement officers. Armed, uniformed police swarmed into the house. Plainclothes investigators cornered her and her newly awakened family.Soon, state officials were seizing the family s personal property, including each person s computer and smartphone, filled with the most intimate family information.Why were the police at Anne s home? She had no answers. The police were treating them the way they d seen police treat drug dealers on television. In fact, TV or movies were their only points of reference, because they weren t criminals. They were law-abiding. They didn t buy or sell drugs. They weren t violent. They weren t a danger to anyone. Yet there were cops surrounding their house on the outside, swarming the house on the inside.They even taunted the family as if they were mere perps. As if the home invasion, the appropriation of private property, and the verbal abuse weren t enough, next came ominous warnings.Don t call your lawyer. Don t tell anyone about this raid. Not even your mother, your father, or your closest friends.The entire neighborhood could see the police around their house, but they had to remain silent. This was not the right to remain silent as uttered by every cop on every legal drama on television the right against self-incrimination.They couldn t mount a public defense if they wanted or even offer an explanation to family and friends. Yet no one in this family was a perp. Instead, like Cindy, they were American citizens guilty of nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights to support Act 10 and other conservative causes in Wisconsin. Sitting there shocked and terrified, this citizen who is still too intimidated to speak on the record kept thinking, Is this America? THEY FOLLOWED ME TO MY KIDS ROOMS. For the family of Rachel (not her real name), the ordeal began before dawn with the same loud, insistent knocking. Still in her pajamas, Rachel answered the door and saw uniformed police, poised to enter her home.When Rachel asked to wake her children herself, the officer insisted on walking into their rooms. The kids woke to an armed officer, standing near their beds. The entire family was herded into one room, and there they watched as the police carried off their personal possessions, including items that had nothing to do with the subject of the search warrant even her daughter s computer.And, yes, there were the warnings. Don t call your lawyer. Don t talk to anyone about this. Don t tell your friends.The kids watched alarmed as the school bus drove by, with the students inside watching the spectacle of uniformed police surrounding the house, carrying out the family s belongings. Yet they were told they couldn t tell anyone at school. They, too, had to remain silent.The mom watched as her entire life was laid open before the police. Her professional files, her personal files, everything. She knew this was all politics. She knew a rogue prosecutor was targeting her for her political beliefs. And she realized, Every aspect of my life is in their hands. And they hate me. Fortunately for her family, the police didn t taunt her or her children. Some of them seemed embarrassed by what they were doing. At the end of the ordeal, one officer looked at the family, still confined to one room, and said, Some days, I hate my job. For dozens of conservatives, the years since Scott Walker s first election as governor of Wisconsin transformed the state known for pro-football championships, good cheese, and a population with a reputation for being unfailingly polite into a place where conservatives have faced early-morning raids, multi-year secretive criminal investigations, slanderous and selective leaks to sympathetic media, and intrusive electronic snooping.Yes, Wisconsin, the cradle of the progressive movement and home of the Wisconsin idea the marriage of state governments and state universities to govern through technocratic reform was giving birth to a new progressive idea, the use of law enforcement as a political instrument, as a weapon to attempt to undo election results, shame opponents, and ruin lives.Most Americans have never heard of these raids, or of the lengthy criminal investigations of Wisconsin conservatives. For good reason. Bound by comprehensive secrecy orders, conservatives were left to suffer in silence as leaks ruined their reputations, as neighbors, looking through windows and dismayed at the massive police presence, the lights shining down on targets homes, wondered, no doubt, What on earth did that family do?This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations, expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10, and their advocacy of conservative reform.Largely hidden from the public eye, this traumatic process, however, is now heading toward a legal climax, with two key rulings expected in the late spring or early summer.The first ruling, from the Wisconsin supreme court, could halt the investigations for good, in part by declaring that the misconduct being investigated isn t misconduct at all but the simple exercise of First Amendment rights.The second ruling, from the United States Supreme Court, could grant review on a federal lawsuit brought by Wisconsin political activist Eric O Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, the first conservatives to challenge the investigations head-on.If the Court grants review, it could not only halt the investigations but also begin the process of holding accountable those public officials who have so abused their powers.But no matter the outcome of these court hearings, the damage has been done. In the words of Mr. O Keefe, The process is the punishment. UPDATED VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH BLAZE TV s DANA LOESCH:It all began innocently enough. In 2009, officials from the office of the Milwaukee County executive contacted the office of the Milwaukee district attorney, headed by John Chisholm, to investigate the disappearance of $11,242.24 from the Milwaukee chapter of the Order of the Purple Heart.The matter was routine, with witnesses willing and able to testify against the principal suspect, a man named Kevin Kavanaugh.What followed, however, was anything but routine. Chisholm failed to act promptly on the report, and when he did act, he refused to conduct a conventional criminal investigation but instead petitioned, in May 2010, to open a John Doe investigation, a proceeding under Wisconsin law that permits Wisconsin officials to conduct extensive investigations while keeping the target s identity secret (hence the designation John Doe ).John Doe investigations alter typical criminal procedure in two important ways: First, they remove grand juries from the investigative process, replacing the ordinary citizens of a grand jury with a supervising judge.Second, they can include strict secrecy requirements not just on the prosecution but also on the targets of the investigation. In practice, this means that, while the prosecution cannot make public comments about the investigation, it can take public actions indicating criminal suspicion (such as raiding businesses and homes in full view of the community) while preventing the targets of the raids from defending against or even discussing the prosecution s claims.Why would Chisholm seek such broad powers to investigate a year-old embezzlement claim with a known suspect? Because the Milwaukee County executive, Scott Walker, had by that time become the leading Republican candidate for governor. District Attorney Chisholm was a Democrat, a very partisan Democrat.Almost immediately after opening the John Doe investigation, Chisholm used his expansive powers to embarrass Walker, raiding his county-executive offices within a week.As Mr. O Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth explained in court filings, the investigation then dramatically expanded: Over the next few months, [Chisholm s] investigation of all-things-Walker expanded to include everything from alleged campaign-finance violations to sexual misconduct to alleged public contracting bid-rigging to alleged misuse of county time and property.Between May 5, 2010, and May 3, 2012, the Milwaukee Defendants filed at least eighteen petitions to formally [e]nlarge the scope of the John Doe investigation, and each was granted. . .That amounts to a new formal inquiry every five and a half weeks, on average, for two years.This expansion coincided with one of the more remarkable state-level political controversies in modern American history the protest (and passage) of Act 10, followed by the attempted recall of a number of Wisconsin legislators and, ultimately, Governor Walker.Political observers will no doubt remember the events in Madison the state capitol overrun by chanting protesters, Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state to prevent votes on the legislation, and tens of millions of dollars of outside money flowing into the state as Wisconsin became, fundamentally, a proxy fight pitting the union-led Left against the Tea Party led economic Right.At the same time that the public protests were raging, so were private but important protests in the Chisholm home and workplace.As a former prosecutor told journalist Stuart Taylor, Chisholm s wife was a teachers -union shop steward who was distraught over Act 10 s union reforms. He said Chisholm felt it was his personal duty to stop them. Meanwhile, according to this whistleblower, the district attorney s offices were festooned with the blue fist poster of the labor-union movement, indicating that Chisholm s employees were very much invested in the political fight.In the end, the John Doe proceeding failed in its ultimate aims. It secured convictions for embezzlement (related to the original 2009 complaint), a conviction for sexual misconduct, and a few convictions for minor campaign violations, but Governor Walker was untouched, his reforms were implemented, and he survived his recall election. But with another election looming this time Walker s campaign for reelection Chisholm wasn t finished.He launched yet another John Doe investigation, supervised by Judge Barbara Kluka. Kluka proved to be capable of superhuman efficiency approving every petition, subpoena, and search warrant in the case in a total of one day s work.If the first series of John Doe investigations was everything Walker, the second series was everything conservative, as Chisholm had launched an investigation of not only Walker (again) but the Wisconsin Club for Growth and dozens of other conservative organizations, this time fishing for evidence of allegedly illegal coordination between conservative groups and the Walker campaign.In the second John Doe, Chisholm had no real evidence of wrongdoing. Yes, conservative groups were active in issue advocacy, but issue advocacy was protected by the First Amendment and did not violate relevant campaign laws.Nonetheless, Chisholm persuaded prosecutors in four other counties to launch their own John Does, with Judge Kluka overseeing all of them.Empowered by a rubber-stamp judge, partisan investigators ran amok. They subpoenaed and obtained (without the conservative targets knowledge) massive amounts of electronic data, including virtually all the targets personal e-mails and other electronic messages from outside e-mail vendors and communications companies.The investigations exploded into the open with a coordinated series of raids on October 3, 2013. These were home invasions, including those described above. Chisholm s office refused to comment on the raid tactics (or any other aspect of the John Doe investigations), but witness accounts regarding the two John Doe investigations are remarkably similar: early-morning intrusions, police rushing through the house, and stern commands to remain silent and tell no one about what had occurred.At the same time, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative organizations received broad subpoenas requiring them to turn over virtually all business records, including donor information, correspondence with their associates, and all financial information. The subpoenas also contained dire warnings about disclosure of their existence, threatening contempt of court if the targets spoke publicly.For select conservative families across five counties, this was the terrifying moment the moment they felt at the mercy of a truly malevolent state.Speaking both on and off the record, targets reflected on how many layers of Wisconsin government failed their fundamental constitutional duties the prosecutors who launched the rogue investigations, the judge who gave the abuse judicial sanction, investigators who chose to taunt and intimidate during the raids, and those police who ultimately approved and executed aggressive search tactics on law-abiding, peaceful citizens.For some of the families, the trauma of the raids, combined with the stress and anxiety of lengthy criminal investigations, has led to serious emotional repercussions. Devastating is how Anne describes the impact on her family. Life-changing, she says. All in terrible ways. O Keefe, who has been in contact with multiple targeted families, says, Every family I know of that endured a home raid has been shaken to its core, and the fate of marriages and families still hangs in the balance in some cases. Anne also describes a new fear of the police: I used to support the police, to believe they were here to protect us. Now, when I see an officer, I ll cross the street. I m afraid of them. I know what they re capable of. Cindy says, I lock my doors and I close my shades. I don t answer the door unless I am expecting someone. My heart races when I see a police car sitting in front of my house or following me in the car.The raid was so public. I ve been harassed. My house has been vandalized. [She did not identify suspects.] I no longer feel safe, and I don t think I ever will. Rachel talks about the effect on her children. I tried to create a home where the kids always feel safe. Now they know they re not. They know men with guns can come in their house, and there s nothing we can do. Every knock on the door brings anxiety. Every call to the house is screened. In the back of her mind is a single, unsettling thought: These people will never stop.Victims of trauma and every person I spoke with described the armed raids as traumatic often need to talk, to share their experiences and seek solace in the company of a loving family and supportive friends. The investigators denied them that privilege, and it compounded their pain and fear. The investigation not only damaged families, it also shut down their free speech. In many cases, the investigations halted conservative groups in their tracks.O Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth described the effect in court filings: O Keefe s associates began cancelling meetings with him and declining to take his calls, reasonably fearful that merely associating with him could make them targets of the investigation.O Keefe was forced to abandon fundraising for the Club because he could no longer guarantee to donors that their identities would remain confidential, could not (due to the Secrecy Order) explain to potential donors the nature of the investigation, could not assuage donors fears that they might become targets themselves, and could not assure donors that their money would go to fund advocacy rather than legal expenses.The Club was also paralyzed. Its officials could not associate with its key supporters, and its funds were depleted. It could not engage in issue advocacy for fear of criminal sanction.These raids and subpoenas were often based not on traditional notions of probable cause but on mere suspicion, untethered to the law or evidence, and potentially violating the Fourth Amendment s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. The very existence of First Amendment protected expression was deemed to be evidence of illegality.The prosecution simply assumed that the conservatives were incapable of operating within the bounds of the law. Even worse, many of the investigators legal theories, even if proven by the evidence, would not have supported criminal prosecutions. In other words, they were investigating crimes that weren t crimes at all.If the prosecutors had applied the same legal standards to the Democrats in their own offices, they would have been forced to turn the raids on themselves. If the prosecutors and investigators had been raided, how many of their computers and smartphones would have contained incriminating information indicating use of government resources for partisan purposes?With the investigations now bursting out into the open, some conservatives began to fight back. O Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth moved to quash the John Doe subpoenas aimed at them.In a surprise move, Judge Kluka, who had presided over the Doe investigations for more than a year, recused herself from the case. (A political journal, the Wisconsin Reporter, attempted to speak to Judge Kluka about her recusal, but she refused to offer comment.)The new judge in the case, Gregory Peterson, promptly sided with O Keefe and blocked multiple subpoenas, holding (in a sealed opinion obtained by the Wall Street Journal, which has done invaluable work covering the John Doe investigations) that they do not show probable cause that the moving parties committed any violations of the campaign finance laws. The judge noted that the State is not claiming that any of the independent organizations expressly advocated Walker s election. O Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth followed up Judge Peterson s ruling by filing a federal lawsuit against Chisholm and a number of additional defendants, alleging multiple constitutional violations, including a claim that the investigation constituted unlawful retaliation against the plaintiffs for the exercise of their First Amendment rights.United States District Court judge Rudolph Randa promptly granted the plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction, declaring that the Defendants must cease all activities related to the investigation, return all property seized in the investigation from any individual or organization, and permanently destroy all copies of information and other materials obtained through the investigation. From that point forward, the case proceeded on parallel state and federal tracks. At the federal level, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Randa s order.Declining to consider the case on the merits, the appeals court found the lawsuit barred by the federal Anti-Injunction Act, which prohibits federal courts from issuing injunctions against some state-court proceedings.O Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth have petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari and expect a ruling in a matter of weeks.At the same time, the John Doe prosecutors took their case to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to attempt to restart the Doe proceedings. The case was ultimately consolidated before the state supreme court, with a ruling also expected in a matter of weeks.And so, almost five years after their secret beginning, the John Doe proceedings are nearly dead on life support, according to one Wisconsin pundit but incalculable damage has been done, to families, to activist organizations, to the First Amendment, and to the rule of law itself.In international law, the Western world has become familiar with a concept called lawfare, a process whereby rogue regimes or organizations abuse legal doctrines and processes to accomplish through sheer harassment and attrition what can t be accomplished through legitimate diplomatic means. The Palestinian Authority and its defenders have become adept at lawfare, putting Israel under increasing pressure before the U.N. and other international bodies.The John Doe investigations are a form of domestic lawfare, and our constitutional system is ill equipped to handle it. Federal courts rarely intervene in state judicial proceedings, state officials rarely lose their array of official immunities for the consequences of their misconduct, and violations of First Amendment freedoms rarely result in meaningful monetary damages for the victims.As Scott Walker runs for president, the national media will finally join the Wall Street Journal in covering John Doe.Given the mainstream media s typical bias and bad faith, they are likely to bring a fresh round of pain to the targets of the investigation; the cloud of suspicion will descend once again; even potential favorable court rulings by either the state supreme court or the U.S. Supreme Court will be blamed on conservative justices taking care of their own.Conservatives have looked at Wisconsin as a success story, where Walker took everything the Left threw at him and emerged victorious in three general elections. He broke the power of the teachers unions and absorbed millions upon millions of dollars of negative ads. The Left kept chanting, This is what democracy looks like, and in Wisconsin, democracy looked like Scott Walker winning again and again.Yet in a deeper way, Wisconsin is anything but a success. There were casualties left on the battlefield innocent citizens victimized by a lawless government mob, public officials who brought the full power of their office down onto the innocent.Governors come and go. Statutes are passed and repealed. Laws and elections are important, to be sure, but the rule of law is more important still. And in Wisconsin, the rule of law hangs in the balance along with the liberty of citizens.As I finished an interview with one victim still living in fear, still shattered by the experience of nearly losing everything simply because she supported the wrong candidate at the wrong time, I asked whether she had any final thoughts. Just one, she replied. I m hoping for accountability, that someone will be held responsible so that they ll never do this again. She paused for a moment and then, with voice trembling, said: No one should ever endure what my family endured. Via: National Review | 1real |
Donald Trump Tells Veterans That He’s Just As Brave As Them Because He’s Rich (VIDEO) | I am not a psychologist. I don t even play one on TV, but after more than a year of hearing non-stop Donald Trump verbal vomit, it s pretty clear that the man is incapable of not insulting people, even the people this country pretends to revere, like veterans. On Thursday, Trump, for not the first time, insulted a group of his military veteran supporters by saying that he s just as brave as them because he takes financial risks (he doesn t, but more on that in a bit).He started off right, for literally a fraction of a second:With five days to go until Election Day, we almost had a late-breaking campaign first: Donald Trump being self-deprecating. Speaking at a rally in North Carolina Thursday night, Trump acknowledged Medal of Honor recipients in attendance. Oh, they re so much more brave than me. I wouldn t have done what they did, Trump said. So far so good. I m brave in other ways, Trump continued. I m brave. Just different brave. Same same.Source: SlateWatch it here:Okay, Mr. Trump, since you brought up bravery, let s talk about it. You had five draft deferments, officially making you a draft dodger and if your campaign rhetoric is any indication, you re also a chicken hawk. Sending other people to die, so you can bravely amass your personal fortune is the opposite of bravery. It s cowardly and it s worse.As for being financially brave, hardly. He s brave with OPM, other people s money, which is not bravery at all.It s called OPM. I do it all the time in business. It s called other people s money. There s nothing like doing things with other people s money because it takes the risk you get a good chunk out of it and it takes the risk.Source: BloombergTrump has also filed bankruptcy numerous times, which means he s really irresponsible with other people s money. Why should we expect him to be any different as Commander-in-Chief. He will send other people s children to fight wars that could quite easily bankrupt us. To Trump, that would be just another day. To the rest of the country, it would be devastating.Despite all of this, despite the fact that Trump has insulted prisoners of war, veterans with PTSD, Gold Star families, and the very sacrifices of veterans, the military still supports him, although, by and large, the people in charge do not. Perhaps the military should be listening to its generals and admirals instead of a bloated draft dodger.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
When Trouble Is on the Way | Backdoor Survival November 1, 2016
Back in the early days, before writing about any one aspect of prepping, I had to do a lot of research. Online resources were meager so there was a lot of trial and error involved as I formulated my own preparedness strategy. Sadly, as I look back, there was considerable error. Who knew? The good news is that the school of hard prepping knocks has taught me a thing or two. This is especially true when it comes to last minute preps.
Now that I am lot smarter, I thought it might be fun to put on my thinking cap and come up with a list of ten last minute preps that could be put into place if I had a modicum of warning that a storm or other disruptive event was brewing. There are two parts to this list, things to do and things to buy.
Things To Do
1. Top Off Vehicles with Fuel
I never let our two cars go under half a tank but even so, 100% full is always a better option than 50%. Hopefully I will get wind of the pending event soon enough to beat the crowds.
2. Do the Laundry
It is not that I hate doing laundry but rather I get lazy about it. It is not unusual to have to do six loads at a time, simply due to procrastination. Given a brewing storm, you can bet the laundry will get done and while I am at it, the bedding will also get changed.
3. Inventory Prescription Drugs
With my Ammo Can First Aid Kit already stocked and set aside, I will want to do a quick check on prescription meds and if necessary, get them refilled.
4. Charge All Electronic Devices
Compared to six years ago, my home is overrun by electronic devices. Three Kindles, three iPads of varying ages, and four laptop computers, and two iPhones make up a motely crew of electronic devices that hold a wealth of both reference material and amusements. All can be charged using portable solar devices (which are pretty darn cheap these days), but if I am stuck indoors for any length of tine, solar is not going to help.
5. Set Out Spare Lanterns, Flashlights, and Batteries
Why wait until the power is out before digging out your emergency light sources? As I say this, I am confident in the knowledge that I already have a flashlight in every room of the house as well as a portable lantern. Still, this would be a good time to check to ensure their batteries are fully charged.
6. Gather Fresh Biomass
Rather than use up my back stock of charcoal and wood, I would prefer to burn the odd branches, twigs, leaves I find on the ground. They work perfectly in both my Solo Stove and EcoZoom rocket stoves . Plus, biomass is free for the taking. | 1real |
House Dems ‘shame’ opponents of defeated LGBT rights bill | Shouts of “shame, shame, shame” erupted in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday as Republican lawmakers narrowly defeated legislation to protect the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of government contractors.
The measure, an amendment to a veterans and military construction spending bill introduced by New York Democrat Sean Maloney, initially had enough “yes” votes to pass, according to the count in the House chamber.
But House Republican leaders extended the time allowed for the vote as they urged enough party members to change their positions to defeat it by a vote of 213 to 212.
All 183 Democrats who voted backed the amendment, joined by 29 Republicans. All 213 “no’s” were from Republicans. Eight House members – three Republicans and five Democrats – did not vote.
LGBT rights have been a hot-button issue during the 2016 election season. National politics have featured debate over whether making cakes for same-sex couples violates bakers’ religious freedom or whether the government should decide which public bathrooms are used by transgender people.
Democrats chanted “shame, shame, shame” at Republicans, drawing attention to the vote. Steny Hoyer, the number two House Democrat, denounced it in a fiery speech. “We had 217 people for non-discrimination right up until the last moment,” he said.
Thursday’s emotional vote came hours after the House late on Wednesday passed a $602 billion defense authorization bill that included “religious freedom” language that critics said would allow contractors to discriminate against LGBT individuals.
The House Rules committee had angered Democrats by voting along party lines late on Tuesday not to allow a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have eliminated that language.
Republicans who backed the provision said it was necessary to protect the religious rights of military contractors and not intended to be discriminatory. | 0fake |
#BlackLivesMatter Terrorists Using #BlackRail On Twitter To Organize Shut Down Of Rail Before MN Vikings Game | Sanctioned domestic terrorists taking direction from our Organizer In Chief and funding from his billionaire marxist friend, George Soros. Are there new laws about acts of terrorism and threats against Americans that we re unaware of? Since when did it become okay to threaten innocent people taking their families on a train to a football game with their radical behavior? Are we still in America? #BlackLivesMatter St. Paul is planning to shut down light rail before the Minnesota Vikings game on Sunday. This is a typical act for the group which often tries to disrupt traffic during specific events or rush hour.FOX 9 in Minneapolis reported: Black Lives Matter plans to shut down light rail before Vikings home openerThe group Black Lives Matter Saint Paul announced their plans on Facebook Thursday to shut down the light rail before the Vikings home opener this Sunday. Sunday September 20th is the Minnesota Vikings home opener, big money day, so what better day to shut the light rail down and disrupt business as usual, they said in a press release. Enough is enough of business as usual! We must bring an end to white supremacy and the status quo. Black Lives Matter Saint Paul refers to an incident on Aug. 31 when Marcus Abrams, 17, was beaten into multiple seizures by a group of Metro Transit police officers. On Sunday, the group will be joined by Abrams, his mother, and many others to talk about Autism, police brutality, and bringing an end to white supremacy. The demonstration is set to occur around 9:30 a.m. in St. Paul, starting just south of University Ave. on Lexington across from Dairy Queen. The light rail Green Line runs along University Avenue and includes stops on the University of Minnesota campus, where the Vikings are playing at noon at TCF Bank Stadium.Organizers are using the hashtag #BlackRail for Sunday s protest.Via: Progressives Today | 1real |
GLOSSED OVER: Key Questions Emerge After Death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia | 21st Century Wire asks What really happened in the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia?With the United States deep in the throes of the 2016 presidential primaries, the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has provided a controversial backdrop to an already tense electoral race.Reports state that the 79-year-old conservative justice was found dead this past Saturday in his hotel room at Cibolo Creek Ranch, a luxury ranch located in Presidio County, Texas. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Several Hollywood films have been shot in the surrounding areas of Cibolo Creek Ranch, including the haunting motion picture No Country For Old Men. (Photo cctoaks.com)The San Antonio Express-News reported that ranch owner, John Poindexter, discovered Scalia s body three hours after first visiting the deceased jurist s hotel room at 8:30 in the morning on Saturday: We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled, the Cibolo Ranch owner told reporters on Monday. He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap. As several days have now passed, various theories have surfaced in the aftermath of Scalia s death, causing Poindexter to further clarify his eyewitness account with the Daily News: There was a pillow over his head, not over his face, said Poindexter. The face was entirely clear. One of the most troubling aspects of Scalia s death, aside from lack of an autopsy being performed or that Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara pronounced the manner of his death over the phone without being present. Later, Guevara appears to have reversed her previous statement claiming that Scalia had died of a heart attack , revising the cause of death to natural causes . Resort owner and Democrat Party financier John Poindexter pictured with President Obama.It should also be noted that the resort owner, John Poindexter, is a prominent Democrat Party donor and Obama Award Winner.Another disturbing fact: Justice Scalia was a key vote in temporarily blocking the Clean Power Plan crafted by the White House, a set of new EPA climate regulations, as reported by The Atlantic: On Tuesday [February 9th], the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the rules should neither be implemented nor enforced until the high court itself heard their opponents case. This was itself unprecedented: Never before had the Supreme Court stayed a set of regulations before a federal court even heard the initial case about them. With the Clean Power Plan looming, there are several upcoming and potentially historic Supreme Court cases that could be impacted by Scalia s death.Over the years, some have questioned Scalia s various hunting trips and political connections as reported by the LA Times: Scalia engendered criticism in the past over his choice of partners on hunting trips. In 2001, he went on a pheasant hunting trip with the dean of a Kansas law school who was the lead attorney in two cases that were about to come before the Supreme Court. And in 2004, he went duck hunting with then-Vice President Dick Cheney flying with him on a plane that served as Air Force 2 while the high court was considering a case that challenged the secrecy of an energy task force led by Cheney. Many questions still remain in the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia which will no doubt prompt speculation well into the foreseeable future.No More Fake News reports below TIPPING THE BALANCE Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. (Photo dallasnews)By John RappoportLet s jump right in with quotes from the Washington Post, 2/15, Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia . The Post published extraordinary statements from the Facebook page of William O. Ritchie, former head of criminal investigations for D.C. police : As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia. You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician. You have a non-homicide trained US Marshal tell the justice of peace that no foul play was observed. You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack. What medical proof exists of a myocardial Infarction? Why not a cerebral hemorrhage? How can the Marshal say, without a thorough post mortem, that he was not injected with an illegal substance that would simulate a heart attack Did the US Marshal check for petechial hemorrhage in his eyes or under his lips that would have suggested suffocation? Did the US Marshal smell his breath for any unusual odor that might suggest poisoning? My gut tells me there is something fishy going on in Texas. If this isn t enough, the Post goes on: Scalia s physician, Brian Monahan, is a U.S. Navy rear admiral and the attending physician for the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court. He declined to comment on Scalia s [prior] health when reached by telephone Monday at his home in Maryland. Patient confidentiality forbids me to make any comment on the subject, he said. When asked whether he planned to make public the statement he s preparing for [Texas Judge] Guevara, Monahan repeated the same statement and hung up on a reporter. As long as no law-enforcement investigation of Scalia s death is launched, the doctor is justified. Confidentiality applies, unless Scalia s family lifts it. But if such an investigation is opened, all bets are off. Confidentiality no longer applies.There are reports that, after Scalia s body was transported from the celebrity ranch in Texas, closely guarded and shielded by a bevy of marshals, it was rapidly embalmed. If so, that would apparently make toxicological tests far more difficult or impossible.As for a murder motive, try: upsetting the voting balance of the US Supreme Court. Try: a push to appoint a new Justice now, thus ensuring the appointee s political persuasion, regardless of the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election.Continue this story at No More Fake NewsREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files | 1real |
Clinton's IT aide to plead the Fifth in email lawsuit: The Hill | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The man believed to have set up and maintained Hillary Clinton’s private email server will assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions as part of an open records lawsuit against the State Department, the Hill newspaper reported on Wednesday. Bryan Pagliano will decline to answer questions from Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group, during a deposition scheduled for Monday, his lawyers wrote in a court filing on Wednesday afternoon, according to The Hill. | 0fake |
Bill Clinton: Have to Bring ’Simple, Personal Decency and Trust’ Back to Politics - Breitbart | During a speech at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, President Bill Clinton stated, “we have to find a way to bring simple, personal decency and trust back to our politics. ” While speaking about former Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, Clinton said, “Finally, I think, somehow or another, we have to find a way to bring simple, personal decency and trust back to our politics. ” Clinton then discussed Rabin’s negotiations with the Palestinians, and how the Palestinians trusted his word more than a written contract, Clinton asked, “Can you imagine someone saying that today, in the world we’re living in?” Clinton further said, “[I]t always comes down to two things, are we going to live in and us and them world, or a world that we made together? Is it going to be one set of rules for us, and another set for everybody else, or are we going to find a way to live through the same rules?” ( Dovere) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 0fake |
[VIDEO] HERO WHO EXPOSED PLANNED PARENTHOOD SAYS UNSEEN VIDEOS ARE “EVEN WORSE” | David Daleiden: We probably have hundreds to even thousands of hours of total video tape from over the past two and a half years. Of the really, really shocking compelling stuff, we ve probably got dozens upon dozens of hours and that will be released in the days and months to come.Sean Hannity: So we re going to see tape after tape after tape as bad as the two we ve already seen or even worse?David: Exactly even worse. | 1real |
U.S. General Seeks ‘a Few Thousand’ More Troops in Afghanistan - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The commander of the international military force in Afghanistan, warning that the United States and its NATO allies are facing a “stalemate,” told Congress on Thursday that he needed a few thousand additional troops to more effectively train and advise Afghan soldiers. “We have a shortfall of a few thousand,” Gen. John W. Nicholson said in a sober assessment of America’s longest war to the Senate Armed Services Committee . The international force that is helping the Afghans currently has 13, 300 troops, 8, 400 of whom are American. Afghan forces have taken heavy casualties over the last year as they have sought to hold off the Taliban and prevent them from capturing provincial capitals. General Nicholson repeated previous assessments that the sanctuary Taliban fighters and militant groups enjoy in Pakistan remains a major obstacle. “It is very difficult to succeed on the battlefield when your enemy enjoys external support and safe haven,” said the commander, who added that the United States needed to do a “a holistic review” of its policy toward Pakistan. The issue of safe havens in Pakistan also was discussed Thursday when the new defense secretary, Jim Mattis, spoke by telephone with Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan’s chief of army staff. In the conversation, “Gen. Bajwa reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to counter all militant groups operating in its territory,” according to a Pentagon statement. In his Senate testimony, General Nicholson also complained that Russia was trying to “legitimize” the Taliban by creating the “false narrative” that the militant organization has been fighting the Islamic State and that Afghan forces have not. Russia’s goal, he asserted, was “to undermine the United States and NATO” in Afghanistan, expressing a far more skeptical view of the Kremlin’s intentions than President Trump. On the positive side, he said, the area in which Islamic State fighters operate in Afghanistan had been greatly reduced. General Nicholson’s argument amounted to an implicit criticism of the approach taken by former President Barack Obama, who imposed a series of rigid troop ceilings and significantly reduced the number of American forces in Afghanistan — though not by as much as he had initially projected. But the broader question is what course President Trump might chart on Afghanistan. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said that for too long the United States strategy had been “not to lose,” and urged that a plan be devised to break the stalemate. General Nicholson said the administration was working on one. Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. Mr. Mattis, Mr. Trump’s defense secretary, oversaw the military effort there when he served as the head of Central Command. Mr. Trump has said little about Afghanistan, although on Thursday he held his second call since his election with Ashraf Ghani, the nation’s president. “The two leaders spoke about the counterterrorism efforts, threat levels in Afghanistan, the capabilities of Afghan forces, as well as the risks of terrorism in the region and the countries that support terrorism,” said Nader Nadery, Mr. Ghani’s adviser on strategic affairs. Mr. Nadery said troop levels were not a focus of the call. But Afghan officials say Mr. Ghani and Mr. Trump spoke about the possibility of increasing troop levels if a military assessment showed the need for it during their first conversation, in early December. The war in Afghanistan is a topic the president has rarely discussed. “Hardly a word was mentioned by Trump about Afghanistan during the campaign, yet it remains one of the U. S.’s largest security expenditures,” said Daniel Feldman, who served as the senior envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan during the Obama administration. Mr. Feldman said that a broad assessment was needed of the terrorist threat, the role of international partners and how to pursue reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban. But he said there was no indication that the new administration had begun such a review. Explaining the need for more troops, General Nicholson indicated that there were sufficient Special Operations forces to carry out counterterrorism missions. The shortfall, he said, was in those training and advising the Afghans. Currently, advisers are mainly working with Afghans at the command level of army corps. But more advisers, he said, would enable the coalition to advise at lower levels in the chain of command, most likely at the level of Afghan brigades. The use of military advisers is generally more effective if it is not limited to advising foreign armies in their military headquarters, but extends to units in the field. The Obama administration’s decision last summer to give American commanders more flexibility to provide air support for Afghan forces fighting the Taliban also increased the need for advisers below the level of Afghan army corps, General Nicholson said. He said that the thousands of additional advisers he was seeking could come from allied armies and did not all need to be American. But there appears to be little appetite among NATO nations to send more troops to Afghanistan. Assessing the Afghans’ military performance, General Nicholson said Afghan forces had suffered high casualties because of poor leadership and the excessive use of checkpoints. But he underscored that he was encouraged by the leadership within the country’s special forces and increasingly in its budding air force. | 0fake |
Worried Auto Industry Braces for Change Under Trump - The New York Times | DETROIT — First the Obama administration bailed out much of the American auto industry, pulling it out of a tailspin. Then it reshaped the business, with regulations and policies intended to increase fuel economy, improve safety and add jobs. Now, under Donald J. Trump, the industry is bracing for another wholesale makeover. Perhaps no industry could be affected in more ways by the new administration than the auto business. That became all the more apparent this week, with Mr. Trump’s selection of Scott Pruitt — the Oklahoma attorney general who is a skeptic and close ally of the oil and gas industry — to run the Environmental Protection Agency. The changes under the Trump administration could include possible tariffs that will raise prices on imported vehicles and parts, fewer subsidies for electric cars and policies that discourage automakers from moving products from American factories to Mexico. And any scaling back of goals by the Trump administration, if Mr. Pruitt’s climate change skepticism and embrace of fossil fuels translates to policy, could also influence the types of vehicles the industry plans to build in coming years — and where it builds them. Bigger models like sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks are less than cars but more profitable for automakers. And their steeper price tags can help pay for the higher labor costs of making them in the United States. In a move that underscored the new psychology since Mr. Trump’s election, Ford Motor — which had been a target of his criticism — in decided to keep building a Lincoln S. U. V. in Kentucky rather than Mexico. And yet, for a industry that routinely makes billion dollar bets on new factories and products, the uncertainty is unnerving. “Our membership is just perplexed right now,” said Gloria Bergquist, vice president for public affairs for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents a dozen carmakers, including General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota, on safety and environmental issues. “This is all uncharted territory. ” Mr. Trump’s campaign was studded with promises that could upend the status quo, including some to relax policies intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has yet to detail any coming changes. But pursuing policies similar to those he promoted in his campaign could change the entire manufacturing industry by penalizing companies for investing overseas or by stifling global trade. Mr. Trump has yet to specify changes he might make to Nafta or other industrial policies. But his cabinet appointments, particularly the selection for commerce secretary of the billionaire investor Wilbur L. Ross Jr. who has suggested that he is receptive to some of the antitrade views favored by Mr. Trump, indicate that the incoming president may take an aggressive approach to modifying trade deals and other tenets of the outgoing Obama administration. One industry analyst, Ron Harbour of the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, said many voters in Rust Belt states like Michigan and Ohio backed Mr. Trump primarily because of his promises to restore manufacturing jobs in the United States. “So there probably will be pressure to do something,” Mr. Harbour said. “And if he doesn’t do anything, they probably are not going to be too thrilled. ” Mr. Trump will inherit an auto industry that is far healthier than when President Obama took office and industry officials could push back strongly on disruptive changes. But auto executives generally support Mr. Trump’s choice of a former labor secretary in the George W. Bush administration, Elaine Chao — who is also the wife of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell — to head the Transportation Department. The department oversees and safety rules that affect the types of vehicles that automakers produce. “We all have a common interest, and that is to maximize the rate of innovation in the technologies that save lives, avoid crashes and improve fuel economy,” the auto alliance said in response to Ms. Chao’s appointment. No change would be more consequential to the auto industry than applying steep tariffs on imports from Mexico and elsewhere. Companies could be forced to radically change how and where they get commodity parts, the production of which has been migrating to nations for decades. Consumers could see a change in the types of cars available. Despite Mr. Trump’s campaign rhetoric, the American automotive industry and auto jobs have been buoyant since the Obama administration’s bailout. Since 2010, vehicle production has doubled in the United States, and hundreds of thousands of workers have been hired. Last year, a record 17. 4 million cars and trucks were sold in the United States, and analysts forecast strong demand for several years. “You have record levels of production and record levels of demand,” said Mike Jackson of the research firm IHS Markit. “There is every reason for the industry to emphasize that it’s in a very strong position. ” Still, the industry is anticipating changes from Mr. Trump. Ford, the nation’s automaker after General Motors, uncharacteristically made public a decision to keep production of the Lincoln S. U. V. in Kentucky, after Mr. Trump had singled out the company for its growing investments in Mexico. Ford, like G. M. Fiat Chrysler and nearly every foreign automaker, has a huge stake in protecting the interlocking network of factories and parts suppliers made possible by Nafta. Plants in Mexico are crucial to meeting surging demand for new vehicles in the United States. Beyond that, automakers have already committed big investments to new plants in Mexico to take advantage of its cheaper labor and trade agreements. While Mr. Trump has yet to specify how he would renegotiate Nafta, his emphasis has been on increasing American jobs and discouraging automakers from using foreign plants to supply the American market. His proposal to put tariffs of as much as 35 percent on vehicles imported from Mexico has stunned auto executives who have built their business models on open borders for cars, trucks and the thousands of parts in them. “A tariff like that would be imposed on the entire auto sector, and that could have a huge impact on the U. S. economy,” said Mark Fields, chief executive of Ford. Imported vehicles are an integral part of the American market and account for more than 40 percent of its annual volume. Last year, about eight million cars, trucks and sport utilities sold in the United States were built elsewhere, primarily in Mexico, Canada, Japan and Korea. Nearly all of them enter the market free of tariffs that would increase sticker prices significantly. Increasing the price of an imported vehicle with tariffs could reduce overall vehicle sales and exert economic pressure on manufacturers as well as on freight haulers, dealerships and independent service centers. And if Mr. Trump chooses to impose tariffs on auto parts produced abroad and shipped to plants in the United States, the impact will spread further. Last year, auto parts worth $143 billion were imported into the United States, about 35 percent of them from Mexico, compared with $81 billion in parts that were exported, according to the Commerce Department. Many big suppliers, however, are global and make parts in every region of the world. The parts industry’s largest American trade group, the Motor Equipment Manufacturers Association, said its member companies employed more than 734, 000 workers in the United States, and generated another 2. 9 million jobs in related businesses. The industry is acutely sensitive to changes in trade policies that could have a ripple effect on its ability to ship parts in and out of the country. And like automakers, parts manufacturers are anxious to know what Mr. Trump has in store for them. “Now that the election is over, we can begin to explore what to expect in the months to come,” the trade group’s president, Steve Handschuh, wrote in a letter to its members, adding that he was eager “to express our priorities” to the Trump transition team. In addition to Mr. Trump’s focus on trade issues, the industry is expecting policies that diverge from the Obama administration’s enthusiastic support of electric cars, including the $7, 500 tax credits that encouraged consumers to buy them, and for the testing and development of vehicles. In a Nov. 10 letter to the Trump transition team, the auto alliance asked for clarity on policy changes as soon as possible. “Auto manufacturing is a highly business, and because of that we rely on certainty,” Ms. Bergquist wrote. Yet the industry has proved to be adaptable to shifts in government, whether by building more vehicles to meet new regulations, or increasing investments in Mexico because of Nafta. It is also more focused on than politics. In its letter, the auto alliance laid out several goals — including repeating its position that the government its timetable for automakers to achieve fleetwide fuel economy of 54. 5 miles a gallon. But while the letter was perceived as tailored to Mr. Trump’s agenda, Ms. Bergquist said it was composed before the election and would have been sent to an incoming Clinton administration had the outcome been different. “Our position was the same, no matter who won,” she said. | 0fake |
CORRUPT STATE DEPARTMENT Deletes Key Info From Press Conference…Who Demanded This? | This is seriously concerning! James Rosen calls out the effort to censor his question and the answer regarding Iran at a press conference. | 1real |
Turkey threatens sanctions over Kurdish independence vote | HABUR BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence vote, piling economic pressure on Kurdish authorities after Turkish troops deployed near the main commercial border crossing. Turkey, home to the largest Kurdish population in the region, has warned that any breakup of neighboring Iraq or Syria could lead to a global conflict, and is due to prepare a formal response on Friday, three days before the referendum. Erdogan said the Turkish cabinet and security council would discuss Ankara s options. They will put forward their own stance on what kind of sanctions we can impose, or if we will, he told reporters in New York, according to Anadolu news agency. But these will not be ordinary, Erdogan said. Iraqi Kurdish authorities have defied growing international pressure to call off the vote, which Iraq s neighbors fear will fuel unrest among their own Kurdish populations. Western allies say it could detract from the fight against Islamic State. On Monday, the Turkish army launched a highly visible military drill near the Habur border crossing, which military sources said was due to last until Sept. 26, a day after the planned referendum. Around 100 tanks and military vehicles, backed by rocket launchers and radar, deployed in open farmlands near the frontier, guns pointed south toward the Kurdish mountains. The military buildup hit the Turkish lira, which weakened on Tuesday beyond 3.500 to the dollar, before recovering on Wednesday to around 3.465. But it has so far had little impact on lines of trucks queuing to cross into territory controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government in north Iraq. Turkey, for years the KRG s main link to the outside world, has built strong trade ties with the semi-autonomous region which exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey to international markets. Russian oil major Rosneft will also invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe. Erdogan did not spell out what sanctions Turkey might be considering, but truck drivers waiting at Habur on Wednesday said they feared for their livelihoods if cross-border trade, crucial to the local economy, dries up. I have four kids, I am 35-years-old, and there is neither a job nor a factory in the region, said tanker driver Abdurrahman Yakti, who carries crude oil from Iraq to Turkey s Iskenderun Rafinery in the southeastern province of Hatay. We are stuck with this job. If this gate closes this would be our doom. Ferhat, who has transported dry cargo across the border for 10 years, said closing Habur would paralyze Turkey s southeast. It would not affect only people like me who work for 1,500 lira ($430 per month), but also the businessmen. We bring crude oil from Iraq, but just as many trucks are carrying goods from Istanbul and all around Turkey to Iraq, he said. The show of military force at the border and the threat of sanctions reflects the depth of concern in Turkey that Monday s referendum could embolden the outlawed Kurdish PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s southeast since 1984. The Turkish air force frequently strikes against PKK units operating from the mountains of northern Iraq, and limited detachments of Turkish infantry have made forays across the frontier in the past. Turkey stationed troops in Bashiqa near Mosul, ignoring protests from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, ahead of the military campaign to drive Islamic State out of the northern Iraqi city. Ankara also sees itself as protector of Iraq s Turkmen ethnic minority, with particular focus on the oil city of Kirkuk which Kurds seized in 2014 as Iraqi troops retreated in the face of Islamic State advances. Erdogan said Kurdish determination to hold the referendum disregarded Turkey s support for KRG leadership until now. We will announce our final thoughts on the issue with the cabinet meeting and national security council decision, Erdogan said. I think it would be better if they saw this. | 0fake |
Trump to unveil Supreme Court pick close to inauguration: aide | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump plans to unveil his choice to fill the lingering U.S. Supreme Court vacancy around the time of his Jan. 20 inauguration after the Republican-led Senate refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, a senior Trump aide said on Wednesday. The top U.S. court has been down one justice since the death of long-serving conservative Antonin Scalia on Feb. 13, leaving it ideologically split with four conservatives and four liberals. Obama nominated appeals court judge Merrick Garland for the post on March 16 but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the customary confirmation process from proceeding. During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump’s incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said the president-elect had not yet had any in-person interviews with potential Supreme Court nominees. “I think that’s going to be something that we’re going to start after the new year,” Priebus said. “And certainly by the time we get to inauguration, either shortly before or shortly thereafter, we’ll reveal the name of who our nominee will be.” Scalia’s replacement could tilt the ideological balance of the court for years to come, restoring the long-standing conservative majority just at a time when it appeared liberals would get an upper hand on the bench. This could be pivotal in wide range of issues including abortion, the death penalty, religious rights, presidential powers, transgender rights, federal regulations and others. Priebus said the age of the nominee will be a factor in Trump’s deliberations, possibly preferring a relatively young jurist for the lifetime post. Priebus said that “I tend to believe younger is better” and “certainly longevity’s a factor” but competence will be the most important component. Trump previously unveiled a list of 21 conservative jurists he would consider for the job and said this month he had whittled the list down to “probably three or four.” The U.S. Constitution calls on the president to nominate members of the Supreme Court, with confirmation of the selection in the hands of the Senate. McConnell’s Senate, in a move with little precedent in U.S. history, simply refused to consider the nomination, saying the winner of the Nov. 8 presidential election between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton should make the pick. | 0fake |
Sanders, Clinton cool to Bloomberg's possible entry into 2016 race | DES MOINES, Iowa/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidates gave a cool reception on Sunday to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s potential independent White House run, with Bernie Sanders saying it would add another billionaire like Republican Donald Trump to the race. With eight days to go until Iowa holds the first nominating contest on the road to the Nov. 8 presidential election, Republican Senator Marco Rubio basked in the glow of an endorsement from the Des Moines Register, the state’s biggest newspaper. The weekend disclosure from a source close to the situation that Bloomberg is laying the groundwork for a run that he could launch should Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton falter, sent shock waves rippling through the entire presidential field. Sanders, a democratic socialist and Vermont senator who is threatening Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, told ABC’s “This Week” program that Bloomberg’s entry would add a second billionaire to the field. Trump, a real estate mogul, is leading the crowded Republican field. Sanders has railed against “millionaires and billionaires” and the political power they wield throughout his insurgent campaign for the Democratic nomination. “That is not what, to my view, American democracy is supposed to be about, a contest between billionaires. If that takes place, I am confident that we will win it,” Sanders said. Many analysts believe a Bloomberg entry into the race could siphon Democratic votes and be another blow to Clinton, a former secretary of state and the wife of former President Bill Clinton. An independent bid would be a heavy lift for Bloomberg. The last major third-party candidate, Ross Perot, won 18.9 percent of the vote in 1992, which some observers believe enabled Bill Clinton to defeat President George H.W. Bush. Hillary Clinton, who won the Register’s endorsement on the Democratic side on Saturday, said she expected to negate Bloomberg’s rationale for running. “He’s a good friend of mine and I am going to do the best I can that I get the nomination and we’ll go from there,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The way I read what he said is that if I didn’t get the nomination, he would do it. ... I will relieve him of that,” she said. Bloomberg, 73, a media magnate who has long privately flirted with the idea of a presidential run, served as mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013. He switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in 2007 and has spent millions in recent years on national campaigns to tighten U.S. gun laws and reform immigration. Trump noted that he and Bloomberg had differences on the issues of gun control and abortion and that he would love to run against him. Bloomberg favors preserving a woman’s right to an abortion. “I know Michael very well and would love to compete with him. He is very opposite from me on guns and pro-life. ... I would love to have Michael get in the race,” Trump told CNN. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told the ABC program that Bloomberg had been a “great mayor,” who was unlikely to get into the race unless Trump and Sanders were the parties’ nominees. “But that’s way off into the future,” Bush said. Rubio, at a town hall meeting in Marion, Iowa, brought up Bloomberg’s attempts for more gun control. He said he had been asked in a television interview to comment on Bloomberg’s potential candidacy. “I said he’s not a candidate. If he gets in, we’ll talk about his record and his hatred for the Second Amendment,” Rubio said, referring to the constitutional amendment granting Americans the right to bear arms. Bloomberg’s news service competes with Reuters. (Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington; Editing by Paul Simao and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. | 0fake |
Christie’s Chief Executive to Step Down and Hand Reins to Guillaume Cerutti - The New York Times | In yet another jolt to the auction world, coming just one week after Christie’s top Brett Gorvy, announced his departure, the house announced that its chief executive, Patricia Barbizet, was also stepping down, as of Jan. 1, after two years at the helm. Ms. Barbizet will hand over the reins to Guillaume Cerutti, who left Sotheby’s in 2015 to join Christie’s as president of Europe, Middle East, Russia and India operations. “I came to do a number of things,” Ms. Barbizet said in a telephone interview. “They are now done. ” François Pinault, the French luxury goods magnate and the owner of Christie’s, will assume the role of chairman. Ms. Barbizet will become vice chairwoman and will remain chief executive of the Artémis Group, the investment company founded by Mr. Pinault. Mr. Cerutti, 50, is taking over at a time when the auction houses are struggling to fill their sales with inventory, given a hesitation among sellers to consign their prize artworks in light of political and economic uncertainty. “The demand is very strong and has remained very strong from new buyers and emerging buyers,” Mr. Cerutti said. “The supply side is more challenging. We have to be ready to face this part of the cycle because we know we are in a cyclical business. ” Mr. Cerutti’s experience in Asia will be important at a time when the region is the focus of increasing attention as fertile ground for new buyers. (Its rival, Phillips, recently had its first full sale in Hong Kong.) Ms. Barbizet, 61 — a longtime top aide to Mr. Pinault — represented something of what she recently called a “custodian” for the house, after Steven P. Murphy stepped down as Christie’s chief in 2014. “My primary assignment is C. E. O. of Artémis,” Ms. Barbizet said. “I act when it is necessary. I accepted to take charge because of the team, because the team was there and I was sure we could position the team. I kept my function as C. E. O. of Artémis. ” “The time has come for me to go back to different assignments,” Ms. Barbizet continued. “But I will remain close to Christie’s, as I was before. I will support Guillaume. ” Artémis is the controlling shareholder of the conglomerate Kering, which includes the brands Gucci, Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga. Ms. Barbizet is of the Kering Group. In January, Christie’s announced total sales of $7. 4 billion for 2015, down 5 percent over the previous year. The company is not required to report profitability on its sales, which can carry large guarantees, or promised minimum prices. Over the last two years, the teams at the three main auction houses — which include Sotheby’s and Phillips — have been in flux. Most notably, Mr. Gorvy announced last week that he was leaving to join forces in private sales with the dealer Dominique Lévy, at her Madison Avenue gallery which will now be known as Lévy Gorvy. But Mr. Cerutti said that he had confidence in the remaining team, which includes Stephen Brooks as deputy chief executive and Jussi Pylkkanen as global president — and was pleased that Mr. Gorvy would continue to work closely with Christie’s from the outside. “Brett is a great individual but he was also a member of the team and the team remains in place,” Mr. Cerutti said, “I’m confident they will take over. ” Ms. Barbizet ran Christie’s from Europe, where she lives in Paris. Her other residence is in Manhattan on West 57th Street, but she spends much of her time on airplanes, visiting companies from America to Asia. Previous chief executives, including Mr. Murphy, have not been based in New York. Mr. Cerutti said he, too, planned to remain in London, but to travel frequently to New York and to Asia, where Christie’s recently opened a new Beijing office. “London is the historic center of our company,” he said, adding that he would be traveling shortly to New York to meet with the team there. “I love New York,” he said. “I love being in the United States, you can be absolutely sure. ” Mr. Cerutti has served as managing director of the Centre Georges Pompidou and chief of staff to France’s minister for culture and media. He also held positions in the Ministry of the Economy and Finance before joining the auction world in 2007 as chief executive of Sotheby’s France. In September 2011, he was appointed deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe. Ms. Barbizet said she has known Mr. Cerutti for more than 20 years and brought him on in part because of his “skills with people as a manager and as a team leader. ” Mr. Cerutti started at Christie’s this year, after a noncompete period. “He’s very for winning all the battles,” Ms. Barbizet said. “I’d rather have him winning the battles for us. ” Mr. Guillaume said he looked forward to continuing Christie’s strength in a market that is changing. “The company is in a good place,” he said, “and I will try to maintain the company at this level. ” | 0fake |
Crushing Hillary: Trump’s Landslide by the Numbers | EndingFed News Network | ( New York Times Results by County) The media won’t tell you this but Donald Trump CRUSHED Hillary Clinton in the recent election in three key areas: For one, the above results by county show that he picked up a significant amount of the counties in the US. The picture is clear that most counties in America voted for Trump . Secondly, the media is also hiding from you that Trump CRUSHED Hillary in the Electoral College (EC). As of today, most if not all media outlets show that Trump won the election with only 279 EC votes. But the truth is Trump also won Michigan with 16 EC votes and Arizona with 11 EC votes for a total of 306 EC votes. Hillary only won 228 EC votes but it looks like she barely won New Hampshire which should put her at 232 EC votes. As a result, Trump won 57% of all EC votes. HIllary turned in the Democratic Party’s worst Electoral College performance in 28 years. With only New Hampshire left to be called, Clinton has turned in the Democratic Party's worst Electoral College performance in 28 years pic.twitter.com/APU85Ty50q
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODradio) November 9, 2016 Thirdly, in total states it was a landslide. Trump won 31 states to 19 states won by Hillary or 62% of the states. The mainstream will argue that Hillary beat Trump in the popular vote which appears accurate. According to the NYT she won 59,923,027 to Trump’s 59,692,974 for a difference of only 230,053 or 0.4%. But in California and New York Hillary beat Trump by a combined 4 million votes. If not for these two huge liberal states, Hillary would have gotten shellacked in the popular voting as well. The mainstream media will not tell you but Trump won BIGLY!
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Hannity Gets HUMILIATED For Claiming He Never Kissed Trump’s A** | Sounds like someone can t handle the truth.In her new book, Fox News host Megyn Kelly claimed that pro-Trump hosts would arrange with Trump in advance to ask him certain critical questions or do certain hits on him so they would appear to have some credibility. In other words, they were pretending to ask tough questions on the spot but Trump was able to form an answer in advance, thereby making himself look good.Kelly did not name names but one pro-Trump host is already objecting.Naturally, fellow Fox host Sean Hannity went on the defensive on Twitter and demonstrated that he has never heard the old quote in Hamlet about protesting too much.Hannity demanded to know which hosts Kelly was talking about and strenuously insisted that he isn t one of them.No idea who @megynkelly is talking about. When I asked ? s about Justices, The wall, Refugees, Obamacare, economy etc I wanted real answers! https://t.co/AZxax2rpur Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016I would love to know who was Acting . https://t.co/AZxax2rpur Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016I never asked a question from a TelePrompTer in my life. I cannot speak for others. https://t.co/OSs0sO9tDS Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016Curious who she was referring to. I am transparent, I want to defeat Isis, protect the homeland and get people out of poverty and working! https://t.co/tranPp7y2k Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016I m just curious. All year long I talked about the number of people not working in poverty on food stamps I wanted real answers and got them https://t.co/62F0etYnxS Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016Twitter users had fun mocking Hannity for pretending he was tough on Trump.@seanhannity, you sir are no journalist. You are a Trump surrogate, or more accurately, a puppet. Period. @JohnJHarwood @megynkelly Joseph Amodeo (@josephamodeo) November 20, 2016@seanhannity @JohnJHarwood @megynkelly Guilty conscience? Why don t you ask her? You probably have access to her. patrick dickson (@knowitall143) November 20, 2016.@seanhannity @megynkelly @Mediaite Have you ever watched your show, Sean? Tweets by Collin (@TweetsByCollin) November 21, 2016Megyn Kelly also claimed that some of these pro-Trump hosts received gifts for going easy on him.Of course, Hannity claimed he never received any gifts from Trump.I would also like to know what people were offered by DT, I was never offered a thing. Never stayed at a DT property played a DT golf course https://t.co/62F0etYnxS Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016Never played a DT golf course. To be clear. https://t.co/62F0eufYpq Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 20, 2016That led to this spectacular takedown by a Twitter user.@seanhannity Trump didn t offer you anything because he knows your love is unconditional like a good lapdog. Eric Koeller (@BasicKoell) November 20, 2016And that caused Hannity to complain.Nice cheap shot. I agree with his plans for the economy, energy, vetting, the wall, Ct Justices, Obamacare, education, and foreign policy. https://t.co/toN8PRsjQu Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 21, 2016As we all know, Sean Hannity was Donald Trump s chief propagandist throughout the 2016 campaign. Trump could always count on Hannity to deliver the softball interviews he demanded but didn t get from real journalists.That being said, Hannity is lying when he says that he was tough on Trump. BUt it s probably true that he received nothing in return. After all, there s no need to bribe someone whose lip prints are already firmly embedded on your ass.Featured Image: Screenshot | 1real |
BREAKING…AMERICA WAS PUNKED! No Direct Ties Between Trump And Russia…Intelligence Community Behind Assault On Trump [VIDEO] | Could this be the biggest FAKE NEWS story of 2016?An anonymous intelligence officer told NBC no direct link was found between PEOTUS Donald Trump and Russia.Nothing.The Screaming headlines were all Fake News.Senior news editor and writer, NBC Nightly News Brad Jaffey tweeted this video interview of Cynthia McFadden saying that Trump was NOT briefed on the addendum to the dossier originally generated as part of anti-Trump Republican opposition research.:https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/819215244601991169https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/819208142164754432NBC reported:A senior U.S. intelligence official with knowledge of the preparation for the meeting with Trump told NBC News that the president-elect was not briefed on the so-called two-page addendum to the dossier originally generated as part of anti-Trump Republican opposition research.Multiple officials say that the summary was included in the material prepared for the briefers, but the senior official told NBC News that the briefing was oral and no actual documents were handed to the Trump team.Intel and law enforcement officials agree that none of the investigations have found any conclusive or direct link between Trump and the Russian government period, the senior official said.We all got punched And the intelligence community was behind this assault on Trump. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper describes Russia s multi-faceted hacking campaign during the 2016 election:Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Hillary Clinton, in push for black support, promises to tackle racial disparities | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton courted the critical black vote on Tuesday as she met with civil rights leaders in New York and promised in a speech to tackle “very real barriers” confronting African-Americans. Clinton is seeking to maintain her lead among black voters over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her rival for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democrat Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president. The Clinton campaign said last week: “It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African-American and Hispanic voters.” Clinton’s status as the Democratic front-runner was jolted this month when the former secretary of state beat Sanders by less than a percentage point in Iowa’s caucuses and lost to him by more than 20 points in the New Hampshire primary. More than 90 percent of people in those states are white. Clinton met for more than two hours on Tuesday with a half-dozen civil rights leaders at the New York headquarters of the National Urban League. “I thought that the secretary demonstrated an ease and familiarity with many of the issues we discussed this morning,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said afterward. The Rev. Al Sharpton joked with Clinton in the corridors afterward, suggesting to reporters he had told her which candidate he would endorse. “My lips are sealed!” Clinton, who did not take any media questions, replied with a smile. At a news conference later, Sharpton said Clinton was “candid and open,” but he added he had yet to decide who to support and that no candidate should take the support of black voters for granted. “We are not a monolithic people,” he said. Clinton’s campaign team has argued that Sanders’ growing support among Democrats will likely falter as voting for a party nominee moves to more racially diverse states in the coming weeks. Both Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have traditionally had solid support from blacks, a key component of the Democratic electorate. Opinion polls show Clinton with a strong lead over Sanders in South Carolina, where blacks are likely to make up more than half the voters in the state’s Democratic primary on Feb. 27. Sanders has said Clinton’s polling lead among blacks is partly a result of her being more famous than he is. He believes many non-white voters will be drawn to his message of fighting economic inequality as they get to know him. He is scheduled to meet with civil rights leaders in Washington on Thursday. Later on Tuesday, Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, gave a speech in the historically black New York City neighborhood of Harlem on breaking down the barriers that black families face. She was joined onstage before her remarks by New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Eric Holder, the first black U.S. attorney general. “There are still very real barriers holding back African-Americans from fully participating in our economy and our society,” Clinton said, citing disparities between blacks and whites in earnings, health and criminal sentencing. She said that if elected, she would spend $2 billion to encourage public school districts with a high number of troubled students to hire social workers and other experts to help young people before they get entangled in the criminal justice system. Sanders, who frequently decries the country’s high incarceration rate, also met with Sharpton earlier this month, and was endorsed by Benjamin Jealous, former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who said he could not support Clinton in part because of her support of the death penalty. Clinton was endorsed last week by the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee, which said Clinton had a long history of working on issues that affect black Americans. (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage. | 0fake |
Jon Stewart Brilliantly Reveals Trump’s MAJOR Character Flaw, And It’s SO True (VIDEO) | Jon Stewart may not be routinely commenting on America s politics anymore, but he certainly hasn t stepped away from the spotlight. Last night, Stewart took a break from his personal projects to hijack Stephen Colbert s The Late Show, where he couldn t resist weighing in on Donald Trump.During the show, Stewart nailed a personality trait of Trump s that shows just how untrustworthy Trump is. While it s well known that Trump lies through his teeth every chance he gets (he was also proven to be the most dishonest presidential candidate last year), there s one behavior of Trump s that gives it all away and Stewart pointed this out perfectly. Mocking one of Trump s most obvious speech patterns, Stewart said: Nobody says believe me unless they are lying. He elaborated: Trump lies more in one press conference than CNN does in a year. And this is coming from a guy, who as you know, hates CNN. Stewart also had some equally harsh words for the media, and advised the press that it should get its groove back and stop latching onto Trump s every attack. Stewart said to the media: Let s face facts. You kind of let yourself go a little bit these past few years, put on a few pundits, obsessing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, about this one guy: What s Donnie up to? Did he say anything about us? You think he s gonna come on our show?' Stewart compared the behavior between Trump and the media to a bad breakup, and suggested that it was an opportunity for improvement. Stewart said, Take up a hobby. I recommend journalism! Colbert asked Stewart if he felt the press would actually do some self-reflection and improve, and Stewart joked, I really do believe me. You can watch Stewart weigh in on Trump and the media below: Featured image via screenshots | 1real |
Delta Air Lines Bans Disruptive Donald Trump Supporter for Life - The New York Times | Delta Air Lines has banned a disruptive passenger who shouted Trump and Clinton remarks at fellow passengers on a flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pa. last week, the airline’s chief executive said on Monday. The chief executive, Edward H. Bastian, said in a memo published on Delta’s website that other travelers on the flight Nov. 22 would receive refunds for their tickets. “This individual displayed behavior that was loud, rude and disrespectful to his fellow customers,” Mr. Bastian said in the statement. He added, “We must require civility on our planes and in our facilities. ” The decision by Delta came after the airline received criticism on social media for its initial response to the episode, which a passenger identified as Emma Baum videotaped and released online and to news organizations. Ms. Baum was quoted by The Morning Call on Nov. 26 as saying that she had first noticed the man, who was not identified, shouting slogans in the terminal while waiting to board Flight 248. The man ended up sitting next to her, and she told him she had been out of the country and asked him about the election, she said. Ms. Baum told The Morning Call that as the man became animated, jumping out of his seat, she began recording him with her cellphone. In the video, the man is seen clapping his hands and shouting at other passengers. He says in part: “Donald Trump, baby! We got some Hillary bitches on here?” The man also yelled: “Donald Trump! It’s your president. Every goddamn one of you. If you don’t like it, too bad. ” A Daily Beast writer was also provided with a copy of the video. Ms. Baum said the man was briefly removed from the plane and then allowed back on the flight before it took off. She said she reported him to the authorities when the plane landed. After the video was posted online, Delta Air Lines issued a statement on Nov. 26, apologizing to customers for the disruption and saying, “We have followed up with the teams involved and all agree that this customer should not have been allowed to continue on the flight. ” Mr. Bastian said in the statement on Monday: “After questioning the customer, our team members made the best decision they could given the information they had and allowed him to remain on the flight. ” He added, “If our colleagues had witnessed firsthand what was shown in the video, there is no question they would have removed him from the aircraft. He will never again be allowed on a Delta plane. ” The video was shared widely online, with many commentators noting that the man, who is white, was not ejected from the flight, but that passengers who are Muslim, Sikh, and other races and ethnicities have been subjected to extra scrutiny or outright removal by various airlines while engaging in routine activities. It was not immediately clear what, if any measures, were taken at the airport in Allentown when the man disembarked. Assistant Chief Gail Struss of the Allentown Police Department said in an email on Monday: “It’s possible we were called, but no report was taken by us that I can find. We would have referred the caller to the airport police. ” Officers at the Police Department at the Airport Authority were not dispatched to respond to any passenger disturbance on Nov. 22, a spokesman, Colin Riccobon, said in an email. | 0fake |
Meet the New Monopoly Tokens: A Rubber Ducky, a T-rex and a Penguin - The New York Times | Say goodbye to the thimble, the boot and the wheelbarrow, Monopoly fans. There are new tokens in town. Hasbro, the maker of the board game, on Friday announced the results of a poll that asked fans in more than 100 countries to choose which tokens will circle the board in the next Monopoly game coming out in the fall. The Scottie dog, top hat, roadster car, cat, and battleship tokens will return. But the boot got the boot, and so did the wheelbarrow and the thimble. The three tokens will be replaced with a Tyrannosaurus rex, a rubber ducky and a penguin, the company said. The announcement came just before World Monopoly Day on Sunday. In a statement, Jonathan Berkowitz, a senior vice president at Hasbro Gaming, said that the “global Monopoly community has spoken. ” “The next generation of tokens clearly represents the interests of our fans around the world, and we’re proud to have our iconic game impacted by the people that feel most passionate about playing it,” he said. Hasbro had asked fans in January to choose the next generation of tokens from a list of 64 options, which included the current lineup. More than 4. 3 million votes were counted. The most popular token in the voting was the Scottie dog, the stout little pup that has clattered its way past Go countless times on Monopoly boards worldwide since it was introduced in the 1950s. The was the second most popular option among the voters, followed by the top hat and the racing car, which have both been in circulation since the 1930s, when the game first made its appearance on American living room tables. The rubber ducky and penguin were the final inductees, joining the cat and the battleship. Some fans of the game seemed to feel strongly about which of the tokens should stay and which should go. The competition was fueled by online campaigning from outside forces, Hasbro said. Zipcar, the company, advocated for the survival of the car token by asking fans to #SaveTheCar. The New England Aquarium got in the spirit by tweeting photographs of their penguins to #VotePenguin, and hosting a Facebook live event to Monopoly’s nearly 11 million Facebook fans. The company has opened up its revamping of the token lineup in previous polls. In 2013, fans voted to drop the iron. | 0fake |
North Korea Threatens ‘Sacred’ Nuclear War Against Israel if this country continue supporting ISIS | Email
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry slammed the “shamelessness of Israel” on Friday, calling the Jewish State a “rogue group” that “poses a nuclear threat” and commits “terrorist attack[s]” against neighboring countries. On Friday the Korean Central News Agency released a statement attributed to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry that responded to comments Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made last week that were critical of the Hermit Kingdom. “This is an unpardonable insult and provocation to the dignity and social system in the DPRK and the choice made by its people,” the statement said of Netanyahu’s comments, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The statement then took issue with Israel’s foreign policy in the Middle East, stating: “Israel not only represents dictatorial forces for aggression that trample down the legitimate right of the Palestinian people and indiscriminately kill them but also is a rogue group that poses a nuclear threat and makes terrorist attack[s] on its neighboring countries with lots of nuclear weapons.” The statement was responding to comments Netanyahu made during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week, in which the Israeli leader repeatedly drew parallels between Iran and North Korea. “And, Prime Minister [Abe], we have something else in common,” Netanyahu began. “We are two peace loving democracies that face formidable threats from nearby rogue states.” “Both Iran and North Korea are governed by ruthless and extreme dictatorships, states that seek to bully and intimidate their neighbors, and in our case, to actually eradicate us from the face of the earth.” Noting that “Iran and North Korea have aggressive military nuclear programs,” Netanyahu repeated his plea to not allow Iran to use diplomacy to advance its nuclear program as he alleges North Korea did with the 1994 Agreed Framework. “Iran cannot be allowed to travel the road taken by North Korea.” It’s not the first time that North Korea has slammed Israel or even Netanyahu publicly. After Netanyahu criticized Pyongyang during a trip to Japan last year, the North Korean Foreign Ministry released a similar statement, which called Israel a "cancer to peace in the Middle East.” It also accused Netanyahu of trying to use North Korea “to divert international criticism of Israel caused by its settlement activity and breakdown in the Middle East peace talks." Similarly, in last week’s statement, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, “Everybody knows about the shamelessness of Israel telling lies and making fabrications and pointing accusing fingers to others to justify its criminal acts and evade the censure and condemnation by the international community.” Besides trading public insults, Israel has long been concerned about North Korea’s support for Arab states that are hostile to Israel, as well as Iran. In fact, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War North Korea actually deployed a squadron of MiG-21s to Egypt, which engaged in a firefight with Israeli F-4s. Neither side sustained any damage. More recently, North Korea has been accused of proliferating ballistic missiles and nuclear technology to Syria and Iran. In 2007, Israel destroyed Syria's Al Kibar Nuclear Reactor that was reportedly built by North Korean engineers. | 1real |
SOCIALISM IN VENEZUELA: Want Bernie For President? Here’s What You’ll Get! [Video] | Here s a first-hand look at the crazy state of affairs in Venezuela! | 1real |
NOTHING BIG MAC: Donald Trump Jr Caught in Latest Russiamania Ragbag | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireDespite repeated failures in litigating the Russian Collusion case, America s mainstream media and liberal establishment are still trying to manifest new episodes, hoping that one will turn up Trump.What was billed by the US mainstream media this week as a smoking gun, still hasn t produced anything remotely compelling, not by normal journalistic standards anyway.At first it looked salacious and on first read had all the makings of a Russo-American sequel to Get Shorty Last summer, well before Russiamania descended upon the US media and body politic, a former Trump Organization and entertainment agent associate, Rob Goldstone, emailed Donald Trump Jr about an interesting meeting in Trump Tower. Goldstone laid the bait, according to an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr this week, indicating that the purpose of the meeting was as follows: to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government s support for Mr Trump. No doubt intriguing, to which Trump the younger replied: If it s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. At last, no more vegan news. Russiagate has finally served up some red meat, and so it began.In a personal statement released on Monday by Donald Trump Jr, he maintained his innocence regarding the matter: The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research. Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017By that time the media had already made the jump to hyperspace. The headlines all hummed in unison, gleefully touting along the lines of, At last, they all thought, after 10 months and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, and public money wasted, and thousands of hours of hollow media coverage we ve finally got it! If the media is to believed, you d think that every Trump-Russia story is a precursor for his impeachment.If there s one thing we ve learned from the media by now, it s that even if it s an obvious cul-de-sac, they can still sustain a Trump-Russian story for most of the working week. Just this morning, an enthusiastic Washington Post, still going strong, pushed out the headline which read: Category 5 hurricane : White House under siege by Trump Jr. s Russia revelations. Not surprisingly, CNN was just as determined, like a dog searching for its chew toy under the couch. CNN breaking news voiceover presenter announced loudly, Another potential bombshell report from the New York Times the key word here being potential, but that s already a stretch. There are plenty in the media who would like there to be something there, but to paraphrase one of the great political eels of all time, Donna Brazile There is no there, there. While pushing the story on Tuesday, CNN s lead paragraph was keen to stress that President Donald Trump s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, met a Russian government attorney even though everyone already knew by that time that the attorney in question, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had already stated she had never acted on behalf of the Russian government.Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (Source: The Australian) According to Donald Trump Jr s own personal statement and email chain released on Twitter, Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya produced no useful dirt on Hillary Clinton at the supposedly magnanimous meeting in Trump Tower and claims the meeting was really about the Magnitsky Act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2012 which contained targeted sanctions against Russian individuals and which also put the brakes on US-Russia adoptions. At the time we were told that Russian President Vladimir Putin viewed the Act as an affront to Russian national interests and retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.The Magnitsky Affair became the cause de jour for the West as well as the opening salvo in the New Cold War, but according to veteran investigative reporter Robert Parry the real details of this scandal have been purposefully blocked from Western eyes and ears. Instead, a mythology has been perpetuated which persists to this day thanks to the efforts of one of the scandal s protagonists, hedge-fund operator William Browder.Beyond the palace intrigue and the Magnitsky angle, no mainstream journalists seem brave enough to ask the simple question: is there a story here? In the end, no information was passed to Trump, and no crime appears to have been committed. It s not just a nothing burger, it s a nothing Big Mac.Staying to the task at hand, the New York Times kept establishment s Russiamania on track. Right on queue, the New York Times responded to Trump Jr s email release by trying elevate the alleged incident to the level of Russian collusion with its headline, When the Kremlin Says Adoptions, It Means Sanctions . CNN also used the opportunity to recycle and repeat what should be by now a discredited piece of fiction by crowing, The US intelligence community concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed an influence campaign to hurt Clinton and help Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign Apparently, unhinged editors at CNN are still asleep to the fact that the New York Times had already jettisoned the 17 agencies fable when they retracted their yarn ten days previous:After seeming to ditch that big white lie which served as the mainstream s keystone anti-Russia trope since the last October, the New York Times has since tried to rehabilitate the narrative in Matthew Rosenburg s frail opus entitled, Trump Misleads on Russian Meddling: Why 17 Intelligence Agencies Don t Need to Agree. In other words, Yes, we misled the public on the 17 agencies tale, but he s still guilty. Assange InterventionThe most amazing turn in this story however, does not have to do with the contents of the emails, but rather who took them public first.We re told that someone had possession of the incriminating email chain, and had supplied this to the New York Times.On July 10th, while the story was still percolating, the New York Times boasted: The Times now has the email to Donald Trump Jr. offering Russian aid to incriminate Hillary. It seems that while the NYT was gloating over the potential of the story, editor Dean Baquet forgot the golden rule in investigative journalism: publish first, then celebrate. Champagne corks were already popping down on Eight Avenue in advance of the email release, and why not? They really believed they finally had a genuine Russiagate story this time.Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017Once Trump Jr tweeted out the email chain, the story suddenly shifted away from how damning the revelations are for the White House to how badly the New York Times fumbled this story. If Trump Jr hadn t released the emails, it s a near certainty that the NYT would have cropped and dripped out what it felt were the most juicy bits, and wrapped those in a prefabricated Russiagate narrative, to be disseminated to the Washington Post, CNN, NBC et all. .What incensed the media more than anything was that he had beaten the media to the story by releasing his own emails on Twitter. That canny move by Donald Jr was in part due to the timely intervention and advice by none other than Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who tweeted out after the fact:Contacted Trump Jr this morning on why he should publish his emails (i.e with us). Two hours later, does it himself: https://t.co/FzCttGSyr6 Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) July 11, 2017Later, Assange explained his actions on Twitter: I argued that his enemies have it so why not the public? His enemies will just milk isolated phrases for weeks or months with their own context, spin and according to their own strategic timetable. Better to be transparent and have the full context but would have been safer for us to publish it anonymously sourced. By publishing it himself it is easier to submit as evidence. Nonetheless, Donald Jr humiliated the New York Times. By telegraphing their story, they gave him an easy opening, in effect beating the New York Times and sucking any available oxygen out of the story.Slightly further up the leftwing of America s east coast intelligensia food chain, The Atlantic Magazine attempted to re-heat this fabulous nothing burger. With no real story to follow-up on, as a consolation prize, writer Mark Galeotti instead focused on the bizarre as its cast of characters surrounding this story as he tried to surmise how indicative of an unelected network of wealthy oligarchs, captains of industry and powerful corporations who really run things in Mother Russia. In essence, The Atlantic s Galeotti is complaining that there might actually be a Russian deep state permeating the halls of power in Moscow. He states: These hybrid relationships extend to virtually every arena of state business. The state media is an engine of propaganda. Private banks and businesspeople are, for the most part, exactly who and what they appear to be, but they are used to funnel money to sympathetic foreign parties and politicians when the Kremlin pleases. So, Russia has a deep state too. Is the United States, the UK, or any other Western country any different?Interestingly, it was The Atlantic who ran a host of Trump-related deep state articles through the latter part of the US election cycle. So it s: deep state in the USA = an acceptable fact of life, but deep state in Russia = an evil Putinism.Music promoter Rob Goldstone (Source: Mediaite)Who is Rob Goldstone? If there was ever a dodgy actor in this story, it s this man. We re told that the instigator-cum-middleman of this affair is one Rob Goldstone, a former Trump business associate from the Miss Universe event, and former promoter of Russian-based pop singer and businessman Emin Agalarov. According to the email chain, it was Agalarov who is said to have prompted the meeting at Trump Tower between Trump Jr and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, along with President Trump s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort who was Trump s newly appointed campaign boss.Wayward music svengali Goldstone told the future US president s son, the crown prosecutor of Russia offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This has all the makings of a classic political set-up, with Goldstone positioned as the potential schlepper.Agalarov s family attorney Scott Balber told RT: Rob Goldstone was a publicist, a promoter for Emin s musical career. So, they certainly had a relationship in that regard, Balber said, adding that arranging a meeting about some top-secret information, allegedly coming from the Russian government, was obviously out of Goldstone s competence. Rob Goldstone is an entertainment industry publicist. So, I think it s fair to say that he was out of his alignment in making these communications. And what he said is not true. CNN s Kathy Griffin pictured here with Rob Goldstone, date and location of image unknown:Don't recall taking this photo with Russian intermediary Rob Goldstone, but I am in my Dynasty hat waiting for my interview with Mr. Mueller pic.twitter.com/VZ4iT1SuJX Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) July 10, 2017Goldstone appears to be a bit of an artful dodger who keeps some interesting company, including Kathy Griffin of CNN fame (see tweet above). Not surprisingly, Griffin can be seen on Twitter trying to milk the Trump Jr-Goldstone scandal for some extra publicity. It was Griffin, commonly referred to as a female comedian who had her CNN New Years Eve contract canceled following last month s mock ISIS-style beheading of President Trump.What REAL Collusion Looks likeThe word collusion is a new one for Americans. You almost never heard it before 2017. It came into our cultural lexicon after the previous two iterations of Russiagate were decommissioned due to repeated failures. The first iteration was Russian hacking of US elections which despite monumental efforts by the media and Democratic Party could not actually produce any evidence. Russian hacking was later downgraded to Russian meddling, which like the hacking meme, led absolutely nowhere. Then came collusion, which in the case of Trump, appears to be going nowhere. Since then, collusion has since been lowered to an effete, Russian influence. Back in January however, Politico revealed how the Clinton campaign had actually colluded with the Ukrainian government to spread anti-Trump stories and information during the 2016 election.Unlike the US liberal establishment s Russiagate Hoax, the Clinton-Ukraine story is real, and a definite breach of numerous codes, and possibly illegal. This incredible story was later summarized here by The Daily Caller:A veteran DNC operative who previously worked in the Clinton White House, Alexandra Chalupa, worked with Ukrainian government officials and journalists from both Ukraine and America to dig up Russia-related opposition research on Trump and Manafort. She also shared her anti-Trump research with both the DNC and the Clinton campaign, according to the Politico report. Chalupa met with Ukrainian Ambassador Valeriy Chaly and one of his aides, Oksara Shulyar, at the Ukrainian Embassy in March 2016 to talk about unearthing Paul Manafort s Russian connections, Chalupa admitted to Politico. Four days later, Trump officially hired Manafort. The day after Manafort s hiring was revealed, she briefed the DNC s communications staff on Manafort, Trump and their ties to Russia, according to an operative familiar with the situation, Politico reported.The Politico report also notes that the DNC encouraged Chalupa to try to arrange an interview with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to talk about Manafort s ties to the former pro-Russia president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, whom Manafort previously advised.To make matters worse, the Clinton campaign then actively coordinated a number of mainstream media journalists to spread the information:In one email released by WikiLeaks, Chalupa told Luis Miranda, then the DNC s communications director, that she was working with Yahoo News reporter Michael Isikoff and connected him to the Ukrainians. A lot more coming down the pipe. I spoke to a delegation of 68 investigative journalists from Ukraine last Wednesday at the Library of Congress the Open World Society s forum they put me on the program to speak specifically about Paul Manafort and I invited [Yahoo News reporter] Michael Isikoff whom I ve been working with for the past few weeks and connected him to the Ukrainians, Chalupa told Miranda. More offline tomorrow since there is a big Trump component you and Lauren need to be aware of that will hit in next few weeks and something I m working on you should be aware of. The Open World Leadership Center, which funded Chalupa s briefing of journalists about Manafort, is a taxpayer-funded congressional agency. Regarding the media colluding with Clinton, one of the most disturbing examples of this was when CNN s foreign affairs correspondent Elise Labott (image, left) was caught red-handed coordinating with former Hillary Clinton spokesman and State Department aid, Philippe Reines, on how to damage the public image of former GOP presidential candidate and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul during the 2013 Benghazi Hearings. A batch of emails which was released by Gawker showed how Labott took direction from Reines on how to craft tweets during the January 23, 2013 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing. At the time, Senator Paul was pressing Clinton on the details of Benghazi, and the joint-attack by Reines and CNN s Labott looked very much like retribution. Both Labott and Reines conferred, before Labott tweeted to her followers: Sen Paul most critical on committee of Clinton, but a little late to the #Benghazi game. Not sure he was at many of the 30 previous briefings. This was a clear effort behind the scenes to defame a sitting US Senator by a member of the press colluding with a Clinton operative. You d think that Elise Labott would have been sacked for this, but after all it s CNN which means she not only kept her job, but probably got a pay rise to boot.We also learned how Clinton campaign operatives had paid large sums of cash to a shady Washington DC firm called Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump. The firm was originally hired by rival GOP primary candidates to research Trump, but after Trump knocked out all 16 of his rivals and secured the Republican Party nomination, Fusion GPS was then re-hired by Democratic Party donors. Fusion GPS used a portion of that money to contract a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, in order to help produce what would later become known as the Trump Dossier which was then handed to one of the establishment s information laundromats, BuzzFeed (owned by NBCUniversal), which was then seized (surprise, surprise) by CNN. Both media outlets happily seized upon the bogus report, claiming to have damning new information on Donald Trump s ties with Russia. Steele s colorful report claimed that Russia s FSB intel agency had Kompromat on Trump gathered during a trip to Moscow in 2013. It was this incident which eventually prompted then President-elect Trump to christen CNN and its frivolous correspondent Jim Acosta as Fake News, widely regarded as a well-earned label and one which the network hasn t been able to shake off ever since.How this cartel of disinformation goes unregistered on the ethics meter by America s liberal establishment is shocking enough and speaks to both the built-in bias, and cognitive dissonance that plagues America s bustling partisan media and political establishments.Interestingly, UK website The Independent reported how Ms Veselnitskaya is believed to be linked to Fusion GPS. If there is any truth in that claim, then it could lend further credence to the idea that this entire scenario was an establishment stitch-up, possibly to snare the Trump camp in another Russian scandal. According to their report: A complaint filed last year claimed that GPS Fusion headed the pro-Russia campaign to kill the Magnitsky Act. Fusion GPS is the company behind the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and Russia, Senator Chuck Grassley wrote in the letter. It is highly troubling that Fusion GPS appears to have been working with someone with ties to Russian intelligence let alone someone alleged to have conducted political disinformation campaigns as part of a pro-Russia lobbying effort while also simultaneously overseeing the creation of the Trump-Russia dossier. Did Fusion GPS arrange this meeting between Trump Jr and Veselnitskaya?The firm denies any involvement stating, Fusion GPS learned about this meeting from news reports and had no prior knowledge of it. Any claim that Fusion GPS arranged or facilitated this meeting in any way is false. But that rabbit hole leads somewhere, although it s not clear exactly where yet.We do know for sure: that the US mainstream media, especially the New York Times and CNN, cannot be trusted to cover this story fairly or accurately.Watch as 21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen discusses the media s dilemma with RT International on July 11th: *** Patrick Henningsen is an American-born writer and global affairs analyst and founder of independent news and analysis site 21st Century Wire and host of the SUNDAY WIRE weekly radio show broadcast globally over the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR).READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
The Full Details Of Trump’s FAILED Yemen Raid Will Make You Sick To Your Stomach | When Donald Trump was campaigning he said something chilling, something that was widely dismissed as all bluster : that to deal with terrorism, you have to slaughter their families. The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don t kid yourself. When they say they don t care about their lives, you have to take out their families, Trump told Fox and Friends as he promised he would not fight a very politically correct war. In his very first raid as President, he showed the world that he meant it. The operation was approved over dinner without adequate planning or intelligence (in any sense), and it was a disaster from the very beginning.According to reports from locals, the first person hit was 11-year-old Ahmed Abdelilah Ahmed al Dahab, who heard commotion outside and went to check what was happening. When my son Ahmed saw them, he couldn t tell that they were soldiers because it was dark, the boy s father says. He asked them Who are you? but the men shot him. He was the first killed. No one thought that marines would descend on our homes to kill us, kill our children and kill our women. Another member of his family, 12-year-old Nasser, was killed.One woman, Fatim Saleh al Ameri, was shot while trying to flee with her two-year-old son. We pulled him out from his mother s lap. He was covered in her blood, said 11-year-old Basil Ahmed Abad al Zouba, whose 17-year-old brother was killed in Trump s Folly.Abdallah al Ameri, who had years earlier survived a U.S. attack on his wedding party of which he was not the target, was killed along with his 25-year-old daughter Fatima and 38-year-old son Mohammed. Three of Mohammed s children 4-year-old Aisha, 7-year-old Khadija, and 5-year-old Hussein. Another nine members of his family were killed in the raid, including 5-year-old Halima and 6-year-old Mursil. I was woken up after midnight by the bombing of the helicopters. There were soldiers on the ground shooting at us. They started shooting at us with machine gun fire, witness Fahad Ali al Ameri says of the attack. His three-month-old daughter Asma Fahad Ali al Ameri was killed in her crib, asleep.Also killed was the eight-year-old daughter of an al Qaeda propagandist, American citizen Nawar Anwar Al-Awlaqi, who was hiding in a building at the time. Some of the gunfire went through the windows and Nawar was injured in her neck, her uncle, whom she was visiting, says. . We tried to save her but we couldn t do anything for her. It is true they were targeting al Qaeda but why did they have to kill children and women and elderly people? said Zabnallah Saif al Ameri, If such slaughter happened in their country, there would be a lot of shouting about human rights. When our children are killed, they are quiet. Trump s raid failed to kill the primary target, Qassim al-Rimi, who is currently taunting Easy D in propaganda videos, but did manage to snag three super-important videos that are about a decade old and available on YouTube. The tradeoff for this disaster was about 14 dead militants and 30 noncombatants as well as a member of SEAL Team 6.Because of this disaster, Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to conduct anti-terror operations in the country, thus damaging our ability to combat extremism.Naturally, Trump called this massive boner a success. Featured image via The Bureau | 1real |
Ireland says Brexit talks can't move on without clarity over border | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Britain s talks on exiting the European Union cannot progress, as London wishes, to trade relations until it give more clarity on what will happen at its border with Ireland, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Friday. The border with Northern Ireland, which will be the UK s only land frontier with the EU after its departure, is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly solved before talks on trade can start in December at the earliest. On the border issue, I m sorry but we need more clarity than we have right now. We cannot move ahead to phase two on the back of a promise that we don t see any delivery mechanism to make a reality, Coveney told a conference. We don t need all the answers but we certainly need to have more assurance than we have today and we need some understanding that if the trade negotiations collapse, which could happen, that the Irish issues will still be resolved and prioritized. With close trading links to Britain, Ireland is considered the EU member most at risk when its neighbor leaves the bloc. That means it needs to plan for all eventualities and is already doing so, Coveney said. Ireland has called for Britain and the EU to reach a bespoke customs union partnership to eliminate the risk of a hard border returning between it and Northern Ireland, which until a 1998 peace deal was separated by military checkpoints because of 30 years of sectarian violence in the province. However, Dublin wants Britain to commit to a fallback option, including potential special arrangements for Northern Ireland, to avoid a customs border should Britain s plan of maintaining the closest possible ties with the EU fall through. If those assurances are forthcoming, Dublin will probably be Britain s closest friend in the trade talks but if London maintains its current position, some sort of customs border on the island of Ireland cannot be avoided, Coveney said. Ireland s Central Bank has told Irish firms to do more to prepare for an abrupt British departure and speaking at the same conference, Allied Irish Banks chairman said Ireland must be ready for a car crash Brexit. We must plan for the worst possible car-crash Brexit if the ultra-Brexiteers, the head-bangers, are prepared to blow up the British economy in the name of taking back control, Richard Pym said. | 0fake |
WOW! SCRUBBED 1998 GEORGE SOROS Video Resurfaces!…Admits He Confiscated Property From Jews In WWII…Hung Out With Hillary In Haiti [VIDEO] | Knowing there were problems ahead for the Jews, Soros father, who was a successful lawyer, bribed a government official to take 14 year old George Soros in and say he was his Christian godson. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros accompanied his appointed godfather around confiscating property from Jews. George admitted it wasn t difficult at all to take part in taking property from the Jews. Kroft asked Soros if it bothered him?Soros: It created no problem at all.Kroft: No feeling of guilt? Soros: No.Soros makes it very clear in the interview that it didn t really bother him at all. He said he was 14 years old, and that s when his character was formed.Soros: I would say that that s when my character was made. It was a tremendous threat of evil. It was a very personal experience of evil. Kroft: Do you believe in God?Soros:No.Kroft: Soros told us God was created by man, not the other way around. Here is the video that was just uncovered only hours ago: | 1real |
Ted Cruz’s 5-percent flim-flam: His latest economic promise is a real laugher | There are moments, infrequent but poignant, in which I find myself yearning for the good old days of the Jeb Bush presidential campaign. What a time that was – the uncomfortable-in-his-own-skin awkwardness; the sad, pleading earnestness; the inescapable aura of crushing sadness and defeat; the Apple Watch. It was magical. And to counteract all that soul-withering desperation, there was the Jeb Bush promise, the much-mocked and self-evidently overoptimistic guarantee that under President Jeb the United States economy would grow at an annual rate of no less than 4 percent.
That promise was wildly out of step with historical averages – going back to 1968, only one president, Bill Clinton, averaged 4 percent growth over a four-year term. And Jeb based his guarantee off his experience as governor of Florida, when he averaged 4.4 percent statewide growth on the strength of a perilously large housing bubble that catastrophically popped shortly after he left office (somehow that detail never made it into the campaign literature). Regardless, “four-percent growth” was the mantra of Jeb the incurable optimist.
Well, as it turns out, ol’ Jeb was nothing but a piker. Four percent? That’s a loser’s goal. Because here comes Ted Cruz, the last man standing between Donald Trump and the Republican nomination, promising America that under his watch the economy will zip along at “a minimum of five-percent GDP growth.” Five percent! As you might guess, that’s an even rarer accomplishment than Jeb’s guaranteed 4 percent. Harry Truman enjoyed 6.5 percent average growth in the post-war economic boom; the Kennedy-Johnson administration of the early ’60s cleared 5 percent average growth; and since then no president has broken the 5 percent barrier for a single term. Cruz is promising not just to break that trend but to deliver sustained growth at or above 5 percent.
How’s he going to get there? Well, Ted Cruz has a plan. Per CNN: “Cruz says it’s about going back to Reagan-style economics: cut taxes, scale back regulation on business and repeal Obamacare.” Ted Cruz’s tax plan is unique in that it represents the most radical and aggressive upward redistribution of wealth of any of the plans offered by 2016 Republicans. His big idea is to completely restructure the tax code in such a way that the wealthiest Americans will reap massive windfalls. “The overwhelming majority of the plan’s cost (79.6 percent) goes to helping the richest fifth of taxpayers,” Dylan Matthews noted at Vox: “43.7 percent goes to the top 1 percent alone.” And as Bryce Covert writes at ThinkProgress, the assumption at play here – that colossal tax cuts for the wealthiest will trigger massive economic growth – is not backed up by research. What Cruz’s tax cuts will do, however, is explode the national debt by more than $10 trillion in the first decade, according to the Tax Policy Center.
But Cruz has an influential ally in his corner: Art Laffer, the high priest of trickle-down economics, who helped craft Cruz’s plan. “Cruz’s tax plan is better than Reagan’s,” Laffer told CNN. “I think you’ll get growth rates higher than Reagan’s.” A good rule of thumb is that whenever you see Art Laffer extolling the amazing economic impact of a tax-cut package, assume the opposite will happen. Laffer’s time as a Cruz tax advisor was preceded by a high-profile stint as tax advisor to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who came into power by promising to turn the state into a laboratory of trickle-down economic theory. With Laffer’s help, Brownback passed a tax package that knocked out taxes on small businesses and deeply cut rates across the board. Appearing with Brownback to hype the tax scheme, Laffer confidently predicted it would succeed beyond everyone’s wildest dreams. “This will lead to enormous prosperity,” Laffer told a group of Kansans in 2012. “You are moving into the pro-growth world, and believe me it will work.” It did not work. The cuts predictably sent the state into a budget crisis as it scrambled to cover a series of massive deficits. To pay for these tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, Kansas imposed deep cuts to social programs and passed new consumption taxes that disproportionately affect the poor. And what did Kansans get for all this pain? Not much: In 2015, job growth in Kansas was a mere 0.1 percent, even as the nation’s economy grew 1.9 percent. Brownback pledged to bring 100,000 new jobs to the state in his second term; as of January, he has brought 700. What’s more, personal income growth slowed dramatically since the tax cuts went into effect. Between 2010 and 2012, Kansas saw income growth of 6.1 percent, good for 12th in the nation; from 2013 to 2015, that rate was 3.6 percent, good for 41st. As for Laffer, he later clarified that when he said the tax cut plan would bring “enormous prosperity,” he didn’t mean it would happen immediately. “You have to view this over ten years,” he told a Kansas City Star columnist last October. “It will work in Kansas.” That, unfortunately, directly contradicted what he wrote in a 2012 report stating that he “advised Oklahoma, Kansas, and other states to cut their income tax rates if they want the most effective immediate and lasting boost to their states’ economies.” Now we’re supposed to trust Art Laffer when he says that Ted Cruz’s tax plan will bring wild economic growth that will outpace even Ronald Reagan’s economic record, which has become the stuff of mythic exaggeration among conservatives. I suppose that’s the great thing about trickle-down economics – its failures can always just be papered over with more and more extravagant promises. | 0fake |
Amid strained ties, North Korea congratulates China on party congress | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea congratulated China on its 19th Communist Party Congress on Wednesday amid increasingly frayed relationships between the traditional allies, as China tightens sanctions over Pyongyang s nuclear weapons program. The central committee of the North s ruling Workers Party of Korea said that China had made great progress in accomplishing the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics under the correct guidance of the Communist Party. We are greatly pleased over this, the party central committee said in the message carried by the official KCNA news agency, adding that it sincerely wished the China congress satisfactory success . Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that many foreign political parties, organizations and dignitaries had sent their congratulations, including the Workers Party of Korea. This all shows that the international community is paying close attention to the 19th Party Congress. We express our thanks for this, Lu told a daily news briefing. Officials and experts in South Korea had worried that Pyongyang may conduct a weapons test to coincide with the opening of the twice-a-decade congress in Beijing, but there was no sign of that as Chinese President Xi Jinping gave his opening speech. While the United States and its allies, and many people in China, believe Beijing should do more to rein in Pyongyang, the acceleration of North Korea s nuclear and missile capabilities has coincided with a near-total breakdown of high-level diplomacy between the two. China, Pyongyang s sole major ally and which accounts for more than 90 percent of world trade with the isolated country, has said it will strictly enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions banning imports of coal, textiles and seafood, while cutting off oil shipments to the North. | 0fake |
Kuwait's ruler reappoints PM: state news agency | DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait s ruler reappointed his prime minister on Wednesday and asked him to form a cabinet, the official state news agency said on Wednesday, after the government stepped down earlier this week in an expected cabinet reshuffle. The major oil producer has the oldest legislature among the Gulf Arab states and experiences frequent cabinet resignations amid tensions between the government and lawmakers. Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah had tendered his resignation on Monday. Pan-Arab television channel Al Arabiya had earlier reported the news. | 0fake |
Are Women Treated Differently For Pain | Prev post Page 1 of 5 Next
Do Doctors Treat Women’s Pain Less Seriously Than Men? There is recent evidence showing women treated differently for similar symptoms. The Yentl Syndrome
Sometimes movies can have an impact in ways nobody who wrote or worked on the movie could possibly imagine.
In the 1983 film “Yentl”, Barbara Streisand’s character plays the role of a male in order to receive the education she wants. Dr. Bernadine Healy used the phrase “Yentl Syndrome” in an academic paper eight years after the film was released. She used it to describe how many women died because they were misdiagnosed because their symptoms were different than men.
Today the term Yentl Syndrome is widely used as a description of how women are more likely to be treated less aggressively than men. This is primarily because medical research has focused on the symptoms of male heart attacks, and many women have different symptoms.
The term Yentl Syndrome has also been used in a wider context of how because women experience pain differently than men, many healthcare providers do not take the pain of a woman as seriously as they do a man. Prove You Are As Sick as a Male Patient
In initial encounters with the health-care system, women are more likely to be treated less aggressively than men until they “prove that they are as sick as male patients”, according to a study entitled “The Girl Who Cried Pain,”. A contributing factor is that most emergency rooms in the United States do not have an attending OB-GYN.
Women were less likely to receive aggressive treatment when diagnosed, and were more likely to have their pain characterized as “emotional” or “psychogenic” and therefore “not real” according to the study.
These misplaced characterizations can lead to treatment for mental health issues that might not even exist in the patient. Then the situation is further complicated because antidepressants are absorbed differently in women and may have different levels of effectiveness. Prev post Page 1 of 5 Next Be the first to comment Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Comment | 1real |
House Republican leader says 'easier' if Sessions recused himself | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday it would be easier to ensure public trust if Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from investigations into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. “I just think for any investigation going forward you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation,” McCarthy told MSNBC. Asked if that meant Sessions should recuse himself from the investigation, McCarthy said: “I think it would be easier from that standpoint, yes.” | 0fake |
Senators want Congress to OK military action in Syria | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators called on Congress on Tuesday to take back its authority to determine whether the country goes to war, saying recent U.S. strikes in Syria were not covered by existing authorizations for the use of military force. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has begun considering legislation that would cover military action in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Yemen against the Islamic State, al Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups. “I have always believed that it’s important for Congress to exercise its constitutional role to authorize the use of force,” the committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Bob Corker, told a hearing on Tuesday. As President Donald Trump has ordered stepped-up military activity in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere, members of Congress also want Trump to present a strategy for defeating Islamic State and other militant groups. “It’s difficult for us to carry out our responsibility unless we know what the commander in chief needs,” Senator Ben Cardin, the committee’s top Democrat, said. The Trump administration, like former President Barack Obama’s, has been using a 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against al Qaeda passed after the Sept. 11 attacks as the legal basis for a wide range of military action since. Although there is bipartisan support for Congress to debate and vote on a new AUMF introduced by Republican Senator Jeff Flake and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, the measure faces stiff opposition. Lawmakers have introduced war authorizations repeatedly in the past several years. But they have failed to advance amid sharp divisions in Congress over whether, or how, to limit commanders’ use of military resources. Many war-weary members of Congress also do not want to vote for anything that might become a foreign military quagmire consuming taxpayer dollars or leading to widespread U.S. casualties. Trump has ordered stepped-up military operations against Islamic State and delegated more authority to his generals. U.S.-led forces said on Tuesday they had shot down an armed “pro-Syrian regime” drone near the border between Iraq and Syria. A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian army jet over Syria on Sunday. Democratic Senator Tom Udall voted for the 2001 authorization while he was a member of the House of Representatives. “I would have never imagined that vote supporting U.S. troops in Syria in 2017 and engagements with the Assad regime,” he said. | 0fake |
Sam Bee On #GoldenShowerGate: ‘It’s Number One Tricky,’ Much Like Trump’s Escort Service (VIDEO) | Trump has had a rough week! We d feel sorry for him, but it s too much fun to watch karma bite him in his giant orange ass!Perhaps the best person to help with the job of taking on #GoldenShowerGate is Full Frontal s Samantha Bee, who makes Trump her bitch almost on a nightly basis. And, Wednesday night s episode may be her best Trump mockery yet!She began her show addressing the controversy and (let s face it) DISGUSTING reports surrounding Cheeto Hitler this week, with a segment she titled: People Are Saying: Trump Likes Pee. After a heartfelt summary of Obama s emotional Farwell Speech she exclaims, Here come the waterworks! And, in pure Sam Bee style, transitions right into the number one business at hand. (pun intended.) And you know Speaking of waterworks! HALLELUJAH! It s comedy Christmas! Bee then shows a clip reporting the news of BuzzFeed s article in which they released a dossier collected by British intelligence which claims that on a trip to Russia, Trump paid prostitutes to pee on a bed in front of him a bed once slept on by President Obama and the first lady. Oh, bullshit! Bee exclaims. We re supposed to believe Trump is paying people who do work for him? She goes on to note that while this could be plausible bullshit about Trump, no one would ever believe Obama would ever pay anyone to do this, because in fact, people (congress) have been peeing on him for free for years. Bee continues: In fact, if we believe something nasty and petty is what gets Trump hard, then his late night tweets to Alec Baldwin make a lot more sense. Bee goes on to summarize the events of the past couple of days in pure hilarity and ultimately concludes that #GoldenShowerGate is a good distraction from the reality of what we should actually be concerned about, which are the reports regarding Trump s alleged illegal ties to Russia. She then ends the segment with one of the best lines ever: A spoon full of hooker urine helps the treason claims go down. Watch the full video below:Featured image via video screenshot | 1real |
Trump's son-in-law, Kushner, flies into Iraq with top U.S. general | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, flew into Iraq on Monday with the top U.S. general to get a first-hand assessment of the battle against Islamic State from U.S. commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders. For Kushner, who has not been to Iraq before, the trip comes at a critical time as Trump examines ways to accelerate a U.S.-led coalition campaign that U.S. and Iraqi officials say has so far been largely successful in uprooting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The visit appears to demonstrate the far-reaching portfolio of Kushner, 36, who is part of Trump’s innermost circle and who has been given a wide range of domestic and foreign policy responsibilities, including working on a Middle East peace deal. Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he invited Kushner and Tom Bossert, White House homeland security adviser, to accompany him so they could hear “first-hand and unfiltered” from military advisers about the situation on the ground and interact with U.S. forces. “I said, ‘Hey, next time I go to Iraq, if you’re interested, come and it’d be good,” Dunford said, adding he extended the invitation weeks ago. That kind of ground-level awareness of the war helps inform strategic decisions, Dunford said, adding it was the same reason he regularly leaves Washington to visit Iraq. “The more appreciation you could have for what’s actually happening on the ground, the more informed you are when you start talking about the strategic issues,” Dunford said. Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, did not speak with reporters. Trump campaigned on defeating Islamic State but has yet to announce any dramatic shift in war strategy. After arriving, Kushner joined Dunford for meetings with the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad and the senior American commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend. Dunford’s delegation also met Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose office said their talks focused on the ongoing battle to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State and U.S.-led coalition assistance, including aiding civilians displaced by the fighting. “The delegation affirmed its support to Iraq in the war on terror,” Abadi’s office said in a statement. The trip comes as Iraqi security forces engage in fierce, house-to-house fighting in Mosul, Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq and the city where leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearly three years ago. Nearly 290,000 people have fled the city to escape the fighting, according to the United Nations. Although the loss of Mosul would deal a major defeat to Islamic State, U.S. and Iraqi officials are preparing for smaller battles even after the city is recaptured and expect the group to go underground to fight as a traditional insurgency. What happens to the U.S. military role in Iraq after Mosul is recaptured remain unclear. Influential Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has previously called on Iraq’s government to order the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces after the battle of Mosul is over. Dunford said Abadi understood the need for continued U.S. military support. “It’s not our judgment that the Iraqis will be self sustaining and self sufficient in the wake of Mosul. More importantly, it’s not Prime Minister Abadi’s assessment,” Dunford said before his talks. Across the border in Syria, a U.S.-backed campaign to isolate Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa is advancing ahead of an eventual assault on the city. But in Syria, too, tough decisions await Trump. NATO ally Turkey has been incensed by U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen by the U.S. military as a reliable partner but by Turkey as a hostile force with deep links to Kurdish PKK militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The U.S. military has said no decision has been made yet on whether to support the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include the YPG, in the Raqqa assault. | 0fake |
Iran still trying to buy items for missile development: Germany | BERLIN (Reuters) - German intelligence agencies have warned German companies that Iran is still trying to circumvent restrictions on the sale of dual-use items for its rocket and missile technology program, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The BfV domestic intelligence agency reminded German firms in the document that sales of certain technologies remained illegal despite sanctions relief triggered by the landmark Iran nuclear deal of 2015. It is important to note that Iran continues to pursue an ambitious rocket and missile technology program which is not affected by the sanctions relief, the document said. It said the reminder was triggered by current events but gave no details. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Monday told reporters that Berlin remains concerned about Iran s behavior in the Middle East and its missile development program, but stressed that Tehran was sticking to the nuclear agreement. European countries are scrambling to pull together a package of measures to keep the nuclear deal on track if U.S. President Donald Trump decertifies the nuclear pact. Under that pact, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear program for 15 years in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump is expected to declare this week that Iran is not complying with the pact and to unveil a tough new strategy toward Iran. The BfV document said German intelligence agencies were continuing to investigate intensively whether Iran was attempting to circumvent existing regulations to acquire products or know-how in Germany. It had reported in June that Iran had sharply scaled back efforts to buy items for its nuclear program, but said attempts to buy items for its development program remained unchanged. It gave no details about the number of such attempts. Germany s most populous state and its industrial heartland, North Rhine-Westphalia, provided details in its own intelligence report for 2016 that was released on Tuesday. It said it had detected 32 attempts to buy equipment that were probably or definitely proliferation-related in 2016, down from a record 141 attempts seen a year earlier. Most of those attempts were related to Iran s missile program, although some were also linked to Pakistan, it said. The lion s share of the cases did not result in delivery of any equipment because state intelligence officials were able to warn companies in time, or companies recognized suspicious inquiries. It said Iran used a variety of front companies to acquire items, often sending goods through Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and China. | 0fake |
Donald Trump Just Used The World Trade Center Collapsing To Brag About Himself (FULL QUOTE) | It s become more than obvious that Donald Trump has absolutely no filter when he speaks. He says exactly what is on his mind, and as it would appear, he may even believe his own lies.What Trump also seems to believe, is that he s the best thing that ever happened to the world and we should all be grateful to be alive during his existence on the planet. He s obsessed with how much people either like him or don t like him, and what he s most obsessed with is ratings. He seems to live for ratings and how many people saw him at any particular time. It s very pathetic that he seems to need this gratification.However, in a recent unfiltered moment from Trump, he compared himself to 9/11/01 and the ratings Face the Nation got covering the World Trade Center collapsing.In an interview with The Associated Press, as they spoke with Trump, they said: And that s one of the difficulties I think presidents have had is that you can have these personal relationships with people from the other party, but then it s hard to actually change how people vote or change how people This is when Trump decided to say: No I have, it s interesting, I have, seem to get very high ratings. I definitely. You know Chris Wallace had 9.2 million people, it s the highest in the history of the show. I have all the ratings for all those morning shows. When I go, they go double, triple. Chris Wallace, look back during the Army-Navy football game, I did his show that morning. Um, ok and AP responded with, I remember, right. However, Trump wasn t done. He continued: It had 9.2 million people. It s the highest they ve ever had. On any, on air, (CBS Face the Nation host John) Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It s the highest for Face the Nation or as I call it, Deface the Nation. It s the highest for Deface the Nation since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It s a tremendous advantage. He then went off on a tangent about the fake news or whatever.The fact that he s comparing, and randomly so, his ratings on a show to the coverage of the World Trade Center collapsing isn t only bizarre, it s depraved. He s literally trying to say that he s so popular, he can beat the ratings of the worst domestic disaster on American soil. Not only that, he says this after making a terrible joke.What the f**k is wrong with him? This is about as shameful as one could EVER possibly get.Featured photo via Getty Images | 1real |
Tomi Lahren: Young, Vocal and the Right’s Rising Media Star - The New York Times | “I’m in the lion’s den, Trevor. ” Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator, had left her bubble of more than 4. 3 million followers on social media last week to appear in front of the progressive, diverse audience that attends the weeknight tapings of “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” in Manhattan. Before the interview began, Mr. Noah requested that the studio audience be polite to Ms. Lahren. “Imagine you’re at Thanksgiving again, and your racist uncle walked in,” he joked. Ms. Lahren hosts a nightly show, “Tomi,” for The Blaze, a website, TV station and subscription service created by the conservative media personality Glenn Beck. And her reputation — among supporters, detractors and her prodigious online following — has been built on the commentaries with which she closes each show. A segment from August featuring an incendiary address to the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been watched on Facebook 66 million times. Ms. Lahren criticized Mr. Kaepernick, who had been protesting racial oppression by kneeling during the national anthem before games, pointing at unemployment and homicide rates, and saying that black people should take responsibility for their communities being run “into the ground. ” Ms. Lahren has also been critical of prominent black people like President Obama and Beyoncé in commentaries that have gone viral. During the presidential campaign, she became one of the most visible young supporters of Donald J. Trump, saying that she was using her show to speak for those who live between the coasts and “are too timid or too bashful or too busy to voice their own opinion. ” It is an approach that has made her a new media star, while also drawing the ire of critics who say her commentaries are often racist. Brendesha Tynes, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in addressing social media issues and cyberbullying, initially declined to comment on Ms. Lahren’s “Daily Show” appearance, saying, “We normalize racism when we give these folks a platform. ” She later elaborated, saying Ms. Lahren’s appearance “sends a signal to our children and the world that facts don’t matter, that hate is normal. ” It is likely that Ms. Lahren’s audience has little crossover with Mr. Noah’s. Ms. Lahren, whose name is pronounced “Tommy,” seemed unfazed during her conversation on politics and race with Mr. Noah, even as the audience booed and laughed at her. “There were some people in the audience that were just there to razz me,” she said afterward, adding that she did not think she persuaded anyone in attendance with her arguments. At one point, she compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan. The next day, however, footage from the interview was popular online, prompting headlines like “Trevor Noah Expertly Skewers Conservative Tomi Lahren” from The Huffington Post, and “Trevor Noah Thoughtfully Confronting Tomi Lahren on Racism on ‘The Daily Show’ Might Be His Best Work Ever” from New York magazine. There was speculation that Ms. Lahren and Mr. Noah could develop a friendly sparring relationship not unlike that of Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart. Many conservative outlets praised Ms. Lahren’s appearance. A headline on RedFlagNews. com read “Tomi Lahren Enters the Lion’s Den, Takes On Trevor Noah on His Own Show. ” David Dennis Jr. a journalism professor at Morehouse College, was disappointed by reactions to the interview. “People talked about it as if they were exchanging ideas and talking about beliefs — like they were debating sports,” he said, asserting that Ms. Lahren’s words “are literally to black people. ” When she said, for instance, that the Black Lives Matter movement aimed to murder police officers, “people hear that and they believe that, and they see me as a threat,” Mr. Dennis said, citing the death of Trayvon Martin. Ms. Lahren has frequently denied being racist. In interviews with The New York Times last week, she condemned the fringe movement known as the which espouses white nationalism and calling it “disgusting,” and said she would never be “an advocate, a cheerleader or an apologist for the K. K. K. or any other hate group. ” Ms. Lahren, an only child born and raised in South Dakota by parents from ranching backgrounds, studied broadcast journalism and political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, graduating in 2014. She started working at The Blaze in October 2015, after piquing the network’s interest with a viral video criticizing President Obama. In the interviews, Ms. Lahren spoke about issues that inspire her. There are numerous military veterans in her family, she said, including a grandfather who was a paratrooper in World War II and an uncle who was awarded the Purple Heart during Vietnam. Ms. Lahren spoke passionately about the hardships of being a soldier and of being related to one. She does not call herself spiritual — “Spiritual sounds like you worship the grass,” she joked — but said she believes in God and prays every night and when she runs, often asking “to be a better person. ” But she also blasted organized religion as being “about hierarchy, power, control and greed. ” Minutes later, she said, “The institution of religion is important. ” She is and does not object to gay marriage. She curses regularly, and professes to love junk food and the rappers Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar. She enjoys argument as sport and, as evidenced by her appearance with Mr. Noah, can be a talented sparring partner. She testified to her authenticity — “People like me because I’m real” — but said of Mr. Noah and herself, “We both know that we have to play these parts. ” She mocks liberal “snowflakes” as being overly sensitive to but says she is bothered when people use the word “retard. ” Ms. Lahren says she is surprised when she meets black fans. Charlamagne Tha God, the host of the New radio show “The Breakfast Club,” is friendly with her. He does not think Ms. Lahren is racist, but “misinformed,” he said in a phone interview. He enjoys her show, he said, identifying with Ms. Lahren’s “political incorrectness. ” He stressed the importance of Democrats speaking directly to people like her. Still, he said, “I have to remind myself that some of the rhetoric she puts out there is troubling. ” He said that in a recent conversation with Ms. Lahren, he questioned what he saw as her contradictory views. For instance, when he asked why she supported Mr. Trump, given the bigotry of some of his supporters, she said that a few bad apples did not represent the movement. “So you have to have that same respect with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Charlamagne recalled telling her. Ms. Lahren said she was an informal adviser to Mr. Trump’s campaign on its use of social media starting in August, and she appeared on the campaign’s behalf via Facebook Live broadcasts in the final weeks before the election. She has about 3. 5 million followers on Facebook and over 800, 000 cumulatively on Twitter and Instagram. She is open to opportunities beyond The Blaze, including any that might involve Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump’s team did not respond to a request for comment. While Ms. Lahren, a fan of the radio host Howard Stern and the rapper Eminem, often seems to enjoy causing controversy, at other times she is more conciliatory. She expressed hope that “The Daily Show” would show an unfamiliar side. “I find that when people are actually around me, it’s impossible not to like me,” she said. “People expect me to be angry, bitter. They expect to me be abrasive, aggressive. I’m not. ” | 0fake |
Hillary Clinton Wins Big In SC Democratic Primary | As the polls close in the all-important South Carolina Democratic primary, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton comes away with a very big win. Unlike what happened in Iowa and Nevada, the voters spoke very clearly here: Clinton is their leading lady.Clinton s win is widely seen as a result of 80 percent support from Black voters, who have a long and sustained relationship with the Clintons. The same people who favored Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008 are now voting Clinton. This is a crucial demographic for the candidate wishing to take the party s nomination, and it seems that Clinton has it locked up.Hillary excitedly took to twitter to thank her volunteers, supporters, and voters:To South Carolina, to the volunteers at the heart of our campaign, to the supporters who power it: thank you. -H pic.twitter.com/JFTUZ2yBxf Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 28, 2016This win is very important, as a candidate s performance in South Carolina is generally a good indicator of performance in the general election. It s a bit of a make or break state, and Clinton s performance there today showed that she is most definitely up to the task.The next big hurdle is this coming Tuesday, the event known as Super Tuesday, in which 11 states hold caucuses that will definitely help decide the nominee going into the general election.Great job today, Madame Secretary!Featured image via Hillary Clinton Twitter | 1real |
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