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LOL! Obama’s latest ACA train wreck scapegoat is nothing short of laughable | — Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) October 28, 2016
Obama’s legacy will be to leave everybody laughing for all the wrong reasons. His lap dogs? Cute. https://t.co/jijTNij1M7
— Hans…boobie… (@deanriehm) October 28, 2016 This is beyond parody. The press had to be shamed into even acknowledging Gruber. https://t.co/GJeyQz2Pvh
— Jason C. (@CounterMoonbat) October 28, 2016 Perfect.Nothing is ever his fault.Obamacare, Syria, ISIS, Crimea, Ukraine, $19 trillion. @dcexaminer https://t.co/E0fRIXK1N2
— The 57th State ℅EF™ (@EF517_V2) October 28, 2016 Wasn't it just last week that he said a president can't whine and blame others? #BiggestWhinerAndBlamerEver https://t.co/ZIQIel4aeP
— Lee Ritz, MD (@lee_ritz) October 28, 2016 Yes, the press made Obamacare fail.
Or…… maybe it was the horrific plan itself that failed on its own. https://t.co/a4qXISwjtR
— Paul Crisp (@pcrispy) October 28, 2016 You'll find this in the dictionary under "Bite the hand that feeds you" https://t.co/lsherhCCWF
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) October 27, 2016 the notoriously right-wing press is indeed a problem, Mr President. https://t.co/LXMz557xXA
— Welcome To The Oort (@ClarkHat) October 27, 2016 @dcexaminer In a way, he's right. If the press had actually done some real investigative work in 2009, we wouldn't be in this mess. | 1real |
LOL! PHOTOS Show EMPTY or Nearly EMPTY #NFL Stadiums In Week #6 of National Anthem Protesters | The owners of teams where NFL players continue to kneel during the national anthem are about to get a very real wake up call as ticket sales and TV viewership continues to tank.Images from NFL stadiums across America have been posted on Twitter, as evidence of how well the player s anti-cop movement is working out for the owners bottom line.More fans attend a local high school football game than the #4 ranked Cleveland Browns vs. the #1 ranked Tennessee Titans game, that was played in the Cleveland stadium:And we are underway #Browns #Titans pic.twitter.com/dcrirhjo6r Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) October 22, 2017The number of empty seats at the Miami vs. the New York Jets game was almost as bad as the half empty Cleveland stadium. by a Miami scribe #NYJvsMIA RT @ArmandoSalguero: Swaths of empty seats here post kickoff. pic.twitter.com/q4Mmdv5UU3 Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017An article in the Chicago Tribune justified how the underperforming Chicago Bears are consistently able to get away with the mind-boggling rising ticket prices. The Chicago Bears play in the second largest market in the NFL and in the league s smallest stadium. The law of supply and demand dictates that when a relatively small number of seats is available for the most popular sport and team in town, then ticket prices will increase. Thanks to the NFL players decision to kneel during our national anthem, the Bears may not be able to afford to raise the ticket prices, since fans have decided to something more productive with their time than watching a bunch of snowflake football players disrespecting our flag, as a way to support an anti-cop movement that was started by Black Lives Matter.Here s a look at the usually sold out Chicago Bears stadium today:(2/X) RT @lauriekor: Look at all the empty seats #Bears #nfl #emptyseats #chi #CARvsCHI #unreal pic.twitter.com/C5CwhfDx9X Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017The Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Indiana Colts (the team that Vice President Pence famously walked away from, after the players disrespected our flag during the anthem) game was far from capacity:#NFL #JAXvsIND RT @kimklika: Tons of empty seats at kickoff not surprising pic.twitter.com/65AYCSo3NK Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017There was a sea of blue (empty blue seats) at the New York Jets Vs. Miami Dolphins game in Miami:#NFL #NYJvsMIA RT @nsbbcom: Nobody cares about jet or dolphins @[me] pic.twitter.com/k6wPSlIRJG Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) October 22, 2017This guy, who goes by the Twitter name Fistful of Doom said it best when he said, You know who isn t winning? The NFL.You know who isn't winning? The NFL. This was kickoff time in Jacksonville. Look at those empty seats! pic.twitter.com/fd7CwOuHk4 Fistful of Doom (@fistfulofdoom) October 15, 2017 | 1real |
CORRUPT CLINTON FOUNDATION HONORED Wife Of Bomb-Making Terrorist Who Murdered 6 [Video] | Clinton Foundation drew intense protests for scheduling the wife of a Palestinian terrorist to speak at a Clinton Global Initiative dinner. The foundation saw nothing wrong with this and defended their decision: Hanan al-Hroub is a beacon of hope in a part of the world that is very dear to me and in desperate need of more hope, said Haim Saban, a major Clinton Foundation donor, according to The Wall Street Journal. I only wish more people honored her and the cause that she embodies. Haim Saban has deep roots in Egypt and is a controversial figure who totally bought access to the Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State:Between 2009 and 2013, as Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, the Saban Family Foundation paid the Clinton Foundation more than $7 million, and listed $30.5 million in grants and contributions approved for future payment, according to nonprofit records filed with the Internal Revenue Service. It s unclear whether there was any overlap between the $7 million paid and $30.5 million committed to the Clinton Foundation in those years.What kind of message does this send to the people of Israel who had six of their citizens murdered by the acts of this woman s husband? Hanan al-Hroub, this year s winner of the Global Teacher Prize, is scheduled to speak at the dinner despite the fact that her husband, Omar, served 10 years in an Israeli prison for providing chemicals used in a 1980 terror bombing attack that killed six Israelis. This was apparently no big deal to the Clinton Foundation even as the U.S. investigates the weekend bombings in New Jersey and New York, as well as the stabbing spree that occurred in a Minnesota mall. The decision to honor the wife of a terrorist by Hillary Clinton s foundation shows a complete lack of judgment and a callousness that should disqualify her from holding the presidency. Foundation donors were quick to defend the invitation of al-Hroub. | 1real |
Hungary says it is facing 'frontal assault' from U.S. financier Soros | BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is facing a frontal assault from U.S. financier George Soros who is attacking the country via his non-government organizations and European Union bureaucrats, a top ruling party politician said on Monday. Fidesz Vice Chairman Gergely Gulyas said Soros claims that the Hungarian government lied in its campaign against him were not substantial , adding the billionaire and the European Union pushed the same pro-migrant agenda. He rejected charges by Soros that the government s campaign stoked anti-Muslim sentiment and employed anti-Semitic tropes. | 0fake |
Trump Just Caused A Diplomatic Crisis With China Because He Wants To Build A Resort In Taiwan | Donald Trump likely caused a diplomatic crisis with China when he decided he would talk to the president of Taiwan on Friday. The move left political observers scratching their heads and wondering how he could have possibly thought this was a good idea. The answer is simple. It s the same reason Trump does everything he thinks he can get something out of it. In this case, another luxury resort.In 1979, the United States severed all diplomatic ties with Taiwan and adopted a One China stance. Since that time, no president (or president-elect) has spoken with the country s president. As far as China is concerned, Taiwan is part of China. Trump s phone call with Tsai Ying-wen, the president of Taiwan, is likely to infuriate Beijing which regards the island as a renegade province. So why on earth would Trump do something like this? Go figure, the Trump Organization just happens to be looking at Taiwan as a location for their next luxury resort.The Shangiist, a publication that covers news in China, reported the following in November:The mayor of Taoyuan confirmed rumors on Wednesday that US president-elect Donald Trump was considering constructing a series of luxury hotels and resorts in the northwest Taiwanese city.A representative from the Trump Organization paid a visit to Taoyuan in September, expressing interest in the city s Aerotropolis, a large-scale urban development project aimed at capitalizing on Taoyuan s status as a transport hub for East Asia, Taiwan News reports. With the review process for the Aerotropolis still underway, Taoyuan s mayor referred to the subject of the meeting as mere investment speculation. Other reports indicate that Eric Trump, the president-elect s second son and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, will be coming to Taoyuan later this year to discuss the potential business opportunity.The dire consequences that could come from this simple phone conversation cannot be understated. The only thing less surprising than Trump s stupidity is his willingness to sacrifice the United States for his own selfish gains. His businesses and foreign financial ties have come under scrutiny for the conflicts of interest they create now that Trump is going to be president. He hasn t even been sworn in yet and already he is saying to hell with America for the sake of his own bank account. This is exactly why this man should not be the leader of the free world.Featured image via Ty Wright/Getty Images | 1real |
White House Prohibits Cabinet From Addressing Democratic Convention - The New York Times | WASHINGTON — The White House has forbidden members of President Obama’s cabinet to address the Democratic National Convention this month, a stark break from past policy that is intended to avoid the appearance that the administration’s final months are being consumed by the politics of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In 2012, as he campaigned for five members of the president’s cabinet addressed the party convention in Charlotte, N. C. But in issuing the prohibition this year, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, decided to “send a signal about the primacy of the Obama administration’s responsibility to manage the government and serve the American people,” said Jennifer Friedman, the deputy White House press secretary. It is hardly the first judgment that Mr. Obama’s team has had to make about how deeply to get involved as the president takes on an increasingly active role in the raucous campaign to succeed him — decisions that involve not only considerations of policy and appearances, but legal ones, as well. Federal law requires top appointees to carefully separate their official duties from political ones, and those distinctions have taken on added significance this year, given the unusual nature of the race to succeed Mr. Obama. White House officials believe that the campaign presents a particularly tricky set of challenges: a presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, who routinely prompts controversy with his provocative statements and positions a presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Mrs. Clinton, who once served in the administration and has considered several cabinet secretaries as potential running mates and a president who looms over the race. “This is largely an effort to delineate as clearly as possible the public, official governing responsibilities we have at the White House, and separate that from politics,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. Administration officials must walk a fine line, one that sometimes involves hairsplitting differences. Hurling a personal insult at Mr. Trump from a White House lectern? Off limits. But Mr. Earnest can note the many ways in which Mr. Trump’s positions are at odds with the president’s. Headlining a for Mrs. Clinton? No problem for a cabinet secretary, as long as the secretary does not use his or her official title or ask for contributions. The White House counsel, Neil Eggleston, and members of his staff have stepped up their warnings to White House officials and other top administration appointees to exercise care that their political activity stays within the law, which limits the use of official resources for partisan activities. At the same time, lawyers at the Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the federal law that restricts partisan activity by government officials, have increased their investigations of federal employees and have been warning Mr. Obama’s top advisers and appointees to watch what they say and do when it comes to the presidential campaign. The president and vice president are exempt from many of the legal strictures. But even Mr. Obama has taken precautions to separate his role as the head of the Democratic Party from his official duties. When Mr. Obama taped his endorsement video last month for Mrs. Clinton at the White House, it was done in the Map Room — part of the residence, rather than his West Wing offices — and Mr. Earnest was quick to note that it was “not filmed at government expense. ” This week, when Mr. Obama travels to North Carolina for his first campaign appearance with Mrs. Clinton, the cost of the trip on Air Force One will be shared between the White House and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, according to a complicated formula worked out by his legal counsel to comply with federal election law. The risk of ethics breaches is increased by the sheer number of cabinet secretaries active on the campaign trail. A handful have publicly endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and three — Julián Castro of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Thomas E. Perez of the Labor Department and Tom Vilsack of the Agriculture Department — routinely surface on lists of potential candidates. White House officials emphasized that there had been no finding that cabinet secretaries were barred by law from speaking at the convention, although Mr. Obama’s lawyers concluded before the 2012 election that they must not use the title of “secretary” if they did. from the past serve as cautionary tales. In 2012, the Office of Special Counsel concluded that Kathleen Sebelius, then the secretary of health and human services, had violated the Hatch Act — the 1939 law that governs federal employees’ participation in political activity — by making “extemporaneous partisan remarks” during a speech at a gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, in North Carolina. Ms. Sebelius, who asserted that the Democratic lieutenant governor “needs to be the next governor of North Carolina” and that Mr. Obama should be “president for another four years,” later said the comments were an unscripted “mistake. ” A year earlier, the special counsel found that the Office of Political Affairs in George W. Bush’s White House had committed numerous violations of the Hatch Act during the 2006 midterm congressional elections, including by coordinating requests from members of Congress to have cabinet secretaries make campaign appearances in their districts. Mr. Obama shuttered the office, and when it reopened in 2014, his lawyers issued new guidance about how to comply with the law. They have erred on the side of caution ever since, current and former officials said. “They’re pitching a in the ninth inning of the administration, and why screw it up at the end?” said Norman Eisen, a former special counsel for ethics and government reform under Mr. Obama. “Historically, the last months of an administration are a time when people get lazy and things go off the rails, so extra vigilance is called for. ” The Hatch Act, which was enacted after officials in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration were accused of using New Deal programs to sway the outcome of the 1938 congressional elections, is designed to prevent political favoritism and coercion in the administration and ensure that citizens receive the same service from the federal government, no matter their political affiliation. In theory, it means that most federal employees may participate in partisan politics only on their own time — following strict rules — and at their own expense. In practice, it can lead to awkward contortions. Mr. Earnest and other administration press representatives are advised to pivot away from overt questions about partisan politics and stick to “safe zones,” such as what the president himself has said publicly. At the Agriculture Department, Mr. Vilsack requires all political appointees to attend hourlong ethics and legal briefings during the campaign season, and asks agency lawyers to present an “ethics moment” each week to explain the intricacies of the rules, said Matt Herrick, his communications director. When he wrote an opinion article in The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in August endorsing Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Vilsack left out his official title, signing it as the former governor of the state. “With Republicans in control of the House and the Senate, you can bet that the investigative arm will swing into action very quickly if anything is even hinted at being wrong,” said Richard W. Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as Mr. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. “The public is very cynical about ethics issues across the board, so anybody in the administration going even close to the line is not going to help Secretary Clinton. ” | 0fake |
Those Damn Emails | Written by Peter Van Buren Saturday November 19, 2016 In the end, the emails mattered. How much they mattered — how many votes went to Trump, how many would be-Clinton supporters stayed home, how many voted third party — we’ll never know.Clinton supporters were surprised the emails mattered at all, because they had been fed a regular and often fully-factually wrong diet by the majority of the media. There was some good reporting on what the emails meant, and how classification works, but it was almost all on right-of-center websites Clinton people did not read, and blithely dismissed as biased when the sites were brought to their attention. And yeah, sometimes things got a bit too partisan in tone, but the facts were also there.After holding a security clearance for some 23 years, I tried, for some 18 months, to write as intelligently as I could about the damn emails. I tried to explain, in detail, what the whole thing meant, and that it was a significant problem for Clinton. Not bragging, just telling. If you’d like to read back through what I’ve had to say and judge yourself, here it is . There’s a lot there, so if you just want a taste, here .But I do want to make this as clear as possible, so… — All (not insignificant) questions of legality aside, the emails were about judgement, especially poor judgement. Clinton skirting/violating all rational thought and rules to set up a fully independent email server unprecedented in scope and scale, bypass federal records laws and the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, and establish no oversight on the flow of classified information, is not the level of judgment a president must display. Yeah, I know, Trump, but this is about why Hillary Clinton emails mattered and whether anyone likes it or not Trump is the president-elect in part because of the emails.— The most basic tenant of the classified world is that you simply do not expose classified material on an unclassified system. That’s why classified systems exist. This is at the “duh” level. Opinions differ on what should be classified, over-classification is a big problem, yada yada, but those issues are not resolved by circumventing the classified world. To more than a few voters, that seemed obvious. It also again speaks to judgement. There were many experts who explained this, but it seems most Clinton supporters listed to John Oliver instead.— Nobody (the Republicans, the FBI, etc.) created any of the core mess except Hillary Clinton. She then seemingly took every chance to dig the hole deeper, shifting her explanations, allowing information to drip drip drip out over the length of the campaign, and all the rest until everything collapsed around the pathetic human wreckage of Anthony Weiner. — As an added problem, “the emails” in many voters’ minds became shorthand for a range of issues related to trust, ethics, and propriety, including the Clinton Foundation, pay-for-play, and the Goldman-Sachs speeches. — Clinton’s opponents inside and outside the government took advantage of the emails — kinda what opponents do — but none of that would have been possible if Clinton had not created all of this herself. Take this campaign, put up Sanders or Biden instead of Clinton, subtract out all of the negatives associated with the emails, and run a little thought experiment on how many votes that may have been worth. Reprinted with permission from WeMeantWell.com . Related | 1real |
null | Does this mean I'm going to get flooded with beg letters from the second most corrupt organization in America again? For 4 years running I sent "Maximum Allowable" donations with VOID across the front and back and the signature line carried "To be honored when you support MY choices. Last year nothing! | 1real |
Russia's Putin calls for gradual reform of U.N. | SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Thursday for a reform of the United Nations, adding that the changes of the global organization should to be carried out gradually. There is no alternative to the United Nations today, Putin told an international discussion club. UN reforms are necessary, but they can only be gradual, he said. | 0fake |
Danish government wins backing for 2018 budget, defusing crisis | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark s right-wing government secured backing from a junior partner for the 2018 budget on Tuesday, defusing a crisis that had threatened to bring down the minority coalition. The Liberal Alliance (LA), part of the three-way coalition led by Prime Minister Lokke Rasmussen s Liberals, said it would support the budget in parliament and agreed to postpone the negotiations on tax and immigration reforms it wants until January. The anti-immigrant Danish People s Party (DF), whose support the government needs to pass laws, gave its backing on Dec. 8 for the 2018 budget, but the LA had said it still wanted an agreement on tax cuts. I am willing to make another attempt to secure an ambitious tax reform and a new modern immigration policy, foreign minister and Liberal Alliance leader Anders Samuelsen said at a press conference. The budget will be passed at a parliament vote on Friday, he said. Failure to secure backing from LA could have forced Rasmussen either to hand power to the Social Democrat-led opposition or call a snap election. Tax cuts have been on the right-leaning government s wish list for a long time, but pro-welfare DF has been less eager to back that part of the government s policies. The 2018 budget deal includes among other things increased spending on health and elderly care and on infrastructure. | 0fake |
U.N. chief asks Iran president to release former U.N. official | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for the release of U.S. citizen and former U.N. official Baquer Namazi, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday. The pair met on Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The Secretary-General did raise the issue and again appealed for the release of Baquer Namazi on humanitarian grounds, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Last October, an Iranian court sentenced Namazi, 80, and his son 46-year-old Siamak Namazi to 10 years in prison on charges of spying and cooperating with the United States. (This story corrects to say Guterres met with Rouhani on Monday, not Thursday) | 0fake |
Trump seeks to boost presidential bid with $10 million infusion: reports | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump has given $10 million of his personal money to his presidential campaign in an effort to boost his White House bid 11 days before the Nov. 8 election, according to media reports. The Wall Street Journal, citing two advisers, said the Republican presidential nominee wired the money on Friday morning. A Fox News reporter said Trump told him he would give $10 million to the campaign on Friday. | 0fake |
Green Party files for vote recount in Wisconsin: state election commission | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The organization behind the presidential campaign for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, along with one other group, on Friday filed a petition with the Wisconsin Elections Commission for a recount of votes in the Nov. 8 election, the commission said. “The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Commission Administrator Michael Haas said in a statement. | 0fake |
Factbox: Italy's new electoral law offers a mix of systems | ROME (Reuters) - Italy s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a new electoral law for use in the next national election, due by May 2018. The bill now passes to the upper house for further debate. Here are the main points of the bill. Italy gives Latin names to its electoral laws. This new proposal is called the Rosatellum, named after Ettore Rosato, the parliamentary party leader of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) who helped draft the legislation. The bill envisages that some 36 percent of parliamentarians in both the upper and lower houses will be elected on a first-past-the-post basis, with the rest chosen by pure proportional representation via party lists. Parties can stand alone or as part of broader coalitions. Single parties need to win at least 3 percent of the vote to gain seats, while coalitions need to take 10 percent. Unlike the previous Italian electoral law, the Rosatellum does not give an automatic majority to any party or group that wins more than 40 percent of the vote. With opinion polls split three ways between the center-right, the center-left and the maverick 5-Star Movement, there is unlikely to be a clearcut winner in the next election. Voters get two voting slips one for the Senate and one for the lower house. They can only put one cross on each slip, with that vote counted for both the first-past-the-post and PR segments. Under previous electoral systems, voters were able to split their vote between individual candidates and the parties. Candidates can put their name down for the first-past-the-post ballot in one constituency, and also be on five PR lists in locations of their choosing. There will be two to four names on each party PR list. The party leaders will have a major say in whose names go on the lists. In the lower house, 232 seats will be reserved for first-past-the-post winners, 386 will be reserved for the PR lists, and 12 will be reserved for overseas constituencies. In the Senate, 102 seats will go to first-past-the-post winners, 207 will go to the PR lists, and 6 will be for the overseas vote. No more than 60 percent of the candidates on any of the lists can be of the same sex. | 0fake |
Clinton aide Abedin seeks to review Clinton emails search warrant | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Huma Abedin, the longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, asked a U.S. judge on Wednesday to allow her to review a search warrant the FBI used to gain access to emails related to Clinton’s private server shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election. In a letter filed in Manhattan federal court, Abedin said she was never provided a copy of the warrant, nor was her estranged husband, former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, whose computer contained the emails in question. The letter was filed as a federal judge considers whether to unseal the application for the search warrant, which was obtained after FBI Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28. Comey’s letter drew new attention to a damaging issue for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election won by Republican Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel had invited affected parties to weigh in on the potential release of the search warrant application, which is being sought by Los Angeles-based lawyer Randol Schoenberg. In their letter, Abedin’s lawyers said she was unable to evaluate the issue as neither she nor Weiner was provided the warrant itself, despite federal rules requiring authorities to provide a warrant to a person whose property was taken. Lawyers for Clinton and Weiner did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the U.S. Justice Department. Clinton used the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Comey in July had recommended to the Justice Department that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton over her handing of classified information in the emails, although saying she and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” In his Oct. 28 letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the Clinton server probe had been discovered in an “unrelated case.” Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into Weiner following a media report that he engaged in sexually explicit cellphone and online messages with a 15-year-old girl. Federal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton’s private server. Only two days before the election, Comey disclosed that the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation. | 0fake |
Tillerson says U.S., China call on North Korea to stop nuclear weapons program | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after talks with top Chinese diplomats and defense chiefs on Wednesday that both sides call on North Korea to “halt its illegal nuclear weapons program and its ballistic missile tests.” “We reiterated to China that they have a diplomatic responsibility to exert much greater economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime if they want to prevent further escalation in the region,” Tillerson told reporters. | 0fake |
Spain conducting 'coup' in Catalonia: regional parliament speaker | MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy s decision to fire Catalonia s government and force a new election is a coup and an attack against democracy , the speaker of the Catalan parliament said on Saturday. Prime Minister Rajoy wants the parliament of Catalonia to stop being a democratic parliament, and we will not allow this to happen, Carme Forcadell said in a televised speech. This is why we want to send to the citizens of this country a message of firmness and hope. We commit today, after the most serious attack against the Catalan institutions since they were restored, to the defense of the sovereignty of the parliament of Catalonia, she said. | 0fake |
McCain presses U.S. Air Force, Pentagon over Russian engines | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday increased pressure on the Pentagon and the Air Force, demanding answers over the continued use of Russian rocket engines for U.S. satellite launches. Senator John McCain, in a letter dated Feb. 10 seen by Reuters, asked Air Force Secretary Deborah James and Pentagon chief arms buyer Frank Kendall to explain why the U.S. government is continuing to deal with NPO Energomash, the Russian firm that builds Russian RD-180 rocket engines. McCain pressed the officials on the legality of doing business with NPO Energomash given sanctions in place against Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and others, who now have control over the company after a recent reorganization. McCain also questioned the Air Force’s continued payment of a large launch support contract to United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, despite the presence of a certified competitor, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. McCain said he wants answers to these questions by February 22. James pledged to respond to the questions during a January hearing, but McCain said he followed up in writing to underscore his concerns about what he has described as subsidies to Russian leader “Vladimir Putin and his gang of corrupt cronies.” Congress banned use of the Russian RD-180 rocket engines for military use after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014. But U.S. lawmakers weakened the ban late last year, worried that it could drive ULA out of business and leave just privately-held SpaceX, to lift satellites into space. James and other officials have urged Congress to allow use of the Russian engines that power ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket for several years until alternatives are available in several years. In his letter, McCain asked the U.S. and Air Force to explain what options they had to penalize ULA for not bidding in a recent launch competition despite receiving launch support of $800 million to $1 billion a year since 2006. He also asked the department to examine what percentage of that annual support contract was associated with ULA’s other family of rockets, the Delta 4, which the company plans to retire since it is more costly than the Atlas 5. McCain and other senators argue that it would be worth the extra cost to end U.S. reliance on the Russian engines. | 0fake |
Trump taps Retired General Kelly to lead Homeland Security: statement | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday formally announced Retired General John Kelly, a 45-year military veteran, as his choice to lead the Department Of Homeland Security. Trump’s transition team said in a statement that Kelly would “spearhead the urgent mission of stopping illegal immigration and securing our borders” as well as streamline the Transportation Security Administration and improve ties between U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies. | 0fake |
Alabama Trump Supporter Gets Fired For Incredibly Racist Rant About The Obamas (IMAGE) | Her viral post won her the title of racist of the week. June Pridmore somehow got a job working as the vice-president of loan operations at a Regions Bank in Alabama, but after investigating a recent Facebook post she wrote, Pridmore no longer has a job.In an atrocious, incoherent, and racist post featuring multiple misspellings and poor grammar that make one wonder how the bank picked her for the job in the first place, Pridmore ranted about her support of Donald Trump and trashed President Obama and his wife First Lady Michelle Obama. I voted him in, Pridmore began in reference to Trump. I like him. He has a beautiful wife unlike the ugly and embarrassing woman (for lack of a better word), in the White House now. Ms. Trump s face would make Michele (sic) O Bama (sic) a Sunday face. Seriously, does this women not have spellcheck? I m certainly glad [Trump] he has a lot of money because she he (sic) won t be bought out like Barack (sic), socialist Muslim O Bama (sic) or his wife or all those host of relatives they have in the whitehouse (sic) for US to support. Oh, you mean his two kids and mother-in-law? That s only three people, and two of them really didn t have a choice since they are kids. On the other hand, Donald Trump s family is way bigger and they ve all made a mint mooching off the government and taxpayer dollars. Plus, it is costing taxpayers $1 million a day to protect Trump in his New York Trump Tower apartment.But Primore still wasn t done. She ranted about President Obama s vacations, which are less than the number of vacations President Bush and President Reagan took during their presidencies. And Trump has already expressed his desire to be a part-time president who spends most days at his golden tower or on the golf course instead of in the White House working.And then she said this: If any idiot out there thinks that is justified, you deserved him as president. I prefer a man who can buy Michele (sic) and Barack and sell them several times over. Yep, she went there. A definite reference to slavery.And she went on to bitch about people who are unemployed, calling them lazy non-working takers. Here s an image of the post via Facebook.This post was too much for Regions Bank, who fired Pridmore after receiving many complaints.Bank spokesman Jeremy King announced the canning in a statement. We appreciate the concerns shared about offensive social media comments that were made through an associate s personal Facebook account. We want you to know that we share those concerns. Those comments do not reflect our values as a company or the way we do business. The associate is no longer an employee of the company. So now Pridmore is unemployed and has the new title, Racist of the Week. Of course that title won t pay the bills unless Donald Trump has position open for another ignorant racist. Maybe she can use Jeff Sessions as a reference.Featured Image: Facebook | 1real |
GOVERNMENT HIDING UNPRECEDENTED TB INFECTION RATES AMONG RELOCATED REFUGEES | Home › HEALTH › GOVERNMENT HIDING UNPRECEDENTED TB INFECTION RATES AMONG RELOCATED REFUGEES GOVERNMENT HIDING UNPRECEDENTED TB INFECTION RATES AMONG RELOCATED REFUGEES 0 SHARES
[10/26/16] J.D. HEYES- More Americans might be accepting of President Barack Obama’s zealous push to flood the country with refugees from war-torn parts of the world, if only he, along with federal and state officials, were more transparent about the entire process.
Like for instance being up front with Americans about the health threat posed by many of these refugees.
Breitbart News is reporting that officials at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, county health departments throughout the state and local offices of refugee resettlement agencies – all of whom are working closely with the Obama administration – have taken to hiding the latent tuberculosis infection rates among refugees from the general public.
The website noted further that the “culture of concealment” in Michigan contrasts with how several other states deal with latent TB infection rates among refugees.
As Breitbart News has reported in the past , the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t collect latent TB infection rate information from county health departments or local resettlement agencies it hires to perform initial medical screenings of newly-arrived refugees. Also, the state agency obviously does not honor its legal obligation to do so under provisions of the Refugee Act of 1980. Michigan officials not keeping TB data required by law
When the news service asked MDHHS officials for data about latent TB infection rates based on the full population of refugees screened, a spokesman for the agency, Bob Wheaton, said, “We do not have that data.”
Breitbart noted that the agency has hired a number of county health departments, and in some counties private refugee health screening services, all working in cooperation with local resettlement officials for the purpose of conducting initial medical screenings of all new refugee arrivals.
Under guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and MDHHS, all refugees who complete initial health screenings are tested for latent TB infection. However, MDHHS officials said that neither the counties nor private agencies are sharing screening data. What’s more, the counties and private refugee health screeners who do have the TB data will not make that information available to the public.
As Breitbart News noted further:
“In the case of at least one private refugee health screening service, the Arab American and Chaldean Council, which MDHHS has hired to conduct refugee health screenings in Wayne County, Macomb County, and Oakland County, that data is also not being shared with health departments in those counties.”
Again, the provision of the data is a requirement of federal statutes regarding the health screening status of refugees. One-third of the rest of the world has latent TB
Many states have made this information public in annual reports. They include Minnesota, where the latent TB infection rate among newly-arrived refugees in 2014 was 22 percent; Indiana (26 percent); Arizona (18 percent); Utah (18 percent), Texas (15 percent); California (12 percent) and Florida (12 percent).
In addition, Breitbart News noted, other states made information available to the news service after repeated requests. They include Tennessee (27 percent); Vermont (35 percent); and Idaho (21 percent).
It is vital to identify refugees coming into the United States with latent TB infections, because treatment must begin immediately in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Also, studies – including one from the University of California, San Diego in 2013 – have shown that higher rates of latent TB infection among resettled refugees pose a greater health risk to the general public in regions where they have been sent.
Latent TB turns into a public health risk when it activates into infectious TB, a process that is generally associated with lower levels of immunity among those with latent TB. In the U.S., 4 percent of the general population has latent TB; 10 percent of those develop active TB at some point during their lives.
By contrast, fully one-third – 33 percent – of the rest of the world has latent TB, Breitbart News reported. Post navigation | 1real |
THE ULTIMATE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: IS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TOO WHITE? IS IT TOO RICH? Obama Plans To ‘Fix’ Them Using Government to Force Diversity | Of course, the government will have to address that whole income inequality issue, because clearly every illegal alien or underprivileged American doesn t have the financial means to live in the wealthier communities or suburbs. Socialism is here, and unless we find someone in Congress willing to stand up to this president, everything Americans have worked so hard for will likely be taken away by government force This is what you get when you put a community organizer in the White House he tries to reorganize your community from Washington.Apparently, President Obama thinks your neighborhood may not be inclusive enough, so he has instructed his Department of Housing and Urban Development to issue a new rule called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which is designed to force communities to diversify.According to the Obama administration, in too many neighborhoods housing choices continue to be constrained through housing discrimination, the operation of housing markets, [and] investment choices by holders of capital. (Yes, that is a quote from an actual HUD document, not a bad undergraduate thesis on Karl Marx.)Under Obama s proposed rule, the federal government will collect massive amounts of data on the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic makeup of thousands of local communities, looking for signs of disparities by race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability in access to community assets. Then the government will target communities with results it doesn t like and use billions of dollars in federal grant money to bribe or blackmail them into changing their zoning and housing policies.This is not about blocking housing discrimination, which has been illegal since 1968. It is unlawful for someone to deny you a loan or prevent you from buying a home because of your race, creed or color. Socioeconomic status is and ought to be another matter. If you want to buy a nice house in the suburbs, you have to be able to afford it. Apparently, Obama thinks that s unfair discrimination by the holders of capital. Putting decisions about how local communities are run in the hands of federal bureaucrats is an assault on freedom. Local autonomy is essential to liberty. As Milton Friedman put it in Capitalism and Freedom, If I don t like what my local community does, be it in sewage disposal, zoning or schools, I can move to another local community. . . . If I don t like what my state does, I can move to another. If I do not like what Washington imposes, I have few alternatives in this world of jealous nations. Washington has no business imposing decisions about zoning and housing policies on thousands of local communities.The proposed rule could become an issue in the presidential race. HUD Secretary Julian Castro, the man assigned to implement this new policy, is on everyone s shortlist to be Hillary Clinton s running mate. Moreover, as National Review s Stanley Kurtz points out, collecting all the data will take time which means decisions about how to use that data will be up to the next president, whoever that turns out to be.Local communities across the United States will be up in arms over this rule and rightly so. The federal government should have no say over whether your neighborhood is too Jewish, or too Caucasian, or has too many married couples. But Republicans need to be very careful. Democrats want the GOP to rail against this rule and see it as an opportunity to paint the Republicans as the party that wants to protect the wealthy, white suburbs and keep out poor people of color.Conservatives need to make this absolutely clear: We believe Americans of all races, colors and creeds should be free to live wherever they want. And we want to help them do so by unleashing economic opportunity for those at the bottom so that more Americans can get better educations and better jobs and ultimately move to better neighborhoods.Under Obama, those opportunities have been disappearing for Americans at the bottom of our economy. While he talks a good game about inequality, the poor have gotten poorer while the rich have gotten richer on Obama s watch. During the Obama recovery, Americans in the top 5 percent of households (those with average incomes of more than $320,000) were the only group in the United States to see incomes rise from 2009 to 2013. Meanwhile, those worst hit were in the bottom 20 percent, who saw their real incomes fall by 7 percent on average. As American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks explains , Our putatively progressive president has inadvertently executed a plutocratic tour de force. Having Washington micromanage the housing and zoning policies of thousands of local communities is not going to change this. The answer is not to force local governments to build affordable housing in affluent communities. The answer is to restore upward mobility in the United States so that more people can afford housing in affluent communities.Via: Washington Post | 1real |
THEY KNEW! Donna Brazile Blows DNC Secret Wide Open: Exposes Sickening Reason DNC Remained Silent After Russians Hacked Their Emails | Is there a more corrupt and power hungry group of people anywhere in the United States? Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the entire DNC are the reason for Donald Trump s meteoric rise to the White House after never running for a political office in his lifetime. When the Democrats complain about Donald Trump, they only need to find a mirror, to help them understand why he is so wildly popular with Americans who are sick and tired of the Washington cesspool Donna Brazile says in her new book the Democratic National Committee (DNC) went against professional advice and sat idly for a month while Russians stole data because primaries were still underway in a number of states.In May, when CrowdStrike recommended that we take down our system and rebuild it, the DNC told them to wait a month, because the state primaries for the presidential election were still underway, and the party and the staff needed to be at their computers to manage these efforts, Brazile wrote in her new book, Hacks. For a whole month, CrowdStrike watched Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear operating. Cozy Bear was the hacking force that had been in the DNC system for nearly a year. Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear are cybersecurity firms that have reported ties with Russian hackers. Both groups are blamed for the hacks on the DNC in 2016. CrowdStrike is a private U.S. cybersecurity firm that oversaw the protection of the DNC s servers.The DNC was under the leadership of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida in May 2016 the time Brazile is describing in the passage. Shultz resigned in July, notably, over a series of leaked emails that showed DNC officials colluding to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont s campaign.Brazile s comments, if true, show that the DNC s privately contracted cybersecurity firm advised the Wasserman Schultz -led committee to break down and rebuild its cyber operation to protect against alleged threats. The DNC chose to go against the advice in order to see the Democratic primaries play out, which ended with Clinton becoming the Democrats nominee.For entire story: Daily Caller | 1real |
Key Republican senator doubts 15 percent corporate tax rate can be reached | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Senate Finance Committee said on Friday he doubted negotiators trying to craft a tax reform bill could reach President Donald Trump’s goal of dropping the U.S. corporate tax rate to 15 percent. “I sincerely doubt that we will be able to get to that level on corporate tax rates,” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, whose panel has jurisdiction over the U.S. tax code in the Senate, told CNBC. | 0fake |
Even Doctors Are Surprised: Mix Cinnamon And Honey To Cure Arthritis, Cancer, Gallbladder, Cholesterol And 10 Other Diseases | Share on Facebook The traditional Chinese medicine has used the combination of honey and cinnamon for thousands of years, and this mixture has a long tradition of use as a homemade medicine. Honey is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, while cinnamon is one of the oldest spices known to people. The cinnamon essential oil and the enzyme found in honey which produces hydrogen peroxide, are the two most powerful anti-microbial components of this combination that prevent the growth of fungi and bacteria. This potent mixture offers numerous health benefits, and is extremely helpful in the following cases: Cold To treat a chronic cough, common cold, and nasal congestion, you should take a tablespoon of honey with ¼ teaspoon cinnamon for three days. Flu Honey contains a natural ingredient which effectively destroys viruses and prevents influenza. Cholesterol In a cup of tea, add 2 tablespoons of honey and 3 teaspoons of cinnamon, and drink the mixture. It will reduce the cholesterol levels by 10% within two hours. Arthritis To cure chronic arthritis, drink the following mixture twice daily, in the morning and in the evening: add two tablespoons of honey and a teaspoon of cinnamon powder in a glass of warm water. Boost the immune system The regular consumption of this mixture will boost the immune system and prevents viruses and bacteria. Stomach ache You should regularly consume the mixture of cinnamon and honey to alleviate stomach ache and treat ulcer issues. Acne Mix cinnamon with some honey to prepare a paste and apply it on the acne at bedtime. You should wash it off the next morning. Gallbladder infection Add two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey to a glass of warm water, and consume it daily to kill microbes in the gallbladder. Cancer Scientists have recently found that this combination can treat stomach cancer. Therefore, in this case, one should consume a mixture of a tablespoon of cinnamon and a tablespoon of honey daily for 3 months. Heart disease Prepare a paste of cinnamon and honey and spread it on a slice of bread every morning. This will lower cholesterol levels and prevent a heart attack. Hair loss In the case of hair loss or baldness, mix a tablespoon of cinnamon, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a tablespoon of honey. Apply this mixture on the scalp and leave it to act for 15 minutes, and rinse. Weight loss You should boil some cinnamon powder and honey in a glass of water and consume it on an empty stomach 30 minutes before your breakfast. This will help you lose weight in an easy and fast way. How to prepare it: You should put some honey in a pot and heat it. Add cinnamon and wait until you get a thick, caramel-like mixture. You should take a teaspoon of this mixture 30 minutes before meals. Related: | 1real |
COMMUNIST George Soros Says Trump Will Win Popular Vote In Landslide, But Hillary Wins Presidency…HUH? [VIDEO] | George Soros: Here I have to confess to a little bit of bias. Ya think? The popular vote will be a landslide [for Trump]. But I don t think Trump has any chance of being elected. https://youtu.be/VKGiHWzxHKI | 1real |
Wall Street's big short: President Donald J. Trump | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Add the juggernaut that is Donald J. Trump to the list of what-ifs that is worrying Wall Street. A growing realization that the unpredictable New York real estate developer is in a position to win the Republican nomination and then battle Hillary Clinton for the White House in November’s election has caused some investors to sell U.S. stocks. They fear having such a wild-card president could trigger trade wars, hurt the economy and add a lot of market volatility. “As the market rarely feasts on lack of predictability - Trump represents a nightmare for investors this year,” said hedge fund manager Douglas Kass of Seabreeze Partners Management Inc, who said last week that he was adding to his existing short bet on the U.S. stock market in part because of Trump’s increasingly strong position in the race. Trump’s statements on business and Wall Street don’t neatly fit into one ideological worldview, but if anything, they are seen as isolationist in a globally connected world. He can also suddenly pick on businesses over various issues, such as his call for a boycott of Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) products after the tech giant refused to help the FBI unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. “The election this year is the height of uncertainty,” said Phil Orlando, a senior portfolio manager and chief equity strategist at Federated Investors in New York, which manages $351 billion. He said political concerns - personified by Trump’s emergence as a frontrunner - are one of the main reasons why he began reducing equity exposure in mid-January. There are, of course, plenty of other factors having an impact on U.S. financial markets. U.S. stocks rallied on Tuesday after strong U.S. factory and construction data suggested the economy was regaining momentum. That was even as investors contemplated expectations that Trump would do very well in 11 states holding Republican primary or caucus elections on this Super Tuesday. Trump’s rhetoric mixes populist criticism of immigration policy, Wall Street behavior, and other countries’ trade policies, while also citing support for business-friendly efforts such as lower taxation. The lack of detail from Trump about his policies and how he would implement them is a particular worry for investors. “Trump has been light on policy substance so it’s very difficult for the markets to handicap,” said Dave Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Global Asset Management, which manages $870.3 billion in assets. He expects market volatility to rise if Trump extends his lead in Tuesday’s elections. Some investors are particularly concerned about Trump’s nationalist rhetoric, saying it is potentially destructive to a global economy that is already struggling. If it reduces trade flows then it could also hamper U.S. and global growth and hurt U.S. company profits. The real estate investor proposes labeling China a currency manipulator and ending what he calls China’s illegal export subsidies and theft of U.S. intellectual property. He also wants to penalize companies who move jobs from the U.S. to Mexico by hitting them with high tariffs if they want to export back to the U.S., as well as build a wall at the Mexican border to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants. “In areas of trade policy and foreign affairs lies the greatest uncertainty,” Kass said. “Trump is not likely to be market-friendly in any of these policy areas.” In response, Trump’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email to Reuters that the same crowd criticizing the Republican Party’s top candidate had been responsible for causing the last worldwide recession and economic meltdown in 2007-2008. “They have zero credibility,” said Hicks. “Mr. Trump will restore confidence to the global markets by ending runaway spending and borrowing, restoring trade balance and fairness, and bringing wealth to America’s middle class.” Investors had, for some time, been concerned about the strength of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign for the Democratic nomination against former Secretary of State Clinton, given he declares himself to be a democratic socialist and has said Wall Street’s business model is fraudulent. With recent losses to Clinton in Democratic contests in South Carolina and Nevada, he is now seen as less likely to win the nomination. Trump’s plans include ideas that traditionally come from Republican candidates, such as lowering the corporate tax rate, simplifying the tax code, and as his web site puts it, cutting the deficit through “eliminating waste, fraud and abuse” and “growing the economy to increase tax revenues.” “I think markets will like Trump on the taxes issue since he favors lower rates and a permanent change in repatriation rules,” said David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors in Sarasota, Florida, which manages $2 billion in assets. Still, financial advisers say that Trump’s plans to do away with the so-called carried interest tax loophole - which gives hedge fund and private equity managers preferential tax treatment on much of their income - would prompt more selling if he begins to climb in national polls against Clinton. Jeffrey Gundlach, the co-founder and CEO of bond investing and trading powerhouse DoubleLine Capital, said that Trump has a history of being “comfortable with a lot of debt and leverage,” and that won’t impede him from spending heavily. He said he believes Trump’s pledge to spend heavily on the military makes defense stocks a good investment play. Others see such spendthrift tendencies more darkly. David Ader, chief government bond strategist at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut, said Trump’s history raises questions about his ability to run an organization as unwieldy and complex as the government. The businessman has in the past filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the Trump Taj Mahal casino and Trump Plaza Hotel. Ader says the uncertainty would cause investors to flock to safe-haven U.S. Treasuries should Trump take office. “It’s one thing to run casinos that have gone bankrupt, it’s another to run a country and its foreign policy,” he said. Whether he would enjoy the support of the Senate and House of Representatives is a critical question, and will determine how many of his policy pronouncements can be turned into legislation. Congress could act as a brake if Trump gets the presidency and behaves as wildly as Trump the candidate. He clearly does not have the full support of a number of key Republican senators and would be unlikely to get much Democratic support for many measures. Todd Morgan, senior managing partner at wealth management firm Bel Air Investments Advisors in Los Angeles, said that the increasing likelihood that Trump will be the Republican nominee is one reason why he has raised cash in some client portfolios over the past four months. He would likely sell more if it looks like Trump will win the general election, he said. “It’s like a scale and you keep dropping more weights on the balance everyday, and the political uncertainty is becoming a bigger and bigger weight,” he said. For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, "Tales from the Trail" (here). | 0fake |
Separation anxiety: Trump’s management style poses challenges in Oval Office | NEW YORK (Reuters) - It has proven one of Donald Trump’s greatest strengths in building a worldwide luxury brand: An obsessive attention to detail, down to the curtains hanging in hotel rooms and the marble lining the lobby floor. As president, it may prove one of his major liabilities, presidential historians warn. Interviews with a dozen people familiar with how Trump conducts business reveal the president-elect as a micromanager who regularly spars over details about decor in projects across his real estate and branding empire. “I’m very much involved in the details,” Trump said during a June deposition in a lawsuit stemming from his development of a Washington hotel. “I was involved in the design of the building and the room sizes and the entrances and the lobby and the marble and the bathrooms and the fixtures and the bars and a lot of things.” Trump announced on Wednesday that he would leave his businesses “in total” so that he could focus on the presidency. But those who have worked with him say a lifetime habit of micromanaging may be difficult to break, providing ammunition for critics who say his decisions as president will be driven by his private interests. A former employee of the Trump Organization who has worked closely with Trump was skeptical that he could leave behind his beloved company after spending decades building it up. “I can’t picture him stepping aside for the presidency,” the ex-employee said. Even if he does make a clean break, Trump will have to guard against getting bogged down in the bureaucratic minutiae inherent in the office. He should avoid the example of President Jimmy Carter, another famous micromanager, who spent his first months in office poring over the White House tennis court schedule, said Ross Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University. Micromanagers rarely make successful presidents, said Rick Ghere, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton in Ohio. To be effective, presidents must delegate authority to members of their cabinet and rely on a range of expertise, he said. “Being a decisionmaker in a high-level public position is a lot different than being a CEO,” Ghere said. Trump has said he will turn the Trump Organization over to his three adult children, who are already deeply involved in real estate projects around the world. His daughter Ivanka, for instance, was charged with overseeing the renovation of Washington’s Old Post Office Pavilion, a $200 million project to turn the historic building into a luxury hotel. In cases where Trump has delegated authority, he still demonstrates a deep reluctance to let go, even when it comes to seemingly trivial details. Two people who participated in an inspection of the Washington hotel with Trump shortly before he announced his candidacy in June 2015 remember the businessman growing incensed over a detail: The restoration of exterior windows. Trump said the windows looked terrible, though one of the sources recounting the story said there didn’t seem to be anything obviously wrong with them. He demanded the contractor not be paid but was told the work had been done for free in the hopes of getting more business from the Trumps, according to the source. That source and two others on the project also recalled hearing Ivanka say she needed her father’s approval before signing off on some decisions she wanted to make on the project. The sources said it was not uncommon for her to say she would “run this by my father” or “check with New York.” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Trump is “incredibly detail oriented as any great developer is, something he shares with his adult children including Ivanka.” Trump’s reluctance to step aside from his company was apparent in a New York Times interview last week in which he said, “in theory I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly.” Trump’s reputation as a micromanager dates back to some of his earliest building projects. In her 2013 book ‘All Alone on the 68th Floor’, Barbara Res, who oversaw construction of Trump Tower in Manhattan, described her boss in 1983 agonizing over the height and thickness of decorative trees in the building’s atrium. Three decades later, Trump would bring his management style to the presidential campaign trail. Three sources who worked on the campaign said Trump made almost all the decisions on spending, strategy, and messaging. According to the sources, senior campaign officials were desperate to get aboard the candidate’s plane early on in the presidential race, fearful if they were left behind he would change course on strategy and they would be shut out. When Paul Manafort, who was helping run Trump’s campaign, secured the candidate’s authorization to spend $20 million hiring field operatives, he was triumphant, according to a Republican National Committee member, recounting an RNC meeting with Manafort in April. The committee member though was perplexed - why had Manafort needed Trump’s approval for an expenditure on such an essential part of his campaign, and why was the amount so small? At that point in an election year, past candidates had already begun spending upwards of $80 million on the same thing. Manafort told Reuters that while it was true most candidates simply signed off on a budget rather than reviewing each expenditure, Trump was different because he was partly funding his campaign. “I understood it and totally agreed with that approach,” Manafort said. Later in the campaign, Trump was still agonizing over details. In October, he insisted on reviewing the script of a radio ad that was to be broadcast on stations with predominantly black audiences, according to a source inside the campaign. Micromanaging is not necessarily a recipe for disaster - presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Carter and Barack Obama gained reputations as micromanagers, said Nancy Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies the history of leadership in the United States. But Koehn said a micromanager with a lack of any government experience was a potentially toxic combination. “I think it is highly likely that diving into areas in which he has very little experience without an extraordinary cast of experts around him will result in poor policy decisions which will have large unintended consequences,” she said. Only two of Trump’s nominees so far have U.S. federal executive branch experience, although the lineup does include a state governor, several U.S. lawmakers, and a former Goldman Sachs executive. | 0fake |
Trump signs tax, government spending bills into law | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed Republicans’ massive $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law on Friday, cementing the biggest legislative victory of his first year in office, and also approved a short-term spending bill that averts a possible government shutdown. Trump said he wanted to sign the tax bill before leaving Washington on Friday for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, rather than stage a more formal ceremony in January, so he could keep his promise to finish work before Christmas. “I didn’t want you folks to say I wasn’t keeping my promise. I’m keeping my promise,” he told reporters in the White House. The two pieces of legislation represent Trump’s most significant accomplishment with Congress since taking office in January, as well as a sign of what awaits when he returns from Florida after the Christmas holiday. The tax package, the largest such overhaul since the 1980s, slashes the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and temporarily reduces the tax burden for most individuals as well. Trump praised several companies that have announced employee bonuses in the wake of the bill’s passage, naming AT&T, Boeing, Wells Fargo, Comcast and Sinclair Broadcast Group. “Corporations are literally going wild over this,” he said. Democrats had opposed the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would add $1.5 trillion to the $20 trillion national debt during the next decade. The spending bill extends federal funding through Jan. 19, largely at current levels. It does nothing to resolve broader disputes over immigration, healthcare and military spending. Republicans also are divided over whether to follow up their sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code with a dramatic restructuring of federal benefit programs. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he would like to revamp welfare and health programs but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told National Public Radio on Monday that he was not interested in cutting those programs without Democratic support. Trump’s year also closes with significant turnover of many top staffers who had been in the White House since early in his term. On Friday, the White House confirmed Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn and Jeremy Katz, who worked under White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, were leaving. | 0fake |
Nunes’ Replacement In Trump Investigation Defended Russian Hackers And Putin | The new leader of what can laughably be called an investigation into the Trump Team s collusion with Russia to undermine our democracy makes disgraced House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes look almost sane.When he recused himself (temporarily) from the investigation after he became the subject of his own congressional ethics investigation for releasing classified information in an effort to help Donald Trump, Nunes handed off his duties to Texas Republican Rep. Mike Conaway, whose own views on the Russia situation are, well, let s just say they would make Putin happy.When FBI Director James Comey testified last month, Conaway unleashed a weird defense of Putin, comparing his support of Donald Trump which has been verified by 17 intelligence agencies to football of all things. That might work on Saturday afternoon when my wife s (Texas Tech) Red Raiders are playing the Texas Longhorns, Conaway said. She really like the Red Raiders. But all the rest of the time the logic is that because he really didn t like candidate Clinton, it automatically [meant he] liked Trump, Conway told a befuddled-looking Comney That assessment s based on what? Some levity in the #RussiaIntelHearing Watch this #YogiBerra exchange between Rep. Mike Conaway and Director Comey! #WhosOnFirst pic.twitter.com/UUSlTGxjnG Justice&Mercy (@JRDarius1) March 20, 2017He also defended the hackers in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, where he proclaimed that Russia hacking Trump s political opponents after Trump promised they would be rewarded is just like when Democrats hire foreign performers at campaign events: Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth. Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don t hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that. Asked whether that is the same as Russia interfering in our election, Conaway didn t back down: Sure it is, it s foreign influence. If we re worried about foreign influence, let s have the whole story. Assisting Conaway will be Trey Gowdy, who recently found himself the subject of an ethics complaint for accepting donations from anti-Clinton groups while he was investigating her and Tom Rooney, who very vocally opposed Clinton.Something tells me these guys won t be taking this seriously.Featured image via Getty Images (Mark Wilson)/screengrab | 1real |
Kelly Ripa’s Absence From ‘Live’ Points to Rancor at ABC - The New York Times | It seemed like an innocent enough announcement: Michael Strahan, the former football player turned television personality, was shifting assignments on ABC’s morning lineup, the network said Tuesday. He would leave “Live With Kelly and Michael” in September to become a on “Good Morning America. ” But there was rancor behind the scenes. Mr. Strahan’s Kelly Ripa, was told of the move just minutes before the announcement, and felt blindsided, said a person who has spoken to her about ABC’s decision. And she made little attempt to conceal her displeasure, skipping Wednesday’s edition on “Live. ” ABC said she would not appear on the show for the rest of the week and would be replaced by Erin Andrews. Ms. Ripa’s absence Wednesday forced Mr. Strahan into the awkward position of addressing the news of his departure with a guest host, Ana Gasteyer, a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member. After Mr. Strahan and Ms. Gasteyer danced their way to the hosts’ desk on the “Live” set, Mr. Strahan said, “I’ve been in the news lately,” before formally announcing that he was leaving. For ABC, what was supposed to be a boost to its morning lineup is instead developing into a giant headache with one of its most prominent stars. Ms. Ripa, who joined the show in 2001, replacing Kathy Lee Gifford, has developed a loyal following of her own. In addition to Ms. Ripa’s apparent displeasure, “Good Morning America” is also presenting the network with cause for concern. Though it remains the morning show, it’s down 10 percent in total viewers and 18 percent in the demographic important to advertisers. It is second in that age bracket to NBC’s “Today,” a show that experienced its own ratings difficulties four years ago when it botched Ann Curry’s departure. When Mr. Strahan does join “Good Morning America” in a role in September, he will be accustomed to the surroundings. He began as an correspondent for “Good Morning America” two years ago, a decision that Ms. Ripa expressed concerns about at the time, according to the person. Ms. Ripa was worried it would distract him from “Live” but was reassured it would only be a temporary position. Mr. Strahan continued to appear on the morning show, and ABC executives recently decided that bringing him into the “Good Morning America” lineup could help stem the ratings drop. After “Live” ended on Tuesday morning, Ms. Ripa was called to a meeting along with the show’s longtime producer, Michael Gelman, and the WABC general manager, Dave Davis (the show is produced by WABC, and it is distributed by ABC and Disney’s syndication group). She did not know the purpose of the meeting. After a wait, Mr. Strahan entered the room and broke the news that he was leaving. It wasn’t long before tensions flared. “Didn’t I tell you this was going to happen?” Ms. Ripa said to Mr. Davis at the meeting, according to the person. “I told you two years ago this was going to happen. ” A few minutes after the meeting ended, ABC publicly announced Mr. Strahan’s departure. Ms. Ripa later let the network know she would not appear on Wednesday. Ms. Ripa was angry, this person said, because she perceived that “Good Morning America” was being given priority over “Live. ” Ms. Ripa declined to comment. Ms. Ripa was similarly caught off guard in 2011 when Regis Philbin informed her 20 minutes before show time that he was going to announce his departure on that edition of “Live. ” After Mr. Philbin left the show, “Live” began an open casting call to replace him, cycling in more than a dozen potential to sit beside Ms. Ripa. After 10 months, ABC selected Mr. Strahan, who is also a commentator on Fox’s N. F. L. pregame show. In a statement, an ABC spokeswoman said: “‘Live’ continues to be a vibrant and enduring franchise under our lead host, the extraordinarily talented Kelly Ripa. ‘Live’ has successfully transitioned twice before and will do so again. Together with Kelly, ABC and the ‘Live’ team will begin a new search to find a replacement for Michael. ” It appears that Ms. Ripa’s absence will be an extended one: “Live” is not scheduled to shoot on Friday and she had already arranged to take Monday off for a long weekend to celebrate her 20thwedding anniversary, the person said. Friday’s show will be taped on Thursday, so Ms. Andrews will appear for the next two editions of “Live. ” Ms. Ripa will be replaced by the “Pretty Little Liars” actress Shay Mitchell on Monday, an ABC spokeswoman said. | 0fake |
SECOND TWIN FALLS SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE…Mohammed Hussein I. Eldai Faces Felony Charges For Sexual Assault Of “Mentally Retarded” Woman | Donald Trump was clearly on to something when he said we need to stop allowing unvetted refugees into our country until we get the refugee situation under control TWIN FALLS, IDAHO A town that was recently rocked by the horrific gang-rape of a five-year-old girl by refugee boys has had an arrest in a case involving charges of another disturbing sexual assault case last weekend.Mohammed Hussein I. Eldai, 28, is facing charges of felony sexual assault of a vulnerable adult for an attack that happened Friday afternoon.The alleged victim, who has been diagnosed with mental retardation, encountered Eldai when she was out for a walk in the Saturday afternoon heat and laid down to take a nap.As Twin Falls TV station KM TV reports:She then laid on the sidewalk when her fatigue took over. That s when she says 28-year-old Mohammed Hussein Eldai saw her and asked if she was okay.Court documents say Eldai brought the woman to his house where he made her a drink. She told police Eldai touched her and exposed himself to her while he kept the victim in his bedroom.Neither the media nor the local authorities have released information on why Mohammed Eldai was in Twin Falls, whether he is a U.S. citizen, or whether he has any connection to Twin Falls s controversial refugee program. Sources say that Eldai required the services of an interpreter in court.The June 2nd rape of a five-year-old garnered national attention after local politicians and media attempted to downplay or cover up the incident. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, the victim s father revealed that he had watched 30 seconds of the video of the horrific attack in that case.For entire story: Breitbart News | 1real |
The Anne Frank Center Just Nailed Trump To The Wall For His Latest Hitler-Like Moves | Donald Trump is clearly enamored with fascism and bigotry. Since he came on the scene as an unlikely presidential contender by calling Mexicans rapists and promising to build a wall along our southern border, people all over the world have been comparing him to Hitler. This has only increased as he has rolled out one bigoted policy after another. During his campaign, he continuously retweeted white supremacists and then hired Steve Bannon as his number one advisor.So, how do you know when the comparisons between Trump and Hitler are just hyperbole and when to take these concerns seriously? Well, when even the Anne Frank Center is pointing out the similarities between Trump s moves and Nazi Germany, it s time to listen up.According to Newsweek, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect is a New York City based non-profit that claims to have been founded by Anne s father in 1959. And on Tuesday, they posted a list of similarities between Trump and Hitler on Twitter. Included on the list are the following bullet points:This isn t the first time the Anne Frank center has gone after Trump. In February, the organization blasted the alleged president for failing to adequately condemn the anti-Semitism that has been on the uptick in America since the billionaire bigot was elected..@POTUS @realDonaldTrump do not make us Jews settle for crumbs of condescension. What are you going to do about #Antsemitism in @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/95Z5GP1OBc Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) February 21, 2017When now fired White House press secretary Sean Spicer argued that Hitler didn t gas the Jews and referred to concentration camps as Holocaust centers, the Anne Frank Center issued this blistering response:.@POTUS @realDonaldTrump MUST FIRE SEAN SPICER NOW FOR ENGAGING IN HOLOCAUST DENIAL. OUR STATEMENT BELOW. #Antisemitism #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/4dB9ESCaZr Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) April 11, 2017Today s tweet concludes by adding that the organization firmly believes Never Again to any people, and now, a sentiment that all of us must continue to fight each and every day if we hope to prevent history from repeating itself.Alarming parallels of history escalate. pic.twitter.com/5P708XVa5h Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) August 8, 2017Read more:Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
FLASHBACK 2015: ANTI-GUN OBSESSED White House Gives Tips On How To Talk About “Gun Control” At Thanksgiving [VIDEO] | Nothing says Thanksgiving or family like a room full of brain washed liberals sitting around the dinner table talking about ways to strip Americans of their Constitutional rights This Thanksgiving, the Obama administration wants Americans to talk about why Congress won t pass more gun control but not about Obama s foreign policy failures.During the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Josh Earnest continued to press a narrative set up by gun control activists in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris. As people sitting around the Thanksgiving table talking about these issues as they should and I m sure they will all across the country, I hope that s a question that will be raised and asked by members around the table, Earnest said, referring to a bill supported by Democrat to ban people on the no-fly list from purchasing a gun.Earnest attributed opposition to the bill from Republicans and some Democrats to fear of the National Rifle Association.But as Breitbart News gun reporter AWR Hawkins has noted, the campaign is misguided as the no-fly list is imprecise. A law based on that list could would block innocent individuals from exercising their Second Amendment right to purchase firearms.Via: Breitbart NewsAnd for those who choose to take the pro-American side of the Second Amendment argument, here s a little video you might want to share with your guests: | 1real |
Tsunami Hits New Zealand After Massive 7.8 Earthquake Strikes |
New Zealand’s country’s entire east coast and urged residents in low-lying areas to evacuate and seek higher ground.
Waves of up to two meters (6 feet) could be possible for up to two hours, it said.
Anna
“That’s reasonably significant so people should take this seriously,” she told Radio New Zealand.
New Zealand’s Geonet revised up its estimated magnitude of the quake to 7.5, from 6.6 earlier.
USGS Zealand’s South Island.
A 6.3 quake there in February 2011 killed 185 people and caused widespread damage.
The
“The whole house rolled like a serpent and some things smashed, the power went out,”
Chris Hill, a fire officer in Cheviot, a coastal town near the quake’s epicenter, said officials had gone door to door evacuating residents.
Learn More: | 1real |
Us vs Them: When Politics is Treated Like a Football Game, No One Wins | A collaborative effort between Patrick Miller of the University of Kansas and Pamela Johnston Conover of the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers new insight into the growing phenomenon behind political polarization in the United States. The study, titled Red and Blue States of Mind: Partisan Hostility and Voting in the United States, was published in Political Research Quarterly on March 30.
When Only Partisan Voters Vote, Only Partisan Candidates Are Elected
The authors argue that the voters who are most likely to participate in elections are those who hold a very strong partisan identity. As a result, elections become less about substance, and more reminiscent of a sports game, where the goal is to win at any cost. The University of Kansas news service summed up the study, saying:
“They found that many average voters with strong party commitments — both Democrats and Republicans — care more about their parties simply winning the election than they do either ideology or issues. Unlike previous research, the study found that loyalty to the party itself was the source of partisan rivalry and incivility, instead of a fundamental disagreement over issues.”
The trend toward greater polarization within the American electorate has been happening for years, but the contributing factors are numerous and complex
A study by Pew Research shows polarization has steadily increased since 2002. Miller and Conover’s study examined a few possible causes, one of which was the tendency for partisans to consume only media content that reinforces their own worldview.
In a video, Miller explained that these tendencies are having an impact on Congress itself by stifling compromise and breeding a political environment that lacks civility.
“We’re not thinking about politics in the way that most Founders wanted, which is to think about issues, be open to compromise and not be attached to parties,” said Miller. “We’re looking at politics through a simplistic partisan view in which we think our side is good and their side is bad.”
Among other things, the study found: | 0fake |
Obama touts Supreme Court choice as symbol of fair-mindedness | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As valedictorian of his high school class, Merrick Garland let his audience know precisely how he felt when parents unplugged the sound system that day in protest at a classmate’s speech against the Vietnam War. He may not necessarily have agreed with the topic or tone but, stirred by the sight of a student’s voice being silenced, Garland abandoned his prepared remarks to deliver instead an impassioned defense of free speech. U.S. President Barack Obama told that story on Wednesday when he nominated Garland, now a 63-year-old judge, on what is often called the second highest court in the land, to a seat on the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court. Obama praised what he called Garland’s “track record of building consensus as a thoughtful, fair-minded judge who follows the law.” Although Garland faces an uphill fight from a Republican-led U.S Senate opposed to anyone the Democratic president nominates, the judge is praised by politicians left and right, even after 19 years on the federal bench. The showdown promises to figure in the campaign for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election with Republicans demanding that Obama leave the seat vacant and let his successor, to be sworn in next January, make the selection. Garland, picked to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13, has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997. His appointment to that court, by Democratic President Bill Clinton, was confirmed by the Senate, 76-23. The bipartisan support is one reason Obama might have for nominating him. In 2010, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, described Garland as a “consensus nominee” who would “get a lot of votes.” The court has served as a launching pad to the nine-member Supreme Court for several justices including Scalia. Chief judge since 2013, Garland is viewed as a moderate whose legal approach was shaped by a lengthy career as a federal prosecutor. As a senior Justice Department official, Garland oversaw the prosecution in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case in which 168 people, many of them children, were killed. He secured the death penalty for the lead defendant, anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh. Jamie Gorelick, the No. 2 Justice Department official at the time, said in an interview that Garland immediately asked to go to Oklahoma to oversee the case. “When the bomb went off in Oklahoma and we started to see the children being pulled out of the wreckage, Merrick, who had young children at the time, was so moved by this and so angered by it he asked if we could send him out to Oklahoma to help,” she said. His background as a prosecutor has shaped his views as a judge, lawyers who practice before the appeals court said. Garland is viewed as less defendant-friendly than other Democratic appointees. But Garland is not afraid to rule against the federal government. In a 2013 case, he was part of a three-judge panel that ruled against the Central Intelligence Agency in its bid to keep documents secret concerning the use of armed drones. In 2008, he wrote on behalf of a three-judge panel when the court ruled in favor of a detainee held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Garland wrote that a U.S. tribunal was wrong to find that detainee Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur from China, was an “enemy combatant.” Garland grew up in Chicago. His mother was a community volunteer and his father ran a small business. Obama said at the White House that Garland had to sell his comic book collection to help fund his college education. Garland would become the fourth Jewish member of the nine-member court. The other five are Roman Catholics. His education also mirrors those of the other justices. If confirmed, all of the justices would have studied at either Yale or Harvard law school. Garland attended Harvard. | 0fake |
Donald Trump: Minnesota Has ‘Suffered Enough’ Accepting Refugees | Donald Trump: Minnesota Has ‘Suffered Enough’ Accepting Refugees Tessa Berenson, TIME, November 6, 2016
In a pitch to suspend the nation’s Syrian refugee program , Donald Trump said Minnesotans have “suffered enough” from accepting Somali immigrants into their state.
“Here in Minnesota you have seen firsthand the problems caused with faulty refugee vetting, with large numbers of Somali refugees coming into your state, without your knowledge, without your support or approval,” Trump said at a Minneapolis rally Sunday afternoon.
He said his administration would suspend the Syrian refugee program and not resettle refugees anywhere in the United States without support from the communities, while Hillary Clinton’s “plan will import generations of terrorism, extremism and radicalism into your schools and throughout your communities.”
{snip} | 1real |
U.S. says 'one China' policy should not be used as bargaining chip | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday insisted that Washington’s “one China” policy should not be used as a “bargaining chip” with Beijing after President-elect Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to be bound by its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of China. Signaling further resistance Trump will face in Washington if he tries to overturn a principle that has underpinned more than four decades of U.S.-China relations, Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said he personally backed the “China policy” and no one should “leap to conclusions” that the president-elect would abandon it. “I do not respond to every comment by the president-elect because it may be reversed the next day,” McCain told Reuters when asked about Trump’s statement in an interview broadcast over the weekend. Trump set off a diplomatic firestorm when he told Fox News: “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” This followed an earlier protest from China over the Republican president-elect’s decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2. The issue is highly sensitive for China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province, and Beijing expressed “serious concern” about Trump’s latest remarks. It called the “one China” policy the basis for relations, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned against moves to damage China’s “core interests,” saying that “in the end, they are lifting a rock only to drop it on their feet.” Some U.S. analysts warn that Trump could provoke a military confrontation if he presses the Taiwan issue too far. Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business & Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington called Taiwan “the third rail of U.S.-China relations.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States is committed to the “one China” principle and will not use the Taiwan issue to gain leverage in any dealings with Beijing. “The United States does not view Taiwan and our relationship with Taiwan as a bargaining chip,” he told a daily briefing, calling Taiwan a “close partner.” “And bargaining that away is not something that this administration believes is our best interest. “Disrupting this policy,” he said, “could have a disruptive effect on our ability to work with China in those areas where our interests do align. That reflects the high priority that China puts on the policy and on Taiwan.” While saying the “one China” policy should remain intact, McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and an outspoken critic of Democratic President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, said that “somebody should hold China responsible” for its behavior with regard to Taiwan, Hong Kong, island building in the South China Sea and “propping up” North Korea. After Trump’s phone conversation with Taiwan’s president, the Obama administration said senior White House aides had spoken with Chinese officials to insist that Washington’s “one China” policy remained unchanged. China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Tuesday it was clear Trump did not understand the policy. “The one-China policy is the cornerstone for any country, including the United States, to engage with China diplomatically, and is simply non-negotiable: no exceptions,” Xinhua said. The State Department’s senior diplomat for Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, was due to speak to China’s ambassador to Washington on Monday, the State Department said. Trump has tempered his strong criticisms of China and call to Taiwan’s president by announcing plans last week to nominate a long-standing friend of Beijing, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, as the next U.S. ambassador to China. However, he is also considering John Bolton, a former Bush administration official who has urged a tougher line on Beijing, for the No. 2 job at the U.S. State Department, according to a source familiar with the matter. Bolton has said the next U.S. president should take bolder steps to halt China’ military aggressiveness in the South and East China seas and consider a “diplomatic ladder of escalation” that could lead to restoring full diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. | 0fake |
Trump Avoids Facts Again: Wind Energy Won’t Kill ‘All The Birds’ (VIDEO) | Trump Avoids Facts Again: Wind Energy Won’t Kill ‘All The Birds’ (VIDEO) By Karen Shiebler on October 27, 2016 Subscribe
The Republican presidential candidate continues to prove himself too uninformed to be President of these United States.
In his latest attack on the facts, Republican hopeful Donald Trump went on a rant against renewable energy. As is so typical for the shallow conservative, he seized the handiest and easiest idea to sell his argument.
In essence, Donald Trump says that we can’t have wind power because it kills all the birds.
All the birds. Killed by wind turbines.
Trump was particularly worried about the fate of the eagles. Of course he was. The eagle, the symbol of America. The easiest way to tug on the heartstrings on the uninformed is to threaten the very symbol of our nation. So he did. He claimed that “thousands” of eagles are killed in California by wind energy.
Trump appeared on a radio show the other day with Republican has-been Herman Cain. He said : “[Wind power] kills all the birds. Thousands of birds are lying on the ground. And the eagle. You know, certain parts of California — they’ve killed so many eagles. You know, they put you in jail if you kill an eagle. And yet these windmills [kill] them by the hundreds.”
What an image! Hundreds of dead American eagles, all slaughtered by wind turbines.
And in keeping with the unapologetic shallowness of his position, Trump went on to complain that wind turbines are unattractive. There is no insult in Trump world more powerful than “ugly”. Here are Donald Trump's views on wind power, and Disneyland: https://t.co/mphn1qSbGU pic.twitter.com/ja1j6wltBx
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 26, 2016
So wind energy is ugly, inefficient and it kills all of those wonderful noble eagles.
Except that NONE of that is true. None of it.
Here is the truth, not that it will matter to the fact averse Donald Trump.
While it is true that many birds are killed by wind turbines (up to 368,000 annually), that figure looks low when compared to the number of birds killed by cell towers each year (6.8 million).
The biggest killer of birds is….are you ready? Cats. Cats kill up to 3.7 billion birds a year.
As for those eagles? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that two eagles were killed by wind turbines in Palm Springs since 1997.
Trump’s rant seems even more deceitful when we consider the fact that climate change is the greatest threat to birds in the world. The Audubon Society says that up to half of the bird species on earth are threatened by rising global temperatures.
Donald Trump appears to be incapable of understanding or accepting reality. He says that climate change is a hoax created by China. He claims that wind turbines are killing “all the birds.” He mourns the loss of hundreds of eagles who haven’t died.
Whatever it is that he wants to be true is what he believes to be true.
He is delusional. He is dangerous. He has to be stopped.
Featured image by RichardGHawley via Flickr . Available through Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivs Generic license 2.0 About Karen Shiebler
Karen is a retired elementary school teacher with many years of progressive activism behind her. She is the proud mother of three young adults who were all arrested with Occupy Wall Street. To see what she writes about in her spare time, check out her blog at "Empty Nest, Full Life" Connect | 1real |
Spider-pig Found in Amazon Rain Forest | Sunday, 30 October 2016 Spider-pig fever hits hard
Little did Homer Simpson know when he sang his Spider-Man based song, he was actually describing an existing species. Just the sort of genius he is known for.
Homer sang these prophetic words while holding a pig upside down, walking it along the ceiling:
"Spider Pig! Spider Pig! Does whatever a spider pig does!Can he swing from a web? No, he can't. He's a pig."
An expedition in the deep Amazon rain forest found an actual spider-pig. It's about 1 ½ feet long, has eight legs, and has retractable sticky, suction cup-like extensions on its hooves.
When walking on the forest floor spider-pig uses four legs at a time. It uses all 8 legs when climbing.
Spider-pig can climb trees and spin a web but is too big to sit in it. And the pig doesn't want to eat what's caught in the web anyways. Scientists believe it just catches things for entertainment.
Several cities currently compete to bring the first spider-pig to their local zoo including Springfield, Vermont; Springfield, Illinois; and Springfield, Oregon. Make pinkwalrus's | 1real |
Washington War Party Urges Obama to Go to War Against Assad & the Russians - Christoph Germann | Washington War Party Urges Obama to Go to War Against Assad & the Russians
Clinton fans call on Obama to “save Aleppo” as NATO-GCC-backed ‘rebels’ prepare new offensive Originally appeared at Newsbud
On October 21, The Washington Post published a noteworthy op-ed titled “Bring Syria’s Assad and his backers to account now,” written by retired U.S. Marine General John Allen and self-proclaimed Syria expert Charles Lister. Allen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and serves on the board of advisors of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) cutout. The retired four-star general attracted a lot of attention earlier this year when he delivered a forceful endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.
Lister was formerly a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and is now a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute, which describes itself as “an unbiased source of information and analysis” on the Middle East and partners with corporations such as Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco. Lister has dismissed conflict of interest allegations by saying his contact with the Syrian opposition “had absolutely nothing to do with Qatar” and stressing that his “work on this is 100% funded by Western govts.”[1]
Allen and Lister harshly criticize U.S. “inaction” in Syria in their October 21 op-ed, emphasizing that “the Assad clique and its backers must be brought to account before it is too late.”
The authors’ case rests on the premise that U.S. policy in Syria has been characterized by inaction and “has never sought to decisively influence the tactical situation on the ground.”[2]
Since the beginning of the conflict, advocates of greater U.S. military involvement have tried to promote the myth of “U.S. inaction in Syria.”
Even after U.S. media disclosed the existence of a CIA weapons supply and training program in summer 2012, efforts to promote this myth continued unabated.
In early 2013, about eight months after The Washington Post first reported that the United States is coordinating the flow of weapons to the so-called “Syrian rebels,”[3] the editorial board of The Washington Post warned of the “consequences of U.S. inaction in Syria,” accusing the Obama administration of not doing enough to support the “rebels.”[4]
Neither The Washington Post nor any other major media outlet in the United States has been willing to publicize the true extent of U.S. covert operations in Syria, which started as early as April-May 2011.[5]
From the very beginning, U.S. policy sought to decisively influence the tactical situation on the ground in favor of the foreign-backed anti-Assad opposition. But instead of exposing the U.S.-led war on Syria, the media has been feeding into the false narrative of “U.S. inaction in Syria.”
Referring to this narrative, Allen and Lister call for accelerating and broadening the provision of lethal and nonlethal assistance to “vetted moderate opposition groups.”[6]
The United States’ vetting process of militias plays a central role in all of Lister’s policy proposals.[7] What Lister fails to mention is that this vetting process consists of nothing more than trace searches in old databases and half-hearted interviews. U.S. Special Forces soldiers on the ground in Turkey and Jordan told SOFREP that many “rebels” had sympathies with terrorist groups but knew exactly how to sell themselves during such interviews.[8]
As U.S. Special Forces soldiers on the ground voice their indignation over a mission that nobody believes in because they are just training the next generation of jihadis, Allen and Lister want to increase U.S. assistance to “vetted” groups in order to “save Aleppo,” which has become the focal point of the Syrian conflict:
“For a start, the United States must save Aleppo. Damascus, Moscow and Tehran are razing the city to prepare for an eventual ground assault. As both the CIA and Pentagon have concluded, an opposition loss in Aleppo would severely undermine the United States’ counterterrorism objectives in Syria. The city’s symbolism and strategic value are unmatched, and allowing it to fall would dramatically empower extremist narratives. Groups linked to al-Qaeda would reap the rewards of our shortcomings.”[9]
At the beginning of October, just hours after the U.S. suspended talks with Russia over Syria, The Washington Post reported that the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are pressuring President Obama to approve “kinetic actions” against Syrian government forces, arguing that an opposition loss in Aleppo “would undermine America’s counterterrorism goals in Syria.”[10]
Given the fact that the opposition in “rebel-held” eastern Aleppo is led by Jabhat al-Nusra, this argument seems rather dubious.[11] Despite rebranding itself as “Jabhat Fatah al-Sham” and supposedly cutting its ties with al-Qaeda, the group is still considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. Another group present in eastern Aleppo, Ahrar al-Sham, is also closely tied to al-Qaeda.[12]
It is not exactly clear why “groups linked to al-Qaeda would reap the rewards” if groups linked to al-Qaeda are defeated in eastern Aleppo or why their defeat “would severely undermine the United States’ counterterrorism objectives in Syria.”
If Allen and Lister want to stop empowering extremist narratives, they could start by revising their portrayal of the battle of Aleppo and the Syrian conflict in general.
Nusra and its allies are not defending civilians in eastern Aleppo, as frequently claimed, but holding them hostage in order to maintain a foothold in the strategic city, which was invaded by “rebels” in summer 2012 after refusing to join the uprising.
As soon as Syrian government forces and their allies first managed to encircle the “rebel-held” areas of Aleppo in July of this year, they announced the opening of humanitarian passages for civilians and surrendering fighters. According to the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), only “around 12 people managed to use the Bustan al-Qasr corridor before rebel groups reinforced security measures and prevented families from approaching the corridors.”[13]
Instead of telling the “rebel groups” in eastern Aleppo to stop holding civilians hostage, the United States and its allies supported a major offensive led and organized by al-Nusra to break the siege and “put some pressure back on Russia and Iran.”
One Western diplomat tried to play down the outside support, saying:
“The rebels’ problem has never been a lack of weapons. This was internally planned, and it succeeded not because of outside support but because Fatah al-Sham and the other jihadi groups are incredibly disciplined, with plenty of guys willing to blow themselves up at the front.”[14]
Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and other involved groups referred to the Aleppo offensive as the “Ibrahim al-Youssef battle,” a reference to the Syrian army officer who led the Aleppo Artillery School Massacre in the late 1970s.
In June 1979, Ibrahim al-Youssef and members of a Muslim Brotherhood splinter group killed dozens of Alawite cadets after separating them from their Sunni colleagues. During the July-August Aleppo offensive, a spokesman for the Nusra-led forces said they would continue what Ibrahim al-Youssef had started and kill the Alawites.[15]
Ibrahim al-Youssef’s son Yasser is a political representative for the U.S.-vetted “rebel group” Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, which participates in the battle of Aleppo and lately joined the Nusra-led military alliance Jaish al-Fatah. Zinki is probably best known for beheading a child captive on camera. The group reportedly lost U.S. backing in August or September of last year and was in talks with the U.S. over the restoration of its support when the incriminating footage emerged.[16]
Yasser al-Youssef has become the media’s go-to-guy for information about the “rebels” in and around Aleppo. After the Syrian government and its Russian allies recently announced a unilateral cease-fire to allow civilians and surrendering fighters once again to leave eastern Aleppo, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Yasser al-Youssef as saying that opposition fighters wanted “nothing to do” with the Russian initiative and asking: “Who are they to decide to displace the Syrian people who rebelled against the dictator Assad?”[17]
Meanwhile, the Associated Press (AP) quoted Zinki’s al-Youssef as saying that the opposition had agreed to the initiative to evacuate wounded and allow in aid. According to al-Youssef, the evacuations didn’t materialize because the Syrian government and Russia gave no assurances the wounded would not face arrest.[18]
As both sides were blaming each other for the breakdown, Western journalists on the ground confirmed that “rebels” were firing on the checkpoints and exit corridors, making it extremely dangerous for anyone to leave eastern Aleppo.[19]
When Allen and Lister say “the United States must save Aleppo,” they are not referring to the civilians in eastern Aleppo who are being held hostage by the “rebels” or to the civilians in western Aleppo who are being killed by indiscriminate “rebel” shelling. They are referring to al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Zinki and other “rebel groups” in eastern Aleppo.
On the same day the Allen-Lister op-ed was published, Lister gleefully announced on Twitter that Ahrar al-Sham, Zinki and allied militias are preparing another offensive to break the siege of Aleppo. Nusra will of course join the fight, but “the impetus and most of the planning for this offensive largely excluded” the terrorist group, as the PR disaster during the July-August offensive is still fresh on everyone’s mind. “Regional states have provided substantial support to buttress the offensive,” according to Lister.[20]
U.S. allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar already provided substantial support to buttress the July-August Aleppo offensive – with the full blessing of the United States.[21] Washington’s primary objective was to put some pressure back on Russia and Iran, not to save civilians. As before, the new offensive is going to prompt an adequate response from Russia and its allies, thereby prolonging the suffering of civilians in Aleppo.
With current U.S. policy leading nowhere, the Obama administration is divided over Syria. Whereas the hawks around CIA director John Brennan and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter want to escalate the conflict, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are increasingly skeptical of such plans.
Obama is reportedly not willing to approve plans to supply CIA-vetted militias with more powerful weapons.
One senior U.S. official told The Washington Post that CIA-backed units are “not doing any better on the battlefield, they’re up against a more formidable adversary, and they’re increasingly dominated by extremists,” raising the question of whether the program can accomplish anything beyond adding to the carnage in Syria.[22]
The Lister-approved vetting process is apparently not working.
Moreover, the sceptics in the administration fear that the new weaponry could end up killing Russian military personnel and they want to avoid risking a confrontation with Russia.
But not everyone shares this opinion.
Due to his reluctance to escalate the conflict in Syria, Obama has alienated Washington’s foreign policy establishment, which favors more U.S. military action, including cruise missile strikes on Syrian government forces.[23]
That is also a key point of the Allen-Lister plan.
When The Washington Post first reported on U.S. plans to target Syrian government forces, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov stressed that Russian troops were now widely deployed across Syria, implying that any such attack would run the risk of killing Russian soldiers.[24]
Allen and Lister are of course aware of this risk. Explaining how to punish cease-fire violations by Syrian government forces with U.S. military action, they note in passing:
“We should expect the possible intentional co-mingling of Syrian and Russian forces and assets as a deterrent. While this may complicate targeting strategies, we should not miss the opportunity to hit offending Syrian elements and units, while sustaining counter-Islamic State operations elsewhere.”[25]
Neither Allen and Lister nor Washington’s foreign policy elite seem to mind risking a direct military confrontation with Russia. But President Obama and other sceptics in the administration don’t want to start World War III over Syria, as one senior administration official who is involved in Middle East policy emphasized:
“You can’t pretend you can go to war against Assad and not go to war against the Russians.”[26]
While the war party in Washington is waiting for Obama to leave office, Russia is preparing for a showdown in Syria with the largest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War.[27]
As Allen and Lister point out, the war party “cannot wait for a new administration in Washington” because “events are moving too quickly.”[28] They may have lost Aleppo by the time Hillary Clinton takes office.[28]
So Obama might have to deal with more “accidents,” such as the September 17 Deir Ezzor attack, during his last months as President of the United States. Did you enjoy this article? - Consider helping us! Russia Insider depends on your donations: the more you give, the more we can do. $1 $10 Other amount
If you wish you make a tax-deductible contribution of $1,000 or more, please visit our Support page for instructions Click here for our commenting guidelines On fire | 1real |
SORRY NANCY! Here’s PROOF Democrats Have NOTHING On Jeff Sessions [VIDEO] | Watch: Fox News' Catherine Herridge has the latest on AG Jeff Sessions and Russia. https://t.co/9s4PWKABvR pic.twitter.com/i0Djb4vSzB Fox News (@FoxNews) March 2, 2017Several senators on both sides of the aisle rushed to back Attorney General Jeff Sessions Thursday as he sought to blunt resignation calls from senior Democrats, following revelations he met last year with Russia s ambassador a detail omitted from recent congressional testimony.His defenders say such meetings between senators and diplomats were routine. And Sessions even got an inadvertent boost from Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who in demanding the AG s resignation initially claimed she never called or met with Russia s ambassador only for tweets to surface indicating she had, at least twice.Other former colleagues intentionally came to Sessions defense, backing the former Alabama senator s claim he only met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in his official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. I ve met with the Russian ambassador with a group, in my capacity, with a group of other senators, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told CNN. That s in my official capacity. That s nothing. That s my job. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in a statement that he d talked to at least twenty ambassadors in the last six weeks. It would have been very normal for Sessions, as a senator, to have talked to the Russian ambassador without discussing the election, Blunt said.Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on MSNBC that he d met with six ambassadors in the last five months. Though he hadn t met with Kislyak, Cruz said he would do so without reservations.The statements of support came as other lawmakers including the two top-ranking Democrats, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schemer demanded Sessions resignation. FOX NewsWatch: | 1real |
Trump tells lawmakers he expects deal 'very quickly' on healthcare | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told a group of senators on Tuesday that he expected lawmakers would be able to reach a deal on healthcare, without offering specifics on how they would do it or what had changed since a healthcare reform bill was pulled last week for insufficient support. “I have no doubt that that’s going to happen very quickly,” Trump said at a bipartisan reception held for senators and their spouses at the White House. “I think it’s going to happen because we’ve all been promising - Democrat, Republican - we’ve all been promising that to the American people,” he said. A Republican plan backed by Trump to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system was pulled on Friday after it failed to garner enough support to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Trump, a Republican, did not mention that failure at the reception nor did he offer specifics on how he planned for lawmakers to reach a consensus on a healthcare bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, familiarly known as Obamacare. Trump told lawmakers at the reception that he would be talking about infrastructure and investing in the military, without offering a time frame or details. “Hopefully, it will start being bipartisan, because everybody really wants the same thing. We want greatness for this country that we love,” he said. | 0fake |
US Votes 'No' As UN Adopts Landmark Resolution Calling to Ban Nuclear Weapons | Co-sponsored by 57 nations, L41 calls for a 2017 conference ‘to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination’ The United Nations on Thursday adopted a landmark resolution calling for the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Resolution L.41 (pdf) was accepted by a vote of 123-38, with 16 member nations abstaining. The vote was held during a meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with disarmament and international security matters.
“For seven decades, the UN has warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons, and people globally have campaigned for their abolition. Today the majority of states finally resolved to outlaw these weapons,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN).
Setsuko Thurlow , a survivor of the Hiroshima and leading proponent of a ban, also celebrated Thursday’s vote.
“This is a truly historic moment for the entire world,” Thurlow said. “For those of us who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is a very joyous occasion. We have been waiting so long for this day to come.”
As expected, nuclear powers including the United States, France, Canada, Israel, Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as several of their European allies, were among the nations who voted against the ban.
It was a long journey to get to this point, but totally worth it! #goodbyenukes #FirstCommittee pic.twitter.com/SM5mFzSXzf
— Michael Hurley (@mdghurley) October 27, 2016 | 1real |
BREAKING: Judge Ambushed Outside Courthouse…Shot by Waiting Gunman [Video] | Jefferson County Judge Joseph J. Bruzzese Jr. should be counting his blessings today because he was saved by an armed parol officer. He should also be thankful that he was armed and able to return fire when he was ambushed on his way into work by two waiting gunmen.BREAKING: A black male is taken into custody after an apparent shooting we just got on scene working to learn more @WTOV9 pic.twitter.com/HFs5aZzHvw Lauren Healy (@LaurenWTOV9) August 21, 2017Steubenville City Manager James Mavromatis says Judge Joseph Bruzzese was ambushed outside of the Jefferson County Courthouse pic.twitter.com/jr9ZJE4SGc WTOV NEWS9 (@WTOV9) August 21, 2017The ambush occurred outside the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania and West Virginia state lines. Steubenville City Manager James Mavromatis told local media that two suspects ambushed the judge as he entered the courthouse Monday morning. A probation officer in the immediate vicinity returned fire, killing one gunman. Local media reports that Bruzzese himself was armed, and may have returned fire.The second suspect has been taken into custody, though it is not yet clear if he was armed.Little is known of the two suspects, but both have criminal records, according to local officials. We re starting to put this whole picture together, but basically what you have is the judge is going to work, these subjects were waiting for them. He comes up, shoots at the judge. The judge returns fire, Mavromatis said. We also have a probation officer that was behind the judge. He returns fire as he is shot at. The subject is deceased that he shot at. He credited the unnamed probation officer for quickly neutralizing the gunmen, who could have killed the judge and other bystanders were it not for his intervention. This probation officer has done his job. He reacted to the threat, trying to save the judge and any other bystander that may have been in the area, Mavromatis said. | 1real |
Arm found near Copenhagen could relate to submarine case: Danish police | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - An unidentified arm found by divers in the water near Copenhagen could belong to Swedish journalist Kim Wall who died after taking a submarine ride with the vessel s Danish inventor in August, Danish police said on Tuesday. The arm was found near the route that had been investigated in connection with the submarine case, the police said in a statement. The limb would be examined by coroners on Wednesday. We have not yet determined if this is a right or left arm or who the arm belongs to. But we are working from a perspective that it stems from the submarine case, police spokesman Jens Moller Jensen said. Wall, a freelance journalist who was researching a story on submarine owner Peter Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in the 17-metre (56-foot) submarine in August. On Aug. 23, police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as that of Wall. In October, police said they had recovered her head and legs. Madsen admitted to dismembering Wall on board his submarine and dumping her body parts in the sea, but he still denies murdering her and a charge of sexual assault without intercourse. The trial has been set to take place in Copenhagen next March. | 0fake |
House committee to hold hearing on Wells Fargo sales practices | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Financial Services Committee has opened a probe into Wells Fargo’s sales practices and plans to call the company’s chief executive before lawmakers at a hearing later in September, the committee chairman said on Friday. Wells Fargo has settled with regulators over allegations that its staff opened more than two million bank accounts and credit cards for customers without their consent to meet internal sales goals. As part of last week’s settlement, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in penalties and $5 million to customers. Committee Chairman Representative Jeb Hensarling said the committee was “requesting all records related to the allegations of fraudulent or improper activity by Wells Fargo employees” from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and also requested records from the company. | 0fake |
Donald Trump, ‘Brexit,’ Syria: Your Morning Briefing - The New York Times | Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • President Trump is expected to order the construction of a Mexican border wall today and slash immigration of refugees from “terror prone” nations, White House officials said. He pressed automakers to increase jobs in the U. S. but a new forecast of a federal budget deficit that could expand to almost $10 trillion over 10 years could complicate his agenda to cut taxes and ramp up spending. Mr. Trump also revived two pipelines blocked under President Obama: the Keystone XL pipeline, the focus of years of debate over energy needs and climate change and the Dakota Access pipeline, the target of Native American protests. _____ • And tensions are rising between the U. S. and China. Beijing, after a challenge from a Trump spokesman, insisted it had “irrefutable” sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea. China sees opportunities to extend its global reach with Mr. Trump in power, but it also sees a threat to its prized goal, stability. _____ • Israel, discarding diplomatic restraint just a few days into the Trump administration, approved the construction of 2, 500 housing units for Jews in West Bank settlements. A month ago, the Obama administration declined to veto a Security Council resolution condemning the settlements, and last week, a gathering of world leaders warned Israel to stop expanding them. _____ • The office of Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to stay on its timetable for taking Britain out of the European Union despite a top court ruling requiring the approval of Parliament before the process can begin. Political observers said it was unlikely that legislators, despite being largely opposed to Brexit, would try to block the will of the voters. _____ • Three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi abruptly banned 86 percent of India’s currency in a bid to fight “black money” — hidden reserves that feed corruption — unemployment is spreading, and some people are going without fruit, vegetables and milk. “This has actually hurt the poor enormously,” one business leader said. Above, a protest over cash shortages last week. _____ • And this year’s Oscar nominations are out. Voters gave “La La Land” 14 nominations, a tie for the most in Academy Award history. The academy also honored six black actors — a record. Here is the full list of nominees. _____ • The Alibaba Group beat estimates with strong earnings. The results showed how much the giant — despite a growing global profile and its record I. P. O. on Wall Street — is still dependent on China. • Silver Lake, an investment firm, is leading a $1. 1 billion investment in Koubei, an business that is part of what is increasingly known as the sector, or O2O. • President Trump’s pick for the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, an from Kansas, is expected to roll back rules that ban internet service providers from favoring certain websites and apps. • Nearly 470 million Chinese citizens used their mobile phones to make payments last year, an increase of 31 percent from 2015, new government data shows. • Japan releases data on its imports and exports for December. The country’s economy has been struggling despite government efforts at stimulus. • South Korea and Taiwan release G. D. P. figures. • Wall Street was up. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • China’s 816 nuclear plant, begun in the 1960s, was one of the country’s most ambitious military projects. Today, the mountain has been reborn as a tourist attraction. [The New York Times] • Peter Thiel, the American billionaire, has taken New Zealand citizenship and quietly acquired a sprawling estate on Lake Wanaka. [New Zealand Herald] • Afghanistan ordered the arrest of nine bodyguards of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the more senior of the country’s two vice presidents, on accusations of the rape and torture of an Uzbek elder. [The New York Times] • A wave of smog is forecast to engulf four northern Chinese provinces as the Lunar New Year approaches. [Reuters] • Talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, may have done more to to firm up Russia’s growing role in diplomacy over Syria than to create any progress toward peace. [The New York Times] • A proposal to ban the display of Vietnam’s flag on city poles has divided the Vietnamese community of San Jose, Calif. [The Mercury News] • Gambia’s former president, Yahya Jammeh, didn’t go into exile in Equatorial Guinea : He left with two a and a plane full of luxury items. [The New York Times] • China’s government has shut down 111 of the country’s 683 golf courses since 2011, citing illegal land or water use. [Xinhua] • Scientists found the fossils of a huge, nearly otter that roamed rivers and lakes in southwestern China about 6. 2 million years ago. [Reuters] • Doing just 12 minutes of yoga can improve your bone health. • Vacations don’t have to be all about relaxing: Here’s how to plan one with some good deeds along the way. • Recipe of the day: Try this grilled cheese sandwich featuring mayonnaise for some midweek comfort food. • In China, members of the Tanka people have survived on southern coastal waterways, and on the margins of society, since ancient times. As big cities spread, their floating way of life is disappearing. • Genetic research is taking some truly turns. Ant researchers have identified the molecular and neural cues that help explain social behaviors, including caring for young, breeding — even capturing and upstarts, like tiny police officers. • And a pioneering scientist, Maria Sibylla Merian, captivated Europeans 300 years ago with her studies of insects. Now, her findings are being celebrated again. Grandstands filled with cheering fans, perfectly plated vegetables, and your country’s name on the line — this isn’t your typical cooking competition. This is the Bocuse d’Or, or the culinary version of the Olympics. The competition, which takes place this week in Lyon, France, was founded by the master French chef Paul Bocuse. He was influential in establishing nouvelle cuisine, which emphasizes ingredients and presentation. At 90, Mr. Bocuse remains a king among chefs. Long before “ ” became a trendy concept, a Bocuse was learning how to butcher a cow for his first restaurant job. He eventually joined his father at their family restaurant, L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges. One year after he took over, the restaurant won a Michelin star. He recalled how early in his career he wowed a prominent food critic with fresh ingredients. Mr. Bocuse served haricots verts picked that morning, lightly boiled and served with olive oil, shallots and salt. In 1966, The Times’s Craig Claiborne described the restaurant outside of Lyon as “one of the most elegant and proudest restaurants outside of Paris. ” Mr. Bocuse, though, once offered a less refined assessment of his skills. “Some men have mistresses,” Mr. Bocuse once said. “I run a luxury restaurant. ” Remy Tumin contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Serbian president: EU’s membership conditions ‘humiliating’ | October 26, 2016 Serbian president: EU’s membership conditions ‘humiliating’
Serbia’s president has accused the European Union of setting “humiliating” conditions for the Balkan country’s membership.
Tomislav Nikolic told visiting Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar that Serbia would move to adopt the EU’s fundamental principles and values even though the 28-nation bloc is in crisis.
Nikolic did not say which EU conditions he finds humiliating, but may have been referring to demands from some members for Serbia to recognize the breakaway former province of Kosovo as an independent country.
Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia, wants to join the EU, but has been under intense pressure from the Kremlin to reconsider.
Moscow has backed Serbia in its dispute with the West over Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade has refused to accept Kosovo’s as a separate republic. | 1real |
NOTHING NEW: ‘Fake’ & Weaponized News Has Long Haunted Our War-Weary World | In response to the establishment media s contrived fake news crisis designed to marginalise independent and alternative media sources of news and analysis, and due to our readers engagement on this important issue, 21WIRE is extending its #FakeNewsWeek awareness campaign for additional week, where each day our editorial team at 21st Century Wire will feature media critiques and analysis of mainstream corporate media coverage of current events exposing the government and the mainstream media s fake news assembly line Hearst vs Pulitzer battle for the yellow journalism title (Image Source: US Library of Congress)Mark Anderson 21st Century WireToday s fake news crisis is by no means a recent phenomenon born during the Presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, as the mainstream media would have us believe, even while big media outlets hypocritically label alternative news outlets as the sole source of fake news.Not only is America suffering under the maliciously misleading fake news peddled by today s mainstream media; America and the world also have gravely suffered, at least since the mid-19th Century, under an orthodox media that was and remains a weaponized menace to peace and social concord. There is hardly a more unsettling example of an early war-mongering media figure than famed editor Horace Greeley.Stepping back for a moment, it s notable that the liberal-internationalist New York Times unlike liberal-left street protestors who typically march against U.S. military intervention in foreign lands has long interpreted liberalism quite differently on the geopolitical level. Our esteemed newspaper of record spanning three centuries, has frequently used its pages to call for, justify or not seriously challenge claims made by governments as the pretext for highly questionable military interventions. This has led to the current reality of perpetual, unwinnable conflicts that are prosecuted without even the pretense of Congress officially declaring war as the Constitution requires.And pesky facts such as the reality that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein never possessed the kind or quantity of weapons of mass destruction to excuse the U.S.-led coalition s March 2003 shock and awe intervention in Iraq have never been allowed to obstruct the Times support for Iraq and subsequent wars. The role of the Times, along with its staff reporter Judith Miller, in presenting the false case for that war is well documented. In addition to this, a tertiary story that Saddam Hussein was hosting al Qaeda terrorists and he have been involved in the 9/11 attacks of 2001, was concocted by members of the Bush Administration and then injected into both the US and British mainstream media.All that was needed was somebody to hate in the true Orwellian tradition, so the military-industrial-banking-intelligence-media complex gave Americans Iraq as the phony target of their revenge.DRUMMING-UP A CIVIL WARAll told, the Times famous slogan, All the News That s Fit to Print might just as well be: All the Wars That Are Fit to Fight. So, it s all the more ironic that of all newspapers, the New York Times, on July 28, 2011, in a respectable article by James M. Lundberg, clearly outlined (in accordance with other sources) Horace Greeley s unhinged Times-style actions to help propel the U.S. into an incredibly bloody war against itself the grossly misnamed Civil War. (A civil war is that in which two or more factions fight for control of a government, while this war involved southern states seceding from the Union to form another government. Big media and court historians don t even bother using correct terms.)19th Century media mogul Horace Greeley.Horace Greeley (1811-1872) founded and edited the widely influential New York Tribune. Having served briefly as a congressman from New York, he also was the new Liberal Republican Party s unsuccessful candidate in the 1872 presidential election against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant the celebrated Union general whose military actions were partly made possible by Greeley s poison pen. To Greeley, the pen was not mightier than the sword; rather, his pen was a sword, wielded in zealous pursuit of a fratricidal war that ended up solidifying federal dominance over the several states.Under the robber barons of Greeley s day (who would later foist a central bank on America, based on several economic panics that the big newspapers hyped, instilling widespread fear) such federal dominance became an enduring debt slavery that, to this day, has arguably made all Americans into perpetual serfs under the yoke of compound interest, massive taxes and endless toil. And Greeley s fingerprints are all over that bleak outcome, however unwitting he may have been about it.Greeley and the Tribune railed over the South s black agrarian slavery and urged the North to take up arms to end such servitude, while northern media moguls kept extremely quiet about the slavery of children working in northern factories.Lundberg noted, It didn t take long for Horace Greeley, the nation s most loved, hated and widely read newspaper editor, to become impatient with the progress of the war. From the moment news of Major Robert Anderson s [northern] surrender at Fort Sumter reached New York City, drumbeats and bugle calls for immediate military action could be heard in the columns of Greeley s paper, the New York Tribune. Greeley and his deputies, while ignoring the towering task that others would have to undertake to prepare for the anticipated titanic collision of military forces, poured his messianic vision into the Tribune s pages to sway the people toward war, although even President Lincoln himself was not yet on the same page as Greeley. But the delusional Mr. Greeley would not settle for a mere sovereign making his own decisions. Never mind the logistical challenge of assembling, arming and training a suitable military force the people, or at least the [Tribune] editors, were ready, and there was hardly a moment to lose. What appeared to be lacking, from Greeley s perspective, was a necessary vigor from President Lincoln and his administration, Lundberg wrote. Within a week of Lincoln s initial call for volunteers on April 15, 1861, the Tribune was already sharply critical of [Lincoln s] apparent sluggishness. Greeley gloated that the People supposedly stood ready to fight with old flint-lock muskets if [they] can get no better. But, he wondered, Will the government stand by the People? And before April was out and military operations still hadn t started, Greeley, casting objectivity aside and seeking the dehumanization of the South, was reminding Lincoln: We are at war with these pestilent rebels and traitors, while urging heavy and instantaneous blows at Maryland and Virginia. The manipulation of the narrative did not end there. Greeley even called for the absolute conquest of the South on the first of May, 1861. We mean to conquer them, he blathered, and we shall do this most mercifully, the more speedily we do it. Who could argue with an offer as gracious as merciful conquest?As Lundberg explained, Greeley believed the Union could be saved and much bloodshed spared with swift, decisive Federal action. And swift, decisive action would be effective because the Rebels were weak, disorganized and unlikely to fight if their cause of independence appeared lost. Moreover, Greeley believed that secession had been the work of a small minority of fire-eating fanatics; a quick blow and a little taste of the full force of the Union Army would embolden the silent majority of Southern Unionists he believed had yet to be roused. But it was easy for Greeley, who couldn t have had the slightest idea how this clash of arms would turn out, to assume from the safety of his desk that bloodshed could be spared by a quick attack. Such a large-scale battle of Americans against Americans brother against brother, fathers against sons in some cases, reddening U.S. soil itself on such a huge scale was an unprecedented, utterly unpredictable thing. If sparing bloodshed was to be the goal, then avoiding war would have been the prudent path. But poisoning public opinion via newsprint, in favor of war, would make war appear unavoidable on both sides of the conflict.Greeley, having seriously injured himself chopping wood on his Chappaqua Farm, tapped Fitz Henry Warren, a Washington correspondent, to watch over the newspaper. Warren promptly filed a trembling dispatch, describing Union forces in ultra-glowing terms. And while Greeley popularized the well-known words Go West, young man in the days of westward expansion and the opportunities it afforded, another phrase that historians associate with Greeley s newspaper was born in latter May of 1861: On to Richmond! But according to Lundberg, it was Warren who sired that refrain and also declared: Unloose your chivalry, Man of high command . . . pierce the vitals of Virginia, and scourge the serpent seed of her rebellion on the crowning heights of Richmond. Keep in mind that the simmering North-South conflict hadn t yet morphed into a full-blown war, even as Greeley s paper agitated for all-out war and never allowed for cooler heads to prevail. For many, the unavoidable question is: Whose war was this? The Union s? Or the New York Tribune s?Warren wasn t the only Tribune staffer to escalate the nation into full-blown war. The On to Richmond! slogan, which at first was printed in the Tribune s tiny type within dense columns of war correspondence, was given new life with slightly different wording by the Tribune s Charles A. Dana about a month later. As Lincoln and his commanders continued careful deliberations, Dana recklessly threw the paper s full weight behind Warren s idea that Richmond must be taken immediately. Beginning June 28, the paper s masthead bore in boldface what Dana called:THE NATION S WAR-CRY Forward to Richmond! Forward to Richmond! The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet there on the 20th of July! BY THAT DATE THE PLACE MUST BE HELD BY THE NATIONAL ARMY!Greeley did come to his senses a little. He soon came to regret his subordinates choice of words when the Union s push toward Richmond became the deadly debacle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861 following the approximate schedule that had been urged by the Tribune. Furious rebuttals against Greeley came from the Northern public and some press, as saner minds saw the travesty of the situation at a time when unlike today mainstream news journals were not so centrally controlled and offered a reasonable divergence of opinion.As Lundberg related, Henry Jarvis Raymond s Times blasted the insane clamor of certain reckless journals and their senseless and incessant cry of Onward to Richmond. But the Albany Evening Journal, offered an especially precise appraisal: The on to Richmond dictators [emphasis added] have added another year to the war, a hundred millions of dollars to its cost, and opened graves for fifteen or twenty thousand more soldiers. The Albany paper, perhaps not realizing the full import of its own words, had pinpointed what Greeley s Tribune had become a weaponized media, which would become the norm in the mainstream media as the 19th Century gave way to the 20th Century, and into the 21st Century.WAVERING FALSE FLAGSThe great unmentionable, however, is something that this New York Times account of Greeley s exploits did not address and which the Times will always avoid altogether: That the South s April 1861 attack on a Union military outpost at Fort Sumter, S.C., which provided the initial push toward the Civil War, would be a harbinger of things to come in that it was a type of false flag operation, clandestinely arranged by the White House to maneuver the South into firing the first shot, the same basic model used against Japan in the lead-up to Pearl Harbor 80 years later.And less than 40 years later, when the American battleship USS Maine, on Feb. 15, 1898, was destroyed in Havana harbor, the media s lack of seeking accurate knowledge as to exactly what blew up the ship gave leading 19th Century newspapermen the platform they needed to instead detonate information bombs , once again, instilling fear and overriding wiser counsel in order to blame Spain, and catapulting the U.S. into the Spanish-American War the first international-scale war that set the dangerous precedent of constant U.S. military patrols and interventionism across the world.The leading fake news figures of that era who so inflamed public opinion toward that war are still household names: William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, the latter being the namesake of the famed Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. These two moguls, who became emblematic of the era of sensationalized Yellow Journalism , competed to see who could better ratchet up war fever against Spain.Hearst, on whom the movie Citizen Kane was loosely based, with Orson Wells playing the media mogul, was an especially reckless newsman. Ironically, Hearst had developed his passion for journalism in his early 20s and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon while a college student before working as an apprentice for the New York World s editor, none other than future rival Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst s father had become wealthy from Western mining interests, so the younger Hearst was able to use his dad s backing to acquire the New York Journal. As Hearst sought to gain readership for his New York Journal against Pulitzer s New York World, he pursued increasingly sensational stories, author and history teacher Ian C. Friedman noted online. Front pages shouted about the boy who bit into a stick of dynamite thinking it was candy and leading to an awful death, and a tale of a deranged girl running down a street with her hair all ablaze, and other stories of violence, sex, catastrophe, and mayhem were typical of what became known as yellow journalism, so named because the newly-introduced colored comics sections often spread [yellow ink] to other parts of these newspapers. Hearst s penchant for publishing fake or exaggerated stuff as if it s real or accurate was given full reign as he angled for an ill-advised, pointless U.S. intervention in Cuba. In so doing, he took the forbidden leap from journalism to war participation. [He] was persistent in finding ways to achieve it, including organizing a daring and successful rescue mission to free a young, female Cuban political prisoner, Evangelina Cisneros, which he proudly trumpeted on the front page of the Journal, Friedman added. Though the Cuban insurrection against their Spanish rulers was stagnating, Hearst continued to send many of his high-profile writers and illustrators to the Cuba in hopes of capturing a great story. Among Hearst s employees was the famed illustrator Frederic Remington. In 1897, Remington became very bored by the lack of anything newsworthy in Cuba and cabled to Hearst, Everything quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. Wish to return. Responding to Remington s message, Hearst famously replied, Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I ll furnish the war. Less than three weeks later, the USS Maine exploded in Havana s harbor. The cause of the explosion that claimed 274 lives remains a mystery to this day. Theories include that the ship detonated an external mine; that the blast was caused by an undetected internal coal fire; that it was attacked by the Spanish; and even that it was intentionally attacked under a clandestine American operation to force the U.S. into the war on false pretenses.Clearly, if we do not know what happened to the Maine even now, then Hearst certainly did not know what happened at the time of the explosion, yet he published headlines such as, CRISIS AT HAND . . . SPANISH TREACHERY . . . Maine Destroyed by An Outside Attack, Naval Officers Believe. Other war first, ask questions later, if ever situations would follow. The May 1915 sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania, which, having been secretly loaded with munitions, is thought to have been used as bait to help spark World War I. And even if the German U-Boat which sank her was not directly baited, the British admiralty, in tandem with the American admiralty, knowingly and willfully let that ship leave New York loaded with munitions, bound for shark-infested waters (German U-boats). Yet the existence of the munitions was not officially admitted until 1982.Nearly 1,200 unwitting passengers and the crew perished in an event that shifted American opinion against Germany, priming the pump for the U.S. to enter the war.Moreover, gutsy historian John Toland and retired sailor and researcher Robert Stinnett, among others, exposed the FDR Administration with reams of evidence demonstrating how Washington DC knowingly baited the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor, an event which sparked U.S. entry into World War II (and also for treacherously denying Pearl Harbor s commanders any warning of the coming attack).Stinnett, who earned 10 battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation in World War II and was in the same naval aerial photography group as George H.W. Bush, was no flunky. His book on Pearl Harbor, Day of Deceit absolutely destroys those who hopelessly cling to the surprise attack narrative, which still includes the deceitful big media.There was also the second of the two Gulf of Tonkin incidents on Aug. 4, 1964, in which North Vietnamese forces allegedly fired upon the U.S. Naval vessels. But an in-depth U.S. Naval Institute review found that the Aug. 4 incident, which was the turning point that led to full U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict, never happened. There was not a second attack on U.S. Navy ships in the Tonkin Gulf in early August 1964. Furthermore, the evidence suggests a disturbing and deliberate attempt by Secretary of Defense McNamara to distort the evidence and mislead Congress, the USNI concluded.Congress, without a responsibly skeptical press to rely upon, soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to cement the U.S. into what became the Vietnam nightmare. But no formal war declaration ever occurred.TOTAL INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE? Yet, as increasingly more people in our Internet age ask harder questions and finally discover the truth about all these watershed events, only mainstream editors, reporters and court historians, with rare exceptions, believe the old official narratives anymore narratives which ushered America into wars in such a manner that war has become a permanent fixture in U.S. geo-politics.Put another way, the Western press has not only utterly failed to stop the power of government from ballooning into a perpetual war machine despite institutional claims that it speaks truth to power the mainstream media has been a major agent in justifying and escalating wars, without ever acknowledging its dreadful history of doing so. Covering-up real history and failing to consider other viewpoints and correct the record is arguably another form of fake, weaponized news because it denies the world a full reckoning of its past, thereby making future wars much more likely.Instead, an honest look at history shows, with only minor exceptions, that the mainstream orthodox press of yesteryear laid the groundwork long ago for the modern centralized news institution that relishes in fear porn supporting ongoing war, mayhem and grave economic uncertainty by covering up past and present realities, avoiding solutions and constantly recycling the corrosive narratives that go nowhere and cause real, lasting harm and have put, and continue to put, large swaths of humanity into early graves.*** Author Mark Anderson is an investigative journalist and features writer for American Free Press, and is editor of The Truth Hound. Contact Mr. Anderson at truthhound2@yahoo.com. READ MORE ABOUT MSM FAKE NEWS AT: FAKE NEWS WEEKSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Iceland opposition leader says will not rule out cooperation with Centre Party | REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - The leader of Iceland s main Left-Green opposition party, Katrin Jakobsdottir, said on Sunday she would not rule out working with the new Centre Party whose leader last year was ousted as Prime Minister due to links to the Panama Paper Scandal. Nothing is out of the picture, but our first choice is to work with the parties on the left, she told Reuters in a telephone interview. She said that it might not be possible for the center-left to form a government. We d hoped that the opposition would get a majority, but that is unclear now, she said. The Centre Party, which was formed this September by former Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, got 11 percent of the votes in the early counting. | 0fake |
U.S. lawmakers ask DOJ if terrorism law covers pipeline activists | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. representatives from both parties asked the Department of Justice on Monday whether the domestic terrorism law would cover actions by protesters that shut oil pipelines last year, a move that could potentially increase political rhetoric against climate change activists. Ken Buck, a Republican representative from Colorado, said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that damaging pipeline infrastructure poses risks to humans and the environment. The letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said “operation of pipeline facilities by unqualified personnel could result in a rupture - the consequences of which would be devastating.” It was signed by 84 representatives, including at least two Democrats, Gene Green and Henry Cuellar, both of Texas. The move by the lawmakers is a sign of increasing tensions between activists protesting projects including Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Dakota Access Pipeline and the administration of President Donald Trump, which is seeking to make the country “energy dominant” by boosting domestic oil, gas, and coal output. Last year activists in several states used bolt cutters to break fences and twisted shut valves on several cross border pipelines that sent about 2.8 million barrels per day of crude to the United States from Canada, equal to roughly 15 percent of daily U.S. consumption. The letter asks Sessions whether existing federal laws arm the Justice Department to prosecute criminal activity against energy infrastructure. It also asks whether attacks on energy infrastructure that pose a threat to human life fall within the department’s understanding of domestic terrorism law. The Department of Justice acknowledged receiving the letter and is reviewing it, a spokesman said. A terrorism expert said it was ironic the lawmakers referred to the law, which defines “domestic terrorism” as acts dangerous to human life intended to intimidate civilians, but does not offer a way to prosecute anyone under it. David Schanzer, a homeland security and terrorism expert at Duke University, said the lawmakers’ request of Sessions “won’t have any legal ramifications, but possibly could be used for rhetorical value.” A Minnesota court is considering charges against several protesters suspected of turning the valves on the pipelines last year. District Court Judge Robert Tiffany has allowed the defendants to present a “necessity defense.” That means they will admit shutting the valves, but may call witnesses, such as scientific experts, to offer testimony about the urgency of what they say is a climate crisis, activists said. | 0fake |
KELLYANNE CONWAY Delivers KNOCK OUT Punch To Smug Jake Tapper At CNN Town Hall Forum [VIDEO] | When an audience member asks Kellyanne Conway if Trump will continue to use Twitter as a means to communicate with Americans, he ended his comment with a swipe at Trump not being entirely truthful with his tweets. Kellyanne Conway responded that it would be up to him and the Secret Service, and that he looks at it as a very good platform for him to convey his messages.Jake Tapper suggested that Trump s tweet about 3 million illegal aliens voting in the election was false. Of course Tapper has no evidence to back up his assertion. The state of California alone has over 2.6 million illegal aliens who could ve technically voted in the election. In fact, the two top counties where Hillary received the most votes, are coincidentally the same two counties who have the highest percentage of illegal aliens. In October, 2015, a California state bill was signed in to law by Gov. Jerry Brown, that registers and allows illegal aliens to vote in US Elections. So just in the state of California alone, over 2.6 million illegal aliens could have voted in the election. We haven t even talked about the illegal aliens who weren t caught voting in this election because of loopholes in states that allowed illegal aliens to register to vote when they obtained legal drivers licenses.But Tapper pressed on asking:Tapper: Is that really Presidential behavior? Conway: Well he s the President-Elect, so that s Presidential behavior, yes. Tapper: So the things that Bill Clinton did in the Oval Office, that you criticized, those weren t Presidential? Conway: Should we review for those who weren t born yet what President Clinton did in the Oval Office? Boom!https://youtu.be/t7tc3Gr0d5M | 1real |
TRUMP THREATENS TO SUE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACTIVIST AND FAV OBAMA CELEBRITY CHEF For Pulling Out Of Restaurant Deal In New DC Hotel | America better wake up and realize we are quickly becoming victims of leftist bullies and their desire to destroy our right to free speech Celebrity chef Jose Andres is backing out of a deal to put his new flagship restaurant inside the new Trump International Hotel in Washington DC after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump caused a media firestorm with his recent comments about illegal immigration.In a statement, Andres whose ThinkFoodGroup oversees more than a dozen restaurants in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, and Puerto Rico said comments Trump made about illegal immigration during his presidential campaign announcement last month make it impossible for him to open his restaurant in Trump s new hotel. Donald Trump s recent statements disparaging immigrants make it impossible for my company and I to move forward with opening a successful Spanish restaurant in Trump International s upcoming hotel in Washington D.C., Andres said in a statement. More than half of my team is Hispanic, as are many of our guests. And, as a proud Spanish immigrant and recently naturalized American citizen myself, I believe that every human being deserves respect, regardless of immigration status. Andres s statement comes after Washington DC resident Erick Sanchez started a Change.org petition asking the chef to pull his planned restaurant from Trump s hotel. The petition had gathered 2,750 signatures by Wednesday afternoon, but it was unclear whether it had played a role in Andres s decision.In an email to the Washington Post, Trump s son Donald Trump Jr. said that Andres had no right to back out of what he said is a 10-year lease the chef signed with the hotel and threatened legal action:Our relationship with Jos Andr s has always been a good one, but simply put, Jos has no right to terminate or otherwise abandon his obligations under the lease. In the event Mr. Andres defaults in the performance of his obligations, we will not hesitate to take legal action to recover all unpaid rent for the entire 10 year term together with all attorneys fees and additional damages we may sustain. We will also enforce the exclusivity provisions preventing Mr. Andr s from opening a competing restaurant anywhere in the D.C area. Mr. Andr s obligations under the lease are clear and unambiguous. More importantly, construction is ahead of schedule at Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C. and when completed in 2016, will be a crown jewel within the Trump Hotel Collection.Andres has been a vocal advocate for immigration reform. In a 2013 op-ed for the Post, the chef, who became a naturalized American citizen after living in the United States for decades, lobbied Congress to pass an immigration bill that had stalled in the legislature. The fellow immigrants I ve known and worked with over the years, those with legal status and those without, are here for the right reasons, Andres wrote. They don t want to cause any trouble, take any handouts or steal anyone s job. Many already pay taxes and have jobs tough, dirty, exhausting work that America depends on, such as picking our tomatoes, cleaning our fish or canning our products on cold factory floors for low wages and no benefits. Andres s decision to cut ties with Trump follows other individuals and companies who have backed away from the real estate mogul and presidential candidate in recent weeks. NBC, Univision, Macy s, PGA Golf, the Miss Universe pageant, and ESPN have all distanced themselves from Trump following his comments.Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
Putin, in Syria, says mission accomplished, orders partial Russian pull-out | MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin flew into Syria and ordered a significant part of Moscow s military contingent there to start withdrawing on Monday, declaring their work largely done. Putin, who polls show will be re-elected comfortably in March, made the announcement during a surprise visit to Russia s Hmeymim air base in Syria - his first since Russia intervened in the conflict. He held talks with President Bashar al-Assad and addressed Russian forces. The first leg in a three-country one-day whirlwind diplomatic visit which sees Putin also meeting his Egyptian and Turkish counterparts, Putin is keen to leverage the heightened Middle East influence that Syria has given him to cast himself as a leader who can do diplomacy as well as military force. The Kremlin first launched air strikes in Syria in September 2015 in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, turning the tide of the conflict in Assad s favor. Now that it regards that mission complete, Putin wants to help broker a peace deal. In just over two years, Russia s armed forces and the Syrian army have defeated the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists, Putin told Russian servicemen. A significant part of the Russian force could now return home. The conditions for a political solution under the auspices of the United Nations have been created, said Putin. The Motherland awaits you. Washington was skeptical about Putin s statement. Russian comments about removal of their forces do not often correspond with actual troop reductions, and do not affect U.S. priorities in Syria, said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon. Putin made clear in any case that Russia would retain enough firepower to destroy any possible Islamic State comeback. Syrian state television quoted Assad as thanking Putin for Russia s help, saying the blood of Moscow s martyrs had been mixed with the blood of the Syrian army. It also showed the two men watching what it called a victory parade with Russian troops dressed in desert uniforms marching past. Russia s main contribution has been air strikes, and with Iran-backed Shi ite militias doing much of the fighting on the ground, the partial Russian withdrawal may not make a huge difference when it comes to the military situation. Russia s campaign, which has been extensively covered on state TV at home, has not caught the imagination of most Russians. But nor has it stirred unease of the kind the Soviet Union faced with its calamitous 1980s Afghanistan intervention. The use of private military contractors, something which has been documented by Reuters but denied by the defense ministry, has allowed Moscow to keep the public casualty toll fairly low. Officially, less than 50 Russian service personnel have been killed in the campaign, but the real number, including private contractors, is estimated to be much higher. Russia s mission accomplished moment in Syria may help Putin increase the turnout at the March presidential election by appealing to the patriotism of voters. Though polls show he will easily win, they also show that some Russians are increasingly apathetic about politics, and Putin s supporters are keen to get him re-elected on a big turnout, which in their eyes confers legitimacy. Putin, who with the help of state TV has dominated Russia s political landscape for the last 17 years, told Russian servicemen they would return home as victors. Speaking in front of a row of servicemen holding Russian flags, Putin said his military had proved its might and that Moscow had succeeded in keeping Syria intact as a sovereign independent state. I congratulate you! Putin told the servicemen. Putin is keen to organize a special event in Russia - the Syrian Congress on National Dialogue - that Moscow hopes will bring together the Syrian government and opposition and try to hammer out a new constitution. When asked about Putin s announcement, Yahya Aridi, spokesman for the Syrian opposition in Geneva, said it welcomed any step that brought Syria closer to real peace. Putin made clear however that while Russia might be drawing down much of its forces, its military presence in Syria was a permanent one and that it would retain enough firepower to destroy any Islamic State comeback. Russia will keep its Hmeymim air base in Syria s Latakia Province and its naval facility in the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartous on a permanent basis, said Putin. Both bases are protected by sophisticated air defense missile systems. Putin was told by the military that it had begun withdrawing 25 aircraft, a detachment of Russian military police, a detachment of Russian special forces, a military field hospital and a de-mining center. However, Russia has announced partial force draw-downs before only to later bring in different capabilities. We ve seen such announcements before, which turn about to be less significant than they might have initially appeared, said one European diplomat who declined to be named. The most significant contribution Russia can make to advancing peace in Syria is to pressure the Assad regime to engage seriously in Geneva (peace talks). Absent that, the suspicion will be that this announcement may have more to do with Russian politics than the Syrian situation. | 0fake |
MIKE DITKA SLAMS NFL Players: “No Oppression In Last 100 Years”…”If You Don’t Respect Our Country, Then You Shouldn’t Be In This Country Playing Football” | Wow! Former Bears coach Mike Ditka is coming under fire from the liberal media and Black Lives Matter activists for saying there has been no oppression in the last 100 years .Former Chicago Bears star and coach Mike Ditka, an adamant critic of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial discrimination, said Monday in a national radio interview that this country has been free of oppression for at least a century. All of a sudden, it s become a big deal now, about oppression, Ditka told Jim Gray on Westwood One s pregame show ahead of the Bears Monday Night Football loss to the Vikings. There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of. Now maybe I m not watching it as carefully as other people. As a side note, the now unemployed and clearly oppressed 49 ers QB, Colin Kaepernick who started kneeling to show his unity with the anti-cop, Black Lives Matter movement, listed his humble abode in San Jose, CA, 10 months ago, for a mere $2.9 million.According to Realtor.com, the gated four-bedroom, 5.5-bath estate features 4,500 square feet of living space on a 20,000-square-foot secluded lot with a long private driveway and expansive views of the valley.Ditka continued: Is that the stage for this? If you want to protest, or whatever you want to protest, you ve got a right to do that, but I think you re a professional athlete, you have an obligation to the game, Ditka said. I think you have to respect the game. That s what I think is the most important thing. I don t see a lot of respect for the game. I just see respect for their own individual opinions. Opinions are like noses, we all have one. Some are good. Some are bad. Ditka insisted he wasn t condemning anybody or criticizing anybody but urged players to protest when the game s over, protest whatever other way you want to and said he would bench players who insisted on demonstrating during the anthem because it s disrespectful. If you don t respect our country, then you shouldn t be in this country playing football, he said. Go to another country and play football. If you had to go somewhere else to try to play the sport, you wouldn t have a job. So that would be my take. If you can t respect the flag and the country, then you don t respect what this is all about. So I would say, adios. Gray cited athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Jesse Owens who have taken on social injustices, but Ditka was unmoved. I don t know what social injustices have been, Ditka said. Muhammad Ali rose to the top. Jesse Owens is one of the classiest individuals that ever lived. I mean, you can say, Are you (saying) everything is based on color? I don t see it that way. I think that you have to be color blind in this country. You ve got to look at a person for what he is and what he stands for and how he produces, not by the color of his skin. That has never had anything to do with anything. Ditka said there are opportunities for everyone in the United States, regardless of race, religion, creed, color, nationality if you want to work, if you want to try, if you want to put effort into yourself. I think you can accomplish anything, and we have watched that throughout our history of our country. People rise to the top and they became very influential people in our country by doing the right things. Trib LiveMost of America gets what Ditka is trying to say when he says there has been no oppression for 100 years . He s clearly referring to the era of slavery. The idea, however, that Ditka would point out that slavery ended 100 years ago, and that we are, and have been, for decades, a nation of equal opportunity for all, was more than the left and the liberal media could bear. Here are just a few of their responses to Ditka s remarks:Mike Ditka said that, Black folks have not suffered, "any oppression over last 100 years. and Mike Ditka was alive during the Jim Crow era LEFT (@LeftSentThis) October 10, 2017Just heard Mike Ditka say on a radio interview that there hasn t been oppression in the US in 100 years. Did he play with a helmet on? Ducis Rodgers (@duciswild) October 10, 2017There were also plenty of supporters for Mike Ditka who applauded his courage for speaking out on the players who disprspect our flag:Legendary NFL coach Mike Ditka going off on NFL anthem protests last night! pic.twitter.com/JITKhw4y5k Patriot 24/7 (@TrumpTrain45Pac) October 10, 2017I agree Mike Ditka!Pampered #NFL divas have NO knowledge of American history or awareness of how hard middle America works#TuesdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/549cVs91ff CC (@ChristiChat) October 10, 2017 | 1real |
Coalition with Merkel not automatic, all options open: Germany's SPD | BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) said on Friday he ruled out no option for forming a new government but stressed that a re-run of the outgoing grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives was not a done deal. Germany, Europe s political and economic powerhouse, has been struggling to build a new government since a Sept. 24 national election. Merkel s conservative bloc and the SPD lost support in that vote, while an anti-immigrant party surged into parliament, seriously complicating the coalition arithmetic. Merkel, her own political future on the line after 12 years at the helm, is making overtures to the center-left SPD - her partner in government over the past four years - after her bid to form a three-way coalition with two smaller parties failed. The SPD, which had wanted to go into opposition to rebuild after suffering its worst post-World War Two election result, fears its distinctive identity and policy ideas will again be smothered in any tie-up with Merkel s bigger center-right bloc. Regarding the formation of a new government, there was broad support for not ruling any option out, SPD leader Martin Schulz said after party board discussions in Berlin. Schulz, who held talks late on Thursday with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merkel and her Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer, denied he had agreed to another grand coalition. I can clearly deny the media report about me having given the green light for grand coalition negotiations. This is simply wrong, Schulz said, adding that the report appeared to be based on sources within Merkel s conservative CDU/CSU bloc. He added that whoever circulated such reports was damaging trust. Ties between the SPD and conservatives - still sharing power in a caretaker capacity - have already been strained this week after a conservative minister backed extending the use of a weedkiller at the European Union level against the SPD s wishes and without its prior knowledge. We have a lot of options for building a government. We should talk about each of these options. That s exactly what I will propose to the party leadership on Monday, Schulz said. The SPD will hold a party congress in Berlin on Dec. 7-9, where it is expected to debate its options. Other options apart from a grand coalition include a minority conservative government - which the SPD could support on a case-by-case basis, or fresh elections. Merkel has said in the past she does not want to lead a minority government. Merkel s camp said the ball was in the SPD s court. It s now up to the SPD to provide clarity, said CDU manager Klaus Schueler. The fact that we underlined today that we are prepared to enter such talks with the SPD shows that we re aiming to bring these talks to a successful conclusion. Another senior member of Merkel s Christian Democrat Union (CDU), Mike Mohring, said he was hopeful for an eventual grand coalition and expected a new government to be formed by March. The way for a grand coalition has been paved, Mohring told Reuters after taking part in a teleconference where Merkel had briefed the federal board of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Thursday night s talks with Schulz and the president. Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, has said he wants changes in Germany s approach to the European Union and in economic and social policy. In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine, Schulz said the SPD backed French President Emmanuel Macron s call for closer eurozone integration, including a new finance minister for the currency bloc - ideas that face resistance from conservatives. Giving Emmanuel Macron a positive answer will be a key element in every negotiation with the SPD, Schulz was quoted as saying in the interview made available on Friday, adding that he also backed a joint EU tax policy. | 0fake |
Now That Obamacare's Imploding, Trump Says He Was Always Against It. Here's What He Said When It Passed | Getty - Chip Somodevilla The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
In case you missed the political advertisement for Obamacare, it was touted as the “Affordable Care Act.”
Here are Democrats hyping the program, which the Obamacare architect described as a pathway to single-payer :
Not too long ago, another fan of single-payer healthcare was Donald Trump. But don't take our word for it, look no further than the unofficial Trump campaign arm Breitbart.com for evidence . As Trump said in September 2015:
Scott Pelley: Universal health care.
Donald Trump: I am going to take care of everybody. I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.
In 1999, Trump was perfectly clear , as reported by Newsmax:
“I said I’m conservative, generally speaking, I’m conservative, and even very conservative,” Trump told King in response to a question about a “patients' bill of rights,” reports BuzzFeed.
“But I’m quite liberal and getting much more liberal on healthcare and other things. I really say: What’s the purpose of a country if you’re not going to have defensive and healthcare?” he told King. "If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over. I mean, it’s no good.
“So I’m very liberal when it comes to healthcare. I believe in universal healthcare. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better.”
After Obamacare passed, Trump sat down for an interview on HLN. This is what he had to say, as noted by The Washington Examiner:
“Number one, as a human being, I like to see people — it's inconceivable that, you know, people are sick, like you get sick, or I get sick, or the kids get sick, and you bring 'em to a doctor, inconceivable that, you know, 31 or 33 million people can't do that,” Trump told host Joy Behar. “So on one level, I think something had to be done.”
Trump continued, saying the law is “really going to cost a lot of money in terms of competitiveness with this country” and said it would cost a friend's company “over $200 million a year.”
Here is what Trump recently tweeted: Obamacare is a disaster - as I've been saying from the beginning. Time to repeal & replace! #ObamacareFail pic.twitter.com/5CvoMbVceT — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2016
Did Trump say it was a “disaster from the beginning,” or “on one level, I think something had to be done”?
Perhaps, we turn to another tweet he had, drawing on the popular hashtag #ObamaCareInThreeWords: REPEAL AND REPLACE!!! #ObamaCareInThreeWords — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2016
It turns out that Donald Trump is a fan of “repeal and replace,” but his political track record before he ran for president as a Republican shows that what he means by that is “single-payer”—the goal of the Obamacare architect all along.
When it comes to Trump's solution for Obamacare—making it more competitive for insurance companies—this runs antithetical to the goal of single-payer, which is the government (i.e. taxpayers) paying for everyone.
One can draw their own conclusions about what Trump actually means right now, because no one can be one hundred percent sure. Yet for a man who styled himself as an outsider and not at all like a “politician,” his statements on Obamacare show himself very much to be similar to one. | 1real |
Russia names nine U.S.-backed news outlets likely to be labeled 'foreign agents' | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Thursday named nine U.S. government-sponsored news outlets likely to be labeled foreign agents under a new law that is being rushed through parliament in response to what Moscow says is unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media. Russia s lower house of parliament approved the law - allowing Moscow to force foreign media to brand news they provide to Russians as the work of foreign agents and to disclose their funding sources - on Wednesday. The legislation needs approval from the upper house of parliament, which is likely to happen next week, and the signature of President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law. The Russian Justice Ministry on Thursday published a list of nine U.S.-backed news outlets that it said could be affected by the changes, which it said in a statement on its website were likely to become law in the near future. It said it had written to the U.S. government-sponsored Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), along with seven separate Russian or local-language news outlets run by RFE/RL. One of the seven outlets provides news on Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, one on Siberia, and one on the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region. Another covers provincial Russia, one is an online TV station, another covers the mostly Muslim region of Tatarstan, and the other is a news portal that fact-checks the statements of Russian officials. Russia s broadside against U.S. media is part of the fallout from allegations that the Kremlin interfered in the U.S. presidential election last year in favor of Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence officials accuse the Kremlin of using Russian media organizations it finances to influence U.S. voters, and this week Washington required Russian state broadcaster RT to register a U.S.-based affiliate company as a foreign agent . The Kremlin denies meddling in the election and has said the restrictions on Russian broadcasters in the United States amount to an attack on free speech. The new media law in Russia is retaliation, it says. The draft legislation states that Russian authorities can designate foreign media as foreign agents , making them subject to the same requirements that are applied to foreign-funded non-governmental organizations under a 2012 law. Under that law, foreign agents must include in any information they publish or broadcast to Russian audiences a mention of their foreign agent designation. They also must apply for inclusion in a government register, submit regular reports on their sources of funding, on their objectives, on how they spend their money, and who their managers are. They can be subject to spot checks by the authorities to make sure they comply with the rules, according to the 2012 law, which has forced some NGOs to close. RFE/RL said in a statement it did not want to speculate what steps Russia might take against it next, and looked forward to continuing its journalistic work. VOA Director Amanda Bennett has said the station remains committed to providing independent news to global audiences. | 0fake |
TOP TEN LIES From Obama’s State Of The Union Speech | Obama promised to keep his SOTU speech short but he couldn t even keep that promise. For anyone who watched it, it went on and on It was full of fairy tales about pretty much everything. So what s new, right? Obama s been able to lie his way through his entire presidency so why not in his last SOTU speech. We think this list of lies by Joel Pollack of Breitbart News is pretty dead on:1. We ve done all this while cutting our deficits by almost three-quarters. This is pure fiction. Obama has doubled the national debt, and it s not because he cut the deficit. Rather, he spent staggering amounts of money in his first months in office which he assigns, dishonestly, to the previous fiscal year, under George W. Bush. He cut (i.e. spent more gradually) from that spending, but only under protest, after Republicans took the House in 2010.2. Anyone claiming that America s economy is in decline is peddling fiction. With that line, Obama took a shot at his would-be Democratic successors, as well as his Republican critics. But the truth is that despite the slow recovery the slowest since World War II labor force participation is the lowest it has been in decades. Wages are stagnant, household incomes still have not recovered from the recession, and young people see ableak future.3. That s what the Affordable Care Act is all about. It s about filling the gaps in employer-based care so that when we lose a job, or go back to school, or start that new business, we ll still have coverage. That is a cruel joke, given that Obamacare canceled insurance coverage for millions of Americans who did not change jobs. It also raised deductibles and premiums so high that many insurance companies are leaving the Obama exchanges totally.4. Food Stamp recipients didn t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did. Actually, food stamp recipients, metaphorically speaking, were indirectly responsible as well as Wall Street sharks. Obama leaves out the government s role, under the Community Reinvestment Act, in pushing mortgages on people who could not afford them, and in backing the derivatives based on those mortgages that ultimately burst the whole bubble.5. We ve protected an open internet . Obama s policy of Net Neutrality has turned Internet service providers into public utilities under an ancient regulatory regime. The result has been a sharp decline in broadband investment and a much less free and open system. In addition, the Obama administration is rushing to shift control of ICANN to the international community, which will ensure that the Internet is less free, and subject to overseas censorship.6. Seven years ago, we made the single biggest investment in clean energy in our history. Here are the results. It is laughable that Obama would claim his failed clean energy spending think Solyndra led to the fracking-fed energy boom we have enjoyed for the past several years, especially when the administration did all it could to stop oil and gas development. He also nixed the Keystone pipeline and started a plan to kill coal plants.7. No nation dares to attack us or our allies because they know that s the path to ruin. Of all the lies in Obama s speech, this was undoubtedly the worst, coming hours after Iran seized two U.S. Navy boats and ten sailors. Obama did not even mention those Americans in captivity at any point in his speech, declining the chance to reassure the nation that they would come home safely. It is an omission that will define this address in history.8. As someone who begins every day with an intelligence briefing, I know this is a dangerous time. Obama does not attend most of his daily intelligence briefings, preferring instead to read intelligence reports so he claims on his iPad, a stark contrast to the attentive approach of his predecessor. Late last year, even as Obama claimed that there was little risk from attack, radical Islamic terrorists carried out brutal attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino.9. We are training, arming, and supporting forces who are steadily reclaiming territory in Iraq and Syria [from Islamic State]. The Obama administration s attempt to train and arm Syrian rebels has been a disaster. Belatedly, the administration has helped Kurdish peshmerga forces, and the Iraqi military has made gains lately, but Obama has not made a serious effort to defeat the Islamic State, and is even giving up on regime change in Syria.10. Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. And a year of appeasement has not promoted democracy, either. The Castros remain firmly in power, and we are not helping the opposition. Worse, the Cuban regime continues to arrest thousands of political dissidents, to cozy up to enemies like Iran and North Korea, and to carry out provocative acts such as stealing a U.S. Hellfire missile.Read more: Breitbart News | 1real |
Egypt kills 13 militants in raid on western desert farm | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces killed 13 militants during a raid on a farm hideout in the western desert region on Friday, a week after a deadly attack on a police convoy, authorities said. An Interior Ministry statement gave no details on the militants, but Egyptian forces have been battling several armed Islamist groups, mostly focused on an entrenched Islamic State affiliate that has killed hundreds of police officers and troops in the northern Sinai Peninsula since 2013. They took a house in the farm as a temporary hideout faraway from security monitoring to receive newly recruited elements and train them and prepare the explosive devices, the ministry statement said. The clashes were in an area near the Assuit-Kharga desert highway, around 400 km (248.55 miles) southwest of Cairo, in New Valley province that shares a long border with neighboring southern Libya. Southern Libya has become a hideout for militant brigades taking advantage of the security vacuum there. After clashes with the militants, the ministry said 13 bodies were recovered at the farm, some wearing militant uniforms. Security forces also recovered weapons, suicide bomb belts, cash and ammunition. The statement did not say whether the group was linked to the militants who attacked police last week in a remote area of Giza governorate, 135 km outside Cairo, when sources say they were searching for a militant hideout. Security forces dealt a severe blow to the terrorist elements in revenge for the blood of the men who were martyred last week in the oasis, the state news agency MENA said earlier, citing a high-level security source. Most of Egypt s violence is centered in the northern Sinai, where a local group, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014. It had mostly targeted security forces with ambushes and suicide attacks, but has spread to other areas of Egypt outside the peninsula. The western desert region has long been for a route for smugglers and arms coming across Libya s porous border. The Egyptian military said on Monday its air force hit eight four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying arms and explosives at the western border with Libya, killing the militants on board. | 0fake |
The United States Is Pre-Positioning “Enemy Assets” In Preparation For A Rigged Election | The United States Is Pre-Positioning “Enemy Assets” In Preparation For A Rigged Election Posted on Tweet The United States Is Pre-Positioning “Enemy Assets” In Preparation For A Rigged Election
With civil rest or a world war, the administration will be handed the country on a platter – indefinitely – and the election will be a moot point, whether it happened or not.
From Jeremiah Johnson, SHTFPlan :
There are a number of excellent pieces circulating that hypothesize on what will happen before, during, and after the election. Mike Adams of Natural News and Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show have both dug deeply, examining the overall situation with outstanding insights as to the possibilities. Mike’s piece listed the scenarios that can happen regarding either outcome, and government actions that can be triggered by the result. Dave’s videos and telephone conversations expose the fact that the government is indeed preparing to have plans ready and in place with drills and exercises that can turn into an actual operation immediately.
You can watch Dave Hodge’s full report with Paul Martin below:
That being mentioned, an article came out the other day written by Deb Riechmann of the Associated Press, October 26 entitled US Official: Russia Might Shoot Down US Aircraft in Syria . The article highlights dialogue from a Charlie Rose interview via CBS at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York that was conducted with National Intelligence Director James Clapper . The answers that Clapper gave to the questions gives two “insights” into the Obama administration’s mindset. This comment came regarding the potential for the US and Russia engaging one another militarily:
“I wouldn’t put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they felt that [it] was threatening to their forces on the ground. Russia has deployed a very advanced and capable air defense system in Syria and would not have done that if it [Russia] wouldn’t use it.”
James Clapper
Then Clapper was questioned about North Korea, and he had this to say:
“…the U.S. policy of trying to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons is probably futile. Perhaps the only thing the U.S. could get would be limitations on North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. I think the notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause. They are under siege and they are very paranoid, so the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a nonstarter with them.”
All of this sounds very lackadaisical, coming from the Director of National Intelligence. That is because it is: Obama is pursuing a laissez-faire policy regarding “threats,” either from Russia or North Korea. The reason? He created them to use later. Clapper’s next responses are very interesting regarding the questions of whether or not Russia has been tampering with the election process and the recent threat by Vice President Joe Biden that the U.S. will respond to the (alleged) tampering with a Cyberattack designed “to embarrass and humiliate” the Kremlin. Here is an excerpt of that interview:
“Clapper also was asked about the Obama administration’s claim that recent hacking of political sites was orchestrated by top Russian officials. The U.S. response might not come in the form of a reciprocal cyberattack on Russia, Clapper said.
Pressed on the subject, Rose, the interviewer, noted that there is a sense that the Russians were not paying any price for the hacking.
“Maybe not yet,” Clapper replied.
“Maybe after the election?” Rose asked.
“I’m not going to pre-empt,” Clapper said.”
There we have it, in the absence of verbal commitment, no matter how nebulous the answer may seem. Just because it is nebulous, however, does not belie the nefarious nature of the answer, and it is obvious: The Obama administration is setting the Russians up for the time of the election to blame any deviance or hacks on them.
It is no secret that election fraud is being committed now, even with the early voting that is occurring in several states. The Cyberattacks conducted on Friday, October 21st were a Beta-test for what is to come: full-blown election fraud and an attack on the infrastructure of the U.S. , to be blamed on Russia or North Korea and used as justification to either suspend the elections or declare them null and void.
On October 25 , an article was released entitled DMV Computer Outage Raises Fear of Election-Day Cyber Attacks , as presented on losangeles.cbslocal.com . Apparently 100 DMV offices in California had a gigantic computer malfunction that was not attributed to hacking. The article interviewed a USC professor who had the following to say:
“Election day may be a different story. Government computer systems are vulnerable to cyber attacks. I think there will certainly be some sort of cyber security issue in some location.”
Clifford Neuman, Director, USC Center for Computer Systems Security
From a standpoint of greater simplicity, the government can simply collapse the power grid, and this can be blamed on an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) weapon from North Korea or Russia. If this is not done, the government can use the Soros-provided voting machines and other nefarious measures (such as dead people’s names being used to vote, illegal aliens casting a ballot, or people voting in numerous states, to name a few) to steal the votes. Then blame can be shifted to the Russians.
Keep in mind that the Cyberattack on October 21 was found to “not be done by a government’s actions through state actors,” as the Mainstream media termed it. How true. Not one concrete shred of justification that Russia has been conducting any Cyberattacks has been provided. Certainly the Russian government has taken the time to investigate the source of the hacking on the U.S. systems. They will certainly monitor the elections in some manner to protect themselves from any accusations of hacking and prove they do not hold any culpability when the Democrats skew the numbers of the election and steal it themselves.
This is why the federal government has warned Russia that simply to monitor the elections may warrant criminal charges being brought against the Russian government.
But it’s OK to have UN election monitors, which in itself is a violation of the 10 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, right?
The law doesn’t apply to the Democrats; the law only matters as long as they can inflict it upon you. Soros just came out recently and cursed democracy in general: though toad like in appearance and mannerisms, this communist foreigner is responsible for the collapse and/or debilitation of almost a dozen governments. In a previous article we covered how the voting machines in the early voting in Illinois did not register the original choice of the voter and “chose” the Democratic candidates. This was labeled as a “calibration error,” so simply and innocently. The communists masquerading as Democrats know the truth of the matter, that it is those who count the votes and not the voters who decide the elections.
In summary, the U.S. is pre-positioning its “enemy-assets” to blame – on what the administration does – for a collapsed election labeled as “rigged” or the suspension of the election for any number of reasons, real or illusory, such as a genuine attack the U.S. provokes or an attack the U.S. carries out on itself .
Civil unrest and/or war are the escape hatches to bail out of the Constitution and to take control of the country…not letting either crisis go to waste. With civil rest or a world war, the administration will be handed the country on a platter – indefinitely – and the election will be a moot point, whether it happened or not.
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Watch George Michael Perform Live: 5 Memorable Videos - The New York Times | George Michael, the English songwriter and pop star who died at 53 on Sunday, was a reliably outstanding live performer, though after a world tour promoting his album “Faith” in 1988 and 1989, he turned away from the road. He never gave his 1990 album “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” a proper tour, instead performing a set of cover songs in 1991 before he took a lengthy break from the road. He returned to the stage in 2006, and reached the United States two years later with a show that demonstrated he had no intention of becoming an oldies act, as The New York Times’s chief pop, critic Jon Pareles, wrote at the time. Here are five performances from 1985 to 2008 that showcase Mr. Michael’s range as a live artist: [ Why George Michael mattered | Read the obituary ] “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley with Elton John at Live Aid, 1985 In 1991, a live version of George Michael and Elton John’s duet, written by Mr. John and Bernie Taupin, reached No. 1 in the United States and Britain. But the duo had performed it live for the first time six years earlier during Mr. John’s set at Live Aid, where he introduced Mr. Michael as someone he admired “very much for his musical talent, more than anything else. ” In his trademark sunglasses and leather jacket, Mr. Michael commanded the stage — so much so that at the 4:30 mark, Mr. John starts grinning and pointing at Mr. Michael with approval and pride. “Somebody to Love,” George Michael and Queen at Wembley Stadium, 1992 An array of artists appeared alongside Queen to honor the band’s frontman at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, including Axl Rose, Liza Minnelli, David Bowie and Seal. But Mr. Michael’s performances at the event were particularly inspired — in 1993, he released an EP of live tracks from the show, including “Somebody to Love,” the 1976 Queen song with a swooping vocal line that beautifully displayed Mr. Michael’s silky range. “Freedom! ’90” at the MTV Europe Awards, 1994 George Michael performed twice at the MTV Europe Awards in 1994. He opened the show with this exuberant rendition of “Freedom! ’90,” and then returned to debut the far more somber “Jesus to a Child,” a tribute to his partner, Anselmo Feleppa, who had died of an illness. The first performance put the spotlight on Mr. Michael’s energetic showmanship. The arrangement accentuated the song’s soulfulness, with a chorus of backup singers approximating an ecstatic choir, especially as Mr. Michael moved into the song’s bridge around the mark. “Everything She Wants” on “MTV Unplugged,” 1996 Mr. Michael was always as comfortable stripping his songs down to their bare elements as he was gliding across a stage shaking his hips (an acoustic guitar was perhaps the most memorable weapon in his arsenal, thanks to “Faith”). In his “MTV Unplugged” performance, he gave this Wham! hit a remake with eight powerhouse backup singers. “Careless Whisper” at Earl’s Court, 2008 Mr. Michael returned to live performance in 2006 for his first extensive run of live shows in 15 years. The tour, which stretched into 2008, was billed as a sort of 25th anniversary concert, and it featured songs from across his career, including “Too Funky,” “Father Figure” and “Kissing a Fool. ” Each leg of the tour, however, included “Careless Whisper,” one of Mr. Michael’s biggest hits. The only crime here is that the crowd shouts the majority of the bridge: At the 2:36 mark, Mr. Michael generously lets the audience take the lead with “you know you want to!” | 0fake |
U.S. lawmakers reach deal for Senate Russia sanctions vote | WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday paving the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress’ approval. Earlier on Wednesday, Russia warned it was edging closer to retaliation against Washington after the House of Representatives backed new U.S. sanctions on Moscow, while the European Union said the move might affect its energy security and it stood ready to act too. “I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president’s desk,” Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday evening. He said the Senate would move to approve sanctions on Russia and Iran that it originally passed in mid-June, as well as sanctions on North Korea developed by the House of Representatives and included in a bill the House passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday. Before the latest agreement, some senators had objected to the North Korea measures and it had looked like the sanctions bill, already delayed since mid-June, could languish into September. If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. It is, however, expected to garner enough support to override a Trump veto. The House voted 419-3 on Tuesday to impose new sanctions on Moscow and force Trump to obtain lawmakers’ approval before easing any punitive measures on Russia. “This is rather sad news from the point of view of Russia-U.S. ties,” said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. “We are talking about an extremely unfriendly act.” He said President Vladimir Putin would decide if and how Moscow would retaliate once the sanctions became law. Russia’s deputy foreign minister warned the move was taking bilateral relations into uncharted waters, killing off hopes of improving them in the near future. Trump, whose presidency has been embroiled in a distracting dispute over his associates’ alleged ties to Moscow, is on the defensive over accusations Russia helped elect him last year. He has said he wants to mend relations with Russia that are languishing at a post-Cold War low. Trump had denied that there was any collusion between his campaign and Russia. Most White House watchers believe Trump will reluctantly sign off on the new sanctions, given deep support for them among U.S. lawmakers and his desire to avoid being accused of being soft on Moscow. Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump would have little choice. The Senate passed a version of the legislation, without the North Korea sanctions, on June 15 by 98-2. “I think the president will sign it,” Royce said on NBC’s Meet the Press Daily on Wednesday. The issue has rattled Russia, which fears that its economy, weakened by 2014 Western sanctions imposed over its role in the Ukraine crisis, will now find it harder to recover and grow. Foreign investors could be scared off. The European Union frets that new U.S. restrictions could pose obstacles to its companies doing business with Russia and threaten the bloc’s energy supply lines. The Kremlin’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is one reason lawmakers have pushed for the new sanctions. Peskov said Moscow would wait until the sanctions became law before fully analyzing them and deciding how to respond. Moscow had hoped that Trump, who made upbeat statements about Putin before winning the White House, would work to repair the U.S.-Russia relationship. But it has watched with frustration as the vote-meddling allegations killed off hopes of any detente. The Russian Foreign Ministry said this month that too many American spies were operating in Russia under diplomatic cover and it might expel some to retaliate for the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last year by then-President Barack Obama’s administration. Many Russian politicians increasingly believe Trump’s political foes and Congress have left the U.S. president with little room for maneuver on Russia and they have nothing to lose by retaliating. In Brussels, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU was ready to act “within a matter of days” if it felt the new U.S. sanctions undermined the bloc’s energy security. Brussels fears the new sanctions will damage European firms and oil and gas projects on which the EU is dependent. The Russia section of the bill includes sanctions on a range of industries. Several provisions target Russian energy, with new limits on U.S. investment in Russian companies. U.S. firms also would be barred from participating in energy exploration projects where Russian firms have a stake of 33 percent or higher. The bill includes sanctions on foreign firms investing in or helping Russian energy exploration, although the president could waive those sanctions. The bill would give the Trump administration the option of imposing sanctions on firms helping develop Russian export pipelines, such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline carrying natural gas to Europe, in which German companies are involved. In a concession to allies, those sanctions are optional, not mandatory. The European Commission said a number of EU concerns had been taken into account in the most recent version of the bill, but said it could lead to sanctions on any company, including European, that worked on Russian energy export pipelines. | 0fake |
THE ‘IN YOUR FACE’ ACTIVISM OF OUR SUPREME COURT JUSTICES: How America Has Accepted 4 Judges Who Will Never Render An Objective Opinion | Yes, that s Justice Ginsberg presiding over a gay marriage. How objective did America think she would be with her decision? Last week was a glaring example of why it might be time to have term limits on the Supreme Court. Anyone who thinks the decisions weren t political is nuts. We now have a Supreme Court that ignores the rule of law and the Constitution fundamental transformation?Andrew McCarthy gives a fantastic assessment of what went down with the SCOTUS last week:But this Court is not a legislature. Chief Justice John Roberts actually published that sentence in his same-sex marriage dissent on Friday . . . a mere 24 hours after his maestro s performance in the Supreme Court s legislative rewrite of the Affordable Care Act formerly known as Obamacare, but now etched in memory as SCOTUScare, thanks to Justice Antonin Scalia s withering dissent.Roberts s denial that the Court legislates is astonishing in its cynicism: In saving SCOTUScare, the chief justice not only usurped Congress s law-writing role with gusto; he claimed the powers, first, to divine legislative purpose from its contradictory expression in legislative language, and, then, to manufacture legislative ambiguity as the pretext for twisting the language to serve the contrived purpose. It takes a Clintonian quantum of cheek to pull that off one day and, on the next, to inveigh against the very thought of it.Already, an ocean of ink has been spilled analyzing, lauding, and bemoaning the Supreme Court s work this week: a second life line tossed to SCOTUScare in just three years; the location of a heretofore unknown constitutional right to same-sex marriage almost a century-and-a-half after the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment; and the refashioning of Congress s Fair Housing Act to embrace legal academe s loopy disparate impact theory of inducing discrimination.Yet, for all the non-stop commentary, one detail goes nearly unmentioned the omission that best explains this week s Fundamental Transformation trifecta.Did you notice that there was not an iota of speculation about how the four Progressive justices would vote? There was never a shadow of a doubt. In the plethora of opinions generated by these three cases, there is not a single one authored by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, or Sonia Sotomayor. There was no need. They are the Left s voting bloc. There was a better chance that the sun would not rise this morning than that any of them would wander off the reservation.How can that be? Jurisprudence is complex. Supple minds, however likeminded, will often diverge, sometimes dramatically, on principles of constitutional adjudication, canons of statutory construction, murky separation-of-powers boundaries, the etymology of language, and much else. Witness, for example, the spirited debate between the Court s two originalists, Scalia and Clarence Thomas, over a statute that, in defiance of Obama policy, treats Jerusalem as sovereign Israeli territory.But not the Court s lefties, not on the major cases.And it is not so much that they move in lockstep. It is that no one expects them to do anything but move in lockstep not their fellow justices, not the political branches, and certainly not the commentariat, right or left.It is simply accepted that these justices are not there to judge. They are there to vote. They get to the desired outcome the same way disparate-impact voodoo always manages to get to discrimination: Start at the end and work backwards. Guiding precedents are for the quaint business of administering justice. In the social justice business, the road never before traveled will do if one less traveled is unavailable.But there s a problem. Once it has become a given that a critical mass of the Supreme Court is no longer expected, much less obliged, to do law, then the Court is no longer a legal institution. It is a political institution.That is where we are. We should thus drop the pretense that the Court is a tribunal worthy of the protections our system designed for a non-political entity life-tenure, insulation from elections, and the veil of secrecy that shrouds judicial deliberations.If the justices are going to do politics, they should be in electoral politics. If John Roberts is going to write laws on the days when he isn t posing as powerless to write laws, if Anthony Kennedy truly believes the country craves his eccentric notion of liberty (one that condemns government restraints on marriage 24 hours after it tightens government s noose around one-sixth of the U.S. economy), then their seats should not be in an insulated third branch of government. They should be in an accountable third chamber of Congress.If, for old times sake, we want to maintain some harmless vestige of the charade, then let them keep wearing their robes to work for at least as long as they can persuade voters to keep them in these jobs. Let s dispense, though, with the fiction that their judgments are the product of legal acumen rather than sheer will.Read more at: National Review | 1real |
What immigration activists want from Hillary Clinton | Cesar Vargas — a leading immigration activist — has a message for Hillary Clinton: it's great that she's devoting one of the first speeches of her campaign to immigration, but "that doesn't mean we're going to be starstruck."
"We're going to look past that," Vargas, the director of DRM Action Coalition, said. "Because we learned from President Obama."
Clinton appeared in Nevada on May 5 at a roundtable with unauthorized immigrants (as Adrian Carrasquillo reported for BuzzFeed). She called for Congress to create a "full and equal" path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants in the US. But she also said that if Congress didn't do that, she'd keep — and even expand — President Obama's executive actions to unilaterally let millions of unauthorized immigrants get protection from deportation and work permits.
The appearance itself shows that the campaign is working hard to woo Vargas and immigrant-rights activists like him. Being catered to this early in a Democratic primary is a sign that the party understands not just the importance of the Latino vote, but also the power the immigrant-rights movement has to motivate this key group.
There's a very good chance that Clinton's eventual opponent in the general election will oppose a path to citizenship. (Only two Republican presidential candidates have even said they want unauthorized immigrants to get legal status in the US.) But a path to citizenship isn't what advocates care about when it comes to Clinton. They see comprehensive immigration reform, with or without citizenship, as a pretty "easy" position for any Democratic politician to take in 2015.
the partisan battle may be over what's in an immigration-reform law — but advocates are looking for clinton to support more executive actions
Clinton has a good track record with Latino voters, with whose support she handily beat President Obama in the 2008 primary. But immigration activists believe they're far more powerful now than they were in 2008, and Hillary's record with them is another story. Even in 2014, her comments on the issue left advocates seriously concerned.
She also must contend with how those activists view Obama's legacy on immigration reform. Obama took major executive actions in 2012 and again in 2014 to protect millions of unauthorized immigrants from deportation, but the immigrant-rights movement remembers those actions as something they had to fight tooth and nail for against an often recalcitrant administration. Some Latino voters — and advocates — are not over the sting of Obama's 2008 "promesa" to introduce an immigration reform bill in the first year of his presidency. He failed to deliver and, at the same time, ramped up deportations.
Clinton's appeal to immigration advocates has to go beyond the safe politics of comprehensive immigration reform and take a few risks to ensure their support. Her first speech on the topic indicated that's exactly what she'll do.
In advance of the May 5 speech, Clinton political director Amanda Renteria made calls to several advocates for input — including DRM Action Coalition. As Vargas paints it, the conversation showed exactly the attitude that advocates think they're up against.
Renteria, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in California in 2014, "expressed frustration about why the Latino community were not turning out to vote." For Vargas and his colleagues, that's an easy question to answer. "The standard talking point that we have been hearing, 'We need to have comprehensive immigration reform' — those are more than decades-old talking points, and it's no longer motivating people. It's no longer inspiring people."
In 2008, Frank Sharry, of the immigration reform group America's Voice, was "pleasantly surprised" to hear Clinton, Obama, and others go after each other during a primary debate "trying to outdo each other on comprehensive immigration reform." But the lesson advocates learned from 2008 is that a presidential candidate can't make a promise that only Congress can keep. As Clarissa Martinez of the National Council on La Raza points out, at this point "we've had a Republican president try, and not succeed. We've had a Democratic president try."
And frankly, advocates just don't feel it should be a big deal for a Democratic candidate to support comprehensive immigration reform, since it's traditionally (and recently) been a bipartisan issue. Advocates may be skeptical that a reformer like Jeb Bush could make it out of the Republican primary without running to the right on immigration. But the possibility's still there.
"It should be easy" to support comprehensive reform, says Martinez. To advocates, it might be a good idea for a candidate to endorse a bipartisan policy, or a policy that majorities of Americans support. But it's not a victory for advocates themselves.
So now, candidates have to offer a plan B: what happens if Congress doesn't pass comprehensive immigration reform? The answer, of course, is executive action — like the ones President Obama took in 2012 and 2014, which would allow millions of unauthorized immigrant young adults and parents of US citizens and permanent residents to apply for protection from deportation and work permits.
But is defending Obama's actions enough? They're certainly a point of difference between Democrats and Republicans — every Republican presidential candidate has made some sort of promise to reverse the executive actions, though immigration moderates like Marco Rubio (and possibly Jeb Bush) have left the door open to waiting until immigration reform has passed through Congress to "repeal and replace" the immigration programs.
But advocates aren't looking for Clinton to distinguish herself from Republicans. Defending what Obama's already done is "the minimum she could say," says Sharry. They're looking for her to promise them more than they've already been promised. (It doesn't particularly matter to advocates that Obama's 2014 executive actions are currently on hold in federal court; everyone in the immigration advocacy world is confident that this is just a temporary setback, and the court battle will eventually go the administration's way.)
"The reality is that these executive actions are going to be associated with President Obama," says Vargas. "What's her legacy?"
Sharry puts it differently: in order to win advocates' respect, she has to show them she's willing to stick her neck out. Promising to expand executive action "would be, to me, a sign that she's really going to lean into the issue, open herself up to more criticism, anger from the Republican ranks, in order to show the immigrant community and its allies that she's really supportive this time around," he says.
There's a policy basis to wanting executive action expanded. As pleased as advocates were with the 2014 executive actions, it's not like all their demands were met. For one thing, parents of deferred-action recipients, including many leading advocates (like Vargas's partner Erika Andiola), were left out. (In fact, that's exactly the group Clinton said she wanted to help next.)
Furthermore, advocates are looking for an answer to what they see as the big unanswered question of the Obama administration: if some unauthorized immigrants are "high priorities" for deportation because they've committed crimes or have just come to the US, and other unauthorized immigrants are "low priorities" who should get deferred action and work permits, what about people who fall into neither category, or both? Clinton started to answer that question in her first speech, saying that immigrants with "deep ties and contributions to communities" should be allowed to stay. But that doesn't fully address the issue.
It is, however, more details than even advocates were asking for. As Carrasquillo reported, DRM Action Coalition plans to release a memo this week "detailing what it wants from presidential candidates," but Vargas stresses that they're having an open conversation with campaigns. "It's more that there's a commitment that there's more to be done," he says, "than the specific."
To put it another way: President Obama spent a lot of time protesting to immigration advocates that he'd done everything in his power to protect unauthorized immigrants, and advocates spent a lot of energy getting him to reconsider. The results were the 2012 and 2014 executive actions. Advocates are hoping to skip that step — by getting Clinton to start with the assumption that there is more she could do as president.
Between today's speech about immigration and last week's speech about criminal justice, it sure looks like Clinton is using the beginning of her campaign to make it clear she knows this isn't the Democratic Party that nominated her husband in 1992.
Clinton's never exactly been a champion of immigration reform. During the 2008 campaign, she famously flip-flopped on driver's licenses for unauthorized immigrants; as a senator, she was supportive of the 2007 push for comprehensive immigration reform, but, according to Sharry, her role was limited to proposing a few "safe" amendments.
What really raised some red flags among advocates, though, were a pair of comments Clinton made in 2014 — when everyone assumed she was gearing up to run for president. First, she told an audience that she thought most of the children coming to the US from Central America should be sent back — a stance that was much harsher than the one the Obama administration ended up taking. Then in Iowa in September, when a member of Vargas's group asked her if she supported executive action for immigrants, she said the answer was to "elect more Democrats" — something that was insanely tone-deaf, given that President Obama had just delayed taking executive action until after the 2014 elections.
That seemed like a return to the way the Democratic Party viewed immigration back in 2007 — the last time Hillary Clinton was running for office. There's long been a camp among Democrats that's seen the issue as a balancing act: they should be just supportive enough to win over Latino voters, but not too supportive or else they'll turn off white voters. Sharry of America's Voice describes this thus: "Sure, immigration's important — but not when it's inconvenient."
Immigration advocates are convinced that Democrats have more to gain from full-throated support for protecting unauthorized immigrants than they have to lose. And after the 2012 presidential campaign, when President Obama defeated Mitt Romney largely on the strength of the Latino vote — and then the 2014 campaign, when Democrats lost Senate races in states like Colorado after Obama's delay on executive action — they feel they've made their case and deserve a seat at the big kids' table.
The May 5 speech was an indication that Clinton (or at least her campaign) agrees. She called special attention to the thousands of recent immigrant families who've been put in immigration detention — a signal to activists that she understood the problems with taking a tough approach to child and family migrants. And she couldn't have been more explicit in supporting executive action to protect immigrants if there aren't enough Democrats in Congress to pass immigration reform.
The speech does raise a totally different question — one that's only going to be answered with time: whether the Clinton campaign will treat immigration as a special interest issue or as a core part of her campaign platform. As Sharry puts it, "Does she talk about immigration only in front of Latino audiences, or does she make it part of her stump speech?"
Part of this is about respect — a recognition that Latino voters have done a lot for Democrats in the past few cycles, and a signal that Democrats don't think that "speaking to a general audience" automatically means "white voters." But while advocates don't say this explicitly, it's also a way to prevent a repeat of President Obama in 2008 — who made it pretty easy to forget that he'd made a promise to introduce immigration reform. The more Clinton talks about the need to protect unauthorized immigrants — no matter whom she's speaking to — the more opportunities she's creating for the media and advocates to hold her accountable if she tried to ignore the issue in office. | 0fake |
Democrats in U.S. Senate try to slow Republican deregulation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats are striking back at the U.S. Congress and White House over their push to cut regulations, as Republicans ratchet up attacks on rules they say hurt business and give bureaucrats too much power. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat, on Tuesday introduced legislation to kill the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law Republicans used over the span of three months this year to repeal 14 regulations enacted by former President Barack Obama, also a Democrat. Booker, one of his party’s liberal stars, says that rate shows the CRA is prone to abuse, and the law helps special interests sabotage thoroughly vetted rules they do not like. Booker’s bill, co-sponsored by fellow Democrat Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, would give future administrations the ability to resurrect the 14 annulled regulations on broadband, contraception, guns, the environment, education and other areas. The CRA bans agencies from issuing new versions of repealed rules in the future. Booker’s bill would also lift that ban. Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline and Michigan Representative John Conyers, both Democrats, introduced a companion bill in the House on Tuesday. Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat of the committee overseeing labor and pensions, also is attempting to work around the prohibition through bills to make two of the eliminated regulations, on retirement savings and workplace safety, the law of the land. She has introduced a bill to help states and cities provide retirement accounts to private-sector workers and has co-sponsored another on employers’ records of injuries and deaths. If any of the Democrats’ bills survive the Senate, they would likely die in the House, where Republicans hold an ample majority. After sweeping Congress and the White House in November’s elections, Republicans established a beachhead in their battle against regulation through the CRA. They are now in the next phase: limiting new rule-makings. Later this week a Senate committee will put finishing touches on the Regulatory Accountability Act and send it to the full chamber. Supporters say the bill, already passed in the House, makes regulators more answerable to lawmakers and more responsible for analyzing rules’ costs. Critics say it establishes so many requirements that it will paralyze regulation in important areas such as education. Republicans are also considering keeping the CRA in play. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has asked congressional auditors to determine if the law can be applied to agencies’ guidance that effectively resembles regulation. Others are weighing killing two forthcoming rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, headed by Democrat Richard Cordray, an Obama holdover. | 0fake |
Cleveland police say no shots fired on vehicle near Cleveland convention | CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Police in Cleveland said that no gunshots had been fired on a transport vehicle near the site of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday following a Reuters report of gunshots. “There were no shots fired on any of our police transport vehicles right now near the Quicken Loans Arena,” officials said in a statement released by the Joint Information Center overseeing security at the four-day event. “We called all transport vehicles. They reported all clear.” Earlier, a Reuters reporter standing near a police officer heard radio traffic stating that shots had been fired. Asked about the radio traffic, officers on the street said shots had been fired at a police transport about half a mile (0.8 km) from the arena. | 0fake |
Scotland Paper TV Listings Describe Trump Inauguration As Return of ’The Twilight Zone’ - Breitbart | Scotland’s The Herald TV reviewer Damien Love described Donald Trump’s inauguration as a return of the classic horror anthology series The Twilight Zone in a rundown of the week’s TV listings in the paper. [“After a long absence, The Twilight Zone returns with one of the most ambitious, expensive and controversial productions in broadcast history,” Love wrote in his review titled, “President Trump: The Inauguration. ” The classic series, from renowned screenwriter Rod Serling, aired on CBS from and featured science fiction stories that often ended with a bizarre twist. “ writers have dabbled often with alternative history stories — among the most common is the ‘What If The Nazis Had Won The Second World War’ setting — but this huge interactive virtual reality project, which will unfold on TV, in the press, and on Twitter over the next four years, sets out to build an ongoing alternative present,” Love wrote. The satirical review has since gone viral on social media and is being shared and celebrated by noted celebrities like Star Trek star George Takei. “The Sunday Herald TV Section wins today,” Takei wrote on Twitter. The Sunday Herald TV Section wins today. pic. twitter. — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 15, 2017, Trump is set to become the 45th president of the United States on Friday, January 20. Country music star Toby Keith is slated to perform at Trump’s inauguration along with rock band 3 Doors Down and country singer Lee Greenwood. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 0fake |
Adidas FLAWLESSLY Trolls Anti-Gay Bigots Who Slammed Their Valentine’s Day Instagram (IMAGES) | With marriage equality nationwide, and with more people now than ever supporting the love between two human beings regardless of gender, Adidas celebrated that love on Valentine s Day with the following Instagram pic with the caption, The love you take is equal to the love you make. The love you take is equal to the love you make.A photo posted by adidas (@adidas) on Feb 13, 2016 at 11:30pm PSTPretty adorable, right? Who could hate that pic, right? Well, leave it to the internet to show the dark underbelly of society that can t wrap their heads around the idea of two people of the same gender in love.As Buzzfeed reports, several folks were none too pleased with Adidas having the audacity to show this image of two women in love presumably kissing, and many decided to write nasty comments.instagram.comFirst of all, whoever this leepapi is, they are not only a bigot, but clearly a moron. The image is of two women. Geez.However, I digress. Adidas wasn t about to let this bigotry go unchecked and smacked down these bigots were they stand, and in the most magnificently glorious way, well, ever.Check it out:instagram.comCommenting directly to the bigots, Adidas responds to the one jerk by simply waving goodbye with a kiss, and the second by explaining that Valentine s Day is for everyone who is in love, not just heterosexuals.These responses were an absolute thing of beauty and quite honestly, I may go out and buy some Adidas active-wear just because of it. Well done.Featured image from Instagram | 1real |
Bristol Palin’s Absurd Blog Post About Gun Safety Will Make You Weep For Her Children (VIDEO) | Bristol Palin has shown yet again not only how incredibly dense she is, but just how her children could suffer from her ineptitude as a parent and reasonable human being. Her latest Patheos blog post talks about just how lucky her son is to have grown up around guns because of an asinine gun control experiment out of Texas specifically aimed at gun sales to families. It s actually quite sickening.In the video, children are left into a room full of toys, among which is hidden an unloaded handgun. Within 15 seconds a child finds the gun and begins treating it like any of the other toys in the room. Parents stand horrified as their children, cast into an unsupervised play environment, take the gun and point it at each other. In the end, a police officer helping conduct this bogus experiment points out that the children playing with the gun come from a home with no guns, where the two children who wouldn t touch the gun come from homes where guns are available and talked about.That s what Bristol Palin decides to jump on. Finally, someone is calling her a good parent, which is, of course, ludicrous, but she seems to be comfortable with it. She wrote: Only the children whose homes had exposed them to guns knew not to touch the dangerous toy. As other children ran around pointing it at each other, two stood back because their parents understood the importance of teaching and appropriate exposure.Parents assume their child will automatically know what is and is not dangerous. The danger is not guns themselves, but a lack of education.So thankful Tripp is around guns and knows how to act around them. The danger is not the gun itself but a lack of education? What a crock of doody. This is America, Bristol. The bulk of guns owned by civilians are because of a lack of education. People believe guns make them safer, that they can thwart crimes and that they are somehow more patriotic for having one. The reality is far simpler: If there were fewer guns, fewer people would get shot.The entire scenario is designed to portray people who don t own guns as bad parents, because their children have no experience with guns. The two kinds of parents portrayed get the exact result you may expect, but Palin, as dense as she is, takes the lesson to the stupid place, arguing that only children who have been exposed to guns have a chance of growing up safe in America.The two types of parents not included that would round out this experiment would be the idiots who think kids don t need to learn about gun safety as long as you leave the safety on and parents who refuse to have guns in their home and add the benefit of educating their children why they are so dangerous. Those parents aren t needed to prove to someone as ill-prepared for parenthood as Bristol Palin that there may be more to this experiment. The notion that raising your children around guns makes them safer would be much more believable if we didn t have to read about yet another toddler killing his sister or a little guy pulling a gun from the glove compartment and shooting Grandpa. If there were no two-year-olds pulling pistols from their mothers purse and shooting them in Walmart it may be easier to swallow.What may be a better gauge of how safe non-gun homes are as opposed to homes with guns would be to count the accidental firearm deaths from each. I can guarantee you that my children will never grab a loaded weapon from anywhere in my house and pull the trigger. I can also guarantee that they have seen and been taught exactly how dangerous guns are and wouldn t touch one for any reason in somebody else s home, either.It s all well and good to use these parents who probably haven t considered that their kids may run into guns at their friends houses as bad examples, but in the end, they go home to a house with no guns; to playrooms where no guns will be hidden. Those responsible children? They may not have touched the gun but they are the only ones with true access. To think that is in any way good parenting is mind boggling.Here s the full seven-minute experiment:KWWL Eastern Iowa Breaking News, Weather, ClosingsFeatured image from Gage Skidmore | 1real |
The FBI Is the Regime’s Secret Police | By Andrew P. Napolitano October 27, 2016
When FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5 that the Department of Justice would not seek the indictment of Hillary Clinton for failure to safeguard state secrets related to her email use while she was secretary of state, he both jumped the gun and set in motion a series of events that surely he did not intend. Was his hand forced by the behavior of FBI agents who wouldn’t take no for an answer? Did he let the FBI become a political tool?
Here is the back story.
The FBI began investigating the Clinton email scandal in the spring of 2015, when The New York Times revealed Clinton’s use of a private email address for her official governmental work and the fact that she did not preserve the emails on State Department servers, contrary to federal law. After an initial collection of evidence and a round of interviews, agents and senior managers gathered in the summer of 2015 to discuss how to proceed. It was obvious to all that a prima-facie case could be made for espionage, theft of government property and obstruction of justice charges. The consensus was to proceed with a formal criminal investigation.
Six months later, the senior FBI agent in charge of that investigation resigned from the case and retired from the FBI because he felt the case was going “sideways”; that’s law enforcement jargon for “nowhere by design.” John Giacalone had been the chief of the New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., field offices of the FBI and, at the time of his “sideways” comment, was the chief of the FBI National Security Branch.
The reason for the “sideways” comment must have been Giacalone’s realization that DOJ and FBI senior management had decided that the investigation would not work in tandem with a federal grand jury. That is nearly fatal to any government criminal case. In criminal cases, the FBI and the DOJ cannot issue subpoenas for testimony or for tangible things; only grand juries can.
Giacalone knew that without a grand jury, the FBI would be toothless, as it would have no subpoena power. He also knew that without a grand jury, the FBI would have a hard time persuading any federal judge to issue search warrants. A judge would perceive the need for search warrants to be not acute in such a case because to a judge, the absence of a grand jury can only mean a case is “sideways” and not a serious investigation.
As the investigation dragged on in secret and Donald Trump simultaneously began to rise in the Republican presidential primaries, it became more apparent to Giacalone’s successors that the goal of the FBI was to exonerate Clinton, not determine whether there was enough evidence to indict her. In late spring of this year, agents began interviewing the Clinton inner circle.
When Clinton herself was interviewed on July 2 — for only four hours, during which the interviewers seemed to some in the bureau to lack aggression, passion and determination — some FBI agents privately came to the same conclusion as their former boss: The case was going sideways.
A few determined agents were frustrated by Clinton’s professed lack of memory during her interview and her oblique reference to a recent head injury she had suffered as the probable cause of that. They sought to obtain her medical records to verify the gravity of her injury and to determine whether she had been truthful with them. They prepared the paperwork to obtain the records, only to have their request denied by Director Comey himself on July 4.
Then some agents did the unthinkable; they reached out to colleagues in the intelligence community and asked them to obtain Clinton’s medical records so they could show them to Comey. We know that the National Security Agency can access anything that is stored digitally, including medical records. These communications took place late on July 4.
When Comey learned of these efforts, he headed them off the next morning with his now infamous news conference, in which he announced that Clinton would not be indicted because the FBI had determined that her behavior, though extremely careless, was not reckless, which is the legal standard in espionage cases. He then proceeded to recount the evidence against her. He did this, no doubt, to head off the agents who had sought the Clinton medical records, whom he suspected would leak evidence against her.
Three months later — and just weeks before Clinton will probably be elected president — we have learned that President Barack Obama regularly communicated with Clinton via her personal email servers about matters that the White House considered classified. That means that he lied when he told CBS News that he learned of the Clinton servers when the rest of us did.
We also learned this week that Andrew McCabe, Giacalone’s successor as head of the FBI Washington field office and presently the No. 3 person in the FBI, is married to a woman to whom the Clinton money machine in Virginia funneled about $675,000 in lawful campaign funds for a failed 2015 run for the Virginia Senate. Comey apparently saw no conflict or appearance of impropriety in having the person in charge of the Clinton investigation in such an ethically challenged space.
Why did this case go sideways?
Did President Obama fear being a defense witness at Hillary Clinton’s criminal trial? Did he so fear being succeeded in office by Donald Trump that he ordered the FBI to exonerate Clinton, the rule of law be damned? Did the FBI lose its reputation for fidelity to law, bravery under stress and integrity at all times?
This is not your grandfather’s FBI — or your father’s. It is the Obama FBI.
Reprinted with the author’s permission. The Best of Andrew P. Napolitano Tags: Andrew P. Napolitano [ send him mail ], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written nine books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty . To find out more about Judge Napolitano and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit creators.com. Copyright © 2016 Andrew P. Napolitano | 1real |
UNREAL! SHEILA JACKSON LEE DEMANDS THAT TRUMP RESIGN: Goes At It With Neil Cavuto: “You’ve come to the conclusion he’s guilty as sin” [Video] | Neil Cavuto faced off with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee over her call for President Trump to resign after his tweets attacking Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough: Enough is ENOUGH! @realDonaldTrump you need to resign! This woman is just hateful! She claims to know Trump is unhappy GMAFB!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKPPzMPRrNYThis woman is a perfect example of the SWAMP in DC. She needs to go! She s mooched off of the American people for way too long and is a hateful racist!She says in the video above that she s gone through impeachments before, but said, We can t wait that long. It is time for you to resign. Enough is enough. I love America. I love these people. And we need a Commander-in-Chief. Cavuto confronted her about this and brought up the coarse language from presidents past. She argued that he is incompatible with the office, and in addition to issues like Russia and James Comey, his continuous assault on women only adds to it.She called Trump ill-suited for the office, and when Cavuto pressed her further by saying let the American people decide, the congresswoman responded by pointing to the President s low poll numbers.Jackson said she s going by his behavior in decrying his unfitness for office and Cavuto shot back by saying she just doesn t like him.They kept going back and forth, including on the question of the 25th amendment, and Cavuto asked her if she should be waiting for more evidence of something actionable.Jackson Lee said impeachment is a separate matter, telling Cavuto, I hope he does the right thing and resigns. And yes, she is completely standing by this: I will not back down. The President has lost the trust of the American people and needs to resign. WWE KNOW THIS WOMAN HAS A LONG HISTORY OF BULLYING PEOPLE. PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW OF AN EXCHANGE WITH MICK MULVANEY HE GETS INTO IT WITH HER:Mick Mulvaney is one smart cookie. He s doing a fantastic job cutting where cuts need to be made. Congress will complain about ANY cut to their voter base s favorite item. Listen to the grandstanding from Jackson-Lee on cuts to medicaid: They are begging for their medicaid The Grandstanding is so sickening!It went downhill from there. Jackson-Lee wanted to try and make Mulvaney out to be an uncaring guy. She s a total bully!HE S ONE SMART COOKE! MULVANEY JUST GAVE DETAILS OF THE BUDGET CUTS IN A FANTASTIC PRESS CONFERENCE. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE ENTIRE VIDEO BELOW: Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney outlines the structure, intents and purposes of the Trump administration Fiscal Year 2018 Budget The Taxpayers Budget The best part of this great news conference is when a reporter asks about cuts to climate science programs : At the 17:00 mark Mick Mulvaney rips into the reporter and it s just awesome!We recommend the entire video because you ll see Trump hired one smart cookie! Mick Mulvaney knows the budget and handles the press beautifully! | 1real |
Louisiana, U.S. Presidential Race, Zika: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing - The New York Times | (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. “I know how resilient the people of Louisiana are,” President Obama told survivors of last week’s vast flooding, “and I know you will rebuild again. ” He was welcomed by the governor and toured damaged areas. But he drew criticism from some Republicans and local residents for not going to the area sooner. _____ 2. Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times and otherwise brutally tortured after being mistaken for a Qaeda operative involved in the attacks, argued for his release from Guantánamo Bay. He said he had no intent to harm the U. S. or any other country. Video of the hearing streamed to the Pentagon offered reporters and human rights advocates their first glimpse of him, appearing calm, since he was captured 14 years ago. A review board will recommend continued detention or transfer. _____ 3. Researchers published detailed images of the brains of babies born to mothers, urging doctors around the world to study them and know what to look for. The scans show not just microcephaly, but also damage to the parts of the brain that govern movement, balance, speech, thinking and emotion. That suggests that affected babies born with sized heads may still prove to have serious developmental problems. _____ 4. Donald Trump held a rally in Austin, Tex. Regardless of his shakier polling these days, rising partisanship and the parties’ firmer ideological grip means fewer voters cross party lines, making landslides a thing of the past. Meanwhile, we can help you understand how Facebook categorizes your politics. And if you’d like to help decipher how political campaigns are targeting voters, send us the political ads you see on Facebook. _____ 5. Planning a vacation? searches on Instagram can compile a graphic guidebook. The results “give a feel for a place that you can use to decide if a place feels fun and seems safe — whatever that means to you,” our writer says. _____ 6. A sharp rise in the price of the EpiPen has outraged people dealing with serious allergies. The device, which injects epinephrine to stop airways from closing in a severe allergy attack, has gone from 2007’s wholesale price of less than $100 for a set to more than $600. The maker, Mylan, is facing questions and pressure from Congress. _____ 7. A Native American protest against an oil pipeline in North Dakota has swelled by hundreds of people ahead of a federal court hearing on Wednesday. The planned Dakota Access pipeline runs mostly on private land, but occasionally enters federal jurisdiction, and a Sioux tribe has sued to halt construction. Above, Lakota riders demonstrated this month. _____ 8. An American soldier was reported killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, days after the arrival of a contingent of more than 100 U. S. soldiers. The deployment is aimed at helping plan for the defense of a strategically important city, Lashkar Gah, from a fierce Taliban assault. The insurgents’ strength forced President Obama this year to drop his plans to draw down troops. _____ 9. Capital punishment is in regular use in only 16 of the country’s more than 3, 000 counties, all in the South and West. One of our stories today examines a murder in one of these locales, Jacksonville, Fla. and how the area’s history of racism plays into a case that has divided the victim’s family between those who want the killer executed and those who don’t. _____ 10. Finally, even we have to have the occasional cat story. When a baby squirrel monkey was rejected by its mother at a Russian zoo, the director tried a surrogate — her own elderly cat. It’s been three weeks, she says, and Rosinka seems to have adapted to having a monkey on her back. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Hillary Clinton Shuts Down GOP Lawmaker Rudely Heckling Her At Town Hall Event (VIDEO) | A Republican lawmaker in New Hampshire showed up to one of Hillary Clinton s town hall events in the state on Sunday and apparently thought it would be smart to heckle Mrs. Clinton. Bad idea. Not only did it not work out as planned, but the former Secretary of State called out the state representative in front of everyone. You are very rude, and I m not ever going to call on you. Thank you. The comment earned Mrs. Clinton an enormous round of applause, as the heckler just stood there continuing to point her finger at Hillary while waving her hands like a crazy person. It s these kinds of tactics that don t go over so well. Perhaps there s a better way to get your message across?So, what exactly was Katherine Prudhomme O Brien, the GOP state representative from Rockingham, trying to say? She followed up with a reporter after the event and was mad that Hillary didn t want to talk about Bill Clinton s past marital infidelities from decades ago. Really? That s what was so important? I asked her how in the world she can say that Juanita Broderick and Kathleen Wiley are lying when she has no idea who Juanita Broderick is. She told me this summer she doesn t know who she is and doesn t want to know who she is. How can she access that they are lying, which she told someone last month? Expect for more below-the-belt tactics like these now that Bill Clinton is set to make his first appearance on the campaign trail starting on Monday. Republicans are looking for any and every chance to use Bill s past indiscretions against Hillary. It s the kind of dirty campaign tactics that people claim cause them to hate politics, yet somehow they still get the most attention.With that said, Bernie Sanders, unlike Republicans, doesn t intend on bringing up Bill Clinton s sexual past anytime soon: No, I think we ve got more important things to worry about in this country than Bill Clinton s sex life. Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
Colombian president confirms bilateral ceasefire with ELN rebels | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed on Monday that the government has agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN rebel group that will last 102 days. The priority is to protect citizens, so during this period, kidnappings, attacks on oil pipelines and other hostilities against the civilian population will cease, Santos said in a televised speech. | 0fake |
U.S. lawmakers seek compromise on Zika virus funding | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers sought on Wednesday to break a logjam over $1.1 billion in funding to combat the Zika virus, with the Senate possibly considering legislation as soon as next week, even as one congressman toted a jar full of mosquitoes to the House floor to condemn congressional inaction. “Can you imagine the fears and anxieties if the mosquitoes were not in this jar?” Florida Republican David Jolly told his colleagues as he brandished the container holding about 100 of the insects in the House of Representatives chamber. “Members of Congress would run down the hall to the physician’s office to be tested,” added Jolly, whose state is the first in the nation with local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus that has spread through the Americas. The potential Senate Zika measure could advance as part of a broader legislative effort to temporarily keep federal agencies operating in the 2017 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Republicans and Democrats huddled separately in closed meetings in both the Senate and House to see if they could reach a compromise during a 19-day work session this month, before lawmakers break for a recess in the weeks before the Nov. 8 U.S. election. Lawmakers returned to work this week after a seven-week summer recess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters he was in talks with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. “We’re looking for a way forward. And I’m hopeful and optimistic that we’ll be able to do that,” McConnell, a Republican, said of both a temporary agency funding bill and Zika money. In February, President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funds to deal with the Zika virus, which can cause severe birth defects when pregnant women become infected. Since then, both parties have backed $1.1 billion as the funding figure. But fights over side issues related to abortion and Obama’s signature healthcare law have bitterly divided the two parties. One of the biggest controversies involves Democrats’ opposition to language, backed by Republicans, that they say would prevent Zika funds for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, mainly in Puerto Rico. The Miami Herald on Tuesday quoted Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, who chairs a Senate panel overseeing healthcare funding, suggesting the Planned Parenthood language might have to be dropped in order to reach a deal. Aides to both senators declined to confirm or deny the accuracy of the quotes. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, asked by Reuters whether she thought Planned Parenthood funding restrictions should be eliminated from Zika legislation, said: “That would be my preference.” Still, some Republicans were resisting a deal that would abandon the Planned Parenthood language in the Zika bill. | 0fake |
Hell Comes to Frogtown: Alt Right and Triumph of Transhumanism | Deep inside the archetypal psyche of Pepe the Frog Branko Mali 21st Century WireWhile Richard Spencer s half-joke of hailing Donald Trump with Roman salute rose a lot of dust, some remarks in his NPI speech point into rather sinister direction. A posthuman one. transcript with references and additional a/v material:Undoubtedly, there was a sigh of relief throughout the world when Hillary Clinton lost Presidential elections to Donald Trump. If for nothing else, then for the sake of quiet joy of watching adolescent commissars melt in tears, crying foul over racism, homophobia, xenophobia and whateverphobia; it was a joy, and a relief, because it showed monolithic control system of moral nominalism, dubbed political correctness to be a paper tiger.However, the party is over and the dialectics are back with the vengeance .As SJWs are, hopefully, moving out from the spotlight of post-historical stage, the new contender asserts his right to fashion the reality of our day and age into his own image.If we are to judge the day by the first gleam of dawn, this image will be just as ugly and just as unreal as hermaphrodite ideal of politically correct shitlib .In the words of more or less universally acclaimed leader of the alternative right, or Alt Right movement, Richard Spencer, in the future we are to deal with the leadership of children of the sun .This is an interesting, and to my mind quite worrisome, statement of intent a manifestation of will, as Spencer would doubtless rectify me pointing out in many directions while seemingly focusing on the eternal and quite unidirectional circular movement of the pagan deity, revered by all self-respecting bermenschen from Nietzsche to postmodern occultists.However, there s a deeper astro-theological metaphor at work here. The pure eye that can gaze upon overabundance of joy without envy (Nietzsche) in it s virtual, postmodern, installment is not to be strictly represented by a Swastika as Spencer apparently assumes, but by other, only seemingly ancient, symbol taken in fact from the world of tabletop and PC gaming and turned into ideological brand by Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin (or his minions): an individual widely promoted by core members of alt right movement.The symbol in question is an eight pointed star signifying the movement, not of sun, but of presumably primordial origin of everything: Chaos.In the lines to follow, we ll provide some preliminary analysis of the emerging situation: the channeling of chaos principle and adjacent chaos logic through loosely knit alt right movement, taking as a starting point some statements from Spencer s speech held at NPI Conference in Washington D.C. on November 21st.Triumph of the will, or hipster Babylon working?In introduction to his triumphal encomium to the ideological victory of alt right, embodied in the election of Donald Trump, Spencer makes one interesting remark: But even though we always took Trump seriously, there was still a moment of unreality or perhaps too painfully intense reality when the state of Pennsylvania was called for Donald Trump the moment when we knew Kek had smiled upon us, that meme magic was real. And though these terms are used half-jokingly, they represent something truly important the victory of will. We willed Donald Trump into office, made this dream into reality. We ll start our explanation with lesser weirdness. Meme is an expression denoting inexistent existent , coined apparently by Richard Dawkins to explain how human thoughts fit in his evolutionary theology: memes are thoughts expressed in image and/or phrase which, by circulation in public, acquire the life and subsistence of their own and are able to infect the consciousness with their messages, like viruses. A Meme is inexistent because there s no such thing as thoughts having a biologically based self-subsistence and ability to procreate like viruses. Images and/or phrases are not living beings save by bad analogy that omits to tell us on what exactly it is based: what is that one principle making memes and viruses congenial. Yet they, quite paradoxically, exist because the analogy apparently works. However no one seems to pose the question, why it works.Well, it works because it is magical, in a manner of speaking.Chaos MagickHere we have an example of magical thinking in the postmodern in fact, post-humanist vein, resting on the assumption that what has not evolved in nature can and should be created in analogy to imagined process of evolution. If a artificial construct is in line with a principle of evolution it is real or, to be more precise, it is in accordance with imaginary nature of this principle it is imagined into existence.Therefore meme magick works only insofar it relies upon artificial, preferably technological medium for sustenance and on assumption that its recipients identify themselves with their artificial, preferably online identities that can indeed be imbibed with memes as they are in themselves artificial and arbitrary constructs.The goal of practitioner of such magic a far cry from what was traditionally considered to be magic is to change the world according to his will. This is, more or less, what is known from the Seventies of the last century as chaos magick, a postmodern imitation of ancient practice of acting in sub-human and sub-natural domain of the world, in the past mostly confined to people born with the dubious talent to practice it. The peculiarity of chaos magick is, on the one hand, that it is entirely syncretic, i.e. that it uses everything that its practitioner can imbibe with intended, subjective, meaning, and that it relies on virtual, i.e. artificial world of mass culture, now embodied above all in Internet.The idea behind it all is that nothing is true and everything is possible.There are many interesting implications to this.The first is that everything is interrelated, i.e. that everything is connected with everything else. So any which way you take, you ll get where you want to get if you will it hard enough. The second is that there s no hierarchy of higher and lower there s only an infinite surface dissolving into ever more complex elements, dissolving in turn into nothingness, if concentrated upon. As there s nothing higher, there s nothing to be revered and everything can and indeed: should be an object of ironical laughter. And, most importantly, this is the world of dreams, ruled by what is usually called dream logic but in actual fact: chaos logic or un-logic.In this sense, Richard Spencer quite accurately proclaimed Trump s victory an accomplishment of meme or chaos magick.In theory, Trump is willed into office by Internet memes binding the will of alt right adherents and turning their dream into reality virtual reality, one may add, yet reality nonetheless. The fact that Trump was elected for a plethora of motives from the appeal of his politics, to public takedown of Hillary Clinton by Wikileaks is immaterial, because in the world of chaos every subjective reality tunnel , or interpretation of the world, is as real as any other.In this sense we can observe the new God Emperor of USA as a magical creation of Internet, by the Internet and for the Internet today still the Internet of interconnected computer nodes, but soon probably the Internet of Things.If one is to push Spencer s remark to it s logical extreme, we can assert that illustrious Donald is the world s first president of posthuman race; an embodiment of a ultra progressive dream invoked to reality by professed ultra anti-progressive group.So that was lesser weirdness. Let us proceed now to high weirdness.Hail Kek!We owe the reader an answer to a question: who the hell is Kek?Well, the reason why Spencer mentions him is again a magickal half-joke : Kek is interpreted to be an ancient Egyptian deity by a number of Internet observers and identified with alt right memetic avatar Pepe the Frog. While I habitually suspend judgment on all things Egyptian, because ancient Egyptian culture is a slippery ground even for experts, I consider this interpretation, upon closer inspection, to be quite valid in the virtual light of chaos logic.Namely, Pepe, the cartoon character, conceived in 2005. by cartoonist Matt Furie, emerged as a meme from the depths of Internet forums, more precisely: 4chan sub-forum/pol/, devoted to political discussions with no holds barred, which was, in view of some observers, a breeding ground for many alt right aficionados; a place of absolute freedom, therefore: absolute chaos.The expression Kek was also appropriated from the forums and stems from the in-joke among the players of World of Warcraft, replacing the standard Internet abbreviation LOL ( laughing out loud ). Someone eventually noticed that Kek is in fact the name of frog-headed Egyptian deity, signifying Chaos and darkness, and Pepe was then rebranded as Kek the deity an ironic one, no doubt, half joking one, as surprisingly many alt-righters like to put it, but deity nonetheless.It is important to point out that in view of the most esoteric Kekists , that is: (half grinning) faithful of Kek/Pepe, the association was originally entirely haphazard and accidental, yet it developed into an ever growing system of synchronicities causally unrelated meaningful relations among events. So it came to pass that Kek sounds very similar to cuck (originally: cuckservative), a term denoting old fashioned conservative who was still not red pilled (another meme taken from pop culture, shared by both alt right and conspiracy theorists) by alt right or, should we assume: Kek himself; furthermore, Hillary Clinton addressed Pepe as nothing less than public enemy, identifying presumably the whole alt right movement with cartoon character. Then it happened that after this act Hillary fainted in front of the cameras, and that was immediately interpreted as an action of Kek. A good run-down of Kek/Pepe/Trump identification.However, it all began with people noticing the numerical synchronicities in the random series of numbers in posts on /pol/ sub-forum: One last thing you need to understand about imageboard culture: dubs.Every post on 4chan and similar venues comes with an 8-digit numerical stamp. This number represents that post s entry position in the entire posting lineage of the imageboard.With the amount of traffic these sites get, the last couple digits of this number are essentially a random roll. When a poster gets repeated digits, its called dubs , trips , quads , and so on.Since a poster can t know their post number until after they ve submitted the post, its common for people to bet the contents of their message on the occurrence of repeating digits ( ) When that endeavor proves a successful, a GET has been made and the stroke of luck is celebrated.Out of this practice, a strange phenomenon began to take place on /pol/: discussion threads associated with Trump displayed noticeably frequent GETs. It wasn t long before all of these seemingly random elements discussed so far became irreparably tied together within imageboard culture: and a god was born. (source)Synchronicities related to emergence of Kek the God and his merging with Trump in the bowels of Internet forums early on in the presidential campaign, are so numerous and, frankly, mind boggling that we cannot list them here, for the sake of brevity. For our purpose it is sufficient to point out that for many alt right aficionados, including core leadership, Kek is the God and Trump is his prophet, all declared with smug grin and ironical stance, yet with all the necessary power of conviction.Namely, chaos magick relies on laughter, or irreverence of its own principles because it is essentially un-principled. Fairly in accordance with its postmodern nature it seeks to deconstruct any kind of order to enable its practitioner to impose his own will and change the world as Spencer would put it: make his dreams a reality.I would go further and add: make all reality a dream; because, chaos magick and alt right are nothing more but novel forms in the development of virtual, i.e. posthuman, world. The idea of adherence and reattachment to tradition that the alt right movement professes is nothing more but simulacrum appealing to people tired of liberal nihilism in its essence, however, it is a complete opposite: a disintegration of all substantial traditional principles above all an idea of preexistent hierarchy of Being into nothingness of primordial Chaos.Posthuman traditionalismI already developed this insight regarding the subversive work of Alexander Dugin, who is probably the most consequent subverter of Tradition with recognizable public persona acting in our age, but now we can see how his affiliates in the USA and Europe are doing the same thing with less philosophical subtlety, but fueled by much greater raw power. Namely, alt right, if we are to judge by what its leadership advocates, is ideologically nothing more but project of building the simulated tradition something Richard Spencer likes to call political theology founded on New Age filtered Aryan myths, racial interpretation of Nietzsche and generally crossbred with do your own thing mentality, all done in the virtual ether of information technology. After all, if we are to agree with Spencer half jokingly of course that God Emperor was inaugurated by the act of Kek the God, then the victory of alt right traditionalists is in fact the victory of technological magic; the act of pseudo magus waving the same wand Ray Kurzweill and his ilk offer to progressive lunatics.In the end, therefore, we are talking about another victory of posthumanism, branded, spontaneously or otherwise, as traditionalism. The obsession of alt right adherents with identity in general and white identity in particular points to a fact that they are unable to realize the simple truth of Tradition they supposedly defend: they understand identity as something that can be created and not something that must be accepted. Observing the plethora of various, rather eccentric individuals in its vanguard, from macho gay postmodern Spartans to adherents to all kinds of exotic and to a large extent made up pagan religions one is at the lack to find a common denominator, save maybe for quite unchallenged neo-Darwinist stance, especially to be found among game bloggers as Chateau Heartiste. If someone thinks that he can reattach himself to pre-modern spiritual history of humankind actually the only one there is while at the same time musing about alpha and beta males , sexual market , signaling and counter-signaling , professing therefore his proud monkey ancestry and reducing human relations to mental GMO of memes, genes and biological analogies he is doing nothing else than unconsciously subverting the very thing he seemingly defends.The allure of alt right lies in its dialectical opposition to political correctness and rampart destruction of moral substance of the West, induced by process of globalization. Yet this is an eristic or, to use an excellent neologism invented by one correspondent of mine: discordian dialectic; the process of infinite division into ever multiplying opposites founded on the principle of Chaos. It is all done with the crooked half grin, a pinch of salt to every smug remark with irony of the man who knows he s a liar and a cheat. But smug humor goes just a short way. In the end it morphs into sarcasm and irreverence of what should in fact be revered and subverts the very principles it professes to defend, far more effectively than dead serious PC brigade or techno loonies of posthumanist movement could ever hope for.We ll end with the word of warning to Christian adherents of alt right. The words have a definite meanings and power. There s only one Chaos and there s only one bringer of light from Chaos as some Kek worshipers already defined the poor Frog s main job. And it s not the One to be defined as God from God, Light from Light , but God from Gutter, Light from Darkness . A real Darkness shining in virtual brightness. Hope you guess His name.So, without a pinch of irony, I declare: be careful who your hail .***Author Branko Mali is a Croatian author and owner of Kali Tribune, with the background in classical philosophy. He s focused on philosophy, media, culture and deep politics analysis.READ MORE PHILOSOPHY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Philosophy FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
Russian teenager handed jail sentence in Norway explosives case | OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian court sentenced a 17-year-old Russian citizen to nine months in jail on Monday for making a small explosive device and bringing it to the center of Oslo in April. Prosecutors had sought a two-year sentence for the teenager, saying he had frequented Islamist websites, become radicalised and possessed images of Islamic State members killing prisonners. The teenager, who denied any wrongdoing, said he had been planning to detonate the device in a forest near his home. The device was placed in central Oslo on a busy Saturday night in April, one day after a truck attack in Stockholm in neighboring Sweden killed five people. The Oslo police bomb squad said the device was about 30 cm (1 ft) across and appeared capable of causing only a small amount of damage.[L8N1HH0LT] Soon after the discovery of the device, Norwegian police raised the country s security threat level. The teenager has lived in Norway since 2010 and has previously applied for asylum. The status of that application was not immediately clear. In 2011, far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik set off a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and destroyed Norway s government headquarters, before going on a shooting rampage, killing 69 people at nearby Utoeya island. | 0fake |
Republicans Expand Control in a Deeply Divided Nation - The New York Times | SOMERS, Wis. — It is the stunning paradox of American politics. In a bitterly divided nation, where Tuesday’s vote once again showed a country almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, one party now dominates almost everything in American governance. With Donald J. Trump’s win, Republicans will soon control the White House, both chambers of Congress, the tilt of the Supreme Court, more state legislative chambers than any time in history, and more governor’s offices than they have held in nearly a century. Republican leaders say that shift — to a level of control that some historians said the Republicans have not seen since the 1920s — will finally end gridlock in Washington. They say it will allow the party to charge forward on pledges to change policies on health care, immigration and taxes, and expedite changes that have long been sought in the states. Democrats say the change has the potential to undo years of legislation meant to ensure a more equitable America, upend progress fighting climate change, leave millions stranded without health insurance and usher in harsh laws against immigrants. Experts said that no one thing handed the Republicans so much power, even in places like this that were once reliably blue. The current power balance reflects, among other things, the extraordinary dynamics of a race featuring a outsider against the first female major party nominee, the vagaries of turnout in a nation where roughly half of registered voters cast ballots, the systematic redrawing of political maps in ways that favored Republicans, and frustration among voters over lost jobs, low wages and the nation’s changing racial and ethnic mix. “That’s just the way it broke,” said Tim Storey, an elections expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Republicans thought they were playing defense, and Democrats thought that it was going to be a good year for them, but Republicans outpaced them and came out as strong as they went in, all across the board. ” At the state level, the outcome means 24 states will be under full Republican control in legislatures and governor’s offices, clearing the way for new policy. Only six states will now have legislatures and governor’s offices exclusively dominated by Democrats, Mr. Storey said. Matt Walter, the president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said the Republican sweep has been mounting for years, particularly in state legislatures, where Republicans have grown increasingly dominant since 2010. During President Obama’s time in office, Democratic state lawmakers lost more than 800 legislative seats. “The personalities this time were so big and the drama was so big and so rapidly changing and consumed so many people’s attention that it in some respects blinded them to this trend line that this has been bubbling up for many years,” Mr. Walter said. “It really is the manifestation of this change that we’ve been seeing bubbling up from the bottom for many cycles now. ” In theory, control in a divided nation might spur lawmakers to find bipartisan answers to bipartisan problems. But few people expect that. In Wisconsin, where Republicans took hold of state government years ago though the populace remained somewhat split politically, the political leaders have done the opposite — pressing forward with a conservative agenda that has included measures to reduce labor power, limit abortions and add restrictions on voting that disproportionately affect Democratic constituencies. On Tuesday, Wisconsinites chose a Republican for president, something they had not done since 1984, propelled by worries over the economy and a desire to shake up Washington. Mr. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by about 1 percentage point, or about 27, 000 votes. Some voters here said that they were encouraged by a flip to Republican control of Wisconsin’s Legislature and governor’s office six years ago, and favored Mr. Trump in the hopes that he would deliver more of the same to the nation. “Since 2011, we have made decisions one after another — some controversial, many, many bipartisan — to move Wisconsin forward,” Robin Vos, the speaker of the State Assembly, said on Wednesday. “And I think that’s the model that we want to use as we go to look at what Washington, D. C. should do. Stick to your principles. Remember the people who actually sent you to get things done. ” Wisconsin’s switch to Republican control was not without a battle. In 2011, thousands of demonstrators furiously protested efforts to limit labor union power, including sharply cutting collective bargaining rights for most workers. Gov. Scott Walker soon faced a recall election, which he won. Labor unions shrank significantly in the state, and the Republicans pressed on with other parts of their agenda, including voter ID requirements and redrawing political maps. On Tuesday night, the Wisconsin Legislature remained firmly in the hands of Republicans, including what leaders described as their largest majority in the Assembly since 1956. “The Republicans didn’t work with the Democrats at all,” said Chris Larson, a state senator, who was among a group of Democratic lawmakers who fled to Illinois for weeks in 2011 in an unsuccessful attempt to block passage of the cuts. “They came in and just did everything as fast as they could. They jammed through everything. And pretty quickly, they had everything they wanted. ” In more than a dozen interviews in Somers, a bedroom community on Lake Michigan dominated by farms, small businesses and a public university, many residents said they were pleasantly surprised to wake up to the news Wednesday morning that their state had flipped from blue to red. They said the deepening conservatism had been years in the making. They had grown discontented with Mr. Obama’s policies, particularly the Affordable Care Act, and were turned off by Mrs. Clinton, whom they saw as untrustworthy. At Tina’s Somers Inn on the village’s main commercial strip, one group of retirees sat at a table playing their regular game of euchre while Fox News was on a nearby television. “We’re still a mix of Democrats and Republicans here — I don’t think you could call us a red state,” said Dianne Hegewald, 71. “I have very close friends who are Democrats. But the Republican regime is just doing a better job right now. ” Karen Ashton, the owner of a gift shop in Somers, said she was a registered independent but was eager for Republicans to have full control of all branches of government. “Now they’ll really be able to get things done,” she said. Some of her friends and neighbors in town are farmers who have been hurt by Environmental Protection Agency regulations and high taxes, she said, sipping a kombucha tea. “They’re sick of the government,” she said. “They think that with Trump in there, he can fix all of that. ” rule can produce results, experts say, and it can also produce changes that will benefit the party in power. Control tends to breed more: Legislators have the ability to redraw political maps in the coming years and establish voting rules that benefit their party. Cooperation between state and federal leaders of a single party can speed along results, from infrastructure projects to federal grants. But there are risks, too. Charging too far too fast can cause blowback as quickly as in elections just two years from now. “There’s always a danger of overreach,” said KC Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College. He noted the Republican dominance in the 1920s, when, he said, a debate over cultural issues tended to overshadow mounting economic questions that eventually culminated in the Great Depression. “The contrast between attention paid to issues that ultimately proved unimportant and attention not paid to issues that became important later on is interesting. We know how the 1920s end,” he said. It is hard to measure control of so many offices with numeric precision, but he said that Democrats had probably last held a level of power similar to what the Republicans have now between 1937 and 1945. “The evidence is mixed on unified government,” said William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. “There is a fair bit of historical evidence that Congress enacts more laws during periods of unified government. But in this period of slim majorities and rampant obstructionism, past trends may not hold. ” Fred Risser, a Democratic Wisconsin state senator who is the state lawmaker in the nation, said the stakes of the Republicans’ dominance for the nation’s policy — for taxes, education policy, environmental regulation — were enormous. Yet Mr. Risser, 89, who first held political office in 1956, said the risks for the Republicans were also large. “They’ve got everything now, and so everything that happens they are responsible for and no one can blame the Democrats anymore. It’s always difficult to control everything. They have a lot to lose. ” Linda Truesdell, whose family has lived in the Somers area since the 1820s, said on Wednesday that she was disheartened by the Republican takeover. She had twice voted for Mr. Obama, who in 2012 beat Mitt Romney by 12 points in this county on Tuesday, Mr. Trump beat Mrs. Clinton here by less than one percentage point — 225 votes. “Trump was a television personality and that had a big influence on people,” she said, as she left the town post office and walked toward her pickup truck. “People here are thinking that he’s going to solve their problems. ” | 0fake |
Kentucky Republicans Propose Bill To Delay School Year To Accommodate Creationist Museum | Kentucky Republicans have decided to put the profits of a creationist museum ahead of the education of their state s children, and that just about says it all.At the very start of 2016 s legislative year, Kentucky conservatives introduced a bill, SB-50, that would keep schools closed until the end of August in order to allow the state s brand new Noah s Ark museum to eke out a few more weeks of the tourist season. Priorities!Writer Dan Arel has been following the situation, in all its mind-numbing stupidity, for the better part of a year. He writes:As I reported back in August of 2015, Kentucky Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and Sen. Chris Girdler, R-Somerset had proposed such a bill to help extend the vacation season to bring more attention to the forthcoming Ark Encounter. Grant County is set to become a major tourist destination due to the presence of the Ark, Thayer said. But there won t be many families from Kentucky visiting in August if we continue with the current calendar. And while other states have set their school schedule around economic issues, you d be hard-pressed to find a state do that to satisfy the bottom-line of a single man.Meet Ken Ham, the right-wing creationist famous for his creation museum and infamous for getting absolutely demolished in a debate with Bill Nye. He and his giant Ark have Kentucky s Republican-led legislature wrapped around his finger.Lately, Ham has been so busy hurling hatred at gay people that one might forget that he makes most of his money by running a religious-based creation museum and associated ministry in Kentucky. In the past few years, Ham has set his sights on expanding his museum to feature a life-sized mock up of Noah s Ark. After a ton of fundraising and a few charges of tax fraud Ham opened his Ark in November, 2015.To give you an idea of how obnoxious Ham can be, this is how he chose to announce his big Grand Opening ceremony set to begin this summer: We are so excited that the construction progress and schedule landed on this 7/7 date. Genesis 7:7 states that Noah and his family entered the Ark. So it s fitting we allow the public to enter the life-size Ark on 7/7. Ham s enablers in Kentucky want to extend the park s vacation season to September. They hope this will bring in more money, but what they don t mention is that almost none of it would be coming back to the state. Ham, for all of his religious-speak, is primarily a huckster. He continues to label his for-profit ministry a tax-exempt church, and therefore pays little to no taxes. Keeping kids out of school so their parents can buy tickets for Ham s park does nothing but make students in the state more ignorant, residents poorer, and Ham richer.Schools, obviously, are not happy, either. As Ham continues to count his dollars, teachers and principals are left scrambling for a way to salvage the potentially lost time. One principal was hopeful that the bill wouldn t pass, but conceded if it did, it would be a disaster. It may help tourism, however, I think it could potentially hurt many Kentucky children. Given the fundamentalism promoted by Ham s anti-intellectual museums, it s safe to say the principal is being too generous. This has all the makings of an educational disaster.Feature image via Christian Post screengrab | 1real |
Trump Officially Wins Michigan Amid Calls for a Recount - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump was officially declared the winner of the presidential election in Michigan on Monday amid calls for a recount there and in two other states. Mr. Trump, a Republican, defeated Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, by 10, 704 votes in the state, or less than a quarter of a percentage point, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers announced, nearly three weeks after the Nov. 8 election. The results, should they hold, bring his Electoral College vote total to 306, well beyond the 270 needed to win. Mrs. Clinton has 232. Michigan contributed 16 electoral votes to Mr. Trump’s total. News of his victory in Michigan came as Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, said she planned to call for a recount there after pursuing recounts in two other states. Wisconsin officials approved a timeline for a recount on Monday, and Ms. Stein is also suing for a recount in Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Trump won all three states by a combined total of about 100, 000 votes. | 0fake |
Fired Mexico prosecutor drops bid to fight dismissal | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s top prosecutor for electoral crimes on Friday said he would no longer fight his dismissal by the acting attorney general, ending a simmering dispute that had caused embarrassment to the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Mexico s acting attorney general last week fired Santiago Nieto on the grounds that he broke a code of conduct for officials. Nieto s firing came just days after he spoke publicly about a graft investigation linked to the campaign of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. His summary dismissal stirred up a major row in Congress that at one point threatened to impede the passage of legislation, but with the passing of a key budget bill late on Thursday, there were signs the dispute was receding. In a letter to the Senate and a news conference, Nieto said that he had become too polarizing a figure to keep working ahead of national elections next year. However, he insisted he had broken no law and that he had been unfairly dismissed. For all these reasons I have decided to withdraw my objection to (my dismissal), he said in the letter. Nieto was fired after an interview with newspaper Reforma in which he said Emilio Lozoya, the former boss of state oil firm Pemex, wrote to him to ask that he be declared innocent of accusations he funneled cash from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht into Pena Nieto s 2012 election campaign. Lozoya, who was a senior adviser to Pena Nieto in the campaign, denies the allegations about Odebrecht. The firm is at the heart of a bribery and kickback probe, known as Lava Jato or Car Wash, that has reverberated across Latin America. Pena Nieto has also denied involvement in any wrongdoing related to the 2012 campaign. | 0fake |
US election campaign reveals mass alienation from two-party system | BY PATRICK MARTIN 5 November 2016 A New York Times /CBS poll published Thursday documents the disgust of the American people with the 2016 election campaign and their alienation from the two major corporate-controlled parties. By a margin of 82 percent to 13 percent, better than six to one, those polled said the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have filled them with revulsion. According to the Times account, “With more than eight in ten voters saying the campaign has left them repulsed rather than excited, the rising toxicity threatens the ultimate victor. Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, and Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, are seen as dishonest and viewed unfavorably by a majority of voters.” Both campaigns insult the intelligence of the American people. Trump appeals to raw anger, denouncing his opponent as a criminal who should be put in jail. Clinton and the Democrats alternate between portraying Trump as a sexual predator and smearing him as a tool of Moscow. Neither offers any serious program for improving the living standards and social conditions of the working class, the vast majority of the American people. The election campaign is one more sign of the profound dysfunction of the US political system, in which two corporate-controlled parties, each defending the interests of the super-rich, enjoy a political monopoly. The Times /CBS poll is a statistical verification of what the Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site have long argued: the two-party system leaves working people disenfranchised. The recourse of both campaigns to personal smears and scandalmongering is a means of evading any discussion of the urgent issues that confront the electorate—above all, the worsening social crisis and the mounting danger of a third world war.
Notice the repeat pastings of the same photoshopped groups and individuals in this “rally” for Hillary. This campaign will go down in history as the apex of dishonesty in US politics, and that’s saying something. To cite two examples of developments ignored by both campaigns: Friday’s newspapers reported that suicide has overtaken automobile accidents as a cause of death of children aged 10 to 14. One could hardly imagine a more devastating commentary on the dismal prospects that America in 2016 offers the new generation. The election campaign is one more sign of the profound dysfunction of the US political system, in which two corporate-controlled parties, each defending the interests of the super-rich, enjoy a political monopoly . Another report, published in the British Guardian , noted that life expectancy in McDowell County, West Virginia, once the heart of US coal mining, has declined to that of Ethiopia. In 2008, the nearly all-white county voted for Barack Obama. In 2016, 91.5 percent of Republican primary voters cast ballots for Trump—a vote of indignation and despair. Each of the candidates, in different ways, seeks to direct social tensions within the United States along reactionary lines. Clinton is the candidate of the status quo, representing the alliance of Wall Street, the military-intelligence apparatus and the complacent and self-satisfied upper middle class, where identity politics holds sway. Her program, were she to state it honestly, is to outwardly direct the social crisis in the form of intensified US military violence, first in the Middle East, but ultimately against Russia and China, both of which possess nuclear arsenals. Trump represents an attempt to direct social tensions along extreme nationalist lines, appealing to racist and fascistic forces. While he claims, falsely, to have opposed US military interventions in the Middle East, he glorifies the US military and promises to unleash unlimited violence on any country that resists US demands. In the end, his pledge to “Make America Great Again” is little more than the English translation of Hitler’s slogan, “Deutschland Über Alles.” That these are the alternatives presented to voters on November 8 is a product of the protracted decay of the US political system. It is more than four decades since the sharp shift to the right began in both parties, in the aftermath of the mass social protests of the 1960s and early 1970s against the Vietnam War and for the extension of civil rights. The Democratic Party abandoned its former commitment to economic improvements for working people and began to restructure itself as the party of Wall Street and identity politics, appealing to newly privileged layers of blacks, women, gays, etc. The Democratic Leadership Council, under its chairman, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, became the vehicle of this transformation. In Hillary Clinton, this rightward movement has reached its culmination. The Democratic candidate has become the consensus choice of the political establishments in both parties. The Republican Party incorporated the former defenders of Jim Crow segregation and became the dominant party in the South, while maintaining its traditional ties to big business and the military. Ronald Reagan kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign with a rally in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers had been murdered 16 years before, and gave a ringing defense of the Jim Crow South’s slogan of “states’ rights.” Trump’s embrace by the KKK and the white nationalist “alt-right” is not an aberration, but the logical conclusion of a process that has paved the way for the emergence of an outright fascist party in America. As Leon Trotsky once wrote, the domination of reaction “signifies this, that the social contradictions are mechanically suppressed” (“Intellectual Ex-Radicals and World Reaction,” 1939). The principal mechanism for the suppression of social contradictions in America has been the trade unions. From the late 1970s on, and especially after the smashing of the PATCO air traffic controllers strike in 1981, the AFL-CIO unions have worked systematically to undermine and break strikes, assist the employers in wage cutting and plant closures, and subordinate the working class politically to the ever more right-wing policies of the two capitalist parties. There is a definite limit to this process, however. Today, the unions are as sclerotic and discredited as the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union on the eve of its collapse in 1989-1991. The first signs of a resurgence of the class struggle in America, in a series of contract rejection votes and strikes, have already demonstrated that workers will have to fight not only the corporations and the government, but the unions as well. As the class struggle intensifies, workers will have to develop new forms of organization that make possible a struggle not just at the level of the workplace, but on the plane of national and international politics. The Times /CBS poll confirms the overriding feature of the 2016 campaign: the growing gulf between the American population and the corporate-controlled two-party system. Working people are moving to the left, but the two major parties continue to lurch to the right. In the current election cycle, the political radicalization in the working class was expressed most openly in the mass support for the Democratic primary campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Thirteen million people, including the vast majority of young people who took part in the primaries, voted for a candidate claiming to be a socialist and opponent of the billionaires, an unprecedented political development in America. In the end, Sanders capitulated, endorsed Clinton, and demonstrated that his claim to oppose corporate domination of the political system was a fraud. Working people must draw the necessary conclusions. It is impossible to fight the capitalist class through the two-party system that it controls. The working class must build its own political party to defend its own class interests. This requires a political break, not only with the Democratic Party, but with all those organizations and political tendencies that defend, apologize for and cover up for the Democratic Party. —Patrick Martin PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR The author is an editorial writer with wsws.org, organ of theThe Socialist Equality Party (SEP) a Trotkyist formation. He naturally recommends that people consider his party’s candidate as the solution to the crisis. The Greanville Post, an independent left publication, does not endorse any faction. Note to Commenters Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com
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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda? =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 1real |
U.N. seeks urgent medical evacuation of 500 from Syria's eastern Ghouta | GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on world powers on Thursday to help arrange the medical evacuation of 500 people, including 167 children, from eastern Ghouta, saying the besieged Damascus suburb has now become a humanitarian emergency . Nine people died in recent weeks waiting for permission from the Syrian government for the sick and wounded to be evacuated from the rebel-held area to hospitals less than an hour drive from the capital, said Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian adviser on Syria. Russia and Iran, as well as the United States and France, pledged to help during the weekly humanitarian meeting, he said. It would be incredible if they cannot deliver a simple evacuation of mainly women and children, a 40-minute drive to Damascus city, Egeland told a news conference in Geneva. We are convinced that we can do the evacuation if we get a green light from the government. We can then negotiate calm with both sides. Dozens of mortar bombs landed on Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus, on Wednesday, a war monitor and a witness said, despite a 48-hour truce proposed by Russia to coincide with the start of peace talks in Geneva. Eastern Ghouta, next door to Damascus, is the eye of the hurricane, it is the epicentre of this conflict. At the moment there are 400,000 people there, Egeland said. In the past two months, U.N. convoys have delivered supplies to only 68,000 of the 400,000 trapped civilians, he said. Our not being able to reach eastern Ghouta for many months in most of areas has now led to an undoubtedly catastrophic situation, Egeland said. Acute malnutrition rates among children there is nearly 12 percent, above the 10 percent emergency threshold, and a five- or six-fold increase since January, he added. In general I would say that no, there is no calm in this de-escalation zone, there is only escalation in this de-escalation zone, Egeland said. That has ended in eastern Ghouta except for (a pause of) two days only, there has been massive loss of civilian life, hundreds and hundreds have been wounded. We need sustained calm to be able to feed 400,000 people who now beyond doubt are in a humanitarian emergency , he said. Civilians in Damascus have also been killed or wounded by mortars coming from eastern Ghouta, he added. In Hassakeh, in northeastern Syria, U.N. aid workers found a desperate situation, Egeland said. They told about children walking around barefoot, recently displaced children, barefoot in the snow and the cold. He hoped that the U.N. Security Council would agree on a resolution allowing cross-border aid to continue to enter Syria, supplying 2.7 million people in rebel-held areas. It is my clear understanding from all members of the Security Council that none wants a break of the pipeline. | 0fake |
KID ROCK GOES OFF On Colin Kaepernick, Obamacare and Deadbeat Dads…Asks “Almighty Jesus” To “Give us strength to fight”…”Because like it or not, Hillary LOST and your President Is Donald Mother-F***king Trump!” During MI Concert | Kid Rock hasn t officially announced his run for US Senate, but every day he comes increasingly closer. During a concert in Grand Rapids, MI, Kid Rock took time to get very political, as he addressed some serious issues that he is clearly passionate about.Kid Rock started out by addressing his Grand Rapids, MI audience: What s going on in the world today? It seems the government wants to give everyone health insurance but wants us all to pay. And to be very frank, I don t really don t have a problem with that, because God has blessed me, and made my pockets fat. But redistribution of wealth seems more like their plan. And I don t believe that you should say sacrifice, do things by the book and then take care of some deadbeat, milking the system, lazy ass motherf -. Rock went on to address single moms who keep having kids to get more welfare. His most passionate statement was against deadbeat dads who refuse to be a man and raise their children. Rock has a little experience in that area, as he raised his black son as a single father. His son attended a private rural Catholic school and graduated from college. Robert James Ritchie, Jr. is married, and in 2015, he and his wife gave Rock his first grandchild, Skye Noelle.Lastly, Robert Ritchie aka Kid Rock took on the left who have been attacking him for criticizing Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the national anthem. He put the left on notice that he won t be sitting back and allowing them to label him a racist or a Nazi. Here s the uncut (shortened) version: ***Language warning***Watch as Kid Rock is introduced as The next great Senator of the great state of Michigan. | 1real |
Syrian Observatory: Islamic State captures town from government | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday that Islamic State fighters had captured a town in Homs province from government forces, part of a wider counter-attack by the jihadists as they come under intense pressure in eastern Syria. There was no comment from the Syrian army on the report that the town of al-Qaryatayn had fallen. The town is located some 300 km (190 miles) from Deir al-Zor city, the current focus of the Syrian government s campaign against Islamic State. Syrian government forces and allied militia recovered Qaryatayn from Islamic State some six months ago. The Observatory said the jihadists had captured it in a surprise attack launched after their fighters had infiltrated the town. Islamic State has lost swathes of territory to the Russian-backed Syrian government and to U.S.-backed Syrian militias that are waging separate campaigns against the group s last major strongholds in Deir al-Zor province in eastern Syria. Islamic State fighters last week counter-attacked government forces and allied Iran-backed militias along the highway connecting Deir al-Zor city to Palmyra in central Syria, temporarily rendering the road impassable. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group is fighting in support of the Syrian government, said on Saturday that Islamic State counter-attacks were to be expected as the jihadists were besieged and incapable of recovering ground. The Syrian air force conducted intensive air strikes on Islamic State positions and fortifications in several locations, a Syrian military source said in a report circulated by state media on Sunday. It did not mention Qaryatayn. The source said dozens of Islamic State militants had been killed in the air strikes to the east of the town of al-Salamiya; to the east of the town of al-Sukhna, which is on a main road to Deir al-Zor; and in Deir al-Zor province itself. | 0fake |
US Presidential Debates Much More Corrupt Than You Might Think | Brasscheck TVNearly 30 years ago, two criminal enterprises known as the Democratic and Republican parties hijacked the presidential debates process. Previous to that, presidential debates were run by a non-partisan, non-political group.No more, now the two criminal parties get to shape the show to their liking.BOTTOM LINE: No hard questions and the parties get to pack the audience with their brainless operatives. No real people allowed.Watch the discussion on the Jimmy Dore Show here: | 1real |
Jeff Sessions: Oh, You Mean THAT Russian Contact. I Remember Now! | The Attorney General of the United States lied under oath, but that seems to be the status quo in the Trump administration. During Sessions confirmation hearing in January, he told Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) that he was not aware of evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government during the campaign. But today, his selective memory issues seem to be clearing up. However, the only reason Sessions is admitting there was contact with the Trump administration is because of court documents that were unsealed Monday revealing that Donald Trump s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, floated the idea of setting up a meeting between the former reality show star and Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2016. Papadopoulos claimed he had connections that could help arrange the meeting between Trump and Putin.On top of that, an Instagram picture on Trump s account shows Sessions attended the meeting in which Papadopoulos made the suggestion.So, it s kind of a big deal, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller is all up in this administration s business over the Russia scandal. A source familiar with the matter told NBC that Sessions rejected the meeting.And apparently, Sessions doesn t remember if he remembers that. Or something.Source clarifies: Unclear whether Sessions recalls nixing the Papadopoulos proposal for Trump Putin meeting though he did do so. Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) November 2, 2017Sen. Franken isn t too happy about the alarming pattern in which Sessions apparently failed to tell the truth, under oath, about the Trump team s contacts with agents of Russia a hostile foreign power that interfered in the 2016 election. Once again, developments in the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election have brought to light evidence that you failed to tell the truth about your interactions with Russian operatives during the campaign, as well as your awareness of Russian contacts by other members of the Trump campaign team, Franken wrote in a statement. We must get to the bottom of what happened so that we can prevent it from happening again, Franken wrote. I am deeply troubled that this newest revelation strongly suggests that the Senate and the American public cannot trust your word. In June, Sessions said that he had no knowledge of any conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign about any type of interference with any campaign by Russians.Who knew that a racist elf would lie? Certainly, none of us would have ever guessed.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images. | 1real |
Is the Iran deal unraveling? Think again. | Institution | Are the wheels coming off the Iran deal? Less than a year after Iran, America, and five other world powers inked a comprehensive nuclear accord, a debate over its terms has erupted anew.
In Washington, the braggadocio of a prominent White House aide is fueling Republican accusations that President Obama deliberately deceived the Congress and the country about Iran and the deal. And in Tehran, frustration over the residual impact of American sanctions has prompted increasingly resentful accusations from Iranian leaders that the United States has failed to live up to its end of the bargain. As a result, some are fretting that the deal is “at risk” and are laying blame on the White House doorstep.
Both claims are spurious, and deserve a more forceful rebuttal from the Obama administration. In the end, however, the ruckus over recent comments by Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes is largely an inside-the-Beltway drama—one that provides endless entertainment for Washington insiders but has little real significance for deal or American diplomacy.
By contrast, Iran’s dissatisfaction presents a serious diplomatic dilemma for Washington. But it should not be interpreted as evidence that the deal is “unraveling.” Rather, the chorus of complaints from Tehran demonstrates the accord signed in July 2015 is working exactly as it was intended—forestalling Iranian nuclear ambitions while amplifying the incentives for further reintegration into the global economy.
Obama’s handling of this first real test of the nuclear agreement will be crucial for sustaining its credibility. For the sake of the deal, and for any prospect of a durable Thermidor for the revolutionary state, Washington should resist the temptation to assuage Iran’s post-deal growing pains. If Iranians wants wholesale economic rehabilitation, their leadership needs to embrace the kind of policies that would yield that—in other words, meaningful political, economic, and foreign policy reform.
Not surprisingly, Iranian officials are seeking a quicker fix, and they have mounted an intense campaign to wrest supplementary sanctions relief from Washington. Their principal argument is that the theocracy has been stiffed. On an April visit to Washington, Valiollah Seif, the head of Iran’s Central Bank, questioned the benefits of the nuclear agreement, insisting that Tehran has received “almost nothing” of the sanctions relief that was promised as part of the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Mohammad Javad Zarif, the country’s smooth-spoken foreign minister, has contended that “the United States needs to do way more,” warning that “if one side does not comply with the agreement then the agreement will start to falter.”
And Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, charged recently that “the Americans are engaged in obstruction and deception, adding: “on paper, the Americans say banks can trade with Iran but in practice they act in such an Iranophobic way that no trade can take place with Iran.”
Adding fuel to the fire are changes to U.S. visa policies that are perceived at constraining Iran’s economic rebound, deliberately inflammatory rhetoric from the U.S. Congress, and a recent Supreme Court verdict that paves the way for a $2 billion payout to victims of terrorist attacks attributed to Tehran or its proxies. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has described the decision as “flagrant theft” and evidence of enduring American hostility toward Tehran.
Tehran’s narrative plays equally well to its essential constituencies: the revolution’s power brokers, steeped in official narratives of American treachery; an Iranian citizenry impatient for its long overdue peace dividend; and a European business community anxious to reclaim its piece of the pie after an unwelcome five years of having to forgo a lucrative market.
And it wouldn’t be the first time Tehran got cold feet about its nuclear obligations out of an unfortunate sense of that the payoff was insufficient. In 2005, two years after a deal with Britain, France, and Germany to suspend core aspects of its nuclear program, Iran’s leadership soured on that deal and reneged. Anxiety about a repeat performance is prompting new U.S. efforts to facilitate business in Iran and a mounting debate in the press and on Capitol Hill around additional American sanctions relief.
But Iran’s campaign is grounded in a fundamental falsehood: that Washington has failed to live up to its end of the bargain. In fact, Washington has delivered fully on the sanctions relief pledged under the JCPOA, and officials in the White House, State Department, and even the enforcement office of the Treasury Department have engaged in extraordinary outreach to clarify remaining restrictions and underscore American commitment to the terms of the deal.
Moreover, the rewards of Iran’s nuclear concessions are actually widely evident—in the volume of new trade and investment that is already underway; in the scope and velocity of diplomatic and commercial reengagement with Iran; in the swifter-than-anticipated revival of oil exports. Heads of state from Italy and India, from South Korea to South Africa are beating a path to Tehran, accompanied by contingents of eager investors. Meanwhile, Iranian officials including Seif—chief of the same Central Bank that was formerly barred by sanctions—headline swanky conferences aimed at wooing European business players. The great Iranian gold rush is on.
The catch is that the money is moving more slowly than Iranian officials seem to have anticipated—and the trickle-down effect has been almost nonexistent for the average Iranian. The explanation for this lag is complex and multi-dimensional.
First and foremost, Iran is hard hit by the decline in oil prices, which have fallen by roughly 60 percent since the interim nuclear deal was signed in November 2013. Even in the best of times, the Islamic Republic was never a particularly easy place to do business, and many of its structural economic problems have been exacerbated by a decade of sanctions and the particularly egregious mismanagement of the 2005 to 2013 tenure of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran’s designation since 2008 as a “high-risk and non-cooperative” jurisdiction by Financial Action Task Force, a multilateral body established to combat money laundering and terrorist finance, poses additional hurdles for banks. In addition, a host of other market distortions induce investor caution: corruption, a bloated and opaque banking system, an inflexible labor market, unattractive contract terms for energy investments, the traditional dominance of the public sector.
Tehran’s challenges in luring capital is further complicated by its reputation for provocative domestic and regional behavior. Torching embassies, arresting tourists and dual-national businessmen, testing ballistic missiles—none of this provides a conducive context for Iran’s reintegration into the global economy. As the old adage goes, capital is a coward, and the Islamic Republic is a haunted house.
Iran has seen this all before. Similar factors undercut Tehran’s previous efforts to open up to the global economy. In the early 1990s, after the long war with Iraq, then-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sought foreign trade and investment as part of his massive reconstruction program. Initial outcomes were encouraging, but falling oil prices, excessive short-term debt, and the perpetuation of an ideological foreign policy drove away investors and undermined his economic reforms.
This time around, American sanctions have cast a long shadow. The nuclear deal left intact an array of restrictions: the primary U.S. embargo on Iran as well as financial measures that preclude access to the U.S. dollar and penalize third countries for doing business with Iranian individuals and entities that are involved with terrorism or other malfeasance. The vestiges of the sanctions regime create truly epic compliance issues for any international investor. And the hangover effect of a decade of stringent (and costly) enforcement has generated a culture of overcompliance in the international financial sector, since institutional due diligence is an integral dimension of the industry’s viability.
None of this should come as a surprise to Tehran; American officials were crystal clear throughout the negotiations and in advocating on behalf of the deal that the deal only removed the nuclear-related sanctions and that U.S. measures imposed as a result of Iran’s support for terrorism, its human rights abuses, or other issues would remain intact. And every sensible analyst looked past the inflated rhetoric of the deal’s opponents, who brayed against the deal as a massive “cash bonanza,” to recognize that the residual sanctions regime would remain a significant factor in Iran’s post-deal economic picture. As I wrote at the time:
So if this was entirely predictable, why is Tehran crying foul now? Unlike in the United States—where the agreement’s shortcomings were oversold (if anything) rather than downplayed—in Iran there was a triumphalism with which the deal was sold domestically. This was mostly because of the peculiarities of Iran’s political system. To avoid the appearance of contravening the “red lines” articulated by Khamenei, the country’s ultimate authority, Iranian negotiators depicted the JCPOA as delivering wholesale sanctions relief. Rouhani described the outcome as a “legal, technical, and political victory” for the country, emphasizing that Tehran achieved “more than what was imagined.”
Iran’s politically motivated embellishments were exacerbated by the hype surrounding the deal, cultivated by entrepreneurs and aspiring middlemen who presented Iran in hyperbolic terms as “the best emerging market for years to come” and “one of the hottest opportunities of the decade.” But while it may offend the Iranian ego, the relative scale of the opportunity in Iran is more modest than other much-heralded economic openings, such as China. It is hardly inconceivable that many banks and other firms have simply chosen to sit this first round out.
Neither Iran’s economic challenges nor the grievances of its leadership are “fraying” the nuclear accord; in fact, they only highlight its underlying logic. While the deal’s scope was finite—it was not a wholesale rapprochement or rehabilitation—many of its supporters argued that its logic would prove self-reinforcing. Iran’s gradual reintegration into the global economy would bolster the case among its leadership for a broader moderation of its domestic and foreign policies precisely in order to boost their benefits.
Tehran’s dissatisfaction with the payout to date suggests this formula is working. A little bit of sanctions relief has whetted the entrepreneurial appetites of the clerical state. Despite official invocations proclaiming a “resistance economy,” the trickle of new trade and investment from Europe and Asia into Iran since the deal was signed has only intensified pressure for more—and for more tangible dissemination of its benefits among the Iranian population. In other words, it is the success of the nuclear deal—rather than its shortcomings—that is driving the complaints that have emanated from Iran.
The United States is not responsible for the hesitancy of international capital and other economic hiccups that Tehran has experienced in the aftermath of the nuclear agreement. The culpability resides, as it always has, with Iran and the risks that its government’s policies pose for international business. If Iranians want to see their nascent opening to the international community expanded—if they want the peace dividend they have been promised, they need to look to their own leadership and its policies. If Iran’s Central Bank governor wants “normal conditions” and “access to the U.S. financial system,” as he demanded during his Washington visit, let him return to Tehran and help instill the kind of reforms that would make those goals possible.
There are sensible steps that Washington can take to ensure that the provisions of the nuclear deal are fully feasible, including limited mechanisms for enabling transactions, such as the repatriation of previously frozen assets, that are specifically permitted under the deal. Such exceptional measures are reasonable—not because they help Tehran, but because they help sustain consensus between Washington and its European partners and help preserve the West’s negotiating leverage with any future targets of American or multilateral financial sanctions.
However, it would be profoundly detrimental for Washington to provide significant unilateral relief to Tehran without reciprocal additional Iranian concessions. And the PR blitz by senior U.S. officials to reassure Iran’s prospective foreign investors has taken on an unseemly tone, especially since existing sanctions prohibit U.S. persons from facilitating transactions with Iran by foreign entities.
These measures may be aimed at building confidence, but they ultimately have the opposite effect—eroding Iran’s incentives to abide by the deal, undermining any rationale for broader changes. Iran remains a risky place to do business, and it is in Washington’s interests—as well as those of Iranians and the broader international community—that Tehran focuses on mitigating those risks rather than seeking to subvert their penalties.
The nuclear deal is working; Iran’s nascent reintegration into the global economy is intensifying internal debates and popular expectations. This is all to the good. But to get more, Tehran will have to give more. | 0fake |
ISIS Fighters Celebrate Trump’s Victory Because He Is The ‘Beginning’ Of America’s Destruction | Donald Trump is the best player on the terrorist organization s team, and they couldn t be happier that he won the election.Tuesday s election results have not only emboldened racists to attack minorities across the country, it has emboldened ISIS.Trump s victory drew celebration from ISIS fighters on social media, and the comments should make Americans regret their decision to put such an inexperienced person in the White House. Rejoice, he will show America s ugly face, said fighter wrote.And Trump has already done that by using the divisive and hateful rhetoric that is splitting the country along political and racial lines that will take years to heal. Trump can beg for unity all he wants, he squandered that opportunity from the very first day of his campaign. I am optimistic about Trump s victory because he is a stupid, arrogant, hubristic bull who is dumber than Bush, another ISIS fighter said.And it s true. Donald Trump doesn t have a clue how to govern and he certainly doesn t know how to lead a military force. After all, he dodged the draft multiple times during Vietnam and ridiculously claimed that he knows more about ISIS than the generals do, all while expressing wonder at why the United States doesn t just use nuclear weapons to defeat enemies.Most of all, ISIS fighters are cheering Trump s victory because he is inspiring others to join them. Trump s vulgarity will embarrass (Arab) tyrants and enlarge the field of jihad, one fighter wrote. If Trump wins, it s in our favor, another said.But they are only too happy to let Donald Trump rip the United States apart for them. Praise God, may He increase this, one fighter said of the divisions and hate Trump has caused. If we can inflame the dissension and troubles in their countries maybe they ll withdraw, wrote another, signaling that ISIS may try to stoke fear and violence among Americans.And they are hoping that Trump is the beginning of the end of the United States as a world power and beacon of democracy. Trump s rule may be the beginning of a split in the United States and the era of its disintegration, Considering Trump did significant damage to our democratic values and system, and the fact that Russia probably believes they have a puppet in the White House who will help them weaken NATO, it s pretty clear that Donald Trump is already harming this country domestically and around the world.America is a joke now because of Donald Trump s victory. He is a vengeful man who ignores facts and is easily provoked. ISIS wants nothing more than for the United States to sacrifice more blood and treasure in the Middle East and he may very well give them want they want because he wants to prove how tough he is. Our enemies sense weakness and they are moving to exploit that weakness for their own gain. Conservatives may think they found their champion, but our enemies know they found their fool.Featured Image: Brian Blanco/Getty Images | 1real |
null | Let's see - #1 liar denies knowledge of #2 liar's server. Do I have that correct? | 1real |
House Republicans’ Attempt To Be Cool With Snapchat TREMENDOUSLY Backfires | Try as they may, Republicans have just not figured out how to connect with younger generations. They ve locked down a good portion of older white America, but it seems millennials just really don t want much of anything to do with them.However, in an attempt to try to appeal to this younger vote in an election year, the House Republicans decided they would join Snapchat, the infamous social app that deletes what is sent shortly after sending it. It s hugely popular among younger Americans, so they thought they d give a whirl.One problem, though. The man who they used in the GIF to advertise their Snapchat campaign was NOT happy they used him.How do you do fellow kids? House GOP will Snapchat the #SOTU https://t.co/5Tv5hb0GjP #SNAPoftheUnion pic.twitter.com/xc4XF3fmuR mcbc (@mcbc) January 12, 2016You see, the man in the House GOP s #SnapOfTheUnion campaign is none other than HitFix writer Louis Virtel who also happens to be openly gay. The GIF highlights a moment he snapped his fingers while appearing on Jeopardy last May.Here s Virtel s reaction to being used by the GOP: Hey, GOP! Your candidates are horrifying garbage who ve done nothing for LGBT rights. Don t use my image. GOP, I think every day about closeted gay kids who want to kill themselves because their parents are ignorant, fearful Republicans. Dear GOP: The reason people liked my snap was because it defied regressive, homophobic, scary-ass losers like you. My image is STILL on the odious GOP site. In lieu of flowers, please donate to CAROL s Best Picture campaign. Hey, GOP! Your candidates are horrifying garbage who've done nothing for LGBT rights. Don't use my image. https://t.co/N1zddPOeZR Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) January 12, 2016Dear @GOP: The reason people liked my snap was because it defied regressive, homophobic, scary-ass losers like you. https://t.co/N1zddPOeZR Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) January 12, 2016My image is STILL on the odious @GOP site. In lieu of flowers, please donate to CAROL's Best Picture campaign. https://t.co/N1zddPOeZR Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) January 13, 2016Well done! Way to tell them, Louis!Too bad that GIF is still up on their website, and they are clearly either too stupid or too pompous to take it down. Likely both.The GOP will never catch the clue that younger generations just DO NOT like them for their blatantly derogatory actions taken against not only the gay community, but against nearly every minority in existence. They need to realize, hopefully sooner rather than later, that they are myopic in their views and archaic in their policy. They also need to learn how to make sure the people they are using in their campaigns are on board with being used. However, it s clear they just don t care.Featured image: GOP.gov | 1real |
MEET THE GUY Milwaukee Is Rioting Over…Interesting PHOTOS Emerge Of Sylville Smith And Friends | He had a gun that he stole during a burglary in a suburb of Milwaukee, along with 500 rounds of ammo. The cop told Syville Smith to put the stolen gun down as he was fleeing from the them after a traffic stop. He refused. Now he s dead, and they re burning down the city of Milwaukee to honor him.A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city s north side.City police officials said two officers stopped two suspects in a car about 3:30 p.m. The suspects then took off on foot. During the pursuit, a six-year veteran of the department shot and killed a 23-year-old Milwaukee resident, who was carrying a semiautomatic handgun, police said.The officer was not hurt.During his midnight news conference, Barrett said the officer pursuing the 23-year-old man ordered him to drop his gun. The man didn t and the officer fired several times, the mayor said.The man was hit twice, once in the chest and once in the arm. He said police determined there were 23 rounds in the man s gun.Barrett said the officer was wearing a body camera and his understanding was that the camera was operational during the incident. Milwaukee Journal SentinelHere are a few pictures we found on his Facebook account:As it turns out, Syville had a bit of a record:Court records show in February of 2015, Smith was charged with one felony count of first degree recklessly endangering safety and one misdemeanor count of possession of THC. The charges were dismissed by prosecutors in November.August of 2015, Smith was charged with felony intimidation of a witness/person charged/felony. That charge was dismissed by prosecutors in September.In July of 2014, Smith was charged with carrying a concealed weapon a misdemeanor charge. He pleaded guilty in November, and was sentenced to serve one day in the House of Correction.In July of 2013, Smith was charged with felony retail theft intentionally taking $500 to $5,000 as party to a crime. Prosecutors dismissed the charge in October. Fox6NowHere s Syville just hanging out with a few upstanding friends:He seems to have a penchant for posing with guns.This man who says he is Mr. Smith s cousin also seemed to make a threat with this semi-intelligible rant. Police might want to check that out. h/t Weasel Zippers | 1real |
The Right Way to Fall - The New York Times | Rare is the individual who hasn’t tripped over a pet or uneven pavement, tumbled off a bike, slipped on ice or maybe wiped out skiing or skating. Some get injured, while others go unhurt — often claiming it’s because they knew how to fall. According to paratroopers, stunt professionals, physical therapists and martial arts instructors, there is indeed a “right way” to fall — and it can save you a lot of grief if you know how to do it. Although often associated with older people, falls occur at any age and are the most common cause of injury seen in emergency rooms in the United States. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that falls cause more than a third of emergency room visits, around 7. 9 million a year. “As physical therapists we talk a lot about preventing falls, but what we don’t talk about is what to do when you actually do fall,” said Jessica Schwartz, a physical therapist in New York City who trains athletes and people with prosthetic limbs to fall without hurting themselves. “It’s almost inevitable you are going to fall, so you really should know what to do. ” The number one thing to remember, she said, is to protect your head. So if you find yourself falling, pivot to your side and tuck in your head. “Have you seen those slip and fall cartoons where the characters fall flat on their back or face? Don’t do that,” said Dr. Schwartz. “You’ll hit your head like a coconut and get a concussion,” and the reverse motion, or bounce, of your head after impact “will give you something like whiplash. ” Moreover, falling straight forward or backward raises the risk of damaging your spine and vital organs. The other thing to avoid, she said, is “foosh,” an acronym for “falling onto outstretched hands. ” If you do that, all the force of impact will be concentrated there, raising the risk of breaking your wrist. You similarly don’t want to come crashing down on your knee so you break your kneecap or do that maneuver where you kind of pedal with your feet to catch yourself, which can lead to broken bones in your foot and ankle. Instead, if you feel yourself falling, experts said you should bend your elbows and knees and try to take the hit on the fleshiest parts of your body, like the side of your thigh, buttocks and shoulder. “Aim for the meat, not bone,” said Kevin Inouye, a stuntman and assistant professor of acting, movement and stage combat at the University of Wyoming. “Your instinct will be to reach out with hands or try to catch yourself with your knee or foot, but they are hard and not forgiving when you go down. ” The key is to not fight the fall, but just to roll with it, as paratroopers do. “The idea is to orient your body to the ground so when you hit, there’s a multistep process of hitting and shifting your body weight to break up that impact,” said Sgt. First Class Chuck Davidson, master trainer at the Army’s Advanced Airborne School at Ft. Bragg, N. C. Paratroopers’ goal is to fall sideways in the direction the wind is carrying them — in no way resisting the momentum of the fall. When the balls of their feet barely reach the ground, they immediately distribute the impact in rapid sequence up through the calf to the thigh and buttocks. Then they roll over on the latissimus dorsi muscle, the large, flat muscle running laterally down the side of your back, and kick their feet over, shifting their weight so they end up supine with legs bent in front of them. The procedure is strikingly similar to how martial arts practitioners learn to take a fall when they are, say, thrown over someone’s shoulder or have their legs knocked out from under them. “I would say the principles we follow are: Accept that you’re falling and go with it, round your body, and don’t stiffen and distribute the energy so you take the fall in the widest area possible,” said Paul Schreiner, a black belt jiu jitsu instructor at Marcelo Garcia Academy in New York City. While martial arts falls often have a gymnastic aspect, with rather elegant and snappy kinds of somersaults, it’s still all about spreading out the force of impact. “There may be an aesthetic component, but what it does is save the body,” said Mr. Schreiner. “If you don’t take the fall in any single place, you’ll still walk out sore, but you’ll walk out of there. ” Difficult as it may sound as you’re hurtling toward the ground — medical bills and disability flashing through your mind — experts said it’s important to relax as you fall. You’re less likely to hurt yourself if you soften up all your muscles and exhale. Rigidity is your enemy, while pliability is your friend. “As unfair as it is, that’s why people who are drunk” tend to be the ones who “don’t get hurt in car crashes,” said Mr. Inouye. “They are loose and just flop around. ” Of course, you will be better able to loosen up, pivot to your side, tuck and roll if you are in good physical condition. “If you have a room full of soccer players and computer desk workers and go around knocking people over, you can bet the soccer players are going to be less likely to get hurt because of their superior strength, agility and coordination,” said Erik Moen, a physical therapist in Kenmore, Wash. But that doesn’t mean you have to be an elite athlete or paratrooper to fall the “right way. ” Young children are arguably the best fallers because they have yet to develop fear or embarrassment, so they just tumble and roll without tensing up and trying to catch themselves. Physical therapists can be helpful in assessing your weaknesses and prescribing exercises to improve your strength and agility (for example, jumping from side to side and on and off platforms or steps) so that you will be better able to execute a fall as well as lessen the risk that you will fall in the first place. | 0fake |
How To Live After Trump | Before Trump’s glorious victory over the forces of progressive darkness, I promised that I would provide a roadmap on what traditional men could do next to usher in a return of the patriarchy. If Hillary had prevailed, the roadmap would have been a grim one, as all of our work would have had to take place underground. Happily, we will be able to work in the open. Here are three ways that we can leverage Trump’s victory to bring back the patriarchy.
Rule yourself Bruce Wayne is a good role model for traditional men: Urbane, fit, financially independent—and dangerous.
This may seem obvious, but if we are going to bring back the patriarchy, we have to be men who are worthy of it. A patriarch who relies solely on the fact that he is a man will quickly be overthrown. However, a man who has authority because he has earned it by the way he lives will naturally retain it. Thus, the first step in making progress under a Trump administration is the same as it would have been if Hillary had been elected—self-improvement.
Self-improvement involves the obvious things: getting in shape, training martial arts, getting rid of addictions, and exercising self-discipline. The process of self-improvement needs to be under-girded with a philosophy of life. For most men, this will involve adopting, and faithfully living, one of the faith-traditions. For others, it may mean adopting stoic philosophy. Whatever it is, it will have to be more substantial than the degenerate, “pleasure, wealth, and power at any cost” morality of our Spirit Cooking elites—lack of morality got us into this problem in the first place.
Self-improvement also involves moving in the direction of financial independence. Under a Trump administration, this last goal will become easier to achieve. Trump’s tax plan cuts tax rates across the board. This will especially benefit men who are in the middle class who are trying to generate more income. They will be able to keep their savings so that they can move ahead rather than paying a penalty that keeps them from becoming wealthy.
Trump’s emphasis on fair trade will also result in more American jobs and unleash unprecedented creativity. The age of Trump will be a great time to start a new business. One word of warning is in order though: Under Trump the US is likely to flourish in a way that hasn’t happened since the the 1920s. Enjoy the prosperity but don’t get caught back in the materialism merry-go-round. Our goal is a lifetime of financial independence, not conspicuous consumption.
Financial independence is an important practical consideration because you will need a firm financial foundation for the second step, which is ruling your family.
Rule your family Be the patriarch.
Starting with the boomers, our society rejected the traditional way of life and adopted progressivism. Families got smaller, divorce became more common, promiscuity increased, feminism became the default philosophy for girls, and the remaining vestiges of the patriarchy vanished. Progressivism promised freedom but delivered enslavement to political correctness and globalism.
A Trump administration will do little to reverse the deleterious effects that progressivism has had on the family. At best, the only thing government can do for the family is encourage it financially and provide a safe environment for it. But real change has to come from the bottom up—from men and women who return to tradition. For us, that means finding a traditional woman, or more likely one who can be converted to tradition, getting married, and having lots of children. A Twitter shitlord ( @johnrandom1234 ) drove home this point in a humorous way by suggesting with a four-step “Trump Bump” starter kit:
Getting married, having children, and raising them to hold to the patriarchy is the long game, but it is the only way we will have long term victory. Without a next generation of traditional men, any ground that we gain under Trump will soon be lost.
Rule society—bring back the patriarchy Benjamin Franklin is a great example of a man who was serious about his civic duty.
The next thing that we must do is start reclaiming our institutions. Trump has captured the presidency and Republicans control Congress, but many of those Republicans are cucks who will oppose the Trumpian agenda. And our other institutions are still dominated by leftists. Hollywood, the news media, education, and corporations all proclaim the progressive, anti-patriarchy message. If we don’t take advantage of the current moment, any gains that Trump makes will be quickly rolled-back after he leaves office.
Therefore, we need to start re-engaging with these institutions to shift them towards Patriarchal Nationalism . You can share any ideas you have to do this in the comments. Here, I’d like to suggest that one institution that needs our participation: the Republican Party. Trump has created many allies within the GOP but the majority of the Party still holds to the cucked ideology of open borders and bad trade deals like NAFTA. The GOP desperately needs like-minded men within its ranks who will help Trump achieve his vision.
Getting involved in your local GOP is easy. You merely have to get in touch with your local party leadership in your district. You don’t have to run for elected office. Simply volunteer your time in getting local officials elected, voting for delegates, or attending GOP events. Go in with a respectful attitude. A lot of the local GOP leaders are good people who still don’t understand that the real battle is against globalists. Work for incremental change. And, if you have the disposition required for it, consider running for local office yourself.
One piece of advice: If you do choose to get involved in politics, don’t get caught up in it. One way we ended up with an ossified and out-of-touch GOP is that people started to hold the globalist neoconservatism with an almost religious fervor. The other trap is to use politics as a way of enriching oneself in the manner of Hillary Clinton. If you do choose to enter the political realm, resolve at the outset to not use it for your own financial gain. Don’t make politics your life. Think of it strictly as civic duty.
Of course, politics is not everybody’s cup of tea. The key is to use your gifts, whether that is in movie-making or in running a company, to help create an environment where the patriarchy can flourish.
Conclusion The one thing we must not do in wake of the Trump victory is rest on our laurels. If Hillary had won, we’d all have a great sense of urgency to protect what little remained of our way of life. Now that Trump is coming into power, the temptation is to relax—to just let Trump do it all. This temptation must be avoided. We must capitalize on the Trump victory with the same high level of urgency that we would have regarded a Hillary victory. If we don’t, we run the risk of losing all the ground we have gained.
Read More: How Donald Trump Vanquished His Enemies And Conquered The Republican Party
| 1real |
US Engineers Prepare Bionic Device to Generate Electricity by Walking | 0 5 0 0 Field tests on the device are expected to begin in 2017.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A device being developed will attach to a soldier’s upper and lower legs to generate electricity that is needed to power a growing array of high-tech gadgets in a soldier’s backpack, the US Army announced in a press release on Wednesday. "Just by walking, soldiers could generate power," the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Project Engineer Noel Soto said in the release. "We are converting the movement of the knees when you walk into useful power."
Field tests on the device are expected to begin in 2017, the release explained. Progressive Soft Exoskeleton: as Comfortable as Everyday Pants (VIDEO) "The goal is to reduce the amount of batteries used by soldiers, or to be able to extend the mission with the same load," Soto noted. "Soldiers are carrying a heavy load and a lot of that weight, 16 to 20 pounds for a 72-hour mission, is due to batteries."
Soldiers now carry multiple electronic devices that aid in strategy, communication and navigation, including computers, radios, mobile phones, battlefield situational displays and navigation tools, according to the release. ... | 1real |
ABC News Caught Staging Fake Crime Scene | . ABC News Caught Staging Fake Crime Scene ABC News has been caught staging a fake “crime scene” for reporter Linsey Davis to report from in a ... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/abc-news-caught-staging-fake-crime-scene.html ABC News has been caught staging a fake “crime scene” for reporter Linsey Davis to report from in a segment broadcast on Good Morning America. Viewers were presented with the sight of Davis standing in front of yellow police tape with the words “SHERIFF’S LINE DO NOT CROSS” and ABC News, reporting from the site for hours, claimed Davis was in the middle of an active crime scene.But she wasn’t. The ABC News report had more in common with a Hollywood production than a breaking news report.Linsey Davis was actually standing in a field in Woodruffe, South Carolina – not at the crime scene she was claiming to be reporting from.Sources with knowledge of the matter say the sheriff’s tape was placed there by the ABC News crew for the purpose of its inclusion in the live shot.A photo leaked by an anonymous source shows the sheriff’s tape running no more than 30 yards – and tied at both ends to ABC News camera stands. Busted – and ABC know it. “This action is completely unacceptable and fails to meet the standards of ABC News,” said Julie Townsend, the vice president of communications at ABC News. “As soon as it was brought to our attention, we decided to take the producer out of the field, and we’re investigating further.” Fake Sheriff’s Tape, Fake News But ABC News’ recent behavior gets even worse. While they are spending money and resources on faking crime scenes to set their viewers’ pulses racing, they have also been exposed misleading their audience about real news.After ignoring the bombshell news that the FBI has been conducting an active investigation into the Clinton Foundation for more than a year, Good Morning America on Friday finally realized they couldn’t continue ignoring the story without losing credibility.So they covered the story. But only for 40 seconds and only to dismiss it as “inaccurate and “unsubstantiated.” CBS This Morning’s Major Garrett followed up by chiding “unconfirmed speculation.”On Good Morning America, correspondent Tom Llamas continued the misleading angle. “With just four days to go, Trump in full attack mode against Hillary Clinton, sending his crowds into a frenzy with these unsubstantiated reports ABC News sources say are inaccurate.” How can anybody trust these exposed liars anymore? Deceit and manipulation are fundamental to mainstream media operations these days. Evidence that the Main Stream Media is fabricating news for propaganda reasons: | 1real |
FACT CHECK: Trump Is Right That Clinton Might Cause WW3 - Eric Zuesse | Trump claims that Clinton’s policy on Syria would lead to World War 3.
Let’s fact check …
The Washington Post points out that a vote for Clinton is a vote for escalating military confrontation in Syria and elsewhere:
In the rarefied world of the Washington foreign policy establishment, President Obama’s departure from the White House — and the possible return of a more conventional and hawkish Hillary Clinton — is being met with quiet relief.
The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy, via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House.
***
The studies, which reflect Clinton’s stated views, break most forcefully with Obama on Syria …. call[ing] for stepped-up military action to deter President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Russian forces in Syria.
***
Most of the studies propose limited American airstrikes with cruise missiles to punish Assad ….
***
Last year, Obama dismissed calls for a no-fly zone in northwestern Syria — a position advocated by Clinton — as “ half-baked .”
***
Even pinprick cruise-missile strikes designed to hobble the Syrian air force or punish Assad would risk a direct confrontation with Russian forces, which are scattered throughout the key Syrian military bases that would be targeted.
“You can’t pretend you can go to war against Assad and not go to war against the Russians,” said a senior administration official who is involved in Middle East policy and was granted anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.
The most liberal presidential candidate still running – Green Party candidate Jill Stein – says:
She explains :
Hillary Clinton wants to start an air war with Russia. Let’s be clear: That’s what a no-fly zone means. It is tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia.
***
Clearly the Democrats are incredibly embarrassed about the nature of these [email] revelations, and they’ve created a smokescreen here to try and distract from that. But that smokescreen is pushing us to the brink of warfare with Russia now, where you have the U.S. head of defense, Ashton Carter, talking about nuclear war. We just did a dry run dropping fake nuclear bombs over Nevada. This is really dangerous stuff; this is not pretend. So we need to take a deep breath here, we need to step back and stop beating the war drums. In this context, Hillary Clinton is talking about starting an air war with Russia. Which could slide—you know, we’re on the verge of nuclear war right now.
***
The most likely nuclear threat right now is with Russia. There’s no doubt about that. When you have Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the prime minister of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, saying that the threat of nuclear war is hotter now than it has ever been in all of history, you’ve got to take that pretty seriously. And when you have Hillary Clinton then beating the war drums against Russia, and essentially saying that if she’s elected that we will declare war on Russia—because that’s what a no-fly zone over Syria amounts to. Shooting down Russian warplanes.
***
Hillary Clinton is a disastrous nuclear threat right now in a context where we’re already off-the-charts in the risk of nuclear war. She has stated in this context that she’s essentially opening up a battlefront with Russia. So to my mind, this emerges as the clearest and most present danger.
Prominent liberal economist Jeffrey Sachs writes in the Huffington Post, in an essay bannered “Hillary Is the Candidate of the War Machine“:
It is often believed that the Republicans are the neocons and the Democrats act as restraints on the warmongering. This is not correct. Both parties are divided between neocon hawks and cautious realists who don’t want the US in unending war. Hillary is a staunch neocon whose record of favoring American war adventures explains much of our current security danger.
Just as the last Clinton presidency set the stage for financial collapse, it also set the stage for unending war. On October 31, 1998 President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act that made it official US policy to support “regime change” in Iraq.
It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.
Thus were laid the foundations for the Iraq War in 2003.
Of course, by 2003, Hillary was a Senator and a staunch supporter of the Iraq War, which has cost the US trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and done more to create ISIS and Middle East instability than any other single decision of modern foreign policy. In defending her vote, Hillary parroted the phony propaganda of the CIA:
“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members…“
After the Iraq Liberation Act came the 1999 Kosovo War, in which Bill Clinton called in NATO to bomb Belgrade, in the heart of Europe, and unleashing another decade of unrest in the Balkans. Hillary, traveling in Africa, called Bill: “I urged him to bomb,” she told reporter Lucinda Frank.
Hillary’s record as Secretary of State is among the most militaristic, and disastrous, of modern US history . Some experience. Hilary was a staunch defender of the military-industrial-intelligence complex at every turn, helping to spread the Iraq mayhem over a swath of violence that now stretches from Mali to Afghanistan. Two disasters loom largest: Libya and Syria.
Hillary has been much attacked for the deaths of US diplomats in Benghazi, but her tireless promotion of the overthrow Muammar Qaddafi by NATO bombing is the far graver disaster. Hillary strongly promoted NATO-led regime change in Libya, not only in violation of international law but counter to the most basic good judgment. After the NATO bombing, Libya descended into civil war while the paramilitaries and unsecured arms stashes in Libya quickly spread west across the African Sahel and east to Syria. The Libyan disaster has spawned war in Mali, fed weapons to Boko Haram in Nigeria, and fueled ISIS in Syria and Iraq. In the meantime, Hillary found it hilarious to declare of Qaddafi: “We came, we saw, he died.”
Perhaps the crowning disaster of this long list of disasters has been Hillary’s relentless promotion of CIA-led regime change in Syria. Once again Hillary bought into the CIA propaganda that regime change to remove Bashir al-Assad would be quick, costless, and surely successful. In August 2011, Hillary led the US into disaster with her declaration Assad must “get out of the way,” backed by secret CIA operations.
Five years later, no place on the planet is more ravaged by unending war, and no place poses a great threat to US security. More than 10 million Syrians are displaced, and the refugees are drowning in the Mediterranean or undermining the political stability of Greece, Turkey, and the European Union. Into the chaos created by the secret CIA-Saudi operations to overthrow Assad, ISIS has filled the vacuum, and has used Syria as the base for worldwide terrorist attacks.
The list of her incompetence and warmongering goes on. Hillary’s support at every turn for NATO expansion, including even into Ukraine and Georgia against all common sense, was a trip wire that violated the post-Cold War settlement in Europe in 1991 and that led to Russia’s violent counter-reactions in both Georgia and Ukraine. As Senator in 2008, Hilary co-sponsored 2008-SR439 , to include Ukraine and Georgia in NATO. As Secretary of State, she then presided over the restart of the Cold War with Russia.
It is hard to know the roots of this record of disaster. Is it chronically bad judgment? Is it her preternatural faith in the lying machine of the CIA? Is it a repeated attempt to show that as a Democrat she would be more hawkish than the Republicans? Is it to satisfy her hardline campaign financiers? Who knows? Maybe it’s all of the above. But whatever the reasons, hers is a record of disaster. Perhaps more than any other person, Hillary can lay claim to having stoked the violence that stretches from West Africa to Central Asia and that threatens US security.
Jakob Augstein notes in Der Spiegel:
Trump would probably be the better choice in the question of war and peace than Clinton.
Clinton has expressly expressed the wish to establish a flight ban on Syria, or parts of it. *** In truth, it would be an act of war. The risks are unpredictable. Above all, the risk of a military conflict with Russia.
***
The highest soldier of the United States of America, General Joseph Dunford, President of the United States General Staff of the United States Forces, is certain. To control the entire airspace over Syria would mean war with Syria and Russia. Dunford’s predecessor in office estimated a few years ago that an effective flight bomb over Syria would involve the use of 70,000 soldiers and a monthly cost of $ 1 billion.
But the bottom line is Clinton’s proven historical track record … she’s at least partly responsible for war after catastrophic war and coup after disastrous coup in Libya, Syria, Kosovo, Haiti, Honduras and other countries around the world.
And it’s interesting, indeed, that the Neocons who got us into the Iraq war have endorsed Clinton instead of Trump .
Trump might speak in a crude, knee-jerk manner … but Clinton is probably more likely to actually get us into war . | 1real |
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