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Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina Announces She's Running For President | Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, says she will seek the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential contest.
Fiorina made the announcement on ABC's Good Morning America and later via a simple tweet.
Fiorina joins an already crowded field of Republicans vying for the presidency. On Sunday, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced his campaign.
The New York Times reports that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is expected to join the fray on Tuesday.
Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul have all already announced their candidacies. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is still exploring a run.
"A former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, Ms. Fiorina is the second woman to make a run for the White House in this election cycle, following Hillary Rodham Clinton's announcement last month. Ms. Fiorina brings strong business acumen and a promise to be a more compassionate version of Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. And she has suggested that she is the perfect antidote to Mrs. Clinton, who many believe has an easy path to the Democratic nomination. " 'I think that if Hillary Clinton were to face a female nominee, there are a whole set of things she won't be able to talk about,' Ms. Fiorina said at a breakfast in Washington last month."
Our friends at It's All Politics have more on Fiorina. | 0fake |
Iran's Rouhani: Tehran-Moscow cooperation needed to restore peace in Syria | ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran s President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran and Russia needed to cooperate to restore stability in Syria and the region. Cooperation between Tehran and Moscow is a must to bring stability and peace to Syria ... It is also necessary to fight against regional terrorism, Rouhani said in a televised joint press conference with his visiting counterparts from Russia and Azerbaijan. | 0fake |
London police advise people to avoid area near station incident | LONDON (Reuters) - British police on Friday advised people to avoid the area near Parsons Green, a west London underground station, after media reports of a blast on a train. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service and British Transport Police are in attendance along with the London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service, London s police said in a statement. We would advise people to avoid the area. | 0fake |
Lawsuit says North Carolina bathroom law still harmful | WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - Transgender people still face discrimination and threats to their safety in North Carolina despite lawmakers replacing a measure that restricted their access to many public bathrooms, advocacy groups said in a new federal court action on Friday. The law thrust the state into the center of a national debate over equality, privacy and religious freedom last year by requiring transgender people to use restrooms in state-run buildings that matched the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity. A new measure, passed in March, helped bring back some business and sports events pulled from the state in protest in the year after it enacted the so-called bathroom bill. But the replacement law lacks clarity, with top state leaders in disagreement about what it means for transgender bathroom access, the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal argue in their amended lawsuit. That leaves transgender people uncertain - even fearful - about which restrooms they can safely use, they said. “When legislation fails to protect us, when it leaves us in limbo, it sends a message that our lives are expendable,” plaintiff Joaquín Carcaño, a transgender man who works at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told reporters. The amended complaint expands the lawsuit filed last year to challenge HB 2, which the state’s Republican leaders said was needed for public safety. The new law, HB 142, rescinded HB 2 but left many of its harmful effects in place, opponents say. The current law bars state agencies, schools and local governments from regulating government-run restrooms, showers and changing facilities, leaving responsibility for those policies with state lawmakers. It also bans cities in the state from passing their own anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people until 2020. Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat who signed the new law, is now named as a defendant in the lawsuit, replacing former Republican Governor Pat McCrory, whose defeat in the 2016 election is partly blamed on his support for the old law. Cooper has called the replacement law imperfect but necessary to help repair North Carolina’s damaged reputation. “The governor’s ultimate goal is statewide LGBT protections, and he is going to continue working toward that,” Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said in a statement on Friday. A battle over bathrooms also flared on Friday in Texas, where lawmakers heard impassioned public testimony about proposals to limit public restroom access to transgender people in that state. | 0fake |
Black Voter – Michelle Obama, DO NOT Tell Us How to Vote – I’m Not on Democrat Plantation Bill Still Bill Still [Video] | Leave a reply
Bill Still – Good evening, I’m still reporting on Trump. We don’t know her name. We don’t know where she lives. All we know is she is married with at least two children. She put her kids in the car and then decided to record what was in her heart as she was heading out to vote.
I’m still reporting from Washington. Good day.
Bill Still is a former newspaper editor and publisher. He has written for USA Today, The Saturday Evening Post, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, OMNI magazine, and has also produced the syndicated radio program, Health News. He has written 22 books and two documentary videos and is the host of his wildly popular daily YouTube Channel the “Still Report”, the quintessential report on the economy and Washington. SF Source Bill Still | 1real |
'The Wire' actor Pierce arrested after scuffle over Democratic politics | ATLANTA (Reuters) - Actor Wendell Pierce, who starred in HBO’s “The Wire,” was arrested in Atlanta over the weekend and charged with battery after an altercation sparked by differences in opinion about the U.S. presidential race, police said on Monday. The incident occurred early Saturday morning after Pierce, a Hillary Clinton backer, got into a political debate with a couple at the Loews Atlanta Hotel, according to an Atlanta Police Department arrest report. Media reports said the couple supported Clinton rival Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. The police report said Pierce followed the couple through the hotel and tried to force his way into their room, and also that he pulled the woman’s hoodie off and hit her in the head. Pierce denied the allegations, police said, and no one needed medical attention. Pierce’s representatives could not be reached for comment. On Monday, Rutgers University-Newark said Pierce had withdrawn as the speaker for the school’s commencement this week, citing the incident. Pierce declined to give the address “in order to assure that commencement 2016 will be a celebration of the accomplishments of our students, free from distractions,” the school said in a statement, adding that journalist Soledad O’Brien would replace him as speaker. “In addition to his role as Baltimore police detective Bunk Moreland on HBO’s critically acclaimed ‘The Wire,’ Pierce, 52, is also known for roles on television shows including “Treme” and “The Odd Couple” as well as the film “Selma.” He was arrested early on Saturday and released after posting a $1,000 bond, according to police and jail records. Media reports said Pierce, whose residence was listed as Pasadena, California, was staying at the Atlanta hotel while shooting a film. | 0fake |
Rand Paul on Obamacare Lite: There Is a ’Separation Between’ Ryan, Trump - Breitbart | Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” while discussing the Republicans the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Rand Paul ( ) said there is a “separation between” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s ( ) and President Donald Trump. Paul said, “I think there is a separation between the two. I have talked to the president, I think three times on Obamacare and I hear from him he is willing to negotiate. You know what I hear from Paul Ryan ‘it is a binary choice, young man.’ But what is a binary choice, his way or the highway?” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
South Africa’s “FEMALE” Olympian Favored To Win Gold In Women’s 800 Meter Race Tonight THREATENS Other Athletes On Social Media…Should “She” Even Be Competing With Women? [VIDEO] | Should there be a medical test to prove the sex of an olympic athlete, or should the athlete be able to decide where they are more comfortable competing? South Africa s female athlete, Caster Semenya will compete against the world s top female athletes as the overwhelming favorite for the gold tonight at 8 pm.Semenya is apparently under armed guard protection after sending out this taunting threat to anyone who questions his/her gender: You try to give me stress ..I give you heart attack.. ITS A WARNING.. TRY ME.. pic.twitter.com/i5hQsyboBL Caster Semenya (@caster800m) August 13, 2016UPDATE International reports suggest that security has been beefed up for the athlete ahead of her race. Several news outlets are reporting that Olympic officials are concerned about Semenya s welfare and are fearful of unrest from the fans of rival runners spilling over into physical violence.The reports state that journalists have been barred from approaching the athlete and she won t be allowed to conduct any media interviews. She will also be accompanied by Rio Olympics security staff at all times.The International Olympic Committee and Rio organisers have apparently refused to talk about the runner.Last night, the Department of Sport and Recreation would not be drawn into speculation that Semenya had been put under armed guard.There is, in reality, only a silver medal up for grabs in the women s 800m on Saturday.It is likely that on the night of Saturday, Aug. 20, in the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, a 25-year-old South African woman named Caster Semenya will win a gold medal. Her victory will come in the 800 meters, a race in which her times have been approaching a decades-old world record thought by many in the sport to be unapproachable. Her performance will be stunning: She is 5 10 and weighs 161 pounds, with muscular arms, broad shoulders and narrow hips. She has a severe jawline, hard and strong, and a competitor s unflinching eyes. In a 2009 article, Ariel Levy of The New Yorker described Semenya as breathtakingly butch. This is not Semenya s first appearance on the global stage; she has been a world-class runner for eight years and won a silver medal in the 800 in London. But now she is dominant, and the alleged but unverified source of that dominance has made her one of the most significant and potentially transformative athletes in Olympic history. Her races in Rio will trigger an emotional debate on gender and sports, one that is far more challenging than the comparatively simple issue of doping. She looks the way she looks, and then she runs away from the field, says Joanna Harper, a medical physicist in Portland and the first transgender woman to consult with the International Olympic Committee on gender and sports. And then, yeah, all hell breaks loose. SISemenya has the condition hyperandrogenism, which naturally increases levels of testosterone. It is argued by some this gives her an unfair advantage over her rivals, who have lower levels and therefore have less musculature and strength.An IAAF ruling that capped tester one levels for female athletes and saw Semenya s performances dip was overruled by CAS last year and her times have returned to unbeatable.The issue is hotly debated, with some saying Semenya s right to compete is paramount and others saying her competitors right to a fair playing field is equally as important.Semenya is focused purely on running, and everyone else is focused on whether she will break the world record of 1:53.28 in the final. Daily TelegraphWatch Caster Semenya speak to a reporter here:In the 2009, tests conducted during the world athletics championships, where Semenya s gender became the subject of heated debate following her victory in the 800m, revealed evidence she is a hermaphrodite, someone with both male and female sexual characteristics.Semenya, 18, has three times the amount of testosterone that a normal female would have. According to a source closely involved with the Semenya examinations IAAF testing, which included various scans, has revealed she has internal testes the male sexual organs which produce testosterone.Only the certainty of an even more savage backlash from South Africa has made the IAAF hesitant about slapping a ban on Semenya and revoking her gold medal.South Africa embraced Semenya after the storm of controversy from Berlin, declaring her our girl . From the day news broke on August 19 that the IAAF had initiated gender verification tests on Semenya, various factions within South African society and politics have attacked the Monte Carlo based IAAF.The African National Congress MP and National Assembly sports committee chairman Butana Komphela has already lodged a complaint with the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, accusing the IAAF of racism and sexism. There s all sorts of scans you do. This is why it s complicated. In the past you used to do a gynaecological exam, blood test, chromosome test, whatever. That s why they (the findings) were challenged, because it s not quite so simple. So what they do now is they do everything, and then they can say look, not only has she got this, she s got that and the other. The problem for us is to avoid it being an issue now which is very personal: of the organs being a hermaphrodite, of not being a real woman. It s very dramatic. Daily Telegraph | 1real |
ILLEGAL ALIEN Who Helps Illegals Stay In U.S. ARRESTED For Drunk Driving…Why The Left May Not Be Able To Stop Her Deportation [VIDEO] | The Office of Immigration Statistics reported that of the 188,382 deportations of illegal aliens in 2011, 23 percent had committed criminal traffic offenses (primarily driving under the influence). Congressman Steve King (R-IA) estimates that illegal alien drunk drivers kill 13 Americans every day that s a death toll of 4,745 per year.Trump has taken a hard-line on illegal alien drunk drivers in America. He is the only politician who is addressing this serious problem. He can be seen here embracing parents and families who have been torn apart by the death of a loved one at the hands of an illegal alien:This is the story of a prominent illegal alien activist and drunk driver the Left is embracing and working so hard to keep in America: On May 28, the community organizer for Casa, a national immigrants rights organization based in Maryland, was stopped by police and arrested for a DUI after having had two margaritas at a restaurant. Her blood alcohol was twice the legal limit for driving.Her arrest sent a shockwave through the activist community, with petitions from organizations such as Change.org being filed to stop her deportation.The last thing anyone in the immigrant activist community would have expected was that Wendy Uruchi Contreras would be arrested and potentially deported.Uruchi s attorney, Enid Gonzalez, told Fox News Latino her team filed for a stay of removal with the Department of Homeland Security on Friday. Her case is very unusual, Gonzalez said. Since she came to the U.S. on a visa waiver which allows visitors from 38 countries to stay for up to 90 days without a visa she automatically waived any possible effort to block removal from the country. Gonzalez added, Had she come in undocumented, she d have a strong defense for cancellation for removal, because of her children. She d meet those requirements. The decision on her stay of removal could take a day or six weeks. If immigration authorities recommend granting it, she ll likely have a year to remain in the U.S., and Gonzalez says immigration officials keep very close tabs on people in those circumstances.Uruchi didn t start her career as an activist very long ago. According to the Washington Post, she met some employees from Casa a few years ago at an event at the Salvadoran Embassy, and she began going to events, then organizing them. In 2014, she was hired full-time as a Virginia community organizer.Uruchi spent the last two years helping undocumented immigrants fight their deportations, without ever revealing her own status. Via: Latino Fox News | 1real |
Colombia's FARC rebels to meet Kerry in Cuba during Obama trip | HAVANA/BOGOTA (Reuters) - Members of Colombia’s Marxist FARC guerrillas will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Cuba, a spokeswoman for Colombia’s government peace negotiators said on Sunday, adding a twist to a historic visit to the island by U.S. President Barack Obama. The meeting with Kerry on Monday will be the first time a U.S. secretary of state has met the negotiators from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who have been talking peace with the Colombian government in Havana for more than three years. “At around 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), the meeting between Kerry and the FARC delegation will take place,” after the Colombian government delegation meet him, the spokeswoman said. A source at Colombia’s Office of the High Commissioner for Peace said the rebels and Colombian government negotiators would also go to an exhibition game between Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s national team on Tuesday. That game will be attended by Obama, who on Sunday became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years. But FARC negotiator Pastor Alape said he was not aware of an invitation to attend the baseball game. He said that before meeting with Kerry, the rebels would meet the U.S. special envoy for Colombian peace talks, Bernard Aronson, to agree on an agenda. The United States sees the Colombian peace talks hosted in Havana as an example of how restoring normal relations with Cuba can help its wider goals in Latin America. Latin America’s longest war has killed some 220,000 people and displaced millions of others since 1964. The government and rebels are attempting to reach a deal that would be placed before Colombian voters for approval, with a U.N. mission supervising rebel disarmament. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by the nom de guerre Timochenko, had set a self-imposed March 23 deadline to reach a comprehensive pact but have since conceded that goal may not be reached. Washington designated the FARC as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and many of its leaders have been indicted in the United States on charges of cocaine trafficking. | 0fake |
Gorka: ‘Forgotten Man’ Was Given a Voice on November 8, and the Media Can’t Stand It | Dr. Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Trump and former national security editor for Breitbart News, joined SiriusXM host Lee Stranahan for Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily. [Stranahan brought up the outrageous allegation by a blogger that Gorka was a Nazi sympathizer, based on a medal he was seen wearing. The false story was eagerly repeated, without the slightest bit of by Chelsea Clinton and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among others. “My parents escaped Communist Hungary in 1956,” Gorka recalled. “My father actually escaped from a prison, a Communist prison, because he was an and he had been betrayed and given a life sentence at the age of 20. In exile, he was awarded a medal — it’s the Order of the Vitez — for his resistance to dictatorship in Hungary. ” “That Order, for some people, because it is associated with the regent, Admiral Horthy, they think that makes my father, who escaped from a Communist prison, a fascist, and, therefore, ” he explained. “It’s never about policies, Lee. It’s always about attacking the individual,” Gorka told Stranahan. “My father was tortured in the basement of what used to be the Nazi secret police headquarters, at the age of twenty. He was tortured by Communists who, just a few years before, had been members of the Arrow Cross. That’s the irony of central Europe. A lot of fascists became Communists. ” “Remember, on the radical Left, facts are optional. I am on TV. I’ve been a vocal supporter of President Trump during the campaign. They have to attack me. It’s about Steve Bannon. It’s about Jared Kushner. It’s about General Mike Flynn. It’s not about the policies. It’s not about the substance. It’s about ad hominem attacks. If you want to be effective, it’s about triangulation and isolation. That’s all it is, Lee. You know it better than anybody,” Gorka said. “The irony is, the first person who wrote this article about me was allegedly fired from his last employer for attitudes,” he noted. “That’s the reality. You read my book, Defeating Jihad. It’s about how Israel is our closest ally. Not only that, I have said, for me, groups like ISIS and are the new fascists. The linkage between groups that burn people alive, that behead people because they have the wrong passport, the linkage between them and the Communist and the fascists is the same. They’re all totalitarians. One of them may have worshiped Karl Marx. The other may have worshiped the Aryan purity and Mein Kampf. These people are totalitarians, as well, groups like ISIS. They’re just doing it in the name of their version of Islam. ” Gorka agreed with Stranahan that attacks on Trump administration officials like himself are actually attacks on his “audience. ” “It has to have that broader connection. Why? Because what I’ve seen in the last weeks of us being in office is all we have is a majority of the media reporting reflects one thing, Lee: they cannot believe, refuse to believe, what happened on November the 8th. The American people spoke. The ‘forgotten man’ was given a voice. And they can’t stand it, Lee. ” “As a result, what President Trump stands for must be attacked day in and day out. It’s not about policies. Remember, we never talk about Russia policy. It’s about who bugged Mike Flynn, and what he said to the vice president. It’s never about policy. It’s never about ISIS. It’s the classic attack, Lee: ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’ Remember? That’s what they’re doing,” he said. Dr. Gorka recorded a longer version of his father’s story in a video interview with Stranahan. See it here. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 0fake |
US Woman’s Soccer Player Rapinoe Won’t Stop Speaking Out on Social Issues - Breitbart | Last year, after some players used the sport to protest against the country, the U. S. Women’s National soccer team added a rule requiring all players to stand for the playing of the national anthem. But, one of the players whose actions forced the rule by refusing to stand, Megan Rapinoe, is insisting that she won’t stop speaking out about social issues no matter what rules the team implements. [Rapinoe, 31, took flack last season for joining former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in his protests by taking a knee instead of standing during the anthem. But, after several players indulged the protests, the national team added rules requiring all players representing the U. S. to stand during the anthem. The player, who has been on national teams since 2003, says she will obey the new rule but it won’t stop her from speaking about about the “inequality” she claims to see in the U. S. A. “What has surprised me the most, especially is that people are still sort of arguing against it. It’s really obvious that we have very serious inequality in this country across many different spectrums,” Rapinoe told the U. K. Guardian. “Yes, we can talk about the form of protest, or the way it’s done, or this or that. But it’s still not really the conversation that I think we desperately need to have more of in this country. ” Rapinoe insisted that the anthem protest is not the only way to speak out against the United States. “I don’t think there’s any perfect way to protest. I think if there was something else being done, something else would have been said about it,” Rapinoe exclaimed. “I can’t look back and say that I would have done this different, this different or this different. ” But the player also said that she was not sorry for her protests. “I can sleep at night knowing that I genuinely tried to have a really important conversation, or at least tried to open it up,” she said. “I think I came to it with an open mind, an open heart and tried to get as many people to talk about it as I could. ” “God forbid you be a gay woman and a person of color in this country because you’d be really fu**ed,” she added. Rapinoe also said she is widening her protests after “learning” more about the “inequalities” in the U. S. “As I got more into gay rights, I got more into equal pay and you just see that it’s all connected. You can’t really speak out on one thing and not another without it not being the full picture,” she insisted. “We need to talk about a larger conversation in this country about equality in general and respect — especially with the recent election and subsequent narrative that’s coming from the White House right now. ” “I hope to continue to have the conversation,” Rapinoe concluded. “Hopefully people who disagree with me continue to have the conversation and we can kind of open each other up even more than we already have. ” Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0fake |
Former NSA Whistleblower: ‘Trump Absolutely Right He Was Wiretapped’ | 21st Century Wire says Former NSA executive and whistleblower William Binney confirmed that President Donald J. Trump is absolutely right to claim he was wiretapped and monitored. Binney, a 36 year NSA veteran also considered a legend within the agency, created the agency s mass surveillance program for digital information and served as the senior technical director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees. After the events of September 11th, 2001, Binney resigned from the NSA and became a whistleblower when discovering that the data-monitoring program he had helped develop nicknamed ThinThread was being used to spy on Americans, as reported by PBS.More on this report from Zerohedge Tyler Durden ZerohedgeLegendary NSA whistleblower William Binney (and creator of NSA s global surveillance system) confirmed to Fox News, that President Trump is absolutely right to claim he was wiretapped and monitored he was.As we noted previously, Binney is the NSA executive who created the agency s mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees, the 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a legend within the agency and the NSA s best-ever analyst and code-breaker, who mapped out the Soviet command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so predicted Soviet invasions before they happened ( in the 1970s, he decrypted the Soviet Union s command system, which provided the US and its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and Russian atomic weapons ). Binney is the real McCoy.Binney resigned from NSA shortly after the U.S. approach to intelligence changed following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He became a whistleblower after discovering that elements of a data-monitoring program he had helped develop nicknamed ThinThread were being used to spy on Americans, PBS reported.On Monday he came to the defense of the president, whose allegations on social media over the weekend that outgoing President Barack Obama tapped his phones during the 2016 campaign have rankled Washington. I think the president is absolutely right. His phone calls, everything he did electronically, was being monitored, Bill Binney, a 36-year veteran of the National Security Agency who resigned in protest from the organization in 2001, told Fox Business on Monday. Everyone s conversations are being monitored and stored , Binney said.Binney also told Sean Hannity s radio show earlier Monday, I think the FISA court s basically totally irrelevant. The judges on the FISA court are not even concerned, nor are they involved in any way with the Executive Order 12333 collection, Binney said during the radio interview. That s all done outside of the courts. And outside of the Congress. Binney also told Fox the laws that fall under the FISA court s jurisdiction are simply out there for show and trying to show that the government is following the law, and being looked at and overseen by the Senate and House intelligence committees and the courts. That s not the main collection program for NSA, Binney said Continue this report at ZerohedgeREAD MORE TRUMP AT: 21st Century Wire TRUMP FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
The battle for minds: Britain expands project on mental health in terrorism | LONDON (Reuters) - A project looking at links between mental health and terrorism in three English cities has been expanded nationwide after it found a significant number of people referred to counter-radicalization programs suffer some form of mental illness. Studies have suggested the prevalence of mental health issues among militants working together on major strikes is very low but a string of killings by so-called lone wolves has fueled concerns mental illness could be a factor behind some attacks. Authorities say some of those involved in four attacks in Britain this year blamed on Islamist militants appeared to people who had self-radicalized via the internet and whose mental state had been questioned. To look more closely at the issue, British police launched pilot programs in April last year in England s three biggest urban areas - London, Birmingham and Manchester - to embed mental health experts with counter-terrorism officers. The aim was to give psychiatrists the chance to identify people referred to Britain s counter-radicalization program Prevent who had mental health issues, and treat them. Anecdotally, I am surprised that there appears to be a much higher prevalence of people with mental health problems than you would expect, said Professor Jennifer Shaw, the mental health lead for Greater Manchester Police, referring to the people her team had dealt with since the pilot was launched. The hubs are considered so successful by the government they have been expanded nationwide, Shaw, professor of forensic psychiatry at the University of Manchester, told Reuters. But such is the secrecy around the work of Prevent and Channel - a de-radicalization program within the overall project - there are few details about its successes or failings and Shaw s work has not previously been discussed in the media. Some psychiatrists argue that no scientific link between mental health issues and terrorist attacks has yet been established and they worry the programs risk stigmatizing people suffering from mental illnesses. Another psychiatrist gathering data under the pilot programs told Reuters that Britain s Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism had told them not to disclose any details of their findings ahead of a final report. Those findings are expected to be among a raft of data about people referred to Prevent due to be released this week. Britain s interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Dr Adrian James, registrar at Britain s Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP), said the link between mental health problems and terrorist acts had not been established. He said a lack of evidence, partly because militant attacks were so rare, was at the heart of the problem, adding that an unnecessary level of secrecy about Prevent also meant many psychiatrists viewed the program with suspicion. If it is true that there is a link, we need to know and then need to look at the causes of that and what we can do about them, James told Reuters. We just want the facts. Past studies have disagreed about the significance of mental health issues among lone wolf attackers, with some academics concluding that such illnesses are blamed to try to explain often complex reasons for attacks. British police decided to launch the pilot programs because they believed that roughly half the 7,500 people referred to Prevent each year had a broad range of mental health and psychological difficulties. Those working on the pilot projects hope the information being gathered will now help experts assess any possible links between mental health issues and attacks. Shaw said determining who might be a potential attacker from mental health problems alone was not really feasible and fraught with problems, but she said it might be possible to ascertain the characteristics of people most likely to be at risk and ensure they got appropriate help. That doesn t mean you can t manage the risks. Trying to nip it in the bud, that s all you can do. But that s good if you can achieve that, it s going a long way, said Shaw. Police officers say they have struggled in the past to reach medical practitioners when they had concerns about some people and Shaw said the pilot was designed to address those worries. According to one of Shaw s case studies, a man went to a hospital saying he monitored Islamic State websites, had been walking around the city center working out how many people he could kill in a gun attack, and wanted to behead his mother. Shaw s team discovered the man had no contact with mental health services and no diagnosis of any illness. An urgent assessment concluded his anger stemmed from experiences in his childhood and safeguarding measures were put in place. British police have no doubts about the importance of the work, especially given the global shift from carefully planned spectacular attacks by militant networks to unsophisticated, strikes by individuals using cars and knives as weapons. Mark Rowley, Britain s most senior counter-terrorism officer, told the British Medical Journal in April that a disproportionate number of suspects in 13 attacks foiled by British police since 2013 had mental health issues. If part of the terrorist methodology is to prey on the vulnerable ... then it stands to reason that there will be people with certain mental health conditions who will be ... susceptible to that, he said. Radicalizing and inciting someone who is vulnerable to go and carry out some ghastly attack seems to be part of their tactics, and that has brought in a whole load of vulnerability issues, including mental health, that we now have to wrestle with, said Rowley. A study by University College London s (UCL) Department of Security and Crime Science looked at 55 attacks involving 76 individuals between May 2014 and September 2016 where reports had shown the perpetrators may have been influenced by IS. The study found 34 percent of those involved in attacks inspired by Islamic State - rather than actually directed by the militant group - had mental health issues. Health experts estimate about one in four people will suffer some form of mental health issue and those with mental illnesses are generally less likely to commit violent crimes than the overall population. Shaw said those with mental health issues and developmental disorders referred to her team at Prevent were more likely to be suffering from psychosis and autism, adding that people with serious mental illnesses often had tiny social networks. They can therefore, when unwell, be influenced by messages that go out that say come and belong to our group. It can be quite compelling. The same for people with autism. The internet kind of way of getting the message out makes those people, particularly vulnerable. So I think that s a big issue. Psychiatrists worry that all people with mental health issues could be stigmatized and considered potential militants, possibly deterring them from seeking help. Prevent, one of the four strands of Britain s counter-terrorism strategy known as Contest launched in 2003, has also been dogged by claims it is used to spy on Muslim communities. A government edict in 2015 instructing public bodies such as schools, health workers and universities to raise any concerns they have about individuals with the authorities has exacerbated those concerns. Shaw acknowledged more work was needed on the outcomes of their mental health interventions under the Prevent pilot programs to determine what made a difference. Asked if people her team had treated might have committed violent acts if their conditions had not been addressed, she said: That is the obvious question. You can t say that in any kind of scientific way. We re attempting to try and get at that. Is it completely to do with their mental illness, half to do with it, or not at all? said Shaw. We have had cases where people have had ideologies, they have also had a mental health problem, and they are not linked at all. The last thing we need is all these bombers are nutters . We don t want that going on. | 0fake |
WEEK #13 of NFL HELL CONTINUES: “Lots of Empty Seats For The Biggest Game of The NFL Week” | Here are just a few examples of the empty or mostly empty NFL stands across America today:The stands appear to be mostly empty for the Atlanta Falcons V. Minnesota Vikings game, in what NFL fans were calling the biggest game of the week on Twitter.Lots of empty seats for the biggest game of the NFL week pic.twitter.com/kQDZySMFtU Brian Handke (@brianhandke) December 3, 2017Here s another shot of the empty seats at the Atlanta vs. Minnesota game in Atlanta:Caption: "What s up with ALL the empty seats? 30% empty? Could it be tix are too expensive? Fans don t want to pay the PSL?" (https://t.co/ceK9VSHPuT) pic.twitter.com/ZftCoDwwr8 Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) December 3, 2017It appears as though Jacksonville fans found something better to do than watch the Indiana vs. Jacksonville matchup.Pic via an Indiana talking head #INDvsJAX RT @cliffWISH8: available for the Jags playoff push. I repeat. pic.twitter.com/XfcVfkh5EJ Empty Seats Galore (@EmptySeatsPics) December 3, 2017Here s a close up of the empty seats in Jacksonville:What are those? pic.twitter.com/SYqmwKZyBl Jags Ghost (@Battle4Duval) December 3, 2017Meanwhile, back in the Midwest, a lot of empty seats can be found again this week in Chicago s Soldier Field, that is usually a sold out venue:There are some empty seats here at Soldier Field. It looks like the Lions game two weeks ago: pic.twitter.com/rEfsrT0hD9 Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) December 3, 2017Here s a close up of the empty seats in the upper deck at the Bears game:A lot of empty seats in the upper deck today. #Bears pic.twitter.com/eqdnpdDbl7 Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) December 3, 2017The north end zone doesn t look any better:Good amount of empty seats in north end zone. pic.twitter.com/YQJwnpvwGv Jeff Dickerson (@DickersonESPN) December 3, 2017I know that I am a goat, but do I smell that bad? 49ers at Bears. Media deck. @EmptySeatsPics pic.twitter.com/7JiTEczWXh prof. goat (@ProfGoat) December 3, 2017The Buffalo Bills played the NE Patriots, 2017 Superbowl championship team, and former NFL fans didn t seem to care enough to show up and watch the game :A lot of empty seats came out to see the Bills play the Patriots today @EmptySeatsPics pic.twitter.com/NgGSwdEkqP Darin Weeks (@DarinJWeeks) December 3, 2017 | 1real |
Arizona’s Largest Newspaper Breaks 125 Year Tradition, Backs Democrat For President | Since 1890, The Arizona Republic, now the state s largest and most popular newspaper, has seen over 30 presidential elections. And every time, they have endorsed the Republican contender Eisenhower, Nixon, Goldwater, Ford, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, and Romney.This year, something changed dramatically for the editorial board they put country over party, and endorsed Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, over Donald Trump, the Republican.Once again, Hillary has broken a glass ceiling.Writing that Hillary Clinton is the only candidate who can lead America forward, the editorial board did not mince words with their hatred for Donald Trump. The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified, the board writes just after pointing out that they have a deep admiration for conservative principles.The board also pointed out that Hillary is by no means a conservative (rather a centrist), but in the grand scheme of things, Trump s bombastic, offensive, divisive and racial language is contrary to what America stands for, and this against what they argue to be real conservatism:Trump s conversion to conservatism is recent and unconvincing. There is no guarantee he will name solid conservatives to the Supreme Court Trump s inability to control himself or be controlled by others represents a real threat to our national security. His recent efforts to stay on script are not reassuring. They are phony.Ouch. Not only is Trump a faux conservative in their eyes, he s a con man who s trying to lie his way into the presidency. Luckily, the Arizona Republic sees right through his xenophobic nonsense.While chiding Trump for his bromance with Russia and complete lack of world knowledge and foreign diplomacy, the paper highlights Hillary s ability to take a composed and headstrong approach to the issues facing America abroad:Clinton has argued America s case before friendly and unfriendly foreign leaders with tenacity, diplomacy and skill. She earned respect by knowing the issues, the history and the facts. She is intimately familiar with the challenges we face in our relations with Russia, China, the Middle East, North Korea and elsewhere. She ll stand by our friends and she s not afraid to confront our enemies.Quite possibly the biggest factor in the Republic s decision was Trump s treatment of Mexico and the hardworking, honest people that live there and the immigrants that enrich Arizona culturally, economically and diplomatically.When you I aunt Mexico and its people, you insult Arizona and its people.Trump is learning the hard way that words have consequences, and that decent people and decent entities will stand up to his bully pulpit.That is why the Arizona Republic put people over party and made the right decision.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
Cuba tells U.S. suspension of visas is hurting families | (Corrects paragraph 7 to show Trump issued a warning on travel to Cuba, not a ban on travel to Cuba) HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba told senior U.S. officials during talks on migration in Havana on Monday that the U.S. decision to suspend visa processing at its embassy on the island was seriously hampering family relations and other people exchanges. Relations between the former Cold War foes became strained after Donald Trump became the U.S. President, partially reversing the thaw seen during Barack Obama s presidency. In September, after allegations of incidents affecting the health of its diplomats in Havana, the U.S. administration reduced its embassy to a skeleton staff, resulting in the suspension of almost all visa processing. The Cuban delegation expressed deep concern over the negative impact that the unilateral, unfounded and politically motivated decisions adopted by the U.S. government ... have on migration relations between both countries, the Cuban foreign ministry said in a statement. The statement was issued after delegations led by Cuba s Foreign Ministry chief for U.S. Affairs Josefina Vidal and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs John Creamer met to discuss migration issues. Many Cubans said they were heartbroken because they could not visit, or be with, their loved ones. While Cuba has a population of 11.2 million people, there are an estimated 2 million Cuban Americans in the United States. The Trump administration also issued a warning on travel to Cuba and in October expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington. The Cuban foreign ministry said this had seriously affected the functioning of the diplomatic mission, particularly the Consulate and the services it offers to Cubans residing in the United States . The U.S. decision to cancel the visits of official delegations to Cuba was also having a counterproductive effect on cooperation in fields like migration, the ministry said. On the positive side, both the U.S. and Cuban delegations commented on the drop in illegal Cuban migration to the United States during the talks as a result of past moves towards normalizing relations. Obama, who announced the detente with Cuba nearly three years ago, eliminated a policy granting automatic residency to virtually all Cubans who arrived on U.S. turf in January, just before leaving office. Cuba had asked for the change for years, saying that policy encouraged dangerous journeys and people trafficking. Apprehensions of Cuban migrants at U.S. ports of entry decreased by 64 percent from fiscal year 2016 to 2017, and maritime interdictions of Cuban migrants decreased by 71 percent, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. Trump said in June he was canceling Obama s terrible and misguided deal with Havana, returning to Cold War rhetoric, and his administration has tightened trade and travel restrictions. He has however in practise left in place many of Obama s changes including restored diplomatic relations and resumed direct U.S.-Cuba commercial flights and cruise-ship travel. | 0fake |
Kremlin: Putin and Trump made no promises on cyber group | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump made no promises to each other to form a joint group on cyber security, but they stated their readiness to work in this direction, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. The Kremlin also does not know the Russian lawyer who allegedly met Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, last year, two weeks after Trump won the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency, Peskov told a conference call with reporters. The allegation that Trump’s associates met with the Kremlin-linked lawyer after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, was made in an article by the New York Times. | 0fake |
Israeli siren app says rockets fired at Israel near Gaza Strip | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli siren phone application sounded that rockets were fired at Israel at various locations near the Gaza Strip on Thursday but there was no initial confirmation of any hits in Israel, the military said. The siren warning sounded on a day of heightened tensions following protests in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank in which Palestinians protested at U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement on Wednesday that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital city. | 0fake |
Russia Has a Dead Nuclear Submarine (Armed With Nuclear Weapons) Sitting at the Bottom of the Ocean - Kyle Mizokami | Bias bashers Russia Has a Dead Nuclear Submarine (Armed With Nuclear Weapons) Sitting at the Bottom of the Ocean
A fascinating vessel and a heroic captain both met tragic ends Originally appeared at The National Interest
In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union constructed a super submarine unlike any other. Fast and capable of astounding depths for a combat submersible, the submarine Komsomolets was introduced in 1984, heralded as a new direction for the Soviet Navy.
Five years later, Komsomolets and its nuclear weapons were on the bottom of the ocean, two-thirds of its crew killed by what was considered yet another example of Soviet incompetence.
The history of the Komsomolets goes as far back as 1966. A team at the Rubin Design Bureau under N. A. Klimov and head designer Y. N. Kormilitsin was instructed to begin research into a Project 685, a deep-diving submarine. The research effort dragged on for eight years, likely due to a lack of a suitable metal that could withstand the immense pressures of the deep. In 1974, however, the double-hulled design was completed, with a titanium alloy chosen for the inner hull.
Project 685, also known as K-278, was to be a prototype boat to test future deep-diving Soviet submarines. The Sevmash shipyard began construction on April 22, 1978 and the ship was officially completed on May 30, 1983. The difficulty in machining titanium contributed to the unusually long construction period.
K-278 was 360 feet long and forty feet wide, with the inner hull approximately twenty-four feet wide. It had a submerged displacement of 6,500 tons, and the use of titanium instead of steel made it notably lighter. It had a unique double hull, with the inner hull made of titanium, that gave it its deep-diving capability. The inner hull was further divided into seven compartments, two of which were reinforced to create a safe zone for the crew, and an escape capsule was built into the sail to allow the crew to abandon ship while submerged at depths of up to 1,500 meters.
The submarine was powered by one 190-megawatt OK-650B-3 nuclear pressurized water reactor, driving two forty-five-thousand-shipboard-horsepower steam-turbine engines. This propelled it to a submerged speed of thirty knots, and a surface speed of fourteen knots.
The sub had the MGK-500 “Skat” (NATO code name: Shark Gill) low-frequency passive/active search and attack spherical bow array sonar system, the same sonar used in today’s Yasen-class attack submarines, which fed into the Omnibus-685 Combat Information Control System. Armament consisted of six 533-millimeter standard diameter torpedo tubes, including twenty-two Type 53 torpedoes and Shkval supercavitating antisubmarine torpedoes.
The submarine joined the Red Banner Northern Fleet in January 1984 and began a series of deep diving experiments. Under Captain First Rank Yuri Zelensky the submarine set a record depth of 3,346 feet—an astounding accomplishment considering its American equivalent, the USS Los Angeles class, had an absolute maximum depth of 1,475 feet. Crush depth was estimated at approximately 4,500 feet. The submarine had a special surfacing system, “Iridium,” which used gas generators to blow the ballast tanks.
The Soviet Navy considered K-278 invulnerable at depths greater than one thousand meters; at such depths it was difficult to detect and enemy torpedoes, particularly the American Mark 48, which had a maximum depth of eight hundred meters. Although the submarine was originally to be a test ship, it was eventually made into a fully operational combat-ready ship in 1988. It was given the name Komsomolets, meaning “member of the Young Communist League.”
On April 7, 1989, while operating a depth of 1266 feet, Komsomolets ran into trouble in the middle of the Norwegian Sea. According to Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore , it was the submarine’s second crew , newly trained in operating the ship. Furthermore, its origins as a test ship meant it lacked a damage-control party.
A fire broke out in the seventh aft chamber, and the flames burned out an air supply valve, which fed pressurized air into the fire. Fire suppression measures failed. The reactor was scrammed and the ballast tanks were blown to surface the submarine. The fire continued to spread, and the crew fought the fire for six hours before the order to abandon ship was given. According to Polmar and Moore, the fire was so intense that crewmen on deck watched as the rubber anechoic coating tiles coating the outer hull slid off due to the extreme heat.
The ship’s commanding officer, Captain First Rank Evgeny Vanin, along with four others, went back into the ship to find crewmembers who had not heard the abandon ship order. Vanin and his rescue party were unable to venture farther—the submarine was tilting eighty degrees headfirst—and entered the rescue chamber. The chamber failed to dislodge at first, but eventually broke free of the mortally wounded sub. Once on the surface, the abrupt pressure change caused the top hatch to blow off, throwing two crewmembers out of the chamber. The chamber, as well as the captain and the rest of the rescue party, sank under the waves.
Only four men had been killed in the incident so far, but after the submarine sank many men succumbed to the thirty-six-degree (Fahrenheit) water temperatures. After an hour the fishing boats Alexi Khlobystov and Oma arrived and rescued thirty men, some of whom later succumbed to their injuries. Of the original sixty-nine men on board the submarine when disaster struck, forty-two died, including Captain First Rank Vanin.
Komsomolets sank in 5,250 feet of water, complete with its nuclear reactor and two nuclear-armed Shkval torpedoes. Between 1989 and 1998 seven expeditions were carried out to secure the reactor against radioactive release and seal the torpedo tubes. Russian sources allege that during these visits, evidence of “unauthorized visits to the sunken submarine by foreign agents” were discovered. | 1real |
Republican unity on U.S. tax overhaul shows sign of fraying | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican efforts to unite the White House, Senate and House of Representatives behind a single tax reform plan appeared to be unraveling on Thursday, when one of the “Big Six” negotiators said the group would not dictate tax policy in the Senate. At the outset of a congressional hearing on tax reform, Senator Orrin Hatch said the Senate Finance Committee he chairs would not be a rubber stamp for the other congressional Republican leaders and senior aides to President Donald Trump who make up the select group that has been working on a tax reform framework for months. The Big Six is preparing to release its framework on Sept. 25, a release that will sound the starting gun for Hatch’s panel and the House Ways and Means Committee to produce tax reform legislation that is now expected in October. Overhauling the U.S. tax code is a top priority of Trump and congressional Republicans, who campaigned on it last year. They have made little progress since taking power in Washington in January via a closed-door process that has excluded Democrats. “The group – some have deemed us the Big Six – will not dictate the direction we take in this committee,” Hatch said. “The Finance Committee will not be bound by any previous tax reform proposal or framework when we start putting our bill together.” Some analysts viewed the Utah Republican’s comments as the beginning of what could be a widening rift among Republicans in the Senate, House and White House that could jeopardize hopes of completing the first overhaul of the tax code in 31 years before January. “Disagreements over both substance and process are driving a wedge between senior House Republicans involved in the tax-writing process and their Senate counterparts,” Henrietta Treyz of investment advisory firm Veda Partners said in a report. But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, Hatch’s congressional counterpart, described potential divergence as a natural and even healthy development that would be kept in check by common ground on major tax issues. “We’ll work this out by the end of the year,” Brady told reporters. “At the end of the day, we just have to sit down and find common ground.” Hatch and Brady are among the Big Six, which also includes Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn. There have already been two statements of general tax principles from Republicans: a one-page document from the Trump administration in April and a joint statement from the Big Six negotiators in July. Democrats have criticized Republican plans as too favorable to the wealthiest Americans and corporations. With the latest blueprint due in less than two weeks, Brady and Mnuchin appeared to differ on Thursday over how much detail the document would contain. Brady told a policy forum that he did not expect the document to offer specifics on tax rates, while Mnuchin said the plan would contain extensive details including a specific corporate rate. Brady later told reporters that talks continued over what the document would contain. “It is still clearly possible that tax reform could be enacted over the next near. However, the signs are not particularly positive at the moment,” analyst Jan Hatzius of investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Thursday. After months of talks, basic questions on the Republican tax plan remain unanswered, such as whether or not the tax cuts they want will expand the U.S. budget deficit. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that the tax reform plan would be revenue neutral, if economic growth spurred by the legislation is taken into account. Revenue neutrality is fast emerging as a divisive issue in Congress, where deficit hawks have expressed misgivings about adding to the deficit. In White House meetings with top Democrats in recent days, Trump has shown a new willingness to deal with the opposition. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi talked about tax reform with Trump after their Wednesday discussion on immigration, according to Representative Richard Neal, the top Ways and Means Democrat. Neal said the White House appeared to be “in synch” with Democrats for now on tax relief for the middle class. “I think that there could be some room there for conversation,” he told the same policy forum where Brady spoke. | 0fake |
HILLARY CLINTON SINGS “Song for Women” In Cameo On The Daily Show [Video] | The Daily Show thought it was appropriate in their yearly recap special to acknowledge some of their biggest moments in a song. The surprise of the song comes at the end Hillary sings? She s like a bad penny that just keeps showing up everywhere. This is a Song for Women sung by a woman who brutalized the women who were sexually assaulted by her husband THE HIGHLIGHT IS THE RIP ON MEGYN KELLY:The song covered a lot of ground, including The Women s March, Elizabeth Warren s persistence, Saudi women being able to drive cars, the South Korean President Park Geun-hye s impeachment, Wonder Woman being a box office hit, to Beyonc Knowles twins. But they also took a swipe at NBC s Megyn Kelly: Megyn Kelly went to NBC from Fox, $17 million for a show that sucks, they sang. Hillary Clinton was asked to take us home. It then cuts to the Democratic candidate in a recording booth belting out a solo: | 1real |
[VIDEO] TWO STREET PREACHERS SEVERELY BEATEN BY TOLERANT GAYS AT SEATTLE GAY PRIDE PARADE | Gay pride? Tolerance is a one-way street for those on the left Two street preachers were brutally beaten punched and kicked by a crowd at a gay pride festival in Seattle and the entire melee was captured on video.The preachers were holding signs reading Repent or Else and Jesus Saves From Sin. The video shows a group of people initially screaming and threatening the men during Pridefest at the Seattle Space Needle.Television station KOMO reported that some of the attackers belonged to a group called NOH8A group of women tried to steal their signs but were unsuccessful. The video then shows a group of men grabbing onto one of the preacher s signs and dragging him to the ground. At some point he was punched in the back of the head a number of times while others can be seen kicking the man.Another preacher was sucker punched in the back of the head.Police arrested two suspects one of whom has a long rap sheet.It s not the first time Christians have been attacked by pro-gay activists.Last August a gunman opened fire inside the headquarters of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. Floyd Lee Corkins, Jr. pled guilty to committing an act of terrorism on the pro-family organization.Corkins shot FRC security guard Leo Johnson and intended to shoot others but Johnson was able to disarm the man.Last year a group called Angry Queers caused thousands of dollars in damage to the Portland, Ore. campus of Mars Hill Church. The vandals hurled stones through stain glass windows, LifeSiteNews reported.The Angry Queers sent an e-mail to television station KOIN defending their criminal acts because Mars Hill is notoriously anti-gay and anti-woman. The vandals sent an e-mail to local television station KOIN-TV stating they took the action, because Mars Hill is notoriously anti-gay and anti-woman. And when the new campus of the church opened gay rights protestors shouted profanities at children calling them homophobes and telling the boys and girls they were going to burn in Hell. Via: Todd Starnes FOX News | 1real |
Fox Biz Reporter Can't Help But Bash Clinton’s Rally After Covering Trump’s Packed Event Day Before | Share on Twitter
The battle of campaign rallies has been going strong throughout the 2016 presidential election, with both candidates amassing pretty large crowds.
Just last month, the Washington Post compared two separate September rallies for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Trump's had a crowd of 15,000, at his Sept. 27th rally in Melbourne, Florida: Unbelievable evening in Melbourne, Florida w/ 15,000 supporters- and an additional 12,000 who could not get in. Thank you! #TrumpTrain #MAGA pic.twitter.com/2N3Xq7AGmx — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2016
...while Clinton had a crowd of roughly 1,400 people in Raleigh, North Carolina, that same day: Hillary Clinton rallies in Raleigh, NC the day after the debate pic.twitter.com/pvWndH0zlK — Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) September 27, 2016
It appears as though Fox Business reporter Adam Shapiro felt the need to compare Trump and Hillary's crowd attendance, too.
At a West Palm Beach rally Wednesday, Shapiro said there appeared to be roughly a thousand Hillary supporters at Palm Beach State College, which was a sizable difference to Trump's rally the day before:
"It's nowhere near the size of the crowd we saw in Sanford, Florida yesterday for Mr. Trump — 15,000.
Take a look, Stewart [camera pans crowd].
There's maybe 1,000 to 2,000 people here today. The Clinton rallies tend to be much smaller and you can see there's empty space here." Image Credit: Screenshot/ YouTube
He just couldn't stop talking about it, adding that if they were covering a Trump rally, the room would be “packed.”
Though Shapiro took a dig at the Democratic nominee for her apparently “empty” rally, those who were in attendance still sang “Happy Birthday” to her. | 1real |
McCain: ’Obviously’ Russia Wanted Election Outcome ’to Be What It Was’ - Breitbart | Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” while commenting on a report form The Washington Post that Russian officials were celebrating the victory of Donald Trump, Sen. John McCain ( ) said it was obvious the Russian government wanted the outcome to be what it was. McCain said, “I think you can only draw the conclusion that if they were celebrating that they obviously wanted the outcome to be what it was. And then the question is is what did they do to try to achieve that outcome? And it’s pretty obvious that they were heavily engaged — and we need to come to grips with it and get to the bottom of it and overall, come up with a strategy in this new form of warfare that can basically dismantle — harm our economy, harm our elections and harm our national security. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
UPDATE: DEM OFFICIAL CAUGHT ON TAPE: “I’m Glad He (Scalise) Got Shot, I Wish He Was F*cking Dead…” [Audio] | THE UPDATE TO THIS NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC PARTY OFFICIAL S DISGUSTING COMMENTS: PHIL MONTAG HAS BEEN FIRED!The Democrats just aren t getting the message that America is leaving their Party in droves because of violent rhetoric! Who wants to be associated with anyone who is happy that someone got shot?A Nebraska Democratic Party official is now in hot water. An audio recording was posted on YouTube Thursday with Phil Montag, a technology chairman, voicing how glad he was that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., got shot last week at a GOP baseball practice. Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb confirmed to FOX 42 News Thursday it was really his voice:Nebraska Democrat Party official caught on tape saying I m glad that motherfucker [Scalise] got fucking shot, I wish he was fucking dead! pic.twitter.com/yFJ32PqT77 Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 23, 2017 His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to (expletive) kick people off (expletive) health care. I m glad he got shot, said Montag in the audio recording.Montag is now looking for a new job; Kleeb let him go after the recording became public. I wish he was (expletive) dead, said Montag in the recording. We obviously condemn any kind of violence, whether it s comments on Facebook or comments in a meeting, said Kleeb when reached by phone Thursday. | 1real |
LOL! The Woman Who Couldn’t Be Bothered With Protecting Lives Of Brave Americans Serving In Benghazi Attacks Trump On National Security | Ironically, the two issues that catapulted Trump past all of his competitors in the GOP Presidential race were building the wall on our southern border and not allowing unveiled refugees to enter our country. We re gonna go out on a limb and guess that based on Trump s popularity with a wide variety of Americans, both issues are pretty important when it comes to our national security.Hillary Clinton will launch an attack on Donald Trump s national security policy Thursday, focusing on an issue the likely Democratic presidential nominee could use to her advantage over the billionaire New Yorker.The address in San Diego will make clear the threat that Donald Trump would pose to our national security and to put forth her own vision for keeping America safe at home and leading in the world, Clinton s campaign said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.For Clinton, the move is part of an effort to paint Trump as fundamentally unsuited to lead the world s most powerful military as she hopes to pivot away from the extended Democratic primary and toward a general election match-up with the presumptive GOP nominee.The attacks on Trump s lack of national security bona fides have increased speculation that he might pick a running mate with more experience in the defense or foreign policy, such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). Throughout this campaign, Trump has refused to outline any coherent foreign policy doctrine, failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of world affairs, and repeatedly proven he s temperamentally unfit to serve as our commander in chief, Clinton s campaign said on Wednesday.Despite his apparent weaknesses, however, Trump benefitted the most when the GOP primary contest took on a national security focus following deadly terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino last year. Notwithstanding their radical nature, Trump s proposals to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the country have attracted a fair amount of support from fellow Republicans. | 1real |
Putin on phone with South Korean president about North Korea: Kremlin | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently discussing the North Korea crisis with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in by phone, the Kremlin said on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters on a conference call that it was easy for countries outside the region to talk of the possibility of a war with North Korea, but suggested other countries should be more cautious in their language. It is very easy to say the word war for countries outside the region, but those in the region need to be smarter and more balanced, Peskov told reporters. He was answering questions about the position of the United States, which has called for a tough response against Pyongyang and its latest missile test. | 0fake |
Analyst View: Democrat Jones wins Alabama U.S. Senate seat in blow to Trump | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democrat Doug Jones won a bitter fight for a U.S. Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama on Tuesday, dealing a political blow to President Donald Trump in a race marked by sexual misconduct accusations against Republican candidate Roy Moore. KEY POINTS: The stunning upset makes Jones the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama in a quarter-century and will trim the Republicans’ already narrow Senate majority to 51-49, opening the door for Democrats to possibly retake the chamber in next year’s congressional elections. PETER CARDILLO, CHIEF MARKET ECONOMIST AT FIRST STANDARD FINANCIAL IN NEW YORK: “If anything it prompts Congress to get the tax bill signed before year end and they have another week. If they don’t they do have a problem.” “From that perspective yesterday’s defeat is good news in terms of tax legislation. They’re not going to risk tax reform because of the election. While it’s a defeat it’s actually a positive.” “If the President doesn’t sign legislation by year end we have a major problem. That would just speed up the process of a correction. Would it affect the economy, reverse the economic growth? Not in 2018, perhaps in 2019.” “It was a defeat for the Republican Party and Mr. Trump but it also motivates the Republicans to get their act together and get a bill signed.” KEITH LERNER, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, SUNTRUST ADVISORY SERVICES IN ATLANTA, GA: “Tax reform is still likely to go through. What happened overnight may present an obstacle to the GOP agenda in 2018, but that’s arguably less important than tax reform. Perhaps there will be some obstacles to infrastructure, entitlement reform. But from a market perspective, those weren’t high-probability anyway. “The high probability is (tax) gets through. The Republicans have tried to fast-track it before (Jones) gets seated, so it’s unlikely his victory will change that. “We’ll have a short-term setback (if the tax bill doesn’t pass), and it may cap the upside of the market since companies won’t be getting an earnings boost. But if there’s a pullback, I think it will be in the 5 to 10 percent range, as opposed to a bear market. “It’s still early, but there looks certainly to be big changes in the midterm with the makeup of the House and Senate. “As long as the economy is on sound footing, gridlock in Washington is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not necessarily preferable, but with the majority so slim as it is, it’s more of a question, does the economy chug along? If the economy continues to move forward, it’s less important.” GENNADIY GOLDBERG, INTEREST RATES STRATEGIST, TD SECURITIES, NEW YORK: “We think one of the possible biggest impact is on the deficit. With the Jones win, it makes it more difficult to pass the tax-cut bill. “This puts pressure on the Republicans to pass tax cuts before year-end. The question is can they do it? Are we going to see special provisions or deals to get it done. I think it’s a ‘get it done’ mentality. If not, it does bleed into early 2018. “It lowers the odds of getting anything done in 2018.” L. THOMAS BLOCK, FUNDSTRAT GLOBAL ADVISORS, WASHINGTON POLICY STRATEGY (from research note): “Bottom line is that the Alabama Senate race doesn’t change the basic (Washington) DC headlines, first that tax bill should pass by Christmas, and that there are tough negotiations ahead to solve the budget issues and avoid a government shutdown.” MARC CHANDLER, GLOBAL HEAD OF CURRENCY STRATEGY, BROWN BROTHERS HARRIMAN (from research note): “(The dollar) did slip to the low for the week against the yen, when it became clear that the Republicans were going to lose the Senate seat in Alabama. This reduced the Republican majority to one in the Senate. Owing the fissures in the party, this is putting at risk other parts of Trump’s agenda, which Treasury Secretary Mnuchin acknowledged earlier this week is necessary to achieve the kind of growth levels that the tax bill assumes.” U.S. stock futures and the dollar dipped on Wednesday, although equities turned around by the open and the S&P 500 Index was last up 0.2 percent. | 0fake |
HOUSE INTEL Slaps Subpoenas on McCain Institute Associate Involved in “Trump Dirty Dossier” Sources | Please see our previous report below on the McCain Institute associate who has now been subpoenaed by the House Intel Committee. David J. Kramer was in hot water before for the same reason the Intel Committee is now issuing a subpoena:He was previously subpoenaed by the lawyers for a Russian tech executive suing BuzzFeed. The guy just refuses to give out any information on sources for the dirty dossier. This raises the question of if there were sources that were fictional and were used just to build a fake case against Trump. President Trump just tweeted out that the dossier is a pile of garbage . Could it be that this pile of garbage was used to make the case for a FISA warrant to spy on POTUS The plot thickens on this one The Daily Caller reports: The House Intelligence Committee has issued a subpoena for an associate of Arizona Sen. John McCain s who revealed last week that he knows the names of the Russian sources used in former British spy Christopher Steele s infamous dossier.A congressional source tells The Daily Caller that California Rep. Devin Nunes issued the subpoena on Wednesday for David J. Kramer, a former State Department official.Kramer refused to divulge the names of Steele s sources during a Dec. 19 interview with the panel, the source says.Steele used Russian sources to gather information on the Trump campaign and Donald Trump s activities in Russia. The ex-spy was working for Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was on the payroll of the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee.OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THE MCCAIN ASSOCIATE WHO REFUSED TO SPILL THE BEANS: Lawyers for a Russian tech executive suing BuzzFeed for publishing the Steele dossier say that a longtime associate of Arizona Sen. John McCain and two major news outlets are resisting subpoenas seeking their depositions for the case.In a brief filed in federal court late Wednesday, lawyers for the executive, Aleksej Gubarev, claim that David Kramer (pictured below), a former State Department official and McCain associate, has been seemingly avoiding service of a deposition subpoena for weeks.Please see the very curious input Reason.com put out just this July regarding Kramer s involvement in the Steele dossier getting into the hands of the press. And The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are challenging deposition subpoenas they have been served as part of the case.Gubarev s lawyers are attempting to find out who gave BuzzFeed the salacious dossier, which the website published to much controversy on Jan. 10.The dossier, written by former British spy Christopher Steele, alleges that Gubarev and his companies, XBT Holdings and Webzilla, used spam, viruses and porn bots to hack into DNC computer systems. Gubarev vehemently denies the allegations.Gubarev s attorneys say that identifying BuzzFeed s source could shed light on whether the news outlet was warned that information in the dossier could be false. They argue that publishing the dossier despite such warnings would show reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the information published. BuzzFeed has defended its decision to publish the dossier, which was financed by the Clinton campaign and DNC and commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS. It is also resisting demands from Gubarev s team to identify its dossier source on the grounds that it would violate its First Amendment protections as a news-gathering organization.Via: Daily CallerReason had this to say on July 16th on the mystery surrounding how the fake dossier got into the hands of Buzzfeed:Did John McCain and a controversial D.C. lobbying group conspire to get the infamous pee dossier into the hands of the press?A lawsuit making its way through court in the UK hopes to determine just what role the senator and his associates had in making the lurid dossier public.New filings in the lawsuit, obtained by McClatchy, detail how David Kramer employed by the nonprofit and purportedly non-political McCain Institute acted as a representative of McCain in the Arizona senator s dealings on sensitive intelligence measures:According to a new court document in the British lawsuit, counsel for defendants Steele and Orbis repeatedly point to McCain, R-Ariz., a vocal Trump critic, and a former State Department official as two in a handful of people known to have had copies of the full document before it circulated among journalists and was published by BuzzFeed. Read more: McClatchyIt also reveals that McCain was one of a just few people with whom the dossier s author, ex-British spy Christopher Steele, shared a copy of his final findings. So how did they get from there to publication in Buzzfeed?THE PLOT THICKENS! | 1real |
TINA FEY Blasts ONLY White Women For Voting For Trump: “You can’t look away”…This White Woman Has A Question For Tina Fey! | A lot of this election was turned by white, college-educated women who now would like to forget about this election and go back to watching HGTV, the actress opined during a celebrity Facebook Live fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union. You can t look away because it doesn t affect you this minute, but it s going to affect you eventually. The 30 Rock star made the comments during a conversation that was mostly about women s reproductive rights with Donna Lieberman, executive director of the ACLU in New York, and Louise Melling, the organization s deputy legal director.At the end of the brief interview, Fey had one final comment: I personally would like to make my own pledge to college-educated white women to not look away, not pretend that things that are happening now won t eventually affect me if we don t put a stop to it, she pleaded.Read more: FOX News | 1real |
WHAT TOMI LARHEN JUST DID MADE HILLARY CLINTON’S LIFE A LIVING HELL! | WHAT TOMI LARHEN JUST DID MADE HILLARY CLINTON’S LIFE A LIVING HELL! Tweet
Danny Gold for Liberty Writers reports, Oh man, you gotta love Tomi Lahren. I mean forget the fact that she is easy on the eyes, this conservative bombshell has the bite of a cobra and the wit of Albert Einstein! Now she has come out all guns blazing ready to shoot down Hillary Clinton, and boy is Hillary in for a world of hurt.
Read more: | 1real |
Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... | Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... I'm ok. Your turn. Go! Anonymous Coward Report Copyright Violation Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... Pretty rank these last few days. Wash day on Friday so not long till Im feeling fresh again. Have an itchy anus too. Anonymous Coward Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... My underarms smell like the end of times Anonymous Coward ( OP ) Report Copyright Violation Re: Sniff your underarms and tell us if you stink... Pretty rank these last few days. Wash day on Friday so not long till Im feeling fresh again. Have an itchy anus too. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 73271021 You need to wash everyday. Why do you Europeans walk around stinking like that? You know better than that! Go hit the shower now! | 1real |
France to skip 2018 Winter Games if security not assured | PARIS/SEOUL (Reuters) - France’s Winter Olympics team will not travel to the 2018 Games in South Korea if its security cannot be guaranteed, France’s sports minister said on Thursday, the first major doubts by a participating nation about growing North Korean tensions. The games organizer said on Friday that it is closely monitoring the current geopolitical situation with the South Korean government, adding that safety is the top priority. Tensions in the region have escalated since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3, prompting global condemnation. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un said on Friday the North will consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the United States in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the North. France’s Sports Minister Laura Flessel told RTL radio that if the crisis deepened and “our security cannot be assured, the French Olympics team will stay at home.” But she added: “We’re not there yet.” Participants in the Games - the first Winter Olympics hosted by an Asian nation outside Japan - had not previously raised safety concerns publicly. The games are scheduled for Feb 9-25 next year in Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the world’s most heavily armed border. The two countries remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. “Safety and security is one of the most important aspects of Games preparations,” Sung Baik-you, a spokesman for the organizing committee, said in a statement to Reuters on Friday. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday the country is pushing to ensure security at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. In a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, Moon said South Korea is well aware of the concerns. The Japanese Olympic Committee said on Friday it is not considering the cancellation of its plans. “We will continue to prepare in the same way as with other international competitions that we take part in,” a spokeswoman for the committee said. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) said it was working with all the relevant authorities to ensure its athletes would be safe. “Each host city presents a unique challenge from a security perspective, and, as is always the case, we are working with the organizers, the U.S. State Department and the relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure that our athletes, and our entire delegation, are safe,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said. The Chinese Olympic Committee said it had no immediate comment. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), which has representatives in South Korea, said the safety of its team was always its main priority. “The safety of our entire Canadian Olympic Team is always our main priority, no matter where the Games are held,” the COC said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “The Government of Canada does not currently have travel advisories in place for South Korea and recommends that Canadians exercise normal security precautions, which is the lowest of four risk levels.” Australia, one of Asia’s largest participants at recent Winter Games, is monitoring the situation. “The safety of our team is of the highest priority but we are comfortable with the priority that the (International Olympic Committee) and the Org Comm are placing on security and safety of the Games and its participants,” the Australian Olympic Committee said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “We are relying on advice from DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and working with the Korean Ambassador and if their advice changes, we will advise our team accordingly but for the moment there is no suggestion that the Games will not go ahead or their safety is compromised.” The chief of the International Ski Federation, Gian-Franco Kasper, dismissed any fears among athletes, saying the Pyeongchang Olympics would be the “safest in the world”. He conceded, however, that ticket sales among overseas visitors could be affected. The IOC has said it is not contemplating any ‘Plan B’ for the Games. IOC President Thomas Bach said last week that considering any scenario other than holding the Olympics in South Korea could hamper diplomatic efforts. | 0fake |
Climate change should not be 'partisan issue,' Kerry says | CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Work to avert the problems caused by climate change should not be a partisan issue, outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry told students at an elite U.S. engineering school on Monday, in one of his final speeches as the nation’s top diplomat. Kerry noted U.S. officials from military and intelligence leaders to the mayors of coastal cities agree the problem of rising sea levels and erratic rainfall is one that they want to take action on, and he urged the incoming administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump to tackle head on. Trump, a New York real estate developer who has never held elected office, has described climate change as a hoax and vowed to pull the United States out of the deal negotiated in Paris in 2015 to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. But in an interview with the New York Times in November, Trump said he was keeping an open mind on whether to pull out of the accord. “I’m not going to speculate about the policies that our President-elect and his Secretary of State will choose to pursue, but I will tell you this ... some issues look a lot different when you’re actually in office compared to when you’re on the campaign trail,” Kerry said at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “The truth is that climate change shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s an issue that all of us should care about, regardless of political affiliation.” The U.S. Senate this week is due to begin the process of confirming Trump’s political appointments, including proposed Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, who has repeatedly challenged the agency’s authority in the courts. Many Republicans in Congress argue environmental regulations slow business growth and job creation, both expected to be top priorities for the Trump administration. Kerry referenced a U.S. intelligence report published on Monday that listed climate change among the factors that could raise the risk of conflict between nations. Obama on Monday echoed the message in an article published in Science magazine. Kerry called on researchers and students at MIT to keep up their work on improving energy efficiency and inventing new energy sources, regardless of government policies. “It’s going to be innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders ... who will continue to create the technological advances that forever revolutionize the way we power our world,” Kerry said. “Every person in this room – indeed, every person on the planet – has an interest in making sure that transition happens as quickly as possible.” | 0fake |
Democrats' new line on gun control: Do it for national security | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats pushing for gun curbs after the latest mass shooting in the United States are co-opting a Republican mantra to build public support and defang opposition: it’s time to get tough on national security. Shoring up national security has long been a pillar of Republican orthodoxy, as has staunch opposition to gun control. But the massacre of 49 people in Orlando, Florida, last Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, by a gunman who pledged loyalty to Islamist militants may be leaving Republicans on shakier ground. With national security driving the debate, Democrats see a more powerful argument than simply advocating the need to curb gun violence in a country of 320 million that has more than 310 million weapons. Although the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, is believed to have had no help from extremist Islamist groups in targeting a gay nightclub, he had been investigated by U.S. authorities for possible links to terrorism and subsequently cleared. That prompted Democrats to clamor for legislation to expand background checks and prevent people on U.S. terrorism watch lists from buying guns. Votes on four measures were scheduled Monday in the U.S. Senate, two sponsored by Democrats and two by Republicans. Many Republicans, and some Democrats, oppose strict gun curbs partly on constitutional grounds. “Every senator is now going to have to say, whether they’re for terrorists getting guns or against terrorists getting guns,” Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters on Thursday. “The terrorists that we need to fear are not on the streets of Aleppo, or Mosul or Fallujah. They’re on the streets of the United States and they will have guns unless we pass tough laws,” added Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson all took the tack this week that gun measures were a safeguard against terrorism. Republicans have long criticized Obama for not being tough enough on national security and doing more in the fight against Islamic State. The Orlando massacre and the San Bernardino, California shooting in December by a couple inspired by Islamic State captured the attention of the American public in a way previous mass shootings have not, said Tom Diaz, a former member of the National Rifle Association gun rights lobby who now backs gun control. “They’ve changed the dynamic of this whole issue,” said Diaz, an author and expert on terrorism and the gun industry. That shift in sentiment has heartened the families of the 20 elementary school children and six staff members killed in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, who championed the last big, and ultimately unsuccessful push, on gun control. About 71 percent of Americans, including eight out of 10 Democrats and nearly six out of 10 Republicans, favor at least moderate regulations and restrictions on guns, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Monday to Thursday. That was up from 60 percent in late 2013 and late 2014. Diaz believes Republicans must look as if they care about keeping guns out of the hands of so-called homegrown extremists, while balancing issues of due process and the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms that form the backbone of the NRA’s opposition to gun control. Republicans say new laws won’t necessarily keep weapons out of the hands of people intent on doing harm, and are keen to avoid twinning the two issues. “This is not a gun control issue,” U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said on Thursday. “This is a terrorism issue.” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said Democrats “must be careful about overplaying their hand with rhetoric that could sound like government overreach to Americans who believe in the Second Amendment.” Even if the current efforts fail, the new push on national security may prove Democrats’ best shot at eventually luring Republican support on an issue that has floundered for decades. “This is a chance for the Democrats to talk in tough terms about safety and security and also to link that to the gun issue,” said Robert Spitzer, political science professor at State University of New York at Cortland.Some notable Republicans appeared willing this week to engage in the debate on gun control. The party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, vowed to meet with the NRA to talk about ways to bar people on certain government watch lists from buying guns. The top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he was open to suggestions from experts on how to prevent terrorism suspects from acquiring firearms and called the Orlando shooting a “calculated act of terror.” But it was unclear whether Trump or McConnell would throw their weight behind any measures acceptable to Democrats. Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Himes said he did not hold out great hope that the gun legislation would advance. “The reason you won’t see a compromise anytime soon is because Congress actually acting in the wake of Orlando would be a tacit admission on the other side that guns had something to do with what happened in Orlando as opposed to ISIS,” he said, using an acronym for Islamic State. | 0fake |
Can The American People Defeat The Oligarchy That Rules Them? | SPECIAL TO BUSINESS WEEK, MINDY KATZMAN, AUTH. EDITOR--Paul Craig Roberts in front of a portrait of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury. | 1real |
BUDGET DEAL Quadruples Number Of Unskilled Guest Workers | Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is officially a total sellout! He agreed to a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill with Obama late Wednesday night that increases unskilled guest workers allowed into America significantly. Under the bloated $1.1 trillion bill, the number of H-2B visas will nearly be up as much as four times as the previous levels. This allows unskilled illegals into this country to drive down wages. There is always the chance terrorists are embedded in the increase in visas as well. So it s business as usual in Washington where the american people come last #FIREPAULRYAN! The year-end spending deal unveiled early Wednesday morning includes a provision that would increase the number of guest worker visas available to unskilled foreign nationals seeking employment in the U.S.According to Ian Smith, an attorney with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, language inserted into the omnibus spending deal would nearly quadruple the number of H-2B visa workers admitted to the U.S. next year to about 250,000.The section of the more than 2,000-page omnibus bill that contains the provision, the immigration reduction group NumberUSA reports, is on page 701. It reads: SEC. 565. Section 214(g)(9)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(9)(A)) is amended by striking 2004, 2005, or 2006 shall not again be counted toward such limitation during fiscal year 2007. and inserting 2013, 2014, or 2015 shall not again be counted toward such limitation during fiscal year 2016. H-2B visas are intended for low-skilled foreign nationals to work temporarily in nonagricultural positions when American workers are unavailable. According to recent reports, however, some employers have abused the system, devising strategies to hire H-2B visa holders over American workers.Via: Breitbart | 1real |
Meet The Cowardly Republicans Who Re-Endorsed Trump After Condemning Him For Sexual Assault | Republicans everywhere have been denouncing Trump for his boasts about sexually assaulting women, but it seems that they can t stick to their guns. In a very cowardly move, four Republicans have re-endorsed him, one has knuckled under and stayed quiet, and more are sure to follow both of these leads. These weak-kneed, spineless rat turds are busy putting party over country, and it s disgusting.First up: Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska. She made her position clear on the radio shortly after the worst weekend Trump has ever had. As a woman, there is no way she should still support him, and yet, she does for some sick reason: Well, like most Nebraskans, I am fully committed to defeating Hillary Clinton. I support the Republican ticket and I plan to vote for Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence on November 8th. She went on to say that she d never said she wouldn t vote for the GOP ticket, which is likely true, but smacks of making excuses. All she s done is show that beating Hillary is more important than the very real danger of legitimizing sexual crimes, and making a predator into a role model for our children. Giving in to that ideology is the move of a coward.Senator John Thune of South Dakota is next. He tweeted that Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should take over. Now, though? He s caved like the chickenshit he is, too. He said: He has a lot of work to do, I think, to win this election. But I m certainly not going to vote for Hillary Clinton. So vote for Evan McMullin at least he s respectable, knowledgeable and sane, unlike Trump and his minions.New Jersey Congressman Scott Garrett said that he felt Mike Pence was a better candidate than Trump following Trump s unmasking as a sexual predator. However, Garrett s campaign has since said that he still feels Trump is the best candidate to lead our country. His spokesman said, in part: Donald Trump remains the nominee of the Republican Party, and Rep. Garrett has always said he will vote for the Republican Party nominee. Scott Garrett s top priority in this election is stopping the Clinton-Gottheimer agenda of higher taxes, more wasteful spending, and weak national security policy. All important issues, but dismissing half the electorate by essentially saying, Sure, we care about you, but your problems with sexual assault are just not that important, right now is clueless and vile. It s typical sexism, actually.In fourth place, but tied for first, is Congressman Bradley Byrne of Alabama. We probably shouldn t be surprised that an official from Alabama would decide to support Trump, though, even after sixteen straight months of rotting vomit spewing forth from his mouth. Byrne was one of the first officials in Alabama to call on Trump to step down, but apparently, that s all changed now that it s been a week since Trump s hot mic tape was released.Byrne s spokesman, Seth Burrow, said: He will support the Republican ticket on Election Day, as he has pledged to do all along. He just believes that person should be Mike Pence. He just believes that person should be Mike Pence, is one of the worst cop-outs in the long, sad history of bad cop-outs.And last, but certainly not least, is Paul Ryan. While he has refused to campaign with Trump anymore, and even disinvited him to an event in Wisconsin, he s got an extraordinarily flimsy position on Trump now. He won t talk about Trump, and he seems to be urging people to just kind of forget about Trump s Twitter storms and other problems.No mention of Trump being a sexual predator, which is unbelievably hypocritical for someone as Christian as Paul Ryan. To be sure, Ryan never rescinded his endorsement of Trump, and apparently, that position has not changed. It s still sick.More Republicans are sure to follow as they decide their party is more important than actually standing for what s right. They are bloody pieces of feces-infused wimpiness for that, considering they keep trumpeting every type of moral value there is.Photo of Deb Fischer by Mark Wilson, photo of John Thune by Alex Wong, photo of Scott Garrett by Chip Somodevilla, Photo of Paul Ryan by Win McNamee, via Getty Images. Photo of Bradley Byrne By U.S. House Of Representatives, Public Domain via Wikipedia. All photos merged by Rika Christensen | 1real |
Democrat States Use Nullification to End War on Marijuana | Email
Voters in at least four states decided to nullify unconstitutional federal statutes and United Nations drug-control treaties by officially ending marijuana prohibition, a major victory for the U.S. Constitution and the 10th Amendment. Three states — California, Massachusetts, and Nevada — completely legalized marijuana, even for recreational use by adults. By press time, it appeared that Maine's initiative to do the same was on its way to being successful. In Arizona, where conservative nullification efforts on other issues have been popular, voters narrowly decided to keep pot prohibition in place. Still, regardless of one’s views on cannabis, states’ rights scored a string of impressive successes this week.
In Florida, voters overwhelmingly amended the state Constitution to end prohibition of medical marijuana for patients suffering from certain ailments. Recreational pot possession remains illegal. Joining Florida were Arkansas and North Dakota, two reliably conservative states where voters also decided to nullify federal and UN schemes by ending the criminalization of the controversial plant when used under doctors’ orders. Montana voters decided to further liberalize that state’s medical marijuana laws. Over half of American states have now in practice nullified unconstitutional federal cannabis policy, which generally prohibits the plant even for medicinal purposes.
In the successful referenda on cannabis this week, the states’ decisions to buck the U.S. government and the UN all rely — whether knowingly or not — on a proper constitutional tool known as “nullification.” Essentially, nullification is a time-tested legal strategy to check unconstitutional federal statutes and policies at the state level. It was promoted by some of America’s most prominent Founders, such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, two of the men responsible for the nation’s founding documents.
The idea behind nullification is simple: Under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government was delegated a few defined powers by the states. Prohibiting substances was not among those powers, hence the need for a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol. Ratifying UN treaties, whether on drugs or anything else, does not grant new powers to the federal government, as even the Supreme Court has made clear. As such, states have an obligation to interpose on behalf of their citizens by rejecting unconstitutional power grabs. In the past, numerous states have relied on similar strategies, including Wisconsin, which refused to return run-away slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, state governments and the people explicitly reserved all powers not specifically granted to the feds under the U.S. Constitution. Because drug policy is not constitutionally a federal power, states and the people retained all power in this field — unconstitutional federal statutes, regulations, and UN treaties notwithstanding. A constitutional amendment would be needed to legally change that. Regardless of one’s own feelings about marijuana, then, conservatives and constitutionalists concerned about federal lawlessness in other areas — everything from healthcare and environmental policy to gun control and abortion — should take a lesson.
"The lesson here is pretty straight forward," said Michael Boldin, executive director of the non-profit Tenth Amendment Center. "When enough people say, ‘No!’ to the federal government, and enough states pass laws backing those people up, there’s not much the feds can do to shove their so-called laws, regulations or mandates down our throats." The TAC, which advocates for state nullification of unconstitutional acts, said the feds would be unable to enforce the drug war without state help, essentially nullifying the UN-inspired federal ban .
California was, of course, the biggest prize for anti-prohibition forces. After becoming the first state to nullify federal and UN policies purporting to criminalize the plant for medicinal purposes some two decades ago, the most populous state in the union now joins Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, and the District of Columbia in totally ending pot prohibition — even for recreation. With 56 percent support, the Golden State’s Proposition 64 ending prohibition of marijuana possession and cultivation for those over 21, also known as Adult Use of Marijuana Act, cruised to an easy victory. A tax of 15 percent and a range of regulations were also part of the measure.
Some experts expect the trend to continue spreading. But not everybody is happy about it. While the federal government is constitutionally prohibited from interfering in state’s marijuana policies, the UN has been fuming about the anti-prohibition nullification wave for years . “I don’t see how [ending marijuana prohibition] can be compatible with existing [UN drug] conventions,” former Soviet diplomat Yury Fedotov, who serves as executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), complained in 2014 after years of demanding that the U.S. government violate the Constitution to crack down on the phenomenon. “Of course, such laws fall out of line with the demands of these conventions.”
Fedotov said the UN “Commission on Narcotic Drugs,” another globalist bureaucracy, shared his views. Speaking to reporters, the UN drug czar and former operative for the brutal communist regime ruling the Soviet Union, said it appeared to be part of a growing trend that the UN was monitoring. Asked whether there was anything the agency he runs could do about it, however, Fedotov promised merely to “raise the problem” with Obama’s State Department and other UN outfits next week. But even top Obama law-enforcement officials have publicly acknowledged that there is little to nothing they can do , and have “requested” a “flexible” interpretation of the crumbling UN regime . The Constitution is the reason why Obama has been powerless to stop the nullification.
Among those at the forefront of the movement to stop prohibition is Law Enforcement Against Prohibition , a non-profit group of police, judges, prosecutors, and others who oppose prohibition for a number of reasons. In a phone interview with The New American , LEAP Executive Director Major Neill Franklin, a retired 34-year law-enforcement veteran, pointed to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights as among the key reasons why Americans from across the political spectrum should be celebrating the successful ballot initiatives to end marijuana prohibition from California to Massachusetts.
“The Constitution and the Bill of Rights call for small, limited, less expensive government,” he said, expressing concerns that there may be federal efforts to push back against the trend in the years ahead amid a potential renewed focus on “law-and-order” policies. “The rights of the states to set their own policy — that’s one of the foundational principles of this country. I’m really hoping that we continue moving toward this return of powers to the states. This is about the 10th Amendment and the states´ rights to implement these reforms.”
“We should be seeing this from the conservative perspective, to hold on to these constitutional principles, and the 10th Amendment,” he added, before wondering how many conservatives and average Americans in general today truly understand the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and what they mean. “If people understood this, we would support reducing the size and cost of government, doing everything possible to support the 10th Amendment, and all the amendments that are in the Constitution. We need to also ensure that our Fourth Amendment principles are upheld by our law-enforcement community.”
Expressing concerns about the militarization of law enforcement in recent decades — much of it fueled by the federal government and justified under the drug war — Maj. Franklin argued that a nationwide constitutional education campaign was needed. “All of our rights need to be afforded to everyone in our country,” he explained. “We need some education, and quick. We need a concerted effort to spread the principles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and to undo any policy that upholds the federal war on drugs. These things need to be dealt with at state level.”
Having served on the front-lines of the war, first as a major in the Maryland State Police commanding as many as nine drug task-forces covering half the state, and later as a lieutenant colonel in the Baltimore Police Department, Major Franklin said he had seen the problems first-hand. “I’ve seen the carnage, the damage, the violence, the number of people we’ve put in prison,” he said. “Our criminal justice system for the last few decades has been a huge drain on our resources, not just at the federal level, but for our states as well. The war on drugs has been a huge driver of this.”
“Now the individual states are trying to roll back these types of policies that have strained our resources and harmed our communities,” continued Franklin, calling the policies counter-productive and expressing hope that the trends would continue to unfold across the country. “It would be extremely unpopular for the federal government to try to turn back the clock, if you look at the polls. But the constitutional principles at stake here are, again, foundational to America. We must not lose sight of that.”
Franklin also praised a group of law-enforcement and military personnel across America who have re-affirmed their oaths to defend the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights of America. While noting that not everyone agrees with everything when it comes to the Oath Keepers, the longtime police official said it was important that this was a group of lawmen and servicemen who really understand and stand by the U.S. Constitution they swore an oath to uphold.
“This goes for everybody, as a country: If we don’t have a concrete foundation to work from and stick to, despite how you feel about it — and in our country that’s the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — then anything goes,” Franklin cautioned. “And if there´s any group that needs to understand this 100 percent, and abide by it 100 percent, it is our law-enforcement officials, because of the power and the influence they have. That’s how I feel from over three decades in law enforcement, that is extremely important to me.... We have to ensure — the people and politicians do — that the laws we place in front of our law enforcement folks are based upon, and do not contradict, these foundational principles.”
Even some proponents of prohibition appear to have largely accepted the legitimacy or at least the inevitability of the growing nullification tsunami. Rather than try — and almost certainly fail — to get the feds to defy the U.S. Constitution in a bid to prod states into re-prohibiting the plant, anti-marijuana campaigners have vowed to fight pot use at the state and local level using a variety of methods. One group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, has launched the “Marijuana Accountability Project” (MAP) that aims to “keep state officials and the industry accountable.” It will also seek to help municipalities rein in the marijuana businesses.
MAP officials, who have been fighting the growing wave of legalization, made clear that the fight was not over. “I’d be lying if I said election night/morning wasn’t tough,” said SAM President Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug advisor who said his side was drastically outspent by anti-prohibition forces. “But unlike with prior year losses, I am feeling (strangely, maybe) optimistic. We won in Arizona. We have a friendly governor in Vermont, which was the next target for the legalizers, and we won in a large handful of cities and counties in Oregon. And we know that no matter what happens in Maine, we will be in a very strong place to shape and restrict any policy that goes forward.”
Of course, there are plenty of critics of marijuana, many of whom cite studies showing that the drug can cause or at least contribute to memory problems, mental health issues, driving risks, and other concerns. Certainly, some constitutionalists were concerned that an end to prohibition might lead to increased marijuana use, though the evidence supporting this proposition is mixed . The sudden surge in the use of nullification to rein in the feds’ unconstitutional war on marijuana, then, was met with mixed feelings by some constitutionalists, who feel that states should continue to prohibit the plant even if the federal-UN war that underpins prohibition is illegal.
Still, the federal government has self-evidently grown far outside the bounds of the Constitution in virtually every policy area. The horrifying consequences of this lawlessness are becoming obvious for all to see — $20 trillion in debt, growing attacks on constitutionally protected rights, an out-of-control regulatory regime, and more. The dangers of tolerating continued anti-constitutional policies from Washington, D.C., and the UN are enormous, and represent a threat to even the most fundamental liberties.
As liberals and Democrat Party-controlled states increasingly rely on state nullification to protect self-government and their own states’ rights under the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, it is past time for conservatives, constitutionalists, Republicans, libertarians, and others to do the same. Whether one approves of marijuana or not is beside the point — the real issue is whether America will have lawful, limited, constitutional government, or lawless, unlimited, globalized tyranny .
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American , covering economics, education, politics, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU. He can be reached at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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India eyes airport in Sri Lanka, near Chinese Belt and Road outpost | COLOMBO/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is in advanced talks with Sri Lanka to operate an airport on the southern tip of the island, where China has invested heavily as part of its Belt and Road initiative, a Sri Lankan minister said. Sri Lanka s civil aviation minister, Nimal Siripala, said the country had been looking for alternative investors in the Hambantota area, where China has built a seaport and is in discussions to build an investment zone and a refinery. It was during this time India came up with a proposal, Siripala said Monday. They were ready for a joint venture with the Airport and Aviation Services Limited, he said, referring to the state-run company that runs Sri Lanka s main airport in the capital Colombo and the one in the south, in Mattala. The town of Hambantota sits near one of the world s busiest shipping lanes and is an important part of the Belt and Road initiative, aimed at building trade and transport links across Asia and beyond to Europe. China runs the seaport with a 99-year lease and was planning to expand its footprint in the area with the refinery, which would be Sri Lanka s largest, and an investment zone of about 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres). Beijing s projects, backed by loans extended by the Chinese government and initiated by a previous Sri Lankan government, have faced widespread opposition in Sri Lanka. Local residents facing eviction to make way for the projects have staged numerous protests. Other critics say the Sri Lankan government signed up for unnecessary and loss-making projects, pushing the country into long-term indebtedness. India has offered to set up a joint venture with Sri Lanka to manage and expand facilities at the loss-making Mattala airport, which sits adjacent to the Hambantota seaport, according to Siripala and an Indian government source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. There was no immediate response from the Indian foreign ministry to a request for comment on the airport deal. The initial investment would be $293 million, of which India will provide 70 percent on a 40-year lease, according to a Sri Lankan cabinet paper reviewed by Reuters that details the Indian plan to make the airport viable. The airport, built at a cost of $253 million by China, which also provided $230 million of funding, gets one flight a day, from Dubai, and has been dubbed the world s emptiest airport for its long, empty corridors. The Indian government source said India had proposed establishing a flying school and a maintenance hub at Mattala to boost airport revenues while it builds up traffic. There are also hopes the airport could be a destination for Indian tourists. We are trying for a large integration of the Sri Lankan and Indian eco-systems, we want to boost tourism in our two countries, the source said. China said it was not aware that Sri Lanka was considering allowing India to manage the airport. China also put in a bid to operate the facility, but the two sides failed to agree on financial terms. China hopes the relevant country does more to play a constructive role in increasing mutual trust and cooperation between nations in the region and promoting regional peace, stability and development, the Chinese foreign ministry said in response to an email request for comment. India and Sri Lanka have centuries-old ethnic and cultural bonds, but these frayed amid New Delhi s support for Sri Lanka s Tamil minority during the island s 26-year civil war, which ended in 2009. China was among the first countries that stepped in to help in the post-war reconstruction of Sri Lanka, building roads, power stations and ports. By 2014, Chinese navy submarines were also docking in Colombo, raising alarm in New Delhi and prompting a push by the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to claw back influence in the region. The Indian source said New Delhi would allow Sri Lanka to determine the size of the Indian stake in the airport venture and whether it would involve state or private companies. However, some opposition groups are concerned that turning to India is equally fraught with risk. Dullas Alahapperuma, an opposition member of parliament, said the government was making a mistake by handing over national assets to China and India in Hambantota. In the end, there could be dangerous consequences, he said. On Tuesday, police detained three opposition MPs protesting in Hambantota against the airport lease plan. The three included Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president who signed the construction deal with China. Siripala, the aviation minister, said any deal to give India the right to manage the airport was purely commercial and would not compromise Sri Lanka s security interests. | 0fake |
COLIN POWELL SAYS HILLARY LYING About Private Email Server Conversation: “has no recollection of the dinner conversation” [VIDEO] | For anyone who s paying attention, Hillary just got caught in ANOTHER big lie Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has no recollection of the dinner conversation recounted by Hillary Clinton to FBI agents, as documented by journalist Joe Conason in a forthcoming book.Conason s anecdote, reported Thursday night by The New York Times, recounts a small dinner party at Clinton s Georgetown home toward the beginning of her time as secretary of state, with former secretaries Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice also in attendance. During that dinner, Conason reports, Albright asked the former secretaries to impart advice to Clinton. Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer, Conason wrote in his book Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton, of which the Times said it acquired an advance copy. Powell, according to Conason s account, told Clinton that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department and thus confirmed a decision [Clinton] had made months earlier to keep her personal account and use it for most messages. A spokeswoman for Powell s office issued a statement following the Times story: General Powell has no recollection of the dinner conversation. He did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department. At the time there was no equivalent system within the Department. He used a secure State computer on his desk to manage classified information, the statement continued. The General no longer has the email he sent to former Secretary Clinton. It may exist in State or FBI files. Watch here:Powell s pushback comes amid an ongoing legal dispute between Clinton s lawyers and Judicial Watch over whether the conservative legal watchdog group can depose the former secretary of state as part of its lawsuit over State Department records.Read more: Politico | 1real |
null | Evan Bayh is an excellent example....got into office based on daddy's name...only the kid was a real moron....resigned from office because he was about to be totally humiliated and voted out in a landslide. Of course now we have Bobble-head who's been riding her rapist husband coat-tails for 30 years and whose major qualifications for office are that she is easy to bribe and she lacks a penis! What a sad day for America! If you don't like Trump, vote for his policies....Hitlery will raise taxes, send more jobs overseas, and import more Muslim terrorists.... | 1real |
ONE LAST TIME ON OUR DIME: Mooch and Barack Arrive In Martha’s Vineyard For Three Week Vacay | The hard working First Family, in need of another taxpayer funded boondoggle, are off to mingle with the elites while snarling traffic for any family unfortunate enough to have saved money for a week on the Vineyard. Sounds just about right This makes you wonder what Trump will do for a vacation when he s president will he just go home or to one of his fabulous resorts? It s funny how people forget that Trump needs none of the trappings of the presidency because he lives like this all the time. The truth is, he s a hard worker who just wants to roll his sleeves up and work to make America better than ever. Pretty awesome if you really think about it CHILMARK, Mass. President Obama arrived in Martha s Vineyard on Saturday for his last summer vacation as president, bringing his wife, both daughters and even the family dogs along.Valerie Jarrett was with the Obamas too Is anyone surprised?For the third straight year, the First Family will be staying at a family home owned by Joanne Hubschman off North Road in Chilmark.The family has vacationed on the Vineyard every year during the Obama presidency, except 2012, when the President was in the middle of a re-election campaign.According to the White House, there are no public events scheduled during the visit.He headed into this two-week break in an unusually festive mood, having just celebrated his 55th birthday ON OUR DIME TOO. On the island, Mr. Obama is expected to play a lot of golf and read a pile of books, if his past vacations here are any guide. He may attend a party or two given by friends who also vacation here, but for the most part the Obamas tend to keep to themselves. Mr. Obama is an avid sports fan, and with the Olympics playing on TV, he may have even more reason to remain in his rented home.Read more: Fortune | 1real |
California Today: After Lawmaker’s Silencing, More Cries of ‘She Persisted’ - The New York Times | Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the .) The Democrats’ power in the State Capitol is ironclad. And it was wielded in startling fashion last week when a Republican state senator defied a demand to stop speaking and was physically removed from the Senate floor by law enforcement. The senator, Janet Nguyen, had stood up to criticize Tom Hayden, the 1960s radical, over his opposition to the Vietnam War. Days earlier, Mr. Hayden had been honored in the Capitol for his service in the Legislature. He died in October. But as Ms. Nguyen, who fled Communist Vietnam as a child, was speaking, the presiding senator declared her out of order. When she refused to sit, he summoned the . “Have her removed immediately,” said the senator, Ricardo Lara, a Democrat. If the plan was to silence Ms. Nguyen, it backfired. Captured on video, the commotion drew wide news coverage. Republicans circulated their outrage on social media, with some adopting the #shepersisted hashtag that became a rallying cry after Senator Elizabeth Warren was herself cut off during a speech. At the California Republican Party’s convention over the weekend, Ms. Nguyen was held up as a symbol of free speech. Hundreds of stickers were printed that read: “I stand with Janet. ” “It’s unknowable for us why they wouldn’t allow it,” Jean Fuller, the Senate Republican leader, said of the action against Ms. Nguyen. Some Democrats accused Ms. Nguyen of having violated parliamentary rules. Mr. Lara declined through a spokesman to offer specifics. On Monday, Kevin de León, the Senate president pro tempore, addressed the controversy on the Senate floor, saying he was “troubled” by what happened. “Thursday was not one of the finest moments in the Senate’s history,” he said. “As the leader of this body, I take full responsibility for what transpired and for making sure it never happens again. ” That may not be enough for Republicans who are calling for an investigation. “My constituents are extremely upset,” said Ms. Nguyen, who represents a part of Orange County with a large Vietnamese population. “They’re upset that their voices were shut down. ” Even so, as happened with Ms. Warren, Ms. Nguyen’s speech got far more attention than it otherwise would have. You can read it here. (Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.) • A small plane crashed into a Riverside neighborhood. At least three people died. [The Press Enterprise] • Making sense of Measure S, the latest battle in Los Angeles’s war over development. [Los Angeles Times] • A judge affirmed a blogger’s right to publish the home addresses of California lawmakers who backed gun legislation. [The Associated Press] • Unauthorized immigrants in Sacramento are selling their furniture and cars in case they are deported. [Sacramento Bee] • California leaders demanded details from the Trump administration on immigration arrests in the state. [Reuters] • It’s science, minus the swearing. A Los Alamitos school is using a PG edition of the book “The Martian” to teach physics, astronomy and chemistry. [The New York Times] • SpaceX plans to send two tourists around the moon and back in 2018. [The New York Times] • An Uber official resigned after the company learned he was accused of sexual harassment while working at Google. [The New York Times] • How apparent human error combined with live television to effect at the Oscars. [The New York Times] • Photos: Ten images that show the extensive damage to the Lake Oroville spillway. [KCRA] • San Diego County was deluged with its heaviest rain of the winter. [San Diego ] It was “the worst party ever. ” That’s how Bill Schutt, author of the gripping new book “Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History,” titled his chapter on the Donner Party tragedy. In the summer of 1846, a group of 87 pioneers set out from Missouri to settle the California coast. Led by George Donner, a businessman with no trail experience, the group took a misguided shortcut that in fact put them weeks behind schedule. Still, by late October, they stood before the final mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada, just a day or two from civilization on the other side. They rested for the night. And in a stroke of colossally bad luck, disaster hit. It snowed. They were stuck. Through the winter months, the group descended into starvation, madness and, infamously, cannibalism. The last survivor, found surrounded by half eaten corpses, wasn’t rescued until . All told, 35 died during the winter encampment or trying to escape it. We caught up with Mr. Schutt, who is a professor of biology at Long Island University, by phone. Some excerpts from the conversation: Q. I get the sense that your book tries to normalize cannibalism. Is that right? A. That’s a fine line to walk. If you’re not careful it sounds like you’re condoning that behavior. And I’m not. What I’m doing is taking a look at it through the eyes of a zoologist, of a scientist. . .. When looking at survival cannibalism like the Donners, I’m not trying to normalize that, I’m trying to say that it’s predictable behavior. Q. What did you learn about human nature researching this story? A. Just how strong and rugged these people were. … They showed incredible bravery all along the way. There was individual heroism, group heroism on a scale that makes you glad that you’re human. Q. Why do you think the Donner Party attracts such fascination? A. They came so close to getting across that pass. They missed it by a night. And if you’ve ever stood in the Donner Pass and looked down and realized that they got this far — that blew me away. California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 0fake |
OOPS! Lindsey Vonn Gets Hit With Big Dose Of Karma After Trash-Talking President Trump On CNN | Only 3 days ago, Lindsey Vonn told CNN that she wouldn t be representing President Trump in the 2018 Olympics. She also boldly proclaimed that she wouldn t visit the White House if she were invited. I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremonies. I want to represent our country well, and I don t think there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that. Is it really appropriate for an Olympic athlete representing the United States of America to make her performance in the Olympics about her hate for Donald Trump?Was it really necessary for Vonn to spew her hate on a network that is not only being called into question for their inaccurate (fake news) reporting on a regular basis but is also known for their extremely unfair coverage of our President?Well, after her miserable showing in Switzerland yesterday, it looks like Lindsey needs to focus a little more on her skiing technique, and a little less on her anti- Trump rhetoric.According to the AP Lindsey Vonn finished a World Cup super-G in extreme pain Saturday and was treated by race doctors for a back injury.The American star crossed the finish line in obvious distress, in 24th place and 1.56 seconds behind the winner, and slumped to the snow.She compressed her back on the fifth gate, according to U.S. Ski & Snowboard.Vonn stayed in the finish house to be treated, and one hour later limped slowly into a waiting car to be driven from the St. Moritz course.Minutes earlier, her father Alan Kildow told The Associated Press his daughter was OK. In a race interrupted several times by gusting crosswinds, Vonn wore the No. 4 bib and was left standing at the start gate during the first delay of about three minutes. She stayed warm with a thick jacket draped on her shoulders.The surprise winner was Jasmine Flury of Switzerland, who had a career-best World Cup finish of fifth before Saturday.Perhaps the outspoken Lindsey Vonn will get her wish and not have to represent the President or decline his invitation to the White House | 1real |
Chicago Is Planning to Add Hundreds of Police Officers - The New York Times | CHICAGO — This city, reeling from a rising toll of gun violence, may soon hire hundreds of additional police officers — more than 500 of them. Superintendent Eddie Johnson of the Chicago police is expected to announce plans for a significant increase in officers during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon at Police Headquarters, a spokesman said late Tuesday. Officials would not provide specific numbers or details, but said that the new hires would be over and above the current force, not a replacement for retiring officers or unfilled positions. Chicago’s Police Department is the municipal force in the nation, with more than 12, 000 officers, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel has faced intensifying criticism over the city’s handling of violence as the death toll has mounted. New York, which has more police officers, has seen homicides decrease in recent years. Mr. Emanuel is scheduled to present an address on Thursday regarding his plans for public safety here. Already this year, more than 500 people have been killed in Chicago — more than in all of last year in this city and more than Los Angeles and New York combined have experienced this year. The uptick in violence, particularly in neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides, has left many questioning the effectiveness of the Police Department in closing cases or slowing the violence. If approved as part of Chicago’s city budget, the hires would constitute the first major expansion in officers in recent years and a shift in the city’s approach to tackling the year’s increase in violence. In months past, as the number of shootings continued to rise, officials took other tacks, calling for a tightening of gun laws and sending hundreds of officers working administrative jobs back on to the streets. But the proposal, which The Associated Press reported on Tuesday afternoon, comes at a remarkably complex time for this city, amid strained relations between residents and the police, a federal Justice Department investigation into the Police Department’s patterns and practices, and stressed city finances. On Tuesday, officials would not provide the anticipated cost for an expansion in officers, but Chicago is already wrestling with deep fiscal problems, from underfunded pension systems to a budget crisis in the public schools, and any proposal for new spending may face debate. The Police Department’s relations with residents are the subject of intense scrutiny, complicating reactions to any proposal for a larger police force on the streets. The release last year of a video showing a white police officer shooting Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, 16 times renewed a sense of community anger and distrust toward the police. | 0fake |
WATCH: Girl On Bike Brutally Beaten By Cops And Then SHE Is Charged With Assault | Two years ago, 15-year-old Monique Tillman and her brother, like kids everywhere across the country, were riding their bikes. Unlike kids everywhere, Tillman was stopped for nothing more than the apparent crime of Riding While Black.Tillman and her brother made the mistake of cutting through a mall parking lot and running into Tacoma Police Officer Jared Williams, who was moonlighting as mall security. Williams then stopped the pair, telling them they were trespassing and that they might be banned from the mall.The children tried to explain that they ride through that parking lot all the time and they tried to leave. What happened after that might not be suitable for work.Here s the video:If you don t have the stomach to watch the video, the girl is snatched from her bike by the off-duty officer and slammed up against a car while he appears to be choking her. He then grabbed her hair and began throwing her around. He even tased her. He was choking me, grabbed me by my hair and tried to slam my face into the concrete. The next thing I know, I m on the ground being tased, Tillman said.Source: Free Thought ProjectThen, after it was clearly shown in the video that the girl never even raised a hand toward the officer, she was charged for resisting arrest and assault on an officer for allegedly attempting to kick him. That s right, she was charged for assault. Fortunately, those charges were thrown out after there was no evidence that she tried to kick at all, and a lawsuit has been filed against Officer Williams, the security company and the people who own the mall. A child riding a bike should not have to worry that a police officer will stop her without legal cause and brutalize her, said (Tillman s attorney, Vito) de la Cruz. Our communities are weary of another African American child being hurt by unwarranted and excessive police force. Tillman, who is now a digital media student at Bates Technical College, had this to say: I feel like I was targeted because I am a person of color, Tillman told the Seattle Times. It was frustrating because I knew I didn t do anything wrong, but I couldn t stop them. Here s Tillman, now 17, talking about the incident, saying all she wants is an apology:Williams still has his job.Featured image via video screen captures | 1real |
War Less Imminent After Clinton Defeat | 2016 presidential campaign A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
Are most Americans warlike, or are they just easily misled into going along with the War Party that dominates both halves of the duopoly? In a certain sense, the distinction doesn’t matter. Most American don’t care enough about the lives of the millions of victims of U.S. empire to do much of anything to save them. And, if they voted for Hillary Clinton, they did not even have the presence of mind to save themselves from nuclear annihilation. War Less Imminent After Clinton Defeat A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
“Trump says he wants to cooperate with the Syrians and the Russians to defeat ISIS.”
With so many people who call themselves liberals and leftists tearing their hair out in dread of a President Donald Trump, it is necessary to point out that the prospects of avoiding nuclear war are much better than they were the day before the election. Hillary Clinton was committed to imposing a “no fly zone” over Syria that would have meant instant war with Russia, likely resulting in the annihilation of the human species. You’d think that would have made Clinton anathema to decent people. But Americans, including those who call themselves liberals, are not decent people – not really. Based on their political behavior, they just pretend to be decent, but support U.S. governments that have slaughtered millions since the end of World War Two. If you voted for Obama and Clinton, you gave your assent to continuing George Bush’s wars, allowing Obama to start two major wars of his own, in Libya and Syria, and to Hillary Clinton’s plans to roll the nuclear dice on the fate of humanity. The whole world knows that Americans are dangerous, to themselves and to others. But, decent? Since when, and to whom?
Donald Trump looks and talks like the ugly, racist, bullying American -- and he is exactly that, but he hasn’t killed anybody yet, and his public statements have been of a far more peaceful nature than the woman he beat at the polls. Trump says he wants to cooperate with the Syrians and the Russians to defeat ISIS. Trump also does not make distinctions between the various Islamic jihadist groups in Syria, unlike the Obama administration, which has directly and indirectly armed and funded all of the jihadist groups, and has spent much of the last several months trying to protect the al Nusra Front, the al Qaida affiliate in eastern Aleppo, from Russian bombing.
“The jihadists are in despair, and the prospects for driving them out of Aleppo look promising.”
No sooner had the votes been counted, than President Obama ordered U.S. Special Forces to go all-out to kill the leadership of al-Nusra.
This war has been entirely based on lies, so Obama will probably limit his Kill List to al Qaida leaders, while sparing the rank and file jihadist fighters for future use by the United States. But it is safe to say that, had Hillary Clinton been elected, the most warlike factions in the U.S. military, the CIA, the State Department, and the foreign policy establishment at-large would be setting the stage for full-scale confrontation with Russia and all of Syria’s allies under President Clinton. Instead, the jihadists are in despair, and the prospects for driving them out of Aleppo look promising. Hopefully, the Syrian government and its friends will be on the road to victory before Donald Trump’s presidency is decisively captured by the bipartisan War Party that runs the empire.
Syrian President Bashar Assad says it’s fine with him if Trump wants to fight the terrorists. But, Assad isn’t sure that Trump can deliver on his campaign pledge. “What about the countervailing forces within the administration, the mainstream media that were against him?” Assad asks . Assad thinks the notion of Trump bucking the War Party is “dubious.” He’s right. Half a million Syrians are dead because most Americans don’t much care who their government kills, as long as they’re not white. But, getting rid of Clinton has slowed the War Party down a bit, and maybe prevented a nuclear war. If you are a decent person, you should be pleased about that.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected] . | 1real |
TRUMP GIRLS Give Shout Out To Crooked Hillary…And Bring Down The House: “If The Justice Department Don’t Want To Indict You…The American People Will Indict You” [VIDEO] | Diamond and Silk light up the crowd at a Trump rally in NC. They remind Crooked Hillary, that just because Obama s cronies are protecting her from being indicted doesn t mean the American voters are going to give her a pass: And we will render our verdict in November. Are you on the Trump Train? .@DiamondandSilk have a Precise and Clear Message for Crooked Hillary. @HillaryClinton is still a Crook in our Book.https://t.co/0QV7rTi0mC Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) July 6, 2016Bravo! | 1real |
WOW! WHAT HAPPENED When Somebody Asked Beyonce’s Racist Sister To Sit Down At A Concert? | Who knew, that one of the wealthiest entertainers in America and the New Black Panthers biggest cheerleader, has a sister who is also a perpetual victim of racism? When she s not beating the shit out of her brother-in-law Jay-Z in an elevator, Solange Knowles is a professional victim of racism. Beyonc s crazier less talented sister recently attended a concert, as a fan not as a performer, and wouldn t you know it, racism reared it s ugly head. Apparently someone asked her to sit down and since she is black, it was a hostile act of racial aggression.If you have nothing better to do, and haven t already witnessed the circus that ensues when a celebrity husband cheats on his celebrity wife with another woman, forcing the sister to even the score in an elevator, you can watch it here:Back to the Solange and her racist manifesto, where she goes to great lengths to explain the racism she encounters in just about every aspect of her life, like the time she got pulled over or the other time she had to show her passport crossing an international border. She describes the perpetrators of racism as, a product of their white supremacy and are exercising it on you without caution, care, or thought. The main point of this crazy thing was what happened to her at a recent concert. It s written from a weird 2nd person perspective, but this is what I was able to figure out:Solange took her 11-year-old son to a Kraftwerk concert. They arrived late, despite Solange s claim that she is a big fan. Right off the bat an elderly black usher had to tell her son to stop vaping. Solange claims her young son was not vaping, so therefore it was racism.It gets worse. Solange was standing up and dancing when someone behind her asked her to sit down. She refused to sit and eventually someone threw a slice of lime at her. Again: racism. She turned around to confront whoever threw the lime but nobody s white privilege would let them admit to it. For the third time, she experienced racism.Granted, this is a one-sided explanation of things. It s entirely possible that Solange was being rude and obnoxious and the people behind her gave her a gentile reminder to behave herself in public. Then again, maybe none of this stuff even happened.The crazy level rises significantly when Solange tries to put her harrowing experience in perspective by saying:You constantly see the media having a hard time contextualizing black women and men as victims every day, even when it means losing their own lives.Shit, can you believe she almost died in this racist lime attack?She then says that she isn t claiming this incident was racism, even though she said it many times, and chides the media for potentially reporting it that way, followed immediately by this:This is why many black people are uncomfortable being in predominately white spacesFrom there Solange rants about all of the racism in America and ends with the odd statement that she has many white friends. You know, to prove she doesn t hate white people or something.Via: Downtrend | 1real |
BREAKING: TWO Suspects In Dallas Cop Shootings Are In Custody After Reported High Speed Chase Of Black Mercedes On I-35 In Dallas | Two suspects are in DPD custody following horrific attack on Dallas law enforcement officers during a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, TX.Please pray for these officers and for their families.Update: pic.twitter.com/ukWSZJeZo3 Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) July 8, 2016#UPDATE Two people in custody after reported police chase on I-35 south of downtown Dallas. (Chopper11) pic.twitter.com/6gNAuWVvFr CBSDFW (@CBSDFW) July 8, 2016We re not sure if this is the black Mercedes Benz mentioned in the DPD report above, but FOX News is reporting on a car that the police have stopped after leaving the Black Lives Matter protest/shooting scene.#Breaking #Dallas police have stopped a car seen leaving the shooting scene. Latest @FOX4 pic.twitter.com/u8OBkCQhja FOX4Terry (@FOX4Terry) July 8, 2016 | 1real |
Racist Charleston Church Shooter Seems To Think He Is Entitled To A Literal White Supremacist As His Public Defender | By now, everyone knows that Dylann Roof, the South Carolina white supremacist who shot up am historic Black Church in Charleston South Carolina, did it because the parishioners were Black. They invited him to their worship service, and after he sat there with them for more than an hour, he killed them. Well, Roof has been sentenced to die, and his case is not in the appeals process. Like all people, no matter how despicable, Roof is entitled, via the law, to a competent defense. Since he cannot afford his own team of attorneys, they have been provided for him in the form of public defenders. There s just one problem with that, though: According to Dylann Roof, his lawyers are the wrong color.Appointed to represent Roof are public defenders Alexandra Yates and Sapna Mirchandani, who are Jewish and Indian, respectively. Those facts seem to be the only things that are wrong here, rather than their actual defense of Roof. This isn t the first time race has entered into Roof s court proceedings; he had similar mishaps with his original attorney during the trial portion of his ordeal. The man representing him during that time, David Bruck, is Jewish. Roof said of the issues there: His ethnicity was a constant source of conflict even with my constant efforts to look past it. Trust is a vital component in an attorney client relationship, and is important to the effectiveness of the defense. Because of my political views, which are arguably religious, it will be impossible for me to trust two attorneys that are my political and biological enemies. To that end, the racist murderer, who seems to be more or less representing himself at this point, penned a missive from prison, firing his public defenders on the basis of their ethnicity:As if all of this weren t bad enough, Roof threatened his original lawyer, David Bruck, with death if he ever got out of prison.Luckily, the judge presiding over Roof s case sees his racism for what it is, and is denying this so-called motion. In short, if anyone deserves the death penalty, it s this piece of less-than-human excrement. No sympathy here, despite my usual opposition to the death penalty. If anyone deserves to die for his crimes, it s Dylann Roof.Featured image via video screen capture from ABC News Video | 1real |
German Parents Taken to Court for Refusing to Send Their Son to a Mosque | German Parents Taken to Court for Refusing to Send Their Son to a Mosque
Andrew Anglin Daily Stormer October 28, 2016
You all thought I was cr y when I started pushing the idea that the women and even some of the liberal cucked men of Europe are actually pushing for forced Islamization of Europe on purpose.
You were all like “no no no, liberals are just stupid, they think they’ll integrate, or that there can be coexistence somehow – they just don’t get it.”
Well, where are we now?
RT :
Parents of a German teenager may face a trial and fine for âtruancyâ after refusing to allow their son to go to a local mosque on a school field trip out of fear that it would lead to his âindoctrinationâ by Islamic radicals.
The story broke in mid-June, when parents of a 13-year-old student opposed the idea of their son visiting a mosque in the northern German town of Rendsburg, reportedly organized as part of a geography class.
In a letter to the class teacher quoted  by the NDR, the teenâs father argued that his son would be âindoctrinatedâ in the mosque. He went on to say that âfor years we have been hearing reports about religiously-motivated violence connected with Islamic people.â
A local education authority subsequently fined the couple a total of âŹ300 ($328), referring to school regulations and regional laws which include penalties for truancy.
When the parents opposed the fine, their case was forwarded to Peter Mueller-Rakow, a local prosecutor, who will decide whether or not to proceed with a court trial, Spiegel reported on Wednesday.
The parentsâ lawyer, Alexander Heumann, argues that they refused the school trip out of fear for their sonâs âbodily safety.â
Denying any faith-based motives, he emphasized that the couple do not belong to any religious group, and are of the opinion that ânobody shall be forced into a sacred place against his good will.â
Heumann himself, however, is a former member of the Alternative for Germany party, an anti-immigrant political group, and was a participant in setting up the âDugida,â a Dusseldorf-based branch of the far-right PEGIDA movement.
Feminism is the complaint of a woman who doesn’t have a man to tell her what to do.
The entire goal of feminism is to force an end to feminism. That is why feminists are pushing for Islamization. They want to be told what to do. The immediate goal of their demonstrations is to get manhandled. It is a weird psycho-sexual thing that men couldn’t ever understand and women are unconscious of so incapable of explaining. But I assure you it is there.
They don’t care about race, because women are incapable of processing philosophical or ideological concepts. The only fact they are able to process – and this is on an emotional, subconscious level – is that their men refused to be men, and have told them to go be men, and that this is causing them extreme distress and blocking their ability to produce children.
This is what feminism is – women don’t say what they actually want, they express themselves in a way where you’re supposed to interpret their emotional state. When Femen riots naked, what they want is to be physically dominated by men – i.e. raped.
So they are replacing us with Moslems to fix their current state, which is feminism.
I told you people this. | 1real |
NSA spying: Today in America our government keeps us neither free nor safe | In their continuous efforts to create the impression that the government is doing something to keep Americans safe, politicians in Washington have misled and lied to the public. They have violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution. They have created a false sense of security. And they have dispatched and re-dispatched 60,000 federal agents to intercept the telephone calls, text messages and emails of all Americans all the time.
In the process, while publicly claiming they only acquire identifying metadata -- the time, date, location, duration, telephone numbers and email addresses of communications -- they have in fact surreptitiously gained access to the content of these communications.
On June 1, one of the three claimed legal authorities for all this, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, expired, as Congress was unable to agree on either its reinstitution or the enactment of a substitute. At the time that Section 215 was about to expire, President Obama, Attorney General Lynch and FBI Director Comey warned that the NSA’s computers would go dark and the American public would be at the mercy of our enemies. Their warnings were nonsense.
The NSA is a military entity that utilizes the services of military computer experts and agents, employs civilians, and hires companies that provide thousands of outside contractors. After nearly 14 years of spying on us -- all authorized by a secret court whose judges cannot keep records of what they have ordered or discuss openly what they know -- the NSA now has computers and computer personnel physically located in the main switching offices of all telecom and Internet service providers in the United States. It has 24/7 access to the content of everyone’s telephone calls, emails and text messages.
The data amassed thereby is so vast that the government cannot sift through it quickly or effectively enough to stop such notorious events as the Boston Marathon bombings, the Ft. Hood massacre and the attempted massacre last month outside of Dallas. The Justice Department acknowledged this last month when it revealed that all this spying has not succeeded in stopping any terrorist plots and has not aided any federal prosecutions of terrorism.
Then why do it? Because the feds want to calm American nerves by giving the impression that they are doing something -- even though we know that they know that what they are doing fails to keep us safe. They are giving us a false impression. But they owe us the truth, not falsehoods designed to make themselves look like they are doing what they claim. Their spying has failed to enhance our safety.
It also has failed to protect our freedoms. The Constitution requires probable cause as a precondition for all search warrants. That is a level of evidence about the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized sufficient to induce a judge to conclude that a crime probably has been committed. Without this probable cause requirement, nothing would stop the government from searching and seizing whatever it wants. Yet that is where we are today. The NSA’s unconstitutional standard of “government need” reinstitutes the general warrants -- search where you wish and seize what you find -- which the Fourth Amendment was written to prohibit.
Both the Patriot Act and the Freedom Act, the substitute law enacted by Congress, do away with the probable cause requirement. Both of those laws permit the FISA court to issue general warrants based on the government’s needs, rather than probable cause. It is the government-need standard, which is no standard at all, that has resulted in spying on all persons all the time.
When Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired, the NSA’s legal (yet unconstitutional) authority to spy did not. The propaganda that its computers were shut down is false. Section 702 of the FISA law and President Bush’s October 2001 executive order were and are still valid, and both have been interpreted to unleash the NSA.
Section 702 permits warrantless surveillance of Americans who speak with foreigners, and the NSA has gotten FISA warrants to intercept the calls of the folks to whom those Americans speak, to the sixth degree. That alone encompasses all persons in the United States. Bush’s executive order was given to all military intelligence agencies -- of which the NSA is but one. It instructed the military to intercept the calls and emails of whatever Americans it needs to listen in upon to enhance safety. That executive order still stands. This is why the hand wringing and false claims that the NSA computers went dark is untruthful. The computers violate our privacy and assault our liberty and fail to enhance our safety, but they are not dark.
Last week, one of the pro-spying politicians was clever, even cute, when he issued the one-liner: “You can’t enjoy civil liberties from a coffin.” His statement was a craven articulation of failure. The government’s job is to keep us free and safe. If it keeps us safe but not free, it has failed to do its job. Today it does neither. I suggest to him Patrick Henry on this: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Which one-liner better embodies American values, history and traditions?
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. | 0fake |
Two gay men challenge Tennessee denial of service law | (Reuters) - Two men have filed a lawsuit against Tennessee and its governor saying their constitutional rights as gay individuals are violated by a new law that allows mental health counselors to refuse to treat patients on the basis of “sincerely held principles.” The law, signed by Republican Governor Bill Haslam in April, has been criticized as discriminatory against the gay community. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Bleu Copas and Caleb Laieski in the Chancery Court for Anderson County, asks the court to void the statute because it violates the Tennessee Constitution and the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection to all citizens under the law. “LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons were the target of the statute. They are singled out for discriminatory treatment. There is no other group which could conceivably be the target of the statute,” the lawsuit reads in part. A court employee sent Reuters a copy of the complaint on Wednesday via email. Jennifer Donnals, press secretary for Governor Haslam, said in an emailed statement: “We are not able to make comments on pending litigation.” The law protects therapists and counselors from legal action when they cite their personal principles in refusing service, despite a provision in the American Counseling Association’s code of ethics barring members from such denials of service. In the lawsuit, Copas says he is a homosexual man and a resident of Anderson County, Tennessee, while Laieski says he is homosexual and describes himself as a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activist residing in Alexandria, Virginia. With gay marriage becoming a lost cause for opponents - the Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have the right to marry - a new battleground has become a quest by conservatives in some states to allow people to refuse services to gay men and women on religious grounds. tinyurl.com/hj29fs9 The Tennessee law is among a number of state statutes passed over the last year or so, prohibiting sanctions against businesses, service providers, professionals or clerics who refuse service, in some cases to same-sex couples or in other cases to individuals, based on profoundly held beliefs. Some states, such as Arkansas and Indiana, enacted fixes to the measures after large companies and rights groups assailed them as discriminatory. | 0fake |
KKK Style Mob Chants “Russia Is Our Friend” While Protesting Confederate Statue Removal (VIDEO) | In a scene reminiscent of a horrifying KKK rally, a torch mob chanted highly racist slogans as they descended on a park Saturday night in Charlottesville, Virginia.The crowd claiming to protect their white heritage shouted All White Lives Matter, and No More Brother Wars, in reaction to the proposed removal of the Virginia town park s confederate statue.They were also heard chanting Russia is our friend, and You will not replace us. The protesters also lit tiki torches as it became dark. I m her to take part in this great celebration of our heritage and to say no to the city of Charlottesville. You re not going to tear down our statue and you re not going to replace us, said Richard Spence, white nationalist leader.You ll remember Spence as the asshole who was punched in the face on inauguration day in D.C. Spence lead this protest which received a lot of community backlash from the same people who are against taking down the statue. This event involving torches at night in Lee Park was either profoundly ignorant or was designed to instill fear in our minority populations in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK, said Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer, who opposed removing the statues.Listen, Singer, if you disagree with the actions of touch-wielding racists mob, why do you oppose removing the hate-fueling racist statue? I guess it s ok to be racists in Charlottesville as long as you re not holding a torch.Here s the video, courtesy of MSNBC:Featured Image Via Embedded Video Screengrab | 1real |
Time Magazine Makes Trump Their ‘Person Of The Year’ And Promptly Gets WASTED By Twitter (TWEETS) | If you haven t heard, Donald Trump has joined Adolf Hitler as the latest Deplorable to become Time s Person of the Year. Beating out Hillary Clinton, the Flint, Michigan whistleblowers, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Mark Zuckerberg, and others who have actually accomplished something that didn t involve fraud, racism. Aside from her numerous other documented accomplishments, Hillary Clinton snagged the second-highest popular vote numbers in history and became the first to ever do that without also winning the election.When Time posted the announcement Wednesday, the internet just couldn t handle granting this honor to someone like Trump:@TIME pic.twitter.com/9nKga5Ke6o Bill Jansen (@TheBillJansen) December 8, 2016@TIME you are biased and what you have done is pathetic. You just lost credibility with me not good. Dianna Rice (@diannarice64) December 8, 2016@TIME @TIME What do you mean, "Behind " There is no backstory here. This person conned his way all the way to the top. Stupid in every way Fohtohgirl (@fohtohgirl) December 8, 2016@TIME $5 says Trump will have stacks of signed copies in the Oval Office to give out to diplomats and heads of state. Chad Brockman (@chadbrockman) December 8, 2016@TIME remember when you made Hitler times person of the year in 1938? What is wrong with you Hannah Mackay (@hamack3) December 8, 2016But the real fun began when they attempted to explain themselves.See why Donald Trump was chosen as TIME's Person of the Year 2016 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/31cskE6fmU pic.twitter.com/19d9R7H9jg TIME (@TIME) December 8, 2016@TIME pic.twitter.com/OF6iOqpnAt Jose Fdo Cuartas (@JoseFCuartas) December 8, 2016You made an admitted sexual predator Person of the Year. You have no credibility. Delete your account. @TIME Diana Prince (@hantavirus) December 8, 2016@TIME uh because you're trash and you're trynna tell me he's on the same level as Obama??? pic.twitter.com/SBq0VJ7DmH Ya Girl (@_mdiaz19) December 8, 2016@TIME Because you're afraid of him. sarcasticbitch (@dippelkellie1) December 8, 2016@TIME I had asked Santa for a subscription to Time; thanks for this announcement, request cancelled. I'd rather get coal than read this. Pat Nasta (@mainer91) December 8, 2016@TIME who fkn cares why. U gave an egotist more reason to be one. Why reward xenophobia? It's sickening Hillary 4 Real (@Hillary4Realz) December 8, 2016@TIME WTF TIME?!! How about Putin? Maybe Assange? Jesus, TIME sucks. Will never buy another issue, ever. JD (@EclecticArts2) December 8, 2016@TIME because so was Hitler. It just made sense right. @peacebw/u (@lbridges1212) December 8, 2016@TIME You have lost me as a reader and supporter of your magazine for your decision to choose a bigot, racist and woman abuser, like Trump!! John Mac Intyre (@JayMac8500) December 8, 2016Time explains that for better or worse, Trump was named Person of the Year because he had the greatest influence over the news this year:The revolution he stirred feels fully American, with its echoes of populists past, of Andrew Jackson and Huey Long and, at its most sinister, Joe McCarthy and Charles Coughlin. Trump s assault on truth and logic, far from hurting him, made him stronger. His appeal part hope, part snarl dissolved party lines and dispatched the two reigning dynasties of U.S. politics. Yet his victory mirrors the ascent of nationalists across the world, from Britain to the Philippines, and taps forces far more powerful than one man s message.We can scarcely grasp what our generation has wrought by putting a supercomputer into all of our hands, all of the time. If you are reading this, whether on a page or a screen, there is a very good chance that you are caught up in a revolution that may have started with enticing gadgets but has now reshaped everything about how we live, love, work, play, shop, share how our very hearts and minds encounter the world around us. Why would we have imagined that our national conversation would simply go on as before, same people, same promises, same patterns? Perhaps the President-elect will stop tweeting but only because he will have found some other means to tell the story he wants to tell directly to the audience that wants to hear it.Time is correct that Trump has perhaps had the greatest impact on the news, but one must wonder why they would choose to reward the bigotry and hate he encouraged and continues to encourage in their annual marketing gimmick. Normally, this would be a run-of-the-mill honor, even for a dictator (Time called Hitler the greatest threatening force that the democratic, freedom-loving world faces today in their 1938 article), but Trump thrives off of the attention and Time should have made the decision not to enable him.Featured image via Time | 1real |
The Superglue Diet: How to Make a Lighter, Fuel-Sipping Car - The New York Times | DETROIT — The 2017 GMC Acadia sport utility vehicle that is just starting to arrive in dealerships around the country is 700 pounds lighter than the version it replaces, and can go 23 miles on a gallon of gasoline, up from 18 m. p. g. a 28 percent improvement. One of the secrets to the big weight loss? Glue. Many of the steel parts of the Acadia’s underbody are held together not by rivets or welds but by advanced adhesives similar to those used in modern airplanes like the Boeing Dreamliner. Since this bonds parts together all along the seam where they connect, not just in certain spots, the parts become stiffer. Because of the stiffness, General Motors is able in many cases to switch to thinner steel, helping the new Acadia shed pounds. The grades of steel are thinner by only about the width of a human hair, but “it’s all the little things that add up to the big number,” said Charlie Klein, executive director of G. M.’s global reduction strategy. Automakers are racing to improve fuel efficiency to meet the increasing mileage standards that environmental regulators have set for the next nine years. adhesives are being used more widely, just one of the many leaps manufacturers are taking to reduce weight and save fuel. But to continue their gains, automakers must find additional innovations. One promising technology on the horizon is a new type of hybrid that draws power from a battery, which is more powerful than a standard auto battery but less expensive and less complicated than the power packs of 200 volts or more found in hybrids like the Toyota Prius. The battery drives an electric motor that gives the engine an extra 20 or so horsepower, cutting fuel use in starts and acceleration. Mary Gustanski, vice president of engineering and program management at Delphi, an auto supplier that is going to produce systems for car companies, believes these hybrids can improve the fuel economy of normal cars by 15 percent or more with little additional cost. “Is it leaps and bounds?” she said. “No, but does it move us further along? Definitely. ” Hyundai Motor, the Korean automaker, is “working very hard on technology,” said Michael O’Brien, the company’s vice president of corporate and product planning. He declined to say when those cars would be on the market. G. M. also expects to offer cars in the United States market in the next few years, an executive said. Ms. Gustanski said Delphi’s technology would first appear in Europe and China in 2018. Continental, another supplier, plans to begin producing systems for automakers by the end of this year. Even with new technologies, automakers still have a steep uphill climb to keep pace with targets. By 2025, they are supposed to sell a fleet of vehicles that hits an average of 54. 5 miles per gallon. That number is based on a complicated formula that gives credits for reducing emissions from and selling electric vehicles, among other things. In driving, the target equals a fleet average of about 40 miles per gallon. The average for cars and light trucks that were sold in July was 25. 4 miles per gallon, according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Last month, a joint report from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department said automakers were probably able to reach only an average rating of about 50 miles per gallon by 2025 — about 36 miles per gallon in situations. The main problem is that low gasoline prices and the absence of high fuel taxes that are common in most other advanced industrial nations have enticed Americans to move away from cars and buy more pickup trucks and S. U. V. s, which score lower on fuel efficiency. Missing the 2025 target would result in higher levels of carbon dioxide emissions, which regulators are trying to reduce in a bid to battle climate change. Regulators have just begun a review of the standards and by April 2018 must decide whether to ease them in some ways — a path automakers would prefer — or leave them unchanged. Automakers and regulators are at odds. At an industry conference in Michigan earlier this month, the E. P. A. ’s director for air quality, Christopher Grundler, shrugged off suggestions that the 2025 target should be lowered. He said the standards were “working spectacularly,” and noted that carmakers had made good progress and already offered many models that met the 2025 level. These include hybrid and models from Ford Motor, Hyundai, Toyota and others, as well as pure electric vehicles like Tesla models and G. M.’s Chevrolet Bolt. Ford’s pickup truck, when equipped with the company’s EcoBoost V6 engine, comes close to the 2025 requirement — 23 miles per gallon in driving — for vehicles of that size. Automakers agree that electric cars offer impressive numbers, but counter that consumers buy too few of them to move the average number. The big challenge, they say, is in improving fuel economy in conventional cars without adding so much cost that consumers turn away. “It is going to be extremely difficult for traditional powertrains to hit those targets in the last couple of years” leading to 2025, said Richard L. Gezelle, a senior program manager at Toyota. Toyota is one automaker that has less interest in “mild” hybrids, as they are known in the industry. Mr. Gezelle said his company thought automakers would need to focus more on breakthrough technologies — such as electric cars and fuel cell vehicles — that can meet the 2025 standard and continue improving fuel efficiency beyond then. For now, automakers are making gains from a series of technologies they started introducing about six years ago. These include shrinking the size of engines while adding turbocharging, which increases power and efficiency by forcing extra air into an engine. This approach enables a engine to put out about the same power as a traditional V6, and a V6 to replace a V8. At the same time, automakers are hoping for advancements from a new wave of innovations. They include: This system shuts off the engine when a car stops at a light or in traffic. Some vehicles already have this feature, but their rough restarts have turned off many consumers. Hybrids with systems promise improvements. FREEWHEELING Also known as coasting, this lets an engine shut off momentarily while a car is coasting, reducing fuel consumption. A hybrid car can use its electric motor to maintain cruising speed, letting the engine remain off longer. NEW MATERIALS Automakers already use more aluminum and advanced, lightweight steel. Now magnesium, which is a third lighter than aluminum, is appearing more frequently. Fiat Chrysler is using the metal in the tailgate of the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica minivan. CYLINDER DEACTIVATION For years engines have had the ability to shut off two or four cylinders to conserve fuel. Using new computer algorithms, Delphi, G. M. and Tula, a Silicon Valley tech company, are working on “dynamic skip fire,” a way of turning individual cylinders on and off as needed. | 0fake |
This Rio Phenom Would Be a Lock for a Gold. If There Were One for Slacklining. - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — Bouncing in the air above the sand of Ipanema Beach, not an Olympic venue in sight, is one of the most remarkable athletes in the world who has nothing to do with the Rio Games. Her name is Giovanna Petrucci, and her acrobatics rival those of the gymnasts and divers competing across this city. Petrucci is a world champion slackliner, performing on a thin strap of nylon or polyester fastened to palm trees. She does front flips and back flips and falls flat on the strap, her torso parallel to the ground. The move is called “fearless,” and she was the first woman or girl to execute it. “I saw them from a distance and thought they were walking on tightropes, which is remarkable enough as it is, but then they started jumping, flipping — it’s just incredible,” said Jerry Daykin, 32, a tourist from London who was here for the Olympics. Brazil would fare much better in the Olympics if Rio’s vibrant beach sports were part of the program. Athletes line the shoreline daily, practicing sports that include the more familiar beach volleyball and the homegrown futevôlei, a combination of volleyball and soccer juggling. If slackline were an Olympic sport, Petrucci, 18, would be a lock for gold. “Slackline originally came from climbing, but it’s evolved to be more like gymnastics,” she said. “But it’s not gymnastics. In gymnastics they have a whole floor for tumbling. Slackline is just on a strip. It requires balance, focus and strength, especially core strength, and also a lot of creativity. ” Petrucci recently graduated from high school but is taking time off before going to college. “Now, I’m living the slack life,” she said. With five sponsors, she is able to travel around the world for competitions. She recently got back from Germany, and next up is Japan. Petrucci grew up three blocks from the beach. She encountered slackline there when she was 13. She is learning from YouTube videos of slackline stars and getting guidance from others on the beach. Before she had finished high school, Petrucci was considered the best female slackliner in the world, winner of the World Slackline Masters championship. “Now we’re the top reference for people learning slackline — beginners are watching our videos,” she said, pointing out that she competed alongside athletes who were once her YouTube heroes. Pedro Rafael Marques, 20, was one of Petrucci’s admirers. He studied her videos while learning to slackline in his hometown in northeastern Brazil. “I thought it was insane when I first saw her videos,” he said. “I was surprised and really impressed to see a young girl doing those kinds of tricks. ” Now, Marques is also one of the best slackliners in Brazil and competes alongside Petrucci. He recently moved to a city near Rio to teach slackline classes and run a slackline program for children. Petrucci said she admired the Olympic gymnasts competing miles away at the Olympic Park. She said she looked to them for inspiration for new moves. But she is strongly against slacklining becoming an Olympic sport. “I don’t want to get on the line and then have to be like this,” she said, imitating a gymnastics dismount, throwing her arms in the air and flipping her wrists. “It’s too formal. Slackline is freestyle. ” | 0fake |
Making sense of the Russian naval task force off the coast of Syria | VINEYARD OF THE SAKER T he AngloZionst Empire’s propaganda machine, otherwise known as the corporate media, has had great difficulties deciding what it should say about the Russian naval task force which has been sent to Syria. The Americans have decided to express their usual contempt for anything Russian and describe this force as centered on the “geriatric” aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, while the Brits chose to describe it as a formidable “armada” about to completely obliterate the moderate terrorists in Syria. Illustration above: The Nuclear Battle-Cruiser Peter The Great My friend Alexander Mercouris has recently written a superb analysis explaining that, in reality, this task force was neither geriatric nor that formidable. Rather than repeating it all here, I prefer to write what I will consider a follow-up to this excellent piece with a few more details added to it. The first step will be to debunk a few fundamental misconceptions. Let’s begin by the Russian aircraft carrier. The “Heavy Aircraft-Carrying Cruiser Admiral of the Soviet Fleet Kuznetsov” Did you know that the Russian don’t even call the Admiral Kuznetsov an aircraft carrier. The official designation of the Kuznetsov is “Heavy Aircraft-Carrying Cruiser”. It is important to understand why. What is, in your opinion, an aircraft carrier? Or, let me put it this way, why does the United States maintain a force of 10-12 heavy aircraft carriers? If you believe Ronald Reagan, it is to “forward deploy” and bring the war to the Soviets (that was, then, the rationale for a 600 ship navy and US carriers in the northern Atlantic). Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that US, British, French aircraft carriers are a colonial rule enforcement tool . You park one or two aircraft carrier battle groups a few hundred miles from a disobedient country, and you bomb the shit out of it until it rolls over. That is, in reality, the only rationale for these immense structures. And the beauty of it is that you can threaten most of the planet and that you do not depend on allies agreeing to your mission. So, we can say that US and other western aircraft carriers are a long range power projection capability to be used against weak and poorly defended countries. Why weak and poorly defended only? Here is the ugly secret that everybody knows: aircraft carriers cannot be defended against a sophisticated enemy. Had the Cold War turned hot, the Soviets would have simultaneously attacked any US carrier in the north Atlantic with a combo of Air launched cruise missiles Surface ship launched cruise missiles Submarine launcher torpedoes I cannot prove the following, but I can just testify that I had plenty of friends in the US military, including some who served on US aircraft carriers, and they all understood that US carriers would never survive a Soviet saturation attack and that in case of a real war they would have been kept away from the Soviet shores. I will only add here that the Chinese apparently have developed specialized ballistic missiles designed to destroy carrier battle groups. That was then, in the early 1990s. Nowadays even countries like Iran are beginning to develop capabilities to engage and successfully destroy US carriers. The Soviets never built any real aircraft carriers. What they had were *cruisers* with a very limited amount of vertically launched aircraft and, of course, helicopters. These cruisers had two main purposes: to extend the reach of the Soviet air defenses and to support a landing of a force from the sea. One very special feature of these aircraft carrying Soviet cruisers is that they had very large (4,5-7 tons) cruise missiles designed to strike at a high-value enemy ships, including US aircraft carriers. You can read up on the “Kiev-class” aircraft carrying cruiser here . Another key characteristic of these Soviet aircraft-carrying cruisers is that they carried a rather lame aircraft, the Yak-38 which was plagued by problems and would have been a very easy target for US F-14. F-15, F-16 or F-18. For that reason, the Kiev-class air-defenses were centered on its surface-to-air missiles and not on its complement of aircraft. By the time the Kuznetsov was built, the Soviets had developed aircraft which were at least equal, if not superior, to their western counterparts: the MiG-29 and, especially, the SU-27. And that gave some of them the idea to build a “real” aircraft carrier. T he decision to built the Kuznetsov was an extremely controversial one which faced a lot of opposition. The Kuznetsov’s “selling points” were that she was a much superior air defense platform, that she could carry vastly superior aircraft and, last but not least, that she could compete for prestige with the US heavy aircraft carriers, especially the planned but never built nuclear-powered follow-on generation. I find that argument wholly unconvincing and nowadays I am pretty confident that most Russian naval force planners would agree with me: Russia does not need US-style aircraft carriers and if she needs any aircraft carriers at all, then they would have to be designed around a *Russian* mission requirement and not just to copy the Americans. [Sidebar: I would love to get on my favorite soapbox and tell you all the bad things I think about aircraft carriers in general and why I think that the Russian Navy should be submarine and frigate centered, but this would take up too much space. I will just say that I much rather have many frigates or corvettes than a few heavy cruisers]. So the Kuznetsov ended up being a mega-compromise and, as compromises go, a pretty good one. Think of it: even though the Kuznetsov packs 12 massive Granit anti-ship missiles, it has, at least potentially, a complement of aircraft bigger than the French Charles de Gaulle (50 vs 40). Initially, the Kuznetsov carried 12 pure air to air SU-33, but now these will be gradually replaced with 20 much more modern MiG-29K and its 24 Ka-27 helicopters will be replaced by the most advanced reconnaissance and attack helicopter on the planet, the Ka-52K . The Kuznetsov still has two major weaknesses: a frankly dated propulsion system (see the Mercouris article) and a lack of on-board AWACs aircraft. The latter is a direct consequence of the design philosophy of the Kuznetsov which was never designed to operate much beyond 500-1000 km from the Russian border (again, the crucial roughly under 1000 km Russian force planning philosophy ). To sum this all up: the Kuznetsov is a fine aircraft carrier which nevertheless reflects a compromise design philosophy and which was never intended to project Russian power at long distances the way western, especially US, carriers have . Now let’s turn to the rest of this Russian naval task force The rest of the Russian naval task force around the Kuznetsov One big name immediately stands out: the Heavy Nuclear Rocket Cruiser Peter the Great. The nuclear battle-cruiser Peter the Great This is one heavy beast and currently the most heavily armed ship on the planet. I won’t even go into all the details here, check this article for a list of armaments if you are interested, suffice to say here that this battlecruiser can do everything: anti-air, anti-ship, anti-submarine. She is packed with top of the line sensors and advanced communications. Being the flagship of the Northern Fleet she is also the de-facto flagship of the entire Russian Navy. Last, but not least, the Peter the Great carries a formidable array of 20 Granit anti-ship missile. Please note that the combined firepower of Granit anti-ship missiles of the Kuznetsov and Peter the Great is 12+20 for a total of 32. I will explain why this is important below. The rest of the task force is composed of two Large Antisubmarine Ships (destroyers in western terminology), the Vice-Admiral Kulakov and the Severomorsk, and a number of support vessels. The Kulakov and the Severomorsk are based on the Udaloy design and are modern and all-around capable combat ships. All these ships will soon merge into one force, including two small missile ships (corvettes in western terminology) which carry the famous Kalibr cruise missiles and which specialize in attacking surface ships. Finally, though this will not be advertised, I believe that this task force will include at least two Akula-class nuclear attack submarines, one Oscar-II cruise missile submarine (armed with another 12 Granit cruise missiles) and several Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines. To sum this all up. The Russian naval task force is a Russian attempt to bring together a number of ships which were never designed to operate as a single naval task force far away from Russia. If you want, it is a clever Russian “hack” . I would argue that it is also a rather successful one as this task force as a whole is a very impressive one. No, it cannot take on all of NATO or even the USN, but there are a number of things which it can do very effectively. Now we can turn to the big question, What can the Russian naval task force in Syria really do? The 7 ton Granit P-700 (3M45) Before looking at the bigger picture, there is one detail which I think deserves to be mentioned here. Just about every article I read about the Granit cruise missile says that it is an anti-ship cruise missile. I also wrote that above in order to keep things simple. But now I have to say that the Granit probably always had a “B” mode, “B” as in “beregovoy” or, if you prefer, “coastal” or “land” mode. I don’t know whether this mode existed from day 1 or whether it was added later, but it is now certain that the Granit has had such a mode. It was probably a fairly minimalistic capability, without fancy guidance and other tricks (which the Granit has in its main anti-ship mode), but the Russians have recently revealed that the upgraded Granits now have a *real* (“complex”) land attack capability. And that requires a totally new look at what that means for this task force. This is what we know about the new and improved Granit (which the Russians refer to as 3M45): Mass: 7 tons Range: 500-600km Warhead: 750kg (conventional and nuclear capable) The Granit is also capable of some very advanced things, including having one missile flying at 500m or higher to detect the target and the rest of them skimming the surface while receiving the data from the high-flying one. These missiles are also capable of automatically attacking from different directions to better overwhelm air defenses. They can fly as low as 25m and as high as 17’000m. What this all means is that these Granits missiles are very capable tactical-operational range missiles of their own right . And considering that there are at the very least 32 such missiles in the Russian task force (46 if a Oscar-II class sub is also present), that means that this task force has a tactical missile firepower similar to an entire rocket brigade! Should things go very wrong, this task force could not only seriously threaten any USN/NATO surface ship within 500km of Syria, but also every single city or military base in this range . I am rather surprised that the western fear-mongers missed this one because it ought to scare NATO pretty badly :-) To be honest here, some specialists are expressing big doubts about the land-attack capabilities of the Granit. Everybody knows that these are relatively old and very expensive missiles, but nobody knows how much effort was really put in their modernization. But even if they are not nearly as capable as advertised, the fact that 32 to 46 of such missiles will be sitting just off the Syrian coast will be a formidable deterrent because nobody will never know what these missiles can do until they really do it. Next: T he combined capabilities of the Russian naval task force and the S-300/S-400 missiles deployed in Syria give the Russians a world-class air-defense capability. If needed the Russians could even throw in A-50 AWACs from Russia protected by MiG-31BMs. What most observers do not realize is that SA-N-6 “Grumble” which forms the core of the air defenses of the Peter the Great is a S-300FM, the modernized naval variant of the S-300 . It is also capable of the amazing Mach 6 speed, has a 150km range, an added infrared terminal capability, a track-via-missile guidance system which allows it to engage ballistic missiles and an altitude envelope of 27’000m. And, guess what – the Peter the Great has 48 such missiles (in 20 launchers), roughly the equivalent of 12 S-300 batteries (assuming 4 launchers per battery). One of the major weaknesses of the Russian deployment in Syria has been the relative low number of missiles the Russians could fire at any one time. The US/NATO could simply saturate Russian defenses with large numbers of missiles. Frankly, they can still do it, but this has now become much, much harder. Can the Russians now stop a US attack on Syria? Probably not. But they can make it much harder and dramatically less effective. First, as soon as the Americans fire, the Russians will see it and they will warn the Syrian and Russian armed forces. Since the Russians will be able to track every US missile, they will be able to pass on the data to all the air defense crews who will be ready by the time the missiles arrive. Furthermore, once the missiles get close, the Russians will be able to shoot down a lot of them, making necessary for the Americans to conduct battle damage assessment from space and then re-strike the same targets many times over. Second, stealth or no stealth, I don’t believe that the USN or the USAF will risk flying into Russian controlled airspace or, if it does, this will be a short-lived experiment. I believe that the Russian presence in Syria will make any attack on Syria a “missile only” attack. Unless the Americans take down the Russian air defenses, which they could only if they want to start WWIII, US aircraft will have to stay outside the Syrian skies. And that means that the Russians have basically made their own no-fly zone over Syria and that a US no-fly zone is now impossible to achieve . Next, the Kuznetsov will be brining a number of fixed and rotary wing aircraft including 15-20 Ka-27 and Ka-52K helicopters, and 15-20 SU-33K and MiG-29K (I don’t think there has been an official figure announced). What the Russians have said is that the fixed-wing aircraft will be upgraded to be able to attack ground targets. Will all that make a difference? Maybe, on the margins. It will definitely help dealing with the expected influx of moderate terrorists coming from Mosul (courtesy of the US operation to flush them down into Syria), but the Russians could have simply moved more SU-25 or even SU-34 to Khmeimin or Iran at a much smaller cost. Thus in terms of its air-wing, I fully agree with Mercouris – this will be mainly a real-life training opportunity and not a game changer. Conclusion T his deployment is highly uncharacteristic of what the Russians have been training for. They have basically found a way to reinforce the Russian contingent in Syria, especially against Hillary’s “no fly zone” nightmare. However, this is also a case of making virtue out of necessity: the operation in Syria was always too far from the Russian border and the Russian force in Syria always too small for its task. Furthermore, this deployment is not sustainable in the long term, and the Russians know it. They have successfully imposed a “Yankee no fly zone” over Syria long enough for the Syrian to take Aleppo and for the Americans to vote for their next President. After that, the situation will either get dramatically better (Trump) or dramatically worse (Hillary). Either way, the new situation will require a completely different Russian strategy. —The Saker PS: I am aware of the semi-official Russian announced plans to build a modern aircraft carrier, probably a nuclear one, with catapults and all. For whatever it’s worth, I am very much opposed to this idea which I find wasteful and which does not fit the Russian defense doctrine. The new generation of Russian subs (SSNs and SLBMs), however, gets my standing ovation. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP INSTALLATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR The Saker is the nom de guerre of a former Russian-born military analyst and founder of the Saker network of sites. 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. 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Breitbart News Daily: March for Life - Breitbart | On the Friday edition of Breitbart News Daily, broadcast live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 from 6AM to 9AM Eastern, Breitbart London Raheem Kassam will continue our discussion of President Trump’s first 100 days. [Breitbart’s Dr. Tom Williams will our discussion of Friday’s annual March for Life in Washington, DC, and what it means to the movement. Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List will discuss Friday’s March in DC and President Trump’s actions so far. Breitbart’s Dr. Susan Berry will discuss the media’s failure to report on the annual March for Life despite the large numbers that turn out for it year after year. The media’s omission is especially glaring in light of their extensive coverage of the rally last weekend. Filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer will discuss their new book Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer. British MP Michael Gove will discuss UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech yesterday at the Republican Retreat in Philadelphia. Ted Malloch, Chairman and CEO of Global Fiduciary Governance, LLC, will discuss the future of the EU and the euro. Ned Ryun, the Founder and CEO of American Majority, will discuss President Trump’s first week in office. Live from London, Rome, and Jerusalem, Breitbart correspondents will provide updates on the latest international news. Breitbart News Daily is the first live, conservative radio enterprise to air seven days a week. SiriusXM Vice President for news and talk Dave Gorab called the show “the conservative news show of record. ” Follow Breitbart News on Twitter for live updates during the show. Listeners may call into the show at: . | 0fake |
Representative Barletta says he discussed becoming Trump's labor secretary | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican congressman Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania said he met with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and discussed becoming his labor secretary. “We talked about secretary of labor,” Barletta told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. | 0fake |
'A difficult life': As refugee arrivals to Greece pick up, misery grows | SAMOS, Greece(Reuters) - Even on the nights Muhammad Ahlum s children manage to fall asleep, they wake up screaming. Since Ahlum and his family fled Syria s civil war five months ago, they have been living in a grim and congested camp on the Greek island of Samos. Like other asylum-seekers in limbo in Greece, they are barely coping. More than 14,500 asylum-seekers, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, are in five camps on Greek islands close to Turkey. Aid groups have warned a mental health emergency is developing, fueled by poor living conditions, neglect and violence. Arrivals to Greece from Turkey had all but stopped after the European Union struck a deal with Ankara last year. But asylum procedures can take months, and a small, steady flow had continued. A recent sharp rise is straining facilities. I am very depressed. My wife is sick, said Ahlum, 36, recounting how his children, aged six and eight, have stopped eating food in the camp and are terrified of noises. This is my life in the camp. A very difficult life, he said. Sometimes they can t sleep at night. Sometimes they wake up screaming and crying. Over a dozen human rights groups wrote to the Greek prime minister on Monday urging him to end the containment of asylum seekers on the islands, where camps hold two to three times as many people as they were designed for. In the last two months, there has been a significant increase in people talking about suicide as a way to escape from this situation, said Jayne Grimes, manager of mental health activities on Samos for Doctors Without Borders. More than 2,500 asylum-seekers are on Samos, in facilities for 700. Hundreds have set up tents in the surrounding forest. If we knew it would be like this, we would have stayed under the bombing, said Syrian Muahab Ashaad, 27, as he sat with his son in their tent under the trees. The government has said it plans to move 2,000 asylum-seekers from Samos and nearby Lesbos to the mainland, where about 50,000 more refugees and migrants live in camps. Aid organizations say it may not enough. The most urgent need is to prepare for the winter, not only for the cold but for the rains, said Rose de Jong, Samos field officer for the United Nations refugee agency. Locals on Samos, just a few miles from Turkish shores, are divided. Some say the island can t cope with the sheer numbers. The situation has become unbearable, said Athanasios Terzis, a businessman. We don t have anything against them. We just want them to leave and to be taken to the rest of Greece. | 0fake |
Two hurt after report of explosion near Glasgow, Scotland | LONDON (Reuters) - Two people were injured on Thursday, police said, after a report of an explosion near the Scottish town of Glasgow. The blast was reported inside a building in Wishaw, southeast of Glasgow, and police said they had evacuated nearby buildings as a precaution. Emergency services are at the scene and two injured parties are being treated by ambulance, Lanarkshire Police said on Facebook. Scotland s Fire and Rescue Service said it too was at the scene. We are in attendance at Bonkle Road, Wishaw tackling small fire following small explosion in commercial building, it posted on its Twitter feed. | 0fake |
YIKES! WHAT THE HECK Did Hillary Just Cough Up Into Her Glass?…And Why Is There An Ambulance In Her Motorcade? [VIDEO] | Hillary was seen passing up a bottle of water in the midst of another one of her coughing fits in front of her press cheerleaders on her new campaign plane yesterday. Passing up a bottle of water in the middle of a coughing fit would seem strange, but what was even more strange is that she passed up a bottle of water for a glass of water that was handed to her by someone on her staff from behind the curtain. Pretty much everything Hillary does is done from behind a curtain so the idea that Hillary is likely hiding a serious illness like say .Parkinson s Disease is not really all that far fetched.DOES HILLARY HAVE PARKINSON S DISEASE?As a neurological disorder, Parkinson s disease (PD) has been shown to affect motor skills in the limbs, inhibit muscle coordination, and sometimes contribute to dysphagia.1 Dysphagia is the medical term for difficulty swallowing. Thickened liquids are often used in the management of dysphagia to improve bolus control and to help prevent aspiration. A range of starches and gums has historically been used to thicken liquids. Although thickened liquids improve swallow safety, they appear to have a great potential for unintended physiological consequences.What the heck did Hillary just cough up into her glass during her speech in Cleveland?https://twitter.com/NolteNC/status/773264547813744648Meanwhile a very interesting addition was spotted in Hillary Clinton s motorcade yesterday. There s a probably a perfectly good explanation for an ambulance being added to her motorcade. Maybe it s in case Hillary falls off the stage. She has been stumbling quite a bit and has been seen grabbing on to railings, chairs, tables, or pretty much anything she can get her hands on that helps to keep her upright. But it s only her health and she is only running for President of the most powerful nation on earth so, what difference does that make right?Watch the great coverage of Hillary s pathetic rally in Cleveland yesterday by this young InfoWars reporter. The ambulance appears at the 6:40 mark:In case you missed it Watch Hillary spit something eeeeewww!back into her glass of of water and whatever else is mixed in with the water: | 1real |
New emails under review in Clinton case emerged from Weiner probe | WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey said Friday that investigators had found new emails related to the bureau's previously closed inquiry into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, restarting a long-simmering debate over the Democratic nominee's conduct as secretary of State in the closing days of a presidential campaign that Clinton appeared to be putting away.
In a letter to senior lawmakers explaining his decision, Comey said "the FBI cannot yet assess" whether the information is "significant" nor could he offer a timetable for how long it will take investigators to make an assessment.
But an official familiar with the matter said Friday that the new materials, perhaps thousands of emails, were discovered in the ongoing and separate investigation into sexually charged communications between former New York congressman Anthony Weiner and a 15-year-old girl. Comey was briefed on the findings in recent days, resulting in the director's notification to Congress, said the official who is not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The emails were discovered in a search of a device or devices used by Weiner, who is separated from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Abedin also had access to the same device or devices.
The official said it was not likely that the FBI's review of the additional emails could be completed by Election Day.
In a brief news conference in Iowa on Friday evening, Clinton said, "The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately," a position earlier outlined in a statement from her campaign chairman, John Podesta. The Democratic nominee called on the FBI "to release all the information that it has."
"As you know I've had plenty of words about the FBI lately, but I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. Justice will prevail," Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Thursday night.
During a speech in New Hampshire earlier in the day, the Republican presidential nominee gleefully discussed the "breaking news announcement."
"Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before," Trump said, and her "criminal scheme" should not be allowed in the Oval Office.
"Perhaps justice will be done," the GOP nominee said of the development.
In his statement, Podesta demanded that the FBI director "provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter'' to lawmakers.
"Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call,'' Podesta said. "In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
"It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election," Podesta added.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One Friday, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said nothing had "surfaced to change the president's opinion and views of Secretary Clinton.''
"He's going to be proud to support her from now until Election Day," Schultz said.
In July, Comey announced that while Clinton and her aides during her tenure as secretary of State had been "extremely careless" in the way they'd handled classified information, he recommended that no criminal charges be filed.
In her press conference Friday, Clinton said she was "confident" whatever is included in the new messages under review "will not change the conclusion reached in July."
In July, Comey testified before skeptical Republican lawmakers to explain the bureau's recommendation, which had been adopted by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
“We’re mystified and confused by the fact pattern you laid out and the conclusion you reached," House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Comey.
Comey, however, was unequivocal in maintaining that the conclusion of investigators was not a close call.
“There is no way anybody would bring a case against John Doe or Hillary Clinton for the second time in 100 years based on those facts," he told the House panel on July 7.
Trump has cited the closed FBI probe as evidence that the election was "rigged" against him, and at a recent debate the GOP nominee said that, if he's elected president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton.
"Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame," said House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
"This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators," Ryan said in a statement, adding that he was again calling for Clinton to no longer receive classified briefings, a traditional courtesy afforded major-party presidential nominees.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the timing of the decision, so soon before the election, demonstrated "how serious this discovery must be."
Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, wrote on Twitter that "a great day in our campaign just got even better."
Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said in a statement that "without knowing how many emails are involved, who wrote them, when they were written or their subject matter, it’s impossible to make any informed judgment on this development."
She added: "The FBI has a history of extreme caution near Election Day so as not to influence the results. Today’s break from that tradition is appalling.”
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans of attempting to "misrepresent'' the FBI's work.
"Sadly but predictably, Republicans are doing their best to ... warp the FBI’s work to serve their partisan conspiracy-mongering against Hillary Clinton,'' Pelosi said.
The uncertainty of what the new FBI review will yield, and when it will be completed, leaves open the question of how much of an impact it will have on the presidential campaign, as Trump looks to mount what would be a historic comeback, as polls show him trailing nationally and in key battleground states.
"Unless the FBI closes this new investigation one way or the other next week, the likely impact will be to cut into Clinton’s margin, with the bigger effect being on down-ballot races than on the outcome of the presidential election," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, in an emailed statement.
Whatever the long-term impact, the short-term jolt to Trump and his supporters, at least, seemed clear.
In his New Hampshire speech, the GOP nominee suggested the rest of his message for the day would no longer matter as much, given the FBI announcement.
"The rest of my speech is going to be so boring," he joked.
Contributing: David Jackson in Manchester, N.H., and Gregory Korte in Washington. | 0fake |
Michael Phelps Powers U.S. to Victory in 4x100 Relay, Winning a 19th Gold - The New York Times | RIO DE JANEIRO — Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic gold medal as the United States won the 4x100 relay at the Olympics on Sunday. The Americans’ traditional rival in the event, France, was second, and Australia third. The gold was Phelps’s 23rd medal: 19 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. The final time was 3:09. 92. Phelps, who wasn’t added to the relay team until race day, swam the second leg for the Americans, taking over from Caeleb Dressel in second place behind France and swimming into the lead. His split time was 47. 12, which his coach Bob Bowman said was one of his fastest. He took the lead from his French counterpart Fabien Gilot after a turn that Bowman described as “probably the best turn that might have ever been done. ” Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian brought the U. S. home Adrian’s split was an even better 46. 97. Phelps retired after the 2012 Games but decided to return in part because of disappointment with how the American men swam in the 4x100 relay at the 2013 world championships, losing to France. The relay was the most unpredictable event of the night in swimming, with Australia, France, the United States and Russia all having claims to a gold medal. France and the United States split the last two Olympic gold medals, with Yannick Agnel of France outdueling Ryan Lochte in the anchor leg to win four years ago. Phelps was on both of those American teams. | 0fake |
The Modern History of ‘Rigged’ US Elections | Posted on October 27, 2016 by WashingtonsBlog
By Robert Parry, the investigative reporter who many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. Originally published at Parry’s Consortium News (republished with permission).
The United States is so committed to the notion that its electoral process is the world’s “gold standard” that there has been a bipartisan determination to maintain the fiction even when evidence is overwhelming that a U.S. presidential election has been manipulated or stolen. The “wise men” of the system simply insist otherwise.
We have seen this behavior when there are serious questions of vote tampering (as in Election 1960) or when a challenger apparently exploits a foreign crisis to create an advantage over the incumbent (as in Elections 1968 and 1980) or when the citizens’ judgment is overturned by judges (as in Election 2000). Presidents Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan photographed together in the Oval Office in 1991. (Cropped from a White House photo that also included Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.)
Strangely, in such cases, it is not only the party that benefited which refuses to accept the evidence of wrongdoing, but the losing party and the establishment news media as well. Protecting the perceived integrity of the U.S. democratic process is paramount. Americans must continue to believe in the integrity of the system even when that integrity has been violated.
The harsh truth is that pursuit of power often trumps the principle of an informed electorate choosing the nation’s leaders, but that truth simply cannot be recognized.
Of course, historically, American democracy was far from perfect, excluding millions of people, including African-American slaves and women. The compromises needed to enact the Constitution in 1787 also led to distasteful distortions, such as counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of representation (although obviously slaves couldn’t vote).
That unsavory deal enabled Thomas Jefferson to defeat John Adams in the pivotal national election of 1800. In effect, the votes of Southern slave owners like Jefferson counted substantially more than the votes of Northern non-slave owners.
Even after the Civil War when the Constitution was amended to give black men voting rights, the reality for black voting, especially in the South, was quite different from the new constitutional mandate. Whites in former Confederate states concocted subterfuges to keep blacks away from the polls to ensure continued white supremacy for almost a century.
Women did not gain suffrage until 1920 with the passage of another constitutional amendment, and it took federal legislation in 1965 to clear away legal obstacles that Southern states had created to deny the franchise to blacks.
Indeed, the alleged voter fraud in Election 1960, concentrated largely in Texas, a former Confederate state and home to John Kennedy’s vice presidential running mate, Lyndon Johnson, could be viewed as an outgrowth of the South’s heritage of rigging elections in favor of Democrats, the post-Civil War party of white Southerners.
However, by pushing through civil rights for blacks in the 1960s, Kennedy and Johnson earned the enmity of many white Southerners who switched their allegiance to the Republican Party via Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy of coded racial messaging. Nixon also harbored resentments over what he viewed as his unjust defeat in the election of 1960.
Nixon’s ‘Treason’
So, by 1968, the Democrats’ once solid South was splintering, but Nixon, who was again the Republican presidential nominee, didn’t want to leave his chances of winning what looked to be another close election to chance. Nixon feared that — with the Vietnam War raging and the Democratic Party deeply divided — President Johnson could give the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a decisive boost by reaching a last-minute peace deal with North Vietnam. President Richard Nixon with his then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in 1972.
The documentary and testimonial evidence is now clear that to avert a peace deal, Nixon’s campaign went behind Johnson’s back to persuade South Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu to torpedo Johnson’s Paris peace talks by refusing to attend. Nixon’s emissaries assured Thieu that a President Nixon would continue the war and guarantee a better outcome for South Vietnam.
Though Johnson had strong evidence of what he privately called Nixon’s “treason” — from FBI wiretaps in the days before the 1968 election — he and his top advisers chose to stay silent. In a Nov. 4, 1968 conference call , Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor Walt Rostow and Defense Secretary Clark Clifford – three pillars of the Establishment – expressed that consensus, with Clifford explaining the thinking:
“Some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have a certain individual [Nixon] elected,” Clifford said. “It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country’s interests.”
Clifford’s words expressed the recurring thinking whenever evidence emerged casting the integrity of America’s electoral system in doubt, especially at the presidential level. The American people were not to know what kind of dirty deeds could affect that process.
To this day, the major U.S. news media will not directly address the issue of Nixon’s treachery in 1968, despite the wealth of evidence proving this historical reality now available from declassified records at the Johnson presidential library in Austin, Texas. In a puckish recognition of this ignored history, the library’s archivists call the file on Nixon’s sabotage of the Vietnam peace talks their “X-file.” [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “ LBJ’s ‘X-File’ on Nixon’s ‘Treason. ’”]
The evidence also strongly suggests that Nixon’s paranoia about a missing White House file detailing his “treason” – top secret documents that Johnson had entrusted to Rostow at the end of LBJ’s presidency – led to Nixon’s creation of the “plumbers,” a team of burglars whose first assignment was to locate those purloined papers. The existence of the “plumbers” became public in June 1972 when they were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate in Washington. National Security Adviser Walt Rostow shows President Lyndon Johnson a model of a battle near Khe Sanh in Vietnam. (U.S. Archive Photo)
Although the Watergate scandal remains the archetypal case of election-year dirty tricks, the major U.S. news media never acknowledge the link between Watergate and Nixon’s far more egregious dirty trick four years earlier, sinking Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks while 500,000 American soldiers were in the war zone. In part because of Nixon’s sabotage — and his promise to Thieu of a more favorable outcome — the war continued for four more bloody years before being settled along the lines that were available to Johnson in 1968. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “ The Heinous Crime Behind Watergate .”]
In effect, Watergate gets walled off as some anomaly that is explained by Nixon’s strange personality. However, even though Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974, he and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, who also had a hand in the Paris peace talk caper, reappear as secondary players in the next well-documented case of obstructing a sitting president’s foreign policy to get an edge in the 1980 campaign.
Reagan’s ‘October Surprise’ Caper
In that case, President Jimmy Carter was seeking reelection and trying to negotiate release of 52 American hostages then held in revolutionary Iran. Ronald Reagan’s campaign feared that Carter might pull off an “October Surprise” by bringing home the hostages just before the election. So, this historical mystery has been: Did Reagan’s team take action to block Carter’s October Surprise? President Ronald Reagan, delivering his Inaugural Address on Jan. 20, 1981, as the 52 U.S. hostages in Iran are simultaneously released.
The testimonial and documentary evidence that Reagan’s team did engage in a secret operation to prevent Carter’s October Surprise is now almost as overwhelming as the proof of the 1968 affair regarding Nixon’s Paris peace talk maneuver.
That evidence indicates that Reagan’s campaign director William Casey organized a clandestine effort to prevent the hostages’ release before Election Day, after apparently consulting with Nixon and Kissinger and aided by former CIA Director George H.W. Bush, who was Reagan’s vice presidential running mate.
By early November 1980, the public’s obsession with Iran’s humiliation of the United States and Carter’s inability to free the hostages helped turn a narrow race into a Reagan landslide. When the hostages were finally let go immediately after Reagan’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981, his supporters cited the timing to claim that the Iranians had finally relented out of fear of Reagan.
Bolstered by his image as a tough guy, Reagan enacted much of his right-wing agenda, including passing massive tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, weakening unions and creating the circumstances for the rapid erosion of the Great American Middle Class.
Behind the scenes, the Reagan administration signed off on secret arms shipments to Iran, mostly through Israel, what a variety of witnesses described as the payoff for Iran’s cooperation in getting Reagan elected and then giving him the extra benefit of timing the hostage release to immediately follow his inauguration. Then-Vice President George H.W. Bush with CIA Director William Casey at the White House on Feb. 11, 1981. (Photo credit: Reagan Library)
In summer 1981, when Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East Nicholas Veliotes learned about the arms shipments to Iran, he checked on their origins and said, later in a PBS interview:
“It was clear to me after my conversations with people on high that indeed we had agreed that the Israelis could transship to Iran some American-origin military equipment. … [This operation] seems to have started in earnest in the period probably prior to the election of 1980, as the Israelis had identified who would become the new players in the national security area in the Reagan administration. And I understand some contacts were made at that time.”
Those early covert arms shipments to Iran evolved into a later secret set of arms deals that surfaced in fall 1986 as the Iran-Contra Affair, with some of the profits getting recycled back to Reagan’s beloved Nicaraguan Contra rebels fighting to overthrow Nicaragua’s leftist government.
While many facts of the Iran-Contra scandal were revealed by congressional and special-prosecutor investigations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the origins of the Reagan-Iran relationship was always kept hazy. The Republicans were determined to stop any revelations about the 1980 contacts, but the Democrats were almost as reluctant to go there.
A half-hearted congressional inquiry was launched in 1991 and depended heavily on then-President George H.W. Bush to collect the evidence and arrange interviews for the investigation. In other words, Bush, who was then seeking reelection and who was a chief suspect in the secret dealings with Iran, was entrusted with proving his own guilt.
Tired of the Story
By the early 1990s, the mainstream U.S. news media was also tired of the complex Iran-Contra scandal and wanted to move on. As a correspondent at Newsweek, I had battled senior editors over their disinterest in getting to the bottom of the scandal before I left the magazine in 1990. I then received an assignment from PBS Frontline to look into the 1980 “October Surprise” question, which led to a documentary on the subject in April 1991. PBS Frontline’s: The Election Held Hostage, co-written by Robert Parry and Robert Ross.
However, by fall 1991, just as Congress was agreeing to open an investigation, my ex-bosses at Newsweek, along with The New Republic, then an elite neoconservative publication interested in protecting Israel’s exposure on those early arms deals, went on the attack. They published matching cover stories deeming the 1980 “October Surprise” case a hoax, but their articles were both based on a misreading of documents recording Casey’s attendance at a conference in London in July 1980, which he seemed to have used as a cover for a side trip to Madrid to meet with senior Iranians regarding the hostages.
Although the bogus Newsweek/New Republic “London alibi” would eventually be debunked, it created a hostile climate for the investigation. With Bush angrily denying everything and the congressional Republicans determined to protect the President’s flanks, the Democrats mostly just went through the motions of an investigation.
Meanwhile, Bush’s State Department and White House counsel’s office saw their jobs as discrediting the investigation, deep-sixing incriminating documents, and helping a key witness dodge a congressional subpoena.
Years later, I discovered a document at the Bush presidential library in College Station, Texas, confirming that Casey had taken a mysterious trip to Madrid in 1980. The U.S. Embassy’s confirmation of Casey’s trip was passed along by State Department legal adviser Edwin D. Williamson to Associate White House Counsel Chester Paul Beach Jr. in early November 1991, just as the congressional inquiry was taking shape.
Williamson said that among the State Department “material potentially relevant to the October Surprise allegations [was] a cable from the Madrid embassy indicating that Bill Casey was in town, for purposes unknown,” Beach noted in a “ memorandum for record ” dated Nov. 4, 1991.
Two days later, on Nov. 6, Beach’s boss, White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, convened an inter-agency strategy session and explained the need to contain the congressional investigation into the October Surprise case. The explicit goal was to ensure the scandal would not hurt President Bush’s reelection hopes in 1992. C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel under President George H.W. Bush.
At the meeting, Gray laid out how to thwart the October Surprise inquiry, which was seen as a dangerous expansion of the Iran-Contra investigation. The prospect that the two sets of allegations would merge into a single narrative represented a grave threat to George H.W. Bush’s reelection campaign. As assistant White House counsel Ronald vonLembke, put it , the White House goal in 1991 was to “kill/spike this story.”
Gray explained the stakes at the White House strategy session. “Whatever form they ultimately take, the House and Senate ‘October Surprise’ investigations, like Iran-Contra, will involve interagency concerns and be of special interest to the President ,” Gray declared, according to minutes . [Emphasis in original.]
Among “touchstones” cited by Gray were “No Surprises to the White House, and Maintain Ability to Respond to Leaks in Real Time. This is Partisan.” White House “talking points” on the October Surprise investigation urged restricting the inquiry to 1979-80 and imposing strict time limits for issuing any findings.
Timid Democrats
But Bush’s White House really had little to fear because whatever evidence that the congressional investigation received – and a great deal arrived in December 1992 and January 1993 – there was no stomach for actually proving that the 1980 Reagan campaign had conspired with Iranian radicals to extend the captivity of 52 Americans in order to ensure Reagan’s election victory. Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana.
That would have undermined the faith of the American people in their democratic process – and that, as Clark Clifford said in the 1968 context, would not be “good for the country.”
In 2014 when I sent a copy of Beach’s memo regarding Casey’s trip to Madrid to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, who had chaired the October Surprise inquiry in 1991-93, he told me that it had shaken his confidence in the task force’s dismissive conclusions about the October Surprise issue.
“The [Bush-41] White House did not notify us that he [Casey] did make the trip” to Madrid, Hamilton told me. “Should they have passed that on to us? They should have because they knew we were interested in that.”
Asked if knowledge that Casey had traveled to Madrid might have changed the task force’s dismissive October Surprise conclusion, Hamilton said yes, because the question of the Madrid trip was key to the task force’s investigation.
“If the White House knew that Casey was there, they certainly should have shared it with us,” Hamilton said, adding that “you have to rely on people” in authority to comply with information requests. But that trust was at the heart of the inquiry’s failure. With the money and power of the American presidency at stake, the idea that George H.W. Bush and his team would help an investigation that might implicate him in an act close to treason was naïve in the extreme.
Arguably, Hamilton’s timid investigation was worse than no investigation at all because it gave Bush’s team the opportunity to search out incriminating documents and make them disappear. Then, Hamilton’s investigative conclusion reinforced the “group think” dismissing this serious manipulation of democracy as a “conspiracy theory” when it was anything but. In the years since, Hamilton hasn’t done anything to change the public impression that the Reagan campaign was innocent.
Still, among the few people who have followed this case, the October Surprise cover-up would slowly crumble with admissions by officials involved in the investigation that its exculpatory conclusions were rushed , that crucial evidence had been hidden or ignored , and that some alibis for key Republicans didn’t make any sense .
But the dismissive “group think” remains undisturbed as far as the major U.S. media and mainstream historians are concerned. [For details, see Robert Parry’s America’s Stolen Narrative or Trick or Treason: The 1980 October Surprise Mystery or Consortiumnews.com’s “ Second Thoughts on October Surprise. ”]
Past as Prologue
Lee Hamilton’s decision to “clear” Reagan and Bush of the 1980 October Surprise suspicions in 1992 was not simply a case of miswriting history. The findings had clear implications for the future as well, since the public impression about George H.W. Bush’s rectitude was an important factor in the support given to his oldest son, George W. Bush, in 2000. President George W. Bush is introduced by his brother Florida Gov. Jeb Bush before delivering remarks at Sun City Center, Florida, on May 9, 2006. (White House photo by Eric Draper)
Indeed, if the full truth had been told about the father’s role in the October Surprise and Iran-Contra cases, it’s hard to imagine that his son would have received the Republican nomination, let alone made a serious run for the White House. And, if that history were known, there might have been a stronger determination on the part of Democrats to resist another Bush “stolen election” in 2000.
Regarding Election 2000, the evidence is now clear that Vice President Al Gore not only won the national popular vote but received more votes that were legal under Florida law than did George W. Bush. But Bush relied first on the help of officials working for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, and then on five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court to thwart a full recount and to award him Florida’s electoral votes and thus the presidency.
The reality of Gore’s rightful victory should have finally become clear in November 2001 when a group of news organizations finished their own examination of Florida’s disputed ballots and released their tabulations showing that Gore would have won if all ballots considered legal under Florida law were counted.
However, between the disputed election and the release of those numbers, the 9/11 attacks had occurred, so The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other leading outlets did not want the American people to know that the wrong person was in the White House. Surely, telling the American people that fact amid the 9/11 crisis would not be “good for the country.”
So, senior editors at all the top new organizations decided to mislead the public by framing their stories in a deceptive way to obscure the most newsworthy discovery – that the so-called “over-votes” in which voters both checked and wrote in their choices’ names broke heavily for Gore and would have put him over the top regardless of which kinds of chads were considered for the “under-votes” that hadn’t registered on antiquated voting machines. “Over-votes” would be counted under Florida law which bases its standards on “clear intent of the voter.”
However, instead of leading with Gore’s rightful victory, the news organizations concocted hypotheticals around partial recounts that still would have given Florida narrowly to Bush. They either left out or buried the obvious lede that a historic injustice had occurred. Former Vice President Al Gore. (Photo credit: algore.com)
On Nov. 12, 2001, the day that the news organizations ran those stories, I examined the actual data and quickly detected the evidence of Gore’s victory. In a story that day, I suggested that senior news executives were exercising a misguided sense of patriotism. They had hid the reality for “the good of the country,” much as Johnson’s team had done in 1968 regarding Nixon’s sabotage of the Paris peace talks and Hamilton’s inquiry had done regarding the 1980 “October Surprise” case.
Within a couple of hours of my posting the article at Consortiumnews.com, I received an irate phone call from The New York Times media writer Felicity Barringer, who accused me of impugning the journalistic integrity of then-Times executive editor Howell Raines. I got the impression that Barringer had been on the look-out for some deviant story that didn’t accept the Bush-won conventional wisdom.
However, this violation of objective and professional journalism – bending the slant of a story to achieve a preferred outcome rather than simply giving the readers the most interesting angle – was not simply about some historical event that had occurred a year earlier. It was about the future.
By misleading Americans into thinking that Bush was the rightful winner of Election 2000 – even if the media’s motivation was to maintain national unity following the 9/11 attacks – the major news outlets gave Bush greater latitude to respond to the crisis, including the diversionary invasion of Iraq under false pretenses. The Bush-won headlines of November 2001 also enhanced the chances of his reelection in 2004. [For the details of how a full Florida recount would have given Gore the White House, see Consortiumnews.com’s “ Gore’s Victory ,” “ So Bush Did Steal the White House ,” and “ Bush v. Gore’s Dark American Decade. ”]
A Phalanx of Misguided Consensus
Looking back on these examples of candidates manipulating democracy, there appears to be one common element: after the “stolen” elections, the media and political establishments quickly line up, shoulder to shoulder, to assure the American people that nothing improper has happened. Graceful “losers” are patted on the back for not complaining that the voters’ will had been ignored or twisted. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Al Gore is praised for graciously accepting the extraordinary ruling by Republican partisans on the Supreme Court, who stopped the counting of ballots in Florida on the grounds, as Justice Antonin Scalia said, that a count that showed Gore winning (when the Court’s majority was already planning to award the White House to Bush) would undermine Bush’s “legitimacy.”
Similarly, Rep. Hamilton is regarded as a modern “wise man,” in part, because he conducted investigations that never pushed very hard for the truth but rather reached conclusions that were acceptable to the powers-that-be, that didn’t ruffle too many feathers.
But the cumulative effect of all these half-truths, cover-ups and lies – uttered for “the good of the country” – is to corrode the faith of many well-informed Americans about the legitimacy of the entire process. It is the classic parable of the boy who cried wolf too many times, or in this case, assured the townspeople that there never was a wolf and that they should ignore the fact that the livestock had mysteriously disappeared leaving behind only a trail of blood into the forest.
So, when Donald Trump shows up in 2016 insisting that the electoral system is rigged against him, many Americans choose to believe his demagogy. But Trump isn’t pressing for the full truth about the elections of 1968 or 1980 or 2000. He actually praises Republicans implicated in those cases and vows to appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Trump’s complaints about “rigged” elections are more in line with the white Southerners during Jim Crow, suggesting that black and brown people are cheating at the polls and need to have white poll monitors to make sure they don’t succeed at “stealing” the election from white people.
There is a racist undertone to Trump’s version of a “rigged” democracy but he is not entirely wrong about the flaws in the process. He’s just not honest about what those flaws are.
The hard truth is that the U.S. political process is not democracy’s “gold standard”; it is and has been a severely flawed system that is not made better by a failure to honestly address the unpleasant realities and to impose accountability on politicians who cheat the voters. | 1real |
DETROIT COP UNDER FIRE FOR FACEBOOK POST: “The only racists here are the piece of (expletive) Black Lives Matter terrorists and their supporters” [VIDEO] | If this cop s comments were in lock-step with the leftist narrative, that it s okay to use violence to punish innocent cops as long as it brings attention to a few bad cops, would this even be a news story? Why is this man, who is a target of the violent Black Lives Matter movement, unable to speak out against the very people who seek to do him and his brothers/sisters harm?Detroit police say they have launched an investigation into an officer s viral Facebook rant about the Black Lives Matter movement in reaction to the Dallas police shooting.The post by officer Nathan Weekley has been viewed more than 40,000 times, and reacts to the tragic Dallas shooting that left five police officers killed and several others injured.The post reads: For the first time in my nearly 17 years as a law enforcement officer I contemplated calling into work in response to the outrageous act perpetrated against my brothers. It seems like the only response that will demonstrate our importance to society as a whole. The only racists here are the piece of (expletive) Black Lives Matter terrorists and their supporters. That post has already led to an ugly viral backlash against Weekley. So far, he s declined to speak with 7 Action News due to an internal investigation, but the president of the Detroit Police Officer s Association did talk to us.Via: WXYZ | 1real |
Britain will diverge from EU regulations post-Brexit: minister | LONDON (Reuters) - British Brexit minister David Davis said on Sunday Britain s rules and regulations will diverge from those set by the European Union after Brexit because the government will do things our own way . As a member of the EU, Britain must meet the rules and regulations of the bloc to have full access to the single market and frictionless trade. We start at the same position, but we will manage the divergence, Davis told the BBC s Andrew Marr television show. Of course we will diverge, we will do things our own way. | 0fake |
Maajid Nawaz’s Radical Ambition - The New York Times | I met Maajid Nawaz on a drizzly afternoon in March, tucked in a corner of the restaurant at the central London members’ club he uses as a satellite office. He was dabbing the chicken from his Caesar salad into a mound of yellow English mustard, which he stopped doing for long enough to load a video on his iPhone and slide it across the table. It showed the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi Beirich, speaking at Duke University about him. “Let me just give you an example of Maajid Nawaz — our problem with him,” she says. “He believes that all mosques should be surveilled. In other words, his opinion is that all Muslims are potential terrorists. ” Nawaz, a Muslim himself, bristled with frustration at the claim. In fact, he explained, he is on record making the case against collective surveillance. A former Islamist, for the past nine years Nawaz has made a name for himself as an indefatigable activist. These days he blends seamlessly into the sort of cosmopolitan circles that extremists decry at his club, dressed in an olive bomber jacket over fitted workout sweats, he could have been a senior marketing exec or a director. At 39, Nawaz is handsome and vaguely famous looking in person, prematurely with a widow’s peak and Mephistophelean soul patch that punctuates a politician’s easy smile. Whenever I saw him, he dapped me with one of those that, to anyone of a certain age, serves as shorthand for an adolescence steeped in the manners of . For Nawaz’s detractors, of whom there are many, it’s this very chameleon quality, this in disparate roles and spaces, that has earned him a reputation as something of a charlatan, a preening opportunist cashing in on his own sensational travails by means of society’s abundant bias. This uncharitable narrative has shadowed him from the outset, yet his point of view has only grown more relevant after an exceptionally violent 2016 that saw coordinated suicide bombings in Brussels and Istanbul a mass shooting in a nightclub in Orlando the ambush and execution of a police officer and his partner near Paris a Bastille Day slaughter in Nice ax and suicide bomb attacks in Bavaria the throat slitting of a Catholic priest in a church in Normandy bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey and a massacre at a Christmas market in Berlin. And on March 22 this year in London, a man mowed down pedestrians with his car near Parliament before stabbing a police constable to death. With each grisly new assault — and the specter of Syria and the Islamic State looming beyond it — the voices of hatred and reaction in the United States and throughout Britain and Europe found not only sympathetic ears but also willing hands to pull levers in the voting booths. Throughout the upheaval and backlash, Nawaz has remained a constant presence in the media: on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” trying to draw a distinction between religion and political dogma in his book, “Islam and the Future of Tolerance” ( with the prominent “new atheist” Sam Harris) insisting that Islamism does have something to do with Islam and that ISIS in fact possesses a plausible if terribly ungenerous interpretation of the Quran. But whatever role Nawaz enjoys as a public intellectual is inextricable from his personal celebrity as a former fundamentalist. His work is his story, and his story is his celebrity. In order to make his case against radicalism, he finds himself in the not entirely enviable position of nonstop . On this front, he’s as busy as ever. He is finishing a documentary based on his book with Harris, but foremost on Nawaz’s mind these days is the 2017 opening of the first new chapter of his organization, the Quilliam Foundation, in the United States. “Lots of Muslims in America are basically liberals, but if you don’t have a visibly presence, then the Trumps of this world win” through and misrepresentation, he says. “Our presence is needed in America to reassure the mainstream, whereas our presence is needed in Europe to stop radicalization. ” Despite such deliberate affirmations and qualifications, there is nonetheless confusion as to where Nawaz’s sympathies actually lie. According to Vice News, he has earned a “terrorism” designation on Thomson Reuters a database. (Thomson Reuters would not confirm this.) But, last October, the Southern Poverty Law Center took the incredible step of including him on a “Field Guide to Extremists,” which they published with three other research organizations. The guide listed 15 public figures, and Nawaz was the only Muslim among them. (This is why Beirich brought him up at Duke.) He was visibly furious whenever the topic came up and told me he plans to crowdfund a legal response. Though he and his allies, and even some of his opponents, have complained to the S. P. L. C. — there is a change. org petition to remove him and the atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which has garnered almost 12, 000 signatures — the group has not wavered on its position, the costs of which have already been real for Quilliam. Nawaz claims that the listing has compromised some funding for the organization. “I consider myself a liberal and wanted to work with liberals,” he said, shaking his head. In reality, his views on Islamic extremism are more complex than these labels allow, which is, arguably, one of the more compelling reasons to listen to him on the subject. Early in Nawaz’s 2012 memoir, “Radical: My Journey Out of Islamist Extremism,” there’s an scene. The narrator, an irreligious, N. W. A. child, has resorted to strapping a knife under his shirt for fear of the gangs of skinheads that stalk his Essex suburb, Southend. He is 15, and on this afternoon, he is with his older brother, Kaashif (identified by a pseudonym in the book) and a friend who has converted to Islam. Neighborhood racists have chased the boys with baseball bats and now have them cornered and outnumbered. The skinheads’ leader steps forward and asks to talk. Kaashif gestures to the side of the road, where he and the skinhead fall into a tense and private discussion. When the two return, the skinheads begin to retreat. Incredulous, Maajid demands to know what his brother has told them. Kaashif says he told the skinhead, “We’re Muslims, and we don’t fear death” — and, furthermore, that he was carrying a bomb in his backpack. The anecdote, which surfaces repeatedly in “Radical” and ultimately swells to the dimensions of a creation myth, is quintessential Nawaz. On one hand, it’s a distillation of his larger rhetorical project, capturing the confused and painful textures of contemporary Muslim experience that can lead to the embrace of Islamism: an initial lack of familiarity with religion local grievance spun into a narrative of global victimization a tribal relation to other Muslims beyond racial and ethnic categorization the illusion of empowerment through threat of violence. On the other hand, it has become emblematic of the cantankerous, highly personal discourse that clings to the man himself: For a number of reasons — more on which later — many of his critics have come to claim that the anecdote is pure fabrication. What’s indisputable is that soon after that day in Southend, first following Kaashif’s example but then with a fervency that was entirely his own, Nawaz threw himself into his new identity, falling under the sway of Nasim Ghani, a charismatic young recruiter and future leader of the British branch of Hizb a multinational Islamic revolutionary organization founded in 1953 in Jerusalem. H. T. as Nawaz refers to it, advocates the imposition of Shariah law through “bloodless” coups in countries first and ultimately in the West as well. In other words, these were Islamists but not jihadists, and the distinction isn’t frivolous. Still, the line is a porous one: Two H. T. leaders, Anjem Choudary and Omar Bakri Mohammad, would go on to lead a splinter group of a far more deadly variety. In September 2001, after stints of organizing and recruiting for H. T. in London and Pakistan, Nawaz took his first wife and their infant son to Alexandria, Egypt, where he posed as an student while secretly proselytizing for the group. Though H. T. is legal in Britain, it is banned in many countries, including Egypt. In 2002, at 24, Nawaz was forcibly removed from his home, blindfolded and thrown in the back of a van, one more Islamist caught up in the wide and extralegal international crackdown on extremism in the wake of . He spent his next four years in Egyptian prisons, where he claims to have witnessed torture and where, in his solitude, he was able to memorize half of the Quran. A pivotal moment in Nawaz’s moral education came when news of the attacks in London reached the inmates at Tora, Egypt’s prison notorious for holding political dissidents. Four attackers bombed a bus and three subway trains, claiming 52 lives. Nawaz writes that he suddenly “felt revulsion” at the human cost of his ideas. A man Nawaz calls Omar, a Dagestani bomb maker, had celebrated the slaughter. Nawaz is a hero in his own telling of the ensuing exchange: He claims to have debated Omar for the entirety of the day about the legitimacy of killing British civilians, until the latter eventually conceded defeat. Nawaz writes, “I felt that I had saved many future lives. ” In 2004, Amnesty International adopted Nawaz as a prisoner of conscience and secured his return to London two years later. His was not an overnight epiphany, but within two more years, he had graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, renounced Islamism and H. T. and publicly reinvented himself as an advocate for liberal democracy: a expert on preventing radicalization. His enemies, a long list made up of family members, and former H. T. associates, have publicly questioned his conversion narrative. Ian Nisbet, a white convert to Islam who was jailed with Nawaz in Egypt, told a reporter from Alternet that Nawaz remained a fanatical Islamist after he was freed. Indeed, back in England, Nawaz appeared on the BBC’s “Hardtalk” program and declared that his experience in Egypt left him convinced “that there is a need to establish this caliphate as soon as possible. ” In his defense, Nawaz claims that making a clean break with a former life is both difficult and genuinely confusing. He rather colorfully compares it to a breakup with a lover. (Nawaz and his first wife split up around the time of his departure from H. T.) He has also insisted that his public positions were in part strategic: He didn’t want to tip his hand to H. T. until he had his exit plans in place. Whatever the case, that same year, alongside a college friend named Ed Husain, who had already made a name for himself with his own memoir, “The Islamist,” Nawaz the Quilliam Foundation, which they named for William Quilliam, a British convert who opened one of Britain’s first mosques in the late 1880s. Quilliam’s first headquarters occupied the ground floor of a rowhouse overlooking the verdure of Russell Square, practically the same view T. S. Eliot would have had when he worked at Faber Faber, and just a block from two of the sites of the attacks. As his critics constantly stress, Nawaz’s timing was convenient the British government was then looking to finance organizations and provided Quilliam with early funding. Nawaz, then, is somewhat like British Petroleum when it is tasked with cleaning up a catastrophic oil spill: His main qualification to do this kind of decontamination work is precisely his experience as a contaminator. As recently as the Islamist ideology was unpopular in British Muslim communities. “We would have to convince people of something that is strange to them,” he told me of those days. “We had to really hone our argumentative skills and our ability to convince and influence people as that vanguard of the Islamist movement in the West. ” He insists his background as an Islamist is what allows him and others at Quilliam today not only to pinpoint Islamism’s weaknesses but also to employ the very same tenacious ability to communicate ideas and influence people for the purpose now of advocating liberal values. “They’re transferable skills” is how he once put it to me. What Nawaz seems to understand better than any of the other critics of Islam he’s so often lumped with is that Islamism is cool — and it is cool in some of the same ways that punk rock and gangsta rap and macho rebellion in general, whether symbolic or real, are perennially seductive. As a result, countering it will have to mean finding ways to, as he puts it, “make it cool to be a liberal Muslim. ” And that may be harder than it seems. While the vast majority of British Muslims today are certainly not flocking to join groups like H. T. — and many who have never been attracted to the ideology justifiably find it irritating to be lectured by a man who was — a sobering number nonetheless have expressed views that would be very much at home in even more extreme precincts. An online poll done in Britain following the bombings, for example, showed that more than a fifth of British Muslims felt some sympathy for the bombers’ feelings and motives more than half said they could understand the bombers’ behavior and nearly a third agreed that “Western society is decadent and immoral and that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end” by nonviolent means. One incredible Gallup report from 2009 found that 0 percent of British Muslims viewed homosexual acts as morally acceptable. Though it is not at all clear what pushes any given individual to cross the line into violence, attitudes like these are what Nawaz and Quilliam have controversially described as the “mood music” to terrorist acts. It is this last contention that seems to be the crux of the S. P. L. C. complaint against Nawaz, along with the disclosure that, in 2010, Quilliam provided a list of nonviolent “Islamist” organizations to a British counterterrorism official. But Nawaz justifies the move by arguing that the distinction between violent and nonviolent Islamism is far less rigid than many liberals would like to think. “Now when these guys are joining ISIS, the arguments have been made,” he told me. “What they’re doing is just putting that last piece in the jigsaw: ‘I’m going to go and fight for this cause.’ But the ideology’s already been established. The surveys and the polls tell you that. ” Before Quilliam moved late last year to an undisclosed location for security reasons, I visited Nawaz on several occasions. The organization hummed with the energy and sense of mission of a tech . On one side were doors leading into a large and crowded room where analysts, academics and imams were doing the intellectual grunt work that the foundation demands. On the other was the modest office Nawaz used for himself. Though he is the face of the organization, he is hardly the only employee with an exotic résumé. On my first visit, my eyes fixed on a small prayer rug draped neatly over the arm of a desk chair. “Oh, that’s for him!” Nawaz quickly clarified, referring to his officemate, Noman Benotman, the current president of the organization and a former jihadist who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, tried to violently depose Muammar Gaddafi in the 1990s and later worked with Osama bin Laden and Ayman in Sudan. Back across the hall there was also Dr. Usama Hasan, the head of Islamic studies at the organization. The son of a conservative and influential Salafi sheikh, Hasan used a break from his studies at Cambridge to engage in jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan (on a scale of he told me, “our group maybe got up to about five”). And yet, in 2011, after waging holy war in the east and after 25 years of service at his father’s London mosque, that kind of effort didn’t count for very much when he came under attack by . He was forced to stop delivering Friday prayers when 50 Muslim protesters stormed his lecture and openly called for his execution. His offense had been to venture that Islam could be compatible with modern theories of evolution and that Muslim women should be allowed to uncover their hair in public. Aside from the life experience of some of its members and the issuance of the occasional Quilliam is a standard think tank: a body of experts conducting research and providing advice and ideas on specific political or social problems in support of liberal democracy. The group works to shape public opinion from the top down, making frequent media appearances, publishing reports that aim for the highest levels of government (such as a critical 2009 investigation into the ways British prisons incubate extremism) and periodically advising government ministers and heads of state on matters of terrorism. But they also engage ordinary Muslims and alike through outreach work, organizing debate and training programs in Europe and the Middle East. All of this ought to make Quilliam a natural ally of progressives and of institutions like the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose mission, after all, is to advocate for the vulnerable. Yet that has not been the case. Nawaz’s layered arguments and concessions — his insistence, for example, that Islam does have something to do with Islamism — provoke a visceral suspicion among those who are concerned with fighting Islamophobia above all. A term that you will hear with frequency from Nawaz is “the regressive left,” as in purportedly progressive institutions like the S. P. L. C. that, often starting from a legitimate concern that Muslims en masse not be persecuted for the actions of a few, nonetheless embody a perplexingly backward when it comes to Islam. “It’s an Orientalist fetish,” Nawaz says, “a deeply socially conservative Muslim who is medieval in their outlook is a ‘real’ Muslim, and anyone who’s challenging that status quo is a sellout. ” The left has, in Nawaz’s view, forfeited what’s best about the liberal project, entirely conceding the right to speak in moral absolutes and about universal values. “The problem is you can’t draw a line with that reasoning: Why is what ISIS is doing bad, then?” A core idea Quilliam espouses is that space must be claimed for secular identities within Islam the measure of Muslim authenticity would then be a matter of individual imagination and will, not a test to pass or fail. In other words, he would like to see many more Muslims thinking, speaking and acting like him. Which is a big part of the reason it’s impossible to think of Quilliam independent of the outsize figure cut by its and why so much debate about the validity of the organization’s ideas comes down to a question of being for or against Nawaz. Attack pieces about Nawaz have practically become their own literary genre. In the summer of 2015, The Guardian ran a deeply critical story about him, which questioned the integrity of Nawaz’s work with the Cameron administration and took him to task for, among other misdeeds, “sipping a skinny flat white” coffee in front of the reporter. This was followed, in January 2016, by a hard takedown at The New Republic, whose writer, Nathan Lean, had earlier referred on Twitter to Nawaz as Sam Harris’s “lap dog. ” Roughly a week after that piece came a longer, even more personal attack at Alternet, which stood out in its attempt to debunk, scene by scene, the events in “Radical. ” The authors revisited the subject of the bomb in the backpack and quoted Nawaz’s older brother as well as an anonymous cousin, who called the story “imaginary. ” (Many of the sources in the Alternet article seem concerned that Kaashif’s ruse in the anecdote might be taken literally.) When I asked him about it, Nawaz was dismissive. “You go to a deeply wounded brother that loved me all of his life, and I turn out to be not who he aspires for me to be,” he said. “As a journalist, you can exploit that. ” He shrugged soberly. It is undeniable that one advantage, and shortcoming, of memoir as a form lies in its ability to dominate the reader through an empirical imbalance that can never be resolved in its entirety. Arguments, when unsound, can be negated, but who can negate another person’s lived experience? It is a rhetorical tactic that is, in fact, most at home on the left, where personal stories of grievance and oppression are typically set in opposition to the status quo in the wider society. Perhaps, then, this is why so much attention has been paid to Nawaz’s biography. If his life story can be shown to be contrived, the deeper message, however compelling, can be dismissed: Not only is the messenger’s life not a genuine Muslim life, when seen from this angle, it may even prove to be an life. I saw Nawaz in New York in September, while he was in town for Quilliam’s American chapter. We had made plans to meet at a Soho hotel for a drink, but he was running late. When I asked after him, the concierge either didn’t know his real name or pretended not to. Nawaz and Benotman have been targeted by Al Qaeda and ISIS affiliates, and he travels under an alias. When he finally arrived, we went down to the bar, and he was in wonderful spirits. He’s been criticized in the British press for drinking and receiving a lap dance at a strip club, but in situations like this, it’s strange to think of Nawaz as having been anything like a humorless extremist. Yet the bind he has made for himself is a real one: He has to prove that liberal, moderate Islam can be “cool,” while not coming off as too hip to convince the left of his Muslim authenticity. He runs the very real risk of satisfying no one. It reminded me of an observation that had been running through my head since the previous winter, when Quilliam opened an art exhibit in London called “The Unbreakable Rope. ” Billed as “an exploration of sexuality in Islam,” the show was by Nawaz’s second wife, Rachel Maggart (the couple had their first child in January) a lanky brunette from Tennessee by way of N. Y. U. In addition to the regular Quilliam bodyguards, there were plainclothes counterterrorism officers monitoring the site. Inside the venue, a shirtless, tattooed Kuwaiti performance artist did preparatory stretches with his assistant and a crystal ball. He would eventually be tied up in a corset and left on the floor for guests to contemplate. The crowd sipped wine and soft drinks and milled about the sparsely hung, mildly provocative artwork, which was in fact beside the point. The point, of course, was that they were even daring to do this in the first place. I fell into conversation with Nawaz’s mother and little sister and lost track of time as the space filled up all around us. There were whites, blacks, Persians, Arabs people looked devout and nondevout, gay, straight, young and old. Standing next to me was a man with the voluminous beard of a cleric, turned out in an djellaba, ironed as crisply as a bedsheet at the Ritz, a pair of Nike Air Force 1s and a New Era cap printed with a expletive. He looked like a cross between the leader of Hezbollah and the Bay Area rapper Lil B. The room darkened and quieted, and Nawaz, brimming with life, stepped into the middle of the crowd, whose diversity he lauded, and thanked them all for coming. Like the he once aspired to be, he thrills to the sound of his own voice flowing through the microphone. “The first thing they do is try to silence us, and the first to suffer are the creators!” he told the room to enthusiastic applause. “But while you throw gays off the rooftops, we who are Muslims want to respond like this!” As I watched Nawaz bask in the applause of his most earnest admirers and glanced back at the walls adorned with such unbearably unhip art, the enormity of his task pressed itself upon me. After all, Islamism, like good art, is innately subversive it captures diffuse feelings of alienation in a way that is difficult to fabricate. And therein lies the biggest challenge confronting Quilliam in Europe and, as it seeks to expand, in America: Though Nawaz himself is a star, there is something both noble and perilously square about this kind of forced secularism. Yet I’m convinced that Nawaz really does have his finger on the pulse of one of the most urgent problems of the contemporary era, a problem that is far too often mishandled or greeted with denial, through ignorance, hatred and fear, certainly, but also as a result of the very best of intentions. Without having planned to, I found myself at the hotel bar in New York opening up to Nawaz about a recent train ride my wife and I made in France. I watched an agitated young Arab man and his wife, in full abaya, shut themselves inside the bathroom along with all of their luggage. When they opened the door, the hair on my neck stood up, and I braced myself for a fusillade that never came. Even as I chastised myself for overreacting, I was convinced that the man continued to behave strangely. My shame increased with each moment nothing happened. Nawaz listened intently to my story, but his eyes showed he’d long since arrived at his answer. “You’re caught in a classically situation,” he said. “You’ve got two competing forces, which are entirely legitimate. One is not wanting to racially profile, and the other is not wanting to be the neighbor of the San Bernardino shooter who didn’t want to profile and, as a result, people lose their lives. Or, more urgently, [you] just don’t want to be the first person to catch a bullet! On a human level, that is a perfectly natural reaction. The fact that you’re having these doubts is a good thing. ” Though he meant this defense of human prejudice to reassure me, it did not. I almost wish he had accused me of Islamophobia — at least then the conversation might have achieved a certain clarity. But Nawaz, the consummate thinker, then took care to layer on several more shades of gray. “I literally just tweeted, five minutes before coming to see you, a picture of a blond ISIS child — a child with blond hair — helping to execute people,” he said, producing on his phone a shocking image of a very young, Eastern boy holding a gun in the desert. “I said, ‘Trump, how you gonna profile this? ’’u2009” | 0fake |
WATCH: Joy Reid CRUSHES Trump Supporter For Saying She’s Not On America’s Side | Picking a fight with Joy Reid on live television is not smart, so of course a Trump surrogate did exactly that and got his ass handed to him.During her show on Saturday morning, Trump supporter Carl Paladino actually claimed that the Republican nominee knows how to handle Russia and Vladamir Putin better than our military, State Department, and intelligence agencies. He also attacked Reid directly, calling her a politically correct progressive who is not on America s side.Reid began by playing footage of former CIA Director Michael Hayden slamming Trump s erratic behavior and suggesting that Trump could very well be a unwitting agent for Putin. Furthermore, Trump is unpredictable and dangerous, especially since he would have control of America s nuclear arsenal as president.Indeed, Trump has various business connections with Russian oligarchs who are aligned with the Russian president, who has directed Russian state media to support Trump s campaign. Trump also softened the GOP platform stance against Russia. Trump s ties with Russia are especially concerning to intelligence agents, who are worried about briefing Trump because whatever he is told could end up being passed along to Putin. You are pretty much fighting an armada of intelligence experts, Reid told Paladino. In your mind, Paladino told Reid. No, not in my mind, Reid replied. Actually in my ears because we re listening to them speak. Then Paladino proceeded to embarrass himself by going on a rant about Reid. I think what s happened to you is that you ve been in a conditioned box, for a long time, of political correctness. Political correctness and a certain way of doing things. And when a guy comes on the scene who shows real leadership qualities, who can talk to the America people, and they can find faith in him and confidence in him that he s gonna do the right thing when that man comes on the scene, you guys just don t know what to do. Clearly, Paladino must have missed a poll that shows 70 percent of Americans have a negative view of Trump, with 56 percent feeling this way strongly.That s probably what Reid was thinking about when she smiled as Paladino ranted. The progressives are gonna lose their influence and their power and their control of the American people s minds, and you re in a panic state right now, he continued before Reid chimed in with sarcasm. Oh yeah, were panicking, she said.After accusing Reid of making crazy accusations, Reid fired back with facts. I think if you look at the polling, most of the public is standing by the generals and intelligence professionals, at least as we stand now, Reid said.Trump is currently being trounced by Hillary Clinton in the polls. Clinton is leading by 15 points nationwide in one poll.Paladino then implied that Reid is not on America s side. I know which side you re on, mam, he said.But Reid clobbered Paladino and Trump with a sharp retort. Not on Vladimir Putin s side, and I like that stance. Here s the video via YouTube.As usual, Trump s people ignored the facts and stuck with personal attacks and they got burned.Featured image via creenshot | 1real |
BREAKING: Trump Set to Break 50-Year-Old Record With Black Voters | — Ted Carroll (@mediainvestors) October 25, 2016
These numbers must have Democrat rival Hillary Clinton worried sicker than she already is. Advertisement - story continues below
The mainstream media would love to have everyone believing that all black Americans hate Trump, but that’s just not true .
Trump has gained the support of many who understand that Democrats have never actually followed through on their promises. They have little to show for supporting liberals but more strife and tension from a black president who promised hope and change.
Moreover, President Barack Obama has done more to increase racial tension in this country than anyone could have guessed. Many black voters understand that, and they do not see Clinton as someone they can trust to change it.
Trump has suggested that Democrats have done nothing to help black communities and has pointed out that they often suffer the most from a breakdown of law and order. He has challenged all Americans to think outside the box and vote for someone different — someone who might actually bring positive changes, such as jobs , to their neighborhoods. Advertisement - story continues below | 1real |
The Genealogy of Trump’s U-Turn on Palestine | Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireHas political reality finally set in for the GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump?With only days before the Republican Party s National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump finally abandoned any pretence of neutrality on the Israel-Palestine issue, and is now firmly committed to supporting Israeli settlement expansion on territories it has seized illegally, and also not recognizing a Palestinian State.After all the promising rhetoric and previous displays of good will on this crucial foreign policy issue, exactly how did he finally arrive back at the status quo?What started off as interesting, became promising, before eventually settling into Washington s default position. On numerous past occasions during the GOP debate cycle and along the campaign trail, Trump had stated his feelings (which appeared to have an air of passion at the time) and intentions to secure a peace deal for the open-ended Israel-Palestine conflict.The Israeli Lobby started to get very interested in the beginning of December 2015, when during an interview with the AP, Trump seemed to blame Israel for not securing a lasting peace agreement. I have a real question as to whether or not both sides want to make it, Trump said, before explaining that his concerns predominantly reside with one side in particular [Israel]. He also hinted that he wasn t interested in any Jewish Republican money, to a chorus of boos he crowed, I can t be bought . The same for any outside money too. Later, it slipped out again during a nationally televised GOP debate, with Trump making sounds about negotiating a peace deal. Now here was a true maverick, giving chase to the forbidden cow. Amid all of Trump s wild gaffes and ad hominem attacks, this was an epiphany. At this moment Trump really stood out, and caught the attention and support of a whole new legion of disaffected, disenfranchised moderates paddling on the fringe of the Trump wave.That was it. Soon after the phone rang. It was Sheldon.The Donald had been summoned to a one-on-one in Las Vegas with the capo de capo himself, the George Soros of American right-wing politics, the kingmaker, Lord of the Slots and Supreme Master of Macau, billionaire property, casino tycoon and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, 82 yr old Sheldon Adelson. It was after this time that Trump began to shape-shift on the issue, and not in favor of the Palestinians either. CAPO de CAPO? Donald Trump and Sheldon AdelsonAdelson, a committed Zionist who has backed numerous successful political careers, including that of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, commented on his meeting with the Republican candidate, He [Trump] had talked about potentially dividing about Jerusalem and Israel, so I talked about Israel because with our newspaper, my wife being Israeli, we are the few who know more about Israel than people who don t. From that point on, began the process of Trump s rehabilitation on the Israel-Palestine.On March 10, 2016, there stood Trump, still as the presumptive underdog, at CNN s GOP Debate in Miami alongside a wall of Republicans candidates who were all firmly in the pockets of the Israel lobby including their emissaries in the US Senate Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Trump s remarks on the illusive peace process could have been considered seminal way back then: I would like to at least have the other side think I m somewhat neutral as to them, so that we can maybe get a deal done. Campaign rival Cruz hit back, questioning Trump s support for Israel saying, I don t think we need a commander in chief who is neutral between the Palestinian terrorists and one of our strongest allies in the world, the nation of Israel. Everyone, including the media, seemed so shocked by Trump s unorthodox comments that they went near catatonic on this issue afterwords. It was as if Trump had pole-vaulted over the perennial swamp that is the GOP foreign policy platform. The Lobby didn t waste any time however. In the eyes of the wider Israeli Lobby, taking a neutral stance or daring to recognize Palestine or Palestinians, is synonymous with attacking Israel and Jews. This is a simple law of political physics in America at the moment and will remain so as long as the lobbyists continue shoveling millions of dollars per month into the pockets of both prospective candidates and elected officials nationwide.Predictably, he was attacked viciously by his opponents, especially Cruz. It seemed as if Trump has broken ranks in a way that was unfathomable for any Republican politician seeking office in the United States of America.Of course, the Israeli press didn t take kindly to Trump s vision of peace and harmony, and from this point onward, pressure began to mount on Trump to conform to the American political orthodoxy on this issue.Soon, Trump was summoned on March 21st, to AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, where he delivered a resounding speech which seemed good enough for the lobby that night, but the job wasn t finished just yet.Later on in May, Trump continued to evolve, now employing doublespeak on the issue, saying he would still like to negotiate a deal but that Israel should keep building illegal settlements in the West Bank of Palestine, and that Israel needs to keep going and keep moving forward. He stated: I d love to negotiate peace. I think that, to me, is the all-time negotiation I would love to see if peace could be negotiated. A lot of people say that s not a deal that s possible. But I mean lasting peace, not a peace that lasts for two weeks and they start launching missiles again. So we ll see what happens. I think Israel should have they really have to keep going. They have to keep moving forward [with constructing illegal settlements]. Finally, the penny ultimately dropped. With the GOP s Big Tent event rapidly approaching, Trump s platform on Israel has been fully baked. Sputnik News reports: David M. Friedman, a real-estate attorney serving as Trump s main advisor on Israel, said the Republican presidential candidate and reality television star would not support the recognition of the Palestinian state without the approval of the Israelis. Friedman also remarked that Trump was unconcerned with the inhabitants of the West Bank, because nobody really knows how many Palestinians live there. Trump made Friedman a part of his campaign staff in April, at a meeting with Orthodox Jews, naming him and Jason Greenblatt, another real-estate lawyer and Trump s chief attorney, as his advisors on Israel. Friedman said at the time, Mr. Trump s confidence is very flattering. My views on Israel are well known, and I would advise him in a manner consistent with those views. America s geopolitical interests are best served by a strong and secure Israel, with Jerusalem as its undivided capital. Friedman has made no secret of his feelings about a two-state solution with Palestine, writing that, It was never a solution, just an illusion that served both the US and the Arabs. Another devastating blow to the native Palestinians, currently under military occupation and backed by the US to the tune of $3 billion per year in direct military aid (free money for weapons and equipment).Against his former declarations to the contrary, Trump is also now accepting outside money, from multiple sources. Funny how the political poles shift. How quickly a raging populist becomes a cynical realist. Even for a self-made billionaire, money still buys friends and influence.With that out of the way, it s finally safe for the lobby to get behind Donald in a general election, should they wish to.There it is. The genealogy of Donald Trump s evolving stance on Israel.*** Author Patrick Henningsen is an American writer and global affairs analyst and founder of independent news and analysis site 21st Century Wire, and is host of the SUNDAY WIRE weekly radio show broadcast globally over the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR). He has written for a number of international publications and has done extensive on-the-ground reporting of the conflict Syria, Iraq and the Middle East.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files | 1real |
Behind Donald Trump, a son-in-law who is also an adviser | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Before introducing Donald Trump to roughly a dozen Republican lawmakers at the Washington law offices of Jones Day, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions paused to acknowledge the man he said had facilitated the closed-door talks. He said it was Jared Kushner, a 35-year-old real estate investor and newspaper owner, who had suggested the get-together last month, arguing that it would enable Trump to win more allies on Capitol Hill, according to a person in the room. Kushner is also Trump’s son-in-law, having married the Republican presidential front-runner’s daughter Ivanka in 2009. A real-estate tycoon like his father-in-law, Kushner has emerged as one of a very few advisers as Trump seeks the Republican nomination to the Nov. 8 election, according to five people close to Trump. It is especially rare given that Trump styles himself as his own best adviser and has said he consults only a few people despite a promise to hire the country’s top minds once he becomes president. While “well respected,” Kushner has no official campaign role, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. She confirmed however that Kushner had helped with the Sessions meeting and had informally advised the candidate on Israel and in other areas. In an interview Kushner’s friend David Schulhof, founder of a music publishing company, cited a level-headedness and listening skill that would make Kushner a calming influence. This could be helpful to Trump, 69, who entered the race 10 months ago hailing his having never held public office as an asset, but whose campaign has been rocked by turbulence over remarks offensive to women, Muslims, immigrants, party loyalists and others. At times Kushner has urged Trump to behave like a more traditional candidate, stressing the importance of building relationships with politicians and traditionally active donors, say the sources close to Trump, speaking on condition of anonymity. They also say Kushner can use friendships like the ones he has with media mogul Rupert Murdoch and billionaire Ronald Perelman as a bridge to influential people with whom his father-in-law is not close. Neither Murdoch nor Perelman would comment for this story. An Orthodox Jew, whose wife Ivanka converted to Judaism before they married, Kushner and his family have connections to Israel. Along with his father, also a prominent real-estate developer, Kushner was listed in a 2015 report by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a benefactor for its real estate committee, which required a donation of at least $36,000 to the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group. Kushner’s parents donated $20 million two years ago to a medical school campus in Jerusalem now named after them. Using his family and business ties, Kushner arranged a series of meetings for Trump during a trip the candidate planned to make to Israel last year, the sources say. The trip never happened. Trump scrapped it after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Trump later suggested that if elected he would not take sides in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, a stance he said would help him negotiate a peace deal but which was unusually neutral for an American politician looking to court voters on Israel. Ahead of AIPAC’s annual conference last month in Washington, Kushner advised his father-in-law to lay out concrete policies that would help smooth over relations with the Jewish community, according to two sources. He further advised him to use a teleprompter for the speech, ditching his usual conversational style, the people close to Trump said. It was also Kushner who fielded a call from Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, who wanted to offer Trump the Israeli government’s perspective ahead of the AIPAC speech, according to the sources. Dermer’s office declined to comment. In the end, Trump delivered an uncharacteristically detailed speech to the 18,000 people who attended the conference, outlining a series of policy positions broadly aligned with AIPAC’s. An AIPAC spokesman declined to comment. Trump told attendees that Palestinians must scrub hatred of Israel from their educational system and stop naming public places after people who attacked Israel. He said the United States must stand with Israel in rejecting attempts by the United Nations to impose restrictions on Israel or parameters for a peace deal. He criticized the U.S. deal with Iran as bad for Israel. While helping Trump craft the speech, Kushner sought advice from the politically connected editor of his newspaper, the New York Observer. The editor, Ken Kurson, a former speech writer for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, wrote in an email to Reuters that he reviewed the speech before Trump delivered it. Trump has loomed large in Kushner’s life since day one of his marriage. The New York Post reported that invitations to Kushner’s wedding, held at a Trump golf club in New Jersey, included a flier advertising Trump’s other golf properties. Kushner, who with his wife has taken family vacations with News Corp (NWSA.O) owner Murdoch and his ex-wife Wendi Deng, has worked to calm Murdoch’s ire with Trump over the candidate’s criticism of the company’s Fox News Channel and star anchor Megyn Kelly, two people familiar with his activities say. During regular phone calls and lunches Kushner tries both to soothe Murdoch and stump for his father-in-law, these people said. Despite his influence behind the scenes, Kushner keeps a largely low profile on the campaign trail. During a Trump rally in South Carolina last November, he hung back while other family members took the stage until his father-in-law called him out. “Where’s Jared? Jared get up here,” Trump shouted. Kushner, clad in charcoal-colored pants and a black quilted down vest, shuffled up, hands jammed in his pockets. “Jared’s a very successful developer and he just loves politics now,” Trump said, adding with a bit of gleeful teasing: “Look at him. See the way he dresses?” (Story corrects real estate billionaire to billionaire in 10th paragraph characterization of Ronald Perelman). | 0fake |
MI5 Chief Presents Russia As Growing Threat To British Interests | | November 1, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Russian army soldiers drive their tanks along the Red Square during a general rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade.
The first time a top British spy has ever given a newspaper interview, MI5 chief Andrew Parker has spoken with the Guardian , playing up the “growing threat” posed by Russia against British interests around the world.
Parker claimed a “whole range of state organs and powers” in Russia are being brought to bear against Britain and the US, claiming that the advent of cyberwarfare has increased the number of ways in which Russia can move against them.
Parker went on to claim that Russia defines itself by opposition to the West and, despite being a “covert threat for decades” has been increasingly hostile, citing their operations in Ukraine and Syria as proof that they are acting to just spite the West.
This has been a common western talking point, but in practice Western (read: US) policy in both Ukraine and Syria appears to have itself been built with an eye toward being on the opposite side from Russia in the first place, and Russia is then condemned for acting in their own interests.
This was particularly glaring in Syria, where Russia’s interest was obviously in the survival of a friendly Syrian government to host their naval base, and where “countering” Russia has brought the US “anti-ISIS coalition” into increasingly overt support for al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, simply because they’re the ones most directly fighting against Russia. | 1real |
Trump Is Trying To Discredit Bob Mueller, And Here’s How | With the news dropping that supposedly Trump isn t under an investigation for obstruction of justice, we re all scratching our heads. Especially since Trump admitted he s under investigation himself.ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos has an idea of what s going on. The President wants to take down Bob Mueller. His lawyer wants to take down Bob Muller and the question is why? And I think the answer is they wanna lay the foundation to discredit whatever Bob Mueller comes up with, Stephanopoulos said in a video posted on Twitter.Given that Trump himself has admitted on Twitter that he is under investigation and that it s a witch hunt , it sounds like a very plausible answer.Stephanopoulos goes on to say that They re essentially engaging in a scorched-earth litigation strategy that is beginning with trying to discredit the prosecutor. He closes the video by saying that Mueller is just doing his job and is only just getting started, so we shouldn t just automatically dismiss Mueller or that Trump is being investigated.Stephanopoulos has a point. It does seem likely that Trump and his team would try to cover an investigation up. They don t want the public to know it would damage his reputation (not that he has a glowing one in the first place).Why shouldn t we believe what Trump tweets? He knows what he s tweeting. Why shouldn t we believe the other sources?An excerpt of This Week shows Pierre Thomas, ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent saying Now, my sources are telling me he s begun some preliminary planning. Plans to talk to some people in the administration. But he s not yet made that momentous decision to go for a full-scale investigation. If that s the case, it s possible that Mueller is backing off on the idea of investigating Trump. Why?Obviously, something is going on behind the scenes. Stephanopoulos may have just given us the real answer.Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images | 1real |
Three suspected al Qaeda militants killed in Yemen drone strike | ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Three suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen late on Thursday, a local security official and residents said. The strike in Mudiyah district in Abyan province on the Arabian Sea coast had targeted a motorcycle which the suspected militants were riding, the official said. Abyan is one of several provinces in central and southern Yemen where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and its local affiliate Ansar al-Sharia operate. AQAP has taken advantage of a more than two-year civil war between the Iran-aligned Houthi group and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi s Saudi-backed government to strengthen its position in the impoverished country. The United States has repeatedly attacked AQAP with aircraft and unmanned drones in what U.S. officials say is a campaign to wear down the group s ability to coordinate attacks abroad. The Saudi-led coalition supporting Hadi has also launched thousands of air strikes against the Houthis which control Yemen s capital and much of the country s north. The Houthis have in turn fired rockets towards Saudi cities and villages. They say their attacks are in response to Saudi strikes on Yemeni cities and villages. The coalition spokesman said on Thursday that a Saudi pilot had died a day earlier when his plane crashed in the southern province of Abyan due to technical failure , the Saudi news agency SPA said. The war has killed more than 10,000 people. | 0fake |
TOM DELAY DROPS A BOMB On What FBI Sources Say About Clinton E-mail Scandal [Video] | One way or another, she s going to have to face these charges Former Republican Congressman Tom Delay Note that Tom Delay says the FBI is ready to indict . The FBI cannot indict but the DOJ can indict. If the DOJ chooses not to indict, Hillary will be tried in the court of public opinion. This will be an interesting test for DOJ Director Loretta Lynch. The revelation that the Clinton team took highly classified e-mails and copy and pasted them is a big bombshell in itself. Just a bunch of amateurs on this team | 1real |
NIGHTMARE SCENARIO: FOX NEWS Reports Obama Can Appoint Supreme Court Justice On Jan 3rd…Could This Be His Final ‘SCREW YOU AMERICA’ Act? | Pray for our nation FOX News reported this afternoon that Barack Obama can appoint a left-wing Supreme Court Justice after the Republican Senate adjourns on January 3, 2016.Obama will then have 17 days to nominate a far left justice to the Supreme Court.11 of 12 previous recess appointments were approved by the senate.This came up in discussion after news broke that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead today.This would be his last eff-you to the American people before he leaves office.God help us.WATCH:https://youtu.be/4IQsJjJC5_kVia: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
null | Poor little Duterte. He's so butthurt because the US wouldn't give him a visa to visit his girlfriend in the US, that even now all these years later, he's willing to destroy the fragile economy and national security of the PI to "get even".
Yeah, he's something to really be proud of Philippines. | 1real |
Trump team will receive first Pentagon briefing on Friday: Pentagon spokesman | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is expected to receive its first briefing from the Defense Department on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. He said Trump’s transition team contacted the Pentagon “a short time ago to arrange the initial briefings.” “As Secretary (Ash) Carter has said, we will do everything we can to help ensure a seamless and efficient transition,” Cook said. | 0fake |
Gorafi Magazine: Barack Obama « Je vous ai déjà dit que j’en avais plus rien à battre. Lâchez moi maintenant » >> Le Gorafi | null | 1real |
The Fix Is In: NBC Affiliate Accidentally Posts Election Results A Week Early: Hillary Wins Presidency 42% to Trump’s 40% | NBC affiliate WRCB TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee has inadvertently posted election night results. The results page appears to be similar to what mainstream news networks display on election night, including Presidential and Congressional results, the popular vote count, electoral votes, and percentage of precincts reporting.
The page, a screen shot of which has been sourced from internet archive site The Wayback Machine , is posted below and shows totals for the upcoming Presidential race. It announces Hillary Clinton as the winner.
As Jim Stone notes, the page was pulled directly from the WorldNow.com content management platform utilized by major networks like NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox and appears to be a non-public staging area for news and election results.
The original page has since been reset.
( Click here for full size image )
Though the results information appears on an FTP server at WorldNow.com, media companies like NBC’s WRCB TV utilize the platform, also know as “Frankly,” to power their news content. This can be verified directly a the WRCB web site by scrolling to the very bottom of the page footer which notes that it is, “Powered By Frankly.”
In addition to national results, Jim Stone has identified another page at the WorldNow.com FTP server that appears to show the State-By-State Presidential election results. This page is also accessible in archive format at WayBack Machine with a line by line breakdown available at Stone’s website.
Of interest is that the State-By-State results indicate a Hillary Clinton win in states like Texas (42% to 40%), Florida (44% to 40%) and Pennsylvania (44% to 40%) which have all been identified as states Clinton must steal to win the election .
Do these latest election “results” confirm that the fix is in and the vote is rigged?
If so, then we are no longer looking at an election where our votes will count, but rather, a selection where the winner is determined by those who count the votes.
Related:
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Watch This Incredible Video And Decide For Yourself: Did Hillary Clinton Cheat At The Last Debate By Using An Embedded Tablet Device In Her Podium?
Are you ready for the disaster that will follow this election? | 1real |
HILARIOUS! Everyone’s Laughing When They See Why “CREEPY JOE” BIDEN Teamed Up With Lady Gaga To Make A PSA Video | Could there be two creepier people than creepy Joe Biden and the sex-obsessed pop-star Lady Gaga, (who is famous for bloody orgies, and violent sex scenes used in her music videos) to come together to make a PSA against sexual assault? Here s a disturbing compilation of Creepy Joe Biden creeping on women:Nevermind their reputations of creeping on women and having gang sex with large groups of men, Creepy Joe Biden and pop singer Lady Gaga have teamed up to produce a PSA against sexual assault. We want to make it real clear, it s on us it s on everyone to intervene, to stop abuse when they see it and when they hear about it, and to intervene, Biden says in a short video shared by Lady Gaga on Twitter. No man has a right to raise a hand to a woman for any reason other than self-defense, ever. Period, he says.A message from me & my buddy Vice President @JoeBiden @ItsOnUs to stop sexual assault. Go to https://t.co/aMd5silSst #ItsOnUs to help. pic.twitter.com/w5JGRCd2z8 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) October 25, 2017 I am a sexual assault survivor, and I know the effects, the aftermath, the trauma psychological, physical, mental, Gaga says. It can be terrifying waking up every day feeling unsafe in your own body. But we re here to remind you that it s important to reach out to someone in your life that you can trust, and to know that they will be there to help you; there will be someone to listen. Because you know what? It s on us. Information Liberation | 1real |
Donald Trump, Colombia, Fidel Castro: Your Wednesday Briefing - The New York Times | Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • The Trump administration took shape. The Transportation Department, the focus of Donald J. Trump’s pledge to spend billions on infrastructure, will be led by Elaine Chao. Ms. Chao is a former labor secretary and is married to the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell. Tom Price, a Republican congressman from Georgia who is a chief critic of President Obama’s health care initiative, will oversee its future. Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner who has worked in hedge funds and Hollywood finance, is Mr. Trump’s expected choice for Treasury secretary. _____ • Mr. Trump, who has been communicating with the public through social media rather than news conferences, proposed two unconstitutional measures in a single tweet: forbidding the burning of the American flag, a right under free speech, and stripping the culprit of citizenship. _____ • Austria could elect Norbert Hofer, above, as the first head of state in War II Europe on Sunday, in what could be yet another victory for populists on the Continent. As support for parties is rising across Europe, new research suggests that people have become more critical of democracy. “The warning signs are flashing red,” one scholar said. And another tectonic shift is coming to the European order: leaders are increasingly seeking to accommodate a resurgent Russia. _____ • The ferocious offensive in eastern Aleppo, in Syria, has forced some 16, 000 people to flee for their lives in the last few days, a United Nations official said. Leaflets warned inhabitants: “If you don’t leave these areas quickly you will be annihilated. ” John O. Brennan, the C. I. A. director, accused Russia of “disingenuous” negotiating tactics in Syria in an interview with the BBC. He also warned that scrapping the Iran nuclear agreement would be “the height of folly. ” _____ • A handful of people survived after a plane crashed outside Medellín, Colombia, killing many members of Chapecoense, a Brazilian soccer team, and journalists traveling with them. Plane crashes can be uniquely devastating when a sports team is on board. Here’s a look at other crashes, including one that involved the Manchester United team in 1958. _____ • Our correspondent returned to the Egyptian port city of Alexandria to find a place where despair had displaced the hope and anticipation of the 1960s. The country’s parliament endorsed a law regulating nongovernmental organizations that human rights groups say effectively bans their work. _____ • The price of oil fell ahead of today’s OPEC meeting, where the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran may sink a possible agreement to curb production for the first time in eight years. • Volkswagen has failed to reach a settlement with some American customers over its emissions scandal. A hearing set for today has been postponed to . • Drug regulators in the U. S. approved clinical trials to study MDMA, the illegal party drug better known as Ecstasy, as treatment for stress disorder. • The Bank of England said that the outlook on Britain’s financial stability “remains challenging. ” The Royal Bank of Scotland failed a stress test. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Germany arrested an employee of its domestic intelligence agency. The man is accused of posting Islamist messages online and sharing secrets. [Reuters] • The Five Star Movement, the Italian party campaigning against changes to the country’s Constitution in a referendum on Sunday, has been tied to online outlets that spread conspiracy theories. [BuzzFeed] • The Islamic State claimed the attack on Monday at Ohio State University, calling the American student, seen here in a recent photo, who ran over people with a car and knifed others “a soldier. ” [The New York Times] • Britain’s new surveillance law took effect. It requires web and phone companies to store a year of personal browsing data to which the authorities will have unprecedented access. [The Guardian] • A former youth coach has been charged with eight counts of child sexual assault over a scandal that has shaken English soccer. [The New York Times] • A vast arched shelter slid into place over the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site in Ukraine, intended to protect against any additional spewing of toxic material for a century. [The New York Times] • The U. S. and China overtook Russia in space launches this year. [Moscow Times] • Leave or be driven out: Residents of coastal villages in Alaska are grappling with difficult decisions on how and when to relocate in the face of flooding and erosion linked to climate change. The state is warming twice as fast as the rest of the United States, pushing it to the forefront of adaptation. • Die Antwoord, the confrontational South African musicians, have become something entirely unexpected: Hollywood. • Germany, the land of beer, riesling and schnapps, has gone gin mad. • The Times first prepared a report on the death of Fidel Castro in 1959. It has since cost us more hours than any other obituary we’ve ever run. • And at a moment when technology has made cultivating relationships easier, but also shallower, one writer considers the importance of true friendships. We told you last week about Lee a deaf South Korean tennis player who is ranked 143rd in the world, a notable achievement in the sport’s professional era. But a keen reader informed us that more than 100 years ago, a British player who lost her hearing was also a champion. Charlotte Cooper Sterry was a rising star at a time when female players wore dresses and used wooden rackets. Her style of attacking the net and serving overhand were rare then. A year after winning her first Wimbledon title in 1895, she went completely deaf — why is not clear. But Ms. Sterry won the tournament (it was for amateurs only back then) four more times as well as an Olympic gold medal in 1900. Ms. Sterry played into her 40s and died in 1966 at age 96. Her achievements were soon eclipsed in history by players like Helen Wills Moody of the United States, who also won many Wimbledon titles, including four consecutively from 1927 to 1930. In that stretch, she lost just one set at the tournament: in 1927 to Ms. Sterry’s daughter. “Who is this Miss Sterry?” a Times article reported stunned spectators asking. An agitated man revealed the older Ms. Sterry’s feats. He added, “Look up your records, you ignorant scriveners. ” Sean Alfano contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
House intel committee wants Trump Jr. to appear before panel: top Democrat | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Intelligence Committee wants Donald Trump Jr. to appear before the panel to answer questions about his meeting last year with a Russian lawyer who he believed had information damaging to Hillary Clinton, the committee’s top Democrat said on Tuesday. Representative Adam Schiff told reporters the committee also wants to interview everyone connected to the June 2016 meeting, which included Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort. | 0fake |
WHERE WAS MEDIA OUTRAGE After This WOMAN DELIBERATELY Plowed Car Into Las Vegas Crowd…Killing One, Injuring 35 Others? [VIDEO] | The media has been giving wall-to-wall coverage of the horrific and violent act that took place in Charlottesville, VA. By now, every American has seen the face and name of the 20-year old man, James Alex Fields, Jr., who was allegedly part of a group of white supremacists, that smashed into a large crowd of protesters on the street.JUST IN: Booking photo of James Alex Fields, Jr. @NBC29 pic.twitter.com/9nxtsvqNmt Henry Graff (@HenryGraff) August 13, 2017As a result of the horrific accident, one woman was killed and several others were injured. Of course, the media is blaming Donald Trump for the horrific accident that he clearly had nothing to do with. As a side note, does anyone remember the media blaming former President Barack Obama when the city of Ferguson, MO was burned to the ground by Black Lives Matter rioters? Yeah, either do we.But what about the black woman who INTENTIONALLY drove her car into a crowded street on the strip in Las Vegas with her 3-year old toddler in the back seat? Does anyone even remember this happening?In December 2015, Las Vegas police say a 24 year old woman, with her 3 year old toddler in the back seat, intentionally drove her vehicle into a crowded Las Vegas strip with the intention of running people over. Here s the story MSNBC published that was written by the Associated Press. The AP doesn t waste any time attempting to gain sympathy for the driver, and in only the third paragraph of the story, the AP want to make it perfectly clear that the reader knows she may not be guilt of intentional homicide. They re quick to quote the murderer s defense lawyer who told them, Just because she s charged, doesn t mean she s guilty From the AP article:A woman accused of intentionally plowing a car carrying her child through crowds of pedestrians on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk is distraught and overwhelmed, her defense attorney said after she briefly appeared in court for the first time.Lakeisha Nicole Holloway, 24, pursed her lips and blinked as she was led in shackles into a courtroom. She was not asked to enter a plea but nodded to acknowledge that she would remain in jail through the holidays while both sides investigate Sunday s crash that killed an Arizona woman and injured dozens of others. This is sad and tragedy for everybody involved, defense lawyer Joseph Abood said after the hearing, adding, Just because she s charged, doesn t mean she s guilty. A woman with her 3-year-old daughter in the car smashed into crowds of visitors on the Las Vegas Strip, then drove to a hotel and told a valet to call 911 after killing a woman from Arizona and injuring at least 35 others, including at least five Canadians, police said.People jumped on the car and banged on its windows, but Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, would not stop driving on the sidewalk, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told reporters. Video appeared to show the crash in front of the Paris and Planet Hollywood casino-hotels was intentional, he said.The 1996 Oldsmobile sedan was fully on the sidewalk twice Sunday night, including once when it traveled for 200 feet, police said. The child in the car was not hurt.The 24-year-old told police told she was homeless and tired, and denied using drugs or alcohol. Holloway also told police she had been unable to rest or sleep because security officers kept running her and her daughter and her car off casino properties.Here s a look at how MSNBC s parent company NBC covered the horrific Charlottesville incident yesterday. By the third paragraph in the part of the article that describes the accident, MSNBC interviews a witness from the other side of the protest (not the alleged perpetrator s defense lawyer, like in the story above) who clearly states there is no question about the motive or of the driver s guilt: It was very clearly intentional. NBC: Described as a group of anti-racist protesters by a witness who took video of the crash, the group of marchers was packed close together at the end of a street near the intersection of Fourth and Water streets in downtown Charlottesville when the car struck.Brennan Gilmore, a 37-year-old who works for a start up, shot the footage and said he heard tires squealing before he saw a car build up speed and ram the crowd. It hit a number of people before plowing into the bumper of another car. It was very clearly intentional, Gilmore told NBC News. From the far end of the street it accelerated, slowed down right before the crowd and then slammed on the gas through the crowd sending bodies flying. And then it reversed back into the street dragging bodies and clothes. And then boom the TRUMP tie-in (which was not really a tie-in at all):Fields mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press on Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but didn t know it was a white nationalist rally. I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump s not a white supremacist, Bloom told the AP. (The last sentence that includes Fields mother s statement about Trump NOT being a white supremacist [bold], was omitted from many mainstream media sources, as it didn t fit their narrative.)In February 2017, Holloway was found mentally competent to stand trial after nearly a year committed at Lakes Crossing maximum security psychiatric facility. Holloway then pleaded not guilty in the case. Nearly 3 years later, her case has still not been tried. Lakeisha Holloway faces 71 felony counts in connection to the Dec. 20, 2015 incident that left a woman dead and injured 34 others. Her trial is scheduled to begin on Feb. 5, 2018.If you want to learn more about this case, you ll have to look for updates in local Las Vegas news sources. You won t likely find it being covered by the mainstream media. | 1real |
A Universal Law: Pick Up Your Mental Garbage | A Universal Law: Pick Up Your Mental Garbage Nov 21, 2016 1 0
Many people are concerned about the increasing pollution, violence and suffering. We want to help, but many times we feel that we are powerless against these trends. However, there is an universal law that you should take into account before trying to help: You should clean up your mental garbage. The largest manufacturer of junk in our lives is our own Minds, so first of all we need to know clean it up and to recognize its functioning. The Nature of the Mind
In order to control something, we first need to know the thing concerned¸ so we must know our Mind so as to be in charge of it. The most important thing we need to about our Mind is that it is not something that exists separately, individually, like some inanimate object.
The Mind is not an object–it is a process. The process of constantly streaming thoughts. This stream of the thoughts is what we perceive as the Mind. When these thoughts disappear, the Mind disappears with them, as the two are only able to exist together. The very basic nature of thoughts is that they are in a constant move, and this motion, almost automatically, creates the Mind.
A characteristic feature of our Mind is that it keeps roaming, wandering; it operates in something like an automatic mode . Thoughts come and go all the time. If we attempt to suppress them, it is only possible with considerable efforts, and even then to a short time only. In most of our waking time, our Mind wanders either in the past or in the future, in our thoughts we deal with our experience of the past, offences we suffered in the past, or with our future plans, goals and fears.
Another characteristic of our Mind is that it constantly evaluates things. It means that we do not simply live through our experiences, but we also categorize them as good or bad. We judge everything that happens to us and everybody we meet in our lives. This permanent categorization may easily lead to a distorted perception of the world, as we evaluate our new experiences in these categories. If we find an experience negative, we will tend to keep–and reinforce–that category for similar experiences in the future. Our perception will therefore be selective, and we will only accept the stimuli that reinforces our categorization, and we tend to ignore those that fall outside our usual categories.
The third important characteristic of the Mind is that it permanently produces stories. These stories often have a disastrous end. For instance, I suddenly try to remember whether I locked the door of my home or not. The Mind immediately fabricates a whole story around the idea: I did leave it open, a burglar came, my valuables have been stolen, and the police, instead of chasing the thief, will harass me with their questions. We often experience the ends and emotional consequences of these stories. Another type of stories deals with us, who are we, what are we like, what we should do or should have done. The entirety of these stories comprises our personal histories. A Foolish Game
Most people tend to identify with their thoughts and personal histories , that is, with their Minds. A lot of us are not satisfied with what we are, and we would like to have a better and more beautiful personal history. That is why we create a mental image of our desired personal development, and the ways of making the work of our Minds more effective.
In order to achieve the mental image we ourselves have created, we embark on a foolish game, as we attempt to bring our Minds under our own control, and be the masters of our own development. Since we do not know the nature of the Mind, this venture is destined to failure right from the beginning.
This game is foolish, since in fact one half of the Mind attempts to bring the other half under control. Our Mind itself deems our own mental image of our personal development good. At the same time, this half of the Mind deems the other half, the one we wish to change, bad. Mental images fight against each other, trying to overcome each other, using the weapons of selective perception and story fabrication. The struggle goes on, with changing luck, all through our lives. Sometimes we believe that we are making some progress, we are improving, and a few weeks, months or years later we drop into the abyss of despair.
A lot of us play this foolish game all through our lives, because we are unable to recognize the simple fact that a Mind is unable to overcome itself. We may, perhaps, with the utmost effort, suppress what we believe is bad in us. That is, however, just a virtual victory, leading us to virtual calm and personal development, because when our power declines, the suppressed forces break out again, destroying all the temporary results that we achieved previously, washing away the results of our personal development . The Freedom of Tolerance
Now we can see that the way leading to our control over our Minds does not lead through suppressing them. It is not possible to control the Mind in the ordinary sense of the word. Partly because it only exists in its functions and operation, and partly because there is nobody to control it. One half of the Mind, as we have seen, does not control, only suppresses the other half.
In order to be able to control our Minds, we must step outside of them . This statement may sound surprising to a lot of us, since we tend to fully identify with our Minds and their operations. As long as this identification is strong, we shall not be able to step outside the crazy dance of our Minds; we will have to merely suffer its consequences.
Nowadays, however, more and more of us begin to realize and experience that we are more than our Minds, more that our thoughts and emotions, and the personal history these thoughts and emotions build up. Our attention is no longer completely engaged by telling our personal history and identifying with that personal history, and we become more and more sensitive to the deeper dimensions of our life. We also begin to notice the breaks between thoughts, and we begin to turn towards these gates leading beyond the Mind.
In these breaks between thoughts, Mind does not work, it is not there–it simply vanishes. What is left there is the alertly watching Consciousness. If we are able to take roots in that alert Consciousness, we recognize that this watching alertness is tolerant with the Mind and its operations. We shall see that there is nothing wrong with thoughts, nothing wrong with the operations of the Mind. It is not necessary to struggle against the Mind, as it is not an enemy, only an instrument that, without control, tends to function chaotically.
We only have a chance to know the true nature of thoughts and the functions of the Mind if we detach ourselves from them, keep a distance, and do not consider them as enemies. They will reveal their secrets to the alert Consciousness, watching with affection, and we will see the subtle shades of the Mind, the games it plays and the dreams it evokes. Controlling the Mind
This tolerant, alert, watching attitude to the functions of the Mind will give us the ability of stopping our thinking effortlessly. Once thinking has been suspended, the continuous stream of thoughts stops, the Mind itself disappears and stops working.
Now we shall not seek our own identity in an identification with the Mind, since we have found our real center, our real self, our alertly watching Consciousness . We will be aware that thoughts and the Mind have not really disappeared, they are still there, only in a dormant state. Our attitude to thoughts and the Mind will entirely change at that moment. We think when necessary, and we do not need the Mind, we put it aside. The Mind no longer dominates our life, it is not more than an obedient tool that we use or not use as we please.
That is when we realize how wonderful an instrument the Mind is, and now we are able to use it for its original purpose. And the purpose of the Mind is to serve as a means of connections, to connect us to the world to each other. Through the Mind, used with alert Consciousness, creative energies are released to the world, and create a wonderful harmony there.
Read more articles from Frank M. Wanderer Vote Up Frank M. Wanderer PhD Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher and writer. Frank is the author of the books " The Revolution of Consciousness: De-conditioning the Programmed Mind ", " Ego - Alertness - Consciousness: The Path to Your Spiritual Home " and several books on consciousness . With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes, and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness. You can also follow his blog HERE | 1real |
US Hypocrisy: Bombing of Aleppo is no Worse than what Happened in Gaza and Iraq : Information | US Hypocrisy: Bombing of Aleppo is no Worse than what Happened in Gaza and Iraq By Gareth Porter " MEE " - The Russian-Syrian bombing campaign in eastern Aleppo, which has ended at least for the time being, has been described in press reports and op-eds as though it were unique in modern military history in its indiscriminateness. In an usual move for a senior US official, Secretary of State John Kerry called for an investigation of war crimes in Aleppo.
The discussion has been lacking in historical context, however. Certainly the civilian death toll from the bombing and shelling in Aleppo has been high, but many of the strikes may not be all that dissimilar from the major US bombing campaign in Iraq in 2003, nor as indiscriminate as Israels recent campaigns in densely populated cities.
The impression that the bombing in Aleppo was uniquely indiscriminate was a result of news reporting and commentary suggesting, by implication, that there are no real military targets in east Aleppo.
But in fact, al-Nusra Front turned Aleppo into the central hub of a massive system of conventional warfare in Aleppo province in late January 2016 when it sent an enormous convoy of at least 200 vehicles with troops and weaponry into eastern Aleppo. A dramatic three-minute al-Nusra video shows what appears to be hundreds of vehicles full of troops and trucks with weapons mounted on them.
The Russian command in Syria has drones observing the routes in and out of Aleppo, so it certainly knew where many of those military sites were located. Syrian opposition sources also revealed that Nusra began immediately to put the military assets at its disposal underground, digging deep bunkers to protect troops, military equipment and tunnels through which troops and weapons could be moved unseen.
The move underground explains the Russian use of bunker-buster bombs for the first time in the war. As the Guardian reported , Justin Bronk of the British defence think tank Royal United Service Institute concluded that the Russians have high-grade intelligence of the whereabouts of Syrian opposition positions, mainly because bunker buster bombs are too expensive to use simply to destroy buildings at random.
But like Hamas fighters in Gaza in 2014, the Nusra Front-led command in Aleppo has moved its troops, weapons and command centres around in the tunnels that they have built. So many of the Russian and Syrian air strikes are almost certainly hitting targets that have already been abandoned. And in other cases, the wrong target has undoubtedly been hit.
The Aleppo Health Directorate, a local monitoring group, estimated that 400 civilians had been killed in the first three weeks of bombing in east Aleppo. The United Nations put the death toll at 360 .
Drop the superiority act As terrible as that toll of civilian lives is, the United States should drop the stance of moral superiority. When the US military invaded Iraq in 2003, it made no effort to keep track of how many civilians were killed in its bombing and artillery fire, claiming it had no way to tell who was civilian and who was not.
And the best estimates of civilians killed in US and Israeli urban wars dont provide any basis for moral superiority. A survey of Baghdads hospitals by the Los Angeles Times in May 2003 produced an estimate of at least 1,700 civilians killed in the first five weeks of American war. The estimate included those who had died in ground fighting and from unexploded ordnance, but even with those contributing factors subtracted from the total, it would still be far greater than those killed in the assault on east Aleppo on a weekly basis.
The three-week Israeli war on Gaza City in 2009 and the seven-week war on Gaza in 2014 were also far deadlier than Aleppo. The former killed 773 civilians, according to an investigation by the Israeli human rights organisation BTselem. The latter killed 1,473 Palestinian civilians, according to the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs .
Attacks on hospitals The one feature of the Russian-Syrian air offensive on east Aleppo that seems most clearly to violate the laws of war is the targeting of hospitals. Media accounts have referred to air strikes with barrel bombs that have hit two major hospitals in the rebel-held part of the city.
The Syrian government has been acting as though it regards the hospitals in eastern Aleppo as serving the Nusra Front command, and the hospitals, which are under intense pressure from the militants who run that part of Aleppo, have fed the governments suspicions.
As a detailed report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on the air strikes that hit the Al Quds hospital on 27 April explains, the local organisation that created a new system of hospitals in 2011 decided not to declare the hospitals openly but to keep them underground meaning secret from the government.
In fact, of course, the government knows perfectly well where all 10 hospitals in east Aleppo are located. The 27 April air strike that damaged the Al Quds hospital shows how the government has responded. It began with an air strike that destroyed a building across the street from the hospital. The building was a school, but former residents of east Aleppo who have gotten out have confirmed that organisations associated with the al-Qaeda-dominated command have located their offices in schools to try to hide their staff.
Within a few minutes of the initial strike, according to the MSF account, Al Quds hospital staff were pulling survivors out of the rubble and taking them across the street to the emergency room, whereupon the Syrian air force dropped a barrel bomb at the entrance to the emergency room, killing several of the hospital staff, including one doctor. Then it dropped one close enough to the side of the hospital to hit the emergency room and, minutes later, hit a building down the block where hospital staff were staying.
Such attacks on those who try to save the lives of survivors of bombing attacks sometimes called double tap attacks - are rightly condemned as violations of humanitarian law. And the belief that the staff at the hospital are operating in effect as medics for the adversarys military does not justify attacking it and the wounded sheltered there.
But such violations of the laws of war are hardly unique to Aleppo or Syria.
Hardly unique US drone strikes in Pakistan have hit rescuers or mourners after hitting their initial targets in numerous documented cases . In the 2009 Gaza attacks, the Israeli military argued that Hamas fighters were using hospitals to hide from Israeli bombing, but offered no valid evidence to support it, as the Goldstone Report showed .
In 2014, the Israelis completely destroyed the Al-Wafa hospital in an air strike recorded for public release after claiming falsely that it had been fired on by Palestinian gunmen.
In its wars in Gaza and in Lebanon, the IDF has gone well beyond the Russian and Syrian Aleppo campaign in refusing to recognise any distinction between civilian targets. It not only targeted civilian offices in both Gaza wars, but treated entire areas of the city as a legitimate target, on the premise that all civilians had been ordered to leave.
And in both Gaza and in Beirut suburb of Dahiya , it levelled several high-rise buildings where they believed Hezbollah had offices. The IDF called it the Dahiya doctrine, and threatened great damage and destruction on any adversary in any future war in the region.
Heavy bombing in a city is inherently fraught with moral risk, and attacks on genuine civilian targets can never be excused. But such practices have been carried out and legitimised in the past by the very government that is now claiming the role of moral and legal arbiter. That hypocrisy needs to be recognised and curbed as well.
- Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of the newly published Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare . | 1real |
Exclusive: U.S. pursues direct diplomacy with North Korea despite Trump rejection | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump s public assertion that such talks are a waste of time. Using the so-called New York channel, Joseph Yun, U.S. negotiator with North Korea, has been in contact with diplomats at Pyongyang s United Nations mission, the official said, at a time when an exchange of bellicose insults between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fueled fears of military conflict. While U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Oct. 17 said he would continue diplomatic efforts ... until the first bomb drops, the official s comments were the clearest sign the United States was directly discussing issues beyond the release of American prisoners, despite Trump having dismissed direct talks as pointless. There is no sign, however, that the behind-the-scenes communications have improved a relationship vexed by North Korea s nuclear and missile tests, the death of U.S. university student Otto Warmbier days after his release by Pyongyang in June and the detention of three other Americans. Word of quiet engagement with Pyongyang comes despite Trump s comments, North Korea s weapons advances and suggestions by some U.S. and South Korean officials that Yun s interactions with North Koreans had been reined in. It has not been limited at all, both (in) frequency and substance, said the senior State Department official. Among the points that Yun has made to his North Korean interlocutors is to stop testing nuclear bombs and missiles, the official said. North Korea this year conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation and has test-fired a volley of missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that, if perfected, could in theory reach the United States mainland. The possibility that Pyongyang may be closer to attaching a nuclear warhead to an ICBM has alarmed the Trump administration, which in April unveiled a policy of maximum pressure and engagement that has so far failed to deter North Korea. At the start of Trump s presidency, Yun s instructions were limited to seeking the release of U.S. prisoners. It is (now) a broader mandate than that, said the State Department official, declining, however, to address whether authority had been given to discuss North Korea s nuclear and missile program. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China welcomed any dialogue between the United States and North Korea. We encourage North Korea and the United States to carry out engagement and dialogue, Hua told reporters, adding that she hoped talks could help return the issue to a diplomatic track for resolution. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has urged all United Nations members to fully and transparently implement sanctions against North Korea, which he said has emerged as a global threat. Speaking at the United Nations on Sept. 19, Trump vowed to totally destroy North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies, raising anxieties about the possibility of military conflict. Twelve days later, after Tillerson said Washington was probing for a diplomatic opening, Trump said on Twitter that his chief diplomat was wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man - his mocking nickname for the North Korean leader. Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday they said would prevent Trump from launching a nuclear first strike on North Korea on his own, highlighting the issue days before the Republican s first presidential trip to Asia. A high-ranking North Korean defector said in Washington on Tuesday that he backed the Trump administration s policy of pressuring Pyongyang through sanctions, coupled with maximum engagement with the leadership and increased efforts to get information into North Korea to educate its people. I strongly believe in the use of soft power before taking any military actions, Thae Yong Ho, chief of mission at Pyongyang s embassy in London until he defected in 2016, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The New York channel is one of the few conduits the United States has for communicating with North Korea, which has itself made clear it has little interest in serious talks before it develops a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the continental United States. The last high-level contact between Yun and the North Koreans was when he traveled to North Korea in June to secure the release of Warmbier, who died shortly after he returned home in a coma, the State Department official said. The Trump administration has demanded North Korea release three other U.S. citizens: missionary Kim Dong Chul and academics Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song. Warmbier s death was a factor in the chilling of U.S.-North Korean contacts around that time but the biggest impact came from Pyongyang s stepped-up testing, the official said. The official said, however, that the preferred endpoint is not a war but some kind of diplomatic settlement and suggestions that Washington is setting up a binary choice for Pyongyang to capitulate diplomatically or military action were misleading. Diplomacy, the official said, has a lot more room to go. But Trump s threats against North Korea are believed to have complicated diplomatic efforts. | 0fake |
How Small Forests Can Help Save the Planet - The New York Times | BIRKENFELD, Ore. — Eve Lonnquist’s family has owned a forest in the mountains of northwest Oregon since her grandmother bought the land in 1919. Her father still lives on the property. And she and her wife often drive up from their home just outside Portland. But lately, Ms. Lonnquist, 59 and recently retired, has been thinking about the future of her family’s land. Like many owners, they draw some income from logging and would like to keep doing so. But they would also like to see the forest, with its stands of Douglas fir, alder and cherry, protected from or being sold off to developers. “For us, the property is our family’s history,” she said. More than half of the 751 million acres of forestland in the United States are privately owned, most by people like Ms. Lonnquist, with holdings of 1, 000 acres or less. These family forests, environmental groups argue, represent a large, untapped resource for combating the effects of climate change. Conserving the trees and profiting from them might seem incompatible. But Ms. Lonnquist is hoping to do both by capitalizing on the forest’s ability to clean the air, turning the carbon stored in the forest into credits that can then be sold to polluters who want or need to offset their carbon footprints. “Trees are the No. 1 way in which carbon can be removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation over the long term,” said Brian Kittler, the western regional office director for the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, which has a program in Oregon to help the owners of family forests develop potentially profitable carbon projects. Larger forests around the world have already been enlisted as carbon storehouses, through programs like the United Nations initiative for Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD, that encourage forest conservation worldwide in exchange for credits that can be sold on the global carbon markets. Some large timber companies, including Potlatch, have also entered the markets, reducing their logging to levels below legal limits in order to receive millions of dollars in credits. But so far, owners, even ones like Ms. Lonnquist, have not rushed to embrace carbon storage. Many do not even know it exists, and those who do often find the complexities bewildering. Some owners believe, wrongly, that to enter the carbon markets they must forgo all income from logging. And some, reluctant to forfeit the ability to quickly turn their trees into cash, have balked at signing a contract to keep a forest standing for 15 to 125 years. Even more daunting, the expense of bringing a forest to the carbon market — a process that involves taking an inventory of the trees, assessing the forest’s carbon content, estimating future growth, and submitting to several levels of auditing — has been so high that it would eliminate any profit for most small landholders. Environmental organizations like the Pinchot Institute and the Nature Conservancy have for years been searching for a way around these hurdles by educating landowners about the markets’ potential for generating income and finding ways to decrease the costs. “Traditionally, your only tool to generate revenues has been periodic timber harvest,” said Josh Parrish, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Working Woodlands program, which is working with the owners of private forests in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. “The nice thing about carbon is essentially people are being paid to improve forest management. ” In fact, if owners can get past the barriers, the carbon markets can be profitable, providing an initial flush of money and then regular yearly payments in much smaller amounts. The carbon credits from Ms. Lonnquist’s forest could bring an estimated $235, 000 over the first six years, and about $6, 000 a year after that, said Kyle Holland, the managing director of Ecological Carbon Offset Partners, a California firm that helps owners enter the carbon markets. Ms. Lonnquist and her family could still log on a limited basis, as long as they stuck to a plan for managing the forest and maintained a steady level of carbon storage through the forest’s continued growth. The economic case for private owners entering the carbon markets is likely to get stronger. Forests, especially in areas like the Northwest, where trees grow tall and thick, tend to draw higher prices than many other conservation measures. And with last year’s Paris climate pact, some analysts expect carbon prices, now about $3 to $12 per ton in the United States, to rise. Mr. Kittler said the conservation institute, which is subsidizing the preparation of Ms. Lonnquist’s forest with the help of a grant from the Department of Agriculture and has partnered with Mr. Holland’s firm for the Oregon project, hoped it would encourage more private owners to enter the markets. Ms. Lonnquist and other owners will be given a choice of selling credits on the global market or on California’s market, created under the state’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act. Recent developments in forestry may help make the prospect more appealing by lowering the initial costs to landholders. Mr. Holland’s company, for example, has developed a digital tool — a smartphone equipped with a laser to measure distance and an inclinometer to measure height — that he believes will greatly reduce the expense of conducting a forest inventory, which typically costs $40, 000 to $100, 000 or more, depending about the amount of land. With the specialized smartphone, landholders can take an inventory themselves, photographing and measuring the diameters and heights of their trees. The photos and data are sent to the company’s office in California, where an expert forester goes through the images, identifying the species and checking for damage to the branches or crowns, among other things. Probability models are used to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the forest. The mathematical proofs developed by the company have been submitted to a scientific journal, Mr. Holland said. Using traditional methods, a forester conducting an inventory averages three or four forest plots per day and can spend months completing an assessment at a cost of $350 a plot, he said. But Logan Sander, a forester who used the smartphone to inventory Ms. Lonnquist’s forest and recently demonstrated it for two visitors, said he was averaging 30 to 35 plots a day, with the entire job taking only a week to complete. Individual forest owners who sign up for Mr. Holland’s service pay a $75 application fee and receive the smartphone. If, after conducting an inventory, they choose to move forward with the carbon project, they pay the company $1, 350 to complete the process. Some small properties do not store enough carbon to make even that effort worthwhile. The price of carbon, Mr. Holland said, has to be $10 or more per ton “to make it pencil out” for the owner. And novel methods like Mr. Holland’s still need approval from the companies that verify forest inventories or serve as official market registries. But Jessica Orrego, the director of forestry for the American Carbon Registry, said such advances might be the key to bringing in owners. “We’re fully supportive,” she said. “We’re advocates of innovation. We think it’s extremely important in the carbon market. ” Ms. Lonnquist, who owns the forest here with two brothers and her wife, Lynn Baker, is still considering whether entering the carbon markets would make sense for her family. The commitment — 125 years if the credits are sold in the California market — gives her some pause, she said. “That’s well beyond our lifetime, and that’s a commitment that goes with the property,” she said. She can imagine, though, what she might be doing 20 years from now. “Maybe I’d just be at home growing carbon,” she said. “And maybe that’s the best thing. ” | 0fake |
‘Intl Community Still Financing, Protecting Terrorists’ – Mother Agnes, Vanessa Beeley on Syria |
21st Century Wire says…
As western media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and the BBC continue to hurl viral images of ‘child victims of Aleppo,’ western and gulf-backed terrorists in East Aleppo continue to fire mortars, ‘ hell cannon ‘ and use snipers to target civilians and children in government-protected West Aleppo. The level of information fraud and propaganda being perpetrated by the western mainstream media and politicians like John Kerry and Samantha Power is unprecedented – even by traditional low US standards.
RT International interviews Syrian peace campaigner Mother Agnes-Mariam and independent researcher and journalist Vanessa Beeley . Watch:
. | 1real |
BREAKING: Connecticut Democratic Lawmaker Arrested On 19 Voter Fraud Charges • USA Newsflash |
VIA End The Fed
On Friday, Connecticut state Representative Christina “Tita” Ayala, 31 years old, who represents Bridgeport was arrested on 19 counts of voter fraud. The Connecticut State Attorney’s office said that she is accused of voting in various local and state elections where she does not live. Ayala was originally elected into Connecticut’s 128th District in 2012 and lost her reelection campaign.
Ayala was charged with eight counts of fraudulent voting, 10 counts of primary or enrollment violations and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
The case was originally referred to the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney in late 2013 by the Elections Enforcement Commission. The crimes occurred between 2009 and 2012. Her mother, Santa, was also investigated however no charges have been filed against Ayala’s mother.
Voter fraud is a serious felony and according to the press release voter fraud is a felony punishable by “not less than one year or more than two years in prison and a fine of $300 to $500 per count.” The arrest warrant also alleges Ayala favbircated evidence then handed it over to investigators with the Connecticut Election Enforcement Commission. She said she lived at a false address inside a district she is accused of voting in but actually lives outside that district. This is a Class D felony carrying a maximum prison sentence up to five years per count.
This is why Trump says it’s rigged, and he was right. This is just one of many voter frauds that’s came out already.
| 1real |
As Trump vs. Clinton Captivates World, Netanyahu Is Unusually Silent - The New York Times | JERUSALEM — For three hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel held forth on all sorts of topics — on Israel and the Middle East, on his record and on his plans. One subject that Mr. Netanyahu studiously avoided in his expansive conversation with American visitors last weekend, though, was the United States election. Much of the rest of the world is absorbed by the contest between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, but it is a topic Mr. Netanyahu will not touch. Four years after he was accused of meddling in the American election on behalf of President Obama’s opponent, the hardly bashful Israeli leader this time has taken a virtual vow of silence. The unusual reluctance comes after years of toxic relations between him and Mr. Obama, culminating in an acrid public feud over the nuclear agreement with Iran. With Mr. Netanyahu seemingly aligning himself during that fight with Mr. Obama’s Republican critics, some Israel backers feared the country was squandering its traditional bipartisan support. The prime minister now seems intent on extricating himself from the partisan tussle. “Everybody understands here in Israel that the most important thing for us is to go back to where we were for the last 68 years, which is bipartisan,” said Yair Lapid, a centrist party leader who hopes to succeed Mr. Netanyahu. “This is why nobody will take sides in a presidential campaign. ” But if Israel is staying away from the American campaign, the campaign is staying away from Israel, too. While it was an occasional topic of questioning during primary debates, it has been all but absent from the discussion in the general election. In part, that reflects a campaign of invective that has overlooked many policy questions. But it also underscores the plethora of other issues that have seized Washington’s attention, principally the rise of the Islamic State, the war in Syria and relations with Russia. The dispute, once a dominant part of any White House foreign policy, seems to be slipping to a issue. During his meeting last weekend with a bipartisan delegation of former American national security officials, Mr. Netanyahu expressed concern about the United States’ pulling back from the region. Dennis Ross, a Middle East adviser to Mr. Obama and other presidents who organized the visit, said afterward, “Everyone feels they have a stake in the election, and they want an America that will be engaged and that will be effective in the region. ” Still, Mr. Netanyahu scrupulously avoided addressing the election itself. “I think we were all struck by the fact that it wasn’t raised,” said Meghan O’Sullivan, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. Similarly, during a meeting last week, Senators Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, and Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, mentioned the election only to have Mr. Netanyahu skirt the subject. What a difference four years makes. Back in 2012, Mr. Netanyahu hosted Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama’s challenger, in Jerusalem and lavished praise on him. While Mr. Netanyahu’s team at the time denied any effort to influence the election, Mr. Obama’s camp was convinced otherwise. The rift widened when Mr. Netanyahu accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress in 2015 to assail Mr. Obama’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran curbing its nuclear program. Nachman Shai, who heads a parliamentary caucus on relations, said Mr. Netanyahu had steered away since then from openly courting Republicans. “Because he had these tough eight years with Obama, he can’t afford it again,” Mr. Shai said. “He needs a direct line with the U. S. president. ” This spring, Mr. Netanyahu canceled a trip to Washington to attend a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, which aides explained by saying he wanted to avoid meeting with candidates. Last fall, amid controversy over Mr. Trump’s call to bar Muslims from entering the United States, the Republican abruptly announced and then just as abruptly canceled a visit to Jerusalem, saying of Mr. Netanyahu, “I didn’t want to put him under pressure. ” Even Mr. Trump’s Aipac speech vowing to dismantle the Iran agreement was greeted with silence in Jerusalem. “If Bibi was going in any way to support or give Trump some type of compliment, that would have been the time to do it,” Gadi Wolfsfeld, a scholar at Hebrew University, said at the time, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname. Israel Hayom, the newspaper financed by the American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, an ally of Mr. Netanyahu, championed Mr. Trump with a blast of positive coverage at the time. But like Mr. Adelson himself, who has endorsed Mr. Trump without following through on promises of large contributions, the paper has not been the unrestrained cheerleader some expected. The newspaper Haaretz, however, wrote this week that leaders of the Trump campaign’s efforts to recruit votes among American citizens here have ties to Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition. In a first for an American candidate, thee Trump campaign plans to open what it calls a “floating office” moving from home to home in West Bank settlements in coming days. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Obama have tried lately to put their difficulties behind them by negotiating a American security aid package for Israel. The deal is all but complete, and the White House has been discussing how to announce it. The two leaders will both attend the United Nations General Assembly conclave this month, but it seems most likely that it would be signed by officials. But to Mr. Netanyahu’s consternation, administration officials are still debating whether the president will lay down a final marker before the end of his time in office on the impasse, perhaps with a speech outlining terms for an agreement or even a United Nations resolution. Some argue it would be a way to stop waiting for the two sides to finally step up others consider it a fruitless waste of the president’s waning time in office. Mr. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment this week on the American election. Over the summer, the prime minister told reporters “it’s not smart to interfere,” saying he would be “happy to work with whoever gets elected. ” He has made clear to advisers that they should not discuss the election even in private. Dani Dayan, the normally outspoken Israeli consul general in New York, articulated the official line in an interview with The New York Times Editorial Board last month: “Any American president is good for Israel. ” But that is not an opinion universally held in Jerusalem. While Mr. Netanyahu may be more comfortable with Republicans who share his hawkish security views, Mr. Trump is an unknown who has criticized American intervention in the Middle East and called for curtailing foreign aid. His initial promise to be “a neutral guy” between Israelis and Palestinians disturbed many here before he later voiced steadfast support for Israel. Mrs. Clinton, on the other hand, is a known quantity, for better or worse. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is still popular here, and many noticed that at the Democratic National Convention, he wore a pin spelling Hillary in Hebrew. But Mrs. Clinton’s history as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state makes her suspect in Mr. Netanyahu’s camp, and neither Clinton has warm feelings toward the prime minister. “I don’t know who is better in terms of Israel,” Mr. Shai said. “We know a lot about Hillary and we know very little about Donald Trump. ” | 0fake |
How to Use Google to Plan Your Trip - The New York Times | Google Maps revolutionized how you get from point A to point B. Google Trips aims to to do the same for how you vacation. The smartphone app, released on Monday, uses what it already knows about you, based on data it has collected from your Gmail account, and combines it with established features from its other offerings, like Destinations, and its large database of reviews. The goal, as Google puts it, is to create a “personalized tour guide in your pocket. ” “We wanted to reduce the hassle and help travelers enjoy their vacations,” Stefan Frank, the app’s product manager, wrote on Google’s blog. The app can do a lot, probably equal to what four travel apps could do, but it can’t do everything. Here’s what you need to know before setting off on your first Google trip. It’s (Only if You Use Gmail) After setting up the app using your Gmail account, you can create your first trip — simply search for the destination city and put in your dates. If you’re hitting multiple cities, you can add those as well. If the app has enough of your data, you may already have the trip listed. In that case, you do not have to create a new one, just jump into the existing trip and make changes as you see fit. The app has complete guides for more than 200 major cities, and each of those has six main features: Reservations, Things to Do, Saved Places, Day Plans, Food Drink and Getting Around. There are guides for most other cities as well, but you won’t get Day Plans and Getting Around options for those smaller locations. Reservations will show you the flight, hotel and car rental information that it collects from the Gmail account you registered with. You’ll need to forward any reservations made using your work email to your Gmail account if you want those to show up. It’s also worth noting that you cannot make reservations directly from the app — it shows only the reservations you already made. I had nothing definite planned, but for testing’s sake, I tried out a hypothetical trip to Boston. Things to Do is a good place to start. It recommends destinations broken down by category, from the simple “Indoors” vs. “Outdoors” to labels like “Newbury Street Shops” and ones like “Selfie Spots. ” If you see something you like, hit the star icon and it’ll add it to your Saved Places. This breakdown and the ability to save will look familiar to anyone who has used Gogobot. Day Plans are suggested themed itineraries. For example, Historic Boston has 10 sites mapped out, each one including all of the information you’d see if you found it on Google search (reviews, open and close time) and the travel time between each stop. Food Drink will give you a basic overview of the area’s specialties, and then suggest establishments based on categories like “” “food with a view,” “cocktail specialists” and many more. Getting Around has all the transportation information you could think of. You get all of your airport options, from public transportation directions to costs of taxis. It’s a You’ve probably already saved some dough by using the offline feature on Google Maps. You can do the same here by downloading each trip to your phone. And all the information will be accessible even if you’re not connected to the internet or to cellular service. You won’t need to eat into your data with Google Trips, or be stuck if your vacation is in a remote location with no cell service. Using the app with a data or connection does have a few perks. If the weather takes a turn for the worse, the app will suggest indoor activities. It’ll also show whether a place is open or closed in real time. But you’re not missing much in offline mode. It’s Customizable If you’re strapped for time, the suggested Day Plans seem to have something for everyone. But you can also customize each recommended plan by adding or deleting stops, or create one from scratch. The app will also suggest places to visit based on what it knows about you (which, by now, is a lot). It had Fenway Park on the top of my “For You” list, since it has rightfully concluded that I’m a baseball fan. Then again, “Boston With Kids” was another suggested Day Plan and I don’t have any of those. It’s Kind of Creepy Before you create your first trip, you’ll see some of your previous trips that you didn’t even share. That’s because it has already pulled in information from your Gmail account, so it knows which hotels you stayed in and where you rented a car from and stores this information under Reservations. This could be useful if you plan on returning some day. But if you’d rather not have the stroll down memory lane, you can delete previous trips quite easily. It’s also not perfect. Occasional suggestions miss the mark. Also, I recently returned from a weekend away and it had this week blocked off for me as a trip to New York, which is where I live. It’s Free There is no fine print here. As long as you don’t consider the fact that Google now has a new way of using your data as a price to pay, there is no monetary charge for using the app. This is significant if you compare it to similar travel apps like TripIt, which costs $49 per year for its premium service. | 0fake |
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Trump Promotes World Peace As Hillary Calls For War | Trump Promotes World Peace As Hillary Calls For War A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for WWIII The Alex Jones Show - October 27, 2016 Comments
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Nicaragua will join Paris climate pact, leaving U.S., Syria isolated | (Reuters) - Nicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from Vice President Rosario Murillo on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only nations outside the global pact. Nicaragua has already presented the relevant documents at the United Nations, Murillo, who is also first lady, said on local radio on Monday. It is the only instrument we have in the world that allows the unity of intentions and efforts to face up to climate change and natural disasters, Murillo said. U.S. President Donald Trump said in June he would withdraw the United States from the accord, and Nicaragua s decision to enter the pact means only two countries will now be outside it - the world s No. 1 economy and war-torn Syria. Nicaragua, a poor Central American nation that is often threatened by hurricanes, was the only nation to reject the agreement in 2015, and has argued for far more drastic action to limit rising temperatures. The Paris accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries two years ago, seeks to limit planetary warming by curbing global emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists believe drive global warming. The administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama had pledged deep emissions cuts as part of the deal, but his successor, Trump, has said the accord would cost America trillions of dollars, kill jobs, and hinder the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries. Island nation Fiji will host the next round of U.N. climate talks from Nov. 6-17 in Bonn, Germany, where environment ministers from around the world will work on a set of international guidelines for the Paris accord. The latest round of negotiations take place after a string of powerful hurricanes ravaged Caribbean island nations and caused billions of dollars in damage along the Texas and Florida coastlines. Climate scientists have said warmer air and water resulting from climate change may have contributed to the severity of the storms. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has disputed such claims as an attempt to politicize natural disasters. | 0fake |
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